The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Okoko

  • Flooding: Okoko residents cry for help

    Heavy rains have brought untold hardship upon residents of Jimoh Street and its environs in Okokomaiko, a suburb of Lagos State.

    In the last few days, environmentalists have called for urgent intervention by the state government to prevent the outbreak of a disaster in the area as the rainy season gets underway.

    Residents’ cry for help was led by the chairman of Community Development Association (CDA) for Odo Oniresi, Chief Emmanuel Ajila.

    The community leader attributed the flood to a combination of factors while stressing the need for an urgent intervention to prevent the situation from worsening in the coming weeks.

    Ajila who commended the effort of Governor Akinwunmi Ambode in the state said the cause of the flood ravaging the area was abandonment of construction work on the streets.

    “The works were supposed to start from Jimoh Street and then linked Kaka, but instead they started from Suya junction to PPL and Ora through Kaka, thereby cutting off half of Jimoh Street from the whole work,” he explained.

    He said: “Presently, work is going on at these other areas. Jimoh Street is 720 meters long. Construction work extends to only 180 metres while the remaining 500 metre is cut off.”

    He enumerated the efforts made so far by the community to draw the attention of the government. “We have written letters to the Commissioner of Works and Infrastructure

    Development, under the aegis of Positive Forum Association of Jimoh Street and the letter was acknowledged by the ministry. Despite that, the water connector approved for this area has yet to be done.”

    Alhaji Ajila appreciated the quick response of the state governor, stating: “He is the first Lagos State governor that listened to the cry of the poor masses in Okokomaiko.”

  • Nwabueze, Oyebode, Okoko, others seek new constitution

    Nwabueze, Oyebode, Okoko, others seek new constitution

    Some eminent Nigerians rose from a meeting in Lagos yesterday, demanding a new constitution as a precursor of restructuring.

    To the Leaders of Thought, restructuring cannot be implemented by an amendment of the 1999 Constitution. A new constitution approved by the people at a referendum is necessary, they said.

    Addressing reporters after the meeting, the group’s chairman, Prof. Ben Nwabueze, noted that while the clamour for restructuring was sweeping across the country, “the National Assembly is still regaling us with talks about constitution amendment, buttressing its position with the erroneous assertion that the 1999 Constitution can only be amended or altered”.

    Nwabueze said: “The view that the 1999 Constitution cannot be completely abolished and replaced by a new Constitution is erroneous because the National Assembly fails to take into account the fact that the 1999 Constitution is only a schedule to Decree 24 of 1999”.

    He argued that the Decree is an existing law under section 315 of the 1999 Constitution and, like all existing laws, can be repealed by the National Assembly.

    “We think the way for Nigeria is for the people, in exercise of the power inherent in them as a sovereign people, to make, through a referendum, a new Constitution, consisting a new political order. The process must be led by a President, as the elected leader of the people imbued by an ardour for change.”

    The chairman said the group believed “that negotiated restructuring, implemented under a new constitution, is the best assurance for the realisation of our desire for one Nigeria”. “We members of Southern Leaders of Thought are committed patriots, imbued with an abiding faith in one Nigeria, and the belief that the majority of Nigerians share the same faith.”

    Nwabueze urged the Federal Government to give the people an opportunity to negotiate changes in governmental structures needed to accomplish their desires, believing that appropriate structures must be put in place for good governance.

    He told reporters that the leader of Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu, had mandated him to tell the Federal Government that he (Kanu) would caution his followers to slow down or call off the struggle for actualisation of Biafra if the government accepts the Leaders of Thought’s position on restructuring. According to Nwabueze, Kanu also promised to back down on the threat to disrupt the 2019 elections.

    Nwabueze said in a country with a vast expanse of territory, with diversity of ethnic nationalities, with divergent interests and outlook, a federal system is the most appropriate for us. We, therefore, demand the kind of federalism that existed under the 1960 and 1963 Constitutions, he stated.

    According to him, the essential purpose of restructuring is to enable the component ethnic nationalities grouped together by affinity of culture or language or territorial congruity to govern themselves in matters of internal concerns.

    He identified the factors that negate true federalism in Nigeria as over concentration of political power and resources at the centre. A way out, according to him is to revisit the exclusive and concurrent legislative lists with a view to devolving power to the States.

    At the meeting were Prof Kimse Okoko, Chief Solomon Asemota (SAN), Prof Sola Ehindero and Prof Akin Oyebode.

  • ‘Avert crisis in Okoko’

    The Lagos State Government has been asked to prevent a breakdown of law and order in Okokomaiko over the filling of its throne.
    It was learnt that a man has been parading himself as the next in line to the throne. But a family member, Alhaji Jamiu Bolaji Bello, in a statement yesterday described the man’s action as improper, adding that the community “comprises about 10 families with equal access to the throne.”
    The families, Bello said, had to resolve to take a collective decision on the matter.
    “I appeal to the Lagos State Commissioner for Local Government to wade in and monitor some unscrupulous persons flaunting themselves as the ruling family or anyone parading himself as the Oba in the interest of peace. The community is peace loving and virtually all ethnic groups reside there. I implore the commissioner to check any group that attempts to cause disharmony without hesitating to involve the law enforcement agency,” Bello said.
    He also urged the Oba Rilwan Akiolu-led Council of Obas to ensure that a democratic procedure prevailed during the selection.

  • Bayelsa govt condemns Okoko’s suit against new varsity

    Balyesa State yesterday condemned a suit by a former President of Ijaw National Congress (INC), Prof. Kimse Okoko, challenging the new University of Africa at Toru-Ora.

    The professor of Political Science claimed Governor Seriake Dickson was using state’s resources to set up a university he would later convert to his private institution.

    But in a statement by Commissioner of Information and Orientation Mr. Jonathan Obuebite, the government described the suit as “most reprehensible, mischievous and highly unpatriotic”.

    The government said the professor was not aware the institution was a deliberate attempt by the state to invest in education as a strategic means to develop the state.

    The statement said: “The action of Professor Okoko is frivolous and a calculated attempt to peddle falsehood and a clear incitement against the government.

    “For the avoidance of doubt, as we have severally stated, the establishment of the University of Africa at Toru-Orua was facilitated by the instrumentality of the state.

    “It is a fee-paying institution and its operations, not ownership, is based on a Public Private Partnership (PPP) model and strategic collaborations with partnering universities and international institutions that will offer world-class education, which will further attract related investments to the state.

    “Already, the university, which was conceived as a first-rate institution of learning, has attracted so many partners from around the world, based on our high standard and expectation and the need to have such robust resources and intellectual enterprise to run it successfully.

    “Just yesterday (at the weekend), the governor received a new partners who came on a visit to his office.”

    The government averred that Okoko’s action was a fallout of the failure of his candidate in the last governorship election.

    It said: “Obviously, Prof. Okoko is still smarting from the humiliating defeat of his candidate in the governorship election. But this will not, in any way, deter us from cleaning up the terrible mess left behind by him and his ilk.

    “For the record, our government has made more investment in education than any other in the state. It is sad to note that with the benefits and privileges the like of Prof. Okoko got from the state, he was antagonising the state on such frivolous grounds.

    “Indeed, one would have expected that he would play the role of a respected elder statesman to support the development of the state, instead of playing cheap politics…”

  • Okoko: Why I ‘m candidate to beat in Akwa Ibom

    Okoko: Why I ‘m candidate to beat in Akwa Ibom

    The ambition of Benjamin Enobong Okoko, a governorship aspirant in the Peoples Democratic Party in Akwa Ibom State, has unsettled the kingmakers.  In the party, there is lack of internal democracy. The acrimony in the party is among some of the stakeholders, who brought the party to the state, managed and nurtured it effectively.

    The party’s primaries for the selection of candidates to represent the party in the elections are another test case between the founding members and those who joined the party.

    Incidentally, in the 2015 governorship race in the state, the only founding member of the party in the race is Mr. Benjamin Enobong Okoko, who co-founded the PDP in 1998 alongside seven other patriots. The others are Chief Don Etiebet, who was the state leader, Obong Victor Attah and Senator Anietie Okon as conveners from Uyo Senatorial district.

    Dr.  Ime Titus Okopido and Sen Emmanuel Ibok Essien as conveners from Ikot Ekpene Senatorial District while Eket District had Benjamin Enobong Okoko and the late Dan Etukudoh. As conveners of the PDP, they were charged with the responsibility of establishing the party.

    Among the founding members of the party, Okoko is now the only one aspiring to the Akwa Ibom Hill top mansion. At the age of 37, he contested the party primary in 1998 and won but the leaders intervened saying he was still a young man with prospect in future. Since then he had made two other attempts stalled through the party’s intervention.

    Okoko expressed his feeling thus: “It is said that greatness is not in how many times you fall, but being able to rise each time you fall. 1999 is a story everybody knows. The 1999 election was supposed to have been a coronation for me as everything was set. But some leaders of the party approached and prevailed on me to withdraw my candidature for the governorship election in 1998/1999 election. I accepted it without any condition.

    “In 2003, I ran and the party decided that the incumbent should have a second term. In 2006 we had a crowd of about 60 aspirants. There was complete confusion, but the party decided it was Governor Godswill Akpabio that should have the ticket. He got the ticket and ran. In 2011, I didn’t run because I became wiser, I came to understand my party better knowing that it is not easy to run against the incumbent seeking a second term.

    “In 2015, Governor Akpabio is finishing his second term. So, I feel I have to come out. With the experience I have the previous times, I really understand the politics better this time. I am quite optimistic to be successful this time and four is my lucky number.”

    Since launching his campaign in the state, Okoko’s strategy to pick the party’s ticket has totally put other aspirants in a tight corner and confusion especially when he was not expected in the race. He remains the first aspirant in the state to consult the party both at the local and state levels.

    As a bonafide party man, Okoko made history by making his first point of contact to be the party.  It was like a presidential directive or an order from the national headquarters of the party that the state party leadership both at state and local government levels should open their doors and receive to Okoko’s campaign train.

    Out of the number of aspirants in the state, none ever deemed it fit to consult the party, until Okoko made the move. After consulting the state executive, Okoko, did not stop there but embarked on a state-wide consultation of 31 local government local government chapters of the party where he addressed the executive members and party faithful.

    His reception by the chapters was another homecoming of an original party man. The leadership urged Okoko, who started his political career as a chapter officer, to restore the supremacy and dignity of the party officers as key players of Government.

    The plight of PDP officers at these levels was described as pathetic especially after serving the party judiciously. “There is nothing to show for our loyalty to the party. Our mandate as trustees for the party is with an empty stomach,” he said appealing to Okoko to remember that he started his politics as an officer of the party and should therefore reverse the trend his colleagues are passing through in the state

    To the PDP members, it was like a dream come true; that the restorer has arrived and from their disposition, mostly characterised by intermittent smiles and outburst of joy, it was obvious their hopes have been rekindled.

    Okoko,  promised that with their support, the party will be returned to its proper place of pride.  He admonished them to join hands and ensure that only a true party man becomes the next governor of the state.

    With his sincerity of purpose and track record, it was not totally surprising that the entire 31 local government chapters of the party  were unanimous in accepting, confirming, agreeing that Okoko would emerge the PDP standard bearer of the party and shall go ahead to contest the 2015 governorship election and succeed Akpabio, as the next governor.

    They took this decision because they decided to go back to history and trace the root of the party. Having glanced into the immediate past, they resolved that justice should be the foundation for political stability. They remembered that Okoko did not join the party but co-founded the party in 1998.

    They remembered his sacrifice to the party when he was told to let go the ticket to pave the way for Obong Attah to become governor from Uyo senatorial district. They also remembered that he obeyed the party unconditionally and has remained a loyal, faithful, committed and dedicated party man under the umbrella.

    In addition, they remembered that he has not left the party since its formation. They remembered that in spite of the fact that he is yet to  benefit from the party he co-founded, he has held on to the party.

    Okoko conducted the first  state and local government congresses of the PDP  in 1999, which saw the emergence of party executives. He was the second National Publicity Secretary of the PDP; former Member, PDP National Working Committee (NWC); former Member, PDP National Executive Committee (NEC); former Chairman, PDP National Electoral Panel, Kwara State; former Member, PDP National Convention Committee and pioneer Secretary, PDP South South/South East Caucus.