The Nation Newspaper

Category: Letters

  • PDP: Zoning good in Akwa Ibom, Bauchi, not in Rivers

    I begin by recalling that Sections 7.1(g) and 7.3(c) of the Constitution of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, respectively, talk about “promoting of egalitarian society founded on freedom, equality and justice” and “adherence to the policy of the rotation and zoning of party and public elective offices in pursuance of the principle of equity, justice and fairness.” They are emphatic on the need to rotate key political offices among the diverse peoples and zones at the national, state and local government levels.

    In Bauchi State, where the National Chairman of the party, Alhaji Adamu Muazu, comes from, the party zoned out aspirants from the southern senatorial district from contesting the governorship position in 2015. The same was witnessed in Akwa Ibom, the home state of the current Chairman of the PDP Governors’ Forum, Godswill Akpabio. In its wisdom, the party entrenched this important principle of zoning to ensure that justice, equity and fairness prevail.

    But in Rivers State, this important principle is suffering and it’s threatening to tear the party apart. Former Minister of State for Education, Nyesom Wike, is being empowered and encouraged by the First family in perpetrating the inequity that Rivers people are witnessing, as I write this. Dame Patience Jonathan is getting notorious and infamous for her meddlesomeness in the affairs of some states, especially Rivers and Bayelsa. She must have known of the charter between upland and riverine sections of Rivers State. She is allowing the ambition of one man (Wike), to cost PDP, the party that her husband leads, to be thrashed in the 2015 elections. It is now becoming clearer to Rivers people that Dame Jonathan is the engine room from where Wike draws his power and arrogance. She is also rumoured to be providing most of the funds that Wike is throwing about.

    Nevertheless, the attempt by the First Lady and PDP to impose Wike as the PDP flag bearer for the 2015 governorship position in the state will not fly and will not secure victory for the party. I know that many decent Ikwerre people are not in support of another Ikwerre taking over from the incumbent Ikwerre governor in May 2015.

    – Onyeike Agomuo

    Port Harcourt, Rivers State

  • Tribute to the late Prof Ogundele

    The Great Ife is indeed one of the best places to study in Africa. I remember with nostalgia my time there as an undergraduate and I realise that every bit of my stay was worth the stress.

    The academic activities in Ife remain rigorous, yet interesting. Through my younger brother who recently graduated from the school, I learnt students’ behaviour has somewhat changed, they now sign autographs on certain parts of the human body as a form of remembrance of loved ones, classmates and friends. In our own time, we basically took pictures and printed year books!

    In Ife, I made one special friend, even though I never knew our friendship would blossom beyond Africa’s most beautiful campus, the Great Ife. Professor Wole Ogundele was a great academic, teacher, researcher and a meticulous writer. On his return from his long sojourn in the United States of America, he introduced us to Western literature in 2001. And after the first week with him, some mischievous classmates named him ‘Beowulf’! And somehow, amongst the few of us, the name got stuck until we finally graduated in 2003/2004 academic session.

    Something stood Prof. Ogundele out: his simplicity. He was a very simple man, approachable and of course a very sound mind. His tutorial classes were one of my best times. I cannot remember how exactly we became friends, but from the first day my LIT 201 assignment script got to his table, he called me out to know if I was related to Nigeria’s former finance Minister, Kalu Idika Kalu (he admired the man’s fine intellect and finesse), I promptly told him I wasn’t. All the same from that day till the first week of October 2014 when we spoke on the phone last, he called me Kalu Idika Kalu!

    Prof. Ogundele was a teacher who was genuinely interested in his students, he taught us from his heart, he was an accomplished academic, yet he never had airs around him. He related to his students in a manner that almost infuriated some of his colleagues who felt a lecturer should be a demigod to his students. Perhaps, that was what stood him out.

    The vintage Ogundele is a man whose only passion is service, he never was a greedy man, and he even had no time for the politics that has turned our universities to village meetings. Two years ago, while we shared a drink at ‘Festac’ along Ede road, he narrated his experience as a civil servant with the Federal Civil Service Commission and I quickly realised he was just very different and that was his nature.

    Even when he retired from the Obafemi Awolowo University, he was still willing and ready to continue in service to the fatherland, as a man in love with the culture of his people he wasted no time in taking up the appointment as the Executive Director, Centre for Black Culture and International Understanding (CBCIU), Osogbo, a position he held till his death in October 2014.

    Perhaps, the ache of the centre’s tribulations may have been a contributor to the demise of Prof. Ogundele, he cherished that centre and was willing to do anything to make it succeed. He had started using the centre to attract the required attention to the fast dying African cultures, starting with his native Yoruba culture, through his leadership, the family of the late German scholar and Yoruba culture enthusiast, Uli Bier, donated all his research works, and gallery to CBCIU. The centre was on the verge of becoming a hub for Nigerian universities to revive their cultural studies departments. Alas, Prof is dead, but then he has done his bit.

    But as Prof. Wole Ogundele will be committed to mother earth, I resolved not to delete his phone numbers. I will definitely allow them die a natural death as well – with the phone. Like the great Shakespeare already noted thousands of years ago, “life is a stage” and we all come here, play our parts and get the hell ‘outa here! Prof just got the hell out. But we celebrate him, his fine rough intellect, humility, simplicity and most importantly for me, his friendship. He was a good man. Fare thee well the great Beowulf!

     

    Moses Idika

    Olaari Media Nigeria

    22, Aguiyi Ironsi Street

    Maitama

  • Time for a strong President?

    Time for a strong President?

    SIR: Strong democratic institutions are very important in a democratic state; but if a nation is in a precarious situation- especially war time, a strong leader is most needed. The absence of a strong leadership that could produce a spiralling effect on Nigeria’s war against insurgency is the main cause of the current chaotic security situation in Nigeria’s North-east. The current scary situation would not have become this messy, had it been that we have strong leadership.

    Some people are of the view that President Goodluck Jonathan appears not to be on top of issues of statecraft when it comes to tackling the growing violence of a frightening magnitude, fuelled by few hundred ragtag insurgents. This view is not an attempt to cast aspersions on the exalted office of the President; neither does it suggest that the President should have applied iron-hand in his style of leadership. But the fact is that we have allowed insurgents to unjustifiably kill Nigerians; annex their lands and humbled our gallant military thereby making Nigeria appear a weak country. Indeed, the situation has given the insurgents the control of the course of war in the north-east.

    Some schools of thought may argue that Nigeria’s peculiar political environment and the prevailing political situation are what make the President appear not to be on top of the war. A strong leader could have intelligently used both the carrot and stick approach and avoid the current situation which has brought confusion in the minds of most Nigerians. Is the government really in-charge of the nation’s affairs?

    The current frightening insecurity in Nigeria has taught Nigerians a big lesson. Few months from now, Nigeria will elect a new President, there is hope that Nigerians can turn things around; insist and vote for a strong President regardless of ethnic, religious or geographical considerations. Even though the Nigerian political environment, most especially, the choice of who occupies the seat of the President has so much been polluted with mundane issues and lack of political progressivism, Nigerians must insist for a strong leader. Nigerians must choose a President and Commander-in-Chief with the ability to inspire enthusiasm in Nigerians with just a wink of an eye, an individual with vision for the future, who can go the extra mile to get things done, one that can differentiate between reality and smokescreen and also remain positive in the public eye, no matter what the situation may be.

    When Nigeria has such a President, development issues will quickly replace mundane ones in our polity; ragtag insurgents will be decimated within days and Nigeria will be returned to normalcy, with her lost respect in the global eyes restored. Though, for Nigeria to have such a President come 2015, we need only one thing- Nigerians vote with their ‘heads’ not with their ‘hearts’

     

    • Zayyad I,

     Jimeta, Adamawa State,

  • Ebonyi House of quandary

    SIR: Ebonyi State House of Assembly has of recent been grabbing the headlines for a negative reason.  The 26-member house has long relegated its constitutional duty of law-making to the background and now pursues personal gains and self agenda. The House is largely dominated by men and women whose focus is not how to better the lots of their constituents. Their main target remains their pockets and not public good. The leadership impasse in the house only exposes the kind of personality that the state parades in the hallowed chamber.

    In any case, one is not surprised by the reported impeachment of the Speaker of the State House of Assembly, Chukwuma Nwanzuku.  It should be noted that this is not the first time the lawmakers would be embarking on this infamous path, and certainly it may not also be the last. The same Nwanzuku was in August this year impeached but was curiously reinstated after the state executive waded in. That intervention by the governor left much to be desired on the country’s democratic and political landscape. The governor appeared to have usurped the power of the judiciary when he purportedly pronounced the impeachment illegal even when the matter had been seized up by a court of competent jurisdiction. That unfortunate meddling in the affairs of the house by the executive arm may have laid the foundation for the present quagmire.

    Sadly, the House action has nothing to do with improving the deteriorating welfare of the already impoverished constituents of the state on whose back the members rode to prominence. Neither can it be argued that the lawmakers’ move is aimed at enthroning the culture of accountability and probity in governance in the state as they would want the public to believe.

    It is essential to note that this current house, right from inception, has become notorious for dwelling so much on the irrelevant as opposed to serious legislative business. It has earned itself the record of arbitrary suspension of its members every now and then. Virtually every member of the 26-man house has at one time or the other been suspended. The most ignoble was the suspension of a female member of the house, Barrister Lilian Igwe, in 2012, over alleged “misconduct, dishonourable act and public embarrassment to the legislative house”.

    Equally appalling is the fact that the house has been conducting its legislative activities in almost a part-time manner. By their own admission, the members had only sat for 28 times in August when the first impeachment was carried out. This is a clear breach of Section 104 of the 1999 Constitution (as amended), which requires every state House of Assembly to sit for a minimum of 181 days. Yet they have been earning full salaries and allowances. This only shows that the lawmakers were not prepared to serve ab nitio. Little wonder, their impact in the state have been abysmal and cannot be felt.

    The electorate must, therefore, be on guard as the 2015 general election approaches. The election presents a second chance for the people to right their wrong and make better choice, as it will amount to double tragedy if the electorates repeat the 2011 mistake. Once beaten, they say, twice shy.

    • Barrister Okoro Gabriel,

    Ebonyi State.

  • Police and lawlessness in Ekiti

    Police and lawlessness in Ekiti

    SIR: Since Governor Ayodele Fayose was re-elected into office as the Ekiti State governor, it has been one crisis or the other. Unrest, acrimony and upheaval have become a regular feature under the new regime. Few persons have also lost their lives. Many Ekitis are beginning to wonder whether this is how things will continue.

    How do we explain the unlawful attempt by only seven members of the House of Assembly to conduct the legislative affairs of the house? During the kangaroo plenary that ensued, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) caucus reportedly ‘confirmed’ the appointment of three commissioner-nominees, special advisers and caretaker committees for the 16 Local Government Areas of the state as proposed by Fayose. Their purported confirmation followed the presentation of a list containing their names by the appointed leader of government business for the day, Samuel Ajibola, who had cited the absence of the Speaker,  Adewale Omirin, and his deputy as the reason for the appointment of Dele Olugbemi as the protem speaker!

    He had argued that Section 27 of the Standing Order of the assembly empowered its members to appoint a protem speaker in the absence of the substantive Speaker and his deputy. Earlier and against the normal rule of the assembly, the seven PDP members, led by armed policemen and thugs were said to have bundled the Clerk to his office and at gunpoint, removed the mace from his office, to illegally conduct the plenary. The crisis in the assembly assumed a dangerous dimension when Fayose allegedly ordered the sealing-off of the Speaker’s office, who also claimed that the governor had deployed threats, intimidation, coercion, froze the accounts of the assembly, and cut electricity supply to the Speaker’s lodge, among other harsh treatment, meted out to the house.

     What is obvious in all of this is the inability of the police to rise to the challenge of maintaining law and order. It is just in line with recent events in Osun, Adamawa, Nasarawa and Rivers states, where the police openly and shamefully displayed partisanship, unprofessionalism and abdicated their sworn duty to protect all.

    We should remind police authorities that in line with the constitution and the Police Act, they are bound to be fair to all in the discharge of their statutory duties. The police, rather than promoting the rule of law, have become a major problem and clog in the wheel of progress for our weak democratic rule. They should, therefore, stop taking sides with political parties, groups and the government in power at any level in Nigeria.

     

    • Adewale Kupoluyi,

    Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta.

  • Still on Peter Obi’s exit from APGA

    Still on Peter Obi’s exit from APGA

    SIR: APGA has of recent witnessed some defections which should worry any serious member of APGA. One would have thought that APGA would have done a serious introspection to decipher what could be wrong. However, this appears not to be the case. Instead, the departure of these members seems to be celebrated by some. It is like saying their departure is good riddance to bad rubbish. It does not matter that a significant number of these departures represent the face of the party. Prominent among these is the immediate past Governor of Anambra State, Peter Obi.

    Peter Obi, discharged his duties and responsibilities as the Governor of Anambra with distinction and this is not in doubt. What more, he entered the Government House a humble man and left a humble man.

    The impression being created that APGA being an Igbo party, and being endorsed by a respected Igbo leader like the Ikemba, one cannot serve Igbo interest except through APGA is neither here nor there. Yes, under normal circumstances, APGA would represent a viable platform for espousing Igbo interest. But where this proves difficult, common sense would dictate that one seeks an alternative platform to achieve the same result. This is why God endowed us as humans with reasoning faculty. Peter Obi himself has asserted that he remains loyal to Ikemba in terms of what serves the interests of Ndigbo. He went further to state that this does not imply that he would be loyal to a platform that some people have resolved to turn into an empty shell without an inner core of shared values.

    This is not the time to begin to elevate ourselves to high moral grounds to which some of us have no claim to. The blackmail being employed by some people to denigrate him would only confirm his assertion that the party has turned into ‘empty shell without an inner core of shared values. This should not be the case.

    It is also instructive to note the claim by some of the current leadership of APGA to the effect that Peter Obi’s departure will have no effect on APGA’s fortune. Nothing can be further from the truth.  APGA would have been dead if Peter did not fight for his mandate. We will not have an APGA Governor in Anambra today but for Peter Obi.  The failure to acknowledge what Peter meant to APGA and instead appropriate whatever APGA is today to oneself is a clear manifestation of a core problem in APGA. In every situation we find ourselves, truth must remain sacrosanct.

     

    • Uzochukwu Okafor,

    Namibia

  • PDP: Why is Rivers different from A/Ibom and Bauchi?

    PDP: Why is Rivers different from A/Ibom and Bauchi?

    SIR: I begin by recalling that Sections 7.1(g) and 7.3(c) of the constitution of the People’s Democratic Party, PDP, respectively, talk about “promoting of egalitarian society founded on freedom, equality and justice” and “adherence to the policy of the rotation and zoning of party and public elective offices in pursuance of the principle of equity, justice and fairness”. They are emphatic on the need to rotate key political offices among the diverse peoples and zones at the national, state and local government levels.

    In Bauchi State, where the national chairman of PDP, Alhaji Adamu Muazu comes from, the party zoned out aspirants from the southern senatorial district of the state from contesting the governorship position in 2015. The same phenomenon was witnessed in Akwa Ibom, home state of the current chairman of the PDP Governors’ Forum, Godswill Obot Akpabio. In its wisdom, the party entrenched this important principle of zoning to ensure that justice, equity and fairness prevail.

    But in Rivers State, this important principle is suffering in impact, threatening to tear the party in the state apart. Former Minister of State for Education, Nyesom Wike, is being empowered and encouraged by Nigeria’s First family to perpetrate inequity. It is now becoming clearer to Rivers people that Dame Jonathan is the engine room from where Wike draws his power and arrogance. She is also rumoured to be providing most of the funds that Wike is throwing about.

    The attempt by the First Lady and PDP to impose Wike as PDP flag bearer for the 2015 governorship position in the state will not fly and will not secure victory for the PDP. I know that many decent Ikwerre people are not in support of another Ikwerre taking over from the incumbent Ikwerre governor in May 2015.

    Let the other section of our state be supported to go for the position. After all, they have such solid technocrats/politicians as Engr. Beks Dagogo-Jack, Prince Tonye Princewill, Dumo Lulu Briggs, Senator Maeba and Samson Ngaribara, among others, who are worthy sons of our state. How the permutation and political calculations by Dame Jonathan and Wike would work out can easily be imagined: total disaster.

    • Onyeike Agomuo

    26 Lancelot Avenue, off Sani Abacha Road,

    Port Harcourt, Rivers State.

  • Still on the trouble with Nigeria

    Still on the trouble with Nigeria

    Sir: There is hope for Nigeria. Nigerians do not have any choice but to make Nigeria rise again. Many Nigerians are tired of the status quo and are determined to push for social-economic and political changes. Change is possible in Nigeria. Pessimism is unpatriotic! But more Nigerians need to get involved with the political process in Nigeria. With active participation of all Nigerians, political change will be possible.Changes do not happen unless we work for it. I do not see our politicians re-building Nigeria. They have nothing to offer us except poverty and exploitation.They are all there for their own selfish-interest and not in the interest of the populace.They are  a set of people who know the right thing to do but won’t do it because they are visionless, unpatriotic, myopic, selfish and full of deceit.

    We have to re-take our steps in order to build a safe Nigeria for posterity so they will have something good to write about us. We have to rise up to the occasion of the day because change is inevitable. As Martin Luther King once said ‘’change does not roll in on the wheels of inevitability,it comes through continous struggle.’’

    We have to free ourselves from domination and exploitation by some minority few, we need a just and egalitarian Nigeria that will be free from oppression. In fact, it is a duty that we owe this generation and generations unborn to bequeath to them better days so they won’t see the present abnormalities as the norm. We have to join our hands together to safeguard the future of this great nation.

    Indeed,the journey to democracy and nationhood has been so tortous. The country is in dire straits. At the time of the departure of the British colonial masters, Nigeria was considered to be one of the emerging great nations of the world, like the proverbial child of great promise.

    It is unfortunate that a country that offered so much in hope and possibilities for its citizens at independence has today become a land of suffering, insecurity and near hopelessness, signposted by youth unemployment, poor electricity supply, incessant ethno-religious crisis, no thanks to rudderless and bumbling leaders who have failed to lead a well-endowed nation to harness the talents of its vibrant, energetic and resilient people. We can spend the next few hours cataloguing the problems of the country and we would still not scratch the surface.

    Echoing Chinua Achebe, the problem of Nigeria is the ruling elite and the failure of leadership. There is nothing wrong with the Nigerian land or climate or water or air or anything therein but the unwillingness or inability of its leaders to rise to the challenge of nation-building. We need to re-think otherwise, Nigeria is like a volcano that may erupt anytime and many will be engulfed.This is because we still have a government that swore to defend the rights of the people, secure lives and property, but under the same administration our best and brightest people are dying.

    •  Kazeem Olalekan Israel

     Ibadan,Oyo State

  • Boosting SMEs in Akwa Ibom

    Boosting SMEs in Akwa Ibom

    SIR: Recently, Akwa Ibom state came out in flying colours at the Abuja International Trade Fair as the Best Government Exhibitor. Not only was the state able to showcase its rich potentials and heritage, it stood out exceedingly in its organization and exhibition of small and medium scale enterprises.

    The State Commissioner for Commerce and Industry Elder Ufot Nkangude, who led the state delegation was all smiles as he narrated that Akwa Ibom was celebrated because of her excellent display of a wide range of products realized through Small and Medium Scale Enterprises.

    Such products rank high in terms of packaging and quality and they range from the best palm produce, raffia, shoemaking, fabrication, garri processing machines, palm oil processing machines, the best sea foods, among others.

    Since the arrival of Governor Godswill Akpabio on the scene in 2007, youths and women of the state have been empowered through micro credit facilities. First in 2007, Chief Akpabio introduced a N100m scheme to the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), to be accessed by Christians in the state for their small businesses.

    Since then, several thousands of youths from the 31 local government areas of the state have been trained, equipped and empowered with N500,000 each under the integrated farmers scheme. The women were also encouraged in their various trades through the Women in Agriculture Entrepreneurial Development Programme, WAEDEP which empowers each participant with N250,000 each.

    The result, as expected, has been stimulation in the economy of the rural communities, as many subsistent businesses have flourished thereby providing employment opportunities for the people. The numerous small and medium scale enterprises have now become readily raw materials for anticipatory large scale industries.

    Under the present administration, the Central Bank of Nigeria has reached a memorandum of understanding with Akwa Ibom State as one of the pioneer states to access a N260m facility under the CBN-sponsored Micro Small and Medium Enterprise Fund. The state’s emergence as the initial beneficiary of this fund comes as a result of the excellent framework and implementation of small and medium scale initiatives in the state.

    Governor Akpabio has constantly given opportunity to the growing entrepreneurs in the state to boost their capacity by sponsoring them to trade fairs and other exhibition fora, where they have been able to showcase their ingenuity and compete with their peers from other parts of the world.

     

    • Essien Ndueso

    Uyo, Akwa Ibom State

  • SOS to FG on Oyo-Ogbomoso road

    SOS to FG on Oyo-Ogbomoso road

    SIR: This piece seeks to direct the attention of the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan to the plight of motorists plying the above mentioned section of Ibadan-Ilorin Highway. As the major road that links northern Nigeria with the South-west, the volume of traffic is too heavy for the old road and since the works has been suspended on the newly constructed expressway, the agony of both travellers on the old road is better experienced than imagined.
    Due to the number of the articulated vehicles plying the road, with the heavy loads, the road has caved in many sections. For instance, bridges at Ile Abu, Elega/Asani have become death traps where many precious souls particularly, students, traders and drivers perish daily.
    Not only that, due to the bad portions on this road, which causes traffic hold up, the journey of two hours have become six to seven hours. It is undeniable that the federal government is doing its best in maintaining our infrastructural facilities. On-going work on Lagos-Ibadan expressway is highly commendable. However whatever gain made by motorists at Lagos-Ibadan expressway is lost on Oyo-Ogbomoso section of the road. Federal government equally deserves commendation for on-going asphalt overlaying of old Ogbomoso-Ilorin road within Ogbomoso Township.
    One expects our highly revered traditional rulers in the area, our political office holders and other eminent people to cry to the president, on this menace of a road. However, it appears our leaders have abdicated their obligations to their people.
    Nevertheless, I am using this medium to call on President Jonathan to come to the aid of the people in this axis and save them from agony and untimely death by paying the construction company handling the new road project and order immediate repair of the old road as a temporary measure to avoid further carnage on this road.

    • Adewuyi Adegbite,
    Apake, Ogbomoso.