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Tag: under attack

  • We’re under attack in Jonathan’s LGA —PDP members

    Some members of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Ogbia Local Government Area of  Bayelsa State at the weekend complained that they are constantly being attacked by supporters of an opposition candidate. Ogbia is the council area of former President Goodluck Jonathan.

    The politicians, under the auspices of the Ogbia PDP Renaissance (OPR, expressed worry that with just few weeks to the general elections, they were being harassed, intimidated and killed in the council area.

    The group in a statement signed by its Chairman, Obhioru Mitanoni,accused an opposition candidate in the area of being responsible for the attacks. The group said PDP members and supporters in Ogbia have become targets of attack by the desperate candidate who is jittery over his chances. He called on security agencies to urgently wade into the issue and arrest the situation alleging that the opposition candidate armed youths with sophisticated weapons to harass PDP members.

    The statement said: “We are now confronted with one of the worst political violence in Ogbia local government. On a daily basis thugs loyal to the opposition candidate are brutalizing and killing our members. We have it on good authority that the APC candidate for the Ogbia Federal Constituency procured all manners of arms to cause mayhem before and during the election. This is because he knows that he will fail.

    “We are however shocked that despite the ugly development, some leaders of our party the PDP are giving tacit endorsement to the candidature of the APC and even sponsoring his rascality in the area. If this is not so, how else can anyone explain their silence. For instance, Ogbia is the home local government of a former President, yet he has watched as his fellow kinsmen are being slaughtered like chicken every now and then without doing anything about it.

    “This is indeed sad. It has confirmed our earlier position that the APC candidate enjoys the support and backing of the former president along with his wife. We will send a formal petition to the Inspector General of Police and the Commissioner of Police in the state over the killings, intimidation and harassment of PDP supporters in Ogbia. We use this opportunity to call on all Ogbia sons and daughters to reject the APC in the coming elections.”

     

  • Budget 2019: Lawmakers under attack for ‘unruly behaviour’

    Lawmakers got some knocks yesterday over their behaviour at Wednesday’s budget presentation by President Muhammadu Buhari.

    The Federal Government led the way, branding the heckling of the President on Wednesday as “infantile politicking” and “parliamentary rascality”.

    It also assured the U.S International Republican Institute (IRI) and the National Democratic Institute (NDI) of free and fair polls in 2019.

    It said the opposition led by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is only crying wolf because it has never won credible poll.

    Information and Culture Minister Lai Mohammed faulted the lawmakers at news conference in Abuja against the backdrop of the rowdy session at the presentation of the 2019 Budget on Wednesday.

    He said: “Yes, some unruly lawmakers threw away parliamentary decorum to behave like ordinary protesters or agitators. It is nothing but bad politicking (infantile politicking/parliamentary rascality).

    “But the real news is that the unruly action provided the platform for our party, the APC, to assert its majority in the National Assembly.

    “The plan by the opposition was to embarrass the President and prevent him from presenting the budget. But they were comprehensively overwhelmed by our lawmakers who are in the majority. That also sends a clear signal to the opposition that they lack the number to override the President’s decision not to accent to the Electoral Bill.

    “I must also note that all through the sniping by some unruly lawmakers, the President remained dignified and presidential. He rose above it all to make his presentation.”

    He dismissed fears by the IRI and the NDI that security agencies may be partisan during the polls.

    Besides, said the minister, the government is not clamping down on the opposition and the civil society.

    Mohammed said: “The opposition is only crying wolf where there is none, and in view of what they did during their 16 years in power. They never really won a free and fair election. Their strategy was to use the security agencies to thwart the wishes of voters. They did it in Ekiti and Osun in 2014.

    “I was a victim in Osun, so I know what I am saying.

    “But the guilty are always afraid. They think what they have done to others is what will be done to them. Under President Muhammadu Buhari’s watch, no security agency will play that kind of ignominious role in any election.

    “There is no clampdown on any civil society, except in the wild imagination of naysayers. As I have said, being in opposition is no licence to break the law and then hope to escape justice. If the police have re-arrested Deji Adeyanju, they must have a compelling reason to do so. Anyone who breaks the law must face justice.”

    On non-signing of the Electoral (Amendment) Bill 2018, Mohammed said there was no cause for alarm.

    He said the opposition drafted the Electoral (Amendment) Act used for 2015 poll, which was adjudged as credible.

    He said: “The fears are unfounded. For one, President Buhari will always do what is in the interest of Nigerians. Then, of course, what is wrong with the same electoral law that was used to conduct the 2014 general elections that were adjudged to be largely free and fair.

    “That law was drafted and approved under the same opposition that is now crying foul. At what point did they lose confidence in this same law? What do they know that they are not telling Nigerians? The noise over the bill is a distraction and a potential alibi for an opposition in disarray.”

    Asked how the government will react if President Buhari is defeated in February, the minister said: “I don’t entertain any fear in respect of 2019.

    “The election will come, it will pass and we are going to win with a larger percentage.”

    He dismissed insinuations that APC has not set up a Presidential campaign council and was not campaigning because it had nothing to offer.

    Mohammed said: “The ban on campaign was just lifted; we will soon have our PCC in place. What wins election is not jamboree. There is nowhere in Nigeria we are not campaigning.”

    The minister also described the judgment of a Kwara High Court recognising the Balogun Fulani-led committee as the authentic Kwara Executive Committee of the All Progressives Congress (APC) as a temporary setback.

    He said: There is no cause for alarm. It is just another bump on our way to dismantling the Saraki political dynasty that has held Kwara State by the jugular.

    “We will definitely appeal the ruling and we are very optimistic that the judgment will be overturned on appeal. I want to use this opportunity to appeal to our teeming members and supporters in Kwara not to be discouraged by the ruling. It is a temporary setback.”

    In Mohammed view, the judgment does not affect the status of the APC governorship candidate, Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq.

    Regarding the murder of a former Chief of Defence Staff, Air Chief Marshal Alex Badeh, the Minister said: “This is most dastardly and very unfortunate.

    “In line with the directive of the President to the security agencies to find the killers, I have no doubt that this will be done and the perpetrators will be brought to justice.”

    Senior lawyers were divided yesterday over the behaviour of some lawmakers as President Muhammadu Buhari presented the N8.83 trillion 2019 Appropriation Bill on Wednesday.

    Senior lawyers Chief Niyi Akintola SAN and Mr Festus Keyamo (SAN) disagreed on the lawmakers’ conduct.

    Akintola observed that such conduct was commonplace in democracies and urged President Buhari or any future occupant of the office to brace for more of such heckling.

    He said: “I don’t see why there should be any hullabaloo about it.

    “What happened was just normal in a democracy. There will always be people in support or against you. It’s part of democracy. You could see there, depending on the side of the divide you found yourself, I watched it on Youtube.

    “Those in support of Buhari were more in number; they were shouting ‘Sai Baba! Sai Baba!’ and some others were booing. It was all normal.

    “You would also have noticed that most of the senators didn’t take part in that, because they are senior citizens, they are supposed to be statesmen, so, they didn’t join in the rowdiness.

    “Most of the people that spearheaded the rowdiness were from the House of Representatives, which is understandable: they are younger men and women. There’s nothing spectacular about it; it is normal. Even in advanced democracies, presidents are booed once in a while. They are even pelted with rotten eggs.”

    But Keyamo disagreed.

    According to him, the booing lawmakers’ had insulted the Office of the President and disqualified themselves from contesting for President in future.

    Keyamo said: “What they were booing yesterday was the Office of the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, not Buhari.

    “Buhari is not the owner of that office, whether in 2019 or 2023, he is going to leave the office. They denigrated the office, not Buhari and the Office of the President is actually the symbol of the country. By doing so, they showed that they are not worthy of their office.

    “The internet does not forget. Every single one of them that opened their mouths to boo the President would never ever aspire to the Office of the President of this country. They have disqualified themselves automatically.

    “The day any of them brings out posters that they want to contest for President, they will be shown their picture or video booing the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

    “They have automatically disqualified themselves as potential candidates forever, till they enter their graves, because they have shown contempt for that office. You cannot come tomorrow and say you want to elevate that office; you cannot.”

     

  • Trump under attack for Buhari ‘lifeless comment’

    Supporters of President Muhammadu Buhari yesterday rose in his defence following a report quoting sources close to United States President Donald Trump as describing his meeting with Buhari as “lifeless.”

    But opponents of the President took advantage of the report to castigate him.

    Trump hosted President Buhari, the first sub-Saharan African leader at the White House, on April 30. The two leaders discussed security and the economy, after which the U.S. President hailed President Buhari.

    He said: “Nigeria has a reputation for very massive corruption. I also know that the President has been able to cut that down very substantially.”

    Trump added: “We talked about that, he is working on it and they have made a lot of progress and I think they will continue to make a lot of progress.”

    In one of the photographs of the meeting released by the White House, Trump was seen standing behind Buhari, laughing as the Nigerian leader was signing a document.

    But an article titled: ‘Africa looks for something new out of Trump,’ in Financial Times yesterday said: “The first meeting with Nigeria’s Muhammadu Buhari ended with the U.S. president telling aides he never wanted to meet someone so lifeless again. The report quoted “three people familiar with the matter,” as saying so.

    Chairman of the Presidential Advisory Committee on Anti-Corruption (PACAC), Prof Itse Sagay(SAN) and spokesperson of the President Buhari’s Campaign Organisation, Mr Festus Keyamo (SAN) dismissed as fake news the slur remark credited to Trump. Prof Sagay said he did not believe Trump could have made the “irresponsible comment”. He alerted Nigerians to be wary of fake news being peddled on the social media.

    He said: “How could the U.S. President say Buhari as lifeless? I don’t believe President Trump made such irresponsible comment. If the source of the comment in question is social media, I won’t waste time on it. It is all lies; it is fake news. I hardly react to fake news being peddled on social media. I don’t believe any right-thinking person would see President Buhari and say he is lifeless. Only a mad man would have made such comment being ascribed to the U.S. President.”

    Keyamo said Buhari won’t react to social media conjecture, pointing out the comment could not be traced to the official information sources of the U.S. government.

    Keyamo said: “There is nothing to say about the uncharitable comment being credited to President Trump. For now, the alleged comment did not come from the official information sources of the United States (U.S.) government or its embassy in Nigeria. We regard it as fake news. In my capacity as the spokesperson of President Muhammadu Buhari’s campaign organisation, I cannot react to unconfirmed statement. We react only to verifiable statements, not fake news.”

    But the White House has not confirmed that the President made the statement.

    The Buhari Media Organisation (BMO) said President Buhari would not be distracted by the alleged derogatory remarks but will remain focused on his mandate to deliver on his promises to the Nigerian people.

    Describing the comment as disrespectful, Chairman of the group, Mr. Niyi Akinsiju and Secretary Cassidy Maduekwe, said in a statement that whether it was indeed said or in fact unsaid, Buhari would in his character continue to remain focused on his mandate to deliver on his promises to the Nigerian people.

    The group said: “President Muhammadu Buhari is fit and capable to run for the 2019 elections and oversee the affairs of the country for four more years President Donald Trump’s hate speech notwithstanding.

    “We are aware that President Trump’s disrespect for World leaders is not new; his comments on Canada’s Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, calling him ‘meek and mild’; his reference to Germany’s Leader, Angela Merkel’s actions as ‘insane’, or his outlandish Tweet at the UK’s Theresa May, and more recently, the alleged remarks he made after meeting President Buhari.

    “It is indeed not the first time President Trump would be heard to lower the standards of respect for his colleagues on the world stage. We are not surprised; we know that this age-long character of the U.S. President would not change anytime soon.

    “But it is important that we put it on record that President Buhari remains fit and sprightly, even for the next decade.

    “We recall that during President Buhari’s visit to Trump in the White House, the U.S. President commended the successes that the Buhari administration had recorded especially in the fight against insurgency and the war on corruption.

    “The U.S. President was full of admiration for Nigeria’s President during the visit, thus such outlandish remarks as reported by the Financial Times are not just to be taken with a pinch of salt but are untrue in themselves.

    “President Buhari has continued to show fitness and capacity to run the country post-2019; it went further to highlight that through the President’s 800 metre walk, where he acknowledged the cheers of members of his constituency, was not intended at showboating, it was an unscripted reference point that further proves a fit and lively President.”

    Shortly before the meeting with Buhari, Trump came under fire for allegedly referring to some African countries as ‘shithole’ at a private White House meeting on January 12. But he denied making the comment and labelled his accusers as fake news peddlers.

    Last week, South Africa accused him of fuelling racial tension in the country after he tweeted that there was a “large-scale killing of white farmers” in the country.

    His tweet came after a Fox News show about South Africa’s plan to change the constitution to speed up the process of taking lands from current owners without compensation to redress racial imbalances in land ownership.

    The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) desctribed theTrump comment as an “embarrassment,” in a statement by its spokesman Kola Ologbondiyan.

    The Conference of United Political Parties (CUPP) also expressed indignation at the comment.

  • Lawmakers under attack for Budget 2018 alterations

    NLC, MAN, IYC, Southeast senators angry

    There was uproar yesterday over the National Assembly’s massive alteration of the budget.

    A non-governmental organisation described the action as “criminal”.

    The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN) and the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) were also outraged.

    The lawmakers cut 4,700 projects amounting to N347billion from what President Muhammadu Buhari presented and introduced 6,403 projects of their own amounting to N578billion.

    The President, who reluctantly signed the Bill, plans to send a supplementary budget to the lawmakers.

    According to him, many of the projects unilaterally removed are critical to infrastructure development and economic recovery.

    These include the Lagos-Ibadan expressway, the East-West Road, The Enugu Airport, the Itakpe-Ajaokuta road, the mass transit and major arterial road in the FCT and the take-off grant for the Maritime University.

    The lawmakers also raised their own expenditure from N125billion to N139.5 billion and put into the budget 70 new roads.

    Southeast senators cried foul over the removal of funding for the Enugu airport.

    The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project  (SERAP) described the lawmakers’ action as a crime against humanity, the Ijaw Youths Congress (IYC) said it was self-serving.

    But Senator Dino Melaye said the President was not bound to sign it if he had reservations. He said the National Assembly is not an extension of the Presidency and the lawmakers no rubber stamp.

    The Southeast Senate Caucus was shocked over the cut in the allocation for the Enugu Airport terminal.

    The lawmakers said they were jolted to hear that an allocation of N2 billion sustained by the two Aviation committees of the Senate and House of Representatives was slashed to “a mere” N500 million.

    The caucus said it had already summoned an emergency meeting of Southeast lawmakers to unravel at what point the cut was effected and by who.

    Members of the caucus are agitated that “a region that hardly receives a fair share of the national patrimony”, the little that came its way could be reduced as to make nonsense of the entire budget for the Airport Terminal.

    Southeast Senate Caucus Chairman Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe insisted that no right-thinking Igbo would support any cut in the allocation for projects in the Southeast.

    The Abia South lawmaker, who said budget documents are verifiable, added: “We are committed and determined to find out who made the cut.”

    He noted that they lobbied for the Enugu Airport Terminal allocation to be increased to N3.5 billion until the Ministry of Aviation told them that what they had was an envelope which could not be increased beyond the N2 billion allocation.

    Abaribe, who is also Chairman, Senate Committee on Power, Steel Development and Metallurgy, noted that N30 billion was smuggled into the Power budget without his committee’s knowledge.

    He said the N30 billion was listed for expansion and re-inforcement of infrastructure in the distribution companies to reduce stranded firms.

    The amount, he said, “never passed through the Senate Power committee.”

    Deputy Senate President Ike Ekweremadu said he expected eagerly the supplementary budget on the Enugu airport to correct the cut in its allocaton.

    In a statement by his media adviser Uche Anichukwu, Ekweremadu said: “I am happy that the President has indicated that he would send a Supplementary Appropriation Bill. So, by the time we are briefed by the relevant Committees, we will work with our colleagues from other zones to ensure adequate provisions for the airport”.

    He urged the Federal Government to release the already approved N500 million so that work could continue at the airport in earnest.

    SERAP: it’s a crime

    SERAP said: ”Cutting funding for essential public services, such as health, education and security, constitutes a serious human rights violation and potentially rises to the level of crimes against humanity against the Nigerian people.”

    The non-governmental organisation’s Deputy Director Timothy Adewale suggested that President Buhari should “instruct Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice Abubakar Malami to open discussion with the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) to establish whether substantial  grounds and requisite elements exist to warrant the intervention of the Prosecutor in this case.”

    He added: “Indicting individual lawmakers suspected to be most responsible for the reduction of funding for critical projects would provide a much-needed measure of accountability for leaders, who have traditionally acted with impunity, assured that they will never be held to answer for their actions.”

    SERAP said “the deliberate and systematic acts of alleged budget padding and cutting of funding by the lawmakers, coupled with the widespread negative consequences of such acts for millions of Nigerians across the country, point to not only allegations of corruption but also crimes against humanity, that is, deliberately withholding access of Nigerians to essential and life-saving public services, which is triable at the International Criminal Court.”

    It said the failure to decisively address allegations of padding of the 2016 budget allowed the practice to continue with almost absolute impunity, adding that “crimes against humanity invoke criminal responsibility”.

    IYC condemns action

    The  IYC described the alterations as self-serving and against the national interest.

    A statement by its National President Eric Omare, said the IYC took particular exception to the reduction of the initial funds earmarked by the takeoff of the Nigerian Maritime University (NMU), Okorenkoko and the all-important East/West Road, which are considered as key to the sustenance peace in the oil-rich region.

    According to the youths, the action of the National Assembly had depicted the lawmakers as insensitive

    The IYC urged President Buhari, to waste no time in sending a supplementary budget so as to make up for the mutilations.

    “We consider the action of the National Assembly as insensitive and retrogressive to the development of the country. It is utter selfishness for the National Assembly to reduce the budget proposal for key developmental initiatives and increase the budget for their personal cost when they are supposed to reduce their recurrent expenses. We condemn this action by the National Assembly. The National Assembly demonstrated selfishness and arrogated their personal interest over and above the national interest which they were elected to serve,” the statement said.

    But Senator Bukar Abba Ibrahim said Buhari was not bound to implement the budget as signed 100 per cent.

    Speaking in Abuja at a news conference preceding the presentation of a book titled “Poorlitics: The story of the little boy from Goniri and Progressives Manifesto” by Bukar Abba Ibrahim Foundation and Bass Books (UK), he said: “When in Nigeria have we implemented budget 100 per cent? It will take us another 100 years may be to do that.

    “Irrespective of whatever we put in there, he doesn’t necessarily have to implement all of them. Every year, we talk about 50, 60, 70 percent implementation.

    “We hardly have 80 per cent implementation. So, what does it really matter if certain things are inserted? Let him take a good look at them. Let him consult the right people and at the right time and decide which ones he really wants to implement.

    “Nobody is going to hang him for not implementing the budget 100 percent.  So, I don’t see any problem in that.”

    Melaye, Chairman, Senate Committee on Federal Capital Territory (FCT), said:  ”I notice that the President is trying to whip up sentiments against the National Assembly again, by alleging that the 2018 budget was padded.

    “What the President is authorised to do constitutionally is to present the National Assembly with a Bill; a Bill is a work-in-progress and not the finished work.

    “The reason the Constitution directs the Bill to be submitted to the national assembly is that it expects the national assembly to vet it and make inputs before passing it in readiness for Appropriation Act.

    “The National Assembly is not expected to rubber stamp whatever Bill the president presents.

    “If this was the norm, there would have been no need for the Constitution to direct that the Bill should be submitted to the national assembly in the first place.”

  • Olusola under attack for alleged lies against Fayemi

    The JKF Centre, a leadership training and development outfit in Ado-Ekiti, has accused the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) candidate, Prof. Kolapo Olusola, of lying against the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate, Dr. Kayode Fayemi “to score cheap political points”.

    The centre slammed Olusola for alleging on an interview on Channels Television that Fayemi owed three months arrears of workers’ salaries at the time he left office in October 2014.

    In a statement signed by its Director, Mr. Biodun Omoleye, the centre also took exception to Olusola’s demand that Fayemi must make restitution over alleged misconduct while in office between 2010 and 2014.

    Olusola made the demand in a statement issued by his campaign outfit, Kolapo Olusola Campaign Organisation (KOCO) on Monday.

    Omoleye said the people of Ekiti are shocked that Olusola, whom he described as a pastor in Christ Apostolic Church (CAC) could resort to lies when he knew that Fayemi only owed workers one month at the time he left office.

    He said Fayemi could not pay September salary of 2014 because Olusola’s boss, Governor Ayo Fayose, blocked the pre-arranged bank facility to pay workers by issuing threats to the bank to stop the facility.

    Omoleye urged the authorities of CAC to sanction Olusola for allegedly telling lies “recklessly and shamelessly”.

    He said Olusola resorted to deceiving unsuspecting members of the public and the global television audience because the administration in which he is serving “has made lying its official state policy”.

    Omoleye said: “This shameless accusation and lies from the supposed man of God, a Pastor of the Christ Apostolic Church (CAC) is not a surprise, considering the character that nurtured him as a politician.

    “We can understand the moral pedigree of a supposed man of God in an administration battling with accusations of serial murders, salary padding, contract scams, over-invoicing over which several permanent secretaries that refused to cooperate had been sacked.

    “We can only pity a man of God dining with a rogue administration that secretly took N56b loans to pay salary and for development projects but criminally diverted all to cronies’ companies for personal benefit, but still shamelessly insisted that it didn’t borrow one kobo.”

    Omoleye, said it is an insult and affront on the good people of Ekiti State for Olusola, who is the number two in a “cloudy and fraudulent administration” that has left the state in ruins and state’s work-force devastated over 10 months unpaid salaries, including N56b debts overhang, to accuse Fayemi of misconduct in government for which he must make restitution.

    He added: “The CAC ought to punish Eleka (Olusola) for his brazen and shameless lie on an international television station that Fayemi owed three months salary when the fact available to all Nigerians is that Fayemi owed only September salary because Fayose blocked the pre-arranged bank facility to pay workers by issuing threats to the bank to stop the facility.

    “When federal allocation for September (2014) was paid to Fayose in October (2014), he refused to spend it to pay September salary as was the case in salary payment protocol in force at the time.

    “Instead of hiding his face in shame for debasing his religious practice by associating with crooks in government, he abandoned issue-based campaign for hooliganism in his baseless accusation to score cheap points in his continuity agenda that holds no promise for Ekiti development.”

     

  • Obasanjo under attack

    Obasanjo under attack

    Senator: he should face trial for ‘bribery’

    Soyinka writes off coalition

    For advising President Muhammadu Buhari not to seek reelection and initiating the Coalition for Nigeria Movement (CNM), former President Olusegun Obasanjo came under attack yesterday.

    Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka dismissed the CNM, saying he would need to have his head examined should he identify with the Obasanjo-inspired group.

    Former Nasarawa State Governor Abdullahi Adamu warned the ex-President that he might soon become a national nuisance, with the way he had refused to allow his predecessors run the country.

    Sen. Abdullahi Adamu said Obasanjo cannot dictate to Nigerians who to vote in 2019.

    He also described Obasanjo’s CNM as a red herring which cannot influence the outcome of the next election, adding that the former president’s statement was in bad taste.

    According to him, Obasanjo ought to have been put on trial for corruption.

    Prof. Soyinka spoke in an interview with BBC Yoruba. Adamu spoke at a news conference in Abuja.

    Soyinka said: “Me? Obasanjo would establish a group and I will become a member of such group? That means they should get a psychiatrist to examine me.”

    He also spoke about the controversial statement by former military President Ibrahim Babangida, also on Buhari’s administration.

    Soyinka said: “When these soldiers begin to speak, we are supposed to get suspicious and ask what exactly do they have in mind? It is possible that what they have in mind is different from what we have in mind.”

    “You can look at it from two perspectives – the messenger and the message. The message should be examined closely. We should not look at the misdeeds of the messenger alone. Let’s start by asking, is he saying the truth or telling lies, or is he being tricky?

    “If he is saying the truth and talking about things that are beneficial to the masses, we would allow that be. After that, we would now look at the person speaking; what is in his mind? …  even if it’s a little child who is speaking, as far as that child is saying the truth, we won’t ask the child to keep quiet. We won’t ask the child, what do you know? We would listen. It is the same situation with those who have presided over the affairs of this nation without making significant progress.

    “We have seen their weaknesses, we have seen their nakedness in public, if they now want to be covered by saying that they have turned a new leaf, we would examine that, too. What I am saying in essence is that what they have said should also be examined.”

    He urged the youth to come together and present a candidate to represent them, adding that the older generation would support them.

    “We have a lot of them. It is the turn of the younger ones. If they come together, as we speak, if they can start now and bring out one individual among them, we will work with him,” Soyinka said.

    “We are going to give them the support they need to transform the country. People like us are supposed to sit somewhere.”

    Adamu said Buhari does “not intend to leave a bleeding, disunited nation and disarticulated socio-economic development at the end of his tenure”.

    He said: “…Let me say at this point that I am worried by the antics of Obasanjo and his penchant for promoting himself as the only competent Nigerian leader.

    “Since he left office on October 1, 1979 to local and international applause, Obasanjo has systematically sought to undermine every federal administration after him. He has today set up himself as the moral conscience of the nation. He believes he has acquired the wisdom of King Solomon and has consequently imposed on himself the right to decide who rules us and how we should be ruled.

    “Perhaps, part of the reason is that before leaving office in 2007, his party, the PDP, conferred on him the titles of Maker of Modern Nigeria and Father of the Nation. Such titles do have a heady way of making a man seeing his head bedecked in the halos of self-righteousness.

    “There is a process for changing our governments through the instrumentality of elections. Chief Obasanjo, one of the architects of that process and a beneficiary to boot, ought to support that process and let the people decide who they want to rule them. It is not for him to decide for the people or the president.

    “No one should arrogate to himself eternal verities in the administration of his country. It is his consuming ambition to have his hands on the levers of power under all our presidents. When he loses that grip, he turns against the incumbent in office.

    “He undermined Gen. Babangida’s economic programme, SAP, with his statement that the Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP) should have a human face and the milk of human kindness. He denigrated Gen. Babangida by advising people to whom the former president says good morning to check their wrist watches to make sure it is morning.

    “Was he entirely motivated by that noble sentiment? I find that hard to believe.

    “I find it difficult to  completely ignore what appear to me like the dark motives hovering over his action because I see it as a behavioural pattern that began with his 2014 letter to the then President Goodluck Jonathan, titled ‘Before it is too late’.

    “It seems to me he believes that that letter alone cost Jonathan the presidency. So, if he is fatigued by President Buhari, he can resort to the same weapon with probably the same consequences. It is a long shot.”

    The ex-governor insisted that the CNM recently inaugurated by Obasanjo to effect change in 2019 cannot achieve any result.

    He said: “His Coalition for Nigeria is a red herring across the path of our constitutional government.”

    “He is free to form a political party and pursue his ambition of being the power behind the throne but such a national movement would achieve no discernible purpose in the economic management and the social administration of the country.”

    To the ex-governor, Obasanjo’s statement is in bad taste, aimed at destroying President Buhari politically.

    He said the ex-President ought to have been more circumspect and measured in his approach.

    He added: “No one can deny him the right to criticise a sitting president but his method leaves much to be desired. He cannot, therefore, escape the charge of impure motive and that he took this step, not to try and set things right for the sake of the nation, but to promote Obasanjo for the sake of Obasanjo.

    “Being a former president, he has an unimpeded access to the president and can, therefore, seek to influence him in the privacy of the seat of power. Indeed, in the early years of the Buhari administration, Chief Obasanjo was a frequent presence in Aso Rock.

    “I believe he frequented the seat of power in support of the administration. I now wonder why he suddenly decided to turn a friend into an enemy and rubbish everything the President has done so far in a little over two and half years.

    “In a civilised political culture, it is taboo for former presidents to openly take a sitting president to the cleaners. Our former head of state, General Yakubu Gowon, has faithfully kept to this time-honoured culture of a former ruler not washing the dirty linens of a current ruler rather gleefully in the public. So have former President Shehu Shagari and former Head of State General Abdulsalami Abubakar.

    “The implications for the polity of a former president regaling the public with a litany of the failures of a sitting president is a calculated and unholy effort to destroy him politically.

    adamu went on: “No one, not even Buhari’s most rabid supporters, would be unfair to themselves enough to suggest that everything is right with the administration. It is true that the government has not met the expectations of the generality of Nigerians. But it is not for lack of capacity or the unwillingness on the part of the President to respond to the needs of the people and those of the country.

    “I know that we invested high expectations on the Buhari administration but is it fair and realistic for us to expect the administration to solve all the problems it inherited in less than three years? Human and resources management towards achieving a desired result is not amenable to the waving of a magic wand.

    “No administration is a total success and none is a total failure. Chief Obasanjo cannot honestly claim that he ran a perfect and totally successful administration. Because he did not.

    “Every administration grapples with problems thrown at it by circumstances beyond its control. President Buhari inherited an economy that was unsteady on its feet. He also inherited the security problems, such as Boko Haram, armed robberies and kidnappings. Yes, I agree that under his watch these problems should grow less, not more. But the solution to problems such as these is a slow and agonizing process. He has no powers to simply make them disappear overnight.

    “The President was fully aware of these problems and challenges when he sought the consent of the electorate in 2015. He did so in the hope that with the support and the goodwill of all Nigerians, he could tackle them. I know he has not given up on that.

    “1 do not think he intends to leave a bleeding, disunited nation and disarticulated socio-economic development at the end of his tenure. He seems to be overwhelmed by the problems because while problems rain down, solutions to them take time to be effective.

    “I think the President, in the circumstances, deserves support and encouragement rather than antagonism from a constituency that should give him that support and encouragement as he seeks to address these and other problems in his own way.”

    Adamu said: “Obasanjo said that President Buhari is selective in his anti-corruption war. I agree with him because if the President were not selective, Chief Obasanjo himself would be in the dock today on trial on charges of corruption arising from the corrupt practices in the pursuit of his third term gambit in the National Assembly in 2006.

    “Today he denies that he ever nursed such ambition. And being a man much-favoured by God, he has repeatedly said that if he had wanted it and asked the almighty for it, he would have given him the third term.

    “He knows as well as I and other leading members of the PDP that he badly wanted it and initiated the process of constitutional amendment. He bribed each member of the National Assembly who signed to support the amendment, with the whopping sum of N50 million to make the constitutional amendment scale through.”

    “The fresh, mint money was taken in its original boxes presumably from the vaults of the Central Bank of Nigeria and distributed among the legislators. The money was not his and it was not appropriated by the National Assembly as required by law. I, therefore, agree that in failing to make the former president account for that money. President Buhari is waging his anti-corruption war selectively.”

    Obasanjo has always denied ever bribing anybody for a third term. “If I had wanted another term I would have asked God and He would have obliged me. God has never refused me anything,” he had said when confronted with the allegation.

    Besides, nobody has ever presented any proof that the former president bribed him.

    Adamu went on: “Nor should we forget that President Buhari has also not bothered to interrogate Obasanjo’s role in the Halliburton scandal for which some Americans are cooling their heels in jail.

    “Perhaps, President Buhari might look into the Siemens affairs in which the Obasanjo administration was indicted and for which people were on trial. What became of the trial?

    Adamu asked Obasanjo to retrace his steps before becoming a national nuisance and sliding into irrelevance.

    “I believe that Obasanjo is too high and too big in the estimation of the people to permit himself the continued sickening indulgence in political skullduggery. I believe that the Nigerian people and the Nigerian state have been most kind to him.

    “Obasanjo has a moral obligation to make the country succeed in solving its myriads of problems. That, I believe, is one way he can give back to the country that has given him so much.

    “As a friend, I wish to advise the former president to pull back from the dangerous path of rubbishing all presidents that came into office after him.

    “Bringing everyone down is not a patriotic duty. I fear that if he continues along this path, he would, sooner than later over reach himself and begin the inevitable descent into national nuisance and irrelevance. That would be ‘a self-inflicted wound and a personal tragedy,” Adamu said.

     

  • Why they are after me, by UNILORIN VC

    Why they are after me, by UNILORIN VC

    UNIVERSITY of Ilorin (UNILORIN) Vice Chancellor Prof. Abdulganiyu Ambali said yesterday that the recent criticisms of his administration over some allegations were aimed at ushering him out of the seat with ignominy.
    Ambali’s tenure as the Vice Chancellor of Unilorin expires between July and August this year.
    Speaking with reporters in Ilorin, the state capital, the professor of veterinary medicine, accused a faction of the institution’s Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) of being the brain behind his ordeal.
    “So, I won’t be surprised as I have been told that it is the tradition of some people, whenever the tenure of a vice chancellor is coming to an end, they embark on smear campaigns against him.
    “The campaigns are aimed at ushering me out with ignominy instead of saying thank you for the service rendered. They would say ‘who told you to do all this?’ That to me is not the best way,” he said.
    Ambali added that the bashings were calculated attempts to smear the reputation the university had achieved over the years.
    He said: “To me, the rising tempo of attacks on my administration is a wrong approach to succeed in life. If you want the seat of the vice chancellor, there are laid down procedures by government. You don’t destroy somebody in order to occupy his place. You can as well be a fellow good passenger in the bus, so that the bus can get to its destination safely and peaceful and all of you can disembark and go home. But by destroying the same vehicle you want to use to get to your own destination as well, nobody will get there.
    “And now the latest option is to put our reputation at stake by defaming the famous University of Ilorin and demystifying all the reputation we have garnered over the years. All the allegations that are going round are calculated at undermining all the 17 years of uninterrupted academic calendar the university has earned. That has also undermined all the good and hardworking staff of the university.
    “That to me is very unfortunate. In any democratic setting, there should be room to allow some idiosyncrasies; allow people to be slightly different and do something different from the majority of the people, so that we can appreciate the skills and talents God has given everybody.
    “If you could recollect, that same week, we had great challenges at the same time. We had the fire incident at our plantation, the CBT crisis and the write-ups all geared towards putting one into confusion to see whether he would not break. I inherited a peaceful university and by the grace of God, I will leave the university better than I inherited it.
    “We are on course. We have tremendous growth in the university.”
    On the last year’s expulsion of UNILORIN by the national ASUU, the vice chancellor said: “They told every university in Nigeria not to associate with us. That in all academic and social matters, all other universities in Nigeria should boycott us; that we thought was not a wise decision because in matters pertaining to education, we should be liberal and allowed everybody to interact at whatever levels and exchange academic materials.
    “UNILORIN over the last 17 years has been doing things slightly different from the rest of other universities in the country.”
    Though the national Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has expelled us from its fold, we have used that time to look inward and focus attention to our tripartite mandate of teaching, research and community service.”

  • Jonathan under attack over national conference plan

    Jonathan under attack over national conference plan

    Eminent lawyers rejected yesterday President Goodluck Jonathan’s plan to send the National Conference’s report to the National Assembly for ratification.

    To constitutional lawyer Prof Itsey Sagay (SAN), any plan to send the report to the lawmakers will amount to insincerity or ignorance.

    In a telephone interview with The Nation, he said: “We’re talking of a conference, which will result in a new Constitution, which will then be approved by plebiscite, by referendum, so that it becomes a Constitution made by Nigerian people.

    “What we’re saying is that this cannot be a proposal for the amendment of the Constitution. So, in my view, either the President doesn’t understand what he is doing by convoking a conference, or he’s deliberately putting poison into the process to kill it from the beginning.

    “To say you’re taking it to the National Assembly, which doesn’t have the capacity or the jurisdiction or the authority to make a new Constitution, is to say you want to kill it. The House has a vested interested in the status quo.”

    Sagay was not comfortable with the lawmakers handling the report because, according to him, “they’re the people who are going to try and amend and mutilate and destroy anything that people would have taken all the trouble to make”.

    “This National Assembly has been there since 1999. What has it achieved? Just promotion of self-interest in all its processes of constitutional amendment – amendments that are meaningless and totally useless.

    “What we’re talking about now is wholesale new Constitution, which only the people themselves can make. Any reference to the National Assembly is an attempt to kill the conference before it takes off. So, it’s lack of sincerity or ignorance. It’s one or the other.”

    Activist-lawyer Bamidele Aturu agreed with Sagay, saying the National Assembly is not required to make any input in the outcome of the conference.

    He said: “Sending the outcome of the conference to the National Assembly will amount to unnecessary duplication of efforts. In the first place, the National Assembly is trying to amend the Constitution – there is a process to amend the Constitution,” he said, adding: “When you do the conference also, it will lead to the amendment of the Constitution. So, why do you then duplicate functions? And that tells us that in the first place, maybe there was even no need to set up this conference, to begin with, because you’re now saying that the people will not vote on the outcome of the conference in a referendum, and that is contrary to what we had all expected.

    “Many people have said, and this is the point we make, that for you to do a national conference as opposed to just constitutional amendment, the people of Nigeria must ratify or endorse the resolution of the conference. If that does not happen, then the whole thing is a waste of time. This falls far short of what Nigerians expect or deserve. Many people will now be right to say that it’s just a political gimmick.”

    But, to a professor of law and former Abia State Attorney-General, Awah Kalu (SAN), there is no way any form of amendment of the Constitution can take place without recourse to the National Assembly.

    He said: “There is no way that the outcome of the conference will not be sent to the National Assembly, because if you look at the definition in Section 9 of the Constitution, which talks about alteration of the Constitution, if legally interpreted, it means that alteration will include even a completely new Constitution.

    “In law, if you want to amend, it includes the substitution for what is existing. So, if you look at that Section 9, you will see that it is the National Assembly that has the power to alter the Constitution, which means that if the influence is external, as in the Conference now – a body that produces, the best they can do is to produce a draft Constitution, and that will go to the National Assembly.

    “Once the National Assembly adopts it, then it will come back to the President for his assent. I don’t see any way around the final product going to the National Assembly.”

    A constitutional lawyer, Mr Sebastine Hon (SAN), said President Jonathan was right. “The President is not wrong to have resolved to push the result of the conference to the National Assembly,” he said, adding: “The law-making powers of the federation are vested in the National Assembly. When it comes to amendment of most sections of the Constitution, they share those powers with state Houses of Assembly.

    “Except we’re saying there is no National Assembly or legislature in place, those advocating that the conference should fashion out a Constitution on its own, I think, with due respect, are in grave error. We have a legislature in place, and if anything comes out of the conference, it needs to go to them for ratification.

    “We elected them. They are our representatives. And we have a Constitution in place, which has been operated for the past 13 years. So, there’s no way we can now begin to say that somebody or a body unknown to the Constitution is fashioning out a new Constitution without the input of the National Assembly. I think it’s dexterous on the part of the President to have resolved to do that,” Hon said.

    To Kalu, subjecting the report of the national conference to a referendum does not absolve it from legislative subjection.

    He said: “The plebiscite is a step before the final thing. If you want rotational presidency, for instance, you subject it to a plebiscite or a referendum as the case may be. If you want multiple vice-presidency as some people have in the past proposed, you also submit it to referendum.

    “Anything that is not presently in the Constitution, which is a new and radical idea, can be sent to the people for referendum. If the people say ‘yes’, then that will come to the National Assembly for ratification, but it will then have no power to override any decision taken in a referendum, because power belongs to the people. It’s there in Section 14 (2) of the Constitution.”

    Asked if such an amendment could be concluded early considering the process of constitution amendment, Awah said: “The government is a continuous process, but if we’re diligent about the steps we’re about to take, it shouldn’t take too long.

    “Nigerians have been talking for 53 years now, and there are so many reports in the past that are gathering dust somewhere. There is virtually no idea that has not been canvassed. Maybe, all we need is to articulate what has been said in the past.”

  • Tukur: Nigeria under attack

    Tukur: Nigeria under attack

    Nigeria is under attack, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Chairman Bamanga Tukur said yesterday.

    It was a day security remained on the front burner, with senators and the Service Chiefs meeting and the police making a haul of Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) in Kano.

    Fielding questions from reporters in Abuja on sundry national issues, Tukur pleaded with opposition political parties, organised labour, traditional rulers and other stakeholders to confront the insecurity which is now threatening the nation’s peaceful co-existence.

    Tukur said: “Today, there is fear everywhere. Churches are being burnt. Mosques are being attacked. United Nations building bombed; motor parks are being bombed. People cannot go to motor parks again to travel for the fear of being attacked. Security installations, such as police stations, prisons are being burnt down and inmates released at will. Nobody knows the next target of attack.”

    Many critics, including former President Olusegun Obasanjo, have blamed the PDP and the President for not tackling the Boko Haram crisis well. To Tukur, neither the party nor the President should carry the can.

    He said: “It is not about the PDP or President Goodluck Jonathan; this is a matter that should be of concern to everybody, irrespective of political, ethnic or religious affiliations. The opposition, the labour movement, religious leaders, traditional rulers, name it; we all have to come to fight the evil that is now manifesting everywhere in our land. Those perpetuating this evil are within us in the society. It is not a matter of Mr President or the PDP-led Federal Government alone.”

    Tukur, who expressed sadness over the security situation in the country, cited the recent attack on the prisons at Ganye, his country home in Adamawa State where over 100 inmates were set free while 25 were killed after which the prison was set ablaze, said “This nation must come together to fight the common evil. There is fear everywhere. In my village, Ganye in Adamawa, they invaded the place, burnt down the police station, attacked the policemen on duty, raided the bank, privately-owned houses, moved down to the prisons, set the inmates free and burnt down the building. Where are we heading to? Nobody can even explain what is happening now”.

    He expressed the optimism that once the nation was united against the manifesting evil, darkness would be phased out and light would prevail in the land, which would in turn bring the most needed peace, unity, progress and stability for the people to enjoy the dividends of democracy.

    Speaking on his findings during his just concluded tours of the six geo-political sones as part of efforts to reconcile the aggrieved members of his party, Tukur said his team discovered that there was fear of insecurity in the land, ravaging hunger, poverty and unemployment of young men and women which needed to be addressed head-on in the overall interest of the nation.

    He assured that as a responsible ruling party, its National Working Committee (NWC), would look into all the collated views, review them and pass its recommendations to the appropriate quarters for action.

    Alhaji Tukur equally dismissed the growing speculations making the round that there was a rift between him and the governors elected on the platform of the PDP, saying: “there is no rift between me and our governors, the governors are the commanders of our party in their respective states working along with the chairmen for the progress of the party. There is no competition between me and them; our common goal is to win the next general elections.”

    While applauding the successes recorded by the recent tour of the zones by the leadership of the party ahead of the 2015 elections, Tukur said that he along with his team in the NWC would embark on the tour of all the States of the federation for the total reconciliation of the entire PDP family for the task ahead.