EMMA OKWUAHABA
EX-IM BANK HELPS ILLINOIS SMALL BUSINESS EXPORT EQUIPMENT TO MAKE
INJECTABLE MEDICINES AND BOTTLED WATER FOR NIGERIAN POPULATION
Illinois Jobs Created, Nigerian Health To Be Enhanced
Forty new U.S. jobs will be created and Nigeria's access to life-saving medical supplies will be enhanced when American Plastics Technologies Inc. (APT), Schiller Park, Ill., sells equipment to make intravenous (IV) solutions, injectable medicines and bottled water to Nigeria. The export sale will be backed by an Export-Import Bank of the United States (Ex-Im Bank) long-term loan guarantee.
Alpha Fluids Limited of Lagos will use the equipment to make sterile, high-quality IV solutions, medical drips, and vitamin-enriched bottled waters and medical beverages in a new plant in Asaba in southern Nigeria. In addition to providing the equipment, APT, a 60-employee manufacturer located in the Chicago suburbs, will provide installation, training, and operations services for the new facility.
Ex-Im Bank will guarantee a $15.5 million loan from the Private Export Funding Corporation (PEFCO), New York, N.Y., to support the sale. Oceanic Bank International Plc of Abuja, Nigeria, also will guarantee the transaction.
"This project is going to change thousands of lives for the better, for several generations to come in Nigeria -- it is such a life-saving thing," said Dr. Rao Murukurthy, APT chief executive officer. "And it will enable our company to add 40 U.S. employees immediately to help with installation, operations and maintenance at the new plant."
"This transaction furthers two of Ex-Im Bank's highest priorities: strengthening support for U.S. small business exports and increasing exports to buyers in sub-Saharan Africa. In addition, it will enable Alpha Fluids to provide quality products to enhance health care in Nigerian hospitals," said Ex-Im Bank Chairman Fred P. Hochberg. "It is especially important to find ways to expand this type of Ex-Im Bank support during these challenging economic times."
Nigeria lacks sufficient domestic production capacity to meet the country's need for intravenous solutions. With the prevalence of malaria and other diseases that require high IV fluid usage, the World Health Organization estimates that the annual demand would increase dramatically. Alpha Fluids' new plant will have an annual production capacity of 9 million 500-milliliter bottles of IV solutions, and 24 million bottles (500-milliliter, 1 liter and 1.5 liter) of medical/energy beverages.
The project's proximity to a nearby airport under construction and to the Niger River will allow for eventual exportation of product to neighboring West Africa states, thereby extending the project's health benefits to residents of those countries.
Sixteen U.S. suppliers from across the country, eight of them small businesses, are participants in the APT export.
Ex-Im Bank is the official export-credit agency of the United States. The independent, self-sustaining federal agency, now in its 75th year, helps create and maintain U.S. jobs by financing the sale of U.S. exports, primarily to emerging markets throughout the world, by providing loan guarantees, export-credit insurance and direct loans. In fiscal year 2008, Ex-Im Bank authorized $14.4 billion in financing to support an estimated $19.6 billion of U.S. exports worldwide. Eighty-six percent of nearly 2,328 transactions directly benefited small-business exporters. Of the total Ex-Im Bank authorizations, $570.5 million supported exports to sub-Saharan Africa.
Monday, July 5, 2010
Response to Facebook Page Thrills Jonathan
Ugochukwu Ezeagwula
President Goodluck Jonathan has expressed delight at the immense response his new Facebook fan page has received in its first days.
Jonathan made good his promise to set up a page on the social networking site Facebook, after his profile was uploaded last Monday. Within four days, the President has registered 50,000 fans, more than any Nigerian politician on the network.
Jonathan had during a working visit to Rivers State on May 15 this year promised to set up a profile page where he will directly interact with Nigerian youths and sought their opinion on the way forward for the country.
Monitoring of the page indicates that while pages of other Nigerian politicians have an average of 80 to 200 comments posted per day, Jonathan's page has an average of 1500 comments per day.
A look at the comments show they are mostly messages of solidarity from Nigerians from all walks of life cutting across the geo-political zones.
Giving an insight into the huge following the President gets from the online community, one of the pioneers of Internet campaigns, Joe Trippi said it is always rare to find a connection between the youth of a country and the head of the political leadership of that country.
“In Goodluck Jonathan however, the Nigerian youth have found a rallying point. “They see an unassuming leader who emerged in almost divine circumstances and who is not the typical type of Nigerian politician and they are flocking to him like the Pied Piper of Hammelin and what I would just advise is for him to ride the crest of the wave,” Trippi, the author of the best selling “The Revolution will not be Televised,” he told us from his base in the United States of America.
Also speaking on the issue, a US-based Nigerian and VP Africa at Joe Trippi and Associates, Reno Omokri, said the phenomenal growth of the President's facebook fan page is an indication of his popularity and if he can act on the feedback from Nigerians who comment in their thousands on the page he should be able to sustain this popularity.
According to Omokri, "if for instance Jonathan wants to know what the public feels about any issue in particular, all he has to do is make that issue the subject of his facebook update and within minutes he would have gotten the honest opinions of hundreds of Nigerians from all shades of life."
Asked for his reaction on the issue, the Special Assistant to the President of Strategy, Mr. Oronto Douglas said the President is delighted with the new avenue of interaction with Nigerians, especially the youths.
“I must say that Mr. President is pleasantly surprised at the response from the people of Nigeria to his page particularly as he manages and monitors it personally.
“The feedback we glean from the almost 2,000 comments posted on the page by Nigerians daily has started helping and will continue helping Mr. President feel the pulse of the public as he takes decisions that affect Nigerians everyday.”
President Goodluck Jonathan has expressed delight at the immense response his new Facebook fan page has received in its first days.
Jonathan made good his promise to set up a page on the social networking site Facebook, after his profile was uploaded last Monday. Within four days, the President has registered 50,000 fans, more than any Nigerian politician on the network.
Jonathan had during a working visit to Rivers State on May 15 this year promised to set up a profile page where he will directly interact with Nigerian youths and sought their opinion on the way forward for the country.
Monitoring of the page indicates that while pages of other Nigerian politicians have an average of 80 to 200 comments posted per day, Jonathan's page has an average of 1500 comments per day.
A look at the comments show they are mostly messages of solidarity from Nigerians from all walks of life cutting across the geo-political zones.
Giving an insight into the huge following the President gets from the online community, one of the pioneers of Internet campaigns, Joe Trippi said it is always rare to find a connection between the youth of a country and the head of the political leadership of that country.
“In Goodluck Jonathan however, the Nigerian youth have found a rallying point. “They see an unassuming leader who emerged in almost divine circumstances and who is not the typical type of Nigerian politician and they are flocking to him like the Pied Piper of Hammelin and what I would just advise is for him to ride the crest of the wave,” Trippi, the author of the best selling “The Revolution will not be Televised,” he told us from his base in the United States of America.
Also speaking on the issue, a US-based Nigerian and VP Africa at Joe Trippi and Associates, Reno Omokri, said the phenomenal growth of the President's facebook fan page is an indication of his popularity and if he can act on the feedback from Nigerians who comment in their thousands on the page he should be able to sustain this popularity.
According to Omokri, "if for instance Jonathan wants to know what the public feels about any issue in particular, all he has to do is make that issue the subject of his facebook update and within minutes he would have gotten the honest opinions of hundreds of Nigerians from all shades of life."
Asked for his reaction on the issue, the Special Assistant to the President of Strategy, Mr. Oronto Douglas said the President is delighted with the new avenue of interaction with Nigerians, especially the youths.
“I must say that Mr. President is pleasantly surprised at the response from the people of Nigeria to his page particularly as he manages and monitors it personally.
“The feedback we glean from the almost 2,000 comments posted on the page by Nigerians daily has started helping and will continue helping Mr. President feel the pulse of the public as he takes decisions that affect Nigerians everyday.”
NGIGE'S DISCIPLES EYE APGA TOO
Celestine Anyiba
Realising that their party, Action Congress, AC, is dead and awaiting burial in Anambra State, members of Ngige's kitchen cabinet, it has been gathered, are seriously considering crossing over to the bride of the moment, APGA.
According to an aide of Ngige, popularly called Uduakomili, those members are sick and tired of all the pretence in AC that all is well with the party. Already, he disclosed, the party's current state chairman, Ndubisi Nwobu, who was recently kidnapped and released, is already one foot outside AC although his eventual destination is yet unclear.
The recent resurgence of APGA in the south east has triggered off a chain reaction. The first to take the plunge was the Abia State governor, Theodore Orji, who decamped with his cabinet and house members to APGA. The next day, it was the turn of the Anambra house members two of who declared for APGA too. Feelers are that more will toe that path very soon, with the 2011 elections looming.
It is very clear that APGA, the party that was unjustly robbed of his mandate in 2003, has been chosen by God as an instrument of uniting Igbos. It is now believed that any Igboman who fights APGA now is a traitor to the Igbo cause.
From all indications, Ngige will soon discover to his humiliation that he will be the only left in AC, a Yoruba party. Certainly, nemesis has caught up with him as the party he did everything to destabilize has now triumphed and become the light of Ndigbo.
Realising that their party, Action Congress, AC, is dead and awaiting burial in Anambra State, members of Ngige's kitchen cabinet, it has been gathered, are seriously considering crossing over to the bride of the moment, APGA.
According to an aide of Ngige, popularly called Uduakomili, those members are sick and tired of all the pretence in AC that all is well with the party. Already, he disclosed, the party's current state chairman, Ndubisi Nwobu, who was recently kidnapped and released, is already one foot outside AC although his eventual destination is yet unclear.
The recent resurgence of APGA in the south east has triggered off a chain reaction. The first to take the plunge was the Abia State governor, Theodore Orji, who decamped with his cabinet and house members to APGA. The next day, it was the turn of the Anambra house members two of who declared for APGA too. Feelers are that more will toe that path very soon, with the 2011 elections looming.
It is very clear that APGA, the party that was unjustly robbed of his mandate in 2003, has been chosen by God as an instrument of uniting Igbos. It is now believed that any Igboman who fights APGA now is a traitor to the Igbo cause.
From all indications, Ngige will soon discover to his humiliation that he will be the only left in AC, a Yoruba party. Certainly, nemesis has caught up with him as the party he did everything to destabilize has now triumphed and become the light of Ndigbo.
PETER OBI AND WATER IN ANAMBRA STATE
EMMA OKWUAHABA
The ongoing debate about the problem of water in Anambra State calls to mind a lot of reflections.
1. When Peter Obi came into office in 2003 he met a defunct Anambra State Water Board. This should not shock one because it is not out of place in a nation eaten deep by endemic corruption where payment is made for no service. This is why it is a fact of certainty when one says that a lot of these otiose and ghost workers are earning salaries in states spread across the Federation. Such decadence and laxity as this is not for the best interest of a nation aiming to become the Super Giant of Africa.
It is interesting to note that while other civil servants laboured in their various ministries these workers were being paid for doing nothing. This situation is highly pathetic both in Anambra State and elsewhere because nowhere in the world can sanity justify the reward of indolence. This is why the situation in Anambra state is particularly pathetic.
2. A government that cannot supply water to its citizens has lost all legitimacy to governance..... Elombah
With the help of the administration of Mr Peter Obi, a lot of effort has gone into providing portable water for the indigenes of Anambra State. Mr Peter Obi assumed office on a remarkable note of efficiency and dexterity. Because of this, he attracted the presence of a host of foreign donors and influences which has improved remarkably the quality of lives of Anambra indigenes. Boreholes that have been sunk in Anambra under his administration run into thousands.
Thus, a question arises as Elombah suggests“ what legitimacy does a governor (or president) who is not able to provide his citizens with portable water to continue in office?
My take: Such governor should RESIGN
It is depressing to note that there are cohorts of such governors in Nigeria. Thrown against this lazy cohort is a man who stands tall and ebullient Gov Peter Obi of Anambra State. Suffice it to say that all rural communities in Anambra state have felt Gov Obi's water project scheme and they bear eloquent testimony.
The Nwafor Orizu water scheme and the Amawbia water scheme are just few examples of the governor's consummate efforts in some semi-urban communities.
The ongoing debate about the problem of water in Anambra State calls to mind a lot of reflections.
1. When Peter Obi came into office in 2003 he met a defunct Anambra State Water Board. This should not shock one because it is not out of place in a nation eaten deep by endemic corruption where payment is made for no service. This is why it is a fact of certainty when one says that a lot of these otiose and ghost workers are earning salaries in states spread across the Federation. Such decadence and laxity as this is not for the best interest of a nation aiming to become the Super Giant of Africa.
It is interesting to note that while other civil servants laboured in their various ministries these workers were being paid for doing nothing. This situation is highly pathetic both in Anambra State and elsewhere because nowhere in the world can sanity justify the reward of indolence. This is why the situation in Anambra state is particularly pathetic.
2. A government that cannot supply water to its citizens has lost all legitimacy to governance..... Elombah
With the help of the administration of Mr Peter Obi, a lot of effort has gone into providing portable water for the indigenes of Anambra State. Mr Peter Obi assumed office on a remarkable note of efficiency and dexterity. Because of this, he attracted the presence of a host of foreign donors and influences which has improved remarkably the quality of lives of Anambra indigenes. Boreholes that have been sunk in Anambra under his administration run into thousands.
Thus, a question arises as Elombah suggests“ what legitimacy does a governor (or president) who is not able to provide his citizens with portable water to continue in office?
My take: Such governor should RESIGN
It is depressing to note that there are cohorts of such governors in Nigeria. Thrown against this lazy cohort is a man who stands tall and ebullient Gov Peter Obi of Anambra State. Suffice it to say that all rural communities in Anambra state have felt Gov Obi's water project scheme and they bear eloquent testimony.
The Nwafor Orizu water scheme and the Amawbia water scheme are just few examples of the governor's consummate efforts in some semi-urban communities.
COLLAPSED IYIAGU CHANNEL CONTRACTOR IS OBI'S FRIEND
Okenwa R. Nwosu, M.D
OBI'S FRAUD THROUGH HIS FRIENDS
The two sons of Izuchukwu motors, Pat and Uchenna Ubajaka were no where to be found in 2003 when Peter Obi was campaigning to become governor. They surfaced after his court victory of 2006.
Obi brought them in and was using them for his many dirty deals. During the impeachment, the ungrateful duo even somehow worked against him. As soon as Obi returned from the impeachment, he quickly brought them in again and is still using them for dirth deals.
The most recent in the deals was the award of Obizi Water scheme to Pat Ubajaka and the Iyiagu flood channel to Uche Ubajaka. Both contratcs worth over 1.5 Billion Naira. Over 1 Billion naira has been paid in both contarcts.
The flag off of both contracts were celebrated. At Obizi, Pat hired one yeye white man to pass off as the manager of his company; while Uche, during the flag off of iyiagu hired equipment in the place which nobody saw soon after the flag-off.
Today, after nearly a year of promises that water will run in Obizi, nothing has happened.
Apart from the successsful opening of the blocked Iyiagu Channel, no impressive work has been done in the place. The culvert he is putting there is failing. The CCC that is constructing smaller culvert at the express uses bigger and thicker iron for casting that the one Uche, who is during bigger culvert, uses. The entire job is fraudulent
Both Uche and pat are during very very shoddy jobs. They lacked the basic competence to do the work they were awarded to do.
Impacable facts show that Obi is merry using them to siphon the State money in the name of over 1 Billion naira contract.
If they are not Obi's business partners, we challenge him to revoke the contracts.
We are out, we shall inform you more on these contarcts.
OBI'S FRAUD THROUGH HIS FRIENDS
The two sons of Izuchukwu motors, Pat and Uchenna Ubajaka were no where to be found in 2003 when Peter Obi was campaigning to become governor. They surfaced after his court victory of 2006.
Obi brought them in and was using them for his many dirty deals. During the impeachment, the ungrateful duo even somehow worked against him. As soon as Obi returned from the impeachment, he quickly brought them in again and is still using them for dirth deals.
The most recent in the deals was the award of Obizi Water scheme to Pat Ubajaka and the Iyiagu flood channel to Uche Ubajaka. Both contratcs worth over 1.5 Billion Naira. Over 1 Billion naira has been paid in both contarcts.
The flag off of both contracts were celebrated. At Obizi, Pat hired one yeye white man to pass off as the manager of his company; while Uche, during the flag off of iyiagu hired equipment in the place which nobody saw soon after the flag-off.
Today, after nearly a year of promises that water will run in Obizi, nothing has happened.
Apart from the successsful opening of the blocked Iyiagu Channel, no impressive work has been done in the place. The culvert he is putting there is failing. The CCC that is constructing smaller culvert at the express uses bigger and thicker iron for casting that the one Uche, who is during bigger culvert, uses. The entire job is fraudulent
Both Uche and pat are during very very shoddy jobs. They lacked the basic competence to do the work they were awarded to do.
Impacable facts show that Obi is merry using them to siphon the State money in the name of over 1 Billion naira contract.
If they are not Obi's business partners, we challenge him to revoke the contracts.
We are out, we shall inform you more on these contarcts.
Stop Jonathan if you can....Clark dares North again
Kenny Ashaka & Godwin Tsa
Ijaw leader, Chief Edwin Kiagbodo Clark, is unhappy with Northerners who are asking President Goodluck Jonathan to wait till 2015. As Clark went on to demolish the postulations of northern elders, he sounded angry. “Is it not true that the trouble between Obasanjo and Atiku started when Atiku wanted to take over from him in 2003 using governors like Ibori who believed that his disagreement with Obasanjo started as a result of Atiku wanting them to support him in 2003?
“Chief Diepreye Alamieyeseigha had his problem with Obasanjo too. He (Alamieyeseigha) wanted to be the running mate of Atiku Abubakar. They all supported him, including Chief Igbinedion and Obasanjo and his wife almost went down on bended knees to appeal to Atiku. So, if there was zoning, which took eight years, why would Atiku emerge from the same government wanting to overthrow Obasanjo?†he rationalized.
As the South South leader expressed disappointment at people like Atiku and former National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), chronicling the roles they played between 2003 and 2007, his anger became more pronounced. But one of the characteristics of Chief Edwin Clark during this exclusive interview was his knack for details.
“The zoning was not meant that one particular section would continue to dominate people. The North has been ruling this country from 1958 or 1957 for 35 years and eight months, both military and civilians. The West has ruled this country for 12 years and the East ruled for only six months when Gen. Aguiyi Ironsi was Head of State.
“But the South South people, the minorities of the south have never produced a president of this country. Therefore, if by God’s wish, He decided that these people who produce the wealth of this country have not been fairly treated, I will give them President, who are those people to challenge the will of God,†he said. Excerpts…
From what you have said in the course of our discussion before this interview, the impression I have is that you don’t believe in zoning of elective offices Would that be right?
I don’t know what you mean by zoning of offices. Every action taken has its own merits and demerits. When you talk about zoning, it means there is injustice; there is bias; there is discrimination being done to a group of people and if you want these injustice and abnormities to be corrected, you now introduce what you call zoning so that everybody will enjoy it. That is the essence of zoning.
In 1979, President Olusegun Obasanjo handed over power to civilians headed by Alhaji Shehu Shagari. We the minorities of the South and of the North believed at that time that we are the only NPN (National Party of Nigeria) people. Whereas in the West, Chief Obafemi Awolowo dominated the politics under UPN (Unity Party of Nigeria), in the East, Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe dominated the politics under NPP (Nigerian Peoples Party). In the North, Alhaji Aminu Kano dominated Kano under PRP (Peoples Redemption Party), while Alhaji Waziri (Ibrahim) dominated the politics of the North East under GNPP (Great Nigeria Peoples Party). We the minorities from the North and of the South were the only people who actually voted for the NPN. But when offices were distributed, the majority ethnic groups took them.
So in 1982-83, we thought that the abnormalities would be corrected. This was how offices were zoned to areas so that they can have the feeling of belonging. That was the reason it was stated that after President Shagari, the presidency could move to the West or to the East. Offices were to depend upon performance. I remember the former NPN chairman, Chief Adisa Akinloye, worked so hard to install Dr Omololu Oluloyo as the governor of Oyo and Chief Bola Ige, the incumbent, was defeated. Similarly, Dr. Alex Ekwueme, who was the Vice President, also wanted to become president. So what did he do? He also worked so hard to install Chief C.C Onoh as the governor of Anambra State to replace the incumbent governor, Chief Jim Nwobodo. These were the issues at that time. The zoning was not meant that one particular section would continue to dominate people.
The North has been ruling this country from 1958 or 1957 for 38 years and eight months; both military and civilians. The South West has ruled this country for 12 years and the South East ruled for only six months when Gen. Aguiyi Ironsi was Head of State. But the South South people, the minorities of the South, have never produced a president of this country. Therefore if by God’s wish, He decided that these people who produce the wealth of this country have not been fairly treated I will give them President, who are those people to challenge the will of God? So zoning is meant to correct injustice like I said, that is, marginalization, discrimination. So people who have not been getting that position, God is saying it is now your turn to be there.
Let me correct one thing here and that is majority of the Northerners do not believe in these few people who are very ambitious that they want to retain power. If you belong to one country, everybody in that country must be on equal basis and capable of ruling the country otherwise we will have a country of first class and second-class citizens.
Now let’s talk about the so-called zoning in PDP (Peoples Democratic Party).
The argument has been said that former President Obasanjo represented the South and ruled for eight years. Chief MKO Abiola (of blessed memory) won an election, which nobody else has won in a similar fashion in this country. But the same people sabotaged him; removed him and at the end, the man died. So when we were now looking back, we said can we now pacify these people by giving them the presidency? So Obasanjo came in under PDP. Under the same arrangement, Chief Olu Falae came under the All Peoples Party (now All Nigeria Peoples Party) with Alhaji (Umaru) Shinkafi as his running mate.
So at that time, could it be said that it was zoning between the west and other parts of the country? It was not a proper arrangement, but it was something done to pacify a people that were wronged, who are part of this country and were wrongly treated. Zoning was introduced to correct the injustice.
So Obasanjo contested the election in 1999 with Alhaji Atiku Abubakar as his running mate. Is it not true that the trouble between Obasanjo and Atiku started when Atiku wanted to take over from him in 2003, using governors like James Ibori, who believed that his disagreement with Obasanjo started as a result of Atiku wanting them to support him in 2003. Chief Diepreye Alamieyeseigha had his own problem with Obasanjo too. He (Alamieyeseigha) was to be the running mate of Atiku Abubakar. They all supported him, including Govenor (Lucky) Igbinedion, and Obasanjo and his wife almost went on bended knees to appeal to Atiku.
So if there was zoning that took eight years, why would Atiku emerge from the same government wanting to overthrow Obasanjo? I think you see the fallacy of the argument. So who are these people? A man like Atiku should be ashamed of himself for doing what he is doing in destabilizing this country. Atiku is not the only person in this country. When he could not succeed, did he not go to form his own party, the Action Congress in order to contest against Obasanjo?
What he could not do under PDP. Obasanjo fought back because the Constitution allows him to contest for a second term. Atiku has no moral courage to do what he is doing today. I have a lot to talk about him when the time comes. We had four meetings together and he knows what he told me and I know what I told him. He is not the only material for presidency in Nigeria. Why should he abandon his party under which he contested in 2007 to join PDP because he wants to be president of Nigeria alone?
But Atiku is not alone in this struggle?
I’m coming; I am talking about PDP. So after Atiku; in fact, Obasanjo’s late wife, who is my sister, Stella, phoned me to appeal to me to talk with (South South) governors to withdraw from Atiku. May her soul rest in perfect peace! So, who are these people talking about eight years and zoning? Even then former governor of Kano State, Alhaji Abubakar Rimi, said he must contest and the same PDP gave him form and he contested. The former PDP national chairman, Chief Barnabas Gemade, who was removed and replaced by Chief Audu Ogbeh, who is now talking about zoning, also paid and the PDP allowed him to contest. So if they had won at that time, would Obasanjo become the President of Nigeria the second time? So people must face reality.
In 2007, what happened? We went to Calabar on October 5, 2007 for a meeting of the South South people under the banner of South South Peoples Assembly (SSPA). There was a Calabar declaration that the South South people must produce the president. I was the leader and we went round the country. The former governor of Rivers State, Dr Peter Odili, was in the forefront.
He went round the whole country and he was received. Former governor of Akwa Ibom, Architect Obong Attah, did the same thing and went round the whole country. Donald Duke, former governor of Cross River State, did the same thing. Then we encouraged Admiral (Mike) Akhigbe, who was number two man to General Abdulsalami Abubakar, and Chief AK Horsfall, who was former Director General of SSS, to contest. We sent delegation under the SSPA to go round the whole of the North. We have records; we have videotapes. Nobody from the North at that time challenged these people that they were not qualified to become president; that the position has been zoned to the North. None of them did.
So Yar’Adua becoming president was not because the position was zoned to the North. Obasanjo wanted someone who would stop Atiku and he knows that the junior to Shehu Yar’Adua who was the mentor of Atiku could do that. He decided to bring him to contest the election. I challenge any Northerner who supported Yar’Adua becoming president of Nigeria on the platform of rotation. None of them did. So a day to the time, Obasanjo in his usual character forced Odili, Attah and Duke to withdraw. They were in constant communication with me on that eve of Friday and Saturday.
So what happened at that time, I challenge any politician from the North who is saying made Yar’Adua to emerge as Nigeria’s president. The only body under Senator Olusola Saraki, called the Northern Union (NU), was negotiating with us that they (North) wanted to produce the next president. We said no it is the turn of the South South. It was Obasanjo who overruled everybody. So no Northerner at anytime had that feeling, whether he was a soldier or civilian. Chief Odili was riding high before Obasanjo brought in Yar’Adua. So Obasanjo imposed Yar’Adua on Nigerians It is either Odili or any other person from the South South that would have been president. I challenge anybody to counter this position.
So why are we having the hullabaloo about zoning if that was the case?
That is why I told you that when people are ambitious, greedy and corrupt, they look for tribe and all what not. Let me also say this. All those who are now agitating that this is the time of the North, are they all PDP members? There are over 51 parties in this country with membership spread across the North Why is it that all Northerners are now singing rotation of the presidency? Are they all in PDP?
But people are saying that for the sake of national interest, Yar’Adua’s vice should take over that tenure and run it to the end. Their thinking is that if he were alive, he would have run for second term. So why don’t you allow the North to have its turn?
Which turn? This is a natural phenomenon. God has taken a decision. If two people are in a plane flying a distance of 80 kilometers and in the process one of them, by God’s doing, dies, the co-pilot takes over. Have you ever heard that the co-pilot comes down for another pilot to fly the plane? All we are saying is that there is a president in this country, unless that president does not want to contest. The same PDP should be mindful, should be decent and honest enough to say that after your period, nobody is asking Jonathan to contest for eight years. It is a four-year business. When it finishes, you go. That is the time both of them could have ruled.
In effect, you are saying it is the turn of the South South or…
(Cuts in) I’m not depending on whether south or north. All I’m saying is that there were two people elected at the same time under the same ticket for four years and another term. In the process, one of them died. The Constitution says the man who was the vice president becomes the president of the country.
But this tenure is just for four years. Why would Jonathan not complete it and go so that another northerner can do the second term?
It is the same PDP that was saying that there was no vacancy in Aso Rock; that Yar’Adua was going to run for eight years before the man died. So all we are saying is that the period Yar’Adua would have stayed should be completed by the vice, who has now become the president. That’s God’s will and nobody should kick against it.
Are you saying Jonathan can go after four years?
Yes, he can go. So as I said, Chief Vincent Ogbulafor made that statement when the nation was at the verge of disintegration as a result of the constitutional crisis because the people who wanted to become president used him to make that statement. And he knows, he is regretting today.
Are sure he is regretting?
Ask him. If he says he is not regretting then I have evidence to show that he is regretting. He allowed himself to be used.
So specifically, you want Jonathan to contest?
That is not the issue. That is beside the issue. Jonathan has not told anybody he wants to contest or doesn’t want to contest. The issue of Jonathan does not arise. I’m talking about what has been happening in this country. I’m talking about conventions. There are leaders. There are followers and those things will always change. In other words, if you are a leader today, tomorrow you will be a follower; if you are a follower today, tomorrow you’ll be a leader. That is Nigeria.
But some Northerners are threatening a break up of the country if we have a southern president?
Those who are saying that are in the minority. Majority of the northerners don’t listen to them. Majority of Northerners who are Nigerians do not believe in these few people.
In a free and fair election, do you think Jonathan can match a northern candidate?
This is not the issue of Jonathan. In any free and fair election, whomever the people decide to vote for takes over.
Did you ever imagine that Abiola was going to win election or defeat Alhaji Bashir Tofa in Kano State?
I’m looking at the groundswell of public opinion from the North.
Well, what is public opinion? The public opinion from the north is that those who are agitating for this rotation are aware of the statement made by the former governor of Kaduna when he said that those who are talking about rotation in the North are in the minority and they are doing it in their own interest. All of them are saying majority of northerners believe that every Nigerian can contest on merit.
Another thing I want to add to this zoning. In 2007, PDP also allowed Rochas Okorocha to contest. What I am saying? Okorocha even came second. He defeated General Aliyu Gusau. He defeated Admiral Akhigbe. He defeated AK Horsfall. That is Okorocha from the South East. Nobody stopped him. Even Obasanjo could not stop him. I think you follow the argument.
So all the arguments about rotation, zoning being propelled by some of these northerners is bunkum. I have told you that Atiku is a selfish man. Atiku believes that he must be president of Nigeria at all costs. That was the reason for his disagreement with Obasanjo. And now he has come back to PDP. I asked him, why did you abandon the party in which you contested election? All he said was that they have no outward look; that his coming to PDP was not to contest presidency. Now even those who followed him have disagreed with him. His own people who campaigned for him before have deserted him. He cannot win election in Adamawa State today.
I have very high regard for General IBB, and therefore I do not want to make any comment about him. I think as time goes on, we will all resolve these issues.
But can you look IBB in the face and tell him to stay off the contest in 2011?
No, not yet. Not yet.
You don’t want to talk about IBB?
I don’t want to…
He is also part of this campaign
No, no, no. I am dealing with them one by one. Publish this one and come again. I will deal with IBB. I will deal with the other man, Tanko Yakassai. I have not dealt with him. I will deal with him. He wants to divide Nigeria; I will deal with him.
(Laughs). Let’s go to the issue of Ibori, because it is still part of politics…
No, no, no. I say go and publish this one.
Recently he said his problem is political, that it has nothing to do with corruption.
Ibori said it?
Yes. Because some people…
(Cuts in) Let us talk about that later. I will give you a full page about Ibori.
I’m wondering what document you have against him…
Listen, you don’t understand me. I have told you, we have done a lot of job about zoning, go and publish everything I have said about zoning. Let Nigerians read my own version of zoning. When you finish, come back for my personal, if you want politics…
You won’t talk about the militants…?
I won’t talk about any other thing now.
Just this one?
Just this one. This one takes about two pages. I have said so much. Are you afraid to publish?
No. you are a busy man. You may not have the…
I will. If you want to come tomorrow after you publish this, I will do it. I am not going away between now and next tomorrow…
(Laughs). Okay let’s talk about the election. What do we expect in 2011?
I said go and do this. I am not talking about issues or individuals now.
Ijaw leader, Chief Edwin Kiagbodo Clark, is unhappy with Northerners who are asking President Goodluck Jonathan to wait till 2015. As Clark went on to demolish the postulations of northern elders, he sounded angry. “Is it not true that the trouble between Obasanjo and Atiku started when Atiku wanted to take over from him in 2003 using governors like Ibori who believed that his disagreement with Obasanjo started as a result of Atiku wanting them to support him in 2003?
“Chief Diepreye Alamieyeseigha had his problem with Obasanjo too. He (Alamieyeseigha) wanted to be the running mate of Atiku Abubakar. They all supported him, including Chief Igbinedion and Obasanjo and his wife almost went down on bended knees to appeal to Atiku. So, if there was zoning, which took eight years, why would Atiku emerge from the same government wanting to overthrow Obasanjo?†he rationalized.
As the South South leader expressed disappointment at people like Atiku and former National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), chronicling the roles they played between 2003 and 2007, his anger became more pronounced. But one of the characteristics of Chief Edwin Clark during this exclusive interview was his knack for details.
“The zoning was not meant that one particular section would continue to dominate people. The North has been ruling this country from 1958 or 1957 for 35 years and eight months, both military and civilians. The West has ruled this country for 12 years and the East ruled for only six months when Gen. Aguiyi Ironsi was Head of State.
“But the South South people, the minorities of the south have never produced a president of this country. Therefore, if by God’s wish, He decided that these people who produce the wealth of this country have not been fairly treated, I will give them President, who are those people to challenge the will of God,†he said. Excerpts…
From what you have said in the course of our discussion before this interview, the impression I have is that you don’t believe in zoning of elective offices Would that be right?
I don’t know what you mean by zoning of offices. Every action taken has its own merits and demerits. When you talk about zoning, it means there is injustice; there is bias; there is discrimination being done to a group of people and if you want these injustice and abnormities to be corrected, you now introduce what you call zoning so that everybody will enjoy it. That is the essence of zoning.
In 1979, President Olusegun Obasanjo handed over power to civilians headed by Alhaji Shehu Shagari. We the minorities of the South and of the North believed at that time that we are the only NPN (National Party of Nigeria) people. Whereas in the West, Chief Obafemi Awolowo dominated the politics under UPN (Unity Party of Nigeria), in the East, Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe dominated the politics under NPP (Nigerian Peoples Party). In the North, Alhaji Aminu Kano dominated Kano under PRP (Peoples Redemption Party), while Alhaji Waziri (Ibrahim) dominated the politics of the North East under GNPP (Great Nigeria Peoples Party). We the minorities from the North and of the South were the only people who actually voted for the NPN. But when offices were distributed, the majority ethnic groups took them.
So in 1982-83, we thought that the abnormalities would be corrected. This was how offices were zoned to areas so that they can have the feeling of belonging. That was the reason it was stated that after President Shagari, the presidency could move to the West or to the East. Offices were to depend upon performance. I remember the former NPN chairman, Chief Adisa Akinloye, worked so hard to install Dr Omololu Oluloyo as the governor of Oyo and Chief Bola Ige, the incumbent, was defeated. Similarly, Dr. Alex Ekwueme, who was the Vice President, also wanted to become president. So what did he do? He also worked so hard to install Chief C.C Onoh as the governor of Anambra State to replace the incumbent governor, Chief Jim Nwobodo. These were the issues at that time. The zoning was not meant that one particular section would continue to dominate people.
The North has been ruling this country from 1958 or 1957 for 38 years and eight months; both military and civilians. The South West has ruled this country for 12 years and the South East ruled for only six months when Gen. Aguiyi Ironsi was Head of State. But the South South people, the minorities of the South, have never produced a president of this country. Therefore if by God’s wish, He decided that these people who produce the wealth of this country have not been fairly treated I will give them President, who are those people to challenge the will of God? So zoning is meant to correct injustice like I said, that is, marginalization, discrimination. So people who have not been getting that position, God is saying it is now your turn to be there.
Let me correct one thing here and that is majority of the Northerners do not believe in these few people who are very ambitious that they want to retain power. If you belong to one country, everybody in that country must be on equal basis and capable of ruling the country otherwise we will have a country of first class and second-class citizens.
Now let’s talk about the so-called zoning in PDP (Peoples Democratic Party).
The argument has been said that former President Obasanjo represented the South and ruled for eight years. Chief MKO Abiola (of blessed memory) won an election, which nobody else has won in a similar fashion in this country. But the same people sabotaged him; removed him and at the end, the man died. So when we were now looking back, we said can we now pacify these people by giving them the presidency? So Obasanjo came in under PDP. Under the same arrangement, Chief Olu Falae came under the All Peoples Party (now All Nigeria Peoples Party) with Alhaji (Umaru) Shinkafi as his running mate.
So at that time, could it be said that it was zoning between the west and other parts of the country? It was not a proper arrangement, but it was something done to pacify a people that were wronged, who are part of this country and were wrongly treated. Zoning was introduced to correct the injustice.
So Obasanjo contested the election in 1999 with Alhaji Atiku Abubakar as his running mate. Is it not true that the trouble between Obasanjo and Atiku started when Atiku wanted to take over from him in 2003, using governors like James Ibori, who believed that his disagreement with Obasanjo started as a result of Atiku wanting them to support him in 2003. Chief Diepreye Alamieyeseigha had his own problem with Obasanjo too. He (Alamieyeseigha) was to be the running mate of Atiku Abubakar. They all supported him, including Govenor (Lucky) Igbinedion, and Obasanjo and his wife almost went on bended knees to appeal to Atiku.
So if there was zoning that took eight years, why would Atiku emerge from the same government wanting to overthrow Obasanjo? I think you see the fallacy of the argument. So who are these people? A man like Atiku should be ashamed of himself for doing what he is doing in destabilizing this country. Atiku is not the only person in this country. When he could not succeed, did he not go to form his own party, the Action Congress in order to contest against Obasanjo?
What he could not do under PDP. Obasanjo fought back because the Constitution allows him to contest for a second term. Atiku has no moral courage to do what he is doing today. I have a lot to talk about him when the time comes. We had four meetings together and he knows what he told me and I know what I told him. He is not the only material for presidency in Nigeria. Why should he abandon his party under which he contested in 2007 to join PDP because he wants to be president of Nigeria alone?
But Atiku is not alone in this struggle?
I’m coming; I am talking about PDP. So after Atiku; in fact, Obasanjo’s late wife, who is my sister, Stella, phoned me to appeal to me to talk with (South South) governors to withdraw from Atiku. May her soul rest in perfect peace! So, who are these people talking about eight years and zoning? Even then former governor of Kano State, Alhaji Abubakar Rimi, said he must contest and the same PDP gave him form and he contested. The former PDP national chairman, Chief Barnabas Gemade, who was removed and replaced by Chief Audu Ogbeh, who is now talking about zoning, also paid and the PDP allowed him to contest. So if they had won at that time, would Obasanjo become the President of Nigeria the second time? So people must face reality.
In 2007, what happened? We went to Calabar on October 5, 2007 for a meeting of the South South people under the banner of South South Peoples Assembly (SSPA). There was a Calabar declaration that the South South people must produce the president. I was the leader and we went round the country. The former governor of Rivers State, Dr Peter Odili, was in the forefront.
He went round the whole country and he was received. Former governor of Akwa Ibom, Architect Obong Attah, did the same thing and went round the whole country. Donald Duke, former governor of Cross River State, did the same thing. Then we encouraged Admiral (Mike) Akhigbe, who was number two man to General Abdulsalami Abubakar, and Chief AK Horsfall, who was former Director General of SSS, to contest. We sent delegation under the SSPA to go round the whole of the North. We have records; we have videotapes. Nobody from the North at that time challenged these people that they were not qualified to become president; that the position has been zoned to the North. None of them did.
So Yar’Adua becoming president was not because the position was zoned to the North. Obasanjo wanted someone who would stop Atiku and he knows that the junior to Shehu Yar’Adua who was the mentor of Atiku could do that. He decided to bring him to contest the election. I challenge any Northerner who supported Yar’Adua becoming president of Nigeria on the platform of rotation. None of them did. So a day to the time, Obasanjo in his usual character forced Odili, Attah and Duke to withdraw. They were in constant communication with me on that eve of Friday and Saturday.
So what happened at that time, I challenge any politician from the North who is saying made Yar’Adua to emerge as Nigeria’s president. The only body under Senator Olusola Saraki, called the Northern Union (NU), was negotiating with us that they (North) wanted to produce the next president. We said no it is the turn of the South South. It was Obasanjo who overruled everybody. So no Northerner at anytime had that feeling, whether he was a soldier or civilian. Chief Odili was riding high before Obasanjo brought in Yar’Adua. So Obasanjo imposed Yar’Adua on Nigerians It is either Odili or any other person from the South South that would have been president. I challenge anybody to counter this position.
So why are we having the hullabaloo about zoning if that was the case?
That is why I told you that when people are ambitious, greedy and corrupt, they look for tribe and all what not. Let me also say this. All those who are now agitating that this is the time of the North, are they all PDP members? There are over 51 parties in this country with membership spread across the North Why is it that all Northerners are now singing rotation of the presidency? Are they all in PDP?
But people are saying that for the sake of national interest, Yar’Adua’s vice should take over that tenure and run it to the end. Their thinking is that if he were alive, he would have run for second term. So why don’t you allow the North to have its turn?
Which turn? This is a natural phenomenon. God has taken a decision. If two people are in a plane flying a distance of 80 kilometers and in the process one of them, by God’s doing, dies, the co-pilot takes over. Have you ever heard that the co-pilot comes down for another pilot to fly the plane? All we are saying is that there is a president in this country, unless that president does not want to contest. The same PDP should be mindful, should be decent and honest enough to say that after your period, nobody is asking Jonathan to contest for eight years. It is a four-year business. When it finishes, you go. That is the time both of them could have ruled.
In effect, you are saying it is the turn of the South South or…
(Cuts in) I’m not depending on whether south or north. All I’m saying is that there were two people elected at the same time under the same ticket for four years and another term. In the process, one of them died. The Constitution says the man who was the vice president becomes the president of the country.
But this tenure is just for four years. Why would Jonathan not complete it and go so that another northerner can do the second term?
It is the same PDP that was saying that there was no vacancy in Aso Rock; that Yar’Adua was going to run for eight years before the man died. So all we are saying is that the period Yar’Adua would have stayed should be completed by the vice, who has now become the president. That’s God’s will and nobody should kick against it.
Are you saying Jonathan can go after four years?
Yes, he can go. So as I said, Chief Vincent Ogbulafor made that statement when the nation was at the verge of disintegration as a result of the constitutional crisis because the people who wanted to become president used him to make that statement. And he knows, he is regretting today.
Are sure he is regretting?
Ask him. If he says he is not regretting then I have evidence to show that he is regretting. He allowed himself to be used.
So specifically, you want Jonathan to contest?
That is not the issue. That is beside the issue. Jonathan has not told anybody he wants to contest or doesn’t want to contest. The issue of Jonathan does not arise. I’m talking about what has been happening in this country. I’m talking about conventions. There are leaders. There are followers and those things will always change. In other words, if you are a leader today, tomorrow you will be a follower; if you are a follower today, tomorrow you’ll be a leader. That is Nigeria.
But some Northerners are threatening a break up of the country if we have a southern president?
Those who are saying that are in the minority. Majority of the northerners don’t listen to them. Majority of Northerners who are Nigerians do not believe in these few people.
In a free and fair election, do you think Jonathan can match a northern candidate?
This is not the issue of Jonathan. In any free and fair election, whomever the people decide to vote for takes over.
Did you ever imagine that Abiola was going to win election or defeat Alhaji Bashir Tofa in Kano State?
I’m looking at the groundswell of public opinion from the North.
Well, what is public opinion? The public opinion from the north is that those who are agitating for this rotation are aware of the statement made by the former governor of Kaduna when he said that those who are talking about rotation in the North are in the minority and they are doing it in their own interest. All of them are saying majority of northerners believe that every Nigerian can contest on merit.
Another thing I want to add to this zoning. In 2007, PDP also allowed Rochas Okorocha to contest. What I am saying? Okorocha even came second. He defeated General Aliyu Gusau. He defeated Admiral Akhigbe. He defeated AK Horsfall. That is Okorocha from the South East. Nobody stopped him. Even Obasanjo could not stop him. I think you follow the argument.
So all the arguments about rotation, zoning being propelled by some of these northerners is bunkum. I have told you that Atiku is a selfish man. Atiku believes that he must be president of Nigeria at all costs. That was the reason for his disagreement with Obasanjo. And now he has come back to PDP. I asked him, why did you abandon the party in which you contested election? All he said was that they have no outward look; that his coming to PDP was not to contest presidency. Now even those who followed him have disagreed with him. His own people who campaigned for him before have deserted him. He cannot win election in Adamawa State today.
I have very high regard for General IBB, and therefore I do not want to make any comment about him. I think as time goes on, we will all resolve these issues.
But can you look IBB in the face and tell him to stay off the contest in 2011?
No, not yet. Not yet.
You don’t want to talk about IBB?
I don’t want to…
He is also part of this campaign
No, no, no. I am dealing with them one by one. Publish this one and come again. I will deal with IBB. I will deal with the other man, Tanko Yakassai. I have not dealt with him. I will deal with him. He wants to divide Nigeria; I will deal with him.
(Laughs). Let’s go to the issue of Ibori, because it is still part of politics…
No, no, no. I say go and publish this one.
Recently he said his problem is political, that it has nothing to do with corruption.
Ibori said it?
Yes. Because some people…
(Cuts in) Let us talk about that later. I will give you a full page about Ibori.
I’m wondering what document you have against him…
Listen, you don’t understand me. I have told you, we have done a lot of job about zoning, go and publish everything I have said about zoning. Let Nigerians read my own version of zoning. When you finish, come back for my personal, if you want politics…
You won’t talk about the militants…?
I won’t talk about any other thing now.
Just this one?
Just this one. This one takes about two pages. I have said so much. Are you afraid to publish?
No. you are a busy man. You may not have the…
I will. If you want to come tomorrow after you publish this, I will do it. I am not going away between now and next tomorrow…
(Laughs). Okay let’s talk about the election. What do we expect in 2011?
I said go and do this. I am not talking about issues or individuals now.
FIFA Vs. Nigeria: President Goodluck Chickens Out..
Nigeria 'drops team ban threat'
The Nigerian government has rescinded its decision to ban the national football team from all competitions, according to reports.
The news came one hour before a 1700 BST deadline set by football's world governing body Fifa was set to pass.
Fifa had said that it would expel Nigeria from world football if the government was seen to be interfering.
Last week President Goodluck Jonathan said that after the team's poor World Cup they would be banned for two years.
On Sunday, the Nigerian Football Federation's (NFF) top two officials were sacked in a bid to appease the president.
A source told the BBC that the sackings had not swayed the president's decision, but that the NFF had requested to meet with the president on Monday to hold emergency talks ahead of Fifa's deadline.
President Jonathan had said that the ban was necessary to "enable the country to put its house in order".
BBC SPORT
The Nigerian government has rescinded its decision to ban the national football team from all competitions, according to reports.
The news came one hour before a 1700 BST deadline set by football's world governing body Fifa was set to pass.
Fifa had said that it would expel Nigeria from world football if the government was seen to be interfering.
Last week President Goodluck Jonathan said that after the team's poor World Cup they would be banned for two years.
On Sunday, the Nigerian Football Federation's (NFF) top two officials were sacked in a bid to appease the president.
A source told the BBC that the sackings had not swayed the president's decision, but that the NFF had requested to meet with the president on Monday to hold emergency talks ahead of Fifa's deadline.
President Jonathan had said that the ban was necessary to "enable the country to put its house in order".
BBC SPORT
I HVAE NO RELATIONSHIP WITH IBB......OHAKIM
We are still in semi-primitive society.....Ohakim
Ikedi Ohakim, Imo State governor In 2007, Ikedi Ohakim was elected governor of
Imo State on the platform of the Progressive Peoples’ Alliance (PPA). He later
defected to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), a move that was described by
many as an unwise decision. But in this interview with journalists recently in
Abuja, he speaks on why he made the decision and his passion to transform Imo
State. Our Correspondent, TONY AILEMEN was there.
Excerpts...
Your Excellency, to what extent would you say you have met the aspirations of
your people as far as provision of infrastructure is concerned?
As a governor, I am not a building contractor that is judged by the number of
roads he has built or number of bridges he has constructed. That is a factor of
how much money you get from the federal government, it does not show leadership.
But the media seem to be confused about those who are working and those who are
tarrying roads. Somebody like me doesn’t take that as important because we
take it as our primary responsibility.
In Imo, we have done more roads than all the governors put together since 1976
when the state was created, similarly we have done more water projects, but that
is not the issue, we have set up institutions.
For example, we have Stock Exchange right now in the state, we have Court of
Appeal, which has never happened before, we have Imo State Investment Promotion
Agency, we have something like the old PWD, controlling everywhere we have
christened IRROMA - Imo Rural Roads Maintenance, Agency that has attracted World
Bank Partnership with Imo state government. The media don’t even look at the
impacts of the creation of these institutions.
You can also look at where somebody is coming from; take the example of my
friend from Lagos State, Tinubu laid the foundation, he designed all the roads
and sourced the money. Gov Babatunde Fashola just came in and latched onto it
from day one and started running. But in Imo state, we came in and met no law on
maintenance of infrastructure, no design for the Government House, no
engineering survey, no inherited road designs, no study, nothing. What they were
doing was just to get money from the federal government and share it.
Now, we are doing the conceptualization, design, study, looking for the manpower
to execute and at the same time looking for the finances to execute the
projects. We are starting everything from the scratch. Despite all these, we are
still running faster than most of the states.
A lot of people have criticized your leadership styles. For example, some
believe that you have spent more time talking than working. How would you react
to this?
What we have are criminal minded political class that have no place where they
put akara to sell, yet their expenditure profile in a month is not less than
N10million to N20million. They have over 50 people following them and the only
way they can finance that kind of life style is to harass the government in
power.
But we decided in Imo that will not solve the problem. So we decided to use the
resources of the people to help everybody, including the big politicians, to
succeed. When we pulled out 10,000 jobs on offer, Nigerians said it is
impossible.
Today, you can see that we are making it possible. We are taking 10,000
graduates and we got KPMG to act as consultants for the project. The son of a
poor man does not require anybody to help him to get the job under the system
when he can use his brain. When we said we are taking 30,000 people as sweepers
and cleaners of the environment, people thought it was impossible. Today they
are all working.
We are now creating the Wonder Lake Resort, which fortunately for us, former
American President Bill Clinton will be coming with our own President Goodluck
Jonathan to do the ground breaking ceremony in August this year.
That project is expected to employ no less than 40,000 people. We set up Job
Centre as the first of its kind in Nigeria. We are people of ideas; we took some
of our youths to the present ongoing World Cup and all of them came back to
Nigeria. We exposed them to leadership training, how to maintain good
environment.
As I speak now, I have no fewer than 600 people on government scholarship
abroad; those who are going to be leaders of tomorrow, yet the media will not
see all these things.
There is something Champion Newspapers did for us, they called it "Special
Edition" with special focus on what we have been able to achieve in the past
three years. They examined what we had done comparing it with what the past
administration did in Imo; I want you to take a look at it. Take time to go
through it and you will see how far we have gone.
What I want you to do is to tell the world the truth, present the picture as it
is; to stop these people who are using the media to harass me to give them
money, because I am not ready to "dash out" the people’s hard earned money to
anybody.
I have a contract with the people of Imo that every penny I spend must have
added value to their lives. Even if I do not go for second term, I am not
interested. I have never in a day slept more than three hours since I became
governor.
I have attracted projects of N250billion to Imo state from the federal
government. I make bold to say that no state governor in Nigeria under this
dispensation has been able to achieve this. Whatever I took to former President
Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, he signed for me.
He approved the Alvan Ikoku College of Education project, which saves me N40
million of my subvention every month. He gave me a road worth N3.5 billion,
three sub power stations worth N7billion, Silos in Okigwe worth N7billion,
dredging of Nworie River worth N8billion, Ugwuta Naval Base, Court of Appeal,
and so on.
Now NNPC is partnering us on the petroleum refinery that we are constructing.
They are giving us about six oil wells to put in our refinery. Nobody... and I
say it, you can verify it anywhere, no governor has been able to do this much,
South East, South-South, South-West, North-West.
For you to be able to do these things, you must be able to package yourself,
package the project, put the potential, sell it, and get presidential
endorsement. Despite the highly competing interests, I was able to do this. So
that will tell you what we are doing now for our state. If you enter Owerri
today, it is like any of the major cities in the advanced societies such as
Johannesburg or Paris.
Any time I travel abroad and come back to Owerri, I become a happy man. And I
want to seize this opportunity to tell you that I am one of the happiest people
in this country. I have done exceedingly well. I am going to give you some of my
books to read. I am writing a book now which I entitled "The Consequence of
Courage." I have written the "Courage to Challenge." The new book talks about
the consequence of all the decision I have taken. They call it "The Ten Flash
Points of Governor Ohakim."
I banned Okada first in Nigeria and people thought that hell will let loose; I
have one of the best city transport systems called the IMTS - Imo Municipal
Transport System. I have taken agriculture to the next level.
Among the states in Nigeria, only Imo state got N8billion facility from this new
Central Bank facility for agriculture. This is partly because we have an ongoing
partnership project with a South African company called AGRONOVA.
That agricultural programme we are running now is going to give employment to
over 50,000 people in Imo State. All these things we have done to give
governance new meaning in Imo state. I also know that there is no governor in
Nigeria that has given more executive bills to the legislature like we have done
in Imo state.
Just last week alone, I signed 8 bills into law, all executive bills from me
alone! When I was commissioner between 1991 and 1993, I was the only
commissioner that was sending bills to the State House of Assembly; no other
commissioner did as much as I did then. I have given more laws than the House of
Assembly could generate internally.
What is your vision for Imo state?
We are setting up institutions and in the next 15 years, God willing, we hope to
be able to attract immigrants into Imo state who are seeking for jobs. This is
because of the foundation we are laying today.
There is nothing we have done without putting proper thinking into it. When I
wanted to establish IRROMA, we said 300 roads in 30 days and people thought it
was impossible but we did it. When we came to operation festival, it was also
the same thing. It was the same with all the programmes we did. I am a man that
can close my eyes and see into the future. As I sit down I can picture colour of
things in 30 years time. I design my programme, I look into the future.
People are wondering why you had to leave the PPA when Nigerians are looking
forward to PPA providing a viable alternative to PDP.
I founded the Progressive Peoples’ Alliance, PPA... Go to INEC now and find
out; the headquarters of PPA is No. 8 Haile Selassie Street, Abuja. It is my
personal house and I used it to register the party. I took it to Orji Uzor Kalu.
He is my friend but all his things are built on shaky foundation and now they
have started to crumble. When I saw that this is not a man that I can work with
I pulled out of PPA and hell was let loose.
The media took me to the cleaners and one writer said I have committed political
suicide. This is a man who I debate political and economic issues with
regularly. Today, both himself and others a singing a different tune; people
have now seen why I left the PPA and Orji Kalu and came back to the Peoples
Democratic Party, (PDP).
Imo people have seen the projects I have attracted to the state. Every decision
I take or every move I make people misinterpret. You can see what happened when
late President Yar’Adua died; they tried to knock my head with President
Goodluck Jonathan. I was in the United States and they were saying all sorts of
things about me.
The last time when we appointed the new PDP national chairman, they said I took
the man to court and these were all lies. The philosophy of "Nshiko" (crab)
mentality or Nshikism is like a situation where blind people are put into a deep
hole or crabs are put into a basin of water. As one tries to climb to the top,
others will be dragging him down and unfortunately, the Igbo have remained in
that situation for a very long time now, we are not moving forward.
We are no more part of the tripod in this country; people laugh at us while
recruiting the renegades amongst us and called them leaders. Those who have the
potentials to make things happen, they kill at will. Fake organizations are
taking over every day.
Recently, somebody wrote in the papers that they saw me frolicking in Cape Town,
South Africa. Since I was born, I have never been to Cape Town. I have been to
South Africa on several occasions yes, but never been to Cape Town.
When they listed all the properties they said I bought, they came close to N50
billion; what is the total income of Imo state since I became governor? So
people just cook up all sorts of nonsense.
Fifty Three tribunal cases were instituted against me, yet I am still a happy
man. I have won all remaining the Supreme Court case that is coming up on July
16.
So I have gone through a lot of problems and I still try to protect my
predecessors. I don’t fight them because I do not like the pull him down
syndrome. But the same people are the ones going to the media, some print fake
magazines, against me showing how I impregnated one woman in America. My wife
said, go and impregnate more. What is wrong about it if you can impregnate as
many, I am your wife; thank God for giving me an understanding woman. She knows
me very well so she does not believe in the rubbish they write.
In terms of roads, we have done the cheapest per kilometre. If you go to our
website; we advertise jobs online and give jobs to people. I have never given
anybody note to go and look for job. I have never collected any penny from any
contractor since I became governor; these entire claim can be verified and God
has been with me 100 per cent.
There is a road we did now from Owerri airport to Port Harcourt airport crossing
over 20 villages to a place called Eche in Rivers State. I have done road in
Rivers state. It is the best project in this country because if there is any
problem at any of the two airports, all you need do is to enter your car and
within 30 minutes you are at the other airport.
It was an idea I sold to former Governor Celestine Omehia and we went on to sign
the agreement, but when Chibuike Ameachi came in, it did not form part of his
immediate priority, so single-handedly, I decided to do it. It is one of the
projects Mr. President will be coming to Imo to commission soon.
I am the only governor in Nigeria without an office. This is because before I
came in, the shanty they called office was set ablaze by politicians on May, 7,
2007. I had to build a new one, which the president is also going to commission.
I have dualised all the entry roads into the state capital, Owerri. Street
lights in Owerri is 24 hours in the night, we operate them with alternative
energy. Before 6.00 am they would have finished sweeping the streets in Owerri.
Yet, all these have been made possible through prudent management of resources.
What we receive in one year is what states like Rivers, Bayelsa or Akwa Ibom
each receive in one month as subvention. Go and find out.
You were right when you said you were the one who started the banning on "Okada"
in Nigeria as a means of transport. What is the statistics now like, has there
been any improvement in accident rates?
I want you to do the investigation yourself. Let me say this that before the ban
on okada, the accident ward at the Federal Medical Center in Owerri was always
100 per cent occupied with another 50 per cent lying on the floor. Right now you
do not have up to 10 per cent.
This is the official hospital report. There are no more people hanging their
legs. In terms of people going back to the other informal sector or trade, our
people have moved back to carpentry, plumbing, electrical and people are now
having the apprentices again and we did something that had never been done by
creating what we called "Enterprise Zones" where we open a place and put all the
necessary infrastructures and then take all these artisans there and give them
shops.
I shed tears when I went to the one at Nekede, you see people in action, booming
businesses! People working and making genuine contributions to the economy just
the way we wanted it. I was spurred to now put in these places, adult and non
formal education centres where those who want to work and go to school will have
the schools closer to their places of work. Those children that did not go to
formal schools can now have the opportunity.
We have also created the ministry of housing handling the establishment of
estates closer to those centres. People will no longer travel too far and this
concept has and is still transforming the economy of these areas.
We have now started to address the epidemic of kidnappings, changing the
people’s orientation for them to embrace the right attitude to life. It is
helping people to know the benefit of job switch. When we came in we had less
than 2,200 hotel rooms but today, we have close to 8,200 hotel rooms in Imo. All
these are aimed at creating employment for the teeming populace. A Canadian firm
is building a three-star hotel in Owerri, the state capital.
What are you doing to make the people buy into your dream for the people in your
state?
We are doing a lot to make sure that the common man is carried along,
understands and appreciates what we are doing. A great philosopher once said
there are two types of leaders; those who are in front and ask others to follow
and those who are at the back and whipping others to move ahead. Now, one thing
we must notice in our society, whether you like it or not, we are still in
semi-primitive society and leaders must take risks on behalf of the people,
whether the people know what they are doing or not.
At last, the ultimate thing is for them to appreciate it. When we were banning
okada, people were demonstrating and the Okada Union took us to court in Enugu,
today they bring cows to thank me for taking that decision. Similarly, it was
the same when we banned sale of cars on the streets of Owerri. Do you know that
it is only in Owerri you have no sale of cars in the city in Nigeria?
We have a car market equipped with all the infrastructural facilities and you
can go there on tourism expedition with your family. But when we banned people
from selling cars on the streets we had about 15 court cases against us. Today,
every Christmas and Easter, the car sellers bring cows to thank me for what I
did for them.
But we created what we called the orientation agency and the agency makes sure
that the projects are sold to the people. For example, they have the local
government photo exhibition, every week they visit a local government to
enlighten them on government projects; those that are ongoing, proposed,
completed etc..., they also take time to educate the people on the benefits of
those projects and they have people to answer questions.
I have 99 per cent support of the people. The problems we have are with those we
call nomadic politicians who do not stay at home. They cannot win a single ward
in the area. Take the recent PDP primaries as example; they could not win any
ward. The people know those who are working for them.
Recently, I handed schools back to the missions, yet the state still pays
salaries of the teachers teaching in those schools. We gave them control just to
enjoy the benefits of quality administration to help our children maintain
quality discipline both in learning and in character but we still pay salaries
of the teachers.
What is your relationship with IBB?
What is wrong with my having relationship with IBB?
The rumour is that you are pairing up for 2011?
I am not pairing anything. Fake people are behind those rumour and fake posters.
As enlightened journalists and Nigerians there are certain questions you don’t
ask because there is what you call common sense.
Let me tell you something, no presidential candidate who has not gone through
primaries will print a poster and put his running mate, it’s only when you
have won the primaries that you will select your running mate; that is one. So
any Nigerian that is familiar with our politics will know that those posters are
fake, they are just trying to tarnish my image and cause fight between me and
President Goodluck Jonathan.
Secondly, have you looked at the quality of the posters printed? Anybody who has
taste for quality will never associate me with such posters. This is my lodge,
for those of you who have been to my personal house can you compare the quality
here, the clothes I wear or even my photograph in the papers, can you associate
me with such substandard quality?
I have been the marketing director of the third largest company in Nigeria,
Inland Group, which is over 100 years old, controlling advertising companies in
the country. That position is meant for expatriates but I was the youngest to
hold it.
Nobody has beaten my record of being the youngest managing director, I have
written books in marketing being read in America, I am one of the gurus in
marketing, I have propounded my own theory through – injury for injury and
benefit for benefit, so nobody can associate me with anything substandard. They
went and put up a billboard with my picture alongside IBB on it, I just laugh.
So those things I don’t even have to answer before you dismiss.
Maybe it is as a result of your rising profile?
God bless you. Let me tell you even the negative news about me brings me
popularity. There is a story that was front page in one of the major newspapers
in this country that I was arrested in London and was with Metropolitan police.
But I was in my father’s house eating pepper soup.
When I sued the paper, they came to lie down and beg that I wanted to close down
the paper. They had to retract it on their front page but it made me popular.
Fortunately, the Sultan of Sokoto was visiting the state during the period in
question and when he heard it he doubted it and had to call the Met police to
confirm but they said the person with that name wasn’t even in London.
The Sultan had to call then President Yar’Adua to inform him that it was not
true and that was how I became close to President Yar’Adua. The president said
they should put a call to me in Imo and I answered him and that was how he asked
NTA to carry the story at the network news that night that it was not true.
That negative news brought me a lot of benefits and even this IBB’s own is
being looked at from a different angle. I am not afraid to confront any big man
because I was born by a war veteran. Even if the president does something not
good today, I will tell him. I don’t fear anything but I support power.
If I am going to run with IBB, Nigerians will know now, why should I sneak in?
When I was supporting Ozichukwu against Nwodo, did I hide it? When I removed
Ogbulafor, did you people not carry it? Can anybody remove Ogbulafor?
I told him to resign in this house he refused and I told him he won’t leave
here without resigning because I have the courage to confront anybody. Anyway
you know those writing those things.
Ikedi Ohakim, Imo State governor In 2007, Ikedi Ohakim was elected governor of
Imo State on the platform of the Progressive Peoples’ Alliance (PPA). He later
defected to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), a move that was described by
many as an unwise decision. But in this interview with journalists recently in
Abuja, he speaks on why he made the decision and his passion to transform Imo
State. Our Correspondent, TONY AILEMEN was there.
Excerpts...
Your Excellency, to what extent would you say you have met the aspirations of
your people as far as provision of infrastructure is concerned?
As a governor, I am not a building contractor that is judged by the number of
roads he has built or number of bridges he has constructed. That is a factor of
how much money you get from the federal government, it does not show leadership.
But the media seem to be confused about those who are working and those who are
tarrying roads. Somebody like me doesn’t take that as important because we
take it as our primary responsibility.
In Imo, we have done more roads than all the governors put together since 1976
when the state was created, similarly we have done more water projects, but that
is not the issue, we have set up institutions.
For example, we have Stock Exchange right now in the state, we have Court of
Appeal, which has never happened before, we have Imo State Investment Promotion
Agency, we have something like the old PWD, controlling everywhere we have
christened IRROMA - Imo Rural Roads Maintenance, Agency that has attracted World
Bank Partnership with Imo state government. The media don’t even look at the
impacts of the creation of these institutions.
You can also look at where somebody is coming from; take the example of my
friend from Lagos State, Tinubu laid the foundation, he designed all the roads
and sourced the money. Gov Babatunde Fashola just came in and latched onto it
from day one and started running. But in Imo state, we came in and met no law on
maintenance of infrastructure, no design for the Government House, no
engineering survey, no inherited road designs, no study, nothing. What they were
doing was just to get money from the federal government and share it.
Now, we are doing the conceptualization, design, study, looking for the manpower
to execute and at the same time looking for the finances to execute the
projects. We are starting everything from the scratch. Despite all these, we are
still running faster than most of the states.
A lot of people have criticized your leadership styles. For example, some
believe that you have spent more time talking than working. How would you react
to this?
What we have are criminal minded political class that have no place where they
put akara to sell, yet their expenditure profile in a month is not less than
N10million to N20million. They have over 50 people following them and the only
way they can finance that kind of life style is to harass the government in
power.
But we decided in Imo that will not solve the problem. So we decided to use the
resources of the people to help everybody, including the big politicians, to
succeed. When we pulled out 10,000 jobs on offer, Nigerians said it is
impossible.
Today, you can see that we are making it possible. We are taking 10,000
graduates and we got KPMG to act as consultants for the project. The son of a
poor man does not require anybody to help him to get the job under the system
when he can use his brain. When we said we are taking 30,000 people as sweepers
and cleaners of the environment, people thought it was impossible. Today they
are all working.
We are now creating the Wonder Lake Resort, which fortunately for us, former
American President Bill Clinton will be coming with our own President Goodluck
Jonathan to do the ground breaking ceremony in August this year.
That project is expected to employ no less than 40,000 people. We set up Job
Centre as the first of its kind in Nigeria. We are people of ideas; we took some
of our youths to the present ongoing World Cup and all of them came back to
Nigeria. We exposed them to leadership training, how to maintain good
environment.
As I speak now, I have no fewer than 600 people on government scholarship
abroad; those who are going to be leaders of tomorrow, yet the media will not
see all these things.
There is something Champion Newspapers did for us, they called it "Special
Edition" with special focus on what we have been able to achieve in the past
three years. They examined what we had done comparing it with what the past
administration did in Imo; I want you to take a look at it. Take time to go
through it and you will see how far we have gone.
What I want you to do is to tell the world the truth, present the picture as it
is; to stop these people who are using the media to harass me to give them
money, because I am not ready to "dash out" the people’s hard earned money to
anybody.
I have a contract with the people of Imo that every penny I spend must have
added value to their lives. Even if I do not go for second term, I am not
interested. I have never in a day slept more than three hours since I became
governor.
I have attracted projects of N250billion to Imo state from the federal
government. I make bold to say that no state governor in Nigeria under this
dispensation has been able to achieve this. Whatever I took to former President
Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, he signed for me.
He approved the Alvan Ikoku College of Education project, which saves me N40
million of my subvention every month. He gave me a road worth N3.5 billion,
three sub power stations worth N7billion, Silos in Okigwe worth N7billion,
dredging of Nworie River worth N8billion, Ugwuta Naval Base, Court of Appeal,
and so on.
Now NNPC is partnering us on the petroleum refinery that we are constructing.
They are giving us about six oil wells to put in our refinery. Nobody... and I
say it, you can verify it anywhere, no governor has been able to do this much,
South East, South-South, South-West, North-West.
For you to be able to do these things, you must be able to package yourself,
package the project, put the potential, sell it, and get presidential
endorsement. Despite the highly competing interests, I was able to do this. So
that will tell you what we are doing now for our state. If you enter Owerri
today, it is like any of the major cities in the advanced societies such as
Johannesburg or Paris.
Any time I travel abroad and come back to Owerri, I become a happy man. And I
want to seize this opportunity to tell you that I am one of the happiest people
in this country. I have done exceedingly well. I am going to give you some of my
books to read. I am writing a book now which I entitled "The Consequence of
Courage." I have written the "Courage to Challenge." The new book talks about
the consequence of all the decision I have taken. They call it "The Ten Flash
Points of Governor Ohakim."
I banned Okada first in Nigeria and people thought that hell will let loose; I
have one of the best city transport systems called the IMTS - Imo Municipal
Transport System. I have taken agriculture to the next level.
Among the states in Nigeria, only Imo state got N8billion facility from this new
Central Bank facility for agriculture. This is partly because we have an ongoing
partnership project with a South African company called AGRONOVA.
That agricultural programme we are running now is going to give employment to
over 50,000 people in Imo State. All these things we have done to give
governance new meaning in Imo state. I also know that there is no governor in
Nigeria that has given more executive bills to the legislature like we have done
in Imo state.
Just last week alone, I signed 8 bills into law, all executive bills from me
alone! When I was commissioner between 1991 and 1993, I was the only
commissioner that was sending bills to the State House of Assembly; no other
commissioner did as much as I did then. I have given more laws than the House of
Assembly could generate internally.
What is your vision for Imo state?
We are setting up institutions and in the next 15 years, God willing, we hope to
be able to attract immigrants into Imo state who are seeking for jobs. This is
because of the foundation we are laying today.
There is nothing we have done without putting proper thinking into it. When I
wanted to establish IRROMA, we said 300 roads in 30 days and people thought it
was impossible but we did it. When we came to operation festival, it was also
the same thing. It was the same with all the programmes we did. I am a man that
can close my eyes and see into the future. As I sit down I can picture colour of
things in 30 years time. I design my programme, I look into the future.
People are wondering why you had to leave the PPA when Nigerians are looking
forward to PPA providing a viable alternative to PDP.
I founded the Progressive Peoples’ Alliance, PPA... Go to INEC now and find
out; the headquarters of PPA is No. 8 Haile Selassie Street, Abuja. It is my
personal house and I used it to register the party. I took it to Orji Uzor Kalu.
He is my friend but all his things are built on shaky foundation and now they
have started to crumble. When I saw that this is not a man that I can work with
I pulled out of PPA and hell was let loose.
The media took me to the cleaners and one writer said I have committed political
suicide. This is a man who I debate political and economic issues with
regularly. Today, both himself and others a singing a different tune; people
have now seen why I left the PPA and Orji Kalu and came back to the Peoples
Democratic Party, (PDP).
Imo people have seen the projects I have attracted to the state. Every decision
I take or every move I make people misinterpret. You can see what happened when
late President Yar’Adua died; they tried to knock my head with President
Goodluck Jonathan. I was in the United States and they were saying all sorts of
things about me.
The last time when we appointed the new PDP national chairman, they said I took
the man to court and these were all lies. The philosophy of "Nshiko" (crab)
mentality or Nshikism is like a situation where blind people are put into a deep
hole or crabs are put into a basin of water. As one tries to climb to the top,
others will be dragging him down and unfortunately, the Igbo have remained in
that situation for a very long time now, we are not moving forward.
We are no more part of the tripod in this country; people laugh at us while
recruiting the renegades amongst us and called them leaders. Those who have the
potentials to make things happen, they kill at will. Fake organizations are
taking over every day.
Recently, somebody wrote in the papers that they saw me frolicking in Cape Town,
South Africa. Since I was born, I have never been to Cape Town. I have been to
South Africa on several occasions yes, but never been to Cape Town.
When they listed all the properties they said I bought, they came close to N50
billion; what is the total income of Imo state since I became governor? So
people just cook up all sorts of nonsense.
Fifty Three tribunal cases were instituted against me, yet I am still a happy
man. I have won all remaining the Supreme Court case that is coming up on July
16.
So I have gone through a lot of problems and I still try to protect my
predecessors. I don’t fight them because I do not like the pull him down
syndrome. But the same people are the ones going to the media, some print fake
magazines, against me showing how I impregnated one woman in America. My wife
said, go and impregnate more. What is wrong about it if you can impregnate as
many, I am your wife; thank God for giving me an understanding woman. She knows
me very well so she does not believe in the rubbish they write.
In terms of roads, we have done the cheapest per kilometre. If you go to our
website; we advertise jobs online and give jobs to people. I have never given
anybody note to go and look for job. I have never collected any penny from any
contractor since I became governor; these entire claim can be verified and God
has been with me 100 per cent.
There is a road we did now from Owerri airport to Port Harcourt airport crossing
over 20 villages to a place called Eche in Rivers State. I have done road in
Rivers state. It is the best project in this country because if there is any
problem at any of the two airports, all you need do is to enter your car and
within 30 minutes you are at the other airport.
It was an idea I sold to former Governor Celestine Omehia and we went on to sign
the agreement, but when Chibuike Ameachi came in, it did not form part of his
immediate priority, so single-handedly, I decided to do it. It is one of the
projects Mr. President will be coming to Imo to commission soon.
I am the only governor in Nigeria without an office. This is because before I
came in, the shanty they called office was set ablaze by politicians on May, 7,
2007. I had to build a new one, which the president is also going to commission.
I have dualised all the entry roads into the state capital, Owerri. Street
lights in Owerri is 24 hours in the night, we operate them with alternative
energy. Before 6.00 am they would have finished sweeping the streets in Owerri.
Yet, all these have been made possible through prudent management of resources.
What we receive in one year is what states like Rivers, Bayelsa or Akwa Ibom
each receive in one month as subvention. Go and find out.
You were right when you said you were the one who started the banning on "Okada"
in Nigeria as a means of transport. What is the statistics now like, has there
been any improvement in accident rates?
I want you to do the investigation yourself. Let me say this that before the ban
on okada, the accident ward at the Federal Medical Center in Owerri was always
100 per cent occupied with another 50 per cent lying on the floor. Right now you
do not have up to 10 per cent.
This is the official hospital report. There are no more people hanging their
legs. In terms of people going back to the other informal sector or trade, our
people have moved back to carpentry, plumbing, electrical and people are now
having the apprentices again and we did something that had never been done by
creating what we called "Enterprise Zones" where we open a place and put all the
necessary infrastructures and then take all these artisans there and give them
shops.
I shed tears when I went to the one at Nekede, you see people in action, booming
businesses! People working and making genuine contributions to the economy just
the way we wanted it. I was spurred to now put in these places, adult and non
formal education centres where those who want to work and go to school will have
the schools closer to their places of work. Those children that did not go to
formal schools can now have the opportunity.
We have also created the ministry of housing handling the establishment of
estates closer to those centres. People will no longer travel too far and this
concept has and is still transforming the economy of these areas.
We have now started to address the epidemic of kidnappings, changing the
people’s orientation for them to embrace the right attitude to life. It is
helping people to know the benefit of job switch. When we came in we had less
than 2,200 hotel rooms but today, we have close to 8,200 hotel rooms in Imo. All
these are aimed at creating employment for the teeming populace. A Canadian firm
is building a three-star hotel in Owerri, the state capital.
What are you doing to make the people buy into your dream for the people in your
state?
We are doing a lot to make sure that the common man is carried along,
understands and appreciates what we are doing. A great philosopher once said
there are two types of leaders; those who are in front and ask others to follow
and those who are at the back and whipping others to move ahead. Now, one thing
we must notice in our society, whether you like it or not, we are still in
semi-primitive society and leaders must take risks on behalf of the people,
whether the people know what they are doing or not.
At last, the ultimate thing is for them to appreciate it. When we were banning
okada, people were demonstrating and the Okada Union took us to court in Enugu,
today they bring cows to thank me for taking that decision. Similarly, it was
the same when we banned sale of cars on the streets of Owerri. Do you know that
it is only in Owerri you have no sale of cars in the city in Nigeria?
We have a car market equipped with all the infrastructural facilities and you
can go there on tourism expedition with your family. But when we banned people
from selling cars on the streets we had about 15 court cases against us. Today,
every Christmas and Easter, the car sellers bring cows to thank me for what I
did for them.
But we created what we called the orientation agency and the agency makes sure
that the projects are sold to the people. For example, they have the local
government photo exhibition, every week they visit a local government to
enlighten them on government projects; those that are ongoing, proposed,
completed etc..., they also take time to educate the people on the benefits of
those projects and they have people to answer questions.
I have 99 per cent support of the people. The problems we have are with those we
call nomadic politicians who do not stay at home. They cannot win a single ward
in the area. Take the recent PDP primaries as example; they could not win any
ward. The people know those who are working for them.
Recently, I handed schools back to the missions, yet the state still pays
salaries of the teachers teaching in those schools. We gave them control just to
enjoy the benefits of quality administration to help our children maintain
quality discipline both in learning and in character but we still pay salaries
of the teachers.
What is your relationship with IBB?
What is wrong with my having relationship with IBB?
The rumour is that you are pairing up for 2011?
I am not pairing anything. Fake people are behind those rumour and fake posters.
As enlightened journalists and Nigerians there are certain questions you don’t
ask because there is what you call common sense.
Let me tell you something, no presidential candidate who has not gone through
primaries will print a poster and put his running mate, it’s only when you
have won the primaries that you will select your running mate; that is one. So
any Nigerian that is familiar with our politics will know that those posters are
fake, they are just trying to tarnish my image and cause fight between me and
President Goodluck Jonathan.
Secondly, have you looked at the quality of the posters printed? Anybody who has
taste for quality will never associate me with such posters. This is my lodge,
for those of you who have been to my personal house can you compare the quality
here, the clothes I wear or even my photograph in the papers, can you associate
me with such substandard quality?
I have been the marketing director of the third largest company in Nigeria,
Inland Group, which is over 100 years old, controlling advertising companies in
the country. That position is meant for expatriates but I was the youngest to
hold it.
Nobody has beaten my record of being the youngest managing director, I have
written books in marketing being read in America, I am one of the gurus in
marketing, I have propounded my own theory through – injury for injury and
benefit for benefit, so nobody can associate me with anything substandard. They
went and put up a billboard with my picture alongside IBB on it, I just laugh.
So those things I don’t even have to answer before you dismiss.
Maybe it is as a result of your rising profile?
God bless you. Let me tell you even the negative news about me brings me
popularity. There is a story that was front page in one of the major newspapers
in this country that I was arrested in London and was with Metropolitan police.
But I was in my father’s house eating pepper soup.
When I sued the paper, they came to lie down and beg that I wanted to close down
the paper. They had to retract it on their front page but it made me popular.
Fortunately, the Sultan of Sokoto was visiting the state during the period in
question and when he heard it he doubted it and had to call the Met police to
confirm but they said the person with that name wasn’t even in London.
The Sultan had to call then President Yar’Adua to inform him that it was not
true and that was how I became close to President Yar’Adua. The president said
they should put a call to me in Imo and I answered him and that was how he asked
NTA to carry the story at the network news that night that it was not true.
That negative news brought me a lot of benefits and even this IBB’s own is
being looked at from a different angle. I am not afraid to confront any big man
because I was born by a war veteran. Even if the president does something not
good today, I will tell him. I don’t fear anything but I support power.
If I am going to run with IBB, Nigerians will know now, why should I sneak in?
When I was supporting Ozichukwu against Nwodo, did I hide it? When I removed
Ogbulafor, did you people not carry it? Can anybody remove Ogbulafor?
I told him to resign in this house he refused and I told him he won’t leave
here without resigning because I have the courage to confront anybody. Anyway
you know those writing those things.
Jega: Why We’ve Had Failed Elections
Ugochukwu Ezeagwula
Newly appointed chairman of the Independence National Electoral Commission (INEC), Professor Attahiru Muhammadu Jega, yesterday said one of the reasons Nigeria has continued to fail in the conduct of elections was because the totality of the process culminating in the exercise are usually left in the hands of people with ulterior motives while well meaning Nigerians voluntarily stayed away.
Also yesterday, former Chief Justice of the Federation, Justice Alfa Belgore, defended attempts by some sections of the country to blame the judiciary for the failure of the electoral process. He said judges are not God and would have to depend on the submissions before them in delivering judgements.
Jega, who spoke in Kano at a lecture organised in his honour by the Aminu Kano Centre for Democratic Research and Training with the theme: “The Path To Credible Election in Nigeria,” said for as long as such acts of indifference persists amongst genuine and patriotic Nigerians, “bad people will always have a filled day and the results will continue to be the same.”
“I think every Nigerian also recognises that the responsibility of ensuring free, fair and credible elections in this country is not the responsibility of INEC chairman alone or the INEC itself. We all have to work together, sincerely, honestly and patriotically as citizens and ensure we bring about free, fair and credible elections,” he said.
While promising a better deal in next year’s elections provided the right attitude is cultivated by Nigerians, Jega said the success of the present INEC rests on all the stakeholders as well as “friends of Nigeria wherever they are and our development partners.”
“We would need your prayers; we would need your support, we would need your encouragement and beyond this, we would need your active participation in the political process. If good people stay away, bad people will have a filed day and I think that is what has been happening in our country.
“I urge all of you good people out there; please let us together take this as a challenge. Everybody has a positive role to play and let us come out to play that positive role. If we do that, then free, fair and credible elections is possible come 2011, Insha Allah,” Jega said.
The professor of political science maintained that he is “optimistic of the fact that the country is highly mature to conduct a credible election. I will do everything possible to work in harmony with all others to achieve positive result, but as an individual, there is a limit to what we can do.
“I know the task is formidable. I have no illusions about how difficult this task is going to be but I also know that although it is difficult, it is not an impossible task. And together, with the help of the Almighty God- our maker; we believe that we can turn it around.”
Jega, who was beaming with confidence, said: “We can certainly make 2011 much better than 2007, 2003 and 1999. I believe if we are able to do that, then we will definitely make 2015 even much better and have the freest and fairest of election ever.”
Belgore, who was also at the event, staunchly defended his constituency, the judiciary and frowned at a situation whereby people castigate the judiciary on the way election judgements are passed.
He noted that judges should be respected for the wisdom they applied in adjudicating intricate electoral matters.
He also noted that unless there is a complete change of attitude, the courts might continue to be helpless in cases involving disputed elections.
Newly appointed chairman of the Independence National Electoral Commission (INEC), Professor Attahiru Muhammadu Jega, yesterday said one of the reasons Nigeria has continued to fail in the conduct of elections was because the totality of the process culminating in the exercise are usually left in the hands of people with ulterior motives while well meaning Nigerians voluntarily stayed away.
Also yesterday, former Chief Justice of the Federation, Justice Alfa Belgore, defended attempts by some sections of the country to blame the judiciary for the failure of the electoral process. He said judges are not God and would have to depend on the submissions before them in delivering judgements.
Jega, who spoke in Kano at a lecture organised in his honour by the Aminu Kano Centre for Democratic Research and Training with the theme: “The Path To Credible Election in Nigeria,” said for as long as such acts of indifference persists amongst genuine and patriotic Nigerians, “bad people will always have a filled day and the results will continue to be the same.”
“I think every Nigerian also recognises that the responsibility of ensuring free, fair and credible elections in this country is not the responsibility of INEC chairman alone or the INEC itself. We all have to work together, sincerely, honestly and patriotically as citizens and ensure we bring about free, fair and credible elections,” he said.
While promising a better deal in next year’s elections provided the right attitude is cultivated by Nigerians, Jega said the success of the present INEC rests on all the stakeholders as well as “friends of Nigeria wherever they are and our development partners.”
“We would need your prayers; we would need your support, we would need your encouragement and beyond this, we would need your active participation in the political process. If good people stay away, bad people will have a filed day and I think that is what has been happening in our country.
“I urge all of you good people out there; please let us together take this as a challenge. Everybody has a positive role to play and let us come out to play that positive role. If we do that, then free, fair and credible elections is possible come 2011, Insha Allah,” Jega said.
The professor of political science maintained that he is “optimistic of the fact that the country is highly mature to conduct a credible election. I will do everything possible to work in harmony with all others to achieve positive result, but as an individual, there is a limit to what we can do.
“I know the task is formidable. I have no illusions about how difficult this task is going to be but I also know that although it is difficult, it is not an impossible task. And together, with the help of the Almighty God- our maker; we believe that we can turn it around.”
Jega, who was beaming with confidence, said: “We can certainly make 2011 much better than 2007, 2003 and 1999. I believe if we are able to do that, then we will definitely make 2015 even much better and have the freest and fairest of election ever.”
Belgore, who was also at the event, staunchly defended his constituency, the judiciary and frowned at a situation whereby people castigate the judiciary on the way election judgements are passed.
He noted that judges should be respected for the wisdom they applied in adjudicating intricate electoral matters.
He also noted that unless there is a complete change of attitude, the courts might continue to be helpless in cases involving disputed elections.
Nigeria, China Plan Talks on $8bn Refinery
Ugochukwu Ezeagwula
Nigeria and China may sign an accord on the construction of an $8 billion oil refinery in the West African nation after talks next week, the state-owned oil company said yesterday.
A 13-man Chinese delegation is due in Nigeria on July 5 for talks about the facility, said Adebayo Ibirogba, general manager of Greenfield Refineries at the state-owned Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation. The proposed refinery will have the capacity to process 300,000 barrels of oil per day.
“Although the talks have been exploratory for now, we’re positive a deal can be signed after further discussions with the Chinese who will be in the country by Monday,” Ibirogba said.
Nigeria and China in May agreed to $23 billion of funding to build three new oil refineries and a petrochemical complex in the West African nation. The construction of the facilities is aimed at helping the country produce the estimated 750,000 barrels of oil per day it will need over the next decade to curb imports of refined petroleum products.
The proposed refineries will be built in Nigeria’s Lagos, Kogi and Bayelsa states. Ibirogba didn’t say which state the $8 billion refinery would be built in.
Nigeria’s four existing refineries have a combined capacity of 445,000 barrels per day, though they are unable to operate at full production because of ageing equipment and poor maintenance.
Nigeria and China may sign an accord on the construction of an $8 billion oil refinery in the West African nation after talks next week, the state-owned oil company said yesterday.
A 13-man Chinese delegation is due in Nigeria on July 5 for talks about the facility, said Adebayo Ibirogba, general manager of Greenfield Refineries at the state-owned Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation. The proposed refinery will have the capacity to process 300,000 barrels of oil per day.
“Although the talks have been exploratory for now, we’re positive a deal can be signed after further discussions with the Chinese who will be in the country by Monday,” Ibirogba said.
Nigeria and China in May agreed to $23 billion of funding to build three new oil refineries and a petrochemical complex in the West African nation. The construction of the facilities is aimed at helping the country produce the estimated 750,000 barrels of oil per day it will need over the next decade to curb imports of refined petroleum products.
The proposed refineries will be built in Nigeria’s Lagos, Kogi and Bayelsa states. Ibirogba didn’t say which state the $8 billion refinery would be built in.
Nigeria’s four existing refineries have a combined capacity of 445,000 barrels per day, though they are unable to operate at full production because of ageing equipment and poor maintenance.
50th Anniversary: House Rejects Move to Halt N10bn Budget
Ugochukwu Ezeagwula
In spite of the public outcry over the proposal by the Federal Government to spend N10 billion during the country’s 50th Independence Anniversary celebrations, House of Representatives yesterday gave a tacit support as lawmakers voted against a motion seeking to halt the proposed expenditure.
Instead, the House gave preliminary approvals to the amendment of the 2010 Appropriation Act as well as the Supplementary Appropriation 2010. The latter has the N10billion earmarked for the 50th Independence Anniversary as one of its key components.
Minority Leader of the House, Honourable Mohammed Ali Ndume (ANPP Borno) had in the course of the plenary raised an objection to the huge expenditure proposed by the Federal Government during the Golden Jubilee. Ndume who hinged his argument on Order 8 Rule 5 said it was a matter of urgent public importance that the Federal Government had not just proposed to spend N10billion but has already begun to spend the money even when the proposal was yet to be approved by the National Assembly.
According to Ndume, the Nigeria at 50 Summit which ended yesterday in London was part of the events lined up in the chain of activities marking Nigeria ’s golden jubilee. He cited Section 80 of the 1999 Constitution wherein it is stated that: “ No moneys shall be withdrawn from the Consolidated Revenue Fund of the Federation except to meet expenditure that is charged upon the fund by this Constitution or where the issue of those monies has been authorised by an Appropriation Act, Supplementary Appropriation Act or an Act passed in pursuance of section 81 of this Constitution; No monies shall be withdrawn from any public fund of the Federation, other than the Consolidated Revenue Fund of the Federation, unless the issue of those moneys has been authorised by an Act of the National Assembly; No moneys shall be withdrawn from the Consolidated Revenue Fund or any other public fund of the Federation, except in the manner prescribed by the National Assembly.”
He said that the parliament has a responsibility to ensure that resources accruing to the Federation Account were judiciously used in the best interest of Nigerians. Ndume further argued that N10billion was a huge sum of money if it is to be used just for the celebration of an anniversary, adding that the implication of such an expenditure will be that about 150million Nigerians will be denied security, access to electricity, housing, water and health care. He urged the House to take a second look at the proposal and take steps to putting a check to what he described as a wasteful expenditure.
When the Speaker of the House, Honourable Dimeji Bankole put the question on whether the issue should be treated as a matter of urgent public importance, the motion did not survive the voice vote.
However, the House passed through second reading a Bill for an Act to amend the 2010 Appropriation Act. The bill seeks to amend the exiting 2010 budget by reviewing downwards, the sum authorised to be issued from the Consolidated Revenue Fund of the Federation as contained in the principal Act.
House Leader, Honourable Tunde Akogun (PDP Edo ) who led the debate said the amendment was the product of an understanding reached between the National Assembly and the Executive following the realisation that the economic indices that formed the basis for the 2010 Appropriation were no longer sustainable. Akogun disclosed that the amendment will result in the cut of about forty per cent (40%) of capital budget across board so as to maintain the capital budgets already captured in the budget. The cut, he explained, will not affect critical sector projects like power and some roads.
“While the full implication of such decision is not unappreciated, Members may wish to know that attempts were made to apply a lower percentage cut but the resultant deficit was still not sustainable. No doubt such cut would distort budget implementation, but it is expected that sector heads of Ministries Departments and Agencies (MDAs) would prioritise with the balance of the budget cut and perhaps facilitate efficient budget performance in conjunction with members of the National Assembly,” Akogun said.
The House Leader who also led the debate on the Supplementary Budget disclosed that the Executive Bill seeks to authorise the issue from the Consolidated Revenue Fund of the Federation, the total sum of N639, 824,478,183.00 (Six Hundred and Thirty Nine Billion, Eight Hundred and twenty four Million, Four Hundred and Seventy Eight Thousand, One Hundred and Eighty Three Naira only).
According to Akogun, the Supplementary Appropriation was specifically for the celebration of Nigeria’s Golden Jubilee and for the settlement of the balance of the public service wage adjustment, covering salary arrears to members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU); their colleagues in the Polytechnics and Colleges of Education as well as some core civil servants. He also said that provision has been made in the supplementary budget to settle wage increase for medical professionals and to drive the second phase (Post Amnesty) of the re-integration programme of ex-militants in the Niger Delta.
Also included is the finance of the arrears of monetisation benefit to workers of the Power Holing Company of Nigeria (PHCN) who are threatening to down tools as well as funds to be deployed to intervention projects carried over from last year’s budget under the Ministry of Niger Delta.
The funding for these projects, Akogun said, were expected to come from the carry over of unspent funds in the second Supplementary Budget of 2009; Federal Government Bond Issuance for PHCN Arrears of monetisation as well as other sources of revenue available to government.
Although some lawmakers picked holes in both bills, Chairman, House Committee on Finance, Honourable John Enoh countered their argument that the amendment and supplementary budgets were unnecessary. Honourable Mohammed Ndume and Honourable Igo Aguma had argued that since the year was already half way gone, these additional budgets were not going to save the 2010 Budget from failing.
Ndume specifically kicked against the budget amendment because of what he described as the incessant alterations the Executive made on the document while it was under consideration at the National Assembly. He said that the current alteration will not just be the seventh in the series but will creat a situation where the country's budget will be 80 per cent recurrent expenditure and 20 per cent capital expenditure.
However, Enoh argued that the amendment to the 2010 Appropriation, cutting down capital expenditure by 40 per cent and reducing the crude oil benchmark was necessary because of the implication of the national budget on the budgets run by the 36 states, the Federal Capital Territory and the 774 Local Government Councils . Enoh disclosed that the Federal Government had identified a shortfall of about 27 per cent in its revenue given the sharp drop in the price of crude oil in the international market and it will be wrong for the government to leave the budget in its original state as the state governments will be calculating revenues accruing to them from the Federation Account using the initial projections of the 2010 Appropriation Act.
Both budget bills were subsequently passed in separate voice votes and each referred to the Joint House Committee on Finance and appropriation for further legislative action. The Joint Committee on Finance and Appropriation is expected to make its report on the budget bill available to the House in two days. There are strong indications that given the time the supplementary budget is being presented the 2010 budget, like the 2009 appropriation Act may spill over to March 31st 2011.
Also yesterday, the House adopted the Conference Committee Report on a Bill for an Act to establish the National Space Research and Development Agency. Chairman, House Committee on Science and technology, Honourable Abiodun Akinlade who presented the report said the bill was earlier passed by the House on Wednesday December 17, 2008 and transmitted to the Senate for concurrence. The Senate, Akinlade said, passed the same bill with some minor differences which necessitated the two chambers meeting at a conference on Tuesday May 25, 2010 where they adopted the harmonised version of the bill.
In spite of the public outcry over the proposal by the Federal Government to spend N10 billion during the country’s 50th Independence Anniversary celebrations, House of Representatives yesterday gave a tacit support as lawmakers voted against a motion seeking to halt the proposed expenditure.
Instead, the House gave preliminary approvals to the amendment of the 2010 Appropriation Act as well as the Supplementary Appropriation 2010. The latter has the N10billion earmarked for the 50th Independence Anniversary as one of its key components.
Minority Leader of the House, Honourable Mohammed Ali Ndume (ANPP Borno) had in the course of the plenary raised an objection to the huge expenditure proposed by the Federal Government during the Golden Jubilee. Ndume who hinged his argument on Order 8 Rule 5 said it was a matter of urgent public importance that the Federal Government had not just proposed to spend N10billion but has already begun to spend the money even when the proposal was yet to be approved by the National Assembly.
According to Ndume, the Nigeria at 50 Summit which ended yesterday in London was part of the events lined up in the chain of activities marking Nigeria ’s golden jubilee. He cited Section 80 of the 1999 Constitution wherein it is stated that: “ No moneys shall be withdrawn from the Consolidated Revenue Fund of the Federation except to meet expenditure that is charged upon the fund by this Constitution or where the issue of those monies has been authorised by an Appropriation Act, Supplementary Appropriation Act or an Act passed in pursuance of section 81 of this Constitution; No monies shall be withdrawn from any public fund of the Federation, other than the Consolidated Revenue Fund of the Federation, unless the issue of those moneys has been authorised by an Act of the National Assembly; No moneys shall be withdrawn from the Consolidated Revenue Fund or any other public fund of the Federation, except in the manner prescribed by the National Assembly.”
He said that the parliament has a responsibility to ensure that resources accruing to the Federation Account were judiciously used in the best interest of Nigerians. Ndume further argued that N10billion was a huge sum of money if it is to be used just for the celebration of an anniversary, adding that the implication of such an expenditure will be that about 150million Nigerians will be denied security, access to electricity, housing, water and health care. He urged the House to take a second look at the proposal and take steps to putting a check to what he described as a wasteful expenditure.
When the Speaker of the House, Honourable Dimeji Bankole put the question on whether the issue should be treated as a matter of urgent public importance, the motion did not survive the voice vote.
However, the House passed through second reading a Bill for an Act to amend the 2010 Appropriation Act. The bill seeks to amend the exiting 2010 budget by reviewing downwards, the sum authorised to be issued from the Consolidated Revenue Fund of the Federation as contained in the principal Act.
House Leader, Honourable Tunde Akogun (PDP Edo ) who led the debate said the amendment was the product of an understanding reached between the National Assembly and the Executive following the realisation that the economic indices that formed the basis for the 2010 Appropriation were no longer sustainable. Akogun disclosed that the amendment will result in the cut of about forty per cent (40%) of capital budget across board so as to maintain the capital budgets already captured in the budget. The cut, he explained, will not affect critical sector projects like power and some roads.
“While the full implication of such decision is not unappreciated, Members may wish to know that attempts were made to apply a lower percentage cut but the resultant deficit was still not sustainable. No doubt such cut would distort budget implementation, but it is expected that sector heads of Ministries Departments and Agencies (MDAs) would prioritise with the balance of the budget cut and perhaps facilitate efficient budget performance in conjunction with members of the National Assembly,” Akogun said.
The House Leader who also led the debate on the Supplementary Budget disclosed that the Executive Bill seeks to authorise the issue from the Consolidated Revenue Fund of the Federation, the total sum of N639, 824,478,183.00 (Six Hundred and Thirty Nine Billion, Eight Hundred and twenty four Million, Four Hundred and Seventy Eight Thousand, One Hundred and Eighty Three Naira only).
According to Akogun, the Supplementary Appropriation was specifically for the celebration of Nigeria’s Golden Jubilee and for the settlement of the balance of the public service wage adjustment, covering salary arrears to members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU); their colleagues in the Polytechnics and Colleges of Education as well as some core civil servants. He also said that provision has been made in the supplementary budget to settle wage increase for medical professionals and to drive the second phase (Post Amnesty) of the re-integration programme of ex-militants in the Niger Delta.
Also included is the finance of the arrears of monetisation benefit to workers of the Power Holing Company of Nigeria (PHCN) who are threatening to down tools as well as funds to be deployed to intervention projects carried over from last year’s budget under the Ministry of Niger Delta.
The funding for these projects, Akogun said, were expected to come from the carry over of unspent funds in the second Supplementary Budget of 2009; Federal Government Bond Issuance for PHCN Arrears of monetisation as well as other sources of revenue available to government.
Although some lawmakers picked holes in both bills, Chairman, House Committee on Finance, Honourable John Enoh countered their argument that the amendment and supplementary budgets were unnecessary. Honourable Mohammed Ndume and Honourable Igo Aguma had argued that since the year was already half way gone, these additional budgets were not going to save the 2010 Budget from failing.
Ndume specifically kicked against the budget amendment because of what he described as the incessant alterations the Executive made on the document while it was under consideration at the National Assembly. He said that the current alteration will not just be the seventh in the series but will creat a situation where the country's budget will be 80 per cent recurrent expenditure and 20 per cent capital expenditure.
However, Enoh argued that the amendment to the 2010 Appropriation, cutting down capital expenditure by 40 per cent and reducing the crude oil benchmark was necessary because of the implication of the national budget on the budgets run by the 36 states, the Federal Capital Territory and the 774 Local Government Councils . Enoh disclosed that the Federal Government had identified a shortfall of about 27 per cent in its revenue given the sharp drop in the price of crude oil in the international market and it will be wrong for the government to leave the budget in its original state as the state governments will be calculating revenues accruing to them from the Federation Account using the initial projections of the 2010 Appropriation Act.
Both budget bills were subsequently passed in separate voice votes and each referred to the Joint House Committee on Finance and appropriation for further legislative action. The Joint Committee on Finance and Appropriation is expected to make its report on the budget bill available to the House in two days. There are strong indications that given the time the supplementary budget is being presented the 2010 budget, like the 2009 appropriation Act may spill over to March 31st 2011.
Also yesterday, the House adopted the Conference Committee Report on a Bill for an Act to establish the National Space Research and Development Agency. Chairman, House Committee on Science and technology, Honourable Abiodun Akinlade who presented the report said the bill was earlier passed by the House on Wednesday December 17, 2008 and transmitted to the Senate for concurrence. The Senate, Akinlade said, passed the same bill with some minor differences which necessitated the two chambers meeting at a conference on Tuesday May 25, 2010 where they adopted the harmonised version of the bill.
Abacha loot: UK court jails Lagos charity boss
Prince Daini Olusesan
A fresh answer to the puzzle has come, with a Jersey, United Kingdom court jailing for six years one of the late dictator’s business associates.
Raj Bhojwani, importer of the popular tricycle used in Lagos and some other cities, was jailed for depositing millions in a Jersey bank from a deal to provide trucks to the Nigerian Army.
In the 12 years since Gen. Abacha died in office, investigators have struggled to find out what happened to the estimated £2.2bn he siphoned out of his country’s coffers during his brutal five-year rule.
Though at least $700m (£470m) has been returned to Nigeria, only a handful of people have ever been put on trial for their role in the brazen kleptocracy.
But in a historic move, the court in Jersey sentenced one of Abacha’s business associates to six years in the island’s only jail, after he deposited in a St Helier bank account tens of millions of pounds from a deal to provide overpriced trucks to the Nigerian Army, The Guardian of UK reported yesterday.
Jersey’s Royal Court heard how Raj Bhojwani – a 53-year-old multimillionaire businessman who set up a charity in Lagos providing free glasses to all shortsighted school children – deposited US$184m (£122m) in a Bank of India account on the island after checking Jersey’s bank secrecy laws.
The money came from selling military vehicles to the Federal Government at up to five times their actual price between 1996 and 1997 and then using the profit to pay bribes to top Nigerian officials, including Abacha and allegedly a former military administrator who is holding a key position in the government.
These two men were said to have received $100m (£66m). Bhojwani’s cut of the deal, according to the prosecution, was US$43.9m (£29.4m).
Bhojwani’s deception came to light back in 2000, when the Financial Times printed an investigation into the late Gen. Abacha’s looted billions – in particular money which was squirrelled away in two Swiss bank accounts registered in the names Kaiser and Seuze.
Keyser Soze was the name of a shadowy mafia leader in the film The Usual Suspects and these movie-influenced accounts were owned by Mohamed Abacha, the dictator’s son and heir, who has declared his intention to run for Kano State governor next year.
The day after the report was printed, Bhojwani withdrew the US$43.9m (£29.4m) out of his Jersey accounts for 11 days, in an attempt to avoid detection.
After a long investigation, Bhojwani was arrested in 2007 and released on bail with a US$50m (£33.4m) surety.
Bhojwani himself never denied agreeing to overprice the trucks, but in a letter to the court he maintained that his profit from the deal was actually around $25m (£16.6m), which grew to $43.9m (£29.4m) as a result of the way he invested it. While acknowledging that what he did was wrong, he said it was impossible to do business in Nigeria during Abacha’s reign without paying enormous bribes.
But at the sentencing hearing last week, prosecution advocate Matthew Jowitt said Bhojwani knew how much ordinary Nigerians suffered as a result of Abacha’s repressive regime and yet he was happy to profit from their misery.
“The frauds committed in Nigeria, the criminal proceeds of which were received, possessed and handled by the Defendant in Jersey, were not frauds against fellow businessmen, or a limited class of investors,” said Jowitt.
“They were frauds against a nation, and against its people. A people who, it is a matter for judicial note, rank amongst the most impoverished in the world.”
He added: “This was money, both his own $40 million share, and the $100 million for Abacha and … which the people of Nigeria could not afford to lose.
“It was money which could and should have been spent for the good of the Nigerian people, in improving their lives. Instead it was siphoned off for the private benefit of these men.”
The Royal Court in St Helier found Bhojwani guilty earlier this year of three counts of money laundering. He has never been tried for any crime in Nigeria.
In a statement to The Guardian, Bhojwani’s lawyer Paul Sugden suggested the case against his client was unfair.
He said: “Mr Bhojwani has not been charged with and has not anywhere been tried for offences of corruption or bribery.
“He alone amongst those against whom the Crown’s case alleges wrongdoing in Nigeria has faced prosecution, a proposition which even the Swiss lawyer acting for Nigeria in its efforts to recover monies said to have been ‘looted’ by the Abacha regime suggests might be thought off as ‘unfair’.”
The late Gen. Abacha took power on November 17, 1993, following a military “coup d’etat” and stayed in power until his death on June 8, 1998.
As well as being head of state, he also appointed himself Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces, Minister of Defence, President of the Provisional Ruling Council, and President of the Federal Executive Council.
Due to his wide-ranging power, he was able to do whatever he liked, particularly in regard to the country’s finances. He awarded himself the power to approve all contracts with the government worth over US$50,000.
Using these arbitary powers, Abacha set up a system of systematic corruption in favour of himself, his family, friends and acolytes, overpricing national contracts by at least 40% and transferring funds out of the treasury and into accounts of his associates.
A fresh answer to the puzzle has come, with a Jersey, United Kingdom court jailing for six years one of the late dictator’s business associates.
Raj Bhojwani, importer of the popular tricycle used in Lagos and some other cities, was jailed for depositing millions in a Jersey bank from a deal to provide trucks to the Nigerian Army.
In the 12 years since Gen. Abacha died in office, investigators have struggled to find out what happened to the estimated £2.2bn he siphoned out of his country’s coffers during his brutal five-year rule.
Though at least $700m (£470m) has been returned to Nigeria, only a handful of people have ever been put on trial for their role in the brazen kleptocracy.
But in a historic move, the court in Jersey sentenced one of Abacha’s business associates to six years in the island’s only jail, after he deposited in a St Helier bank account tens of millions of pounds from a deal to provide overpriced trucks to the Nigerian Army, The Guardian of UK reported yesterday.
Jersey’s Royal Court heard how Raj Bhojwani – a 53-year-old multimillionaire businessman who set up a charity in Lagos providing free glasses to all shortsighted school children – deposited US$184m (£122m) in a Bank of India account on the island after checking Jersey’s bank secrecy laws.
The money came from selling military vehicles to the Federal Government at up to five times their actual price between 1996 and 1997 and then using the profit to pay bribes to top Nigerian officials, including Abacha and allegedly a former military administrator who is holding a key position in the government.
These two men were said to have received $100m (£66m). Bhojwani’s cut of the deal, according to the prosecution, was US$43.9m (£29.4m).
Bhojwani’s deception came to light back in 2000, when the Financial Times printed an investigation into the late Gen. Abacha’s looted billions – in particular money which was squirrelled away in two Swiss bank accounts registered in the names Kaiser and Seuze.
Keyser Soze was the name of a shadowy mafia leader in the film The Usual Suspects and these movie-influenced accounts were owned by Mohamed Abacha, the dictator’s son and heir, who has declared his intention to run for Kano State governor next year.
The day after the report was printed, Bhojwani withdrew the US$43.9m (£29.4m) out of his Jersey accounts for 11 days, in an attempt to avoid detection.
After a long investigation, Bhojwani was arrested in 2007 and released on bail with a US$50m (£33.4m) surety.
Bhojwani himself never denied agreeing to overprice the trucks, but in a letter to the court he maintained that his profit from the deal was actually around $25m (£16.6m), which grew to $43.9m (£29.4m) as a result of the way he invested it. While acknowledging that what he did was wrong, he said it was impossible to do business in Nigeria during Abacha’s reign without paying enormous bribes.
But at the sentencing hearing last week, prosecution advocate Matthew Jowitt said Bhojwani knew how much ordinary Nigerians suffered as a result of Abacha’s repressive regime and yet he was happy to profit from their misery.
“The frauds committed in Nigeria, the criminal proceeds of which were received, possessed and handled by the Defendant in Jersey, were not frauds against fellow businessmen, or a limited class of investors,” said Jowitt.
“They were frauds against a nation, and against its people. A people who, it is a matter for judicial note, rank amongst the most impoverished in the world.”
He added: “This was money, both his own $40 million share, and the $100 million for Abacha and … which the people of Nigeria could not afford to lose.
“It was money which could and should have been spent for the good of the Nigerian people, in improving their lives. Instead it was siphoned off for the private benefit of these men.”
The Royal Court in St Helier found Bhojwani guilty earlier this year of three counts of money laundering. He has never been tried for any crime in Nigeria.
In a statement to The Guardian, Bhojwani’s lawyer Paul Sugden suggested the case against his client was unfair.
He said: “Mr Bhojwani has not been charged with and has not anywhere been tried for offences of corruption or bribery.
“He alone amongst those against whom the Crown’s case alleges wrongdoing in Nigeria has faced prosecution, a proposition which even the Swiss lawyer acting for Nigeria in its efforts to recover monies said to have been ‘looted’ by the Abacha regime suggests might be thought off as ‘unfair’.”
The late Gen. Abacha took power on November 17, 1993, following a military “coup d’etat” and stayed in power until his death on June 8, 1998.
As well as being head of state, he also appointed himself Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces, Minister of Defence, President of the Provisional Ruling Council, and President of the Federal Executive Council.
Due to his wide-ranging power, he was able to do whatever he liked, particularly in regard to the country’s finances. He awarded himself the power to approve all contracts with the government worth over US$50,000.
Using these arbitary powers, Abacha set up a system of systematic corruption in favour of himself, his family, friends and acolytes, overpricing national contracts by at least 40% and transferring funds out of the treasury and into accounts of his associates.
Jonathan orders probe of Yar’Adua’s ADC, CSO
Ugochukwu Ezeagwula
The Presidency has ordered an investigation into the roles played by senior State House Security Officials in the crisis that resulted from the sudden illness of the late President Umaru Yar’Adua.
President Goodluck Jonathan, during his maiden Presidential Media Chat last Sunday, had said that some senior government officials who were not political appointees barred him and other top government officials from seeing Yar‘Adua before his death on May 5.
It was learnt that security agents were investigating those believed to be responsible for the decision.
It was gathered that the State Security Services had been directed by President to investigate the roles played by the late president‘s Aide de Camp, Col. Mustapha Onoyiveta; the Chief Security Officer, Mr. Yusuf Tilde; and the former National Security Adviser, Major Gen. Sarki Muktar, from the time Yar‘Adua was evacuated to Saudi Arabia for medical treatment on November 23 last year, till his death on May 5, 2010.
Asked who stopped him from seeing Yar‘Adua before his death, President Jonathan said during the media chat, ”There were senior government functionaries; they were not political office holders. They were security personnel”
The ex-ADC, CSO and NSA were believed to have worked in concert with the former First Lady, Turai Yar‘Adua, and a clique made up of the late president’s closest aides to prevent government officials from seeing the then ailing Yar‘Adua.
The Presidency has ordered an investigation into the roles played by senior State House Security Officials in the crisis that resulted from the sudden illness of the late President Umaru Yar’Adua.
President Goodluck Jonathan, during his maiden Presidential Media Chat last Sunday, had said that some senior government officials who were not political appointees barred him and other top government officials from seeing Yar‘Adua before his death on May 5.
It was learnt that security agents were investigating those believed to be responsible for the decision.
It was gathered that the State Security Services had been directed by President to investigate the roles played by the late president‘s Aide de Camp, Col. Mustapha Onoyiveta; the Chief Security Officer, Mr. Yusuf Tilde; and the former National Security Adviser, Major Gen. Sarki Muktar, from the time Yar‘Adua was evacuated to Saudi Arabia for medical treatment on November 23 last year, till his death on May 5, 2010.
Asked who stopped him from seeing Yar‘Adua before his death, President Jonathan said during the media chat, ”There were senior government functionaries; they were not political office holders. They were security personnel”
The ex-ADC, CSO and NSA were believed to have worked in concert with the former First Lady, Turai Yar‘Adua, and a clique made up of the late president’s closest aides to prevent government officials from seeing the then ailing Yar‘Adua.
INSANITY AND NIGERIANS
Ozodi Osuji
In popular parlance insanity is defined as the tendency to keep on doing the same thing while expecting different results. (This is, of course, not how psychology and psychiatry defines psychosis…the mental health profession defines psychosis as the presence of bizarre delusions and hallucinations in one or more of the five senses, this occurs in about two percent of the population and for all intents and purposes does not concern us here…for our present purpose we shall go with the definition provided by common usage). The insane person keeps on doing something, something that necessarily yields predictable results but expects different results. For example, if you drink too much alcohol you damage your liver and eventually die. But the alcoholic keeps on drinking while expecting to be healthy.
In our every day experience we know that human beings are proud, vain and narcissistic; they like to be seen as special and admired by their fellow human beings. Therefore, common sense tells us to respect all human beings if we want to get along with them.
If you go about disrespecting other human beings you insult their pride; when folks’ pride is injured they tend to respond with anger; whereas some will walk away from you some will verbally or physically attack you. People do kill those who put them down. This is history 101.
If, on the other hand, you insult people and expect them to like and respect you, you are obviously not recognizing reality. Those you insult will feel angry at you and attack or even kill you. Therefore, if you expect them to like you, you are insane for you expect the impossible.
Igbos apparently believe that it is up to them to ignore human reality. Thus they go about insulting other Nigerians. Other Nigerians naturally feel insulted and angry and attack them. They feel shocked that they are attacked!
When those they insulted, such as Hausas and Yorubas, attack them and make life difficult for them in Nigeria they turn around and see themselves as innocent victims and see those other Nigerians as evil persons who victimize their innocent selves!
They are not innocent at all; they get what they asked for; they sleep on the beds that they made!
They actually want those they insult to like them, to respect them, to see them as very important persons, as superior persons.
The Igbos who insult other Nigerians are not seen as superior persons; they are seen as unintelligent and sub-human beings! On this forum Igbos like Chukwuma, Franklyn, Peter Opara, Ken Assigwara etc who insult other Nigerians are seen as totally unintelligent and as sub-human beings (they are not seen as role models even though they fancy themselves as respect worthy!). I doubt that any Nigerian here respects these creatures. That is to say that they obtain natural results from their insulting behavior but as insane persons expect to be respected and seen as superior persons. Superior indeed!
(I came to this forum and stated my honest opinions, which as a human being I have a right to, and the idiots apparently believed that I should not have opinions, that I should conform to their group delusions of superiority and say what they would approve; thus, without knowing who I am they called me all sorts of put down names. In their primitive minds they probably felt that they were shaming me; but in actual fact they became sub human beings in my mind; I do not see any of them as even slightly intelligent and have total contempt for them.
If you put other persons down they will resent you and some will attack and even kill you. If you desire respect from other persons you must respect other persons. But Igbos disrespect other Nigerians while expecting other Nigerians to respect them. They will not be respected. In so far that they engage in behaviors that produce disrespect for them while expecting respect they are insane.
What is the point to all these? The point is that Igbos must learn to respect all people, especially all Nigerians. All people, Igbos, Yorubas, Hausas, Edos, Ijaws, whites, Asians, men and women, adults and children are the same and are coequal. One God created all people; we are all members of one family, God’s family. God does not make junk; he made all of us equal. Therefore, if we are godly we must love and respect all people (while correcting our various bad behaviors).
I was writing a paper on Nigeria and desired information on Nigeria ; I asked an Ijaw friend living in England where I could obtain that information and she referred me to naijapolitics; she said that the forum is an excellent source of information on Nigeria . I joined the forum and began reading what Nigerians were writing. I paid particular attention to what Igbos wrote. To put it mildly they wrote like insane persons! I could not believe that just about all members of a group seemed insane.
Whereas I had wanted to be a member of the forum for a few months and move on I stayed and tried to understand Igbos etc. Over the years I wrote about these people. I have concluded my writing on them. They are a sick people and need long term psychotherapy to understand and heal their sick minds. It would take, at least, ten years of intense individual psychotherapy for the average Igbo person to heal his sick soul and become a decent human being. This is my judgment; a judgment based on over twenty five years working as a psychotherapist (with intermittent university teaching).
I allowed myself to exchange words with even those Igbos that I knew were clinically insane (psychotic). I even exchanged words with mechanics, with unrefined human beings! I gave myself the permission to talk with these folks and have now withdrawn that permission and hence forth would not talk with them.
School session is over. If you desire learning from me you could buy some of my books (there are, at least, twenty two of them out there…and soon I will add another twenty). I no longer have time to engage in roforofo with folks.
I part company by telling Igbos to recognize that their neurotic (when behavior is based on false pride, on fictional sense of superiority it is neurotic) need to put folks down is the genesis of their problems in Nigeria . They have to learn to respect all Nigerians, especially if they want other Nigerians to cooperate with them to get what they desire out of life.
For whatever it may mean to you ponder this fact. My kindred is Umuamadioha. We produce the high priest of Amadioha for our people; we have done so for hundreds, if not thousands of years. Generally, when the current "Onye ishi Amdioha” is old a child in the kindred is selected to replace him. In the 1960s, at age eight, I was said to be the child to replace the then high priest, Akakporo. Thus, I was yanked from my Lagos upbringing and sent to Alaigbo to go understudy my uncle the then high priest. I had exposure to Igbo culture and learned Igbo language. The elders observed me and said that I am spirit possessed, “onye agwusi”, and decided that I had to become a dibia (healer). I was forced to learn what dibias do. Two years was enough exposure for the precocious me to learn all I could from these folks and I returned to Lagos and completed elementary school at Apapa GRA just as the war was about to begin. We ran to Port Harcourt where I began secondary school. At the end of the war I completed secondary and without waiting for my results (HSC/GCE Advance Level…I had one B, the rest As) to come out I was in the United States at age nineteen. Subsequently, I put all things African behind me and in fact did not even identify with Africans! But five years ago I was reintroduced to Africans via naijapolitcs and learned how sick my fellow Igbos are. I had a compulsion to understand and help them. Willy Nelly I wrote about them. The relevant point is that I have performed my family’s historical role for Igbos: be their dibia (healer) and high priest. I have told them the truth of how they behave, for that is the function of dibias and high priests. I could care less how folks see me; I do not mind being verbally degraded by Igbos. I had to do what I had to do for these peoples eventual healing. The Igbo dibia has performed his function; it is now time to move on to what truly fascinates me: understanding physics and metaphysics. Cheers.
PS: Given the fact that naijapolitics remains an excellent source of information on Nigeria, who could not benefit from Bolaji Aluko’s occasional factual data on things Nigerian, I will maintain my membership in the forum…I do not receive mails directly to my mail box, I go to the website to read whatever I feel like reading; hence forth I will no longer give me permission to respond to folks letters.
In popular parlance insanity is defined as the tendency to keep on doing the same thing while expecting different results. (This is, of course, not how psychology and psychiatry defines psychosis…the mental health profession defines psychosis as the presence of bizarre delusions and hallucinations in one or more of the five senses, this occurs in about two percent of the population and for all intents and purposes does not concern us here…for our present purpose we shall go with the definition provided by common usage). The insane person keeps on doing something, something that necessarily yields predictable results but expects different results. For example, if you drink too much alcohol you damage your liver and eventually die. But the alcoholic keeps on drinking while expecting to be healthy.
In our every day experience we know that human beings are proud, vain and narcissistic; they like to be seen as special and admired by their fellow human beings. Therefore, common sense tells us to respect all human beings if we want to get along with them.
If you go about disrespecting other human beings you insult their pride; when folks’ pride is injured they tend to respond with anger; whereas some will walk away from you some will verbally or physically attack you. People do kill those who put them down. This is history 101.
If, on the other hand, you insult people and expect them to like and respect you, you are obviously not recognizing reality. Those you insult will feel angry at you and attack or even kill you. Therefore, if you expect them to like you, you are insane for you expect the impossible.
Igbos apparently believe that it is up to them to ignore human reality. Thus they go about insulting other Nigerians. Other Nigerians naturally feel insulted and angry and attack them. They feel shocked that they are attacked!
When those they insulted, such as Hausas and Yorubas, attack them and make life difficult for them in Nigeria they turn around and see themselves as innocent victims and see those other Nigerians as evil persons who victimize their innocent selves!
They are not innocent at all; they get what they asked for; they sleep on the beds that they made!
They actually want those they insult to like them, to respect them, to see them as very important persons, as superior persons.
The Igbos who insult other Nigerians are not seen as superior persons; they are seen as unintelligent and sub-human beings! On this forum Igbos like Chukwuma, Franklyn, Peter Opara, Ken Assigwara etc who insult other Nigerians are seen as totally unintelligent and as sub-human beings (they are not seen as role models even though they fancy themselves as respect worthy!). I doubt that any Nigerian here respects these creatures. That is to say that they obtain natural results from their insulting behavior but as insane persons expect to be respected and seen as superior persons. Superior indeed!
(I came to this forum and stated my honest opinions, which as a human being I have a right to, and the idiots apparently believed that I should not have opinions, that I should conform to their group delusions of superiority and say what they would approve; thus, without knowing who I am they called me all sorts of put down names. In their primitive minds they probably felt that they were shaming me; but in actual fact they became sub human beings in my mind; I do not see any of them as even slightly intelligent and have total contempt for them.
If you put other persons down they will resent you and some will attack and even kill you. If you desire respect from other persons you must respect other persons. But Igbos disrespect other Nigerians while expecting other Nigerians to respect them. They will not be respected. In so far that they engage in behaviors that produce disrespect for them while expecting respect they are insane.
What is the point to all these? The point is that Igbos must learn to respect all people, especially all Nigerians. All people, Igbos, Yorubas, Hausas, Edos, Ijaws, whites, Asians, men and women, adults and children are the same and are coequal. One God created all people; we are all members of one family, God’s family. God does not make junk; he made all of us equal. Therefore, if we are godly we must love and respect all people (while correcting our various bad behaviors).
I was writing a paper on Nigeria and desired information on Nigeria ; I asked an Ijaw friend living in England where I could obtain that information and she referred me to naijapolitics; she said that the forum is an excellent source of information on Nigeria . I joined the forum and began reading what Nigerians were writing. I paid particular attention to what Igbos wrote. To put it mildly they wrote like insane persons! I could not believe that just about all members of a group seemed insane.
Whereas I had wanted to be a member of the forum for a few months and move on I stayed and tried to understand Igbos etc. Over the years I wrote about these people. I have concluded my writing on them. They are a sick people and need long term psychotherapy to understand and heal their sick minds. It would take, at least, ten years of intense individual psychotherapy for the average Igbo person to heal his sick soul and become a decent human being. This is my judgment; a judgment based on over twenty five years working as a psychotherapist (with intermittent university teaching).
I allowed myself to exchange words with even those Igbos that I knew were clinically insane (psychotic). I even exchanged words with mechanics, with unrefined human beings! I gave myself the permission to talk with these folks and have now withdrawn that permission and hence forth would not talk with them.
School session is over. If you desire learning from me you could buy some of my books (there are, at least, twenty two of them out there…and soon I will add another twenty). I no longer have time to engage in roforofo with folks.
I part company by telling Igbos to recognize that their neurotic (when behavior is based on false pride, on fictional sense of superiority it is neurotic) need to put folks down is the genesis of their problems in Nigeria . They have to learn to respect all Nigerians, especially if they want other Nigerians to cooperate with them to get what they desire out of life.
For whatever it may mean to you ponder this fact. My kindred is Umuamadioha. We produce the high priest of Amadioha for our people; we have done so for hundreds, if not thousands of years. Generally, when the current "Onye ishi Amdioha” is old a child in the kindred is selected to replace him. In the 1960s, at age eight, I was said to be the child to replace the then high priest, Akakporo. Thus, I was yanked from my Lagos upbringing and sent to Alaigbo to go understudy my uncle the then high priest. I had exposure to Igbo culture and learned Igbo language. The elders observed me and said that I am spirit possessed, “onye agwusi”, and decided that I had to become a dibia (healer). I was forced to learn what dibias do. Two years was enough exposure for the precocious me to learn all I could from these folks and I returned to Lagos and completed elementary school at Apapa GRA just as the war was about to begin. We ran to Port Harcourt where I began secondary school. At the end of the war I completed secondary and without waiting for my results (HSC/GCE Advance Level…I had one B, the rest As) to come out I was in the United States at age nineteen. Subsequently, I put all things African behind me and in fact did not even identify with Africans! But five years ago I was reintroduced to Africans via naijapolitcs and learned how sick my fellow Igbos are. I had a compulsion to understand and help them. Willy Nelly I wrote about them. The relevant point is that I have performed my family’s historical role for Igbos: be their dibia (healer) and high priest. I have told them the truth of how they behave, for that is the function of dibias and high priests. I could care less how folks see me; I do not mind being verbally degraded by Igbos. I had to do what I had to do for these peoples eventual healing. The Igbo dibia has performed his function; it is now time to move on to what truly fascinates me: understanding physics and metaphysics. Cheers.
PS: Given the fact that naijapolitics remains an excellent source of information on Nigeria, who could not benefit from Bolaji Aluko’s occasional factual data on things Nigerian, I will maintain my membership in the forum…I do not receive mails directly to my mail box, I go to the website to read whatever I feel like reading; hence forth I will no longer give me permission to respond to folks letters.
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