The Nation Newspaper

Tag: audio

  • PMB’s audio message and national language question

    SIR: Since the release of President Muhammadu Buhari’s audio message in which he addressed Nigerians in Hausa, there have been angry reactions from every nook and cranny of the society. Understandably, the people were provoked with the address in Hausa language.

    In a nation where ethnic sentiments and bigotries have beclouded intellectual judgment, it is no surprise that his message was more likely to generate controversies and provoke reactions. These angry reactions and condemnations should as a matter of exigency, necessitate a call to revisit the national language question.

    One of the problems we are having as a nation is the lack of true identity. Otherwise, the message should not have generated controversies. Indeed, the wild criticism of the audio message in his mother tongue is an evidence of a nation that lacks true identity. Ethnic colouration had been added to his message even though the President may have made it out of innocence and good intentions to Nigerians.

    This wild condemnation brings forth these questions:  Is English language the true identity of Nigeria as a nation? What then is the pride of our nation if we elevate English which is our second language above indigenous languages in the country?

    We should know that Nigeria is not the only heterogeneous country in the world and therefore must not hide under the guise of linguistic diversity to promote English language at the expense of indigenous languages. Presently, English language is acting in the capacity of our national language because, for ethno-sentimental reasons, we have failed to reach a compromise to select indigenous languages as our national language(s).

    Switzerland today is one of the most developed countries in the world, yet they have four official languages. They made three of their four national languages official languages. Nigeria should follow in that step by making Hausa, Yoruba and Igbo official languages in Nigeria alongside English language.

     

    • Temitope Ogundeji,

    Akure, Ondo State.

  • Rivers Rerun: Wike’s leaked audio tape has confirmed our fears-APC

    Rivers Rerun: Wike’s leaked audio tape has confirmed our fears-APC

    The All Progressives Congress (APC) has said that the audio recording where Rivers State Governor, Nyeson Wike was allegedly threatening to kill electoral officers has confirmed its earlier fears about plots by the governor and the PDP to achieve victory through sinister means during the Rivers legislative rerun elections.
    In a statement signed by the National Publicity Secretary, Bolaji Abdullahi, the APC said the only logical conclusion to be drawn from the audio recording was that the victory of the PDP during the election was achieved through underhand dealing and intimidation of electoral officials.
    Abdullahi said the APC has always abhor any form of violence especially as it relates to elections or any other matter and asked security agents to do the needful and ensure that sponsors and perpetrators of violence, no matter how highly placed, are brought to justice.
    An audio recording posted by an online newspaper revealed Wike threatening not to allow some electoral officials, especially those posted to Khana to leave the state if they failed to do what they have been paid to do.
    The statement reads: “The leaked audio recording indicating the Rivers State Governor Nyesom Wike admitting to bribing some electoral officials and threatening to kill them if his instructions were not followed has confirmed the fears raised by the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the leadup to the recently conducted December 10, 2016 legislative re-run elections in the State.
    “Going by the revelations from the leaked audio recordings, it is obvious that Governor Wike may have engaged in unwholesome conducts that might have compromised the integrity of the electoral process and undermined his office as the Chief Security Officer of a state.
    “The only logical conclusion from this therefore is that the electoral victories of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) may have been achieved through underhand dealings and intimidation of officials.
    “Recall that on December 6, 2016, the APC alerted security agencies on reports of a massive arms build-up and other sinister plots that Wike and the PDP planned to execute on the day of the legislative rerun elections in Rivers State.
    “Nigerians have watched with grave concern how the process of the just concluded legislative rerun election has led to the death of ordinary citizens in the state including security officers. The statement that Governor Wike appeared to have made on record has now pointed directly at where responsibility should be placed for the violence that attended the election.
    “It is also evident that the allegations by the Rivers State government and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) of an assassination threat on Wike and the allegation by Wike that APC Governors funded violence in the state during the election might have been deliberately contrived to cover-up the role that the Governor had played in the violence that attended the election.
    “The APC condemns any form of violence as it relates to elections or any other matter. In this instance, we urge security agencies to do the needful and ensure that sponsors and perpetrators of violence, no matter how highly placed, are brought to justice.”

  • APC renews call for probe of Ekiti alleged audio rigging tape

    APC renews call for probe of Ekiti alleged audio rigging tape

    The All Progressives Congress (APC) has renewed its call for a comprehensive probe of the alleged Ekiti audio rigging tape released by an army captain who recorded it.

    Its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, in a statement in Lagos yesterday, said it was wrong for anyone to label the tape a fake without a forensic investigation.

    The party noted that the issues exposed by the tape were too grievous to be swept under the carpet or dismissed on the basis of nothing, but gross partisanship.

    The investigation, APC stated, was necessary because of the alleged role the military played in the whole rigging scenario, and against the background of the court ruling against the deployment of troops for elections.

    ‘’If the government officials and politicians, whose voices were heard on the tape are not interested in clearing their names, what about the military institution that was dragged into the show of shame? Has the integrity of the military not been compromised by the alleged role of a general and hundreds of his troops in the rigging saga?’’ APC queried.

    The inconsistency of the Federal Government’s response to the whole saga, the party added, has exposed its underbelly and made it more urgent for a forensic investigation of the tape to be carried out.

    “First, those whose voices were heard on the tape rushed to deny there was any such meeting. Later, after they were confronted with a preponderance of evidence, they started owning up one by one, starting with Police Affairs Minister Jelili Adesiyan, then Minister of State for Defence Musiliu Obanikoro and then Ekiti Governor Ayodele Fayose, even though they all denied the meeting was about rigging. Of course, Nigerians know better.

    “But these men, on the basis of their initial denial, are no longer credible as far as the rigging tape is concerned, hence it is necessary to have an independent investigation of the whole issue,” it said.

    APC said while President Goodluck Jonathan had rushed to dismiss the authenticity of the tape, telling the Wall Street Journal “it’s all fabrications”, his campaign spokesman Femi Fani-Kayode said the exact opposite: “We have listened to the audio clip and we make bold to say that the discussion that took place in it did not make any mention of any form of rigging in the Ekiti State governorship election and neither did it contain any evidence of any conspiracy to rig.”

    The statement queried: “Can anyone listen to a non-existent audio tape? This confusion in the government circles is the clearest indication yet that they were so panicked by the revelation that they could not fashion out a coherent response to it, hence the discordant notes by the major culprits and their oga at the top!

    ‘’We sympathise with them, but we are more worried about the effect this revelation will have on a respectable national institution as the military, which was dragged into the rigging mess. This is why even the military itself must carry out its own investigation.

    “If an Army General could be so bullied into submission by political partisans, to the point where he said he will cry, what will they not do to any other military officer or men? Does this whole rigging saga not call into question the role of the military in elections?”

    The party vowed not to allow the issue to be swept under the carpet in the interest of the nation, praising the media and the citizenry for sustaining the discourse on the rigging tape.

  • Fayose admits voice in rigging audio clip

    Fayose admits voice in rigging audio clip

    •Urges Fayemi to go to court  

    Ekiti State Governor Ayo Fayose has admitted that his voice was one of the voices heard in the rigging audio clip.

    An Army officer, Capt Sagir Koli, recorded the voices of Fayose, former Minister of State for Defence Musiliu Obanikoro, Police Affairs Minister Jelili Adesiyan, Osun State PDP governorship candidate Iyiola Omisore and Brig.-Gen. Aliyu Momoh allegedly strategising on how to use soldiers to manipulate the elelction.

    But Fayose  denied discussing a rigging plot, adding that “he was accusing Gen. Momoh of conniving with the All Progressives Congress (APC) to rig the election”.

    The governor challenged his predecessor, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, to go to court and prove that the military and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) colluded to rig the June 21, last year, governorship election.

    Fayose also challenged Fayemi to produce the soldiers, who participated in the alleged electoral malfeasance in court and insisted that the soldiers must produce evidence to back up the allegation.

    The governor was reacting to the ex-governor’s explanations on an ADABA 88.9 FM programme, “APC Change Hour,” in which Fayemi said some soldiers were ready to give evidence in court.

    The audio clip, which has gone viral on the Internet, was aired on the programme.  Fayemi said the second part would soon be released.

    But Fayose accused Fayemi of “grandstanding and playing to the gallery”, saying the former governor should go to court to prove his allegation.

    The governor, who itemised the areas he would want the soldiers to prove, said his predecessor was only trying to undermine the election adjudged by local and international observers as free, fair and credible.

    He said: “The soldiers should give evidence and explain where and how they were instructed to rig the election, if they were instructed to thumb print ballot papers, or if they were instructed to snatch ballot boxes. How many of such ballot papers did they thumb print and how many boxes did they snatch?”

    Fayose

    He said: “The problem with my predecessor is the defeat he suffered in the 16 local government areas. He is yet to recover from the shock, and he is fretting over the prospect of going down in political history as the first sitting governor to suffer such defeat.

    “All that Fayemi is trying to do is to undermine the election adjudged best by local and international observers.

    “I respected him before now but events after the election have exposed his character that he is not a democrat

    “In 2011, when my defeat was very glaring, just like what we have now, I did not go about disparaging the winner. Instead, I went back to prepare for the next election.

    “I say again, let him bring his soldiers who will say Fayose told them to rig election but they must show the evidence.”