The Nation Newspaper

Tag: beg

  • We beg to disagree

    •No, Governor Ortom, the local government system is not a fraud

    It is a searing irony, one whose critical interrogation could lead to the bottom of the current ills buffeting Nigeria’s local government system. Governor Samuel Ortom of Benue State had recently told news men that local councils, the third tier of government in Nigeria, is a fraud.

    Speaking from Gbamjinbi, the headquarters of Guma Local Government Area (LGA) which is his home council, he opined that the rot in the third tier of government is too deep to allow for the desired growth and development in the rural areas.

    Ortom was Chairman of Guma LGA for two years and he is currently in charge of the entire state, but he has woe tales to tell about the councils in his state: “I know a local government here where a traditional ruler in the council has 15 wives. All the wives and their children are workers of the local government. In some instances, unborn children are listed as staff of local government.

    “Go to any local government area during working days, you can hardly see up to 10 workers. But go there when they are receiving salary; the crowd always overwhelms the council.”

    These are just a few fantastical tales as told by Governor Ortom coming out of the LGAs, not only in Benue but virtually across the country.

    The rot is indeed very deep and the reason councils were created in Nigeria seems to have been long forgotten. Both the provisions of the 1976 Local Government Reforms Committee Report and Section 7 (1) of the 1999 Constitution allow the sanctity of a third tier of government that would galvanise development from the grass roots

    To catalyse this ideal, the Constitution recognises the 774 LGAs in the federation and indeed allows for direct and individual revenue allocation from the Federation Account to them. However, in the quest for probity, the funds would not go directly to the LGAs but would be warehoused in joint accounts with state governments. This would be managed jointly for the benefits of each LGA and under the oversight of each state House of Assembly.

    But this noble objective has long been bastardised and now operates in total breach of the letter and spirit of the stipulations of the Constitution.

    What has happened since 1999 at the inception of the 4th Republic is that state governments (read governors) have managed to repudiate the meaning and essence of the third tier, hijacking, viring, manipulating and misappropriating LGA funds. It has degenerated to the point that LGAs which ordinarily have enough monthly allocation from the Federation Account to pay salaries and carry out development projects cannot pay salaries today. That is how bad it has become.

    And even worse: many LGA offices across the country are now overgrown by weeds, with just foot paths snaking to some offices. The pay roll is long but the workers are few. Even then hardly any work is done. But on pay day, offices are packed full with crowd, including ‘ghosts’ crawling out of every wood-work.

    This is the juncture we are in today – at the tragic end-stage of Nigeria’s third tier of government. This also explains why there is so much turbulence in the polity – acute poverty especially in the hinterland, insecurity, heinous crimes, insurgency and militancy. The virtual collapse of LGAs has left the polity with vast swathes of ungoverned and indeed unmanned territories where terrorists, kidnappers, cultists and robbers enjoy unfettered rein.

    It is this situation that Governor Ortom bemoans and describes as a fraud. We disagree. It seems he would rather neglect the fact that the LGA system has been  damaged largely by governors who have hijacked the allocations due them; who have refused to be accountable and who all seem to favour the current aberrant situation they have created.

    We urge Governor Ortom to stop living in denial; he can elect to be exemplary and do the right thing.

  • Pass our bill, disabled persons beg Ogun Assembly

    Physically-challenged persons in Ogun State have appealed to the House of Assembly to quickly pass the People Living With Disability Bill.

    They said this will enhance their chances of survival without resorting to begging.

    They said the bill if passed into law, among other things, would empower the Executive to create a special ministry with a special budget to cater for their needs through payment of monthly stipends.

    The group, which spoke under the aegis of Joint National Association of Persons Living With Disability (JNAPLWD), said its members “don’t want to beg anymore or be seen as beggars again”.

    It urged the lawmakers to expedite action on the bill.

    According to them, the bill was first presented to the House 16 years ago.

    The President of the Ijebu – Ode Local Government chapter, Keshinro Olaitan, spoke at an empowerment programme organised by an All Progressives Congress (APC) House of Representatives member, Kehinde Odeneye.

    Odeneye donated a tricycle  to Keshinro, which was presented by Deputy Governor Yetunde Onanuga at the Dipo Dina International Stadium, Ijebu -Ode.

    Twenty others got tricycles, 40 got motorcycles. Hundreds of sewing machines, domestic gas cylinders, hair dryers, barbers’ tools, power generators and grinding machines were also given out.

    Odeneye, representing Odogbolu, Ijebu – Ode and Ijebu – North East, said the budget was well scrutinised and “controversial” portions expunged, adding that what was left when effectively implemented, would “earn Nigerians the benefits of change”.

    He pledged to do more to empower his people not only those from his constituencies but also for Ogun East Senatorial district – comprising six local governments.

  • The right to beg (2)

    The right to beg (2)

    In the past week, the right to alms received a shot in the arm. It was Senator Shehu Sani’s shot at Kaduna State Governor Nasir El-Rufai. Sani supported almsgiving and clobbered Rufai as an anti-revolutionary.

    I was already contemplating this second instalment of my last week’s comment when Sani’s broadsides hit the news waves. I expected something new, sudden and even rigorous from his cerebral mind. He has been a mainstay of the civic battles of the North and has managed to present himself as a fighter not only with dignity but also for the dignity of others.

    We recall with gratitude his interventions in the tempestuous days of Boko Haram when they hoisted flags and burned towns and slaughtered human flesh and skewered virgins. He earned the people’s right and other Nigerians’ nod in his election as senator.

    But his words on El-Rufai’s policy on beggars reflect what happens to men when they swivel from activists to partisans. They lose the virtue of evenhandedness and fall into temptation. He said El-Rufai’s policies were anti-people, and the governor had decided not to appoint his (Sani’s) loyalists in office. Cutting bureaucracy, bringing faith rather than fraud to hajj, pruning expenditure and other El-Rufai policies cannot amount to anti-people policies.

    I expected his take on the almajiri issue to come with the candour of detachment and reflect legitimate logic. But the partisan wars between him and El-Rufai will unveil in the coming years. But my concern here is the almajiri hobgoblin.

    The El-Rufai take brings to mind the crises of change, and the way we effect change determines whether it works or not. It invokes Wole Soyinka’s play, Death and The King’s Horseman, a play some critics regard as the best work of his career. I think differently though. But it is a matter for another day. In his introduction to the play, the Nobel laureate ribbed commentators who reduced the theme to a “clash of cultures” and he described them as lazy. He, however, saw his work as embodying various themes relating to the tension of transition, and that is how I have seen that great play of audacious experimenting, poetic flourish and luminous characters.

    In the play, the royal is on his way from the world of flesh to paradise. A seductive beauty entraps him. So paradise can wait.

    Whether it is decadent or draconian, societies are often unwilling to accommodate the demands of change. That is why sudden revolutions are bloody and often fail. The French, Chinese, the so-called revolutions of the Europe in the mid-19th century did not rise up to the idealisms of their foot soldiers and dreamers. The American Revolution was not a revolution in the sense of the others because they sought to own their country. The others wanted to overthrow even the magna carta. Garibaldi. Bismarck. Cavour. Metternich.

    So El-Rufai had his heart in the almajiri’s place when he wanted them off the streets. He had done something exemplary in Abuja as minister.

    But in Kaduna, his action was too sweeping. But everyone, including Shehu Sani, should cavil at today’s incarnation of the almajiri. Ironically, it was the clerics who started it that bastardised it. The almajiri were not supposed to beg when it started in the Borno area many decades ago. They were supposed to be scholars. Jesus sent his disciples out to preach. He asked them not to go from house to house for sustenance. But they should remain in the place where they had food and shelter.

    The universal beggary of today’s almajiri is an abuse of its original concept. I visited Kaduna a few years ago and studied the system and even spoke with then governor, Namadi Sambo. It was clear he was thinking a policy of gradually getting the boys of the street, and his predecessor also had begun a programme that his wife pursued as an NGO after they left office. I visited one of the schools in Kaduna devoted to some of the boys. It was a full boarding school with laboratories, libraries, etc. Some of the students told me they dreamed of the professions. Pilot, teacher, engineer, etc.

    The modest gains then had started attracting some almajiri from outside Kaduna.

    It is therefore fraudulent to say that the policy of al majiri does not need expunging. What El-Rufai needs is a strategy of containment and elimination. I also observed that a northern state alone cannot deal with the issue. It is not a Kaduna problem. It is a northern problem rooted in its feudal history. First politicians, then Boko Haram recruited them.

    As El-Rufai has noted, they are bomb couriers. Calling them suicide bombers is to incriminate them. They did not know the evil they committed.

    The children would rather be an El-Rufai or Shehu Sani than a Jugunu who leads the colony of beggars. That was the shortcoming of Aminata Sow Fall’s novel, The Beggars Strike. It does not interrogate the morality of the priests and almsgivers. If we want to give alms today, we don’t need the almajiri on the street to sate our spiritual cravings. What are the babies’ homes for, the house of the blind, deaf, disabled? What of the scholarships that we need to give to many indigent ones in our midst, and the hospital patients, etc. Such giving ennobles. To give to the al majiri is to stunt their dignity. Soyinka’s Opera Wonyosi shows no sympathy for the head of the colony, and his play looks at both the street and executive beggary. Also, John Jay’s Beggar’s Opera and Brecht’s Three Penny Opera excoriate a capitalism that enriches a few and exploits the poor.

    It is the hypocrisy of the wallet against the bowl. The rich and mighty endorse begging out of naivety. The western society found a solution by creating the welfare state, especially in the aftermath of the Second World War when more than half of Europe was flirting with communism. The Marshall Plan created a first crutch, and a well-organised system to cushion the weak followed.

    In 16th century, Holland broke out of the hold of Spain when the leaders, including William of Orange, gave their party the symbol of the wallet and the bowl. They had written a petition and a senior Spanish officer said to the woman representing Phillip 11: “Fear not madam, they are nothing but beggars.” The so-called beggars overthrew Spain and reclaimed their country. In the novel, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Victor Hugo writes an evocative chapter of the revolt of the vagabonds, including beggars and the lame to mock an insensitive society. We have to save and integrate them before they rise. That is when revolutions are sudden. Even if they fail, they carry cargoes of blood and death and years of pain.

    So to effect change, it has to be gradual, not the sort of wholesale style of El-Rufai. Yet he needs our sympathy for confronting a great wrong to a generation and a scar on our conscience. The whole North should approach it in concert and as a conscience.

  • The right to beg

    The right to beg

    A few weeks ago, Kaduna State governor, Mallam Nasir El-Rufai, delivered a bomb, and its shrapnel ricocheted all over the media and the oil industry. It was at a lecture organised by the Wole Soyinka Centre for Investigative Journalists. No stranger to controversy, the  governor suggested that the NNPC should be dissolved. It had become a cesspool of corruption, and splurges close to half of its receipts on itself.

    The speech caused quite a stir at the Sheraton Hotels venue, and later all over the country. As a discussant at the event, I intervened that such a prescription was rather sweeping. The problem, I contended, was not NNPC, but us. If we scrapped the NNPC and formed another corporation, we ran the risk of reincarnating the scum.

    NNPC did not materialise out of MARS. The leeches in its entrails are Nigerians. We need to purge Nigerians of our greed and impunity and set a standard for transparency before deciding on what step to take on NNPC. If NNPC dies from an official poison, we can bury it without instilling a new set of values. But it will be like a real-life pastiche of a movie like Jaws. The monster is killed, and a respite ensues. But in a cistern below, a little monster, its child, is born.

    It was a feisty debate before an audience of journalists, technocrats and practitioners of oil. The governor acquitted himself well as a master of broadsides.

    What struck me about his suggestion was its parallel with a step he had just taken in his home state of Kaduna. He had banned the almajiri from the streets, and he promised to construct a colony for them worthy of their dignity.

    The beggars kicked, and they did not beg the governor. They lashed at him for taking what they regarded as a high-handed step against an invaluable asset to the society.

    The irony was not lost on me. Within a week, he had taken a stand against two major heavyweights. The one, the NNPC, was temporal, and the other, the al majiri, spiritual. The NNPC represented money and the flashy lifestyle, bread and butter. On the surface, the almajiri represent bread and butter. But they are rooted in the faith of Islam, and they began as apprentices of clerics sent out to proselytise the ways of Allah and peace. They have morphed over decades as mere mendicants in the eyes of many. But those who understand their history and culture see them as integral to society’s conscience of charity.

    So, El-Rufai slammed the NNPC for its spiritual rottenness. In this regard, he wore the toga of a priest. On the other hand, he took on the almajiri as a materialist, wearing the toga of a man of the flesh.

    In both cases, he had good reasons. In the case of NNPC, he ribbed them for corruption as a spiritual cesspit. In the case of the almajiri, he wanted to save them to save the society. He contended that Boko Haram goons were using the boys as couriers of bombs and death without knowing it. So, if they were out of the reach of the goons, the society will have its berth of peace.

    The almajiri protested and they are appealing to a right often ignored by constitution mongers: the right to beg. Again, the story of the almajiri calls to mind the African classic novel, The beggars strike, by Senegalese writer, Aminata Sow Fall. It is the tradition of the power of the open bowl. In her novel, an official bans beggars and consigns them to a colony, just as El-Rufai proposed. Just as in the Kaduna case, the beggars protest. In fact, the city dwellers miss them, and line up in a long queue to give charity to the beggars. I am sure many in Kaduna, who had done good to the al majiri, are happy to have them back. Also in the novel, a holy cleric warns the government official that if he does not have them back on the streets, he will not rise to the post of vice president.

    That is the dilemma of begging. It became a case of the beggar becoming the nemesis of their tormentors who must beg them to keep his career.

    That, essentially, is the threat from the Kaduna beggars association. Their leader, Abdullahi Jugunu, an ebullient and visually- impaired figure, has become an instant celebrity as an exponent of beggary. He said almajiri lined up behind him and used their resources to fight for El-Rufai’s electoral victory, and that the diminutive governor had promised to appoint a special assistant on disability.

    He argued that they did good to society. That was the premise in Fall’s novel. They said many gave zakat, and it was essential as an article of faith.  German writer Karl Kraus once wrote that “there are people who can never forgive a beggar for their not having given him anything.”

    Begging is necessary, according to the thesis, because charity will vanish without them. The givers need the blessing of charity. It is a spiritual need. Even the Bible says those that give to the poor lend to God. The almajiri, I think, created a problem for El-Rufai, whose profile in politics rose with some of his actions as he ascended the throne. He has appointed a blind man, Mallam Aliyua Salisu, as special assistant on disability, and without a wink or nod he has allowed the almajiri back on the streets.

    That is where governance collides with culture. How does the governor handle the use of the almajiri as couriers without touching the sensitive button of faith and the poor as a class? Just as the beggars in Fall’s novel threatened to puncture their tormentor’s career, Jugunu railed that they would support his impeachment. It was life imitating art.

    It also shows how an organised lower class is more dangerous than upper class resentment. The NNPC dissolution may not have been easy if, perhaps, a Buhari dissolves it. But to flush out such a group as the almajiri takes a lot of guts. It is like standing in front of a wave. El-Rufai, never naïve in matters of politics, knows when politics flashes danger signals. Now he has to hope and pray that Boko Haram does not hit a market, a school, a prayer ground, etc. It is ironically a smaller headache than having the army of beggars erupt. Shakespeare knew that beggars are never meek. In the play King John, a character roars: “whiles I am a beggar I will rail.”

    In fact, beggars are dangerous because they organise themselves in bodies, and they have nothing to lose. Their leaders are usually fierce. Jugunu may not have the devilry of the beggars’ leader in John Jay’s play The Beggar’s Opera and its adaption by Bertolt Brecht in Three Penny opera. Both plays take jibes at the hypocrisies of capitalism, which I noted when former Jigawa State governor, Sule Lamido, cynically turned the almajiri into a class of official charity.

    The point though is that beggars are everywhere in the society, and the worst are the drones who parade the vaults of power. They offer nothing but cart away billions. NNPC was their charity. Some of them go to banks, take loans, never pay, buy jets and laugh at us from above. Those are the beggars we need to flush out first. They help sustain the almajiri system by not allowing us focus on how to mate merit to industry. Soyinka’s play, Opera Wonyosi, also adapted from Jay’s Opera, mocks both executive and plebian beggary in Nigeria.

    Perhaps El-Rufai the priest will now focus on NNPC. But he must first deliver the sinners and not point the way to hell, a la dissolve NNPC. He is one of four governors assigned to look at the maggoty edifice. We are waiting for a sustainable solution. Meanwhile, the almajiri exercise their right to beg.

  • FC Taraba beg Governor Ishyaku for funds

    FC Taraba beg Governor Ishyaku for funds

    Despite having only 18 players available for their final  training sessions and without three regular players who are nursing injuries and in national team camp, the head coach of FC Taraba, Tony Ogharanduku has told SportingLife that he has a team to face El Kanemi Warriors on Sunday.

    FC Taraba sold Olabisi Samuel to Gabros International FC while there are still issues with the future of some other first team players asthey are still owed backlog of debts but Ogharanduku has assured that the club would rebound under the administration of the Governor, Dr. Darius Dickson Ishyaku.

    The Jalingo side trained without Yau Hassan who has been recuparating from malaria illness. Meanwhile, whereabout of Abdulmalik Mohammed has been unknown since he sustained a knee injury against Dolphins in the last match while Usman Mohammed is with the U-23 national team.

    Ogharanduku told SportingLife that the current situation in the camp of FC Taraba is not all gloomy as they are very confident that Governor Ishyaku would bring back smiles to the faces of already dispirited Jalingo based side.

    “We are happy with the new administration of our  governor, Darius Dickson Ishyaku who we believe will get us working again. The immediate past administration had only done so in acting capacity but Governor Ishyaku has executive powers. I believe he will be able to address our needs.

    “Some of my players are injured and we still have one in the U-23 camp. We are very certain that we have players to face El Kanemi Warriors and our other foes in the league,” Ogharanduku told SportingLife.

    Part of the 18 players that took part in the training sessions few days ago included Abel Bobby, Kelvin Njoku and three goalkeepers, Ikechukwu Obilor, Chinedu Kawawa and Akombo Terherma among others.

  • Ebonyi deputy governor, speaker, others beg Elechi

    The crisis rocking the Ebonyi State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) yesterday took another dimension at the House of Assembly complex on Nkaliki Road, Abakaliki.

    The Deputy Governor and the party’s governorship candidate, Chief Dave Umahi, embattled Speaker Chukwuma Nwazunku and the nine lawmakers loyal to the speaker, for over three hours, begged Governor Martin Elechi to forgive them and support their political aspirations.

    The governor, his deputy, the speaker and 11 lawmakers of the 24 have been fighting over who controls the PDP in the state.

    Elechi supported the former Minister of Health, Prof. Onyebuchi Chukwu, to succeed him. The deputy governor, through the help of the national leadership of the party, hijacked the party structure from the governor with other notable politicians.

    The speaker and the 11 lawmakers plotted the impeachment of the governor to allow his deputy take over, but the purported impeachment failed, which led to the speaker writing President Goodluck Jonathan, urging him not to approve the N15 billion bond the government sought to complete major projects.

    The trouble and the unacceptability of Umahi as the choice candidate of the governor and those loyal to him, led to the defection of the governor’s aides, council chairmen, federal lawmakers, among others, to the Labour Party (LP).

    In a bid to save PDP and ensure its victory in the general elections, the deputy governor, speaker and other 11 legislators met the governor at the legislative chambers during the presentation of the 2015 budget by the governor and begged him for more than three hours to forgive them.

    A source told The Nation that the deputy governor, the speaker and others expressed their support to the Elechi administration, saying without the governor’s support, the chances of the PDP winning any of the elective positions would be slim.

    The source said: “You know the deputy governor, the speaker, Dr. Sam Egwu and others never believed that thousands of Ebonyi people, including exco members, National Assembly members, state Assembly members among other notable PDP faithful, will dump the party for the LP.

    “Today when PDP members go for campaigns and chant the party’s slogan, the response of the people is: “Labour Party, forward ever”. Worried by the development, they begged the governor.

    “The deputy governor, sensing the possibility of losing the governorship election to the LP candidate, Chief Edward Nkwegu, who hails from Ebonyi North, which has a voting strength of over 49 per cent, approached people, including the Catholic Bishop, Michael Okoro, to beg the governor on his behalf. But the effort failed.

    “Immediately the governor wrote the speaker to allow him present the 2015 budget, they saw it as an opportunity to meet him.

    “When the governor arrived the Assembly complex and wanted to move into the chambers, the speaker begged him to meet other members, who were having an executive session before the plenary.”

    He went on: “As soon as the governor walked into the speaker’s office, the deputy governor, speaker and the 11 lawmakers begged him that they wanted to meet him.

    “It was a marathon session, as everyone explained his role, which resulted in accusations and counter- accusations.

    “Another issue addressed was the financing of the campaigns of the candidates, as most of the candidates said they lacked money to prosecute the elections.

    “The governor, being a man of peace, although decried the roles the politicians played in destabilising his administration, said the discussion would be concluded after the budget presentation and passage.”

  • AFCON 2013: Eagles beg Dangote, Uba to redeem pledges

    AFCON 2013: Eagles beg Dangote, Uba to redeem pledges

    Super Eagles players have sent passionate pleas to business mogul Aliko Dangote and oil magnate Ifeanyi Uba as well as others who have made pledges to the team for winning the 2013 Africa Cup of Nations in South Africa in February to redeem their pledges.

    Two prominent Europe-based Eagles and two top officials of the team told SportingLife in confidence that some of the pledges made by prominent persons in the society have not been redeemed.

    A Super Eagles defender disclosed, “We are happy that the Federal Government has made us happy and proud by promptly redeeming its pledges and even backed it up with national honours. We are very grateful and this will spur us on to put in our all to win the 2014 World Cup ticket. But we are pleading and using this medium to remind our amiable and respected fathers like Aliko Dangote, Ifeanyi Uba, Alhaji Ishiaku Rabiu, Cross River State and other prominent Nigerians to redeem the pledges they made”, he pleaded.

    A top official of the team who also spoke on condition of anonymity also told SportingLife, “We are just trying to remind prominent Nigerians that have made pledges to us to please honour their words. We know that they might have been delayed as a result of logistics or otherwise. But redeeming these pledges would go a long way in encouraging the players to do more since we are playing 2014 World Cup qualifiers and we also have the FIFA Confederation Cup to play on.

    The other top Eagles official also reeled out the pledges made by these prominent Nigerians. “Alhaji Aliko Dangote promised us N300 million, Chief Ifeanyi Uba made a pledge of $500,000, Alhaji Ishiaku Rabiu also made a pledge of $500,000 while the pledge of N25 million made by Cross River is yet to be redeemed”, the team’s top official revealed.

    He also showered praises on the Federal Government for setting the ball rolling by the FG’s largesse which was awards and cash prizes. “The Federal Government has really surprised us with its awards and cash gifts. We are also very grateful to the Chairman of Globacom, Chief (Mike) Adenuga for honouring the team in a big way. We can’t forget the support of the Lagos State Governor Babatunde Fashola, Chief Emeka Ofor, Cadbury PLC and also Akwa Ibom State for fulfilling their pledges”, the source thanked the above mentioned personalities, states and companies.

  • Sharks FC JOB: Port Harcourt elders beg Eguavoen

    Sharks FC JOB: Port Harcourt elders beg Eguavoen

    Former U-23 National Coach, Austin Eguavoen has accepted the pleas of prominent indigenes of Rivers State to continue as Technical Adviser of Sharks FC.

    The club’s inability to meet its obligations made Eguavoen consider quitting.

    But an insider on Thursday informed SportingLife that the intervention of the Commissioners of Sports and Justice made Eguavoen reconsider his decision.

    “This was done on Tuesday with the Commissioners appealing to Austin to resume in Kaduna for Sharks’ Week 2 League Fixture against Kaduna United which was played on Thursday afternoon,” said the source.

    The Coach travelled on Wednesday from Benin where he resides en-route Abuja where he spent the night and arrived in Kaduna before the commencement of the match. Instead of sitting on the bench with his assistants, Eguavoen preferred to watch from the stands.

    “Even Eguavoen’s salaries and signing-on fees have not been paid since he was unveiled late last year in Port Harcourt. But with what we have heard that the government has promised to look into all the issues affecting the club, it shows we should be hopeful,” said SportingLife’s source.

    According to the source, Eguavoen’s signing-on fee should be in the neighbourhood of N25m.

    Meanwhile, four players made their first start in the 2012/2013 NPFL season against Kaduna United yesterday at the Ahmadu Bello Stadium, Kaduna.

    The four players included goalkeeper Uche Jonah who is making his debut appearance in top flight league.

    The bulky goal keeper is amongst the players discovered at the Governor Amaechi street soccer championship last year. Others are Mani Usman, Hilary Chukwu and Stanley Okoronkwo who all started from the bench in the 2-1 win over Warri Wolves in week one.

    First choice goalkeeper Ikechukwu Ezenwa finds solace on the bench

    Absentees in the team that was in the party against Warri Wolves are Junior Osagie and George Amakiri.

  • Modu Sheriff, Yerima beg to join PDP

    Modu Sheriff, Yerima beg to join PDP

    Apparently scared by the planned merger of the major opposition parties ahead of 2015,the immediate past governor of Borno State, Alhaji Ali Modu Sheriff, and ex-governor of Zamfara State, Alhaji Sani Yerima, have approached the PDP for accommodation in the ruling party.

    The two stalwarts of the All Nigeria People’s Party (ANPP) on Thursday held secret talks in Abuja with the national chairman of the PDP, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur, to seek his consent for them to join his party.

    The Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN),Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) and the ANPP are the key parties in the merger talks.

    Sheriff,Chairman of the ANPP Board of Trustees (BoT) and Yerima,according to sources, are frustrated by their inability to stop their party from merging with the others.

    But while Tukur appeared disposed to having Yerima in the PDP, he was not excited by Sheriff’s planned defection.

    It was gathered that Tukur was uncomfortable with the alleged implication of Sheriff in the Boko Haram crisis plaguing the nation.

    Boko Haram’s main operation base is Borno.

    Sources said the situation made Tukur “not to make any categorical commitment” to the former governor of Borno State .

    The two former governors were said to have met with Tukur between 8pm and midnight in the residence of the PDP chairman in Wuse II, Abuja.

    At the session, the two former governors made an “offer to join the PDP” and assist it to win the 2015 poll.

    It was learnt that upon arrival, the former governors were received by a top aide of the National Chairman of the PDP who was holding a separate meeting in his expansive garden.

    But after some minutes, Tukur joined Yerima and Sheriff for a “restricted private session” on their plans.

    A source said: “The former governors came together in Yerima’s ash-colour Range Rover SUV with some carefully selected aides in a separate car.

    “But Tukur was holding court with some party leaders in his garden. A top aide, who received the ex-governors, later took them to a reserved section of the residence.

    “The National Chairman of PDP later joined the ex-governors for interaction for about three and a half hours.

    A top source in the PDP confirmed the visit of the two ex-governors. They came with a few of their aides but these aides were not part of the session at all.

    Continuing, the source said: “The former governors said they are reaching out, they are rallying round Baba(Tukur) to give him support because they have much respect for him as a bridge builder.”

    Another reliable source said of Tukur’s response: “The PDP National Chairman said he is ready to welcome anybody to the party. He said the umbrella is big enough to accommodate all Nigerians.

    “He asked the former governors to assist in restoring peace to the North and the country. If there is unity, Nigeria will move forward.

    “He added that the PDP would, however, accommodate everybody provided they will allow the majority to have their way and allow due process.”

    The source quoted Tukur as saying: “Even in Adamawa State, which is my state, majority will have their way and I will follow due process. Whoever is more popular and accepted by the people should lead.

    “I believe in due process. I will do my best to transform the PDP to give a sense of belonging to all party members.”

    It was learnt that Tukur’s disposition showed that he was not “excited” about Sheriff’s bid but he had no reservations on Yerima.

    “I think the party leadership might later meet to weigh the pros and cons of sheriff’s plan to defect to the PDP,” the source said.

    It was gathered that Sheriff’s alleged implication in Boko Haram crisis made Tukur to be more circumspect.

    The State Security Service (SSS) had on July 11, 2011 grilled ex-Governor Sheriff on his alleged link with the sect.

    One of the critical issues he was invited to help the security agencies to unravel was the circumstances behind the killing of the leader of Boko Haram, Mohammed Yusuf, and some key leaders of the sect after they had been arrested on July 29, 2009.

    Yusuf, who was found in hiding, was later killed at Giwa Barracks in Maiduguri .

    But a former cabinet member of Sheriff had said: “The governor was never arrested. He actually booked for an appointment to go and see the Director-General of SSS, Mr. Ita Ekpenyong, in my presence. He excused us, along with other aides, to go and see the DG only for us to read that he was quizzed.

    “His Excellency went to the SSS to contribute or to make input on how he felt on the situation in Borno State because this thing degenerated after he left office.

    “The ex-governor had offered public apology and at this time everybody expected that the thing would abate with that apology only for the thing to degenerate.

    “The ex-governor felt it was statesmanly to offer that apology and went to SSS to rub minds on how to arrest this thing from further degeneration.”

    A PDP source, who spoke last night, said: “I can safely say that the National Chairman was warm to the two governors. There was no case of anyone being rejected or not. You need to be fair to Tukur.

    “The PDP chairman was fair to the two former governors. The atmosphere at the session was convivial.”

    Investigation, however, revealed that the former governors ran to Tukur as part of plans to undermine the ongoing merger talks among key opposition parties in the country.

    A source involved in the merger talks said: “Yerima and Sheriff are uncomfortable that their party is involved in the ongoing merger talks. They opposed it, but majority of their members have opted for it.

    “By meeting Tukur, they are merely out to scuttle the merger talks. They want to sell out to the PDP and most ANPP members are in the picture of their secret talks with Tukur.

    “We won’t be surprised if they have leaked all the issues involved in the merger talks to the PDP. But we are not doing the merger talks in secret. Nigerians want change and we are working towards that now.

    “Whether they hold nocturnal meeting 1,000 times with the PDP leadership or not, the merger talks will go ahead. Nigerians will determine the direction of this country in 2015.”