₦airaland Forum

mankevo: It has always been known that those that defend this ''disaster of a president'' wont hold on so long. Almost a page gone and none of them has summoned courage to utter their defence. Still waiting for em to come and tell us ''...its a slip of tongue caused by Tinubu's corruption and Buhari's extremism''

Aphrygian: Waiting for PDP starlwart to attack dis thread.¤watching in 3D¤

He said the state government went out of its way to provide the transformer, even though it was the responsibility of the Federal Government.

gudugudumeje: GEJ's is foolishness. He should go back to school to know about society, polity ad economy and the way corruption is the attitude of gangs of self-seeking despots...... he is chief player.

The Lawmakers who expressed their total dismay and lack of confidence on the activities of the Christopher Kolade led Programme, however stressed that the agency was nothing, but a duplication of activities already carried out by existing Ministries, Department and Agencies, MDAs in the country.

birdman: cap28 brings some of the ridicule on himself. Having a message is not enough, you also have to deliver it in the right spirit. Getting abusive and aggressive when people disagree with you out of ignorance does not help your message. If you really have pure intentions, then you should be more concerned about people gaining knowledge than trying to show you know more than others.

Leadership - Leading through Example



Leaders must lead by their own example. If subordinates see their leader doing one thing and saying another, they may follow the letter of the law and obey what is said without really following the spirit behind what the leader is trying to accomplish. Not following the spirit behind a rule can result in a very large loss in efficiency.

Leading through example is leading through intent not through directives. When people hear you say to do something they may follow what you say, but that is much less efficient than when they follow what you mean. By following your intent, your subordinates will be much more productive and much more aligned with your vision than if they just follow what you say word for word.

There was a CEO of a large company that was having a problem with parking. He told everyone they needed to park in a lower lot to give customers more space to park. By parking in his old spot, employees saw that he was following a different standard. While they followed the letter of the law, they didn't follow the concept behind what the CEO was trying to say about putting the customer first.

In a similar situation the president of a large university had a parking space near the building where she worked. Students had to park at the bottom of the hill and ride a bus to the campus. Several times a week, students found that they were riding on the bus with the college president because she wanted to park where the students were parking so she could make sure she understood how they had to park and get to school.

Students had a great deal of respect for the college president because she was following her own rules even though she didn't have to. The students felt like she valued them and as a result put a great deal of effort into helping the university succeed.

When you are able to lead through example, you show people the way to act and think. Showing people is much better than telling them. When you tell someone they will only understand a small percentage of what you said. When you show them they will understand not only what you meant to say, but the intent behind what you would have said. When people see you leading the way they can put their entire effort behind your intention and not feel like they have to reserve part of themself because you are trying to take advantage of them.

kokoA: these guys are yet to form the mega-party and you have already concluded that they are not telling us what they will do differently. Why don't you wait till the new party is born and a manifesto released before you conclude.. They need time to iron out their differences and agree to come under one umbrella first of all.

trillville: Provided PDP does not rig the 2015 elections, kicking PDP out of government, whether the pope is their candidate, will be our true revolution. And if the next political party plays the same game with us, we will kick them out by 2019. there's no need for bloodshed in a democracy.

Paul John: Lovely if true. Pictures would have done justice to all doubt.
Time to visit Ekiti to see for myself, it's been a while.



Busted.

Aderostock: You are a liar! Have read all your posts on nairaland, you are a non- yoruba disguised to be a yoruba. By the way, you are not the only one. I know of many but I will just write few that use yoruba Id's. They are mosun_ade, kunlekunle, bukky_ade and many. Unmask yourself now!

Something is happening in Ekiti — for real!

DECEMBER 23, 2012 BY TUNDE FAGBENLE

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Something is happening in Ekiti State that needs to be told. And I will, since I bear witness to it.

Quite a few folks, including my good friend and brother Femi Orebe and Sam Omatseye, both columnists in The Nation newspaper, have written volubly, extolling the “quiet revolution” going on in Ekiti State. It is difficult reading some of the stuff written by them and not think, ‘there’s some exaggeration afoot.’ I needed to be there to see with my own eyes.

I finally wrestled the demon of procrastination and made it to Ado-Ekiti last week, my first time there since Dr. Kayode Fayemi became the governor two years ago.

Ekiti had really never been a favourite destination for me. Tucked within the heartland of the old West, it seemed its only distinguishing tourist feature was some “miracle of nature” somewhere in the denseness of the Ekiti forests at a village called Ikogosi, where cold and warm water springs out side by side from the ground into a running stream; and her only claim to fame was that old high school of excellence — Christ School, Ado-Ekiti — along with Ekiti’s renown as the land where every household has a PhD holder!

But, over the years, even those little graces had wilted and become virtually the stuff of distant memories. Ekiti land, with all its vaunted brains, had proved not immune to the malaise of a country gone to the dogs: although nature had remained faithful with its ‘miracle’ warm spring at Ikogosi, the forest had reclaimed its own and it would’ve taken a dare to venture there in a hurry (the way it was fun for me to do some 30 years or so ago). Christ School had become a sham, with neither ‘Christ’ nor ‘school’ in place. Gloom was evident all over the land, the roads were impassable, and even Ado-Ekiti had become no more than a glorified village!

In the few times I had strained to be in Ekiti in the last 10 years — essentially for one ceremony or the other of friends like the late Rufus Orisayomi and Akin Osuntokun — the experiences had been some ordeal.

But there was no mocking of Ekiti, the fate that befell her had befallen virtually the entire old West. Successive governments had been preoccupied with the glamour and self-opportunities of office. Lacking in depth, vision and commitment, governance was essentially cosmetic and nothing beyond how to share the monthly dole from Abuja between individual pockets and token gestures of attention to desolate infrastructure within a governor’s very limited horizon. Everything was about politics — politics of the stomach and of longevity in office.

I was in Ado-Ekiti last week at the instance of Governor Fayemi who rightly felt this old man has been unfair in not visiting Ekiti since he became governor, even when we shared some common history in the struggle against Gen. Sani Abacha and for the enthronement of democracy. Of course, Fayemi’s antecedent and role far outstripped mine in those years — be it as the brain-box of Radio Kudirat or as intellectual strategist for many global institutions and governments, having himself acquired a doctorate in War Studies from the prestigious King’s College, University of London.

Accompanied by my barrister son, Kunle, and my friend from way back in England, Taiwo Adedoyin, I was provided with a vehicle and guides (led by the Chief Press Secretary to the Governor, ex-PUNCHer Yinka Oyebode) to tour the state and go as I pleased.

[b]For hours and hours, we drove with our mouths drooping in amazement at what we saw. The renewal of the urbanity of Ado-Ekiti as the state capital was clearly evident: arterial roads that had been half-heartedly begun by preceding governments have been widened and dualised, with streetlights installed all along the median. As old roads are being reconstructed and retarred to high standards, new ones are surfacing everywhere; city centre is buzzing with new energy — buildings wear new look, shops and petty businesses are all over; new impressive structures are springing up; an arcade here, a centre there.

But the development was not limited to the state capital. As we drove for miles and miles, we were stunned to find dualised roads running for long stretches and high-grade roads interconnecting most towns and villages. I learnt other governors wonder how Fayemi has been able to have so many roads done in just two years!

Our eyes connected with schools beckoning with renovated or new buildings wearing bright new looks and we are told about 100 schools have already benefited in the first phase and the exercise would continue until all public schools have been restored to their old glory.[/b]

However, even all would be nothing were they limited to these externalities. Truly concerned about the rottenness of the education standard, Fayemi has embarked on a holistic restructuring and restitution of education in the state: re-equipping the schools with appropriate furniture and sporting equipment, and starting the teachers on a whole range of training and retraining after the discovery that a scandalous less than 10 per cent of teachers in the state primary schools could pass a primary four exam!

[b]At secondary school level, Fayemi has done something unprecedented, perhaps in the entire country. He has provided customised and solar-powered laptops to about 30,000 pupils and 18,000 teachers. The stunning achievement has encouraged the manufacturers of the computers — Samsung — to set up a computer engineering centre in Ado-Ekiti that would be a manpower training and development centre and assembly workshop for their computers! The buildings’ foundations have been laid and work is going on apace.

It is difficult, nay impossible, to write all there is to write about what Fayemi has done or is geared to doing in Ekiti State in just a thousand-word column. And yet, it is important to let the world know about every aspect of this amazingly resourceful and talented (genius, I’d say) governor’s programme in their uniqueness and developmental pace.

His style of government is similar to that of Fashola of Lagos State in intellectualism, seriousness and time management, shorn of frivolities and giving no room to entertaining jesters and debilitating stream of unhelpful visitors. And similar to that of Osun’s Aregbesola and Edo’s Oshiomhole in pace and vision.

Fayemi pioneered a Social Security Programme for the aged, paying a monthly stipend of N5,000 to all registered elderly people and provides free medical services for children, pregnant women and the aged.

His investment programme spans agriculture and industry. The moribund Ire Bricks Factory and Odua Enterprise Centre have been resuscitated. More spectacularly, he is developing a ‘tourism corridor’ around the Ikogosi Warm Spring, which is already redeveloped with villa chalets and an amphitheatre, outsourced to a top South African tourism company, to include vast stretches of game reserve, Disneyland type of amusement complexes, etc.

To be honest, I do not know and cannot even imagine how this guy does it. He says he has managed to raise the state’s IGR from a paltry N109m to N600m monthly, mainly by blocking existing loopholes in the tax collection and management systems.
[/b]
Above all, I think what stands Fayemi in good stead are his frugality, integrity, intellectual base, and his vast international connections and credibility, all of which have been deployed in the race to making Ekiti a positive example in Nigeria, nay Africa.

If I sound like I’ve been paid to be Fayemi’s megaphone, I apologise; but I challenge the reader to go there and come out sounding different!

Ymodulus: true talk

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Adeniran, CACOL boss

Pro-people govt may not evolve except there’s revolution – Adeniran, CACOL boss

DECEMBER 29, 2012 BY ADEOLA BALOGUN 3 COMMENTS

Debo Adeniran, Executive Chairman, Coalition Against Corrupt Leaders, describes the Goodluck Jonathan Administration’s fight against corruption as a ruse. He speaks with ADEOLA BALOGUN

The government accused Transparency International of relying on media reports to rate Nigeria as the 35th most corrupt country in the world. What is your take on this?

The government will always have a way of defending the indefensible and that’s been the stock in trade of the present administration. It’s one of the extant policies of the ruling party to tell the people outright lies and to use all means to bamboozle the public. That is why they try to hide obvious truths by all means. There is no Nigerian today who doesn’t know that corruption has taken a preeminent place in the business of governance. There is no Nigerian today who does not know that the source of high cost of personal comfort is borne out of corruptive tendencies of this government. And instead of fighting corrupt criminals, it has devised a means of shielding them from facing justice. After (Ibrahim) Babangida institutionalised corruption, which subsequent military and neo-military regimes built on, the expectation for a better society was high when Olusegun Obasanjo started the current political dispensation. As a matter of fact, the setting up of the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission by Obasanjo raised the hope that corruption would be uprooted from the society. Then he set up the Due Process Office, where the likes of ObyEzekwesili started well but at a stage, the corrupt elements started fighting back. In 2003, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission was set up to fight cyber crimes and advanced fee frauds. Nuhu Ribadu, being an ambitious young man, was put in the saddle to head the agency. He started well but no sooner had he started than the forces came in to fight back. During the days of Michael Aondoakaa, the office of the attorney-general saw to the frustration of the young man, making sure that not much was done in prosecuting people like James Ibori, Dan Etete and others. The forces did not stop at anything until they saw him out of the EFCC. It is only in Nigeria that elements who partook in the Halliburton scandal are still walking about free whereas those who were found guilty had been dealt with in other countries. The same thing with Pentescope and Siemens scandals. The forces thought they could compromise Farida Waziri but they didn’t find it easy. Even though they saw her out of the place, nobody had been able to trace any wrongdoing to her.

How do you see Labaran Maku, the information minister, who discredits the media?

Labaran is a wolf in sheep’s clothing. I never believed he would turn 360 degrees just like Reuben Abati. Labaran was a journalist and he knew how journalism works. If a media report is false, he should know what to do rather than going to the public to discredit his former colleagues. As a matter of fact, the President lied during his media chat that TI had rated Nigeria next to the US in the corruption index. He claimed that it was a notorious fact. Is Labaran now saying that his former colleagues are nothing but a bunch of falsehood peddlers? Is he now saying that the profession which made him to be suitable for a public office is fraudulent? Labaran is unfair to the media profession. But before then, Labaran was a member of the Committee for the Defence of Human Rights and I was the first secretary-general of the organisation. I remember how we fought against this kind of rudderless governance in the country. Perhaps Labaran has forgotten that the world has become a global village. Even if the Nigerian media would not expose corruption, the foreign media is there to blow the whistle. After all, the Ribadu report on oil and gas was reported by Reuters. Meanwhile, this is part of the indices TI used to rate Nigeria. It’s unfortunate that somebody like Labaran, who used to be a member of the CDHR and a journalist, and Abati, decided to paint themselves black. Everything that Abati is doing at the Presidency now is diametrically opposed to what he was doing before he got there and it is very unfortunate. We thought that the two gentlemen would leave the dirty job for DoyinOkupe, who had always been an attack dog for the Presidency.

How would you assess Ibrahim Lamorde as the helmsman at the EFCC, bearing in mind his position as Director of Operations under Ribadu?

Lamorde is a fine officer but don’t forget that he is still a serving police officer who has bosses. Lamorde is determined and ready to work but the Ministry of Justice, which is headed by the attorney-general, a politician, is hampering his work. The AGF is there to shield corrupt friends and relatives of the people in government from facing prosecution. We don’t believe that any serving career officer can do the EFCC job successfully. We advocate that a retired individual from the private sector be appointed to head such anti-corruption bodies. That kind of person will have a level of independence. The funding too should come directly from the Federation Account, not through the MoJ. And with the way the present government is going, there is no sign that it is ready to fight corruption; rather, it is shielding corrupt elements.

Even with the arraignment of the son of the chairman of the ruling party for corruption?

We’re aware that the son of the chairman is there in court and the sons of the government backers, but what has become of these trials? It is not that their cases will not get to court but they harass judges to grant them bail. Even those who have been tried and convicted, all what they get is a slap on the wrist. Cecilia Ibru spent her six months at a five-star hospital; Tafa Balogun went away free after a lousy plea bargaining, Lucky Igbinedion was fined N3m, which he brought from his pocket and paid because he knew beforehand what to expect. They have planted their people on the Bench; they have their people at the Bar who they give fat briefs. If you run to the National Assembly, you are not going to achieve anything because most of the indicted personalities are in the Senate. Former governors that have been indicted are all there. If Ibori didn’t run to Dubai, he would have contested a senate seat and today, he would have been a senator. No matter what you think, yes, the sons of the chairman and backers of the ruling party will get to court as a ploy to stop people from making a noise. Now, they have secured bail for all of them. What has come out of all the many probes in the life of this administration? Has anybody been punished?

Are you in a way saying that nothing will come out of the Ribadu report?

They set up committees to bamboozle Nigerians and when they set them up, they put landmines in their paths to hamper their work. That was what happened to the Ribadu-led task force. They planted elements like Bernard Otti and Steve Oronsaye to play the spoiler role. They wrote the script from the beginning and we said so, more so when the petroleum minister remains the chief executive of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation. They thought they could launder their image with Ribadu as the chairman of the task force but the man knew what he was doing. Most of the time, these elements would not attend meetings of the task force in order to make it look like a one-man show, forgetting that the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative had come out with a report earlier on the same issue. They forgot that all that Ribadu needed to do was to accentuate the indictment and recommendations of all the previous reports and confirm those that can be confirmed. That is the way to show that the present system does not want anything against corruption to work. They all belong to the same cartel; they know that they are operating the government as a cult. That is why you see all kinds of ostentatious spending on party halls, presidential jets, VIP residents, forgetting about roads and electricity. Unless there is a revolution, it’s not likely that any pro-poor government will be able to take over from the present administration.

Overall, how would you assess the Goodluck Jonathan presidency?

So far so bad: he is likely to be the worst president we’ll ever have. He is even running a government that is totally blind and impervious to correction. When people say he is running a clueless government, I agree; when they say his government is rudderless, it is. I honestly don’t know what is wrong with the President because he cannot claim it is inexperience. He rose through the ranks as a politician. He rose from the post of the deputy governor to acting governor and then governor. And from being a vice-president, he became an acting president and now a President. What else does he want?

My question is why?

maoyinlola: The camera you refer to costs about N120,000!!!

onatisi: the color of the lighting doesnt match,horrible camera ,bad photography.this is total rubbish

ypzilanti: I am from eastern Nigeria. My state governor is T.A. Orji. In the same region there is a Chime who is performing. Ogun state that is just next door to Lagos is not a well run state. A state that should be the New Jersey of Nigeria's New York is like a glorified village. Let us just appreciate good governance (or relatively better governance) and leave all these tribal sentiments.

Ogun boosts mass transit services with new buses
FRIDAY, 31 AUGUST 2012 00:00 BY YETUNDE EBOSELE FEATURES - AUTO WHEELS
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THE Ogun State Governor, Ibikunle Amosun, recently unveiled 77 new buses as part of measures to ease inter and intra city transportation in the state.

The governor also attributed the high incidence of road carnage in Ogun to the poor state of federal roads in the state.

Amosun who spoke at the launch of the Ogun State Bus Mass Transit Scheme (BMTS), at the Memorial Arcade, Oke-Mosan, Abeokuta, described the state of federal roads in Ogun State as “worrisome” and called on the Federal Ministry of Works to speedily fix the roads.

Addressing the gathering that comprised market women, artisans and transporters, Amosun said: “Let me seize this opportunity to express concern on an issue that affects public transportation system, particularly in our state. This concerns the state of the federal roads in the state. It saddens me to say that out of the 465,000 deaths and 18,095 injuries recorded in 5,330 road accidents in Nigeria in 2010, 649 of such deaths, 1,333 injuries and 1,980 accidents occurred in Ogun State alone. This translates to 16 per cent of fatalities, eight per cent of injuries and 37 per cent of road accidents.

“Of course, this is due to the fact that the longest sections of the two busiest highways in Nigeria, the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, that links the busiest air and sea ports of Nigeria in Lagos, with the rest of Nigeria, and the Sagamu-Ore-Benin Expressway that links the western and eastern parts of Nigeria- traverse the length of our state.

“The state of disrepair of these roads and the other federal roads in Ogun State are worrisome. I, therefore, plead with the Federal Government, and most especially, the Federal Ministry of Works to pay attention to these roads as a matter of urgency. This is the only way this mass transit project could be sustainable.”

Amosun explained that the procurement of the buses was to ease transportation pains of the people, pointing out: “Almost immediately after these procurement, the state government entered into diligent negotiation and discussion with transportation experts with the aim of acquiring more high capacity buses to augment the apparent shortfall in the number of buses available for intra-city travel in our state.”

He called on all stakeholders in the transportation industry as well as law enforcement agencies to ensure the success of the BMT programme and to ensure that “our roads become safer for all road users.”

The governor added: “Apart from the fact that this programme will cushion the after- effect of the removal of fuel subsidy, it is believed that these buses will ply our roads, and carry more passengers at once, thus, reducing the need for everyone to put their own vehicles on the road, and incurring costs on the maintenance of their vehicles.

“Therefore, as the numbers of vehicles on our roads are reduced, it will also reduce the propensity for road accidents and casualties arising from such. The roads will also be freer, thus reducing the man-hour wasted in road traffic jams.”

The governor used the occasion to restate his administration’s commitment to the wellbeing of the people of the state. “At this juncture, let me restate our administration’s unwavering commitment to the development of Ogun State, and the well-being of our people. As we have continued to renovate existing roads, we are also constructing new ones. The flagship of the already constructed roads is the already completed six-lane Ibara-Ita-Eko, Totoro Road, which is being linked with the Oke-Ilewo Road, with the on-going over-head bridge, the first in the state capital.”

According to him, the administration would soon commence the construction of six major roads across the state pointing out that the roads, when completed, promised to redefine the transportation landscape of the state.

Oyo to procure 100 43-seater mass transit buses
Posted in Featured News, Press/News on September 30, 2012



The Oyo State Government has approved arrangements for the procurement of 100 mass transit buses to ease transportation problem in the state at the cost of N1,744,800,000.
A statement issued in Ibadan on Thursday by the Special Adviser to the Governor on Media, Dr. Festus Adedayo, said that the vehicles are Daewoo-model 43-seater buses to be purchased from Korea.
He said that the 100 units of 43-seater buses’ – Daewoo BF-106 – sum included the cost of the project administration, spare parts and the stay of Korean expatriates in the country for one year.
The statement also said that the state government insisted on bringing the Korean expatriates to train the state technicians so as to increase the workers in the employment of the government’s technical know-how.
According to Adedayo, the buses would be supplied in three phases of 30, 30, 40, with the first batch arriving the state in November 2012.
He explained that the project would also include training, support, design, implementation and maintenance of the project, so as to enable the state derives maximum value from the mass transit project.
The governor’s spokesman said that a workshop would be constructed and maintained by the firm for one year during which technicians and engineers of the state-owned Trans City Transport Company (TCTC) would be trained on the handling and maintenance of the buses, while parts of the vehicles would also be supplied by the company.
Adedayo, who said that some of the technicians and engineers of the state government who would work on the vehicles would also be trained in Korea, added that the procurement of the buses was part of government’s comprehensive transport policy for the state.
He said that the other aspect of the policy would involve procurement of 18-seater mini-buses and taxi cabs aimed at removing some of the rickety vehicles currently being used for commercial purposes in the state

kokoA: Any move to form a formidable force against PDP is welcomed by me. If these guys can set aside individualistic tendencies and come together genuinely, Nigerians will surely give them a chance, though PDP will still control some states but with GEJ making moves to contest in 2015, I believe it gives a formidable opposition a 'slam dunk' chance to kick PDP out of Aso rock.. GEJ will be a very difficult product to sell in 2015 especially in the north, middle-belt and south western states. Thank God he no longer has the "second-term" carrot to danggle around most of the state governors.

take dat: Merger or not, gang up or not, I am fully in support of any move to strengthen the opposition parties, weakening tribal or regional politics and creating an alternative. Not until we have an opposition party with almost the same strength as PDP, PDP will not live up to its responsibility as the ruling party.

geeez: Why are Yoruba people so progressive?