The Nation Newspaper

Tag: reckless

  • Reckless, unjustifiable

    Reckless, unjustifiable

    •It is incredible that only three of our airports are viable

    The revelation that only three airports in the country are viable calls for serious introspection by lawmakers and the executives at federal and state levels.

    The declaration of 19 airports in the country as unviable by the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) shows the height of recklessness in public expenditure by governments at the various levels. Even federal airports are unviable despite the billions of Naira spent to ostensibly upgrade them. Only the airports in Lagos, Abuja and Port Harcourt are adjudged viable, while even those dubbed international in Kano, Enugu and Ilorin are in the fold of the unprofitable.

    All state-owned airports have joined the league of the loss-making. This calls for serious examination of the motive for establishing the airports. In the South West, there are airports in Ibadan (federal), Akure (federal), and now Ekiti, Osun and Ogun states. They are more like prestige projects to massage the ego of the governors. This is totally unacceptable at a time like this when most Nigerians have been classified as multi-dimensionally poor by the Nigerian Bureau of Statistics (NBS). What the time calls for are justifiable economic projects that would fetch jobs for the unemployed youths who are becoming restive. Twice now, they have shown

    Read Also: Develop sources of IGR for self-funding, Reps committee tells Nigerian universities

    their anger and provided sop to the opposition to the government of the day.

    When genuine protests are organised, artisans and the unemployed are quick to join the line and show their disaffection; thus leading to riots and looting.

    Governments in the country have a duty to check the trend by ensuring that the people are carried along in the projects they embark on. The people must have an input to the budgeting process if the object of governance is to serve the general public. Most of the state-owned airports remain uncompleted because they have been reduced to white elephant projects, good only in gulping scarce resources without enhancing services.

    Unless there is a change of attitude among leaders and a change of philosophy in governance, the future would remain bleak. The N160 billion that the state governors, past and current, are said to have expended on airports is a cause for concern. It is an indictment of not only the executive, but the legislature, too. How did the budgets get approved by the various states’ Houses of Assembly without scrutiny and assurance that there had been feasibility studies conducted by the executive arm?

    How many professionals were consulted in the process of preparing the appropriation law? Were there studies of older airports like the Kaduna, Kano, Benin, Ibadan, Akure, Sokoto, Enugu and Calabar at the federal level, and Asaba, Ebonyi, Uyo, at the state level? New ones are still being constructed in Zamfara and Taraba.

    State governments should be warned that they did not sign for fancy competition, but serious business that would transform the country. Nigeria has lagged for far too long, and countries like Angola, Rwanda and even Ghana are already threatening to overtake the “giant of Africa” in the race to be regional leaders. That the Nigerian economy is in the doldrums is widely acknowledged; and it calls for leaders who could put on their thinking caps at a time like this. The task cannot be left for the Federal Government alone. The aviation sector is one that is central to promoting economic development. It should, therefore, be so treated and not reduced to toy in the hands of state governors. Any airport, state or federal-owned, that has remained unprofitable for so long should be downgraded to air strips or aerodromes. That way, the few remaining would have enough traffic to justify their existence. It’s time for leaders to wake up.

  • Reckless truck driver kills tricycle operator

    A truck driver has been arrested for allegedly causing the death of a tricycle operator, Abdulwasiu Akanbi, in the Alaka area of Surulere, Lagos.

    The suspect, Samson Isaac, 27, a native of Oyo State, allegedly drove his truck recklessly, killing Akanbi.

    He has since been arraigned before an Ebute Metta Chief Magistrate’s Court.

    It was said that Isaac drove a DAF truck marked LSR312XX and  rammed into Akanbi’s tricycle killing him on the spot.

    Police prosecutor, Inspector, Kehinde Olatunji told the court that the accused committed the offence on November 16 around 6:30am at Alaka Bridge, Stadium area of Surulere,Lagos.

    Olatunji added that the offence contravened Section 20, 25 and 28 of the Road Traffic Law of Lagos State, 2012.

    Counsel to the defendant, Mr Clement Apoka requested that the accused be granted bail in the most liberal terms.

    The presiding magistrate, Mrs .A.O Komolafe granted the accused bail in the sum of N200,000 with two sureties in like sum.

    The case was adjourned the matter to December 13 for mention.

  • Reckless, indefensible explanations on herdsmen killings

    IN its immediate reaction to the horrifying killings in Plateau State last weekend, in which over 200 people lost their lives according to some estimates, the presidency sought more than anything else to find an explanation for the deaths rather than seek urgent ways to hold perpetrators to account. Speaking through the president’s spokesman, Garba Shehu, the presidency, according to a News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) report, traced the root of the killings to how some 100 cows were rustled in a community and some herdsmen killed. The governor, the report added, was still trying to mediate a solution when the retaliatory killings occurred, leading to thugs taking advantage of the breakdown of law and order.

    But not done, and still insensitive to the inappropriateness of the angle from which the government sought to indirectly rationalise the killings, Mallam Shehu adds: “We know that a number of geographical and economic factors are contributing to the longstanding herdsmen/farmers clashes. But we also know that politicians are taking advantage of the situation. This is incredibly unfortunate. Nigerians affected by the herdsmen/farmer clashes must always allow the due process of the law to take its course rather than taking matters into their own hands.” Significantly, too, a spokesman of the Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association (MACBAN), Danladi Ciroma, justified the retaliation before the huge scale of the outrage over the killings forced other MACBAN leaders and spokesmen to walk back on the unjustifiable reasons he issued over the killings.

    If the coterminousness of the MACBAN and presidency explanations does not strike Mallam Shehu and worry the presidency, then the country is in far worse trouble than Nigerians imagine. Every time these killings take place, the government has always sought for explanations rather than immediate or lasting solution. The government’s approach has not inspired majority of Nigerians to repose hope in the Buhari presidency summoning the courage and understanding to tackle the crisis. Much more worrisomely, few Nigerians now believe that the president can find the neutrality and decisiveness to unite the country, farmers and herdsmen alike, and project unity.

    In a previous piece on the herdsmen killings, Undertow had observed the retrogressive attitude of the government in fishing for explanations, many of them contradictory, shallow, pedantic and counterproductive. Now, to these obtuse explanations, the presidency appears to be adding another one suggesting that politicians were taking advantage of the killings, as if anyone could take advantage when there were no killings. Here was how Undertow on May 12, 2018 presented the government’s multiple but futile rationalisations, starting with the president’s statement in his reaction to the 2018 New Year’s Day killings in Benue State where more than 70 people were killed by herdsmen:

    1) “Your Excellency, the governor, and all the leaders here, I am appealing to you to try to restrain your (Benue farmers) people. I assure you that the police, the Department of State Service (DSS) and other security agencies have been directed to ensure that all those behind the mayhem get punished. I ask you in the name of God to accommodate your countrymen. You can also be assured that I am just as worried and concerned with the situation.”

    President Buhari, January 15, speaking with Benue State leaders at Aso Villa

    2) “Obviously it is a communal crisis, for herdsmen are part of the community. They are Nigerians and are part of the community; are they not? Let’s use the example of Benue, you know most of these states where you have several languages, you know it is an issue of communal misunderstanding. I think what we should be praying for is for Nigerians to learn to live in peace with one another, I think it is very important.”

    IGP Ibrahim Idris, January 5, after the New Year’s Day massacre in Benue

    3) “Whatever crisis that happened at any time, there has to be remote and immediate causes. What are the remote causes of this farmers/herders crisis? Since Independence, we know there used to be a route whereby these cattle rearers use. Cattle rearers are all over the nation, you go to Bayelsa, you see them, you go to Ogun, you see them. If those routes are blocked, what happens? These people are Nigerians, it’s just like you going to block river or shoreline, does that make sense to you? These are the remote causes. But what are the immediate causes? It is the grazing law. These people are Nigerians, we must learn to live together with each other, that is basic. Communities and other people must learn how to accept foreigners within their enclave, finish!”

    Defence minister, Mansur Dan Ali, January 25, after emerging from a meeting with the president and other security chiefs

    4) “The problem is even older than us. It has always been there, but now made worse by the influx of gunmen from the Sahel region into different parts of the West African sub-region. They were trained and armed by Muammar Gadaffi of Libya. When he was killed, the gunmen escaped with their arms. We encountered some of them fighting with Boko Haram. Herdsmen that we used to know carried only sticks and maybe a cutlass to clear the way, but these ones now carry sophisticated weapons. The problem is not religious, but sociological and economic. But we are working on solutions.”

    President Buhari, April 11, speaking in London with Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby

    Sceptical and baffled, Undertow had feared that because the government was ineffective in tackling the crisis, yet more futile explanations could still emanate from them. Here again was how Undertow put it in that May 12, 2018 piece:

    “Before the year is over, no one can tell whether the government will still not propound another theory of the killings. They will probably continue to reel out theories until they run out of explanations. Meanwhile, what Nigerians demand of their government are expertise and competence in understanding crises — for crises will always come — and firmness and fairness in finding and applying solutions. The government has demonstrated no competence in both. It will, therefore, continue to be susceptible to well-founded suspicions, and the country itself unnerved by all manner of theories and complications about the killings. Christians will feel justified to wonder why they must be on the receiving end, and the Middle Belt of Nigeria will wonder whether there is really no subterranean plot to expropriate their lands. The longer the crisis persists, the more complicated and intractable it becomes.

    Given the government’s inexpert approach to the crisis so far, not to say the propagation of untruthful and puerile theories, there is no indication it can get to the bottom of the crisis any time soon. This is apocalyptic. It is truly shocking that the government has been unable to assemble the team needed to help the country reason and forge a way out of the terrible quagmire. It has spoken contradictions and acted contradictorily. The country even senses that their government is at sixes and sevens over the killings, approving costly but ultimately unworkable and tedious establishment of security bases in the time-worn flat-footedness that has unhinged security operations in the country. There may be no significant opposition rallying force at the moment, but the Buhari presidency must still urgently find a way out of the bloodletting if it is not to be undone by the kind of panic that finished off the Goodluck Jonathan presidency. This government has been more heavy-handed than its predecessors, but it is not certain that a resort to strong-arm tactics, as it has begun to show in its overconfident approach to governance, would not eventually doom its electoral chances in next year’s polls.”

    The question today is whether last weekend’s horrendous killings in Plateau State, a state that has not enacted any anti-open grazing law, will outrage the presidency enough to get them to end their dithering in the face of what is clearly a threat to peace and unity, and finally establish a diversified and unifying security council made of officers from different cultures and backgrounds. Sadly, there are no such indications. The Middle Belt has become a killing field; the president should solve that problem now or tell voters next year why he chose not to.

  • Reckless reprisal

    Reckless reprisal

    Was the February 20 demolition of a building in Kaduna owned by Senator Suleiman Hunkuyi politically motivated?  The demolished property at 11B Sambo Road was used as the secretariat of a faction of the All Progressives Congress (APC). Kaduna State Governor Nasir El-Rufai is at the centre of the drama.

    A February 21 report said: “The APC’s “Restoration” group promoted by the senator last Thursday queried El-Rufai and suspended three of his aides, including Special Adviser on Political Matters Uba Sani and Commissioner for Finance Suleiman Kwaru, for similar offences. The Hunkuyi-led faction suspended El-Rufai for six months, for “failing to reply to the query” three days after it was issued.”

    The faction’s Director of Administration, Yahaya Shinko, who spoke at a news conference at the demolished secretariat, shed light on the alarming incident:  “It is no longer news that today 20th February, 2018 at around 4am, the governor accompanied by heavily armed soldiers believed to be from 1 Division Nigerian Army, stormed the new secretariat and carried out the dastardly act.”

    Shinko said the reason given by the government was that the owner of the property, Senator Hunkuyi, had failed to pay ground rent for eight years. He countered: “But we know that, the offence of the lawmaker, his supporters and all other members of the APC with them in this secretariat is aligning ourselves with the position of the National Headquarters of the party to the effect that Danladi Wada is the recognised Deputy Chairman of the APC in Kaduna State and stands as the Acting Chairman until a substantive Chairman emerges at the next state congress of the party.”

    It is a curious coincidence that the demolition was carried out in the context of the party’s factionalisation. It is curious that Governor El-Rufai reportedly supervised the demolition. It is curious that soldiers were reportedly involved in carrying out the demolition.

    The Director General of Kaduna Geographic Information Service (KADGIS), Ibrahim Husseini, in a statement, was obviously referring to the use of the demolished building as a faction’s secretariat when he said, “This illegal violation of use had begun to distress neighbours who were being forced to endure an influx of thugs and blockage of the road.” Would the building have been demolished if it wasn’t being used as a faction’s secretariat?

    Husseini added: “The land has now been allocated to KASUPDA for the purpose of developing and maintaining a public park that will provide a green area and a serene place for recreation in that residential neighbourhood.”

    It looks like the El-Rufai administration thinks it can achieve serenity through reckless reprisal.

  • ‘Reckless’ driver ‘kills’ boy

    A 49-year-old driver, Kazeem Adesokan, who allegedly knocked down a one-year-old boy, has been brought before an Ikeja Magistrates’ Court.
    Adesokan, who lives at 10, Jesuwame Street, Shibiri, Lagos, is facing a two-count charge of manslaughter and reckless driving.
    Prosecuting Sergeant Michael Unah told the court that accused committed the offence around 7.30 a.m. on Tinubu Close, Palmgroove, Ilupeju, Lagos.
    “Adesokan drove a Toyota Hilux Pickup van with marked KRD 530 BT in a reckless and dangerous manner.
    “The accused drove the pickup in a reckless manner and caused the death of a one-year-old boy simply identified as Abdulrahaman Alhaji.
    “Adesokan, who reversed his pickup without checking if someone was at the back, knocked down the one-year-old boy.
    “As a result of the accused’s recklessness, the boy died instantly,’’ Unah said.
    He said the offence contravened Sections 18, 19 and 20 of the State Road Traffic Law.
    Magistrate A. O Gbajumo granted the accused N100, 000 bail with two sureties in the like sum.
    Gbajumo said the two sureties must be gainfully employed and should show evidence of two years’ tax payment to the Lagos State Government.
    She adjourned the case till February 27.

  • Melaye: Limit of reckless bravery

    Senator Dino Melaye likes to celebrate his audacity. His recent press conference arranged to deny his alleged verbal assault on Senator Oluremi Tinubu and put the encounter between the two distinguished senators during their executive session on 12 July 2016 in perspectives provided just another opportunity to once again celebrate his audaciousness. “I have never been a coward; I will never be. I fight my battles alone and I stand by it and there is nothing I say everywhere that I cannot repeat everywhere”, he boasted.

    But why repeat the obvious, if you believe yourself – some will ask? Nigerians, if Melaye wants to know, understand his reckless bravery finds expressions in acts such as abandoning the business of lawmaking to accompany Bukola Saraki’s wife to honour EFCC invitation, mobilizing 84 ‘like minds senators’ to intimidate the judge of the CCT before whom Saraki is facing charges for alleged false declaration of assets and raging and threatening the executive on the floor of the Senate over the arraignment of the senate leadership for alleged forgery. Of course, we also know his alleged unrestrained tirade against Senator Tinubu during the executive session of the Senate on July 12 was in pursuance of the same objective –celebration of audacity.

    From Melaye’s account, we now know the executive session was designed to cut deals. He admitted that  in spite of police investigation which confirmed that there was indeed a forgery of the senate rules, a development that has led to the arraignment of the leadership of the senate along with others,  he was trying to pacify  ‘all those who have gone to court should go and withdraw their names from court and that if  at the end of the day those who refused to withdraw their names from court, we should penalise them by suspending them”. He anchored his argument on the fact that there was already a Senate resolution saying its papers were not forged. But he did not tell the public whether the resolution was passed before the alleged crime or after the police investigation and arraignment of suspected culprits. If it was passed after the event, he did not say whether it has a retroactive effect.

    Similarly, from Melaye’s account, it doesn’t appear Senator Tinubu was initially opposed to the deal but only became irritated by Melaye’s threat to sanction those who do not support the planned cover up. She stood up not exactly to distance herself from the deal under discussion but to warn that while they were trying to find ‘solution’, Melaye had no right to intimidate any senator with suspension threat.  “I’m just wondering”, Tinubu was reported to have said, “whenever Senator Dino Melaye speaks in this chamber, he is always threatening people and behaving childishly. This thug must be tamed.” When Melaye reacted by saying she was stupid, she retorted by calling him a dog. And ‘when I stood up and I reacted…’ Melaye continuing the narrative, ‘she went on shouting ‘thug, dog, thug dog…” In the melee that followed, the deal as well as Melaye was undone.

    Now no one is listening to Melaye’s ‘It is fallacious, malicious and a lie that I said I will impregnate Remi Tinubu. Biologically it is even impossible to impregnate her because she has arrived menopause…’  ‘How can you say you want to beat somebody and at the same time you want to impregnate the person…does it make any logical sense?’ – the embattled Melaye seeking understanding of the reporters asked. No one seems to believe him. Then as an afterthought he added: ‘I will continue to uphold the culture the tradition, the values of the Kogi West Senatorial district and I will not abuse it.’ The closest response to that sober undertaking was Kogi West Youth Leaders Forum’s denunciation of his verbal assault which they described as “embarrassing, irresponsible, uncultured and unguarded utterances which have become utterly unbearable to the good people of Kogi West who he unfortunately represents in the Senate.”

    Osun women have joined the anti-Melaye crusade. All Progressives Congress (APC) women in Osun last week issued a statement to say “Senator Melaye’s attack and threat to beat up Senator Tinubu and impregnate her were uncouth, indecent, demeaning, humiliating, sexist and criminal.” They also say it is a violation of the provisions of the Violence against Persons Act of 2015. There was also a woman’s right advocacy group- Amazons for Change that described Melaye’s verbal assault as “the worst conduct in the history of the Nigerian Senate”. They did not forget to call the attention of the public to what they described as Melaye’s “recent uncouth remarks in reference to Governor Adams Oshiomhole’s wife.” There were protests from Ondo women and a group has come out to warn Melaye against stepping on any part of Yoruba land. There have been reactions by Nigerians from all parts of the world. They all agreed with Senator Tinubu that Senator Melaye must be caged.

    There are two lessons to be drawn from this tragedy. Our new insight into how the 8th Senate is run has now confirmed our worst fears. The Senate whose leadership by their own accounts emerged in an inelegant way has been sustained through self-help using strategies popularised by thugs or Lagos area boys. When Saraki’s wife was invited by EFCC for questioning, the Senate quickly passed a resolution protesting the harassment of wives of their senators.  When Saraki was dragged before the Code Of conduct Tribunal for false declaration of assets, the Senate’s response was a vote of confidence on their leaders. They followed that up by trading the senate chambers for the CCT ostensibly in solidarity with Saraki when in fact the action was meant to intimidate the judge. And when that failed, petitions emerged to show the judge was ‘corrupt’. The Senate then usurped the duty of EFCC and summoned him for a questioning, fixed on a day he was scheduled to preside over Saraki’s case.

    Senate’s response to the ongoing forgery case has not been different. A vote of confidence on those accused of alleged forgery, some theatrics on the floor of the Senate where brave Melaye argued that if the Senate rules were forged, it meant the confirmation of the AGF, the service chiefs and the passage of the budget stands invalidated. When that crooked logic did not impress anyone, they summoned the AGF to come and defend his actions. And when the July 12 executive session failed to seal a deal after a retroactive Senate resolution to cover an alleged crime, they threatened impeachment of the president.

    In other words, the leadership of the 8th Senate acquired through self-help strategies of area boys or what legendary Fela described as ‘Igboju pass power’- (reckless bravery) is managed through bully and blackmail. It is perhaps only in Saraki’s Eighth Senate that those accused of criminal activities, rather than clear their names would turn around to threaten those who do not want to commit perjury with suspension.

    The second take away on the lighter mood was how audacious Melaye was finally undone.  He forgot that man was not made for woman, but woman was made for man (Corinthians 11.9). He forgot that a woman is equipped with a complex analytical mind that enables her subdue any man no matter how audacious. All Senator Tinubu did to cut Melaye to size was launching from her bag of verbal arsenal an appropriate answer to Sigmund Fraud’s age long question of “what is on a man’s mind” at irrepressible Melaye and he was undone. Now am sure he knows no man ever wins a woman’s war.

  • Lagos: The Economist article reckless, slanderous

    Lagos: The Economist article reckless, slanderous

    The Lagos State government yesterday described the article published in the latest edition of The Economist as reckless and slanderous.

    It noted that the issues were ill-conceived.

    Commissioner for Information and Strategy Steve Ayorinde said the government deemed it fit to write a rebuttal to the article: “Paralysed: Why Nigeria’s largest city is even less navigable than usual”, as it contained series of bias judgment.

    Ayorinde wondered why the article, published just about the time Governor Akinwunmi Ambode warned traffic offenders, was latched on by the traditional and social media.

    Attributing it to the handiwork of fifth columnists, he said the article failed to take into account the bigger picture of an emerging reform policy, designed to address the larger concerns in the management of security, traffic and the environment.

    “If we were to conclude hastily, as the article did, we would have described the magazine’s effort in the same words it once famously used as “an unpleasant nose-to-stranger’s-armpit experience”.

    Ayorinde added that it was inaccurate and preposterous for the article to suggest that Governor Ambode cut the powers of traffic controllers by banning them from impounding cars, which it concluded made officers reluctant to enforce the rules.

    He said what the governor did instead was to enjoin the officers to look at other options to apprehend traffic offenders by adopting the ticketing system backed by the same type of technology used in licensing and tracking vehicles instead of impounding vehicles.

    “That The Economist sees nothing wrong in recalcitrant officers refusing to carry out a directive by their employer is as surprising as it is shameful.

    “Shockingly still, the veil finally came off this curious article when it states that by choosing a compassionate approach to enforcement, Governor Ambode is less competent and has deviated from his predecessor’s template.

    “But what legacy has The Economist bequeathed to former Governor Babatunde Fashola? Cars were terrified into order by a state traffic agency, whose bribe-hungry officers flagged down offending drivers.

    “This is clearly an uncharitable summation of traffic management under the last administration.

    “It is disrespectful, even more condescending to the officers of LASTMA and to Lagosians for whom the magazine purports to be fighting.

    “In any case, if indeed some officers were corrupt in LASTMA by The Economist’s damning verdict, should Ambode continue to maintain such a tainted template?

    “Is this the magazine’s idea of the end justifies the means or it is negligible because this is Africa?”

    “Perhaps, it is high time that this vaunted magazine learnt to restrict itself to  journalism rather than seeking to impose jaded views in a volatile political climate.”

     

  • Sani slams governor for ‘reckless’ utterances

    Sani slams governor for ‘reckless’ utterances

    The senator representing Kaduna Central in the National Assembly, Shehu Sani, has cautioned Governor Nasir El-Rufai for what he called the governor’s reckless statements.

    The All Progressives Congress (APC) lawmaker, who has been tackling the governor since inception of his administration, described as “irresponsible” a statement in which El-Rufai allegedly told aggrieved persons on his appointments to climb the Kufena Mountain and jump.

    The governor, at a town hall meeting with stakeholders from Kaduna Central, reportedly said: “Whoever is angry with his appointments at all levels can go and climb the Kufena Mountain and fall.”

    Sani was reacting to the governor’s statement when he hosted some youths from Southern Kaduna.

    He said: “The positive aspect of the governor’s proclamation on the Kufena Mountain is that he has put it on a national discuss and it has become a tourist attraction for people who want to see where opposition are supposed to climb, fall and die.

    “But in a serious sense, it is an irresponsible statement to have called on people who voted us into power to climb such a hill, fall and to die.

    “My advice to all the opposition forces in Kaduna State is that we should turn Kufena Hills into our meeting place to demand good governance, accountability and government without arrogance.”

  • Equating Mimiko with Awolowo reckless, Ondo PDP tells Maku

    The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Ondo State has criticised a statement credited to the Minister of Information, Mr. Labaran Maku, at the inauguration of the Kaadi Igbe Ayo in Akure, the state capital.

    The minister compared Governor Olusegun Mimiko with the late Chief Obafemi Awolowo.

    In a statement by its spokesman, Mr. Wale Ozogoro, PDP said: “It is most embarrassing to compare the late Awolowo with Mimiko, who has not paid workers’ salary since January.

    “Awolowo is an epitome of social welfarism, which is in total contrast to Mimiko, who belongs to the school of Nigeria Oligarchy Capitalist Movement.

    “Awolowo provided free education at all levels while Mimiko did not only increase school fees at the Adekunle Ajasin University (AAU), Akungba-Akoko, and Rufus Giwa Polytechnic, Owo, but introduced sundry fees in secondary and primary schools across the state.

    “The party expects the minister to appraise the importance of this colossal waste of resources on the life of an average Ondo person. We urge the minister to take his Good Governance Tour around Ondo, particularly the interior, and let us see if his so-called comparison will stand the test of time.

    “Awolowo is an embodiment of service and never had the opportunity of collecting over N700 billion from the Federation Account. He generated revenue from cocoa, which was the mainstay of the Southwest’s economy and used it for monumental development.

    “Instead of comparing Mimiko with Awolowo, the minister should have maintained a golden silence until his tour of the state. The Mimiko administration has wasted over N1 billion on this futile project. It is gallivanting around and showcasing market stalls as the best things that ever happened to our dear state, while infrastructural facilities are decaying.

    “PDP is confident that the Election Petition Tribunal will uphold justice and sack the interlopers from the Government House. All these make-believe and hyper-media propaganda will soon be history in Ondo State and Maku will be a witness.”

  • CAN to el-Rufai: your comment on Jesus reckless

    Former Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Abuja, Nasiru el-Rufai, came under fire yesterday over his comment on Jesus Christ.

    The Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) described the statement as not only reckless but also “indicative of deep-seated moral bankruptcy.”

    el-Rufai tweeted on January 28 that “if Jesus criticises Jonathan’s government, Maku/Abati/Okupe will say that he slept with Mary.”

    Reacting to the issue, the Christian organisation warned el-Rufai: “If he persists in such matters, making such divisive commentaries, he must prepare himself for a very forceful and vigorous reaction from the Church and the Christian community in Nigeria.”

    Briefing reporters through its General Secretary, Rev. Musa Asake, CAN said: “Maturity and dignified restraint of the Christian populace in the face of inflammatory and provocative statements should not be taken as a licence for unbridled assault.”

    It added: “Had it not been for the maturity, fortitude, patience, decency, forgiving nature and deep sense of restraint that the majority of Christians have in our country, el-Rufai would not have been safe anywhere in Nigeria today after cracking such an expensive joke.”

    Asake went on: “We urge his religious leaders and political associates to advise him to be far more sober and circumspect and put a padlock on his mouth before he lights the candle that may set our country on fire.

    “On our part, we enjoin the Christian community and our Christian youths to continue to be restrained and to always seek peace, love and harmony, despite the provocations they are facing from the likes of Nasir El-Rufai and those he represents.”

    CAN said: “We must not allow him to turn Nigeria into a cauldron of fire by his reckless, bigoted and twisted commentaries about our Lord or our faith and we must view him for exactly what he is-a failed, desperate, hate-filled and drowning politician who is now stoking the embers of religious division to create a political base for himself among his people.”

    It added: “Nigeria has no place for religious bigots who delight in insulting the Christian faith.

    “We urge the Federal Government and Jamatul Nasir Islam (JNI) to call Nasir el-Rufai to order and not to overlook the possibility that his joke was not only contrived but was actually calculated to create an even greater wedge between Christians and Muslims in Nigeria with the attendant consequences.”