The Lagos State Government has opted for a low key celebration of the 60th Independence Anniversary due to the ravaging effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, which is still with us.

Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu has directed that the planned parade and other activities that involve the gathering of more than 50 people should be cancelled.

He congratulates Lagosians on this auspicious occasion and strongly advises that they should celebrate quietly at home and pray for the country. They should also observe the COVID-19 protocols, including wearing of face masks to protect themselves and their loved ones.

The Governor urges Lagosians not to relax their vigilance against COVID-19 so as not to reverse the gains that the state has made in fighting the disease. They are to keep embracing physical distancing and washing of hands with soap and water. Anybody who feels unwell should stay indoors and contact health authorities.

The police and other security agencies have been directed to ensure that nobody flouts these directives in the interest of all of us, especially now that the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) is warning that a second wave of the deadly disease could occur.

Gbenga Omotoso

HC, Information and Strategy

LASG

ForAGreaterLagos

From an unbiased stand point Joe Biden did well beyond expectations. He stuttered in between sentences but held his forte tenaciously. He came charging with accusations against Trump, railing against the presidents Coronavirus response. He seemingly came with sucker punches determined to throw Trump off the railings.
For awhile I thought Trump was being done in by Joe.

Trump came right immediately with counter attacks. Intermittently interrupting Biden exposing the half truths being bandied by Biden. Trump charged in on him reminding everyone that it was Biden that called his travel ban xenophobic.

Trump wasn’t going to get civil and cozy on that stage with Biden. He sounded more like an Alpha, he carpeted Biden’s plan for a Nationwide total shutdown, he reminded all that he opened the economy because it was hurting the masses; suicide, divorces and depression was high in the country as a result of the shutdown.

Livelihoods lost because of the continued shutdown by democratic run governors. He took Biden on the offensive and Biden had to scamper to refute and take back his words about the Nationwide shutdown he had touted before the debates.

Trump was going to be caught napping by the anchor Chris Wallace concerning his stance on masks. Wallace referenced his statement about waiters fiddling with masks. Trump did something instructive. He brought out a mask from his suit, and said he wears masks when necessary but not always . He stated that he stood with the science as against the fear mongering. He berated Joe’s mask wearing even when he is socially distant from the audience and speaking like a masquerade with masks on.

Vintage Trump charged the more on Biden when he challenged Biden to mention and pledge to LAW AND ORDER. Trump mocked Biden that he would loose his radical left base if he dared say that. Biden stuttered and Trumped rammed seemingly trying to rile Biden and it paid off when he accused Biden’s son Hunter Biden of collecting 3.5 million dollars of cash from sex traffickers in Russia.
Biden was gasping and intermittently echoed ” False”.

Trump called Joe Biden out for his 1994 crime bill that jailed many blacks. Trump touted his judicial reform which has definitely freed many blacks and built black economies, giving the black nation the lowest unemployment numbers before the pandemic struck.

Chris Wallace pressed Trump on his tax returns and Trump was unequivocal in stating that he paid millions of tax and that his returns will be released when the audit is done with.
He came strong on the economy and Biden’s 4 trillion tax increase. He really damaged Biden on the tax increase and the economy. The green new deal in Biden’s plan was ripped to shreds when Trump alleged that it will hurt the economy badly if Biden goes on with it. 100 trillion dollars to be expended just to end fracking and bring about pure energy.

Biden tried many times to parry Trumps assault on his cognitive abilities. Trump was definitely brutal when he accused Biden of lying about his law school grades, his support for the dangerous Antifa group. Biden couldn’t denounce Antifa. Rather he accused Trump of being a racist pandering to the right wing extremists.

For a while I felt for Biden because Trump was all over him. Trump was bullish and domineering, in clear terms Trump bossed him all the way. Trump made it clear that he has made a lifetime appointments to federal courts which Barrack Obama left empty. He exposed the Obama administration for not doing the needful. Biden couldn’t say anything about the supreme Court nomination and the importance of the supreme Court in adjudicating the election dispute when pressed by Wallace.

The president really tore through the mail-in ballots, exposing the fraud going on at the moment. He referenced what happened at Pennsylvania where his votes were discarded at the waste bin. The president reiterated that he isn’t against solicited mail-in ballots, but against unsolicited mail-in ballots saturating the system and leaving every for fraud.

In all Trump didn’t disappoint, he commandeered the night and left Biden in a train wreck. Interesting days ahead.

Michael King.

Bayelsa State Governor, Senator Douye Diri, on Tuesday flayed the deduction of the state’s revenue by the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) in favour of Rivers State following a high court ruling.

Governor Diri said the hurried implementation of the ruling was unacceptable and sub judice as the state’s appeal was pending at the Supreme Court.

He also said it was tantamount to ceding of Bayelsa territory indirectly to Rivers.

The Bayelsa governor expressed his dissatisfaction when RMAFC Federal Commissioners representing the South South region paid him a courtesy visit in Government House, Yenagoa.

The Governor called on the commission to revisit its decision until the apex court gave a final verdict on the boundary dispute between both states.

He lamented that the action had significantly affected the state’s allocation for the month of September.

His words: “The action by the commission is tantamount to ceding a part of Bayelsa State to Rivers State, which can breach the peace between both sister states.

“I will still appeal to your chairman and members of your commission to revisit this deduction from the monthly allocation of Bayelsa. I have in this regard written letters to the President, the Vice President, the Attorney General of the Federation and the Accountant General. I will follow it up by visiting their offices.

“We want to explore a peaceful method. But what the commission has done can degenerate the peace that we are having between these sister states. I don’t think that my people from Oluasiri in Nembe and all of us from Bayelsa will accept ceding any parts of our territories to anybody.

“So, what your commission has done is indirectly ceding our territories to Rivers state and that is totally unacceptable to us as a people and a state.”

Senator Diri while commending the Federal Commissioners from the South South in the commission for their peace moves, said they can do more in spearheading the upward review of the 13 per cent derivation accruing to the oil producing states.

“May I also seize this opportunity to call on you, our worthy representatives, to look at the issue of reviewing the 13 per cent minimum derivation that is being given to oil producing states.

“I know it is not all within your powers. It is something that may come from the National Assembly but as our worthy representatives, that can start with you and we can be part of it by calling on our representatives in the National Assembly to look at a review of the principle of derivation, which has been pegged at 13 per cent till date.”

Governor Diri also called on other governors of the South-South to exercise restraint in dealing with issues of boundary adjustment in the region, noting that there is a deliberate policy of divide and rule to further exploit the resources of the Niger Delta.

Speaking earlier, the leader of the delegation and representative of Akwa Ibom State in the commission, Mr. Sunday Anyang, said as ambassadors of the region, they have a common goal to protect the interest of the people they represent from external influence.

Mr. Anyang said there is the need to review the indices that make up the 13 per cent derivation to oil producing states and that it behoves on key actors from the region to synergise for an upward review of derivation formula.

Also on the visit were the Federal Commissioners representing Delta, Andrew Agbaga, Alfred Egba (Bayelsa) and Victor Eboigbe (Edo).