The Nation Newspaper

Category: Jide Oluwajuyitan

  • Jega’s finest hour as Nigerian victory

    Nigerians have little faith in their institutions. Except perhaps for the church, today headed by prosperity prophets, who have taken over the socio- economic role the state should perform in society; all other institutions are facing crisis of credibility. The bureaucracy is so powerful that it controls the water we drink, the air we breathe, the education of our children; where to live and where to be buried.

    Recently, a theft of N5billion pension fund was perpetrated inside the office of the Head of service just as another director in charge of the police, the most important organ of state, stole over N32b. The legislature has become a parasite living on the sweat and blood of those they are elected to protect through humane enacted laws. The judiciary is for the highest bidder. Those who allegedly stole N1.6 trillion are not in chains but in government because the outgoing President Jonathan government says ‘the wheel of justice grinds slowly in Nigeria’. Until now the picture of Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), that Nigerians had was that of an umpire that often takes side with one of the competing teams if the price was right.

    But with commitment and strength of character, Jega changed that picture leading to the miracle of 28th March 2015. On that day, Nigerians came out in their millions, waited for hours in the sun, others in the rain, determined to cast their vote because unlike the inglorious moment in the First Republic when Chief Remi Fani Kayode said his party would win whether the people voted for it or not, Nigerians trusted Jega and believed their vote would count. He has not let those who put their trust in him down.  For Nigerian, it is the dawn on a new day. For the first time in the history of our nation, an incumbent president was defeated ‘round and square,’ through a process that was so transparent that the President could not have been anything but magnanimous in defeat to promptly congratulate the victor.

    The battle against forces of darkness that swore to rule for sixty years or pull the nation down on their head had been fierce.  Jega’s most potent weapons were the millions of Nigerians he was able to convince that sacrificing quality time to secure their PCVs, wait patiently for hours on a queue on the election day refusing to be disfranchised by enemies of our nation, spend their resources to rent generators, canopies, chairs or buy refreshments for their compatriots were worthy endeavours for sustenance of the soul of our nation. Thousands of our young corpers who spent Friday and Saturday nights sleeping in mosquito infested open field and unable to take their bath for two days made the sacrifice because of their faith that Jega’s efforts would bring a better tomorrow.

    It is gratifying to know that the current INEC is Nigerian made. It is made up of patriotic individual Nigerians. I was filled with admiration as I watched Kayode Idowu, the chief spokesman for the INEC chairman, who appeared not to have slept for days, educating Nigerians on the need for patience and understanding on Channels Television last Sunday. There were many voting locations with neither INEC officials nor INEC voting materials. But Nigerians remained resolute having realized that INEC was engaged in a battle of wits with those who worked assiduously to ensure its failure. At the end, their resilience and patience paid off. Those who had thought Nigerians especially the middle class would give up after a few hours were disappointed. Many in their sixties and seventies patiently waited on Saturday and those who had roles to perform in their churches on the palm Sunday returned briefly to vote when voting started before returning back to their churches.

    The African Union Election Observation Mission (AUEOM) said in preliminary findings that the vote was “conducted in a peaceful atmosphere within the framework that satisfactorily meets the continental and regional principles of democratic elections”. This is a credit to Jega and Nigerians who have faith in him. Except in the south south where militants, both young and old, often resort to self-help and Lagos where enemies of Nigeria were bent on truncating the transition, the election went smoothly everywhere. INEC’s success came after a hard fought battle with formidable foes beginning with the president, his errand boys and errant elders, his attack dogs, PDP Boko Haram insurgents and the Niger Delta militants whose leader Godsday Orubaba, a former minister of Niger Delta put up a show of shame on Tuesday in the full glare of national and international audience in a futile attempt to derail the transition.

    Of course Jega survived all his foes including President Jonathan, his greatest detractor who without proof claimed non indigenes in Lagos were being discriminated against by INEC in the distribution of PCVs; PDP National Chairman, Alhaji Adamu Muazu told a delegation of Africa Union election observers led by AU Commissioner for Political Affairs, Dr. Aisha Abdullahi that his party objected to the use of card readers because  “the machine may not make for credible elections as it is said to easily malfunction especially when the battery is weak”; a former Governor of Anambra State, Chukwuemeka Ezeife, who spoke on behalf of Southern Leaders Forum insisted  there would be no election except Jega quits  and in fact, calls for his sack and arrest. There was also the National co-coordinator of the Odua Peoples Congress (OPC) Otunba Gani Adams, who wanted Atthiru Jega removed ‘on the basis of PVC distribution and introduction of card reader’

    There were also 15 political parties that opposed the use of the card readers because “if the card reader should develop some technical problems, there is a possibility that the consequences of such development would affect about forty) or fifty percent of the polling booths nationwide. The national chairman of MEGA Progressive Peoples Party, Dare Falade; the presidential candidate of the Peoples Party of Nigeria, Kelvin Alagoa; and the presidential candidate of the Alliance represented them. Rafiu Salau amongst others represented them.

    The churches were not left out. There was Bishop Abraham Chris Udeh, the General Overseer of Mount Zion Global Faith Liberation Ministries, Nnewi, Amambra state, who had a vision that Jega must be removed. Buffeted and bedeviled by the typical Nigerian problems, INEC has emerged a new Nigerian successful brand and one institution that have made Nigerians proud. Jega’s joy for ending our long nightmare, I am sure will have no bounds. It is his victory as much as it is Nigerian victory.

  • Jonathan’s love: Neither for Nigeria nor Yoruba nation

    In two days time, Nigerians will have a choice to decide whether to continue enduring the pains inflicted by Peoples Democratic Party(PDP) buccaneers that have continued to wield power and influence over our lives.  March 28 offers us an opportunity to give a verdict on President Goodluck Jonathan who four years ago made a solemn promise “to uphold ‘democracy and rule of law’, ‘banish corruption and its attendant vices, ‘respect human life and human rights’. It is a payback date for Jonathan who beyond self, appears incapable of loving anyone, whether Nigeria in spite of self serving mouthing of ‘for the love of Nigeria’ or the Yoruba nation that made him that he is aiming to turn its land into a battle ground because of his desperate ambition to rule for ten years.

    In 2011, to secure the PDP ticket, President Jonathan after subverting his party’s constitution allegedly doled out $1 billion to PDP governors on the eve of his party’s primary ostensibly for mobilization. For this Saturday election, 2015 election, President Jonathan whose first international engagement after victory was a visit to Uganda’s Powered Museveni, a ruthless dictator in the last 30 years has no opponent in his party’s primaries. All unanimously adopted him.

    In the run up to 2011, Jonathan overlooked the PDP/Halliburton $180m LNG Bonny plant contract scam in deference to his corrupt PDP benefactors. By 2015, stealing in billions has replaced corruption. Thus those PDP stalwarts, their children and their fronts involved in the monumental N1.6 trillion fuel subsidy scam are today busy raising funds and campaigning for Jonathan’s re-election instead of being behind bars.  In fact, about 17 of the 22 PDP elected governors in 1999 that had been indicted by the courts or still in court defending their integrity have been re-integrated back as governors, lawmakers or party officials. In the period, N5b pension fund fraud was uncovered right inside the Head of Government office. One Director of Pensions in the Police Affairs ministry was indicted for stealing N32.5 billion. Of the over 200 banking officials that Sanusi Lamido alleged to have contributed to the collapse of the banking sector, only one, according to him was successfully prosecuted as at the time he was removed from office, over alleged ‘missing’ $20b.

    For four years, Jonathan exploited our ethnic and religious differences. Unidentified suspected Fulani herdsmen mindlessly murdered women and children in their sleep. The president has been tolerant of the assaults of his Ijaw and ethnic irredentist, on critics of his inept leadership. Today as it was in 2011, President Jonathan is urging leaders of different ethnic groups resident in Lagos to join forces to defeat their chief host and owners of Lagos. Yet, Jonathan belongs to the Ijaw nation that regarded Igbo properties in Port Harcourt as abandoned properties 45 years after the civil war.

    For four years when not in Jerusalem or Rome, sometimes accompanied by some dubious members of his cabinet, the president was seen at home moving from churches to synagogues, and dismissing as subversive elements, critics of government and conjuring metaphors of the triumph of Biblical David over Goliath, and the Egyptian enslaved Israelis over powerful Pharaoh. But to the president, his opponents who worship their own God without becoming public nuisance are Islamists bent on Islamising Nigeria. For four years, insurgents operated with little resistance killing over 19,000 innocent Nigerians, turning over 1.5 Nigerians into refugees in their country. About 300 young girls abducted from their dormitories have remained in captivity for close to a year. With crisis in the international oil market, the naira now exchanges for about N220 to one dollar. What a shame!

    But in spite of the baleful legacies of unfulfilled promises, President Jonathan is breaking all rules in a desperate bid for re-election in two days’ time. He has turned Yoruba land into battleground. It is not as if President Jonathan, the master of political subterfuge has ever had anything but contempt for the Yoruba on whose back he rode to power. This finds expression in the fact that besides his chief of staff and the Accountant General of Nigeria, no Yoruba of note featured among the holders of the first fifty important positions in his administration. Dismissing Obasanjo who betrayed Nigeria to make him president as ‘not a statesman but someone not better that a motor park tout”; he identified those who in his judgment should lead the Yoruba nation. They include the likes of Kashamu Buruji, Gbenga Daniel, Fani Kayode, Musliu Obanikoro, Ayo Fayose, Olusegun Mimiko Doyin Okupe and Gani Adams.

    The Jonathan recognized Yoruba leaders say they are ready to deliver the Yoruba votes to Jonathan. Pa Ayo Adebanjo who, some two years back, publicly praised Bola Tinubu for liberating Yoruba land from Obasanjo and PDP has joined forces with Jonathan’s errand boys to say the aspirations of the Yoruba can only be achieved by voting for PDP and President Jonathan who has promised to implement the confab report tucked away along dozen other committee reports until the eve of a national election. But Pa Adebanjo has never struck many people as a successful politician, a successful lawyer or even a successful Awo follower.

    If we see politics as ‘an art of the possible’, any politician who is condemned to the past and not the future and what it holds, is a failed politician.  In a nation that has according to General Alabi Isama been ruled since independence by a coalition of Igbo and Hausa Fulani elite, even while pretending to be at war, Pa Adebanjo cannot see what Yoruba stands to gain in a combination of Hausa Fulani and the main stream Yoruba political tendency to which he has identified for an upwards of fifty years. He even discountenanced the presence of his Ijebu kinsman, Prof Osinbajo on the Buhari ticket. Pa Adebanjo is prepared to throw away the baby with the bath water because of selfish bitterness against Tinubu.

    Pa Adebanjo  is not ready to forgive Buhari even after he had said ‘dictatorship goes with military rule’ and after the children of those directly affected publicly pardoned him because of their deeper understanding of the limitation of ill-equipped military junta suffering from messianic complex, Pa Adebanjo has shown he cannot comprehend the essence of Awoism, Awo as philosopher and Awo as a brilliant politician.  For instance Awo jailed by Hausa Fulani and Igbo ruling elites came out of prison without bitterness. He moved on to write books because he was deep enough to know the crisis was ideological. It was the ruling elite in the north and east that reached a consensus to send Awo to prison, hoping erroneously that, he would be too old by the time he returns to question how they govern Nigeria.

    On the Lagos metro line project of over 30 years ago, it is a good that that Alhaji Lateef Jakande during his 80th birthday celebration recently put the blame squarely on President Shehu Shagari’s administration. The same Shagari, whose administration guaranteed billions of dollars as external loans for NPP and NPN coalition partner governors, prevented the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) from releasing the seventy million mobilization fees for the project, long after the specified amount had been deposited by Lagos State government with it. Pa Jakande also accused Shagari of abandoning the Third mainland bridge due to ‘pettiness.’

    Adebanjo is selfishly asking Yoruba people to vote for Jonathan that has nothing but contempt for our people. Our youths, in two days time, must demonstrate that our selfless forbearers’ investment in us have not been in vain by rejecting Jonathan and his errand boys and errant old men.

  • Jonathan and PDP’s desecration of Yoruba Land

    President Goodluck Jonathan seems to have taken personal abode in the southwest in the last three weeks. With little or nothing to sell to a people he has treated with absolute contempt in the last six years, he has, according to his political detractors, been distributing loads of naira and dollars to youth, religious and women groups, and even traditional leaders. And for his pains and despite his abysmal record of performance, is counting on these groups to win the coming presidential election with farcical endorsement after endorsement.

    We have seen him surrounded by traditional rulers receiving blessing with royal walking sticks menacingly pointed at him. Last Monday, of all days, his paid supporters, led by OPC leaders, alleged to have received N9b contract along with others, visited untold sufferings on Lagosians as they ‘wielded broken bottles and knives; destroyed bill boards while walking, on foot and in about 100 buses on the ever busy Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, Ikorodu Road to Teslim Balogun Stadium in Surulere’.

    Penultimate Tuesday, PDP governors had complimented the president’s desperate efforts. They assembled in Eko Le Meridian hotel; Victoria Island where, as an answer to PDP’s six years of baleful legacy, ditched out hideous lies, told horrific tales and made odious comparisons. They spoke of Jonathan and PDP commitment to democratic values. They claimed: “PDP abhors corruption in all its ramifications”. They insisted: “PDP has done a lot in the fighting of corruption since the inception of democracy to date.” They therefore sought Yoruba support to ensure the “Sustenance of Democratic Values and National Development”.  These PDP governors seem to have forgotten they were not addressing Nigeriens, Chadians or Cameroonians but the direct victims of 16 years of PDP mismanagement; of documented PDP mindless looting of our common wealth through such self serving policy thrusts as PPPRA and fuel subsidy regime, privatization programme described by the House of Representatives’ report as ‘giving away of national assets at next to nothing”, and monetization policy that allowed the sharing of our national patrimony dating back to the colonial period by few members of the governing elite and their friends.

    At the head of PDP governor’s team was Godswill Akpabio of Akwa Ibom, the generous giver who has acquired all professional honours and chieftaincy titles money and influence can buy. Others include Reverend Jonah Jang of Plateau who lost the original Governors Forum election by 16 to 19 but lacking the grace to concede defeat, crowned himself winner and proceeded to church to thank God for giving him victory. There was   Babangida Aliyu of Niger, the self styled ‘Chief servants of the people,’ who talks more from both sides of the mouth; Sule Lamido of Jigawa, Obasanjo anointed successor to Jonathan whose ambition collapsed following EFCC arrest of his two sons for money laundry. Also on the team was Olusegun Mimiko of Ondo, the serial defector who is often attracted by the highest bidder and of course there was Ayo Fayose, a former impeached governor of Ekiti who has found his way back to the Government House through a flawed election as shown by the ongoing ‘Ekitigate’ and who is yet to establish his innocence after 53 appearances in court over his  EFCC charges of  mismanagement of N19b  Ekiti state fund.

    Speaking at the event, Governor Akpabio talked vaguely about what he termed the president and PDP achievements on war against corruption. But for Babangida Aliyu, the Chief ‘servant of the people’, probably realizing Jonathan is a bad product, chose to attack APC and Buhari, its flag bearer.  APC, a party he once hobnobbed with, he said was ‘a product of hate, frustration and anger’. He accused some of its leaders of ‘corruption’. He alleged money was used to influence the emergence of Buhari as APC candidate. And finally, he mischievously claimed Buhari was planning to spend only one term and this according to him will amount to shortchanging the north that should ordinarily be entitled to two terms.

    I think Nigerians and northerners in particular should be ashamed of leaders like Babangida Aliyu. Here is a northern leader who is unwilling to confront President Jonathan he had accused of reneging on an agreement with northern governors but now wants northerners to believe he is fighting their battle by fabricating lies to stop Buhari, another northerner contesting on the platform of another party. Groveling Babangida Aliyu not too long ago told Nigerians that he was the custodian of the secret document allegedly signed by President Jonathan to spend only six years. If he needed help, Obasanjo who publicly accused Jonathan of reneging on an undertaking to spend six years has strengthened Aliyu’s case.

    But curiously, Aliyu, who was part of northern governors who sold out in 2011 when Jonathan secured PDP ticket by default, Aliyu who is the leader of today’s incoherent Northern governors;  and who like all PDP leading light, are dealers and wheelers, now says they and Jonathan, their nemesis, are the true friends of the north while Buhari who most Nigerians today are counting on to rescue our nation is the enemy of the north. He is saying the interest of the north can only be protected by stopping Buhari a northerner from becoming president and not by stopping Jonathan he had claimed betrayed an agreement he signed with northern governors. With friends like Aliyu Babangida and the groveling northern governors, the north doesn’t need enemies.

    Just like incoherent Aliyu Babangida, Sule Lamido avoided dissipating energy on a bad product which will be a hard sell among enlightened people of Lagos and south west. He chose to introduce a game of mischief instead. He accused Buhari of keeping quiet as chairman of PTF while Abacha looted the nation’s treasury.  But Nigerians know Buharis’s oversight functions, as chairman of PTF did not cover the CBN. In any case, it is now facts of our history that the then CBN governor and Abacha’s minister of Finance, Chief Michael Ani aided Abacha in looting the CBN. Lamido avoided the painful fact that today, our country is adjudged one of the most corrupt nations on earth and that he has been part of PDP’s 16 years of locust. If we needed any proof of that, the politically motivated arrest of his two sons for money laundering at a time he expressed interest in the presidency was all president Jonathan needed to remind Nigerians that Lamido is a loyal member of PDP family that lives on the blood of Nigerians.

    As for Ayo Fayose, he has never been interested in selling Jonathan. He is haunted more by the prospect of a Buhari presidency. And we can understand his apprehensions. It is only under a Jonathan presidency we can have an Ayo Fayose with his liabilities, who but for the slow pace at which the wheel of justice grinds in our country,’ -apologies to President Jonathan, could have been behind bars, pontificating over how and who rules Nigeria. And Olusegun Mimiko, his Ondo state counterpart, whose attempt at dragging Yoruba Obas to partisan politics is a reflection of his lack of understanding of Yoruba culture, has nothing he holds sacred. If Buhari wins the coming election, as a survivalist who believes in nothing, he will crawl back to APC.

    On March 28, President Jonathan will reap the wages of investing on miscreants and those the Yoruba describe as ‘akotileta’ (seller of clan for a pot of porridge). As Awo observed in his autobiography, the Yoruba will not vote for you just because you are Yoruba if you have no manifesto that maps out strategies to address their future fears and anxieties. Those miscreants who are accomplices in today’s desecration of our land must remember Yoruba have a way of ensuring those who sow the wind reap the whirl wind, no matter how long it takes.

  • Jonathan, Mark and their whiz kid Ministers

    Absence of governance in an election year is not unique to Nigeria. It is a feature of all participatory liberal democracies where elections are held periodically to determine the fate of political office holders, legitimise or delegitimize their authority. Our own Problem is that there has hardly been any form of governance since the coming of President Jonathan in 2011. This is largely due to Jonathan’s leadership style which can at best be described as ‘delegation by abdication’ which was not helped by the intra party feuds which threw his ruling PDP into disarray. This has led to a situation where when the president is not setting up committees to escape taking difficult decisions, he allows his ministers to operate without restraint.

    Thus we have a Ministry of Petroleum where an estimated 400,000 barrels of fuel are stolen daily in spite of amnesty programme and the empowerment of the leadership of the militant groups through multibillion dollar contracts and where unilateral action of its minister led to the nation’s loss of about N1.6 trillion. In the office of the Minister of Finance there has been evidence of gross abuse of government policy on import duty wavers. While the customs records for instance showed N1.4 trillion as the value of wavers granted over a period of three years the figure posted by the minister’s office was a paltry N171 billion. Similarly the minister of power insists power generation has improved despite the fact that we today generate 3,479.55MW after an injection of $8.26b. Four years on, the figure falls below the 4,747MW President Jonathan promised he would achieve by December 2011.

    And because ministers are on their own, it took the return of long queues of motorists searching for fuel to power their homes and run their cars for the minister of finance to remember her ministry needed to pay fuel importers some N260b  following the devaluation of naira. The minister of works who also operates on his own claims 25,000 kilometer of roads have been constructed in the last four years, a wild claim that prompted the  governor of Lagos to remind PDP that the distance between Nigeria and London is 5000 kilometres. It is for the same reason the president and his wife were embarrassed by ministry of Internal Affairs government that was unable to confirm whether indeed close to 300 girls were abducted from their dormitories by insurgents. Ten months on, they still don’t know where the girls are.

    Tragically the president instead of addressing the absence of governance, an issue raised even by the international community, he has often chosen to play on the intelligence of Nigerians by trying to equate the pursuit of his interest with the well being of Nigerians. Just some four weeks back, some elders statesmen and ethnic irredentist, behaving like Motor Park touts (apology to President Jonathan) at the behest of government facing a possible defeat at the poles threatened violence if the dates for the elections were not shifted forward. No sooner that was achieved than the president’s men erected new road blocks aimed at buying time for the president. Last week, precisely on the 16 February, the president, a master of political subterfuge, rushed the names of Patricia Akwashiki (Nasarawa), Nicholas Akise Ada (Benue), Augustine Okwudiri Akobundu, Fidelis Nwankwo (Ebonyi), Hauwa’u Lawan (Jigawa), Kenneth Kobani (Rivers) and Joel Danlami Ikenya (Taraba).and Musliu Obanikoro, a former junior minister in the ministry of defence.to the senate for confirmation as ministers.

    Suddenly a government that was not in a hurry to fill the then vacant defence  portfolio for several months  despite the raging Boko Haram insurgency war, a Jonathan government that failed to appoint a substantive minister for the all important ministry of education despite the crisis that kept universities and polytechnics closed for about a year while the supervising junior minister Nyeson Wike  spent his time  fighting the president was back in Port Harcourt, the Rivers state capital where he swore to ensure governor Rotimi Amaechi, the presidents political rival did not sleep with his two eyes closed, now wants the senate to confirm 8 ministers  when the life of this administration technically ends in two weeks time. Many are bound to agree that the whole exercise is driven by the desire to serve self rather than Nigerians.

    Obanikoro’s nomination  in fact tends to validate the thesis of critics who argue President Jonathan will hardly ‘invite anyone to come and chop’{ apology to late Sunday Afolabi, Obasanjo’s minister of internal affairs} if such a person will not enhance his hold on power. Obanikoro during his first tour of duty as a junior minister of defence served President Jonathan instead of serving Nigeria. He never for once visited the war ravaged north eastern Nigeria. He instead deployed all his talents towards the pacification of Yoruba land.  In Lagos state, Governor Fashola, a governor not known for frivolities publicly accused Musiliu Obanikoro of bringing soldiers to physically stop ongoing public housing projects.  In Ilaje ESE odo of Ondo state, he was similarly accused of bringing soldiers to intimidate his party’s opponents during a bi-election to fill a vacant house of assembly seat. His outing in Ekiti was no less scandalous. He was in the company of Jelli Adesiyan the police affairs minister, Iyiola Omisore, a controversial politician from Oshun, Ayo fayose, an impeached former governor who was then a PDP candidate and Andy Uba a self confessed election master rigger from Anambra {He had at the onset of the forth republic, kidnapped governor Ngige in a broad day light, locked him up like a common criminal, and demanded his resignation claiming it was he who rigged Ngide into office.}They jointly discussed how to rig the election before proceeding to arrest and detain leading opposition leaders on the eve of the election.

    He played a similar despicable role during the Oshun election. Puffing and huffing, he told Journalist during a press conference organized by PDP that he was in Oshogbo to reenact the Ekiti experiment. He is perhaps now desperately needed in government to complete his unfinished work of pacification of Yoruba land. He will now be in good company of pa Olanihun Ajayis, the Okunrounmus, Ayo Adebanjos, Olu Falaes and their newly crowned “Yoruba Leaders”, Ayo Fayose and Olusegun Mimiko who now say there is no alternative to a president Jonathan, who has nothing but contempt for the Yoruba on whose back he rode to power in 2011

    The response of the Senate which many Nigerians consider an extension of the executive and an ‘upper house of deals’ is no less scandalous. In spite of Obanikoro’s controversial past, a pending case against him the courts and two different petitions against his appointment, David Mark wanted him confirmed without questioning. But then what does one expects from a David Mark’s Senate whose members are said to be the highest paid in the world. In a nation where the minimum wage is N18,000 per month, our senators are said to earn about $2m compared to an annual senators pay of $174,000 in the US, $105,000 of Japan, $149,700 of Germany$74,000 of Kenya and $46,000 of Ghana. Although the senators have not been forthcoming on what they earn but the proposed budget for the next senate has finally settled that. It for instance makes provision for each senator to collect. N4, 052,800m for accommodation, N6, 079,200 for furniture, N8, 105,600 as car loan.etc. As The Nation Newspaper editorial put it last Sunday “In all, the 107 senators would get N433,649,600 for accommodation, N650,474,400 for furniture allowance and N867,299,200 as vehicle loans. It is annoying that the lawmakers’ proclivity for extravagance has continued unabated since the beginning of this dispensation”

    Sadly Nigerians derive little joy from their world most expensive senators who draw wardrobe allowance from tax payers sweat while police men buy their own uniforms. A senate that is truly serving Nigeria would have asked president Jonathan to reserve his newly discovered whiz kid ministers until after the election that comes up in about two weeks.

  • Fani-Kayode: fighting GEJ’s battle without grace

    It is no more in doubt that President Jonathan is a very cynical leader. And with the on-going PDP’s game of deceit, appeal to religion and ethnic sentiments after 16 years of uninspiring leadership, Nigerians must have come to the sad conclusion that PDP is contemptuous of Nigerians. And if Nigerians needed any further proof, the appointment of Femi Fani-Kayode as Director General of PDP Presidential Campaign Organisation, (PDPPCO) and his on-going war against the person of General Muhammadu Buhari is all that is needed. Add this to the President’s admission during his chat with Tell editors shortly after his inauguration back in 2011 that he is ‘never moved to action by  public opinion’, the picture one gets is that of a President who does not give a damn about how we feel as Nigerians.

    For a man  who few months back wrote the President off as “a wicked and insensitive leader”, whose “chapter has been finally closed by OBJ with his letter”; who predicted that “All Progressives Congress, APC, would form the next government at the centre” and wrote off PDP by saying “PDP as we once knew her has gone forever; the ship has hit the rocks and she has sunk to the bottom of the sea; she is dead and buried” to have emerged as the best the President and PDP can find to launder their image is a measure of the value they place on credibility. And finally that a man standing trial before a High Court in Lagos for alleged money laundering  was appointed by the President and his party as chief  image maker, is not only scandalous, it is an assault on our collective sensibilities. It speaks volumes about “the President Jonathan we don’t know”. (apology to Reuben Abati)

    The ignoble role his father played in the destruction of Yoruba land is well documented. Chief S B Falegan, a former Managing Director of Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria (FMBN) in his new book My Yester-Years describes Chief Remi Fani-Kayode as “belonging to a group of political rascals who engaged in the selfish pursuit of greed, and personal enrichment at the expense of the country.”  And reviewing for Nigerians, Chief Remi Fani-Kayode’s rascal antecedents in the Nigeria’s politics during the NPN, he says, Femi Fani-Kayode, ‘who could say President Jonathan government is a bad omen to the country and thereafter decamp to the PDP to engage in a  re-twisted propaganda, has only taken  after his father’s styles”. And in fighting Jonathan’s war, Femi like the chip of the old block, has been trying to outdo his father who literarily aided the NPC ruling party to dig its own grave.

    First, it was about Buhari’s West African School Certificate. Sponsored government paid agents laid siege on television houses especially the respected Channels TV tasking our patience by insisting that Buhari, a retired four star General of the Nigerian Army, who attended the best military schools in the world, a former military Head of State ‘has no papers’, and therefore not qualified to contest for a position he had vied for thrice between 2003 and 2011. And when finally the authorities of Buhari’s old school presented his WAEC results, Fani-Kayode accused Buhari of perjury.

    Thereafter, Fani-Kayode’s heartache became Buhari’s age despite evidence of serving heads of states around the world that are of Buhari’s age. Fani-Kayode moved on to accuse Buhari of toppling Shagari’s government. It turned out Shagari was in fact removed by Babangida, Gusau and Abacha who merely used Buhari to buy credibility and legitimacy because of his personal integrity. Twenty months later, they deposed him  and unfolded their own agenda which included ‘a transition without end’, acceptance of IMF loan and liberalization of our economy which started the era of sharing of our national patrimony among privileged members of the military and their political and socio economic counterparts.

    Then last week on the eve of presidential election that would have  held two weeks back but for the mischief of panic stricken PDP, Fani-Kayode addressed journalists in Abuja to announce that “the Federal Government has concluded arrangements and may soon drag General Buhari before the International Criminal Court” for the mindless killings that followed Jonathan’s victory in 2011. But they would wait until after the election Fani-Kayode swore would be won by PDP.

    But for now, following Buhari’s successful outing in London to sell himself, his agenda and counter PDP’s propaganda that cast him as an irredeemable dictator, Fani-Kayode has opened another battle front. He swore “General Muhammadu Buhari last Thursday’s outing at the Chatham House in London was a monumental failure.”  He also took on Chatham House, blaming it for offering “its prestigious platform to sell a bad product to the world”.

    The question is why Fani-Kayode who in view of his new position is at liberty to change  his earlier perception of Jonathan as “‘wicked and insensitive leader” is losing sleep over  Buhari’s ‘failed’  visit that may not necessarily take anything away from the engrained image of his principal’s among the western nations as ‘a deeply corrupt government’ (Hilary Clinton,) ‘A failed Nigerian leader’; (Economist), ‘A failed president’ (Washington Post), and A lousy incumbent’ (New York Times).

    Jonathan’s government, whose intelligence has failed it in locating the whereabouts of close to 300 secondary school girls abducted from their dormitories about 10 months back or finding out the identities of the criminals who engage in an orgy of killing of women and children in their sleep in the middle belt region of Nigeria, has suddenly rediscovered itself only two days after Buhari’s visit to Chatham House. Fani-Kayode listed “some interesting facts about Buhari’s Chatham House out”, gathered through intelligence: ‘The event was organised only two days before it took place and well after Buhari had arrived in London; ‘The questions that were asked were given to him two days before the event and the answers were prepared for him and given to him to rehearse’; and ‘The programme lasted for only 55 minutes and only five questions, which were all planted, were asked’.

    Lest we forget, government intelligence according to Fani-Kayode also indicated that Buhari who depends on donations of as low as N100 from the masses of Nigeria who have faith in his ability to fix Nigeria, budgeted N5 billion for what was termed “the Buhari’s London jamboree”.

    Government intelligence however missed out Buhari’s plan to turn all the aircrafts in the presidential fleet to form the nucleus of a new Nigeria Airways because he considered it wasteful for President Jonathan to keep a fleet of over six aircraft when the Prime Minister of Britain like many of his western counterparts fly public airlines.

    But I think what should worry Nigerians is Fani-Kayode’s foreboding boast that “the government would first demystify Buhari by defeating him at the polls”, and that the PDP “would win the Presidential and general elections slated for March 28 and April 11 respectively”   while vowing that “the APC will never smell power”.

    But looking at the past and critically assessing PDP that often scores landslide victories in opposition strongholds as it recently did in Ekiti state,  I think there is the need for eternal vigilance by the opposition as well as all Nigerians that still have faith in our nation.  Chief Remi Fani-Kayode, after defecting to the opposition NCNC in the First Republic first called on the federal government to declare state of emergency in the West and later told the Yoruba that whether they voted for his new party or not, NNDP would win the election. It is part of our history that the Balewa government illegally declared state of emergency and went ahead to supervise the rigging of the 1965 Western Region election.

    President Jonathan and PDP have always found a way to undermine the constitution to achieve their set goals. The cases of the illegal removal of Justice Ayo Salami, the illegal suspension of Sanusi Lamido Sanusi as CBN governor and to some extent the President’s open support of losers of Nigerian Governors Forum election are clear indications that President Jonathan and PDP can swing any surprise.

    They just don’t give a damn.

  • Pa Adebanjo, Fasehun, Odubakin and lesson of history

    Afenifere, the Yoruba political organisation made up of about six Yoruba revered elders,   supported by Frederick Fasehun and Gani Adams of Oodua Peoples Congress, endorsed President Jonathan for another term of four years after six years of less-than-inspiring leadership during a summit recently organized by Olusegun Mimiko in Akure.  They have since tried without success to find justification for their embarrassing action. They have deployed message of fear and hatred and sometimes turning logic on its head, all in attempt to salvage what is left of their hard earned reputation.

    Afenifere’s national publicity secretary, in an interview with The Punch last Sunday, told Nigerians that “Leaders of Afenifere and Oodua Peoples Congress endorsed Jonathan because he promised to implement the report of the Confab”. Asked what he would do if Jonathan reneged on his promise to implement the confab report, he says  ‘When he met with us in Akure, he told us categorically that he would implement the confab report within the 12 months of his return to office.  He gave reasons why he traded in Buhari whom he worked for during the 2011 election for Jonathan: “The characters around him today are not the same in 2011”; there is ‘no difference between APC and PDP’; ‘APC governors like PDP governors are corrupt’. Probably realizing he has been unable to even convince himself let alone his critics, he added ‘those who shout ‘change’ today are political merchants”.

    Fasehun’s justification was scandalous. According to him, “Some people said they were born to rule”; and for that reason, he says, “Jonathan is the only good thing available to Nigeria and it is either Jonathan or nothing.” Fasehun’s appeal to Yoruba people not to vote Buhari because ‘‘Some people said they were born to rule”. has finally exposed the hypocrisy of a man who has always said he was promoting national unity and cohesion.  Fasehun about two years ago made elaborate show of accompanying Major Mustapha, Abacha’s chief security officer who was also claimed to be the head of his killer squad, to Kano following his discharge by the court at the behest of the Jonathan administration. (Obasanjo made reference to those who gave state support to secure freedom for alleged master mind of many assassinations during the Abacha brutal regime)

    Pa Adebanjo’s reasons are no less nebulous and ill-defined. He says for instance “We are supporting Jonathan because of consistency of the Yoruba people to have this country restructured so that it can develop”. He then vaguely added “voting Buhari/Osinbajo ticket “is a mistake Nigeria cannot afford” because Jonathan is committed to implementing the recommendation of the confab report”. He then went on to add: “once General Muhammadu Buhari becomes President, the Yoruba people should prepare for another era of setbacks and sufferings.” Lacking in rhyme and logic, Pa Adebanjo then decided to drop the magic name: “If we fail to achieve this, I don’t know how Papa Obafemi Awolowo will be feeling in his grave.”

    But I can hazard a guess for our ever coherent Pa Adebanjo who, weighed down by his own contradictions has suddenly become incoherent. Awo watching from his grave would feel betrayed by the pettiness of those who swear by his name but who today promote the likes of Ayo Fayose and Olusegun Mimiko who behaves like a wife with five husbands as role models for our children.

    Both Pa Ayo Adebanjo and Olusegun Mimiko who decided to rake up the confab report submitted since last July on the eve of election know that both Yoruba submissions on parliamentary system and regionalism were roundly defeated at the confab. They are aware no item described as ‘restructuring’ can be found among the 600 resolutions contained in the report. Besides it is obvious President Jonathan was not interested in the report. After all, there are items which will not require constitutional amendments which could have been treated as policy implementations if President Jonathan was truly committed to the confab.

    In any case, except Pa Adebanjo, Femi Okunroumu, Yinka Odumakin and Mimiko their newly installed Yoruba leader, the Yoruba know President Jonathan who subverted his party constitution in order to become president and dismissed Obasanjo who had aided him in the subversion as a ‘motor park tout’ when he was reminded of his solemn undertaking to spend six years, cannot keep promises. Mimiko who is also on record as having at different periods dumped AD for PDP, PDP for Labour; hobnobbed with Asiwaju Tinubu’s AC to secure his stolen mandate by PDP; and as  Labour governor, he sided with PDP ‘governors without character’, to publicly proclaim 16 greater than 19 following a Nigerian Governors Forum election lost by President Jonathan’s preferred candidate and who has once again now dumped the Labour party to become the chief  promoter of Jonathan in Yoruba nation as part of his strategy to remain relevant after his second term in office. He is a leader who doesn’t believe in anything.

    Adebanjo says “once General Muhammadu Buhari becomes President, the Yoruba people should prepare for another era of setbacks and sufferings.”  He is not worried the ‘era of setbacks and sufferings’ that has been in place in the last 16 years will not suddenly disappear with the re-election of President Jonathan. And because of his petty ego war with his political son, Bola Tinubu, he has decided to work against Buhari/Osibanjo victory and the prospect that such a victory will for the first time in our nation’s history  allow the main- stream Yoruba political tendency to participate in governance of the country. Pa Adebanjo was ready to throw away the baby with the bath-water.

    Playing the Abuja script, Femi Okunrounmu, read a statement purportedly on behalf of the Yoruba, threatening fire and brimstone if the election date was not shifted. No sooner than that was achieved than Mimiko, a master of political intrigue organized a summit of Yoruba to talk about a dead confab report. Jonathan followed up with a visit to the West where he allegedly dispensed favours and patronage in cash and kind ranging from dollars and influence to satisfy the heart desires of everyone who subscribed to Mimiko’s brand of leadership which is not only strange to Yoruba people but equally alien to proud Ondo people who are not known to call a spade by any other name other than its name.

    Today in the West, we have the reincarnation of the forces at play in the First Republic – men who operate without scruples and who while advancing their personal interests pretend to fight the Yoruba cause. As we move towards March 28 election, the Yoruba youths like their counterparts elsewhere in the country must reject hate messages of leaders who use the name of the masses to seek relevance.  It is tragic that the same forces at play today have been the same all through Nigeria’s history. A small clique of parasites from the north, east and west who falsely swear by the name of the people to advance their selfish interests.

  • Obasanjo vs. Jonathan and PDP

    Last Monday, after several months of bitter war of words, Obasanjo finally dumped the PDP.  He had justified his exit with a Yoruba idiom.  “They said they want to expel me from the PDP…We have been trying to run away from a mad man but he pleads we wait for him at the other side of the river.” That in itself is probably indicative of close affinity between the duos. Obasanjo and PDP are like Siamese twins. Separation is often not advisable. In most cases, one has to die for the other to live. The game of death has started in earnest with Ayo Fayose, a man who ordinarily does not place much value on integrity saying “the former President was a man without honour” and describing his exit as “a good riddance to bad rubbish”. By virtue of EFCC’s outstanding case of Fayose’s alleged mismanagement of N19 billion on failed poultry project before his impeachment in 2006, I think he is better placed to know how PDP’s leading lights convert public funds to personal use. He is therefore eminently qualified to  insist that “Obasanjo shouldn’t just tear his PDP membership card, he should relinquish the ownership of Bell University, Obasanjo Farms, Obasanjo Presidential Library, and other financial benefits he got during his eight years as President.’’

    But an alert and ever calculating Obasanjo knew when to throw in the towel. He has been out-witted by his foxier godson, a grandmaster of political intrigue who has traded him off with the likes of Buruji Kashamu, Ayo Fayose, Jelili Adesiyan, Gbenga Daniel, Musiliu Obanikoro whose antecedents are well known to Nigerians.  He is also conscious of the difficulty of claiming any moral superiority over his associates like Tony Anenih, ‘Mr. Fixer’ of election results; Tom Ikimi, Bode George; Ojo Maduekwe, (fiery campaigner for ‘Abacha for ever’, Jerry Gana (inner circle member of all PDP governments since 1999 who recently donated N5 billion on behalf of his unnamed friends towards Jonathan’s re-election bid}, and Ahmadu Alli who as chairman of PPPRA, presided over an alleged theft of N1.6 trillion by fraudsters otherwise described as fuel importers.

    Obasanjo as the father of PDP also provided an umbrella cover for his PDP family members as they embarked on ‘do or die election’, a euphemism for rigging, the wrecking of the economy through ill-implemented privatization programme, which resulted in the sales of once viable companies such as Nigerian Airways, The Daily Times, Nicon Insurance, banks, Nicon Noga Hilton, PHCN, mostly to PDP members and their fronts at give-away prices according to the House of Representatives report. Obasanjo also presided over the sharing of our national patrimony through an ingenious PDP creation called monetization policy through which physical assets  in Ikoyi, Victoria Island, Port Harcourt Ibadan etc inherited from our colonial masters were sold at give-away prices to privileged members of the ruling elite. As part of the conspiracy to ensure our refineries did not work, cash-strapped PDP men came up with an ingenious creation called Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA) to give patronage to party members as fuel importers under the phantom subsidy regime which ended in alleged theft of an estimated N1.6 trillion according to a House probe. We must not forget to add that it was also under Obasanjo as PDP leader we had unresolved political assassinations of prominent PDP members  involved in intraparty feuds and those they invited ‘to come and chop’ like Bola Ige and Sunday Afolabi.

    To cover up all his sins against our nation, Obasanjo has chosen this moment when our nation is under siege by a Boko Haram insurgency that has already killed over 16 million mostly innocent Nigerians while rendering about 1. 6 million homeless in the north-eastern Nigeria and when PDP has brought the nation to its knees through inept leadership and monumental stealing which they claim is not corruption.  He has accused President Jonathan of an attempt to prolong our nightmare by trying to play Laurent Gbagbo – perpetuate himself in office or cause chaos if he loses the rescheduled March 28 presidential election.

    But rather than address the issues, empty and self-serving Jonathan aides are claiming Obasanjo who has governed Nigeria at different periods for about 11 years, an eminent international personality whose opinions count for much outside our shores was out to ‘maliciously impugn the integrity of President Jonathan  for the primary purpose of self-promotion’. They forgot Boko Haram has already stripped the administration of integrity.

    They also claimed “it would be completely senseless, irrational and out of place for Chief Obasanjo, to accuse President Jonathan of plotting to win the rescheduled presidential elections by ‘hook or crook’ even when PDP’s leading lights had said they would do anything to ensure  PDP holds on to power  and in fact projected they would rule for 60  years. The problem is that the spokespersons for a government facing crisis of integrity are themselves facing credibility crisis because of their antecedents.  The medium, as they say, is the message.

    It is also not too long ago, Obasanjo told Nigerians that the president undermined his party governorship candidates in Ondo and Anambra as trade-off for their support for his candidacy in the 2015 election. Ex-Governor Peter Obi of Anambra and Governor Segun Mimiko of Ondo have since dumped their parties to become campaign managers for the president’s re-election bid.

    Besides, the President and PDP are dealing with an Obasanjo who does not hide behind one finger. He crudely told Awo the best man didn’t have to win the 1979 election. He went out of his way to favour Shehu Shagari, daring his Yoruba people who later ensured he lost election even in his ward during the 1999 Presidential election. But he was not ashamed to campaign for Shagari’s ouster after he and his NPN wrecked the economy in four years through profligate consumption and went on to award themselves ‘landslide and sea-slide’ victories in the 1983 elections. Obasanjo literarily chased Babangida and his government and ‘army of anything is possible’ out of office following his fraudulent eight years ‘transition without end’. He installed Umaru Yar’Adua as president by rigging him into office but was not hesitant to tell him to hand over to someone else when he fell ill. And today as the nation is brought to its knees by PDP buccaneers desperately pushing for four more years for Jonathan to enable them continue with massive stealing which they believe only Jonathan can condone, Obasanjo is smart enough to know it is time to dump PDP and identify with beleaguered Nigerians.

    And finally, the much hyped good luck of Jonathan pales in significance when compared with Obasanjo who has been buffeted by good fortune all his life. During the civil war, it was his good fortune to take the glory for the work done by Benjamin Adekunle, the ‘Black Scorpion’. Murtala Muhammed set out the transition programme in 1976, Obasanjo took the glory by becoming the first African military leader to voluntarily hand over to civilian administration. MKO Abiola his Egba kinsman won an election but died in detention defending his mandate while Obasanjo, condemned to death by Abacha came out of prison to wear the crown. As PDP’s President Jonathan and his prosperity prophets set out in this war against an Obasanjo, who  has always had fortune smiling upon him, they must be wary of ‘the ides of March’.

  • Like Babangida, like Jonathan

    Babangida is my father”, President Jonathan recently told reporters after a courtesy call on the ex-military dictator. He, by that declaration, traded off his estranged godfather, ex-President Obasanjo who he now says “is nothing but a motor park tout” for an evil genius and an acclaimed Maradona of Nigerian politics. The truth of the matter is that Babangida and Jonathan have so many parallels that will shock Nigerians. Babangida attained power through act of subterfuge on a night of many knives.  Jonathan adopted the same strategy betraying the spirit and the letter of PDP constitution and its rotational policy.  Sambo Dasuki, one of Babangida, Abacha and Gusau’s foot-soldiers during their coup against Buhari, became Babangida’s ADC (aide-de-camp). By strange coincidence, Dasuki, is today the National Security Adviser to President Jonathan who is contesting against General Muhammadu Buhari in an election now derailed by what many Nigerians regarded as Dasuki’s spurious security report.

    And still on similarities between father and son; Babangida embarked on a ‘transition without end’ immediately after a successful coup and went on to dribble Nigerians for eight years.  Jonathan’s first concern on attaining power in 2011 was to float the idea of a six-year presidency. Now after six years of failed presidency, he wants another four years.  And Just as Babangida had Arthur Nzeribe’s Association for Better Nigeria (ABN), Jonathan’s Transformation Ambassadors of Nigeria (TAN) that would rather have him adopted than face election. And just as Babangida relied on “Nigerian Army of anything is possible’’ now ably represented in PDP to torment Nigeria for eight years, Jonathan is today using a politicized military to increase our nightmare.

    Similarly, Babangida institutionalized corruption, but Jonathan, surrounded by indicted party officials and ex-governors who stole in billions and trillions has improved on his ‘father’s legacy.  While Babangida destroyed the economy resulting in the devaluation of naira, he was awarded the Fellowship of Nigeria Economic Society, (the authoritative body of Nigerian scholars on Nigerian economy and social problems) as ‘a visionary in the management of our economy’. Now Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, the Finance Minister and former World Bank celebrated officer, has praised the president for his bold economic strides especially with the rebasing that has now established our economy as the biggest in Africa. This is in spite of millions of Nigerian unemployed university graduates roaming the streets and the exchange rate which was $1-85 in 1999 but now $1-N210.

    While the above parallels may be lost on Nigerians and the innocent 18 year-olds President Jonathan has tried to cultivate, the assault on Nigerians last Saturday by President Jonathan should be a source of concern. From the diary of events, it is apparent that postponement of the election was a panic measure by a government facing an imminent defeat hoping to buy time for more sinister strategies and desperate measures just as Babangida did back in 1993.

    For instance, until last week when the president’s game of subterfuge finally unfolded, he had pretended his relationship with INEC was anchored on ‘delegation by abdication’. He and his party pretended all was well with INEC.  In fact, it was the opposition that was in the forefront of ensuring voters gets their PVCs. It was the opposition that passed a resolution at the Lower House to the effect that the electorate be allowed to use their temporary voters card if INEC failed, and it was the opposition that declared public holidays in the states they controlled to enable voters collect their PVCs .The President remained unruffled. In fact, he in early January still assured Nigerians of his commitment to the election and mandated INEC to ensure all eligible voters receive their PVCs before the election. INEC was working round the clock to achieve that objective when the President’s National Security Adviser  went to Chatham House London, to give what he described as a personal advice – that INEC  postpones the election to enable  all eligible voters collect their PVCs.

    The international community that has been treating President Jonathan and his PDP like a bull in a China shop immediately saw through government ploy. They knew it was the hand of Jacob but the voice of Esau. They advised Jonathan against shifting the election date and President Obama went further by sending John Kerry, his secretary of state to prevail on President Jonathan not to tamper with the electoral process.  President Jonathan like Babangida back in 1993 assured President Obama of his commitment to February 14.  But curiously, on February 4, the NSA wrote a letter, not to the President but to INEC chairman telling him the obvious – 14 of the country’s 774 LGAs are unsafe for the conduct of the election. But long before the NSA’s game of deceit, Nigerians as well as stakeholders from the besieged North-east knew that as a fact. On February 5, the president, still hiding behind one finger, invited his security chiefs to brief the Council of State about the security situation in the North-east. The body rightly washed its hand clean asking INEC to go on with its job after due consultation with stakeholders.

    Doyin Okupe was at this stage forced to spill the beans. According to him, the security chiefs “cannot guarantee the security of electoral materials, INEC staff and the voting population in areas currently engulfed by the war against insurgency.”  Besides “with the arrival of new effective combatant equipment and machinery, the situation in the affected states will be brought under such reasonable control that will guarantee safety of the electoral process  …at a no distant future”, he concluded avoiding mentioning six weeks. Mike Omeri, the Director-General of National Orientation Agency followed with a press conference. He was in possession of a security report that pointed to the possibility of some women infiltrating queues on the voting day to detonate bombs hidden in their Niqabs. Then came Edwin Clark, Alex Ekwueme, Walter Ofonagoro, Femi Okunrounmu, Chukwuemeka Ezeife and others, all rabid supporters of Jonathan’s re-election under the aegis of Southern Nigerian Peoples Assembly, SNPA calling for “the postponement of the February 14 presidential election, the sack and arrest of the Chairman of INEC, Attahiru Jega to allow for the re-constitution, repositioning and reprocessing of INEC to discharge its responsibility of conducting an impartial election.”

    Their grouse: Jega allegedly directed the release of Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) to Emirs, District Heads and top politicians in the north.

    Even if this were true, how can one entrust such roles to people like Chief Edwin Clark under whose watchful eyes, successive governors of the Delta states diverted about 70% of their states allocations for personal use or Dr Alex Ekwueme who saw nothing and heard nothing when some past Anambra State governors expended their state allocations in servicing godfathers or when Ngige was kidnapped in broad day light by aggrieved godfather?

    Desperate times are here again; Panic has set in. It is like Babangida’s era all over again with oil bunkerers and militants responsible for the loss of 500,000 barrels of crude oil a day, fuel subsidy thieves responsible for the theft of N1.6 trillion, banking sector fraudsters responsible for the collapse of the sector, and the stock exchange market back in 2009 and shameless elders assaulting our sensibilities on television. And putting pepper in our eyes, President Jonathan says he is acting in good faith.

  • No time to sit on the fence

    As February 14, the day of reckoning for President Jonathan and PDP draws nearer after 16 years of bare-faced stealing by indicted PDP stalwarts, periodic rigging of elections and PDP stranglehold over our people through exploitation of their secret fears and human frailties, there is palpable panic and desperation in PDP family. This is why for the sake of millions of our unemployed youths, the memory of over 12,000 victims of Boko Haram’s mindless killings, hundreds of helpless women and children brutally murdered in their sleep in the Middle Belt region by those the government is yet to identify, in solidarity with thousands who have been turned to refugees in their own country, in protest against the theft of about $20 billion according to Lamido Sanusi and the mismanagement of our economy to the tune of N30 trillion according to Chukwuma Soludo, patriotic Nigerians who care about the future of our children cannot afford to sit on the fence.  Nigerians must join hands to end their 16 years nightmare and six years of national disgrace.

    President Jonathan who publicly declared he wanted to be a one-term president now wants another term of four years after six years in office. He has been moving around the country selling his achievements which include the introduction of cassava bread, available only in Aso Villa seat of government, local rice at four times the cost of imported one when available, increase in federal roads from 5,000 to 25,000 even when those roads critical to our economy like Apapa Tin can Island Port road, Murtala Muhammed International Airport road, Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, Lokoja-Abuja Expressway, Enugu-Port Harcourt  Expressway, some of which have remained ‘work in progress 10 years after they were flagged off by ex-President Obasanjo; power generation, even when by the account of the minister of power, just about 20% of Nigerians have access to power and less  than 4500MW is generated  after an injection of over $50 billion into the sector. His administration, he claims, has fought insurgency into a standstill even with 20% of the territory he inherited as president in 2011 is now under the control of Boko Haram. He wants our impressionable children to hail him for his railway transformation, a rail system slower than what we had 60 years ago and a cover up for the derailment of Obasanjo rail modernization scheme for which multi-billion contracts were awarded to Chinese firms on two different occasions with huge mobilisations paid without result.

    In 2011, Nigerians were able to make a distinction between PDP that had nothing to sell to Nigerians beyond mindless stealing and confiscation of our national patrimony and the shoeless boy from Otuoke that identified with the plight of most Nigerians. They gave him a landslide victory even without any coherent agenda as to how to address the multi-faceted problems confronting the nation. Today, Nigerians know Jonathan loves no one but himself and his PDP. This is why if he must survive the February 14 hurricane, he must first lay to rest the ghosts of some demons that have haunted his administration in the last six years viz: his character,  Boko Haram,  the elusive Fulani herdsmen and corruption.

    In 2011, with little help from ex-President Obasanjo, President Jonathan undermined the PDP constitution.   Obasanjo who aided and abetted the infamous act saw it as a patriotic undertaking to give the minority a chance so as to end the myth that Nigeria belongs only to the dominant ethnic groups, their parties and their political leaders. He has also claimed publicly that that part of the bargain which was sold to northern governors was that Jonathan will serve one term of four years in addition to two years of Yar’Adua. With the clips of his public acknowledgement that his presidency ends in 2015 now in the public domain, he owes Nigerians an explanation for reneging on an agreement. Calling Obasanjo a motor park tout is not a substitute for his moral obligation to Nigerians.

    Of course, President Jonathan is also haunted by the ghost of Boko Haram. Only last Thursday, the lot fell on neighboring Chad to help us liberate a Nigerian border town earlier taken over by Boko Haram insurgents. Chad’s victory was considered an embarrassment to mighty Nigeria whose once invisible military has been hobbled by politics and corruption. The following day, Saturday January 31, Samil Chergui of the African Union’s Peace and Security Council, announced the agreement of African leaders to send 7,500 troops to fight the Boko Haram insurgency in north-east Nigeria. This is coming under a Jonathan administration that had the luxury of deploying 12,000 security personnel led by Musliu Obanikoro, then junior minister of defence, and Adesiyan, the police Affairs minister, both of whom had never visited Borno either to motivate our outgunned soldiers or identify with the plight of the parents of the abducted 276 Chibok girls, to intimidate and arrest opposition leaders during Osun State governorship election last year. The besieged north-east controlled by the opposition has little to offer the President in terms of electoral fortune. But all the same, the President has just about 10 days to tell Nigerians what he would do differently to change our fortune on the battle front beyond his soap-box rhetoric of “they did not buy anything, they did not buy attack helicopters” even after presiding over N3.1 trillion defence security budget in four years in addition to a $1 billion foreign loan he took last year.

    Nigerians are also waiting for the President’s explanation as to why, with awesome apparatus of coercive power of the state at his disposal, he has not been able to identify those behind brutal murder of women and children in the Middle Belt in the last three years. We all understand conflicts and clashes between Fulani herdsmen and farmers in the region predate President Jonathan. These conflicts according to MIYETTI Allah, Muhammad Bello, the Secretary General of an Association of the Herdsmen, have always been about resource use: Pasture and water, which PDP politicians have exploited using religion and ethnicity factors as well as Nigeria’s inability to regulate influx of foreign herdsmen. President Jonathan had six years to make a difference. If there is the political will, he did not need the National Assembly to create massive grazing zones in all the troubled areas in view of the existence of Land Use Act. Unfortunately for the president, his appointment of the immediate past Inspector General of Police who was indicted by a probe into the Jos crisis and the president’s lack of political will to implement the recommendations of the government probe, it is seen by many that the divisive politics of religion and ethnicity in the Middle Belt between the Fulani settlers and their host communities work to the advantage of the president whose only block support outside his South-south and South-east is the troubled Middle Belt for whom the fear of the Fulani and Muslim is the beginning of wisdom.

    Surrounded mostly by indicted corrupt men, the president is known to be weak in the war against corruption. While still being haunted by the non successful prosecution of his party leaders accused by EFCC of stealing N1.7 trillion under the fuel subsidy regime, while Nigerian anxiously awaits the publication of the forensic investigation to the disappearance of $20b ($10b by government admission) from the NNPC account, Professor Chukwuma Soludo, a former CBN Governor has now also accused Jonathan administration of mismanaging the economy to the tune of N30 trillion.

    As the clock tickles towards the day of reckoning, it does not appear that President Jonathan and PDP are interested in addressing these weighty issues. As  defeats stares those who say the only thing they know how to do is ‘win election’ in the face, desperate PDP family members seem to searching for ways to truncate the electoral process either through sponsored protest to shift the date for the election or create instability by using the judiciary to disqualify the leading opposition presidential candidate. These are indeed desperate times for the PDP. And for those who care for our nation, this is not the time to sit on the fence.

  • How PDP ruined Nigeria

    For 16 years, PDP, a congregation of men and women with little faith in our nation has raped and ravaged the land with impunity. For six years, President Jonathan has assaulted our sensibilities by celebrating and decorating some of those responsible for our tragedy. Unfortunately for the president, many of his critics now openly talk of “show me your friend, I will tell you who you are” without necessarily trying to be spiteful. After all, except President Jonathan who remains unconvinced, many concerned Nigerians and friends of Nigeria have identified corruption as the bane of our society. The immediate past president of Nigerian Bar Association, Okey Wali not too long ago announced to the hearing of the president that “corruption is the number one problem of the country, whether by embezzlement of public funds, appointments in public and private sector or by selective justice”. Sanusi Lamido, the former CBN governor in a BBC programme long before he was finally sacked over his allegation of missing $20 billion from the NNPC account, had accused the government of President Jonathan of lacking the political will to fight corruption claiming that “of the 164 fraud cases arising from his own war against banking sector frauds, only one was successfully prosecuted”.

    Walter Carrington, the American former ambassador to Nigeria also recently reminded us that “corruption is the most terrible monster that confronts Nigeria, and that “virtually all the problems associated with governance would be removed if we can summon the courage to tackle corruption and banish it from our activities.”

    The current mindless stealing and sharing of our national patrimony started at the onset of the Fourth Republic. Cash-strapped PDP elected politicians who publicly admitted selling personal properties to fight the 1999 election and their fronts created artificial scarcity in the supply chain of fuel. This led to long queues at filling stations. The new Obasanjo administration responded by awarding contracts for the refurbishments of our four refineries to PDP members as against those who built the refineries. The PDP beneficiaries bungled the exercise after collecting payments. Obasanjo, a captive of those who had sponsored his election could not sanction those involved in the rip-off.  He then went on set up the Petroleum Products Pricing Committee (PPPRA) with a mandate to “liberalise the downstream sector of the petroleum industry, privatise the refineries, deregulate and liberalise the imports of petroleum products and, generally, make the products available at reasonable prices”. The Bill for the establishment of PPPRA was debated and signed into law without delay because PDP members had vested interest.

    As against making our refineries work, PPPRA became fixated with importation of refined petroleum products.  In place of existing NNPC storage facilities, PPPRA opted for the use of storage facilities of members of Depot Petroleum Products Marketers Association (DAPPMA). With the coming of President Jonathan who does not believe stealing is corruption, it was done with impunity. With Ahmadu Alli, former PDP chairman as PPPRA chairman and Diezani Alison-Madueke as minister for petroleum, a reckless decision to increase the number of approved importers from about a dozen to over 128 as a form of party patronage was taken. A subsequent House probe of the fuel subsidy regime revealed a theft of about N1.7 trillion. The probe also led to the pruning down of the number of fuel importers from unwieldy 128 in 2011, to 39 in 2012 and reduction from 60.25 million litres  which PPPRA fraudulently claimed Nigerians consumed daily in 2011 to 39.66million  litres in 2012.  Some of those indicted by the probe are not only walking around freely, they move around with police escorts while others openly mobilize for the president’s re-election.

    No less scandalous was PDP’s handling of the power sector. The Obasanjo administration inherited about 2800MW in 1999. By 2002, Olusegun Agagu the then minister for power claimed the government had achieved a peak of 4200MW. The projection as at the time Obasanjo left in 2007 was 20,000MW by 2015. Again cash-strapped PDP men after the 2007 election frustrated the Obasanjo scheme. It was not until two years later, following the sharing of the N5.2 billion rural electrification contract by leading members of the Lower House that Jonathan was able to return to the derailed Obasanjo’s plan. To date close to $50 billion has been sunk into the power sector.

    But last week, Chinedu Nebo, the minister for power who had back in 2013 lamented  that “the situation where only 25 percent of Nigerians have access to electricity is a nightmare caused by human beings used by evil forces”, disclosed during a Channels Television programme that with the completion of Mambila and Zungeru  projects and the employment of over 1000 engineers, the sector hit 4500MW in December 2014 which unfortunately could not be sustained because of what he attributed to gas line attack.

    Rice importation has been another source of drain on our foreign reserve by PDP. With the emergence of PDP government in 1999, government officials fronting for politicians in collusion with foreign importers turned Nigeria to world biggest importer of rice spending according to the minister of agriculture, “N1billion naira a day or N366 billion  a year”. The President assured Nigerians his transformation agenda would put an end to rice importation by 2015. During the recent AgriFest 2015 Celebration of Nigeria Agriculture held at Eagles Square Abuja, he sold to Nigerians his minister of agriculture’s propaganda when he said “High quality Nigerian rice is now competing favourably with imported rice in the markets. I eat Nigerian rice and I can tell you, it is better than imported rice”. The truth is that like the cassava bread, the president and his men are probably the only people who have access to the Nigerian rice. A government that talks of self-sufficiency in 2015 also approved waivers to favoured importers like Dangote, Vaswani, Stallion, some churches as well as some churches and hotels. Dikko Abdulahi, Comptroller General of Customs claimed that in the first eight months of 2013, of the N603 billion lost to waivers, rice accounted for N105 billion.

    PDP has failed the nation. PPPRA, with staff strength of 249, and an unwieldy 22-man strong board, earning scandalously whopping salaries and allowances of N57.9 billion per annum cannot manage our refineries. It cannot import fuel. It cannot manage storage facilities. We remain the only OPEC member that imports fuel for domestic consumption.  After 16 years of PDP, we depend on rice from India and Thailand to feed ourselves.  On the inherited national patrimony such as properties in highbrow areas of Ikoyi, Victoria Island, Port Harcourt and Abuja which belong to our children, PDP and the government it runs in their wisdom decided to share them among themselves in the name of monetization. How can a transient government monetize what does not belong to it?

    Besides the baleful legacies of those who say they are not fighting corruption because they don’t want to do what Buhari did 31 years ago as a head of a military junta, or men without character haranguing him over his secondary school certificate or wishing him dead before winning the election, they are haunted by their past . Whereas Buhari as an effective 20 months leader of our nation insisted Nigeria will not eat grain until they produced their own grains and in one year, our problem became how to store our locally produced grains. We did not spend billions paying crooks in the name of phantom subsidy; we sold refined petroleum from our refineries and earned foreign exchange. Our exchange rate was about N1 to $2.

    My PVC battle

    So far, I have spent three days for the elusive PVC. From my LG headquarters which is some journey from my house, I was directed back to a school near the University of Lagos estate.  INEC workers had closed by the time I got there. I took my position early on the queue the following morning. When it was my turn, I was directed back to where I registered four years ago for the code number of the registration centre. I drove back to the open field and discovered there were no INEC signs or directives.   I went to my estate chairman who provided the code since we registered and voted in the same place in 2011. Relieved, I went to join the queue. Again when it was my turn, the young lady showed me my name and picture on the EVR form but announced my PVC was one of those yet to be brought back from Abuja.  She gave me a week. I reported dutifully there Tuesday. We wrote our names. I was number 182. As I took my leave at 10 ‘O’clock to send this piece to my editor, there was no sign of any INEC official. Prof Attahiru Jega recently spoke only of outstanding PVC for newly registered voters; he should please take note of the plight of old voters.