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Muslim group reacts as Buhari increases police salary
The Muslim Rights Concern, MURIC, has hailed President Muhammadu Buhari for approving increment of police officers’ salary.
President Buhari on Wednesday announced a huge increase in the salary of the Nigerian Police.
The review is expected to affect all policemen from the highest to the lowest rank.
In a press statement signed by MURIC Director, Ishaq Akintola, and issued to DAILY POST on Thursday, the Muslim rights organization said it welcomed the decision with great pleasure.
The statement said, “It is a new dawn. President Buhari has energized our police. This is the kind of motivation the police needs.
“The increase which is said to be about 300% above the former salary will address the country’s security challenge and substantially reduce bribery and corruption in the system.
“It is the greatest motivation ever received by the Nigerian police. Nigerians have been blaming the police wrongly for some time now.
“But MURIC has been consistent in analyzing the situation very objectively. We have always placed the blame on lack of motivation, poor salary structure, lack of welfare and poor equipment.
“We commend Buhari for listening to our cries. This is a listening leader. No administration in the history of this country has done so much for the police department.
“When Buhari assumed office, the police force had just 317,000 men watching over a population of more than 220 million when the global best practice as recommended by the United Nations is one policeman to every 500 citizens.
“Within the spate of three years, he has increased police population to 334,000. He first approved the recruitment of 10,000 about two years ago and another 6,000 not long after that. There is no iota of doubt that Buhari will do more if he is given another four years in power.
“If we compare his performance to that of his predecessors we will find a huge difference. In 2002, the Federal Government (FG) promised to recruit 40,000 policemen annually.
“That promise remained on paper till today. Although Buhari did not make any promise to the police during the 2015 electioneering campaigns, he has come up with surprise packages for them.
“The wailers may still not see change in this development. We respect constructive criticism but we find it difficult to understand blind and fanatical doubting Thomases.
“Perpetual wailers have failed to see Buhari’s home-grown school feeding programme which has accommodated over nine million children across twenty-two states.
“They have ignored FG’s trader-money which gives direct empowerment to market women across the country. They have turned the blind eye at N-Power volunteer corps which employs 500,000 Nigerian graduates.
“Yet there is more. The Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) gives N5,000 monthly to the extremely poor. In the Government Enterprise and Empowerment Programme, a soft loan scheme targets 1.6 million women, traders, artisans, small businesses and youths.
“Under the scheme, soft loans of between N10,000 and N100,000 is given to these categories of people without interest with a repayment period of three months to six months and administration cost of 5 per cent by the Bank of Industry.
“It appears that Buhari’s Social intervention programmes (SIPs) annoy wailers because Buhari is sharing money to the poor masses directly instead of putting it in the private pockets of politicians.
“This was the practice during the sixteen years of pillage. But change is here. It is no longer business as usual. The tap from which money was flowing into the buckets of politicians has been turned off courtesy of BVN and Treasury Single Account (TSA). Stealing is now corruption.
“Wailers are on their own if they still cannot appreciate this administration. Objectivity demands that one shows respect even for the enemy when the latter achieves an extraordinary feat. Buhari recognized June 12 but instead of admitting the giant stride, wailers said it was politics. They said he was buying votes with the welfare programmes.
“FG is building the second Niger Bridge which previous administrations have failed to attend to despite humongous allocations earmarked for the project. That project which will cost N210 billion is 50% complete.
“Lagos-Ibadan rail line which is gulping $1.4 billion is 80% complete. Nigerians are being shown pictures and video clips of the progress of these projects yet wailers are yelling. We have no doubt that wailers will still complain even if Buhari constructs Macadam roads to their bedrooms. Wailers are haters.
“We are waiting to see how the spoilsports in the National Assembly (NASS) will frustrate this good move. We want to see how increase in police salary will be ambushed. It is in the character of some politicians to spoil the good work of government so as to make the president unpopular, with the hope that this will enhance their own inordinate ambition of seizing the reins of power.
“But Nigerians are not fools. They know those who are causing distractions. They know those who are overambitious. They know those who want to rule by hook or by crook. But above all, Almighty Allah is waiting for those who plot against the Nigerian people, ‘Verily your Lord lies in wait’ (Qur’an 89:14 Inna Rabbaka labil-mirsaad).
“Just yesterday Buhari reduced JAMB and NECO examination fees from N5,000 to N3,500 in order to make it easier for children of the poor to register for those crucial examinations. These and other welfarist innovations of this administration further cement our conviction that Buhari cares.
“Yet as we appreciate President Buhari’s great contributions to growth particularly the new police salary structure, we must ask for more, just like Oliver Twist. The police still needs better equipment. Every policeman should have a walkie-talkie and a pistol stuck in his belt. Patrol cars should come at one for every two policemen. We also call for improved welfare like life insurance scheme for the police.
MURIC also commended the Police Service Commission. “We appreciate the Police Service Commission under the able leadership of Alhaji Musiliu Smith. We can feel the commission’s contribution in the recent development.
“We call on the police to remember the old aphorism that to whom much is given, much is expected. They should reciprocate with the speed of light. We are in a season of change. Nigerians want action.
“In our closing remarks, we urge President Buhari to march on with the change mantra. He should ignore all distractions and face the good work that he is doing. We, the patriotic citizens of Nigeria who voted for change have seen the change. We salute Buhari’s doggedness. For the umpteenth time, we declare that Buhari deserves a second term.”
Dangote Petroleum Refinery has made headlines by announcing a further reduction in the price of diesel, dropping it from ₦1200 to ₦1000 naira per litre.
The refinery’s decision comes on the heels of its recent supply at a significantly reduced price of ₦1200 per litre, which was introduced three weeks ago, signifying a remarkable 30 per cent decrease from the previous market price of approximately ₦1600 per litre.
This substantial reduction in diesel prices at Dangote Petroleum Refinery is expected to reiterate positively throughout various sectors of the economy, potentially serving as a catalyst in alleviating the persistently high inflation rate in the country.
In a statement last week, Aliko Dangote, Africa’s wealthiest individual and the owner of the refinery, expressed his optimism regarding the potential impact of the price reduction on inflation in Nigeria.
“I believe that we are on the right track. I believe Nigerians have been patient, and I also believe that a lot of goodies will now come through. There’s quite a lot of improvement because if you look at it, one of the major issues that we’ve had was the naira devaluation that has gone very aggressively up to about ₦1900,” he remarked.
As anticipation builds around the implications of this move by Dangote Petroleum Refinery, stakeholders and consumers alike remain hopeful for the positive effects it could bring to the Nigerian economy in the coming months.
More than 50,000 Russian military personnel have died during the Ukraine conflict, the BBC reported Wednesday, citing its own reporters, independent media group Mediazona and volunteers.
They found that more than 27,300 Russian soldiers died during the second year of the war, a 25-percent increase on the first year.
BBC Russian, Mediazona and volunteers have been counting deaths since February 2022, using open-source information from official reports and the media, as well as using satellite images of Russian cemeteries to estimate the number of new graves.
The figure of more than 50,000 is eight times higher than the official toll acknowledged by Moscow in September 2022. It does not include deaths of militia in Donetsk and Lugansk in eastern Ukraine.
Ukraine said in February that it had lost 31,000 soldiers, but that figure is also likely to be significantly lower than the true toll.
Russian losses spiked in January 2023 as it launched a large-scale offensive in Donetsk and again months later last year during the battle for the city of Bakhmut.
Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a “special military operation” at dawn on February 24, 2022, which has since turned into a bloody and attritional war, isolating Russia from the Western world.
Responding to the report, the Kremlin said it did not disclose any information on military deaths and casualties, which falls under the remit of the defence ministry.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov added official secrets laws and those covering what Russia calls its “special military operation” in Ukraine meant it was “absolutely understandable” that the ministry did not release the figures.
The National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) has disclosed that 95 million Nigerians need to enroll for the National Identification Number (NIN) to meet its target of 200 million enrollments by 2025.
Kayode Adegoke, Head of Corporate Communications at NIMC, emphasised the importance of this enrollment during an interview on X over the weekend.
He stated, “For NIMC to meet the 200 million target by 2025, 95 million Nigerians need to register for the NIN.”
Adegoke revealed that over 105 million NINs have been issued to Nigerians and legal residents so far.
He assured Nigerians of the commission’s commitment, saying, “We want to assure Nigerians that within the next one or two years, we will reach our target of enrolling all Nigerians.”
“The NIN serves as a unique identifier for each citizen and has become increasingly important for various government initiatives aimed at improving security, governance, and service delivery.”
Adegoke highlighted the efforts to streamline the modification and enrollment processes under the leadership of Abisoye Coker, the director-general of NIMC. He announced the development of a self-service platform, allowing Nigerians to make necessary modifications such as changing names, dates of birth, email addresses, and phone numbers from anywhere, using different devices.
Emphasising the convenience of the self-service modification portal, Adegoke encouraged Nigerians to utilize this innovative solution.
He noted the evolution of the process, citing the past requirement for applicants to visit NIMC offices for data corrections.
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