Newspaper review: Emerging debates on Buhari's second term is disgusting

Newspaper review: Emerging debates on Buhari's second term is disgusting – Soyinka

Headlines from mainstream Nigerian newspaper for Tuesday, September 12, reports that the Nigeria Customs Service discovered a consignment of 1,100 pump action rifles loaded in a 20-foot container.

The Punch reports that Nobel laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka, on Monday, in Lagos, expressed disgust with emerging debates on re-election by some politicians in the country.

Some northern governors on the platform of the All Progressives Congress and some allies of President Muhammadu Buhari on Saturday backed the president for a second term.

The declaration came on the heels of the open declaration of support of the Minister of Women Affairs, Aisha Alhassan for the presidential bid of former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, who the minister declared as “our president in 2019”.

But the renowned playwright is not amused by the debates going on in the country on the political permutations ahead of the 2019 general elections.

The Punch newspaper

Vanguard reports that operatives of Tin-Can Island Command of the Nigeria Customs Service, yesterday, smashed a syndicate that specialized in smuggling weapons into the country, discovering a consignment of 1,100 pump action rifles loaded in a 20-foot container.

The weapons, during preliminary investigation, were discovered to have been imported from Turkey.

They were concealed in a container which Bill of Lading indicated that the contents were wash-hand basins and water closets.

But the bubble burst during a routine monitoring at the terminal, as most of the supposed wash hand basins were discovered to be weapons.

This is the third time between February and September 2017 that containers loaded with weapons will be intercepted by Customs.

Vanguard newspaper

The Guardian reports that eminent Nigerians in various organisations yesterday expressed concern over the alleged attack by the Nigerian army on the residence of the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Mr. Nnamdi Kanu.

The organisations, including The Patriots, Yoruba Council of Elders (YCE), National Summit Group (NSG) and Ijaw Youths Council (IYC) urged the Federal Government to investigate the attack in the interest of peace, unity and the future of the country.

While they refrained from taking a specific

position on the matter, based on the fact that the military authority has since denied the allegation, the leaders, however, warned that this is not the best of time for the Federal Government to deploy force in resolving the delicate issues at hand.

IPOB on Sunday accused the army of ambushing the residence of Kanu, claiming that the uniformed men had tried to forcibly enter Kanu’s premises but failed and so began firing shots at unarmed IPOB members around the area.

The Guardian newspaper

The Nation The Federal Government has released N760.17 billion in two tranches of the Paris Club loan refund to states for outstanding salaries and pensions but some governors are believed to have spent the cash on other things.

President Muhammadu Buhari told traditional rulers at a meeting in Abuja that he was “living with the problems of this country day-by-day, and mostly those of the ordinary people”.

“There are Nigerians that haven’t been paid for six months; there are Nigerians that have not been paid their retirement benefits for years.

“I’m appealing to the governors (that was why we voted money; we borrowed money), please make sure anybody under you, pay them because most of them depend on that salary to pay rent, school fees,’’ he said.

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He stressed that the mismanagement of the national revenue over the years was responsible for the economic challenges facing the nation.