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Festus Keyamo, SAN, apologised to the Senate on Monday evening over his failure to honour invitations by the relevant legislative committee overseeing the Ministry of Labour and Productivity where he had served as a minister under the Muhammadu Buhari administration.

This followed a rowdy session at the Senate during his ministerial screening earlier in the day where Senator Darlington Nwokocha (Abia Central) accused Keyamo of disrespecting the Ninth National Assembly and accusing the last Assembly of being corrupt.

Tendering an apology “without reservation”, the former Minister of State for Labour and Productivity provided more insight into the circumstances.

“Maybe it was as a result of the lack of knowledge of the fact that this matter had long been resolved between us and the members of that committee,” he told the Senate with a more sombre disposition than hours earlier.

“Subsequently, there were so many hearings – budget defence and all that – we attended under a very convivial atmosphere. So, the apology is without reservation. I apologise.”

A former minister of works and housing, Babatunde Fashola has denied that he is writing judgement for the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal (PEPT).

A Twitter user, Jackson Ude, had alleged that Fashola and some lawyers working for the All Progressives Congress (APC) were drafting a judgement for the tribunal judges.

Ude posted that “Former Lagos State Governor and former Minister for Works, Babatunde Fashola and some APC lawyers are allegedly writing the judgement Bola Tinubu and APC intend to hand over to the Presidential Elections Petition Tribunal.”

However, in a statement on Sunday, Fashola’s special adviser on media, Hakeem Bello, insisted that the allegation is “baseless and defamatory”.

Bello called on security agencies to take action against those spreading fake news, while also claiming it was part of a plot to undermine the judiciary.

Fashola expressed his disappointment with the spread of this false information on social media platforms and has called on security agencies to take action against those responsible for spreading fake news.

“In response to the allegation, Fashola clarified that he has been away from Abuja for an extended period of time, rendering the claims entirely unfounded.

“The former minister believes that these allegations may be part of a wider campaign to undermine the judiciary by those who seek to manipulate the institution for their own gain,” the statement read.

The presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, (PDP), Atiku Abubakar has dragged President Bola Tinubu before the United States of America District Court for the Northern District of Illinois

In a statement released on Sunday, August 8 by the Special Assistant on Public Communications to Atiku Abubakar, Mr Phrank Shaibu, said the filing of the fresh suit was why Atiku withdrew an existing case before a Circuit Court in Illinois

Shaibu noted that Atiku’s suit against Tinubu is marked No. 23-5099 (N. D. III.)

Atiku, who was the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party in the February 25 presidential election, is challenging the declaration by the Independent National Electoral Commission that Tinubu won the poll.

According to the statement, “Atiku Abubakar only withdrew the case before a Circuit Court of Cook County, Illinois County, United States of America because he is pursuing the same matter in a higher court and he wanted to avoid abuse of court processes.

So, this is just the beginning.”

He argued that Tinubu’s academic records from primary school till university remained questionable, hence the President’s failure to identify a single former classmate of his.

“In the past weeks, Nigerians have been watching the ongoing ministerial screening at the Senate where nominees have been made to reveal their primary, secondary and university history. Some of the ministerial nominees were even classmates with the senators screening them.

“However, the man who nominated them has no educational history.

He has no primary school, secondary school or university classmates.

This is because he has no classmates. He actually fell from the sky.

“In recent years, past Presidents have invited their former classmates to Aso Rock Villa. Even President Muhammadu Buhari hosted his classmates from Katsina Middle School. But who did Bola Tinubu invite to the Presidential Villa? Governors from 1999 set.”

President Bola Tinubu has played to host to governors of States that share boundaries with Niger Republic.

The governors who visited the president are: Ahmed Aliyu (Sokoto), Umar Namadi (Jigawa), Mai Malam Buni (Yobe), Idris Nasir (Kebbi) and Dr Dikko Radda (Katsina).

It was gathered the meeting held at the State House, Abuja, was part of consultations by the President on the situation in Niger.

The Northern Elites have earlier kicked against the planned wage war against the military junta in Niger, while citing the likely consequence of such action on Nigeria.

Tinubu who is the incumbent Chairman of the Economic Community of West African States had issued a seven-day ultimatum to the military junta in Niger Republic to restore democracy by returning power to Mohammed Bazoum.

This led to quite a number of sanctions part of which resulted in the closure of borders with Niger, including an indefinite suspension of flight activities.

The president had written the leadership of the National Assembly to approve the deployment of military personnel to the troubled Niger.

The Senate however turned down the request while it asked Tinubu and other leaders of the region to tread with caution in addressing the political situation.

Several Malian soldiers were killed in an attack which the army blamed Friday on jihadist fighters in the northeastern Menaka region.

“According to a first tally, we lost six men,” said an army spokesman, adding troops were searching for survivors.

“The terrorists lost at least 15 combatants,” he added.

A local official said casualties including injured and missing ran to as many as 20 after the deadly attack which saw an army column ambushed while escorting trucks towards neighbouring Niger, itself in a standoff with neighbours after last week’s military coup which has sparked a regional crisis.

Both the army spokesman and local official spoke on condition of anonymity with authorities not having made any official comment on the incident.

The official said both Malian troops and Russia’s Wagner paramilitary force were deployed in the area.
The ruling junta has presented the Russian fighters, bolstering its fight against myriad Islamist groups in the zone, as instructors.

Mali, ruled by a junta following a 2020 coup, has backed the Niger coup and warned it will consider any military intervention from outside the country as a “declaration of war.”

A member of the Niger junta stressed during a Wednesday visit to Bamako the importance of cooperation between the two neighbouring states as they face up to jihadist incursions.

Northern Mali as been racked by an insurgency since 2012 and the unrest has since spread to central areas and beyond to Burkina Faso as well as Niger.

The Menaka region has for months been at the forefront of a push by Islamic State in the Greater Sahara. A recent Human Rights Watch report accused the group of being behind “hundreds” of deaths and forcing thousands from their homes since the start of the year.

The proverb that a man is bathing in a river yet having soap in his eyes can’t be truer than in the case of the Nigerian housing challenge. This challenge has remained intractable in spite of the various conscious efforts made by successive Nigerian governments to rein in the monster of homelessness that has plagued the Nation.

Housing is a very critical issue in Nigeria which should command instant attention. Nigeria, a country of over 170 million people, with a huge percentage in the slums, while others are totally homeless, has obviously remained helpless in dealing with the problem

Walking through the streets of Lagos, Abuja, Port Harcourt, Aba and so forth, one is confronted with the eye sore of sham buildings, squatter settlements and other kinds of uninhabitable places, indicative of the fact that either there is no government or that the government is not concerned with the welfare of the citizens.

Nigeria’s housing deficit is a problem the various governments over time have tried to solve with various strategies. Several deft moves by the governments over time have proved unproductive. As far back as 1956, efforts had been made to tackle the housing problem by the setting up of the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria.

The Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria is Nigeria’s major mortgage financial institution, saddled with the responsibility to provide funding for agencies and individuals to bridge the housing gap. Among its major mandates are to link the capital market to the housing industry in order to operate a viable housing sector, with view to making primary and secondary Mortgage institutions deliver service to every section of the country and management and administration of the contributory savings scheme known as the National Housing Fund (NHF) established by Act 3 of [1992].

The National Housing Fund (NHF) is a social savings scheme designed to mobilize long-term funds from Nigerian workers, banks, insurance companies and the Federal Government to advance concessionary loans to contributors. This means that there is a whole lot of money at the disposal of the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria.

A lot of Nigerians are still homeless after many years of mortgage finance collected by the Federal Mortgage Bank. The rising cost of housing in Nigeria calls for serious concern. That has caused citizens to beam searchlights on the activities of the major mortgage financing institution and it was allegedly discovered that the bank has been diverting the huge funds collected yearly into other ventures. As economists would say, this has led to critical opportunity costs for the entire nation and especially the low income and no income earners. Such diversions have strangulated the housing sector and are stifling industrialization because a man needs a place to call home before thinking of starting a business.

Allegations are rife that the funds are diverted to cronies and friends of the leadership of the banks. Funds are allegedly disbursed without recourse to due process and objective. It could be noted, from the above, that the functions of the bank are strictly limited to providing affordable housing through working with other financial institutions to make funds available to those who want to go into the business of housing and allied ventures.

There is also the allegation of the reign of tribalism in the bank. Professionalism and ethics are by passed in favour of tribesmen and associates of the Chief Executive of the Institution. Recruitment and even promotion has remained a privilege of a select few who go on leave, sponsored trips abroad and other privileges at will. It is obvious to even the first timer to the building that a particular section of the country has unrestrained access to funds and privileges at the institution. With such a huge diversion of attention, the consequences are that the country is suffering at the hands of the unprofessional team manning the critical and one of the most important financial institutions in Nigeria.

Efforts made by our reporter the federal government and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission would do well to beam their search light on the institution to enable it deliver on its mandate and to save it from the hands of those who have turned it into their conduit pipe by which self-enrichment is facilitated. This would save our bourgeoning population and our nation from impending implosion. 

The Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS) has disclosed that more than 1200 Nigerians attempting to travel outside the country through illegal means died in seven months.

Speaking on Friday, August 4 during the grand finale of the three-day celebration of the 60th anniversary of NIS, in Ado Ekiti, the Comptroller, NIS Ekiti State Command, Ademola Abdulrashed bemoaned that Japa syndrome is a big challenge to those enrouting illegal ports of exit in the quest for greener pasture.

With the theme, “Enhancing seamless regular migration”, the Comptroller said Nigerians could travel abroad for reasons best known to them while advising that such must be “safe, orderly and regular”.

Lamenting the increasing number of Nigeria youth who die in the Sahara Desert, the Mediterranean Sea and others, he stressed that “From available data from International Organisation for Migration, at least 1,200 Nigerians have died while trying to migrate through the Sahara Desert and the Mediterranean Sea in the year 2023 alone.”

“For those who survive, the dream of reaching their desired destination quickly becomes a mirage, some spend several months, even years in cells abroad for irregular migration, some are taken hostage by pirates who rob, maim and sometimes rape the female ‘japaists’.

“From the foregoing, Nigerians willing to ‘Japa’ are advised to reach out to any of our offices nationwide for necessary information and guidelines” to ensure safe, orderly and regular migration, he said.

The Comptroller said the NIS had in the last 60 years gone through a series of transformations taking the country from the analogue years to the digital era.

Abdulrashed added, “NIS has achieved a lot within these years in different areas of operations ranging from issuance of travel documents such as (passport, visa and residence permit), border management, migration management, national security and several others.”

He lauded the acting Comptroller General of Immigration, Caroline Adepoju, for deeming it necessary to celebrate the 60th anniversary of NIS with a funfair.

President Bola Tinubu on Friday withdrew the nomination of a ministerial nominee from Kano State, Maryam Shetty.

Instead, Festus Keyamo has been included in the list of 19 he submitted to the Senate a few days ago.

The Senate had concluded the confirmation of 28 nominees which the president had submitted on July 28.

Keyamo who was chief spokesman for the president during his campaign has now made the list.