The Nation Newspaper

Tag: leader

  • PDP leader dies on queue

    A chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party, Abiodun Ajirotutu, yesterday slumped and died while on the queue for accreditation during the House of Assembly poll in Ilesa, Osun State.

    The deceased was said to be the party chairman in Ward 2, Ireti Ayo Unit in Ilesa West Local Government area of the state.

    It was gathered that the development delayed the voting exercise for a few minutes.

    Meanwhile, the state governor, Mr. Rauf Aregbesola, his wife, Sherifat and his mother voted at his Ifofin Ward 8,Unit 4,Ilesa West Local Council.

    The card reader machines that malfunctioned in some parts of the state were effective in almost all the towns in Ilesa town as the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) improved in the areas that posed challenges.

  • New leader for MASSOB soon

    The crack in the Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB) is getting wider as members of the pan-Biafra group have resolved to get a new leader to pilot their affairs. The new leader would be known at the burial of 69 members of the movement in Enugu.

    A member of the MASSOB interim administration, Comrade Ndubuisi Igwekani (aka) Agu Biafra told Southeast Report that the fallen members were those killed during peaceful protests across “Biafran territories” and deposited in mortuaries in Enugu and Onitsha.

    Igwekani said the Ralph Uwazuruike leadership has lost focus and no longer pursues the aspirations of what he called Biafrans and the Biafran Dream. He emphatically stated that “Ralph is no longer in control of MASSOB”.

    While insisting that MASSOB was not factionalised, Igwekani stressed that “what we are saying is that those of us that hold MASSOB believe that the leadership of Ralph Uwazuruike has disappointed the Biafran struggle.”

    Continuing, he said: “He has used the organisation to enrich himself and using our children the way he likes. He has diverted the resources which would have been used to advance the struggle. Our elders refused to understand initially, but by the special grace of God, many people have come to understand that he cannot continue to lead us.

    “This is a man who even claimed that he is richer than the people that control the resources of the states. It is during the burial of these fallen MASSOB heroes that you people will see the new face of MASSOB.

    “The fact is that MASSOB is a movement that focuses on giving the Igbo the identity of Biafra. So, if we are not Nigerians and we are Biafrans, how can Uwazuruike now mobilise people and say “Jega must go?” Jega is not a Biafran. He is a Nigerian coordinating the Nigerian elections.

    “It is for his selfish gains that he held the Jega-must-go march. In a week or two, we will know where we are heading to. We will give our people a new direction on what to do. We are not in support of our children roaming the streets.

    “What we are after now is to ensure that after the election, no single Igbo man will be killed neither would their property be destroyed, especially in the North. We know we are always the target. We are now sending signal that any state that allows its people to kill any Igbo man or destroy his property after the elections, we will hold that state to ransom.

    “We will mobilise all our security forces to that state to protect our property. Enough is enough.”

    On their preference between Jonathan and Buhari, Igwekani retorted: “We do not want to go into politics. But I can tell you that the devil we know is better than the angel we don’t know. We can’t come to the public to politicise issues. Every nation knows the best for them. Biafrans know the best for them. We have already communicated to our people on what to do. We have done our underground work and when the election comes, our votes will speak.”

    Igwekani, who represented MASSOB at a recent meeting of the Southeast professional group, Concerned Nigerian Professionals and Entrepreneurs Forum held in Enugu said they collectively agreed to send people to other states and deliver the resolutions reached at the meeting.

    “I was there as a representative of MASSOB. I was also invited to speak. What we are saying is that the Igbo living in other parts of Nigeria should send their wives and children home while they remain wherever they are to protect their property and also cast their votes.”

  • Youth leader injured in crash

    Youth leader injured in crash

    Lagos State chapter of the National Youth Council of Nigeria (NYCN) Chairman Comrade Taofeek Gbadebo was injured in an accident on Isiwu-Ikorodu Road last Thursday night.

    An 18-seater bus heading towards Epe hit Gbadebo’s car at Adamo bus stop at 8: 45 p.m.

    His Mitsubishi Gallant, with number-plate NYCN 01, was damaged.

    Gbadebo sustained injuries in his eyes, nose and arms.

    The windscreen of his car was shattered and the driver’s door condemned.

    The tyre, shock absorber and side mirrors were also affected.

    The bus veered into the bush and hit a log, resulting in the shattering of the rear windscreen.

    Gbadebotold The Nation that no one was injured in the bus.

    “It was shocking; I can’t really say how it happened. All I know was that it was in the night. I saw the bus coming and the next thing I heard was a bang. We hit ourselves. When I saw the wreck of my car, I immediately took a bike to the nearest hospital for treatment; because I noticed that blood was oozing out of my nose, even as I experienced sharp pains in my eyes and arms,” he said.

    The NYCN leader blamed the accident on the bad road.

    According to him, the bus driver was trying to avoid potholes and collided with him

    “There are lots of potholes on that road; it’s actually a federal road and most vehicles avoid plying the road due to the potholes. The driver was trying to do same, which led to the collision,” he said.

    Asked if he is pressing for any compensation, Gbadebo said: “I am not.”

    “I just thank God that no life was lost. Will I be pressing for compensation from the grave if I had died?” he asked.

  • How NLC election’s fiasco was planned, by union leader

    Presidentof the Medical and Health Workers Union of Nigeria (MHWUN), Dr. Ayuba Wabba, has said that plans to frustrate the workers from electing a new leadership was hatched long before the beginning of the delegates’ conference.

    Ayuba, who was one of the presidential candidates in the election, said the plan was put in place early in the year by a group of union leaders who wanted the presidency of the congress ceded to unions in the private sector through undemocratic means.

    Addressing a news conference on the development, Dr. Wabba criticised the system adopted in the printing of the ballot papers.

    The system adopted, he said, was different from what had been used in the past in which names of all candidates for an office were printed on one sheet.

    He denied claims that he was being sponsored by the government for the election, saying: “Those saying that does not know me. If they know me, they will not be saying such things. We know who the real government candidates are.”

    Dr. Wabba also accused members of the credentials committee, who his opponents alleged were planning to rig the election in his favour, as part of those behind the ploy to disrupt the election.

    Opponents of the MHWUN president had accused members of the committee of trying to favour him by printing his name two or more times on the ballot paper booklet.

    “Let me call the attention of the public to the fact that the first attempt to cause confusion began on the second day of the conference when some delegates of NUPENG disrupted the proceedings of the conference by throwing chairs and smashing the head of one of the delegates of the Civil Service Union.

    “All other delegates decided to keep their calm as they have never been part of violence and will want to protect the integrity of NLC,” he stressed.

  • ‘We’ve endorsed Saraki as Kwara political leader’

    ‘We’ve endorsed Saraki as Kwara political leader’

    The Etsu Tsaragi in Edu Local Government Area of Kwara State, Alhaji Aliyu Kpotwo, has said traditional rulers have unanimously endorsed Senator Bukola Saraki as the political leader of the state.

    The monarch spoke at Tsaragi when he hosted Saraki’s campaign train for his re-election, led by Governor Abdulfatah Ahmed.

    Kpotwo said first class monarchs chose Saraki following the demise of his father, Dr Olusola Saraki, “to lead us politically”.

    According to him, politics in Kwara remains “a heritage.

    He added: “If I will not want any destruction to my father’s heritage, then I should do nothing to destroy the political structure that has been of immense benefits to us.”

    Kpotwo said the people of the town resolved to make public their political interest, adding that the town had suffered in the past because of “wrong information peddled against us”.

    He said: “We don’t want it again. We need to let the world know where we belong and what we stand for.”

    The Etsu, who hailed Saraki for initiating the reconstruction of his palace, also praised Ahmed for completing the project.

    Kpotwo said: “Anyone here before now, who decided to come to Tsaragi will see monumental development achieved under the Ahmed administration.

    “Therefore, nobody should tell us that we need to vote for Ahmed for his second term. Instead, we are begging him to come out and re-contest. His first term was a great blessing to us. We will mobilise our people to return him to power.”

    At the palace of the Lafiagi monarch, also in the same local government, Emir Kawu Haliru said traditional rulers were the harbingers of peace in Nigeria.

    He said: “They are our people. We know them very well and we can prevail on them to tow the line of peace, irrespective of the prevailing circumstances. That is why we still believe that we should be given a constitutional role to play in Nigeria.”

    The emir noted that “in our own Lafiagi, we would not renege on the political agreement between our forefathers and Ilorin people”.

    He added: “They were always doing things in common. We will not allow this age-long harmonious relationship to end during our own time.”

    Saraki spoke on the imperative of good governance as the pivot for viable democracy to thrive.

    The senator said his movement from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to All Progressives Congress (APC) remained the greatest step ever taken in his political career.

    The former governor said his active involvement the campaign for APC presidential candidate, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari, was a project “aimed at rescuing Nigeria” from the claws of bad governance.

    Saraki said: “When we decided to leave the PDP for APC the other time, some people felt that we took the wrong step then. But today, everybody has fallen in line with what APC stands for.”

  • Market leader urges support for APC

    Market leader urges support for APC

    The Babaloja of Aswani Market in Lagos, Alhaji Taoridi Faronbi-Alado, yesterday said the All Progressives Congress (APC) has all it takes to dislodge the   Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) at the centre in the general election this month.

    He urged Nigerians to support the candidate of the APC, General Muhammadu Buhari, saying he is the solution to challenges facing Nigeria at the moment.

    Alado, on Saturday, said president Jonathan is the worse president Nigeria has ever produced.

    According to him, the shortcomings of his administration include his inability to provide adequate security for citizens, dwindling economy threatening the future of the nation and the high level of corruption in the system.

    Alado, who doubles as the APC’s political godfather in Mushin constituency, added that the party made an apt choice by presenting Buhari as its presidential candidate.

  • Community leader, other sued over land trespass

    A piece of land measuring about 146 hectares at Ewu-Odofin Village, off Simawa road, Sagamu, Ogun state purportedly sold to the Redeem Christian Church of God (RCCG) has become a subject of dispute between the Ayodeji family and the Baale of Mowe.

    Alhaji Jamiu Adewale Ayodeji, on behalf of himself and Olowoto-Olisa chieftancy family, has sued his niece, Adunni Babatunde Shodiya-Ayodeji and the Baale of Mowe, Chief Babatunde Ojelade before an Ogun State High Court sitting in Sagamu contesting ownership of the land.

    In the suit before Justice J. Balogun through his counsel Yemi Omodele, the claimant is praying for an order of perpetual injunction restraining the defendants, their servants, agents or privies from selling , allienating and or leasing any portion of the land without the consent of the other members of the family.

    He is also praying for an order of the court that the defendants do not own any portion of the land covered by survey plan number OG/854/2011/02 (MISC) drawn by surveyor K.A. Lawal and dated February 23, 2011.

    He in addition prayed for an order of the court that nobody in the Olowoto-Olisa chieftaincy family has the right to sell, alienate, give out or lease any part of the land.

    The claimant prayed the court for a decalaration that the said land belong to the entire Olowoto-Olisa chieftancy family and not to an individual in the family and for a sum of N500,000 as cost of the action.

    In his 19 point statement of claim, the claimant averred that some time ago, RCCG invaded and tresspassed on his family land at Ewu-Odofin village.

    He claimed that consequent upon this, he filed a suit, number HCS/114/2010 against the church.

    The claimant claimed to have finance the trial up to Court of Appeal in Ibadan before the RCCG called for out-of- court settlement.

    He averred that it was when the RCCG opted for settlement that the first defendant wrote the church and claimed that 100 acres of the land belongs to his father called Shodiya.

    According to him, the second defendant who was part of the negotiating team of settlement with RCCG did not raise any objection.

    He claimed to have decided to prosecute the suit in order to preserve and protect the name of the family from embarrassment and that he has a stake in the land in dispute.

    In their nine paragraph statement of defence filed by their counsel, M.A. Akolade,  the second defendant, the Baale of Mowe, Ojelade averred that the claims of the claimants are frivolous, speculative, abuse of court process and that they be dismissed by the court.

    Baale Ojelade said that contrary to the claims of the claimant, the land in dispute belongs to various branches of  Odofin family who have been on same from time immemorial.

    He  stated that the situation on the land has since changed as various persons, corporate and individuals, including the Kings Court Estate now occupy various portions of the land having derived their title from different branches of Odofin family.

    He averred that the RCCG did not any time, trespassed on the disputed land and alleged that the first defendant wrote a letter to the church when she discovered that the suit instituted against the church by the claimant was intended to extort money.

    He also denied being part of the team that negotiated out-of-court settlement with the church and averred that the claimant was not prosecuting the suit protect the family”s name as he claimed.

    Claiming to be a principal member of the Odofin family, the first defendant maintained that 100 acres of the disputed land belongs to her father.

    The pre-trial conference on the suit was held on December 2, 2014 with the trial judge, Justice Balogun presiding while hearing was fixed for January 15.

  • Tinubu: A misunderstood leader

    Since the beginning of time, there has never been any race unless there is a superhuman raised amongst them, either by the accident of history, as the empiricists would have us foreground, or divine providence, according to the theory of theists. From wherever such rare creatures emanate, they have been historically united by the uncommon ability to rise above the ordinary level of the common man in order to salvage the common men of their time. This, to me, conveys a metaphor of human angels, being a firm believer in the supreme status of an omnipotent uncaused cause, whom we all call God. The fact that human angels are finite beings with inborn limitations and fallibility like other humans, usually robe and veil them in the garb of enigma. They are generally misunderstood even by those for whose sake they are raised. If the Nigerian masses cannot fully appreciate the messianic angel personified by the iconic Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the case of those few economic and political Pharaohs, from whose grip he is here to liberate Nigeria itself, needs no debating.

    Let nobody rush to hang this writer, who himself had hitherto been confused by the mysteries of the Bola Tinubu phenomenon. All a discerning mind needs do is to take deep breath that would ferry him into the world of imagination whereby he would feel the atmosphere of a contemporary Nigeria without a Bola Tinubu. I doubt if any can survive the unavoidably inclement political and economic climate of a one-party Nigeria securely tucked in the inner pocket of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP). To survive in such a state, I bet, one would require the most imaginably-sophisticated fortification as required for permanent human habitation in the planet sun.

    What would have become of our dear fatherland if Tinubu had not been that audacious? What would have been the fate of every state, including the PDP-controlled, had henot been a so-called political rascal? Or, would the olden day All Nigerian Peoples’ Party (All Peoples’ Party) and the Alliance for Democracy as well as the present day APGA and Labour Party have sufficed, without the APC, to keep the PDP on its toes?

    I am sure that at that historic moment of decision for Tinubu, during the countdown to the 2003 elections, when, as the then Governor of Lagos State, he himself never knew that his refusal to join the bandwagon forces of the remaining five Alliance for Democracy governors of the South-west was all that God needed from him, as a qualifying virtue, to be anointed as the Moses of our generation. What if he had acquiesced like his colleagues to the pact for South-west vote offered by Chief Olusegun Obasanjo? What if Lagos had then been captured just like Ogun, Oyo, Osun, Ondo and Ekiti by the almighty federal might; would there have been any glimpse of vibrancy and optimism today in the entire Nigerian political space? What would have become of the South-west, our dear domain of sophistication? Would there have been any mega rival party like the All Progressives Party (APC), with a national spread, heavy chest and voice that has been keeping the PDP awake to its responsibility? Truth be told, the supposed freedom we enjoy as pen pushers which our President recently flaunted as a plus for his administration has not really helped a nation whose current leadership seems deaf and dumb to the media but only afraid of even the shadows of the APC that has been giving it a hot chase in the race to 2105.

    Perhaps, (God forbid) the typical Nigerian State would have been a platform for a hitch-free recycling of mediocrity and parochialism.

    Here is no judgmental comparison between the party that emerged from Tinubu’s choice to be ‘stubborn’ and the party that mans the centre in Nigeria. Rather than locate the blessing that the national leader of the APC personifies in the quality of his party, I find his divine calling and success in the reality of active opposition in the contemporary political space, which derives its existence from Tinubu’s momentary but highly risky choice to be a lone voice of reason.

    Therefore, this piece, not founded on personal lack of confidence in the PDP, but a hindsight into the tragic pitfall that would have been our lot, if all Nigerian states were to be governed by a single party without having to mind any real and virile opposition party waiting in the wing to snatch’ the baton of governance from it.

    This is where Asiwaju is, ironically, a blessing to the PDP and all other parties in power at various levels. Today, before President Goodluck Jonathan in the Aso Villa; Governor Aliyu Babangida of Niger State; or Wilson Obiano of Anambra or any other helmsman at the national, state or local level takes any important decision, the fear of the APC would be the very beginning of his wisdom. And, in turn, the same fate that goes round actually comes round to any of the APC governors as well, as manifest in the recent demonstration of rivalry as the soul of democracy in Ekiti. This is the beauty that this former NADECO refugee has helped to herald in our polity.

    Rather than continue to vilify Tinubu endlessly for alleged inadequacies, bearing in mind the fact that Tinubu as a leader can’t but be subjected to public scrutiny at all times, what we actually need at this point is to ask some certain set of leaders some salient questions. These are the Orji Uzor Kalus, the Peter Obis, the Olusegun Mimikos and their ilk who, at one point or the other, were used by divine providence, as platforms of diversity to breed formidable opposition in the polity.

    Why have the Mimikos rejected their divine appointment as angels of opposition politics in the land? Why have they let Nigerians down by failing to uphold the express mandate Nigerians risked their lives to position them as channels of the other voice? Why have they preferred to sacrifice their respective future for the honey pie of the moment? Have their weakness not been Tinubu’s strength of refusing to cave in to the intimidating antics of the almighty federal party, against which he successfully waged a one-man war?

    Perhaps if Mimiko and his ilk had chosen dissent like Tinubu, by resisting the temptation of being pro-All Government in Power, if they had not forsaken their divine callings of liberating a beleaguered populace from the tyrannical tendencies of a one-party polity, Tinubu, as the father of contemporary opposition politics in Nigeria, would himself have found parties like PPA, APGA and Labour Party as real threats to the current monopoly enjoyed by his APC as the only other choice Nigerians presently have.

    On the whole, any sincere and dispassionate analysis of the evolution, development and sustenance of the current Fourth Republic would be incomplete without according the second Governor of Lagos State his pride of place. If anything, improved opposition in the form of the ever-present and vigilant alternative voice and political power re-allocation through the ballot box and judicial redress, I suspect, are two major factors that have, so far, robbed the khaki boys of their formerly recycled excuses for coups.

    In specific terms, if the Nigerian specie of politicians can, for instance, variously replicate the latest effort of Bola Ahmed Tinubu in his recent economic advisory article to the Nigerian government, tagged Slump in oil prices: A progressive way out, rather than sustain the sycophantic ‘see-no-evil’, all-is-well relationship with the powers-that-be, our dear country would surely witness the rebirth of long dead politics of issues and qualitative opposition. For this to be, join me to pray that Dr. Doyin Okupe would not ask for Tinubu’s certificate in economics that qualifies him to advice our seemingly ‘all-wise’ government.

    • Olokode writes from Lagos
  • ‘Being a woman naturally makes me a leader’

    ‘Being a woman naturally makes me a leader’

    Hadiza Otaki is the immediate past president of the Junior Chamber International (JCI) at the Usmanu Danfodiyo University, Sokoto (UDUS). The graduate of Applied Chemistry was the only woman president in the university during her tenure. She tells SARAT ALABIDUN (300-Level Applied Chemistry) how she survived in a male-dominated association. 

    During your tenure, you were the only woman president on campus. How was the experience like?

    For me, it was a feat that does not come naturally. It was a kind of deviation from the norm, because in schools, such as Usmanu Danfodiyo University, the cultural and religious values are held in high esteem. All leaders, whether it is president, chairman or speaker, are male. So it was quite challenging, getting elected as female to lead male-dominated club. It took me a lot of time to summon the courage to contest.  There was a lot of discrimination against me. When I won the election, my first duty was to rebrand the club’s image because it is not religion-oriented.

    In a conservative school like UDUS, what challenges did you face as woman president?

    My major challenge was being a woman. Many people took me for granted and look down on me. Women leadership is still not being encouraged in the North. I have issues with what people would think of us. Even within students’ association, the male are hostile and feel that a lady should not lead them. Some of lecturers secretly called male members of the association and asked why they allowed a woman to lead them. All this were part of the challenges I face but I was not discouraged. I felt like a male, having conquered male-dominated association.

    Do you think being female affected any of your plans throughout your tenure?

    No. Although it almost affected my decisions. Some male students tried to take advantage of my being a female to influence my decisions at some point but I ensured that I took charge.

    What are your achievements as president?

    People had the thought that nothing good would come out of my tenure. But, I had an eventful tenure and achieved some of my plans. Under my leadership, the association reached out to many students. Though my predecessors laid the foundation, we built on it strongly. We visited Normal Children’s Hospital Sokoto for our humanitarian project, where we donated useful materials to children in need. We held trainings for members to improve their skills in community projects. We collaborated with the Students’ Union Government (SUG) to set up an Officers Training School (OTS) for students’ leaders on campus. We also organised “Operation Keep UDUS Clean” and held the JCI’s 30th anniversary, which had Sokoto State Commissioner for Information, Mallam Danladi Bako, in attendance. Because of lecturers’ strike, we could not do other programmes.

    How were you able to cope with your study while you lead the association?

    Before my election as president, I was the Vice-President. I also headed various committees in the association.

  • Obasanjo to PDP: drug baron can’t be my leader

    Obasanjo to PDP: drug baron can’t be my leader

    Ex-president shuns party’s peace talks

    Kashamu: I’m not wanted in U.S.

    Former President Olusegun Obasanjo rejected yesterday the peace moves by his party’s leadership, saying he cannot be in the same group with “a drug baron” wanted in the United States.

    He urged President Goodluck Jonathan and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) leaders to do the “needful” instead of begging him for forgiveness.

    Said Obasanjo “Today, Nigeria needs all hands on deck to deal with our pressing problems of security, including the issue of Chibok girls, widening inequality, infrastructure, impunity, corruption, poverty and youth education, skill acquisition, empowerment and employment.

    “These are issues of concern to most Nigerians.  We all need to join hands to move Nigeria forward.  I don’t need to be begged for that.

    “Rather, I beg and appeal to those who are begging me to realise that we must put Nigeria’s interest above politics – party or personal – otherwise, we will all be judged at the bar of history if not the bar of current affairs.

    “In addition, we must preserve, sustain and deepen democracy and democratic practices.”

    The former leader insisted that he had never left the party and would remain a card-carrying member, having ruled the country for two terms on its ticket.

    Obasanjo, who returned from a trip to South Africa at the weekend, made his position known in a statement in Abeokuta yesterday.

    He was reacting to last week’s statement by PDP National Chairman Adamu Mua’zu and other leaders when they were welcoming back into the fold former Ogun State Governor Gbenga Daniel.

    Mu’azu had said: “I want to join Governor Daniel to appeal to our Baba, President Olusegun Obasanjo, to forgive us. We are your children and we have been making mistakes; we have made mistakes and so we apologise.

    “Please, Baba, we apologise; come and lead us. Even the President (Jonathan) is waiting for you to come and lead us; you are our leader, we appreciate you, we thank you for your leadership and your courage.”

    The former Chairman, Board of Trustees of the PDP, who was in South Africa over South Sudan’s increasing insecurity and violence, said  he almost cut short his stay there following “the avalanche of news, cacophony of appeals and pleadings from some quarters of PDP”, which he described as evidential manifestation of “misunderstanding and misrepresentation” of facts.

    Obasanjo, who added that he had occasion to make his stand on vital matters affecting the party known to Jonathan, Senate President David Mark, who recently visited him on behalf of the party.

    Obasanjo said issues of principle, morality, honour, integrity, commitment and character are to him paramount. He said he could not “accept that the zonal leader of my political party and, worse still in my zone, will be an indicted drug baron wanted in America.”

    He went on: “During last week when I was in South Africa as the Chairman of African Union (AU) Commission of Inquiry on South Sudan and while with my fellow Commissioners, we were deliberating on how to help that new country (South Sudan) out of its problem of security and violence, I received an avalanche of news and cacophony of appeals and pleadings from some quarters of PDP leadership.

    “Talking of inviting me back to PDP is wrong and it is a great misrepresentation as I have never left the PDP and I will never leave the PDP.

    “I have said it before and I will say it again, I rose to become the President of Nigeria on the platform of PDP and for that reason alone, I will remain a card-carrying and ward-active member of PDP for as long as I have to be a political party member.

    “Secondly, nobody has personally offended me as a result of my membership of PDP.  If, however, anybody or group feels offended by my continued membership, I will offer an unreserved apology but continue to remain in the Party.

    “I have had occasions to say to the President, the Senate President and the Party Chairman separately that I have no quarrel with any individual or group in the Party.  There are, for me, issues of principle, morality, honour, integrity, commitment and character, which are paramount.

    “For instance, as a former President of Nigeria, the Chairman of West Africa Commission on Drug and a member of Global Commission on Drug, I cannot accept that the Zonal leader of my political Party and, worse still in my zone, will be an indicted drug baron wanted in America.

    “How do I explain that to friends outside Nigeria?  This is only one of the many issues that I have pointed and still pointing out.

    “I have national and international standard to maintain and reputation to keep and sustain.  For these reasons, I opted to remain active only at the ward level of the Party till the leadership does the needful.

    “But under no condition will my commitment to Nigeria be diminished.  And, for me, it is commitment to Nigeria first and any other commitment can only follow in second or third place. Where any other commitment is in tandem with what I see and understand as commitment to Nigeria, such other commitment will share a pride of place with Nigeria.

    “I must hasten to thank the President, the Senate President and the Chairman of PDP with whom, at their instances, these issues have been discussed and laid to rest.  My interest and commitment to Nigeria go beyond partisan politics.”