Newspaper review: How Obama, others helped Buhari become president

Newspaper review: How Obama, others helped Buhari become president – Jonathan

– Goodluck Jonathan claims that his family is being hounded by the President Muhammadu Buhari administration

– Abuja Federal High court grants ‘iron bail’ to IPOB leader Nnamdi Kanu

– CBN governor Godwin Emefiele says Nigeria will be out of recession by third quarter

The Newspaper Headlines on Wednesday, April 26, have focused on the bail granted to IPOB leader Nnamdi Kanu by the Federal High Court in Abuja, former President Goodluck Jonathan’s claim that his family is being hounded by the President Muhammadu Buhari administration, amongst other top stories.

According to Vanguard, embattled leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) Nnamdi Kanu, who has been in detention since October 14, 2015, was on Tuesday, April 25, granted bail from the Federal High Court in Abuja.

Trial Justice, Binta Nyako, granted Kanu bail on stringent conditions and refused to okay the release of three other pro-Biafra agitators – Chidiebere Onwudiwe, Benjamin Madubugwu and David Nwawuisi- who are facing trial alongside the IPOB leader.

Newspaper Headlines

The bail conditions are for him to produce three sureties including a highly respected Jewish leader, produce a highly placed Igbo person, produce a respected person who resides and owns property in Abuja. Each surety must deposit N100million. They must not attend any rally or grant an interview, must not be in a crowd exceeding 10 persons.

Kanu must also surrender his Nigerian and British passports and must be available for trial at all times

Also hugging major headlines is a report found on the front page of The Nation about former president Goodluck Jonathan. According to the report, the ex-president believes that his family is being hounded by the President Muhammadu Buhari administration.

READ ALSO: If Buhari dies, I will kill 200 people – Police officer promises to send Nigerians to early graves

He said he lost the 2015 election because he was betrayed by the former National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Alhaji Adamu Muazu and some Northern leaders in the party.

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Jonathan, who made his feelings known in a book, “Against The Run of Play”, written by the Chairman of ThisDay Editorial Board, Mr. Olusegun Adeniyi, said Buhari could still fight corruption using a different style.

He said: “I feel sad about the way my family is being hounded.

“Society is like a building. You build it one block at a time. If every president decides to go in to dismantle what his predecessor did, society will never make progress. I expected President Buhari to correct whatever mistakes I may have made and then carry on from there.

“But a situation in which people go into exile for political reasons is not good for us.

“His style of fighting corruption is different from mine and since most Nigerians apparently prefer his style, it is okay. There are steps you take that will help in retrieving ill-gotten wealth and punish offenders while restoring confidence in the system. But there are also things you can do to damage the system.”

This Day also reports that Jonathan admitted that his electoral defeat in the 2015 elections was partly caused by former U.S. President Barack Obama and his officials, who made it clear to him by their actions that they wanted a change of government in Nigeria, and were ready to do anything to achieve that purpose.

In his book, Jonathan also revealed to the author that the U.S. government “even brought some naval ships into the Gulf of Guinea in the days preceding the elections”.

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The book goes on to reveal how the previous U.S.

administration undermined Jonathan’s government’s fight against Islamist insurgents in the North-east in order to weaken his government and make it unpopular.

READ ALSO: Boko Haram cannot call Buhari an infidel – Jonathan

Crossing over to business related matters, CBN governor Godwin Emefiele, has said that with the current efforts by the federal government to revive the country’s economy, the country should be out of recession by the third quarter of this year, The Punch reports.

Emefiele also said the CBN would continue with its intervention in the foreign exchange market, adding that efforts by the apex bank so far had been yielding positive results.

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He added that the country had started to see a downward trend in the prices of commodities, indicating a reduction in the rate of inflation.

“We are very much optimistic that by the end of the second quarter, or latest the third quarter, we should be out of recession that we are in right now,” he said.

Meanwhile, The Guardian is reporting that about $2 billion revenue which yearly enters the nation’s economy from activities at Africa’s largest Information and Communications Technology (ICT) centre, Computer Village, Lagos, is currently under threat from counterfeiters.

This comes as operators at the market lament the impact of the economic recession on sales.

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It was gathered that counterfeiting has increased by almost 50 per cent within three years of a major raid by the Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON) on the market, located at Otigba, in Ikeja.

Besides the churning out of substandard products with their concomitant health and safety hazards, the nefarious activities also bleed the economy as manifest in the low volume of trade and revenue loss.

In the world of sports, Super Eagles’ duo of Alex Iwobi (Arsenal) and Chelsea’s Victor Moses are to return late to camp of the senior national team 2019 AFCON qualifying tie with Bafana Bafana of South Africa scheduled for France, and which opens on May 27 same day both stars will be involved in the English FA Cup final with their clubs, Complete Sports reports.

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The Media Officer of the Eagles, Toyin Ibitoye revealed that both players have received the blessings of the Nigeria’s senior national team handler, Gernot Rohr to report to camp late because of their clubs quest to lift the iconic English FA Cup.

He confirmed that it is the wishes of the Eagles coaches to camp the players for few days before the June 9 AFCON qualifier with South Africa in Uyo and that Rohr is also nursing the ambition of naming some domestic league players in the list of players that are expected to prosecute the tie.

Catch these stories and many more on the pages of your favourite newspapers today, April 26.

Recently, ZENITHBLOG.com took to the streets of Lagos to ask Nigerians if President Buhari has truly taken the country out of recession. Here are their reactions.