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Tag: Tonye Cole

  • Tonye Cole and murky Rivers

    SIR: The fierceness of elections in Rivers State holds the nation spellbound and it is worth following. At the root of this is an ego clash between former buddies turned foes, Nyesom Wike and Rotimi Amaechi. What is intriguing is that their political battles do not whittle away but escalate after elections. It transmutes all the way from collation centres through newsrooms to the apex court. As preparations for the 2019 gubernatorial elections gear up, Rivers State is in the news again: “Court nullifies nomination of Tonye Cole as APC’s Governorship candidate”.

    How did a greenhorn find himself at the epicentre of pre-election legal fireworks in Rivers State?

    An Energy Czar, Tonye Cole dived straight into the murky rivers of politics. He is armed with an impressive CV, formidable backing and reserved demeanour. The Brick House in Government Reservation Area, Port Harcourt is certainly not for the reserved. A state with all the trappings of a mega city is plagued by twin evils, cultism and political rascality. Tonye’s first stint in the political space was at the wee hours of Jonathan’s presidency. He was nominated to become minister but surreptitiously lost out to Wike. Would the governorship election be a repeat of their earlier encounter? The traffic light shows amber.

    APC presumed that Wike had been humbled by the defeat of Tambuwal at the just concluded PDP presidential primaries. A few days after the primaries, Wike was invigorated. Justice Chiwendu Nwogu nullified the primaries that produced APC’s candidate for the 2019 governorship elections in Rivers State. This was not an accident. The governor of Rivers State is a lawyer, the first lady, a lawyer. Dr. Peter Odili, Wike’s mentor who has a perpetual court ruling that immunes him from EFCC is married to a judge of the Supreme Court. Magnus Abe, who is allegedly Wike’s mole in APC, is a lawyer. “A fortiori”.

    A house divided against itself cannot stand; excerpts from the great book. The words of Chris Finebone, APC’s Publicity Secretary in Rivers State is instructive. He asserted that there was collusion between Abe and Wike to get Cole’s nomination nullified. This is a new invention to Rivers State’s brand of politics because Senator Magnus Abe is of the APC stock and a known ally of Amaechi. The Minister of Transportation and Director General of Buhari’s 2019 presidential campaign has a lot to chew. The proof is in the pudding. Wike was Amaechi’s ally, Odili was Amaechi’s ally. Tonye Cole is also an Amaechi ally.

    Tonye Cole is a gentleman who survived the shark tank and thrived, thanks to Sahara Group. How he intends to meander the murky rivers and defeat a popular governor like Wike, is a tall dream. The world looks forward to the day when Rivers State like Dubai will become an $82 billion economy and education haven like Boston.

    • Dr. Enameguolo Orugbo,

    jetageNG@gmail.com

  • Tonye Cole picks APC’s NWC member as running mate

    The governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Rivers State Pastor Tonye Cole has picked the Deputy National Secretary of the party Chief Victor Giadom as his running mate.

    Rivers Publicity Secretary of the party Chris Finebone made the disclosure yesterday in Port Harcourt.

    He said Cole, a billionaire businessman and co-founder of Sahara Group, announced the choice of Giadom while briefing APC leaders during a meeting in the Rivers State capital.

    Giadom is an indigene of Bera-Ogoni in Gokana Local Government Area where Senator Magnus Abe, who represents Rivers Southeast Senatorial District/governorship aspirant on APC platform, also hails from.

    He is a former chairman of Gokana local government council and later served as Rivers Commissioner for Works in the Rotimi Amaechi’s administration between 2011 and 2015.

    Giadom also served as the Director-General of the Greater Together Governorship Campaign Organisation of APC’s Dr. Dakuku Peterside in 2015.

    He replaced Ambassador to Netherlands, Oji Ngofa, as member of the National Working Committee (NWC) of APC after the latter emerged the party’s candidate for Rivers Southeast senatorial district.

    Cole was quoted as saying during the stakeholders’ meeting in Port Harcourt: “The choice of Chief Victor Giadom as my running mate was arrived at, after a careful and exhaustive consideration of an array of equally-notable personalities in the party.

    “He (Giadom) came out tops on all considerations, especially his unalloyed and untainted loyalty, unrelenting hard work and invaluable experience.

     

  • Rivers 2019: Tonye Cole picks APC’s NWC member as running mate

    The governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Rivers State, Pastor Tonye Cole, has picked the Deputy National Secretary of APC, Chief Victor Giadom, as his running mate for the 2019 election in the Niger Delta state.

    Rivers Publicity Secretary of APC, Chris Finebone, made the disclosure on Saturday in Port Harcourt, while revealing that Cole, a billionaire businessman and co-founder of Sahara Group,  announced the choice of Giadom, while briefing APC leaders during a meeting in the Rivers state capital.

    Giadom, an indigene of Bera-Ogoni in Gokana Local Government Area of Rivers state, where Senator Magnus Abe, who represents Rivers Southeast Senatorial District/governorship aspirant on APC platform, also hails from.

    The newly-announced running mate is a former Chairman of Gokana local government council and he later served as Rivers Commissioner for Works in the Rotimi Amaechi’s administration between 2011 and 2015.

    Giadom also served as the Director-General of the Greater Together Governorship Campaign Organisation of APC’s Dr. Dakuku Peterside in 2015.

    Read Also: Rivers to tackle mental health

    The running mate replaced Nigeria’s Ambassador to Netherlands, Oji Ngofa, as a member of the National Working Committee (NWC) of APC, with Ngofa recently emerging as the party’s candidate for Rivers Southeast senatorial district for next year’s poll.

    Cole was quoted as saying during the stakeholders’ meeting in Port Harcourt: “The choice of Chief Victor Giadom as my running mate was arrived at, after a careful and exhaustive consideration of an array of equally-notable personalities in the party.

    “He (Giadom) came out tops on all considerations, especially his unalloyed and untainted loyalty, unrelenting hard work and invaluable experience as a former outstanding Local Government Chairman, former Commissioner for Works, former Governorship Campaign Director-General and presently a member of the National Working Committee (NWC) of our great party, the APC.”

    Finebone also stated that with the choice of Giadom, the governorship candidate of APC in Rivers had started to assemble a crack dream team for the 2019 governorship election in the state.

    The former Secretary to the Rivers State Government, SSG (Abe) and his supporters are still protesting against the emergence of Cole through indirect primary, backed by members of NWC of APC, as the standard bearer of the parry in Rivers, while they were at the national secretariat of the party in Abuja on Friday, in continuation of their protests, which they started in Port Harcourt.

    Abe insisted he was not aware that Cole was a member of APC and that Amaechi with some leaders of the party would not sit in Lagos to force a governorship candidate on APC in Rivers, while declaring that he remained the standard bearer of the party in the state, having emerged through direct primary, backed by the National Executive Committee (NEC) of APC.

  • Man jailed three months over illicit drugs

    A Federal High Court sitting in Ado-Ekiti on Wednesday sentenced one Ibrahim Taofeek to three months imprisonment over alleged possession of illicit drugs.

    Counsel from the National Drug Laws Enforcement Agency, (NDLEA) ,Mr Charles Nwagua told the court that the defendant committed the offence on March 10 at Dadinkowa village along ABUAD Road, Ado-Ekiti.

    He alleged that the defendant, on the said date,without lawful authority possessed 500 grammes of Cannabis Sativa,a Narcotic drugs similar to cocaine Heroin and LSD.

    According to him,the offence contravened Section 19 of the NDLEA Act. Cap N30, Laws of Federation of Nigeria. 2004.

    Read Also: ASUU kicks against ‘illegal’ recruitment at FUOYE

    While delivering her judgement, Justice Uche Agomoh said the counsel for the defendant had pleaded for leniency saying the defendant didn’t waste the time of the court by pleading guilty to his crime.

    “The defendant appeared very remorseful on every of his appearance in court during his trial

    ” The court therefore found you guilty and convict you accordingly ”

    You are hereby sentenced to three months imprisonment with hard labour.

    She added that this would serve the defendant a lesson and also as deterrent to others in the habit of illicit drugs.

  • Amaechi, Cole promise to assist victims of Port Harcourt fire

    The Minister for Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, and billionaire businessman, Pastor Tonye Cole, have promised to assist traders who lost goods worth billions of naira in Thursday evening’s fire at the fruit market on Kaduna Street, D-Line, Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital.

    Amaechi, a former Rivers Governor, and Cole, a governorship aspirant on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the state, also assured the traders that they would liaise with the APC leadership in Rivers to assist them financially.

    Transportation minister, while speaking yesterday with victims of the fire at the scene, said: “What we will do is to assist you. You should reach the Rivers State Chairman of APC (Ojukaye Flag-Amachree) and let us know what level of assistance we can give to you.”

    Cole, a co-founder of Sahara Group, while also speaking, described the incident as very sad.

    Read Also: Amaechi’s men accuse Wike of plotting against primary

    The Pastor of Redeemed Christian Church of God, RCCG (Cole) said: “Your (traders’) Chairman will take record of the number of stores affected by the fire, to enable us to compensate everybody that lost their goods.

    “Let us know how much you have lost and the number of persons affected by the fire. We know you need money to survive, we would give some amount of money to your chairman for all of you.”

    Rivers governor, Nyesom Wike, a chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), on Thursday night, visited the burnt market and promised to rebuild it and to also assist the traders.

  • Tonye Cole and the moment of epiphany

    THERE is tremendous hunger in Rivers State for an end to the bellicose and toxic politics that have seized the state since 1999. Media headlines about the state are frequently about political assassinations, beheadings and inconclusive elections due to widespread violence.

    As Nigeria’s oil and gas metropolis, Rivers State suffers unique consequences when our social and political spaces are dominated by swaggering thugs and other merchants of violence baying for blood in the streets.

    As a former Commissioner for Information in the State, I know, I have heard business leaders silently agonise about how to conduct business in a once-peaceful state now trapped in a circle of violence and strategic dysfunction.

    As businesses quietly close shop in the state at an unprecedented rate, a whole generation of young people is unable to find work or learn new skills, freezing them in economic and social stasis.

    Our leaders are responding to crime in Rivers State by donating guns, gunboats and bayonets to the police and making solemn promises of a football academy that would turn us all into soccer stars. But where that fails, a multi-billion naira Ecumenical Centre has already been built to cast out the incubus of unemployment from our state, through frantic prayers.

    Our leaders have forgotten the well-known nexus between joblessness and criminality. They lack an expansionary vision and have diminished the serious task of governance to simply paving a few kilometres of asphalt. They have replaced public policy with bombast and appear unprepared for the important task of building a knowledge economy to replace a fading oil and gas era in Rivers State.

    This is why the news that Mr. Tonye Cole will be seeking the office of governor of Rivers State in 2019 should interest us.

    Tonye Cole has been profiled by Forbes magazine as a business titan.  He attended Harvard, and serves in the UN’s Expert Advisory Council. His efforts to confront global challenges through the World Economic Forum are well known. As the co-founder of Sahara Group, Tonye has created life-changing jobs for hundreds of young men and women. He is consulted by Presidents of countries whose economies are failing. Tonye is an inspiration and a mentor to millions of young people across the continent.

    Those who question the biological bona fides of such an illustrious son of Rivers State are driving politics to the edge of lunacy, and may have to reassure us of their psychiatric fitness.

    In the age of artificial intelligence and block chain technology in schools, we must reject the abomination that public office in the Rivers State is the preserve of knife-wielding alcoholics and hectoring despots.

    We must encourage all other citizens with stellar credentials and commitment to uplift our people to seek any office, on any political platform, in Rivers State. We need leaders who can tap into the genius of our youth and create opportunities for them, not those who seek to mobilise our young people into a raging platoon of sycophants.

    Finally, those who see Tonye Cole through the primal keyhole of riverine and upland politics are the offspring of a false and rejected dichotomy. He is a son of Rivers State revealed at a moment of epiphany, in a hopeful effort to reclaim and fulfil the promise of Rivers State.

    Dr. Austin Tam-George is a former Commissioner for Information and Communication, Rivers State.

  • Tonye Cole needed to give leadership in Rivers, says monarch

    A former Chairman of the Rivers State Council of Traditional Rulers, King Theophilus Princewill, has stated that the co-founder of Sahara Group, Pastor Tonye Cole, is needed to give leadership in the Niger Delta state.

    Princewill, who is also the Amanyanabo of Kalabari, spoke yesterday in his palace at Buguma, the headquarters of Asari-Toru Local Government Area of Rivers state, while receiving Cole, the endorsed governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Rivers for the 2019 election.

    Cole, in a long convoy of vehicles, with his teeming supporters and well-wishers who defied heavy rain, was earlier received by his kinsmen in Jack Compound in Abonnema-Kalabari, the headquarters of Akuku-Toru LGA, with his people, led by a retired Justice of the Supreme Court,

    Justice Adolphus Karibi-Whyte, wishing him well, while stating that they were very proud of him.

    The APC’s governorship aspirant then proceeded to the palace of the Amanyanabo of Abonnema, King Disrael Bob-Manuel, who along with members of his council of chiefs, happily received Cole, a Pastor of the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG).

    Cole was accompanied by Rivers Chairman of APC, Ojukaye Flag-Amachree; ex-governorship candidate, Prince Tonye Princewill; a former member of the House of Representatives, Dr. Dawari George; and ex-Rivers Commissioner for Women Affairs, Joeba West; among many other eminent personalities.

    King Princewill said: “I am interested in the unity of Kalabari people. We should give Tonye Cole the support that he needs to be governor. He deserves it. He has immensely contributed to the development of Rivers State and Nigeria. Just by the mention of Tonye Cole for governorship, the whole of Rivers State is vibrating.

    “Instead of having many governorship aspirants from Kalabari, we should unite, work as a team and support Tonye Cole. If we are not divided, we will succeed. I am happy that a Kalabari man is coming to give leadership to Rivers State.

    “I am pleading with Kalabari people to ensure 100 per cent support for Tonye Cole. Let our votes be for Tonye Cole. If that is done, we will win. United we stand, divided we fall. God being with us, we will achieve the purpose of having Tonye Cole as Rivers State governor in 2019.”

    In his remarks, the governorship aspirant said he was in Kalabari land for the blessings of the monarchs and his kinsmen, stressing that the task of providing quality leadership in Rivers could not be done as a divided house, but in unity.

    Cole also stated that courage was needed to face the governorship battle and have victory, while calling on Rivers people to hold themselves as one, thereby ensuring peace, security and prosperity.

  • Why TONYE COLE is afraid of failure

    TONYE Cole, billionaire businessman who is co-founder and group executive director of one of the country’s largest energy conglomerates, Sahara Group, lost everything in the late 1990s before going on to amass the enormous wealth he has today.

    Cole went bankrupt in 1998 after he and his business partners invested money in an oil transaction that was cancelled by the incoming administration after military ruler Sani Abacha died. Today, he is estimated at $1.4 billion, according to Wealth-X, and will not want to fall on hard times.

    The businessman who is also a philanthropist supporting numerous charities, such as the Down Syndrome Society, Slum2School Foundation and Bethesda School for the Blind through his foundation, Nehemiah Youth Empowerment Initiative, believes that money has more value when you use it to impact lives than when you use it for anything material. And so it is good to acquire, but it is much better to impact.

  • Presidency, Sahara Group, others launch Advisory Group for SDGs

    Presidency, Sahara Group, others launch Advisory Group for SDGs

    A renewed drive for public-private sector collaboration is set to commence in Nigeria as Acting President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo inaugurates the Private Sector Advisory Group (PSAG) on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) on Tuesday.

    The Group  aims at mirroring the Global Private Sector Advisory Group which established by United Nations Sustainable Development Fund (UNSDGF) in New York to effectively achieve the SDGs as a result of the numerous challenges faced during the implementation of the Millennium Development Goals.
    The PSAG in Nigeria will provide the Global PSAG with guidance and strategic support to achieve hitch-free implementation of SDGs in Nigeria. This will ultimately create a platform for more impactful and home-grown sustainable models and solutions to achieve the SDGs.
    Speaking on the initiative, Adejoke Orelope-Adefulire, Senior Special Assistant to the President on SDGs, said the PSAG would help the nation address and solve development issues sustainably.  “The Public Private Partnership (PPP) for Sustainable Development marks a new dawn in the implementation of pro-poor projects and  programmes in Nigeria,” she said.
    Tonye Cole, Executive Director and Co-Founder Sahara Group, said the PSAG would galvanise ideas and initiatives from various stakeholders to achieve accelerated and inclusive development across the nation. “We strongly believe that the achievement of the PSAG objectives will not only improve the global SDG ranking of Nigeria, it will also improve the standard of living across the nation through the provision of sustainable solutions to basic problems,” said Cole, who represents Sahara Group on the Global PSAG board of the UNSDGF.
    The Nigerian Private Sector Advisory Group is made up of 13  key partners who share high commitment in achieving the 17 SDGs and also have a track record of laudable milestones in the area of implementation of Corporate Social Responsibility projects.
    Some of these key partners include but are not limited to: Growing Businesses foundation (GBF), Lagos Business School (LBS), Sahara Group Limited, British American Tobacco Nigeria (BATN), Nigerian Economic Summit Group (NESG), PricewaterhouseCoopers Ltd. (PwC), Google,  Unilever Nigeria, Airtel Nigeria, GT Bank, General Electric (GE), Dangote Group, Coco-Cola, Channels Television, Chamber of Commerce- Lagos/Kano, National Association of Small Scale Industrialists (NASSI) and NASME. As the work progresses, the number of organizations that make up the PSAG are expected to increase to accommodate others that are keen on contributing their quota towards achieving the SDG’s in Nigeria.
    Stakeholders working under the aegis of the PSAG will collaborate on identifying areas of common interest to achieve the establishment of vibrant public-private partnerships in Nigeria.
    The Group will work closely with the Office of the Senior Special Adviser to the President on SDGs to ensure seamless implementation  of adopted development projects across the nation.

  • Think like there’s no box, Ezegbo, Hart charge Nigerian youths

    Nigerian youths have been charged to be pragmatic in their approach toward addressing issues they might be dealing with in their quest to create and sustain a winning idea for empowerment and development. In dealing with these issues, the youths have been counselled to “think like there is no box” and show greater ingenuity to counter the challenges. 

    This counsel was given by the Senior Special Adviser to the Abia State government on Public Communication, Mr Sam Hart and the Managing Director of SLOT, Nnamdi Ezegbo, at the launch of the MTN Foundation Scholars Alumni and Conference held in Owerri, Imo state. 

    The conference billed as an annual event, will bring together the graduate beneficiaries of the MTN Foundation Scholarship schemes: Scholarship for the Science and Technology students (STSS) and Scholarship Scheme for the Blind Students (SSBS). 

    Rather than sitting back and sulking about the current economic challenges, Hart, who is also the promoter of the ‘Made in Aba’ initiative said the youths, “should not think outside the box but they should think like there is no box. Challenges will come, failure will come but they are necessities to succeed. You need to be resilient to sustain a winning idea and you must believe in yourself.”

    On his part, the Managing Director of SLOT, Nnamdi Ezegbo recounting how he started SLOT technologies, advised the participants to always be prepared for challenges because the road to success will never be smooth. Only determination will make them succeed. 

    Ezegbo went philosophical when he said, “my strategy for operating SLOT is to create solutions. The environment will never be perfect. There is no perfect time for you to strike at success. Every time is the best but you need to understand the times.” 

    Ezegbo crystallising the SLOT acronym said, “SLOT means Solution, Leadership, Opportunity and Technology. These are the four principles that drive our existence.” 

    “The entrance of Tecno into Nigeria was a solution from SLOT to get Nigerians to have a single phone that has multiple SIM. Tecno was created to meet a need and it has become the backbone of my riding to success.” 

    On leadership: “It is about understanding yourself. You need to create an environment to continue to learn, while at the same time you must identify the unique opportunities you hope to solve with technology,” said Ezegbo. 

    Admonishing the beneficiaries, Director, MTN Foundation, Mr Dennis Okoro, said they should see the scholarship as a rare opportunity that must be well utilised. For the alumni, Okoro said: “Now that you have all gained and have been empowered, it is essential that you show yourselves as worthy ambassadors of the programme. Feel free to exhibit your creativity positively and contribute your quota to the development of the country.” 

    The conference will also hold in Abuja and Lagos with Tonye Cole, Bolanle Austin-Peters and Chika Ofili confirmed as speakers for the locations. 

    The aim of the MTNF Scholars Alumni Conference is to give beneficiaries of the scholarship scheme opportunities to meet with successful Nigerian entrepreneurs, that will share their success stories of impact and value to inspire them as they launch themselves into the world as agents of value creation and change. The theme of the conference is, Creating a Winning Idea.