The Nation Newspaper

Tag: leadership crisis

  • Leadership crisis rocks ANN party

    A leadership crisis has erupted in the Alliance for New Nigeria (ANN), one of the new political parties which brands itself as a party of the “new-breed”.

    ANN’s Board of Trustees (BoT) Chairman, Adekoya Adebola Ademola, has taken interim Chairman, Dr. Jay Osi Samuels, to court over alleged plan to remove him from his position.

    In a suit filed at the Federal High Court in Abuja, Ademola accuses Samuels of orchestrating his removal, contrary to Section 17 (6) of ANN’s constitution.

    He sued Samuels, the party and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

    Ademola is asking the court to determine whether Samuels has the powers, as contained under Section 17 (6) of the party’s constitution, to remove him as the party’s BoT chairman.

    He is requesting the court to determine whether Samuels and the party he founded had the powers to remove him from the BoT chair, as contained in the party’s constitution.

    In a written address-in-support of originating summons before the court, Ademola is seeking the following questions for determination, among others.

    • Whether the second defendant (Samuels), being an interim National Chairman of the first defendant (ANN) has the powers under the constitution of the first defendant to summon and preside over a meeting of BoT of the first defendant, pursuant to Section 17 (6) of the first defendant’s constitution.
    • Whether the first and second defendants can remove the plaintiff as the chairman of the BoT of the first defendant in a meeting other than a national convention of the first defendant, pursuant to Section 17 (5) (a) of the first defendant constitution.
    • Whether the plaintiff was right in holding on with the instruments of the registration of the first defendant with the third defendant pursuant to Section 17(4)(e) of the constitution of the first defendant being the interim chairman of BoT and the founder and convener.
    • Whether the defendants can remove the plaintiff as the chairman of the BoT of the 1stdefendant in a meeting other than a convention of the first defendant pursuant to Section 17 (5)(a) of the constitution of the first defendant.

    Ademola is seeking the following reliefs:

    A declaration that the second defendant (Samuels), not being the chairman of BoT of the first defendant, was an incompetent person to summon a meeting of the BoT of ANN, as contained in Section 17(6) of its constitution.

     

  • Leadership crisis rocks ‘new breed’ party ANN

    A leadership crisis has erupted in the Alliance for New Nigeria (ANN), one of the new political parties which brands itself as a party of the “new-breed”.

    ANN’s Board of Trustees (BoT) Chairman, Adekoya Adebola Ademola, has taken interim Chairman, Dr. Jay Osi Samuels, to court over alleged plan to remove him from his position.

    In a suit filed at the Federal High Court in Abuja, Ademola accuses Samuels of orchestrating his removal, contrary to Section 17 (6) of ANN’s constitution.

    He sued Samuels, the party and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

    Ademola is asking the court to determine whether Samuels has the powers, as contained under Section 17 (6) of the party’s constitution, to remove him as the party’s BoT chairman.

    He is requesting the court to determine whether Samuels and the party he founded had the powers to remove him from the BoT chair, as contained in the party’s constitution.

    In a written address-in-support of originating summons before the court, Ademola is seeking the following questions for determination, among others.

    • Whether the second defendant (Samuels), being an interim National Chairman of the first defendant (ANN) has the powers under the constitution of the first defendant to summon and preside over a meeting of BoT of the first defendant, pursuant to Section 17 (6) of the first defendant’s constitution.
    • Whether the first and second defendants can remove the plaintiff as the chairman of the BoT of the first defendant in a meeting other than a national convention of the first defendant, pursuant to Section 17 (5) (a) of the first defendant constitution.
    • Whether the plaintiff was right in holding on with the instruments of the registration of the first defendant with the third defendant pursuant to Section 17(4)(e) of the constitution of the first defendant being the interim chairman of BoT and the founder and convener.
    • Whether the defendants can remove the plaintiff as the chairman of the BoT of the 1stdefendant in a meeting other than a convention of the first defendant pursuant to Section 17 (5)(a) of the constitution of the first defendant.

    Ademola is seeking the following reliefs:

    A declaration that the second defendant (Samuels), not being the chairman of BoT of the first defendant, was an incompetent person to summon a meeting of the BoT of ANN, as contained in Section 17(6) of its constitution.

     

  • Obasanjo on Nigeria’s leadership crisis

    Obasanjo on Nigeria’s leadership crisis

    IN the space of one week, and perhaps to indicate the weight he attaches to the subject, ex-president Olusegun Obasanjo twice pontificated on the debilitating effects of leadership failings in Nigeria, but without the personal introspection and reflection that should ennoble the discourse. He first spoke on Sunday at a thanksgiving service organised by the Ogun State chapter of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) to commemorate his 80th birthday, and a second time at a seminar he chaired on the 38th edition of the Kaduna International Trade Fair. On both occasions he talked about popular misconceptions that corrode and limit Nigeria’s leadership, indicating what he thought should be the answer to the often daunting problem.

    At the CAN birthday service to honour him, Chief Obasanjo joined issues with those who dismiss Nigeria as a terminal case of unremitting leadership failure. According to him: “I will be the first to admit that we have not been where we should have been, but note that we have also been far from where we could have been because it could have been worse. It is the height of ingratitude for people to say Nigeria has not achieved anything or much as a nation. The generation before mine fought for Nigeria’s independence. That is great. My own generation,  which is the next,  fought to sustain the unity of Nigeria…We Nigerians need ourselves and if anyone thinks he does not need another person, good luck to him. What I see in all those groups trying to break away is that they want more of the national cake.”

    The former president interprets national unity, especially the effort to sustain it over the decades, as an indication of the country’s manifest destiny, and an answer to its multifarious problems. To this extent, he considers the organisation of national conferences as diversionary, and he shows contempt for the effort to remould and retool the country, a task he regards as a needless attempt to balkanise the country for selfish, materialistic reasons. Neither on this occasion, about 10 years after he left office as president, nor at any other time since he first assumed leadership, was he led by experience or a love for philosophical exercises to examine why the country’s problems have persisted. If a generation of Nigerian leaders fought for independence, and his own generation fought to keep the country united, why is it difficult to contemplate that another generation could struggle to rejig Nigeria away from the stultifying assumptions and rubrics that undergirded Britain’s colonial constructs?

    But Chief Obasanjo’s opinions and assumptions were to acquire a more worrisome dimension at the Kaduna Trade Fair seminar when he disparaged the contribution of prayer in resolving Nigeria’s national question. He was right that Nigerians had replaced patriotic, altruistic work with prayer, and had therefore transferred to God what should naturally be their own responsibility in rebuilding their country. But it is curious that he did not see how his own expositions indicted him much more severely than any of his predecessors or successors.

    Hear him: “…Let us stop troubling God, because God has done all we need for us. We only need to play our own part… Our prayer should be that God should not take away all He has given to us as a nation…God in His mercy has given us all the needed resources, both human and natural, but we have not been able to put them together and manage them effectively. The countries that have developed and are performing better are not better than Nigeria in terms of resources. One problem that must be corrected is the problem of leadership. This is because our leaders lack focus, commitment, continuity and sometimes proper knowledge about economic and development issues, hence we have not been able to achieve meaningful result…Somebody came to me and said we need to pray to God and I said, for what? He said, ‘so that God can do for us, what we cannot do for ourselves.’ And I said, no, let us stop troubling God, because God has done all we need for us, we only need to play our own part…Another problem is that, we take one step forward and another step backward. Nigerian leaders must be tough and ready to bite the bullet, because Nigeria cannot have it easy. Until we get the right leadership, the problem will continue.”

    Why Chief Obasanjo does not see himself squarely ensconced at the centre of Nigeria’s crisis is difficult to say. Indeed, he is at the very core of the failure of Nigeria to build the right foundation for Nigerian democracy in 1999. And when despite him the country appeared set to readjust itself and correct its failings, Chief Obasanjo again needlessly interposed himself between the problem and the solution and viciously distorted, if not completely aborted, the remedial efforts. His analysis did not reflect the abominable role he played in hijacking his party’s leadership and instituting a dictatorial culture. That dictatorial culture virtually destroyed the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), rendered it both powerless and ineffective, and ensured that the party’s principles of leadership recruitment could only produce either political monsters or grovelling and empty politicians. He said nothing of how he destroyed the party’s primaries culture, how he forced brilliant and principled aspirants to abandon their ambitions in 2006/07, and how he foisted his own preferred candidates on the party, especially knowing full well how incapacitated both the candidate and his running mate were, the former in health, and the latter in experience and resolve.

    Chief Obasanjo assumed his own presidency was faultless or peerless. He assumes that his achievements, such as the debt cancellation he secured from the Paris Club of creditors, more than atoned for his failure to construct a solid foundation for Nigerian democracy. However, his achievements, which are in themselves controversial, do not atone for his failure in the greatest things that mattered — that of laying a great political culture for Nigeria, establishing absolute fidelity to the rule of law and constitutional rule, and creating a political environment where both the ruling party and the opposition can flourish. The effects of his failings have continued to reverberate since 2007 when he left office, not only in terms of the incompetence or inadequacy of successive elected leaders but also in terms of their appalling leadership culture. The problem has worsened, as he himself indirectly alluded to when he talked of taking one step forward and another step backward.

    Indeed, much worse is his answer to the leadership crisis Nigeria faces. He says leaders must be “tough and ready to bite the bullet because Nigeria cannot have it easy”. Unfortunately, he still sees Nigeria’s problems in terms of discipline or its lack rather than that of lack of idea and a systematic and structured approach to problem solving. Very sadly too, he presumes that “Nigeria cannot have it easy”, when the problem is not a question of ease or difficulty, but one of failure to carry out the right diagnoses and enunciate the right prognoses. For instance, his presidency secured debt forgiveness, but Nigeria’s debt situation is back to nearly where it was before his presidency in 1999. Chief Obasanjo is emotive and, like many other Nigerian leaders, lionises force. Both vices are inimical to the growth of democracy and stability whose loss he now implausibly mourns.

    As even the present national leadership shows, the most critical part of Nigeria’s problem is producing the right quality of leaders with enough intellectual endowment, strength of character and judgement to remould and inspire the country. Chief Obasanjo finds these virtues tedious. So, too, it seems, do his successors. The problems Nigeria faces are not new to the world nor quite as mystifying as Nigerian leaders make them. Until a brilliant leader and true democrat mounts the saddle of national leadership, the country will continue to grope and stumble in the dark. And whatever successes they achieve will only be incidental. Chief Obasanjo’s diagnosis is only partly relevant. No one should pay any attention to his remedies. They are not what they are cracked up to be, for, all things considered, he is as much a part of the problem as the incompetents he frequently points the finger at.

  • PDP crisis: I won’t step down, says Sheriff

    PDP crisis: I won’t step down, says Sheriff

    . . .Insists on convention

     

    The National Chairman of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Alhaji All Modu Sheriff has ruled out stepping down as one of the options in the search for political solution to the party’s leadership crisis.

    Key stakeholders in the party have been harping on a vague concept of “political solution” without being explicit on details of the concept.

    Sheriff was reacting to a media report indicating that former President Goodluck Jonathan had asked him and the rival Caretaker Committee chairman, Senator Ahmed Makarfi to step down and allow the party’s governors to nominate another chairman.

    In a statement Thursday signed on his behalf by his appointed party spokesman, Mr. Bernard Mikko, Sheriff said the issue of resignation did not come up during his meeting with former President Goodluck Jonathan last week.

    The statement said, “The general public, PDP members and the media are hereby informed that the issue of the National Chairman’s resignation as the political solution has never been discussed nor was it put up for discussion with the former President and other stakeholders.

    “The general public, PDP members nationwide and the media are hereby informed that shortly before the Court of Appeal judgement of 17th February, 2017; all parties and stakeholders agreed that on the receipt of the Court of Appeal judgement, whichever way it goes; members will be prevailed upon and urged to support the judgement and orders of the Court of Appeal and rally round the successful party to conduct; as soon as possible a national unity convention for the election of officers; the modalities of which shall be worked out by all stakeholders of the party.

    “As law abiding citizen and advocate of the rule of law, the National Chairman, Senator Ali Modu Sheriff hereby calls on all stakeholders including but not limited to PDP governors; national and state assembly members; Board of Trustee members to make themselves available and give their input on how we can; as quickly as possible conduct a national unity convention where our national officers will be elected. The National Chairman has promised and undertaken not to contest”.

    Efforts by our correspondent to get the reaction of the Makarfi camp did not yield results. Repeated telephone calls and SMS messages to the spokesman of the Caretaker Committee, Prince Dayo Adeyeye were left unanswered.

    Also Thursday, another reconciliation committee of the party, headed by Governor Seriake Dickson of Bayelsa State, met with some party leaders and some PDP National Assembly members in Abuja.

    A statement signed by Dickson after the meeting also harped on the need to find a political solution to the crisis, describing it as the best option.

    The Dickson committee endorsed the resolution reached by Jonathan and the governors, “without prejudice to the ongoing judicial processes”.

    The statement said, “As part of this process, it is imperative that an early convention within the second quarter of 2017 should be held in Abuja, which therefore should be all inclusive and where new national officials of the party will be freely, fairly and transparently elected.

    “In furtherance of this, the reconciliation committee shall embark on extensive consultations with all stakeholders with a view to building confidence and necessary consensus toward the unity convention”.

    “The committee, however, appeals to all party leaders and members of PDP to exercise restraint and focus on the loyalty to and the overall interest of the party”.

    Meanwhile, Sheriff Thursday announced Dr. Ahmed Gulak, a former Political Adviser to former President Jonathan as his Chief of Staff, with the appointment taking immediate effect.

     

  • Bakers resolve four- year leadership crisis

    •Set to elect new officers

    The Association of Master Bakers and Caterers of Nigeria (AMBCN) will elect new leaders in October four years after the exercise should have taken place.

    The decision to relieve all the leaders who have been in acting capacity for years was reached in Abuja at the just concluded meeting of leaders of the association from the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

    The acting Chairman of Niger State chapter of the association, Alhaji Mohammed Shukura, disclosed this to newsmen in Minna, Niger State, yesterday.

    The meeting, according to Shukura, was at the instance of the Chairman of the association’s Board of Trustees (BOT), Chief Bayo Folarin.

    It was gathered that the meeting resolved to ensure democratically elected officials are put in place at all levels of the association in line with wind of change blowing across the country.

    The meeting empowered the convener to constitute an electoral committee to organise and conduct elections of officers for the association at national level.

    It was also resolved that similar exercise should be carried out at the state levels.

    Addressing leaders at the meeting, the BOT chairman advised members in acting capacity interested in vying for any of the national offices to resign to ensure a credible and rancour free election.

    Folarin said the timetable for a credible and acceptable election will be drawn and all the 36 states chapters and FCT will be adequately informed.

     

  • Leadership crisis: House denies plot to bar Loyalists’ Group

    •Adhoc committee warns‘erring members’

    THE House of Representatives has denied alleged plans to bar some key members of the Loyalists Group from entering the chamber today.

    In a statement by Abdulrazak Namdas yesterday, the House maintained that it was the right and freedom of every member to attend plenary, committee meetings and access their offices without any hindrance.

    The statement said there was never a time the leadership considered blocking members from the National Assembly.

    “The allegations can best be described as baseless, unfounded and figment of their imagination.

    “Members are hereby advise to, in accordance with relevant provisions of the House Rules, Legislative Houses Powers and Privileges Act, and the Code of Conduct of the House, conduct themselves with decorum and in a manner deserving of honourable members of the House, during plenary, committee meetings and other legislative engagements in the House.

    “Similarly, the members alleged that the leadership was trying to truncate President Muhammadu Buhari’s anti-corruption crusade.

    “We find this allegation as uncharitable and unbecoming of a House member. The Speaker Yakubu Dogara’s record of incorruptibility endeared him to the members, which culminated in his election as Speaker on June 9th.

    “One of the first major decisions taken by the leadership was to draft the Legislative Agenda, which is primarily aimed at blocking revenue leakages, introduce anti-graft legislations and help the government in its drive to restructure the country.

    “We advise the members who lost out in the election of presiding and principal officers to emulate those who have accepted the olive branch extended to them by Mr. Speaker in the interest of peace, and stability of the House,” the statement said.

    It urged the citizens to ignore the allegations, saying they were “baseless and unfortunate”.

    But the House  Adhoc Committee on Code of Conduct said sanction awaits unruly lawmakers that might want to disrupt procedures in the House.

    A statement by its Chairman, Aminu Shehu Shagari, warned that there were laid down procedures for addressing grievances in the House that aggrieved members could explore.

    The statement reads: “The committee will no longer tolerate any unruly behaviour by any member of the House, no matter how highly placed.

    “The House will deal decisively with any member who violates the rules, disrupts plenary, or is found wanting of misconduct and other sundry offences.

    “Members are admonished to demonstrate high standards of ethics consistent with the important role of lawmaking and the Eighth Assembly Legislative Agenda, which places emphasis on the wellbeing of the people”.

  • Confusion reigns over House of Reps leadership crisis

    Confusion reigns over House of Reps leadership crisis

     • Dogara, Gbajabiamila groups in claims and counter claims

    The crisis in the House of Representatives over the sharing of principal positions in the Green Chambers of the National Assembly remained cloudy last night after claims and counter claims about the resolution of the stalemate.

    The camp of Speaker Yakubu Dogara sparked the latest standoff after announcing that the crisis had been resolved with the Femi Gbajabiamila group accepting the sharing formula proposed by the Speaker.

    Details of the sharing unveiled by Abdulmumin Jibrin are: Alhassan Ado Doguwa (APC Kano, North West) as House Leader; Buba Jibrin (APC Kogi, North Central) as Deputy Leader; Pally Iriase (APC Edo, South South) as Chief Whip; and Chika Okafor (APC Imo, South East) as Deputy Chief Whip.

    “Interestingly, both the Speaker and a great majority of the APC caucus in the House including gladiators in the Gbajabiamila’s group like Mongunu, Doguwa and Pally support and stand by the Equity Team,” Jibrin said.

    “We have commenced collection of signatures which has reached advanced stage to affirm the Dogara Formula. All other interests, including those excluded from the principal officers specifically Gbajabiamila and Mongunu will be duly accommodated with commensurate responsibility to serve. Since the Speaker has about 200 positions to share out, many members will have the opportunity to serve the country.

    “In light of this development, it is heart-warming to announce to you that the disagreement in the house, which many have erroneously labelled as crisis, has finally come to an end?.”

    Three of Gbajabiamila’s supporters – Mohammad Monguno (Northeast) , Alhassan Doguwa (Northwest) and Pally Iriase (Southsouth)- announced their acceptance of Dogara’s proposal.

    But in a swift reaction, Gbajabiamila’s loyalists denied that they had reached an agreement with Dogara.

    Their spokesman, Nasiru Zangon-Daura, in a terse statement, denied “any purported endorsement of a so-called formula.”

    “Any member of our group who claims to be part of this arrangement acts on his own and not on behalf of the group,” he declared.

    At stake are the positions of House leader, deputy House leader, Chief Whip and Deputy Chief Whip.

    The party had written to Dogara that Gbajabiamila be made House leader but Dogara rejected the directive.

    The Speaker’s camp is insisting that the Northeast and the Southwest having already got the positions of Speaker and Deputy Speaker cannot be accommodated in the sharing of the remaining four positions.

    The APC National Chairman, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun had, on Friday summoned Speaker Dogara ostensibly on resolving the deadlock.

    There were suggestions that Deputy Speaker, Yusuf Lasun from Osun State was being prevailed upon to step down.

    On the same day Gbajabiamila was at the State House, Abuja to meet with President Muhammadu Buhari.

    He emerged from the meeting to dash to the party’s National Secretariat to see Chief Odigie-Oyegun on the same matter.

    The House has been enmeshed in crisis since the June 9 election of Dogara and Lasun as Speaker and Deputy Speaker respectively.

    It is scheduled to resume sitting on Tuesday, a week later than it originally proposed.

     

  • House leadership crisis Gbajabiamila splits Dogara’s camp

    House leadership crisis Gbajabiamila splits Dogara’s camp

    •Unresolved leadership crisis forces NASS to shift resumption date

    House of Representatives Speaker Yakubu Dogara may be losing his plot to allocate four principal offices in the House to geo political zones other than those prescribed by his party, the All Progressives Congress (APC).

    Dogara in a July 16 letter to the APC National Chairman, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, proposed that in accordance with the federal character formula enshrined in the 1999 Constitution, the position of House leader should go to the Northwest; Deputy House Leader to the North Central; Chief Whip to the South East; and Deputy Chief Whip to the South South.

    This is against the party’s proposal of Femi Gbajabiamila from the Southwest as House leader; Alhassan Ado Doguwa from the Northwest as Deputy House leader; M.T.Monguno from the Northeast as Chief Whip; and Pally Iriase from the South South as Deputy Chief Whip.

    Dogara’s position is seen as a ploy to stop his rival for the Speakership, Gbajabiamila, from becoming House leader.

    Sources in the Speaker’s camp told The Nation yesterday that some of his supporters are beginning to express their frustration at what they see as his winner takes all stance.

    One of the Speaker’s backers from Sokoto State said his camp is now split between those who believe that the party should be allowed to have its way on the filling of the four positions and those who want Dogara and his group to have everything for themselves.

    “As far as I am aware, the issue of the vacant principal offices is yet to be resolved. As we speak, the groups led by Speaker Dogara and his rival, Femi Gbajabiamila, are yet to agree on the would-be occupants of the offices. I can also tell you that those of us in Dogara’s camp are divided over the matter too, especially over the Speaker’s last letter to the APC chairman,” the source said last night.

    He added: “While there are those who believe the Speaker should not agree with the party on how best to resolve this matter, some of us are of the opinion that it is best for us to allow for party supremacy at this point. There is no need for further opposition to the party’s directives on this matter especially after Mr. President intervened on more than one occasion. We feel we must be magnanimous in victory.”

    The House was originally scheduled to resume on Tuesday, July 21 but this has now been shifted by one week, same as the Senate which is also contending with its own leadership problem.

    Sources said the crisis is at the root of the shift in resumption date by the two chambers.

    The Nation learnt that the disagreement among pro-Dogara lawmakers started before his letter to the APC National Chairman.

    Sources said the letter has even aggravated the disagreement in the Speaker’s camp with some describing it as an affront on the party leadership.

    “Before the letter was written, we met to discuss the various options available to resolve the crisis and I can tell you that a good number of us are in support of the party’s position.

    “But it appears some people are scared of something. The opposition is more against Gbajabiamila than against the party. In spite of pleas that we should no longer rock the boat, the letter was written to the disappointment of some of us. This has led to a more complicated situation because there are further cracks within the House.”

    A Rep from Lagos State and supporter of Gbajabiamila said:”We are aware that the current leadership of the House itself is divided over how best to resolve the crisis. We also leant that given the sharp difference in opinion, it is likely that resumption may be shifted to avoid another rancorous plenary. But whatever happens, we are resolute that party supremacy should not be sacrificed for any political gain by all the camps involved in this matter.”

    But House Ad-hoc Committee Chairman on Media and Public Affairs, Mohammed Sani Zorro, differed on the reason for the postponement of the resumption date.

    His words: “I don’t think the House is postponing resumption because of its inability to reconcile the matter at hand. The House works with a calendar. The Senate has shifted its resumption to July 28; you know sometimes they come out with a common calendar; at times, one chamber resumes a few days before the other. I assure you that if there is any postponement, it cannot be as a result of the disagreement.”

    Multiple sources told The Nation in Abuja that “various caucuses at the National Assembly have been meeting with the aim of finding ways and means to put the leadership crisis behind us when we resume.”

    “We don’t want to come back a divided house,” one of the sources said.

    Another source said: “We have it on good authority that the Governor Abubakar Bagudu committee set-up by the All Progressives Congress (APC) leadership to resolve the National Assembly crisis has submitted its report to the party.

    “The leadership of the National Assembly thought it necessary to give the party leadership some time to consider the report and state its position on the matter.”

    He said that the National Assembly leadership is working to ensure that Senators and members of the House of Representatives return as a united parliament in their chambers.

    “Enough of bickering, it is better to give the party leadership a little more time to sort out the remaining differences. The Bagudu led peace committee has submitted its report to the party.

    “The party should be allowed to consider the report and come up with its position. We are all poised for peace. If one more week will give us the peace we desire, it would not have been a wasted effort.

    “I can also tell you that (Senate President) Saraki is reaching out to stakeholders with the aim of arriving at agreeable resolution of all issues at stake.”

    The National Assembly plans to resume next week by which time President Muhammadu Buhari would have returned home from the US.

    The National Assembly has been embroiled in crisis since the June 9th election of the Senate President, Deputy Senate president as well as Speaker of the House of Representatives and Deputy Speaker.

     

  • Uproar in House of Reps over leadership crisis

    Uproar in House of Reps over leadership crisis

    The crisis rocking the House of Representatives took a different turn, Thursday as members physically exchanged blows.

    Details later…..

  • ‘Solution to Celestial Church crisis’

    The leadership crisis rocking the Celestial Church of Christ (CCC) won’t end unless its leaders adhere strictly to the instructions of its late founder, Pastor Samuel Bilewu Oshoffa, by recognising the church in Porto Novo, Benin Republic, which he first established as its supreme headquarters.”

    This was the admonition of Rev. Pastor Bennett Akande Adeogun, the church’s Supreme Head Worldwide, during a sermon at this year’s harvest thanksgiving held in Porto Novo.

    Adeogun said the crisis was occasioned by greed and selfishness on the part of some leaders of the church, especially those in the Nigerian diocese, whom he accused of flouting the laid down rules and regulations of the late Oshoffa.

    “Pastor/Reverend Oshoffa did the job according to how he was directed by God and what the founder planted is what we are improving upon. This church was established by the holy spirit and not by human wisdom, knowledge or power,” he stressed, adding: “What we are doing here is in accordance with the order of the founder as commanded by God, and which must be obeyed by all faithful of the Celestial Church of Christ all over the world.”

    Pastor Patrice Lashile, first Vice President, said unless every member recognises the Port-Novo church as the mother of all celestial churches, there will continue to be leadership crisis in the fold.

    He said any pastor that was not ordained by the Porto Novo church is not a bona fide member and warned pastors who claimed to have been ordained by other persons apart from Pastor Adeogun to stop doing pastoral work in the name of the church.