[dropcap]T[/dropcap]he National Chairman of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, shelved his ambition to run for the position again after a meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari on Thursday night. Sources said the APC governors had already informed the Chief Odigie-Oyegun-led National Working Committee (NWC) on the plan of President Buhari to support the national chairmanship ambition of a former governor of Edo State, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, at a meeting held at the party secretariat last Wednesday.

But Chief Odigie-Oyegun’s silence on the message brought by the governors from the president was not enough to convince them that he had given up the ambition of remaining at the helms of affairs of the party beyond the 2019 general elections.  “What happened at the Wednesday meeting was that the governors conveyed information on their meeting with the president,” one of the sources said.“They told Oyegun that the president will be supporting Oshiomhole for the chairmanship position but there was no response from the chairman at that meeting,” he said.

Another source said that was when it became evident that President Buhari had to intervene; more so there were open altercations among key party stakeholders on the national chairmanship position, especially after the APC state and zonal meetings held in Edo State.Penultimate Sunday, the Edo caucus of the APC led by the State chairman of the party, Barrister Anselm Ojezua, had backed Oshiomhole to vie for the position of national chairman at a meeting in Benin.

However, his subsequent endorsement by the South-South zonal chapter of the APC polarised the party as four out of the six state chairmen of the party from the zone rejected him. The state chairmen that rejected him were Chief Davies Ikanya (Rivers), Deacon Joseph Fafi (Bayelsa), Mr Etim John (Cross River) and Dr Amadu Attai (Akwa Ibom), as well as the APC Deputy National Secretary, Hon. Victor Giadom.

Subsequently, Oyegun also described the purported endorsement of Oshiomhole by the South-South zonal leadership of the party as “absolutely childish.” Before his final decision, Oyegun had the support of some APC governors, especially those who believed that they could only control the party structures in their state if he remained as national chairman.

Oshiomhole’s candidacy was hitherto rejected by the governors who thought that the support he enjoyed from the national leader of the party, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, might not be good for their various political interests.

[dropcap]P[/dropcap]resident Muhammadu Buhari has approved the recruitment of 6,000 additional policemen as part of fresh measures to address the nation’s security challenges including the farmers/herdsmen clashes across the country. The President made this known in a special interview session with Voice of America, Hausa service, in Washington, the United States on Tuesday morning.

President Buhari, who is in the U.S. on the invitation of the American President Donald Trump, revealed that additional security measures were being put in place to check cases of insecurity in Nigeria.“We will put in place more measures to check insecurity in the country including increasing the number of policemen and train them.

“I have approved the recruitment of 6,000 policemen by the police authorities and I directed that those recruited must come from all the 776 local government areas of the federation. “Even if it means recruiting one person each from the 776 they should do that instead of going to motor parks, railway stations or market for the recruitment exercise.

“I gave (Police authorities) them this directive,’’ he said.

The president, who expressed reservation on the call for the establishment of state police as being advocated by state governors, said Nigerians must abide by the constitutional provision in regard to the matter.It would be recalled that the Chairman, Nigeria Governors’ Forum, Governor Abdulaziz Yari, had in February said the creation of state police would help in addressing the spate of insecurity in the country.

Yari, who is also the Zamfara State Governor, said this at the end of a two-day summit organised by the Senate Ad-hoc Committee on Review of Current Security Infrastructure in Nigeria. He said: “Today we have reiterated the position of Vice President Yemi Osinbajo.

“And the position of the security summit we held in August, that there is a need for the state police; we can say it is the only answer.”However, President Buhari maintained that the creation of state police would not augur well for the finances of the states, adding that some of them were finding it difficult to meet their financial obligations to workers and other state needs.

“We must carefully look at the position of the nation’s constitution on the issue of state police before we take a final decision on the matter if the constitution allows state police so be it.“But don’t forget that many times the Federal Government gave out what we referred to as bailout to state governments for payment of workers’ salaries. How many states can pay salary promptly? and you want to add more financial burden to the states.

“It is not proper to employ a person, train him on how to handle weapons and then refuse to pay him – you can imagine what would happen in such situation,’’ he said.

On his purported comment on youth while in London, President Buhari dismissed the report, saying that the media only preferred to interpret and report what they like instead of concentrating on developmental journalism.

He said: “You know Nigeria’s population is now between 180 and 190 million and 60 percent of this population is youth that is 30 years downward.

“You know in the North most youths are uneducated or school dropouts. If not because we had good harvests in the last two farming seasons the situation would have been deteriorated.

“These youths even if they travel out of the North for greener pasture they hardly make it economically because what they earn as income cannot afford them to meet their basic needs or return home.

“All these explanations I made, they refused to highlight them in their report and you know the media in Nigeria in most cases only do what they like.

“For instance, the nation’s achievements in the agricultural sector where millions of Nigerians benefitted financially were left unreported by the media.

“Even when the Minister of Information and Culture wanted to reply that abusive letter written by former President Olusegun Obasanjo, I had wanted Lai not to reply the letter but I said I should allow him to highlight the achievements of our administration.’’

President Buhari also used the opportunity to debunk the insinuation that Christians were being killed by herdsmen.

He said that clashes between farmers and herdsmen had been in existence for the past years, saying that Nigerian herdsmen were not in the habit of carrying dangerous weapons while moving their animals around the country.

On what he does during his leisure time, President Buhari said he hardly listened to music but rather always obeyed his doctors’ advice on the need to eat and have enough rest.

[dropcap]U[/dropcap]nited States President Donald Trump on Monday, April 30, commended President Muhammadu Buhari for fighting corruption and terrorism in Nigeria. Trump stated this when both leaders were addressing a press conference after their meeting in the White House.
“Nigeria has a reputation for very massive corruption. I also know that the President (Buhari) has been able to cut that down very substantially. We talked about that, he is working on it and they have made a lot of progress and I think they will continue to make a lot of progress,” Trump said.

The US President said with the progress the Buhari administration is making in the corruption, investors from the US would want to do business in Nigeria.
“We have a lot of people in this country that invests in Nigeria, so cutting down on that corruption element and a corrupt element is very important to us and the President (Buhari) will be able to do that,” he added. Anti-Boko Haram fight.Trump also hailed Buhari for making progress in the fight against terrorism, and pledged the continued support of the US in that regard. When asked if both leaders discussed Trump’s alleged statement early this year that African nations are “shitholes”, Buhari and the US President said it was not discussed.
According to Buhari, he was not sure about the accuracy of the media report, so there was no point talking about it.

“I am very careful with what the press says about others and myself. I am not sure about the validity or whether that allegation against the President (Trump) was true or not. So, the best thing for me is to keep quiet,” Buhari said.
Trump confirmed that the issue was not discussed. He, however, noted that there are some countries that are in “very bad shape and (are) very tough places to live in.”
“We didn’t discuss it because the President (Buhari) knows me and he knows where I am coming from and I appreciate that,” Trump said.

Buhari was accompanied to the White House by Nigeria’s Ambassador to the U.S. Sylvanus Nsofor, Ministers of Foreign Affairs, Justice, and Trade and Investment, and Governors of Plateau and Ogun.
Others on the delegation were Chief of Defence Staff, Maj.-Gen. Gabriel Olonisakin, Senate Committee Chair on Foreign Affairs, Monsurat Sunmonu and her House of Representatives counterpart, Nnenna Ukejie.