₦airaland Forum

bk/babe90:
Wow, from the jungles of Biafra now u wanna pick a fight with someone from the golden city of Brooklyn? Keep digging your own grave. . . . .

A yoruba bas=tard from Ajegunle, you mean?

^^^^^^
Now repeat after me ''I, bk/babe90 am DEMENTED''.

Take a look at my signature below, see what it reads? You are finished; yes you are.

There is no doubt that this poster is DEMENTED

Now even Ghana-must-go bags (Nigerian trademark) are drenched in flood

I would rather live in Zamfara than in such flooded condition in Lekki

This must be bk/babe97.

The Implosion Of Orji Kalu’s PPA
Ikechukwu Amaechi ikechukwuamaechi@yahoo.com

It was bound to happen. I don’t know of any discerning Nigerian who is surprised at the goings-on in the Progressive Peoples Alliance (PPA), one of the 57 odd groups that claim to be political parties but only succeed in defacing the country’s political landscape. For those who still don’t get it, I am talking about the leadership crisis rocking the PPA, which has seriously, if not permanently, damaged the party.

Last week, the remaining governor elected on the party’s platform, Chief Theodore Orji, resigned his membership and formally declared for the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA). He was not alone. The only Senator elected on the party’s platform, Chief Uche Chukwumerije, the party’s National Publicity Secretary, Chief Ben Onyechere, and many more, also quit the party.

This is not the first time the PPA will be so convulsed. The party emerged from the 2007 elections with two governors – Ikedim Ohakim of Imo State and Orji. Ohakim resigned from the party last year. When he did, many people saw it as a desperate act of political opportunism. Not even the resignation of the then National Chairman, Chief Clement Ebri, could sway anybody to believe otherwise. The founder of the party and incumbent Chairman of its Board of Trustees (BoT), Orji Uzor Kalu, had the sympathy of most people then.

But with the exit of Orji, who can rightly be described as Kalu’s foremost political godson – loyal and dedicated, questions are being asked.

The Abia State Governor said he quit the political party on which platform he won the April 14, 2007 governorship election even when he was in detention at Kirikiri Prison because he needed his freedom to work for the people. “I was pushed beyond the wall so I am justified in the action I have taken. As a leader one has to be free before he can take decisions,” he said.

To fully appreciate the point he was making, albeit diplomatically, one needs to also hear Chukwumerije’s reason for quitting the party.

Not one to suffer fools gladly, the mercurial Senator representing Abia North Senatorial District chided the former governor for throwing the party to the dogs. The PPA, he insists, has lost all attributes of a political party and has become an extension of the expansive family business of the Kalus. As “owners of the party,” the Kalu family came to see the state and its fortunes from its own blurred lens, he alleged.

In such a situation, there is bound to be a conflict of interest. And that is exactly what has happened.

According to Chukwumerije, “Whatever its exterior postures, PPA is not a political party, a public property. It is a family business in which the sole shareholders are Madam Eunice Uzor Kalu and her children. It is true that all the practices of all Nigeria’s political parties fall short of internal democracy in varying degrees, but it is sadly true that PPA stands out both in degree and kind from the rest.

“The familiar art of godfatherism and selection, in place of election, has been refined in PPA to a routine standard mode of royal hand-pickings.
“The method of royal hand-pickings operates through an unwritten patronage network: sole control of all key posts, elective or appointive, division of Abia State into zones of pasture among the shareholders like the hunting spheres of predators, the pivotal role of an ostensibly cultural body as the sole dispensers of state patronage.”

Chukwumerije finally condemned what he called “the adroit use of the law to subvert the law via a charade of captive conferences and occasional resurrection of ‘party organs’ to rubber-stamp resolutions of family party board meetings.”
He also observed that the family control of the party had been extended to the control of state economy through various structures.

According to him, “Family political control brings us to the issue of political economy of Abia State . Three control posts – (i) control over key posts, (ii) control over a network of paybacks and tithes, and (iii) control over state business contracts – operate in a triangular relay to frame and define the political economy of underdevelopment of the state,” concluding that “Abia is virtually a sole family business in which its owners retail their franchise to political surrogates.”

This sorry state cannot but have grave implications for the state and its indigenes. The perspicacious Senator agrees. “It is now obvious that an incurable systemic flaw has brought PPA to a road end. The family proprietary structure, unable to meet the vigorous requirements of internal democracy demanded of a political party, suffers serious self-contradiction and faces prospects of a stunted growth.”

The PPA will be lucky if the only thing it suffers from this debilitating self-inflicted crisis is stunted growth. The logical thing to expect is its natural death.

But, this also raises another fundamental question. Why is Orji and Chukwumerije only crying out now? Is it because Kalu, the sole proprietor of the party they have for long deluded themselves of being stakeholders, has finally shut the door in their face? Could they have quit if it had not become apparent that Kalu had made up his mind to deny them the party’s tickets for the 2011 elections?

Two questions must concentrate the minds of any Nigerian who is sincerely desirous of a healthy democratic environment. First, when did Chukwumerije realize that the PPA can no longer “meet the basic and mandatory demands of participatory democracy in a third-world country?”

Second, and perhaps most important, when did it dawn on him that the “hand-picking mode of processing political manpower destroys accountability and institutionalizes corruption,” and that the grim harvest of such insane political culture is always “a festering cesspool of professional sycophants, praise singers and political jobbers?”

While these questions continue to haunt the Senator, it is pertinent to point out that PPA’s biggest misfortune remains the inability of Kalu to realize that the political party cannot be an extension of his business empire, even if he had founded and funded it from the outset. He ought to have drawn the line somewhere. But because he lacks the political will to draw that all important line, the relationship between him and Abia State became that of the axiomatic tail wagging the dog. Abia became his conquered territory.

But the story of Abia and PPA is the story of Nigeria and its democracy writ large. What Abia State and Governor Theodore Orji suffered in the hands of Kalu (assuming it is all over) is the same fate, for instance, of Lagos State and Governor Babatunde Fashola under Asiwaju Bola Tinubu. The same way Kalu saw (and still sees) Abia as his conquered territory is the way Tinubu sees Lagos. And because Lagos belongs to him, or so he thinks, he alone makes the authoritative allocation of values. Perhaps, Fashola has suffered more humiliation under Tinubu than even Orji under Kalu. The question is, why is he not crying out now? If Fashola ever gets the Action Congress (AC) ticket to re-contest the governorship election in 2011, it will be because Tinubu has been persuaded that any contrary move will lead to the implosion of AC and derailment of the bigger Southwest project. If these happen, he also knows that it will be goodbye to his other political calculation of pairing with a Northerner as Vice Presidential candidate in 2011.

The sad reality of the Nigerian situation is that we have only succeeded in creating a monstrous political system where those in leadership positions who ought to be servants of the people have become Lords of the Manor; a system that frowns at the very tenets of democracy. Ours is perhaps the only “democracy” in the world where the people don’t matter. It is that special brand of democracy where to win election, all you need to do is to “settle” one or two people rather than earn the trust of the electorate.

The inherent lesson in the PPA and by extension Abia debacle is that the people must own the political process and the only way to do that is by revolting against those who have reduced them to mere spectators in their own game.

Nwodo: PDP Revisiting Zoning
•Northern leaders slam party chairman
From Emmanuel Bello and Chuks Okocha in Abuja, 07.09.2010

Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) National Chair-man, Dr. Okwesilieze Nwodo, has clarified his position on zoning, saying the party is revisiting the contentious power rotation arrangement and not “killing it”.

But before his veiled retraction, Northern Leaders had taken umbrage at Wedne-sday’s statement where Nwodo said there was no zoning at present in the party.

Some of the Northern leaders described his stance as irresponsible and provocative.
Nwodo, however, distanced himself from the sensational headlines in yesterday’s dailies crediting him as saying “zoning is dead”.
A statement from his Spokesman Ike Abonyi said Nwodo could not have pronounced zoning dead as he became National Chairman because the position was zoned to the South-east.

”What Nwodo said, which was contained in the body of most of the report is that the party will revisit zoning because it has operated in breach since 2003,” he said.

According to Abonyi, Nwodo even went further to explain the process he intends to follow in revisiting it when he said it would be “cooked” at NWC, taken to the party caucus and BoT for fine-tuning before going to NEC of the party for deliberation and endorsement.

Nwodo also explained how the zoning was breached in the past when he said that except in 1999 when the party returned late Abubakar Rimi’s non-refundable money, in 2003 and 2007 the party accepted money and cleared aspirants from every zone to contest.

He said: “In 2003, names like the then incumbent Vice-President Atiku Abubakar, Abubakar Rimi, Barnabas Gemade all from the North challenged Southern aspirants including President Olus-egun Obasanjo and Dr. Alex Ekwueme.

”In 2007, when presidency was believed to have been zoned to the North, more Southern aspirants including former Governors, Peter Odili, Victor Attah, Donald Duke, Sam Egwu and Chimaroke Nnamani as well as Rochas Okorocha all challenged Northern aspirants that included Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, Abdullahi Adamu and Prof. Jerry Gana.”

Abonyi said Nwodo advised members of the party to disregard the sensational headlines and remain focused on the fact that he is in the party to “break down the barrier and return the party to the people.”

Spokesman of the Northern Leaders Political Forum and former Senate President, Dr. Iyorchia Ayu, who spoke to THISDAY last night, denied that zoning has been jettisoned, saying the entire PDP machinery “reaffirmed the principles of zoning and power rotation” at its meeting in Abuja in 2002.

The former Senate president said for anyone to now claim PDP has jettisoned zoning would be akin to rejecting the universal principles of truth.

Speaking with journalists two days ago in Abuja, Nwodo had said: “Yes, I said…and I repeat to you again that zoning in PDP has been jettisoned. There is no zoning on ground right now. Absolutely, there is no zoning.”

But Ayu said: "Zoning was not only introduced in the party in 1998, it was reaffirmed in 2002 by the party leaders at the expanded caucus meeting of the party in Abuja. 47 of us agreed to the fact that the power rotation arrangement in the party should be maintained. We agreed that then President Olusegun Obasanjo should complete his eight years in power after which the North should produce the next president who will in turn serve for eight years.

"For any one, including the national chairman of the party, to now come and say that the arrangement has been jettisoned is irresponsible and unbecoming of leaders."

Ayu reiterated the fact that zoning was adopted by PDP founding fathers after a careful assessment of the peculiarities of country.”
"Respecting zoning is not only right; it is moral, just and patriotic. We must allow the zoning agreement to reach its full circle because we are a young federation, we must create avenue that will ensure all our people have a sense of belonging.

"The PDP recognizes zoning for party offices that is why the party chairman today is from the South-east. If he should be out of that office today, someone from his zone will be made chairman, the same way it happened when Prince Vincent Ogbulafor resigned," Ayu added.
Former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar merely restated the significance of zoning.

He said: “Zoning is in the best interest of Nigeria at this stage of our political development. It is the best guarantee that every component group in Nigeria will have a shot at critical political offices. It is the best guarantee against domination and marginalization of minority groups by the majority.”

Also, former military president, General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida, said zoning in the party is not dead, explaining that in a plural society such as Nigeria, the concept of power sharing and rotation cannot be jettisoned.

Speaking though his Spokesman Prince Kassim Afegbua, who spoke to THISDAY from London, Babangida said: "In a plural society such as Nigeria, the concept of power sharing and rotation cannot be jettisoned.

He said: "All the people who today occupy elective offices in the country are products of zoning. So zoning is not only imperative for our country, it is the only way to guarantee the survival and sustenance of the system.

"Any one now saying that zoning has been jettisoned does not know the delicate balance of Nigerian society.

"Nigeria is a plural society, hence, we cannot afford to undermine the aspirations of our people in the respective zones. If zoning is not an option, the PDP could as well produce all party and elective positions from one zone.”

Leader of the Arewa Consultative Forum, General IBM Haruna, told THISDAY that it was wrong for the PDP chairman to say zoning is dead.

He said: “It is clear that even our constitution recognises this zoning. The principle of federal character is one that upholds the need for fair representation. This is because without this, many people would be sidelined in a complex polity as ours. So even if the baby called zoning is dead in PDP, the grandfather of zoning which is federal character is alive. This is the only thing that will ensure equitable distribution of power amongst the people”.

One of PDP founding fathers, Alhaji Isyaku Ibrahim, said zoning was reached at the inception of the party.
He described as “unfortunate”, the current attempt by those he said were signatories to the pact to distance themselves from the issue.

He said “I’m still baffled at this sad attempt by some people who are signatories to the agreement, but who now want to wriggle out of it. What I have continued to say is that a gentleman’s agreement is an agreement. There is a moral burden on anyone who wants to discredit that and say his own thing. I have no quarrels with anyone who wants to deny the agreement and run from it. But let’s accept the fact that there was a pact and we all know about it. We are not being gentlemanly to come and lie to the nation that there wasn’t such thing. Please, let’s be men enough, honest and trustworthy to accept what was done. Nwodo and Jonathan are all products of this same zoning. So, is it that after they have benefitted, they would now jettison it?”

Nwodo: PDP Revisiting Zoning
•Northern leaders slam party chairman
From Emmanuel Bello and Chuks Okocha in Abuja, 07.09.2010

Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) National Chair-man, Dr. Okwesilieze Nwodo, has clarified his position on zoning, saying the party is revisiting the contentious power rotation arrangement and not “killing it”.

But before his veiled retraction, Northern Leaders had taken umbrage at Wedne-sday’s statement where Nwodo said there was no zoning at present in the party.

Some of the Northern leaders described his stance as irresponsible and provocative.
Nwodo, however, distanced himself from the sensational headlines in yesterday’s dailies crediting him as saying “zoning is dead”.
A statement from his Spokesman Ike Abonyi said Nwodo could not have pronounced zoning dead as he became National Chairman because the position was zoned to the South-east.

”What Nwodo said, which was contained in the body of most of the report is that the party will revisit zoning because it has operated in breach since 2003,” he said.

According to Abonyi, Nwodo even went further to explain the process he intends to follow in revisiting it when he said it would be “cooked” at NWC, taken to the party caucus and BoT for fine-tuning before going to NEC of the party for deliberation and endorsement.

Nwodo also explained how the zoning was breached in the past when he said that except in 1999 when the party returned late Abubakar Rimi’s non-refundable money, in 2003 and 2007 the party accepted money and cleared aspirants from every zone to contest.

He said: “In 2003, names like the then incumbent Vice-President Atiku Abubakar, Abubakar Rimi, Barnabas Gemade all from the North challenged Southern aspirants including President Olus-egun Obasanjo and Dr. Alex Ekwueme.

”In 2007, when presidency was believed to have been zoned to the North, more Southern aspirants including former Governors, Peter Odili, Victor Attah, Donald Duke, Sam Egwu and Chimaroke Nnamani as well as Rochas Okorocha all challenged Northern aspirants that included Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, Abdullahi Adamu and Prof. Jerry Gana.”

Abonyi said Nwodo advised members of the party to disregard the sensational headlines and remain focused on the fact that he is in the party to “break down the barrier and return the party to the people.”

Spokesman of the Northern Leaders Political Forum and former Senate President, Dr. Iyorchia Ayu, who spoke to THISDAY last night, denied that zoning has been jettisoned, saying the entire PDP machinery “reaffirmed the principles of zoning and power rotation” at its meeting in Abuja in 2002.

The former Senate president said for anyone to now claim PDP has jettisoned zoning would be akin to rejecting the universal principles of truth.

Speaking with journalists two days ago in Abuja, Nwodo had said: “Yes, I said…and I repeat to you again that zoning in PDP has been jettisoned. There is no zoning on ground right now. Absolutely, there is no zoning.”

But Ayu said: "Zoning was not only introduced in the party in 1998, it was reaffirmed in 2002 by the party leaders at the expanded caucus meeting of the party in Abuja. 47 of us agreed to the fact that the power rotation arrangement in the party should be maintained. We agreed that then President Olusegun Obasanjo should complete his eight years in power after which the North should produce the next president who will in turn serve for eight years.

"For any one, including the national chairman of the party, to now come and say that the arrangement has been jettisoned is irresponsible and unbecoming of leaders."

Ayu reiterated the fact that zoning was adopted by PDP founding fathers after a careful assessment of the peculiarities of country.”
"Respecting zoning is not only right; it is moral, just and patriotic. We must allow the zoning agreement to reach its full circle because we are a young federation, we must create avenue that will ensure all our people have a sense of belonging.

"The PDP recognizes zoning for party offices that is why the party chairman today is from the South-east. If he should be out of that office today, someone from his zone will be made chairman, the same way it happened when Prince Vincent Ogbulafor resigned," Ayu added.
Former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar merely restated the significance of zoning.

He said: “Zoning is in the best interest of Nigeria at this stage of our political development. It is the best guarantee that every component group in Nigeria will have a shot at critical political offices. It is the best guarantee against domination and marginalization of minority groups by the majority.”

Also, former military president, General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida, said zoning in the party is not dead, explaining that in a plural society such as Nigeria, the concept of power sharing and rotation cannot be jettisoned.

Speaking though his Spokesman Prince Kassim Afegbua, who spoke to THISDAY from London, Babangida said: "In a plural society such as Nigeria, the concept of power sharing and rotation cannot be jettisoned.

He said: "All the people who today occupy elective offices in the country are products of zoning. So zoning is not only imperative for our country, it is the only way to guarantee the survival and sustenance of the system.

"Any one now saying that zoning has been jettisoned does not know the delicate balance of Nigerian society.

"Nigeria is a plural society, hence, we cannot afford to undermine the aspirations of our people in the respective zones. If zoning is not an option, the PDP could as well produce all party and elective positions from one zone.”

Leader of the Arewa Consultative Forum, General IBM Haruna, told THISDAY that it was wrong for the PDP chairman to say zoning is dead.

He said: “It is clear that even our constitution recognises this zoning. The principle of federal character is one that upholds the need for fair representation. This is because without this, many people would be sidelined in a complex polity as ours. So even if the baby called zoning is dead in PDP, the grandfather of zoning which is federal character is alive. This is the only thing that will ensure equitable distribution of power amongst the people”.

One of PDP founding fathers, Alhaji Isyaku Ibrahim, said zoning was reached at the inception of the party.
He described as “unfortunate”, the current attempt by those he said were signatories to the pact to distance themselves from the issue.

He said “I’m still baffled at this sad attempt by some people who are signatories to the agreement, but who now want to wriggle out of it. What I have continued to say is that a gentleman’s agreement is an agreement. There is a moral burden on anyone who wants to discredit that and say his own thing. I have no quarrels with anyone who wants to deny the agreement and run from it. But let’s accept the fact that there was a pact and we all know about it. We are not being gentlemanly to come and lie to the nation that there wasn’t such thing. Please, let’s be men enough, honest and trustworthy to accept what was done. Nwodo and Jonathan are all products of this same zoning. So, is it that after they have benefitted, they would now jettison it?”

Lekki my nyash. Waste of money.

Photos speak more than words

Nwodo has since clarified himself as observed in the link below. Izuuogu should please mellow down

http://www.champion.com.ng/index.php?news=34350

paddy_lo:
[size=14pt]Nigerians prepare for post-World Cup xenophobia threat[/size]
FRIDAY, 09 JULY 2010

[
“When they see a Nigerian riding flashy cars and living in big home just after two years of arrival in the country they become jealous and take to violence.
“The last time they tried, we retaliated so brutally that I don’t think any of them who experienced the last fight will think of starting anything against Nigerians again. But we are being careful to avoid any surprise.”

http://ww2.guardiannewsngr.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=16330:nigerians-prepare-for-post-world-cup-xenophobia-threat&catid=59:home&Itemid=620

Like we do not know how some of them got to be living big. Hard work ko, panadol ni

Kilode?!:
It is funny how a thread about Maryam Abacha and her Son quickly became a Niger delta Vs Ndigbo battle ground.

The owners of Nigeria keeps smilling at these trifling masses,

That was courtesy of bk/babe97, a yoruba ba-s=tard

PAUL OLUSOLA OKUNTIMO, THE YORUBA MAN THAT KILLED KEN SARO WIWA
http://www.saharareporters.com/articles/external-contrib/4956-foreword-to-okuntimos-book-on-saro-wiwas-ogoni.html

It would sound like developing country people indeed have low IQs, hence their countries remain underdeveloped. In fact, African enclaves in western world have been turned into dirty zones by Africans living in those places (take for example Peckham by Yoruba and Matonge, Brussels by Congolese). However, academically, Africans do perform very well when they are in class with western mates. How do we reconcile this? Means environment has a big role to play and not just black ness of your skin. Do African Americans have higher IQs than their African brothers?

I do not believe that Ojukwu attended Saro Wiwa's hanging. There are no Nigerian newspapers that carries that news. Saro was killed by Abacha and a Yorubaman Paul Okuntimo was the head of the military tribunal that convicted him. Saro Wiwa studied in Igboland, lived there and spoke the language. His father was a trader running between Bori (h/q of Ogoni) and Aba. Then Saro turned around and betrayed Igbos. Then he turned around and killed his own brothers-the so-called vultures. Then he was killed for killing. Why would anyone not support the death of a betrayer and a killer? If not, then why do we kill murderers. Saro was a murderer or an accessory to murder. He got what he deserved.

AC will be dead on arrival if they bring Fasola as their presidential candidate. He may be doing physical infrastructure stuff but he lacks human rights and citizenship qualities. He deported fellow Nigerians from Nigeria, especially northerners. No SANE northerner will vote for him.

Bluetooth,

Stop rambling like a derailed train. Why did the AD not contest the presidential election in 2003 but instead supported Obasanjo from another party? That is an easy question to answer, or no? If you fail the answer next time, I will answer it for you.

bk/babe90:
Why am I not surprised that both of the guys are Ibo?? Ibos breed criminality. I said it before and I shall say it again, any Biafran caught abroad is likely from Iboland!

Your attention is needed here, please
https://www.nairaland.com/nigeria/topic-474313.0.html

~Bluetooth:
they dine with the evil party and that led to leadership problem that crumbled the party.

Is that the answer to my question? Why did they decide to dine with the evil party instead of contesting against the evil party?