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Tag: failed

  • Why constitution reviews failed, by Ekweremadu

    Why constitution reviews failed, by Ekweremadu

    The Deputy Senate President Ike Ekweremadu has explained why attempts to review the constitution usually ended up in disagreement. He spoke at the maiden public lecture organised by the Faculty of Law of the Nnamdi Azikiwe University (UNIZIK) in Awka, the Anambra State capital. FRANKLIN ONWUBIKO (Mass Communication) reports.

    The Nnamdi Azikiwe University (UNIZIK) in Awka, the Anambra State capital, was agog on Monday. The institution hosted political heavyweights at the maiden public lecture of the Faculty of Law.

    The Deputy Senate President, Senator Ike Ekweremadu, was the guest lecturer at the event with the theme: The politics of constitution review in multi-ethnic societies. Leading dignitaries to the event were the governors of Anambra and Enugu states, Dr Willie Obiano and Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi, who were the special guests of honour.

    Others include former Ambassador to the United States and chairman of the occasion, Prof. George Obiozor, traditional ruler of Awka, Dr Gibson Nwosu, former Minister of Aviation, Mr Osita Chidoka, former Attorney- General and Commissioner for Justice, Adamawa State, Prof. Maxwell Gidado (SAN), and a senior lecturer at the Department of Political Science of the University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN), Prof. Okechukwu Ibeanu, among others.

    Describing the constitution as an essential autobiography of any nation written from its history and values, Ekweremadu said the document was a collection of ideals and aspirations of a nation that set out its aims and objective.

    He noted that constitution review had always been fraught with political wrangling, which he said remained the bane of the exercise. He said the interests of each geo-political zone must be balanced for the nation to make meaningful progress with the exercise.

    His words: “The challenges facing constitutional review process range from apathy to lack of democratic culture, lack of political will, lack of activism and firmness by the judiciary, ethnic irredentism, religious considerations, lack of procedural template and temptation to achieve many things at a time.”

    The Deputy Senate President said ethnic politics had always influenced previous reviews, adding: “It is also noteworthy that no group or part of the country can claim to be innocent in the ethno-sectional intrigues that usually beclouds constitution review efforts. We all have our portions of the blame. Worse still, the ethno-sectional interests often have nothing to do with interests of the masses, but just the interests of a few member of the political elite.”

    He listed some of the unsuccessful amendments, which he said was as a result of ethnic politics, to include state creation, fiscal federalism, decentralised policing, status of local governments and financial autonomy for state assemblies, among others.

    Ekweremadu argued that constitution amendment exercises in a pluralistic society, such as Nigeria would continue to encounter challenges as far as the elite continued to put their narrow interests above the national interest.

    To overcome challenges facing the nation, the Deputy Senate President said there must be patience, understanding, accommodation of opposing views and willingness to make concessions and put national interest above personal and sectional considerations.

    Earlier, the Vice-Chancellor (VC), Prof Joseph Ahaneku, said his administration had encouraged intellectual public lectures where national issues were discussed to deepen knowledge and proffer solution to challenges.

    The VC said the thrust of the lecture was to generate ideas and throw up alternative approaches of addressing identified challenges in making constitution work.

    Ahaneku said: “Forging a constitution which defines the basic principles to which a society must conform in a multi-ethnic country like Nigeria is an intensively sensitive matter posing daunting challenges. I am optimistic that Sen. Ike Ekweremadu, given his vast experience in the Senate, would do justice to the topic.”

    The Acting Dean of the faculty, Prof Godwin Okeke, said the lecture was a product of the aspiration of the faculty to contribute to nation building through knowledge. He described indifference shown by people towards constitutional review as ignorance, saying the public lecture was designed to address such act.

    In his remark, Obiozor said if the nation must be salvaged, there must be a stop to self-deception and self-delusion about the country’s historical realities. For Nigeria to remain a united entity, the former envoy said its leaders must borrow a leaf from other successful pluralistic countries.

    Governor. Obiano, represented by his deputy, Dr Nkem Okeke, praised the university for bringing the “fundamental issue” to the fore, noting that constitution review should be approached with sincerity that is devoid of political or selfish gains.

    The Deputy VC for Academics, Prof Charles Esimone, described the event as successful, praising the participants for the large turnout despite that the university is on vacation.

  • After the failed ‘coup’ in Osun

    With the May 26 Judgement of the Supreme Court that affirmed Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola as the winner of the August 9, 2014 governorship election in Osun, the state’s PDP knew it has come to the end of the road in its long sustained but futile bid to come to power in the state. It therefore had to devise some unconventional means to unseat the governor.

    On Sunday June 14, one of the leaders of the party in the state called a meeting of party bigwigs, stakeholders and loyalists at the party’s secretariat for the purpose of repositioning the party for next elections after its brutalisation and crushing defeats in elections since 2011. But to their chagrin, they were told by the frustrated politician to brace up to his plan of action of making the state ungovernable, if they ever hope to win any election in the state.

    However, Osun State Security Council got wind of the plans and read the riot act to them on June 19 after its emergency meeting.

    The first stage of the plan was to import thugs and hoodlums into the state in the week starting from June 22. These thugs were to unleash mayhem in the name of protesting delay in payment of workers’ salaries and pensions. The ‘protest’ was to be accompanied with killing, looting and arson, both of public and private property. An NGO was formed a week before the rioting to be the arrowhead of the felony in order to give the thugs a façade of legitimacy.

    Justice Olamide Folahanmi Oloyede’s petition asking for the impeachment of the governor would have fitted perfectly into the dastardly plot. Coming after the mayhem, destruction and state of insecurity, the petition would have provided a comfortable ground for some of the legislators who had allegedly been promised money and positions if they should carry the impeachment through.

    When the state Security Council aborted the subversive protest with its sabre rattling, the bottom has been knocked off Oloyede’s petition and has therefore been denied the impetus to compel the impeachment of the governor, as it would have been if the mayhem had been carried out.

    The PDP, unrelenting and disappointed that the petition lacked any force, decided to give it a fillip. This, as it were, would be the stage three which was eventually carried out on Tuesday July 7 but it was stillborn. The ‘protesters’ made up of known PDP members and local leaders, a very tiny section of the retirees on the payroll of an Ife politician (about 50) and sundry thugs (local and imported) had gathered around Ola-Iya junction in Osogbo (the area is a hotbed of progressive activism).

    However, Aregbesola, the master tactician and a good student of Asiwaju Bola Tinubu took the wind out of their sail. While going to his office that morning, he turned the trip into a carnival as he slowed his convoy to acknowledge cheers from the people on the route, who trouped out to greet him. Women, men, children, traders, artisans, commercial motorcyclists, just everybody within the vicinity came out to mob his convoy. Some were weeping. Other were praying loudly and openly for him while others were cursing his enemies.

    When the convoy reached Ola-Iya, which is a market place, the crowd surrounding him had become tumultuous, swallowing and overwhelming the miserable protesters who had gathered in the place before. Possibly out of fear and or shame, many of them took to their heels on being overwhelmed. And so, Aregbesola rode to the office triumphantly that day, overwhelming and shaming those who thought they could ambush and embarrass him.

    To add salt to injury, the story that went to town that day was how Aregbesola rode triumphantly to office and how his enemies put tail between hind legs and fled – ran away as in fright.

    Interestingly, while signing a memorandum of understanding with the state government before calling off its industrial action, the state’s NLC denied that its members participated in the farcical protest of July 7, claiming that the charade was politically motivated.

    The body of pensioners in the state also claimed that the union did not participate in any protest, that Governor Aregbesola’s administration had treated retirees very well before the financial crisis that engulfed the whole nation, and not Osun alone.

    Also, the chairman of the state’s vendors association also signed a statement, denying that his members were attacked by Aregbesola’s supporters.

    Lastly, on July 28, Justice Oloyede refused to appear before the house committee set up to investigate her claim. Apparently, she has developed cold feet. There are unconfirmed reports that the state’s Judicial Commission is unhappy about her petition, which has put the judiciary into a bind. They were shocked to find that a judge displayed open political partisanship, something unheard in the history of the judiciary.

    Her not appearing meant her petition is dead. For all practical purposes, therefore, the plan by the PDP to remove Governor Aregbesola from office through subterfuge and conspiracy may have failed.

    The first lesson we must learn from this is that if God is with someone, no matter how formidable his enemies are, he would overcome them and put them to shame.

    Secondly, politicians must accept that a democratically elected governor, that is popular with his people and has not committed an impeachable offence, can only be changed through tenure expiration, losing election or by a competent court of law.

    Thirdly, a new dawn has come to Nigeria where only values like credibility, integrity and a track record of unblemished public service will commend a candidate to voters.

    It is my hope that the defeated candidates of PDP will accept their destiny and try to amend their ways, instead of working to destabilise Osun State. If, with all the support they got from former President Goodluck Jonathan with cash, dogs, masked gunmen and other security operatives, they could not unseat Aregbesola in Osun, what makes them think that they could overthrow him now?

    • Ogundele writes from Osogbo, Osun State
  • A gamble that failed

    A gamble that failed

    Before the March 28 presidential/National Assembly elections, the dollar sold for between N228 and N230 at the black market. Many hoarded the currency, thinking that the election outcome will engender a crisis. They have now released the dollar, crashing the exchange rate to between N210 and N211, writes COLLINS NWEZE.

    The foreign exchange (forex) market can be tricky. A split second decision by policy makers or a change in political economy could alter the market equilibrium. That was exactly what happened a week after the March 28 presidential elections.

    Forex dealers and currency speculators who thought Nigeria would not be able to handle the election aftermath, were disappointed when nothing untoward happened.

    Today, the re-conversion of the local currency to the greenback (dollar) has not only strengthened the naira, but has led to huge losses for the speculators.

    President, Association of Bureau de Change Operators of Nigeria (ABCON), Alhaji Aminu Gwadabe, said the confidence in new leadership and the peaceful elections have helped to lift the naira. He expects the naira to appreciate further adding that although the market fundamentals, including the foreign exchange reserves and price of crude oil have not changed, but the peaceful conclusion of the presidential election, has curbed fear and uncertainty in the financial market.

    “Before the elections, people were converting naira to dollar, which prompted the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor, Godwin Emefiele to disclose that more than half of term deposits were in dollar. The peaceful elections have calmed down a lot of nerves, prompting people that had stockpiled dollars to come out and change them to local currency,” he said.

    Gwadabe explained that the practice has led to dollar glut in the market, despite the tight liquidity in the money market.

    He said the forex reserves are at $29.8 billion, crude oil price is at $54 per barrel. These notwithstanding, the naira has been upbeat because market fundamentals alone do not determine exchange rate.

    “The forex market goes with sentiment. It is not only the market fundamentals you look at when you talk of exchange rate stability,” he said.

    Besides, the naira has traded in a range of 198 to 200 per dollar since March 3, and remained anchored even as stocks jumped the most in five years and bond yields plunged to four-month lows.

     

    Trading restrictions

    Analysts at Bloomberg predicted that the naira would face the prospect of a sell-off when the CBN removes trading restrictions imposed last year to reduce volatility. But the question for investors wanting to get back into Nigerian assets is when that will happen.

    A money manager at M&G Ltd. in London, which oversees about $1 billion of emerging-market assets, Claudia Calich, said: “If you buy local bonds now, you have to factor in how much the currency will move. It’s a tricky proposition.”

    The naira has slumped 18 per cent against the dollar as oil prices collapsed by almost half since June, prompting the apex bank lower banks’ trading limits and introduce a new dealing system in February that prevents lenders from buying dollars on the interbank market without matching orders from customers needing to import goods.

    The CBN also sold dollars to support the naira, cutting foreign-exchange reserves to $29.8 billion, the lowest in a decade, according to HSBC Holdings Plc. Those measures have left the currency overvalued, according to investors including M&G, BlackRock Inc. and Investec Asset Management.

    “One of the first big challenges the new government is going to have to face is what on earth to do with the naira,” Samuel Vecht, who oversees $2.7 billion in five emerging-frontier-market funds at BlackRock, said by to Bloomberg by phone from London, said:  “Steps have to be taken to ensure reserves don’t keep falling.”

    Gen. Muhammadu Buhari’s (rtd) win over President Goodluck Jonathan marks the first democratic transition of power from one party to another since Nigeria’s independence from Britain in 1960. A former military ruler in the 80s who lost the three previous elections, Buhari has pledged to clamp down on corruption, boost growth and create at least one million jobs a year. He won 52.4 per cent of votes cast, according to tallies by the electoral authorities.

    Nigerian assets mostly soared as Jonathan’s concession to Buhari, who will be sworn in on May 29, suggested the transition will be smooth.

    Stocks climbed 8.3 per cent, the most among 93 global primary indexes tracked by Bloomberg. They gained another 3.4 per cent on last week, reversing losses for the year, having been down 20 per cent by February 13.

    Yields on Nigeria’s $500 million of Eurobonds due 2023 fell 19 basis points to 6.02 per cent on, the lowest since December 8, and rates on benchmark naira bonds dropped 118 basis points to 13.81 per cent, also the lowest since Dec. 8.

     

    Money changers

    While naira forward contracts traded offshore and exempt from the CBN’s restrictions, also rallied, they still suggest the currency’s depreciation is far from over. Naira six-month non-deliverable forwards fell 2.8 per cent to 233.50 against the dollar, the lowest since January 22.

    The currency changes hands among unofficial money changers at 226, Alan Cameron, an economist at Exotix Partners LLP in London, said in a March 19 note.

    The naira’s current interbank value is appropriate and the discrepancy between that and the parallel rate isn’t an indication that it’s under pressure, Emefiele said at the last Monetary Policy Committee meeting on March 23 to 24.

    The CBN may end the so-called order-based trading system introduced in February now elections are over, according to the Lagos-based Financial Markets Dealers Association, an industry body.

     

    Other policy-makers speak

    Sub-Saharan Africa Economist at Renaissance Capital and co-Author of the Fastest Billion Yvonne Mhango said the CBN has shown absolute commitment to dealing with dwindling fortune of the naira.

    She said while Nigeria cannot do much to influence the oil price, the combination of measures sends a powerful signal to all stakeholders on the CBN’s intent to do what it can to preserve macroeconomic stability.

     

    CBN takes action

    Emefiele said the CBN under his leadership remains committed to safeguarding the value of the naira. For instance, the lender recently banned the sale of foreign exchange by banks to importers without the requisite shipping documents.

    It also directed that only imports, which are backed with evidence of shipment and other relevant documents, will qualify for purchase of foreign exchange. Only such transactions will be eligible for foreign exchange purchase via the RDAS or the interbank window, it said.

    The apex bank said henceforth, all importations involving electronics, finished products, information technology, generators, telecommunication equipment and invisible transactions would be funded from the interbank foreign exchange market only.

    The policy, the CBN said, was to maintain the existing stability in foreign exchange market and strengthen the various policy measures, already initiated, including the regulation of the Bureau De Change (BDCs) that cut dollar supply to operators from $50,000 to $15,000 weekly. These measures, Emefiele admitted, would help conserve the foreign exchange and support the naira.

     

    Complex crisis get worse

    The misfortune of the naira seems complex. The thinking is that massive inflow of forex from surging oil prices and the boom in the capital market were responsible for the appreciation of the naira in the past few years. Unfortunately, oil prices have nosedived and Nigeria capital market is in a shambles. The fall in the price of oil has major consequences on government revenue, aggregate output, capital formation investment, employment, trade and fiscal balance.

    The 2008 global financial meltdown also contributed to the naira’s freefall.  Chief Executive officer, Financial Derivatives, Bismarck Rewane, said Nigeria was unprepared for the shock. “The Nigerian economy believed to be one of the most resilient in the world was caught unawares by the global crisis,” he said.

    Analysts said a gradual appreciation of the currency will require building confidence in the financial system and price of crude oil in international market.

    “This is what is going to drive the exchange rate now and beyond; we cannot isolate what is happening in the global economy like the issue of diversification of energy sources,” they said.

     

    Historical view of the naira

     From 1980 to 2000, the naira depreciated by N101.50 to N102.10 to dollar, when compared with N0.6 to dollar it traded as at 1981. Not even the   Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP) introduced in 1985 could have predicted this sharp slide.

    The currency first hit double digits, moving from N9.9 to a dollar in 1991 to N17.2 to a dollar the following year. That constituted a significant 73.7 per cent change. Thereafter, a gradual slide ensued, attaining triple digits in 2000.

    Although it was considerably stable between 2000 and 2003 (below N120 to a dollar), the recent adverse global capital flows and drop in oil price, among other factors, have culminated in the current all time low.

    Moreover, decreasing the value of a currency is much easier than supporting it. When a country wants to depress its own currency, it can create and sell unlimited quantities. In contrast, if it wants to support its own money, it needs to sell the limited quantities of other currencies it holds or borrow from other central banks.

    That explains why the CBN has found it increasingly difficult to defend the naira. The solution, according to analysts said, lies in diversification of the economy.

    For now, the continued decline in oil receipts poses a threat to government revenues, limiting the fire power to regulate the naira. Should this continue unabated, the naira’s misfortunes will worsen and the N100 banknote will no longer buy a small loaf of bread for a minor, let alone kill hunger.

     

  • How NLC failed Nigerian workers

    How NLC failed Nigerian workers

    Tony Akowe, who monitored the three-day delegate conference of the Nigeria Labour Congress in Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory, to elect new set of labour leaders, writes on the intrigues that characterised the process

    FOR three days, the conference hall of the International Conference Centre in Abuja was a beehive of activities as Nigerian workers attempt to teach the rest of the country how to practice real democracy. It was the delegate conference of the Nigeria Labour Congress which Edo State governor and a former National President of the Congress, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, described as the bastion of democracy.

    Horse trading and back stabbing were some of the intrigues that characterised the three days of the conference as the different unions fielding candidates in the election lobbied others for support for their candidates.

    Signs that there might be trouble at the conference started showing immediately the list of contestants was published by the Nasir Fagge-led credentials committee. Some private sector unions took a paid advertorial, alleging that an agreement entered into to cede the presidency to them was being jettisoned.

    Igwe Achese, President of the National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas, brought the issue to the floor of the conference, stressing that it was agreed that since Abdulwahid Omar, the outgoing president was from the public sector, there was the need to cede the position to the private sector. Three candidates filed papers to contest the position with backing from different unions.

    Achese dropped the bombshell, announcing his withdrawal from the presidential race and asking his supporters to cast their votes for Joseph Ajaero, the outgoing Deputy President and General Secretary of the National Union of Electricity Employees.

    His announcement drew a loud applause and jubilation from supporters of Ajaero and the private sector unions present at the conference.

    But from there on, it was clear that Ayuba Wabba, the outgoing Treasurer and President of the Medical and Health Workers Union, was having the upper hand and may eventually carry the day.

    His supporters kept their cool and it was clear where the pendulum may swing.

    Abdulwahid Omar, outgoing president of the congress, agreed with Achese that there was an agreement to cede the presidency to the private sector unions. He explained that it was not a congress decision, but a kind of a gentleman’s agreement among the unions. But the private sector unions felt betrayed by the decision to allow Ayuba Wabba contest the election. Wabba’s immediate union had the highest number of delegates to the conference with 527 out of the 3119 delegates to the conference. He also had the support of other public sector unions with equally large number of delegates.

    The Nigerian Civil Service Union, Non Academic Staff Union, and all unions in the health sector were solidly behind him. Incidentally, Wabba is the National Chairman of the Joint Health Sector Unions that led the recently suspended strike in the health sector.

    The first major attempt to scuttle the conference took place earlier in the day when attempts to adopt the financial report presented by Wabba was scoffed at.

    Discussing the report, one of the delegates requested for a report on the NLC KRISTON-Larry Housing Project 5 which has been riddled with fraud and for which subscribers are demanding a refund of their deposit.

    From there on, bottle water, sachet water and chairs were used freely until some of the presidential aspirants intervened and calmed fray nerves for the conference to continue.

    Elections did not, however, start until about 8.44pm with delegates allowing adjustment in the list of candidates for the election. Igwe Achese who had stepped down from the presidential slot was moved to the position of deputy president, making them five contestants for the three available positions. Before the conference, three candidates were cleared by the credentials committee to contest the election. It was an attempt to reopen nomination to allow Najeem Yasin, President of the National Union of Road Transport Workers, that led to Comrade Issa Aremu, General Secretary of the Textiles Workers Union, to stage a walk out from the conference, a situation that did not go down well with elders of the congress, led by former President, Hassan Somonnu.

    Apparently, Yasin was disqualified by the committee for not properly filing his form. John Odah, former general secretary of the congress who was not happy with the decision by Aremu to walk out of the conference, said the congress has been very kind to the textiles workers.

    The intrigues continued to play out until it was time for election. The delegates had agreed during the business session to allow pensioners under the auspices of the Nigeria Union of Pensioners to cast their votes first. When it took the 44 delegates from the union over 30 minutes to cast their votes, it was clear that the election was going to last all night.

    But when the 527 delegates from Medical and Health Workers Union took almost five hours to cast their vote, some of the delegates began to raise questions.

    Interestingly, before the election started, the leadership of the congress which was supposed to have been dissolved was not even though the outgoing president called for a motion to that effect.

    The chairman of the credential committee, Comrade Nasir Fagge, raised an objection, describing the move as unconstitutional as the constitution of the congress said that can only be done when a new executive has been elected.

    The Nation gathered that it was only a matter of time before trouble started. At about 8.45 am, exactly 23 hours after the commencement of the elections, a delegate from Electricity Workers Union allegedly raised an alarm, alleging fraud in the ballot papers.

    Incidentally, NUEE is the union of one of the presidential aspirant, Joseph Ajaero. The union, with its over 400 delegates, had started their round of voting at about 7.20am. Observers told The Nation that a NUEE delegate raised an alarm that he has noticed that some aspirants names appeared more than once on the voting slip, thereby giving them an edge over his candidate. The alarm he raised caused commotion inside the hall as the other aggrieved delegates headed straight for the ballot box containing used ballot parts and smashed the boxes, scattering the ballot papers all over the hall, while carting away all unused ballot papers.

    They also claimed that the name of the second presidential candidate and outgoing deputy president, Joseph Ajaero, was also missing in some of the ballot papers being used for the election. The used and unused ballot papers were scattered inside the main hall of the International Conference Centre as delegates scampered for safety for fear of a stampede and eventual riot.

    Ajaero, however, told journalists that the election was stopped due to some irregularities discovered on the ballot papers.

    He said: “The dilemma we found ourselves in this morning is that a new president should have been sworn in, now that the new president is not sworn in, we wish to appeal to the elders of the movement to do the needful; to make sure that there is no vacuum in the NLC. This is our call and message and we apologise to Nigerians who may feel insulted by this show of shame by showing understanding until the exercise is organised.”

    Wabba, however, dismissed the claim, pointing out that what happened was a deliberate attempt by enemies of congress to disrupt the conference because they discovered that they were on the losing side.

    On his part, Achese said it was regrettable that the much anticipated election had to be jettisoned due to the crisis.

    Though Omar came into office on March 3, 2011, the Achese camp said that his tenure ceased after the delegates’ conference, whether it was conclusive or not. At the time of this report, it was learnt that labour leaders were making frantic efforts to resolve the dispute and were holding series of meeting with the aggrieved persons.

  • Lawyers: Service chiefs have failed Nigeria

    Lawyers: Service chiefs have failed Nigeria

    Lawyers yesterday condemned the postponement of the general elections, saying the service chiefs have failed Nigeria.

    According to them, there is more to the postponement than meets the eye because the battle against insurgency, which has not been won in six years, cannot be won in six weeks.

    The lawyers warned against actions that could result in a constitutional crisis even if the law makes room for a postponement.

    Those who spoke include Prof Itsay Sagay (SAN), former Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) President Oluwarotimi Akeredolu (SAN), Dr Babatunde Ajibade (SAN), Dr Joseph Nwobike (SAN) and Mr George Oguntade (SAN).

    Others are a professor of law at the Nigerian Institute of advanced Legal Studies (NIALS), Lanre Fagbohun, Chief Emeka Ngige (SAN) and activist-lawyer Festus Keyamo.

    Sagay said INEC exhibited its lack of independence and bowed to the rule of force in postponing the general elections.

    ‘‘Is it within the next two months that they want to quell Boko Haram that they have been unable to do these past years? This action will demoralise voters, create more expenses.

    “It just means that INEC has been influenced and no longer independent. Prof. Jega never said anything about postponement until the NSA did and was later joined by all the operatives of the PDP.

    ‘‘So it is correct to say that INEC has collapsed under pressure. Everyone took the postponement rumour for granted until PDP loyalists started raising dust about it.

    “This shows there is lack of independence and it will affect everyone’s disposition on the outcome of the election when it is eventually held since INEC can be pressurised into changing its mind,’’ said Sagay.

    Akeredolu said with the polls shift, INEC has confirmed that it is castrates in the present arrangement where it depends on the Federal Government for everything.

    “The Federal Government shenanigans in arriving at the ultimate postponement of the elections must be condemned by all well-meaning Nigerian.

    “What we have witnessed is ‘government magic’. They have just turned green to blue and electric to candle (apology to Fela),” he said.

    Oguntade said the decision appears to be a volte face on the part of INEC which, aware of the security situation for some time, had always maintained that the elections would proceed as scheduled.

    “What major calamity has therefore happened of late to warrant this sudden u-turn a week to the elections?

    “Furthermore, the security challenge that has been provided as an excuse for the postponement  has been going on for the past five years or so. What is the likelihood that in six weeks time, the security situation will be different from what it is today?

    “Again, what exactly is the numerical strength of the Nigerian Army and security agencies in Nigeria, such that they cannot continue their military activities in the North as well as provide necessary cover for the elections?

    “Is it that Nigerian Army is so weak and decimated that it cannot face offensives on the different fronts simultaneously? There are endless questions to be asked,” Oguntade said.

    Ajibade believes the Federal Government is playing a dangerous game that could precipitate a serious constitutional crisis.

    To him, it is not expected that INEC’s decision should be compelled by advice received from agencies of the government in power.

    “This derogates from the supposed independence of INEC and leaves it at the mercy of the government of the day.

    “There is no reason to believe that the reasons adduced for compelling this postponement, viz. the security situation in the Northeast of the country and a consequent shortage of military personnel will abate in six seeks, so what then?  A permanent postponement until the security situation abates?

    To Ngige, INEC has shown Nigeria to be a “never-ready country of unserious people where anything goes.”

    Keyamo described the postponement as the ruling party imposing its will on the umpire.

    “What started as a joke when the NSA flew the election postponement kite in London has become an ugly reality. The implication of this is that Nigerians should be vigilant from now on,” he added.

    Other lawyers said INEC was almost helpless and could not have gone ahead with the elections without security backing.

    Nwobike said: “In this instance, INEC has, through its chairman, adduced some reasons for postponing the election. Whether or not those reasons are compelling and verifiable cannot be questioned by public opinion.

    “What we should all do is to continue to have confidence in INEC and the electoral process.  In doing so, it behooves the political class and the political parties to manage the information that they feed their followers and members.

    Prof Fagbohun believes INEC should be given the benefit of the doubt. “The reason why this particular shift of date has become contentious and of concern to Nigerians is that there is suspicion of political meddling and interference in this latest decision of INEC,” he said, adding:

    “The responsibility of the Commission is to protect the suffrage rights of the people. To a very large extent and as far as humanly possible, INEC, in my view, has maintained a decent arm’s-length relationship with the administration.

    A Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Mrs Funke Adekoya, said the excuse that the military will be engaged in special operations for six weeks and so cannot guarantee security during the polls is not tenable.

    She said the army’s role is to protect Nigeria against external aggression, while the police focuses on enforcing civil obedience, including during elections.

    She said: “Two issues concern me; firstly is the military’s first function to provide internal security in the country. Their first function is to protect us from external aggression.

    “What happened to the Nigeria Police Force whose main role is to provide internal security? The military is to provide internal back-up, they are not the main actors.

    “Secondly, if in six weeks time the military say they are still engaged with Boko Horam what happens to our elections?”

  • ‘Jonathan has failed Ndigbo’

    A socio-cultural organisation, Ndigbo Unity Forum (NUF), has expressed its disenchantment with the Jonathan administration, saying it has failed to live up to the promises made to the Southeast.

    The forum in a communiqué signed by its president Augustine Chukwudum and Secretary-General Chinedu Onyebuchi, said the development amounted to neglect and marginalisation, a clear proof that the administration did “not appreciate the unalloyed support of the Southeast.”

    “We unanimously agreed that having failed to fulfill most of his electoral promises to the Southeast region when compared to other geopolitical regions in the country, that it is now obvious that the President Jonathan-led government does not appreciate the unalloyed support of the region.”

    The group said Dr Goodluck Jonathan has failed to “deliver on the Second Niger Bridge as he promised in 2011, and rehabilitate about eighty per cent of death traps of federal roads in the Southeast.”

    The NUF also accused the government of reluctance to upgrade the Akanu Ibiam and Sam Mbakwe airports to international standard.

    The group, which said it was helping to unite Ndigbo through seminars and orientation sessions, among others, so that they can speak with one voice on issues that affect them, added that its members were disillusioned because the federal government had not built any  industrial estate in Anambra and Abia states and that the Jonathan administration had been unable to harness the agric potentials of Enugu, Ebonyi and Imo state, “thereby denying the youths from Southeast employment in these sectors.”

    The NUF also dismissed the claim the president made a little over two weeks ago while on a campaign tour in the region that he has rehabilitated 2,000km of roads in the Southeast within the past four years. The group said Dr Jonathan “promised to upgrade Enugu Airport to International standard within 18 months in office if he is re-elected for second term,” but “this is another plot to hoodwink Ndigbo so that we continue to be their political slaves who we are today unless we wake from our slumber and reject this PDP president candidate because he has nothing to offer Ndigbo.

    “The Onitsha seaport was commissioned on August 30, 2012 amidst fanfare by President Jonathan; it is three years now, but we have yet to see a canoe not to talk of a big ship there.”

    The NUF said its members resolved to ensure that only candidates who have the interest of the Igbo at heart will have their votes.

    “Ndigbo Unity Forum is calling on all eligible voters to vote for credible candidates notwithstanding party affiliation.” [We also] want to inform the various candidates vying for elective posts, from governorship candidates to State House of Assembly candidates, to start enlightening us on their manifestos or risk rejection at the polls.”

    The NUF assessed the performance of the region’s governors, saying that “notwithstanding the abysmal performances of Governor Theodore Orji and Governor Martin Elechi of Abia and Ebonyi states, I can say without fear or favour that the other governors in the region have done fairly well. For instance, Governor Obiano has done well in the security sector and also Governor Rochas Okorocha has also impacted the live of our people positively through his free education scheme.

    Mr Chukwudum expressed his disappointment with the nation’s agric plan.

    “It is shameful that a country that arguably has about fifteen to twenty per cent of the world’s natural resources still has people who live on below one dollar a day. Personally I believe that federal and state governments can do a lot by investing in the agricultural sector; it is shameful that a country like Nigeria that has the capacity to feed the whole of Africa still imports agricultural products…I also believe that the federal and state governments can show that they are sensitive to the plight of the common man through building of industrial estates and also encouraging young entrepreneurs with loans and also providing a conducive environment for them to flourish.

    On te controversial Rev Fr. Ejike Mbaka, who lampooned President Goodluck Jonathan, the NUF president said, “Rev. Mbaka…is in order; he did what was expected of a good citizen. When a government is not doing well it is the duty of every well-meaning citizen to call the government to order. We all know that President Goodluck Jonathan has not delivered on his numerous promises.”

     

  • ‘Jonathan’s govt has failed’

    ‘Jonathan’s govt has failed’

    The Special Adviser to Lagos State Government on Information and Strategy, Alhaji Lateef Raji, has advised President Goodluck Jonathan to resign because his government has failed Nigerians.

    Raji, who spoke at the All Progressives Congress (APC) rally in Oshodi, said a government that cannot protect lives and property, that lack capacity to contain oil thieves and a regime that has legitimised corruption has no business to remain in office.

    The Special Adviser reiterated that Dr. Jonathan has no business to remain in government because, under his watch, Nigeria is losing 400,000 barrel of crude oil per day to oil thieves. He also said the President has failed to rescue the Chibok girls almost 300 days after they were abducted and the ill-equipped soldiers being killed on daily basis by the Boko Haram insurgents.

    According to him, General Muhammadu Buhari procured more arms for the military when he was Head of State between 1984 and 1985 than Jonathan, who has been in power in the past six years.

    Raji faulted the claim of the Lagos State Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governorship candidate, Mr Jimi Agbaje, that the state spends three per cent of its budget on education annually. He said In 2014, the state spent 15 per cent on education and this year, we are spending 16 per cent on education as approved by the State House of Assembly.

    Raji told the party supporters that PDP and Jonathan do not deserve the votes  of Lagosians because they did nothing for the state.  According to him former Minister of Works, Senator Adeseye Ogunlewe didn’t construct a single road in Ikorodu, his constituency, for the years he spent in office.

    He said members of the PDP now dole out money to police to arrest Okada riders operating in the streets to create the impression that it was Lagos State Government that was behind it. Further investigation, he said, has shown that the opposition have recruited fake KAI officials to arrest people indiscriminately and asked people to be vigilant.

    Former Vice Chairman of Oshodi/Isolo Local Government, Mr Kayode Tinubu was confident that APC will win in Lagos State based on its antecedent.

    Tinubu said the party has performed from local government to state level. “We have tested candidates that are marketable. We have never suffered any defeat since the beginning of this dispensation so APC will win in February. The visibility of PDP is minute because most of their leaders have joined APC.”

  • Nigeria is a failed state, says Nda-Isaiah

    Nigeria is a failed state, says Nda-Isaiah

    Leadership publisher and a presidential aspirant on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Mr Sam Nda Isaiah, has said Nigeria is a failed state and needs urgent revival.

    The publisher said his criticisms of the Federal Government were not against President Goodluck Jonathan but against the bad aspects of his administration, which were affecting the masses.

    Nda-Isaiah, who addressed reporters in Owerri, the Imo State capital, during his consultations with members of the Sam4Nigeria Presidential Campaign Organisation, said he had always supported past administrations.

    The politician explained that he usually withdraws such support the moment an administration derails from its promises to Nigerians.

    He said: “People accuse me of criticising President Jonathan. I am not half as critical of him as I was of former President Olusegun Obasanjo. When they came in, I supported them. But once they started doing things that were against the betterment of the masses, I withdrew my support. What I should even be accused of is not being critical of what is going on in the country.”

    Nda-Isaiah attributed the socio-economic problems in the country to the concentration of powers in the hands of those he called typical politicians.

    The publisher said such people were insensitive to the plight of the masses.

    He said: “I am not a typical politician; I am just bringing myself to serve Nigeria because of the change we want to bring. Politics is too serious to be left to typical politicians. You can see where that has led us to in the country.”

    The frontline journalist stressed that he was the best among APC aspirants because of his “big ideas”.

  • Leaders, not Jonathan, failed the North

    Leaders, not Jonathan, failed the North

    SIR: In this centennial season of blame game over everything that has gone wrong with Nigeria since 1914, it is not surprising that President Goodluck Jonathan has become the whipping boy.  But while it is justifiable to criticise the President fairly for what he does or does not do, that does not confer on any person or group of persons the right to distort facts, misinform the people and accuse him of  offences, which even a day-old baby can exonerate him from.  It is in this category that the wicked accusations of Alhaji Ibrahim Coomasie and his Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) fall.  According to the ACF, President Jonathan has not only failed the North but also hates our people from the North.

    To face the issues raised by Coomasies’s ACF, it is not true that President Jonathan has failed in protecting the North.  If anything, it is some northern leaders like Coomasie that have failed the region. Although many scholars and strategists have given many reasons for the emergence of the deadly insurgence in the North, an eclectic position is that bad leadership that manifestly impoverished the people of the area of a long period of time is one certain factor.

    For many years, northern elite wielded power and did absolutely nothing to improve the access and quality of education in the region. And neither did they build a culture of enterprise and industry there. Instead, what they promoted was personal wealth at the expense of the people, rural and mass poverty that Boko Haram is feeding off for its recruitment.

    If Coomasie is weeping that the North has become divided politically today, how is that the problem of President Jonathan?  The concept of the monolithic North has always been problematic.  The high-handedness of people like Coomasie who hid under the banner of “one North” to promote a certain ethnic group while subjugating the others in a well-orchestrated internal colonialism policy has found them out.  The logic of democracy and the freedom that it inheres are responsible for the boldness that the hitherto subjugated peoples and groups in the North are displaying against an oligarchy that is slow in coming to terms with the reality of the modern Nigeria.

    Those who are nostalgic about the “unity” of the North are perhaps jittery to explain in whose interest this unity had been in the past.  If the monolithic North is disintegrating, it has nothing to do with the President. If anything, those now pointing fingers at different directions need to re-examine the power relations in the North and how much power had been put in the service of the ordinary people all these years.  If it takes an Ijaw man from Otuoke to improve the life chances of the ordinary citizens in the North who have borne the brunt of prebendal use of power by their own elite for many decades, who cares about the selfish moaning of Coomasie and his ACF?

    • Hamisu Abubakar,

    Kaduna

  • Arewa to Jonathan: you’ve failed woefully

    Arewa to Jonathan: you’ve failed woefully

    Barely four days after the apex Northern socio-cultral group, the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF), wrote an openly letter to President Goodluck Jonathan, lamenting the state of insecurity in the region, the forum yesterday held an emergency meeting with non-government organisations from the North, where it accused the President of failing woefully to protect the people of the region.

    The ACF National Executive Council (NEC) Chairman, Ibrahim Ahmadu Coomassie, a former Inspector-General of Police, alleged that there is a deliberate plan or attempt to emasculate the North economically and divide them politically.

    The forum chairman said: “As we gather here today to discuss, let us not lose sight of the fact that there is a Federal Government, whose responsibility it is to protect the lives and safeguard the property of every citizen of this country.

    “What we are witnessing today is a complete reversal of that role. The government of the day under the leadership of President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan has woefully failed to protect us.

    “While the North is being battered, the  people in government have not made serious effort to end it. For the first time in the history of this great nation, our President is being openly condemned for his ineptitude, immaturity and ineffectiveness.

    “Since the advent of the Boko Haram uprising in 2009, the region has witnessed a speedy descent into anarchy. The insurgency and insecurity situation we are faced with in the North is such that we have never imagined would happen to Arewa that we all grew up to know, love and cherish.

    “The Arewa that was bequeathed to us by our fore-fathers is no longer the same. Today the entire Northern region is under siege. The North is being attacked from all angles and fields.

    “Now the general belief is that this government and its leadership do not like us. The current policies and the government attitude towards the insurgency leave us with no better conclusion than to assume that there is a deliberate plan or attempt to emasculate the North economically, to reduce us numerically, disunite us religiously and divide us politically.

    “This is the grim situation we are faced with. As leaders of Arewa, it is incumbent upon us to rise up to the occasion. The entire citizenry of the North looks up to us with so much hope.

    “We must at this point bury our individual differences, come together and critically examine the situation before us. We must come out and speak with one united voice. We cannot afford to be seen to be divided.

    “This gathering must pose questions whose answers should appraise us with what is happening to the North and why Nigeria is drifting towards anarchy and shamelessness.”