King Charles in handshake with PM SunakRishi Sunak making his official speech
ON THE ECONOMY “Our country is facing a profound economic crisis. The aftermath of COVID still lingers. Putin’s war in Ukraine has destabilised energy markets and supply chains the world over.”
“I will place economic stability and confidence at the heart of this government’s agenda. This will mean difficult decisions to come.”
ON LIZ TRUSS “I want to pay tribute to my predecessor Liz Truss. She was not wrong to want to improve growth in this country. It is a noble aim. And I admired her restlessness to create change.
“But some mistakes were made — not born of ill will, or bad intentions. Quite the opposite, in fact. But mistakes, nonetheless. And I have been elected as leader of my party and your prime minister, in part to fix them.”
ON BORIS JOHNSON “I will always be grateful to Boris Johnson for his incredible achievements as prime minister and I treasure his warmth and generosity of spirit. And I know he would agree that the mandate my party earned in 2019 is not the sole property of any one individual. It is a mandate that belongs to and unites all of us. And the heart of that mandate is our manifesto. I will deliver on its promise. “
THE CHALLENGE AHEAD “I fully appreciate how hard things are. And I understand too that I have work to do to restore trust, after all that has happened. All I can say is that I am not daunted. I know the high office I have accepted and I hope to live up to its demands.”
NO DEBTS FOR NEXT GENERATION “The government I lead will not leave the next generation —your children and grandchildren — with a debt to settle that we were too weak to pay ourselves.”
TRUST “I will unite our country not with words, but with action. I will work day in, and day out to deliver for you. This government will have integrity, professionalism, and accountability at every level. Trust is earned and I will earn yours.”
MANIFESTO’S PROMISES “I will deliver on (our manifesto’s) promise. A stronger NHS, better schools, safer streets, control of our borders, protecting our environment, supporting our armed forces, levelling up, and building an economy that embraces the opportunities of Brexit where businesses invest, innovate and create jobs.”
Chief Tunde Abudu, foremost lawyer and Industrialist, has said that he owned his being educated to Reverend Oludotun Ransome Kuti as a result of his insistence that Muslims should also be admitted into the Abeokuta Abeokuta Grammar School.
Chief Olatunde Abudu who disclosed this while speaking at a Book Launch on Saturday, 22nd of October, 2022, titled, “Teaching And Nation Building In Nigeria -Ransome Kuti As A Case Study”, said if it were not for that singular decision his education might have been terminated at the primary school level
In a tribute to Reverend Ransome-Kuti, read by his son, Ade, Chief Abudu recalled that when the Anglican Church persisted that non Christians would not be admitted Reverend Ransome-Kuti who he described as a revolutionary teacher insisted that Christianity did not discriminate against any section of the society.
The Mayegun Egbaland stated that it was Ransome-Kuti’s commitment to humanitarian and non discriminatory attitude that enabled many of his generation to have secondary and ultimately university education.
He therefore commended 88 year old Chief Tunde Adeyanju for making the memory of a great Egba compatriot live and enduring.
Immediate past UK Prime Minister, Liz Truss has said that her government acted urgently and decisively on the sides of families and businesses.
Liz Truss stated this when she addressed the nation few minutes ago outside 10 Downing Street for the last time,
“In just a short period, this government has acted urgently and decisively on the side of hardworking families and businesses.
“We reversed the national insurance increase. We helped millions of households with their energy bills and help thousands of businesses avoid bankruptcy.
“We are taking back our energy independence so we are never again beholden to global market fluctuations or malign foreign powers,” she said.
She added that her time in office has left her “more convinced than ever that we need to be bold and confront the challenges that we face”.
According to her, “As the Roman philosopher get Senaca wrote, it’s not because things are difficult that we do not dare, it is because we do not dare that they are difficult.
“We simply cannot afford to be a low growth country where the government takes up an increasing share of our national wealth … We need to take advantage of our Brexit freedoms to do things differently. This means delivering more freedom for our own citizens. And restoring power to democratic institutions. It means lower taxes so people can keep more of the money that they earn.”
Truss said democracies must be able to deliver for their own people, adding that “We must be able to outcompete autocratic regimes.
“Now more than ever we must support Ukraine. Ukraine must prevail and we must continue to strengthen our nation’s defences.”
She wished Rishi Sunak success, saying she looked forward to spending more time in her constituency and serving the country from the back benches.
“We continue to battle through a storm but I believe in Britain, I believe in the British people and I know that brighter days lie ahead.”
Rishi SunakRishi, his wife and childrenRishi Sunak, his wife and his parents
Rishi Sunak has received the votes of his Conservative party member after the former Prime Minister, Boris Johnson pulled out of the contest and Penny Merdaunt stepped down for him.
Before his fall out with the former Prime Minister of Britain Boris Johnson he has been on a rapid rise which has no doubt seen him become Britain’s first Prime Minister of United Kingdom which is indeed a historic landmark as the Hindu descendant of immigrants from India and East Africa to command the world’s sixth largest economy.
Rishi Sunak, born on May 12, 1980 in Southampton, England. He is a British Conservative politician and financier who served as chancellor of the Exchequer (2020–22). He was Chancellor of the Exchequer (2020-2022), United Kingdom House of Commons (2015-), United Kingdom Political Affiliation: Conservative Party
Sunak was born into a family with immigrant roots. His grandparents emigrated from Punjab, in northwestern India to East Africa where his mother and father were born in Tanzania and Kenya, respectively. They met and married after their families migrated in the 1960s to Southampton in southern England.
Sunak’s father was a general practitioner for the National Health Service. His mother, a pharmacist, owned and operated a small pharmacy for which Sunak, the eldest of their three children, would eventually keep the books. Later, during his political career, Sunak would draw parallels between his experiences working in the family business and the values he gained from them and those of Conservative Party icon Margaret Thatcher, the daughter of a grocer.
As a result of his parents’ sacrifices and saving to fund his education, Sunak was able to attend Winchester College, the exclusive private school that has produced no fewer than six chancellors of the Exchequer. In addition to becoming “head boy” at Winchester, Sunak was the editor of the school’s newspaper. During summer vacations he waited at a Southampton Indian restaurant.
Sunak went on to study philosophy, politics, and economics (the degree obtained by many future prime ministers) at Lincoln College, Oxford. There he was president of the Oxford Trading & Investment Society, which provided students with opportunities to learn about financial markets and global trading. While at Oxford, Sunak also had an internship at the headquarters of the Conservative Party.
After graduating from Oxford in 2001, Sunak became an analyst for Goldman Sachs, working for the investment banking company until 2004. As a Fulbright scholar, he then pursued an MBA at Stanford University where he met his future wife, Akshata Murthy, daughter of Narayana Murthy, an Indian billionaire and cofounder of technology giant Infosys.
Returning to the United Kingdom in 2006, Sunak took a job with The Children’s Investment Fund Management (TCI), the hedge fund operated by Sir Chris Hohn, who made him a partner some two years later. In 2009 Sunak left TCI to join another hedge fund, Theleme Partners. That year he married Murthy and the marriage has produced two daughters.
By virtue of Sunak’s success in business and his wife’s 0.91 percent stake in Infosys, the couple began to amass a considerable fortune, which would be estimated at about £730 million ($877 million) in 2022 by The Sunday Times. (Some sources estimated Akshata Murthy’s net worth at as much as £1 billion [$1.2 billion].)
In 2010 Sunak began working for the Conservative Party. During this period he also became involved with Policy Exchange, a leading Conservative think tank, for which he became head of the Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) Research Unit in 2014. That year Policy Exchange published A Portrait of Modern Britain, a pamphlet that Sunak wrote with Saratha Rajeswaran, deputy head of the BME unit. In 2014 Sunak was chosen as the Conservative Party’s candidate for the House of Commons representing Richmond in North Yorkshire, a safe Conservative seat in the north of England long held by onetime party leader (1997–2001) William Hague.
In May 2015 Sunak was elected by a commanding majority. He came into office a Euroskeptic and firmly in the “leave” camp on the issue of Brexit which he said would make the United Kingdom “freer, fairer, and more prosperous.” He would be reelected to Parliament in 2017 and 2019, and he voted three times in favour of Prime Minister Theresa May’s Brexit plans.
From 2015 to 2017 he was a member of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Select Committee and parliamentary private secretary at the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy. In January 2018 he was appointed to his first ministerial post as undersecretary of state at the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government.
Sunak became a vocal supporter of Boris Johnson’s pursuit of the party’s leadership, and, when Johnson became leader and prime minister, he rewarded Sunak with a promotion, appointing him chief secretary to the Treasury in July 2019.
During Sunak’s tenure as second-in-command at the Treasury ministry, tensions were rising between his boss, Chancellor of the Exchequer Sajid Javid, and Johnson. When Javid resigned in February 2020, Johnson replaced him with Sunak, who, at age 39, became the fourth youngest person ever to hold that position. Almost immediately Sunak was faced with the manifold challenges brought about by the arrival in Britain of the COVID-19 global pandemic.
As the British economy was clobbered by the shutdowns imposed by the government in an attempt to stem the spread of the corona virus, SARS-CoV-2, the cause of COVID-19, Sunak employed the powers of his office to try to offset the economic and human damage. He instituted a broad economic-support program that dedicated some £330 billion ($400 billion) in emergency funds for businesses and salary subsidies for workers aimed at job retention and easing the burden of the lockdown for individuals and companies alike. Those rescue programs were widely popular, and the polished, poised Sunak became the welcome face of the government at daily press conferences where the prime minister appeared less composed.
Sunak’s “Eat Out to Help Out” scheme, aimed at supporting restaurants and pubs with government-subsidized food and drinks, was viewed by some observers as a rousing success, but critics pointed to it as having likely played a significant role in the emergence of a catastrophic spike in COVID-19 cases in autumn 2020. Nonetheless, the portrait of Sunak that arose during the pandemic was that of a superslick, social-media savvy, immaculately dressed, handsome, but down-to-earth politician. “Dishy Rishi”, as fondly calked was named “Britain’s sexiest MP” in 2020.
Sunak’s gleaming brand was tarnished, however, by a series of disclosures in April 2022. Perhaps most damaging was the revelation that his wife, as an Indian citizen and non-domiciled U.K. resident, had claimed a tax status that allowed her to avoid paying British taxes on her overseas income, which may have saved her as much as £20 million ($24 million) in U.K. taxes over a roughly seven-and-a-half-year period. While not illegal, the maneuver cast a bad light on Sunak, and Murthy was quick to revise her tax status.
Sunak’s patriotism was also called into question when it was revealed that he had held on to a green card for U.S. residency until late October 2021, which seemed to suggest a desire to keep his options open. Finally, in April 2022 Sunak was fined by the police for having been among the guests at a birthday party for Johnson at his office in 2020 in violation of the government’s rules against social gatherings at that stage of the pandemic. Sunak claimed that his appearance at the party was inadvertent and the result of having appeared early for a meeting with the prime minister.
The fallout from the incident for Sunak, however, was much less than what the “Partygate” scandal would bring for the increasingly embattled Johnson. When the series of scandals involving Johnson’s integrity and honesty expanded to include the prime minister’s mishandling of allegations of sexual misconduct against former Conservative deputy chief whip, Chris Pincher, Sunak joined Javid, then serving as health secretary in resigning from the cabinet on July 5, 2022.
Their prominent resignations contributed greatly to the groundswell of opposition within the Conservative Party that eventually forced Johnson’s resignation as party leader. Although some Tories saw Sunak’s action as traitorous, he was quick to declare his intention to replace Johnson as leader with a cannily produced campaign video that was released hot on the heels of Johnson’s announcement that he was stepping down.
With Johnson remaining as a caretaker prime minister until the party could choose a replacement for him, the parliamentary party (sitting Conservative MPs) set about the series of votes that incrementally winnowed the field of candidates for the leadership from eight to two. At the end of that process, Sunak and Foreign Secretary Liz Truss remained as the final duo whose names were submitted for a vote by the party’s whole membership.
Sunak stood to be the first person of colour and first Hindu to lead Britain. To achieve that end, he would have to overcome the perception among some Conservatives of his being too wealthy to understand the needs of the average British citizen at a time of devastating inflation and the reservations of other Conservatives who were put off by the tax increases Sunak had imposed on corporations and national insurance in an attempt to help offset the costs of the government’s pandemic relief programs.
When the results of the election were announced on September 5, Sunak came up short, taking 42.6 percent of the vote, compared with 57.4 percent for Truss, who became party leader. At the end he lost to Liz Truss who served as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom for only 44 days, thus making him, in history as the shortest serving Prime Minister.
Students’ union bodies comprising: NANS, NAOSS and others have warned members of Non-Academic Staff of of University (NASU), Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta (FUNAAB) branch to put their intending strike action on hold and allow for dialogue.
This was contained in a special Press release on Sunday jointly signed by Comrade Kehinde Damilola Simeon, Chairman NANS, Ogun JCC; Comerade Ekundina Segun Elvis, Deputy Senate President, NANS National; Comerade Olatunji Adegboye, Coordinator, NANS Southwest Zone D.; Comrade Ogunrombi Gbemileke, NAOSS Global President and Comrade Okereafor Opeyemi Bestman, National President, PSM NIG.
The leadership of the students’ unions said they found the call by NASU for the 7- day protest appalling because according to them such action would inflict immeasurable wound on the psychology of the Nigerian students when various institutions were just resuming and planning to commence lectures after 8 months of ASUU strike which crippled all work and had already traumatized Nigerian students.
They further described such call for industrial action as an uncompassionate directive would only subject the students to further psychological trauma, time wastage and perplexity, adding that it would be inimical to the best service delivery practice they swore to provide, detrimental to their collective future and contradicted everything that NASU stood for.
The unions full statement reads:
“Our attention have been drawn to a publication ordering the Non-academic staff of Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta to to embark on a 7-day protest. This untimely directive is coming shortly after the 8 months long ASUU strike was suspended.
Just as University students all over the country are rejoicing to return to campus after months of academic calendar stagnation, we find it appalling that NASU is calling for another strike action. Industrial action as a result of this uncompassionate directive will only subject the students to further psychological trauma, time wastage and perplexity.
If carried out, this course of action will be inimical to the best service delivery practice they swore to provide, detrimental to our collective future and contradicts everything that NASU stands for.
We believe that most of NASU members are also parents, we therefore implore the union to seek for alternative medium in pursuing their rights and allow common sense to prevail as the students should not be subjected to further distress.
While we recognise their right to seek for redress, we still maintain that choosing to boycott work at this critical period is not only insensitive but also callous. The union should allow work to continue while channeling their grievances through other means so that normalcy and stability can be restored in the university.
If heeded, this singular action will be seen as solidarizing with the students and make us sympathetic to NASU’s cause. However, embarking on actions contrary to the above will consequently pitch the students against the school’s Non-academic staff. This will put us under constraint to engage in direct face off with the culprits.
We must affirm again, that this struggle to emancipate our future from being used as collateral damage isn’t about FUNAABITES alone but has become that of all Ogun State students and by extension that of the South West.
We hereby seriously warn the few bad eggs in NASU to desist from any attempt truncate campus activities as we expect the FUNAAB management to announce resumption plans imminently.
We are willing, able and ready to mobilise massively to stampede this politically motivated action. At no point in time shall we sit and watch our collective future being used to settle scores. This despiteful venture shall be vehemently resisted now and in the future.
The Central Working Committee for the 23rd Owu kingdom festival has announced that the installation and coronation ceremony of Oba, Prof.Saka Adeola Matemilola as 14th Olowu of Owu Kingdom would hold on October 29, 2022. The event is scheduled to hold at the Oba Odeleye Park, Ori-Omi Sokori, Abeokuta.
The Chairman of the Committee, General Ekundayo Opaleye and Chairman, Coronation Committee, Oba Olufemi Ogunleye, the Towulade of Akinale made this known at a press conference in Abeokuta on Sunday.
The committee disclosed that Oba-elect would be crowned on Monday, 24th October 24, 2022 the at the Oke-Ago-Owu palace by 7:00Am with Youth Rally and Cultural Night taking place the same day by 1:00Pm.
According to the coronation programmes made available to journalists, sons and daughters of Owu as well as others in the Owu towns would pay homage to the new monarch on Tuesday and Wednesday starting from 7:00Am.
The committee added that there would be Youth Seminar on Thursday, October 27, 2022 and launching of Olowu foundation at Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library (OOPL), Abeokuta while there would be Golf Tournament in honour of the new monarch at Abeokuta Golf Club, Oke-Mosan, Abeokuta.
The coronation ceremony would be rounded off with a tripartite thanksgiving service with Muslims, Christians and Traditional services at Oba Odeleye Park, Ori-Omi Sokori, Abeokuta.
Liz Truss has resigned as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (UK) after 44 days in office.
We gathered the embattled UK Prime Minister just made the announcement 24 hours after saying she was a fighter and not a quitter, and so would continue in office. Liz Truss said she would stay on until a successor is chosen in the one next week.
Truss succeeds Boris Johnson who resigned from his appointment as PM in July over a series of scandals.
In recognition of his efforts to enhance rapid industrialisation, ease of doing business and make the state Nigeria’s top investment destination, the Ogun State governor, Prince Dapo Abiodun will, on Friday, October 21, be decorated by President Muhammadu Buhari with the Distinguished Award for Industrial Revolution.
This was made known in a letter dated September 21, 2022 and addressed to the governor by the Permanent Secretarty (General Services) in the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Dr. Nmadi Mbaeri.
The awards, which will be held at the State House Conference Centre Abuja, are being organised by The Best Strategic Media (TBS) in collaboration with the Office of the SGF, Mr Boss Mustapha.
The latest award, coming on the heels of the confirmation by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) that Ogun State, with 100.9bn revenue profile in 2021, is one of the states with the highest internally generated revenue nationwide, coming only after Lagos, the FCT and Rivers State, is expected to further spur the Ogun governor to achieve greater excellence in governance.
According to industry watchers, the governor has, in the last three and a half years, been credited with superlative performances in the area of investments in agriculture, road infrastructure, ICT, urban renewal, the building of an Agro-allied Airport, and security of life and property.
The All Progressives Congress, (APC) Presidential Campaign Council (PCC) has on Wednesday night released a fresh list after the previous PCC list announced raised some dust and was frowned at by some prominent members of the party.
There is high signs that the Adamu-led National Working Committee, NWC seemed to have made decisive inroads into the party’s campaign council.
Adamu has now swapped positions with Tinubu as the new list, signed by the National Secretary of the party, Senator Iyiola Omisore, retained president, Muhammadu Buhari as the Chairman of the Council with the presidential candidate of the party, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu as the Deputy Chairman in the 422-member list.
His running mate, Kashim Shettima, remained the vice chairman of the council. However, the Governor of Plateau State, Simon Lalong, retains his position as Director General while Comrade Adams Oshiomhole was named as Deputy Director-General, Operations and James Faleke as Secretary
Ogun State Governor Prince Dapo Abiodun has said his administration was currently compiling names of the elderly, the vulnerable and youths that would benefit from the conditional cash transfer scheme in the next 30 days.
The governor stated this at the Town Hall Meeting for year 2023 Budget and Medium Term Expenditure Framework for 2023-2025, for Remo Division, held at the Akarigbo Palace, Ita- Oba, Sagamu.
According to the governor, the conditional cash transfer aimed at easing the living of the target beneficiaries who are part of the state government’s social security intervention
He added that the intervention would be extended to traders to recoup the financial losses they suffered during the COVID-19 pandemic while urging women in the state to participate in the Oko’wo Dapo scheme to boost their enterprise
Abiodun explained that the meeting was to allow for participatory and inclusiveness describing it as a key component of budget preparation process that would allow more inputs into the budget.
He stated his administration had involved a wholesome approach in addressing the infrastructural deficit in the state, adding that next 2023 budget would be transitional as it would take the administration to realize it ‘ISEYA’ agenda.
Speaking on some developmental projects that have been executed in Remoland, the governor mentioned Oba Erinwole road in Sagamu, the Hospital road, Market Road, Awolowo Road, Sagamu junction-Iperu-Ode and Ilisan-Ago-Iwoye roads as well as the Cargo Airport at Ilisan, as some of the projects carried out in the zone.
He said that Remo Division has also benefited from the renovation of Primary Health Centres, schools and housing projects.
While reaffirming the position of the state as one the best in Internal Generated Revenue (IGR), Abiodun said that Ogun ranked fourth behind Lagos, Federal Capital City and Rivers, saying that his administration was working to improve the financial base of the state.
He stressed that his administration had lowered the political temperature in the state and charged the youths to shun all forms of social vices, noting that state had remained peaceful in more than three years now.
Earlier in his remarks, the Chief Economic Adviser and Commissioner for Finance, Dapo Okubadejo stated that the present administration in the state had instituted the State Fiscal Responsibility Law 2020, which highlighted the functions of all stakeholders as well as spelling out the expected fiscal activities in the state.
Okubadejo noted that the aim of the Dapo Abiodun led administration was to have meaningful engagement with all stakeholders as well as effectively implement ideas, insight and contributions with a view to uplift the economy.
He added that the state was adopting increased openness and citizen’s engagement process with a view to ensure fiscal discipline and discourage extra budgetary expenditure.
Reviewing the inputs made by the people of the zone in the Medium Term Expenditure Framework and 2022 budget, the Commissioner for Budget and Planning, Mr. Deolu Olabintan said 85 percent of requests was included in the 2022 budget while 65 projects were executed in each of the sections of the state.
Speaking on behalf of the traditional rulers in the Remo Zone, the Akarigbo of Remoland, Oba Babatunde Ajayi said, though the government could not meet all the needs of the people, Remoland had benefited from projects implementation which included the construction of Sagamu junction-Iperu-Ode, Oba Erinwole, Ilisan-Ago-Iwoye roads and the on-going construction of the Agro-Cargo Airport.
He informed the governor that llara township had been cut off, calling for the construction of the alternative route through Akaka and Irolu while advising the state’s Road Maintenance Agency to always liaise with traditional rulers on the repairs of roads in their domains.
Representatives of trade unions, religious bodies, community leaders and organisations who spoke at the meeting, stressed the need for government to look into the welfare of the people particularly in the areas of empowerment, youth training and provision of basic amenities in every part of the state.
Determined to sanitise Alternate Medicine practice in Ogun State and ensure its public acceptability, the State Alternate Medicine Board (OGAMB) has inaugurated an eight-man committee to organise a training/re-orientation workshop for its members and personnel of security outfits.
According to a release signed and made available by Dolapo Jinad, Press Officer, State Alternate Medicine Board, the Chairman of the Board, Balogun Nurudeen Olaleye disclosed this at the inauguration of the committee in Abeokuta.
He said the Board and practitioners had deliberated on the need to put up a programme that would change the negative mindset of the public and broaden the horizon of security operatives on the practice of Alternate Medicine.
The Chairman of the board stated, ’’we have concluded all the necessary arrangements to organise a mega workshop and re-orientation programme for all the Alternate Medicine practitioners across the State in collaboration with security agencies”.
He disclosed that the orientation workshop was paramount to the development of the practice, adding that the programme would not only help eradicate the act of ritual killing and rescue the sub-sector from social disrepute but also save it from quacks who had battered the image of the profession for so long.
He added that the workshop would re-orientate all the practitioners on their mode of operation, particularly on what the law permits them to do, expose them to their limitations and open up what security personnel would be expecting from them in line with the modern-day practice.
Some of the participants, Chief Samson Soyoye and Mrs. Elizabeth Quodri commended the commitment of the Board towards taking alternate medicine to a greater height and assured of members’ support to promot the practice.
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