₦airaland Forum

No power since yesterday in Shomolu palmgrove

Interesting that this guy left behind an abandoned light rail in a state he governed over the last eight years o, and here he is saying he has superintended a project like this before. Only Sanwoolu and Amaechi can lay claim to such in the whole of Nigeria

This looks like artificial turf

This is a recurring decimal, girls need to be educated never to obey a teacher or male friend that tells her to come to come to a place that there is probability of isolation, if she has to go she should go with an uncle or elder brother who can handle himself

Clown, he doesn't understand the vision and the drive behind the progress of Lagos. Lagos state development is driven by vision and long term planning which I doubt Yahya Bello wasn't able to achieve in his below par 8 year performance. He thinks it is all about forcing a successor. Mtcheew

It doesn't invalidate all prayers for 70 days but your prayers won't be accepted for 40 days but you must still pray and drinking alcohol is forbidden totally in Islam. An upright Muslim must never drink. A Muslim who drinks commits major sin and will be liable to punishment in this world or the hereafter. But he is still a Muslim though

IconicR:
Your last paragraph is confusing, what do you mean by simple prayers
Are there any other prayers aside the five times daily prayers?
If you are from the north or having lived in the north you'll understand my views

Consumption of alcohol by Muslims is totally prohibited in the north and as such invalidates all types of prayers till after 70days

Here is a list of a first eleven picked by AI by for the Super Eagles. What do you think, Hit or Miss?
https://www.goal.com/en-ng/lists/artificial-intelligence-chatgpt-picks-a-nigerian-super-eagles-all-star-squad/blt294fed64ff304533#cs000be7aaeba94d18

After the Lagos Loss, na this one sweet me pass, I hope the man can do great things in this his first term so he can get a second term. That will be the final nail in the coffin for the IPOBs and Obi supporters

That's true o! Brilliant
Where do you want the port of South East, North East, West and Central to be located?

checkmatez:
Any seaport in the same Nigeria having different activities from Lagos port is not a port......
Stop all this propaganda
Each region should at least have a single functioning ports to make life easier for Nigerians.

Before the usual suspects start spinning conspiracy theories, the court is just about hearing the case after it earlier dismissed it due to an error from the court registry. The case will just about to be heard so judgement hasn't been given against innoson

Try bentonite clay mixed with water, it is popularly known as Calabar chalk, you can get it at stalls of women that sell herbs. Rub it all over her body and observe if there is any effect, at least it should reduce the itching inshaAllah

1st position: Ortom
2nd Position: Ikpeazu
3rd Position: Bello

If interested you can contact me on WhatsApp 08098557290

*Land for sale* :

800sqm at freedom way(the land is along the road beside the dome) Asking #130m.

1200sqm at Ilasan(other side of Nicon town)
Asking #170m.

Just tell him if he is truly interested in you he can come and see your father, shikena

Please cut these boys some slack, they are playing together for the first time, no warm up match nothing, they were just thrown in to the game like that, even Mexico had a match with Panama before this one. Most of the blame should go to the NFF, why can't there be regular matches with African teams using the home based, it is only when there is a competition that the boys are brought together. When these guys play regularly with each other they will become a better team

Hope they no comot spit sha

Hello everyone,
I need guidance on how to structure my produce delivery business, I want to deliver coconut to Abuja and possibly other Northern states, is there anybody on this forum who can be of help

The project was conceived, awarded, supervised and completed all in a space of 2 years by the buhari administration. Argue.with this link https://punchng.com/240mw-afam-iii-plant-for-inauguration-next-month/

Atouke:
Stop lying the afam power station is privately owned by the consortium headed by the chairman of uba bank.
These power station was one of those that benefited from President Barack Obama power Africa loans in 2013/2014.
Money was paid to GE for the turbines via this initiative.
These was done during GEJ tenure, buhari had zero input.
Stop taking credit for GEJ good and strategic leadership.

To put a lie to your claims everybody please click on this link https://punchng.com/240mw-afam-iii-plant-for-inauguration-next-month/

SalamRushdie:
Bro learn to think and evaluate deep ..

The Buhari govt inherits a full bottle of coke then flushed 70 percent of it into the toilet and add water then claim it's a record ... For the records the 5.07 trillion Naira recorded in 2012 was equivalent to 38 billion US dollars while the 5.3 trillion Naira the useless deceptive Buhari govt is celebrating is equivalent to just 14 billion dollars so in the real sense the FIR revenue has intact reduced by about 60 percent ..lets face the fact Nigeria is only moving backwards under Buhari .

You can lie for Africa ehn! chop one dirty slap there for the rubbish wey you lie. The tax collection for 2012 was 1.1 Trillion Naira check this link to clarify your doubts
https://www.indexmundi.com/facts/nigeria/tax-revenue

TheCable

HomepageTop Stories
INTERVIEW: Our biggest challenge was monopoly — but Buhari broke it, says Jadesimi
Oluwatoyin Bayagbon in BusinessTheCable SpecialTop Stories


Amy Jadesimi, managing director of Lagos Deep Offshore Logistic Base (LADOL) explains to TheCable why Nigeria is fast becoming the fabrication hub in Africa, why Nigeria is now more than ever an attractive investment destination, women’s role in leadership and the impact of increased local content to the Nigeria economy.

TheCable: What is the economic impact of the successful arrival of Egina FPSO in Nigeria?

Amy Jadesimi: The arrival of the Egina FPSO (floating production storage and offloading unit) is a sea change — no pun intended — because it shows that we can now carry out the most challenging industrial project in the world, in Nigeria. This is not just about the arrival of the vessel, it is about the building of the yard and the operation of the yard. The Nigerians who worked in the yard operated above the average global standard and the results speak for themselves.

The fact that the FPSO was sent here was primarily because we achieved everything that we needed to achieve in the yard. The six modules were built, we were ready to receive the vessel ahead of time. And in every way the arrival of the vessel and the way the project has been conducted in Nigeria exceeded expectations. The collaboration and the proof that ease of doing business is working, is also an important mile stone. We couldn’t have achieved this without the support of the Nigeria Port Authority (NPA). The NPA went the extra mile – they set up a committee, they coordinated all the stakeholders (both private and public sector) they made sure that the shipping channel was upgraded, brought in extra equipment, and brought in extra tugs.

At the same time, the Nigeria Export Processing Zone Authority (NEPZA) worked literally 24/7 coordinating government agencies in the zone. So, it really took a village to make this happen and the success is a mile stone that shows that more and more projects like this can be done not just in Lagos but across the country.

With this remarkable achievement in Q1, what will the outlook be for the rest of 2018?

For the project itself, we are now looking to get the work done and for sail-away from LADOL to happen as soon as possible. The other activities in the free zone involves us supporting a wider range of industries. We are diversifying by focusing more on agriculture processing, we are also focusing and completing our upskilling academy, which is about human capital development and the company is going to capture some of the staff that have worked on the FPSO so as to keep them continually employed. Another big focus for us is collaboration. People have often heard us say that on the back of the development of the shipyard in LADOL free zone, we think we can generate up to 50,000 new jobs in Nigeria – directly or indirectly. Most of those jobs will be indirect. There is a ten times multiplier effect on job creation meaning that for every one job created in LADOL, 10 jobs will be created outside. For those 10 jobs to be created, we need more indigenous investment, we need the development of more capacity across the country. And to achieve improved capacity, we need indigenous Nigerians in the private sector to collaborate, we need the banks to make long terms loans available, and we government to continue with its ease of doing business policies.

During the Nigeria International Petroleum Summit, the minister of state for petroleum resources said FG is bringing ‘Project 100’ in April to assist private investors. How can this be achieved?

The first thing you need for any scheme like that to be successful is demand. For us to increase the level of demand that we have for services to be done in-country, we need more shipyards like LADOL. When you have a shipyard like this and everybody knows that the major work, the critical work, the high value work both in terms of fabrication and engineering can be done in Nigeria, that means the locus of the project will be Nigeria and there will be more demand for other aspects, other services to be provided in-country.

For example, the demand for local fabrication we think will increase by a factor of at least four because it is now economically attractive to fabricate in Nigeria and ship the fabricated pieces to LADOL for full integration. I think the ‘Project 100’ is a good scheme, and I will encourage the government to go ahead with it but for the scheme to be sustainable and therefore successful, we actually need more local market demand. We need major projects to be approved, we need more indigenous investment and we need our banks to provide the type of long term low cost financing that these long-term investments require.

When will the integration of the Egina FPSO be completed?

The project schedule that Total is working with is six months, so that’s what we’re working with.

What has been the drawback during the lifetime of the Egina FPSO project so far?

There have been many challenges not just for the project but for LADOL. We have moved from a time where private sector development from LADOL was literally forced out of the market. The biggest challenge we faced is definitely the monopoly that was prevalent in the sector until it was outlawed by President Muhammadu Buhari in April 2017. When you have a monopoly in the sector, particularly when that monopoly is collecting billions of dollars in unaudited revenues from the government, it makes it impossible for other transparent private sector companies to compete. Even worse, the modus operandi of these monopolies was to actively exclude other companies from the market. So, not only did they have this huge advantage, they were also excluding other companies.

Despite all these efforts, LADOL and a small number of other companies manage to succeed. Why? Because we were adding so much value and the market was so desperate for an alternative that despite these huddles, by continuing to invest and providing high quality services and staying faithful to our mission and vision, we were able to get through the challenges and get to a point where under this government, with the position the government has taken, monopoly was no longer tolerated and was now recognised as an economic sabotage.

This government has brought its ease of doing business policies and other policies that allow other private companies like LADOL to flourish. We would not have been able to bring the FPSO into LADOL directly if this monopoly was still dominating the market. And that just isn’t a loss to LADOL but to the whole country because when you keep the market small, you make sure that the vast majority of Nigerians will never benefit. This is not just about one private company, this is about the hundreds of thousands of companies which will now be able to grow and flourish, successful and profitable because of the environment the government has created.

What is the relationship between LADOL and Samsung regarding the fabrication yard?

Samsung is the engineering procurement construction (EPC) contractor hired by Total to build the FPSO. As has been stated by Total, one of the things that Total included in that EPC contract was the construction of the shipyard in LADOL. One of the reasons I think LADOL was chosen as the facility as the location and one of the reasons we have developed such a close relationship with Total is that they knew based on our track record that we would deliver and do everything necessary to ensure that the facility was built.

Total obviously provided a lot of help through the contract and Samsung provided lots of technical assistance based on the scope of work given by Total. Like I said it definitely takes a village. Total is now going to benefit from the assistance they gave us in building the shipyard in many ways. Future projects will be cheaper, they will help create jobs and help increase the capacity for yards across the country. This will create more wealth and prosperity in Nigeria which will translate into Nigerians contributing into the global economy.

So, there will be a direct benefit for Total shareholders in terms of higher returns from their investment in Nigeria and there will be a benefit for the French people in terms of Nigerians and Nigeria as a country contributing to the global economy.

What are the unique features of LADOL’s ship yard?

There are many unique things about the ship yard. First and foremost it is the largest fabrication and integration ship yard in West Africa. It has the largest crane capacity in the whole of Africa. What that means is that it instantly makes Nigeria the hub for fabrication and integration not just for West Africa but for the whole of Africa. There is a similar facility in America in a place called Corpus Christi (Texas) where they also have massive crane capacity and people come from all over the world just to be able to use those cranes because there some operations that can only be done when you have this kind of crane capacity.

Developing this kind of crane capacity requires massive infrastructural investment but you also have to have a location which is reachable by the largest vessels and the largest modules in the world. So, it is a combination of having the ideal location and then building the infrastructure in that location. The LADOL facility has already given Nigerian a platform on which we can become a hub for fabrication and engineering.

What we want to do is to make that a reality by working with other indigenous companies in the maritime sector, in the oil and gas sector, in the industrial sector to actually build additional capacity across the country so that people could come to Nigeria and get a complete solution.

LADOL is not the complete solution. What we’ve done is open the door and make it feasible for these massive project to be completed locally. But for most of the fabrication to be done we need other places where that fabrication has been done.

That is a similar model to the one we see in South Korea, models you see in Europe where you usually have one strategic location where you carry out the integration and the aggregation but the work that goes into the vessel, that goes into an airplane, the work that goes into building train infrastructure and equipment is done all over the country.

What percentage of participation has LADOL had in local content implementation?

It is impossible to say the exact percentage that we are responsible for. There are 18 modules on the FPSO and six of them were built in-country but the modules on the FPSO are only a part of the over all. That’s a small part of the Total Egina project. I will prefer to look at it in terms of: what has our contribution been in terms of changing the potential, the real potential for local content to be increased to 70% for future projects?

I will say that we’ve been instrumental in that. By having a shipyard in LADOL it is now feasible that within the next five years we can reach the levels of local content that we see in Brazil which is a radical improvement in the level of local content and it is something of which we are very proud.

But for that 70% to be reached – I can’t emphasise this enough – we need a lot more capacity, we need collaboration amongst Nigerians, we need people working all over the country, we need 100,000 Nigerian engineers, we need welders, and we need fabricators. There is a lot that still has to be done but the difference between the situation we were three years ago before the shipyard was built in LADOL and where we are at now is that there is a huge economic incentive to build that capacity in Nigeria.

Previously, if you fabricated anything of any significant size in Nigeria, you have to put it on a vessel and send it to the other side of the world to be made part of something else. As you can imagine, the cost of doing that made it uneconomical to actually develop widespread capacity and that is why we had this phenomena where Nigeria was spending hundreds and billions of dollars on projects and very little value, and few jobs were permanently created locally. Instead jobs were created using Nigerian money, in Nigerian projects across the world.

Now that we have this facility, everything you fabricate here can be integrated here. So, all those jobs that were previously exported can now be domesticated and that is critically important and even more important is the fact that if you are an indigenous investor and you have a fabrication yard and you are looking for financing, and you are trying to build a business plan; it wouldn’t have been very difficult for you to build a business plan before this shipyard was built in LADOL because there is no way you could justify to the bank that you could take on very large project. Now that this shipyard is here, you can use other countries as examples. Nigeria is now a far more attractive investment destination.

Holistically, can you say we are on the path to increasing the local content component in Nigeria’s oil and gas industry?

I think that’s the essence of what we’ve done. Simbi Wabote, the executive secretary of Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB), confirmed that when he visited LADOL and toured the FPSO a couple of weeks ago. The reason we’re so sure of that is again if you look at what happened in Norway, if you look at what happened in the UK, if you look at what happened in America, what we are predicting would be the outcome from the existence of this ship yard is something that has happened in every single country that has built similar facilities.

So we’re sure that this is going to happen. The only question is how quickly will it happen? And that really depends on how quickly other private indigenous investors come together, and we start to look at this market holistically, and start to collaborate. At the same time we need the government to maintain the ease of doing business platform and to expand it, and that expansion should tackle the fact that our local banks are not giving us the kinds of loans we need In order to develop the capacity that is needed to create these jobs.

What impact has federal government’s ‘ease of doing business’ policy had on the economy?

What I will say is that we haven’t seen significant change in the level of foreign investment, but I think the indigenous private sector does feel the benefit. It’s very hard. There is no way in which doing business in any country in the world, especially with trying to develop and make the kinds of changes our private sector is trying to make. Before we had ease of doing business it was almost impossible for businesses to thrive but now it is now possible, and people just have to recognize that there are no short cuts. It is going to be hard, it is going to take a long time and that is why we keep emphasising the need for collaboration and the need to maintain the ease of doing business platform. This is something we need to maintain for the next 10 – 20 years in order to get to where we want to get to.

In terms of regulatory frame work, what could government do to make things easier?

The next focus needs to be on the financing side. It is simply not possible to build capacity unless you have long term low cost loans. It should be about getting a leverage for private investors who want to make medium and long term investment and that money is simply not getting into the right hands. Most of the banking transactions that happened in Nigeria are still between banks and the government and that is just wrong. We need to get to a point where it is attractive for banks to make medium and long term loans and there should be penalties for banks who do not make a significant number of medium and long term loan. That is what the economic needs. There is no way can get to the G20, there is no way we can create the 200 million jobs we need to create as our population increases to 300 million unless we sort out our financial system.



https://www.thecable.ng/nigeria-fast-becoming-hub-fabrication-africa-amy-jadesimi/amp

They are both retired military generals and septuagenarians. They are both Grand Commanders of the Federal Republic. They both enjoyed the rare privilege of ruling the Giant of Africa for as many years as the greatest and best achieving American president ever had no privilege to surpass. They are the most talked-about former leaders the country has had. They are the most active controversy generators in the land. Uncle Sege and Uncle Ibro! They are the best presidents Nigeria ever had. Going by what each of them thinks of himself in comparison to the other (and others), that is, Olusegun Obasanjo became a General in the Nigerian Army a decade before Ibrahim Babangida attained that rank. The former also tasted the goody-goody of the State House about that same length of time before the latter. That, by secondary school tradition, should normally make IBB address OBJ as Senior Segun. IBB, on the other hand, became president (executive or self- proclaimed) a whopping 14 years before OBJ. Senior Ibrahim! That may not necessarily be a basis for any supremacy battle between the duo, though. Actually, they have so many things in common that they perfectly complement each other. More than a few commentators both within and outside our shores would insist that IBB institutionalised corruption in the country while the canker flexed its deadliest muscles under OBJ. If Senior Ibrahim had the $16 billion OBJ “wasted” on PHCN that never really stagger beyond the stalling point of NEPA, he would have created a nuclear and power Utopia in Nigeria. And if Senior Segun had the $12b Gulf War oil windfall, Americans would by now be falling over one another in desperate attempts to win immigrant visa lottery to Nigeria. On two occasions, the right leader at the wrong time! Nigeria, o ma se o (what a pity)! What OBJ flaunts in the Ebora Owu in him, IBB more than makes up for with the Maradona that he was. OBJ conducted, in 2007, the most fraudulent general elections Nigeria has had the misfortune to witness as attested to by all, home and abroad. IBB ‘midwife-d’ but, with the same delivery gloves, curiously aborted the nation’s freest and most credible elections to date, in 1993. The former justified his action by insinuating that even the Lord Jesus Christ couldn’t have done better in Nigeria. The latter rationalized his misdeed by lecturing a ‘dullards’ nation on the difference between “annulment” and “cancellation”. Only the worst and weak presidents admit wrong-doings and make apologies. OBJ and IBB never admit and make apologies for wrong-doings; they only take responsibility. In one accord, they also bear the burden of shared responsibility over the abortion of June 12, which IBB himself described as a “watershed” in the political history of the nation. Almost everyone expected OBJ, as a statesman, to condemn the unspeakable act that was a coup against the people. But he stunned a bewildered nation with his characteristic show of contempt, virtually describing Nigerians as idiots for electing one MKO Abiola who, by his kill-and-go proclamation, was “not the messiah”. That, by Al-Mustapha Theorem, made him technically privy to the annulment, and consequently made both gladiators to be technically guilty of the eventual death of the late president-elect. OBJ has been massively accused of serially betraying loyal friend, IBB who, in spite of Nigerians, cleared the path to his installation as Nigerian leader on two occasions. IBB’s sympathizers never cease to knock OBJ for standing, more than twice, in the way of his friend’s scheme to stage a dramatic come-back “to correct the mistakes of the past”. But here is the manner the chief occupant of the Hill-Top Villa, Minna himself rewarded loyal friendship: “When I was broke, I picked up my phone and called him and he came to my aid, even as President. Sometimes, when he travelled and he didn’t plan it, it may be too late in the night, sometimes 2 a.m.; he would tell me he was passing through. I would share whatever I had with him”. That was IBB talking about MKO Abiola, the same man whose popular election he annulled, leading to his death. A similar visa to the land of no return he granted to the one of whom he said, “Vatsa was my best friend”. Mr. Dele Akinola, an analyst, wrote from Ikorodu, Lagos. https://www.vanguardngr.com/2011/09/the-best-presidents-nigeria-ever-had/

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These monkeys didn't deem it fit to vire any amount from their over bloated budget but they will vire from that which will benefit the masses. Wicked souls

By Henry Umoru
ABUJA—THE Senate yesterday reversed its
earlier decision that N242 billion be removed from
Service Wide votes for the Independent National
Electoral Commission, INEC, and security
agencies, and vired N35.5 billion from power and
education votes for purposes of conducting the
2019 elections.
Falana Petitions NHRC Over Killing Of Shi’ites,
Flays Army, Police
INEC
Of the N35.5 billion, N25.5 billion was vired from
the N714.668 billion allocations to the Ministry of
Power, Works and Housing, while N10 billion was
taken from the Education Ministry’s N651.226
billion in the 2019 budget to make up the N242
billion budget for the election.
Adopting a new report submitted by the
Committee on Appropriations by its Chairman,
Senator Danjuma Goje and 18 others, the Upper
Chamber said only N121.2 billion would now be
taken from the Service Wide Votes, while the
balance of N121 billion will be taken from 30
Ministries, Departments and Agencies, MDAs.
In his presentation, Senator Goje said the earlier
virement of N242bn for the elections budget
entirely from service wide votes ( Special
Intervention Programme ) should be rescinded
and approved new recommended sources.
Other affected MDAs are Federal Ministry of
Water Resources, N12.954bn vired from its
N155.149bn 2018 budget; Federal Ministry of
Agriculture, N11billion vired from its N203bn 2018
budget .
Others include Ministry of Budget and National
Planning, N8.845bn; Ministry of Defence,
N2.636bn; Foreign Affairs, N1.737bn; and Federal
Ministry of Health, N8.059bn.
Also affected in the virements are Office of the
Secretary to the Government of the Federation,
N6.734bn; Office of the National Security Adviser,
N1.120bn; Ministry of Labour and Employment,
N2.727bn; Information and Culture, N1.884bn;
Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs, N1.199bn; Science
and Technology, N7.466bn; Industry, Trade and
Investment, N7.085bn.
The committee in the report, however, retained
the spread of the N242bn virement votes for
conduct of the 2019 general elections across the
six affected agencies as earlier approved by both
chambers of the National Assembly, with the
Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC,
getting NN189 billion; the Nigeria Police Force,
N27.3bn; and Office of National Security Adviser,
N9.481bn.
Others are the Department of State Services,
DSS, N10.213bn; the Nigeria Security and Civil
Defence Corps, NSCDC, N3.573bn; and the
Nigeria Immigration Service, NIS, N2.628bn,
totally, N242.245, 050,100bn.
In his presentation, Senator Goje said: “Recall the
approval of the virement/supplementary budget
for INEC and security agencies for the conduct of
the 2019 general elections in the sum of N242,
245, 050,100 only, which is to be funded from the
Service Wide Votes on October 16, 2018-Senate
Resolution (S/RS/027/04/;
“Senate is aware that because of some obvious
and imminent issues of national socio- economic
importance, the virement/supplementary request
cannot be implemented as earlier approved.
“Accordingly resolves to: Rescind and reconsider
its approval of the request as contained in
resolution (S/RS/027/04/ in line with Order
53(6) of its Standing Order; and Approve the sum
of N242,245,050,100 only.”
While the sole recommendation of the Goje led
Committee was unanimously carried, an
additional prayer was adopted to allow Senate
Committee on Police Affairs investigate how the
Nigeria Police Force has utilised previous
allocation for election purposes in the last two
general elections.
The second resolution was consequent upon
Senator Dino Melaye’s query of allocation of N27,
341,317,433 to the Police for the purpose of the
2019 polls.
Melaye had argued that such collosal amount of
money is not needed by the He Police that had
2018 budgetary allocation.
But in his response, Goje said Melaye’s complaint
was, however, belated after both chambers of the
National Assembly had already passed the 2019
election budget.
Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki, in his
remarks, reframed Melaye’s concerns as he
suggested that the police committee be mandated
to look into the utilisation of previous allocation to
the Police for election monitoring.
The committee is expected to submit its report in
two weeks.
https://www.vanguardngr.com/2018/11/inec-senate-vires-n35-5bn-from-power-education-votes/

•Ekweremadu, governors weigh options •Why S/East leaders are angry •Saraki wades in, holds talks with Ekweremadu Southeast political leaders are accusing the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar of reneging on some pre- convention agreements reached with him. And this is the cause of the bad blood generated in the zone by Atiku’s choice of former Anambra State governor Peter Obi as running mate for the 2019 election, The Nation can now report. Particularly irked by the alleged renege are Deputy Senate President Ike Ekweremadu and some governors in the zone, sources said yesterday. Associates of the Deputy Senate President and some PDP leaders in the Southeast are already putting pressure on Ekweremadu to review his status in the party. His options are to defect from the party or remain in PDP to fight for survival. The alleged agreements include consultation with Southeast leaders on how to pick vice presidential candidate; consensus on other positions conceded to the zone; finding a meeting point with the zone on Atiku’s idea of restructuring; need to spend one term in office and cede power to the Southeast in 2023; the offer of the VP slot to Ekweremadu (Right of First Refusal) before any other candidate. Atiku had allegedly offered Ekweremadu the vice presidential slot a year ago. Sources said the Deputy Senate President’s response had always been: “let us get the ticket first. I am interested in the Southeast being in the mainstream of power equation in Nigeria.” As the PDP Port Harcourt convention approached, majority of the Southeast leaders in PDP were determined to work for Atiku, hence their decision to shun overtures from Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State to team up with Sokoto State Governor Aminu Waziri Tambuwal. It was gathered that a few days before the convention, Ekweremadu and some Southeast governors shunned all the meetings convened by Wike. Within a week of Atiku’s emergence as PDP presidential candidate, he named Obi as running mate, causing bad blood in some political quarters in the zone. The first salvo was fired by Ebonyi State Governor David Umahi who said Obi’s choice was made without consultation with leaders of the zone, although he was quick to add that he has nothing personally against Obi. Obi himself has since launched a mission to douse the tension, moving round the zone to talk to those that matter. But sources said the issue has continued to be a source of worry for Atiku in the Southeast. “All our leaders have no grudges against Obi but they are just unhappy about how Atiku reneged on some of the agreements reached with him especially the essence of carrying stakeholders along,” a well- placed source said yesterday. “Shortly after he emerged as the PDP candidate, he has stopped consulting Ekweremadu, Southeast governors and leaders. “The painful thing is that he bowed to pressure from outside the Southeast to pick Obi and he did not care to revert to these leaders and governors on his choice. “For instance, Ekweremadu (the highest ranking political office holder in the Southeast) was not briefed and has not been briefed till today on why Obi was picked. “Yet, it was Ekweremadu who coordinated and delivered the block votes from the Southeast to Atiku at the convention. “The assumption is that if Atiku can treat South- East leaders and governors in this manner as a candidate, what if he becomes the President. It is just a matter of trust. When in need, he offered Ekweremadu the position of running mate. Courtesy demands that he should have also confided in Ekweremadu before choosing Obi.” Another source confirmed that following pressure from his associates and PDP leaders in the Southeast, Ekweremadu has started weighing options on his next step. Investigation revealed that the Deputy President of the Senate has to choose between remaining in PDP or defecting to prove a point that he is a force to reckon with. The third option is to remain in PDP and sabotage Atiku by entering into an alliance with President Muhammadu Buhari on a good deal for the Southeast if he is re-elected. The source added: “From the look of things, it seems there is a conspiracy within PDP to alienate Ekweremadu. “Apart from Atiku, the National Chairman of PDP, Prince Uche Secondus has not deemed it fit to call the Deputy President of the Senate on why Ekweremadu was not invited to the meeting where Obi was nominated. Even after the nomination, Secondus has not met with Ekweremadu on the choice of Obi. “The party and Atiku went ahead to constitute the Presidential Campaign Council without any input from Ekweremadu. This is an insult. “Some powers that be are angry with Ekweremadu for backing Atiku and the same presidential candidate does not care a hoot about Ekweremadu. “It is regretful that we all betrayed Wike and now Atiku is abandoning our leaders.” Responding to a question, the source added: “With the choice of Obi, Atiku is going about as if he has the South-East in his pocket. Far from it, the scenario may be different during the presidential election. “Atiku needs to sit down afresh with Ekweremadu and other leaders to win votes from the zone. These are matchmakers in their own right. “The unfinished business includes the following: *Reaching consensus on other posts to concede to the zone; * Finding a meeting point with the zone on Atiku’s idea of restructuring; *Need to spend one term in office; and *Ceding power to the Southeast in 2023 “Without definite answers to these demands, Atiku should forget the backing of the Southeast.” It was also gathered that Senate President Bukola Saraki, who is the Director -General of the PCC, has waded into the complaints of the Southeast leaders. A PDP leader said: “I am aware that Saraki has opened up talks with Ekweremadu.” http://thenationonlineng.net/2019-fresh-trouble-for-atiku-in-southeast/

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