The demand by the Christian Association of Nigeria on the Federal Government to fix the security challenges bedeviling the nation or admit failure is one of the trending stories in Nigerian newspapers on Monday.
The Vanguard reports that the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) has asked the Federal Government to fix the security challenges bedeviling the nation or admit failure.
It said the perceived reluctance of the government to exercise the political will to arrest and bring to justice those behind banditry and terrorism in the country was causing the increasing bloodshed of innocent citizens.
The umbrella Christian body made the call through its General Secretary, Joseph Daramola, in a statement in Abuja, weekend.
The statement read: “The leadership of the Christian Association of Nigeria condemns the killing of about 22 people in Plateau State and calls on the President Muhammadu Buhari and his government to stop paying lip service to the unending killings in the country.
“Stopping killing of the innocent by the criminals cannot be done by mere issuing press statements and holding periodical meetings with the security chiefs by the president.
“Until the government shows the political will by arresting and bringing the culprits to book, the shedding of innocent blood will not cease.
“We charge the Federal Government to fix the security challenges or throw in the towel. The police and the military should be tasked to wake up to their responsibilities before these criminals turn the country into another Afghanistan.”
The Guardian says that a seething rage is trailing last week’s directive of President Muhammadu Buhari to a committee to reclaim old grazing routes, with Nigerians kicking against the move and warning that the move could court a civil war.
This new move is coming three months after the Southern states have commenced signing laws prohibiting open grazing in the 17 states of the region following their meeting in Asaba, Delta State, on May 11 and some days to the September take-off of the anti-grazing laws in the Southern states.
This, notwithstanding, the Federal Government has continued to tinker with the unpopular policy as it frantically repackages the failed 2017 Rural Grazing Area (RUGA) policy.
It was repackaged as the 2019-2028 National Livestock Transformation Plan (NLTP) in 2019 as a child of circumstances due to RUGA’s widespread rejection. Two years after the introduction of NLTP, the package is currently described as the Livestock Intervention Programme (LIP), and part of it is reclaiming the old grazing routes.
Ahead of the September 1 target date, the anti-open grazing laws have become operational in Ogun, Abia, Oyo, Ekiti, and Ebonyi. Rivers, Osun, Bayelsa and Ondo, which have signed legislations, while Delta, Akwa Ibom and Enugu have sent bills to their state Assemblies. A few of the states like Anambra, Cross River, Imo, Edo and Lagos are yet to begin legislative process on the bill.
What has now stirred the hornets’ nest is a statement released on Thursday, which unveiled President Buhari’s moved to revive 368 grazing reserves in 25 out of the 36 states in the country by approving recommendations of a committee chaired by his Chief of Staff, Prof. Ibrahim Gambari, to review, ‘with dispatch’, 368 grazing sites to determine the levels of encroachment, stakeholder engagements and sensitisation.
ThisDay reports that a United Nations (UN) publication has detailed a secret government programme tagged, Suhlu, designed to pull commanders of terrorists groups, including Boko Haram and the Islamic State for West African Province (ISWAP) out of the forests, rehabilitate them and provide them a means of livelihood.
The development is coming as intelligence agencies have begun investigation into the recent surrender of over 1,200 terrorists and their families in the last three weeks.
The investigation, THISDAY learnt, seeks to ascertain whether the surrender was genuine or a ploy to activate and coordinate terror sleeper cells across the country. North-east communities and traditional institutions have protested the potential reintegration of the insurgents into their communities.
Governor Babagana Zulum of Borno State and Shehu of Borno, Alhaji Abubakar Umar Garbai El-Kanem, had also raised concerns that the communities where thousands of people were killed by the terrorists and houses destroyed might not be in the right frame of mind to accept the surrendered insurgents, who recently sought the forgiveness of Nigerians.
However, the report by a United Nations’ publication, The New Humanitarian, said a clandestine Nigerian government programme was reaching out to senior jihadist fighters in the bush to encourage them to abandon their goal of building a caliphate by force of arms, and to defect.
It said the report was based on six months of reporting and research.
Government officials, former jihadists, analysts, journalists, displaced people, and civil society workers were interviewed, but nearly all asked to have their names withheld or altered due to security concerns.
The Punch says that the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency on Sunday said the Petroleum Industry Act had signaled the full deregulation of the downstream oil sector.
It was, however, quick to state that the negotiations between the Federal Government and labour would minimise the effect of subsidy removal upon full deregulation of the sector.
The Executive Secretary, PPPRA, Abdulkadir Saidu, who said this in a statement issued in Abuja, stated that petrol price would be adjusted in a way that it would not cause hardship on consumers.
He said, “There is no gainsaying that the PIA signals the implementation of full deregulation of the downstream sector.
“However, it remains worthy of note that the PIA does not automatically translate to any immediate increase in the price of PMS. “The current price will remain until negotiations with organised labour, which will develop a feasible framework that minimises the impact of a market-based pricing policy on the masses, is concluded.”
Saidu said the PIA had provided legal, governance, regulatory and fiscal framework for the Nigerian petroleum industry, the development of host communities and related matters.
He said the Act marked the beginning of a new era in the growth and development of the entire oil and gas industry.
The Sun reports that the Federal Ministry of Communication and Digital Economy, has said that it is 90 percent ready to unbundle the Nigerian Postal Services (NIPOST).
Dr Isa Pantami, the minister in a special interview programme, NAN Forum, stated that property and development, logistics, courier and a micro finance company were among the forthcoming ventures.
According to him, all assets of NIPOST scattered all over the country would be fully utilised to maximise revenue generation for the emerging business enterprises.
The Minister had on August 3, hinted that the government would soon unveil policies to unbundle NIPOST into property and development, logistics, courier and a micro finance company.
Pantami said that NIPOST had over 2,300 property scattered across the country with most of them decapitated and underutilised.
“NIPOST has over 2,300 properties in this country and you will discover it has property in some selected areas that are highly prestigious in Abuja, Lagos, Port Harcourt, Kaduna, Kano and all of them are decapitated,’’ he said.
GIK/APA