₦airaland Forum

By David Iyofor
Again, on Saturday August, 18, 2013, Presidential Assistant on Public Affairs Dr. Doyin Okupe on a radio programme, continued his grossly irresponsible, repugnant and contemptuous, albeit, feckless mission of denigrating and disparaging the person and office of the Governor of Rivers State and the Chairman of the Nigerian Governors’ Forum(NGF), Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi.

In the past few weeks, we elected to ignore scurrilous statements from Okupe, as we do not wish to, wittingly or unwittingly, avail him with a sparring partner as he strives, though fecklessly yet again, to elevate his act from anattack puppyto anattack dogMoreover, like most Nigerians, we believe that Okupe is an irrelevant in the political equation that no serious-minded person should take seriously. Over time, his comments and statements are akin to some sort of notice-me monkey dance in front of his boss and his band of cheerleaders.

However, it has become pertinent to alert/notify the populace and Mr. President that the likes of Okupe represent the very worst of the President Goodluck Jonathan administration. With an aide and adviser like Okupe, President Jonathan certainly does not need any enemies. Indeed, Okupe is more than a handful. Pray, what kind of advice will an aide/adviser like Okupe give to Mr President? The earlier Mr President purged the Presidency of characters like Okupe, the better for us all.

Okupe sank to a new low when he falsely and indecorously claimed that Governor Amaechi used the police to harass, intimidate and punish people unjustly and could not provide one instance or any evidence to back up his claims. He bragged about some phantom text messages from “ordinary people” whose families have suffered grave injustice in the hands of Amaechi and, yet again, did not tell usthe content and senders of the text messages. What does Okupe take Nigerians for? The phantom text messages exist only in the devious mind of Doyin Okupe.
The Presidential spokesman then sank even deeper as he condescendingly descended to become the Chief Advocate and Defender-in-Chief of the Commissioner of Police in RiversState, Mbu Joseph Mbu, who the National Assembly has resolved categorically should be removed from Rivers State.

Okupe’s warped argument is that the call for the redeployment of Mbu from Rivers State by the State government is because Mbu has refused to be a ‘tool in the hands of Amaechi’. Pray Okupe, if that is the case and Mbu is such ‘a professional with diginity’, why then did the House of Representatives and the Senate(who sent a committee to Rivers State to investigatethe issues) passed two separate resolutions calling for the immediate removal of Mbu from Rivers State? If Okupe’s trend ofagberologic isanything to go by, his likely response would be that it’s because Mbu refused to be a tool in thehands of the National Assembly!

With comments like that coming from a presidential aide and spokesman, Nigerians now have a better insight into why Mbu is still in Rivers State and continues to act with impunity, in spite of the call by eminent Nigerians and the resolution of the National Assembly that Mbu should go. What interests does Mbu serve for Okupe and his co-travellers that they are bent on keeping Mbu in Rivers State?

Let us remind Okupe and his co-travellers that it took a lot of efforts, resources and the strong political will and determination of Governor Amaechi to restore peace, security and order toRivers State from the dark days of pre- October2007. To destroy all that in the name of playingpolitics portends grave danger for our polity and will do no one, more especially, the Presidency no good. No responsible government plays politics with the lives of its people

It is certainly rude, uncharitable, ill-mannered and hypocritical for Okupe to falsely and superciliously allege that Amaechi is a ‘willing tool’ to any person or group against President Jonathan. Where was Doyin Okupe when Governor Amaechi led Rivers electorates to overwhelming give President Jonathan over two million votes, the highest by any State in the last presidential election?

For the likes of Okupe and his fellow travellers in the Presidency and Abuja, Governor Amaechionly became ‘willing tool to the opposition’ when he openly refused to cede any part and oil wells of Rivers State to a neighbouring State, and stood firmly and resolutely to defendand fight for the rights of Rivers people, which he was elected to do, anyway. For the likes of Okupe and his ilk in the Presidency and Abuja, Governor Amaechi only became ‘willing tool to the opposition’ when he, like most other governors,insisted on governors and governors alone, to determine who would be their chairman, the Governors’ Forum Chairman and not some hawks in the Presidency. Governor Amaechi's only ‘sin’, to the Okupes in the Presidency, is his penchant for seeking justice and fairness for all, and his ability to speak his mind and say the truth at all times. This, obviously, is notin conformity with the kind of politics Okupe knows and understands.

It continues to baffle us, like most Nigerians, that small minds like Okupe in a democracy, still see holding a different opinion from the Presidency on any issue as anti-Jonathan and fighting Mr. President - a taboo and sacrilege. And any person perceived to be thinking differently must be crucified, politically and otherwise.

It is indeed a sad commentary on our nation’s democracy and unity that a Presidential aide/spokesman would see nothing wrong and would cavalierly dismiss the harassment, stoning and attack on eminent and esteemed visiting governors from the Northern States to their colleague and chairman, Governor Amaechi in Rivers State by a mob, a group floated, financed and promoted by a serving minister in the Presidency. This tells a lot aboutthe character of Doyin Okupe.

We admonish Okupe that his persistent intemperate, obnoxious and opprobrious invectives and outbursts against Governor
Amaechi and other Peoples Democratic Party(PDP) Governors cannot and will not help his boss in any way. At best, it may provide some kind of bizarre fleeting entertainment for his(Okupe’s) cheerleaders. Like he said, if Mr. President decides to seek for re-election, it is the same governors that the Presidency will need and call upon to deliver the votes from their various States to the President.

Pray, how will Okupe’s uncouth, relentless and constant tirades against Governor Amaechi andsome other PDP governors assist his principal now or in 2015? Or help our party, the PDP, in winning elections? Nigerians are more interested in what the PDP controlled Presidency is doing to better their lives, not thepetty, cheap politics of hatred, acrimony and unbridled outbursts of an inconsequential presidential aide who is trying so hard to play to the gallery and earn his pay.

Characters like Okupe are the real enemies of the PDP and Mr. President.The country and Mr. President can certainly do without his infantile vituperations, which has become a constant distraction. Okupe represents everything a presidential aide/spokesman should not be.

David Iyofor
Spokesman/Chief Press Secretary
To The Rivers State Governor. August 18, 2013

mikelreal: True talk! THOSE LECTURERS ARE MONSTERS, THEY DONT DESERVE ANYTHING! OLE!

Three months to the commencement of the £3000 visa bond regime due to be imposed on Nigerians travelling to the United Kingdom, theFederal Government may have perfected plans to impose a £5,000 visa bond on prospective British citizens visiting Nigeria.
This is in retaliation to the new but controversial immigration policy of the UK scheduled to commence in November 2013.
The Home Office of the United Kingdom, recently classified Nigeria, India, as “high risk” and placed a £3,000 bond on every Nigerian visiting Britain.
The bond will be forfeited to the British government if an immigrant overstays his permit.
More than two million Nigerians are residing in the UK.
Uproar had greeted the immigration policy described as “discriminatory” since its announcement in June.
Nigeria is one of the countries put on the British “high-risk-list”. Others are India, Ghana,Bangladesh, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.
The countries are slated for the pilot scheme ofthe new immigration policy to check immigration abuses.
A reliable source at the Nigerian High Commission in London told National Mirror thatthe refusal of the British Government to backpedal on the visa bond compelled Nigeria to fight back.
The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Olugbenga Ashiru, had earlier assured that Nigeria would react appropriately if the policy was eventually implemented.
The source, who is a senior officer of the High Commission but did not want his name mentioned, told our correspondent in London that Nigeria had officially protested to the British government over the policy.
He, however, said that there was no sign that the British would rescind the decision.
“As a responsible country, we have protested officially against the discriminatory policy to the British government. But from all indicationsthere is no going back on the policy. We have tried to make them see reasons on the need to review the new immigration policy, but it is like a done deal.
“Don’t forget that Nigeria has threatened to retaliate if the policy is implemented. So, we are only waiting for the implementation and the modalities of the new British immigration policy. But I can assure you that the Nigerian government won’t fold its hands. We would even raise the stake beyond the £3,000 they are asking Nigerians to pay as bond. We are looking at £5,000 as visa bond for UK citizens visiting Nigeria. This is our plan, which is subject to the approval of the Federal Government,” the source told National Mirror yesterday.
This stand is bound to strain the diplomatic relations between Britain and its former colony,Nigeria.
Early this year, British Prime Minister David Cameron chided Nigeria for passing anti-gay bill and threatened to cut aid to the country.
Also, Cameron recently berated Nigerian leaders for the mismanagement of the country’s huge natural resources.
But the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ spokesman, Ogbole Amedu Odeh, denied knowledge of the £5,000 visa bond.
“I’m just hearing that from you. I’m not aware of any £5,000 visa bond for British citizens,” Odeh told National Mirror on phone yesterday.
“Nigeria has not got official correspondence from the British government. Anytime Nigeria gets official communication on the policy, we will react appropriately.”
Meanwhile, Nigerians in the UK under the umbrella of the Central Association of Nigerians in the United Kingdom, CANUK, have said that if this bond is implemented, wrong people will be targeted.
In an interview with National Mirror in London, CANUK Chairman, Bimbo Folayan, said: “On the visa bond, we’ve expressed our feelings that this is not a right policy. We feel that the wrong people are being targeted. We believe that this will be counter-productive and we think this is more political, more economical than immigration related.
“We have protested to the Commonwealth Office, they have listened to us and they promised to get back to us.
“Because of the present situation of British economy, it is probably another way for the Home Office to make money. But that will be to the detriment of genuine travellers. The £3,000 bond will only swell the purse of the British government.”
They, however, opposed the planned retaliationof the British immigration policy by the FederalGovernment of Nigeria.
Folayan added: “Our position is that two wrongs cannot make a right. I believe that Nigerian government should not retaliate wrongly. Three times this year, I have gone to Nigeria with British investors. So, it means if I’m going to Nigeria, I will have to look for £5,000 visa bond for each of the visitors.
“So, this can only hurt Nigeria. This can hurt investment inflow in Nigeria. We do not support the £5,000 proposed visa bond. Either way, from the British government or Nigerian government, we do not support the policy.
“Policies are made and can be changed. If this is injurious to the economy of the UK, they have to change the policy. I don’t see anything cast in stone on the matter.”
The group, however, said that there was no basis for Nigerians to come to UK illegally.
“The region of the world that is enjoying growth is Africa and that is where the focus is. In UK, we are not recording so much growth and the economic forecast is not too promising.
“So, everybody is feeling the pain. There are not many jobs in the UK any more. There is actually no basis for any youth to leave Nigeriaand live in UK illegally because, one, there are no jobs. Two, if you come illegally, that is evenworse because you cannot get a job without relevant papers like work permit whereas thereare opportunities in Nigeria,” Folayan said.
Nigerians also decried their being labelled as “high risks”. “Nigeria is not high risk. The vast majority of Nigerians living in UK are students, workers and those born in the country. That is not to say that there are no illegal immigrants.
“We strongly feel that Nigeria is not a high risk country regardless of the statistics they might have gathered. We object to targeting a few countries, calling them ‘high risk’.
“We do not support illegal immigrants. We actually encourage Nigerians in the UK to regularise their papers. We’re also in the forefront of encouraging Nigerians living in UK illegally to embrace the opportunity that have been provided by the International Organisation of Migration, IOM, for them to go back home and live more meaningfully than staying in UK without getting a job because of lack of regular papers.”
The group noted that the £3,000 bond would only embolden desperate people rather than serve as deterrent.

Contrary to media report purportedly spread byformer Governor Orji Uzor Kalu, that Governor Fashola of Lagos State ordered the seal of his house in Ikoyi because he criticized the governor’s recent “deportation” of some Igbo destitute to Anambra State, it has now been revealed that Kalu was a cheap liar.
According to Lagos Government, his house wassealed off because he has refused to pay the fee that other house owners are paying.
Lagos State said Kalu defaulted in the paymentof his Land Use Charge, an annual fee paid by all landlords for their property in Lagos State. Although Governor Fashola has ordered that the house be reopened.
Kalu has, however, been given 14 days to pay or risk his house being sealed off, again.

OLUFAMOUS
Short URL: http://www.osundefender.org /?p=116280

The spokesman of the Action Nation Congress(ACN)of Lagos state, Mr. Joe Igbokwe has expressed concern that Igbo people in markets across Lagos state are taking the laws into their hands. He made the observation last weekend in an interview with SaharaTV. Mr. Igbokwe said that the Oladipo market issue hadbeen on Governor Fashola’s desk for two years but Igbo people have refused to listen or respect the committee set up by the government of Lagos State to look into the matter.
“We need to do something to bring order to ourmarkets in Lagos,” Mr. Igbokwe said to SaharaTV’s Rudolf Okonkwo. “Our people are taking laws into their hands. No responsive andresponsible government will take the kind of insult and audacity our people are displaying inLagos. They don’t want to obey constituted authorities. And it is not only Oladipo (market).”
Igbokwe’s worry about the situations in variousmarkets across Lagos came towards the end ofan interview centered on the deportation of some “destitutes” from Lagos state to Anambra state.
“I’ve been embarrassed at what is happening in our markets,” Igbokwe lamented. “Nearly allour markets in Lagos are endangered with a deep crisis of leadership.”
Okonkwo opened the interview by asking Igbokwe about the deportees, how many of them there were and how they were selected for deportation. Citing documents that claimed that many of the deportees were impoverished Igbo people, Okonkwo asked Igbokwe how populations of these destitutes were being counted and accounted for in Lagos State.
To this Igbokwe explained that the Lagos State government has always been especially proactive in taking care of its most destitute inhabitants, ensuring the impoverished were treated with decency and cleaned up. However,he furthered, Lagos State has a duty to its residents to ensure that public safety in the commercial metro is maintained at all times. “What is happening in Lagos concerns security issues and Lagos is just trying to be proactive…we have seen situations where people pretending to be selling oranges turn out to be bomb throwers,” Igbokwe illustrated.
When asked about any efforts by Lagos State to elicit help from the federal government to end such vagrancy and crime, Igbokwe provided no clear answer. This suggests, as Okonkwo illustrated, that Lagos State decided to take action and arrest and hold certain people in “treatment centers” without consulting the federal government or thinking about possible human rights violations.
Pressed further about citizens’ concern over themorality of the measure, Igbokwe offered that this was not the first time this had happened, and expressed surprise that this issue was being taken so seriously. He repeatedly implored the concerned to look at the “bigger picture”, and consider the situation the Lagos State government was put in, a predicament that somewhat justified the “hard decision” to deport.
But being that this situation has occurred twice,citizens must be concerned about the potential for consequential occurrences. While today’s deportees were primarily Igbo “destitutes”, tomorrow they could be anyone, picked in a similarly arbitrary and capricious fashion. How can state security be used to justify clearly divisive and aggressively inhumane measures, against other Nigerians? Why is blatant exclusionary action being upheld by any state?
Regarding the claims of exclusion in Lagos state, Igbokwe stressed that neither himself or Lagos State governor Fashola was intentionallytargeting Igbo people. “I am not an enemy of Igbo people,” he emphasized. “I am a humanist.”
Igbokwe later suggested the Anambra State government must also be investigated about their role in the matter. “This is politics,” he claimed. Referring to the coming governorship elections, he claimed that the Anambra State government’s decision to go to the press about the matter before contacting Lagos State was apolitically-motivated aim. “This is election time, people can do all kinds of things to win an election,” he stated.
Further defending Governor Fashola’s actions, he offered, “governors can issue directives, how they are carried out is another thing. Governors can’t have eyes everywhere.” He went on to also explain that Governor Fashola later apologized for the incident.
The situation, as it seemingly appeared to Igbokwe, was one that was not truly Lagos State’s fault, in fact he suggested that the Anambra state liaison office should carry primary blame for the way the events played out. Lagos State, according to Igbokwe, allegedly reached out to Anambra State about the displaced destitutes but received no response.
“Lagos did what it was supposed to do,” he concluded.

nextdoor84: [color=#000099][/color]

You are suppose to rot in jail for your comment....the world is wiser now..the yorubas were the most hit during the post 2011 election riot..so stop beating war drums you ass hole!!

Yungwizzzy: nothing will happen this how they predict d impossible every election year

Tolexander: Thank God for this.

Not like facebook nursery and primary school in some places.

nerodenero: How can you preside over a meeting when the election that brought you to power was rigged?I dont know why we always throw caution to the wind.Can we ever conduct a free and fair election in this country?Shaking my head for this sick-old man!