Headlines
Buhari Replies Jonathan, Obasanjo, Soyinka, Warns Against ‘Politicising Isolated Cases’
Former President Goodluck Jonathan has taken a swipe at President Muhammadu Buhari, saying insecurity is getting worse under his administration.
The ex-President stated this on Tuesday when he paid a condolence visit to the leader of the pan-Yoruba socio-political organisation, Afenifere, Pa Reuben Fasoranti, whose daughter, Mrs Funke Olakunri, was killed by suspected herdsmen along the Ore-Sagamu Expressway on Friday.
But in an apparent response to his critics including Jonathan, ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo and the Nobel laureate, Wole Soyinka, Buhari on Tuesday said those who were criticising his handling of security in the country were not patriotic.
Although Jonathan did not mention Buhari during the condolence visit to Fasoranti, he called on the federal and state governments to be more proactive on the issue of insecurity in the country.
The former President made the comment a day after Obasanjo in a letter to Buhari warned of a Rwanda-like genocide in Nigeria.
Soyinka, on Sunday, during his 85th birthday, pointedly stated that the Buhari government had “failed” in addressing insecurity in the country.
Expressing concern about insecurity in the country, Jonathan on Tuesday stated, “The Federal Government in conjunction with the state government must design a different approach to this issue. I was there as president and security challenge was there, but now it is getting worse every day and we can’t continue to use the same old method.”
According to the ex-President, every generation of human beings faces problems and that generation must find ways of solving those problems.
He added, “Every government faces some unique problems. Insecurity has been with us immediately after the civil war. That was the first time we experienced armed robbery in Lagos. From armed robbery it graduated to kidnapping.
“The first major kidnapping was described as commercial kidnapping because some money exchanged hands which happened in 2006 when I was also a governor of Bayelsa State. From commercial kidnapping, it moved to terrorism in the North and now some kind of terrorist attacks all over the country, when people will just come out of the road and spray bullets on innocent people; that is a terrorist attack. You have no reason to attack somebody you don’t even know; that is terrorism.”
The Punch
The first hostages freed from Gaza under a long-awaited ceasefire agreement are back in Israel. The news sparked jubilant scenes in Tel Aviv where large crowds gathered ahead of their release.
The three freed Israeli hostages – the first of 33 to be released over the next six weeks – are Romi Gonen, Doron Steinbrecher and Emily Damari. They are said to be in good health and are receiving treatment at a medical center in Tel Aviv.
In exchange, 90 Palestinian prisoners and detainees are set to be released by Israel from Ofer Prison in the occupied West Bank.
The Israeli military withdrew from several locations in southern and northern Gaza after the truce began earlier on Sunday, an Israeli military official told CNN.
Displaced Gazans have started returning to their homes, while the aid trucks laden with much-needed supplies have crossed into Gaza. Here’s what we know about how the ceasefire deal will work.
Hamas, despite suffering devastating losses, is framing the Gaza ceasefire agreement as a victory for itself, and a failure for Israel.
One of Hamas’ main goals for taking some 250 people during its brazen October 7, 2023, attack on Israel was to secure the release of Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails. As Israel pounded Gaza in response, Hamas vowed not to return the hostages until Israel withdrew its forces from the enclave, permanently ended the war, and allowed for rebuilding.
Source: CNN
The leader of UK’s Conservative Party, Kemi Badenoch, has said she doesn’t want Britain to be like Nigeria that is plagued by “terrible governments.”
Speaking on Thursday at an event organised by Onward, a British think tank producing research on economic and social issues, Badenoch expressed fears that Britain may become like Nigeria if the system is not reformed.
“And why does this matter so much to me? It’s because I know what it is like to have something and then to lose it,” Badenoch told the audience.
“I don’t want Britain to lose what it has.
“I grew up in a poor country and watched my relatively wealthy family become poorer and poorer, despite working harder and harder as their money disappeared with inflation.
“I came back to the UK aged 16 with my father’s last £100 in the hope of a better life.
“So I have lived with the consequences of terrible governments that destroy lives, and I never, ever want it to happen here.”
Badenoch has been in the news of late after she dissociated herself from Nigeria, saying she has nothing to do with the Islamic northern region.
She also accused the Nigeria Police of robbing citizens instead of protecting them.
She said: “My experience with the Nigeria Police was very negative. Coming to the UK, my experience with the British Police was very positive.
“The police in Nigeria will rob us (laughter). When people say I have this bad experience with the police because I’m black, I say well…I remember the police stole my brother’s shoe and his watch.”
