The Nation Newspaper

Tag: godfatherism

  • ‘How we halted godfatherism in Edo’

    Edo State Governor Adams Oshiomhole spoke with reporters in Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), about the general elections, the danger of godfatherism and what can be done to protect the ballot box on poll day. TONY AKOWE was there.

    What is your reaction to the postponement of the general election?

    The first question is the locus standi of the National Security Adviser (NSA) to talk about when election should be held? Will the election be conducted by the security agencies? Is he national electoral adviser. Why should it be his business? The constitution and the electoral act are clear that issues of election, dates and so on are to be determined by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) within the provisions of the law. NSA is not an official of INEC. So, how can we even entertain that comment from him? And if my observation is correct, it will appear that this comment  was made outside the shores of Nigeria? How appropriate is that? Should we hear from foreign lands the thinking of Nigerian public officers on serious issues of national interest? Should we hear it first through foreign media in a foreign land? I haven’t seen people interrogate this because this thing about taking Nigerians for a ride because we do not sufficient interrogate some of the things that our people do. So, that is my first reaction that it is not up to the NSA to tell us when elections should be held. That is to be determined by INEC and I believe INEC has settled the question that they are ready to conduct the election. And so that closes the debate. Nobody else should further question it except those who believe that they can possible postpone the evil day and you can’t postpone it. Who is speaking for postponement? Only those who are facing imminent electoral defeat.

    The poll shift campaigners were complaining about flawed PVC distribution?

    It depends on who is talking. Don’t brush aside the issue of PVC distribution. Again I need the media to interrogate some of these statements that people put out. I have heard things like people arguing for postponement, to postpone their defeat say X number of people don’t have their cards, are you going to disenfranchise them. The law doesn’t say that every Nigerian must vote if he is not willing to vote. The law doesn’t say every Nigerian must register to vote; if he doesn’t want to register that is why there is no penalty for failing to register and there is no law that says if you register and you refuse to go and collect your PVC that you have committed a crime and that is why you can’t charge anybody for failing to collect. Now all that the law says is that every eligible voter who wishes to vote must have the opportunity to vote. Now to be able to express your willingness to vote you need to also comply with the requirements. If you choose not to, it can be deemed that you are not interested in voting and you can’t be complied to vote. In any event, the number of votes that brought this president to office, how many people voted? As far as I can recollect, it is about 24 million, quote and unquote votes, but those included ghost voters and I am speaking with every sense of responsibility where we are told that 99.9 percent of registered voters came out to vote and we know of reported cases at least through the proceedings in tribunals where people who died somehow woke up to vote and then returned back to the grave. But even with those ghost voters, the total votes that brought this president and even the previous one was not more than 24 million votes. Add that of Buhari, not more than 36 million votes. How many PVCs have been collected? In Edo State I scored about 75 per cent of the votes in the last election where I won in all the 18 local government areas. The total vote I got was less that 500,000. Now all those who voted in Edo were less than 600,000. Over 800,000 people have collected their PVC. So, if the rest refuse to collect, you can’t compel them but you can’t stop those who have collected from voting, that is the law.  The law doesn’t say that if the turn out in an election is less than that 50 per cent that the election is not valid. In any case you don’t change the goal post. When INEC conducted election in Ekiti State and insisted that only those with PVC will vote even though they chose not to use the card reader for the election which for me remains strange because that would have been a way to test run this thing on a smaller scale, but what is important here is that whereas those who collect PVC was less than 50 per cent and the outcome of that election is by gone today under the same electoral act. So, what has changed? As far as I am concerned Nigeria is greater than any individual and we have to be careful. There are too many political vultures who are flying in the evening market wanting to mess everybody up and I think we must find courage to speak to the fact and then secure our democracy. It doesn’t really matter to me who wins an election. It matters to me how people win it. If Nigerians want to put the gear on reverse, democracy will allow them to do so. But honesty if they want to move on to gear 5 nobody should stop it and I guess people want to move to gear 5. We have been too long at gear 4.

    You are the Southsouth coordinator of the APC Presidential Campaign Council. It is believed by many that your zone is in the hands of the PDP. Do you share this view?

    I am a Nigerian and I am a well known Nigerian. I am not in the PDP and I will never be in PDP. Edo is the heartbeat of the nation and we are in the South-south. How can you suggest to me that this is a PDP zone? It is not. PDP has never won any clean election in the South-south. Often times, they had taken advantage of the terrain and if you do your analysis very well in the voting pattern, you will find out that PDP has always lost elections in the cities and they turn in ghost votes from the creeks. But in Edo state, you know we neutralized their rigging machine as far back as 2007 and since then, we have won every election in this state and in the last election that was held here on the 14th of July 2012, I won in every local government. It has never happened before and even the godfather, I defeated him in his village. So, how can you suggest to me that South-south is PDP zone? It is not. PDP has been an invasion force in the south but we are repelling them now and they will be completely repelled on February 14.

    Before now, Edo was seen as a state where godfatherism reigned supreme. But, little is heard of it now. What happened?

    Well, there is no magic. The truth is that, a lot of the personalities that the media celebrates, our media sometimes just take statements from the surface. You never really rigorously interrogate some of your assumptions. There are concepts that we use so freely without problematizing those concepts. For example when you say Mr. Fix it, what does that mean in Nigeria political dictionary? What was it that he fixed? The media celebrates electoral fraud; pure and simple! A man loses election and someone has the capacity to manipulate the books using various state institutions to declare a winner a loser and declare a loser a winner and then they say he has fixed it. That is calling a spade by another name. Those are the people that have the history of electoral fraud and they have to be so described because the ordinary meaning of “fix”is that something is in tatters, disorganized and somebody with special skills, know how or knowledge is able to make an order out of something that is disorganized. But that is not what you refer to when you say Mr. Fix it. Someone wins primaries as he is celebrating the loser is announced as the winner and you say Mr. Fix has fixed it again.

    So, how would you access the four years of the Jonathan administration?

    This president has been in office for six years and that is important to bear in mind because there are things you could do in six years that you probably can’t do in four years. There are projects that require a longer gestation period and so in evaluating this government, we should be asking the question; for the last four years, are we better off? And in which area, so 4 years is inappropriate. I have to try and answer this question based on what in Edo we now call “eyemark”. We have moved away from earmark to “eyemark”. You know those are parts of the things we have had to explain to the ordinary Edo voter that you are used to politicians saying we have earmarked X billions for schools in this budget and you will clap and the media will go round to get comments. Ah! “it is a very good budget if only it will be implemented. It is the best budget ever. It provides for the this, this and that” and the next year, another budget is rolled out nobody has taken a proper audit of the previous year budget and again we just celebrate the abstract, the numbers. But in my union training when you elect your union leaders and on the day of election some resolutions are taken, at the end of every year, you will have what we called report on activities. Those elected will present the report on all their actives and those will elect them will debate the report and see whether there is a gap between the promise and what has been realized. If there is why and how do you overcome it? If not, how do you further build on it and sustain the score card? But in our politics, people make all kinds of promises and the next election you move on. So, if you ask me to evaluate, I will try to be objective. It is not about APC or PDP now. As they say facts are sacred, opinion is free. I want to deal with facts so I free myself from the burden of subjectivity. What was the promise of the president about power 6 years ago? We were told that by 2013 there will be full power supply, that they are carrying out major reforms then later they said by 2014, we are now in 2015; check the records both reported and official records of PHCN and you will find that about 6 years ago, we were using almost 4000mw; between 3500mw and 3800mw. Today, as we speak, the 28th day of January 2015 after the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ, power generation has dropped to 2.5 or thereabout after the government has spent billions of dollars. So, I just deal with the facts and I will put the question to you. Has this government delivered on the promise with regards to power? I will leave the answer now to you? But we can take this question further in the context of the two political parties by revisiting the issue still on power. We take it back to using 1999 as base year. Between 1999 and 2015, it is 16 years and playing back the promise of PDP in 1999, you will find in your tapes and archives, some promised about 6 months, power will be fixed. It will be regular. The facts are stubborn. I was in NLC then I used to interrogate power so I know what I am talking about. When I say “interrogate power”, I don’t mean the electricity power, I mean political authority. It is 16 years now and PDP has no clue on how to fix power and they will never be able to fix power and because of all that I have seen, I have arrived at the conclusion that as long as PDP is in power, Nigerians will be out of power. Nigerians will never have power whether to run their homes or to run their businesses, whether poor or old.

  • Agbaje’s ‘godfatherism’ postulation

    Olujimi Kolawole Agbaje needs little introduction in the politics of Lagos state. The man popularly called JK, a once-upon-a-time progressive is surprisingly the Lagos governorship candidate of the conservative Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). He stoked the fire of curiosity recently when he declared publicly as widely reported in the newspapers that he is the ‘best man to rule Lagos because he has no godfather that can influence him negatively in office.’

    Rather than address issues germane to governance and general well-being of Lagosians, he played to the gallery before newsmen by laboriously trying to present himself as a man of himself and also by notifying Lagosians about his witch-hunting expeditious plan if ever he gets the chance to rule the state. He declared: “When it was time to choose my running mate, I chose my running mate, nobody chose her for me. The issue of a godfather hampering

    service delivery is not even on the table. I don’t have a godfather. I want the people to believe me that it won’t happen.”

    Agbaje may be competent to speak publicly on several issues but not on that of political godfatherism because his aversion for it contradicted how he got the governorship ticket slot in his new found love party- the Peoples Democratic Party(PDP). Permit me to refresh readers’ memory by re-presenting the result and whole essence of party primaries that produced Agbaje as governorship candidate of PDP direct from the mouth of his major challenger, Musiliu Obanikoro: “The entire primary was a sham. I still cannot comprehend how accredited delegates of 806 will turn out to be 868. To be honest with you, with the benefit of hindsight, you can tell that the outcome was predetermined.’’

    Perhaps it is pertinent to ask: Who were those powerful PDP figures that predetermined the outcome of the Kangaroo primaries that produced Agbaje as governorship candidate? They are two including Bode George and Seye Ogunleye both central figures in the PDP central administration’s plan to cause chaos in Lagos. The two leading PDP leaders are beneficiaries of godfatherism in all their political lives and will not support a candidate that would not treat them as such and therein lies the fallacy of Agbaje’s statement. Up till today, he has not denied the fraudulent discrepancy that gave him the PDP ticket, rather, he has been rationalising the political charade.

    Yet, Akin Ambode, the candidate of All Progressives Congress(APC) empirically made nonsense of the claim of godfatherism when after intense campaign across the 57 local governments in the state participated in the APC governorship primaries, widely acknowledged as the fairest, to emerge as progressive flag bearer in an untainted primary.

    Ambode scored 3,735 votes while the aspirant that came second, Obafemi Hamzat

    scored a distant 1,201 votes where more importantly and unlike that of PDP, the number of approved delegates was not more than the number of votes cast. The result of the APC primaries was a consequence of political decency of the APC candidate in Ambode and the PDP’s sham primaries result that of the primitiveness of Agbaje’s godfathers that he has futilely been trying to deny in public. Agbaje should stop living a life of political denial.

    Apart from the issues of primaries, the political trajectory of Agbaje since his days in his touted Afenifere cliché, down to PDP, gave him away as someone that was in search of godfathers that would make his desperate governorship aspiration come true which he now, albeit erroneously, thinks he has found in Bode George and Ogunlewe. Two symbols of what a godfather should not be.

    Jimi Agbaje, a pharmacist, in his desperation to become Lagos governor dumped JAYKAY Pharmaceutical and Chemical Company Limited that he founded in 1982 precisely 10 years ago. He had a deceitful dalliance meant to hoodwink the undiscerning public with the progressive Action Congress (AC), his first political party. He left in 2007 to join the Democratic Peoples Alliance (DPA) in search of his governorship ambition after losing the party’s governorship ticket to incumbent Babatunde Raji Fashola in the primaries. In

    his typical domineering way, he deliberately ran the DPA aground in the state which was one of the compelling reasons why INEC de-registered the party. Is this the man Lagosians want as governor? Absolutely No! This intentional act of his paved the way for him to join the reactionary party that has always been after his heart-the PDP.

    He got to PDP and hijacked the two main godfathers there to the chagrin of co-aspirants for the governorship ticket. What obtains in PDP now because of overtly ambitious Agbaje is fragile peace of the grave yard. It cannot last beyond February 28 when Agbaje, a serial loser would have once again lost the governorship contest.

    In contrast to this deceitful profile of Agbaje is that of Ambode who in the short period of his emergence on the political firmament of Lagos has endeared himself to millions of people in the state. Ambode as finance intellectual was a success and as a career civil servant, a shining star and beacon of hope to the young folks. As a serving civil servant and chief custodian of Lagos treasury, his unflinching commitment was not in doubt as he buried himself in bureaucratic obscurity in accordance with the civil service norm of being seen but not heard.

    He helped the state to escape the illegal seizure of Lagos funds by former President Olusegun Obasanjo after the creation of additional local councils in the state by Asiwaju Bola Tinubu’s

    administration. He created the successful financial infrastructural template at the time.

    Ambode was responsible for the global revenue and expenditure profile of the state government; he also provided admirable financial leadership and supervision to over a thousand accountants across all ministries and agencies in the state. He was in the forefront of financial strategy formulation process for the operations and growth of Lagos State Treasury

    Office (STO) and for implementation and meeting of the State finance requirements. All these were attained because of his well grounded academic background both home and abroad.

    He graduated with Honours in Accounting at age 21 from the University of Lagos and became a Chartered Accountant at age 24. This feat was simultaneously achieved with his finishing a Masters degree in Accounting, specializing in Financial Management, at his alma-mata through a Federal Government scholarship.

    He was also a US Fulbright scholarship for the Hubert H. Humphrey Fellowship at

    Boston University in Massachusetts and was alumnus of the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, Boston, USA amongst other reputable institutions across the world. He surprisingly retired voluntarily at age 49 to set a company more interested in mentoring the youth when he could have stayed back.

    This act of voluntary retirement showed Ambode as a man of courage and of himself not holed up by any godfather and as someone who is not afraid of the future since politics was not on the agenda at the time he did this. How can this lofty profile of Ambode be compared with that of Agbaje who was merely driven by the lucre of the governorship position? Where is Agbaje’s requisite public service experience, not his godfathers instigated board appointments adventure, to make him a veritable contestant against Ambode?

    One thing is sure and that is the fact that Lagosians are not ready to trade experience for experiment in who becomes the next governor of the state which is the nation’s centre of excellence. This was corroborated by no mean royalty than Oba Rilwan Akiolu, who several months back endorsed Ambode as competent and capable to take over from Governor Babatunde Fashola come May 29. His precise words: “Ambode remains the best man with

    the required pedigree and character to take Lagos to the next level.” What other endorsement is need that one from the father of all and not Agbaje’s divisive godfathers that had deludingly promised him what is not in their powers to give. What a fate for a politically duplicitous man

    angling at all cost for what is beyond him!

    • Adisa, public affairs analyst writes from Mushin, Lagos.
  • Godfatherism bane of judiciary

    Godfatherism bane of judiciary

    Though he was born in Mushin, a suburb of Lagos,  Olukayode Enitan has shown that something good can come from the area. He has spent 25 years in the profession he dreamt of since he was 10. In this interview with ADEBISI ONANUGA, Enitan speaks on how to appoint credible judges, stem corruption in the judiciary and probe suspected corrupt officials by the EFCC, among other sundry issues. 

    Twenty-five years after being called to bar, how has the journey been?

    The journey has been eventful and there have been ups and lows. There are smooth times, but it has been very eventful. We’ve done all manner of cases. There was a time we were doing cases of land grabbers. And then you go in and find all kind of antics and tactics being played by the opposing counsel and all that. There were cases that we did that you had to more or less cue in. There was a time we were doing a case of recovery and for some reason, the recovery gets aborted. The man was telling us that we should not worry, and that he would meet us in court, but he never did. That was the report that we had until we met him that day. He said the same thing that we can go and that he would meet us in court. But there was this boldness that came upon me and I said ‘no, Alhaji, we are not going anywhere. We are here today and we would settle the matter.

    I said to him: “Omo agba l’emi. Ise to’ba ti ya, kii pe mo. Ise ibi bayi ti ya, a ma se lo’ni.” Apparently, he had been putting charms in his mouth to talk to people. But he found out that it was not going to work with me. It was a very funny occasion.

    Must a lawyer take every case that comes to him?

    For me, it doesn’t mean anything because before taking any matter, I would be sure that my client has a right. I, personally, and on the basis of that right, I can say God, I am going out, back me up. You don’t have to take all cases. If a client comes to me and says he has a case, I would review whatever fact he has. If you don’t have a right, I would tell him prompt and plain. And I would not follow someone to fight for what is not right.

    From the beginning when I started law practice, I maintained that position because there is no point working and running about for what is wrong. You must make sure that whatever you are doing is fair and just to your side and to the other side. I usually advice my client on another alternative to any matter if the other side has a better case. I would say why don’t you look at it from this perspective and then let us reach an agreement.

    I have an instance. There was this old woman, who should be about 90 years now, and this happened in 1996. She said a property belonged to her and that she built it and had its conveyance traded for C of O in 1978. She said some people came and wanted to take it from her. She said they got a judgment, which she was not a party to its suit and wanted to take possession of her property.

    I said let me see the judgment. I read the judgment and its records. I said to the old woman that on this one, your predecessor in the title has been declared not to own the land. That your foundation and the C of O, do not give you anything. I told her that she had no case. She said no and sent somebody to me to collect the judgment. I sent the whole file instead. I said I knew she wanted to go and sought opinion, so go and seek opinion and that she should go and get an interim injunction.

    She came back and I said you can go and get an injunction, but you will lose the case with good reasons. I said look, we can approach them because they have written a letter that you should come and pay N500,000 per plot. Let us go and approach their lawyer. So, we approached the lawyer, who is also an elderly person. We explained the situation and the issues in the matter. At the end of the day, what we were supposed to pay N1million for, we ended up paying N100,000. But if we had gone to court as she was advised by some people, she would lose the land because she would lose the case. So, if I feel that there is nothing to pursue, there would always be an alternative and I advise client to seek the alternative.

     

    The EFCC Chairman said it was conducting investigations into the activities of some highly placed judicial officers. What is your take on this against the backdrop of reforms taking place in the judiciary?

    The EFCC is empowered to investigate economic crimes, regardless of who is suspected of having perpetrated it, whether the person is a civil servant, a judicial officer, a member of parliament or a member of the executive or even an ordinary citizen. If judicial officers are suspected validly, not witch-hunted and it believed that the judicial officers have committed some economic crimes, the commission has the right to investigate. But my fear is that investigation will it be in the regular way that the EFCC does its things. And this is where they also need to be more innovative. Investigations that we are used to in Nigeria are not really investigations. They would want the suspect to provide them with evidence with which they would indict him.

    If somebody is alleged to have taken money that he should not take, how do you handle that? It is not for you to first go to carry the man and ask him to give you his account. EFCC should have access to everybody’s account in Nigeria. Money, I believe, has footsteps. Its footprints are very large. You have the person’s name, so go round the banks. You don’t have to talk to him. Ask Banks if the person has account with them. They would supply you with information. Before you accuse a person, particularly because they are judicial officers, before you go and pull him in, you must have built up what you need by way of account, property, everything owned by that person you’ve already identified and documented.

    By the time you are bringing that person in and you failed to do certain things and asked the person, did you do this? Of course, he or she would most likely deny everything you are saying. Then you begin to confront him or her if a certain account in so, so bank belongs to him? By the time there is overwhelming evidence already sourced without recourse to the person, you can be sure that the journey would be minimal. If you invite a judicial officer and then say to him that nothing is found and you let him go, you have already tainted that person’s image. You have put a question mark on his standing as a judicial officer. So, for him and every other person, EFCC needs to get his acts together. They should work at the level they are meant to work. They have to be scientific and forensic in their investigation and detection of facts.

     

    How can we sanitise the judiciary?

    If you have a pool of water that is dirty, the only way you can clean the dirty pool is to ensure a free flow of water from that pool. And if you are running clean water into the pool, you have to keep doing it until the water cleans the pool because there is also an easy flow out of the pool. Bring this in perspective. People keep saying the judiciary is dirty and needs to be cleaned. What are the hard evidences that have been brought?  How many judges have been indicted or dismissed for corruption? They are not up to 10 per cent of the judges’ population. Let’s not make such a whole system faulty, but use what is there, go back to appointment.

    When you ensure that men and women of integrity are appointed, you will have a better judiciary.

     

    What is your take on the appointment of judges?

    Appointment should be done on merit. This nation needs to move to the realm of merit and not sectional or federal character. Whatever is not obtained by merit is usually lacking in experience. If someone wants to be a judge, set the criteria. If everybody meets the criteria, then set other things that show some to be better than others. Let us stop all these things about somebody’s godson or godfather or this is the candidate of this person. If we don’t, a person may owe his allegiance to the man he believes gave him an appointment. And these are areas where people got influenced unduly.

     

    Giving these backgrounds, what reforms would you like to see in the judiciary to guarantee the hope of the common man?

    The reform would begin with lawyers because we are the ones that the common man comes to.  What advice do we give to people when they come? Like what the Supreme Court did recently when Dr. Odili brought an application before the Supreme Court to re-visit Ogboru and Uduaghan, the governor of Delta State. In respect of his election, the case had run to the Supreme Court the first time and it was dismissed. They raised another argument and it was dismissed. They wrote again, using another counsel, to the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court said, look, this matter has been here twice. Gentleman, you should not be here. This also should not be here. The counsel to Ogboru withdrew and it was struck out. That was the third time. Then he came back the fourth time to say that the ground of the amendment used was not properly filed and therefore, the Supreme Court should reverse itself because that act was not properly filed. And they said, we are not the legislature. If you have a problem with what we have done, you either go to God or you go back to Federal High Court if it is about what the National Assembly has done, don’t come to us.

    When he insisted, they dismissed the application and awarded cost against him. We, as lawyers, need to tell our clients when they don’t have a case. I was reading somewhere about a situation in the UK where a barrister has been discharged for bringing all sorts of frivolous actions. So, we start with the lawyer. Let us reform ourselves. Then we will move to those that appointed judges. Even if somebody helps you to get there, once you become a judge, you owe allegiance to your oath, to God and to your conscience.

    And of course, there must be training and retraining of both lawyers and the judges. Then you also need to go to the registry. What are the registrars doing in the court room, in the filing room, the cash office, the probate section? In every section, you need to go there and ensure that people that are getting there know what it is about.

     

    Of late we have seen President Jonathan deploying soldiers in elections. Is this a duty of the President?

    The Nigerian Army is not set up for monitoring elections. The Nigerian Army is set up to defend the nation against external aggressions and internal insurrections. Election is not an insurrection and it is not an act of aggression by an external body. The Army has absolutely nothing to do with it.  It is the responsibility of the Police to maintain peace, law and order within Nigeria and every section of the country. When election is to be held, it is still the Police that have the manpower. We have sufficiently empowered the Civil Defence Corps. Why don’t we draft them to join the police? There is Boko Haram insurgency everything. The soldiers brought for election, were they pull from that place? Nobody has told us. Were they brought from their barracks? If we do not have enough men to fight insurrection, where are we drawing them from to do election? It is totally unconstitutional. I want to believe that there is no written mandate for those soldiers to be deployed. I am of the considered view that these things were done without recourse to the proper process of deploying soldiers.

     

    In what context do you see the plans by the state assembly to impeach the governor of Nasarrawa State, Alhaji Tanko Al-Makura?

    The state house of assembly has the constitutional power to do this where they found out the governor has  misconducted himself. Since they cannot  impeach him, the state house of assembly, has the constitutional power to ask the CJ to set up a panel that would investigate and confirm if those allegations are true. And how does this work? Once it is the CJ that appointed the panel, they would invite the man who would say these are the offences  and as in the regular court, substantiate the allegations and the governor of the state who is the accused person in this case, he too would also come and state his own side of the case. The panel would look at it and if the panel finds out that the allegations are not true, they would send a report to the house and that is the end of the matter and there is no appeal to say that we are not satisfied. If they found out that the allegations have been established against the governor, again they send their report to the house and the house would remove him. He has no recall once he has been impeached properly. Al-Makura, they said has done a, b, c, d etc. crimes.

    The CJ Sets up a panel, the house said ‘No. They don’t like these people, some of them are card carrying members. Which of them has written in the papers that, even the counsel to the house came to the sitting of the panel and said there that you people here are card carrying members of PDP and that another one is a civil servant or public servant or so. At that point, he should specify among members of that panel who and who are the card carrying members, who is a public servant, who is what and who is not. They did not specify, they did not come to prove what they have alleged. And it is a very basic principle of our adversarial system of the legal system. Whoever attack must prove. As far as I am concerned it is the governors who are in a position to stop the wind and do they stop it, do what you are supposed to do which is work for your people.

    Don’t begin to spend money you are not supposed to spend, because nine out of ten, they have.  appropriated it. Don’t begin to spend the money belonging to the state. Because nine out of ten, it is usually that they have stolen, they have mis appropriated. Those are usually the allegation. Be clean as a whistle, do the right thing. Even at that, if they said that the allegations have been established, he stood removed. So, the house going around  saying they should set up another panel, there is no provision for that just as the court cannot stop the house from commenting on that move to impeach a governor by asking the CJ to set up a panel. In the same manner, the house cannot say we want to go to court to challenge what the Chief Judge has done. We all seem to be forgetting that there is check and balances and that these arms are there deliberately.

    Some of these things in the constitution were put there to ensure that no arm of government goes to town to do whatever they want. So on these particular allegations, Al-Makura stands vindicated. If they want to impeach him, as they still insist they want to do, they have to go and find other grounds because you cannot charge a man twice for the same offence.

     

     

     

     

  • Godfatherism is dead, says Amaechi’s ex-aide

    A chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Rivers State, Sam Agwor, has stated that the era of godfatherism is over in the party.

    Agwor, who was a Special Assistant to Governor Rotimi Amaechi, also urged Rivers people to continue to support the administration of President Goodluck Jonathan.

    He spoke in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital.

    Agwor, a former Chairman of the defunct Social Democratic Party (SDP) in the old Rivers State, said Rivers people should not be forced to defect to the All Progressives Congress (APC), considering the numerous achievements of Jonathan’s government.

    In view of the upgrading of airports across the country, the ongoing transformation of the power sector and the laying of the foundation of the second Niger Bridge, he stated that President Jonathan meant well for Nigerians and should be supported.

    He said: “If you take a look at our airports, you will see that they have been upgraded to world-class standard. The administration of President Jonathan is doing a lot to transform the country.

    “The President is also doing a lot in the power sector and roads. He has established new federal universities and laid the foundation of the second Niger Bridge, among others.”

    The PDP chieftain said for the first time, the Rivers government was moving to the opposition, while admonishing the people of the state against the development.

    Agwor said: “Rivers State has been a PDP state for a long time and that cannot change now. We have noticed that the Rivers State government is moving to the opposition for the first time.

    “President Jonathan is our son and the leader of the PDP. It is necessary for us to support him for a second term in office, because through his work so far, he has shown that he is interested in the development of this country.”

    While commenting on the Rivers governorship tussle, ahead of the 2015 elections, the PDP chieftain stated that the Supervising Minister of Education, Chief Nyesom Wike, seemed to show interest, while urging the leaders of the APC to also make their interest open.

    He assured that the governorship aspirants in the PDP would face transparent primaries, before they would be chosen, while insisting that the best person would emerge as the party’s standard bearer.

    Agwor also urged Rivers people to back Jonathan, whose second term in office, according to him, would be to consolidate on the achievements recorded by his administration.

  • ‘Godfatherism’ is dead in Enugu, says Chime

    Enugu State Governor Sullivan Chime has said the era of political godfatherism is gone in the state.

    Chime, who was speaking at Oji River Local Government in continuation of a campaign tour ahead of the November Local Government elections in the state, also flayed the nonchalant attitude of some members of the National Assembly to their constituents.

    The governor said: “As governor, I have no structure than the PDP. The era of one person trying to lord it over others and claiming to be a godfather is gone in Enugu State. It is unfortunate that some of my brothers who found themselves in some positions now feel they are bigger than the structure which delivered them.

    “Some of our brothers in the National Assembly have not participated in the local government campaign tours even within their constituencies, yet they sneak in at night to hold nocturnal meetings and lie to people that they were not invited.

    “I don’t see how someone would have lost touch with reality to the extent the he now feels the people back here do not matter again. There is no big man in PDP.”

  • Moment of redemption for Anambra

    Hitherto, Anambra State has consistently represented a failed state. Created since 1991, the state’s development, socially, infrastructurally, and wholistically, has been completely stunted on account of poverty of leadership, poverty of ideas, entrenched anti-democratic practices and selfishness.

    The main ills of Anambra State’s political life are money politics, godfatherism, naked bid for power, do-or-die politicking, political gangterism and vendetta, thuggery, ceaseless desecration of the ballot box through high wire rigging and gerrymandering, economic plunder, financial rascality, selfish and self-serving leaders and the premium placed on politics as an avenue for self-enrichment and personal aggrandizement.

    All the leaders produced by Anambra State since the return of democratic republicanism in 1999 have been nothing short of abysmal failures and tragic disappointment. All of them failed in building social harmony in the state. They failed in providing infrastructural facilities. They failed in the physical development of the state. For a long time, the state was in a state of social, political and economic anomie and it became the butt of beer parlour jokes as a place where the people are enmeshed in a continual war for leadership and control of affairs of government because of the spoils of office.

    The state was held and bugged down by a wicked, mindless, predatory and mischievous cabal who continued to suck and milk her dry. At a time, it was as if the state was going to die. In fact, metaphorically, the state was dead from the pillage and economic plundering of these predatory godfathers who saw it as no more than an extension of their business empires.

    There was disorder, brigandage, looting, stealing, burglary, arson, murder, treasonable felony, destruction of government property and lawlessness in the state. This spate of gangterism came to a head when an erstwhile governor of the state was arrested and detained by the police in a hotel on the instruction of a godfather who had links with the Presidency then.

    I have taken pains to recount, in a nutshell, the historical and political malaise in the state to enable us know from where we are coming and the positive way forward as the next round of elections, particularly the Gubernatorial election, beckons.

    Now, enter Dr. Ifeanyi Patrick Uba, the Nnewi, Anambra State-born business mogul. His entry into the gubernatorial race in the state is, in my view, the best thing to have happened to Anambra State politics.

    The political platform under which Uba is seeking to serve Anambrarians is not important. What is of utmost importance is the man himself.

    It is unfortunate and disgraceful that the same politicians who bled Anambra State to a state of nausea and coma, who inflicted grievous injuries on the state, who plundered her resources in the past, who ordered and supported destruction of public property as vendetta for not being allowed to milk the state dry, who sponsored brigandage, mayhem and anarchy, are the ones on the blocks again with intent to continue from where they stopped.

    Given his precedence as a selfless philanthropist, the common people in Anambra State, especially the youths, see Dr. Ifeanyi Patrick Uba’s entry into the race as important. This is because it is easy to agree that he is not in politics to make money like the known vultures parading themselves as gubernatorial aspirants who have nothing to show for their aspiration.

    Apart from the fact that some of them are old, discredited politicians who compounded the problems in Anambra State, some of them have no pedigree. They do not have any vocation or profession. They cannot point at any philanthropic work they have done. They have not empowered any body from their families, let alone Anambrarians. Most of them are selfish and self-serving. They have not lifted anybody before and so we think they cannot lift Anambra State.

    On the other hand, Dr. Uba, who, as a private citizen has chains of businesses that offered employment to Nigerian youths numbering more than 4,000, also has a scholarship scheme with which he assists indigent students.

    These, added to his well known contribution in the oil distribution chain in Nigeria paint a picture of a man capable and willing to serve the people and just another opportunist looking forward to clean the state’s treasury.

    Also, Uba has been able to show that he does not joke with the affairs of the youths. When Igbo Youths, especially Anambrarians, were displaced in Balogun Market in Lagos, none of these politicians struggling to run the affairs of Anambra State said a word. They all felt unconcerned because they were not involved. Only Dr. Uba had the courage and milk of human kindness to visit the market and address the traders most of whom hail from Anambra State. He comforted them, intervened in their plight and proceeded to hold discussion with Governor Fashola of Lagos State on the matter. Following Uba’s intervention, meaningful support and contributions, the issue was resolved.

    Of all the aspirants to the seat of Governor of Anambra State, only Dr. Ifeanyi Uba has had the courage to showcase to Anambrarians his work and his means of livelihood. It is on record that he brought Anambra State stakeholders, including traditional rulers and Presidents-General of town unions to Lagos and took them to a facility tour of his vast business empire in Lagos. It became obvious that Dr. Uba’s Oil business is the most public-friendly in the whole of the country.

    Though up there, Uba enjoys great support of common traders and petty traders. When he visited Alaba Market, Lagos the other day, he was welcomed by a tumultuous crowd of cheering supporters. Traffic came to a standstill. The same happened when he visited Coker Building Materials Market.

    Already, some of his opponents are afraid that his acceptance by the youths and the common people is the current headache political godfathers do not know how to tackle.

    The fear is because many have sworn that the forthcoming gubernatorial election in Anambra State is an opportunity for the state to start all over again on a clean slate. The people are tired of political profiteers and electoral fraudsters who rely on rigging or jaded technical legal principles to manipulate themselves to power. Anambrarians finest moment is now.

    Dr. Ifeanyi Uba’s victory is a forgone conclusion. For everybody – young and old, men and women, the rich and the poor, the lettered and the unlettered, rural and urban dwellers are all rooting for his peculiar type of leadership and amazing style which transforms into excellence and success.

    Governorship of Anambra State is the target. Transformation of Anambra is the goal and the man to deliver the goods is Dr. Ifeanyi Patrick Uba, the man of the moment and modern day Moses.

    — Okoye, a political analyst, wrote from Lagos.

  • ‘We’ve got rid of godfatherism in Abia’

    ‘We’ve got rid of godfatherism in Abia’

    Apart from security challenges, Abia State Governor Theodore Orji inherited a poor revenue base and demoralised civil service. In this interview with BOLADE OMONIJO, he speaks on efforts being made by the administration to reposition the state for excellence.

    How has it been trying to rebuild Abia State?

    There are basic infrastructural facilities that should be on ground to allow government take off properly. But those facilities are not there. Abia must have a foundation. Look at the issue of the secretariat. There is none in Abia State that can accommodate all the civil servants. The one there now was built by the Federal Government. Our ministries are all scattered. We want to have a composite building that will accommodate all civil servants because they are the engine room of the government. Again, look at the International Conference Centre. What we have here is the Michael Okpara Auditorium, which was built more than 20 years ago, when we were in Imo State. It can only accommodate 500 people. Now, when you are holding a conference here, you have between 2,000 and 3, 000 people. That place has become very inadequate. We said no. The best thing we can do is to have an international conference centre that can take at least 5, 000 people. These are permanent structures that will outlive us, which any other person coming after me will not think of.  You are here. This is Abia State Government House. My colleague in Delta State, Emmanuel Uduaghan, took me to the new Government House in Asaba. But look at our own. This is my sitting room. If you are many now, some of you will be standing. This has been in existence, since the creation of Abia State. If you go upstairs, it doesn’t contain my family. I have been doing demolition. But the land is there and this is the state capital. It has never occurred to any of those administrations that have been here to build a standard Government House. I am from this town and my people have said that, if you don’t do this now, it is going to be difficult. So, I decided that I will build a new Government House and I am praying that I will be the first person to open it, so that other governors can live here.

    What about other areas? What have you been doing?

    I am sure you went to the Diagnostics Centre or Amachara General Hospital. If you go there, you will see things for yourself; how we are expanding that place to make sure that the people are healthy. As journalists, you have to be healthy to be asking me questions. So, Abia people must be healthy in order to enjoy dividends of democracy. We have opened up many roads. As we are doing in Umuahia, we are also doing in Aba and other places. We have compactors, refuse vehicles everywhere now. We just bought two before Christmas and all of them are going to Aba to help the ones we have there and keep the place clean all the time. So, in all the areas, we have brought out a template that a house must have a foundation. Like the Golden Guinea Breweries, I saw the investor, as I went to Abuja, and he has assured me that he is coming to reactivate the place. We have relocated the industrial market in Umuahia and at the site of the market, we are building the Ohobo Housing Estate. They are clearing the site now. The same thing will happen to the Central Market in Umuahia. We have reached 75 per cent completion in relocating it to Ubani Ibeku. There, we have over 6, 000 stalls against the 3, 000 stalls in this market now. So, once we finish with that, this market will move and in its place, we find something that we will build to befit the town. And just close to the market, the place we had Gariki before, we are building a Shoprite. They have cleared the site. We have completed everything, paid our own counterpart fund to them and it is left for them to come on board. As we are doing here, we are also doing for Aba and all the other local government areas of the state.

    How are you funding these capital projects; are they not too much for the state’s purse?

    We are in a hurry. All these projects are those that I can finish before I leave office. The Shoprite is partnership. I bring my own fund and they bring theirs. Some of the housing estates are partnerships. But we did the one we realised at Amokwe. We were disappointed in our partner there; he absconded and we had to do it ourselves. Out of annoyance, we have started building it. We have finished and people are living there now.

    People believe that Aba alone is capable of generating the required internal revenue for the state. What are the challenges in Aba?

    This state has the capacity to generate one billion naira every month and that revenue is expected to come from Aba. But the truth is that our people don’t pay taxes. So, what we have done is to tutor them. We are teaching them the need to pay taxes and they are responding. Two, there is fraud, not from the people who pay taxes, but those collecting them for the government. Some of them collect and put it in their pockets. That is why we have now introduced another system of direct lodgments into the banks, so that we can have a hold on taxes. We have re-engineered our Board of Internal Revenue, so that it can be more effective. All these are geared towards generating more money, especially from Aba. So, if we can effectively plug the loopholes, the revenue will come.  That’s why I have moved into Aba, the commercial nerve centre of the state, though the money we expect from there hasn’t come.

    Some of the projects you are doing could be regarded as projects that could outlive this generation.  What do you have in mind when you are doing these legacy projects?

    Everything doesn’t end with building roads. Didn’t Dr. Okpara build roads? Who remembers him today for the roads he built? Nobody! They remember him for Golden Guinea, Mordern Ceramics and agriculture. These are the procedures we are following. Now, if you follow what we are doing, any incoming governor that deviates from that will get the wrath of the people. We have set this standard as we did on security. Any person who comes here and kidnapping returns is in trouble. So, we will set the standards and maintain them so that the incoming governor will maintain them and earn his own respect. These projects we are doing are things that are dear to the people’s heart.

    It is surprising that in Abia State, you are just laying the foundation. Why is everything being fast-tracked now in your second term?

    We had two civilian governors before I came. Ogbonnaya Onu was here, the former governor, my friend (Orji Uzor Kalu) was here. You’d better ask them what they did because anything I say here will be misinterpreted. But you can now see the difference between this government and the previous ones. In my first term, the things I was supposed to do for my people, I could not do them because there was a godfather somewhere. Why we could not do the much we are doing now was because we were in PPA and PPA was a political party owned by one family and they used it to emasculate the government in power because I was in PPA. They were actually dictating what was happening. As a governor, I would like to appoint my commissioners, but they will bring a list for you and tell you to announce. Will you tolerate that as a governor? You wanted to embark on a project and they would tell you no, maybe so as not to outshine any other person. The major constraint I had was being in PPA.

    Couldn’t it be that the PDP wanted to frustrate you because you were in PPA? Was your funding tampered with then?

    No! We got our due funds. You should also know that, as a party in the opposition, it wasn’t easy for me. But my personal disposition with our current President ,who was the Vice President then, helped. The major problem then was that I was in PPA. You can now see the difference. Since I left PPA, these things that I have achieved within the two years of my second tenure, for sure, if you have seen all my projects, have surpassed what those who stayed here for eight years did. I can point at some of the things I have done; some of them you have seen. Those that have been here before can point at business empires that are their own. That was their achievement. That is the difference. I am not a businessman. I have come here to work for the people. That is why you see the foundations we are laying. My only constraint now is fund because nobody calls me on phone and says this is what you are going to do or not. I am a godfather to myself.

    Before now, Abia State had been threatened by kidnapping. How did you end the menace?

    That magic is my secret and like we say, it is security. You don’t discuss it before journalists or else, these hoodlums are all around. If I say it and you write it, they will say, oh, is that it? And they will go and find another means of countering it, bringing back another method, which will make me to start fighting back. So, those secrets are what they are – my weapons. Except maybe, any of my colleagues who come to me and ask me how I did it. Of course, it is difficult. One or two persons have come to me and I said, do this or that. You remember we were the first persons in the Southeast to ban commercial motorcyclists as a means of transportation. We saw that it was Okada that was used by kidnappers to run into the bush. Today, our efforts in that direction have paid off because those who were riding Okada are happier today with tricycles and it is safer too. Since we stopped Okada transport, go to Obioma Ward at the Federal Medical Centre, you don’t see people with their legs hanging for months. One doctor congratulated me for making their jobs easier. It is going round. Other states are doing that. That one you cannot hide it but there are secret ones that we don’t reveal.

    Is it true that you spent so much money to end kidnapping?

    The kidnapping era was my worst period here. In the first instance, I didn’t cause kidnapping. It was unknown to us in this part of the world. In Abia State, what we knew before were things like armed robbery, murder and the like. But kidnapping came when I became governor and it became a serious challenge for me. By the time it came, we haven’t got the technology or wherewithal to handle it and it became a serious challenge. Abia’s own was out of proportion to the extent that they were using Abia as an example and our enemies cashed in on that – those who didn’t want this government to stand. At that time, if a rat missed in Abia, it was front-page news for even newspapers owned by an Abia State indigene. The thing was blown out of proportion and criticisms were coming from everywhere and as the man in charge, you will feel highly demoralised, especially that time they kidnapped 15 kids in Aba and a journalist. For the first time kidnapping went on the CNN. Who went and put it there? How many kidnapping incidents have we seen on CNN? It was just to discredit the government. But then, it brought out the indomitable fighting spirit in us to fight. God came and brought ideas. Tactics were coming in numbers and we were using them one after the other. Some were working, others were not. But today, you see our state is a model. Anybody who wants to do any case study on kidnapping comes here to learn from us. It is one of the achievements we have made that have elevated this state and myself to the highest pedestal; that we are able to forestall kidnapping because another cankerworm that is worse than kidnapping; it is Boko Haram. So, the fact that we overcame this kidnap saga is a plus for this state. That’s why I have said that I can stop all projects to invest all the money I have here on security to make sure that we are safe. That is the first thing because it is dangerous for any government that fails in that. Some thought we would not overcome because some of kidnappers were being sponsored. Some were sponsored and people were coming to take money from us by 419 means. Some highly placed persons came and told us they knew the kidnappers, that I should bring money. I gave N20m and the following day, they kidnapped 10 people at Osisioma.