₦airaland Forum

Factional National Secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Prince Olagunsoye Oyinlola, has identified President Goodluck Jonathan and the National Chairman of the party, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur, as those behind the crisis rocking the party.

He said that President Jonathan had not taken any step towards ensuring peace in the party since the crisis that led to the party’s polarisation began.

Oyinlola, who spoke while addressing members of the PDP loyal to him in all the 30 local government areas of the state during a rally held in Okuku, his hometown, said his travails in the PDP started in 2011 as a result of his loyalty to former President Olusegun Obasanjo.

He alleged that President Jonathan was aware of his face-off with Tukur and did nothing to resolve it. “Even when the President called both of us to a parley in Abuja, nothing meaningful was achieved. I also tried to advise Tukur as an elder that he is to me, but he turned deaf ears to my advice,” Oyinlola said.

He recalled that the current crisis which polarised the PDP started in 2010 when President Jonathan declared his intention to contest the 2011 presidential election and perceived some serving governors as not being supportive of his ambition.

He said: “President Jonathan called me at about 1.00a.m sometime in 2010 and requested that I should come to see him in Abuja. I honoured him and when I got to him, he told me of his ambition to contest the presidential election and sought for my support.”

“The President later told me that he knew that my hands were tied but I told him immediately that I was not a goat, so no one could tie me.

His belief was that I would give maximum support to General Ibrahim Babangida because of my relationship with him and interestingly Jonathan had 99 out of 100 votes cast by the delegates from Osun State.”

Oyinlola accused the President of taking sides in the process that led to his removal as the national secretary of the party, adding that all peace meetings called by notable leaders of the party to resolve the matter were deadlocked.

He said he had not contravened any provision of the constitution of the party by teaming up with like minds to form a parallel faction, stressing that, “the PDP constitution does not prevent anyone from teaming up with like minds.”

Recalling the genesis of his problem with Tukur, Oyinlola said: “My problem with my former boss, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur started right from my first day in office. He introduced some strange things like creating the office of the Chief of Staff and others. I kicked against this development and he took offence for my action.”

Did we launch a collective struggle for a collective and shared Resource Control? Or was it simply just a struggle to enrich a few and launch them into the circuits of the treasury looting and collective wealth pillaging circuits of the Nigeria ruling class?

Yet inspite of all these huge investments under the direct control of Niger Deltans; and inspite of the opportunities presented by this moment in history, with a president of Niger Delta stock; what have we got to show for all these as ordinary Niger Deltans? What is the current state of infrastructure and basic services across the Niger Delta after all these years? Why are millions of Niger Delta youths still unemployed and unemployable? Why is the East-West Road still under construction [a state it has been in for more than two decades]?
Yes it is true we now have quite a few of us who have become fabulously and mind bogglingly rich in a short space of time; yes we now have Ex-Militant Generals who are multi-billionaires courtesy of maritime and oil pipeline security and surveillance contracts! And of course we now have politicians, and political office holders who have become some of the wealthiest Nigerians, and who have more palatial houses in Abuja, Lagos, and overseas than there are houses [huts included] in the villages of the Niger Delta from which they hail!
So was this what we fought for? Was this the reason why the Ogoni Bill of Rights; the Kiaima Declaration of Ijaw Youths; and the Manifesto of the Chikoko Movement were made/proclaimed/issued?

For starters, never in the entire history of the Niger Delta has the region’s environment been subjected to this level, scope and intensity of environmental degradation! We are speaking of a daily oil spill rate of well over 30,000 barrels per day, consistently over a period of more than 3 years!
We are speaking of a less than 20% completion rate for NDDC projects across the Niger Delta [according to the report of a Presidential Monitoring and assessment committee set up by President GEJ]! We are here making reference to a situation where the budget of a supposedly short-term intervention project, the Presidential Amnesty program [which has reached 33,000 supposed ex-militants; itself a fraud, for no nation could have survived a sustained militancy of more than 30,000 armed insurgents], has consistently dwarfed the budget of the Niger Delta Ministry, which is expected to tackle developmental challenges facing the Niger Delta! And we have also not factored into the calculation, the short changed annual budgets of the NDDC, which since its formation would have amounted to more than N1tn!

At this point in time, in the middle of 2013, we occupy the presidency, with a president of Niger Delta stock, a Niger Delta first lady, and with the most significant of the president’s aides also having their roots in the Niger Delta. Additionally, we have Ex- Niger Delta Warlord Generals, having significant direct and regular access to the presidency, while also executing multi-billion Naira annual security and surveillance contracts with respect to our maritime borders and our most significant export product [worth in excess of N25bn annually]; petroleum resources. Furthermore there is a presidential Amnesty program worth over N60bn annually, and well into its 4th year, and from which we are told some 33,000 [so-called ex-militants] have benefited. And finally there is the Niger Delta Ministry [well over 3 years old], as well as the special intervention agency, NDDC!
Let us not forget that since the 1999 return to civil rule, all the Niger Delta states have been governed by executives, legislatures and Judiciaries from the Niger Delta; while it is also true that under the rule of Niger Deltans, the region has received in federal allocations and derivation funds well in excess of N8tn since 1999.
The question begging to be asked is this; What has been the lot of the Niger Deltan Environment, as well as the teeming mass of Niger Deltans all through this period?

Given the subject and issue that I intend to write about in this piece; taken together with my name; it is important to make some urgently needed clarifications right at the start!
Inspite of the sound of my name, or maybe because of it, I am by the sweat, blood, sacrifice of our collective struggle, from the Niger Delta! I was privy to, directly involved in, and at the very heart of the struggle of the peoples’ of the Niger Delta for Resource Control and Self Determination from the 90s of the 20th century onwards! So I know what I am writing about!
At this point in the collective history of both the Niger Delta, and the Nigeria ‘Federation’ of which it is now a part, it is important, instructive, and decisive that we ask ourselves certain pertinent questions.
At this point in time, in the middle of 2013, we occupy the presidency, with a president of Niger Delta stock, a Niger Delta first lady, and with the most significant of the president’s aides also having their roots in the Niger Delta. Additionally, we have Ex- Niger Delta Warlord Generals, having significant direct and regular access to the presidency, while also executing multi-billion Naira annual security and surveillance contracts with respect to our maritime borders and our most significant export product [worth in excess of N25bn annually]; petroleum resources. Furthermore there is a presidential Amnesty program worth over N60bn annually, and well into its 4th year, and from which we are told some 33,000 [so-called ex-militants] have benefited. And finally there is the Niger Delta Ministry [well over 3 years old], as well as the special intervention agency, NDDC!
Let us not forget that since the 1999 return to civil rule, all the Niger Delta states have been governed by executives, legislatures and Judiciaries from the Niger Delta; while it is also true that under the rule of Niger Deltans, the region has received in federal allocations and derivation funds well in excess of N8tn since 1999.
The question begging to be asked is this; What has been the lot of the Niger Deltan Environment, as well as the teeming mass of Niger Deltans all through this period?
For starters, never in the entire history of the Niger Delta has the region’s environment been subjected to this level, scope and intensity of environmental degradation! We are speaking of a daily oil spill rate of well over 30,000 barrels per day, consistently over a period of more than 3 years!
We are speaking of a less than 20% completion rate for NDDC projects across the Niger Delta [according to the report of a Presidential Monitoring and assessment committee set up by President GEJ]! We are here making reference to a situation where the budget of a supposedly short-term intervention project, the Presidential Amnesty program [which has reached 33,000 supposed ex-militants; itself a fraud, for no nation could have survived a sustained militancy of more than 30,000 armed insurgents], has consistently dwarfed the budget of the Niger Delta Ministry, which is expected to tackle developmental challenges facing the Niger Delta! And we have also not factored into the calculation, the short changed annual budgets of the NDDC, which since its formation would have amounted to more than N1tn!
Yet inspite of all these huge investments under the direct control of Niger Deltans; and inspite of the opportunities presented by this moment in history, with a president of Niger Delta stock; what have we got to show for all these as ordinary Niger Deltans? What is the current state of infrastructure and basic services across the Niger Delta after all these years? Why are millions of Niger Delta youths still unemployed and unemployable? Why is the East-West Road still under construction [a state it has been in for more than two decades]?
Yes it is true we now have quite a few of us who have become fabulously and mind bogglingly rich in a short space of time; yes we now have Ex-Militant Generals who are multi-billionaires courtesy of maritime and oil pipeline security and surveillance contracts! And of course we now have politicians, and political office holders who have become some of the wealthiest Nigerians, and who have more palatial houses in Abuja, Lagos, and overseas than there are houses [huts included] in the villages of the Niger Delta from which they hail!
So was this what we fought for? Was this the reason why the Ogoni Bill of Rights; the Kiaima Declaration of Ijaw Youths; and the Manifesto of the Chikoko Movement were made/proclaimed/issued?
Did we launch a collective struggle for a collective and shared Resource Control? Or was it simply just a struggle to enrich a few and launch them into the circuits of the treasury looting and collective wealth pillaging circuits of the Nigeria ruling class?
Those of us in whose name people are now embarking on a competitive drive towards obscene wealth accumulation; those of us whose lot has not changed, whose lots have in fact worsened in the years since 1999 [and we are in our tens of millions; we are the majority]; those of us victimized thrice; once by the colonialist, twice by the internal colonizers; and a third time by our own flesh and blood; we whose poverty and continued suffering has become the basis for their ill-gotten wealth and affluence; It is upto us to open our eyes, and understand that our destiny is in our own hands; and that only a struggling unity and solidarity of the oppressed and impoverished majority from across all of Nigeria; against these rabid blood sucking New and old Ruling elites; that only the fighting Unity of the exploited can pave the way for and guarantee our genuine and collective liberation and emancipation.

le cat: please send me a price list of ur products via oomodunni@gmail.com or oomodunni@live.com

jude33084: What is the ratio of the christians and muslims members in the house?



Then we can start from there

Sincere 9gerian: This smacks of incompetence, ineptitude, inaptitude and cluelessness on the part of Fashola and the Lagos State Govt.

Fashola should have known that you dont award or go ahead with a concession agreement without reaching a financial close on the project.

Yes the Yar Adua govt made the same mistake with Lagos-Ibadan road but that was in the past. We cannot continue in the incompetence and cluelessness of the past and expect progress.

Worse still is the fact that the people of that area have been raped, financially, through the failed concession agreement. Yeye!

175: as a sinner, do u have a relationship wit Jesus? Abi u wan dispute una G.O?

I-pledge:
this may not be through becauase,most of the oro priest used to say AJANAKU LO,AJANAKU SUN BI OKE,it may not be him,they may be refering to 1 of them that died...AJANAKU LO ALSO MEAN A GREAT MAN HAS GONE..pls note what you say

4tunebest: Why am I not surprised? And Tope Alabi is always eulogising the 'god of Ajanaku' in her songs. Smh

berem: I disagree with you that no one pays tenement fees to FHA. Go and verify! FHA issued a statement to festac residents that if they want to buy their flats or houses, there's a required amount of money you have to pay. If you'll continue as a tenant, you also have An amount you'll pay annually.

How long have you lived in festac anyway?

berem: There are so many instances where LASG imposes tax on FG properties. Festac Town is a perfect example. We all know FG owns Festac Town. Amuwo Odofin LG gives each festac resident a certain tenement bill asking them to pay some certain amount of money. The festac residents vowed not to pay that money. Amuwo Odofin LG issued threats through letters and still yet , Festac residents refused to Oblige. Festac Residents pay tenement bills to FHA.why should the Local Government request for bills to be paid? What right does an LG or LASG have to impose tax on FG properties? Just as there are Federal Roads and State Roads, there are also FG properties and State properties.

berem: I was wondering why the last International trade fair event didn't hold in trade fair complex. does anyone have a clue why it was shifted to Lagos Island, TBS to be precise?

anonimi: Such as when he said this in private

I only said that I will not present myself to contest but my party members said they want me to remain in the race. But I said the new party will follow due process in selecting candidates right from ward level to national level. “Since I am in the new party as a member, if after consultations they include me among their aspirants I will not reject their offer. This is what I want people to know. “I want people to be patient with what we are doing now.

naptu2: It's very important that the drainages are cleared so that the rainwater does not damage the new road.

I remember reading two articles about the activities of the traders on that axis. One article was about a policeman who injured people and was eventually killed when he was deployed to clear traders from the road.

In the other article, the Governor said that something will be done about the traders when the road is completed. He said that they are being tolerated at the moment because he believes that the road construction work might be negatively affecting their business.

I propose that they should set up a Kai base in that area.

naptu2: ^^^^^^
Good job. Please take as many pictures as you can and feed us with pictures regularly. Thanks.

Some months ago, we published pictures of blocked drainage channels at mile 2 bus stop on the newly constructed service of the Lagos-Badagry expressway, nothing has been done about it. Unknown to many, not only mile 2 is blocked but every bus-stop on that route has their drainage channels stuck with dirt and sand thereby leaving no outlet for water from rainfall which the drainage was originally meant for.

The cause of this might not be unconnected with the trading that takes place at those bus-stops as only bus stops are blocked, other areas are free from blockage.

We appeal to the Lagos State Government and all relevant agencies (Ministry of environment and Emergency Flood Abatement Department), even as we have made a complaint through their website moelagos.org, to look into this as a matter of urgency, the rains might have reduced but we shouldn't wait till the rain returns before doing something about this.

These pictures are from both sides of Orile bus stop.

spongeback: And they have all being ordained by lesser known churches

ifee-gee:
This man's action is just a fraction of what happens in our larger society.

antartica: Desperation.This is a government on the path of progress wasting resources to encourage more lagosians to think like terrorists,instead discouraging like the egyptians bu making a day like that insignificant.