The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Chief Obafemi Awolowo

  • Stakeholders advised on Yoruba leadership

    The Maye of Yoruba land and the Chancellor of the Oduduwa University, Ipetumodu, Osun State, Dr. Ramon Adedoyin has advised Yoruba leaders and all stakeholders responsible for appointment of leadership in the Yoruba land to tread with caution on the issue of who leads the Yoruba race.

    Speaking to reporters in Ife, Osun State the Yoruba High Chief urged the Yoruba leaders to “sheath their swords and stop washing our dirty linens in the public”.

    Speaking about the controversy that trailed the announcement of Prof. Adebanji Akintoye as the fourth elected Yoruba leader after the late Chief Obafemi Awolowo, Pa Adekunle Ajasin and Senator Abraham Adesanya, Adedoyin said Prof Akintoye was adopted recently in Ibadan, Oyo State by a group known as O’odua Redemption Alliance led by Mr. Victor Taiwo, an activist, in the presence of notable Southwest Yoruba elders including, the 135-year-old Pa Olamilekan Akekaka.

    However, suing for peace, High Chief Adedoyin said all that the Yoruba people need currently is to think positively (Yoruba Ronu). They should come together and forget all sorts of bickerings. They should, together come against the common enemies physically and spiritually for the betterment of our present and future generations.

    Read Also: The Yoruba synthesis and its abdjurators

    He said: “Unless we come together and create a formidable front against the common enemies of the land, to protect the legacies our ancestors bequeathed to us may be taxing as the enemies can only be defeated only through divine intervention.

    “I, therefore, appeal to all Yoruba elders and stakeholders of various groups to rise up and come together, embrace one another in unity for protection of our great land and future of our posterity everywhere in the world. We should be the first in every good thing, as laid down by our forefathers such as Pa Awolowo”, the Maye said.

  • Abah Folawiyo celebrates 77th birthday at Ita Giwa’s restaurant

    Friends for life! That seems the situation with Princess Abah Folawiyo and Senator Ita Giwa. So when it was time to cut her 77th birthday cake, the former chose to do it at Echoes of Calabar, her friend’s highbrow restaurant in Victoria Island.

    The guests had lots of delicious Calabar cuisines to choose from. Not many were called because it was just meant to be for family and close friends.

    At 77, Abah, the matriarch of the Folawiyo family and the doyen of Nigerian fashion, is still glowing with life and good fortune.

    Abah Folawiyo is the mother of Segun Awolowo jr, the Executive Director of Nigerian Export Promotion Council and grandson of former Nigerian nationalist, socialist and statesman, Chief Obafemi Awolowo.

    Princess Abah Folawiyo is a known philanthropist and mother to many who are not her biological children.

  • Victims and victors of the Nigerian condition

    Chief Reuben Fasoranti became a personal victim of a country he had worked very hard to improve since he became a member of the first class of the University College of London in Ibadan. And his victimhood is an unusual one. He has not personally been tortured, harassed, or unjustly detained by the state as it often happens in non-democratic states. He has been tormented vicariously through the violent death of his daughter on a national highway at the hands of kidnappers. The killing of his daughter, who was neither a politician nor an activist but a law-abiding Nigerian woman, Funke Olakunrin. along a highway in a state that Fasoranti himself had spent his intellectual energy to nurture, as school teacher, school principal, commissioner of finance in young Ondo State, leader of Afenifere, a socio-cultural organisation traditionally perceived by many Yoruba people as standing for values of Freedom for All; Life more Abundant, a home-spun slogan for ideology of social democracy for Nigeria in the era of Chief Obafemi Awolowo.

    Even in his depressed state, Pa Fasoranti is still preoccupied with his search for a good Nigeria. In the tradition of a patriotic and forward-looking elder, and with the torment of having his daughter violently killed written all over his face, he called on the country’s president in the following words: “President Muhammadu Buhari has called to commiserate with me. But all I need from the president is to find solutions to these killings in the country.” With such statement at a time of extreme personal pain arising from inadequate security in his country, he demonstrated what real patriotism calls for, a stoic response to personal pain for the sake of achieving a better public order for the larger community. This is the stuff of which tall men that this our land deserves are made.

    There must have been several victims of kidnappers whose names do not ring bells, like Mrs. Olakunrin’s in the country. Even for stellar social statisticians, it must be hard to know how many such invisible Nigerians had lost their lives to kidnappers and murderers on the highways in the last few months. Personally, I know of a relation of a close friend of mine who was kidnapped at Omifon, a few miles from where Funke was gunned down. In his own case, he was lucky to have been kidnapped and kept in the rain forest of Omifon for days until his ransom of N1million arrived from his generous church members. Details of this man’s kidnapping and suffering in the forest for four days did not get into the media because of his invisibility. It is encouraging that Pa Fasoranti’s demand from President Buhari is no longer for his daughter but for the sake of invisible men and women that may be killed if security across the land is not restored in good time.

    Paradoxically, as citizens agonise about lack of safety and security, the government commences the process of granting amnesty to illegal aliens in the country. The amnesty for illegal visitors is not to leave the country within six months of promulgation of the policy. In the words of the president, delivered by the Secretary to the Federal Government, “I am declaring a six-month amnesty period for illegal migrants already in the country to submit themselves to the Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS) for the purpose of this registration…. The registration will be carried out without any payment or penalties. I’m enjoining all migrants staying in Nigeria whether regularly or otherwise, to take advantage of the amnesty window to register with the NIS.”

    Mass amnesty for illegal migrants is, without doubt, a radical departure from killing of Nigerians, for example in South Africa and Libya. Furthermore, the president’s amnesty to yet to be numbered aliens is a radical departure from what happened to Ghanaians in 1984 when they were asked to leave Nigeria in droves. Nigeria is likely to be seen by children of Ghanaians as being unusually liberal for offering free residency permits to undocumented Africans in 2019.

    Giving amnesty to citizens is also likely to encourage the new African Continental Free Trade Agreement. But the issue is the timing of amnesty amidst the heat of the tension created by reports that many kidnappers believe or perceive to be foreigners, especially to those victims who have had the opportunity to have being within ear-shot of their abductors. Why is the federal government in a hurry to ‘e-register’ illegal immigrants that government characterised as ‘irregular migrants.’ Sunday James, Nigeria Immigration Service spokesman and a Deputy Comptroller of Immigration had told The Guardian: “It is not illegal migrants; it is irregular migrants across the country we are registering. What we are doing now is to register every non-Nigerian.”

    But what makes a migrant irregular and not illegal? Who determines how many of such irregular migrants are already in the country? What motivates the federal government to give free residence status to migrants that have not petitioned for resident’s status? Any why is the mode of registration online? These questions are important because of the security implications of unconditional amnesty to migrants who have violated the country’s laws by not presenting valid entry documents and have not themselves asked for change of status? This policy in juxtaposition with cries by citizens about insecurity can create puzzles in the minds of many citizens that the federal government needs to solve.

    Mr. James’ further comment: “People are trying to misconstrue this directive by Mr. President. People should stop giving ethnic colouration to good plans by government. It is good for Nigeria. At least, it would help in our security situation, governance and planning.” Citizens have a right to expect that it is the duty of their government to protect them from threats from Nigerian nationals and migrants from other nations—be they legal or illegal, or regular or irregular. It is not fair for public officials to assume that any time citizens complain about government policies, they do so out of preoccupation with ethnic politics.

    Immigration legislations and executive orders in all democracies are subject to input from citizens by way of debates or lodging of public complaints.  It is the duty of the government in a democratic federation to educate citizens about policies that may affect their safety and security, without being seen as spoilers by government officials. At least it is possible for people to enter Nigeria from many countries in West Africa and Central Africa. Therefore, the emphasis should not be on people who have complained just about irregular migrants of Fulani descent.  Nigerian nationalism justifies posing of questions and expression of worry about an amnesty policy that has volunteered to throw resident’s permits at fellow Africans that may not be more value-added individuals than the millions of jobless young men and women in Nigeria.

    In a democratic federation where access to land is constitutionally a state matter, how rational is it to have a policy of mass amnesty that is valid for six months and without any input from the National Assembly? Such opportunity provides opportunities to legislators from various parts of the country to suggest quota, categories of immigrants that will not add to the burden of public order and become public charge to states that are struggling to pay the new minimum wage and to reduce the number of months for e-registration. All of these posers are important to ensure that new waves of irregular citizens do not join those already inside during the six months of the amnesty.

    A time that Nigerian leaders are citing disadvantages of increasing desertification, rise in criminal acts between herdsmen and farmers at the instigation of migrants from other countries, fear of population explosion within Nigeria, and rising crisis of confidence about the country’s capacity to secure its own citizens  is not an appropriate time to have a presidential amnesty for an undetermined number of migrants—be they Yoruba from Benin Republic and Togo; Fulani from Niger, Mali, Chad Republics; and Ibibio or Ibom from the Cameroons. We need to reduce the number of Nigerian victims of insecurity before we extend unsolicited benefits to immigrants that avoided proper entry into the country. Such benefits can wait until the country is able to determine the number and preparedness of such immigrants to benefit from unconditional amnesty.

  • Elders warn against interference in Southwest PDP

    Southeast Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) elders yesterday warned against the meldding of external forces in the affairs of the party in the zone.

    They lamented that the party failed in the region becuase candidates emerged through unfair process.

    “We will insist that we will never again tolerate the interference of outsiders in the affairs of the Southwest”, said the Elders’ Causus in a comminique at the end of its meeting in Lagos.

    The communique reads in part:”The Southwest Elders Caucus met and deliberated exhaustively about the state of the Nigerian Union and particularly about the challenges in Yorubaland and thereby resolved:

    The Nigerian Union deserves peace, harmony, equity and a strengthened bond of brotherhood that will galvanize our nation to greater development and prosperity.

    All Elders, patriots, all people of goodwill across our land should speak out with courage and boldly about the perceived wrongs and the glaring imbalances in our polity.

    “We are in accord with the immortal words of the late sage Chief Obafemi Awolowo who warned in 1983 that”If the current democratic experience should collapse, those of you younger than I will never see democracy again in your lifetime no matter how long you may live.”

    “We do not pray for the collapse of our democracy. But we urge for vigilance and constant monitoring of the affairs of the state.

    “We submit that the Nigerian Union has crossed a crucial threshold in the continuous struggle for a summative identity and national wholeness.

    We insist that the recent general elections were fraught with screaming flaws, deliberate sabotage, treachery and outright banditry.

    “The present electoral processes wherein result sheets are physically carried across the nation are absolutely primitive and apparently susceptible to all kinds of distortions.

    “The apparent distortions in Yobe, Borno, Rivers, Lagos, Adamawa, Kano and several other states diminish the purity of a fledgling democratic state.

    We urge the PDP Leadership to return to the First Principle of fairness, equity and justice. The Party must embrace men and women of selflessness and instinctive sacrifice rather than encourage little people who merely serve the hour.

    “We enjoin the PDP national leadership to start rebuilding the broken places, to start rectifying the wrongs so as to heal the still festering sores.

    “We support wholeheartedly the decision of our party to seek justice in the court of law rather than withdrawing into a shell of cowardice.

    “We believe and trust in the indivisibility of the Nigerian Union where merit prevails over mediocrity, where justice triumphs over inequity, where tribe and sectarian differences are promptly discarded for the greater good of the nation.

    “Finally, we do agree with Preet Bharara, a Former US Attorney who had proposed that “the right thing must be done the right way for the right reason” This much we advise the Chairman and other management team of INEC to embrace.”

  • Yoruba leaders rally support for Buhari’s second term bid

    The Yoruba Leaders of Thought have thrown their weight behind President Muhammadu Buhari’s bid for second term in office.

    Meeting on Tuesday at the Osogbo residence of Senator Ayo Fasanmi, one of the few remaining associates of the late sage, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, they commended Buhari, his Vice, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, the national leader of the All Progressives Congress, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, and the APC national chairman, Comrade Adams Oshiomole, for taking progressives steps to actualize gradual restructuring of the country.

    Read Also:PDP to Buhari: Stop shielding corrupt relatives

    The leaders in attendance include, Gen. Alani Akinrinade (Rtd.), former vice chairman (South West) of the All Progressives Congress. Chief Pius Akinyelure, former Secretary to Osun State Government, Engr. Sola Akinwumi, former Osun State chairman of APC, Elder Adebiyi Adelowo, Prof. Anthony Onipede, Prince Tajudeen Olusi, Senator Biyi Durojaye representing Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Chief Akin Fasae representing Ekiti State Governor Kayode Fayemi, Prof. Bayo Ademola, Otunba Akin Oluwadere, and Hon. Bayo Aina, noted that the Buhari’s administration has granted autonomy to the judiciary and legislature as well as local government administration.

    They said all steps to ensure survival of institutions of government by the current Federal Government are necessary to the attainment of restructuring goal.

    The leaders hailed the governors and people of the South West for their abiding commitment to Nigeria and efforts for restructuring.

    In a communique signed by Senator Ayo Fasanmi, among other leaders after the meeting, they advised Nigerians to stand by Buhari and return him to office in 2019 for the next generation to be empowered and enjoin the gains of the fight against corruption.

    The leaders said support for Buhari will create an opportunity for the next generation to be strengthened and to be able to chart a prosperous course for Nigeria from 2019 and beyond.

    The leaders also said the summit of the Yoruba people holding in Ibadan, Oyo State capital on January 2019 will address strategy to protect interest of the South West geo-political zone ahead of 2019 general elections.

    They said the summit would further address issues and plans to ensure victory for the All Progressives Congress which the leaders said will guarantee lives in abundance for Yoruba people and Nigerians.

  • APGA chieftain urges Igbo, Yoruba to unite for Nigeria’s liberation

    A former secretary of the All Progressives Grand Alliance ( APGA ) Mr Okoli Akirika has called for unity among the Igbo and Yoruba to liberate Nigeria from its present predicament.

    He described the two tribes as progressives with the capacity of building an ideal marriage capable of liberating the country from what he called political captivity and bondage.

    Speaking to newsmen in Awka, on Sunday, Akirika asked both tribes to bury what he called the ancient grudges that existed between the late Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe and Chief Obafemi Awolowo and form the desired synergy to save the country from doldrums.

    He said, “In the Nigerian political system, the Igbo and Yoruba are progressives. Igbo and Yoruba think alike because of their level of education.

    ” The bane of their unity has always been the political rivalries between the late Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe and Chief Obafemi Awolowo.

    He also urged the two tribes not to allow themselves to be deceived that an alliance between them would not work, saying “the first and only time a Nigerian leader intentionally paid the supreme prize was when a Yoruba man ( Fajuyi) died for an Igbo, Aguyi Ironsi.

    ” Fajuyi was a collateral damage. He refused that his boss, friend and brother, Aguyi Ironsi should be killed in his domain; so he staked his life and he was killed for no sin of his.

    “So what other proof do we need to affirm that the two tribes have consanguinity and affinity.

    ” If a Yoruba man at that point in time could pay that prize with his own blood, I don’t see why the present day southeast and southwest cannot face a common political destiny in making sure a good government is elected.

    Akirika added,” Rising beyond what happened between Zik and Awo, we should not allow ourselves to become captives in our own land”.
    On the recent comment by President Muhammadu Buhari to assist the Igbo to become president of Nigeria at the appropriate time, Akirika described it as an “infantile deceit”.

    He said the Igbo should not give such comment any atom of consideration.

    He said, “We need to elect an alternative president that will see Nigeria as his primary constituency; a president who will arise above clannish thinking; who will rise against the current order of predicating appointments on acquittance , religion and tribe.“

  • Ekiti: As we inch towards 14 July

    House of War” is a chronicle of the bitter and bloody struggle for political power in Nigeria’s Second Republic, especially among the followers of the late sage,  Chief Obafemi Awolowo. It is the story of the schism in the Awo camp and how Awoists turned against one another in the great scramble for political office. The book exposes the politicians’ grand auction of principles and the political intrigues, double dealings, back stabbings, stealing of votes, arson and killings, that characterised the Second Republic, especially during the 1983 elections. It is a vital  book for those who have been following Nigeria’s new attempt to establish a worthwhile democracy since the end of military rule in 1999″.

    Written by Dare Babarinsa,  unarguably, one of Nigeria’s most resourceful media practitioners, HOUSE OF WAR is an unremitting catalogue of blood, tears, murder and mayhem – a catastrophe  that must, God willing, never be repeated  in the Southwest or anywhere in Nigeria, ever again.

    Anybody aged 50 years and above, in either  Ondo or Ekiti state would,  most probably, see the Ekiti governorship election scheduled for Saturday, 14 July 2018, with some foreboding. It was precisely that mindset  of fear that  made  Dare, the author, to call me as early as 7 am, on Sunday, 13 May, (the day immediately following  the rerun of the botched APC primaries at which Dr Kayode Fayemi emerged the APC candidate with his co -contestants congratulating him), to start pondering on how not to have a repeat of the 1983 cataclysm. Needless to say, I am generously mentioned in The House of War.

    While the essence of this article is to show that there should be no reason for a rehash of that ugly event, it is, more importantly, to plead with the real dramatis personae, Governor Ayodele Fayose and the Solid Minerals Minister, Dr Kayode Fayemi. Incidentally, I am close to both and they know why I am eminently qualified to play the role I have set my self in this piece.

    The first thing to know, which I am sure they know only too well but which their unnecessarily excited supporters may care little or nothing about, is the fact that Ekiti is one. We are a homogenous people and  therefore , all subscribe to the Omoluabi ethos. We obviously  need not do anything to warrant a recrudescence of our 1983 malady, not to talk of anything  near the Rivers state 2015 governorship festival  of  killings,  arson, decapitations  and burning of corpses . But  it takes only a spark , a rumour, a wrong word, or even a small misdemeanor to ignite a crisis of  unforeseen dimensions.

    I sound this warning because a lot is already on social media which can not help  matters going into the election. There is, for instance, the claim, by a vocal supporter of governor Fayose that the emergence of Dr Fayemi  equates to President Muhammadu Buhari  fighting Ashiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu in Yoruba land , a red herring, if anything at all.  . When I interjected to say  that Ashiwaju has not only endorsed Fayemi’s candidacy but has, indeed,  pleaded with his co -contestants,  as well as all APC members,  and supporters to rally round the candidate, he  remained ever obdurate , offering instead, to be Ashiwaju’s armour bearer, even where he hasn’t as much as ask him . This  is dangerous politics which must be stopped henceforth .

    Happily, on the other side, I have heard Dr Fayemi appeal to his supporters to treat everybody with  utmost decorum.. Governor Fayose may have to do the same.

    My advice then is that , rather than throw needless tantrums at  each other, the  two leading political  parties, in particular, should make their campaigns issue based; concentrating on what they would do to emancipate our people from poverty squalor and other debilities  as well as emphasise their developmental agenda.

    Given the circumstances, therefore, , what they can present as a guide to what they would do if elected , are the records of performance of the last two administrations in the state, that is, the performance chart of  then governor Kayode Fayemi and that of the sitting governor Ayo Fayose. These, I imagine, should be enough for the good people of Ekiti to, in their collective wisdom, make an informed choice. Fortunately, President Buhari has shown, beyond any shadow of doubt,  courtesy  past elections during his administration,  that he is neither President Obasanjo nor Jonathan, who would immerse himself in the outcome of any election. We are therefore guaranteed a free, fair and transparent election.

    Being quite  close to the APC candidate and the government he headed from 2010 – 2014, I know that none of Ekiti’s over 100 hamlets, villages, and  towns,  benefitted by less than 2, 3 or more projects from that government. I am equally aware that some  of the projects  currently being executed by the Fayose government include the Ado-Ekiti overhead bridge, the new Governor’s Office, a new High Court complex, and dualised roads among others. For Fayemi, there were roads, legacy projects, a re – engineered Ikogosi tourist centre as well as dead industries that were brought back to life, an example being the Ire Burnt Blocks industry.

    I would like to see the Professor  Eleka campaign do exactly what  Toyin  Akingbade, did on Ekitipanupo – the Ekiti intellectual web portal – this past week,  listing the projects the Fayemi administration accomplished in the Ikole Local Government Area, which he correctly says were mostly replicated in other Local Government Areas of the state. The PDP candidate would also be at liberty to include those projects, like building even toilets in schools where there used to be none, 5 kilometre or less roads, etc done by LGs as all these can only be  correctly chalked up to the incumbent government.

    I show below, the projects, as presented by Akingbade.

     

    FAYEMI’S ACHIEVEMENTS IN IKOLE

    LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA – 2010 – 2014.

    • Provision of compounding equipment for pharmacy department of state specialist hospital, Ikole Ekiti
    • Establishment of safe motherhood (ABIRO) center
    • Construction of incinerator at state specialist hospital
    • Construction of student examination hall at Ikole City College.
    • Construction of science laboratory and procurement of equipment at Ikole ,City College.
    • 23km Ikole/Ijesa Isu / Ilu Omoba Road
    • Renovation of Egbeoba high school Ikole
    • Renovation of AUD high school Ikole
    • Renovation of Holy Apostolic high school Ikole
    • Renovation of saint’s Mary Girls’ Grammar schoolIkole
    • Renovation of Ikole city college
    • Installation of 300kv transformer beside Nitel ,Ikole
    • Provision of land hand bore hole at LGA secretariat
    • Construction of toilet at Aloke primary school
    • Renovation of cold chain store pharmaceutical block and staff quarters Ikole
    • Construction of ICT center at Ologede
    • 0.529km Iloka/express road, Ikole
    • Construction of four (4)units lock-up

    shop, Olokonla,  Usin Ekiti

    • Renovation of three (3) blocks nurses

    block Ikole

    • Construction of 3 classrooms at All Saint’sprimary school  Ikole
    • Construction of 3 classrooms at Omodoke Nursery, and primary school Ona Ara
    • Construction of VIP Toilet at All saint’s primaryschool 1 Ikole
    • Construction of 4 classrooms at All saint’sprimary school, Oke Bola
    • Provision of 2 bore holes at Fatunla settlement, Ijesa Isu
    • Construction of 6 classroo ms at All saint’s primary school, Oke Bola
    • Renovation of state specialist hospital

    Ikole

    • Electrification Fatunla settlement , Ijesa Isu
    • 8km township road,  Ikole
    • Renovation of Ara community High school
    • Construction of VIP toilet at Our Saviour’sAfrican primary school, Ara
    • Construction of 6 classrooms(storey) at Our Saviour’s African primary school Ara
    • Construction of premier fence at Saint’s Stephenprimary school Ara
    • Renovation of Ayebode High School
    • Construction of science laboratory and computer room at Ayebode
    • 7.6km rural road with 3 culverts at Ayebode
    • Completion of palace at Ayebode
    • Renovation of Odundun High school Ayedun Ekiti
    • Renovation of comprehensive high school Ayedun Ekiti
    • Construction of toilet at Methodist Nursery andprimary school I and II Ayedun
    • Renovation of Odo Ayedun palace
    • 0.59km Imila road Odo Ayedun
    • 0.32km palace road Odo Ayedun
    • Extension of LT and HT electricity line

    andinstallation of 300kv 11/0.415kv substation atAyedun Ekiti

    • Construction of VIP toilet at Baptist primaryschool Odo Ayedun  Ekiti
    • Construction of premier fence at

    Methodistprimaryschool Ayedun Ekiti

    • Construction of 2 classrooms at saint’s Mark’sprimary school Ayedun Ekiti
    • 3.5km Odo-Ayedun -Ayebode-Gbodigbodifarmstead Road
    • 1.0km Odo-Ayedun -Aba Yisa farmstead road
    • Construction of classrooms and toilet at

    saint’sLuke Anglican primary school II Esun Ekiti

    • Installation of transformer at Esun Ekiti
    • 5.2km Esun Ita Oko farmstead Road
    • Blocks of classrooms at Igbona Ekiti.
    • Renovation of Igbona Ile community

    primaryschool

    • 10km road Ijesa /Ode road
    • Construction of 4 classrooms with office

    at IjesaIsu primary school

    • 0.375km Ilado/Aofin road Ijesa Isu
    • 0.520km Ilojo to Igede road Ijesa Isu
    • 0.280km Ilumoba/Ikoyi Ile road Ijesa Isu
    • Extension of LT and HT electricity line andconstruction of new 200KVA 11/0.415kvsubstation Ijesa Isu
    • Construction of police station Ijesa Isu
    • Construction of toilet at Hosannah primaryschool Ijesa Isu
    • Construction of toilet at Holy Trinity Primaryschool Ijesa Isu
    • Renovation of Ijesa Isu High school
    • Rehabilitation of 2 units faulty bore holes
    • 0.825km Township road at ikoyi Ekiti
    • Completion of basic health centre at Ikoyi

    Ekiti

    • Renovation of palace at Ikoyi Ekiti-Renovation of Elekole’s palace.-Renovation of Ara-Ekiti Community Hall.
    • Construction of basic health centre at

    Ikunri Ekiti

    • Construction of 3 classrooms at communityprimary school Ikunri Ekiti
    • Convertion of open stall to lock up shop at Ikunri Ekiti« Renovation of Irepodun High school, Ipao Ekiti
    • Construction of classrooms at community primary school, Ipao Ekiti.
    • Construction of toilet at Baptist primary schoolIpao Ekiti
    • Extension of electricity at Ilamo Ekiti
    • Construction of information centre at Ilamo Ekiti
    • Renovation of community High school Irele Ekiti
    • Establishment of gracing reserve at Irele

    Ekiti

    • Installation of transformer at Irele Ekiti
    • 11.64km Irele/ ponyan road
    • 300 m panyan bridge( longest bridge in Ekiti).
    • Construction of staff quarters at Baptist

    dayprimary school Irele Ekiti

    • Construction of toilet at saint’s peter

    primaryschool Isaba Ekiti

    • Provision of powered bore hole (New site Halluyah) Isaba Ekit
    • Construction of palm oil industry

    andprocurement of equipment at Isaba Ekiti

    • Renovation of community high school

    ItapajiEkiti« Construction of VIP

    toilet at community primaryschool II Itapaji

    Ekiti

    • Renovation of community high school

    Iyemero Ekiti

    • Construction of new market stall Iyemero Ekiti
    • Installation of transformer at Iyemero Ekiti
    • Electrification project at Iyemero Ekiti
    • Construction of 3block classrooms and toilet at Odo-Oro
    • Construction of Examination hall at Odo-Oro high school
    • Renovation of Odo-Oro high school
    • Installation of 300kv transformer at Odo Oro
    • Provision of toilet at community

    primary schoolOdo-Oro

    • 0.250km Odo-Oro market road
    • Establishment of a # 4m

    worth cassava cottage industry

    Odo-Oro

    • Construction of maternity centre

    Odo-Oro

    • Rehabilitation of township road and

    drainage atOke Ayedun

    • 5km road project Oke Ayedun
    • Construction of BSES

    booster station OkeAyedun

    • 2.5km Oke Ayedun- Igboroko farmstead road
    • Palace work Oke Ayedun« Electrification extension Oke Ayedun
    • 4km Ijasa road rehabilitation Oke Ayedun
    • Construction of toilet at central market OkeAyedun
    • Construction of  toilet at saint’s Luke Anglican primary school Oke Ayedun
    • Electrification of Oke Ako Ekiti
    • Renovation of Oke Ako high school
    • Provision of toilet at community primary schoolOke Ako
    • Construction of staff quarters at Oke Ako
    • Completion of community viewing centre Oke Ako
    • Installation of transformer at Ootunja Ekiti
    • Construction of basics health centre OotunjaEkiti
    • Construction of motorized bore hole Ootunja
    • Construction of toilet at Holy Apostolic

    primaryschool Ootunja

    • Construction of information centre at Ootunja
    • Construction of Doctors quarters Ootunja
    • Renovation of Orin Odo community high school
    • Construction of health centre including staffquarters Orin Odo
    • Construction of lock up shop Temidire
    • Installation of transformer and extension ofelectricity Temidire
    • 2 blocks of classrooms at AUD primary

    schoolTemidire

    • Construction of toilet at saint’s Paul’s Catholic primary

    school Ori Apata Usin

    • 0.325km road project at Ajibade street UsinEkiti
    • Openmarket stalls at Usin Ekiti« Construction of hand pump bore hole in all the 69 primary school in Ikole LGA.

    This information can be presented by both parties in multi media platforms for easy spread.

    Since governor Fayose’s government has a directorate of stomach infrastructure, Professor Eleka should also show the government’s programmes comparable to    Fayemi’s social safety net programmes like the  N5000 monthly stipend to 20,000 Ekiti elders, and the others, put at another 20,000 making a total of 40, 000, who were earning some money monthly during the Fayemi era.

    Finally,  there are the  two critical  issues of the state’s debt stock and payment of workers salaries  where both should  endeavour to  educate us. Given the considerable controversy surrounding the first, it should help each respective  campaign if it could publish from the records of the national Debt Management Office (DMO) which would show, not only the amounts, but the timelines  as to when the debts were accessed. This should clear all the cobwebs in the state’s public finance.

    Outstanding workers’ salsries has since become a national embarrassment. While it is obvious that Fayemi owed only Tue September, 2014 owing to no fault of his, it is believed that the sitting government owes no less than an average of 6 months. Given the present debt stock put at about N56B, it would no doubt help Professor Eleka and his campaign to let the electorate into how this came about.

    If the two  candidates would do this,  make the campaigns issue based and non rancorous, and candidates on the emerging new partied concentrated their campaign on what they have in store for us, Ekiti can effortlessly turn out the must emulate state in all future elections in Nigeria.

    In the name of God politicians should please spare us tears and blood. There must be life for Ekiti and its peoples after the election.

    Orile Ekiti a gbe a.

     

     

  • Obaseki inspects 3.5km road project in Akoko Edo

    Governor of Edo State, Mr Godwin Obaseki has assured that infrastructure development will get to all local government councils in the state, even as he promised the people of Akoko Edo Local Government Area of accelerated completion of the ongoing construction of a 3.5km-long road project in Ugboshi Afe community.

    The road, it was learnt, was tarred by the late Premier of the then Western Nigeria, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, over 60 years ago, but has since been abandoned.

    Chief of Staff to the Governor, Chief Taiwo Akerele, who represented the governor during the site tour, at the weekend, said that the project is being delivered in a fashion that belies the ‘wake and see’ approach to governance championed by Governor Obaseki

    According to him, “I appeal to communities in the state to remain calm as Mr Governor is gradually fulfilling all his promises from one local council to another.

    “It is regrettable that the people of Ugboshi Afe have had to wait for so long for this road to be constructed. But we assure them that not only will this road be constructed, but it will be delivered in good time.”

    “The 3.5km-long abandoned road is being constructed by EDSG public works programme at an accelerated pace and will be completed before the end of May 2018,” he added.

    The people of the community said they are delighted that the governor has extended the infrastructural imprints to them, noting that the state is better off with the dogged approach to delivering on the dividends of democracy.

    A member of the community, who doesn’t want his name in print, said that the project took members of the community by surprised, thanking governor Obaseki for the good gesture.

    He said, “We celebrate the arrival of the Obaseki ‘wake and see’ miracle train to our community, 60 years after Chief Obafemi Awolowo tarred this road.”

    Read Also: Obaseki reassures of Economic Expansion, urges social, political harmony

  • ARG, Afenifere back calls for restructuring, state police

    ARG, Afenifere back calls for restructuring, state police

    The Afenifere Renewal Group (ARG) on Tuesday backed calls by other groups for the restructuring of the federation to save the country from a looming implosion following many cries of marginalisation and Separatist’s agitations.

    The ARG’s Chairman, Hon. Olawale Oshun, made the group’s position known in Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital, during their Town Hall Dialogue with the theme: “State of the nation: a conversation with ARG Leadership and Yoruba Intelligentsia.”

    Oshun said Nigeria must do away with the unitary government shrouded in a veil of federalism where the Federal government controls majority of the resources to the disadvantage of the federating units.

    He added that only those profiting from the flawed federal structure being operated in Nigeria would oppose calls for restructuring, stressing that were the late Sage, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, to be alive today to observe the fate that has befallen yorubaland, he would surely weep over it.

    “The over-bearing power of the Federal government is killing the States and Local governments. States are incapacitated; they should be allowed to control their resources to develop themselves instead of being tied to the apron strip of the Federal government.

    “Everything is collapsing because everybody solely depends on what is coming from the Federal government to survive and if we don’t restructure, we will continue to remain where we are today.

    “Those who are against restructuring are those who are benefitting from the rots in government. The Federal government must cease to control resources of the States.

    “If Yoruba leaders like Chief Obafemi Awolowo and others were to be alive today to see what is happening to the Yoruba nation today, they will weep for us,” he said.

    He however advised Nigerians to go about the calls for restructuring peacefully, saying the country must return to the regional government where each region would develop at its own pace.

    According to him, the Federal Government lacks the capacity to harness the country’s resources for her rapid socio – economic growth and development.

    “We need restructuring to progress and develop, the situation where FG will collect everything and beginning to give States small things to develop their States; we need to change from that. Regions should take of their resources for their growth,” Oshun said.

    Also, a renowned Columnist, Mrs Bamidele Ademola-Olateju, urged  Yoruba nation to wake up from her slumber, declaring  that the race was living on past glory.

    Mrs Ademola – Okateju who was the keynote speaker, recalled that the Yoruba nation became the conscience of the country through education, but lamented that the region  has now taken the back seat.

    Speaking on “The Knowledge of Now: Pathways for the Yoruba,” she said the Nigerian education sector started witnessing setback after the discovery of oil in the 70s, noting that “Nigeria failed to plan for the future.”

    She also blamed the electorate for encouraging the nation’s politicians to exploit them by selling their votes.

    “A society gets the kinds of leaders they deserve. Our electorates are responsible for the rots in the country today, they encourage our leaders to steal and exploit them by selling their votes to the highest bidder.

    “People are not responsible, they have refused to hold the leaders accountable but rather they sing-praise corrupt leaders because of financial gains,” she said.

    Earlier, the Afenifere, a pan Yoruba socio – cultural organization, also joined other Nigerians to demand for the restructuring of the federation, fair and equitable resource control and distribution, establishment of state police and reformation of the nation’s judiciary to enhance rapid development as well as stem the tide of all forms of agitations across the country.

    The Acting State Chairman, the Ogun State chapter of Afenifere, Otunba Kunle Makekodunmi, made the group’s position known during their  meeting at the  Ogbo – Ijebu – Ode country home of the Afenifere chieftain, Chief Ayo Adebanjo, where Senator Femi Okunrounmu, Senator Ayo Otegbola among others were in attendance.

    The group also mourned the passage of Mrs Omowunmi Akande, wife of former Governor of Osun State, Chief Bisi Akande, by observing a minute silence for the peaceful repose of her soul.

     

  • Why Nigeria is undeveloped – Senator

    Why Nigeria is undeveloped – Senator

    The Chairman, Senate Committee on Petroleum Resources (Upstream) Chief Tayo Alasoadura has attributed ethnicity, political corruption and religious bigotry as the bane of development in the country.

    Making particular reference to the book written by the late sage, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, the Senator representing Ondo Central said since the early 1960s, political and financial corruption continued to remain an obstacle to Nigeria development.

    Alasoadura spoke on Wednesday as a Guest lecturer at the Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU) Ile-Ife during the 2017 Distinguished Guest Lecture/Award Ceremony organised by the Faculty of Social Sciences in the University.

    The lecture entitled Leadership: The bane of development in Nigeria was delivered on his behalf by his Senior Legislative Aide (SLA)Wale Alake.

    The lawmaker noted that the Transparency International (IT) had ranked Nigeria as 132nd most corrupt country out of 182 countries worldwide.

    According to him, “as we speak, whistle blowers are responding to the new government policy on the revelation of financial crimes, stressing that mind-boggling sums were being discovered in the possession of totally ‘unconscionable’ Nigerians.

    He noted that Nigerians are now discovering why the country is undeveloped and wallowing in the midst of plenty.

    However, Alasoadura enthused that Nigerians have taken their destiny into their hands by electing President Muhammadu Buhari to rescue the country from treacherous and dishonest leaders.

    The former Commissioner for Finance in the state recalled that in 2015, President Buhari told Nigerians that corrupt officials had stolen more than $150b from government coffers within the last 10 years.

    He pointed out that recent unfolding revelations have shown that the President was right.

    The All Progressives Congress (APC) Chieftain noted that several infrastructures and industries could have been built with the ‘stolen funds now in private pockets.

    Alasoadura urged the youths particularly students in higher institutions across the country, who he described as leaders of tomorrow to think, find and develop better leaders for Nigeria to facilitate progress.