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Tag: Chuba Okadigbo

  • Remembering Chuba Okadigbo: 1941-2003 (2)

    Remembering Chuba Okadigbo: 1941-2003 (2)

    While other politicians would go into hibernation or grovel to the heinous establishment or structure set up by the Olusegun Obasanjo presidency , Okadigbo understanding that Nigeria was heading into a personality cult sort of leadership joined ranks with other  politicians to stop the nation’s  drift into a pseudo democracy. While this failed with Obasanjo rigging his way to a second term, Okadigbo was justified  as the Obasanjo administration  bared its fangs that it even sought to shove down the throats of Nigerians his desire for a third term. Other demonstrations of such fascism could be seen in the seizure of funds meant for Lagos State LG’s, his tacit approval of the carnage and brigandage in Anambra, the spurious impeachments against the governors of Oyo, Plateau and  Anambra, where 18 out of 32 legislators impeached Governor Rashidi Ladoja, while in Plateau, the impeachment of Joshua Dariye commenced at 6 A.M in the morning. What about the forced resignation of Chief Audu Ogbeh and Vin Ogbulafor as National Chairman and Secretary of the People’s Democratic Party or his humilation of his Vice President,  Atiku Abubakar. His deployment of the EFCC against political opponents whilst he looked the other way as his co travellers looted Nigeria blind and the mockery of an election he supervised in 2007 proved Okadigbo right.

    Understanding that a solidified opposition was a requirement if the opposition was to wrest power from the Obasanjo administration, Okadigbo jettisoned the idea of his running on a smaller platform or what was perceived as a regional party as a presidential hopeful, rather teeming up with General Muhammadu Buhari in the reinvigorated All Nigeria People’s Party, ANPP.

    In 2003, Okadigbo joined forces with Muhammadu Buhari as his running mate in the presidential election under the All Nigeria People’s Party (ANPP). This alliance highlighted Okadigbo’s national appeal and his ability to bridge regional and ethnic divides in Nigerian politics.

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     In that historic convention, Okadigbo in his usual brilliance added to the nation’s  political lexicon the term ” Political Arithimetic”, a combination of political probabilities, sums and subtractions within the Nigerian political topography required by any political  party to dislodge a behemoth in the then ruling PDP. Asides such, Okadigbo brought value to the Muhammadu Buhari ticket, his intellectual gamut,  progressive political views and his advocacy for true federalism in Nigeria added a level of allure to that ticket.

    Despite the controversies that sometimes surrounded him, Okadigbo made significant contributions to the development of Nigeria’s democratic institutions.He was a strong proponent of restructuring the Nigerian political system to ensure more equitable distribution of power and resources among the country’s diverse regions and ethnic groups as well as the strengthening of the democratic institutions in the polity.

    He was also a vocal advocate for the independence of the legislature and worked to strengthen the National Assembly’s oversight functions.

    His political philosophy was deeply rooted in his academic background. Okadigbo often employed philosophical concepts and historical analogies in his political discourse, earning him the admiration of Nigerians at home and abroad.

    Endowed with the gift  of garb, Okadigbo was also known for his oratorical skills. His speeches whether it was at academic , political, cultural and even on the floor of the Senate were often naturally laced with nimble wit, sarcasm, and deep historical references, making him a formidable oratorical jouster and a crowd favorite who’s speeches are still referenced today in the academic and political circles of Nigeria.

    Sadly, Okadigbo’s  colourful life was to be cut short following the inhaling of teargas shot into a gathering of ANPP faithful in Kano by the Nigerian police who had attempted to disperse the crowd, Okadigbo was  said to have developed respiratory complications and died shortly after receiving treatment, marking an end to an illustrious era. In Okadigbo’s death, the nation lost a fearless fighter for democracy, one built on the supremacy of ideas, freedom, bridge buidling and tolerance. Okadigbo’s defiance of Obasanjo’s attempt to dictate to Nigerians strengthened many, it helped  shape the face of  the opposition which together with progressive forces dealt Obasanjo’s unbridled desire for a third term in office a death blow, Okadigbo’s contributions to the ANPP was to  much later crystallize into the All Progressives Congress,  a party which was to wrest power from  the PDP with Buhari spending 8 years as President.

    Chuba Okadigbo’s life and career embodied the complexities and challenges of Nigerian politics in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. His journey from academia to the highest echelons of political power serves as a testament to the potential for intellectuals to shape the political landscape.

    While his time in office was relatively short, Okadigbo’s impact on Nigerian politics and democracy was substantial.

    Today, Chuba Okadigbo is remembered as a brilliant mind, a charismatic leader, and a political maverick who dared to challenge the status quo. His legacy serves as both an inspiration and a subject of study for those seeking to understand the intricacies of Nigerian politics and the role of intellectuals in shaping a nation’s destiny.

    As Nigeria continues to grapple with issues of governance, federalism, and national unity, the ideas and legacy of Chuba Okadigbo remain relevant, ensuring that the “Oyi of Oyi” continues to buzz in the nation’s political consciousness long after his passing.

  • Remembering Chuba Okadigbo: 1941-2003 (1)

    Remembering Chuba Okadigbo: 1941-2003 (1)

    Asides Zik and Awo, no other Nigerian politician, possessed the intellectual prowess of a Chuba Wilberforce Okadigbo, two time Senator, a one time Senate President of the Nigerian Senate and one time running mate to Muhammadu Buhari under the then All Nigerian People’s  Party, ANPP. Okadigbo was a prominent Nigerian politician, philosopher, publisher and academic who left an indelible mark on Nigeria’s political landscape.

     Born on the 17th of  December 1941 in Asaba, then under the Western Region of Nigeria, but now situated in present day Delta State as its capital, Okadigbo like the Homeric character, Odysseus began his journey from the bucolic settings of Asaba traversing through the classrooms of number of prestigious universities where he studied and also taught as a lecturer before venturing unto the corridors of power in Nigeria’s capitals of Lagos and then the Federal Capital  Territory,  Abuja.

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    Renowned for his intellectual prowess which he evidently displayed at an early age,  Okadigbo  attended St. Patrick’s  College, Asaba before heading to Eastern Germany for his higher education with the Karl Marx University. Following the commencement  of the Biafran War and the pro- Lagos position of the Eastern European Bloc of which East Germany was a member of, Okadigbo in a protest of sorts  moved to the Catholic University of America obtaining both a degree and a masters in Political Science before attaining two doctorates in Philosophy and Political Science in the US. Okadigbo’s thirst for knowledge led him to build such a solid academic foundation which  would later much influence his approach to politics and governance.

    Starting an impressive career as an academic, Okadigbo was to feature in a number of universities either as a full time scholar or a visiting  one. Such universities did include, the Catholic University of America, the prestigious Howard University and the University of Nigeria Nsukka,UNN.  Okadigbo’s academic thrusts focused more on political science as well as philosophy from the African Perspective. Thus, one of his major works was on the topic of Consciencism in African Political Philosophy in which he , Okadigbo challenges Nkrumah’s proposal of communism as a fourth dimension to resolve the crisis of African conscience, arguing that Nkrumah’s approach is flawed due to inadequate analysis of African consciousness, biased examination of competing influences, and inconsistent merging of Marxist and African principles. 

    With his return to Nigerian shores Okadigbo was to rapidly  transition from the academia to active  politics emulating the likes of Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, however for reasons best known to him,  he was to perch with the National Party of Nigeria, NPN rather than Zik’s Nigeria People’s Party, NPP and ran for the ticket of Governor of Old Anambra State on the NPN platform but unfortunately lost to the late C.C Onoh who was to eventually lose the election to Jim Nwobodo’s NPP in 1979.

    However, with Shehu Shagari’s controversial win, Okadigbo was appointed as political adviser to Shagari, a position he was to hold for Shagari’s first  four years before the overthrow of the Second Republic. This role marked the beginning of his active participation in Nigerian politics and provided him with immense insight into the workings of government at the highest level. Okadigbo was to build a network of relationships which spanned the entire country.

    By 1989, the IBB administration  had given the nod for a return to democratic rule. Okadigbo teamed up with the likes of General Shehu Musa Yar Adua’s Peoples Front which was to coalesce with other political groups and movements in the Social Democratic Party, SDP.  By 1992, Chuba was elected to the Senate of the Third Nigerian Republic representing Anambra North senatorial district on the platform of the SDP,  but lost the contests to become the Senate President twice to Senators Iyorchia Ayu and Ameh Ebute respectively.

    With Abacha’s death and the emergence of the Fourth Republic, Okadigbo was again elected to serve as Senator, again he was denied the opportunity of becoming Senate President owing to the employment of sly politics which saw Evans Enwerem defeat Okadigbo. Not comfortable with an Okadigbo as Senate President, the then President Olusegun Obansanjo used a number of opposition senators and some from his party to foist Enwerem on the Senate.

    However, a majority of Senators went on to impeach Enwerem and in a suprise move unanimously elected  Okadigbo as Senate President. Okadigbo was to bring his years of experience as an academic and savvy politician to bear upon the Senate. It is still accepted that asides  the Okadigbo leadership of the senate, no other Senate leadership since the inception of the 4th Republic demonstrated the intellectual rigour in the quality of debates as witnessed during the Okadigbo leadership

     Combining his eloquence, sharp wit, and a mastery of the legislative processes, Okadigbo was to rattle certain elements in the Obasanjo presidency, including Obasanjo who saw Okadigbo as a cog in the wheel of the President’s unbridled desire to undemocratically dominate the political landscape by any means neccesary.

    Okadigbo, a scion of warriors would have none of such and thus the flurry of impeachment plots encouraged by the presidency which spared no amount in terms of cash nor moral limitations in its efforts to goad fellow senators to impeach Okadigbo. Resorting to selfhelp, Okadigbo was to on many  occasions take measures to avoid the ‘banana peel’, even making away with the mace and allegedly hiding it in a cave in  Ogbunike, such though comical was perhaps the only way , Okadigbo thought he could tame the overbearing nature of the military turned  civilian president in Obasanjo, something Nigerians were to later witness fully in the years to come.

    By August 2000, Okadigbo was to resign as Senate President following the controversy over his granting of anticipatory contracts for the services to the National Assembly, an act within his purview as Senate President, thus bringing to an end the Okadigbo era and with it the Senate lost its lustre going forward.

  • Clearing the haze over the mace

    Nigerians have since independence been known to use and abuse the mace, that veritable symbol of parliamentary authority. Perhaps the first, and best known, example of the misuse of the mace took place during the famous fracas in the Western Region House of Assembly in Ibadan in 1962, when a member forcibly grabbed it and used it to bash the speaker and other members in a free-for-all fight. That deliberately orchestrated fracas was the very pretext the Balewa-led federal government was waiting for to declare that there was crisis in Western Nigeria and to impose premeditated emergency rule on the region. Since then, the abuse and desecration of the mace has become quite common.

    The Fourth Republic has recorded the most incidences of misuse and abuse of the mace. In the year 2000, Senator Chuba Okadigbo, in the most gratuitous assault on national legislative integrity to be witnessed under this democratic dispensation, ‘stole’ the mace and hid it for several days, to forestall plans to remove him from the exalted office of senate president. It was the first, but it definitely won’t be the only one. In 2018, a group of hoodlums burst like gangsters into the senate chambers during plenary session, violently snatched and made away with the mace. About a week ago, first week of July, some members of the House of Representatives attempted to snatch the mace to register their displeasure with the speaker’s conduct of legislative proceedings that day.

    Since Okadigbo’s brazen act in 2000, and the violent snatching of the mace during the 8th Senate, both informed and uninformed commentators have regaled us with the meaning, importance and symbolism of the mace as a symbol of legislative authority. While Nigerians generally condemned the unquestionably ignoble invasion of the hallowed precincts of the National Assembly and the snatching of the mace, some others even went to the extreme of calling the act ‘treasonous’, an ‘attempted coup’ and other such politically loaded epithets. Some even asserted, gratuitously and incorrectly, in my view, that the senate could not sit and carry on legislative deliberations without the mace being present in the chamber! To be honest, I have great difficulty with this highly romanticized view of the mace and its importance to legislative functions.

    What is commonly known, called and used as mace, according to the Microsoft Encarta Dictionary, is a “ceremonial staff of office: a stick or rod, usually with an ornamental head, carried by officials on ceremonial occasions as a symbol of authority.” Mind you, it is merely a symbol of authority, not the instrument of authority! It is symbolically carried in front of a person in authority (monarch, cleric, government official, university chancellor, presiding officer of a legislature) by a designated official known as ‘Mace-Bearer’ or ‘Sergeant-at-Arms’, to advertize his presence and testify to his authority. In our clime, its use is common in legislative houses as a symbol of legislative authority; it is carried before a Bishop or other high-ranking clerical personages during church processions; as well as before a university chancellor during convocation ceremonies. In our culture, traditional rulers such as Emirs and Obas also have such symbols of authority carried before them, or before their representatives to give a stamp of authority and approval to their presence and actions. Especially under our democratic dispensation, the mace has come to symbolize the authority of the legislature during parliamentary sessions. And it is usually, symbolically and ceremonially carried before the presiding officer, i.e., Speaker of the House of Assembly or House of Representatives, and President of the Senate, when entering and exiting the chamber, and placed in front of him/her while parliament is in session.

    For knowledge sake, let me provide some insight into the actual etymology, history, function and symbolism of the mace. To do this, let us turn to the second definition provided by the Microsoft Encarta Dictionary which describes the mace as a “spiked metal club: a medieval weapon in the form of a heavy club with a round spiked metal head.” Etymologically and historically, the mace was originally one of the earliest known offensive military weapons from prehistoric times. Others in that category in the pre-historic military arsenal were the javelin and the spear, both with pointed arrowheads, the spear-thrower, bows and arrows; the sling, for hauling projectiles at the opponent (the type that Biblical David used to kill Goliath), the axe, sword, all of which were also used for hunting as well. They were commonly carried by soldiers in ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia, Syria. Its present day form, for both offensive and ceremonial uses, is usually dated back to 13th England, where it was designed as a blunt metal or heavy wooden club with a head laced with spikes, carried by bodyguards of monarchs, for bludgeoning enemies and attackers to death. It was usually carried before a King, Queen or Prince by a Sergeant-at-Arms to defend the monarch. At inception, it had no particular royal significance beyond it being an offensive weapon for the protection of the monarch.

    Over time, it took on a more symbolic than offensive importance when metal workers began adding ornamental decorations to such clubs that were carried before kings and nobles at public ceremonies and functions. It began more and more to symbolize their authority, and less as a weapon of offense. Initially, in the English tradition, the mace that was carried by the bearer before the king would be ceremonially placed on a table in the front whenever the king entered the parliament to address it or answer questions. This symbolized that the monarch had come in peace and not to fight. That also meant that the king was not supposed to come under any form of physical attack while in the parliament – the simple origin of what is known as parliamentary decorum! And the only time the mace was removed from the table by the bearer or Sergeant-at-Arms was when the monarch was about to exit the parliamentary chamber.

    Another equally famous symbol is the gavel, commonly used by presiding officers during legislative sessions, and by judges in the court, to call to order. In legislative chambers, it symbolizes the authority of the presiding officer such as senate president and speaker of the house at national, state and local government levels, to maintain order, call attention, end a debate, or even signal a recess or an adjournment.

    The question commonly raised by Nigerians whenever a parliamentary mace was stolen, smashed, grabbed or un-ceremonially taken out of the legislative chambers is: can a parliament hold plenary sitting and conduct normal legislative activities without the mace being present? Yes, parliament can conduct legislative business in the absence of the mace, as it is merely a symbol of authority, not the ‘instrument of authority’! The authority of the National Assembly to make laws and carry out other legislative functions is derived from Part II Section 4 of the 1999 Constitution, titled “Powers of the Federal Republic of Nigeria”. That is where the NASS derives its power and authority from, not from any symbolic or ceremonial object that is not even mentioned in the constitution. I stand to be controverted by legal and constitutional experts, but this is what my lay man’s knowledge tells me. So, let’s do away with all that sentimental claptrap about the importance and functionality of the mace.

  • Awo, followers ex-rayed

    Awo, followers ex-rayed

    Contrast life from the “mantle of Awo” to instant death from the “terrible mantle of Akintola”, and all the drama, the manoeuvre, the crass opportunism, the intrigue, the gallery play and the banana peel (apologies to the late Chuba Okadigbo) of the Yoruba “lifeworld”, which drives its politics, hit you in full Technicolor!

    As in John Keats’s long poem, “Hyperion”, an old order is dying.  A new order is waiting to be born.  The pain of death coheres with the mirth of life.  There is pre-renewal tension in the land!

    That is the long and short of this wonderful new book, Yoruba Elites and Ethnic Politics in Nigeria: Obafemi Awolowo and Corporate Agency, by Wale Adebanwi, a Nigerian don and scholar’s scholar, who teaches at the University of California, Davis, in the United States.

    But beyond the “Kiriji War” for Yoruba political ascendancy, among Awo’s disciples, Yoruba Elites also symbolises the nationwide “civil war” for or against Awo’s ideas.  That war opened before independence.

    Though Awo died in 1987, the war — over the best philosophical plane to propel Nigeria to its manifest destiny, between federal and anti-federal forces — will rage on: until Nigeria finds its feet as a productive federation; or makes difficult peace with the present mediocre template, particularly at the centre.

    Before Awo’s death, the Yoruba archetype of political hero and anti-hero was well established. The meltdown of the Action Group (AG), the  party that catapulted the old Western Region to untold glory, settled all that.

    Awo was the undisputed hero, aside from being the signifier of the modern Yoruba nation and unifier of the once badly fractured ethnic group.

    Samuel Ladoke Akintola (SLA), his estranged former deputy, became the anti-hero, plunging like the Biblical Lucifer, the brilliant child of the morning and the most favoured of angels, from his celestial throne into the pit of hell.

    In the Awolowo Vs Akintola battle of perception and counter-perception, the idea is that the Awo column, with its solid legitimacy, was one solid and united phalanx.  Not true!  Yoruba Elites x-rays the how’s and whys.

    Even while alive, the fierce manoeuvre to inherit Awo’s throne was on.  SLA’s perceived treachery is well recorded by history.  But SLA branched out on his own, leading conservative elements out of the old AG.  That was the First Republic, when Awo was still evolving.

    Post-First Republic, when Awo had been formally canonised Asiwaju Yoruba (Yoruba Leader), the battle to inherit his mantle assumed fiercer levels.

    Alhaji Lateef Jakande (Baba Kekere), the populist and hugely popular Second Republic governor of Lagos and Chief Bola Ige (Arole Awolowo), the razor-tongued, sharp wit, public intellectual par excellence and governor of old Oyo State (now Oyo State and State of Osun) were the top contenders.

    But both stumbled, allegedly, according to investigations in Yoruba Elites, for being too much in a hurry to inherit the “Awo mantle”, even while Awo was still alive.

    But the real “Kiriji War” started after Awo’s passage, when each combatant or even blocs of combatants tried to corral what Dr. Adebanwi called the “politics of heritage” or better still, politics of Awo’s memory, to seize political ascendancy.  And you would be amazed at the warring camps!

    The biological Awos appeared divinely settled on milking the political franchise of their great paterfamilias, no ideological questions asked.

    Then, there were close confidants of Awo, led by the pair of Pa Olaniwun Ajayi and Pa Ayo Adebanjo.  Alleged traducers-in-chief of the late Bola Ige, Ige himself verbalised the Ijebu Four, a put-down tag which added the late Pa Abraham Adesanya (later to become Afenifere leader) and Pa Solanke Onasanya, to the pair of Ajayi and Adebanjo.

    The quad was regarded as leading the Ijebu Mafia, against other blocs, in the contestation for Awo’s political throne.

    While both Ajayi and Adebanjo were reportedly jeered at, by Second Republic Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN) governors as the Park Lane ensemble — non-political office holders always with Awo at his Park Lane, Apapa, Lagos residence — the pair has, after Awo’s death, transformed into fierce guarantors of the Awo franchise.

    Also in the fray, for Awo’s progressive mantle, were post-Awo era politicians, some products of Gen. Ibrahim Babangida’s “new breed” politics, led by Asiwaju Bola Tinubu.

    Though Tinubu earned his stripes in the war zones of re-validating MKO Abiola’s June 12 mandate; and has inspired a breed that has replicated, in concrete terms, Awo’s progressive heritage in the present South West, the old guard still regards them as ideological grand pretenders and rank outsiders in the Awo patrimony.

    Yet, in the relay of grim comedies in the book, about everyone took a hit.

    Awo himself fell for the subversive praise of IBB, in the letter (ghosted by Chief Olu Falae, then secretary to IBB’s government) that — not incorrectly — declared Awo the issue in Nigerian politics.

    That letter also fetched Falae a toe-hold on the progressive heritage, so much so that he got preferred over Ige in the D’Rovan Hotel, Ibadan, Alliance for Democracy caucus presidential candidate (s)elections of 1998.

    The Awo family fell for the subversive generosity of IBB in secretly accepting 120, 000 pounds sterling for burial expenses, even as the late Bisi Onabanjo, Second Republic governor of Ogun State, publicly but innocently boasted Awo would frown at such.

    And the whodunnit that followed Ige’s AD presidential ticket ouster, put the trio of Chief Olusegun Osoba, Dr. Femi Okurounmu and Prof. Bolaji Akinyemi on the spot!

    In accounting for Ige’s final vote, both Osoba and Okurounmu said they voted Ige at D’Rovans, but the author appeared to have his doubts.  Akinyemi said that final vote was his.  The author appeared to believe him.  But Ige himself didn’t, reportedly, till his death, accusing Akinyemi of treachery!

    And the partisan efe (wit) on the stumps!  Otunba Gbenga Daniel (OGD) became Ojiji Omo (sudden child) to partisans ridiculing his reported sudden claim to Sagamu as paternal home to gain the Ogun governorship.  But the crafty OGD renamed himself Ogidi Omo (precious child).

    Still, neither Ojiji nor Ogidi would appear to have mattered to the Awo dynasty.  OGD delivered on the Awo franchise.  While it lasted, he was in return vested with Awo’s reincarnation.

    Ige’s terrible hubris drove him to a tragic end.  But he escaped the “terrible mantle of Akintola” allegedly laid out for him by the Ijebu Four.

    Yoruba Elites, published by Cambridge University Press, is a classic on Awo and progressive politics in Yorubaland and Nigeria: the glory, the intrigue, the drama.  Though it is worth every inch of its N20, 000 launch price, it risks being read only by the financial “holies of holies”.

    But this pearl of a book should be mass produced for mass readership, if its illuminating shaft must not be buried under a bushel.

     

  • Perilous times

    Perilous times

    •Unbridled impunity in Rivers, by criminalising state organs, is a danger to democracy

    A very democratic administration in Nigeria has had its own security man Friday, those overzealous policemen, whose fierce interpretation of their briefs often alarmed the polity.

    Second Republic President, Alhaji Shehu Shagari, had his Inspector-General of Police (IGP), Mr. Sunday Adewusi. Mr. Adewusi had garnered due fame as the no-nonsense crime buster, whose many exploits made Alagbon Close, Ikoyi, so famous as Nigeria’s crime-busting capital. Yet as IGP, the mobile arm of the Police under him earned the unenviable moniker of Kill-and-Go: especially when the matter was partisan strong arm tactics in favour of the ruling party.

    President Olusegun Obasanjo too had his own IGP Tafa Balogun. During both the Chris Ngige gubernatorial abduction saga and the death, through alleged tear-gassing, of Chuba Okadigbo, colourful politician and former president of the Nigerian Senate, IGP Balogun was there to rationalise, in the grey areas between duty and criminality.

    So, President Goodluck Jonathan, with the unending “federal might” in Rivers State could well take these previous examples as some cold comfort, in his continued toleration of the execrable conduct of Mbu Joseph Mbu, who has continued to desecrate his office so much that he could pass as an outlaw in police uniform.

    Still, it is doubtful if anyone has before brought the Police more odium than this Mbu. What has he not done? He has conspired to aid and abet illegal sitting of the Rivers State legislature, leading to comical claim to Speakership by one of the partisans. He has, in the media, called Governor Rotimi Amaechi names, as an opposing partisan (not a police officer loyal to the Constitution) would, even if to be fair, the governor himself has returned the favour.

    He has barred the governor from entering the Government House in the state, even as his men have fired teargas into the place. He has illicitly delayed a chartered aircraft bearing the governor to Abuja, though he did not have the guts to carry out a search in the aircraft as the governor had offered. In short, he has serially levied war against the Rivers State Government, as lawfully constituted, and jeopardised the security and well being of citizens there, in criminal contravention of his terms of service as a police officer.

    Yet, unlike Messrs Adewusi and Balogun, Mr. Mbu is only a CP!

    But what is more annoying: Mbu’s outlawry or the conspiratorial silence by the authorities?

    President Jonathan, his commander-in-chief, has been hiding behind a finger, denying he has no hand in Mbu’s brazen lawlessness. So has his IGP, Mustapha Dahiru Abubakar, who sees no evil, hears no evil, on Mbu in Rivers, even if we had had cause to challenge him in one of our earlier editorials.

    Even from the Senate, whose member is the latest victim of Mbu’s brutality on innocent citizens, has come a tepid response. A statement released by Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe, the Senate spokesperson, calls on IGP Abubakar to probe the disturbance and ensure such does not recur, but nary any sense of outrage.

    Abaribe wrote as if he had been away in space all this while. It is doubtful if the matter is now not beyond IGP Abubakar. He appeared powerless in Mbu past partisan forays. It is doubtful if he would regain his powers in this one!

    Which brings the matter back to President Jonathan. Those stoking trouble in Rivers State do so in his name, and in the name of his wife, Dame Patience Jonathan. We have no business with Mrs Jonathan because she is no official of state. But we have serious business with the President, because he is accountable to us, the people, and he has bounden duty not to desecrate the high office of President, by letting his name be linked to high constitutional crimes.

    If the President knows nothing about the Rivers serial illegality, he should speak and decry it in clear terms. If he doesn’t, we would have no choice but to call on institutions of state, which have oversight over him on behalf of the Nigerian people, to call him to order by doing the needful.

    This constant rape on the Constitution under the Jonathan Presidency must stop.

     

  • Okadigbo’s assets: Court picks February 2014 for ruling

    Okadigbo’s assets: Court picks February 2014 for ruling

    An Abuja High Court in Maitama has fixed February 4 next year for judgment in dispute over the management of the assets of the late Senate President, Dr. Chuba Okadigbo, who died over 10 years ago.

    Justice Folashade Ojo chose the date after parties adopted their written addresses on Tuesday.

    Okadigbo’s eldest son Chaka and his brother Osagyefo are asking the court to among others, declare that the deceased’s widow, Margery, now a Senator, is not a beneficiary of the estate of her late husband.

    The plaintiffs also seek the court’s declaration that Mrs. Okadigbo is entitled to share, with the deceased’s children, the assets and property of the late Senate president.

    They urged the court to amend the letters of administration granted the Margery and his other son, Pharoah by substituting Pharoah for Chaka as co-administrator with the widow.

    The plaintiffs also urged the court to direct Margery and Pharoah to account for the deceased’s estate.

    The plaintiffs averred in a supporting affidavit that Margery had failed to render account for the funds accruing from the late Senate President’s bank accounts, stocks, shares in companies and royalty from published books and other properties.

    In her defence, Margery argued that the action before the court is improper.

    She added that there was a letter from Chaka authorising his younger brother, Pharoah to commence the process of obtaining a power of attorney.

    She further claimed that it was on the strength of the letter that his brother became a joint executor of the estate.