Delta State Under Gov. Uduaghan Will Witness More Development.......Chike Ogeah

Delta State under the leadership of the Governor, Dr. Eweta Emmanuel Uduaghan is sure to finish strong as well as land well, a new administrative mantra in Delta State was recently strongly emphasized by the state’s Image Maker and Commissioner For Information, Mr Chike Ogeah, when he spoke with news men at his Asaba office, used same opportunity to explained deeper some people friendly land mark achievements of the state government and why such projects were embarked upon, and a range of other issues of public importance.

What follows is the text of the interview.   

What we want to actually know is the concept of the acronym finishing strong and what is behind finishing strong?

Well, you are aware that since the governor got re-elected for the second term, there has being series of litigations this administration has endured. Initially, even before the litigations, there were periods of elections, re-run election and all that took some precious time then, which would have being actively devoted to the needs of Deltans, as you know, Our Governor has a listening ear and a heart that feels deeper the aspiration of Deltans, but these here and there prolonged litigations were there, but thanks to the Almighty God, today, it’s a whole new song.

You see as this period elapsed, mostly the first tenure, the government was focused on finishing projects of his predecessor and of course putting his own vision in proper perspective, because he understood that he had to do a lot of  job in the second term, hence he has projects, across health, education, SMEs, empowerment sectors of the economy. 

Basically, on the three point agenda of Infrastructural development, Peace and Security and Human Capital Development, it is evident to all Deltans, even you Journalists, that immediately this administration started doing all we planned to execute, that there were too many needless and prolonged litigations and when as a government we got over all that and all hands went straight on plough to serve our people, we got into the real sphere of delivering democratic dividends to Deltans  and that was why we described what we are seeing today as a harvest of projects all over the state.

We keep telling everyone that Delta is a massive state, we have over five million people, very diverse and so whatever project you are having in one place, you must replicate it in other places, it is not the kind of state where you just develop the state capital and then everybody shout hosanna and you have done a great job.

So, because of that we have to develop what we called the two major economic zones, am sure Delta is the only state that has two viable airports and two massive economic zones; one of course is the oil and gas zone of Warri and the economic zone of Asaba. 

Asaba is 10 minutes away from the biggest market in Sub-Saharan African and that is why we say we don’t have projects in Delta really, what we have are programmes, because for everything we do, every road we construct, any airport we build it is always with a multiplier effect.

Take for instance, one of our big projects, which is Ughelli-Asaba Road dualization, over 173 kilometers one side. So, that will be times two of federal high way of three, four lanes which we have opened up. The whole idea is to be able to connect these two economic zones; we found out that a lot of our compatriots from across the Niger where trading and commerce is the real thing. 

They have accidents, they spend days on air trying to go and clear their goods in Lagos from the Ports and all that and we realized that we have two Ports here: we have Koko and Warri Ports here, the federal government has given an indication that they were going to be dredging of those Ports and once that was done, we knew that all we needed to do was link up those two zones and instead of those people having to go to Lagos and falling prey to all kinds of accidents, we would have opened a new transportation hub and axis even just across by road haulage and all that.

So, that was why we made sure that there were some star projects like the Warri industrial Park which supposed to be the biggest cluster of a massive Private Public Partnership, also the Leisure Theme Park, which is supposed to be our own Disney land, it has a component of the zoo, the game reserve in Ogwashi-Uku, where you have over 500 species of animals that are going to be on show there, these animals have already been purchased. In fact I think in another three months or so that place will be open and people will see the wonder that is waiting for them in Ogwashi-Uku.

But basically coming back to you question, I just used this as a background, is that finishing strong meant that we now have these projects scattered all over the state because like I said, this governor have a big vision.

 We also have massive empowerment projects like we keep saying you build all the bridges, the roads and the people are hungry, there is still a massive problem. And that is why we developed our Delta Micro Credit Scheme which had been acclaimed to be the best in the country, other states have come to find out the model and how we did it because that scheme had a double effect.

Like I keep saying everything we do is a programme, it always have a multiplier effect, we strengthen our micro finance banks and gave soft loans to a lot of people. A lot of them are indigent people, a lot are very talented people but have no access to credit, a lot of them are people with disabilities that would not have been doing anything and a lot of them would have been young men who out of frustration would have taken to crime, we harness their potentials, we harness their talents and they started making all kind of fantastic things from the scheme, we found out that they were repaying their loans, because these loans were interest free, short term and they were repaying it easily, of course, that have also strengthening the banks we partnered, and what we now have is a multiplier effect of well over 10, 000 persons.

You have just say somebody, maybe a woman that was just doing a one man business in her house, doing the Akwa-osha or making beads and then you give her access to this credit, she employs two people and before you know what, this thing is growing, she employs 10 people, she employs 20. A lot of these goods are finding their ways to the international market and don’t forget Delta State is 40 per cent riverine as well so there is massive aqua-culture going on. You go to Warri axis and you see the kind of fish farming clusters that are all there and that is one of the things the ministry of commerce has been doing so well at.

So, we had a lot of these programmes all over the places, we are building two massive first time flyovers in Delta State, as we are doing these we are complementing it with a lot of private sector partnership as I talk to you, you can hardly find land to buy in Asaba anymore. 

Why? Because we build the first class Asaba airport there. So, it opened up the town, you can’t get any land to buy from here to Agbor. Land is selling at the prices which land sell in Abuja and in Lagos now in Asaba. So, these are the kind of things we are doing.

Of course, all the inter-city roads, all our towns are been tarred, massive environmental cleanup is going on; we just finished in Warri. I mean, Warri was almost a forgotten city like people said, it was just a den of filth, we moved in there, over 16 commissioners, governor put a task force in place and we turned that town around within two-three months and the people didn’t believed that such a thing could happen. Warri and its environs, Udu, everywhere.

Illegal shops, caravans that that were trading in, motor cars that were abandoned, grass that have overtaking the city. Opening up gutters, making sure that rivers are flowing well. Of course, after the horrendous flood experience we had, we are taking every precaution and you also know our governor is very high on environment, he has always subscribe to this climate change thing, he was a member of the R2O, when he was talking about this kind of thing, people thought he was just talking until we had those crazy flood and then everybody realize that we have to take care of our environment. 

Lately again, even with this micro scheme I told you about we became the first to introduce an insurance because we found out that flowing from that flood a lot of these farmers we were helping lost most of their farm land. How do you bring them back to what they were? They don’t have money for insurance.

So, what the government has done is to institute an insurance scheme now, the micro credit insurance scheme where the government is the one that have put in bulk of the money and all their clients are becoming beneficiaries of the insurance scheme. What we are saying by finishing strong is that we want to finish as many of these projects both infrastructure programmes and policies.

we are doing both the training and re-training of our teachers in our secondary schools because if you notice we have built over 20 first class model schools all over the state that compete favorably with schools anywhere in the world.

We have re-habited, renovated, totally refurbished and built new schools like Saint Patrick, Nana College; we have built four new polytechnics. There has been massive improvement in our educational sector but we are saying that is not enough.

Of course, our scholarship scheme is running where Deltans who have first class from any recognized university in the world would be taken care by the state to any other level the person want to get to.

Then you come to the health care, see what we have just done with Eku teaching hospital, the mother and child hospital in Warri, first class infrastructure hospital dedicated to just pregnant women and their children, never has it been done so well, one in Asaba, one in Warri and then the massive renovation of all our health and facilities, Oghara just the other day was just the first hospital in Nigeria to organize a successful kidney transplant. If you go to Oghara, you will not believe that you are in Nigeria because what the governor has done there is that he has taken that hospital to a different level altogether not just in terms of the modern equipment, all the scanning equipment you need are all there as well as the personnel.

What we have done is that, we gotten Deltans in Diaspora all over that have come back home, some of them on short term, long term contracts. They are all putting their effort in the hospital to make a world class hospital. In fact we actually have an agreement with a university in America where we are going back and forth on the flows of human capital for that hospital and that have impacted on our own local staff but the nurses and the doctors because they have seen a higher level of doing things and it is something else right now.

So, these are all the things we are doing and of course, with all am saying the game plan or the strategy we have always talked about is the three point agenda which I have told you about and then the game plan or the tactics of actualizing it is what we called Delta beyond oil. 

And what are we talking about Delta beyond oil?  We just say look there are those areas where we have natural comparative advantage, because oil, hydrocarbon and all these apart from the damage and degradation they do to our environment and deprive us of the old ways of life where you could see a fish in the water, the water is clear, but when the whole water is polluted fishes die, the farmland are wasted.

To Be Continued Next Week

Why Leave Predator Boko haram Beasts and Bully Civil Biafra Right Activists?

I hereby expresses great discomfort and discontentment with the Federal Government of Nigeria and her security outfits that fear and beg the Islamist Boko Haram terrorists and their likes’ for dialogue but are at

the same time fighting and killing the non-violent agitators of Self-determination like the Biafran Zionist Movement (BZM), Indigenous People of Biafra (under Radio Biafra), Movement for the Actualization of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB) and others asking for the re-establishment of the Republic of Biafra. 

The continuous killings, harassments and arrests of the Biafran Self-determination activists as seen with the recent arrests of the non-terrorist BZM leader Barr Ben Onwuka and his followers while leading peaceful protest, currently been detained and tried for treason against Nigeria in Enugu State have again raised mountainous questions on the bases of the Nigerian state and remain condemnable as well as ignoble. 

One wondered when Man’s inalienable rights, the United Nations’ Universal Declaration on Human Rights, UN Rights of Indigenous Peoples (2007), African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Right and world-wide acclaimed “right to self-determination” which Nigeria is all signatory to, has suddenly become TREASON. One sees this Nigeria’s latest anti-Ben Onwuka/BZM and other Biafra agitators disgusting war as fostering of her ongoing post-Biafra war economic trenches and determined efforts to undermine Igbo nation and her interests and a continuation of the evil acts making Igbo citizenry the scapegoats of the Nigerian politics that may eventually spring Igbo Clan Spirit fruition.  

Here be it noted, we have been having many a terrible cases of ethnic militias’ uprisings, Islamists Boko Harams terrorists’ attacks, destruction of lives and properties; and arrests of the top terrorist-suspects and sponsors in Nigeria; yet ignobly regrettable that none has been seriously prosecuted for treasonable felony. Yet Nigeria and her Gestapo Police has suddenly waked up calling for the head of the BZM leader Ben Onwuka and his harmless disciples?  

Whereas the leaders of the armed/ violent ethnic militias are having fields’ day and along with the Boko Haram terrorists have not merited such a dehumanizing clamp-down, it is holistically a gross case of continuation of the irrational bias and the perennial injustices against Ndi Igbo in Nigeria for Nigeria and her security agents to arrest and order Ben Onwuka and Cos for treason trial. A good spirited person must condemn this, the same way he ought to condemn in strong terms the serial killings of Ndi Igbo and destruction of their properties across the country especially in the Northern Nigeria. No wonder, the rise of Boko Haram terrorists and other Islamists bloodletting groups that have endangered the humanity of all is result of the blood of the saints crying to high heaven and been demanded by Mother Earth breaking the silence and inactions of the gullible mass and culpable leaders and governments. 

The blood-letting hunters are now hunting selves down saying that they are killing ‘animals’ not sparing even the British that unduly gave them imperium that Bretons and their look-alike White men are like the Igbo now endangered species. I mean British and her fellow White-anity entente cordiale colonial masters that stole our land and sold our spirituality to the straightjacket Christianity branding us their “God given Children” but while lowering their imperial flags give power to the holders of swords they also told us are God forsaken people and enemy of God of Israel that they brought to save us? I think it now makes sense theoretically that “Western Education Is a Sin (Boko Haram)!  

How I wish the Boko Haram will drop arsenals of mass destructions and come up with intellectual militancy espousing the cause of theoretical Boko Haram that we may see how the colonial masters failed us with conquest histories and scholarship seeing us having educated corrupt elites milking the commonwealth dry?

But here be it asked: where were Nigeria government and her “self-contented nationalists” ripping off the commonwealth when the harbingers of Islamism got 12 states of the North opted out of Nigeria’s Constitutionalism and democratic alternatives and declared Sharia rule that has messed up the (military imposed) Nigerian Constitution and equality in Nigerian nationality, which gives the Islamist Boko Haram and co. the starting point to push for the forceful Islamization of Nigeria? What then still drives Nigerian State that does not want Biafra be when she  derailed on Great Zik’s path to Nigerian nationalism, reneged on all agreed bases of NO VICTOR, NO VANGUISHED leading to non-implementation of the Biafra – Nigeria War Treaty especially the 3-Rs Reconciliation, Rehabilitation and Reconstruction? Must agreement breached by one party be binding on another? Who or which law says so? I want to know.   

Inequality in Nigerian Nationality has seen Ndi Igbo and Christians up North and Middle Belt killed like sheep without shepherds and no serious personality has been ordered for treason by the Federal Government of Nigeria and her Security outfits despite the open source intelligence and security discoveries pointing to “political big fishes”? Why and why always pummeling on Ben Onwukas, Ralph Uwazuruikes, Nnamdi Kanus and Biafra agitators, alone? Is this how to guarantee equality in Nigerian nationality, I mean by enslaving Biafrans and others to the self-beseemed born to rule North killing people like fowls? Is it wise to go after the Islamist terrorists that have rejected equality in Nigerian nationality destroying humanity of all and at the same time going after those still professing constitutionalism and democratic alternatives (I mean Biafrans) like terrorist, at a go? 

It must be said that terrorists’ acts and crimes in Nigeria as led by Islamist Boko Haram and likes have reached an embarrassing peak that the Federal Government and Security networks have to leave the nonviolent Ben Onwuka, his disciples and other Biafra/self-determination agitators alone and battle the Islamist terrorists monsters to the root and stop this erratic anti-terrorism fights. Massive arrests of the Boko Haram terrorists and disclosures about their high profile backers and arms keepers have been made. We, therefore wondered what else is needed to eradicate Boko Haram and Cos rebellions? It is not conspicuous that the same Nigerian state that killed harmless Comrade Ken Saro Wiwa and co for simply being members of [an environmental rights] organization that allegedly went violent now seem to be shielding terrorists and their financiers already exposed? Can this be happening if Nigeria meant business with her anti-terrorism war?  

Federal Government of Nigeria must be told out-rightly that by recommending nonviolent agitators of the Republic of Biafra for treason trials, as seen with Ben Onwuka, Uwazuruike and Co that have never slapped anyone in the course of Biafra agitation, she is trying to re-open Igbo’s unhealed Biafra wounds and inversely asking for another warring disaster. This may definitely lead to many un-bargained crop-ups that would be difficult to contain this time around.  

The FGN must be told that her alleged friendly anti-terrorism fight disposition to the Boko Haram led Islamist terrorists and their partners in crime, to the extent of making amnesty cum empowerment offers, while heroes of non-terrorists Self-determination like Barr Ben Onwuka and Cos are to be detained and charged for treason is highly ridiculous, unimaginative, unlawful, witch-hunting and senseless. Is it not in the best interest of Nigeria to study the undying passions for Biafra despite the Biafra war holocausts, also look inward and find out why all the ethnic nationalities that fought Igbo led Biafra are today asking for self-determination with armies of ethnic militias, here and there; than chasing and hounding Umu Owuwa Anyaanwu (Children of Land of the Rising Sun)? What a cadaverous efulefu nationalism/dance! 

FGN has always through her unwarranted treason dragnets on Biafran agitators as seen presently hanging on Ben Onwuka and his non terrorists BZM sending a wrong message that peaceful approaches to struggle are no longer honoured but violence, abductions and terrorism as have been the case in recent time Nigeria. One strongly condemned such a system as being anti-social and anti-human and feared that it may not only lead to the death of Nigeria (assuming she is alive) but dealt a big blow to worldly peace. This portends that there are neither path to honour nor equality in Nigerian nationality, anymore! Some enjoy culture of impunity destroying properties and killing the humanity of all while those still believing in civil and democratic alternatives are either hounded into prisons or got killed through extra-judicial killings as seen with BZM Members, IPOB (under Radio Biafra London), MASSOBIANS, BILIE Human Rights Initiatives and other pro-Biafra agitators. This cannot be the One Nigeria of the Great Zik but a Nigeria making descent into culture of impunity and disnigerianization! But who cares? 

Be it said that terrorists have never been seen nor described as “freedom fighters” the way leading Northern leaders like the Gen Muhammadu Buhari Rtd, and Mallam Nasir El-Rufai equating them with the Niger Delta Ex-militants are doing while they commit crimes against humanity. Definitely, while the Igbo youths understood the requisite of the amnesty granted to the Niger Deltas’ environmental rights and resource controls agitators, they are waiting in the wing to see amnesty and or empowerment for the Islamist Boko Haram terrorists and Cos. They are ready to embrace rebellion if it becomes what it takes to be heard, conciliated and empowered. One stalwartly call for massive job creations and opportunities for the army of youths roaming the streets as a proper way of building human resources than to wait doing so only for those who fire guns and throw bombs against the state and humanity! 

One strongly warned that any person, group, tribes or sects that want Ndi Igbo to remain perennial sacrificial lambs in this 21st century will sooner or later live to regret because the Igbo are now wiser and enriched in both human and natural resources that can only be undermined to anyone’s or group’s colossal damage. One is warning that no one can guarantee the state of peace in Nigeria especially amongst the army of the unemployed Igbo youths if Ben Onwuka and other Biafran agitators are not released or tried/convicted for treason for just asking for the Indigenous Peoples of Biafra Rights as guaranteed by United Nations 2007 declaration of the Rights of the Indigenous People, among it is right to statehood.  

One also, warned that those advising the FGN to go after the Pro-Biafra agitators that are mostly sympathetic to the embattled Presidency of Jonathan Azikiwe Ebele Goodluck do not wish Mr President well. The first Azikiwe is the beauty of all that is good enough for Africa; this second Azikiwe shall not fail. We all owed him good wills to triumph in the midst of unspeakable sabotages. Helping steering the troubled and distressed Ship of Nigerian state to safe coast: If we are parting ways; it is better done in peace.  

One suspects some people are up for sinister moves while tactically drawing unnecessary frictions and battle-line between President Goodluck and his Igbo kinsmen! Assuming without conceding that Mr President had his impress on the current clamp-down on young leopards, be it warned that no one has won a battle against his kinsmen. One dares ask: Where are the wise men and women of the political Niger Delta? Be it reminded to whom it may concerned troubling the young leopards that the Igbo live to posit: “Onye akpakwana agu aka n’odu; ma o di ndu, ma o nwuru anwu [Let no one dare touch a leopard’s tail; whether it lives or not”. This Ilu is enough for the wise!  

Come what may, feelers from Igbo nation (especially her young leopards) confirm unanimous ideological belief in people’s right to self-determination and firmness of principle. That they stood in solidarity with the neo-Biafra agitators as seen led by this great freedom fighter and social justice crusader Ben Onwuka; and therefore demands that the order to try him and his disciples for treason be dropped by the Federal Government with immediate effect. Try or convict Ben Onwuka and Cos and dare Igbo nation and her young leopards! Federal government of Nigeria leave Ben Onwuka and his Biafra Zionist Movement and other Biafra agitators alone since they meant no harm to human lives and property; hunting, suffering and killing them for no just reason may force the YOUNG LEOPARDS OUT – living, thinking and doing otherwise. 

Finally, in the face of the anti-social clogs on Igbo’s wheel of progress and noticeable inequality in Nigerian nationality, one hereby reiterates Ohanaeze Youth Council’s call for a referendum to determine the Igbo’s political future within or outside Nigeria as enunciated in the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, 2007, through a plebiscite organized by the Igbo/United Nations.  And as well, warn that no one or group has monopoly of violence! It pays to live peaceful! ENOUGH IS ENOUGH! No death is cheap, whether that of a terrorist or counter-terrorist. Death is death! Our soldiers, police and security men shall not be made helpless victims by the Nigerian state and citizenry they elated to defend and or die for! They deserve better live and improved resources to train their own children and contribute their own quota to the economy than ever serving sacrificial lambs. 

Northern Nigeria is already restive and cumbersome, opening another war front in the jungle of the Young Leopards with undying passions for Biafra may not be a good option to the humanity of all. The best option from doing the latter is to peacefully declare this Nigerian marriage of the strange bedfellows over, than to have us eventually fighting irretrievably and be at the mercy of the arms runners, seekers of raw materials and resources creeping working to keep industries of the East and West up and doing; while Africa go down with theaters of war and absurds, biological weapons, diseases and poverty, debts burdens and imperial fissures.  

Wait a minute! I can hear my ancestors ululating, saying “Let the real madmen that claps for the demented go on with their follies”.

 I asked why, and Afa (Ifa) submits: “Let those transferring terrorism and counter-terrorism wars to Africa continue digging their mass grave while discrediting governments, military, police and other security men for the mess they dubiously created and sustain to make cheap monies and opportunities. It will surely favour Africans at the long run: Only that she will suffer heavy necessary loss”. How do you mean, oh Afa that sees and tell where the palm-fruits ripe in the bosoms of the spirits? “Agwu child, don’t you know that if Nigerians that are being denied VISA for using brainpower that rattles and unsettles the cabals and cabal-agents eventual assumes the status of war ravaged people, it would be open doors (political asylums unlimited) that will eventually see Africa(ns) rising?” Yes, of course! 

Oh, Afa you still have something to say! “Yes, my Agwu child. Cry no more. Know you for sure that the super-racists’ economies/world will if they provoke clash of White-anity and Arabianity civilization wars in Nigeria live paying dearly for all their political and economic terrorism onto Africa/humanity: Since, Nigerians are WONDERFUL GEMS in brainpower, economic maneuvering games, counter-smarting-intelligence, human diplomacy, etc. Mostly, Africans (especially youths) will likely claim to be Nigerians taking to political asylums and everywhereness of the Nigerians that presently unsettles the super racially inclined economies and globalists with ill motives.  

“Once the plausible Whiteanity and Arabianity final clash of civilization war begins, let all young Africans (including soldiers, police and other security outfits) jet out to any choice greener part of the world as Nigerian Asylums Seekers, and when the Internationalists (Peace?) Keeping Forces that will come guiding the Black Gold of the Bight of Biafra /Gulf of Guinea are done wasting their resources, expending their outdated weapons and testing their newest arms discoveries, Umu Afrika shall then, like the Jews, come home to rebuild the Africa’s Motherland with improved human resources, gathered intelligences and ingenuities of espionages  carried out in the diasporas’ – and dismantle Berlinism and her social and time spaced prisons for Fresh Gardening African Universe”.   

Afa I have heard you again asking what I make of your aku oyibe nsugbe. Well, I will, like a little child that tells his peers: “I will not tell you that my Mama bought akara (beans ball) eeeeh”; not tell the killers of Africa and humanity what you (Afa) just revealed that the Ilulogy contention that “thatched roofs’ thorns will always pierce-blind those that live in their own house and come to live in our own house” will come true. Afa, you have bared it all that what they call terrorism and counter-terrorism wars are clashes of White-anity and Arabianity civilizations that long held humanity hostage. Now, they have brought the terrorism and counter-terrorism wars home to Africa telling humanity to file in. Be not deceived, to continue letting imperial fissured system seeing you dismembering kinship-self that have been Africa’s beauty long before the emergence of White-anity and Arabianity illusive and devilish wars.  

How I wish the African: (i) Will open his eyes to the deceptions of religious politics and conquest histories and scholarship, (ii) Leave behind the imposing internationalized “White-anity personality” and “Arabianity personality” of the racial supremacists killing Africa and humanity while respectively fighting and claiming to be “Talking God’s/Allah’s Mouthpiece/chosen race”; (iii) Give the Supremacists back their Bible and Gun, Koran and Sword to have his stolen land and mind back. May Chi (Vitality force) be the strength of the awakened Africans and humanocrats beyond borders that will think this line of action – uniting humanity across all gulfs of separations for the enthronement of humanocracy!  

What else, asks Afa? Yes, I have seen that we are killing ourselves for the advancement of the invading imperial cultures’ cabals and cabal-agents interests while thinking that we have political and economic advantages to make out of them. I have seen that I have no enemy anywhere – whether political, economic or colour wise if I can see and accept the humanity of my fellow human. And allow Allah/God to fight for His enemies if He is actually almighty.  

Of course, almighty this and that up in the sky cannot need my mortal hands to be great and win battles if He is actually ‘almighty’ and has/have enemies. This is the core teachings of Humanocracy – that man has to be human enough to interact with self and the ecospheres making useful gains for his lifespan and age-long kinship-self and stop the needless culture of powering the assumed Immortal with mortal hands of his. Kpum!  

Mazi Okwu Okwu, is Secretary, Board of Trustees/Project Expansion Emissary, Ohanaeze Youth Council, OYC and former, National Coordinator, Concerned Youths of Nigeria.

He writes from No. 31 Ezike Nwamiriaku Avenue, Umungwu – Umuohama, Ukpor, Anambra state. Email:okwuokwu@yahoo.com. Tel: 234-(0)803-555-9193.

Motion by the Joint Labour/Civil Society Delegation and Their Allies on the Modalities for Implementing Conference Decisions: 03/07/2014

Introduction:

•Whereas the National Conference of the people of Nigeria 2014 was inaugurated by President and Commander in Chief of the Armed forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria on Monday 17th, March, 2014. 

•Whereas the convening of the National Conference 2014 was necessitated by the continuing crises of Nation-building and the convergence of the desire of the people and government Nigeria to take appropriate urgent steps to lay new foundation for a Prosperous, United and Strong Country. 

•Whereas the President in his address while inaugurating the National Conference 2014; had requested delegates to not only deliberate on solutions to our myriad of problems, but to also recommend modalities for implementing the report of conference; 

•And whereas the conference had upon inauguration itself adopted a work-plan including deliberations on modalities for implementing conference resolutions. 

We the undersigned sponsors and co-sponsors of this motion being delegates to the National Conference of the people of Nigeria 2014, urge conference plenary to consider and adopt the following prayers: 

PRAYERS:

•That the President of the Federal Republic as Head of Government should upon accepting the recommendations of Conference, direct the MDAs to immediately take steps to implement the policy recommendations, as regards, review of existing policy, enactment of New Policy, Implementation and Enforcement of existing policies; 

•That the President should direct the preparation of Executive Bills accommodating the Legislative and Constitutional Reform and Amendment proposals of Conference and present same to the National Assembly such that the accepted resolutions of conference on the Constitution and Legislation will form significant parts of the legislative agenda and constitutional reform process of NASS;

AND 

•That the Executive arm of government should work with the Legislative arm to Ensure the speedy Enactment of a legislative framework for the conduct of Referendum on Constitutional Matters such that the constitution that emerges from the resolutions of conference processed by the NASS shall be subject to ratification via a Referendum. 

Signed:

a.Comrade Omar Abdulwaheed: NLC President

b.Comrade Boboi Kaigama: TUC President

c.Femi Falana: Civil Society Delegation Leader

d.Comrade Chris Uyot: NLC Gen Sec

e.Comrade (Bar) Musa Lawal: TUC Sec Gen

f.Jaye Gaskia: Secretary, Civil Society Delegation

Co-Sponsors

1.Dr. Abiola Akiyode-Afolabi

2.Ezenwa Nwagwu

3.Auwal Musa

4.Festus Okoye

5.Dudu Manuga

6.Shetu Alfa

7.Rommy Mom

8.Steve Aluko

9.Abdul Mahmud Aminu

10.Kyauta Giwa

11.Dr. Isaac Osuoka

12.Rev. Nnimmo Bassey

13.Chief Bisi Olateru-Olagbegi

14.Dr. Femi Obayori

15.Modibbo Kawu

16.Zanni Zoro

17.Gbenga Ogundipe

18.Prof. Olabisi Aina

19.Dr. Joe-Okei Odumakin

20.Hauwa Shekarau

21.Kiri Mohammed Shaibu

22.Joe Ajaero

23.Promise Adewusi

24.Issa Aremu

25.Lucy Offiong

26.Ayuba Wabba

27.Dr. Peter Ozo-Eson

28.Emma Ugboaja

29.Ibrahim Khaleel

30.Michael Olukoya

31.Mrs. Dinatu Asibi Assani

32.Olasanya Oyinkan

33.Sunday Olulsoji Salako

34.Olakunle Olanrewaju Olaitan

35.Peter Esele

36.Augustine Etafo

37.Maryam Jummai Bello

38.Hassan Salihu Anka

39.Bede Opara

40.Aliyu Musa

41.Ibuchukwu Ezike

42.Y.Z Yau

43.Anniko Briggs

Jega, Olurode, Akeju; A Tripod Of Tyranny

 
If democracy were a throne, the electoral process would be the crowning rites. It would be powered by an unfettered force of the ballot. The managers of the electoral process would be distinct in their sparkling whiteness. They would be distant from the lepers’ colony. So that every time the process proclaims results, winners and losers would go in peace. More importantly, the voters would be satisfied.

 Beyond that, they would be climbing the stirs of knowledge about their polity. This season, they would regret voting one candidate into office. Next season, they would vote better. This is the heart of democracy. The kernel of electoral process, which enshrines the will of the people who vote above the preferences of cliques which lord.

When this is not the case, a virus must have infected the system. A reversal  of the norm is enthroned. Power is taken off the hands of the people and the projections of their collective intelligence is breached. Then, instead of elections, we have selection. Instead of democracy, we have tyranny. The tyranny of power-cliques who exhibit affectations to normalcy but are in reality enthroning disorder.

The game INEC is playing in Osun State is not baffling. In fact it is familiar in all its perspectives. These are the deft moves which signal institutional bias ahead of elections in Nigeria. Many times, it is a precussor to violence, chaos and vengeful rejection of INEC’s results.

The insistence of the opposition on the removal of Madam Ayoka Adebayo as INEC REC in Ekiti fell on deaf ears, until blood was spilled, INEC disgraced and the country roundly embarrassed. In Lagos State, more than one commissioners of police were redeployed ahead of elections about three seasons ago in the effort to enforce fairness.

INEC in the instance of Ambassador Akeju, was prepared to spend huge legal fees to force Akeju’s retention in Osun. It begins to look like an irregular game where the rules of engagement are not fixed. The goalposts are in perpetual fluidity, but a grand pretence rules the exterior, making believe that there is a trustworthy stasis in the structures and the procedure. That if you took a shot, the post would not dodge the ball.

INEC gave the game away in its tenacity for Akeju’s Osun REC seat. Justice Babs Kuewumi’s court was in the process of adjudicating, but INEC took off to the Appeal court to secure a stay of execution of the lower court’s interlocutory order. While that appeal was still pending, INEC ran back to Kuewumi to secure yet another stay of proceedings.

This was a very busy INEC worming through the narrow straits of the justice system as if it was its primary duty. Rendering Kuewumi’s initial grants prostrate, while seeking the appeal court’s favour to retain a man who was said to be the very thing INEC must sweat not to be. An unfair umpire.

In the process of having its way, INEC spent a hefty sum in legal and related fees. It is the same INEC where Professor Attahiru Jega cries to us inconsolably that he suffers paucity of funds, otherwise, we would have marveled at the profuse pour of sweat off his chicken’s body. But he regrets we would not know because of the several feathers.

Beyond the cost, Jega has a curious way of dropping words as if they do not matter or that we do not have the ability, may be, capacity to break his thoughts down and retain them. Let us quote Jega on the 17th of October, 2012 in Akure, Ondo State. The labour party had raised alarm over professor Lai Olurode’s alleged partisanship. Jega would have none of it.

        “Olurode is one of the best brains in Nigeria and any attempt to smear his name would be met with strong resistance…we do not take any allegations as spurious immediately it is made.We investigate: Your allegation is spurious.No INEC member is a member of any political party” 

First, a little after this statement, Jega must be thanking God he was a Nigerian, so he could talk so idly and get away with it. It is how we play God at the peak of our human frailties which we misconstrue as solidity of power. Even as temporal as the best of our realities are. What surveillance system did Jega install to confirm and speak so assuredly that “no member of INEC was a member of any political party”. How would he know? 

INEC members are in thousands. Umaru Mutallab must be shaking his head at Jega’s seeming naivety. Mutallab’s son turned into “underwear bomber” in a twinkle. Not his staff, his son. In any case, do they need to be members of political parties to commit themselves to extra-official errands for pecuniary pursuits? 

How does the quality of Olurode’s brains feature in jega’s defence of an allegation of bias. Was the prof saying the best brains in Nigeria are immune to prejudice? In the entire tirade mounted as defence, Jega in his sincere moment would probably see the wide hollow in the words he dropped in Akure that day. 

They were meant to insult the politicians and dismiss them, but he was not thinking of the rest of us listening to him, taking him seriously. We who pay him and provide so bountifully for the politicians. Jega committed the sacrilege of mixing us up.

Now, has Jega carried out his investigations again on who Ambassador Rufus Oluwatoyin Akeju really is? Has he listened to the protest of the opposition? Has he found the protest and allegations spurious? He did not say so in many words, but he must have concluded they were spurious or he would not have pursued the case like a typical election rigging litigation.

The scary portion of this unfolding event is that there is no dispute that Akeju was Tinubu’s Assistant. That he represented Tinubu at various events. That he left Tinubu’s table to join INEC. That there was an ultra-high probability that he would be an unfair umpire, because he would do his masters’ bidding. In this case, one of the said masters being Alhaji Rauf Aregbesola who is the incumbent in Osun and is seeking a second term. Is it not a scary proposition that INEC does not see any danger here?

Why is Jega bent on retaining Akeju in Osun inspite of his glaring ties to the APC sponsor and candidate? Is Jega promising the electorate that Akeju would be willing to spurn the dictates of the hands which feed him? Anyone who could vouch for the minds of thousands of members of his staff should find this easy to do. It is as if no INEC staff had ever been caught before.It is as if RECs had not wrecked elections in the past. Why does Jega want to travel this wrong road?

Why does he not take the honourable path instead? Redeploy the favorite of APC and save the day, even if Akeju merited the kind of sainthood which borders on treachery. It is not about removing the contention. It appears to be like replacing it.

But Alaba’s take in a matter between a twin should be minor. If there is no resident pointer, it should be tough for the stranger to identify a blind man’s grave. In this instance, the resident pointer would be the INEC official in charge of South-West. The self-effacing and humble Professor Lai Olurode. Now, Alhaji Lai Olurode hails from Iwo in the same Osun.In Olurode’s home town, it is very dangerous to switch babies between Oba and Osun Rivers. These issues transcend the obvious. 

The intrigues of elections are often buried in unspoken loyalties and hidden ties. They could be between judges and politicians. Between electoral body chieftains,  activists on sabatical and fellow faithfuls, with half a hue and half a shade away from Boko Haram. It could be just about anywhere in the sordid graffiti. You never really could fully tell.

We will definitely ask Attahiru Jega questions if his permutations go bad during or after this election. But Olurode is the one his soil would ask the greater question if the roof caves in again in Osun as it did before and a reluctant ground opened to claim that which it did not request. Olurode knows that if life ever goes awry on the elders’ watch, it is not because of anything but their unsavory conduct. Their poor character. A new-born babe’s head does not just bend, save the elders are not in place.

The key here is the ‘elders’. What elderly role has Olurode been playing over his own backyard? Whichever way this one goes: a credible and neutral umpire in Osun, that is not from the Island cash empire. One which leads to peaceful transition or retention. Or the other unspeakable one.

There would not be any rest day anymore for the pot used to cook a dog. Every time the pot is called, it gets its mention with the dog. Olurode himself had been severally accused of playing the ACN/APC card, but Nigeria is not a country where the smell of tyranny is enough.It always took blood, tons of human blood for us to identify and dislodge tyranny. Death on the streets before IBB would go. Thousands of graves before Abacha would go. What would it take before Akeju is replaced. Osun is really tired of singing dirges on tiny little graves, the epitaphs of stolen mandates.

By Akere Oniyide

Former NUJ Boss, Comrade Mohammed Khalid Is Dead

Former National Secretary of Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Comrade Malkar Mohammed Khalid is dead. He died on Saturday after a protracted illness at the age of 64. 

The National Secretary of NUJ, Comrade Khalid had in April 2001 given notice to leave his job in June of same year at the National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting of the union in Ilorin, Kwara State, in 2001.

His resignation followed the meeting's deliberation on the report of the Special Investigation Commission set up by the Union in Sokoto in September 2000 to probe into alleged fraud at the National Secretariat totaling N500,000.00 as well as other matters. 

He had served as NUJ National Secretary for three years until his resignation. 

Mr Khalid will be remembered for several of his evergreen works one of which is “Professionalizing Journalism: Which Way for NUJ?” where he jealously deliberated on the ethics of journalism and how to safeguard it from abuse. 

It read in part: “For the last fifteen years and perhaps more, stakeholders in journalism have occupied themselves with considering what should be the most acceptable status for the Nigeria Union Journalist as the journey to professionalize the art of journalism approaches a very critical stage. 

One thing that has been accepted with a great degree of unanimity is that there is no going back on professionalization, the only unresolved question being methodology and conceptual status of the union during and after the exercise.”

He is survived by his wife and children.