The Nation Newspaper

Author: The Nation

Can Sylva, Eradiri unseat Diri?

The battle for the soul of Bayelsa State has become intense and intriguing among three top contenders as the state’s governorship poll holds on Saturday, November 11, 2023, SIMON UTEBOR writes.

THE people of the oil-rich Bayelsa State, the centre of gravity of the Ijaw nation and a centrifugal force in the Niger Delta, are on the march again to elect a new governor on Saturday, November 11, 2023. Without any iota of doubt, the stakes are high and the political atmosphere is tense as palpable fear and trepidation fill the air.

Governor Douye Diri, the current occupant of the Creek Haven, a sobriquet for the Bayelsa State Government House, is battling to get re-elected for second term under the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

But the candidates of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Chief Timipre Sylva, and that of the Labour Party (LP), Mr. Udengs Eradiri, who are no pushovers, are poised to wrest power from the incumbent governor, whose first tenure will end on February 14, 2024.

Unlike the previous governorship contests in the state, the coming poll promises to be interesting, tense, intriguing and of wider participation by voters considering the intensity of campaigns carried out by flagbearers of their parties particularly those of the PDP, APC and LP.

Though 16 political parties are taking part in the coming election, political analysts opined that the poll is a two-horse race between the candidates of the PDP, Senator Douye Diri, and the APC, former Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Chief Timipre Sylva, while the candidate of the LP, Udengs Eradiri, is seen as a political dark horse that could spring surprises if the voters decide to abandon the old political order in the state.

Already, the race is filled with the frenzy, intrigues and drama that come with politicking as there have been alignments and re-alignments and clandestine meetings have taken over the nights.

The political gladiators are certainly gearing up for the battle of wits to succeed Douye Diri or perhaps put an end to his political dynasty (the Prosperity Government) which has held sway since he assumed office on February 14, 2020.

In the 2019 governorship poll that threw up Diri, after the Supreme Court overturned the victory of Mr. David Lyon, the then candidate of the APC, there was an interplay of various factors like security, electoral umpire, capacity, money and propaganda; all those combined to sway the voters’ choices.

But this time round, political watchers believe the governorship poll will be a titanic battle with the APC deeply rooted at the central government and the PDP having its firm grip on the state government and the LP depending on the youths to make impact.

But what will actually define the day at the governorship election, which will throw up the next governor of the state come November 11 will comprise a number of factors such as performances, perceptions, connections, financial resources, acceptance, among other critical factors.

Bayelsa political trajectory

Given the trajectory of power play in Bayelsa politics, there are two things one cannot take away from the majority of Bayelsa voters, political analysts and observers: their love for the choice of governorship candidates produced by the different political parties, their antecedents in the positions they hold as well as the ones they previously held and their contributions to the peace, security and development of the citizens of the state.

As the stage is now set and the battle already intense on who the cap should fit to take over the mantle of leadership in the state, the battle is among all the regular political parties but the ruling PDP, the APC and the LP stand out as parties of choice with promising political manifestos to convince the voters on whom to vote for.

Based on the history of both the PDP and the APC in the state, there is political belief that any person, either of the two parties throws up as the standard bearer stands the chance of becoming the next governor of the state.

But with the rise in prominence of the LP and the ‘Obidients’ Movement’ in the country’s political space, the LP is a party to beat considering the impressive performance of the party in the state during the Presidential election held February 25, 2023.

There is a widespread belief in Bayelsa that the person likely to win the poll is always known few weeks to the actual election day due to certain factors such as followership, motivation, quality of power brokers, gale of defections, party unity, robust campaigns among others.

Frontliners

While many political observers contend that the November 11 poll may just be a two-horse race between Governor Douye Diri and the immediate past Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Chief Timipre Sylva of the APC, some analysts have warned that the other political parties and their candidates should not be ignored.

Specifically, supporters of the LP standard bearer, Comrade Udengs Eradiri, a former President of the Ijaw Youth Council (IYC) Worldwide believed that he could spring by riding on the wave of his popularity and that of the party in the last general elections to defeat the ruling PDP and the opposition APC in the state.

Apart from the top three contenders, the electoral umpire equally listed as candidates for the election Subiri Waibodei Joseph of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), Osuluku Binalaiyefa of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), Simon Imotimi Karioru of the Zenith Labour Party (ZLP), Idikio Warmate Jones of the Accord Party and Kalango Stanley Davies of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), among others.

A stalwart of one of the leading parties, while assessing his party’s chances in the coming elections noted that the coming poll would be dramatic and eye-opening, stressing that the political dynamics prevailing in the state is different from what happened in the 2019 election.

He asserted that Bayelsa electorate are going to elect the right person for the topmost job in the state who will not play politics with people’s lives, wellbeing and security.

He stated that the last presidential election had shown the people that their votes could count and many of them are ready to use that power to enthrone the best person among the pack of candidates.

Governor Douye Diri

The incumbent Governor of the state and candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Senator Douye Diri, has come a long way politically. Diri had represented Kolokuma/Opokuma-/Yenagoa Federal Constituency between 2015 and 2019 before he was elected into the Senate in 2019.

He hails from Sampou community, Kolokuma/Opokuma LGA in Bayelsa Central Senatorial District. He is seeking a re-election for a fresh mandate to enable him to continue as Governor and build on the successes recorded in his first term.

He is a graduate of Political Science (Education) and worked as a teacher for many years before he ventured into business and later joined active politics. He has christened his administration ‘Government of Prosperity’.

While assessing his chances, Diri said he was confident of victory as neither his government nor his party is afraid of any opposition party in the state. He declared Bayelsa as a PDP state, adding that the party in the state is more united now than ever before and was ready to face any opposition in the election.

Diri believes he deserves a second term based on his performance in almost four years, saying that his administration had made appreciable progress in virtually every sector of the state’s economy.

He listed some of them to include infrastructure, education, health agriculture, sports, skills acquisition and human capacity development.

Ardent PDP supporters and chieftains believe that Diri is a winning team that should not be changed but be allowed to continue by urging Bayelsans to re-elect him.

For the supporters, there is no vacancy at the Creek Haven, noting that Governor Douye Diri will win in all the eight local government areas of Bayelsa State regardless of where the other candidates come from.

They say that Project Bayelsa is very key to the Governor and he feels very strongly about it.

Though he is passionate about developing the state which is believed not to be at par yet with other states created the same time with it, political analysts believe that he has not done pretty good in ‘stomach infrastructure’.

It is believed that due to unemployment, poor electricity supply, among others, many citizens of the state have been frustrated by poverty with the culture of begging now the order of the day.

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Notwithstanding the stigma of stinginess placed on him, Governor Diri remains a candidate to beat on November 11 as he still commands a wide followership across the length and breadth of the state.

Chief Timipre Sylva

Chief Timipre Sylva was born in Brass, Bayelsa State. He got part of his education in Bayelsa and in Lagos, the former capital of Nigeria. He was a member of the Rivers State House of Assembly in the 1990s.

Sylva graduated from the University of Port Harcourt with distinction in English (Linguistics) in 1986. At the time, he was the best graduating student from his department and departmental valedictorian. He was subsequently awarded a Doctor in International Relations (Honoris causa) by the UBIS University in 2011. Sylva was awarded his second Doctorate (Honoris Causa) in Public Administration on the 2nd of December 2020 by AiPA (African Institute of Public Administration), Leading Edge Foundation and LBBS.

Sylva’s political career started in 1992 when he won a seat in the House of Assembly Election representing Brass constituency in old Rivers State. At the time, he was the youngest of all the members in the House of Assembly.

His political career continued when he was appointed as the Special Assistant to the Minister of State for Petroleum in 2004, Dr Edmund Daukoru. He continued in that position until he resigned to join the PDP governorship primaries in 2006 in Bayelsa State in which he placed second behind Dr. Goodluck Jonathan.

After the PDP presidential primaries election and Jonathan was appointed as a running mate to Umaru Musa Yar’Adua of blessed memory, the governorship candidacy for PDP became vacant, and conventional wisdom took the better of the political actors and Sylva was elevated to occupy the position of PDP gubernatorial candidate.

As a candidate of the PDP Sylva won the 2007 Bayelsa State gubernatorial election and succeeded Goodluck Jonathan who went on to become Vice President. During his inauguration he had said that Bayelsa was “the least developed industrially and commercially” of all 36 states.

On the other hand, former Governor Sylva is also very optimistic that he would win the November 11 election and emerge as the next governor of the state.

He claimed that he joined the governorship race because the present administration headed by Douye Diri is not equal to the task in putting Bayelsa on the path of genuine prosperity. He believes the people of the state are eager to vote out the PDP administration and enthrone the APC in power.

How well Sylva has been able to manage the discontent that greeted his emergence as the party candidate as well as the alleged frosty relationship between him and some party leaders is not yet clear as tongues are still wagging.

Some party faithful argued that Sylva having been a former Governor and Minister should have allowed David Lyon to try to reclaim his mandate which was overturned by the Supreme Court on the eve of his swearing in.

The immediate past Minister of State for Petroleum Resources is not a political Lilliput and can square up with any opponent and defeat him.

Despite the alleged schisms in his party, the APC, Sylva’s rising political profile in the state is enough to scare his opponents. If crowds at campaign grounds were anything to go by, it won’t be wrong to say that Sylva has won the election already.

Engineer Udengs Eradiri

Comrade Udengs Eradiri was born on 22nd March, 1976. He is a member of the Nigerian Society of Engineers, COREN Certified graduate from the University of Benin with a degree in Production Engineering and also has a certificate in Dredging Technology from the A&M University Texas USA.

He also obtained an Honorary Doctorate (Hons.) in Business Management and Corporate Leadership at European American University in 2017. He also attended the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies, Kuru Jos, Nigeria. He is certified by the Lagos Business School, Nigeria on Negotiation Skills.

He is an engineer, businessman, human rights activist, Ijaw Leader and politician who is determined to continually enhance the business and corporate sector by fostering management skills, technical expertise and effective leadership, determined to contribute and provide support to community development programs in the Niger-Delta Region, Nigeria and the world at large.

Comrade Eradiri, a former President of the Ijaw Youth Council (IYC), who is the candidate of the Labour Party, brims with confidence about the possibility of emerging the next governor of the state.

The activist-turned politician believes strongly that the people of the state will vote for complete change of old order on November 11.

Eradiri has always decried that widespread poverty in Bayelsa and that businesses are leaving Yenagoa for other places due to alleged poor governance by Governor Douye Diri.

Eradiri who served as Commissioner for Youth and later redeployed to the Ministry of the Environment in the state under former Governor Seriake Dickson, noted that he would anchor his development agenda on ‘People, Education, Agriculture and Power’ (PEAP).

Eradiri, an intellectually mobile politician, also promised to leverage the recent inclusion of power generation into the concurrent legislative list to use the abundant gas deposits across the state for industries and power generation, if elected.

The LP governorship candidate, who political observers described as a dark horse is a formidable force to reckon with on the election day and whoever ignores him does so at his/her own peril.

Voting strengths of Bayelsa LGAs

Bayelsa, a riverine and estuary state, has a total area of 10,773 square kilometres comprising eight local government areas: Ekeremor, Kolokuma/Opokuma, Yenagoa, Nembe, Ogbia, Sagbama, Brass and Southern Ijaw.

The current data on voting strength of the eight LGAs indicate that the state has 1,056,862 registered voters as of the last registration exercise done by the Independent Electoral Commission (INEC) before the February and March 2023 general elections.

It is believed that the voting strength of the eight LGAs and voters actually turning out to vote for parties and candidates of their choice will be a major determinant of chances of the parties to win the November 11, 2023.

The candidates and 16 political parties vying for the coming guber poll, will battle for votes in the areas having highest number of voters outdo their opponents.

INEC records show that out of the figure, Yenagoa LGA has the highest, with 218,294; Southern Ijaw, one of the biggest areas in the state, ranks second with 184,401 registered voters; Sagbama ranks third with 138,832 voters, while Ekeremor, another area with high population, is fourth with 137,225 registered voters.

Ogbia has 119,571; Nembe, 99,035; Brass, 94,040 while Kolokuma/Opokuma LGA has 65,364.

From the figures, YELGA is considered to be the cash cow which every candidate and party will battle to get big votes. Apart from having highest number of voters, YELGA is where people turn out to vote in elections en masse compared to other areas.

From the electoral umpire’s data, the PDP made huge wins in the last presidential election in the areas having largest number of voters with the exception of Yenagoa Council where it scored less than the LP.

The PDP and LP lost to the APC in Ogbia, ex-President Goodluck Jonathan’s LGA which had been PDP’s fortress since 1999 until the 2015 governorship election when electorate of the council voted overwhelmingly for the APC.

The areas won by PDP had been its strongholds, just as the whole state was, until recently when the APC and surprisingly the LP’s Third Force made incursions into its (PDP’s) territories in Ogbia and YELGA.

Despite the inroads made by the APC into Bayelsa East in recent times, PDP won the last presidential election in Brass and Nembe where it has also wielded influence in previous dispensations. However, the situation may change this time round as the candidate of the APC is both paternally and maternally from the two councils.

These show that the voting strength of the local government areas will matter a lot in the November 11 poll, and the parties/candidates will fiercely scramble for huge-winning votes in the areas having largest number of voters.

However, given that the governorship election is more of grassroots election than presidential election, the voters’ interest and ethnic sentiments may come to play, even though Bayelsa is a homogenous Ijaw state.

Although new patterns of advanced vote trading mar sincere voting, the degree of voter turnout, given sensitisation by partisan and non-partisan individuals and organisations, peaceful election and transparency on the part of the INEC will be crucial factors to determine who wins Bayelsa’s governorship election on Saturday, November 11.

The battle for the exalted seat of governor of the state may be among the PDP, APC and LP, all other things being equal.

Candidates’ strongholds and battleground councils

Going by projections by the electorate, political analysts and observers, the candidates of the three leading political parties in the state — the PDP, APC and LP have their strongholds in some local government areas.

Political pundits are of the view that the governorship election is more grassroots-oriented than the presidential election as the voters’ interest and ethnic sentiments may come to play despite the fact that Bayelsa is a homogenous Ijaw state.

Political observers opined that the incumbent governor and candidate of the PDP, Senator Douye Diri, who is from Sampou in Kolokuma/Opokuma LGA, will record overwhelming victory in KOLGA, Sagbama and Ekeremor.

But in other LGAs including Yenagoa, it is believed that he would perform average but will not have upper hand in those councils. However, he is still a man to beat in the November 11 election.

The candidate of the APC, Chief Timipre Sylva, is believed to have a strong hold in Bayelsa East comprising Nembe, Brass and Ogbia LGAs.

Sylva, whose running mate, Great Joshua MacIver, is from Southern Ijaw, is also favoured to win SILGA. Therefore, the ex-minister is also a man to beat in the poll.

As for the candidate of the LP, Udengs Eradiri, who hails from Yenagoa, he boasts of youths’ support across the LGAs. He is favoured to spring surprises in YELGA, Ogbia and SILGA.

The 47-year-old engineer, whose running mate is a retired military officer, is considered as the third force and the political pendulum might swing to his favour.

November 5, 2023
Imo election: Litmus test for Uzodimma

Several factors would determine the outcome of Saturday’s governorship election in Imo State. Governor Hope Uzodimma, who is seeking a second term on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC), remains the candidate to beat for many reasons. But, he has to contend with factors such as the insecurity in the state, the clamour for power shift or zoning and the growing popularity of the opposition parties. Correspondent CHRIS NJOKU reports.

Saturday’s governorship election in Imo State is expected to be a keenly contested one. All eyes are on the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to conduct the election in a manner to achieve transparency and restore the confidence of the people in the electoral process. Against the background of INEC’s conduct during the just concluded general election, there are question marks over the capacity of the electoral umpire to achieve transparency.

The commission has however assured that it has concluded all processes that will enable it to conduct a free, fair, transparent and credible election. The commission said about 2.3 million people have collected their permanent voters card (PVC); out of the 2. 42 million registered voters.

Elections will take place in 4,720 polling units out of the total number of 4,758 polling units, according to the commission. It added that there will be no elections in 38 polling units where voter registration did not take place due to insecurity. So far, INEC has concluded 11 activities out of the 13 on their programme. The two outstanding activities are the last day of the campaign and the election itself.

Eighteen candidates have been cleared to contest the election. The prominent ones are the incumbent Governor Hope Uzodimma of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Senator Samuel Anyanwu of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), and Senator Athan Achonu of the Labour Party (LP).

The forthcoming off-cycle governorship election has put Imo State in the spotlight. Some of the issues that will determine the outcome of the election are personalities, power of incumbency, strength of the political parties, insecurity, voter participation and zoning.

Personality:

Personality may well be one of the biggest factors that would determine the outcome of the election. It is important, given that Imo voters have emphasised during this election cycle that they want candidates who are perceived as honest, caring, and competent.

Uzodimma:

Governor Uzodimma’s performance in office in the last three and half years, particularly in the area of road construction and his campaign strategy are key factors in the election.

Anyanwu:

Senator Anyanwu is also the PDP national secretary. His popularity and some of his campaign promises, such as that of revamping the healthcare system by providing adequate facilities and equipment, as well as training and retraining of healthcare workers could also be pivotal in determining the outcome of the election.

Achonu:

The LP candidate’s popularity and some of his campaign promises, such as conducting local government elections within six and the idea of 45 per cent inclusion of women in his government could be an advantage in the contest.

Power of incumbency:

The biggest factor that may propel Governor Uzodimma’s re-election is his power of incumbency. The power of incumbency is a big factor in elections in this clime. This is such that it will take a lot for a candidate of an opposition party to unseat a sitting governor in Nigeria.

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The ruling APC is well entrenched in the nooks and crannies of Omo State; it controls 25 out of the 27 local governments.

Strength of the parties:

The three major parties in the election have suffered setbacks due to intrigues and internal party crises. Imo State has a history of political campaigns that have been characterized by intrigues and internal crises within political parties. Disputes or lack of it within the major parties in this contest can, therefore, be one of the biggest factors that could determine the outcome of the election. This includes disagreements over candidate selection, party leadership, and policy positions.

The majority of the parties in the race have been weakened by crises emanating from their governorship primaries because of a lack of ability to manage such internal conflicts effectively. This is likely to impact strongly on the outcome of the election.

Voter participation:

The number of voters that turn out to vote on election day usually determines the outcome of an election. In this particular case, Imo has a history of voter apathy. A civil society organization, Yiaga Africa, recently observed that some parts of the state, including Orlu, Orsu, Ehime Mbano, Oru East, Oru West and Okigwe Local Government Areas are particularly noted for voter apathy.

This is because they are prone to violence as a result of security challenges in the state. In some cases, violence and insecurity can prevent people from voting. In others, people can be intimidated into voting for a candidate against their wishes. So, the insecurity in the state could adversely affect the conduct of the election.

Imo State has been a battleground in recent times, with both the ruling and the opposition parties winning and losing interchangeably in different elections.

Zoning:

The raging debate on zoning is another crucial factor that may affect the outcome of Saturday’s election in Imo State. It is centred around which senatorial district should produce the next governor. There has been a clamour by political leaders for the governorship position to be zoned to the Imo East Senatorial District this time around. But, it remains a contentious issue because there are disagreements among political stakeholders over which zone should produce the next governor.

The Imo Charter of Equity, which was initiated in 1999 and truncated in 2011 is meant to clear the path for a smooth transfer and rotation of the office of governor between the three senatorial zones of Okigwe, Orlu, and Owerri. But, it has not. The stakeholders of the Owerri Senatorial District, for instance, have rejected the new charter, alleging that it was being foisted on the state by the incumbent governor who hails from the Orlu zone that has produced the governor in the last 20 years. They argue that Okigwe has tasted the seat for four years while Owerri zone has only occupied the seat for seven months.

Uzodimma has challenged the leaders of Owerri zone to unite and forge a common front to enable them to succeed him. He has pledged to implement the Imo Charter of Equity after his second term. As a result, he has enjoined them to back him to secure his second term. Some analysts believe that the endorsement the governor has received from the Owerri zone may swing the pendulum in his favour. So, the zoning debate may play a significant role in the election, as people may turn out to be either for or against the incumbent governor.

Overall, Saturday’s governorship election is likely to be shaped by a range of other factors, including those related to security, the economy, and infrastructure. The incumbent governor’s record on these issues is likely to tip the scale in his favour.

November 5, 2023
Biko Nyesom, ankali da kare

In the traditional northern homestead in Nigeria where the protection of womenfolk in purdah from pariahs and predators alike takes a cultural priority, there is always a clear signboard forbidding entrance.

Ba shiga, the signboard proclaims to potential intruders, meaning do not enter. If the household harbours a particularly nasty canine, there is another signboard warning the trespasser to beware. Ankali da kare or beware of dogs. Dogs are not trained to be nice to heedless intruders.

Rivers State is on the boil again. And whenever there is this kind of executive rumpus in the state of a thousand rivulets, let the rest of the country be on anarchy watch. To start with, they do not do things in half measures down there. The state house of assembly complex has already gone up in smoke.

The governor has narrowly escaped being seen off. The immediate past governor has been danger-listed by concerned citizens. It is not a battle for political stability or economic development. It is a clash of titanic egos driven by wild unregulated self-conceit that can never be sublimated for public good or national order. This is the tragedy of postcolonial politics in Africa.

It is not known whether Nyesom Wike, the current minister of the Federal Capital Authority, immediate past governor of Rivers State and –as some would insist—the de facto third term governor of the state, is trained to read political signboards or savvy enough to decode horoscopes of impending disaster. One thing is clear. The fascination of a moth with fireballs always leads to self-immolation.

   “You will like Richard Nixon. He is so square”. So went a billboard of the late fifties in the bible-thumping American mid-region. Richard Milhous Nixon was widely admired and very well-liked. He was clean-shaven, crew-cut, conservatively tailored and quietly brainy. He was vice-president to Dwight Eisenhower.

   The sky seemed to be the limit. There was no hint yet of the nervous insecurities and the pathological need for risk-taking which would later bring him crashing to the ground at the very pinnacle of power. But as they say, what a child loves to eat should not be the cause of gastronomic disorder.

   The very daring and breathtaking political criminalities which would propel him to the top also ensured that he eventually came a sad cropper. As he himself would say when it was all over: “Only those who have been at the top of the mountain could appreciate what it is to be at the bottom of the valley”.

But that was another country. And another era. Not many people will like or appreciate Nyesom Wike. There is something grating and grinding about a personality that elevates pugnacity to a political art. His tongue can be waspish and needlessly nettling.

Many victims of his political barbs are still reeling from their verbal evisceration. People of a tame and temperate temperament have found his perpetual gallivanting, his grandstanding and garrulity deeply offensive.

But you must give something to the feisty Nkwerre man. By sheer force of personality and from being a virtually unknown person at the beginning of the post-military republic, he has propelled himself to the zenith of national politics. On his way to superstardom, he has decked many better fancied opponents and collected the scalp of more famous political adversaries.

   When President Tinubu made him the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, many were outraged by what they thought was a politically incorrect gambit of monumental proportions. But Tinubu’s capacity for daring political offensives and appetite for strategic foraging in the hinterland of prejudice and animosities remain at a high potency.

   It is now history that Wike hit the ground running, seizing Abuja by the scruff of the neck and lodging himself permanently in the country’s political imagination with his sheer irreverence and iconoclastic chutzpah. Even if you don’t like this man, you have to admire his guts, his stellar political bravery and his fierce loyalty to any cause he believes in.

   Let it not be said that this smacks of desperate political opportunism, for in politics, particularly postcolonial politics, the opportunist is the person who converts his opportunities. As the Yoruba people will put it, if you see a man being pursued by dangerous masquerades and you do not help yourself to his pot of soup, when are you going to benefit from the generosity of ancestors?

Despite his volcanic eruptions, his bluff and bluster and capacity for relentless political bullying, one suspects, and can sense, that Wike is at heart a friendly and kind-hearted person with a boyish joie de vivre who enjoys a drink and some hilarious pranks. He should try to be more cultivated restrained.

   This piece of advice may sound gratuitous and probably too late. The tragic irony of politics is the fact that it is the same qualities that propel a person to lofty heights that are often instrumental to their ultimate unravelling.

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A vibrant and politically ambitious person who has achieved significant successes in numerous battles against formidable foes will always be at the mercy of some inner voices asking him to go for it one more time. Only the wisest of people know when to resist such temptations. This is when irresistible urges to conquer and dominate collide with the impregnable fortress of resistance.

In an extraordinary outburst, Wike has let it be known that he can demand for the entire budget of the state and for all the contracts to be awarded to him because he singlehandedly built the structure and the superstructure on which everything rests .That is politics, he was said to have added gratuitously.

My brother, that is not politics. In the lingo of postcolonial pillage and rapine, It is political warlordism and economic foreclosure of the state combined. The idea of a gubernatorial overlord overseeing the affairs of a state he has willingly relinquished through direct and remote control is an offshoot of the viceroy system. In a politically cohesive and homogeneous state with the same outlook, this has proved impossible, unless the feudal shogun stays put.

In a volatile and combustible state like Rivers full of mutually antagonistic sub-nationals only recuperating from the last conflict, it is a recipe for disaster. This is even more so when and where the warring protagonists belong to two ethnic groups with a history of tension and mutual distrust.

   It is a pity that things have come to this sorry pass between two men who collaborated very well in ensuring a smooth transition and transfer of power in Rivers State. Everything went well initially. Nyesom Wike, in anointing his successor, seemed to have reached for a manual of lackeys and lickspittles. Governor Siminilayi Fubara, placid and mild-mannered as he is docile-looking and dovish in appearance, seemed to have been a perfect foil for his implacably belligerent and abrasive benefactor.

But there is only so much humiliation and harassment even the most peaceful of men could take, particularly after being invested with the mantle of power and authority. The insults so freely dispensed, the unwarranted putdown, the lavish rebuke and the bitter resentments at being treated like a houseboy might have flooded through the retraining wall of rectitude.

As it has been amply demonstrated in this Fourth Republic, political subalterns who take over the helm of affairs from their former commanders have proved themselves to be masters of clinical execution, often leaving their former bosses without any chance of political resurrection.

Going by the flak Wike’s political misjudgment has drawn across party and state lines from fire-spitting Ijaw luminaries and the widespread protests over the inept attempt to remove Fubara, it is clear who has the political momentum on his side. Despite his official protestations of peace and harmony, it is only a question of time before Fubara pulls the trigger.

In a period of massive geopolitical shifts across the country’s tectonic plates, Wike ought to have been more circumspect and adept at political husbandry rather than causing disruptions in his own base. This is where uncommon political bravery when not tempered by wisdom and discretion becomes sheer recklessness.

By raising the banner of battle, the former governor has not only imperiled his own political prospects, he has also endangered the delicate reapproachment quietly ongoing between the new hegemonic coalition at the centre and the Ijaw nationality. This is why those reading the game with more fastidious rigour inside Aso Rock are right in pulling him back in order to restore the status quo.

In ending, we need to investigate why this phenomenon of bickering former comrades in arms and ammunition has become so rampart in the post-military polity. To be sure the First and Second Republics were not without their fair share of the phenomenon as seen in the Awolowo/ Akintola split, the Azikiwe/Mbadiwe schism and the Ajasin/Omoboriowo imbroglio. But it was not this widespread.

Some comparative statistics may be imperative. Taken together, the First and Second Republics lasted barely ten years, and there were far fewer sub-national administrations. The Fourth Republic has been on for twenty four years. Apart from the decline in ideological solidity and leadership recruitment process, we may well be witnessing the final working out of the militarization of politics and its attendant traumas.

November 5, 2023
A rousing goodbye to a good ambassador

It is said that an ambassador is a person employed to lie about his country abroad. But there are times when an ambassador by his impeccable conduct in diplomatic conduits, his bureaucratic rigour, his administrative brilliance and record of exemplary personal integrity, projects the image of his country in a better and far more luminous manner than a thousand paid publicists and other slick state panegyrists.

It has been fulsome praises and encomiums galore for His Excellency, Sarafa Tunji Isola, the recently departed Nigeria’s High Commissioner in Great Britain and envoy to the Court of St James. From the high and mighty, to the lowest and lowly of the metropolitan hoi polloi ; from the rarefied saloons of upper crust London to the pulsating and sweltering Nigerian eateries of Peckham and Lewisham, virtually everybody has something nice and appreciative to say about this quiet and unassuming fellow.

It has been a whirlwind tour of duty for the former minister of state. Within a short time of taking over the embassy, he had restored fiscal order to the place and straightened its finances. Before then, it was a cesspit of corruption and malfeasance. Not a few officials were known to moonlight and gaslight at the same time.

According to testimonies by many Nigerians in Great Britain, the envoy also grappled heroically with the issuance of passport, visa and travel certificates which had been taken over by a shadowy cabal fronting for shameless racketeers lurking in the system. The embassy had become a den of deadwood and die-hard swindlers to say the least.

A courtesy visit to the High Commission in August in company of a younger friend and political associate revealed a man driven by a passion for hard work and an unrelenting drive for excellence. Unlike the rowdy apocalyptic scenes of the past which often spilled to adjoining streets eliciting quiet stares of civilized horror from outraged denizens, the place looked orderly and well-organized.

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The ambassador was already at his desk. Respectably attired in smart business-compliant agbada, he cut a figure of contentment and competence. Wafting seamlessly in the background was the sweet melodious Sakara music of Yusuf Olatunji, aka Baba L’egba. Formerly known as Joseph Olatunji until a benefactor took him to Mecca, the Oke-Ogun born master crooner has remained a regular on the menu of Yoruba musical gourmets and traditional aristocracy for ages.

The conversation began in earnest, but without much earnestness. Ambassadors at that level rarely give information away just like that. With his quiet, self-assured mien, our man in London was probing his visitors for give-away signs. His artful evasions and cagey reticence suggested training in the highest academy of diplomatic spooking. Since he was not known to be a career ambassador, yours sincerely decided to ask him the question directly.

His response was a classic example of diplomatic gobbledygook and yours sincerely decided to let go. The hallmark of envoys at that sublime summit is their mental toughness and psychological stamina. In a deliberately casual and seemingly offhanded request, the ambassador had asked for one’s number. Now, as we made to take our leave, the envoy demanded for my residence address but not before letting it be known that he did not normally mix up with people he had nothing to learn from.

Around nine the following morning, a sleek chauffeur-driven Mercedes Benz car pulled up at the hotel around London City Airport. Lo! It was the envoy. Yours sincerely had led him to the room where for the next ninety minutes, we engaged in a no-holds-barred discussion about the nation and some of the things that need to be done. Then he vanished as unobtrusively as he had appeared.

Here is wishing the ambassador many more years of service to his fatherland.

November 5, 2023
Golda Meir saw it coming

Women are rarely given the credit for their superior political instincts and extraordinary gift for political clairvoyance. Angela Merkel, the immediate past German Chancellor, taught the world that a woman can perform extraordinary political stunts while remaining ordinary and unpretentious to boot.

Much earlier, another visionary female leader gave the world a glimpse of what it means to provide uncommon leadership. The Americans had asked Golda Meir for an exchange of their best five generals. Covetous of the military excellence of the Israeli and the dominance they have achieved in the region within so short a time, the Americans quickly named two of the Israel’s most distinguished warlords, Moshe Dayan and Ariel Sharon, as top on their shopping list.

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Whereupon Golda Meir retorted that Israel would have General Electric and General Motors. Aghast and terrified out of their wits, the Americans retreated. The great woman could see that far more than the exceptional quality of individual generals, it is material prosperity and technological superiority that determine who prevails on the battlefield. Man for man, Hamas has shown that its men are a match for the Israeli fighting machine. But it has all come to naught.

Now that Israel by material might and technological heft has razed and pounded Gaza to ground, it should lead the rest of the world in nation-building in the Middle East, a task in which all the world’s leading powers have failed miserably. Golda Meir will chuckle at that one.

November 5, 2023
Why NASS didn’t delay N2.17trn supplementary budget – Senate

The Senate yesterday explained why the National Assembly accelerated its passage of the 2023 Supplementary Appropriation Bill of N2.17trillion within 48 hours.

It said the budget needed to be passed to allow for speedy implementation in view of the limited lifespan of the budget which terminates on December 31, 2023.

The budget was submitted to the National Assembly by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu on Tuesday and both the Senate and House of Representatives suspended their relevant rules to ensure that the bill was passed for both first and second reading.

It was referred to the Committees on Appropriation in the two chambers who worked on it on Wednesday and presented their reports on Thursday which was considered and approved.

The Vice Chairman, Senate Committee on Appropriation, Senator Mohammed Ali Ndume, gave the explanation while responding to questions from reporters in Abuja on Saturday.

Ndume told journalists that the National Assembly accelerated the budget passage because of certain national interest.

He said, “There have been increases in the price of fuel, costs of essential services and food items have gone up in the country following the withdrawal of fuel subsidy.

“Workers embarked on strike many times as a result of this and there were negotiations between the organised labour unions and the Federal Government.

“At the end of the negotiations, the Labour and the Federal Government agreed that workers would be paid N35,000 in addition to their minimum wage.

“If N35,000 is paid to each of the over 1.5 million workers, the amount is huge. The money was captured in the supplementary budget.

“There were also agitations among parents of students in tertiary institutions following the increment in tuition fees and the Federal Government came up with a wonderful idea of giving loans to students in tertiary institutions hence provision of N5.5 billion was made in the supplementary budget for that purpose also.

“The two chambers of the National Assembly met on it and we both agreed to jerk it up to N10billion. This is because our members from the House of Representatives argued that the provision of N5billion made for the procurement of the Presidential Yacht was not necessary at the moment.

“It was the yacht money that we added to the initial N5billion allocated for students’ loan which jerked it up to N10billion.

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“We had already acted on the N5billion provided for the presidential yacht and removed it from the budget before the public outcry.

“It is not true that the Senate was silent on the N5billion provided for the yacht. We had harmonised with the House of Representatives before the joint appropriation committee of both chambers prepared and presented their reports. It was even signed by the two chairmen.

“The only thing was that the Navy asked us to forget about the yacht and pleaded with us to allow them have the N5billion so as to enhance their operations especially in the areas of fighting oil bunkering and crude oil theft in the Niger Delta and we immediately told them to utilise their operational funds for that purpose.”

Ndume commended President Tinubu for ensuring that every state of the federation would benefit from the capital projects captured in the supplementary budget.

“There is also the N300billion allocated to the Federal Ministry of Works. It is not for the construction of new roads but to make the existing roads motorable. This is the opportunity to do so now that we are already in the dry season.

“There is no single provision for the National Assembly and we ensured that each geopolitical zone in the country got N8billion to fix roads in their areas,” he said.

He added: “There is also the provision of N8billion for the takeoff of the new ministries that were created by the President Bola Tinubu-led administration. It is very important for them to get certain things put on ground to start working.

“A particular amount of money was also provided in the Ministry of Agriculture which was meant for the purchase of grains as palliatives to encourage farmers to engage in dry season farming so as to guarantee food security.

“Apart from this, the Senate considered that since the Independent National Electoral Commission has its off-cycle elections in Bayelsa, Imo and Kogi states on November 11, the sum of N18billion was captured for that purpose in the supplementary budget, they needed to access the funds for proper conduct of the polls.

“The Nigeria Police Force is supposed to supervise the election and it would need more personnel hence the sum of N20billion was earmarked for that purpose.

“The Nigerian Army would also need additional money to pay special duty allowances to the soldiers on the field who are currently engaged in all the states of the federation. Each of them is being paid a minimum of N5, 000 per day. It is not a small amount of money at all.”

“Another item captured in the budget is housing sector which got N100billion. The thinking of the government is that it will tackle the challenge of housing deficits in most urban areas in the country.

“The sum of N28billion was allocated to the State House. The funds allocated for the presidential fleet was for the maintenance of the aircraft which are serviced abroad in dollars. President Bola Tinubu did not buy a single aircraft.

“He inherited all of them and he has to maintain them otherwise if he skips their maintenance the aircraft would all be grounded.

November 5, 2023
Rivers State and Wike’s leadership burden

Federal Capital City (FCT) minister and former governor of Rivers State Nyesom Wike is the latest to fall out with his successor. Despite the acrimony that often ensues from such crisis and the abundance of dissuasive lessons, he will not be the last. For him and other former governors plagued by that peculiar kind of political and administrative dilemma, there will always be reasons to justify disputes between predecessors and successors. In Rivers, the dispute, among other reasons, may be connected with the need to sustain the integrity and durability of state party structure. It is suggested that Governor Siminalayi Fubara is loth to inherit his predecessor’s enemies, and wishes to hew out the path of a pacifist. Mr Wike, on the other hand, fears the reintroduction of his ‘enemies’ into the state’s governing Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), enemies who might be keen on taking over the party and leaving him high and dry. Whatever the reasons, real or imagined, the fight has started.

The fight in Ondo between Governor Rotimi Akeredolu and his deputy, who merely acted as governor for a few months, is still smouldering. Had a succession taken place already, the propriety and tameness witnessed in the Rivers war, a war that erupted after only five months, would be impossible to find. Overall, there is hardly a state in which such wars broke out that the predecessor was not eventually worsted. Lagos probably bucked the trend, but only just, and in ways that are complex and nuanced. What really matters is not just that the wars exemplify administrative or ideological disagreements between two persons and contending forces, but that they are more significantly symptomatic of the crisis of leadership recruitment in Nigeria. The wars between successors and predecessors reached as high as the Nigerian presidency, between ex-president Olusegun Obasanjo and Umaru Yar’Adua, and between the same Chief Obasanjo and Goodluck Jonathan. None of the army generals who foisted Chief Obasanjo attempted to control him or fight him since they were his juniors in the army. And no one could control or fight ex-president Muhammadu Buhari, himself a retired army general. The predecessor/successor wars are idiosyncratically a civilian matter. Perhaps with time, the inevitability of such wars will convince political godfathers of the futility of imposing favoured candidates on states.

Predecessors and successors will never lack reasons to disagree or fight open wars. Presidents Barack Obama and Donald Trump in the United States despised each other, and both engaged in rhetorical and even administrative spat. It never went beyond that. Mr Trump’s current ordeal is more a product of his personal follies and foibles than anything connected with Mr Obama. While there may, therefore, be reasons to fight succession wars, it is not always inevitable, especially if the right things are done. Firstly, regardless of the desire to protect legacies or crimes, and ensure, perhaps, ideological purity and continuity, history has amply shown that no single political leader could eternally protect legacies, crimes or ideas. It is hubris to think otherwise. Admittedly, Mr Wike may be fighting to protect his future rather than defending a legacy or covering a crime, seeing how he straddled very unusually both the ruling APC in Abuja and the PDP in Rivers. His reasons will resonate with Abuja, considering the permutations being bandied around for 2027, but they will rankle with PDP oligarchs desirous of snatching the state from the mercurial Wike and punishing him for his perfidy and apostasy.

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Until there is a deep and coherent paradigm shift in leadership recruitment, states which produce powerful and impactful leaders may continue to witness political succession instability. In the Fourth Republic, Lagos came closest than any other state in designing pragmatic leadership succession model. But that model is still a far cry from what is desirable. It may have fostered some sort of manageable stability, and even compelled fidelity to the state’s developmental blueprint far more evident than any ever seen in the country, but it has not always produced successors capable of passing brilliant torches to the next generation of leaders. Governor Bola Tinubu, as he then was, was more pragmatic than ideological, and his successor, Babatunde Fashola was equally practical. But while Senator Tinubu was faintly ideological in his pragmatism, indeed much given to a universalist and overarching perspective of regional rulership and development model, Mr Fashola was, despite his pragmatism, less regional and probably isolationist. The next governor, Akinwumi Ambode, though a builder himself, despised templates and blueprints, and was also not ideological. Had the state not been cajoled by then Gov Tinubu into some sort of stability, the developmental strides witnessed in the state, now taken for granted and regarded as a national benchmark, would have been difficult to midwife.

Mr Wike probably has a vision to make Rivers another Lagos, perhaps even far better in line with his insinuations during some of his expansive state dinners. While that vision may be unimpeachable, it has not been matched by an inviolable blueprint or a carefully considered succession paradigm. Where Mr Wike had postured as Israel’s King David, Mr Fubara has neither proved to be cut from the same cloth nor acted like King Solomon when assailed by complicated troubles. The fault is not Mr Fubara’s. The problem is that Mr Wike’s ambitions have proved far more transcendental than his methods and visions. The Lagos model is fraying at the edges. In Rivers, the Lagos model will prove, for want of a better word, irreplicable, and will probably unravel much faster than Mr Wike ever imagined. This is because what Mr Wike left behind lacks coherence and depth, and the man who succeeded him, while seeming like a gentleman, seems to have a lot of trouble with the character, conviction and foresight of an ideologue. There are many ways to manage someone like Mr Wike, while at the same time keeping the dogs and hyenas outside the state at bay. Staying lockstep with the tempestuous and even nuanced Mr Wike, who governed far better than his predecessor, the self-absorbed Rotimi Amaechi, requires so much depth than the current governor can display.

By now, the FCT minister must have realised that in the somewhat impressionable Mr Fubara, not to talk of Rivers and the PDP, he has a fight on his hands. Even if his ire and methods are beyond cavil, his inability to structure the state and the governorship succession scientifically will give him nightmares in the months ahead. He has stuck stubbornly to his guns, and has spoken daggers and is prepared to use them. But if he allows his rage to consume him, he will lose on all sides in the end. President Tinubu has rallied to his side instantaneously for obvious reasons, not the least of which is the cooperation afforded the ruling party by the Rivers PDP lawmakers in the National Assembly. Mr Wike will sustain his brittle leadership in Rivers if he moderates his expectations. Mr Fubara will not be the philosopher and solid steel the FCT minister imagines the governor capable of. Meanwhile, Rivers, with the protests and counter-protests of the past week, is still in formation. It is capable of bending in any direction for now. Had Mr Wike spent as much time shaping the mind and steeling the character and worldview of the state as he did building its bridges and public buildings, and had he paid attention to the state’s leadership recruitment rubric, he could go to sleep assured that neither Rivers nor its governors in the foreseeable future would betray the cause or be bought for a morsel. It is not clear whether it is not already too late for Mr Wike, despite his threat to fight long and hard; but it would be a mistake for him to assume or project the struggle to be about him or his ideas. He should speak less, considerably less, about himself or whether anyone is betraying him; for the struggle for political unity and party sanctity should be about Rivers, and Rivers only.

November 5, 2023
Atiku undermines his own ambition

On October 30, former vice president and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential candidate in the February 25 election, Atiku Abubakar, finally spoke on his loss at the Supreme Court in the case he filed against the All Progressives Congress (APC) and its victorious candidate in that election, President Bola Tinubu. The speech was undoubtedly written for him, for everything in the text stands in direct and scornful refutation of his life and ideas. He blames the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and the Supreme Court for his loss. As far as he is concerned, he presented all the evidence necessary to get the case decided in his favour, but his valiant and noble attempt was thwarted by the incompetence and deviousness of the two institutions. He did not have an impressive school leaving certificate, but he brandishes a diploma in law (1969) and a master’s in international relations (2021). His speech, however, displays nothing of the higher learning or political virtue his education confers on him. He misreads the electoral law, misapplies the constitution, and far more embarrassingly, especially for someone who passes himself off as a statesman and patriotic political titan, misjudges both his personal accomplishment and the mood of the country.

In the first four paragraphs of his speech, he tells audacious lies about the role he played in Nigerian politics, including what he has stood for all his life, and insinuations about what he may yet accomplish on a hypothetical tomorrow. In those prefatory statements, where he speaks with absolute cocksureness of what he supposed was the malfeasance of the two institutions in question, he avers that history will vindicate him. He knows nothing about history. Then he pontificates about democracy and the rule of law, of which he was both an avatar and a palladium. He does not say what qualifies him for the robes he wore in the speech, for the robes were ponderous and ungainly over the thin and spectral frame of his self-confessed qualities. But because some bright and dreamy hack writer composed his diatribe against the court and INEC, he believes that by merely making those self-adulatory claims, he was invariably entitled to wear those grand and noble robes.

He repeatedly hammers on his years of litigations, which he assumes must be noble because they exuded a long and profound history of political activism and agitation, and he thus proudly wears that hat. It escapes him that his litigiousness, much of it anchored on flimsy and self-gratifying evidence, could in fact be baleful pointers to his disputatiousness, a grumbler eternally griping about minor hurts and chasing chimeras. He then zeroes in on his last Supreme Court case, speaks fondly about United States (US) courts from which he says he had procured unassailable evidence, and damns everybody else from APC to INEC, and from the Nigerian courts to Nigerians themselves whom he dismisses as complicit. For someone who claims to have a diploma in law, it is bewildering that he neither says anything about the sanctity of laws nor talks of estimating the evidentiary worth of his foreign evidence. He then proceeds to cast aspersion on legal technicalities as if they are distinguishable from the law, and feigning dismay, pronounces glibly on how the courts should have proceeded. The lower court that adjudicated his case, the Presidential Election Petition Court (PEPC), gave its judgement on September 6, while the Supreme Court affirmed the judgement on October 26. Neither he nor his speechwriters had obviously read and digested the judgements, though they had enough time. Had he read the two documents, his law diploma should have impelled him to a better and deeper understanding of the inviolability of the justices’ reasoning and conclusions.

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A final year law student, confronted with the arguments and evidence of the Atiku legal team, could not but come to the conclusion that the former vice president had no case, regardless of whether the student or any other person for that matter loathed the winner, President Tinubu. Worse, it did not need the same final year law student, after perusing the final address of the Atiku team, to come to the safe conclusion that the Supreme Court would unanimously dismiss his case and affirm the president’s victory in the election. Alhaji Atiku in his more than 2,700-worded speech paid no heed to the legal arguments adumbrated in the two judgements before coming to his conclusion that both the Supreme Court and INEC acted disloyally to the national cause and the cause of democracy. Instead, he focused cheerfully on the moral insinuation of a forgery he neither argued before the lower court nor tendered procedurally before the Supreme Court. He hoped his casuistry and the menace he and others had stirred in the wider and gullible public would be sufficient to intimidate the court. Six times, Alhaji Atiku tried to be president; he nearly could have become president in any of those times. For a man who trifles with facts, pays lip service to the concepts of democracy and the rule of law, speaks loftily about the future of Nigeria without discussing or propounding anchors for such a future, and wails apocalyptically about the failure of others while glossing blithely over his own abysmal moral and business failings, winning the presidency in any of those six times would have had tragic and lasting consequences for the country.

There have been suggestions that his insistence on staying put in the country to help Nigeria in its struggle for democracy are designed to pave the way for a future run at the presidency. Despite his boastings, and notwithstanding his litigious propensity, Alhaji Atiku is not a democrat nor does he care a hoot about democracy. He never fought for it, and may even harbour contempt for the idea. Fighting for democracy implies having a deep understanding of the concept. Alhaji Atiku is decidedly and roundly superficial. His court forays, particularly weaponised to damage the credibility and reputation of President Tinubu, have also been imbued with sacredness as a way of preparing him for a future presidential race. Those who advance such arguments exaggerate Alhaji Atiku’s mental and physical capacity. Apart from his rudimentary grasp of running a modern and complex economy and society, not to say his failing strength, it will take a miracle at 81 years old in 2027 to run for president, and much bigger altruism to make him support a younger and capable candidate. He is too selfish to care. Alhaji Atiku has reached the end of his tether. He will not run for president in 2027, nor support anyone for the position; instead, he will fade away well before the next elections.

November 5, 2023
Perform or get sacked, Keyamo tells aviation agencies CEOs
- Says Tinubu has final say on Nigeria Air
Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Mr Festus Keyamo, has told aviation agencies chief executive officers to perform or get sacked.

Keyamo stated this yesterday while speaking at an Aviation Stakeholders Forum put together by the ministry for players, operators, regulators and agencies under its supervision.

Describing the forum as an avenue for input gathering, Keyamo said President Ahmed Bola Tinubu had given the Ministers the Key Performance Index (KPIs) to drive the Renewed Hope Agenda and its economic blueprint.

He said he would spare no efforts to ensure that agencies under the ministry play their own role and ensure that set targets and objectives are accomplished within agreed timelines.

Urging chief executive officers in the aviation sector not to erect roadblocks on the way of the President’s mandate, Keyamo said he would not hesitate to clear out of the way any agency head not working in line with the agenda.

Keyamo said: “We had a three-day retreat with Mr. President, all the ministers. At the end of the day, we signed a performance bond.

“I also signed my performance bond yesterday. So, if you don’t want me to get sacked in the next few months, you need to support me.”

Facing the CEOs in attendance, he said: “On this side, it is either I get sacked or they get sacked. So, it is a race of who will survive.

“That’s what I have told all my CEOs. Somebody must die first but before I die. I will take you down.”

Keyamo said the purpose of the retreat was “to receive inputs from you as technocrats and players in the industry.

“Your input will add value to the road map/focus area that the industry will prioritise to make our aviation sector world class and meet the aspirations of Nigerians and all aviation stakeholders.

“We should desist from game blame and focus on solving the problems in the industry.

“As you are aware, Mr. President has unveiled his economic plan.

“The three-year economic revival plan that emerged from his inaugural Federal Executive Council meeting is anchored in an Eight-Point focus area targeted at addressing Nigeria’s socio economic challenges.

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“It seeks to move away from the frenzied borrowing of the last government, check the unacceptably high jobless rate, achieve economic growth, prosperity for all, and end poverty.

“Thus, we as an industry, will factor into our own focus areas for the development of the industry and in turn the economic development of our nation.”

He went on to highlight activities under his ministry since his appointment.

He said: “You will recall that following my appointment by Mr. President, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, I had gone on inspection of the Nigeria airports i.e. Lagos and Abuja.

“I set up a task force for the relocation of foreign airlines from the old international terminal to the new terminal following the state of disrepair of the old terminal which does not speak well about Nigeria as a people.

“The task force has since submitted their report. We are looking at their recommendations for possible action. We will overhaul this terminal to further boost the revenue drive of our airports.

“I equally, formally received the land for the construction of the 2nd runway of the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja from the Jiwa Community. This is a historic event and dream come through, which Nigerians have looked up to for the past two decades.

“You can rest assured that the benefits of the second runway will provide substantial economic advantage to the nation.

“I have also received briefs from some of the agencies under the ministry and the unions in the aviation industry.

“I have taken note of the concerns raised. After this engagement, we shall have a management retreat where we will further distil your inputs as stakeholders to move the Aviation Industry forward.”

The minister asked industry players to forward to his office a petition on an agency that was collecting on helicopter operations on behalf of the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA).

He said the ministry was getting worried over signals emanating from the industry suggesting that the Nigerian Civil Aviation Agency (NCAA) was not doing enough to curb the trend of flight delays and cancellations; a development that has become a regular headache for passengers.

Keyamo urged the NCAA to make public reports of airlines involved in flight delays and cancellation with reasons responsible for the infraction.”

Keyamo further said that only President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is the best to give the final position on the status of the controversial national carrier – Nigeria Air.
November 5, 2023
NAF to induct two ATAK helicopters to fight terrorism, others

The two T-129 ATAK helicopters delivered to the Federal Government three days ago by a Turkish defence company will soon be inducted into the inventory of the Nigerian Air Force (NAF).

The helicopters were among the six procured by the Federal Government in 2022 as part of efforts to fight terrorism and other security challenges confronting the country.

The T129 helicopter has the capacity to perform well in hot temperatures and high altitudes.

NAF’s spokesperson, Air Commodore Edward Gabkwet, disclosed this in a statement yesterday.

The Nation recalls that the Minister of Defence Muhammad Badaru and the Chief of Air Staff (CAS) Air Marshall Hassan Abubakar had a few days ago visited Turkey to facilitate quick delivery of the helicopters.

Gabkwet said the remaining helicopters are expected to be delivered before the end of the second quarter of 2024.

He said the NAF has witnessed a total overhaul and enhancement of its Order of Battle with procurement of new platforms and recent delivery of DA-62 surveillance aircraft and T129 helicopters.

According to the NAF’s spokesperson, the Chief of Air Staff “assured that with the additional platforms and others being expected in no time, as well as the renewed vigour of the NAF under his leadership, Nigerians can rest assured of the commitment of the NAF to ensuring total eradication of the myriads of security challenges facing the nation.”

He said: “Air Marshal Abubakar reminded the personnel about the prevalent security challenges facing the nation, and noted that the concerted efforts of the NAF alongside other security agencies would ensure that all forms of criminality and the criminals’ freedom of movement are reduced to the barest minimum.”

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Speaking on the NAF’s 2023 Annual 10km Walk/Jog for its personnel in Abuja yesterday, the NAF’s spokesperson said the exercise was “part of efforts geared towards ensuring a high level of physical fitness and mental alertness for operational readiness and effectiveness.”

Gabkwet said: “Air Marshal Abubakar commended the participants for showcasing high level of fitness, noting that the citizens depend on the members of the Armed Forces for their safety of lives and property, which cannot be achieved without physical fitness and mental alertness.

“The CAS emphasised that sporting events like the 10 Km Walk/Jog was also aimed at promoting peaceful coexistence amongst personnel and their families as well as serve as an avenue for discovering new talents for the upcoming 2024 Armed Forces Games.”

“While highlighting the importance of regular exercises to keep fit, the CAS stated that it is essential for military personnel as it prepares them for occupational demand of roles.

“The CAS said whether being deployed in an operating theatre or undertaking routine tasks, we are expected to always maintain a high level of physical and mental readiness. As airmen and airwomen, the success of the NAF directly reflects on our skills and competence which are also tied to our physical, mental and intellectual wellbeing, which is critical to attaining our overall objective.”

November 5, 2023