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Flashback: The President Knows What to Do about Insurgency but He Doesn’t Care, Says El-Rufai
Governor of Kaduna State, Nasir El-Rufai, believes that the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria has all the information he needs to tackle rising insecurity in the country and would effectively fight the menace if he wanted to.
El-Rufai expressed this opinion in an interview with Television Continental (TVC) in 2013, two years before his party, the All Progressives Congress (APC) ousted the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) from power.
His comments at the time was a criticism of the Goodluck Jonathan-led federal government, during whose administration the Boko Haram insurgency became very pronounced and deadly.
El-Rufai criticised the Jonathan government for trying to deal with the insurgency by using military might only. He insisted that all over the people spearheading the insurgency are known to both the security agencies and President, but that he does not care about the welfare of the masses.
“We are just applying military force and we think we can resolve an insurgency, it’s not going to happen,” El-Rufai said at the time.
“I’ve been in government, I’ve run a territory and I know the amount of information, security reports that I get as Minister. The President gets 50 times that.
“And I put it to you and I challenge anyone, including the DG SSS, to this. The SSS know who these insurgents are, they are not gods, they know them. The President knows them and they know what to do. They are just unwilling to do it. They don’t care.”
Two years after granting that interview, the APC, riding on the slogan of change, defeated the PDP and Muhammadu Buhari became President of Nigeria and El-Rufai, the Governor of Kaduna State.
However, after four years, insecurity has worsened in the country and Boko Haram, though not occupying territories as it did during Jonathan’s government, has continued to carry out attacks in the North East.
Besides the Boko Haram insurgency, other forms of violent crime have increased across several regions of the country including the herdsmen/farmers crises, kidnapping for ransom, and most recently banditry in several parts of the North West, including Kaduna State, where El-Rufai has just won a second term as governor.
On Saturday, citizens carried out a peaceful protest to the Aso Rock Presidential Villa in Abuja to demand that President Buhari intensifies action to stop the kidnappings and killings in Zamfara State which has reportedly been taken over by bandits. But nobody from the presidency came out to address the protesters, bringing to mind El-Rufai’s comments that the government does not care.
ICIRNigeria.org
By Eric Elezuo
The Presidency has announce that President Bola Tinubu will be departing Abuja to (Wednesday) for Paris, France, on a ‘short working visit’.
A statement to the effect, signed and released by the Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, Mr. Bayo Onanuga, was however silent on the shape of international relationship the working visiting the president was embarking on will take, but noted that Tinubu will use the ‘retreat’ to review his administration’s mid-term performance and assess key milestones, as well as review progress of ongoing reforms.
While acknowledging that the president will spend ‘about a fortnight’ on the trip, the statement added he would supervise administration while away.
The statement in details
PRESIDENT TINUBU TO EMBARK ON WORKING VISIT TO PARIS
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu will depart for Paris, France, today on a short working visit.
During the visit, the President will appraise his administration’s mid-term performance and assess key milestones.
He will also use the retreat to review the progress of ongoing reforms and engage in strategic planning ahead of his administration’s second anniversary.
This period of reflection will inform plans to deepen ongoing reforms and accelerate national development priorities in the coming year.
Recent economic strides reinforce the President’s commitment to these efforts, as evidenced by the Central Bank of Nigeria reporting a significant increase in net foreign exchange reserves to $23.11 billion—a testament to the administration’s fiscal reforms since 2023 when net reserves were $3.99 billion.
While away, President Tinubu will remain fully engaged with his team and continue to oversee governance activities.
He will return to Nigeria in about a fortnight.
President Bola Tinubu has sacked the Group Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, NNPCL, Mele Kyari.
Tinubu also dissolved its board, removing the Chairman, Chief Pius Akinyelure.
Bayo Onanuga, Special Adviser to the President on information and strategy, announced this in a statement on Wednesday.
Onanuga said Tinubu invoked his powers under section 59(2) of the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) 2021 to carry out the sweeping reconstitution, citing the need for “enhanced operational efficiency, restored investor confidence, and a more commercially viable NNPC”.
He announced that Tinubu has now approved a new 11-man board, which has Engineer Bashir Bayo Ojulari as the Group CEO and Ahmadu Musa Kida as non-executive chairman.
According to the statement, “Adedapo Segun, who replaced Umaru Isa Ajiya as the chief financial officer last November, has been appointed to the new board by President Tinubu.
“Six board members, non-executive directors, represent the country’s geopolitical zones. They are Bello Rabiu, North West, Yusuf Usman, North East, and Babs Omotowa, a former managing director of the Nigerian Liquified Natural Gas( NLNG), who represents North Central.
“President Tinubu appointed Austin Avuru as a non-executive director from the South-South, David Ige as a Non-executive director from the South West, and Henry Obih as a non-executive director from the South East.
“Mrs Lydia Shehu Jafiya, permanent secretary of the Federal Ministry of Finance, will represent the ministry on the new board, while Aminu Said Ahmed will represent the Ministry of Petroleum Resources.”
He added said that all the appointments are effective today, April 2.
President Donald Trump claimed on Monday that Americans want him to run for another term, a step banned by the US constitution but which he continues describing as possible.
“People are asking me to run,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office when asked about the possibility of a third term.
“I don’t know. I never looked into it. They do say there’s a way you can do it, but I don’t know about that, but I have not looked into it,” Trump said.
Trump was asked about the prospect of a race pitting him against former president Barack Obama, who served two terms.
“That would be a good one, I’d like that,” Trump said.
“I’m not joking” about the idea of seeking a third term, Trump said Sunday in an interview with NBC News.
The 78-year-old Republican served from 2017 to 2021 and began his second term in the White House on January 20.
The first US president, George Washington, established a tradition by not seeking a third term after completing his second one in 1797.
But this tradition was not formally added to the US constitution until after World War II, with the ratification of the 22nd amendment in 1951.
It says no one can be elected president more than two times.
