The Nation Newspaper

Tag: chides

  • Nnamani chides Fayose for ‘senseless criticisms’

    Nnamani chides Fayose for ‘senseless criticisms’

    The Senator Ken Nnamani-led Electoral Reform Committee’s maiden public hearing yesterday began in Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital.

    Nnamani criticised Ekiti State Governor Ayo Fayose for “engaging in a brand of criticism that does not require intelligence to carry out”.

    He added that Fayose’s criticisms lack wisdom and infringed on people’s  rights and freedom of association.

    The former Senate President spoke during a stakeholder’s forum at the June 12 Cultural Centre, Kuto, Abeokuta.

    Fayose had dismissed the committee as a body whose efforts at electoral reform in Nigeria is “dead on arrival”.

    The governor, who was represented by a member of the House of Assembly, Idowu Omotoso, had criticised the committee and called on the chairman to resign on the grounds that  he was a member of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).

    According to Fayose,  an independent person should  lead the committee.

    “If this government is actually serious about electoral reform, then the chairman of this committee should resign and allow an independent person take over.

    “Senator Ken Nnamani is a Southeast regional leader of APC and hence incapable of rising above primordial and party sentiments to give us anything different from electoral inconclusiveness that we have at the moment.

    “The only time this country made an attempt at reliable Electoral Reform was during the tenure of President Umaru Yar’Adua who appointed retired Chief Justice Mohammed Uwais as the chairman.

    “This singular move gave the panel credibility, widespread acceptability and massive supports from all over the country and across political divides,” Fayose said.

    The governor identified INEC, the police and other security agencies as the “major problems of Nigeria’s electoral system”.

    But the ex-Senate president responding to Fayose’s diatribe, said the governor’s criticism makes no sense since the report of the committee would still be debated by the National Assembly, whose membership consisted of people from various parties.

    The APC chieftain questioned Fayose’s representative, wondering if the bills passed at the House of Assembly are for PDP members  alone since the party dominated the Assembly.

    Nnamani said: “It doesn’t require any intelligence to criticise.

    “The governor feels that since Nnamani is no more in PDP, he is going to make sure that the report would favour APC, that doesn’t make sense because the report will still go to Mr President and the National Assembly.

    “So far, we don’t have independent candidates in the National Assembly. You don’t go there to talk about the party, it concerns the people, it is the people that will legitimise what we agreed upon here.

    “The easier thing to do is to criticise, the guy who represented the governor I wanted him to be here since he said he’s the chairman of a committee, I don’t know if they make rules that the bills they pass is purely for PDP..”

    Opening the hearing, Ogun State Governor Ibikunle Amosun said the electoral reform was timely considering the fact that INEC had just released its timetable for the 2019 election.

    Amosun challenged the committee to come out with meaningful solutions that would ensure the electoral system conforms with global best practices.

  • Bobbi Kristina’s aunt chides doctor

    Bobbi Kristina’s aunt chides doctor

    This is not about the medical attention given to Bobbi Kristina, ailing daughter of late Whitney Houston. Leolah Brown, aunt of Kristina is pissed at Dr. Phil for making it seem Nick Gordon, the latter’s boyfriend, is a poor soul who needs help, by giving him hearing in private.

    Nick is under criminal investigation as a suspect in the case of Kristina, who was rescued from drowning in a bathtub. She has remained in a coma in the last three weeks.

    Leolahindignantly went on Facebook Saturday night and railed on the TV show for giving Gordon a platform, saying, “We have strong evidence of foul play.  Until this investigation is completed by law enforcement, I would ask that you or anyone else not provide this individual a platform to spin this situation to his benefit.”

    The the criminal investigation was launched when authorities found injuries on Kristina’s body after she was dragged out of the bathtub.  Gordon has refused to be interview by cops or tell the Brown family what happened.

    Leolah added, “If Nick Gordon does not have the courage to speak with my brother Bobby Brown and/or law enforcement about what happened the day my niece’s body was found in a bathtub, he does not deserve to have a platform to speak to anyone of your caliber until this investigation is concluded.”

    Dr. Phil did an intervention with Nick, who says he’s constantly high on booze and Xanax.

  • Kalu chides Abia PDP stalwarts

    FORMER Abia State Governor Orji Uzor Kalu yesterday slammed members of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the state, led by Governor Theodore Orji.

    The politicians at the weekend were at the party’s national headquarters in Abuja to plead with the new chairman, Alhaji Adamu Mu’azu, not to allow the formalisation of Kalu’s re-admission into the PDP.

    In a statement by Kalu’s media adviser, Ebere Wabara, the former governor described the so-called ‘stalwarts’ as “cowards and renegades, bent on pulling the hands of the clock back out of sheer ignorance and pecuniary enslavement.”

    “Gen. Ike Nwachukwu, who was directed by his governor-benefactor to speak on the team’s behalf, is a spent force. He is politically-irrelevant and could understandably be cowed and used by any mischief-maker for mercantilist jobs,” he said.

    Kalu added: “As for the governor, who was the leader and the state’s docile members of the National Assembly, who sheepishly accompanied him, they are anti-democracy elements, who do not mean well for the party and our state. It is unfortunate that they do not understand the new thrust of politics in the country and the PDP ethos of all-inclusive participatory regime.

    “These idle folk, who are afflicted by dementia and pettiness, need our party’s assistance to rescue them from political cesspit. As for me, these so-called ‘stalwarts’ are like bulls in the PDP china shop. They need to be quarantined away from the party’s chair.”

    He urged the new PDP chairman to “disregard such retrogressive, vicious and mischievous wild-cat interruptions, which border on duplicitous motives and crass clownishness”, adding that Mu’azu should ignore them in the party’s interest.

  • CPC chides Okupe over comment on Buhari

    The Senior Special Assistant to the President on Public Affairs, Dr. Doyin Okupe came under fire yesterday from the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) over his comment that former Head of State, Gen Muhammadu Buhari, lacks the power to blame the government for the attack on Emir of Kano, Alhaji Ado Bayero

    The CPC also accused President Goodluck Jonathan of encouraging his aides to insult Buhari for expressing his views.

    According to a statement in Abuja by CPC’s National Publicity Secretary Rotimi Fashakin, the party expressed sadness that the Jonathan administration has not prosecuted anybody for the Boko Haram insurgency.

    The party said a government that wants to grow should encourage positive criticism.

    The statement reads in part: “Our attention has been drawn to the utterly vitriolic response from the Presidency to Gen Muhammadu Buhari’s (GMB) statesman-like communication on the armed attack on the Emir of Kano, His Royal Highness, Alhaji Ado Bayero.

    In the said response, Dr Doyin Okupe, the Presidential aide on Public Affairs, was reported to have described GMB’s statement, which aptly mentioned the constitutional provision that the ‘purpose of government is the welfare and security of the people’, as irresponsible, reckless and opportunistic. It is never surprising that Dr Okupe’s communication is often laden on asininity and acerbic profanity, what is befuddling is the quality of leadership of the nation’s presidency that bears with such immeasurable indecency”.