₦airaland Forum

A National Conference delegate, Mr. Femi Falana, SAN, has asked the National Assembly to reject the request made by President Goodluck Jonathan, asking for the Assembly’s approval for a $1bn loan to aid the war against the Islamic sects, Boko Haram. Falana said the President must explain what he had been doing with the budgets made for defence in the past few years. He said, “The request made by President Jonathan for approval of the Senate for a loan of $1 bn to fight the menace of the Boko Haram sect should be rejected in its entirety. Between 2010 and 2013 over N3tn was budgeted for defence. “Under the Appropriation Bill signed into law on May 23 this year, 20 per cent of the entire federal budget i.e. the sum of N968.127bn out of N4.962tn was earmarked for defence. The Senate should find out what happened to the defence budget in the middle of the year to warrant a supplementary budget of N160bn.”

Similarly, another Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Yusuf Alli, said the request by the President had created a state of uncertainty as he had yet to be fully aware of all the parameters for the request. He urged the National Assembly to be sure there was a need for it before approving it. He said, “I am sure they should be sure that there is a need for it before they will approve it. One does not possess all the parameters for asking for the loan, so one is a bit in a quandary. One does not have all the factors that have been considered. “But one wants to believe that the National Assembly will be given all the facts to do the correct thing.” A security consultant, Ben Okezia, faulted the request by Jonathan, saying the Army already had a budget which was being used to fund its counter-terrorism campaign in the North-East.

According to him, the government should not attempt to hoodwink Nigerians. He said the number of Boko Haram insurgents were not up to 2000 and that not all of them were armed. He therefore cautioned the National Assembly against approving the loan request, saying the government was not sending everyone in the Army to fight against Boko Haram and as such there was no need for the loan. Okezie said, “What does he (Jonathan) want to buy with $1bn? Are they saying all the soldiers in the Army are going to fight against Boko Haram? The money is for 2015 elections.” They know that APC will match them money for money.

But the Coordinator of National Information Centre, Mr. Mike Omeri, said the Federal Government would not spare resources to bring back the schoolgirls abducted from the Government Secondary School, Chibok, Borno State, on April 14. Omeri was responding to a question from a journalist on whether the resources of the Federal Government had depleted in the fight against terrorism such that it now needed to borrow $1bn to prosecute the war. The NUC coordinator said, “Even the United States goes for this kind of facility. For any country involved in such military expedition, not just the Boko Haram issue, but engaged in a number of military exercises, its stock will deplete. Every country must restock to reinforce its capability.

“That is not to say that the resource of Nigeria has finished and therefore we needed to go for loan. It is not cash that will be given to Nigeria. It is a long term facility.“It is country-to-country kind of process because what the government is looking for is the approval of the National Assembly so that the President can negotiate for arms to consolidate, to reinforce the stock the armed forces have and to guarantee that we will win the war against insurgency and we have an effective and capable assets to prosecute any unforeseen issue. This happens to all countries. It is not exclusive to Nigeria.”

He added, “Once the country is engaged in any kind of activity of this nature, it sure will lead to depletion of resources. So, I don’t think the loan is because the resources are depleted. For the amount so far spent, I am not in a position to say so. 1“We are still prosecuting the war. So, it will be preposterous to begin to calculate cost. Don’t forget, our citizens have been abducted. And so whatever we need to do that we must do to get our citizens back, we will do it. The country will do it.” Jonathan had on Wednesday forwarded a letter to the National Assembly, asking the lawmakers to urgently approve a $1bn external loan for the Federal Government to confront the Boko Haram insurgency.

Credit:http://www.punchng.com/news/reject-jonathans-1bn-loan-request-falana-tells-nassembly/

The crisis that has rocked the Nigeria Football Federation since the Aminu Maigari-led board was sacked on July 6 is to be resolved today in line with FIFA's deadline for suspension lifting.

The development is as a result of the vacation of a suit in High Court Jos, which had earlier granted restraining order against Maigari's board thus preventing him and his board from administering Nigerian football.

FIFA demanded for the withdrawal of the case as well as the reinstatement of the Maigari-led board of the NFF as conditions before lifting the suspension placed on the country since last week.

Nigeria was lucky to have the world football governing body extend the deadline for compliance to today due to the judicial workers strike which prevented the court to sit on the earlier fixed July 15.

The Amos Adamu-led lobby team sent to FIFA by sports minister Dr. Tammy Danagogo to intimate FIFA on issues that necessitated Maigari's removal returned to the country yesterday and has submitted its report, which hasn't been made public.

The latest development has saved Nigeria bid to participate in the U-20 FIFA Women's World Cup, as well as the male African U-17 Championship qualifier this weekend.

Maigari and his board will resume their duties today and continue their normal functions until next month's elections when they could be sacked through the ballot, in line with FIFA's statuses.


Credit:http://saharareporters.com/2014/07/17/fifa-lifts-ban-nigeria

Nigeria’s President Goodluck Jonathan has sought the National Assembly, NASS, approval to borrow $1 billion (N168 billion) to fight Boko Haram.

In a letter sent on Tuesday and addressed to the Senate President, David Mark, Mr. Jonathan spoke about the need for external borrowing to enable the upgrade of security equipment in order to fight the insurgency that is currently bedevilling Nigeria, particularly the North East.
Mr. Jonathan said the $1 billion will also be used to train the military and other security officers. “You are no doubt cognisant of the on-going and serious security challenges which the nation is facing, as typified by the Boko Haram terrorist threat.

This is an issue that we have discussed at various times” “I would like to bring to your attention, the urgent need to upgrade the equipment, training and logistics of our Armed Forces and Security services to enable them more forcefully confront this serious threat. “For this reason, I seek the concurrence o the National Assembly for external borrowing of not more than $1 billion dollars including government to government arrangements for this upgrade,”

Mr. Jonathan said in the letter. He said he was counting on the steadfast support of the legislators on the borrowing of the money.The external borrowing comes amid criticisms and questions of the management of Nigeria’s defence budget, which gulps as much as 20 per cent of the entire budget.The Nigerian government justifies the about N1 trillion spent on security on the growing insecurity situation in the country. However, the military and security officials are still considered ill-equipped to tackle Boko Haram insurgency.

Credit:http://www.premiumtimesng.com/?p=165053

Following the impeachment notice served on the Nasarawa State governor, Umaru Tanko Al-Makura by the state Assembly, the embattled state chief executive hurriedly left Lafia, the state capital yesterday for Abuja in an effort to prevail on President Goodluck Jonathan to intervene in the matter. LEADERSHIP reports that, Al-Makura before leaving the state capital at about 4p.m. had held series of meetings with his aides and party officials intent upon seeing how the impeachment impasse can be surmounted. Addressing the press at Shendam Road Assembly complex however, the clerk of the Assembly, Mr. Ego Maikeffi, disclosed that after several attempts to serve the impeachment notice on the governor, he was denied access into the Government House. Ego stated further that in line with the directive of the Speaker, he is set to serve the notice through the media today.

The House Committee chairman on information and security, Hon. Mohammed Baba Ibaku, confirmed the development saying other options of serving the notice would be explored. In a swift reaction however, the Senior Special Assistant to the governor on Public Affairs, Hon. Abdulhamid Kwarra, denied the report insisting that the Assembly was yet to serve the notice as a 6pm yesterday. Speaking on the unfolding scenario, the Public Relations Officer (PRO) of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Mr. Mark Neto said the state Assembly would be doing a disservice to the state if they had a catalogue of such gross misconduct and refused to take action.

Mr. Neto who noted that the PDP hierarchy in the state would have preferred the party to slug it out with Al-Makura at the poll but regretted however that “posterity would not be fair to the members if they gloss over such grievous misconduct”. He denied that the PDP embarked upon impeachment because it was afraid to face Al-Makura at the polls. The immediate past state chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Mr. Stanley Buba, on his part called on Governor Al-Makura to address the allegations levelled against him promptly, saying that the Assembly was only discharging its constitutional duty.

LEADERSHIP reports that before Al-Makura left for Abuja, notable traditional rulers in the state had converged at the guest house of the Emir of Lafia, Alhaji Isa Mustapha Agwai l, with a view to seeking their intervention on the matter. Informed sources also disclosed that a high-powered delegation of traditional rulers and other respected stakeholders in the state were expected to join Al-Makura in Abuja today so as to solicit President Jonathan’s intervention.

http://leadership.ng/news/377966/nasarawa-impeachment-al-makura-rushes-abuja-meet-jonathan

“To understand Nigeria, you must throw away notions like certainty and consensus. Instead, you have to accept you are entering a world where all truth is relative, all facts are transient and what seems to be the most visceral and bloody reality can ultimately be revealed as artifice” (SLS).

The above, not only describes in very apt times the classic representation of the Nigerian state, but it also paints a picture of a state on the brink of collapse, and if no urgent steps are taken to rescue the country from this aberration, Nigeria may well be on a solid part to perdition. Sadly, it is now three (3) months since over 276 young girls were abducted by a gang of criminals fighting in the name of religion and politics. Out of this number, about 59 girls reportedly escaped on their own efforts, despite the initial outlandish claim of the military to have rescued a fairly large percentage of the girls, some few days after their kidnap on April 14, 2014.

Similarly, the Presidency, which in saner climes should be on its kneels apologizing to Nigerians after resigning from office for failing to deliver on the most important function of government; the protection of the lives and properties of its people is busy living in denial. Interestingly, not only is the Federal government and the Presidency living in denial, it has also on several occasions, failed to realize or accept this fact. It has instead asked (and it is still asking) Nigerians to perform its responsibilities on its behalf, and that they should direct their anger towards Abubakar Shekau and his sponsors, since it was the group that abducted the girls in the first instance. In order words, what this government wants Nigerians to know is that they do not have a government, and since this is the case, there is no point for the people to expect a non-existent government to protect them.

Even the Presidency itself had admitted its non-existence, when it declared that the activities of Shekau and his gang are actually affecting its own movement. The connotative interpretation of this is that if I (as President) cannot protect myself, why should you people (Nigerians) expect me to protect you? How more preposterous can a government be? Such is the denial of responsibility that has remained the fulcrum of the Jonathan Presidency, and by extension the Federal government since 2009 when this war started and more specifically, over the last 3 months since the Chibok abduction. It was perhaps the combination of disbelief and rage, ostensibly motivated by the Federal government’s mishandling of the abduction saga, and the seeming incapacity to rescue the ‘Chibok 219’ that prompted Malala Yousafzai to organize a solidarity visit to Nigeria.

Malala, having been a victim of the malady associated with Islamic fundamentalism herself, following her miraculous escape from Taliban’s bullet on 9 October, 2012 while returning from school, has remained one of the most constant global campaigners for ‘girl-child education’. Malala perhaps understands what it means to be a girl-child in a place like Northern Nigeria. There are indeed a number of explanations for Malala’s deep understanding of the situation in Northern Nigeria and by extension, the Nigerian government’s abdication of its responsibilities. First, Malala like the Chibok girls, used to be school a pupil from the town of Mingora in the Swat District of Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province; a region where the Taliban had once banned girls from attending school just as Boko Haram has done for girls in Nigeria’s North. Secondly, she comes from Pakistan; a country widely famed for Islamic fundamentalism and terrorism just like Nigeria has suddenly become.

Again, Pakistan just like Nigeria is on the tipping point of becoming a failed state due to the inability of its government to provide security for its people. Lastly, the leadership of the Pakistani government just as that of Nigeria has on numerous occasions, abdicated its responsibilities owing to its inability to secure its borders; provide employment opportunities for its teeming youths; and its failure to take firm and decisive step against terrorism. The only area where Pakistan ranks slightly better than Nigeria is in the area of corruption. And this is because unlike Nigeria; Pakistani elites have very limited resources to steal from, as compared to Nigeria, where massive corruption or to borrow from the words of the President-‘stealing’ has become the ‘only law which most public office holders respect and are subservient to’.

So when Malala chose to visit Nigeria to empathize with the hopeless parents and relatives of the missing girls, she knew she was coming to a country with all the trappings of a failing state just like hers, and having been a product of that same society, she knew the language which leaders of such entities’ understand. Frankly speaking, those directly affected by this abduction and some of us who have been tagged “unrepentant anti-jonathanians” should thank Miss Malala for helping us to drum some sense and ridicule into the ears of this government. Here what the young woman had to say: “I am here in Nigeria on my 17th birthday for a price which is to see that every child goes to school. This year, my objective is to speak up for my Nigerian sisters, about 200 of them who are in the captivity of Boko Haram”.

Regrettably, it has taken a 17 year old Miss Malala to remind Nigeria’s leadership that over 219 of its girls are still in captivity on their own soil? How severely disconnected from reality can a government be? Not only did Malala remind the Nigerian government of its failures, she also reminded the Presidency that it is yet to meet with the parents and guardians of the Chibok 219 when she said “I also met with the parents of these girls who are still under the abduction of Boko Haram and “They asked me if there is any chance for them to meet the President, and I asked the President if it is possible for him to go and see them to encourage them and the President did promise me that he will meet the parents of these girls”.

It is so unfortunate that it has taking the Nigerian state a Malala Yousafzai all the way from Pakistan to remind her of an event happening in her backyard. How more detached from; and dead to its responsibilities can a government be? This is what happens when the Commander-In-Chief of a state becomes the commanded. This is what happens when the leadership of a state places premium on pecuniary gains of office at the expense of its primary responsibility of providing security for its people in fulfilment of the oath of allegiance it swore to defend. This is what happens when politics overrides national security and unbridled state robbery takes the place of real governance. Today as I write, the Nigerian state has become so incredibly shameless and irredeemably lawless that even its leadership have come out to warn its citizens to desist from tagging politicians as corrupt, arguing profusely that what the people call corruption is (public) stealing.

To demonstrate to its citizens that stealing is not corruption, and that when you steal, you deserve state recognition, this government in its magnanimity has granted state pardon to a former governor who was internationally convicted for looting public funds belonging to his own people. But that innocent man on the street, who out of frustration and neglect from his government unfortunately laid his hands on a 50 thousand naira worth of mobile phone belonging to a serving state governor, has been sent to jail for 45 years. This country has become such a huge joke! Nigeria has become such a misnomer that its citizens are no longer safe in the discomfort of their poverty stricken homes courtesy of the insecurity that has become the defining characteristics of their country. They have become constant victims of bombings in the Markets, Motor Parks, Schools, Shopping Malls, and even in the sanctuary of their churches and mosques!

How bestial can it get for a people whose government could not provide food or meaningful employment for them, but does excellently well by giving Shekau and other greedy politicians (politico-economic terrorists) the leeway to murder them at will? Nigerians have been abandoned by a government they hoped will bring them ‘Goodluck’ and have been unwillingly compelled to proffer solutions to their own problems. They have become so dehumanized to the extent that they are now responsible for plugging in their own electricity generator, for digging their own water boreholes, and are also made to set up their own private schools because public school teachers and lectures can go on a strike of no return. Indeed, a classic example in this regard is the recently suspended 10 month(s) strike embarked upon by Polytechnic lecturers in Federal and state owned institutions and the ongoing 8 months long strike in Benue state; a state ostensibly under the control of the ruling party.

Nigeria has become so debased, so much so, that the people now have to arrange for their own private security guards because the police will normally not arrive at a robbery scene until several hours after the robbers have returned to base. And even when they do, they end up arresting the same people who have just been robbed? How more failed can a nation get? Ironically, this is a country, which with a moderately proactive and corruption unfriendly government could have been as rich and as self-assured as Indonesia. But what do we have instead? Nigeria is teetering on the edge of chaos, its poverty of ambition exposed by the fate of 200 girls held, and perhaps brutalised, by fanatical Islamist hoodlums somewhere in Sambisa forests. Interestingly, it is not only the Presidency that is living in denial. Even governors, often tagged as Chief Security Officers of theirs states are wallowing in this poverty of imagination and that of the mind, while Abubakar Shekau and his God-forsaken sponsors continue to shine.

Interestingly, even Shekau understands that the leadership of the Nigerian state and its military are living in denial when he noted (in his last video address of July 12, 2014 to his council of mad men and women) thus “We led the attack on the military base and killed the soldiers' commander; and the military are lying that they killed 50 of our men; liars! How could you have killed us when I killed all your soldiers and the policemen there? I was the one that ordered the bomb in Konduga”. In what appears as a further ridicule of the Nigerian state and its army, Shekau, who himself looks very insane argued that “We have recovered several arms from the Damboa military base attack including armoured tanks and Kalashnikov rifles. (Pointing at the stolen arms) Look at what God has given us free of charge; we filled our vans with ammunitions like sands. This is what is called religion and worship,” How on earth can a felonious and mentally retarded character like this be holding a nation of 170 million people to ransom? How can?

Yet the Nigerian state wants its people to believe that it is winning the war against Boko Haram and that Abubakar Shekau; as the top echelon of the Nigerian military and intelligence brass wants us to believe is actually dead! Just the same way North Korea’s leader—Kim Jong Un, and the state-controlled media lied to its over 24 million citizens that it won the recently concluded 2014 World Cup in Brazil. How farcical this sounds! The most appalling of these scenarios is that, instead of the leadership of the Nigerian state to admit and apologize for its own failings, it keeps thinking, power and money answereth all things as evidenced in its state sponsored (Op-ed) or if you like, PR attempts in the United States based Washington Post over the last few weeks. It keeps shifting the goal post by consistently arguing that the issue of terrorism had been before it came to power, and as such, it should not be expected to crush it.

It keeps arguing that the opposition All Progressives Congress should be held accountable for the Boko-Haramization of Nigeria. One wonders what the ruling party and likes of Femi Fani-Kayode, who in one of vituperations had argued that the APC is a party filled with Boko Haram sympathizers, will have to say now that Senator Ali Modu Sherriff has decamped to the People’s Democratic Party. Today, two of the main individuals often touted as having links with Boko Haram; Senator Ali Modu Sherriff and Hon. Ali Ndume are card-carrying members of the PDP. Will the PDP still continue to live in this political denial? Or will President Jonathan rise up to the occasion by been more decisive and ruthless in his fight against Boko Haram?

More so, given the carnage that Nigerians have witnessed over the last few years, I remain at a loss as to how this government, irrespective of whoever it picks as its Presidential Candidate in next years’ elections will convince Nigerians that it is capable of protecting them given the very spectral and ludicrous way it has done in the last four years. What will the party and its flag bearer tell Nigerians about the innocent lives that have and are been lost almost on daily basis due to the party’s socio-political and security incompetence? What will its campaign slogan be when it gets to security? How will it account for the over 12000 lives its wants Nigerians to believe have been lost to BH since this madness started? What will it say to the parents of the missing girls? How will it explain to them that it failed in its responsibility to protect their lives and properties on their own soil? How will it explain to the population that BH has become more powerful than the government they elected into office? And more importantly, how will the party explain to Nigerians that it had no other choice than to add endemic corruption to its manifesto after assuming office in 2011?

I will conclude by reminding the Presidency, just as Malala did, that it has been in deep slumber for too long a time, but the good news, as my people do say is that “there is still enough power in the sun to dry the wet clothes”. This government can still make amends. It can still redeem its already battered image by doing what the former Madam in charge of the Aviation ministry argues as “the needful”. At the same time, this government has a choice, and as Frantz Fanon hypothesized: “each generation, must out of relative obscurity discover its mission; either to fulfil it, or betray it. So the question is, will President Jonathan completely betray Nigerians, or fulfil their true wishes and aspirations within the few months left for him in office?
Indeed the clock is ticking.

Olumuyiwa Babatunde Amao is a Doctoral candidate in the Department of Politics, University of Otago, in New Zealand. He tweets @talk2smat, and he can also be contacted via talk2smath@yahoo.com


Source: http://saharareporters.com/2014/07/15/malala%E2%80%99s-visit-and-jonathan-presidency-when-truth-meets-denial

Elder statesman and a two-time former governor of Ogun State, Chief Olusegun Osoba, currently, a chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC), was in Lagos to attend the birthday celebration and the launch of Chief Frank Kokori’s book. He spoke with newsmenon a number of issues at the event. Excerpts:


What will you say about Kokori whom you have come to honour today?

Yes. Frank Kokori, myself alongside other activists were all together in the struggle. I am today because Kokori did not die. Some of our colleagues, for their own political ends, were spinning the story that I was the one who gave Kokori up. But Kokori is alive and has been able to tell the world that I know nothing about how he was arrested. Even when he was arrested and was in incarceration, I was close to the wife and the children to ensure that they were comfortable. So, I am here today to celebrate with Kokori about his being alive and to also absolve the name, Segun Osoba. It was some of our colleagues who spun the story that I was the one that gave him up.

You are a delegate at the on-going National Conference and there has been a lot of hoopla about certain topics listed for deliberation. What are your thoughts?

When we were about going for the conference, there was fear. But in any gathering, there is bound to be disagreements. But when there is a disagreement, you negotiate and shift ground. At the end of the day, I am sure we will get something out of the conference. Of course, I know it would be tough. It may even get to the extent that we may have to walk out on one another but I am quite sure that God will guide us to walk out and walk back.

There is this assumption that activism appears to have died down now which was unlike the fights people like you put up for the restoration of June 12. What exactly will you say has gone wrong?

We are yet to have a full-blown democracy. What we have is a guided democracy. When you have military men seizing newspapers, then you will agree with me that something is wrong. But you see, I don’t agree that activism in Nigeria has actually gone down totally. You will remember that men like Wole Soyinka, Pastor Tunde Bakare, General Alani Akinrinade (retired) came out wearing T-shirts and fought for Jonathan to be made Acting President in the absence of Yar’Adua that showed that men of such passions are setting good examples for the younger generation to also come out on the streets.

Also look at the period we had the fuel subsidy protest. The civil society tried their best in mobilizing the populace. And what about the most recent case of the abduction of the Chibok girls of Borno State. I am very much impressed with the way our women and ladies handled the case. So, I don’t believe civil activism have gone down at all. And I also think we need to applaud the Nigerian press that spearheaded the campaign. Nigerian press is very vibrant. One of the most vibrant, most patriotic and most independent in Africa.

What will you say is your greatest regret in the struggle for democracy?
What I can call my greatest regret is the inability of some who fought for the return of democracy to hold political offices. Many of those who knew nothing about how the democratic experiment was evolved are now those who are benefitting from it. They are the major beneficiaries.


And who do you think should be blamed for that?
The military, they did a guided handover and that was the first major setback. They handed over power to who they want.
Being one of the frontline persons who fought for the return of democracy, is it true that former President Olusegun Obasanjo was secretly supporting pro-democracy activists?

I don’t buy that. Although, Kokori mentioned that in his book, I was not aware of that. I was in Abeokuta and was fully involved and I remembered that it was that time he (Obasanjo) said Abiola was not the Messiah. I don’t really know about Kokori’s relationship with Obasanjo.
I cannot talk about their relationship because I don’t know about it.


In the last election in Ekiti State, many had thought your party, APC will emerge victorious, what exactly will you say went wrong?
As for the election, we want to put it behind us. We are a responsible political party.

What will you say about the governor’s acceptance of defeat?


Governor Fayemi is a responsible man. He is well brought up. He is an exposed gentleman. Governor Fayemi has displayed high level of magnanimity which is strange to many in Nigeria.

Some say Fayemi did not do the right thing by proceeding with the idea of establishing new local councils. What is your opinion on this?


First of all, it must be noted that the governor is still the governor till October with full authority. Secondly, the motion for the creation of new Local Council Development Authority (LCDA) has been in motion for a very long time. Besides, this is a process that will still pass through referendum. Of course, I have the feeling that he would dialogue with the governor-elect Fayose on this.

What will you say about the defeat in Ekiti to APC considering the fact that the South West is its stronghold and the fact that Osun election is close by?

A wakeup call. It is a wakeup call for all of us.

How far will you say the leadership of your party has gone in reconciling warring factions of APC in your home state, Ogun?
No comment.

And how has the party resolved internal wrangling after the national convention?
No comment.


How true is the insinuation that you are planning to defect to PDP?

If there is anything I will never do in my life till I die, is to join a conservative party. I had my political tutelage directly from Papa Awolowo. Of the living people today, those I can call my seniors from direct political education and tutelage from Papa Awolowo are only three; Chief Olanihun Ajayi, Ayo Adebanjo and Alhaji Lateef Jakande. These are the only three people who can call themselves my seniors in receiving direct political tutelage from Papa Awolowo.

Every two weeks, we always went with him to have minimum of three sessions at dinner. Dinner for Awolowo was a period of political lecture. Anecdotes, histories were some of the tool the sage often employed. For me, I will say the spin doctors are now at work. I am not purchasable. I am not into belly-politics. Let them be spreading the rumour, the insinuations. Let them go on with it. When I take my action, you will all hear it about it.

But have they been approaching you?

Oh yes. All of them are approaching me. All the parties. Labour, PDP, Accord and the rest of them. What is wrong in that? Politics is dynamic. Yes, they are talking to me.


And on the forthcoming gubernatorial election in Osun State, do you see PDP winning the state from APC?

God forbid bad thing!

Credits:http://dailytrust.com.ng/politics/29027-i-m-now-a-beautiful-bride-to-all-political-parties-osoba

Further to the story I published yesterday concerning a man who was apprehended on the premises of the Obafaemi Awolowo University, Ile Ife, while trying to blow up one of the institution's Hall of Residence; AWO HALL, the Police Command in Osun State have come out to dismiss this claim.

According to the disclaimer issued by the Police Command in Oshogbo, it denied the report that the man, identified as Rasaki Adebayo, was found with an explosive at the Awo Hall of the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife. Mr. Adebayo was reportedly apprehended by some students of the university and arrested by the police on Wednesday, July 9.

The statement read: “It is true a man was arrested but he was found with a gallon of kerosene- not petrol mixed with chemical as reported – and stove which he says he wants to use and cook. No IED was found on him,” the Osun state Police Public relations officer, Folashade Odoro, argues"

Mrs. Odoro, a Deputy Superintendent of Police, said Mr. Adebayo was still in police custody but could not say when he would be released.
According to reports on social media, the man was found with explosive and attempted to bomb the University hostel. You will recall that the Osun police also recently said a blast in Ile-Ife was not caused by a bomb but by fireworks.

Credits:http://www.premiumtimesng.com/regional/164920-no-explosive-found-on-man-in-oau-osun-police.html

Below is the picture of one RASAKI ADEDAYO who was caught on Wednesday ( 9th July, 2014) while trying to set up explosives inside AWO hall at the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile Ife, Nigeria.

Efforts are still ongoing to ascertain if the guy is in a plain state of mind and his possible collaborators, and hopefully more details are to follow after the completion of investigations by Police Authorities

The faceoff between Governor Murtala Nyako and the some lawmakers of the Adamawa State House of Assembly may have a happy ending for both parties. Yesterday, the governor swore in 36 development area administrators at the Government, House Yola. The swearing-in of the administrators was conducted shortly after the governor returned to the state from Abuja, after he had held a closed-door meeting with some of the lawmakers led by the speaker of the House of Assembly, Ahmadu Umaru Fintiri. Investigations reveal that the failure of Governor Nyako to endorse the list of the development area administrators brought to him by the legislature was part of the contention that degenerated into the impeachment move.

The swearing-in of the administrators is believed to be an effort to fulfil part of the rapprochement entered between Governor Nyako and the lawmakers in Abuja as a way of staving off the impeachment threat against the governor and his deputy, Bala Ngillari. Meanwhile, Governor Nyako has appointed the former secretary of the PDP, Mr PP Elisha, as senior special adviser on government affairs. Many saw the appointment as a payback to the appointee who stood solidly behind the governor while the impeachment saga lasted. Sources said the development was a subtle move by the governor to reduce the influence of his chief of staff, Abdurrahaman Abbah Jimeta, who allegedly appeared to have played double standard during the crisis.


Constituency rejects Ramadan gift from anti-Nyako lawmakers

Some lawmakers who participated in the impeachment move against Governor Nyako and his deputy Ngillari are facing the wrath of their constituencies as many of their constituents rejected the Ramadan gifts presented to them by their representatives. Those affected include the member representing Girei local government area, Abubakar Umar; the member representing Mubi North, Abubakar Umar Jaringol; and the member representing maiha local government area, Hassan Kaigama.

The constituencies took the measure to protest the involvement of their lawmakers in the plot to impeach Governor Nyako and his deputy. “That is not what we sent them there to do,” said a resident of Mubi, Mallam Idris Haruna. “The people of Mubi have decided to reject the Ramadan gift from their member to show him their disappointment over his involvement to remove Governor Nyako and his deputy.” Angry Idris said they regretted voting for Jaringol, as his actions were always contrary to their wishes, adding that before he got entangled in the move to impeach the governor he never deemed it right to consult with the people on whose mandate he went to the assembly.

“It is unfortunate that the member could not even listen to our most cherished traditional leader, His Highness the Emir of Mubi. The member has never registered with us since we elected him into the assembly as the only member elected on the platform of the defunct CPC, now APC, only for us to hear that he has defected to the PDP. And as if that was not enough sin, he is now involved in the plot to remove our governor, against our wishes,” he said.Hon. Abubakar Umar received a similar treatment in Girei. The people vowed never to do anything with the member because he has betrayed them. “We will never have anything to do with a traitor, we prefer to die hungry than collect a Greek gift from him,” Ladan Ibrahim said. “Very soon, we will start the recall process against him as we felt betrayed by his actions.”

Also in the firing line is the member representing Maiha, Hassan Kaigama, whom the constituents promised to teach a bitter lesson for the ignoble role he played in the impeachment saga. Mr Yohanna David, who spoke on behalf of Maiha Concerned Citizens, said the constituency had resolved to deal with the member if he did not retrace his steps from the impeachment move against the governor and his deputy. “We expected them to consult us before he blindly supported the move for the impeachment of Governor Nyako and his deputy. We call on him to retrace his steps before it is too late,” said David.


Investigative panel shifts venue again

The seven-man investigative panel constituted to look into allegations of gross misconduct brought against Governor Nyako and his deputy Ngillari by the state House of Assembly has yet shifted the venue of its sitting, a day to the hosting of Governor Nyako and his deputy. The investigative panel has initially settled for the usage of the Usman A Iya Health Workers Union Secretariat in Jimeta to host Governor Nyako but, less than 24 hours to the hearing, it shifted its venue to the Federal Secretariat, Yola. Information available to LEADERSHIP Friday indicated that the protest that greeted the proposed usage of the Health Union Workers’ secretariat by members of the union led to the change of the venue of the panel.

The panel pasted the “change of venue” notice at the entrance of the deputy governor’s office, indicating that the venue had been shifted to the Federal Secretariat, Yola. Since its inception, the issue of sourcing a venue for its sitting has become a herculean task following its eviction from the hotel where it commenced its maiden meeting. Since then, it has been running from pillar to post to secure another venue for its sitting.

Source: http://leadership.ng/news/377505/adamawa-impeachment-nyako-lawmakers-hold-secret-meeting

This just came in now. Human rights lawyer, Bamidele Aturu, is dead. Aturu reportedly died on Wednesday evening according to a colleague, Olanrewaju Suraj. Suraji confirmed that Aturu was sick briefly before he died in a Lagos hospital.

http://thenationonlineng.net/new/human-rights-lawyer-aturu-is-dead/

The human rights community in Nigeria is in great mourning today as news filtered out of the death of radical lawyer and activist, Bamidele Aturu.

Mr. Aturu died today after a period of an undisclosed illness. He was 49 years old.

The late lawyer was one of the founding members Democratic Alternative, a political group committed to pursuing deep-rooted democratic principles and holding those in power accountable to the governed.

He came to prominence as a fighter against power abuses when, as a member of the National Youth Service Corps, he refused to shake the hand of a military administrator of Niger State, Col. Lawan Gwadabe in 1988 during his NYSC passing out parade declaring that the military had caused great harm to the democratic aspirations of Nigerians.

Mr. Aturu studied law at the University of Ife, and devoted much of his legal practice to representing marginalized or oppressed individuals and groups.

The late activist was nominated as a member of the ongoing national confab, but he renounced his membership, arguing that the conference was designed to achieve nothing.

A human rights activist in Abuja stated that Mr. Aturu's death "has created a huge void in the camp of those of us working to enthrone a solid democratic culture where political power is deployed to serve the interests of the generality of citizens."

http://saharareporters.com/2014/07/09/prominent-human-rights-activist-bamidele-aturu-dead-49

There seems to be a confusion in President Goodluck Jonathan's cabinet as only one ministerial slot is left for two states. The states that are yet to have minister in Jonathan's cabinet are Kwara and Anambra. Earlier this morning, Jonathan assigned two portfolios to Ambassador Bashir Yuguda, who was until his redeployment today, the Minister of State for Works and Supervising Minister of National Planning.

The president announced Yuguda as substantive Minister of National Planning and Minister of State for Finance. With the announcement of the portfolios of four new ministers earlier this morning, the Ministry of Aviation is yet to have a substantive minister. Since former Ministers of Aviation and Sports, Stella Oduah (Anambra) and Bolaji Abdullah (Kwara) respectively were removed, Jonathan has not nominated anybody to fill their states' slots.

Those sworn in and assigned portfolios by the president earlier today are:

Ibrahim Shekarau (Kano)--Minister of Education

Stephen Oru (Delta)---Minister of Niger Delta Affairs

Abdul Bulama (Yobe)---Minister of Science and Technology

Clement Adebayo Adeyeye (Ekiti)--Minister of State for Works

The president also redeployed the Minister of State for Works, Bashir Yuguda as Substantive Minister of National Planning and Minister of State for Finance. Before announcing the new ministers' portfolios, Jonathan had charged them to serve the nation with their wealth of experience.

Source: http://dailytrust.com.ng/top-stories/28766-confusion-as-jonathan-leaves-1-ministerial-slot-for-2-states

Two former military heads of state led the embattled Adamawa State Governor Murtala Nyako to a meeting with President Goodluck Jonathan on Monday night in Abuja as part of the efforts to save Nyako, who is battling to escape impeachment by legislators in his state. The PUNCH learnt that the meeting was at the instance of the two ex-heads of state. A source close to the meeting confided in one of our correspondents that the two former dictators’ intervention rested on the fact that Nyako was a mutual friend. Nyako is a retired Vice-Admiral and one-time Chief of Naval Staff under ex-dictator Ibrahim Babangida. The source said, “The two military leaders took the governor to meet with the President last night. They, however, did not get a commitment because the President insisted that the governor should withdraw his contentious memo to the Northern Governors’ Forum and publicly apologise for his indiscretions.

“The governor, who did not appear prepared to buckle, said he was prepared to leave office instead of taking any action which has the capacity to plunge the state into anarchy.” Nyako had in April in a memo to the Northern Governors’ Forum alleged that there was a full-fledged genocide against the northern states and that the Federal Government was using the attack on Boko Haram to massively kill northerners. He also said that virtually all the soldiers of Northern Nigerian origin recently recruited to fight Boko Haram had been deceived in that aspect.

He had said, ‘‘They are being poorly trained, totally ill-equipped, given only uniform and are killed by their trainers in Nigerian Army training centres as soon as they arrive in the Nigerian Army camps being used by the so-called Boko Haram insurgents. Virtually all the Nigerian Army soldiers killed/murdered in these operations so far are of Northern Nigeria origin. “The Administration has also hired militia men from all across, especially North Africa, who have been deceived into accepting to come because they were made to believe that they would be fighting infidels.”

The ex-heads of state’s intervention also coincided with a similar effort by emirs from the eight emirates across Adamawa State under the leadership of the Lamido of Adamawa, Alhaji Mohammadu Musdafa. The emirs met in Yola, on Tuesday, as part of efforts to resolve the political impasse. Nyako on Tuesday refused to entertain questions from journalists over the impeachment process instituted against him by the Adamawa State House of Assembly. Nyako had set aside his ordeal to attend a meeting of the Council of State, presided over by Jonathan.

The Adamawa governor was the cynosure of all eyes when he arrived at the Council Chambers venue of the meeting at about 10:40am. His colleagues kept visiting his seat to identify with him and get first-hand information on the development in his state. Nyako however remained calm throughout the period. As soon as the meeting ended, the governor was the first to make his way out of the Presidential Villa. He refused to answer questions from journalists. Meanwhile, members of the seven- man panel set up to investigate Nyako and his deputy, James Ngillari, for alleged gross misconduct could not meet after its Monday’s inaugural meeting.

It was learnt that the management of J & J Hotel Villa, where the committee members held their inaugural meeting shut their doors against the committee owing to what they described as “security concerns.” The hotel management was said to have complained that the heavy presence of security personnel and the armoured personnel carrier stationed in front of the hotel premises was scaring away customers. The clerk of the Adamawa House of Assembly, who was saddled with the responsibility of seeking for an alternative venue, was also said to have been turned down by other hotels as words spread about what transpired in J and J hotel.

An attempt by panel members to use the premises of the Nigeria Labour Congress Club was also said to have been equally rejected. It was also learnt that the that the panel’s overtures to the Adamawa State Council of the Nigeria Union of Journalists to use the Press Centre led to a division among the journalists. An emergency meeting of the union was said to have been held and a majority of members kicked against letting out the union’s conference hall for the panel’s sitting. Unconfirmed report indicated that an initial deposit of N170, 000 was made by an emissary of the committee but the money was refunded when an overwhelming majority of the NUJ members rejected the proposal to use the hall.

Source:http://www.punchng.com/news/two-ex-heads-of-state-emirs-plead-for-nyako/

Two former military heads of state led the embattled Adamawa State Governor Murtala Nyako to a meeting with President Goodluck Jonathan on Monday night in Abuja as part of the efforts to save Nyako, who is battling to escape impeachment by legislators in his state. The PUNCH learnt that the meeting was at the instance of the two ex-heads of state. A source close to the meeting confided in one of our correspondents that the two former dictators’ intervention rested on the fact that Nyako was a mutual friend. Nyako is a retired Vice-Admiral and one-time Chief of Naval Staff under ex-dictator Ibrahim Babangida. The source said, “The two military leaders took the governor to meet with the President last night. They, however, did not get a commitment because the President insisted that the governor should withdraw his contentious memo to the Northern Governors’ Forum and publicly apologise for his indiscretions.

“The governor, who did not appear prepared to buckle, said he was prepared to leave office instead of taking any action which has the capacity to plunge the state into anarchy.” Nyako had in April in a memo to the Northern Governors’ Forum alleged that there was a full-fledged genocide against the northern states and that the Federal Government was using the attack on Boko Haram to massively kill northerners. He also said that virtually all the soldiers of Northern Nigerian origin recently recruited to fight Boko Haram had been deceived in that aspect.

He had said, ‘‘They are being poorly trained, totally ill-equipped, given only uniform and are killed by their trainers in Nigerian Army training centres as soon as they arrive in the Nigerian Army camps being used by the so-called Boko Haram insurgents. Virtually all the Nigerian Army soldiers killed/murdered in these operations so far are of Northern Nigeria origin. “The Administration has also hired militia men from all across, especially North Africa, who have been deceived into accepting to come because they were made to believe that they would be fighting infidels.”

The ex-heads of state’s intervention also coincided with a similar effort by emirs from the eight emirates across Adamawa State under the leadership of the Lamido of Adamawa, Alhaji Mohammadu Musdafa. The emirs met in Yola, on Tuesday, as part of efforts to resolve the political impasse. Nyako on Tuesday refused to entertain questions from journalists over the impeachment process instituted against him by the Adamawa State House of Assembly. Nyako had set aside his ordeal to attend a meeting of the Council of State, presided over by Jonathan.

The Adamawa governor was the cynosure of all eyes when he arrived at the Council Chambers venue of the meeting at about 10:40am. His colleagues kept visiting his seat to identify with him and get first-hand information on the development in his state. Nyako however remained calm throughout the period. As soon as the meeting ended, the governor was the first to make his way out of the Presidential Villa. He refused to answer questions from journalists. Meanwhile, members of the seven- man panel set up to investigate Nyako and his deputy, James Ngillari, for alleged gross misconduct could not meet after its Monday’s inaugural meeting.

It was learnt that the management of J & J Hotel Villa, where the committee members held their inaugural meeting shut their doors against the committee owing to what they described as “security concerns.” The hotel management was said to have complained that the heavy presence of security personnel and the armoured personnel carrier stationed in front of the hotel premises was scaring away customers. The clerk of the Adamawa House of Assembly, who was saddled with the responsibility of seeking for an alternative venue, was also said to have been turned down by other hotels as words spread about what transpired in J and J hotel.

An attempt by panel members to use the premises of the Nigeria Labour Congress Club was also said to have been equally rejected. It was also learnt that the that the panel’s overtures to the Adamawa State Council of the Nigeria Union of Journalists to use the Press Centre led to a division among the journalists. An emergency meeting of the union was said to have been held and a majority of members kicked against letting out the union’s conference hall for the panel’s sitting. Unconfirmed report indicated that an initial deposit of N170, 000 was made by an emissary of the committee but the money was refunded when an overwhelming majority of the NUJ members rejected the proposal to use the hall.

Source:http://www.punchng.com/news/two-ex-heads-of-state-emirs-plead-for-nyako/

Today, been the 8th of July, 2014, the latest in the series of the Council of States Meeting was held in the Nation's capital, Abuja where issues bothering on Nigeria; particularly the Federal government's ongoing war against insurgency was believed to have been discussed. In attendance were Chief Ernest Shonekan, Generals Abdulsalam Abubakar, Yakubu Gowon, Olusegun Obasanjo and Ibrahim Babangida who is pictured below with a walking guide.

Could this be the beginning of the end?

Source:http://www.premiumtimesng.com/news/164567-buhari-absent-obasanjo-ibb-present-as-council-of-state-meets.html

Dear Nairalanders, I have finally been able to ascertain the facts on the ground. Apparently, the rumour came from the anti-Nyako group who seem pretty eager to ''bury the man before is eventual death''.

Consequently, and in line with the letters and spirit of investigative and responsible journalism, I present to you the following picture from the just concluded council of states meeting in Abuja held today (8 July, 2014) where Rtd. Adm. Murtala Nyako was seen beaming with smiles while exchanging pleasantries with his colleagues (who knows? this may be his last public function as Adamawa State governor if the plan of his detractors work) .

However, if you ask me, I think his impeachment, is just a question of time, my only worry is that his opponents appear to be throwing sanity into the air and may not be following due process as it affects impeachment, but come to think of it? Is there any due process in this COUNTRY? Your guess is as good as mine.

Picture Source:"http://saharareporters.com/2014/07/08/buhari-absent-obasanjo-babangida-present-council-state-meeting-abuja

Tintinix: OP, please confirm this news with a proper source.

I am presently monitoring reports from Yola, and I will surely do when it becomes official.

In the early hours of this morning, there were rumours that the governor of Adamawa State; Rtd Admiral Murtala Nyako has resigned from office in a bid seen by many as a calculated attempt to avoid his impeachment. I have however been able to confirm that the governor is yet to tender his resignation as evidenced by his attendance of a Council of States meeting in Abuja today (July, 8, 2014).

I guess the waiting game continues! See the governor smiling below:


Picture Source: http://saharareporters.com/2014/07/08/buhari-absent-obasanjo-babangida-present-council-state-meeting-abuja

Despite the public holiday declared by the Adamawa State Governor, Admiral Murtala Nyako (retd.), the seven-man panel set up by the outgoing Acting Chief Judge, Justice Ambrose Mammadi, began sitting in Yola on Monday. Though the public holiday announced by Nyako was to cover Monday and Tuesday (today), but members of the panel commenced sitting at the popular Hotel J&J Holiday Villa in Yola, the state capital, amid tight security provided by both land and air troops.

When the governor announced the public holiday on Sunday, he said the period would be devoted to prayers by the citizens and civil servants in view of the insecurity in the state but many had believed the move was to stave off the impeachment process against him. Adamawa is one of the three North-East states that have been under emergency rule since May 2013 following escalating violence by the terrorist Islamic sect, Boko Haram.

The other two states are Borno and Yobe.

Mammadi had on Friday set up the panel to investigate allegations of gross misconduct levelled against the governor and his deputy, Mr. James Ngilari. The acting CJ set up the investigative panel as requested by the Adamawa State House of Assembly, which had few days ago commenced moves to impeach the governor. Members of the panel, who were escorted by armed military personnel, began deliberations behind closed doors. Though the terms of reference of the panel stipulate that its deliberation shall be held in public, journalists were barred from the venue of the sitting on Monday.

A combined team of soldiers and airmen as well as policemen surrounded the building and restricted entry and exit into the facility. An Armoured Personnel Carrier, painted in Army green colour, was stationed at the entrance of the hotel while the armed guards were seen patrolling the area. Earlier, there was an announcement that the Chief Registrar of the State High Court, Abubakar Babayola, was going to inaugurate the committee since the Ag.

Chief Judge was due to retire on Monday (yesterday). However, the sudden announcement of Monday and Tuesday as public holidays by Nyako forced a change of plans. Reporters, who converged on the hotel to cover proceedings of the panel, were compelled to leave the venue when the soldiers on guard announced that they were under strict instructions not to allow any person other than committee members, witnesses and those being probed into the building.

The Chief Press Secretary to the Speaker of the House, Mr. Solomon Kumanga, who later addressed reporters, said the investigative panel assumed a life of its own as soon as it was inaugurated. He explained that he was at a loss over the decision of the panel to hold its sitting behind closed doors because as part of its terms of reference, the House mandated the panel to hold a public hearing. A security operative confided in our correspondent that the panel would carry out its assignment whether or not those being investigated were in attendance.

The operative said, “It doesn’t matter whether or not the governor or his deputy attends the hearings. The two people are aware that they are being investigated; it is left for them to come and clear their names or allow the evidence gathered against them testify. “Whatever the case, the decision of the panel will be acted upon by the House when it reconvenes; the public holiday cannot last forever. If you ask me, it is just postponing the evil day.”

Also speaking to reporters in Yola on Monday, the Registrar of the State High Court, Abubakar Babayola, described the earlier proposed inauguration of the committee as a “mere ceremony,” which was not a mandatory constitutional requirement. Babayola had on Friday signed the statement announcing the composition of the committee on behalf of the outgoing acting CJ.

The statement partly read, “The Hon. Acting Chief Judge Hon. Justice Ambrose D. Mammadi by the powers vested in him under Section 185(5) of the 1999 Constitution as (amended) has approved the appointment of seven man panel to investigate allegations of gross misconduct of the Executive Governor of Adamawa State Admiral Murtala Nyako and the Deputy Governor of Adamawa State Mr. Bala Ngilari,” the registrar had said.
The committee is chaired by Buba Kaimaga. Other members are Laraba Hassan, Njidda Kito, Joshua Abu, Binanu Esthon, Sa’ad Lawan and Esthon Gapsiso. Twenty out of the 25 lawmakers in the state had, as part of the impeachment proceedings, asked the chief judge to set up the committee.

The acting CJ, was said to be due for retirement on Monday (yesterday). The Deputy Majority Leader in the state House of Assembly, Adamu Kamale, had berated the governor for declaring the work-free days, saying it was an attempt to prevent the panel from performing its duty.
He had said, “The issue now is not before the House. There may be mischief to this in whichever way you look at it. But, already, the (acting) Chief Judge has set up the seven-man panel to investigate the governor and his deputy and there is no way they can block the CJ.

“In addition, praying to God is supposed to be a daily affair as most of our religions are practising it. For two days to be set aside as praying days, well I don’t know his intention. I will have to read the statement probably I can pick something from it.”
Efforts to reach the governor’s spokesperson, Ahmad Sajoh, on Monday failed as calls to his mobile did not go through. However, Sajoh had told

The PUNCH via the phone from Yola on Sunday that Mammadi constituted the panel under duress. He had said, “The Acting Chief Judge constituted the panel under duress. If not, how can the same judge who gave a ruling that there was no substituted service, the same judge that gave an order that the process be stopped; be the same judge that set up this panel when he has yet to vacate his earlier order? You know that is not possible.” He said his principal was heading a law-abiding government who still held the judiciary in high esteem and was prepared to submit to the judicial process.

Source:http://www.punchng.com/news/impeachment-probe-panel-defies-nyako-begins-sitting/

Troops have cleared and taken over Balmo Forest in a military operation that lasted throughout the weekend, the Defence Headquarters has said.Prior to the operation, Balmo Forest, which stretches from Bauchi through Jigawa states with links to the fringes of the Sambisa Forest, was used by terrorists as bases and hideouts for launching attacks.

A statement by the Director, Defence Information, Maj. Gen. Chris Olukolade, in Abuja on Monday, said terrorists and armed gangs operating in the forests were completely rooted out while some were captured during the operation. It however did not specify the number of those arrested during the operation, but said that two foreigners, suspected to be mercenaries, were among those captured.
Also recovered were several weapons and equipment including generating sets, communication equipment, vehicles, motorcycles, foodstuffs and kitchen utensils. In another development, the military said over 44 terrorists died in Kerenoa and adjoining communities, following an encounter with troops who repelled their attack on the communities.

The military said that members of the sect armed with Improvised Explosive Devices and other high calibre weapons, had carried out a predawn attack on the communities but were overpowered by the troops. During the operation, several of them were captured as well as weapons and ammunition of various calibre, according to the Defence headquarters. “Meanwhile, troops on routine patrol around Banki and Miyanti in Borno State during the weekend fought through an ambush laid by the terrorists resulting in casualties on both sides. “Altogether, a total of six soldiers were lost in the various encounters with terrorists while those wounded are receiving treatment,” the statement added.

Source: http://www.punchng.com/news/weve-taken-over-bharam-base-says-military/

To some he is a rebel with a cause, to others he is a spoiler bent on rocking the boat, but almost all agree that as governor of Rivers State, Rotimi Amaechi has performed excellently. The model primary and secondary schools that compare with the best in Africa, the healthcare scheme conceived by the administration anchored on model primary healthcare centres and secondary healthcare facilities are among indicators that have drawn compliments to the pace and pattern of governance in Rivers State. Amaechi who is also chairman of the Nigerian Governors Forum, NGF last week hosted an international Energy, Environment and Investment Forum attended by some of the world’s leading infrastructure experts. On the sidelines of the forum, Governor Amaechi took time articulate his agitations to visiting journalists. Excerpts:

WAS there any agreement between you and the Federal Government that led to the release of the Rivers State Government owned aircraft?

There was nothing like that. I didn’t even see anybody in the Federal Government; we didn’t even have any meeting. I just called one person. It was not this plane they were interested in releasing, but the (security) helicopters. I said I wanted to sell the helicopters and the person I called offered to talk to the president to seek the approval of the helicopters and they got the approval. (to bring them into the country)

And in the course of getting approval for the helicopters, they got approval for the plane to be released. There was no negotiation, no interface or whatsoever other than the telephone conversation. So, what is all this rumour that I am going to the PDP? I have finished with the PDP.

There is the insinuation that you were planning to run with Aminu Tambuwal?

There was nothing like that. These are fabrications by people.

Why do political parties in Nigeria usually abhor internal democracy and adopt consensus for party positions?

Who did we force to step down?[b]

Why did you ask your candidate (Sam Jaja) to step down?

Why I asked my candidate to step down was because I had given my commitment to Asiwaju that I would support whichever candidate he supported. And the reason I gave him my commitment was because I had said to him that we needed to look at this issue of being a Muslim party.

Rotimi Amaechi
Rotimi Amaechi
Commitment to Asiwaju

So, first we need to get a new chairman and he has to be a Christian. So, he said to me: “Okay, I have brought a Christian and according to what you said the day we were negotiating things. Then why are you now asking somebody to run against the person based on the promise you made to me?” And I like to keep promises.

In October, the number of APC governors would have decreased by one and another election will hold in Osun in a few weeks, what is your party doing to avert another disaster?

You will help us to tell the president to keep the soldiers in his house. All of us are part of the problem of Nigeria. President impounded newspapers and journalists did not do anything. In another country, they would have protested on the streets. We are talking but there is need for him (president) to stop using soldiers to conduct election.

Does it mean your party is afraid it may lose Osun?

How can we lose Osun? Say something else.

Are you satisfied the country’s democracy is evolving?

Are we not ashamed that it is still evolving; every year it is evolving? Next year will make it 16 years of post-Abdusalam Abubakar. When shall we grow up?

Given the allegation of the militarisation of the Ekiti election, what do you think is the proper security measure for election?

The law says police and let us see the consequences. Are you saying there are no soldiers in Borno?

What is your take on the issue with the NJC over appointment of Chief Judge of Rivers State?

The quarrel we have about the NJC is that the constitution says 10 years at the bar and that is the only qualification for a Chief Judge. It didn’t say whether you should be from Rivers State judiciary or most senior Judge.

But there are recommendations by the NJC?

Yes, I agree. You send your names to the NJC. You send three names; they pick up one and send it to you. In our own case, they sent a name to us and said the reason why they didn’t take the person we preferred was because he was a Judge of the Customary Court of Appeal and that was what disqualified him. Then we wrote back and said you are wrong, the law says 10 years. It doesn’t matter where he comes from. So, I didn’t see where you saw it must be the most senior judge. And the court said so.

What prompted you to move out from the normal because that has been the tradition.

It is not true. Was Teslim Elias a Judge? He was a Professor of Law. The law says 10 years.

Won’t people read that as interference in the judiciary?
[/b]
No. It is not me. They are the people interfering.

The same law says the governor has the right to accept your recommendation or reject. If he rejects, he writes to you that I have rejected. I rejected in writing and re-forwarded the name of the person I felt by law qualified to be the Chief Judge. They said I have no right to reject. So, you see, I am fighting on the side of the people and I thought journalists would join me.

You sent three names…

Yes, including hers (Justice Okocha) but we said in this order and to help NJC, we attached the reports on all of them – the SSS report. They said it doesn’t matter because it is not part of the requirement. We sent report by NBA – they all rejected her nomination. All their comments on the three judges were sent to them and we didn’t favour anybody. We said these were the three judges you said we should send and all that informed our choice.

It is not me. Don’t forget that there is State Judicial Council. I didn’t mind any of the three, the only reason why I reacted was the reasons they gave for rejecting the first person. Don’t forget that when they sent it, I was aware and I said fine, I don’t mind working with anyone of them. But when they wrote to me to say we reject the number one sent by the State Judicial Council because he is not qualified since he was the President of the Customary Court. I said Haba; that is not what the law says.

The law simply says 10 years at the bar. He didn’t say it must be a Judge or marry from Rivers State. It didn’t say it must come from Rivers State. We once had a Chief Judge, Justice Douglas. He was already in Court of Appeal in Enugu when they brought him back to Port Harcourt to be Chief Judge.

What plans have you after office? Is it true you have your eyes on the Senate?

I will go and love my wife because she is harassing me every day. I have not shown her enough love and attention, so I need to do that for six months to one year. I will spend one or two years with my children since they lost the chance of staying with their father. That is three years. Then I will be 53 years old. I will go to the university to do another first degree either in history or law. I will do a Masters and a PhD and then I will be 60-something. Then the remaining years, I will teach as I get closer to the grave.

Are you exiting the political scene?

It was Channels Television that asked me whether I wanted to run for presidency and I said I couldn’t answer that question. They asked why? I said because in Nigeria nobody runs for president. You just sit and you become president; you just see yourself one day wake up and become president prepared or unprepared. There were only two persons who have emerged president by wanting to be president of Nigeria. They were Generals Ibrahim Babangida and Sani Abacha. So, the rest, especially the civilian presidents sat down in their houses and were made president. So, why not allow me to sit down and see if I would be president?

What are the chances of the APC in Rivers State in 2015?

Wait and see. Just tell them to keep their soldiers at the barracks and allow us to go and cast our votes.

What if they bring in soldiers?

I won’t tell them what I will do. Didn’t you hear Osun State saying carry your charms? Did you read the story of Ombatse? Did you hear that people were handing their guns on their own volition? What is the assurance that you would complete your projects before leaving office, especially the monorail?

Monorail would be completed. The reason the monorail must be completed at all costs is political. I want to ride in the monorail and call the Amaechi haters to come and see that I am riding on the monorail. Even if it is May 29, 2015, people will ride on the monorail. We would hang rail. What is delaying the monorail is just the terminal where they would maintain it. That is what they are fixing now, once they fix that, it will be ready.

What about the secondary schools?

It is huge and that is the problem we had with that. We have completed at least seven out of the 23 that we want to build. The cost is N4.5 billion per school. It is huge and basically the financial diversion at the national level – the oil sector has crippled the states. All the states are being denied money. The stealing in the oil industry is so bad.

How would you compare your first term to the second?

First term we had money and the problem we had in the second term is the fact that the wife of the President is from here. We have a situation whereby she is in direct control of the police, SSS, Air Force. I didn’t say she controlled it through her husband; she is in direct control. Kidnapping is back into Port Harcourt and how do I stop it when the forces I used to stop them with have been removed? Now, people cannot move freely in the state because of kidnappers. So how do you account for that in a situation where the wife of the president takes over the security? This is not the first time I am saying it; I have said it severally and they have never denied it. The army has not denied it, the president has not denied it, the wife has not denied it, and the police also have not denied it.

Since the exit of Mbu as Rivers State Commissioner of Police, have there been any changes?

No. The only difference is that one police commissioner is more civilised than other but it is still the same. You run a government whereby the police are not working with you at all, so you can’t even say you want to go on demolition and the police will follow you.

What if the helicopters come in now?

Before we had a wonderful security system, so it was the security system that gave us the control of the state that made us to introduce helicopters where we would have camera in the helicopters and they can fly round the state and whatever we see we act on it.

Brigade commander

Now, how do you manage it? You have a system where if you go to arrest anybody; if the person says he is PDP or working for the president with AK 47 in his hand, they would let him go. The army arrested seven people with AK 47 and people are not asking, where are they? When they were arrested, I called the brigade commander that I heard that seven people had been arrested. He told me that he has handed them over to police.

Where are they now?

They have been released. Police have confirmed that they have been released and they were seen with seven AK 47!

Why were they released? They were released by Mbu not the current man and that is why I said the current man is more civilised than Mbu.


Is the Nigerian Governors Forum still effective as a body?

What are we doing before that we are not doing again? The only thing we were doing before that we are not doing again is controlling the stealing of oil money. Now, it has gone bad that nobody can control it. Before when we saw the stealing, we would come together and tell the President that we don’t like the stealing.

Stealing in the oil industry

They were more careful then. So, if you say it is to stop us from shouting against the stealing because that was what was annoying the president that every day we were shouting about the stealing in the oil industry. The stealing was controlled by then, but now the stealing has no control at all. Beyond that, has president stopped me from what I want to say? The answer is no because I can still say what I want to say.

What is your succession plan and why are you insisting the next governor should not come from Ikwere?

I have said that severally because as an Ikwere man, I have served for eight years. You can’t do upland and riverine politics in Rivers State. If you do that, it would be unfair to the riverine people. And I have been telling my friends who are in riverine area not to pursue that politics. Fifteen local government areas are upland, eight are riverine: who will win? Politics is a game of number. So, it is not in the interest of anybody to do riverine/upland. All you can say for now is that it would be unfair for an Ikwere man to come back as governor, no matter the numbers. Yes, Ikwere people can claim that we have 1.1million votes out of the 2.3million votes. What it means is that if you are a patriot, allow others, give the 1.1million votes to anybody of your choice, not to have appropriated those votes because the number exist.

We are saying that Ikwere fought political injustice when Bayelsa was here and by then we used to hear about one million from Bayelsa, we didn’t know that they are only about 600,000 people. And then the Ikwere people fought and fought until they created the new Rivers State. Having created the new Rivers State and you have the highest number, the right thing to do, having served it is for an Ikwere man to have served eight years and we ship out since there are other groups. There is no group that does not have qualified candidates to govern Rivers State.

Fulfilment of agreement

When Ikwere people visited me in my first two months as governor, I asked them to go to Dr. Peter Odili with gifts to thank him because he was an instrument to the realisation of an Ikwere man as governor. They did it and I know he was shocked because he didn’t know I sent them. He was shocked to receive them and they thanked him. They thanked him because he pursued it and that was why when I was dropped, he took my cousin (Omehia), who is also an Ikwere man in fulfilment of that agreement.

So, once I became governor, about three or four months later, Ikwere people came to visit me and I told them ‘thank you for coming to see me as your son and you are my fathers, go and thank Dr. Odili for the realisation of your dream. You have been dreaming to become governor and this is the first time you are getting it.’ Now, my own dream is to leave office and not supporting an Ikwere candidate because the reason for which Dr. Odili supported an Ikwere candidate was to ensure that this power rotates round the ethnic groups in Rivers State.

Rivers has regularly harvested 2.1million votes for the PDP. In 2015, do you think the votes in place would be up to two million?

I am not God. We should even surpass the two million but what I don’t know is where it will go to, whether PDP or APC. Let us wait and see.


Source:http://www.vanguardngr.com/2014/07/jonathan-moved-governors-forum-amaechi/

The move to impeach Adamawa State Governor, Alhaji Murtala Nyako, took a dramatic turn on Sunday as the governor declared Monday and Tuesday as work-free days in the state. The governor’s opponents in the state House of Assembly said Nyako’s action was an attempt to frustrate his impeachment. The governor was said to have played a fast one on his opponents following indications that the Acting Chief Judge of the state, Justice Ambrose Mammadi, might inaugurate on Monday (today) the seven-member panel he set up on Friday to investigate the allegations of gross misconduct levelled against the governor and his deputy, James Ngilari.

The lawmakers accused Nyako of mischief, vowing that the governor and his deputy could not stop the state acting chief judge. A statement on Sunday by Nyako’s Chief of Staff, A. Abba, stated, “His Excellency, Governor Murtala Nyako, has approved Monday, July 7 and Tuesday, July 8 as work-free days in Adamawa State.“This is to enable the people of the state to reflect on the current happenings in the country and to use the period to offer special prayers for peace in the state and the country.

“The period is to also allow Adamawa workers reflect on their current challenges. It is also a thanksgiving period for the citizens to appreciate God’s protection despite all challenges.”But the Deputy Majority Leader of the House, Mr. Adamu Kamale, told one of our correspondents on the phone that the governor was merely ‘mischievous’ by declaring the public holidays. Kamale said, “The issue now is not before the House. There may be mischief to this in whichever way you look at it. But, already, the (acting) Chief Judge has set up the seven-man panel to investigate the governor and his deputy and there is no way they can block the CJ.

“In addition, praying to God is supposed to be a daily affair as most of our religions are practising it. For two days to be set aside as praying days, well I don’t know his intention. I will have to read the statement, probably I can pick something from it.”

The governor however alleged that the acting chief judge had set up the seven-man committee under duress.

Speaking through his Director of Press and Media, Ahmad Sajoh, in a telephone interview with one of our correspondents from Yola, the governor said that the promoters of the impeachment move were not law-abiding.“The Acting Chief Judge constituted the panel under duress. If not, how can the same judge who gave a ruling that there was no substituted service, the same judge that gave an order that the process be stopped; be the same judge that set up this panel when he is yet to vacate his earlier order? You know that is not possible,” Sajoh said.

According to him, the governor is heading a law-abiding government who still holds the judiciary in high esteem and he is prepared to submit himself to the judicial process. Sajoh, however, expressed concern that it had become obvious that promoters of the impeachment plot were determined not to obey the courts because by their actions, they have so far demonstrated a disdain for the judiciary. But Kamale said there was nothing unusual about the development. He explained that the House was carrying out its functions in line with laid down constitutional procedures in such matters. Kamale told The PUNCH that members of the House were determined to follow through with the process.

“We have been following what the constitution says. Since we began this process, we have never had any talks with any individual or group; we have been following the process as prescribed by the constitution. We are on course,” he said. Meanwhile, the governor and the Ahmadu Fintiri-led State House of Assembly are set to return to court over the propriety or otherwise of the moves by the legislators to impeach Nyako and Ngilari.

The PUNCH learnt in Abuja, on Sunday, that a Lagos-based lawyer, Femi Falana (SAN), had been approached by Nyako and his supporters to handle the governor’s case. The House leadership, which is said to enjoy the support of powerful political interests in Abuja, is also shopping for a prominent lawyer to counter Falana. Our correspondents also learnt that the top hierarchy of the opposition All Progressives Congress had also intervened in the matter. It is still unclear what exactly the APC leaders are doing but it was learnt that they were determined to ensure that Nyako did not go down without a fight.

The National Publicity Secretary of the APC, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, who confirmed the intervention of party leaders, said what the party was doing was not meant for the pages of newspapers. However, The PUNCH learnt on Sunday that the soldiers deployed in the residence of the Acting Chief Judge were still keeping vigil over the property. A source who pleaded anonymity for fear of retribution said, “The issue we are dealing with has gone beyond local politics. You know the Chief of Defence Staff, who is from this state, and the National Security Adviser has become involved.”

It was also learnt that leading members of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party from the state, including a former national chairman of the party, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur; former Political Adviser to the President, Ahmed Gulak; and Senator Jibril Aminu met in Abuja on Saturday night to devise a counter strategy to whatever the APC had been preparing to save the governor. The members of the panel to probe the governor, as announced by the acting CJ, are Buba Kaimaga (Chairman), Laraba Hassan, Njidda Kito, Joshua Abu, Binanu Esthon, Sa’ad Lawan, Mayo-Belwa, and Esthon Gapsiso.

Source:http://www.punchng.com/news/impeachment-nyako-declares-public-holiday/

Osun State Governor, Rauf Aregbesola, has said that he is prepared to face Peoples Democratic Party forces in the August 9 governorship election, insisting that he will WIN the election by popular votes. Aregbesola, who spoke in Osogbo, on Saturday, warned the PDP against rigging the governorship election. According to him, the PDP does not have the support of the masses like him.

When asked how his party would react if there was an attempt by SECURITY forces to restrict its leaders and members, Aregbesola said nobody could stop the people of Osun from exercising their civic right. He said, “I’m a product of the popular forces, by popular forces, I mean the people, I emanated from them, I’m a product of their struggle. I’ve interacted on a daily basis with the people from the outset of my administration. They know me and I know them. I have affected their lives through populist programmes.

“I’m from the street and it is easy for me to go back to the street because that’s where my people are. Can they (PDP) go to the street? “They don’t know who they are facing; my real home is the street. Look at me, do I look like a governor? That’s why I call my administration government unusual because we need to bring passion and vision into governance and break away from stagnating ways of doing things. “Let’s MEET on the street. My administration has the full support of the masses.” But the Minister of State for Defence, Mr. Musiliu Obanikoro, said the PDP would stop the APC from rigging the election.

Obanikoro, who spoke in Osogbo, on Saturday, accused the APC of planning to rig the election, stressing that the PDP would resist the alleged attempt.On the allegation that the PDP is planning to militarise Osun governorship election, Obanikoro explained that there was the need to provide the electorate with a level playing field devoid of harassment and intimidation.

He said, “We are not here to capture Osun. We want people to come out without any fear or intimidation and cast their votes. The noise, the hullabaloo that you are hearing is because they want to rig. We know them too well with their capacity to rig election. They are not for one man, one vote. They have been importing people into the state.”

Source:http://www.punchng.com/news/im-ready-for-pdp-forces-aregbesola/

A stormy session is expected today as Northern and Southern delegates at the ongoing National Conference head for a showdown over POWER configurations in the consideration of the report of the Committee on Devolution of Powers. The North, Vanguard learnt, is especially concerned with recommendations of the committee adopted last Thursday that could put the South at an advantage and where not, erase the advantage that the North has had in the polity. The National Conference had last Thursday adopted recommendations among others for the creation of 19 new states with three in each geopolitical zone and an extra one in the Southeast and also resolved to delist local governments from the constitution and as such remove the advantage conferred on the North with the plurality of local governments.

It was gathered that Northern governors had reached out to the delegates to rescind the decisions. The plot to reverse the decisions nonetheless, Southern delegates at the weekend, were also pressing home their advantage with strategic link to minorities in the North ahead of the consideration of other important recommendations of the Committee on Devolution. Ahead of today’s meeting, Southern delegates were last night locked in a meeting with some prominent delegates from the North-Central during which they were said to be pondering over a DEAL that will be mutually beneficial to both parties. That meeting taking place in the Asokoro Abuja residence of a powerful Southern media mogul was ongoing at press time.

The Southern delegates had at an earlier meeting a week ago resolved to press for the increase of derivation from 13% recommended by the Committee on Devolution of Powers to 21.5%.The meeting which is believed to have in attendance more than 200 delegates, Vanguard learnt, is aiming to weaken the opposition being mounted by the core northern delegates, who Vanguard gathered, are working to ensure that delegates don’t reach the mandatory requirements needed for any resolution to sail through. To ensure that the core north delegates are again defeated, the Southern delegates meeting in Asokoro would resolve to SPEAK with one voice on any issue being opposed by the core Northern delegates.

Efforts made by core Northern delegates to maintain the status quo in other key recommendations in previous committees’ reports were not successful. Among the issues the region lost out in, included its efforts to kill proposals for rotational presidency between the North and South, creation of state police, reversal of current national anthem, among others. The core north had equally, previously kicked against the scrapping of local government administration from the constitution. But the southern delegates succeeded in getting it approved through massive support from delegates from North-Central and delegates from minority groups in the North-East and North-West.

The arrowhead of the core north’s opposition to the resolution and former Political Adviser to late General Sani Abacha, Prof. Auwalu Yadudu, in a statement, on behalf of Northern delegates which was circulated to northern-based media organisations, had rejected the entire resolution of the Conference Committee on Political Restructuring and Forms of Governance which they considered not favourable to the North. To ensure that the core northern delegates are again defeated in the recommendations of the Committee on Devolution of Powers, today’s meeting by Southern delegates with their North Central and northern minority delegates would decide how to take a stand during voting tomorrow.

Just as the delegates from the South are perfecting their strategies, those from the core north, who are in the opposition are not resting in their efforts at thwarting the efforts of the Southern delegates. Vanguard gathered that they have resolved to resist any attempt by the Chairman of the conference, Idris Kutigi, to allow his deputy, Bolaji Akinyemi to preside over the two-day session where the devolution of powers committee’s recommendations would be considered. The core northern delegates are said not to be comfortable with Akinyemi, who they believe is not only from the South but appears sympathetic to the southern cause at the conference.

FG tightens SECURITY at confab venue

Ahead of the showdown, security has been reinforced around the venue of the conference. Besides, delegates from the South and North are also said to be preparing physically for today’s expected stormy session. A delegate from the North confided in Vanguard that their colleagues have been asked not to wear ‘agbada’, a traditional wear in the northern part of the country to the conference plenary today and tomorrow, given that anything could happen during disagreements that would crop up among the delegates.










Source:http://www.vanguardngr.com/2014/07/states-creation-north-south-head-showdown/

CONCERNED Muslim Professionals, CMP, an Islamic group, yesterday, called on the Sultan of Sokoto and President-General of the Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs, NSCIA, Alhaji Sa’ad Abubakar III, to engage members of Boko Haram Islamic sect in discussions.

CMP, while expressing concern over the activities of the sect, said the insurgency persisted because of the failure of Muslim leadership to intervene.
According to the group, several members of the sect would have laid down their arms and many wouldn’t have joined the erroneous sect, if the Muslim leadership in Nigeria had engaged the sect for discussions.

The President of the organisation, Alhaji Mohammed Saidu, in a letter, entitled “Echoing the message of General Yakubu Gowon (rtd): A call for action on Islamic leadership of Northern Nigeria,” said there had been no visible or invisible effort by the Muslim leadership to convene such engagements at even A SINGLE location, let alone covering the whole troubled region.

“That could be why demand for action on the leadership is repeatedly made by well meaning citizens,” the group noted.
The group in the letter obtained by journalists, yesterday, in Abuja, regretted that the activities of the sect had become a great embarrassment to the Islamic faith.

The CMP said: “If the family of billionaire, Umar Mutallab, could have a terrorist in its midst, then such a disease could be everywhere; it can only take the effort of the Sultan and the other Muslim leaders to mobilise COMPLIANCE by parents and relatives, which is part of the actions being demanded by well-meaning Nigerians.

“The biggest task before our Muslim and Islamic leaders in the North is to reconcile the warring communities of Muslims and Christians through forgiveness, healing and genuine social INTEGRATION and coexistence; similar to the one referred to by General Gowon on the Muslims of the South-West geopolitical zone. The other task is to make Boko Haram come out of hiding, denounce terrorism and embrace government’s overtures.

“A failure on the part of the Muslim leadership (under His Eminence the Sultan) to discharge these responsibilities/actions to the later will render it of questionable ability, doubtful recognition, decimal loyalty or an outright DISMISSAL as a mere smoke-screen. As obedient and loyalists to His Eminence the Sultan, our hearts bleed on these realities.”

Source:http://www.vanguardngr.com/2014/07/muslim-group-asks-sultan-dialogue-boko-haram/

The All Progressives Congress in Osun State has raised the alarm over the alleged use of masked armed men as Security guards by the governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, Senator Iyiola Omisore. The APC, in a statement issued on Saturday by its Director of Research, Publicity and Strategy, Mr. Kunle Oyatomi, said that while security agencies were battling to free Nigeria from the grip of terrorists, the governorship candidate of the PDP in the State was encouraging terrorism by using masked ‘terrorists’ as his security guards in his campaign in Osun State.

A photograph sent to our correspondent by the APC showed a masked man with a gun behind Omisore. The ruling party asked security agencies in the state to investigate the use of masked armed men by Omisore.The statement read in part, “The PDP governorship candidate, Iyiola Omisore, has introduced the terrorist culture of armed masked men in his CAMPAIGN in a flagrant public gesture intended to intimidate the electorate.

“Omisore was spotted during his CAMPAIGN closely guarded by a masked, suspected armed terrorist, the first of its kind to be seen anywhere in the political history of electioneering in Yorubaland. “The APC observes that while President Jonathan fights armed and masked terrorists in the North with Nigerian soldiers, the reverse is being done in Osun, by Jonathan’s man, hiding behind security cover to intimidate the electorate with masked and armed suspected terrorist guards.

“Political terrorism has arrived in Nigeria’s democratic space by the evil construct of the PDP.” The spokesperson of the APC in the state alleged that the PDP’s “desperation to WIN by force of arms” rather than the votes of the people had begun to manifest clearly. The APC stated that the PDP’s resort to terrorism and electronic manipulation of the voting process would fail because it was not the wish of the citizens of Osun State to replace Aregbesola’s excellence in governance with a clueless character. The APC also said it heard through the grapevine that the PDP had brought bales of fake police uniforms with substantial arms into THE STATE with the intention to attack party leaders. But Omisore, in his response to SUNDAY PUNCH enquiry denied the allegation of using terrorists as SECURITY GUARDS.

The media aide to the PDP candidate, Mr. Diran Odeyemi, said his principal’s security guards were policemen, operatives of State Security Service and Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps and not terrorists as being claimed by the APC. He said, “We all know the style of APC is to accuse others whatever is their plan or intention. If they are really concerned about the security men in Omisore’s campaign, they should contact security agencies to find out and stop playing to the GALLERY. “In the campaign train are men from the SSS, the Police, Civil Defence. PDP will never preach violence neither do we rely on thugs to WIN election.”

Source:http://www.punchng.com/news/apc-accuses-omisore-of-using-masked-guards/

Second Republic Governor of Kaduna State, Alhaji Balarabe Musa, speaks on topical issues in this interview.

What do you think about the seeming inability of the Federal Government to rescue over 200 schoolgirls, who were abducted from Government Secondary School, Chibok, Borno State, over two months ago?

The inability to resolve the issue of the abduction of the schoolgirls from Chibok, Borno State, and the continued abduction of women and children is a show of gross incompetence on the part of the Federal Government. Apart from that, President Goodluck Jonathan and his government went ahead to unpatriotically invite foreigners to solve a problem that the Federal Government has the capacity to solve. And up till today, the foreigners have not been able to identify where the abducted children are. Nothing concrete is coming both from the Federal Government and those invited to help.

Some have blamed northern leaders for allowing the Boko Haram menace to fester.

It is irrelevant because the so-called northern leaders are not the Federal Government. They cannot control any part of the country. They are just elders, who have been identified for their roles or age. They have no power. They don’t even have moral authority. It is the Federal Government that has the legal power and moral authority to face the situation. The highest authorities in the North are the governors. Even the governors can’t do much. They are the chief security officers of their states but they don’t control the police, the army and other security services. They don’t even control the funds that could have enabled them to perform.

Given the fact the Boko Haram has claimed it’s advancing the cause of Islam, can’t northern religious leaders, such as the emirs, negotiate with the insurgents?

First of all, it is quite clear that Boko Haram cannot be Islamic because they are violating the fundamental tenets of Islam and one of the tenets is the dignity of women folk. It’s a consensus that the Boko Haram insurgents are agents that are out to destabilise the country either by the Federal Government itself or some band of thieves or by foreign imperialists. There is no way a sectional group in Nigeria can mount such insurgency as the Boko Haram. They don’t have the resources; they don’t have the cohesion or coordination. It must be either by the Federal Government or bands of thieves in the country, who are rich; or foreign imperialist, who have targeted Nigeria for disintegration by 2015. These are the forces we should look at as possible sponsors of this insurgency working towards the destabilisation of Nigeria.

The two leading political parties in the country, the Peoples Democratic Party and the All Progressives Congress, have been blaming each other for the insurgency. Don’t you think they should unite to solve the national problem?

The PDP and the APC cannot unite. One is seeking to hold on to power at the federal level and the other wants to take it. It’s very difficult for them to unite on any issue. In fact, as political parties, I don’t think the PDP or the APC is capable of mounting such an insurgency as the Boko Haram. As government in power, certainly they can, but as a political party, I don’t think they can. That rules out the APC from being responsible for this kind of insurgency. The fact that the APC has been criticising the Federal Government for failing to stop the insurgency is quite logical.

In view of the current state of the nation, some have said it won’t be proper for the President to seek re-election in 2015. Do you agree?

Considering the negative state of the nation, which has affected every part of Nigeria, particularly the level of poverty and insecurity, Jonathan should not seek re-election in 2015. His party will not even nominate him. But if it does, they will face the consequences because Jonathan will lose the election woefully. He will not get reasonable votes even in the South-South where he comes from because the South-South is also suffering from the negative state of the nation. South-South people are also suffering from the current level of unemployment, hunger and insecurity. Jonathan’s incompetence has affected every part of Nigeria. Without the misuse of incumbency and money power, there is no way he can get nomination even from the PDP, let alone winning the election.

Your party, the Peoples Redemption Party, was among the parties deregistered by the Independent National Electoral Commission. Now that INEC has said deregistered parties should reapply, would your party reapply?

No, we will not reapply because we don’t want to be part of the rubbish that INEC is doing. As far as we are concerned, the PRP is both a movement and an electoral body. We will continue to exist given the provisions of the Chapter 2 of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. We will continue to exist whether we are registered or not, whether we can contest election or not.

The Senate recently empowered INEC to deregister political parties that fail to win any seat during general elections.

The issue of deregistration of political parties is in complete contravention of Section 40 of the 1999 Constitution, which says in effect that INEC cannot deregister a political party that it had already recognised. That’s one. Secondly, one of the deregistered political parties is the Fresh Democratic Party. The party went to court and the court declared clearly that the deregistration of the FDP on two grounds was unconstitutional, illegal and therefore null and void. Almost one year after the judgement was delivered, INEC has refused to honour the judgement. This shows that INEC is lawless. It has no respect for the laws and constitution of Nigeria. INEC lied that it had appealed the judgement but that is not true.

All that INEC did was to give notice of an appeal. Giving notice of an appeal is not the same thing as filing an appeal. Up till now INEC has not filed an appeal and it has refused to allow the FDP to participate in elections. This has an implication for other political parties that were deregistered on the same grounds that INEC deregistered the FDP. The two grounds on which the INEC deregistered the Fresh Democratic Party were: one, that it did not win any election or, at least, one seat in a state House of Assembly. The court had ruled that that provision that a political party must win at least a seat in a state House of Assembly was in contravention of the constitution and, therefore, was declared null and void.

On the other leg, the court ruled that INEC did not give the political party fair hearing before deregistering it. These grounds are applicable to all the other political parties that were deregistered, therefore, no political party, as of today, has been deregistered in accordance with the constitution, yet INEC would not allow them to participate in elections. In any case, INEC cannot conduct a free and fair election in Nigeria. First, it’s because free, fair, and credible election in Nigeria is impossible due to the conditions under which elections are conducted. These conditions include first, the deciding role of money in Nigerian politics. Nobody can win any election in Nigeria without an exorbitant amount of money. Secondly, the misuse of incumbency at all levels of government; federal, state and local.

Thirdly, the cost charged by electoral bodies in Nigeria is not fair. I’ll give an example with the forthcoming local government elections in Kaduna State. The demand of the state electoral body is that every candidate for the post of the chairman of a local government council must pay N250,000 and everyone who wants to be a councilor must pay N100,000. Which means money power is the deciding factor in elections in Nigeria; therefore the elections cannot be free, fair and transparent.

What about the Ekiti State governorship election, which was adjudged free and fair by local and foreign observers.

It’s the same falsehood that is perpetrated through the media and various spokespersons. The Ekiti election or any other election in Nigeria cannot be free and fair with the influence of money power and misuse of incumbency and the excessive involvement of the military and other security forces. A free and fair election cannot have the level of participation of the army, police and other security forces as well as the harassment that occurred in Ekiti just before the election.

In the Ekiti election, members of the ruling party were free to campaign without harassment by security services but the members of the opposition, which is the APC, were not free to campaign in Ekiti without harassment. It went to the extent that even the campaign manager of the incumbent governor was virtually told to stop campaigning or face the consequence. The Ekiti election cannot in anyway be called free and fair because it was not. But the media and others are giving the impression that it was free and fair. It was not free and fair. It was not even tolerable.

Source: http://www.punchng.com/politics/2015-jonathanll-lose-woefully-says-balarabe-musa/

Very recently, precisely on June 23, 2014, Mr Femi Fani-Kayode (FFK), a one-time Minister of Aviation during the Olusegun Obasanjo Presidency published an article titled “Ekiti– some hard lessons for APC”, where he congratulated the People’s Democratic Party and its candidate, Mr Ayodele Fayose over the party’s success in the just concluded gubernatorial elections in Ekiti State. Please permit to also extend my sincere congratulations to Governor-elect-Mr Ayodele Fayose and the out-going Governor-Kayode Fayemi (PhD), both of whom have been magnanimous in victory and in defeat. Nigerian politicians certainly have a lot to learn from the latter, given his uncommon display of sportsmanship, and his concession of defeat.

In the said article, FFK advanced some reasons as to why the All Progressives Congress (APC) lost the election. Arguing essentially that the party lost the election owing to the growing apathy of Nigerians for the party and what he called APC’s cult like modus-operandi, and also due to “their evil, covert and subterranean agenda, or wish to turn the Yoruba people, and indeed the entire south, into perpetual slaves and also because of APC’s patently and unapologetic anti-Christian agenda”. Arguing further, FFK noted that “given the history of our country and the suffering of the people of the South-west over the last 53 years since we gained independence from the British, no true Yoruba nationalist should have anything to do with them.” He further argued that some elements who he claimed are from the ‘Yoruba nation’ “are working day and night to hand over power to a die-hard, ultra-conservative, ''born to rule'', hegemonistic, brutal dictator and despot like Mohammadu Buhari, who believes that Nigeria was bequeathed to him and to his people by God and his forefathers”.

While I absolutely agree that FFK has an inalienable right to his opinion, and as such, owes no one any apology for the views expressed by him, where I however disagree, is FFK’s seeming denial of the truth and his consistent situation of Nigeria’s current dilemma within the confines of the APC leadership; particularly, his unswerving ethnic jingoism. FFK, given his self-acclaimed ascription to himself as a progressive, however failed woefully to admit that there is no genealogical difference between the APC and the PDP. He also failed to accept the fact that Nigeria’s problem is not just a Northern problem, but that of every politician who at one time or the other have had the opportunity to preside over the affairs of this entity called Nigeria, himself inclusive.

For the purpose of this article therefore, I will disagree with FFK on the following grounds. The first is on FFK’s claim that Fayemi lost the elections in Ekiti owing to the growing disdain Nigerians are beginning to have for the party, a claim which implies that Fayemi was merely a victim of APC’s rejection by the EKITIs and the Yoruba people in general. With all due respect to FFK, I think he goofed in this regard. Several arguments have been advanced has responsible for Fayemi’s loss in Ekiti, out of which I do not think ‘APC’s perceived rejection’ by the Ekiti people is a major factor. In my opinion, Fayemi (and not the APC) lost the elections primarily because he failed to understand the political sociology of the Ekiti people.

Several months before the election, there were a number of policies which Fayemi’s administration took, and which supposedly had not gone down with most Ekitis’ particularly the civil servants, most notably of which was the Competency Test/Teachers Development Needs Assessment (TDNA). As a consequence of this spat, the outgoing governor refused to pay the new Teachers’ Salary Structure (TSS) until a few weeks to the election when it had become very glaring that the Ekiti teachers and civil servants had made up their minds to vote him out, with majority of them believing that Fayemi’s civil service reforms are too frontal and insulting.

Second was the issue of Fayemi’s perceived elitist political orientation and what some observers have argued as “an alarming disconnect with the Ekiti people”, among which were Okada riders, artisans, market women, civil servants etc., with the majority perceiving the out-going governor as largely foreign in his governmental relations and socio-economic interactions. In contrast to Fayemi, Fayose is widely believed to be a ‘Man of the People’ and an enigma, who even in the face of intimidation, and his many battles with the Obasanjo presidency during his first term in office did not forget his primary constituency--the masses or if you like the average Ekiti man on the street, most of who saw it as an opportunity to identify with Fayose in his hour of need.

One voter was even quoted as saying “we support Fayose because he understands us. He is close to the common man and knows our problem,” So for this group of electorates, Fayose’s supposedly tainted past, mattered less. Next in line to this hypothesis is the perceived notion that Fayemi ran a government described in some quarters as favourably positioned to benefit “only a coterie of friends and hangers-on, with the assumption that the vote of the educated would go for him”. Fayemi, they argued “defined his opposition as thugs, but failed to appreciate that Fayose has a decent record in many parts of the state despite the over-simplified imaging of him as thuggish and unpolished”. These issues as painted above appear quite logical and understandable, and they could sell as probable reasons why Fayemi lost re-election, as against FFK’s obscure and ludicrous postulation that the PDP under whose banner Fayose ran was better than the APC. Deducing from the above explorations, it seems quite obvious that Ekiti people voted for a man (Fayose) they thought they knew and understood, and not a Fayemi they presumably perceive as ‘American’ in theory and in practice.

In the same article also, FFK claimed that Nigerians in general and the Yorubas’ in particular are fast becoming intolerant of the APC’s perceived Northern hegemonic agenda, and as such have no option than to support his party, the People’s Democratic Party. FFK however forgot to add that he was also at some point in time a card carrying member of the APC, a party he described in May 2013 on the occasion of his declaration in Ado Ekiti as an assemblage of people “his spirit had been with long ago?” And that he was dumping the PDP because he doubted “PDP’s sincerity in delivering good governance to Nigerians, given the autocracy of its decision making body and the rascality of President Goodluck Jonathan in a political feud with the Rivers state governor, Rotimi Amaechi”.

As I write, Goodluck Jonathan is still the President of Nigeria and the perceived feud between him and Governor Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers state, in my estimation has probably gone from ‘worst’ to ‘worse’. It is also imperative to add that as at the time FFK was declaring for the APC, the party, as it then was (and still is) paraded the same Muhammadu Buhari, whose personality FFK now derides. Interestingly, FFK never had any problem(s) to be a member of the APC then. The same party he now describes as Almajiri's People's Congress and a party laden with “sympathy for Boko Haram”. The question then is--was FFK oblivious of all these tendencies when he was a member of the party? And for how long will Nigerians continue to trust politicians with no clear ideology and allegiance to personal and political principles which they themselves had once professed? I will leave this answer to this poser for posterity and Nigerians to decide.

As a Nigerian, what I expect from FFK in particular and Nigerian politicians in general is an exemplification of ‘politics based on principles’ and not ‘politics of hate and tribalism’. My ideal Nigerian politician is that individual who sees Nigeria has a collective project, and not an entity whose identity and composition is drawn along ethnic or religious bias. This unfortunately is lacking in the polity. What I read on the daily basis are threats of fire and brimstone if power does not return to the North in 2015, and threats of war from some apologists of President Goodluck Jonathan if he is not allowed to serve out his two terms as constitutionally recognized. Across the divide, and among Nigeria’s present political class, I am yet to see a political party with a defined road map potent enough to transform Nigeria from its present state of putrefaction to the path of sanity and posterity.

In civilized climes, political parties are identified based on principles and ideology, and not on whether you are from the North or the South as it is been done in Nigeria. In any country where you have such recurring decimals in its polity, it represents tell-tale signs of deep-seated hate and factionalized elitism and followership; two constant features of a country on the brink of collapse. I am so certain Nigerians would not care wherever their President comes from as long as he or she can provide them with adequate security for their lives and properties, portable and affordable health care, solid social and capital infrastructure, quality and reasonably priced education, functional social welfare schemes, and sustainable jobs.

Unfortunately, the ruling party (the PDP), which FFK belongs, has been in power for over Fourteen (14) years and has failed woefully to deliver these basic dividends of democracy to Nigerians. If there is anything the party has done, it has only succeeded in making the lives of Nigerians miserable, through its anti-people policies and the regrettable encouragement and warm embrace the party extends to corruption. The recent withdrawal of the corruption charges against Mohammed Abacha, notwithstanding the heavily indicting evidences against him, is a sad reminder of the odorous romance of; and the impunity with which the PDP preside over the affairs of this country. Is it not also shameful that more than 74 days after the abduction of over 200 girls in Chibok, Borno state, FFK’s self-acclaimed righteous party, the PDP, has failed to deliver on its most important constitutional responsibility; which is to protect the lives of its people as every responsible government does?

On a daily basis, Nigerians are been killed by forces of darkness, either in the form of Boko Haram or by endemic corruption, sectarian violence, alarming poverty, unemployment, epileptic power supply, etc., and FFK’s ruling party have continued to turn a blind eye to these ‘madness’. The same also goes for the opposition APC in some of the states under their control and the Federal government, both of who now appear to have joined hands with Boko Haram to make education ‘haram’ or in some instances the exclusive preserve of children of the rich, courtesy of the very criminal and capitalist school fees been charged. The cases of LASU, LAUTECH, UNIPORT, OAU etc. are quite relevant in this regard.

Let it be noted for the avoidance of doubts that I am not, and do not intend to be a card carrying member of any political party in Nigeria, neither do I intend to be in the foreseeable future, but as a Nigerian, and Political Scientist by training, I feel obliged to set the records straight when politicians in their utterances and actions continue to play politics of ethnicity and religion for the purpose of scoring cheap political points. If this country is to ever move forward, our political elites must rise beyond their obvious short-sightedness or if you like, ‘blurred vision’ by playing politics according to the rules and by also placing Nigeria’s unity and progress beyond personal considerations. This for me is the only way forward, not these highly sentimental and ethnically biased positions often advanced by politicians.

As we move towards the 2015 General elections, may the spirit which saw the Ekitis voting according to personality and principle pervade over Nigerians and guide them towards making the right choice(s) by electing responsible and principled leaders who can change the current tide of mis-governance across board in Nigeria.

The author is a Doctoral Candidate in the Department of Politics, University of Otago, New Zealand. He can be reached via talk2smath@yahoo.com

Source: http://dailypost.ng/2014/06/27/olumuyiwa-babatunde-amao-re-ekiti-election-femi-fani-kayodes-vituperation/

In My Country-NIGERIA, Miracles happen everyday and Anyting Goes.. May God Save Us from these Cabals

How does this affect the fact my street has been without electricity for the past 2weeks?

When people refuse to do the neccesary, the unnecessary takes pre-eminence. Bravo Sir-- You have run the race, and you have done so ,so well. Congratulations on your retirement.

This is the price you get when a nation is governed by mediocres and misfits. How can a man who should be in the know as to the grave consequences of not honouring an agreement reached by a constituted authority be saying this?

Everything points to the fact that our hopes as a nation are getting continually dimmed and we are gradually moving towards the point of explosion. May this explosion never spare this retardeens at the helm of affairs in Nigeria when it eventually comes. Amin

The clock is ticking...