practitioner: Idon't think both d spirit and letter of our constitution accommodates any form of discrimination against incapacitated persons.A careful reading of section 189(3)shows that the emphasis is not on d fact of d person being incapacitated,but on the person being PERMANENTELY INCAPABLE OF DISCHARGING HIS FUNCTIONS.That is to say,unless the infirmity,be it of the body or the mind,has rendered d person permanentely incapable of discharging his functions,he is qualified to hold d position.Therefore,d question is not of incapacity,but of incapability.Suffice it to say that even a mentally unstable person is still qualified,unless it is shown that his mental problem is of such degree as to render him permanently incapable of discharging his functions.So can one who has Hiv,a kidney patient,parkinson disease,amputee be constitutionally qualified to hold office? I believe d answer is yes.

I totally agree with your well reasoned and intelligent points. I will only add that I hope that as our democracy evolve, that our politicians evolve also so that we can reach a day when a Governor or President can resign his office for health reasons or even sex scandal. I also hope that the followers will learn to protect the weak and his properties (properties here meaning John Locke's definition) until he can no more be said to be able to excercise right over those properties, then we can respectfully help him/her to peaceful retirement.

practitioner: Well, u re wrong, because d constitution contemplates both physical and mental stability and not jst mental stability as some ve wrongly said. Section 189(2) provides thus:"where d medical panel certifies in its report that in its opinion d governor or deputy governor is suffering from such INFIRMITY OF BODY or mind......." So, physical fitnesses is also a consideration.

Now, you are talking. Not all the emotional blackmail from supposed graduates. Now, we can discuss the law governing us and how it affects the Taraba situation.

To be clear, I am against our laws allowing a leader to continue in office when saddled with diseases that compromise their ability to do their jobs but I know well enough to leave this open to both political and legal interpretation. Is HIV or diabetes an infirmity of the body enough? What of kidney disease or parkinson? What do you think about severe malaria and typhoid? Now, lets throw in an amputee, a blind or a dumb? The big question is whether our laws will ever allow a Steven Hawkings to run for Governorship or Presidential office in Nigeria? Naturally, I believe in a human society, where the poor or incapacitated enjoy opportunities like the rest of us but not to the extent of such infirmity compromising their ability to carry out the highly tasking job of National development.

This is an important National debate and I expect our youths to be actively involved in such debate and not just complain. I believe that our constitution is not necessarily a mansion to be built that is still at the foundation level but an ongoing discussion, like we are having now. The target should be to expand the frontiers of freedom and Human Rights. It should also aim at protecting our weak, not punishing them for being weak no matter who they are. Our laws should be Human and practical too. To this end, I think our laws should allow medical experts to appraise Suntai health condition, run the report against weighed factors and output a verdict that is transparent and practical. But my worry is that it should not just be on Suntai because he had an accident. It should be on our elected officials including ALL governors and the President. The other alternative is to trust our leaders to perform self appraisal and decide to resign when they can no more continue or allow the House of Assembly initiate impeachment, force the executive to make an appearance and then make a judgement. Whichever option we decide on should be backed up with strong logic. For now, what we have is good for stability, but does not take care of efficiency. If we are to choose between efficiency and stablity at this point in our Nation's life, the natural choice will be stability. I think thats the choice the national assembly has made.

I welcome more intelligent corrections and additions, not emotional outbursts and tantrums.

eGuerrilla:

Your hypocritical arguments need to be preserved for the benefit of your co-travelers, who would not recognise irony if it were to assume life-form and smack them straight in the face.

You were so cock-sure about Yar'Adua true medical condition yet are quick to call for circumspection in the face of insurmountable physical evidence here.

I think the joke is on you. In both cases, I am insisting on following the laws. In Late President Yar'Adua's situation, section 144. Same with Gov Suntai's situation. Late President Yar'Adua did not transmit a letter to NASS according to law. It was an inconclusive argument even among legal minds on whether the Section 144 was binding. What NASS did was to make it binding on the State executive or Governor. How is that different from my position now?

I guess it is easier for some people to assume that the machinery of government work like their mum's kitchen. The guy I replied to called the sack of his appointees treasonable. That I disagreed with and gave reasons why I took my position. Nobody has countered those reasons, instead, what I could see is more unreasoned and emotional chants.

The law was just recently ammended after the Late Yar'Adua saga. I think it is self delusion to assume that the National Assembly, with all their excesses do not have men far more experienced, exposed to the world and amenable to change than most of those commentators. It is the collective wisdom of the Nigerians, via the NA that the Governor does not need to address his State when he resumes from 'prolonged vacation' so that 'everybody goes to rest'.

As I stated earlier, a Governor does not have to be physically strong to run his State. All that is needed to run a State is a sound mind to give orders. I cannot prove that Suntai is strong, neither can i prove otherwise. So do other commentators here, so why talk with a tone of finality that a treason has been carried out? For your information, President Jonathan did not write or necessarily sign the letter that sacked the youth minister. He gave orders to SGF and he carried it out. How is that different from Suntai's situation?

We can collectively call for an annual sanity check of our elected representitives and make that a precondition for their continuation in office. That I can relate with. I will actually want some sanity check on some funny governors and senators out there, but none of you are calling for that. You are singling out Suntai because you think that he is not physically strong. Physical strenght is not a precondition for governorship position in Nigeria, and no politicain, including those who disagree with me will resign from their office when they want to go and undergo cancer treatment or after experiencing an accident. Most of you guys here believed everything you read about Chime and PEJ. I can assure you that not even everything you heard about the Late President Yar'Adua is true.

The only thing anyone that those who want the best for Taraba to do now is to appeal to Gov Suntai to appraise himself and health condition and determine if he can continue to function. The other alternative is for his cabinet and/or House of Assemble to initiate an impeachment motion to force him to make political appearance. Emotional outburst all over the internet and calling a very legal action by a sitting Governor 'treasonable' is just what it is- emotional outburst!!

double post

omenka: As the judiciary and Abuja keep mum over this ongoing treason, they tacitly give nod to other it's recurence.

Until we rise above ethnoreligious politicking, real change and development would forever elude us.

What exactly is legally treasonable about what just happened? Learn to isolate 'how you feel' from facts before you when you want to reach conclusions. The consititution we are operating empowers him to resume his office by just writing a letter to the HOA when he returns. This letter is only a notification that he has resumed, not a permission.

Besides, the guy may be physically weak but mentally and psychologically strong. Neither you nor I are doctors or psychologists to de-certify him. Even if doctors or psychologists must do this, there are legal ways to go about it.

Again, he was elected by Tarabans to be their governor. When they are tired of him, the law demand that they should prevail on their HOA members to impeach him. He was away for 8 months and the HOA could not even raise the motion.

Politically speaking, sacking his cabinet is a very strong political statement, indicating who is the Governor. He needs to press the reset button and reassemble his team.

Finally, Nigerian law does not seem to be against the physically challenged running for an office. It is actually against mentally challenged taking charge of Taraban affairs. For now, the doctors has not confirmed Suntai to be mentally challenged.

^^

While we await for the scanned copy of the response and demand that NL administrators allow this document to be uploaded and unban this ID in the spirit of FOI which we all support, I think accountability means that even a roadside begger can get a lawyer to demand answers from a government on his behalf. It does not really matter whether the person is a member of PDP or APC or APGA, RCCG, Winners, Catholic, Muslim, traditionalist or other such categorization. Government must be accountable, including LASG, not just FG. If this law has not been domesticated in Lagos State, then that creates more questions that answers. Why has LASG not domesticated the law? If FG, with her whole burden of National Security and national intelligence groups under her can sign this Act, what then is LASG waiting for? I will not want to believe that LASG has not passed this Act.

And in the spirit of FOI, I demand explanation from the administrators of this space, why a fabricated piece of paper from Leadership Newspaper called PD could easily be uploaded by a single click but this guy has even been banned to for daring to upload a response letter from LASG? Or do I assume that the same media that is in the forefront for the passage of FOI bill cannot even domesticate it in her own operations?

solomon111: stop talking like an illiterate.
Didn't we have a large market before, when companies were moving away from Nigeria?

Is it not interesting, my brother?

berem: They want to come to Nigeria simply because of the large market available . I hope the government policies does not affect them. Nice development anyway!

But when Michelin and co relocated to Ghana from Nigeria few years ago, it was because Ghana has "large market available" ?. I can imagine how difficult it is to sail against the storm.

And for government policies affecting them, businesses are run by professionals, not by empty brains. To think about all those things, including many more that your mind cannot capture yet is all they do when they are locked up in the boardroom.

wirinet: Gulak is talking rubbish. So according to him, governors are equivalent to commissioners and the PDP chairman is an appointed minister of the president.

And these are the kinds of people that advice jonathan.

Are you saying in essence that protocol allows a governor to saunter into the hall hosting an occasion where the President is already seated? Can a Local Government Councellor or Chairman walk into a ceremony where the Governor is already seated? You happen to say nothing about Lamido calling Gulak a boy. If GEJ calls Amaechi a boy, will you retain your position? How can the 5 governors give the condition for reconciliation as the sack of the Party National Chairman? Do you now see why strategic thinkers like Gulak need to speak to maintain the present division to keep denying the Amaechi led NGF the potency to push and succeed in removing a Party National Chairman against the President's desire.

The fact is that NGF has become so powerful and need to be reigned in, otherwise we will be faced with tyrany of the minority. This body is not a constitutional body, yet they wield so much political weight that they decide what happens from political appointments to economy (SWF) to war on terror (if not for the early split, Amaechi and his gang has already taken a position against this) and even dictating who becomes the party national chairman. That is not good for our democracy. The NA, council of states, NEC, FEC, etc have their roles in our democracy and NGF cannot usurp all those on the very potent stable of political expediency.

A-ZeD:

Omotosho, papalanto and several of the nipp power plants were started by OBJ. You can kiss GEJ's ass all you like but don't try to lie where there are facts.

You forgot to mention that he also actually flagged off the contruction of the Second Niger Bridge without a design or contract. He practically rented some contractor equipments for few hours and did his thing before the camera.

No serious President shoudl fail to make reasonable impact in the electricity sector after spending $16b in a period of 8 years.

On GEJ, don't forget that Yar'Adua cancelled the power projects when he listened to house of reps probe report and decided to be a 'servant leader'. Technically speaking, GEJ started those power projects.

Jakumo: My gut instincts tell me that this claim of a potentially profitable invention is being made with the intent of defrauding gullible "investors", who, it is hoped, will pay cash advances to the fiction writer, in the hopes of gaining eligibility to go into partnership with the "inventor", so as to reap profits that will accrue from the sales of an imaginary device.

My advice to the person making this strange claim is to go and solve your own money problems, rather than wasting your time seeking out people with more money than common sense.

My gut tells me that the guy was never in UNN. Most of us would have heard about this 'invention'. There are many internationally connected Profs in UNN that will want to be linked with raising people with innovation. Many also within the system have gotten even smaller breakthroughs noticed. Something is not making sense to me in the whole claim.

What exactly is so difficult about SYN flood attack that defy resolution by a serious network security system, people and process? We are not even talking about serious network attack here.
Most servers everywhere around the world face daily attack. How exactly is Sahara Reporters attack different from those happening on millions of servers worldwide even as I type? From Washington Post to BBC to CNN, including our mail servers or portal servers in our offices, if engineers should issue press release about such attacks, it would really be an interesting world.

Longeria: Looking at your user name, I realised there's no difference between you and Femi Kayode, slowpoke.

Wow!!!

First, Ngige removed his shoes before Anambarians to declare that what he will do in the Senate, that the whole world will hear about it. Never did we know that he meant playing politics with his Constituents for personal political gains. He did not even care about what we wanted from him. No attempt to even connect personally with our brother victims. He placed a call to Lagos and Tinubu and Fashola gave him a press release to read. Of course, he did do something and we have heard about it.

Before this litmus test, the last we heard from him was when he was claiming power projects as his achievement, the same project that his party leader flayed the road map that delivered it.

I once saw Ngige as a maverick, but I know better now.

Well, I supported Dora in the last senatorial election because I felt that we need a better relationship with the FG to attract more Federal attention to our zone. Now, I will support any other person against Ngige because he does not know his constituents. Here was I thinking that he might be representing me not knowing that he has adopted another constituents - A senator representing APC. He sided with those that oppressed our weakest members to win favors from them. He does not really care about us. He cares more about them. Now, I grieve more that Dora was not there at this defining moment.

Ngige has been tested. The conclusion by most Anambra central people is that he is not trusted by us. Of course, APC will trust him, but not us. Anambrarians will make their choice!

seunfly:
You should know that the best spoke man for certain organisation in Nigeria including POLICE, NNPC, PRESIDENCY, MINISTER OF INFORMATION etc are the best liar the nation can produce.

Does that include Joe Igbokwe, Rotimi Fashakin and Lai Mohammed?

The Soludo's solution should make more meaning to the youths. I suggest a clear cut strategy that will bring him and what he represents face to face with the average youth.

There are 4 access roads in my village and Peter Obi fixed 3 and renovated the 4th that was started by Robert Akonobi and completed by Ngige. For those, Peter Obi have my respect any day despite his few weaknesses. Not that I like Ngige less but I love Soludo more. Actually, my issue with Ngige is as trivial as wearing golden rings in the 5 fingers on our first encounter (I personally don't take people like that serious) and as serious not knowing his constituency in the Senate. He is a Senator representing the APC people when he should be representing me.

Soludo should target the massively impressionable youth of Anambra, majority of whom he has charmed with his profile. He is a natural teacher, so he should communicate his vision using every available platform in Anambra, not in Lagos or Punch newspaper. How I miss his routine lectures after each MPC meetings in the CBN. It almost made me decide for a PGD in Economics.

Soludo should identify 3 key locations for speaking engagement as a key note speaker aiming the largest hoard of youths- Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Nwafor Orizu College of Education and Federal Polytechnic, Oko. In fact, the governoship aspirants debate should hold in an auditorium in NAU. He should connect with the traders, most of whom admire the youths in higher institutions by showing them visuals, convincing them that they have nothing to lose in the new Anambra, and really meaning it... anyway I know Prof always mean the things he say. I can see him with red cap. That means a lot, but he needs to connect more with Awka and Onitsha Catholic Archdiocese, not forgeting the Anglican communion. Peter Obi can easily facilitate this.

He should make a speach on the 'Igbo Identity in Nigerian Nation' where he will emphasize the Igbo position in Nigeria which is to be allowed to BE the NIGERIANS that they have accepted to be and call for legislative framework that makes this work. He should try and link the Igbo aspiration in pluralistic Nigeria to that of every other Nigerian from Nembe to Kaura Namoda to Ogbomosho and find a way to reconcile his liberal mindset, human rights and cultural identity. I am saying that he should arouse the hoard of impressionable youth in Anambra via his lofty views on the world and respect for Igbo identity.

I believe that if we get the Anambra youth to dance to this tune, others will cave in, including the elderly and marchants.

I don't just dream of a Soludo as a governoship election winner, I dream of him as a leader of mass movement. I will be commiting my time, energy and resources in this project because I believe in this man. I will likely be home for 'Iwa ji' and will officially kickstart his campaign from our 'obi'.

My name is Frank-C and I endorse Prof Chukwuma Soludo for Governorship position in Anambra State.

But Oshomole's flight was grounded recently because his pilot refused to make remittances. It is my opinion that we should learn to discourage individualization of power and join hands with the federal government to strengthen government institutions. We should get to a point when people like Oshomole will fire his pilot for refusing to pay statutory dues and when government agencies pay their taxes without the need for the president to intervene.

CyberG:

Such a silly comment calling someone who is the mate of your father, whose achievements you can never attain a "slave" because he sees what you are never able to see? Well, point one finger at him and 4X more point BACK at you.

But you and your party men have called GEJ worse names and even defended such.
Not that I support any kind of insult against anybody cos it betrays intellectual weakness, but I think some of you who 'give' freely should learn to 'take'

[quote ]...but this is a man who can never be trusted to ....[/quote]

The bolded is the key point. If some faction cannot trust him, he should be replaced ASAP.

I have flown Dana 3 times this year and my choice domestic flight while on personal budget is Medview cos it gives me even better than Arik experience but at a cheaper price.

Dana may have their challenges, but normally security is beefed up after a break in. So is safety procedures more stringently enforced after a crash. I consider Dana to be as safe as other airlines. If I have the option, I fly it and each time I do, I find many Nigerians on board. Yes, there are often some empty seats, but so it is often in Arik, Medview and other airlines depending on route and time.

Ofcourse, there are some clearly few percentage of paranoid flying Nigerians - including those that mutter innumerable 'heavenly' names and incantations with each turbulence - who have refused to fly Dana after the crash, but I think that majority of those that bad mouth Dana on the internet are either based abroad or are not part of the critical mass of the flying Nigerian public. I base my conclusion on my observation.

Is it not time that sane members of the society call this man to order? What exactly will make a man to exchange words with someone else's wife? Even teens know that ladies are not to be scorned or quarrelled with.
The woman in question has only dignified him with a single reply, not even directly but through a spokesman, yet Soyinka keep talking. Even when the woman is bereaved of her own 'domestic appendage' mother, i guess it makes sense for WS to stop.
Great mean prove their greatness by the way they treat the people they consider themselves to be better than. That is why Dangote and Gates give to charity from the abundance of what they have, not argue with them for being lazy which some of them truly are.
Between WS and Madam, who is the woman here

Run, Soludo. Run!!! If you don't run, then it better remain with whoever APGA brings. Ngige for me is a no no, even if he runs under APGA. And I will support a Soludo candidature on any platform, apart from APC.

I cannot confirm this but a colleague put forward a plausible reason for this WS naked dance in the public. Could Deji be right when he mentioned that Amaechi and Wole Soyinka share something they consider very strong and which could be worth the dust? Could he be right that Amaechi and Soyinka share some sacred table of 'brotherhood'?

What exactly could make this man I so respect to throw caution in the wind and engage another man's wife in public quarrel? Deji could just be right afterall...

This is what they do best. Deflect attention from the crime they are committing themselves. Discerning people know the identity of handles like @Gbawe, @Eko-Ile, @DemDem and their subordinates represent the old ACN interest while it seems obvious that handles like @Abagworo represents Amaechi interest. Nobody have accused them of being paid or being lodged in Alausa or any other location.

I think they should understand that GEJ does not give a damn enough. He already said that their abuses and insults were considered and accepted as risks before taking the assignment, so i wonder why they assume that they are so important to warrant any kind team to address them. Steadfast resolve to do the right thing has never been in want of supporters and that is GEJ's position. If Hitler's well oiled propaganda machine fell, it is only a matter of time to see how far the ACN crew can go.

alaoeri: With the situation of things, is like Amaechi got strong external backing.

You really believe that PENGASSAN will go on strike because there was a fight in Rivers State House of Assembly? How many people went on strike while the whole fights that engulfed the House of Representatives lasted?

People make too much noise that at a point, they will begin to believe even their noise.

mankand:

look at this goon. Your president went to borrow and you call it wisdom?

When he have all it takes to generate the funds in the country. No matter how much you bunch of ignoramus try to polish the fisherman, we keep seeing only dust.

I probably was wrong. I think your foolishness is actually only exceeded by your ignorance. What do you know about national debt? As of April 2 this year, American National Debt stood at $11.959trillion and a total public debt of $16.805rillion. That is 75% of her GDP. The same America owes China about 7% via treasury securities despite the huge deposit of hydrocarbon in her soil and vast wealth in her domain.

Going to China to borrow money is not the issue. Intelligent people demand more accountability from government in delivering the projects listed beside each loan. Leave that your rusty village, pick up books and read, get exposed, it is not a crime. Don't be led by the nose by the loud but empty rascals running around the block in the name of public commentator. Build your opinion on sound figures and information and you will see that GEJ is a wise man to be succeeding in pulling this off.

At the pace we are going, the infrastructural gap will be aggressively closed, probably not perfectly, but surely. GEJ is laying the foundation and superstructures of a new Nigeria. Is it not ironic that this man is the one doing things that his predecessors only imagined?

Chain_Blinger: aaaaaaahhh! Seee our corrupt president and his ignorant wife.... I hail theee!

Your fooolishness and loud emptiness is only exceeded by your carelessness.

Mr President, we keep praying that God will continue to fill you with wisdom to iron out the best bilateral deals for our country as you continue to strive to position our country for better visibility, competitiveness, global recognition and relevance. We are in the majority and we stand with you every step of the mandate we handed to you.

Ete Flexible: Students under the aegis of Nigerian Education Rights Coalition and Coalition Against [/b]Commercialization[/b]of Education in Nigeria today embarked on street protests in Lagos that has brought traffic to a standstill on on Lagos main road, Ikorodu road.

The protest which started with a handful of students protesting against Nigerian government insensitivity to ongoing strike by university and polytechnic teachers has steadily grown in the last hour.

Policemen are seen trying to break up the protest but the students have so far stood their ground and proceeded peacefully in defiance of the police.

Is ASUU/ASUP strike really about the commercialization of education in Nigeria? Maybe someone is working hard to mask the reason for the protest. We know who and where education is being commercialized and that is in Lagos State with a sessional school fees of N250,000. ASUU is fighting for improved condition of service, not for school fees increase or a 'commercialized' academic atmosphere.

I guess this protest should be against Lagos State Government for commercializing tertiary education in Lagos State.

Rhino.5dm:


Not when they are supported by police commissioner and truck load of hungry thugs.

There is a standing rule that security operatives does not and should not step into the chambers of the Assembly unless explicitly summoned. Who told you that the day that Dino Melaye fought and had his cloth torn in the chamber of the House of Reps that there are not security operatives outside?

Again, the President, Governor or LGA Chairman does not step into their correponding law makers gathering unless also invited. The speaker is normally elected for a reason.