NEWS
Plateau Killings: Tinubu Insensitive Attitude Supports Terrorists, Bandits – PDP
By Johnson Eyiangho, Abuja
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has accused President Bola Ahmed Tinubu of being insensitive towards issues of insecurity, thus emboldening terrorists and bandits to step up attacks on innocent Nigerians across the country.
The party noted in a statement by its Spokesman, Hon.
Debo Ologunagba, on Wednesday said that such attitude had led to the killing of no fewer than 5,000 Nigerians since the President took office on May 29, 2023.The opposition party was reacting to the killing of no fewer than 160 innocent Nigerians by terrorists in the Christmas eve coordinated attacks on 20 communities in Plateau State.
It described as heartrending the chilling reports of how defenseless Nigerians were gruesomely murdered and over 10,000 more displaced by terrorists in Bokkos and Barkin Ladi areas of Plateau State, in unrestrained attacks which lasted up till Monday morning.
The statement berated President Tinubu for always resorting to lame Presidential condemnation by his media aides without any corresponding definite steps to protect Nigerians and stop the constant carnage.
“President Tinubu has practically abdicated his Constitutional role as President and Commander in-Chief which is principally to ensure the security of lives and property thus abandoning Nigerians to terrorists, bandits and marauders.
“Nigerians will recall how President Tinubu in his nationwide broadcast of July 31, 2023 had no words of commitment for security despite the escalated killing of over 500 Nigerians and many more abducted in Plateau, Benue, Niger, Kaduna and other States of the federation at that time,” the PDP said.
It said that even with the disturbing information that no fewer that 5,060 Nigerians were killed, with 2,263 others abducted since May 2023 as contained in the 2023 Nigeria Security Report by Beacon Consulting, which was also reported in the Wednesday, 13th December 2023 edition of the Punch Newspapers, the Tinubu-led APC administration remain largely nonchalant and silent.
“There are apprehensions that what is happening in Plateau State is a Genocide and the Tinubu-led APC administration must be held responsible for the mindless killing under its watch; having failed in its Constitutional role as provided in Section 14 (2)(b) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended) which states that “security and welfare of the people shall be the primary purpose of government.
“The PDP restates its demand for an urgent legislative public inquest into the killings as well as the undesirable disposition of the APC government on issues of insecurity in the country.
“The International Criminal Court (ICC) is also invited to commence an independent investigation to unravel the sponsors and perpetrators of this act of Genocide. In this regard, special attention must be paid to prominent former and current leaders of the APC who have at various times been alleged to overtly encouraged, promoted, incited and endorsed acts of terrorism and Genocide.
“This is especially against the backdrop of reports that over 63,000 Nigerians have been murdered by terrorists and bandits in the eight and half years of the Buhari/Tinubu APC-led government,” the statement added.
The PDP, however, commended the security personnel who remained unwavering in securing the nation despite the challenges and commiserate with the families of the victims of those mindless killings in Plateau State and other parts of the country, and prayed to God to bring succor to the wounded and the displaced.
From Ene Asuquo, Calabar
Cross River State Governor, Senator Bassey Otu has proposed the sum of N498bn as the state’s budget for the 2025 fiscal year.Presenting the proposal at the State House of Assembly, Otu attributed N328 billion (66%) to Capital Expenditure and N170bn (34%) to Recurrent Expenditure.
A further breakdown earmarked N100 billion for Infrastructure, N81bn for Education, N25bn for Health, while N20bn was set aside for the Judiciary. ”House of Assembly N18bn, Aviation N16bn, Special Duties/Intergovernmental Affairs N15bn, Power N14 billion, Agriculture N11bn, Tourism N5bn, Science, Technology and Innovation N4.7bn, Women Affairs N3.7bn, Information N3bn, and others N181.6bn,” the Governor revealed.The Governor outlined Federal Allocation, Grants from International Organizations, and Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) as major revenue sources to fund the 2025 budget.”The 2025 Budget, like the previous year’s budget, is benchmarked on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The decision to continue with the SDG benchmark is to guarantee continuity of projects and programs that may not be completed in this current budget cycle. This necessitated the need to roll over to the 2025 fiscal year.”For this reason, we have deliberately placed emphasis on SDG 9 – Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure; SDG 4 – Quality Education; SDG 3 – Good Health and Well-being; SDG 2 – Zero Hunger; as well as SDG 16 – Peace, Justice, and Strong Institutions,” Otu stated.He informed Cross Riverians that his administration’s adherence to strict financial prudence had placed the state as the ninth best state out of the 36 states in the 2023 Fiscal Performance Ranking, adding that “These indices have gone to confirm that development is not a linear achievement; rather a multidimensional process, where our progress is not measured solely by economic indicators, but by various dimensions interconnected to contribute to the overall well-being of the citizenry.”While reassuring the citizens that his administration’s policy preferences are meant to snowball into the common good of the people, the Governor also thanked the leadership of the State House of Assembly for building a common consensus among members to cooperate with the Executive and Judiciary Arms of Government to achieve a prosperous Cross River State.
From Mike Tayese, Yenagoa
Bayelsa State Governor, Douye Diri on Thursday presented a total budget of N689,440,348,916.30 christened Budget of Assured Prosperity for the 2025 fiscal year.Diri who made the presentation during plenary of the Bayelsa State House of Assembly, said that implementation of the 2025 Budget will require some level of efficiency and synergy in government activities across ministries, departments and agencies.
Giving the expenditure breakdown of the budget in some of the sectors, Governor Diri said the sum of N178, 761,880,407. 32 was budgeted for Works and Infrastructure; Education N47,111,696,198.40 and Sports N37,850,000,000,00.Others are Urban and Housing Development N13,680,000,000.00; Energy and Power N14,450,000,000.00; Agriculture N16,650,000,000.00; Security N19,000,000,000.00; Health N19,194,188,466.00 and Community Development N10,200,000,000.00.The governor also noted that the overall outcome of the 2025 budget will significantly depend on the level of fiscal and recurrent policy coordination, adding that it was the desire of the prosperity government to pursue a robust development as enunciated in the Assured budget.He said, “We have consciously crafted this 2025 budget in such a manner that we are mobilizing funds for human and capital infrastructural development initiatives, covering the seven core areas of the Assured Agenda which are Agricultural rural revolution and blue economy; sports and youths development; security and peace; urban renewal and rural development; robust health care delivery; energy generation; economic growth and tourism; diversified education towards innovation and technology by ensuring that our recurrent expenditure is kept within limits”.Highlighting some of the projects and programmes executed under the 2024 budget of N489,433,632,374.32 an supplementary budget of N270,800,000,000.00, Diri said his administration has embarked on the continuation of the three senatorial roads, construction of internal road in Yenagoa, building of technical colleges in all local government areas, grants to tertiary institutions, economic welfare and wage award for civil servants and training of youths in agriculture for food security.From Jude Dangwam, Jos
The Federal Government was to harmonize disjointed Women programs across the country with coordinating policy that streamline national programs for women from the federal to the state, down to local government areas and the Wards levels across the country.The Permanent Secretary Federal Ministry of women Affairs, Amb Gabriel Taminu Aduda said the government through the federal ministry of Women Affairs was determined to have a coordinated policy with a national program that are targeted at Women Economic Empowerment (WEE) in the country to be domesticated across the 36 states of the federation and the FCT.
Aduda stated this during the ongoing 24th Regular National Delegates Conference of Council of Women held in Jos the Plateau State capital.He said the moves became necessary considering the fact that disjointed programs have over the years not yielded the desired results leaving a large number of women in abject poverty across the nation.The Women Economic Empowerment policy is aimed at focusing on Women in Agriculture, looking at how the policy will support women farmers in gaining access to land and resources to help women improve their agricultural skills and productivity, and set specific programs to expand market access for women in agriculture across the country.He further maintained that the core sectoral interventions in the policy document will covers, “Women in Agriculture, Women in Entrepreneurship, Women in the, Traditional Labour Market, Women in Emerging Industries, Women’s Education and Skill Acquisition”The Permanent Secretary noted that the conference also seeks to find out what are the main challenges states face in domesticating the WEE policy and possibly look at how they can be addressed.The Director, Economic Services Department; Federal Ministry of Women Affairs, Blessing Amunike noted that the gathering is to come up with policies that empower Nigerian women through the National Policy on Women’s Economic Empowerment (WEE).She stressed that the main aim is to have the policy domesticated and implemented in the 36 States of Nigeria and the FCT that will create a series of activities by women at all levels.The founder and Managing Director of Eden Venture Group handling the communication aspect of the WEE policy, Fifehan Osikanlu maintained that through awareness campaign and advocacy on the domestication of the national policy, more women will be strengthen and armed with the requisite knowledge of the policy to make decisions that will impact on their lives directly.”This policy targets gender gaps that prevent women from reaching their full potential, particularly in financial inclusion, education, digital access, and economic participation.”Despite women making up 49.3% of Nigeria’s population, they face significant economic barriers. 70% of women are extremely poor, 45% of women have access to financial services while 56% are men. Women perform 70-80% of agricultural labour, but only 10% own land.”In education, 53% of girls complete secondary school compared to 67% who are boys. While in the digital access space, 34% of women have internet access compared to 54% who are men. The gender wage gap has women in Nigeria earning 45% less than men in similar roles as only 1 in 5 Board Members of Nigerian companies are women.” She lamentedPanelists at the engagement reiterated that the country suffered over the years and in recent times especially in the area of food production because of lack of coordinated policies and programs that will equip women in agriculture, Entrepreneurship among others.
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