The Nation Newspaper

Tag: criticises

  • PDP criticises Buhari’s lecture

    PDP criticises Buhari’s lecture

    Days after Gen. Muhammadu Buhari got a standing ovation at Chatham House, London, the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is still battling to stop the gains of event.

    The PDP Presidential Campaign Organisation yesterday alleged that the All Progressives Congress (APC) paid Chatham House for Gen. Buhari to speak at the prestigious institute last Thursday. Chatham House is not a profit-making organisation. It is not known to charge fees for hosting dignitaries.

    The Director of Media and Publicity of the PDP campaign organisation, Chief Femi Fani-Kayode who made the allegation at a media briefing, also said questions and answers on topics Buhari addressed were leaked to him by the organisers of the event.

    He did not provide any proof of this. Neither did he state how much was allegedly paid.

    Fani-Kayode insisted that the APC presidential candidate’s trip to London was on medical ground.

    Gen. Buhari told reporters after his lecture that he was fit as a fiddle and was, in fact, on his way home for the “final onslaught”.

    “There are some interesting facts about the Chatham House outing that Nigerians should know. The event was organised only two days before it took place and well after Buhari had arrived in London,” Fani-Kayode said.

    Days before Gen. Buhari went to London, his itinerary was announced; the Chatham House lecture was on top of his list of engagements.

  • Bayelsa criticises contractors, threatens to revoke three contracts

    Bayelsa state government has begun the process of revoking contracts of three errant contractors at the ongoing new National Youth Service Corps Orientation Camp project in Kaiama, Kolokuma/Opokuma Local Government Area.

    The state Commissioner for Works and Infrastructural Development, Mr. Lawrence Ehwrudjakpo, threatened to cancel the contracts after his weekly inspection of some projects in the state.

    He, however, failed to reveal the identities of the contractors.

    Ehwrudjakpo was disappointed at the slow pace and quality of work executed by the contractors and warned that the government might be compelled to revoke the contracts.

    He said: “I have directed the affected three contractors to see me urgently because we cannot continue to wait for people who don’t want to grow and do what is right.

    “If they don’t sit up, we will have no choice but to revoke the contracts and give them to people who are ready to work.”

    Ehwrudjakpo, who was satisfied with the pace of work at some of the projects, urged the contractors to ensure early completion of their projects.

    He said the administration of Governor Seriake Dickson was desirous to deliver the projects on time, to bring succour to the people of the various communities where the projects are sited.

    Reacting to the issue of blacklisting some contractors, one of the workers, who spoke on condition of anonymity, assured the commissioner that they were ready to execute quality and standard job.

    The three companies were said to be the core contractors of the two-storey building of three hostel blocks in the new orientation camp.

  • Oyo APC criticises FCT Minister for comment on bridge

    Oyo APC criticises FCT Minister for comment on bridge

    •Party welcomes 500 defecting PDP members 

    THE Oyo State All Progressives Congress (APC) has urged the Minister of State for the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Jumoke Akinjide, to desist from playing politics with the lives and wellbeing of the people.

    Its chairman, Chief Akin Oke, spoke while reacting to a statement credited to the minister on the flood situation.

    Akinjide was quoted to have asked the state government to spend the Federal Government’s N400 million intervention fund on the Apete Bridge in Ibadan, which was flooded a few days ago and reportedly took the lives of some passers-by.

    But the APC chairman accused the minister of merely playing to the gallery and seeking to hoodwink the people for the purpose of gaining political advantage.

    “The honourable minister was merely playing to the gallery. She is aware that the said money from the Federal Government cannot even construct the slabs on the three bridges of Apete, which together with the road network, is costing the state government about N6 billion. It is such politicking with the lives of our people that Oyo State had been grappling with under the Peoples Democratic Party,” the APC said.

    According to the party, the APC-led government was the unfortunate beneficiary of the long years of decadence of the PDP in the state.

    “During the August 2011 flood that ravaged Oyo State, 26 bridges collapsed and several roads were destroyed. The cost of reconstructing them runs into several billions. Save for the N400 million federal intervention that came when we had almost attended to the destruction the flood caused, we got no PDP or federal intervention.

    “In a state that spends almost all its earnings on payment of workers, we deserve commendation and not condemnation from the minister and her allies,” the party said.

    PDP members in Akinyele Local Government area of Oyo State defected yesterday to APC.

    The defectors from the council’s 11 wards cited Governor Abiola Ajimobi’s equitable distribution of dividends of democracy to the people without recourse to party affiliation or religious persuasion as reasons for their decision to leave the PDP.

    The state’s APC Deputy Chairman, Alhaji Isiaka Alimi received the new members with the secretary, Hon Mojeed Olaoya and the Caretaker Chairman of Akinyele Local Govt, Ope Salami.

    Alimi said there was a wind of progress and development blowing across the state which required the support of all citizens to sustain.

    He described the over 500 new members as partners in progress, adding that they decided to defect to the APC after seeing it as the only party that is progressive.

    According to him, “the laudable achievements of Governor Abiola Ajimobi has attracted majority of the opposition party members.”

    He urged members of the APC in the local government area to demonstrate love and spirit of accommodation to the new five hundred members.

  • Presidency criticises Akande’s comment on Jonathan

    Presidency criticises Akande’s comment on Jonathan

    The Presidency yesterday faulted the Interim National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Chief Bisi Akande, for allegedly describing President Goodluck Jonathan as a “kindergarten” leader who treats national issues with levity.

    In a statement by his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Dr. Reuben Abati, the President urged the APC chair to respect the truth and Nigeria.

    The statement said Akande’s comment was akin to propagating falsehood, wilfully insulting the President and impugning his integrity.

    It reads: “We have noted with dismay the continuation of efforts by leaders of the opposition to promote themselves and their party through the irresponsible denigration of President Goodluck Jonathan and the exalted Office of the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

    “The Interim National Chairman of the APC, Chief Bisi Akande, sank to a new low in this regard …when he rudely and falsely described President Jonathan as a ‘kindergarten’ leader who treats national issues with levity.

    “Chief Akande has every right to embark on a flight of fancy about the APC beating the PDP in the 2015 general elections, but he does no justice to his age and status when he resorts to propagating falsehood, wilfully insulting the President of his country, impugning his integrity and desecrating the office, which his party wishes to take over in 2015 by fair or foul means…”

    But Akande restated his position on the matter, insisting that the President was unserious.

    He said: The reaction of the Presidency is a confirmation of my earlier remark that they are running a kindergarten Presidency. They aren’t serious-minded people.”

  • Fayemi criticises centenary city project

    Ekiti State Governor Kayode Fayemi has described the Federal Government’s Centenary City project as “another wasted opportunity”.

    He called for a value reorientation to build an enduring brand for the country.

    Fayemi spoke at the Sixth Verdant Zeal Innovation Lecture, entitled: “Beyond branding: Building lasting values for Nigeria’s growth”.

    He said the 100 years anniversary of the amalgamation of the Northern and Southern Protectorates calls for sober reflection on the values we want to promote as a nation.

    Fayemi said all attempts at rebranding the country had failed because the nation has been “sloganeering”. He said it is this failure of values that needs to be addressed urgently.

    The governor cited an example of South Africa, which changed from an apartheid country to a multi-racial democracy within a decade.

    He said the country has to stop celebrating fraudsters and ex-convicts.

    At the event were the Chairman of The Nation Editorial Board, Mr. Sam Omatseye; rights activist Femi Falana (SAN); a lawmaker, Mr. Ahmed Omisore; and marketing communications experts Bola Akingbade, Udeme Ufot, Tunji Olugbodi and Idorenyen Enang, among others.

    Fayemi said: “The architecture of a national brand connects values, service-delivery, quality control, ideals and standard operating procedures in a seamless garment of national identity.

    “Our nation’s branding failures can be summed up as values’ deficit. It is the failure of successive administrations to articulate a strategic national vision and calibrate institutional realities to match this vision.

    “In broader terms, this represents not just the failure of a particular administration, but also our failure as elites to generate a consensus about what sort of place we want our country to be.

    “We cannot convincingly answer the question: What is this entity called Nigeria? What does it mean to be a Nigerian? Are we citizens or are we subjects? We have not adequately and firmly framed the values that we want to drive our institutions. At an administrative level, even when certain ideas have been articulated, such as the Service Compact or charters aimed at enhancing service delivery in the public sector, they have failed to elicit sufficient buy-in.

    “Institutional transformation of the scale that Nigeria needs will not be achieved by just rhetoric. It requires a willingness to restore values to the front burner of the discourse on transformation. It requires a willingness to lead by example, to incarnate the values of the society that we want.

    “In the words of Gandhi, we must become the change we want to see. Transformation cannot be imposed from above. It can only be generated by exemplary leadership, which not only elicits emulation but inspires the conviction that the proposed path of change is the right road.

    “The unruliness and incivility that we bemoan in our public spaces closely reflect the level of discourtesy and uncouthness demonstrated by public functionaries. The long history of intimate association between power and impunity on our shores is why many Nigerians once placed in positions of authority begin to manifest previously unrealised authoritarian traits.

    “It is both a result of the institutional ethos that we have constructed around authority and a manifestation of the power of example. If we are to change the character, tone and content of leadership and enhance the appeal of Brand Nigeria, we will need to join the corps of leaders and elites exemplifying the wave of the future. We will need to see ourselves as exemplars of a certain way of doing things.

    “A national brand is shaped to a large extent by a country’s conception of heroes; by the character of those that it bestows iconic status upon. For us, certain questions are relevant in this regard. What sort of people are we celebrating in Nigeria? Is hard work a reliable pathway to reward and recognition? What is the nature of our reward system? These are all salient question.

    “When we serenade fraudsters, ex-despots, ex-convicts and other assorted persons of dubious reputations with national honours and appointments, we are sending a terribly unedifying message to the world.

    “No kind of public relations blitz can undo the damage done to the national image by the sort of people that have become our symbols. We are also sending a dangerous signal to the young about the relationship between competence and honesty on one hand and promotion and recognition on the other. Nothing destroys the work ethic like the idea that hard work is futile. Nothing subverts public ethics like the idea that honesty does not pay.

    “It is said that we perpetuate what we permit and we receive what we reward. Mediocrity thrives because it is permitted and rewarded. Excellence will flourish and proliferate when it is not merely permitted but celebrated, encouraged and rewarded.”

  • Akinola criticises EFCC, ICPC

    Former Anglican Church Prelate Most Rev. Peter Akinola has said that the establishment of the anti-graft agencies has not reduced corruption in the country.

    Delivering a lecture titled: Nigeria: A Call for Moral Cleansing, in Lagos, the cleric said corruption has not abated. despite the existence of the Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC), Independent Corrupt Practices Commission (ICPC), Special Fraud Unit, Code of Conduct Bureau, Financial Action Task Force, and other related agencies.

    Rev. Akinola explained that Nigeria is now synonymous with scandalous and disgraceful acts, adding that it is swimming in moral crisis.

    He said the country that enjoyed an optimistic outlook at independence has now become a moral desert. Akinola recalled: “Here was a country that was the envy of friends and foes alike, as the beacon of hope for the black race on attaining independence. Here was a country that began the journey to nationhood with modest tangible gains, roads, schools and hospital all functioning well.”

    Rev. Akinola was repatriating half a billion dollar looted by the late General Sani Abacha from the Swiss banks for five years. He said corruption has dented the image of the country.

    He stressed: “It is an established fact that the Nigerian leaders in their several generations have not led the country in a clean and transparent way. Almost all of them have had their hands soiled with the ‘mud’ of corruption. “Several military regimes from Aguiyi Ironsi to Abdulsalam Abubakar have tried, but none has failed to identify corruption as a major national malaise to be tackled”.

    The cleric remarked that the military class, which had often it displaced civilian regimes to purge the country of corruption, had not done anything significant about it. He said: ““It is clear that the military, as a class and as an institution, cannot be absolved from the endemic corruption in the country.

    “Definitely, the military has learned lessons from the political behaviour of the first generation of Nigerian politicians. But, they too added their own, which would point to the fact that their actions were not inspired by the national interest.”

    Rev. Akinola said that Nigerians expected the current leaders to tackle corruptio, with the introduction of ICPC, EFCC, which led to the large scale investigation of past public officials.

    He added: “The startling disclosure only confirmed what has been expressed earlier that one of the major reasons for the thriving of corruption in Nigeria is the absolute power invested on the person and office the Nigerian leader.”

  • Kwara PDP criticises Belgore for comment on govt

    The Kwara State Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has accused Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) governorship candidate in the 2011 election, Dele Belgore (SAN), of “insensitivity” for criticising the PDP government in the state.

    In a statement by its Publicity Secretary, Mas’ud Adebimpe, the PDP said it regarded Belgore’s call for a “reduction of the staff strength of the work force as retrogressive and insensitivity to the plight of the civil servants “who have contributed in no small measure to the success recorded in the last few years in the state”.

    It said by criticising the 51 per cent of recurrent expenditure over the capital expenditure of 49per cent, “Belgore is indirectly calling for retrenchment in the state civil service, knowing fully well that recurrent expenditure is almost synonymous with staff salary and other overhead costs”.

    The statement added: “Pray, is Mr Belgore saying Kwara State workers’ salaries should not be paid? Is he asking the state government to retrench workers to reduce the recurrent expenditure?”

    The party alleged that “Belgore neither stays in the state nor ever related with the grassroots”.

     

     

     

     

     

  • Akeredolu criticises Jonathan over comment on Ondo poll

    ACTION Congress of Nigeria (ACN) governorship candidate in last October’s Ondo State governorship election, Mr. Rotimi Akeredolu, yesterday criticised President Goodluck Jonathan’s comment on the election at the weekend.

    It was during the Redeemed Christian Church of God congress at the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway.

    Akeredolu said the President should face governance.

    He said:“I note Dr Goodluck Jonathan comment on the last Ondo Gubernatorial Election at a religious gathering on the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway. He claimed that the process, the outcome of which is being challenged by some political parties, including his party, PDP, is presumably as an index of his nebulous transformation agenda.

    “While we may not begrudge him or any member of his party for playing politics, we hasten to say that it is indecent for the president to choose the forum of a religious programme to utter such falsehood. It is desecration of the worst kind to use a solemn moment such as that occasion for politics. It becomes all the more unsettling to note that the President has continued to treat the judiciary with such unimaginable contempt. He cannot feign ignorance of the fact that petitions are pending before the tribunal as his party is involved, even if there has been attempts to make the purported winner of the Ondo election shed the cloak of deceit and declare openly for his party. It is also hypocritical for anyone to attempt to confuse worshippers with statements which stand at variance with the realities on ground.

    “As a contestant in the last election and a practising lawyer, I have chosen to tread the path of honour by waiting for judicial pronouncement on the last electoral exercise. I have my opinions on issues bordering on the shameful practices witnessed during the last election. I await the commencement of trial when all evidences adduced will be subjected to forensic analyses. I have chosen not to join those who, for reasons barely expressed, have continued to use the declared results of the election as a basis for attacking my party leadership and even my personality. This must, however, not be misconstrued as a sign of weakness

    “Let this president concentrate on governance; the country is adrift. It is too early to be scheming for 2015. Nigerians can hardly wait to see the end of this current nightmare called government. No amount of sanctimonious hypocrisy can obliterate the fact that this is the worst experience since independence. Let the president and his fellow travellers continue to wallow in self-delusion. The reality of our existence today confirms the present band as the most profligate and hypocritical. The country is no longer safe as nobody is immune from the scourge of criminality.

    “Octogenarians and babies are kidnapped routinely and all this mediocre government has to offer are platitudes bordering on idiocy. They themselves are convinced of the precarious state of things and their inability to confront the challenges of governance. They ask us to pray when proactive steps need to be taken to address the free fall into the abyss. Nigerians wallow in abject poverty; meanwhile this ephemeral holders of transient power gobble the treasury to a point of constipation and, being intoxicated with the benumbing ambience of opulence, suffers from deliberate amnesia on what used to be, as against what are.

    “We leave the president and INEC with lessons from Ghana. There should be no controversy on the abysmal performance of INEC after billions had been appropriated. Only an irredeemable liar will seek to deceive the people when no improvement has been made. If the president is in doubt, let him ask General Obasanjo, who went to observe how elections are conducted in a neighbouring society, Ghana, which is truly desirous of development.

    “2015 seems far away but, in reality, is around the corner. Nigerians can hardly wait to end this misery.

  • Mimiko criticises ACN’s, PDP’s call for SSS chief’s removal

    Mimiko criticises ACN’s, PDP’s call for SSS chief’s removal

    THE Mimiko Campaign Organisation (MCO) yesterday criticised the call for the removal of the State Security Service (SSS) chief.

    The Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) have accused the SSS chief of being biased against them.

    ACN at the weekend through a statement by Mr. Idowu Ajanaku, the Director of Media of the Akeredolu Campaign Organisation (ACO), vowed that the ACN and the PDP might have to resort to self help if the SSS boss was not removed.

    Last week, ACN called for the removal of the Police Commissioner and other top officers of the command for similar reasons.

    The MCO, through a statement by its spokesman Kola Olabisi described Ajanaku’s statement as reckless, dangerous and symptomatic of the desperation of the opposition in the state. It said it was a justification of its cries in the past that the two leading opposition parties were working together.