APA – Lagos (Nigeria)
The plan by the Nigerian military to resist anything that will truncate democracy ahead of the May 29 handover of government is one of the trending stories in Nigerian newspapers on Tuesday.
The Punch reports that ahead of the May 29 handover, the Defence Headquarters on Monday vowed to resist anything that would truncate democracy.
The Director of Defence Information, Brigadier General Tukur Gusau, stated this in an interview with one of our correspondents in Abuja, just as the Chief of Army Staff, Lt Gen Faruk Yahaya, threatened to crack down on potential threat to national security and warned the Indigenous People of Biafra, Eastern Security Network and other fringe groups not to test the will of the military.
He said the peaceful conduct of the general elections despite the insecurity engineered by the outlawed groups was a testament to the military’s resolve to ensure security across the country.
The military spoke against the background of the security crisis that preceded the election in parts of the country and the recent agitation for interim national government by some groups dissatisfied with the outcome of the presidential election won by the All Progressives Congress candidate, Bola Tinubu.
Citing the violence and other malpractices that allegedly characterised the polls, the groups were insisting that Tinubu should not be sworn in on May 29, noting that an interim government should be put in place instead.
Sequel to the clamour, the Department of State Services alerted the nation to a plot by unnamed politicians to scuttle the transition and install an interim government.
The secret police said it was monitoring the plotters and warned them against fomenting any crisis in the country.
The newspaper says that the National Emergency Management Agency on Monday received another batch of 144 stranded Nigerians from Niamey in Niger Republic.
NEMA Coordinator Kano Territorial Office, Dr Nurudeen Abdullahi, disclosed this while receiving the returnees at Mallam Aminu Kano International Airport in Kano.
Abdullahi, represented by NEMA Kano Head of Human Resources, Mr Suleiman Sa’ad-Abubakar, said that the returnees arrived at the airport at about 2:30 p.m
“The returnees were transported into Nigeria by SKY MALI Airlines, operated by Ethiopian airline B737-400 with registration number UR-CQX”
He said that the returnees were brought back under the care of the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) from Niamey through a voluntary repatriation programme.
“The programme was for the distressed, who had left the country to seek greener pastures in various European countries and could not afford to return when their journey became frustrated,” he said.
He said that the returnees included 106 male adults, 16 female adults and 22 children (10 females and 12 males).
Abdullahi noted that the returnees were from different parts of the country – some from Kano, Kaduna, Katsina, Abia, Sokoto and Edo – among other states.
According to him, the returnees would be trained on various skills acquisition programs that will integrate them back into society and provide them with seed capital to enable them to be self-reliant.
The Guardian reports that for Nigeria to win the fight against insecurity, external aggression and other threats to national peace, it must ensure a high level of electronic combat-readiness, the Executive Vice Chairman, Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Prof. Umar Danbatta, has said.
Speaking when Officers Cadet of the Nigerian Defence Academy (NDA) visited NCC headquarters in Abuja, as part of their industrial training, Danbatta noted that communications is strategic to electronic combat-readiness, adding: “Without communication, you cannot give orders to the men of the air force.”
According to him, modern warfare is not won by physical combat anymore, but in the command and control centres where electronic combat-readiness strategy is implemented by locating where the enemy is and giving instructions to the air force to contain the threat posed by the enemy.
He said: “NDA is one of the most prestigious institutions. We are talking about electronic combat-readiness, which entails destroying your enemies without necessarily engaging them physically. The military has the responsibility to give us territorial protection and protection from cyber attacks, ensure that our personal data are secured. Our state of electronic combat-readiness must be at the peak, if we want to win the fight against insecurity and external aggression.”
Danbatta observed cyber attacks as a trending threat, and appealed to the military to assist the country to contain the threats posed by cyber criminals.
Noting that the visit was in line with the NCC Strategic Vision Plan 2023 to 2025. He urged the cadet to do everything possible to justify the confidence reposed in them.
The EVC stressed the need for mobile applications that will change the ways citizens do things for better, adding that NCC gives interventions to institutions likes NDA to help them achieve their mandate.
He stated that NCC would continue to engage and collaborate with different institutions of government to improve the quality of services being provided by the mobile network operators, ensure optimal utilisation of resources and attract investments into the sector.
Earlier, the Head of Department (HOD), Computer Science of NDA, Dr. Abraham Evwiekperafe, said the cadet were in NCC to acquaint themselves with the operations of the commission, which is a basic requirement of their studies.
The newspaper says that anti-corruption stakeholders in Nigeria have deplored President Muhammadu Buhari’s eight years administration in the fight against corruption. They lamented that Buhari’s government worsened corruption in the country.
The stakeholders said this in Lagos, at the weekend, during a summit with the theme: “Assessing the fight against corruption under President Buhari (2015-2023),” organised by Human and Environmental Development Agenda (HEDA) Resource Centre.
Executive Secretary of HEDA, Sulaimon Arigbabu, lamented that in the last eight years of Buhari’s administration, the fight against corruption ended up being an endemic. He said: “We have seen a lot of things that show that there is no sincerity in the fight against corruption. The fight against corruption has been worse.
“By the time President Muhammadu Buhari leaves office, not too much would have been achieved in the fight against corruption.
“Until we start to become a society where people don’t get away with things that are evil, the level of impunity will be reduced. It is impunity that makes corruption so pervasive. We need to be a country that sees certain things as a taboo and whoever does it, would face the wrought. We must be a society of consequences.”
However, HEDA Chairman, Suraju Olanrewaju, called for the creation of a robust legal framework that would facilitate prosecution of corrupt individuals, and the strengthening of anti-corruption institutions to enable them carry out their mandates effectively.
GIK/APA