The Nation Newspaper

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  • Oke berates Mimiko over education crisis

    The Olusola Oke Campaign Organisation [OOCO] has berated the Ondo State government for the collapse in the education sector of the state.

    A statement by the Deputy Director of the Organisation, Rotimi Ogunleye, described as an unpardonable failure the situation where all the tertiary institutions in the state have been shut down due to government’s insensitivity and high handedness.

    Oke who is the governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the state also carpeted the government over the refusal to pay secondary school teachers the 27.5% professional allowance it promised them two years ago.

    “It is sad that a government which calls itself a caring heart has unleashed draconian regime and outright terrorism on the workers of the state- owned Adekunle Ajasin University and the Rufus Giwa Polytechnic.

    “Today, over 3,000 staff of the institutions are on strike while over 8,000 students of the two institutions are left wandering about.”

     

     

     

  • Cartoon – Divided of Democracy

    Cartoon – Divided of Democracy

  • Why North is re-opening on-shore/off-shore issue

    Why North is re-opening on-shore/off-shore issue

    • Says it’s far from being settled

     

    The on-shore/off-shore oil dichotomy is far from being settled, regardless of the Supreme Court’s pronouncement on it, Governor Babangida Aliyu of Niger State, has said.

    Aliyu, who doubles as Chairman of the Northern Governors Forum (NGF), insists that the Federal Government’s position that the matter remains closed on account of the apex court’s ruling, is also unconvincing.

    “If it had been settled why are some people talking about it?” he wondered in an interview with The Nation on Sunday in Lagos.

    He said while the North aligns itself with the centre in putting in place some corrective measures in the Niger Delta in view of the problems associated with oil exploration, it does not regard the on-shore/off-shore issue as part of those corrective measures.

    He said: “You have a Ministry of Niger-Delta, you have NDDC, derivation, then this little one that other people, as part of the citizenship of a country should be enjoying, they have not been enjoying.

    “Sometime people can make something out of nothing, so that you can come back to negotiate. That is the argument. If the federal government says it is a settled matter, but we are discussing it so that people can understand. It was a sacrifice that was made then to solve some problems. But there is still room for discussions.”

    The governor also spoke on the issue of indigenes and non-indigenes, saying it should be addressed once and for all during the proposed constitution review especially in view of the security problem it has created in the country.

    “It is not nice when a person who has been born in a place and his parents have stayed there for so long to be regarded as a non-indigene. That creates its own security problem, not to mention the psychological trauma that such a family maybe suffering,” he said.

    Besides, he wants the revenue sharing formula and the problem of insecurity reviewed.

    He does not understand why the Federal Government should be taking 52 per cent of the nation’s revenue.

     

     

     

  • ACN leaders urge Mimiko on peaceful poll

    ACN leaders urge Mimiko on peaceful poll

    Three leaders of Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) in Ondo State at the weekend urged Governor Olusegun Mimiko to allow peaceful transition in the state. According to them, the citizenry is fed up with the Labour Party [LP] administration.

    The trio, former Commissioner for Natural Resources, Mr. Solagbade Amodeni, Deputy Director, Aketi Campaign Organisation for Ondo Central, Mr. Ade Adetimehin and Director Campaign/Election, Aketi Campaign Organisation, for Ondo East/West Federal Constituency, Mrs. Lola Fagbemi spoke in separate interviews with The Nation on Sunday.

    They maintained that Mimiko has failed the people and should concede his position to ACN’s candidate, Mr Rotimi Akeredolu [SAN].

    Amodeni said he was part of the cabinet that awarded the contract for the dualisation of Ondo township road three years ago, lamenting that till now, the work is less than 15 percent level of construction.

    According to him, “I was in the state General Hospital in Ondo about two weeks ago, what I found was suicidal, patients were lying on bare floor.

    “It would have been better for Mimiko to have contested for local government chairman, rather than being a governor. When I was a local government chairman, about 12 years ago, I built many markets and ultra-modern motor parks, the project the LP government is doing now with pride.

    “On civil service, Mimiko purportedly approved N22,000 minimum wage which is actually N16,000 and he pays them with the right hand and takes it back with the left through various taxes.

    “Akeredolu came with sincerity of purpose. He has promised to provide 30,000 jobs in the first 100 days in office. We know him as a man of his words”.

    Amodeni hailed the total integration of Yoruba race and specifically appraised the comments of the ACN National Leader, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu that refinery would be built in Ondo State as an oil producing state.

    The former Commissioner said this development would assist in generating mass employment and establishment of more industries.

    He described the choice of Akeredolu as God-ordained, saying God himself picked the former NBA President and not ACN or its leadership.

    Also, Adetimehin said Mimiko should start packing his loads, stressing that the citizenry has had enough of his visionless government.

    He disclosed that for the past four months, the party has embarked on ward to ward visitation, saying “the effect of the visitation is what people witnessed at Ondo Redemption Rally”.

    Adetimehin, who is also the State Treasurer of the party, said Mimiko’s administration has failed in all aspects of life, especially in employment generation, bad infrastructures and lack of empowerment in spite of huge resources accruable to the state.

    Mrs. Fagbemi, who is an indigene of Ondo, said Mimiko has battered the image of Ondo indigenes with his deceitful nature, stressing that he betrayed ACN leader, Asiwaju Tinubu, the late Adebayo Adefarati, Chief Olusegun Agagu and others.

    She enjoined the citizenry to use their votes to send him away from Alagbaka Government House on October 20.

  • Mimiko grossly incompetent – Ex-aide

    Mimiko grossly incompetent – Ex-aide

    A former aide of Governor Olusegun Mimiko of Ondo State has described the Labour Party (LP) gubernatorial hopeful as a grossly incompetent administrator who should not be in the race for a second term.

    Mr. Tunde Imolehin, leader of the Sunshine Mandate Forum and now a chieftain of the Action Congress of Nigeria, was until recently a very close associate of the Ondo governor.

    While explaining why he dumped the governor to pitch his tent with the opposition ahead of the October 20 governorship election, Imolehin said Mimiko as an incompetent administrator has only succeeded in wasting the time and resources of Ondo people in the last three and a half years.

    “There is no way anybody who is aware of Mimiko’s administrative style will pray for him to govern Ondo State again. Here is a man who lacks the ability to recognise competence and encourage competent people.

    “He would rather promote incompetence as long as he stands to benefit from such action politicaly. All his actions and inactions are determined by politics. He gives very little thoughts to competent people.

    “His crafty nature is one other reason why he cannot work with competent and patriotic people. He is too unreliable to work with. Given the calibre of people in the state, he will always find it difficult politically with his style,” he said.

    Imolehin, who said he is highly optimistic that Rotimi Akeredolu, the ACN candidate, will win the governorship election, described the three and a half years of Mimiko’s reign as a waste.

    “We expected him to achieve so much given the support and acceptance he got when he came in. With the resources of the state and the people’s readiness for change, much was expected from  him but he failed.

    His approach to governance is bad. He sees himself as the superior one leading many inferior people. He must always be right. His opinions are the only good ones. Others carry no weight. These were the problems with him,” he added.

    Imolehin then urged the people of the state to reject Mimiko and cast their votes for Akeredolu and the ACN on October 20. He called on the people to support the party’s agenda aimed at uniting the entire Southwest socio-political zone.

    The frontline envoronmentalist said he is woring tirelessly with others to spread the manifestoes of the party across the state because of his belief that with such good programmes spelt out, ACN is the party of the people.

    “All we need to do is take the good message to the people and they will gladly accept to vote for the ACN. The plans of the party for Ondo State and the Southwest as a whole is the best you can find anywhere,” he said.

  • FG orders FERMA to fill potholes by December

    The Presidency has directed the Federal Roads Maintenance Agency (FERMA) to get rid of potholes on federal roads before December.

    The zonal coordinator South – South Zone 11 of FERMA, Engr. Jimoh Kajogbola, disclosed this at the weekend while flagging-off newly- awarded contracts for road maintenance in the zone at Illah, Delta State along the Benin-Asaba-Onitsha dual carriage way.

    He said maintenance of roads that were not under contract by the Federal Ministry of Works (Highways Department) would be executed through contracts and direct labour by the end of November.

    FERMA Executive Director in charge of Road Maintenance Services, Alhaji Garuba Mubi, said the agency has awarded over 50 major road contracts and no fewer than one hundred emergency road contracts to ensure that the December deadline given by the Presidency is met.

    According to him: “We are going for operation zero potholes and that will engage virtually the whole management. All of us will be involved; we are also going to be part of inspection of the contracts executed all over the nation up to December, 2012.

    “We are going to ensure that the contractors are done according to FERMA specifications and on schedule.”

    He added: “We are also going to ensure that the potholes are minimised or new zero before December 2012.

    “What we are begging essentially is for the National Assembly to graciously support Mr. President and consider the case of road maintenance and the time of work with the budget up to March next year”.

    He listed the contracts in the South-South Zone 11 made up of Edo, Delta and Ondo states to include: General repairs and pavement strengthening of the Benin – Shagamu (Ofusu – Ajabandele dual carriageway) awarded to Messers Sunny Bounce Resources; General maintenance repairs and selected shoulder reinstatement along Benin- Ekpoma – Auchi Road awarded to Messers Ffordiac and Pavement strengthening and shoulder reinstatement along Ewu- Uromi- Agbor Road, awarded to Messers ARC Marine & Civil Eng Ltd, among others.

  • Ondo Mega rally: Court remands five ACN members.

    The Chief Magistrate Court sitting in Akure has ordered five Action Congress of Nigeria [ACN] supporters in Ondo State to be remanded in prison custody. They were arrested from different locations after ACN rally in Ondo, the home town of Governor Olusegun Mimiko and accused of conduct likely to breach peace and assault.

    The six accused, Jimoh Adebiyi, Ojo Gbenga, Joseph Ogah, Samson Otugbo and Oyewole Gabriel, however, denied the allegation. Applying for the bail of the accused, Akure lawyer and right activist, Titiloye Charles who led the ACN legal team urged the court to take judicial notice of the old age of the 4th and 5th accused persons who are 66 and 67 years old.

    He said they could not have conducted themselves in riotous manner and presumes the accused person innocent pending trial.

    The Attorney General of Ondo State, Eyitayo Jegede represented by Taiwo Olubodun took over the case and opposed the bail application. The presiding Magistrate F. A. Akintoye ordered the accused to be remanded in prison till 0ctober 18. Earlier, there was a mild drama in court when a Press Officer [PO] from the Governor’s Office started using camera to film Charles and his clients. The lawyer demanded to know why camera was deployed to court and asked whether it was to intimidate lawyers and the judiciary.

    The PO apologized and stopped the video coverage of court proceedings. He claimed to be from the office of the Governor. Lawyers present in the court decried the judicial intimidation taking place in the state.

     

  • PDP members defect to ACN

    Hundreds of members of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Ikosi-Ejirin Local Council Development Area(LCDA) in Lagos state have joined the ruling Action Congress of Nigeria(ACN).

    The decampees were led by Mr. Idowu Ogundare at a rally which coincided with ACN meeting in Agbowa.

    Ogundare said they left the PDP because of the developmental efforts of the Executive Chairman of Ikosi-Ejirin LCDA, Prince Segun Adetola, and Governor Raji Fashola.

    Adetola, he said, has initiated several progressive moves such as distribution of 100 free GCE forms, construction of a block of six classrooms with head teacher’s office and provision of benches, tables and chairs in schools across the LCDA.

  • Biafra: More knocks for Achebe

    Biafra: More knocks for Achebe

    -Blame Ojukwu too, he rejected a food window offer- Fani Kayode

    Professor Chinua Achebe’s new book, There Was a Country, has continued to attract passionate reactions from critics and admirers across the country. The renowned writer had alleged in the book that blockade policy of the General Yakubu Gowan-led military government, which prosecuted the civil war against Biafra amounted to genocide.

    Condemning the allegation as unfortunate, the National Secretary of the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), Alhaji Buba Galadima, said, “His views that Gowon and indeed the Federal Government committed genocide during the civil war is not correct; on the contrary, I believe the government was magnanimous in the way and manner it prosecuted the war.”

    Asked to expatiate on this assertion, Galadima noted, “After the war ended, Gowon made a declaration of no victor no vanquished. He also declared a policy of the 3Rs, which meant reconciliation, rehabilitation and reconstruction. That policy, to my mind, was highly successful.”

    Galadima therefore, accused Achebe, of ethnic partisanship. “Would he (Achebe) have done differently if he found himself on the other side,” he asked, adding, “Governments in other countries do worse things during war times. We need to rise above ethnic partisanship and not raise unnecessary tension in the polity,” he said.

    But Professor Akachi Adimora Ezeigbo of the department of English, University of Lagos, who has done extensive research on the Nigerian-Biafran civil war, said emphatically that Achebe said the truth. The author of Roses and Bullet, a novel set during the civil war said, “I was a young girl when that war was fought. And what he (Achebe) reported there is the truth. Biafra as it was called at that time was completely blockaded. So, there was no way food was coming in. And even those who tried to bring food in through the air, Nigerian planes were shooting down the planes and they tried to block them from coming in. So, it was, of course, a deliberate attempt to starve the people. I guess they did that because they wanted the war to end quickly. But, it was what was done,” she said.

    Ezigbo also said, “I know Achebe’s comment is very painful. But, one thing I know is that when people write about history, they try to tell the truth or what they consider to be the truth. So, he is looking at it from that perspective.”

    Former Aviation Minister, Mr. Femi Fani Kayode, agreed that the issue of starvation in Biafra, which led to the unfortunate death of millions of children, women and aged civilians, was a historical fact. “Let us be honest about this,” he said, “the policy of blockade led to death of children, women and the aged. If you merge the starvation to the pogrom of Igbos in the North before the war, only few can fault the allegation. So there is no doubt that there was an element of genocide. It is a fact, it is on record.

    “But there is more to it and this is where I will fault Achebe. It is wrong for him to blame only Gowan and Chief Obafemi Awolowo for the starvation of innocent civilians during the war. Achebe should have recorded that Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu contributed to that because the Federal Government then made a proposal to open a food window so as to save civilians, but Ojukwu rejected it. Ojukwu insisted that food can only be sent to Biafra with night flights so Nigerian government, fearing that he wanted to use that medium to acquire weapons, rejected that offer. Unfortunately, Ojukwu, not considering his people, rejected FG’s proposal and only used the pathetic pictures of starving Biafran soldiers as propaganda weapon, as capturedin Ralph Uwechue’s book , Reflections on Nigerian Civil War,” he said.

  • N141b debt: Reps can’t use AMCON to settle scores, says Chike-Obi

    N141b debt: Reps can’t use AMCON to settle scores, says Chike-Obi

    •‘Settlement in order’

    THE Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of Asset Management Company of Nigeria (AMCON), Mr. Mustafa Chike-Obi, has given the process leading to the transfer of N141 billion assets to the organisation by top businessman, Mr. Femi Otedola, a clean bill of health.

    The deal has come under attack from a section of the public and the House of Representatives which felt it was shrouded in secrecy.

    The Central Bank (CBN) had listed Otedola among 419 individuals, company directors/shareholders and 113 organisations barred from receiving loans from banks until they clear the amounts currently standing against their names.

    The decision, the CBN said, was aimed at “strengthening financial stability and entrenching a culture of financial discipline.”

    Speaking exclusively to The Nation on Sunday, Chike-Obi said the transfer of Otedola’s assets followed due process and was not influenced in any way as being suggested in some quarters.

    The House of Representatives had, in a statement last Monday by the Chairman of its Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Alhaji Zakary Mohammed, said it would demand details of the transaction between AMCON and Otedola because, as he put it, it was done with ‘confidentiality and secrecy’.

    But the AMCON boss denied the insinuation.

    He said: “We have been negotiating with him in the last six months. There is a process. We had to analyse his assets, value the assets, make proposals and counterproposals, go to the exco and to the board. We needed to go through all of that and we did that for six months.”

    The operation of the organisation, he said, is guided by Sections 63 and 14 of the AMCON Act.

    “Section 63 says: ‘AMCON may carry out all its functions without the approval or permission of any other authority.’ It is in the Act. So Zakary Mohammed is incorrect,” Chike-Obi emphasised.

    He added: “We have 12, 000 loans and we are resolving about five loans a day. If I had to seek the permission of the House of Assembly to restructure loans, then I cannot do my work.”

    Besides, he said the agency is short-staffed.

    “We don’t have enough staff to resolve even five loans a day. The whole of the staff put together are 360. If they had to review loans, then they would have no other work to do.

    “It is illegal because Section 63 of AMCON expressly tells us that we should not ask permission from any other authority and Section 14 says the same thing. So, I don’t know what Zakary Mohammed means.”

    Chike-Obi said the Committee Chairman probably read newspaper headlines and hurriedly jumped into conclusion.

    “Negotiations are conducted between two parties. That’s what we call bilateral negotiations. I don’t have to tell anybody I met Arik today or I met Arik yesterday or I’ll meet with Arik tomorrow. Does it make sense to you that I should negotiate with somebody and before we have even agreed in resolving the issues, I should go and announce to the world?”

    Miffed by insinuations that the transaction was shrouded in secrecy, he raised several posers.

    “Do you know who is on my board? You have Deputy Governor of the CBN, Managing Director of the Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation, Director General, Securities and Exchange Commission. You think that after they approve something, it’s secret? They are all representing everybody in the country. So, where is the secrecy there when we took it to the board? If you take something to a board like that how can it be secret?”

    He dismissed as an insult on the intelligence and integrity of the AMCON board members, the statement that the transaction was probably influenced one way or the other by them.

    He declared: “I’ve restructured over 500 loans, including Arik, Aero Contractors, MRS. These are big companies. Why did Zakary Mohammed not care about the 500 loans I have restructured?”

    “We restructured Arik’s debts a year and half ago. Nobody asked us about that. The other 500 loans we restructured nobody told us it was done in secrecy,” he noted.

    AMCON, he stressed, cannot be drawn into any political intrigues by any individual or group. “If he (Zakary Mohammed) wants to fight Femi Otedola, let him fight Femi Otedola. He cannot use me or AMCON. If Zakary Mohammed had said MD AMCON, we read in the papers that you have done this and that, can you come and share with us the process that led to the recovery of these assets? I would gladly oblige him. But he just saw the headlines and went ahead to form an opinion.”