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FG To Unveil New Programme To Tackle Banditry In North-West

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When visiting the Kano State Government House on Sunday, Vice President Kashim Shetima revealed this to the media.

The Vice President, who had earlier honoured the Emir of Bichi, claimed that only kinetic and non-kinetic methods could end the unrest in the region of the North West.

 

After President Bola Tinubu told the recently appointed service chiefs that there was work to be done, the development occurred less than two weeks later.

Following their appointment on June 19, 2023, the new security chiefs and the national security adviser (NSA), Nuhu Ribadu, met with Tinubu on July 3 for the first time.

The President assured the service chiefs of his unwavering support, according to the NSA, who spoke with State House Correspondents.

Ribadu, who said the service chiefs, on their part, pledged their loyalty to the President and Nigerians, also underlined their commitment to work tirelessly to secure the country.

Report: 43 million Nigerians are excluded from Buhari’s cash transfer

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Since its implementation in 2016, the Federal Government’s N5,000 monthly cash transfer has not reached no less than 42.69 million low-income Nigerians.

Only 19.4% of Nigerians benefited from the programme, according to information provided by the World Bank in the June 2023 edition of the Nigeria Development Update.

Only about 40.21 million Nigerians received benefits from the cash transfer programme, despite the country’s estimated population of 207.25 million (according to estimates from the World Bank).

The Washington-based bank noted that about 40 per cent of Nigerians (82.9 million people) lived on less than the national poverty line at the end of 2022.

On the poverty rate, the bank said, “The majority of Nigerians are either poor or economically insecure, just one shock away from falling into poverty. About 40 per cent of Nigerians—82.9 million people— lived on less than the national poverty line in 2018/19.13. An additional one quarter of the population—some 52.6 million people—were economically insecure, at high risk of falling into poverty. The overall poverty situation since then is unlikely to have improved given that GDP per capita has declined since 2019.”

Based on the poverty rate, it meant that 42.69 million poor people did not benefit from the Federal Government’s cash transfer programmme.

Despite the exclusion, the lending bank noted that an additional four million Nigerians became poor between January and May this year due to rising inflation.

With the recent fuel subsidy removal, it had been projected that about 7.1 million poor Nigerians would become poor if the Federal Government failed to compensate or provide palliatives for them.

This had further underscored the need for urgent assistance, especially to the poor and vulnerable in the country.

Nigeria underspends

The World Bank has said that the Nigerian government is not spending enough to address the issue of poverty and protect Nigerians.

In its NDU report, the bank stated, “Despite being exposed to frequent recent shocks, the majority of the population lacks protection to adequately cope with shocks financially. In 2021, Nigeria spent only 0.7 percent of its GDP on social safety nets. This is much lower than the average for SubSaharan Africa and lower-middle-income countries of 1.2 percent and the global average of 1.5 percent.

“Consequently, only 19.4 per cent of Nigerians benefitted from any safety nets programme, compared with 25 per cent regionally and 41 per cent globally. Even among those covered, benefit levels remain insufficient to keep households out of poverty. Thus, Nigeria needs to rapidly and comprehensively expand the coverage and adequacy of its social protection programmes to allow households to cope better with inevitable future shocks.”

The bank further noted that Nigeria had the capacity and infrastructure to deliver the necessary assistance needed.

It stated, “Nigeria has the capacity and the infrastructure to deliver immediate assistance at scale. In recent years, Nigeria has invested in building a robust safety nets delivery system that can provide immediate assistance to a large number of households. This includes the development of social registries that can be used to select households for support and a robust payment system that can deliver cash transfers in a safe, secure, and reliable manner.”

Call for Expansion
There have been calls for the expansion of the social safety net to cover more poor people.

In this regard, the World Bank said, “Building on earlier progress in expanding social protection to the poor and vulnerable, the government can leverage the phasing out of the petrol subsidy to establish a new social compact with Nigerians.

“Establishing a redistribution mechanism that uses a portion of the fiscal savings to protect lower-income households could minimise the negative impact on consumer welfare while still yielding a large net gain in government revenues.

“To build public support for phasing out the subsidy, and as part of a wider process of building trust, the government could propose a compact with Nigerian citizens that directly links the phased-out subsidy to compensatory cash transfers. It could publicize this compact (cash transfer amounts, eligibility criteria, transfer mechanisms, etc.), enabling the media and civil society to monitor compliance.”

Experts agree with the World Bank in not just expanding the coverage but making it more transparent.

The Managing Director, Cowry Asset Management Limited, Johnson Chukwu, said that the government needed to be transparent and make the database accessible to everyone for easy confirmation.

He said, “The government must have a register, and that register should be in public domain. It should be broken into states, local governments, districts, so that people can actually go to that register and confirm the genuineness of the people in the register.

“This way, you have genuine people who are in need in that register, So, it is just about the level of transparency and openness that the government has regarding the register.”

A former President of the National Accountants of Nigeria, Dr Sam Nzekwe, also stressed the need for accurate data to ensure that genuine poor people are the major beneficiaries.

“It is very important that we have open data,” he said.

 

To stop developing N110b bulletproof cars, SERAP urges N’Assembly, among others

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Socio-economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) has urged Senate President Godswill Akpabio and Speaker of the House of Representatives, Tajudeen Abbas, to drop plan to spend N40 billion on 465 bulletproof cars for members and principal officials, and N70 billion as ‘palliatives’ for new members.

SERAP urged them to repeal the 2022 Supplementary Appropriation Act, reduce the budget for the National Assembly by N110 billion, reflect on current economic realities in the country, and address impact of the removal of fuel subsidy on over 137 million poor Nigerians.

The organisation implored them to request President Bola Tinubu to present a fresh supplementary appropriation bill and redirect the N110 billion to address the problem of over 20 million out-of-school children in Nigeria.

Read Also: CNG advises Tinubu to ignore unpatriotic requests for Kanu’s release made by Igbo leaders

In a letter signed at the weekend by Deputy Director of SERAP, Kolawole Oluwadare, the organisation said travesty and apparent conflict of interest and self-dealing by members of the National Assembly must stop.

SERAP said: “It is a fundamental breach of their fiduciary duties for members of the National Assembly to arbitrarily increase their own budget and use it as a tool to satisfy the lifestyle of lawmakers.

“It is a grave violation of the public trust and constitutional oath of office for members of the National Assembly to unjustifiably increase their own budget at a time when over 137 million poor Nigerians are living in extreme poverty, exacerbated by removal of fuel subsidy.”

It added: “Rather than exercising their constitutional and oversight functions to pursue public interest by considering bills to improve conditions of the over 137 million poor Nigerians who are facing impact of the removal of fuel subsidy, the lawmakers seem to be looking after themselves.

“The proposed spending of N110 billion by members of the National Assembly is apparently on top of the N281 billion already provided for the lawmakers in the 2023 National Assembly budget. The proposed spending is also different from the N30.17 billion budgeted for ‘inauguration expenses’ for new members.”

Stop proposed increase in electricity rates, OPC tells Tinubu.

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The Oodua People’s Congress has urged President Bola Tinubu to stop the anticipated increase in electricity rates by the nation’s distribution companies, which is rumoured to be set to go into effect on July 1.

In a statement released by the OPC on Sunday, Bunmi Fasehun, its general secretary, referred to the action as “anti-people, oppressive, unjustified, and intended to discredit the new regime of President Bola Tinubu.”

Otunba Wasiu Afolabi, the president of the OPC, noted that the Nigeria Labour Congress and the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria had both rejected the proposal.

Read Also: CNG advises Tinubu to ignore unpatriotic requests for Kanu’s release made by Igbo leaders

Stressing that Nigerians were still grappling with the effects of the removal of fuel subsidy, Afolabi said increasing the electricity tariff “would be adding to citizens’ burden and paint the Tinubu administration as uncaring.”

“Today, citizens are the ones buying their own poles, transformers, cables and prepaid meters. DISCOs have turned themselves into rent-takers and blackout distributors,” Afolabi said.

The OPC president said the DISCOs should supply prepaid meters free of charge to their customers, alleging that “they have refused to do so because they enjoy sending crazy bills to customers who suffer darkness and power failure all the time.”

Instead of increasing electricity tariff, OPC advised the DISCOs “to borrow the example of the telecommunications companies that have reduced the cost that consumers pay for calls and data.”

Afolabi said, “OPC asked DISCOs to justify the hundreds of billions in public funds that past regimes have pumped into the sector, even when the distribution segment of the electricity value chain had been privatised.

“President Tinubu should tell the distribution companies that if they cannot deliver with the current tariff, they should submit their licences and close shop.

“Moreover, the government should scrap this territorial monopoly, where only one DISCO has commandeered a service area and allows no competition.

“Consumers in any area should be able to choose and transfer to other DISCOs as currently obtains in telecommunications and in other countries. That will create competition and push DISCOs to render quality service in order not to lose customers to competing suppliers.”

CNG advises Tinubu to ignore unpatriotic requests for Kanu’s release made by Igbo leaders

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Yesterday, the Coalition of Northern Group (CNG) urged President Bola Tinubu to ignore the unpatriotic calls made by an Igbo elder for the release of IPOB leader Nnamdi Kanu.

The coalition also requests that the Federal Government rebuff an Igbo blackmail campaign that uses Kanu’s release as a condition for long-lasting peace in the nation.

President Tinubu was urged not to fall for the stunts of IPOB by the spokesperson for CNG, Abdul-Azeez Suleiman, in a statement. He insisted that Kanu, the leader of IPOB, must go to trial.

Read Also: Election petition: APC is already planning for a re-run, says LP.

He said by releasing Kanu, President Tinubu’s government would be exposed to questions as to the status of the innocent citizens of other regions killed, dispossessed and displaced as a result of Kanu’s incitement.

Suleiman also called on the Federal Government to intensify ongoing action to disband all militias and armed groups in the South East and other parts of Nigeria, by resort to the use of force if needs be.

He urged President Tinubu to ensure that no group has the capacity to challenge the state in its prerogative to maintain law and order, and protect citizens’ lives and properties.

“How would the relations of the over 500 personnel of the various paramilitary organs who were indiscriminately attacked and killed while on duty posts at various checkpoints as a result of the incitement by Kanu feel?

“As the Commander-in-Chief of the Nigerian Armed Forces what words would Mr President use to encourage and retain other officers and men of the various forces if the man who incited the killing of their colleagues were to be released without even a trial?

“What would be the status of the families and community members of those killed, dispossessed or displaced as a result of the hate campaigns and propaganda conducted by Nnamdi Kanu and sponsored by his regional and ethnic collaborators?”

He further said the renewed determination to secure the release of Kanu without trial is part of a wider agenda of destruction and collective mayhem relentlessly pursued by the Igbo perpetrators of violence, fervently hoping it will engulf the entire country and bring about another civil war, mass killings and suffering of innocent people.

“Convinced that the resurgence of violent separatist agitations by IPOB and its ilk in the South East represent a much wider conspiracy for the violent determination of the Igbo to see through the destabilisation of Nigeria cannot be avoided or deferred any longer without terrible consequences.”

NDLEA detains teenager, female lawyer for drug possession

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At the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), agents of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) arrested Benjamin Nnamani Daberechi, a 19-year-old student, who was in possession of 7.2kg of mathamphetamine.

This was revealed in a statement released on Sunday, July 16 by Femi Babafemi, the NDLEA Director of Media and Advocacy.

With the intention of exporting the goods to Europe, where Daberechi was going for his undergraduate studies, the shipment was hidden inside a bag of crayfish.

“The teenage suspect was intercepted on Wednesday 12th July, during an outward clearance of passengers on Turkish Airlines flight TK 0624.

“While being interviewed by operatives, Daberechi claimed he was a student on his way to Cyprus for studies, but upon a thorough search of his luggage, he was found in possession of 7.2kg of whitish substance neatly concealed inside a sack of crayfish. A field test of the substance however proved positive to Methamphetamine,” Babafemi noted.

Read Also: Removing me as president over failure to score 25% in Abuja may trigger anarchy in Nigeria, Tinubu warns tribunal

He also said a female lawyer based in the Lekki area of Lagos state Ebikpolade Helen was arrested in Anambra State for the production and distribution of ‘skuchies’ a local drink manufactured using cannabis, opioids and blackcurrant.

Twelve bottles of the prepared drink and 5kg of cannabis were recovered from her Lekki-residence by the NDLEA.

Other operations carried out across the country led to the arrest of a Lagos resident Abubakar Shuaibu caught with 86 bottles of codeine-based cough syrup, an Ondo resident Abubakar Zayanu Gyambar found with 262 jumbo bags of skunk, among others.
According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) Nigeria is a transit point for heroin and cocaine intended for European, East Asian, and North American markets.

Traffickers smuggle large amounts of illicit drugs through the country which is having adverse effects on migration conditions for Nigerians.

On Saturday July 15, The ICIR reported that The Republic of Seychelles confirmed a ban on Nigerian tourists due to criminal activities traced to some Nigerian tourists, including drug trafficking and fraud.

“We have seen a clear link between this with certain people from Nigeria. In the past two weeks, for example, 13 people coming from Nigeria have been arrested when entering Seychelles because they were carrying drugs into the country,” the country’s Vice President Ahmed Afif said.

 

Removing me as president over failure to score 25% in Abuja may trigger anarchy in Nigeria, Tinubu warns tribunal

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Removing me as president over failure to score 25% in Abuja may trigger anarchy in Nigeria, Tinubu warns tribunal
The lawyers addressed a section of the Constitution that said a candidate must score 25 per cent of votes in two-thirds of 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory, or Abuja.

AHMED OLUWASANJO • JULY 16, 2023
Bola Tinubu
Bola Tinubu
President Bola Tinubu has warned members of the presidential elections tribunal that removing him as president could lead to a breakdown of law and order in Nigeria.

Mr Tinubu admitted his failure to score 25 per cent of votes cast in Nigeria’s capital Abuja, but said it was insufficient to overturn his victory as declared by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC.

“Any other interpretation different from this will lead to absurdity, chaos, anarchy and alteration of the very intention of the legislature,” Mr Tinubu’s lawyers led by Wole Olanipekun said in their final defence statement to the court.

The lawyers were specifically addressing a section of the Nigerian Constitution that said a presidential candidate must score 25 per cent of votes in two-thirds of Nigeria’s 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory, or Abuja.

Public commentary has been rife about the intention of the clause after Mr Tinubu won the highest number of votes in a three-way presidential race in February but failed to score 25 per cent in the FCT.

Mr Tinubu’s team said courts have always been careful about giving extreme interpretation of the Constitution that could spark chaos.

“Our courts have always adopted the purposeful approach to the interpretation of our Constitution, as exemplified in a host of decisions,” the team said.

They also said Mr Tinubu would still have won the election even if he didn’t score anything in Abuja and one other state, although this was not the argument of petitions, Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party and Peter Obi of Labour Party.

“Even if there was no election in one State (including the FCT), or even if the election of a State/States (including the FCT) is/are voided, the entire election cannot be voided or canceled.

“In concluding our arguments on this issue, we urge the court to hold that any election where the electorate exercise their plebiscite, there is neither a ‘royal’ ballot nor ‘royal’ voter; and that residents of the FCT do not have any special voting right over residents of any other State of the federation, in a manner similar to the concepts of preferential shareholding in Company Law.

“We urge this court to resolve this issue against the petitioners and in favour of the respondent,” the lawyers said.

Wale Edun slated for ministerial appointment, Ambode set to succeed Abiru as senator for Lagos East.

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Tokunbo Abiru, the senator representing the Lagos East Senatorial District, may be replaced, according to rumours, by Akinwunmi Ambode, a former governor of Lagos State.

Ambode reportedly paid President Bola Tinubu a visit at the Presidential Villa in Abuja on Friday, according to a report.

At a state reception hosted by Lagos State Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu on June 29 at the State House, the President and Ambode previously met.

I’m glad to see Ambode,” Tinubu said in a statement made public acknowledging Ambode’s presence. You’re welcome, Akin. before the meeting.

We understand that the meeting is believed to be the final reconciliation between both men after they reportedly fell out over Ambode’s inability to get a second-term ticket in 2019.

It was gathered that Tinubu is reportedly considering Ambode for an appointment in his government, with the Friday meeting believed to be an avenue to conclude discussions on that.
However, in a fresh development, sources privy to the development have asserted that possibilities are that the former Lagos State state governor would bag a senatorial seat.

Read Also: Tribunal: Petitioners’ evidence is worthless, says Tinubu’s lawyer

According to one source who confided in The Punch, Abiru is marked for a ministerial appointment, and if the calculation goes well, Ambode might take his place.

The source said, “There are possibilities that the former governor will get a position either in the Presidency or in the state if permutations work well in his favour.”

Meanwhile, another source told the platform that Wale Edun, named the Special Adviser to the President on Monetary Policies, might become a minister representing Ogun State.

The source said, “Edun’s case was one of the issues the President discussed with Ogun State traditional rulers when he visited them a few weeks ago.”

According to the source, Edun was reportedly the preferred candidate of Tinubu as a minister under the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari, but he was denied the ticket.

Tribunal: Petitioners’ evidence is worthless, says Tinubu’s lawyer

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Bola Tinubu, the president, and Kassim Shettima, the vice president, have criticised the Labour Party and Peter Obi’s attempt to overturn the results of the February 25 presidential elections, calling their arguments and witness testimony unreliable.

The two made the allegations in their final written response to Obi’s petition before the Presidential Election Petition Court through their legal team, which was led by Wole Olanipekun, SAN.

Dismissing the petition as frivolous, the respondents poked holes in the testimonies of the various witnesses and asked the court to dismiss their testimonies as they were bogus and based on hearsay.

Recall that on March 1, INEC’s Chairman Professor Mahmood Yakubu announced Tinubu as the winner of the February 25 elections with 8,794,726 votes while Atiku Abubakar and Peter Obi of the Labour Party were said to have scored 6,984,520 votes and 6,101,533 votes, respectively.

On March 20, Obi and LP filed a petition before the court seeking the nullification of the elections on grounds of non-qualification of the president, non-compliance with the Electoral Act, among others.

The petitioners through their team of lawyers led by Livy Uzoukwu SAN alleged that Tinubu should be disqualified from the election over a United District Court judgement and forfeiture of 460,000 US dollars suspected to be proceeds of drug trafficking.

They also alleged that Kassim Shettima was doubly nominated as the vice presidential candidate to Tinubu when he was still a senatorial candidate for the Borno Central Constituency at the time their party – The All Progressives Congress held its presidential primary election in July 2022.

The PEPC adjourned for adoption of the written addresses by the parties, Obi had produced thirteen witnesses including a cloud engineer, INEC ad-hoc staff, a cyber security expert and a professor of Mathematics while Tinubu’s team had produced one-star witness, Senator Michael Opeyemi to debunk Obi’s submissions.

The court had given the petitioners and the respondents ten and seven days to file their written addresses and five days for the respondents to reply on points of law.

In the written address sighted and dated July 14, the 2nd and 3rd respondents led by Olanikpekun, SAN, faulted the claims of Obi’s witnesses including the seventh witness, Clarita Ogah who had claimed to be a cloud engineer and a member of staff at Amazon.

Olanikpekun added that though the witness wanted to demonstrate to the court that the Amazon Web Server which hosted the INEC Results Viewing portal was healthy and could not have suffered technical glitches on the election day as alleged by the electoral commission, she, instead buttressed the point that INEC site indeed suffered glitches.

The advocate emphasized how she failed to validate her claims on the status of AWS as “healthy” and how she affirmed INEC’s claims of glitches during the elections.

He stated that the witness admitted among others to the possibility of glitches, and network failures while she attempted to use the INEC site.

He said, “The interesting thing about her political involvement, however, is that, in her quest to secure the admission and publication of her name by INEC for the National Assembly election, she had averred before the Federal High Court that she made several efforts to upload her name on the INEC network site, but because of network failure, her efforts proved abortive, as the INEC site crashed-this she wholly admitted under cross-examination.”

“This evidence corroborates the respondents’ case of a technological glitch on the day of the election and flattens the petitioners’ insinuation of the impregnability of any of the technological components.”

“More so, this witness admitted the several incidents of glitches and outages on the AWS sites (including the fact that as at 2021, the AWS has had over 27 episodes of outages), while identifying that if these could happen in 2021 and time past, they could happen anytime, as according to her, “anything is possible.” This admission by her, evaporates the entire suggestion by her, that the AWS server was beyond any form of reproach.”

“Meanwhile, the reports supposedly tendered by this witness were admittedly merely downloaded on the website of AWS. Therefore, the witness was not the maker of the same and could in fact, not have validly withstood cross-examination in relation to the said document.”

“These documents which were eventually admitted and marked as Exhibits PCJ3 (A-F) and PCJ4, however, did not indicate any key to assist this Honourable Court in identifying the connotations of the various characters on the purported reports. Without mincing words, the evidence of this witness, including the purported reports are worthless, meaningless, of no value whatsoever and fit only for the trashcan.”

“The witness also admitted to the various unpredictability and imperfection of technological devices, including his telephone, generator and even power supply in Nigeria. This buttresses the point that the BVAS, being a technological device, could be subject to any of these vagaries.
Tinubu further said, Obi failed to prove how the non-transmission of results in real time amounted to non-compliance or how it affected the outcome of the elections.

Dismissing her credibility as a staff of Amazon, he argued that the witness did not prove her connection with AWS as the documents which she attempted to employ as proof were unsigned affecting “the relevance and even admissibility of the documents.”

“She was unable to properly identify herself as a staff of AWS, and this Honourable Court ought to discountenance the entire evidence of this witness on this basis.”

“In any event, the witness admitted that though the report she tendered relates only to AWS infrastructure, the subpoena she brought before the court was not delivered to Amazon but to her in person and that she was not in court on the authority of AWS. On this account, we submit that the evidence of this witness cannot be treated as the evidence of AWS or taken with any seriousness at all.”

“The predicament of PW7 and indeed the petitioners did not end there, this supposed witness was unable to present her letter of employment by AWS as the supposed unsigned letter of confirmation of employment was only manufactured by her, on 19th June 2023 (as per the date on the document), a day before the tendering of same, indicating that this document was made by a party interested, during the pendency of litigation, for the mere purpose of litigation, thus, rendering same inadmissible.”

Asides from that, the senior advocate questioned the witnesses’ objectivity describing her as an interested party and a card-carrying member of the LP, “who in fact, contested election to become a member of the House of Representatives, representing Cross River State, under the banner of the 2nd petitioner, where she lost the election.”

Describing the testimonies of the various witnesses as amoebic in nature, Olanikpekun, SAN stated that the petitioner’s claim that there was no transmission and upload through the BVAS are inconsistent as the same in the other breadth claimed that the transmission and upload through the BVAS, they actually won the election.

Moreso, he contended that it was not the petitioners’ case that there was no electronic transmission and upload at all, but that the transmission was not done immediately. He said, “Even more critical is the fact that the petitioners did not allege that any of the other procedures of the election, starting from the accreditation, voting, sorting, counting of votes, entry into the relevant forms, and manual transmission was not complied with.”

“In fact, the testimonies of PW9, PW10 and PW13 are very instructive, as despite being witnesses for the petitioners, they all testified to the fact that the only issue with the entire web of processes was that of electronic transmission and upload to the IREV through the BVAS in real-time.”

“The point must be made that it is not their claim that the results were not uploaded at all, but that since INEC was constrained not to be able to upload it immediately, during the election, then the election must be impeached.”

10th NASS will establish constitutional positions for traditional leaders— Speaker

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Tajudeen Abbass, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, declared on Saturday in Zaria, Kaduna State, that the 10th National Assembly would give traditional leaders in the nation a constitutional role.

When he paid respects to Ambassador Ahmed Bamali, the Emir of Zazzau, the Speaker made this statement.

Abbas, who was welcomed to the palace with a vibrant durbar, claimed that the majority of the current House of Representatives members understood the significance of the country’s traditional institution.

He noted that members would do the needful to ensure a role was created for the traditional rulers in the constitution.

The Speaker said, “I am aware that about three years ago, there was a paper by the Traditional Rulers Council across the six geo-political zones where they clearly stated how they want the traditional institutions to function in this present dispensation. We thank God that today your son is the Speaker of the House of Representatives and in the position to revisit the position of the traditional rulers.

“I want to assure you today that my colleagues and I who are from traditional ruling houses and others who share similar sentiments will go back and look at the position paper written by the traditional leaders in order to ensure that the traditional institution has a place in this current political dispensation.

“We will work assiduously with the various state houses of assembly in order to ensure that the glory of the traditional institution is restored.

“I am here with over 70 members of the House of Representatives to receive your blessing, the blessing of other traditional rulers and Nigerians on the need to unite Nigerians for the progress and development of the country. We will from time to time seek your advice because we in government are like football players on the pitch who are bound to make mistakes.”

He expressed appreciation to the Emir, the traditional chiefs and the people of Zazzau Emirate for the warm reception accorded him on his first homecoming as the Speaker of the House of Representatives.

In his remarks, the Emir of Zazzau said the request for roles for traditional rulers in the constitution was not an attempt to create another tier of government.

He said, “The Zazzau Emirate has nothing to say than thank God for the blessing He has bestowed on the Emirate. The Emirate has produced a reasonable percentage of prominent Nigerians from the Head of State, General Yakubu Gowon, Vice-President, Namadi Sambo, several Ministers, the Secretary to the Government of Federation, and now the Speaker of the House of Representatives.

“The role of the traditional institution cannot be overemphasised. The traditional institution has played important roles from the first republic, the second republic, and even today. I am aware that the majority of the members here have direct or indirect relationships with the traditional institution.

“What is surprising us is that people will come to us to seek our blessing when seeking election, but when they win, they will disappear until another election, they now begin to see us as their stumbling blocks. Up till now, we are really shocked as traditional rulers why they behave like that, but what they failed to understand is that the traditional institution has come to stay whether we are alive or not. Wherever you go, you will still come back to us.

“We are aware that, the fear of most of these politicians is that, we want to create another tier of government. I speak on behalf of other traditional rulers, the Sultan of Sokoto, Shehu of Borno, and other traditional rulers. We discussed this issue of traditional rulers extensively.

“We went to Abuja, wet the former President, Senate President, Speaker of the House of Representatives. We presented our position under the chairmanship of Emir of Lafia who is a former Supreme Court Judge with experience. We drafted our position and submitted it to the former Senate President, and we were surprised that the bill was abandoned.”

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