The Nation Newspaper

Tag: politics

  • ‘Politics no threat to Port Harcourt Book Festival‘

    ‘Politics no threat to Port Harcourt Book Festival‘

    Founder of Rainbow Book Club, Mrs Koko Kalango has reassured Nigerians that the current political crises in Rivers State will not impact negatively on this year’s Port Harcourt Book Festival holding in October. She said concrete steps are being taken to institutionalise the festival such that it could run successfully on its own with little or no support from government. The festival originally known as Garden City Literary Festival has been changed to Port Harcourt Book Festival. This transformation, she said, is to enable organisers to expand the scope of the festival beyond literary, which many think restrict the content of the festival. She also noted that the change of name for the festival was in line with international best practices where festivals such as London Book Fair, The Cape Town Book Fair, The Edinburgh Book Festival and Frankfurt Book Fair are named after their host cities.

    “There are apparently several Garden Cities around the world and on the world wide web, which creates a lot of room for ambiguity. However, there is only one Port Harcourt. The name change, therefore, makes us easily and quickly recognisable by internet search engines,” she added.

    She disclosed that the founding of the Port Harcourt Book Society, which comprises elder statesmen such as Elechi Amadi and Prof Tekena Tamuno as patrons, and Tonye Cole Chidi Amuta as trustees among others is one of such steps at institionalising the festival for sustainability. “The institutionalisation of the festival is on course. And the festival is not only important to Port Harcourt and Nigeria but also to the continent. The festival has come to stay. In fact, a development driven project like the festival will always weather the political storm currently threatening the state,” she said.

    Kalango who spoke in Lagos recently on update on the festival stressed that the festival is very important because it is the year for the celebration of Port Harcourt centenary anniversary aswell as the last festival before the UNESCO Book Capital City activities. She explained that for ‘us to be able to play on the world stage, we must look into creative industry and its benefits. Our writers and Nollywood artistes must synergise in bringing our good books to limelight for the globe to enjoy.’

    The festival that has Literature and the creative economy as theme will motivate and inspire creative minds to take advantage of the global ‘economic spring’ to express themselves, square up to challenges facing the sector and exceed aspirations. It will focus on sub-themes such as literature and the performing arts, digital technology and the literary sector, museums, and cultural heritage and the sustainability of the creative industries.

    Among the guest authors expected at the festival include winner of 2012 LNG Prize for Literature, Chika Unigwe, Julius Agwu, and Titi Horsfall. There Was A Country by Chinua Achebe, On Black Sisters’ Street by Chika Unigwe, Jokes Apart by Julius Agwu, and Esther by Titi Horsfall make the ‘books of the festival.’ The festival will feature symposium, book fair, meet the author sessions, writers workshops (script writing), events for children and drama performances.

     

  • Leave me out of Rivers politics, says First Lady

    Leave me out of Rivers politics, says First Lady

    First Lady Patience Jonathan yesterday said she is free to visit Rivers State.

    She also accused the Rivers State government of failing to condole with her over the death of her mother, Madam Charity Oba

    Dame Patience arrived in her home state on Sunday for a three- day visit to prepare for the funeral of her mother. She reportedly snubbed River State Deputy Givernor Tele Ikuru, who was at the airport to receive her, opting to allow Wife of Bayelsa State Governor Mrs Dickson to receive her.

    She moved from the Port Harcourt Airport to her hometown Okrika, although there was a heavy presence of security at her home in old GRA, Port Harcourt.

    But a statement by the Director of Information, Office of the First Lady, Mrs Ayo Adesugba yesterday said Dame Patience is always being portrayed as “an aggressor” the way her visits to Rivers State are reported.

    She said: “It should be clear to all that for quite some time now, the First Lady has refrained from commenting on issues relating to the Rivers state crisis while these gladiators have continued to use every media at their disposal to fan the embers of disharmony and hatred.”

    She added: “By now, every right thinking person should know those genuinely interested in peace and those who claim to be democrat and committed to peace, but who have continued to heat up the polity.

    “It is for this reason of the intrigue at play that the First Lady would want to be left out of Rivers state crisis, hence making her visit to the state as quiet as possible, so as not to give room for mischief makers to succeed in their plans.

    “Ordinarily, the wife of the state governor receives the First Lady whenever she visits any state. That is why the wife of Bayelsa State governor travelled from Yenagoa to receive the First Lady.

    “In addition, as a daughter of Rivers state, the First Lady is free to visit the state any time she desires. But we are forced to ask: why the presence of the First Lady in Rivers state always generate rumpus?”

    “It should be noted that while several groups and individuals from across the country came to condole with the First Lady and Mr. President on the death of her mother, no official of Rivers state government deemed it fit to pay the first family condolence visit, yet they claimed the First Lady is a daughter of Rivers state.

    “He who must go to equity must go with clean hands. They should learn to give respect to those who deserve respect so that they too can earn respect.” She said.

     

  • The Lagos deportation saga and 2015 politics

    Given the irresponsible and remorseless exploitation by Bode George and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) of the controversy that arose from the ‘deportation’ of some Anambrarians from Lagos recently, it is guaranteed that the matter will linger well into the 2015 general elections. Even if we ignore the fact that the so-called deportation, or resettlement as Lagos described it, has been going on in some states for a while, the problem is sufficiently serious enough to alert the country’s leadership and all patriotic Nigerians to the potentially explosive problem of how to define an indigene of a state, and what his rights and obligations are. The problem has been left dangerously unattended to for far too long.

    I think the Lagos State government was not sensitive enough to the implications of resettling those it described as destitute. It must find ways of making amends, whether it meant well in taking the action or not, or whether others had done it before or not. But Anambra and all those prattling about the rights of the destitute must also understand the security concerns of Lagos, the limited resources at the disposal of the state, the fact that the federal government has irresponsibly not made any special allocation to assist Lagos in tackling its worsening social and economic pressures, and the fact that there is a limit to how Lagos can cater for the jobless and the dispossessed within its borders. In any case it is hard to see how resettling a little over a dozen people constitutes a deliberate and wide-ranging policy of discrimination against anyone or state, let alone an ethnic group.

    It is indeed a reflection of the unresolved national question, an issue that is worsening as the years go by, that the Igbo somehow inexplicably and hysterically rose up nearly in unison to attack Lagos for discriminatory practices. Very incendiary remarks have been made, and there are threats of political backlash against the All Progressives Congress (APC) in 2015. There has also been incredibly silly and inaccurate talk of Lagos being a no man’s land, especially by its nature as a former federal capital. In the past one decade or more, and as Lagos began to rebuild its collapsed infrastructure, it has become a magnet for millions of Nigeria, thus further putting pressure on its limited resources. The challenge before the state is how to cope with these pressures; and its dilemma is how to define the Lagosian within the ambit of the constitution.

    Lagos State is undisputedly the navel of the former Western Region. There is no conceivable ethnographic argument that will make it less so. Indeed, in the light of the crisis in Plateau State, it is irresponsible that any group could hint directly that it would introduce and even actively nurture ethnic politics in the 2015 elections in Lagos. This indicates that the controversy over definition of a state indigene in Nigeria is too urgent to be postponed or left to resolve itself. Time will not resolve it.

    In my numerous contributions on the Plateau crisis, I had suggested it was unrealistic, as the National Assembly has unwisely tried to do, to define a state indigene as the Americans do. Nigerian ethnic groups have an unbreakable and fanatical attachment to their lands and languages. It is pointless to make it otherwise. Unlike the Americans and Australians who shoved aside indigenous populations and virtually rewrote their histories afresh, Nigerians are unlikely to ever admit to that kind of novelty. I go as far as to suggest that linguistic affinity should be the basis of Nigeria’s federal arrangement if we really want to settle the national question and achieve peace.

    I sympathise with Lagos and appreciate the dilemma it faces in trying to provide the good life for its indigenes and all taxpaying Nigerians resident and working in the state. It should patiently and cautiously approach the problem and do its best to resolve all lingering issues and disagreements within the framework of a united country. It must learn to ignore peddlers of hate ideology as it strives to build a multicultural megacity and work out ways to resist and defeat those who try to exploit ethnic differences. The problem is, however, not Lagos alone, or first, to resolve. The initiative must come from the centre, and the problem must be tackled holistically. Sadly, the Jonathan government and the unconscionable leaders of the PDP in the state, as the last political campaigns showed, are more eager to fan ethnic hatred for political gains than provide the leadership these dangerous times need.

  • Don’t jettison politics , Muslims urge Obi

    Anambra state Muslim Council yesterday urged Governor Peter Obi to jettison the idea of retiring from politics after handing over next year.

    In his Eid’l Fitr message to the state, Anambra State Secretary General, Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs , Alhaji Sanni Ejoh, said Obi is still very much relevant to the political and economic development of Anambra State and Nigeria.

    Ejoh said, “Governor Peter Obi should jettison the idea of retiring from politics after handing over next year because he is still very much relevant to the political and economic development of Anambra State and Nigeria going by his unparalleled achievements in Anambra State so far.”

    He added that ‘’Muslims should intensify prayers for the successful conduct of the 2013 local government and governorship elections in the state.”

  • ‘APC registration will open up political space’

    In a courtesy visit to The Nation office in the FCT, the Citizens Network for Peace and Development (CNPD) has said the registration of the All Progressives Congress (APC) by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) will help to open up the political space and deepen the nation’s democracy.

    The CNPD led by its Director General, Comrade Preye Dressman, lauded INEC for operating strictly within the law in approving the merger.

    The group also urged politicians to play by the rule and avoid political violence.

    The CNPD, while condemning the killing of innocent citizens by the Boko Haram sect and other sects in Borno, Kano and Nasarawa State, urged the members of the sects to sheathe their swords and embrace peace and reconciliation being offered by the Federal Government.

    “We condemn in totality the senseless killing of innocent citizens by Boko Haram in Borno, Kano and Nassarawa State; no nation can advance under this kind of violence”.

    “We therefore call on Boko Haram insurgents to sheathe their swords and embrace peace and reconciliation being offered by the Federal Government.”

    “We also aim to develop creative and effective solutions to national problems and issues by providing a platform for analysis, dialogue and advocacy,” he added.

    The Director-General who stated that the network is working towards monitoring and evaluating government programmes and policies added that its aim is to ensure that peace reign in every part of the country.

    The Deputy Editor, Nations Capital, Mr Yomi Odunuga who received the group, promised that the organisation will give adequate reportage to all groups’ programmes and activities without any bias, noting it is the responsibility of the media to reflect all voices regardless of their political leanings.

     

  • Address politics, leadership solve problems in schools

    The influence of politics on the administration of schools may be doing more harm than good, says, chairman of Executive Trainers Ltd (ETL), Dr Ayo Ogunsan.

    Ogunsan said in an interview with journalists that governments at various levels should limit their role to that of financial investment and leave the running of tertiary institutions to their governing councils.

    “The day we remove politics from the administration of universities, polytechnics and colleges of education in Nigeria is the day we will have an endurable system that every one of us will be proud of. Politics is the problem. I don’t know the business of a governor, president in administering our education. You invest and remove your hands; let the governing council you put there administer; provide them with funds that they need and allow them to generate funds. Education and politics should be separated,” he said.

    Ogunsan also said for Nigerian tertiary institutions to be better run, their leadership must be well trained.

    He explained that exposure to international best practices from renowned facilitators in world-class institutions would help equip managers of Nigerian tertiary institutions with knowledge and skills to move their institutions forward.

    Ogunsan, whose firm has spent the past five years organising international training programmes for Vice-Chancellors, Rectors, Provosts and other principal officers in renowned ivory towers around the globe, said through the platform, university administrators and others have learnt how to forge international linkages; manage resources; check crisis, insecurity, enhance productivity among others.

    He added that participants in such training over the years have testified of the effect and have sought training for other cadre of workers in their institutions.

    He said: “Because of what these top executives in Nigerian institutions like the provosts, vice-chancellors, and the rectors have seen, they now said they have other officials, academics and administrators that need similar training; that we should try to amend our rules that we are only for top executives; that we should extend our reach to all the people on the ladder, the rank and file.

    “In 2010 we started taking the other workers along. We took all heads of security for the crisis management programme in Dubai; we have taken Bursars to look at problems on accounting, financial matters in tertiary institution, sourcing for funds, funding of tertiary institutions which has become a big problem because most of them want to know how to generate revenue internally without relying on their federal allocations so that they can be competitive with all other institutions around the globe, so we designed a programme for bursars from Nigerian tertiary institutions and we held the first one this year in Dubai and the anchor man for that programme is the bursar of Oxford University.”

    To mark its fifth anniversary on September 5, Dr Ogunsan said ETL will be hosting its past participants to a lecture titled: “Advancing Higher Education in Nigeria through training and retraining of Manpower”, scheduled to hold at the Chelsea Hotel, Abuja.

    He said the firm will also be signing training agreements with renowned institutions like Oxford, Cambridge, Harvard and the like.

    “To mark our fifth anniversary we decided to sign some agreement with some notable institution around the globe because our clients indicated that they would want to relate with institutions that matter in the world. So we decided to sign contracts with Cambridge University, Oxford University in United Kingdom; Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Boston, United State, and by September we will have our first programme in Harvard, taking Nigeria Vice chancellors, provosts, and registrars, for a training titled: ‘Leadership, vision and change’,” he said.

     

  • 2014: Will Obi quit politics?

    2014: Will Obi quit politics?

    Anambra State Governor Peter Obi has hinted that he would quit politics when his tenure expires next year. Correspondent NWANOSIKE ONU chronicles the ups and downs of his political career.

     

     

    Anambra State Governor Peter Obi chose an auspicious venue and event to announce his plan to quit politics when his tenure ends next year. It was, at the St. Bartholomew’s Church, Asata, Enugu State during the second session of the 15th Synod of the Anglican Diocese of Enugu.

    “A very prominent person called me today and asked me of my plan concerning politics after my current tenure. This is what I told him.

    “For me, I have come to the end of it. I want to quit and rest. However, I have been praying to God that, for the sake of the good people of Anambra State, please give them somebody like Peter Obi”, he declared.

    He has been piloting the affairs of the Southeast state for eight years. He contested for the number seat in the state in 2003. But for the next 33 months, he slugged it out in the law court in a bid to reclaim his mandate, which was handed to Dr Chris Ngige, now Senator representing Anambra Central Senatorial District. He eventually took office on March 17, 2006, following the Court of Appeal judgment of March 15, that he was the validly elected governor.

    When the military left the political arena in 1999, the mantle of leadership fell on Dr. Chinwoke Mbadi-nuju, who emerged governor on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). But his four years, as governor were marred with controversies and endless conflicts between him and his political “god fathers.”

    When he was to seek a re-election in 2003, his party, the PDP, gave the ticket to Ngige.

    Senator Ngige ruled the state for only 33 months. But those months were eventful as he used them to liberated the state from the clutches of the political “godfathers” and opened the eyes of the people that something good could come out of the state before he was shown the way out by the Court of Appeal. But before his exit, he opened the flood gate of infrastructural development that had eluded Anambra for many years. This is the bedrock his popularity till today and the bench mark for the Obi Administration.

    Before the 2003 election, Obi had traversed virtually all the political parties looking for where to realise his ambition. He struck a deal with the late Biafran warlord and the lkemba of Nnewi, the late Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, the leader of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA). Obi pitched his tent with the party.

    His entry into the party allegedly stopped the ambition of Chief Okey Nwosu from Awka, who had positioned himself to contest the governorship election on the platform of the APGA. Obi allegedly used his financial muscle to dislodge Nwosu and took the ticket of the party. The rest, as they say, is now history.

    The once tottering state gradually became stable and started making progress, building on the foundation laid by Ngige. When Obi started his campaign in 2002, his question to the people of the state was: “Is Anambra State cursed or are we the cause of its underdevelopment”?

    Almost eight years after, Obi has shown that, indeed, whatever trauma the state was going through was not as a result of any curse, but was caused by the political leaders and elite in the state.

    When in 2006, he survived an impeachment, those troubles the late Prof Chinua Achebe talked about in his The trouble with Nigeria, began to emerge again in the state.

    His deputy, Dame Virgy Etiaba, took over the reigns for three months and acquitted herself well with the infrastructural development. Obi came back and unveiled his development programme, the Anambra Integrated Development Strategy (ANIDS), a programme for simultaneous development.

    When the programme was about taking roots the 2007 election came up and everything was at a standstill with roads impassable, except for the ones did by Ngige; schools were in comatose state, and the hospitals were in sorry situations.

    After the election, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), declared Andy Uba of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) winner. Obi went to the Supreme Court to seek an interpretation of his tenure. After 17 days in office, Uba was shoved aside by the apex court and Obi was restored.

    Opposition parties started bombarding him with the allegations of non performance, insensitivity to the plight of the youth, workers and lack of empowerment to his party members. Already, as he was marshalling his ANIDS programme with his executive, insecurity became the order of the day as armed robbery and kidnappings held sway in the state.

    With time, Obi weathered the storm. He proved himself as a leader that Obi restored peace in the once volatile state.

    The bar of governance raised by Ngige has been sustained by Obi in his close to eight years rule, though, if Ngige had been allowed to stay, the story would have been different also.

    Furthermore, the governor, has brought prudence into governance. The provision of infrastructure, as being witnessed now in the state, has never been so.

    In fact, the major legacies of Obi will will be most noticeable in the health sector, where he built a Specialist Hospital in Amaku, a General Hospital in Awka and the turn-around of the school system.

    Not only has the youth empowerment by Obi earned him respect, his simultaneous handling of all the sectors will remain indelible in their mind. Obi has turned out to be an enigma in the state where he was criticised for being slow, tight fisted and being vindictive. However, Obi has come short in the aspect of conducting a local government election in the state. In fact, the question is whether he will ever conduct a local government election in the eight years that he would be in office. If he does, he would write his name in gold. This has eluded the state for the past 15 years, with politicians groaning that democracy dividends are lacking at the grassroots, while the governor had continued to install transition chairmen in the council areas.

    For now, the only sin of Obi is his magnanimity to federal establishments with the state funds.

    He is being criticised for doing out millions to the military, making donations to the rich people to take care of their roads leading to their firms, and donation of computers to secondary schools that have no electricity and good buildings.

    Apart from these dark sides, which are always played up by his critics, especially opposition parties and perhaps, the alleged buying of every available property in Onitsha and its environs, Governor Obi has done more good than bad for the people of Anambra State.

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

  • Make politics less attractive – Don

    The Vice Chancellor, Lead City University, Ibadan, Prof. Olufemi Onabajo, at the weekend said without making politics less attractive ,there would be no committed leaders to run the affairs of the country smoothly.

    Besides, he said the electorate must prepare to vote for leaders of their choice and guard their votes jeolously.

    Prof. Onabajo who spoke in Owo at the maiden Achievers National Conference on Public Policy (ANCOPP 2013) organised by Achievers University said the electorate must go through a re-orientation , mobilisation and education in order to redress voters apathy

    The VC who chaired the conference said, judiciary must be impartial, stressing that the wheels of justice must roll faster so that political fraudsters are not allowed to enjoy the fruits of their illicit gains.

    The theme of the National Conference, “Nigeria’s socio-economic and political Dilemmas: the challenges and the way out,” gave many stakeholders and students the opportunity to ask questions on the way forward on socio-economic and political challenges facing the country.

     

  • Ekiti ACN will not reject PDP decampees

    Ekiti ACN will not reject PDP decampees

    Ekiti state chapter of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) has debunked claims of rejecting Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) members willing to join the party.

    The Chairman of the party, Chief Jide Awe, who spoke in Ado-Ekiti explained that the reported rejection of opposition members by the ACN in the state was “a ploy by PDP to confuse opposition members willing to join our progressive party.”

    Awe clarified that plans had been concluded for “the massive influx of PDP members who have shown real interest to partner our purposeful administration in the state.”

    The ACN chair said the party hierarchy had met and directed the entire party secretariats in the 177 wards across the 16 councils in the state to open registers for the willing PDP and other opposition members “where they must put their names and be ready to come to the open as a prove of their sincerity.”

    Said he: “I recall that the party took a decision on June 12 at Oluyemi Kayode stadium that all those willing to join our party should be received at ward levels without any hindrance and this has been happening daily across Ikere, Gbonyin, Emure, Aramoko and all our towns in the state. So far, reports are that the opposition are registering en masse.

    “I recall that Chief Ayo Peters from Emure and Mrs. Kehinde Balogun from Iyin Ekiti on June 12 at the Stadium said they were ready to join the ACN train with their legion of followers”, the ACN chair said.

    Complementing Awe’s disclosure, the ACN chairman in Ikere Ekiti, Prince Idowu Aladejebi disclosed that plans were on for the celebration of the new members who were ready to serve the people through the ACN.

    Aladejebi said: “I told them the only conditions are their genuineness of purpose and readiness to come into the open. Political participation is not a secretive affair. They have accepted and we are considering a date for the celebration”, Aladejebi said.

    He explained that Ikere-Ekiti had been especially favoured not only in terms of infrastructural developments but even in political appointments which have robbed off on the town in so many ways.”

    Said he: “Today roads are no longer our problem and water is fast becoming an issue of history. The federal road linking the town to Akure is under construction and, given the rocky terrain of the town, it had always been difficult to sink boreholes. But the state governor has sunk several boreholes across our communities And water that used to be insufficient is now available perhaps more than our people do even need.

    Aladejebi noted that ” Ikere-Ekiti is significant in terms of population and consequently voting capacity. The town is next to Ado and we are making steady progress in bringing in the opposition members who genuinely repent.

    “Those who have put their names down have been wonderful as they are not only open, they have not given the party any condition. This shows that their moves are based on conviction.

    “The situation of massive influx of PDP members into our party is a prove not only of Fayemi’s performance about genuine efforts to improve lives of the people but that Ekiti people are one and the same thing. We must now come together to redeem our state once and for all. Fayemi remains a symbol of that new age of oneness, unity and progress in Ekiti.

     

  • Politics of Okorocha’s attack

    Politics of Okorocha’s attack

    The recent attack on the convoy of Imo State Governor, Rochas Okorocha, in Oguta by some protesting youths is still generating ripples in the state.

    An unconfirmed report has it that the protest was allegedly masterminded by an unnamed senator and key leaders of an opposition party in the state. Okorocha had visited the area to inspect some ongoing projects, but in the thinking of his opponents, the visit was a decoy to campaign for APGA candidate, Walter Uzonwanne, who is contesting the bye election for Oguta Constituency seat in the House of Assembly. The protest, according to a source, is to portray the governor as unpopular in the area.