Author: The Nation

The National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, has said Edo State Governor Godwin Obaseki was wrong to have inaugurated the House of Assembly in the night.

The former Edo State governor was reacting to rumours of his strained relationship with the governor through a statement by his Special Adviser (SA) on Media, Simon Ebegbulem.

He insisted that his greatest desire was for the governor to succeed in his job.

Oshiomhole said Obaseki would have made his desired candidate the Speaker by lobbying members of the Assembly.

The APC national chairman dismissed claim by the “controversial” Speaker of the House of Assembly that he wanted to impeach the governor with members-elect who were loyal to him.

“What offence did the governor commit that he was to be impeached?”, he queried.

Oshiomhole said he did not recognise Frank Okiye as Speaker of the House of Assembly.

The national chairman said he would not be a party to what he called illegal decisions and actions that could derail the nation’s democracy.

Oshiomhole stressed that since the Assembly comprised APC members, Obaseki should not have inaugurated the House at 9:30 p.m with nine members.

The APC national chairman described the governor’s action as a rape on  democracy.

Describing as arrant nonsense Okiye’s allegation about the alleged plan to impeach the governor, Oshiomhole said: “First of all, Okiye is not the Speaker; he is a member-elect. I watched the governor say those things. But the truth of the matter is that he knows better than that. The question I will put to you is: is it within the discretion of a governor to decide who becomes the Speaker?

Read Also: Obaseki, Oshiomhole and the crisis within

“The only option for him is to lobby, and if he lobbies and in the end he is unable to get everybody to toe his line, he has to concede that these are not his commissioners or special assistants for whom he has absolute monopoly to appoint.

“But even at that, if they are commissioners, they must be screened by the House of Assembly. That is the law.

“So, if he chooses to put it in the manner that he has unfortunately put it, giving the impression that as the governor he can do everything, is there anything in the Constitution that you know that empowers a governor to decide who becomes a Speaker?

“But like every other person in a democracy, you get what you are able to negotiate for. The operative word is negotiation or persuasion. That is what we did in Abuja.

“But in spite of all the efforts, we invested at the Federal level. Incidentally, as the chairman, I was active on that. We conceded in the end when Senator Ali Ndume said he would not go the way the party wanted. We could not deny him that right to contest and he went and contested and he got 24 votes.

“So, that is the way to go. It was not within the power of the President and Commander-in-Chief to use his state instrument to prevent Ndume from contesting because it is his right so to do. All the President could do, which he did, was to deploy his influence through the party and other channels to persuade people to ensure that this time around APC has a national leadership that we believe can work in harmony with the President.

“When I was governor, I went through the same process. We persuaded the members, we called all of them by first explaining to them the need to ensure geo-political balance. Sometimes we suggest who we think is better equipped to handle legislative matters. That is how far we can go.

“Sometimes we succeeded, some other times we did not. But the bottom line is that it is the responsibility and absolute prerogative of members of the House to do it.”

He added: “Secondly, Okiye, being the beneficiary of the purported inauguration, says the agenda is to impeach Obaseki. Did he tell you what offence Obaseki has committed? Is he known to have committed any impeachable offence? Is it true that somebody who has just been elected – he has not even been inaugurated – his first agenda is to disturb the system by seeking to impeach a governor who is not known to have committed any offence? Is impeachment a tea party? It does not make sense.

“By the way, who is Okiye? Does he know what was invested in the making of the governor? Can he possibly lay claim to loving the governor more than those of us who went round the state and staked our reputation and invested our energy and persuasive skills to market the governor to the people? If there is one man who wants Governor Obaseki to succeed so that everything I said on his behalf comes to pass, I think it should be me.

“I have absolutely nothing to gain if someone I told the people would do well ends up not doing well, or if I make a statement that contradicts my earlier position. All that I have that I brought to this job called politics is integrity. And integrity is about being consistent and sometimes being predictable.

“So, Godwin (Obaseki) knows that I have no quarrel whatsoever with him. But I do not think that it is right to inaugurate the House of Assembly at night.

“Exactly the same way the governor of Bauchi said Oshiomhole is his problem. Let me say that one day, we may have a President who may decide to order the military to make sure that they secure the National Assembly and allow, may be one-quarter of members to go in at midnight to elect a Senate President and Speaker. Thereafter, whoever wishes to be inaugurated can go one by one. That will be a sad day for democracy.

“And you know as they say, when a child starts stealing a piece of meat from the mother’s pot, he might grow to become an armed robber. So, if we refuse to defend the letter and the spirit of the Constitution, as regards how the legislative arm of government will come into play and we reduce it to individual contestation, it will be unfortunate for democracy, not me. I am never going to be governor again.”

The Conference of Speakers of Southwest Legislatures at the weekend solicited the involvement of stakeholders to tackle insecurity.

They stressed the need for integration in the zone to ensure development and security.

Those were some of the resolutions made at the end of the maiden meeting of the Speakers, at the Lagos State House of Assembly complex on Friday night.

Briefing reporters at the end of the meeting, the conference Chairman and Speaker of Ondo State House of Assembly Bamidele Oleyelogun said the meeting was to proffer solution to insecurity confronting the region and discuss issues bordering on development in the zone, xenophobic attacks in South Africa and others.

The chief host and Speaker of the Lagos State House of Assembly, Mr. Mudashiru Obasa, had in his welcome address said stakeholders in the Southwest must collaborate to find solution to the insecurity confronting the zone.

“We know the problems confronting us as a region, which include kidnapping, theft, arson and herdsmen attacks on our people. It has reached an alarming height and we need to tighten our internal security,” he said.

Read Also: South West speakers parley over insecurity

Obasa, who is also the chairman, Conference of Speakers of Nigeria, said the Speakers were to deliberate on Southwest economic and socio-political integration, adding that the idea to establish special security offices across the Southwest is in the offing.

He urged the Federal Government to be proactive in securing Nigerians in South Africa against xenophobic attacks.

“I enjoin the local, state and federal governments to stem the threat to peace.

“There should be speedy action to halt this sad development. We condemn xenophobic attacks in its entirety and urge our citizens to give peace a chance. They should not resort to vandalism of South Africans’ investments in Nigeria in retaliation against xenophobic attacks,” Obasa said.

Oleyelogun said the Speakers deliberated on a lot of issues, including unity, security threats and killings in South Africa.

“We condemn it in its totality.

“We want peace and unity in Southwestern states. We had a robust debate on what could move our zone forward,” he added.

Commenting on the models of tackling insecurity in the zone, Oleyelogun said: “The Speakers have to go back to their states, discuss with their governors and meet stakeholders to fine-tune the way forward.”

On how to fund the proposed special security offices to be established across the Southwest, he noted that the governors were ready to support security matter.

“You cannot quantify it in money, as it involves lives,” Oleyelogun said.

All Progressives Congress (APC) stalwart and former Lagos State Governor Bola Tinubu pays tribute to former Head of Service (HoS) Alhaji Rafiu Babatunde Tinubu, who passed on last week.

 

It was with a heavy heart that I received the news of the passing away on, Wednesday, September 4, 2019, of my first cousin and eminent member of our highly-respected family, Alhaji Rafiu Babatunde Tinubu, son of Dr. Abdul Hameed Saka Tinubu.

The memory of this distinguished public servant, passionate Lagosian and patriotic Nigerian popularly known simply as RAB by all and sundry will ever remain fresh in my mind particularly because of the critical role he played in helping to lay a firm foundation for the success of my administration during my two-term tenure as governor of Lagos State between 1999 and 2007.

Coming into office as governor from the private sector, I knew that I needed a Head of the State Civil Service who I could trust and who would help forge a harmonious relationship between my administration and the public service on which the success of any government depends to a significant extent. Nobody at that time could fit the bill as perfectly as Alhaji Rafiu Babatunde Tinubu. As a family member, he would understandably desire nothing but the success of my administration. But much more than that, he had the requisite intellectual grounding as well as public service managerial experience, rising from the lower rungs to the upper echelon of the Lagos State Public Service between 1978 and 1999.

With a Bachelor’s (B.A) and Master’s (M.A) degrees in Political Science from the prestigious Howard University, Washington, D.C., USA, he joined the Lagos State Public Service in June 1978 after a teaching stint at the Department of Political Science of the then University of Ife between 1974 and 1978.

Before his appointment as my administration’s first Head of Service (HOS) in 1999, Alhaji Rafiu Tinubu had served with dedication and distinction in various administrative positions both in the State Civil Service and Local Government Service over a period of two decades.

His experience and dexterity in the complex politics of the public service was of tremendous value to my administration and helped to gradually build and sustain a cordial working relationship between the political class and the bureaucratic machinery of the public service. I recall that at the inception of my administration, there was a protracted labour crisis between the government and the public service as a result of the new minimum wage of N7, 500 which the state was unable to pay at the time due to the near insolvent state of its finances.

Alhaji Tinubu’s experience and wise counsel played a crucial role in enabling us go through that difficult period and forge a relationship of mutual trust, confidence and respect by both parties especially as the capacity of our administration to meet our welfare obligations to workers systematically grew as a result of our far-reaching reforms.

His advice helped us greatly in appointing a team of highly capable, experienced and dedicated Permanent Secretaries who played indelible roles in our administration’s success in laying a solid foundation for the continuing transformation of Lagos.

At the same time, we commenced during his tenure as HOS, the reorganization, reequipping and transformation of the Lagos State Public Service to the pride of place it occupies in Nigeria’s public administration today.

Alhaji Rafiu Tinubu was particularly passionate about recruiting new, talented hands into the Service, which commenced with the employment of 5000 fresh graduates into the civil service in Y2000 popularly known as the millennium staff. It is gratifying that these have today risen to critical managerial positions in the Service.

The late Rafiu Tinubu came, saw and gave his very best to the development of the Lagos State Civil Service, Lagos State and Nigeria as a whole. I condole with his wives, his children, the extended Tinubu family, all his loved ones as well as the government and people of Lagos State on this sad loss.

I pray that his soul rest in perfect peace with his creator (Amin).

 

..Text of a tribute by Asiwaju Tinubu to the late Alhaji RAB Tinubu, one-time Lagos State Head of Service, whose remains were interred on September 5 at Okesuna Cemetery in Lagos

Max Air Chairman Dahiru Bara’u Mangal has attributed the emergency landing of its Boeing 747-400 aircraft at the Minna International Airport in Niger State to “bad weather and power outage”.

The accident occurred on Saturday shortly before the aircraft landed at the airport.

It was conveying 560 Muslim pilgrims with 19 crew members from Hajj in Saudi Arabia.

The airline’s explanation on the cause of the accident came as the Accident Investigation Bureau (AIB) launched a probe into the matter.

In a statement which he personally signed, Mangal said: “Actually, it was not crash-landing; rather, an emergency landing, and the reasons that led to it are bad weather and a power outage. There was no light at the airport when my aircraft reached Niger State and the weather was also bad.”

Contrary to some reports, the airline owner insisted that his aircraft did not crash-land but had an “emergency landing” in Minna.

“However, the beauty of the whole thing is that we have not recorded any casualty as nobody was injured or died during the unfortunate incident,” he said.

The chairman added that the aircraft, a Boeing 747-400 series, was in good condition, despite the incident.

He urged its customers to disregard reports of crash-landing in Minna.

According to some reports, the plane made a hard landing which damaged its body and some instruments on the runway.

Already, some investigators from AIB office in Lagos had visited Niger State to probe the incident.

Read Also: Our plane didn’t crash land in Minna-Max Air

In a statement on Saturday, AIB solicited the support of the public to provide video clips or any other relevant information on the accident.

Also, the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA) yesterday faulted officials of Max Air on the cause of its hard landing at the Minna International Airport.

Its General Manager, Public Affairs, Khalid Emele, said a statement credited to Max Air’s Director of Operations, Captain Ibrahim Dilli, that the accident was caused by faulty instrument landing system resulting in epileptic and unreliable signal amounted to misrepresentation of the facts.

In a statement, Emele said: “In the said release, the airline’s Director of Operations, Capt. Ibrahim Dilli, attributed the unfortunate incident, among other things, to the Instrument Landing System at the airport, which he said was “epileptic with unreliable signals”.

“While we acknowledge that we have absolute confidence in the ability of the AIB to conduct a thorough investigation (which is ongoing), we are constrained to put things in proper perspective for the benefit our airspace users and the flying public.

“The reported weather on the day in question was 10-kilometre visibility in nil weather.

“Secondly, the said Instrument Landing System was successfully calibrated early this year (2019) and there has been no report of non-alignment by the equipment from pilots since then. Other operators who have used the facility after the incident have not complained about the ILS malfunctioning.

“Thirdly, NAMA has made available other alternative approaches, like the Performance Based Navigation (PBN) approach procedures and Very High Omni-directional Radio Range/Distance Measuring Equipment (VOR/DME) approach procedures, which are alternatives to the ILS.

“The agency, therefore, wishes to reassure airspace users and the general public that the Nigerian airspace remains safe for air travel. In furtherance to this, the Minister of Aviation, Hadi Sirika, on August 29, took delivery of a brand new Beechcraft 350 flight calibration aircraft to aid NAMA in the timely, regular and efficient conduct of flight calibration of its navigational facilities nationwide, in line with global best practices.”