The Nation Newspaper

Tag: 2015

  • New governance paradigm for 2015

    The unchangeable certainty is that nothing is certain or unchangeable —John F. Kennedy, former President of the USA.

    Those are words on marble and their timelines or relevance to our present confused polity is most obvious in the conflicting opinions we are currently having over the proposed National Conference or Dialogue being midwife by President Goodluck Jonathan. The sore point here is that, whether it is a conference or dialogue, there’s an on-going desire to talk. I dare say, given the complexity of our nation’s predicament, it is time to act, but we must talk sense if we are to talk at all.

    However, if this Jonathan sponsored jaw-jaw is not about a dramatic shift of the governance paradigm as often canvassed by Rev. Chris Okotie, the conference is a barren exercise. At the special Independence Anniversary service of his Household of God church recently, the pastor-politician correctly diagnosed Nigeria’s ills and made invaluable suggestions on the way forward. This is not different from the points he made in his excellent article on Thursday, October 3, 2011 in the National Mirror where he argued that it is not enough to keep celebrating “national survival” as a major achievement; but that our leaders must begin to think outside the box and provide good governance.

     ”We should never succumb to the deceitful argument of the corrupt ruling elite who try to justify their hold on power by saying, “well, we have kept the nation together all this while. Nigerians now demand much more than that. We ask our rulers to up-the-ante, and take this resource-endowed nation into the league of vibrant, performing economies, where it rightly belongs. In the 56 years since oil was discovered at Oloibiri in the Niger-Delta, we have earned $800 billion, twelve times more than what the American government used to rebuild Europe after it was devastated by the Second World War.”

    How can you fault this argument? At 53, Nigeria is like a child who has refused to walk; a man whose mind is trapped in a child’s body. Such a man needs serious medical attention. Perhaps, our leaders realized that, which is why the clamour for a Sovereign Nation Conference, SNC, has been on the agenda of media debates for almost two decades. Now, President Jonathan and his PDP leadership have suddenly decided to give it a shot in the mould of a dialogue of ethnic nationalities. But I doubt if the President is the right physician to carry out a delicate, life-threatening surgical operation on our ailing nation.

    With all due respect, based on his antecedents, Mr. Jonathan does not have the presidential grit that is required to take landmark decisions that could reposition this nation. He is unable to fight the powerful, corrupt cabal and hawks in his government. A man who cannot implement his own Transformation Agenda wants to restructure Nigeria! If this dialogue is not just a clever way to buy time for his 2015 ambitions, then what is it?

    The concern of this writer is that with the limited or restricted mandate in the shape of no-go areas hanging on the conference, the governance paradigm, which is supposed to be the key component of any major directional shift in the proposed restructuring of the nation as envisaged by many, may not happen at the end of the day. This may be another charade and colossal waste of public funds.

    This conference is being viewed with skepticism by many opinion leaders because the President may not have the political will to implement its outcomes. Moreover, what concerns the common man is how to enjoy the dividends of a democracy that, for 14 years, have only benefitted the venal rich and the powerful cliques on the corridors of power. The Nigerian masses are still in bondage of lack. Even, a basic modern necessity like education is getting beyond the reach of the ordinary Nigerian whose children cannot get into the university.

    We must never forget that the demand for an SNC is as a result of the failure of governance; the federal structure that runs like a unitary system; inability of our rulers to utilize the huge national resources to transform the nation; the damage done to the localities where our extractive recourses are taken from etc. To rectify all these, we need a shift in the leadership paradigm. A game changer must come on board. That’s the great take-away from Rev. Okotie’s arguments which he continually canvasses in his various articles in national newspapers and social media platforms.

    Many opinion leaders are buying into his argument because of its logical realism. Do we need just a dialogue or a leader who can walk his talk? Obviously, dialogue has never been the problem. What we regularly contend with is what comes out of our dialogue. There’s a lot of debate going on in the National Assembly and other government fora across the country. What has come out of them?

    The debate we should be having today is how to change the governance paradigm. But it is becoming increasingly obvious that unless we shift the emphasis from party to individuals, we’d find it difficult to get the right people into positions of leadership. Our party system has been hijacked by money bags and political godfathers, whose stock-in-trade is political merchandising. The practice in most of these parties is to give party tickets for key elective offices to the highest bidder. This has corrupted the electoral system and brought all sorts of shady characters into our polity.

    Until we begin to look critically at the personalities and antecedents of those we put forward for elective positions, we cannot rid the electoral system of mediocrity, thuggery and miscreants that dominate the political space. We may recall that certain politicians of questionable character made Anambra and Oyo states almost ungovernable at a time. These elements, acting as godfathers, became political monsters with private “armies” who terrorize opponents and even went as far as hounding an elected Governor out of the State House in one of the states.

    One way to change the governance paradigm is to consider independent candidacy. It is apt that there’s provision for this in the 1999 constitution under review “The people must come first,” Rev. Okotie often argues. If the people do not come first, democracy would cease to be the government of the people, by the people, for the people as defined by the great former American President, Abraham Lincoln. Any government that fails to touch the people directly with its programme is not worth the name. For too long, we have been electing leaders in this country based on political party structures that have no ideological relevance to the problems of the nation.

    After 53 years of roaming in the wilderness of underdevelopment under a group of political dinosaurs, we need a new set of leaders who have what the pastor-politician called “connectivity of empathy”, meaning roughly, compassion for the people that translates into practical provision of good governance dividends.

     •Chidi wrote from Anambra.

  • Delta groups urge Olejeme to run for governor in 2015

    Delta groups urge Olejeme to run for governor in 2015

    As political activities gather momentum towards 2015 governorship election in Delta State, two political pressure groups, Patriotic Movement for a United Nigeria and the Urhobo National Youth Movement, have urged a philanthropist, Mrs Ngozi Olejeme to run.

    The groups made the appeal when they visited the Director-General of Olejeme’s U&I Foundation, Mr Emma Uduaghan, in Asaba, to associate themselves with the aim and objective of the foundation which has help in the creation of human capital empowerment.

    Speaking on behalf of the PDP-PMUN, State Coordinator, Mr Tony Okonji said the group is a national body with a mandate to ensure the return of President Goodluck Jonathan in 2015 as well as support his affirmative action in producing a female governor in 2015.

    Okonji said the visit was to pressurise Olejeme to come out and declare her intention in 2015, adding that group’s coordinator from local government areas of the state had closely monitored her activities and decided that she was the best candidate to succeed Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan.

    He said her support base cuts across all political parties in the state, noting that “Dr. Olejeme is the first aspirant in the history of the state who was endorsed by association of register political and opposition parties even when she has declare her intentions. Mr Okonji outline several groups that would be disappointed if Dr Mrs Olejeme delay any further before declaring her vision for 2015 as this will help set the stage for the game proper in line with the 35% affirmative action.”

    PDPPMUN Secretary, Mr John Azike said was prepared to key into the affirmative action of President Jonathan of ensuring a female governor in 2015.

    In a related development, the UNYM led by Alex Edu said the group was in the U&I Foundation Office to associate themselves with the activities and programme of the foundation as a humanitarian organization that is concern about the welfare of the less privilege as well as youth capacity building in the state.

    Edu assured that Urhobo youths would give all the needed support to the NSITF chair.

    In his response, DG of U&I Foundation, Mr Uduaghan, described Mrs Olejeme as a mother to the motherless and a philanthropist committed to the warfare of not only the youth but the aged, widows as well as the vulnerable and disable in the society.

    Uduaghan, who was represented by the Director in charge of Contact and Mobilisation, Hon. Efemini, appeal to various group calling on the chairman of the foundation to seek elective position to be patient as the time was not yet ripe for her to tell Deltans whether she will re- run in the 2015.

    He reminded the pressure groups that electoral law has a time frame within which political parties and aspirant can declare and that time is not yet ripe. He assured them that Olejeme will not disappoint all those calling on her to seek an elective position as she will surely be part of the race when the stage is set for display.

  • 2015: ‘Nigerians must reject INEC’s ineptitude’

    Nigerians must not allow a repeat of the Anambra State experience during the 2015 general election, human rights lawyer Bamidele Aturu has said.

    He said the compromised governorship election is an indication of what to come from the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), and must be rejected.

    “Our people must brace up for 2015. We must defend our votes; politicians won’t do that for us. That is the lesson,” Aturu said.

    On the proposed national conference, the lawyer said neither the latter-day advocates of a dialogue nor those who used to clamour for its talk-shop variant among the ruling class really want the kind of meeting that people desire and deserve.

    “Genuine national conference can only mean a negation of what the mainstream politicians stand for, such as privatisation of public assets, systematic looting of public resources, culture of impunity, electoral fraud and unrestrained acts of corruption.

    “I believe they are wise enough not to bring forth their own gravedigger, except unwittingly,” Aturu said.

    According to him, there can be no serious national conference that is not sovereign.

    The conference, he said, must be sovereign in the sense that its decisions are not subject to alteration or amendment by any other authority, executive, legislative or judicial.

    “It follows that its outcome has to be subjected to a national referendum and not taken to the National Assembly dominated by those whose interests conflict with those of our people.

    “Second, the conference is sovereign in the sense that it determines its agenda all by itself. It drafts and plays its own script and not that of anyone else.

    “The other point that we need to note about a genuine national conference is that it is not organised by state resources. It is not a per diem based conference where people jostle for allowances. Such conferences abound in this country.

    “All one needs to do is to visit all the five star hotels and see how our resources are being wasted on frivolous conferences that are part and parcel of the problems of our country.

    “Organisations, groups and ethnic nationalities that want to participate in a genuine National Conference must fund themselves.

    “But above all, true national conference is not a gift; it is the product of serious mobilisation by the people and their organisations. I certainly do not see how the proposed National Conference fit the bill of a genuine National Conference.

    “It is just a jamboree for the elite to spend some more dollars and enjoy themselves. But do I then say that it should be avoided? No.

    “Patriotic organisations and progressive citizens, who have the time, should do everything possible to use the platform to show that it is nothing but a deceptive jamboree and journey that leads to more confusion.

    “As I have said elsewhere, who knows, the contradictions that abound may just accelerate the process of our peoples’ freedom in spite of the permutations of its convokers,” Aturu said.

    Aturu regretted that the privatisation of the power sector has not yielded any results.

    What we have everywhere as we speak are generators and not light from the cabal that hijacked our power sector. Cabal everywhere.

    “We have cabal in the oil industry, cabal in the power sector, cabal in politics, cabal in the judiciary – remember the shameful collaboration of senior members of the judiciary in throwing out Justice Isa Ayo Salami for doing nothing – cabal in the legal profession. This is indeed a cabalised nation.

    “The workers must brace up for another struggle this time around, no matter how unpopular it may be. The struggle is to retake PHCN from the cabal.

    “We do not say that they should not come and invest their resources and build power plants et cetera. But it is immoral to take what belongs to us and sack two-thirds of our brothers and sisters and then generate darkness. That is utterly unacceptable.”

     

  • ‘Why there is stability in Senate’

    ‘Why there is stability in Senate’

    Senator Munirudeen Muse was a member of the sixth Senate Lagos Central. He Spoke With Musa Odoshimokhe on the national conference and other issues.

    What is your position on the national conference?

    It is a welcome development. In the first place, government never kicked against national conference. What the government is against is the Sovereign National Conference (SNC). I think the conference is appropriate at this time. It is important that we should have it, to discuss the challenges facing the country.

    Will this not have some negative effects on elections that will hold in 2015?

    Why do you want to procrastinate? We have been shouting let us have a conference and now, they said it’s time for conference, you want to preempt the situation. Why do you want to preempt? That is not necessary. Let us go for the conference. That is my feeling about it.

    Some stakeholders have expressed reservation about the conference and the fear that it will lead to break up…

    In the past, the north felt this way. But, since the agitation from the south about the conference goes on unabated and the president has called for the conference, they would have to be part of it. That has removed whatever position anybody holds and let us go ahead with the conference to reach a common ground on how best the country can live together in peace and harmony.

    Is the current Senate living up to expectation?

    All I know about the Senate and the people that were elected into the Senate is that they are people of integrity. There is maturity in that chamber including the current one. The Senate has done well vis-à-vis the Houses of Assemblies are doing very well.

    So, many things that would have distorted the progress of the country have been well attended to by lawmakers. Looking back, when the late President Umaru Yar’Adua succession issue was generating problem, you could see the way it was settled. If not for the Senate the country would have been plunge into crisis. And looking back, I likened the period to what happened at the defunct Union of Soviet Socialist Republic (USSR), when a gang of four wanted to take over the government. It took the deft intervention of the Russian President, Boris Yeltsin to avert the situation. This is similar to what happened here.

    So, I said what had happened should not be swept under the carpet, we should investigate it thoroughly. We thank God, that we found a solution within the Senate which ensured that everything was resolved. The seventh Senate which is now legislating for the people has not disappointed. I have passion for the Senate and listen to its deliberation. I want to read what is going on there. So, I followed it so well, they are trying their best. And I am very confident about the leadership of the Senate. The Senate President, David Mark, is a man who will put all his cards on the table for you. He has nothing to hide. He is a well respected man within that chamber and, I think, within the country.

    The presidency of the Senate has been stable under this regime…

    There is maturity in the Sixth Senate and it goes on till now. This is because of the leadership of the Senate, who is open and will tell you his mind. He will tell you, we are going to solve our problem here. I am not going to settle it only in my office. When we go into close session and discuss everything.

    Why is the Senate playing a hide and seek game with the Academic Staff Universities Union (ASUU) strike?

    The Senate must have dabbled into it. They must have given their advice to the executive. You see, because I am out of the Senate now or government, I don’t know what exactly is the cause of the prolonged strike is. One side is saying we have reached an agreement and the other side is saying they have not. I believe that from my own little idea, the people involved in the strike are going too far. And I tell you that is why I did not allow my children to go to public universities. I send them to private universities.

    But the private university is expensive…

    It is not the cost that we are talking about, but, if you can afford it do so. Gradually, the price will come down and many people will be in the position to send their children to private universities. It is just that the private universities are just springing up in the country. This probably informed why they are expensive for now.

    Some have said the All Progressives Congress (APC) is not united and that this may affect its performance in future election. What is your view?

    I am not aware of any division in the party. And I want to tell you now that I have not really made up my mind to go along with the party. The Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), to which I belonged, is moribund. Throughout my time nobody talked about the APC. I have been a Senator and I am still a Senator. I don’t believe that we would be talking about merger in our party without inviting some of us. That, to me, was not good enough. It would have been better everybody was carried along.

    Are you saying the party is not cohesive?

    If you want to merge, you have to think about this nation in general perspectives. This nation comprised of so many ethnic groups. The main three languages; Hausa, Igbo and Yoruba must be carried along in the discussion. If you want to do any merger talk, you don’t do that to their exclusion. I remember very well that our brothers in the Southeast have this opinion that it is a Yoruba party. I can tell you that this has been said for long ago. They even say our ACN is Yoruba party. I have put it across to our leaders that we must live above board because others from the other places see us a Yoruba party.

    There was one meeting we held in Abuja, a leadership meeting, and our leaders were there. I raised the issue. I said look at us here as we sit here, and can anybody say this is a Yoruba party? This is because we have so many others who are non- Yoruba present at the meeting. In fact, those of us who were Yorubas sitting at the meeting were less than seven in number, despite the fact that the number was fairly large. Our leader Asiwaju, was there. Chief Bisi Akanda, Mamora, Lai Mohammed, Ganiyu Solomon and I were there. And when I mentioned it, they looked around and could see that there were other tribes well represented from the North, South and Southeast. You see, we should not do something that will make people to see us as tribalist. The party should be seen as national party and that depend on the deliberate efforts get others involved.

  • ‘We could afford to enrich ourselves and go in 2015, but we’ve chosen to cry out'(2)

    ‘We could afford to enrich ourselves and go in 2015, but we’ve chosen to cry out'(2)

    Rivers State Governor, Rotimi Amaechi, is a fighter. After the powers-that-be in the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) muscled him out of the gubernatorial ticket he had won fair and square, he battled through the courts to reclaim his prize. Now he’s engaged in the fight of his life  battling foes who have thrown federal might at him. Head unbowed, he inveighs against unprecedented corruption, his differences with President Goodluck Jonathan, his wife and sundry matters in this interview with Festus Eriye and Femi Macaulay.

    Do you have the powers to suspend local government chairmen?

    Yes, the law. The law empowers me to suspend/dissolve a council. I was a speaker when that law was made. It is there in the local government law; I passed it as a speaker. Peter Odili had used it before as a governor. Two council chairmen were suspended under Peter Odili. You can even dissolve if he so desire. As a former speaker, one of the ways I instilled discipline to be able to get the control of the house. I got the house to pass a rule: if you came late, you pay us N1500, if you are absent you pay N3000. Magnus (Abe) was the first, by the time he looked at his salary we had taken away 90, 000, he was bitter and said from today henceforth I would be here, anybody that comes late we must implement this law. Again, it is to instill discipline because what we used to see that time is that you come to the house, there won’t be more than 10 to 15 members. Or if they come before 12 they had disappeared. But once that rule was in place and peoples salaries were being tampered with, you see members would sit from 8’o clock till we close. I felt that is another way to discipline and control this inter-government. So I said gentlemen, what do we do to control latecomers and absentees? I don’t see anything wrong in that. The only thing that I see wrong is that now that I am governor it is the law. I have been asking myself that question; should a governor possess the power to dissolve a democratic institution? Shouldn’t you as a governor go and amend that law and take away the power of the governor to suspend and to dissolve a democratically elected…because it took people pain to go and chose who they will elect as chairman then one man sits in his office and dissolves the council or suspends. Even if you don’t want to do that, why not make it more stringent for the governor to dissolve or to suspend. Those were personal questions I asked myself, not the law. The law simply empowers the governor to dissolve or to suspend.

    Tied to what you have just said, as part of federalism, how would you…

    (Cuts in) Do you have federalism here? Do you have federalism where you don’t have state police? Where the president can order the police to go after a governor? We don’t have federalism in Nigeria.

    So how do you describe what we are running?

    It looks more like a unitary government and very authoritarian. The governors are like commissioner or ministers.

    But it is informed by a so-called federal constitution?

    Are they practicing the federal constitution? Even if we assume the constitution is federal? First, the constitution is not federal enough, even if it is, are they practicing that?

    The way you are painting the governors, it’s like they are victims. But a couple of months ago, people were saying that the governors were running the country, dictating to the president. Don’t you agree that the governors were becoming too powerful?

    What power is that? Have we ever interfered in the affairs of the governance of the country? We have a meeting in Sokoto for Friday and Saturday, we would look at the ills of the country and go public. When we go public then E. K. Clark will say we are too powerful. What power is that? We are a mere pressure group. The difference between we and you people… okay not the press because press has been wonderful to the country. I am sure if they annihilate you then country will go completely. I am not sure the governors are as strong as the press. (General laughter)

    I’m sure that was meant as a joke.

    No. It’s true. Most governors don’t want to see in their names in the paper in the negative manner. So even amongst us, a governor can yab his fellow governor and nothing will happen, but once you see in the paper ‘Amaechi steals 2 trillion’, me I will go for my lawyer. I don’t know how other people will react. In fact there is one my lawyer has been….one magazine in Abuja published ‘How governor Amaechi looted 3. something trillion.’ I gave it to my lawyer and he said ‘abeg leave me. It’s not everything you take up.’ I wanted to go to court; my lawyer said it’s a waste of time to after that kind of man. I am just giving you examples to show how powerful the press can be. In comparison to what the governors do, it’s a matter of explaining what is going on in the country and saying we don’t agree. You won’t believe when the oil subsidy started, when we saw that it was 1.7 trillion naira we said we won’t collect out monthly allocation until the president stops the collection of the oil subsidy. For 3-4 months we refused to collect our monthly allocation. We are saving the country. Don’t forget that the current governors are patriotic. I am sure if we did not start the protests, if we had exceeded the 2.3 trillion, the stealing would have possibly exploded. What has happened? Nothing! Those who stole it said nothing will happen that the reason is that they didn’t steal it, that those who are in government stole it – that they are just conduits by which the money was taken from the country. So we are just like an NGO.

    You have been governor for six years now, what are the enduring lessons you have learnt in personal terms and in terms of Nigeria and its challenges?

    We are looking for a leader. The different leaders who have led the country have made their own contribution and if you ask me who I admire most among them: Obasanjo and Babangida, then Abdusalami as a gentleman. Don’t forget he had few months in office. I think if God had let Yar’Adua spend some time on earth, he probably would have been one of the wonderful presidents we would have had but he had health challenges. So you look at them they made their own contribution but we are still looking for a Nigerian leader. Not one whose his decisions would be coloured by extraneous factors; somebody who would come out and say ‘I want to change the country.’ So it starts with: do we need a federation, a confederation or unitary system of government? And you ask and they have to discuss. Just like this national conference… have you heard me doing something about it? For me it is a waste of time.

    You dismissed it?

    Of course I did. I said if they are serious about national conference, let’s do a sovereign one. Let’s surrender our sovereignty; I am ready to surrender my tomorrow.

    Some people would be shocked to hear you say that among Nigeria’s past leaders you admire Obasanjo…

    Of course I do. He has a God complex. What I mean by God complex is the Messianic complex. He thinks he wants to save the country.

    And you are interpreting that in positive terms?

    Yes. He has both his positive and negative sides. Because of that God complex he may go to the extreme. Look, ‘this country is going bad, I want to save it so he has that Messianic tendencies. He is patriotic to the extent but that he wants to save the country. I have not stayed close to President Obasanjo to interpret him very well but I want to assume that in a bid to save the country, there are times he would not want to take in as many opinions as possible. He would go by his own position which is good but it has also its own negativity … but he has that messianic tendency. He wants to do all he can do to save the country. I have bought a lot of books about him that I am yet to read. That’s why I am hoping that I will leave government quickly so I can read all I want to read. But reading him, you see him believing that he is in a position to change things, to make things progress. He doesn’t want to divide the country, he wants a country that is united, but one which economy is growing. So he has that God complex. Then Babangida: very suave, very intelligent, a true politician that ordinarily he shouldn’t be a military head of state. You can attribute the developments in Abuja to Babangida. Just like Obasanjo’s first tenure as head of state, you saw the kind of developments he put in place as head of state. More progressive when he was the head of state than when he was the president, maybe he encountered more challenges as president because by then the country wasn’t as bad as it is now so you can see that he is grappling with more things than he would have grappled as head of state. But there was a lot of development when he was there. He is a man that you admire his strength of decision making. I poked that joke when I saw him in Abeokuta ‘like your anticipatory approval.’ (General laughter) That’s how he built that stadium; maybe he felt ‘look if I go to the National Assembly.’As far as he is concerned, he had made up his mind he wants to build a stadium for the country and he goes for it. So he went ahead and when the national assembly discovered it he says anticipatory approval. How did you know they were going to approve? (Laughter).

    When the APC came to Port Harcourt to woo you, you said you were going to consult President Jonathan. Are you going to ask him for permission to defect?

    No, not permission.

    Then what consultation when you are clearly…

    If I go to the president, I am going to start going round people in River State and say see the situation of things in Rivers State and the country. In PDP the pressure is on to move on to APC, what is your view? I will get those views and go to the president. Don’t forget, you will say president is South-south but he grew up in Port Harcourt. ‘Mr President this is the Port Harcourt you grew up in, this is the opinion of our leaders’. And I will call them one after the other and say to him this leader this, this leader said that. There is a leader who have said my friend I have no business seeing you, after all I have already met a leader who had told me that. There is a leader who have told me, ‘have you thought it through.’ There is leader who has told me ‘how does it affect the South-South presidency?’ There are questions to ask. When you do that, you aggregate the views and put it before the president let him put his opinion.

    Why do you need that process?

    Because you can’t go without your people. Have you ever seen a governor that governs himself?

    If he says don’t go, will you stay?

    No he has to look at the majority of the opinion.

    You know how vicious this political environment is and what has happened in the course of the new PDP fight. If in 2015, President Jonathan and the PDP win reelection and you are no longer in power, are you afraid of what will happen to you?

    Well that’s a possibility but am not more afraid for myself than I will be afraid for the country. I’m more worried for the country than myself. For instance, if I leave the country and I will go and study. What will President Goodluck Jonathan do if I’m studying?

    Would that be exile?

    Which exile? I can come home and face the police. I have my lawyers waiting. For me, I fear for the country because if the stealing in the first tenure is like this, the stealing in the second tenure will quadruple to such a point that there will be nothing to steal anymore. I tell people that the way the country is going, we may end up impoverishing the poor in such a way that there would not even be food at the refuse dump and they will begin to eat human beings. And guess who they will eat? The rich! The poor man’s body will become very skeletal.

    What are the chances of success with the PDP fence mending? Where does your heart truly belong?

    My heart belongs to everywhere. I don’t know about the fence mending in PDP. We are still waiting for the president but I don’t know how far it would go because the issues are complex, the issues of good governance. These G7 governors, people must praise us… we can actually keep quiet and enrich ourselves and go in 2015. I will go with my children and my wife quietly to the US. The president won’t look for me because I have been a good boy. Or we make the trouble to save the country. Once we are good boys to the president is anybody going to fight us? You can make as much noise as you want to make after we have left office so bloody what? But at least we are good boys to the president who will not allow us to be prosecuted when we leave office. But the G7 governors in particular are patriotic enough that they are asking questions. When we go to that meeting, we could have said okay Mr. President we agree with you, give us minister for oil, minister for finance, etc and they say go and give names. We give you names and we’ll be like ‘this is my own share of whatever they give you in Abuja’ and they would bring. We could have done that and this meeting would have been…. You know everybody has always said in PDP, there is no time we did not pass through this kind of crises, we have always reconciled and things would move on. They were not expecting it to last for more than one month; it lasted for nearly a year. It started from January this year, before two or three months PDP would have reconciled. It depends on the president, for every day we have refused to reconcile, it becomes more complex. The president spoke with Niger governor, the next day they suspended Oyinlola and all that so it has worsened and made these issues more complex. So when will this reconciliation take place? I have a friend who used to tell me ‘Amaechi keep quiet! The president will make another mistake very soon’ and then when you wake up, another mistake has been made.

     

  • A date with June 17, 2015

    A date with June 17, 2015

    FOR a world integration project like the much-talked-about switch-over from analogue to digital broadcasting, sensitive governments have evolved proactive and systematic line of actions to ensure that they are not caught napping when possible interference from neighbouring countries hit them. They have also ensured that the citizens enjoy the choice of clearer picture, ample channels and the succour of subsidy on the Set Top Box (STB); the conservative device that will provide signal to the existing television sets after the June 17, 2015 switch-over date.

    The leapfrogging tendencies of a country like Nigeria become worrisome considering the fact that a global agenda of this nature is not just a complex transition, but one which seeks common understanding, diplomacy and cooperation of neighbouring countries within the continent.

    Suffice it to say that in Europe and Africa, a timeline has been agreed within the framework of an International Telecommunications Union (ITU) treaty. The consensus is such that after June 17, 2015; analogue television transmissions will no longer be protected from harmful interference caused by digital TV transmissions. In the same vein, analogue TV transmissions will not be permitted to interfere with digital TV transmissions.

    Evidently, migration to digital broadcast transmission technology has begun, with countries like France, United States, United Kingdom, Sweden and New Zealand already advanced in their migration programmes, even as Finland and Mauritius have already switched off from analogue.

    While South Africa, which began the process years back, may not have overcome the complexity of the transition, the fear for Nigeria’s readiness is ominous. It is because indeed, while other countries are already engaging their regulators, policy makers and digital analysts to unlock the migration process, Nigeria, it appears, will exert its usual magic when the reality of 2015 comes to it in a flash.

    Analysts have reasoned that for a smooth transition, the government of a country must consider the fact that the STB will take a long while to be manufactured. And although the price of the decoder has dropped to about $40 ever since a higher version dubbed DT2 entered the market, there is the need for each country to subsidise its production. And while it is also pertinent to consider the eligibility for a subsidized decoder based on the number of TV Households (as it is the thought in some countries), this may be a challenge in a country like Nigeria that is still struggling with population data and, to justify government’s cliam, where TV licences are not paid for.

    But wherein the various governments in Africa do not seem to have engaged the stakeholders well enough on this digital revolution that is set to herald more channel choices and value to television viewers, Multichoice, a big private sector stakeholder in the scheme, and the largest pay TV conglomerate in Africa has set an enviable agenda based on its Social Responsibility objective. Not only did the company begin a test-run of the digital TV innovation in Nelson Mandela’s town of Soweto, recently, it gathered African journalists from the IT, Entertainment and Business beats to interact with experts for two days in Johannesburg, South Africa.

    That Digital Dialogue Conference, more than anything, has enabled a deeper understanding of the digital migration process through topic of discourse ranging from ‘Entertainment and Media Outlook from 2012-2016’; ‘Preparing for the Transition of TV Broadcast Services to Digital’; ‘How TV and the Internet are Meeting’ and ‘Effective Public Education for Digital Migration’. The conference which took place at the Sandton Convention Centre, ended with a session specifically on the STB and government obligation, presided over by Mnet Technical Director, David Hagen at the MultiChoice Headquarters. This was followed with a tour of the households in Soweto where Digital Terrestrial Transmission (DTT) is already being tested. Testimonies abound in Soweto that indeed, the new innovation renders sharper picture, and better sound quality; such difference as it is between an old video cassette and a DVD.

    The households visited in Soweto agreed that they have a choice of more channels on the new device. Reason for this is not farfetched. Experts have explained that digital signals take up much less bandwidth than analogue signals. The result is that we can broadcast up to 10 television channels in the same bandwidth – giving you the potential of many more channels to choose from. Another benefit that this gives the people of Soweto is that they are for the first time, able to access many free-to-air TV channels.

    Back at home, all that we hear is the Federal Government’s plans to have 20 million STBs manufactured locally by 2015. If that is the case, then 2015 for Nigeria will be the beginning of migration plan for the country, but not its own switchover year; unless the country’s leapfrogging magic happens, will it enjoy the technology without the risk of initial interference. I guess also that for a population of 160 million Nigerians, 20 million STBs is an average way to plan for one citizen who has television sets in abundance and for his neighbour who has none. And in the spirit of the current transformation agenda of the Federal Government, the claim that the government is currently wooing foreign and local companies to invest in the digital TV STBs production, and its wish for the country to start manufacturing digital devices locally is supposedly laudable.

    However, prior to the Johannesburg conference, a digital communication expert, Jenkins Alumona convened what could be called Nigeria’s first open conference on the all important issue of digital transition. Tagged Digital Dialogue Nigeria, the list of facilitators was exhaustive, so were the delegates at the two-day event which took place at the Southern Sun, Ikoyi, Lagos.

  • 2015: Less governance, more politics

    The provision of Section 14(2)(b) of the 1999 Constitution, that “the security and welfare of the people shall be the primary purpose of government” appears to have been relegated to the background, by our political class. The result is that, instead of ‘security and welfare’, ‘politics’has been elevated, as the primary purpose of government. As you read this, majority of the governors have been prancing around the country, in the name of politics, instead of governing their states, with nearly twenty months to go, out of the 48 months’ mandate that they were given in 2011.

    For now, all that matters for our politicians is the 2015 elections. With the desperation on show, the political realignment for a two party system, which this column and many others, strongly canvassed for, may turn out a mere national debacle. I had hoped that the new All Progressives Congress (APC) will provide a distinct new political platform for progressive politics in the country, to woo existing and putative politicians to join the movement for a real change, based on a clearly defined agenda for the ‘security and welfare’ of the people of Nigeria. Regrettably, I hope I am wrong; the APC appears fixated on winning the next general elections, as if there is no political life after that.

    The result is that without first defining what the party inviolably stands for, it has been turned into literally ‘an all comers affair’. From the North, South, East and West, the APC appears to be building an amalgamation of desperate and grudging politicians, to hopefully snatch power from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) that has disappointed many Nigerians, in the last 14 years. If the APC continues on this track, what we will have will be a potential choice between the ‘frying pan and fire’ for the Nigerian electorate in 2015. And where two unruly and desperate elephants fight, the environment is sure to pay dearly for it.

    As many sympathisers of the APC may likely argue, the failure of the PDP to provide a purposeful leadership since 1999, may have lead the leadership of the APC to believe, that first ‘seek ye the kingdom of presidency, and all other things shall be added to good governance in Nigeria’. I can only wish that will happen, even though, ordinarily a process determines an outcome. Take for instance the chase after the so called, G7 governors, by APC. While from one corner of their mouth, the estranged PDP governors are praising the APC and its leaders; from the other side of the same mouth, they are desperately negotiating with the PDP leadership; and in all the heckling and maneuvers, nothing is based on principles or scruples.

    Notably, the sole dispute between the PDP leadership and the G7 governors is the sharing of political power, for personal aggrandisement. So if I may ask, is the APC leadership not apprehensive that when this marriage based on inconvenience is consummated, that the G7 governors may use the same hand with which they treated their old husband, to treat the new one? Among the lot, Governors Chibuike Amaechi and Babangida Aliyu are the most loquacious, and we can use them to gauge the others. According to Governor Aliyu, when the APC went to woo him last week, “we have declared a ceasefire because we are negotiating. After that, you can come with a blast. If we resolve, we will be friends and if we don’t resolve, you will have as many of us as possible. As a group we the G7 are people who keep agreement”. When you read ‘come with a blast’ and ‘you will have as many of us as possible’; you may mistake that His Excellency, was speaking of an amorous relationship, not a political movement to redeem our dying country.

    As for Amaechi, when the APC leaders went to woo him in Port-Harcourt, he enthusiastically declared: “I will consult the President. I will. He is from our zone. I will consult all the consultables”. Poor fellow, if he has to consult the people of his zone before joining APC and their choice will be the decider, then there is a huge challenge ahead. More importantly, from the two representatives of the G7, none is declaring without equivocation, that, the PDP has failed Nigeria, and that they have found a new platform to actualise a clearly defined political objectives, that will promote the security and welfare of the people of Nigerians. Rather, their message is simply that they have a political interest, and if it is met in PDP, they will stay; but if not, then APC can have as many of them as possible.

    On their own part, the ever-desperate PDP leadership has continued their strong arm tactics, to break the ranks of the opposition. Last week, the inimitable APC publicity, succinctly described the Nigeria Police as the armed-wing of the PDP. That may well be a fair assessment by a political opponent, as the PDP’s party leadership desperately uses the police to scuttle the G7 governors from meeting to plot their activities, and to stop Governor Chibuike Amaechi, from showing off his political strength, in Rivers state. After all, Section 40 of the 1999 constitution, unambiguously guarantees the right to peaceful assembly and association, and that includes meeting to express dissent.

    More ominously, it seems assassination is beginning to creep in, as in previous desperate years, as the count down to 2015 approaches. Last week, it was reported that there was an assassination attempt on the life of the Speaker of the Delta State House of Assembly, Mr. Ochei. I pray that God will save Nigeria, from the antics of desperate politics without principles.

     

     

  • 2015: IYC gives condition for Jonathan’s re-election

    2015: IYC gives condition for Jonathan’s re-election

    Ijaw Youth Council (IYC) yesterday said President Goodluck Jonathan’s re-election in 2015 will only be possible if the Ijaw nation speaks in one voice.

    The president-elect of the group, Mr. Udengs Eradiri, insisted that there was the need for the youths, elders and all stakeholders in the Ijaw project to be united to actualise the 2015 presidential election of Jonathan.

    He said the Ijaw must build bridges with other ethnic groups to extend its Presidency beyond 2015.

    Said he: “I believe that unity within us is the watchword. We will move into building bridges and solidarity. 2015 will only be achieved when we as a people are united.

    “From the strength of people of Ijaw nation, on the strength of our people, we must build friendship with other ethnic nationalities to support the President to win the 2015 election.”

    Eradiri also said IYC would be sanitised to enable it tackle sea piracy and kidnapping among youths in the Niger Delta.

    He said kidnapping came as a result of idleness among youths, adding that the group’s structures in different clans would be revived to fight oil bunkering in local communities.

    Eradiri, who spoke in Yenagoa, said the IYC would make efforts to reach out to kidnappers holding the two American sailors abducted off the coast of Bayelsa State last week.

    He said: “Right now, we’ve just concluded elections. There are a lot of protests going on by entities that will not be able to win an election. With the incident that occurred yesterday, I don’t believe that their grievances should be meted out to innocent persons in the society.

    “Going to block roads used by Ijaw people, destroying cars that are owned by Ijaw people is unfortunate.”

    He said the group would work with government to address issues of poverty, under development, agriculture, job creation and crime in Ijaw land.

    Said he: “We will ensure that resource control is implemented. By resource control, we will use the capacity we have to create wealth. There must be a deliberate policy from government.”

    On reconciling aggrieved members he said: “There is a machinery we are setting up to extend our hands of fellowship to the aspirants, who have the Ijaw at heart; we mean serious-minded aspirants who lost the election. It is a no-victor-no-vanquished situation. Don’t forget my brothers that I campaigned for this election.

    “IYC is a movement and pressure group. A pressure group is not a political organisation. The attitude of settling those who lost election is out of place. I will not do that because we are in a movement and not in a political organisation.

    “I was given an opportunity to serve Ijaw people and I served well. That was why they asked me to be their leader.”

  • 2015:Power shift to North not negotiable—Northern leaders

    2015:Power shift to North not negotiable—Northern leaders

    Northern Elders  are not prepared to back down on the North’s demand for the presidency in 2015,spokesman for the group, Professor  Ango Abdullahi has said.

    “There is no going back on the presidency returning to the North in 2015, and that has remained our position,” he told The Nation on the outcome of the last weekend meeting of the Northern Elders Forum.

    Professor Abdullahi accused  the President of playing politics with the proposed national conference.

    “As far as we are concerned, all this talk about national conference is political and geared towards 2015. It is also becoming clear that the only card on the table of Mr. President is ethnicity or religion. We are waiting to see how this will work in his favour,” he said.

    But he explained that the North is not in any way against the conference.

    His words: “The Northern Elders’ Forum met last weekend and we generally agreed with the direction of the North on the National Conference. And we said why not? The point we tried to make is what kind of conference?

    “This is because we have had all sorts of conferences in the past from 1914 to date. All the reports of these conferences are there in the Government House. The Northern Elders’ Forum wondered what kind of conversation, dialogue, or conference that would be different from the ones we have had before.

    “We agreed that the only thing that will make the proposed conference significantly different is when it is sovereign. What needs to be done is to suspend the current 1999 Constitution by the National Assembly to pave the way for a peoples’ conference. The National Assembly should vacate itself to enable the sovereign conference to take place.

    “I am particularly surprised that those who have always wanted a sovereign conference are now backing out and for whatever reason, I cannot say. While the Northern Elders’ Forum may be at home with the proposed conference, as we have always maintained that we are ready for any kind of conference, I still maintain that we either have a sovereign conference or nothing else. Without that, we had better manage the system as it is.  Otherwise, the proposed conference will be a mere talk shop and a jamboree.”

  • ‘Aggrieved governors dropped demand on Jonathan’s re-election’

    The Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Governor’s Forum, Godswill Akpabio, on Monday maintained that the aggrieved governors have agreed to drop their demand seeking to stop President Goodluck Jonathan’s re-election in 2015.

    It would be recalled that seven aggrieved governors namely – Sule Lamido (Jigawa), Rabiu Kwankwaso (Kano), Abdulafatah Ahmed (Kwara), Babangida Aliyu (Niger), Aliyu Wammako (Sokoto), Rotimi Amaechi (Rivers) and Murtala Nyako (Adamawa) broke away from the main party to form the “new PDP” headed by Kawu Baraje during the party’s mini convention on August 31.

    One of the demands of the aggrieved group is that Jonathan should drop his ambition to contest the 2015 presidential election.

    But speaking with State House correspondents over the Sunday night meeting between President Jonathan and the aggrieved governors, Akpabio said that the issue was dropped because ambition is a personal thing to any aspirant.

    He said: “That is why I said that the processes are on and of course on the issue of 2015, both sides agreed that it wasn’t an issue for discussion because every single person has a right to have ambition.”

    “Some of the governors may have ambition like I have ambition to go to Senate and you can’t discuss anything about another person’s ambition. You are the only person that can discuss your own ambition. Ambition is personal. So both parties agreed to that,” he added.