He attributed the successes recorded so far to the adoption and application of sound economic and fiscal policies.

Governor Gaidam, spoke at the opening of a two-day retreat for members of the State Executive Council, SEC, in Abuja.

The governor said the reforms implemented in conjunction with the United Kingdom-based Department for International Development, DfID, and the State Partnership for Accountability, Responsiveness and Capability, SPARC, had launched Yobe State into the league of prudent managers of public finance and good governance.

The governor said: “The cumulative effect of these reforms in Public Finance Management is the high standards of accountability and prudence manifested in the ability of the State Government to remain above board and keep paying salaries, overhead costs and even service some capital projects at a time when many states cannot pay staff salaries.

“As part of efforts to internalize the lessons learnt through our collaboration with SPARC, our administration has made it mandatory for MDAs to conduct their activities in a transparent manner and this has checked diversion of funds, misappropriations, revenue leakages and misuse of public funds.

“In addition, we have formed committees to verify execution of contracts, payment of outstanding pensions and gratuity and conduct of Bio-metric enrolment for verification of staff and salaries with the aim of eliminating ghost workers.

“Furthermore, we have set machinery for the establishment of Integrated Personnel Management Information System among others. To cap all our efforts of embracing reforms, we have formed a Governance Policy Advisory Committee under the Chairmanship of the Secretary to the State Government for the purpose of advising on and coordinating reform programmes.”

President Muhammadu Buhari will today leave Abuja for Washington DC to join President Barack Obama and other world leaders and heads of international organisations at the fourth nuclear security summit which opens there tomorrow.

While in Washington DC for the summit, the President and his delegation, which includes Governor Mohammed Abdullahi Abubakar of Bauchi State, his Kwara State counterpart, Abdulfatah Ahmed; Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr. Geoffrey Onyeama; National Security Adviser, Maj.-Gen. Babagana Monguno (rtd) and Director-General of Nigeria’s Nuclear Regulatory Agency (NNRA), Prof. Lawrence Anikwe Dim, would also hold bilateral meetings with other participating Heads of Government and high-ranking United States government officials.

A statement yesterday by his spokesman, Femi Adesina, indicated that at the plenary session of the summit, which is dedicated to reinforcing international commitment to non-proliferation of nuclear weapons, Buhari would insist that while Nigeria would continue to sustain that commitment, world powers must respect the right of other countries to the peaceful use of nuclear energy for development purposes.

President Buhari is expected back in Abuja on Sunday.

In another development, President Buhari has admonished the South Sudanese government to invest more in agriculture and not to be solely dependent on oil revenues to grow the nation’s economy.

Receiving the out-going South Sudanese Ambassador to Nigeria, Makuet Riak, at the State House in Abuja, Buhari said South Sudan could avoid the mistake made by Nigeria in her over-reliance on oil revenue.

The President said: “Investing in sustainable agriculture is one of the best ways to provide jobs for the people and keep the nation productive. Food security is important to any country and that is what we are trying to achieve here, years after we ‘threw away’ agriculture for oil.”

He also praised the excellent relations between Nigeria and South Sudan and re-affirmed his commitment to strengthening the existing bilateral ties.

In his remarks, Riak said South Sudan was blessed with fertile land and would welcome more investments from Nigerian companies.

President Muhammadu Buhari has attributed the triumph of the All Progressives Congress in the 2015 general election to the vision of a National Leader of the party, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu.

Buhari said this in a recorded tribute which was presented at the 8th Bola Tinubu Colloquium held to commemorate the 64th birthday of Tinubu.

The President said the former governor of Lagos State was the brains behind the merger of Nigeria’s main opposition parties in 2013, stating that without Tinubu’s vision and intelligence, the party would not have been formed and the APC would not be in power today.

Buhari stated, “If Bola Ahmed Tinubu did not participate, there wouldn’t have been a merger and there wouldn’t have been an APC government at the centre. That is absolutely clear.

“He should thank God that he has gone through so much and has remained relevant, that he is healthy and young.”

Earlier in his address, the President had contended that Tinubu remained one of the most important figures in Nigeria at the moment.

Buhari added, “There are very few patriots, alive or departed, who can match the commitment, resilience and creativity that Asiwaju Bola Tinubu has, over the past few decades, demonstrated in organising Nigeria’s public life for good.

“As he adds another year today, my best wishes and prayers go out to a man who deserves a lot of commendation for what he continues to stand for.”

The President’s address, which centred on the theme: ‘Agriculture: Action, Work, Revolution’, highlighted the several opportunities which abound in the agricultural sector.

According to him, it is unfortunate that Nigeria is importing food when it should be exporting.

Buhari said, “Nearly all our crop-based farming activities are dependent on rain-fed agriculture, and this makes our agricultural productivity entirely vulnerable to the effects of climate change.

“In the past few years, on the average, we have spent in excess of $11bn annually importing wheat, rice, sugar and fish. We need not, and indeed we cannot afford to continue on this trajectory.

“Agriculture is the key to our economic growth and social investment policies. Our administration’s key strategy is to ensure that Nigeria becomes self- sufficient in the foods that we consume the most.

“Maize, rice, corn, millets, fruits, poultry products and their derivatives can all be produced at home if we put our hearts into it. Our policy is simple: We will produce what we eat! It is not only logical, it is necessary.”

In his tribute, the Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, recalled the role Tinubu played in bringing aggrieved Peoples Democratic Party’s governors into the APC after the crisis in the Nigeria Governors’ Forum.

Amaechi said Tinubu convinced the members of the APC to allow the New PDP members to join its fold at the time.

“He was able to gather the leadership of the political class together. He was key; more than gathering the public because once you gather the leadership of the political class and ensure that there is unity of purpose, they could share to the public jointly this change mantra.

“We in the New PDP were in constant contact with him and we virtually negotiated through him. By the time the President (Buhari) and others got involved, we had gone far with Asiwaju. He played a key role.”

Also speaking in the tribute video, the Emir of Kano, Muhammadu Sanusi II, described Tinubu as a visionary, noting that the ex-governor of Lagos was dependable and loyal.

Sanusi, a former Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, said, “It was people like Tinubu that insisted that this country could not afford another four years of that kind of thing (past administration) and basically laid down their lives, laid down their resources and gave their all to ensure that change happened.

“He is extremely loyal and that is how you know your friends. It doesn’t matter where you are or what happens to you, you can always be sure that Asiwaju will be there.”

Tinubu, while speaking at the event, recalled that the 2015 presidential election coincided with his birthday.

He said Buhari’s victory at the polls was his biggest birthday gift yet.

The ex-governor described the PDP-led Federal Government from 1999 to 2015 as a deceptive one.

The APC leader recalled that the PDP government claimed that it had established a Nigerian Commodity Exchange to provide a practical solution to a number of challenges that have adversely affected the growth and development of the Nigerian agricultural sector, contending that the initiative was a sham.

He thanked guest speaker and Ethiopian agric expert, Dr. Eleni Gabre-Madhin, for exposing the dubiousness of the PDP-led Federal Government.

Tinubu said, “We have had a series of promises in the last 50 years and particularly in the last 16 years. I remember the article I wrote after the presentation of the book, Financialism: Fetching the water from a dry well’. It was about this commodity exchange.

“The deceptive government at that time announced immediately that same week that commodity exchange had been established. It took an Ethiopian to discover its lies, but thank God, we are taking it more seriously now.

“I salute the President and the entire cabinet that Nigeria is being redirected. There is no option for us but to revalidate our faith in our country and take the hard decision now. Our renaissance must come from within. We have the land, the mind, the capacity and the ability.”

Ahead of the September governorship election in Edo State, the Publicity Secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Mr Chris Nehikhare, has assured people of the state of the resolve of the party to organise free, fair and transparent primaries to select a credible and acceptable candidate.

He re-emphasized the party’s position on campaigns and used the opportunity to respond to a media aide of one of All Progressives Congress, APC’s governorship aspirants, saying that it was Governor Adams Oshiomhole that introduced hate campaigns into Edo politics.

Nehikhare, who spoke in Benin, when he received members of Gatekeepers, an Independent Political Action Group, who visited the party’s secretariat, said that the aide to APC governorship aspirant should know that Edo people have also resolved not to support or vote “strangers” as their governor after their experience in the hands of Oshiomhole.

Former Governor of old Kaduna State, Alhaji Balarabe Musa, has said that in view of the embarrassing revelations about massive looting of the $2.1billion arms fund in the buildup to the last general elections, President Muhammadu Buhari, has sufficient evidence to promptly arrest former President, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan.

In recent times, scores of politicians, former aides and army generals have been arrested and a number of them charged to court in respect of their alleged complicity in the diversion of the $2.1billion fund and from other sources.

In an interview in Kaduna, the septuagenarian said that from all indications, the former National Security Adviser, Col. Sambo Dasuki (rtd), must have acted on the instruction of former President Jonathan, hence, the need for law enforcement agencies handling the case to take his statement about the mismanagement of the fund.

“That (arrest) should have been done before now. President Buhari should have done it. Immediately he was sworn in, he should have commenced probing Jonathan, instead of starting with Col. Sambo Dasuki (rtd), and so on. Buhari should have started with Jonathan.

“If $2.1 billion was voted for the purchase of arms and it was disbursed for other purposes, it must have been at the instance of the President. If the National Assembly had appropriated the money for Jonathan to spend, why was it diverted? Jonathan should have been the first to be asked why the money was diverted. You should not be asking people who received the money for distribution; people who shouldn’t ask how the money came when the instruction was given,” Balarabe Musa said.

He said Dasuki was an adviser. ”As far as the Constitution is concerned, Dasuki has no executive responsibility. So, how did he come to have powers to award contracts? That power must have been given to him by the President. So, the first thing that Buhari should have done regarding the Dasukigate was to have asked Jonathan why he gave Dasuki the powers to spend the $2.1 

The All Progressives Congress in Rivers state has listed 24 sins committed by former Nigerian president, Goodluck Jonathan, the incumbent governor of the state, Nyesom Wike, and their political party, Peoples Democratic Party against the people of the state.

APC claims that the duo of Jonathan and Wike have committed gross sins against Rivers State without any justification and should pay for these sins during the 19th March, 2016 rerun election.

In a statement issued on Wednesday in Port Harcourt, the state capital by the state chairman of APC, Dr. Davies Ibiamu Ikanya, the 24 sins corruption, lack of political will etc.

Here are the sins listed by APC:

1. President Jonathan failed to muster the courage and political will in a PDP-controlled National Assembly to see to the passage of the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) in the over six years of his administration to demonstrate his hatred for the Niger Delta region knowing that communities in Rivers State will benefit from the bill.

2 The East/West Road, especially Eleme-Onne axis in Rivers State, was not only abandoned but was a nightmare to travellers and commuters.

3. Bodo-Bonny Federal Road was completely abandoned just because it is situated in Rivers State.

4. Refusal to refund to the State Government over 90 billion naira used in the dualisation of Ikwerre-Owerri Road approved by late President Yar’Adua and other Federal Roads in the State executed by the State to ease the sufferings of the people of Rivers State.

5. Wickedly stopped Train 7 at NLNG Bonny and the loss of jobs to our people and revenue to Government.

6. Non-implementation of UNEP Report on the clean-up of Ogoni land despite all the pleas by our people and the International Community – just to punish the Ogonis and Rivers State irrespective of their overwhelming support for him during the 2011 elections.

7. Lack of any visible Federal Government project in Rivers State throughout his over six years as President of Nigeria. Instructively, of all the states Dr Jonathan has visited in the course of his re-election campaign, it was only in Rivers that he could not name a single development project he initiated, not to talk of executing.

8. Ceding of oil wells belonging to Rivers to Bayelsa and Abia states to ensure that the revenue accruing to the State was reduced to nothing.

9. Abandoned construction of the Port Harcourt International Airport after completing other airports started at the same time with it. The airport has thus become an eyesore and the worst airport in the entire world. Pictures of the current state of the Airport attached explain the level of hatred Dr Jonathan has for Rivers State and her people.

10. Turning the Port Harcourt axis of Enugu-Port Harcourt Express Road into a death trap. The pictures attached of the bad state of the road explain everything.

11. Posting and encouraging the excesses of the tyrannical Police Commissioner Joseph Mbu during his inglorious days in the State.

12. Supporting the impunity of daily killing, maiming of members of Rivers APC by the Police under the watch of Dan Barure then Commissioner of Police of the State

13. Supporting every imaginable act of impunity in the State, including the plot by five State Assembly members to impeach the Speaker in a House of 31 members.

14. Seizing and grounding the planes of the State for no just cause.

15. Harassing and intimidating the then Governor of Rivers State (Rt. Hon. Amaechi) for no just cause and even supporting the splitting of the Governors Forum into two just to ensure that Governor Amaechi, who was duly elected by his colleagues, does not have an easy reign as the Chairman of the Forum.

16. Refusal to allow the then Governor of the state to construct the Federal Road that leads to the Kalabari Kingdom just to ensure that during the rainy season the Kalabaris will not have a road to their place.

17. Refusal to refund the State the money used to construct the smooth, beautiful dual carriageway from Omerelu to Port Harcourt – particularly up to the Airport Junction from Owerri in Imo State, which the Federal Government abandoned just because Rivers State people ply that road.

18. Refusal to refund the money used by Rivers State to construct the Ahoada/Elele Alimini Federal Road and the interchange (Flyover) at Obiri Ikwerre.

19. Refusal to attend to the poor state of the Onne – Port Harcourt component of the East/West Road. This is the road that services the Port Harcourt Refinery from where petroleum products are supplied to the South East and parts of the South South. That is the road that leads to the Onne Free Zone and to Okrika, the home Local Government of Dame Patience Jonathan, Nigeria’s former First Lady.

20. Turning a blind eye while his party continues to kill, bomb and disrupt APC rallies.

21. Against the spirit of equity, unity, justice and fair play, Dr Jonathan and his wife, Damee patience Jonathan imposed Chief Nyesome Wike a cancellous fellow from the Ikwerre tribe as PDP candidate and Governor of Rivers State, knowing very well that the former Governor, Rt. Hon. Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi, was also of Ikwerre extraction and that with Chief Wike as Governor that the Ikwerre tribe will governed Rivers State for 16 years to the detriment of other tribes and sections of the State. This shows that Dr Jonathan and his son and unjust party do not wish Rivers State any good.

22. Former President Jonathan released all the N25 Billion that accrued from the principle of derivation from the five Soku Oil Wells that rightly belong to Rivers State kept in reserve for Rivers State and Bayelsa State were all paid to Bayelsa State his home State to prove his hatred for Rivers State

23. As a President, Dr Jonathan continued to under fund the NDDC to ensure that Rivers State and in extension the Niger Delta region is not developed, till the time he left office, over N700B owed by the Federal Government was not paid to the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC)

24. Refused to empower and fund the Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs initiated by the Yar-Adua’s administration. The then Minister of Niger Delta once stated that the N41.7B due to the Ministry was not paid until Dr Jonathan left office to ensure that 90 percent of the projects initiated by the Ministry were not executed by the Ministry in Rivers State and other Niger Delta States.

Ikanya said: “These, amongst other wicked acts against Rivers State for reasons only to be explained by Dr Jonathan are why no PDP should be voted for this Saturday’s poll.

“For the record, Dr Jonathan is from Bayelsa, a sister State to Rivers. He is married to Dame Patience Jonathan, who is from Rivers State and having schooled in UNIPORT and lectured in the State before joining politics; one would have expected him to be a key factor in the development of Rivers State after the State gave him the highest number of votes in the 2011 presidential election though not shockingly, he was the greatest undoing of his party in the 2015 general election.”