Top Nigerian Newspaper Headlines For Today, Monday, 21st August, 2023

Good morning Nigeria, welcome to the Naija News roundup of top newspaper headlines in Nigeria for today, Monday, 21st August 2023.

President Bola Ahmed Tinubu on Sunday approved the redeployment of Engr. Abubakar Momoh from the Federal Ministry of Youth to the Federal Ministry of Niger Delta Development and directed minor amendments to ministry nomenclature and portfolio allocation.

According to the special adviser to the president, Ajuri Ngelale in a statement, the Federal Ministry of Youth is to be re-assigned to a Minister-Designate soon.

The statement also noted that Ministers-Designate allocated to the Federal Ministries of Transportation, Interior, and Marine & Blue Economy have been reshuffled.

All aforementioned changes take immediate effect by these directives of the President.

A former national spokesperson of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Yekini Nabena has declared that recent happenings regarding ministerial nominations might be an indication that President Bola Tinubu is not fully in charge of his government.

Nabena submitted that it is a wrong signal for some ministerial nominees to be withdrawn and replaced after they had initially been nominated and their names forwarded to the national assembly for screening.

In his view, Tinubu might not have had the final say or put the final touch on the issue of ministerial nominees, particularly with reports of the APC National Chairman, Abdullahi Ganduje boasting that he removed and replaced the nominee from Kano State.

The APC chieftain who spoke during an interview with The Sun said President Tinubu needs to wake up because there is already an indication that some of the former Governors he appointed as Ministers might be the ones to form a cabal against him.

The Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (OSGF) on Sunday revealed that over forty Minister-designates have concluded their documentation ahead of the swearing-in ceremony on Monday.

According to the director of information at the OSGF, Willie Bassey, such Minister-designates have also received the invitation cards for up to three guests they are allowed to bring for Monday’s event.

As earlier reported by Naija News, the documentation commenced on Saturday and is expected to conclude today.

Basssey in an update on the exercise said the designated ministers who have concluded their documentation would be conveyed to the venue of the swearing-in ceremony from the Office of the Secretary To The Government of the Federation tomorrow.

He also promised to provide more updates as they unfold.

A former national publicity secretary of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Yekini Nabena has submitted that the party is always prone to leadership crises because of the decision made by some of its leaders.

Speaking against the backdrop of the emergence of former Kano State Governor, Abdullahi Ganduje as the APC National Chairman, Nabena held that the foundation that resulted in his emergence is faulty.

He stated that it is against the party’s constitution for him and other national officers to have been selected instead of elected so Ganduje should stop parading himself as an elected APC national chairman because the best he can be given the current situation is an acting chairman.

The former party spokesperson also questioned the emergence of a person that has huge corruption cases hanging around his neck as the party’s national chairman.

To this end, he submitted that Ganduje may be kicked out of office just like his predecessors and the party may soon implode.

A key figure in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Segun Showunmi emphasized that the party’s presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, opted for legal channels to challenge the 2023 election results because he values democracy.

Speaking to journalists in Abuja, Showunmi urged the judiciary to recognize its crucial role as “the last hope of the common man,” especially as it prepares to rule on disputes over President Bola Tinubu’s election victory on February 25.

Showunmi underscored that while Atiku could have pursued other avenues, his commitment to democratic values steered him towards a civilized and proper course of action.

Speaking on the disruption of democratic order in some African countries over the past few years, Showunmi said the society must expect a reaction anytime the will of the people is usurped by power forces.

The member of the House of Representatives representing Ikeja Federal Constituency, James Faleke has denied getting a directive from President Bola Tinubu to compile a new list of persons for appointment as board members of government agencies and parastatals.

The lawmaker, who is the Chairman House Committee on Finance made the denial in a post via his Twitter account on Sunday.

According to Faleke, there is no truth in certain reports claiming President Tinubu rejected a list of board members submitted to him by some aides and ordered him to compile a fresh list of All Progressives Congress (APC) members who worked for his victory.

He ascribed the rumour in circulation to that effect as the handwork of mischief makers and warned the public to ignore the rumours.

A former National Publicity Secretary of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Yekini Nabena has expressed disappointment with President Bola Tinubu’s choice of Ministerial nominees.

According to Nabena, Tinubu got it completely wrong with his ministerial nominees.

According to him, some of the nominees are people who should be in jail as they have no business whatsoever in government.

Speaking during an interview with Sunday Sun, the APC chieftain noted that the calibre of persons Tinubu put together during his tenure as the Lagos State Governor are far superior to those he assembled as ministers.

Nabena described most of the President’s ministerial nominees as desperate politicians who don’t want to leave the corridors of power. He added that some of the nominees are failed Governors who have nothing to offer at the federal level.

Speaking further, Nabena expressed fear that most of the nominees who have failed at lower levels would still continue the cycle of failure at the federal level.

He lamented further that some of the former Governors might also find it difficult to take orders as they would still have the mentality of being in charge.

The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) has called on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to publicly instruct the former governors now serving as ministers in his administration to stop collecting life pensions, exotic cars, and other allowances from their states.

Naija News reports that former governors appointed as ministers by Tinubu include: Nyesom Wike (Rivers), Gboyega Oyetola (Osun), Bello Matawalle (Zamfara), David Umahi (Ebonyi), Ibrahim Geidam (Yobe), Atiku Bagudu (Kebbi), Abubakar Badaru (Jigawa), and Simon Lalong (Plateau)

In the letter dated 19 August 2023 and signed by its deputy director, Kolawole Oluwadare, SERAP asked the President to direct the former governors to immediately return pensions and allowances they may have collected since leaving office to the public treasury.

The organisation said appointing former governors who collect life pensions while serving as ministers is implicitly forbidden by the Nigerian Constitution 1999.

According to the group, Tinubu would be acting in the public’s interest by stopping former governors now serving as ministers in his government from collecting life pensions.

The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has intercepted fake $20 million n the Lokoja-Abaji Highway.

Naija News gathered that the counterfeit dollars were discovered through a “Stop-and-Search’’ operation by operatives of the NDLEA on the said highway.

According to the agency’s spokesperson, Femi Babafemi, disclosed on Sunday that the fake currencies were recovered from a bus travelling from Lagos to Abuja.

He stated that the 53-year-old driver of the vehicle, Onyebuchi Nlebedim, was arrested.

The NDLEA spokesperson also noted that another raid on two notorious drug joints in the FCT – “Dei-Dei’’ and Tora-Bora Hills, led to the recovery of 82.8kg skunk, 1.8kg Rohypnol and 1.2kg diazepam on Wednesday, Aug. 16.

Human rights lawyer, Femi Falana, SAN, has demanded the immediate release of the suspended Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Mr Abdulrasheed Bawa, from the custody of the Department of State Services (DSS).

Falana submitted that the remand order issued by a Magistrate Court in the Federal Capital Territory “has become spent, invalid and illegal as no magistrate has the power under section 493 of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act, 2015 or section 35 of the Constitution of Nigeria to authorise the detention of a criminal suspect for 67 days without trial.”

Naija News reports that his reaction follows the continuous detention of the suspended EFCC boss in the custody of the secret police for 67 days without prosecution.

The human rights lawyer, in a statement made available to the media on Sunday, said the detention of both Bawa and the suspended Central Bank of Nigeria Governor, Godwin Emefiele, will be a lesson for public officeholders who misuse their offices.

He, however, called on the government to, ensure that the DSS and the office of the Director of Public Prosecution in the Federal Ministry of Justice respect the rights of both Bawa and Emefiele.