The Nation Newspaper

Category: Letters

  • 2015: Nigeria decides!

    SIR: This weekend, Nigeria will be going to the polls to either in the slogan of the All Progressive Congress (APC) effect change or in the parlance of the self styled largest political party in Africa, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) retain President Goodluck Jonathan under the umbrella of forward together.

    However, no matter the outcome of the elections, things can never be the same again in Nigeria, not anymore. Since 1999, when the country returned from the last cycle of brutal military governance and the PDP won successive elections, never has the party struggled like a man who is drowning yet desperately holding to anything in sight just to stay afloat.

    But the question that lots of analysts have asked is for how long? It appears the party is in the thrones of death/electoral defeat. A party that has led the country for the past 16years with a dossier never mindful of a sense of national history but all out to protect itself, members and friends even when such is against the national interest. A party never inclined to regulate political behaviour and practice with any form of decency. Once it is in the interest of the family then it is good.

    The recent confirmation of Musiliu Obanikoro has once again, confirmed that with the party, morality is never a factor in its dealings. Here is a man that was allegedly implicated in the electoral rigging in Ekiti, not subjected to any form of inquest to ascertain or disprove his culpability but is rather and quickly confirmed as a Minister of the government of the Federal Republic of Nigeria-leaves a sour taste in the mouth.

    Many of the infamous acts of the PDP are well known but it becomes mind-boggling when the current administration is hailing itself as transformational in spirit and indeed.

    Like a tribe bonded by blood, it is now clear that the party is committed to rolling back civil liberties as some of their officials have vowed to resist any outcome that is not favourable to their party.

    Clearly, democracy is hanging precariously along a dangerous curve and all that is not worrisome to them. We face a critical choice and anything short of allowing the peoples will to create an opportunity for a flourishing of a new political order will be a grave mistake.

    The risk of the people of Nigeria not holding the government of the PDP to account is rather too high even in the face of campaigns of hate, harassment, intimidation and comedy which officials of the Party have subjected, WE, the Nigerian people to. The challenges of governance is however not new but has been accentuated by the “I don’t give a damn attitude of the President” and the reported incidences of massive corruption under his watch.

    This government has the dubious title of treating corruption with levity and ridiculing the people with tepid excuses like no other in our tortuous history.

    President Goodluck Jonathan rode to power in an unprecedented manner with the promise to initiate transformation. Alas, what is transformational about the way and manner things have been done under his watch? Corruption is pervasive and appears festering like never before. For the sincere people who trooped around the country calling for Jonathan to be elevated to the presidency during the time of ailing president Yar’Adua and affirming his right to run for the presidency in 2011 and even now in 2015, it is gross disappointment.

     

    When questions are asked about his performance in office, megawatts of lies are advanced to mislead and in some instances outright insults are passed to bury the curiosity of the people. Agreed, President Jonathan has recorded glaring achievements in some areas like the recent military onslaught against the terrorist in the north-east.

    If the road to the 2015 polls had been paved with much hatred, rancour, indecency, incitements to violence and attempts to discredit the outcome by staining the head of INEC and other inchoate actions of highly placed persons in the society such as the first lady, Madam Patience Jonathan openly calling for people who chant change to be stoned then things might never be the same again, post 2015 polls.

    It is a chilling reality, which no amount of threat, intimidation, harassment and malfeasance will deter. The people are poised to seek redress with their vote. The chant in the air is CHANGE, not so much because of the alluring prospect of any miracle but knowing that things cannot endure for long under this atmosphere that is anything but a breath of fresh air.

    It is time for change. A time to ask sincere questions and to end the rein of regional mafia gangs with pockets of supporters from other parts of the country. A time of so much caution, yet a time to reserve for the renewal of our country.

    • Rotimi Opeyeoluwa

    is legislative aide to Senator Babafemi Ojudu

  • Between late Yar’Adua phone call and Moroccan King

    In describing Nigeria recently I was told—”Big nation, great people, but equally BIG problems.”

    Let me take us back a little, in December 2009, a certain Mallam Tanimu Yakubu, and economic guru lied to an entire nation that the late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua called key government officials, including the then Vice-President Goodluck Jonathan, on phone and spoke with them for five minutes.

    We are in March 2015, and after denials and counter denials by officials, Nigeria’s President Jonathan has said he is “highly embarrassed” that his officials said he had spoken to the Moroccan King when he had not.

    Earlier last week, Morocco recalled its ambassador over the affair after the Nigerian foreign ministry insisted the two heads of state had spoken by phone.

    President Jonathan did confess that he had been trying to speak to various African leaders to seek their support for Nigeria’s candidate for the position of African Development Bank (AfDB) president.

    The President’s spokesperson Reuben Abati released a statement saying President Jonathan was “shocked, surprised and highly embarrassed by the controversy that has erupted” and that he had ordered the foreign affairs minister to find out how it had occurred.

    “The regrettable furore that has developed over the matter is due entirely to misinformation as President Jonathan has neither spoken with King Mohammed or told anybody that he had a telephone conversation with the Moroccan monarch,” the statement said.

    The Nigerian foreign ministry had said “both leaders spoke extensively over the phone on matters of mutual interest and concern.”

    In 2009, the Yar’Adua call was coming after 44 days, of ‘no speech’, ‘video call’ or ‘photograph’ from Jeddah, where the President was hospitalised. It was yet another spin…in a long drawer of plenty spins during that era, including that staged BBC interview too.

    In that period we witnessed the mysteriously signed budget, Nigeria on terror list, sackings in the banking sector, fuel crisis and a nation practically on autopilot.

    It was in that mood that Tanimu told us that the president called xyz, it was the era, the president could govern from anywhere, when some kitchen cabinet or cabal clerks flew kilometres around the globe to have him sign the supplementary budget.

    Then some ‘goons’ just jet in and out to everywhere and anywhere and tell us they just came in from Jeddah. Nobody told us till date, how much Yar’Adua’s absence cost Nigerians in travels, estacode, medical bills and the cost of all the lies.

    Laughable cock and bull story.

    Every issue that is raised in respect to moving our nation forward is narrowed down to north south, Christian-Muslim, however when our leaders steal, it has no coloration. My take is that the leaders of the country are only united in looting the state treasury. And then we fight across our naïve idiosyncrasies, while they watch us.

    Why are we always looking for other countries approval, and acceptance, why are we a timid people, why are we never doing the right things at home?

    It’s our failure at home that has made U.S and Europe so relevant to us. We have to send our children there because the universities at home have failed. We have to look for jobs there because there are none at home. Some people even feel inferior to them and will rather live abroad at all cost- in their minds, by doing so, they’ve become superior human beings.

    We keep allowing our leaders make the wrong call, for how long—Only time will tell.

     

    •By Prince Charles Dickson

  • Babangida Aliyu and his tall tales

    t started with a statement from Governor Babangida Aliyu about two years ago, alleging that President Jonathan signed a pact wherein it was written that he would not stay in office beyond May 29, 2015. In other words, he would serve only one term, if voted into office during the 2011 elections. This ‘falsehood’ went on for a long time. Governor Babangida Aliyu could not substantiate his claim; he failed, till date, to provide the so-called document signed by Goodluck Jonathan. It was soon discovered that Governor Aliyu was only having the wishful thinking of becoming the president of northern extraction, after 2015 elections.

    Recently, also, Governor Babangida Aliyu went viral with another allegation that General Mohammadu Buhari ‘signed’ a document to stay in office for only one term, should he win the 2015 presidential elections. Aliyu noted that Buhari planned to shortchange the northerners by so agreeing to a term stay in the office. This again was proved to be false. For someone of his standing in governance to be raising false alarm, smacks of a good ‘servant’ – as he calls himself.

    The third lie Babangida Aliyu told recently too was that his deputy, Alhaji Ahmed Musa Ibeto, requested for his support towards becoming the next governor of Niger State on the platform of the PDP but was not granted. But Babangida Aliyu’s deputy debunked this and called him a liar. Nevertheless, the deputy governor has defected to the APC.

    Babangida Aliyu is gunning for the Senate and one wonders how someone who could tell so many lies just because of his personal ambition be trusted to go out there in the Senate and contribute meaningfully to the growth of the nation.

    It will be recalled that Aliyu had sought to be Goodluck Jonathan’s vice-president when the constitution allowed Jonathan to take the oath of office when Yar’Adua passed on but unfortunately Sambo was preferred. Ever since then, Babangida Aliyu has never hidden his resentments towards Jonathan.

    Governor Aliyu’s innate ambition seem to have come to the open when he, a few days back, granted an interview to one of the national dailies, boasting that Jonathan will hand over to him in 2019. May one ask him; what if Jonathan fails to be reelected in the forthcoming elections as it’s most likely, would he join APC thereafter so that, peradventure Buhari completes the ‘one term’, he then takes over?

    Hence, Governor Babangida Aliyu could be described as liar of many colours and most likely to lose his desire to be a Senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria after May 29, 2015.

    • Chief Onyeike Agomuo

    Port Harcourt, Rivers State.

  • Buhari: The awaited Messiah

    SIR: In 1914, the Northern and Southern Protectorates of Nigeria were amalgamated. Since then, the regions of Nigeria have been joined together in a marriage of inconvenience. Chief Obafemi Awolowo and other patriots led Nigeria to independence from her colonial masters with the intention of making the country an egalitarian society.

    Since charity begins at home, Chief Awolowo as the Premier of the then Western Region, practiced and achieved the objective through the introduction of free education, free health care delivery, integrated rural development and industrial emancipation.

    But he was prevented from replicating the same performance in the whole country. Before his death, he predicted that Nigerians will rescue themselves from their oppressors by taking their fate in their own hands.

    In 1983, he cried out that the country was on the brink of collapse, unless a savior came to our rescue. On the night of December 31, 1983, General Muhammad Buhari came to our rescue. The disease, which was inflicted on Nigerians by the then National Party of Nigeria (NPN), was cured immediately through the change of currency and promotion of discipline.

    Immediately, all foreign currencies bowed to the naira in terms of value and the standard of living of Nigerians was progressively transformed. But he was prevented from completing his good assignment by a palace coup in 1985 after which the Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP) was introduced, a policy that reversed the standard of living of Nigerians to the lowest ebb.

    President Barrack Obama delivered an address in 2013 in South Africa where he identified the root of the malaise confronting Nigeria to include corruption, poverty, favouritism, nepotism, insecurity, Boko Haram and bad governance. All these had become the order of the day in Nigeria, where there is no middle class; you are either rich or poor.

    When America was confronted by debilitating economic problems due to bad governance, Americans called on Obama to rescue them. Americans focused on his past good performance as a Senator and closed their eyes to his defects-Muslim name (Hussein), single parentage, African descent, black colour, former tout and drug user.

    Americans went ahead and voted for Obama massively to become their President to rescue them from economic shamble.

    We now want all the leaders and members of the progressive in the All Progressive Congress (APC) to focus on the discipline and good governance of Buhari’s government of 1984 and 1985 when he rescued Nigeria from possible collapse and not on the mistake he made by imprisoning the progressive leaders while trying to clean the Augean stables.

    In 1984, Buhari was surrounded and advised by soldiers. Now, he is surrounded and being advised by civilians and democrats. The result will be guaranteed good governance without subjecting the progressive to hardship as experienced in 1984.

    He is the only surviving and tested candidate who can rescue and lead Nigeria to the Promised Land after 100 years of wandering in the wilderness.

    Secondly, giving General Muhammad Buhari the opportunity to revive his War Against Indiscipline (WAI) is crucial against the level of present corruption that has pervaded Nigeria. APC and all well-meaning Nigerians should insist on Buhari’s presidency; he is epitome of self-discipline and accountability.

    His experience as former Head of State, Petroleum Minister, and Finance Minister with optimal performances should not be wasted.

    Providentially also, Buhari has never betrayed any form of religious fanaticism. I urge all APC Chieftain to shun politicisation of religion; total de-politicisation of religion is imperative for social equity and cohesion.

    Another political leader whose talents should be seriously tapped is Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu. I would propose for him the position of Finance Minister, for sustaining the economy of Lagos State even when the federal government seized the bulk of what Lagos should get from the federation account.

    Pa Obafemi Awolowo helped to manage Nigeria’s post-war economy, as a Finance Minister, without any certificate in accounting or economics; Tinubu will not do less. Buhari and Tinubu are not associated with stolen oil wealth; they will be accountable.

     

    • Ademola Orunbon,

    Ajanosi Street, Oke-Posun,

    Epe, Lagos State

  • The ongoing reforms at JAMB

    SIR, Oyo State-born university don, Professor Adedibu Ojerinde, has halted the demeaning image of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB). Before his emergence as JAMB registrar, the board released candidates’ results three months after conducting examinations. But, in Ojerinde’s first year, the results were released within ten days.

    The 2014 JAMB results were released within four days after conducting the examinations, while candidates got the results of the ongoing 2015 JAMB examinations within days via text message. JAMB is now computer-based. All hitherto JAMB miracle centres have been tactically closed down without

    deployment of security forces. Their owners were captured without being sent to prison. Ojerinde has killed corruption in JAMB without

    shooting a soul.

    Today, you can come to examinations’ centres with your mobile telephones and nobody would disturb you. Those making money by sending answers to

    candidates on examinations day via their mobile phones are now jobless. Their unholy business has been brought to a halt.

    JAMB does not need a battalion of policemen and soldiers again at its examinations’ centres. Today, candidates are to enter examination halls

    and answer their questions on a well-programmed computer systems. Candidates are told not to bother about bringing pen or pencil into the examination hall. You must read before you can pass. If you don’t read, you can’t pass. The era of non-appearance of candidates in JAMB is gone for good. With JAMB producing qualified candidates, Nigerian universities and other tertiary institutions would certainly be producing quality products.

    Professor Ojerinde has taught the younger generation and emerging leaders how to record meritorious feats without much talk and winning without propaganda. The late Dora Akunyili revolutionised the operations of the now derailed NAFDAC; Ribadu brought the now toothless EFCC to limelight;

    Babatunde Raji Fashola cleaned up the then criminal den called Oshodi;

    Adedibu Ojerinde kills corruption in JAMB; please whose name will enter the hall of fame NEXT?

    Without being sensational, my verdict today is that the Nigerian nation

    needs creative, patriotic, focused, committed and revolutionary leaders in

    the class of these patriots to deliver her citizens out of the current generational quagmire.

     

    • Maxwell Adeyemi Adeleye, Magodo, Lagos.

  • Fayose must be cautioned

    SIR: Who will help us tell Mr. Ayodele Fayose, the governor of Ekiti state to desist from bringing disrepute to the office with his unguarded utterances? He keeps on embarrassing himself, his family and his state in public by ascribing concocted ill-health to General Muhammad Buhari, the All Progressives Congress(APC) presidential candidate.

    Mr. Fayose has consistently been describing General Buhari as too old and sick to be president of Nigeria, the latest being his allegation that the General travelled to the United Kindom (UK) on medical grounds. Fayose is busy denigrating the age and person of General Buhari to the extent of wishing him dead.

    The rascally way of his campaign against General Buhari has not in any away added value to our democracy and politics, neither has it added value to the presidential campaign of President Goodluck Jonathan. It is all about politics of violence and thuggery, forgetting that all the presidential candidates have signed peace accord. No wonder, a member of the House of Representatives from his home state, Mr. Opeyemi Bamidele, described Mr. Fayose as a ‘cancer to today politics ’ and that he should be advised to play politics with decorum. Fayose’s rascality should have been a thing of the past, having claimed to be of age, refined, more experienced and more mature governor. But he was so reckless and crude in his approach of support to the outgoing incumbent president.

    With this kind of rascality by Mr. Fayose, Ekiti state people are in real trouble under his leadership. Let it be known to Mr. Fayose that it is a sacrilege in Yoruba land for younger ones to be disrespectful to their elders. Those wishing the General dead should note that death will come when it will come. Let Mr. Fayose be warned.

     

    • Adeyemi Omotunde, 

     omodeyemi1@yahoo.com

  • Let’s not replace gold with wood

    SIR: No one replaces gold with wood. No one replaces honey with bean cakes. We have found a vast deposit of gold and honey and we don’t intend to lose or replace it.  Our vast deposit of gold is Senator Jide Omoworare’s heart of gold with which he has represented us in Abuja and touched our lives in the last four years. Our vast deposits of honey are his exemplary character and performance – we have tasted it, and we affirm that nothing tastes like it.

    His tenure as our Senator has brought tremendous development and senatorial presence to the people of our senatorial district. His exemplary attitude to service was first displayed on his thanksgiving visit to Owa’s palace in Ilesha. The then newly elected senator had noticed that the premises of the monarch’s palace was unbefitting for royalty, and without hesitation, he commenced the renovation of the palace. The expenses were borne out of his pocket – that is, from personal funds while he was yet to receive any form of emolument from his new office.

    In less than four years, Omoworare sponsored nine bills. These are bills, when fully passed, will solidify the foundations and application of our nation’s constitution.

    Whilst most of the Bills have passed the first readings and have their Senate Bill (SB) numbers, the others were yet to be listed by the Business Rules Committee of the Senate. However, one of the Bills has been passed by the Senate and gone to the House of Representatives for concurrence and thereafter to the President for assent. He also has five motions to his credits.

    Reckoning that education is key in the formation of a society’s future, Senator Omoworare singlehandedly constructed blocks of three classrooms with offices, VIP toilets and manual boreholes in over four locations in his senatorial district.

    Our Senator provided developmental support for Ife/ Ijesha youths. He nominated about 40 young graduates for employment in federal government establishments and about 50 young men and women for employment by the state government. He championed the organization of a job clinic to assist the youth of his constituency in acquiring different skills and trade as well as prepare them for employment in private blue chip companies. He further established a skill acquisition centre – to continually provide vocational education to his constituents. The senator assisted 15 of his constituent to participate in Ipade Omo-Ile (IPALE) in United Kingdom and he sponsored 24 youths on exchange to Detroit in United States. Some 80 youths have completed the computer appreciation training, all on the senator’s bill.

    Senator Omoworare is not oblivious of the importance of safety and security of the lives of his constituents. He ensured that the streets are well lit, providing over 90 solar powered street lights. He is equally aware of the need for potable water.

    The Senator also collaborated with other public officials to attract state projects such as the Injection Power Station in OAUTH, Omi Okun Road and Ile-Ife and Ita Osin Road to name a few.

    However, beyond his infrastructural, educational or legislative exploits, the distinguished Senator donated relief materials in conjunction with National Emergency Management Agency to Victims of fire incident at Oja-Tuntun, Odo-Ogbe Ile-Ife.

    Senator Babajide Omoworare stands as the most responsive and responsible senator to ever represent Osun East Senatorial District. It took an ‘ordinary’ Facebook comment made by Ogbeni Akinsuyi Titus Ikeji Arakeji on the sorry state of the lkeji Arakeji High School for Senator to come to the school’s rescue. Jide moved physically and financially to ensure the restoration of the school.

    By far, Jide’s excellent stride as a senator is the dictionary definition of “one good turn” – it surely deserves another. His unrivalled commitment to work earned him an award from the Ijesha People in Diaspora, even though he is of Ife origin.

    Let us reelect him again – we should not trade gold for wood or honey for bean cakes

    Senator Omoworare deserves our vote and support for a second term. Let’s re-elect our gold and honey.

     

    • Omowaiye Oluremi

    Ikoti o Lane, Ilesa

  • Aregbesola and Osun workers

    SIR: The observations by Tunji Omofoye in the Sunday edition of The Guardian on the 22nd of March overlooks, perhaps because of the constraint of space, certain critical issues relating to the fiscal climate in the state of Osun. Like every other head of a federating unit in Nigeria, Governor Rauf Aregbesola is operating with one arm tied behind his back. This is because of the debilitating effect of our anti-federalist fiscal operating system that cannot be over stated. This is why the issue of restoring fiscal federalism is so crucial not just in this election but for the sake of restoring balance in our economy.

    Everyone is of course aware of the collapse of the country‘s main source of revenue. This alone highlights the fiscal imbalance. However pre dating the downturn, Aregbesola had been pro- active and admirably so.

    In spite of the constraints, he was the first to offer the national minimum wage of N18, 001. This is worth stressing for the very concept and applicability of a national minimum wage in a federal system is contentious.

    Nevertheless, even though he inherited a bloated civil service with over 40000 personnel Aregbesola has resolutely refused to‘ right- size. ‘

    On the contrary, salaries were consistently paid before the end of the month. He valiantly and without prodding paid 13th month salary consecutively since 2010, reflecting the instinct of a committed progressive.

    It has to be stated here that a salary bill of N3.6 billion a month is not an easy proposition at the best of times, not to talk of now when allocation from the Federation Account dropped from N4.6 billion to a little over N1 billion, a shortfall of more than 75 per cent. Up and against it from day one, Aregbesola has pushed up Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) up from N300 million a month to N1billion. This has required ingenuity in a tight fiscal climate in which massive investment in the physical and social infrastructure has also had to be made in order to re-balance the economy as well as to enhance the future outlook of the state.

    As a committed social democrat what Aregbesola resolutely refuses to contemplate let alone carry out is lay- off workers. For this reason, it is on record that all categories of workers have expressed solidarity with the governor. They do not have a doctorate in political economy but they are astute enough as to know the cause and effect.

    As we speak, a committee made up of government officials and labour leaders in the state are working their socks off to come up with means of shoring up revenue in the state, in a way that will not hurt the poor. The talk of discord between the government and labour unions is therefore laughable. There is no such discord. Every party understands the situation and is willing to work hard and come up with solution.

    This is why, from day one, the emphasis has been on cost rationalisation by slimming down on the machinery of government through the elimination of duplication, waste, inefficiencies and corruption.

    As is to be expected, truth is the first casualty. What is being owed is three months’ salaries and not five months. And sorting it out is what disturbs Aregbesola‘s sleep. Across the board, a new edifying alternative perspective has been implemented in the state of Osun, which has repositioned the state and made life more tolerable for all.

    This is why future historians will divide the analysis of the state into two segments; pre and post Aregbesola and  the difference is clear. A temporary hiccup clearly beyond the control of a state government, which is the result of dysfunctional system, cannot be used as a battering ram against Aregbesola. The people are simply not ready to be fooled and bought over with fairy tales and propaganda.

     

    • Kanmi Ademiluyi,

    Lagos

  • Still on Ebola

    SIR: Though Nigeria had bid Ebola farewell, its seems to have resurrected

    in faraway Guinea. However, I urge Nigeria not sleep with her two eyes closed but be conscious of the health of her citizens.

    The federal Government should tighten surveillance around the country’s borders so as to avoid recurrence of the deadly disease in any part of our nation. This needs to be done with vigilance and diligence because, health according to an aphorism, is wealth. May the nation never witness Ebola again.

     

    • Hamdalat Ibitoye,

    Kwara state University.

  • Abia politics and the Ikpeazu challenge 

    SIR: It is no longer news that since the creation of Abia State in 1991, no person from Abia South has become governor of the state. So, when the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), came up with the notion that it is the time for the zone to produce the governor of the state, there were ovations that deafened the ears.

    When the party elected Dr. Okezie Ikpeazu (PhD) on December 8, 2014 during its primaries as its party gubernatorial flag bearer, the people of the state showed unprecedented interest in him. That primaries were well conducted and adjudged the best in the recent times.

    The All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) candidate, Dr. Alex Otti, has been staging against the humble and humane Ikpeazu.  Otti and his ilk in their political brigandage and brickbat have characterised Ikpeazu as a stooge. But Ikpeazu has cleared the air on this, saying, “I had my doctorate degree before my 30th birthday. I have taught in four universities, including being the external examiner of master’s degree students of University of Nigeria, Nsukka. It is not possible for someone to think of me as a stooge. All this can only exist within the realms of political propaganda.

    “Almost every candidate in the race was once in the PDP, so apparently they all wanted to be stooges. They started singing different tunes when the PDP people said, “we want change but we want to change into certainty not into darkness” and the civil servants said, “we want someone who can keep our jobs and pay us, not someone who will do right-sizing or down-sizing and retrench us at the end of the day.”

    Ikpeazu added that, “There is no governor in Nigeria that is anybody’s stooge. And if you played a role in canvassing for votes or helped a governor to be elected, you can’t expect the governor to be your stooge. You can only bring ideas that are beautiful on the table and if it falls into the main frame of a focused administration.

    Abia people are all for Ikpeazu. Otti who has been making noise, our people are not even sure who the candidate of the APGA is, because Otti came through the backdoor and arm twisted Ochiagha Reagan Ufomba who has since gone to court of competent jurisdiction to challenge the fact that Otti came into the party through the dark and backdoor.

    But where is Otti from? An analyst recently wrote, “Where is Alex Otti from? Is he from Arochukwu (Abia North) or from Aro-Ngwa (Abia Central). Some say he was born in Arochukwu but grew up in Ngwa, while others claim he was born in Ngwa but grew up in Arochukwu, with this ambiguity, either way, he is certainly not favoured by the zoning permutation.”

    And assuming Otti is favoured by the zoning formula, how does he expect that Abia people will elect such a man with a pedigree problem? It’s obvious that Abia State will have better dividends of democracy with Ikpeazu from the good taste of them, they have been enjoying under the leadership Governor Theodore Orji.

    Ikpeazu said that the first plan he has if elected as governor is Abia people. Hear him: “Abia is peopled by people with capacity in various areas. Our human capital is second to none and we are the best traders and very good in commerce. We are also very good with the things we can do with our hands. So in the years ahead we want to leverage on these advantages that God has given us to make sure that the economy of Abia rests on strong pillars of trade and commerce, small and medium scale enterprises.’’

    Ikpeazu as the PDP candidate will do creditably well as governor. He is not in this contest to run anybody aground as other contestants like Otti are wont to doing. One Martin Eze in a recent article published across the divides of media spectrum in the country wrote that Dr. Okezie Ikpeazu is the only candidate that is sure of a hundred percent vote from a political zone, the Abia South.

     

    • Madubuko Hart,

     nwa4chukwu@gmail.com