Clippings from 2005:
Telling the story of failing Nigeria with words in slow motion:
Musa described the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) as "the tragedy of Nigeria," saying "it is the tragedy of democracy in Nigeria."
"PDP did not win a free and fair election, they declared themselves the winners.
Secondly, the PDP led government has not been able to perform for six years, and they want to deceive themselves that in the next one and half years they will make the difference. It is impossible.
PDP is so bankrupt that even the party has no respect for its constitution.
The President does not respect any constitution of the party, as far his concerned President Obasanjo is the party.
As it is now, the President has abused all the provisions for separation of powers contained in 1999 constitution. the legislature, the judiciary and the executive are supposed to check one another in a system of separation of power.
But President Obasanjo has now consistently transformed this into only one power-executive even that power has been personalised, it has become the Obasanjo power, PDP cannot even do anything.
Obasanjo decides at anytime who should be the leader of PDP. He decides what should be the action of PDP members of National Assembly who are 2/3 of the assembly. PDP is involved in self-elimination. Even the anti-corruption campaign. PDP is not helping matter at all," he said
--PRONACO Established in Bad Faith - Balarabe Musa By Idowu Sowunmi,THIS DAY 10.21.2005,
CHAMPION Friday September 30 2005
•To buy 15 war planes
LERE OJEDOKUN, Abuja
IMPORTATION of used vehicle spare parts popularly called tokunboh, has been banned with immediate effect, by the Federal Government.
Government also approved the purchase of 15 new war planes, valued at about N32.7 billion ($251.4 million), as part of efforts to boost defence operations by the Armed Forces.
The ban on used vehicle spare parts importation, according to government, was meant, among others things, to protect the country from becoming a junkyard, ensure road safety and vehicle worthiness, protect local industries as well as widen capacity of employees in the sector.
Briefing State House correspondents after the weekly Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting yesterday, Information and National Orientation Minister, Mr. Frank Nweke Jnr. said decision to impose the ban followed council’s approval of the draft white paper on the report of a presidential committee on spare parts production.
He said government was bothered about the absence of first-class maintenance system, as in past decades, where vehicles could be taken to garages and refurbished with genuine parts.
"It’s common knowledge that in the not-too-distant past you could go somewhere, take your car for maintenance and you are told you need this or that kind of spare parts. Then you procure it at great cost, fix it but one or few days after they tell you it has gone bad.
"Government is also of the view that there is a more recent development in the context of the fact that we used to have garages by Leventis, UTC, Peugeot, Leyland, BEWAC. Government thought it would be appropriate to try and find out what has gone wrong," he said.
Mr. Nweke further stated that other recommendations of the committee, upheld by council include the formulation of policies that could encourage local production of spare parts within two years and the privatisation of Nigerian Machine Tool (NMT) Factory, Osogbo, Osun State.
The company, when privatised, he stressed, would spearhead development of machinery and equipment industry for local production of spare parts while a National Metallurgical Laboratory will be established to widen calibration services necessary for self-sufficiency in local production.
On the fate of Igbo spare parts dealers, the ministers said government was concerned about them and has therefore, planned to encourage them to form cooperative to enjoy economy of scale and have access to easy bank loans and institutions dedicated to the promotion of small and medium enterprises.
His words: "we are aware, for instance, that there is a whole lot of people in this country, especially in the South-Eastern part whose livelihood depends on incomes from their trade in spare parts. Government is also concerned about protecting this category of people.
"However, government is of the view that they will be encouraged to form cooperative associations so that they can leverage or consolidate their businesses and enjoy economy of scale to help them prosper, rather than go under," he said.
On the new war planes, Mr. Nweke explained that the step was aimed at making the three services of the Armed Forces combat-ready and well-equipped for the task of protecting the nation’s territorial integrity.
He said the planes comprise 12 units of F7NI multi-role combat aircraft and associated equipment, awarded to China National Aero Technology Corporation at a negotiated price of $251.4 million.
© 2005 @ Champion Newspapers Limited (All Right Reserved).
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New Age Online Tuesday, October 04 2005
Nobody can stop Obasanjo if he wants 3rd term - Mrs. Anenih
By HENRY EBIRERI
President Olusegun Obasanjo’s Special Assistant on Women Affairs, Mrs. Josephine Anenih has declared that if the president desires a 3rd term in office, he would get it and there was nothing anybody can do about it.
Mrs. Anenih who is also wife of the chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party’s Board of Trustees, Mr. Tony Anenih and women’s leader of the party told NewAge in Abuja, that President Obasanjo was no a coward and if he decides to stay beyond 2007, there was nothing anybody can do to him.
“Mr. President is not a coward. If he wants to go for a third term, he will say so and there is nothing anybody can do to him. He has never shied away from speaking his mind. If he wants to do third term, he will say it and we will debate it and if we feel he should do third and fourth terms, he will do them,” she insisted.
Giving reasons for her call for the extension of the President’s tenure, Mrs. Anenih said Obasanjo, apart from entrenching discipline in the system curtailed reckless spending by public officers.
“Where are the hands that Nigerians will use in stoning him, if Mr. President says he wants third term? Why would they stone him to death? What has he not done for Nigeria? We were really reckless and because loose money is not flowing again, that is what is giving the impression that people are suffering.
If that is all Mr. President has taught us, God will continue to bless him.” On the crisis rocking the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Mrs. Anenih said most of the problems were not created from within but from outside.
“It just shows that we are a vibrant people. There are contentions; there must be disagreements, people should be reasonable and listen to each other, concede when the other persons has superior argument. You cannot win all the time. Most of the problems I find in PDP are not from within but from outside. People create the problems for PDP,” she said.
Debunking the perception that majority of PDP leaders are not democrats, Mrs. Anenih said if there is no disagreement, it will be difficult to have consensus.
“It is when these disagreements arise, we come together, agree and it becomes consensus. If there is no disagreement, then, there will be no agreement,” she argued.
On the president’s reform programmes, Mrs. Anenih said Obasanjo never promised result would come within a second, but said that it was going to be hard, painful and time consuming.
“It was a necessary thing that had to be done. He didn’t say it was going to be automatic. The president said there is hope and he sees hope for this country. All we need to do is support him.”
When asked to compare the Obasanjo-led PDP administration with past governments, Mrs. Anenih said Nigerians could never have had a better government and don’t see any government that can offer Nigerians better leadership than what Obasanjo and the PDP are offering now.
On the allegation that President Obasanjo has hijacked the PDP, Mrs. Anenih said Obasanjo is the leader of the party and the question of hijacking by him does not arise.
“Mr. President is the leader of the party. So where is he hijacking it again to? The party is inside his pocket already. He is not aspiring to be a leader. He is the leader of the party,” she noted.
On the fear that the party is on the path of self destruct, the national women leader said it would never happen. “Since 1999, people have been predicting that PDP will explode; but you can see that the party is still strong. The fact that there are some statements made in the press, does not mean that there is war in the presidency.
There is no war in the presidency, they are human beings and they will have their different opinions, and perceptions but at the end of the day, we have one president. We don’t have any problem in PDP,” she said.
UK report wants Obasanjo to quit. DAILY INDEPENDENT Tuesday 4th October, 2005 HOME | Previous Page
"We know this country is headed by thieves. It is quite clear. Look at all these allegations of corruption against the governors, against the president, against the National Assembly and even the Judiciary. It is ridiculous that the EFCC is the one investigating Obasanjo on Governor Kalu’s allegations. EFCC, in all honesty, cannot investigate Obasanjo because it is like Obasanjo investigating himself
The former governor urged Nigerians to insist on a serious probe of the Obasanjo government instead of just watching a few clique milking the nation dry.
"Alamieyeseigha’s arrest in London: Govs scramble to close foreign accounts" Tony Ita Etim, Port-Harcourt, John SHiklam, Kaduna and Alphonsus Nweze, Onitsha. Monday, September 19 2005 Daily Champion
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Reactions have continued to trail the Vice President, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar's admission of failure of the Federal Government in certain key areas of policy direction, with calls for him, and others in government, including President Olusegun Obasanjo, to resign immediately.
"...If they have failed, which is obvious to all Nigerians and which the number two man, Abubakar, has now admitted publicly, I wonder what they are still doing in government. What is happening is consequent on the corruption they have visited on the country. The PDP is not only corrupt at the Federal Government level, but also at the State Government and Local Government levels. They have admitted it many times over and we can all see it. They lack moral aptitude to remain in office even a day longer.
"Is he just waking up to the failures of a government where he is the second in command? Or are we just witnessing lame excuses, a grand political design? Why is he just crying out now? What does he want Nigerians to now do? He and his ilk should just pack their bags and leave this country alone; they should allow people have genuine intention to move this country forward". --Dayo Adeyeye
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According to Fred Agbaje:
"The Federal Government has become a one man show. A man who does not listen to the voice of the opposition and who also fail to take Nigerian masses along in government's policies. The type of attitude we are witnessing is very common with people with military background. The unfortunate thing is that they are again lining up to succeed themselves in power. That is why when people talk of self-succession, we are not necessarily talking of Obasanjo succeeding himself, he may just hand over to another brass hat".
"However, what he [Vice President Atiku] did not say or forgot to say or admit is that governments at both the Federal and State level should resign honourably. They should resign, because they are both corrupt, hence the country has been treated to a shameless regime of accusation and counter-accusation by these supposed leaders who are showing the whole world that they are just dealers," he said
"OBJ, Atiku, Others Urge To Resign" BY KAMAL TAYO OROPO Guardian Monday, September 19, 2005
October 1 2005 Clippings
"The biggest problem that we face as Nigerians at the moment is the darkness, anxiety and the uncertainty that surround us. We are, as a people literally in the dark."
"In 1999 when civilians assumed office at all levels, Nigerians had great hopes in their hearts; the enthusiasm of the time was so infectious, ..."
"...here in Nigeria, under a democracy, the people have been turned into spectators. We, the people no longer count...."
"...Obasanjo has become an Emperor whose every gesture assumes a larger-than-life dimension.
"...He [Obasanjo] is no longer a leader who is a servant of the people, but the Lord and Master of Nigeria with dominion over all things under and inside it.
"...At all levels, our democracy is built on a foundation of falsehood partly because we do not have leaders who are interested in the truth.
"Elections are rigged anyway. Politicians know that they can always win elections without the people's mandate. We are part of the lives of the men of power only as things to be manipulated.
"We Are In The Dark" --Editorial Guardian Oct 2 2005 By Reuben Abati
"...THE patent feature of Nigeria today is summed up in three attributes: the appalling state of decay of the broad national equipment - the complex of failed infrastructure, failed public organizations and failed institutions - the unprecedented desolation of the polity, and the structural unconcern of government.
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"...This perilous state, the result of years of political-economic mismanagement, has severely worsened in the past six years.
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"There is loss of social peace, orderliness and security. There is the loss of community. Normal conduct of socio-economic life by the individual is well-nigh impossible. Frustrated at every turn by the inefficiencies and blockages of public policy, the genuine enterpriser’s story is a catalogue of daily woes, while the masses are overwhelmed with despair and cynicism. No level or branch of government is free from its corrosive debilitating effects. Even the oil enclave is subject to its blight. The decay has inevitably taken a toll on quality standards and their administration.
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"There is also increasing arbitrariness and terror on the part of what stands for the state.
"Instead of taking appropriate measures to redress the decay and restore system stability, policy controllers enthrone political gangsterism as an instrument of state policy, further stoke the flames of social discord, and persist in economic mismanagement.
"The increasing uncertainty in the environment promotes exceptional levels of corruption, economic myopia, and capital flight, and drives the system further from recovery
"President Obasanjo did not bring this key dimension of our existence to the attention of the citizens of the republic and their representatives in the National Assembly, in his broadcast to the nation on June 30, 2005 and consequent address to the National Assembly on July 26, 2005. Precisely, he failed to duly inform the citizens of the republic and their representatives in the National Assembly on the extent of the decay in society’s capital base (the broad national equipment inclusive of human capital) and the massive extent of work to be done to urgently redress the situation and then get the economy on a rapid stable growth course
"President Obasanjo also did not bring to the attention of the citizens of the republic and their representatives in the National Assembly the continued essential financial-economic fragility of the republic. This fragility, which arises largely because of the truly underdeveloped structure of the domestic economy, its over-reliance on crude petroleum, and the volatility of the world oil market and its prices, in turn dictates at least two imperatives: (a) an urgent drive to secure in minimal time diversification of the productive base of the economy; and (b) the maintenance of an adequate stabilization cover..."
The real task before Nigerians: A further note on the claimed debt relief by the Paris Club DUNU CHU S. P. OKONGWU Posted to the Web: Vanguard Sunday, October 02, 2005
"...Considering that the country had been under British colonial rule for a couple of hundred years or so before then; and that full independence was not obtained without a committed fight and a lot of sacrifice by our nationalists, another Independence Day is worthy of celebration and proper commemoration. The realities of the country however, as reflected in the political, economic and social conditions are not exactly in favour of such celebration.
"Without mincing words, Nigerians are worse off today than they were on October 1, 1960.
"The quality of the average Nigerian life is drastically reduced and ranks among the lowest in the world, going by international yardstick provided by global organisations including the recent World Bank report that classified Nigeria as the second poorest country in the world
"...Nigeria's 45th Independence Anniversary should be an occasion for sober reflection; a time to look inward and ask: What went wrong? More importantly, to seek to halt the creping lawlessness and anarchy in the society including government.
"...The major problem with Nigeria is that forty-five years on, we do not seem to have started the work of nation building.
"...practically all the infrastructural and institutional development achieved during and immediately after the colonial administration have been destroyed
"...The legacies of our founding fathers have been replaced by visionless policies derived from selfish, greedy interests and foisted by corrupt and inept rulers who have not the faintest idea of what leadership is about.
"...We can tell similar tales of woe in respect of development of agriculture, infrastructure, education and health sectors as well as a dozen other areas.
"...Governments at all levels in the country are traditionally inclined to enumerate their perceived achievements during Independence Anniversary days. They spend hours making long statements to praise themselves and to highlight what in real terms constitutes only marginal growth with almost imperceptible positive impact on the populace.
"... we believe that the country's rulers have taken their subjects for a ride for too long.
"...It was easy for us to blame military aberration of the past for much of our national follies. Undoubtedly, the military did a lot in destroying the political, social and economic fabric of the society. Heaping all the blame on them is however no longer tenable.
"Six years into the present civilian administration, the politicians have been compounding the problems inherited from the military. The present rulers are not behaving like democrats, as they want to have their say and their way at all cost. The spirit of politics is that of winner takes all. Political parties and groups, including the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) operate in rancour and treachery with greedy intention. Intra-party relationship is mired in envy, hatred and ego trips that have been manifesting in character and physical assassination. These are not progressive ideals. They cannot take the country to the dreamland envisioned by her founding fathers. Politicians must search themselves and put their house in order.
"...Perhaps the major dividend of democracy that has taken place in the last six years is improved observance of human rights. This has reflected for instance in enhanced freedom of expression of citizens. Sadly, government officials who frequently disregard the expressions and instead, implement anti-people policies have rendered that freedom nugatory.
"...Freedom of expression that does not translate into improved quality of life for the ordinary citizens is no freedom at all.
"...Failure by government officials to bring the dividends of democracy and good governance to people's doorstep is fraught with danger that may imperil the democracy itself.
"...And instead of catering to the interests of the long suffering Nigerians, our leaders openly pursue their selfish agenda and seek to foist same on the whole nation. For instance, the President and Vice President are locked in a fratricidal battle on the direction the country should take in 2007. Never before in our history have we witnesssed such a dangerous theatre of the absurd. The only persons who do not see the disgraceful conduct and the threats they portend for the entire polity are the combatants themselves. In the event, they have opted for anything but due process in seeking to unseat or unsettle each other. Such lawlessness is condemnable and must stop in the interest of this country.
Nigeria at 45 Editorial Opinion Guardian October 1 2005
Obasanjo is enemy of democracy CNPP after a careful analysis of the Independence Day speech of President Olusegun Obasanjo decided to reply him to correct the misrepresentation and misleading contents of his address, that bothers on disservice to our dear country. CNPP laments and regrettably, that Mr. President is still hovering in the sky, totally alienated and disconnected from the people. We thought that the speech could have afforded a responsive President the golden opportunity for sober reflection, to painstakingly assess the situation, honestly admit pitfalls and undertake gap analysis on why Nigeria is not working and why his economic and political reforms are jaundiced. To our chagrin, rather than address the contradictions inherent in his anti-people macro-economic policy, he mounted a high horse, waving doubtful messianic garb, claiming that his government is a listening and caring government. To add insult to injury, he sent a note of warning that he cannot be intimidated, teleguided or pressurized to take immature or populist decisions with no lasting effects. CNPP is at a loss, what is immature in meaningful advice and constructive criticisms, Nigerians have lavishly given to the regime, all in an effort to strengthen and deepen the foundation of our economy and democracy, create jobs, wealth, productivity, efficiency and management of resources and social justice. CNPP opines that the road map is to first and foremost get Nigerians back to work. We disagree with those who claim that Nigerians are bad and hang on the loose term – Nigerian Factor. Nigerians are not bad specie and had shown that we are good followers provided the leadership is trust worthy; do not betray trust, dash hopes, compromise and mortgage opportunities. The regime instead of getting Nigerians back to work, what we have today is an army of unemployed and under-employed, mass poverty and import dependant economy, characterized by closure of industries, retrenchment of workers and stifle growth. CNPP had earlier alerted the nation that no nation had successfully transformed from an agrarian economy to a capitalist economy driven by market forces, without an industrial base and there is no industrial society without solid infrastructure base. To do otherwise is suicidal and the outcome is mass poverty, brain drain, import dependent economy and crass corruption. The past six years was spent in a forlorn hope of quantum Foreign Direct Investment (FDI). Mr. President himself had admitted that he toured all parts of the world and no Direct Foreign Investment. The huge cost of globetrotting by Mr. President went down the drain, for the world recognition we have today is because Nigeria transited to civil rule in 1999. CNPP had for the umpteenth time posited that given the bounty and unprecedented oil sales, the regime should repair the refineries; construct micro and medium ones, in order to halt the disequilibria in our transport sector. Rather the regime connived with the rogue contractors inherited from the military regime and squandered over $1 billion and abandoned the Turn Around Maintenance mid-stream. The outcome of failure to listen is incessant hike in petroleum product prices, distortion in the production process and negative multiplier effects. The beneficiaries of the impasse are the cronies of the regime, who jumped into the opportunistic tendencies created. Nigerians are worse off and the regime instead of admitting guilt is still pleading charity, of substantial level of subsidy in petroleum products, supplied to the domestic market. A caring government cannot deliberately in the name of privatisation and commercialisation institute criminal profiteering against the people. Today even the so-called captains of industry, who in actual fact have no industry, are complaining. They used to be friends of the regime and supported the entire anti-peoples programme. CNPP is of the view that a regime that sincerely desires more products for domestic and export market, diversification of the economy and intensive export drive, could have used opportunity provided by modern technology, to overhaul the energy sector, rather than encourage avenues of corruption and waste. The loud noise for subsidy of petroleum products and other vital economic indices has refused to die down, continued to date and cannot be swept under the carpet as immature or populist. CNPP is borrowing our agitation for subsidy, from those stable economies, that are driven by market forces, which refuse in the World Trade Organization meetings, to cancel subsidies to their citizens especially in the agriculture sector. If Europe and America subsidize the prosperous existence of their citizens why is the Obasanjo regime roasting Nigerians? It is truism that as far as electricity is concerned, that Nigerians are in darkness, all the promises made for reinvigorated energy sector failed. The jumbo mega watts production touted became a façade to cover the billions siphoned abroad. A patriotic regime could have embarked on construction of micro and medium generating plants instead of relying on foreign investors. In an age where with $100 million medium generating plant can be erected. The irony of the situation is that we continue posting mind-boggling foreign reserves, while the country is in flames. The consequence is that Nigeria is now a visa factory: where citizens are leaving in droves. The mass exodus to foreign lands, after the return of democracy is the metaphor and caricature of a failed regime. It is the greatest insult to find Nigerians engaged in all manner of odd jobs in North Africa, Europe and other parts of the world in what can be defined as new slavery. It is only a regime that is either on a genocide of hate mission against its countrymen that will leave over 3 billion tons deposit of coal to lie fallow for years. Coal is an alternative energy resource and forms the bedrock of South African energy sector, a country President Obasanjo, venerates, but could not learn from. This is not immature or populist loud noise it is granite fact. Nigerian Coal Corporation records show that with less than $80 million, the coal industry with micro power stations will be back on stream. CNPP reasons that Nigerians can create sustainable development for future generations only by diversifying our energy source and this is where coal comes in. By deliberately abandoning coal, bitumen and other treasurable resources that could have turned around our economy, the regime has demonstrated crass indolence and social rascality. President Obasanjo should as a matter of urgent national importance come to terms with the fact that money is difficult, to cross border, because of competing demands. Let us use our money to transform our economy instead of waiting for the Chinese or European. It is not a loud noise or immature agitation, it is a programme for new Nigeria, new focus and new determination. In tandem with the criminal neglect of the coal industry, is the criminal neglect of bitumen. A regime that does not want people to complain nor undermine its reform programme could have diversified our transport network by re-positioning the railways. Alternatively since we are confined to road transport, the bitumen deposit could have been fully exploited. Instead, the bitumen sector became propaganda instrument that left Nigeria on unwarranted dependence on importation of bitumen. The outcome is that the cost of constructing one-kilometer road in Nigeria is the costliest in the world. CNPP study shows that rail system is the cornerstone of transport sector of the developed world and none of their rail system was privatized when they were at kindergarten level of development. Our study shows also that with $3 billion a modern rail system covering about 2000 kilometres will be in place. CNPP prefers this kind of investment that will revolutionise our economy and catapult Nigeria into prosperity. Our aggregate loss per annum for inefficient and prohibitive transport and energy sectors is over $4 billion. Contrast it with the haste with which the regime wants to pay $6 billion to the Paris Club and another $6 billion through buy back instead of investing the $12 billion in our energy and transport sectors. CNPP does not canvas repudiation of our debt, but while we continue to pay our debt at current repayment rate of $1 billion per annum to our creditors, we continue to plead for debt cancellation. CNPP is not opposed totally to privatization, but we rely on hindsight to know that an item sold as a scrap attracts pittance, while a repaired and refurbished item attracts better price. This was the position of NAFCON. The fertilizer company had already procured spare parts for total overhaul before it was shut down. At any rate it was operating when it was closed. The outcome is that today, a plant that was producing 1000mt of urea, ammonia and NPK respectively, was auctioned for $152 million, while between the closure and when it will resume production Nigeria must have lost over $500 million in importation of fertilizer, the resultant outcome is food insecurity. The insensitive, insincere and intolerant attitude of Obasanjo’s regime cost the nation these gruesome losses. A listening and caring regime could have gotten Nigeria in six years back to work and the system could not have failed. CNNP cannot conclude the catalogue of scandals that bedeviled the privatization and commercialization programme ranging from Ajaokuta, NITEL, to the sale of Federal Government houses in this piece. Suffice it to say that the scam will be unraveled when we vote the regime out. The deceptive arsenal of the regime was exposed when Mr. President undertook self-glorification by beating his chest for consolidation of democracy. CNPP joins Mr. President in thanking God, while at the same time, we note that Chief Obasanjo has driven Nigerian democracy dangerously into fascist dictatorship. He has closed the Ballot Box Option, reduced the legislature to rubber stamp, shut out foundation members of his party, thus becoming the first leader of a political party in history we know, who instead of sustaining engagement, authors culture of exclusion and impunity, all in an effort to actualize his Life President project. CNPP concludes that Chief Obasanjo is an enemy of democracy and agent of instability, corruption, mass poverty and has contempt for the rule of law and constitutionalism. The loud noise of the minority is the voice of the voiceless majority of Nigerians who are frustrated from dashed expectations. |
"Former Head of State, Maj. Gen. Muhammadu Buhari (Rtd) and the chairman of the conference of Nigerian Political Parties (CNPP), Balarabe Musa have canvassed mass resistance against any plot by the President Olusegun Obasanjo-led administration to stay in power beyond 2007."
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"...Nigerians should be mindful of the mal-administration of the government since its inception in 1999, "and get it right and come out and take a stand that come May, 2007, this government must go." --Colonel Hamid Ali
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"Buhari...reviewed the historical voyage of the nation since independence, pointing out that rather than the country moving forward, its development had been thwarted by bad leadership in recent times. "
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"it is regrettable that since the inception of Nigeria as a country in 1914, she had at no time ever had the type of revenue income or money it has gotten now" adding that in spite of this, the people are still wallowing in abject poverty, disease and hunger. --Buhari
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"Said Buhari: "I urge Nigerians to stand up enmass to stop the present poor administration and to ensure that only the truth prevailed in the 2007 elections. And whoever will be the president, he should be the right person and of quality and credibility."
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"In spite of the fact that the Nigerian nation is 100 years old, we have remained backward because these things have remained like this and we are not bothered about change. No respect for human rights and dignity, except for Naira, hence change cannot be possible," Musa agonised. (chairman of the conference of Nigerian Political Parties (CNPP), Balarabe Musa )
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"ACF has two slogans, and will continue to say, we will fight it to the last point of our blood to make sure that power shift to the North is realized, that is one. Obasanjo must leave the seat of power as president come 2007, whether he likes it or not; we will fight him with our blood and we will do it. He must leave power, come 2007. And I hope Nigerians must understand that power must come to the North in 2007. That ACF will stand upon, that ACF will fight and the ACF must make realizable."--Colonel Hamid Ali
Opposition Urges Mass Resistance Against Alleged Third Term Bid
From Saxone Akhaine, Kaduna Saturday october 1 2005
"We know this country is headed by thieves. It is quite clear. Look at all these allegations of corruption against the governors, against the president, against the National Assembly and even the Judiciary. It is ridiculous that the EFCC is the one investigating Obasanjo on Governor Kalu’s allegations. EFCC, in all honesty, cannot investigate Obasanjo because it is like Obasanjo investigating himself
The former governor urged Nigerians to insist on a serious probe of the Obasanjo government instead of just watching a few clique milking the nation dry.
"Alamieyeseigha’s arrest in London: Govs scramble to close foreign accounts" Tony Ita Etim, Port-Harcourt, John SHiklam, Kaduna and Alphonsus Nweze, Onitsha. Monday, September 19 2005 Daily Champion
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Reactions have continued to trail the Vice President, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar's admission of failure of the Federal Government in certain key areas of policy direction, with calls for him, and others in government, including President Olusegun Obasanjo, to resign immediately.
"...If they have failed, which is obvious to all Nigerians and which the number two man, Abubakar, has now admitted publicly, I wonder what they are still doing in government. What is happening is consequent on the corruption they have visited on the country. The PDP is not only corrupt at the Federal Government level, but also at the State Government and Local Government levels. They have admitted it many times over and we can all see it. They lack moral aptitude to remain in office even a day longer.
"Is he just waking up to the failures of a government where he is the second in command? Or are we just witnessing lame excuses, a grand political design? Why is he just crying out now? What does he want Nigerians to now do? He and his ilk should just pack their bags and leave this country alone; they should allow people have genuine intention to move this country forward". --Dayo Adeyeye
_________________________________
According to Fred Agbaje:
"The Federal Government has become a one man show. A man who does not listen to the voice of the opposition and who also fail to take Nigerian masses along in government's policies. The type of attitude we are witnessing is very common with people with military background. The unfortunate thing is that they are again lining up to succeed themselves in power. That is why when people talk of self-succession, we are not necessarily talking of Obasanjo succeeding himself, he may just hand over to another brass hat".
"However, what he [Vice President Atiku] did not say or forgot to say or admit is that governments at both the Federal and State level should resign honourably. They should resign, because they are both corrupt, hence the country has been treated to a shameless regime of accusation and counter-accusation by these supposed leaders who are showing the whole world that they are just dealers," he said
"OBJ, Atiku, Others Urge To Resign" BY KAMAL TAYO OROPO Guardian Monday, September 19, 2005
"We know this country is headed by thieves. It is quite clear. Look at all these allegations of corruption against the governors, against the president, against the National Assembly and even the Judiciary. It is ridiculous that the EFCC is the one investigating Obasanjo on Governor Kalu’s allegations. EFCC, in all honesty, cannot investigate Obasanjo because it is like Obasanjo investigating himself
The former governor urged Nigerians to insist on a serious probe of the Obasanjo government instead of just watching a few clique milking the nation dry.
"Alamieyeseigha’s arrest in London: Govs scramble to close foreign accounts" Tony Ita Etim, Port-Harcourt, John SHiklam, Kaduna and Alphonsus Nweze, Onitsha. Monday, September 19 2005 Daily Champion
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Reactions have continued to trail the Vice President, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar's admission of failure of the Federal Government in certain key areas of policy direction, with calls for him, and others in government, including President Olusegun Obasanjo, to resign immediately.
"...If they have failed, which is obvious to all Nigerians and which the number two man, Abubakar, has now admitted publicly, I wonder what they are still doing in government. What is happening is consequent on the corruption they have visited on the country. The PDP is not only corrupt at the Federal Government level, but also at the State Government and Local Government levels. They have admitted it many times over and we can all see it. They lack moral aptitude to remain in office even a day longer.
"Is he just waking up to the failures of a government where he is the second in command? Or are we just witnessing lame excuses, a grand political design? Why is he just crying out now? What does he want Nigerians to now do? He and his ilk should just pack their bags and leave this country alone; they should allow people have genuine intention to move this country forward". --Dayo Adeyeye
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According to Fred Agbaje:
"The Federal Government has become a one man show. A man who does not listen to the voice of the opposition and who also fail to take Nigerian masses along in government's policies. The type of attitude we are witnessing is very common with people with military background. The unfortunate thing is that they are again lining up to succeed themselves in power. That is why when people talk of self-succession, we are not necessarily talking of Obasanjo succeeding himself, he may just hand over to another brass hat".
"However, what he [Vice President Atiku] did not say or forgot to say or admit is that governments at both the Federal and State level should resign honourably. They should resign, because they are both corrupt, hence the country has been treated to a shameless regime of accusation and counter-accusation by these supposed leaders who are showing the whole world that they are just dealers," he said
"OBJ, Atiku, Others Urge To Resign" BY KAMAL TAYO OROPO Guardian Monday, September 19, 2005
"...I can assure you that that [PDP] meeting has effectively make the President the alpha and omega of the party [PDP]. He can now decide who gets what in the party...” -- [Obasanjo] Presidential aide
PDP: STILL A DIVIDED HOME, Musikilu Mojeed, Abuja Saturday Punch Saturday, September 17 2005
"...and for your information, we always reason along with the position of Obasanjo whom we all see as the messiah the country needs now. He has his excesses but ..."
"“We are not saying this man is perfect, however, we see him as the pillar that can sustain the PDP. He is not a corrupt leader in the actual sense of it and for the PDP to survive and to move the country forward the party needs the President...
--by the (G88) NEC members backing the President’s plan
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Said a [Atiku group] source at the meeting: “We know that the only opinion Obasanjo respects is that of foreigners and Western powers. That is why we took the decision to consult world leaders on this matter. There is no point rubbing shoulders with foreigners if you have no respect for democratic values”.
"Atiku group enlists U.S., UK democrats" Challenges Obasanjo’s G88 on PDP control Daily Independent Septemebr 15 2005
Meanwhile, Citizens Rights Watch (CRW) said it had constituted a team of lawyers to defend anybody arrested in during the protest
Addressing a press conference in Lagos, President of CRW Mr Gabriel Ojumah said: "This government is the most incompetent, the most reckless, most dubious Nigeria has ever had. And as such the masses have passed a vote of no confidence on it. This government must go."
"Police arrest two activists as NLC protests begin" By Victor Ahiuma-Young, Nduka Uzuakpundu & Godwin AkorPosted to the Web: Wednesday, September 14, 2005 Vanguard
Soyinka said: “Very clearly the PDP has no respect for democracy, the constitution, the law; and this is in particular, the leadership of the party. It is the chief executive [president Obasanjo] himself that despises the law in the country. So how can I get excited about the quarrel of the two.? I am not interested.”
On the implication of the development for the country at large, Soyinka said, “the international adverse effect is that investors will see that the leadership of the nation does not respect the law, and therefore encourages lawlessness. And so, are likely not to come into the country.”
Adding that home governments of willing investors “will certainly discourage such people from coming,” saying: “I believe when you encounter a situation like the hike in fuel price, there is a degree of insensitivity which our people have in right to protest.”
Tuesday, September 13 2005 New Age Online
An ANPP chieftain Buba Galadima, says the opposition in the country is weak and therefore not capable of righting the wrongs in the polity.
Galadima told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) yesterday in Abuja, that a lack of patriotism, selfishness, and absence of a focus and clear mission were the militating factors against the opposition.
He said: “The government has emasculated and incapacitated Nigerians, opposition parties and the civil society.
“Besides, the labour leadership has abandoned the masses in pursuit of selfish economic and political interests ahead of 2007.’’
Galadima, a Director in the Buhari Organisation (TBO) and chairman of CNPP’s contact and mobilisation committee, said: “The position of the opposition in the country is weak,cowardly and cannot stand out.’’
Daily Triumph Monday, September 12, 2005.
Nigerian Tribune was told that the president’s men also resolved that if the vice president renounced his ambition, he would be admitted to the club of G8 who would decide who rules the country again after President Obasanjo. Members of G8, Nigerian Tribune learnt further, are the president, Generals Theophilus Danjuma, Abdul-Salami Abubakar, the National Security Adviser, General Aliu Gusau, the Chief of Staff, General Abdulahi Mohammed, General Ibrahim Babangida and two other unnamed leaders.
Three conditions were reportedly issued to the vice president to fulfil failing which the ongoing offensive against his machinery and his interests would be intensified, heading to his removal from office. “He should tender a public apology to the president for the speech he delivered at the Yar’Adua Centre and for insulting the president by comparing Baba to Reagan and Thatcher,” the source said, declaring that “the apology should be public and unreserved.
“He should call his boys to order. We have refrained from engaging them because of the president’s admonition. After the apology, he should tell them to refrain from further attacks on the president and what he stands for. “Importantly, he must renounce his presidential ambition as the president would not endorse him or hand over to him. He must dismantle what is left of his structure. This is the key condition,” the source said, noting that the presidential caucus did not contemplate any scenario that would produce a President Atiku Abubakar
The source affirmed further that the president was not interested in handing over to both General Babangida and the vice president, commending General Babangida for remaining loyal to the president in the ongoing power tussle. “General Babangida is a leader and he recognises the president and his vision. Atiku can join this group if he fulfils those conditions,” the source noted. Blaming the vice president for the state of affairs, the right-wingers were said to have commended the ditching of the original succession plan due to the alleged intransigence of the vice president.
“The original plan was to allow the vice president to succeed Baba, especially for the good memory of the late General Yar’Adua. We don’t want the conservative but the progressive North to have a go but Atiku bungled that plan,” the source said. Nigerian Tribune learnt that the vice president would not accept the demand for the renunciation of his presidential ambition though he believed he had no problem with the president.
A close aide of the Turakin Adamawa told the Nigerian Tribune that the Nigerian constitution guarantees the right to vote and be voted for to all eligible Nigerians, stating that “in a democracy, you cannot stop anybody from exercising his democratic rights to seek elective office. “The vice president will seek the mandate of Nigerians and they will determine his fate. Through their votes, Nigerians would determine who should be their leaders. Nigeria is not and will not become a Banana Republic in 2007,” the aide said, explaining that if PDP was not available, “countless other platforms are available.
“And on the issue of his remaining as a vice president, I think the constitution is very clear on this. The procedure for removing the vice president or the president is clear. If anybody thinks the vice president has committed any impeachable offences, let him or her proceed to file impeachment charges at the National Assembly,” the aide noted. Nigerian Tribune was told that the rift between the two men (president and vice president) was deepening despite last Friday’s National Executive Committee meeting. Meanwhile, no fewer than 62 supporters of Vice President Atiku were arrested in Abuja at the weekend.
Nigerian Tribune Newsupdated: 12 Sept 2005
2007: S’East govs abandon agitation for Presidency
TAJUDEEN SULEIMAN
THERE are indications of confusion among the major stakeholders in the South-east over the clamour for the Igbo to produce the next president for the country in 2007.
Findings by Sunday Punch showed that virtually all the five governors from the zone may have abandoned their agitation on the matter because of uncertainty surrounding the zoning policy of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
The obvious lack of unity and an unwillingness of the main political gladiators to pursue their presidential ambition on the platform of any other party, have reportedly forced the governors to abandon their agitation for the presidency.
Sources close to South-East Governors’ Forum told Sunday Punch that the governors might have given up hope that the zone would produce the next president for the country, and had decided to each pursue their individual ambitions.
“I can tell you authoritatively that the governors have jettisoned their clamour for the presidency in 2007.There is no any meeting going on in that regard. There is no obvious intention on their part to insist on the South-east producing the next president,” a source said.
He disclosed that the 2007 presidency no longer featured on the agenda of the governors’ forum, except for the purpose of “playing to the gallery”.
The reasons advanced for the governors’ volte face on the issue include the zoning arrangement of their party, the PDP, which is likely to zone its presidential ticket to the North for 2007.
“The governors are all PDP governors, and their party has zoned the 2007 presidency to the North. Even if they say they want to pull out of PDP, they have also reasoned that no other party is as popular as the PDP in the zone and other parts of the country. So, they have decided to go along with the PDP, even if it means sacrificing the 2007 presidency, “ another source explained.
He said it was because of this “reason that some of the governors have decided to keep their presidential ambition to themselves, instead of seeking to “turn the tables” and heat up the polity.
“Only Governor Oji Uzor Kalu of Abia State, perhaps, because of youthful exuberance, has insisted on carrying on with his presidential campaign, against the party arrangement. Most people here even think that he is actually positioning himself for a vice-presidential slot”, the source added
The apex Igbo socio-culturally organization, Ohanaeze Ndigbo, which had consistently insisted on the 2007 presidency, may have also taken a cue from the governors.
The issue of the 2007 presidency is no longer on the agenda of its meetings, but now only an issue addressed when reporters ask questions after any of its meetings.
During the last joint meeting of Ohanaeze Ndigbo and the governors forum summoned by the president of the senate, Chief Ken Nnamani, at Ebony State capital, Abakaliki in June 2005, the 2007 presidency did not feature in their deliberations.
The President-General of Ohanaeze, Prof. Joe Irukwu, could not make any categorical statement on the 2007 presidency when reporters asked him, and had to be rescued by the host governor, Dr. Sam Egwu, who gave the press what they wanted to hear by saying, “We are still interested in the 2007 presidency and we insist that the next president should come from the Southeast.”
However, the Igbo elite, some of who have expressed disappointment at the governors’ attitude to the aspiration of Ndigbo, has evolved an alternative platform called the Southeast Political Leaders Forum, to sustain the agitation.
One of the founders and Second Republic Speaker of the House of Representatives, Chief Edwin Ume-Ezeoke told Sunday Punch that his group was determined to realise the Igbo presidency project in 2007.
“We know that the governors are not doing much because of the policy of their party, but I can assure you that we are determined to have the presidency in 2007.We’re going to start holding meetings very soon on the matter. In fact we are going to have meetings with the governors. I ‘m already discussing the issue with some of them who are my friends”, Chief Umezuike said.
Other members of the forum, which cuts across party lines include: Senator Uche Chukwumerije, Dim Odumegwu Ojukwu, Chief Chekwas Okorie and former minister, Chief John Nwodo.
SUNDAY PUNCH, September 11, 2005
Nigerians are becoming poorer and poorer over the years let me say that this administration by its action and policies have turned people to desperate human beings..."
Owei Lakemfa, Head of Information of the NLC., in: "NLC: No Going Back on Protest Rally" By Chris Nwachukwu in Lagos and Juliana Taiwo in Abuja, 09.08.2005 THISDAY
"The yoke of enslavement of our people must be broken and overthrown together with the looming spectre of another self-succession bid, long before 2007.
"The audacious and illegal spending of tax-payers' money running into several billions of naira by Obasanjo to assemble his chorus boys in Abuja recently, all for the singular purpose of his self-succession, or the elongation of his purloined office, in the pretence of a political reform conference, is yet another trampling under the feet, of the sovereignty of Nigeria
"The same set of parasitic elements and oppressive characters are still very visible on the country's political space,
"...the despoliation of Nigeria did not start with the Babangida junta but that the junta accentuated it adding that since then, the country had been rapaciously raped by successive impostors and their cronies who forced themselves on the populace and expropriated the national patrimony for their private ends.
"...the truth is that Nigeria at this point in time is far from being a democracy.
--Dr Tunji Braithwaite in "Soyinka, Braithwaite Urge Lawmakers To Probe Graft Charge Against Obasanjo"
BY CHARLES ADINGUJU (LAGOS) AND KELVIN EBIRI (PORT HARCOURT) Guardian September 9 2005.
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"The politician [Dr Tunji Braithwaite] also noted in dismay that despite the country's earning of over $800billion from oil since exploration started in Oloibiri, there was little to show for it in terms of development of infrastracture or enhanced quality of the life of the people"
"It warned that should the National Assembly fail to impeach the president, the Nigerian populace must have to take action to liberate themselves from their impostors and oppressors"
"Soyinka, Braithwaite Urge Lawmakers To Probe Graft Charge Against Obasanjo"
BY CHARLES ADINGUJU (LAGOS) AND KELVIN EBIRI (PORT HARCOURT) Guardian September 9 2005.
"Something must be done to this Government before it scuttles our hard-earned democracy. The only feasible action is to sack Obasanjo's government by mass protests - preparatory to the invocation of Section 143 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 by the National Assembly for the removal of President Olusegun Obasanjo from office.
"General Olusegun Obasanjo is a stubborn brute who is totally opposed to Section 14(2)(b) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 which provides: "The security and welfare of the people shall be the primary purpose of government". By this latest increase in petroleum product prices, General Olusegun Obasanjo has defied and defiled the Constitution he swore to defend, observe and uphold. If we do not react by mass revolt against General Olusegun Obasanjo's latest move, we would lose our moral authority to oppose his next gamble: third term bid as a monstrous dictator.
"Finally, I consider it insensately unpatriotic for General Olusegun Obasanjo to make Nigerians bleed with groaning pain while the oil companies including the marketers rip us off only for them to unconstitutionally and illegally compensate President Olusegun Obasanjo as they did when they gave him billions of Naira for his Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library; a private project at Abeokuta on Saturday, May 14, 2005 - an event which violated the Code of Conduct for Public Officers in Items I and 6 (1)(2), Part 1of the Fifth Schedule of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 and breached Section 46 of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) Act as well as Section 8(1), 9(1), 10, 17 and 19 of the Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Act, Cap. 31, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004.
"The need for national revolt" By Gani Fawehinmi
Fawehinmi is a Senior Advocate of Nigeria.
"...The sad part of the story however is that the man [Obasanjo] thinks he is the only one who can do anything right. No one can rule Nigeria better. In the days of Babangida and Abacha, Obasanjo, in his interviews and public speeches gave the impression that he could manage the economy better, but in retrospect, I do not know whether we can rate him better than them...
"The man [Obasanjo] would not just agree that anybody is better than him and pride and arrogance are really his Achilles heels...
"What the poor people of this country have paid for having Obasanjo in government for six years now are hyper-inflation, hunger, poverty, disease, massive corruption, ineptitude, and utter hopelessness.
"We now pay more for petrol than ever paid before with its attendant effects on the masses.
"The failure and insincerity of his [Obasanjo's] government has been further promoted by the failure of his national conference.
"Up till now, nobody knows where he [Obasanjo] got the money to fund this jamboree [National Political Reform Conference] which ended in disarray.
"Well, because he [Obasanjo] is minister of Petroleum and accountable to nobody, he can choose to do things his own way and nobody is asking questions and even when they are asked, he is not bothered.
"One would have thought that a man as the last lap of his life will make sincere efforts to champion the course of truth, justice and fair-play knowing that he is going to answer for his actions before God but the reverse is the case [with Obasanjo]. The murder of Bola Ige, Chief Dikibo, the Odi killings and many others took place and are still unresolved till now.
"Yet, Obasanjo prides himself hypocritically in promoting the ideals of democracy.
"He [Obasanjo] is truly the king of the jungle for Nigeria is a lawless place and only a lawless man can preside over such a mess that Nigeria has become.
"With an Obasanjo government, it is clear that we are not going forward. Indeed, our reverse gear is working extra hard.
"...this is the time God wants to show him that he is nothing and make him pay a big price for his misdeeds of the past.
"People have been very economical with the truth by saying we need a revolution but only a peaceful revolution. The truth must be told that Nigeria, as it is today can only do with a more radical revolution.
"We are not a united people and may never have a united voice about anything.
"I am not a prophet of doom not a lover of military take over but I do not see anything good on the horizon for now. I think we are creating the room for the military to come back and come back they will.
"Our leaders must listen to the voice of reason which they have refused to do for so long.
"...unless our political elites are taught some bitter and lasting lessons, the political situation in Nigeria will remain a vicious cycle.
"People have got to pay for all these crimes and the looting of our treasury while the hewers of wood and drawers of water in the Niger-Delta and every other section of this country are living in poverty.
"The sheer indiscipline and lack of respect for the opposition within the ruling PDP has not set a good example for the survival of democracy in this country.
"The PDP itself may soon be carried away by a Tsunami of horrendous proportion.
"I hear the President himself was there to dance with his thugs who are the so-called party [PDP] chiefs.
"It is a pity we are ruled by a whole set of indecent people who are not in any way positive role models for our youths.
"The present state of affairs cannot continue because Nigerians are suffocated economically, politically and morally.
"There is simply no light at the end of the tunnel..."
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"Third term: Let him dare" By Emmanuel Ogundele. The Guardian, September 7 2005
Fr. Ogundele is Head, Department of Philosophy, Ss. Peter and Paul Seminary, Ibadan.
"THE tide of his anti-corruption crusade, a key plank of his reforms agenda, may be turning thick and fast against President Olusegun Obasanjo, as a flurry of allegation of corruption continue to sail around his person and his presidency....
"In an exclusive interview with Sunday Champion yesterday, Chief Fawehinmi (SAN) alleged that "President Obasanjo has committed so many corrupt offences ranging from funds raised to finance his re-election in 2003 and contracts awarded to many businessmen in and outside the country."...
"The fiery lawyer [Chief Fawehinmi] added: "President Obasanjo has a lot to hide and doesn’t want to be exposed." Chairman of EFCC, Nuhu Ribadu had last Friday said that the commission, together with ICPC would start probe of the President, his aides and the leadership of the Senate over alleged corruption....
"According to Ribadu, in acknowledging Governor Kalu’s petition, nobody irrespective of his position was above the law of the land...
"But in his charges against the President, Chief Fawehinmi said he had reservations that the EFCC and ICPC would be given free hand to do a thorough investigation. "I doubt if the President will allow them do that, because he knows deep inside him how corrupt he (Obasanjo) is, and this is what I have been saying for a long time now"...."
"Fawehinmi, Rimi hit Obasanjo": DAN ONWUKWE, Lagos & MUHAMMAD KABIR, Kano
Daily Champion Monday, September 05 2005
Editorial / Opinion
The Guardian
Monday, September 05, 2005
A Contraption Of Lies And Deceits
By Kunle Sanyaolu
"IT surprised me that the legacy I left behind has been rubbished. I laid a solid foundation before I left Nigeria." That is Clemens Westerhof, the Dutch coach who took Nigeria's senior football team, the Super Eagles, to its first outing at the World Cup, way back in 1994, United States of America. He added: "There is no excuse for a country like Nigeria with abundance of talents, to struggle with qualification in any football event be it world or nations cup." As he examines the precarious fate of Nigeria among African countries bidding for Germany 2006, Westerhof has every reason to be sad. He couldn't understand why a country like Togo that has been poaching players from Nigeria is on the verge of qualifying for the mundial, while Nigeria is now banking on a miracle as the only means to take it to Germany. Without doubt, the Westerhof years have so far proved to be the best for Nigerian soccer. The years produced great names who, even years after retiring, continue to ring exciting bell in the circle. They include names such as Rashidi Yekinni, Stephen Keshi, Daniel Amokachi, Samson Siasia, Emmanuel Amuneke and of course, Austin "Jay Jay" Okocha who, 11 years after Westerhof discovered him, remains the bedrock of the Super Eagles. In 1994, Nigeria's outing in the World Cup was good, definitely not a write off. We have seen now after two more World Cup competitions, France '98 and Japan - Korea 2002), that that debut outing is the best. Since then, the country has been sliding backward.
As it is in football so it is in other spheres of life. Helsinki 2005 proved that we are not faring any better in athletics. If we are sliding back in sports in arithmetical proportion, I have no doubt that we are sliding back in other areas: politics, economy and social life, in geometrical proportion. News around us, including those we see and hear as well as those we read in newspapers is so disheartening that I think we really should reopen the debate about the national question. It is easy for us to say that many developed nations went through our experience, learned and came out stronger. Whether the experience of those countries can be likened to Nigeria's is quite another matter. When developed countries like Britain and America fought wars, their pattern of development was clear. Their target, after the war, was also clear. And the methodology of achieving that purpose was discernible. It is not surprising that after years and decades of such purposeful existence, the developed countries arrived at their advanced stage. They have since sustained their leadership progress and growth at the world level in several spheres. On its part, Nigeria has fought a war and went through several crises, including June 12, 1993. It seems to me that after every crisis, we have somehow managed to assuage our immediate temperament without necessarily addressing the crux of our disagreement. Many of us, particularly the so-called leaders in government and the politicians, dread to even talk about the crux of our problems. They fear that starting a discussion of the fundamental issues may cause further divisions. This they cannot contemplate because they thrive on the country as presently constituted. They are experts at hunting with the cheetah and running with the hares, just so that they can eat from the two corners of their mouth.
The citizens in focus know the full import of their deeds. They have no remorse that their deceits and contraption will lead the country nowhere. They have no qualm as they watch the country take a step forward and then four steps backward. Each time there was a step forward, as when everyone agreed that power must shift to the South West (1999), or when we eventually joined the league of GSM users, this set of Nigerian would hail the country and the government at hand. The hailing would be loud and clear, to suggest to the unwary that the country has recorded no mean achievement, nay the first of its kind in the world and thanks to government. More often than not, the brandished achievements turn out to be largely hoaxes. It is like giving with one hand and taking double with the other hand. Currently, the Nigerian debt pardon issue from the Paris Club is an example of the deceit and contraption called Nigeria. What our leaders and politicians acclaim to be an unsurpassable achievement is blowing up right in their face. All of a sudden, we know that it is a trap to further enslave the country financially. Trust the Nigeria leaders. They can rationalise, explain things and philosophise to the effect that it is wrong for us to expect to win every time. If anything patently retrogressive happened, we say that it is an exception that should not discourage us. But our leaders have already lost hope and confidence in Nigeria. They preach Nigeria all right, but they practice something else. They use Nigeria largely to make money, legitimately and otherwise. Then they use the money to sustain their families in countries they know are safer. At the slightest sign of instability in this country, our people are already on the plane abroad, heading for sanctuary.
I don't know how long Nigeria can go as a contraption of dishonesty, greed, lies, distortion and often, evil. The general principle is that the good always catches up with the bad and that the truth shall prevail. That principle appears to be an exception in this country. Evil has triumphed over good much more than otherwise, with a resultant hunger, poverty, disease, Ignorance, despair and stupendous crime all over the land. No one from a sane community can read Nigerian newspapers for three days consecutively without losing appetite for food or becoming disenchanted with life itself. When you think one story is gory, wait for the next story in the next page. It is more loathsome, more ungodly. There is so much cheating in the land. People are using their ill-gotten wealth and political connections to commit heinous crime and unprecedented atrocities. Everybody has his price in all tiers and arms of government to pervert justice and perpetuate greed and evil. The other time, President Olusegun Obasanjo said there is corruption in the judiciary. He might have been talking about the uppermost section of the judiciary. Of course the statement is not altogether news. Judges of the courts of superior records had been sacked before on account of corruption. At the same time, people do not mind to destroy other people's character and reputation, again unjustly, and for selfish reasons. Many judges are clean in all the benches. But they seem powerless against the corruption endemic in the institution as a whole and which they see regularly among their colleagues. Yet they can hardly complain. Over the years, the executive arm of government has failed us. This was manifest in the days of Babangida and Abacha. Unfortunately, Obasanjo has been unable to stop the rot or to recover the lost confidence in the executive. Rather, the government has characterised itself as a pioneer of false reforms, so long as it can realise money to pursue selfish political agenda, without minding the increasing poverty such reforms are visiting on the masses.
It cannot be sufficient for the President to simply say he cares about the plight of average Nigerians when his deeds and actions suggest the opposite. The President set up a committee headed by Senator Ibrahim Mantu to proffer ways of ameliorating the suffering of the ordinary citizens occasioned by vagaries in the prices of petroleum products. The President failed to implement recommendations of the panel but went ahead to impose higher prices, and consequently greater suffering on Nigerians. He should know that the peace in the country is that of the graveyard, very ominous. In a few weeks' time, the peace is certain to be disrupted when the effects of the new price regime starts biting on other goods and services needed by the populace. Yet, the country is blessed with huge resources, both tapped and untapped. Given the kind of budget we have been operating by this government and also, given the amount of money that we know is being shared by top government personnel under one guise or the other, Nigerians do not deserve the punishment they are going through now. There is a clear failure of government at all levels beginning from the presidency and through the councils. None is pursuing public agenda but private interest. The level of unemployment and joblessness is high. Why are we complaining of high crime rate? The youths have to do something. In most cases however, the criminals are venting their anger and frustration on the society. They know the opulence under which some Nigerians are living. In their present state, they have no hope of working legitimately, or even securing any job, that can take them to half the height they dream for themselves. They then take to crime.
What is the solution? Your guess is as good as mine. I do believe we need a complete change of orientation, which we are unlikely to get with the old crop of personnel around. Nigeria is unwieldy as presently constituted. Where the President wields the kind of power and influence of Obasanjo, struggle for power is likely to be violent. Ditto for the governors. Our leaders at the national level have always spoken against disintegrating the country. Obviously, there is strength in number. But the strength is grossly lacking in balance and proportion. The president has lost opportunity to redress the imbalance through the political conference. Reports of the conference, which gulped more than a billion naira, are inconclusive and controversial. Even then, the government has no idea what it wants to do with it. And the National Assembly, which has always been averse to the idea, is not ready to touch the report with a 10-foot pole. It seems there is no way to move forward. We keep deluding ourselves. The police are not as interested in fighting crime as they are of lining up their pockets. One likely thing is that neither Nigeria nor the Police can change drastically for the better, in their present circumstances. We are likely to be going round a vicious cycle, until it dawns on the powers that be that this is a nation of contraption.
© 2003 - 2005 @ Guardian Newspapers Limited (All Rights Reserved).
"Why Nigerians Disrespect Ndigbo--Nnamani"
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Subject: Why Nigerians Disrespect Ndigbo NnamaniWhy Nigerians Disrespect Ndigbo – Nnamani
From Chinedu Eze in Abakaliki, 06.25.2005Senate President, Chief Ken Nnamani, yesterday in Abakaliki, Ebonyi State, said the poor presence of the people of the South-east in the real sectors
of the nation's economy was one of the reasons why the rest of Nigerians had qualified respect for Ndigbo.
Speaking at the opening session of South East Stakeholders Summit which was held in Abakaliki, Ebonyi State capital yesterday, Nnamani said that the Igbos have lost their grip in the political foothold of Nigeria and they were now losing their dominance in the marketing sector of the nation’s economy due to lack of unity of purpose.
“You cannot talk about economic growth without having footprint in the banking industry. The South West has eight banks among the recapitalized banks; the South South has four banks that have recapitalized, while Bank of the North has been recapitalized by the Northern governors. They are establishing Islamic Bank and will receive a waiver from CBN,” the Senate President said.
N! namani who said that the objective of the meeting was for the
Igbo leaders to deliberate on their unity and economic empowerment in Nigeria, regretted that out of 18 banks that have recapitalized in the country and which has been approved by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) non is predominantly owned by the Igbos.
The Senate President frowned at the lack of agreement among the South East governors whom he said were yet to come together to fight for the cause of Igbos in spite of the fact that the zone have the least number of states in the federation.
He disclosed that the governors of northern states met and agreed to recapitalize the Bank of the North, which has met the criteria of CBN, remarking that the governors went further to establish another bank called Islamic Bank and were able to secure for the bank, CBN’s waiver that would free it from raising N25 billion capitalization fund.
He said that the South East governors can recapitalize a bank that! has predominantly Igbo interest, noting that for the Igbos to make th emselves relevant in Nigeria they have to be united and create opportunity for regular meetings, saying that without such meetings where stakeholders would articulate ideas and unanimously agree on them, the zone cannot make progress.
In an address, the host governor, Dr Sam Egwu, said that the summit would provide Igbos a veritable platform for communal re-union “to rub minds on contending issues that affect us as a people at this critical juncture in the nation’s socio-political evolution.”
Egwu regretted that the Igbos have not been fully integrated into the mainstream of Nigeria’s socio-political calculation, saying that it is the duty of the leaders of the zone to zealously and relentlessly pursue a corporate agenda of Igbo demarginalization within the context of the Nigeria Federation.
He reiterated the call for Nigeria’s president from Igbo extraction in 2007, remarking that apart from the fact that the principles of equity and natural justice support this ca! use, the fruition of the aspiration would go along way in strengthening the ideals of political accommodation and national unity within a six-zone rotational framework.
“I invite all of us to be steadfast in the struggle to enthrone a society where merit and social justice hold sway. That is why our aspiration to produce a Nigerian President of Igbo extraction in 2007 must be sustained and impassioned. Apart from the fact that the principles of equity and natural justice support this cause, I also believe that the fruition of this aspiration will go a long way in strengthening the ideals of political accommodation and national unity within a six-zone rotational framework,” Egwu said.
He also called for all Igbos to support and continue to partner with President Olusegun Obasanjo in his efforts to further the frontiers of structural reforms and national stability.
The summit was attended by top Igbo politicians and business magnets including Chief Emmanuel Iwuanyan-! wu, Senator Uche Chukwumerije, Chief Nnia Nwodo, Professor Joe Irukwu, the President-General of Ohaneze Ndigbo and many others who thronged the Women Development Centre, the venue where Ebonyi state welcomed the Senate President before reconvening at the banquet hall of the Governor’s Lodge, where the summit took place.
Abuja Killings: Tears as Photographer Gives Evidence
From Funmi Peter-Omale in Abuja, 06.25.2005The spectators at the disbanded Mike Okiro Administrative panel were shocked and moved to tears when a witness gave an evidence of how he was called in the early hours of June 8 to take the pictures of the five of the victims of the extra judicial killing by some Policemen.
Counsel to the victims' families, Amobi Nzelu called to witness a 32 year old photographer Chukwudi Chukwu who said he was called on his mobile phone around 3.30 am by one PC "Comrade" who escorted him to the Garki Police station where he met Deputy Commissioner of Police Danjuma Ibrahim, the Divisional Police Officer (DPO) Abdulsalam Othman and two other policemen he can not remember their names but would possibly identify them if he sees them.
"I have been working for the Police for over seven years. First at 3.30am, I snapped three dead boys and then later they came to call me at about 6.30am and I snapped five of them, one small girl and four boys.
They asked me to snap them together but I! also snap each of them separately." according to him, when he was summoned to take the pictures, he was told they were armed robbers adding that he was used to snapping like that for the Police. he further stated that when he noticed that there were no gun shot wounds on the girl though there were blood stains on her body, he had to turn her around to snap the pictures. He also said it was like the girl was still alive as at the time they called him to take the pictures.
At this stage, there were shouts in the spectators as some women joined the mother of the deceased girl to weep openly.
The photographer revealed that he had to use his initiative to keep negatives of the pictures having noticed that he knew one of the boys as well as the fact that he had had problems with the Police over pictures he had taken sometime ago.
He also gave evidence that the remains of the victims were bundled into a Police van (with no number) in his presence and they said they were taking their bodies to the mortuary.
Chukwu also revealed that a member of the Ambush Squad, Anthony Idah that allegedly died last Sunday was with him on Saturday and there was nothing wrong with him. He swore that he was also called by the Police to go and snap his picture at Garki mortuary.
"I was surprised when I was called to come and take some pictures only for me to discover that it was that of Anthony Idah. I was with him on Saturday and there
was nothing wrong with him.
In his evidence, he affirmed that the DPO Othman had called him to his office and told him that he should ! not worry that no one would call him before the panel and that the Police will give him protection.
Before the commencement of the sitting, the Inspector General of Police, Mr. Sunday Ehindero had paid an unscheduled visit to the venue and spoke with family
members and spectators.
According to, he had to come because he had been briefed about the proceedings and needed to see things for himself. He appealed to the people to be calm and
allow the Police to do their work.
He announced the interdiction of Othman, Zakariya and Audu. Nothing was said about Danjuma Ibrahim who has been fingered to be the alleged brain behind the
killings.
He also barred journalists from covering the sitting of the now disbanded panel.
In an interview with newsmen later, Chukwu revealed that he had been receiving telephone threats from unknown people saying his life was at risk but that he had to satisfy his conscience that was why he came out to give evidence.
Imm! ediately after the sitting, the witness was whisked to an unknown dest ination as there were fears that he could also suffer the same fate that befell Private Anthony Idah.
South-South and the Nigeria project
Our rulers must come to terms with the reality that something fundamental is wrong with the nation’s federal structure. It is not the secret meetings held with PDP governors from the South-South by President Obasanjo that would solve this problem if further short changing of South-South people is not stopped. The bait of 17 per cent thrown by the government might not bring an end to the matter. The issue at stake is not something that could be waved aside as a party affair...
Whoever is against a proper restructuring of Nigeria must understand that undue obstinacy will only move the nation closer to the conclusion in the United States intelligence report. Nigeria can only remain one on its people’s terms. Not that of greedy leaders. There can be no Nigeria and Nigerians except issues creating injustice within the federation are addressed....
The error in the federation called Nigeria by virture of the forced 1914 amalgamation of the Northern and Southern protectorates by the British for administrative convenience could become a mistake if the opportunity presented by this conference to resolve knotty national issues is allowed to elude the nation by our ruling elites. What is unfortunate about the current non-challant and nothing-can-happen attitude of the federation’s ruling elites is that by the time the error turns to a mistake, it may be too late to rescue the Nigerian project. The reality of the Nigerian situation is that genuine and agreeable restructuring is inevitable...
Apart from the twenty-five per cent derivation formula demand by the South-South delegates at the confab, there is the lop-sided number of states and local government councils in favour of the northern part of the country; That is one defect of the federation...
The current ruling elites in the nation must not allow things to further degenerate because “it takes less time to do a thing right than it does to explain why you did it wrong,” according to Henry Wadsworth Long Fellow. It will be a belaboured explanation for any leader to tell the world why the Nigerian nation failed when such a leader had the opportunity of salvaging the situation when in power...
Walter Lippman sums it up when he said “The final test of a leader is that he leaves behind him in other men the conviction and the will to carry on.” The way it is in the past and today, Obasanjo could not be said to have left in other Nigerians, especially those from the Southern part of the nation, the conviction and the will to carry on....
South-South and the Nigeria project Vanguard Friday, June 24, 2005 Personal View by Mobolaji Sanusi
Executive Lawlessness as recipe for Instability
What does a beneficiary of a judgment delivered by the apex court in the land do when the executive arm of government refuses to abide by the judgment and carry out the orders given by the court in the judgment? Does he resign himself to fate and leave everything to God the ultimate Judge? Or will he be justified to take laws into his hands since the other party has chosen to snub the judgment of the highest court in the country?...
In the lead judgment delivered by the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Muhammed Lawal Uwais on December 10 2004, the Supreme Court declared among others that it is unlawful and contrary to the provisions of the constitution for the Federal Government to suspend or withhold for any period whatsoever the statutory allocation in respect of the old 20 Local Government Councils as he has no power to do so under the constitution.
The court then went ahead to make a consequential order compelling the Federal Government to pay immediately all outstanding statutory allocation due to these 20 Local Government Councils as well as an order of perpetual injunction restraining the President or any functionaries or agencies of the executive from withholding the monies. The court summed up the judgment saying, “the plaintiff’s (Lagos State Government) action succeeds, all the reliefs sought are granted but applicable only to the 20 Local Government Areas specified in part 1 of the First Schedule to the constitution. The counter claim by the defendant succeeds in part.”
President Obasanjo has however refused to give effect to the judgment of the Supreme Court arguing that the names of the old 20 Local Government Councils in Lagos State who are entitled to allocation from the Federation Account have been altered and as such they no longer exist. He insists that unless and until the state reverts to the old 20 Local Government Councils there will be no allocation to any Local Government Areas in Lagos State. Governor Bola Tinubu of Lagos State on his own part is contending that reverting to the old councils amounts to going contrary to the Supreme Court judgment which affirmed the power of the state government to create the additional 37 Local Government Councils and as such it is beyond him to do.
...“flagrant disobedience to court order by the Executive arm of government was more entrenched under a military dictatorship. But in a democratic dispensation, it is an aberration, except for the likes of President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe. However, in view of latest developments in Nigeria, particularly with the utter disobedience to various court orders from Awka to Enugu to Abuja, it is obvious that we have a variant of Mugabe on our hands particularly the flagrant disobedience to the order of the Supreme Court that the seized local government allocation of Lagos State be released immediately.”
Going down memory lane, Mr Akinnola cited instances under the military regimes where the authorities disobeyed the orders of court and the attitude of some judges to such denigration of the judiciary. He also gave a diary of government disobedience to court orders under the present political dispensation. These include: refusal of government to re-instate the security details of Governor Chris Ngige of Anambra State despite Appeal Court order; refusal of the Nigerian Army to re-instate dismissed ECOMOG soldiers despite Court of Appeal order; refusal of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) to obey the decision of an Awka High Court, nullifying the purported expulsion of Governor Chris Ngige of Anambra State from PDP and the refusal of the Federal Government to give effect to the judgment of the Supreme Court in the case of AG Lagos State V AG of the Federation and 35 others in respect of environmental and urban planning in the state. Mr Akinnola submitted that the refusal of the Obasanjo-led Federal Government to release Lagos State local government councils allocation in obedience to the order of the Supreme Court is “a collective assault on the psyche of Nigerians and this has to be resisted.”...
Thus it is obvious that like the Bourbons of old, the current operators of the political system would seem to have learnt and forgotten nothing. However, if they do not wish to suffer the same fate as that of the ancien regime, they are better advised to retrace their steps from utter contempt and disregard for the rule of law and the tenets of liberal democracy. Executive lawlessness has no place under elected, constitutional government and the earlier this is grasped by all concerned, the better for the health of the republic.”...
Summarising his lecture, Professor Oyebode submitted that “the happenings on the political front since the country’s return to civil rule have not provided cause for cheer regarding the future democracy in Nigeria. It seems the various factions and fractions of the ruling class are yet to imbibe the democratic ethos. Thus far the country seems to have been attempting to run a democratic set-up without fully committed democrats.
There are increasing signs of a reverse to the irreverent and unacceptable habits of unelected, praetorian rule characterised by executive lawlessness.”
Executive Lawlessness as recipe for Instability Vanguard By Kayode Matthew Posted to the Web: Friday, June 24, 2005
Revolt of the South-South
....The first is that oil is the curse of Nigeria...
... As the sale of crude oil brought enormous resources, and easy money, with our excess crude earnings now about N1.15 trillion, the country became indolent. Government officials looted the oil money, and awarded oil blocks and other facilities to themselves, their agents and friends. States and regions which were established as centres of economic activity prior to 1969 became rent-collection units. The Federal Government collected oil revenue, and states went to Abuja to collect their share….
...The bitter, second lesson, is that this easy money did not translate into development, rather it encouraged greed, and a desperation for the control of the Federal Government, and its increasing powers. In practical terms, every other economic resource in the country was abandoned: the Western region which had been sustained by cocoa, and other resources and 50 per cent derivation suddenly stopped being creative; the North abandoned its groundnut pyramids, its hides and skin, the Middle Belt closed down its tin mines, ignored its reserves of uranium, and in the East, the coal mines, home of about the finest grade of coal in the world, were left to grow into bushes. Farmers across the country deserted the villages, everyone wanted to be in the city to share out of oil money. Oil had become gold, and it was proudly referred to as the national cake….
...If the oil resources had been distributed on a just and equitable basis, perhaps there would have been no problem. But while the rest of the country lived in open affluence, spending the proceeds of oil exploration, the people of the Niger Delta whose soil and waters produce the oil wealth which accounts for 95 per cent of Nigeria's contemporary resource base, wallowed in abject poverty. The Niger Delta is not just an endangered region, since the days of the Royal Niger Company, its people have grown from poverty to poverty; and throughout this history, they have resisted this marginalisation, this injustice: it is the refusal to listen to them that has now radicalised the entire region fully and irretrievably….
...For over 40 years, the Nigerian state has refused to address the key question of nationhood, and transform itself properly into a nation-state with a shared consensus on its identity and future. An invidious kind of conspiracy has sustained Nigeria as a country of many nations, surrounded by the explosives of political, economic and social differences...
...And again, in 2001, rather than address the defects in the 1999 Constitution, inherited from the military, the Obasanjo government had tried to re-invent the Petroleum Decree of 1969, which the Babangida administration had abrogated, by re-introducing the onshore-offshore dichotomy in determining the allocation of oil and gas revenue...
...The first lesson to be extracted from this- the walk-out by South-South delegates, the refusal of Northern delegates to give the South-South free scope for its demands, and the adjournment of the Conference - is that there is no way Nigeria can run away from its own national questions. Even if the Conference is aborted, the issue would come up another day, for it is about POWER and RESOURCES and ultimately the survival of the Nigerian state....
...It is curious that there is so much furore over derivation; for before 1969, this was not the case. Section 34 (I) of the 1960 Constitution as well as Section 140 (I) of the 1963 Republican Constitution provided 50 per cent derivation. The civil war changed this, and by 1969 with the Petroleum Decree of that year introduced by the Gowon government, the Federal Government discarded the revenue formula that had been agreed by the regions and the federal government in 1954. The Gowon government introduced this decree to establish full federal control over the oil resources; it was the prize that the Nigerian government awarded itself for winning the civil war...
...Successive governments found it convenient to hold on to this power over resources, and the unitary state that had emerged. As the sale of crude oil brought enormous resources, and easy money, with our excess crude earnings now about N1.15 trillion, the country became indolent. Government officials looted the oil money, and awarded oil blocks and other facilities to themselves, their agents and friends. States and regions which were established as centres of economic activity prior to 1969 became rent-collection units. The Federal Government collected oil revenue, and states went to Abuja to collect their share....
...The bitter, second lesson, is that this easy money did not translate into development, rather it encouraged greed, and a desperation for the control of the Federal Government, and its increasing powers. In practical terms, every other economic resource in the country was abandoned: the Western region which had been sustained by cocoa, and other resources and 50 per cent derivation suddenly stopped being creative; the North abandoned its groundnut pyramids, its hides and skin, the Middle Belt closed down its tin mines, ignored its reserves of uranium, and in the East, the coal mines, home of about the finest grade of coal in the world, were left to grow into bushes. Farmers across the country deserted the villages, everyone wanted to be in the city to share out of oil money. Oil had become gold, and it was proudly referred to as the national cake...
If the oil resources had been distributed on a just and equitable basis, perhaps there would have been no problem. But while the rest of the country lived in open affluence, spending the proceeds of oil exploration, the people of the Niger Delta whose soil and waters produce the oil wealth which accounts for 95 per cent of Nigeria's contemporary resource base, wallowed in abject poverty. The Niger Delta is not just an endangered region, since the days of the Royal Niger Company, its people have grown from poverty to poverty; and throughout this history, they have resisted this marginalisation, this injustice: it is the refusal to listen to them that has now radicalised the entire region fully and irretrievably.
The people have turned their anger on oil companies, and the Nigerian state, and they have produced heroes of their own struggle in the process. Every Nigerian government tries to resolve the issue through legalism or the introduction of development projects that are in the real sense anti-development in orientation and execution, or at best no more than mere tokenisms. But the solution is political. It is so to the extent that it is about federalism; and the creation of a Nigerian state in which every Nigerian can be a shareholder, and a contributor, not a parasite, or rent-collector...
The only solution is for Nigeria to return to its pre-1969 position on revenue allocation, whereby every state shall be entitled to 50 per cent derivation. The victorious argument cannot be that of the lazy parasite, or the venal rent-collector such as is being articulated by the political North, or as previously disingenuously argued in Bala Usman's pamphlet, The Misrepresentation of Nigeria in which he argues that the North should be entitled to 60 per cent of oil revenue because the oil and gas resources in the Niger Delta were formed by deposits that flowed from the North. Nothing can be more simple-minded, and it is clear that the people of the South-South would never be persuaded by this brand of unscientific politics, which sadly has many adherents in the North.
The principle of resource control is not for the South-South alone; it is in fact meant to benefit the whole of Nigeria. Which is why it needs not become a South-South vs North affair, although the truth is that it is the present status quo that has sustained Northern feudalism. If states control their resources, then the Federal Government would become weaker, Abuja would become less attractive and there would be a greater emphasis on productivity and development as each state would have to start thinking more creatively about how to manage its own resources. The impasse is also not about oil alone: other related issues that would need to be re-examined and resolved include the nature and future of the Nigerian state, the collection and management of the Value Added Tax, the Land Use Act and Constitutional Review.
Whatever happens, we can only either address these problems once and for all, in keeping with the democratic spirit, or risk the infernal danger of eternal repetitiveness or postpone the evil day. Resource control is both the way to the past, and the way forward for Nigeria: we can only ignore it, over-politicise it, or force the wrong issues, at our own peril. The radical youths of the Niger Delta, those "children of Ken Saro-Wiwa" in the creeks and the oil producing communities are the ones who hold the key to that evil day not the politicians and their dubious rhetoric...
Revolt of the South-South Guardian Friday June 24 2005 Editorial By Reuben Abati
Biafran flag, currency flood Calabar
Sunday Independent June 12 2005
Bassey Inyang
Calabar
The flag and currency notes of the defunct Republic of Biafra have surfaced in Calabar, the Cross River State capital.
At different sections of the town, the flags could be seen hanging in strategic corners, especially areas close to public institutions.
Although no arrest has been made as a result of the development, it is generally believed that the emergence of the flag and currencies could be traced to the activities of the Movement for the Survival of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB) whose activists have invaded Cross River State with a view to carrying out their pro-Biafra campaign.
Sunday Independent’s investigation revealed that MASSOB has commenced a mass recruitment of members in the state.
In line with the development that has caused serious concern in the state within government and private circles, security agencies have stepped up measures to track down members of MASSOB responsible for the action.
As one of the measures aimed as stopping MASSOB activists in the state, the State Security Services (SSS) last week invited some leaders of the Igbo community in the state for discussion on the issue.
Sources at the meeting, who pleaded anonymity, told Sunday Independent that some of the leaders were quizzed and advised to dissuade their youths from propagating the message of MASSOB in the state.
The sources further disclosed that the leaders were admonished not to engage in any action that could led to the breakdown of law and order in Cross River State, moreso as the state was a tourism destination in Nigeria.
At the weekend, Sunday Independent still discovered that some of the flags were still displayed in business areas in Calabar metropolis.
Few weeks ago, an activist of MASSOB was jailed in Asaba, the Delta State capital for attempting to hoist the Biafran flag.
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EFCC forced me to write statement - FUTO VC
THE Vice-Chancellor of the Federal University of Technology Owerri (FUTO), Professor E. Njoku, on Wednesday appeared before the House committee probing the N55 million bribery scandal rocking the National Assembly, stating that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) made him write a statement under duress.
Njoku, who could not recall the date he was summoned by the EFCC in connection with a petition linking him to a bribery case on the 2005 budget, said also that the EFCC had planned to dictate a statement to him, although he insisted against such bid.
He told the House Committee on Ethics and Privileges that on appearing before the EFCC, “they asked me to make a statement and then they said the statement would be dictated to me but I refused and said no.”
The vice chancellor said “they forced me to sign something and I did,” adding that he complied easily because he was traumatised by the name of EFCC, even right from the point that he was summoned. Njoku told the committee he never offered money to any of the legislators named by President Olusegun Obasanjo to have collected the bribe from him on behalf of the former minister of education.
He expressed surprise at what he called the contradictory reports on the alleged bribery involving the National Assembly members, stating that he only read about the supposed statements allegedly written by him for the EFCC on the pages of newspapers.
Prof. Njoku also claimed that he never knew he was being quizzed based on issues of the 2005 budget, adding that he only got to know about this during the interrogation by the House of Representatives committee.
Njoku also stated that he was not aware of any illegal jacking up of the budget of some universities in the 2005 budget, although the House Committee Chairman on Education, Honourable Garba Matazu, had earlier admitted that the 2005 budget was jacked up to the tune of N150 million, with FUTO as a beneficiary.
The vice-chancellor further denied being ordered by the former minister of education to provide the sum of N25 million to the National Assembly Committee on Education.
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Balogun arrested over theft of crude oil, N70b police fund
•As he drags FG, EFCC to court
MORE facts have emerged on why the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) arrested the immediate past Inspector General of Police, Mr. Tafa Balogun.
Balogun, according to the EFCC, is suspected to have aided those behind the theft of crude oil and vandalism of oil pipelines. He is also said to have been arrested to account for the N70 billion the government voted for the Nigeria Police in 2004 and the N3 billion Shell Petroleum Development Company paid for law enforcement in 2003 and funds released by other oil companies for the same purpose.
Narrating his experience at the 33rd management training programme organised by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) in Abuja, the EFCC chairman, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, said when the commission decided to confront illegal oil bunkering and vandalism of oil pipelines and sought the assistance of the police and the navy, only the navy cooperated with the commission, while Mr. Balogun allegedly became a stumbling block.
“We wanted to work closely with the police and the navy because we did not have the capacity on the ground to arrest these people . We got some cases but the police later decided to call it off. “I visited Balogun for cooperation but he frustrated us in our work, including the fight against vandalism. We wanted them to train our newly recruited staff by using police facilities because I believe we have some of the best people in Nigeria today in the police force, wonderful people that have never been given the opportunity to work for this country.
Ribadu said it was during the visit that he found out that the police headquarters building had no electricity and as the elevator was not functioning, he had to walk from the ground floor to Mr. Balogun’s office on the seventh floor. After the visit, he said, “when I got out of his office, I went to the man in charge of works, a DIG, I asked him how come there is no generator to run the building, he said ‘there is a generator but we have no money to buy diesel’. Meanwhile, I knew he had over N3 billion in his account in one bank in Abuja while he is sitting there and the place he is in charge, he does not have money to run the generator. I said God, I will take up this matter, no matter what happens.”
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By Kanmal Tayo Oropo
THE Yoruba Agenda, a chronicle of demands and ideas of the Yoruba people on national governance to be presented at the ongoing national political reform conference in Abuja, was yesterday presented to a multitude of elders from the South-West geo-political zone in Lagos.
The presentation, held at the Onikan Stadium, Lagos Island was conducted in a dual language fashion. While the renowned jurist Prince Bola Ajibola explained the agenda in English Language, Baba Omojola made the translation into Yoruba Language.
Yoruba leaders who attended the event cut across political parties and groups.
In attendance were Afenifere leaders including Chiefs Rueben Fashoranti, Ayo Fasanmi, Ayo Adebanjo, Olu Falae, Bisi Akande, Mojisoluwa Akinfenwa and Ayo Adebanjo. The Yoruba Council of Elders (YCE) was led by its National Chairman, General Adeyinka Adebayo and the council's leader in Kwara State, Senator Sulaiman Salawu.
Others present at the occasion include the National Publicity Secretary of the Alliance for Democracy (AD) Otunba Dayo Adeyeye; national chairman of the National Advanced Party (NAP), Dr. Tunji Braithwaite, the Oodua People's Congress (OPC) founder, Dr. Frederick Fasehun and it's national co-ordinator, Chief Gani Adams.
According to the publication, the aim of the Yoruba political agenda "is to secure considerable autonomy for Yoruba nation within the context of a restructured Nigeria. This would entail the restructuring of the Yoruba political landscape itself.
"Presently, the Yoruba nation occupies Lagos, Ogun, Oyo, Ondo, Osun, Ekiti and parts of Kwara, Kogi, Edo and Delta states. It is our belief that the Yoruba nation located in Lagos, Ogun, Oyo, Ondo, Osun and Ekiti states should be grouped together to form a region or zone. The Yoruba people in Kwara, Kogi, Edo and Delta states should be given the right to decide whether to join the Western region/zone or not," the people demanded.
Other requests of the South-West zone include:
- institutionalisation of the concept of federalism into the command structure of the armed forces;'
- regional police;
- adoption of six functional national capitals, one in each of the six geo-political zones;
- a federalised judiciary where the composition of the Supreme Court must reflect the zonal structure;
- practice of true federalism; and
- secularity of the Nigerian State.
Ajibola said that there was a general consensus on the Yoruba Agenda and that any Yoruba member of the on-going National Dialogue that said anything contrary to the provisions of the Agenda would have to answer to the people.
He also declared that it had been discovered that there is nothing in the Yoruba Agenda that is not in tandem with the aspirations of the people of the South-East, the South-South and the North-Central.
Most of the Yoruba elders commended the recent effort of President Olusegun Obasanjo to fight corruption in the country, but wondered why he left it so late into his administration.
Falae expressed concern that it took President Obasanjo six years into his administration before taking the serious step.
"We praise the belated effort of the President. But one must point out that the same thing goes on in states and so, the search-light must also be beamed on them and not only on the Federal Government", he said.
He also noted that as a former Minister of Finance, even though he served a military government, he never had course to lobby anyone for budgetary approval, describing the Fabian Osuji case as unfortunate.
But Chief Dayo Adeyeye insisted that the President's anti-corruption crusade is just a ruse meant to satisfy his foreign friends.
He expressed surprise that six years into the administration only one person has been convicted of corruption under the Obasanjo administration, and wondered what had happened to those that had been indicted in the past.
Salawu, speaking on the agitation of the Yoruba of Kwara State, said that the splitting of the Yoruba nation into two in Nigeria is a mistake of the powers that be, which must be corrected at the national political conference.
"The Yoruba of Kwara and Kogi in the present arrangement have always been held in contempt and victimised," he said.
There were also representatives of Isekiri and Urhobo groups during the presentation, which was adopted by a team of consultants to the Technical Committee, which had as its chairman Dr. Yemi Farounbi. Others members are Kola Awodehin (SAN), Sen. Yinka Omilani, Jimi Agbaje, Olu Maduka, Yinka Odumakin, Femi Otubanjo, Richard Akinjide and Kunle Olajide among others.
A mild drama, almost ensued when a representative of the Lagos State governor, Bola Tinubu, introduced the former Osun State governor, Chief Bisi Akande, as the chairman of the Alliance for Democracy. This was shortly after a show of comradeship, hugging and backslapping, between Akande and Senator Akinfenwa, the factional national chairmen of the party. A few minutes later, Akinfenwa stormed out of the venue even before the formal presentation of the Yoruba Agenda.One of the Afenifere leaders played down the seeming ill feeling. He told The Guardian that: "There is no problem. Can't you see the two of them hugging each other? They even sat together. It is you press that sometimes blow this thing out of order". But the factional crisis within the AD may still be far from over, Senator Akinfenwa sounded furious when he accused the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) of being peopled by very corrupt people.
His words: "It is you younger generation of Nigerians I pity the most. How can a court of law gave a ruling, which was duly served on the INEC not to recognise any of the two contending factions, yet INEC declared its recognition of a particular faction and everyone is just merely looking on".
He also wondered why people are saying that he is President Obasanjo's surrogate in the AD.
"Obasanjo is my friend, but if he is truly behind me, would he be watching on while INEC perpetrates the illegality", he queried.It was also observed that contrary to usual practice during Yoruba ethnic nationality gatherings where members of the Oodua Peoples Congress (OPC) provided security, a new organisation, United Self Determination Platform of Oodua (USDPO) appeared to be in charge.
According to Gani Adams, there are many associations in Yoruba land and USDPO is just one of the those that emerged from OPC.
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•PDP senators demand freedom to pick replacement
•Caucus meeting continues today
By CHUKS OHUEGBE, Abuja and UCHE OSIBE, Awka
Embattled Senate President, Adolphus Wabara yesterday caved in and sought a face-saving formula to resign from his position.
The development was a fall-out of a meeting of the principal suspects in the N55m bribery scandal with members of the PDP National Working Committee, NWC in Abuja yesterday. Though NewAge could not confirm the party’s position it was learnt that the NWC members may have accepted to study Wabara’s plea. According to a national officer, “he agreed to resign as he no longer possesses the moral justification to remain as Senate President.” Our source hinted that the development resulted in the senate president’s lateness to the party’s caucus meeting held moments later at the National Assembly, adding that PDP National Chairman, Senator Ahmadu Ali, alongside “two other top leaders” were at the meeting.
Meanwhile, PDP members of the Senate yesterday called on the Presidency to allo! w them a free hand in the choice of who replaces Wabara .
The PDP Senate caucus meeting continues today after the over two-hour session yesterday, which according to insiders was stormy as lawmakers told the party’s national chairman, Ahmadu Ali that no longer must President Olusegun Obasanjo be allowed to foist leadership on them.
Confirming the development, Senator Dalhatu Tafida told reporters after the meeting that “we told Ali that the President foists leadership on us at all times, but we will no longer take it.” Continuing the lawmakers said, “we have resolved to have our own leadership if there is going to be any election. We are squarely facing the global problem it has caused.” Though Ali told journalists that “we finished amicably” before going into another meeting with members of the House of Representatives, he did not give details of deliberations.
NewAge was told by another Senate source that “there was a consensus in our sweeping critici! sm of President Obasanjo’ broadcast on the matter.”
According t o the source , the presidency prefers a new Senate President from Ebonyi State while “most of us from the South-East want somebody from Enugu.” Earlier yesterday, Senators fingered by the EFCC in the Senate bribery scandal met with top leadership of the party at the PDP national secretariat in Abuja.
Meanwhile, The ANPP said today that it was yet to receive a report from the presidency on the involvement of one of its members in the alleged N55 million bribery scandal. ANPP's national secretary, Malam Sani el-Katuzu, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN)yesterday in Abuja, that the party had not received any official correspondence from the Presidency on the matter. ``I confirm to you that I have not seen any letter or request on this issue from the Presidency. I had earlier told you that as soon as ANPP received the request we (the party) will act accordingly,'' el-Katuzu said.
The President had told the nation that the leadership of the affected political pa! rties (PDP and ANPP), on whose platform the alleged corrupt legislators got elected, and the National Assembly leadership would be requested to investigate and take appropriate disciplinary actions against the culprits.
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Jokolo: Stoking the embers of disunity
Nnamdi Okosieme
reporter, Lagos
When President Olusegun Obasanjo mooted the idea of a national conference he definitely knew he would be opening up a flood of criticisms. Given Nigeria’s ethnic and religious diversity, particularly against the backdrop of complaints of marginalisation, a storm of protests was expected. And it did come.
Elder statesman, Anthony Enahoro and renowned writer, Wole Soyinka and some elements in the civil society groups under the aegis of the Pro National Conference Organisations, PRONACO criticized the terms of reference of the conference describing them as not broad enough to satisfy the many expectations of Nigerians. They vowed to organise a parallel conference in June and are working assiduously towards it.
While PRONACO faulted the conference on the basis of agenda, Muslim leaders joined issues with Obasanjo for what they termed the lopsidedness of the president’s selection of delegates in favour of Christians. They vowed to press on until the matter is addressed. At a meeting of the Jamaatu Nasil Islam,JNI, in Kaduna last month the body said the appointment of Christians chairman and secretary of the conference was part of a grand design by the Obasanjo administration to assign Muslims a “subordinate” position. The JNI’s Deputy National President, Mustapha Jokolo, who is also the emir of Gwandu, chaired that meeting.
In a bid to stave off further criticisms from Muslims, Obasanjo two weeks ago appointed Ishaq Oloyede, a Muslim and deputy Vice-Chancellor of the University of Ilorin as co-secretary of the conference. The appointment of the professor seems not to have achieved the desired result, as the JNI is still up in arms.
This week in Kaduna the group under the chairmanship of the Sultan of Sokoto, Muhammadu Maccido met. At the end of the emergency meeting, the JNI issued a seven-day ultimatum to the Obasanjo government to redress the imbalance at the conference or they would rise to defend their rights.
Reports indicate that the meeting was a stormy one. Attended by the cream of northern Muslims, tempers ran very high. Even the Head of Service of the Federation, HOS, Yayale Ahmed, sent by President Obasanjo to deliver a goodwill message barely escaped physical assault as he was said to have been called a “ betrayer and an imperialist stooge against Islam.”
At the head of the onslaught against the Obasanjo regime was Jokolo. A former soldier, he is not known to pull punches. His penchant for saying things no matter the consequences is well known. In 2003 in the build up to the presidential elections, the Vice-president Atiku Abubakar in a visit to Kaduna in January called on northerners not to mix politics with religion, Jokolo reacted angrily describing the vice-president’s call as belated. He said that the north was “unhappy to hear such talk. If anybody starts showing religious differences - with some saying we only want a Muslim, others saying we only want a Christian and so on - it will bring an unpleasant disagreement among us," the emir said.
"If a Muslim person chooses a Christian person as their running mate - or vice versa - and if he wins the elections and then dies, what would happen then? The vice president becomes president, don't they?"
At this week’s meeting in Kaduna, he had lost none of his fire. He pointedly accused Obasanjo of having a hidden agenda to eliminate Islam and its adherents in Nigeria. According to the embittered emir:
“ We have been following keenly, since the coming of the Obasanjo government, all its policies are aimed at totally marginalizing the north and its people. Virtually all the sectors of our national life, the north and Muslims have been marginalized. Today the highest military officer the north has is a colonel.”
Not done he puts the Obasanjo government on notice that “unless the president and his government are prepared to correct all these injustices against us, we must rise up to defend our rights”.
Jokolo’s tirade is not new. Since he assumed office as the 19th Emir of Gwandu in 1997, he has become a crusader for Islam. Since the adoption of the Sharia legal system by the Zamfara State, he has been in the forefront in the crusade for the entrenchment of the system in as many states in the north as possible. In fact during a conference of Sharia by northern Muslim leaders and traditional rulers in 2000 he was said to have advised traditional rulers to drop their opposition to the system or risk falling into irrelevance.
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DESERTED •Wabara out in the cold...As Senators dump him
By JACOB EDI, Abuja, Kenny Ashaka, Kaduna
Thursday, March 31, 2005
In a radical departure from their earlier stance to sink or swim with their embattled President, Chief Adolphus Wabara, a large number of Senators are now poised to save their political careers, opting to throw Wabara to the sharks.
The senators plotted throughout Wednesday night, trying to find a soft-landing for the embattled Senate helmsman, and the question on the lips of most of them at the Apo legislative quarters and the National Assembly complex was not whether Wabara will go, but how to secure a face-saving exit for the indicted man.
Sources also told Daily Sun that at several meetings on Tuesday night at the residence of a two-term senator from Benue State, the senators in attendance expressed concern over the damage already done to the credibility of the senate, especially by President Obasanjo’s nation-wide broadcast.
This development is coming on the heels of disclosures that the leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party [PDP] Wednesday failed to persuade Wabara to resign his position after two separate meetings in Abuja. The senate president was said to have opted for a judicial resolution of the crisis, rather than a political one, which will see him quitting his plum job.
After about three- hour meeting between PDP’s National Working Committee and the party’s Senate caucus at its Wadata Plaza headquarters, the senators were said to have demanded that the presidency remove its hands from goings-on at the upper legislative chambers having done sufficient damage to its credibility.
Senate leader, Dalhatu Tafida, said: "We are only thinking of the way forward so that we can prevent the occurrence of either disagreement between us and the president of the federal republic or between us and the party and apparently we understand ourselves
better now."
However, n! either the leadership of the PDP nor the senate officially accepted to confirm to newsmen details of Wednesday’s meeting which held behind closed doors.
"Something happened and we are trying to look at it squarely. We have resolved to choose our leader ourselves at the senate if there is any election", Tafida said.
But deputy senate president, Alhaji Ibrahim Mantu, was evasive when confronted on the outcome of the meeting. He instead chose to be sarcastic. "It was a family affair. Ali is like a father who came to see how his children are faring. But the meeting was successful."
Earlier, the PDP National Working Committee had met with all the legislators who were indicted in the N55million bribery scandal.
Wabara arrived the PDP secretariat at 1.09pm and left at 1.50pm, beaming with smiles, as if oblivious of the crisis at hand. He was in company of Senators Emmanuel Okpede, David Mark, Azuta Mbata, Adighije and Azuta Mbata.
Honorable Osita Izunaso! and Shehu Matazu were also at the PDP secretariat. But none of them a greed to talk on what they discussed with the leadership of the party.
Indeed, Matazu was dramatic about his own escape. As soon as he left the third floor of the party secretariat, he quickly rushed into a waiting Toyota RAV 4 mini-jeep, which seemed to be strategically packed to aid quick escape, ordered the driver to zoom-off, leaving reporters with mouth wide open.
Meanwhile, Chairman of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) in the 19 northern states and Abuja, Archbishop Peter Jatau, has asked Chief Wabara to resign.
Archbishop Jatau, who is also the Catholic Bishop of Kaduna Diocese said the sit-tight kind of attitude being exhibited by the embattled Senate President has the tendency to exacerbate corrupt practices in the country.
"Nigeria is a terrible place. If this thing (N55million bribery scandal) had happened in England or in America, once somebody in high public office is found wanting, even if there are no facts brought, the very fact t! hat his name is mentioned, he would resign.
"But here, people who have been found to be corrupt still want to remain in their seats. This kind of attitude will further encourage corruption. There are laws in this country. Irrespective of whoever he/she is, once the person is found guilty, that person should face the wrath of the law. There should be no sacred cows."
Corruption in high places
Jatau said that he was not surprised at the revelations because he had always known that there is corruption in high places.
"And we have been saying that in order to minimize corruption in Nigeria, we must start from the top. If there is corruption in the presidency, National Assembly, among governors, state houses of assembly, how can you stop it? But if the top is not corrupt then we can fight corruption successfully. But as long as the top is corrupt, there is no way you can fight corruption successfully in this country.
"If you as the father and head of the ! family tell your children not to take anything alcoholic but if they k now their father is an alcoholic, I think they will say ‘our Baba must be enjoying this thing, let us try and see what he is gaining from it’. But one day it will blow up. And I think it is better late than never.
"Nuhu Ribadu should go deeper. If there is further investigation, many people will be caught. If this is done the better because there is no other way we can fight corruption except we start it from the top. If, for instance, Obasanjo is corrupt, what courage will he have to tell his ministers and also the National Assembly members not to be corrupt? He (Obasanjo) will have no moral right to tell his subordinates not to be corrupt".
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I Signed Statement Under Duress, Says VC
This Day (Lagos)
March 31, 2005
Posted to the web March 31, 2005
Ahamefula Ogbu
Abuja
Vice Chancellor of the Federal University of Technology, Owerri, Professor Jude Njoku, yesterday told the House of Representatives Committee on Ethics and Privileges probing the bribe-for-budget scandal that he was forced to sign a statement prepared by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commis-sion (EFCC).
President Olusegun Obasanjo, acting on the report of an EFCC investigation, had in his broadcast on the scandal Tuesday last week indicted Chairman House Committee on Appro-priations, Hon. Gabriel Suswam, Chairman Committee on Education, Hon. Garba Shehu Matazu and Chairman House Committee on Housing, Hon. Osita Izunaso of collecting N10 million bribe from Njoku during the 2004 budgeting process.
Njoku yesterday, however, denied giving bribe to any of the lawmakers, saying that his alleged involvement in the scandal was as confusing as it was surprising to him.
"I was invited by the EFCC and when I went there, they asked me if I gave bribe to the lawmakers to increase my budget in 2004 by N150 million and I said no. They asked me to write my statement, which I agreed to. They at a stage started to dictate to me what to write and I refused to write that. Later they brought a statement and forced me to sign.
"Finding myself in such a situation was a harrowing experience. The last place I expected myself was the EFCC. Given my training and experience as an academician, I was hysterical and out of control. I was so devastated as EFCC was supposed to investigate people on financial crimes and I became afraid. I asked myself what I had to do with such an organisation," he said.
Asked when he was invited by the EFCC, he said it was sometime between late January and early February, adding that he was so traumatised by the experience that he found it difficult to coordinate himself.
Asked if he gave any bribe to Suswam, Izunaso or Matazu, he replied in the negative, saying that he had only met Suswam once and may not be able to identify him if he sees him now.
He said he does not know Izunaso and could not have offered him bribe but admitted knowing Matazu who he said invited all the Vice Chancellors in the federation for the usual meetings preceding their budget defences.
According to him, he had in 2002, written a letter to the Senate President, House Speaker and some members of both chambers especially in Appropriation Committee to seek their understanding in approving enough funds for personnel cost and other monies for the opening of new departments and courses.
He said it was in the course of distributing the letters and seeking for the assistance of the lawmakers that he met Suswam.
Asked why he did not address the press immediately after leaving the EFCC to the effect that he was forced to sign a document he did not author, he said that as a civil servant who should not talk to the press, it did not occur to him that was the right step to take.
On how he felt now that his name was linked to bribery, he replied, "I feel devastated, debased and very very sad. It is very unfortunate, coming just three months after I was named the best Vice Chancellor in the country. I feel something is behind it; there is a deliberate attempt to destroy me. I must tell you that I was thoroughly devastated and I have not been able to eat properly since that day."
On whether he was aware that his budget was increased by N150 million for which he was alleged to have given N10 million to the lawmakers, he said he was not aware as all he got was the budget he asked for.
On whether he was given a copy of the document he said he was forced to sign by the EFCC, he answered in the negative, "If taken unawares even when you are at your best, you can act like the most stupid man."
Izunaso, Suswam and Matazu had earlier denied collecting bribe from the Vice Chancellor. Suswam in his testimony said that he never met Njoku in the course of appropriations work.
Suswam said that even the report of the EFCC was not dated and had a different kind of presentation from the one signed by the commission's chairman, Alhaji Nuhu Ribadu.
He said though the report stated that investigation was yet to be concluded, the President went ahead to make conclusive statements in his broadcast by portraying him as having collected bribe.
Izunaso also washed his hands off anything concerning the issue. Matazu, however, admitted knowing Njoku just like every other varsity vice chancellor but denied taking bribe.
On the N55 million bribe allegedly collected from sacked Education Minister, Professor Fabian Osuji, Matazu said the only interaction that came close to what the President alleged in his broadcast was when members of his committee were invited to a dinner after which Osuji said his Finance Director would reach them.
He said that he was later called by the ministry to come and collect the message and he sent the secretary of the committee to collect it, adding, "When it was brought, it was in an envelope and when I opened it, there was N100,000 for me and N50,000 for each member so I returned it to the ministry. I told those who wanted it to go to the ministry and collect it.
He also admitted being invited to a meeting with the minister and the Senate President with some others but denied that he shared from any money that was allegedly given. He swore by Allah that he did not collect any money if the minister gave it.
Matazu said he learnt of the allegation through his wife who cried when he called her from Malaysia where he had gone on official assignment.
When shall Umuigbo learn to defend Umuigbo and Igbo Leaders?
1. Obasanjo`s selective Justice: Minister, Prof. Osuji arrested, detained and dismissed via national broadcast while IG Tafa Balogun was honourably retired.
Awo and Asari Dokubo
By Reuben Abati
Guardian 25.03.05
THE other day, Asari Dokubo, an Ijaw freedom-fighter, went on television, in Lagos, in Yoruba territory, and abused the late Chief Obafemi Awolowo. He had been invited for an interview by the Lagos Television, LTV 8, a station that was established under the aegis of an Awolowo government led by Alhaji Lateef Jakande in the Second Republic. In the course of the interview, Dokubo started saying something about Awo being a devil.
Dokubo was doing something rather reckless: he was using a Yoruba platform in Yoruba territory, to condemn a Yoruba icon. The interviewer tried to steer him away from this line of talk, but Asari Dokubo refused. Here is a man who forced himself into public reckoning out of nowhere, and earned a reputation for raw gangsterism and bravura in 2004 when he took on the entire Obasanjo government and the multinationals and threatened to blow up all oil installations in the Niger Delta. The Federal Government had to call him to a meeting in Abuja. They gave him royal treatment and begged him. And he became a hero of sorts.
In Lagos however, he was looking for trouble. When he stepped out of the studio, he was confronted by a Yoruba "nationalist", and something of a scuffle ensued. Before long, a detachment of the militant wing of Yoruba politics, the Oodua Peoples Congress arrived at LTV 8 to teach Dokubo a lesson for denigrating Awo's memory. But either luckily or unluckily, Dokubo had left the LTV premises before the OPC arrived. He apparently realised that he had stirred the hornet's nest, so he reportedly went straight to the airport and out of Yoruba territory. Since then, the OPC leader, Gani Adams has demanded an apology. Dokubo has also been banned from Yorubaland until further notice. But he is insisting that he does not owe anybody any apology. "I'm battle ready", he says, adding that if he is attacked, thousands of Yoruba souls "will go". In an interview with The Champion, he even repeated the offence: "Awolowo was a devil and his policies led to the present problems that the people of the Niger Delta are fighting against." Dokubo is mistaken.
There are so many people alive today, sleeping and waking up and performing all the rituals of living, but whose total existence amounts to nothing. They are no better than mere footnotes to the grand events of existence; they are an embarrassment even unto themselves, were they to die, no one will take note of their passing. Their graves will carry no flowers, no significance, no piece of useful history. And yet there are some people who though dead refuse to die. They continue to live on in the people's minds and lives with such force that seems physical and real, and always their significance is continually remarked upon; they rule as it were from the grave, as the people for whom they have become heroes, icons and legends refuse to allow them to die. The late Chief Obafemi Awolowo, leader of the Yoruba, Grand Commander of the Federal Republic, politician, thinker and statesman was one of those..........................
Naturally, Awo attracted so much envy, and there were all kinds of objections to his person and politics. But he had the people behind him. If any traditional ruler disrespected him, he was promptly removed from the throne and banished. Families refused to marry the daughters and sons of anyone who opposed Awo. Those who belonged to opposition parties or who made the mistake of criticizing Awo in public had their houses burnt, their vehicles destroyed, and their names dragged in the mud.
Awo died in 1987. He has been ruling Yorubaland since then from his grave. Till date, the easiest way to gain relevance in Yoruba politics is to invoke Awo's name. In 1999, the Alliance for Democracy won the election in the South-West simply by using the name of Awolowo. They lost in 2003 because they were beginning to behave as if they had found new masters, and the people were beginning to suspect that Awo's name had been taken in vain for opportunistic reasons. There were other reasons of course, but this was the strongest reason, and it was in part why the Yoruba who can be unreasonably violent when they choose to be, refused to burn down houses in 2003. Every year, Awo's birthday is celebrated with great ceremony. Living persons do not receive as much attention.
Almost on a daily basis, politicians who are seeking recognition troop to Awo's home in Ikenne, Ogun state, to pay homage at his grave, and pay obeisance to his wife. They also ensure that this is well-reported by the media afterwards. No other politician has been able to capture the people's imagination and mind with a similar force. There is even a younger generation of Yoruba who were born after Awo had died, and they too have learnt about Awo from their parents who heard part of the man's legend from their own fathers before them. From all indications, Awo is not going to die very soon as a symbol of Yoruba politics and aspirations. Thus, the protection of Awo's legacy has become a sacred Yoruba pre-occupation as if the destiny and prestige of the race is tied to this special task.
Now, this is the kind of man whom Asari Dokubo has chosen to abuse. Awo has been called worse names in the past by his critics. But when an Asari Dokubo who claims to be fighting the Ijaw cause makes very provocative and inciting statements with an ethnic colouration, he is likely to inflame passions. The assumption is that he is speaking for all Ijaw, whereas the average Ijaw man does not even think that Dokubo is anything more than an irritant. But imagine what could have happened if he had been confronted by the OPC team that went to look for him at LTV 8. He could have been assaulted or he could have been killed. And then, this would have caused serious problems between the Ijaw and the Yoruba. There would have been arguments about Dokubo's right of free speech and the intolerance of the OPC. The resultant ethnic tension could result in more killings, and battles from Lagos to the Delta creeks. And it would have been a thoroughly pointless exchange of hostilities.
What is Asari Dokubo trying to achieve? Picking up a fight with the Yoruba and the OPC does not in any way advance the Ijaw cause. Abusing the dead for the problems of the living serves little purpose; it is cowardly and crude. As Dokubo tries to learn the complexities of Nigerian politics, and seeks to make the transition from gun-slinging to power-games, he should realise, for his own good, that certain things are better left unsaid. May be the OPC is just being needlessly silly by trying to intimidate a man for no reason other than that he expressed an opinion, but the Nigerian government has a duty to call Asari Dokubo to order. Awo's place in history is secure; that of Dokubo remains unknown.
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Starvation: A Legitimate Instrument of War -- Awolowo
But we {Ndi Igbo / Biafrans] survived it all and amazed Nigeria at the speed with which we started to command enviable heights in the Nigerian economy since the 1970's. What Awolowo started has been continued by Obasanjo as he works to destroy Ibo land. Beginning with Senate Presidents of Igbo extraction, to Anambra State and Ngige and now to Osuji.
Starvation: A Legitimate Instrument of War -- Awolowo
But the master tactician had something else in mind as he paid lip service to an accord with Biafran leadership before his release from jail. As soon as he made it safely out of Biafra, he pitched his tent with General Gowon who rewarded him with appointment to the highest c! iv! ilian post in the military junta in Lagos. Awolowo also was the Minister of Finance where he had full rein on the national coffers.
His elevated position instantaneously made tens of thousands of Yoruba recruits to join the Nigerian armed forces. The command structure and bulk of foot soldiers that spearheaded the maritime invasion from the southern front were mostly Yorubas. As the Yoruba chieftain acquired more control of the federal bureaucracy, he became more aggressive and vocal in defense of federal war policies in Biafra, which included deprivation of food and medical supplies to the civilian victims of the Civil War. He was reported to have told foreign media correspondents, who expressed global outrage at the level of misery inside Biafra, that starvation was a legitimate instrument of warfare.
It was the post-war policies of Awolowo-led Ministry of Finance that inflicted the most lasting pai! n ! on those who managed to survive his starvation policy. The Biafran currency, which was the only legal tender of the survivors of the Biafran siege, was overnight declared worthless and everyone with a bank account was issued a measly N40 (40 cents US), in lieu of their deposit, to start life anew on their own. A few years afterwards, the same Ministry embarked on the process of selling off foreign-owned businesses to Nigerians who were able to pay. In that indigenization process, penury did not allow Ndigbo to participate as the collective wealth of Nigeria was handed out only to those who had the cash in hand. It could be said that Chief Awolowo was not only a proven bedfellow of the Nigerian military establishment, but he also sanctioned the tacit gang-up by the North and West to use authoritarian military rule to keep Ndigbo marginalized for the next 30 years.
People accused of treason line up outside the High Court in Lagos, Nigeria on Tuesday, March 22, ...
Nigerian Separatists Face Death Penalty
By DANIEL BALINT-KURTI, Associated Press Writer
1 hour ago
LAGOS, Nigeria - Defense lawyers and family members say the accused had gathered for a simple soccer match - but the tournament was organized by an outlawed separatist group, and now 53 people face the death penalty on charges of treason and plotting war.
At a hearing Tuesday, 52 of the defendants crowded onto wooden benches or sat on the floor of a stuffy courtroom, many still in the soccer uniforms they were wearing when they were arrested.
Jailed for half a year in the case involving Biafran separatists, they asked to be granted bail. The judge was to rule on the bail request April 11.
A defense lawyer said he feared a 53rd accused who was not in court Tuesday had died in custody. The judge said the man had been released on bail Monday, but both prosecution and defense lawyers said they had not been informed of his release.
A soccer tournament seems far removed from the 32-month war that broke out when the Republic of Biafra, an area in southeast Nigeria, declared its independence in 1967. The southeastern war killed more than 1 million people, most from starvation and disease, and saw the French and British arming opposing sides.
People in the region, which is still a part of Nigeria, say they still are discriminated against and are among many restive groups in a multiethnic country where talk of secession is sensitive.
The September soccer tournament was organized by the Movement for the Actualization of the Sovereign State of Biafra, which wants to revive the short-lived Republic of Biafra. The government says the group has been outlawed, though there has been no official decree.
Human rights groups say the group is nonviolent. It proved it has a strong following in August, when it called a stay-at-home protest that shut down large markets across southeast Nigeria.
"The whole thing is very ridiculous. They went for a football tournament. Even some of the people just selling water were arrested," defense attorney Anthony Omaghomi said after Tuesday's hearing.
He said several accused were beaten by police in failed attempts to make them sign incriminating statements.
Chris Mokwe told a reporter that his wife, Gloria Okafor, had a miscarriage in prison after being beaten by police. Mokwe said his wife had gone to the tournament only to sell water.
Lagos police spokesman Ademola Adebayo denied the accusations of abuse.
The accused have pleaded innocent to three charges: treason, plotting war against the president and the army, and interfering with the administration of the law.
In March 2003, police shot and killed seven members of the Movement for the Actualization of the Sovereign State of Biafra and arrested more than 20 to forestall a rally where they planned to make a symbolic declaration of independence.
The leader of the failed Biafra state, Emeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, now is a leading opposition politician who lost 2003 presidential elections that were widely alleged to have been rigged.
Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed._________________________________________________
BIAFRA IS ALIVE!!!
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Igbo monarchs ask FG to cancel Ogun refinery pipeline contract
Oh yes: I only addressed the modus operandi (M.O.) of the Biafran Royal
Fathers for acting under the Biafran Umbrella. The courage is inspiring.
There is still the serious matter of Obasanjo playing nepotism in broad
daylight by building a Gas Company in his home State and in his
home(Yoruba)land. Yet, Obasanjo will be the first to preach to people to put
Nigeria's interest first; but in all his acts, it is always his own selfish
interests first, then the interest of the Yoruba people next. When he
perceives serious threat from the North, he will throw something their way.
But, when it comes to the East, he, in carrying out Nigeria's long-standing
and ongoing anti-Igbo-anti-Biafran policies, actually takes away what the
East has and gives it to himself, his Yoruba kin, and to the North, in that
order. When Northern military leaders were in charge, it was similar: give
to himself/themselves; then, to the North, and if the Yoruba complained,
then a little to the Yoruba; BUT ALWAYS TAKE FROM THE EAST!
Now, if that's not maddening enough, consider that Ogun State is now
bloatedly rich enough from Obasanjo's nepotistic favoritism and patronage
that Ogun State is advertising for Igbos to come to specially created (by
Ogun State) "Igbotown" in Ogun State, presumably for the Igbo to do what
Igbo do best: be the engine for development and sustenance of all successful
and progressive edifices, projects and businesses in Nigeria.
More maddening to think that they (Obasanjo/ Nigeria) came to our
Igbo-Biafraland, stole our own resources, piped them to Ogun State, in this
case, and then turned around and "invited" our people to go over there to be
employed in refining the product. How better can you define colonialism? How
else do you define slavery?
But, the most maddening thing of all is that:
1)Igbos will respond with gratitude and alacrity to the call of Ogun State
2)Igbos will continue to support Obasanjo and his cronies, without
challenging his / their hypocrisy
3)Igbos will continue to support one-Nigeria even though it is one-Nigeria
which makes the terrible situation above possible--witness their
froth-at-the-mouth folly in Obasanjo's conference. (And, why do you think
Obasanjo keeps saying that he will die for one-Nigeria, if not to sustain
this structure which severely oppresses and robs Igbo-Biafrans to benefit
his own self and his own people?)
Now, you understand why we have had to condemn WIC in its latest press
release or document where WIC filleted Azike for begging the conference for
Igbo presidency, when WIC itself clearly supports one-Nigeria--imagine that!
It is a case of WIC "remove the log from WIC's eye first..."
Finally, we also have to also acknowledge the Biafran Royal Fathers for
taking a stand against Obasanjo-Nigeria's colonial and slavery practices
which victimize our people. Neither Ohaneze nor WIC has the clarity to even
detect this (though it is quite obvious), never mind the guts to challenge
it.
One-Nigeria makes all the evil that is Nigeria possible. Biafra is the
complete answer.
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Laying pipeline from Biafra to Yoroba land was a cheap provocation by the Yoroba. You wonder what is in their head in even trying that cheap shot; but I tell you, if everything dies out with only the so called royal monarchs expressing their anger over this cheap Yoroba provocation, then know that there is indeed a serious problem in the area.
I join you in congratulating the so called royal monarchs for taking on the name of Biafra, however. That is the way to go!
Their move was a good one. Who could fault them? Let he who would fault them also find fault with the cheap Yoroba provocation.
I only had wished that more moves such as this would be made by the Biafran people at every slightest opportunity. No more fears, for Biafra is freedom [fra] come [bia] to us, not oppression by other people even over our own God given resources. Tufiakwa!
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Date: Tue Mar 22, 2005 5:51 pm
Subject: Igbo monarchs ask FG to cancel Ogun refinery pipeline contract
"…who said they were under the umbrella of Biafran Royal Fathers …"
Courage is in! Sycophancy is out!
We want to acknowledge the courage of our fathers for identifying with Biafra. Such courage will yet be tested in the next several days as the SSS gets wind of this, and as Obasanjo hears about it, from paid Igbo saboteurs, informants and efulefu's.
We direct all our people--every Biafran--to defend and stand by anyone and any group operating under the flag of Biafra. We ask all our people to stand by the Biafran Royal Fathers and all working under that umbrella.
Do your part, now!
Biafra lives!
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Igbo monarchs ask FG to cancel Ogun refinery pipeline contract
By Felix Uka, Monday March 22nd, 2005
Daily Independent Special Correspondent, Abakaliki
Some traditional rulers drawn from the five Eastern states and South South have urged the Federal Government to cancel the contract of laying pipes from their areas to Abeokuta in Ogun State for the purposes of transporting liquified natural gas to a planned refinery in Ogun State.
The monarchs said the project is not only wasteful of the Nigerian resources but could be seen as a cheat on those from whose land the natural gas were being sourced.
In a resolution that arose from their meeting at the weekend, they expressed worries why the existing refineries were left to rot away only to turn around to build a gas refinery in another area.
Representations of the monarchs who said they were under the umbrella of Biafran Royal Fathers were Eze Ben Ikeokun (Enugu State), the Coordinator, Emma Igweokeh (Ebonyi), Augustin Uchendu (Anambra), Brenthan Okafor (Imo), Amaraegbunom Ihendu (Abia) and David Eku (Cross River).They warned some Igbo politicians whom they alleged are willing tools in the hands of those who were bent on destabilising the Igbo nation and their neighbouring South South geo-political zone.
On the planned 2005 census, they emphasised their concern that unless religion and ethnic group were in the forms to be filed they would convince their subjects not to participate in the exercise.
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WORLD IGBO CONGRESS
The Secretariat, World Igbo Congress, Inc.
1107 Drew Street, Houston, Texas 77004
STATEMENT ON THE PURPORTED ‘BEGGING FOR THE PRESIDENCY’ OF NIGERIA BY A CHIEF ZIGGY AZIKE, IMO STATE DELEGATE TO THE NATIONAL POLITICAL REFORM CONFERENCE
The World Igbo Congress (WIC) strongly repudiates the beggarly statement and most repugnant behavior attributed to one Chief Ziggy Azike, an Imo State delegate to the National Political Reforms Conference (NPRC) currently ongoing in Abuja. It has been reported that Chief Azike allegedly got on two knees to beg the delegates to the national conference that ‘the best thing they can do for Ndi-Igbo in 2007 is to vote one of our Igbo sons or daughters for President of Nigeria.’
SUBJECT: S' East importers protest auction of N5b goods
February 22 2005
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"President of Anambra State Market Amalgamated Traders Association (ASMATA), Mr. Sylvester Odife, said the affected importers should have been given at least 36 months before the ban, nothing that a lot of people would be thrown into the unemployment market."
That is the goal, make Igbo economic useless now towards an end goal of enslaving the Igbo and her children to come. This is a new type of war, the effect which is suppose to leave all of us useless if we do not stop chasing crumbs from under the enemy's tables and think bigger picture. What happened that NdiIgbo cannot think anymore, and what happened that NdiIgbo has become too simple that our land is now a perfect medium for evil. People can no longer raise decent children in our land which our fore parents left for us in peace. Something must be done NOW! or we will be finished for good.
O...
THE IGBOMAN is always the victim ! Can they do this to housa or yoruba traders?
S East importers protest auction of N5b goods By Okey Maduforo Correspondent, Awka
The South East zone of the National Association of Nigerian Importers (NANI) has protested the auctioning of containers worth N5 billion at the eastern ports, saying it is an act meant to frustrate their members. The Zonal Coordinator, Chief James Clark Onuchukwu, said in Onitsha that the 18,000 containers at Calabar, Onne and Port Harcourt ports were confiscated before the Federal Government ban on 41 items. Onuchukwu said the Alhaji Abubakar Sani Presidential Taskforce on the Auction had earlier given the importers eight months to clear the goods, but due to governments inefficiency and laxity the directive was not carried out. For government to now say the goods should be auctioned is improper. It was their fault that the eight months given were not carried out and they went to commence auctioning in seven days without prior notice. This is frustrating and points to the fact that the Igbo are once again being punished in the process, he said. He noted that for government to ban the goods, it has to give at least three years notice within which local manufacturers would have made plans to cushion the effect of the ban. He, however, lamented that the failure of their members to clear the goods was as a result of 300 percent increase on the tariff for goods imported into the country. President of Anambra State Market Amalgamated Traders Association (ASMATA), Mr. Sylvester Odife, said the affected importers should have been given at least 36 months before the ban, noting that a lot of people would be thrown into the unemployment market. Odife said this would affect importers of the Igbo extraction as majority of the goods belong to them.
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Copyright) 2004. All Rights Reserved. |
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( Umuigbo, where is our share in Nigeria ? )
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Last two weeks, I was at the departure lounge of Nnamdi Azikiwe airport Abuja waiting for a flight to Lagos. Bad weather had caused the delay of several flights. And so the lounge was brimming with agitated passengers. I squeezed myself into a seat opposite two middle-aged men, friends obviously, who looked and sounded boisterous as if their contract bids had just passed Oby Ezekwesili’’s Due Process. Indeed it was the mention of Oby’’s name by one of them that riveted my interest in their friendly bad-mouthing, what we call njakiri or yabbis.
The one with abeti aja cap was yabbing the other: "Your people are now controlling the economy. Oby Ezekwesili, Madam Due Process, decides what contracts are approved. The Minister of Finance is your sister. You are at the head of Central Bank, NAFDAC and……". But the man in red cap cut him short. "My brother, late MKO Abiola had the most apt name for what you are saying. My people are just holding the cow while someone else is milking it!" And they roared with laughter at the recall of Abiola’’s legendary repertoire of proverbs and wise-sayings. "Tell me", continued the red cap man, "How many new banks have my people established because of Soludo? Do you think that the Minister of Finance finances my people’’s business? Or don’’t you know that the victims of NAFDAC are mostly my people?" To which abeti aja man quickly added: "Because they control fake drugs business!". Now more people were taking interest, judging from the guffaw all around.
"You are right", admitted the red cap man. "But you have cleverly avoided the fact that you control the life-wire of the economy. Baba is the Petroleum Minister and Commander-in Chief. You know what that means. You are on top of NNPC. How many of my people are there at the top management level? I even hear that in the new recruitment exercise 30,000 applications came from Ogun state alone! You are heading the PPPRRA or whatever they call it. Even the Secretary is your brother.
The two major oil marketers setting the price with PPPRRA are your brothers. Over sixty per cent of the oil servicing companies, where the real billions are made is in your hands. The so-called oil multi-nationals pa pa are controlled by you! And do you know what? The MT African Pride enquiry has revealed that you have also seized the illegal bunkering business!" The two and every body around them, exploded in laughter. But the announcement of a flight compelled a momentary silence, and then a scramble. But not without a man adding as he dashed for his flight, "that was a good national conference!"
I was forced to ruminate on this airport "national conference" last week as I watched President Obasanjo announce the establishment of a US$ 70 billion Liquified Natural Gas project in Ogun State. According to the President, the Ogun LNG project will be the largest in the world! The Ogun project is in addition to the earlier announcement by the NNPC Group Managing Director, Funsho Kupolokun, a native of Ondo, of the citing of an LNG project in Ondo state.
I laughed as I remembered the airport red cap man. I wished I could put him and his abeti aja friend together once more for a "national conference". Ondo State apart from producing the NNPC Group Managing Director at least produces condensate. But Ogun State? It only produced the President! I don’’t know which of these two states produces natural gas. The logic seems to be, if you can pipe crude to Kaduna, you can pipe gas to Ogun and Ondo!
Abia and Imo states are both Oil and Gas producers, and are mercifully members of the Niger Delta Development Commission. Owerri still bears the legacy of the earliest exploration of oil by the then Shell D’arcy. Shell Camp Owerri is still a living evidence. But in the citing of petro-chemical industries nationwide, the Federal Government continues to follow the post-civil war blueprint that informed the citing of iron and steel complexes in the seventies.
The entire South-East was excluded. In the development of airports, the South-East was again neglected. If the Enugu airport were not there before the war, there probably would not have been one, except the people undertook to build one for themselves, as was the case with the present Igwebuike, now Sam Mbakwe, airport Owerri! This war of attrition fought against the South-East with federal infrastructure continues with the total deliberate neglect of federal roads in the entire East.
Since the seventies, there has been an agitation for a petro-chemical complex in Oguta. But the Federal Government considered it an anathema. What qualifies Ondo and Ogun to have the world’’s largest LNG for which that zone is being turned to an export free zone other than that the men currently at the helm of the oil industry are from there? One day I was on the KAKAKI programme on AIT, when one obviously inebriated caller started abusing me on air for discussing resource control.
What resources do the Igbos have, he asked? I was forced to quietly remind him that most of the oil fields in the Niger Delta today were carved out of Igboland and given to the Niger Delta in an economic boundary gerrymandering supervised by Justice Mamman Nasir. The strategy was to secure as many of the oil wells as possible with the minorities, away from the reach of the secessionists! In the process many oil wells in Abia were, for many years, adjudged as in no-man’’s-land. Still Abia and Imo are today very significant in oil and gas production with at least four different oil multi-nationals operating there!
Honestly, I do not envy Ondo or Ogun state for their luck. Indeed envy is not one of my vices. I have long ceased bothering about or expecting any justice from the Federal Government. After all, late Ajie Ukpabi Asika, a great friend of President Obasanjo, had long established the principle that onye ube ruru ya rachaa! Those who are rubbished and who must bear the shame of the continued exclusion of the South-East from the core of the economy of the nation are those so-called leaders from the zone who swear with the name of whoever appoints them to offices, and seduce their people into false expectations from vengeful federal allies! Where are Obasanjo’’s apostles of yesterday, who swore to the people of South-East that their roads are being repaired? Who will speak up for the South-East on this parochial distribution of the petro-chemical complexes? Senate President Wabara?
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From Charles Coffie-Gyamfi, Guardian 24.1.05
By Okey Ndibe , Guardian 03.02.2005
Last week, several newspapers reported that Nuhu Ribadu and his Economic and Financial Crimes Commission have received presidential orders to back off from further investigation of their latest quarry alone. The newspapers suggested that the nation's leader and official head of Corruption Incorporated had received entreaties from a top Oba as well as several "prominent" Nigerians to the effect that Balogun had suffered enough. And since President Obasanjo wants to slough off the slur that he is an unlistening president, one conjectures that he must have jumped at the chance. I was not surprised in the least. For the record, I never took seriously the blather that Mr. Balogun's ouster had something to do with his alleged corruption. It would be out of character for the president to censure any big man for corruption, much less his beloved "Man Friday," a cop whose every excess and abdication was informed by a singular desire: to please and flatter Mr. Obasanjo.
All we know for sure is that the former IG of Police seems to have disappeared from the pages of newspapers. Don't be surprised if the next thing you hear is that he has been freighted out to some European or North American capital for medical check-up (of course at the expense of all Nigerians). He is, don't forget, a big man who, in the parlance of Nigerian speech, "bagged" an exalted national honour for his "meritorious service to the nation."
As far as I can recall, no government official in Abuja has felt the need to assure Nigerians that the billions of naira allegedly pilfered by Balogun would be recovered and put back in the public treasury. The going rule these days is that, when a top government official helps himself to public funds, his act is not deemed felonious or treacherous. Instead, the act is framed in a vocabulary that states that "God has blessed" the man. Such warped logic and deformed language are at the core of Nigeria's deepening moral and ethical effluvium.....................
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Exploitation of Nigerians by the Nigerian Embassies
Attention, foreign affairs minister
The age-old mindless, and unconscionable exploitation of the Nigerian people has been exported to the Republic of Ireland. The Nigerian embassy charges 400 euros per person for a passport which translates to N72,000 for a single person, and N144,000 for a couple.
No other Nigerian embassy or indeed any other nation around the globe charges such an outrageous amount for a passport. What manner of men are our leaders? How on earth can such a fee be justified? Why is it that our leaders, even in a democracy, thrive on the misery, and strangulation of Nigeria? What have we Nigerians, and indeed black people done to deserve this continuing slavery?
My heart bleeds as I ponder these questions. For democracy to make sense, the minister of foreign affairs, and even President Olusegun Obasanjo must intervene as a matter of urgency to stop this robbery of Nigerians.
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County Louth, Republic of Ireland
Please send in your comments or experiences with the Nigerian Embassies in US, Germany, UK, Italy, all over the world
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NDIGBO FIGHT BACK OR BECOME EXTINCT ( VOBI 11 27 04 )
- B F, Washington DC, USA
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THISDAY LAZY GOVERNANCE AWARDS
- Osita Chidoka, Virginia, USA
Thisday in its inimitable style recently published its ten years governance awards nominees. A very noble effort, I must say, in this season when the media have unwittingly deified President Obasanjo, as the Alpha and Omega of our democracy. This deification has created a grotesques situation where like in a theatre the audience only see the lead character, on stage soliloquizing without the antagonists or the supporting characters playing any role. The Pesident Obasanjo that is the problem and possibly the solution is a myth, created by the media. In a democracy civil society is the determinant of the extent the powers they delegated to elected officials can be used. The attempts to expect President Obasanjo or any elected official for that matter to provide transformational leadership without any sustained pressure from an aware and empowered citizenry is a mirage. If our opposition Parties, Pro democracy groups, student and labor groups remain unconscious of their historical role then the issue of unaccountable leaders will still dominate the headlines long after President Obasanjo. It is against this background that I salute Thisday in reminding us that Nigeria’s democracy is more than Obasanjo through the governance awards.
The award for the Governor of the year was given "to honor and encourage governors who are oasis of integrity in a desert of corruption and who are doing something uniquely different to empower their people". The nominees for the award were Gbenga Daniel of Ogun State, Sam Egwu of Ebonyi State, Danjuma Goje of Gombe State, Bukola Saraki of Kwara and Umar Yar Adua of Katsina. Going through the rationale for the nominations, only Governor Yar Adua was nominated for Personal integrity. The others were nominated for performing their jobs as Governors. In the case of Governor Daniel he was nominated for the net work of roads constructed by direct labor; focusing on tourism, agriculture; and displaying forward thinking in the discharge of his assignment. Governor Egwu was nominated for elevating education to the top of his priorities. Using these Governors as example lets examine the nominations.
The question is how does performing this basic functions as Governors translate to their emergence as "Oasis of integrity in a desert of corruption". Thisday’s nominations betray a laziness and arbitrariness that is incompatible with the newspaper we have come to cherish and respect. Let’s look at Sam Egwu who has spent close to Six years in Ebonyi State as a test case. The criteria for his nomination are very puerile and insensitive. How many tender advertisements have been published in the Press for Contracts? Have you seen any advertisement for graduate employment in to the State Civil service? Are promotions in the public service merit driven with clear objective criteria? Have you heard of any Commissioner in Ebonyi State summoned before the State House of Assembly to explain lapses in budgetary implementation? Education is a low specificity activity with difficult to measure output; how do we then measure the output for the money spent in Ebonyi? To avoid being misunderstood I support the investment in education and give kudos to Governor Egwu for it, but how will Ebonyi people know if the investment is producing commensurate outcome? Is it by the number of students who take the WAEC exam or the jamb score of Ebonyi students?
Do we know how much it cost to construct a kilometer of road in Ebonyi State? Do we know how much the Government of Ebonyi spend on elected government officials as a percentage of the budget? If all these data are available then Thisday chose wrong parameters for their stated objectives of honoring Governors who are oasis of integrity. These Governors, save for Yar Adua, who is acknowledged for personal integrity, but has not shown any capacity in institutionalizing transparency, do not qualify for these nominations. To empower People is beyond providing physical infrastructure; it requires access to information, functioning institutions, delegation of power and knowledge of duties and responsibilities. By way of example, I only hear or read of Commissioners making Policy statements or explaining policies in Lagos State. The nomination of Governor Danjuma Goje for his role during the disaster that afflicted the State is not only ridiculous but an affront to the concept of integrity which is what the award is about. A Giuliani award for leadership may have been appropriate.
Another example of the lazy approach to a very serious issue is the nomination of Chief Chukwuemeka Chikelu, the smooth and brilliant Minister of Information for "bringing initiative and genuine zeal into governance with a view to making a difference". Again I beg to differ with Thisday for their cavalier and roadside view of governance. Chief Chikelu’s nomination was hinged on his pet project of rebuilding Nigeria’s image abroad through the showcasing of successful Nigerians; and advertising in major Airports across the globe. A very good project, in my estimation, but does not amount to genuine zeal in governance. What has the Minister done to rein his boss the President from his new found love for replying every letter? Is he not the head of the information machinery of this government that is enjoying one of the worst media attacks in Nigeria’s recent history? How does he want to show case successful Nigerians when a garrulous Special Assistant accused Nigeria’s foremost cultural icon of less than noble intentions for rejecting an award? Is he kept in the dark when these inelegant letters are written from the Presidency? Has he shown any zeal in the defense of the programs of this government or did he choose the Image project as his Afghanistan? Is the Obasanjo story being told as it should or is there no story? Pray how can the media hate a President and love his Chief Spokesman?
The image of Nigeria is decided by the Nigerian media and not by any advertisement abroad. When foreigners want information on Nigeria they go to Google and the bulk of information that comes up are reports from Nigerian Newspapers. How can anyone ignore this incredible minefield of information and yet be said to bring initiative to governance? How much has the Minister’s style influenced the President’s opinion of the press as hired guns? Does the Minister’s job schedule not include bringing order and sanity to the incoherent information machinery of this administration? Thisday can nominate the Minister for an award and he deserves it in many areas not related to zeal and initiative in governance because he has shown neither in managing the image of the government he represents. Imagine if this groundswell of negative public opinion were to lead to the demise of this government the Minister will have no platform for his award winning image project. The nomination of Adeseye Ogunlewe for zeal and initiative would have been in order if it is for acrimony but definitely not for governance.
Senators Mamman Ali and Uche Chukwumerije definitely deserve the nomination for courage and conviction in the building of a strong legislature, same also for Anthony Aziegbemi and Chudi Offodile. Senator Chukwumerije deserves the nomination for displaying uncommon courage in charting an individual course against the tyranny of the majority that is becoming the hallmark of the National Assembly. His article published in Thisday, on the State of Emergency in Plateau remains the finest, most eloquent and reasoned contribution to our contemporary political literature. Senator Mamman’s insistence on refund of the monies paid to the FCT Special Assistants remains one of the redeeming acts of a National Assembly in a crisis of identity. Hon Chudi Offodile has been impressive with his consistent avowal of reason and individuality on touchy issues in the house. However beyond all these is a more fundamental question why are all the Legislators nominated by virtue of performing their oversight functions? What of the real task of making laws or innovation and initiative in tackling social issues?
Again we turn our gaze to Senator Ali’s effort at making sure that Ministerial aides do not earn more than stipulated by the rules. His efforts should have created the necessary ferment for legislating on a problem plaguing the public service with some enduring consequences. The award winning act of ordering the offending Assistants to refund the salaries they were paid only begs the question. How does that solve the problem of lack of human capacity in the Ministries? This was the rationale for appointing non Civil Servants as aides. Does he know that a former Secretary to Government Alhaji Gidado Idris with the then Head of State’s approval abolished the position of Personal and Special Assistants? Did he invite him to find out why? Why does a Minister need Assistants if their job is to oversee household matters and travel abroad with him or her at government expense? Yet how will a Minister who needs technical advice that is not available in the Ministry get such advice from qualified Nigerians who will not be chasing Parastatal Chief Executives for contracts or setting up toll gates for those seeking to see the Minister? I think that is the conundrum the FCT minister was trying to break in his own style. Does Thisday not know the havoc this tribe of non technical Assistants wreck on the system where they wield informal authority without responsibility?
I thought Senator Mamman should have used the FCT opportunity for a much wider ranging reform that may see Ministers and even legislators become entitled to one consultant, who has professional competence in the field relevant to the Minister and be remunerated outside the Civil service scale so as to attract competent Nigerians from the private sector or abroad. These consultants will only have staff responsibility as policy analysts and advisers to the Ministers while observing strict rules on conflict of interest. The truth of the matter is that many Assistants are still collecting huge subsidies via contracts and other scams, the FCT case only sought to bring to the table what was happening under the table. Courage to catch the thief should also extend to innovation to stop other thieves, including aspiring ones.
Thisday has developed into a strong brand and should be careful not to send wrong signals about the depth of its intellectual resource. It has consistently thrown its weight behind many Nigerians perceived to be leading us to the Promised Land. Here I will digress from the awards and touch on an issue that the Paper has always celebrated. The government has always announced with glee how much it saves each year from the due process mechanism; a very worthy concept that deserves our full support. But has anybody stopped to ponder on the implications of the claims of the due process unit? First, the contracts that go to due process originates from a department in a Ministry headed by a Director, or a Parastatal led by a chief Executive, before going through the Permanent Secretary, the chief accounting office of the Ministry, to the Ministerial tenders board. This contract, let us say for building an office complex, goes to Ministry of Housing for evaluation by the quantity surveyors employed to ensure that government contracts are well priced. In most cases a consulting firm is also involved in evaluating the tender documents and choosing the best submission. After all this process, sometimes the Minister gets anticipatory approval from the President or a full approval from the Federal Executive Council before heading to Due process unit or in the reverse order starting from Due Process first.
On getting to Due Process the contract is found to be inflated by X percent and the contractor is forced to accept a new price less the X amount. Due Process announces the saving of X amount with relish and every body is happy. The question them is who inflated the contract? Did the Permanent Secretary know of the inflation? What of the Minister, did he deliberately deceive the President and the Federal Executive Council? If we say that the Minister and Permanent Secretaries have no technical capability, which resides only in the Due process unit, to see the inflation what of the Consultants and the Ministry of Works officials? Where in the chain did the inflation take place? Have you heard of any Minister or Permanent Secretary resigning or fired for bringing an inflated contract to council? What has the Due process Unit done to strengthen the institutional chain than merely announcing savings? What if Mrs. Ezekwesili, the patron saint of the unit on whose personal initiative and integrity we rely on moves on to higher responsibilities and an honest but less zealous person takes over? Yet Thisday celebrate Due Process as the high water mark of this administration.
Due Process should be a verb and not a noun. It should be about strengthening the integrity of systems and People. Maybe the Unit should consider attaching an indemnity form on every contract submission, signed by Permanent secretaries and Ministers accepting Personal responsibility in the event of discovery of any inflation or failure to abide by stipulated guidelines. This may improve the corporate governance mechanism of government agencies and balance authority with responsibility, like company audited accounts. Also that will reduce the burden on the unit as it can begin to use random assessment as opposed to the current system of reviewing every contract and wasting the little time this regime has to deliver on its promises.
Thisday should partner with Universities or Non Governmental organizations with the technical and intellectual resource base in future awards to avoid these seemly arbitrary criteria for selecting its nominees. If Thisday had done a thorough job this governance awards would have been like the NLNG award for literature; without winners. That would have been a better ten years anniversary prize from Thisday.
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What's the PDP Up to in Anambra?
I have been watching with keen interest the development in Anambra State right from the beginning of the present administration of Governor Chris Ngige. That Ngige is ruling on a stolen mandate is not news anymore. What is, however, worrisome is the attitude of his godfather, Chris Uba, and the failure of the government at the centre to check him. That he is still walking freely after all the atrocities he allegedly committed is something extremely strange. In most nations of the world, Uba and his group would have been forgotten in the dungeon............
All the noise about ‘no sacred cow’ by the present administration is a charade afterall. I am of the opinion that all those exchange of words between Obasanjo and Ogbeh and the tension their friction generated in heating up the polity, is just a window rehearsal to cover up his tracks............. History will not forgive the present administration led by the PDP if the perpetrators of the heinous crime in Anambra State are not brought to book. Let it be said that the issue of constitutional violation is not ‘a family affair’. Bola Akinrinola, Lagos. PUNCH,15.01. 2005
Reuben Abati. Guardian 14. 01.05
Levi Obijiofor , Guardian 14. 01. 05
Although Ogbeh claimed he was not forced to resign, verifiable evidence suggests he was forced "at gunpoint" not only to write his own letter of resignation but also to sign it. It's like forcing a man at gunpoint to dig his own grave and to jump inside and bury himself. Ogbeh's resignation does not only reinforce public opinion of Obasanjo as a man who uses public office and his servants to victimise and harass people who express opinions that are critical of his government but also as a man who has developed a reputation for smiling in public with his perceived enemies while at the same time stabbing them metaphorically in private. Political mischief cannot come in a better or more villainous form.
In an essay published in the Vanguard of Tuesday this week, Pini Jason captured the sense of outrage that one felt toward the people who forced Ogbeh out of office, in the manner they did. "Why is it that anytime anybody disagrees with the President he must be guillotined? Is it that the President is incapable of sustaining a debate or is it impatience with alternative views? Yet those close to the President swear all the time that he is a listening President. What does he listen to, if he cannot listen to the advice of his party chairman? Who does he listen to, if he cannot listen to his party chairman? Must every disagreement be resolved with the removal of anybody who disagrees with the President?"
Last week I described Obasanjo as an authoritarian practising the art of democracy. After the events of the past two weeks, after Obasanjo's recent confessions about what he knew in regard to the crises in Anambra State, after Ogbeh's announcement of his resignation, I am now convinced that Obasanjo is nowhere near conceptualising the art of democracy. Intolerance is not an element of democratic leadership. Indirectly encouraging a cowboy to cause political trouble in another state is not a noble act.
There is something officially evil in a democratic country where a president shuts his eyes when someone confesses to committing a high crime in the election process. There is something weird when a so-called defender of democracy and a "born-again" Christian president argues that there must be honour among two thieves who conspired to rig elections in Anambra State. Obasanjo believes that in sharing their loot, the two robbers must honour their agreement before the crime was committed. How horrendous! Part of the reason why religious revivalism and the "born-again" mantra will not stick with many people in Nigeria is that those who latch on to God's name when they are awake and when they are asleep have been exposed in public to be worse than the flock to which they have been preaching.
Obasanjo's lack of tolerance for critical opinion, his arrogance and his all-knowing attitude to matters of governance imply that Nigeria has a long way to go before it can practise true democracy. It is one thing to proclaim one's self " as Obasanjo does in a self-conceited manner " as a democrat. It is another thing to live like a democrat. Obasanjo's conception of democracy, in my view, equates with participation in the village level chieftaincy tussle. He must do better. Obasanjo must respect the principles of democracy that he swore to defend.
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Godfather of Anambra State politics, Chief Chris Uba, has raised his stake in the politics of the state, jettisoning his self-declared ambition to be the deputy to Governor Chris Ngige. Instead, he would like to replace Ngige in order to recoup his investment during the 2003 general elections. Uba also claimed that he loaned Ngige N1billion to prosecute the governorship election in 2003 and that he had hoped to recoup the money and interest from the Ngige administration. Uba spoke on Monday in Abuja while giving evidence before the Olagunsoye Oyinlola committee investigating the crisis in Anambra State. Uba's desire to be governor is a radical shift from his earlier position, which he made before the Senate Committee on States and Local Government that he should be made Ngige's deputy.
The eight-man Oyinlola committee was constituted by the party's National Executive Committee last week to investigate the crisis arising from the gubernatorial election in Anambra State. Claiming to be broke presently, Uba who gave evidence for about six hours therefore urged the committee to devise a way through which he could be made governor for, at least six months. The source said, "The committee upbraided Uba when he made the suggestion that he would like to be governor of the state for six months so that he can get back the N1billion loaned to Ngige. To support his point, he brought out signed documents detailing the financial dealings with Ngige. He showed the committee Ngige's signature as regards the loan of N1billion."
Uba, our correspondents learnt, also came along with video clips of his deals with the governor, which members of the committee watched. According to the source, the first video clip showed images of Ngige and members of his family, including his parents, paying a "thank you" visit to the country home of Uba for helping Ngige to emerge as governor. When Ngige appeared before the committee on Tuesday, he demanded to know whether the terms of reference of the committee included “Anambra electoral fraud.” Oyinlola responded that the committee had no power to probe Ngige on alleged election irregularities. He said that a probe into the alleged electoral fraud was not in the terms of the committee, whom it said was limited to the objective of restoration of peace to Anambra. “The issue of alleged electoral fruad is already before a competent electoral tribunal,” Oyinlola said....................
By Okey Ndibe - Guardian 13.01.05
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Those Obasanjo wants to destroy, he eats with...
By Jonathan Elendu
- USAfrica The Newspaper, Houston
http://www.usafricaonline.com/elendu.obasanjosupper.html
January 12, 2005: It was reported that after the January 4, 2005 meeting of the PDP National Executive Council, the President Obasanjo and Ogbeh went to Ogbeh's house to eat lunch. Some commentators had viewed that as an ominous sign as this was the same way he ate at Dr. Okadigbo's residence, and within one week, mounted a campaign of impeachment against Okadigbo as Senate president. Nigeria's 3-time ruler retired Gen. Olusegun Obasanjo has added a new phenomenon to Nigeria's polity--a last supper.
We can comfortably add this to the president's repertoire: Those Obasanjo wants to destroy, he eats with.... Nigeria's President, retired Gen. Olusegun Obasanjo, in his vindictiveness, has gradually taken us back to the dark days of late retired Gen. Sani Abacha. It was such vindictiveness on the part of Abacha that landed Obasanjo in prison on trumped-up charges. He is now walking in the footsteps of the man who jailed him. Obasanjo as a military man should be a student of history. Maybe he has conveniently forgotten history's lessons.
I would like to remind him of one: Those who push Nigeria too far down the edge of a precipice fall off before Nigeria.
The other troubling thing about President Obasanjo is his penchant for using State institutions in his fight against opponents. There have been reports that Ogbeh had to write his resignation letter at the prompting of members of the State Security Service who held him at gunpoint. There were also reports that he was placed under house arrest by men of the State Security Service (SSS). Ogbeh is quoted as saying that the last straw for him was the harassment of his daughter by men of the State Security Service right in front of his house. Like I have asked in the past: Where is the outrage against this president?
http://www.usafricaonline.com/elendu.obasanjosupper.html
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Dangers facing Nigeria's return to democracy and Obasanjo's slipperyslide.
By Chido Nwangwu
Founder & Publisher of USAfricaonline.com
May 10, 2001: Evident failures of his government are tucked away in massive pr blitz and global junkets. But we're not fooled. Karl Maier, a seasoned and credible chronicler of Africa's economic history and politics knows even better. Maier, author of best selling book, "This House has fallen: Midnight in Nigeria", summed it up thus: "This (Obasanjo) government has got very good public relations internationally but domestically, they are not solving the problems. And this government so far has not tackled the key problems. The unrest in the Niger Delta, the issue of the Sharia Islamic law in the North, the unrest in Lagos, and until they do that, trade agreements, new engagement with the international community will not make the difference." Bush & Co should take heed.
Obasanjo has also surrounded himself with some of the same ruinous gangs who loot(ed) Nigeria's national treasury and have since the past 40 years turned Nigeria into their barnyard and playpen for corruption. Many of them, late dictator Sani Abacha's henchmen and praise singers, co-sponsored Obasanjo's (s)election as President in May 1999. Any wonder that the Nigerian leader's pre-occupation has been probes which go largely after the dead than the living miscreants who ruined Nigeria's emerging destiny and still spit into our faces.
I toured the major cities in the Northern, Western, Eastern and oil-rich delta and riverine states (see OIL in NIGERIA: Liquid Gold or Petro-Dollars Curse? by Chido Nwangwu), shortly after concluding my assignment to report former president of the U.S. Bill Clinton visit to Nigeria, August to September 2000. The same questions Nigerians asked then, today, remain: when shall we have only 500 minutes of uninterrupted power supply in Nigeria? When will the water pumps cough out enough to fill a glass? Although, among the world's leading oil producers, Nigerians, sometimes, park their cars at fuel stations overnight, on lines stretching almost one half of a mile or more, to get gas/fuel/diesel. Worse, the costs per visit are nearly half of an average worker's monthly salary.
USAfrica: The Authoritative Link
http://www.USAfricaonline.com
832-45-CHIDO (24436)
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35 years after Biafra This week, as we celebrate the 35th anniversary of the end of the civil war, let us sincerely ponder the state of the nation. Is this what we dreamt of in 1970? Thirty-five years after the war, why are we still faced with liberation movements? Why has Dokubo Asari emerged? Why have Uwa-zuruike and Gani Adams emerged? Why does Arewa Youth Congress exist? Why MOSOP? Thirty-five years after that national tragedy, why has Nigeria not emerged as a new, peaceful, prosperous and stable nation? I remember the words of Gen. Hassan Katsina. He had observed, this month in 1973, that Nigeria was sick -- “sick from the level of policy-makers to the executives and least member of the public.” He said that everybody here deserved to “be whipped and thoroughly shaken to awake from the slumber” (see Nnamdi Azikiwe, Democracy with Military Vigilance P. vii). It is shamefully painful that Nigeria’s sickness is still traceable to the selfsame troubles that caused the war. They have only returned, reinforced by military greed. Were Agwu Okpanku alive today, he would be more than entitled to Gowon’s apologies. When, in the seventies, in an effort to strengthen Nigerian unity, Gen. Gowon looked at our map and deleted the Bight of Biafra, Okpanku it was, who, writing in his column in the then Sunday Renaissance, told the General that empty sentiments have never helped anybody. According to Okpanku, you don’t kill Biafra by merely banishing the name from the map. “The most effective way to kill Biafra,” he argued, “is for us to remain vigilant, to always watch the moral foundations of our country lest they be weakened.” Biafra “as an active physical rebellion,” he pointed out, “is dead; it died in 1970. But there is always Biafra,” he warned. “In other words, any group of Nigerians, whether defined ethnically or in terms of their geographical origin, would revolt if they felt mistreated by this country,” he prophesied. Poor journalist that was it. Gowon quickly threw him and his editor, Henry Onyedike, into the gulag. Gen. Murtala Mohammed only released them (see Paul Obi-Ani, Post-Civil War Social Reconstruction of Igboland: 1970-1983). Have events, today, not somehow proved Okpanku right? At no other time have our rulers been so reckless with the moral foundations of the country. Imagine a situation where they have now coined a euphemism for aiding and abetting official misdemeanor and incompetence. They call it “soft landing” – a process whereby incompetent party loyalists -- those stinking contents in corruption inclusive -- who otherwise should be catapulted to hell and allowed to land headlong with a crippling thud, are nowadays being offered guided parachutes to paradise. Look at how they have now practically messed up the electoral process. Did you know that in the last sixty years, Britain has had sixteen general elections, and the Labour Party and the Tories won eight apiece? Ditto for the U.S. Out of sixteen presidential polls since 1945, the Republicans won nine to the Democrats’ seven. How splendid! Two-party system at work. Election rigging may occur in these countries, but because it is minimal and negligible, it is tolerable. Even the few cases in the U.S. which some of us regard as “rigged” were not such per se. For example, in the election of 1876, Samuel Tilden of the Democratic Party won the popular vote by 4,285,992 to Rutherford Hayes’ 4,033,768. But both had tied 184 to 184 at the crucial Electoral College. In the end, a special committee recommended Hayes, who thus became America’s 19th President. In 1970, the London Guardian alerted Gowon, according to Obi-Ani, that the problems ahead in Nigeria went deeper than that of the Ibo alone: “Not only the Ibo now want to ensure that state boundaries are fairly drawn …that a workable balance of power is struck between the states and the centre, and above all that no one group dominates the centre.” The paper, therefore, warned that “the federal victory has not remade Nigeria, it has only provided a chance to do so.” We lost that chance. Aburi had failed earlier. Oputa failed (?), too. Which way, the National Confab? The Punch,Wednesday, January 12, 2005 |
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Be that as it may, it is generally expected of the tribunal to discharge the burden of justice now hanging heavily on Ngige's neck as well as that of the party. But this can be done if principal actors of the saga who have found it convenient to inundate the public with tales of how Ngige was rigged into office would honourably take their case to the tribunal.
In a statement signed by Fred Chukwulobe, the governor's Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Anambra state government had said: "Governor Ngige has never admitted before anybody to have lost the elections. The claim by Chief Chris Uba that the governor did so before President Obasanjo and Chief Audu Ogbeh is untrue.
"The matter of the elections is before the Election Tribunal and it is subjudice to continue to comment on it. The tribunal and the courts are there to adjudicate on the issues pertaining to the elections. We have confidence in the courts and believe they will do justice."
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WHATEVER A MAN SOWS THAT HE SHALL REAP. VOBI120404
- BF, Washington, DC, USA
Ndigbo have been very upset about what has been happening to them lately. The terrible situation the Igbo find themselves has been demonstrated by the shameful thing going on in Anambra State. Many Igbo in anger have blamed Obasanjo for the troubles the Igbo are facing. Yes Obasanjo has his blame. But if the Igbo must be true to their conscience they must look inward for what is ailing Igbo society today.
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Obasanjo’s Scorched Policy in Anambra
Interesting. Yet nothing can be farther from the truth. The truth is that few, if any state at all in Nigeria can demonstrate the same level of maturity so far exhibited by the people of Anambra State in managing president Olusegun Obasanjo, the People's Destructive, sorry, Democratic Party and their gangsters. Those who think Anambrarians are cowards simply miss the point. Only a mad man would dare to stop a train in motion. Yet we are at a point where people are bound to say, enough is enough to this infamy. Anambra is unique in many respects. Unique to Nigeria, unique to the Igbo, unique to the south east and unique to the PDP. It is unique in the calibre of personalities which it has given to Nigeria; and this is part of her travails today. It is unique in its maturity. It is unique in its resilience. Anambra is unique in its patience and capacity both to fight and to keep the peace.
As governor, Ngige has acquitted himself creditably as a man with a heart for his people. In one year, he has demonstrated a full grasp of the needs of his people as well as the will and ability to tackle them. He has exposed the reason behind the state's anaemic health. That is governance and that's what the people yearn for.
The property being destroyed by Uba and his group belong to the people, not the governor. It is a paradox that a group so desperately seeking for power, ostensibly, in the interest of the people could be busy destroying what is on ground. Why then does it want power? The president must now speak up on this issue. Beyond that, he must act and on the side of the law too. He should now arraign Uba and his group before a court of competent jurisdiction to answer for their atrocities against the state. We have come to a point where silence is certainly no longer golden.
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To be sure, among the candidates that presented themselves for this very award last year, this column could not find a worthier candidate than the president. Those unqualified but highly commended candidates were Adam Oshiohmhole, Asari Dokubo, Ibrahim Mantu, Chinua Achebe, Audu Ogbeh, Orji Kalu, Nasir El Rufai, Ngige, Uba, Anambra crises and many others. Even though these figures were sometimes involved in some remarkable national events, they were still not as generally influential and central to them as the president.
Well, to start with, it was the president who intervened in August last year, when his stubborn Minister of the FCT, Nasir El- Rufai, gathered the 109 Senators of the Federal Republic of Nigeria under one class and called them Fools. By his intervention, the president succeeded in quenching a legislative-executive feud that might have been as unending as the Ngige-Uba wahala. It should be noted that it was the president who first called a certain Reverend getleman a "total idiot" in Plateau State……
The president, in October also succeeded in raising the price of fuel in the country to an all time high of N52 before Adam Oshiomhole and his group fought its drop to N49. This increase was no mean performance. I understand credit cannot go to the president alone because the oil marketers were involved, but then there is no doubt that his role in this remarkable feat helped in pushing up his marks.
Again, it was the president who almost single handedly imposed that controversial State of Emergency on Plateau State in May 18, last year. The imposition was significant in that it was the first time it helped give the original impression that Governor Dariye was nothing but the synonym of alleged fraud.
Perhaps by far, the best justification for this award is the president’s romance with the Anambra crisis. For your information, the Anambra crisis as a candidate could not over take the president in this competition because there might as well not have been Anambra crisis without our president.
It could also not have gotten that level of publicity it got without the president’s involvement. In fact, as a consequence of the Anambra crisis, President Olusegun Obasanjo’s attempt to establish some level of friendship with Achebe was rubbished. Achebe said he rejected the CFR award that year because of the president and his government’s seeming support for a "small clique renegades" in the Anambra crisis.
Throne of leadership: Since the Anambra crisis began with the ‘stealing’ of Governor Chris by godfather Chris in the state, on July 10, 2003, an incontrovertible impression has been that the president ensured that the person who stole people’s votes was not made to peacefully mount the throne of leadership in the state. How he did it was well known to this year 2004 awarding column.
For his active role in the crisis, he got a damning letter from the chairman of his party, Chief Audu Ogbeh, who also implicitly saw the president’s hands in the most recent mayhem unleashed on the state government property. This column took "judicious note" of Obasanjo’s reply to Ogbeh and considered it the most diplomatic letter ever written by the president himself. The letter, the column speculated must have been written with the president's temperament running at 120 degrees. The degree at which the word "total idiot" emerged in Jos.
As this year begins, we are looking forward to the way the president would work his ways again to winning the 2005 award. This time, we surely will still be treated to some factors, which gave him an edge in this competition: fuel price increase, Anambra, state of emergency, etc. Besides, we shall be presented with facts about his 2007 presidential bid, the constitutional review and many others.For this wonderful performance, shall we clap again for the president of the federal Republic...?
SPOKEN words are dangerous enough but written words are more deadly, especially when they should not have been written in the first place. They reveal more of ourselves than we sometimes would want to expose. This series will quote verbatim from the President’s’ letter to Chief Audu Ogbeh, the Chairman of the PDP. You be the judge of the character of the writer.
Because Obasanjo knew his instructions to Abel Guobadia and the rest resident electoral commissioners, nothing in Obasanjo's letter wonders how Uba could have rigged without the collusion of his staff in INEC. Because they are planning to repeat the same thing again in 2007, no serious diagnosis is done of our electoral process to ensure that election would be free and fair. Obasanjo's letter mirrors lack of institution of government in Nigeria. How could a seasoned Command in Chief make such a misguided statement without regard to the case in Court if his brain is not in the whirlwind or some spiritual forces are not toying with his mind? How could anyone expect Ngige to resign when Obasanjo has already exonerated him in his letter and the morally lame Obasanjo himself is not resigning despite the revelations?
Obasanjo mentioned in his letter that "Chris Uba went further to say to Ngige" "you don't know in detail how it was done", referring to the rigging. This has let Ngige off the hook and his defense would be that his elections might have been rigged but the burden of proof is on Uba who did it without his knowledge. He had already denied telling Obasanjo that he did not win the election, but he did not refute the fact he did not know how Uba rigged the election as mentioned in Obasanjo's letter to Ogbeh.................
Did the president know about the 2003 aborted coup in Anambra State? When AIG Raphael Ige said he was acting on orders from the top, was he referring to the Presidency? How could atrocity of that magnitude happen in this day and age? How come nobody, except Raphael Ige, answer for that crime? How come nothing has been said about that coup? Every terrible thing that one cannot or ever imagine is happening under Obasanjo's administration. It was under his watch that the Chief law officer of the country was murdered like a nobody, and like a nobody, nobody has been indicted or made to pay for this heinous crime. Now, people are comparing Obasanjo's regime to Abacha. I assume they are saying God made a mistake to remove Abacha and place Obasanjo in their hands. So, what lesson has Obasanjo learn in life? The prison thing and coming close to death have faded, just like that. This is a man that miraculously escapes death in Abacha gulag, but God spared him to serve the people. He is now the people's adversary.
At least, he is an adversary of the Anambra people, because he allowed evil to thrive in their state and refused to do something about it. Let us assume for a moment that Obasanjo hate Ngige and would not rescue him from Uba, what of Anambra people. The president after learning about the cause of the impasse between Ngige and Uba, has the power to compensate Uba through other means, through other party patronage, and order Uba to leave Ngige to serve the people. He failed. His penchant for vindictiveness will not let him see pass the real issue: Anambra people...............
The Eastern flank remained the president’s most vulnerable and volatile spot because the Igbo had catalogued his numerous forms of disrespect and abuse both against the people and against their political leaders. The president has this "Napoleon complex" in his relationship with the Igbo, a condition which makes him seem perpetually trapped in the fog of war. With Alex Ekwueme challenging his troubled incumbency in 2003, and Ojukwu massing the Igbo behind him, the president panicked, and once more deployed a cloak and dagger means to subdue the Igbo political will. He chose his foot-soldiers from the usual lot: the Igbo never do wells who front for any spirit that jingles a coin. The entire East went to the polls. But by the time the polls closed, they were in for a surprise. They were hearing different results. I was in the East from the United States in late May up to the presidential inauguration. The entire region seemed like a war zone.
It was crawling with armed mobile police personnel. I counted twenty-six road blocks from the Port-Harcourt International Airport to Owerri, a distance of under an hour. I had not, even under the infamous Sani Abacha, encountered such level of police presence. The East was under quarantine, so was the rest of the country. The president’s inauguration took place under the nose of an indifferent nation which knew that "democracy dividend" only meant the deregulation of crassness, brutality, corruption – an oligopoly of moral deadweights. Those who raised their voices were accused of "overheating the polity." Then the Anambra imbroglio opened up the internal contradictions. It has led to exchanges of letters, and confessions, and all what not. Talk about robbers squabbling over booty!
The heat has forced key officials of this troubled government to begin to creep out of complicit silence. Ojo Maduekwe prefers to blame all the parties. Ihonvbere blames Igbo leaders. The "top intellectuals, politicians, traditional rulers, businessmen capable of calling their children to order." What I’d like to ask Ihonvbere is, did this government consider these citizens who should "call their children to order" when it went about rigging the elections, and using these "children" to subvert the communal will? Such misdirected paternalism – talk about children – is unbecoming of a so-called "radical" democrat, and political scientist, who ought to know that the resolution of this lies somewhere else: it lies in the reaffirmation of the peoples electoral will.
Every society moulds its heroes. For a multiethnic nation whose contraption was created by the colonialists, we are still searching for our heroes.
As for me, Gen.Olusegun Obasanjo was one worthy of the national honor of hero and statesman. I have remained enamored by his personality. Spartan but proud, brash yet intelligent, demurring yet brave. His subordinate, Gen. Muhammad Buhari had once described him in no less eloquent words. "One of the very few officers who inspired his subordinates by example, never shirked a challenge and never declined a responsibility". Without prejudice to the terrible human rights records of your government in the seventies which included the shooting of protesting students and destruction of late icon, Fela Anikulapo-Kuti's home, I shared the general view that you had improved yourself in terms of your view and understanding about democracy and the proper role of the military in the new world order.
You inspired young men like us to speak out even in the face of tyranny with particular reference to your opening address at the meeting of statesmen at Ota farm on 25th may 1993 where you said "all that is necessary for the enthronement of evil is for good people to remain silent and inactive. The silent majority looks almost helplessly on as the nation is allowed to be toyed with". Since the current crisis in my home state, Anambra State. I had hoped that you will deal decisively with this crisis or would at least speak about it. However, your public outrage on the bedeviling crisis in Anambra State in Mr. President's letter to the National Chairman of our great party is not only embarrassing but raises more questions begging for answers. Questions on morality and leadership.
Thus, taking a cue from your teaching, I shall not fail to elicit these questions and extend my advice as one of the elders of our great party, PDP in Anambra State who has witnessed the entire crisis. Following in the vein of the content of the letter addressed to Mr. President by our chairman, Chief Audu Ogbeh on the drift of the nation. I wish to bring to your notice many seemingly contradictions in what you said before you entered Aso Rock and now you have been there. There is no gain restating the facts that you have spent the better part of your life working for the unity of Nigeria and the democratization of our country befitting a statesman.
Albeit, in your inaugural address on 29th May 1999, you told Nigerians, "you have been asked many times in the past to make sacrifices and to be patient. I am also going to ask you to make sacrifices and to exercise patience. The difference will be that in the past sacrifices were made with little or no results. This time however, the results of your sacrifice and patience will be clear and manifest for all to see". It will be gross insensitivity on the part of Mr. President to write "we are moving cruising level and cruising speed" with the level of poverty, inter-ethnic strife, low purchasing power of Nigerians, level of unresolved assassinations, cost of kerosene and worsened power supply today in Nigeria.
As you had always admonished past Governments, I recollect that you urged General Abacha to make moral restitution the basis of his authority to govern Nigeria. Despite describing Abacha's putsch as unfortunate but necessary, you did not fail to chastise his government. In your keynote address at Arewa house, Kaduna on 2nd February 1994, you said "the present economic hardship is suffocating. Apart from that, the threat to the nation's corporate existence is really grave", and drew parallels between Abacha's and Babangida's governments. Your address drew a standing ovation.
Therefore, I am at total loss at the reactions of Mr. President on the advice and urgings of the National Chairman of PDP, Chief Audu Ogbeh. The constitution of our great party, PDP clearly gives him such mandate, as the " National Chairman shall promote and defend the integrity, policies and programmes of the party and make pronouncements for and on behalf of the National Executive". The action of our National Chairman is what Mr. President has always advocated and done himself in the past. Permit me to quote from your address at Arewa House in 1994. " While private urgings may be good, they are insufficient when a government is deaf and mischievous. Such a government sees private urgings and correspondences either as a tacit approval or an invitation to be quietly settled. It will be better for us to step on a couple of toes and some economic interests rather than allowing the country to be destroyed almost to point irreparability". Also in your eloquent address at University of Ibadan in 1992 titled "Our situation is desperate", you said. " A Nation may become moribund through paralysis of silence born out of fear and intimidation. " Is your response to our chairman not intimidating?
Consequently I am at grave loss at the increasing level of intolerance exhibited by Mr. President's government to any form of opposing or critical view since May 2003. The demonic visitation on the Insider Magazine by alleged State agents is but one of the most recent cases. In my view, I can draw a parallel between what happened to Insider Magazine and what Abacha and Babangida's Governments visited on The Tell and TheNews magazines to mention a few. The debasement of our democracy can only lead to disillusionment and cynicism. Our National Chairman is not wishing you a coup but rather pointing out the possible consequences of your government's inaction or mistakes.
Mr. President in his popular address at Arewa House had also said of the Abacha's government. "A constitutional conference to keep all agitators quiet no matter how much it is dressed up can not achieve the objective of genuine national conference designed to examine critically the political and other essential areas of our lives of which there must be a consensus for effective government action". This drew you one of the longest standing ovation that may have come your way. Why then has Mr. President refused the convocation of this true national conference since you assumed office? I assume Mr. President that all your numerous worthy foreign trips to attract investment and capital will remain burgeoned by the insecurity that these political rascality that abound in our polity today provide.
This brings me to the issue, which has drawn the worst vitriolic flak for the PDP and Government:- "The Anambra saga". I had always maintained studied silence so as not to inflame passion hoping that our National Leaders will officiate, mediate and remedy this albatross.
I find Mr. President smarting remark on his role in the Anambra saga so far truly embarrassing for a man we yearn to be Nigeria's finest hero. You are aware that His Excellency, Dr. Chris Ngige has always maintained that he was declared winner by INEC and he (Ngige) did not rig any election. Albeit Mr. President has confirmed taking the confessions of both gentlemen. May I remind Mr. President that the said election was conducted along side the presidential election on the same date and time. In that election, which I participated, you secured 466, 866 votes while Dr. Chris Ngige secured 452,820 votes. Thus, anyone in the PDP who accepts that he or she rigged the gubernatorial election in Anambra state must have obviously rigged the presidential election in your favor. Thus, Mr. President's disclosure also impugns on the validity of the presidential election that declared you President, the integrity of the umpire- INEC and its chairman, and the integrity of the nation at large.
Mr. President! That Chief Chris Uba and Dr. Chris Ngige accepted rigging the election as you wrote is not to me the only moral dilemma. Rather that Mr. President likens their case to "the case of two armed robbers that conspired to loot a house and after bringing out the loot, one decided to do the other in" is the real moral issue. Your allusions contradict all that I have learnt from Gen Olusegun Obasanjo in his leadership forums. Permit me Mr. President to quote verbatim what you said at Arewa House in 1994. "Once in a while a corrupt man can be a leader. If however you are corrupt and attain a high public office, you either purge yourself or you put your authority on question. If you don't purge yourself you will never be able to perform adequately". Is What Dr Chris Ngige did by taking the oath of public office and deciding to purge himself so as to deliver democratic dividends morally wrong? May I remind Mr. President of his beautiful address at University of Ibadan in 1992 titled "Our situation is desperate"? Mr. President said "I felt disappointed the other day while talking to a young MD of a bank when he said that he has no responsibility and business for the development of Nigeria. His obligation is to his stakeholders. He was wrong and I told him so". You equally said, "Fear of being arrested is what leads to reduction in crime. When crimes are perpetrated with cover-up or non-detestability of culprit crime will thrive" The clear truth is that the Nigerian Police stood aside while public property was destroyed and looted. You must have been seen to have engaged the arsonists before you can claim to have been overwhelmed. Chief Chris Uba and Dr Chris Ngige's case is not the first nor the last of disputes that arise between Godfathers and Godsons or Sponsors and sponsored. Saraki VS Lafiaji, Saraki VS Lawal, Mbadinuju VS Offor, Nnamani VS Nwvobodo, Adebibu VS Ladoja are just a few to mention. Even Mr. President VS His sponsors cannot go unmentioned. I recollect Mr. President informing all his sponsors cum donors to consider their donations as contributions to the national development and not expect anything. Did the heavens fall? Was Mr. President abducted? Was there any moral burden? Mr. President has always maintained that he (president) will not be forced to negotiate out of intimidation or threat. I wonder if Mr. President is changing his renowned traits and thoughts on leadership developed over thirty years after five years in Aso Rock.
I urge Mr. president to bring to a halt in your usual decisive manner these spurious attempts at unseating undemocratically an incumbent Governor. The Nigerian Police must assist the Director of public prosecution in Anambra state to bring to book the perpetuators of this heinous crime and destruction visited on Anambra state to serve as a deterrent to others.
I urge you to have a rethink on these events. Seven years ago, nobody dared cast an opposing public view to the Head of state. You braved it and got incarcerated with a 15years sentence, though I remember your words of brevity at Ota farm in 1993. "If a government is not working or able to work with us, we must persist in educating and we must exercise patience until there is a change of heart or a change of hats". The beauty of democracy is the freedom of expression of thoughts and speech. The worst form of any democratic government is still better than the best military cartel. Today, majority of Nigerians recognize that the world has no future for military excursions into governance. However, Nigerians are desirous of enjoying the dividends of democracy and quickly.
I leave Mr. President with his words of response to Allison Ayida's letter following criticisms of "Not My Will". "In my private and public life, I think of tomorrow in acting today". In your controversial book "Not My Will", you had alluded to Zik as one who started his career on a very high and admirable plane as Zik of Africa and whittled to Zik of Igboland, who should not end up as the " Owelle of Onitsha". It is your action today that will place you in history as " Nigeria's finest statesman " or the " Balogun of Owu"
God bless Mr. President!!! I remain
Your loyal party Servant
Rhythm & Business: Oil & Corruption in Nigeria
By Norman Kelley, AOL BlackVoices Columnist
Nigeria, after South Africa, has the potential to become the financial engine of Africa, a hub of commercial and political importance. It is that continents most populous nation and it has a striving, well-educated middle class. But it has had (and still has) its share of problems, mostly dictatorships, corruption -- and oil. Nigeria is one of those nations like Saudi Arabia, Venezuela, Iran and Iraq that have suffered from what some call the "curse of oil."
The effects of this curse leads to oil-dependent superpowers like the United States taking an interest in these oil-soaked countries development and engineering their politics and economics to meet their needs. Aided and abetted by the home-grown elites, they use oil profits not for national enrichment and development, but for self-enrichment, and that of their patrons in the developed world. While Nigeria is one of the richest countries in the world in! terms of its natural resources, a mind-numbing 70 percent of the population lives in destitution.
The politics of local development in nations like Nigeria -- with its North-South, Christian-Muslim schisms, as well as ethnic divides -- have fueled corruption and a get-over mentality. Nigerians such as Wole Soyinka and Chinua Achebe have denounced this tendency in their society. The late Afro-beat master Fela sang about it in numerous songs. Environmental activist Ken Saro-wira was executed by the state through what some have called an extra-legal judicial lynching.
If one wants to get a good idea of how a nation like Nigeria has been plundered and its people driven to criminality, one should consider the phenomenon of what Nigerians and international police agencies call "419" (pronounced "four-one-nine").
"Four-one-nine" is the Nigerian penal code for fraud, and Nigerians are world-famous for such. According to Reuters, every year corruption eats up about 40 pe! rcent or $40 billion of the oil-rich west African countrys annual income. Everyday, 100,000 barrels (some 4 percent of the countrys total oil production) are also squandered.
But the countrys corruption runs much deeper than oil theft. In Lagos, the Nigerian commercial capital, the streets are filled with con men who constantly devise shrewd ways to rob people. And crime has risen to epidemic levels both on the street and in the countrys public institutions. In Europe and the United States, Nigerian criminals have cultivated a reputation for themselves by organizing sophisticated scams and criminal networks, raising the suspicion and rage of law enforcement agencies all around the world.
Weve all heard of the e-mail scams where Nigerians, usually working from Internet cafes in Nigerian cities like Lagos and Abuja, have managed to bilk unsuspecting Americans and Brits of millions of dollars.
Example: "You have been recommended by your countrys Chamber of Co! mmerce in confidence of your ability and reliability to prosecute a transaction of great magnitude involving a pending business transaction requiring maximum confidence."
Or: "My name is Maryam Abacha, the wife of the former President of Nigeria. I am writing you this letter to propose a business that will be of mutual benefit to you and me."
Nowadays such entreaties arrive via e-mail. The modus operandi is to appeal to a "mark" (con men lingo for a potential fraud victim or sucker) and ask his or her assistance in transferring money from one party to another. For example: "I need your assistance to claim this fund from the security firm and invest part of it into a profitable business in your country under your supervision and control. As soon as the fund gets into your country you will then assist me and my family to come over to your country where we hope to start a new life."
If the e-mail recipient falls for the pitch, then the person then the person is usua! lly asked to turn over credit or banking information to the Nigerian 419er. The appeal to the mark is usually "advance fees" said to be in the thousands or millions of dollars for the marks assistance. In the eyes of the mark it's easy money, or put another way: greed. Before the Internet, the con men would send solicitations via the mail or fax on an official-looking letterhead.
This form of fraud is well-known to the United States Secret Service and the United Kingdom National Criminal Intelligence Service. They keep a close eye on this crime specialty. It has been estimated that American citizens have lost more than $100 million a year in 419 scams -- and thats considered a conservative estimate.
When Frantz Fanon wrote his seminal work 'Wretched of the Earth' more than 40 years ago, his chapter on violence and the colonial situation was either condemned by the establishment or lauded by revolutionary anticolonial intellectuals and activists. However, his most pres! cient chapter -- "The Pitfalls of National Consciousness" -- outlined the corruption and cronyism that would befall those nations that had liberated themselves from colonial masters and installed native elites:
"Neither financier nor industrial magnates are to be found within this national middle class. The national bourgeoisie of the underdeveloped countries is not engaged in production, nor invention, nor building, nor labor; it is completely canalized into activities of the intermediary sort. Its innermost vocation seems to be to keep in the running and to be part of the racket."
About the author
Author Norman Kelley is the editor of Rhythm & Business: The Political Economy of Black Music (Akashic Books). His latest book is The 'Head Negro in Charge Syndrome: The Dead End of Black Politics' (Nation Books)
Jan. 18, 2005