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STOP PLAYING FATHER CHRISTMAS TO NIGER REPUBLIC, AFGHANISTAN — CSOS FLAY FG

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President Muhammadu Buhari

Nigerians at home and abroad are rightly scandalised by the recent expensive gifts of the Federal Government to Niger Republic and Afghanistan.

But more nauseating is the failure of the National Assembly to checkmate these unapproved spendings and make the president to explain his action.

This unfortunate situation reinforces a pattern that reflects the weakness of the country’s 109 Senators and 360 members of the House of Representatives to control and monitor the national purse.

The civil society views this tendency and its escalation early this month when the Minister of Finance, Zainab Ahmed, confirmed that President Muhammadu Buhari approved the sum of N1.145 billion for the purchase of ten luxury Toyota Land Cruiser V8 cars for the government of Niger Republic with serious concern, bearing in mind the words of the great thinker, Edmund Burke, who said that “the only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.”

Also worrisome is the reality that many Nigerians have lately become lethargic, divided by ethnic and sectarian sentiments and weakened by widespread poverty brought on by the political class and bad governance.

The citizens are too busy eking out a living, and so they have no time for the government while those who dare bother about happenings in government and have taken it upon themselves to keep people in government on their toes are labeled idle, lazy and even saboteurs.

However, some activists and civil society groups, who spoke with Saturday Vanguard, are not adopting the self-defeating attitude of the legislators and many other citizens who prefer to turn a blind eye instead of confronting the issues and demanding financial accountability from the government.

According to them, the current administration’s construction of a $1.8bn railway line to Maradi, a city in Niger Republic, a country so dear to President Buhari, and the donation of $1m to the Taliban-controlled government of Afghanistan four months ago reflect its perceived culture of sympathy to cronies and promoters of extremist religious ideologies.

Decrying the Federal Government’s penchant to dip its hand into the nation’s treasury and play the “Big Brother” without due process, the Executive Director of Resource Centre for Human Rights and Civic Education (CHRICED), Dr Zikirullahi Ibrahim, cautioned that until the Buhari administration purges itself of the tendency for misplaced spendings, the dwindling economy of the nation may never exit the woods.

He said, “We are disturbed that the Federal Government recently donated $1 million to Afghanistan’s Taliban government.

“That ill-advised donation ignored the fact that the Taliban is led by terrorists who have no respect for women, have prevented women from attending school, and are serially abusing the rights of Afghan citizens.

“It is difficult to understand how the Buhari administration came to befriend the terrorist Taliban government in Afghanistan to the point of donating funds to them.

“We categorically denounce this indiscriminate use of the nation’s funds, especially in these trying times. Aside from making little or no economic sense, such a gift should not come from a government that claims to be fighting terrorism within its borders,” he told Saturday Vanguard.

Three years ago, many Nigerians were worried when two governors from the Niger Republic graced President Buhari’s re-election campaign rally in Kano.

Barely a year after President Buhari won the election, the Federal Government approved a $1,959,744,723.71 contract for a rail line that would link Nigeria to Niger Republic even when the pre-independence Eastern rail network remains comatose.

The rail construction to Niger republic was an executive fiat which was followed by the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding for the importation of a paltry 15,000 barrels of fuel per day from the French-speaking country into Nigeria.

Signatures were appended to the oil importation agreement between Nigeria and Niger Republic after N81bn had been reportedly spent on the Kaduna, Warri, and PortHarcourt refineries without any head way.

Unfortunately, no one has been arrested for deceiving the nation and frittering away such a humongous sum of money in the name of rehabilitating the oil refineries in the country.

Lambasting the National Assembly for failing in its constitutional role of checkmating the misplaced spending of the executive arm of the government, Comrade Deji Adeyanju, a human rights activist and convener of a pro-democracy, Concerned Nigerians, charged citizens to show more concern about the quality of those seeking legislative seats at the federal level in 2023.

He claimed, in a chat with Saturday Vanguard, that the leadership of both the Senate and the House of Representatives played the ostrich on the frivolous spendings on other sovereign states  by the Federal  Government, because they were imposed as firsts among equals by the executive and the powers-that-be in the ruling party.

“It’s unfortunate that the President purchased N1.145bn vehicles for Niger Republic when ASUU is on strike.

“This depicts the parody of a nation that we live in, because nothing else explains this in any form.

“Also, the irony of the Federal Government giving $1m to Afghanistan without appropriation crowns it all by demonstrating the level of impunity in the country.

“The illegalities of the government vis-a-vis the refusal to comply with the doctrine of separation of powers guaranteed in Sections (4), (5), and (6) of our Constitution, and the flagrant abuse of the Rule of Law and the Due Process has become characteristics of this current government.

“It’s unfortunate that all these things the government did has indeed set a bad precedence for our democracy.

“This is why we must stop electing weaklings into the National Assembly. As Nigerians are interested in who becomes the President, they must also show interest in who goes to the National Assembly to represent us.

“We must also try as a nation to prevent the executive arm of government from imposing a leadership on the National Assembly as we saw in 2019 when Ahmad Lawan and Femi Gbajabiamila became Senate President and Speaker of the House of Representatives respectively.

“Those kind of moves are counter-productive for any democracy and does not augur well for checks and balances between the executive and legislative arms of government.

“All these unapproved spendings happen, because of the way politics has been played. Regrettable, they have in no small measure dampened the tenets of democracy in our country.

“It is sad and ironical. However, the citizens must rise up to the occasion to criticise the government the more and hold it accountable to the people,” Adeyanju lamented.

Nevertheless, activists and civil society groups are not alone. Opposition political parties, that are warming up to wrestle power from the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in 2023, have also joined in condemning the Federal Government’s inclination to spend public fund on other countries without appropriation by the National Assembly.   The New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP), led by a former Kano governor, Engr. Rabiu Kwankwaso, described as absurd the tendency of the Federal Government to recklessly throw taxpayers’ money around while Nigerians are finding it hard to sleep with their two eyes closed.

“It has been tales of woes across the country. The state of the nation is very bad.

“This is not the time to play Father Christmas or Big Brother Africa as charity begins at home. National interest supersedes parochial sentiments when the nation is under siege and its territorial integrity violated with impunity by terrorists, insurgents, bandits and militants as if there is no constituted government in place,” the NNPP spokesman, Agbo Major, told Saturday Vanguard.

He counseled President Buhari to channel the nation’s resources to secure the populace in tandem with Section 24(2)b of the 1999 Constitution, as amended which states that the security and welfare of the people shall be the primary purpose of government.

“So far, the outgoing APC-led Federal Government has failed woefully in this critical provision of the Constitution it swore to uphold, protect and implement,” the NNPP surmised.

In all of these, what is clear is that Nigerians must begin to ask questions about what would become of them when a loan taken in the name of Nigeria but used to develop facilities in another sovereign state can’t be paid back? One possibility is that China may end up taking over facilities in Nigeria with no consequences to the Niger Republic.

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DEADLY CROWD CRUSH DURING SALE OF SEIZED RICE IN NIGERIA

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Bags of confiscated rice for sale are seen in Lagos, Nigeria, in this photo shared by Nigeria Customs services on February 23, 2024. From Nigeria Customs servicesCNN — 

There was a deadly crowd crush during the sale of seized rice in Nigeria. The Nigeria Customs Service says it is investigating reports people were trampled to death during a sale of bags of confiscated rice amid growing anger over skyrocketing prices of food in Africa’s most populous country.

“There was a chaotic situation caused by the impatience of people to follow the laid down procedures and rules that were set up for the exercise,” spokesperson for the service, Abdullahi Maiwada told CNN on Saturday. “I can neither confirm or deny any deaths but we are investigating,” he added.

Long queues have formed outside the Lagos customs office since the commencement of the sale as thousands of locals struggle to grab a bag of the 25-kilogram rice selling at a discounted price of 10,000 naira ($6.80).

Some eyewitnesses said they saw people “trampled to death” Friday.

“A man just died in my hospital, he was stamped on after falling at the custom office trying to get rice. He was on the queue with his wife when he fell down and couldn’t get up on time which resulted to people stamping on him. So sad. Survived by very young children,” said one Nigerian doctor on X.

Last week, anti-government protests broke out in parts of the West African nation as the country battles one of its worst cost-of-living crisis that has seen inflation accelerate to nearly 30% – the highest in 30 years.

The local currency has also significantly depreciated, losing over half its value to the US dollar following its second devaluation in less than a year.

More than 80 million Nigerians live on less than $2 a day, representing “the world’s second-largest poor population after India”, according to the World Bank.

The customs service said the distribution of the seized bags of rice was part of the government’s plan “to tackle the pressing issue of food insecurity.”

The cost of rice, a staple food in Nigeria, has surged in recent months. It is now priced at over N70,000 ($47.60) per 50kg bag, compared to a range of 45,000 to 50,000 naira previously.

The customs service says it has been confiscating contraband rice from smugglers following restrictions on foreign rice imports by the Nigerian government.

Analysts welcomed the rice distribution initiative but questioned its viability in tackling Nigeria’s worsening food insecurity.

“Interventions in terms of food supply look like a good idea but there should have been a policy rolled out to define how this will happen,” political analyst Sam Amadi told CNN.

“There is some distribution in Lagos now, what about other parts of the country? Is it just a Lagos intervention? Is it going to be a one-off, or a consistent sharing and does it have the potential to make some impact?” he asked, adding that “there is a lack of intelligible criteria and framework.”

Nigeria’s President Bola Tinubu, who has faced criticism over the spike in the prices of goods and services said he is “dedicated to evolving home-grown solutions to tackle our nation’s food security challenges head-on.”

His government came under fire last November over a budget that allocated funds for purchasing SUV vehicles for the presidency, amounting to N2.9 billion ($3.6 million), and to cover the cost of renovating the president’s residential quarters, estimated at N4 billion ($5 million) as the country grapples with mounting debts.

Tinubu said he trusts the country’s central bank to fix the issue of the plummeting local currency.

The Lagos government said Thursday it was rolling out plans to address the food crisis in the state. Its governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu announced the opening of special markets “across the state to sell food items at really affordable rates.”

“We aim to serve over 500,000 Lagosians with essential food items at rates that defy inflation” in addition to the construction of food hubs, Sanwo-Olu added.

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DOZENS OF HAMAS TERRORISTS SURRENDER TO ISRAELI SOLDIERS

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Dozens of Hamas terrorists surrendered to Israeli force s in northern Gaza Thursday, Dec. 7, according to reports.

The Hamas terrorists turned themselves in after being pushed back by the advancing Israel Defense Forces near Jabaliya, the Times of Israel reports.

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Photos show dozens of alleged Hamas terrorists lined up on a street, sitting in rows with their hands over their heads.

The men were stripped to just their underwear as the IDF troops lined them up.

In one clip, the dozens of Hamas members could be seen in the back of an Israeli military vehicle.

Channel 13 reporter Almog Boker estimated that more than a hundred Hamas fighters turned themselves in, the largest group to surrender to the IDF since Israel began its incursion into the Palestinian enclave.

However, Israel’s Kan News reported that the group of men were detained before the IDF could verify whether they were all in fact members of Hamas or Palestinian Islamic Jihad.

The New Arab, a Qatari-owned news outlet based in London, alleged that one of the men seen in the footage was Diaa Al-Kahlot, one of its correspondents reporting from Gaza.

Senior Hamas leader Osama Hamdan claimed that the people arrested in the video were unarmed civilians who were not affiliated with the terror group, Arabic broadcaster Al Araby reports.

The IDF has yet to comment on the arrests in Jabaliya.

Many watchers of the ongoing situation in Gaza had always believed it was a matter of time before the Hamas terrorists began to be captured or surrender in their numbers.

Hamas is already claiming the dozens of alleged Hamas terrorists rounded up were not it’s members. Before now, people have been wondering why upon all the footages of the war in Gaza most pro Hamas media organisations have been portraying most graphically, no wounded or killed Hamas combatants have been shown.

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MAN EATEN ALIVE AFTER JUMPING INTO TIGER CAGE IN PAKISTANI ZOO

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Joe Exotic in Tiger King

A zoo in Pakistan has been shut down after a man was mauled to death by tigers in an attack discovered during routine cleaning, officials said Thursday. The body was found on Wednesday morning in Bahawalpur’s Sherbagh Zoo in the eastern province of Punjab after staff spotted one of the three tigers with a shoe…

A zoo in Pakistan has been shut down after a man was mauled to death by tigers in an attack discovered during routine cleaning, officials said Thursday.

The body of the man who apparently eaten alive was found on Wednesday morning in Bahawalpur’s Sherbagh Zoo in the eastern province of Punjab after staff spotted one of the three tigers with a shoe in its mouth.

“The zoo is closed right now as we determine how the man got in,” Ali Usman Bukhari, a senior officer of the province’s wildlife department, which operates the zoo, told AFP.

The condition of the body suggests the attack happened late Tuesday night after he jumped into the cage and was eaten alive by the tigers.

“The autopsy report has not been released, however, evidence gathered from the enclosure points towards him being alive when he was attacked by the tigers,” Bukhari said.

“The tigers did not go out of the den to attack the man, he jumped into their enclosure,” he said.

“If we find a security lapse, we will address it. If need be, we will hire private security guards.”

The man eaten alive has not been identified and no family member has come forward to claim the body.

Speaking to media outside the zoo after the body was discovered on Wednesday, senior local government official Zaheer Anwar said all staff had been accounted for.

“Our assessment so far is that this appears to be a lunatic, because a sensible person would not jump into the den,” he said.

“You can see the den is secured. There are stairs behind the den, maybe he jumped from there.”

The three tigers present in the den when the body was discovered have been restricted to a smaller space while evidence is collected.

The zoo was built in 1942 by the ruling royal family of the former princely state of Bahawalpur and costs adults 50 rupees (18 cents) to enter.

Pakistan’s zoos are generally in a poor condition and frequently accused of disregarding animal welfare.

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