PDP is the number one party in Nigeria…..Uduaghan

*Despite challenges, my government is still on course with the 3 point agenda

*Uduaghan Appeals to Striking Doctors to Go Back to Work

The Delta State Governor, Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan has appealed to the Nigerian Medical Association, NMA, to go back to work while negotiations were still going on, stressing that these were not the best of time for the doctors to embark on a strike actions.

The Governor made this appeal yesterday at Asaba during a press briefing with Journalists in the State

He said; “This is not the best of times for the health sector to be shut down. We are in a very critical time where terrorism has taken sway of the country’s security. If we embark on the strike it only means we are supporting terrorism. But our mission is to save lives and we should not encourage the terrorist who derive pleasure from taking lives. What will happen if the terrorists decide to strike again?

Governor Uduaghan also appealed to the Federal Government to speed up the process of negotiations with the medical doctors so that they can go back to the hospitals.

Also the State Governor cautioned Deltans and Nigerians to be vigilant about their immediate environment and report any strange behavior by anybody living with them to security officers.

Governor Uduaghan said the security challenges faced in the nation called for strict vigilance by every citizens, urging all to know their neighbours and what they do for a living.

“These are trying times for the nation and we all have to be very vigilant. We must know who our neighbours are. If we suspect anybody that behaving in a very mysterious way or you see any car lying around, please report the situation to our security agents,” says the Governor.

He noted that Delta State has been experiencing influx of immigrants recently, stressing that the state government has put machinery in place to flush out all illegal immigrants.

However, he explained that other Nigerians who come into the state with good intentions would be allowed to carry out their legitimate businesses in the state.

Another security challenge faced in the state was the menace of cattle rearers who are still giving farmers trouble in the state, said Uduaghan.

He also said the state was still experiencing pockets of kidnapping in some parts of the state, adding that his government was working round the clock to flush out kidnappers from the state.

On pockets of communal clashes going on in some communities in the state, Governor Uduaghan said the state government has set up commission of enquiries who are looking into the matter.

Governor Uduaghan added that security agents have also been sent to the troubled communities to mop up arms used by the youths while the committee is working.

On the Ogborodo crisis, location of the EPZ project, Governor Uduaghan frowned at the attitudes of some of the community members who are still waging media war even after both parties have agreed that there will be no more media war until the committee submits its report.

The Governor appealed to the citizens of the state to patient with his administration on ongoing projects, explaining that the rains have forced some contractors to slow down on some jobs.

The State Governor said the biggest challenge the state was facing in Asaba and its environs was the issue of flooding, adding that the state has set up machineries in place to deal with flooding on those areas.

“No state can deal with flooding successfully in this area because of the terrain. Our biggest challenge is water coming in from Okpanamu area and because of this, we had to change the design of the drainage so that we cam dualize the road. Climate change is affecting us seriously,” the Governor said.

On rehabilitation of schools in the state, the Governor said he has approved the rehabilitation of more schools, just as he lamented the situation whereby criminals turn public schools to their hide out.

On the upcoming Local council poll in the state, the governor emphasized that he has no anointed candidate to take over chairmanship in any local government council in the state.

He said so far, the ruling party, PDP, was the only party that had picked forms for the council polls, noting that the party was also the only one actively involved in campaigns.

“PDP is the number one party in the state. We all are witnesses to what happened in Ekiti. We are taking over the states one by one. Our people who left are now coming back to the party. PDP primary is coming up on the 9th of August and I will want to appeal to our members to try and reduce the number of contestants so that thing will be easy for us,” he added.

SOURCE: http://reformeronline.com

2015 Election: Is Igbo President Feasible? (1)

 

The late Biafran warlord and distinguished Igbo leader, Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu – Ojukwu was an unrepentant crusader for the realization of the dream for an Igbo president. He contested as presidential candidate of APGA but he lost due largely to the fact that his party which then had only two governors – Mr. Peter Obi of Anambra State and Owelle Rochas Okorocha of Imo State, seriously lacked the much-required nationwide coverage and followership to win elections.

However, in spite of his woeful defeat during the presidential poll, he remained undaunted as he did not relent in his advocacy for the South-East to produce the president. But while pursuing this goal, he also provided leadership for the continuing success and survival of APGA in Anambra and Imo.

This is especially judging by the fact that if the Igbo could not get the much-desired presidency, they could still boast of having Anambra and Imo. It is noteworthy that Odumegwu-Ojukwu played a prominent role in the election of Obi as governor.

He appealed passionately to the electorate that the debt they owed him was for them to vote massively for Obi. And due to the respect they had for their illustrious leader, the voters gave Obi enough votes that enabled him win the keenly contested election. When Odumegwu-Ojukwu was still alive, APGA was the party to beat in Anambra and Imo while the demand for the South-East zone to produce the president was intensified.

It is however amazing that since his demise, Igbo leaders are now silent over the all-important issue, especially judging by the fact that some of them have been compensated with juicy political appointments and other irresistible mouth-watering packages by the president. In spite of the fact that Obi and President Goodluck Jonathan belong to different political parties, the absurd political romance between them continues to give rightthinking Igbo with discerning minds cause for concern.

This is why many wonder if Obi of APGA could have maintained such dangerously close relationship with the President who is the national leader of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) if Odumegwu-Ojukwu was alive. When Odumegwu-Ojukwu was alive, Obi was one of the prominent Igbo who demanded it was time for the South- East zone to produce the president.

But now that their leader is gone, his followers, including Obi, are singing another tune. This is unfortunate!. There is no doubt that Odumegwu-Ojukwu will be angry in his grave if he learns that those he left behind to continue from where he stopped have abandoned the crusade for Igbo president for their selfish interests.

He will certainly feel disturbed and disappointed to learn that his beloved party which he worked very hard to establish has since lost Imo State to All Progressives Congress (APC). If the last gubernatorial poll had been free and fair, the party would probably have also lost Anambra to either PDP or APC. It will shock him if he knows that Owelle Rochas Okorocha who is the Governor of Imo State is now Chairman of APC Governors’ Forum.

It will be most devastating for him to learn that his fragile party is currently in disarray with Chief Victor Umeh and Chief Maxi Okwu fighting shamelessly over the national chairmanship thereby bringing the name of the party into disrepute. And if Obi, who was recently made the party’s Grand Patron following completion of his two terms as Governor of Anambra State, is finally appointed Minister by the president as being widely rumoured, the loud agitations for Igbo president are steadily waning. If Obi becomes minister under the current administration of President Jonathan, he has no moral right to join others in demanding for Igbo president in 2015.

It would be recalled that even when he was governor, he mobilized his people to vote for Jonathan in 2011. Incidentally, when Jonathan went to Igboland for his 2011 presidential campaign and the Igbo implored him to assure them of his support for Igbo president in 2015, he cleverly provided them a diplomatic response in order to avoid the delicate question. 

Chief Olusegun Obasanjo from the South-West served as president between May 29, 1999-May 29, 2007. The late President Umaru MusaYar’Adua from the North, served as president from May 29, 2007-May 5, 2010 when he died.

Following his sudden exit, due to ill-health, Dr Goodluck Jonathan, from the South-South has been serving as president. His first term of four years which commenced on May 29, 2011 ends on May 29, 2015.

If he seeks re-election and wins, his second term will end on May 29, 2019. If the APC fields a candidate from the North in 2015 and he wins, it means the presidency is returning to the North again in order to placate the Northerners who felt aggrieved that another Northerner was not allowed to step into the shoes of Yar’Adua when he died. 

But in line with what the Constitution stipulates, it was proper for the then Vice-President, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, to step in as president.

To be continued 


• Ajayi is a journalist and public affairs analyst. 08033068898 (sms only)

International Enquiry: APC Is Apprehensive - PDP

July 13, 2014

Press Statement


The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) finds it very curious that the statement by the APC calling for international enquiry to unravel the sponsors of terrorism in the country is coming less than one week after an inquest into its links with insurgency was tabled before the British Parliament.

Indeed, the APC statement betrays a party that has become unsettled and highly apprehensive following the increasing demand by the British parliamentarians for an enquiry into their links with the insurgency and violence ravaging our dear nation.

We ask, is the APC in a desperate move to pre-empt the British Parliament for fear of indictment or are they seeking to promote an orchestrated inquest to exonerate themselves?

We urge Nigerians to see beyond the surface, to continue to be alert and note the actions of the APC and their efforts to frustrate genuine fight against insurgency and terrorism in our country.

Signed:
Olisa Metuh
National Publicity Secretary

THE POLICE BOSS DELTANS LOVE

The reward for all job or service well rendered to the people always attract positive people's response.

Same was the case of the Delta State Police Commissioner, CP Ikechukwu Aduba at a well attended sent forth ceremony today at Asaba premises of the state command headquarters.

The event witnessed large turn out of Deltans from all walks of life.

The traditional royal stool of the capital city of Delta State, The Asagba of Asaba was represented by top ranking Palace Chiefs led by Chief Ubaka Attoh and other White cap chiefs.

Deltans demonstrated their love for the police boss as the event recorded a rain of awards, medals of honour, gift items, talent display from state based comedians, police brass band from Warri and a wonderful mock parade by pupil of police demonstration primary school Asaba.

One of the major highlight of the event was the presentation of a brand new bus to the police demonstration primary school by Chief Ayiri's Firm

There Is No Islamic Nigeria!

Over four years ago now, precisely on August 16, 2009, while the late President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua was still in office, the Citizens For Nigeria (CFN), made public to the Nigerian media, a Press Release entitled "There Is No Islamic Nigeria!" 

There were very important intelligence material contained in said Press Release back then.

Regrettably in today's Nigeria, Boko Haram's political patronage which the CFN hitherto warned the country about, has since been confirmed by Nigeria's secret police, the State Security Service (SSS) and other law enforcement agencies particularly with the announced arrests of some high profile politicians from northern Nigeria and the wave of terrorist violence that the Boko Haram Islamic fundamentalist sect has unleashed upon Christian places of worship in the West-African nation of nearly 170 million citizens.  

Judging by what the Nigerian society has since become, this 'Old PR' is even of much more relevance today.

I believe you'll agree it's worth your reading.

Here's the FULL TEXT of the PR as was released by my humble self in August of 2009 on behalf of the CFN:

PRESS RELEASE: There Is No Islamic Nigeria!

Texas, United States of America  –  Days after a surprised nation quelled the violence unleashed by the Islamic sect, Boko Haram, there are signs that the group lives. It not only continues to be a residual threat to national security, but a veritable tool to rush Nigeria towards predicted political destruction.

Statements credited to the living remnants of Boko Haram by the mass media indicate the group has not died and, in fact, plans to spread its version of violence to southern Nigeria “until the country is totally Islamized, which is according to the wish of Allah." The sect, claiming to have sympathy for Al Qaeda, has now declared war on all of Nigeria, allegedly because most of its followers were killed by members of the Police and the Army who were southerners.

It is saddening that Nigeria will be infected by religious bacteria. Boko Haram’s widely successful spate of murder is nothing but a new breed of Maitatsine and other similar religious bigotry before it that have been allowed to breed in northern Nigeria by the political elite, who turn a blind eye to feign religious piety. We have seen something like this before in the north, but this is the first time such a group will attempt or threaten to migrate down south.

Until Boko Haram struck in the northeast region, the Federal Government, the police, the military and the political elite in the north knew of its existence, even embraced it as intelligence reports show, but did nothing to stem its impending attack.

Leaders of the Islamic sect, we now know, did hobnob with the political elite in the north until the ill-fated attack. Its leader, Mohammed Yusuf, and deputy, Ustaz Buji Fai, a former commissioner under Governor Ali Modu Sheriff of Borno State, were quickly and brutally executed by the Nigerian government, inarguably to keep them quiet forever. Fai held high level state government posts, including commissioner for religious affairs, commissioner for water resources and chairman of the state’s Kaga Local Government Area.

Yusuf had a close working relationship with at least one other state official — Borno State Deputy Governor, Adamu Dibal, who has professed to have interceded on the sect leader’s behalf in recent years whenever Yusuf crossed paths with Nigerian security services. Indeed, meetings occurred between Borno State police officials and the sect’s leadership after the first clashes between armed forces and Boko Haram, when the Nigerian military launched “Operation Flush” on June 14 and killed 17 sect members in Maiduguri. The meetings that followed indicated that Boko Haram had political patronage.

If Boko Haram had operated at such a high level without the security agencies being able to anticipate and stop its activities, it is only legitimate to assume the group is still able to carry out its wishes by spreading intolerant religious violence to the southern parts of the country. No wonder, the political activism group in the western part of the country, Odua People’s Congress, otherwise called OPC, replied by daring Boko Haram to venture outside of its enclave.

National Coordinator of the OPC, Mr. Gani Adams, condemned the threat, insisting that the Yorubas would not fold their hands and watch Islamic fundamentalists cause mayhem on their land. Adams said: “We have our men on alert already since the police arrested some of them in Abuja coming to Lagos. We are ready for them. They should not come and disrupt the harmony in Yorubaland. We have a secular society in place here and they won’t come and disturb it. We have a plan in place that would effectively curb their advance anytime they decide to come to the South West.”

The “be my guest” response of the OPC notwithstanding, patriotic citizens should be sensitive to the potential crisis at hand. Politicians, willing to use religious and other forms of blackmailers to perpetuate their influence and power, have always used groups like Boko Haram to operate, and if care is not taken, the fire this time may be too furious to contain.

Without being careful of being politically correct, the fact is that violent and reactionary bind of Islamic fanatics have always ruled in northern Nigeria. Even when they don’t understand the issues, they react so violently that they endanger national security and innocent lives. How many times in the past three decades have these fanatics killed innocent citizens in the name of religion, particularly those from the south? Too many!

These fanatics, together with their influential supporters who normally keep quiet, fail to acknowledge that the Nigerian constitution guarantees a secular society, where the religious beliefs of one person cannot be imposed on another. In spite of the law, the situation in northern Nigeria is such that the law is disrespected while bigots are allowed to go on routine rampage. While the north has not known religious peace and harmony for three decades, not a single instance of religious violence has ever been heard of in the south.

There is no Islamic Nigeria. Any attempt by any religious group, Islamic, Christian or Traditional, to dream on an unrealistic possibility of theocracy in Nigeria will fail.
Notwithstanding the guarantees in the constitution, people just cannot worship or exercise inalienable and fundamental rights anywhere in the north. The freedom that can be enjoyed in the south is a privilege over the Niger River. For how long will Nigeria maintain a divided nation where law is disallowed by a few powerful elites only interested in showing pious attributes among their local followers while they live like free men outside of their domains? These fake elites are the same people who sponsor groups like Boko Haram to polish their public image, but myopically create problems that bring the nation to harm.

The principle of avoidance, patronage and pacific co-existence with religious fanatics in northern Nigeria has to end, particularly with a group like the Boko Haram, which is not afraid to align itself with the satanic Al Qaeda.

It seems the Presidency has been completely hijacked by regional political elite suffering obsessive paranoia. If President Umaru Yar’Adua is able to disencumber himself from political operatives that surround him, let him focus on the problem and nip Boko Haram in the bud right now.

Since we cannot depend on the lame and slow executive arm of government, the Citizens for Nigeria call on the National Assembly to do what it has been elected to do by legislating Boko Haram and similar organizations out of existence. It should become illegal to make inflammatory and incendiary religious remarks in a nation as secular as Nigeria. In Nigeria, citizens’ right to freedom of expression, just as it exists in most civilized countries, ought not to include the sort of religious incitements to mayhem that is being espoused by the hollow minds behind the Boko Haram fundamentalist sect.

If this ugly and unfortunate situation of verbal and exhibited recklessness by Boko Haram is not immediately curtailed, Nigeria will be driving at break-neck speed towards the fulfillment of the prediction of the United States Secret Service and British MI5, that Nigeria could become an irreversibly failed state in about a decade.

In the report, Global Trends 2025: A Transformed World, by the United States’ National Intelligence Council, it is clearly stated: “Because of the encroaching desertification in the north, the religious clash between Muslims and Christians is heating up. Another Biafra-like civil war - only this time along North-South lines - is not inconceivable.”  Food for thought, Nigeria!!

Released by: Ayo Ighodalo Abimbola, Texas, USA

Editor’s Note: The Citizens for Nigeria (CFN) has a central objective of bringing ordinary Nigerians into the political process, whether they are at home or abroad. The CFN was formed out of the realization that Nigerians are suffering because the leaders have hijacked power completely from the citizens, and voters have lost hope in the democratic process. The CFN comes to restore hope by simple, dedicated and targeted actions that would bring real Nigerians back into the political process.

http://www.citizensfornigeria.com/

HIV/AIDS: LGA BOSS AND NGO PARTNERS TO SEEK SOLUTION

As world leaders approach the global target of seeking an end to the dreaded HIV/AIDS scourge by the year 2015, key public and non-state actors in Delta State have agreed to recommit and strengthen their initial commitment towards realizing the set targe3ts and indicators of the Millennium Development Goals as it concerns the elimination of HIV/AIDS.

Recently, during an advocacy visit paid on Ukwuani local Government Area Transition Committee Chairman, Hon. Ochor C  Ochor, the Executive Director, Koyenum Immalah Foundation, Faith Nwadishi, sealed working partnership agreement with the council boss to fight the scourge off the council area.

Hon. Ochor appreciated the foundation’s commitment to work in his domain and pledged to maintain an open door policy with the foundation in the interest of his people and their general health welfare needs.

We are always ready to partner on mutual terms with well meaning organizations that seek the advancement of our people, Hon. Ochor pointed out.

Faith Nwadishi, earlier, in her address to the council boss and his team of councilors and other health care departmental heads shared insight into the HIV/AIDS prevention intervention project and how it will impact positively on the people at the grassroot level.

Our organization with support from Delta State Action Committee on AIDS (DELSACA) and World Bank will conduct HIV/AIDS intervention to fight the deadly epidemic in four communities within the council area, Nwadishi briefed Hon. Ochor.

The intervention project will last over a period of 20 months; will target massive maternal and child death cases reduction, as previously recorded in the Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission (PMTCT) where at its pilot stage 200 women of child bearing age will be impacted, with a view for possible project scale up upon successful implementation.

Traditional Birth Attendants (TBAs) and Community Health Extension Workers will be trained on essential life saving skills, sexual reproductive health rights and maternal health, Nwadishi said.

Your organization’s past advocacy and engagement with the DESOPADEC and NDDC helped facilitated some developmental projects the people of this community enjoy today and at some forum I make bold to refer to those great efforts of your organization, stating that where it not for your advocacy, engagement and constant follow up our grassroot people would have not enjoyed all these projects, we say thank you, God will surely bless you and your organization.

This council is grateful to your commitment towards grassroot development initiatives, our doors are open to your organization, as we look forward to more visits before the end of your project, Hon. Ochor assured.

Father and son - In Touch

Ayo Fayose seems a happy man these days. After a short spell of humility when the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) announced him as the governor-elect, he has cruised into a summer of blusters. 

He is not the sort of man that would heed the exhortation of former British Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, who said, among other things, “in victory, magnanimity.”

He is not only posting himself as the new king of Ekiti State, he is posing as the generalissimo of the Southwest and has put his party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), on notice. 

Any party wheel horse, who basked on the rooftops before fate unveiled his new rise, should understand that he can pull them down. Inside his exultant soul, he is swooning with the quote of the buoyant actor, Al Pacino, that “vanity is my favourite sin.”

He has not even spared the Owu chief, Olusegun Obasanjo, his barb. And I know the second coming of Fayose is part revenge, part Oedipal vindication.  Hear him: “This is the last time I would sound this note of warning to those people who want to disparage the party to stop. 

If you want to disparage the party, whether you are a former president, senator, irrespective of your position, we will sack you. When I fought with the party, I left the party, I did not stay in the party. You are free to go to any party you want, but don’t stay in the party and disparage it.”

Not even when the military gave us parties did we hear such peremptory orders. As Americans would say, come over IBB. Stay humble in the grave, Abacha. Fayose acted not like a politician but an emperor. He has not even become a governor yet.

He is a governor-elect, yet all over him he is preening with the feathers of an impresario. The alawada potential of his governorship era of the second coming promises us some excitement, to say the least.

For me, it is the parable of the godfather and godson in a skein never before written in the Nigerian politics of prebendal deviance.

When he was a governor in his first advent, he was the son as loyalist to Obasanjo. Fayose was the crony as point man, sometimes his Rottweiler. He had stood as the party stalwart. He did his biddings, as a humble servant. But this was the son in whom Obj was well pleased.

But the story went sour. Fayose became the prodigal son, but in this case, the son wanted to return home to a big and lavish party. The father, now unhappy with the son with a vindictive fury, did not want the son under his eaves. Rather he heaved him out in the throes of impeachment. He was accused of thieving felony and that he was cat among the Ekiti chickens.

The florid son turned philosophical as the unflinching father set the machinery of the state House of Assembly in motion. In one interview that must pinch anyone’s tender parts, he referred to a Yoruba proverb: anyone who sleeps in a mattress should have a mat around him, because he may need it someday. He left the soft, dream-suffused majesty of the mattress and was on the mat in the past half decade. Now, he is approaching the saddle, while his godfather is in his party’s wilderness.

Power has changed hands. He now must wait to daze and to dream in the mattress of power. Hence he shouted to the rafters to an Obasanjo, whom he was referring to as former president.

Obasanjo in his era had the power to give Fayose power, keep him there, and order him out in a fleeting hurry. Obj exercised that power then not to a few sons of his party. Former Bayelsa State Governor Diepreye Alamieyeseigha was one of them. He organised his exit. The thickset man who oiled over with dollar pride cascaded down the power trolley before the eyes of all. 

The Ijaw chief is undergoing a sort of renaissance of pride as the beneficiary of his political son who jumped from obscurity to presidency. He, at least, has the humility to abandon his fatherhood the way Esau did to Jacob. 

As Tolstoy noted in War and Peace, “it is better to bow too low than not low enough.”

What is the meaning of Fayose’s boast? Is he going to trek out of his Ekiti precinct to preen even in the vaporous vipers of Owu waters? It is common knowledge that Fayose has openly defied the man who gave him bread in the morning and vinegar at night. Now, he has woken the next morning with the power of dew and due for battle.

What is going on in Baba’s mind, and is he saying to himself, “I should have thought differently when I supported that boy to be governor and kept him there long enough to insult his father’s age mate.”

Or is he telling himself, “what do I expect when you put someone in office? He grows into his own, and I should have left him there. I should not have impeached him. Now, it seems he is the winner and I the loser.”

Could Baba have that sort of soul-searching candour, a brutal introspection of self- accusation?

When he played godfather, he wallowed in the illusion that he would be father forever. A mistake indeed. Even natural fathers are not fathers forever. 

Sometimes, the sons become fathers, an idea that Russian novelist Ivan Turgenev played with when he examined the concept of nihilism in his classic, Fathers and Sons. But poet William Wordsworth’s immortal lines, the “child is the father of the man,” is the sort that a bloating Fayose would really love now, especially since he is the one issuing the orders. 

He is not interested in giving a bash even if the father- now-turned-son returns in his septuagenarian penitence. Knowing the Owu chief, penitence is not in the cards. So Fayose can keep his forgiveness.

Obj may also have thought that a day like this could never come. He never knew about the transience of power. Few who are there think of the transience of power. After all he once sought a third term. No one ruminated on the transience of power more than the Nobel laureate, Garcia Marquez, in his novel, One Hundred Years of Solitude. In one of the passages, an old man who held sway over a community declared in a moment of hallucinated lucidity: “I have found immortality.” 

When he died by drowning, his main follower says he is not dead, but preserves his body as it decays in pestilential odours for long. The era is gone; the denial, however, has morbid consequences.

Few leaders in history are like Charles de Gaulle, who did not want pomp or ceremony when he died, and visits from other leaders. Just him quiescent in his casket. He knew the time was up when he went down.

That is the nature of power. Fayose also does not appreciate this, and that is why rather than release a blueprint to raise Ekiti lifestyle that no one heard in his campaign, he is flush with self-promotion, strutting like a peacock.

Sam Omatseye 

         

 The Nation newspaper, 14/07/2014