₦airaland Forum

And after this one homosapien from a bush area with a timid brain will tell me that Nigeria will be great. If you must know, Nigeria ain't going no where, the blood of the innocent wasted will continue to hunt Nigeria's success & greatness..

MackBrooklyn:





Lol, you don move on to greater things now. Twale!!!

As fake and counterfeit products continue to flood Nigerian markets, despite the presence of the regulatory and security agencies at the nation’s gateways, Igbo traders who have been accused of going to China to import fake products, say they go to the Asian country to import cheaper products and not fake.

The traders told Sunday Telegraph in separate interviews at the weekend that their effort is to ensure that they import goods that are affordable to the millions of poor Nigerians, while the expensive ones are always there for the rich.

Most of the traders stated that before they discovered the Chinese market, most products imported to Nigeria were made in Great Britain and other European countries, “but unknown to many of us, most of the goods were produced in Asia, including China; but the final packaging was normally done in Britain before exporting to Nigeria with added cost.

Chief Hyacinth Uzoeshi, electronics appliances importer based in Alaba International Market, Lagos, said unlike what people think, “Our discovery of the Chinese manufacturers brought down the cost of goods in the market and made it affordable to millions of Nigerians.

There is high level of poverty in the country, so as a trader, I look for products majority of the middle and low income people can afford. If you enter the market today to buy umbrella, you will find the ones sold at N500 as well as those that go for N2500.

If you are a businessman, you will find out that the turnover on the N500 umbrella is higher and profit margin is equally higher.” He stated that the N500 umbrella is not fake, but not of the same quality with one of N2500.

“That does not imply that the cheap umbrella is fake or substandard; it is just a function of price.” He further said, “If you go to the market to buy shoes, you can find shoes of N5, 000, N10, 000, N50, 000, N100, 000 and above.

What we are doing is to ensure that it is not only the rich that can afford everything, we look for things that are affordable. Standard is the business of SON, ours is to comply with the set standard,” he said.

Chief Uzoeshi, who is the Managing Director of Zimax Electronics Limited, admitted, however, that the Chinese produce fake and substandard products on demand.

“It is a big challenge to traders; because we are required by the Standard Organisation of Nigeria (SON) to produce our SONCAP certificate before our goods leave the port. The documents are also one of the requirements for you to to clear your goods at the ports.

So, the fake products are either coming in through our ports when the regulators compromise or through unapproved border routes. It is a problem which only the Federal Government can solve, using its security agencies and regulatory institutions.” He said those importing fake and counterfeit products are not genuine traders.

“They are the get rich quick people who exploit the inadequacies of our system. They are ungodly,” he said. Legal Adviser to a group of 24 tomato importers, Mr. Ikenna Amaechi, in reaction to the allegation that they are importing fake, substandard and cancercausing tomato paste from China and India, said that the allegation is misleading and lacking in substance.

According to him, the importers have submitted their products to the House of Representatives Committee on Healthcare Service, Drug and Narcotics for laboratory analysis.

However, Chief Martins Egbeyiugo, electrical appliances importer and former Chairman of Electrical Dealers Association of Nigeria (EDAN), said he is aware that every businessman sets out to maximize profit, including looking for cheaper products.

But the onus is on the regulatory authorities to set standards which the importers or the manufacturers should comply with. He said though his association has put measures in place to ensure that customers get value for their money, customers must also note that the price also determines quality. “But what is paramount is standard,” he added.

The Chairman of the Fancy and Furniture Dealers Association (FFDA), Emeka Mozoba, who is also the President, Alaba International Amalgamated Traders Association, admitted that, Nigerian market is flooded with fake and substandard goods, but noted that no genuine trader worth his onion will go to China and tell them to make fake or substandard products for him to sell in the Nigerian market.

He blamed the scourge on smuggling and corruption, saying those who bring in those dangerous goods are not the regular traders in the market “because we have a taskforce in place which is saddled with the responsibility of ensuring that customers are not defrauded by any trader, either by selling fake or substandard products or cheating.

“Where any case of fake or substandard product is reported to us, it is thoroughly investigated and if anyone is found culpable, such is not only made to pay for the right product for the customer, but he is further sanctioned by the association. Such sanctions do not exclude expulsion from the market.”

He said, “If SON respects the SONCAP and its officials do not compromise along the line, fake and substandard products in our markets will be reduced by 50 per cent.

The remaining 50 per cent comes in through our porous borders, through smuggling. The Nigerian Customs Service has to ensure that our borders are water-tight against smuggling.

“For your information, the activities of smugglers is threatening our source of livelihood. But for the drastic fall in the exchange rate of the naira, you would have seen that the rate of trafficking goods across our borders is very alarming. Anything can enter the country, including arms and ammunition.”

He warned that unless the Nigerian borders are properly manned to prevent smuggling, the country will never have control over what is imported “fake and substandard products will remain with us.”

Sunday Telegraph learnt that SON, as part of its continuous efforts to protect Nigerian consumers from unsafe and/or substandard products, has introduced an off-shore ‘SON Conformity Assessment Programme’ (SONCAP) since September 2005.

The programme is to ensure that regulated imports comply with the approved technical and other specifications acceptable in Nigeria. But this seems not to have stopped the influx of fake products into the country.

It is against this backdground that the new Director General of SON, Osita Aboloma, said the agency will redouble its enforcement efforts, adding that, SON will more than ever before, ensure that no importer circumvents SON “While SON will continue to inspect products and issue SONCAP certificate to those that meet standard at the point of export, we will redouble our oversight functions at our ports, markets and importers’ warehouses.

This is because it is obvious that some of the importers manage to beat the checks by our agents abroad. “Despite our efforts, importers of fake and substandard products find a way to avoid the inspection abroad, thereby breach the set standards.

I started visiting the ports and border stations to forge a common synergy with sister agencies to ensure that those fake products do not enter our country again. “I also believe that if we are at the ports, it will be easier for us to ensure that all consignments that do not meet standard are seized right in the port and taken to where we will destroy them,” he said.

Meanwhile the National Public Relations Officer (PRO), Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), Wale Adeniyi, has said that the Service invites SON, NAFDAC and NDLEA when necessary during examination of cargo, saying, normally, the bodies issue certificate of examination to the consignee before the Service allows the consignment to exit the ports, adding that, NCS does not allow any good out of the port without ensuring that the regulatory agency that has interest in it okays it.

“NCS does not approve any consignment without SONCAP and whenever there is cargo examination, SON and other regulatory agencies are invited, if the goods fall under their regulatory function,” he said.

Lalasticlala, Mynd44

Can you give a rundown of the implementation of this year’s budget?

Our budget implementation has been satisfactory, I will not say it is very impressive by our standard, but compared to what has been done before, I think this administration has done very well. As at October 2016, we had about 50 per cent budget implementation with the following breakdown: 85 per cent of personnel cost has been drawn, 77 per cent of overhead cost has been drawn and 32 per cent of capital expenditure has been drawn. In specific terms, as at October this year, we have spent about N29 billion on capital projects compared to N27. 5 billion in 2013 for the entire year, N17 billion in 2014 for the entire year and N27.6 billion in 2015 for the entire year. So we have already spent more in the first ten months of this year than the previous three years, two and a half of which were under the PDP government.

The bulk of this spending was on emergency education intervention, water supply, road construction and health care. As you recall, we employed 2,550 into Kaduna State Traffic Enforcement and Environmental Law Enforcement Agency (KASTELEA) and we also employed over 2,250 science teachers in our secondary schools.

Of course you cannot spend money without income, you recall that for the first time in the history of the state, we hit monthly internally generated revenue of N1.6 billion in July this year and this has remained more or less around this level up till today. We are moving away from reliance on federation account, to more on self-sustenance based on what we have. By the end of the year, we hope to achieve 50 per cent capital budget implementation and 65 per cent overall total budget implementation.

You listed education as your priority and launched the free feeding programme but suddenly stopped the free feeding why?

Education is the fundamental gift you can give to your citizens. Unfortunately, education investments don’t show returns immediately. But we believe that the restoration of public education to the quality that we had when we were going to school is an imperative and we are doing all that we can, to achieve this. Part of the package of the reforms that we introduced in education included not only the free basic education for nine years, but the primary school feeding programme. It was costing us N1. 1 billion a month. We felt that even if you make education free, if a child cannot get pocket money to eat while in school, the parents may decide it is better to withdraw him or her from school and we didn’t want that. This is why we introduced this programme. For the 1.8 million children in schools in Kaduna, this is what we were spending. We were encouraged to start theprogramme because the office of the Vice President, under the Social Investment Programme, promised to subsidize 60 per cent of the cost of the programme. So we started spending our money in the expectation of being reimbursed. We have spent, nearly N8 billion on this programme this year and the office of the Vice President is supposed to pay us back in the region of N6 billion to N7 billion.

Since we made education free, the enrollment in class one was huge. We have not been paid this money, the amount we earmarked for the programme in the 2016 budget has been exhausted, so we cannot continue with the programme. We are expecting the reimbursement from the office of the Vice President and we had been assured over and over that we would be reimbursed. But we didn’t think that we had the resources to continue without that reimbursement and we had exhausted what we budgeted for it. We decided to put it on hold and we are waiting for reimbursement from the office of the Vice President.We will resume the primary school feeding programme as soon as we complete the verification of the vendors and we have a framework that the office of the Vice President finds acceptable to not only reimburse us but also to continue to pay for primaries one to three.

Given the importance of good infrastructure in attracting investment, what has the government done in the last 18 months in this regard?

We are looking at several components of infrastructure. The township roads in Kaduna have been allowed to go into disrepair for long. The same in other urban areas of the state. Our local government headquarters are all glorified villages, they have no roads, and they have no street lighting. Our roads sometimes have no drainage so they don’t last. Of course there is the issue of electrification, particularly rural electrification. So we have tried to focus on these.

We started street lightings and road rehabilitation in Kaduna. We have now moved to all our local government headquarters; township roads are being built, street lights are being put up. We want to tell our people that live in the rural areas that rural areas can also be cities. You don’t all have to move to Kaduna, Zaria or Kafanchan to have a good life. We will bring the good life to them, so we have a massive programme for every local government headquarter and towns.

We have invested a lot in rural electrification; buying of transformers, deploying them where Kaduna Electric Company cannot and offsetting the cost of deployment from our electricity bills. We believe that having these basic infrastructure is vital to people. We have ensured that our communities have water. If they cannot have pipe water, we have boreholes that are solar powered and we are rehabilitating them all across the state.

We have overall, awarded 29 road contracts under what we called a retainer scheme. We found that when you advertised and go through tenders, it takes four to five months to award the contracts. So we came up with some very innovative ideas. We got an initial list of ten contractors that have done roads in Kaduna.

Every month, we give N100 million to each of them, that is N1 billion. Ministry of Works will ask you to do a particular road, you build the road, at the end of the month, and we will reconcile account and balance you. We determine the rates which are the same for all the contracts. Of course when we invited Julius Berger, they couldn’t accept our prices, but some others accepted it. So we have 10 or 12 contractors that we have on the retainership scheme. This idea came to us because of the budget support facility by the federal government. Every month the federal government gives each state N1.3 billion to augment the prices in the fall of crude oil. So we felt the money will be better utilised this way. So we pay N1.2 billion to the 12 contractors every month that is why they keep on working.

We are about to award contract for Guchimishi – Kuyelo , Randagi – Funtua, Rigachikun – Sabon Birni, Anguwan Katafawa, Anguwan Kaji, Rafin Guza and the Kaduna bridge. We want to build another bridge across river Kaduna to open up the eastern sector.

About 20 percent of all the projects would be completed before the end of 2017. I have focused more on roads, but of course we are doing a lot in electrification and water and everything. I will not relent until we give Kaduna state the infrastructure I think it deserves.

There have been a lot of hues and cries over the banning of the Islamic Movement in Nigeria(IMN).Why did the government decide to infringe on the Shiites’ freedom of association and the freedom to practice their religion?

The issue of Islamic Movement in Nigeria (IMN) and their declaration as an unlawful society is something that we did with all sense of responsibility. What we did is to say that the Islamic Movement in Nigeria is an unlawful society and we derived the powers to do this under the Penal Code that was passed in 1963, so it is not a new thing that we did. And we concluded, after receiving the report of the Judicial Commission of Inquiry that looked into the clashes between the IMN and the army, that the IMN poses a threat to the peace, security and good governance of Kaduna state.

We did not ban Shiism, we did not ban Shiites. The IMN does not recognize the constitution of Nigeria, they do not recognize Buhari as President of Nigeria, and they do not recognise me as governor of Kaduna state because they had their governor in Tudun Wada. They have their para military wing, the call them ‘Hurras’. They train them in violation of our laws. They do not accept that any law in Nigeria applies to them. They block public high ways, they occupy schools when they are doing their processions and they feel that to practice their religion, they have to infringe on the right of others.

Because IMN doesn’t recognise Nigerian laws, they are not registered with CAC, so they cannot be sued or held responsible. They build anywhere they want without approval. They don’t even bother to acquire title to land. Their allegiance is not to Nigerian government, their allegiance is to somewhere else IMN looks like an insurgency waiting to happen. The report of the commission of inquiry recommended that we should proscribe IMN because they are not registered, they can’t sue or be sued in their own name.

The crises in Southern Kaduna have been recurrent and there seem not to be an end in sight. What is your administration doing to ensure an end to the crisis?

When we came to office, the two problems we faced in the area of security were cattle rustling in Birnin Gwari/Giwa axis and this communal killings in southern Kaduna. We were very concerned about both and we did two things. We needed to understand what was happening in Southern Kaduna. We understood cattle rustling and we convened a meeting of all the north west governors because the problem was centred around the forest ranges of Kuyambana and we felt state cooperation was necessary. We came together and launched an operation to deal with cattle rustling. We were successful because we degraded their ability to do cattle rustling, even though that created a problem of kidnapping, because they moved from cattle rustling to kidnapping we are still facing.

For southern Kaduna, we didn’t understand what was going on and we decided to set up a committee under Gen. Martin Luther Agwai (rtd) to find out what was going on there. What we established is that the root of the problem has a history starting from the 2011 post-electionviolence. So this was the problem, we knew this by August last year and we started taking steps. But what is happening now, I don’t want it to be restricted to Southern Kaduna. I noticed that some people are trying to bring religion or ethnicity into it. What about Zamfara state? That is why I considered the statement by the President of Christian Association of Nigeria ( CAN ) as regrettable. What is happening in southern Kaduna today, in my opinion, has roots in banditry, it has nothing to do with what has happened in the past to a large extent.

Secondly, I think that those that preach the message that this one is a settler, he shouldn’t he here or this one is of different tribe and religion, he should not live with you, are more responsible for what is happening than anything else.

For some of the politicians from the southern Kaduna that are trying to politicised this, they should go to Plateau state and find out or talk to former Governor Jonah Jang and find out what happens when you add fuel to the fire of this kind of division.We are deploying more and more security to the crisis prone areas.

MackBrooklyn:





Lol, that keeps me wondering if you're not the BBO wey ah dey see for the sexuality section

MackBrooklyn:





Lol, you wey dey tear punna anyhow like nylon

ableguy:

MackBrooklyn:





Lol, depends on your own definition of "virginity" now??

MackBrooklyn:
Virginity is the best wedding gift any man would receive from from his newly wedded wife but lately, there is nothing such as virginity any longer because it'll have already been given out as a birthday gift, token of appreciation, job assurance, church collection, examination marking schemes and transportation fares

tunery004:
bro, I sight u.... happy New month to you also

[size=45pt]If you love "Garry Cahill" please click like..[/size]

A7:
The herdsmen were compensated for their killed cattles, a wrongdoing meted against them.

onatisi:
Keep deceiving urself.

bolinxman:
They want to turn the Landlord to a tenant,definitely the house will be demolished.
Most of these so called 'Buhari boys' are lightweight politicians with no strong political base.Tinubu should just maintain decorum and see the end of their self destabilization game-plan.

Lalasticlala, Mynd44

AkupeMBANO:
don't u see his moniker? he answers Pharaoh. so what do u expect from a pharaoh

Atiku2019:
I'm here to observe the online war between Tinubu e-warriors and APC e-warriors.



#Atiku2019

The ratification of Yakubu’s appointment as the INEC boss came after the Council of States meeting was held in October last year as stipulated by the constitution.

Sokoto State Governor, Aminu Waziri Tambuwal, who spoke after the meeting, explained that the appointment was in conformity with the provisions of the 1999 Constitution of Nigeria, particularly Sections 154 (1 and 3) and 156 (3) that confer on the president the powers to appoint a chairman and national commissioners of INEC, in consultation with the Council of State.

Tambuwal had said: “The situation in INEC as at today is such that requires this emergency meeting to approve the nominations by Mr. President because the law requires that a minimum of four commissioners should form a quorum in INEC, which is not the case as at today.”

Having assumed office as substantive chairman of INEC in October 2015, Professor Yakubu’s major headache was to address the major concern of Nigerians over the ability of the electoral umpire to deliver credible and conclusive elections.

The Kogi governorship election that served as a litmus test for INEC under Professor Yakubu had set the tone for inconclusiveness which became a regular feature in the performance rating of the commission. Nigerians are not in a hurry to forget the Kogi election which was mired in controversy mainly due to the dramatic death of the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate, Prince Abubakar Audu.

There was a crescendo of criticisms faulting the way INEC managed the situation. Many critics had argued that there was no reason to declare the election inconclusive as INEC did despite Audu’s death. Regrettably, during the election, members of the political class in the confluence state, like their counterparts elsewhere in the country, displayed their demonstrable inability to adhere to laws guiding electoral processes, a development that had led to violence in many polling units across the state.

Many had thought that the Kogi experience would enable INEC to improve on its logistical preparations in order to avoid a repeat of inconclusiveness in Bayelsa. Unfortunately almost the same issues arose to render the Bayelsa election inconclusive as well. In the case of Bayelsa, the political class even took their violence to hurricane proportions in their desperation to win at all costs.

Although many observers could not blame INEC staff for refusing to conduct election in areas where adequate security was not provided, others wondered whether the electoral body was actually working in tandem with security agencies.

To many critics therefore, the Bayelsa election was a show of shame as far as INEC, security agencies and politicians were concerned. Apart from electoral materials being hijacked, violence was perpetrated on innocent citizens despite the deployment of thousands of security personnel. There were also reports of failure to deliver election materials on time for the Bayelsa election at several pooling units even as there were reported cases of sporadic shootings in some areas during voting apparently to scare away voters.

The case of Southern Ijaw Local Government Area particularly comes to mind where elections were cancelled due to unprecedented violence during the re-run. Of course, the result was the declaration of the Bayelsa governorship election also as inconclusive.

Next was the conduct of the Rivers State governorship and legislative elections that sent shock waves across the nation due to the monumental level of violence that greeted it. Little wonder that a public affairs analyst while writing on the re-run dramatically titled his article as: “The Rivers of Blood.”

But the Professor Yakubu led INEC had made several efforts to justify its inability to conduct conclusive elections during his one year in office. Yakubu had told Daily Trust in an exclusive interview that elections were rendered inconclusive in Nigeria because voters were being given the opportunity under his leadership to cast votes that count. “Votes now count”, he said, stressing that the process of electing people into positions of authority was getting better. According to Yakubu, the dynamics of elections in Nigeria evolved from the 2015 elections, particularly with the introduction of technology during the elections.

He said: “In the past, politicians used to disrupt elections where they were not strong so they could win on the basis of votes from their areas of strength. In response INEC said if you disrupted election anywhere, the people would be ultimately given another opportunity because every vote in Nigeria must count because it is the votes that Nigerians cast that determine who their leader becomes.”

How did INEC get it right in Edo, Ondo?

Going by previous elections, fears of political analysts deepened when INEC suddenly announced the postponement of the Edo State election, which was earlier scheduled to hold on September 10, to November 24.

The claim by INEC that security intelligence reports received from both the Department of State Services and the Nigeria Police Force were not favourable for the conduct of the election made many to conclude that the Edo elections might also be declared inconclusive.

This fear was reinforced when the ex-Governor of Edo State, Adams Oshiomhole, who appeared on a television programme, alleged that the main opposition party, the Peoples Democratic Party, was planning to rig the election and import militants from neighbouring states to Edo State as part of its plans to mar the electoral process.

Like Edo, similar fears were expressed in Ondo, especially when the outcome of primaries that produced the flag bearers of the major political parties became contentious, thereby setting the stage for possible crisis.

Interestingly, the outcome of both elections seemed to have suggested that INEC has been able to break the jinx of inconclusive elections. Several individuals, groups and organizations have applauded the commission for successfully conducting the governorship elections in Edo and Ondo States. The pertinent question, however, is how did INEC get it right this time around?

For INEC, the successes recorded in the Edo and Ondo elections were as a result of what desperate politicians failed to succeed in doing, namely: violence on Election Day.

Spokesman of INEC, Nick Dazang, said: “What stands out is that we witnessed minimal violence, hence there were no many cancelations in both Edo and Ondo elections.”

According to Dazang, the same processes and template applied in previous elections were the same used in Edo and Ondo “except that violence did not mar the elections in Edo and Ondo.”

Dazang also disclosed that before the conduct of the Edo and Ondo governorship elections, INEC had reviewed its security architecture.

“As you are aware, security personnel at pooling units are not allowed to carry arms, a situation that desperate politicians took undue advantage of to cause violence that often led to cancellations.

“But to address this ugly trend, there were ‘Special Intervention Units’ by the police at every pooling unit to checkmate violence”, Dazang said, adding that the triumph for the successes made by INEC in Edo and Ondo was also enhanced by cooperation from the various stakeholders.

So will this feat be sustained in subsequent elections and especially in the 2019 general elections? Dazang said INEC would continue to draw lessons from every election leading to the 2019 general elections. “Even in these elections (Edo and Ondo), the Smart Card had malfunctioning problems even as there was the tendency for people to induce voters. We will intensify voter education”, he said.

The admonition from every sitting Nigerian president immediately after his victory in an election is that politics should be relegated to the background for governance to take the central stage. It is however, a refrain that is observed in the breach, as power game towards a second term commences almost immediately after formal inauguration. Former president Olusegun Obasanjo was reported to have told a confidant and chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in year 2000 that his challenge was not a fresh mandate in 2003, but retaining power in 2007- that was three years to the full exercise of his first term mandate and seven years before his controversial tenure elongation plot became full blown. Nigerians would also not forget in a hurry that Dr Goodluck Jonathan commenced his plot for a single term of six years, few months after he won the 2011 presidential election.

The Muhammadu Buhari presidency is no exception going by furtive politicking, nocturnal meetings and the body language of the main protagonist. His wife, Aishat Buhari, let the cat out of the bag, recently, albeit inadvertently , while expressing her frustration over a certain cabal she alleged had hijacked her husband’s administration. In the interview, published by the British Broadcasting Corporation, (BBC) Hausa Service, she threatened not to support her husband for second term , if the alienation of those who made the rare feat of dethroning an incumbent in 2015 general elections persists.

One of those credited with making the historic feat of ouster of a sitting president possible in Nigeria was former Lagos State governor and leader of the All Progressives Congress, (APC) Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu. Politics is about party patronage but after the historic feat, Saturday Sun gathered that none of Tinubu’s nominees made the ministerial list. Having been shut out of the corridor of power and its appurtenances in Abuja, Tinubu is not likely to throw his weight behind a fresh mandate for Buhari.

To checkmate ‘political insurgents’ in the Northern flank of the APC ahead of 2019 is no headache for President Buhari as he has vigilant commanders in the likes of Nasir El- Rufai and Abdul Umar Ganduje, governors of Kaduna and Kano states respectively. They are to contain Alhaji Atiku Abubakar and Rabiu Kwankwaso,- former vice president and former Kano State governor, respectively who had not shown any pretence about their dreams to occupy Aso Rock presidential villa.

Tinubu, an acknowledged mobiliser and strategist is not nursing any presidential ambition. But from his Bourdillon base in Ikoyi, Lagos, he can decide, who gets what, when and how. Like the other two, he needs to be checkmated having been marked as someone with capacity to do collateral damage to Buhari’s bid for a fresh mandate in 2019.

Having lost out in the recent power game in Ondo State where his anointed and candidate of the Alliance for Democracy, Olusola Oke put up a dismal performance, APC’s Rotimi Akeredolu’s feat made possible by Buhari’s foot soldiers in the zone may have emboldened the presidency that the ubiquitous former Lagos State governor, is after all, dispensable in the politics of the Southwest . Ahead of 2019, a new power bloc, a creation of the presidency is gradually unfolding in the volatile zone. But who are the forces behind the unnerving plot to supplant Tinubu? Saturday Sun unveils the new power brokers, who (with exception of one) incidentally are political godsons of the beleaguered former Lagos governor.

IBIKUNLE AMOSUN: The incumbent governor of Ogun State represented Ogun Central senatorial district in the red chamber of the National Assembly, between 2003 and 2007. Amosun was the governorship candidate of the defunct All Nigeria Peoples Party, (ANPP) in the 2007 election, one of the political parties that metamorphosed into the All Progressives Congress, (APC). His fraternity with Buhari dates back to their days in the defunct party. Saturday Sun gathered that the Ogun State governor has since leveraged on his relationship with Buhari, which has been misconstrued as supremacy battle with the leader of the party in the zone, Bola Tinubu. During the uncertain days of nomination of ministerial nominees, Amosun’s candidate for the plum position of Minister of Finance, Kemi Adeosun made the final list while Wale Edun, Tinubu’s candidate for the same position was dropped. Governor Amosun had also reaped from the cold war between the Oyo state governor, Abiola Ajimobi and the Minister of Communications, Bayo Shittu. A party source revealed that Barrister Adebisi Adegbuyi was nominated for the office of Post Master-General of NIPOST by Governor Amosun while his Oyo state counterpart and Bayo Shittu were still pushing for their separate nominees from Oyo state.

Tinubu and Amosun’s cosy relationship went awry following the open acceptance of Amosun’s estranged benefactor, Chief Segun Osoba’s return to the party. Osoba, who played a prominent role in the formation of the APC had defected to the SDP in 2015 as soon as he lost the battle for the control of the APC structures in Ogun State to Amosun. Saturday Sun gathered that the former Ogun State governor lost out as a result of the understanding between the national secretariat of the party and the governors that the party structures be conceded to the governors in their respective states in the wake of the formation of the party .

At Tinubu’s residence last April to resolve the lingering crisis in Ogun State chapter of the party and welcome Osoba back to the fold were the governors of Osun and Oyo states, Rauf Aregbesola and Abiola

Ajimobi while Lagos state governor, Akinwunmi Ambode was represented by his deputy, Dr. (Mrs.) Oluranti Adebule. Also present were former national Chairman of the defunct Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), Chief Bisi Akande and former Ekiti state governor, Niyi Adebayo. Governor Amosun shunned the rapprochement meeting and he did not send any representative.

Commenting on why Amosun was not at the meeting, Tinubu said: “Nobody is left out, it is all progressive and no one is left out, no matter your insinuation. Amosun is with us, we can excuse people. The governor of Ogun State was elected on the platform of the APC and we can vouch for him…. Leaders of the party identified with us and it is clear we are all one, including Amosun. Who told you we are fighting?”

Despite claim of existing camaraderie by Tinubu, the ‘peace’ in Ogun State APC can be likened to that in the graveyard . Osoba, according to a party source, “is no longer seen as an asset by Amosun’s followers and his return into the Ogun State chapter was not to strengthen the APC, but a sinister motive to distract Amosun in his traditional political turf.’’ It has since worsened the already tense relationship between Amosun and Tinubu as the former joined forces with the presidency to antagonize the Lagos strong man.

At the grand finale rally held for Akeredolu, penultimate weekend in Akure which had President Buhari in attendance, only Amosun was in attendance as other APC governors in the zone shunned the rally. A Saturday Sun source revealed that a recent meeting of the APC governors in Southwest held in Abeokuta before the Ondo governorship election ended in a deadlock as the host governor, Ibikunle Amosun and Tinubu’s Man Friday, Rauf Aregbesola, disagreed on the candidate to back in the last Saturday governorship election.

BABATUNDE FASHOLA: The Minister of Power, Works and Housing was a two-term Lagos State governor. Before his emergence as governor in 2007, Fashola was Chief-Of-Staff while Tinubu held forte as governor. His endorsement as successor by his political godfather created a crack in the defunct Action Congress, but Tinubu was able to weather the storm. His stewardship has been rated very high as the finest moment of the Centre of Excellence in terms of rapid transformation of social infrastructures in the State. During the formation of the APC, Fashola’s outstanding achievements were flaunted as reference point of what the electorate should expect in states under the control of the emerging party.

His godfather equally relished his performance. “He served as my trusted chief of staff, performing excellently in that role. Due to his leadership qualities and diligent work ethic, I endorsed him for governor notwithstanding the stiff and vocal opposition of many. I am not ashamed of backing him. I believe the progress the state made under his administration has more than vindicated my endorsement’’, Tinubu had boasted.

But politics of succession was to set them on collision path. While his godfather anointed Akinwunmi Ambode, Fashola joined forces with Supo Sasore, who was eventually trounced at the party primary by the awesome Tinubu machinery. He was to stay away at the formal inauguration of his successor.

Within weeks of his exit from Alausa, allegations of financial impropriety against Fashola began to surface. An anti-corruption group, the Coalition Against Corrupt Leaders (CACOL) forwarded eight petitions to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission and Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission, (ICPC) detailing the allegations against Fashola. CACOL’s executive director, Debo Adeniran had said that the Lagos State government under Fashola indulged in “frivolous spending on white elephant projects, lacked due process in budget implementation as well as inflation of costs in contract awards.” The group’s petition came on the heels of the outrage that greeted the revelation by analytic firm, BudgIT, that Fashola approved numerous “inflated contracts” before he left office.

The Minister dismissed the claims as “distorted allegations without evidence” while he also offered a refrain: “When you wrestle with a pig, the pig gets happy and you get dirty.”

The sordid allegations, coming few months after the party’s victory and formal inauguration of Buhari was seen as part of an orchestrated plot by Tinubu to ensure that his godson did not make Buhari’s ministerial list. Tinubu was to dismiss his alleged involvement in the mind boggling revelations.

He said: ‘’an attack against the performance of Governor Fashola is indirectly an attack against me and the edifice of achievement we have constructed in leading Lagos state out of a protracted time of stagnation and into an era of sustained progress and development.

“I for one will not bend to the artificial provocation of those seeking to tear at what we have painstakingly built over the years. In my mind, Governor Fashola and I are and shall always be political allies and fellow travelers on a vital journey; that alliance is unshakable and our journey must not be interrupted‎. I would no more attack his character or his administration than I would attack myself. I am proud to say that I played an instrumental role in bringing Governor Fashola into politics in the first instance.”

His explanation was however taken with a pinch of salt, as the decision by the Akinwunmi Ambode administration to publish the details of the contracts awarded by Fashola on the state’s procurement agency website, fueled speculations that Ambode was carrying out the bidding of his godfather.

The relationship between Tinubu and Fashola has been everything but warm in recent times. A party source revealed that the Minister of Works, has however, been circumspect, in order not to be seen as ostracizing Tinubu. ‘’He maintains his usual visit to Bourdillon, the Ikoyi residence of Tinubu, but Fashola has refused to defer to him on matters that he ordinarily will seek Tinubu’s opinion’’, the source added.

The party source cited the appointment of a former permanent secretary in Lagos State, Onikepo Animashaun as General Manager, Legal, at Nigerian Petroleum Development Company, (NPDC) which he noted had the backing of Fashola but without Tinubu’s approval.

KAYODE FAYEMI: Former Ekiti State governor is the Minister for Solid Minerals Development. His attempt at securing a second term in Ekiti State in 2014 suffered a setback as he lost to the incumbent governor, Ayodele Fayose of the PDP, who won overwhelmingly in all the 16 local councils of the state.

That election was the genesis of his cold war with Tinubu. Saturday Sun gathered that before the 2014 election, Tinubu sent an independent team, twice to Ekiti to assess Fayemi’s popularity and acceptability to the electorate. On the two instances, the report was not favourable to Fayemi.

Tinubu reluctantly conceded the ticket to Fayemi, following intense pressures from other governors on the party’s platform in the zone.

The duo of Fashola and Fayemi were also nominated as ministers by President Buhari himself who pointedly asked them to meet with Tinubu and seek for his forgiveness.

The message was not lost and Fayemi has since been taking his pound of flesh. It has been alleged that the trio of Babachir Lawal, Rotimi Amaechi and Kayode Fayemi, Secretary to the Government of the Federation, the Minister of Transportation and Minister for Solid Minerals Development, respectively worked against Tinubu’s candidate, Segun Abraham and ensured victory for the presidency anointed candidate and governor- elect, Rotimi Akeredolu in the controversial party primary held last September.

Fayemi also played visible role in the electoral success of Akeredolu, as his aides were on ground in Ondo to do the needful.

BAYO SHITTU: Former Attorney General of Oyo State in the cabinet of former governor, Rasheed Ladoja, he was the candidate of the defunct Congress for Progressive Change, (CPC) in the 2011 governorship Election in the pacesetter state. Shittu was picked as ministerial nominee by Buhari but his nomination was met with stiff opposition by the Oyo state governor, Isiaka Ajimobi. Shittu as CPC candidate in the election where Aji.

Mobi emerged victorious had teamed up with other candidates to challenge the latter’s mandate at the election petition tribunal. Saturday Sun gathered that it took the personal intervention of President Buhari before Ajimobi conceded the state slot to Shittu.

The Minister of Communication has since been leveraging on his new status in Abuja to galvanise support for his governorship ambition and that may again pitch him against Ajimobi who is smarting to install his successor. But to the average APC faithful in Oyo State and by extension Southwest, Shittu is a creation of the presidency which explains why Tinubu camp, sees him as a light weight; he is not seen as an influential politician to ruffle any political feather as he has no visible structure in his home state.

[size=15pt]Tinubu: Road to self-immolation?[/size]

The presidency is not in a hurry to make up with Tinubu, even as it sustains denial of a rift with the former Lagos governor. In a statement last weekend, it dismissed media reports of a rift between Tinubu, the party leadership and presidency. Presidential media aide, Mallam Garba Shehu said any suggestion that the president and the party machinery were working to destroy Tinubu had no foundation in truth or any credibility, explaining that the president was impressed by Tinubu’s assurance to the party not to work against APC in Ondo. He further claimed that the estranged national leader honoured his pledge. Shehu also explained that Buhari regards Tinubu as a “priceless political asset to the party whose immeasurable contributions to the development and progress of the ruling party are known to all.’’

Saturday Sun however gathered that the weekend press statement was a mere subterfuge to conceal its real motive: the total displacement of Tinubu in the southwest, using the new power bloc.

The Buhari administration was bidding its time and was not willing for an open confrontation with Tinubu. A presidency source revealed that government was peeved with Tinubu over his attempts to draw it out for an open verbal war . The source cited the attacks on the Minister of State for Petroleum, Dr. Ibe Kachikwu last March during the agonizing fuel scarcity which he noted was an indirect attack on the Buhari administration by Tinubu. He also expressed reservation over Tinubu’s recent attack on the national chairman of the party, Odigie Oyegun, whom he accused of shoddy handling of the outcome of the Ondo primary.

Nobody can decimate Tinubu- Igbokwe, Lagos APC publicity scribe

Speaking with Saturday Sun on phone, Joe Igbokwe, the publicity secretary of the APC in Lagos state said the attempt by the emerging power bloc, which he derided as the Buhari boys to decimate the former Lagos governor would fail, as he noted that Tinubu is already a movement. Igbokwe said what happened in Ondo was not enough to conclude that Tinubu has lost out in the zone.

“After the Ondo guber elections last Saturday November 26, 2016 many commentators began to celebrate the so-called Buhari boys in Abuja who they said outsmarted Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu. I saw a calculated attempt to whittle down the well-deserved honour and glory the man has recorded even from his days at Mobil Producing Nigeria. Many half a penny commentators said that this may be the beginning of the end of the Asiwaju BAT’s phenomenon. Some said that BAT has been bruised.

“But I know enough history to conclude that success is not an event. I know that nobody makes it to the World Series overnight. I know the champions do not become heroes overnight. Throughout history I have known that history is not drawn on a straight line. This is the reason I feel that those who tried to use the outcome of Ondo elections to get at Asiwaju BAT miss the point. They know nothing about Asiwaju BAT as a massive movement.’’ Igbokwe further argued that those who were used in the past to supplant genuine leaders in Yoruba land ultimately regret their actions.

His words “Being successful isn’t an event. Remember during the Sani Abacha regime, the genuine Yoruba leaders said they weren’t going to attend the constitutional conference; the Yoruba leaders didn’t go but General Oladipo Diya raised new set of ‘leaders’. Diya picked the Yoruba leaders and I remember the late Bola Ige said leaders don’t emerge overnight.

“So, it is difficult for anybody to crush Asiwaju. It is difficult to decimate him, I don’t think it is going to work.’’

Jarizod:
This guy neck fit contain two drums of water before gan..money good oh

Danimighty7:
My role model

Unsad:
I just need to meet this Adeosun person , I'll so beat her blue black .

Smellymouth:
Baba, 450bn!!

The way these people dey call money for this country dey fear me oo..

Lalasticlala, Mynd44

onatisi:
Just 2 trillion naira can change Nigeria production output if judiciously and effectively spent.

Lalasticlala, Mynd44

Rilwayne001:
Hmmm!

Buhari should slash his salary as well and that of those thieves in the Senate and house of representatives. Their lucrative bonuses should be slashed as well.


Until then, Buhari is a COW!

Pharaoh9:
Rubbish and wasting of public money