₦airaland Forum

The media was awash last Friday with allegations of financial recklessness and huge indebtedness by the immediate past government of Dr Kayode Fayemi, levelled by the newly-inaugurated Governor of Ekiti State, Mr Ayodele Fayose.

Governor Fayose had in his inaugural speech put the state’s debt profile at N57billion. A day earlier, he had put the figure at N89billion during a television interview. This is in addition to the various unprintable words he used to describe the immediate past administration in the state, all in an attempt to paint a dismally poor state of finance for the state.

Although the erstwhile Commissioner for Information, Mr Tayo Ekundayo has responded to the puerile allegations and orchestrated lies, it has become necessary to provide additional details to that earlier reaction.

The concern here is the general public that could be misled by the fraudulent claims all and deliberate distortions of facts and figures in an attempt to invent excuses for imminent poor performance in office.

For the avoidance of doubt, the indebtedness of the state as at October 15th, 2014 is N36,316,017,758.93 (Thirty six billion, three hundred and sixteen million, seventeen thousand , seven hundred and fifty six naira, ninety-three kobo). Of this amount, the sum of N7,830,636,440.62 (Seven billion, eight hundred and thirty million, six hundred and thirty-six thousand, four hundred and forty naira, sixty-two kobo) represents foreign loans incurred by previous government since the days of the Old Ondo State.

The remaining sum of N28, 485,381,316.31 represents internal loan. This include inherited loans from previous government and outstanding balance (debt) of the bond taken at the Capital Market.

In spite of this, the Federal Government is owing the state the sum of N17,710,728,299.06. This include N10,839,493,135.63 (amount due from construction of federal roads); N4,012,384,082.60 (refund on Paris Club) and N2,858,851,080.83 (amount due on ecological projects).If the Federal Government would graciously effect part of this payment, the debt profile of the state would have been greatly reduced.

It is our belief that Mr Fayose was hasty in making a pronouncement on the state of the state’s finances and other matters without first going through the handing over note which contains explicit details of government transactions and financial situation. Nothing can be more mischievous and irresponsible than this.

While Mr Fayose alleged that the state account was in red, the state bank balances as at October 15th stood at N1,930,739,725.84. This comprised N1,463,805,908.56 (state account) and N466,933,817.28 (local government account). Also the Bond Sinking Fund Account balance as at September stood at N3,019,987,424.03.

Nothing could be farther from the truth than Mr. Fayose’s allegation that none of the MDA’s account had up to One million naira. For instance, the Ministry of Agriculture’s account is in the excess of N90million, while the MDG account has close to One billion naira.

There is no responsible leader in Nigeria today that will not acknowledge the poor state of the country’s economy, a development that has made it difficult for the Federal Government to meet its obligations to the federating states. In the last two years, states on many occasions have had to leave the monthly FAAC meetings empty handed, like they did last week. This is in addition to a huge reduction in the amount given to the states.

In Ekiti State for instance, the federal allocation to the state has dropped by about N480million monthly since the beginning of the year and this has placed a huge strain on government finances. The government has had to resort to bank facilities in order to augment the now insufficient allocation and pay workers salaries as well as meet other obligations.

As a government that is committed to the welfare of the citizens, the Fayemi –led administration had in 2011 approached the Capital Market where it raised a N25billion bond which it spent on infrastructure projects which are regenerative in nature. Of the sum, about N14 billion has been repaid through the laid down repayment regime. The outstanding balance of the bond money forms part of the N28billion debt profile according to the state’s audited accounts which was published in some national newspapers last week.

It is also pertinent to state that the governor’s claims that the former administration owed two months salaries is dubious. The only salary being owed the state workers is that of September and the development was sequel to the reluctance of banks to give the state facilities following sundry allegations of collaboration levelled against the banks by Fayose.

In all this, the Debt Management Office (DMO), a Federal Government agency, still rates Ekiti State as one of the least indebted states in the country.

It would appear, however, that the new governor is ill prepared for the job at hand. His hasty approach to governance without paying due cognisance to decorum and tact would succeed only in exposing his incapability and further ridiculing the state.

Our advice to him: Stop this comedy of errors. Pursue substance!





Signed:

Olayinka Oyebode

Chief Press Secretary to Ex-Governor Kayode Fayemi

@NigeriaRadioTV: AyeDEE-mukhtar alexander dan’iyan revealed! Angry wife, Liz Speaks. Video.: youtu.be/SHlMix9h33s?a via @YouTube

Mukhtar 'Mr. Aye Dee' Daniyan: The Man on a Failed Mission to Blackmail Tinubu By Alfred Omolewa

After failing to blackmail Linda Ikeji, Mukhtar 'Mr. Aye Dee' Daniyan, a Twitter predator, seeks out another victim, this time Bola Tinubu but it is a journey that has ended even before it began.

The man, who canonized his name and sought to change it from Daniyan to Dan’Iyan, a.k.a. @Mrayedee, never rests nor slumbers in his relentless search for a prey, someone to blackmail. He has been around for a long time, since the days of the struggle against dictatorship but while others fought at the battlefront, he was at the rear with the "gang of four" as described by Prof. Wole Soyinka, sabotaging the efforts of the team and seeking to profit from the struggle.

Here is more of what Prof. Soyinka had to say about 'Mr. Aye Dee' in his memoir, "You Must Set Forth at Dawn":

“One was a self-hating Igbira, a minority tribe from the Nigerian hinterland, whose yearning to be mistaken for a Fulani aristocratic scion had resulted in his changing his name from Daniyan to Dan’Iyan. Partnering him was an ambitious youth from Swarthmore College, Jude Uzowanne. The third member was a labor unionist from Edo in southern Nigeria, Tunde Okorodudu, an activist in his own right who fell under the spell of the fourth member and center of intrigue, the liaison officer for the U.S. Boston chapter, Maureen Idehen, a pharmacist who had worked closely with me and was central to the coordination of activities for much of the United States. Together, this Gang of Four—the accolade was spontaneously bestowed—succeeded in serving a timely lesson on the power lust even among a yet inchoate formation that sought to curb power at its most virulent and malignant. It was a low point in the career of the anti-Abacha movement, suddenly compelled to confront the banal distractions of trite intrigues and personal ambitions. Expelling the miscreants took its toll. The liaison officer, the Boston-based Maureen Idehen, made off with our scant funds, leaving behind a trail of bad checks.”

Enter @MrAyeAee, the Twitter handle he now deploys as weapon to move from prey to prey, victim to victim, to destroy reputations and pass old, fake and fallacious information over to an unsuspecting public as the gospel truth. He has employed his IT knowledge in the most dubious schemes. But Google has found an answer to his type, thanks to the Linda Ikeji saga that exposed him as a cyber predator and serial blackmailer.

Ayedee or Dan’Iyan covertly and overtly worked to destroy Linda Ikeji, accusing her of plagiarism. Imagine the chief plagiarer pointing fingers. He got Linda's blog shut down. He thought he could destroy her reputation. Bur he failed has most blackmailers do. Days after, in an unprecedented decision, Google decided to bring Linda back. Exposed, AyeDee has moved to another prey. This time he is looking for big money and big attention. He has chosen the wrong person to blackmail in Bola Tinubu.

Digging up court documents nearly 20 years old whose veracity are yet to be confirmed, AyeDee has been all over Twitter and Google Plus, slicing up false, old and unverified statements and reports to blackmail Tinubu and his family. Many would want to ask, 'Why now? Why dig up an open and shut case from the US courts even if it was true?"

The ways of the blackmailer are not hidden. They can dig up anything and serve up anything as new.

Let's for the sake of argument agree that such court decisions exist and Tinubu was mentioned. Was he ever convicted? No. He was never. The US government sought for a settlement because they could not prove their case against him. Period. So, whose interest is 'Mr. AyeDee' serving by bringing up documents about a case they is closed and that has been denied by those mentioned. They were allegations that the US could not proof.

'Mr. AyeDee' no doubt has pay masters namely, Musliu Obanikoro, whose credit card crime remain on the books. I challenge him to travel to the USA today if he will not be apprehended. I am willing to buy him a first class return ticket.

Tinubu today travels in and out of America without any one stopping him. HE TRAVELS IN AND OUT OF EUROPE without anyone stopping him. He is invited and visited to international functions in the USA and Europe. He is well respected. His democratic credentials are unquestionable. A towering figure in Nigerian politics. Tinubu’s place is secured and no amount of regurgitation by the likes of Mukhtar 'Mr. Aye Dee' Daniyan can change that.

The All Progressives Congress (APC) has commended the General Overseer (GO) of the Redeem Christian Church of God (RCCG), Pastor Enoch Adeboye, for dissociating himself and the church from the offensive and divisive audio CD that is being circulated by certain political Pastors.

In a statement issued in Lagos on Monday by its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the party said by his action, the GO has again exhibited his characteristic exceptional leadership and shown what religion should be about, which is love, rather than hate and incendiary statements.

It particularly expressed satisfaction that the GO specifically asked the RCCG Pastors to ignore the contents of the audio CD, especially all the references to political parties, including the APC.

''The GO's statement, in his response to the APC which had written to protest the divisive and corrosive statements contained in the audio CD, which has been smuggled into some RCCG parishes, made it clear that the RCCG is neutral and apolitical, and that it prays for all irrespective of political persuasion or creed.

''We in the APC are delighted at the GO's prompt action and statement that the RCCG did not endorse divisive comments in any form or shape, that it has sons and daughters in all political parties, and that the allegations contained in the audio CD are wickedly false, unsubstantiated, ill-conceived and mischievous.

''Equally satisfying is the GO's directive asking everyone in possession of the audio CDs to return them, and the directive to the Church's Pastors to communicate such to their respective congregations immediately,'' APC said.

On the obviously-sponsored audio CD, produced by one Pastor Bosun Emmanuel, the party wondered why a man of God will engage in outright lies to propagate hatred, incite Christians against Muslims so brazenly, as if the adherents of both religions are not children of the same God, and then use the platform of the church to campaign for the PDP while seeking to destroy the APC.

''In a country where the citizenry, whether Christians or Muslims, have been shortchanged by greedy, selfish and clueless political leadership, a Pastor went on record as saying President Goodluck Jonathan has performed 100%, while at the same time demonizing and denigrating the APC as an 'Islamic Party' without a scintilla of proof. Much as he struggled to couch his inflammatory and discordant message in flowery lies, it is clear that he was sponsored to inseminate lies to shore up the dwindling fortunes of the ruling party

''Where in the world has an Islamic Party been led by a Christian? Where in the world has the membership of an Islamic Party been populated by Christians and Muslims? Why would a Pastor whose primary purpose is to preach the Gospel (good news) now make himself available, for whatever reason, as a tool to disseminate lies and bad news?

''Had this Pastor any sense of history, he would have realized how the propagation of hatred, as he is currently doing, led to the killing of over 800,000 Tutsi and moderate Hutu in Rwanda in 1994. This Pastor made it seem as if the terrorists called Boko Haram are fighting the cause of Nigerian Muslims, when he knows deep down that this evil group has not spared Muslims either.

''We have said it repeatedly: Boko Haram is a clear and present danger to Christians as it is to Muslims. Boko Haram is as dangerous to the rich as it is to the poor, it is as dangerous to the North as it is to the South. Simply put, Boko Haram is an enemy of Nigeria and all Nigerians, irrespective of their religion or ethnicity, must unite to defeat the terrorists,'' it said.

APC appealed to Nigerians of all creed and ethnicity to repudiate politicians or politicians in religious garb who may be seeking to divide them on primordial basis, especially as the general elections are fast approaching.

Alhaji Lai Mohammed
National Publicity Secretary
All Progressives Congress (APC)
Lagos, 6 Oct. 2014

Leave them! Acting like they have holes in their heads. Under this man, more people have been killed than in the time past. people are more desperate today than ever before. Crooks rule the land. Our crude oil disappears in ship loads without explanation. Yet, they say 61% support him. That poll was done in his bedroom!

The All Progressives Congress (APC) has raised the alarm over a plan
by unscrupulous and apparently-hired hands to relaunch the acronym
battle against the party by seeking to register three new parties that
bear the acronyms of the same parties that merged to become the APC.

In a statement issued in Lagos on Sunday by its National Publicity
Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the party said those behind the
phantom parties, who are apparently working at the behest of people
who have a mortal fear of the APC, have applied to INEC to register
the Allied Council of Nigeria (ACN); Advanced National Patriotic Party
(ANPP) and Conservative People's Congress (CPC).

It said the fact that the acronyms of the three entities tally with
those of the APC component parties (ACN, ANPP and CPC) is not
accidental, but a grand design by those who have been having sleepless
nights since the APC was registered.

''It is worthy of note that the three applications to INEC for the
registration of the three organizations as political parties were made
on the same day. Apparently, common sense takes flight in the face of
great desperation!

''Their plan is simple: Once the parties are registered, they will
then apply to change their logos to those of the original ACN, ANPP
and CPC, and then hope to be on the ballot for next year's general
elections. Just before the elections, the sponsors of the phantom
parties will then send out messages saying the APC has splintered into
its component parties for the purpose of the election. Whatever
happens, their plan is to confuse the electorate and hamper the
electoral fortunes of the APC,'' the party said.

APC called on INEC not to succumb to the antics of those who are
planning to sabotage the 2015 general elections and win elections by
subterfuge.

''This acronym battle is a part of the larger war against our party to
prevent its registration. Nigerians will recollect that the same
people, apparently, applied to register a phantom APC the moment it
became clear that our merger would succeed and that INEC would
register our party, having met all the requirements to consummate the
merger.

''Thankfully, INEC refused to compromise its neutrality and integrity
and chose to act in accordance with the law by registering our party.
We urge the electoral body to do the same now, in the face of
unprecedented desperation by those who believe they can only win
elections by cutting corners,'' the party said.

It also called on Nigerians to be vigilant as the 2015 elections
approach, saying those who are now coming to terms with the reality
that the APC is a viable alternative in the country's political
firmament will stop at nothing to seek to mar the electoral fortunes
of the party.

Alhaji Lai Mohammed
National Publicity Secretary
All Progressives Congress (APC)
Lagos, Aug. 24th 2014

The All Progressives Youth Forum is planning to organize a nationwide ‎thanks giving with special Sunday church service and umma'at prayers over the planned defection of former Governor of Borno State, Ali Modu Sheriff from the APC to PDP according to Barrister Ismail Ahmed the Forum's chairman

Sheriff had on Friday confirmed his planned defection to PDP when he told State House correspondents after a closed door meeting with President Goodluck Jonathan that his movement to PDP was in Nigeria’s best interest.

Barrister Ismaila Ahmed said the Forum received the news with so much joy as it considers his exit as the best thing that would ever happen to the life of the party due to what it calls 'strategic blackmail of the APC by the PDD using Sheriff's alleged links with the Boko Haram, regardless whether Sheriff was guilty or not".

The Forum said "it has conducted very serious investigations about all the games in trying to attach a bad name to the APC locally and internationally. We found out that the PDP uses sponsored commentators in Nigeria to link Sheriff with Boko Haram, rightly or wrongly and because he was a chieftain of the APC, it was easy to sell that to Nigerians using the media. The Forum recalled that the Minister of Information, Labaran Maku and Femi Fani Kayode recently said in public that Sheriff was behind Boko Haram and they openly used that to associate APC with Boko Haram.

The Forum further recalled that the PDP in Borno State as far as 2011 sent a delegation to media houses and alleged that Sheriff was responsible for the emergence of a violent Boko Haram attack after a certain deal he struck with their late leader to support his bid in 2003 to be Governor and in return Sheriff created a Ministry for Religious Affairs and made one of the Boko Haram's major financial backbones, Buji Foi as Commissioner for Religious Affairs, but that Sheriff along the line fell out leading to the 2009 first major crisis and that Sheriff ordered the killing of Mohammed Yusuf whereas he was captured alive and also ordered the killing of the former commissioner, Buji Foi while he was also captured alive, all in an attempt to silence both Yusuf and Foi from revealing some information about their dealing to the public we are now where we are. Boko Haram went viral over the extra judicial killings of their members to the extent that the crisis has taken a confusing dimension.

But the PDP led Federal Government deliberately refused to arrest Sheriff, instead, the FG blackmailed him into working against the ANPP then and thereafter planted him as a spy in APC, where he was able to report every strategy of the APC to the PDP since as a national leader of the party he was privileged to attend strategic and highly sensitive meetings of the party.

Most importantly also, the PDP and the Federal Government are in the habit of telling the international community that APC has links with Boko Haram and in each of their meetings with representatives of foreign countries and international institutions, the PDP and the FG cited Sheriff's membership of the APC as basis of APC'S false link with Boko Haram. At a point two months ago, some agents working to satisfy PDP wanted British parliament to move a motion in session seeking to probe APC'S alleged link with Boko Haram principally on the basis of Sheriff's membership of APC

By the time Sheriff leaves the APC, nobody will have any reason to further demonise the party locally or internationally. We had actually recommended his expulsion to the leadership of the party a while ago if not for some people like the Governor of his State and Alhaji Kashim Imam who intervened.

We don't want him one bit in APC. He was a big burden to us, we feel so relieved and this is why we will call on our members nationwide to attend special sunday church service and jumma'at prayers to offer thanksgiving to God almighty for cleansing the APC.

His exit is the best thing that ever happened to the APC since it came into being. The APC was not happy with the departure of Shekarau and Bafarawa but Sheriff, no,no, we wanted him out and we say thank God he has left us, let him go far, far away with his controversial history and antecedents. We don't want any Hitler related past around us' the Forum said.
Barrister Ismail Ahmed
Chairman, All Progressives Youth Forum
Abuja. Aug 16th, 2014

The All Progressives Congress (APC) has accused the Department of State Services (DSS) of crass partisanship and unprofessional conductover its actions and comments on the recent election in Osun State.

In a statement issued in Abuja on Thursday by its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the party also said the spokesperson for the agency, Ms. Marilyn Ogar, should be properly trained and given the necessary exposure so she can speak with knowledge and facts, instead of making baseless and incautious statements.

''It is sad that a spokesperson for the DSS does not know there is no offence called 'loitering' under Nigerian laws. For her to now go on national television to say the APC's National Publicity Secretary was arrested for 'loitering' in Osogbo on the eve of the state's governorship election is the height of ignorance and constitutes a great embarrassment to DSS.

''It is even worse that the so-called spokesperson, ever so glib, would make a joke out of such a faux pas by an agency that is supposed to be non-partisan and highly professionalized. How on earth can any human being not be disoriented when 15 hooded gunmen arrest him/her and point their weapons at his/her head as they did to me on that night in Osogbo?

''How can a spokesperson for such a sensitive government agency not understand that the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeriaprovides for freedom of movement? On what basis is Ms. Ogar questioning what the APC's National Publicity Secretary was doing in Osun, when the same fellow has not questioned the presence of Musiliu Obanikoro, Chris Uba and the likes in the same state. or are those people from Osun State?

''Was it not publicly announced that the APC was moving its headquarters to Osun to give support for Gov. Rauf Aregbesola? Why didn't Ms. Ogar question the presence of President Goodluck Jonathan or Vice President Namadi Sambo in Osun when they came too, if she was been fair? It is sad that Ms. Ogar has turned herself to the spokesperson of the PDP by echoing what that party has said on the Osun election. This is unprofessional and irresponsible,'' it said.

APC said by spearheading the mass arrest of its leaders and members in Osun before and during the Aug. 9th governorship election in the state, and by preventing the rally planned by the NLC in support of Gov. Aregbesola from holding, the DSS has decided to pitch its tent with the PDP instead of staying neutral.

The party said the questions to ask Ms. Ogar are: ''How many PDP leaders were arrested in Osun? If the rally by the NLC had been
planned in support of the PDP candidate, Senator Iyiola Omisore, would the DSS have aborted it? Why must the DSS send hooded gunmen to police an election that is a civic matter? Does Ms.Ogar bother to read and understand the Nigerian constitution to know the rights of the citizens?''

It described as a tissue of lies the allegation by Ms. Ogar that the party tried to bribe the DSS with 14 million Naira before the Osun election, wondering why the DSS did not arrest the official who offered the alleged bribe.

''Apparently, Ms. Ogar has never head of a 'sting operation' that is widely used by security agencies to catch a person who is committing a crime. The allegation by Ms. Ogar would have been sweet in her mouth had the DSS mounted a sting operation to catch whoever was offering the alleged bribe, and then prosecute him or her,'' the party said, calling the allegation cheap blackmail by a conspiratorial
organization.

APC said it is important to educate the likes of Ogar, and indeed the entire DSS, that election is not war, but a celebration of democracy, hence DSS agents should drop their hoods and hide away their menacing guns when next they are posted to police an election anywhere in the country.


Alhaji Lai Mohammed
National Publicity Secretary
All Progressives Congress (APC)
Abuja, Aug. 14th 2014

It is no longer news that the Satanic wishes of the ilk of Aribisala for the All Progressive Congress (APC) to loose the election in Osun State did not come to pass but it is surprising that he has refused to wake up from his slumber to face the reality that it was his party the People Democratic Party (PDP) that lost the election. It is not surprising that Aribisala, a military apologist, finds it difficult to recover from the fact that the massive war machine deployed by the presidency and all other reactionary forces even beyond our shores to conquer the people of Osun failed in the face of the raw boldness and courage displayed by the people. The people of Osun refused to be brought under the subjugation of the forces which had plundered our land since the advent of this hard earned democratic dispensation, they refused to welcome back the years of the locust even in the face of such gross intimidation and onslaught.

The APC outcry against the antics of the PDP was not misplaced in any way and it is not crying wolf. Is Aribisala aware that the international community is appalled at the recklessness displayed by the Federal forces and the PDP allies against the people of Osun? Aregbesola has even been rightly advised to challenge such abuses in court by European Union Monitoring group. All the allegations against the PDP of the plan to rig the election could not be denied substantially until the people rose in defense of their inalienable rights to vote and make their votes count. No matter the level of blackmail by the ilk of Aribisala the APC will continue to be vigilant and will continue in this project to rescue Nigeria from the ineptitude of the PDP government and the mediocrity cum corruption which the PDP brand represents.

Aribisala is either not in tune with what happened in Osun on 9th of August or is being deliberately economical with the truth. Here was a situation where over 70,000 security personnel were deployed, masked gun men in military attire welding submachine guns were parading the streets shooting indiscriminately in Gestapo-like manner. It was as though the land was under siege especially in the towns and villages perceived as the strongholds of the APC in the State. Leaders of the parties were arrested by masked men, the attorney general of the State was detained, the former governor of the State was being chased about like a common criminal before and on the day of the election. In spite of all these, the APC won the election with a very large margin. Is this the victory Aribisala is describing as pyrrhic by employing voodoo statistics! We describe it as a hard earned victory and say it portends a great lesson for the reactionary forces in Nigeria that their time is up. The new found strategy of PDP to hoodwink the international community and the law courts into rigging election through pre-election intimidation and scientific rigging will not work in the 2015 elections. This victory has further strengthened the faith of the people in themselves and in the power of the Almighty God to defend them against the onslaught of the PDP government which has only succeeded in destroying the moral and social fabric of the federation. Today the country is more divided along ethnic and religious line than at any other time in our national life second only to the pre-civil war era. The government of the day celebrates and promotes this instead of coming out to defend the whole nation, the government turn the other way and describes the problems as sectional. Boko Haram has conquered some towns in Nigeria and declared it as independent and yet the PDP government is clueless but is apt to deploy the arm forces to intimidate and harass armless citizens. This provocation must stop.

Aribisala pretended not to know that in the elections of Ondo and Anambra said to have been won by the Labour party (LP) and All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA) respectively that these parties only stood in proxy for Jonathan and his PDP. In these States the candidates of the PDP were left in the lush while the Federal forces were deployed to help LP and APGA. It was so ridiculous in Anambra that the candidate of the party Comrade Dennis and his family members have their names expunged from the INEC register in the Unit where they have always been voting! Apparently he was not part of the game. No sooner had the charade called elections over that the Anambra State PDP quickly rushed in to congratulate the APGA candidate while their own was candidate was left in the cold to lick his wounds. The case of Olusola Oke was not too different in Ondo State. Such is the immorality perpetuated by PDP even against his own that opposition parties like APC should know that eternal vigilance is the key. Aribisala would have wished that the APC be caught unawares, no wonder he is now crying wolf.

In the coming elections Nigerians will not vote for PDP with its unenviable record of non performance, massive looting of the treasury, failure in infrastructural development, grave unemployment, insecurity and total lack of direction. We challenge INEC to conduct a free and fair elections in 2015, PDP will not only loose the election woefully but we loose even in Bayelsa! The incumbent governor, the president lackey was rigged into office by the total stiffening of opposition using the force of state in an election where even the Airforce was deployed!

One would need to plead with military apologists like Aribisala that they should not push this country back to the dark days of military from which they unjustly benefited to the pains of the majority of Nigerians by urging President Jonathan on, in his march in impunity and recklessness. The true democrats and activists who made the sacrifices even some with their lives know where the shoe pinches. The ominous signs is not the defeat of APC like Aribisala will want us to believe but that these recklessness can truncate this hard earned democracy like it did in the first and second republics. We say God forbid and hereby call on all well meaning Nigerians and the international community to call PDP and President Goodluck Jonathan to order.

REASONS WHY POLLING AGENTS CANNOT BE 300 METRES AWAY FROM THE POLLING UNITS BY BISIOLA BAKARE

At the stakeholders forum held today, the 6th day of August, 2014, at the Leisure Spring Hotel, Osogbo, the Chairman of INEC, Professor Attahiru Jega, originally stated that no polling Agent would be allowed within 300 metres from the polling booth before later recapitulating. It is important to note to that the Chairman did not only goof but demonstrated high level of ignorance of the Electoral Act, 2010 that regulates electoral activities in Nigeria.

By Section 45 of the Electoral Act, 2010 (as amended) [hereinafter referred to as “the Act”] the mode of appointment of polling agents by political parties at the various polling units and collation centres was regulated. Also by section 45(2) of the Act, a candidate shall not be precluded from doing any act or thing which he has appointed a polling agent to do on his behalf under the Act. Section 45(3) also provides that where an act or thing is required to be done by or in the presence of a polling agent, the non-attendance of the polling agent at the time and place appointed for the act or thing or refusal by the agent to do the act or thing shall not, if the act or thing is otherwise done properly, invalidate the act or thing.

Thus, a candidate is at liberty to be his own agent or appoint any other person to so act for him. Since it is however impracticable for the candidate to be at all the polling units simultaneously, it is inevitable that he must appoint agents. There are so many rights a candidate or his agent possesses at the polling booth and for which it is imperative that the agent or the candidate must be present within the polling booth.

To this end, the very first pertinent provision on the importance of the presence of the polling agent at the polling unit is contained in section 50 of the Act. The section provides that:
“A candidate or a polling agent may challenge the right of a person to receive a ballot paper on such grounds and in accordance with such procedures as are provided for in this Act.”

Based on the above provision, it is clear that it is only when the polling agent or the candidate is at the polling unit that he may make such challenge on the issuance of the ballot paper to any person since he cannot be a magician that could imagine or discover same without sighting or supervising the process. A supervisor cannot be separated from the scene or event to be supervised hence, the order to distance a polling agent by 300 metres cannot be in any way sound or consistent with the rules of free and fair election.

Furthermore, by section 59 of the Act, a polling agent has the power to inform the presiding officer that he has reasonable cause to believe that the person is under the age of 18 years or that the person has committed an offence of impersonation where such a person is still within the polling unit. Based on information provided by the polling agent, the Presiding Officer has the right to order a police officer to arrest that person which shall be sufficient authority for the police officer to so act. To perform this task, It is mandatory that the polling agent has to be within the polling booth in order to identify “a person under the age 18 years or an impersonator”. If he is metres away from the polling unit, how can he inform the presiding officer?

By section 61(1) of the Act, the Presiding Officer shall regulate the admission of voters to the polling units and shall exclude all persons other than the candidates, polling agents, poll clerks and persons lawfully entitled to be admitted including accredited observers. It must be noted that the Presiding Officer is a staff of the INEC and must cohabit with the persons exempted. By implication, therefore, INEC cannot exclude the polling agent. The Presiding Officer is also required to keep order and comply with the requirements of this act at the polling unit. It is, therefore, submitted that the presiding officer cannot exclude the polling agent from the polling unit. If this is the case, then a polling agent cannot be 300 metres away from the Polling Unit and still carry on his duties under the Electoral Act. This is tantamount to excluding polling agents from the election. With all the above duties of polling agents, one cannot but agree that polling agents are not only required to be in the polling units but must be in close contact or communication with the Presiding Officers. Without mincing words, the Act requires the presence of the polling agent at the polling unit. Therefore, any attempt to exclude them is not only unlawful but preparatory to the much anticipated rigging by INEC in favour of the PDP.

In addition, by section 63 of the Act, polling agents are required to take part in counting of votes and shall after the Presiding Officer signs the result or Form, counter-sign the said result or Form. Where the agent is not satisfied with the counting of votes, polling agents is empowered to demand for a recount. By the combination of sections 54(1) and 67(1) of the Act, where a voter makes any writing or mark on a ballot paper by which he may be identified such paper shall be rejected and the Presiding Officer shall endorse the word “rejected” on the ballot paper, but if an objection to the decision of the Presiding Officer to reject a ballot paper is raised by a candidate or a polling agent, the Presiding Officer shall add to the word “rejected”, the phrase “but objected to” and the Presiding Officer shall prepare a statement on the rejected ballot papers stating the number rejected, the reason for rejection and their serial number and shall on request, allow a candidate or polling agent to copy the statement so made. Again, by sections 67(2) and (3) of the Act, a polling agent shut out of the polling unit and kept at 300 metres (or any other distance) away from the polling unit cannot perform any of these statutory functions. Where any person purports to use the instrument of the law to so shut out the polling agents, such person is engaging in unadulterated illegality and criminality..

Another pertinent point raised at the forum is that relating to the decision of a voter to photographically capture his ballot paper. Going by the provisions of the Act, a voter has the right to take a picture of his or her ballot paper where the voter so decided provided the voter does not make any writing or mark on the ballot paper by which he may be identified. The summation of all the foregoing is that the INEC need to categorically come out again to clarify these position if it must not be taken to be a conspirator in the rigging plan by the PDP.

The relevant provisions of Section 125(1) and (2) which regulate the need for a polling agent, Presiding Officer or any other person to maintain secrecy of voting process has to do with a restraint on disclosing information by a third party on whether a voter actually voted for one party or another. The provisions in issue have nothing to do with a voter who decides to preserve to himself a photographic record of his voting.

We hereby consider it pertinent to notify the whole world of these unpopular decisions of INEC by which it has decided to tilt the scale of voting in favour of PDP. All lovers of democracy must object to this shenanigan as same enjoys no recognition under the Electoral Act, 2010.

Bisiola Bakare lives in Osogbo.

Our dear country, Nigeria, is definitely witnessing distressingly interesting times. While the populace lives in agony of terrorism, it is disappointing to see the lunatic gusto for power being exhibited by federal government officials elected or appointed to protect the interest of the distraught masses.

In the past few days, the Minister for State Defence, Mr. Musiliu Obanikoro, has abandoned his office and abdicated his responsibilities of superintending over the protection and defence of hapless Nigerians whose daily lives are at the devastating mercy of the boko haram goons. While many lives are being mercilessly snuffed out in their prime by all manners of blood-thirsty elements in different parts of Nigeria, the Minister of Defence moonlights in Osogbo, Osun State, addressing press conferences and commandeering stern looking army officers to unleash naked terror on the harmless citizens who intend to participate in the governorship election already slated to hold on the 9th day of August 2014.

In saner climes, it is unimaginable that a Minister with such a serious portfolio as defence would evacuate army officers from States where emergencies have been declared only to deploy them to a State where hitherto there had been peace and harmony and a free and fair election is supposed to be civilly organised. It is rather unfortunate that the Minister of Defence has not considered important the safety and rescue of more than two hundred innocent girls whose lives have been halted, whose future has been truncated and whose psyche has been pulverized by the rudderless terrorist organization which has reduced the country to a theatre of bloodletting.

What moral justification could be provided for the unjust and unwarranted harassment, intimidation and vilification of law-abiding voters whose only offence is exercising their constitutional right to vote against the preferred candidate of the federal government in the governorship election in Osun. What moral justification exists for deploying the military in a purely civic duty of voting in the State of Osun. If this is how to be a Minister of Defence in Nigeria, definitely no one needs this kind of defence provided by Obanikoro and since he has decided to abandon his duties to become Iyiola Omisore’s public relations officer, it is better to demand his resignation and a refund of innocent taxpayers’ money being wasted in this gallivanting adventure.

We implore all right-thinking persons, men of conscience and lovers of democracy and human rights to call Musiliu Obanikoro to order. If the bunch of power grabbers see nothing civil in democratic process of electioneering one wonders how they would perceive war in the face of their failure to tackle the boko haram menace which has made the country a laughing stock internationally.

We equally must end by warning the federal government and its agents to desist from its determination to rig the Osun governorship election in favour of the PDP candidate. Failure to heed this simple warning may precipitate the commencement of a predictable revolt the end of which is beyond human clairvoyance. A word is enough for the wise.

Press Release: "Just Before The People Of Osun Decides"

Gentle Men of the Press,

Our organization considers it sacrosanct, germane and imperative to address the world today to objectively express and confidently make our position known in respect of the fast-approaching governorship election in Osun State, South Western, Nigeria.

As an ideologically based organization, rooted, grounded and cerebral, we viewed it as a matter of necessity to place on records, for the sake of history and posterity that our members in Osun, the land of living spring, know where we stand before they decide.

Without any iota of doubt and without equivocation, the National Association of Nigerian Students wishes to state categorically that we are for free, fair and credible elections as a panacea to sustaining and deepening our democratic experience across Nigeria and particularly now that the people of Osun go to the poll to pick the governor of their choice.

As one of the formidable foot soldiers who fought against the tyrannical and despotic regimes the military represents alongside other pro-democracy platforms, that led to the restoration of democracy to Nigeria, it is important we let the whole world know we are against any attempt to circumvent the tenets of democracy as far as the August 9th governorship election in Osun State is concerned.

Greatest Nigerian Students! We urge those of you that domicile in Osun to troop out on August 9th and vote for any candidate of your choice having in mind that the exercise has implications for the future well-being of our people. As such, it should be approached with all the seriousness it deserves.

We urge you to vote rightly! Vote for character! Vote your best personality! Vote for integrity! Vote for tradition! Cast your vote for virtue! Use your vote to uphold the sanctity of the ballot box! Vote for competence. Reject acts that work to make students gangsters.

Fellow Nigerian Students, once again, we wish to say that our stand on the Osun State governorship poll is that, it should be free, fair and creditably conducted. We say to no rigging, violence, intimidation, harassment and disenfranchisement of eligible voters.

Further more, while we support the move of the Federal Government to mobilize security men to all the nooks and crannies of Osun in order to ensure that the election is free and fair, we wish to state without any fear or favor that the security situation in Osun State, as we speak, does not warrant mobilizing the men of the Nigerian Army for election purposes instead of its constitutional role of maintaining and securing the country from any form of external aggression. Election is a civil matter, and our position is that it should be treated by people with civil minds.

Be that as it may, may we state that as the most informed and radical youth movement in Nigeria, we shall ensure that the electoral brouhaha that lead to the collapse of first, second and third Republics is avoided in Nigeria starting fromOsun State Governorship Election.

Lastly, we urge Nigerian Students of Osun State origin, to vote for the candidate that values education! Education is a right and not a privilege. We implore you to Vote for the candidate who will truthfully give you access to quality and affordable education! We beg of you not to sell your vote.

The only panacea for development in a complex nation like Nigeria is to have characters embedded with virtues, integrity and as Plato opined, philosophical skills, at the corridor of power.

Therefore, we urge Osun Students and all voters to think wisely before they cast their votes.

Long Live Osun State
Long Live Nigeria
Long Live NANS


Yinka Gbadebo, National President, National Association of Nigerian Students, NANS.
1st August, 2014.

POLITICAL ARMED ROBBERS ARE AT OUR GATES
By Chief Bisi Akande at a Reception for him by APC in His Federal Constituency at Ila Orangun on Saturday, August 2, 2014.

Distinguished Party Leaders, Ladies and Gentlemen.

It is noble to work to live. When a man wakes up daily to work, his aim is to gather resources to buy his needs like air-conditioners, drinks, foods, housing, clothes and some luxuries. If suddenly he realises that armed robbers are at his gate, in any decent society, his immediate reaction will be to ask for help from his government or its agents. And promptly, he should be defended and protected from attack. Is that possible in Nigeria today? It would have been possible if Democracy were intact in Nigeria. Wherever Democracy is intact, all governments and their agencies at all levels will always strive to respond to the demands of the greater number of the people within their jurisdictions. Today, Nigeria which is one of the wealthiest and most naturally endowed places on earth, because of deliberate incidence of corruptions and consequent mis-rule by the military administrations and the PDP over the years, is breeding the poorest and most deprived citizens within its jurisdiction.

Hunting for powers and to enable them be accountable to no electorate, PDP and its Presidency have begun to destroy opposition all over Nigeria by using massive federal powers to impeach governors and fully arming the police and the soldiers to protect and cover up their corrupt leaders while fraudulently manipulating the wishes of Nigerians at the pools with absolute impunity.

It is increasingly becoming embarrassing that the PDP, in its own fashion of Democracy, tolerates no opposition. Any Democracy without opposition is fascism, prone to corruption and repressive rule. Unfortunately, the credulous international communities, from whose places Democracy was introduced to Nigeria and to whom we can expect to intervene, seem naive in appreciating the enormity of Nigeria's Democracy bastardization system. It is definitely fascism that is being re-christened as democracy in Nigeria.

It will be recalled that in the recently held election in Ekiti, hundreds of APC party supporters and leaders were hounded into detention at the eve of the election only for the Federal government to hoodwink the global community to believe that the election was free and fair when in truth the process had been skewed in favour of the PDP in the pre-election processes. How can an election be said to be free and fair where majority of APC opposition members were detained for no just cause; where elected governors from other APC states were prevented from attending APC rally; while serving federal ministers and other appointees of the PDP-controlled Federal Government, who were equally not indigenes of Ekiti State, were allowed free movement in and out of the state?

The same scenario is playing out again in Osun state with massive militarisation of the State by men of the state security services who are shooting sporadically everywhere in order to scare away voters and intimidate our people before the elections.

History does not change. It is people who fail to learn the lessons of history. It was this type of actions by the then ruling parties that led to the collapse of the first and second republics of Nigeria due to the reckless use of brutal force by the ruling parties against the opposition. The present ruling PDP is already toeing this line at the risk of our hard earned democracy for which some of our compatriots paid the supreme sacrifice. It is ironical that these same people who were collaborators with the military while most of us were either in jail, on exile or hunted by the killer squad are still the ones toying with the destiny of our people today, using the instrument of state to intimidate and harass innocent citizens.

This is, therefore, a clarion call to all well meaning Nigerians and the international community to immediately prevail on the ruling PDP to call its dogs of war to order and ensure that these acts of intimidation as a prelude to the massive rigging of the August 9, 2014 governorship election in Osun be stopped forthwith. We are veterans in the struggle for the progress of our father land and we want to assure Nigerians that this plot will be resisted firmly and courageously by the people of Osun state. We are armed with the truth that we are all freeborn of our nation and that no one will be allowed to imprison or enslave us using our commonwealth resources for which they ought to be faithful trustees.

Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen, the military, by their nature, had no business with the electorates. During their rules, there were serious set-backs in the lives of ordinary Nigerians. They were dictators, and Nigeria was therefore worse under military rule.

With PDP in power, votes do not count and, therefore, the electorates are not important in PDP's culture. That is why Nigeria has been sinking and failing under PDP governments. This present regime is the worst. No peace, no infrastructures, no industry, no employment, no prosperity, no orderliness and no peace of mind. Instead, there is panic everywhere.

Surely, this Jonathan's Presidency is a Political Armed Robber.

danot1030: We all know dis. Osun people will not vote a thug and a murderer as their governor, they are content and not hungary as Ekiti people that will sell their birth right for 5kg of rice. Osun has their pride and their dignity.

Omoluabi art thou! Bless you!!

OSUN GUBER POLLS: AREGBESOLA IN CLEAR LEAD ON ALL CRITICAL INDICATORS
-73 PERCENT OF OSUN VOTERS CHOOSE AREGBESOLA
-OMISORE BEHIND BY 54 POINTS
-CONFIDENCE IN INEC DROPS BY 10 POINTS

With less than two weeks to the Osun governorship elections, the latest survey conducted by the reputable firm of TNS-RMS (a member of Gallup International) has confirmed the domination of the Osun political landscape by the All Progressives Congress (APC) on all critical indicators.
“The APC continues to dominate the political landscape in Osun State judging by its performance on all key indicators evaluated: it scored highest and also increased in rating on first mention, sympathy, and voting intention,” the research firm said in its final report.

According to the study, the incumbent governor, Rauf Aregbesola, is the candidate of choice by Osun voters with a 73% lead over other candidates. This is a clear indication that the choice of Osun voters in the next governorship race is Governor Rauf Aregebsola. Meanwhile, Senator Iyiola Omisore of the PDP comes a far distant second, polling 19% representing a 2% decline from the earlier survey.

“The incumbent (Governor Rauf Aregbesola) remains (the) main voting choice. Voting choice for Senator Omisore declined by 2% and seem not to pose a threat to the incumbent’s chances of re-election as he remains firmly ahead of the race,” TSN-RMS said in its report.

The two phased survey was conducted over a period that stretched from June 2014 into the third week of July 2014.

“Not only is APC currently the most preferred party in Osun State, it has largely retained this goodwill from way back in the past. It was the party that most people claimed to have voted for in the last election and it is still the party with the highest chances of winning the election again. More importantly, the gap by which it out performs opposition continues to widen and more convincing in the current survey,” the report added.
The APC also rates very high in the survey as its top-of-mind and awareness increased from 75% to 78% over the two polls, followed by a very far distance by the PDP with 18%, a drop of 3% from 21% in the first study. The Labour Party maintains third rank with a negligible 1%. Furthermore, electorate choice for APC is now 70% - boosted by 1% increment. 19% say they would vote for the PDP, another 3% drop. Electorate choice for Labour Party remains 1%.

The report goes further to say, “While Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola is more known than his party, Senator Iyiola Omisore (PDP’s candidate) is less known than his party. Top-of-mind awareness of Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola increased to 85% (from 79%), affinity increased from 72% to 74% and chances of being re-elected increased from 71% to 73%.”
Conversely, it is a tale of decline for the man in second place, Senator Omisore. For top-of-mind awareness, the PDP candidate toppled to 13% (from 19%), affinity fell to 19% (from 21%) and chances of being elected declined to 19% (from 21%).

While the affinity of Osun electorate towards the APC increased by 4%, PDP failed to maintain its connection to the people. The favourable perception of Osun voters towards the All Progressive’s Congress, APC stood at 83 per cent while on 17 per cent viewed APC as unfavourable.
According to the polls, 98% of the electorates in Osun State have said they would participate in the August 9th gubernatorial election. This indicates that the people are prepared for all eventualities in election.

The survey also revealed the strength of the candidates and their parties in the local government areas across the state; “Repeat of APC high chance to win in all the LGAs seem to play out again in the next election, APC is poised to repeat this feat except in Ife Central and Ife East; the PDP seemed well positioned to win these two LGAs. The Labour Party’s weakness is imminent across all the LGAs.
“The incumbent's chances of being reelected remain same across the LGAs except in Ife Central and Ife East. The incumbent’s chances of re-election remain high and leads his closest rival by a good margin of 54%-an increment of 4% over last survey.”
The voters’ confidence in Attahiru Jega-led Independent National Election Commission (INEC) took a 10% hit, dropping to 57% to 67%.
• THE MARGIN OF ERROR FOR THE SURVEY IS PLUS OR MINUS 5 PER CENT WITH A 95 PERCENT LEVEL OF CONFIDENCE.
•

(PLEASE REFER TO SURVEY SLIDES FOR DETAILED FINDINGS)



ELEVEN TAKE AWAYS FROM THE RESEACH/SURVEY ON OSUN ELECTIONS
- 1. APC continues to lead top of mind awareness, increased to 78%. Spontaneous aware of PDP dipped by 3%. The third contender remains almost unknown at 1%.

- 2. Although the gap closed up significantly, APC still maintains a healthy lead over the PDP and other opposition power on overall awareness.

- 3.Voter sympathy is expressed more firmly in favor of the APC, more than 2/3 voters express sympathy to APC compare to 1/5 voters who show sympathy to PDP

- 4.Overall, All Progressive Congress (APC) enjoys and maintains a comfortable assessment over other parties

- 5. Overall, the electorate speaks favorably about APC and have a positive perception towards the party. Adduced to be a grass root party, a party that has proven record of performance and party for the masses.

- 6.Spontaneous awareness of Ogbeni Aregbesola seem to increase as party awareness increases, PDP top-of-mind awareness declined and still trail far behind APC

- 7. Awareness of the incumbent-Ogbeni Aregbesola increases marginally to 98%. His incumbency, among other factors is a key source of awareness. Senator Iyiola Omisore has gained some awareness through ‘Word of Mouth’.

- 8. The incumbent governor is highly rated and he continues to lead other candidates in all the stated attributes. Senator Omisore seem to drop marginally in all the stated attributes

- 9. The incumbent remains main voting choice for the voters. Voting chance for Senator Omisore declined by 2% and seems not to pose a threat to the incumbent’s chances of re-election as he remains firmly ahead of the race.

- 10. Influence of candidate’s personality has increased to be main driver of voting choice. This is followed by the appeal of individual candidate’s track record. Influence of party platform continues to diminish.

- 11.Confidence level in INEC’s ability to deliver, both as an umpire generally and in the Osun State elections have drastically reduced, and now tend towards average.

Friday, May 24, 2013, 35 governors gathered to vote for the Chairman of the Nigeria Governors Forum (NGF). With the initial postponement and intrigues that surrounded it, it was going to be a night of long knives. With the Presidency interested in the outcome and with Governor Amaechi determined to give it another shot in spite of his open confrontation with the President, it was going to take more than ordinary determination to navigate the treacherous waters. It would take grit, uncommon courage and the ability to outfox the henchmen of the Presidency. At the entrance of the venue of the election, all the Governors were mandated to submit all their mobile phones. But one man particularly suspected there was going to be foul play so he sneaked in a pen camera. He recorded the vote counting surreptitiously until when Governor Godswill Akpabio noticed they were being secretly recorded. When controversy sprang up on the actual winner of the contest, he released the video to the public. The man who exposed the lie for what it was was Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, the Governor of Osun State.

Controversy is his middle name. For 9 months, he operated solely without commissioners. He renamed Osun State and gave it a new nomenclature called ‘State of Osun.’ He fashioned a new educational policy and called it reclassification of schools. In one fell swoop, schools were merged and bedlam ensued. In one school, we were treated to a picture of students dressed in choir robes, hijab and masquerade attires as uniform. Some suspected Muslim fundamentalists broke into a school and flogged a teacher. For the first time in the South West, religious embers were stoked. Then came the uniform controversy. All the public schools were mandated to adopt the same uniform all over the State. Fakunle Comprehensive School, Osogbo was demolished despite pleas that a school with such a grand tradition should be allowed to stand. He declared Hijra as a public holiday for Muslims, the only state to do so in Nigeria. Then he declared another holiday for traditionalists called ‘Isese Day’. Suspected of being a religious fundamentalist, he donated N35m for the burial of late Prophet Timothy Obadare. And then the ‘Opon Imo’ controversy. Then came the issue of the ‘Sukuk’ Islamic bond. His tenure could be appropriately termed ‘one week, one trouble’.

In spite of the unending controversies and despite the appointment of an Osun State indigene Jelili Adesiyan as the Minister of Police Affairs, it is my carefully considered opinion that Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola will win the August 9 election. Here’s why I think he will trump Otunba Iyiola Omisore, the PDP’s candidate.

1. Omisore’s Poor Candidature

Iyiola Omisore is not Peter Ayodele Fayose. He lacks the charisma of Fayose. He is not a Jimi Agbaje. He lacks the character of Agbaje. He doesn’t have the mass appeal even though he has the notoriety. While you cannot deny that he has a semblance of structure having been the Deputy Governor of the State and also a Senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, his major Achilles heel is that he has been successfully tainted by the accusation of involvement in Bola Ige’s murder. This is one accusation that has refused to go in spite of his protestations. In addition, his campaign is a poor caricature of Ayodele Fayose’s. Whoever is his campaign director needs to get fired as he has run one of the most bizarre and lacklustre campaigns ever. His efforts to align with the masses fell flat- his handling of two roasted corn cobs in both hands, his ride to a campaign venue on an ‘okada’ and his absurd combination of two different ‘Ankara’ materials as cloth are images that have defined his campaign. He has not successfully exploited Rauf Aregbesola’s obvious weaknesses.
When it was time to debate Ogbeni, he didn’t show up. That was an opportunity to redeem himself but he failed to utilize it. Ayo Fayose challenged Kayode Fayemi for a walk on the streets of Ado-Ekiti but Iyiola Omisore claimed he didn’t come for the debate because he didn’t want Ogbeni to beat him up. Is it any wonder that the President has not attended any rally in Osun State even up till now? The President must have read the handwriting on the wall and there was no point dissipating energy in the wrong direction. PDP lost it when the ticket was given to Omisore because he is irredeemable. If he’s banking on federal might, he got it wrong this time because you can only rig successfully where you are popular. In fact, Ogbeni will be gifted this election not because of his superlative performance but primarily because of Omisore’s poor candidature.

2. Disunity In The PDP House

No situation exacerbated the looming disunity in Osun State PDP than the statement credited to the Minister for Police Affairs that he will beat Senator Isiaka Adeleke when he leaves office. Adeleke claimed he was assaulted during a party meeting and he subsequently defected to APC. Fatai Akinbade, a former Chairman of the State PDP and a man who served three different times as Commissioner under three different military regimes also defected to the Labour Party. Former Governor Olagunsoye Oyinlola has not come out openly in support of Iyiola Omisore despite belonging to the same party. In fact, he was even courted by the top echelon of the APC. As a former National Secretary of the party and also a former Governor of the State, his body language speaks volumes. Oyinlola is a Prince of Okuku, the capital of Odo-Otin Local Government, one of the 30 Local Government areas in Osun State. It is instructive to note that Odo-Otin is one of the three local government council areas with the highest number of 15 wards in the state after Osogbo and Iwo.

3. Ogbeni Aregbesola’s Above-Average Performance

In spite of his controversies, only a blind man will ignore Ogbeni’s performance. He has built mega schools, many of them super infrastructures with commendable appurtenances. He has constructed over 20 intercity roads and more than 15 intra-city roads. This is apart from some very ambitious dualization projects embarked upon. The free festive inter-city train ride from Lagos to Osogbo has become a constant feature of his administration. I was informed that he has built 74 primary health Centres all over Osun State. He has increased IGR in Osun from N300m to N1.6b and has not been known to borrow from any financial institution, save for the Islamic bond he took. His O’Meals project is laudable. Love him or hate him, there’s no denying the fact that he has improved the face of governance in the state.

4. Ogbeni’s Massive Campaign Network

Ogbeni has embarked on a blitzkrieg of a campaign. Maybe due to the lessons learnt from Ekiti’s recent election, he has left no stone untouched. This is the first time I’m seeing an incumbent campaign as if he’s the under-dog. He has run a very good campaign so far- both terrestrially and on social media. Going by his student unionism antecedents, one is not too surprised that he has at least 2 former student leaders in his cabinet and they are both active in running his campaign. Most of the controversial issues raised have been either effectively addressed or well mitigated by this team. When the issue of religious fundamentalism came up, they released the video of Bishop David Oyedepo’s visit. Ogbeni has been photographed genuflecting to Pastor Enoch Adejare Adeboye. He attended a major night vigil organized by a white garment church. He has been dancing ‘skelewu’ at all rallies to show he can connect with the populace. He has run his campaign without Bola Tinubu being visible so the issue of the overbearing influence of the APC leader has been largely well managed. Ogbeni runs the best propaganda machinery in the South West and the effect can be seen in how he has successfully diverted attention from his controversies while making Omisore seem to be the controversial one.

5. The Seeming Inconsequential Position of Osun In National Politics

In the calculation of the PDP, Osun State may not really be worth the trouble. Like Ekiti, one would have expected a massive support from the centre but apart from the involvement of the Minister for Police Affairs Jelili Adesiyan and party big wig Buruji Kashamu, no other major PDP political actor has been to Osun State. Not even the Vice President Namadi Sambo who usually represents the President on most occasions. The PDP Chairman has been missing in action conspicuously and in my opinion two major issues come into consideration here: firstly, the antecedents of Osun politics where the State was the only one won by the erstwhile ACN candidate Nuhu Ribadu during the 2011 Presidential elections without having any impact on the outcome of the full national election results. The resources are limited and they would rather concentrate such where they can get the greatest political capital- Adamawa, Nassarawa, Edo, Oyo, Ogun and Lagos States.

The second is the opportunity to take the wind out of the sail of APC’s complaint that Osun’s elections will be rigged by the PDP just like they suspected it was done in Ekiti. Furthermore, it is PDP’s calculation that APC will be misled to believe they have stopped PDP’s incursion in the South West. Consequently, if APC wins Osun, the party will be seen to be a bad loser anytime it complains after another loss. So PDP can afford to lose Osun State without batting an eyelid.

6. Ogbeni’s Grassroots Support

Rauf Aregbesola is well schooled in the art of politics. He has been able to successfully marry both politicking and governance which was one of the major issues Governor Kayode Fayemi had. You can accuse him of everything but you can never accuse him of not connecting with the populace. With the pupils, he has appeared in their school uniform on many occasions. He has held his health walk in several towns across the states. He has several mushroom groups such as De Raufs located all over the state and these ones project his ideology. He has given himself the identity of ‘Oranmiyan’, a progenitor that the Yorubas respect. His support base is not limited to a particular demographics – he has a broad base across all sectors in the state. Ogbeni is street smart and can fight dirty if need be. A veteran of many political battles, he is not a gentleman like Kayode Fayemi and can be very rambunctious. That was why he asked people to come to the polling units with charms on Election Day. If there is anyone who is a true protege of Bola Ahmed Tinubu, he is one. That is one of the reasons the Ekiti story cannot repeat itself in Osun State.

7. The Geo-Political Demographics in Osun State

The geopolitical demographics currently favour Ogbeni Aregbesola. Ogbeni is from Osun East Senatorial District, the largest district in the State.Though Iyiola Omisore also hails from the same district, Ogbeni is from Ilesa, one of the three biggest towns with the highest number of voters in the state while Omisore is from Ile-Ife. Osun East with a voting strength close to 500,000 comprises of 10 Local Government Areas- 4 in Ife and 6 in Ijeshaland. There are about 1.2m registered voters in the state. Ogbeni is expected to have a clean sweep of all the 6 Local Governments in Ijeshaland while Omisore will sweep his own 4 Local Government areas. However, Ogbeni’s deputy Mrs Laoye-Tomori is from the state capital, Osogbo and so he’s expected to pick up the votes in the town. Iwo, which is the largest town in the State is predominantly Muslim and this will also play to Ogbeni’s favour.
Omisore’s deputy, ex-Speaker Adejare Bello hails from Ede, the same town Senator Isiaka Adeleke hails from. ‘Serubawon’ as the Senator and former Governor is popularly called has more grassroots support in Ede than Bello. His family even has a University called Adeleke University in Ede.

I present to you below my take on the electoral configuration that will arise during the August 9 election across the 30 Local Government Areas in Osun State.

Aiyedaade - Omisore
Aiyedire - Omisore
Atakunmosa East - Ogbeni
Atakunmosa West - Ogbeni
Boluwaduro - Ogbeni
Boripe - Ogbeni
Ede North - Ogbeni
Ede South - Ogbeni
Egbedore - Ogbeni
Ejigbo - Ogbeni
Ife Central - Omisore
Ife East - Omisore
Ife North - Omisore
Ife South - Omisore
Ifedayo - Ogbeni
Ifelodun - Ogbeni
Ila - Ogbeni
Ilesa East - Ogbeni
Ilesa West - Ogbeni
Irepodun - Ogbeni
Irewole - Ogbeni
Isokan - Ogbeni
Iwo - Ogbeni
Obokun - Ogbeni
Odo Otin - Ogbeni
Ola Oluwa - Ogbeni
Olorunda - Ogbeni
Oriade - Ogbeni
Orolu - Ogbeni
Osogbo - Ogbeni

aljharem: You are not informed. Believe it or not, APC Lagos topped the list of external debtors with[b] $517,677,672 as of June 30, 2012.[/b]

WHICH IS WORSE

http://pointblanknews.com/pbn/exclusive/fashola-denies-taking-15m-loan-from-ex-im-bank-weeks-after-seeking-600m-from-world-bank/

People should start using their brains

APC is a devilish party

Dangote is one of the most indebted Nigerians alive today. Yet, he is the wealthiest. America is the most indebted nation in the world, yet it is the most powerful. Get my drift?

ratiken: Yes it is APC sabotaging the power reform efforts by gas pipeline vandalization in the southwest despite the strides achieved by GEJ govt on this.

Yes it is not GEJ responsible for the collapse of the educational system ..... as a matter of fact he set out to fix it before your APC hijacked the ASUU strike to score cheap political points.

And a final yes....... APC is the major driver to the setback in curbing the bokoharam insurgency. In their midst lies the major sponsors, APC chieftain publicy declared that fighting bokoharam was a plan by FG to decimate the north. APC condemned the state of emergency in the NE states. APC is purely pro-boko haram.

Behind your sacarscm lies the subtle truths that has held this country back...... and that you grossly overlooked.

Major sponsors like Ali Modu Sheriff? Or the one the Late Azazi said were all in the PDP? Or the ones GEJ said were in his cabinet? which ones? I'm a bit confused.

ratiken: This useless party is becoming extremely annoying. We have ab almost hopeless security situation in our hands that could consume us all. Instead of joining hands with FG to fight the situation, they go ahead spewing balderdash daily.

I truly believe APC is out to help kill this country with support from those don't want to see this country progress.

Of course. APC is the party that has spent all those trillions on electricity that hasn't improved since 1999. It is APC that has turned our universities into dens of prostitution and Yahoo Boys. And it is APC that has failed to end Boko Haram after spending N3tr in 3 years. Yes, APC is to blame, not the PDP. PDP is so perfect, they should rule for life. Power, Power, Power!!!

The All Progressives Congress (APC) has asked President Goodluck Jonathan to walk his talk as far as the organization of free and fair elections in the country is concerned, saying all the assurances so far given by the President have not translated into credible elections.

In a statement issued in Lagos on Monday by its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the party urged the President to go beyond mere rhetoric and take concrete actions to ensure that the elections in the country are not marred by the intimidation and harassment of opposition party members and supporters as well as the deliberate disenfranchisement of voters, which hallmarked the Anambra and Ekiti gubernatorial elections, among others.

''On the same day the President's latest assurances of a free, fair, credible and transparent elections in 2015 were being reported, agents of the Jonathan-led federal government were ransacking the offices of a company hired to carry out an opinion poll for Osun State ahead of the 9 Aug. gubernatorial election.

''If the opposition can no longer freely carry out opinion polls, if the companies hired to carry out such polls are harassed and intimidated by SSS officials as they did to tnsrms, the offices of which were searched for six hours, after which top officials of the firm were dragged to the SSS offices in Shangisha and computers carted away, then how can any President convince anyone that free and fair elections can be held under his watch?

''If the Ngozi Okonjo Iweala-linked NOI polling firm has never been harassed for its choreographed opinion polls that favour the Jonathan Administration, why should other firms be subjected to the kind of Gestapo- tactics that tnsrms was exposed to? This is why we are asking President Jonathan to walk to talk,'' APC said.

The party said that already, the foundation was being laid to rig next month's governorship election in Osun at source, as INEC has been frustrating attempts by APC members to obtain their Permanent Voters Cards, even as the PDP has continued to boast that it will again use the military to illegally shut down the state and bully the opposition in Osun, just like it did in Ekiti.

It also wondered whether INEC Chairman Attahiru Jega properly weighed the statement he made, in which he tried to justify the deployment of troops to Ekiti for the state's gubernatorial election on the basis that they helped to ensure a violence-free election

''Jega should be asked to explain why is it that the troops who were sent to provide security for the Ekiti election were harassing and intimidating only the opposition? Why is it that they were arresting only opposition members? Is that also part of providing security for an election? If soldiers had only provided non-intrusive security for the election, perhaps no one would have complained. But where they turned themselves into the enforcement arm of the ruling party, everyone, including INEC, should be concerned,'' APC said.

The party called on President Jonathan to refrain from deploying the military for election purposes and read the riot act to his cabinet members, like Musiliu Obanikoro and Abduljelili Adesiyna, and party officials who specialize in electoral malfeasance, and elections will start becoming free, fair, credible and transparent to such an extent that the world will notice.

''Saying one thing and doing the opposite, Mr. President, will not translate to credible elections. The world is watching,'' it said.

As a starting point, APC urged the President, if indeed he is committed to free and fair elections, to launch an inquiry into why the offices of the firm carrying out an opinion poll for Osun state were invaded, and to tell Nigerians whether the firm would have been harassed if it had been hired by the PDP or its candidate for the Aug. 9th election.

Alhaji Lai Mohammed
National Publicity Secretary
All Progressives Congress (APC)
Lagos, July 28th 2014

As we celebrate Eid-el-Fitri, I hereby congratulate all Muslim faithfuls for enduring the rigours of fasting and hope the lessons of the last one month will forever remain in our hearts. The teachings of the Prophet (SAW) will not stand against us on the day of judgement. Amin.

We must not give up on Nigeria particularly in the face of our current security and political challenges. We shall overcome if we all remain steadfast in our patriotism and prayers. We must at all times imbibe the spirit of unity, no matter our religious or political affiliation or ethnic grouping. Nigeria belongs to us all and all must come together to defend our togetherness. Those that insist that they are more patriotic than other Nigerians based of different political or religious affiliations must desist. They do this country great harm by seeking to exploit our present circumstances to gain political space and advantage. At the end of it all, no one is greater than Nigeria as we will guide our unity with a singularity of purpose and superiority of vision.

I call on all well-meaning Nigerians of all faiths to seek the face of God at this most trying of times. Insurgency is an unwanted and dangerous guest in our midst; we must be resolute and consistent in confronting it. We can only do this with a united front.

May Allah's blessings and peace be unto us all.

Bola Tinubu

The Dynamics Of Aregbesola's "Stomach Infrastructure" and “their Greek Gift” By Adeyanju Binuyo

'Stomach Infrastructure' is the lesson we are supposed to take away from the recently concluded Ekiti Gubernatorial Election. Stomach infrastructure is what it says, and refers to politicians providing handouts for the voters to fill their stomach (primarily on voting day or few days before). A PDP chieftain was quoted as saying derisively; "We know the Osun voter is not worth more than N10,000 (ten thousand Naira) and a bag of rice and we definitely have that in abundance". Such is the disdainful conclusion and the pitiful value they have placed on the state and the Osun Voter! A huge slap on the Yoruba race!

This cynical theory goes along the myopic lines of “it's when your stomach is totally taken care of that you can think of making use of the social amenities and infrastructure”. The better saying in my opinion is "give a man a piece of fish and you feed him for a day. Teach him to fish and you feed him for life." Stomach infrastructure without investing in more sustainable social amenities and infrastructure, such as schools, hospitals, roads, etc., inadvertently condemns the population to famine after feasting for one day.

The generally held belief in relation to Dr Kayode Fayemi's defeat in the 21st June, 2014 election is that while he was busy developing social infrastructure, his opponent was taking care of the stomachs of the people in form of distribution of rice and cash. The rest is history as Fayose with his theory of 'stomach infrastructure' outsmarted the man ensuring the availability of social infrastructure.

Looking beyond than the initial description, some academics have gone further to say that 'stomach infrastructure' does not rest on food alone; it includes the politician's personal relationship with the people; his regular and constant interaction and socializing with them. There have been several tales of how Fayose developed cordial relationship with the ordinary citizens in Ekiti State, interacting with them, attending their social functions, eating with them and of course, constantly giving them food.

There have been several tales too, of how that theory will be 'imported' to Osun State to assist the PDP candidate, Senator Iyiola Omisore, in winning the 9th August, 2014 gubernatorial elections in the State of the Virtuous. Unfortunately for PDP in Osun, Omisore is no Fayose and he is up against a man of the people, one with such a popular touch that even the Governor-Elect of Ekiti State will acknowledge.

The sight of Omisore trying in vain to convince the people that he too can ride on "Okada" has crept into our consciousness. An Omisore going to the market to buy roasted corn but guarded by masked security men, inadvertently scaring away the people he is trying in vain to impress…?We see an Omisore awkwardly holding two ears of corn, a failed publicity stunt!

PDP and its backers have forgotten other things, including the important fact that dynamics in Osun are clearly different from that of Ekiti State; that they are dealing with an Aregbesola who is no just more popular than Fayose but who has also invented and developed his own brand of 'the stomach infrastructure' which has proven more profitable, more positive and more progressive than the shallow and retrogressive intent bandied about by the PDP and its backers. Suffice to add that Ogbeni, inadvertently through his actions in and outside the government house has invented a 'stomach infrastructure, that has stood the test of time.

As a commissioner in Lagos State, his office received the highest number of visitors, more than that of the then Governor with his residence always a beehive of activities. Even after leaving office as a commissioner, Aregbesola never alienated himself from the public. It is on record that he always attended to visitors in his private offices in Lagos up until the wee hours of the morning; selflessness that is so ingrained in him, he continues to do so with relish even as a Governor.

Aregbesola's personal life thus defined, his programs as Governor evidence a people-oriented administration. His six-point Integral Action was anchored on providing programs and projects that will positively and directly impact on the ordinary man on the streets. By so doing, Aregbesola has invented a more expansive 'stomach infrastructure' program in Osun to the extent that even though PDP have come with their cosmetic 'stomach infrastructure' the people are not in any way impressed because they have a better and longer lasting form in the programs of the Ogbeni.

What stomach infrastructure can be more effective than provision of employment for youths? This was the first thing the Aregbesola administration tackled in his first 100 days in office. Through the Osun Youths Empowerment Scheme (OYES), 20,000 youths were employed and today the number has risen to 40,000. Most of these youths now work as teachers and computer analysts in the various agencies established by the Governor.

PDP and their candidates’ stomach infrastructure is based on distribution of N10,000 and a “Kongo” of rice; Aregbesola’s administration has introduced an education reform program, a longer lasting formof stomach infrastructure, for thousands of people. Through the education reform program, 300,000 pupils are fed daily in public elementary schools in the state while 750,000 students were given free school uniforms (with more still reeling out). The ripple effect of the reform program has been the creation of sources of income for up to 3,000 vendors who serve the pupils daily, with the free school uniform programcreating jobs for more than 3,000 fashion designers. The free meal program has greatly encouraged poultry farming in the state so much so that at the last count, the number of poultry farmers in the state had risen to over 1,000. In addition, over 1,000 farmers have been empowered by the Aregbesola administration to provide the needed raw "food" materials to sustain the free meal program.

Still on education, just last Friday, 18thJuly 2014, the Aregbesola administration rolled out its Omoluwabi Free Scholars' Bus, which will take students to and from schools daily. The free scholars' bus is providing "stomach infrastructure" to drivers and conductors who have been employed to operate the fleet of buses.

Aregbesola administration recognizes the Old and the Vulnerable and extends N10,000 (Ten Thousand Naira) monthly stipends to over 1600 beneficiaries in the "Agba" Osun" Scheme.Yet again, on Thursday, 17thJuly 2014, 2,250 households in Osun State benefitted from another program called “Conditional Cash Transfer” (CCT). Selected households headed by women will be given stipends of N5,000 (Five Thousand Naira) monthly for 11 months during which time they will undergo free vocational training. At the end of the 12th month, each will be given N100,000 (One Hundred Thousand Naira) to start the trade in which they have undergone training. Can there be a better or more sincere 'stomach infrastructure' compared to this?

Can anybody say there is a better 'stomach infrastructure' than thousands of employment to youths working in the urban renewal program of the Aregbesola administration in agencies such O'Clean, O'Ambulance, O'Renewal, O'Yestech and O'School? Definitely not!

Wherever he goes, wherever he works and wherever he resides, Aregbesola has always been and continues to identify with the ordinary man on the streets. On assumption of office, it was always common sight, the governor stopping his convoy to interact with people. He introduced the 'Walk to Live' where he, alongside members of the State Executive Council, as well as the people on the streets embarked on fitness walk monthly.Through this program Governor Aregbesola walked in the midst of the people, interacting and joking freely with them with the climax of such events being a rally where he addressed the people on the importance of keeping themselves fit and other salient state issues.

He is arguably the only Governor in Nigeria who regularly communicates and intermingles with the people of his state wherein the people are free to engage the Governor in no holds-barred interactive sessions about the programs of his administration. “Ogbeni Till Daybreak” is an eight-hour non-stop interactive program from night till dawnin which the people are invited to engage the Governor in a no holds-barred interaction, they are given free time to ask ANY QUESTION. Another of such programs is 'Gbangba Dekun' which is also interactive and involves the Governor and the people.

To show Ogbeni's love for the people and his desire to always mingle and interact with them, the three programs i.e. Walk To Live, Ogbeni Till Daybreak and Gbangba Dekun, are rotated round the major communities in the state with the people given the opportunity to air their views on the Aregbesola administration and directly contact the Governor. Because each community has peculiar problemsdistinctive from others, the Aregbesola administration has painstakingly taken its time to address each problem, the result being the ongoing massive development in Osun, a marriage of stomach infrastructure and its social counterpart.

For Osun voters, stomach infrastructure is NOT about being given a fish today but about learning to fish for tomorrow. It's about empowerment. It's about employment. It's about functional education. It's about efficient and effective health care delivery service. It's about durable social infrastructure. All these THEY DEFINITELY HAVE ALL in abundance, hence their rejection of the strange, narrow-minded and retrogressive 'stomach infrastructure' or the Greek Gift imported from Ekiti.

Need we say it loud and again: In Osun, Stomach infrastructure is not about a "Kongo" of rice and N10, 000. Osun is not Ekiti!

“Man’s capacity for justice makes democracy possible. But man’s inclination to injustice makes democracy necessary” - Reinhold Niebuhr
Some call him “The Game Changer”. Others say he is the “Asiwaju of Nigeria’s democracy.” Yet, not a few view him a “Master Strategist,” as a political titan of no mean measure. These are but a few epaulets that adorn the shoulder of the one dogged fighter who, today, stands on a high moral ground to speak on Nigeria’s democratic dispensation - its norms, mores, codes, evolution, development and sustenance. But why, you may ask?
The answer is found in his firm belief and the sacrifice to see to the enthronement of the dictates of a government driven by the wishes of the majority. His type is rare. More like a meteor, he blazes the brilliant trail across the political firmament eliciting varied comments from political observers of diverse dispositions. That depends, of course, on where one stands on each side of the great political divide. His is a bold mission is to straighten the many crooked paths in the wilderness wrought by anti-democratic forces from military dictators with their jack boot mentality to their civilian acolytes.
With the vision to have a people-oriented government in place and leave his immediate community, his state, his country, indeed the world much better than he met it, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, as Wole Soyinka would admonish, was ready to set forth at dawn with regards to his illustrious but chequered political career.
Born on March 29 1952, his political career took off in 1992, when he was elected to the Nigerian Senate representing the Lagos West constituency. That was during the short-lived Nigeria’s Third Republic. After the results of the 12 June 1993 presidential elections were annulled, Tinubu became a founding member of the pro-democracy National Democratic Coalition (NADECO). The well-coordinated group effectively mobilized a groundswell of public support for the restoration of democracy and the validation of the 12 June election results.
Let it be known that at that material time, he had all the opportunity to sell out as some fare weather friends did to betray our common cause. But Tinubu chose, and wisely too, to stay on the people’s side while the struggle lasted. Had he been a political turn-coat, we would have no moral ground to identify with him, least of all, celebrate him on this auspicious occasion.
With the Sani Abacha regime baring its blood- thirsty fangs he went into exile in 1994 but returned to the country in 1998 after the death of military dictator .Subsequently in the run-up to the 1999 elections, Bola Tinubu was a protégé of Alliance for Democracy (AD) leaders Abraham Adesanya and Ayo Adebanjo. As fate would have it, he won the AD primaries for the Lagos State gubernatorial elections in competition with Funso Williams and Wahab Dosunmu, a former Minister of Works and Housing. He stood for the position of Executive Governor of Lagos State on the AD ticket and was elected in April 1999 .

Notably, it was his undying love for democracy that saw him confront the monstrosity that the military dictatorship had turned his dear nation into. He is one man who sees democracy as an enduring political vehicle to deliver the greatest good to the majority of fellow Nigerians. His claim to the enthronement of democracy therefore, did not start overnight. That is much unlike many self-seeking politicians of our current dispensation. Especially those who wish to reap from where they never sowed, yet view every attempt to right the many wrongs of the past and the present as anti-democratic.
One reason why he can lay credence to being a true-born democrat is his salutary efforts to redefine the concept of party politics in the effervescent terrain called Nigeria. From the Alliance for Democracy (AD) through the Action Congress (AC) to Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) and now, the game changer tagged All Progressives Congress (APC) his rare managerial acumen of men and materials all come to the fore.
Another reason is his exemplary style of governance that made governance more participatory and introduced measures to increase the Internally Generated Revenue. The measures included the Electronic Banking System/Revenue Collection Monitoring Project (EBS/RCM), which enabled the utilization of high level technology to create a robust data base of tax payers, eliminate ghost workers.

Another was the state’s Board of Internal Revenue (BIR); an outfit that used to be a centre of corruption was re-engineered to enhance its revenue collection capacity through greater autonomy, professionalism and motivation the introduction of the electronic Tax Clearance Cards (eTCC), which is a fraud free and convenient method of keeping tax payers records.

There was also a deliberate policy to sensitize the public on the imperative of paying their taxes willingly, voluntarily and promptly as a precondition for the delivery by government of quality infrastructure and social services. In addition was the new Land Use Charge Law promulgated in 2001. It stipulated that once Land Use Charge Demand Notice is levied on a property, Ground Rent, Development Charges and the Neighbourhood Improvement Charge Law will cease to apply. This innovation led to the collection of the sum of over N3.5 billion as Land Use Charge between 2001 and March 2007 and the value of this revenue source keeps rising.

His eight years administration saw to the revitalization of the machinery of state. All these made the desired impact in “qualitative service delivery in diverse sectors including education, health, justice, roads construction and rehabilitation, traffic management and public transportation, agriculture, environmental renewal, rural development, housing, job creation, women empowerment, local government administration and poverty alleviation among others.

In simple terms, Asiwaju has distinguished himself as a visionary politician armed with the 3-C concept of courage, candour and charisma.
Perhaps, it would be more appropriate to underscore his sweeping political machinery to the metaphor of the broom, which incidentally has been adopted for much of the metamorphosis of the aforementioned political parties of the progressives. To start with, he, Tinubu as the governor who took the mantle of Lagos state amidst monumental filth that clogged the drainages and the highways swept it all with the introduction of LAWMA. Other creative organs of government such as LASTMA, KAI, LAMATA that his pragmatic administration established brought sanity and safety in the critical areas of public health, transportation, education and massive infrastructural development. They have been copied by governors from virtually all the six geo-political zones of the country.
Worthy of note also, is that all these took place even in the face of daunting odds. Not the least being the withholding of allocations to local government councils that stretched from months to years, when Chief Olusegun Obasanjo held sway at the federal level. In other climes, well-heeled writers, historians and political scientists would be all over him to decipher that unique attribute that has made him a strong brand of a survivor. This raises some fundamentally significant questions.
How did Lagos state weather the storm of months without federal allocation when the internally generated revenue was yet to assume a sustaining level? How did his AD-led political party, more like a David pitched against the behemoth of a Goliath, survive the political onslaught of the PDP rigging machinery that bulldozed its way through the South-West geo-political zone? He became ‘the last man standing’; how did he do it? How did he wrestle back the same zone from the stranglehold of the same PDP in 2007 and went on to strengthen his hold on the vastly resourceful and politically sophisticated zone by 2011? And to cap all the trilogy of the bruising battles won, how did the ACN merge with other progressive parties in the mold of CPC and ANPP, both from the Northern fold, now giving the PDP sleepless nights?
It was the democrat in him saw Tinubu calling for Resource Control, as a Senator against the vociferous voices of those who claim to love the country only when it suits their fancies. Today, that clamour re-echoes with greater verve and frenzy as the National Conference kicks off its deliberations. But would anyone remember who belled the cat? That is the million naira question.
From all these salutary efforts, it would be a disservice to our sense of history to misconstrue Tinubu as a self-serving politician. If he was one, perhaps he would have been contented to cocoon himself with the AD. And he would not have used his political clout to assist incumbent Governor Olusegun Mimiko of Ondo state to send the People’s Democratic Party, PDP packing even though it is controlled by the Labour Party, just as he had done in Ekiti and Osun states.
Even when he has been accused of influencing choices for the party, one issue even die-hard critics would not deny, is that he makes the best choices, always. Name them; the award-winning governors of Lagos, Ekiti, Osun, Edo, Oyo and Ogun states do not come to political prominence, every day. Do they? That magic wand of his, to identify the best man for the job should be a source of PHD thesis. Besides, he believes in the words of Abraham Lincoln that: “Elections belong to the people. It's their decision. If they decide to turn their back on the fire and burn their behinds, then they will just have to sit on their blisters.”

Attack on Buhari and Innocent Nigerians

The multiple bomb attack today on General Buhari, one of the national leaders of the All Progressives Congress, APC, and innocent Nigerians confirms that our county is In the grip of terror. Sadly, we are in the hands of a bungling, buck passing and blackmailing presidency.

I condemn in the strongest terms the attack on General Buhari and his convoy. And the innocent Nigerians that suffered untimely deaths. I thank God that Gen. Buhari's life was spared for greater service to the fatherland. Under an increasingly incompetent and incoherent PDP- government, Nigeria slips into a low intensity war. We are all marked people under a government that prefers to label and attack opposition rather than apply itself to providing security and good governance.

Today's multiple attacks are a bad omen that signposts a future filled with danger and uncertainty. Unfortunately, Nigeria is saddled with a leadership totally intolerant of ideas, suggestions and advice that do not emanate from them. We in the APC has put forward concrete suggestions which have been consistently rejected and snared at by the PDP led Jonathan government. Instead of reaching out and paying attention to our suggestions, they have turned the guns on us and are manipulating and doctoring reports and stories to label us. It is a label that is false. It is a label that will not stick. We are patriots and stand united against anyone who wants to do this great country harm.

This government has raised the art of scapegoating to a new level. Rather than govern, they have politicized everything to the detriment of Nigerians and Nigeria.

There can be no justification for the continued loss of innocent lives and the unending attacks. I call upon those with the power, the resources and in charge of the security apparatus of this country to get up and do something before we all are consumed.

The news that President Jonathan has requested the National Assembly to approve his request to seek a loan of one billion dollars purportedly to battle Boko Haram terrorism should lead any person with sober conscience to fall out of their chair. If only our spendthrift President attacked terrorism with the daring by which he assaults our democracy and our common sense, there would be no need for any expenditure. Boko Haram would have been vanquished many yesterdays ago.
Yet, Boko Haram continues stalking us because the President would rather play tricks than govern as a statesman. The bottom line is the only thing remotely military about this massive request is that it serves to camouflage a sinister aim. The man seeks to bolster the PDP electoral war chest on the backs of the victims of terror and on the heaviness of our collective fear of the terrorist’s threat. In cloaking the request as part of the battle against terror, he believes no one will have the courage to object and this will enable him to get away with what should not be gotten away.
He is not asking for help in tackling terror. He is asking us to turn a blind eye and empty mind to an abject heist. This is as cynical a measure as a national leader has ever undertaken during the time of national calamity. He demeans his office and the nation in this time of crisis. Of all things, he now subordinates the gravest national threat we have faced in four decades to his desire to hold to office.

Yet do we know precisely what the loan is for? No. What will they purchase that has already not been set to purchase? No one knows. Again, by saying this is to fight terror, we are supposed to act blind, deaf and dumb or rush to congratulate him for his new found vigor. At best, he appears as a Johnny-Come-Lately to the fight against Boko Haram. This man has been Commander-In-Chief for over three years. Where has he been? He has been ensconced in the cozy, safe confines of Aso Villa, giving less than a care about the ravaging of Northern Nigeria.
It was only upon hiring a foreign PR firm did he begin to act as if Boko Haram and the Chibok crisis exist. Before that, he was sleepwalking in the midst of the storm around us. I fear hired handlers may have told him to do this thing because it will help him get elected and will make it appear to the outside world that he is doing something. Johnny-Come-Lately is also now on stage dancing and performing in dual capacity, as Johnny-Do-The-Wrong-Thing and Johnny-Wrong-Step.

Hasn’t he presented the National Assembly defense bills and budgets totaling trillions during the past three years? Boko Haram has been terrorizing throughout this period. Tell me, what has changed, what is so different now that he must stack another one billion dollars atop the funds already given him to defend and protect the nation? The answer is nothing except that elections soon approach. Thus, we are left with two alternatives. During the past three years, he has been so bereft of conscious and derelict in duty that he presented defense budgets woefully inadequate to face the challenge we all could plainly see before us. Alternatively, he has been so bereft of conscience and derelict in duty that he has squandered the money given him the worst of ways, giving contracts to cronies and leaving our frontline soldiers without boots or bullets.
Now, he asks us to applaud his request for a billion dollar loan. He and his claque have siphoned money from the states to deposit in the illegal excess crude account/sovereign wealth fund. Government said they did this unconstitutional confiscation of state and local funds in order to save for a ‘rainy day’. Well, terror is raining over and down on us from all sides. The blood of the innocent rains on our national conscience. If those who control this money do not think we are not now in the hands of calamity, then there will be no other earthly occurrence that may ply their hands into releasing the people’s money for the people’s security and well-being. In short, there is no need for the loan. If the funds are truly needed for our collective safety, Nigeria has the money.
But Jonathan seeks to borrow money because of his foreign handlers. They have told him if he borrows from abroad and spends that same money aboard, he will win the favor of foreign lenders, arms contractors and assorted business ventures. These people will, in turn, pressure their governments to love Jonathan where they now loathe him and his incompetent handling of high matters of state. As such, he can then ramrod his way through the 2105 elections and not risk international reaction. This is the plan. This loan is not intended to defend Nigeria any more than a pig is built for aerial flight. It is intended to launder his image and buy foreign favor that he may conduct his coming electoral misdeed in international silence.
In reality, this loan will be used to buy the election and pay for the intimidation of the opposition and electorate. Most of it will go into the PDP coffers. The portion which finds its way to the armed forces and security agencies will be to purchase their services in suppressing all who are not PDP. The loan will not be to fight terrorism. It will be to fight the legitimate dissent.
Thus, the President’s request should be rejected categorically. For he seeks not to use the money to construct a safehaven for the people. He seeks the money to build a casket for democracy.
I want to rid this nation of Boko Haram but I also am not prepared to be fooled by a trickster and his tricks on this important point. Given his track record of corrupt expenditure, the burden of proof lies with Jonathan. If more money is truly needed to tackle Boko Haram, I have no qualms with it. Before we get there, the President must give the nation a full accounting of what happened with the vast funds already allocated. If we need more funds, let it come from the illegal funds the government now controls. Moreover, if money is need the national assembly must institute a special fund and exercise special control and monitoring over the sum. All expenditures must be audited by impartial experts so that the funds are used solely for the battle against Boko Haram and not for partisan objectives.

“There is no freedom, never was” Joke on, my son: I press your hand: Smite down their power! These jokes amuse And horrify a father’s mind… Big children do not fear the whip, And adults lock them up in prison; But this has no effect at all; They just don’t care, who still are children, Joke on, my dear son! Mere sound and fury, yet I love your fresh and caustic wit, Though the foe will ridicule your pranks As for friends, they have ceased to care For what they cannot justify; The anger of an adult babe.
“Man is born free, yet everywhere he is in chains.” While extreme, this famous dictum contains a truth. Every society imposes on the individual its established traditions and conventions, every individual become bound by the standards of behaviour of his society and often are subjected to coercive controls imposed by political system. The poetry of Alexander Yesenin-Volpin above conveys the same sense. He was a young Russian Writer during the communist era. For speaking the truth, he was hounded and later imprisoned by the Soviet authorities in 1959. He was tagged an unorthodox dissenter and his is a poetry of political rejection.
Recently, Senator Victor Ndoma Egba called the attention of the Senate to comments made by Senator Oluremi Tinubu in the national dailies. He said Tinubu took a swipe at the leadership of the Senate, accusing it of poor performance. In one of the Interviews, the Senator representing Lagos Central was said to have stated that activities in the Senate are dressing because its leadership has failed to address a lot of pressing national issues . The Senate Leader said Tinubu accused the leadership of the senate of pandering to the wishes of the executive arm of government which is led by the Peoples Democratic Party. (PDP) she was said to have disclosed that she may not return to the senate next year if there were no obvious changes. Ndoma Ugba also quoted Tinubu to have told the media that, “The Senate is not a place I really want to go back to except APC becomes the majority. If it is the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) government, I don’t think it is the environment I will like to be again. I have had my fill.”
Ndoma Egba grouse is that she ought to have discussed her concerns with the leadership of the Senate instead of speaking to journalists. “ I am a senator first and foremost and by the grace of my colleagues, a member of the leadership of the Senate. And to the best of my knowledge, Sen. Tinubu has never raised any concern with me or with the leadership on the activities of the Senate. It is most unkind, it is most uncharitable for a distinguished senator who has the opportunity of raising concerns with her colleagues, not doing so and going straight to the media to play to the gallery. I object seriously to the comments made by Senator Tinubu and I want to submit that my privilege as a senator of the Federal republic has been breached by the said senator.” The matter has been referred to the Committee on Ethics, privileges and public petitions so that senator Tinubu can present her own side of the story.
The Senator Leader is invariably implying that those comments by Mrs. Tinubu are a deviation from the norms of the Senate; an embarrassing disclosures and an implicit refutation of the senate basic doctrinal assumptions. Therefore, it is assumed that she has crossed the invisible line between orthodox and unorthodox dissent. A spontaneous expression of even limited political dissatisfaction is now being interpreted as an unorthodox dissent. Egba is simply saying that her views appeal to principles and values that have no sympathetic support in the senate. But the Senate is supposed to be an important centre of independent thoughts. You don’t suppress in the Senate; you decompress.
What kind of values did Senator Tinubu comments invoke? These values are generally within the democratic pantheon of principles. Values like the right to free speech and independent thoughts. Her comments are justified pragmatically. It is part of the accepted game of politics. The lady Senator is just pointing to the gap between democratic ideals and democratic reality in Nigeria. She is not satisfied with playing a marginal role. Maybe, her party has frequently experienced a frustrating and fearful sense of isolation. So what she said is dictated by her concept of political necessity in a given time. And there is nothing wrong with the fact that she has developed an abiding loyalty to the All Progressive Congress. It is only natural that she would want them to be in the majority in the Senate. Burke in ‘Reflections on the Revolution of France’ said “To be attached to the subdivision, to love the little platoon we belong to in the society is the first principle (the germ, as it were) of public affections. It is the first link in the series by which we proceed towards a love of our country and of mankind.” Making it out as if she is calling for a cataclysmic political intervention is wrong. Hers is just a cry from the heart.
In a wider sense, political scientists will always tell you that no political system ever achieves total compliance and commitment from its citizens. They believe that in one way or the other, with varying degree of intensity, dissent makes itself felt. This goes to show that there is no fully satisfactory mode capable of encompassing the complexity of the human condition. The rules of the Senate should not in any way impede on the freedom of speech. It is also wrong for the senate leadership to have made political loyalty to the President a prime civic virtue. You cannot beat a child and expect her not to cry. She did not mean to cast aspersion on the Senate leadership. It is actually a wakeup call. There is actually a fine gentility in those comments. One good thing about criticism is that it has a texture of love. She is also echoing the views of well meaning Nigerians that the Senate leadership is not playing its role effectively.

Oluremi Tinubu is one woman that symbolizes all that is good in womanhood. Harassing her for airing her views is bad politics. She is one woman that has a special sensitivity to the needs of others, which includes an almost intuitive understanding of situations and people’s feelings. Her empathy makes it natural for her to feel the hurts of others. This woman does not wear pride on her face. She is not haughty and arrogant. Her private life is a pastel shade of calm. She introduces joy, colour, harmony and lightheartedness into human life. Senator Tinubu is not a power driven woman. To her, being in a position of authority is not a do or die affair. This is not the first time she is expressing such concerns. When asked if she has an ambition of running for the office of the Governor, she said it is not a place for the tender hearted. “Even to run for this office, it is the press that started it. Truly and truly speaking, it is never my ambition to run for governor of Lagos state. Remember, my husband did it for eight years and I was not an outsider to it. It is not a place for the tender hearted. It is a lot of work to govern Lagos and I am not the type that doesn’t put hard work into whatever I do. I don’t think I have the strength to say I want to govern Lagos. There is still a lot of work to done in Lagos.”


















I sincerely think she is the one to do that hard work. Mrs. Tinubu should be urged to run. She will deliver the goods. I hope she doesn’t chicken out. Those who are underrating her are poor students of history. Humble and unassuming people are usually the most productive in the business of governance. James Garfield once made a memorable remark about Abraham Lincoln. “ Strange phenomenon in the world’s history when a second rate Illinois lawyer is the instrument to utter words which shall form an epoch memorable in all future ages.” Nobody ever gave Lincoln a chance. But he had innate qualities which very few eyes could see. This lady will spring surprises. She has an intuitive mind and prodigious capacity for work. She has a singular ability to transcend personal vendetta and bitterness.
It could be recalled that when she celebrated her 45th birthday, she urged her friends not to buy her gifts. She took a full page advertorials in major newspapers to plead with friends to support her in bringing hope to the Nigerian child. In an advertorial on page 79 of the Guardian edition of September 20, 2005, entitled Letter to Well-wishers, Mrs. Tinubu appealed: “Dear friends and Well-wishers, to the glory of God, the Ever-Merciful, on September 21, this year, I will be 45 years old. It is an occasion for me to thank God for His protection, His blessings and for standing by me all through the past four and a half decades. It is a practice for friends and well-wishers to use occasions like this to express their affection by sending birthday cards, gifts and putting congratulatory adverts in the newspapers. However, I urge you all to celebrate with me in a kindler and gentler way. I urge you to put whatever amount you intend to spend on those gifts, cards or congratulatory adverts aside to reduce the death of children due to Sickle Cell Disorders.”
Some years ago, she showered love on Liberia children by building them an Elementary and Junior High Schools. By doing that she is helping about 500 children whose future were devastated by a bloody civil war to find succor and hope. The idea of building a school came naturally to her because she is a professional teacher and loves the classroom. This is perfect example of what it means to show love to one’s neighbour. Helping your neighbor does not have to be people from your household.” God did not tell us that they must be people of your own household. When I was sending clothes to Liberia, people asked why I am not sending them to the refugee camp in Nigeria. And I asked why don’t you give to the refugee camp? This is where I am led by God to serve and if God did not want me to do it we wouldn’t have commissioned the project. I strongly believe that not that I have money stacked up somewhere.”
Senator Oluremi Tinubu is currently the Vice-Chairman of the Senate Committee on Labour, Employment and Productivity. Recently, she awarded N13 million grant to traders in her constituency. The grant is for small time traders in the 13 council areas within the Lagos Central Senatorial Zone. Mrs. Tinubu revealed that 50 traders would be given a N20, 000 non-interest facility each to invest in their businesses. This programme tagged’ Petty Traders Empowerment Capital Scheme’ is a grant and not a loan. According to her this scheme is imperative because petty traders are major contributors to the sustenance of the informal sector and it is in line with promise of All Progressives Congress (APC) to improve the life of the people.
Mrs. Tinubu has too much of an alloy in her composition to handle the position. In a recent interview, she revealed that she is from a political family. “ I am from a political family. There is no time that we are not ready to serve. We have been serving at the state and at the national levels for a long time. So we have been in the process trying to bring succor to the people and I don’t know how more ready you want me to be. For me, my husband has been a very visible and active player. If he hadn’t gotten the support from home and the understanding, I don’t think he would have been able to go this far.” She truly exudes the hearty simplicity of nature. There is vim beneath her gentle exterior. Mrs. Tinubu is so convinced of the fact that she is a comrade. “I am a comrade. I said that this is the new face of labour. It is in the blood. I also came from the trenches. I never talk about June 12. Everybody would give themselves all the accolade and I will just look. I paid dearly.”
It is also about time we had a Christian governor in Lagos. A person who understands what love means. A person who loves the common man and feels their pain. This woman whose character is marked by a happy mixture of amiability and courage can do the job. She disclosed that her primary concern in the senate is to give succor and hope to the young people. “This wasn’t the Nigeria that I grew up to love. I keep saying it that I was not from a very wealthy family, but we were comfortable. We were the then middle class. We could aspire and we could dream to be whatever we want to be. I am here today because that dream kept me. But that is not what we have today. I look at the young people and my heart goes out to them. People ask me do labour people dress the way I do? But I say, this is the new face of labour, and it is in my blood. If you fight for the common good of the people you don’t have to dress in towels and deceive them, but they know who is who. You can see the kind of rapport I have with the common man. My heart is saying who is going to give them Justice? Who is going to fight their cause?
Oluremi Tinubu is the first woman to follow her, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, to the senate. She was the First Lady of Lagos State between 1999 and 2007. During that period she used her New Era Foundation to impact on the lives of the people. She should be urged to run for the top job in Lagos State because she has clothed herself with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.

Ikechukwu Orji wrote via ikechukwuorji@yahoo.com
He lives in Lagos.

The Miraculous Deliverance Of Oga Jona BY CHIMAMANDA ADICHIE
JUL 18, 2014

As soon as he opened his eyes, he felt it. A strange peace, a calm clarity. He stretched. Even his limbs were stronger and surer. He looked at his phone. Thirty-seven new text messages – and all while he was asleep. With one click, he deleted them. The empty screen buoyed him. Then he got up to bathe, determined to fold the day into the exact shape that he wanted.
Those Levick people had to go. No more foreign PR firms. They should have made that article in the American newspaper sound like him, they should have known better. They had to go. And he would not pay their balance; they had not fulfilled the purpose of the contract after all.
He pressed the intercom. Man Friday came in, face set in a placidly praise-singing smile.
“Good morning, Your Excellency!”
“Good morning,” Oga Jona said. “I had a revelation from God.”
Man Friday stared at him with bulging eyes.
“I said I had a revelation from God,” he repeated. “Find me new Public Relations people. Here in Nigeria. Is this country not full of mass communication departments and graduates?”
“Yes, Your Excellency.” Man Friday’s eyes narrowed; he was already thinking of whom he would bring, of how he would benefit.
“I want a shortlist on my table on Wednesday,” Oga Jona said. “I don’t want any of the usual suspects. I want fresh blood. Like that student who asked that frank question during the economic summit.”
“Your Excellency… the procurement rules…we need somebody who is licensed by the agency licensed by the agency that licenses PR consultants…”
Oga Jona snorted. Man Friday used civil service restrictions as a weapon to fight off competition. Anybody who might push him out of his privileged position was suddenly not licensed, not approved, not registered. “I don’t want you to bring your own candidates, do you hear me? I said I want fresh blood, I’m not joking.”
“Yes, Your Excellency,” Man Friday said, voice now high-pitched with alarmed confusion.
“Put that DVD for me before you go,” Oga Jona said.
He watched the recording on the widescreen television, unhappy with his appearance in the footage. His trousers seemed too big and why had nobody adjusted his hat? Next to The Girl from Pakistan, he looked timid, scrunched into his seat. She was inspiring, that young girl, and he wished her well. But he saw now how bad this made him appear: he had ignored all the Nigerians asking him to go to Chibok, and now The Girl From Pakistan was telling the world that he promised her he would go. He promised me, she said. As if the abducted Nigerian girls did not truly matter until this girl said they did. As if what mattered to him was a photo-op with this girl made famous by surviving a gunshot wound. It made him look small. It made him look unpresidential. It made him look like a leader without a rudder. Why had they advised him to do this? He pressed a button on his desk and waited.
Violence was unfamiliar to Oga Jona. Yet when Man Monday came in, his belly rounded and his shirt a size too tight as usual, Oga Jona fought the urge to hit and punch and slap. Instead, he settled for less: he threw a teacup at Man Monday.
“Why have you people been advising me not to go to Chibok? Why have you people been telling me that my enemies will exploit it?”
“Sah?” Man Monday had dodged the teacup and now stood flustered.
“I am going to Chibok tomorrow. I should have gone a long time ago. Now it will look as if I am going only because a foreigner, a small girl at that, told me to go. But I will still go. Nigerians have to see that this thing is troubling me too.”
“But Sah, you know…”
“Don’t ‘Sah you know’ me!” This was how his people always started. “Sah, you know…” Then they would bring up conspiracies, plots, enemies, evil spirits. No wonder giant snakes were always chasing him in his dreams: he had listened to too much of their nonsense. He remembered a quote from a teacher in his secondary school: ‘The best answer to give your enemies is continued excellence.’ What he needed, he saw now, was an adviser like that teacher.
“Sah, the security situation…”
“Have you not seen Obama appear in Afghanistan or Iraq in the middle of the night to greet American troops? Is Chibok more dangerous than the war the Americans are always fighting up and down? Arrange it immediately. Keep it quiet. I want to meet the parents of the girls. Make gifts and provisions available to the families, as a small token of goodwill from the federal government.” He knew how much people liked such things. A tin of vegetable oil would soften some bitter hearts.
“Sah…”
“From Borno we go to Yobe. I want to meet the families of the boys who were killed. I want to visit the school. Fifty-nine boys! They shot those innocent boys and burnt them to ashes! Chai! There is evil in the world o!”
“Yes Sah.”
“These people are evil. That man Yusuf was evil. The policemen who killed him, we have to arrest them and parade them before the press. Make sure the world knows we are handling the case. But it is even more important that we tell the true story about Yusuf himself. Yes, the police should not have killed him. But does that mean his followers should now start shedding blood all over this country? Is there any Nigerian who does not have a bad story about the police? Was it not last year that my own cousin was nearly killed in police detention? Let us tell people why the Army caught him in the first place. He was evil. Remember that pastor in Maiduguri that he beheaded. Find that pastor’s wife. Let her tell her story. Let the world hear it. Show pictures of the pastor. Why have we not been telling the full story? Why didn’t we fight back when The Man From Borno was running around abroad, blaming me for everything when he too failed in his own responsibilities?” Oga Jona was getting angrier as he spoke, angry with his people, angry with himself. How could he have remained, for so long, in that darkness, that demon possession of ineptitude?
“Yes Sah!”
“You can go.”
He picked up the iphone and spoke slowly. “I want to expand that Terror Victims Support Committee. Add one woman. Add two people personally affected by terrorism. How can you have a committee on terrorism victims with no diversity?”
On the other end of the phone, the voice was stilled by surprise. “Yes Sah!” Finally emerged, in a croak.
He put down the phone. There would be no more committees. At least until he was re-elected. And no more unending consultations. He picked up the Galaxy, scrolled through the list of contacts. He called two Big Men in the Armed Forces, the ones stealing most of the money meant for the soldiers.
“I want your resignation by Friday,” He said simply.
Their shock blistered down the phone.
“But Your Excellency…”
“Or you want me to announce that I am sacking you? At least resignation will save you embarrassment.”
If those left knew he was now serious as commander-in-chief, serious about punishing misdeed and demanding performance, they would sit up. He ate some roasted groundnuts before making the next call. To another Big Man in the Armed Forces. They had to stop arresting Northerners just like that. He remembered his former gateman in Port Harcourt. Mohammed, pleasant Mohammed with his buck teeth and his radio pressed to his ear. Mohammed would not even have the liver to support any terrorist. He told the Big Man in the Armed Forces, “You need to carry people along. Win hearts and minds. Make Nigerians feel that you are fighting for them, not against them… And when you talk to the press and say that Nigerians should do their part to fight terrorism, stop sounding as if you are accusing them. After all, let us tell the truth, what can an ordinary person do? Nothing! Even those people who check cars, if they open a boot and see a big bomb, what will they do? Will they try to subdue an armed suicide bomber? Will they pour water on the bomb to defuse it? Will they not turn and run as fast as their legs can carry them? Let’s start a mass education campaign. Get proposals on how best to do it without scaring people. When we tell Nigerians to report suspicious behavior, let’s give them examples. Suspicious behavior does not mean anybody wearing a jellabiya. After all, was the one in Lagos not done by a woman?” He paused.
“Yes, Your Excellency!”
“As for the girls, we have to go back to negotiation. Move in immediately.”
“Yes, Your Excellency.”
“I should not have listened to what they told me in that Paris summit. Why did I even agree to follow them and go to Paris, all of us looking like colonised goats?”
From the other end, came a complete and lip-sealed silence. The Big Man in the Armed Forces dared not make a sound, lest it be mistaken as agreement on the word ‘goat.’ Besides, he had been part of the entourage for that trip and had collected even more than the normal fat juicy estacode.
“I don’t want to hear about any other mutiny,” Oga Jona continued. “You will get the funds. But I want real results! Improve the conditions of your boys. I want to see results!”
The Big Man in the Armed Forces started saying something about the Americans.
Oga Jona cut him short. “Shut up! If somebody shits inside your father’s house, is it a foreigner that will come and clean the house for you? Is Sambisa on Google Maps? How much local intelligence have you gathered? Before you ask for help, you first do your best!”
“Yes Your Excellency.”
“And why is it that nobody interviewed the girls who escaped?”
There was a pause.
“By tomorrow night I want a report on the local intelligence gathered so far!”
“Yes, Your Excellency.”
Oga Jona turned on the television and briefly watched a local channel. Who even designed those ugly studio backgrounds? There was a knock on the door. It had to be Man Thursday. Nobody else could come in anyhow.
“Good afternoon, My President,” Man Thursday said.
Short and stocky, Man Thursday was the soother who always came cradling bottles of liquid peace.
This time, Oga Jona pushed away the bottle. “Not now!’
“My President, I hope you’re feeling fine.”
“I received a revelation from God. From now on, I will stop giving interviews to foreign journalists while ignoring our own journalists.”
“But My President, you know how useless our journalists are…”
“Will Obama give an interview to AIT and ignore CBS?”
“No, Your Excellency.”
“I know some of our journalists support Bourdillon, but we also have others on our side. I will beat them at their game! I want to do interviews with two journalists that support us and one journalist that supports Bourdillon. Find one that will be easy to intimidate.”
“But…”
“I want names in the next hour.”
“Yes, Your Excellency.” Man Thursday now stood still, lips parted in the slack expression of a person no longer sure what day it was.
“Tell the Supporters Club to change their television advertisements. They should stop mentioning ‘those who are against me.’ I will no longer give power to my enemies. They should mention only the things that I am doing. I like that one with the almajiri boy. It shows Nigerians that I have helped with education in the North. They should make more advertisements like that.”
In response, Man Thursday could only nod vigorously but mutely.
Later, after eating vegetable soup with periwinkle and a plate of sliced fruits – he was determined to keep himself from looking like Man Monday – he asked Sharp Woman to meet him in the residence. Not in the main living room, but in the smaller relaxing white parlor. Sharp Woman was the only one he fully trusted. He had sometimes allowed himself to sideline her, when he had felt blown this way and that way by the small-minded pettiness of other people. She was the only one who had not allowed him to dwell too much on his own victimhood. Once, she had told him quietly, “You have real enemies. There are people in this country who do not think you should be president simply because of where you come from. Did they not say they would make the country ungovernable for you? But not everything is the fault of your enemies. If we keep on blaming the enemies then we are making them powerful. The Bourdillon people are disorganized. They don’t have a real platform. Their platform is just anti-you. They don’t even have a credible person they can field, the only major candidate they have is the one they will not select. So stop mentioning them. Face your work.”
He should have listened then, despite the many choruses that drowned her voice.
It was she who, a few days later, and after the four rubbish candidates stage-managed by Man Friday, brought the new PR people, Kikelola Obi, Bola Usman and Chinwe Adeniyi – when he first saw their names, he thought: and some crazy people are saying we should divide Nigeria. They were in their early thirties, with rough faces and no make up; they looked too serious, as if they attended Deeper Life church and disapproved of laughter. They started their presentation, all three taking turns to speak. They stood straight and fearless. Their directness and confidence unnerved him.
“Sir, we voted for you the first time. We felt that you would do well if you had the mandate of the people instead of just an inherited throne. We liked you because you had no shoes. We really liked you. We had hope in you. You seemed humble and different. But with all due respect sir, we will not vote for you again unless something changes.”
He nearly jumped up from his seat. Small girls of nowadays! They had no respect! As if to make it worse, one of them added that if the election were held today, the only person she could vote for was The Man From Lagos. Oga Jona bristled. That annoying man. Even if a mosquito bit him in his state, he would find a way to blame the president for it. Still, Oga Jona could see why these foolish small girls were saying they would vote for him. The man had tried in Lagos. But their mentioning The Man From Lagos was now a challenge. He would rise to the challenge.
“Sir, the good news is that Nigerians forgive easily and Nigerians forget even more easily. You have to change strategy. Be more visible. Stop politicizing everything. Stop blaming your enemies for everything. You have to be, and seem to be, a strong, uniting leader. Make sure to keep repeating that this is not a Muslim vs. Christian thing.”
Oga Jona cut in, pleased to be able to challenge these over-sabi girls. “You think Nigerians don’t know that it is mostly Christian areas that they are targeting in Borno? And what about all those church bombings?”
The three shook their heads, uniformly, like robots. They were sipping water; they had declined everything else.
“With all due respect sir, if you look at the names of bombing victims, they are Muslims and Christians. If God forbid another terror attack occurs, you have to come out yourself and talk to Nigerians. Stop releasing wooden statements saying you condemn the attacks. We will prep you before each public appearance. You have a tendency to ramble. That’s the most important thing to watch out for. Be alert when you answer each question. Keep your answers short. You don’t have to elaborate if there is nothing to elaborate. Stick to the point. If they ask you something negative, be willing to admit past mistakes but always give the answer a positive spin. Something like ‘yes, I could have handled it better and I regret that but I am now doing better, and am determined to do even more because Nigerians want and deserve results.’ You have to start reaching out beyond your comfort zone. Nigeria has talent. Look for the best Nigerians on any subject at hand, wherever they may be, and persuade them to come and contribute on their area of expertise. Especially the ones who have no interest in government work. Even one or two who don’t completely agree with you. Think of Lincoln’s Team of Rivals.”
“What?”
“Don’t worry, sir. The important thing is to reach out beyond your circle. Oga Segi was not a calm person like you. He even used to threaten to flog people. But he had a good network. Jimmy Carter is his friend. If he needed expertise from a university in Zaria or Edinburgh or Boston, he would pick up his phone and know somebody who knew or somebody who knew somebody who knew. But with all due respect, sir, you don’t have that. Bayelsa is a small place.”
These girls really had no respect o! He glared at Sharp Woman, who shrugged and muttered, “You said you wanted people who would tell you the truth.”
But he listened.
In his first interview, the words rolled off his tongue. Those girls had made him repeat himself so many times. “I want to apologize to the Nigerian people for some actions of my government. We could have done better. No country fighting terrorism can let everything be open. But we owe our country men and women honest, clear assurance that we are taking decisive action, with enough details to be convincing. I ask for your prayers and support. I have directed the security services to set up a website that will give Nigerians accurate and up-to-date information about our war against terrorism. I have also hired specialists to manage the flow and presentation of the information.”
And the words came easily when he shook hands with the parents in Chibok, simple polite people who clutched his hand with both of theirs. He should have done this much earlier; it was so touching. “Sorry,” he said, over and over again. “Sorry. Please keep strong. We will rescue them.”
The words were more reluctant when he wore a red shirt and asked to be taken to the gathering of The People in Red at the park. But he cleared his throat and urged himself to speak, particularly because, as he emerged from within his circle of security men, the People in Red all stopped and stared. Silence reigned.
“I came to salute you,” Oga Jona started. “We are on the same side. My government has made mistakes. We are learning from them and correcting them. Please work with us. Together, we will defeat this evil.”
They were still silent and still staring; they were disarmed. He thanked them and, before they could marshal their old distrust, he turned and left. That night, as he sank to his knees in prayer, he heard the muted singing of angels.

Chimamanda Adichie is an award winning writer and author of bestsellers including Purple Hibiscus, Half of a Yellow Sun, The Thing Around Your Neck and Americanah.

OSUN 2014: MU’AZU
INSULTS OSUN PEOPLE, SAYS OSUN VOTER NOT WORTH MORE THAN 10, 000 NAIRA AS PDP PLANS TO “WIN” GUBER POLL WITH CASH AND BAGS OF RICE


The National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Alhaji Ahmadu Adamu Muazu has said that his party will use money and bags of rice to “win” Osun’s governorship election on August 9, 2014, as they did in Ekiti.



“We are in power and we have the cash. At best, Osun voter would not be worth more than N10, 000 and a bag of rice each. That is what we gave them in Ekiti, we will repeat it in Osun and win,” Muazu assured Oba Olajide Omisore, father of PDP’s gubernatorial candidate in Ile-Ife over the weekend.



The PDP chair who was on a visit to Ile Ife paid a courtesy call on Iyiola Omisore’s father who is also the Olu of Olode at the weekend to assure the old man that he had nothing to worry about over his son’s contest as the federal government has the power and the money to make him win.



“We did it in Ekiti and we are prepared to do it in Osun again,” Muazu was reported by eye-witnesses to have told the older Omisore.



All Progressives Congress (APC) however said that the PDP will meet its waterloo in Osun because the people in this state do not suffer foods, and do not sell their birthrights to pigs no matter how wealthy.



The insinuation by the PDP Chairman that the total value of Osun voter is a bag of rice and N10, 000 constitutes an abominable insult on the Yoruba nation and for that alone, the people of Osun will show the PDP that we are neither hungry nor ready to be slaves to ignoramuses from the desert.



APC said sooner or later the PDP leadership will be held to account for its misuse and abuse of political power, the reign of criminal impunity and the squandering of Nigeria’s wealth through massive corruption unprecedented in the political history of Nigeria.



“When the Chairman of the ruling party goes to an old man’s house to boast of power and the illegal use of money and materials to buy votes to win elections, then what further proof do we need to convince us that bandits are in charge in Abuja?,” the APC asked.



The party therefore advised citizens of Osun that their collective wealth is what PDP is stealing to come and buy their votes in order to enslave them.



APC reminded Osun people that this same tactics had been used before in the South West in 1979 by the NPN (the same people as in PDP today). The UPN at that time told the people that it was their money stolen by the NPN: take your money from the treasury looters and vote against them. The NPN candidate lost its deposit.



Osun will repeat that glorious performance of the Yoruba people on August 9. “The PDP will be disgraced,” the APC said.

(Source: BioReports)

In every political society, parties are unavoidable. A difference of interests, real or supposed, is the most natural and fruitful source of them. The great object should be to combat the evil: 1. By establishing a political equality among all. 2. By withholding unnecessary opportunities from a few, to increase the inequality of property, by an immoderate, and especially an unmerited, accumulation of riches. James Madison -1787

In recent times, there have been a deluge of ferocious attacks on some opposition figures in various news media. Such attacks, though stinging and constant, provide avenues for discerning minds to quickly see that the various op-eds have been low on facts and substance. Yet they keep rolling them out incessantly and without fail.

We have had “democracy” now for over 15 years but what has been clear is that nothing has really changed in the polity. If anything, the quality of life of the masses have steadily been on a decline. Previous federal governments led by the PDP had done little in ameliorating the sufferings of Nigerians, but they had at least not taken us for fools; unlike the present government led by Goodluck Jonathan. As I type this, I have been running my household on powered electric generator for over 3 days and that has been the lot of most Nigerians.



The government of Jonathan is doing all it can to enrich a few while increasing the sufferings of the majority. It was a lot easier for the federal government to do nothing, knowing that there were no credible or serious alternative political platform(s) like we have today. Sadly, while we ought to celebrate the entrance of a viable alternative party, the APC, into the polity, what we are a witnessing is a series of state and unbridled attacks on the new party.

From a deluge of sponsored articles, to official verbiage in form of press releases, to innuendos… all in a bid to discredit the APC, the PDP has come all guns blazing. The most dangerous aspect of it is when security agencies join in the charade.

Few days ago, the deputy director of communications of the DSS, Marilyn Ogar joined in this shameless politicization of security issues and demonization of the opposition by claiming that the #BringBackOurGirls campaign was a franchise… blablabla. That is the same style the PDP uses in their unending smear campaigns, making bland and generic accusations without any facts or substance. If the SSS has any proof or shred of evidence, why not provide it instead of Ogar’s “we know” campaign of calumny?

Don’t forget that this same Marilyn Ogar denied any knowledge of the DSS abduction of citizen Onimisi Ciaxon for 10 days. But the same woman, on the 11th day, announced his release from detention after much pressure and peaceful nationwide demonstrations. With her penchant for lies and politicizing serious national issues, Mrs. Ogar ought to have been relieved of her duties, but sadly we are in an era where the government supports impunity as long as it serves its purpose.

James Madison on June 25. 1824 wrote to Lee Henry and I quote: “A popular Government without popular information, or the means of acquiring it, is but a Prologue to a Farce or a Tragedy, or perhaps both. Knowledge will forever govern ignorance: And a people who mean to be their own Governors, must arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives”.

Nigerians must arm themselves with knowledge and do so immediately or we will forever grope in the sea of adulatory mediocrity. It is time to ask ourselves, why is the PDP and the federal government afraid? The PDP claimed it will be in power for 60years, but in over 15years of its hold on power, we have remained in pitch darkness, our debt (both domestic and international) profile is soaring, we are the only OPEC country who wholly imports refined fuel for domestic consumption, our educational institutions are in tatters. Our healthcare delivery system is nothing to write home about.

After fifteen years of heading the federal government, The PDP has not added one joule to our refining capacity, but has rather enriched a few cronies and created overnight billionaires whom they empowered by granting them licenses to import refined fuel.

Under President Jonathan, governance has taken a backseat, over 200 girls were kidnapped and most of the innocent girls are still missing after 90days in captivity. Rather than the government doing its best to carry the family and loved ones along, it has become hostile, tagging anyone who questions their sloppy handling of the issue, the “opposition”.

While that is bad enough, the Polytechnics in Nigeria have been on lock-down for close to a year, with no hope in sight. But the FG doesn’t give a damn, the children of those in power are studying abroad, even ex-militants have a better deal than the “ordinary” Nigerian students. Don’t forget that the universities were also shut down for almost a year as well.

Doctors are on strike, but president Jonathan and his co-travelers in the PDP are not bothered, since their families and friends can hop on planes to treat catarrh in Germany and other such places. Even when the doctors aren’t on strike, our “big men” in government are too distinguished to visit our local hospitals, shameless as they are. They never bother to ponder what will happen if those countries they visit for medical pilgrimages decide to run their countries the way the PDP has been running Nigeria.

Political parties aren’t about saints and angels, therefore I won’t want to regard the APC as an angel and PDP as the demon equivalent, rather I see the coming of the APC as a good thing because it should ordinarily make the PDP sit up knowing that it is no longer business as usual. Elections are supposed to be like beauty pageants, you can only select from among the participants. But what I see is a situation where the PDP doesn’t want to have any opposition or brook any.

The PDP had in the past run Nigeria as a fiefdom. They granted registration statuses to over fifty weak parties all in a bid to weaken the opposition. No wonder they could boast that they will remain in power for 60years, without any plan to make life better for Nigerians.

Security, education, poverty etc have all worsened under the PDP. Since the advent of the current president, Nigeria has become a joke, where governance is no longer a subject of importance. Rather than sit and do its job, they see enemies lurking behind every shadow.

You can’t be running a non performing and an utterly inept government and expect active citizens and the opposition to act as cheerleaders. What this government seeks is to sully everyone and everybody. We have recently been witnessing a raft of articles to malign opposition leaders, and where that is not deemed adequate, Mr. Jonathan has been on a pardoning spree, withdrawing corruption cases–even corruption cases as serious and dire as the Abachas–all in a bid to garner political support.

But the APC should remain undaunted, failing which Nigeria is in danger of reenacting another Zimbabwe; a situation we can ill afford.

Refusal to cheer and celebrate nonperformance and mediocrity in government is not unpatriotic.

And for those vilifying active Nigerians and actively asking citizens to shut up and fall in line because in their myopic view, Jonathan has done well, may God run your lives exactly the way Jonathan has been running Nigeria. Can I hear a big AMEN.

The writer, Ayobami can be reached via @Ayourb on twitter

“Men make their own history, but they do not make it as they please; they do not make it under self-selected circumstances, but under circumstances existing already, given and transmitted from the past…” Karl Marx

Good people are hard to come by. The uncomfortable truth is that this world despises good people. Human beings have a natural instinct to either extinguish the spatter of lights that dot the almost tangible darkness around us, or cover it up. We are quick to kill the better people in our society or to drag them down into the mud with us. We are uncomfortable with the notion that some people can be good while we swim in our filth. We resent the notion of such arrogance. We don’t understand it, so we destroy it.

Abel, Noah, Lot, Jesus, Mohammed. Just a few names of men people either tried to kill or did kill for the simple fact that they we were better than the rest. In Jesus’ case, we even went as far as to accept the likelihood of a curse. It didn’t matter. All we wanted was for the man to be dead. The world hates good guys.

I’ll never forget the first time I saw Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu in the flesh. It was about 3am and the man had just concluded a round of meetings and was almost to his last one. I wouldn’t have recognized the man because he walked so fast for a man his age. It was the bald head and glasses that gave him away. Here I was, only 26, and missing my bed so desperately. On the other hand, Asiwaju Tinubu, then 58, was wide awake and working himself to the ground. In that singular moment, I felt both shame for myself and deep reverence for the Former Senator and Governor. In those five seconds, I saw the man I wanted to be; hardworking, deft, decisive, agile, alert and wily. Today, I admire him ten times more than I did that morning, even though he has never said a word to me directly nor shaken my hand.

While it would be wrong to completely attribute the attainment of our fledging but deeply threatened democracy to the efforts of Asiwaju Tinubu alone, nobody has contributed more to the sustenance of that same democracy than he. It is easy to forget how much the man gave himself to the battle to dislodge the military junta because we are a people in love with amnesia. It is even easier to forget the many juicy temptations thrown at him before it became too dangerous for him to remain in Nigeria. It might be hard to forget the many times the man took the federal government to court just to ensure the establishment of a true federalism in our country. However, I refuse to allow us forget the role this man has played to ensure every Nigerian continues to enjoy his freedom to speech and equal justice. I will remind us all of the man’s one-man resistance to the forces of the federal government for years. I will recall to our memory the countless times the man appeared in the corner of his colleagues and mentees whose electoral mandates were in jeopardy. He expended time and resources for the actualization of our people’s electoral wishes in Ondo, Osun and Ekiti. He did it with awesome dedication. No one else stood their ground with him. He went it alone.

Only recently did Asiwaju begin to get the accolade he truly deserves, the most notable being THISDAY pronouncing him their “2013 man of the year” and describing him as “The man who re-built the Nigerian opposition.” I wonder if people know what it took for that to happened and it is time someone told the story.

Barely months into the 2012, Asiwaju Tinubu met up with General Muhammad Buhari and asked for a fresh start to the talks that were never concluded in the run-up to the 2011 elections. He shuttled many times between Lagos and Kaduna to hold meetings with General Buhari in his house and also met other close political aides. These took place in Abuja, Kaduna and Lagos.

After getting the General on board, it was time to the reach out to other party leaders-APGA, ANPP, and the CPC. He also had to convince senior members of his own party, the ACN, on the merits of discarding the party and taking on a more nationalist outlook. These meetings held late at night and into the early hours of the morning. Convincing other parties to subsume their structure into one party was not easy. But Tinubu didn’t stop there .He took on the task to help resolve internal crisis within the CPC and the ANPP. He acted as the glue that stuck all the parts together. He pleaded and cajoled to get people to work for the merger. He was driven by the need to build a virile opposition and a broader national political platform that can compete with the ruling PDP.

He took the boldest step of dissolving his party, the ACN into the APC; a party that was yet to be registered then. That was in April 2013 when at the convention he showed the way. His rousing and moving speech lifted spirits and set the tone for the sacrifices to be made. He said he could feel the storm of positive change coming to Nigeria and he rallied all to be part of that movement. He said as difficult as it is to let go of ACN, a party all worked to build, but that it was a sacrifice necessary to move Nigeria forward.

Part of his speech that day read thus:

“Join me today in voting to move our party into merger with the ANPP, CPC, other parties and organizations to form the All Progressives Congress, APC.

I assure you that the place we are going will be your house of political fulfillment. We shall have a meaningful voice in the APC. The principles of democracy, justice, visionary governance and liberty that shaped the ACN shall carry over into the APC. The new party will be as welcome a home as the ACN. It will just be a bigger house for a larger political family.

It shall be this family that saves Nigeria by bringing to the people the creative policies that promote wide prosperity, employment, infrastructural overhaul, education, health care, civil rights, peace, stability and justice.

Thus,vote with me to close the historic and noble chapter on the ACN so that we can begin a new and bigger book called the APC.

For us this is not a sad ending, it is but the beginning of a great beginning. Let us do what is right so that when history writes its account of this day, it shall write that we lived up to our moral duties by doing what the moment required.”



It was Asiwaju’s tireless work and dexterity that helped to see the party registered. When other fake APCs emerged, Tinubu took on the battle to expose the trick but also worked the legal system to ensure the party registration stood. He spent time, money and invested intellectual resources. This was while he was recovering from a knee surgery in far away London. He was always in constant touch with his allies like Buhari, Baba Akande, Yemi Osinbajo, Lawan Shuaibu, Yusuf Alli, Kashim Imam, Muiz Banire and several then ACN governors. Tinubu did a Yeoman's job.

While all this happened, one wonders where the current pretenders scheming to control the fate of the APC were. Those who never lifted a finger to help the fledging party are suddenly interested in who leads it. They want a share of the spoils where they never pulled a bow in the battle.

Suddenly, they are possessed with a desire to dictate. When Asiwaju was busy trying to convince the PDP governors to join the party, they did no more than twiddle their thumbs and wait to see if the move would succeed or fail. It took a lot of work, persuasion, meetings, all led by Tinubu and assisted by a few. While this happened, no one accused Tinubu or Buhari were hijacking the party. They were working tirelessly and getting results. Others like Tom Ikimi and Ali Modu Sheriff hugged the sidelines waiting to rip from others’ sweat.

Recently, there have been some sponsored reports and opinions painting Tinubu as dictatorial, lacking internal democracy and so on. One even likened him to the Conniving Tortoise, saying he is a serial double-crosser and untrustworthy. However, all being done to trash his efforts will fail. History will stand up in his corner. Tinubu’s contributions to the establishment of the APC are monumental and without Tinubu, APC could never have been a reality.

Those seeking to run it now are welcome to remember this fact. They should resist the temptation to stick a knife in his back. Humanity has lost too many good people already. And according to John F. Kennedy, "History is a relentless master. It has no present, only the past rushing into the future. To try to hold fast is to be swept aside."

The Governance Predicament:
Poverty, Terrorism and Democracy
Lecture Delivered At Freedom House, Lagos, Nigeria
By Larry Diamond
June 30, 2014

I would like to begin by thanking Governor Asiwaju Bola Tinubu for the honor of his invitation to deliver this lecture, and for his record of developmental performance during eight years as Governor of this dynamic state. Because Nigeria has largely squandered staggering natural resource wealth and human potential over more than half a century of independence, there is a chronic tendency here and abroad to see its national prospect asnearly hopeless. But Nigeria is not condemned to suffer endemic corruption, waste, ineptitude, and insecurity. These are the products of deficient institutions and a culture that has grown up around them. People make institutions. People produce and reproduce cultural norms and expectations. And people can change them.
I was interested to discover that Governor Tinubu and I are of the same generation, born a few months apart. Around the time he first visited the United States I first visited Nigeria.At similar points in our lives, though from very different perspectives, we have seen the promise of democracy in Nigeria swell and recede. We have seen the military come and go from government.We saw the Second Republic gasp for breath and then collapse under the weight of unchecked political greed and staggering fraud in the 1983 elections. We have seen military rule bring this country to nearly total ruin, and along the way, arrest and imprison the man elected, under its very auspices in 1993, with a broad popular mandate to fix the mess. We saw that man, M.K.O. Abiola, die needlessly and almost certainly avoidably in prison. We both then watched from outside Nigeria while the worst tyrant in Nigerian history, General Sani Abacha, took plunder and abuse of power to unimaginable depths.
At this time of growing disaffection with the performance of Nigeria’s Fourth Republic, it is important that all Nigerians—even young Nigerians who have no memory of those days of dread and depravity—appreciate this lesson of their own history, and that of other countries: However troubled the national situation may become, however scandalous or inept may be the performance of elected government, there is no hope of reform or renewal under military rule. The core problem of Nigeria today is the chronic deficit of honest and effective governance. We have learned in Nigeria, and in Pakistan, and in Thailand, and in so many other countries around the world: There is no military shortcut to governance reform. The challenge lies with the civilian institutions and actors of democracy: parties, politicians, legislators, judges, civil servants, and civil society. Like all other elements of the Nigerian state, security institutions—the military, police, intelligence—are in need of reform and modernization, including significant investment in training and equipment for the challenges they confront. But it is the civilian political actors who must summon the will, the strategy, the resources, and the credibility to lead this process.
Likemost Nigerians, I am worried about the future of constitutional government in this country. I have been asked to speak about the challenge posed to democracy by poverty and terrorism in Nigeria. But the core problem in Nigeria is not one of poverty. Neither is it one of terrorism. These are manifestations of a deeper and more diffuse malignancy: bad governance. Governance that is not addressing the central policy challenges of the country. Governance that has produced a weak and feckless state. Governance that is not producing an effective response to the growing challenge of terrorism, and that many Nigerians believe lacks the will to do so. Governance that cannot distinguish between the public trust and the private treasury. Governance that has seen, by some estimates, public officials and their co-conspirators steal and wastehundreds of billions of dollars of the country’s wealth over the last several decades.
The phenomenon of Boko Haram and the violent, nihilistic rampage it has been on represent only one symptom of the problem, and it is not an unfamiliar one in Nigeria. During the late 1970s and early 1980s another violent religious millenarian movement, led by Maitatsine and emerging out of the very same northeastern state from which Boko Haram has sprung, wrought havoc on the north, leading to several thousand deaths. When I was teaching at Bayero University, Kano, in the last year of the Second Republic, I was struck by the depth of inequality and poverty, and the hunger of ordinary talakawa not just for jobs, services, and basic goods, but most of all, for simple justice. That is the hope that the People’s Redemption Party, founded by Mallam Aminu Kano, represented. It was at the heart of the polarizing struggle that led to the impeachment and removal of Governor Balarabe Musa in Kaduna State. And toward the end of the Second Republic, in the 1983 national elections, even some of the more technocratic and progressive elements of the northern establishmenthad come to see the need to rein in the feeding frenzy of corruption under the ruling party, the NPN, and deliver better governance. This is why elements of that group took what was for them the difficult step of forging an alliance with the principal opposition presidential candidate, Obafemi Awolowo, giving him his vice-presidential candidate..... http://www.scribd.com/doc/232013988/The-Governance-Predicament-by-Prof-Larry-Diamond