Rabiu Kwankwaso, presidential candidate of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP), says he has been preparing himself for 47 years to be president of Nigeria. Kwankwaso spoke at the presidential debate organised by the Nigerian Elections Debate Group (NEDG) in collaboration with the Broadcasting Organisation of Nigeria (BON) in Abuja, on Sunday. He said he had spent 17 years as a civil servant and 30 years as a politician which makes him the best candidate for the job. “I thank almighty God that today I am standing and I believe Kwankwaso is the best candidate, I am the best person under our circumstances to be the president of Nigeria,” Kwankwaso said. “I am a well-prepared person for the job. Kwankwaso is not the type who is in a hurry to be president. In 2007, I was in the civil service for 17 years. “I was the deputy speaker, House of Representatives; I was in the Constitutional Conference; I was Governor, and I was a Minister of Defence. But I went back to Kano because I had an uncompleted job. “So, I believe today, in terms of qualification, in terms of even health, in terms of capacity, in terms of experience, of course.” Kwankwaso said his government would create an enabling environment for affordable and reliable electricity, and transportation infrastructure for Nigerians to establish businesses. Asked how he would finance the employment of more personnel into the civil service, the former governor of Kano said Nigeria has the needed resources. He said his government would block all leakages and wastage in the system. “In 1999, when I was elected as governor of Kano and sworn in, we had piles of debts, within four years I was able to settle them,” he said. “In those four years, we did not borrow any kobo. We did so much in terms of projects or programmes in the education, agriculture, and health sectors. “We electrified over 400 towns and villages. In fact, when we left government, even when I went back, eight years after, I could only do very little because most, if not all the towns and the villages in Kano have been electrified. “I can tell you that in our government, eight years that I was the governor, there was no security vote. I wasn’t taking one naira for anything. “All areas of wastage from the family to friends, to this and that, we stopped it. Projects and programmes, as an engineer myself, I was going through every document to ensure value for money.” On agriculture, Kwankwaso said his administration would support the farmers and tackle the insecurity that has prevented them from going to their farms. He said his government would give the needed support to the military, the way it was done when he was the minister of defence. “I can tell you that when I was minister, we did all that we could for our military men and women in terms of their welfare, equipment, training, and retraining,” he said. “We provided the military from second lieutenant to the highest four-star general, vehicles, at a subsidised price and other ranks, motorcycles.” ‘EMPLOY MORE HEALTH PERSONNEL TO SOLVE BRAIN DRAIN’ Kwankwaso said he believes health insurance is very important and the government must consider it as the way out. “We should be empowered to ensure that people, as many as possible in this country benefit from modern healthcare systems,” he said. “We’re going to do it and we’re going to encourage the private sector. Create a conducive atmosphere with all sorts of encouragement to ensure that they participate. “We need to see more teaching hospitals for the private sector, other bottlenecks created by our professional bodies have to be removed.” Kwankwaso said his administration has plans to address the challenge of brain drain by employing enough health experts to meet Nigeria’s needs if elected. On economic diplomacy, Kwankwaso said he would work with other international communities to develop the country. He said his government would do whatever it takes to protect the interests of Nigeria and Nigerians. “We are very lucky that the international community is interested in the peace and development of this country. For whatever reason, it suits them,” he said. Bola Tinubu, presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Atiku Abubakar, candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), and Peter Obi of the Labour Party (LP) were absent at the debate.

  The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has demanded that the leaders of the All Progressives Congress (APC) including its Presidential Candidate, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu and APC State governors immediately release billions of new Naira notes in their custody and halt the anguish being experienced by Nigerians. The PDP in a statement by its spokesman, Hon. Debo Ologunagba, described as wicked and unpardonable that the same band of deceptive, sneaky and hypocritical APC leaders who are deeply involved in intercepting and hoarding of new Naira notes are going about trying to hoodwink Nigerians by posturing as though they are concerned about their plight.   “It is instructive to state that the controversial Naira redesign and swap policies are programmes of the APC administration which is also completely in control of the production and circulation of the new notes. “The APC leaders having realized that they cannot win in the 2023 general elections, sabotaged the system and diverted the new Naira notes so as to create widespread social unrest to justify their plan to derail the elections and truncate our democracy.   “Our Party has been informed by some well-meaning APC members on how six APC State governors led by a particular infamous Governor of a prominent State in the North West region are coordinating the hoarding of new Naira notes for the vote buying scheme of the APC ahead of the February 25, 2023 Presidential election. “The PDP has also been made aware of how APC governors are allegedly warehousing the new Naira notes in facilities owned by APC interests in Lagos, Kano, Kogi, Kaduna, Imo and other parts of the country for the purpose of vote buying for Senator Tinubu in the Presidential election. “Nigerians can recall that the APC was recently busted in the process of swapping the sum of N22.5 billion in old N1000 notes for new ones in Kano State for vote buying, in a deal wherein a substantial part of the old notes was allegedly conveyed to Lagos State for secret swapping with new notes. “It is therefore callous for APC leaders to continue to watch Nigerians spend nights at ATM stands, fight one another in bank halls and ATM centers for cash with millions stranded without money to take care of their daily needs,” the statement partly read. The PDP called on Nigerians to hold the APC and its leaders directly responsible for the pain, economic hardship, social dislocation and psychological distress they are going through on account of APC induced cash scarcity in the country. According to the opposition party, the “APC has again demonstrated that it is party of very cruel, insensitive and self-centered politicians who relish in inflicting pain, anguish and life-discounting situations on our citizens in the last seven and half years of the APC administration”. The PDP therefore urged Nigerians not to allow the deception, lies and shenanigans of the APC to detract from their collective resolve to end the era of misery in our country by voting Atiku Abubakar as the next President of Nigeria so that he can commence the onerous task of rebuilding our nation from the abysmal misrule of the vicious APC

  The death toll from a catastrophic earthquake that hit Turkey and Syria climbed above 35,000 on Monday, with search and rescue teams starting to wind down their work. Officials and medics said 31,643 people had died in Turkey and 3,581 in Syria from last Monday’s 7.8-magnitude tremor, bringing the confirmed total to 35,224. Details later… AFP

  A spokesman for the Peoples Democratic Presidential Campaign Council, Dele Momodu, has said supporters of the presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Peter Obi, are now seeing the importance of (political) structure. Momodu said wherever Obi is number one in the elections, the PDP’s Atiku Abubakar will be number two, adding that Atiku would split votes with counterparts in the LP and the All Progressives Congress presidential candidate, Bola Tinubu, in their strongholds. “The Obidients are beginning to see the importance of structure. Structure is not something out of this world, it is a needed requirement. How many governors have you got, which is what Tinubu is banking on that ‘my governors will help me’. How many senators or senatorial candidates does Atiku have? How many people for House Representatives, how many for House of Assembly? They haven’t got much of that. “You are also going to need agents nationwide, thousands of them. That will form part of structures,” Momodu said on Arise TV Morning Show on Monday. He said he wondered how the Obi camp would compete with the PDP that had been in existent for a long time and already had structures. “If you say ‘we don’t pay ‘shi shi’, you can see how people are moving away in droves in some of these smaller parties because the structures are not there. The structures also include the funding of each of those structures. “We shall see in the next one week what will happen. The polls will not help Obi. If they like, let one million say Obi is going to win,” Momodu added. The PUNCH reports that there had been criticisms from rival parties that Obi’s supporters were dominant online than in the physical. However, the LP has dismissed this several times, especially with Obi maintaining that the party would defeat the people claiming to have structures. Early January, the Labour Party Presidential Campaign Council urged Nigerians to ignore what it called the “opposition’s orchestrated propaganda” that it does not have polling agents in core northern states. The spokesman for the campaign council, Yunusa Tanko, stated this in a release issued in reaction to an earlier report dismissing the chances of the Labour Party for having inadequate agents to man all polling units across the country. According to Mr. Tanko, the Labour Party has foot soldiers “to man all polling units in the North and the entire nation.” He stated that “the opposition’s gimmicks to weaken the resolved minds of Nigerians to vote Peter Obi and Datti Baba-Ahmed into power this year will not fly.”

  The Nigerian Communications Commission has said that telecommunication sector remains the driving force of the digital economy of the Federal government. The NCC Executive Vice Chairman, Prof. Umar Danbatta stated this at the NCC Day at the 44th Kaduna International Trade Fair, Kaduna on Saturday. Danbatta disclosed that the fifth-generation network which had been launched in Lagos, would improve the nation’s communication services. He added that the country’s active mobile telephone subscribers’ base has risen to 222.571million, declaring that even the teledensity rose by 116.60 per cent as of December 2022. Danbatta also said that internet subscribers stood at 154.8million, adding that with a broadband connection of 47.36 per cent, the nation’s social media space has continued to thrive. While noting that the telecommunication sector remain a strategic driver of the digital economy of the federal government, Danbatta disclosed that the Commission had commenced the deployment of Fifth Generation (5G) network in Nigeria. According to him, one of the companies issued licences had kicked off commercial launch in Lagos, noting that the 5G network would gradually move to other parts of the country for the sake of improving communication services in Nigeria. This was as he noted that the commission was working assiduously to ensure that more businesses embrace digital platform for the delivering of their services to their various consumers Represented by Banji Ojo, Head, of Consumer Protection and Advocacy, he said, “The commission recognises the fact that telecommunications sector has been a strategic driver of the digital economy agenda of the Federal Government, as it continues to provide the needed digital stamina to support the economy, especially the activities of the SMEs across in Nigeria and beyond. “Information communications technology is not only one of the fastest growing industries directly creating millions of jobs but it is also an important enabler of innovation and development, as it provides the backbone infrastructure for transnational business. “Hence, in line with the Digital Literacy and Skills Pillar of the National Digital Economy Policy and Strategy 2020-2030, for a Digital Nigeria, the commission embarked on digital literacy training for entrepreneurs across the six geopolitical zones of the country. The aim was to equip small-scale business owners with the requisite skills and to generate ideas for development of product and service that can be exported. “NCC’s regulatory efforts in deepening access to digital services will benefit Nigeria and make it competitive comparable with other economies in the areas of job creation; contribution to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth; emergence of new services and industries; workforce transformation; and business innovation. “It is in our response to ensuring that Nigeria is competitive in all these areas that Commission continuously puts a number of regulatory measures in place to ensure seamless access by Nigerians to telecommunications services in order to deepen competitiveness of the Nigerian economy by making our SMEs digitally compliant. “In Nigeria today, the number of active mobile subscriptions reached about 222.571 million at December 2022 and Teledensity of 116.60 per cent as at December 2022. Also, Internet subscribers have exceeded 154.8 million with broadband penetration standing at 47.36 per cent as at December, 2022. “In this new environment, the competitiveness of Nigeria’s SMEs, for instance, depends on their ability to leverage new technologies by acquiring the necessary digital skills to do business on an international scale.” Danbatta added, “As you may be aware, the NCC is driving initiatives for full commercial launch of fifth generation network in Nigeria. Already, spectrum licences for the companies that will rollout service have been issued. “Though, the deployment will start from the state capital and gradually extends to other areas across the state, it is important to state that the 5G network will bring substantial network improvements, including higher connection speed, mobility and capacity, as well as low-latency capabilities to communications services in Nigeria. I am happy to inform you that one of the licensees has kicked off commercial launch in Lagos. “More importantly, it is also our commitment, at NCC, to continue to provide a level-playing ground for operators to thrive, promote investment and delivery of innovative services to individual consumers, SMEs and big business owners by ensuring enhanced consumer quality of experience.”

  The Kogi government has accused the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) of being a “pawn in the hands of political opponents in a bid to satisfy certain political interests”. In a statement on Sunday, Kingsley Fanwo, Kogi commissioner for information and communications, said the inspector-general of police (IGP) should arrest Bawa and commit him to prison as “mandated by a competent court of jurisdiction”. BACKGROUND On February 6, a high court sitting in Kogi ordered that Bawa be remanded at the Kuje correctional centre over contempt of court. R.O. Ayoola, the presiding judge, also ordered the IGP to ensure the committal order was executed, and awarded N10 million against the EFCC. The committal order was issued over a case involving Ali Bello, identified as the nephew of Yahaya Bello, Kogi governor. On December 12, 2022, the judge ruled in favour of Bello over his arrest and detention by the EFCC. But days after the court order, the EFCC re-arrested and re-arraigned Bello over alleged money laundering. On February 8, the EFCC arraigned Rashida, wife of the Kogi governor, and four others — including Ali Bello — over an 18-count charge bordering on alleged money laundering to the tune of N3 billion. The defendants pleaded not guilty to the charge, while Rashida is said to be at large. ‘EFCC HAS INSTITUTIONAL AGENDA AGAINST KOGI’ In a statement on Sunday, Fanwo accused the EFCC of media trial, adding that no amount of such would distract Yahaya Bello, Kogi governor. “Our attention has been drawn to series of press statements and terribly woven media campaign against the Kogi State Government and the Governor of Kogi State by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission,” the statement reads. “It is sad that an agency charged with the responsibility of fighting graft in the country has turned itself into a pawn in the hands of political opponents with an untamed desperation to damage the integrity of the Governor and the Government of Kogi State. “The latest shenanigans of the EFCC is to accuse some members of the Governor’s family of corruption, arrest them without any prior invitation or warrant and against extant Court Orders restraining them from so doing and charging them to court. “This has further exposed the uncivilised, unconstitutional and unethical practices of the anti-graft agency. “Their latest approach has further confirmed to Nigerians that they have an institutional agenda against the Governor and Government of Kogi State. Nigerians are wiser now and they know when an operation is politically motivated.” According to him, no funds are missing from the coffers of the Kogi government. “We reiterate that funds belonging to the Kogi State Government are not missing and we retain our enviable status in the areas of transparency, accountability and probity,” he said. “The shadow chasing by the EFCC and their known and unknown sponsors will not distract our administration from serving our people. “The seeming attack on Governors that are committed to the victory of the APC Presidential Candidate by the anti-graft agency is well understood by discerning Nigerians. No force can stop the voice of the people. “Our decision to drag the Federal Government to court over the hardship experienced by Nigerians as a result of the apex bank’s monetary policies remains a conviction that we are committed to. We will not succumb to intimidation by any agency of Government. “We have credible intelligence of plans by Kogites to protest against the EFCC for continually dragging the integrity of the state and its Governor in the mud. “We however beseech our people to remain calm but steadfast. Rasheed Bawa, the EFCC Chairman, is not bigger than the law no matter his degree of contempt for the Courts and constitutionalism. We will triumph. “We hereby call on the Inspector General of Police who has been served with the order of Court to immediately arrest Rasheed Bawa and commit him to prison as mandated by a competent court of jurisdiction. “Allowing convicts to roam about the society portends a great danger to our judicial system. Rasheed Bawa cannot be allowed to continue to disobey Court Orders at will while also evading justice. Let justice be done.”

  Gunmen have shot to death one 32-year-old Sule Yahaya, a final year student of the College of Education (COE), Akwanga, Nasarawa State, in Sabo community in Kuje Area Council of the FCT. A relative of the deceased, Danlami Aliyu, said the incident happened last Thursday night when his assailants dragged him out of his room and shot him on the chest. He said the assailants did not take away anything from his room, adding that they told him that they were only hired to kill him. “The assailants took him to the back yard and asked him to say his last prayer that they were hired to come and kill him,” he said. According to him, the deceased, who was a native of Buga community in Kuje area council, was an undergraduate student of College of Education (COE), Akwanga, Nasarawa state. The spokeswoman of the FCT Police Command, DSP Adeh Josephine, was yet to confirm the incident at the time of filing this report.

  Bashir Bashir, the governorship candidate of the Labour Party (LP) in Kano state, has defected to the All Progressives Congress (APC). An associate of Bashir told TheCable under condition of anonymity, on Sunday night, that the major reason for the defection was the “exclusion of major northern stakeholders in the decision-making process of the party’s campaign”. The associate also said another reason for the defection was the “lack of clear direction on the interest of northern Nigeria”. Bashir was said to have held meetings with Bola Tinubu, the APC presidential candidate, as well as Kashim Shettima, the running mate to Tinubu. The meetings reportedly held in Lagos and Abuja, where agreement was said to have been reached on the terms of defection. Bashir reportedly promised to mobilise his supporters to vote for the APC presidential candidate. Meanwhile, during the LP presidential campaign rally in Kano in January, Bashir had boycotted the event. The development also comes days after Yusuf Tsoho, the LP governorship candidate in Jigawa, defected to the APC.

  The Department of State Services, DSS, has invited a spokesperson for the All Progressives Congress, APC, presidential campaign council, Femi Fani-Kayode over allegations of a coup plot ahead of the February election. Fani-Kayode confirmed the invitation by the DSS in a statement on Monday, stating that he would be honouring the invitation this morning, Monday.Recall that FFK, a former Minister of Aviation had claimed that the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, presidential candidate and top military generals had a secret meeting last week. He alleged that the meeting may be part of an agenda to provoke a coup d’etat and establish a new and unconstitutional order in the country. But in response, the Defence Headquarters denied planning to scuttle the general elections, reiterating the loyalty of the armed forces to the constitution and civilian authority.