THE OBUZOR OF IGBUZO COMMUNITY COMMENDS DISTINGUISHED SENATOR PETER NWAOBOSHI FOR HIS DEVELOPMENT STRIDES..

HRM Obi Prof C. L Nwaoboshi, the Obuzor of Igbuzor Land has today, 20th of April 2019 during the Igbuzo Community Development Union (ICDU) Worldwide Easter Conference, in his address commended Senator Peter Nwaoboshi for his unprecedented achievements and developmental strides as a Senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria within a period of 4 years in office and as a first timer in the National Assembly.

Senator Nwaoboshi is the Distinguished Senator representing the good people of Delta North Senatorial District in the Nigerian Senate and Chairman, Senate Committee on Niger Delta Affairs.

He's equally a High Chief in the Community who is known with the Chieftaincy title; AGUANYIJIEJEMBA 1 of Igbuzor Land.

In his remarks at the Conference-in-session, the Royal Father noted with great delight and satisfaction, how Senator Nwaoboshi has transformed Ibusa Community into a road construction site.

The Ugah Palace Landlord further revealed that once impassable bad roads in Ibusa have been into quality roads with proper drainages for long life span and control of erosion within the community.

This he further maintained is done by Senator Peter Nwaoboshi across the length and breadth of all the 9 LGAs in Delta North Senatorial District.

The Obuzor of Igbuzor while addressing the ICDU Conference-in-Session noted that Senator Peter Nwaoboshi's performance has surpassed our expectations as humans, leaders and stakeholders to Igbuzor Community.

The professor of Forestry equally noted SPON has done immensely well and as such, deserves every accolades, neon lights and commendations for job well done.

"My Community is wearing a new look, all thanks to an effective and efficient representation of Senator Peter Nwaoboshi" added HRM Obi Prof C L Nwaoboshi.

"Road Construction is not an easy task or venture but rather a more appreciable developmental project in advancing a community.

 It is a lengthy process that can take more than 10 years, depending on the size of the future pathway.

It involves several construction crews and plant machinery and requires careful planning and various evaluations, including environmental and structural assessments but Sen Peter Nwaoboshi as our illustrious son has achieved this in a twinkle of an eye.

 This wonderful stride has metamorphosed our community from that of rural look to an urban community says Obi Nwaoboshi.


"Community development is supposed to be a collective effort, an all commers affair.

 It is also a process where community members come together to take collective action plan and generate solutions to common problems.

Communitywellbeing (economic, social, environmental and cultural) often evolves from this type of collective action being taken at a grassroots level, but ours has made us prouds with his excellent performance" - HRM OBI PROF. C L NWAOBOSHI

God bless Ibusa Community ........

God bless Obuzor of Igbuzor  ........

God bless Sen Peter Nwaoboshi.......

God bless ICDU Worldwide  ........

By Hon Leo Nkeaka,
OHAMADIKE  REPORTING

OJO CONDOLES WITH THE FAMILIES OF DECEASED HERDSMEN ATTACK IN OWAH ABBI, UKWUANI LGA

The member representing Ukwuani constituency in the state House of Assembly HON DR OJO yesterday paid visit to the ONOTU-UKU OF OWAH-ABBI and the families of the deceased Herdsmen attack in Owah-Abbi community

  HON DR OJO said when he visited the families of those who lost their lives in the recent attack at Abraka farmland by suspected Fulani herdsmen that the attack was uncivilized and unfortunate.

 He condemned the unwanted killing of the three boys and also said "who knows what they might become in future"

  He also said he received the information late but he must follow due process and tells the community to communicate to him if any issues

  HON DR OJO was accompanied by HON MONDAY IBOBO S.A to the Governor on community development, HON Harrison Ossai-uku member state water ways & land security and some members of joy group.

HON. CHRISTOPHER OCHOR OCHOR PAYS CONDOLENCE VISIT TO THE FAMILY OF THE THREE YOUTHS OF OWAH ABBI SHOT DEAD BY FULANI HERDSMEN.

Hon. Christopher Ochor Ochor with the Reality Group led by Ogbuefi Eric Obodouku Anigala, Chief Monday Ossai, Chief Paul Emeshili, Hon. Gabriel Uti, Dcn Olisemeke Osaemeke, Hon. Solomon Ebinum, Chief Ojoko, Chief Ogbugbulu and the host of others paid condolence visit to the families of the three Owah-Abbi Youth killed by Fulani Herdsmen on the 10th of April, 2019.

The house of Assembly member elect Hon. Christopher Ochor Ochor sympathized with the family's for the irreparable loss that occurred to them due to the evil acts of Fulani Herdsmen that led to the death of the three Owah Abbi youth.

Hon. Ochor was briefed by the people of Owah Abbi on the incidence that took the life of the three sons of Owah-Abbi... They were on the way going to farm at Orimele riding on a bike while the Fulani Herdsmen came from the  bush and shot them.

Two of the boys were shot on the head and they died at the spot while the other was shot at the back, leg and hand as he escaped with the bullet but died in the hospital while they were trying to extract the bullets from him.

Mr. Cliff who reported the incidence said the names of the boys killed are Chukwuneku Okwuazu 19 years, Sylvanus Uchejim Ugochukwu 24 years and Onyenibe Lucky 27 years and the incidence  happened on the 10th of April, 2019.

"I am deeply pained that the life's of these young men were been terminated by Fulani Herdsmen who has come to perpetuate evil and I assure you that this matter will get a full response by the government" Hon. Ochor assures the people.

The Onotu-Uku of Owah-Abbi Chief Ancient Ineh appreciates the People's General Hon. Christopher Ochor Ochor, Ogbuefi Eric Obodouku Anigala and the host of others for finding time to pay them a visit which shows that he does have his people at heart.

The families of the  demised also extends their appreciation to Hon.  member elect for showing that he do love his people.

Delta State Working Governor puts widows on Payroll, pays them salary and free health care

By: Amb. Comr. Jeffery Opone.

His Excellency Sen. Dr. Arthur Ifeanyi Okowa (Ekweme 1 of Africa) removes tears from the eyes of the widows in Ukwuani.

The atmosphere was filled with joy as the SA to the Governor on women mobilization Madam Patricia Esegbue and SA to the Governor on Special Duties Hon. Humphrey Uzuakpundu gathers the widows in Ukwuani to pay the widows their monthly stipends as promised by the working Governor.

The widows who gathered at the compound of Late Pa Francis Ochor the father to Hon. Christopher Ochor Ochor house of Assembly member elect expressed profound gratitude to the Governor as they prayed for God to bestow more grace and wisdom upon the working Governor.

"My amiable Governor we appreciate you and we thank you for remembering us the widows and for accepting to be a husband and a father to us"  says Mrs. Otuya Ngozi of Ward 1.

"There is a God who says he will be father to the fatherless and a husband to the widows that same God I call upon today to bless you Governor Ifeanyi Okowa for being a good Governor and for keeping to your words" Mrs. Otilije Beatrice of Ward 4.

In addition to the stipends paid to the widows, the Governor also offered the widows free medical care as they are been registered under Delta state contributory health commission with valid health cards to access the health facilities for free treatment.

Mrs. Ojo Onwubolu Liason Officer Ukwuani LGA through DSCHC registered the widows who has received their stipends for the month.


Indeed Governor Okowa is a working Governor and he is a man who pays attention to the needs his people as he does have the people at heart.

God bless the Governor.
God bless Delta State.
God bless Ukwuani LGA.

NED NWOKO HAPPY WITH DEVELOPMENT OF ANIOMA.

. .AS IDUMUJE UNOR UNVEILS  BEAUTIFICATION PROJECT.

 Delta community, Idumuje unor stood in glory at Easter as Anioma illustrious son and best known philanthropist, prince Ned Nwoko and eminent persons witnessed a memorable event, unveiling of the first phase of an ultra morden roundabout.

At the ceremony, prince  Nwoko, said it was a pleasant homecoming to his kindred . He recalled  with nostalgia the historical bond between Idumuje unor and Idumuje ugboko as twin communities.
Nwoko is a prince of Idumuje ugboko kingdom.

He was effusive with praise for  the people of Idumuje unor who according to him had been exemplary in community development driven by self help.

The globally acclaimed lawyer and billionaire with a passion for public charities pledged support to the urbanization of Idumuje unor, especially the completion of the round about project.

Prince Nwoko also noted the transformation of  idumuje axis  particularly with network of road  by the adminstration of  Governor Ifeanyi Okowa and expressed optimism that the government would be more impactful in the next four years.

The former member of the House of Representatives who championed the re- election of  the governor under  the mass movement "Operation Return Okowa 2019"  said a legacy of rural integration should be the priority of government as home is the fundamental root of development.

He said he was elated with the rising status of the community and paid tribute to the obi of Idumuje unor, HRM Charles Chukwunweike Anyasi 111 for enthroning a dawn of unprecedented peace and prosperity.

He also gave thanks to the law maker  representing Aniocha North at the state House of Assembly ,Hon. Emeka Nwaobi , the chairman of the council Hon. Chuks Oseme and Anioma matriarch, Chief Mrs Josephine  Ada Kachikwu among other personages for their presence and contributions .

Prince Nwoko stated that  as a committed brood of Idumuje, he would continue to enhance the living standards of the people of the area, Anioma and Delta in general. He disclosed that  such fidelity was his motivation to provide scholarship and sundry  empowerment worth over 100 million  to the  generality of the people in Delta and far afield.

Prince Nwoko was represented at the unveiling ceremony by his director of Media and strategic communication    comrade Norbert chiazor.

DELTA NORTH: RAISING A FULL GLASS TO NWOKO

By Rogers Edor Ochela

“A bully holding up an object that belongs to a child, would usually bring it down to the child when his hand starts to hurt’’ — Wise saying

Recently, the legal tussle between Prince Ned Nwoko and Senator Peter Nwaoboshi over who won the primary elections of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for the Delta North Senatorial District ended in favour of the former. Recall that the legal battle ensued after Ned Nwoko had won the senatorial primaries of the party with 453 votes as against Peter Nwaoboshi’s 403 votes. But in a move that left all lovers of justice in stupefaction, a PDP cabal in the state, for reasons best known to it, jettisoned Ned Nwoko’s name and instead forwarded that of Nwaoboshi to the Independent National Electoral Commission [INEC] for publication.

So, in a bid to right the wrong perpetrated against him and to strengthen the wheels of the nation’s democratic project, Ned Nwoko, a renowned philanthropist and apostle of the rule of law, who initially absorbed the shock of this grievous disappointment and endured its attendant pains with stoic equanimity, headed for the temple of justice to seek legal redress with a view to nailing this blatant impunity.

Happily enough, on Wednesday April 3, 2019, the goddess of justice decided to smile on him when Justice Ahmed Mohammed of the Federal High Court, Abuja delivered a landmark judgment that has thundered across the length and breadth of the nation and left all lovers of justice in Delta North senatorial district reeling in ecstasy and back-slapping. In his judgment, the erudite judge did not mince words when he declared with judicial lucidity that Senator Peter Nwaoboshi was not the winner of the PDP primary held on October 2, 2018, to nominate its senatorial candidate for Delta North district in the 2019 general election.

Consequently, the judge gave a marching order to INEC to publish the name of Prince Ned Nwoko as the rightful candidate of the PDP, having scored a majority of the lawful votes in the primary. He also went further to order Senator Nwaoboshi to stop parading himself as the candidate of the PDP for the Delta North senatorial district.


In a suit filed by his legal counsel, Ahmed Raji (SAN), Nwoko, who had predicated his suit on seven grounds supported by 20-paragraph affidavit evidence and five exhibits, averred that he was screened and cleared for the Delta North senatorial district by the PDP electoral committee. He declared among other things, that at the end of the primary election, he scored 453 votes to defeat his closest rival, Nwaoboshi who scored 403, while Paul Osaji who came third pulled 216 votes.

Expectedly, this pace-setting judgment has continued to elicit positive responses, with several legal luminaries describing it as having the potential of furthering the cause of the nation’s jurisprudence, especially as it concerns electoral matters. Again, what resonates from this fundamental judgment is the fact that it will continue to serve as a reminder to desperate politicians and political parties that engaging in wilful impunity and breach of electoral process does not pay as a day of reckoning will surely come.

What stands this judgment out and places it on a very strong pedestal is that it is a veritable indication that Nigeria’s democratic project is alive, kicking and progressively inching its way to a sustainable level. It will for a long time to come serve as a rude reminder to those who have refused to part ways with business-as-usual mantra especially as it relates to electoral matters, that impunity does not pay. The nation’s political terrain is littered with victims of flawed party primaries nomination who were cheated through allocation of false figures! It is gratifying to note that a decisive nail on the coffin of this abuse of electoral process has been delivered by Hon. Justice Mohammed.


A critical interrogation of the nation’s electoral processes over the years clearly shows that rigging, manipulations and other forms of electoral malfeasances are usually perpetuated during party primary election. The ugly trend often results in the emergence of several unpopular candidates with questionable credentials and fraudulent mandates. That trajectory negates the true essence of democracy as both a cultural and attitudinal thing requiring certain dispositions and set values for it to have relevance and meaning, which is very healthy for the growth and sustenance of the nation’s democratic process itself.

It is demoralizing that even with all the allure of democracy, especially its capacity to reflect the collective will of the people through periodic elections, what you find on these shores is criminal conspiracy by some political party apparatchiks and desperate aspirants to circumvent the rules and foist pretenders on the people. Most often, what you find are deliberate efforts by politicians and some influential persons in and out of government to sabotage these pristine values without which democracy would lose its relevance.

Ned Nwoko is a real man of the people who has touched many lives in his Delta North constituency. He has built roads, awarded scholarship to many, built a university in the area, promoted sports and tourism as well as assisted several widows and indigent families to have their sustainable means of livelihood. He loves his Anioma [Delta North] home base and the people with uncommon passion and is ever ready to fight for them.

So, with the ruling of Justice Mohammed affirming Prince Ned Nwoko as PDP’s rightful candidate for Delta North Senatorial District, the people of the district can now heave a sigh of relief. They have every reason to celebrate that Nwoko, the man with the Midas touch and towering national and international image is set to represent them at the red chamber of the National Assembly.

* Ochela, a journalist, wrote from Abuja.

PROCEEDING FROM THE FEDERAL HIGH COURT (ABUJA DIVISION) ON STAY OF EXECUTION OF JUDGEMENT FILED BY DISTINGUISHED SENATOR PETER NWAOBOSHI

At the Abuja Division of the Federal High Court today, the trial judge Justice Ahmed.R. Mohammed accepted the oral application   to  transfer the motion for the stay of execution, in the case between Senator Peter Nwaoboshi and Ned Nwoko, to the court of Appeal.  The oral application was made by the counsel to senator Nwaoboshi. Like  Pontius Piliate, the judge washed his hands off the case because  he  has become Functus Officio.


To lay the term (FUNCTUS OFFICIO) bare for the consumption and understanding of the general public, it refers to an Officer whose mandate has expired due to an expiry date, or  an agency that  has accomplished the purpose for which it was created. When FUNCTUS OFFICIO is used in relation to the court of law, it means that the authority of the court on a case before it has expired and the court can no longer make an order on the  case.


Consequently, the Judge has ordered all the parties involved in the case to proceed to
 Appeal court since all records of proceedings on the case have been transmitted to the appellate court.

On the issue of who is the senator elect of Delta north, Senator Peter Nwaoboshi remains the authentic senator elect. The certificate of Return, duly issued to him by INEC is published below. We challenge anybody that has embarked on self delusion and wishful thinking to publish for public consumption his/her certificate of Return.

Distinguished Senator Peter Nwaoboshi reiterates his absolute faith in the Nigerian judicial system and urges thousands of his supporters not to fret as he is  deeply certain  of getting a deserved justice at the Appellate court in no distant time.


SPON MEDIA

Finally, Omo-Agege speaks on impact of plethora of Delta APC court cases on his election

By Femi Ajasa

The All Progressives Congress member representing Delta Central Senatorial District, Ovie Omo-Agege, has finally laid to rest the report that a Federal High Court in Asaba nullified his emergence as the party’s candidate for the National Assembly elections.

The senator told TheNewsGuru in an interview session that the court lacks the power to nullify his candidature because he was not a party to most of the plethora of lawsuits cited by the media on the APC crisis in Delta.

His words, “Well, people need to understand that truly there are barrage of court cases, but in all of these cases (and I think there are about 17 or thereabout), I and my major opponent, Otega Emerhor are not a party to any of them except one. And what that implies is that in all of these cases where Otega and l are not parties, we are not bound by whatever decision taken in those cases. 

Not only are we not bound, he cannot as a non party seek to enforce the provisions of that judgement and neither can they be enforced against me since I’m not a party.

“The only case that Otega Emerhor himself is a party, where my name was brought in came through the Warri Federal High Court, seeking a declaration as the plaintiff that he is the one who won the primary for the Delta Central senatorial election in 2019. 

That is the only case where Otega himself is a party and I’m made a party myself. Of course we went in there, we joined issues, we filed and adopted our brief and the court adjourned for judgement. 

Five days before the court was to deliver it’s judgement, Otega Emerhor (knowing full well that he was going to lose) tried to arrest the judgement by filing a notice of discontinuance but we say no. 

The laws are very clear, the moment issues are joined you can no longer seek to discontinue on your own volition. You require our consent and we are not giving that consent. 

Both section 293 and 285 of the constitution are very clear as to when a judgement in both electoral and non-electoral matters must be delivered. 

We stood against the arrest and sought to have the court deliver it’s judgement. 

And when if finally did, the court ruled that as regards the primaries for Delta Central senatorial district held on October 3rd 2018, the only primary that was conducted by the National Working Committee, the only committee recognized by law (both the constitution and electoral act) to conduct primaries, that the only primary they conducted which was supervised and monitored by INEC in accordance with section 85 of the electoral act produced a winner and that winner is not Otega Emerhor but Sen. Ovie Omo-Agege.

“So between Otega and I, our issues are settled.  That is the only litigation that has himself and I dealing with who the authentic winner of the Delta Central senatorial APC primary winner is.

 Every other court case that has gone or is ongoing has nothing to do with me and him.

 The case at the Federal High Court of Asaba whose judgement most media houses misconstrued was instituted by the factional chairman of the APC in the state, Cyril Ogodo and a few of his factional ward/local government chairmen. 

They sued the authentic chairman of the party in the state, Prophet Jones Erue, the national chairman of the party; they sued the APC as a party and also sued INEC. 

Those are the defendants. I am not there. There is nobody who contested for elections in Delta State that was joined in that case including Otega Emerhor. 

So when the court eventually made the decision, we told the court that we are not a party in the case before it and that the judgement cannot be binding on us. You can’t shave my hair in my absence. You must make me a party to the case to have its judgement binding on me. 

Let me also state that because I needed to protect the excos of the party, I went to the Court of Appeal seeking leave (permission) to be joined with the case and the Court of Appeal rejected saying I should have been joined from the Federal High Court where the case originated. That was the only issue that went before the Appeal Court. But the media went awash saying the Court of Appeal upheld the nullification of my election; an issue that was never before the court in the first place.

“Anyway, that has become academic because after that the Federal High Court in Warri now delivered its judgement in a matter that  pitted me directly with Otega Emerhor where the issue between him and I as to who won the primary was settled. Having explained this, I can tell you that as far as the litigation is concerned we are on a very strong footing and we hope that at some point there could be a way to reconcile everybody.”

The New International Passport Will Commence On April 29 - Price & How To Apply

The Nigeria Immigration Service will commence the issuance of the much awaited New International Passport on the 29th April, 2019.

With the new passport, you can get up to 10 years validity as against the outgoing one that has a maximum validity of 5 years.

The new passport which will now be applied for and paid for online, has also added a new mandatory requirement that must be provided by all applicants.

The new requirement is the National Identification Number (NIN) and it will be provided in addition to the existing requirements like passport photographs, birth certificates, marriage certificates/newspaper publication, Local Government letter of identification, letter of consent for minors under 16 years, police report incase of lost passport amongst others.

Categories
- 32 page 5-year validity (Adults and Minors)
- 64 page 5-year validity (Adults and Minors)
- 64 page 10-year validity (Adults (18+) only)
- 32 Page 5-year Official Passport

Those that are less than 18 years old cannot get a 10-year validity passport according to ICAO (International Civil Aviation Organization) specifications due to expected change in their physical appearance.

Price

1. 32 Page 5-year Standard Passport is N25,000 ($130)
2. 64 Page 5-year Standard Passport N35,000 ($150)
3. 64 Page 10-year Standard Passport for adults only 18 years and above is N70,000 ($230)
4. 32 Page 5-year Official Passport is N15,000

How to Apply

Step 1:

Visit https://portal.immigration.gov.ng .. Select the type of passport application e.g. Fresh, Renewal, Lost, Damage, or Correction of data.

Step 2:
After completing the online application form, select the passport office you wish to visit for photograph, biometrics and eventual pickup.

The next step is to make your payment online after which an application ID will be generated.

Steps 3:

Proceed to the passport office you selected to complete the process.

Don't forget to take the necessary requirements stated in the second paragraph as well as evidence of payment made.

If you reside outside Nigeria, you will be required to submit your application at the preferred Nigeria Embassy/High Commission or Consulate you selected during the online application.

Note: Applicants are required to appear at the passport office chosen during online application for photograph and Biometric data capturing if current passport is more than six month old.

Data on the old passport will also be the same as what will appear on the New Passport.

For enquiries and complaints, contact Passport and other Travel Documents Directorate - dcgptd@immigration.gov.ng

Source: Nigeria Immigration Service

https://autojosh.com/new-nigerian-international-passport/

2019 elections worst for Nigerian women in nearly two decades, analysis shows:

By Ebuka Onyeji


The number of women elected to public offices in Nigeria did not increase after this year’s election. Instead, there was a decline to any progress made in women’s previous outings since the inception of the fourth republic, analyses by PREMIUM TIMES and the Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD) have shown.

When will women be allowed more space in government? This quest was more than ever before reinvigorated ahead of the 2019 general elections. With 91 political parties, women appeared to have a better chance. This was evident in the number of women who declared interest and eventually contested in the party primaries.

However, the outcome of the party primaries and eventually, the general elections, was rather a setback, dashing any hope raised.

Fact Sheet

A recent fact sheet released by the CDD showed that so far, 62 women have been recorded as elected, a meager 4.17 per cent of elected officials. Should this figure hold, it would represent a decline from the 2015-19 period, where women formed 5.65 per cent of elected officials.


A previous data from the centre prior to this year’s polls showed that women have not reached 10 per cent representation since inception of democratic rule.
How women fared
Women form 49.4 per cent of Nigeria’s population, according to data from the National Bureau of statistics. However, female political representation in the 2019 elections was negligible relative to the approximately half of the population they constitute, with 2,970 women on the electoral ballot, representing only 11.36 per cent of nominated candidates.

In the presidential race, some believed women were not really ready to contest. The turn of events, weeks to the polls, seemed to have justified that assertion.
Specifically, all six female presidential candidates stepped down even though their names still appeared on the ballot.


The withdrawal of Obiageli Ezekwesili, a former minister, who was perceived as the most vibrant female candidate, seemed most unexpected.
Apart from the 1999 election which signaled the fourth republic that saw women occupy 15 seats in the National Assembly – three in the Senate and 12 in the House of Representatives – the number of elected female lawmakers has never been this poor in any other election at the federal level.
Statistics
In this year’s election, 235 women, forming 12.34 per cent of candidates, contested for a seat in the Senate of which seven (6.42 per cent) were elected. This remained constant in the 8th Senate, which also accounted for 6.42 per cent of the total number of elected senators.

The two dominant political parties, the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and its main opposition, the PDP, fielded seven and 10 candidates respectively.

A female senator from Northern Nigeria, Binta Garba, is among those who lost. The minority leader of the 8th Senate, Abiodun Olujimi, also lost her re-election bid.

In the House of Representatives, 533 women contested, with the major parties fielding a total of 31 (15 APC and 16 PDP) candidates. However, only 11 (3.05 per cent) have been elected. The figures from the 8th House have thus been halved, as it had 22 female lawmakers.

At the state level, no woman was elected governor. They formed 3.07 per cent of the total candidates. Of the 275 women forming 11.40 per cent of candidates for the Deputy Governorship, four (in Enugu, Kaduna, Ogun and Rivers) were elected.

Thus, the number of female deputy governors has declined from six in the 2015-19 to four. While women have consistently held the position of deputy governor in Lagos State, the emergence of Obafemi Hamzat as deputy-governor elect marked a departure from the past.
Down from 55 female state lawmakers in the incumbent regime, our preliminary analysis shows that 40 women have been elected into the state assembly.
Why women failed?

Some young female candidates in the election who spoke Monday at a programme organised by the Centre of Legislative Engagement of YIAGA listed lack of funds, poor party structure, and ‘stereotyping’ as some of the challenges they faced.


They urged the incoming 9th National Assembly to work on the gender equality bill.
However, reasons for the poor outing for women in the 2019 elections were mostly attributed to the country’s political structure. The two major parties were accused of not allowing women ‘enough space’.

“We failed because there were very few female candidates in the two major parties,” explained Abiodun Essiet, who contested in the primary of the APC aimed at nominating its councillorship candidate for Orozo Ward of Abuja Municipal Area Council (AMAC).

Mrs Essiet, a nurse and gender activist, had hopes of becoming the first woman elected councillor in the ward. But she did not make it out of the primary, which was adjudged to be fraught with irregularities.

“The most important election is the primaries and only a handful of women scaled through in the major parties so we already knew this was going to happen,” she said.

This newspaper’s analysis few weeks after the party primaries revealed that women were not given an even playing field, especially by the major parties, which eventually led to the low number of women who emerged as party candidates.

Women and young people were either intimidated or threatened to step down or were simply screened out and replaced with their male competitors, Mrs Ezekwesili had said in an interview with PREMIUM TIMES.
The former minister said dominant political parties of the (APC/PDP) elite “have entrenched a primaries system that inherently makes the emergence of women and young candidates near impossible.”

Other factors

Away from party politics, other factors such as large scale election violence, threats, rigging and vote buying was said have played against women.
“I faced a lot of threat up till election day,” said Christina Eligwe-Ude, a former consultant at the United Nations who contested the APC primaries for the Orlu, Orsu and Oru East Federal Constituency in Imo State but says she was “sidelined”.

Mrs Eligwe-Ude would later leave the APC to contest under the Social Democratic Party (SDP).

“For me the experience was exhausting and depressing because it’s money politics.

“We are at the tribunal for the election to be nullified because it was initially declared inconclusive but nine days later, it became ‘conclusive’ all of a sudden and the PDP candidate was declared winner.”

Major Parties React

While Lanre Issa-Onilu, the national spokesperson of the APC, neither answered repeated calls to his phone nor responded to texts, his counterpart in the PDP did.

“I think when you look at the format of the election, generally, you will see it’s not the type women can really do well. It’s because of that format that women performed poorly,” said Kola Ologbondiyan, PDP spokesperson.

 “The aggression, large scale rigging, abuse of processes, vote buying, violence and other vices.”

“For the PDP, we always make conscious effort to give fair chance to women. Our party has the highest number of women elected in this year’s election…”

Of the 62 women in the overall elective positions, our preliminary analysis reveals that PDP has the highest number with 33 (53.23 per cent), followed by APC with 23 (37.10 per cent).

“We key into the affirmation plan that 35 percent of our women must be elected. We give free forms to women to encourage more participation,” the PDP official said.

“The problem is that the government of the day does not believe in the right of women because you cannot compare what is happening now with the PDP era.

INEC has a duty to make sure true winners are declared but the government also has a huge responsibility to create more space for women in government.”
‘Not true’

Meanwhile, Ebere Ifendu, president Women in Politics Forum (WIPF) was quick to counter the comment of the PDP spokesperson on free forms.

“The free forms they give to women are like Greek gifts because after that, the zoning will never favour women. PDP will always come with what they call zoning and consensus candidate in which women are never part of the discussion.

“So, what’s the point of giving me a free form and I will not still get through the primaries because of other intrigues? We are tired of their Greek gifts, if they want to support women they should give a certain percentage of sits to women.

“They only have a woman leader in their leadership position who is appointed by them. They will use their own criteria to choose so the person will be forever indebted to them.”

Ripple Effect

Women’s minimal representation has multi-dimensional implications for the democratic project in Nigeria and for the continuing quest for gender equality in Africa’s biggest economy.

The 2019 elections will be the sixth consecutive general elections since the beginning of the fourth republic in 1999.

This marks what is undoubtedly a measure of democratic progress, if only for conducting periodic elections since the return to civil rule. What remains deeply in doubt, however, is how inclusive this progress has been and, in particular, to what extent women have benefited from the democratic dividend of equality and fairness.

As gender issues and women’s political and economic empowerment take centre stage on the global arena, Nigeria appears intent on maintaining its position at the bottom of the ladder.

Nigerian women signaled their intention to make their voices heard in this year’s election, accounting for about 47.14 per cent (39,598,645 million) of the 84,004.084 million registered voters nationwide.

What issues drive these women to vote? How or who did Nigerian women vote in this election might be a question for another day. Howbeit, women’s concerns are typically regarded as non-consequential to party and electoral politics.

Way Forward

Sound legislation is the best way forward said Mrs Ifeandu, a lawyer. “We need to make the 35 per cent affirmative action a law. In Senegal, women first got 30 per cent through legislation before they moved for parity (50:50) which has now made the difference in that country.

“Without legislation, it will be difficult to achieve anything that is why we need to hold parties to account. They are the only platform that can make it happen for now. Currently, we are championing a course for most of these mushroom parties to be deregistered. If we have only six parties, it will go a long way.”
The female advocate said since the election is over, the next step is to pressurise the president to give women more appointments.

“The president in setting up his next cabinet should compensate women by giving them nothing less than 35 per cent positions. During campaigns, he went around talking about affirmative right action. He made open declaration supporting affirmative and we need to hold him to account.”

This project is the initiative of Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD) in partnership with Premium Times, and supported by the Ford Foundation.


Ebuka Onyeji
Ebuka Onyeji is a health reporter at PREMIUM TIMES. He also has a penchant for music and art. Ebuka holds a degree in Mass communication from Anambra State University.

Presiding officers: We transmitted official results directly to INEC server

About 13 Presiding Officers (POs) in Borno and Yobe states have told the Presidential Election Petitions Tribunal sitting in Abuja that they transmitted the results of the February 23 Presidential election in their various units and wards to the official server of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

The POs in their respective Witness Statement of Oath in support of the petition filed by the Presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar, challenging the election of President Muhammadu Buhari of the All Progressive Congress (APC), stated that the election body had, during their training, instructed them on how to transmit the results to its server.

The submission of the POs was to lay credence to the petition of Atiku and PDP, wherein they alleged that the INEC pulled down the official results from its server and consequently replaced it with a doctored one to favour President Buhari.

The position of the POs, however, contradicted the submission of INEC who had stated in its reply to the petition that results were not sent to its server.

All these were, however, contained in Atiku’s reply to the objection filed by APC, who is the 3rd respondent, to his (Atiku’s) petition before the Presidential tribunal, wherein he is challenging the election that produced Buhari.

INEC had declared President Buhari as the winner of the February 23 election, having polled 15,191,847 votes to defeat his closest challenger, Atiku, who polled 11,262,978. But, Atiku in his 139- page petition before the tribunal stated that from the data in INEC’s server, the true, actual and correct results showed that he (Atiku) secured a total of 18,356,732 votes against Buhari’s 16,741,430 votes.

On its part, INEC stated that there was no result in its server and that the presidential election results were not transmitted electronically.

 However, in reaction to paragraph 29 of the 3rd Respondent’s reply, the petitioners aver that the data and scores in the 1st Respondent’s Server were as transmitted by the 1st Respondent’s officials and those scores are valid, and legitimate.

 Atiku, through his team of counsel, led by Dr. Livy Uzoukwu (SAN), had listed about 13 Presiding Officers from different wards in Borno State and also attached their witness statement on oath. According to one of the POs,

“I was employed as an ad hoc staff and trained for three days by the 1st Respondent at the Government College, Maiduguri, Bomo State to serve as a Presiding Officer (PO) at Waliri Polling Unit with Code 003, of Shehun Barna Ward, Bomo State on the 23rd February, 2019 Presidential and National Assembly (Senate and House of Representatives) elections. ”

The training covered the duties of all 1st Respondent’s ad-hoc staff at the polling units and the procedure for the conduct of election which includes accreditation, verification, authentication, collation and transmission of results as well as the use of Smart Card Reader (SCR), amongst others.

“At the 1st Respondent training, we were specifically instructed that the use of the Smart Card Reader for accreditation, verification, authentication, collation and transmission of results is mandatory and that any election conducted without the use of the Smart Card Reader would be invalid.

“I took part in the conduct of the Presidential and National Assembly (Senate and House of Representatives) elections of 23rd February, 2019 where I served as the Presiding Officer (PO) and I ensured the use of the Smart Card Reader for accreditation, verification, authentication, collation and transmission of votes in my polling unit.

“At the end of voting, the information on the Smart Card Reader with the results inclusive, were collated by me in the presence of the party agents and other ad-hoc staff of the 1st Respondent after which my Assistant Presiding Officer (AP0-1) transmitted the result electronically in my presence to the 1st Respondent’s server, using the Smart Card Reader (SCR) and the code provided by the 1st Respondent.”

Furthermore, in the witness statements of the Presiding Officer of Daza Primary School Code 001,Daze Marte Ward of Borno State, who was coded as BU; the Presiding Officer of Mustapha Ali Bama, Code 036, Mafoni MCC Ward, who was coded IM; the Presiding Officer of Binkalion Code 003, Maisandari Damaturu ward Yobe, coded as AB and APO of Kafan Sarki Code 007, Yabir-Gujba of Yobe state, coded as AW; they all admitted that the results of the Presidential election were transmitted electronically to INEC’s server.

In a similar development, Atiku had insisted that Buhari did not submit any academic certificate to INEC before contesting in the February 23 election.

He added that the claim of APC that Buhari was eminently qualified to contest the election to the office of the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria is spurious and devoid of substance as Buhari never submitted any certificates to INEC regarding his educational qualification.

 According to him, “Having not submitted any certificate to the 1st Respondent (INEC) regarding his educational qualification, the 2nd Respondent (Buhari) did not and could not have complied with the requirement of the law regarding qualification for election to the office of the President.

“The question of the 1st Respondent being satisfied with the information and materials submitted to it by the 2nd Respondent with respect to the qualification of the latter did not arise because the 2nd Respondent did not submit any certificate.

“The claim of the 3rd Respondent at paragraph 498 of its reply that the declaration sworn to by the 2nd Respondent before Commissioner for Oaths at the Federal Capital Territory High Court Registry on 8th October, 2018 as being distinct and separate from the general form of affidavit explaining the whereabouts/location of 2nd Respondent’s academic qualification documents is utterly ridiculous especially as both documents were submitted to the 1st Respondent by the 2nd Respondent simultaneously and without factual backup by any known certificate of qualification of the 2nd Respondent.

“The issue of qualification of the 2nd Respondent to contest election to the office of President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria is a mandatory statutory and/or Constitutional requirement that cannot be waived by the petitioners as erroneously averred in paragraph 499 (d) of the 3rd Respondent’s reply.”

Atiku, however, challenged Buhari to produce the originals or Certified True Copies of his purported certificates obtained from Elementary School, Daura and Mai’adua, Middle School, Katsina and Katsina Provincial Secondary School and all other institutions pleaded in paragraphs 500 and 501 of 3rd Respondent’s reply.

Atiku further added that his petition is competent and meritorious and the return of the 2nd Respondent by the 1st Respondent is undue and wrongful.

He added that the 3rd Respondent’s reply does not answer the points of substance in the petition, but same is full of extraneous facts, contradictory, diversionary, evasive, speculative and vague assertions.

The former vice president also stated that he is a bona fide Nigerian.

“Contrary to the allegations contained in paragraphs 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 of the 3rd Respondent’s reply, the petitioners state that the 1st petitioner is a citizen of Nigeria by birth and thus qualified to vote and be voted for and returned in the election to the office of the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, held on Saturday 23rd February, 2019 going by the relevant provisions of the 1999 Constitution (as amended).

 “That all averments concerning Germany, British Cameroons, League of Nations and Plebiscite are false and misleading in relation to the 1st Petitioner and, therefore, completely irrelevant more so that the 1st Petitioner is a Nigerian by birth within the contemplation of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as amended).

“The averments in the aforesaid paragraphs are indeed fabricated, contrived, made in bad faith and designed to embarrass the 1st Petitioner,” Atiku said.

Presidential Tribunal: PDP Protests Non-release of Electoral Materials By INEC

Press Statement



The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) cautions the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, not to plunge the nation into a monumental crisis, by refusing to obey the Court of Appeal to release the election materials used for the conduct of the February 23, Presidential election.

The party says INEC, by this action, is blatantly standing in the way of justice and working against the will of the people in their quest to salvage the nation and reclaim their stolen mandate at the tribunal.

The continued refusal of INEC to release the electoral materials to the PDP and our legal team is completely provocative and shows that the commission is working in cahoots with the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Buhari Presidency to frustrate the PDP, our candidate, Atiku Abubakar, and majority of Nigerians from retrieving our mandate at the tribunal.

INEC and the APC are apprehensive that the materials, particularly the forms EC8D and EC40G covering the nation in addition to the report of the Smart Card Readers used in the Presidential election will show at the tribunal that the PDP and Atiku Abubakar clearly won the Presidential election.

The PDP has been reliably informed of how the APC and some compromised top officials of INEC have been boasting that they will never allow these materials and documents to be released to the PDP legal team

This is the reason the APC and INEC manufactured a groundless claim that the form EC8D, EC40G and the reports of the card readers were not specifically captured in the order of the court whereas the court was unequivocal in its order that all materials used for the election be made available to our legal team.

For the avoidance of doubt, the Court of Appeal, among other orders, directed INEC to release and allow our legal team to “inspect, scan, forensically audit and make copies of forms EC4OA, EC8A, EC8AVP, EC8B, EC8C, EC8E and ALL OTHER ELECTORAL FORMS and materials including, but not limited to ballot papers and voters registers and materials used for the conduct of the presidential election, held across Nigeria on the 23rd of February, 2019, for the purpose of instituting and maintaining an election petition”.

The refusal of INEC to release forms EC8D, EC40G and the reports of the card readers is therefore a deliberate and vicious disobedience to the orders of the court for which the management of INEC should be charged for contempt.

The PDP calls on Nigerians to note that INEC, having rigged the election in favour of APC, is now seeking ways to frustrate our petition at the tribunal. We therefore charge INEC, having been exposed, to end its shenanigan and release these documents without further delay.

Signed:

Kola Ologbondiyan
National Publicity Secretary

NORTHERN NIGERIA

The oppressive one-North is on its death-bed. General Yakubu Danjuma sang the Nunc Dimittis on Saturday. But if the Middle Belt states are free finally, the credit cannot go to this taciturn General from Takum.

The Fulani conquerors deserve the prize; they scored the golden own goal.  It has taken the Hausa/Fulani and their Kanuri collaborators just three years of bloody indiscretion to unravel 104 years of one-North myth.

The greedy mice of the tiny Fulani elite have peed into the North’s soup pot; everyone has now learnt to answer his mother’s name. But then, the battle has just started. The dying won’t let go of their inheritance quietly.

Beyond Danjuma’s Taraba, Benue and Plateau, is there anywhere else that is not feeling the pangs of Hausa/Fulani/Kanuri elite destruction?

 I call their abode the Core-North which is not interested in catching up with anybody. Its interest is in dragging everyone else to where it is – on ground zero.

 It sees beauty in the millions of untrained children milling its streets, maiming and killing for their sport. Northern Nigeria is the death of Nigeria and its destiny – we better be ready for the obsequies, the funeral rites.

Look at that Dapchi school – did they not say it is a secondary school? I wanted to ask why none of those rescued girls could communicate in English. I saw a bold one on the CNN, an interpreter did the job for her. I wanted to ask why-  but then, I remembered my father warned me a long time ago to seal my lips when sandstorms howl. “There are moments in every age when silence gives peace,” he told me. Just like his prayers, my father’s counsel have never failed me. They have surfaced to solve riddles for me at every crossroad of life.

Today, silence is what the north demands from all. You heard what the president said last Friday? We are not to tell the sick that he is unwell. We will be silent.

 Remember the world is not waiting for anyone; but the north is dragging the south into its misfortune of stunted existence. It educates only children of the royals. The hewers of wood are very happy scavenging in the woods; they are richly blessed, contented with their miseducation in Chibok and Dapchi.

North to south, Presidents and governors abandon the poor to fund their fancies. They borrow and spend tomorrow’s money building long bridges which lead to no where. American billionaire, Bill Gates told our president and governors this much last Thursday: if you build roads without educating and caring for the people, your roads and bridges are mere ornamental tragedies.

Even our ancestors warned us: The child you left unbuilt will auction the brick and mortar you are investing in. Did we listen? We ignored the ancestors. We spurned them and their meddlesomeness. We are seeing this clearly in the north’s misfortune. The foundation is also being massively laid in the south by a generation of governors with strange ideas. Mega schools, zero education is the craze-concept everywhere. When you do that what do you get? What you harvest is an army of the miseducated, or the under-educated or even the uneducable. This odious collage will soon file out de-civilising humanity. That should explain how the north bred its current leaders- gentlemen who break bridges of peace with ease.

The north’s cup is full. It is facing the consequences of its hereditary almajiri leadership. The long years of north’s mistreatment of its poor and the minorities have driven the chicken home to roost. The uneducated, the marginalized have become kings of the elite roads, the kabiyesi, abducting and releasing at will.

There is a competition of silence going on. Who is financing Boko Haram and fueling their vehicles of violence? Silence! A Dapchi girl was reported by The Guardian of UK saying she and her colleagues were “flown in planes and taken over rivers in boats” on their way back to freedom. Whose plane? Which airport? Silence!

 The pursuit of silence, argues George Prochnik, “begins with a surrender of the chase; the abandonment of efforts to impose our will and visions on the world.” So many things happen same time – or rapidly, one after the other. And in the maze of the confusion we drop the glove; we surrender.

What is the need struggling with a Nigeria that is beyond repairs? With every change or solution comes an even bigger headache. Boko Haram used to enter villages and spill blood; now they enter and shake hands.

They used to abduct and marry off or sell girls; now they return the girls intact, free of charge – without ransom. We thought Boko Haram was enough; now we know there is something more mobile everywhere called herdsmen; Danjuma called them ‘armed bandits’ with official cover.

 These ones know no geography- everywhere is their land of claim and blood. They are powerful and untouchable. Even policemen are afraid to call them by their names. They are spelt and pronounced in silence. And after the huge noise of Chibok we thought nothing gross like that would ever happen again. But it happened; Dapchi happened – a clone of its inglorious precursor, but the noise was muffled. From abroad, interest in this version of Chibok was weak. The vocal cords lost their strength because this is 2018 Nigeria where noise is a crime.

 The core north sees nothing unhealthy peeing in the pool. It does this and serves the water to its thirsty minions. It also drinks from the pool showing off its magenta dentition.

The shameless elite of the north are interested only in power, money and virgins. They are not bothered about anything else.

 The north’s life of disasters exposes other parts of the country to mortal dangers. But it doesn’t know it has any problem; it is drunken in the awesomeness of the powers it assumes it has. It won’t grow and won’t let others grow.

 The north is acutely stunted in form and content and you wonder why?  And the northern elite still tell us others cannot live without them. Did you not hear Ibrahim Coomassie of the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) proclaiming his people’s indispensability?

The South cannot survive without the north, he says. Why should blood-soaked Afghanistan declare itself indispensable to its sane neighbours?

When was the last time the north gave Nigeria a reason to smile? It is a huge lake of blood; a field of stupid deaths; a world of unusual disasters; a parade of scented ugliness; a diseased region. And what do experts do with ailments that have no known cure?

 Unfortunately, the healthy south is a helpless detainee in the north’s leper colony. Greedy leaders have made the south an abductee of Lugard’s “well-conducted youth” of 1914. Bonded victims of the Fulani north can’t be free; they will die with this dying north.

Copyright © 2018 | Tribune Online

How It All Started, Where We Are Today

It all started as freedom propaganda.

The lie was told so subtly that we didn’t notice.

To gain popularity, they convinced us that it was all about gender equality. Then they preached to us, saying it was a human rights and child rights agenda.

To draw the attention of women, they hid under Women Empowerment Campaigns.

We saw everything they did as part of civilization. Because of this, we applauded them and blindly sang their praises.

We were so blind that we did not notice when they went from equality to role reversal, and from ‘rights’ to ‘wrongs’. They told us it was all a matter of understanding. I mean, if she earns more than he does, why can’t she be the head while he submits?

They told us we had the right to our bodies. They told us that if the guys can do ‘it’ anytime with anybody, so can the girls.

 They introduced free love, and ‘friends with benefits’, and convinced us that we were just exercising our rights to enjoy our bodies. We agreed. Which youth wouldn’t?

When we complained about STDs, they introduced condoms, and even started sharing it to us free of charge in our secondary schools. 

They told us that

from the age of 16, we had the right to do whatever we wanted to. This made us to start seeing our parents and school teachers as toothless

bulldogs as they no longer had the right to discipline us. Talk of sweet freedom!

When we complained about teenage pregnancies, they told our parents to educate us about contraceptives as early as possible. 

Then they introduced the reformed sex education in our school as a guise to give us more condoms.

Some of us still got pregnant, and we complained yet again. So they decided to legalize abortions.

 This was in a bid to help us. You see, they really cared about our future, and wanted to ensure that we live a free life.

Abortion made sense to us. So we accepted it. I mean, why bring a child you don’t want or can’t take care of into the world?

 We felt a bit guilty because it seemed like murder. But they told us not to worry. 

According to them, what we were doing was merely taking out an unwanted foetus, and

not killing a child. 

Yet again, we accepted it, and got pacified.

They said that we weren’t supposed to be accountable to any deity, religion, our parents or the society. 

Next, they told us we had the freedom to do what we wanted with our lives, so far as we weren’t hurting other people or trampling on their rights.

Almost immediately, we stopped regarding God. We rather chose to play football, hang out, or watch

seasonal movies on Fridays and Sundays.

We also decided to experiment with homosexuality. It seemed like fun, and they encouraged us.

 When we told them that the society frowned against

our choice, they legalized it and told us we can get married too.

We decided to go further and experiment with drugs. They frowned against it publicly, but we still had access to it.

 Moreover, we were minors, and the law enforcement agents couldn’t really punish us.

We looked for role models and they gave us Hollywood stars with multiple divorce stories, musical icons addicted to drugs/alcohol, and sports stars with numerous extra marital affair scandals.

They told us, that those celebrities were successful and free and we should aspire to be like them. 

Some of us started pumping iron, getting tattoos, and injecting steroids in order to look as manly and as ‘successful’ as our role models.

We started seeing fidelity as a sign of weakness. And just like our ‘role-models’, we started going after everything in skirt.

We equally tore off pictures of our successful and ‘sexy’ looking role models off celebrity magazines, and pasted them on our mirrors. We started dieting

like mad so we can lose weight and look like them. 

We noticed that they hardly wore any clothes, so we followed suit.

When we became bored, they introduced us to their clubs and night parties.

They told us to throw caution to the winds and just have fun. Even when some of us got raped, they encouraged us to shut up and keep having fun.

Some of us became addicted to alcohol, but we were told not to worry that it was one way to prove our manhood, so we continued.

At a time we noticed that we had lost our will. We had become their slaves without knowing it. We noticed that we didn’t have any reason to live

again, and life was no longer purposeful.

In the bid to look sexy, some of us became victims of anorexia nervosa.

Those of us in relationships found it impossible to be faithful. Many started contemplating suicide. 

Many more had STDs. Some of us experienced series of psychological traumas and mental breakdowns. 

A lot more dropped out of school as a result of unwanted pregnancies, drugs, or an abortion that went wrong.

At this point we saw our future get dashed before our faces. We started looking for whom to blame. 

After a fruitless search, we had to admit that we didn’t even know who ‘they’ were. Then reality dawned on us.

We remembered our fathers telling us that “unlimited liberty is slavery in disguise”. 

We also remembered when our mothers told us that “freedom without checks and balances is tantamount to advanced bondage”. 

By then it was too late for us. We had bought ‘their’ freedom lie.

Maybe for you, it is not yet late. Then please don’t be deceived by their lies and evil propaganda. Do not be swayed by their subtle message of freedom.

They’re all lies! We can prove it with our relationships, drug addictions, unwanted pregnancies, violent tendencies etc.

Beware, and please warn other youths so the menace will not colonise all of this generation.

What Pa Awo Told His Kinsmen, Nigerians On The State Of The Nation.

When on Friday, February 28, 1986, Samuel Cookey, a professor of political science, who had just been given an appointment by then military President, General Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida, IBB, wrote a letter requesting the Yoruba sage, Pa Obafemi Jeremiah Awolowo, to avail the Nigerian state the benefit of his wisdom, he  (Cookey) did not bargain for what would be the response.



Obafemi Awolowo
Babangida had promised the Nigerian nation that he would enthrone a new social order by doing away with the politics of the past, bring in new breed politicians and change the political landscape.

And since he was not going to wave the magic wand, he sought and got  Cookey to chair a Political Bureau. That Bureau was saddled with the responsibility of fashioning out, after due consultations with Nigerians via memoranda and public presentations, a new political order.  It was in the pursuit of this mandate that the professor wrote to Pa Awolowo, requesting his participation and views.

To that request, Awolowo wrote the following:

“Dear Sir,

“I received your letter of February 28, 1986, and sincerely thank you for doing me the honour of inviting me to contribute to the National Political Debate.

“The purpose of the debate is to clarify our thoughts in our search for a new social order.

“It is therefore meet and proper that all those who have something to contribute should do so.

“I do fervently and will continue fervently to pray that I may be proved wrong.

“For something within me tells me, loud and clear, that we have embarked on a fruitless search.

“At the end of the day, when we imagine that the new order is here, we would be terribly disappointed.

“In other words, at the threshold of our New Social Order, we would see for ourselves that, as long as Nigerians remain what they are, nothing clean, principled, ethical,  and idealistic can work with them.

“And Nigerians will remain what they are, unless the evils which now dominate their hearts, at all levels and in all sectors of our political, business and governmental activities are exorcised.

“But I venture to assert that they will not be exorcised, and indeed they will be firmly entrenched, unless God Himself imbues a vast majority of us with a revolutionary change of attitude to life and politics or, unless the dialetic processes which have been at work for some twenty years now, perforce, make us perceive the abominable filth that abounds in our society, to the end that an inexorable abhorrence of it will be quickened in our hearts and impel us to make drastic changes for the better.

“There is, of course, an alternative option open to us.

“To succumb to permanent social instability and chaos.

“In the premises, I beg to decline your invitation.

“I am yours truly, Obafemi Awolowo”

It’s 33 years now that Awo wrote this letter. It is clear in my mind that this deep thinker saw into the future as time continues to validate his thoughts. Nigeria may have inadvertently chosen the alternative - “permanent social instability and chaos”. Otherwise, how else does one explain what has been happening in Nigeria? I remember in 1982 or so when he returned from his annual spiritual retreat, scores of journalists gathered at the airport to interrogate him. One of the questions posted was to query his thoughts on how Nigeria can be redeemed and placed on the path of growth. He replied emphatically that Nigeria is beyond redemption and there was no more hope. His political opponents dismiss his statement with ignominy and tagged him a prophet of doom. Prior to that and before his departure for his spiritual retreat, he raised an alarm that Nigeria was sliding very fast in economic and social order metrics. He said there remained a slim chance to change the course of events and save Nigeria. He reeled our immediate steps to be taken by the government but he was labeled alarmist and his counsels were treated politically.

Today, only those who enjoy chaos thrive in Nigeria. It has been tragedies since then.

Let me conclude as follows:

If you are a lover of peace and progress and are able to find space for you and your family elsewhere, please pursue it and do not look backwards.

If however you are a lover of chaos and enjoy it, please stay here and prepare for more chaos. If you don’t yet have your AK 47, Kalashinkov, SLR, SMG or RPG please get your own fast as it will be required for survival.

 Otherwise, prepare your escape on emergency.

SCHOOL FEEDING NOW IN 30 STATES , 9.5M PUPILS FED DAILY.

Fed Gov Says over 12m Nigerians benefit from programme ….10m Nigerians to benefit from Next Level schemes

President Muhammadu Buhari led administration has disclosed that its Home Grown School Feeding Programme has now covered thirty states in the federation, feeding 9.5 million pupils daily.

 This, the government said, was in continuation of its efforts to invest in the country’s human capital development, by making significant strides through its National Social Investment Programmes (N-SIP).

Senior Special Assistant to the President (Office of the Vice President), on Media and Publicity, Laolu Akande, stated this on Wednesday in Abuja.

The Presidency stated that President Buhari administration’s NSIP is aimed at empowering Nigerians and improving their livelihood through several initiatives.

According to the government, millions of Nigerians nationwide are currently benefitting from the different schemes under the N-SIP, which is the largest social welfare scheme in the history of the country.

“Through its Conditional Cash transfer (CCT) scheme, the administration is supporting the most vulnerable in society, while developing a skilled workforce for economic productivity by providing jobs for millions of Nigerian youths through the N-Power programme, and improving the learning and cognitive skills of Nigeria’s children through the Home-Grown School Feeding programme (NHGSFP).

“Also, the Government Enterprise and Empowerment Programme (GEEP) provide financial support through micro-credit schemes to small traders and businesses at the bottom of the financial pyramid.

Beneficiaries include petty traders, women cooperatives, youths, famers and agricultural workers,” Akande stated.

The Presidency stated further that in the Next Level of the Buhari administration, about 10 million Nigerians are expected to benefit from GEEP, which includes TraderMoni; MarketMoni and FarmerMoni while the Cash Transfer scheme aims at reaching one million poorest households, one million new beneficiaries are expected to be added to the N-Power scheme, arguably the largest job creation and youth employment scheme in Africa.

The administration’s National Home-Grown School Feeding Programme (NHGSFP), which has a target of reaching 12 million pupils, is currently feeding over 9.5 million public primary school (classes 1-3) pupils with one free, balanced and nutritious meal a day in 30 states nationwide; while it has empowered 101,913 cooks in these states.

The 30 states currently benefiting from the school feeding programme are:
Anambra,
Abia,
Akwa Ibom,
Adamawa,
Bauchi,
Benue,
Borno,
Cross River,
 Ebonyi,
Enugu,
Kaduna,
Kebbi,
Kogi,
Sokoto, and
Nasarawa.

Others include Taraba,
Ogun,
Oyo,
Osun,
Plateau,
Delta,
Zamfara,
Imo,
Jigawa,
Kano,
Niger,
Katsina,
Ondo,
 Edo and
Gombe.

The HGSFP has not only helped to increase enrollment rates of pupils in these communities, it is also effectively tackling early year malnutrition, while improving the cognitive skills of children.

The School feeding programme has also provided sustainable income for local farmers, cooks, which has increased growth and productivity in the local economy.

As of March, 297,973 Nigerians in 20 states (including the Borno IDP camps) are current beneficiaries under the National Cash Transfer Policy Programme (Conditional Cash Transfer), which started in December 2017; with over 5,000 savings groups and cooperatives formed as a result.

The following states are currently receiving payment: Adamawa, Anambra, Bauchi, Benue, Borno, Cross River, Ekiti, Gombe, Jigawa, Kaduna, Kano, Katsina, Kogi, Kwara, Nassarawa, Niger, Osun, Oyo, Plateau, and Taraba.

The government explained that the Conditional Cash Transfer is designed to deliver timely and accessible cash to beneficiary households and so enhance their capacity for sustainable livelihood.

The programme provides beneficiaries – poor and vulnerable households – with a monthly transfer of N5,000 with the sole aim of taking them out of poverty.

 Meanwhile, the Government Enterprise and Empowerment Programme (GEEP), which has the MarketMoni, FarmerMoni and TraderMoni schemes, currently has a combined total of over 1.7 million Nigerians benefiting from these schemes.

So far, since after the national and state polls, 30,000 minimum beneficiaries have been added to the TraderMoni scheme, which provides interest-free loans starting from N10,000 to petty traders nationwide and is payable within six months.

In addition, upon repayment of the N10,000 loans, some beneficiaries in some states, including Lagos, Osun, Borno, Ogun and Benue, have now started receiving the 2nd improved interest-free TraderMoni loan of N15,000.

Managed by the Bank of Industry, GEEP schemes provide financial support through micro-credit schemes to beneficiaries which include petty traders, women cooperatives, youths, famers and agricultural workers.

 In the same vein, the Administration’s N-Power scheme, which is designed to provide jobs for unemployed young graduates, and is arguably the largest job creation and youth employment scheme in Africa, has currently engaged 500,000 youth graduates deployed to provide public health services in teaching, health, agriculture and tax and monitoring; and a further 200,000 non-graduates in training or attached to organisations as interns.

N-Power beneficiaries across the 36 states and the FCT are provided with a N30,000 monthly stipends, in addition to technology devices with relevant content for continuous learning. Many N-power beneficiaries have gone on to become entrepreneurs who are building successes in their chosen vocations.

Onnoghen removed from NJC membership list

…Bode-Rhodes Vivour to be named deputy chairman

Source: The Punch Newspaper

Justice Walter Onnoghen’s name has been removed from the National Judicial Council’s members’ list, preparing the ground for a Justice of the Supreme Court, Justice Bode Rhodes-Vivour, to emerge as the council’s deputy chairman, The PUNCH reports.

The altered membership list of the NJC was observed on the council’s website at about 7.15pm on Sunday.

The list, displaying 23 members instead of the full membership of 24, shows that the council has yet to have a deputy chairman as constitutionally provided.

It was gathered that following Onnoghen’s exit, Justice Rhodes-Vivour as the second most senior Justice of the Supreme Court would be announced as the deputy chairman at the next meeting of the council.

“The date of the next meeting of the NJC is not known yet; but because the acting CJN has just taken over as the acting chairman of the council, it is expected that the deputy chairman will be announced at the next meeting,” a top judiciary source told our correspondent on Sunday.

Paragraph 20 (a) of Part I of the Third Schedule to the Constitution makes “the next most senior Justice of the Supreme Court” a member of the council and provides that the person “shall be the Deputy Chairman.”

Our correspondent also observed on the website of the council on Sunday that the membership list of the NJC had been altered to reflect the Acting Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Tanko Muhammad, as the acting chairman.

Onnoghen now occupies the 16th position on the list of former Chief Justices of Nigeria as observed on the website by our correspondent on Sunday.

The Code of Conduct Tribunal had last Thursday convicted Onnoghen on charges of breach of the Code of Conduct for Public Officers and ordered his removal as the Chief Justice of Nigeria and the chairman of both the NJC and the Federal Judicial Service Commission.

But multiple judiciary sources told our correspondent on Sunday that the NJC’s membership list was altered shortly after Justice Onnoghen tendered his resignation letter on April 4.

Constitutionally, the CJN is automatically the chairman of both the NJC and the Federal Judicial Service Commission, but Muhammad only took over the headship of the council on April 4, over two months after he began to act as the CJN.

This was a day after the NJC cleared him of wrongdoing in allowing himself to be sworn in as the acting CJN without NJC’s recommendation.

The council, which also investigated Onnoghen for various acts of misconduct, was said to have recommended him for retirement.

Onnoghen reportedly resigned on April 4, barely 24 hours after the NJC sent its recommendations to President Buhari.

Muhammad took over as the acting CJN after he was cleared by the NJC and Onnoghen resigned.

The current members of the NJC as observed on the council’s website on Sunday included Justice Muhammad; President of the Court of Appeal, Justice Zainab Bulkachuwa; a former Justice of the Supreme Court and a former chairman of the Independent Corrupt Practices and other Related Offences Commission, Justice Emmanuel Ayoola; a former Justice of the Supreme Court, Justice Sunday Akintan; and a former President of the Court of Appeal, Justice Umaru Abdullahi.

They also included a retired Justice of the Court of Appeal, Justice, V.O.A Omage;
Chief Judge of the Federal High Court, Justice Adamu Abdu-Kafarati; President, National Industrial Court of Nigeria, Justice Babatunde Adejumo; Chief Judge of the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory, Justice Ishaq Bello; and Chief Judge of Oyo State, Justice Munta Abiola.

The Chief Judge of Borno State, Justice Kashim Zannah; Chief Judge of Imo State, Pascal Nnadi; Chief Judge of Delta State, Marshal Umukoro; Grand Kadi, Sharia Court of Appeal, Kwara State Grand Kadi Mohammed Abdulkadir; and President, Customary Court of Appeal, Plateau State, Justice Julia Kyentu are also members.

They also included the President of the Nigerian Bar Association, Mr Paul Usoro (SAN); a former NBA President, Abubakar Mahmoud (SAN); and three NBA members, namely Dr Muiz Banire (SAN); Damien Dodo (SAN), and Efe Etomi.

The rest are a retired public servant, Mrs Rakiya Ibrahim; a former Permanent Secretary, Mrs R. Inga and Secretary to the Council, Ahmed Saleh.

PDP Dismisses Cameroonian Citizenship Claims as APC’s Diversionary Tactics

Press Statement


…Says Atiku Abubakar Will Surely Retrieve Stolen Mandate

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) dismisses the reckless and groundless claims by the All Progressives Congress (APC) that its Presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, is a Cameroonian, as a calculated attempt by the APC to trivialize and divert attention from the compelling issue of their criminal rigging of the 2019 Presidential election.

This disingenuous claim is also a woeful design by the APC to overburden, distract and bog down the Presidential election petition tribunal with trivialities, lies and falsehood, so as to derail the course of justice.

Such diversionary tactic has however only helped in further exposing the fact that the APC has no answers to the plethora of overwhelming evidence before the tribunal that the election was won by Atiku Abubakar and the PDP.

Whereas Atiku Abubakar’s citizenship by birth, even under our constitution, cannot be contested, it is indeed the biggest irony of the year, that Atiku’s citizenship is being disputed by individuals whose ancestry has always been a subject of debate.

These individuals include those who, being not sure of their origins; have no love for Nigeria and even refused to be on the side of our nation at the 1985 summit of the defunct Organization of Africa Unity (OAU) in Addis Ababa.

Such persons prefer to deploy our national resources for infrastructural development in affiliated places outside the shores of Nigeria, when our country is in dire need of attention.

The apparent links were further manifested in the participation of aliens in the campaigns of a particular Presidential candidate in Kano.

Moreover, this claim by APC appears to contain explanations as to why its administration has remained insensitive to the challenge of insurgency, general insecurity and economic travails of Nigerians in the North East, particularly in Adamawa, Yobe, Borno and Taraba states.

In any case, Nigerians should not despair as the PDP and Atiku Abubakar will not be distracted in the pursuit of our mandate. The PDP has implicit confidence in the competence of our legal team to handle the diversionary  antics and technicalities of the APC to unnecessarily overstrain the tribunal and derail the course of justice in the matter.

Signed:

Kola Ologbondiyan
National Publicity Secretary

Saraki to Tinubu: Despite Your Smear Campaign and Hatred for Me, You Should, At Least, Dwell on Facts

1. Yesterday, Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu, released another of his now well expected quarterly vicious attack on the person of Dr. Abubakar Bukola Saraki, the President of the Senate. In the statement, one could see the master of media spins getting ensnared in his own game as he struggled to extricate himself from the narratives about the contest for leadership positions in the Ninth National Assembly.

2. Since we have taken it for granted that Tinubu’s attack on Saraki every three months (Quarterly) will come as expected, we would just have ignored his statement but for the fact that it was filled with untruth, fallacies and misrepresentations. The statement was another effort to sell a concocted narrative about the Eighth National Assembly and its leadership.

 3. First, he alleged that national budgets were delayed, distorted, padded, new projects introduced, funds for projects reduced, “to halt progress of government”. It is unfortunate that a man like Tinubu who had been in the Senate (though for 22 months and under a military regime) should have a better understanding of how the legislature works. The passage of budgets is definitely not the responsibility of the leadership of the Senate. It is an assignment handled in the various committees. These committees are headed Senators across party lines. It is the

4. Also, it is only a mischievous man of Tinubu’s experience that will claim that the leadership of the National Assembly is responsible for the delay in the passage of budgets without mentioning how budgets were submitted to the National Assembly very late and contrary to the provisions of the Fiscal Responsibility Act. This Eighth Senate has passed and sent to President Muhammadu Buhari a constitutional amendment bill to compel Presidents and Governors to submit their budget latest by September so as to enable the National and State Assemblies pass the Appropriation Act before the end of that fiscal year. Yet, the President has refused assent to the Bill.

5. To further make the points here clear, we invite Tinubu to look at the records of the time of submission of budgets and their passage since 2010 so as to have a better understanding of the fact that the date it is submitted to parliament and the readiness of the MDAs to defend the proposals submitted are the main determining factors in when the budget is passed. The 2010 budget was submitted by President Goodluck Jonathan in November 2009 and passed on March 25, 2010. The 2011 budget was submitted on December 15, 2010 and passed on May 26, 2011; 2012 budget was submitted on December 13, 2011 and passed on March 15, 2012; 2013 budget was submitted on October 10, 2012 and passed on December 20 the same year; 2014 budget was submitted December 19, 2013 and passed April 9, 2014; 2015 budget was submitted on December 17, 2014 and passed on April, 28, 2015 after the general elections; the first budget under the Buhari administration was submitted on December 22, 2015 and, despite all the mistakes and back and forth withdrawals and replacements by the Executive, was passed on March 23, 2016; 2017 budget was submitted on December 14, 2016 and passed on May 11, 2017 while the 2018 budget was submitted on November 7, 2017 and passed May 16, 2018 after several pleas to MDAs before they agreed to defend their proposals in the National Assembly. The 2019 budget under consideration was submitted on December 19, 2018 and will be passed before the end of this month. So, Tinubu can see that the facts cannot support his spins and fake narrative. We therefore demand that he should withdraw that careless, irresponsible allegation that Dr. Saraki ever “sought to pad budgets with pet projects”.

6.  It is also a known fact that any so-called delay in the passage of budgets under the Eighth National Assembly is traceable to the refusal of heads of MDAs to defend the budget proposals for their agencies on time. Last year, the President himself had to direct the Secretary to Federal Government to compel heads of MDAs to appear before the National Assembly committees following the report made to him by Dr. Saraki and Speaker Yakubu Dogara. So, if a man like Tinubu is spreading this falsehood about budget passage and delay being deliberately orchestrated by the National Assembly leadership, one wonders whether he tries to even debrief his loyalists in the federal legislature at all or if the only thing he discusses with them are issues concerning “jockeying and maneuvering for influence”.

 7. We challenge Tinubu to give instances of where and how Saraki delayed or distorted or padded national budgets. We also challenge him to name the “self interested legislation” that were sponsored by Dr. Saraki.

 8. Tinubu also claimed that the Senate leadership “stymied APC legislative initiatives while attempting to hoist noxious reactionary and self interested legislation on the nation”. We wonder what these “legislative initiatives” are because in the four years of the Buhari administration, it has only forwarded six bills to the Senate, apart form the routine annual appropriations and supplementary budget proposals. Two of these bills, the Mutual Assistance in Criminal Matters Bill and the National Minimum Wage Bill,  have been passed. One of the bills, the Money Laundering Prevention and Prohibition Act (amendment) Bill was withdrawn by the executive following the disagreement between the Attorney General and the Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). The remaining three - National Water Resources Bill, National Centre for Disease Control and Prevention Establishment Bill, Federal Institute of Industrial Research for the Development of Micro, Small and Large Industries Bills - are at various stages of passage.

 9. One would have thought that an administration which promised change will be interested in radical reforms in various sectors which will necessitate initiating many legislations to that effect. However, since a man like Tinubu who claim to be helping the government “to reform the national economy for the good of all Nigerians” is only interested in “jockeying and maneuvering for influence” as he rightly admitted in his statement, then Nigerians should know why the country is where it is and from where the promise of change by the APC government has been stymied and undermined.

10. As a leader of the Eighth National Assembly, Dr. Saraki is proud that under his watch, the Senate has surpassed the records of all previous Senate in the number of bills passed, the significance of these bills to the revival of the economy, the fight against insecurity and corruption, improvement in the provision of health service and the education sector, as well as better social service delivery  to the generality of the people. The bills passed, motions moved, intervention made and frequent engagement with the people were all directed towards addressing the day to day issues that affect the lives of the ordinary Nigerians. This Senate has passed 282 bills (the highest any Senate had passed is 129 bills recorded by the 5th Senate), among which is the Mutual Assistance in Criminal Matters Act, Public Procurement Act (amendment) Bill, Petroleum Industry Governance Bill, Electoral Act (amendment) Bill, Police Reform Bill, Police Trust Fund Bill, Nigeria Railways Authority Bill, Company and Allied Matters Act (amendment) Bill, Secured Credit Transactions Act, Whistleblowers Protection Bill, constitution amendment bills, Discrimination Against Persons With Disability Bill, Electronic Transaction Bill, Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act, North East Development Commission (NEDC) Act, Witness Protection Programme Bill, Credit Bureau Reporting Bill, Sexual Harassment in Tertiary Educational Institution Bill and Compulsory Treatment and Care of Victims of Gunshots Bill, National Financial Intelligence Agency Act, Federal Audit Services Commission Bill, among others. It will be good to know which of these Bills Tinubu believes is “self interested” and not in the interest of Nigerians.

 11. We will like to point the attention of Mr. Tinubu to the fact that most of the bills listed above got international and national endorsement from stakeholders who lauded the Senate for the move. For example, the Financial Intelligence Database Agency (Ultrascan) commended the Senate for passing the NFIU Act which enabled the country to be re-admitted into the Egmont Group. Also, the Nigerian Police leadership have praised the Senate for passing the Police Reforms Bill and the Police Trust Fund Bill. Again, when the National Assembly in the 2018 budget gave effect to the law allowing one percent of the budget to be devoted to Primary Health Care Delivery, it got kudos for Bill Gates, Bono, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus of WHO, and various national groups who believe the move would bring health care delivery to the poor people across the country. The passage of the UBEC Act (amendment) Bill was praised by Pakistani child education campaigner and youngest Nobel Laureate, Yousafzai Malala. When the PIGB was passed, APC led by Tinubu, National Association of Petroleum Explorationists (NAPE), among others. Even, the World Bank commended the National Assembly for the passage of the Company and Allied Matters Act and Secured Transactions in Movable Assets and Credit Bureau Reporting Act. Of course, all these initiatives will be ignored by a man who is still sulking because his vow in 2015 that Saraki and Dogara will never lead the National Assembly did not materialize.

12. Tinubu and his mob have been sponsoring the narratives in the media that the emergence of the present leadership of the National Assembly was a mistake. We hereby submit that Dr. Saraki and other leaders of the National Assembly were democratically elected by their colleagues. And it is because they are the choice of their colleagues that they have remained in office for the past 46 months, despite all the plots hatched by anti-democratic, reactionary and fascist elements pretending to be ‘progressives’. In fact, Tinubu should know that if there was any mistake made on June 9, 2015, It was the miscalculation by himself and his small cabal in the APC who felt they could decide for the Senators-elect and House of Representatives Members-elect. When they failed after their grand-standing that they could always got whatever they desired, they resorted to undermining the institution of the legislature  and waging a campaign of calumny against the law making body. It is now clear that those who took Senators away from the chambers contrary to the directive contained in the proclamation signed by President Muhammadu Buhari on June 9, 2015 are ‘mistake personified’. It is obvious that If they repeat that arrogance during the inauguration of the Ninth National Assembly they will fail again because Nigeria is greater than them. The institution of the legislature is bigger than the over-bloated egos of these power mongers and dirty schemers.

13. Let us repeat again that we know that a Machiavellian politician like Tinubu will forever agonize over his erroneous belief that Dr. Saraki frustrated his ambition from becoming running mate to President Muhammadu Buhari through a Muslim-Muslim ticket in 2015. In his usual cavalier manner, he will stop at nothing to punish Saraki for that. We know that this his attack is not about the interest of the nation or that of any President Muhammadu Buhari. It is about his 2023 ambition and it is obvious in the statement as he struggled to explain this away.

14. However, Tinubu should leave Dr. Saraki out of his schemes and manipulations towards 2023. It is obvious his arbitrary and tactless interference in the process towards the emergence of the leadership of the Ninth Assembly is already falling flat in his face. The frustration from this experience might have been responsible for this needless and baseless outbursts. Our only advice for him is that if he is interested in the stability of the National Assembly, he should allow the members to freely elect their leadership. History should have thought him that only a leadership that truly enjoy the support of members can help the President and his administration to achieve their objectives. It is a good development that the candidates for the various positions are already reaching out to their colleagues and forging alliances.

15. The Eighth Senate has done very well and left a good legacy. Despite all the underhand tactics to undermine the legislature and the public posturing, members have always worked as a team on critical issues that have benefits for our people and our nation. That is why hitherto unachievable legislations like the PIGB, Police Reforms Act and other bills or amendments to existing laws were passed with ease because the members and the leadership knows that we are elected as Senators of the Federal Republic not as party representives.

16. Tinubu should know that while we await his attack for the next quarter, we can only advise him to stay on facts.

Signed

Yusuph Olaniyonu
Special Adviser (Media and Publicity to Senate President)

WE WILL NOT ALLOW THE MOUTHPIECE OF THE MASSES TO BE SHUT DOWN.

A  PEACEFUL PROTEST


After the Easter Break,I will be sending my protest letter to the Government house to register my concern on the ill treatment of an Ndokwa Monarch. HRM Enyi Friday. If within one month nothing is done I will lead a protest to government house with the necessary procedures and approval in place. The protest is to let the world know that Ndokwa Nation is the pride of Delta state with plenty of oil companies operating in our land.

The reason for the peaceful protest is to protect our identity and our institutions from further harassment. You don't treat an ijaw or fulani man anyhow in Nigeria. You know why?Their people will revolt.

Our peaceful nature should be honoured and respected. We are law abiding nation,consequently the government should treat us with the honour we deserve.

In this protest, I will be sponsoring it by giving anyone who sacrifices his her time to join  me a transportation fare of #10,000 each. Not as a bribe but for mobilisation. The three local government will be adequately mobilised with men and women. Young and old to save our institutions. The price of freedom is very expensive and to protect the future generation will must absorb the inconveniences of today.

When your king is treated with such insult who are you the subject. Those who talk on our behalf should not be allowed to be shut down by any government agency. Anyone who shuts the voice that speak for the masses has ended up shutting the mouth of the masses and enslaving their future.

At the end of the protest. We will be asking his royal majesty to create more opportunities for our young people in terms of employment and also invest more on human capital development like academic scholarship and skill acquisition programmes. In God we trust.

Please my lovely people share this post so it can go Viral.

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 +447466417895

Comr Henry ufuoma Franklin

A Tale of Two Nigerians, Ahmed and Walter

On Nov 3, 2016, the FG arraigned former Supreme Court Registrar Ahmed Saleh Gambo for sundry acts of corruption including receiving gratification totalling N74.4m from private contractors providing services to the Supreme Court between 2009 and 2016 including the sum of N10million from Willysdave Ltd, N2.4million from Welcon Nigeria Ltd, N16million from Dean Musa Nig. Ltd and N19million from Ababia Ventures Ltd.

The defendants (Gambo and two other senior directors) were also specifically alleged to have diverted N2.2billion belonging to the Supreme Court of Nigeria, into personal bank accounts domiciled at United Bank For Africa Plc with account number 2027642863.

However, in a twist,  on Feb 6, 2017, the FG mysteriously withdrew the charges against Saleh Gambo.

The prosecution counsel simply showed up in court one day and announced that the FG had withdrawn charges against Ahmed Saleh Gambo and the case was struck out.

Shortly after on July 1, 2017,the same Ahmed Gambo Saleh turns up as the Secretary of the National Judicial Council.

Ok erm, what did you say was Justice Walter Onnoghen’s ‘offence’ again?

A group wrote a petition to the Code of Conduct Bureau against the then CJN, he was suspended via a midnight ‘injunction’ from Code of Conduct Tribunal, his statement was obtained and he was arraigned for failing to declare three accounts which held N28m, $56,000 and £23,000.

 At the end of a drama, the CCT reversed its own earlier judicial precedent, assumed jurisdiction and convicted him, banning him for 10yrs.

His suspension, trial and conviction was superintended by Muhammadu Buhari (President), Abubakar Malami (AGF), Umar Danladi (CCT Chairman), Aliyu Umar (Prosecuting Counsel) and the major beneficiary is Tanko Mohammed (Acting CJN).

So that’s how the allegations of corruption against two Nigerians, Ahmed and Walter, were handled within the same corruption-fighting administration.

We know what is wrong with us in this country.

Ikechukwu Obi