Be Glad You’re Not Yet In Jail – Presidency Threatens Atiku

Lauretta Onochie, a special assistant to President Muhammadu Buhari on Social Media has declared that the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Atiku Abubakar should be glad he’s walking free and not languishing in jail.

According to the presidential aide, she saw a photo of Atiku, who lost the presidential election on February 23rd, with some weird inscriptions on it.

Although she didn’t mention what the inscriptions on Atiku’s photo were, she noted that the former vice president should counsel himself to avoid being tried for treason.

Onochie further said that Atiku should face his court case to challenge Buhari’s victory rather than stirring up mischief.

She wrote on Twitter on Tuesday: “I just returned to Abuja and saw Atiku’s photos with some weird inscriptions.

“For one who is lucky to be walking free, whatever he is planning, he shouldn’t forget that we have a President in place.

“Nigerians will insist that treason be treated as treason. He should counsel himself.

“When you lose an election, you either congratulate the victor or you challenge the election results in court.

“After foot-dragging, Atiku has now managed to go to court. It’s in the best interest of the nation that he continues in that legal path instead of stirring mischief.”

ELECTION: 'DON'T FABRICATE LIES,DEFEND YOUR ELECTORAL ROBBERY' - Atiku to Buhari.

The presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Atiku Abubakar Wednesday dismissed the alleged $30,000 spent by him to hire a US lobby group to persuade the US Congress to stop the inauguration of President Muhammadu Buhari as shameless lies.

He also challenged Buhari to think of even how to defend the 2019 electoral robbery allegedly perpetrated by him.

The Media Adviser to Abubakar, Paul Ibe said this in a statement made available to newsmen in Abuja.

Ibe said, “Atiku to Buhari: Desist From Fabrication Of Shameless Lies, Focus On Defending Your Electoral Heist In Court.

“Former Vice President of Nigeria, Atiku Abubakar dismisses as “total fabrication” the latest allegation instigated by the Buhari campaign that he spent $30,000 to hire a US lobby group to persuade the US Congress to stop the inauguration of President Buhari.

Further, in his reaction to what he calls “shameless lies”, Ibe said, “the latest dirty propaganda against the former Vice President “didn’t come as a surprise to us because lying has so far become their only bragging rights of competence.

“Lying has become a culture to the APC administration and therefore, we are not surprised by their latest diversionary allegations.

“Since Atiku resisted pressure not to go to court, the APC has been behaving like a cat on hot bricks because the outcome of the 2019 elections has exposed and shattered the facade of their dubious integrity.

“The APC are behaving nervously like a thief living under the fear of being exposed and shamed”, and that “they are now using fake news against Atiku instead of focusing on defending themselves in the court.


“For a party that has broken the worst record in election rigging, the APC doesn’t have any iota of integrity to be taken seriously by anybody”, the statement adds.

“Atiku’s court case has become their biggest burden because it exposes their integrity as a sham, and instead of defending their stolen mandate in court, they are now using fake news to divert public attention from the historic electoral heist they have committed against Nigerians.

Also, Ibe added, “No amount of diversionary propaganda and fake news campaign by APC will stop Atiku Abubakar from continuing the court action he started to reclaim the stolen mandate”

-Daily Post

SCHOOL IN AJEGUNLE NOW ALLOWS PARENTS TO PAY SCHOOL FEES WITH PLASTIC BOTTLES.

School in Ajegunle now allows parents to pay school fees with plastic bottles.


A school in Ajegunle now allows parents to pay school fees with plastic bottles, as they adopted the RecyclesPay Educational Project, an initiative of African Clean Up Initiative (ACI), an environmental non-governmental organisation in Lagos.



Morit International School, Ajegunle, which allows parents to pay school fees with cleanly sorted plastic bottles gathered from the environment, embraced the initiative following their concern about reducing the burden of parents paying their wards fees. It was further gathered that so far, over 25 parents of the low-income school have embraced the initiative whereby parents bring plastic wastes on designated days.

The amount paid is noted, after Wecyclers, the recycling company attached to the project comes to collect the plastic bottles after weighing what each parent brought. Proprietor of the school, Mr. Patrick Mbamara, described the RecyclesPay Educational Project a a welcome initiative.

It is helping to cushion the financial burden of parents in the school. We have a history of parents finding it difficult to pay each term school fees of N7, 500.

The money from the PET bottles is not much but it balances for what the parents can pay. I and my staff are happy with this initiative. It has improved parents payment of school fees and it teaches the children how to manage their waste and promote a cleaner environment.”

Also speaking to Sunnewsonline correspondent, Mr. Alex Akhigbe, Chief Environmental Officer of ACI noted that the money realized by each parents might look small but it is of value. According to him, a kilo of the sorted plastics goes for N20 to N25, adding that little drops of money realized helps make up for the balance of the school fees.

PET bottles in the past were seen as waste but they are not anymore. Parents can raise money from collecting them and making them available to recyclers. They in turn convert it to other products usable by man” he said.

It was also gathered that the alternative payment will start next term at Monarch Base Private School, Alagbado, Lagos and some other schools.

Tags: African Clean Up Initiative, Ajegunle, Morit International School

Amending NDDC Act will eradicate marginalisation —Sen Nwaoboshi

By Dapo Akinrefon.


Senator Peter Nwaoboshi represents Delta North Senatorial District in the Senate. In this interview, the former chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, and presently Chairman, Senate Committee on Niger Delta Affairs explains why he initiated the NDDC Amendment Bill and  its benefits.

Excerpts:

What informed the NDDC Amendment Bill?

If you recall, the Niger Delta Development Bill was promulgated in 2000 and it was one of the first bills that the then President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, refused to give his assent and the National Assembly had to override him. It then became an Act of the National Assembly. When I became the Chairman of the Niger Delta Affairs in the Senate, I went through the bill and l decided something must be done. In spite of what should have been the major inhibitions of first time callers at the hallowed chambers of the Senate, l defied all odds not only to carve a niche for myself as an articulate and active lawmaker, robust debater and a proactive visioner, but also as an indomitable champion of the cause of the Niger Delta and its long marginalised people, for whose sake l have successfully championed the effective amendment to the NDDC Act of 2000.

Don’t you think NDDC is under funded?
Yes, there was the problem of NDDC being under-funded; there was no sufficient fund to run it. The Federal Government owes NDDC almost N1trn as I speak and NDDC runs a deficit, in terms of their exposures, of over N1. 2trn; that is their debt profile and the Federal Government is not paying, but they are supposed to pay over a period of some years. When you go through the law, you will see that they were supposed to pay 50 per cent of the Ecological Fund due to member- states; 50 per cent of that Ecological Fund that is due to member- states is supposed to be paid to the NDDC but as I speak, not one kobo has been paid from the Ecological Fund to the NDDC. Another source of revenue is from the oil and gas processing companies. Now, if you go to the oil companies, the law says that they should pay three per cent of their total annual budgets to NDDC. When I came in and we looked at this problem of under-funding, we found out that   they were not able to meet their obligations. We now asked ourselves, if the NDDC was going to get 50 per cent of the Ecological Fund which is due to states in its mandate area, get three per cent of the total annual budget of the oil and gas processing companies and also the Federal Government is to pay a particular percentage to them, then there is no reason why it should be under-funded. So, the question was what is really happening?

Why is it that they are not being paid and why all these problems? So, we decided to find out and it was in the process that we found out that no oil company gives NDDC its actual budget and so the three per cent was just whatever the oil companies decided to give to the NDDC; in fact, some of them were even arguing that it was three per cent of the real budget, not even three per cent in terms of their annual budget, that is, what they spend; that is not the ideal thing. When we looked at all these, we said let us do a public hearing to find out truly why the NDDC is in this debt problem. We went further to discover that   the Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) or  even the other   gas companies, had not paid one kobo for the past 17 years and we asked why, after all, the law is clear.

In the process, we discovered that LNG said that they went to court with NDDC and late Justice Nwodo of the Federal High Court gave judgment in favour of LNG; they also went to the Court of Appeal and then proceeded to the Supreme Court. Due to the fault of the legal team, they didn’t meet up the period to file their documents and the Supreme Court struck out the appeal on technical grounds, meaning, in effect, that the NDDC lost. So, when we invited the LNG, they just came with the Supreme Court judgment and said ‘we have a judgment at the Federal High Court, we have a judgment at the Court of Appeal and since we have all these judgments in our favour, we are not going to pay’. As a lawyer, I asked for a copy of the judgments, I went through the full judgments and I said ‘Ok, we have a way out of it.’ In fact, my brothers in the lower chamber, the House of Representatives, started the process of amending the LNG Act and, in the process, the LNG started going round the whole country, using all their connections and all of them were putting pressure. Having looked at the judgments of the Court of Appeal, the Supreme Court and the Federal High Court, I knew where the problem was and said what we want is to amend this section and, in the process, that was how we decided to bring more revenue for the NDDC.

When did the journey to amend the Act actually begin?
In fact, there are two amendments to the NDDC Act that has been passed by the Senate. One is more comprehensive. In that one for example, if you look at the representation in the Niger Delta Development Commission, it says one member from the oil-producing area of the state. That has caused a lot of problems as to how you define an oil- producing area. Do you define it vis-a-vis the local government area or do you define it vis-a-vis the senatorial district, or vis-à-vis the state? It is an issue and so, many problems came up when we were going to clear some nominees of the President and people said we should use states, some said we should use senatorial districts and some others said it should be local government areas. But I and most of my colleagues said that it should be local government area that produces the oil and that’s how we disqualified the people from Abia, the Ondo nominee and of course that of Imo withdrew. Therefore, to remove that ambiguity in the law, we had to go through the amendment and many other sections we needed to amend. But this issue of revenue became very important because you cannot set up a commission like that and they are always crying for funds. The journey started when we discovered all these flaws; we said let’s deal with these issues. To deal with this particular section, we started sometime about one year ago. We had to even invite the gas companies, held series of meetings with them and they made their own case and eventually, we held series of meetings with their boards. We even invited their whole board, they met with us; we met with the leaders, they also met with the Senate President and all of them and we continued talking.
Given the ease with which the bill was passed, it would appear that you have a deep reach and penetration in the National Assembly.

 To what would you attribute this success?
First, the issue is that everybody in the National Assembly, from the patriotic side, whether you are from the North or anywhere else, believed that there is the need to adequately fund the NDDC. Secondly, the people from that geopolitical zone, the South-south geopolitical zone, see it as a duty to make sure that that place is well funded. So, for everybody from the South-south, whether Senator or in the House of Representatives, it is a call to duty because that is the commission that was established to serve the whole people of the South-south and our brothers from Ondo. So it was a popular bill, it became very popular in the National Assembly. And of course, they saw and did not like the fact that the gas- producing companies for 17 years in the area were not contributing to the development of that area directly to the NDDC; so, it was a very popular bill, and, like I told you, they were looking for any way to make sure that these people contribute. It is the popularity of the bill and also the feeling by some people that the undeserved under-funding of NDDC is not right and the nationalistic feeling of Nigerians; those are the reasons why it was popular.

What, in your view, are the long and short term effects of this particular Act that has been amended in terms of the development of the Niger Delta area?
Revenue; it is going to give them more revenue and let me say that I must thank Mr President because the Act was signed on the last working day of the year and it means that the Act took effect from last year, 2017; the moment it was assented to it become a law. So, the LNG has to pay for 2017; they just have to pay. In the process of negotiation with the oil companies when the bill came, the gas companies also became interested and they saw that there was no way that they would not be asked to pay something. They threatened that they were going to go to court and we said ‘okay, you can go to court. Of course, while we appreciate the fact that if they were to go to court, we can be neither here nor there, depending on how the judges will see it, we said let that area of processing be removed, which is called the feed gas, but after that they should pay the rest. The feed gas is about 40 per cent and then the other is 60 per cent. When we looked at it, we said we will remove the feed gas for them, but, at least, they should pay something after 17 years.

Beyond the issue of the law is the issue of implementation. What have you done at the National Assembly in terms of oversight responsibility to ensure compliance?
First of all we cannot oversight them yet because the law has just gone into effect; the NDDC has to put in the necessary machinery to get their money. If for any reason NDDC reports or we find out during any of our oversight visits or calls that the gas processing companies fail to pay, the other law that is coming and, which of course,   has been passed by the Senate   and which was also sponsored by me, gives a percentage as fine for non-payment as and when due.
I think there is another comprehensive law where we are amending all the inadequacies and all the things we found out as the short comings in the original bill. It’s about six chapters, six sections we are amending. In that place, we took cognizance of what you are asking about now. If they fail to pay, there is a penalty for that.   But I don’t think that LNG will not pay, given the level of negotiations and, of course, they have seen the popular feeling of the people that they must pay.

As the Chairman of the Senate Committee on the Niger Delta Affairs, what have been your findings with respect to the NDDC in terms of its operational ability?
There are so many issues in the NDDC. There is the need to really look at what is the core mandate of the commission and then let them focus on those core mandate areas, not that for everything you want you go there for it. It is also going to take a lot of time and goodwill because there is already a feeling that NDDC is not going to achieve anything; so, it must take a lot of political goodwill for you to be able to stop what is happening now in the NDDC. Sometime, you see the Managing Director of NDDC, when he goes to work, some physically-challenged persons will not allow him enter until he settles them, and even militants will say he has not done ‘this’ for them; it is not that there has not been any development but that they are supposed to be given some incentives.

Then you ask yourself, are these core mandates of NDDC? We went into their scholarship scheme and saw that a lot of ‘backyard businesses’ and racketing was going on in that place. In fact, we just requested for the staff audit, they have yet to give it to us. They have not been able to give us the staff audit we requested for over six months now. However, we will do our best to ensure that they focus on their core mandate as well.

You did indicate that the NDDC would have so much money if the oil and gas companies were to pay what they owe in the past 17 years. Does it mean that this law will take a retroactive effect?
No, it’s not retroactive. Bad laws are the laws that take retroactive effect; no good law takes retroactive effect and it is against the spirit of justice for a law to take retroactive effect. What I mean is three per cent of the annual budgets over a period of 17 years. Look at the point I am making: One of the things we did is that the NDDC does not even know the annual budgets of the oil companies and so when we came in, we invited all the oil companies and the issue of whether it is annual budget or the real budget came up and we read the law to them that it is the annual budget. But where is the annual budget of the oil companies? NDDC does not have it.
So,  it is what the oil company feel is convenient for them that they pay to NDDC. What we have done is that we have directed DPR to collect the annual budgets of all the oil companies for the past 17 years, because DPR is supposed to be supervising them,  and then on that basis, NDDC, gets its consultants, let them meet the oil companies and calculate the three per cent for the past 17 years and when they get it, make a demand notice from all these oil companies to pay them that difference. We also asked the oil companies to get their own consultants to meet with the consultants of the NDDC so that there can be an agreement. That’s what is ongoing. As for me, it is two- sided- a call to duty and patriotism on the part of the employees and appointees of the Niger Delta Development Commission and support from the people of Niger Delta to allow the NDDC to focus on its core mandate.

How Politicians Ruined 2019 Elections, By INEC Chair, IGP, Others

Politicians and their agents are responsible for the large scale malpractices and widespread violence that marred the 2019 general elections.

This was the submission of the chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof Mahmood Yakubu; Acting Inspector General of Police, Mohammed Adamu and President of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Ayuba Wabba among other stakeholders.

They spoke on Wednesday in Abuja at the Forum of Anti-corruption Situation Room organised by the Human and Environmental Development Agenda (HEDA).

In a keynote address, Yakubu said vote buying and selling have become a source of great worry to the Commission, the Nigerian people and the international community.

The INEC chair, who was represented by the National Commissioner and Chairman, Information and Voter Education, Mr. Festus Okoye, narrated how politicians and their agents devised various methods to compromise the electoral process.

According to him, one of the methods employed by the politicians and their agents was to buy up Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) of registered voters in the political “safe haven” of their opponents before the day of election.

He also accused them of compromising security agents and some ad hoc staff of INEC who looked the other way while votes were being bought and sold.

Yakubu said some political money bags bought over agents of other political parties who compromised and betrayed their own political parties for money.

The INEC chairman also cited situations where voters were made to surrender their PVCs to middlemen as a precondition for assessing government amenities and facilities in their localities.

“Politicians compromised traditional and religious leaders and community leaders by persuading them to persuade voters in their domains to vote in a particular way.

“In some instances, they persuaded willing ad hoc staff to abandon the use of Smart Card Readers and provision of social amenities close to Election Day,” Yakubu added.

The INEC chief charged the various Election Petitions Tribunals to prosecute proven cases of electoral offences pending the establishment of a designated body for that purpose.

Acting IGP Adamu said police personnel on election duty were constrained by the law, which prevented them from bearing firearms around voting areas.

The IGP, who was represented by Assistant Inspector General of Police, Mr. Peter Ogunyanwo, said this made it impossible for police personnel on election duties to confront heavily armed political thugs who attacked voters and disrupted voting at polling centres in different parts of the country during the 2019 elections.

He lamented politicians lacked patriotism, nationalism and the fear of God in their conduct during elections.

He lamented politicians, who he described as beneficiaries of electoral malpractices, lacked the required will and patriotism to put in place the needed electoral reforms.

According to him, measures prescribed by law to punish electoral offenders were not punitive enough to deter electoral offenders.

He cited the provision of Section 308 of the Constitution which confers immunity from prosecution on sitting governors and their deputies when they commit offences.

The AIG made allusions to the Rivers and Kano states where the sitting governor and deputy governor respectively committed electoral infractions during the March 9 governorship election but could not be prosecuted as a result of their constitutional immunity.

“In some cases, the law prescribes a fine of N40 as punishment for people caught with unlawful possession of firearms and other dangerous weapons. So where do we go from here?

The police chief also blamed greed and stupidity on the part of voters who sell their votes to desperate politicians, saying they end up going back to their squalid conditions afterwards.

He called on civil society groups human rights organisations to mobilise for other segments of the public to mount pressure on the National Assembly to ensure birth of electoral reforms that will prescribe stiff penalties for electoral offenders.

NLC President, Ayuba Wabba blamed vote buying and selling on pervasive poverty in the land.

According to him, most of the voters could not resist monetary offers for their votes by desperate politicians.

He bemoaned a situation where some state governments pay civil servants, particularly teachers as little as N7,000 monthly salary.

Describing the electoral process in the country as work in progress, Wabba noted having realised that votes count, politicians have resorted to vote buying from impoverished voters.

The NLC noted that there is no way a compromised electoral process can produce transparent and competent leaders or good governance.

The situation, he said, has made it impossible for the people to hold their leaders accountable and called for drastic electoral reforms to sanitise the process.

Activist lawyer, Femi Falana, who was chairman of the event, canvased electronic voting as solution to electoral malpractice, saying the country was ripe enough for it.

According to him, vote buying and ballot manipulation started in 2003 with former President Olusegun Obasanjo and the situation has continued to escalate with every election circle.

He blamed the Election Petitions Tribunals and the courts for condoning electoral practices where billions were raised for the election of individuals against the provisions of the Electoral Act.

https://thenationonlineng.net/how-politicians-ruined-2019-elections-by-inec-chair-igp-others/2/

ILLEGAL MINING: A MULTI-MILLION DOLLAR BUSINESS IN NIGERIA

Nigeria is blessed with many commercial deposits of solid minerals, from tantalite to barite, limestone, bitumen and kaoline, to gold, and topaz. The quantity of the deposits in more than 500 locations across nine states in Nigeria suggests that the solid mineral sector, if well harnessed, will compete with the oil and gas sector in Nigeria.

However, most of the mining in Nigeria up until the present is carried out illegally. Illegal mining is a great menace in many of our communities. Indeed the gold deposits in Zamfara State and the tantalite deposits in Kogi State have all been mined illegally. It is usually done by a ‘cartel’ that just shows up in these communities and begins to cart away the minerals in collaboration with ignorant and vulnerable community members.

Some of the illegal mine traders are from South Asian countries, especially China, but they do not perpetrate these criminal actions without the collaboration of some locals. Beyond Zamfara, active illegal mining is going on in Oyo, Kogi, Jigawa, Plateau, Nassarawa and Kwara states today. If you visit the sites, they appear surreal and unconnected to Nigeria due to the beehive of activities occurring in these communities.

ENVIRONMENTAL AND HEALTH IMPLICATIONS

The environmental implications of illegal mining are quite diverse. The first is that it destroys farmland and distorts the livelihood of agrarian communities. The trenches dug for these mining activities are abandoned after the mining is over. They therefore become death traps and easy entry points for devastating gully erosions.

As was in the case of the communities in Zamfara State, many of these mines are contaminated with impurities. In this case, gold ash was intermingled with deposits of lead. In a few cases, some of the impurities are even radioactive in nature. Ignorant community members therefore go to these mines and come in contact with contaminants.

An eyewitness account stated that reports of vomiting and stomach pain among children in Zamfara State began to come in a year ago. As is usual in most communities, deaths are attributed to one spirit or another. The death toll continued to rise until the blood samples of patients were taken abroad for adequate tests.

Experts reported that lead poisoning as in the case of Zamfara can persist in the environment for up to 15 years. There are also other long-term health problems such as permanent learning and behavioral problems and brain damage. Lead for instance is known to bio-accumulate and propagate within the ecosystem, giving rise to cancer causing cells popularly called oncogens.

Anambra Assembly Passes Bill Banning Expensive Burial Ceremonies

The Anambra State House of Assembly on Wednesday passed a bill which banning expensive burial ceremonies for the dead in the state.

The bill is entitled ‘a law to control burial/funeral ceremonial activities in the state.’ The assembly makes it an offense to hold lavish burial ceremonies in the state, or even holding such occasions beyond one day.

The sponsor of the bill, Hon Charles Ezeani, the member representing Anaocha II constituency, stated that, “Burial/funeral control bill is aimed at cutting down the cost of burial activities in the state.”
He explained further that the bill provided that in the event of death, “no person shall deposit any corpse in the mortuary or any place beyond two months from the date of the death, while burial ceremonies in the state shall be for one day.”

The law prohibited destruction of property, gunshots, praise singing, blocking of roads, lavish entertainment and blocking of streets during burial ceremonies in the state.

Ezeani also said that the bill provided that, “no person shall subject any relation of the deceased person to a mourning period of more than one week from the date of the burial ceremony.

“It further stipulates that during burial and funeral ceremonial activities, the family of the deceased shall provide food for their kindred, relatives and other sympathizers at their own discretion.”

Much Ado About Gotv's Licence

Just On March 22 2019, National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) renewed the licence of Gotv for a period of three (3) more years, according to the Director-General of the commission, Modibbo Kawu, the commission made the U-turn, as against its original to withhold the license till June.


Lai Mohammed, Minister Of Information and Culture under the Buhari’s led administration, has annulled the licences given to Details Nigeria Limited, Who owns Gotv, because of irregularities according to him.


Minister of Information, Lai Mohammed. Credit: Premium Times
According to a report by Daily Independent newspaper, the development came following the N2.5 billion scandal involving the NBC which the Independent Corrupt Practices and other related Offences Commission (ICPC) had investigated.


The report said the scandal pitched the parastatal’s Director-General and his backers in the presidency against the Information Minister.


It was learned that the relationship between the minister and the NBC DG soured considerably when the ICPC investigated the N2.5 billion scandal.



The paper said the ICPC swung into action last month and attempted to arraign the NBC DG in court on Friday, March 8, but he was absent in court as his lawyers said he was sick and on admission at the University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital in Kwara State, north-central Nigeria.

According to the report, the minister of information struck again Weeks after ICPC’s attempts to arraign Kawu in court, nullifying the three-year licence which Kawu’s NBC had granted Details Nigeria Ltd, owners of GOTV.


In a letter of March 29, 2019, the information minister wrote: “The decision to renew the GOTV licence for three years negate the position of the white paper on the DSO (Digital Switch Over), making it not only illegal but a willful disrespect for our laws and national institutions.


“Recall that the Ministerial Task Force on the DSO, which I chair, had specifically ruled that all Pay Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT) companies would no longer be allowed to self-carry and would have to go to one of the two licenced Signal Distributors for that function.


“That decision was made based on the government white paper which puts signal distributors in charge of transmission and separates them from content providers.”


The minister added: “No part of the licence fees paid by Details Nigeria Ltd should be touched by the NBC until a negotiated agreement has been signed, subject to my approval,” the letter added.


Insiders in NBC told Daily Independent that, with the final paragraph of the minister’s letter (quoted above), Mohammed had actually served notice to all and sundry that he did not approve any spending for Details Nigeria Limited.

The close watchers said the information minister did this because Kawu had argued that Mohammed approved the N2.5 billion which was paid as “seed grant” to Pinnacle Communications Ltd.

BANKS AND BANKERS ARE GETTING RICHER THROUGH FOOLISH DEAD HUSBANDS

While talking with a female bank manager, she made a scary revelation to me. She told me how Nigerian bank vaults are filled with monies of dead men who kept their bank accounts secret from their wives.

She explained it was against bank ethics or policies for an account officer to inform the relatives of a deceased customer of his account (without his permission). And since the man is dead, without giving his permission, the bank dubiously keeps silent about the money. She told me it is rampant among many businessmen.

She revealed many instances of dead men whose families are still suffering, while they have millions stashed in their secret accounts.

She mentioned one that happened few months back. The man died and the wife was crying all over the place, looking for money to bury him. Whereas the man had nothing less than 60 million naira in his accounts. The banker said it got to a stage that she could no longer bear it, her conscience was pummelling her. She had to go against her bank rules, and got in contact with the widow and revealed to the woman how much her husband had in his accounts and how to claim them.

She also told of another story of one man who escaped death, but his right hand got paralysed. He couldn't sign his chequebook with his left hand and he was in a desperate situation that needed him to sign papers and cheques. That was how he learnt his lesson the hard way. As soon as he got better, he immediately made his wife co-signatory to all his accounts and involved her in all his businesses. What if he had died? That was how his family would have suffered in the midst of plenty.

This stupid behaviour is not reserved for wealthy men alone, even paupers who earn little have their own complex issues.

I just read on the wall of one of our groups where a man complained of how his friend refused to release his ATM pin number to his wife even though there was an emergency at home, and his ATM was at home.

Many orphans and widows suffering today are put in that condition by their stupid dead father.

Women and Retirees are not left out. Someone told me how a relative of hers died and none of her relatives knew that her properties were scattered all over the world. Not even one house. Not even a dime in any of her accounts... If you knew billions unclaimed in banks belong to selfish dead people, you would weep.

Banks and Bankers grow fat on these oafs.

Please do the needful now that you still have the breath to do so. Of course tomorrow is pregnant and only God knows what it will deliver.

A word is enough for the wise.

Good Day. Have a wonderful day ahead.

Tinubu: My struggles through life

Q: We decided to support Dapo Sarumi.
A: Gradually, I moved from raising funds to getting involved. I brought some money to Nigeria out of my dividends. I was comfortable because my investments in America and London were already yielding dividends. Then came the crisis leading to the ban of Professor Femi Agbalajobi and Chief Dapo Sarumi. I threw my weight behind Yomi Edu. He lost the election and our group was devastated. I went to Ahmadu Abubakar and IBB. I wrote a report and I was strongly against the Structural Adjustment Programme introduced by the military government. The idea of the new generation banks came from those reports. Abubakar, from being a permanent secretary, became Minister of Finance.
IBB saw the significance of the advice as well as the short, medium and long term vision that were in the report. That man was great. He was a good listener. You could think with him. He is still alive. This probe of NNPC dates back to those periods. You can give the NNPC a bank draft for 120 days and you will still be using that money!
They started touting the idea that intelligent, brilliant and dynamic people like me should be in the Senate and must change Nigeria. The idea gradually started coming into my head. People like Kola Oseni, Alhaji Hamzat, Busurat Alebiosu, Demola Adeniji-Adele, Prince Olusi, who were members of the Primrose Group at that time, started persuading me to go to the Senate. The Primrose Group was piling so much pressure on Alhaji Kola Oseni to persuade me.
The MD of Mobil, Bob Parker, thought I was crazy when I told him I wanted to join politics. I also told the Finance Director, Akinyelure, that I wanted to join politics and use my brain for my country and that I couldn’t continue to be an armchair critic. The two of them could not believe what I said. They said, given my career path in Mobil, if there was any chance of anybody becoming something there, then I would be the one. I stood my ground and said I would give it a try.
I told them that people do it in America and Bob Parker agreed. They said they would give me a leave of absence for four years, during which they would not fill my position. They later said that they would not stop me because it would rub off positively on them if I became successful in politics. They told me to come back and take my position if I found it uninteresting and unchallenging. So I contested the Lagos West Senatorial district election.

Q: Why not Lagos Central?
A: Lagos West was where our weakness was apparent. The political leaders in the Social Democratic Party just assigned Lagos West, which was the most challenging district, to me and said I had the money, personality and the wherewithal. Lagos Central was preparing for me and they wanted me.
In our group, we wanted to help Wahab Dosunmu to stay in Central, so I went to the West. It was a big battle, but I won the nomination for Lagos West. Wahab Dosunmu got nomination for Lagos Central, but they got him disqualified. The battle was then left to Shitta-Bey, Towry-Coker and Bucknor-Akerele. Whatever happened in the primaries is history. It was a crude primary election, but a most transparent one. That was how I got into politics, which nonetheless was an adventure for me.

Q: What role did you play in the emergence of Michael Otedola of NRC?
A: I didn’t play any role. I was politically naïve, though a strategist in my own right. Those at the forefront weren’t paying attention and there were a lot of intrigues, which I had never seen before. We could have been flexible and compromised when Sarumi and the late Femi Agbalajobi were disqualified, leaving Yomi Edu. There were two groups then. Baba Kekere (Alhaji Lateef Jakande) would call them “ase”. I recommended that we should have given them the deputy governorship slot. Democracy is about conflict and conflict resolution. Otedola would not have emerged if each side had yielded. We found out later that some people who didn’t mean well didn’t want Yomi Edu to get there. If they wanted, they would have allowed flexibility and compromise.
The late Prince Adeniyi tried so hard to resolve the impasse up till the night before the election. The impasse was unresolved and the party ended up giving Otedola a chance. I learnt a lot from that experience.

Q: What role did you play in the presidential election of MKO Abiola?
A: We worked hard for Yar’Adua. The SDP platform and the Yar’Adua machine were a phenomenon at that particular time. We had won the majority in the National Assembly. I wanted to become the Senate President because we secured all the seats in the West and we had 15 senators and Alhaji Kashim Ibrahim, a brilliant politician, mobilised some of the senators in the North; Chuba Okadigbo in the East and Albert Legogie in the so-called South-South. Iyorchia Ayu of the Middle-Belt was very active at that particular time. We had good leaders. Olu Falae was in contention, Biyi Durojaiye also. We had Olusegun Osoba and the rest of them as governors then. We didn’t pay attention to Lagos and didn’t miss anything. We were not looking at any governor to be politically involved. I was just running my vision. I put my talents into being a strategist and I had got the endorsement of 38 out of the 56 senators belonging to the SDP to become the Senate President. So when the leadership caucus of the party met, the problem of the late Yar’Adua and others had crystallised.
It was then believed that Falae or anyone else among the presidential contenders would be the party’s flag bearer after the disqualification of Yar’Adua. They banned the old politicians and asked that the new breed should come forward. Falae, Olabiyi Durojaiye and others were clamouring that the opportunity should be given to the West. Yar’Adua was very consistent about the South-West and the North-West working together. I was confronted in Abuja, because I was already prepared to be the Senate President. I had 15 senators with me and had gotten the endorsement of the majority of other senators. Senators Kanti Bello (he was my partner in the struggle), Kazaure, Kashim Ibrahim, Lawan Buba, Mogaji Abdullahi and a host of others had already formed a caucus that would work for my emergence as the Senate President. When we met at the leadership level, the late M.S Buhari asked us if we could honestly say that we must take the senate presidency? Okadigbo might be interested and would rather have the East produce the Senate President; the North, the Vice-President; and the presidency in the South-West because they had blocked Yar’Adua.
My position was that a bird in hand cannot fly away; you have to tie it properly. As if it was a prediction that I had seen, that thing was a banner headline on The Punch’s front page at that time. I was adamant. Falae, Durojaiye and the rest of them came to me and said that the leadership of South-West would want the presidency and we could not take the two positions. We had to make a sacrifice. My position was then that if your child would go to the class and come first among 30 students, to whom do you give the best prize in the house?
At the stage, I said I wanted to become Senate President, they said I should review my ambition. I made them realise that out of our 15 senators, the North-Central contributed 12 senators, so I said there must be a reward system for the support and loyalty. I told them that if I were to give up the ambition, the position must go to the zone that contributed the highest number of senators to my support base.
Ayu was among the 38. Meanwhile, A.T Ahmed was on the other side. We had internal caucuses and out of 56, 38 of us bonded together. A.T Ahmed and Okadigbo wanted to be senate president. But it was being rumoured in the newspapers that Babangida wanted to remain in power and that Bola Tinubu – because of IBB’s closeness to our family – would be one of those that would be used for IBB to stay. They didn’t know what I stood for. I was laughing. We were saying the military must exit and we were angry because Yar’Adua had been disqualified. We didn’t even want IBB to stay.
While that was on, Abiola came onto the scene and showed interest in the presidency. Suddenly, I found him in my hotel room with Jubril Martins-Kuye. I realised he was an accountant like myself and I told him he had been severally abused for being anti-Awolowo. He said no, and that he would go to Ikenne. I told him that he should forget it if he was anti-Awolowo. When you talked to MKO about the country, you saw his vision and everything. If you were well educated and serious about the country, you would be convinced that he meant well. If you were to do an analysis about who was likely to be less corrupt and whose vision would be consistent for the nation, then you would agree with MKO. We made Ayu the Senate President. Yar’Adua and Atiku got along with us on the choice of Ayu, while Kingibe was very flexible on it. We warned them that we would concede it to the NRC if they refused to let us choose our candidate since they would not be there with us. That was how Ayu won and I became one of the most powerful and influential senators. I was the chairman of the Appropriation, Finance, Banking and two other committees in the Senate.
We started working for MKO to emerge the candidate and we worked hard for him. My corporate experience and the strategic planning I had was brought to bear on what I was doing at the time.

Q: Babangida wanted to use the Senate to stay. How did the Senate respond to that?
A: Ayu, myself and some others knew what the military was up to. The military is politically smart. Don’t underestimate any military officer when it comes to gathering information on any activity. We got wind of their plan and we took a very strong position that the military had to hand over. Equally, the pressure from the media against the continued stay of the military in power was strong. The wind of change was blowing in the direction of a civilian government. Bagangida made several promises and even declared in a broadcast that the military would disengage from politics in August 1993 and would hand over to a democratically elected president.
So, we strategised and organised a successful joint session of the National Assembly to reach a resolution against military stay. It was very auspicious at the time, because no president had emerged. The NRC and the SDP agreed that they wanted the military to go and, with no apparent successor, the political situation was fluid. In a motion moved by a House of Representatives member and supported by a senator, at the joint session of the National Assembly, it was resolved that the military must hand over to a democratically elected civilian president by August.
The Senate President allowed robust contributions from members at the session, which was devoid of party sentiments and affiliations, and we all jointly agreed to the resolution. That was in 1992, before the presidential election in 1993. Both SDP and NRC were expecting victory. We just wanted a civilian government in place. The resolution was seriously binding because the Babangida administration would have no moral authority to stay, though there were talks about diarchy. It just had to go. So when eventually they brought no-go areas and restricted legislators from discussing certain issues, we went to court. We were determined that democracy must be instituted in the country and that it could not be headed by any military man.
To be honest with you, Ayu was a good leader. I believe I was the only person with computer literacy and I had a big Toshiba laptop and I was churning out all sort of media releases against the continuation of military administration. It was a challenging period for this country and the international community held on to that resolution.
Q: Babangida came to address a joint session of the National Assembly. Was that resolution passed before or after that?
A: Babangida addressed us during the inauguration, where I spoke on behalf of the SDP. I frontally told him that he should not miss the opportunity to leave the legacy of handing over to a democratically elected government. My speech resonated with Babangida and after we finished the inauguration, he walked up to me and gave me a firm handshake. He said I exhibited courage; we had a chat and he left. I did not know what he said after that o! After that incident, I became a persona non grata to the military administration.
We worked hard for the emergence of Abiola. Though there were lot of intrigues, we succeeded in seeing that he emerged as the candidate. I went to 22 states to campaign and the campaigns were very interesting. The election came and we were all celebrating because the election was free and fair. The electoral system was amended and the chairman of the electoral commission, Humphrey Nwosu, was very careful and sincere because of the method employed. The Option A4 was effective. So was the Open Secret Ballot System. It was well monitored. Voters were accredited, allowed to vote and votes counted right on the spot. There was no room for manipulation and the number of ballot papers could not be greater than the number of registered voters and vice versa. It could be lower because some people could get accredited and not vote. Everybody would vote at the same time. It was the Open Secret ballot system. The two-party system would have been the greatest legacy left behind by IBB. We had that election and Abiola won.

Q: Where were you when it was announced that the election had been annulled?
I was with Chief MKO Abiola. A few nights before then, we, including Professor Borisade, were collating the results of the election across the country. Suddenly the crisis started and they stopped the collation. We were waiting for result from Taraba State to make the final run. We had gotten figures from all states, but they banned the announcement until they got to Abuja. Suddenly they stopped. Crisis started. We all did what we were to do. Abiola was using his connections. Then we started hearing that there might be a possibility of a cancellation of the election. The political parties had been divided, with the NRC fearing its loss in the election and starting to talk from both sides of its mouth.
Suddenly, General Yar’Adua’s father passed on. I was in Abuja when MKO called in the dead of the night to say that he was sending an aircraft to Abuja and that he had made moves to ensure that the Abuja and Katsina airports operated at that late hour for the purpose of conveying people. He directed that I went with Shehu Yar’Adua to Katsina to represent him and that he would join us the following morning.
He said he needed to talk to the governors and wanted them to accompany him to Katsina for the burial. We spent the night before the burial in Katsina because Shehu wanted to be with his mother.
We were in Shehu Yar’Adua’s compound when General Babangida arrived; he was still the president. Immediately he came, they had to bury the dead. Abiola had not arrived. He was blocked because the airspace had been closed for Babangida’s flight to Katsina. All I knew was that Shehu and Babangida went inside the house for some time. We thought what was going on inside was the military president condoling with the family, that all of them were praying for the mum.
They emerged eventually and IBB immediately left for Abuja. After he arrived Abuja, the air space was opened and Abiola could fly in a chartered Okada Airlines aircraft, alongside other people who came with him to Katsina. We were full of anxiety. Abiola met us in Katsina and after the visit to the family, the emirs and other key indigenes of the place, we all returned to Lagos. Then we heard the announcement annulling the election.
I was in the panel van of National Concord newspapers because my car was in Abuja. I did not know I was returning to Lagos. Some of my vehicles were in Lagos, but nobody knew that I was in town. We went straight to Abiola’s house and we were locked out because there was chaos in front his gate. What followed was the biggest crisis I have ever been confronted with in my life.

Q: Did IBB explain to you personally, given your closeness to him?
A: No. In fact, at that time, the military had declared me persona non grata! Everybody, except me, got up when he arrived at Yar’Adua’s compound. He touched my head and said ‘you’! I know Mogaji Abdullai walked after him and said: ‘Senator Tinubu, will you not see off the President?’ I did not stand up. I said he was not my president! I did not know about the annulment then. That was how the crisis started.

Q: You spoke about the greatest crisis after the annulment…
A: After the annulment, everything became hot. The crisis began to offer the possibility of an interim administration coming into place. Prior to that, they started the idea that should there be a constitutional crisis, it would be Ayu that would head the interim government. I wasn’t sure if Ayu would start a debate on that or reject it outright.
But I told him: ‘Don’t ever think it would be you.’ Eventually, he agreed. There was suspicion in the public space that he and Shehu Yar’Adua had consented to the annulment. The suspicion pervaded the party. The public was fed all sorts of information. I knew that I approached Ayu that there was no way they would have made him the interim head of government. We knew for sure that Yar’Adua was angry because Atiku Abubakar was not made Abiola’s running mate. It became clear to Ayu that there was deception.
Shonekan was eventually announced as the Head of the Interim National Government. We also learnt that the military had promised Shehu Yar’Adua that they would unban the old politicians and that he would have the opportunity to run six months after Shonekan. They were also touting Obasanjo’s name, but suddenly Shonekan’s name was announced. I remember that I went to Ayu and he said he had been invited and I said: ‘Didn’t I tell you that they would not make you the interim head of government?’ I advised him that the best thing was to challenge them. We were in his house playing and I told Yar’Adua that there was no way the military would make him anything. I advised him that he would have built a great structure to succeed Abiola after his four-year term, and that he would only be 54 years then. I pleaded with Yar’Adua not to abandon the ship. I took my mother, Alhaja Abibat Mogaji, to Abuja to appeal to IBB and there is a picture where she removed her head-tie, using her grey hair to plead with IBB to restore Abiola’s mandate.
It was on the front cover of Newswatch. I mobilised them to go and appeal to IBB. On the day Shonekan was to be sworn in, I was in Ayu’s house to pin him down, so as to prevent him from attending the ceremony. They left the chair reserved for him for a while, before inviting Joseph Wayas to sit. They claimed he was Senate President, whether past or present.
There was a disagreement within our group. They offered me a ministerial position, which I rejected. They offered Sarumi a ministerial position and he said he would accept. We were in the hotel room on the day he said so. He is still alive to confirm or deny what I have said. I begged him and told him point-blank that it would be the end of our relationship because we should not betray the cause we started. I told him I gave up the senate presidency for Abiola to contest as president. I told him that was not acceptable and I begged Yar’Adua, too. I fell out with Shehu on the matter and I told them that none of us could predict the end of the game. I pleaded with him to be consistent and stand firm. He said I had no guns and tanks and that I was incapable of facing the military.
The floor of the Senate was very hot. There was a sharp division in the National Assembly. Thereafter, Ayu was removed as Senate President; I was almost killed. There was a plan to assassinate me, but luckily, Akintola Benson and my late driver, Mustapha, walked into a discussion where the plot was being hatched to terminate my life. That was unknown to the people planning the assassination. I was to be taken out of the hotel. The assistant head of security at the hotel brought a chef uniform to dress me up as a chef, while he asked a driver to wait for me. I escaped and headed for Lagos in the chef uniform.
Abiola travelled to the United Kingdom to start the campaign for the de-annulment of the election and restoration of his mandate and Kingibe was there as deputy to continue to coordinate the rest of us at home. I had a choice to go back to my job, because I was on a leave of absence. People advised me to abandon the struggle because of the risk involved. They advised me to go back to my work.

Q: When were you arrested?
A: I said we would continue to struggle until we had democracy. We had a group of 30 senators called the G-30. The G-30 was determined to actualise the mandate on the floor of the Senate. Suddenly, Abacha came and General Oladipupo Diya and Babagana Kingibe were also running around. Diya was one of the most respected and credible military officers then, and he later approached us that there might be change in government. Abiola was around. General Chris Alli met us and said there would be a change of government, which would be in favour of June 12, because they were tired of the shenanigans of the ING. That night, Abacha changed the government. He outsmarted everybody. They met with me, Dele Alake, Segun Babatope and Doyin Abiola. We were asked to write the terms and conditions, which they would broadcast after a change of government. We wrote it and gave it to Diya. They are all alive.
On the night the government was to be changed, Abacha outsmarted everyone and installed himself. These people I mentioned are all alive to testify to what I have said. I can say categorically that I was even called to leave my office because, as they claimed, that night was a dangerous night for them and that everyone’s life might be in danger. Abiola was told not sleep at home until the broadcast had been made. We were all fooled! Big time deception.
When we heard the broadcast the next day, there was no mention of June 12 and no proclamation of Abiola. I was mad, but was still determined. I rushed to Diya and he was still saying that there was no problem and that they were planning to announce the cabinet containing eminent June 12 people. Abiola said what? I said no, announce Abiola’s victory.
Diya told me that I didn’t know the military and that things were not done like that in the military. But I insisted that it was deception. I said I know the military. I called Okadigbo to my office in Lagos and I put the plan before him that we had to confront the military and we had to declare Abacha himself illegal. I got members of our group together; we wrote the script declaring Abacha’s government illegal. Since we could not get to the National Assembly, we opted to hold our session at the Tafawa Balewa Square. We had gotten Dele Alake to be the media coordinator. We told him to get the CNN and other foreign media ready. I put the coat of arms on a rod! That was the mace. We created our own mace.
We reconvened the Senate here in Lagos and declared Abacha illegal before the international media and others. My colleagues had scattered. After we assembled, and having drafted the resolution, they still didn’t know where we would hold the session. I told them to relax, this is Lagos. After the broadcast, everybody took off, because the SSS and other security agents were combing everywhere for us. I went underground, using the 090 mobile phone. I was still granting press interviews to foreign media. The military people were mad. I became a thorn in their flesh and they arrested some of my colleagues, including Abu Ibrahim, the late Polycarp Nwite, Ameh Ebute and Okoroafor. I was still underground, holding press conferences. The military declared me wanted.
Suddenly they granted bail to the arrested senators. I thought I would be a beneficiary, but I was not. Then, there was a manhunt for me by the police and the SSS. Meanwhile, my late uncle, K.O Tinubu and the present Oba of Lagos, Oba Akiolu, who was then a police officer, were pressuring me to disclose where I was. My uncle called to ask where exactly I was. I did not disclose my whereabouts. I told Akiolu that even though he is my relative, I would still not tell him where I was since he was a police officer! He said: ‘Ha!’
My uncle advised that the military would kill me if they found me underground and no one would be able to locate my whereabouts. He said it was better I surrendered myself because he wanted me to be alive. I told him that I would call him back, that I was to hold a press conference at the time. And he shouted in amazement: ‘You are holding press conference when your life is in danger.’ I told him I would surrender, but would not tell him when.
I disguised perfectly, dressed like a malam, and went to the police at Alagbon. The officers didn’t even know me when they saw me. I went in, deposited my phone and my charger. Senator Abu Ibrahim was with us. The officers were wondering why I, a Mallam, could not speak Hausa! I removed my turban, showed up at the front desk and declared that I had come to surrender. And there was pandemonium among the officers, as to how I got there.
The AIG then was very nice and they put me in the cell. They poured water into the cell room and said, ‘sleep there’. That was the nastiest experience I had within first 48 hours that I was there. It was on a weekend. I told them I would embark on a hunger strike. The late Anthony Enahoro was on the stairway and Beko Ransome-Kuti was at another angle on the stairway. They brought me out repeatedly for interrogation. They asked me to renounce but I said no, I would not recognise Abacha. They took me and my colleagues to court. People who were supposed to meet their bail conditions were stopped from doing so immediately they saw me. They cancelled everybody’s bail because they could not isolate me.
They gave an order that we should be taken out of court, but kept in the police custody at Alagbon. They kept about eight of us in a photocopying room, an eight-by-eight room. We were sleeping across one another. It was a matter of the first to sleep would maintain the position. If your head was this way, your leg would be there and so on. It was a nasty experience.
There were a lot of interrogations, with a lot of carrot and stick. I can never forget the role and determination and sincerity of a compatriot at that particular time. They made an exception to uphold the earlier bail granted to Senator Abu Ibrahim. He was asked to go. He was the only Hausa-Fulani man with us. The late Hassan Katsina had intervened. But Senator Ibrahim said he would rather stay, except every one of us was granted the same bail conditions. He said he would not leave his colleagues behind.
He is a courageous and a detribalised Nigerian, who had a vision of what Nigeria should be. He refused to accept an isolated bail. They started sending emissaries to us in detention, offering us all sorts of appointments and opportunities to renounce our positions, but we refused. The judiciary was still very courageous then. We went to the Court of Appeal. An incident occurred at the lower court. Market women turned out hugely to support us when we were brought to the court. The day they refused my bail, some of the market women appeared naked and so they stopped taking us to the court. The court sessions were usually interesting for us because of the scenes. At Alagbon, we bathed in the open between 4 and 5 a.m.
The condition started improving when they began to bring officials of the failed banks. Those ones contributed money to repair the generating set at Alagbon and we started enjoying electricity a little longer than we used to. It was during the time that the protest became intense. Nigeria was playing at the World Cup then. Italy defeated Nigeria and the security people lied to us that it was otherwise. Eventually, the Court of Appeal courageously granted us bail in enforcement of our fundamental human rights. Our passports were confiscated and deposited with the court. Later, the High Court ruled that our passports be released to us. That night, they finally announced our bail and conditions attached to it. The presiding judge then is today the Emir of Ilorin, Sulu Gambari. We heard that they put so much pressure on him (Clement Akpamgbo was the Attorney-General) not to release us, but he ordered our release. They were going to re-arrest me and I suddenly went underground to continue my protest.
They would throw bombs and say it was us. Mobil called me to come back to my job, but I refused. They bombed my house, but luckily, my wife and children had been evacuated. I would not want to reveal how they were evacuated because there was a diplomatic involvement. They told me that my life and those of my family were in clear danger.
Suddenly, they announced that I was wanted again. They alleged that I was going to bomb the NNPC depot at Ejigbo. Ah! I was still being tried for treason, which carries a sentence of life imprisonment, and I was again accused of trying to bomb an NNPC depot. I couldn’t go back because my photograph was all over the place that I was wanted. A diplomatic source advised me that I should leave the country if I wanted to continue the struggle. Dan Suleiman, Alani Akinrinade were in danger. We asked Bolaji Akinyemi to leave the country and promote the struggle at the international level.

Q: That was the National Democratic Coalition then…
Q: Yes. I was at the forefront of the struggle at that level. When I went to see my uncle, K.O Tinubu, at home, he shed tears that night. He said he didn’t want to lose me and that I was about to be killed. He begged me to leave Nigeria and affirmed that, being a former police officer, he was sure I would be killed.
He said that I couldn’t return to my house since they had bombed it. I went to a friend’s house. Before then, there was an incident that made them believe that I was at Ore Falomo’s hospital. They went to the hospital to look for me. Eventually, I left Nigeria for Benin Republic by NADECO route.

Q: How did you make it across the border?
Q: I disguised with a huge turban and babanriga and escaped into Benin Republic on a motorbike. My old Hausa friend gave the clothes to me. In fact, when I appeared to Kudirat Abiola, she didn’t know that I was the one! I gave her some information and some briefing. I left at 1 a.m. While in Benin Republic, I was still coming to Badagry to ferry people, organise and coordinate the struggle with others on ground. We put a group together, ferrying NADECO people across. It was a very challenging time. I can’t forget people like Segun Maiyegun and other young guys in the struggle. I would come from Benin to hold meetings with them and sneak back. The military created a whole lot of momentum around me. They took over my house, guest house and carted away all my vehicles and property to Alagbon. That is why today, I don’t have old photographs. They took eight of my cars away.
My wife and my two toddlers were dropped in a bush; nowhere to go. Beko and the diplomatic missions came to our aid and ferried my wife and kids to the United States. I was still in Benin Republic. Besides, I didn’t have a passport and couldn’t have been able to travel. At a stage, they discovered our routes, because they had spies all over, including Benin Republic. Twice I was caught and I fortuitously escaped. They traced me to one dingy hotel I was hiding.
The day they came for me at the hotel, I had gone out on an Okada to buy amala at a market, where Yorubas are dominant. I was also to meet Akinrinade and the rest of them. The spies went to the hotel and as I was approaching, I saw two people wearing tajia (skull caps) at the front desk, asking questions. The man attending to them at the reception (I had been very nice to the receptionist) winked to me and I turned back. I contacted a friend in Benin Republic, who was an architect, and had very strong sympathy for us. Professor Wole Soyinka and Alani Akinrinade, who lodged in a better hotel, were fortunate to have escaped that night, too. The people on their trail pursued them to the hotel, but fortunately missed them.
Then the British High Commission got proper information through the Consular-General that my life was in danger. He stamped a visa on a sheet of paper and did a letter, authorising the airline to pick me from Benin Republic to any port of entry in Britain. I didn’t know how they got to me. A lady just walked up to me and handed me an envelope. She said I had been granted an entry into the United Kingdom. She said I could be killed if I failed to leave in the next 48 hours. It was Air Afrique that took me from Benin Republic to London. Meanwhile, my wife was still in the United States. I landed in Britain and worked my way back to Benin Republic. I picked up my passport from somewhere. I went to an African country and through their connections, they gave me a diplomatic passport as a cultural ambassador.

Q: What country was that?
A: No, please! The African country that helped us with the diplomatic passport was showing gratitude for the help Abiola had done to its president before. So, you can make your deduction. Then, I was shuffling and coordinating our activities in the UK, Benin Republic and Cote d’Ivoire. I used the passport to travel to Cote d’Ivoire to hold meetings at the Hotel Continental, because we were planning to make another broadcast that would be aired in Nigeria. By the time I returned to the hotel, the military assailants had broken into my hotel room and taken away my briefcase and diplomatic passport. They dropped a note, saying: ‘You cannot be twice lucky.’ I was taken over by panic. Fortunately, in my back pocket, I had the photocopy of the sheet of paper on which the British had stamped a visa for me to travel out of Benin previously. I took that to the British High Commission in Abidjan. They listened to my story and asked me to come back at night. They did all their verification and found my story to be true. I returned to them and they gave me another sheet of paper and wrote the number of the flight that would take me out of that country.
But I had no money. Somebody suddenly drove in. The person is a well-known name I don’t want to mention. I met him and explained my condition. He had a traveller’s cheque, but the money was not enough. I went back to the British High Commission and the woman said she could assist me with her own personal money to bridge the shortfall in cash.
We founded and coordinated Radio Kudirat and Radio Freedom and we continued to organise. I didn’t see my family for two good years. They were in America. Bayo Onanuga, who also was part of the struggle, joined us there in December 1997. The law of political asylum stipulates that your first country of landing and acceptance is the safe haven, so it’s not transferable. That was how Cornelius Adebayo was stuck in a United Nations camp. My wife had to invoke a family clause that exists in America to fight for her husband to join her before they granted me a special privilege to leave UK to join my family in the United States.

Q: Where were you on 8 June 1998 when Abacha died?
A: I was shuttling between the United States and UK. We were working really hard as NADECO. We went to our NADECO meeting in the UK to finalise the second leg of the strategy to make a broadcast and enforce certain actions. Before then I was reading Jubril Aminu’s interview in The Punch, where he said Nigerians should not worry about Abacha’s transmutation into a civilian president; but they should be worried about what followed. We were persuaded during a brainstorming session that we should get nearer to Nigeria to do something about it. It was agreed that we should stop him, even if we would have to start guerrilla warfare to achieve that.
Tunde Olowu had been with me in my flat for a couple of weeks and on the night Abacha died, we were just eating when a phone call came through that Abacha had died. We could not believe it until we saw on TV his body being taken out in a van. And that changed the texture of the struggle. Suddenly, there was this news, announcing General Abdulsalami Abubakar as the head of state. We started analysing General Abubakar.
I wish to state that out of all the military generals I met through Abiola while he was lobbying for the restoration of his mandate, Abubakar was the most sincere and straightforward. He pointedly told Abiola that no military officer would want to help him to realise his mandate, unless the military general wanted to get himself into trouble. While other generals we had met lied, Abdusalami was different. He simply said: ‘Look, I am a professional soldier and I want to retire a general. I don’t want to be involved in politics. I cannot help you. I don’t want to be involved.’
When we heard that he was the head of state, I challenged the rest of us to interrogate Abubakar’s sincerity. Good enough, he was straight-forward. When we met him, he told us that he wasn’t going to spend more than nine months because he was not interested. He promised he was going to pardon us and urged us to return to the country. That was the situation of things before the death of Abiola.
So, we were coordinating with Abraham Adesanya and the rest of them, who were on ground here. They sought and we granted them our permission to meet with and size up Abubakar. So, they honoured his invitation. He sent people to us and there was a strong debate, which nearly divided the group, whether or not we should return. The suspicion around Abubakar arose because of the manner of people they saw around him, including Major Hamza al-Mustapha. Some people within our group felt that we should evaluate the situation carefully and not look at isolated occurrences. A big debate ensued after his announcement that he had granted pardon to those of us who had been declared wanted. There were a lot of intervening incidents that I cannot publicly discuss.

Q: When you returned from exile, how did the idea of Lagos governorship arise?
A: Myself, Beko, Fasehun and others met. The death of Abiola was quite devastating for us and we debated whether or not to return. We also examined whether or not there was a conspiracy surrounding Abiola’s death. There were so many questions being asked at the same time. The previous elections contested by Abacha’s five political parties got me seriously worried. After giving it serious thought, we decided that we were not going to declare war against our people, but that we should believe Abubukar by returning home to participate. At a meeting presided over by Enahoro, I told them that I would want to return to my mother because I missed her badly. He said no one could stop me if that was the case. The military, in my absence, broke her soak-away, believing that I kept guns there; carted away the generating set and cut our land (telephone) line.
I came home with three pairs of trousers and three jackets. But because I gave her notice and some other people noticed that I was arriving, unknown to me, they had mobilised people to welcome me. I was shocked at the huge crowd when I got to the airport. I was carried shoulder-high. That was the day I was totally convinced that Nigerians could be very honest, if they care about you. Because as they carried me, my ticket, passport and 2,000 pounds sterling fell from my inner jacket. I didn’t know they had fallen off because I was carried away by the euphoria of the crowd. I didn’t know how they got to Sunday Adigun. At night, they told me someone was looking for me, but because the people around me didn’t believe that danger had finally cleared, they prevented the person. But he insisted that he would not give it to anybody and showed them my passport. So they allowed him and he handed everything to me.
Meanwhile, I had no Victoria Island home to return to. It had been taken over by Abacha. They dispossessed me of the house, as well as my office on Saka Tinubu Street. My vehicles and everything else I owned. They claimed they found bombs in it and dispossessed me of it. I was totally cleaned out. I had only five shirts, the 2000 pounds and the jackets. Before then, Akinyelure came to America, looking for me, with one briefcase. He was detained for four hours by the immigration because they were wondering how someone could come to America with one briefcase. They didn’t let him off until they contacted Mobil and Mobil confirmed him as an ex-employee. He didn’t get to my house till about 3 O’clock. He told me I had to come to Nigeria even if I wouldn’t participate. But he said I should participate. I got back home and each time I moved out, people would shout ‘Governor’.
The day I went to our group’s meeting, they were to decide who to endorse among Wahab Dosunmu, Shitta-Bey and others. They asked me if I was interested and I asked them to give me two weeks to go round since I was just returning. Alhaji Hamzat was there. The chairman at our group’s meeting on that day said they would grant me the two weeks. So I started moving round. My late sister got me some clothes to wear, whether they fitted me or not. I went to Mushin, Agege and other places and people were hailing me as ‘Governor’ and urging me to run. On my first tour of my senatorial district, people were saying governor. Even people who had gone to another party started coming back into the Alliance for Democracy, AD, and that was how I decided I would run. People in Lagos West, East and Central said: ‘You must run for governorship.’

Q: You spent eight years in government, what will you consider your best legacy?
A: My best legacy is the financial engineering of Lagos State, especially to bring financial autonomy to Lagos State and eliminate wastage and mismanagement. That was just one aspect of it. My greatest legacy is Governor Babatunde Fashola. I identified and endorsed him. That was when my corporate background as a recruiter and talent seeker for Deloitte came to play. Part of the training when you go on operational audit is that the first thing you evaluate are the personnel and the questionnaire given to them and how they answer it. You look at the ability of individuals to really take and develop others. There is nothing unique about any leadership. Everybody can come up with different ideas. You can take different routes and arrive at the same answer. No matter how much steel and metal you put together, the greatest achievement and legacy is the ability to develop other leaders who can succeed you, otherwise your legacy will be in shambles. It was a very difficult and challenging period for me. I thank God I stuck to my guns.

Q: You waged several battles against Obasanjo on issues like fiscal federalism, seizure of local council funds etc. Which of these wars did you consider the hottest?
A: If I have to rank them, I think the creation of the local governments was my favourite because the processes are clearly stated and well articulated in the constitution. And if you do all of that and comply with the constitutional requirements, then you should not be denied. I believe in true federalism. I believe in local government administration, which I think is a service centre for the state. The constitution is clear. It is a misnomer to even think that there are three tiers of government in a federal system of government. There are only two – the state and the federal. It is because the constitution was put together by a group of military people, who believe in command and control that we have this kind of anomaly.
They tinkered with it and they tailored it in a way that would suit a unitary system and I believe that was the problem. We still don’t have a constitution of ‘we the people’. The battle was not personally directed at Obasanjo.

Q: Let’s move to matters personal. How did you meet your wife?
Through a dating agency! On a serious note, it was through a family connection.

Q: How many hearts did you break?
A: I don’t know, because I don’t look back and I am not a psychologist or medical expert to test for broken hearts and emotional instability. You pray for luck. Sincerely, you don’t know whether my own heart was broken, too. I am a very lucky person and it was through family connection that I met my wife. It is true that I had many dates. Until I met her, I didn’t even want to be married because I loved my freedom. I had also been disappointed along the line, my expectations dashed. I was going to be totally free before I met Remi. She was innocent, homely and very quiet. I was surprised by her manners and I was hooked.
I was a DJ to my friends. I love music and my house was a boys’ rendezvous. Remi used to cook for all of us. She is the best woman I ever met and fully endorsed by all my friends. They were very close. My friends said: ‘Bola, you now have a woman and you have to settle down.’
I was a successful corporate person. She is totally urbane and seriously committed to my professionalism and career. I met somebody who enhanced the value of my life.

Q: Who was your favourite musician then, and now?
A: I was interested in music. I enjoy music, from the days of James Brown. I told you I followed Roy Chicago to Ado-Ekiti, without knowing. I was just lucky. God just made me a professional because I could have ended up with the late Dr. Sikiru Ayinde Barrister! We used to follow him about for were during the Ramadan, to the extent that I would be locked out. Whenever there was competition around Lagos Island or anywhere, we were always there. There was always the possibility of violence because of the competition.
But when I was an in-house DJ, not commercial DJ. Teddy Pendergrass was my favourite and I kept myself updated on the music scene in America. You don’t have music now. You now have O foka sibe, O gbona feli feli. I love listening to jazz a lot.

Q: What is your favourite food?
Q: Amala and ewedu. But to be honest with you, I love rice. Rice first, amala second. I don’t like eba that much. In any form at all, I can eat rice three times a day.

Q: People say Asiwaju is the richest Yoruba man. How rich are you?
If you are talking in monetary terms, it is a lie. But I want them to continue to believe that I am rich. The fact is that I cannot prepare for my death. I want to live long and I believe in people and I believe in sharing. So, whatever you ascribe to me in terms of wealth is your own imagination. I will not do two cheques – one to the Central Bank of Heaven and the other one to the Central Bank of Hell – cashable when I am dead. The money will remain here. I don’t want to be greedy, but frugal with the little I have and be contented. There are certain things they can’t dispute and one of these is that I wasn’t a poor man when I joined politics. I financed the struggle during the NADECO days. Before the NADECO days, I financed political goals and aspirations. I financed political groups and individuals.
No matter how you dream, it is empty without financial success. If you have no concrete financial progress for a state or an entity, it will not endure. I have not taken Lagos to bankruptcy. It was bankrupt before I took over, I turned it into a success within my two-terms as governor. It had existed for so long before I became governor.
During my tenure, former President Olusegun Obasanjo described Lagos as an urban jungle and uninhabitable. But he chose to celebrate his 75th birthday in Lagos! There was a dispute on the Bar Beach during my tenure, but if I didn’t rigidly follow my vision and my belief in Lagos State, Victoria Island would have been submerged.

Adapted from an interview published in Asiwaju: Untold Story of The Leader, a special publication of TheNEWS.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO A TEAM PLAYER, A LIBERAL BOSS, HON PATRICK UKAH @ 54.

Executive Assistant on Communications to the Governor of Delta State, Dr Fred Latimore Oghenesivbe has described the Commissioner for Information, Hon Patrick Ukah, as a team player and liberal boss who with an open heart consistently managed the state information portfolio without blemish.

His commendation is contained in a congratulatory message to Ukah on the occasion of his 54th birthday anniversary celebration today 10th day of April, 2019.

Oghenesivbe noted that Hon Ukah, is a seasoned professional with uncommon passion for excellence in communication and information dissemination, adding that the information commissioner's team under his supervision was able to drive the Smart Agenda's phase one media and publicity agenda to a logical conclusion.

He urged Hon Patrick Ukah to keep the flag flying and to sustain his passion for professional excellence towards the projection of the Stronger Delta socioeconomic agenda; and prayed God to grant him enough grace and prosperity as he sojourn to the mountain top of life.

Ned Nwoko Felicitates With commissioner for Information Patrick Ukah On His Birthday.

The star prince of Anioma, Hon Ned Nwoko has felicitated with the Delta State commissioner for information Chief Patrick Ukah  on the  auspicious occasion of his  birthday anniversary .

In a statement, prince Ned Nwoko,  Anioma foremost philanthropist and international lawyer  described Ukah as an illustrious Anioma son with a passion for the identity of Delta North and love for the state.

According to Nwoko:
"As  Commissioner for Information, I must say you have done greatly in helping the  Governor , our  dear brother, Senator Dr.  Ifeanyi Okowa advance the course  of governance for the good of all Deltans irrespective of political, social and ethnic cleavages.  I know  that together in our individual and collective capacities, we will achieve a lot imbibing the spirit of brotherhood, solidarity and  purpose.
May God richly bless you my brother as you continue to contribute your quota to the development of our dear state"

Once again, congratulations on your  birthday. Many more fruitful years of celebration .



Signed Norbert chiazor
Director of Media
Ned Nwoko Media  team.

12th Niger Delta Dialogue: Participants Brainstorm On Harnessing Women's Activities Towards Nation Building

... As Ogu/Bolo, Okrika, Odenwari Women Share Their Experiences During 2019 Elections

By: Patrick Ochei

The 12th Niger Delta Dialogue Roundtable, exclusively held for women of the Niger Delta at the Atrium Event Centre, Port-Harcourt, Rivers State, on Tuesday 9th April, 2019, being the first day's session, had participating women sharing their experiences of the 2019 elections while looking at the way forward.

The two-day event is dwelling on "Raising Women's Voices Towards Nation Building", with the first day exclusively looking at the role played by women of Ogu/Bolo, Okrika and Abonnema in Rivers State and Odenwari in Bayelsa State to prevent the Nigerian Army from carrying out their alleged heinous assignment of interfering and jeopardizing the electoral processes.

In her opening remarks as the Chairman of the Conference, the Omu of Anioma, HRM Obi Martha Dunkwu had told the women that the essence of the meeting is to find a common platform through which women could be harnessed to play visible roles towards nation building.

She had said that it is the duty of mothers and women to build the nation by making contributions that will change the paradigm from what is obtainable today.

The Omu commended the iron cast women who resisted the military and every other agent of violence who wanted to jeopardize the electoral processes in Ogu/Bolo, Okrika and Abonnema in Rivers State and Odenwari in Bayelsa State during the 2019 general elections. She however, stressed that the reason for the gathering is for women to identify where they had failed, correct it and move forward by living their purpose for creation.

She especially commended the facilitators/organizers of the programme - the Academic Associates Peaceworks headed by Chief Dr. Judy Bourdin Asuni for their excellent organisation of the event, which is of course funded by the European Union. She asked God to continue to replenish them, while encouraging the women to as much as possible make good use of the opportunity the platform has provided for them to contribute their quota to nation building in a non violent approach.

According to Amb. Nkoyo Toyo who also mentored the women, "We must be on top of issues going forward. We must occupy. We must correct the ills of society with non violent approach.

Mind you that our male politicians have been bruised in this past elections and it is going to leave a bitter taste. However, we must be courageous to face its outcome by continuing to fight to protect what is right", she posited.

Also speaking from the high table was Senator Stella Omu, former Chief Whip of the Senate. She told the women to have dignity and respect their husbands by building a virile home, so as to enable their husbands support them to achieve their potentials in life.

Meanwhile, Barr. Christiana Tanmuro as the leader of the Gallant 5 from Ogu/Bolo, narrated their ordeal in the hands of the Nigerian Military in a bid to prevent them from allegedly snatching the electoral materials from their local government area and jeopardizing the electoral process.

Others who equally shared their experiences included Rachael Subere and Julie Ikisa from Okrika, while Philomena recounted how the women of Odenwari organised themselves to end the cult war by two opposing groups in Odenwari which was already hijacked by the politicians to perpetuate election violence.

At the end of the session, several way forward solutions were drawn from the lessons learned, which includes first and foremost, laying the right foundation in grooming the young ones, women maintaining integrity while in politics, lending helping hand of love to a derailing child, synergy towards peaceful political development, love and unity of purpose in all human endeavours and putting strategies in place towards mitigating occurrences of election violence and lack of good governance.

Moreover, it was unanimously agreed to replicate the Okrika, Odenwari and Ogu/Bolo model in other States, especially in Bayelsa State as their Governorship election is close to call - billed to hold on 2nd November, 2019.

Nonetheless, the need to have organised structures at the grassroots for easy mobilization of women against violence was equally advanced.y

ANAMBRA STATE OUTLAWS EXPENSIVE FUNERALS.

The Anambra State House of Assembly on Wednesday outlawed expensive funerals in the state, Punch Metro reports.

 

Passing the bill entitled a Law To Control Burial/Funeral Ceremonial Activities in the State, the House said it had become an offence to hold a funeral for more than a day in the state.

 

Before this development, communities had held funerals on an average of three days.

 

But the bill sponsored by the member representing Anaocha II constituency, Charles Ezeani stated that “Burial/funeral control bill is aimed at cutting down the cost of burial activities in the state”.

 

The bill provided that in the event of death, “no person shall deposit any corpse in the mortuary or any place beyond two months from the date of the death, while burial ceremonies in the state shall be for one day.”

 

The law prohibited destruction of property, gunshots, praise-singing, blocking of roads and streets during burial ceremonies in the state.

 

The bill also provided that, ”No person shall subject any relation of the deceased person to a mourning period of more than one week from the date of the burial ceremony.”

 

“It further stipulates that during burial and funeral ceremonial activities, the family of the deceased “shall provide food for their kindred, relatives and other sympathizers at their own discretion.

 

Speaking to newsmen, Ezeani said a monitoring and implementation committee that would enforce the law would be put in place when the governor assents it.

Wide Jubilation Over Wike’s Victory Underscores Total Acceptability By Rivers People – Obuah

Press Statement


The Rivers State Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Bro. Felix Obuah has expressed delight that almost one week after the landslide victory of Governor Nyesom Wike as announced by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), an unprecedented jubilation still pervades the length and breadth of the State.

Bro. Obuah in a statement said the unrelenting jubilation is an evidence of wide acceptability of Governor Wike by the people of the State.

He said the reason that the post-election celebration has remained endless was because all efforts dissipated by those he called ‘evil forces’ to subvert the will of the people, failed woefully.

The State PDP Chairman observed that never in the history of the State had there been such singular occasion where all strata of the society – farmers, market men and women, fishermen, civil servants, pensioners, religious groups and even members of the opposition political parties, all in one accord, came out to rejoice over an electoral victory.

“How else could a people demonstrate total acceptability of a leader?  How else could they express their love for that leader, a man that is passionate about the welfare of the people, a man who has defied every odd to prove that governance is possible?  Rivers people have shown that the victory of Governor Wike is well deserved”, Bro. Obuah declared.

The State PDP boss declared that the jubilations also underscored the fact that Rivers State is indisputably a PDP State where no other political party is an option.

“What is happening in Rivers State is that Governor Wike’s re-election has triggered unending joy on everyone. He has touched lives as he used his first tenure to spread developments to all the nooks and crannies of the State”, Bro. Obuah stated, charging all and sundry to give the Governor their unalloyed support to enable him do more for the State in his second term.

Signed:

Jerry Needam      

Special Adviser on Media and Publicity to Bro. Felix Obuah,
PDP Chairman, Rivers State.

Wednesday, April 10, 2019.

Another Look at Ihedioha’s Transition and Inauguration Committees

By Walter Duru, Ph.D

On Tuesday, April 9, 2019, Lagos State Governor, Akinwunmi Ambode inaugurated a 20-man Transition Committee, ahead of the May 29, 2019 Governorship Inauguration Ceremony of his successor, Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu and charged them with clearly defined mandates.

 The committee is saddled with, among other things, the onerous responsibility for ensuring a smooth transition of power from the out-going administration to the incoming one- to be led by Governor-elect, Sanwo-Olu.

 This inauguration of a 20-man Transition Committee by the Lagos State Government may have stoked the debate in some quarters questioning the propriety of the actions of the Imo State Governor-elect, Rt. Hon. Emeka Ihedioha in inaugurating a 139-member Transition Technical Committee.

While the debated raged, the former Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, not done yet, went a step further. On the same Tuesday, April 9, (just like in Lagos), Governor-elect Ihedioha swore in the Governorship Inauguration Committee, which initial list included about two hundred and eighty seven names; before a supplementary list took the total membership to a princely three hundred-or-so names.

All in the course of one inauguration, the naysayers argued!

A close relation who lives abroad, and who has always been sympathetic to Hon. Ihedioha's cause, actually sent a text message to my mobile phone in protest.

The text reads in part: “what meaningless charade is Ihedioha up to, with over 300 names on an inauguration committee? This is in addition to several dead-wood so-called members piled up in a ridiculous Transition Committee. I am afraid….”

After reading the message, I took my phone and called her. She cited the example of Lagos, where a 20-man Transition Committee seemed just sufficient.

At the end of our telephone conversation, which lasted for about an hour, she came to properly understand and appreciate the issues at stake, and had a change of mind. In fact, she apologized for her initial outburst.

Where am I going with this narrative?

 Is it right to compare the Lagos State situation with that of Imo, where an administration led by the All Progressives Congress-APC is handing over to another APC administration?

Are our circumstances the same?

 Is the situation in Lagos the same as Imo State?

 What really is the yardstick for measuring that?

It would be most naive, even misleading to attempt to compare Ambode’s 20-man Transition Committee with that of Imo, since every state has its own peculiarities, and some would say, 'private demons'.

I do not envy Ihedioha at all at this point; no one should.

It will only take someone that does not understand the level of decay in today's Imo State, to fault the setup, size, scale and scope of the mandate of, both committees.

A careful review of the Terms of Reference of both committees, when juxtaposed with the time available for the delivery of their very important, separate, yet delicately intertwined mandates, may even lead to a suggestion that the membership may even be conservative. Obviously, it goes without saying that the work to be done in revamping Imo is enormous and tedious.

The areas to cover are very broad. The time is short.

The experience and expertise of the individuals assembled for the work are the exact mix that Imo State needs at this time. In fact, the Holy Book captures the full and true essence of the challenge, when it intones in Matthew 9: 35-38 that, “the harvest is large, but the workers are few.”

An analysis of the address delivered by the Governor-elect, Rt. Hon. Emeka Ihedioha during the inauguration of the Transition Technical Committee shows clearly that he knows the direction he is going.

His address reads in part:

“In constituting this transition committee, we were very careful and deliberate. We have selected from among the brightest and the best of our people in different fields of human endeavour. I know every single person in this room, if not personally, at least by reputation and I feel delighted that you decided to answer our call. It is even more humbling to note that every individual we invited for this defining state assignment responded delightfully in the affirmative.

Let me say here that we are not bereft of ideas as to what we want to achieve. We however, believe in team work and we will not shy away from harnessing the well acknowledged potentials of our people. We also know that with accomplished men and women like you, our job can only be easier to make Imo great again.”

“To make the job of this Transition Technical Committee more effective, it has been subdivided into sub-committees with clear terms of reference which shall be handed over to the chairmen of the respective sub-committees. The sub-committees will be given four weeks to complete their work and forward to the main committee, which will now have a further two weeks to consolidate their report - making a total of six weeks.”

“The task of rebuilding our state at this time of our history is very daunting and enormous. I have every confidence that you will all help us to achieve that objective.”

“Before I end my remarks, it is noteworthy that I will be shortly commissioning an Inauguration Planning Committee. This Committee will be principally charged with ensuring that the activities leading to the swearing-in ceremony on May 29th are peaceful, eventful, historic and memorable. I will therefore be calling on more of our sons and daughters to serve on this committee.”

For a man that is about to take over a State ruled and despoiled for eight straight years in the most irresponsible manner, Ihedioha understands that there are no easy solutions; he is therefore not under any illusion that he has been invited to a tea party. Imo as at today has a demoralized work force (civil/public service); has no due process in place; no independent legislature or judiciary; is hobbled with the baggage of harassed and battered traditional institutions; the absence of transparency and rule of law in doing government business; crippling public debt, among other frightening challenges.

The Transition Technical Committee has already called for memoranda from citizens and stakeholders of the state on situations and developments, and a lot of submissions are already being made. In fact, following the alleged desperate efforts of the incumbent (outgoing administration) in the state to further wreck havoc on the polity,  urgent steps have already been taken by the Governor-elect in cautioning the relevant organizations, particularly, financial institutions, against connivance to further worsen the debt overhang of the state. Similar warnings have been issued against indiscriminate last minute mass issuance of Certificates of Occupancy to friends and cronies of the present administration.

In any case, has anyone bothered to ask the all important question, "Who are the members of these two committees, and what is their pedigree?"

There has never been any time in the history of Imo State that we have had the assemblage of this caliber of intellectuals, with experience and expertise from all walks of life, agreeing to work together for the common good of the state. No doubt, both committees have a long list of people, but, the end they say, justifies the means.

Be that as it may, some of the arguments against the committees may yet be valid. For instance, the fact that the youth are not adequately represented in the Transition Committee is obvious.

 The Governor-elect however addressed this concern at the Inauguration Committee. Again, there have been concerns raised to the effect that the Civil Society component does not have sufficient local content. There may be other concerns.

However, there is no perfect Committee or Policy anywhere in the world. Every constituted authority the world over has its gaps, both in policy formulation and implementation. What is important is that there is a deliberate shift from the old order to a new one, where the overall interest of majority of the citizens is put forward.

Imo people are not in doubt, as to the ability of the Governor-elect, Rt. Hon. Emeka Ihedioha and his deputy, Rt. Hon. Gerald Irona to deliver on their sacred joint mandate. In fact, they have no reason to fail, unless experience no longer counts in the management of public resources, delivery of public service and capacity to take decisions that will change the fortunes of the state.

One of the measures of the success of the incoming administration is the caliber and competence of persons it will appoint to sensitive positions of governance. I was therefore particularly excited, when, recently, he declared that his administration will have zero tolerance for sycophancy.

The truth is that, at the center of the failure of successive administrations in Nigeria is sycophancy. Putting round pegs in square holes is a recipe for failure.

 The incoming administration must be willing to give strategic positions to persons with capacity, experience and determination to deliver on the mandate, and not to incompetent praise singers.

The idea is not for the administration not to reward in one way or the other, those who worked for the success of the party at the polls. The point is that there are creative ways of doing so, without obstructing the free flow of governance.

Another set of people the administration must watch carefully are the old horses, popularly called godfathers. It is obvious that they are already putting pressure on the Governor-elect and his deputy. They are lobbying for positions for their children, some of whom do not have what it takes to deliver in public service in the Twenty First Century. The moment they are turned down, they will accuse the new administration of so many things, including "showing disrespect to elders".

Rt. Hon. Ihedioha and his Deputy are not new in the game of politics. They certainly have sufficient capacity to handle the situation; to wit: balance political interests with good governance.

They must first and foremost, surround themselves with aides that are intellectually sophisticated. The quality of advice they get will certainly determine the kind of decisions they take. Anyone around you that claps for you when you are wrong is not a friend and has no business being close.
The only language Imo people will understand henceforth, is good governance. That, alone will satisfy them.

The long awaited new dawn has arrived!

Walter Duru holds a doctorate degree in Communications. He is a Communications teacher, Public Relations expert and Good Governance advocate. He writes from Owerri and can be reached on: walterchike@gmail.com