Hon. Mbonu Chidiebere Blog

By Princewill Odidi The real reason US suspends Immigrant travel Visas on Nigerians. It has little or nothing to do with Boko Haram, has nothing to do with Buhari, has nothing to do with arrest and detention of journalist, has nothing to do with Nigeria’s ban on gays and lesbian, but has everything to do with absence of a workable system in our identification and verification processes. The main reason Nigeria is suspended from Immigrant visas category is because Nigeria does not have a credible background investigation system that groups like Interpol can rely on to vert and certify originality. What that means is that if someone commits a crime in lagos and relocates to Kano, there’s no system that can be used to track crimes and people across state lines. Virtually all African countries have such systems even Ghana has it, Cameroun everyone has original birth certificates but nigeria prefers to have multiple identity cards not because they are interested in monitoring an...

German television evangelist, Reinhard Bonnke, has died. He was aged 79. A post on Saturday on his ministry’s Facebook page, Reinhard Bonnke- Official Page, announced the passing of the Pentecostal minister. “It is with sorrow that the Bonnke Family would like to announce the passing of our beloved husband, father, and grandfather, Evangelist Reinhard Bonnke,” the post read. “He passed away peacefully, surrounded by his family, on December 7, 2019.” “For the past 60 years he has preached the glorious Gospel of Jesus throughout the entire world. We want to thank you on behalf of him and our family, for your kind love and unwavering support, which enabled him to preach the matchless message of salvation to countless people,” the post noted. Reinhard Bonnke was born April 19, 1940 and was principally known for his gospel missions throughout Africa. Bonnke was known for his missionary incursions into Africa since 1967. Mr Bonnke oversaw over 75 million recorded conversions to ...

The Nigerian Army has dissociated itself from Operation Positive Identification across states in the country which is allegedly being promoted by one Bricks company. The public has been urged to disregard the statement by Bricks Company on Operation Positive Identification. Nigerian Army’s Acting Director of Public Relations, Colonel Sagir Musa stated that the ongoing operation positive identification is intelligence driven, deliberate and a targeted operation in the northeast region. The statement reads “following the widespread apprehension on the purported Nigerian Army (NA) operation positive identification from 1 November to 23 December 2019, as mischievously peddled on the social media by a hitherto unknown and fictitious organization, the so-called Bricks Company, which alleges that the NA will conduct the operation and went ahead to state how the operation will be conducted by the Army. “Specifically, Bricks alleges that – “residents shall witness large numbers of u...

Some persons associated with the Ghana Union of Traders Association (GUTA) have gone on rampage closing shops belonging to foreigners in commercial hubs in Kumasi in the Ashanti region. The closure that begun from Alarbar spread to Adhye and Kejetia Wednesday. The Ashanti Regional President of the Nigerian Association of Traders Union told otecNews he has asked his nationals not to retaliate when the errant people beseech their shops. He pointed out that the faces of the GUTA members do not look familiar and wondered why they all refused to show any identity. He told Otecnews “as we speak now, there are some of the guys here at magazine closing shops belonging to foreigners.” He however indicated that the Manhyia Divisional Commander ACP Kwaku Boah had deployed some police personnel who had come to break the padlocks of some of the locked shops. The executive of the Ashanti Region chapter of the Ghana Union of Traders Association who were contacted insisted they will not...

As of 10 October 2019,  131 Member States have paid their regular budget assessments in full and Nigeria is not on the list the UN tagged “Honour Roll”. The UN has 193 Member Countries, thus, Africa’s biggest nation is among the 64 yet to pay. Interestingly, a Nigerian, Muhammad-Bande, is the current President of the UN General Assembly (UNGA). Bande took over from Ms Maria Espinosa – the first woman to hold the office – and will lead the 74th Session of the Assembly in the next one year. On September 23, one week after Bande assumed office, President  Muhammadu Buhari paid a courtesy call on him in New York. However, it is undetermined if the UNGA head reminded the president the country was owing the body he leads. “I sincerely congratulate you. Your election was well received by the whole world. It was a unanimous support, and the global community received you well. That support puts heavy weight on you, and I wish you well,” Buhari told Bande. “Our ...

Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, has said that the President Muhammadu Buhari administration will “honestly and transparently resolve the request by labour for a salary increase for other levels of workers not affected in the implementation of the new national minimum wage.” Osinbajo stated this on Thursday at a meeting with the new leadership of the Trade Union Congress, TUC, who paid him a courtesy visit at the Presidential Villa. The team was led by the new President of the union, Comrade Quadri Olaleye. Labour, Employment & Productivity Minister, Dr. Chris Ngige was also at the meeting. Commending the labour leaders’ engagement with the Federal Government, the VP told the leaders, “your coming today indicates your willingness to work with government. You should consider the President as someone committed to the welfare of workers. One of the first things he did when we came in was to give States a series of bailouts to help repay backlog of salaries in several St...

A frontline aspirant in the concluded governorship primaries of the All Progressives Congress, APC, in Bayelsa State, Preye Aganaba, has moved a suit he filed against the party and its candidate, Chief David Lyon, from the state to the Federal High Court, Abuja. A copy of the court proceeding made available to reporters in Abuja showed that the case was due for mentioning at the Federal High Court 4, Abuja, presided over by Justice I.E. Ekwo. Granting a motion ex parte filed by Aganaba, Ekwo ordered substituted service of all the processes in the suit on David Lyon and his running mate, Biobaekuma Degi. The judge ordered that the substituted service should include pasting the originating process or other processes on the wall or any part of the National Headquarters of the APC. Ekwo also describing the mode of service he issued against the APC candidate and his running mate as sufficient. But the court turned down one of the prayers by the plaintiff asking the court to a...

President Muhammadu Buhari, on Wednesday departed Abuja for Waterloof Air Force Base, Pretoria, to begin a three-day official visit to South Africa. The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the president left the Presidential Villa at about 1:30 p.m. for Pretoria via the Presidential wing of the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja. President Buhari had earlier presided over the weekly meeting of the Federal Executive Council (FEC) before embarking on the trip. The visit comes against the background of recent xenophobic attacks, the evacuation of hundreds of Nigerians and the exchange of visits by special envoys of Presidents Buhari and Ramaphosa. While in Pretoria, the Nigerian leader will hold bilateral meeting with his South African counterpart, President Cyril Ramaphosa, to discuss the welfare of Nigerians. The two African leaders will also find common grounds for building harmonious relations among their respective citizens. President Buhari will hol...

The Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, has blasted President Muhammadu Buhari, describing his Independence Day broadcast as an insult on the psyche of Nigerians. The party said the broadcast was a mockery of the nation’s integrity as an independent state. According to the PDP, Buhari’s speech was completely unpresidential, lacking in patriotic stance and replete with manifest inconsistencies, contradictions, paradoxes and false performance claims. This was contained in a statement Tuesday signed by the National Publicity Secretary of the PDP, Kola Ologbondiyan. It said “President Buhari, in his recorded address, failed to forcefully address the key issues of freedom, social justice, constitutional order, separation of powers, rule of law, human rights, credible elections, national cohesion, accountability and transparency in government.” The party noted that “President Buhari ignored these very fundamentals of an independent state, because his administration had violated t...

Five people also wounded in attack in Lac province, attributed to Nigeria's Boko Haram armed group. At least six people have been killed after a female suicide bomber blew herself up in western  Chad , according to security sources,  in an attack blamed on  Boko Haram , a Nigeria-based  armed group. Sources told news agencies on Wednesday that the attack happened shortly after midnight in the compound of a traditional chieftain  in Kaiga-Kindjiria district in Lac province "Six people died, including a soldier," a senior army officer, speaking on condition of anonymity, was quoted as saying by AFP news agency. Four guards were among the dead, and five people were wounded, the official said. The death toll of six was confirmed by Chadian army spokesman Colonel Azem Bermandoa, and by a local NGO. Sources told Reuters news agency that the attacker walked into the compound and detonated her bomb just as people were preparing to go to bed. A provincial...

In what may be another desperate move by President Buhari and the APC to emasculate the judiciary, the President has ordered the Justice Tanko Mohammed-led National Judicial Council (NJC) to urgently recruit new judges for the Supreme Court of Nigeria. Information available to us indicates that the National Judicial Council (NJC) is currently interviewing judges who will be appointed into the Supreme Court. According to the information, the interview commenced on Thursday September 19, 2019 and is expected to end on Tuesday September 24, 2019. This hush approach is in anticipation of the PDP and Atiku/Obi appealing last week ruling of the five-man Presidential Election Petition Panel on the outcome of the 2019 Presidential Election. The President had written to the NJC to recruit additional five judges to the Supreme Court. In a letter made public on June 9, 2019 by the President’s Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Mr Garba Shehu; the President wrote: ”Pursuant to the...

The lead judge of the 2019 Presidential Election Petition Tribunal, Justice Garba L. Mohammed and his counterparts, Justice Abdu  Aboki and Samuel Oseji, have all been rewarded for a job well done by President Muhammadu Buhari, as they made the list of  nominated justices for the Supreme Court of Nigeria. In a leaked list of nominated Judges to be interviewed by the NJC, Justice Mohammed Garba is number three on the main list, while that of Aboki and Oseji are also on the reserved list number three and five respectively. Justice Garba Mohammed was the head of the Appeal Court, Lagos State division before he was appointed to chair the 2019 Presidential Election Petition Tribunal after Justice Zainab Bulkachuwa recused herself from the Tribunal. This latest developments is a confirmation that the September 11, 2019 Judgement of the appeal court on the fraudulent outcome of the February 23, 2019 Presidential Election was predefined to favour President Buhari and his P...

A South African envoy to President Cyril Ramaphosa apologised "profusely" to the Nigerian government after a spate of deadly  xenophobic attacks  that rocked Johannesburg and Pretoria. Jeff Radebe was in  Nigeria 's capital, Abuja, to attend a meeting on Monday to convey "sincerest apologies about the incident that has recently transpired in South Africa". "The incident does not represent what we stand for," Radebe said, adding South African police would "leave no stone unturned, that those involved must be brought to book". The Nigerian government said in a statement following the meeting: "President [Muhammadu] Buhari responded to profuse apologies from the South African president, pledging that relationship between the two countries will be solidified." Foreign workers in  South Africa  - the continent's second-largest economy after Nigeria - are often victims of anti-immigrant sentiment in a nation where almost one...

Former Nigeria military Head of State, General Yakubu Gowon, has described as untrue rumour that he slumped in Delta State on Friday, May 3, during the funeral ceremonies of former Military Governor of defunct Midwest Region, late Major General David Ejoor. The rumour that the former military head of state, now 85, slumped went viral in the media for some days thereby causing a stir across the land. However, Gen Gowon, described the news as sensational during the thanksgiving service for the 32nd annual Fresh Fire Convention of Gethsemane Prayer Ministries (GPMI) with the theme ‘Jesus: Access to Greater Glory’ and dedication of its Bethel Prayer Suites, Retreat and Conference Centre, at The Chapel of Light, Eleyele, Ibadan. Gen Gowon, who is the national chairman of Nigeria Prays, represented on the occasion by the Secretary of the Christian group, Evangelist Austen Kemie, lamented that some sections of the media sold itself to falsehood. He said: “I am representing Genera...

The Senate yesterday adopted  a motion demanding some stakeholders like State Houses of Assembly and the Presidency to expedite action on granting financial autonomy to local government councils across the country. The Senate also accused state governors of mismanaging the state/local government joint accounts. The Senate’s resolution followed a motion sponsored by Senator Aliyu Sabi Abdullahi (APC, Niger North) as a result of the new financial guideline issued by Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU) on Monday. NFIU’s new guidelines mandate financial institutions to distribute funds accruable to local governments among the local government councils of that state and not for other purposes. The NFIU had ordered  that with effect from June 1, any bank that allows any transaction from any local government account without monies first reaching a particular local government account will be sanctioned 100 per cent, locally and internationally. “In addition, a pro...