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Tag: Attahiru Jega

  • Tinubu appoints ex-INEC Chair as Special Adviser

    Tinubu appoints ex-INEC Chair as Special Adviser

    President Bola Tinubu has appointed Prof. Attahiru Jega as Special Adviser and Coordinator of the Presidential Livestock Reform.

    This was contained in a statement issued by Tinubu’s spokesman, Mr Bayo Onanuga, on Friday.

    The President explained that the appointment hoped to drive meaningful progress in the livestock sector and further strengthen national development efforts.

    Jega, former Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), and former vice chancellor of Bayero University, Kano, co-chaired the Presidential Livestock Committee with President Tinubu.

    The committee delivered comprehensive recommendations that underscored sustainable livestock reforms, one of which was the creation of the Livestock Ministry with a minister.

    Jega, 68, is a member of the International Elections Advisory Council and the pro-Chancellor and Chairman of the Governing Council of Sa’adatu Rimi University of Education in Kano State.

    He served as the chairman of INEC between 2010 and 2015.

    His appointment as a special adviser will reinforce the gains of the presidential committee and ensure the continued momentum of the reforms already in motion,” the president said in the statement.

  • Livestock Reforms: Why open grazing, ranching can coexist – Jega

    Livestock Reforms: Why open grazing, ranching can coexist – Jega

    The Presidential Committee on Livestock Sector Reforms Implementation has submitted its inception report to President Bola Tinubu on Thursday.

    Recall that president Tinubu had in July inaugurated the Presidential Committee on Implementation of Livestock Reforms to address obstacles to agricultural productivity.

    The Chairman of the Committee and former Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Professor Attahiru Jega, while speaking to journalists shortly after meeting with the President said the committee was able to identify measures on how the Nigerian government can judiciously utilize the livestock industry in Nigeria.

    Jega revealed that the 152 page document submitted to President Tinubu recommends measures that the government can use to mitigate the farmer/herders clashes across the country.

    According to him, the Committee’s position is that it would be counterproductive to immediately stop open grazing as a traditional method of pastoralism.

    He noted that both ranching and open grazing can coexist in the short term until there is enough awareness and adequate infrastructure that will enhance the adoption of full ranching.

    The committee has prescribed a ten-year plan that would guide the government to ensure remarkable improvement in all aspects of the livestock in Nigeria.

    The committee also recommended the adoption of technologies in livestock production in Nigeria.

    According to him, a detailed guidance on the operations of the newly created Federal Ministry of Livestock that was announced by President Tinubu recently has been given in the report.

    The report of the committee is expected to be made public very soon with a view to getting more inputs from the public.

  • Why we withdrew from participating in elections in Nigeria- ASUU

    Why we withdrew from participating in elections in Nigeria- ASUU

    The Academic Staff Union of Universities has explained why it withdrew from participating in elections in Nigeria.

     

    The Union said its members going to participate in the 2023 elections would be doing so on their own.

     

    ASUU President, Prof. Emmanuel Osodeke, said in an interview said the Union withdrew from participating in elections in Nigeria because the system was flawed.

     

    The organisation said it had requested that it should be allowed by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, to participate in all the segments of the election, from the polling unit, collation and announcement for which government refused.

     

    He said, “ASUU participated in election during the period of Prof. Attahiru Jega and since then, we have decided we are not participating as a union in any election process because it is fraudulent.

     

    “We requested that they should allow us participate in all the segments of the election, from the polling booth, to the collation to announcement. But they refused and so we withdrew from it as a union.

     

    “And in the last (2019) election, we were very clear; we announced openly that we are not participating in 2019 election that any of our member who is going, is going as a person, not as an ASUU member which they are entitled to.

     

    “So (in 2023), we are not going to tell our members anything. Anyone who wants to go is doing so on his own. When you are going, don’t wear anything that has ASUU signal, either its name or anything. You are going as a person; you are not going because you are a member of ASUU.

     

    “During Jega era, he asked us to nominate, which we did. Although at the upper collation level, we were able to control it, at the polling booth where they do the rigging, we were not allowed access to it, so we left.”

     

    Osodeke asserted that the Vice Chancellors who took part as Returning Officers in elections have no influence but to announce results which have allegedly been written.