The Nation Newspaper

Category: Tuesday

  • Uduaghan and sports

    Uduaghan and sports

    Dr Emmanuel Uduaghan’s administration is synonymous with success, having embarked on a sports revolution aimed at returning the state to the leadership position which the former Mid-West region was known for.

    In recent times, hardly any major international or national sports event has occurred without an impressive and dominant showing of Delta State sportsmen and women.

    We are all witnesses to the brilliant performance of the Super Eagles at the just concluded Africa Cup of Nations in South Africa. The team led by the Delta State-born Stephen Okechukwu Keshi brought home the gold trophy that has eluded this country since the past 19 years.

    The deciding goal in the final march against Burkina Faso players was scored by the home based Sunday Mba of the Warri Wolves in Delta State.

    Delta state has a rich history of producing Nigeria’s sports ambassadors. This is made evident by their consistently impressive showing at very major sports event. The laurels and acclaim won by Delta athletes proves their worth and prowess as exceptional athletes.

    Though the country did not bring home any gold medal, it is of noteworthy that 12 out of the 78 athletes that represented Nigeria at the 2012 London Olympics came from Delta State, making the state the largest single supplier of athletic talents. At the 2011 All African Games in Mozambique, athletes of Delta state extraction who were on scholarship abroad won six out of the 10 gold medals won by Nigerian athletes

    At the national level, at the recently concluded National Sports Festival, ‘Eko 2012’ Delta state mesmerized sports lovers by their impressive performance. Athletes from the state won 116 gold, 97 silver and 75 bronze medals to beat the last champions Rivers state to the second place with 76 gold, 71 silver and 71 bronze medals.

    Out of the six National Sports festivals held recently, Delta has won four providing and grooming athletes for the country and making preparations for the next Olympics in Brazil.

    During the National Sports festival of 2009 ‘KADA Games’ held in Kaduna state, Delta emerged winner by winning a total of 110 gold medals to beat Edo and Ogun states to the second and third positions respectively.

    It should be noted that all these victories would not have been possible if not for the dogged commitment of Governor Uduaghan with his human capital development policy.

    The governor disclosed that his administration was exploring sports as a strategic area of creating employment, peace and building a state beyond oil.

    He explained that he was committed to developing the state through sports by positively engaging the youths while adding that the power of sports helps to discipline the society, reduce criminality and promote unity.

    And to continue achieving this success in sports and in line with the agenda, the government went into heavy investment in the provision of quality sports facilities, equipments and professional coaches so as to have a conducive atmosphere for competitive training purposes.

    The quality sports facilities built by Uduaghan in the state especially Warri could not fail to gain FIFA’s approval when they visited Warri.

    Because of the state of the art equipment’s and facilities available at the sports centre, many international sporting events have been hosted by the state including the Confederation of African Football (CAF), women championship. Not just that, the governor went further by planning and making provisions for the retirement period of the athletes. According to him “the decision to give cash rewards is because of the pitiable conditions some athletes who had represented the country and won laurels at international competitions found themselves after retirement”.

    Governor Uduaghan has been pivotal to the success of Delta in sports and he has special relationship with the athletes and does a lot to motivate them.

    When the Delta victorious team won in the KADA Games, to encourage and motivate the athletes and display appreciation, the governor gave out a cash reward of N500,000 for each gold medal, while silver and bronze medalists got N3000,000 and N200,000 respectively.

    Each of the coaches whose athletes won gold was rewarded with N500,000, silver N300,000 while bronze received N200,000.

    The governor also doled out N500,000 for each team event. The sum of N100, 000 was given to each athlete that participated but could not win a medal among others.

    Scholarship to study abroad and in Nigeria was awarded to some of the athletes while automatic employment was awarded all medalists who were not on the pay roll of Delta State.

    This display of appreciation led the victorious team to surpass their performance in the KADA games at the 18th National Sports festival at the Eko 2012. The Delta contingent emerged overall winners at the games, with a total medal haul of 288.

    Uduaghan being the motivator he is, rewarded the team with about N291.98 million. At the ceremony held at the events centre, Asaba, he said that Delta had never had it “as good in sports as we did in Lagos”. The cash awards, he said, was for the athletes to invest positively to avoid living in poor conditions when they must have passed their active years. Adding that “we cannot pay the athletes enough for their great performance and the honour they have given to us”.

    Awards of scholarship abroad and within Nigeria was also given out to the athletes while majority of them were given automatic employment in the state.

    Toeing the line of President Goodluck Jonathan, he hosted the Super Eagles for their recent performance at the Nation’s Cup, giving out various rewards in cash and landed properties to the football players and their coaches.

    He called on sports heroes in the country to give back to the society through mentoring programs and development of sporting talents of the teaming youths of the country.

    The Governor who is leaving no stone upturned to see that Delta state wins the forth coming African Youth Athletics championship holding in Warri has already inaugurated an 11-man local organizing committee to successfully organize a hitch-free competitive championship.

    Tagged ‘Sapele 2013’, the competition is aimed at promoting sports from the grass root, identify young talents, nurture and expose them to the world.

    Delta State had already begun preparations for the next National sports festival tagged ‘Paradise Games’ scheduled to hold in Calabar, Cross River in 2014. “At the Games, we will change our strategies” boasted their governor.

    “We are determined to encourage them and from the plans we have, we will have gold medalists from Delta at the next Olympic games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in 2016” said Uduaghan.

    At his level of commitment and at the intensity at which he is building new and budding athletes in the Delta State, there is no doubt the state will produce gold medalists at Brazil in 2016.

    • Fidelis is an engineer based in Asaba

     

  • In this season of absolution

    In this season of absolution

    In another clime, the Council of State would be the repository of the nation’s collective wisdom and experience, a custodian of its most cherished values, a fount of inspiration, comprising men and women who, having given of their best to their country, would stay splendidly above the fray and would never again seek elective office nor descend into the pit of partisanship.

    I suspect that it is that kind of body the framers of the 1979 Constitution in which it was first consecrated had in mind; hence its composition: the President and the Vice President, all former presidents or heads of state, all former federal chief justices, the president of the Senate, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, all state governors, and the federal attorney-general.

    Hence also its mandate: To advise the President with respect to his duties on a wide range of subjects in general, and on issues relating to the maintenance of public order in particular “when asked to do so.”

    It would be the body to turn to when the country is buffeted by strife and uncertainty – the very kind of period Nigeria is going through now.

    If it has not lived up to that expectation, it is partly because the high-mindedness that lies behind it is vitiated somewhat by the constitutional stipulation that the Council advises the President only “when asked to do so.” The Council, it follows, meets at the pleasure of the President, to discuss only such issues as he places before it. However expressed, its advice is non-binding.

    But even on the few occasions it has been convened, the Council has acted more as a rubberstamp that as an advisory body, endorsing decisions already taken – such as hefty increases in the pump price of gasoline under the pretext of ending a bogus government subsidy— rather than helping to formulate public policy.

    Aside from a few honourable exceptions, the Council of State is in its higher ranks a conclave of officials who failed when they had all the opportunity and resources to set Nigeria firmly and irrevocably on the path to progress, prosperity and respectability, if not greatness.

    For the most part, they fended for themselves and their cronies. When they thought at all about the people in whose name they claimed to rule or to exercise whatever function was delegated to them, they thought of how to rob them of their voices and their votes and their freedom; they thought of how to deny them justice, to subjugate and stultify them in every way, forgetting that with little men,” nothing great can be achieved.

    The state governors, majority of them from the ruling party and subject to its whip and other constraints, hardly depart from the official line.

    In effect, the Council’s composition is also partly responsible for its near-irrelevance.

    At any rate, it has never complained that its name was taken in vain, without corresponding adherence to its values. After perfunctory discussions, the members collect their “sitting fee”and collateral benefits, pose for the cameras, and then go their various ways until it pleases the President to invite them down again.

    By all accounts, that was what happened again last week. The Council dutifully rubber-stamped a fait accompli that President Jonathan Goodluck placed before it. By the time the business was over, the convicted money launderer, holder of a vast portfolio of property acquired with funds of dubious provenance, and a fugitive from British justice, deposed Bayelsa State Governor Dieprieye Alamieyeseigha, had been washed clean of all transgressions. All that remained was formal canonisation.

    To create the illusion of even-handedness in this curious enterprise, Dr Jonathan threw into the list of beneficiaries of his prerogative of mercy the late General Shehu Yar’Adua, the late General Abdulkareem Adisa, and General Oladipo Diya, all of whom were convicted of coup plotting by a kangaroo military tribunal set up by the loathsome Sani Abacha but had been officially pardoned back in 1999.

    As a sop to the North, he also threw in Shettima Bulama, a former chair of the defunct Bank of the North who had been convicted of corruption.

    They forgot to add General Olusegun Obasanjo, who was granted state pardon in the same executive act of 1999 along with the persons Dr Jonathan now purports to pardon all over.

    And when he is caught in this duplicitous act, his spokespersons strive mightily to outdo one another in sterile hairsplitting.

    Did the members of Council of State attending – four of the more prominent members stayed away – did they not see through this transparent subterfuge? Were they blindsided or otherwise inveigled into endorsing it?

    Presidential spokesman Dr Doyin Okupe surpassed his own reputation for boisterousness when he claimed that Alamieyeseigha had more than earned his pardon by working quietly to end the insurgency in the Delta, and that this has resulted in the quadrupling of oil exports.

    If that is indeed the case, it would be a powerful argument for dissolving with immediate effect the Amnesty Commission for the Delta or whatever the body is called, and replacing it with Alamieyeseigha as sole administrator. It would also mean that recent appeals to the British Government to help police Nigeria’s waters to curtail oil theft, amounting to 50 percent of total production by some accounts, were misdirected.

    Why turn to the Brits when Alams is more than equal to the task?

    In endorsing the pardon, Chief Richard Akinjide (SAN) lived up to his reputation for brute legalism, utterly bereft of a sociological imagination. Nobody has said that Dr Jonathan acted outside the law. The charge, as I understand it, is that he acted on the basis of his own narrow political calculations, without giving a damn about the larger social and political ramifications.

    For once, I find myself on the opposite side of the learned senior attorney, Professor Itse Sagay, a stalwart of the progressive movement in Nigeria. His endorsement of the pardon is entirely out of character. He must have some principled reasons. I do not believe that he would take this troubling position based on regional solidarity alone.

    As Alamieyeseigha’s attorney, Professor Ben Nwabueze deserves nothing but praise for representing his client to the best of his great ability. But when our own Lord Dicey and Lord Denning rolled into one confers sovereign status on his client and argues that British police were in effect putting Nigeria in chains when they handcuffed his client at Heathrow Airport, it has to be said, with the greatest respect, that he is overstating his case.

    The Vienna Convention governing relations among nations does not cover the kind of criminal activity for which his client was detained even if the said client is a diplomat but the act occurred outside his official remit. Alamieyeseigha was no diplomat. At the time of his arrest, he was not on an errand for Nigeria. And he compounded matters by fleeing from justice.

    The word in Dr Jonathan’s corner, as always, is that there is no going back. But since he is in such an expansive and forgiving mood, he should widen the amnesty.

    I understand that Chief (Dr) Olabode George, the PDP chieftain convicted of contact- splitting at the Nigeria Ports Authority, has since completing his prison term been working quietly to rehabilitate those pesky “area boys” and other categories of social miscreants in Lagos. As a result, business has been booming in areas they ruled by terror, and every Lagosian now sleeps peacefully at night.

    How about a comprehensive pardon and clemency for the Chief?

    While at it, Dr Jonathan should not forget James Ibori, the former Governor of Delta State, now serving time in British prison for larceny on a scale almost beyond belief. I understand that he has been an exemplary prisoner and a most worthy ambassador of Nigeria.

    Surely, a complete pardon for the Ogidigboigboi of Africa would not be amiss in the weeks leading up to celebration of the Ultimate Redemption.

     

  • Before Alams blow

    Before Alams blow

    The race for the presidency in 2015 has already begun, and if you are in doubt you only need to take a look at what is happening inside the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), and what President Goodluck Jonathan is doing with the presidency.

    For a start the PDP is in disarray, no thanks to Jonathan’s ambition of a second (or is it third) term in office. Against common sense and good political acumen the President has picked quarrel with the soul of the PDP in the south west and is also at daggers drawn with party leaders and some state governors in the south-south region where he hails from and which is supposed to be his home base. His support in the north is tilting towards zero while nobody could say for sure on whose side the middle belt would be in 2015.

    And as if these are not enough problems for Jonathan, the President is also picking quarrel with the international community over the stupid decision of the National Council of State to grant state pardon to those who stole public funds like his benefactor and former governor of Bayelsa State, Chief Diepreye Alamieyeseigha.

    The United States in particular has spoken against the decision to pardon Alamieyeseigha, expressing deep disappointment at the decision describing it as a setback in Nigeria’s fight against corruption. The pardon announced last week and which covered alleged coup plotters against the military regime of one time Head of State, the late General Sani Abacha, also drew a lot of flak from the general public in line with the US criticism.

    Jonathan or rather his presidency, displaying a new found nationalism saw the American position as an undue interference and meddlesomeness in the internal affairs of Nigeria, since our president was acting within the confines of Nigerian laws by the granting of the pardons. What a stupid argument. The Presidency even had to call in the US deputy Chief of Mission James P. MacAnulty to protest the US position which came via two short tweets published by the American embassy in Abuja.

    Now the Americans with their zero tolerance for corruption and related activities, we are told, are considering a whole range of actions to be taken against the Jonathan government. These could include US visa denial to some key officials of the administration and may be their families too. This could spark tit for tat retaliation from Nigeria and before you know it, the cordial relationship between both countries could be put into jeopardy with the likelihood that Nigeria could become a pariah among countries that matter around the world if care was not taken. This could throw us back to the Abacha era when Nigeria was virtually ostracized because of the policies of the then Federal Military Government. Do we need to travel this route again?

    If one may ask, why should Jonathan risk all the goodwill that Nigeria is beginning to garner around the world just to free his godfather and benefactor from a self inflicted injury? I am sure in the United Kingdom where Alamieyeseigha jumped bail the matter has not been forgotten. So if tomorrow the man finds himself in the UK or any country with extradition treaty with the British and he was apprehended and flown to London to face the law, what would be Nigeria’s reaction?

    Jonathan may have satisfied and discharged his obligation to his kinsman but his action is a terrible blow to Nigeria’s quest to be among the best countries in the world where no one is above the law.

    As expected, his court jesters have stoutly defended the action and one in particular likened it to the state pardon granted Chief Obafemi Awolowo and Dim Chukwuemeka Ojukwu, both of blessed memories by the Federal Government. We all know why Awolowo went to jail and Ojukwu picked up arms against the Nigerian state. None of the two stole public funds or impoverished their people; Alamieyeseigha did, and the law court said so.

    Now the argument that Alams as he is fondly called was instrumental to the bringing about of peace in the Niger Delta region is neither here nor there. The fact remains that he stole Bayelsa’s money, jumped bail in the UK and thus impoverished his people and also embarrassed Nigeria. These are criminal acts which I think all his efforts at helping in restoring peace to the Niger Delta are not enough to erase. He knew what he was into when he was filling his pockets with public funds and knew the repercussion. It is bad enough that Alamieyeseigha is not in jail like James Ibori, his co-traveller, but Jonathan has added salt to the injury by pardoning him, thus erasing all his sins and leaving him clean and fit to hold public office again in future if he so desires and his people approve.

    Don’t be surprised if the President goes the whole hog in Alams rehabilitation project by appointing him a Minister of the Federal Republic, say Minister of Petroleum or Niger Delta Affairs for instance. The PDP Senate would surely confirm him, after all what would the Senators give as their reason for rejecting him if he was nominated by Jonathan. Could this be where Jonathan is headed? And if yes, what would be the reaction of the international community? I am sure the hawks in the Villa will tell him not to mind America and the rest of the western world, after all if the US and co say no, China and Russia are there to support us. But tell me which country had the support of these two nations and survived the onslaught of the rest of the civilized world if and when it comes?

    Before the Alams blow and the hammer falls on Nigeria, somebody had better call Jonathan to order and rein in all childish and clannish tendencies because if and when it comes all of us will suffer for it.

    But wait a minute. May be there is something we are all missing in this Alams pardon issue. Could this be a sign of a man unsure of his political tomorrow? Like a friend pointed out, may be Jonathan is beginning to see the handwriting on the wall that project 2015 might not be after all and now that he still has the power to pardon his benefactor who stole public funds and was so convicted, he had better do it, even if it is morally reprehensible, because no other Nigerian president, except may be another Jonathan (God forbid) would do it. Can you see what I am seeing?

  • NYSC: National Youth Slavery Commission?

    NYSC: National Youth Slavery Commission?

    The National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) scheme was created in a bid to reconstruct, reconcile and rebuild the country after the Nigerian Civil war. It was established by decree No.24 of May 22, 1973 which stated that the NYSC is being established “with a view to the proper encouragement and development of common ties among the youths of Nigeria and the promotion of national unity”. The purpose of the scheme was to inculcate in Nigerian youths the spirit of selfless service to the community, and to emphasize the spirit of oneness and brotherhood of all Nigerians, irrespective of cultural or social background.

    In the months of March, July and November, Nigerian graduates are mobilized and sent to any of the 36 states and the federal capital territory to obey the clarion call of lifting their nation high under the sun or in the rain with dedication and selflessness. Then the suffering either begins or continues.

    There is usually a mad crowd at the point of collection of call-up letters in the various institutions. The queue at this point sometimes turns out to be the shortest in the whole of the service year. At the entrance of the 21 day incarceration camp called NYSC orientation camp, prospective corps members, as they are called, queue to be searched and before going in to begin their term and from then it becomes ‘Every man for himself, God for us all whoever is slow let the soldier take’. Depending on the local arrangements made by individual states, prospective corps members are registered, accommodated and kitted. At 4p.m the first parade is held, 7p.m dinner is served and 10p.m lights out.

    At 4:30a.m the soldier’s bugle is blown and the sound it makes is interpreted to mean it is you that finished schooling so you brought this yourself. At least if you didn’t graduate, you wouldn’t have to serve! Devotion, parade and drills are followed by a poor breakfast; long and boring lectures followed by a poorer lunch and by the time its dinner the poorest of meals is expected. However, miracles sometimes happen. The camp clinic usually receives a number of visitors in the first few days because of the ‘new food’ and paramilitary exercise but in no time the body acclimatizes and life goes on smooth and steady. The orientation programme gets more interesting as the days go by and when it is getting to the peak, the 21 day term comes to a rude end. Letters are handed out once again, but this time around it is either a posting letter or redeployment letter and fresh bouts of sobs begin for some people.

    Posting ought to be done based on the discipline of the corps member but preference is usually given to corps members who distinguished themselves during the orientation course, personal favourites of resident NYSC officials, and soldiers alike and those who arranged their posting with corporate bodies beforehand. Every posting letter has the name and address of the corps member’s place of primary assignment. It also carries a short note appealing to the prospective employer to offer necessary help to the bearer among other things. Some employers however ignore this note because they see corps members as national slaves and therefore sap them of all they can with little or no incentive; once again the tune of the soldier’s bugle comes to mind.

    To correct some of the abnormalities that characterise the ‘posting exercise’ as expressed above, a new posting policy was proposed. The policy is said to be aimed at making the scheme more responsive to the development needs of the country and this new posting policy seeks to post corps members only to four key sectors of the economy namely; agriculture, education, rural health, and infrastructure. As always, (a common Nigerian factor) the government did not prepare adequately for this causing the rejection of many corps members in these sectors across the country because they do not have enough to bear the burden of paying corps members’ stipends. Now, more corps members are roaming aimlessly about the streets looking for a place of primary assignment if only just to get their clearance form monthly but to no avail.

    Gone are the days when Corpers Beatitudes read thus: Blessed are you when you are posted to a bank for your account will be fat; Blessed are you when you are posted to a school for you’ll have students at your beck and call; Blessed are you when you are posted to a village for foodstuff will never be your problem; Blessed are you when you are posted according to your discipline for you have hopes of being retained.

    Now the closest it can be is: Happy are you when you are accepted in the village health post for many others were rejected; Happy are you when your school goes on break for you can run home to refill; Happy are you when wake up early to report on the farm, at least you have somewhere to go to; Happy are you when you maintain your country’s roads, bridges and buildings for many prayers would be offered for you.

    Even the service year that was once a year of learning on the job and knowing other parts of the country among other things is now a year of slavery and undue suffering. The National Youth Service Corps should not be scrapped but it should at least be transformed from a slavery commission which it has grown to become one that fulfils the basic aspiration of the nation’s youths.

    • Ms Omotayo, an ex-Corps member, writes from Ibadan

  • Matters miscellaneous

    Matters miscellaneous

    Matters miscellaneous,” as devoted followers of this page know, is the rubric under which I try to catch up on the glut of occurrences big and small with broad strokes and in short takes, lest the men and women who make news feel ignored.

    To begin on a proper note, President Goodluck Jonathan finally paid a visit to the troubled northeastern states of Borno and Yobe, hard on the heels of nine state governors from the newly-minted All Progressives Congress who had the previous week converged on Maiduguri in an exemplary act of leadership and resolve to express solidarity with the people of the beleaguered city and its environs.

    The visit should have happened long ago, long after the President was warned by his Advisory Council that a Somalia-type situation was developing in the North-east and would get out of hand unless the Federal Government moved with all deliberate speed to engage the residents of the area.

    Better a late visit than no visit at all. Those forced to live in daily terror of the nihilistic organisation that calls itself Boko Haram now have the assurance of federal concern, beside the Joint Task Force garrisons. For the most part, Dr Jonathan said the right things. Without peace and stability, there could be no progress in the area. Nor could the people partake of the fruits of the Transformation.

    But employing what seems to be a mixed metaphor, he said ghosts could not be granted an amnesty.

    Boko Haram is of course nothing if not elusive. But even in a metaphorical sense, is it made up of ghosts? Do ghosts bear arms? Can ghosts kill and maim time and again, in the grisly fashion of Boko Haram? If that body is made of ghosts, how has the JTF been able to engage them and inflict on them the “heavy casualties” it periodically reports? If BH is indeed peopled by ghosts, why not try exorcism?

    Also, when the Commander-in-Chief warned the elders and traditional authorities in the area that they would have to live its depredations unless they reined in Boko Haram, he seemed to be assigning them a responsibility they are ill equipped to discharge.

    If they had that kind of power or influence, would they have been looking on helplessly as Boko Haram tried to take out one traditional ruler after another? Would so many among them who were forever pivoting as custodians of the “the Northern interest” be hiding in Abuja and Kaduna and Lagos?

    In whatever case, one visit does not an engagement make. Rather, Dr Jonathan’s visit should be seen as the beginning of a period of constructive engagement, with the goal of getting the “ghosts” to take on corporeal form so that they can be amnestied and rehabilitated, like the former insurgents of the Delta.

    Now that the President has made his move, his wife Dame Patience can now make hers, under the aegis of the African First Ladies Mission.

    According to a knowledgeable source who does not wish to be identified, Dame Patience would have led a deputation of her peers on a mission of peace to Damaturu and Maiduguri during their last summit in Abuja, but did not want to be seen to be upstaging her husband, especially in matters of national security.

    She is now set, I gather, to convene an extra-ordinary summit of her peers in Abuja, after which its members, under her dynamic leadership — a leadership now infused with the energy of her recent resurrection — will embark on peace missions to Borno and Yobe.

    My sources tell me that an Africa Union military contingent modeled on the type ECOWAS countries dispatched to Mali to flush out those pesky Touaregs, is being assembled to protect the African First Ladies on the mission.

    Meanwhile, the President is yet to be accorded the high praise he deserves for the equanimity with which he conducted himself during the period his wife said she was dead. Any other man would have freaked out.

    Not Dr Jonathan. He kept his head and went about his duties as if nothing was amiss. He missed not a single appointment. He even went to address the United Nations, and to reach out again to those elusive foreign investors. He did not strike out in anger against those in the family circle who, believing that Dame Patience was truly dead, began auctioning off her property. Throughout, he carried himself with dignity and calm self-possession.

    “Grace under pressure” doesn’t even begin to do justice to his conduct under those trying circumstances.

    With the return of Cross River State Govenor Liyel Imoke to base the other week after an absence of some three months, Governor Danbaba Suntai is the only state governor still receiving medical treatment on foreign soil. Sadly, he is not expected to return anytime soon.

    Before Imoke, Enugu State Governor Sullivan Chime had made a wordless return to base after 140 days of vacation-cum-medical treatment in the UK as he asserts, or in India and the UK and points between, as his adversaries still insist.

    Chime did not deign to address the “mammoth” crowd that had converged at Enugu airport to welcome him with dance and song or just out of curiosity to see what prolonged illness might have done to his fine, athletic gait.

    If he was overawed by the size of the crowd, the tumult he saw all around him, he could at least have made a broadcast the day after his arrival to thank the people for their prayers and good wishes. But at least he flew into Enugu in broad daylight.

    Not so Imoke, who flew into Calabar airport in the dead of night, unheralded, after being away for some three months. He made his first public appearance the following day at a soccer match in the Sports Stadium. He deigned to thank the people for their prayers and good wishes but only through his press secretary, not in a direct, personal way.

    Chime and Imoke, both lawyers, it has to be said, showed scant regard for their constituents in this regard, the people in whose name they govern. Even at the height of his dictatorial rule, military president General Ibrahim Babangida showed greater respect than that for the people of Nigeria.

    Finally, a word about the photograph of the quartet of Chime, Akwa Ibom State Governor Godswill Akpabio and Benue State Governor Gabriel Suswam and Rivers State Governor Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi that was doing the rounds when Chime went missing. It showed all four bundled up, taking in the snowscape in the middle of nowhere, like tourists who had exhausted their itinerary.

    Chime’s supporters offered the picture as proof that the other three governors had visited him in the UK and found him in excellent health, contrary to the vile rumours in circulation. His opponents dismissed it as a Photoshop job that anyone who can work a mouse on a computer could have fabricated.

    Apparently without realising it, and probably without intending it, Chime gave the game away during his press conference with a select group of reporters the day after his return.

    He and the other state governors in the picture were visiting Germany to study its federal system at the behest of the Governors Forum when intimations of the cancer that ultimately led him to seek treatment in the UK surfaced, he had volunteered.

    That was the only occasion, as far as my research revealed, that all four of them in the picture were abroad in the same location at the same time.

    So, the picture was in all probability taken somewhere in Germany.

    But did Their Excellencies have to travel to Germany to study its federal system? One hour on the Internet would probably have taught them as much as they learned on the visit, and at no cost to the exchequer.

     

     

     

     

     

     

  • Aregbesola’s American visit

    Aregbesola’s American visit

    As someone who very well knows that exaggeration diminishes credibility, I give it a wide berth in claiming that the vocal governor of the State of Osun in South-west Nigeria, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, is doubtlessly a focused, clear-headed, and innovative political leader. It is doubtful whether I could so describe him prior to my encounter with him at Cambridge when he visited a few weeks back. To be sure, before that day, I had heard and read many things about him, particularly the avalanche of controversies which defined his person and administration since he became governor.

    When on Tuesday February 19, I heard that he was in Cambridge, close by Boston where I am resident, to attend the town hall meeting with Harvard African Caucus made up of black students, I did not hang fire – actually more out of curiosity – in getting myself there. The taste of the pudding is in the eating. And there he was in his charming unassuming disposition, beaming with the trademark smile I am accustomed to through still pictures. The centrepiece of his address to the august audience was the innovations he has brought to governance since he came into office as governor.

    He spoke eloquently about the unprecedented reforms that his state’s educational, agricultural, and health sectors had successfully undergone under his watch. He zestfully primed his audience of how his administration through its carefully designed policies – he actually said Six-Point-Integral-Action Plan – has made a huge dent on the monster of youth unemployment, cured the state of its financial ailment, and impacted the lives of the citizens who are mostly farmers. All of these and more he said, exuding affecting confidence, coruscating brilliance, and unpretentious calmness. But his most impactful presentation was the computer tablet he called Opon Imo, which indeed is an innovation. According to him, the tablet which will be distributed to all the senior students in the state’s public secondary schools, contains all recommended textbooks, past questions on certificate and matriculation examinations and moral instructions. This I am sure is going to help parents who cannot afford to buy books for their wards and also help the students to focus on reading. More importantly, it will introduce them to computer at an early age. I must admit that even in the United States, this is a novel thinking. This idea has never occurred to anyone to the best of my knowledge.

    I was really impressed by his clinical deployment of non-convoluted details. By creditably giving a good report of himself in his smooth delivery, this springy politician unequivocally made it manifest that he is political leader of uncommon dedication, discipline and character.

    Deservedly, the attentive audience expressed their appreciation of his memorable delivery through thunderous ovation lasting for a while. Of course, I needed no prodding to attend the lecture he delivered the next day at the Weatherhead Center. He whetted my appetite for his depth and insights.

    As I listened to his lecture, it dawned on me that, as the Americans would say, I ain’t seen nothing yet. Governor Aregbesola’s lecture at the monthly seminar of the Weatherhead Centre for International Studies, Harvard University, centred on the multifarious and overwhelming development challenges assailing Nigeria. Though the challenges are ubiquitous and form the subject of public discourse, both at national and international forums, the governor’s analyses was thorough and seminal. I must admit that his analytical exposition added depth to my perspective on the socio-economic and political setbacks the most populous black nation is inured in. Nigeria’s development calamities are of Byzantine complexity, he enlightened. For him, blinding ethnicity, defective federalism, rapine military system, adulterated religious practices, clueless leadership, among many other horrifying human-inspired debacles, are the foxes pitilessly destroying the rich vineyard of the Nigerian state.

    A courageous leader, he warmed the cockles of my heart when he flintily noted that it would amount to weak reasoning to carp that “outsiders” are responsible for the present condition of the country. The wisdom in this is that when the nation continues to bellyache that the foundation of its underdevelopment can be located in its colonial experience, it will lose the sense to think of the way out of the woods. Yet, colonialism is not exclusive to Nigeria. Other peoples who were even more ruthlessly colonised have since pulled off the burden and are today havens of unexampled human and material developments. The right leadership that can champion this cause and make things happen, he reasoned knowledgeably, is what the country must inexorably find.

    Governor Aregbesola’s report on the achievements of his administration revealed to me a leader who knows what is amiss and works squarely to fix it. The kind of leadership he longs to see his country possess is exactly what he selflessly provides in Osun. Within two years, he has achieved notable reforms in the educational and agricultural sectors of his state. Government is closer, more than ever before, to the people. Youth employment is aggressively pursued and public infrastructure is springing up – all in a state that could barely breathe owing to the suffocating debt it was burdened with by past selfish administration. With the zeal of an empathic leader, he is effectively rescuing majority of the citizens who had been hitherto suspended on the scaffold of penury, hunger, joblessness and insecurity.

    Indeed, the “elephant” of Aregbesola merits more description than “I catch a glimpse of something”. When we see a performing and responsible political leader, we must be honest enough to admit that we have seen Governor Abdulrauf Adesoji Aregbesola! Much more, with that revealing lecture, Aregbesola has demonstrated the fact that, warts and all, the story of Nigeria is not all about a jinxed country, nay, a land held in the throes of avoidable misfortunes. It is a relief to know that Nigeria has some thinking and responsible political leaders. I encourage the governor and those in his circle to hold the fort; they must not give up until a Nigeria of our desire is founded.

    • Morgan lives in Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America.

     

  • Jonathan and Borno elders

    Jonathan and Borno elders

    Whoever advised on the visit by President Goodluck Jonathan to the troubled North-east states of Yobe and Borno last week ought to have realised by now that the visit did neither the administration nor the states any good. Merely on account of its advertised objectives, the visit was an unmitigated disaster – a public relations fiasco for the visitor as much as for the hosts.

    Whereas no one expected that the chasm between the federal government and the stakeholders in the two states would be bridged on mere account of a presidential visit; it was certainly not expected that disagreements would blow open as it did both in Damaturu and Maiduguri. In both places, the two sides not only blew the chance to advance the cause of peace, the outcome lent little optimism to any prospects of peace in the foreseeable future.

    Of course, it is disappointing that the visiting leader had nothing of soothing words for the people. For the hapless throng that have endured the affliction of the Boko Haram, the president neither saw need to offer his words of comfort nor did he find it necessary to express solidarity.

    His hosts on the other hand seemed utterly ill-prepared for what was supposed to be a long anticipated visit. As it turned out, neither side offered practical suggestions or roadmaps on the way forward. Representatives of stakeholders in the two states in fact stopped short of declaring the insurgency as more tolerable than the operations of the military Joint Task Force (JTF), recycling as it were, their age-long request for the JTF to be removed from the streets without telling the government what plans they had in place to secure the peace – a demand the President wisely rejected.

    As it is, there will be no shortage of finger-pointing as to who to hold responsible for the bungled visit. The natural tendency for most Nigerians is to revert to their default settings in heaping all the blames on the federal government. However, the event of the past week has not only borne out my contention that the leaders in the region have not been entirely helpful, the signs are that they are no less complicit in the crime of abdication than the federal government that they are wont to accuse.

    Let’s look at what the leaders suggested as the way forward out of the crisis. Like the militants in the Niger Delta, the leaders want amnesty for the terrorists. Now, I must say here that I’m open to the debate on the shape of amnesty to be granted to mass murderers. The debate might as well begin, even now. However, my questions are – suppose the government proclaims amnesty, how about the fundamentalist ideology which feeds the insurgency? Would it also be the responsibility of the federal government to extirpate it?

    Now to another equally contentious issue – the demand for the withdrawal of the JTF. I recognise the deliberate misplacement of ‘effect’ for ‘cause’, an elite problem designed to obfuscate issues. So the JTF is the problem because a handful of service personnel violate the rules of engagement? And that to constitute the ground to demand for the withdrawal of the personnel on internal security duties? What happens after? Turn out the vast territories to the Boko Haram or their cousins the AQIM?

    It is hard to imagine that the elders actually believe that the JTF is the problem. No doubt, internal security operations are by their nature, fraught with unique challenges. While these are not deniable, the challenge is for the elders to highlight them so that they could be dealt with. What should not be missed is the larger picture: these men were drafted in to deal with a problem that went out of control. I shudder to imagine what the situation will be without the men of the JTF. Or would the elders have preferred that Boko Haram overrun the region with the federal government left to negotiate the status of the region after?

    Finally, on this point, has anyone bothered to ask the primary targets of those terror attacks what they think of the JTF? I mean the churches and other so-called symbols of western civilisation which the sect finds to offensive? Are these institutions not entitled to the protection of the law also?

    Here is a word for those who look up to Abuja for solution to the problem. Abuja is a wrong place to look for solutions. First, the fat cats in the territory have no ideas to give; not with so much security funds to gobble! Secondly, the problems are by their very nature, local!

    At best, what Abuja can do is give federal muscle to local initiatives. No matter what anyone thinks, Abuja is in the least position to take on the fundamentalist ideology driving the insurgency. Community and opinion leaders will do a far better job of that. The same is true of the search for peace; it cannot be imposed from Abuja. The people have to be willing to assist security agencies to do their job. Ditto for development. The people just have to be willing to give it a shot.

    Last week, I heard Borno Governor Kashim Shettima talk about a Marshall Plan for the North-east. That is at least good thinking. I hope he’s not referring to a plan crafted in Abuja for the people of Borno – a plan that can only help feed the fat boys in Abuja. He should get to work to produce a roadmap for development for his dear state. When all is said and done, he will find that good ideas have a way of attracting cash. Ask the people of Niger Delta where cash seems to be looking for good ideas. Dare to ask if the people have seen development with trillions of federal money poured into the region post amnesty. I assume of course that the North-east would not succumb to the template of appeasement made for the Niger Delta.

    Now, what do I think of the role of the revered elders? Simple: they need to get back to the drawing board. Asking Jonathan to impose peace on their region is tantamount to abdication – worse than death. The same way that their request on the President to surrender the law enforcement option is unhelpful and counterproductive. Surely, some things must be better than politics. Beyond politics, what the leaders need at this time are courage and openness. After all, the fire is right at their door-steps.

  • ABSU and the revocation of Kalu’s certificate

    ABSU and the revocation of Kalu’s certificate

    The recent revocation of the degree certificate of the former Abia State governor, Chief Orji Uzor Kalu by the authorities of Abia State University Uturu, Abia State was not the first of its kind in the country. Before now some universities had after many years of graduation revoked the degree certificates of people whom they discovered that the award of such degrees contravened the laid down procedures for admission and graduation from the universities.

    The university, like any other academic institutions, has the right to revoke the certificate awarded to people, whenever it was discovered that they were wrongly awarded. Nothing stops the authorities from taking such action; not even the number of years such certificates have been awarded. So there is no sentiment in the issuance and revocation of certificate awarded by any institution because every institution has a well laid down law, procedures, rules and regulations guiding admission, academic, non-academic curriculum and graduation from the institution which is being handed over to applicants upon admission.

    Recently, the West African Examination Council (WAEC), after four years, cancelled the certificates of about 200 persons who sat for their examination at Ogudu Senior Grammar School Ojudu GRA Ojota Lagos after discovering that there were irregularities in the award of the certificates. Some of the affected persons are in their final year in universities and the heaven did not fall. What matters most is that the onus lies on the affected persons to prove the authority wrong by providing substantial evidence before the court that the certificates were not wrongly awarded to them. Many had fought such battles in the past. While some lost, others with incontrovertible evidence to substantiate their cases won them.

    As for the case of Kalu and Abia State University authority, the ball is in Kalu’s court to prove the authority wrong by providing substantial evidence before the court to show that he was properly admitted and that he graduated from the university, while in office as governor of the state and visitor to the university.

    Trying to link the revocation to political victimisation by the state government is puerile because the university is made up of renowned professors and academics who are not politicians and who know the implications of revoking a degree after many years of awarding it. Unless Kalu wants the world to believe that he arm-twisted the university authority to award him the degree while in office as the governor even when he knew he did not merit such, he should come clean with the transcript issued to him by the University of Maiduguri which he used for inter-university transfer into the Abia State University and even the O’ level certificate he used to secure admission into the University of Maiduguri in the first place.

    So many things are at stake in this situation that need to be cleared by Kalu if he wants Nigerians to believe him that he is being victimised by the university authority. The university authority in their various advertorials had justified their action based on the law that established the university academic programme; the onus is now on Kalu to prove otherwise. University degree is not a common product that could be easily purchased. It takes time, resources, discipline and hard work for one to acquire it.

    It could be recall that in 2002 when the news broke that Kalu was writing degree examination in Abia State University, Olusegun Adeniyi, the then editor of Thisday wrote an article on the back page of the newspaper titled “Eze Goes To School” where he raised a lot of questions on the propriety of Kalu being a student of ABSU, writing degree examination and at the same time serving as the governor of the state and visitor to the university.

    Adeniyi in the article had asked some pertinent questions such as when Kalu was admitted into the university, his choice of the state university and what time did he has as a governor to attend lectures, even on part-time basis if it is assumed that he was admitted as a part time student. Not many Nigerians took Adeniyi’s fears then very serious, rather he was attacked by Kalu’s media aides.

    From the way the saga is unfolding today, it appears that Adeniyi and other Nigerians who saw the development from his perspectives might be vindicated at the end of the day, unless something otherwise happens to prove the university authority wrong. Accusing the state government of inciting the university to revoke his certificate is nothing but shadow chasing. The situation goes beyond Kalu’s political differences with any body. It is academic matter that should be sorted out academically and legally, not politically.

    Before now prominent Nigerians who were accused of forging certificates or illegally acquiring certificates in the past have taken the matters to court to clear their names. Former Kogi State Governor Ibrahim Idris was once accused of not having school certificate, while being admitted as a law student at University of Abuja. His lawyers took the matter to court and WAEC officials were in court to testify that he obtained a school certificate from a secondary school in Bayelsa State many years ago. Such allegation of certificate forgery was also leveled against Governor Gabriel Suswan of Benue State. Today, Suswan has won the case at High court and the Appeal Court and is ready to meet his accuser at the Supreme Court.

    Kalu and his sympathisers should stop pointing accusing fingers at anybody or group as being responsible for the certificate saga. Rather, they should face the reality by doing everything to clear his name from the mess if he is sure of the genuineness of his admission and graduation from the university. Any other thing contrary is bunkum; not even Barrister Amobi Nzelu’s recent claim that he wanted to go to court for Kalu but was discouraged by a Professor from the university who said it was not necessary. How will Nzelu expect Nigerians to fall for such gimmicks? Or is it that Kalu has no evidence to upturn his revoked degree certificate in court?

    So if Kalu is not sure of himself and does not have enough evidence to challenge the decision in court, he and his allies should keep quiet and accept the decision in good faith. Meanwhile, all eyes are on Kalu to respond to the university’s decision by taking urgent action to redeem his battered image.

    • Dr. Ozoubi wrote Bwari Abuja

  • The hand is Esau’s

    The hand is Esau’s

    Almost eleven years after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attack on New York and Washington by global terrorism network, Al Qeada, the United States is not giving up on tracking down and punishing the perpetrators of one of mankind’s greatest tragedies.

    Last week, Suleiman Abu Ghaith, the son-in-law of Osama bin Laden, the founder, leader and funder of Al Qeada, killed by US SEAL in Abbottabad, Pakistan on May 2, 2011, was arrested by American Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), working in concert with Jordanian security, in Jordan and flown to New York on Thursday where he was due to appear in court a day later on a charge of conspiracy to kill Americans. The charge obviously relates to the 2001 attacks.

    Though not directly or physically involved in the terror attacks, Abu Ghaith offence is linked to his appearing on video immediately after the attacks, speaking on behalf of Al Qeada.

    In the run up to the September 11, 2001 attacks he had also held meetings with Al Qeada operatives where he urged them to swear allegiance to the cause as well as Osama bin Laden. He also appeared in video with his father-in-law threatening attacks on American and western targets around the world. So in essence, the man who had been hiding in Iran all these years after September 11, before being deported to Turkey and later Jordan, is being held and is to be punished for what he said, which in all intent and purpose could be linked to the 9/11 attacks.

    Closer home in Kaduna last Saturday, the State Commissioner of Police led a team of armed policemen to the premises of the Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria, FRCN, in the city to arrest a serving senator and one time governor of Zamfara State, Senator Ahmad Sani, of the emerging opposition All Progressive Congress, APC for comments he made in the course of a live radio phone-in programme, deemed capable of causing the breach of the peace. And what did the senator say?

    The man in response to a question whether there was any move by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) not to register the APC, and if that happened what would be the next line of action of the opposition, responded that if having met all legal requirements for registration as a political party and INEC still refused to grant APC registration, the opposition would march on the Eagle Square in Abuja in a peaceful protest. He added that the Tahrir Square protest in Egypt would be a child’s play to the protest at Eagle Square if the newly formed party was denied registration.

    Now pray in what way is this simple and clear answer to a question likely to cause the breach of the peace such that the Commissioner of Police, on a Saturday, had to rush to the radio station, even before the end of the live programme to arrest the senator? In what way could this harmless comment be construed to be a threat to Nigeria’s security as in the way, for example, that Abu Ghaith’s pre and post 9/11 video comments on behalf of Al Qeada is being construed by the US? Agreed that both incidents appear unrelated but the inference being drawn here is that both are rooted in perceived threat to state security, in the eyes of the respective security services in the two countries, by the comments made by the people involved. The question here is whether what the senator said was enough to warrant his arrest and detention by the Commissioner of Police?

    On the surface the CP’s action could be termed a pre-emptive move to prevent a possible breakdown of law and order, but a closer look could reveal the likelihood of a more sinister motive on the part of police. The police boss reportedly got a call from Abuja that Saturday morning as the senator was on air, ordering him to arrest the lawmaker. Who made the call? Force Headquarters or the Presidency? With Senator Sani’s comments posing no serious, if any, threat to the peace and security of the nation, one can only deduce form the Police’s action that it was part of the much expected grand plan by the ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP), to destabilize and frustrate any attempt by the opposition to come under one umbrella to challenge the PDP in future elections. Shall we now say that the Nigeria Police as now an arm of the PDP, the same way INEC is being viewed by the opposition? If this later prove to be the case then our democracy is in grave danger.

    I am sure if there was no indication of the likelihood of INEC not registering the APC, Senator Sani wouldn’t have made that comment and I think the man was merely warning or rather advising the electoral body and to a large extent, the Federal Government against doing anything inimical to the good health of this democracy.

    And in what looked like a confirmation of the fears of the opposition, INEC has come out that a fledging political organisation named African People’s Congress (APC) had applied to it for registration as a political party. What a smart move. The hand here is definitely that of Esau while the voice is that of Jacob. One needs no soothsayer to know that the PDP and indeed Jonathan’s Federal Government is at work here.

    The same way Jonathan sponsored a PDP Governors Forum mainly to frustrate the Governor Rotimi Amaechi’s led Nigeria Governors Forum following his inability to wrest control of the NGF from the Rivers State governor, is what he is attempting to do now with this other APC, to frustrate and disorganize the opposition ahead of the 2015 presidential election. If Professor Attahiru Jega’s INEC fail to see through this, then this democracy is in serious danger.

    And there is more danger ahead if the police continue on the path set last Saturday by the Kaduna CP. It then means that we should expect more arrest of opposition politicians and other political elements, even within the PDP that are not on the same page with President Jonathan on his 2015 project. But the president is well advised to note that it is strong arm tactics like this, together with lack luster performance that can imperil this democracy and not what the opposition says.

    The police should also remember that its unholy alliance with the Shehu Shagari led Federal Government of then National Party of Nigeria (NPN) in the second republic, especially as regards intimidating and witch hunting opponents and collaborating to rig elections led to the fall of that republic. We are in the 4th republic now and I hope the police have learnt their lessons.

    The quick response of the Kaduna CP to the Abuja call to arrest Senator Sani is at odd with the character of the Nigeria Police that we know when it comes to response to distress or danger call. May be the Force is changing, but it better be for the good of the nation and not just a few.

    One would have expected the Kaduna Police Command and not the military to have discovered the bomb making factory that was uncovered at the Kaduna home of an Abuja based politician last week. The discovery by men of the Intelligence Unit of the 1st Division of the Nigerian Army, Kaduna was shocking considering the number/volume of arms and ammunitions including IEDs involved. Where are we headed in this country if one may ask?

    Not that it was a bad thing that the Army discovered this bomb factory, but internal security is the primary responsibility of the police and the earlier the Force steps up its activities in this area, instead of being a willing tool in the hands of politicians to fight their personal battles, the better. We have a greater battle on our hands, the battle against terrorism and the police should take the lead role.

     

  • Governors Forum: Why Jonathan is mistaken

    Governors Forum: Why Jonathan is mistaken

    When the dust finally settles on the on going face off between President Goodluck Jonathan and Governor Rotimi Amaechi’s led Nigeria Governors Forum, the wind would have blown and the fowl’s backside would have been revealed.

    If you don’t know what I am talking about then ask your neighbour as you are probably the only one around still in the dark about how the president’s rabid ambition to run a second term is tearing apart almost every known political structure and power blocs in the country including the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

    Jonathan in case you don’t know is hell bent on running for the presidency again in 2015 and an Abuja court last week cleared the way for him to do so if he so desires, and there is no denying that’s exactly what the man wants. And there is nothing wrong in that if his party believes so much in his ability to win the next presidential election and hands him the PDP ticket. But he will still need to contend with the opposition, now growing in strength and confidence, and the electorate who are more than disappointed with his performance.

    But the man doesn’t seem to care about what the electorate think of him and his administration, all that matters to him is winning the PDP’s ticket by hook or crook and once again rigging his way to the presidency, and he appears to be well on the way to achieving that. Rightly or wrongly, he has identified the seeming obstacles to achieving this and has set about destroying them, but how far he can go remains to be seen.

    The first major obstacle it seems is the PDP and the man has succeeded, or so it seems, in hijacking the party’s leadership with the party’s National Working Committee (NWC) and the Board of Trustees (BoT) firmly in his pocket and gunning for the soul of its National Executive Committee (NEC), the highest decision making body in the party. NEC comprises of all the national leaders of the party including the powerful state governors and their chairmen. And he seems to be facing difficulty here.

    While he has pocketed Bamanga Tukur’s NWC with the sacking via the court of former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s men, and succeeded in installing his Yes man, Tony Aninih as BoT chairman, getting the PDP governors and their state chairmen on his side has been an uphill task, and this is where Rotimi Amaechi and the Nigeria Governors Forum come in.

    For lack of understanding of what the NGF is really is or absolute ignorance or both, President Goodluck Jonathan believes Governor Amaechi should be able to goad the NGF to do his (Jonathan’s) bidding, irrespective of the feelings of other governors, simply because Amaechi, as Governor of Rivers State is from the same south/south geopolitical zone as Jonathan, in essence, a paddy-paddy affair. Rubbish.

    Those who know Governor Amaechi very well would tell you the man is made of better stuff. He would not do a thing unless he is convinced it is in the best interest of the people, your closeness to him or otherwise notwithstanding. Moreover, leading a team of equals as the NGF is, Amaechi knows that he has to say and do what his brother governors want lest he loses their confidence and gets thrown out.

    Blaming Amaechi or trying to punish him for the president’s inability to get the governors behind his second term project is missing the point. Jonathan’s failure to rally the governors behind him is down to his lack lustre performance as President and Commander In Chief and has got nothing to do with Amaechi’s alleged refusal or reluctance to back him. And as just been revealed by the governor of Niger State, Dr. Babangida Aliyu, Jonathan refusal or failure to honour the agreement he made with PDP governors in the run up to the last presidential election to serve just one term, is also at the root of his problems with the governors. So, bringing Amaechi into the picture is akin to hiding behind one finger.

    The NGF as we have been made to believe and as shown by the utterances of its members is just a club of state governors and a forum for them to rub minds on issues of mutual interest. More often than not the Forum had been criticized for being too selfish, but that was exactly what it was supposed to do; selfish on the side of the states. And no state or state governor has come out to deny or back off what the Forum has been doing.

    Because more often than not the issues that cut across the states’ interests have been against or in sharp contrast to Federal Government’s position, the governors are seen as being antagonistic to not just the federal government but also President Goodluck Jonathan, and because Governor Amaechi as their leader often speaks for them and rightly so, he is erroneously perceived as an enemy of President Jonathan. This is wrong. Amaechi as those who know him well will say is a man of strong character who will never let his people down, hence he continues to enjoy their support and confidence. He may disagree with them and make his point or position known to them, but once a decision was taken and he was part of it, as the leader, he is bound by it and he goes out to vent and defend it. So, if speaking the minds of the governors is his offence, then all the governors are guilty.

    But is it not even stupid and unrealistic for the President and his men to think Governor Amaechi could swing the minds of all the 36 state governors from six different parties when the issues that bring them together are as diverse as Nigeria? I am sure the governors will be united and probably think one way as long as the issues at hand concern them equally, as we have seen with the issue of sovereign wealth fund, excess crude revenue and local government autonomy. When the Forum attempted to speak with one voice on the issue of state police we all saw what happened.

    But I am sure if the issue of a second term for Jonathan were to come up for discussion whether within the newly formed PDP Governors Forum or the more respected Nigeria Governors Forum today, the answer would be NO. So, Jonathan, Amaechi is not your problem neither is it the NGF. Look at the mirror and you’ll see your problem

    It is convenient for the federal government and the PDP to see the NGF as a trade union or pressure group that must be destroyed now simply because they can’t have their way with the governors. When the Forum intervened in the face off between Labour and Government to save the neck of the president and also sided with Federal government on fuel subsidy removal, it was a good body and Amaechi a good boy. But now that they can not pocket the group, NGF is a trade union and Amaechi an enemy. Ehn Mr. President? Time will tell whether what you are doing now is right or wrong but Nigerians surely know who their leaders are. They know who to trust and they will deliver their verdict at the right time. Chikena.