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Tag: crisis

  • Rivers traffic agency crisis deepens

    Rivers traffic agency crisis deepens

    •Six arrested

    The crisis in the Rivers State Road Traffic Management Authority (TIMA-RIV) deepened yesterday, as policemen arrested and detained six of its officials for unionism.

    The Acting Controller-General, Confidence Eke, claimed they were arrested for criminal activities.

    The six officials were arrested by security personnel from Zone 6, Calabar, Cross River State and moved to Calabar, where they are being detained.

    A source, who pleaded for anonymity, said the officials were arrested at a meeting.

    The source said: “We believe that Eke is behind the arrest and detention of our leaders.”

    The Acting Controller-General claimed that the six officials were arrested for stealing a bus and attempting to sell it in Owerri, the Imo State capital, before the vehicle was recovered.

    Eke, who spoke through the agency’s spokesman, Nimi Brown-West, also claimed that the officials broke into the Zone 5 office and removed equipment, which he said was reported at the Olu Obasanjo Divisional Police Headquarters in Port Harcourt.

    Eke said: “Besides the crimes committed, the six officials refused to honour their postings from their respective zones to other zones.

    “They also assaulted some officials and destroyed official documents. They were arrested at our Moscow Road office in Port Harcourt and none of them works there.”

    Eke urged the public not to take the unionists seriously, but to allow policemen to do their jobs.

  • Ondo PDP crisis grows over Mimiko

    Ondo PDP crisis grows over Mimiko

    •Governor/NWC deal rejected

    ONDO State Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has criticised the manner the defection of Governor Olusegun Mimiko was handled by the party’s National Working Committee (NWC).

    It noted that the process was executed without respect for the state Chairman, Mr. Ebenezer Alabi and members of the State Working Committee (SWC).

    The party’s Publicity Director, Ayo Fadaka, in a statement yesterday, said the action was calculated to treat the members of the party as inconsequential.

    “We therefore declare that this is grossly unfair and so reject outright, all negotiations purportedly entered on our behalf without our direct input and blessings.

    “We state in the most unequivocal manner that we repose absolute confidence in the executives of the party at every level in the state and will take serious exceptions to any action taken directly or indirectly to harm or dismantle them,” the statement reads.

    It added: “We welcome Mimiko and his followers to the party in their individual capacities. We also respect the Constitution of the PDP, particularly the recognition that it confers on any governor who is a member.

    “However, we remain mindful of the fact that he is joining as a governor. We say this because PDP is a big party with established structures that must not be treated anyhow.

    “We also understand that Governor Mimiko’s publicly stated goal of defecting into our party is to enable him contribute effectively to the re-election of President Goodluck Jonathan. We must say this is appreciable, but as citizens of Ondo State, we do know that Governor Mimiko carries a lot of baggage and liabilities that precludes him from discharging such responsibility.”

    The party said the governor has descended from the charismatic height he operated from in 2009, when he came into office, to a level of scorn, alleging that his administration has mismanaged the state’s finances and commonwealth.

    “Most disappointing of all is the now emerging trend of the inability of government to pay workers’ salaries as at when due and even owing two months salaries now.

    “This we consider a baggage and liability that will do great harm to the electoral prospects of President Jonathan than any good,” it stated.

    The party also observed that the governor was conscious that his party could no longer win any election.

    “We also want to bring to public domain the fact that before Mimiko’s defection to our party, principal and prominent members of his Labour Party (LP) had already abandoned him and his party and are already members of our party, prominent among them is Senator Boluwaji Kunlere.

    “Therefore, we declare again that our party, the PDP, was already set on a winning course before this desire of Mimiko to cross into our party again.

    “The generality of our members want it place on record that they demand proper respect from the leaders of the party in Abuja and that they equally conduct their research on the viability of people before admitting them to the party,” the statement added.

    But the Senator representing Ondo North Senatorial District, Ajayi Boroffice, said Mimiko’s return to PDP would assist the All Progressives Party (APC) to win more elective posts.

    He spoke at a rally entitled, ‘The Broom Revolution,’ organised by the youth wing of APC as part of efforts to drum up support for the party and welcome over 250 defectors to the party.

    Boroffice said the development was a blessing to APC since the LP had turned into a rudderless ship without direction.

    He added that the crisis in the PDP over leadership shift has started bringing more members into APC.

    The senator noted that the LP would be dissolved, explaining that from what he gathered from sources, the party would soon submit its certificate and flag to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), following the disappointment it suffered from the governor.

    He said: “The LP in Ondo State has become a rudderless ship that is going on a wide sea without direction. The implication is that the people will have to leave a sinking boat that is LP for the only alternative, which is APC. Therefore, the development is a blessing to APC in the state. Only that right now, majority of people are civil servants, a reason many of them are yet to declare that they have deserted Mimiko’s administration”.

    Boroffice added that in 2015 general elections, the APC will be the political party to beat.

    The senator assured that the partywould win at the the Federal level as well as in 26 states.

  • FC Taraba, FA chairman disagree over crisis claim

    FC Taraba, FA chairman disagree over crisis claim

    These are not the best times for Taraba Football Club as the crisis rocking the Nigeria Premier League side seems to be getting worse.

    The Taraba State permanent secretary in the ministry of social, youth and sports in the state, Hussaini Modibo, who is intensifying effort to take charge of the running of the club, is locked in a battle with the management of the team headed by former international, Tijani Babangida.

    NationSport gathered that the situation has become frustrating for the players, management and technical officials as they watch helplessly while the permanent secretary, who also doubles as the state’s Football Association (FA) chairman, dictates the day-to-day running of the club without recourse to the management.

    It was learnt that the condition in the club has become terrible as the management of the club under the leadership of Tijani Babangida has been starved of funds to the extent that players, management and technical officials have not received their salaries for five months. Apart from the salary, they are also hardly paid their allowances.

    However, Modibo stated that there was no crisis in the team as the management reports to the FA, which he heads. He stated that Babangida is a consultant to the team and the chairman of the club remains the Taraba State commissioner for sports.

    He stated that the FA and the sports ministry have been behind the success of Taraba FC and wondered why anyone would think that there is a power tussle at the club. “For the sake of clarification, Babangida is a consultant to the team and the commissioner for sports is the chairman of the club,” Modibo said.

    He called on football stakeholders in the state to rally round the team and stop fomenting crises that could tear the club apart. What we should be doing now is to see how the team retains its Premier League status.

    “I guess this is the handiwork of those who do not want the team to progress,” the FA boss added.

  • ‘Why Rivers judicial crisis persists’

    ‘Why Rivers judicial crisis persists’

    Barinua Moses Wifa (SAN), a former National Judiciary Council (NJC) member, was once Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) Chairman, Port Harcourt Branch. He was the Rivers State Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice during the military regime. In this interview with Precious Dikewoha, he speaks on the judiciary and the role of NJC.

    What point were you making in the paper you presented at the last NBA conference?

    Firstly, the title of the paper I presented is Independence of Judiciary in the context of Doctrine of Separation of Power under 1999 Constitution. If you have been following events in Nigeria you would have known that it has been in dispute as to where power lies, particularly regarding the power of the governor to appoint a chief judge or to same by the way of removal.

    In the public domain for quite some time several people have made contributions, stating what their opinions are. I think on the 24th of June 2014, the Guardian Newspaper, in its editorial, published some opinions regarding this and I thought it is a good point to look at what the Guardian said and to see whether the opinion expressed was right. That  triggered the advertorial against me.  The attack on me by the Attorney-General was unnecessary. The Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) holds its monthly meeting, at least, I was invited by some lawyers to deliver lectures and I have delivered lectures in the past and when they invited me I asked them what they want me to discuss. So, I decided to situate it within the context of what is happening in the state.

     Who really has the power to appoint a Chief Judge?

    What I did was to trace some issues because I saw that the Guardian Newspaper raised some issues on the type of federalism in practice in Nigeria, connecting it to the power of the state to do what they should do.  Secondly, I have to look at constitutional developments apart from historical developments. Then I have to look at some decisions of the court including matters against the Attorney-General of the state, which was a situation in Kwara State where the governor wanted the House of Assembly to impeach the Chief Judge because he wasn’t comfortable with her, which led to that case.

    But the Supreme Court was able to pronounce who has the power to appoint and  the power to remove under the 1999 Constitution. The Supreme Court, which I set out its decision, said it is not something that one person has the absolute power on, that the power was shared among the governor, the National Judicial Council (NJC) and the House of Assembly. Though Sections 2 and 71 subsection 1 of the Constitution are clear on the power to appoint, but that power is subjected to the power of NJC to recommend as well as the power of the House of Assembly to confirm. So, it is a shared power and it gives the reason while it came to that conclusion. That is why I put it that way. Though, some people have written that the governor is the one who has the power as if it all depends on him.

    What did the constitution say about the issue?

    The constitution is there, it says that the governor shall appoint such a person subject to the recommendation of NJC and to be confirmed by the House of Assembly, but there is a process in every state in Nigeria where they have what is called the Judicial Service Commission (JSC), the NJC will now demote a process for the appointment of judges as well as the Chief Judge. That process, in the case of Judges, Justice of the Supreme Court (JSC) to the Chief Judge of the state, will collect nominations of who are to be appointed by those who are to be considered for the appointment. If you look at all the processes involved, the NJC normally issues guidelines for the appointment of Judges. Every Chief Judge knows about this, in fact, in the Judges’ dairies the first thing you will see there is the guideline for the appointment of Judges. The process is that the Judicial Service Commission of the state will consider persons seen as suitable for appointment from the High Court of the state as well as the Customary Court of Appeal of the state. That is, in a place where you have Customary Court of Appeal, the other one is the Sharia Court of Appeal.  The JSC has the Chief Judge, the President of Customary Court of Appeal, Attorney General, some lawyers and ordinary persons constitute that body. They will now carry out their deliberations and summit a list of persons to the NJC. If it is for a vacancy, they will submit two names; if it is three vacancies for Judges they will submit six names.  That is one on the priority of the preferred list. It is for the NJC to deliberate on this and recommend the most suitable person to the governor for appointment.

    Should we say Rivers State followed the due process?

    I understand that they followed the process. I am not a member of the council in the state. I have ceased to be a member of the NJC since 2010. I was a member from 2006 to 2010, but I understand that they submitted two names. The two names are Hon P. N.C Agumagu, who is the President of Customary Court of Appeal and  Hon D.W.  Okocha, who is the number one judge at the High Court of Rivers State. These are the names but according to what I heard, NJC recommended D.W. Okocha in preference to Justice Agumagu.

    In the face of the crisis, does it mean that the Judiciary has compromised?

    It depends on the angle you are coming from. As I stated in my paper, the judiciary suppose to be shielded from those willpower, that is why I traced that history of having the NJC in place and  tried to say that those are its functions. Let me ask a question, if in a situation where you send two names to NJC for appointment and out of the two names one of them was recommended, what is the legal issue in refusing to accept that recommendation? It must be outside the law. In my opinion it is more of politics than the law.  This is why they referred the case of Hon. Justice Innocent Umezuruike, the Chief Judge of Enugu State.  What they wrote is still there. They brought that in as if it were a justification. What I want to know is whether at the end  Justice Umezuruike was not recommended by NJC before he was appointed as the Chief Judge of Enugu State.

    What I stated and  I stand to be corrected is that  there is no single  appointment of  any judicial officer which  includes  Judges of Customary Court of  Appeal of a state,  Judges  of the Supreme Court including the Chief Judge,  who has not been recommended by NJC. If there is any case of a valid appointment of a person that has been made a Chief Judge without the recommendation of NJC, I stand to be corrected.

    Is Justice Agumagu, who is the choice of the governor, qualified for the post?

    That is not for me to answer. The point is this, why I find it difficult to respond to what has been published by the Attorney-General of the state, I have all the respect for him, but certainly I don’t agree with him. I am not going to be judgemental like he did to me,  but in all omission and commission I have done, I will not judge him.   But the fact remains that he has to explain to his people, there are matters in the court. I know I tried to veer off some litany of jargons called subjudice. I want you to know that this matter has been submitted to the court of competent jurisdiction.  What I cannot understand is that he is referring to the case in a High Court, which I understand is on the way to the  Court of Appeal,  and he is saying that was an issue that has been decided by the High Court. I think as a Lawyer I ought to say this very clearly that you cannot subordinate the judgement of a High Court of a state to the clear unambiguous decision of the Supreme Court of Nigeria even if you may argue it obiter, but it doesn’t lie in our mouth to say so. Go before a court to say what you want to say before that court was obiter; you can’t say that this is the issue you can decide.  Section 287 of the Constitution is aware of this because it is all binding on all the authorities.  It is the fact of the case that matters. It is the ratio-decidendi of a case that matters. And the Supreme Court in the case I cited said the power of appointment and the power of removal is a tripartite thing, the governor, NJC and the House of Assembly. So,  it is for NJC to say whether Justice Agumagu is qualified or not, but my point is this, if his name was submitted to NJC  and the name of Justice D. W. Okocha was also submitted to NJC and NJC said look it is D.W. Okocha that  we recommend, what is the legal basis not to accept her?

    Who is the most senior between the two judges?

    I can refer you  to Section 271 subsection 4 of the Consti-tution. What does it say? There are  two scenarios in the appointment of the Chief Judge of a state.  I am not quite sure that the constitution has provided that it must be the most senior Judge of a High Court of a state. There are two things that constitute the Chief Judge of a state.  You have the High Court of a state and you have the Customary Court of Appeal of a state. The two make up what is called the judiciary of a state.

    So, appointment is made from the High Court of the state, that is to say what stops Section 271 subsection 4   is that when there is a vacancy in the state or that the person who is qualified has not been chosen then you have to appoint the most senior Judge of the High Court of the state in an acting capacity. It didn’t say of the judiciary of Rivers State, but you can appoint people who have been elevated above their most senior Judges to be the Chief Judge of a state. The last Chief Judge we had in the state was number six on the ladder, but he was picked and appointed as the Chief Judge. But if the person appointed has not been cleared or whatever,  you have to appoint the most senior Judge of the High Court  as the Chief Judge.  The issue of who is the most senior judge is entirely up to them. Again, we need to take another look at Section 280 of the Constitution with due respect to the appointment of person on the Customary Court of Appeal and you will find out that if anyone has a vast knowledge of customary law the person can be appointed. Meanwhile, it is not so in the High Court of a state.

    So, could we say NJC has compromised?   

    If you ask me I think it is  an  insult.  Do you know what makes up the NJC? It is chaired by the Chief Justice of Nigeria,  the next most senior judge of the Supreme Court is the Deputy Chairman,  then the President of the Court of Appeal  as the next person. Then five justices retired from the  Supreme Court and the Court of Appeal.  We have  the Chief Judge of Federal High Court then five judges  of a state on rotation, them the lawyers who are mere an appendix and only one of them will be a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) and they are permitted to sit only  when appointments are to be made.  Then we have two other members’ grandkhadi and two others.  So, this is a very powerful structure. I think it is an unwarranted insult to cast aspersion on that body, it is uncalled-for.

    There is a rumour that a member of the NJC, who is a brother to Justice Daisy Okacha, is the one fuelling the crisis by insisting that his sister must be given the position.

    Let me tell you what happened.  I don’t know about his own case.  During the deliberation of any particular matter, which any of the members may have interest, the person has to leave. You don’t sit during those deliberations and instances abound. I think there is something wrong with us in this country. I have argued times without number that we must build strong institution of governance. Governorship is a strong institution of governance, Presidency, the media and the House of Assembly are all strong institutions of governance. We must make a deliberate effort to build a strong institution.  If there is any issue that will ridicule an institution of that kind then we have a long way to go.

    You were accused of having a knowledge of the article published in the Guardian Newspaper, did you in anyway sponsor the article?

    When you have an argument and you begin to pick holes then you are leaving the decency of the argument to the level of stage battle. I am not ready to descend to that level. The article was published by the Guardian Newspaper. The article said however, that the fear of the governor is not unfounded I am not the one who made that statement, it is the Guardian Newspaper. It also said that the appointment of Chief Judge is for specific purpose, which is to ensure the scale of justice if he will ever seek justice of any matter. That is where I took it from during my paper presentation. Talking about fear, when you look at the back of the Constitution you will see the oath of office of the governor, it says, he shall perform his duty without fear or favour. That was why I said that it cannot be the role of the governor to construct and make the doctrine of separation of power, doctrine of fear.

    In reply they said governor did not say so. I did not say so too; it is the Guardian that said so. How the Guardian got the information about the whole thing,  I don’t have the Idea. I don’t work with them.  I think in governance we should leave that issue, especially the issue of the Attorney-General of a state.  Every Attorney-General should consider whether to pursue the matter of public interest more than political interest.

    In 2005 I was a delegate at the National Political Reform Conference, people clamoured for a separation of the office of the Attorney-General from that of the Commissioner for Justice. They believed that if they split the two offices then you can know which one to be considered as political and professional. But whatever, it is the Attorney-General that is directed to consider everything that is in the public interest. But when it appeared that you cannot do that, you either tow the party line of your governor, or  pursue some other personal interests.  Then it is about time we re-examined that conflict and I am saying this with all sense of responsibility. The last incumbent left office on  August 20 last year, almost a year now and we do not have a Chief Judge. Whatever may be the case, there is what I call colossal collateral damage. People are there in prison they cannot be brought to court, suspects are caught and released. There so much damage to justice delivery sector  as a result of this problem. It is in public interest to maintain it all, because we want to ascertain who has the power to appoint and who doesn’t have the power to appoint.

    But do you believe that the judiciary is corrupt? 

    In 2001 I delivered a lecture in Lad-kwadi Banquet Hall, Sheraton Hotel in Abuja, and I said something is happening to the judiciary. It appears as if the Judiciary has compromised. But as soon as I mentioned that people at the event shouted at me saying, I am accusing judges of been corrupt and I said look, it is no longer news. A retired Justice of the Supreme Court has this pullout in Thisday Newspaper about the corruption in the judiciary.  Just recently the Chief Judge of the Federation also mentioned it that the judiciary is corrupt. So many things are happening in the sector.  Today, Tanko  Al-Makura has succeeded in defeating the impeachment saga. The House of Assembly asked the Chief Judge to set up a panel and he did, but suddenly the House of Assembly said they didn’t like the panel and the issue was dismissed because the panel said it did not see a single prove of the allegations levelled  against  the governor.

    That is the Nigerian society for you.  Anything can happen, what my paper said was that whether you are a king or a commoner you are subjected to ordinary law of the land. So, if you want to do what is right, do it, you cannot get away by doing something that is not right. The impeachment news going around the country is constitutional, everything you do is in the constitution, but it is liable to abuse, we are where we are because of culture of impunity. The word Impunity means when they said don’t drive against the traffic  and you decide to drive against it, that is impunity. If you know what is right to do and you refuse to do it, it is impunity. In the Bible, if you read the book of James, Chapter 4, it will tell you that if you know what to do and you don’t do it, it is a sin.

    Sometimes you talk like a politician, are you one?

    I am both apolitical and political. The fact is that we all have our views about our society. That we have allowed politicians to govern us as they like does not mean we don’t know our feelings.  I am not a partisan politicians. I belong to the Nigerian Bar Association, which is docile sometimes in its approaches to issues. I have cause to say so because there are issues that we should take-up. Happily, I was a commissioner under the military regime so they didn’t ask me to produce my party card. I have written about what party politics should be.  But those things are still lacking. Politics is about choices for some alternative, can someone tell me the difference between the APC and PDP? Maybe because of the Newspaper you work, I can guess where your interest maybe.  Don’t forget, I am still notionally a member of Rivers State Elders’ Council. I am not a partisan politician.

    You mentioned federalism in  your paper, what were you trying to stress?

    When you look at the kind of federalism we practice in Nigeria, it is not what we think. We do not have the power to do this and that.  It is more of cooperation and interdependence, that separation of power was not fixed in there to remove friction or efficiency so that you will prevent autocracy.  Look Lord Denning was one of the greatest man that has lived on this earth. He said to avoid rebellion there must be recourse to law. If there is wisdom, justice will prevail while you are fighting a war there are many casualties. Is that what governance is all about?

     

     

     

     

       

  • NFF CRISIS FALLOUT: Broke NFF can’t pay Falcons’ hotel bills

    NFF CRISIS FALLOUT: Broke NFF can’t pay Falcons’ hotel bills

    • Glass House barely able to feed players

    • Referees owed

    The crisis bedeviling football in Nigeria has now eaten deep into the finances of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) and is affecting payment of the football house bills, NationSport has scooped.

    The recent power tussle at the Glass House has made it difficult for the federation’s leaders to access funds directly and independently from a variety of sources like they used to in the past and this has resulted in the NFF being unable to honour its financial commitments.

    “It hurts me that there is no money to manage the programmes of the federation now and people are busy doing politics,” an NFF official lamented to NationSport.

    The source continued: “As it is now the federation is finding it difficult to pay workers’ salaries and owes a lot of people including the hotel where the Super Falcons, who are currently in camp preparing for the African Women’s championship (AWC), are lodged.”

    “We are just managing to see that those girls feed, even the hotel where they are lodged, we owe them a lot but they are still indulging us because of the long-term relationship we have had with them. Even the referees, we owe them a lot of money.”

    The federation has made a lot of financial commitments which may soon expose this secret of how bankrupt the NFF is.

    “Imagine that we could take a match to Gabon where it will be easy for us, but look at the kind of embarrassment that followed it”, the source lamented.

  • Southwest PDP wobbling in crisis

    Southwest PDP wobbling in crisis

    The Southwest Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has been enmeshed in leadership crises in the six states. Assistant Editor LEKE SALAUDEEN examines its implications for the party in next year’s general elections.

    There is no end in sight to the crisis rocking the Southwest Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). Last week, there was a new twist to the leadership tussle. The Chairman of the Southwest Caretaker Committee, Chief Ishola Filani,  was suspended by the members of the executive committee. He was asked to stop parading himself as the vice chairman of the party in the zone.  Although Filani has been re-instated, following the intervention of party elders, the controversy has continued to rage. Observers view his suspension as a fallout of the power struggle among  party leaders over 2015 calculations.

    The crisis has polarised the zone. Now, there are factions. The level of discontent is such that virtually all state chapters are grappling with one crisis or the other. The acrimony  climaxed when the former National Chairman, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur, appointed Chief Buruji Kashamu as the Chairman of the  Contact and Mobilisation Committee for the Southwest.

    A party stalwart described Kashamu‘s appointment as an imposition, which was intended to spite former President Olusegun Obasanjo and reduce his political influence. He said the former Chairman, acting a script by the Presidency, handed over the  zonal structure to Kashamu to undermine the former President. According to the party stalwart, notable stakeholders in the zone had protested the imposition, saying Kashamu joined the party four years ago.

    Many have also alleged that Kashamu planted Filani as the Caretaker Chairman to checkmate Chief Bode George’s influence and to consolidate his hold on the party. The ultimate goal was to make Filani the substantive chairman whenever the zonal congress is held. The reality on ground today is that Kashamu is in firm control of the party’s structure in the Southwest.

    Reacting to George’s comment that members of the caretaker committee lacked the power to suspend Filani, the Chairman of Ogun State chapter, Chief Bayo Dayo, said George was wrong.  In his view, it is only National Executive Committee that can fault the committee’s action. He added that the Southwest zone is responsible to the NEC, not to the George’s Leadership Forum.

    Dayo said Filani was re-instated, following the intervention of a review committee, the Fairness Forum. He said party leaders have appealed to feuding caretaker committee members to sheathe their swords and let the status quo remain, particularly since the Southwest congress may hold on September 26.

    He said the Fairness Forum mandated the Ekiti State governor-elect , Mr. Ayo Fayose, to  meet with aggrieved members of the committee, with a view to reconciling the warring factions. “This was how the matter was resolved and we hope that substantive officers will emerge from the congress scheduled for this month,” Dayo added

    Lagos State PDP Publicity Secretary Mr. Taofeek Gani aligned with the position of the Leadership Forum on the suspension of Filani. He said the action of the caretaker committee was embarrassing, adding that every stakeholder should be concerned about it.

    Gani commended the decision setting aside the purported suspension, saying it has restored peace in the party. He said the reason for reversing the suspension was very logical.

    His words: “Going by the antecedents of the party, this crisis is not insurmountable. The people behind it want to create confusion in the party. The PDP in the Southwest will go into 2015 elections more united and stronger.

    “This is a critical moment for the party. We are approaching the general elections, there should be no distraction. This is not the right time to overheat the polity. We should all work together to ensure the party’s victory in 2015.”

    The Chairman of the party in Ondo  State, Ebenezer Alade, said all the Southwest chairmen were shocked by the report of the suspension of Filani. He said the committee members who claimed to have removed Filani from office did not carry them along in their action. He also affirmed that members of the committee did not file any complaint before the party and had not indicated at any point in time that the suspended chairman did any wrong before taking the action.

    For more than two years, the Southwest PDP has been battling with a war of attrition. The party is factionalised in the six states. Analysts say the crisis escalated following the exclusion of chieftains loyal to former President Obasanjo from party activities.

    The crisis started at Osogbo, the Osun State capital. Party chieftains from the zone had in 2012 converged on the ancient city for the zonal congress. Aggrieved party stalwarts were bent on whittling down Obasanjo’s influence on the party. A faction of the PDP from Ogun State led by Kashamu  alleged that they were barred from the congress. The aggrieved members, who claimed that they were denied participation, went to court to challenge the validity of the congress. The court ruled that it was wrong to exclude the Ogun State chapter. As a result, it was declared null and void. It ordered that a new congress should be held. The judgment provided a caveat for the Bamanga Tukur-led National Executive Committee to disband the Southwest executive and remove Obasanjo’s men from the executive. The victims were the erstwhile National Secretary, Prince Olagunsoye Oyinlola, National Vice Chairman (Southwest), Mr. Segun Oni and the National Auditor, Chief Bode Mustapha.

    However, Oyinlola’s election was not voided by the Independent National Electoral Commission, which nullified the election of 16 national officers. Therefore when he was asked to vacate his office, the Obasanjo camp perceived it as orchestrated plan to eliminate the loyalists of the former President from the party. There were protests by Oyinlola supporters who insisted that he should be reinstated in the spirit of fairness and justice. Oyinlola and Oni went to court to regain their lost positions. The cases were still pending in court at the time both of them defected to the All Progressives Congress (APC).

    The reconciliation embarked upon by the Caretaker Committee led by Filani failed to restore peace and trust in the Southwest PDP.  The bitter struggle for the control of the party organs is also fierce among the party chieftains in the zone. Unresolved party matters, including the politics of exclusion, a winner-take-all attitude and emasculation of opponents in intra-party squabbles are still the order of the day.

    In Lagos State, the party has recorded the highest turnover of chairmen: Chief Olorunfunmi Bashorun, Alhaji Murtala Asorobi, Chief Alaba Williams, Bayo Adebayo,  Hon. Sentonji Koshoedo and Capt. Tunji Shelle. Amid the persistent crisis, many founding members have defected to the ruling party in the state. Many party chieftains believe that, since George became the arrowhead, peace has eluded the chapter. There are three factions in the party, namely: the Establishment led by George, the Union and the Non-Align group, all of them are working at cross purposes. Former leader of the Union group, Dr. Abayomi Finnih said the George group is in control of the party executive, while the other two factions are left in the cold. According to him, several reconciliatory moves made from outside, such as Southwest zone, the Presidency and the PDP Governors’ Forum, were to no avail.

    “The panels recommended a harmonised executive that would embrace all the factions, but the George group rejected the proposal. This action has further brought the party down. A serious party should open its doors for every member to be part of decision-making process. Some of us had bent backward by reaching out to George and his group, but their recalcitrant attitude did not allow them to reason with us. Politicians don’t behave that way. There must be compromise.”

    The Ogun State chapter is another house divided against itself. The State Executive Committee led by Adebayo Dayo, an engineer, does not have the support of the former President. Dayo was installed by Kashamu. Obasanjo had supported Senator Dipo Odujirin for the chairmanship. Since the court pronounced Dayo as the authentic chairman, the Obasanjo group has repeatedly shunned  party activities. The peace initiative by the party’s national secretariat was  also rebuffed. Similar efforts by President Goodluck Jonathan and the Board of Trustees (BoT) chairman, Chief Tony Anenih to reconcile the Obasanjo camp and the state leadership did not yielded any positive result. Obasanjo refused to grant Dayo and his group audience when they visited him on his birthday anniversary. Dayo was not pleased with the development. He said  certain party elders in the state have refused to embrace reality, wondering why they should constitute themselves into local warlords at a time they should be playing the role of father figures and conscience of the party.

    The appointment of Prof. Wale Oladipo as National Secretary to replace Prince Olagunsoye Oyinlola is still generating ripples in Osun State chapter. A group known as the Osun PDP Concern Forum has kicked against Oladipo’s appointment. The Forum insisted that the mode of selection did not conform with the PDP Constitution and that the choice of Oladipo does not reflect the popular wish of members. The office of the National Secretary was zoned to Osun State by the Southwest PDP. Besides, the emergence of Chief Iyiola Omisore as party governorship candidate in the August 9 election has further polarised the party in the state. Other aspirants believe the primaries were rigged in favour of Omisore.  A party stalwart said that was why the likes of Senator Olasunkanmi Akinlabi  and Hon. Wole Oke distanced themselves from Omisore’s campaign.

    In Ondo, the return of Governor Olusegun Mimiko to the PDP is causing disaffection among the party leadership. Those against Mimiko’s defection have vowed to leave the party in protest. The Ondo State chapter is like a wounded lion. Since the chapter lost power to Labour Party, the chieftains claim that they have been left in the cold. To survive, some LP members have gravitated towards the LP governor. Thus, during the last governorship election, they worked against the PDP candidate Chief Olusola Oke. The decision to disown Oke, a former National Legal Adviser, led to the factionalisation of the party during the electioneering. Oke complained to the national secretariat, but no concrete step was taken to whip the pro-LP supporters in the PDP into line. Defending their action, they claim that they were plotting the return of the governor to the PDP.

  • Resolving Africa’s food crisis

    Resolving Africa’s food crisis

    Experts and stakeholders gathered at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN) to proffer solution to Africa’s food crisis, reports OLADELE OGE (Mass Comm.).

    How can Africa achieve food sustainability and feed its populace? James Ogbonna, a professor of Crop Science at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN), believes the continent could make that mark by adopting crop biotechnologyto improve food production.

    Ogbonna spoke at an international conference on food security and biotechnology organised by the African Biosafety Network of Expertise (ABNE) in collaboration with the UNN, University of Groningen in Netherlands, Ehcloret University in Kenya, and University of Oragonding in Burkina Faso.

    The lecture examined the benefits and constraints in agricultural productivity in Africa.

    The lecture focused on improving awareness on food security and how to educate the African citizens on the use of technology to increase food production. Prof Ogbonna spoke on Adoption of crop biotechnology as a food security option: Benefits and constraints.

    He said scientists had made several efforts in recent time to consolidate the gains of biotechnology to ensure adequate production of food and energy drinks, saying: “Biotechnology has been tested to have capacity to increase productivity by fortifying crops with necessary minerals and vitamins that will enhance nutritional needs of people.”

    He dismissed as rumour the fears that crops produced from biotechnology are nutrient-deficient, saying such claim had not been scientifically proved. He told the participants to rely on research and not on misleading information from people he described as illiterate.

    Ogbonna outlined some of the benefits of the technology, urging more awareness on food programme and security in Africa. Through this, he said, Africa would be equipped to combat unexpected diseases and prevent death that may arise from wrong information.

    The Enugu State Commissioner for Environment, Dr Nnemeka Chukwuone, urged the participants to uphold new method of ensuring safety of locally-produced beverages, noting that there had been crisis in the nation’s agricultural extension.

    The commissioner appealed to the Federal Government to promote quality research through adequate funding of higher institutions to address problems plaguing the country’s agricultural sector.

    Dr Nnemeka said agricultural extension practice was being gradually phased out, stressing that farmers had misplaced their responsibility in producing quality food for the citizens.

    Earlier, the Local Organising Committee (LOC) chairman, Dr Aja Nwachukwu, said efforts were being made to contain the threats and the challenges of low production of food in Nigeria. He urged elaborate research and training to achieve the aim.

    The co-ordinator of the seminar, Prof Jerry Ugwuanyi, explained that part of the aim of the lecture was also to address food contamination. He urged the participants to spread the message of biotechnology to rebuild the capability of Africa to achieve food security.

    He hinted that useful information gathered from research and biotechnology conferences would be recommended to African government and other relevant agencies working to ensure safety of foods and human lives.

    Responding to question on the quality of the imported food, Mrs Rosline Gidado, one of the facilitators, said a concrete plan was underway to strengthen the campaign in rural communities to ensure throughout counseling.

     

  • NFF crisis a serious affair — Danagogo

    NFF crisis a serious affair — Danagogo

    The Sports Minister/Chairman National Sports Commission, Dr. Tammy Danagogo yesterday affirmed that the current  crisis rocking the Nigeria Football Federation is a serious affair for all football stakeholders in the country.

    According to Dr. Danagogo, the NSC is still studying the situation and “at the appropriate time we will say something about it in order for our football to move forward.”

    He added that “Already I have started calling the parties involved in the dispute to know their grievances and find a way out of the crisis because it is not healthy for the development of our football.”

    Meanwhile the minister has called on all parties involved in the crisis to put the interest of the country and the game before their personal interests as efforts are being made to ensure that peace returns to the football house.

  • Oyo blames PDP chieftain for market crisis

    Oyo blames PDP chieftain for market crisis

    Oyo State government has accused a leading Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) chieftain of coordinating renegades among Temidire Plank Market sellers against the administration.

    The government said the aim of the PDP chieftain was to cause disaffection between government and the people.

    The Special Adviser on Media to the Governor, Dr. Festus Adedayo, made this known in a statement in reaction to allegation that a government agency dispersed some of the renegades from the market.

    The government had acquired the market some years ago and relocated the traders to the Fashade area of the state capital.

    But this decision had generated bad blood between it and some members of the market who insisted that they would not move out of the market.

    “It is apparent that the said PDP stalwart is doing this for an ulterior motive. He coordinates dissent against government at the market and is their arrowhead. In fuelling the renegades, he apparently hopes to score cheap political points and paint government in bad light.

    “The market construction has been delayed for too long because of this prolonged, fuelled antagonism against government. Government considers the interest of the people first and not the narrow interest of politicians who are sponsoring the dissent,” said the statement.

    The government said it had done everything humanly possible to advance the cause of building a befitting market for the people of Temidire but its efforts were frustrated by a cabal, whose actions were fuelled by a political undertone.

    It said it had in the last one year met leaders of the market several times, provided an alternative market for the plank sellers at the Fashade village, with all conveniences, including transformers.

     

  • Crisis of unemployment and underemployment

    The crisis of unemployment among the youths is a global problem. The United States that seems to have the capacity to create jobs and to absorb young people into industries, services and public sectors of its economy is also not spared. Unemployment in the United States in recent times ranges between six and eight percent. In Europe, the rate is higher and varies from one country to another.

    In northern Europe, the rate is just slightly higher than that of the United States but in southern European countries like Italy, Spain, Portugal and Greece, the rate is bewildering. In Greece in particular among young people from 17-35 years old, unemployment is almost 50 percent. In the vast continent of Asia, unemployment is also a big challenge and in Arab North Africa and the Middle East, the rate of unemployment is also a serious threat to political stability in that region. Central and South America with the exception of Brazil and Chile is in serious trouble in terms of unemployment especially among the youths.

    Africa is almost a hopeless case. Unemployment in some parts of Africa among the youth is almost 80 percent in some cases. In Nigeria, the situation is serious and we are all sitting on kegs of gunpowder ready to explode at any time. Sixty percent of the graduates of universities and polytechnics annually troop into Lagos in search of jobs that do not exist. The manufacturing sector in Nigeria that should absorb young, willing and educated youths has collapsed where they existed or they do not exist at all. Since 1999, our economic policy has been the removal of the role of the states in economic development and job-creation under the slogan of allowing the market to take care of economic development.

    Centralised development planning that was popular in the 50s, 60s and 70s has been discarded as unfashionable because of poor management of public companies and corporations. Many of these companies have therefore been privatised and sold to people who instead of investing in them to create more jobs have themselves become scavengers, dismantling many of the plants and carting them away to be sold as spares outside Nigeria. Under the World Bank/IMF economic orthodoxy, creation of jobs now belongs into the province of private entrepreneurs and foreign investors.

    The role of the state is now restricted to the provision of private sector friendly environment while the lot of the unemployed has become a private affair of the individuals concerned and not that of government. It is true that state intervention in economic planning and development can sometimes be a deadweight on the state but we cannot always leave the fate of our young people to market forces and private investment. There may be a need as advocated by the late Lord Maynard Milton Keynes for massive state investment and intervention in job creation because without jobs, there can be no stability and if well managed state intervention by putting jobless people to work can lead to increase in national wealth in spite of whatever temporary inflation that may accompany it. A situation in Nigeria where young graduates are roaming the streets, riding okada or doing domestic jobs is a situation of unacceptable underemployment.

    In a developing country like ours, there are so many aspects of our lives that are crying for development; we do not have good roads, pipe borne water, electricity supply is fitful inadequate and unsatisfactory. Our primary and secondary schools’ buildings are a disgrace when compared with similar schools in southern Africa, we do not have adequate housing for our people, we do not have decent and functional ports and yet we have a coastline begging for development if only to decongest Lagos and save the people living there from their miserable existence. Our communication and transportation infrastructure is totally inadequate for our population. I can continue to mention areas of inadequacy in our lives.

    We have a huge population of about 170 million if we are to believe our census commission. With this huge population and with the highly developed manpower, we can do something in this country. Nobody is going to help us build our country; we have to do it ourselves. We should forget about such fanciful ideas like NEPAD, APRM and other strategies anchored on foreign investment. China that is now the second biggest economy in the world and is primed to overtake the United States very soon did not develop on World Bank/IMF’s advice but looked inwards and put its people to work and today, China is the most sought after destination where America and European leaders are queuing up to seek for economic cooperation.

    We may not have the Confucius ethics driving the Chinese people towards frugality and hard work but we certainly have natural resources and the population as well as the West African market if we are serious and determined to develop. We cannot stop educating our people because I have heard people saying, universities are turning out graduates when they know there are no jobs outside there. What we need to do is to declare a national emergency on employment and under-employment and also embark on the mission of physically building our country ourselves. We can do this by buying equipment, tractors, caterpillars and putting our young people to work on building our roads, railways, modern farms, houses, schools and ports with the supervision of experts, both local and foreign.

    The end product may not be as good as the ones built by expatriates but it will be the works of our hands. Anyone visiting India would notice that their roads and buildings and buses are a little rough on the edges but they can be proud that they built them. The problem of unemployment and underemployment is so serious in Nigeria that we must take unorthodox methods to tackle it. Those of us who are in employment are daily overwhelmed by the demands on our time, purses and generosity by young people seeking for jobs.

    We find it extremely difficult to send people away without providing some words of encouragement but this would not do. Self-preservation is the first law of nature. If young people cannot survive, they would do whatever is necessary including committing crime to survive. Young people are also not getting married because both young men and women have no jobs and this is destroying the moral and social fibre of our society. We are a nation that seems not to have a future because if the young people are not getting married and having children, then what future do we have? Even the Boko Haram insurgency is not unconnected with the apparent hopelessness of young people. Our leaders particularly our political leaders do not seem to understand or appreciate the seriousness of our situation.

    They are all bogged down by the politics of re-election. If we are not careful, there may be no country to govern after election. This is the time therefore for the federal government to summon a summit to discuss the problem of unemployment in our country. If salaries have to be cut especially among those who are earning well to fund Build Nigeria campaign, we have to do this. If we block economic seepage and leakage and the corruption at every level of government, there should be enough money to back this campaign to build Nigeria. I appeal to all those in position to take drastic measures to do this before we are all swept away in a sea of youthful fury.