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Democrats not happy with Biden, campaign strategy, others for Harris’ defeat to Trump
By Kayode Sanni-Arewa
Democrats are facing a painful reckoning over Kamala Harris’s drubbing at the hands of Donald Trump in the US presidential election, as shock gives way to anger and recrimination in the aftermath of a devastating repudiation.
Lawmakers and strategists looking for someone to blame for Tuesday’s wipeout have so far been more likely to target President Joe Biden than Harris, who is regarded as having done a decent job with the short time she had to campaign.
The election night disaster — Trump’s triumph was accompanied by a Republican “red wave” in the Senate — has proved to be a Rorschach test, with rival factions each offering reasons for the defeat informed by their particular brand of Democratic politics.
The circular firing squad began with progressive senator Bernie Sanders arguing in a scathing statement that a party that had forsaken the working class should not be surprised to “find that the working class has abandoned them.”
That prompted an angry rebuke from Democratic National Committee chairman Jaime Harrison, who dismissed Sanders’s thesis as “straight up BS” and posted a long list of Biden’s achievements for low income families.
New York congressman Ritchie Torres hit out at what he sees as smug political correctness on the left, insisting that Trump had “no greater friend” than activists alienating voters with “absurdities like ‘Defund the Police’… or ‘Latinx.’”
Harris has escaped the harshest criticism, as she is regarded as having had insufficient time to campaign thanks to Biden’s initial insistence on running again at 81, despite having promised to be a bridge to the next generation.
The aging president’s sluggishness in bowing out after a disastrous debate performance against Trump deepened the challenge, as Harris had to start her campaign in July as a relative unknown, despite being the vice president.
Billionaire former Democratic presidential candidate Mike Bloomberg, who feels that Biden’s campaign should never have got as far as the June 27 debate, attacked the president’s team in a commentary for Bloomberg for covering up his shortcomings “until they became undeniable on live TV.”
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Empowerment projects now conduit for embezzlement – ICPC
The Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission has raised concerns over what it described as politicisation of empowerment projects in Nigeria.
ICPC also revealed that empowerment programmes had become significant conduits for embezzlement and mismanagement of public funds.
This was revealed in the Phase VI report of the constituency and executive projects tracking exercise, which was released by the commission on Thursday.
A total of 1721 government-funded projects with a total value of N284, 602,881,868.57 were tracked during the exercise which spanned from November 2023 to May 2024.
In the report, the ICPC identified numerous instances where empowerment items, which are intended for poverty alleviation and to support the most vulnerable, were procured but hoarded by project facilitators for potential use in political campaigns.
The report added that of the total tracked projects, 26.1 per cent—or 449 projects—were categorised as empowerment initiatives, amounting to over N35.5 billion in contract awards.
The report partly read, “Empowerment items are meant to be distributed to intended beneficiaries to empower them or to serve as poverty alleviation items. These items were procured but hoarded by the project facilitators possibly for electoral campaign activities.
“Large-scale soft/fluid projects and empowerment projects as major conduits for siphoning public resources: Empowerment/soft projects deserve special attention in this report in view of their increasing propensity within the budget as more project sponsors now prefer to embed such projects for execution in the budget.
“In the course of Phase VI project tracking, it was discovered that the aggregate number of empowerment projects tracked amounts to 449 empowerment projects (26.1% of the total tracked projects), while the aggregate sum/value of contract award on empowerment projects is N35,585,340,728.91.
“In all the shenanigans found in the course of tracking empowerment projects, contractors, project facilitators as well as the executing agencies staff cannot be excused of gross connivance.
The ICPC further revealed that in agencies such as the North East Development Commission and the Hydro-Electric Power Producing Areas Development Commission, empowerment items were handed over to stakeholders instead of directly reaching the intended recipients.
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Lagos retirees raise the alarm over unpaid pensions
Some retirees in Lagos State have said they have not been paid their pensions for about six months by the African Alliance Insurance Plc.
According to them, the insurance firm has not been reachable for months.
Saturday PUNCH reported on September 7 that the pensioners haven’t paid their pensions since January 2024.
Meanwhile, the National Insurance Commission has directed the insurance company to settle all outstanding customers’ claims and submit a turnaround plan for addressing their challenges.
In August, the insurance company’s Executive Director (Technical), Wasiu Amao, said the firm was working on the turnaround plan as directed by the NIC.
Recently, the Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Ola Olukoyede, stated that the commission would intensify its focus on monitoring activities within Nigeria’s insurance industry over issues of fraud.
Speaking with Saturday PUNCH, a retiree, Omotayo Clement, who retired from the Lagos State Ministry of Works and Infrastructure, said he couldn’t afford to treat his ailing wife because his benefits had not been paid.
“I have been expecting them (African Alliance Insurance) to pay for more than six months now. We don’t have any reasons why they have not paid. Maybe they thought we had died,” Clement lamented.
Another retiree from the Lagos State Ministry of Works and Infrastructure, Solomon Oyedele, said things had been tough for him.
“The insurance company has not paid us for months; there is nothing we’re enjoying at the moment. There are a lot of us who are suffering and the government hasn’t said anything about it till now. We are just tired,” he stated.
However, all efforts by our correspondent to get the African Alliance Insurance Plc to speak on the matter proved abortive. Calls put across to the company were neither answered nor returned.
Also, emails and text messages sent were not responded to as of the time of filing this report.
The state Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Gbenga Omotoso, had not also responded to calls and messages from Saturday PUNCH as of press time.
Credit: PUNCH
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TCN deploys vigilantes as vandals attack transmission line
Again, vandals have attacked and caused significant disruption to the ongoing repair works on the Ahoada-Yenagoa 132kV line, the Transmission Company of Nigeria has reported.
The fresh attacks, which occurred on November 19, 2024, affected Towers 29 to 31 and resulted in the theft of approximately one-third of the conductor.
The latest incident is the third act of vandalism on the same transmission line in four months.
The TCN General Manager of Public Affairs, Ndidi Mbah, who announced the development through a statement on Friday in Abuja, called on the public to support efforts by the company to address the criminal activities targeting power infrastructure.
The statement read, “The Transmission Company of Nigeria regrets to report that its Ahoada-Yenagoa 132kV line, which is currently under repair due to previous vandalism, was again targeted by vandals on November 19, 2024.
“The attack, which affected towers 29 to 31, resulted in the theft of approximately one-third of the conductor.”
The company further stated that it had started repairs after an inspection conducted by the General Manager of the Port Harcourt Region, Emmanuel Akpa, to ascertain the level of damage.
It also said local vigilantes had been engaged at Ula Ikata in Ahoada East Local Government Area to secure the site until repairs were completed.
The statement read, “The team of TCN engineers led by the General Manager of the Port Harcourt Region, Emmanuel Akpa, has inspected the site. Preliminary findings indicate that the incident occurred at night.
“In an attempt to prevent further theft while repair arrangements are being made, local security has been engaged at Ula Ikata in Ahoada East LG to secure the site until repairs are completed. Additionally, the line will be energised from the Ahoada end as a preventive measure.
“Efforts to replace the stolen 250mm conductor are currently underway. Despite challenges posed by difficult terrain and flooding, the restringing of the Ahoada-Yenagoa 132kV line is approximately 85 per cent complete.”
Earlier in November, vandals also attacked transmission towers in the Okada and Ofosu communities along the 330kV Benin-Egbin and Benin-Omotosho transmission lines. A total of 31 towers were affected.
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