The Nation Newspaper

Category: Commentaries

  • From the cell phone

    For Olatunji Dare

    If the detractors of the government’s transformation agenda should realise what nationhood entails and that it is not just for President Jonathan. But for the generality of all Nigerians, they would desist from all forms of mischief. Thanks Mr Dare on your “a president, endless distractions” From Sgt Emmanuel Joshua.

    It is strange, yet unquestionably a fact that injustice and dishonesty on the part of our “leaders” are responsible for all the distractions so far. If our leaders starts to be truthful on all matters and stop presenting fictions as facts, the country will be better for it. The president’s judgment at any point in time should be controlled by duteous devotion to the needs and aspirations of Nigerians. From Adegoke O. O, Ikhin, Edo State.

    Because GEJ is an academician, I hope he will readily translate this Yoruba saying in respect of his transformation agenda: if it takes a man 10 years to prepare for madness, for how long will he go insane? Fellow Nigerians, 2015 will decide. From Tunde Opada. No 2 Iye Road, Eruku. Kwara State.

    Well I don’t have much to say but you should continue your good words of advise to all Nigerians both home and abroad! Happy new year. Anonymous.

    I read your piece, A President’s endless distraction I concluded that you are one of those sycophants Presidential aides. Why do you try to hold brief for the president in regard of the poster pasted on his behalf. If actually he knows nothing about the poster, why can’t he summon the courage to fish out those behind such act? Are you trying to pretend as if you do not know that your boss is nursing second term ambition? Lets call a spade a spade and stop seeking relevance sycophant. From Jonathan, Lagos.

    Agenda-focus does not show as having germinated any clear fruit. Let us, however, and despite the above, as well as the distraction lend our support to Mr President since he said things will be accelerated and move fast, I believe, development-wise, this year, 2013. Enough of distractions! From Lanre Oseni.

    I am amused by Minister of Agriculture’s N60b GSM for rural farmers when 90 per cent of rural dwellers don’t have GSM network? Anonymous.

    I disagree with your article on the “President’s endless distractions”. Constructive criticism is a beauty of democracy. It is a clarion and wake-up call for him to adjust for the overall interest of the country. He is not being distracted but he showed put his thinking cap on and face the numerous challenges facing the nation. I don’t want to believe that you have been compromised as you are known as an intellectual of high repute. From A. Aiyeoribe. Ilorin.

    I am interested, do you have your write ups compiled in book form? I am interested. From Yomi

    For Segun Gbadegesin

    What is so special in this minister? That is Mrs Madueke, and what is so unspecial about Barth Nnaji? It’s the snow white set of teeth and angel face. Shikena. From Ch. Ayodele- Okeluse

    Let all of us give personal attention to the family unit, its values, and ethics, the community and the nation would take care of itself. Let us return to the basics. From Biyi Adesanya, 1, Azeez Aina Street Ibadan.

    There is no doubting the fact that human, moral, ethical development are necessary for real education that will be “developmental” for self and societal growth. In turn, the self, community, government and private sector also need to give support for adventurists of total education. That way, the society at large will get back rewards of real and total education. From Lanre Oseni.

    The government of each state much stand for good education . Anonymous.

    I share your concern for education for purposeful development and management of resources, such being anchored on manpower utilisation, welfare and benefits. The tertiary institutions would not justify their costs, except we have paradigm shift of purpose, curriculum and on public-private funding and management. The gap between these institutions and the social-economy could be bridged if the mandate of these institutions are reappraised to warrant that they are economically accountable and sustainable. The requirement of subsidy would not absolve their accountability for effective and efficient utilisation of resources trusted upon them. This applies to the government’s own institutions in particular. Education provided should meet the requirement of the community, as representing the nation. Curriculum would include citizenship education, provide social integration and facilitate employment. The universities must undertake investment projects that would attract commercial partnership and be managed transparently with the best research, technology choice and innovations. We would love to read more from you. From Engr. A. I. Adewunmi.

    GEJ is the most civilised, most transparent, most effective and educated Nigerian President.

    For Gbenga Omotoso

    Obasanjo can do well to please relax. We know our statesmen and women by their antecedent, not noise makers. Your column is a must read for me any day. From Clement Mmonu ( Port Harcourt ) RS

    Mr Fix It had been appointed as NPA chairman and also struggling to be elected as BoT chairman. This is a man who was a minister of Works during Obasanjo’s era could not fix Ore- Shagamu Road. He has been fixed politically both at home and outside. He can only be awarded best loser of the year. For Obasanjo, what does he stand to gain for contradicting himself on Boko Haram issues. It’s like, to him contradiction is a fun because he accused the President of not using his style in Odi of the sect and turned asked the President to talk to Boko Haram. He funded the failed third term and said if he had wanted it he would have gotten it. What a joke. He should be awarded with honourary degree in controversy. From Hamza Ozi Momoh Dockyard Apapa Lagos.

    Fair enough, you mentioned governor of the year. Why can’t Nigerian journalists get into the habit of nominating, formally, annually and transparently/credibly, best performing governor contest? From Dr. Fred Amadi, Port Harcourt

    Re: “Honours 2012”. For that brilliant article, I hereby dub you “Journalist of the Year”. Anonymous

    Gbenga, if you had thoroughly revised your Editorial Notebook, you would have seen a paragraph on the reformers Inspector General of Police. Mr Mohammed Abubakar. For sweeping aside illicit police tax/road blocks. Don’t you think he merits a prestigeous award? Be fair. From Segun Makurdi.

    “Honours 2012” can also be awarded Editorial of the year. It was a flashback of the drama that made Year 2012 unforgettable. May your ink never see vapour. From Ifeanyi Louis, Abuja.

    To be frank, Owelle Rochas Okorocha deserves the award. Thanks to the awardee just go to Imo and see for yourself I dey envy the. Anonymous

    Please don’t forget the ‘oil found in Mafoluku, Oshodi’, Lagos in the 80s as reported by Concord. I expect you to visit Mafoluku to check the production level before giving your award to Ilorin. From Ade

    In my opinion, all your awards for the awardees were faultless. However, year 2012 was more of combat of ills than admiration of achievements. Since Mr President had pledged that the current year-2013, would be speedy of growth, let us cooperate with and support him. From Lanre Oseni.

    Thanks for your “Honors 2012” Editorial Notebook. The bit on flour is misleading. Flour bread is the common phrase while I think you wanted to refer to wheat flour as against cassava flour. Abroad, you have various kinds of bread’ flours’ eg rye(bitter), corn ( popular in South America and East Africa)etc. The interesting thing though is consumers are allowed to make their choice as all are produced and allowed to find their place in the market. From Felix Dokpesi.

  • Nigeria’s centenary and poor reading of history

    Nigeria’s centenary and poor reading of history

    Like everything else about Nigeria, government policies and programmes are designed usually by a brain trust or snickering policy wonks and either rammed down the throats of the people or railroaded through a squirming but ultimately conniving legislature. Fuel subsidy removal policy, renaming of universities, toll gate erection or destruction, Malian adventure, and now, a most inconceivable centenary project, are just a few bewildering examples. Last year, during his visit to Trinidad and Tobago to attend that Caribbean country’s Emancipation Day celebrations, President Goodluck Jonathan disclosed that Nigeria would be marking its centenary. It is not certain where the idea came from, considering that that anniversary, with its deprecatory Lugardian connotation, had never really been marked with anything resembling pomp and circumstance.

    But having announced it, and even invited his host, Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar of Trinidad and Tobago, to the celebration, it became an imperative for Jonathan and his unwilling countrymen to remember Lord Lugard’s amalgamation feat in a grand manner. And with that self-abasing decision, the semantic line between Nigeria’s amalgamation and Trinidad’s emancipation became blurred. After all, they both end in ion, and they are first and foremost objects for national mafficking. That one is pejorative and the other ennobling was inconsequential to the decision.

    Only three days ago, during a church service to mark the Armed Forces Remembrance Day, Jonathan was still bemoaning his countrymen’s misreading of Nigerian history simply because critics spoke pessimistically and derisively of Nigerian leaders. A few days after the president delivered his misplaced homily on age and divorce, the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Senator Anyim Pius Anyim, was in Lagos reiterating the preparedness of the government to inspire the celebration of the 1914 amalgamation, a date when Lugard, without consulting the ‘natives’, forcibly merged the Northern and Southern protectorates. But afraid to be tagged a spendthrift government, especially at a time of mounting economic turmoil and spiraling debts, Anyim says the celebration will be private sector-driven.

    But even if the money can be found at no cost to the country, what of the idea behind the celebration itself? Does it make sense? Is it ennobling to celebrate a colonial idea whose consequences have proved so denigrating and so troubling? If we embrace amalgamation and elevate it unquestioningly as Jonathan’s government is doing with a year-long celebration, why shouldn’t we also celebrate the Berlin Conference (Congo Conference) of 1884-1885? It is truly shocking that the Jonathan government shows a very poor understanding of Nigerian history. Not only does it fail to appreciate great historical events that have shaped the country and its people for ill or for good, it also woefully fails to understand its many nuances, its many subtle but cataclysmic twists and turns. No one has business presiding over the affairs of Nigeria who doesn’t know the country, its past, its cultures, and its hopes.

    Trinidad and Tobago quite sensibly celebrates Emancipation Day. If we go ahead to celebrate amalgamation, we would be incontestably foolish. If the Jonathan government needs a national celebratory distraction, it should ask historians to fetch one or even a dozen for it. Surely, our historians can find a great, noble, uniting and inspiring event in our history around which our pride could coalesce. We hope this obstinate government is not too proud to back down from subjecting us to international ridicule, ridicule so deep and profound that it gives the unsavoury impression Nigerians never went to school, and didn’t study history; or that if they did, they were too dimwitted to gain profitable knowledge.

     

     

     

  • The military and their legacies

    The military and their legacies

    SIR: As we celebrate our fallen heroes this week, one area often neglected by most Nigerians is the contributions of our military towards the development of our nation. This is because military rule has always been associated with evils like corruption, nepotism,and other evils. But we also forget that they contributed a great deal to some of the progress that we have experienced as a nation in the last 52 years.

    The most important contribution of the military to our nation is keeping us united as one country. The military fought a 30-month civil war which consumed several of it’s brightest minds like Majors Kaduna Nzeogwu,Emmanuel Ifeajuna and Colonel Victor Banjo to mention a few. If the politicians were the ones that were in power at that time,I am sure that they would have conducted referendum in the various regions and there would be no Nigeria today.

    Most of the infrastructure we have in our country today were built by the military. The military also built several roads and bridges which dot the nook and cranny of the state. Let us not forget that Abuja as a city was built by the military. They also built several airports and seaports that we have in our country today.

    In the education sector,the military built several Unity Schools in various states of the federation. They also built several universities thereby enhancing the availability of manpower to aid us in our drive towards industrial and technological greatness.

    Most of the power stations through which electricity is provided to most Nigerians were built by the military. In fact,the regime of General Muhammadu Buhari almost solved the problem of erratic power supply in our country before it was overthrown. The failure of successive administrations to make critical investments in that sector has left us where we are today.

    All our refineries were built by the military and they were in good working condition. Since 1999 till now our politicians have not succeeded in building a single refinery instead they increase the pump price of fuel every year and yet there is disparity in prices among the various states of the federation.

    Nigeria experienced her greatest sporting glory under military rule. The Super Eagles won the African Cup of Nations in 1994, Gold in men football in Atlanta 1996; the Golden Eaglets won the U-17 World Cup in 1985, Nigeria’s first Gold medalist,Chioma Ajunwa (1996) among many other sporting victories.

    I am not advocating a return to military rule but it is high time our politicians stop blaming the military for our woes 14 years into our democratic voyage. Let them instead concentrate on how to take us to the promise land.

     

    • Peter Ovie Akus

    University of Port Harcourt, Rivers State

  • Nigeria too old to divorce?

    Nigeria too old to divorce?

    There seems to be no end to President Goodluck Jonathan’s inundating sermons. Every time he goes to a church, the pastors have formed a habit of giving him the opportunity to talk to the congregation on anything that catches his fancy. And quite some talk he does, sometimes as candid and esoteric as ever. It was on one such pulpit sometime ago that he made his famous Pharaohnic comparison, one that threw the entire country into dialectical uproar. And since one does not necessarily have to be anointed to mount any pulpit these days, it has become standard practice for top government officials to assail the country with exegetic flourish, with pastors having found a constructive corollary to permit secular authorities access.

    It was also on another pulpit that the president spoke glowingly of the virtue of caution, or what he inelegantly described as slow governance. But every time he spoke out of turn, and the country seethed in anguish or quaked with consternation, the president became angry and his aides bespattered us with furious denunciations. Well, Hardball will anger them one more time.

    On Sunday, and on another pulpit, the president heaved a fresh supply of his politico-religious homilies at us. This time, it was about the correlation between age and divorce. Speaking during the Armed Forces Remembrance Day inter-denominational service at the National Ecumenical Centre, Abuja, the president said: “In 2014, we are going to celebrate our centenary; our 100 years of existence. You cannot stay in a marriage for 100 years and say that is the time you will divorce. If there are issues that we have been managing, we will continue to manage them. We will not talk about separation.” President Jonathan assumed a marriage, let alone a turbulent one, could last for 100 years. But the president was simply being dramatic and hyperbolic to catch our attention. Not only is it unlikely for any modern marriage to last so long, given the sheer number of years involved, it is a bit of a stretch to expect that bitter and disgruntled partners would resign themselves in their dotage to unnatural tastes and frustrations. Moreover, judging from the president’s statement, it does seem we must prepare ourselves for a very grand centenary, one obviously based on appalling superfluities.

    But the president wasn’t through with his homilies. Apart from strangely and implausibly basing what he described as Nigeria’s greatness on its population and diversity, he also inspiringly declared: “Nigeria will not disintegrate. Anybody who is doing any research on sociology, psychology or political science can do his work, but Nigeria will remain one.” A researcher himself, it is indeed puzzling that the president seemed to think Nigeria’s fortunes were antithetical to scientific inquiry. Anyone interested could do research to any level, the president seemed to say, obviously in response to sceptics’ prediction of Nigeria’s breakup, but it would have little or no bearing on the country’s troubled future.

    The pulpits on which President Jonathan has declaimed so fervently and ponderously in the past two years or so have enabled us interesting peeks into the president’s psychoanalytical profile. We will get more such peeks in the coming months, for the 2015 elections are still far away. At least for now, it must be reassuring to the president and his aides that economic, political and socio-cultural factors have no effect on Nigeria’s unity, contrary to what science tells us, and what history says. The president believes Nigeria’s unity depends on its age and the forced marriage of its peoples. With such strange, unscientific beliefs, it is not surprising that he and his men have been quite unable to grapple scientifically with the real developmental challenges fracturing the country so badly down the middle.

     

  • Does Jonathan have a credibility gap?

    Does Jonathan have a credibility gap?

    SIR: President Goodluck Jonathan has been keeping people guessing on whether he will run for president in 2015. Guessing? Anyway, just into the new year, campaign posters for Jonathan’s presidency in 2015 started spreading in the streets of Abuja. But the president has denied having anything to do with the posters. His Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Dr Reuben Abati said those who were behind the posters didn’t seek the president’s permission. His words:‘Those pasting the posters are trying to express their own view. The president had stated that he will talk about the presidency from 2014. Those doing these do not have the consent of the president. What is most important now is for the president to deliver on his electioneering promise to Nigerians and not to embark on the pasting of posters. It has not come from the president. Nigerians should take the president for his word and ignore any other information to the contrary.”

    But many think otherwise. They believe he must have had a hand in those posters, in fact that the whole thing was Jonathan. Why is it so hard to believe the president? If people cannot take the president for his word, does it mean they think he has a credibility gap?

    Looking back now, there are many things Jonathan said to Nigerians, many promises he made to get their votes, which today he has denied ever saying.

    I might not have bothered if Jonathan had a credibility gap or not until I heard he said that there has been an improvement in power supply¯which should be celebrated. Jonathan’s government said Nigeria’s power generation had reached an all-time high of 4,502 megawatts, up from 4,349.7MW. He also boasted that with his administration Nigerians will no longer be dependent on generators

    I have not heard anything more galling. As I typed this piece I was sweating, as my generating set had used up all the fuel. And I did not want to add any more fuel into it until the next day because if I opened the doors I might let in mosquitoes. It was our light off. We usually had two days on, and one day off. This arrangement has been on for about two years now. The last time we had an improvement was during the time of Prof Barth Nnaji as power minister. Now, even on the days we are to have light, in 24 hours it is rare to have two hours of light uninterrupted.

    It was the same Jonathan who during a Presidential media chat last November said the combined average power generation capacity from all the power plants in the country had moved from less than 3,000 MW to above 5,000 MW. But thankfully the misinformation was immediately refuted by the Transmission Company of Nigeria, TCN, which said Nigeria has never reached a peak of 5,000 MW.

    Credibility confers on a leader moral garland. If a leader has lost their credibility they become like dry wood, dry leaves in the harmattan, there is no life in their leadership, their legacy if any soon easily blown away. A leader without credibility is not doing term, but doing time; credibility gives a leader freedom to lead, while the lack thereof makes the leader a prisoner. Credibility is the most important aspect of effective leadership. Leaders without credibility are at best waiting on time, they will still be remembered no doubt, but only as blotches in the delicate canvas of history.

     

    • Dr Cosmas Odoemena,

    Lagos.

  • Northern governors and street begging

    Northern governors and street begging

    SIR: Street begging is a culture that has long been driven by poverty,religious and ethnic diversity complication. The major players in the demaning culture are the disable and their destitute families (able and disabled). This street begging not only constitute nuisance to the society,it is also taking its toll on the lives of teenagers who either act as guides for beggars or even engage in the act of begging themselves. Many of them are force to sacrifice their education through this trade and with their parent support they end up as beggars.

    Recent statistics released by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), shows that over 9.5 million Nigerian children of school age are not in school with about nine million of such hapless childrens are from the northern Nigeria.

    The region covers more than half of Nigeria. It is also a region with vast agricultural potentials as variety of tropical agricultural system is widely practiced there leading to mass cultivation of food and cash crops. This also a region where a lot of mineral resources are found in commercial quantities.

    However,a puzzling facthing of this region is the menace of child street begging which is pervasive especially in the core northern states of Kano, Jigawa, Borno,Yobe, Katsina, Sokoto, Zamfara, Bauchi, Gombe, Kaduna and Adamawa.

    Whichever school of thought one belongs to, it is pertinent to draw the attentions of political leaders, traditional rulers and religious leaders in the northern Nigeria to this untoward social behavior, and the need to put a stop to this practice. It is unfortunate that at this age and time when children should be in school or doing something to keep body and soul together are left to roam about the street all in the name of begging. This urgly trend has it own negative consequences which include, armed robbery, violence, kidnapping, 419 and internet scam.

    A stitch in time saves nine!

     

    • John Akevi, Nitel Qtrs.

    Bauchi.

     

  • Suntai’s aides should borrow a leaf from Kogiala

    Suntai’s aides should borrow a leaf from Kogiala

    Hon. Victor Bala Kona, Taraba State Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) chairman, has offered a truly disingenuous explanation for the long absence from office of Governor Danbaba Suntai. According to the party chieftain, the state government had been compelled to enforce extra security measures around the hospitalised governor, who was severely injured in a plane crash last October, to prevent his enemies from harming him. How that explanation answers the allegation that the governor had stayed away from office for too long is not clear. But undeterred, Kona went on to allege that Senator Aishatu Alhassan and impeached Deputy Governor, Mr. Saleh Usman Danboyi, were determined to frustrate the governor’s return. Here again it is also not clear how they could do that, nor did Kona feel constrained to offer explanations. If certain people want to harm the governor, and others plan to frustrate his return, does it not make sense to simply ferry the governor back home post-haste, especially considering the state’s explanation that its number one citizen was now okay?

    Since early January, more speculations had surfaced concerning the governor’s declining health, with some even suggesting he was brain dead. Consequent upon those speculations, there were subterranean moves to declare him an invalid and to initiate constitutional processes for his removal. State officials have fought back with all sorts of manoeuvres ranging from production of hospital canteen photographs showing an expressionless Suntai carrying one of his twins while his wife and another visitor smiled broadly, to aides producing reports of state officials who they claimed had either visited the governor on hospital bed or spoken with him on telephone. The state Commissioner for Information, Mr. Emmanuel Bello, in fact claimed that Suntai spoke with some State Executive Council members on Christmas Day, while swearing that the governor’s recovery was “impressive.”

    There will be many more speculations about Suntai’s true health condition until he finally returns home. It is unlikely any amount of official accounts of the governor’s recuperation would be enough to satisfy curiosity both in the state and outside. In fact, with each passing week, the governor’s aides will be under pressure to concoct more astonishing stories from Germany where Suntai is reported to be hospitalised. After a while, however, the stories will become more and more unbelievable, as Kona’s funny explanation shows.

    It wouldn’t be out of place to offer Taraba the Kogi State example of coming clean on their governor’s true health condition. But perhaps Kogi was forward because its governor had suffered nothing more than a broken thigh bone when his convoy was involved in a road crash. Had Governor Idris Wada of Kogi been crushed in many parts of the body, maybe even Kogi State, as Enugu and Cross River States are showing with their ailing governors, would be inexplicably but predictably reticent and conspiratorial.

  • 2015: Let’s try collective presidency

    SIR: Nigeria is drifting in a Mali-Somalia anarchy direction.All of us should stop watching helplessly. Together, we the people must brainstorm and work for a more suitable, stable order for the benefit of all Nigerians and their descendants.

    Deliberate, constant inclusion of elected trusted leaders from all regions at the federal presidentail level is needed to achieve sustained rule of law for constructive, productive labour in Nigeria.

    Persisting with current winner-takes-all constitution is very dangerous from Nigeria’s past, current and future realities on ground.

    Any educated, gifted and competent Nigerian from anywhere should be seriously eligible for election as President in an affordable, credible, free and fair elections.

    We should consider the idea of a collective president elected on the same day by and from each zones of South-south, North-west, South-west, North-central, South-east and North-east zones in 2014 for 2015.

    The elected collective President from South-south will have the first shot for the first two years from May 2015 to May 2017. The position is then passed on every two years among the elected collective presidents from the six zones in a constitutionally pre-enacted order.

    Key ministerial portfolio assignments/reconfirmations for collective Presidents are done by the President for each two years in consultation with the Presidents.

    There shall be one term of 12 years only for each collective presidency just as new collective presidents are elected every 12 years.

    No one single measure can eliminate all of Nigeria’s operational deformities. This is only one of key solutions needed along with true federalism, much less corruption than now at all levels among others.

    If adopted and implemented, this change will ensure one highly respected, elected President from each of the six zones; it will reduce significantly fears of marginalization and domination for all Nigerians, enhance a feeling of actual joint ownership of Nigeria for constructive participation in nation building and give Nigerians and international investors stable atmosphere for orderly advancement at all levels.

    It will certainly save Nigerians from the destructive, proxy guerrilla wars by political power seekers and those seeking domination by force for Nigeria is blessed with considerable human and material resources.

    Our deformities need not be permanent. We can and we should move to perform much better than we currently do with the abundant God-given endowments at our disposal.

     

    • Dr Kayode Olamijulo

    Lagos

  • Rita Lori and Delta’s gift

    SIR: Frontline Itsekiri leader, Chief Rita Lori Ogbebor comes to me a good woman in every sense of the word.

    But sometimes last week when news that she rejected the Christmas gifts sent to her by the Delta State Government went viral on the internet and social media networks, I lost a bit of my respect for her. The following days when a snippet of her ‘rejection letter’ was published in some newspapers, I concluded that she was either on a quest for cheap popularity or on a mission to mudsling Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan, distract the government and create needless problems in the state.

    The Igba of Warri said she rejected the gifts not because the Governor had not performed, but because ‘she was unhappy with the way he had been running his administration’. If I may ask, since when did her happiness become a yard stick for measuring the governor’s performance? How does her personal opinion translate to that of the general public as regards the performance of the governor?

    She also said she rejected the governor’s gift because many communities in the state had not enjoyed the dividends of democracy. Nothing could be farther from the truth. I may not be a fan of Uduaghan’s style of governance but I certainly don’t agree that many communities in Delta State have not seen the dividends of democracy as she alleged. To appreciate how much the governor has done, I urge Ogbebor and other blinds critics to cast their minds back to the way things were before he came on board and they will see that we are definitely better off with him at the helms of affairs in the state.

    With the avalanche of projects such as road, schools and hospitals initiated and completed by this administration in virtually every part of the state, it is unfair to say that Dr. Uduaghan has not performed. Instead of undermining these achievements, what Ogbebor should have done is to encourage the governor and remind him that there are still many mountains to climb in terms of developments.

    The most disappointing thing about the Ogbebor’s rejection letter is the fact that she made a public show of it. If she had no sinister motives, she could have rejected the gifts silently without the media frenzy that accompanied it. If the government did not make news of sending gifts to her, she had no justification for circulating her rejection letter.

    • Oritsejolomi Ativie,

    Warri.

  • Governor Amosun, remember us too

    SIR: Governor of Ogun state, His Excellency Ibikunle Amosun was recently

    showered with praises by none other than former President Olusegun Obasanjo on his giant stride in infrastructural development in the state. That, despite the fact that both men are in opposing political camps goes to show the developmental stride of this administration is commendable and laudable.

    Be that as it may, the Ibikunle Amosun developmental programme to me is lopsided in the sense that, since inception, the government has not considered it necessary to embark on any developmental programme in MAKOGI/MAGADA/MAGBORO town of Obafemi Owode LGA despite the overwhelming vote the governor received from these communities.

    The people have endured so much difficulty and hardship in accessing the basic necessities of life in these communities. I want to implore the governor to explore the economic opportunities inherent in these communities by providing the basic social amenities moreso that most of us have transferred our tax payment to Ogun State while others are being encouraged to do same.

    • Anthony Ineh

    Makogi Town,

    Ogun State