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Oshiomhole, Akpabio, Uduaghan condole with Sambo over brother’s death

•Fayemi sends condolence letter to vice-president

Edo State Governor Adams Oshiomhole has commiserated with Vice-President Namadi Sambo on the death of his younger brother, Captain Sabo Sambo, who died on Sunday in an accident in Abuja.

In a condolence letter to the vice-president, Oshiomhole said: “I learnt with great shock the news of the death in a road accident in Abuja of Your Excellency’s younger brother, Captain Sabo Sambo, on Sunday, April 27, 2014. I offer the condolences of the good people and Government of Edo State as well as my personal commiseration over the sad loss. This trying period, no doubt, calls for a renewed faith in the glory and Majesty of Almighty Allah, from whom we all come and to whom we will all return.

“I appreciate the pain of the sudden departure of such a close and dear brother and confidante, particularly at a time when his care and support are direly needed by his immediate and extended family, his community and professional colleagues.

“We, however, take consolation in the fact that Capt Sambo lived a fulfilled life and served the nation diligently as a thoroughbred pilot. He would be sorely missed not only by the aviation industry but also by the many he touched with his generosity and kindness.

“Our supplication is for Almighty Allah to, in His infinite mercy, receive his soul with His love and forgiveness and bless him with al-jannah firdausi. “We also pray Almighty Allah to give Your Excellency and the entire Sambo family the fortitude to bear the irreparable loss of such an amiable personality.”

Akwa Ibom State Governor Godswill Akpabio has condoled with the family of Vice-President Sambo on the death of his immediate younger brother, Capt Yusuf Sambo, on Sunday.

The governor, on Monday, paid a condolence visit to the vice-president at his Aguda House, Presidential Villa, Abuja.

Akpabio said: “On behalf of the people of Akwa Ibom State, I commiserate with you on the sudden and unfortunate departure of your brother, whose death occurred Sunday, which is not something we all wished for.

“Your heart is broken and your family feels the great loss. You are not alone in your misery. We share your pains and sorrows, for God gives and takes and we cannot question the will of God or ask Him why this is happening because God decides who comes into this world and who He decides to take.

“We pray God should accept him in Paradise and we pray that God console you and the entire family, give you the fortitude to bear the loss. We also pray that this untimely death would no longer happen again to the family.”

Delta State Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan also consoled with the family.

The governor said the late Capt Sambo impacted positively on the Aviation sector, his family and the country.

He prayed God to console and strengthen the family.

A former Information Minister, Prof. Jerry Gana, who represented the Northern Economic Summit Group (NESG), also condoled with the family.

Prof Gana described Capt Sambo’s death as shocking.

The former minister said the North was mourning with the family.

He prayed God to comfort the family and give its members the fortitude to bear the loss.

Sambo expressed appreciation to who condoled with the family.

The vice-president said God gives and takes.

He prayed Allah to receive his brother’s soul in al-jannah firdaous and grant journey mercies to his visitors.

Ekiti State Governor Kayode Fayemi commiserated with the vice-president on the death of Captain Yusuf Sambo (rtd).

In a statement yesterday in Ado-Ekiti, the state capital, by his Chief Press Secretary, Mr Olayinka Oyebode, the governor described the death of Yusuf, 58, as tragic and heart-rending.

He noted that the deceased, a retired pilot, was one of the best professionals in the Aviation sector, where he served meritoriously for about two decades.

Fayemi urged the vice president and the Sambo family to take solace in the fact that the deceased lived a good life and had a positive impact on his generation.

The loss of a loved one, the governor noted, remains one of the harsh realities human beings have to accept.

He said such reality does not exempt anyone, irrespective of status in the society.

Fayemi prayed God to grant the late Capt Sambo a peaceful repose and strengthen the family he left behind.

The governor also prayed God to grant the family, associates, friends and well wishers of the late Sambo the fortitude to bear the irreparable loss.

“The government and good people of Ekiti State join the vice-president and his family in mourning the deceased and pray that Almighty Allah will heal the wound created by the loss,” Fayemi said.

Abia State Governor Theodore Orji has condoled with Vice-President Sambo over the death of his younger brother, Captain Sabo Sambo.

The governor described the late pilot as a respectful and hardworking gentleman.

He said Capt Sambo’s death was a huge loss to the Aviation sector.

In a statement by his Chief Press Secretary, Charles Ajunwa, the governor prayed God Almighty to grant the vice-president’s family and the immediate family of the deceased the fortitude to bear the irreparable loss.

Orji said: “I received the news of the demise of your immediate younger brother with shock and disbelief.

He was a fine pilot par excellence who, until his untimely death, showed strong commitment to the Nigerian project.

“The late Sabo’s sudden death came at a time when his wealth of experience and expertise were needed in the development of the country’s aviation industry.

“I pray God Almighty to grant his immediate family the fortitude to bear this irreparable loss.

“Though his exit is painful but you should be comforted that he served his fatherland to the best of his ability.

“My heart-felt sympathy also goes to the government and people of Kaduna State. They should see their son’s death as an act of God.

“I pray that his gentle soul rest in peace.”

April 30, 2014
Mark, governors, others condole with Sambo over brother’s death

Some prominent Nigerians yesterday have condoled with Vice-President Namadi Sambo over the death of his younger brother, Yusuf.
The deceased, who was 58-year-old pilot, died on Sunday in a ghastly motor accident on the Abuja Airport Road.
Among those who visited Sambo at his Akinola Aguda House official residence in the Presidential Villa on Monday include the Senate President, David Mark, Akwa Ibom State Governor, Godswill Akpabio and his Delta State counterpart, Emmanuel Uduaghan.
Sambo received the male sympathisers inside one of the big halls while his wife, Hajia Amina attended to the female mourners in another hall.
Others who visited Sambo yesterday included other members of the National Assembly, members of the Federal Executive Council, leadership of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party, and leadership of the ongoing National Conference.
Governors who visited the Vice President also included Idris Wada (Kogi), Tanko Al-Makura (Nasarawa), Ibrahim Dankwambo (Gombe), Abdulaziz Yari (Zamfara), Ramalan Yero (Kaduna) and James Ngilari (Deputy governor, Adamawa).
Speaking with State House correspondents, Akpabio described Yusuf’s death as a sad development for the country.
Rivers State Governor Rotimi Amaechi, in a statement by his Chief Press Secretary David Iyofor, said: “It is most painful to lose someone close and dear to you. I on behalf of my family and the people and government of Rivers state sympathise with you (Vice President Sambo).”
“We share in your loss and grief. Our thoughts and prayers are with you and your family.”
Former Governor of Ekiti State Segun Oni also commiserated with Sambo over the death of his younger brother. He described the death as shocking and painful.
Oni, who reacted to Captain Sambo’s death in a statement, said he was still finding it difficult to believe that such a jolly good fellow and seasoned pilot could pass on very soon.

April 29, 2014
‘Ekiti will resist rigging’

Ekiti State Governor Kayode Fayemi spoke with reporters in Ado-Ekiti, the state capital, on the preparations for the June 21 governorship election, Vice President Namadi Sambo’s description of Ekiti as a war front, the Peoples Democratic Party’s (PDP) threat to ‘capture’ the Southwest and other issues. Group Political Editor EMMANUEL OLADESU was there.

Vice President Namadi Sambo has said that Ekiti State will become a war front during the governorship election? What is your view?
Quite frankly, my immediate reaction when I saw the statement from the Vice President was disbelief, until I eventually read it in about five newspapers and saw that the language was consistent and that the reports are similar in all the papers. The Vice President is someone I relate with very well. He and I are on the board of the NDPHC (Niger Delta Power Holding Company) and the Nigeria Integrated Power Project (NIPP). He chairs the company and I represent the Southwest in the company. And through that, we meet fairly regularly. The Vice President has every right to push for his party in any election. That is his legitimate right. But, to have said what the media reported was quite unfortunate because we are not at war in Ekiti. We have enjoyed three and a half years of peace and we are one of the most peaceful states in this country today. So, for someone, who occupies one of the highest offices in the land as our Vice President to reduce the importance of his office and promote insecurity, either directly or by subterfuge, is quite unbecoming of the person who occupies the number two position in our country. There is a part of me that still wants to treat it with scepticism and I still would like to take it up with the Vice President whenever I get the opportunity. I hope he would deny the report. But, I do think the underlying implication of the purported statement should worry any decent Nigerian who is interested in credible elections, especially in the light of what recently happened at Ilaje/Ese Odo and the role played by a minister of government, which has now been confirmed by the Resident Electoral Commissioner in Ondo State. In any decent polity, the minister would have been asked to leave by now. If you do anything that flies flagrantly in the face of the law, then, the maximum weight of the law ought to be applied by INEC. The law is very clear on these matters and even the military is empowered to disobey manifestly unlawful orders. What happened in Ilaje/Ese Odo appears to many people as a precursor of the grand plan to steal elections in Ekiti and Osun States. And the INEC ought to be sending a very strong signal that the institution would not take kindly to unlawful interference in the electoral process.
I can tell you that there is a lot of intelligence available to me about people sewing fake soldiers and policemen uniforms in preparation for Ekiti election and I hope INEC would be reassuring not just Ekiti people but Nigerians because the Ekiti election is even far more important than the 2015 election because if confidence is lost in INEC’s preparation and eventual implementation of the Ekiti election, that will rub off terribly on the 2015 election. I mean the INEC is already under watch, given what happened in Anambra. To then see Ekiti election going in the wrong direction would totally put paid to any hope on the part of Nigerians that anything good can come out of the 2015 elections and I don’t think President Jonathan needs that. I think he has conveyed an image of himself as a decent politician, who is not going to manipulate or resort to extra-legal or illegal ways in election management in Nigeria. So, I think the INEC, together with Inter Agency Committee on Election Security, would need to give Nigerians a lot of reassurance following the Vice President’s careless statement. But perhaps, out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaketh. I think it is very unfortunate. I think it is unbecoming of his office. And I think the Vice President really ought to withdraw the statement and reassure Nigerians that the agenda for Ekiti election is not going to be determined in Aso Rock but by Ekiti people because it is a referendum on the performance of the government in Ekiti; it is not a national election. It should not be expanded to a national election. But, let me also say that whatever evil machinations are in place from Abuja, Ekiti people are fully ready.
But, the Vic President made that statement at a time the PDP is also saying that it will ‘capture’ the Southwest. Are you not nursing any fear for this election?
This is Ekiti and people who are familiar with the history here would know that this is not a very good place to rig election. You can afford to manipulate elections in Anambra because Anambra has a lot of rich people who are even richer than the governor and do not care too much about who governs the state. In Ekiti, you will discover that everybody is interested in what happens here because we have 2.5million potential governors in this state. Every single indigene believes he has what it takes; that he understands government and that he knows how to govern. So, you can’t say such a person should not have an opinion on who governs. And every time election was manipulated in Ekiti, the result has not been palatable. Whether you refer to 1964/65 wetie crisis, which eventually culminated in the 1966 coup, Ekiti was even a stronger zone of resistance than Ikenne where Chief Awolowo hailed from and of course, when you talk of the 1983 election rigging in Ondo State, we all can remember what happened here. And of course, my own recent experience has also demonstrated that our people are far too sensitive to allow external interference in their affairs. People will make all sorts of claims; that they would do this, they would do that; but, the truth of the matter is that, even the PDP admits that this governor has done well, but it is about gaining an in-road to the Southwest by hook or crook. Unfortunately for them, the PDP had been in government here for seven and a half years and Ekiti people cannot forget in a hurry what they went through in those years. It was murder, mayhem and crises for the bulk of the period. And don’t forget that, for those seven and a half years, there were six governors. So, it was instability galore. That is what would have to be placed side-by-side what happened in our time in office.
Federal might is always going to be a factor in any election, but I can assure you that the peoples’ might is bigger than federal might. So, we have nothing to fear. We are ready for the worse. But, light will overcome darkness. The election will be a referendum on the performance of our administration and those competitors in Ekiti.
What do you mean by the election being a referendum on your performance?
First, what do I mean by that statement? An election is necessarily a referendum of what an incumbent has done or failed to do in the judgment of the electorate. Somebody running for the first time can only make promises and hope that the people will believe his promises. As an incumbent, I am running on the record of the public goods that I’ve delivered in every community and constituency. I have been on the campaign trail for over three weeks now and in every place I get to, the people are the ones who reel out what we have done in their communities. It is a much taller order for me in the sense that I must present tangible, palpable, verifiable evidence of what I have done. That is what I have to sell. And in addition to that, with the record that you know that I have, I now want to do one, two, three and four when I come back. So, it is a referendum on my performance. It may not be a referendum of the performance of my competitors. But, even in the case of one of my competitors, the election is a referendum on who he was when he was in office in the state and what he did. Even, if he chooses not to talk about that, others would talk about his record in office. The record will be set straight.
Why do you think that you deserves a second term?
I ran in 2007 on a platform popularly known as the ‘Roadmap to Ekiti Recovery – My Eight-Point Agenda. At the time, I was very specific about what I was going to do in office as far back as 2006. When you talk about social security – if you read my inaugural speech you will find social security benefit to the elderly there. If you read my inaugural speech, you will see laptop per child there. There is nothing that we have done in this state that we have not picked up from the eight-point agenda. And everyone who is objective can attest to the fulfilment of what we promised Ekiti State people. And in the various communities that we are going to meet people, they speak to that. So, I think the answer to your question is yes. My performance has earned me a reason to believe that I would be re-elected. A dimension to this, today, the result of one of the polls that we conducted at the various communities came to me. One woman they spoke to basically just said: “We like Fayemi. He has done very well. He has fulfilled all his promises. He has not done anything that we don’t like, but the issue is that, since he has already done everything he promised, he should allow another person come in”. I found that very interesting. But, the thing is that we have not actually done everything. There are areas where I would score myself 70 per cent or even 60 per cent. There are still some things to be done.
Seriously speaking, I think we have done reasonably well. Don’t forget that this state is number 35 on the revenue ladder of the country. People often forget that. And this is a state that gets N3billion a month against N23billion in Bayelsa with a smaller population. So, I think it is important to put this in proper perspective. We run a social democratic agenda and it is a progressive government. You will see that in many of the policies that we put in place. We concentrate on how to assist the weak and the vulnerable in our State. Additionally, we have run a reasonably clean government. So, I think we have done enough to earn a second term. But, we are also not unaware that performance itself is not the only factor in an election. But, it is the most critical success factor for an incumbent.
There are some things you said about the disparity in the money you get from the Federation Account. Are you comfortable with the federal system being practised in Nigeria?
We don’t operate a federal system in Nigeria. At best, we operate a distorted, pseudo-federal system, which does not operate coordinate powers among the federating units, but a hierarchical, subordinate powers inherited from our military past. If we operate a federal system, then, you will not have things like UBEC and TETFUND, which give people the impression that states are beholden to the Federal Government, whereas it is the funds jointly owned in the Federation Account that is being shared. If we run a proper federal structure, you will not have us here spending our meagre resources in sustaining the police while we have no authority over its activities in the state, unless our views coincide with or reinforce the instructions from Abuja. It’s simply a distortion of the federal system.
As for the disparities in earnings between Bayelsa, or Rivers and Ekiti, I do not have any problem with it. I’m an advocate of fiscal federalism. So, I do not necessarily have a problem with Rivers State, for instance, earning what comes from its soil. However, in order for us not to undermine the nation, for any federal system to work well, we often need equilibrating mechanisms so that one side is not overwhelmingly rich and other parts of the federation so despicably poor. We have to find a mechanism to balance this and, if you look at the Australian and Canadian constitutions – even in the American constitution, you have these mechanisms there. We have them in ours as well, but they are exercised in breach rather than in consistency with the law. So, I hope those who are working on this at the National Conference will be able to come up with a federalism that is more cooperative than combative because states are being forced into a combative model.
One of your programmes that the opposition has not criticised is the digitalisation of your income. Could you to shed light on it?
You are talking about the Integrated Payroll Biometric System. I don’t know if the opposition has not criticised it. When we started it, they called us all manners of names – that the agenda was to get rid of the civil servants.
But, eventually, you are right, they couldn’t criticise it because the civil servants and the teachers became champions of the electronic payment system and it has saved us from a lot of money spent on ghost workers. We are now even trying to use the same system for our ‘Citizen Identity Management System’ and our social security payment, which is still manual payment and there is still a level of inefficiency and waste that we have detected in the social security payment. But, clearly, biometrics is the way to go. If you want to run an efficient government, technology has to play a major role. And that is how we have been able to reduce fraud in the system. We now save an average of N200 million.
The scholar and princess of Ado-Ekiti, Professor Modupe Adelabu, is likely to be your running mate. Why are you retaining the deputy governor as your running mate?
You know what they say – if it is not broken, why fix it? The deputy governor has done very well. She did exceedingly well managing the state Universal Basic Education Board. My party has a position that the deputy must come from Ado – Ekiti and I cannot go against the position of the party on that. My late deputy was also from Ado– Ekiti as you know. So, we just replaced her with another Ado – Ekiti person who happens to be a direct descendant of the monarch here. But, that is not what qualifies her for the job. She is, more importantly, a professor and expert in educational administration.

April 29, 2014
Ekiti: The PDP’s morbid obsession

When Vice President Namadi Sambo the other day declared Ekiti and Osun “war fronts” in which   the PDP was set to do full battle to win back power in the looming gubernatorial elections, the attentive audience might well have dismissed the vow as delusional, and the metaphor as over-wrought.

This, after all is the silly season, the time for political hot air.

To react in that manner would be dangerous, however. For it fails to take into account the PDP’s morbid obsession with the two states, especially Ekiti, of which Sambo’s declaration was merely   the latest expression.

Against all indications to the contrary, spokesperson after spokesperson in the PDP has claimed Ekiti not merely as a state in which it has a respectable following but as their stronghold, a “PDP state” in their phrasing.

Vincent Ogbulafor, the former PDP chairman now standing trial for criminal breach of trust, said so. His successor Okwesilieze Nwodo, who was dismissed from the post well before his tenure was up, said so. Bamanga Tukur, who succeeded him and ran the party like an overbearing school principal, said so before he was deposed and dispatched to use his management skills to whip the railways into the mid-20th century.

Ekiti was PDP territory until four years ago when the gubernatorial elections in that state and Osun were stolen from the PDP through judicial legerdemain, Namadi Sambo and company have been saying, and that recovering those offices in the forthcoming elections, come what may, was the PDP’s firm resolve.

Whatever it may be, Ekiti has never been a “PDP state.”

In the 1999 general elections that terminated military rule, Ekiti elected a State Assembly in which the Alliance for Democracy (AD) enjoyed a controlling majority, and a governor on that party’s platform. More tellingly, it rejected in overwhelming numbers the presidential candidate of the PDP.

Four years later, a general election that local and international observers said was far and away the most fraudulent they had witnessed anywhere, literally buried the ACN in Southwestern Nigeria bar Lagos, where the canny Governor Bola Tinubu who honed his political skills in the toughest streets of Chicago had correctly anticipated and foiled the grand design of the fixers.

That monumental heist delivered the PDP to Ekiti, with a political nonentity, all flash and no substance as governor, and a razor-thin majority in the State Assembly.

Ayo Fayose’s time in office is largely remembered as an encounter of the unprepared with the unforeseen. Ekiti lurched from one crisis to another as he amused himself flying over its compact territory in an executive helicopter. Not for him the cratered roads crying out for repairs. He conceived no scheme more sophisticated than a so-called integrated poultry project that gulped billions of Naira without producing a single egg.

He became a liability even to the PDP that had steamrolled him into office and was impeached. The EFCC sandbagged him with a charge sheet so comprehensive that, if convicted, he would need several lifetimes to complete the cumulative sentence.

But the PDP was determined to hold on to its stolen trophy. It rigged its candidate Segun Oni into office at the election that followed. Instead of voiding the entire poll, the courts ordered a re-run in those constituencies where it had been marred by violence and irregularities. The PDP repeated the offence with brassiness on a scale almost beyond belief, leading the Returning Officer to declare that she could not in her Christian conscience announce the results handed to her.

Several days later, without formally renouncing her faith, she put aside her Christian conscience, dutifully read the confected returns, and urged those who felt aggrieved to go to court.

The ACN pursued the matter all the way to the Appeal Court, which declared that its candidate, Dr Kayode Fayemi, had been duly elected governor of Ekiti State.

In those towns where Fayose and Oni were not frankly despised, including the state capital, Ado-Ekiti, they were accorded only a tepid welcome. But even with Federal Might and “Africa’s biggest political party” behind them, they spent so much of their time and the state’s resources trying to shore up their insecure hold on power that they had little left to pursue meaningful development.

Since Dr Fayemi took office, Ekiti State has been a different place. He has reached out to the state’s legion of learned men and women whom Fayose and Oni alienated to generate ideas and programmes of development. He restored education to the centrality it has always enjoyed in the life of the people.

He has completed the roads Fayose and Oni abandoned, and constructed new ones.   He inaugurated a social safety net that provides monthly stipend for older residents, the first in Ekiti and one of the first nationwide. For the first time since its establishment, the Ikogosi Warm Springs can now be called a resort, and a tourist destination.

Dr Fayemi has accomplished all this and much more quietly and almost unobtrusively, without the histrionics that marked Fayose’s era or the smug vindictiveness of Oni’s time. Ekiti is thriving in ways it has never known. There, “transformation” is not a slogan; it is a lived reality.

That is also the case in the state of Osun, where the scope and the frenetic pace of development cannot but astonish those who knew what the place was like under PDP Governor Olagunsoye Oyinlola and what it is now under Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, who was elected on the platform of the ACN.

Now the PDP wants to put an end to all that. It has not phrased its quest as starkly as I have done here, but it cannot complain that I have misjudged its intent.

Only such an intent, plus overweening contempt for the Ekiti people, can explain why it drew Fayose out of his den and with scant regard for due process pressed him into service as its candidate in the gubernatorial election scheduled for June. That the process which produced the ticket was supervised by a hugely discredited former PDP governor the courts said the police must never arrest merely underscores the PDP’s desperation.

But that desperation is rooted in a morbid obsession, a consuming craving that knows no bounds and no restraints for what one cannot have.

It is a dangerous affliction. In the end, it drives its victim to destroy the object of his or her desire that refuses to be possessed. That is the psychology of morbid obsession.

Those who have been warning that the PDP will resort to blatant rigging to conscript Ekiti State into its fold, unmindful of the chaos that is sure to follow, cannot therefore be dismissed as idle alarmists.

Unless it is too far gone in its delusion, the PDP must know that it cannot win a free and fair election in Ekiti, much less with a candidate who has nothing to offer, and that if it turns Ekiti and Osun into “war fronts” for the forthcoming elections, it will have to do battle with their newly empowered residents.

April 29, 2014
‘General’ Sambo goes to the war front

Last Wednesday, Vice President Namadi Sambo spoke of his party’s preparations for the Ekiti and Osun elections slated for June and August respectively. He is of course entitled to speak and act with as much self-aggrandisement as he can muster, and to inflate the hopes and expectations of his party and its candidates. But what he is not entitled to is his undignified and provocative use of language, one that absolutely does not edify his office or person. “We are going to the war front to bring back our stolen mandate,” he said brutally, if a little surprisingly, for someone previously thought to be mild-mannered and more polished than his principal. “Everybody knows that Ekiti belongs to PDP: they used all instruments to take it away from us.”

With that careless innuendo, the vice president spoke many untruths and denigrated his high office. Comparing the Ekiti and Osun political campaigns to war fronts in a society struggling to exorcise the pernicious influences of military rule and the concomitant effects of militarised minds is both reckless and unreflective. He might, like any other nostalgic civilian, wish to romanticise the electoral battles ahead as military engagements, but the demands of his office, not to say the long-running battles his country has waged to democratise the polity and rid it of arbitrariness, ought to have sensitise him to the use of proper language and etiquette.

But likening politics to war was not the only gaffe the vice president made last Wednesday in Abuja. Like the often bucolic President Goodluck Jonathan, he also suggested wildly that the victories of the APC governors in Ekiti and Osun were procured by dangerous artifices, in particular through conniving courts. It sadly did not occur to the vice president that his office imposes great responsibility on him to sustain rather than undermine the independence and sanctity of the judiciary. As a matter of fact both he and the president, not to talk of the many philistines and hawks in top echelons of the PDP, actually believe the court judgements that brought the APC to power in Ekiti and Osun were illegitimately procured. Even if it were so, it is still unbecoming of the vice president to lend credence to such dangerous and damaging insinuations. Once the highest court of jurisdiction gives a judgement, state officials at the level of the presidency must act and speak decorously.

Vice President Namadi may have been put in charge of the PDP campaign to reclaim Ekiti and Osun States, but his reputation as a robust and suave mind should have dictated a better approach to the self-styled war he wishes so indecorously to wage. Had he in fact forborne a little and not excitedly subscribed to the historical fallacy bandied by PDP apparatchiks, he would have rephrased his inaccurate ascription of the two states’ ownership. While it is true that the PDP once governed the two states, it is even truer that the APC, through its progenitors, first governed the two states at the dawn of the Fourth Republic.

The vice president is, however, unlikely to find the motivation to restrain himself in his actions and use of language. It takes much deeper understanding of issues, not to say exposure to the politics and styles of other great climes, for those in high office in Nigeria to embrace measured and polished language. The desperation to win the coming polls in Ekiti and Osun, and everywhere in 2015, will consistently predispose both the president and the vice president, and of course many others in the PDP, to their characteristic fallacies and flippancy.

Two problems emerge from the vice president’s dangerous rhetoric. One is that the Nigerian government’s continuing misuse of power, as their often violent language and actions show, is one more confirmation that African rulers don’t react well to issues of power. Even though they are beneficiaries of modern constitutional arrangements, they have remained substantially and instinctively monarchical in mind and in practice. Any challenge to their persons and policies is nearly always perceived as treason, or in mild cases, as disrespectful of the ‘exalted office of the President.’ They therefore have less motivation in speaking or acting with the courteousness Nigerians demand of them and are constitutionally entitled to.

The second problem is the general unwillingness of African leaders to institute conditions and structures by which their societies could flower and endure. It is not too clear what is behind that slothfulness. Could it be a lack of knowledge, or just plain indiscipline? Looking at Dr Jonathan’s policies and hearing the vice president’s statements on Ekiti and Osun, it is tempting to think it is a question of ignorance. If they knew the positive implications of promoting democratic values and principles, they might be motivated to honour their oaths of office, knowing full well that in the long run, their successors, country and people, not to say their own children, would thrive in a stable polity, one in which justice, fairness and equity would reign.

But perhaps it is a question of lack of discipline. African leaders are notoriously undisciplined, privately and publicly, as past Nigerian rulers showed. Until Nelson Mandela came along, it was thought that the continent was an unrelenting landscape of brutal and undisciplined rulers who find it difficult to even obey the laws they themselves wrote. Vice-president Sambo owes it to himself as the polished mind we are used to not to surrender to the putrefactive mannerisms of his party. He is surely enlightened enough to know how to fight an election and campaign for votes with the decency inherent in his professional training and the civilisation intrinsic to his fundamental make-up. As for his principal, the one who enthrals only when he indulges his bucolic simplicity, this column gave up a long time ago.

April 20, 2014
2015: Plot to dump Sambo as Jonathan’s running mate thickens

•Four serving governors favoured

The plot to dump Vice President Namadi Sambo as running mate to President Goodluck Jonathan ahead of next year’s election is far from being over, according to indications last night.

The fresh plot is the brainchild of some political heavyweights from the North who believe that for the PDP to make the desired impact in that part of the country in the election, it must have a presidential running mate that is widely acceptable and politically savvy across the region.

Sambo, in their view, is too far removed from the realities of the politics of the region and therefore incapable of either addressing the issues or galvanising support for Jonathan ahead of the 2015 election.

Although the president is yet to publicly announce his intention to seek re-election, political watchers believe that his political machinery is already in place as he meets with different political interests across the nation on a regular basis.

A reliable source said in Abuja that the decision to drop Sambo was reached at a high level meeting and that Jonathan’s body language on the proposals must have influenced the decision of two of the PDP governors, who are at loggerheads with the President, to drop the idea of joining the opposition All Progressives Congress (APC).

Accordingly, four governors were pencilled down to replace Sambo.

These are Aliyu Babangida of Niger State, Sule Lamido of Jigawa State, Isa Yuguda of Bauchi and Ibrahim Shema of Katsina.

Some of the governors had, in the past, dissociated themselves from the alleged plot to replace Sambo who was the governor of Kaduna before he was picked by Jonathan as vice president after the death of President Umaru Yar’Adua.

The source said the political heavyweights behind the plot include some retired but influential Army generals from the region, emirs and an ex-president who is pushing for Lamido.

The source said: “Don’t be deceived by the denials and counter-denials. Would you have expected them to publicly accept the plot? What I know is that these persons have been meeting and Sambo might as well be on his last tour of duty as vice president unless something drastically changes the run of event.

“I can tell you that the strategic choice by Aliyu and Lamido to remain with the PDP was due to the promise extracted by some political heavyweights in the party to make one of them, preferably Lamido who is considered to be highly disciplined and with impressive political savvy in the North, to be nominated as vice president after Sambo has failed to command the kind of respect expected of anyone in that position in the North.”

Asked if the president would not be inflicting a grave injustice on his loyal deputy should he accept the suggestion, the source said the reality is that the president would have to analyse the options before him and take a decision that would positively affect his future.

“First, it was understood that the failure to bring the Boko Haram menace to an end or even try to talk to its leadership to stop the carnage and come to the roundtable for a peace talk was due to the fact that most persons in the North still do not recognise Sambo as a Northern leader. They see him as a businessman who knows little or nothing about the politics of his domain.

“What if I told you that Shema is also scheming to be vice president in spite of his repeated denials and there is a belief that former President Ibrahim Babangida might not support Babangida Aliyu as vice president due to some reasons?”

It was gathered that the political heavyweights rooting for a Lamido vice presidential ticket have been holding talks with Jonathan and may soon reach an agreement that would seriously endanger the political fortunes of Sambo in 2015.

The source said former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s sudden silence on the Jonathan presidency might not be unconnected with how far the political discourse has gone.

It is believed that Lamido should be able to garner support to match whatever threat the Buhari or APC strategy in the North might engender.

However, it was learnt that Sambo is not taking the matter lying low as he was said to have been meeting with some of the northern governors excluding those interested in his seat, in order to garner support for his candidacy.

April 13, 2014
Presidential Fleet

• 10 jets, yet, the president wants more !

The state of the nation cannot be better underscored than by reports that the N9bn Nigerian Air Force 001 (5N-FGT) presidential jet failed to deliver value for money when President Goodluck Jonathan was about boarding it. Not only that, the fact that three jets from the Presidential Fleet were used for the trip which was strictly a party affair also signposts the wastefulness in the government.

The president was about leaving the North-Central Peoples Democratic Party’s (PDP) rally that held at the Trade Fair Centre, Minna, Niger State, when the incident happened. He was reportedly about leaving Minna for another visit to Sokoto State when the plane suddenly developed fault. On board at the time, with the President waiting to be air borne were Adamu Muazu, National Chairman of the PDP, Tony Anenih, chairman of the party’s Board of Trustees, Ahmadu Ali, former chairman of the party and Attahiru Bafarawa, former Sokoto State governor, among others. The team was later forced to disembark from the plane while the battle to diagnose and fix the problem went on.

The plane that conveyed Vice President Namadi Sambo to the rally – a 5N-FGW smaller presidential jet was eventually used by the president while Sambo joined Senate President David Mark in another smaller presidential jet -5N-FGV- which conveyed the Senate President to the state. What this means is that a trivial ruling party’s rally witnessed deployment of three presidential jets that are serviced with tax payers’ money. Such acquisitions smack of contempt at a period when about 120 million Nigerians live below poverty level.

According to reports, the Presidential Fleet boasts 10 jets at the moment; yet, the presidency intends to acquire more. We wonder what is driving leaders in the nation away from the roads that commoners ply every day. May be this is because they have failed in their obligations to repair most highways/roads which terrorists and kidnappers have hijacked due to insecurity in the land. It is pathetic that many Nigerians die daily on these roads being heartlessly avoided by their leaders.

We are worried by the cost of maintaining the Presidential Fleet which the Airspace Management Agency, Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority and Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria, estimated at N9.08bn annually. The fleet include two Falcon 7X jets, two Falcon 900 jets, Gulf stream 550, one Boeing 737 BBJ (Nigerian Air Force 001 or Eagle One), and Gulf stream IVSP. Others are one Gulf stream V, Cessna Citation 2 aircraft and Hawker Siddley 125-800 jet. Despite the huge spending on the fleet – at grossly insensitive public expense – it is sad that one of them carrying the president still developed fault while on duty.

We are disturbed that the Presidential Fleet is competing with commercial airline operators given the number of aircraft in the fleet. Indeed, we wonder whether there is any compelling necessity for the fleet to be the third largest in the country. Assuming our commercial airlines are efficient, top government functionaries, including even the president can at best charter jets for important trips. After all, Queen Elizabeth of England and Prime Minister David Cameron often go on British Airways’ chartered flights for long trips.

The unnecessary proclivity of the presidency for expansive Presidential Fleet that is obviously ill-maintained (judging from what happened in Minna), despite the whopping budget set aside for its maintenance, does not project the country as a serious one to the outside world.

March 18, 2014
Jonathan laments high capital flight on medical tourism

President Goodluck Jonathan yesterday lamented the high rate and capital flight being wasted on medical tourism by Nigerians abroad.

He spoke through Vice President Namadi Sambo at a Presidential Summit on Universal Health Coverage (UHC) at the Banquet Hall of the State House, Abuja.

In a bid to achieve the 30 per cent health insurance coverage as targeted by the Federal Government, stakeholders have suggested ways to this, besides making it compulsory, as earlier canvassed.

At the summit, it was the opinion that quality health care could be achieved with the right political will.

President Jonathan noted that although Nigeria had made good progress in the health sector, it had not got to “where we ought to be.”

Stressing that the country was working with partners to improve healthcare services, he said many Nigerians in the diaspora are returning home to invest in the health system.

Said he: “We are not where we ought to be in health care delivery. For this to be possible, health insurance must be a regular culture, as it is at an unacceptable level.”

Urging Nigerians to be involved and contribute to the drive towards affordable healthy care delivery, the President said universal health coverage is the priority of government at all levels.

He said the challenges limiting the attainment of the universal health care are surmountable, as the political leadership would provide the support and commitment for the people to access it.

President Jonathan said: “We set our own target to achieve universal health carea next year and have invested in programmes towards this. We have worked with partners to access primary health care medicine and have also improved infrastructure.

“Many Nigerians in the diaspora are returning home to invest in our health care system. Social health insurance is also gaining ground. It is important that physical access to good health care can be achieved.

“We still have a large number of people today, travelling out of the country to seek health care services. The scale of medical tourism is enormously not justifiable. We are conscious that they can be addressed with appropriate policy review if desirable. The lawmakers and others must come together to make laws that will ensure better health delivery for Nigerians.”

The Minister of Health, Prof. Onyebuchi Chukwu, said financial access is possible if health insurance is made compulsory and treated as the right of citizens.

According to him, establishing independent health quality commission to ensure standard and compliance would also be desirable to enhance the desired results.

Towards boosting the universal health care system in the country, he suggested the introduction of one naira levy per telephone calls made by anybody in the country.

Ondo State Governor Olusegun Mimiko said to boost universal health care, the country needs better approach than just paying lip service.

A sustained political will, he said, would do all that was required in the drive to achieve universal health care by next year and that more than the targeted 30 per cent projection would be achieved.

March 11, 2014
Second term Namadi Sambo’s Cross

Vice President Namadi Sambo is fighting a tough political battle ahead 2015, reports Tony Akowe, Kaduna

The nomination of Mohammed Namadi Sambo, erstwhile governor of Kaduna State as Vice President, by President Goodluck Jonathan, following the vacuum created by the death of former President Umaru Musa Yar’adua, came to many as a surprise. But it marked a major change in the politics of Kaduna State as it paved the way for a Southern Kaduna man to be governor of the state for the first time.

That decision also paved the way for him to run with Jonathan as presidential candidates for the 2011 elections. Unfortunately however, he was unable to win any of the elections in his polling unit, ward and local government asthe opposition, Congress for Progressive Change emerged winner in all the elections.

Investigations revealed then that there may have been a gang-up against him by stakeholders in the area who felt that he has not been fair to them. One report have it that the elders in the area where Sambo lives vowed that he will never win election in his polling unit. Even though this could not be confirmed, the fact that he has lost all elections in that polling unit as well as ward, local government and state and National Assembly election there tends to prove the report right.

In recent times however, there appeared to be renewed moves to edge him out of office. The Nation learnt that such moves have never really ceased since 2011 elections. For example, we gathered that the supposed endorsement of Sambo to head Jonathan’s 2015 Declaration Committee has unsettled many people in the Jonathan camp.

Several names have been mentioned as likely replacement for Sambo as running mate to the President for the 2015 elections. Those whose names have been mentioned include Governors Sule Lamido of Jigawa State, Ibrahim Shehu Shema of Katsina State and Dr. Muazu Babangida Aliyu of Niger State. Although Shema has publicly announced that he was not interested in Sambo’s job, the other two have not made any comment on the rumour. It is widely believed that even though the other two governors were part of the splinter PDP which called itself New-PDP, their refusal to dump the party for the All Progressive Congress (APC) alongside their other colleagues may not be unconnected with the struggle to replace Sambo with one of them.

Some insiders allege therefore that Lamido and Shema may pose potential political threat to Sambo in view of their performance in their states and the fact that both governors are currently serving their second term and would not be eligible to contest the governorship in 2015. Governor Aliyu of Niger State is also another potential political threat.

But many believe that the working relationship between the President and Sambo is strong enough to earn him a return ticket with Jonathan. Ambassador Yusuf Mamman, former Nigerian Ambassador to Spain and spokesman of the Northern Elders Council, told The Nation that they believe there is the need for harmony and peaceful coexistence for democracy to thrive in the country.

He said: “First, I will say let us get to the bridge before we cross it. The President has not declared his stand but we in the Northern Elders Council believe there is the need for harmony, peaceful coexistence, democracy and development for Nigeria. Above all, we believe that the northern political culture has been such that when you say elders, they use moderated language and constructive engagement in the way and manner they articulate very serious national issues. We are not particularly happy with the fact that those who speak in a very ‘curse’ and belligerent posture tint the type of respectability which the northern elders and political leadership acquired over a long period of time. Don’t forget that the pluralism of the north has been a tendency that has multiplicity over time, right from the First Republic. The political leader of the north, as at today, is the Vice President, Namadi Sambo, and he enjoys a good working relationship with Mr. President. It is the belief of the council that this harmony, which our brother enjoys, should be supported and encouraged and that all men of good will from across the north should lend support to this good tag team to work in tandem and achieve greater harmony and cohesion”.

However, apart from people who are opposed to Jonathan’s plans to contest the 2015 elections, a decision that may affect Sambo, there is no doubt that he has a lot of work to do on the home front to gain the confidence of his people. There is also no doubt that the PDP in the state has been weakened by the defection of several key members to the APC. Even though leaders of the PDP in the state would not want to publicly admit the fact that there is a major problem within the party that needs urgent attention before the elections, the defection of majority of members of the Makarfi group within the party is a major setback that is capable of affecting the fortunes of the party in the state.

But one thing that is going for the Vice President however is the number of federal projects that Kadauna State and indeed the North-West has enjoyed from the present administration. For example, nine of the new Federal Universities established by the Jonathan administration are located in the north with four of them located in the North-West geopolitical zone. The universities are located in Gusua in Zamfara, Dutse in Jigawa, Dustin-Ma in Katsina and Birnin Kebbi in Kebbi states for the North-West, while the rest are located in Lafia in Nasarawa, Lokoja in Kogi, Kashere in Gombe, Wukari inTaraba and Gashua in Yobe State.

Kaduna State, which is Sambo’s home state, has also benefited tremendously from the Jonathan administration with several ongoing projects running into several billions of naira. For example, there is a multibillion fast rail track connecting Abuja to Kaduna in addition to the Galma Dam project, which is near completion aimed at providing raw water for the multipurpose Zaria water supply scheme, the Gurara Dam project, the Kudenda Power Project, among others. The completion of these projects will improve the economy of the state.

Zakari Sogfa, a former Commissioner for Justice in the state and National Coordinator of the Get It Right Nigeria, believes that Kaduna State has never had it so good under any government. Some believe that these projects are capable of increasing the rating of the Vice President back home.

Even though the decision on whether or not to retain Sambo as Vice President lies with Jonathan, it is evident that PDP leaders are afraid that PDP may lose Kaduna State. events tends to prove otherwise as PDP stakeholders in the state have failed to admit that there is a major threat to them posed specifically by the APC. The people of Southern Kaduna are no doubt key to retaining the state by the party as they have always voted enmasse for one party during elections. Isaiah Balat, one of the founding fathers of the party in the area and command lot of respect and has the ability to reach out to stakeholders in the area is no longer on the scene. Government is believed to be treating elders from the area with kids gloves and this has the potential of affecting the fortune of the party in the area. If this happens, it may be a major setback for Sambo. While the people may have decided to rally round Mrs. Lawrentia Mallam as Minister from the area, The Nation gathered that her nomination did not initially go down well with party faithful in the area. Unless the PDP is able to hold on to the votes coming from Southern Kaduna, they stand the risk of losing Kaduna and this will further put Sambo in tight corner.

Interestingly, Sambo and his aides have chosen to remain silent on the moves to edge him out as Vice President and get Jonathan to appoint another deputy. However, those against the Vice President are said to be uncomfortable with the recent visit of a delegation from Bayelsa state to Sambo. The delegation led by the state governor, Seriake Dickson and included prominent sons of Bayelsa state was said to have commended the Vice President for his total and unwavering loyalty to their son, President Jonathan. Sambo was quoted as telling the delegation that the confidence he receives from the president encourages him to do even more, saying “I want to assure you that I will personally continue to give my full support and loyalty to Mr. President. I also assure you that we will not allow anything to detract us. The Transformation Agenda of Mr. President is well on track. We will continue to work in the interest of Nigeria; we will continue to work as patriotic Nigerians and we will ensure that we deliver dividends of democracy to Nigerians.”

Before his death, Late Senator Isaiah Balat who was Sambo’s Adviser on Special Duties tends to have confirmed moves by some people to get the President replace Sambo as his running mate. In an article published by The Nation on Sunday of February 9, 2014, Balat said “while most of these political gamblers are already in the camp of the opposition and are surreptitiously working against the interest of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), they are still posturing as members, indeed leaders, of the ruling party and they would want the world to believe that they alone can deliver Kaduna to President Goodluck Jonathan in 2015. And the plot they have devised is simply to denigrate the person of the Vice President in pursuit of their ambition. So desperate have these politicians become that, almost on a daily basis now, they invent stories about how “unpopular” the VP has become in the North just as they are now screaming themselves hoarse about the ‘dwindling fortunes’ of the PDP in Kaduna State. They persist because the VP would neither be distracted by the antics of those who do not wish the PDP and the Jonathan administration well nor join issues with political time-servers who would want to drag him down with them. Yet there should be a limit to the kind of dirty politicking that is becoming a daily feast now as we move towards the 2015 general elections”.

The next few months will be very crucial in the politics of Kaduna and indeed the north as politicians battle to outdo each other. The decision by the President to contest or not to contest will also be very crucial and has a lot to do with whether Sambo will remain in the corridors of power as Vice President or not. Sambo has no doubt been a loyal follower of the President and even though many believe that he is not aggressive enough, it is important to say that the President may not need any deputy for now who will rock the boat.

March 9, 2014
2015: PDP’s new calculation in Imo

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has held a rally to welcome defectors from the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Owerri, capital of Imo State. Correspondent KINGSLEY NDIDI examines the implications of the defection for the ruling party in the Southeast state.

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is on the prowl in Imo State. At a rally in Owerri, the state capital, party leaders vowed to reclaim power from the All progressives Congress (APC) governor, Owelle Rochas Okorocha. But, the governor is not sleeping on guard. He said that the PDP chieftains were day dreaming. The rally took place at the Dan Anyiam Stadium. It was attended by President Goodluck Jonathan, Vice President Namadi Sambo, PDP National Chairman Alhaji Adamu Mu’azu, Chairman Board of Trustees (BoT) Chief Tony Anenih, Senate President David Mark, and some governors. .

The rally was organised to welcome defectors from the APC. The defectors include former Governor Achike Udenwa, Senator Ifeanyi Ararume Imo East), Senator Chris Anyanwu, and Chief Mike Ahamba (SAN).

President Jonathan urged party members to gird their loins, ahead of the 2015 polls. He said they should learn from the wrangling and discord, which permitted a crack on the wall in 2011.

The governor of Akwa Ibom State and Chairman of PDP Governors’ Forum, Chief Godswill Akpabio, said that, with the return of the old members, the PDP will reclaim the state.

He charged the party leaders to to promote unity in the fold. “We are not just here to receive the returnees, but their thousands of supporters and, with what we have seen so far. the PDP has recaptured Imo State. The will of God is that, in 2015, the PDP flag will fly again in Imo government House,” he said.

The Senate President advised the PDP family to forget the past and forge ahead in the spirit of new understanding. His deputy, Senator Ike Ekweremadu, assured that the party will bounce back next year after the polls.

Anenih was more optimistic that the PDP will regain power in the state in 2015. He said: “With the return of our great members, the job is already done.”

Mu’azu, who was impressed by the huge crowd, said: “The

he journey to recapture Imo has just started and the new leadership of the PDP is committed to reclaiming all the states we have lost as a result of internal problems”.

He added: “Now, that we have found the answers to our problems and, with the returnees, I want to assure you that Imo State has fallen”.

The national chairman however, appealed to the aspirants to thread softly. He said: “This is a brand new PDP and only our very best will be fielded during the 2015 election”.

The Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives and governorship aspirant, Hon Emeka Ihedioha, said: “Imo is a PDP state and today we have earnestly began the journey to take back the state. We made mistakes in the past, but we are back. We misunderstood ourselves and power slipped off our hands, but today, our brothers who strayed away are back and that is one of the things we need to return to Douglass House”.

President Jonathan described the rally as a reunion that will strengthen the party. He said: “We are here for unity rally because of our brothers that stepped out, but have stepped back. The PDP is the only stable party in Nigeria and we will continue to play a major role in the country”.

However, observers contend that the PDP has some some hurdles to cross. Certain elements in the party are not comfortable with the return of the founding fathers. The governorship race is already crowded. No fewer than 10 strong members of the party are struggling for the ticket. They belong to the various caucuses. They cannot be ignored because they are party financiers. They Ihedioha, Senator Hope Uzodinma, Acting Minister of Aviation Prof. Viola Onwuliri, Chief Jerry Chukwueke, former Governor Ikedi Ohakim and Ararume.

A political analyst, Chief Stanley Egwudia, expressed doubt about the ability of the different factions to agree on a consensus ccandidate. He said: “The storm is brewing in the state chapter of the PDP. The celebrated return of these heavy weights to the PDP will do more harm than good for the party. It will further break the rank of the party. All of them returning to the party have one ambition or the other they could not realize outside the party and they returned with the hope of getting retribution”.

A clear pointer to this fact was the move by a faction of the party to concede the governorship slot to Ararume as a compensation for the injustice done him in 2007, which made him dump the party after the governorship election.

Another challenge is that Okorocha has performed creditably to earn the people’s loyalty.

In Imo State today, the feeling is that the PDP has ruled the state for 12 years without anything to show for it and the electorate are known to be resolute and cannot be easily swayed by political statements or monetary inducement.

February 26, 2014