BY TheCable
From the national honours award ceremony and the 54th Independence Day celebrations to the declaration of Muhammadu Buhari’s intention to contest the 2015 presidential election and the discovery of the first Ebola case in the United States, here is an overview of last week’s leading headlines.
The week kicked off on a jolly note with the national honours award ceremony where the federal government of Nigeria celebrated persons who had made important contributions to the nation’s development. This year’s award ceremony was especially inspiring, as it sent a strong message to Nigerians that honesty and dedication would not always go unrewarded. Worthy of mention in this regard is the designer of the Nigerian flag, Mr Taiwo Akinkumi who was awarded Officer of the Federal Republic (OFR) and placed on salary for life as special assistant to the president, after several fruitless decades canvassing for government attention.
Other unsung heroes that were recognised include Mr Umeh Isuah, a taxi driver who modelled honesty when he returned N18m cash that a passenger left in his cab; Mr Solomon Dauda, an exemplary traffic warden; and Mr Onuh Michael, a cook who has served several generations of Nigerian heads of state and presidents over a period of more than three decades.
Former head of state, Muhammadu Buhari, told the APC Support Group on Tuesday that he was “offering” himself for the position of the president of the country on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC). While telling his supporters that he would make a formal announcement soon, he urged them to extend their support beyond his person and always be available to the party. Imagine Buhari losing the APC primary and truly offering his followers to Atiku, for example; that will be terrible news to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and its consensus candidate, President Goodluck Jonathan.
Waves of anxiety and apprehension rippled across the United States with the diagnosis of its first Ebola case on Tuesday. Ebola entered US by passenger plane through Thomas Eric Duncan, a Liberian who was visiting family members in Dallas, Texas. While the United States immediately swung into action, tracking down those who have had various degrees of contact with Duncan under surveillance, the Liberian authorities were aggrieved by the action of Duncan who they claimed to have lied on an Ebola questionnaire before travelling out of the country. Liberia is planning to prosecute him.
Nigeria celebrated its 54th Independence anniversary on Wednesday. Speaking at the occasion, President Goodluck Jonathan urged Nigerians to live together in love, peace and unity. While lamenting the violence being unleashed by Boko Haram in some parts of the country, the president appealed for peace as he called on the insurgents to lay down their arms. He said that government was willing to “rehabilitate repentant terrorists”. This is not the first time Jonathan would be dangling this offer to the northern warriors. Will it make any difference this time?
Respite came the way of former chairman of PDP on Thursday when a federal capital territory high court discharged and acquitted him of 17-count charge of corruption filed against him by the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC). The ICPC had accused Vincent Ogbulafor of fraud to the tune of over N170m through payments for contracts that were not executed.
In his judgement, Justice Ishaq Bello held that the court could not, from the evidence before it, establish a connection between Ogbulafor and the alleged crimes. Somehow, his co-accused, Emeka Ebila, was convicted on the basis of his confessional statement tendered before the court without any objection from his lawyer. Ebila was sentenced to a jail term of five years, which will run concurrently.
The Nigerian media lost a gem on Wednesday when news of Mrs Remi Oyo’s death after a long battle with cancer filtered in. She had been receiving treatment in the United States for the past two years. Oyo is fondly remembered for her immense contributions to the development of the Nigerian media, especially as managing director of the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in 2007. In a landscape that is largely masculine, Oyo stood out as the first woman to be made principal editor at NAN, first woman to be president of the Nigerian Guild of Editors (a position she held twice) and first woman to be presidential spokesperson as senior special assistant on media and publicity to former president, Olusegun Obasanjo from 2003 to 2007.
The prospects of PDP in the 2015 election became brighter last week, as it welcomed Olusegun Mimiko, governor of Ondo state and an erstwhile member of the party, back into its fold. The governor led other members of Labour Party (including two members of the national assembly from the state), all the 26 members of the state house of assembly, all members of the state executive council and his supporters, to the PDP. Noting that the move was an outcome of wide consultations with major stakeholders in the state, he said it was in the overall interest of his people, the nation and its democracy.
The trial of Nigerian soldiers accused of committing mutiny started last week and will continue next week, on October 15. It was initially scheduled to hold on Tuesday but was postponed till Thursday in deference to the country’s 54th Independence Day celebrations. It started with Brigadier General N.S. Yusuf, president of the general court-martial, assuring the soldiers that no innocent person would be wrongfully convicted. Last month, 18 soldiers were tried; 12 of them got the death sentence.
Boko Haram again caused a stir last week when it released a video to counter the claims of the Nigerian military that both the leader of the sect, Abubakar Shekau, and his impostor had been killed. In the video, a man identifying himself as ‘Abubakar Shekau’ claimed that he was alive and challenged the military to produce evidence of his killing. However, the defence headquarters dismissed the video, insisting that the man posing as Shekau was killed by Nigerian soldiers in Konduga on September 17.
This website uses cookies.
