Folarin Kehinde

It is no news that Nigeria negotiates with terrorists.  In most cases, hundreds of millions of Naira are parted to terrorists in form of ransom. But asking for national honors and recognition, a demand recently made by Dr. Abdulmalik Attah, for terrorist-negotiators is repulsive for most Nigerians. 

Many believe that the way and manner President Muhammadu Buhari’s has been handling the menace of insecurity in the country has exacerbated it and thus embolden the terrorists more than it has abated it. Just most recently, Dr. Abdulmalik Attah, one of the Presidential Committee members who negotiated and got the abducted Kaduna-trained passengers released has validated the claim that negotiation with terrorists is not new to President Muhammadu Buhari-led Government.  He went as far as considering a national honor and recognition for his committee.

In fact, Dr. Attah praised his members so well and gave account of how the security apparatus of the country aided their mission of getting the abducted passengers released.  He did not stop there, he asked for a national honor for his committee for interfacing, on behalf of the Federal Government, with the terrorists and getting the passengers released. . 

 Dr AbdulMalik Attah went as far as accusing his co-negotiated Malam Tukur Mamu of frustrating previous efforts of the government at releasing the abducted passengers.  He made the clain during an interview with
Channels TV. Atta’s father was among the abducted passengers of the ill-fated train abducted midway by terrorists, popularly called bandits by the Government.

Atta said Mamu did everything within his reach to thwart the federal government’s efforts at rescuing the hostages for his own interest.  Daily Trust had reported that Attah said the families of the abducted passengers have parted with over $200,000 previously to the terrorists without having the passengers released.

“Because of Mamu’s introduction of money into the rescue process, the victims’ families had parted with over $200,000 prior to the chief of defence staff’s intervention.

“The Presidential Committee made life-threatening sacrifices, as we had to go into the forest to meet with the terrorists and even slept in the bush.

“It has been six months and one week, but we thank God everything has come to an end now, thanks to the support from the federal government through the office of the Chief of Defence Staff (CDS). We were able to go into the bush and bring back the remaining of our family members.

“We achieved this not through somebody who betrayed the committee and the government, I am talking about the person of Tukur Mamu who did everything within his reach to thwart the efforts of the government for his own interest. As we all know, he is in the hands of the government now. But we thank God, all our family members are back now.

“The bandits never asked for money ab-initio, Tukur Mamu introduced money into the whole thing and derailed the process and kept everybody for the past six months.

“We parted away with about 200,000 US Dollars. Thank God the CDS took it upon himself and put in place a committee that never asked a kobo. Every sacrifice being done so far has been personal towards ensuring the release of the victims.

“In the committee, I can assure you that I worked with credible people of the highest order. If I have my way, all of them would be given national honors.  We risked our lives, went to the bush, we slept there in the bush.

“We heard the complaints of those people (the terrorists), even though we knew what they have done is wrong, but we had to engage them.

“Going forward, our security agencies must synergize their operations and the government should open more room for further engagements.” 

President Vladimir Putin has declared martial law in the four  of Ukraine where Russia controls territory after Russian officials warned of a looming Ukrainian assault on the key southern city of Kherson.

The Russian president said in televised remarks to members of his security council that: “We are working on solving very complex, large-scale tasks to ensure a reliable future for Russia, the future of our people,”

The law, published on the Kremlin website, gives far far-reaching emergency powers to the Russian-installed heads of Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson provinces, which Russia recently proclaimed as annexed after sham referendums.

The Kremlin decree also puts Russia on a stronger economic war-footing. Putin ordered an “economic mobilisation” in eight provinces bordering Ukraine, including Crimea, which Russia annexed in 2014.

Putin said he was granting additional authority to the leaders of all Russian provinces to maintain public order and increase production in support of Moscow’s war, which is entering its eighth month. The law also limits the freedom to move in and out of eight Russian provinces bordering Ukraine.

In his speech, Putin also hinted at a further escalation of the war, calling the Ukrainian authorities “satanists” who have ignored Russia’s warnings.

“Russia has repeatedly given a chance to the command of the satanists to come to their senses. But we were not heard or ignored. Now everything will be different, we will dictate the terms,” Putin said.

Shortly after Putin’s statements, his spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, said the government was not planning on closing the country’s international borders.

The Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN) has made its commitment towards leveraging partnership within the D-8 to promote, encourage, advance and support the activities of MSMEs at the national level as well as within the D-8 region to further strengthen economic, trade and commercial integration and linkages.

D8, also referred to as Developing-8, is an international organisation specifically established for the development cooperation among countries like Bangladesh, Egypt, Indonesia, Iran, Malaysia, Nigeria, Pakistan and Turkey.

The Director-General, SMEDAN, Olawale Fasanya, stated that with a proposal for a D-8 centre already submitted, the agency is optimistic that the establishment of the D-8 Centre for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) will unleash substantial development impacts.

Fasanya has also promised to work with key stakeholders to cause a positive shift in the micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) development narrative in Nigeria, given its critical but highly endangered status in the economy.

Fasanya made the remark at an interactive session with the Guild of Corporate Online Publishers (Gocop) and editors, where he shared his vision and approach to ensure regular inter-agency cooperation and networking with stakeholders to leverage on available opportunities to close the gaps among key players within the MSME space.

Emphasising how important the sub-sector is to national economic growth and the several challenges which the COVID-19 pandemic and the ongoing Ukraine-Russia have further worsened, Fasanya said the challenges of MSMEs usually border on access to finance, market, equipment, information, technical and entrepreneurial skills and workspace.

Reeling out his vision for the sub-sector, he said he had already started engaging with the staff of the agency and other MSMEs-enabling stakeholders, as a continuous exercise both locally and internationally.

“I will be meeting some key stakeholders in Lagos to enable me to harvest inputs directly from real MSMEs players. I am however aware that they were consulted during the process of reviewing the National Policy but the MSME space is very dynamic requiring regular engagements and feedback.”

Many have expressed worry over the mental fitness of the presidential candidate of the All Progressive Congress (APC), Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, after the incoherent reply he gave when asked about how he intends to tackle climate change.

Tinubu, while fielding questions about climate change at the Arewa Interactive Committee event, described climate change as “A question of how do you prevent a church rat from eating poisoned Holy Communion.”  

“We are a poor nation. They say firewood is not for fetching. They say we need to plant more trees and they are not giving us money. We need to tell the West, if you don’t guarantee our finances and work with us to stop this, we are not going to comply with your climate change,” Tinubu said.

The recent blunder is coming 48 hours after he described the governor of Kaduna State as being creative in turning a rotten situation to a bad one during his address at the seventh Kaduna Economic and Investment Summit

In recent times, massive flooding has ravaged communities across the country, displacing citizens and submerging farmlands.

Mr Tinubu’s response that he would not comply with precautionary actions except if being funded by the West suggests that Nigerians would have to suffer the devastating effect of flood triggered by climate if he wins next year’s election.

Meanwhile, reacting to the statement, the spokesperson of the People’s Democratic Party Presidential Campaign Management Committee, Dino Melaye, has said that Bola Tinubu, is neither fit nor prepared for the Nigerian presidency.

Melaye described Tinubu’s statement as unguarded and an insult to Christians.

In his statement, he said: “The APC presidential candidate, Ahmed Bola Tinubu, plunged into new depths of desecration when, by an unguarded and unrelated flow of thought, he despised the body of Christ by profaning the sacrament of communion and besmirching the church”.