₦airaland Forum

tuborme:
Read that letter carefully, Pat Utomi was not cautioned. He clarified what happened. Okigbo is the spokesperson of the big tent which Pat Utomi heads. It’s the brown envelope journalists trying to make mess.

tuborme:
Read that letter carefully, Pat Utomi was not cautioned. He clarified what happened. Okigbo is the spokesperson of the big tent which Pat Utomi heads. It’s the brown envelope journalists trying to make mess.

The Labour Party (LP) has warned Prof. Pat Utomi of National Consultative Front (NCF ) that he has no constitutional power to make appointments for the party .

The party said this while reacting to announcement of Charles Odigbo as the as the leader of the communication team for the Labour Party campaign team on on Thursday by Utomi.

The renowned economist made the announcement at a special announcement session of the Media Team for the Peter Obi Campaign team held in Lagos on Thursday.

He said the team comprises of media veterans who are professionals, passionate and committed to the Nigeria people under the Big Tent Platform comprised of several political parties working together to present the candidates that all of Nigeria would embrace.

But in a statement signed by Mr Arabambi Abayomi, its National Publicity Secretary on Saturday in Abuja, LP said that Utomi has no power to make such appointments.
Abayomi said that only the National Chairman of LP, Julius Abure could do that .

“Our attention has been drawn to the news intercepted through multiple news medium that one Mr Charles Odigbo has been appointed as the Spokesman of Labour Party by Prof. Pat Utomi.

“It is not undisputed that LP has not made such appointment since Utomi who is the leader of NCF cannot usurp the function of the National Chairman.

“For the records , Utomi who is the leader of the NCF , a strong affiliate of the LP , while in a zoom meeting introduced Charles Okadigbo as the Media Head of the “Big Tent” , an acronym for the NCF and No mention of LP was made on that platform.

“All appointments by the LP are made through the office of the national chairman and announcement made by the National Publicity Secretary under the directive of the national chairman ,” he said

According to Abayomi, for emphasis and clarity : Article 14 sub section 1(a) of the Labour Party constitution states as follows: “The national chairman shall give leadership to the party and shall preside over all meetings of the National Executive Council and the National Working Committee of the party.”

He said the constitutional provision quoted above, vested the power of all appointments and leadership only to the person and the office of the national chairman.
“LP now uses this opportunity to say the LP is guided by the constitution in all its activities.

“As such, all members of the party as well as interested members of the public presently in LP should from here on, take serious caution that the function of the national chairman as head of LP is not in question.”

Abayomi, therefore, urged that everyone should obey the constitution of the Labour Party.

OnyeAshuaUru:
Peter Obi is the people's choice. He is going to win the 2023 election by a landslide.

Rivers Governor Nyesom Wike has wondered why politicians are deceiving the electorate and keeping them busy on arguments around same faith ticket ahead of the 2023 election.

“Is that our problem now? “The governor queried insisting that “we need leadership to move this country forward”.

The Governor spoke during the inauguration of the Rivers House of Assembly Quarters, an estate tastefully completed by his administration to provide befitting accomodations to the state lawmakers.

Wike said: “The only problem I have is that even the electorate are being deceived; stories, Muslim-Muslim, Christian-Christian, native doctor-native doctor, this and that. Is that our problem now? At the appropriate time we talk politics. We need leadership to move this country forward”.

Wike debunked reports that he sued the Presidential Candidate of his Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Atiku Abubakar, over the conduct of the primary election

olisaEze:
Do u know him personally, because i was quoting the write up.

olisaEze:
"she was vastly more literate than MbaMba which was why MbaMba was using her bank accounts as she was the one who could read, understand and correctly interpret documents and lettered articles."


How will a cerebral fellow like Soludo make a stark illiterate who cannot manage his own finances a TC LGA Chairman?? He can’t read his own account statements, what’s he going to do when the accounts of his LGA are placed on his table?? I hope someone read his suspension letter to him, make e nor go reason say na commendation!

EponOjuku:
See the animals ruling Obi's state. No wonder those demented twins called Psquare ran to Lagos and are supporting Obi from a safe distance. They can't do that in Anambra.

Biodun556:
The topic is edited

ufotunang:
..it's fake news..they want to use it to black mail labour party and Peter Obi for accepting a corrupt person as their party candidate

ufotunang:
...it's fake news

Dvdpity:
Fake news as usual. How will he betray APC that let him off the hooks. Not possible.

nohela:
I don't believe one bit of this. Fake news

Esseite:
Propaganda on the beat...

Azularis:
Fake news!

Eriokanmi:
Fake, fake fake!!!

How important is Saidi Balogun to warrant 5m, talk more of 20m? Ę ye paroooo Peter Obi will never do thst

a4cube:
Fake news. Fake news Fake News
Fake NEWS FAKE news Fake NEWS

The Nigerian government recently released Dariye and a former governor of Taraba State, Jolly Nyame from prison.

Aformer governor of Plateau State, Senator Joshua Dariye, is said to be planning to declare interest to contest the Plateau Central senatorial seat on the platform of the Labour Party (LP).

The Plateau State chapter of the party has concluded arrangements to receive the former governor from Abuja to pick the party’s senatorial form, according to Daily Trust.

A Labour Party official told the newspaper: “Yes, it is true that he (Dariye) will be running for a Senate seat. We are making arrangements for him to come from Abuja for the senatorial declaration.

"Dariye would spring surprises at the polls because he remained loved by many in the state.”

"Dariye’s homecoming has also given a boost to the governorship bid of the party’s governorship candidate, Patrick Dakum, who defected to the Labour Party, after failing to secure the ticket of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC)," the source added.

Dariye served as Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governor, and defected from the party to contest and win a senatorial seat in 2011 on the platform of LP.

Meanwhile, the Nigerian government recently released Dariye and a former governor of Taraba State, Jolly Nyame from prison.

The two ex-convicts were released less than four months after they were granted state pardon by the National Council of State (NCS). The two former governors were among the 159 convicts pardoned by the NCS led by President Muhammadu Buhari in April 2022.

Dariye, who was serving 10 years’ imprisonment for N1.126 billion fraud, was released after spending about four years in prison.

However, the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) had urged President Muhammadu Buhari to urgently withdraw the pardon recently granted to the former governors, Dariye and Jolly Nyame, who were serving jail terms for corruption.

SERAP had urged Buhari to use his “good offices to urgently review and withdraw the pardon granted to former governors of Plateau State, Senator Joshua Dariye, and Taraba State, Rev Jolly Nyame who are serving jail terms for corruption.”

The group in a letter dated April 16, 2022, and signed by its deputy director, Kolawole Oluwadare also urged the President to “propose constitutional amendment to the National Assembly to reform the provisions on the exercise of the prerogative of mercy to make the provisions more transparent, and consistent and compatible with Nigeria’s international anti-corruption obligations.”

FatherOfJesus:
Head bridge Onitsha to Zik Junction

One truly sad allegory of the Nigerian political process in recent times is the palpable hunger for good governance; the quest for leadership that will not confine promises to the dustbin of history after the elections, a leadership that will not dash invested hopes and aspirations but with the required knowledge that will convert intentions to laudable programmes for the people. This search has, no doubt, defined our political culture. And this is empirical.

Lucian Pye, an American political scientist, defined political culture “as the set of attitudes, beliefs and sentiments which give order and meaning to a political process and which provide the underlying assumptions and rules that govern behaviour in the political system”.

Political culture is, thus, the composite of basic values, feelings, spirits, and knowledge that underlie political progression. In simple terms, the citizen’s widely shared beliefs, feelings, opinions, and emotions affect their political judgements, which inadvertently dictate the direction of political development.

The class struggle between the political class and the people appears to have indeed formed in the populace a political culture that tends to identify with whoever looks like them or appears to have shared in their pain.

Goodluck Jonathan said he had no shoe; it resonated with the people, same as his meteoric rise from the rubbles. The Buhari living room with a 14-inch television and old sofa in Daura sold like wildfire as he was seen as part of the talakawas — the underprivileged. While some members of the elite saw the story of his never increasing herds as a lack of productivity, many of us called it contentment and proof of integrity. The people are not to be blamed, and neither are the gods; it is the effect of the political culture the system has practically conditioned the people to. Now, Peter Obi is harvesting from that.

His simplicity is it.
The political class lives large in opulence unrelatedly to the abject poverty around. Obi is wiser, though a billionaire yet appears like the common man. His lifestyle, in addition to his English orientation, having lived in England for years, became so apparent in government (hin no dey give shishi), that is yet working for him at the moment. Britons are known for their conservative culture.

Just so we know, simplicity, just like integrity, poor background, and some other widely shared beliefs or mundane perceptions can not substitute for good governance. Thus, verify. Once we are in, we are stuck. The minimum is four years.


The rage against the system is extraordinary. Nigerians crave a performer in the office of the president; a thinker, a visionary leader, a strong character with the right intellect for precise decisions. To a considerable population, Obi is running on these credentials and thus seen as a standard for good governance and the solution. Truly, is he?

For instance, Peter Obi’s handover note, which is supposedly part of his selling credentials at the moment, was a subject of controversy. While Obi claimed to have left N75 billion, his successor described the claim as a “hoax”. The then secretary to the Anambra state government said, “The N75 billion was not there; it was not handed over to anybody…”.
Despite being the sole importer of many finished products in the country, Peter Obi has repeatedly said that he would move Nigeria from consumption to production, perhaps the same way he promised to turn Anambra into the industrial hub of West Africa while campaigning in 2003. Is Anambra now the industrial hub of West Africa? It is pertinent to ask this question to evaluate properly if he indeed matched action with his electoral promise.

In 2006, Obi made a declarative statement that education is not for the poor. He forced Anambra secondary school students to pay three terms (first, second and third term) school fees at once. Many of the pupils from less-privileged homes dropped out of school. You may need to verify how this policy of his impacted negatively on school enrolment the following session.

While Obi gloated about savings, there is no signature project to remember his regime except that his regime took the first position among all states in Nigeria in the democratisation of poverty – mass impoverishment of the people of Anambra. According to the National Bureau of Statistics, poverty rose under his watch in Anambra from 20% in 2004 (lowest in Nigeria then) to 68% in 2010 (a 238% deterioration).” — an excerpt from Soludo’s article “…Beyond The Elections”, published in 2015.

In 2019, Obi said on television that he invested $30 million in SABMiller and the investment is now worth $100 million. Checks revealed that only $12 million was invested in the name of the state. Where is the remaining $18 million? Besides, the investment is barely worth $3.5 million today. Mazi Nnamdi Kanu claimed Obi took Anambra’s money to invest in personal businesses. Perhaps, he is talking from facts.
As of the first quarter of 2014, according to the Labour Party candidate, Anambra state had $56 million and N12 billion in Fidelity Bank, His bank! His bank!! His bank!!! Ditto two other banks where he had silent interest.

What then is called conflict of interest? Even the state investment in SABMiller, a family business of his, was unethical! I remember winning a job in a very transparent biding exercise in 2017 in one of the government parastatals. The DG denied my company and gave the job to his family company. The political Bourgeoises promote themselves at our expense. I have since learnt to focus on the private sector.

Peter Obi is not a fresh quantity that just dropped from another planet. He has been part of the system we are protesting against. Can he then suddenly become the standard for good governance by any stretch of the imagination? Verify and know what to expect if he becomes president.

remember how President Muhammadu Buhari dismissed Boko Haram before the 2015 general election. Ditto subsidy. Yet, the government is nearing N2.5 trillion in petroleum subsidy in 2022 alone. Brandishing figures on the country’s woes is not enough; there must be pragmatic solutions on the table. Anyone can quote figures and reel out data to amuse his audience. Flesh out the solutions; let the people interrogate them and see if you’d deliver if handed the mandate to govern.

It will definitely be unseemly to claim the country has been bankrupt of good men as leaders. Goodluck Jonathan, of course, was referred to generously as a good man. Buhari was called a good man without any baggage of corruption. Real-time solutions are better than the “the boy is good” herd mentality we all seem to bandy around. Verify and have peace.
An average Igbo man is a gifted marketer. Destalker, a comedian, shared a joke about how Ebuka convinced his friend, who is not physically challenged in any way to buy crutches. ‘Ebuka tell am say make him buy the crutches keep am now that then they on promo, because hin no know wetin fit happen to him leg for future’. Obi is no doubt a good marketer.

Fantastic enough that he is consciously engaging the people directly; we must, however, know that we are only rooting for one of them, not one of us. He is not Saint Peter Obi.
Kolawole, a socio-political analyst, writes from Abuja.