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President, governors should resign before elections – Maitama Sule

From Eyo Charles, Calabar

Nigeria’s former Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Alhaji Yusuf Maitama Sule, has said general elections in Nigeria are not seen to be credible because sitting president and governors conduct them.

Speaking as conference ambassador yesterday at the University of Calabar, during the premier edition of the Faculty of Arts International Conference, April 2016, the elder statesman advocated that sitting presidents and governors, who were seeking re-election, should resign before the conduct of the election.

Speaking on the theme ‘Globalisation and Democratic Values in Africa- Perspectives in Humanities’, Maitama Sule said Nigeria, and by extension most African states were still having problems with democratic governance because of the failure to incorporate indigenous cultural backgrounds.

He said: “For true leaders to emerge in Nigeria and Africa, those seeking re-election, including the president and governors, must resign their positions and hand over to an interim administration that is non-partisan.”

The former UN permanent representative berated African leaders for attempting to entrench themselves in office through corruption and other negative tendencies.

He said: “When people are elected into office, they like to perpetuate their stay in office – this is wrong. When people get to power, they only try to enrich themselves – this is not democracy.

“There is no reason why our democracy in Nigeria and other parts of Africa should not be real democracy. Here in Nigeria, there is no reason why the different tribes should bring about disunity. All religions teach the same moral values.”

The elder statesman urged African leaders to embrace what he referred to as Africracy, which should evolve elements of local cultural backgrounds instead of the “wholesale western kind of democracy that is currently being practiced in the continent.”

“The democracy we are practising today in Nigeria and Africa is not Afro-centric; it is more of Euro-centric. The reason why we are having problem with our democracy is because we have not fashioned it in line with our cultural backgrounds. The democracy in France, Germany and the United States, are all different,” he added.

The event had in attendance a former Senate president, Ken Nnamani, ex-deputy Senate president, Ibrahim Mantu, a former governor of Anambra State, Chief Chukwuemeka Ezeife, former governor of Akwa Ibom State, retired Air Commodore Idongesit Nkanga, among others.

Leadership tussle hits Katsina assembly

From Habibu Umar Aminu, Katsina

Leadership crisis is raging at the Katsina State House of Assembly.

The House Leader, Lawal Kuraye and Chief Whip, Bishir Mamman, were yesterday ‘forced’ to resign or be impeached.

Daily Trust gathered that the speaker, Aliyu Sabiu Muduru, and most of the principal officers were under intense pressure, as members were bent on bringing a new leadership on board.

The house, whose 34 members were drawn from the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), resumed from recess yesterday and went into a marathon meeting with members.

The aggrieved members were insisting that all the principal officers must step aside over alleged incompetence and lack of purposeful leadership.

A house member, who spoke to our reporter on condition of anonymity, said it took the intervention of the state chairman of the party, Shittu Shittu and the Secretary to the State Government, Mustapha Inuwa, to douse the tension.

According to him, most of the legislators insisted that the leadership be asked to resign or face impeachment on the floor of the house, noting that that was just the beginning of the processes.

He said after discussions, the house leader and the chief whip had to throw in the towel. “It was the party that brought them and we have not been comfortable with them since then,” he said.

When contacted, the press secretary to the speaker, Abdulrashid Kuraye, said a meeting was held in which an agreement was reached over the changes.

He said Hambali Faruk and Bello Danmusa had been nominated to replace those removed.

Sheriff to reconcile Mu’azu, Yuguda, Ex-FCT Minister

By Saawua Terzungwe

?National chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Senator Ali Modu Sheriff, has said the crisis in the Bauchi State chapter of the party came with a price.

Speaking yesterday when leaders and members of the party from the state visited him in Abuja, Sheriff assured that the national leadership of the party would do everything ?possible to resolve the perceived differences among party leaders in the state.

The PDP chief, who admitted that he was aware of the crisis in the party in the state, added that the crisis must be resolved before the party’s congresses and the national convention slated for May 21.

Sheriff mandated former minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Senator Bala Mohammed, and former deputy governor of the state, Alhaji Abdulmalik Mahmud, to summon a meeting of stakeholders in the state so that he would also wade into the issues for amicable resolution.

He described Bauchi as one of the most important states in the political history of Nigeria, saying ?it was the first state to have two ministers concurrently.

Bauchi was a PDP state until the All Progressives Congress (APC) displaced it in 2015.

Sen. Bala Mohammed said the crisis must be resolved for the party to succeed, adding that if he was the problem, he would step aside.

“Mu’azu and Yuguda are not here but you cannot write the history of Bauchi State without them. We will make sure that we resolve our differences, we will make sure we go back and resolve the issues,” he said.

Youth council wants end to budget controversy

By Maryetieno Udoh

The President of the National Youth Council of Nigeria (NYCN), Mr Ikenga Imo Ugochinyere, has urged President Muhammadu Buhari to assent to the 2016 budget and end the controversy surrounding it.

Later, he said, the president should submit a supplementary appropriation bill to the National Assembly to accommodate items missing in the budget.

Addressing journalists, yesterday in Abuja, Ugochinyere advised those trying to set the executive and legislative arms of government on collision course to desist, stressing that the synergy between both arms was in the best interest of the country.

He tasked the federal government to make public its economic policy to boost investor confidence, end the fuel queues, and solve the nation’s epileptic power supply.

He called on the minister of power to set a deadline for pre-paid meters to be installed in all Nigerian homes.

He accused the distribution companies (DISCOs) of showing lack of interest to invest in the electricity sector because they used to make undue profit through the estimated billing system.