Tag Archives: ELITES

Nigeria’s elites stealing from masses should be blamed for the country’s woes – Osinbajo

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Acting President Yemi Osinbajo has lashed out at Nigeria’s elites, blaming them for the woes of the nation.

Mr. Osinbajo spoke on Monday in Benin City, Edo State. He was in the state to continue his tour of oil-producing states in the country.

“The elites everywhere, and not just in the oil producing communities, have very frequently deprived the people the opportunity to enjoy the fruits of the land,” Mr. Osinbajo said.

“That is the Nigerian story. And that is something we must deal with. We cannot continue as if we don’t know. We know.

“It is not just oil producing community issue, it is across the country.”

The crowd in the Samuel Ogbemudia College (formerly the New Era College), venue for the acting president’s meeting with the Edo State government and the oil producing communities, applauded Mr. Osinbajo’s remarks.

Mr. Osinbajo continued: “If you look at the numbers of contracts and the volumes of money that have been spent on paper in this country, it is enough to develop several countries. But this money has been usually corruptly taken away.”

The acting president told the people how corruption among the elites was also responsible for the lack of meaningful development in the oil-producing communities.

“I have looked at some of the issues of abandoned projects. I can tell you precisely how much have been voted or spent in several of our communities. And there is no sign of development in those areas.

“I can tell you how many of these projects are supposed to have been completed, and when you looked in the books, they say they have been completed. But they have not been completed. They haven’t even been done. Many have not even been started at all,” he said.

The acting president repeated a line he often used in the other oil producing states he previously visited, that the people of the oil producing areas have not really benefited from the wealth that oil has brought to the country.

He spoke of President Muhammadu Buhari’s sincerity and determination to turn things around in the Niger Delta.

“It does not make sense for leadership to look at the plight of the people, especially in the oil producing areas. This is the source of the wealth of the nation. Even if you ignore the people for a while, a time will come when you can no longer ignore them.

“So, there’s no question at all that we are committed to doing the things we say we will do, and that is the pledge coming directly from President Muhammadu Buhari himself.”

Mr. Osinbajo informed the people of the practical steps the federal government is taking to change the fortune of the oil producing communities.

“The ministry of petroleum in collaboration with the oil companies is working on 20 initiatives for host communities, state by state, and this includes working with illegal refineries so that we can bring them into a programme of what we have described in other states as modular refineries. So that these illegal refineries can become hubs for proper refining.

“We must make the oil producing communities become hubs for petroleum refining,” Mr. Osinbajo said.

Earlier on, before the acting president spoke, there was commotion in the hall as some protesters pushed their way into the hall and insisted that Mr. Osinbajo must visit the oil producing communities in order to have firsthand knowledge of what the people were going through.

The meeting was temporarily disrupted for about 10 minutes.

The governor of the state, Godwin Obaseki, appealed to the acting president to consider making another visit to the state, from there he could take a tour to the oil producing communities.

“Like other oil-producing states in the Niger Delta we have had our fair share of neglect and deprivation, and that is what you’ve heard from our people today,” Mr. Obaseki told Mr. Osinbajo.

The governor said the state government was developing a masterplan for the development of the 38 oil producing communities in the state.

“Mr. President with your permission and agreement with the federal government, we will not allow any government or any agency to operate in any of our oil producing communities without strict adherence to our masterplan,” Governor Obaseki said.

Elites should stop insisting things should be done the “old way” – Buhari

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President Muhammadu Buhari has cautioned the country’s leaders against adopting the ‘old way’ of doing things to move the nation forward.

The President spoke yesterday in Dakar, Senegal, at a meeting with a group of Nigerians in the Diaspora, at the third Dakar International Forum on Peace and Security in Africa.

He urged the elite to “reflect on the condition of the country and stop making expensive demands because things could not be done in the old ways.”

Buhari told the delegations of Nigerians in Senegal and Cote D’ Ivoire that the poor handling of the nation’s resources in the last 16 years was impacting negatively on the country.

“This administration is pleased that we won the election and the people are cooperating with us. But the problems are so enormous that we need the cooperation of all Nigerians, particularly the elites,” he said.

On the welfare of Nigerians in the Diaspora, he promised to collaborate to improve on the negative image associated with them.

According to a statement by his Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu: “Nigerians are known for their competitiveness and the president would continue to work hard to improve the numerous human and material resources in the country.”

The leaders of the Nigerian community in Cote D’ Ivoire, Adebayo Yahaya and his counterpart in Senegal, Mr. Osas Edigin, commended Buhari on his anti-corruption fight.

Parliament condemns food wastage by Nigerian elites

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Nigerian lawmakers on Wednesday called on President Muhammadu Buhari to wade in on the waste of edible food items in the country.

The lawmakers said the rate at which some Nigerians destroy foods had become alarming in recent years, adding that it is deplorable to keep wasting food in harsh economic times.

The concern was raised by a lawmaker from Lagos, Rotimi Agunsoye, during today’s plenary at the House of Representatives.

Mr. Agunsoye said the House is very worried that affluent Nigerians are stocking foods at home while the poor continue to die of starvation.

“Food wastage thrives with lavish lifestyle of citizens who are well-to-do in the society,” Mr. Agunsoye said. “They buy what they would not eat, set a table they will not finish and throw more food away than they would ever need.”

The lawmaker said Nigerians waste about 1.3 billion tonnes of food annually, which contributes significantly to the global average of 30 per cent waste per year.

Mr. Agunsoye urged lawmakers to prevail on the Buhari administration to embark on a sensitisation campaign to make Nigerians eschew their food-wasting habits.

To further drive the message, the lawmakers urged the president to incorporate campaign against food waste in his ‘Change Begins with Me’ national orientation policies.

Speaker Yakubu Dogara ruled that the House accepted the motion.

Why I’m Fighting The Elite – Ben-Murray-Bruce

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Media mogul and senator-elect, Ben Murray Bruce has reveled why he is fighting the elite.In an interview with Vanguard, he said

“I am fighting against the elite. Definitely, I am fighting them. When they drink that champagne that can educate a child, they should know that I am fighting them. You don’t fly a first class in government while in your private life, you fly economy. I am totally against their lifestyles.“We need to enact laws that favour the masses. The biggest problem in Nigeria today is that our consumption is on the high while production is low. Our leaders in APC, PDP, Labour, APGA and others are all guilty of one thing, which is consuming the resources of the majority of Nigerians.Imagine a situation where governors fly private jets, commissioners drive a twenty million naira car. Commissioners flying first class, living like kings while the state cannot pay salary of its workers. If a commissioner can have three or four policemen around him, who is policing the poor where they are being raped, maimed, robbed and killed?The question is what do we have for the masses? There are one hundred million people living on two dollars a day, in some places, the unemployment rate is 80 0r 90% and then you have governors living a champagne life. Small wonders in some places, thieves steal N50, N200, fishing nets and destroy the lives of the people”.