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Tag: Southwest

  • ‘Why people are not collecting pvc in Southwest’

    Adekunle Osibogun, the Convener of the Young Progressive Nigerian Initiatives (YPNI), has led some volunteers on a sensitisation tour of the Ogun East Senatorial District. In this interview with reporters in Lagos, he identifies red-tapism and other bureaucratic bottlenecks as reasons for the refusal of people to collect their permanent voters cards (PVC) in the Southwest geo-political zone. Excerpts:

    Could  yoy share the experience you gathered during the recent PVC sensitisation campaign tour  in Ogun East Senatorial District?

    I’ll say the experience was quite humbling in the sense that there is a high level of enthusiasm amongst the populace towards the upcoming 2019 general elections. We however observed that a lot of people are not aware of the important role the Permanent Voters Cards (PVCs) will play during the elections. The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has indicated that PVCs will play a key role in the upcoming election process, and this I believe is already being reflected in the allotments of the new polling units (PUs). I observed that the regions with the higher PVC collection rates were allotted a higher number of PUs. Consequently, the Southwest region got the third least number of new PUs, behind the Northcentral where citizens have been displaced by the herdsmen crisis, the Northeast which has been ravaged by the Boko Haram, and the Northwest which has been notorious for underage registration and voting. Unfortunately, only a few of the populace in Ogun East senatorial district have gotten their temporary voters cards. Some of them have not even registered at all, while there is a large number of people who complained that they have either lost or damaged their voters’ cards. We also observed that some eligible voters who relocated to Ogun State after the 2015 elections are anxious to transfer their registration to the state, but lack information on the process. I’ll say that INEC still has a lot of work to do in Ogun State, particularly in Ogun East, because based on our survey the amount of eligible voters who have not yet obtained their PVCs, which includes those that only have their temporary voter’s card, is very high and if we are looking to have successful general elections in 2019, it’s important that these people are also given not only the opportunity, but also the encouragement to pick up their PVCs.

    Residents of Ogun State are highly politically active, which is most evident in the vibrancy of the political campaigns and the level of enlightenment amongst the populace. When it comes to political education, majority of the populace know their civic rights and duties and are actively involved in the political process. However, when it comes to the level of PVC collection, especially in Ogun East, my observation was that the level of PVC collection varied from area to area. I observed that while some locations we surveyed had a high rate of PVC collection, others had a very low rate. Also, the densely populated areas reported a lower collection rate than the thinly populated ones. So, for example, locations within the waterside area reported a higher collection rate than the Ijebu-Ode and Odogbolu areas. To address our findings, we have set up teams of volunteers to engage and encourage people to go to their local government offices and registration centres within the district to pick up their PVCs. We are also taking steps to set up a special team that will provide guidance for those who have either lost or damaged their cards or intend to transfer their registration.

    What is responsible for the low collection in the South and higher collection in the North?

    I haven’t surveyed the North to know the reason for the high PVC collection there, but I can speak about the low collection rate in the South. I will attribute it primarily to bureaucracy and red-tape. We have citizens who wake up as early as 5am to go and queue at INEC offices, spend the whole day there and may still be unable to pick up their cards. Now, that is discouraging. To encourage people to pick up their PVCs, which is a civic duty, it is important that we make the process a lot easier and more seamless. Without a shadow of doubt, there is a need for more registration machines, especially in Ogun East district, where the registration machines are not sufficient. It is important for INEC to intensify efforts by increasing the number of registration machines in the South; investing more in awareness and sensitisation campaigns amongst the populace for those with lost or damaged their cards or those seeking to transfer their registration; and by reducing the bureaucracy and red-tape prevalent in the PVC collection process. It is noteworthy that the bureaucracy in transferring registration within a state takes approximately 10 months, even if it is within the same district. The customer service can also be better. This is why my foundation is focusing on providing guidance and support to help ease the stress that the average citizens are currently experiencing during the process of registering and collecting their PVCs.

    From your experience, do you think Nigerians are prepared for 2019 general elections?

    I’ll say Nigerians are better enlightened going into the 2019 General Elections than any of our previous elections, but their level of preparedness is low, becausemajority of the populace are yet to collect their PVCs. Based on the vibes coming from INEC, the PVCs will be the instrument that will qualify citizens to participate in the voting process for the 2019 General Elections. So, no matter how enlightenedyou are, no matter how passionateyou are, if we haven’t all gotten our PVCs then all our efforts will be in vain because we will all be unable to participate in the voting process, which defeats the purpose of democracy.

    especially on PVC collection nationwide, but they can do more.INEC can do more especially in the South-WestRegion because the level of PVCs collected in the South-West as a whole compared to the growing population of the South-West isvery low.It’s therefore urgent that INEC now pays special attention to the registration and collection of PVCs in the South-West to ensure the General Elections in the South-West Region are a true reflection of the hopes and aspirations of the people.

    What Is Your Position On The #NotTooYoungToRun Campaign?

    I strongly believe there is a need to transit from the old generation of politicians to a younger and more vibrant generation of political leaders, who understand the challenges of Nigerians in the 21st century and who are prepared to proffer lasting solutions,inspire their peers, and work tirelessly towards addressing these challenges. This, I believe is also the objective behind the #NotTooYoungToRun Campaign. Majority of our youths have lost faith in Nigeria because of the growing disconnect between their aspirations and those of our political elites. The discontentment of our youths with the political elite can be better expressed with reference to the surge in the numbers emigrating through our boarders in search of a better life. We have continued to lose our youths who voluntarily make the suicidal journey across the Sahara desert, others opt for the citizenship of foreign countries, while those who elect to stay have resigned to their faith or taken to crime or armed banditry. This is the current reality facing Nigerians. Our political elites have continuously failed to inspire our youths, so if our youths choose to be their own inspiration towards building a better country for future generations, we must support them.For Nigeria to develop, people with fresh ideas, innovation, drive and focus must be given the opportunity to govern, and I make bold to say that Nigeria will only transit from its current predicament if young reputable Nigerians take up the responsibility of governance.

    Any Political Aspiration For Adekunle Osibogun in 2019 General Elections?

    I am currently encouraging my peers to actively participate in the 2019 General Elections because it is my desire to see a large contingent of us occupying elective offices in 2019, so we can attempt to rescue our dear country from its current downward spiral.  I therefore intend to lead from the front by contesting in the 2019 General Elections. I know your next questions will be for what office? So let me save you the trouble by telling you that it will be an office I am best suited for based on my qualifications and experience, and where I will be better able to contribute to solving our current challenges and building a better Nigeria. But be rest assured that all will be revealed in due course.

    What is the driving force behind the Adekunke Osibogun Foundation?

    The Adekunle Osibogun Foundation is a private foundation that supports and inspires civic engagements and services in local communities, strengthen, promote, and where necessary protect the socio-economic rights of young Nigerians through intervention programmes in areas of education, entrepreneurship, leadership, citizenship awareness, agriculture, and youth empowerment. The origin of the foundation date back to 2009 when I met with other young patriots in Abuja to set up a platform to encourage and promote a sense of patriotism among Nigerians, which eventually birth the Young Progressive Nigerians Initiative (“YPNI”) for the benefit of our peers and local communities. After the establishment of YPNI, I was motivated to financially support my commitments to promoting patriotism amongst Nigerians and enhancing the quality of life of Nigerians through initiatives that promote national development, entrepreneurship and educational opportunities. Hence, the establishment of the Adekunle Osibogun Foundation! Through the years, I have supported and funded numerous intervention programmes of various non-governmental organisations, as they provide free skills acquisition trainings, mentorship and leadership programmes, entrepreneurship development programmes, and access to financial and legal advisory services for small and medium sized enterprises.

    Photo caption:

    Volunteers of the Adekunle Osibogun Foundation in a Group Photography with the Gbegande of Ososa, Oba Dr. Adetoye Alatishe during the sensitization on the collection of Permanent Voters Card (PVC),sponsored by the organisation in Ososa, Ogun State recently.

     

     

     

  • Agric initiative in Southwest targets 1m farmers

    No fewer than one million farmers across the Southwest are to benefit from a new agricultural initiative tagged ‘Agbetutun’.

    The initiative, a collaboration between the Odua Chamber of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture (ODUACCIMA), Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN), Department for International Development (DFID), Business Innovation Facility and Transwealth, was launched at the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), Ibadan.

    ODUACCIMA  President, Chief Kola Akosile said the programme is aimed at promoting healthy competition among the farmers through the use of modern agricultural technologies, ideas and initiatives.

    He said the target is to be achieved in the next five years. He, however, added that the farmers in Kwara and Edo states would also be involved in the programme, adding that this would reduce unemployment in the country.

    He said: “Right now, we are putting the structure on the ground. We have the University of Ibadan (UI), Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ile Ife, Cocoa House, and others were all built with cocoa money during the analogue days.

    “We are covering traditional Southwest states, Kwara and Edo in the next five years and we are looking at one million farmers. We want to ensure agricultural competition with digital youths. We are bringing farmers, cattle breeders, women and other stakeholders together.

    “We want to use technology, innovations to change the narrative story of agriculture business in the Southwest. We are starting with 20,000 farmers. This is being championed by ODUACCIMA. It is the regional chamber of commerce in the Southwest. It is private sector driving. The existing farmers will also be part of it. The selection is based on the state chambers of commerce and industry. Like I said it is going to be technology driven. We are starting with maize.”

    Southwest Farmers President, Chief Desaolu maintained that the initiative was put out to build legacies for the teeming and incoming generations.

    He said “We don’t want our youths to be riding okadas again. You see HND, BSc holders riding okadas, that is not the legacy of Chief Obafemi Awolowo. He created farm settlements. Our youths are suffering and we have potential to engage them.’’

    Other stakeholders in their separate remarks expressed optimism that the new initiative will help attract youths into agriculture and improve food production in the country.

  • ‘We’re committed to Southwest integration’

    Ondo State government has expressed its commitment to implementation of the Southwest agenda on regional integration, Regional Integration and Special Duties Commissioner Prof. Bayonile Ademodi has said.

    He spoke yesterday in Akure while opening a workshop on implementation of the Southwest document on service delivery.

    Represented by the Permanent Secretary, Dele Ogunwolere, the commissioner said participants would discuss the Southwest plan for service delivery.

    He said the workshop was organised by the ministry in collaboration with the Development Agenda for Western Nigeria Commission, (DAWN) as part of Southwest’s agenda to enhance its development.

    Ademodi said the programme would sensitise the workforce on the need for reform in the public sector, to enhance service delivery.

    He said the ministry, a creation of this administration, keyed into the DAWN commission agenda for integration and development in the Southwest.

    The commissioner noted that the ministry sensitised top officials and office holders last year on regional integration.

    Ademodi urged participants to use the opportunity to be more informed on western regional integration, to facilitate the programme in the state.

    The Director, Regional Integration, Pastor Edmond Akintunde, noted that each region shares tradition, history, language, stressing the need to unite and speak with one voice to achieve development.

    He said the government would leverage on the Southwest programme document for it to be properly facilitated.

    Akintunde said the programme was organised as a guide to develop implementation plan in each state, to improve service delivery.

    He said the MDAs were to look at the document and develop sectorial plans on how it related to them.

    According to him, participants are to review the document for the state’s effective implementation.

    The director noted that the ministry’s mandate is to be the coordinating hub and oversee activities of regional groups and organisations, to improve public service delivery.

    The DAWN commission representatives, who are the facilitators, gave insight into the commission, to allow participants key into objectives of regional integration.

  • Fear of mass exodus hits Southwest PDP

    Considered the weakest base of the Peoples Democratic Party in the nation, the main opposition may suffer further losses due to varying issues and contentions in the Southwest region, reports Sunday Oguntola 

    Disgruntled members of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the Southwest region are gearing up to leave the party for another platform, it can be authoritatively revealed.

    The development may leave the party, which has only one governorship slot and a few House of Assembly members, further weakened and battered in the region believed to be its weakest base in the nation.

    Investigations revealed the impending exodus is not unconnected with several disaffections, contending interests and the fierce battle for tickets in the 2019 general elections. Our correspondent gathered that many members of the PDP have concluded plans to move to identified alternative platforms before the middle of the year.

    This, it was learnt, is to position them to win the tickets of the new platforms since their chances are becoming dimmer and threatened under the PDP, which many of them accuse of still living in the shadows of reputation for alleged impunity.

    Checks revealed that most state chairmen are not comfortable with the overriding influence of the National Working Committee (NWC) of the party and its plots to impose certain candidates on them. At least two or three of them are said to be shopping for alternative parties in the run-off to the 2019 general elections.

    No longer at ease in Oyo

    In Oyo PDP, for example, the party is engaged in a supremacy battle between former Governor Rasheed Ladoja and governorship aspirant, Seyi Makinde. The Makinde’s group is said to enjoy the backing of the Southwest zonal chairman, Dr Eddy Olafeso.

    Olafeso is believed to have taken it upon himself to sell the group’s aspirations and interests to the NWC, a development that culminated in the recent attempt to share the 26-man state party executive between the two main blocs.

    The proposal is to give Ladoja’s group 14 slots and leave the remaining for the Makinde’s group. Though Ladoja has declared he would not contest the governorship seat, it is believed he plans to control the soul of the party for a candidate that would be loyal to him.

    Makinde, on the other hand, is interested in the governorship ticket with the NWC members said to be more disposed to its aspiration than backing someone sponsored by Ladoja who incidentally produced Oyo PDP chairman, Alhaji Kunmi Mustapha.

    This proposal has not infuriated Ladoja but also left him threatening to leave the party. He said: “The issue of the state executive being shared 14 and 12 does not even arise at all. There is and there will be nothing like that.

    “It was impunity that drove us from the PDP and if they allow the impunity to return, we will leave the party for them. We brought Accord less than four months to the 2011 elections and the people of the state accepted the party.

    “Wherever there is impunity, you will not find me there. How will some people think of going to Abuja to ask them to help to substitute names of their preferred candidates in the list of duly elected officers? It is very wrong and we will not accept that.”

    Sources close to him confided he has instructed his supporters to shop for a new platform. Should Ladoja and his supporters leave, it will leave the PDP further decimated and incapacitated in Oyo State following the recent defection of former Governor Adebayo Alao-Akala and his supporters from the fold.

    Though Makinde has appealed to Ladoja not to dump the PDP ship, analysts believe it is just a make-belief considering he stands to gain should the political heavyweight leave the scene for him.

    Omisore, supporters out of PDP in Osun

    In neighbouring Osun, last week’s State Congress produced Soji Adagunodo as the new PDP chairman. This effectively shuts out the faction led by former Commissioner for Works, Dr Bayo Faforiji.

    His faction is loyal to former Deputy Governor Senator Iyiola Omisore, which battled tooth and nail to secure postponement of the exercise. It was gathered the Uche Secondus-led NWC stood its ground on the proposed pronouncement, leading to a boycott by the Omisore’s faction.

    Hours after the exercise, Faforiji also announced the movement working for Omisore to become the next governor is dumping the PDP for another political platform.

    The terse statement, in a WhatsApp platform, reads: “Finally, the long and tortuous journey in the dark tunnel of the discarded PDP days is over! What a sweet relief!”

    “Now is the time for us to hit the ground running. As soon as our next destination is determined and established, everyone must take up the challenge of spreading the gospel of “Omisore for Governor” throughout the nooks and crannies of Osun State.”

    Omisore has been the major financier and backbone of the party in the state. He has unsuccessfully contested the governorship seat twice on the PDP platform. With him and his supporters out of the PDP, there is no doubt the party is weaker for it in Osun.

    Aggrieved aspirants take on Fayose in Ekiti

    In Ekiti, Governor Ayo Fayose is facing serious internal crisis owing to support for his deputy, Professor Kolapo Olusola. The governor has declared Olusola as his anointed candidate ahead of the April primary of the party.

    Four of the aspirants former Minister of State for Works and immediate past PDP national spokesman, Prince Dayo Adeyeye; Senate Minority Whip and former deputy governor, Mrs. Biodun Olujimi; former Secretary to the State Government (SSG) and ex-High Commissioner to Canada, Ambassador Dare Bejide and former Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, Owoseni Ajayi said the imposition of Olusola would lead to mass exodus of well-meaning members and elders.

    They also demanded for dissolution of the state exco headed by Gboyega Oguntuase for dancing to Fayose’s tune. In its stead, they said a caretaker committee should be constituted to coordinate the forthcoming primary.

    Adeyeye said: “The candidate he (Fayose) has chosen for himself is not a person that can win an election in this state. When you display billboards and you are writing ‘Meet Your Next Governor’ on them, you are putting yourself in the position of God. That is very annoying.”

    Senator Olujimi said:

    “Can anybody who wants to win an election for PDP wish us away? If anybody wants to wish us away in the party, the consequences will be grave.”

    Bejide said: “Section 50 (i), 50 (2) and 50 (2b) of the PDP constitution spells out how our candidate will be picked. Imposition, impunity and arbitrary action of a sitting governor is definitely ruled out and we will surely enforce the provision of the law.

    Ajayi said:

    “The so-called adoption was a fraudulent act, an illegal action. I want to tell you that 80 per cent of those working with him are with us. They are only working for the money they are earning.”

    Unease peace in Lagos

    In Lagos, former factional chairman Segun Adewale has already handed over key to the party’s secretariat in Ikeja GRA to Chief Bode George, a Board of Trustee (BoT) member. That effectively left the position for Moshood Salvador said to be in alliance with the Labour Party (LP) before the Supreme Court judgment sacking former national chairman, Senator Modu Alli-Sheriff.

    The factions entered a truce agreement following the judgment in Lagos to bring everybody on board with Salvador committing to implementing it. But he has reneged leaving him and George, estranged.

    The George’s elements in the party have been kicking, calling for resignation of Salvador for allegedly undermining their leader and going back on the peace terms.

    Led by Youth Leader of Alimosho local government, Adewale Akinte, the protesters carried placards with different inscriptions like: “Salvador is working for APC”; “Go, Salvador, Go!”; “On 65-35 we stand” and “Salvador, where do you belong, APC or PDP?” among others.

    The only PDP member in the Lagos State House of Assembly, Oladipupo Olorunrinu, believes the party leaders must move quickly to settle differences within the state chapter.

    Olorunrinu (PDP-Amuwo Odofin I) said the leaders needed to bring everyone on board ahead of the 2019 general elections.

    “They (people) want to be very sure we (party) are intact and well positioned to take over power.

    “My message is that the party leaders should be on top of all rancors and issues, though managing human beings is one of the most difficult things on earth,” he said.

    On March 8, the party held two parallel assemblies one led by the Salvador executive while former deputy chairman, Prince Ola Apena held another. Apena’s group said it was not happy with the way Salvador was running the party, asking him to step down from office.

    But Olorunrinu said the party was not factionalised but only experiencing differences.  According to him: “I will not say that there are no issues in Lagos PDP. “There is rancour and misunderstanding in every party, we cannot rule that out.

    “The most important thing is that the party Chairman, Hon. Salvador is intact already. It is just for him to settle the other executive. “There is really no faction at large.

    “It is two children that are fighting, but Chief Olabode George has said that Salvador still remains the Chairman of the party in the state,” he said.

    Daniel, others out of Ogun PDP

    In Ogun, former Governor Gbenga Daniels is yet to declare defection from the PDP. But his recent romance with former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, who has resigned from the party, clearly indicates he might also be on his way out of the PDP with his supporters.

    Daniels has been having a long-drawn between with Senator Buruji Kashamu(Ogun East) over supremacy and control of the party. The Federal High Court in Lagos in February affirmed the Adebayo Dayo-led state executive as the authentic leadership of the party in the state.

    The executive is backed by Kashamu, the sole financier of the party in Ogun State. But he has been battling for the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and PDP to recognise his faction.

    A member of the PDP in Oyo State, Chief Bayo Adeoti, said the party has to regain its lost glories in the South West if it is serious about winning the presidency. “We have to get our acts together because without winning votes in the south west, we can as well forget the 2019 presidency.”

     

     

  • 2019: PDP cannot win in southwest without unity – ex-minister

    2019: PDP cannot win in southwest without unity – ex-minister

    A chieftain of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in Lagos State, Sen. Adeseye Ogunlewe, has called on members to work together for the progress of the party in the southwest. Ogunlewe, a former minister of works, made the call in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos. He was reacting to Thursday’s holding of two parallel events by the Moshood Salvador-led executive and another group.

    NAN reports that while Salvador was holding the party general assembly to mobilise members in Ikeja, a group of aggrieved members, led by former state party deputy chairman, Prince Ola Apena, was holding another rally in Ikorodu. Ogunlewe, in his reaction, told NAN that the party could not realise its objective of capturing Lagos and other states in 2019 if members were working at cross purposes.

    He, however, said disagreements are normal in a democracy, pointing out that ability to manage them is what matters. “The PDP members in the state need to work in unity with one another to achieve our objectives in the state. Election is around the corner. This is a time for unity and not for fight or discord. Personally, I see the same people in Ikeja and Ikorodu rallies as the same PDP. Yes, there are disagreements, which is normal in a democracy, we will sort ourselves out,” he said.

    Ogunlewe said the call for Salvador to leave office was unnecessary as only the National Working Committee of the party could remove him. When asked if he had any political ambition in 2019, he responded in the negative. “May be you don’t know I am 75 years old, and what will a 75 year old be looking for in office again? Sorry, I am not vying for anything,” he said.

     

  • Isola: Southwest governors must sign Yoruba language law

    Isola: Southwest governors must sign Yoruba language law

    The President (Aare Apapo) of the Grand Council of Yoruba Youths (Agbarijo Egbe Odo Yoruba), Awa Bamiji, has urged Southwest governors to emulate Lagos State Governor Akinwunmi Ambode by signing into law the use of Yoruba language as official language in the region.

    In a statement yesterday, Bamiji said this should be done before renowned Yoruba writer and cultural icon, Prof Akinwunmi Isola, is laid to rest on April 13.

    The statement reads: “Just like D. O. Fagunwa, Duro Ladipo, Hubert Ogunde, Alagba Adebayo Faleti and few others, our highly referred mentor, cultural icon and intellectual giant, Prof Akinwumi Isola, lived his days advocating preservation of Yoruba language, culture and traditions, which are gradually going into the dustbin of history.

    “They were all our heroes, and we were losing them one by one without taking steps to immortalise them and crown their collective efforts.

    “With the latest demise of Prof Isola, the Yoruba nation and the world are yet to recover from the rude shock of his passage, last Saturday, exactly seven months after the death of his intimate friend, Alagba Faleti.”

    “The Yoruba nation shall sorely miss him and everything about him. The signing of the Yoruba Language Law by governors of Ogun, Oyo, Osun, Ondo and Ekiti is the only way to ameliorate the condition, continue the advocacy and immortalise them all.

  • GIHN CG begins Southwest tour

    Coordinator General of the Global Initiative for Harmony in Nigeria (GIHN) Elizabeth Omini will begin a tour of the South West this weekend.

    According to the Ogun State Command of GIHN, Omini will arrive in Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital this weekend.

    Ogun State Coordinator Bishop Rotimi Adewumi, said: “Omini is an apostle of strengthening national cohesion and at international levels in order to transform the society where harmony and brotherhood reign, leading to national and global peace. She maintains that we should not allow sentiments to jeopardize our religious, political, ethnic liberty with the happenings around us.”

    “With the all the crisis, violence and criminal activities in our country and even at the global level, the CG formed GIHN to fight this negative attitudes, irrespective of our religion and beliefs, and this is the message she’s bringing to us. The CG urges us all to embrace love and harmony, so that even insurgency and crime will reduce,” Adewumi said.

    GIHN was founded by Omini in March 30, 2013. In October 2015, Omini, working with the Federal Government, sponsored an amendment bill, to provide a framework for the activities of GIHN Corps under the supervision of the Director-General of NOA, which has gone through various reading in the two Houses.

  • Election 2019: Lest President Buhari’s position on restructuring hurts him in the Southwest

    What we have currently is simply too chaotic to be productive. 

    I was in perfect agreement with President Mohammadu Buhari when, on his first anniversary, he declared as follows in reference to the 2014 National Conference: “I advised against the issue of National Conference. You would recall that ASUU was on strike then for almost nine months. The teachers in the tertiary institutions were on strike for more than a year, yet that government had about N9billion to organise that conference. I never liked the priority it attached to that particular issue because it meant that what the National Assembly could have handled was being handed over to the Conference, while the more important job of keeping our children in school was abandoned. That is why I haven’t bothered to read it or ask for a briefing on it. I want it to go into archives.”

    Any regular reader of this column would remember that I regard the conference as not only an exercise in crass political opportunism, but the means by which our respected Afenifere elders wanted to find a way back into political reckoning in Yoruba land where we used to swear by their names. So totally did Afenifere own that conference, even more than President Jonathan who, until then, was an arch enemy of a national conference, by whatever name called, that they not only pre-arranged the membership recruitment process, they changed, and replaced members at their whim and caprice, nominees of even state governors as they did to Governor Kayode Fayemi whose head of delegation, Chief Deji Fasuan, was summarily removed, installing my friend, Dr Kunle Olajide, in his place. A visit to the president by the duo of Governors Fayemi and Aregbesola to change this, changed nothing. They proceeded from there to donate their man, Senator Femi Okunrounmu, as the man to kick start the conference, while they also jostled, but futilely, for the chairmanship. Of course there is a litany of other minuses for the conference especially its opaque funding and the hidden intent to use it to gift the incumbent president two more years in office. It was nothing more than a special purpose vehicle to muddle our politics ahead of the 2015 Presidential election. Aside these negativities, APC had disavowed of it from scratch. To therefore now be calling on Buhari to implement its decisions, many of them as asinine as recommending creation of additional 18 states can only be a joke.

    But that was a clear four years ago. The president ought, by now, to have been properly advised on the essence, and the inevitability, of restructuring, given our current totally unworkable polity. What we have currently is simply too chaotic to be productive. That Nigeria is in a state of anomie is too self evident it no longer requires any persuasion with its multiplicity of flash points all over the country, with blood literally flowing on Nigerian streets and farmlands. Nowhere in Nigeria today is so safe the citizen can sleep with both eyes closed. The odds are that if you didn’t get kidnapped in your sleep or during those hazardous journeys on horrible roads, North, East, West and everywhere, Badoo murderers could very well  be at the ready to crack your brains out with a stone. No, there is no denying the fact that our number one security challenge, Boko Haram, which in Jonathan’s days occupied three quarters of Borno State, has been significantly degraded  there is still more than enough threat to make one totally uncomfortable, security wise. The president must appreciate that we cannot be doing things the same old way and expect to have different results.

    With his present stand on restructuring, the Yoruba vote, which made all the difference between his many attempts at the presidency, could very well be in jeopardy, in the process of being considerably endangered. To say no to restructuring, and do nothing about a serious attempt at devolving powers from the federal to the constituent parts, could bring very unpleasant consequences. To so benignly treat the Yoruba, who have been the chief protagonists of restructuring, unlike others who came on board only when they saw it as an instrument of  political opposition – those I call ‘fly by night restructurists, will not only be unfair, it will be un -politic.

    Yorubas, in case President Buhari doesn’t know, do not vote on basis of sentiment. Otherwise, the palaces and the Afenifere elders who we treat reverentially in these parts, would have tilted Yoruba votes to President Jonathan at the 2015 election, given the amount of money he burnt in Yoruba land. We vote based on ONE principle only, and it dates back to the days of immortal Awo which was the reason we never mind being in opposition. That one principle is called AFENIFERE, not to be confused with the group that goes by that name, but the philosophy that sees the very essence of government, its RAISON D’ETRE, as the happiness and well being of the greater majority of the citizenry. This is what Awo stood for and taught us, and since it accords with Yoruba’s pristine culture of ‘love your neighbour as yourself’, it has remained immutable in our political behaviour. The minority Yoruba you find outside our mainstream political perspective are those who are driven by self interest. And that is why they will, forever, remain losers in Yoruba land. Even when Obasanjo successfully rigged us out, we bounced back at the very next opportunity, disbanding his horde of self seekers to political Siberia.

    Restructuring is for progress. With restructuring, each state will better be able to cater for its development; it will ensure, as Awo did, almost full employment, security will be much better tackled, and enhanced. Above all, the era of state governments carrying begging bowls to Abuja, every end of month, would become history. It is neither separation nor destruction of Nigeria. On the contrary, it will ensure each state developing at its own pace, and responsibly playing its part in maintaining a much reduced centre.

    There are other reasons President Buhari must nurture his alliance with the Southwest, and here, I wish to borrow from the seminal ideas of Louis Odion, in a recent article. PDP is looking at the possibility of fielding a much younger person than Buhari and according to Louis: “to this school of thought, fielding a much younger Turk in whose presence the conservative North will feel more at ease and, more crucially, be spared the sneaky fear of the suspect health of a Buhari with all its ominous implications, might just be the perfect recipe needed to finally break the general’s fabled captive crowd in Arewa land, particularly in the North-West. He wrote further: “to further rally the North, part of what PDP strategists might also sell is assurance of an extra term bonus. In a recent interview, the immediate past chair, Ahmed Markafi, hinted that the North is entitled to two terms under PDP; suggesting that the North under PDP will relinquish power in 2027 whereas APC is 2023.”

    Ordinarily, there should be a catch in that as Igbos of the Southeast ought really to have raised eye brows about another Northerner starting afresh and having the constitutional right to two terms. Were they Yoruba, they would not believe any pious claims of one term only, a Mandela option, especially, for a president, if PDP wins, that will only be slightly over 50 or below.

    But with all due respect, it is Igbos we are talking about here and it will be a great surprise if a politician of Igbo extraction would not be the Director-General of that campaign since they are more attuned to personal gratification than to the common good. Igbo contestants for the DG position will vociferously make the point that the PDP already literally has the region under lockdown you would think that state of affairs is immutable.

    Also, wrote Odion, with its 1,643,409 voters, President Buhari can hardly count on Rivers State or the South-south as a whole.

    It is in this circumstances I am urging President Buhari to endorse restructuring, rejected in the North only by his Northwest, make new friends all over the country whilst retaining old ones, and coast home to victory in 2019.

     

  • PDP, Southwest and 2019

    So nonchalantly were the Yoruba treated that Governor Wike of Rivers State could, very petulantly, describe the Southwest as completely useless to their party.

    Christ is our corner-stone,
    on him alone we build;
    with his true saints alone
    the courts of heaven are filled:
    on his great love
    our hopes we place
    of present grace
    and joys above.

    It’s another year gone bye and we give God all the glory. A very eventful year it was with our president, Mohammadu Buhari, given up for dead but bounced back radiant as Nigerians have never seen him.  As he was  ‘resurrecting’, Nigeria  was  also exiting  the mother of all recessions,  the cumulative effect of PDP’S 16  years of utter planlessness  and corrosive  corruption which, according to DFID, set Nigeria back by N32 Billion in  6 years.  So much happened on the political arena, one of them being the return of Alhaji Atiku Abubakar to the PDP, the second time, understandably to have another chance to contest for the presidency, an absolutely legitimate ambition by such a consummate politician.

    Here’s wishing him all the luck.

    However, in terms of its import, no event during the year can match the ignominy with which the Yoruba wing of the PDP was treated both before, and during its recent Abuja convention. So nonchalantly were the Yoruba treated that Governor Wike of Rivers State could, very petulantly, describe the Southwest as completely useless to their party. To get the full import of the put down, one would have to do a mental picture of Yoruba’s who is who, still claiming membership of the opposition party.

    https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/images/cleardot.gif

    However, if anybody surprised me in his position on the shambolic manner in which Yoruba was treated, it is none other than Chief Ebenezer Babatope, my very intimate friend of over 50 years. Days before the convention, Babatope had, in his usual no nonsense manner, spoken on the Southwest quest for the party’s chairmanship. I can say without mincing words that PDP was never Ebeno’s first choice party as nothing in his persona aligns with that ultra conservative, rent seeking ensemble. The  story would have to be told another day of how  he, after being personally nominated by Chief  MKO Abiola to serve in the Abacha government,  came out totally misunderstood  by the Afenifere elders  who,  despite  his best efforts,  frustrated his intent to return to the Awo political family.

    Days before the convention, Babatope had said in a public statement: “I want to make it absolutely clear that if Mr. Makarfi is an honourable man, he will voluntarily resign his position without waiting to be pushed out.  Continuing, he said: “His game plan is simply to handover the party to Nyesom Wike, through his acolyte Uche Secondus.  …this is indeed a road to perdition … as the Yoruba will never accept any attempt to insult our people and denigrate our collective intelligence. We are absolutely resolved in our position. We will not stand idle and fold our hands while all kinds of machinations are being hatched to destroy the collective interest of the Yoruba people. If we are denied the chairmanship of the party, we will walk out of the PDP and take our fortunes elsewhere.”

    Then the somersault: a week after his Southwest had been mercilessly purloined by those Bode George, a chairmanship candidate who would later withdraw, had called “little men whose sun will soon set”, Babatope again  declared :”We have contributed to the party immensely and helped hold it together since its inception. We will not jump from one party to another. Those of us who believe in PDP will never compromise on our membership. The controversy will not have adverse effect on the party’s performance in 2019, especially if a reconciliation mechanism is put in place to address genuine grievances. The PDP will not suffer in the Southwest, because of what happened. Southwest PDP still see Wike, Secondus and others who denied the region the chairmanship slot as friends”. In  his own case, Bode George had, while withdrawing, said, “the Yoruba people have been openly maligned, savaged, tormented, treated with contempt, scurried, scoffed at, humiliated and denigrated by little men, whose sun will soon set”.

    These are the people now being led through a so- called reconciliatory chimera.

    The PDP Abuja convention was, indeed, the graveyard of the party’s old guard. General Babangida, like former President Goodluck Jonathan, were brutally buried, and their interment has seen Turaki, the man they recruited, now speaking in tongues about whether or not he will still contest. This is because, with their massive shellacking, he can, in his mind’s eye, already see Markafi as the anointed Presidential candidate. And why get involved again in a primary election only to be trounced as Senator Kwankwaso did to him in the APC primaries I 2015.

    I digress, and back to the Southwest shellacking.

    Now after the volte face by Babatope and Bode George, who are  now being toasted by their tormentors, how can Governors Wike, Makarfi or Fayose, nearer home, be expected  to respect these PDP elders?  Of course, they know only too well that the average Nigerian politician is concerned only with self. The elders are, therefore, most unlikely to see what happened to them as insult to the entire Yoruba race, which is what it is. For this reason, PDP will only be talking to the top guns, not the masses, the electorates.  Governor Wike has, without mincing words, told the Yoruba what awaits them whenever PDP ever comes to power which can, however, not be in the foreseeable future given their record of service. For instance, the federal government recently had temporarily forfeited to it, over 100 houses, by only three of the women who were closely connected to the Jonathan government. This is precisely why I am at a loss when Babatope exudes: “the PDP will not suffer in the Southwest, because of what happened. Southwest PDP still see Wike, Secondus and others who denied the region the chairmanship slot as friends”. Granted that my friend and his Yoruba PDP  compatriots  can see these Yoruba tormentors as friends and paddy paddies, do they think  Yoruba people  can forget, in a hurry, what they suffered in the six years of  President Goodluck Jonathan, when militants  of  Ijaw extraction were not only establishing universities offshore, but were buying warships. Are these Yoruba PDP elders of such short memories they could forget they had less than five of their compatriots as chief executives of federal agencies when another geo-political zone literally controlled all the regulatory agencies? And that was at a time when the Southwest chapter had not been as categorically rubbished as Wike just did. As I cannot adequately describe how beggarly the PDP/Jonathan government treated the Yoruba, I crave the indulgence of that seminal gentle man, Chief Nnia Nwodo, President Ohanaeze Ndigbo, who I knew way back in the 70’s when he was only a student at the University of Ibadan where he shone brightly as the Student Union President, to quote from his inaugural speech.

    Said Nwodo: “I remember a time in this country when all the six ministers in Jonathan’s kitchen cabinet were all Igbos. Ayim Pius Ayim was Secretary to Government, Ngozi Okonjo Iwealla was in charge of Finance, Emeka Wogu was in Labour and Productivity, Berth Nnaji was in Power and Energy, Dieziani Madueke was the powerful minister for oil. The six of them outside the Federal Executive Council would meet and decide what and what not to be discussed at the larger Federal Executive Council meeting. Okiro and Onovo had the police under their control. Ihejerika and later Minimah controlled the Army. These powerful Igbos could do and undo. Nigeria was in their pockets. Rather than care about the poor Igbo chaps scattered all over the country, they were busy diverting billions of naira into their accounts at home and abroad. The 2nd Niger Bridge, they did not do. They shared the money. The Lagos/Calabar rail lines passing through nine states, three of them in the South East, they shared the money.” (Any wonder DFID recently said Nigeria lost 32Billion dollars to corruption during President Jonathan’s six years). “Enugu/Onitsha, Aba/PH and other roads of economic importance to their fellow Igbos, he continued, they abandoned.” “Who is to blame? Who is marginalising Igbos? You had your chance, you bungled it. There was only one Yoruba minister worth mentioning at the time, Akinwunmi Adesina. He was in Agric. His budget was less than 1% while Emeka Wogu in Labour had over 10% for his ministry, Ayim had unlimited access to the  treasury for  the benefit of himself and family members. The poor Igbo guys meant nothing to him.”

    Res ipsa loquitor.

  • Southwest group faults Kashamu’s suspension

    Southwest group faults Kashamu’s suspension

    A group, the Southwest for Good Governance(SWGG), has decried the suspension of  the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) chieftain, Senator Buruji Kashamu, over his agitation that Yoruba should become the national chairman of the opposition party.

    The group also supported his commitment against imposition in the PDP.

    A statement in Akure, the Ondo State capital by its Coordinator, Akintayo Johnson, and Secretary, Muyiwa Bayo, hinged the suspension to  boldness and criticism against those who wanted to hijack the PDP.

    It noted that”Senator Kashamu stand against the plan to ridicule Yoruba forced them to seek all means to send him out of the party, which we resist to the last.

    SWGG therefore urged PDP National Chairman, Uche Secondus to immediately lift the ‘arbitrary’ suspension placed on kashamu,  so as not to jeopardize the chances of the party in the Southwest.

    The group acknowledged the roles played by the lawmaker in stabilising the PDP and liberating the  Yoruba race with its resources.

    It also decried the statement credited to the former National Caretaker Committee Chairman, Senator Ahmed Markafi, that the Southwest contributed to its own failure to clinch the national chairmanship.

    The group noted that Kashamu had earlier warned the Southwest caucus against the Markafi’s Committee in collaboration with Governors Nyesom Wike and Ayodele Fayose to allegedly impose Secondus on the PDP.

    SWGG warned those in the habit of ridiculing Yoruba in the Southwest to stop in order not to incur the wrath of Oduduwa, its progenitor.