Elections Nigeria 2015: Good excuse to ponder politics

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When ISPI (Istituto per gli Studi di Politica Internazionale/Institute for International Political Studies) asked me, barely a month after I had participated in a workshop it had organised at the Italian External Affairs Ministry in Rome, to write a paper on the upcoming elections in Nigeria, I spat ‘tufiakwa’. “Why should I want to annoy myself, or listen to sad songs, or drink ‘ogwu iba’, a thing as bitter as that – when I have no malaria” – I later murmured. I stuck to my guns until the change in electoral dates. It was then that I started shouting ‘politics’ and ‘dirty game’ in soliloquy and in alternation. Again, it was then that I capitulated – unconsciously. Churning thoughts on Nigeria and her politics then started in my mental vessel. The first word churned out was fugue, defined by Merriam-Webster’s dictionary as, ‘A disturbed state of consciousness in which the one affected seems to perform acts in full awareness but upon recovery cannot recollect the acts performed.’ The next was ‘bacchanalian revel’, one of Hegel’s terms for his Phenomenology. The American philosopher Robert Solomon, influenced by this term, described this book as ‘a maze of obscure forms, linked together by whims, struggling to reach clarification by devious or impossible routes.’ Incredible! Those are also words quite apt to describe the phenomenon called Nigeria. Well, last but not least was ‘speaking in tongues’, which of course does not allow the people it is meant to wow to make any sense out of the babble. It merely jars their ears.

The things that happen in Nigeria generally, and in her politics in particular, defy logic. Take, for example, Expo Milan 2015. Nigeria agreed to participate, but with fewer than three months to go the land given her to build her pavilion is still empty. The delegation the Italian government sent to Nigeria was assured that Nigeria was not withdrawing, but no sooner had the group left than the Nigerian government, like one who drank amnesia-inducing Lethean water, forgot all about it.  The Expo organizers were thus plunged into the Strait of Messina, barricaded on both sides by Scylla and Charybdis, but the philosophy of ‘The show must go on’ prevailed. Now the event will take place with an empty land like a big ozone hole in the firmament, though the rest, thank heavens, is constellated by beautiful structures from other countries.

Nigeria is not a normal place, and so things stand on their heads. This is why she has been held hostage and raped mercilessly for decades by a gang of twenty or thirty men. This is why millions and billions of dollars are given to individuals, who are either pastors or obas, instead of utilising them to accomplish things for the common good. Only a person at the helm by luck than merit would believe the equation: money given to religious and community leaders equals thousands of votes. Money has replaced God and is thus worshipped in all manner of ways. Apropos of money, a senator earns over two million dollars per annum, while a worker on the minimum wage receives a little above one thousand dollars for the same period, so needs over 1,600 years to earn a senator’s annual salary. Who can believe that a party form to vie for the presidential office, for instance, goes for as much as nearly one hundred and fifty thousand dollars. How many honest Nigerians can afford such an amount for a mere form? And this is nothing compared with what a campaign can cost. It is clear that this is trading in full swing, yet we have not replaced politician as a word with trader. Not even mere opinion here is reliable, or an event certain till it has passed. It is a place where gurus, for example, wake up one morning and declare their support for a candidate, and the next day deny it. A candidate does not win an election here because of a rich agenda, but because of lies told with the conviction of truth, religious and ethnic sentiments brazenly played out, rigging, and other shenanigans.

Africa’s most populous nation is full of pathologies, with no cures proving adequate so far. This was why some Nigerian doctors who studied abroad and live there were called back home and given ministerial appointments as technocrats. In spite of the Hippocratic Oath to save lives, they chose to ignore the illnesses for which they were invited home. When they did anything at all, as they must prove later they did something, they never went beyond placebos. Meanwhile, the patients entrusted to them are dying by the thousands. The bulk of the billions given them to save lives and the bad situations are stashed away in banks in Dubai and other places. Tomorrow their ultra-modern hotels, newspaper corporations, air transport companies, tollgate business, TV stations, companies by proxies – like those of their colleagues who schooled them – will start springing up here and there in Nigeria and beyond. And these are the people we hail for floating companies and giving employment. Sometimes, we hear them use words like sanitize, ethics, conscience, God, again God, God – ad nauseam, etc. As religious analogy is apposite here, one can say that they have eaten the forbidden apple and realised how naked they are, and so can no longer fault anybody for being naked.

Election time is not the best of times for Nigerians, because it exposes us. It shows how limited we are, in spite of the shibboleth of being the giant of Africa. It is funny we believe what we do is part of what is called democracy, yet the alternation of power is fought against by the incumbent with all his might. Yet again, the president bestrides Montesquieu’s tripartite system like a colossus, with its two elephantine legs pressed on the judiciary and the legislature to cow them. Even representation, a synonym of democracy, is conceived solely as self-representation, where the winner takes all; the people represented can go to Hell. They exist only during elections and are coaxed through different means to vote as expected. The word vote used here is a misnomer because what actually obtains is rigging. And it is done with impunity and before everybody’s eyes like a daylight robbery. The Greeks, it seems, invented democracy to entice us to become jesters, and so make Westerners break their ribs from laughing. Till we replace voting with tests for the candidates, AND WITHOUT ANY SITTING PRESIDENT, we will continue to practice democracy alla Nigeria, i.e., farcical democracy.

Come March 28, Dr Goodluck Jonathan of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and Gen. Muhammadu Buhari of All Progressives Congress (APC) will square off before the electorate.  These two candidates of the two major political parties are unfit for the job they are seeking. To start with, none of them is an economist. Nigeria this time needs an economist, who can proffer viable solutions, understand the experts’ technicalities and above all stem the financial hemorrhage triggered off by corruption, unless one can be an economist and share out money without rhyme or reason, or like one with low IQ. Again, none of the two candidates has written a book. In some Western countries, candidates present their candidature with a book to talk for them, instead of an embellished fictitious persona. The two candidates are also flawed for making Nigerians think on tribal, religious and north and south lines, almost like never before. This is why Boko Haram is politicised and the Chibok girls forgotten in a hurry. Both equally share somatic traits that portend inaction. While Jonathan, apart from having Dame Patience as a pain in his neck, has widespread corruption and the fact that the corrupt are not indicted or dismissed as his bane, Buhari’s record of not being corrupt and being strict to a fault may not be enough to make him win. He is too north-centric to rule in a democratic Nigeria. However, it is not going to be an easy contest, and neither is it going to be free and fair – if it is not disrupted.

Nigerians are light years away from being educated democratically, and so their own nemesis. They are not yet ready to throw out a corrupt and mentally deficient president, who happens to relate to them by tribe, religion or geopolitical zone. Ordinarily, they give the impression of being clever; but upon closer examination they turn out to be as gullible as any other. This is why a president needn’t bother do anything to earn a second term; all he needs to do is point at phantom enemies personified by religion, tribe or some other spectre. Or peregrinate from pastors to obas sharing out money. Or even ask for extra time and make sure there is a whirl of construction activity everywhere, so that voters will not be in doubt who to vote for. The opposition, on the other hand, is no less adept at this game; it also uses the same weapon and will likely reproduce all the vices of the incumbent when its leader eventually wins. It does not matter if this leader is an acclaimed saint; the crossbreeding that takes place will obviously modify his DNA. Even when this does not happen, his election bankrollers must surely have their way. This means that looting, which has moved from mere millions in naira to billions and trillions in dollars, will climb to zillions in any higher currency. This is bad news for Nigeria.

Nigeria needs a latter-day version of PRP (People’s Redemption Party) with hard-core intellectuals at the helm, those whose intellectual honesty makes them more Christian, though they may not be Christians, than the Christians’ heads themselves. Nigeria is in dire need of a party that will really represent the common people, including the Bakin Zuwos, though without leading positions, so that we will not have leaders for whom running mate would mean someone running after their life; again, for whom mineral resources would refer to Coca Cola, Fanta and other minerals. In Italy, the equivalent of the reformed PRP is the ‘Five Star Movement’, in Greece the Tsipras’ party, in Brasil Lula’s party. So, the party that matches this prototypical sketch is the one to be voted for, not one of the two ancien régimes, where the so-called men of God have become hustlers. Nigerians for the common good, unite!

 

Kaius Ikejezie (Ph.D) author of the upcoming novel: The Shadow of the Philosopher

kaius.ikejezie@yahoo.co.uk

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 Elections Nigeria 2015: Good excuse to ponder politics        

How my father’s jailer can offer Nigeria a fresh start

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Possibly the worst year of my life was 1984. I was 10 years old and blissfully unaware of the changing face of Nigeria’s political landscape. And a rather unyielding face it was – that of Muhammadu Buhari who had recently overthrown Shehu Shagari, a democratically elected president. For Buhari, this was a necessary coup d’etat because Nigeria was being overrun by corrupt politicians. However, his regime would have a devastating impact on my family’s fortunes.

How my father’s jailer can offer Nigeria a fresh start

For the first time, at the close of the school term in Edinburgh, my father wasn’t there to pick us up. My older brother, aged 15, took charge and we made our way to Heathrow. Touching down in Nigeria, it was my mother who met us at the airport. She didn’t smile, perhaps couldn’t; her mouth was turned down at the corners like she was being flattened by existence. Something was wrong, clearly. I waited until we were settled in the car and piped up: “Where’s Daddy?” Without turning to glance at me, my mother answered: “He’s in jail.” She always had an aversion to bullshit but even, for her, that was pretty cold. For the rest of the journey, I thought about my Daddy who returned the cash to the phone company when our account was credited with thousands of naira; Daddy who, born into abject poverty, personified what it meant to work really hard and make your own dreams come true, in a hopefully new meritocratic Nigeria.

On getting home, one of my older brothers explained that Buhari’s deputy, the uncompromising, much-feared Colonel Tunde Idiagbon, had commanded that all government contractors in Ogun state had received a notice to appear before a special committee. My dad honoured the invitation and presented all the papers to show that it was in fact the government that owed his company money. He was given two options: to pay a large amount (that no one quite understood how they arrived at) or go to jail. On principle, my dad said he wasn’t going to pay money that he didn’t owe. He was not alone. I have a group of friends with whom I am forever bound by this shared ordeal of seeing our fathers treated like criminals. And as it was for many, this period signified the beginning of financial ruin.

My father spent six months in jail and came out a different man. For one, he started clapping at our solemn family devotion in the mornings, something we never did. He explained that that was what they did in prison. He was never a big talker but seeing him work at adjusting to normal life was painful for everyone around him.

Before his release, the two giant crushers and all the machinery and equipment that belonged to his civil engineering firm were liquidated. As children, our lives changed too. We were placed in state schools and said goodbye to our privileged lifestyles.

My dad is 87 now and he’s an active member of the local advisory board of the All Progressive party, the opposition party that has recently adopted Buhari as the presidential flag-bearer, 30 years after his first outing as a military head of state. Like many Nigerians, my father was saddened when he heard President Goodluck Jonathan claim that “stealing is not corruption”. With 24% unemployment, there are limited opportunities for young people, making them easy fodder for militants in the southernmost parts of the country and dreaded religious fundamentalists in the north. People clamour for leadership.

For the last three weeks, I have been travelling with the presidential campaign team and I have had the opportunity to listen to people and interview them. I have also had a personal need to understand this man Buhari who has run for the highest office a record three times. At the beginning, I admit I had doubts and misgivings. It’s hard not to when you’ve been stung before. But after several conversations with him, I have come to understand what the mass hysteria is all about and why Nigerians would vote for this soft-spoken but highly principled 72-year-old.

It’s quite simple and, having worked as a schoolteacher for years, I can use a school setting in my analogy. Kids like a teacher to whom they can give the runaround but when it’s crunch time, they favour an environment where the teacher is firm, one where clear boundaries have been set. Having a president who is widely described as “clueless” may have seemed to many like an opportunity, but the goodwill that Jonathan enjoyed in 2011 has been frittered away. These days, governors in the opposition parties are starved of funds and harassed when they don’t do the bidding of a first lady who campaigns for her personal candidates. Many Nigerians believe that it is time to return to one of the few faces of anti-corruption in Nigeria’s political history. Even my wrongly-imprisoned Dad would recognise that Buhari’s ambition was to stem corruption.

Unlike many Nigerian past presidents, Major-General Buhari does not have a huge mansion. You won’t hear about him owning a bank or sitting on the board of banks. Neither does he own expansive farmland. In fact, he wrote to the minister of finance requesting that he only receive 10% of the allowance that all past presidents receive on a monthly basis. Overwhelmingly, his lack of greed and personal venality means people trust him. Within a democratic dispensation, whatever excesses Buhari’s singlemindedness at tackling corruption might have shown 30 years ago can and will be curbed.

He has surrounded himself with a brilliant, savvy team of young Nigerians and I much enjoy the passion with which he talks about his three main priorities: unemployment, insecurity and education. For some Nigerians, he might not be an ideal candidate but for many more, people want anything but Jonathan. And even better it’s someone that they feel they can believe in.

Lola Shoneyin is a Nigerian novelist and poet

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How my father’s jailer can offer Nigeria a fresh start

2015: How Jonathan, Oshiomhole fell apart

My scorecard six years after – Gov

By Simon Ebegbulem, Benin-City

It was the first time Governor Adams Oshiomhole of Edo State will be blowing so hot against President Goodluck Jonathan. Unlike other governors of the All Progressives Congress (APC), the Comrade Governor had hardly attacked the President publicly even though he may not be satisfied with the way the country is being run. He apparently tried to avoid situations that will warrant him attacking Jonathan. And that was why his recent tirade against the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)-led government came as a shock to many.

President Jonathan and Oshiomhole

Oshiomhole’s perceived support for the President had earned him names in some of quarters. Some said he was not a committed APC member and that, that is why it had been rumoured that he may follow the footsteps of Governor Olusegun Mimiko of Ondo State and former Governor Peter Obi of Anambra State by joining the PDP. Even though his supporters both in the Edo House of Assembly and his cabinet have been hounded by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the police following the bitter rivalry between the APC in the state and the PDP, the governor has maintained his cool with the President.

But as it seems, Jonathan murdered sleep recently during the PDP South-South rally held in Benin City, when he came to Oshiomhole’s back yard to taunt him, declaring that come 2015 and 2016, Rivers and Edo will “fall” to the PDP. Oshiomhole did not immediately respond to the comment. He may have been digesting it while monitoring the actions of the President to be sure whether he actually meant what he said or was only playing politics. And after that comment from the President, the governor must have observed that several people close to him have been either arrested by the EFCC or the police.

As a matter of fact, the PDP lawmakers in the state House of Assembly have received tremendous support from the police ever since the crisis in the parliament and that gave them the impetus to flout every court order. Meanwhile, APC lawmakers are being treated like second class citizens. The principal officers of the House, including Speaker Uyi Igbe, son of the Iyase (Prime Minister) of Benin Kingdom, Chief Sam Igbe, the Majority Leader, Philip Shaibu, and others, flew to Abuja almost on a weekly basis as guests of the EFCC until the Federal High Court granted an injunction stopping further investigation of the lawmakers.

While the APC chieftains pass through this hell, the PDP in the state celebrate what is described as the “Federal Might” being used to intimidate the governor and his supporters. Some PDP members in the state have used every means to disrespect the governor even to the point of calling him ole!ole! when the President visited Edo recently at the Benin airport. Going by what is happening around him, it was clear to Oshiomhole that the attacks against him and his supporters were actually geared towards ensuring that Edo falls as boasted by Jonathan. This coming after he helped the President to win Edo in 2011. Oshiomhole, known to be at his best when he perceives intimidation against him, therefore, used the last Wednesday’s mega rally of the APC to commemorate his six years anniversary to reply the President and to also inform him how Edo will vote come 2015.

The Samuel Ogbemudia Stadium was filled to capacity and in attendance were the two leading presidential aspirants of the APC, Gen.Muhammadu Buhari and former VP Atiku Abubakar. Others in attendance were Speaker of the House of Representatives, Alhaji Aminu Tambuwal; Chief Audu Ogbe; Senator Ahmed Bola Tinubu; Governors Rochas Okorocha of Imo State, Ali Wamakko of Sokoto State; the deputy governor of Kwara State, Elder Peter Kisira; a, former governor of Bayelsa State, Chief Timipre Sylvia; a, former governor of Ekiti State, Chief Niyi Adebayo, House of Representative members, Speaker, Edo State House of Assembly, Rt. Hon. Uyi Igbe, Edo State House of Assembly members; market women; students; civil society groups amongst others.

To the admiration of the crowd, Oshiomhole mounted the podium to reel out his achievements in the past six years, insisting that his achievements will guarantee victory for his party despite alleged plot by the PDP to win the state. The governor said: “We are here to mark six years of revolutionary changes in Edo State. When I stood here six years ago, everybody reminds us that our state was ground zero. Our children were in class rooms without roofs. Our roads were hopeless. Our moats were blocked, children were lost to flood.

In Esanland, there was no water, our politics was managed by three families. You cannot survive without worshiping the godfathers. But I told my people that poverty cannot be described as an act of God. Today, across Edo, life is back. Our children now attend schools with red roof, with aluminium windows. We have connected communities that have been abandoned, Edo is on the march. We have demonstrated that no government anywhere in the planet will have all the resources it needs to meet all the challenges it faces. But with creative management of the little that we had, I made bold to say that many of our neighbours have more money but do not have the level of determination to apply resources judiciously and intelligently to achieve the kind of result that we have achieved in Edo. I want to appreciate the support that you have all continued to give because one man cannot make a forest.

“I want to ask, if you listened to President Jonathan when he was here in September to launch what they called the South-South rally of the Peoples Democratic Party, he was reported as saying that Edo State, our own great state, the Heartbeat of the Nation, will fall to PDP. Let me ask you, can Edo State fall? Can the President fall any of you? He even went on to say that Rivers State will fall to PDP. I need you to mark the word ‘fall”and go back home, take your dictionary and look at the ordinary and special meaning of the word ‘fall’. To fall is to collapse, to fall is to speak in the language of soldiers. When they have used the force of firearms to overcome their enemies and they capture them with the aid of guns after killing many, they can say that the territory has fallen.

“So is the President going to use the armed forces to fall the people of Edo State? I want to put him on notice that Edo State is not an enemy territory to be felled by armed forces and the Commander-in-Chief must not target Edo for falling. Edo will stand and march on. On the contrary, APC will defeat the President in Bayelsa State, APC will defeat PDP in Rivers State, and APC will defeat PDP in Cross River State. APC will defeat PDP in Delta State, APC will continue to bury and bury PDP in Edo State. What is the scorecard of the PDP in Edo State and in Nigeria? The PDP has commissioned the resurfacing of Ofosu to Benin Road in a period of 16 years. That is all PDP has to show in Edo State for over a period of 16 years.

The PDP led Federal Government controls 52.8 % of declared federal collections and Edo State’s share of that 52.8 % and all they have to show in 16 years is the resurfacing of Ofosu-Benin old carriage way. My challenge to my opponents in whatever name they are called, people who spent 10 years in Edo deceiving people, we have shown that they wasted our 10 years but we were not deterred by their failure but rather inspired by the opportunity that we have to reposition Edo State. I have made the point that we can reposition Benin- City, deal with the crisis of flooding, not on the basis of random approach but by taking a holistic view on the flooding problem and applying searchable solutions that are informed by scientific mandate. We challenge our main opponent, leaders and members of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP at all levels to come out and refute all that I said we have done that we didn’t do”.

Oshiomhole continued: “Never again shall we be buffeted by people who remember us once in four years when they bring a version of the stolen money to buy guns and distribute to young men to kill people. We have moved away from the politics of sharing salt, banana and sugar cane at the eve of election. Today, the Edo woman understands that providing school for her child is better than giving her a bag of salt once in four years. As long as the PDP has power, the Nigerian people will never have power. Even as we speak, this stadium is being powered by generator.”

According to him, in the name privatization of electricity distribution companies, the Federal Government handed over power to people who know next to nothing about electricity and power generation. “ But today, from our 26 per cent, we have built roads across all the nooks and crannies of Edo state. Because of our commitment to politics without bitterness, we built roads to the villagers of PDP leaders which they did not do. So I ask the President, with all due respect, with profound respect for the President and his office, to show us what his party, the PDP, has done in Edo.

I want to remind you of those powerful statements made by the Edionwere of Benin Kingdom, Chief Edebiri, who said that this generation of Edo people will never again vote for anybody who carries an umbrella that is torn. In 2011, the President scored 96 per cent in this state. Let him show us the 96 per cent contribution of development from PDP. All we see is PDP appropriating federal money in the name of a government body. They gave the money to a former public official who was rigged into office and we had to vanish him. When we use individuals rather than state institutions to distribute public funds that is the height of corrupt practices.

I have stated my testimonial I ask you to ask the PDP their testimonial. By the special grace of God, by February next year, we will not vote on the basis of tribalism, we will vote on the basis of who provides power. For 16 years, PDP keeps promising power but it is clearly power to their stomach. As long as PDP is in power, Nigerian people will be out of power. For as long as PDP has power, Nigerian people will never have power. In the name of privatization of the distribution companies, they have handed over the assets to individuals who know next to nothing about power and electricity.

Today, they collect money when they deliver darkness, they collect money for power when they deliver frustration. We are the father of change. Edo will not fall, Edo will stand and we will decide the President. APC will win the presidential election, APC will win senatorial election and we will never be intimidated. I am at my best as a person when you intimidate me. I have nothing else to live for but to stand on the truth and fight for change and change must come.

The PDP are boasting they are going to rig the election, but let me put them on notice. Nobody born of a woman will rig and govern Nigeria with a stolen mandate. We want to warn them, we will defeat them with the ballot not with guns. The Nigeria armed forces belong to the Nigerian nation, they do not belong to any political party. Any attempt to misuse the armed forces to rig election, it will be fire for fire. Only a coward dies several times before his death, we will stand as soldiers of democracy. We will fight for our fatherland and victory shall come”.

Oshiomhole then threw a challenge to the opposition party which he said spent ten years deceiving people: “Those papas who have spent ten years deceiving pikin and even those pikin who grew old under papa now also deceive papa by whatever name you call them, they have shown that they wasted our ten years. Today, we have liberalized our politics. The son of a cassava farmer can contest election without a god father. We have moved on from a party of deceit to a party that has the vision and determination to move Nigeria forward. Our report card in Edo is clear, we have moved politics away from the tradition of government earmarking money for schools, for River Niger Bridge, for fertilizers.

We earmark roads, we earmark schools, we earmark what we have done, not what we promised to do.  So, today, we challenge our opponents, leaders and members of the PDP, at whatever level, to say that everything I said we have done we did not do them”. On his part, Tambuwal blasted the PDP-led Federal Government, saying, “the system we have in place today is malfunctioning”. The House of Reps Speaker added: “The government at the center has failed in several ways and when you have a system that is not working, what do you do, you change to a better system that will deliver. The objective is to deliver good roads, provide security, enhance development in this country.

What we have at the moment is a cabal that hijacked the instrument of authority of the Nigerian people and we will do everything humanly possible come May 2015 to ensure that they are out of the Villa and what we have is a progressive government of APC. When they came here last time, they said you should vote for him that he is from the South-south. But what have the people of the South-south benefited from this Presidency? When he came he rode on the sentiment of being a minority, what have the minorities of Nigeria have to show in the last four years?

Don’t be deceived again, all of us have been deceived before when we were persuaded that we needed to have this personality in government for some reasons. But it has been proven beyond reasonable doubt that sentiments do not provide good governance. All of us must agree that what we need in Nigeria is good governance and whoever can provide that should be the leader of this country not minding where he is from. I therefore commend the good people of Edo for the support that you have been giving our leader here, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole. In the past administrations, Edo was not like this but when Adams assumed office in the last six years we have seen real transformation not the type that is being canvassed by the so called ambassadors of transformation in Abuja.”

Tinubu, who commended Oshiomhole for his achievements in Edo, said President Jonathan made a blunder by declaring openly that the school girls abducted in Chibok by Boko Haram were either killed or yet to be found. “Jonathan is stepping on the blood of Nigeria children and dancing on their graves by declaring for re-election yesterday. A wise President will stay in the Villa and declare his intention to run in the memory of those children. He said he will not step on the blood of anybody to be re-elected but he is dancing on their blood.

On his watch, he will want to blackmail the opposing party, no leadership of any nation will sit idle and watch any part of its own territory being taken away by the so- called insurgents. Mubi is the second largest commercial town in Adamawa, if it has been taken by insurgents, then this President should resign. If a military barrack that was equipped with our weapon to fight the insurgents, that barrack the armoury there was abandoned and they fled, you leave the weapon for the insurgents, under your watch, and you said you want to run again, no. God forbid, if you refuse to go, we will sweep you away. We will beat their tyranny, we will show them that the power of the people is greater than the barrel of their gun. You cannot enslave us anymore,”the APC leader said.

National Chairman of the APC, Chief John Odigie Oyegun, who declared that Oshiomhole’s score card in Edo was unprecedented, stated: “His six years has transformed the face of politics permanently in Edo. six years of bringing hope to the life of the ordinary man and woman in Edo State. God spare him and give him the resources in the remaining two years so that when we will be campaigning for governorship it will be no contest. Because like Oshiomhole himself said, we can eye mark our achievements. The PDP can only earmark achievements and that is not real. You are one of our star governors. The governor said just now that when the President was here, he said Edo will fall. But it is the PDP that is falling. We have promised you a new Nigeria. Today the country is being destroyed. Totally clueless Federal Government but by the special grace of God they will leave Aso Rock come 2015”.

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2015: How Jonathan, Oshiomhole fell apart

Aminu Tambuwal is a Traitor

By Femi Aribisala

Nigerians voted for a PDP Speaker, but got an APC wolf in PDP sheep’s clothing.

It is customary to refer to members of the House of Representatives as “honorable.”  In which case, the appropriate title for the current Speaker might be the Right Honorable Aminu Tambuwal.  But the activities of the Speaker over the last four years, capped by his recent defection to the APC, shows that such a title would be grossly misplaced if applied to him.

Tambuwal, Tinubu

There is nothing honorable about Tambuwal pretence for the better part of three years that he is a PDP member, when in actual fact he has been nothing of the sort.  There is nothing honorable about the way Tambuwal has despised the Constitution he was sworn to protect.  There is nothing honorable about the wayTambuwal has betrayed the trust of the Nigerian electorate, as expressed in the 2011 election.  I can find no better or more precise language with which to describe Tambuwal than that he is a traitor.

Tambuwal’s treachery

Tambuwal is a serial defector of dishonorable repute.  He defected from the ANPP to the DPP, then to back to the ANPP, then to the PDP and now to the APC.  He is a traitor for defecting from the PDP to the APC without first resigning from the House.  He is the representative of a constituency in Sokoto comprising a majority of PDP voters.  They elected him to represent them as a PDP legislator.  He has now betrayed their trust by defecting to the opposition APC.  This is nothing short of treachery.  His constituents did not elect an APC man to represent them.

Tambuwal has shown that he is not a man of high principles.  He is just another 419 politician.  Nigeria is operating a democratic system largely borrowed from the United States.  The Speaker of the House of Representatives comes from the majority party in the House.  That party is the PDP.  Tambuwal was elected under the PDP platform.  However, he has been operating as an opposition APC man disguised treacherously as a PDP man.

The job of the Speaker is to spearhead the legislative programme of the government in the House.  A Speaker who is in cahoots with the opposition is, in effect, a traitor to his party and to the government.  That has been the case with Aminu Tambuwal.  If Nigerian voters wanted the House of Representatives to have a Speaker who is from a different party from the President, they would have given the opposition a majority in the House of Representatives.  They did not.  They gave the PDP, the president’s party, the majority.  Tambuwal’s shenanigans in the last four years have been designed to frustrate the express will of the Nigerian electorate.

ACN treachery

Aminu Tambuwal became Speaker by aligning himself with the selfish ambitions of Bola Tinubu and his ACN opposition party.  Tinubu claims to be a leader of the Yorubas, but when the PDP zoned the position of Speaker to South-West Yorubas, Tinubu decided that the interests of the Yorubas would not serve his personal political ambitions.  A Yoruba Speaker would provide another focal point for Yoruba leadership apart from the Asiwaju; therefore the ACN decided to frustrate the candidature of their kith and kin, Mulikat Akande.

To do this successfully, they needed a traitor from the PDP who would go against the directives of his party, while remaining a member of the PDP, and challenge the party’s chosen candidate to become Speaker.  They found that traitor in Aminu Tambuwal.  Here is how it worked.  Tinubu used his political muscle to convince gullible Yoruba legislators to vote against a Yoruba woman, Mulikat Akande, in a post that was specifically designed by the PDP as a benefit for Yorubas.  He then got these same “mumu” Yoruba politicians to vote instead for Aminu Tambuwal; a scion of the Sokoto Caliphate with a Hausa/Fulani agenda.

This is something that could never have happened the other way around.  It is inconceivable that a Hausa/ Fulani legislator would be persuaded to give something that has been zoned to Hausa/Fulanis to a Yoruba man.  To put it bluntly, the Hausas/Fulanis are not that stupid.  But what does that tell us about Yoruba politicians?  They are slave traders.  They have no qualms about selling their own people into slavery.  They have no qualms about throwing other Yorubas under the bus.

With the Yoruba politicians gullible enough to agree to be sold, yet again, into Northern slavery, at the treacherous plotting of their self-proclaimed godfather, it was not difficult to find Northerners from the PDP who gladly joined in this treachery to put another Hausa/Fulani into office as Speaker.  Aminu Tambuwal was that choice.

False pretences

There are two quick lessons to learn from this.  The first is that as Bola Tinubu and the ACN betrayed the Yorubas with the election of Tambuwal of Sokoto as Speaker of the House, so also are they determined to sell Yorubas into slavery again by their current alliance with the North-West and the Sokoto Caliphate through the APC.  As there was nothing in Tambuwal’s Speakership for the Yorubas, so will there be nothing for the Yorubas in a North-West APC presidency.  Yoruba voters really need to “shine their eyes.”

The other issue has to do with Aminu Tambuwal.  Tambuwal became a Speaker under false pretences.  Although he continued to parade himself as a member of the PDP, he was in actual fact no longer a member of the party.  He shunned the party and became a mouthpiece of the opposition, all the while still pretending that he belonged to the PDP.  Clearly, the honorable thing for Tambuwal to do, since he had clearly lost his affection for the PDP, was to resign from the party.  However, Right Honorable Aminu Tambuwal did not do this because he is not an honorable man.

Violating the Constitution

Tambuwal’s other disaffected PDP colleagues were more honorable than him.  37 of them defected to the APC.  But Tambuwal remained in the PDP in order to retain his job as Speaker.  As long as he continued to claim he belonged to the PDP, even though he really no longer liked the party, he could continue to enjoy his rights and privileges as the Speaker.  Tambuwal did not care what Nigerians think about his treachery.  We voted for a PDP Speaker, but got an APC wolf in PDP sheep’s clothing.

Tambuwal’s treachery also meant he had to violate the Constitution of Nigeria which, as Speaker, he was sworn to protect.  Section 68 (g) of the 1999 Constitution says: “A member of the Senate or of the House of Representatives shall vacate his seat in the House of which he is a member if being a person whose election to the House was sponsored by a political party, he becomes a member of another political party before the expiration of the period for which that House was elected; provided that his membership of the latter political party is not as a result of a division in the political party of which he was previously a member or of a merger of two or more political parties or factions by one of which he was previously sponsored.”

This required the Speaker to declare the seats of the 37 PDP House members who defected as vacant.  There was no division in the PDP; its members simply defected to another party.  But given that Tambuwal was really an APC man in PDP disguise, he refused to fulfil his constitutional duty as Speaker to declare the seats vacant, in spite of the proclamation of the courts.  He betrayed his duty as a PDP Speaker to protect the interests of the PDP.  He denied the PDP seats that rightfully belonged to the PDP.  He violated the will of Nigerian voters who elected the PDP traitors.

Tambuwal’s defection

Tambuwal’s last act of treachery was his outright defection to the APC.  He waited for the majority leader of the House to move for adjournment until 3rd December, 2014, before reading his defection letter.  Having long manipulated the system to his selfish advantage, Tambuwal has now discovered that others can also manipulate the system to his disadvantage.

The police have been instructed to withdraw his security detail as Speaker, on the grounds that, with his defection, he is no longer a member of the House and thereby no longer the Speaker.  In truth, the Speaker of the House of Representatives cannot come from the minority party.  Tambuwal has now resorted to the courts.  But this is the same Tambuwal who failed to declare the 37 seats of PDP defectors vacant, in spite of a court decision to that effect.  People like Tambuwal who violate the verdict of the courts and show no respect for the courts don’t deserve protection by the courts.

If Tambuwal, as Speaker, can ignore the verdict of the courts; then Jonathan, as President, can equally ignore it.  In this dog-eat-dog game that Tambuwal initiated, he deserves no sympathy whatsoever.  He will quickly discover that a president has far greater nuisance value than a Speaker.  If the president decides to make life difficult for Tambuwal, and I see no reason why not, then Tambwal is in for interesting times before his demotion to Sokoto Governor’s lodge.

He can be thrown out of his government house.  He can then take the government to court, but the case might not be decided until June 2015.  Tambuwal cannot have his cake and eat it.  He cannot manipulate the system and then go to court to challenge others for also manipulating it.  He started this nonsense.  He deserves the repercussions.  He should have done the honorable thing a long time ago.  Resign as Speaker; and leave the House of Representatives.

If Tambuwal thinks Buhari and Co will give the presidential ticket of the APC to a former PDP man, he should think again.  If he thinks Northerners will elect a North-West Sokoto man as president in 2015, he should think again.  If he thinks Yorubas will vote a member of the Sokoto Caliphate as president in the current political environment of Nigeria, then he should dream on.

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Aminu Tambuwal is a Traitor

That"s carping On PDP Performance Tour Of Abia State

By Nwachukwu Ngige

Metuh and PDP Rating of Abia by Onuoha Amadi and Metuh; a bull in Abia shop by Willie Ikpeazu in the Sun and New Telegraph newspapers respectively are one of the same kind . Their disgust as well as bad blood for the administration in Abia State was hardly hidden through the

Olisah Metuh

length and breadth of the their acerbic and heavily subjective commentaries; therefore their hatchet exercise in deconstructing the PDP Performance Tour of Abia State. Why should Olisa Metuh, the National Publicity Secretary of the PDP bring the legitimacy of the party in acknowledgement of the efforts of Gov. T.A Orji whom we are working hard to undermine?I had Onuoha and Amadi murmur. For daring to make the world see a different picture of Abia away from their lurid paintings, I heard them shout at the top of their voices at Metuh , ” crucifice eis”- crucify him! Their tales, full of venom, were artfully edited to fit a pre-conceived whim but alas, a huge failure for whatever reason it was meant to serve. The level of bile, venom and irresponsible character assassination compacted in that small space is repulsive to decent readership. I do not therefore wish to associate with, by replying to such uncivilized tantrums especially of Ikpeazu but will take point by point, the major issues raised in the essay.

First is that heckle at Metuh’s performance as the Publicity Secretary of the PDP, the flank from which Ikpeazu opened his attack on his credibility. This matter, notwithstanding the wild and tenuous thesis of comparison he took the readers to, speaks for its self. I have spent fifteen years in the service of the PDP as a media strategist and know that the performance of successive publicity secretaries of our great party would be measured against the extant milieu . I don’t even want to dabble into the unnecessary assessment of the would-have-been impact of an unsuccessful aspirant to that office. It should however reckon that the PDP in its sixteen years history has never faced as formidable an opposition as obtains at present. With their varying levels of successes therefore, Metuh has definitely proved a match to the challenges of his tenure. Last week, even before Ikepazu came up with his lame yardstick, I had cause to state in a piece published in Leadership and New Telegraph newspapers that under Metuh, ” the PDP became resilient, gave the lead and acquired an agenda setting knack, the lack of which was the reason for a disabled media proactivity . Power of anticipation and deep capacity for prompt situational diagnosis ably authorized Metuh’s analytical accuracy, fearless interpretation and correct prediction of topical trends. ”

Therefore, the debilitating effects of this media strategy has many times, affronted and forced the opposition’s relentless torrents of missiles off target . It has on several points, turned the APC strategists back to the drawing board, retracting and frenetically explaining themselves out of the tight corner that PDP’s interpretation of their utterances and body language forced them . Need I say that for the first time in the history of democracy in Nigeria, the opposition has been forced by the media fire power of the ruling party to engage foreign media consultants. That not withstanding, the APC continues to reel from punches delivered pivotally on its door step. What then conceives Ikpeazu’s yardstick for competence? Wilfred, each time the APC accused PDP of incompetence, Metuh simply replied, ” yes, we are yet to get to the destination but we have certainly moved away from the tethers of backwaters.” He didn’t stop there, he constantly would draw attention in a lest-we-forget style, the achievements of the PDP led federal government. He then draws comparison with the goings-on in the opposition camp and invite Nigerians to draw their conclusion. The messianic claims of the APC and the exposure of its clique dictatorship by Metuh could only come from practitioner’s mastery. And so also is the inference from the APC’s words and body language on insurgency that elicited the Janjaweed appellation. The misrule in the states controlled by the APC was objectively x-rayed against its drumbeat of incompetence of the PDP administration. And then, the restoration in the national consciousness, of the core values of the PDP, all in a style of acceptable standard of public relations practice seamlessly rubbishes Willie Ikpeazu’s ill conceived measure of Metuh’s competence?

Sure, the reason we were in Abia is simple. Metuh is the driver of the PDP Performance Publicity train that had before Abia, been to Jigawa, Akwa Ibom, and Bayelsa states. I must add that Abia was of particular interest because of questions commentators have raised on the stewardship of Governor T.A Orji. In deed, friends on PDP Facebook page did specifically request for his achievements. Like many, some of us on the tour were already deceived by the pervasive accusation of non-performance against the governor until we got to Umuahia. I left a post on my Facebook page thus; ” I have spent the last 24 hours in Abia and contrary to opinions in certain quarters , Abia is not stinking. ” I reckoned bias, mischief and prejudgement in the reporting of the state. Though Metuh never at any time during the trip termed Abia the ” Dubai or mentioned the former governor of the state, he acknowledged that the picture on the ground does not reflect the allegations of incompetence against the governor . His very words is that Abia is gravely under reported and that it fits into a paradigm of deliberate media sabotage. His view is that the modest achievements of the governor needed to be commended while grey arrears constructively critiqued.

By and large, the Abia e-library, first in the south east, the ultra modern workers secretariat, the 5000 capacity conference centre; biggest in the South East, the new government house, are not just buildings but ultility devoted to uplifting the capital to the modern and in tandem with the philosophy and psychology of total development. There is no where in Nigeria or in the world that such edifices are detached from varying exemplar of development . Of course, we saw a modern transport system , part of over 2000 taxi cars given out free under a social welfare scheme . We saw climbing housing estates, and well equipped hospitals.

No doubt, Onuoha Amadi was right when he wrote that ” good governance has three legs: economic, political and administrative,” but betrayed his bias when he denied the spirit and letters of that definition to rub off on his assessment of T.A Orji. The restoration of security of lives and property in Aba alone is of such great importance that it should form the basis of any economic and political evaluation. The place of security prompted the National Chairman of APGA, Victor Umeh last week into concluding that the seven months old government of Willie Obiano in restoring security in Anambra, has surpassed all the achievements of Peter Obi in eight years! This was done in Abia, yet Onuoha and the gang count it as nothing. That the same government has been able to bring the once fractious Abia political class to synergy is another feat that all variants in definition of progress should also be central to. Beyond the structural edifices which the rabidly unconstructive proposition by Ikpeazu sneered at, it is unimaginable that market development in a commercial state like Abia is insignificant and that the state of the art diagnostic centres at Umuahia , Amachara and the State Univeristy Teaching Hospital Aba has nothing to do with the socio-economic development of the state. A little digression here may serve better understanding. While the PDP Performance Tour was at the modern comprehensive hospital, Yenagoa, our tour guide, told us the MRI facility there was the only in the region. In Umuahia Diagnostic Centre contrarily, we saw not just 2 MRI machines but also five dialysis facilities relieving the pains of patients in conditions. Ikpeazu, biko, I beg you, look for another yarn to spin on your Abia State. Anyway, while addressing a world press conference on Sunday , September 21, 2014 to usher in the PDP Performance Publicity Tour, Metuh declared ” henceforth, we shall answer our critics with our achievements as a party in custody of the sacred mandate of the people. We will bring the records to the limelight and allow the objective judgment of history to take its course.” In Abia , I think this has succeeded.

Nwachukwu Ngige a journalist, is the Head of Social Media at the National Secretariat of the PDP.

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That"s carping On PDP Performance Tour Of Abia State

Muhammadu Buhari: Running for President with an Anti-Corruption Bank Loan

By Femi Aribisala

In Nigeria, nobody gets elected as president on the platform that he is going to be an anti-corruption crusader when he gets into office.

One thing is for sure: Muhammadu Buhari would like to be the next president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.  He has tried three times and has failed every time.  Finally realizing it is a lost cause, he said he would not try again.

Buhari

But now he is persuaded to try again.  His supporters are impressed that he won 12 million votes against Goodluck Jonathan in 2011.  However, they need to be reminded that he lost to Jonathan by over 10 million votes.

Since the third time did not turn out to be a charm for Buhari, what are we to call his fourth attempt?  Listening to the declaration of his new-fangled presidential bid in Eagles’ Square, Abuja a few days ago, it is seems this fourth time is going to be one big charade.

The sign was provided by none other than Buhari himself.  Since his one credential is that he is a man of integrity who, as president, is expected to wrestle corruption down to the ground, Buhari decided to burnish his anti-corruption image by revealing that he obtained his 27.5 million naira APC nomination form with a bank loan.  However, what this declaration did was to tell Nigerians that Buhari is a pretentious anti-corruption crusader.  His Mr. Clean posture is nothing but a public relations gimmick.

Question marks

In fairness, some of us have known this all along.  Under Buhari’s watch as Petroleum Minister in the late 1970s, $2.8 billion (worth billions of naira today) was missing from the NNPC account.  The matter was subject to Senate investigation under the chairmanship of Olusola Saraki in 1983.  But before the report could be dealt with, Buhari conveniently overthrew the Shagari government in a military coup d’état.

Vera Ifudu, an NTA newscaster, revealed that Saraki told her in an interview that the missing money was traced to Buhari’s account at Midland Bank in London.  For this disclosure, Vera was summarily sacked by the NTA.  However, she appealed against her dismissal in court and won.  She even received a handsome financial compensation for wrongful dismissal from the NTA.

Instead of clearing his name as a man of integrity, Buhari refused to appear before the Oputa Panel set up to look into the matter (among under things) by the Obasanjo administration.

Buhari claims to be an anti-corruption crusader, nevertheless, he agreed to serve under Sani Abacha, one of the most corrupt Heads-of-State ever in the history of Nigeria.  While there has been no proven allegation that Buhari corruptly enriched himself as Chairman of the Petroleum Trust Fund under Abacha, it is abundantly clear that this fabled anti-corruption crusader failed to curb the rampant corruption that prevailed in the organization.  Group Captain Usman Jibrin, a board member of PTF, resigned from the organization in protest over Buhari’s irregular appointments of consultants.

In 2000, the Obasanjo administration set up an Interim Management Committee to look into the affairs of the PTF, under the chairmanship of Haroun Adamu.  The Committee discovered that billions of naira was stolen under Buhari’s chairmanship.

Political platform

Now the same Buhari who would not or could not curb corruption in the PTF wants us to believe he will fight corruption as president of Nigeria.  However, he has chosen the APC as the political platform on which to undertake this.  But the APC is an unscrupulous political party that is choc-full of corrupt politicians.  It is the party of Murtala Nyako who was impeached as governor of Adamawa State for converting state money to personal use.  It is the party where Buhari himself and others went cap-in-hand to Otta to beg Obasanjo to be their “navigator.”

Surely Buhari knows that he cannot fight corruption by being the presidential candidate of the APC.  Whatever anti-corruption crusading Buhari had in him in the past must have ended when he decided to join the APC.  Should he become president, does he intend to probe his corrupt party-members?  Has he made them understand he would be coming after them once elected?  If he has, does he really expect them to help him get elected so he can retrieve their stolen loot and send them off to jail?

A 72 year-old man with Buhari’s experience, who was overthrown in a preemptive coup by members of his own government, knows that in Nigeria, nobody gets elected as president on the platform that he is going to be an anti-corruption crusader when he gets into office.  That is a sure signal for all the politicians in all the parties to gang up against him and make sure he never makes it.

If you really want to be anti-corruption, you have to keep your mouth shut about your plans until you get elected and then catch your corrupt colleagues by surprise.  You must also have resolved not to seek re-election for a second-term.  It is not only the populace, but the politicians in particular, who insist on “stomach infrastructure.”  But if you are talking anti-corruption while still seeking the nomination of your party, it must be because it is well known to your corrupt colleagues that your anti-corruption stance is merely for public consumption.

Cleaning up APC

It is not surprising, therefore, that despite all the noise about anti-corruption coming from Buhari and his cohorts; he has failed to fight against corruption in the APC.  We did not hear him raise a voice against the incongruity of a so-called progressive party demanding a cynical nomination fee of 27.5 million naira for its presidential primaries.  One would have expected a truly anti-corruption crusader to make the point that the nomination fee is unacceptable.  Instead, Buhari readily acquiesced to the requirement in order to safeguard his all-important presidential ambitions.

Since Buhari cannot, or does not, fight against this corrupting nomination fee in the APC, and insist on its reduction to something far more reasonable, how can he expect us to believe that as president in a political system with the separation of powers; against a legislature likely to be controlled by the PDP; he would be able to fight corruption?  Somebody is fooling somebody here.  Or else, somebody is living in a cloud cuckoo land.

Charity, they say, begins at home.  If Buhari is truly anti-corruption, he should begin his crusade in the APC.  Is it progressive for a political party in Nigeria to ask its candidates to come up with 27.5 million just for the nomination papers for an election where only one person will emerge as the winner?  Is it not corrupt politicians that are likely to have this type of easy-come easy-go money?  Is this not an open invitation for the winner, if he actually manages to secure election to the presidency, to recoup this extortionate fee from public funds?

Anti-corruption bank loan

What did anti-corruption Buhari do about this outrageous APC requirement?  This is where the whole matter becomes ridiculously implausible.  According to Buhari, rather than fight against the measure, he took out a ban loan to pay for it.

Buhari told us about his “loan” out of embarrassment; in a pathetic bid to validate his anti-corruption credentials.  But this so-called loan indicates that Buhari does not understand what it means to be anti-corruption.  For Buhari, anti-corruption is a posture; it is a swagger; it is a badge; but it has no bite and, in the usual Nigerian fashion, it will be prosecuted with hypocrisy.

Buhari wants us to believe that he cannot afford 27.5 million naira.  Nevertheless, he rides around in a bullet-proof Jeep and maintains a convoy of Land Cruisers.  He cannot afford 27.5 million naira.  Nevertheless, he declared his candidacy lavishly in Eagle Square, Abuja.  Did he also take out a bank loan for that?  Four months to a make-or-break election, Buhari would have us believe he has no money.  How does he propose to finance his presidential campaign?  Is he going to take 1 billion naira loan from the World Bank for this?

Dubious loan

Why would a bank lend Buhari that amount for a presidential pie-in-the-sky that failed to materialize three times in the past?  Is that not likely to be a bad loan?  How long did it take for the loan to be processed?  What did he put down as anti-corruption collateral?  How does he propose to pay the money back?  Mr. Integrity needs to spell all this out for the sake of his fast-disintegrating anti-corruption credentials.

I did not know loans are so easy to secure in Nigerian banks today.  Perhaps Buhari could introduce me to his bank manager.  I would also not mind taking this kind of soft loan.  I am sure I can always come up with some unproductive excuse or the other for it.  Is such a loan even legal today under Nigeria’s stricter banking laws?

How many honest Nigerians can afford to give a non-refundable 27.5 million naira to a political party, on the off-chance that they will be able to secure the party’s presidential ticket?  If they win the nomination and even get elected president, how would they pay back the money?

Not presidential material

It is clear that Buhari is not only lacking the money to pay for APC nomination papers, he does not have the funds to pay for advisers, to counsel him about what to tell the public and how to prosecute an effective presidential campaign.  His advisers might have educated him that there is something called “fund-raising.”  Surely, the most popular politician in the North-West can find some of his ardent supporters to give him 27 million naira.  Certainly, a former governor of the Central Bank can easily cough up the money.

Buhari wants to fight an election that will take place in four months time.  From what he tells us, he does not have 27 million to prosecute that election now.  If this is true, he is not the right man to be president of Nigeria.  For a man who is running for election for the fourth time, that is the height of cluelessness.  It shows Buhari is lousy at marshalling resources.  Otherwise, he is fooling nobody but himself.

Muhammadu Buhari: Running for President with an Anti-Corruption Bank Loan

What Exactly is ‘Clueless’ about Goodluck Jonathan? (1)

By Femi Aribisala

Jonathan is the most highly-educated president in the history of Nigeria.

Jonathan at the Rice mill

The English have an expression: “give a dog a bad name in order to kill it.” It refers to the malicious misrepresentation of someone in order to discredit him. This has been strategy of the opposition to Goodluck Jonathan to date. This opposition comprises an unholy alliance between the APC, the Arewa Consultative Forum, the Northern Elders Forum as well as the Boko Haram. In complete disdain for the office of the president of Nigeria, the membership of these institutions has gone to great lengths in despising, disdaining and abusing the person of Goodluck Jonathan.

“Clueless” opposition

One favoured insult is to refer to him as “clueless.” Taking a leaf out of the infamous notebook of George Bush who told all kinds of lies against John Kerry in the 2004 presidential election in the United States, now referred to as “snow boating;” President Jonathan’s traducers are seeking to establish falsehood about him and his administration just by sheer force of repetition. It is therefore necessary to ask the question if, indeed, Goodluck Jonathan can be rightly described as “clueless.” What exactly is “clueless” about Goodluck Jonathan?

President Goodluck Jonathan

Shehu Shagari was president of Nigeria from 1979 to 1983. He had very limited formal education and never attended a university. Nevertheless, he was not called “clueless.” Olusegun Obasanjo was president of Nigeria from 1999 to 2007. He did not go to university before becoming President: he only enrolled after he left office. Nevertheless, he was not labeled “clueless.”

But some would like us to believe Goodluck Jonathan, who has been substantive president since 2011 is “clueless.” However, Jonathan is the most highly-educated president in the history of Nigeria. He has a B.Sc. in Zoology; an M.Sc. in Hydrobiology and Fisheries Biology; and a Ph.D. in Zoology. It is preposterous to describe such a man as “clueless.” Indeed, there are few Nigerians with comparable educational credentials. Who are those “clueful” ones ranged in opposition against him? Surprise, surprise! They are former military dictators with no university training whatsoever and dubious politicians with forged university certificates.

Governor Rabiu Kwankwaso of Kano State wants to be president. But what he displays most of the time is cluelessness. When he captures newspaper headlines, it is to shout things like: “Jonathan wants to kill me;” or “Jonathan is not qualified to contest in 2015.” Somebody needs to advise Kwankwaso that abusing and disparaging the president is no substitute for having substantive policies on how to govern Nigeria.

Legacy of “cluelessness”

Who can be more clueless than many of the Northern politicians who have been in power in Nigeria in the past to very little effect and are still clamouring for power today? These men have defrauded the North and the country over the years? They have ruled for some 38 years but failed woefully to promote meaningful economic development in the North or the South.

In their years of Northern rule both at the state and the federal level, not a single model Islamic school was established in the North that teaches Mathematics. Instead, the children of the “talakawa” are restricted to Koranic memorization and recitation. No single Islamic model school was established in the North that teaches Chemistry. The singular focus was on Arabic grammar. No single Islamic model school was established that teaches Biology. The children of the poor were limited to Islamic history.

Northern politicians failed to draw inspiration from such excellent Muslim countries like Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates, where Western education is not deemed to contradict Islamic education. Instead of educating the youth, some of our Northern politicians kept them as fodder for instigating insurgencies for their selfish power-political gain. It is no wonder therefore that, in the 21st century, when a “Third World” country like India has landed a spacecraft on Mars; an insurgency has arisen in the Nigerian North-East claiming that “Western education is a sin.”

Northerners opposed to Jonathan, like Muhammadu Buhari, Ango Abdullahi, Adamu Ciroma and Junaid Mohammed have never demonstrated any belief in the education of the masses. Their children don’t attend almajiri schools and beg on the streets. When in power, they pay no attention to the mass illiteracy in the North. This makes them no different from the Boko Haram that maintains western education is sinful. Now that we have a South-South president from Otuoke in Bayelsa State who is committed to Northern education, these same do-nothing politicians are claiming he is clueless. Who needs their “cluefulness?”

Jonathan’s northern agenda

Atiku Abubakar showed remarkable cluelessness when he observed that the North would not be voting for Goodluck Jonathan in 2015. If the North would not vote for Jonathan, who then would they vote for?

In 2011, Jonathan received over 8 million Northern votes. Since then, he has bent over backwards to reward the North. He has highly favoured the region in his appointments. The former Deputy Senate President, Ibrahim Mantu said: “Quote me; in a long time we have not had a government where the northern extraction has enjoyed so many appointments like this one.” Indeed, under Jonathan, the Vice-president, President of the Senate, Speaker of the House of Representatives and Chief Justice of the Supreme Court are all from the North.

Jonathan’s opponents would have us believe he is “clueless” but, within four years, Jonathan built 125 Almajiri Schools in 13 states in the North; something Northern rulers themselves failed to do. At the commissioning of the first Almajiri Model School in Gagi, Sokoto State, the Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Abubakar Sa’ad III, observed that Jonathan’s action was unprecedented in the history of Northern Nigeria.

“Clueless” Jonathan went on to establish ten new federal universities; seven of them in the North. It is important to list them, so Nigerians can be in no doubt how ridiculous the allegations against our president have been. Jonathan established the Federal Universities in Lafia, Nasarawa State; Lokoja, Kogi State; Kashere, Gombe State; Wakari, Taraba State; Dutsin-Ma, Katsina State; and Dutse, Jigawa State. No other president in the history of Nigeria has this kind of legacy, North or South.

The Jonathan administration has more than doubled the budgetary allocation to education in the country. It sponsored 7000 lecturers for post-graduate studies at home and abroad and licensed 100 Innovation Enterprise Institutions, while also granting 101 Presidential Scholarships for innovation and development. 51 Polytechnic laboratories have been rehabilitated and

34 new NCE awarding institutions created.

The result has been remarkable. There has been a 10 million student increase in basic education enrolment (UBEC) in the country. There has also been a 75% increase in O’Level credit pass in Maths and English under the Jonathan administration.

Health transformation

Part of the grouse of Nigerians against past governments is that when subsidies are removed (especially that of petroleum), the extra money disappears into thin air without any appreciable public benefit. For this reason, Nigerians insist on the retention of subsidies so that the man-in-the-street can at least get something out of it. However, under the Jonathan administration, it has been possible to identify the salutary effect of the subsidy removal on the well-being of the people.

With the drastic reduction of the petroleum subsidy in 2012, the government created the Subsidy Reinvestment and Empowerment Programme (SURE-P). This is designed to invest the savings accruing from the subsidy reduction in critical infrastructure and human-resource empowerment projects across the length and breadth of the country. To this end, the scheme has included maternal and child-health programmes.

Within two years, the Maternal and Child Health scheme of the SURE-P has reduced the maternal mortality ratio in Nigeria by 26%; reduced neo-natal mortality by 22%; increased the percentage of births by skilled attendants by 33% and increased the percent of reproductive aged women using family planning by 100%.

Road transformation

SURE-P has also been invaluable in engaging in a number of road rehabilitation projects right across the country. For example, the Onitsha-Owerri and the Vom-Manchok roads have been completed. Work is underway on the Apapa-Oshodi expressway in Lagos; the Benin-Ore-Sagamu dual carriage-way; the Onitsha-Enugu-Port Harcourt dual carriage-way; the Kaduna-Maiduguri dual carriage-way; Lokoja – Benin road; Lagos-Ibadan Expressway; Mokwa-Bida road; Akure-Ilesha road; Sokoto-Tambuwal-Jega road; Enugu- Abakaliki- Cross River road; Ogoja – Ikom road; Vandekiya-Obudu road; and the East-West road.

The Kano-Maiduguri and the Abuja-Abaji-Lokoja roads are currently undergoing dualisation. The Onitsha Head-Bridge Flyover (Ojukwu Gateway) and the Oweto Bridge across River Benue have been completed. The Second Niger Bridge is under construction and the government is also undertaking the dredging the River. There is also on-going seaport construction and the expansion of existing ports, including Warri, Baro, Calabar, Onne, Owerri and Onitsha.

Rail transformation

The railway system in Nigeria had been comatose for over 30 years. However, the “clueless” Jonathan administration has managed to revive this within two years. The Lagos-Kano line has been rehabilitated and is now functional again. The Port Harcourt-Maiduguri line is being rehabilitated and will soon be operational. Kano-Maiduguri, Kaduna-Abuja and Lagos-Port Harcourt rail-lines are also under construction.

President Jonathan inaugurated two Diesel Multiple Units (DMUs) train-sets and six air-conditioned passengers’ coaches at the NRC terminus in Lagos. His administration also launched the Mass Transit Train Service (MTTS); deploying 11 trains carrying close to 15,000 passengers daily within the Lagos metropolis. This has drastically reduced the cost of intra-city train transportation within Lagos.

A return-trip from Agege to Ebute Metta under the MTTS now costs less than N150, as against the more than N1,000 it costs by taxi. Transportation from Lagos to Kano now costs less than N1,800 as against between N4,000 and N5,000 by car or bus.

This is what Babatunde Fashola had to say about the “clueless” Jonathan administration’s contribution to mass transit in Lagos State: “It is a very welcome development to our nation, Nigeria and to the Centre of Excellence, Lagos State. No doubt, we require this infrastructure. We appreciate it and we will continue to give every moral support that the corporation requires as we now have complementary services in the transport system of Lagos State.”

These are by no means the tokens of a “clueless” presidency.

(Continued).

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What Exactly is ‘Clueless’ about Goodluck Jonathan? (1)

Synagogue Building Collapse: Why I exposed T.B. Joshua for bribing Journalists – Nicholas Ibekwe

The last 48 hours were probably the most intense in my life. The love, kind words and support I’ve received in that period from, mostly, total strangers have been overwhelming. I want to thank everybody who saw the good in what I did. Though, to be honest, I think it was a little stupid. What was I thinking putting my life and probably my career on the line in an attempt to change something so entrenched it seems unchangeable? But really I’m not fazed by the trash talk from those allergic to the truth.

Prophet T. B Joshua

It’s a long time coming and someone has to put the Big Ben on the fat cat, I guess.

During the same period I’ve also been insulted like never before. I’ve been called the most uncomplimentary names and all the curses in Deuteronomy hurled towards me. They should be ashamed that the brushed ego of their spiritual godfather meant more to them than the over 90 lives that perished under the rubble.

I can deal with the trash talk and name-calling. But I’m also not naïve. I’ve made plans to evacuate my family to safety at the shortest notice in case things escalate. I hope they don’t. But one can never be so sure with these fundamentalists.

They said I’m an attention freak; that I published the audio clip because I yearned to be a social media celebrity (whatever that means). Well, I won’t lie; I enjoyed the 15 minutes of fame. I loved the thrill of being in the eye of the storm. In case my accusers are reading this, I got over 2,000 followers on Twitter within the period. I don’t know what to make of that yet. I’m not so sure about this Twitter thing, but if there’s a way I can convert that to money, that would be something. Gbenga Olorunpomi, how much does one twitter follower exchange for a dollar these days?

Listen to the audio below.

So why did I publish the audio?

I had recorded the audio six days before posting it on Twitter. To be sincere, I didn’t think much of it until Saturday morning (I’d explain later). I was intently watching the way the collapsed building was being played out in the media after the rather disappointing way Lagos State Governor, Babatunde Fashola, dodged reporters through a back door after his private meeting with TB Joshua on September 14. I observed that the Nigerian media were being too gentle on TB Joshua despite the glaring irregularities surrounding the collapse. I read more reports about the “hovering craft” and how Boko Haram could have sabotaged the building and other poppycock the televangelist wanted the world to believe.

Very little was reported about the structural defects of the building. Not much was written about the fact that the building originally had two floors and was being illegally refurbished with four additional floors when it collapsed. We didn’t come hard on the Synagogue Church goons who attacked first responders. We didn’t highlight the fact that many of those that perished could have been saved if NEMA officials weren’t barred from the site for almost three days! We didn’t make an issue of the fact that our colleagues who had gone to report the collapsed building were molested on Saturday.

So when I woke up last Saturday morning and saw the picture of President Goodluck Jonathan shaking hands with a grinning TB Joshua with headlines like “Jonathan consoles TB Joshua,” I said damn it! I couldn’t stomach this blatant impunity.

TB Joshua is perhaps the most powerful preacher in Africa and politicians all over the continent fawn at him. But as watchdogs, journalists must hold entrenched powers to account. If Nigerian politicians didn’t realise that more than 90 lives had just perished underneath a building without requisite permit and that those responsible should be held accountable, then the responsibility falls on journalists to force them to do the right thing.

Journalists shouldn’t be seen or heard telling the prime suspect they would write “just like you said” after he offered to buy their consciences with N50,000.

Some of the reporters who collected the N50,000 have called me after the audio went viral to complain. They told me they have been getting calls from colleagues and family members who recognised their voices in the recording. One even accused me of a breach of trust. I told him I didn’t sign a pact of silence with anybody. For me. the decision was between covering the ethical shortcomings of my colleagues or doing that which is right to make sure those who died and their families get justice. The decision was easy.

Why didn’t I publish the audio the same day I recorded it? Nigerian journalists habitually ask for gratification at press conferences and corporate events that it has unfortunately become a norm. Reporters actually think you’re a fool if you turned down what they call “brown envelope”.

There are several excuses to justify it: “We’re poorly paid,” “We have not been paid for months,” etc. Honestly, it’s hard to dismiss some of these excuses sometimes. Nigerian journalists are perhaps among the worst paid in the world. This is where the Nigerian Union of Journalists, NUJ, should do more.

Its officials should stop paying courtesy calls to politicians (of course, we know what exchanges hands during these visits) and do more to force Jet-flying owners of media organisations to pay reporters more and on time. We deserve it.

Journalists should also explore other related and legitimate means of making money like researching, writing and editing reports for NGOs, writing and editing of brochures and reports, working as fixers to foreign journalists, blogging (I recently met a Nigerian television reporter that make quite some money monthly from his blog), etc.

Like everything in Nigeria, this “brown envelope” thing has been stretched beyond the limit of ridiculousness. I’d give some examples: On August 15, 2010 a truck belonging to Dangote Sugar Refinery caused an inferno at the Ojodu Bridge outside Otedola Estate in Lagos. More than 50 lives perished in the fire. An inquest was initiated by a non-governmental organisation, Access to Justice and Human Rights lawyer, Femi Falana.

Please, take a deep breath before reading the next sentence. During the inquest, officials of Dangote Industries distributed cartons of spaghetti (and some money, probably to buy ingredients) to court reporters at the Ikeja High Court to probably skew their account of the hearing. In case you missed it let me repeat: Some Nigerian Journalists collected packs of spaghetti as bribes!

Are we that hungry? Some reporters got as little as 12 packs of spaghetti. My friend, Ben Ezeamalu, was almost beaten up for speaking against it.

In fact, they erected a wall of hostility around themselves whenever he came around. According to him, a very senior journalist pulled him aside and told him it was easy for him to turn down the brown envelope because he wasn’t married and had no school fees to pay.

Ben said his curiosity was aroused while he was researching for material on the internet for an article he was writing days before the coroner’s verdict on the inquest. To his surprise, there was very little material for an inquest that involved Africa’s richest man and had lasted 19 months! After the coroner delivered his verdict, in which he indicted Dangote’s company as well as the Nigeria Police, the (short) article was tucked away in a remote corner in almost all the newspapers the next day. The fact that the coroner indicted Dangote was also carefully left out in the articles.

Other journalists have tagged Ben, “a spy” for consistently refusing to collect “brown envelopes”.

Nigerian journalists no longer know where to draw the line. A father, who lost his son during the last Dana plane crash, was forced to pay journalists during his son’s wake-keep before it was reported. There are more puke-inducing instances but I’d stop here.

For those of you saying N50,000 ($300) was too little to entice Nigerian reporters, I’ve seen reporters scuffle over N2,000 ($12) during a press conference.

During last year’s gubernatorial election in Ondo State, reporters literally came to blows at Governor Olusegun Mimiko’s home after the latter released “appreciation money” for journalists who covered his polling unit. The sharing formula was N10,000 per head, until the cash ran low and the formula switched to N7,000. Cue bedlam. The governor’s PA, looking on with contempt, threatened to evict them from his employer’s residence if they failed to conduct themselves with decorum. One fellow even started arranging for another group of journalists to go meet the governor for another “appreciation money.”

Editors should also monitor their reporters too, but we all know that some editors get theirs through subtler manner (Bank transfers).

I’m a Nigerian journalist I want to change things the only way I know how to – going public with it. I’m not saying anything new here, everybody who has one thing or the other to do with journalists knows that these things happen. Maybe I’m the first journalist to go public with it in such a manner.

Corporate organisations and individuals should also stop offering these bribes (I still insist that they are bribes and nothing else). Journalist will report your events whether they like it or not. They want to stay in business. My heart skips anytime I get a call from my editor or receive that email with a subject that reads: “Pending stories”. I know I’m required to deliver. I don’t need that “brown envelope” to turn around that copy. I know in the Punch for instance, reporters are required to fill a certain number of pages every week. They can’t sit around waiting for “money to fuel your cars” to write stories to fill those pages. The threat of losing one of the most lucrative jobs in the industry is enough “inducement”. In PREMIUM TIMES, where I work, you must deliver exceptional copies that do not smell of bribes. But the truth is most pressers aren’t news worthy so PR officials feel they need to induce reporters to write about them.

And for the fundamentalist followers of TB Joshua, this isn’t about your spiritual Godfather. I would still have gone public with this if the Pope was involved. I can’t say I’m sorry that his ego was bruised. He clearly meant for the money to influence the reporting of the event. “So what are you going to write?” He had asked. That makes it a bribe. Simple. I can’t help you if you couldn’t decipher that. I’m a reporter not a brain surgeon.

This is the last I’m going to say on this issue unless something drastic happens. Let the personal attacks continue.

Nicholas Ibekwe, a recent Chevening Scholar at the City University London, is a journalist with PREMIUM TIMES

 

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Synagogue Building Collapse: Why I exposed T.B. Joshua for bribing Journalists – Nicholas Ibekwe

Are we really one country? By Fani-Kayode

Boko Haram have taken over the town of Gwoza, killed the Emir and declared the place an islamic state. They have seceded from Nigeria and they are beheading Christians and southerners and all moderate northern muslims that do not share their views.

Fani-Kayode

I wonder what would have happened if it had been a town in the south-east that had been taken over in this way by a group of igbo nationalists and christian fundamentalists. I wonder what would have happened if they killed the local traditional ruler and then started to kill every northerner, every muslim and every moderate christian in that town that did not share their views.

I wonder what Nigeria would have done to them if it was an igbo town that declared secession in this way and not a northern one. I wonder how our northern brothers would have reacted to this and how they would have felt if any southern terrorist group had as it’s main objective the wiping out of islam and all muslims in Nigeria and the establishment of a christian fundamentalist state in the whole of the south that is governed by christian canon law.

I wonder if our northern brothers would be as calm, as forgiving and as patient as we in the south have been about Boko Haram. The last time that a part of this country attempted to secede we slaughtered and starved to death over two million igbos in order to keep Nigeria one. Yet today Gwoza has been taken over by murderous secessionist forces and we act as if it is no big deal.

The truth is that this is a nation of double standards where southerners are subject to a different set of conventions, laws, rules and regulations when compared to northerners. Northerners can get away with secession and establishing an islamic caliphate whilst southerners dare not try to do the same sort of thing.

This begs the question: is Nigeria really one country and are we really one people. And even if we say it is one country and we are one people, how much longer can this remain so given what is going on in the north today with Boko Haram?

Some northerners have said that if power does not return to the north next year they will smash up Nigeria and make the south pay dearly. They believe that they own Nigeria and that they were born to rule.

How are we as southerners supposed to react to this? Are we supposed to accept it sheepishly and just bow down and surrender? Does a southerner from the Niger Delta not have a right to serve two terms in office as President of Nigeria?

Are southerners and Middle Belters not human beings. Are they nothing but slaves to the core muslim north? Are the issues that Ojukwu raised in 1967 not still relevant today?

Surely It is time for us to answer these difficult questions even though we keep brushing these matters under the carpet. It is time to either answer the Nationality Question once and for all or begin to prepare for the break up of this great country into two or more pieces.

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Are we really one country? By Fani-Kayode

"Wike-Phobia" And The Taming Of A Minister Gone Wild

No doubt, the unnecessary veiled animosity between the President, Goodluck Jonathan and Governor Rotimi Chibuike Amaechi had created the long sought opportunity for the Minister of State for Education, Nyeso Wike to further push his ambition to become

Nyesom Wike

Amaechi’s successor in spite of the fact that it negates the principle of equity and justice, zoning and rotation of political offices as enshrined both in the Nigerian Constitution and the Constitution of the Nigerian political parties.

Though in every major crisis, there are bound to be beneficiaries but in this case, it was not Amaechi’s bargain that his former Chief of Staff and close ally, Wike, would be the man not only positioned to benefit from the crisis but to aggravate the matter.

There is no gain saying the fact that Wike is a Minister under President Jonathan, a position he attained courtesy of his former boss, Amaechi who against all odds nominated him in spite of the fact that at that time, the President was not favourably disposed towards having the Minister in his cabinet based on reports against him in the public domain.

But the junior Minister seems to have grown like cancer so much that his supporters describe him in his recent posters in Port Harcourt as ‘WIKEPHOBIA’. His planned governorship ambition seems to have exposed the real reasons why he fought against his Master like Brutus in Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar. The same garment he had used to decorate Amaechi as King has been shredded living his boss at the mercy of God to cover his nakedness as he did to the first man, Adam.

While his supporters are right in their terse description of the man who left nothing to chance to destroy the empire he served in, the truth remains that both those who love him and those who hate him have this ‘anxiety disorder characterised by extreme and irrational fear of simple things or social status’. They may not be able to sleep with their two eyes closed knowing that he could decide to spring up surprises at any time.

There is every reason to be filled with a sense of phobia towards Wike. Since his entrance into the political arena shortly after his mandatory NYSC, he has shown a penchant for turning around to stab in the back whoever had helped him rise to the top.

First, it was Senator Sam Mbata, his kinsman who helped him become Chairman of the Council albeit it after the man who won the primaries, Rogers, was removed through Justice Mary Odili’s court, after Wike had filed a suit which faulted the process of the primaries. The Odili’s had helped him then in 1999. Rogers was the preferred choice of Sergeant Awuse while Odili aided Wike to edge Rogers out. Gov. Amaechi then was Odili’s closest aide who also supported Wike to switch over as the candidate of the Party. Sam Mbata became Senator, representing Rivers East Senatorial zone. Himself and Wike hail from Obio/Akpor and so they worked closely together. When his first tenure expired in 2002, Mbata and the rest of the people thought that it was appropriate to have a replacement for Wike in the spirit of zoning and rotation. But Gov. Odili was prevailed upon by Amaechi who was the Speaker to give Wike a second chance. Thus, Wike fell out with his mentor, Mbata and quickly switched his loyalty to Amaechi. Therefore, Amaechi became his new political leader, more so as they both hail from the Ikwerre ethnic group.

When in 2007, Amaechi wanted to become governor and he was stopped by the former President, Olusegun Obasanjo using the instrumentality of the EFCC under Mallam Ribadu, Wike had to pay back to the man who had given him so much support. He stood by Amaechi against the wish of the Odilis who had now parted ways with their political son. While Amaechi’s mandate had been stolen and given to Celestine Omehia, his cousin, Wike became the rallying point for the supporters of Amaechi who were against the injustice meted out on him. Amaechi had been ferried to the neighbouring country, Ghana, from where he pursued his mandate through the Nigerian Courts. He dished out directives to Wike whom he had entrusted his political structure with.

As fate would have it, Amaechi won the case and returned to be sworn-in as the governor. This further elevated Wike who was appointed as the Chief of Staff to the governo, the office though not recognised by the Constitution of Nigeria but has become very powerful and lucrative. Wike was given a free hand to continue his leadership of the political structure of Gov. Amaechi who had become more engrossed with governance.

While Amaechi busied himself with governance, Wike who had secretly nursed the ambition of becoming governor, amassed so much wealth, power and influence. He converted Amaechi’s supporters to his political school using resources from the state government where the governor held sway. Gov. Amaechi’s nonchalant attitude and over reliance on his aide became his greatest undoing and Wike’s greatest arsenal. The man known in the public court as a crude fighter turned against Amaechi and has become his arch enemy. Nyeso Wike for no justified reasons became the hatchet man for Mrs. Jonathan who has not hidden her disdain for Amaechi whom she believed had the ambition to upstage her husband in 2015. The Jonathans may have been right then to use Wike as an antidote to Amaechi who had become critical of them. But their folly is in choosing a man who already had an ambition to succeed Amaechi. The President and his wife probably did not when to stop the fight. Amaechi left for the rival APC and now Wike insists he must be a beneficiary of the fight. If they try to stop him, that may spell doom for the President as Wike being a member of their inner caucus as he was wit Amaechi may further employ the same tactics of blackmail.

In all, the fight is no longer on how to stop Amaechi from becoming Chairman of the Nigerian Governor’s Forum or from becoming President or Vice President in 2015, rather the ultimate fight is to stop Nyeso Wike from becoming the governor of Rivers State in 2015.

Recently, Amaechi embarked on a ‘Meet-the-People’ Tour aaand his last bus-stop was Wike’s presumed stronghold, Obio/Akpor LGA. The governor had used the opportunity to ascertain the level of work done and also areas that need to be touched. He also informed the people of how they were denied of certain projects by his former Chief of Staff who hails from the area. Though the governor was applauded for doing so, but the action seems belated. According to Wike’s successor and former ally, Tony Okocha who happens to be from the area, “the exit of Wike as Chief of Staff after four years marked the end of betrayal, blackmail,sabotage, insurbordination, criminal acquisition of wealth, violence and other vices that characterised his tenure as Chief of Staff”.

Wike’s kins men who had gathered at the occasion confirmed that Okocha’s style is in deed a deviation from the old order which had made them live in fear and poverty.

Though many still have this phobia for the man, Okocha who had been his field marshall believes that he has what it takes to tame the Minister as “the governor can now sleep with his two eyes closed”.

But the plot to tame Wike and demythologise him will be the responsibility of his Party, PDP, where he hopes to fly the flag for the governorship elections. If he does not emerge at the primaries, it may not be Amaechi nor Okocha’s fight after all.

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"Wike-Phobia" And The Taming Of A Minister Gone Wild