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Tag: Goodluck Jonathan

  • Tension in Kwara ahead of Jonathan’s visit

    Tension in Kwara ahead of Jonathan’s visit

    Tension is building up in Kwara State ahead of tomorrow’s visit to the state by President Goodluck Jonathan with the All Progressives Congress (APC) accusing the police of arresting seven of its members on trumped up charges.

    The Police have denied the allegation.

    The APC sees the planned visit of the President as insensitive, ill-timed and utterly inhumane, coming so soon after the Boko Haram attacks in Borno, Yobe and Adamawa States.

    The party’s Interim Publicity Secretary in the state, Alhaji Sulyman Buhari, said the PDP should allow Jonathan enough time to mourn those tragedies first before coming to Kwara.

    He said:”May we remind these insensitive politicians in the state and all those irrelevant politicians that he seeks to rehabilitate in the state that the saner thing to do by all patriotic Nigerians is to feel and act sober, draw the grief-stricken people together, share in their pains and attempt to restore hope in the almost hopeless situation that parts of the country have been thrown into.

    “We therefore call on our peace- loving President to turn the request of these desperate politicians to further justify his well known position that no individual ambition worth the blood of a single Nigerian.”

    But the Publicity Secretary, Caretaker Committee of the PDP in the state, Mohammed Alhassan, said the APC is shocked by the success of PDP’s outing in the state last week.

    The PDP said: “Without doubt, the shock of unexpected large crowd of people witnessed on Sunday, 23rd February, 2014 at the PDP reception would for a long time continue to cause blood-ripples and nightmares in the camp of the APC in the state.

    Governor Abdulfatah Ahmed called on politicians and their supporters to conduct themselves lawfully as well as avoid any action capable of disrupting the peace in Kwara.

    In a statement by his Senior Special Assistant on Media, Dr. Muideen Akorede, Ahmed said: “Although the president is not on a state visit, we welcome him to our state of harmony.

    “We will accord him all the courtesies and arrangements benefitting of his office.

    “As a peace- loving administration, we urge all to keep the peace, be lawful and avoid any actions or utterances capable of rupturing our reputation for harmony.”

    He added: “Regardless of political affiliation, our people must remain mindful of the rule of law and shun all actions that contravene the law, especially the maintenance of public order.”

    The APC also accused the state police command of becoming agent of the PDP after allegedly arresting seven of its members being in possession of APC posters in Ilorin, the state capital.

    The Interim Chairman of the APC in the state, Alhaji Ishola Balogun-Fulani asked the Inspector General of Police, Muhammed Abubakar to call the state Police Commissioner, Ambrose Aisabo to order.

    Balogun-Fulani added that the police also invaded the premises of printer engaged by the party to produce street signposts and destroyed his equipment, carting away over 300 signposts of APC produced by the printer.

    Said he: “As if that was not enough, the people engaged by party to erect these signposts after being manhandled they were arrested and detained in the police cell for doing their lawful job.

    “The police command had gone to stop the APC members while erecting billboards; it also tampered with the street signposts of the party in all roads in the state leaving those of the PDP intact.

    “For the avoidance of doubt, the party met all the required guidelines laid down by the Kwara State Signage and Advertisement Agency (KWASSA) regarding erection of billboards in any part of the state as that is the only agency that is empowered by the law to remove or stop erection in any part of the state.

    “This police command in Kwara State has confirmed our initial position that the commissioner was posted here to intimidate our members, by his open partisanship apparently to satisfy his paymasters in Abuja and their cronies in the state.

    When contacted the commissioner Mr. Ambrose Aisabo denied the allegations, claiming that the command only arrested the APC members because it had intelligence report that the party was planning to use its posters to deface those of the PDP, whose national leaders, including President Goodluck Jonathan, are on a visit to the state on Monday.

    His words: “We had information that APC was planning to print several posters and use it to deface that of Mr .President and we went there and indeed we saw several thousands of posters that they had printed. We impounded them but the people explained to us they had no plan of defacing the posters of Mr. President and I now warned them and allowed them to go with their posters. I am not against anyone pasting posters but I am against when people use it to deface those of others because there is enough space for everybody; politics is a game of choice. I am not here for any party. And I even called the APC chairman to tell him what I have done, so it is not true that anyone has been detained because we have released all of them.”

  • Soyinka faults centenary honours list

    Soyinka faults centenary honours list

    •Deplores Abacha’s listing

    Nobel laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka, yesterday lashed out at the Federal Government for including the late General Sani Abacha among those honoured to mark Nigeria’s Centenary celebration.

    He called the action of government as a disservice to the nation and a failure of a moral rigour that calls into question “the entire ethical landscape into which this nation has been forced by insensate leadership.”

    In a statement entitled The Canonisation of Terror, the Nobel laureate said, “According generalized but false attributes to known killers and treasury robbers is a disservice to history and a desecration of memory. It also compromises the future.”

    Soyinka, who was also listed as one of the awardees, added in statement to explain why he declined to accept his own award saying, “I reject my share of this national insult.”

    The playwright said it was the same Abacha who “placed this nation under siege during an unrelenting reign of terror that is barely different from the current rampage of Boko Haram. It is this very psychopath that was recently canonised by the government of Goodluck Jonathan in commemoration of one hundred years of Nigerian trauma.”

    He said it was also under the authority of the late Abacha, whom he called “a vicious usurper” that ” the lives of an elected president and his wife were snuffed out. Assassinations – including through bombs cynically ascribed to the opposition – became routine. Under that ruler, torture and other forms of barbarism were enthroned as the norm of governance. To round up, nine Nigerian citizens, including the writer and environmentalist Ken Saro-Wiwa, were hanged after a trial that was stomach- churning even by the most primitive standards of judicial trial, and in defiance of the intervention of world leadership.”

    The Nobel laureate wondered why successive administrations have not had the courage to “wipe out” Abacha’s memory from Nigeria.

    He observed: “One of the broadest avenues in the nation’s capital, Abuja, bears the name of General Sani Abacha. Successive governments have lacked the political courage to change this signpost – among several others – of national self degradation and wipe out the memory of the nation’s tormentor from daily encounter.

    “Not even Ministers for the Federal Capital territory within whose portfolios rest such responsibilities, could muster the temerity to initiate the process and leave the rest to public approbation or repudiation. I urged the need of this purge on one such minister, and at least one Head of State. That minister promised, but that boast went the way of Nigerian electoral boast. The Head of State murmured something about the fear of offending ‘sensibilities’.”

    He is of the view that the lack of will to do what is right tantamount to “moral cowardice and a doubling of victim trauma. When you proudly display certificates of a nation’s admission to the club of global pariahs, it is only a matter of time before you move to beatify them as saints and other paragons of human perfection. What the government of Goodluck Jonathan has done is to scoop up a century’s accumulated degeneracy in one preeminent symbol, then place it on a podium for the nation to admire, emulate and even – worship.”

    He said he, like many Nigerians, he found it disgusting that the hospital to which victims of the recent attack on a school in Yobe by Boko Haram were rushed for treatment was named after Abacha.

    His words: “The sheer weight of indignation and revulsion of most of Nigerian humanity at the recent Boko Haram atrocity in Yobe is most likely to have overwhelmed a tiny footnote to that outrage, small indeed, but of an inversely proportionate significance.

    “This was the name of the hospital to which the survivors of the massacre were taken. That minute detail calls into question, in a gruesome but chastening way, the entire ethical landscape into which this nation has been forced by insensate leadership.

    “It is an uncanny coincidence, one that I hope the new culture of ‘religious tourism’, spearheaded by none other than the nation’s president in his own person, may even come to recognize as a message from unseen forces.”

    He added: “Such abandonment of moral rigour comes full circle sooner or later. The survivors of a plague known as Boko Haram, students in a place of enlightenment and moral instruction, are taken to a place of healing dedicated to an individual contagion – a murderer and thief of no redeeming quality known as Sani Abacha, one whose plunder is still being pursued all over the world and recovered piecemeal by international consortiums – at the behest of this same government which sees fit to place him on the nation’s Roll of Honour!

    “I can think of nothing more grotesque and derisive of the lifetime struggle of several on this list, and their selfless services to humanity. It all fits. In this nation of portent readers, the coincidence should not be too difficult to decipher.”

    But the Federal Government in the brochure at the awards ceremony said it decided to honour Gen Abacha for his unprecedented economic achievements.

    Abacha, government claimed, oversaw an increase in the country’s foreign exchange reserves from $494 million in 1993 to $9.6 billion by the middle of 1997, reduced the external debt of Nigeria from $36 billion in 1993 to $27 billion in 1997.

    It also credited him with ending all the controversial privatisation programmes of the Babangida administration, reducing the inflation rate of 54 per cent inherited from Babangida to 8.5 per cent between 1993 and 1998, while the nation’s primary commodity, oil was at an average of $9 per barrel.

    Besides, he was said to have created the most comprehensive and realistic blueprint for Nigeria’s development through Vision 2010 committee chaired by his predecessor, Chief Ernest Shonekan.

    Abacha’s widow, Maryam received the award.

    Also present to receive their awards were former Presidents/Heads of State Olusegun Obasanjo, Yakubu Gowon, Shehu Shagari, Muhammadu Buhari, Ibrahim Babangida, Shonekan and Abusalami Abubakar

    The past leaders received award for outstanding promoters of unity, patriotism and National Development.

    Posthumously awards were given to the former Heads of State/ Presidents including Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, General Aguiyi Ironsi, Murtala Muhammed, General Abacha and Umaru Musa Yar’Adua.

    Representatives also received awards for the late Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, Sir Ahmadu Bello, Chief Anthony Enahoro and former Labour leader, Pa Michael Imoudu.

    Presenting a book “The reforms that have transformed Nigeria, 2010-2013” at the occasion, President Jonathan said it would not be fair not to apologise to Nigerians about the selection of Nigerians for the award.

    He explained that it was difficult to select 100 people, saying that about 500 people are qualified for the award and that the government would look for a way to recognise them in future national occasions.

    The families of the late Bashorun M.K.O.Abiola, the late Lagos lawyer, Chief Gani Fawehinmi and the late music icon, Fela Anikulapo-Kuti also rejected the posthumous awards earmarked for them.

    Mr. Kola Abiola, eldest son of the late Chief Abiola said the award was ‘inappropriate’ while, Mr. Mohammed Fawehinmi said it would be morally wrong for the family to stand on the same podium with General Babangida to receive an award.

    Babangida’s government, he alleged, serially subjected the Fawehinmi to torture and that it was during one of such ‘illegal and inhuman detentions’ that “our late father’s cell was sprayed with toxic substances while in Gashua prison in 1987. The cumulative effect of that dastardly action led to our father, a non- smoker, contracting lung cancer which eventually led to his death on September 5, 2009.”

    The Anikulapo-Kuti family blamed government for destroying Fela’s ‘Kalakuta Republic’ and subjecting his late mother, Olufunmilayo Ransome-Kuti to inhuman treatment, which led to her death.

  • Nigeria has come to stay, says Obasanjo

    Nigeria has come to stay, says Obasanjo

    •As Buhari, IBB, others inspire younger generation

    Former Presidents and Heads of State have expressed gratitude to President Goodluck Jonathan for the Centenary awards he gave them in Abuja on Friday.

    They declared that Nigeria has come to stay having survived for the past 100 years.

    Seven past leaders -Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, General Yakubu Gowon, Alhaji Shehu Shagari, General Muhammadu Buhari, General Ibrahim Babangida, Chief Ernest Shonekan and General Abdusalami Abubakar were honoured as ‘outstanding promoters of unity, patriotism and National Development’ at the State House, Abuja.

    The former Nigerian leaders called for greater security and unity in the country and charged the future generations to strive to take the country to greater heights by achieving giant’s strides than the old and outgoing generation.

    Obasanjo said: “The award means Nigeria is making progress. If Nigeria survived the first 100 years, it means that Nigeria has come to stay.”

    Buhari: said: “The award means a lot to me to be qualified to be recognised by Nigerians. My wish for Nigeria is security.”

    General Babangida said: “The award means a lot. Most of us that were awarded today, the younger generation should try to emulate us because they will survive their sources of inspiration and aspiration.”

    On his part, Abdulsalami Abubakar said: “Nigeria has come a long way and we thank God. The future generation should try and do better than what we have done and keep this country together.”

    “The award means a lot to me. It makes me feel to work harder for the unity and progress of the country.” Shonekan stated

     

     

  • Unveiling Nigeria’s Financial Reporting Council

    Unveiling Nigeria’s Financial Reporting Council

    Ibrahim Apekhade Yusuf and Bukola Afolabi in this report go behind the headlines to examine the Financial Reporting Council of Nigeria (FRCN), a body, relatively unknown by most Nigerians

    SAVE for a few Nigerians, not many people had the faintest idea what the functions and roles of the Financial Reporting Council of Nigeria (FRCN) were in the nation’s financial service sector until it name came to the fore last Thursday following the suspension of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) governor, Mallam Lamido Sanusi by President Goodluck Jonathan.

    In fact, when many hear FRCN their minds go to the Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria.

     

    Crux of the matter

    The FRCN had released a damning report on the operations of the apex bank under the leadership of Sanusi.

    In the 13-page report which was made available to the media penultimate Friday, the council alleged financial impropriety against the suspended CBN governor.

    The FRCN reportedly took Sanusi to task concerning a query by President Goodluck Jonathan in 2013, over the apex bank’s expenditure.

    President Jonathan had on Thursday ordered the suspension of Mr. Sanusi and directed him to hand over to Sarah Alade, the most senior Deputy Governor of the bank.

    The Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Reuben Abati, who broke the news, said Sanusi committed acts of financial recklessness and misconduct that are inconsistent with the vision of the apex bank.

    According to the statement, “Having taken special notice of reports of the Financial Reporting Council of Nigeria and other investigating bodies, which indicate clearly that Mallam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi’s tenure has been characterized by various acts of financial recklessness and misconduct which are inconsistent with the administration’s vision of a Central Bank propelled by the core values of focused economic management, prudence, transparency and financial discipline;

    “Being also deeply concerned about far-reaching irregularities under Mallam Sanusi’s watch which have distracted the Central Bank away from the pursuit and achievement of its statutory mandate; and being determined to urgently re-position the Central Bank of Nigeria for greater efficiency, respect for due process and accountability, President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan has ordered the immediate suspension of Mallam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi from the Office of Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria.”

    The report of the Council which was made public by Abati, claimed that the embattled Sanusi spent a whopping N1.257 billion for lunch for policemen and private guards in 2012.

    The Council also alleged that Sanusi made bogus payments to airlines for currency distribution as well as held an account balance of N1.423 billion for an unidentified customer since 2008.

    It also accused the apex bank governor of violating financial regulations and carrying out activities with financial implications not related to the CBN’s mandate.

    Other crimes allegedly committed by Sanusi, according to the Council, included approval of billions of naira in ambiguous payments to invoices referred to as “Centre of Excellence” and “Contribution to Internal National Security,” and the CBN’s claim that it paid N38.233 billion to the Nigerian Security Printing and Minting Company Plc in 2011 for the “printing of bank notes” whereas the turnover of the entire printing and minting company group is N29.370 billion.

    In view of its findings, the Council urged the President to exercise the powers conferred on him by Section 11 (2) (f) of the Central Bank of Nigeria Act, 2007 or invoke Section 11 (2) (c) of the said Act and cause the Governor and the Deputy Governors to cease from holding office in the CBN and also direct the Financial Reporting Council of Nigeria to carry out a full investigation of the activities of the CBN.

     

    FRCN crisis of identity

    Before now, not many Nigerians knew much about the agency. To Jide Afolayan, a lecturer at the Ado Ekiti Polytechnic, as far as he was concerned, the body was probably one of those privately-owned organisations.

    Unlike Afolayan, who is probably mistaken as far as the true identity of the FRCN is concerned, Theophilous Pius, a lawyer, however argued that the body is a funny contraption under the law.

    “Honestly, let me say this and I have said it in several fora, I say without equivocation that the laws setting up the FRCN, I call it a draconian law, it’s just like all these agencies set up with executive fiat with little or no regard for due process.”

    Determined to get the agency’s reaction s to some of the issues proved abortive as the Executive Secretary/CEO, Obazee Osayande told The Nation pointblank in a telephone chat that he was not ready to entertain any such comments on the agency’s activities.

     

    FRCN unveiled

    The Financial Reporting Council of Nigeria (FRCN), formerly the Nigerian Accounting Standards Board (NASB), was established in 1982 as a private sector initiative closely associated with the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN).

    However, NASB became a government agency in 1992, reporting to the Federal Minister of Commerce. The Nigerian Accounting Standards Board Act of 2003 thus provided the legal framework under which NASB set accounting standards. Membership includes representatives of government and other interest groups. Both ICAN and the Association of National Accountants of Nigeria (ANAN) nominate two members to the board.

    The primary functions as defined in the act of July 10, 2003 were to develop, publish and update Statements of Accounting Standards to be followed by companies when they prepare their financial statement, and to promote and enforce compliance with the standards.

    IASB had published many of the earlier standards prepared by the International Accounting Standards Committee and its successor the International Accounting Standards Board, but was more involved in enforcement than in updating to the more modern International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS).

    On May 18, 2011 the Senate passed the Financial Reporting Council of Nigeria Bill, which repealed the Nigerian Accounting Standards Board Act and replaced it with a new set of rules. The decision was in line with a report submitted by Senator Ahmed Makarfi Chairman of the Senate committee on Finance.

    The Executive Secretary of NASB, Jim Osayande Obazee, had strongly supported this bill, which he said would align Nigeria with other countries and improve investor confidence.

    Subsequently, in June 2011, the Governor of CBN, spoke at a fundraising dinner organised by the NASB for the IFRS academy, with Lamido Sanusi noting at the time that the IFRS would help attract foreign direct investments to Nigeria, even as the NASB Chairman, Michael Adebisi Popoola, called for abrogation of regulations and laws that are incompatible with IFRS.

    The Financial Reporting Council Bill was thus signed into law on July 20, 2011.

    Justifying the move, Dr. Olusegun Aganga, Minister of Trade and Investment, observed that: “More meaningful and decision enhancing information can now be arrived at from financial statements issued in Nigeria because accounting, actuarial, valuation and auditing standards, used in the preparation of these statements, shall be issued and regulated by this Financial Reporting Council. The FRC is a unified independent regulatory body for accounting, auditing, actuarial, valuation and corporate governance. As such, compliance monitoring in these areas will hence be addressed from the platform of professionalism and legislation.”

    A 2010 report commissioned by the International Monetary Fund said that the NASB did not have adequate funding to achieve its statutory role. NASB urgently needed to hire new staff, retrain existing staff and offer more attractive pay.

    Some corporate members of the FRCN include: Central Bank of Nigeria, Corporate Affairs Commission, Federal Inland Revenue Service, Federal Ministry of Commerce, Federal Ministry of Finance, Auditor-General for the Federation, Accountant-General of the Federation, Securities and Exchange Commission, Nigerian Accounting Association.

    Others are the Nigerian Association of Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture, Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation, Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria, Nigerian Institution of Estate Surveyors and Valuers, Association of Nigeria Accountants, Chartered institute of Taxation of Nigeria.

  • Sanusi’s powerful, unforgiving and numberless enemies

    Sanusi’s powerful, unforgiving and numberless enemies

    BY now, former Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) governor, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, must have gauged both the intensity of the hatred nursed against him by powerful Nigerians and how quite sizable in number his enemies are. His distinct and attractive elocution, not to say his measured and engaging cadence, may give the impression he could not care less what anyone thought of him or the policies he mercilessly enunciated as boss of the apex bank. But he is human, and judging from the way he scurried to the courts for relief, a step that opened him up to skewering by newspaper publisher Jimoh Ibrahim, he apparently now feels anything but the pianissimo calm that accompanied his public appearances during his eventful and furious five years in the CBN.

    President Goodluck Jonathan has many enemies, but it is likely they loathe him more on account of his giant and unending acts of omission than his piddling acts of commission. Not so Mallam Sanusi. His enemies, it has manifested in the past few days since President Jonathan sacked him, loathe him roundly, robustly, perfectly and fanatically. Such hatreds do not often need substantiation. The slightly built central bank chief now has the honour of being hated in an unreasonable way, as all men of stature and spunk usually are. He is hated by intellectuals whose gifted and deft deployment of logic to grand and complex issues we had, until now, admired over the years. He is hated by newspaper publishers and editorial writers whose judgement and reasonableness had for many years stood the republic well in the fight to enthrone liberal political and economic thoughts. And he is now alarmingly hated by famous legal minds and jurists to whose courts and services lovers of freedom had confidently made recourse for decades.

    Clearly Mallam Sanusi is not in a position to be envied by anyone, where he is so hated that even before he is buried many are spitting on his empty grave. Perhaps if he had the opportunity to once again hold down the position of CBN governor, he would change his style. The fact, however, is that he will never get that chance again. And while his style and some of his policies grated badly on most Nigerians, they are no excuse for the unconstitutionality perpetrated by the Jonathan government and the clearly absurd logic propounded by those happy to see him humiliated.

    One such illogic dangerously averred by Mike Ozekhome, a lawyer and activist of great standing, is the argument that since the constitution was silent on whether or not a CBN governor could be suspended, the benefit of the doubt must be resolved in favour of President Jonathan. It probably never occurred to Mr Ozekhome and others who think like him that neither the constitution not its framers were stupid to imagine that the office and onerous and delicate responsibilities of a CBN governor were compatible with the destabilising influence of a suspension provision, not to talk of whimsical removal. The constitution is sensible enough to know, unlike the president and his supporters, that there could not be a middle ground between the appointment and removal of a CBN governor.

    Arguing that what is not prohibited or forbidden is allowed, Mr Ozekhome blindly bases his conclusion on the two grounds that the removal of a CBN governor ‘has’ to be preceded by suspension a clear nonsense and that if a removal, it can follow due process, or if a suspension, does not need any process at all. The gravamen of both grounds, it seems to Barometer, is that Mr Ozekhome vouchsafes to the president the unhindered and authoritarian power to sack any CBN governor. For in the exultant and hysterical opinion of the lawyer, not in the understanding of any intelligent reader of the constitution, the president could sack even before making recourse to the Senate.

    If the president was at first a little wary of the unconstitutionality of his desperate move against Mallam Sanusi, with the support he has garnered since he sacked the former apex bank boss, many of whom (like the aviation big player Ayirimi Emami) gloated over the sack, he must be supremely more confident now. The line between reason and unreason, between logic and illogic, and between law and lawlessness has been considerably blurred by emotions, petty hatreds and jealousies. The point is not that Mallam Sanusi cannot or should not be sacked; the point is that the law must be followed to the hilt, unambiguously and without the abstruse cleverness of legal rascality. The fear now is that, whether we like it or not, a dangerous man with the natural instinct of an autocrat has been armed to do more damage to a country long enfeebled by lack of bureaucratic and intellectual discipline.

  • Abduction of Jonathan’s cousin unsettles Bayelsa

    Abduction of Jonathan’s cousin unsettles Bayelsa

    BAYELSA State is yet to recover from fears and confusion surrounding the abduction of Inengite Nitabai, the septuagenarian cousin of President Goodluck Jonathan.

    Nitabai was whisked away last Sunday from Otuoke, Jonathan’s hometown in Ogbia Local Government Area by 10 gunmen who attacked him in his house at about 9pm.

    Though the hoodlums established contact with the family of their victim and demanded N500m ransom, security operatives were said to be confused over the whereabouts of the kidnappers.

    It was observed that the development has raised doubts over the efficacy of the law against kidnapping in the state, which prescribes death penalty for convicts.

    Since the law was passed by the House of Assembly and signed by Governor Seriake Dickson, it had failed to deter criminal activities of kidnappers.

    Despite the increasing incidents of kidnapping, nobody has also been apprehended or prosecuted sentenced in the spirits of the new law.

    The Ijaw Youth Council (IYC) said the anti-kidnapping law in the state should be put to test in the case of Inengite.

    IYC, in a statement by its spokesman, Eric Omare, asked Dickson to ensure that the abductors are apprehended and brought to book.

    It observed that unless people involved in kidnapping were brought to justice, the illegal booming business would continue.

    IYC said it had set up a three-man team to work with security agencies and ensure that Nitabai regains his freedom.

    “There is no hiding place for kidnappers and criminals in Ijawland. Kidnapping and criminality is alien to Ijaw culture.

    “The IYC believes that no crime can be committed without the involvement of people within the immediate environment.”

    There were also fears among other relatives of President Jonathan over the possibility of becoming targets of kidnappers.

    Some of them, it was learnt, were said to have relocated to Yenagoa, the state capital, where they believe it would be difficult for kidnappers to get them.

  • Obi inaugurates 2014 pilgrimage

    Obi inaugurates 2014 pilgrimage

    Anambra state governor, Peter Obi, yesterday inaugurated the 2014 Christian pilgrimage for the South East Zone at the Akanu Ibiam International Airport, Enugu.

    189 of the 720 intending pilgrims from Anambra were transported to Israel via the airport during the inauguration.

    The governor urged the pilgrims to be good ambassadors, cautioning them against absconding or engaging in activities capable of tarnishing the image of the country.

    He thanked the Federal Government for providing facilities at the airport and implored the pilgrims to pray for President Goodluck Jonathan.

    Obi also commended the National Christian Pilgrims Welfare Commission for organising the trip and pledged the support and cooperation of government in ensuring a successful pilgrimage.

    The Executive Secretary of the Christian Pilgrims’ Welfare Commission, Mr. John-Kennedy Okpara, advised the pilgrims to view the trip as a period for spiritual transformation.

     

    The South East Chairman of the Christian Association of Nigeria, Rev. David Eberechukwu, told the pilgrims to use the trip for sober reflection and improve their lives.

    The Anambra State Chairman of the Christian Pilgrims Welfare Board, Mr. Levi Muonanu, said the pilgrims would be transported in four batches within a week.

    Muonanu said that the state had the highest contingent in the zone, adding that adequate arrangement had been made for the trips.

    The ceremony was witnessed by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Prof. Viola Onwuliri; Minister of Water Resources, Mrs. Sarah Ochekpe and the Anglican Primate, Most Rev. Nicholas Okoh, among others.

     

  • Southwest Obas scramble for Jonathan’s attention

    Southwest Obas scramble for Jonathan’s attention

    PRESIDENT Goodluck Jonathan may have failed spectacularly in meeting the country’s economic and democratic expectations, but he has proved somewhat remarkable in political manoeuvring. He has embarked on church visits ostensibly to cultivate that constituency for the 2015 polls, but he says it is pure religious altruism. Of course no one believes him, nor is it likely he can fool himself, as adept as he is at telling himself untruths. If as he says he does not want to worship only at the Aso Villa chapel only, and he seeks variegated theological solace in churches, surely he knows that with his distinguished self in the congregation no preacher would dare explore the limits of doctrinal messages to the point of discomfiting him. More than that, he also knows that though he lacks any exegetical prowess, pulpits are offered him on a weekly basis to dish out his peculiar form of liberation theology.

    Astounded by the success he encountered on his church runs, some bright mind in his campaign caucus has come up with the idea of cultivating the country’s boisterous monarchies. This new tactic doubtless has Lugardian underpinnings. He has visited some emirs and talked with them and got to know them beyond the strictures of state visits, and he has also visited some obas. If colonialists, as Frederick Lugard’s Dual Mandate showed, could rule the natives indirectly through chiefs, even creating chiefs through warrants where there were none, why could President Jonathan not attempt to win elections through the same group? Indeed, President Jonathan is even a step more profound than Lugard: his own dual mandate entails using a combination of traditional and ecclesiastical authorities to sweep modern democratic polls.

    It was therefore not surprising that Southwest obas cottoned on to the president’s idea and eagerly anticipated his flattering attention. However, it is saddening that given the character benchmark set by the inscrutable former Ooni of Ife, Sir Adesoji Aderemi, Southwest obas who should be incensed by the mischief and misrule of President Jonathan, not to talk of the contempt he has shown the zone since he assumed the presidency, have struggled to pull rank on one another to attract his visit. Oral tradition may prove effective in passing the history of a kingdom from one generation to another; it is not often as successful in capturing and transmitting the more highly nuanced concept of character.

  • Centenary: Jonathan has restored unity, says PDP

    Centenary: Jonathan has restored unity, says PDP

    President Goodluck Jonathan has restored unity with the centenary celebrations, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) stated yesterday.

    The celebrations, the party added, have ushered in a new and beautiful era of oneness, brotherliness, unity and peace in the nation.

    A statement by the National Publicity Secretary of the PDP, Chief Olisa Metuh, commended the president for organising the event.

    The PDP said: “It not only succeeded in putting the nation on the international arena to showcase our best but also fostered unity and genuine reconciliation among our leaders and the people.”

    The statement said: “The Centenary celebrations have ushered in a new era. They have rekindled the Nigerian spirit in all of us. They have revived our sense of patriotism; our inner love for one another as one people under God.

    “The Centenary concert not only reminded us of our common root but also pointed us to our rich heritage, which comes alive only when we combine our energies as a people.

    “It showed we are indeed one people determined to succeed and that our divisions are as ephemeral as they are artificial.”

    The PDP added: “Nigerians were moved and their hopes of a peaceful great nation were rekindled when they saw former President Shehu Shagari, General Muhammadu Buhari, General Ibrahim Babangida and General Abdusalami Abubakar come together.

    “Nigerians were moved when they saw General Olusegun Obasanjo and President Goodluck Jonathan together irrespective of their perceived misunderstandings.

    “This shows that our differences and disagreements as a nation do not get to the bones and can always be resolved.

    “Let us stand up and collectively establish and defend the unity and greatness of our dear nation so that the labours of our heroes past shall not and shall not be in vain.”

  • Jonathan cousin’s abductors demand N500m ransom

    Abductors of Inengite Nitabai, the septuagenarian cousin of President Goodluck Jonathan, have requested a whooping N500m ransom to set him free.

    The outrageous demand, it was learnt, had unsettled members of Nitabai’s family who were said to be running from pillar to post to find a solution to the matter.

    A security source told our correspondent that the abductors threatened to kill their victim if the family failed to produce the money.

    The source, who pleaded anonymity, said the family had constituted a committee to evaluate the wicked demand, establish negotiations with the abductors and facilitate his release.

    He said the kidnappers as usual warned against the involvement of security operatives in the matter.

    “The kidnappers contacted the family four days after and demanded a whooping sum of N500m. It is believed that the family of the victim has begun negotiations with the hoodlums,” he said.

    Distraught family members and sympathisers had shortly after the incident weighed the motives behind the dastardly act.

    The atmosphere became gloomier following refusal of the assailants to establish contact with the family of their victim three days after the abduction.

    The kidnappers’ incommunicado, it was observed, created panic and heightened apprehension among members of the family.