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Tag: insensitive

  • That insensitive jamboree

    That insensitive jamboree

    • AGF and finance commissioners didn’t need the UK trip they made at public expense

    The choice of United Kingdom for a workshop by the Accountant-General of the Federation (AGF) and commissioners of finance of the 36 states in Nigeria, is profligate and insensitive to the economic crisis that the country is facing. The workshop, which held between March 4 and 9 in London, United Kingdom, discussed Public Financial Management and International Public Sector Accounting Standards. In defence of the trip, the Director at the office of the AGF, Bawa Mokwa said: “It is an annual event. The OAGF members present at the meeting are sub-committees of Federal Allocation Account Committee. Members of the implementation committee are commissioners of finance of the 36 states.”

    While holding such a workshop may be beneficial to the responsibility of the committee members, we agree with the argument by some civil society organisations that it could hold in Nigeria, either physically or online. Considering the enormous cost involved in transporting the participants to and fro London, hotel accommodation, feeding and travel allowances, the facilitators could have been invited to Nigeria or the training held online through the various platforms for communication. Such a step would have aligned with the economic reality facing the country.

    The claim by Mr. Mokwa that the conference holds annually shows the yearly jamboree the AGF and the state commissioners have patented. While in the past such profligacy went unnoticed, the present economic situation the nation faces calls for prudence, and as such a yearly jamboree should have been discountenanced.

    We reiterate that but for the travelling allowances, shopping and sight-seeing opportunities, the training could have been done without leaving Nigeria. We wonder why the AGF and the commissioners are insensitive to the economic challenges the nation faces.

    They ought to have taken a cue from President Bola Tinubu who in response to the public mood, reduced the number of officials that travel with him and other Federal Government officials. The AGF and the 36 commissioners who made such a trip at a time the nation is bleeding from economic crisis, deserve to be reprimanded for their crass materialism. It tells us that there will almost always be agreement among our public officials on matters that benefit them personally, irrespective of their ethnic, religious or even political affiliation. It shows that the sensitive positions they hold can be abused for personal gains.

    Without doubt, what drove them to choose the United Kingdom for a workshop is the selfish opportunities they would gain.

    Read Also: Yemi Elesho calls out fans over insensitive comments on social media

    The report that the Federal Government has placed an embargo on public trips for government officials to cut cost is a pointer to the state of the nation’s economy, and we urge states to take a cue from that. According to the release from the presidency: “Mr. President has concerns about the rising cost of travel expenses borne by ministries, departments and agencies of government as well as the growing need for cabinet members and heads of MDAs to focus on their respective mandates for effective service delivery.”

    It went further: “Considering the current economic challenges and the need for responsible fiscal management, I am writing to communicate Mr. President’s directive to place a temporary ban on all public-funded international trips for all Federal Government officials at all levels, for an initial period of three months from April 1, 2024.” It directed that: “All government officials who intend to go on any public-funded international trip must seek and obtain presidential approval at least two (2) weeks prior to embarking on any such trip, which must be deemed absolutely necessary.”

    We urge the Tinubu administration to enforce the temporal ban with vigour and extend it, if the economy does not significantly improve, at the expiration of three months. That directive is in tandem with the public mood. It does not make sense to the ordinary man that while government claims not to have money to improve his wellbeing, wasteful trips are arranged by government officials. If government wants citizens to tighten their belt, officials of government must lead by example.

  • Governors asking Buhari to recontest are insensitive

    A chieftain of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) Comrade Timi Frank, has said the seven governors who visited President Muhammadu Buhari asking him to seek reelection for a second term at a time when the nation was supposed to be mourning the mass killing of Nigerians across the country were insensitive to the plight of Nigerians.

    Frank said in a statement made available to newsmen in Abuja that the action of the governors who were supposed to be visiting Benue and Taraba states on a condolence visit was condemnable, adding that a period of mourning was not the appropriate time to play politics.

    Seven APC governors made up of Nasir El Rufai of Kaduna, Abdullahi Ganduje of Kano, Yahaya Bello of Kogi, Abubakar Bello of Niger, Simon Lalong of Plateau, Ibrahim Geidam of Yobe and Jibrilla Bindow of Adamawa states on Friday visited the President, asking him to contest a second term in office.

    Frank said instead of the governors to pay a condolence visit on their colleague in Benue and tell the President to institute a programme that will take care of the families of the victims, “they chose to visit the Aso Rock Villa and made such demand for their selfish reasons, adding that some of the governors visited the President because their political future depend solely on his continuity.

     

     

    While urging politicians to play politics with human face, Frank said that “instead of these governors to advise Mr. President on how to put an end to wanton killings going on across the country, fuel queues, economic hardship and the rest, they chose to be selfish.

    “Is Benue governor not an APC member? Is Benue state where 72 people were killed not part of Nigeria? Our politicians should learn to the plights of citizens when needed and not only when their votes are needed.”

     

  • Crass and insensitive

    •House of Representatives’ N3.6bn on cars at this time is unacceptable 

    Their Honourables probably knew the crassness and insensitivity of their actions. That was, maybe, why they insisted that the Peugeot Automobile of Nigeria (PAN) should supply their latest “official” auto toys, priced at N10 million apiece, to all 360 members, amounting to a total cost of N3.6 billion.

    From news reports, 28 units of those cars were already delivered, en route to an initial batch of 50. By January 2017, other things being equal, every member would have been a proud receiver of a “committee” car! Meanwhile, thanks to an overweening chivalry by House members, only the female folks would partake in the early batch!

    We expect we should thank God for that rare chivalry in a male-dominated culture; and for little patriotism: the Representatives at least, unlike the Senate which approached a foreign mart for its own vehicle-buying spree, gifted PAN the windfall.

    Congratulations, PAN, for a crucial windfall at the height of cruel economic adversity! It is reassuring that a Nigerian House of the People, at least thought of one of Nigeria’s premier auto assembly plants, for a crucial contract!

    Still, despite the self-serving chivalry and the self-serving patriotism, as clearly seen from the cynical promotion of “Made in Nigeria”, from which PAN is prime beneficiary, this decision sucks. It is reckless.  It is crass. It is insensitive. It is indefensible.

    “If gold rusts,” quipped Geoffery Chaucer, the English Middle Age poet in his Canterbury Tales, “what would iron do?”  If the Nigerian House of Representatives, the prime chamber of the Nigerian people is so insensitive, what happens to other bodies more removed from the people, in Abuja’s cavernous bureaucracy?

    What is more? When it’s time for greed, concentrated and insensitive, there is unanimity across gender lines (as proved that female legislators would be early beneficiaries of this car bonanza ); and across party lines, progressive, conservative or reactionary! Everyone in the people’s house, it appears, is focused on fleecing the people, the economy be damned!

    Many, of course, could argue that not a few goodly legislators, across party and gender lines, indeed oppose the car bonanza, but are nevertheless throttled by peer pressure. That could well be.

    Still, it is precise proof that the Nigerian National Assembly is captive to rotten ethos; and members are so thick-skinned that they are deaf, dumb and blind to public opinion, whenever there is a cheap kill to be made, even as their electors fry in mass penury!

    In defence of the legislature, members have argued that the “committee cars” are no personal acquisitions; that they are strictly meant for committee work, that they are official perks to make lawmaking more effective and efficient.

    Besides, if the executive (read ministers, who are not even elected) are enjoying official cars and other perks, how does the legislature enjoying same — and two years well into their tenure too! — become such monstrosity? Indeed, how so?

    Still, when did citing bad and insensate behaviour in others become a defence against such conduct?

    Besides, given a rotten culture of alleged outrageous allowances; and condemnable opacity which jars against democratic tenets, which the National Assembly nevertheless continues to demonstrate, the car bonanza is yet another proof of grave financial perversity, at the expense of the Nigerian people.

    In times of angst, the people expect leadership from their legislature — a leadership that epitomises empathy, sacrifice and sensitivity. This scandalous car boom is a direct opposite on each count, unfortunately pushing the National Assembly as strong in vice, but weak in admirable virtues.

    Since every effort at reasonable reforms has bounced off this legislature’s insensate walls, we have no choice but to push for radical constitutional amendments, that would make lawmaking strictly part-time.

    Before that, however, more pressure groups should organise and mobilise; and follow the example of Charles Oputa aka Charly Boy and his lobby, currently on a sit-in protest, against the National Assembly’s secretive budget and reckless spending.

    The skewed reality of a fattened National Assembly, parasitising a wilting people, must be halted.

  • ‘Our National Assembly’s rudderless, insensitive’

    ‘Our National Assembly’s rudderless, insensitive’

    Afenifere chieftain Senator Olabiyi Durojaiye is not happy with the image of the eighth Senate. In this interview with LEKE SALAUDEEN, Durojaiye, who was in the Senate between 1999 and 2003, bares his mind on the issues that are giving the upper legislative chamber a bad name.

    The ‘unruly behaviour’ of Senator Dino Melaye at the closed-door session of the Senate has generated so much reaction…

    Yes, I was disturbed when I learnt of the incident; every decent man would be disturbed by such indecent behaviour. Even if it were in a danfo (commercial bus) or in a motor park, one will be disturbed; not to talk of a hallowed and indeed the highest legislative chamber of the biggest country in Africa. I begin to wonder if the Senate has relaxed its rules about clearing the gallery and banning the press. I begin to wonder if the offensive words were uttered during the closed-door session, when the gallery was empty and the media were barred from covering the proceedings. But, since no one has denied the sad event so far, I am inclined to believe that some fellow senators who recorded the unfortunate incident on their handsets or modern communication gadgets leaked it. Be that as it may, the whole world now knows about the embarrassing situation, which no one has so far denied.

    Only an hour ago, a friend phoned me from Canada, expressing his utter disgust that such a thing happened in Nigeria. No amount of temptation or provocation would have justified such a verbal assault on a decent, highly respected and dignified lady as Senator Oluremi Tinubu; the wife of one of our statesmen. If I were in the Senate today, I would have moved a motion for the suspension of the man (Melaye) whose unguided lips uttered such unprintable and offensive words. He has embarrassed and disgraced not only himself, his contemporaries and all of us who have passed through that great Red Chamber, but Nigerians in general.

    Are you satisfied with the quality of representation in the Senate today, compared to your era?

    Definitely, I am not satisfied. There are two main reasons for this: The Fourth Senate (1999 to 2003) in which I served was the first full-fledged Senate that was convoked after 16 years of military interregnum; between the era of former President Shehu Shagari (December 1983) and that of former President Olusegun Obasanjo (May 1999). Our set was made up of experienced and matured members. The country had the opportunity to pick its topmost legislators from a large reservoir of experienced professionals, public servants and matured former military officers. Besides, most of us, especially those of us who participated in the National Democratic Coalition (NADECO) struggle to oust the military from politics, had a constant fear that we had to behave ourselves  in a more disciplined manner, so as not to tempt the military to come back.

    Let me give a few names of personalities who had distinguished themselves and earned reputation for transparency and integrity before their election into the Senate: Consider a man like Gen. Ike Nwachukwu, who had been a military governor, Secretary of Nigerian Institute of Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPSS) Alumni Association; a versatile engineer like the late Idris Ibrahim Kuta from Niger State; an intellectual like Professor Iya Abubakar, a former Vice Chancellor; the late Professor Afolabi Olabimitan; Dr Femi Okunrounmu, formerly of University of Lagos (UNILAG); Silas Janfa from Plateau State; the late Wahab Dosunmu, an engineer and former Minister of Works; and Jonathan Zwingina, former Director-General of the M.K.O Abiola Campaign Organisation, ‘Hope 93’.

    We also had Sarkin Tafida, who had served as physician to President Shagari. Other senators with matured military training and experience were Gen. David Mark, Tunde Ogbeha and J.K.N. Waku (the lion of Benue). I remember former Governor Olusegun Osoba used to boast that the three senator from his state —Ogun – were among the first eleven in the Senate and my humble self was one of the three. I was elected into the Senate after 35 years’ service in the federal and state public service, including 28 years in the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) in the Mint. I had also been President of the Nigerian Institute of Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPSS) Alumni Association. I also ran for the presidency in 1991/92.

    Will you support the provision of immunity for the presiding officers of the National Assembly?

    No. With the type of personalities I referred to above, any self-serving move would not have been contemplated or voiced out. Immunity is meant for the executive arm alone. It is even on record that I recommended removal of immunity from the executive in the 1988 Constituent Assembly that drafted the 1989 Constitution. I made a recommendation that the immunity enjoyed by the executive should be withdrawn and that security vote should also be abolished. But, the idea was shut down, because it was considered as ultra-radical.

    There is a legal maxim that: “Time does not run against the state”. That is, there is no statute of limitation in favour of any public servant who committed any criminal offence while in office. It’s up to the Attorney General and the Director of Public Prosecution to prosecute any executive member, however high he or she may be, immediately after leaving office. The opportunity is still there.

    Does it augur well for Saraki and Ekweremadu to be presiding over the Senate in view of their trial for alleged forgery?

    If I were the Senate President or his deputy, I will voluntarily resign my position as a matter of patriotism and self-respect. You will recall a year ago, you asked me to comment on the furore that greeted the election of Saraki as Senate President. You will probably recall that my answer was that it appeared as if our party – the APC — had made some mistakes which Senator Saraki smartly capitalised on and it was better to allow sleeping dogs to lie, to ensure that there is no distraction or delay in the tremendous amount of work ahead for the party and the government. I added however that what should not be tolerated was the election of a PDP senator as Deputy Senate President when there was no prior between the APC and the PDP agreement to form a national government. It is an unacceptable anomaly. That a year after the interview, a PDP man, a minority member is still the number two in the Senate is unacceptable.

    Both Saraki and Ekweremadu are still comparatively young statesmen and one can say however they can still rise in future. My appeal to both of them is that they should voluntarily resign their posts, while still retaining their seats until the verdict of the court is pronounced. If this had been done in the past one year, Nigeria would have moved faster along the line of smoother democratic governance and recovery from the wastages of the past 16 locus years of the PDP.

    What is your reaction to the threat to impeach President Buhari?

    It is the height of lack of imagination and irresponsibility for any legislator to attempt to swim against the current of strong tidal waves of public opinion in favour of a government that is out to reform the corrupt system that had retarded the progress of our country.

    I don’t know of any previous Head of State or President of Nigeria who ever enjoyed the type of national and international acclaim and support that President Buhari is currently enjoying. It is his unique record of self-discipline and transparency and his party’s programme of change from the corrupt practices of the past that have earned him respect and applaud. Every patriotic Nigerian who believes that we cannot continue with our sordid past should join hands to support this government’s programme of “Change” for the betterment of our people and our country.

    I remember the President’s inaugural speech in May last year, when he quoted from Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar: “There is a tide in the affairs of men which taken at the flood leads on to fortune…….. In such a tide are we now. To the favourable allow the tide to ebb without our reaching the shores of greater discipline conduct and greater prosperity and happiness”. History will never forgive this generation for such self-invoked calamity.

    It appears to be an admission of guilt, a face-saving device to evade prosecution by eliminating the prosecutor. Let those who may not like my opinion make the mistake of thinking that I am opposed to any move to impeach President Buhari, because we belong to the same party. I have always been opposed to impeachment, especially when there is no fundamental wrong doing against the officers targeted for impeachment.

    A check in the leading newspapers and in the tapes of the electronic of September 9 and 10, 2002, will show a seven-point press release I made to quell the threatened impeachment of former President Olusegun Obasanjo and the former Senate President, Senator Anyim Pius Anyim. The caption of the press release was “An appeal for stability and survival of democracy in Nigeria.”

    That statement ended the serious moves towards impeachment at that time. I was a minority senator on the platform of the defunct Alliance for Democracy (AD), while the two officers targeted for impeachment were PDP chieftains. The press statement was reproduced as Appendix 3 on page 330 of the book, Guided By His Hands –my autobiography published three years ago to mark my 80th birthday.

  • ‘Taraba govt insensitive to citizens’ plight’

    The Christian community in Taraba State has accused  the  government of being “insensitive” to the plight of the citizens.

    It accused the Garba Umar administration of breaching the constitutional provision, which guarantees protection of life and property.

    This was contained in a communique at the end of 108 CRCN General Church Council (GCC) in Takum, Taraba State.

    The communique was signed by the CRCN President, Rev. Osheka Caleb Ahima and Vice President Rev. Isaiah Jirapye Magaji.

    The General Church Council  is the highest decision and policy making body of the Christian Reformed Church in Nigeria.

    It said the continuous attacks on Christians, in the southern and central districts of Taraba have led to the death of hundreds of people and destruction of property.

    It said the sustained silence by the government on the killings of Christians, particularly the Tiv, and their forceful relocation to Benue State is “not only politically motivated but a calculated and coordinated plot to exterminate Christians in Taraba.”

    It urged the Federal Government to compel security agencies to operate within the  law, instead of promoting sectional interest, which often made some people sacred cows and others scapegoats.

    It said: “The free movement of people claimed to be Fulani herdsmen with sophisticated weapons terrorising innocent villagers in southern and central Taraba under the nose of security operatives be halted immediately in the interest of peace and development.

    “The federal and state government should bring back and compensate the Tiv  who were forced out of their dwelling places.

    “The mass exodus of Tiv people from Taraba state, if not addressed, will lead to famine in the state; government’s quest for food security and export of agricultural products to raise foreign exchange earnings for the state and country would be a mirage.

    “We view the expulsion of Tiv people from Taraba State as a scheme to undo the Christian community because of their numerical strength.”

  • ‘Re-election campaign callous, insensitive at this time’

    ‘Re-election campaign callous, insensitive at this time’

    The All Progressives Congress (APC) has described as utterly callous and insensitive the ongoing campaign by the so-called GEJites, a pro-Jonathan group, for the President’s re-election right at the same spot where the ‘bring back our girls’ campaigners have been staging daily protests demanding the safe return of the over 200 abducted girls.

    In a statement yesterday by its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the party said the message being conveyed to Nigerians is that the re-election of President Goodluck Jonathan takes priority over anything else, including the security and welfare of the citizens.

    ‘’Were this not to be so, no responsible group will choose this time, when over 200 school girls have been missing for over 80 days and the terror group Boko Haram is daily killing and maiming Nigerians, to launch a misguided re-election campaign for the President. If their daughters were among the missing school girls, will they be launching a political campaign for re-election rather than pushing for the girls’ release?

    ‘’To show their contempt for decency and as if they were intent on inflicting more pain on the parents and guardians of the missing girls, they decided to position their campaign instrument, wheel-mounted electronic billboards, right at the Unity Fountain in Abuja where committed and patriotic Nigerians have been holding their own daily campaign for the safe return of the girls,’’ it said.

    The APC said much as it may deny, it is clear that the Jonathan Administration, that has surpassed itself in sheer cluelessness in providing purposeful leadership to stop the daily carnage in the country and ensuring the return of the missing girls, has apparently been secretly funding different groups to campaign for it.

    ‘’First there is the Protectors of Nigerian Posterity, then the Goodluck Initiative for Transformation 2015 and now the GEJites. With the expensive newspaper, television and Social Media adverts that these nebulous groups are running, it is clear they are being financed from a bottomless war chest, to which taxpayers have been unwilling contributors.

    ‘’It is sad that a government that apparently cannot adequately fund the war on terror, a government that has lost the initiative to terrorists, a government that cannot provide jobs for its teeming army of unemployed, a government that is running Nigeria aground has suddenly found huge funds to engage in a re-election campaign that is going nowhere, touting tokenism as achievements,’’ the party said.

    It said if the Administration does not endorse the callousness and insensitivity of the groups, it should publicly dissociate itself from them and then call them to order.

    The APC also raised the alarm that the Federal Government is losing the war on terror, which has progressively got worse since the abduction of the Chibok girls over 80 days ago.

    ‘’Almost on a daily basis now, these terrorists have been striking at places and times of their own choosing. They are becoming more emboldened to carry their terror campaign right into the heart of the nation’s capital, Abuja. Innocent Nigerians are being killed and maimed in high numbers across several states.

    ‘’Instead of cashing in on the global outcry that followed the abduction of the over 200 Chibok girls to galvanize national and international action, not just support, the Jonathan Administration has been chasing shadows, pointing accusing fingers at innocent groups and people; harassing the media and curtailing individual freedoms

    ‘’One misguided pro-Jonathan commentator even said the attacks are occurring in states under the control of the APC, as if Bauchi and Kaduna are APC states. We have said it before and we will repeat it here: Boko Haram is a clear and present danger to all Nigerians: Christians and Muslims; Men, women and children; The rich and the poor as well as People of all political leanings and of all ethnic groups.

    ‘’When they want to throw their bombs, they do not ask if supporters or opponents of Jonathan are there. They do not ask if supporters of PDP or APC are there. They just kill, maim and destroy indiscriminately,’’ the party said.

    The APC also reiterated its call for a non-partisan approach to solving the Boko Haram crisis, an approach that will not factor in the 2015 political calculations, an approach that will not demonize a people of certain religion or ethnicity, an approach that will not divide Nigerians along primordial lines.

    ‘’This is why we have offered our hand of cooperation that has yet to be accepted by the Federal Government. This is why we have called for a National Security Summit of all stakeholders to proffer solutions to the Boko Haram crisis. This is why we have reminded the federal government that Boko Haram is not just a security issue, but also a social, economic and political crisis that must be tackled holistically,’’ APC said.

    ‘’The state of emergency, which has been renewed twice, has not stemmed the tide of attacks. Chibok, where school girls were abducted, is not any more secured now as more attacks and abductions have taken place there. The terrorists, who used to strike on the outskirts of Abuja, have now taken their battle into the city. It is time for new thinking, new direction and new purpose in the fight against terror,’’ it said.

  • CPC: Jonathan’s regime is cruel, insensitive

    •‘President can’t be trusted’

    The Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) yesterday described President Goodluck Jonathan’s tenure as the worst so far, following the insecurity, corruption, fuel scarcity and other problems confronting the nation.

    CPC said: “President Jonathan and the ruling party have mismanaged – in the last 13 years – the hopes of Nigerians and brought the nation into impecunious status through corruption and profligacy.”

    Reacting to the President’s Christmas message, CPC said it doubts if Jonathan can ever be trusted after several failed promises on how Nigeria can be developed.

    On security, CPC said the administration has demonstrated “lack of capacity in tackling the myriad of insecurity issues that have assailed the country in the outgoing year.”

    The party said: “After each deadly bomb blast with attendant fatalities, it has become a regular template of presidential response to listen to assurances of investigation and security cover for all under the nation space.”

    A statement issued in Abuja by the National Publicity Secretary, Rotimi Fashakin said: “The Congress for Progressive Change congratulates the Nigerian people on wading through a horrendous year, largely made so by the deliberate pauperisation policy of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP-led) ruling government. A year that started with the crude and perilous 49 per cent increase of petrol pump price by a very cruel and insensitive regime that eventually unveiled the most bizarre incongruence in national life in the over five decades existence of the Nigerian state.

    “President Jonathan, in his season’s message to Nigerians, said inter-alia: ‘No one should doubt that we have the political will and determination to deliver on our promise of positive changes in the living conditions of our people in the shortest possible time… It is my hope and expectation that more of the efforts, actions and measures we are undertaking in these areas will come to fruition next years and make the results of the diligent project planning and execution being done under this administration more apparent to all Nigerians.’

    “It is doubtful if the President truly believes that Nigerians can trust him on this one, after many broken promises in the past one year and unwillingness to assuage the cruelty unleashed on them by his administration’s lethargy and incompetence.

    “With N2.67 trillion and N1.05 trillion said to have been spent on fuel subsidy in 2011 and 2012, this administration has created a bleeding pipe – in which the scarce resources of the state are siphoned into private pockets of cronies and acolytes of the regime. The conundrum that this administration has brought the nation is that: any increase in world crude oil price would not translate into the prosperity of Nigeria and its citizens. The administration of the fuel subsidy under the regime has become a phenomenon in legendary opacity and monstrous corrupt tendencies.

    “This is why, as a party, we believe the President’s season’s message is a damp squib.

    “An administration that carries on with nauseous impunity, while the people’s rights to good living are being trampled upon, cannot be trusted. An administration that is incapable of prioritising the nation’s need as against the comfort of its principals and minions cannot be trusted. An administration that through its character and body language continually plays up the ethno-religious fault lines of the nation’s geo-politics cannot be trusted. An administration that deals in deliberate mendacity and employs obscurantist policy as its philosophy cannot be trusted.

    “As a party, we know too well about the extemporaneous foundation of this regime. It was more interested in seizing political power rather than the adequate planning for effectual governance. We have equally noted that the same national existential conditions that brought untold anguish and increased the squalid environments of the country in the last one year have not changed. It is easily discernible. Therefore that the President’s speech was meant to fulfil a hollow ritual and not the communication based on perspicacious planning for a better future. On our part, we wish the Nigerian people a Merry Christmas and prosperous New Year.”

  • Akeredolu to LP candidate: you’re insensitive to Yoruba aspiration

    Governor Olusegun Mimiko’s remark at the governorship debate in Akure last Friday that June 12 and the late M.K.O. Abiola, who is the symbol of the democratic struggle in which Mimiko is a major beneficiary, are irrelevant in the Southwest integration, has been described as not only unfortunate, but a demonstration that he is insensitive to the aspiration of the Yoruba nation.

    Mr. Idowu Ajanaku, the Director of Media, Publicity and Strategy of the Akeredolu Campaign Organisation (ACO), who said this, added that even at the height of the Otunba Gbenga Daniel administration in Ogun State, despite being in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), he declared June 12 a public holiday.

    Said he: “For us at ACO, this further confirms that Mimiko is not interested in working with other governors in the Southwest who have become the icons of sustainable development in Africa.

    “Apart from this, members of the Labour Party (LP) in the National Assembly have always opposed the progressive moves by the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) lawmakers. They oppose the Yoruba agenda.

    “During the fuel subsidy struggle when the Southwest opposed it, LP legislators and the Mimiko government supported the anti-people policy. “He has usually been against the Yoruba as his antecedent shows that he was the governorship candidate of the United National Congress Party (UNCP), one of the five parties the late Chief Bola Ige described as the five fingers of a leprous hand.

    “During the democratic struggle, where was Mimiko when Pa Alfred Rewane was killed, when Pa Abraham Adesanya was shot and Asiwaju Bola Tinubu and other notable sons of Yoruba land were chased into exile by the late Sani Abacha regime?

    “Will Ondo State people follow a man who can not acknowledge the supreme sacrifice of a distinguished son of Yoruba land? Will they follow a man who is committed to the reactionary forces in Nigeria at the expense of the progressives? Indeed, Ondo State people have decided to join their kith and kin in the Southwest and will vote for the ACN on Saturday.”

  • Jonathan is insensitive to citizens’suffering, says ACN

    Jonathan is insensitive to citizens’suffering, says ACN

    THE Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) yesterday lashed out at the President for what it described as his insensitivity to the suffering of ordinary citizens.

    The party said he is blinded by power to know what goes on around him.

    In its reaction to President Goodluck Jonathan’s condemnation of last January’s fuel hike protests as sponsored by the opposition, the party in a statement in Lagos by its National Publicity Secretary. Alhaji Lai Mohammed, wondered how a President who enjoys everything free at the expense of tax paying Nigerians can insult the sensibility of suffering Nigerians on their right to protest an “unjust” fuel hike.

    According to ACN, the President’s attack on Nigerians who resisted the imposition of unjust price hikes and the organisers clearly portrays him as a President who is hostage to his thoughts and one completely out of touch not only with ordinary Nigerians but also with universal trends, because in Egypt during the Spring protests, in Thailand when the Red Shirts took over Bangkok, in the the United States of America during the Occupy Wall Street, protesters were fed and provided with water blankets and medicine.

    “It may interest President Jonathan and his minders that those involved in the January fuel hike protests were lawyers, doctors , businessmen, bankers journalists, artistes, the clergy and other accomplished Nigerian professionals from all walks of life.To claim that this class of Nigerians were lured to the protest ground because of a bottle of water and food is to say the least not only uncharitable but also a reflection of the shallowness of the thought process of the President’s advisers and handlers, the party said.

    “In conclusion, the party admonished Nigerians not to be bullied into submission by a government who is always too ready to find a scapegoat for its incompetence and to be ever ready to protest and speak out against any unfair and unjust government decision, and if Jonathan’s government feels uncomfortable with this, it should organise its own solidarity protests and supply the rented crowd truckloads of water and expensive food.