The Nation Newspaper

Tag: POWER

  • Power leaves Mugabe

    Power leaves Mugabe

    •But its aftermath still plagues Zimbabwe

    POWER has left Robert Mugabe, the 93-year-old strongman, who led Zimbabwe for 37 years since its 1980 independence. But the mess he left behind remains.

    Post-Mugabe Zimbabwe has taught the world how to prise power — peacefully — from a grim, cynical despot, without smashing the system. The factional struggle for power, without the taut rope snapping, was simply surreal, as an awed world looked on.

    But it is not quite the democracy the rest of the world was expecting — that Western apogee for periodic, routine and peaceful transfer of power.

    Now, how can Mugabe’s ZANU-PF, Zimbabwe’s ruling party, be disciplined and adept at preserving the system it has imposed on the rest of Zimbabwe, yet remains ossified as some 21st century relic of Stalinist Soviet Union, in an era of global democracy?

    But flip the coin, and in place of this absurdity, imagine ZANU-PF donning the fad of “democracy” (as the situation in Kenya), yet is very slack at peaceful power transfer, such that any little rocking of the boat ends in chaos and bloodbath?

    Can you imagine the rivers of blood in Zimbabwe right now — mostly from innocent citizens, ever the ready canon-fodders in such regime collapse — given the stress the old fox put the system through before resigning to avoid impeachment?

    That sums up the Zimbabwe power puzzle: the system Mugabe bequeathed is no deal. Indeed, if democracy is the preferred engine of governance, it has no solid turbines, in democratic institutions, to power and sustain such a system.

    Yet, it is all Zimbabwe has now. Any attempt to dislodge it in a hurry could be catastrophe foretold. That is the delicate juncture Zimbabwe is.

    Which is why genuine lovers of that troubled country must make haste slowly, lest in a rush to make Zimbabwe another “model of democracy”, cause avoidable chaos. The pragmatic thing to do is, therefore, to engage the Emmerson Mnangagwa new era; and nudge it along the path of greater democracy and broader citizen participation in how Zimbabwe is run. The African Union (AU), and the rest of the world should exert reasonable pressure to ensure that happens, even if gradually.

    Mnangagwa, the man the ZANU-PF apparatchiks call “Crocodile”, is no different from the ancien regime; and is probably more of the Mugabe same. So is Constantino Chiwenga, the army chief and chief enforcer, until November 14 for Mugabe, but now against the old man.

    Both, at least, are living proof of a robust, self-corrective, even if flawed Mugabe regime.  Mnangagwa was wrongly removed by Mugabe to clear the succession hurdle for Grace, the former president’s wife. But that provoked a military backlash that though threw off the old man, still retained the old order.

    All through the crisis, the Zimbabwe Defence Forces (ZDF) showed admirable restraint and discipline, quite unlike the wayward, blood-thirsty and opportunistic military in much of the rest of Africa. The ZANU-PF too displayed rare resilience and cohesiveness, uncharacteristic of African political parties, with the possible exception of South Africa’s African National Congress (ANC).

    That institutional strength is admirable and it is a lesson to the rest of Africa. But it is time, if Zimbabwe must levitate above its present troubles, to transit from the protective but self-serving muscle of big party bosses and war veterans, to mass democracy, more inclusive participation and economic equal opportunities.

    While these strong institutions — a civil army and a cohesive party — are vital ingredients for a stable democracy, turning both into drivers of Zimbabwe democracy, particularly after the sudden exit of a strongman, could be slow, delicate and testing. But this hard marathon is the direction to go, if post-Mugabe Zimbabwe were to regain its soul and relive its promise at independence in 1980.

    Now that Zimbabwe is prised off the steel fingers of Mugabe, the next stage is freeing the state from the fortress of the triumvirate of the ruling party, the Army and the war veterans that drive the two. If these vital organs are infused with genuine democracy powered by the people, and the state is strengthened by rule of law, a robust, fair and fearless judiciary, and a vibrant parliament to checkmate executive abuse, Zimbabwe may well dare to dream — and live — again.

    These are the reforms the AU should help to push in a new Zimbabwe, instead of, as it tried to do in the heat of the crisis, making a fetish of Mugabe removal procedures.

    As for the West, now in hysteric triumphalism over the Mugabe ouster, it should know it helped to create the Mugabe debacle. If Britain that negotiated the Lancaster House agreement, that ousted Ian Smith and gave Zimbabwe independence, had honoured its financial commitments to it, Mugabe would probably not have snatched the moral right to forcefully seize white farmlands for war veterans.

    That pushed the Mugabe tragic messianism that ruined his country and assured his destruction. But Robert Mugabe should be great lessons for other African power relics, who feel that without their breath, the state cannot live. That is nothing but grand and costly delusion.

  • PDP won’t return to power, says minister

    PDP won’t return to power, says minister

    Minister of Information, Culture and Tourism Lai Mohammed has predicted that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) will never come back to rule in Nigeria, owing to economic and security programmes being implemented by President Muhammadu Buhari administration.

    He spoke yesterday in Dutse, the Jigawa State capital, while fielding questions from reporters.

    Mohammed said: “The opposition PDP has gone forever and will never come back to rule Nigeria, talk less of 2019.”

    He explained that “with the tremendous achievements recorded in the period of two years of All Progressives Congress (APC) administration under President Muhammad Buhari, believe me, nobody will give his or her vote to PDP again”.

    “The President has delivered major campaign promises of improving security, economic, jobs creation and power generation. These directly impact the lives of both common man and privilege people,” the minister said.

    He emphasised that the Buhari administration has succeeded in ensuring the security of lives and properties of Nigerians.

    On job creation, the minister said the present administration engaged over 200,000 youths through N-power programme, adding that more would soon to be engaged in the programme.

    Muhammad added the APC administration also succeeded in improving on power generation within two years.

    He said the President, before he was elected, promised to diversify the economy from mono-economy through agriculture.

    The minister urged Nigerians to keep supporting the APC administration “for a better Nigeria”.

  • Abuse of power

    The joke last week was on the deposed President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe and the Kaduna State teachers. With Mugabe suddenly morphing from hero to villain, Governor Rochas Okorocha of Imo State is lucky that Mugabe’s statute is not amongst those he is erecting in Owerri, the state capital. Any way, if Okorocha’s detractors are to be believed, his pain will subside, if Zuma’s erection falls. At the height of the self-induced pain, Okorocha told those scandalized by the waste of public fund, to get lost.

    But as the Zimbabwe National Force demobilized Mugabe, the penultimate weekend, his rise and fall is a lesson for political office holders, everywhere, including Nigeria. Hailed until few days ago as a national liberator by Zimbabweans especially the by ZANU-PF, an iconic party through which he rode to power in 1980 and held it for 37 years, he has become an iconic laggard.

    In the build-up to his ouster, the leader of the Independence war veterans’ association, Christopher Mutsvangor, said: “we want to restore our pride… we can finish the job which the army started.” He went further: “There is no going back about Mugabe. He must leave.” Because Mugabe stayed for too long, he became an embarrassment, even to his colleagues who were in the trenches with him, during the liberation struggles.

    But it hasn’t always been so. Up to 2008, Mugabe still engaged in reality checks, even though by then he had messed up the economy. With inflation running at 231 percent, Mugabe said: “if you lose an election and are rejected by the people, it is time to leave politics.” But shortly after, he came second to Morgan Tsvangirai in the first round of elections, and instead of leaving, he roused the war veterans to unleash terror on Tsvangirai and his supporters sparking a stalemate. He boasted that only God could remove him from office.

    The crisis that ensured forced him to share power with Tsvangirai for four years after which he regained his dubious bounce. After 37 years in power, and at 93 years of age, Grace Mugabe, his wife, egged him on, on the power-brew. His last undoing was the sacking of his long-time ally, then Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa, also a war veteran like Mugabe. To his chagrin, Mnangagwa has been elected leaders of his party.

    But Mugabe was not always a villain. He gained popularity at independence because of his involvement in the liberation struggle, which included an imprisonment in the hands of the British colonialists. A man with huge academic laurels in many fields, it is a measure of human hubris that he fell so thunderously.

    Witty and gregarious, Mugabe is credited with funny and insightful quotations. On society, he said: “when one’s goat gets missing, the aroma of a neighbour’s soup gets suspicious.” On xenophobia: “South Africa will kick down a statute of a dead white man but won’t even attempt to slap a live one. Yet they can stone to death a black man simply because he’s a foreigner.” On indulgence: “Cigarette is a pinch of tobacco rolled in a piece of paper with fire on one end and a fool on the other.”

    Unfortunately Mugabe didn’t figure out that cigarette and abuse of power are similar. He smoked the entire cigarette, and continued smoking until fire burnt his fingers. What a tragedy. In Nigeria, Governor El-Rufai has started a maelstrom in the name of test for teachers. And like old Mugabe, many are egging him on that he has found the final solution to the mess that public schools have become in many states across the country.

    Instead of employing the help of professionals to chart how state public schools in Kaduna State could be revived, El-Rufai has resorted to strong arm tactics and abuse of his privilege as the state chief executive. If as he claimed, 70 percent of the teachers in public primary schools in Kaduna are ignoramuses, who taught the 25,000 new teachers he is threatening to employ to replace the 22,000 he wants to sack?

    Indeed, who taught the officials of the state Ministry of Education who conducted the much advertised primary four standard test used to determine the quality of teachers in the state? Are most of those emergency examiners not likely to be products of the same public schools, which the governor is unwittingly further destabilising with his ambush tactics?

    If El-Rufai is interested in saving public schools in his state, he should take a holistic view of the challenges. He must first ask himself why is there no scandal in the employment of teachers, like when the Central Bank of Nigeria or Immigration Services are conducting employment interviews. Why it is that primary school teachers are amongst the most poorly paid civil servants in the country? Why is it that most of his colleagues who are malignantly incompetent, see it as a fad to owe primary school teachers, several months’ salary?

    Having been in power for two years and a half years, what remedial programme did he put in place to retrain, motivate and enhance the welfare of primary school teachers in the state before he subjected them to this public ridicule and odium? If he had planned to employ 25,000 new teachers this year or early next year, what programme did he put in place to produce the quality teachers he plans to recruit?

    Or is it possible that El-Rufai somehow believes that there must 25,000 qualified idle teachers, waiting in the wings for El-Rufai to wake-up one day, and decide to sack 22,000 teachers in the state’s employ and then, kaput they have jobs? Or is El-Rufai planning to raid other states or foreign countries for the teachers of his dream? If I may ask, what happened to the notion that primary schools are under the purview of local governments?

    The only explanation could be that El-Rufai is overwhelmed by the rot in the education sector; but even if that is the case, to efficiently solve the problem, he has to be methodological. Sacking 70 percent of primary school teaching staff is not the same thing as ridding Abuja of illegal structures or heaps of refuse or auctioning public companies. In this instance, you must take into consideration, the human interests.

    To show how odious El-Rufai tactics is, governors who have failed woefully by all standards are threatening to copy his dubious model. Governors who are owing teachers several months’ arrears of salaries, have reportedly sent their officials to learn how to set primary four questions, how to mark same, and how to stare down the labour unions in the name of reformation.

    I have little doubt that if our public officials are subjected to the same test, allegedly flunked by majority of Kaduna primary school teachers, many of them would fail more comprehensively; yet the monthly emolument of an average public official will pay for a cluster of schools’ teachers.

     

  • Chidoka: I lost to superior financial power

    The candidate of the United Progressive Party (UPP), Mr Osita Chidoka, has conceded defeat in Saturday’s Anambra State governorship election.

    In a statement, Chidoka said he accepted the results but hoped the people had not mortgaged the future of the state by selling their votes to the highest bidder.

    He said: “On September 30, we officially kick-started our campaigns for the election. That event at Uli, the remarkable site of the historic Biafra Airport, remains significant to our people in our collective search for a new beginning.

    “Our campaign attracted the finest and brightest of Anambra. The bold and the courageous were with us as we exerted our best in running the most robust issue-based and technology-driven campaign in the history of our dear state.

    “We attempted to change the course of events and chart a new beginning for our state. We believed and we dared; we engaged with all patriotic vigour as we held strongly that the long-awaited time for our people to experience a new opportunity had come and we laboured for it.

    “In all, our focus was the people: the forgotten, the poor and the disadvantaged. They were the prime impetus for our involvement. We beheld their agony and we strived to redirect and vent that energy through a genuine political process. We heard the complaints of our people and we worked to redirect them from the streets to the ballot box.

    “Upon that pedestal, we rejected ‘godfatherism’ and money politics. Instead, we made personal sacrifices and worked with small donations and goodwill of a few good men and women. Our campaign started and remained issues-based. We attacked no persons; we looked up in faith because we believed.

    “But from the ballots, we heard the voice of our people. We heard it loud and clear. On November 18 our people announced strongly their rejection of politicians. They traded their votes because they doubted we would truly represent their interest. While our message resonated with the people they doubted that the political class cared about them. They voted for the highest bidder.”

  • Why govt gave N701b loan to power sector, by Fashola

    Why govt gave N701b loan to power sector, by Fashola

    The Federal Government has given reason for the N701 billion loan given to the power sector.

    The Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, SAN, said the loan was given to save the sector from collapse  under heavy debts.

    The aim was to assist Bulk Electricity Trading Plc (NBET) to meet its debt obligations to power generation companies (GenCos) and by extension the gas suppliers and the financing banks.

    Fashola in an exclusive interview with The Nation, explained why government took the decision it did. He said: “The N701 billion is not a loan to the privatised power sector. It is a loan by government to one of its own agencies – Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trading Plc (NBET).

    “When the power sector was privatised in 2013, one of the companies created was NBET to buy bulk power from the generation companies (GenCos) in order to create a market situation. NBET entered into power purchase agreement (PPA) with any GenCo that puts power into the national grid. NBET uses the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) to transport that power to the distribution companies to sell under another contract called “vesting contracts.” Go and do this retail business.

    “DisCos are supposed to make a profit of about 30 per cent, return the bulk money to NBET just like any retail business – you buy wholesale, retail and send the money back to the manufacturer. So there are two contracts here – a contract by NBET with the power producers, and a contract with DisCos to vend the power. The assumption was that NBET will pay from what it collects from the DisCos in order to discharge its contract with the GenCos. But some many things happened.

    “The economy tumbled and tariff increase was halted in court. There was a big gap in collection. So from collections of about 56-58 per cent dropped to about 25-29 per cent and NBET became a debtor to the GenCos. The GenCos, the thermal power plants that use gas, were owing their gas suppliers and their gas suppliers were owing their banks. In this situation, we said to the government “you are the debtor here because NBET is a 100 per cent government owned company.”

    “ Before the N701 billion, NBET had tried to raise a bond of N301 billion when parliament stopped it. That was why government got the N701 billion and said to NBET go and discharge your contract. The decision was taken for many reasons, one it was a contractual obligation and NBET is a 100 per cent government company, so you must pay. This is one of the liquidity issues in the sector, so if government defaults, there will be no power sector. Secondly, don’t let this debt spiral the gas and banking sectors, otherwise, it will spiral into the entire economy. Because it was critical, Federal Executive Council approved it because it is a no-go-area. That doesn’t mean you write-off the debts owed by the DisCos because they are two separate contracts.

  • Inadequate water, power may hamper use of Abuja Airport terminal 

    THERE is concern about the workability of the Abuja Airport Terminal when completed next year as inadequate water and power supply may hamper its use. The National Assembly Joint Committee on Aviation  disclosed that the $200 million terminal being constructed by Chinese  Civil Engineering Construction (CCECC) is eighty per cent completed.  The project’s completion has been fixed for February 2018.

    The water and power supply levels in the old terminal cannot match the required capacity for equipment being put in the new terminal, and upgrading their capacity is outside the scope of the contract being handled by the Chinese construction giant.

    The NASS Joint Committee, which embarked on a tour of the facility last week, expressed satisfaction with the level of work done by the contractor, urging the firm to ensure that everything required is fixed before the facility  is put to use.

    However, the Project Manager, Kelvin Lee, warned that unless there is an upgrade of existing  power and water supply, the inuaguration of the terminal may not be on the agreed date because without adequate water and power supply, the facility would not be functional.

    Lee said it would be of no value to complete a terminal of  such magnitude without requisite power and water supply.

    He urged the government to facilitate funding to accelerate the provision of support equipment that would enable the company deliver the terminal on schedule.

    Lee said whle his firm is working to complete the terminal on agreed date, it will require government to relocate the control tower and fire station, which currently pose an obstacle to some sections of the new terminal.

    Speaking in an interview after the tour, Aliero said the committee was working with the Ministry of Aviation on ways to secure funds to ensure that the terminal is delivered with all equipment in place.

    Aliero said there is no going back on the construction of a second runway for Abuja Airport because of  increasing passenger traffic and capacity for the airport.

    The Abuja airport, according to him, is the only one among the major airports without a second runway. He added that the National Assembly has already made provision for the second runway for Abuja in next year’s budget.

    What is left, he said, is for the Ministry of Aviation to make arrangement for the procurement and award for the contract.

    Aliero said:”The Ministry of Aviation is already aware of the power and water challenge and I think they are doing something about it. And once they bring it to the notice of the legislature, we will do the needful and give necessary support because we need this terminal to be put to use immediately after completion.

    “There is no point having a terminal without water and electricity to enable it function properly. The existing power and water supply is not adequate to accommodate the terminal without expansion or upgrade.”

    On the completion of the terminal, Aliero said:”The terminal would be completed and commissioned before the end of next year. It is already eighty per cent completed. What is left to be done is just the finishing and the equipment are already on ground. The project manager said the control tower and fire station need to be relocated. If the fire station and control tower are relocated, may be we would commission the facility earlier than the end of next year.

    ”On the runway of the airport, Aliero said:” We are going to have a second runway because of capacity. We reached this conclusion from the things we have seen. Abuja is the only major city in Nigeria that has no second runway.

    “Lagos, Kaduna, Kano and Port Harcourt all have second runway. Abuja being the Federal Capital Territory deserves a second runway with the attendant passenger inflow and number of flights coming into the airport.

    “We do not need a situation where we have to wait to move to Kaduna again with the horrendous experience before building a second runway.

    “ This is why the National Assembly has approved the construction of second runway for Abuja and luckily the Ministry is working to ensure that the procurement and award of contract is done before the end of this year and if it is awarded there would be enough funding for next year,”he said.

    Part of the sections of Abuja Airport toured by the National Assembly joint committee included Wing D of the terminal, the resurfaced runway, the new Chinese International Terminal, the flight decoding laboratory of the Accident Investigation Bureau (AIB) and the proposed headquarters of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA).

  • How PDP can regain power, by George

    How PDP can regain power, by George

    Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) national chairmanship aspirant Chief Olabode George yesterday said that the next convention of the party will determine its future, urging delegates to elect a competent and experience person to lead the party.

    The party elder said he is on a rescue mission, adding that, if he becomes the chairman, the platform will avoid the past mistakes which heralded its electoral misfortune in the 2015 polls.

    George called for debate on zoning, saying that it cannot be jettisoned at the convention.

    He said: “I am a respecter of zoning. Let’s debate zoning. Knowledge is power.”

    The former military governor of old Ondo State said the competition for the position should not be vicious, adding that it should be handled in a civilised manner. He said party leaders should resolve to build a formidable party that will be long lasting after the elders have left the stage.

    However, George described himself as the most experienced chieftain to do the job.

    He said although former governors and ministers are also vying for the position, managing a party is different from managing a state or a ministry.

    He said: “I am a trusted and trusted leader; I have experience, exposure and the ability to steer the party to victory in 2019, by the grace of God. You don’t ask a goat to go and meet a lion. I have worked at the national secretariat for 10 years. I know the written and unwritten constitutions of the PDP.”

    George spoke with reporters in Lagos on his ambition and preparations for the December convention, saying that it will be a defining moment for the opposition party.

    Other contenders are former Lagos State PDP governorship candidate Mr. Jimi Agbaje, former Education Minister Prof. Tunde Adeniran, former Sports and Special Duties Minister Prof. Taoheed Adedoja, former Oyo State Governor Rashidi Ladoja, his Ogun State counterpart, Otunba Gbenga Daniel, Chief Raymond Dokpesi and Chief Uche Secondus.

    The former national deputy chairman advised party leaders and other stakeholders to sustain the culture of zoning and micro-zoning, which have been the hallmarks of the platform since its creation.

    He said, if zoning is upheld, the chairmanship should be zoned to the Southwest, adding that, it micro-zoning is also upheld, the slot should go to the Lagos/Ogun sub-zone of the Southwest.

    George reflected on the popular feeling that he cannot be controlled by the PDP governors, saying that he cannot act as an over-lord, if given the job.

    He said: “I cannot be an over-lord. I want to manage the party to win the next presidential election. What I will do is to evolve a collegiate leadership, where the contributions of the various leaders and stakeholders will lead to the decisions that will be taken by the leadership.”

    George, a retired commodore, said there is a consensus of opinion that impunity, imposition of candidates, dictatorship and lack of fairness and justice should end in the party, assuring that these pitfalls and past mistakes will be avoided, if he becomes the chairman.

    The aspirant sad he was excited at the willingness of aggrieved defectors from the party to return to the fold, following his entry into the chairmanship race.

    He said: “I was happy to see our old members who had left the party coming back to meetings when they learnt that I was in the race. It was like a reunion. Across the six geo-political zones, I have been received with warmth and enthusiasm. Many will return, if the leadership is ready to restore fairness. Our challenge is to maintain unity and oneness in the PDP.

    “I am on a rescue mission, having served for 10 years at the party secretariat. I was the national vice chairman, deputy chairman (South) and deputy chairman for the overall country. PDP must get it right at the convention. We have no villa to run to now. The PDP is wobbling now and we need to stabilize it.”

    George acknowledged the quest for all manners of endorsement by other aspirants, saying that he is not after sectional endorsement, but collective endorsement of members.

    He said to restore the lost glory of the party, its leaders should go back to basics and affirm both its written and unwritten constitutions.

    George said zoning has been the strength of the PDP from the beginning, recalling that it has given the members from the six zones a sense of belonging.

    He stressed: “I know the written and unwritten constitutions of the PDP. Zoning based on geo-political zones is not in the constitution of Nigeria. But, that is what gives the zones a sense of belonging. The PDP has identified the six positions of the president, vice president, Senate President, Speaker of House of Representatives, Secretary to Government and PDP chairman. Three are zoned to the North, three are zoned to the South. That means no zone is left out.

    “The presidency has been zoned to the North. The chairman has been zoned to the South. But, we must also micro-zone. Micro-zoning is to give members a sense of belonging. I am appealing to the Southsouth to concede the position of chairman to the Southwest. The Southeast and Southsouth had made use of their chances before, but the Southwest has not occupied the position.”

  • Infrastructure: Ogun to power institution with solar

    Infrastructure: Ogun to power institution with solar

    In furtherance of its infrastructure development in Ogun, the state government has concluded plans to power the newly- established Ogun State Polytechnic, Ipokia, with solar energy. This will not only guarantee uninterrupted power supply, but also is a part of its rural development strategy.

    The solar power system, said the Commissioner for Works and Infrastructure, Mr. Olamilekan Adegbite, will be installed by an Independent Power Provider (IPP), under a Public-Private Partnership (PPP).

    In a statement issued by the Head of Media in the Works and Infrastructure Ministry, Mr. Ayokunle Ewuoso, the commissioner was reported to have said the institution’s neighbours would also benefit from the solar power system.

    Adegbite explained that the firm selected for the project was one of the 12 Independent Power Providers earlier screened and certified to provide electricity for the state.

    “Government has decided to allocate five hectares of land to tqhe IPP out of the 400 hectares allocated for the institution. The IPP needs a large expanse of land where it will install the solar panels. This is from where the solar energy will be transmitted to the institution and its environs. What we want to achieve in all of these is to provide uninterrupted power supply to the school and equally allow the immediate environment benefits, though it will not be free,” he explained, adding that barring any unforseen circumstances, the institution will be completed by next year.

  • Why power must shift in Ekiti, by aspirant

    Why power must shift in Ekiti, by aspirant

    Dr. Adebayo Orire is a governorship aspirant on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Ekiti State. He spoke with reporters in Ado-Ekiti, the state capital, on his ambition and other partisan issues. Excerpts:

    What is your assessment of the political situation in Ekiti State?

    Ekiti State is 21 years old and we are happy we have the state. But, if you look around, you will see what you would not have thought you will see in Ekiti in terms of negativity and retrogression in Ekiti land. One would have expected that a small state like Ekiti to have become more economically buoyant,   politically stable, socially attractive, and commercially viable.  But, what we are seeing now is social degradation, economic stagnation, political instability and rascality, and some negative indices of growth factors, like as we speak, there no single production industry  in Ekiti, apart from ABUAD farm, there is no single farm in Ekiti that can feed one thousand people.

    So, some of those indices would have been maximally low so that we would have to witness more progress in the state, look at politics, we have the highest turnover of governors and rulers  and each defacto government that comes and goes without leaving much  behind.  It has rather resorted in capital flight. We have imported governors, imported commissioners, imported political leaders  and where they live is where their accounts are and you cannot even  access the volume of money that comes into the state in form of loans in your banks because they don’t really stay so the state is left poorer than it was in those days.  If your think of socials, our morals are lower than it was twenty years.

    You could see insecurity here and there than those days when Ekiti was a safe haven for everybody; peaceful, loving. But what is heartwarming about Ekiti now is that is a state with a lot of potentials, human resources are superbly abundant, the weather is very good, the climate is very good, the land is expansive and fertile, mineral resources are there in abundant, agrarian opportunities abound, industrial opportunities abound, the land is really still virgin and is just waiting for the right person to come and develop her.

    Who is that right person that you think that do the magic?

    The magic lies in somebody like me. I have been in Ekiti since 1980, I know the terrain, I know what they like, I know what they lack I know what will make Ekiti buoyant socially and industrially, and in every facet of life. The issue is that I am based here, because I have been here I have been practicing my profession here for years, I have done a lot of businesses here, ranging  from stone quarry, I have gone into agriculture, I have gone into transportation, I have gone into trading and commercial exploits. I have gone into medical practice, I have gone into mineral exploitation; so I know a lot we can do in Ekiti that can make her buoyant in two years. I know what we can plant in Omuo, I know what we can plant in Efon, I know what we can do in Ado Ekiti that are just all waiting to be exploited. Twelve years back when I wanted to contest for Governorship, I told the people that I am going to do 100 industries in four years, as we speak there is no single industry in Ekiti.

    I was going to replant 100 million cocoa seedlings in four years 50 million palm trees in four years and as we speak, there is no single farmer that we can say can boast of 30 thousand cocoa seedlings in Ekiti.  Ekiti cocoa was used to be one of the major cocoa that we used to build Cocoa House in Ibadan, and up till now there is no single irrigation farming in Ekiti in large quantity, we usually import tomatoes from the North during the dry season, this is saddling, and these are the things we can put in proper shape and make everybody happy in Ekiti.

    What do you think has been responsible for the past leaders inability to put things in proper shape in the state?

    The truth is that they were all Ekiti people but they never lived in Ekiti, so they never knew the real needs of the people, imagine somebody who came to do roads and forget the future of agriculture in Ekiti State, truly he had worked, yes but that is his focus because that is the only thing he sees whenever he comes round over the weekends in the state. He only he sees the roads he never went to the farms, he never knew how yams he ate in the hotels came about.

    So, there is no way such a person can get the priorities right, everybody had come to do one thing or the other that are good, high fluting, white elephant. Everybody had tried, but you cannot give what is not in you or what you don’t have. Whatever you don’t have passion about cannot come up in your projects as priority, so it is me that stays here that knows the priorities, because I have a business here I know what we will do that will fetch people the money to come and patronize my business.

    I know, majority of people in Ekiti apart from civil servants are farmers and traders, so we have to really point this out, I know how to open up the economy of Ekiti by heavy agrarian pursuit and industrialization, and these are what a lot of people will not see when they come from outside.

    For instance, like somebody doing the overhead bridge in Ado Ekiti now, that is what he sees because he stays in Ibadan, and he wanted a Mokola experience in Ado Ekiti. Do you get what I am saying now, so, a lot of things will just come to your mind because of your association, because of where you grew up, where you stayed, your economy, these things  will rub in on you, on your perception of the need of people, if they had stayed in Ekiti, all their lives they will knows the priority they will know the first thing first, and life itself is about prioritisation. You know, everybody needs to enjoy but everybody needs to work, but the person that enjoy first will go poor, but the person that works first and earns money will go richer, and still enjoy. So prioritisation has been the problem we have in Ekiti, and that is because we had not had the luck of fielding grounded home based politician.

    Secondly, you have to put people of integrity in position, and you cannot know of somebody‘s integrity without living with him.

    We have packaged leaders. They were packaged for us as highly educated people, as people of high  integrity, people of high volubility, and so on, but you cannot package your system.  However, they  tried their best, but it is not possible to give out what you don’t have, but we have to really go into details of what have the person has done with his personal life. Is he a success in his profession? Does he have a charitable heart?, the kind heart, the attachment to the land, without all these things your ruler ship will be on the surface, and you will not be able to get the real hold on the goodness you want to dish to the people. When you do things that people need, these things will speak for themselves and will announce you and put you in their minds, like realistic and pragmatic person.

    You are a medical practitioner and a cleric, could you to juxtapose how these qualities will  come to bear on Ekiti politics?

    If you really want to do politics, and you are really serious, then you need to have a kind heart that is attached to the welfare of the people of the land that will develop the health of the people that you want to rule, and so my medical inclination and my religious standing will actually make me a more kind Governor who will see everything as service  divinely ordained to make people and their lives most comfortable. What I am saying is that as a medical doctor, I have the intelligent, I have education, I  know what an average Ekiti could afford, I know what they lack, I know what an average Ekiti can afford for treatment.

    So, they are an extension of me, I pity them, in fact, some people cannot afford  treatment, some people cannot even afford food, and as a Pastor and Reverend fellow, I know how they feel, I am part and parcel of  these people, so those two qualities has actually informed my passion for Ekiti people.

    For instance, you could see some somebody who could not afford  money when he comes to your hospital, somebody you operate upon and will stay up to like two weeks before he gets money, these are things that actually gingered my interest in wanting to put solace into the heart of the people.

    In this part of the country I know everything that one needs to do to put smiles on the face of everybody in Ekiti, and I know that everything we need to grow Ekiti to great success abound in the state, if we continue to break the rocks that we have in Ekiti, we will make money.

    If we continue to do irrigation with our streams, we will grow enough vegetation and arable products that we can export. I know that we can generate power from  wind, from sun, from  waters, and even from refuse dumps, because I am here, I am practicing my medicine here, I practice my clergy work here, and because I started politics here, I know the needs of my people. I know the things that can make my people happy, I know what can make the people grow, I know what can feed them and make them rich. So, all the three are synergistic, and complementary to each other.

     

  • Power shift: Ogun West courts Alake, Awujale

    Power shift: Ogun West courts Alake, Awujale

    A Governorship aspirant on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Prince Adeleke Tella, has said that royal blessings of the Awujale of Ijebuland, Oba Sikiru Adetona, and the Alake of Egbaland, Oba Adedotun Gbadebo, are critical to the achievement of power shift to Ogun West in 2019.

    Tella, who hails from Ilaro in Yewa South Local Government Area of Ogun State, said Oba Adetona, Oba Gbadebo and the Olu of Ilaro and paramount ruler of Yewaland, Oba Kehinde Olugbenle, have roles to play.

    The aspirant made this known in Ilaro, shortly before declaring his aspiration.

    The founder of the Tribute Television pledged to tackle hunger, create 3000 jobs within the first 100 days through agriculture and another 3000 jobs from the creative industry if given the mandate to govern.

    He lauded Amosun for working for the actualisation of the Ogun West governorship agenda and his rebuilding mission in the state, promising not to consolidate on the governor’s achievements.

    Read Also: We’ll resist attempt to ridicule ex-president – IYC

    He promised to also work in harmony with the APC to ensure its continued unity and victory in future elections.

    Tella said: “Whoever must take the baton from our governor must also be bold, focused and be highly innovative in order to consolidate on what has been gained and continue in the great stride and do even more.

    “The person must be able to manage great change, must be highly disciplined, must be proactive and be able to add strategic value to the state. I am prepared and ready. I am the right choice! “I know the challenges facing Yewa and the rest of the state. Through my wide consultation of over six months now, I know exactly what needs to be done. I want to assure that I will not disappoint the good people of Ogun State. Let’s tell our people that there is money in agriculture.

    “The next billionaires in Nigeria will come from agriculture and agriculture processing industries. This is a sector I am ready to promote with good policies and actions if you choose me. I am good to go.

    “Let me assure the party that I have the utmost respect for the party organ. I have no doubt about the present strength of the party and the labour of the members from the unit to the state. I am ready to cooperate fully with the party and work tirelessly to maintain and foster more unity so that the party organ will prosper greatly,” he said.