The Nation Newspaper

Category: Sentry

  • Ex-governor in self-imposed restriction

    A FORMER governor in one of the Northcentral states is passing through one of his worst moments since he left office on May 29. He is living in perpetual fear of arrest over some of his alleged shady deals in office for which he is being investigated by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

    Already, some of his political associates, including a former classmate of his, have reportedly been quizzed by the anti-graft agency over their involvement in the illegal acquisition of government-owned properties in the state as well as Abuja.

    Since he left office on May 29, he has kept stoically to himself, studiously avoiding public functions for fear that he could be embarrassed at such functions by EFCC officials or other security agencies. In the state that he governed for eight years he is a recluse. In Abuja which he visits clandestinely, he is in self-imposed confinement.

    Although he is said to have secured admission for a doctoral degree in a Canadian university, the former governor is said to have put the programme on hold because he fears that he could be arrested at the airport.

    Although he is yet to be invited by the EFCC for questioning, he is said to be aware of the numerous petitions against him over the manner he handled the finances of the state while he held sway as governor, and the fact that some of his associates involved in the deals are being quizzed has heightened his fear.

  • Double losses for APC stalwarts in Zamfara

    IT is no longer news that the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Zamfara State lost all the polls conducted in the state during the recently concluded general elections to the rival Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). Not on the strength of the latter’s popularity but on account of internal wrangling that resulted in the victories the APC recorded at the polls reversed by the Supreme Court in favour of the PDP.

    A few days after the elections were conducted and won by the APC almost in a landslide, the Supreme Court delivered a shocking judgment nullifying the elections of all the candidates of the APC from state assembly to governorship and National Assembly.

    The unanimous judgment of the five-man panel led by the Acting Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Tanko Muhammad, declared the first runners-up in the 2019 general elections in the state as the winners of all the elections earlier declared by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to have been won by the APC and its candidates.

    Justice Paul Galinje, who read the lead judgment, had upheld the decision of the Sokoto Division of the Court of Appeal to the effect that the APC did not conduct any valid primary election and as such had no candidate for any of the elections in the state. He declared the votes polled by the APC candidates in the elections a waste.

    Those who thought the APC in Zamfara had learnt a lesson from the ugly experience were wrong, as all the key political actors in the state were said to have extended their bitterness to the recent jostle for ministerial tickets.

    The bickering among party stalwarts in the state was said to be so intense that President Muhammadu Buhari was left with no choice but to settle for the former Federal Commissioner, National Commission for Refugees, Migrants and Internally Displaced Persons, Hajiya Sadiya Umar, Farouk, who never lobbied to be a minister!

    Hajiya Umar was said to have got a surprise call from the President a few days to the ministerial screening at the National Assembly, asking her to submit her curriculum vitae; a development that was said to have left the feuding APC stalwarts crestfallen.

  • How new minister survived three attempts to abort his appointment

    A POPULAR bible verse quotes God as saying that He would have mercy on whom He would have mercy. Although President Muhammadu Buhari is a Muslim, he would appear to have keyed into this bible verse with respect to the appointment of one of the recently sworn-in ministers.

    Like a cat with nine lives, the new minister was said to have survived three different attempts made by some power brokers to remove his name from the list of ministerial nominees because President Buhari insisted on each occasion that his name be restored on the list.

    The new minister himself was said to have been surprised that his name survived on the list after the numerous attempts made by the power brokers in question to remove it.

    The irony of it all is that the minister, who hails from one of the northern states, eventually played a key role helping the President to assign portfolios. So much so that those who had wanted his name removed from the ministerial list started running after him to seek favour.

    A case of the stone the builder rejected becoming the head of the corner.

  • Kwara governor hits the ground running

    ALL things remaining equal, the people of Kwara State, especially the residents of Ilorin, the state capital, may have hit their best moment as far as governance in the state is concerned. The governor of the state, Abdulrazak Abdulrahman appears to have hit the ground running with respect to the provision of social amenities for which they had cried for years without an answer. So much so that a lot the residents are now wondering if life could indeed be this easy.

    For instance, in all the years that former Senate President, Senator Bukola Saraki, and his successor, Abdulfatah Ahmed, held sway as governor, water was a scarce commodity in most parts of the state capital. But barely two months after the new governor assumed power, most residents of the city are now enjoying potable water. Many of the township roads that were long abandoned by previous administrations in the state are also being tarred or repaired.

    Local government workers, many of who were being paid only 30 per cent of their salaries are now receiving their full pay, causing some of the workers to profess that they were in bondage but are now free, while others say they have no regrets keying into the ‘O to ge’ movement whose force rooted out the entrenched regime of the Saraki dynasty in the state.

    Senator Bukola Saraki and other members of the opposition in the state are said to be jittery over the development, fearing that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the state could be condemned into oblivion if Governor Abdulrahman continues in the same stride. To be sure, Governor Abdulrahman is a man of few words, but he appears determined to see that his works speak for him.

  • Why Governor Yahaya Bello is at daggers drawn with deputy

    THE outgoing week is one that the Deputy Governor of Kogi State, Elder Simon Achuba, would not forget in a hurry. Barely 24 hours after the Kogi State House of Assembly initiated an impeachment move against him, the ruling party in the state, the All Progressives Congress (APC), announced his suspension from the party. In both cases, anti-party activities was cited as the sin of the embattled deputy governor.

    The truth, however, is that there is more to the crisis than was professed by both the Kogi State House of Assembly and APC who seem to have taken it upon themselves to fight Governor Yahaya Bello’s battle with Achuba. Their quarrel, according to Sentry’s findings dates back to 2017 when the state government approved the sum of N500 million for an event in Kabba, the headquarters of Kabba/Bunu Local Government Area, which Achuba said was too trivial for the hundreds of millions of naira lavished on it at a time pensioners in the state were dying of hunger.

    Then came the death of former Majority Leader of the House of Representatives, Alhaji Buba Jibrin, in March 2018. The then Senate President, Bukola Saraki, and Senator Dino Melaye, a political rival of Governor Bello, led a delegation to pay a condolence visit to the constituency and family of the deceased Rep. Since Governor Bello was not available to receive the delegation when they arrived the state capital, the Deputy Governor thought it expedient to receive the Senate President. But his action was said to have irked the governor who felt that his deputy was making friends with his adversaries.

    Governor Bello’s failed bid to recall Senator Melaye from the Senate is also believed to have stoked the fire of discord between the governor and his deputy. Achuba was said to have described as a waste the huge sum expended on the project. He was said to have complained openly that the sum spent on Melaye’s recall should have been used to pay a part of the backlog of salaries owed workers in the state.

    The foregoing coupled with Achuba’s closeness to some members of the opposition party in the state are believed to be responsible for the persecution he has suffered, not only from the governor but also the party and the House of Assembly.

  • Amosun wins the race in Ogun

    THOSE who had thought that President Muhammadu Buhari would nurse a grudge against former Ogun State governor, Senator Ibikunle Amosun after the embarrassment the former suffered during his campaign rally in Abeokuta on February 11 would by now be having a rethink, following the emergence of Lekan Adegbite as Buhari’s preferred candidate for the ministerial list.

    Before the list was released early in the week, the radar was on two other APC members from Ogun East, one a former deputy governor, the other an immediate commissioner in the state. But it was Adegbite, Amosun’s candidate, whose name propped up like a bolt from the blue, leaving the members of other political camps in the state stupefied.

    The camp of Governor Dapo Abiodun was said to be particularly shocked at the development. So much so that some of its members were said to be pushing the governor to write a petition to the President. With the screening of the nominees already done by the National Assembly, however, the move may be too late.

    Observers of political happenings in the state believe that the triumph of Amosun in the battle for the state’s ministerial slot is more important in the sense that it symbolises that the bond between Buhari and Amosun, which dates back to their membership of the defunct All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) more than a decade ago remains intact.

    In 2015, Buhari picked Amosun’s nominee, Mrs Kemi Adeosun, as the nominee from Ogun State for minister, against all expectations. All through Buhari’s first term, Amosun was a regular visitor to the Villa.

    He posed for photographs with Buhari on the slightest occasion ostensibly to prove that the bond between them is very special and tighter than imagined.

  • Ministerial list: Ambode’s loss, Mamora’s gain

    ABOUT the biggest shock in the list of ministerial nominees released by President Muhammadu Buhari during the week was the missing name of the immediate past governor of Lagos State, Akinwunmi Ambode. Until the list was released early in the week, it looked as sure as daybreak that Ambode would be one of the first names on it.

    Buhari’s visit to Lagos on Ambode’s promptings earlier in the year to commission some projects had been touted by many as all that was needed to confirm the bond between the President and the former governor of Lagos State.

    His political lieutenants also did little to alter that belief as they were said to have boasted at every turn before the ministerial list was released that Ambode was Abuja bound after failing to secure the ticket of the All Progressives Congress (APC) for a second shot at the governorship seat.

    Their confidence in this regard was said to have been boosted by the fact that earlier rumour that President Buhari was contemplating appointing Ambode as the governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria ended in the realm of speculation, hence they expected him to be compensated with a ministerial appointment.

    The former Lagos State governor’s undoing, according to Sentry’s findings, was the favour that the former senator representing Lagos East, Senator Olorunnibe Mamora found with President Buhari and the leadership of APC in Lagos State. Both were said to have been impressed with the loyalty he has demonstrated over time and the calm mien with which he accepted his fate in 2015 after losing the senatorial ticket without being compensated with another appointment.

    “What many people did not understand is that Buhari has always felt that he owed Mamora something after the calm manner he accepted party’s decision over his seat at the Senate. Added to this was the fact that the mood of the party in Lagos clearly did not favour Ambode,” a source said.

  • Buhari’s cabinet: Ex-governors lose out, ex-ministers’ influence wane

    THESE are not the best of times for former governors who could not make a second term or win the elections into the National Assembly as they are fast losing out in the scheme of things. Ditto for some members of the recently dissolved cabinet of President Muhammadu Buhari who were regarded as super ministers on account of the powerful ministries they controlled while they held sway.

    Numbered among them are former governors of Lagos and Rivers states, Babatunde Raji Fashola and Rotimi Amaechi respectively. Fashola was the minister in charge of works, power and housing while Amaechi was in charge of transport and aviation. Fillers available to Sentry indicated that while it is almost as certain as daybreak that the two gentlemen will return to the cabinet when the announcement is made, their power and influence may wane considerably because they will have to cede a part of their portfolios.

    For Amaechi, the development will not be entirely new because he was not really in charge of the aviation ministry as the immediate past Minister of State for Transport and Aviation, Hadi Serika, was the one effectively in control.

    Read also: Reps approve Buhari’s request to appoint 15 Special Advisers

    As for the former governors who could not win the seats they contested in the last general election, President Muhammadu Buhari is said to be having a rethink of his earlier promise that those of them who lost in the elections would be compensated with cabinet appointments. The new thinking in the Presidency is that former governors who could not wield enough influence to win elections after four years in the saddle as the chief executives of their states could be more of liabilities to the Buhari administration than assets.

    It is believed that they would not have lost the elections if they had done well in office as governors. “What value will they be adding to Buhari’s cabinet when they don’t even have enough goodwill to win elections in the states they presided over as governors for four years,” a Presidency source wondered.

    Consequent on the foregoing, many of the ex-governors are said to have gone off the radar, prompting one of them to declare recently that he was not aspiring to become a minister but would rather concentrate on recovering his mandate. The truth, however, is that they have lost out.

  • Drain pipe called Abiola University of Technology

    NOT a few Ogun indigenes hailed the move as laudable two years ago when the Senator Ibikunle Amosun-led administration announced the conversion of Moshood Abiola Polytechnic to Moshood Abiola University of Science and Technology.

    But two years down the line, it has become a white elephant project, draining the purse of the state government so much that Governor Dapo Abiodun is now seeking the nod of the Ogun State House of Assembly to revert the institution to its original name and status.

    For two years, the university, with a Vice-Chancellor and a Governing Council in place, has been drawing salaries without really taking off. An insider said the truth is that the state government did not really have enough money to fund a unniversity of science and technology, but the immediate past governor of the state insisted on the project in order to score some cheap political points.

    In a letter dated July 18, which Governor Abiodun forwarded to the House of Assembly, he called for an amendment of the bill that established the university.

    Sentry gathered that the move had caused serious anxiety in the university as the staff of the still born institution face uncertain future.

  • Dickson’s headache in Bayelsa

    BAYELSA State governor, Hon. Seriake Dickson, is in a dilemma as no fewer than four people in his government are jostling for the ticket of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) as the governorship election in the state gathers momentum. The primary election of PDP, the ruling party in the state, scheduled for September 3, 2019.

    Already, the PDP is divided into two major camps – a caucus controlled by the Restoration Family of the governor and a group loyal to former President Goodluck Jonathan. Dickson’s restoration caucus is believed to control more than 80 per cent of PDP members in the state, which explains why the governorship aspirants are desperate to have his backing.

    Although the governor has continually said he would not impose a candidate on the party, he has insisted on not being succeeded by anyone outside his Restoration Family. The problem, however, is that he wants to choose his successor but does not want to offend any of the members of the Restoration group aspiring for the position.

    The governor is said to have resolved to allow as many of them as are interested in the seat to test their popularity at the party’s primary. Already, his deputy, Rear Admiral John Jonah (rtd), his former campaign Director-General, Chief Fred Agbedi, and member representing Ekeremor-Sagbama Federal Constituency in the House of Representatives have picked their nomination forms. The danger, however, is that the members of his Restoration group could end up splitting their votes and putting an architect President Goodluck Jonathan is said to be backing for the position at an advantage.

    A former managing director of Niger Delta Development Commission (NNDC), Timi Alaibe, is also said to be waiting in the wings for the coveted seat