President Buhari says he's not running for re-election in 2019

Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari told members of his party before he was first elected that he would only seek one term, implying he did not intend at that time to run in 2019, the minister of women’s affairs told Reuters on Wednesday.

The comments by Aisha Alhassan could heighten uncertainty over whether Buhari plans to contest the next election. Buhari took power in 2015 but has been absent for much of this year due to illness. He is yet to say if he will seek a second term.

“In 2014/2015 he said he was going to run for only one time to clean up the mess that the (previous) PDP government did in Nigeria. And I took him for his word that he is not contesting in 2019,” Minister of Women Affairs Alhassan said. 

Alhassan said in the interview she would resign if Buhari seeks re-election and would support former vice president Atiku Abubakar if he decides to run. Alhassan’s portfolio ranks relatively low down in Nigeria’s cabinet.

Abubakar was vice president from 1999 to 2007 as part of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP). He joined the All Progressives Congress (APC), Buhari’s party, in 2014. She said Buhari made the comments in 2015 to APC members but gave no further details.

The president’s two spokesmen declined to comment on the minister’s remarks.

Buhari, 74, returned on Aug. 19 from three months of medical leave in Britain for an unspecified ailment. It was his second stint of sick leave this year following a break between January and March.

Many people say they doubt whether Buhari is well enough to serve another term in Nigeria, which is Africa’s most populous country and has the continent’s biggest economy.

“If today Mr. President says he is running in 2019 I will go to him respectfully and thank him for giving me an opportunity to serve and then tell him that I have to resign because my political father may be running,” said Alhassan.

Reuters

Nigeria out of recession

Amid government celebration of Tuesday’s announcement by the National Bureau of Statistics, NBS, that Nigeria’s economy had officially exited recession, a civil society group has called for restraint and efforts geared towards a more sustainable growth.

The Minister of Budget and National Planning, Udo Udoma, said on Wednesday that the NBS’ report on the recovery of the country’s economy from recession was an indication that government’s various economic policies under the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan, ERGP, to reflate the economy was yielding fruits.

The latest NBS’ National Gross Domestic Product, GDP, Report for the Second Quarter of 2017 released on Tuesday showed the GDP grew by 0.55 per cent (year-on-year) in real terms, an indication the country’s economy was gradually pulling out of recession after five consecutive quarters of contraction since the first quarter of 2016.

The statistics agency said the GDP growth was about 2.04 per cent higher than the rate recorded in the corresponding quarter of 2016 (–1.49 per cent) and higher by 1.46 per cent from the rate in the preceding quarter (revised to –0.91 per cent from –0.52 per cent).

On a quarterly basis, the NBS said real GDP grew by 3.23 per cent, with aggregate GDP for the period at N26.99 trillion in nominal terms, compared to N23.55 trillion in the second quarter of 2016, resulting in a Nominal GDP growth of 14.6 per cent.

“That Nigeria has exited recession is a testimony to the fact that government is moving in the right direction economically. This is a confirmation that confidence is returning to the country’s economy,” Mr. Udoma said.

Regardless, the Centre for Social Justice, CENSOJ, said there was nothing celebrate, as the reported growth was not significant enough to justify any celebration.

“In view of the less than one percent GDP growth, stating that Nigeria has come out of recession is more or less like holding onto any available straw of hope,” the group said in a review by its lead director, Eze Onyekpere.

With a population growth rate of 2.7 per cent per annum, Mr. Onyekpere said, the reported GDP growth was not significant, particularly since the country’s economy had been growing consistently by about six percent in the years before the recession.

Rather than roll out the drums for celebration, the group said the report called for a “rolling up of our sleeves for more work.”

CENSOJ said the government should focus more attention on providing increased incentives for improved production and service delivery in all sectors of the economy, while fast-tracking the ease of doing business initiatives and interventions, to boost more investment in critical sectors of the economy.

According to the group, other areas the government must pay attention include mainstreaming the local content policy at all tiers of government; rejigging the Executive Council of the Federation, FEC; and getting more experts and practical men and women to run key sectors of the economy.

Also, the group said the government should take steps to stop the ongoing industrial actions in the education and health sectors of the economy as well as ensure that the 2018 federal budget is structured to grow the economy and develop human capacity and approved as soon as possible.

In his reaction, a former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar, said Nigeria cannot be said to be out of recession until all Nigerians can have three square meals a day.

In a series of tweets, through his Twitter handle @atiku, Mr. Abubakar said, “As a Nigerian, investor and employer of labour, the news of Nigeria’s official emergence from the recession is most welcome.

“The news is surely a boost for Nigeria – it tells investors, local and foreign, that our economy is worth investing in. While we rejoice, it is also important to recognize that economic weakness at the bottom of the pyramid remains. Inflation is still high. We must continue working hard to expand economic opportunity for all Nigerians. When all Nigerians can eat three square meals, that’s when the real recession ends. We have work to do,” he said.

A former Minister of Education and lead of the ‘Bring Back our Girls Movement’, Oby Ezekwesili, in her reaction to the news expressed excitement at the report, but urged the managers of the economy to ensure the growth rate was returned to the level it fell from a few years ago.

“It is critical that our economy is officially out of recession,” Mrs. Ezekwesili said in one her tweets through her Twitter handle, @obyezeks. “Great! Next is to get growth back up to above population growth rate of 3.3%. Waste no time in trending growth rate back up to where it fell from, 5-6 per cent per annum.”

In his reaction, the Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Ahmed Makarfi, also dismissed the celebration by the government on the NBS report.

He described the exit “as a mere statistic that does not reflect the reality as it affects ordinary Nigerians.”

“For any economic recovery to be meaningful, it must positively impact on the lives of the people at the lower level,” he said.

The Ekiti state governor, Ayo Fayose, through his media aide, Lere Olayinka had also toed the line yesterday when he said that the exit would only be meaningful when Nigerians can afford to eat comfortably especially when the prices of food items drop significantly.

Meanwhile, the Chief Executive Officer of the NBS, Yemi Kale, has said that the effect of Nigeria coming out of recession will not be immediately felt by the people.

Mr. Kale, the Statistician-General of the Federation, made the statement in Abuja on Wednesday at a news conference.

“There is a different stage Nigeria must go through before the masses will feel the effects of going out of recession.

“Out of recession is the first step which is very important then the country can talk of economic recovery which is going back to where Nigeria was before the recession,” he said.

The Bureau on September 5 announced that Nigeria was out of economic recession.

An economy is said to be in recession after contracting for two consecutive quarters.

The economy slipped into recession in the second quarter of 2016.

Premium Times

Death toll of Boko Haram attacks since April at 400

A surge in attacks by Boko Haram fighters has claimed nearly 400 lives since April in Nigeria and Cameroon, double the figure of the previous five months, according to a rights group.

The increasing use of suicide bombers - often young women and girls forced to carry and detonate explosives in crowded areas - has killed at least 381 civilians in the two countries, Amnesty International group said in a statement on Tuesday.

"Boko Haram is once again committing war crimes on a huge scale, exemplified by the depravity of forcing young girls to carry explosives with the sole intention of killing as many people as they possibly can," said Alioune Tine, Amnesty International's director for West and Central Africa.

"This wave of shocking Boko Haram violence, propelled by a sharp rise in suicide bombings, highlights the urgent need for protection and assistance for millions of civilians ... Governments in Nigeria, Cameroon and beyond must take swift action to protect them from this campaign of terror."

Amnesty said at least 223 civilians died in Nigeria since April, underscoring that the real toll could be far higher.

"Between May and August, seven times more civilians were killed than in the preceding four months, while 100 civilians were killed in August alone," it said.

In neighbouring Cameroon, Amnesty said since April at least 158 civilians died in Boko Haram attacks, a figure four times higher than the preceding five months.

"The recent spike in casualties has been driven by increased suicide attacks, with 30 - more than one per week - carried out since the beginning of April," it said.

The deadliest attack took place in the town of Waza on July 12 when 16 civilians were killed and at least 34 injured after a young girl was forced to carry and detonate a bomb in a crowded video game centre.

The group initially claimed to be fighting for the creation of an Islamic state in the north, but a range of demands by different people have since been issued.

At least 20,000 people have been killed in violence since 2009 and more than 2.6 million people have been left homeless.

More than five million people are starving as the fighting has devastated farmland, leaving farmers unable to sow or cultivate crops for several years.

In its statement last month, UNICEF said that because of the attacks, children who escape or are released by Boko Haram come to be viewed with suspicion and rejected by their communities.

The violence and security situation in the region has also forced thousands of parents not to send their children to schools.

Al Jazeera

Video - Former NBA player Oyedeji helping to groom new talent in Nigeria

One of Nigeria's basketball greats and long time former captain of the country's national basketball team, Olumide Oyedeji has just concluded his annual basketball camp for young and aspiring basketball players. Over 150 young boys and girls, as well as several coaches took part in the training camp.

Vigilantes fighting Boko Haram in Nigeria

They helped tackle Boko Haram but could vigilantes turn into Nigeria's next security threat?

With his homemade rifle resting on the sandbags of the checkpoint, Mustapha Musa scans the red-mud road and the lush green fields surrounding his small village of Molai Kiliyari on the outskirts of the north-eastern city of Maiduguri.

For now, the only sound is bird-song. But Mr Musa, 24, and three other vigilantes on duty are tense - they know danger is just down the road.

This is a place where strangers are treated with suspicion for good reason.

A few weeks ago, in the dead of night, several suicide bombers blew up their explosives bringing carnage to the village. Eight vigilantes were killed.

"We don't know when they'll come and whether they'll come with guns or bombs," says Mr Musa, his trigger-finger resting on the wooden barrel of his rifle.

"But I'm not scared of anything. There are soldiers nearby if we needed reinforcements.

The only problem we face is that the enemy is well-armed - and my gun only fires one round."

The young men are among the estimated 26,000 members of vigilante groups defending their communities from attacks by militants from the Boko Haram Islamist group.

The eight-year insurgency has devastated north-eastern Nigeria and spilled over into neighbouring Chad, Niger and Cameroon.

The vigilantes first came to prominence in Maiduguri in 2013. With the Nigerian army in disarray, there were fears that the city would fall.

"Initially, the youth in Maiduguri were caught up between the brutality of Boko Haram and the harsh reprisals of the Nigerian military," says Nnamdi Obasi, one of the authors of a recent International Crisis Group report on vigilante groups in the region.

"They formed vigilante groups so they could isolate and eliminate Boko Haram members and also demonstrate they were not complicit in the group's attacks and atrocities."

The overstretched Nigerian military quickly realised the value of extra manpower and the local knowledge the vigilantes possessed.

It joined up with them in order to flush out the insurgents.

Unofficially, the vigilantes are now called the Civilian Joint Task Force (JTF), working alongside and liaising with the military.

More than 650 have been killed in the violence.

'Like hunting'

Most are volunteers - petty traders, civil servants, and unemployed youth - and are not paid for their work. But around 2,000 vigilantes received some military training and are now on the government's payroll.

Often they man checkpoints, spotting potential suicide bombers. But they also operate alongside the army in the bush where Boko Haram militants take shelter.

"It's like rich people that go hunting," one vigilante told me. "When the army says there's an operation we all want to go."

The vigilantes are normally armed only with wooden clubs, machetes and homemade weapons.

The authorities are cautious given that heavy-duty weapons could fall into the wrong hands or be turned against them.

While many Nigerians view the vigilantes as heroes in the fight against Boko Haram, they have been accused of human rights abuses from rape to extortion - and extra-judicial killings of suspected militants.

Now, after years of fighting, there is a growing concern that battle-hardened vigilantes could turn into a militia that the authorities are not able to control.

"There is a strong sense of entitlement among the vigilantes," says Mr Obasi.

"They believe they not only saved Maiduguri but have fought an insurgency on behalf of the Nigerian government.

He says that most wish to be formally absorbed into the military and security forces or at least be recognised, and paid, by the government, while others expect scholarships, skills training or grants to set up small businesses.

"The fear is that unless these expectations are addressed, the authorities could have a big problem on their hands."

At an abandoned office building used by the vigilantes as a make-shift headquarters, scrawled on the wall in chalk is the message: "Forgiving a terrorist is left to god. But fixing their appointment with god is our responsibility."

No jobs, no peace

It is here that I meet Lawan Jaafar, 39, the chairman of the Civilian JTF.

He still works as a leather merchant and cattle trader when not leading the organisation.

He's a man of quiet intensity and purpose - he commands the respect of the thousands of vigilantes he heads.

Earlier this year, he was detained by the Nigerian security forces on suspicion of selling cattle to Boko Haram militants. He was later released without being charged.

But it shows how Mr Jaafar is now a powerful player in this part of the country - and some other actors want to clip his wings.

He carefully weighs his words: "I'm appealing to the government to provide jobs to the vigilantes and to take care of the poor families of those who lost their lives for the cause."

He has this warning if nothing happens:

"We're going to have problems with armed robbery and kidnapping - because if a man has no job, he will do anything to survive."

No-one in north-east Nigeria doubts the bravery of the vigilantes. They have helped immensely in putting Boko Haram on the back foot.

But unless their sacrifices are recognised, they could end up presenting a new security threat.

BBC