Good morning sir,

I read your conversation with one of your readers of which I am equally one having also read the beautiful expository from which the conversation ensued.

I am Ugo from IMO state in the south east, I have however lived and interacted with people outside of my zone extensively... Being born in Sabon Gari Minna, schooled in Enugu, started work in Lagos, PH, and back in Abia state working. I have at least a first hand experience of diversity in Nigeria, let me also say that I presently have a sister in-law from Nasarawa.

Now to your conversation, I decided to reach out to you in support of the response you gave the reader.

First, I must commend your promotion (and I hope it passes the test of time) of idealism as the bedrock of a political party. That, we have seen is not the stock of our average politician in Nigeria. We so often have a dearth of men who will support and be true to the ideals of any party or organization, especially when personal interests are threatened.

Secondly sir, let me also say unequivocally, that the man Asiwaju Bola Tinubu is someone that all political, business, and even religious leaders in this country have something to learn from;and since charity begins at home, I will rather focus on leaders from my own south east zone.

Like you pointed out in your conversation, BAT's investment in human capital development in Nigeria's socio political space is unrivalled in our present times. I heard that the late Shehu Musa Yar Adua had also such investments but over time we have seen how such has panned out.

Any man who has employed, tutored or even managed a handful of people, adults, teenagers and kids alike, must have come to terms with the dire demands of such undertaking. How much more difficult is it not just to teach a grown man with lots of life experiences, emotional and economic egos.

BAT has been able to mentor leaders to prominence and a look at the retinue of young men appointed into sensitive government positions on both Lagos, NASS, And as presidential aides to the VP will tell you that that trend is already breeding a new set of leaders.

This, my good sir, is where the man is well above his contemporaries as a leader and from whence other leaders especially those of south east Nigeria needs to sit down and learn - the man has been a mentor to some of the most prominent progressive personalities in governance today.

Its easy to glean at being a mentor to a successful man, but it can't be so easy to forget all the sacrifices of time, of resources, of emotions, of overcoming doubts, of forgiveness and of putting ones reputation on the line for the sake of another, on the part of the mentor. Only one, I dare say of exceptional spirit and great leadership acumen could have successfully done this with lots of people with such an outstanding degree of success.

There's a popular belief that Igbo's hate BAT, I will quickly tell you sir, that is in context "a hate to love" as any well meaning person who aspires or genuinely desires leadership change in Nigeria cannot but love the man.

If only leaders especially political and business leaders of the south eastern region will imbibe this culture of not only taking in mentees, but having the patience, the goodwill, the heart to forgive and the forbearance to see their mentees become successful, we will be better.

Nowadays, no sonner than a young man goes to learn a trade, is he sent back on a flimsy excuse and yet BAT is a bad man. No sooner a man is appointed to a political position , his benefactor becomes threatened by his relevance and seeks to undo him, yet BAT is overbearing.

No sooner does a manager seek to register his own firm , than his erstwhile CEO seeks to ridicule him and tag him a thief. Yet its convenient to blame BAT for monopolising government opportunities for his "stooges"

Let all who seek to contest or malign the personality of Asiwaju first show us any evidence of their investment in human capital development the likes of which BAT has successfully done for over two decades.

As an aside, let me also state, that within the south east, I have seen a man who though remotely has consistently invested and continues to support human capital development and its little wonder he is active in this PMB administration.

The current minister of state for mines and steel development , Dr Sampson Uche Ogah is very worthy of every commendation being a new breed of politician interested in human capital development not just within the south east but all over Nigeria.

As a youth he gives opportunities to youths, his masters energy group has in its payroll men and women from all ethnic groups in the country. And his aides and staff are from both Igbo, Hausa, and Yorubas. A truely detribalized Nigerian and a human development enthusiasts.


May God bless you sir and I wish you a great political career.

My name is Okafor Princewill Ugo from Enugu.

Thank you Ugo. You are my tribesman, of the hope that Nigeria will be great again.

Ini Akpan Morgan

Having chosen to start including my Whatsapp contact on my Opera News Hub articles for feedback, I received my first reaction this evening, and it came in the form of an advice, which one of my readers volunteered, and it is about my political party, our national leader, and my membership of the party. I thought it is an intersting interaction worthy of public reading.

The conversation:

My name is John Ekanem. I read your post on Opera News. Actually, l live in Lagos. I'm not a member of any political party. I'm only on the side of reason. I don't see APC as a political party. I see APC more as a confraternity.

Why am l saying this?

One man is trying to claim the party to himself. And that man is Bola Ahmed Tinubu. Because of his overbearing influence, APC will crumble like a pack of cards before 2023.

If you're very passionate about partisan politics, l'll advise you to look for another political platform. The only thing that's still holding APC together as a unit is the Buhari factor.

My response:

Well, I can only buy into your position if I am privy to your perspective, but unfortunately, I cannot truly place the premise for your assumption on my party, my national leader, and my need to change political platform.

On my national leader, let me start from the most grievious, I cannot see a man who is rank-less in the APC weld such powers that overbear, as you have allocated to the Asiwaju. He is an ordinary member of the APC, who holds no political, nor party high office. If a man like that, without a political, nor a very loud party office, welds such overbearing powers, when he is only ordinarily decorated as the "national leader" of the party, just to compensate him for his contributions, dont you think there is something beyond the ordinary that he has done to sit in his house and weld the powers you have allocated to him?

This is Nigeria bro, and on my party - the second most grievious allusion to - being "a confraternity", I need to say that in partisan politics, the bottom line is the ideology under which each, and every political party dwells; and promotes their inculcated political manifestoes. In this regard, I would rather submit that all the political parties in Nigeria are "confraternities" as you have so labelled the APC, and better than the other political parties, it is the APC, which vocally and actively promotes the "progressives' ideology". Tell me what pseudo-ideologies other political parties promote. What ideology does the PDP promote?

I do not think you got your points well placed, and your drawn opinion on my party, the APC, and about my national leader being overbearing, is stationed on bottomless assumptions which will sink you. Who you see, in Bola Tinubu, is a man who is enjoying his moral and intellectual investments in the political party raised on his vision of success. He owns the APC dream, let anyone contest this truth.

More than what you have conceived about the APC National Leader, I truly see the most sacrificial Nigerian politician still alive. I see the Asiwaju as the only Nigerian politician that can give up the presidency for the peace and progress of his party, but he must only submit to anyone who is better prepared than him and who have shown more than an equal contribution to the sustenance of our always nascent democracy.

APC cannot afford to lose the 2023 Presidency, except by, and through intraparty witchcraft. There is justice to satisfy. No one muzzles the mule that treads the meals. A worker deserves his just wages, as the Holy Book says. From 2015, let the APC, and the ruling government say what the Asiwaju has gained, politically, from his investment, other than the human capital development he engenders. Who is like him?

Overbearing? That is unjust!

It was the Asiwaju who chose Dr Iyiocha Ayu as Senate President when he donated his ambition to be, to MKO Abiola's presidency, when Shehu YarAdua step down for Abiola, and the senate presidency had to return to the north. You should be familiar with that of the incumbent Vice President, how he gave that up without any noise.

Mention just one politician that has remained in his political party after been refused the party's flag to fly? And check it out again, only members of the Asiwaju's ACN, the Buhari's CPC, and the ANPP, in the merger that threw up the APC, are those who have never suffered defections from the intial parties they belonged to. Every other defector to the APC did so for reasons of taking, or retaining a political office. But here is a man who is in his 13th year outside political office, waxing stronger.

Haba!

Are you not surprised that as easy for him to attain, as no one can deny, the Asiwaju has not yet desired being a "Presidential Candidate" of any political party? He gave his first opportunity to Atiku Abubakar, and the second to Nuhu Ribadu. Even Jeremiah Obafemi Awolowo did not attempt a joke with his presidential opportunities by submitting his candidacy to another from another Nigerian region. Bola Tinubu is visionary, he will not go into an election he would not win, I only pity those who think they can win without his support. He is shrewder, and they all tremble before him, like those of them do to my principal in Akwa Ibom State. I will never lie!

That bridge that Bola Tinubu learnt to build, that Awolowo could not, not for his fault, but for the difficulty in finding a compliant partner to follow his, also, difficult political philosophy. The Asiwaju has however built up on that bridge, and here we are today: we should be thanking him for being consistent with the deepening of our democracy. He remains the father of Nigerian opposition struggle. The biggest founder of political parties in the country.

He deserves the reward of his selfless commitment to his partisanship, and of course, others can either be outran or overran by him - it is about interest. And if as you have opined, that APC would disintegrate for the Asiwaju, all I would ask is: how do you see the men and women in the party? Do you see them as people itwho cannot hold to their own? The Asiwaju cannot abandon the house he contributed in building: he staked and paid up for an interest, you know!

And should the APC disintegrate, do you think it is the Asiwaju that would lose political relevance? It just cannot be him. He remains the hottest stock every success seeking political party can have on her shelf. And I pray that your expectations, which is adverse to the interest of my party, falls flat before my faith in God for my party.

And for me: my foray in politics is to make my contributions to the growth, prosperity and the peace of this country, and to ensure I inject my gift and intellect to our sociopolitical advancement. This is why I am in politics, and I do not need to change political parties to achieve that.

Writing and getting my opinions published on a daily basis is a first port of call for me. And for me, Nigeria's presidency is possible from whichever direction. So I will remain an APC member sir.

Thank you for your inputs to my need for a political direction, I am blessed to have chosen the best available, and I am happy to have you as one of my readers on Opera News Online.



His final answer:

Wow! I can appreciate your loyalty to your party. I wish all politicians will remain resolute like you. You know what? Let's keep this conversation pending. I plan to go to Akwa Ibom by December. Can I be your guest?

Ini Akpan Morgan writes from Uyo, Nigeria. 08102466347 (Whatsapp only). Email:time.subsidaries@gmail.com

"Edo Is Not Lagos": Godwin Obaseki's Ingratituous Bill Of Insult On Tinubu

It is a worthwhile venture when one chooses to stand far away from ingratituous people. They are like the "Bermuda Triangle", always "swallowing" and not getting filled up. And unless they continue to take from you, you have not done anything for them. One thing is sure though, an ingratituous person is an armed "emotional robber".

When a matter is like that, no time should be wasted to attempt to waste time and resources to assist such people. This is why the bill posted as "Edo is not Lagos” is an ingratituous insult on AsiwajuBola Ahmed Tinubu.

Let us recall that the Asiwaju held and lifted former Governor Olusegun Mimiko up to become Governor of Ondo State, to help him grow his South West outreach, but at then end of that effort, Governor Mimko floundered and left Asiwaju Tinubu in the cold. He was ungrateful.

At the end of that political trip the Asiwaju helped Olusegun Mimiko embark on, and when it mattered most to the Asiwaju, the former governor chose to work with erstwhile President Goodluck Jonathan than with the Asiwaju. As clearly as pictured, investing his resources in Olusegun Mimiko was a big loss to the Asiwaju - Mimiko should not have been helped to be governor. It is now about the ingratitude of Governor Obaseki.

However, in the above review, of that relationship between the Asiwaju and Mimiko, it is very clear, how, at no point did Mimiko insult the Asiwaju in his show of ingratitude. The same thing cannot be said about Governor Godwin Obaseki, who has taken his own ingratitude to a new level.

Governor Obaseki, who is a secondary beneficiary of the political magnanimity of the Asiwaju, having inherited a political dynasty put in place by the Asiwaju.

"Edo is not Lagos" is a geographical fact when the cadastrals mapping of the 2 cities are considered, but referring it to the politics of Edo State and the incumbent governorship, Edo State and especially Governor Godwin Obaseki has the Asiwaju to be grateful to, for what Governor Obaseki enjoys today as the governor of the State.

Edo may not be Lagos, but the governorship and the incumbent political status quo Godwin Obaseki is currently enjoying was strategically planned in Lagos, sponsored from Lagos and it took the shape and the image of what Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu delivered. So politically, Edo, undeniably, smells like Lagos.

Now, what did the Asiwaju do wrong and where did he incur Governor Obaseki's displeasure?

Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, a seasoned democrat, is the only Nigerian politician who committed every needed resources to sustain, deepen and grow our democracy: he sustained a vibrant and a dreadful opposition polity until it was victory for the opposition parties. Governor Obaseki should not have expected such a democrat to support his attempt to muzzle 14 members of a 26 members Edo House of Assembly.

The Asiwaju's offence was in telling Godwin Obaseki that he was wrong to insist on a "minority rule" in the Edo State House of Assembly. What was it that promoted Governor Obaseki's fears that Governor Hope Uzodinma of Imo State did not encounter? Governor Obaseki had a House of Assembly populated by his party men, while Governor Uzodinma inherited an already operative Imo State House of Assembly dominated by the opposition.

The question is: how is Governor Uzodinma successfully managing a House populated by enemy legislators when his colleague, Governor Obaseki cannot manage his 26 members House filled with his party men? It shows that Governor Obaseki is unlearn in the arts of governance. Compare him with his Imo State counterpart, the difference in their experiences is very clear.

So, like Governor Olusegun Mimiko, Governor Godwin Obaseki enjoyed the continuity of the Asiwaju political magnanimity and was ungrateful, but unlike Governor Mimiko who left out adding insults to his ingratitude, Governor Obaseki took his to a childish climax by adding insults to his ingratitude against the Asiwaju.

Unfortunately, Governor Obaseki was blind to who the Asiwaju is: a politician who has "the right to be insulted", a politician who has grown politically through the "insults" he has suffered, and the one who is who he has become through insults from those he "out runs". So Governor Obaseki's inglorious show of ingratitude and his insults can only raise the Asiwaju's political pedestal than diminish it.

But as for him returning to Government House, Benin City, he has lost the opportunity for taking a hard earn political victory for the Edo people back to their mark of political slavery. Indeed it is not proper to "give the children's bread to dogs". And Asiwaju Bola Tinubu is right to suggest the removal of Governor Obaseki and come 19 Sepywmber 2020, he will prove it indeed that, politically, "Edo is Lagos".


Ini Akpan Morgan writes from Uyo, Nigeria via "time.subsidaries@gmail.com"

The 2 major candidates, representing the 2 major contending political parties for the victory to rule the Edo State Government, in and after the 19 September 2020 Governorship Election, are members of "the same party", with one flying a strange flag.

The seeable difference between them is, seemingly, in the "principal interest" of one man who brought them together at different times. Herein is the logic behind the present vicious and wastefilled politics in Edo State.

The flag borrowed from the Peoples Democratic Party is to assist the incumbent governor to attempt to actualize what his true political party members failed to believe that he could accomplish. As a literary mind, it is important to review this present era against the past, in order to reach an optimum opinion. It is what this effort is about.

Apart from the party congress at which a candidate emerged to fly the flag for the ruling All progressive Congress, APC, we would recall that the leadership of party, at that time was under a self burden of misjudging the personal political interest that so much tasked the responsibility of governance in the party, and in the wisdom of Mr President, an excellent decisionline was drawn. It was "no victor, no vanquished."

Those in the party, like me, had their way, and the erstwhile national chairman was removed from office, and his cabinet sacked, unfortunately.

It was not a pleasant victory because, for me, I thought Godwin Obaseki should have been given his fair chances by the party: 4 years is not eternity, amd we are, now, also, by the decision of Mr President, forced to fly with Osaigie Ize-Iyamu as our candidate. Imagine John Oyegun working with Adams Oshiomhole for Osagie Ize-Iyamu!

At this point, let me "sip from a glass of water" and appreciate the Governor Mai Mala Buni's National Caretaker/Ex'Or National Convention Planning Committee, and the Head of the Secretariat, Senator (Pastor) John James Akpanudoedehe, Ph.D, for the onerous task of achieving several peculiar reconciliations within the party. President Muhammadu Buhari's commendation of the committee was timely, and it is the general feelings of all members of the party.

We would also recall that the incumbent governor, who until his disqualification from participating in that APC nomination exercise, was believed to have been hindered by the party leadership from participating in the nomination exercise, though he was the only flagbearing member of the All Progressive Congress in his State, who, in all, enjoyed the sympathies of his brother-governors and party leaders, in his bid to return to the Government House, Benin City.

At the point when Godwin Obaseki finally decided to join the Peoples Democratic Party to actualise his second term aspiration to govern Edo State, it was certain that his decision to do so was a collective one - sort of a last resort, which, in my own opinion, will end with a bad result. Because certainly, those who sympathised with Governor Godwin Obaseki in the APC have no choice now than to support his opponent.

Unfortunately for Governor Obaseki, the party to which he sought refuge has not repose any trust in him because they still smell the fragrance of the APC and the breath of revenge all over him. The "defected" high prize of the now "ruling party" in Edo State was not enough for the PDP leadership to embrace.

Every member of the PDP knows that should Governor Obaseki win the Edo State governorship election, they would not be able to keep him in the PDP. Obaseki knows Wike, and he knows that while Oshiomhole may be depicted as "a learner" of political wars, Wike is "a veteran" of such wars. He knows he must avoid the PDP.

So, for Governor Obaseki, his high prize of victory would be to return to the APC to prove the party wrong, and to share pumped handshakes with his brother-governors, in an all "welcome back home" back slapping embraces.

This is why Governor Obaseki is "paying" for every step he takes in the PDP. It was recently published that his ward Chairmen are demanding for N10m each to support the governor. And to retain his deputy, Shuaibu, he has to cough out N2bn. So much economic fiscalism replacing political ideologies.

This treatment meted on Governor Godwin Obaseki by the PDP, through which a new PDP trend of political support of "pay-as-you-lobby" been adopted for big time defectors, indicates clearly that the PDP is not interested in the governoship ambition of Governor Obaseki, nor in the September 19 2020 governorship election oncoming to take place in Edo State.

Logically therefore, and in the manner of who Godwin Obaseki is, it is clear how he is already very tired of his new political party. A party which thinks that "head or tail", any victory at the Edo State poll, is a victory for the APC. Along this line, I think Governor Godwin Obaseki needs to redress himself, retract his steps and return home to the APC.

It is better for him lose within than to lose without! He must not fight against the house he hopes to return to, when it is very clear that the one he has ran into is filled with "dead men's bones".



Ini Akpan Morgan writes from Uyo, Nigeria via "time.subsidaries@gmail.com".

In a heartfelt condolence message, Senator (Dr) John James Akpanudoedehe, the incumbent National Secretary of the All Progressive Congress (APC) has expressed how he received the news of the death of Hon. Ini Okopido at about noon yesterday; and how it "took a painfully-long time" for the news "to sink in".

He expressed how, for a while, he "could not come to terms with the fact that he had just lost a brother; a friend; and the Akwa Ibom State Chairman of his great Party, the All Progressives Congress (APC)."

Going further, he expressed how he "knew Ini had a minor health challenge, but then he was so full of life and zest; and so, he never knew or even dreamt that he would succumb to it!"

Hon. Ini Titus Okopido, according to Dr Akpanudoedehe, "was a good man; and a keen politician, who did his best for our Party, at least within his two years of stewardship as Chairman".

He reiterated on how the late Chairman "worked hard for the Party, and had great hopes for its success and repositioning within the shortest possible time."

Dr Akpanudoedehe thereafter prayed that "the dear wife and children of the late party chairman; as well as his aged mother and extended family, would find solace in the fact that late Ini was a good man."

In that context, Dr Akpanudoedehe believes that "the good Lord will receive the soul of the departed party chairman".

He, however, urged the APC family across the State, "to commit our dear late Chairman's family to the Lord in prayers, during this moment of grief".

As Christians, he also admonished that we should "rest our hope in God's Word that assures us of resurrection into a blissful eternity."

Concluding, he posited that "we may have lost our Chairman (Hon. Ini Titus Okopido); but Heaven just gained an angel ... and someday, we shall meet him in a better place."

And prayed that the "late Ini's dear soul rest in perfect peace in our Lord's bosom."

Ini Akpan Morgan writes from Uyo, Nigeria via "time.subsidaries@gmail.com"

On national security, President Muhammadu Buhari, recently, said he has done everything that he can do to ensure the best national security for Nigeria. Some critics have come out to say Mr President's best is not good enough.



This position is contestable: we must not limit our vision to seeing what can only be seen, no matter the distance between, but we must also learn or improvise on how to see the "unseen".



If work is easily done in the day because daylight makes it easy for us to see everything we do clearly, and from appreciable distances, we do not usually have the same convenience if work must be done at night - we make other provisions to help us see in darkness (the unseen).



It is a very unfair assessment of Mr President to list that he moved our foreign exchange from N189/Dollar to N472/Dollar. The figures are facts, but the assessment of Mr President on the matter is not true. Others also listed are: inflation - from 8% to 16%, unemployment - from 11% to 38%, and on national security - he has added killer herdsmen and bandits to Boko Haram.



Have we asked what our contributions to the problem are? What are the contents of our thoughts on our common humanity?



It is very easy to assess what is seen than what is unseen. My Holy Book tells me that "the LOVE of money is the ROOT of all evil. This is the conclusion of the whole matter, as to why Nigeria cannot move forward: imagine what the root is to a tree: it avails the tree its sustenance and balance.



The root is the strongest, but hidden aspect of what defines a tree. Everything about a tree takes to itself from the root. The root is the unseen powerhouse of a tree. In the case of EVIL: what sustains evil in a nation therefore, and gives it a balance in that society, is the LOVE the people have for MONEY.



Let us all take personal looks at ourselves - we all are the problem Nigeria has with our dwindling economy! 98% of Nigerians are buried daily in pursuing money, and sometimes doing this against humanity: the public servants who are employed and paid to serve, we find extorting money from us using thier paid service as tools of violence.



It is a spiritual warfare, not a physical one. We are dealing with A ROOT, and when anything is unseen, then dealing with it must also be by unseen means: Nigeria's problem is a national affliction by her people on her people.



At elections, people sell off their mandates. Every crisis the citizens face, a Nigerian service provider maximises his opportunity and multiplies his gains through the helplessness of his fellow man. A man who comes as a helper, can be your killer. Today, crime has created well paying jobs that our government has not been able to create.



Are we then to legalise crime because it gives cheap but huge benefits? Nooo! An economy is not built by the amount of money in circulation, and satisfaction is not in affordability but in contentment. An economy is built by the "factors of production" amd the "balance of trade". Investigate our rich men, few have atrained their wealth appropriately.



We need just laws to rule!



Do we know what man's inhumanity to man does to our economy? If you say Buhari met the Dollar at N189 and now it is N472/$, how was the rate of kidnappings when it was N189/$, banditary nko? Cybercrimes nko? Do we know how much damage the unprocessed monies raised and filtered into our economy does to it, without the necesssry "production" that should throw the monies up?



Today, no one knows why our entertainment industry is the biggest non-governmental industry in Nigeria, engaging our youths and making them obscenely rich. What do we see of, and about these youths making these monies in entertainment. Can we honestly leave Nigeria in their hands?



I see so many Nigerians who have taken the Almighty God for granted. This is what our entertainment industry has left us with - people like Bobrisky with about 2.5m followers on instagram - what does he teach? What do our music icons teach when the prominent of them are cult-like appearings?



What can President Buhari do?



This is a spiritual war. Looking at President Buhari in this matter is like looking at someone because you can easily see him. It is like seeing the leaves of a tree, which is possible from any distance, but try finding the root from the same distance and you would see the difference.



If the root of the tree is a problem, even if you stand under the tree, you cannot see it, to solve it; until you "dig it" up! This is why facts may not show a true position. Facts cannot support the truth: you cannot use broomsticks for a tripod. Only truth can support a fact.



So lets start, as a people, to dig out the root of our national problems - the love of money.



Look at yourself, measure your own degree of your love for money, and begin to dig it up. It will help us to see more of humanity and the cohesion needed to move our country from an impending disaster.



Ini Akpan Morgan writes from Uyo, Nigeria via "time.subsidaries@gmail.com"

A history-based opinion:

I am still sad at the protracting nature of "NDDCgate". That our lawmakers have again shown cause to invite the Acting MD of the commission is a merry-go-round to me. The public hearing of the NDDC is a waste of sweets, bottle water, kolanuts, and chewing gums.

Let the office of the Auditor General concerntrate on who approved the spendings of the commission when Barrister Joi Nunieh was in office, especially as she has, herself, acccepted that she was insubordinate to her superiors, and refused to carry out what she believed were unlawful for her.

The "arrowhead" question is: was it Joi Nunieh who approved the commission's spending associated with the N80bn expenditure between October 2019 and February 2020? If it was not her, as she has confessed that she was insubordinate, who, then, approved the spendings in the NDDC during this period?

The National Assembly is clearly over-reaching Professor Daniel Pondei. Let Professor Pondei answer for his term and Joi Nunieh for her term. Results will be achieved quickly. Nigerians are not fools joo!

We, Nigerians, may have attained a period of national prosperity and international decorum in the years just after the British rule. There was a reason why things worked well for us as a nation at that time until we accepted to embrace democratic rule in 1979, after all.

Casting our hearts to history, we would see how the First Republic administrators, though some were carried away, to some extent, by political power and free access to our national treasury, they were responsible for repositioning Nigeria for self rule. They expanded the infrasture and maintained an excellent economy.

They did much to replicate the British in giving back to the people. Government institutions were strong enough to command obedience from the operators. Unfortunately, the military came, manipulated political power, regimented our social and economic institutions, and muzzled our constitution.

The period between 1966 and 1999 were our departure points from good governance, and its traditions. Since then, Nigeria suffered institutional collapse. And i think if our lawmakers love this country enough to volunteer to serve, they should concentrate on jigging our laws to throw up very strong institutions.

This is why I have chosen to dedicate this literary piece to "the tears I shed for my country, Nigeria." An upcoming book.

I see all the infrastructural provisions: transportation, telecommunication, power, health, education, religion; and to all extent, the stable running of our economic balance sheets and a good foreign exchange regime, during the time between 1960 and 1992, was clearly achieved from the long-term projection, planning and the provisions from our colonial rule.

As at 1990, "the meal ticket system" was still operative in our universities. Car loans were still given to lower cadre senior civil servants. We still had a middle class economy. This was only 30 years ago, concerning provisions availed by our colonial masters from between 1914 and 1960.

If we look at it closely, things started falling apart for us, as a country, when these colonial provisions needed to undergo necessary periodic maintenance, and no leader was looking in that direction, even when our revenue earnings were sumptuous and delicious. Our leaders mistook our national prosperity for "meal tickets" instead of seeing it as "means" for investment.

We are borrowing today to do what should have been done more than 30 years ago, when we started having our deficiency in the culture for maintenance and infrastructural upgrading. I am talking about the period from 1985 until now. It was then we heard some Nigerians complaining that "we do not have the 'maintenance culture'".

What truly happened, looking at the characterization of our leaders then, especially from how they fell upon the provisions of the British, and loved the attraction and corruption of power, the open access to the national treasury and the control of the military, as the British enjoyed, they were blinded to the social, administrative, educational, developmental, and the religious responsibilities and discipline of the British.

Rather than loving all aspects of the British administrative style, which, though, in their pursuit of controlling power, and the exploitation of our human and natural resources, the British authorities gave back beautifully to Nigeria and to Nigerians, by the legacies they left behind for us, including a virile civil and public service.

Everything crumbled from 1992, and the very rich economy we enjoyed, now, usually, falls into economy recession, because operators of government keep exploiting the weak laws of our constitution, which has proven to be incapable of sustaining the powers needed to strengthen, and tighten the screws around our government institutions, in order to promote transparency in government operations, like the Treasury Single Account.

In the face of all these intensive national needs, and the need to quickly identify "official thieves", needs required to guide us away from national collapse and shame, I see Nigerians being burdened by legislative bodies that have fallen into the trap every blind politician we have endured as a people has fallen into: enjoying the reaps of office and being blind to their fundamental responsibilities towards us.

Our lawmakers must wake up from their blind slumber, and treat their blind eyesights. Until our institutions can overtake any operator of government, however powerful he is, our bodies of legislature will continue to be enmembered by the same leadership problems we have been enduring - blind-slumbering leadership.

Ini Akpan Morgan writes from Uyo, Nigeria via "time.subsidaries@gmail.com"

Opinion:



It is perplexing how everyone wish that a new month could spin out wealth, fortunes and money for them. A New Month cannot dish wealth, fortunes and money, only an investment can dish them. Investment in time, investment in intellect, investment in social participation, investment in opportunities...and so forth.



A new month provides us with more "time", more "opportunities" and more everything the new month brings with it, but it requires that we "invest" ourselves in what the month brings with it and what it concretely offers us. "Seek and you shall find...knock it shall be opened unto you."



More importantly, have we, Nigerians, seen how destructive our"money" mentality" as influenced the aspirations of the generation of the youths coming after those who are now in their 50s in this country? A very high percent of Nigerians have lost their sense of morality, service and humanity to the "love" they have for "money". The Holy Book says "the love of money is the root if all evil".



Do we wonder what the problems are in Nigeria that make us appear to the whole world as "a sleeping giant"? It is a better picture to depict Nigeria as "a sleeping giant", at least we are shown to be at rest. But no Nigerian is seemingly at rest, because even the troubles of the Boko Haram insurgency is more of money making than for the Islamic purity they propagate as being the means of their agitation.



So we find idle Nigerians - who have no means of survival, and needing to survive - go beyond acceptable norms to raise money to survive. In my opinion, apart from Boko Haram being a creation of selfish, unpopular "leaders who force themselves to lead" the people, it is an avenue of earning a living by members of operating the insurgency



In "the BBNaija house", a housemate, "Dorothy", is said to have revealed how, as she aspired to be a part of the reality show, had her parents warned her "not to return home" after her participation in the show. She, however, submitted finally to her passion, hoping she would put in her best to win the price, in order to force the parents to accept her back - is it all about parental poverty and shame of lack? It is all about "money", and we can see the "love" of it in every sector of our national life and public considerations.



The "Dorothy story" is just one way to indicate how the reality show is causing serious challenges in our families. The purpose of the reality show itself is to raise an obscene amount of money for the sponsors. What does Nigeria get? A paltry tax! What is injected into the economy? Nothing but greed and the chase vanity. Paying for what you watch should be substantially beneficial to you and your country.



It is very clear that when making money is the focus of an endeavour, and not any "production index", which should show that an "output" of money, is from an "input" of work, the purpose of such endeavour is narrow minded and critical. A productive output from input is how an excellent and virile economy is grown. An economy is not grown by the amount of money in it, but on the balance of "the factors of production". The money the economy throws out should be from products thrown out from work inputs.



Now, with the kind of huge monetary transfer involved in unproductive wealth, locked down by televising the immoral assemblage of young men and women, who preach "earning well through laziness" - the lack of viable and feasible input to our economy in terms of manpower and human resources development - is clearly how it is not enough to grow an economy by just earning money out of it without the complementary benefits to the economy.



The government permitting this to happen leaks the opportunity for those "brained washed" into seeking such unworked for earnings, and leads them into their own works - insurgency, kidnapping, arm robbery, cultism, cyber crines, currency round tripping, elitist stealing, proliferation of tithes and offerings, prostitution, political thuggery and "all (the) evil" spun out by its "root" - "the love of money".



This is why I do not respect Nigerian deep pockets because majority of them cannot let out how they arrived at their wealth. Many billionaires today made their wealth from our economic crisis as a people - from black market foreign exchange racketeering to black market petroleum products dispensations. From official inflation of contract figures to the outnumbering of actual staff by "ghost workers".



How can Nigeria survive all these and raise it heads from our focus on a single point corruption watch - watching office holders only. There are so many other angles and dimensions of corruption that our government is ignorant about.



The BBNaija House is one example of official permitted evil, Boko Haram is an unofficially permitted one, Banditary is another unofficial one, killer herding is another, elitist stealing and black market operations are some of the officially permitted evil - all these methods of earning money because government cannot provide jobs is helping to promotes the mental poverty, spiritual insanity and social unbalance we suffer as a country.



We must change the "brooding angel" over Nigeria - it is an evil angel, it is clearly an evil angel. Otherwise, we will never rise from the present witchcraft holding us down as a nation. As we enter into the 8th month of this year, let us strive to contribute positively to the building of a strong, independent and a virile society.



Welcome to August 2020 Nigeria! Happy New Month.



Ini Akpan Morgan writes from Uyo, Nigeria via "time.subsidaries@gmail.com

I am very disappointed with the justification given by the Chairman of the Akwa Ibom State Electoral Commission, Elder Aniedi Ikoiwak, for the creation of new wards in the State: he may be seeking more "convenience" for doing his job but coming on the matter of the legality, Elder Ikoiwak is in error to submit that INEC has powers to create "polling units", while States create "wards". This claim is, unfortunately, unconstitutional.

I am taken aback by that submission which shows absolute leadership incompetence in discharging the office Elder Ikoiwak was appointed to assume.

Assuming Elder Ikoiwak is right about States having the powers to create wards, how sure is he that all the States in the federation would have this law in their State laws? And should they have, what is the extent of their uniformity and consistency with the laws of Akwa Ibom State? Elder Ikoiwak should be asking for the repealing of such laws that runs contradictory to, and against the constitution of the federal republic.

In the electoral mapping of Nigeria, called "delineation of wards and units", it is the number of polling units within a locality that makes up a ward, a number of wards make up the local government areas, a number of local government areas make up a State and a number of States make up the federation.

The powers to devolve electoral delimitation resides in the Electoral Act and INEC, and this is the Electoral Law is the "national constitution" for our elections, anywhere in this country.

The powers resident in the States Electoral Commissions empowers them, only, to conduct local government elections in their various States using the electoral tools provided by the electoral law. If AKSIEC does not have the powers to produce common "voters' register", is it the powers to delineate wards that they would claim to have?

All polling units, wards, local government areas and states are captured, named and labelled by our national laws. What should form Elder Ikoiwak's judgment on this matter should be: if this law is laid side by side with the constitution of Nigeria, would it stand? If wards are thrown up by the number polling units, and Elder Ikoiwak agrees that he has no powers to delineate polling units, and if he does not, how dis he derive his powers to create wards, except from an erroneous State laws he succumbed to?

If he had considered asking himself these questions, I am sure he would have been ashamed to exploit it by being led by it into an appalling error, he would rather be asking for the repeal of the law.

And the final irresponsibility of the Akwa Ibom State Electoral Commission is exposed by ONNA LGA having 15 (electoral?) wards. How did Elder Ikoiwak arrive at this delineation, if wards and units are delineated?

Ini Akpan Morgan writes from Uyo, Nigeria via "time.subsidaries@gmail.com"

I am very disappointed with the justification given by the Chairman of the Akwa Ibom State Electoral Commission, Elder Aniedi Ikoiwak, for the creation of new wards in the State: he may be seeking more "convenience" for doing his job but coming on the matter of the legality, Elder Ikoiwak is in error to submit that INEC has powers to create "polling units", while States create "wards". This claim is, unfortunately, unconstitutional.

I am taken aback by that submission which shows absolute leadership incompetence in discharging the office Elder Ikoiwak was appointed to assume.

Assuming Elder Ikoiwak is right about States having the powers to create wards, how sure is he that all the States in the federation would have this law in their State laws? And should they have, what is the extent of their uniformity and consistency with the laws of Akwa Ibom State? Elder Ikoiwak should be asking for the repealing of such laws that runs contradictory to, and against the constitution of the federal republic.

In the electoral mapping of Nigeria, called "delineation of wards and units", it is the number of polling units within a locality that makes up a ward, a number of wards make up the local government areas, a number of local government areas make up a State and a number of States make up the federation.

The powers to devolve electoral delimitation resides in the Electoral Act and INEC, and this is the Electoral Law is the "national constitution" for our elections, anywhere in this country.

The powers resident in the States Electoral Commissions empowers them, only, to conduct local government elections in their various States using the electoral tools provided by the electoral law. If AKSIEC does not have the powers to produce common "voters' register", is it the powers to delineate wards that they would claim to have?

All polling units, wards, local government areas and states are captured, named and labelled by our national laws. What should form Elder Ikoiwak's judgment on this matter should be: if this law is laid side by side with the constitution of Nigeria, would it stand? If wards are thrown up by the number polling units, and Elder Ikoiwak agrees that he has no powers to delineate polling units, and if he does not, how dis he derive his powers to create wards, except from an erroneous State laws he succumbed to?

If he had considered asking himself these questions, I am sure he would have been ashamed to exploit it by being led by it into an appalling error, he would rather be asking for the repeal of the law.

And the final irresponsibility of the Akwa Ibom State Electoral Commission is exposed by ONNA LGA having 15 (electoral?) wards. How did Elder Ikoiwak arrive at this delineation, if wards and units are delineated?

Ini Akpan Morgan writes from Uyo, Nigeria via "time.subsidaries@gmail.com"

This opinion article tackles two schools of thoughts negatively invested in supporting the NDDC IMC: those who think that the national assembly probe on the alleged incumbent N81m scam in the NDDC is a distraction from the forensic audit the IMC was assigned to supervise, and those who judge, and vilify the Buhari administration because of the corruption charges against his appointees.



1. Asking those who question the unlawful spending of N81m in 8 months and asking them to rather question the 17trn spent in 19 years and for which the NDDC IMC was appointed to supervised the "forensic audit", is a demand from less than honourable men.



The Minister of Niger Delta Affairs was granted leave to appoint the men and women who should be asking the questions around the N17trn expenditure. The IMC is paid well to do so, and we can only await the outcome of their "forensic audit". We did not expect to further question them on what they should be questioning.



Those who ask why another question should arise about another scam summing up to N81m see nothing wrong in such unlawful spending, but they are likely those who, if not personally involved, would abate the hanging of tyres and fueling it up to burn up a common thief who steals because he is hungry?



Now lets ask the big question: how far have those who we pay well to question the N17trn gone with their work? Why are they being asked about another N81m, which indicates to us that they have also towed the same path towed by those they were appointed to "audit".



Is the N17trn "audit" not covering a period of 19 years, from when the commission was established and instituted up till now? Now, for how many "years" are we questioning this unlawful spending of N81m? Just 8 months! How many 8 months do we have in 19 years? That is...(19x12)÷8. N81m in 8 months for 19 years comes to - {(19x12)÷8}xN81m - so much money!



I am not a student of mathematics, but I can imagine how N81m in 8 months would, if it does not dust and defeat N17trn in 19 years, be as much alarming to us. If the IMC is left in place for 19years, I am very sure that we would need another "forensic audit for them. This is the reason why an emergency regime is needed, and this is in the dissolution of the IMC.



The continuation of the "forensic audit" and approving its supervision by the Office of the Auditor General of the Federation is also supported.



Only like birds flock together. The man who hates the common thief to the extent of burning him down, but supports an elitist thief, is himself worthy of being burned to death. So I am wondering whether those insinuating that the N81m scam should not be questioned and yet, are passionate about questioning the N17trn, support our forgetting of the N81m probe because we are questioning the N17trn unlawful spendings? Good governance is not achieved that way.



It is wrong to hate any man for whatever reason, because no man is perfect. Never be a party to burning down a thief, and if you see it about to happen anywhere, do your best to call the attention of the authorities to save him. Let us have sympathy in my heart for a common thief, and pray that he would stop stealing.



So also should we not spare a relative of ours who is an elite, who is beyond public apprehension and yet is a thief. Rebuke him in every manner that you can afford. The objective and end-intention should be to cause his repentance from stealing, and not to encourage him in it.



This was why I stopped going to Christian denominations called "Churches". I stopped because I realized that they learn nothing in there about God and his presence with us - they are all supplicants to the "traditions of men" and they think they are doing well, but our God is a faithful, who is able and abundantly able...



It should be noted from this that all the men involved in the NDDC scam are faithful communicants in our Christian denominations, some are Elders, and some are Pastors. Funny and interesting enough is that they also take the Holy Communion, and yet they are elitist thieves.



None of our "Church-goers" realise "God is with..." them. I am sure that they are not even conscious of the fact that they are breathing because they take that also for granted. Fear God and keep his commands because that is "the whole duty of man."



There is no small sin, neither is there a big sin. Sin is sin, just like a small thief is the same as the big thief.



A thief is a thief.



2. On judging and vilifying the Buhari administration, and mocking his supporters who sold him off as Mr Integrity, it would be appreciable to understand how something went wrong in the manner Mr President appointed some of those working with him.



Looking very well at them, knowing their history, and their roles in this our "best government", you would understand that the major regrets we have, as supporters of this government is with how "the head of government" recruited those he appointed to work with him, and who are responsible for the painting of his administration in the way and manner it is seen.



We are worried about why he left faithful and dedicated party men who have laid down their lives for the opposition struggle to choose those he hardly knew before now. That is strange to us. That our leader loves those who escaped from the PDP is a matter of great concern to us. Neither is it his fault anyway, because some of them played "roles" in his election.



That has been the major regrets we, as supporters of this administration have about our "government". And they, the administration's goons, especially those from the South South, are all made up of politicians who headed the PDP bandwagon on corruption. Don't ask me for a list, "I did not say 60%..." "Its okay...off the mic!".



The PDP is made up by "the trinity of corruption": political corruption, economic corruption and electoral corruption. And we know this, that hardly would leopards change their spots.



This is the problem of the APC.



Ini Akpan Morgan writes from Uyo, Nigeria via "time.subsidaries@gmail.com"

THE IGNORANCE OF LAWMAKING: THE ACTS OF THE NIGERIAN CONSTITUTION AND THE LAWS OF AKWA IBOM STATE


An issue I met in the news almost wildly running its "trending" - and this issue is a severe contradition to our laws, happening unfortunately in my State, Akwa Ibom, has caused me to reflect on whether our political leaders - under the responsibility vested in their Oaths of "Office" and of "Allegiance": the link that pulls and pools their ordinariness into "the power of execution" they exercise - understand how they, themselves, are the products of the laws they always work to desecrate in the name of "showmanship".



The highest authority in Nigeria is "the Nigerian Constitution", the only instrument that empowers the working of Government. And so political office holders must give themselves up to knowing, and understanding how they are the products of the law, and as products of the law, each of their acts against the law makes them, who themselves are of the law, "the bad apples" of our laws: the ones who "spoil the bunch". This is why human beings have replaced our institutions.



Hon Imo Ben, my friend and brother, in one of his recent, very solemn revelations, showed how a "political thug" would likely emerge as the Councillor-elect of a certain electoral ward he reviewed.



What would qualify this political thug for this political elevation can be deduced. However, his emergence is against that of a more qualified, a more prepared, and a more community driven local philanthropist, who may not be able to afford the "nomination forms", neither would he find a sponsor, yet he remains the best who will remain out of office for not affording the processes.



This is the example of our leadership recruitment strategy and why we have oppressive leaderships over us.



How can an unlearned political leader understand that he needs to be the law by understanding the law? How can he use the law to drive democratic dividends?



Even among the educated, many got their certifications through other means than "in character and in learning". It takes both to graduate unto academic and professional excellence.



Going to about a week now, the news of the "creation of wards" by the Akwa Ibom State Independent Electoral Commission (AKISIEC) was made public by the Chairman of the Commission, Elder Aniedi Ikoiwak, a near two-term Resident Electoral Commissioner of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), who was disengaged from INEC a fews years back, to assume the Chairmanship of our State's Commission on elections.



I greeted the news of the wards creation with wondering why a man who has spent not less than 5 years as a Resident Electoral Commissioner, and served in a no mean State like Rivers, would not be guided by what he knows but allowed himself to be guided by an error of legislation.



I expected Elder Ikoiwak, in the period of the break between the last elections in December 2017 and now, to have searched out the contradictions in our State laws against the Nigerian Constitution and the Electoral Act, and to nominate such laws for recommendation to the State House of Assembly for repealing, instead of allowing himself to be errorneously led by them.



I am not too sure if Elder Ikoiwak familiarised himself with our electoral act when he decided to create more wards, at all, though not for electoral polls, but like he said, for "the convenience of collation". I am, therefore, not competent to indict Elder Ikoiwak on the matter if his submission is for the convenience of collation, and not for polling, was why he sealed the creation of extra wards in the State.



I would rather that he had sent that law for repealing than to allow himself be led by it: AKSIEC in my opinion, should be guide by the tools of our electoral except for all local contents. In this case, the delineation of wards is exclusively responsibility of our electoral law.

In our national constitution we have items of governance listed under what are lawfully provided as "the exclusive" and "the concurrent" lists of laws, and they stipulate what federating States cannot deliberated on, without the necessary amendments to the mother constitution.



Ini Akpan Morgan writes from Uyo, Nigeria via "time.subsidaries@gmail.com"



https://allafrica.com/stories/200904130262.html

Sometimes it is the wordings of human intentions that pushes me very strongly to say “No, I will not fail to make a difference”.

This article is not about an argument or what anybody feels has been put to rest by the revered Head of the Redeemed Christin Church of God Worldwide. No man is an authority of scriptures, that delegation is for, and the authority handed down to the Holy Spirit of God, who is given to identify and gather together the members of the Church of God.

With all due respect to Pastor Enoch Adejare Adeboye, only “profits and losses”, in business and investments, are expressed in percentages: as shown in the “simple and compound interests” studies in mathrmatics, but the blessings of God, which is appreciated in the body of tithes given, is in response to the increase God himself gives – it is not a payment, but a giving back willingly. With the blessings of God, there are no profits, and there are no losses. In fact, the power of faith sees “losses” as blessings.

We are asked to “count all things loss” so that we can attain a more excellent knowledge: when we sing “count your blessings name them one by one”, does that mean “counting your profits”? I do not think so. You work for profits, you do not work for blessings.

It is this kind of God-knowledge that hinders me from observing the “approval” of men in the “compulsory payment” of tithes, taking a “fake liberty” in the Book of Malachi, which Pastor Enoch Adeboye is, here, said to have submitted in his Sunday sermon today, unfortunately.

It is also an act of dodging the truth about our world being “the community of humans” when he claimed his wish of the possibility of talking to his “children” alone. Rather than seeing them as his “children”, I see them, actually, as his “mental captives”.

What happens to “one” person in humanity, happens to “all” – for by one man, sin came into the world, and by this one man, all men sinned: so was salvation by one, and all men are saved. I therefore refuse to accept his segmentation and separation of our humanity into personal children. I understand how taking prisoners is a part of human social endeavour. I have never hidden what I am called by God to do – to call leaders to responsibility and accountability.

More than anything anyone would use the Book of Malachi to teach, Prophet Malachi was sent to tell “the children of Abraham” that they have failed at being who they were called to be. Malachi clearly told the children of Israel that they were not getting all that the Lord had commanded them right – they were in error of who they were to be and in what they were to do. Go back and read the Book of Malachi – it is a book of reproach of Israel’s various failings.

Malachi was not telling Israel what to do, the Jews knew what they were required to do: like sacrificing impaired animals to God,and you say they do not know? To, therefore take the Book of Malachi as an advice indicating a lesson note for “paying tithe” subsumes that until Malachi, Israel never knew how to “give” their tithe. Tithes have never been “paid”, they are “given”. It is robbery when you are given to give, and you keep what you should have given

God forbid that I should relinquish the opportunity offered me by this news item to teach truth because people will attack me – come, and hit me very hard? I do not respect men before God, yet I still respect the opinion of those who respect men before God because they are entitled to their error. No one should think I should be who he expects me to be. A man is nothing if God does not make him something. And where can we find the terminus for a fearful life?

And to prove my point, no Minister, including Pastor Adeboye, would dare argue that after Malachi, God remained silent for about or, over 400 years before he sent John the Baptist to “prepare the way of the lord” – clearly rejecting “the children of Abraham” and sought newness for a dying world – God, who at sundry times spokes to us by his prophets has now spoken to us by his son. The channel of messaging changed, against Pastor Adeboye’s hypothetical postulations.

Let them come out and deny this. Let them deny the partition, in dispensation, between the old and the new law. To understand our position as the children of Abraham, we must understand that we are engrafted by the Holy Spirit into the Jewish heritage, and that we are never qualified for it by our relativity by human blood.

We are like Abraham, who was never a Jew until he was circumcised to begin the Jewish race with his household. Like Abraham, we are Gentiles called out to be Jews by the circumcision of our hearts, according to the example of Jesus. And this upgrading in dispensation must be distinguished also in the order of tithes:

We must understand that Abraham had his increase before he “gave the tithe of all”. But Jacob “gave up” his wages 10 times (the tithe is “the tenth”, not “10%”, even if it amounts to 10%). Until Jacob was cheated out of his wages 10 times, God forced him to remain under Laban. Jacob “gave up” his tithe (being cheated 10 times) before receiving his increase. And both men did this just once in their life time, not as Pastor Adeboye assumed in his Sunday message.

Abraham lived without the law, and because the law came after Abrahham, Jesus needed to fulfilled the law of the Jews, by which Jesus was put to death to expose the injustice of that law, and that was to bring us into the divine liberties of the Jews, which makes us kinsmen and women of Jesus Christ, the Jew.

The law that produced sin and dead was confronted by Jesus so that we can live above sin and death. Which law again is Pastor Enoch Adeboye trying to justify and promote here, mbok?

There was the era before the law, there was the era of the law and we are now in an era after the law.

Matthew 1:1 tells of these dispensational borders when he referried to Abraham, David and Jesus, who were the forerunners of these dispensations, and in Romans 4, it is demonstrated how even David, who lived in the era of the law enjoyed God’s imputation of grace, and his sins were not counted against him.

David came out of the era of the law unscathed, not because he was holy and sinless, but because he understood the heart of God, and how it is safer to stay with God however he thinks he is! It is therefore an error if a minister cannot distinguish between the similitude of the era before and after the law and their difference with the eea of the law.

We are in our dispensation, after the law, expected to live like those who lived before the law: Abraham was chosen unworthily, a Gentile and was blessed like we, his children according to the faith of God, are. The sons of Abraham genetically were made worthy by blood. This is the major distinction.

I therefore and hereby advice members of the Redeem Christian Church of God Worldwise to refuse to be Pastor Adeboye’s “children” ooo, and rather choose to be “the children of God” by learning of him and his Christ, and stoop down to know him as much as Pastor Adeboye does.

Call no man on earth your father after you have believed, God is your father. Find this instruction in the Book of Matthew.

It is therefore false when Pastor Adeboye’s position is seen as laying to rest on what he, himself, has shown limited knowledge and grasp of its eternal truth.

God bless you all, Amen!

Ini Akpan Morgan is called an Apostle to Teach truth with the vigour of a Prophet.

AN OPEN LETTER TO HIS EXCELLENCY, PRESIDENT MUHAMMADU BUHARI, GCFR


28 July 2020


His Excellency,
Muhammadu Buhari, GCFR
The President
Federal Republic of Nigeria
Aso Rock (Presidential) Villa
3 Arms Zone
Abuja, Federal Capital Territory


Your Excellency Mr President,


REFUSE TO RENEW THE 6 MONTHS MANDATE OF THE INTERIM MANAGEMENT COMMITTEE OF THE NIGER DELTA DEVELOPMENT COMMISSION WHEN THE SECOND RENEWAL ELAPSES


Ranka ya dade, the Interim Management Committee must be disbanded immediately the committee exhausts its second 6 months renewal of mandate. Their mission of "supervising" the "forensic audit" of the commission and what they have achieved so far, if not accomplished in 12 calendar months, shows they have never been there for the very purpose for which they were appointed to accomplish.


Your Excellency, permit me to remind you that you arrived at your act, leading to your decision, to appoint an Interim Management Committee for the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), after you had nominated members of the Governing Board of the Commission, and had sent your nominees to the Nigerian Senate for their "approval". Inhereby remind you of that your act, Your Excellency.


Your Excellency, let me recall the surprise you caused Nigerians when, at the treshhold of the Senate clearance of your nominees, for the Board of the NDDC to be constituted by you, you rather chose to turn your back on them, preferring the "panel" of 3 "wise men" you appointed to "supervise" the "forensic audit" you found was very necessary to set the interventionist agency, the NDDC, on an alternative course than it was from inception.


Your Excellency, we believed you at that time, when "in your judgment you saw" that the job of the "forensic audit" could be accomplished in 6 months - meaning the IMC NDDC were expected, particularly, to be guided by "this good sight of yours", and "to use your sight" to guide forensic auditors "to look into the books of the NDDC" and "submit their findings in 6 months".


Your Excellency, any student, who knows his onions, would deliver very excellently on such opportunity to read for an (one) examination, which will hold in a term of 6 months. The maximum the students in Nigeria have in studying for their examinations is 3 months, and good students do very well in their examinations, which covers not less than 6 subjects. So, what is in auditing NDDC financial outcomes that is taking your panel almost 1 year without anything serious to show?


Your Excellency, I cannot tell what yardstick you used in measuring the progress the IMC NDDC made when the demand for an extension of tenure, and a second 6 months term was again renewed for them by you. Ranka ya dade, did you care to check, as at that time, how far they, the panel, had achieved with their primary assignment - that of "supervising the forensic audit of the commission"?


Your Excellency, what is this noise that is coming to us almost at the tail end of a 12 months expiration period given to the IMC NDDC to conclude the "book reading" of all the books in the NDDC, with the powers you gave them to employ auditors: I hear the bleating of sheep trying to explain why the IMC NDDC needed to carry out your assignment in a new headquarters building becuse they could not dare finish their 6 months assignment in a rented building. Commendable!

Were they aware of the condition of the Calabar to Ikot Ekpene to Aba road? 3 active revenue producing States of the Niger Delta region? I will come to that, Your Excellency and why you must excuse them to leave our regional space.


Your Excellency, the IMC NDDC you asked to put in 6 months to deliver an audit, decided that 6 months was too long a period to finish an audit in a rented building that had a term of lease which none of us know about and until we are told. However, we know that that distraction in focus by the IMC NDDC led to its unjust winning a second 6 months mandate renewal from march 2020. How did they get that from you without accountability, Your Excellency?


Your Excellency, not only were they distracted from their primary assignment of "supervising" the "forensic audit" of the NDDC by their desire for a new environment to do your job. While we were all locked down, the IMC NDDC stayed put in office, not for reasons that concerned their primary assignment, but to effect palliatives for themselves and design frivolous medical contracts as abstract interventions against the COVID-19 pandemic - government magic!


At the end of all these Your Excellency, it appears that you set up the IMC NDDC, as the body to supervised the "forensic audit" direly needed to reposition the interventionist agency, and set up to prosper indigenes of the Niger Delta region. My question to you, therefore, Your Excellency is: are you a party to those deceiving us in the Niger Delta?


It is clear, Your Excellency, that you knowingly replace a properly investigated board, by character, learning and assumption, with a group of politicians who are liable - instead of to your well publicised presidential mandate - to have clearly taken over the duties of the NDDC Governing Board, instead of concentrating on what you told us that you were engaging them to perform.


Your Excellency, I would not have bothered, if rather than their frivolous medical supplies, aggregarious headquarters building, and the selfish palliatives sharing, if your IMC NDDC were to have been distracted to rehabilitate the Calabar to Ikot Ekpene singe carriage "trunk A" interstate highway linking Abia State with Cross Rivers State, and passing through Akwa Ibom State.


Your Excellency, so that you will know that if the curses from the mouths of citizens could kill you, Mr President, you would have died long ago. But God loves you sir. I could not count at the number of stop points I heard "God go punish Buhari, e no go better for am!" on the Calabar to Ikot Ekpene highway. What about the East West road Your Excellency?

What are the milestone the Federal Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs has covered so far in your renewed mandate Your Excellency? Was it for the redundancy of this Ministry that you transfered the NDDC from the Presidency to the FMNDA? Why not scrap the Ministry if it is redundant, or scrap the NDDC for the Ministry?


Rather than the important interventions, which touches on the lives of majority of the indigenes of our region, your IMC NDDC have been busy feeding fat and acting diversionary from what you sent them to actualise. By September, someone will again pick up your IMC NDDC file, and meet you at the FEC meeting for the renewal of another 6 months term to help them "finish us." I pray you are not using the guinea pigs among us...against us.


Whether it is your objective to officially sabotage the possibility of our remediation as a people using our own brothers and sisters, or you truly have excellent intentions for us, these would be seen clearly in how you handle the present mess around the IMC NDDC, and what decisions you take at the expiration of their second extended term in service.


Disengage them summarily, Your Excellency and either set up a governing board to finish the audit work or instruct the Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, who in my persuasion, is taking you on a merry-go-round, in his devious plans to provoke a political rivalry in his desperate desire for the control of the politics of the Niger Delta region, to work with the civil servants in the commission to accomplish the audit.

With this in place, the Minister would need to issue written and self endorsed instructions to be cartied out by the civil servants paid by you for lazying about the NDDC headquarters, requiring the Commission to contract-trace the commission's projects. This is madness Your Excellency.


Your Excellency, remove the privileges of the Minister of NDA giving verbal, undocumemted instructions to the approving authorities of the NDDC into carry out his "verbal undocumented instructions" because he can recommend their hiring and their firing.

I see this as the reason why he, the Minister, does not need a constituted board in place but would keep insisting on a temporary one that he could push to enjoy the full (4 years) tenure of a constituted board doing his selfish biddings.

Your Excellency, please be wary of extending the 6 months tenure of the NDDC IMC a second time.

Masha Allah, Your Excellency,


Ma Salam ranka ya dade!


Yours sincerely


Ini Akpan Morgan
Office of the Citizen
Federal Republic of Nigeria
Zip 521180