Akwa Ibom Repeals Contentious Pensions Law

The Akwa Ibom State Governors and Deputy Governors Pension Law, which has drawn wide public interest in the last few weeks, has been amended and signed into law by the Akwa Ibom State Governor, Chief Godswill Akpabio.

The amendment, which is the fifth in the sixteen-year old law, repealed the contentious ceiling of N100 million medical expenses for each ex-Governor and his spouse, and a ceiling of N50 million medical expenses for each former deputy governor and his spouse.

The law came to birth in 1998 as special grant for past state Governors and their deputies, and was further amended in 1999, adopted in 2000 as Governors and Deputy Governors Pension Bill and again in 2007 and 2014 respectively.

It would be recalled that the State Government had sought to place a ceiling on how much could be spent by the State Government on each former Governor and former Deputy Governor and their spouses, but this drew the ire of some members of the public which misinterpreted the intention of the Government.

Addressing the press in Lagos in the thick of the controversy, Governor Akpabio in a speech he titled, “The Siege on Truth,” maintained that the contentious provision was made in good faith and to check abuses adding that leaving the law open-ended was not in the best interest of taxpayers.

He, however, posited that he considered the controversy a distraction and had decided to, in his words, “lift the siege on truth” by asking for this provision of the law to be repealed. He added philosophically, that “history will vindicate the just.”

By signing the amended bill into law, Governor Akpabio kept his promise, even though he pointed out that he would not benefit from the law until he leaves office in 2015.

He explained that the law covers former Governors and their deputies who served both in the old Cross River State, from which Akwa Ibom State was created and disclosed that the law would not cover Ex- Governors and their deputies who served less than three years.

He further said that the new amended law has expunged ceilings, which the public talked about, and that now there would be free medical treatment for Ex-Governors and their Deputies and their spouses, ” to protect the sources of the state” but that the Government should try to ensure that this was not abused.

AN ANALYSIS OF THE APC NATIONAL CONGRESS.

 
APC congress - Empty speeches filled with the usual vitriol of angry men. No substance, outright pedestrian, just slander and hate messages.

Nothing was said of the party ideology. I wonder what their policy on child rights would be when some of their governors refuse to domesticate the child right bill in their states, especially with Nigeria's leading pedophile Yerima as a leading party member.

A good number of their governors refuse to acknowledge the Freedom of information bill and exempt themselves from its jurisdiction as recently demonstrated by Lagos state.

Buhari speech showed he is certainly out of touch, his mention of nepa and phcn in his speech was incomprehensible, he seemed to be unaware of a power sector reform with the privatization of the sector which has received global commendation with improved power output.

Most of the APC governors in the north cant ensure adequate child eduction to the extent that the federal government had to intervene with almajiri schools.

The party held its convention with adequate security and no incidence, the party was not deprived the use of public venue, agencies of government worked to ensure that the convention was successful. 

This is in contrast to the intolerant nature of most APC governors who refuse other parties the use of public venues in their states even to the extent that other parties do not get approval for signage.

The message of all the party leaders had no substance, no ideology, no direction or a policy trend, it was all hate messages, abuse and inciting citizens to violence which is usual of buhari and tinubu whose recent despicable comments on rig and roast has attracted global condemnation.

This party has nothing concrete to offer, they are just a bunch of self seeking men who care only about their pockets and want power to enable them appropriate resources for their self aggrandizement.

- Ibrahim Bunu

Maku replies Kwankwaso, says Kano governor afraid of “own shadow”

Governor Kwankwaso has no respect for anyone, not even for the traditional institution of his own state.”

The Minister of Information, Labaran Maku, on Friday said the Kano State governor, Rabiu Kwankwaso, is “afraid of his own shadow,” by casting aspersion on President Goodluck Jonathan over protests that rocked the state on Sunday.

The minister, in response to statements by the governor, also blamed him for the protest in the city after the emergency of Lamido Sanusi as Emir of Kano.

In a statement by his Chief Press Secretary, Joseph Mutah, Mr. Maku said the recent statement by the governor showcases an increasing impatience of the people of Kano with Mr. Kwankwaso’s ‘one-man rule’.
The minister alleged that Mr. Kwankwaso imposes his will on the state with total disregard to the wishes of his people.

Mr. Kwankwaso, in an exclusive interview with PREMIUM TIMES, accused Nigerian President, Goodluck Jonathan, of plotting to kill him.

He also accused the president of igniting the protest in Kano after a former governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Lamido Sanusi, emerged the emir on Sunday.

In response, Mr. Maku advised the governor to make amends by facing the people of Kano and explain the role he and leaders of the All Progressive Congress, APC, played in the crisis.

“Instead of throwing tantrums and casting aspersions on imaginary enemies, Kwankwaso should face the people of Kano and explain to them the role he and APC leaders played in the imbroglio,” Mr. Maku said.
Mr. Maku said it was also surprising that the governor decided to drag the president in the crisis that rocked the city even after the Kano State police offered explanations for deploying officers to the palace.

Police officers had laid siege on the palace since Mr. Sanusi’s emergence, with the police claiming they were there to protect the place and its occupants from trouble makers. Mr. Kwankwaso and several others, however, believe they were placed there on the orders of the president to arrest Mr. Sanusi.

PREMIUM TIMES had reported how the police officers were eventually withdrawn on Friday after Mr. Sanusi called the president to make amends.

Mr. Maku also claimed that the Kano State governor does not respect anyone.

Stating that the latest claim by Mr. Kwankwaso was ‘wild’, the Information Minister said he was not surprised and made reference to the governor’s differences with the late Emir of Kano, Ado Bayero, shortly before the latter’s death.

“Governor Kwankwaso has no respect for anyone, not even for the traditional institution of his own state. After the recent denial of freedom of choice for the people of Kano by imposing local government chairmen and councillors on them, he then took on the late Kano Monarch shortly before his demise,” he said.

The minister, however, urged Kano residents to remain peaceful and law abiding and shun recourse to violence in spite of what he called the highhandedness of the governor and his associates.

Ekiti and Osun as guinea pigs

We cannot live without technology, and that is at once the bane and grace of this age. Technology defines our age and makes great nations, and also unmakes their foes. All over history, nations grow on the level of their technologies. Whether it was the mechanics of Rome, the literacy of Greece, the navy of England, empires raise technology as their mistress of progress. Today, we have heard of new technologies, including the power of robotics.

Very soon, it will turn humans into ciphers of their handmaidens. We will become slaves of our doing. Our Frankenstein wonders will make us merry and mourn. 

Today the edge the United States holds over others derives from its technological superiority. Its military, especially its navy, is the best the world has ever known because of its technology. The best Air Force of the world is the United States Air Force, and the second best Air Force in the world is the Air force of the U.S. navy.

Security cannot be guaranteed with technology. The failure of Nigeria to tackle the menace of Boko Haram may be due to corruption, even if the President says stealing is not corruption. We are yet to know how all the trillions allocated to security in the past few years have been expended. We have soldiers and police even though we hosted the World Economic Forum with over 600,000 men who could have worked their way into Sambisa forest to chase down the terrorists and save the girls. But technology is prime guarantee, especially in monitoring and tracking the vermin of Boko Haram. It also helps in documenting and comparing data, what the United States used in decapitating Al Queda and dousing the life of Osama Bin Laden.

 Those who underplay the power of technology should read books on how Osama was tracked and killed. If members of our security council have not read them, at least they can watch the movie titled Zero Dark Thirty. They will realise how all the money we have wasted on corruption in the name of security could have made the help of the U.S. and other world powers superfluous.

Democracies also thrive on technology and nothing demonstrates this better than the vote. Over the years, elections have worked on a simple principle: one person, one vote. But to realise this, technologists have adopted a variety of methods. The most obvious has been the thumbprint. For decades, the issue was social. Who should vote? It was initially patriarchal. Only men had the right. Then the women’s movement rose from the martial femininity, ardour and articulations of such amazons as Elizabeth Cady Stanton and her fellow suffragist Susan B. Anthony. By fighting the patrician logic of patriarchy, property and politics they railroaded the world by partnering with abolitionists. Female angst and turbulence led the world to cow to Seneca Falls when the beginning of women’s fight began and led to the woman vote. Then the other matter was colour and what we know as universal suffrage, empowering everyone to vote.

Here in Nigeria, feudal hubris that made only men and literate votes is succumbing. But we have a peculiar cultural problem with our vote. That is, the belief by an oligarchy that the vote is democratic only in theory but the result must favour their narrow agenda. That is why we have rigging. This has led to the abuse of our democracy, the fall of wisdom and the peacock reign of the bandit. When we fail to attack the essential nature of democratic banditry, we have rigged election and the wrong person takes reign. We lie that we have the right people in office. We gradually, if we don’t control matters, slide into the arms of the tyrant who parades himself as the people’s anointed.

“One person, one vote” cannot work without technology. Hence the trend towards computerisation of the vote is intended to avoid the corruption of mathematics by those who count the vote. As Einstein once said, “Everything that can be counted does not necessarily count; everything that counts cannot necessarily be counted.”

That is the logic of the great world mathematician, and he was not necessarily referring to democracy of politics, but the democracy of sociology and economics, on which the democracy of politics partly depends.

Einstein was the progressive of numbers and the physical world. He knew little of the impact of his ideas on democracy. Technology today owes a lot to him. That is why in the world over, once a person votes, technology takes over. The more technical the process, the less rig-prone will the vote be.

That came to mind when the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) decided not to use its latest technology of the card reader for the two upcoming elections in Ekiti and Osun states. The card reader, if implemented with integrity and purpose, is an antidote to the subversive cunning and impunity of the vote bandit. It records the imprint of the voter and forestalls the injuries of double registration and multiple voting. We cannot have a Mike Tyson vote and be counted in Nigerian poll.

INEC insists it will use permanent voter cards alone without the technology savvy of the card reader. It says it will use the card reader in 2015.

One can understand the fear of the electoral body about a new technology. It seems the best way to ensure its success is to try it in smaller elections. In Ekiti State where the election for governor will take place on June 21, 657,256 PVCs have been printed, although not all have been collected. In Osun State, where the election takes place in August, 1,256569 PVCs were reported printed but, like in Ekiti, not all have been collected. This is a fraction of the elections nationwide. This is manageable geopolitics. These states can be used as guinea pigs and lessons can be learned for the bigger ring of a national poll.

In democracies, local elections are laboratories. Also technologies always thrive when begun in small places. The strengths and weakness become platforms for improvements and assured implementation. Osun and Ekiti are small states. INEC has denied that it ever planned to use card readers. That is beside the point. It still has the opportunity to use it. It is good for the integrity of the umpire and it presages confidence in 2015.

The Anambra governorship poll is still wrapped in murk in so far as even the INEC boss felt helpless over an inconclusive exercise. Card readers are not magic, but they are the best armoury and counterfoil to fraud. As Alan Kay said, “the best way to predict the future is to invent it.” Societies have invented their futures with technology. INEC can do that for Nigeria by using card readers in the labs of Ekiti and Osun.

 In Touch, The Nation newspaper, 12/05/2014

Political parties urged to work for unity of Nigeria

The leadership of political parties in the country have been urged to work toward fostering the unity of Nigeria.

The call is contained in a communiqué issued at the end of the All Political Parties and Stakeholders Summit which held in Abuja on Thursday.

According to the communiqué, political parties and stakeholders must act and speak with one voice and as one nation.

The political parties must pool resources to forestall breaching national security, fight insurgency and terrorism and complementing the efforts of the government.

The communiqué was signed by former Head of State, Gen. Abdulsalami Abubakar who chaired the summit.

The representatives of APGA, PDP, LP, APC, IPAC and the INEC chairman, the National Security Adviser to the President, Mohammed Sambo Dasuki also signed the document.

The Special Adviser to the President on Inter-Party Affairs Ben Obi also signed the communiqué.
The communiqué said that “once a person is elected and sworn in as president, he or she becomes the symbol, heart and soul of the nation.

He or she must therefore be accorded the honour, the protection and respect of all devoid of partisan politics and primordial sentiments.”

It called on political parties to recognise and acknowledge the immense responsibility imposed on them in this democratic dispensation.

The communique stated that inter party collaboration should not be the old game of aggrandisement, adding that national stability depends on democratic consolidation.

It urged political parties to ensure that the process of leadership succession and leadership recruitment should be a conscious effort to bring in the best to lead.

Incumbents should not insist on choosing their successors and forcing their choices on the electorate,” it said.
The communiqué urged all registered political parties to continue to meet their obligations toward the Inter-Party Advisory Council (IPAC) and strengthen its internal dynamics.

Political Parties should also empower IPAC to remain a platform for constant interaction among political actors and political parties in Nigeria, “it said. 

(NAN)

JONATHAN TO KWANKWASO: YOU’RE A FAILURE AND DESPERATE

In what appears as President Goodluck Jonathan’s response to Kano State Governor Rabiu Kwankwaso’s allegation that the President was out to kill him, two ministers apparently acting on behalf of the President blasted the governor in Abuja on Friday.

Separate statements issued by the Minister of Information, Mr. Labaran Maku, and Minister of Police Affairs, Alhaji Abdul Jelili Adesiyan, described Kwankwaso as “being desperate and paranoid.” They added that Kwankwaso’s outburst against the President was the height of irresponsibility and an indication of a failed governor.

In a statement made available to one of our correspondents in Abuja by Maku, the minister said Kwankwaso should explain to the people of Kano the role he and the All Progressives Congress played in the emergence of Mallam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi as the Emir of Kano, instead of dragging President Goodluck Jonathan to it.

Kwankwaso had on Wednesday accused the President of causing the crisis that followed the appointment of Sanusi as the Emir of Kano.

The governor also said the President should be held responsible for whatever happened to him, his family or the people of Kano State.

But in the statement signed on behalf of Maku by his Chief Press Secretary, Mr. Joseph Mutah, the minister said the governor was engaging in a campaign of calumny against Jonathan and the Federal Government.

Maku said, “It is a known fact that the appointment of traditional rulers is within the purview of state governments and it is surprising why Kwankwaso has chosen to drag the name of the President into the succession crisis rocking the Kano Emirate.

“Instead of throwing tantrums and casting aspersions on imaginary enemies, Kwankwaso should face the people of Kano and explain to them the role he and APC leaders played in the imbroglio. (punch)

The Explosive Words Of Kutigi – Femi Fani-Kayode

On June 11th 2014 in the Punch newspaper, the former Chief Justice of Nigeria and the Chairman of President Goodluck Jonathan’s ongoing constitutional conference, Justice Idris Kutigi, said the following: “Most of the southern delegates had said they looked forward to the conference recommending a restructuring of the country and establishing a true federalism that would be characterised by regional autonomy, resource control, state police, among other changes. But their northern counterparts wanted the status quo to remain in terms of the country’s governance structure. They also sought for an increase in revenue allocations from the Federal Government to the states in the North.

Going by these positions and those specially presented by different blocs like the North, the South-West, and the South-South, the recommendation of the committees seem to favour the North more than the South. Resource control is not going to happen as long as we (northerners) are part of Nigeria”.

The implications of these revealing and instructive words surely cannot be lost on even the dullest and slow of learning amongst us. At least Justice Kutigi has the courage of his convictions. He has been brutally frank and honest about the whole thing and the existing situation and I commend him for that. Simply put he has said that nothing can change in Nigeria unless the almighty north agrees to it regardless of how everyone else feels or what their collective aspirations may be.

I told Nigerians all this well before the conference started a few weeks back and I have been saying it ever since the annulment of Chief MKO Abiola’s June 12th election in 1993. That is how I knew right from the beginning that the latest national conference which was put in place by the Jonathan administration, just like all other constitutional conferences that came before it, could not possibly bring any real and fundamental change and was nothing but an exercise in futility and a waste of time and money.

The bitter truth is that Nigeria cannot and will not enjoy any form of deep and meaningful fundamental constitutional change, be restructured or be broken up by peaceful means, negotiation or any constitutional conference. It can only be restructured or broken by the force of arms and fire. If you really want the country to be restructured or you want Oduduwa Republic or Biafra you better be ready to pay the price for it and that price will include plenty of violence and blood.

Now this is not a call to arms because personally I deplore the use of violence under any circumstances and the shedding of human blood. I am not declaring war on anyone but simply making an observation and a statement of fact. Take it or leave it. Those that believe that they own Nigeria and all that is in it have made it so. It is left for the rest of us to determine our fate: do we wish to continue like this in utter bondage and servitude for the next 100 years in a land where a bunch of desperate, unlettered and uncouth haramites have the power of veto, the right to thwart our will and the guts to slaughter our people?

Do we bequeath nothing but fear, ignorance and slavery to our children and our grandchildren in a land where those that believe that they are born to rule constantly terrorise and kill our citizens when they don’t have political power and when they are not ruling from the centre? Do we, like the proverbial victim of anal rape, bow down, role over, take a deep breath, take it all in and just accept our sorry plight and pathetic fate and condition?

Or do we finally stand up, accept the fact that slavery, rape and bondage are neither natural or acceptable conditions, say “no more” and “enough is enough”, put aside our petty differences, rise up like real men and end it once and for all by breaking the country up completely if we cannot get regional autonomy?

How desperately do we want our freedom? Are we ready to pay the price or shall we just continue to fantasise and talk about it in fanciful and long-winded essays, boring and heated verbal debates, endless and, more often than not, uninformed facebook and twitter discussions and in laborious and ill-fated government-sponsored constitutional conference after government-sponsored constitutional conference?

We either remain passive, accept our lot, stop complaining and keep our mouths shut for the next one hundred years or we put our money where our mouth is, demand for change and prepare for a long hard struggle for liberation, autonomy and, ultimately, independence. The choice is ours. As for me I made my choice long ago. I believe that there are some things that are well above politics and one of those things is nation-building.

I believe that if Nigeria cannot be restructured and power devolved from the centre, according to the will and aspirations of the majority of the people of the south and the Middle Belt, and if this cannot be done quickly and smoothly, I say “Give me Oduduwa or let me die”. Love me or hate me, that is my stand.

Permit me to conclude this contribution with the words of Senator Femi Okunrounmu, the Chairman of the Presidential Advisory Commitee on the 2014 National Conference. After casting doubt on the possibility of the National Conference achieving any meaningful results he said:
“They (core North) came with a very straight forward agenda, which is to block any change and ensure the sustenance of the status quo. So, the conference has mostly been a clash of the South-west against the core North. While the South-west pushed forcefully for the realisation of all the elements of their agenda, they found themselves almost in every case pitted against the core North, enjoying only lukewarm support from the South-east and a near total indifference from the rest of the country”.

For those of us that are still in doubt about the gravity of the situation, that are eternal optimists and that are, despite all, still expecting change under the present system kindly consider the insightful words of my friend and brother Mr Shola Adebowale. In an interesting discussion on my facebook page on 11th June 2014 he wrote, “Meanwhile, why are we expecting any drastic change from the status quo, after a delegate at the National Conference, Alhaji Usman Farouk, (the former military Administrator of the old Northwestern Region in the early 1970’s), has told us to our faces that: ‘sovereignty is not earned or discussed on a round table, but obtained in a battle field’. He said this whilst he was challenging his colleagues from the south over discussions on the sovereignty of Nigeria and the powers of the executive at the ongoing Constitutional Conference’’.

I need say no more. I guess we all know who the bosses of Nigeria are now and who owns our country. What a mess we are in. And it is a mess that needs to be cleaned up pretty quickly before all sense of restraint and decency is thrown away and all hell breaks lose. It must be cleaned up before someone decides to “cry havoc and let slip the dogs of war”.

It is time for us to bury the hatchet and for all southerners and Middle Belters, including the igbo and the yoruba, to come together. We must let bygones be bygones, learn from our past mistakes and not allow ourselves to become slaves of suspicion, history and bitterness. We must also forgive one another for past slights and misunderstandings.

I say this because the two-headed dragon that is creeping down from the core north, that seeks to consume and overwhelm us all and that is known as “perpetual political domination” and “Boko Haram” is far more dangerous and frightful than anything that we have ever seen before or experienced in our history. The only thing that can stop it is southern solidarity, unity and understanding and a clear quest for the exercise of southern rights.

Without that we shall all fall: both igbo, yoruba and the entire south, Middle Belt and northern minorities. If we don’t get our act together and do something quickly we shall all be slaves for the next one hundred years.