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Tag: Goodluck Jonathan

  • Rivers crisis: Jonathan turned down Rivers’ elders, says Amaechi

    Rivers crisis: Jonathan turned down Rivers’ elders, says Amaechi

    •‘President shunned Port Harcourt centenary, I shunned Nigeria’s’

    President Goodluck Jonathan turned down the request of Rivers State elders to attend the centenary celebration of Port Harcourt City last November, Governor Chibuike Amaechi alleged yesterday.

    He added that the request of the elders to leave him alone also went unheeded.

    According to the governor, because of the president’s action, he also decided not to be part of the events marking Nigeria’s centenary.

    Amaechi spoke at the 70th birthday celebration of a former Vice-Chancellor of the University of Port Harcourt (UNIPORT), Prof. Nimi Dimkpa Briggs. The event was held on the campus of the university.

    The governor said the President disrespected Rivers elders that visited him at the Presidential Villa to invite him for the Port Harcourt celebration, by failing to turn up in spite of the President having grown up in Port Harcourt.

    According to Amaechi, declining the invitation for Nigeria’s centenary was meant to save the faces of the elders whom he said the president should have honoured by attending the Port Harcourt programme.

    “There are some elders who have gone on a delegation to Mr. President to leave this young man (referring to himself/Amaechi), alone but they each time came back disappointed.

    “People are asking why I did not attend the last centenary celebration?, I said, five prominent Rivers men, left here to go and invite the president, when they approached me that they were going to invite the President, I told them, don’t bother your head, the President won’t come, they said no, not after he had seen them.

    “They are Justice (Adolphus) Karibi Whyte, Prof. Tekena Tamuno, Prof. T. K. Alagoa, Prof. Nimi Briggs and Chief Agbaru; they were very well received by our President and when they came back and told me how they went; I was expectant, everybody at the Federal Government told me the President was going to come, but he didn’t come.

    “So I told myself I was not going to attend the Nigerian centenary because Port Harcourt turned 100, the President refused to come even though he grew up here.

    “I did not attend because of you, I wanted to respect your age, I was bothered that Mr. President should have respected you and honoured that invitation.” Amaechi said.

    Speaking of the celebrator, Amaechi noted that he was not a politician but had vested interest in the development of the state.

    He pledged to name one of the new specialist hospitals being built after Briggs for his good will and contributions to the state.

    Briggs was also Chairman, Rivers State Independent Electoral Commission and current Chairman of the state Economic Advisory Council.

    “We will try to immortalise Prof. there is this 100-bed hospital being constructed at the Rivers State University of Science and Technology (RSUST), we are going to name it after him. This is in honour of his 70th birthday and his contributions to the growth and development of the state.

    “We have paid 100 per cent of the cost, it is not a matter of whether it will work or not.

    “We want to name it Prof. Nimi Briggs Hospital,” he said.

     

  • Yearnings for national wealth-creation platform

    Yearnings for national wealth-creation platform

    Unemployment among our youth is one of our biggest challenges. The time has come to create jobs and lay a new foundation for Nigeria’s economic growth.” This statement was made by Nigeria’s President Goodluck Jonathan in 2011 with respect to the pervasive and disturbing unemployment challenges confronting the Nigerian youth. The situation has not improved till date even though there is hope on the horizon.

    Despite the sweeping criticisms which tend to trail the announcement of government policies in Nigeria, the evidently responsible government of Goodluck Jonathan has shown itself committed to investing in the future of the country and its resourceful and creative younger generation. It is in line with this that the Administration subsequently inaugurated the Youth Enterprise with Innovation in Nigeria (YouWiN!) programme in 2011 to address this distressing national problem.

    YouWiN! is a ground-breaking business plans competition aimed at job creation by encouraging and supporting aspiring entrepreneurial young people in Nigeria to develop and execute  their business ideas. The specially designed competition for young entrepreneurs as well as would-be youthful entrepreneurs in Nigeria is to ensure clarity (as against mere wishful thinking) in the minds of the target group and also to ensure that the Federal Government’s drive to create more jobs for Nigerians especially young people is founded on a solid ground.

    And the results so far have proved the wisdom of this initiative. The President himself as well as other dignitaries gathered to celebrate the accomplishments of the first set of 1,200 YouWiN awardees at the Presidential Villa on April 12, 2012. The same was the case with YouWiN women, which was the second edition of the entrepreneurial scheme, designed exclusively for young Nigerian female entrepreneurs. It needs restating that since 2011 when the scheme was instituted, YouWiN as an innovative enterprise programme has enabled young Nigerian men and women entrepreneurs between the ages of 18 and 45 to add value to the Nigerian economy through their Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) It was in treating the issue of job creation as a matter of utmost national responsibility that President Jonathan quickly went ahead to fulfill his campaign promise to build a pool of enterprising, hardworking, accountable and innovative young wealth creators. The N50billion seed fund for job creation (the basis for YouWiN) was then quickly made available.  With the understanding at the Federal Executive that the nation cannot afford to toy with the future of its youth, it designed the programme to ensure that resourceful young entrepreneurs who qualify can access financial grants up to the tune of N10million each to start their SMEs.

    One more interesting aspect of the unique scheme is that it is a collaborative one among the Federal Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Communication Technology (CT), Ministry of Youth Development and Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Development. This positive partnership among the ministries is a unique and novel approach to solving an issue as hydra-headed as youth unemployment across the land.

    But it is not intra-government collaboration alone. To ensure that the programme is an ongoing success story, YouWiN is being executed in cooperation with the nation’s private sector to ensure proper coordination, diligent implementation, close monitoring and objective evaluation of the scheme.  Credible private sector businessmen and women as well as captains of industry have joined hands to provide mentorship and guidance in order to guarantee that these young ones are properly directed while activating their business ideas.

    As far as government programmes go, YouWiN has, indeed, been a noteworthy success. The winners from the last two editions have, in line with the spirit of the project, are creating wealth for themselves while adding considerable value to the lives of other Nigerian youths and the entire nation.  Being a veritable transformation platform, the government has quickly seized on it to evidently actualise the administration’s Transformation Agenda and push the country to join the league of knowledge-driven economies in which Nigerian youths also apply their creative energies, activate their dreams and contribute to national development.

    This was attested to by President Jonathan at the launch of the 3rd Edition in November 2013. He announced with a sense of fulfillment even while acknowledging the huge gap that still needs to be plugged, that over 27,000 jobs had been created since the commencement of the YouWiN. He also took the opportunity to reiterate his belief in Nigerian youths, who he described as not only “vibrant” but equally “intelligent, resilient and hardworking”. And as he gave the clarion call to other stakeholders to support the youth empowerment scheme, the President pointedly called on the state governors and the National Assembly (NASS) to collaborate with the Federal Executive in order that the programme could be expanded in other ways, especially at state and constituency levels, so that as many Nigerian youths as possible can benefit from YouWiN or entrepreneurial concepts designed along the same lines.

    And after going round the stands of YouWiN Awardees who exhibited their products at the launch, President Jonathan remarked that “the exhibition by a few of the awardees which I have just reviewed confirms that our youths are indeed, industrious and highly talented.” He said he was sure that “with targeted support, the products and services on display here will compete with the best in the world. They will not only serve our domestic needs, they are potentially export revenue earners for this country.”

    With the launch of the 3rd edition, one would like to encourage the organisers to stay in step with the acknowledged transparency which has been the hallmark of the application and selection process. It is this somewhat un-Nigerian approach to the competition that has made it such a credible draw with both the target and general audiences. If this is maintained, there is also the likelihood that it would attract more private sector players to get involved at different levels. And for the applicants, it bears remembering Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala’s, the Coordinating Minister for the Economy and Minister of Finance often stated remarks that the scheme was not all about winning money but primarily for empowering young entrepreneurs with the right kind of training to enable them acquire the right attitude and resolve to succeed in the tough business environment. She maintains that if young Nigerians make the paradigm shift from looking for jobs to creating jobs then YouWiN! would be deemed to have succeeded.

    With the reported success stories of the scheme thus far, it is encouraging that YouWiN is embraced and supported by all Nigerians. This is consequential in that the youth enterprise programme is an authentic platform upon which any serious-minded, hard working and innovative Nigerian youth can really achieve self-realisation, reliance, fulfillment and responsibility while contributing to the advancement of the nation’s economy. Nigerian youths need to be meaningfully engaged to continue to apply their creative energies for the development of their fatherland.

     

    • Kayode, a media professional wrote in from Lagos state.

     

  • Why Governor Shettima is right; a preface

    Why Governor Shettima is right; a preface

    As the reader can see I have devoted virtually the whole of today’s column to reactions to my last two columns; the first on the need for the new opposition party, the All Progressives Congress (APC), to get its act together, if it is to have any chance of unseating the ruling PDP in next year’s election, and the second on the spat between President Goodluck Jonathan and the sacked governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Malam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, ostensibly on his alleged “reckless” management of the CBN, but in reality over Sanusi’s whistle blowing on the apparent grand thefts of the country’s oil and its revenues.

    The first article elicited only 18 text messages and a few emails while the second got 69 and a couple of emails. One of the texts on the second piece expressed great disappointment that I wrote on the GEJ/SLS spat when I should’ve done so on the blood curdling middle-of-the-night massacre of pupils of Federal Government College, Bunu Yadi, Yobe State, the day before, allegedly by elements of Boko Haram.

    “I,” the reader who texted from +2347067280114 but did not give his name said, “was expecting to read from you a lamentation on the killing of innocent students of so-called unity college. Haba mallam!”

    The reader’s disappointment, possibly even anger, is understandable. The problem, however, is that we’ve had too many lamentations and condemnations by just about everybody but little or no sign that President Jonathan, on whose table the buck stops, is sincerely willing and/or capable of dealing with the terrible insurgency.

    Of all the things that raise doubts about his commitment and capacity to end the insurgency none has been as revealing as his angry retort at the remark, no doubt dead on target, by a tearful Governor Ibrahim Kashim Shettima of Borno State, following Boko Haram’s sacking of Kauri, Idzge and Konduga villages in the state, that the insurgents “are better armed and better motivated” than our military and are therefore not about to be routed anytime soon by the military.

    Next week, God willing, Shettima’s remarks and the president’s reaction will be the subject of this column.

    For today I leave you with some of the mixed reactions to my last two pieces.

     

    FEEDBACK

    Re: “GEJ versus Sanusi, the whistleblower”

     

    Sir,

    One of my favourite topics in my O’ Level School Certificate Government, is the Principle of Collective Responsibility. The Central Bank governor cannot be a whistleblower in a government he is part of. The honourable thing to do is resign and blow the whistle from outside.

    When Eze Festus Odimegwu opened his mouth wide about goings-on at National Population Commission, as regards Census figures in Nigeria, Gov. Kwankwaso and company went to the Presidential Villa, and prevailed on President Jonathan to sack him. Odimegwu was eventually sacked and heaven did not fall.

    So Sanusi deserves his sack because no employee ever dictates the terms and conditions of his employment.

    Sanusi’s behaviour lately reminds me of late Chinua Achebe’s story of the bird, Nza, which dared his CHI (personal god) to a wrestling bout after enjoying a sumptuous meal. Of course, we have now seen the outcome of the wrestling match. Sanusi’s sack is good riddance!

    Chukwuma Dioka. +2348166933115

     

    Sir ,

    He who comes to equity must come with clean hands. Sanusi is guilty of what he accused Jonathan of. The kettle cannot call the pot black. They are all thieves.

    Ibegbu. +2348035410176

     

    Sir,

    Sanusi lives in glass house and was dropping stones in the president’s ATM machine, the NNPC.

    Patrick. +2348032571244

     

    Sir,

    If you were the president will you allow Sanusi to remain on seat fighting you directly?

    Engr. Anolue. +2348037114167

     

    Sir,

    In your write up you failed to take note of the fact that Sanusi said he saw the allegations against him on the day he was suspended. This is critical and touches on principles of fair hearing.

    +2348123464980

     

    Sir,

    Jonathan and his government have been a terrible disappointment, a ‘Badluck’ and a curse on Nigerians. The man is busy picking fights against his betters like Amaechi and now Sanusi while Boko Haram continues to slaughter innocent Nigerians right under his nose and he remains criminally clueless and helpless. This impunity, corruption, social injustices, security ineptitude and economic malversation characteristic of his government must stop.

    +2348096966605

     

    Sir,

    Police were on the trail of armed robbers, a prostitute informed of their whereabouts. Please let’s arrest the armed robbers first, collect our $20 billion then face the lesser offender. The government waited for months after Lamido’s request and realising that the man is determined, dusted up a report that will not stand in a law court but gain popularity in beer parlours in Bayelsa.

    Cardinal O.C. Arogundade. +2348055567777

     

    Sir,

    Please tell them, in case they don’t know, that even if they acquire the whole world they will leave everything behind on their deaths.

    +2348053263196.

     

    Sir,

    I agree with you that Sanusi has won the hearts of the poverty-stricken Nigerians, while the position of the president remains unenviable. What I want to add to your incisive piece is this: the eyes of the poor have opened. They now know that the present suffering did not fall from the sky but flows from corruption in high quarters.

    Amos Ejimonye, Kaduna. +2347085284103

    Sir,

    Under section 11 (1) (b) of the interpretation act, the power to hire includes the power to suspend.

    Abubakar Sani, Abuja/Kano. +2348034533892

     

    Sir,

    Whenever a father uses hammer to kill mosquito when a wild snake is left roaming around in the house, the child standing by is put in a state of confusion. May we see Nigerian army strike again to handle the mega thieves in the oil cartel.

    Ondas Nas. +2348032399800.

     

    Re: For APC, time is ticking

     

    The opposition APC using paid loyalists like you in their employ is engaging in subjective and destructive criticism against Africa’s biggest party. Cure yourself of deliberate blindness and discover that APC is too desperate, immature and unprepared to rule Nigeria. I wish you both good luck. You need it.

    Dr. Ifeanyi Nwaeboh. +2348163295663.

     

    Sir,

    I am an Igbo man and the problem with people of my tribe is lack of knowledge and blind sentiment. Each time I make comments about GEJ and his corrupt government both on radio and in our gathering they accuse me of being an agent of Boko Haram. By God’s grace PDP mis-rule will end come 2015.

    Collins, Abuja. +2348059876387

     

    Sir,

    The APC appears to rely so much on propaganda.  It is stretching the capabilities of its talented Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed.  But Lai alone cannot win the 2015 elections. The APC needs to encourage and nurture a formidable structure in all the 36 states of the federation to stand a good chance of occupying Aso Rock in 2015.

    For example, in most of the South East, apart from Imo State and to lesser degree Anambra state, the APC is in the hands of charlatans, who cannot even deliver their wards.  They are just after the crumbs they are expecting from the national secretariat or other APC controlled states.  And after the elections, they will drift back to their PDP pay-masters.  You will recall how the South East CPC disowned General Muhammadu Buhari after the 2011 elections.

    Azunna Nnamani, Enugu State.

     

    Sir,

    Your piece on For APC, Time is Ticking is a free consultancy for the APC which you should also extend to the PDP.  Perhaps, because of your interest in APC, you are too soft on their current leaders as to point out their incompetence.  Since the APC got five PDP governors to join them, they have not ceased celebrating to the extent that they appear to have forgotten that the main purpose of all the manoeuvring is the 2015 elections. Their congresses are supposed to be a few days or few weeks away and yet they have not come out with the modalities for the congresses.  This is where PDP is better.  Kindly give PDP some credits next time.

    James Onoriode, Sapele

     

    Sir,

    Usually it is not in my character to reply to publications like your article on the back page of The Nation of 18/02/2014 but I have to make an exemption to the rule for correction purpose only and only to set the record straight.

    The party, All Progressives Congress, came as a result of the merger between the now defunct Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP), Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), a group from All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) led by Governor Rochas Okorocha of Imo State and Senator Annie Okonkwo, and a group from the Democratic Peoples Party (DPP) led by late Senator Pius Ewherido and my humble self.

    I represented DPP throughout the process leading to the merger. Two positions, National Auditor and Deputy National Organising Secretary were allocated to the DPP. Today, I am the Interim National Auditor while the former state chairman of DPP in Imo State Chief Romanus Egbuladike is the Deputy National Organising Secretary.

    Sir Olisaemeka Akamukali.

  • I was misinterpreted, says Nasarawa deputy governor

    I was misinterpreted, says Nasarawa deputy governor

    Nasarawa State Deputy Governor Dameshi Luka said yesterday that he joined the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) due to the “attitude of exclusion exhibited by the leadership of the All Progressives Congress (APC)”.

    Luka said he was misinterpreted by his boss, Governor Tanko Al-Makura when he was seen with President Goodluck Jonathan on a pilgrimage last year.

    Luka made the clarification at the PDP secretariat in Lafia after submitting a letter of intent to join the party.

    He said his purported suspension from the APC while he was away in the United States did not follow conventional procedure and was targeted at humiliating him.

    He alleged that he was accused of disloyalty by honouring President Goodluck Jonathan’s invitation to accompany him on the pilgrimage to Israel.

    According to him, Gov. Al-Makura misinterpreted the spiritual obligation as a plan being hatched to unseat him.

    Luka said he opposed the directive of the APC leadership to its members in the National Assembly to block all executive bills, including 2014 Appropriation Bill.

    “I want to reiterate that as a patriotic citizen, I stand firmly on that statement and insist that national interest must supercede party or any other interests,’’ he added.

    Luka said he was yet to register as a member of the APC since he was away during the party’s membership registration exercise, and wondered how he could have been suspended from a party he was yet to register as a member.

    “My disinterest to register with the APC is not unconnected with the attitude of exclusion exhibited by the leadership of the party with the active collaboration of the governor.

    “Consequently, I and my teaming supporters across the state have decided to move over to the PDP with immediate effect,” Luka said.

    The PDP State Chairman, Yunana Ilya, likened Luka’s action to the prodigal son, adding that the party was glad to have him back under the umbrella.

    Iliya said the deputy governor and others, who recently joined the PDP will soon be hosted to a grand reception to be graced by the national leadership of the party.

     

     

  • Jonathan swears in new ministers today

    Jonathan swears in new ministers today

    President Goodluck Jonathan will today swear in new ministers.

    The President, claiming that the appointments were in accordance with Section 147 (2) of the Constitution, forwarded the names of 12 ministerial nominees to the Senate for consideration and confirmation.

    But the Senate only confirmed the appointment of 11 nominees, rejecting the nomination of Mrs. Hadjia Jemila Salik (Kano).

    Those confirmed are ex-National Security Adviser, Gen. Aliu Mohammed Gusau (Zamfara State), Nigerian Ambassador to Ghana, Senator Musiliu Obanikoro (Lagos), Mohammed Wakil (Borno), Abduljelili Oyewale Adesiyan (Osun), Ambassador Aminu Wali (Kano) and Mrs. Akon Etim Eyakenyi (Akwa Ibom).

    Others are Laurencia Labaran Mallam (Kaduna), Dr. Tamuno W. Danagogo (Rivers), Asabe Asmau Ahmed (Niger), Mr. Boni Haruna (Adamawa) and Dr. Khaliru Alhassan (Sokoto).

  • Celebration that shouldn’t have been

    SIR: It is appalling that despite the human lives and properties that were wasted last week in Adamawa and Yobe by the animalistic sect group, the federal government still went ahead with the so-called celebration of 100 years of the country’s existence. Most disgusting was that beyond a one minute silence, Aso Rock did not show much concern for the demise. It did not even deem it fit to fly the nation’s flag at half mast in recognition of those young chaps and adults who were sent to their early graves. But because human lives don’t mean anything to this administration, the Presidency carried on with the celebration with careless abandon. So, while the big men were clinking away glasses of wine in the nation’s capital territory, families in the remote Buni (Yobe) and Adamawa languished in trauma, anguish and sorrow.

    The Centenary celebration in the midst of the Adamawa and Yobe carnage was a sad reminder of the Goodluck Jonathan-led administration’s insensitivity to the plights of the masses of this country. Those precious lives couldn’t have meant anything to a president who recently threatened to pull out the soldiers in the embattled states in reaction to a honest and frank statement expressed by Governor Ibrahim Shettima of Borno, over the sect’s senseless killings in the state. For a government that has lost touch with the realities of the insecurity and deplorable economic conditions in the land, the Centenary celebration was more important and significant to her than finding ways of addressing these challenges.

    In the first place, there was absolutely nothing to celebrate. The false and fraudulent union which the 1914 amalgamation imposed on us does not warrant the waste of resources and time as witnessed in that fruitless venture. The Presidency did not need to waste such huge public fund to reopen the old wound called amalgamation. The recent mindless killingsby the Boko Haram sect group represent some of those violence and crises that have characterised the so-called marriage since 100 years ago. The innocent blood of ordinary Nigerians has been used by successive regimes to sustain the propaganda on the elusive unity of the country.

    No sensitive government would roll out drum of celebration (however important such event is) in the midst of the disaster as witnessed in the two northern states. This is why world leaders often cut short their foreign trips and official functions to visit disaster areas in their countries to commiserate with the victims. Such action usually go a long way in reassuring the citizens that their leaders care about them, and the consequence is that patriotism and hope are renewed in the people. This was exactly what most Nigerians expected from the Presidency. There was certainly nothing too urgent about the celebration (assuming it had to take place at all) that could have prevented the Presidency from shelving it to a later date at least to show the families and victims of that dastardly act that the government share in their pains and anguish.

    It is high time the Presidency woke up to her responsibility and stop dwelling so much on irrelevance. The fight against the many challenges bedevilling our dear country, especially insecurity, requires cooperation from Nigerians. But such cooperation can only be obtained when the government demonstrates some level of responsibility and concern for the total welfare of the citizens, and this was what the Centenary celebration failed to achieve. It is sad, indeed!

    • Barrister Okoro Gabriel,

    Lagos

  • Jonathan okays judges, sack

    Jonathan okays judges, sack

    President Goodluck Jonathan yesterday approved the National Judicial Council’s (NJC’s) recommendations for the compulsory retirement of two judges.

    The NJC last month recommended the compulsory retirement of Justice Gladys Olotu and Justice Ufot Inyang over alleged gross misconduct.

    The Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation, Mohammed Adoke told State House correspondents yeseterday that the President has approved the NJC recommendation.

    The NJC said the decision to recommend the retirement of Olotu of the Federal High Court and Inyang of the FCT High court was taken at the Council’s meeting of Feb 26.

    He said the NJC’s findings were necessitated by petitions on allegations of gross misconduct levelled against them.

     

  • The Economist: decision to sack Sanusi is bad news

    The Economist: decision to sack Sanusi is bad news

    WHEN President Goodluck Jonathan suspended Lamido Sanusi, the governor of Nigeria’s central bank, on February 20th, he succeeded in removing an opponent. But over the past week it has become clear that this small victory has come at a steep price. Not only has Mr Jonathan signalled his unwillingness to tackle the rampant corruption that is eating away at his country—he has also scared foreign investors and presented an open goal to his political enemies.

    The outspoken Mr Sanusi courted a stormy end to his tenure, due to finish in June, by accusing the state oil company, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), of failing to remit $20 billion in revenues to government accounts. The ministry of finance puts the figure at $10.8 billion. Mr Jonathan says he suspended Mr Sanusi because of “financial recklessness and misconduct” and “far-reaching irregularities” at the bank. But the decision came just days after Mr Sanusi presented detailed evidence to a Senate committee investigating alleged fraud and mismanagement at the NNPC. Most concluded that the suspension was politically motivated.

     

  • Jonathan approves sack of two judges

    President Goodluck Jonathan has approved the National Judicial Council’s (NJC) recommendations for the compulsory retirement of two judges.

    NJC had last month recommended the compulsory retirement of Justice Gladys Olotu and Justice Ufot Inyang over alleged gross misconduct.

    The Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation, Mohammed Adoke told State House correspondents Tuesday  that the President has approved the NJC recommendation.

    In a statement by Mr Soji Oye, NJC Acting Director of Information last month, said that the decision to recommend the retirement of Olotu of the Federal High Court and Inyang of the FCT High court was taken at the Council’s meeting of Feb 26.

    He said that the NJC’s findings were necessitated by petitions on allegations of gross misconduct leveled against them.

  • ACF, Amaechi fault suspension

    ACF, Amaechi fault suspension

    Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) yesterday faulted the suspension of Sanusi Lamido Sanusi as Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor.

    It accused President Goodluck Jonathan of ignoring due process in taking the action.

    Rivers State Governor Chibuike Amaechi also said Dr. jonathan acted with impunity by his action.

    Amaechi, who spoke yesterday at Christ Church, Port Harcourt, during a service organised for the induction of the Resident Minister and reception of the Assistant Resident Ministers, said: “You can imagine how President Jonathan announced the sudden removal (suspension) of the CBN Governor. He does not have such powers. He knows that nothing will happen. That was why he took that action.

    “While we are talking about the problem and the ways to end religious wars in the country, others are busy stealing our money. Maybe they are using it to divert our attention. The issue of the missing $49.8 billion from the federation account is still there. If you convert that money to naira, you will get N80 trillion and that money can solve the problem of this country for the next few years.

    “The federal government said they used the money for this and that, but the constitution says nobody can tamper with that money. The money must first be paid into the federation account. So that Rivers State or Imo State can have its share, but the Federal Government has gone upfront to collect this money, without actually following the due process as stipulated by law.”

    “So, the preachers should begin to preach what we call the Liberation Theology. You (church leaders) are supposed to have more responsibilities to hold government accountable.”

    The NGF chairman also admonished members of the Christ Church, Port Harcourt to accord more trust, confidence and encouragement to the newly-inducted resident minister, Rev. Kaleb Kay Uche, and the assistant resident ministers, Rev. Canon