By Davies Iheamnachor



Chief Barinua Wifa, SAN, is the former Attorney-General of Rivers State and one of the notable persons who spearheaded the amendment of the 1999 Constitution. In this interview, he spoke on some national issues. Some state Houses of Assembly have unsuccessfully tried to pass laws giving themselves life pension.



What is your position on this?



It is absolutely scandalous. My worry is that this country, whether you admit it or not, is broke, there is no money. We should be concerned about the ordinary people. In Nigeria, politics is the only industry that is thriving and the politicians are maximizing that opportunity. For me, we must take a critical look at the bloated expenditure of federal and state governments. Those who want to serve this nation should do so on part-time basis. They should not use running an office to earn humongous allowances.



Those who wish to hold political offices should be ready to serve this nation. Recently the Nigeria Financial Intelligence Unit, NFIU, issued a guideline to regulate disbursement of LGA funds. Do you foresee a constitutional crisis on the issue, given the provisions of section 6 and 162 of the Constitution? When you look at it, you will see that the fate of local governments has been tied to states and when they go for Federal Executive Council meeting, they only come back to their state capitals and share the money. If they want to liberate the LGAs from all that, they should do the necessary amendments. For me, the question of local governments should be left to states, so that each state will determine whether it wants local governments and at what time. There are some states in Nigeria that the Federal Government has created so many local governments all because the expectation was that they will go to Abuja and get money and share. I think it is inequitable. Judicial officers and senior members of the Bar are increasingly facing trial over allegations of fraud.



What does this portend for the judiciary?



What impression does this create in the mind of the common man? No person is above the law, but it is the instruments that are used in maintaining the rule of law that has been thoroughly abused. The executive has not only invaded, but has succeeded in crippling what should have been an independent and critical arm of government, the judiciary. They have done that successfully and it is a sad thing for the rule of law. Lawyers and judicial officers have always been facing that. Let me tell you this, the National Judicial Council, NJC, is a body set up by the constitution and I was a member of that body and I know that they did investigate matters of professional misconduct against judicial officers. When the allegation is on criminality, it is referred to prosecuting bodies. With the current fight against corruption, I see that the mantra is more or less ‘show them (judiciary) that we have the power- I mean the executive. What is happening now is like the Executive is using all this to show that they are more powerful than the judiciary. It is very sad. There is a kind of ignorance on people. People are even saying, ‘are you lawyers and judges above the law,’ but it takes more than that to examine the intricacy of the demands of rule of law. Capital punishment remains a major part of our justice system, yet, many state governors refuse to sign death warrants for condemned prisoners.



Do you think the provision for death sentence should be reviewed?



This throws up a lot of questions. Some governors are afraid to sign it because they have moral conscience. They don’t want to sign it so that people will not say, ‘ you authorised the execution of this man,’ even if it was subject to the judgment of court. I think that the time for capital punishment is over because the deterring factor does not work. I mean, if they say they want to deter you, the next man does not think that. He will be thinking on how he will not be apprehended. So, I think the society should look critically on how we can afford to reform the penal system with the death penalty. The time for it to be thrown overboard is done. I am not in support of capital punishment.



The FG is working with some state governments to build more prisons across the country. In your opinion, is this the solution to prison congestion?



This very issue came before me as Attorney-General of Rivers State, 24 years ago. I looked at it and made my recommendations. The nation needs more prisons because of the explosion in the population of those who have been found guilty of committing crimes. You cannot just put them together in pigeon halls like what happened in India. We need more places. That does not go to say that we do not need reforms. So many things that are happening in that sector are not well thought out. Most of the inmates of prisons are awaiting trial suspects and I have looked at it and sought ways of proffering solutions to that. But the government advisers tell them something differently. I chaired one of the sessions of conference of the Nigerian Bar Association here in Port Harcourt in that respect and I told them what to do. Building prisons cannot be a solution to that, but we also need to separate the convicts from those awaiting trial. We can have remand homes that are secured enough and you know what it takes to mix those on awaiting trials and the convicts. The damage to the psyche of those presumed innocent people is huge.



Delay in cases in courts has persisted despite new innovations and rules introduced by different heads of courts to address the issue. Why is this so and what in your view should be done to reduce the time it takes for cases to be concluded in our courts? The delay of cases in court has to do with what I said 25 years ago, when I delivered a keynote address during a conference of the Nigerian Bar Association here in Rivers State. Judicial officers are human beings. Those in the bench and bar and those in the institute and ministry of justice are subject to the vagaries of life,including the lack of motivation. Judicial officers should be motivated to do the work. People will say they have done the upward review of the salaries of judges and others, to some extent yes. There is need to also build more courts, employ more magistrates and judges, building more judges quarters and all of that. This will help to speed up the process. It all boils down to how much money Nigeria has to give such allocation for those purposes. You cannot be talking about delays when the core issues have not been addressed. For me, 20% of the Net distributed income of the federation should go to the Judiciary. We should not be hoping on the executive to give us money. Some Nigerians are of the view that election petitions should be concluded before the swearing in of eventual winners.





What is your reaction to this?



About 25 years ago, I proposed that Election Petition Tribunal should be abolished. The politicians have taken over the place, that is why you see all manner of things taking place there, like where you see two speakers emerging in the same state Assembly. We need to sanitize our electoral process to ensure we get the best and stop involving the judiciary in the process. Those who are contesting election see it as, (somebody called it a ‘meal ticket’) but I think that is too mild, it is rather a ‘live jacket.’ I think we should let the politicians run the politics the way they want to run it.



Let them go out there and fight and leave out the judiciary. They should stop politicizing the judiciary. The crisis we have is because the politicians who are in power want to see that judicial officers are used to do this or that against their opponent and it is not a good thing. They should try and phase election tribunal out. You may have disagreement here and there, Kenya, America and Ghana had their elections recently, are you hearing of Tribunal?



If we must continue with the Election Petition Tribunal then of course, it will make sense that you finish all of that before swearing-in takes place. Kaduna High Court, in judgment voided Gov. El-Rufai’s law to give licence to preachers and Imam, do you think it’s the right path? I know El-Rufai and his political stands on so many things. I have known him for more than 20 years, particularly when I was a Pro-Chancellor.



He has his way of doing things. I think Nigeria is afflicted with all kinds of cancers, including religious and ethnic cancers. It is about time that Nigeria got rid of those cancers and their carriers. There are people who feel that the preachers are collecting so much money and that they ought to at least give some back to the state. Anything that can be legitimately looked at in the form of taxation devoid of the nuances of targeting a particular religion, I think the government may look at it. When you look at men of God who have aeroplanes, and all that, it tells you that they are making money, so you can tax them. But it should not be used as a religious weapon.



What is your reaction to the Tribunal order barring the PDP from accessing the result on INEC server?



Court rulings are based on fact of the cases. You may have a server for the election, but the question will be ‘was server used for the election?’ If yes, was it used in accordance with any law that permitted it to do so? These are crucial issues that court will examine. When I heard that PDP said they wanted to inspect the server and the other side said, we don’t have a server, they could have said we have a server, but it was not used for the election. Because the question would have been was there any law backing the use of server? I don’t see how that ruling should affect the confidence on the judicial system. If they are not happy, they should go on appeal, but there is no need for unnecessary hype to be given to it.



What is your take on calls for restructuring?



Restructuring means so many thing to so many people, but my candid view is that Nigeria is overdue to embark on what some of us have called fiscal federalism to put an end to what Ekweremadu called Feeding Bottle Federalism and I called Beggar federalism. There is no need going cap in hand, bucket in hand to go to the nation’s capital every month to say give us what is due to us. I think restructuring should be properly understood and implemented to demystify governance. Now people are dangling it before my brothers in the South-East, 2023 presidency should come to South-East, it does not matter.



They should dismantle the NNPC and let states that produce oil take charge of what the NNPC is doing. What we need is strong industrialisation. Diversification is part of restructuring. We need true fiscal federalism and you see that the economic space will be opened for Nigerians to grow their wealth.

OWERRI—The Students Union Government, SUG, of Imo State College of Nursing, Okporo, Orlu, have reacted to the claim by Rochas Okorocha’s Special Adviser (Media), Mr. Samuel Onwuemeodo, linking last Friday’s mayhem to the state government and Mbaise people.

In a statement, the SUG President, Francis Chimankpa, described some of the accounts published online, as “mischievous, ridiculous, has no iota of truth and far from reality.“ The statement read in part: “The attention of the Students Union Government of Imo State College of Nursing, Okporo, has been drawn to versions of online publications, which tend to misinform the public of the true happenings in the college.


“The publications had alleged that some hoodlums from Mbaise invaded the school at the instance of the governor of the state.This sounds ridiculous and has no iota of truth in it.


“As the official mouthpiece of the students of Imo State College of Nursing, Okporo, we make bold to set the records straight, bearing in mind that some mischievous elements, whose stock in trade is to misinform the public by sponsoring street urchins to attack the school, are on the prowl.

“Contrary to their claims, we were last Friday, harassed and molested by select youths of Ogboko, who even told us that they were invited to deal with us by hostel and hotel owners of the area.

“The said stakeholders had the belief that our presence in Ogboko would attract patronage to their businesses.” Chimankpa recalled that Okorocha had almost, at the end of his tenure, relocated the College to his country home, Ogboko, Ideato South.

By Davies Iheamnachor

BILLE, an oil-producing kingdom in Degema Local Government Area, Rivers State, whose youths are notorious for oil bunkering, has blamed the development on marginalisation and neglect by government.


Although the community has resolved to change the narrative, Governor Nyesom Wike has directed leaders of the community and other affected towns to report the oil thieves in their domains to appropriate security agencies for necessary action or government would withdraw benefits meant for them. NDV gathered that the kingdom at a summit recently, unveiled a blueprint for development of the kingdom within the next two decades, targeting total transformation in 2040.


The kingdom has two oil fields with a total annual production capacity of 6,886,984 bbls of crude oil and 6,880,757 mscf of gas (NNPC Annual Statistical Bulletin of 2010) in its territory with a population of over 75,000 people, but no reasonable source of livelihood, which made the young ones susceptible to illegitimate activities detrimental to the oil industry. Vice-Chairman of Bille Kingdom Council of Chiefs, Chief Ibitamino Minapakama, who is the acting Amanyanabo, said: ”Let me put on records that if Bille Kingdom has been extremely aggressive as perceived by the public, it is due to its negative experiences, gross marginalisation and utter neglect which bred frustration.” He said many youths of the community were jobless and frustrated because there is no means of livelihood.

He added: “However, the narrative is changing. Let me give two instances: distribution of wards in our local government, in 1976, and thereabout when Bille and Ke/Abissa constituted one ward in the old Degema Local Government Area. Bille alone had 33 polling units by its voting strength. “This was reduced to 15 polling units in 1983. Again, they further reduced to nine units just to further strangulate the Bille Kingdom politically. In the bigger Degema, we had relevance, but in the smaller new Degema Local Government, they made us irrelevant.

”Bille chieftaincy stools predate all the chieftainships in the old Degema Council(now Degema, Asari-Toru and Akuku-Toru Local Government areas). In the 1980s, the only recognised stools in the old Degema were the Amanyanabo of Kalabari and the Amanyanabo of Bille, but wrongly captured in Nigerian Year book of 1985 as Amadabo.


“Today, the Amanyanabo of Bille stool (currently gazetted as Amadabo of Bille) is still third class, while first, second and third class recognition had been given to stools in almost all the communities in these local governments.” Governor Wike, represented by Commissioner for Energy and Natural Resources, Damiete Miller, disclosed that the report submitted to him by the committee set up by government to investigate the reason for bad air in the state indicted Bille Kingdom.

He said: ”It is true to know that the Committee on Soot has submitted report of their findings. It will shock you to know that Bille is one of the communities indicted. What are you doing? We want your assistance in that way.

”Any pipeline vandalised is economic sabotage to the government. The people of Bille should assist to ensure that Bille is free from illegal refining because that is where the money to develop the community will come from. “Fish out those behind all these crimes and hand them over to government.

Any community where crimes are noticed, benefits due them will be withdrawn. Report the youths causing crime to government so that government will take appropriate steps to bring them to book.”

Read more at: https://wakanda.ng/forum/topic/estrangement-redundancy-forced-our-youth-into-oil-bunkering-bille-kingdom

Naza25:
Remain focused, she must be brought home

At a time most of his colleagues prefer to retire to the Senate at the expiration of their stint in their respective state government houses, Bayelsa Governor, Seriake Dickson says he wants to go into full time farming. When Vanguard encountered the governor on his farm overlooking the alluring River Forcados, a tributary of the River Niger, he was clad in a T-Shirt, a face cap, and shorts and could be mistaken for any of the locals in his fast growing Toru-Orua community. He spoke on his dream to take to full time farming at the expiration of his tenure at the Creek Haven, the seat of power in his predominantly riverine state. By Samuel Oyadongha, Yenagoa

When did you start this farm?

I started this farm a long time ago, I haven’t really had time to prepare it and I am getting ready to do so. I have started and when I finish I will be into full time farming.



Having said that, I want to also underscore the importance of investing in agriculture by the government on the one hand and on the second hand by everybody participating in the agricultural economy, first to be able to provide what we eat and secondly to be able to create jobs and create wealth for everyone of us. Dickson That is the lesson of this farm. No matter how highly placed one should be in a position to add to the investment in agriculture and sometimes it doesn’t take too much. You can all go to your communities, one hectare, two hectares and plant something.



Luckily our country is well endowed that in every part of our country, we can at least plant one crop or the other and people are essentially farmers and we now have farmers and fishermen. Next time you come we will take a boat ride; you will see the River Forcados and our ancestors lived there farming and fishing for centuries. So for me agriculture is very paramount if we are serious about creating sustainable economy, creating job, encouraging people to employ themselves and create employment and also by so doing ensure food sufficiency for ourselves.



In this farm, I plant almost everything. For the past two, three years we have been harvesting a lot of banana, plantain, cucumber, pineapples. There is everything here and you have joined me to harvest sugar cane. So, this is to encourage you to tell the story of Agriculture. I have always been into farming; I always farm here in my village. I have a farm in Yenagoa since 2000, 2001. Seriake Dickson Farm has been in existence since 2002 or 2003. I went to the House of Representatives in 2007, by 2008 I started to prepare a farm around Abuja in Nasarrawa State, 100 hectare farm which is properly secured and a lot of cattle and other crops are planted. Now most of my cattle have been brought to my farm in Yenagoa in Yenegwe.





This is my story of farming and everybody should take farming seriously. What influenced your taking to farming? It started in this community, I farm with my parents. As a matter of fact, part of this area is owned by my family, my father brought me here and set up my first farm around where my house now stands. This was my first farm in 1984, 1985 and it was a plantain plantation. My father had a large banana plantation around this same area and when I decided to build a house, a proper compound, I told my father.



I rejected my father’s offer to take his land which I have given to the university, I told him I wanted to build near the river, I started acquiring this place when I was in House of Representatives and it kept expanding until the way it is.

How many hectares of land is this farm?

The farm here is about 25, 30 hectares. It is not too big but I intend to make full use of it. You can see the large fish pond under construction, there will be poultry here, and you can see the pigs there. There will be a piggery here and a ranch for cattle. In Yenagoa, at Yenegwe I have about 30 hectares too, I have always had that from my early 20s. My farm in Abuja, Guantofa, is about 100 hectares. But many see farming as unattractive That’s the mindset we have to change, part of what I intend to do is to apply for, have already started talking with some banks to help me raise a facility based on the security of my titles to enable me make up all these investments as I get ready to leave office.



I intend to stay here in my community with my family in Yenagoa so that I can put in and make most of these investments to create jobs and also yield profit. Farming is very profitable, we cannot now meet our need from piggery, we cannot meet our needs from eggs in this state and even other poultry products, everything we import, and everything is brought into Bayelsa. So farming is a good thing to go into.



Those who have gone into it have no regrets and I have asked the bank to study my proposal and in no distant time I will have the loan based on the security of my entitlement because they are satisfied with the business plan. My fish farm is very big, large and among the largest fish farms in the state with thousands fish, and fingerling. We are constructing the preservation systems, we want to be able to preserve them for long to sell and package because they are thousands of big fishes of all kinds in my ponds.



The ponds are like lakes, they are actually lakes. Well as you know as an Ijaw man, our first is plantain, we have planted a lot of plantain. In my family in Yenagoa we use to sell every market day. We have banana, mango, pineapples, oranges and so on and so forth but my main focus is aquaculture, poultry, piggery, cattle.



I am a herdsman, an Ijaw herdsman, who does cattle rearing in a confined environment, ranching and that is what we recommend for everybody.

You once said it was your desire to return to school after leaving office, do you still…

(Cuts in) Yes, that’s my intention, I can’t be doing only farming, age is still on my side and I have a lot of passion, writing is one, teaching is one am likely to be back to school, I will like to involve in teaching, carrying out research on studies about my experiences, deep experiences in governance, in underdeveloped and trying environment how we can talk about democratisation and peace building, consensus building and all the things that have been able to achieve here. Most likely I will be in classroom but farming is also a passion I have and it is a business that I encourage everyone to go to into.



Government appeared to be the only industry which most Bayelsans depend on Well that is the tragedy of an under developed deprived environment like Bayelsa where everybody thinks that survival must come from government, they don’t know that first of all, they have to take responsibility for their lives first and their future but happily we have made a lot of investment in that area to make their involvement even easier, look at the aquaculture village in Yenagoa and the several others that we are doing outside Yenagoa. Right now we have capacity of 1500 to 2000 young fishermen that should be under training and they are also making some money in the process.



If you go to Ebedebiri where the government poultry that we have established is, about 35,000 bird capacity is there, completed for young people. There is currently a programme to see how young people can go there and learn. Although, I have said that the University of Africa should take it over, there is another fish farm, two big modern fish farms, one is coming up in Agalabiri constructed by the Israelis another close to Yenagoa around Famgbe area but they have some community challenges because they don’t know the benefits.



So I hope we will solve the community problems. But in agriculture, our biggest investment is the cassava starch processing factory, which is the largest not just in Nigeria but also the largest cassava processing factory in Africa. It is built by the Dutch and they are rounding up and they will be here to run it up for two years. There is a lot of money in it. There is already a buy-back agreement for the starch that will be produced. That factory will serve as a rounding point for encouraging small scale farmers to go into agriculture particularly to produce starch.



We need all the starch that is produced in Bayelsa and in the entire South-South to service that factory. It will be commissioned in the next two, three months, they have already finished installation and they are just putting finishing touches to it. So that will make it possible for a lot of people to take loans and then all the starch that is produced in the South South will be needed here for them to be able to provide different kinds of starch, industrial, commercial and so on and so forth for local use and also for export.



There is enough space for foreign companies for the starch so that investment is also there but in the end agriculture is in the hands of everybody like I am demonstrating. We have directed all appointees, cabinet commissioners and others to set up farm and they are doing very well.

You are not known to do alcohol or smoke where do you derive your energy from doing so many things at the same time?

Well, I have never smoked, I don’t like taking alcohol, I don’t recommend that but there are other things that I do and at the end our strength comes from God. I live a simple life dedicated to the service of our people. I am a man of faith, who also believes that God has a hand in what we do and what we accomplish and how we live our life.

Vice President Yemi Osinbajo has said the federal government is committed to the rescue of Leah Sharibu, one of the schoolgirls abducted by Boko Haram in Dapchi, Yobe State. Leah Sharibu and President Buhari Osinbajo spoke on Sunday during a town hall meeting with some Nigerians in New York, United States.

The Vice President stressed that over 108 girls had been rescued so far, noting that community policing could effectively tackle the nation’s security challenges, including kidnappings. “There are cases that are as important as other cases that have received worldwide attention.

But at the same time, when you measure it against the performance of girls that have been freed till date, over 108 Christian girls. “We shouldn’t say it’s Christian religious freedom, but who is responsible for kidnapping is committing an economic crime. To solve the problem, we need community police, we need the state police,” he said.

Osinbajo also reacted to questions asked by diaspora Nigerians on poverty and unemployment in the country. He lamented that the country recorded a population of 112.7 million people living in extreme poverty in 2010, claiming that the government during that period did not create Social Investment Programmes that will help ameliorate the situation. “As at 2010, Nigeria had about 112.7million people living in extreme poverty.

Nothing in place, there was no Social Investment Programme, there was no social security, no way of taking people out of poverty. “That was the reason we decided to put in place the National Social Investment Programme because it was to address questions of how to get our people out of poverty,” Osinbajo said.

Read more at: https://www.vanguardngr.com/2019/06/fg-remains-focused-on-rescuing-leah-sharibu-osinbajo/

THE Senator representing Abia North, Dr Orji Uzor Kalu, has said that the South-East geopolitical zone played “bad politics during the 2019 polls and should expect nothing from the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC.

Orji Kalu Kalu, who stated this at his country home, Igbere, in Bende Council area, explained that it was only in his Abia North zone that President Muhammadu Buhari and APC won over 60 per cent of the votes cast in the former Eastern region.

His words: “South East didn’t support APC and we are paying for it today. We didn’t vote. Others voted 60/40, but the South-East went on a straight jacket. “Other regions were very smart. If I am the President, I might even be tougher than what is happening.

You didn’t vote for APC and you are not entitled to anything. “If you work, you eat. You didn’t work for APC and you are expecting them to give you Senate President. You want them to give Deputy Senate President. It is not possible. “It is only in Abia North that President Buhari had over 60 per cent in the South-East and South-South zones. “In other zones, Buhari had 40 per cent.

Next time, we should vote like the South-West: they voted 40 /60. “We must be able to learn. This is a business. Next time, we should be wise.” We are not going to allow other people to decide our future. We are going to demand our rights. There is nowhere they would share a pin and it won’t come to Abia North. We must demand 60% for Abia North because we supported him.”

He described Ndigbo as the salt of the Nigerian nation and urged the people to come together and show their strength. Kalu pledged to provide quality representation to his constituency as well as make consultation of his constituents a priority throughout his tenure.

Donald95:





Never underestimate the creativity of an Igbo man. That thing u call crap is like those things that fought Nigeria for 3 years. infact, Nigeria had to call on USSR, Egypt and,UK which was not enough, they then had to block access to food b4 they could be defeat those crap weapon carrying Biafran soldiers.

Mind you, Ogbu na Igwe is not to fine in sight

Kingkun69:
This is seriously and I repeat SERIOUSLY needed op thank u all u nairaland ppl with mouth odour that passes through phone sef come ooo