₦airaland Forum

Sirjamo:
I blame Pelosi and her Democrat Congress for this. Had the Congress not impeach him, Trump would probably still be having all the screws in his head intact.

One Ernest, the suspected mastermind of the botched robbery of a first-generation bank in the Mpape area of Abuja last Saturday has been arrested by the police.

Public Relations Officer of the Federal Capital Territory Police Command, DSP Anjuguri Manzah, confirmed this to The Nation on Thursday.

It would be recalled that one of the four robbery suspects earlier arrested and staff of the bank, Larry Ehizo, had claimed Ernest forced him to be part of the robbery by threatening his life.

Details shortly…

The suspension of the proposed banning of male and female on the same tricycle in Kano was greeted with jubilation in the ancient commercial city on Tuesday.

The Nation reports that Kano state Government suspended the implementation of the proposed ban, following public outcry and outright rejection.

It should be recalled that Kano State Governor, Dr. Abdullahi Umar Ganduje had last week announced the plan through Commander General of Hisba Board, Harun Ibn-Sina at a function held at Bayero University Kano to effect the law from January 2020.

A source from the government informed The Nation that the Governor has jettisoned the implementation of the law due to the controversy it has been generating and to safeguard the implementation from degenerating into crisis.

It was gathered that Governor Ganduje had gone into wide consultations and extensive deliberation with top government officials on their views on how to implement the law effective from January 1st,2020.

It was further gathered that he was advised not to implement the law nor make any statement about it considering the volatility of the situation on ground.

‘’You see we had to weigh the option of effecting the law or otherwise. However, considering the feelers we are getting, it may lead to break down of law and order. Because how would those that would enforce the law differentiate a married man and his wife in a tricycle or otherwise, ‘’

‘’Similarly, we viewed it that the law is not new since it has been in existence since the Ibrahim Shekarau administration just that we had wanted to dust it from the shelve for enforcement. So the governor was convinced in the discussions to look the other way and the issue would die a natural death.’’

Another source, who confided with this reporter, said that “it could be the overzealousness of the Hisbah Board, DG’s unpopular perception, which he described as dead on arrival.

However, at the time of filing in this report,the government is yet to confirm the suspension of ban, while several efforts to get the views of the Chief Secretary Press to the Governor, Mallam Abba Auwal was not successful.

Photos from the scene of the foiled bank robbery at Mpape, Abuja today.

According to the CP Bala Ciroma, one was gunned down with four others arrested, including a staff of the bank (First Bank Plc).

President Olusegun Obasanjo on Friday in Lagos expressed deep concern about Nigeria’s current debt profile and warned the Federal Government against “impending bankruptcy.”

Obasanjo was a keynote speaker at the “Why I am Alive” campaign celebration in Lagos on Friday.

Nigeria’s external debt, he said, grew by as much as 700 percent to N24.947 trillion ($81.2.74 billion), from $10.32 billion in just four years (2015), meaning that the country would have to commit half of its foreign earnings to servicing its current level of indebtedness.

“Such a situation talks about impending bankruptcy,” the former president warned. He insisted that “no entity can survive while devoting 50 percent of its revenue to debt servicing.”

He explained that the current budget out of which Nigeria spends 25 percent to service debt “is not the country’s total earning; a lot of it is also borrowing. Simply put, we are borrowing to service what we have borrowed and yet we are borrowing more.

“I do not need the brain of any genius to conclude that those who use statistics to dig us deeper into debt are our enemies statistics can be used to serve any purpose, and that is why Winston Churchill talked of lies, damn lies and statistics, meaning statistics can be made master of lies.”

Calling for national dialogue or debate on Nigeria’s short, medium and long-term plans as a nation, Obasanjo said his biggest worry was that, with the scale of debts the country was walking into, “there are already fiscal challenges to meet(ing) our obligations.”

Obasanjo, who was twice head of the Nigerian government in both military and civilian capacity between 1976 and 2007, was a special guest of the “Why I am Alive” campaign celebration tagged “The Nigerian Story” created by media personality and chief executive of Eureka Productions, Caroline Moore in Lagos on Friday.

He has been very critical of governments since he left office after completing two terms of four years each as a civilian president in 2007.

Pastor Itua Ighodalo, who moderated the Friday session, said the campaign was “designed to empower young Nigerians for the future by tapping into the key lessons from success stories of eminent personalities that have contributed to the social, economic and political growth of Nigeria.”

Wife of the Minister of Labour, Dr (Mrs.) Evelyn Ngige, was one of the nine new Permanent Secretaries sworn-in on Wednesday by President Muhammadu Buhari.

The Acting Head of the Civil Service of the Federation (Ag. HoCSF), Dr. Folasade Yemi-Esan, recently announced that President Buhari had approved the appointment of the Permanent Secretaries.

The swearing-in ceremony, which took place just before the weekly Federal Executive Council meeting, held in the Council Chamber of the Presidential Villa.

The other newly sworn-in Permanent Secretaries were: Engr. Hassan Musa from Borno; Aliyu Ahmed from Niger; Olusola Idowu from Ogun.

Those representing regional quotas were: David Adejoh from Kogi representing the North-Central; Umar Idris Tijani from Bauchi, representing North-East; Dr Sanni Gwarzo from Kano representing the North-West; Engr. Nebolisa Anako from Anambra representing the South-East; Temitope Faseun from Ondo representing the South-West and Dr Evelyn Ngige from Delta state representing the South-South.

The Supreme Court has upheld the election of Nasarawa Governor Abdullahi Sule.

It dismissed the appeal of David Ombugadu and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) against the March 9, 2019 victory of Sule.

The seven-man panel led by Justice Mary Peter-Odili said the appeal lacked merit.

The Supreme Court also upheld the election of Mallam Nasir El-Rufai as Governor of Kaduna State.

President Muhammadu Buhari has once again longed for the absolute prosecutorial powers he wielded when he led a military junta in Nigeria in the 1980s.

As the president clocks 77 on Tuesday, he granted a brief interview to state-run television, NTA, telling the station that he was unhappy about democracy’s ‘slow’ method of justice.

“When I came in uniform, I collected those who were leading, took them to Kirikiri (Maximum Security Prison) and told them they were guilty until they could prove themselves innocent,” Mr Buhari said, lamenting that he had “learned the hard way” that he could not do that in a democracy.

“I put based on almost all the geopolitical zones committees to investigate them. Those that were found to have lived beyond their means, the balance was taken and were given to the states.

“But I myself was arrested, detained and they were given back what they have stolen.
“So under this system which is supposed to be more accountable, but it is too slow for my liking, but I have to follow it,” Mr Buhari said.

Several Nigerians were jailed under Mr Buhari’s draconian decrees two and four during his military regime. Many journalists were jailed under a decree that prohibited journalists from writing articles that were factual but “insulting” to public officials.

Some politicians who were targeted and summarily detained spent years in jail despite failure of military tribunals to find them guilty of corruption; while some laws were applied retroactively to execute drugs smuggling suspects.

Mr Buhari had previously decried democratic checks and balances as unnecessarily cumbersome, but which he had no choice but to respect in order not to jeopardise the country’s nascent democracy.

Buhari's History

Mr Buhari took part in a military coup that overthrew the democratically elected presidency of Shehu Shagari in December 1983, remaining in office until 1985 when he was himself overthrown in yet another coup led by one of his military allies, Ibrahim Babangida.

Mr Buhari was initially confined to a house arrest following his ouster, but he was later released with full military retirement benefits. He took an appointment in the brutal military regime of Sani Abacha between mid and late 1990s.

When Nigeria returned to democracy in 1999, Mr Buhari began seeking a return to office as a democrat, running unsuccessfully for president in 2003, 2007 and 2011.

In 2015, however, after entering into multiple alliances with other political structures outside his core northern base, Mr Buhari won the presidential election, becoming the first to upset an incumbent president through the ballot in Nigeria’s history.

Mr Buhari won the election on the back of a campaign that promised a liberal and democratic governance to all Nigerians. He described himself as a democratic convert and promised to eschew all authoritarian inclinations that had defined his career.

But upon assuming office, Mr Buhari began taking anti-democratic actions that drew widespread criticism. During a televised media chat in late December 2015, the president openly justified disobedience to court order that granted bail to Sambo Dasuki, a former national security adviser accused of corruption, saying Mr Dasuki’s offences were too grave for him to be entitled to bail.

Mr Dasuki’s perpetual detention in defiance of court orders has been a key highlight of a raft of controversies which Mr Buhari’s anti-corruption campaign has generated.

In recent weeks, the president has faced criticism for allowing the State Security Service to run amok under him.

The SSS, a secret police charged with gathering domestic intelligence for national security, has refused to release Omoyele Sowore and other activists despite multiple court orders granting them bail.

Orji Uzor Kalu’s descent from the Red Chamber of the National Assembly as a senator to a prisoner is certainly a turning point in President Muhammadu Buhari’s fight against corruption in the country.

Although it took about 12 years in coming, the shock was no less when it happened. Kalu has become the third ex-governor in the country to be jailed for corruption. But his was the most shocking.

If Kalu had an inkling of what judgment was coming his way last Thursday, he probably would have feigned illness. Like most politicians, he was confident that nothing untoward will happen.

After all, he now belongs to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), where, he believed, he had met all the criteria for his sins to be forgiven and even forgotten.

He had joined the party from the opposition. He had also vilified his former colleagues in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) at every opportunity. What’s more, he had won a ticket to the Senate on the platform of the APC. He was a political asset!

He must have been confident that he would be acquitted of the corruption case; and that the the court process was simply a formality, to send him home with the injunction to sin no more.

However, that was not to be as he was found guilty of corruption and handed the “Go to Jail Directly” card.

The shock for Kalu was sudden, shocking and devastating. He was heard pleading with correctional officers: “Please don’t handcuff me, I will cooperate with you.”

It was the rise and fall of an ultimate power broker. The descent of a larger than life man; from a former governor to a senator; and now, to a prisoner!

The Federal High Court sitting in Lagos and presided by Justice Mohammed Idris found him guilty. The judge said Mr Kalu was guilty of the charges against. After the conviction, Kalu’s lawyers pleaded with the court for a favourable sentence.

Kalu has been facing trial for over a decade after he was arraigned by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) for allegedly carting away billions of naira belonging to the state while he served as Abia governor.

He was tried alongside his company, Slok Nigeria Limited, and Mr. Udeh Udeogu, who was the Director of Finance and Accounts at the Abia State Government House during Kalu’s tenure as governor.

The Road to Perfidy

Although Kalu claimed that he started business at age 19 years and at 20 years, he was already a millionaire; this could not be ascertained. When he was barely 30 years, he had had brushes with the law. He was expelled from the University of Maiduguri for, as he claimed, activism.

But he gained notoriety when he allegedly donated cash to the Borno State Development Fund. Coming from a university drop out, the huge donation made the headlines, but the content of the box was later found out to contain blank papers neatly cut to size and covered with actual Naira notes. He was promptly arrested. Lke a Ninja, was able to explain himself out of the mess. By this time, he was already a known face in the nation’s business and political sphere. He began to hobnob with shakers and makers of the military, business and political hierarchy.

In 1999, at the age of 39 years, like a cat with nine lives, he came out from obscurity to win the Abia state governorship election to the consternation of many.

The Political Businessman

At the time he became governor on May 29, 1999, the new state had no state secretariat complex. Government businesses were conducted from rented apartments with civil servants squeezing themselves into buildings that were inadequate let alone comfortable.

Kalu took advantage of this to rent houses he hurriedly built for himself and others belonging to friends, family and cronies to the government at an exorbitant rate. Making fast money at the expense of a government in which he was the executive governor.

Throughout his eight years as governor, he never attempted to build a state secretariat even though land and monies were allocated for the purpose.

Education

That Kalu was expelled from the University of Maiduguri was no longer news. The news was how he gained a first degree from the Abia State University, Uturu; an act that could only have been imagined by a master storyteller.

As governor and visitor to the Abia State University, Kalu enrolled for his degree programme. Barely three years later, he was awarded a first-class degree without ever attending classes for one day!

What’s more, to justify the certificate he has just gotten on a platter of gold, Kalu compelled the university to award him an honorary doctorate to boot. Hence the appellation, Dr. Orji Uzor Kalu that he bears today.

More than 14 years after the alleged graduation, nobody has called this certificate to question!

Revenue Allocation

Although, Kalu’s conviction for stealing over N7.7 billion came over 12 years after he was first arraigned, up to that time, the state was one of the poorest in the country.

The revenue to the state from Federal Allocation between 1999 and 2007 when he was governor was N180, 913,356,049.45. What this means is that the state was barely making over N22 billion yearly, yet almost N8 billion was stolen within the period.

With a population of 2,833, 999, and raked 14th in the states allocation index, he dealt the state the unkindest cut.

Personal Wealth and Business Venture

As Kalu entered the prisons to begin his 12 years sentence, he was said to be worth over $300 million, according to the American magazine, Forbes in its ranking of richest businesspeople in Africa

Kalu is the founder of Slok Holdings, a conglomerate with interests in shipping, banking, oil trading, manufacturing and the media. He claims to have started in business at age 19 after being expelled from the University of Maiduguri for spearheading a series of student riots.

He borrowed $35 from his mother and started trading commodities like palm oil, rice and sugar. He diversified into furniture manufacturing and transportation and became a millionaire by the time he was 20!

He later hit the big time in the early 80s when the Nigerian military government awarded him lucrative contracts to import and supply arms and ammunition to Nigeria’s military.

The Slok Group operates in all sectors of the economy, mainly focusing on Oil and Gas, Banking and Finance, Media and Publishing, Real Estate, Manufacturing, Trading, Insurance, and Tourism.

Politics

Following a fall out with the leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Kalu founded the Progressive Peoples Alliance (PPA). The party won gubernatorial elections in 2003 and 2007 in Abia state and also won the governorship election in neighbouring Imo State that same year.

In Abia, Kalu’s handpicked candidate, Chief Theodore Ahamefula Orji became the governor even though they later fell apart, while in Imo State, Chief Ikedi Ohakim became the governor.

In the April 21, 2007 National Assembly election, the party won three of the 360 seats in the House of Representatives and one of the 109 seats in the Senate. This cemented Kalu’s leadership as force to reckon with in the politics of the nation.

Following the 2007 election, the PPA’s journey into oblivion began when the party agreed to join the PDP government of President Umar Musa Yar’Adua. For Kalu, the journey back to the PDP was like a homecoming as he was a two-term governor under the party, but for PPA, its death knell was just sounded.

The Journey to APC

But as the corruption case continued to dog him, the election of President Muhammadu Buhari in 2015 on an anti-corruption pledge forced the former governor to rethink his fortunes.

The EFCC renewed interest in his corruption cases, a situation which forced Kalu to abandon both PPA and the PDP for the APC. It was a classic case of a mother abandoning her child to nurture another person’s baby.

Senatorial Bid

The fact that he was standing corruption trial did not stop the former governor from returning to politics as he successfully contested a senatorial election under the APC and won.

He had in 2015 lost his bid to be elected senator. But he returned to win the Abia North senatorial election in February 2019. Kalu won with 30,580 votes while the closest opposition candidate from the PDP, Mao Ohuabunwa, who beat him in 2015 recorded 21,940 votes. He later emerged as the Senate Chief whip.

Orji Uzor Kalu’s Mother

In Nigeria’s political firmament, the prevailing scenario is that the wives of governors or political office holders gain notoriety by becoming the power behind the throne. In most cases, such ladies become the go-to-person if you want any favour from her husband.

But in the case of Abia state during Kalu’s reign, his mother took this bill, leaving his wife in the lurch.

Kalu’s mother, Mrs. Eunice Kalu was so powerful that she was called “Mother Excellency.” She even caused a rift between her son and then President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo.

Not surprisingly, the former governor believes his corruption ordeals stemmed from this rift with Obasanjo.

According to him, Obasanjo unleashed the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on him and his mother because she refused to endorse an elongation of tenure for the president.

Kalu disclosed in an interview with a national newspaper that men in police uniform once stormed the Aba home of his mom in a bid to arrest her, but they were resisted by security men at the premises who denied them access to the house. They fired sporadic gunshots for over two hours and subsequently left. That was how powerful she was.

The Fall

After 12 years of standing trial, Kalu was eventually sentenced to 12 years in prison. As he was being led to the gallows, Kalu reportedly smiled at reporters and said, “2023, here we come” as he was led out of the courtroom by Correctional Services officials after his sentencing.

However, his steely behaviour soon gave way to reality as he begged the correctional officers, “please don’t handcuff me. I will follow you.”

QUOTE:

As the corruption case continued to dog him, the election of President Muhammadu Buhari in 2015 on an anti-corruption pledge forced the former governor to rethink his fortunes. The EFCC renewed interest in his corruption cases, a situation which forced Kalu to abandon both PPA and the PDP for the APC. It was a classic case of a mother abandoning her child to nurture another person’s baby.

The Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike and All Progressives Congress, APC, National Chairman, Tuesday traded blames on the concept of leadership by example.

The two leaders were at each other’s throat at the official presentation of “The Big Interviews,” a book authored by the immediate past Managing Director of the Sun Publishing Limited, Mr. Eric Osagie.

The event which had in attendance journalism finest hands including publisher of the Vanguard Newspaper, Mr. Sam Amuka, business mogul, Isa Funtua among others started in earnest when Oshiomhole was called to make a few remarks before the unveiling of the compendium.

In his characteristic manner, Oshiomhole drew applause from the crowd with his delivery, as he called on media practitioners to be more courageous particularly when taking on men in power. Citing an instance when a foreign journalist once took on an unnamed Nigerian President a few years ago on the scourge of population control, Oshiomhole said the ex-President was wrong to have spoken on the subject matter when Nigerians were yet to be told the number of his children and wives.

“How could he speak on population control when Nigerians didn’t even know the number of his wives, both registered and unregistered? Nigerians didn’t know the number of his children and I think leaders should learn to practice what they preach,” Oshiomhole stated.

Although his Peoples Democratic Party, PDP counterpart, Prince Uche Secondus managed to fire a few salvos in response, it was Wike who brought the capacity-filled Atiku Abubakar Auditorium, Shehu Musa Yar’Adua Centre, Abuja, venue of the book launch, down with laughter and excitement.

“Let me begin from where the APC national chairman stopped,” he began, in his trademark voice. “Where are some of you who did Occupy Nigeria? Do you still write and speak the way you used to do? Who are those now sponsoring all manner of bills against free speech?” he asked as Oshiomhole and his predecessor, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun reeled in laughter.

Continuing, Wike chided the APC chair for what he called a deliberate ploy to mislead Nigerians into thinking that he still wears the khaki of old when he was a labour leader, saying “the kind of safari he wears now are different.”