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Tag: APC

  • Welcoming the APC

    Welcoming the APC

    The emergence of the APC is good for Nigeria because it provides our people a viable alternative to the PDP government that has been in power for more than 14 years. Most Western democracies operate a two-party system i.e. there is always a party in government and another one in opposition keeping the one in government on its toes and providing a standing alternative to the government in power. This is the essence of democracy in many Western countries. There are of course countries in continental Europe like Germany and France where as a result of their culture, coalition governments of sometimes two or three parties seem to be the rule because of the intense factionalization in those countries. It reminds me of what General Charles De Gaulle used to say about French men that if you lock two French men in a room and ask them to form a political party; they are likely to come out with three political parties. In the history of Nigeria, the first time we ever had a semblance of a two-party system was during the Babangida era when two parties: the SDP and the NRC were decreed into being. Although we tend to criticize the military for all our problems, the imposition of the two-party system by General Babangida at that time was a master stroke. This was the system that gave us the best election that we have ever had and that produced MKO Abiola as the President that was never sworn in. Hopefully, the emergence of the APC will lead to credible elections 2015. At least we now have a choice of two national parties; one that has been in power for 14 years and for which we have nothing to show for it, and another that is ready to take power and has some credentials especially judging from the performance of some components of it in the South-west and in the North-east. The assemblage of seasoned politicians with credibility like Buhari and Tinubu and others should give the APC some leverage with the Nigerian voters. A lot of work of course has to be done in fashioning out a manifesto that is at least left of centre and that would be totally opposed to the abysmal corruption that the PDP has elevated to a philosophy of government. The two main planks of the APC for now are firmly rooted in the South-west and the North generally so demography favors the APC come 2015. Democracy is about one-man vote and with the lack of performance of the PDP generally, it should be possible for Buhari, Tinubu and other APC leaders to mobilize support in the North and in the South-west and also because the PDP itself is collapsing from inside, it will not be impossible to get the other parts of the country to join a winning band-wagon.

    All these of course are predicated on the kind of candidates the APC is able to choose for its presidential ticket. I speak as an outsider, if Buhari and Tinubu are able to control their personal ambitions and to look for a younger combination of credible people to run on the APC platform, the party stands a good chance of winning. The party should avoid anything that may make it look like a tribal or a religious coalition or party because its opponents would definitely exploit this if there is a tendency of the party in that direction.

    As for the Yoruba people, they now have a choice to make. The PDP used to appeal to some elements in the South-west by suggesting that the people would reap a lot of democratic dividends if they belong to the mainstream. The APC being a national party and more ideologically in tune with Yoruba political tradition should give the South-west the opportunity of genuinely belonging in the mainstream of Nigerian politics just as was the case with the SDP. The kind of mainstream offered by PDP has been found out to be totally not in consonance with Yoruba political tradition. After all, Obasanjo as president dragged the Yorubas into the so-called mainstream and they have nothing to show for it. The collapsed infrastructure in the South-west is a testimony to the PDP’s misrule even under Obasanjo. I would like to point out that what is good for Nigeria should be good for the Yoruba people. The Yoruba people do not want to be favored over others and they do not want to be discriminated against. Rather, what they want is equitable representation of all groups at all levels. Any fair assessment of the present regime cannot but come to the conclusion of total marginalization of the Yoruba people and the South-west. A situation in which the first 10 positions in the country do not have a single Yoruba among them is totally unacceptable for a people constituting about 40 million of Nigerians. The strength of the APC in the South-west is directly related to this marginalization.

    Secondly, the performance of the former ACN governors particularly in the upliftment of the infrastructure of the area is a strong testimony of what APC when it controls the federal government will do in the South-west. The PDP used to control the South-west before now and people should be reminded that their governors did virtually nothing for the people. In fact, people are now asking why it has been relatively easy for the ACN in the South-west to transform the infrastructure in the area while their predecessors were not able to do much. Just go to Ibadan, Abeokuta, Ado-Ekiti, Osogbo and Benin City and see what has been accomplished. These are the issues. Yoruba people are highly educated people and they like to play politics of issues not of personalities. Even though leaders like Tinubu, Akande, Osoba, Adeniyi Adebayo, Kayode Fayemi, Amosun, Ajimobi, Aregbesola and others are good mobilizers, but mobilization alone would not do unless there are issues around which people can be mobilized and the main issue in the South-west is the non-performance of the PDP and the marginalization of the Yoruba people. It is not just the leaders in the South-west who are saying this, ordinary commuters on the dilapidated roads and those who need power to run their small businesses and those who need security in their homes and on the streets are grumbling loudly and who do they blame, they blame the PDP federal government and this is rightly so. The issue is not about Tinubu delivering the South-west or Buhari delivering the North. In fact, nobody can deliver anybody. The point is the disenchantment, disillusionment and dissatisfaction of the people with what is going on.

    If the PDP were wise, they should quickly realize that the issue is not about personalities but about programs and performance so any campaign based on discrediting Tinubu, Buhari and other leaders of the APC would not wash. This question of issues will also resonate I must say among other Nigerians even in the South-south not to talk about the South-east. It is unfortunate that politics in Nigeria is based on the coalition of ethnic groups against other ethnic groups. One hopes that 2015 would usher in the same kind of movement that produced the same result of the election of a Muslim-Muslim ticket of MKO Abiola and Babagana Kingibe in 1993. As for the Labour Party in Ondo being a vanguard for the division of the South-west in 2015, I do not see that happening. The Labour Party in Ondo is built around the charismatic leadership of Olusegun Mimiko, a young man that I admire very much. But this is a flash in the pan when Mimiko finishes his second term, the Labour Party will be swept out of the South-west. There have been instances of political parties built around a one-man charismatic leadership in the past.

  • APC: Nigeria deserves new, not recycled leadership; Suffering: Nigeria is an Emergency

    APC, the new political party should not accept just anyone from other parties, particularly PDP which has ruled since 1999. Al Mustapha will be a huge negative for the APC. PDP’s political deadwood will not perform better in APC. A change of party will not change these people. The APC already has many forward looking politicians. Give them space and do not tie them up in ‘political favour’ knots. The new electorate is more discerning and desperate for good governance. Romancing with Babangida, Abdulsalami and players like Danjuma who is not a democrat though wealthy may empower APC with money but will that bring change to save Nigeria from destruction? Buhari’s and Tinubu’s reputation means they should take to the sidelines! No to recycled leadership. We need new leadership!

    Hurray, the FRSC has moved its Ogere checkpoint 100metres to where stopping a vehicle will not shut down a lane. Who authorises procedures, supervises, reviews situations and plans for eventualities in FRSC? Strangely, though such hawking is illegal, we see both hawkers and FRSC waving their arms frantically to attract you to stop. The FRSC should now carve out an FRSC area, free of hawking, for vehicles to be interrogated.

    One day the FRSC will remember its old ‘Observe Speed Limits’ and ‘Keep Right’ campaigns. Professor Soyinka will tell them that slowing down vehicles by speed limits and keeping slow traffic in the slow lane except when overtaking or avoiding dangerous road surfaces was the primary goal of the original FRSC. Such actions are more effective than randomly stopping vehicles for vehicle and driving licence ‘particulars and fire extinguisher’.

    On Saturday at 9.06am a brand new government issue Ibadan based yellow and deep red commercial vehicle overtook us, four kilometres outside Ibadan on the way to Lagos, at about 140-150kph.  That is our problem. Someone is driving at a speed that could kill us and we sit silently praying for a ‘Safe Journey’. That is a threat of GBH, ‘Grievous Bodily Harm’. We must inform the FRSC that commercial vehicles are driven, with impunity, by members of the NUTRW who make commercial vehicles into WMDs- a ‘Weapons of Mass Death’.

    What is FRSC waiting for? Mega deaths? The Highway Code shows road safety signs. Even potholes have no warning signs. The FRSC needs new strategies in order to tackle speed and as well as ’particulars and fire extinguisher’ enquiries. The new big multimillion naira billboards sponsored by an oil company, Exxon Mobil I think,  encouraging the speed limit are a small very expensive step. There are cheaper ways of enforcement. Passengers are often too intimidated by the NURTW reputation for violence to report ‘Endangering The Lives Of Passengers’.

    Who is there to report to, anyway?  FRSC should please add phone in and internet ‘Name and Shame Anti-Speed Campaigns’ where passengers are encouraged to report erring vehicle drivers by ‘Motor Park, Time, Date, Route’ for FRSC to place on their website and investigate. Speed can be controlled by convoys led by demarcated ‘FRSC Convoy Leader Cars’ driving at 100kph.

    I and tens of thousands of others suffered silently, but angrily, in yet another totally preventable nearly five hour massive traffic jam on the Ibadan-Lagos on Saturday. Apparently unknown to FRSC leadership, the FRSC was actually specially set up to deal with, and possibly prevent and then manage major traffic emergencies and rescue the citizenry from their misery through novel approaches to traffic control through short diversions, information dissemination, preventing overtaking on shoulders et cetera. But none of this happened. Nothing happened. The members of the FRSC could not be seen at any of the problem areas in over 30km of traffic. The FRSC made little or no effort beyond trying to arrest a few miscreants around ‘Redeem’.  There was no alarm raised by the FRSC.

    Did the FRSC members report up the chain of command and higher authorities to request assistance for the six vehicles and maybe 15 FRSC members we saw clustered around turnings and junctions? Was any order given to recall FRSC members from other areas and off-duty officials to help deal with the problem? Why were no FRSC members deployed automatically every few hundred metres along the 20km traffic jam to inform citizens and implement solutions to the massive problem and also keep order and keep vehicles from driving on the road shoulders?

    During this emergency, it was a serious if unrecognised emergency, the few FRSC who were seen were casual, disinterested and lackadaisical in attitude and showed no real concern to actually solve the traffic problem. They were not on their phones discussing with superiors and implementing any plan like the ‘FRSC 20KM Traffic Jam Plan’ at panic stations. FRSC knows that one of Nigerian drivers’ major problems is inability to follow the queue. Queue jumping is congenital among commercial and most other road users. Over 1,000 vehicles overtook us on the shoulders. If they had stayed in line we would have moved faster. If everyone was forced to stay in line on the two lane road the traffic problem would reduce dramatically. This can be done by placing some blocks every 20 metres on the shoulders which will allow parking but discourage driving on the shoulders. Perhaps the designers of the new expressway need to take this up. The suffering of Nigerians is preventable. Nigeria is an emergency waiting for treatment.

    PS : Give Nigerians emergency electric power NOW!

     

  • A lift for clash victims in Benue

    A lift for clash victims in Benue

    Lawmaker donates relief materials

    Good cheer has returned to the faces of victims of a Fulani/Tiv clash in Benue State, thanks to a member of the House of Assembly, Hon Avine Agbom.

    The lawmaker, who represents Makurdi North on the platform of All Progressives Congress (APC), donated relief materials to the people who were displaced by the crisis.

    He implored the people to take part in the sharing of the materials, including members of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and All Progressives Congress (APC) who were victims of the bloody crisis between Fulani herdsmen and Tiv farmers in Makurdi Local Government Area.

    The crisis claimed many lives.

    The relief materials included bags of rice, millet, among other items, including personal effects like clothes and cooking utensils.

    The donor said the effort was meant to cushion the effects of the crisis on the people.

    Hon. Agbom urged the federal and state governments to set up relief camps for internally-displaced persons who are mostly from his constituency.

    He also pleaded for more relief materials for the victims.

    “The displaced persons have no camp,” he said. “They can no longer go back to their houses. I want to appeal to the federal and state governments to provide shelter for them. Some are staying at a camp called Duadu where there are no mosquito nets, adding that the children have been dying every day for the past two years without any kind of support from government.”

    He stated that the relief materials worth millions of naira are specifically for the victims of the crisis in Mbalagh and Ayaka wards which are parts of Agan Ward. He added that the second batch would be spread to other communities.

    Responding, President of Mbalagh Women Association, Mrs. Margaret Bija advised the victims of the crisis to be law-abiding and wait for the outcome of government’s intervention in the crisis.

  • ‘APC is a mass movement’

    ‘APC is a mass movement’

    Hon. Lanre Odubote represents Epe Constituency in the House of Representatives. He spoke with Musa Odoshimokhe on the constitution amendment, national security and crisis in Rivers State.

     

    How would you assess the newly registered All Progressives Congress (APC)?

    The APC started shaking the polity at its infancy. It started at the point of the election of the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Aminu Tambuwal. It was the coalition of all opposition parties, who with other members of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), came together to vote for Tanbuwal. And I can say that APC has been in place since the House was inaugurated in June 2011.

    So, if the APC is now registered, it is just to say, kudos to the people in the National Assembly. We thank God for our leaders for being able to come together this time around, having seen what we did at the National Assembly, to consolidate our position. APC is going to send the PDP away. PDP is insensitive to the peoples’ wellbeing, it is very reckless and corrupt. Talk of anything that is anathema to democratic culture, it is the PDP. The party is associated with the imposition of poverty on the people.

    It does not believe in empowerment of the people, it’s a party that refuses to implement the budget of the people. PDP is a party that refused to believe in democratic institution, otherwise, how can a parliament of the Federal Republic of Nigeria pass a resolution and the party says it is just a mere advice. When it was good for them to use that advice to become the President, they did. They believe in the parliament then, but they are now comfortable not to implement all the resolutions of the House. See what happened in Rivers State, if not for the House of Representatives, Governor Rotimi Amaechi would have been removed from office by now. But we took that decision to save him.

    The APC, in conjunction with some of our friends in PDP worked to bring peace to Rivers State.

    That is why we have some little peace in the state. So, APC is that party that has come to liberate the oppressed, it a mass movement and thank God, today Nigerians are reasoning along that line. By the time we face them in 2015, PDP will realise that it is too late for them. I am not surprised, this is the same PDP that does not believe in the creation of local governments, they are now contesting elections in those created by the Lagos State government. They never saw anything good in the Local Council Development Areas. As far as I am concerned, APC is moving up politically.

    The National Assembly has not spoken with one voice on the issue of local government autonomy. Why?

    I personally voted against local government autonomy on principle. Though my people thought I should vote along that line of autonomy for the councils. How can you give autonomy to local government when the federal government is still holding on to our revenue from Lagos State, there is no principle of derivation, no principle of true federalism. They say Nigeria is a federation, what type of autonomy are you giving to local government? The law stated categorically under Section 7, the local government is an appendage of the state. So, why are you now contravening the constitution? So, as far as I am concerned, local government autonomy is an aberration, it is a part and parcel of the state. As a person, I am not in support of local government autonomy.

    The Presidency has often ignored the resolutions of the National Assembly. What does that portends for checks and balances?

    All over the world, if you are talking of democracy, you must be talking of the institutions. The legislative arm is the parliament for the purposes of governance. Here, not less than 360 representatives are directly elected and 105 senators also directly elected by the people. But on the executive, only two people were directly elected, the President and the vice. Every other person in the executive is appointed. They are like liability to the President, they are not constitutionally recognised except the Attorney General.

    If an institution that is properly recognised is being disobeyed, that means you are fishing for chaos. You are not respecting the tenet of democracy. The Assembly is where issues must be canvassed. That is where we have to do work on the revenue, which is tied to budgetary allocation. Between me and you, why do you have to violate the law when you have signed it and now you are refusing to implement it? We are not saying we are going to impeach him, we are now asking you people in the media and the civil society to appeal to PDP for them to respect all the democratic institutions. A situation whereby an institution like the parliament is passing a resolution and the Presidency is disobeying it, is undemocratic. You are calling for anarchy because when that resolution was brought to you, you singed it.

    Now look as the security challenge, the parliament invited the President to come and brief us about what is happening in the country, about a year ago but the problem is still there and he still want us to be allocating money to him. Unfortunately, we have not yet advanced to that level when constitutional rules have to be implemented to the letter. If it were to be in places where democratic culture are well instituted, the President would have gone by now. We cannot be allocating money to him without proper accountability. We don’t know how much he has even given out over the so called terrorist attack or the JTF and the National Assembly that has the power to allocate the money is calling you and you are refusing to obey. So, Nigeria should not be an exception where rules are obeyed. My position is this, I am very bitter with all these impunity from the PDP led government because by the time you disobey a fundamental institution of democracy, you are calling for anarchy and crisis.

    Now that the House of Representatives has taken over the Rivers Assembly, what happens?

    What has happened is just a temporary measure for the whole thing to calm down. The only advice that I will give the people who say they are the majority party is for them to put their house in order. The House is dominated by PDP people; see the way they are behaving on the camera during the crisis in Rivers Assembly, have you see any ACN state behaving in like manners? See us at the National Assembly, we are the most peaceful people, if you are making contribution, you do that intelligently. See the way we brought out Tambuwal, see the way Nigerians gave us kudos on the matter. Now that the APC has emerged, we will lead and others will follow because PDP has failed the people.

     

     

  • Council hails APC at flag-off

    Council hails APC at flag-off

    Residents of Oriade Local Council Development Area have expressed their joy at the registration of the All Progressives Congress (APC).

    The chairman of the party in the council, Hon. Moshood Olanrewaju Badmus said Nigerians have a lot to gain with the registration of the party, adding that it will meet the yearnings of the people.

    He spoke at the flag-off of the new party in the LCDA.

    He noted that “the registration of APC is the conception of the desired change which Nigerians have long yearned for all these years of misrule by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).”

    The party chief also said that Nigeria and Nigerians have suffered under the bad leadership of the PDP in the past 14 years, adding that the country’s political future rests with the APC.

    “The APC remains the best vehicle to salvage the dwindling political and economic fortunes of Nigeria which has been bastardised in the past 14 years of PDP bad leadership.

    “The well-being of Nigerians will be enhanced under an APC leadership. The PDP has nothing tangible to show for all its years in power. PDP having failed Nigerians, I urge the electorate to reject the PDP and embrace the APC which promises to guarantee equity, justice, fair play, development and equal political opportunities for all Nigerians,” he said.

    On the party’s plans for Nigerians, the party chief disclosed that when the APC takes over power in the 2015 general elections, it would be committed to solving some of the intractable problems confronting the country.

    “The APC government will focus its attention on the solution of some of the problems which the country is experiencing. It will ensure that the education sector, which at present, suffers neglect is given due attention. Parents need not buy books or pupils carry chairs and desks to schools any more. The APC administration will ensure that the 26 per cent of national budget as prescribed by the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) is allocated to the sector.

    “Again, the APC government will address the nagging issue of electricity which holds the key to the country’s over-all socio-economic development. It will be committed to infrastructural development; especially roads. It will also provide good governance and robust economy.

    “Tackling corruption will be paramount in the programme of the party. This is so because corruption has held the country down for so long and has hampered its progress and development.

    “We will also make rule of law our cardinal principle. We will avoid, like plague, situations in which 16 is greater than 19 and five greater than 27 as is the situation in the PDP. We will uphold the rule of law not rule of man. The party will discharge its responsibilities fairly, equitably and without fear or favour. Nobody will be above the law,” he said.

    Contributing, the chairman of Oriade Local Council Development Area, Hon. Ibrahim Babatunde Sanusi said that the registration of the APC by (INEC) was a new vista in the country’s political landscape and a beginning of good things for the people.

    He urged Nigerians to embrace the party which he said is capable of taking Nigeria out of the woods and saving her from the precipice. The council chief also urged the co-operation of all in order to make the APC the party to beat in the 2015 general elections.

    Also contributing, the immediate past Deputy Speaker of Lagos State House of Assembly, Hon. (Mrs) Bola Badmus Olujobi advised the electorate to remain focused in campaigning for the success of the new party.

    She assured the members of the party’s commitment to enhance the lives of the people if it wins the 2015 elections at all levels, even as she said that the programmes of the APC are people-oriented.

  • APC to Jonathan: go to court if you feel libelled

    APC to Jonathan: go to court if you feel libelled

    The All Progressives Congress (APC) has asked President Goodluck Jonathan to go to court if he feels libelled by the description of his presidency as a kindergarten presidency by the Interim National Chairman of the APC, Chief Bisi Akande.

    In a statement in Accra yesterday by its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the party said Chief Akande merely told the truth by his characterisation of the Jonathan presidency, adding: “Isn’t truth a defence to libel?”

    It also said there was nothing strange or wrong in criticising a democratically-elected President. “After all, he is neither an imperial president, a monarchy nor an emperor.”

    APC said nothing confirmed Chief Akande’s assertion that Jonathan is running a kindergarten presidency than the crude manner it (presidency) responded to the frank but constructive criticism by the APC National Chairman.

    “In the true character of this presidency, its irreverent and undignified spokesman failed to respond to the issues raised by Chief Akande. Instead, he chose to haul abuses at a man who is old enough to be his father. Such irresponsible act does no credit to the spokesman or the president he is serving, and Nigerians will not forget such crudity in a hurry.

    “Where is the presidency’s response to Chief Akande’s assertion that he has written two letters to the President over the serious challenges facing the country, without getting a response? Where is the presidency’s response to Chief Akande’s assertion that President Jonathan is victimising political opponents? These are the issues Nigerians are interested in, not how many hours the President sleeps at night because he is supposedly working tirelessly.

    “If indeed this President is working tirelessly, we need to ask who he is working for because Nigerians are yet to feel the impact of his administration. They are also not interested that the president once served as a deputy governor, governor and vice-president, because the experience he supposedly garnered from doing so has not impacted positively on his duty as a president. That’s not a surprise, considering that the President owes his meteoric rise in politics to luck and destiny. Nothing else!” the party said.

    It described the presidency as an under-achieving one, always eager to celebrate tokenism, using questionable statistics.

    “As the presidency was composing its empty response to the serious issues raised by our highly-respected Chairman, the African Development Bank was saying in its annual report (African Economic Outlook), quoted by the local media on Sunday, that the proportion of people (Nigerians) living below the national poverty line has worsened from 65.5 per cent in 1996 to 69.0 per cent in 2010, most of those years under the PDP and the last four under President Jonathan.

    “What therefore is there to celebrate in a presidency under which power generation has fallen to 2,500MW? What is there to celebrate in a presidency that has only given Nigerians widespread insecurity, unemployment, dilapidated infrastructure, oil theft and unbridled corruption. Of what use is the touted six per cent increase in the GDP when over 40 per cent of our youths are unemployed?” APC queried.

    The party described as a figment of the presidency’s imagination the claim of a feud between its leaders, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu and Maj.-Gen. Muhammadu Buhari, saying the PDP and the presidency have been peddling lies over a phantom feud because they could not fathom how the leadership of the APC could put national interest above personal considerations.

    “Mr. President, don’t let your lick-spittle aides deceive you. There is no feud between the two leaders. Waiting for such a feud is like ‘Waiting for Godot’”, it said.

     

  • APC will adopt new leadership style – Borno governor

    APC will adopt new leadership style – Borno governor

    Governor Kashim Shettima of Borno State on Monday in Maiduguri said the All Progressives Congress (APC) will adopt a new leadership style and offer exemplary leadership to Nigerians.

    Shettima told reporters that the party would tackle poverty in the country by addressing their underlining causes.

    “Governance is not about having large sums of money in bank accounts, it is about changing peoples’ lives for the better.

    “The APC will no doubt meet the aspirations of the people, especially those at the grassroots by improving their living conditions,’’ the News Agency of Nigeria quoted the governor as saying to journalists.

    He said the party would create jobs in the agricultural, industrial and other sectors of the economy, to address the root causes of poverty at the grassroots level.

    “We have to evolve strategies to create jobs for our youths because youth employment is crucial to the survival of the nation.

    “Very soon we will leave office and all the security apparatus around us will be gone and we will return and live with the people,’’ he said.

    The governor urged Nigerian leaders to safeguard the future by striving hard to tackle unemployment among the youth.

    He commended the Borno Youth Vigilante Group for tackling the Boko Haram insurgency, and described them as God sent.

    According to him, the emergence of the vigilante group can best be described as divine intervention; hitherto everybody is afraid to talk about Boko Haram.

    “By now a group of youths, armed with only sticks and cutlasses have succeeded in chasing and apprehending the gunmen known as Boko Haram militants,’’ he said.

    Shettima said that government would soon offer employ opportunity to members of the group as a reward for their courage.

     

     

     

  • Jonathan not a ‘kindergarten’ leader- Abati

    Jonathan not a ‘kindergarten’ leader- Abati

    The Presidency has  faulted the Interim National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Chief Bisi Akande for allegedly describing President Goodluck Jonathan as a ‘kindergarten’ leader who treats national issues with levity.

    Jonathan, in a statement by his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Dr. Reuben Abati, urged Akande  to respect the truth and Nigeria.

    The statement said that Akande’s comment was propagating falsehood, willfully insulting the President and impugning the President’s integrity.

    It reads: “We have noted with dismay the continuation of efforts by leaders of the opposition to promote themselves and their party through the irresponsible denigration of President Goodluck Jonathan and the exalted Office of the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.”

    “The interim national chairman of the APC, Chief Bisi Akande sank to a new low in this regard yesterday when he rudely and falsely described President Jonathan as a “kindergarten” leader who treats national issues with levity.”

    “Chief Bisi  Akande has every right to embark on a flight of fancy about the APC beating the PDP in the 2015 general elections, but he does no justice to his age and status when he resorts to propagating falsehood, wilfully insulting the President of his country, impugning his integrity and desecrating the very office which his party wishes to take over in 2015 by fair or foul means.”

    The statement continued: “We urge Chief Akande and his fellow-travellers to remember that there are laws against libel and defamation of character in this country even if there are no legal impediments to indecorous, hypocritical and unpatriotic vituperations.”

    “It is certainly rude, ill-mannered, uncharitable and hypocritical for Chief Akande to falsely and cavalierly allege that a President who toils tirelessly every day of the week, evolving and implementing workable solutions to Nigeria’s problems, is handling national issues with levity.”

    “Also, nothing else but gross ignorance and lack of consideration could have led Chief Akande to refer to a President who, having served as deputy governor, governor, vice president and president, has far more experience of governance at the highest level than him and his preferred “candidates”, as a kindergarten leader.”

    “By his very unguarded and intemperate outburst yesterday, Chief Akande exhibited not only an unbecoming lack of respect for the person and office of the President of his country, but also a complete disregard for the patriotic feelings of the millions of Nigerians who voted for President Jonathan and who continue to appreciate his sincere efforts to positively transform the nation.”

    “It is very sad and unfortunate that unbridled ambition for the office they constantly impugn and denigrate has blinded Chief Akande and his ilk to the visible accomplishments of the Jonathan Presidency.”

    “Certainly, nothing else but a manic and unscrupulous quest for power could have led them to make such accusations against a President who, who amongst other significant achievements, has been praised for his handling of the insurgency in some parts of Northern Nigeria where he has used a combination of diplomacy and targeted military force to contain the security threat.”

    Stressing that Nigeria’s economy has been promoted under President Jonathan’s administration, he said: “Nothing else but the relentless pursuit of narrow personal and sectional interests could lead them to make such claims about a President under whose leadership Nigeria’s economy has been promoted from a low income economy to a middle income economy by the World Bank and whose leadership has seen the Gross Domestic Product of Nigeria increase at an annual rate of over 6% since he took office.”

    “Finally, though President Jonathan has not indicated whether or not he is interested in a second term, Chief Akande, who has taken stock of his party and seen that they have no electable presidential material is already trying to be clever by half by claiming the President is statute-barred from contesting in 2015 saying it will amount to a “third term”.

    “If this is the winning strategy of the APC,  Chief Akande has every reason to panic because the issue of eligibility for election into the office of the President has been settled by the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999,  as amended  which provides as follows;

    137. (1) A person shall not be qualified for election to the office of President if –

    (b) he has been elected to such office at any two previous elections;”

    “President Goodluck Jonathan has been elected into office on only ONE previous occasion and is therefore not statute-barred from running.

    “It is clear that the APC is seeking to bait the Presidency to respond to it to achieve two purposes. The first purpose is to get their name into the press and gain name recognition for their party. How pathetic. The second and more important reason is to divert the attention of the public from the festering feud between Muhammadu Buhari and Bola Tinubu over the overriding ambition of the two men which is threatening to tear the new contraption which is mistakenly referred to by the gullible as a party.”

    “To the discerning, it is only a matter of time before ambition sinks the APC boat. It is only 2013 and already the big masquerades in the party are using undemocratic words like “must”, “nobody can stop” and other military terms in discussing their presidential ticket.”

    “Our advice to the APC is this: treat your party like a democratic association and don’t mistake it for the Armoured Personnel Carrier (APC) that someone used to force his way to power.” It stated

  • Some PDP’s frailties that should leapfrog APC to power

    Some PDP’s frailties that should leapfrog APC to power

    Billions, no longer millions at which eyes used to pop and for which a distinguished FEDECO Chairman said he would have collapsed, now reads like pennies in PDP’s corruption odyssey.

    Corruption in Nigeria diverts financial resources from building roads, and bridges, curtailing the development of infrastructure that is needed to make Nigeria more competitive. It drains the federal treasury of funds that could do wonders in expanding and improving the education provided to millions of Nigerian children which, in turn, would enhance Nigeria’s economic future. Corruption forestalls additional spending on medical clinics and preventive health-care spending that countless studies have shown reap long-term economic rewards for a country when properly implemented. In short, corruption is a scourge that undermines virtually everything that could move Nigeria towards a brighter economic future.’ – Jeffrey Hawkins -U.S Consul-General

    For its frailties, which I define as inherent moral turpitude leading to inability to resist evil, top of which is corruption, of both material and the entire Nigerian governmental apparatus, the Peoples Democratic Party ought to have been dead a thousand times and more. That the party, consisting of an amalgam of those elder statesman Tunji Braithwaite described as ‘rats and cockroaches’ during the Second Republic, is still alive and kicking is due, not to the patronage and racketeers which cohere it, but the in-explainable inability of the opposition political parties to have massed against it when that was the earnest wishes of a majority of Nigerians.

    One thing that needs be emphasised from the very beginning is that this has little or nothing to do with the person of President Jonathan, a decent gentleman, as corruption is ingrained in the party’s DNA. Nobody within PDP today can tame it. It currently has very experienced octogenarians at its policy-making levels which should ordinarily translate to a more nuanced party management but what do we have? As the Yoruba would say:’kaka ki ewe agbon de, lile lo nle si’, meaning that, rather than the coconut leaf getting softer, it’s getting tougher by the day. Corruption has become the party’s raison d’etre and this manifests in every segment of our national life.

    The Nigerian Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI), under the lead of a very forthright Nigerian attorney, Ledum Mitee who, but for God’s mercy, would have long been consumed by the forebears of these roaches, has again presented its Audit Reports in compliance with the requirement of the global Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) covering the period 2009-2011.

    It reeks of nothing but corruption. And as is usual, the culpable government agencies, NNPC and PPRA, the latter in particular, have been fighting to the death to salvage what remains of their integrity coming on the heels of the massive oil subsidy scam in which scions of PDP leaders turned out the major culprits. Meanwhile, as has become the norm, both the EFCC and the judiciary are playing poker over that serious matter such that by the time they came up with their slaps on the wrist, Nigerians, weighed down by their daily gruelling toils, would have forgotten all about it.

    The report covered physical and process issues that characterise business activities in the industry with a view to establishing if companies actually paid what they were expected to pay and if government indeed received what it ought to receive. The report recommends that the NNPC should: ·’settle domestic crude liability of N842.7 billion adhere to due process in accessing subsidy deductions out of crude oil proceeds;. carry out a comprehensive documentation system of the records and reconciliation of volumes and value of PSCs and Carry transactions; design a system that suitably controls gas income to the Federation; confirm remittance of $3.789billion (dividends from NLNG) to the Federation Account; strengthen controls over product importation and distribution and specify a unique methodology for managing crude sales during a Trial Marketing Period’.

    It should be noted that some of the above, where they are not direct thefts, are wonky systems put in place to facilitate stealing from the national treasury. PPRA is to remit N4.423 billion to the Federation Account for the period in review; a report which Reginald Ibe, its Executive Secretary, as should be expected, has disputed as if Nigerians do not know that agency enough.

    As is now well known, the PDP, for purposes of 2015, will never have the political will to deal appropriately with these well documented acts of non-transparency. As with the pension fund and the humongous oil subsidy fraud, so shall it be with the NEITI Audited Report.

    Nor is corruption the only issue APC should leverage on to send PDP to where it rightly belongs in historical infamy.

    The other day I laughed my heart out at the spectacle of our dear President at the wheel of a Land Rover besotted by a swooning array of well decorated PDP women in a scene so reminiscent of Mr Bode George’s court days. A few questions immediately crossed my mind about this ‘Sagamu road-show’, as my brother, and colleague columnist, Dr Jide Oluwajuyitan, has described it: Don’t these otherwise innocent women know that their zone of the party has long been forgotten by the powers that be in Abuja? I also wondered what became of then President Obasanjo’s no less imaginative ‘road show’ as he flagged off the Ibadan-Ilorin road as Baba Adedibu held court in Ibadan and elsewhere? Is the road now completed a decade after? Then I remembered the delectable and hard-working Mrs. Deizani Alison-Madueke then of the Works Ministry who, overcome by her lachrymal glands, cried like a baby whose milk was snatched, bemoaning the sorry state of the Ore-Benin Road post N300Bllion.

    Honestly, in ‘Mummy land’ – apologies music impresario Lagbaja, I think our ‘mumu e don do.’

    Worse though is the fact that nothing suggests,given PDP’s track record, that the Lagos-Ibadan Express Way project will ever be competed even if it rules for its chimerical 60 years. I quote Oluwajuyitan, again,to buttress this view point. Wrote Jide in his column in The Nation of Thursday , August 8: ‘The Presidential Projects Assessment Committee (PPAC), set up in March 2011 to look into cases of abandoned federal government projects claimed that there were 11,886 abandoned projects that will cost an estimated N778 trillion to complete…’ More interesting is the fact that many of these abandoned projects are located within the really favoured territories of the PDP , namely: the 400 metre long Utor bridge along Asaba-Ebu-Uromi road awarded in 2006, the 36 kilometre Bodo-Bonny road in Rivers state, awarded in 2002, the abandoned 285 NNDC projects not to mention the never- never East-West road which has not only pitted the Rivers State governor against the Niger Delta Affairs Minister but has ensured that foot soldiers have already been conscripted in Burutu, Warri, Ughelli, Ozoro and Asaba, in what should be the mother of all wars between respected Chief Edwin Clark and his son,the wannabe governor, Godsday Orubebe, two unmatchable supporters of Mr President.

    If all these are happening in the President’s geo-political zone, I do not think the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway stands a ghost of a chance of completion. After all,morning, they say, shows the day, and we already saw enough ruckus on that road. What that expansive ceremony and project would most probably achieve will be easy campaign funds, nor would that be the first time.

    If the above are material and measurable damages to our common wealth, the PDP had also ensured they damaged Nigeria so morally that an international pariah like Robert Mugabe, the Zimbabwean owner, could, with a wave of the hand, reject the African Union’s appointment of PDP’s one-time Chairman, Board of Trustees, and Nigeria’s, unarguably, most remarkable living statesman -Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, to lead its observer team to that country’s recent election. Mugabe did not have to think twice – no thanks to PDP’s record of ignominious election charades.

    The above are obviously only a small fraction of the multitude of PDP’s infractions which the new party should adroitly exploit in getting rid of PDP; a party which inner peace has long deserted as there is no moral authority within it any longer. Billions, no longer millions at which eyes used to pop and for which a distinguished FEDECO Chairman said he would have collapsed, now reads like pennies in PDP’s corruption odyssey.

    APC leaders, officials, members and Nigerians in general, must rise up like one man/woman, as has been elegantly canvassed by Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila,leader of opposition in the House of Representatives, and take ownership of this party which is destined to re brand Nigeria.

  • How flammable is Nigeria?

    How flammable is Nigeria?

    Nobody wants to leave Nigeria for as long as the oil continues to flow, regardless of predictions from prophets inside and scientists outside the country.

    In the last two days, leading politicians in our country have been reacting to predictions that Nigeria stands the chance of internal combustion. In 2013 (a few weeks ago), the United States’ Army College suggested that nothing in recent times has changed the prediction in 2003 by the US Intelligence community that Nigeria might break by 2015. Local geopolitical forecasters have also been worrying that Boko Haram also has the capacity to accelerate Nigeria’s disintegration. But in response to the end of Ramadan celebration (Eid-el Fitr), President Jonathan and one of the founding leaders of All Progressives Congress (APC), have taken their time to reassure Nigerians that there is no cause for alarm, despite the country’s appearance of flammability.

    In his own message to the country’s Muslims, President Jonathan reassures citizens of the country’s stability and ‘unbreakability’: “We are not even exploiting our diversity because of the myopic views about situations. Christians and Muslims are brothers and sisters and we must live together. Those who are predicting that this country will separate based on our fault-lines as at the time of amalgamation by 2015, they will know that these predictions will not be true.” Correspondingly, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu called for prayers to ensure that “the predictions of doom, hardship, political instability and religious intolerance will not come to fruition,” adding: “Nigeria is not a broken case. It is redeemable and only the people can make this change happen by voting right and wisely.” Nigerians must feel encouraged that two of the country’s leading politicians are not cowed by predictions about the country’s break-up.

    A recent book by John-Andrew McNeish and Owen Logan, titled Flammable Societies: Studies on the socio-economics of Oil and Gas includes an essay by Femi Folorunso: “A country without a State?: Governmentality, Knowledge and Labour in Nigeria.” Flammable is used in the book to refer to the socio-economics of oil and gas. But Folorunso in his own essay uses flammable in two senses: metonymic and metaphoric. He addresses the metonymic dimension by underscoring the impact of exploitation of oil and gas on the life of the average Nigerian. He also uses ‘flammable’ connotatively when he addresses the theme of a country without a state, a political space that appears bound to failure because of bad governance.

    Predictions cannot break a country. It is the action or inaction of those charged to govern a country that can cause its disintegration. Nigerians have no reason to be afraid of predictions coming from home or abroad about the future of the country. Several soothsayers and prophets in Nigeria have predicted doom for too long, without any of their predictions coming to pass, particularly predictions by religious prophets who are wont to laying claims to prescience and clairvoyance. Nigerians have gotten used to local Cassandras whose forecasts of doom for politicians and the polity have generally come to naught.

    What Nigerians have not gotten used to are predictions from outside the country by professional analysts who attempt to bring the predictive power of science on their forecasts. The prediction in 2003 from the U.S. Intelligence community and the latest one from the U.S. Army College must have gotten the attention of Nigeria’s leaders. When the 2003 prediction first came out, General Olusegun Obasanjo dismissed it as nothing for anyone to worry about. Again, the recent one from the U.S. Army College seems to have gotten to our leaders. This explains why two of the country’s most important politicians, Jonathan and Tinubu, have chosen to use this year’s end of Ramadan festivities to reassure citizens not to panic and to remain as optimistic about the territorial integrity of their country as they have always been since 1960.

    Citizens ought to know by now that Nigeria cannot disintegrate, despite the recurrence of political, social, and economic storms the country experiences intermittently. The reasons are not far to fathom. oil and gas, natural causes of combustion, serve as lubricants to oil and grease the creaky joints of the Nigerian State-nation. There are two sides to the coin of greasing of the engine of the Nigerian State. On the one hand, members of the ruling class derive too much benefit from oil and proceeds of oil for them to want to push the country into the sea. Those from various parts of the country who own oil blocks and have acquired property in prime lands in different parts of the country from oil and gas know better than they show when they threaten fire and brimstone. The saying that Nigeria knows how to avoid disaster and disintegration is not an exaggeration. Most of the country’s political and cultural leaders know where their bread is buttered. Many of them will even be afraid to want to rule a Nigeria without petroleum.

    On the other hand, the average Nigerian is able to live on just one dollar per day, not because of efforts by the government, but as a result of the existence of oil and gas in the country! Without oil and with the kind of government the country has been saddled with since the 1970s, it would not have been possible for any Nigerian to eat on a daily basis a loaf of bread or a plate of rice without any form of protein. The little that trickles down from the class that perceives itself as the owner of Nigeria is another thing that has prevented disintegration. It is not surprising when scholars raise the issue of Resource Curse in relation to Nigeria’s petroleum and mismanagement of the country that both leaders and followers retort with: “Thank God there is oil.” Nobody wants to leave Nigeria for as long as the oil continues to flow, regardless of predictions from prophets inside and scientists outside the country. And no matter how hard the polity is heated or security is challenged by Boko Haram, Niger Delta militants, and even the country’s Kidnappers Incorporated, nothing untoward is likely to happen to our republic of petroleum. Nigerians have reasons to believe their president when he says there is no cause for alarm. They should know that it is a waste of intellectual and emotional energy to think or write that Nigeria is on the brink, on account of its many crises of bad governance and under-development.

    The country’s political rulers and their cultural counterparts know that it does not matter what they do or not do, the country has come to stay, for as long as oil flows from the wombs of the land and its adjoining sea. Our leaders know that they do not need to respond to what Femi Folorunso characterises as the impact of governance on sovereignty, citizenship, and development in a country troubled by resource curse. Even citizens themselves have been numbed or dumbed down by the manna from petroleum and gas. It appears that nobody needs to worry about anything, for as long as Nigeria is able to sell enough oil to lubricate the engine of its continuity as a state-nation. The country’s (taken for granted) territorial integrity will be further guaranteed by free and fair election in 2015, if only to give citizens unfettered choice to choose those to govern them.