Rep member, Ahmed Jaha reverses rape comments, apologises

Ahmed Jaha, a member of the House of Representatives has openly regretted and renounced the comments he made at Thursday’s plenary. He gave a sincere apology to Nigerians, especially women.

In an interview on Saturday in Abuja, Ahmed Jaha reversed his comments at the debate that women should cultivate a habit of proper dressing to avoid unnecessary harassment from men who could not control themselves.

The lawmaker, representing Chibok, Damboa, Gwoza Federal Constituency of Borno, said he regretted making such a statement as it affected the sensitivity of women. He said,

“I have made a mistake that has offended the sensibilities of fellow Nigerians and indeed, fellow human beings, particularly women who are our mothers, wives, sisters, and daughters.

While I totally reaffirm my position that rapists should face death sentences, I regret the part that talks about the dressing of women.

I deeply apologise for this position, because as some have rightly argued, my comments, could imply that women who are victims, share the blame of being raped.

This clearly, could not have been the intention of someone who suggested a death penalty for rapists”.

The lawmaker said that there were three sets of people who never made mistakes – “the dead, those incapacitated and those that are healthy, but useless to the society”.

Jaha said a woman’s choice of dressing could not justify rape, saying that if women who were the weaker sex show discipline by looking away when men were not well dressed, men should even do better.

“I know that it is a divine responsibility for every good man to protect and preserve the pride of a woman.

Most women are born with the natural strength of endurance, that is why they are able to go through childbirth, to nurture families, take care of relations and still able to earn descent livelihoods.

Women do things with completeness. I admire this so much, because I have benefited from the sincerity and commitment of women.

I hold women with the highest respect, with great pride and with so much love that is pure and responsible,” the parliamentarian added.

Ahmed Jaha also apologised to his colleagues in the house and his constituents who might have been disappointed by his comments, especially female lawmakers.

Reps to investigate all privatisation in the power sector

The Committee on Power in the House of Representatives has said that the House has rounded off on plans to look into all privatisation in the sector. This they said, is to ensure that the challenges being faced presently in the sector are resolved.

The Chairman of the Committee, Rep. Magaji Aliyu, made this known on Friday in Abuja when he led other members on an oversight function to the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN).

“The house has just been mandated to investigate all power sector privatisation from the public enterprises to the Electricity Distribution Companies (DisCos).

This will commence by next week so that the issue of no power will be solved and Nigerians get value for their money

The complexity of this sector is enormous when TCN has the capacity to wheel 10,000 megawatts and the Distribution Companies (DisCos do not take more than 3,000.

Why we are paying for undelivered capacity in billions of naira, something has to change,” he said.

Aliyu also urged the management of TCN to ensure that Nigerian engineers were patronised in the execution of projects in the sector..

“President Muhammadu Buhari has signed an Executive Order aimed at boosting the domestic production of goods and creating jobs in science, technology and engineering in the country.

The President has signed the order that no project should be given to any foreign company unless there is no Nigerian company

My committee will look into this very seriously to ensure the order is carried out as we will not support any contract given out to foreign companies no matter how technical.

There can be a technical partnership as we must protect Nigerians and Nigerian businesses,” he said.

He urged the management of TCN to work with NASS, adding that the members were ready to assist them to achieve their goals.

In his response, the Acting Managing Director of TCN, Mr Sule Abdulaziz said that there was the need to strengthen the transmission sector by ensuring critical transformation of the existing system.

According to Abdulaziz, the government, regulator and TCN management will all play key roles in ensuring the transformation of the power sector.

“With the government taking the lead to create the right investment while TCN focus on implementing new technology, faster projects execution and improving operational efficiencies,” he said.

According to him, Members as representatives of the people and legislators have important roles to play by ensuring that the populace they represent have sufficient and qualitative power supply.

He said that ensuring qualitative power supply to all constituencies would boost economic growth in the country.

“In order to drive growth in capacity utilisation, the immediate focus of the new TCN management will be on repairing existing equipment which are failing and prone to breakdowns.

Regular, proactive maintenance processes will be institutionalised to reduce the occurrence and impact of breakdowns.

We are also going to prioritise on expanding our capacity via new projects that will span across the entire nation.

These are some of the considerations that will help in achieving the goal in improving the performance of the transmission sector,’’ the TCN boss said.

Reps approve Buhari’s $22.7b loan request

The House of Representatives has approved the request of President Muhammadu Buhari to take $22.7 billion in foreign loan.

After due consideration of a report by the house committee on aids, loans and debt management on Tuesday June 2, the request was approved by the lawmakers. 

It can be recalled that this particular loan request was up for debate as some lawmakers from the South East were against granting the request. Their reason was that the Federal government has failed to include projects in the region among those to be financed from the loan.

In his reply, President Buhari said that the loan will be used to fund infrastructural development across the country, which sped up the approval of the request. 

Rep to FG - "Open airports"

A member of the House of Representatives, Akinola Alabi, has urged the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 to open the country’s airports.

Alabi, who represents Egbeda/Ona-Ara Federal Constituency, also pushed for interstate travel to be allowed in the next phase of the easing of lockdown.

“Next phase of easing lockdown. Allow interstate travel. Then open the airports and introduce some safety measures,” he tweeted.

The country’s airports and airspace were shut in March by the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), as part of efforts to contain COVID-19.

Commercial flight operations, both local and international, had stopped forthwith but the President’s directive allowed the operation of essential flights including those for medical and evacuation purposes, amongst others, which are subject to the authorisation of the Federal Ministry of Aviation and agencies under it.

On May 6, the Chairman of the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19, Boss Mustapha, announced that the closure of the country’s airports and airspace were further extended by four weeks after due consultations with experts.