Boko Haram: We’ll not criticize Buhari if he fails to meet deadline – PDP

By Henry Umoru

NATIONAL leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP said yesterday that it would support President Muham-madu Buhari if he fails to achieve the set deadline to end insurgency in the North East which has remained a major security challenge confronting the  country, rather than criticize the All Progressives Congress, APC led government.

Speaking yesterday in Abuja when he received a youth group under the aegis of Northern Youth Network  at the party national secretariat, PDP National Publicity Secretary, Chief Olisa Metuh said: “APC had promised that they were going to end insurgency in two weeks, they later said it will be over in two months and after that they now gave December 31 deadline to end Boko Haram.

“Now, in spite of the language it is couched in shifting the goal posts, and despite  all the infractions and all kinds of destructive criticisms  APC rained on us when they were in opposition, the PDP as a national party will refrain from making comments on issues on the inadequacies pertaining to the war against insurgency in the country.

“For us in the PDP,  we remain completely in support of the federal government in the war to eradicate insurgency  in our land and we enjoin all Nigerians to support President Muhammadu Buhari in the war against terror. The war by the terror group is not against the President, it is not against the APC neither is it against the PDP. It is rather a war being waged against Nigerians and the countrymen should stand as a united force with our President to fight and defeat the insurgents.

“If we do this we will be fighting for a common good. We would sent a message to those that seek to divide us that we are indivisible and that Nigeria is truly one country and that we want to remain so. We have decided not to discuss things pertaining to the war against insurgency and we will stand by the President as the leader of country.

“But in doing so we will not hesitate or shy away from making our views known on other areas we feel that the government is not doing well. We will not be intimidated nor harassed into abandoning our role as the leading opposition party. We will remain a viable and vocal voice of the opposition and we will remain focused in our constructive criticism against the government of the day.”

Earlier, while explaining their mission, the leader of the Northern Youth Network, Mike Suswan, said they have come to show appreciation for the efforts being made by the PDP to give the opposition a strong voice under the present dispensation.

According to the group, as members, they were pained about the lingering fuel scarcity, which the federal government was still struggling to deal with, just as  it condemned the composition of the federal cabinet, which has excluded the youths.

We’re not ready for 2016 census – NPC Chairman

The Chairman, National Population Commission (NPC), Eze Duruiheoma, has said that holding the planned 2016 National Census in the country would not be realistic, due to inadequate logistics and other sundry challenges.

The chairman, who made this known Thursday at a media luncheon, organised by the Commission in Abuja, however, disclosed that the census would rather hold in 2017, all things being equal.

Represented by the Federal Commissioner for Enugu State, Dr. Festus A. Uzor, the commission boss also hinted that the proposed 2017 National Census would necessarily require the use of bio-metric data of each countable individual citizen in the country.

“I am not going to say anything novel; I stand here representing the chairman. I am not speaking in my personal capacity, and what I am going to tell you is what he has said in our meetings. He has said it over and over again. We set out planning for 2016 census, going by the United Nations guidelines, which is supposed to hold in 2016, but we need no less than two years to plan well for the exercise, even if we have all the money asked for.

“If all the money required for it is available, we will not be ready in 2016 to do a good job, and it is our position that we rather not do a job than do it and do it badly; that is a waste of national resources. You will be part of those that will condemn us if we don’t do a good job. So, the chairman has said in our meetings and made it clear that 2016 is not realistic, not that we don’t want to hold it, but the earliest time it can hold is 2017.”

Commenting on the fact that the actual current census figure had remained uncertain and in doubt in some quarters,  Duruiheoma stated: “If we don’t know how many we are and who we are change will be difficult to achieve…….The only figure known as Nigerian population figure is the figure for the last census. It‘s somewhere around 170 million. When we have another census, we can now have another basis to say that is not correct or this is where we are.

“We have challenges conducting the census. We had census in the past where people were counted twice or more. Now we use bio-metric data. Now, what will this bio-metric data do for us when we begin the count? If you count one person, a hundred times, the system will cancel it and pick one. There will be no double count.
“If you want to count the ghosts, the people that do not exist, there will be no data to back it up. In the course of enumeration. Those not originally in the list or members of a household  who are not really part of the household would be ascertained.”

According to him: “The problem with previous census exercises has been credibility.”
He added that when data was credible and reliable, the result of the exercise would be impressive and applauded.

Canada PM welcomes first Syrian refugees

REUTERS

The first military plane carrying Syrian refugees to be resettled in Canada has arrived in the country.
Welcoming the 163 refugees, new Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said his country was “showing the world how to open our hearts”.
The newly elected Liberal government has pledged to take in 25,000 refugees by the end of February.
Canada’s stance on the issue differs sharply to that of the US, which has been reluctant to take in migrants.
Another plane is due in Montreal on Saturday.
Immigration Minister John McCallum said all 10 provinces in Canada are in favour of accepting the refugees, reports the BBC.
“This is a great moment for Canada,” he said. “This shows the way we really are. It truly is a non-partisan, national project.”
Since early November, hundreds of Syrians have already arrived in Canada via commercial aircraft.
A total of about 300 Syrians will arrive this week.
The Toronto Star, the country’s largest-circulation daily newspaper, ran a cover story on Thursday welcoming the refugees.
The US administration has said it will take in 10,000 refugees over the next year. Some Republican governors have unsuccessfully tried to keep them from coming to their states after deadly terrorist attacks in France and California.
Leading Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump said after the California attacks that all Muslims should be blocked from coming to the US, drawing condemnation across the globe.
About 800 refugees are going through screening tests in Lebanon and Jordan daily, McCallum said.
Trudeau, who swept the October 19 Canadian elections, has a different stance on refugees from that of his predecessor, the conservative Stephen Harper, who did not wish to resettle more people.
Unaccompanied men will be excluded from the resettlement programme but officials said this had nothing to do with national security concerns.
“We want them to have a roof over their head, and the right support,” said McCallum.
“It takes a bit of time to put that all in place. We’re happy to take a little more time than originally planned to bring our new friends into the country.”
Those who will be considered refugees include families, women deemed to be at risk, and gay men and women.

Trump lead among Republicans undiminished in first poll after Muslim comments

Donald Trump held onto his commanding lead in the Republican race for the White House after his call for a ban on Muslims entering the United States was condemned worldwide, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll, the first national survey conducted entirely after the billionaire’s remarks.
Trump led the pack of candidates seeking the Republican Party’s nomination in the 2016 election with 35 percent of support from Republican voters, the opinion poll released on Friday found, the same lead he held before Monday, when he said Muslim immigrants, students and other travelers should be barred from entering the country.
Most Republican voters said they were not bothered by his remarks, though many said the comments could still hurt Trump’s chances of becoming president. Twenty-nine percent of Republicans, who will pick the party’s nominee for the November 2016 election, said they found Trump’s remarks offensive against 64 percent who did not.
“He’s really saying what everybody else is feeling,” said Donna Fee, 57, a personal caregiver from Missouri. Fee, a Republican, said she supports Trump and agreed with his proposal to bar Muslims. But she said his bluntness could hurt him with other voters.
“I really think he needs somebody to calm him down, you know. I really think he needs to learn to use a filter.”
Still, in a sign of how Trump’s rhetoric has polarized the electorate, 72 percent of Democrats and 47 percent of voters overall said they were offended by Trump’s comments, reports Reuters.
Forty-one percent of Republicans polled said Trump’s remarks could hurt his chances of becoming president; that figure was higher among all respondents.
Retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson came in second among Republicans with 12 percent in the Reuters/Ipsos poll, and U.S. Senator Ted Cruz of Texas and former Florida Governor Jeb Bush tied with 10 percent.
Trump’s statement was by far the most dramatic response of a U.S. presidential candidate to last week’s shooting spree in California by a married couple whom the FBI later said had become Islamist militants some time ago.
Leaders in Britain, France, Israel and Canada denounced him, and the fallout hurt the real estate mogul’s global brand. A Dubai firm building a $6 billion golf complex stripped Trump’s name from the property.
But Trump’s standing in opinion polls of Republican voters was unchanged in the data released on Friday, which covered responses from Dec. 8-11. He had more than double the support of his nearest rivals in the online poll of 481 Republicans. The poll had a credibility interval, a measure of accuracy, of 5 percentage points.

Jonathan succeeds Clinton at 2016 HGF conference

By Our Correspondent 

Immediate-Past President Goodluck Jonathan has been chosen to present the keynote address at the 2016 Hope Global Forums (HGF) conference.
The programme is scheduled to hold in the second week of January in Atlanta, United States.
President Bill Clinton performed a role similar to that of Jonathan at the 2015 event which gathered over 3,000 leaders from 40 countries.
The letter of invitation was jointly signed by Andrew Young, Operation Hope global spokesman, Kasim Reed, mayor of Atlanta and John Hope Bryant, Operation Hope chief executive. They urged the former president to lend his support to an entrepreneurship mentoring programme, by sharing his experience in office with a wider global audience.
“As someone recognised for his leadership and vision in Nigeria and abroad, we are personally requesting your attendance. It is important for us that your influential voice and perspective be included as we drive a global conversation,” the letter read.
“We invite you to join Fortune 500 CEO’s, private investors, financial leaders and government officials to connect and collaborate on this vision.
“With the theme ‘Reimagining the Global Economy: Inclusive Economics’, the annual meeting is set against the backdrop of the Martin Luther King Holiday weekend and gathers leaders from government, community and the private sector to outline a vision for the modern global; economy.
“A vision where the undeserved, working poor and struggling middle class are viewed as untapped assets for economic growth, entrepreneurship and job creation.
“The powerful history of Atlanta as the ‘Cradle of the Civil Rights Movement’ serves as a catalyst for our gathering, highlighting the unfinished work of economic self-reliance launched by Dr. King prior to his death. We will honour that legacy with a series of activities for our guests, including ‘white glove’ viewing of Dr. King’s papers.”
Among the guests expected to attend the programme are: Tim Cook, Apple chief executive; Jack Lew, US treasury secretary; Robert Rubin, former treasury secretary, and Clinton Foundation vice-chair Chelsea Clinton.
The Hope Global Forum is an annual event that convenes thousands of thought leaders, business professionals and public policy officials from many countries to brainstorm on ways of advancing the social and economic well-being of all people around the world.
According to the organisers, the 2016 meeting focuses on broadening inclusiveness for global economies.