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SATURDAY, OCTOBER 18, 2014 Weeks before the August 9th gubernatorial elections which was won by the pragmatic Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola of the APC, it was obvious we were up against forces other than the people of Osun state which naturally should be the determinant of
VOL. 9. NO.125
Front Page Comment The War Called The Osun Elections-By Segun Tomori
how the elections will swing. The All progressives Congress (APC) still smarting from its shocking defeat in the previous Ekiti elections had literarily sworn it will lose Osun over its dead body. The murderous villain fielded by the Peoples Democratic
Party (PDP), outrightly unpopular with barely a few dozens of people trailing him at campaigns however worethe confidence of a Governor-In-waiting. He they
didn’t care a hoot about the people’s wish, all that matters was the full compliment of the paraphernalia of State activated by an
imperial President though utterly clueless, but desperate to add Osun to his conquest in furtherance of his stillborn second term bid. So lo and behold, the die was cast!I have not been emotionally attached to any elections in Nigeria as I was with the Osun elections,
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maybe June 12, 1993 Presidential elections presumed to have being won by my President, M.K.O Abiola could be an exception. It wasn’t because I had affinity with anyone in Ogbeni’s government or because I enjoyed any form of patronage but because Continue on pg5
Osun PDP’s Misinterpreted Appeal Court Ruling:
APC Alerts Police On Security - See Story On Page 2
Appeal Court Ruling: JNF Cautions PDP - Pg 2 Against Misleading Public New Osun Police Commissioner Seeks Journalists’ Cooperation - Pg 3
Osun Ex-Gov Recounts How Omisore, Adesiyan - Pg 4 Beat Him How PDP Lied Against Court Of Appeal Ruling – Osun AG
•The governor, State of Osun, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola and the Director, Institute of Public Health, College of Health Sciences, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife (OAU), Dr Abioye Kuteyi, during a courtesy visit to the governor at the Government House, Osogbo, last Tuesday.
- See Story On Page 2
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OSUN DEFENDER Saturday, October 18, 2014
Osun PDP’s Misinterpreted Appeal Court Ruling: APC Alerts Police On Security
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HE State of Osun chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has alerted the security agencies to be prepared to nip in the bud, the threat to peace and security, which the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has become overý the issue of the Appeal Court ruling in Akure, which struck out INEC’s appeal against its Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC), Ambassador Toyin Akeju, from supervising the 2011 legislative
elections in the state. “From competent information we have and the intelligence deductions we could make from the PDP chairman, Alhaji Gani Olaoluwa’s statement, to forcefully stop the lawful business of the State House of Assembly, it is
obvious that the PDP planned to orchestrate mayhem in the state,” the APC alleged. However, the APC referred the security agencies to page 62 of The Nation’s newspaper, of Wednesday, 15th
October, 2014, in which the Certified True Copy of the ruling (not judgment) of the Federal Court of Appeal was published. ‘In that ruling, it is absolutely clear that there is no basis for the PDP to want to create
•The governor, State of Osun, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola (rigth); Prince Bola Ajibola (left) and the deputy governor, Otunba (Mrs) Grace Titi LaoyeTomori, during the 6th Prince Bola Ajibola Annual Lecture at Oduduwa Hall, Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ile-Ife, last Wednesday.
How PDP Lied Against Court Of Appeal Ruling – Osun AG By SHINA ABUBAKAR
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HE Government of the State of Osun has condemned in very strong terms, what it called the habitual proclivity of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to mislead members of the public. In its official position over October 10, 2014. Carefully claims by the PDP, that the read and digested, the Court of Appeal sitting in three-page ruling and are Akure last Friday sacked all appalled to note that no federal and state lawmakers sentence or paragraph of from the state, who were the said ruling decided any elected in 2011, the State issue pertaining to the 2011 Attorney General and election of any member of Commissioner for Justice, the House of Assembly or Barrister Wale Afolabi, said National Assembly. “In no part of the ruling the recent brouhaha sponsored by the PDP in its did the Court of Appeal deliberate misrepresentation nullify any election, but of facts and distortion of the rather held that the Notice decision of the Court of of Appeal filed by INEC Appeal on suit concerning was incompetent and Independent National thereby struck out the said Electoral Commission and Notice of Appeal. One then Mr. Rufus Oluwatoyin wonders how on earth the Akeju Vs Peoples Peoples Democracy Party Democratic Party (Appeal got the wild imagination by No. CA/AK/46/2011), called which it sought to seize power through reckless for sober reflection. Saying that his office had subterfuge, by lying that obtained a Certified True the Court of Appeal had Copy (CTC) of the nullified the election of the judgement of the appellate APC honourable members court, the State Attorney in the Osun State House of General argued that though Assembly and the National fundamental rights to Assembly.” The commissioner freedom of expression permits opinions over reiterated that the PDP was for such decisions of courts, it noted however does not give manipulations, saying that room for deliberate there is no way any court can nullify an election, manipulation of facts. Barrister Afolabi stated: based on mere application “We have obtained a to strike out a Notice of certified true copy of the Appeal challenging an ruling of the Court of interlocutory injunction, Appeal delivered on Friday while the substantive suit
is still pending at the Federal High Court. “The Osogbo Federal High Court, in 2011, granted the PDP an interlocutory injunction, restraining Ambassador Akeju from supervising the conduct of 2011 elections. “The same court refused the prayer that INEC be restrained from conducting the said election. However INEC immediately appealed and obtained a stay of execution of that ruling, pending the determination of its appeal. “Curiously, PDP equally sought for stay of proceedings of the matter at the Federal High Court and same was granted. The subject matter of the appeal before the Court of Appeal was whether the Federal High Court was right to have restrained Ambassador Akeju from supervising the said elections and no more. “The substantive suit is still pending before the Federal High Court, while appeals by other parties on the same interlocutory injunction are still pending at the appellate court till this moment,” Afolabi disclosed. He stressed that even if the Court of Appeal had agreed with the Federal High Court in restraining the Akeju from conducting the said elections, that cannot invalidate or nullify the election, as far as the person who supervised it has the
authority of INEC to do so. According to him, the law is that no election shall be questioned simply because of the defect in or want of title of the person who conducted it or acted in the office, in so far as the person has the authority of INEC to conduct the election. “The unfortunate agitation and labour of PDP cannot produce anything
capable of harming the APC but can only end in stillbirth,” he maintained. Afolabi further reminded the public to be wary of PDP’s capacity for distortion, advising the media to also seek details and verify facts before their publication, lest they fall victims of what he called PDP’s unrivalled prowess for fraudulent claims.
problem in the state over phantom sacking of the House of Assembly by the court. “PDP is acting purely on the ignorance and illiteracy of its chairman, who could not know the difference between a ruling on interlocutory injunction by a Court of Appeal and a substantive issue still before a High Court, on which there has been no pronouncement. “Had there been a declaration, ruling or judgment on the 2011 legislative elections by the Federal High Court, Osogbo? We should ask the mischievous PDP people: what was the issue the INEC appealed against? Did it include that pertaining to the elections for which the High Court did not restrain it from conducting? In fact, the High Court refused that prayer. “We therefore appeal to the security officials, not to allow illiterate people, who are currently leading the PDP in the state to throw Osun into confusion. “We are particularly grateful for the response of the State Police Command, which put paid to the PDP’s attempt to create mayhem at the State House of Assembly on Monday and we also like to emphasise that the threat to peace and security from the PDP is not over yet. “We urge the security agents to remain on maximum alert,” the APC statement said.
Appeal Court Ruling: JNF Cautions PDP Federal High Court was to have restrained Against Misleading Public right Akeju from supervising the By ISMAEEL UTHMAN
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State of Osun-based pressure group, the Justice Now Foundation (JNF), has condemned what it described as a deliberate attempt by the Peoples Democratic Party ( PDP) on the misinterpretation of a recent judgement by the Court of Appeal sitting in Akure. According to the JNF, the Court of Appeal ruling has nothing to do with the validation or invalidation of the 2011 elections in the state. JNF in a press statement jointly signed by its Coordinator and Secretary, Comrades Bello Adebayo and Mutiu Ibrahim, respectively on Thursday, cautioned the PDP against misleading the public on the court ruling. The group said: “It would be recalled that in 2011, the Federal High Court in Osogbo granted the PDP an interlocutory
injunction, restraining Ambassador Rufus Akeju from supervising the conduct of the 2011 elections. “The same court refused the prayer of the PDP that INEC be restrained from conducting the elections. “However, INEC immediately appealed and got a stay of execution on that injunction. The PDP equally sought and obtained a stay of proceeding at the same Federal High Court. “Therefore, the subject of appeal was whether the
election and no more. The substantive suit is still pending before the federal high court.” The JNF alleged that the deliberate misinterpretation of the appellate court ruling by the PDP was designed to mislead the public ostensibly to create confusion, chaos and to disturb the relative peace prevalent in the state. The group said it was worried by what it called warped interpretation of the ruling of the Court of Appeal by the PDP. Urging the security agencies in the state to be vigilant and alert, the JNF stated that it was not impossible that some people might be planning to cause chaos on the court ruling.
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OSUN DEFENDER Saturday, October 18, 2014
Group Urges APC, Aregbesola To Compensate Akinrun With House Of Reps Ticket By ISMAEEL UTHMAN
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N indigenous group in Ikirun, the headquarters of Ifelodun Local Government Council Area of the State of Osun, the Skye Development Initiative, Ikirun, has urged the All Progressives Congress (APC) and Governor Rauf Aregbesola to compensate the Akinrun of Ikirunland, Oba Abdulrauf Adedeji, with the Federal House of Representatives ticket for Ifelodun/Boripe/ Odo-Otin Federal Constituency. President of the group, compensated for his Comrade Wasiu Adebiyi, in support and the people of a press statement on Ifelodun’s contributions to Wednesday, stated that the re-election of the Oba Adedeji deserved to be governor.
Adebiyi said, of all the local government council areas in the federal constituency, only Ifelodun performed excellently in the last governorship election, with a winning margin of over 5,000 votes against the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). According to him, the Akinrun of Ikirun has always been a loyal supporter of the
progressives and Aregbesola right from his inception into Osun politics and during the tough period of the struggle to reclaim the governor’s stolen mandate. He recalled that the incumbent lawmaker representing the Ifelodun/ Boripe/Odo-Otin federal constituency, Honourable Yinka Ajayi, who is from Ada in Boripe Local Government Council Area, lost one of the wards in his
community, while the APC performed below expectation in the council area. Adebiyi added that the APC lost to the PDP in Odo-Otin Local government during the last election. ”The analysis above is to buttress the point that the Akinrun, in fact, Ifelodun Local Government Council Area, deserved to be compensated for the ticket of the Federal House of Representatives for our constituency. “The Akinrun has been a progressive and the friend of the governor and the APC for a long period of time. “In spite of inducement, harassment and intimidation from the PDP-led Federal Government, the Akinrun stood his ground and renewed his support for Aregbesola, while other
traditional rulers in the state sold out. “Noteworthy was the threat from PDP in the state that they would run Akinrun out of his palace, should they win the election. “However, the Akinrun remained undaunted and rallied round the governor and ensured his re-election. “We cannot continue to mention the contributions of the Akinrun towards the re-election of Governor Aregbesola, and of course, we are not trying to impose anybody on the APC or the governor for the ticket, but we think our traditional ruler and of course, Ifelodun, deserve the ticket,” he said. Adebiyi, therefore, appealed to the APC and Aregbesola to consider Ikirun for the ticket of the Federal House of Representatives for Ifelodun/Boripe/Odo-Otin Federal Constituency.
Osun Urges Adequate Washing Of Hands By FRANCIS EZEDIUNO S the entire world celebrated the Annual Global Hand Washing Day, people of the state have been enjoined to cultivate the habit of washing hands with soap, as a preventive measure in contacting and transmitting of deadly diseases. This was disclosed by tolerance for any deadly the Programme Manager, diseases in the society.” Rural Water and Adiatu stated that this Environmental Sanitation year ’s celebration Agency (RUWESA) in the witnessed sensitization for state, Alhaji Posi Adiatu, on workers in the state behalf of the Special ministries, as well as Adviser to the Governor in teachers and students in the Ministry of Water both public and private Resources, Rural and schools on the importance Community Development, of global hand-washing Mr Kunle Ige, during a day to kick-start the meeting with the State activities. Task Group on Sanitation The RUWESA (STGS), at the RUWESA Programme Manager Conference room, State explained further that Secretariat, Abere. creation of awareness According to the would follow by various RUWESA boss, “washing media organisations about of hands effectively will the benefit of handadequately promote germ- washing with soap and free and create zero- water. The grand finale of the events is expected to hold on Thursday, 23rd of new CP has wide October, 2014 at Nelson experience and promised Mandela Freedom Park, on behalf of the entire Osogbo, where the wife of journalists in the state to the state governor, who is continue to support the also the Ambassador of Community Led Total police. The State NUJ Sanitation (CLTS), Alhaja chairman said journalists Sherifat Aregbesola, will in the state are set of flag-off this year’s Annual responsible and Global Hand Washing Day responsive citizens with celebration formerly. The Director of Hygiene integrity and always embrace developmental in RUWESA, Mr. Segun journalism. Moyinoluwa, said people Olalere said the Police, should join hands with just like journalists, have them to spread the habit of common goals of making washing hands, not only in the society crisis-free and the state, but also around achieving egalitarianism. the world.
A •A suspected kidnapper who feigned being a mad woman who was arrested by the police in front of OSUN DEFENDER Newspaper’s office, Osogbo, last Tuesday.
Community Praises Osun Govt •Calls For More Govt Support By FRANCIS EZEDIUNO
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season. They however, commended the government for the good work it had done in rehabilitating the township roads in the town, which had made access to their farms easy. They also complained that people coming to Igbajo prefer to take the longer route of going through Imesi-Ile before negotiating the good road
GBAJO is a hilly town in Bolorunduro Local Government Council Area of the State of Osun and also one of the most important farming communities in Osun Central Senatorial District. Commuters and only on selected days. transporters, who bared The residents of the their minds recently with town, in their appeal, called this medium, appealed to the on the government to work state government under the on the road before the next leadership of Ogbeni Rauf rainyseason commences, Aregbesola to extend his because the state of the road good gesture towards the could not last another wet rehabilitation of the Ada Igbajo road. They called on the government to urgently repair the road, considering the fact that the town has a unique place in Yoruba history, being the host By KEHINDE AYANTUNJI community of the Kiriji war site, a relic of the civil war HE new State of Osun Police that was fought in Yoruba Commissioner, Abubakar Marafa, has land during the middle of the solicited for the cooperation of journalists 19th Century. in the state to reduce crime and enhance The commuters, who were mostly students of The protection of lives and property. Igbajo Polytechnic, According to him, it Executive of the Nigeria complained that the problem would be difficult for the Union of Journalists of getting vehicles to and police to work without (NUJ) at the Press from the school was getting out of hands and when they synergy with the media, Centre, Iwo Road, finally got a vehicle, it took saying police/media Osogbo, the state capital. According to him, the a lot of time before they got relation is key to security. Marafa made the call challenges of security in to the town, a situation which they say, forces a lot recently during a courtesy Nigeria require concerted of them to come for lectures call on the State effort of every
to their town, which is a bit father and time consuming. On the Yoruba civil war relic in the town, they urged government to endeavour to give the site prominence and if possible they should work towards making the site and town a world heritage site under UNESCO. The state government was also commended for bringing the animal vaccination exercise to the town and promised to cooperate with the government to ensure its success.
New Osun Police Commissioner Seeks Journalists’ Cooperation
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stakeholder in Nigeria, which informs his visit to the state council of NUJ, saying the state command is ready to cooperate with journalists in the state. Marafa solicited for understanding and patience of journalists in the course of discharging their duties. Welcoming the Commissioner of Police, the State NUJ Chairman, Mr. Abiodun Olalere, expressed delight that the
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OSUN DEFENDER Saturday, October 18, 2014
Education Is Critical to Sustainable Development - Aregbesola •Commends OAU VC For Standing Against Rigging Osun Guber Election enduring progress, By KEHINDEAYANTUNJI
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HE governor of the State of Osun, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, on Wednesday stated that education is very critical to the realisation of sustainable national development and national security. The governor also civilian attempt to stage a commended the Vice- coup against democracy Chancellor of Obafemi at the just-concluded Awolowo University, Ile- governorship election in Ife, Professor Bamitale Osun. Aregbesola said this Omole, who, he said, stood against the highest while speaking on
“Education as a panacea to national insecurity and developmental challenges” at the 6th Prince Bola Ajibola Annual Lecture series, organised by the Magna Curia chambers of Obafemi Awolowo University, held at the Oduduwa Hall of the university in Ile-Ife. He noted that , for any society to achieve
education must be the unavoidable bedrock of its efforts. He held that for Nigeria to develop human capacity for the kind of productivity that will impact national socioeconomic development, the path to traverse is the education track. According to him, “in engaging with the issue of
Osun Ex-Gov Recounts How Omisore, Adesiyan Beat Him •Expresses Fear On Threat For Renewed Attack By KAZEEM MOHAMMED
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have continued to threaten to deal with him, praying the panel to make appropriate recommendations that would prevent them from carrying out the threat. Meanwhile, the Chairman of the Commission, Justice Moshood Adeigbe, directed the Secretary of the panel to contact the judge that granted the interim injunction to Omisore on the next step, saying the order, being an interim one, was
HE former Governor of the State of Osun, Alhaji Isiaka Adeleke, has expressed fear over the threat of the Minister of State for Police Affairs, Mr Jelili Adesiyan; Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate in the state, Iyiola Omisore and another party chieftain, Sogo Agboola to deal with him. He expressed the fear on Monday, as he told the were with them,” he Commission of Inquiry on explained. He said instead of Disturbance of Public Peace showing remorse after the sitting in Osogbo how the incident, the duo of trio beat him up at the Adesiyan and Agboola premises of a hotel on April 2, 2014. Adeleke, while aspiring to pick the governorship ticket of the PDP was reportedly attacked by the three PDP leaders at the venue of a meeting between aspirants and national leaders of the PDP, who were in the state to conduct the party’s primary election. Adeleke had later defected to the All Progressive Congress (APC). Governor Rauf Aregbesola subsequently set up the commission following a petition written to him by Adeleke that he was assaulted at a hotel, which was a public place. To stop the commission from sitting, Omisore had got an interim injunction, restraining the commission from inviting him, just as he neither appeared nor was •ADELEKE represented by any counsel, while the minister and Agboola also shunned the panel. Adeleke, while testifying before the commission, said Adesiyan was the first to hit him on the chest and he was joined by Omisore and By FRANCIS EZEDIUNO Agboola to beat him up. TATE Government of Osun has said that the “On entering the hotel state would collaborate with the Federal lobby, the venue of the Government to facilitate the presence of more meeting, I saw Iyiola Omisore, Jelili Adesiyan agricultural facilities in the state. (minister) and Sogo The State Commissioner modern equipment for Agboola. I then complained for Agriculture and Food food processing from the to the minister that police Security, Mr Wale Federal Ministry of officers and SSS operatives Adedoyin, disclosed to Agriculture, but we want were harassing party newsmen in Osogbo that more of them.” members outside. He explained that more agricultural facilities “Instead of listening to were needed in the state in Governor Rauf Aregbesola me, he (minister) jumped order to boost food had approved the over a table and hit me with production and achieve establishment of more a blow on the chest. He was national food security. farm settlements in parts equally joined by Sogo In his words: “Although of the state to be prepared Agboola to beat me, while we have felt the presence and be allocated to Senator Omisore hit me with of the Federal Government prospective young a blow from the back in the state in the areas of farmers to produce food simultaneously. About cassava production, crops and livestock. seven guns were pointed at provision of storage Adedoyin also said that me by police officers that facilities and provision of the state government had
supposed to last for just seven days. He said until the order is vacated, no further action could be taken on the matter involving Omisore. Subsequently, the case against Adesiyan and Agboola were consolidated to be heard together by the panel. Justice Adeigbe then adjourned further hearing on the case to November 11, 2014.
education as a remedy for national insecurity and developmental challenges, I wish to contend that a conception of education as a process, rather than as a tool, will do us a whole world of good. “To conceive education as an instrument meant to be deployed in achieving certain practical ends is to conclude that education is all about physical development of people. “Sadly, the Nigerian state today is assailed by manifold layers of insecurity and its progress is hampered by a myriad of developmental challenges, all because of the continual erosion in the quality and standard of its educational system,” the governor said He added that lack of adequate investment in education by successive administrations in Nigeria have crippled the education system to an extent that what seems to matter is the acquisition of certificates. Aregbesola posited that there is no reason why the children and youths in parts of the North and the Niger Delta of Nigeria should not have the same quality education as their mates in other parts of the country. He said: “Even in the South West, where we used to have a 50 years education head-start, it is no longer a bed of roses. “When our administration came in 2010, we discovered to our chagrin, from the SSSCE result of that year, that just about five percent of the candidates from Osun had the requisite pass needed for matriculation into higher institutions. “The Nigerian
Agricultural Facilities: Osun To Partner FG
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provided facilities in some farm settlements located in Ede, Ife and Ilesa, among others, for use by young farmers. The commissioner explained that the farm settlements would be designed to provide job opportunities for youths, provide more food for the people and reserve for external consumption. “The government will open up the land, prepare and allocate the lands to applicants, who will also be provided with other inputs, credit facilities and security to farm.” He stated that the ministry had organised a good number of workshops to train and retrain farmers in the state through farmers’ congress and associations, this year.
Adedoyin assured that the state government would not relent in assisting and encouraging farmers to produce more food for internal and external consumption. This he said was and formed part of the sixpoint integral action plan of the Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola-led administration in the state.
leadership must heed and lead the response to the voices urging restructuring of the country’s educational system”. The governor stressed that the restructuring of educational system must be one that makes it possible for youths to develop their natural abilities to the highest extent feasible. He also added that youths must be trained to be self-reliant, creative and productive. In his address, the Chairman of the occasion, Professor Nurudeen Adedipe, who made a comparison between Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola and the President of the United States of America through their philosophy of believing that everything can be done, described the governor as an uncommon man, who has turned education around in the state. He said: “There is a link between the philosophy of Aregbesola and President Obama of USA in terms of their philosophy of ‘everything i s possible’. The link between Rauf Aregbesola and development is what I can call excellent per se.” “You might also want to call him an uncommon governor because he is the only governor who has been able to develop a link between education and development, which is why he is spending so much on the development of education in the state. “He has been able to link politicking and the business of caring for the well-being of his people successfully, which is very uncommon among our politicians of today.” The Vice Chancellor of Obafemi Awolowo University, Professor Bamitale Omole, who was represented by his deputy, Professor Ajayi Adebisi, stressed that the topic of the lecture was most appropriate at the time the nation is facing security challenges. He noted that the state governor was in a better position to deliver a lecture on the topic, going by his efforts in putting the state in a better position, especially in the education sector.
Change Of Name
Change Of Name
I, formerly known and addressed as ABDULAZEEZ TAWAKALIT SHADE, now wish to be known and addressed as MRS TAWAKALIT SHADE AJANI. All former documents remain valid General public should take note.
I, formerly known and addressed as MISS OLAIYA BAMIDELE SERAH, now wish to be known and addressed as OLAIYA OMOLARA SERAH. All former documents remain valid General public should take note.
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OSUN DEFENDER Saturday, October 18, 2014
The War Called The Osun Elections-By Segun Tomori Continued frompg1 I just couldn’t imagine my home State go back to the disastrous “years of the locust”. I had participated actively n the campaigns, interacted with the people, felt their pulse and the story was the same – Osun has never had it so good, the people vowed to defend their votes by all means possible! From that moment I had made up my mind to give my all and put myself at harm’s way if need be to ensure we form a bulwark of resistance against the machinery of State to be deployed to thwart the people’s wish. When I was about to proceed on my journey to Osogbo, the Osun State Capital on Monday preceding the elections I prepared for the worst. Few associates privy to my trip advised strongly that I removed any APC sourvenir from my luggage,any ID card that can associate me with the party amongst other security tips. They were right to be apprehensive, soldiers, officials of the Department of State Security(DSS) including the hooded ones,lorry loads of mobile policemen had since being deployed across the nook and cranny of Osun State. Bearing in mind the desperation of their paymasters, we knew they could stop and search vehicles and abduct anything synonymous with APC, so I took all the precautions. I took off on the journey which in itself was dramatic. As we got close to Oshogbo, a discussion ensued in the bus and I found out I was not alone in the Save-Osun initiative. Most of the passengers shared the same sentiments with me and were also natives of the State. They spoke emotionally and fiercely about their determination to ensure Aregbesola’s victory. Speaker after speaker reeled out programmes and interventions of the Governor that has brought smiles to the faces of the people. They concluded he was the best thing to happen to the State since its creation. The menacing apparatus of State then suffocating the enviroment will not deter them, they thundered! “Ko si ohun ti soja o se, a ma duro gboin gboin lati dibo Aregbe” they said in yoruba dialect meaning “there is nothing Soldiers can do, we will stand firmly to vote for Aregbe”. I thought to myself, we are about to witness mass resistance unequally in our national history if anything go against the people’s will. Hopefully, the soldiers we met on the various check-points didn’t stop and search, they just peeped through the bus windows and passed us on. I heaved a sigh of relief when I arrived Osogbo safely late in the evening. I have attended rallies, mega-rallies , name it, but what I saw on Tuesday at the grandfinale of the campaign was frightening. A
stadium whose capacity can’t be more than 60,000 almost caved in due to pressure from an unprecedented mammoth crowd. Every space on the covered stands were over-filled, the main bowl of the Stadium was virtually unpassable. My associates and I had to hold ourselves to navigate our way through the crowd, it took us about an hour from the entrance of the stadium to find somewhere to perch! Yet thousands more extend to adjoining roads outside the stadium. It was the APC mega-rally and to say it was awesomely mega is an understatement! We even heard that the Lord of Aso-rock caught an instant migraine seeing the magnitude of the rally! The effect of that was seen in the sealing off of the freedom park that was supposed to host workers rally the next day by “hooded soldiers” They got the now familiar, albeit emergency “orders from above” to forcefully if need be halt the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and its affiliates endorsement rally for the Ogbeni. Co-incidentally, Wednesday, 6th August was my birthday but I was in no mood for celebrations of any kind. I told my wellwishers, family and friends that you don’t clink glasses in a battle-front! Interestingly, one of my compatriots who was also a major ‘battle-axe” and good friend’s birthday was 8th August so I told him we’ll do a birthday plus victory party on the 10th, a day after the elections,when we triumph at the polls. We know we had the people behind us, we never gave defeat a thought! By Thursday, preparations had reached feverish pitch, the towns, hamlets and villages was now massively flowing with uniformed men of all hues and shades. Some DSS operatives came to the restaurant we were having dinner, Thursday evening, apparently on surveillance mission. We got the message and we left in a jiffy! On our way to our location, we noticed a car trailing us, so we had to take a decoy to a bar. As we turned to the bar, the car also turned in another direction. Their mission still remains a mystery. Thank God for little mercies! When we arrived our abode, we swung into action to put finishing touches to our masterplan which was to run a co-ordinated and effective live broadcast of the elections on social and online media in collaboration with the APC situation room which was to start from Friday evening till the announcement of the results on Sunday. This was necessary because leaking the plans of our devious opponents was key to frustrate their rigging machinery; announcing results online as we get it directly from our agents was also crucial to frustrate any manipulation at the collation level. By Friday afternoon, I had to tactically separate from my friends who then proceeded to a high security location. The curfew was going to start around 5-6pm. By 4pm, I
arrived at moved to assess the negligible
my own secure location and quickly set up. I surveyed the enviroment to possible threat level. I saw that it was so I settled down for the task ahead.
By Friday evening we got intelligence report that notorius election rigger, Chris Uba was in town with a unit of 50 soldiers attached to him. We sent that out and made sure it went viral. Later that night, information about the arrest of our leaders ranging from APC Publicity Secretary, lai Mohammed, the Attorney-general Of Osun State, barr. Wale Afolabi, Tinubu’s Special Adviser on media, Mr Sunday are, Commissioner for Agric among others were swiftly publicised with dispatch. The farreaching effect of the noise we made contributed in no small measure to the release of most of those picked up by Saturday morning. We discovered by Saturday morning that fake soldiers and policemen had surfaced in many locations. Their logo was a red ankara tied to their left hand. Quickly we activated our instant alert to our people,through all means possible. That again thwarted efforts to manipulate the elections from the beginning. The elections started peacefully however in most locations with accreditation going on smoothly. The only snag was the continued harassment of APC leaders across the State. The case of the 1st Civilian Governor of Osun State, Alhaji Isiaka Adeleke was quite instructive. After failing to assasinate him over-night due to resistance by his security aides, he was trailed from the polling unit to his mother’s residence where he went after accreditation. He escaped the siege by the whisker after he was discreetly notified. He couldn’t come back to exercise his franchise. The results started trickling in by afternoon and the PDP demolition squad sensing their rejection quickly switched to a plan B to disrupt the collation process. We instantly alerted the public about their norturnal meeting and evil plot. What really helped the APC apart from the determination of the people was our access to classified information. We were always a step ahead of them and that frustrated the election riggers. I got an anonymous call from a patroitic police officer around 8pm who claimed he was at a location at modakeke and that results being collated was about to be altered. You could detect the fear in his voice as he asked me to ensure his cover. He was an igbo officer deployed from other states, he wasn’t familiar with the terrain but what was gratifying that there could still be few men of integrity in the corruption-ridden Nigeria Police Force. In order to confirm the authenticity of his Statement, I asked the Apapa Local Government Chairman who was with me to speak to him. He sounded credible, he concluded. So I made some calls to the authorities and sent text message to our men to act immediately.
Before 11pm, we already had all the results and we had won, though unofficially. What sealed the deal for us and put paid to any manipulation the PDP had in stock was the unexpected congratulation of Aregbesola as the winner of the election around 9.40pm by the Ooni of Ife, Oba Okunade Sijuade. Omisore according to our sources had already informed Aso-rock that there was fighting in his home-town of Ile-Ife because according to him, the results we were circulating were fake and he was actually leading in the “original” results. The Ooni swiftly debunked that, not only congratulated the Governorelect, but also stated that nobody was fighting in Ife! That took the sail out of the wind of Omisore and his treacherous gang. If we thought the threats have been subdued, we were in for a shocker! The returning officer whose task it is to announce the final result was under pressure to collect a whooping N1b and announce Omisore winner! They were ready to damn the consequences and ask us to go to court. So we had to practically go on our knees! I salute the indefatigable people of Osun State, they were resolute, they stood like a rock, stayed on the streets all through and formed a human shield around the collation centre. Then the returning officer came in around 1.35pm. The results of all the local governments were announced before 5am. Then we now witnessed dilly-dallying of the highest order. It got to a point around 7am, anxious journalists and people started singing asking for the results. Lo and Behold, at about 7.10am, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola was finally pronounced the winner! There was instant jubilation across the nook and cranny of Oshogbo. Never in the history of elections have I seen such spontaneous excitement pervade the landscape because of results announcement. Within the twinkle of an eye, the whole town went agog with people clutching their brooms- symbol of the Governor’s party, congratulating themselves, okada riders driving menacingly in such euphoric ecstasy and finally we could say hurray! We won! We didn’t win an election, we won a WAR with a stone like the biblical david. Goliath came to battle with the best arsenal at his disposal but we came with the will of a determined people that vowed that never again shall they go the road of perdition they once trodded. Who says the voice of the people is not the voice of God? Because ultimately the hand of the Almighty saved the day and gave us victory. Osun ti dara ooooooo. Segun Tomori
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FEATURE
OSUN DEFENDER Saturday, October 18, 2014
The Questions About Terrorist And Terrorism Continued from Saturday October 11, 2014 edition When and where do they operate? answer to this question and which A simple present reality agrees with would be anywhere and everywhere. The transition from worldly struggles to sacred battles has been greatly influenced and perhaps accelerated by globalisation and modernisation. The present crisis of religious terrorism must be understood within the rubric of the process of modernisation. The change in the nature and character of these recent religious crises, violence and terrorism from the earlier holy wars fought by Mohammed and later by his generals can only be accounted for as responses to contemporary theme in the world’s political and social life: globalisation. Modern day religious acts of terrorism, whether local or international, in a sense, are statements of resentment against modernity and globalisation. Islamic history has an important religious and legal significance for Muslims. For instance, while the western world view the basic unit of human organisation as the nation or the country which can then be subdivided in various ways one of which is religion, Muslims however, tend to see it the other way round; a religion subdivided into nations. This is because in the early centuries of the Muslim era, the Islamic community was one state under one ruler. This perception has not changed even when that community was split up into many states. Thus, for the Muslim, the ideal of a single Islamic polity still persists till today; the Arabs simply do not think in terms of ethnic or territorial identity. A Muslim in Saudi Arabia is deemed as one with any other Muslim from any other part of the world. The bond that binds them all together is religion irrespective of nationalities. This makes it easier for Muslims to refer to their opponents not in territorial or national terms but simply as infidels (kafirs). Similarly, Muslims never referred to one another as Arabs or Pakistan or Nigerian, they simply identified themselves by their religion. This perspective helps explain why, for instance, Pakistan is concerned with the Taliban and their successors in Afghanistan. That is why, for instance, the Taliban could fund religious insurrections and violence in Nigeria and Saudi Arabia would want to finance an Islamic bank in Nigeria. Conversely, an Afghanistan or Turk or Nigerien identified by his religion would be a natural ally to a Muslim in Nigeria and other parts of the world. Although the very idea of such a grouping, based on religion, in the modern world may seem anachronistic and even absurd. It is neither anachronistic nor absurd in relation to Islam. Thus, Islam is not only a matter of faith and practice, it is also an identity and a loyalty, for many, it is an identity and loyalty that transcend all others. In addition to the five pillars on which Islam rests and which Muslim faithful are expected to strictly adhere to and observe, relevant passages in the Quran and the hadiths have also stipulated the need for a jihad. This has become the fundamental basis for Muslim militancy and terrorism and has always been discussed in military terms. According to Islamic laws, it is lawful and legitimate for Muslim faithful to wage war anywhere and everywhere against 4 types of enemies; infidels, apostates, rebels and bandits. Of these 4 only the first 2 counts for as a religious obligation for all Muslims, hence a jihad. As Bernard Lewis, an authority n Middle East history, has noted, classical Muslim jurists have made a distinction between offensive and defensive wars. It is only in offensive war that jihad becomes mandatory and an obligation to all Muslims and may therefore be performed by volunteers and professional soldiers. The defensive war becomes an obligation of every able bodied individual to defend Islam everywhere and anywhere. It is this principle that Osama bin Laden invoked in his declaration of a universal war against America and its allies. It is also on this principle that the activities of Boko Haram in Nigeria can be and should be understood. They are waging both a defensive and offensive wars against the Nigerian state, infidels and apostates (those leaders that have been deemed as compromising and not following the true teaching of Islam). The mentality and justification of Islamic fundamentalists rests on this principle which have been upheld and held sacrosanct by all faithful Muslim for most of 14 centuries of recorded Muslim history. To aid our understanding of what has been dubbed indiscriminate attacks and killing of innocent civilians and the tenacity of Islamic jihadists, we must also look inward to the Muslim tradition as enunciated in the hadiths. According to the Muslim tradition, the world is divided into two houses; the House of War (Dar al-Harb) and the House of Islam (Dar al-Islam). In the House of Islam where Muslim governments rule in accordance with Islamic laws and principles, there
•SHEKAU By TUNDE AGARA is no need for a jihad, but in the House of War where the world is still ruled and governed by infidels, then jihad becomes an imperative and an obligation. The presumption here is that jihad becomes a continuous duty until the whole world has accepted the Muslim faith. The willingness and tenacity of Muslims to fight and die is derived from the perceived benefits which accrued to martyrs. The word martyr is derived from the Greek meaning ‘Witnesses’, those who are prepared to suffer torture and death rather than renounce their faith. The Arabic word for this is shahid which also means ‘witness’. So Muslim terrorists can operate anywhere and everywhere as long as there is Dar al-Harb, the continued existence of which provides a basis and justification for continued attacks and killing. How do they operate? Since the purpose of terrorism is to terrify and put terror in the minds of the people, draw public attention to the issues generating the use of terrorism and in the case of religious terrorism, to bring about compliance with the demands of the terrorists which is the acceptance of the new faith, in Nigeria, the imposition of shari’a, they operate by assassinating and killing not only military personnel, government officials and those deemed to be apostates, but in most cases, also innocent civilian victims. However, this simple answer needs further elaboration because it includes explanations of how they are trained, where they are and the topics taught at their training camps, how they are equipped; that is, the weapons available for their use and what tactics they employ and why they choose to use or not to use certain weapons. Space would not allow us to proffer detailed answers and explanations to the questions that are germane to this section. However, suffice to say that from 1960 to 1990, a number of countries have been identified as providing training camps and logistics for terrorists. Among the prominent ones are Algeria, Iran, Iraq, China, Poland and former Soviet Union. Countries such as Cuba, Syria and North Korea are either unwilling or unable to provide training facilities because they could not politically or financially afford to openly flout Western censure and thus incur their wrath and sanction. However, after the 9/11 attacks, information revealed that Afghanistan had become a major training camp for terrorists with the permission of the Taliban. Nigerian members of the Boko Haram have also testified to the fact of their close association and support of the Taliban and that they were trained in their terrorists’ camps. US bombing attacks in the fall of 2001 had devastated many of these facilities and had eventually led to the fall of the Taliban government in Afghanistan. Reports got through interrogation of captured members of the Boko Haram and other terrorists worldwide, have confirmed that among the
curricula taught at these facilities include bomb making, assassination and ambush techniques, weapons training, intelligence and counterintelligence methods, recruitment and communication, extortion, bank and car robberies. Prominent among the many tactics available for terrorists’ use is tyrannicide which is the assassination of a tyrant political (secular or religious) leader. The leading advocate of the doctrine of tyrannicide was a Spanish Jesuit scholar Juan de Mariana whose principal work De Regis Institutions, was banned in France. Although the practice of tyrannicide was not an Islamic innovation, it is recognised in Islam and justified by the fact that such leaders have deviated from the ‘path of God’. Such leaders and individuals are regarded as apostates and the rule of war against such are stricter than against unbeliever. In the average Muslim’s eyes, the apostate or renegade is worse than an unbeliever because while the unbeliever has not seen the light and may eventually see it, the renegade has known the true faith and abandoned it. For this offence, an ordinary person punishment is death, but for the ruler, death usually comes through assassination. This point is made clear by ‘Abd al-Salam Faraj, an Egyptian executed for assassinating President Sadat in 1982. He is reported as saying that there is no doubt that the first battlefield of the jihad is the extirpation of these infidel leaderships and their replacement by a perfect Islamic order, and from the will come the release of our energies. The practice of assassination in the Islamic world dates back to the disputes over the political headship of the Muslim community. As Middle East historian and authority, Bernard Lewis has noted, of the first four caliphs of Islam, three were murdered, the second by a disgruntled Christian slave, the third and fourth by pious Muslim rebels who saw themselves as executioners doing the will of God. The word ‘assassin’ is derived from the Arabic word Hashishiyya, the name given to a Muslim sect active in Iran and Syria from the 11th to the 13th century. This sect is credited with transforming the act of assassination into a system and later an ideology. Their actions were directed against Muslim leaders whom they saw as impious usurpers and it is in this sense that this sect can be said to be the true predecessors of modern Islamic terrorists. In fact the name Hashishiyya was given to them because of the fact that members of the sect involved drugged themselves on hashih (hemp, marijuana) before going for their assignment, although they refer to themselves as fedayeen derived from the Arabic word fida’i meaning ‘one who is ready to sacrifice his life for the cause’. It is important to point out that in two respects, their choice of weapons and victims, the assassins were markedly different from their present day suicide bombers successors. The victim was always an individual, either a highly placed cleric, political or military
leader who was seen as the source of evil and only the victim was killed. In the real sense of it, their action may not pass for terrorism but targeted assassination. However, their choice of weapon was always the same, a dagger, which shows a disdain for personal safety or even a desire not to survive the act because of the expected benefit which is eternal bliss. It would seem that Boko Haram has also perfected these acts of assassination and tyrannicide. Modern day terrorist actions would be useless if not directed to attract attention, the attention of a specific audience in which a particular mood of fear is sought to be created. The violence of terrorism is not an end in itself. Rather violence is employed precisely to create a sense of fear, terror and uncertainty in the people, the audience of terrorism. The fear or terror thus created or caused by terrorism is linked to the nature of the victims of terrorist attacks. The victims are not specifically defined. Even the terrorists seem not to be able to determine or define who their victims or the numbers will be. The fact that they are only interested in maximising the impact of their attacks without regards to the victims further served to intensify the mood of fear and uncertainty precisely because anyone could be a victim. The slaughter of innocent victims and uninvolved civilians is not ‘collateral damage,’ it is the prime objective. The use of bombs does not discriminate or is selective over who the victims would be or should be. In fact, to qualify as a victim of a terrorist today, one need not be tyrants or their sympathisers; one need not be connected in any way with the evils the terrorist perceives; one need not belong to any particular group. One need only to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. An emerging but significant method of operation now is suicide terrorism. In a sense this is new because going by the trend; political terrorists usually carry out their attacks from a safe distance. Suicide mission seems to have been pioneered by religious organisations such as Hamas and Hezbollah and now refined and extensively used by Al Qaeda and its allied organisations such as Nigerian Boko Haram which seems to have adopted this technique and has recorded a number of successes from using it. A remarkable innovation now is the use of women or female suicide bombers started by the Kurdish terrorists in Turkey in 1996-1999 and by Palestinians from January 2002. The issue of suicide terrorism has raised fundamental issues and important questions concerning Islamic teaching. Islamic doctrines and teaching are against suicide and the suicide is punished by eternal damnation in the form of endless repetition of the act by through which the suicide died. The passages from the traditions of the Prophet have him saying that whoever kills himself with a blade will be tormented with that blade in the fires of hell. The prophet also said: He who strangles himself will strangle himself in hell, and he who stabs himself will stab himself in hell ...whoever kills himself in any way will be tormented in that way in hell... Whoever kills himself in any way in this world will be tormented with it on the day of resurrection. Boko Haram in Nigeria has perfected the tactics of suicide bombing. Many incidents stand to attest to this fact such as Police Stations, and even the Police Headquarters in Abuja. In conclusion we want to reiterate that the phenomenon of terrorism in Nigeria cannot be understood or fully appreciated outside of the trajectories of the wider example of political terrorism as provided and exemplified by the PLO and in particular, religious terrorism as orchestrated by Al Qaeda. Boko Haram is just one aspect of the wider ongoing struggle between secular modernisation and religious bigotry and fundamentalism. It is hydra headed and what we are experiencing in Nigeria is just one manifestation of the many heads. It is in this respect that any attempt to think that the Boko Haram phenomenon can be solved using different tact and strategies from the way that the PLO and Hamas its militant arm are being dealt with by Israel and how Al Qaeda is being handled by the rest of the global world led by US, is merely an exercise in futility. It can only be dealt adopting and using similar strategies. The fear that need be expressed and which authorities at both the sub-regional (ECOWAS) and continental (AU) levels are ignoring now, is that the ‘successes’ recorded by Boko Haram and the inability of Nigeria government to deal decisively with it, may trigger off similar actions in other parts of Africa. After all, the Muslim brotherhood is ‘stateless’ and the religion is more binding than any geographical and territorial delineation. Boko Haram is being treated erroneously as a phenomenon exclusive to Nigeria alone and this is very misleading and entirely myopic. •Agara (Ph.D) Lecturer Centre for Strategic and Development Studies (CSDS) Ambrose Alli University, Ekpoma, Edo State, Nigeria.
Concluded
INTERVIEW
OSUN DEFENDER Saturday, October 18, 2014
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PDP Still Living In Imaginary World - Akinloye Barrister Daud Akinloye is a legal practitioner, practising in the firm of Alimi-Akinloye and Partners; and a politician of All Progressives Congress (APC) extraction in the State of Osun. He served as an Assistant Secretary of the Alliance for Democracy in Ede South Local Government between 1998 and 2002 and he is now a Special Assistant to the Governor on Legal Reform. He is eyeing the House of Assembly seat of Ede North State Constituency under the APC in the 2015 elections. In this interview with KAZEEM MOHAMMED, MARIAM AFOLABI and REBECCA ADENIRAN, he spoke on some of his programmes if given the opportunity to occupy the seat. Excerpts: OSDF: Tell us why you decided to join politics? AKINLOYE: Politics has been part of me for long, even when I was in school, I contested for positions in the Students’ Union Government. To me, politics is about life and I see it as a way of contributing to the development of the state and country at large. In short, politics is a way by which world is being ruled. Though, so many people have seen politics as the easiest way of getting money. They have turned it to an avenue for mischief, and this can be best described as “politricks”, but to me, politics is beyond that. Everyone would want to call himself a good politician, but I must say that an example of a good politician could be seen in Governor Rauf Aregbesola. A good politician would not want to think about himself alone, he thinks about the people and that is what I am interested in. It was personal interest that made some politicians to fall for the monetary offer and religious sentiment that were played up in the last governorship election in the state by the opposition. For God sake, how could someone believe the lies that Ogbeni Aregbesola wanted to Islamise the state, despite all the level playing grounds that the government has created for all religions. Generally, I believe I could render service better when I am in politics. If Aregbesola is doing that much to develop the state economy and its people, there is need for people to support him. OSDF: Why do you want to contest for the House of Assembly seat? AKINLOYE: I believe it is important for the House of Assembly to support the governor with good laws that will last beyond his tenure and make his developmental programmes and policies sustainable. That is why I am eyeing the Ede North seat in the State House of Assembly. I am a lawyer and I hold my Masters in Environment and Development and I intend to use this background to better the lots of my people. In my view, development is about sustainability and any development that does not have law as its basis, cannot be sustained. I believe I can do more to assist him in different areas to transform the state to the state of our dream. OSDF: Are you saying you want to come in because the present Assembly has not performed to expectations? AKINLOYE: The present parliament we have, under the Speakership of Honourable Najeem Salaam is a very sound and effective one, but I feel we have some other things we could offer, which are not in place now. If we are telling our people that we can represent them better, we mean it, but it is not to say that those who are there have not performed. While I am commending the present Assembly, as it stands for the jobs done so far, there are more to be done and that is what I intend to bring in. OSDF: What is your appraisal of the present government in Osun? AKINLOYE: Oooh! The governor has performed excellently well. Tell me, what aspect of governance and development he has not touched? He is developing the state without any religious sentiment. He is not in government for his selfaggrandizement. He is contented and he has actually touched every bit in the state. In fact, one of his offence with mischief makers was that he is embarking on too many developmental programmes at the same time. He is struggling to turn the state around, yet, some people, who are not interested in the development of
•AKINLOYE the state are spreading lies against him. Ogbeni Aregbesola has transformed education, constructed massive roads, created jobs, feeding school children, provided good health service and did so many other things that the people appreciate. To me, no government has ever done what Aregbesola has done within the last three and half years, because he touches every home. I can tell you that this doggedness and passion for the development of the state guaranteed his re-election by the people of Osun in the last governorship election. OSDF: But the opposition PDP are saying that the election was rigged in favour of your party? AKINLOYE: I participated in the election and what we suffered in the hands of the federal forces in 2014 was far more than what we suffered in 2007, when we were not in government. It was even we that should be saying that the election was rigged in the few local government council areas where they won. I can confidently say that Osun election was the best so far in the history of this country, as far as I know. What we achieve in that election was because the people of Osun were dogged and committed to development. So, if they are alleging that the election was rigged, tell them to cover their faces, because they are not ashamed of themselves. The election was won by Aregbesola squarely with the support of the people and divine intervention. OSDF: As one of the APC lawyers at the inspection of the election materials ordered by the Election Tribunal, rumours abound that a large number of fake ballot papers have been recovered from the votes of APC in the process, what is the true story? AKINLOYE: Who determines fake ballot papers? Is it PDP or APC? The PDP are still living in the imaginary world and they want to deliberately confuse the
people through their falsehood. They are pathological liars. Before the election, they played certain games that they had won the poll and that they had even written the result from Abuja, so that they could discourage people from coming out to vote, but we thank God that the people turned out massively. In fact, the votes they got was as a result of the money, blackmail, lies, religious sentiment and useless federal government power they used. The intention of their lies is to sustain their people, so that they will not leave. They have forgotten that they will need ten more lies to defend a single lie they have told. However, since we started the inspection, we have only inspected those of Obokun Local Government Council Area completely and as at Friday, October 10, as I am talking, we are on Osogbo Local Government Council Area. What they are doing is just scanning ballot papers. They challenged 17 local government council areas and we have only covered one council area completely, where then did they get the votes they are removing. Don’t forget that that was what they have been saying since the election time. They were the ones that wanted to rig us out, when they failed, they want to justify their failure and sustain their people because of the 2015 general elections. Because they believe in using power to do everything, they wanted to use some INEC officials to void our votes, but they were unable to do it and they are now coming up with another set of lies. They know that they cannot go anywhere and that is why the PDP candidate, Iyiola Omisore is seeking to contest Ife/Ijesa senatorial seat, while Adejare Bello his running mate is contesting for House of Representatives seat in Ede. Their intention is to muddle everything up, but we will not allow that to happen,
as we will do everything possible to protect our votes. OSDF: What is your comment on the attack on judiciary in Ekiti State? AKINLOYE: The level of impunity by some politicians is what is dragging our nation backward. What happened in Ekiti is a serious crime, of which, by now, those involved should have been called to answer for it, but because we are in a country, where everything that is abnormal has become normal. That is why you could see a governor-elect, who is supposed to protect the sanctity of the judiciary, becomes the one that is caught in the act. The power they took from the people is now being used against them. If he was convinced that he was qualified to contest, why couldn’t he wait for the court to decide, instead of harassing judges. What they were doing was to stop the court from sitting, so that he would be sworn-in and they would now begin to argue that he has immunity. It is a pure impunity and must not be allowed to stay. OSDF: How do you want to convince the people in terms of the programmes you have for them for them to give you their mandate? AKINLOYE: The decision is for our people to make, but I can say that better times are coming if I could be given the opportunity to represent them. We have a lot of programmes we have laid down that would help in solving some perennial problems in my constituency. I would work for my people and to achieve that, we have established a link through our constituency office, where people can tell us what they want from us and present the need of their constituency. Beyond that, we believe that there must be regular town hall meetings to let the people know what we are doing in the House and tell us what we could do to better their condition at the grassroots level. Also, as a lawyer and a development expert, we also feel that there are some laws that need to be made to assist the government, so that we can put all the developmental initiatives of our governor into law beyond executive orders, so that anyone coming after Aregbesola would not deviate from the path of progress. For instance, during electioneering campaign, Omisore was saying he would cancel O’YES, a programme that has provided youths with jobs in virtually every home. We even have PDP members who have benefitted from the scheme. In fact some of the PDP party agents in the election had benefitted from the scheme. So, a programme like O’YES needs to be backed by law. The same thing goes for Agba Osun Welfare monthly package. There are so many others like that that we need to back by law, so that they will become sustainable. Apart from that, I feel there is the need to create a Constituency Fund, by which all other priviledges beyond honourable members salaries will accrue to and be managed by people from the wards that constitute the constituency to determine how to spend it for the development of the constituency. That is part of our agenda. What we are saying is that the present Assembly and specifically the person representing Ede North constituency has done well, but we can do better.
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PHOTOTALK
OSUN DEFENDER Saturday, October 18, 2014
Beautification In The State Of Osun Urban Renewal Projects Under The Administration Of Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola.
•An ongoing pedestrian way project along Fakunle Street, Osogbo.
• •Another ongoing pedestrian way construction around Ola-Iya area of Osogbo.
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PHOTOTALK
OSUN DEFENDER Saturday, October 18, 2014
At The 6th Prince Bola Ajibola Annual Lecture At Oduduwa Hall, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Last Wednesday.
•The governor, State of Osun, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola (rigth); honouree, Prince Bola Ajibola (left) and the Deputy Governor, Otunba (Mrs) Grace Titi Laoye-Tomori during the 6th Prince Bola Ajibola Annual Lecture at Obafemi Awolowo University, Hall last Wednesday.
Director, Institute Of Public Health, College Of Health Sciences, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife Paid A Courtesy Visit To The State Of Osun Governor, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, At The Government House, Osogbo, Last Tuesday.
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•The governor, State of Osun, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola (middle); the Director, Institute of Public Health, College of Health Sciences; Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Dr Abioye Kuteyi,( (2nd right); Head, Health Promotion, Non Commvicable Dlseases Unit of the Institute, Dr Omolola Irinoye,(2nd left); Programme Officers, Mr Diran Adesina and Miss Seun Davies(right), during a courtesy visit to the governor at the Government House, Osogbo, on Tuesday.
FOR THE RECORDS
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OSUN DEFENDER Saturday, October 18, 2014
Education As A Panacea To National Insecurity And Developmental Challenges – Aregbesola Speech Delivered By The Governor Of The State Of Osun, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, As The Guest Lecturer At The 6th Prince Bola Ajibola Annual Lecture Series, Organised By The Magna Curia Chambers Of Obafemi Awolowo University, Held At The University’s Oduduwa Hall, Ile-Ife, On Wednesday October 15, 2014. Protocols, is with heartfelt gladness that I join IT you today for the 6th Prince Bola Adesumbo Ajibola Annual Lecture Series. I should thank the staff and students of the Faculty of Law, particularly those of the Magna Curia Chambers, for choosing me as the Guest Lecturer for this all-important celebratory event. I am immensely grateful to you for this honour. I must also acknowledge that instituting this lecture series in honour of Prince Bola Ajibola is quite in order. Beyond being an octogenarian of reputable standing, our revered father is one of those foremost Nigerians who have enormously invested in the service of humanity in contemporary times. Both at home and abroad, Prince Ajibola’s contributions to the law profession are staggering. Unmistakably bold and inspiring are his footprints on the plain of human progress through the instrumentality of the law. In every way, Prince Ajibola deserves to be celebrated. Wherever and whenever the names of men of honour, integrity, compassion, selflessness, and vision are referenced as worthy examples, our respected elder statesman will not be absent. In this he remains a useful example to the young on how, through the appropriation of the values of diligence, perseverance, credibility, honesty, humility, and humanity, they can attain the lofty heights of greatness in their chosen careers. All of these values aided him in his numberless national and international legal undertakings and arbitrations. Surely, for the Magna Curia Chambers and the entire law students of Nigeria, and indeed the law profession, Prince Ajibola is an undiminishing asset. His well-detailed memoirs entitled, Tribulations and Trophies: Memoirs of Judge Bola Ajibola, provides a revealingly illuminating proof of this assertion. Distinguished audience, an annual lecture in the name of this eminent jurist provides another platform through which we can contribute to ongoing debates on topical issues of national importance. Interestingly, this year’s lecture aptly locates one of the most pressing issues that Nigeria needs to decisively engage and put in proper shape – education. So, in discussing ‘Education as a Panacea to National Insecurity and Developmental Challenges’, being the focus of this year’s lecture, we join the subsisting debate on how we can employ education as one of the indispensable drivers of attaining national security and achieving sustainable human and material development. We must therefore ask ourselves these crucial questions: Can education provide the healing balm to the festering wound of insecurity that is relentlessly threatening the continuous coexistence of Nigerians? Can
•AREGBESOLA
education vouchsafe soothing relief from the excruciating pains of underdevelopment that currently limits the full attainment and expression of human capacity in Nigeria? My immediate response to the foregoing posers is a loud yes. I am completely sold to the view that education is a vital means through which individual and national socioeconomic aspirations can be actualised. Education is very critical to the realisation of sustainable national development and the achievement of national security. Mark it, for any society to achieve enduring progress, education must be the unavoidable bedrock of its efforts. Therefore, if we in Nigeria are to develop human capacity for the kind of productivity that will impact national socio-economic development, the path to traverse is the education track. In engaging with the issue of education as a remedy for national insecurity and developmental challenges, I wish to contend that a conception of education as a process rather than as a tool will do us a whole world of good.
To conceive education as an instrument meant to be deployed in achieving certain practical ends is to conclude that education is all about physical development of people. Education of that construct will more often than not limit the capacity of those given to it. But seeing it as a process is to aim for the kind of education that will richly empower people to be ever ready to impact national development. Such education is functional and makes life more meaningful and liveable. As the scholar, S. Wehmeier, informs, a ‘process is a series of things that are done in order to achieve a particular result’. Education as a process aims for an all-encompassing development, which in this case substantially concerns the physical/material, moral/spiritual, and emotional/ psychological of the human person. It is those whose human make-ups are developed to the fullest capacity that can work to engender security and contribute robustly to national development.
In one of his contributions to the debate on education as a process through which personal and national development can be attained, the wellregarded Chief Obafemi Awolowo insightfully argues in The Voice of Reason that, A man whose personality is fully developed never fears anything … and never feels inferior to anyone … and will resist any form of enslavement until the last breath in him is exhausted. […] His breadth of mind enables him to exercise his freedom in such a manner as not to endanger the interests and freedom of others. Sadly, the Nigerian state today is horrifically assailed by manifold layers of insecurity and its progress is hampered by a myriad of developmental challenges all because of the continual erosion in the quality and standard of its educational system on one hand, and the unresponsiveness of its educational system to current realities on the other hand. Through lack of fairly adequate investment in education, successive administrations in the national space have crippled our educational system to such an appalling extent that what seems to matter is the acquisition of certificates. The full development of the mind, body and brain, which education that will inspire national development enables, is rapidly on a downward course across all levels of our educational system. Yet, we have a growing population of unemployed graduate youths whose education avail little or nothing for national development. Worst still, their conducts raise serious questions about their claim to education. Why then should we be surprised by the pockets of insecurity that increasingly degrade lives and destroy our country? If human beings are the agency through which sustainable development can be attained, then the process through which they are empowered must be accorded quality attention. That process, as evident in the focus of this lecture, is education. Here I repeat the familiar refrain of most contributors to the debate on our educational system: our educational system needs a coordinated surgical restructuring to not only empower our children to respond positively to developmental challenges, but to also achieve full personality development. Our present national condition makes this call imperative and a response to it even more urgent. From the elementary to the tertiary level of education, a comprehensively organised restructuring is necessary if education is to lead us out of the woods. In the State of Osun, I must note, this is the path we are already walking. Part of the restructuring to be systematically effected nationally must redress the manifest imbalance Continued on page 11
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FOR THE RECORDS
OSUN DEFENDER Saturday, October 18, 2014
Education As A Panacea To National Insecurity And Developmental Challenges – Aregbesola Continued on page 10
observable in different parts of this country. I contend that without this corrective restructuring, we will continue to have the torturing situation in which some parts of the country aim and work for development and some others reverse it or delay the quest for development. For instance, there is no reason why the children and youths in parts of the North and the Niger Delta of this country should not have the same quality education as their mates in other parts of the country. Even in the South West, where we used to have a 50 years education head start, it is no longer a bed of roses. When our administration came in 2010, we discovered to our chagrin, from the SSSCE result of that year, that just about five percent of the candidates from Osun had the requisite pass needed for matriculation into higher institutions. Already, the social combustion in the North, especially the north-eastern region of our country, should drive home the important lesson on the harsh consequences of uneven socioeconomic development in multi-ethnic configurations like Nigeria. The Nigerian leadership must heed and lead the response to the voices urging restructuring of the country’s educational system. In addition, the restructuring of our educational system must be one that makes it possible for our youths to develop their natural abilities to the highest extent feasible. They must be trained to be self-reliant, creative and productive. If the youth of a country are fully trained and have the right environments to demonstrate the possibility of their human capacities, the insecurity that unemployment triggers and feeds on will be considerably minimal and manageable. Such youths will be active agents of development and will never sit idly by while developmental challenges erode their human dignity and make them terror to society. The developed countries of America, Europe, and Asia achieved their enviable development feats through their vibrant, energetic, creative, and productive youths. In Nigeria, we also have the advantage of a surging vivacious, energetic youth population. We must give them the full mind, body and brain development to enable them perform productively in matters regarding development. We can engage them productively in different areas of our national life. We must create for them or empower them to create the environment necessary for achieving enduring development. What this presupposes, therefore, is that we must be ready to make substantial investment in education and research. We must not be a country which loves the wonderful things of life but does not know or contribute to the process of realising them. We must fund education without considering whether we will be insolvent, for it is impossible, as Confucius assures, for a country to go bankrupt in educating its people. Investment in education will always yield the highest dividends.
•AREGBESOLA
Our politics will not benefit our youths if it does little to empower them. Our policies will be sullied in the sewage of social unrest if the process that will make our youths agents of development is barely or not seriously minded. As Chief Awolowo reveals in his words quoted earlier, the youths who are products of barren educational system and as such of vacant personality development will not exercise their freedom in such a manner as not to endanger the interests and freedom of others. Such uncultured minds, he explains further, will have the ‘sorry figure of a religious fanatic who condemns everything, and everybody but himself, and whose only prophecy is one of pessimism, catastrophe and gloom for mankind …’ I believe we can all find concrete examples of these minds across the length and breadth of this country. In the South, where we do not have uneducated youths as waiting recruits of misguided, murderous and nihilistic fanatics, we have on our campuses, and have even spilled to the streets, a large army of gangsters operating as freelance terrorists, perpetrating with impunity, rape, murder, armed banditry, extortion, contract killing and any kind of imaginable vice. That is why quality and stout
investment in qualitative and functional education becomes all the more an imperative. Distinguished audience, to get our educational system in good shape and develop the human mind, body and brain for lasting national socioeconomic development, we need visionary, compassionate, disciplined, and unselfish leadership at all levels, more particularly at the national level of governance. It is this leadership that can inspire the restructuring of our educational system in a way that will make education impact socio-economic development in our country. I take refuge in the well-articulated view of Dean Kennedy that real leadership is about ‘mobilizing people to confront their predicament and solve their most pressing problems. The focus is not getting people to follow but on getting people to face reality and think and act responsibly, thereby enabling their organisations and communities to address their toughest challenges and make meaningful progress’. We need people who can provide this form of leadership both in our political and educational spaces. When we conceived of Opon Imo, the stand-alone e-leaning tablet, it was not because our state was awash with cash. Rather, it was because we
envisaged the future of mankind as digitally driven and the need to prepare our children for that future. While some CEOs still have to present cheques to bank cashiers in order to obtain cash to pay for goods and services, I can now pay for my flight ticket from my mobile phone and print my boarding pass in the convenience of my bedroom or download it to my phone. One terabyte of hard disc space weighing less than 100 gram can contain digital versions of books that can fill a big library equivalent of Library of Congress or even the library of this university. We are therefore doomed if our children are not connected to the digital world. We will never catch up if we are trying to do catch up. Also, I have made the case in the past and I want to make it now: that a good education does not only provide enlightenment, it must equip the graduate with a vocational skill. Nobody must claim to be educated without having acquired some skill with which he can be engaged in a productive activity that will put food on his table, without having to look for formal employment. Theoretically, there will be shortage of manpower if every graduate is in a position to employ one or two other persons after completing his or her studies. Our present course system was designed at a time when anybody with a certificate was assured of a job, irrespective of discipline of study. It is not so anymore. The courses should now be tailored, one, in the direction of national needs and secondly, for individual empowerment. I should like to conclude on a note of appreciation. And this has to do with the special award that I am to be honoured with at this event. I thank the minds who conceived of it and found me worthy of such a great honour. I promise to be more steadfast in my commitment to the development of the people of Osun and by extension Nigeria. I will continue to work for the deepening of good governance and faithfully discharge the responsibilities of my position. Ultimately, our aim in Osun is to provide functional education and establish a viable education sector that will be able to put our students on a comparable footing with their counterparts anywhere in the world. We are unrelenting in our efforts, resolute in our purpose, and unwaveringly focused on our goals. I will also like to thank members of this university community and by extension the ancient city of Ife, for your support to me during the August 9, governorship election. You withstood the terror machine of the state and its intimidations. You refused to be cowed, intimidated or provoked, but calmly and confidently trooped out to cast your vote. I treasure your support and I will be eternal grateful. Once again, I thank the organisers of this lecture for their kind invitation and the honour of the special award. I thank you all for your reassuring audience.
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OSUN DEFENDER Saturday, October 18, 2014
Job Vacancies In Nigeria Experienced Job Positions in an Integrated Energy Company Ischus Consulting - Our Client is a leading Nigerian independent integrated Energy Company, with strong international affiliations and an enviable growth trajectory in the upstream Petroleum sector. They are seeking exceptional subsurface professionals to support its next growth phase, working alongside world-class professionals to deliver the business targets. The prime candidates should have strong personal drive, proven technical and commercial skills seeking exciting and groundbreaking opportunities to apply innovative problem solving abilities in a results-focused, yet supportive business environment. These roles offer exceptional career growth; opportunities and exposure to further contribute to the pioneering, phenomenal growth of this premier independent energy company. Role location is flexible between Lagos and PHC locations. Ischus Consulting is recruiting to fill the below position: Job Title: Chief Production Geologist Locations: Lagos & Port-Harcourt Responsibilities: Should provide functional oversight of discipline processes, standards and procedures across the organization, ensuring consistency with the company’s strategy and adherence to petroleum engineering best practices. Should ensure effective and efficient workflow between production geologists and other technical groups, whilst coordinating, leading, and disseminating key geo-scientific developments derived both from internal and external research programs and manage exploration links with research projects and education establishments. Requirements B.Sc Geology (relevant advanced degree preferred) 15-20 years experience with a solid knowledge of Niger Delta geology. Able to lead special technical projects; peer reviews; asset acquisition, etc. with technical and leadership abilities in managing robust succession and career development plans. Job Title: Senior Production Geologist Locations: Lagos & Port-Harcourt Responsibilities: The role conducts and participates in Integrated Field Development studies to meet Reserves Replacement targets and the anticipated Oil & Gas growth in company’s green and brown, fields, utilizing appropriate technologies and best practices to reduce time, costs and improve quality and standards. Role includes interpretation of all available geological data to improve the understanding of the reservoirs/fields geology and applied knowledge of HSE, people and commercial management. Requirements B.Sc Geology, with 12-15 years experience; and solid knowledge of Niger Delta geology. Able to generate integrated predictive subsurface/geological models to address/resolve subsurface production challenges in addition to harnessing subsurface opportunities. Job Title: Senior Petrophysicist Locations: Lagos & Port-Harcourt Responsibilities: The role provides petro-physical input to asset team, to assure petro-physical deliverable, providing coaching for fellow Petro-physicists in support of Development Planning, Well and Reservoir Management and New Oil on company’s Operated and Non-Operated, exploration and development wells. This role is part of the sub-Surface team Charged with conducting petro-physical evaluations, and making appropriate contributions into FDPs, well planning/proposals; etc. Candidate should have HSE, people and commercial skills. Requirements B.Sc or M.Sc Degree in Applied Science or Engineering, with 10 - 12 years experience. Job Title: Chief Production Technologist Locations: Lagos & Port-Harcourt Responsibilities: Role provides functional oversight of discipline processes, standards and procedures across the organization, ensuring consistency with the company’s strategy and adherence to petroleum engineering best practices. Should establish and maintain appropriate portfolio of projects, regularly reviewing projects in field and ensuring decision points arc developed & maintained, and project deadlines & budgets are met Candidate will define clear and achievable objectives and ensuring all projects are consistent with the Company’s strategic needs Requirements B.Sc Engineering or equivalent, with 15-20 years experience. Able to lead pedal technical projects: peer reviews; asset acquisition, etc. with technical and leadership abilities in managing robust succession and career development plans. Job Title: Senior Production Technologist Locations: Lagos & Port-Harcourt Responsibilities: This role will provide very strong support to the identification of production improvement opportunities and production optimization studies in conjunction with the reservoir engineer, Petro-physicist a production geologist in the asset teams. Candidate will ensure the highest level of competence of Petro-physicists in the asset development team including their recruitment, development retention and coaching/mentoring. Requirements B.Sc in Engineering or its equivalent, with 8-10 years experience, at least 6 of which should be as an experienced Production Technologist with broad understanding of other E&P disciplines and skills in all key Production technologist specialties. Job Title: Senior Reservoir Engineer Locations: Lagos & Port-Harcourt Responsibilities: This role provides very strong support to field development planning through building numerical reservoir simulation using Eclipse and CMG simulators and is part of the team responsible for identification of production improvement opportunities and production optimization studies in conjunction with the production technologist Petro-physicist and production geologist in asset teams. Candidate will generate well proposals; manage budgets handle staff recruitment development and coaching. Requirements B.Sc in Engineering or its equivalent with 8-15 years relevant experience, including a minimum of 6 years RE experience in an operating company. Job Title: Chief Production Seismologist Locations: Lagos & Port-Harcourt Responsibilities: The Chief Production Seismologist will technically lead and oversee all aspects of exploration programmes including leading a multidisciplinary group that includes the generative group and the regional technical specialists. Role assists exploration projects teams resulting in discovery of economically viable deposits that will have a significant impact on the company’s earnings and growth. They will lead a focused team on identification of additional prospective terrains for giant deposits by developing exploration models and target generation, including the Identification and proposal of “New Frontiers” generative opportunities. Candidate will provide functional oversight of discipline processes, standard and procedures across the organization, ensuring consistency with the company strategy, and adhere to petroleum engineering best practices; ensure workflow between production seismologist and” other technical groups is. effective, candidate should have USE, people and commercial skills. Requirements B.Sc Geology (relevant advanced degree preferred), with 15-20 years experience and a solid know ledge of Niger Delta geology. Job Title: Senior Production Seismologist Locations: Lagos & Port-Harcourt Requirements Minimum of B.Sc in Geology or Geophysics with 12-15 years E&P experience. They must have good knowledge of core disciplines in petroleum geology such as Seismic, Production Reservoir Geology and exhibit excellent knowledge of well planning and operational geophysical aspects of well execution. They should capably build ecological models and support relevant disciplines in developing integrated models for asset management and resolve all geophysical related issues in development of assigned asset Role requires HSE, people and commercial skills. Remuneration Attractive with benefits and reflective of responsibility, experience and value add. How To Apply Interested candidates should send their CV’s and applications to: recruitment@ischusconsulting.com Note: Only successfully short-listed candidates will be contacted. Application Deadline 29th October, 2014 —————————————————————————————————————— Experienced Job Positions in an Integrated Energy Company
Ischus Consulting - Our Client is a leading Nigerian independent integrated Energy Company, with strong international affiliations and an enviable growth trajectory in the upstream Petroleum sector. They are seeking exceptional subsurface professionals to support its next growth phase, working alongside world-class professionals to deliver the business targets. The prime candidates should have strong personal drive, proven technical and commercial skills seeking exciting and groundbreaking opportunities to apply innovative problem solving abilities in a results-focused, yet supportive business environment. These roles offer exceptional career growth; opportunities and exposure to further contribute to the pioneering, phenomenal growth of this premier independent energy company. Role location is flexible between Lagos and PHC locations. Ischus Consulting is recruiting to fill the below position: Job Title: Chief Production Geologist Locations: Lagos & Port-Harcourt Responsibilities: Should provide functional oversight of discipline processes, standards and procedures across the organization, ensuring consistency with the company’s strategy and adherence to petroleum engineering best practices. Should ensure effective and efficient workflow between production geologists and other technical groups, whilst coordinating, leading, and disseminating key geo-scientific developments derived both from internal and external research programs and manage exploration links with research projects and education establishments. Requirements B.Sc Geology (relevant advanced degree preferred) 15-20 years experience with a solid knowledge of Niger Delta geology. Able to lead special technical projects; peer reviews; asset acquisition, etc. with technical and leadership abilities in managing robust succession and career development plans. Job Title: Senior Production Geologist Locations: Lagos & Port-Harcourt Responsibilities: The role conducts and participates in Integrated Field Development studies to meet Reserves Replacement targets and the anticipated Oil & Gas growth in company’s green and brown, fields, utilizing appropriate technologies and best practices to reduce time, costs and improve quality and standards. Role includes interpretation of all available geological data to improve the understanding of the reservoirs/fields geology and applied knowledge of HSE, people and commercial management. Requirements B.Sc Geology, with 12-15 years experience; and solid knowledge of Niger Delta geology. Able to generate integrated predictive subsurface/geological models to address/resolve subsurface production challenges in addition to harnessing subsurface opportunities. Job Title: Senior Petrophysicist Locations: Lagos & Port-Harcourt Responsibilities: The role provides petro-physical input to asset team, to assure petro-physical deliverable, providing coaching for fellow Petro-physicists in support of Development Planning, Well and Reservoir Management and New Oil on company’s Operated and Non-Operated, exploration and development wells. This role is part of the sub-Surface team Charged with conducting petro-physical evaluations, and making appropriate contributions into FDPs, well planning/proposals; etc. Candidate should have HSE, people and commercial skills. Requirements B.Sc or M.Sc Degree in Applied Science or Engineering, with 10 - 12 years experience. Job Title: Chief Production Technologist Locations: Lagos & Port-Harcourt Responsibilities: Role provides functional oversight of discipline processes, standards and procedures across the organization, ensuring consistency with the company’s strategy and adherence to petroleum engineering best practices. Should establish and maintain appropriate portfolio of projects, regularly reviewing projects in field and ensuring decision points arc developed & maintained, and project deadlines & budgets are met Candidate will define clear and achievable objectives and ensuring all projects are consistent with the Company’s strategic needs Requirements B.Sc Engineering or equivalent, with 15-20 years experience. Able to lead pedal technical projects: peer reviews; asset acquisition, etc. with technical and leadership abilities in managing robust succession and career development plans. Job Title: Senior Production Technologist Locations: Lagos & Port-Harcourt Responsibilities: This role will provide very strong support to the identification of production improvement opportunities and production optimization studies in conjunction with the reservoir engineer, Petro-physicist a production geologist in the asset teams. Candidate will ensure the highest level of competence of Petro-physicists in the asset development team including their recruitment, development retention and coaching/mentoring. Requirements B.Sc in Engineering or its equivalent, with 8-10 years experience, at least 6 of which should be as an experienced Production Technologist with broad understanding of other E&P disciplines and skills in all key Production technologist specialties. Job Title: Senior Reservoir Engineer Locations: Lagos & Port-Harcourt Responsibilities: This role provides very strong support to field development planning through building numerical reservoir simulation using Eclipse and CMG simulators and is part of the team responsible for identification of production improvement opportunities and production optimization studies in conjunction with the production technologist Petro-physicist and production geologist in asset teams. Candidate will generate well proposals; manage budgets handle staff recruitment development and coaching. Requirements B.Sc in Engineering or its equivalent with 8-15 years relevant experience, including a minimum of 6 years RE experience in an operating company. Job Title: Chief Production Seismologist Locations: Lagos & Port-Harcourt Responsibilities: The Chief Production Seismologist will technically lead and oversee all aspects of exploration programmes including leading a multidisciplinary group that includes the generative group and the regional technical specialists. Role assists exploration projects teams resulting in discovery of economically viable deposits that will have a significant impact on the company’s earnings and growth. They will lead a focused team on identification of additional prospective terrains for giant deposits by developing exploration models and target generation, including the Identification and proposal of “New Frontiers” generative opportunities. Candidate will provide functional oversight of discipline processes, standard and procedures across the organization, ensuring consistency with the company strategy, and adhere to petroleum engineering best practices; ensure workflow between production seismologist and” other technical groups is. effective, candidate should have USE, people and commercial skills. Requirements B.Sc Geology (relevant advanced degree preferred), with 15-20 years experience and a solid know ledge of Niger Delta geology. Job Title: Senior Production Seismologist Locations: Lagos & Port-Harcourt Requirements Minimum of B.Sc in Geology or Geophysics with 12-15 years E&P experience. They must have good knowledge of core disciplines in petroleum geology such as Seismic, Production Reservoir Geology and exhibit excellent knowledge of well planning and operational geophysical aspects of well execution. They should capably build ecological models and support relevant disciplines in developing integrated models for asset management and resolve all geophysical related issues in development of assigned asset Role requires HSE, people and commercial skills. Remuneration Attractive with benefits and reflective of responsibility, experience and value add. How To Apply Interested candidates should send their CV’s and applications to: recruitment@ischusconsulting.com Note: Only successfully short-listed candidates will be contacted. Application Deadline 29th October, 2014 ———————————————————————————————————
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OSUN DEFENDER Saturday, October 18, 2014
Healthy Living
Fashion & Lifestyle Top 5 Foods For Perfect Skin With ENIOLA AGBAJE and OKPOMU SHOLA N Healthy Living 7 Best Foods To Eat For Healthy Eyes
A
large number of individuals, through close research and observations, has been shown to be suffering from various optical problems including Cataract. In view of this, we bring to your disposal, some foods that have been proven to aid better sight. 1. CARROTS: They are an excellent source of Vitamin A and Beta-carotene that promotes overall eye health. Vitamin A is crucial for the surface of the eyes and lids, while Betacarotene is a powerful antioxidant that helps protect the cells of the eyes from free radical damage. Also, the beta-carotene helps to lower the risks of cataract and macular degeneration. 2. LEAFY GREENS Lettuce, spinach and generally, every type of vegetable are good for not only the eyes, but the whole body. These vegetables contain very potent antioxidants (Zeaxanthin and Lutein), which helps lower the risks of chronic eye diseases. 3. CORN Now, this is one of the most popular vegetable known to mankind and one way or the other, everybody has consumed corn. Corn is fortified with Vitamin C, Vitamin B5, Vitamin B1 and Folate. Consuming corn on a regular basis lowers risks of Cataracts and helps prevent the loss of yellow pigments in the eyes. 4. OLIVE OIL The major reason why olive oil is so beneficial to your eyes is that it helps your body absorb nutrients from the other foods
that can help keep your eyes healthy. It is therefore advisable to drizzle olive oil over your mixed salad to absorb all of the nutrients from the tomatoes and leafy greens, and cook your sweet potatoes and meat with olive oil to get the most nutrients. 5. TURKEY One of the best and extremely tasty foods to eat for a healthy eye is Turkey. It is rich in both the B-vitamins Niacin and Zinc. It is also fortified with B-vitamins tryptophan, phosphorus, protein and selenium. It is low in cholesterol and saturated fat. It can easily be substituted for both beef and chicken. The regular consumption of turkey keeps the eyes healthy and can help prevent cataract. 6. TOMATOES They are great source of carotenoids, including Lycopene, a great antioxidant, which helps protect the retina and other areas of the eye from the light- induced damages. It also helps protect your cells from damage and prevents prostrate, stomach and lung cancer. Tomatoes are rich in Vitamin C that helps protect the eyes and vision. It can be added to your everyday meal either as garnishing or dressing or by drinking the juice, which is packed with essential vitamins and minerals. 7.SWEET POTATOES Sweet potatoes have got to be everyone’s favourite type of tuber. They are amazing at helping cater for healthy eyes, as they are a great source of Betacarotene. Sweet potatoes contain Vitamin A, Vitamin C, betacarotene, fibres, manganese and potassium, which are all essential for healthy eyes and clear vision.
Lifestyle
Big, Bold & Stylish
T
HE veteran Yoruba actress, Foluke Daramola has opened up in a recent interview about her love for perfumes and wristwatches. Well, most of us would be wondering why of all accessories a lady can love, she picked out perfumes and wristwatches. She recently let us into her world of unique taste and class, as she said: “I am a sucker for any great fragrance. I am not too particular about brand
names, although I love them and I love body mist. For my wristwatch, I have a weakness for Michael
OTHING speaks better than a beautiful and healthy skin and nothing attracts people more than a glowing and alluring skin. Although, it has suddenly been difficult in recent times to maintain a healthy and blemishfree skin, but here are some few tips on how to maintain that special glow of your skin through the consumption of some very affordable food items everyday. 1. THE RED BELL PEPPER The red bell pepper popularly known as “Tatase” is a very tasty vegetable that can be enjoyed either cooked or used as dressing for a meal. One red bell pepper contains more than a 100% of our daily Vitamin C needs, Vitamin B6 and some significant amount of dietary fibre. It is rich in carotenoids that help prevent your skin from wrinkles and also increases blood circulation to the skin, thereby helping you have that youthful look and glowing skin. 2. DARK CHOCOLATE Dark chocolate is rich in antioxidants, fatty acids and flavanols that promotes glowing skin. These antioxidants help reduce roughness in your skin and protects it against sun
damages. It also contains cocoa, which relaxes the arteries and increase blood circulation that leads to a smooth and healthier skin. 3. SALMON Salmon is an excellent sea food that helps fight stress, anxiety and depression. It also provides the body with most of our daily Vitamin D needs. Salmons are rich in Omega-3 fatty acids that are excellent for eradicating inflammation, wrinkles and acne. Omega-3 also helps hydrate the skin from inside out. 4. COCONUT OIL Coconut oil is one of the richest sources of saturated fat with about 90% of calories of saturated fat. Coconut oil is rich in Vitamin E for keeping your skin moist, soft and free of wrinkles. It also contains
Lauric acid, a powerful antibacterial and antiviral agent that keeps away viruses, inflammation, infections and acne. The application of coconut oil on the skin and also consumption of at least one tablespoon full of raw coconut oil daily helps the skin radiate and gives it that healthy outward glow. 5. GREEN TEA Well, everybody knows that green tea is good for the body, but what we don’t know is that it is a great source of antioxidants and amino acids that helps relax your body and lower stress. Green tea releases Catechins, a kind of antioxidant with anti-cancer and anti-inflammatory properties. It also helps reduce the risk of developing high blood pressure.
Reflection
D
AYS of our life are sometimes filled with so much struggle. Some of us even call it “hustle”. Each day is like a new, fresh battle day. We fight for space and thrive for recognition. I guess that’s part of our makeup. Living things are bound to compete and fight in order to remain a living being. While struggling daily, we get disappointed, heart-broken, hurt or injured; creating scars and wounds. These make some of us weak, depressed with the thought that we cannot carry on. We get carried away in our deep thoughts and conflict. Too busy to take a break, too occupied to breathe again. Too busy chasing one thing we can’t control; TIME. Deadlines are set, appointments are made and in our efforts to meet up with time, several events unfold and some leave us knocked out, battered and bruised. Then we go back to our “can’t (s) and negativity. A man once said: “Our deepest fear is not that we are
T
HE weekend is everybody’s most anticipated time of the week. Mostly because it’s the time to unwind and have fun. Majorly, Korrs. I have about 15 of weekends are them, even though I have known for all other brands too. Right now, kinds of fun because I buy and give out, a c t i v i t i e s ; I think I have about 40 w e d d i n g s , wristwatches. While I have birthday parties, lost count of my perfumes, house warming but it cannot be less than and all other 60”. types of getShe therefore admitted together. Friends she wouldn’t be seen get to hang-out, anywhere without her shop at the mall, wristwatch or her perfumes. go to the beach, Dare I say she is a lady with see a movie and a unique sense of on fashion???? Yes! Yes!! catch-up Yes!!! She not only knows basically all fun what suits her stature but stuffs. After very also knows how to accessorize and compliment busy weekdays, it. It’s a definite plus mark it would be rather for the beautiful Foluke inappropriate to be caught in our Daramola.
Depth Of Our Strength inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measures “. Over 100 trillion cells lay within a living human body, in which over 180 million cells are generated every minute. The cells in us are more than the number of stars in the galaxy. Within us lay great strength, capacity and energy. Possibility; great might to do just anything we want to do. Beneath every obstacle lies a way out. No problem is without a solution. Only if we are too afraid to take the risks it demands. This is where motivation and persistence come in. In 1945, Anna Jarmics hands were amputated due to an explosion of a grenade. Recovery was slow and painful. Back then, there were no rehabilitation facilities to aid recovery and no anaesthetics. How do you do when you are ten years old with no hands. She went to school, learnt how to pick up a pencil. Despite no fingers
or thumbs, she learnt how to write and hold things. Though it was hard and almost impossible, but Anna was not a quitter. “Impossible “ did not exist in her vocabulary. While working as a security guard, Anna broke her back. She had to go through two major operation procedures. No hands, broken back, also a single mother of four; how harder can life get. As circumstances set boundaries, Anna found a way to thrive and shine brighter. Anna Jarmics is an award-winning artist, whose water-colour paintings have been winning ribbon at Calgary Stampede for decades. She also had many championship wins including gold medals in darts at the senior Olympics. No matter how life gets, there is always a reason to get tougher and triumph, because we can do anything.
Fashion Getting Dressed Up For The Weekend you can rock your jeans or short with a T-shirt and a casual footwear (loafers, sneakers) or even a very simple slippers to go with it.
working or serious outfits during the weekend. This time of the week is when it will be easy for us to put on something less serious and uptight but still elegant and stunning. Casual dresses, jeans and tops and a pair of flat or heeled shoes or even sandals, as the case may be will do the magic. For the men,
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INTERVIEW
OSUN DEFENDER Saturday, October 18, 2014
Osun Tribunal: PDP is Spreading False Hope - Adebisi Mallam Nureen Adebisi is a stalwart of All progressives Congress ( APC) in Ede South Local Government Council Area of the State of Osun and an aspirant for the State House of Assembly. He Explains why PDP will lose at the ongoing Election Petition Tribunal and 2015 general elections in this interview with KEHINDE AYANTUNJI. Excerpts: OSDF : What do you consider as the implication of the emerging competitions for the State and National Assembly seats among Osun APC members ahead of 2015 elections? ADEBISI: Whatever you describe as competition within our party for State and National Assembly seats has no negative implication, rather, it will be a prospect for our party. It is democracy at work. I am so confident that our party would win any election at any time. I am so confident in the sense that God is with us, considering our ordeal during the last governorship election held on August 9, 2014. You will agree with me that it was a victory designed by God. If you look at the pre-election incidents and what happened during the election, you will know that it was victory from God and determination of the people of the State of Osun to ensure that the wish of the people prevailed. During that election, PDP did their worst to subvert the will of the people, but were resisted by the people. The election was peaceful and reflected the wish of the people, which was a clear evidence that the people are strongly behind our party and at any election, we are still going to win. I was laughing when I learnt that PDP challenged the election at the tribunal and they are giving false hopes to their members. In Ede here, which was part of the areas challenged by PDP, INEC conducted the election very peacefully and transparently. All their party agents signed the results in all the 10 wards in Ede South and 11 wards in Ede North. We did our best as committed party members; we performed our civic duties in line with known electoral laws. Throughout Ede, there was no record of violence at any of the poling units; no record of ballot stuffing or snatching. So, the basis of going to tribunal is not known to me. Although election is a process, talking about pre-election and during election process, but if there will be complain on preelection, it should be the APC that should complain. We witnessed unimaginable security harassment, but despite this, on the day of election, people trooped out enmass to vote massively for APC in Ede. We have been engaging PDP leaders here in Ede that they should give evidence of rigging in any part of Ede. Up till now, they could not provide any answer. So the question begging for answer is whether their witnesses would manufacture evidence from heaven
•ADEBISI
or somewhere else. They know within themselves that they lost that election woefully, but just needed such false hope among their members to sustain their party. OSDF: What are your exceptions from the Tribunal ? ADEBISI: I expect the tribunal to be fair and just. I expect the tribunal to project the image of the judiciary. You will understand that Governor Aregbesola won the election in 2007 but was rigged out only to reclaim the mandate through incorruptible judges of the Court of Appeal. OSDF: There are three critical elections in 2015 and PDP is equally not leaving any chances, what is the hope of your party? ADEBISI: What I know is that election is a judgment day for politicians, and PDP had received part of that judgment in August 9, 2014. Putting all these factors side by side with the statistics of previous elections, PDP will continue to lose election in this state. If you look at the last
election, PDP engaged in physical financial inducement and despite that, people still rejected them at the poll. We won in 22 local government council areas despite massive deployment of security personnel, physical intimidation. Don’t forget that the National Publicity Secretary of our party, Alhaji Lai Muhammed, was arrested by the DSS and despite all these, people were so resolute and I strongly believe that same people are still alive with the same spirit and the scenario would repeat itself in 2015. This will be so because our governor has demonstrated uncommon leadership by making life more abundant for the people, so there is no way the people would wish the return of PDP to power in this state OSDF: Don’t you think the competition for various seats may weaken your party before the elections? ADEBISI : Competition is normal in democracy, and APC is a party of principles that has
capacity to manage such internal petition. If you look at the antecedents of our party, internal competition has never been a source of division and everything will be done in line with the laiddown procedure. That is on the party side, and on governance, since 2005 when Governor Aregbesola resolved to contest for the governorship election, he has rolled out his blueprint in a green book, “My Pact” with the six-point integral action plan. This has been our basis of our engagement. The governor since 2010 has been pursuing action plans with vision and mission, which has transformed the state beyond expectations. Throughout the last election, PDP has no clear manifesto and their candidate had nothing to tell the people, so you can see the clear difference. In our party, we compete based on ideas and the value we are going to add to the life of a common man. To this extent, our party has secured the confidence of the people and very confident of winning of any election at any time.
15
OSUN DEFENDER Saturday, October 18, 2014
Governor Rauf Aregbesola’s Inauguration The People’s Governor of the State of Osun, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, would be inaugurated on Thursday November 27, 2014 for his second term. There is no denying the fact that Ogbeni Aregbesola has warmed himself into the hearts of the people of the State of Osun with his massive developmental projects. His impact has been felt in all the nooks and crannies in the state while he has touched every aspect of our lives in the State of the Virtuous. What else could we do as individuals or corporate bodies on this auspicious occasion if not to identify with him by congratulating him. Your popular soar away grassroots tabloid, OSUN DEFENDER Newspaper, is doing a supplement to congratulate the workaholic governor of our time in commemoration of the inauguration. Individuals, corporate bodies, institutions, and well-wishers can avail themselves with our low advert rate below: ADVERT RATE Full Page Colour Full Page Black & White Half Page Colour Half Page Black & White Quarter Page Colour Quarter Page Black & White
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N150,000 N120,000 N80,000 N70,000 N50,000 N40,000
Any of these phone lines can be contacted: 08033927286, 08033880205, 08061197897 and 08023191891.
- Management
It’s Sweet To Be Rich, But… By FOLA OJO Some heart-wrenching stories I heard from my parents about a long season in their lives when poverty came biting down their jugulars and sticking to them like fleas. They recounted many years of hunger, sickness, serious lack, and in the midst of the hard times, my mother lost to the jawbone of death children she labored to deliver. What a sad and moving story she recalled. When I was born, however, poverty’s dark-cloud had just begun to roll away from the home, and life started getting better for the family. Collocating my parents’ poverty days with the moderately affluent times they enjoyed, I concluded long time ago that power and affluence are sweet; and riches and wealth are pleasant and pleasurable. If men told you otherwise, tell them it’s a lie from the pit of poverty, penury and indigence. When you have affluence you have influence. When you have wealth your fingers are on the levers of power. When you have riches, you are God’s creature with weight and worth, not just a habituallypicketing on-looker in your neighborhood. When you have money, people bow down to you, and greater doors to get richer swing open. If you are a preacher with wealth, people listen to you. If you are a politician, people flock to you. If you are a businessman, you are loved beyond your imagination. Those who hate you are forced to pretend they love you if you have money. If you are broke, you are bound. Men treat you like you have an incurable illness. Broke folks don’t attract, because the world deals with them like a bunch of distracting creatures. In the unwritten laws of the world, it is a criminal offence to be broke. Broke people are condemned before they are tried in the court of public opinions. Some rich people believe that poor people are lousy, very boisterous, and always seeking undue attention. They think their voices are the harshest, they argue when they don’t have to, they brag when they don’t have a dime, they clad up in clothing that make them look
like they control the wall-street, and they love to fight the rich and do battle with the affluent. Some rich people believe that the hormones of poor people are different. Poverty makes a man cranky, irritated, and always on the edge. Poverty drives a man to crave for fights with the real and imagined. If you are reading this and you are broke, God will reverse the situation for you. Rich guys just go about their businesses because they know that the world is at their fingertips. Don’t believe the lies my friend; it is sweet to be rich. For many years, warren Buffet, the CEO of Berkshire Hathaway and one of the richest men in the world, criticized jet ownership. In 1986, the company purchased its first used-jet for $850,000. Three years after, the company sold the jet and bought a newer model for $6.7 million. Buffett named it “The Indefensible”. After riding on this sleek jet, Buffet prayed the prayer of St. Augustine: “Help me, Oh Lord, to become chaste – but not yet.” Many years after flying back-and-forth on the upgraded jet, Buffett requested that when he died, he should be buried in it. Why are there more politicians in Nigeria than doctors and teachers put together? Why do you think some politicians, when they are older than Biblical Abraham, still want to hold on to political offices? It is fearsome to be poor and broke and politics. To some foolish and ignorant people, politics is the best and quickest avenue to get rich in Nigeria. Without power, African politicians know they may be broke and bound. Bitterness, however, will come to the sweet side of riches when a man or woman is obsessed with money. Obsession with money is an invitation to a premature funeral procession. Anyone obsessed with money will die before his or her time! Money will only come when we all remember that it is God who gives it without an addition of sorrow. May Godly riches come to you exceedingly and abundantly above what you ask or think. •Ojo, a pastor lives in the United States of America.
August 9, 2014 Governorship Election Victims If you were harassed, arrested, detained, assaulted by any suspected agents of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) whether in uniform or mufti, during the August 9, 2014 governorship election in the State of Osun, visit our office, opposite Guarantee Trust Bank, Ogo-Oluwa, Osogbo, or call either of these phone numbers – 08033927286 and 08033880205. We are interested in your plight by recording it for history. - Management
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SATURDAY, OCTOBER 18, 2014
AUDACIOUS EXPLOIT
I
N Nigeria, as in many developing countries, political power determines virtually everything. With power, there is nothing that cannot be achieved. Power is responsibility, but to most political gladiators, power is sought not for the benefit that would accrue to the electorate, but for personal aggrandizement. Nigeria’s chequered political history has seen the military take charge more than the civilians. We should not be carried away by the fact that we have witnessed fifteen years of uninterrupted civilian rule. The military may still be lurking around the corner to cash-in on any misadventure of the politicians. Reasons usually adduced by the military for their putsch is misuse of power, abuse of human rights, misappropriation of public funds and corruption. The military itself is not totally free from all these allegations against the civilians they overthrow. I am not a fan of military rule and I strongly believe that Nigeria would have progressed beyond this level, if the civilians were not removed in the first instance. They should have been allowed to make mistakes and correct them by themselves. The military interregnum has helped to slow down our progressive march. Military rule may not be fashionable or desirable but that is not to say that by the action of the dramatis personae in power, they should play into their hands. It is true that the Nigerian military can be described as opportunists, who are always oversighting the civilians to take advantage of their mistakes. Or how else can one describe the situation in India, which is more populous than Nigeria, with many ethnic groups and had experience many internal strife, yet, the military stay away from the political scene. In Nigeria, the military has the “selfimposed headmaster” role, which is docile now and should be encouraged to keep it on. However, good governance is the only antidote that can keep them perpetually out of power. The inability of political actors to operate within their limits and higher authority to caution them has always been the bane of our society. Interestingly, we fail to learn from our past mistakes. Besides the remote causes of what triggered off the first military coup d’état, the immediate cause was the crisis in the Western Region. Rather than the powers that be at the centre at that time, Northern Peoples Congress (NPC) to intervene, they chose to take sides. The October 1965 Western regional elections, where the Chief Samuel Ladoke Akintola-led government chose to do whatever they wanted was our greatest undoing Nigeria hosted the Commonwealth
with MURTALA AGBOOLA TEL: 0806-119-7897 E-mail: murtalamuag@yahoo.com
President Jonathan Should Remember History
•JONATHAN
meeting, where the leader of the NPC, Sir Ahmadu Bello, was asked about the crisis in Western Region. He spurred the question only to state that it was a kind of difference among two brothers. Later, in less than a month, the five majors, led by Chukwuma Kaduna Nzeogwu, effected military coup, albeit unsuccessful, but eliminated the Prime Minister, Alhaji (Sir) Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, Northern Premier, Ahmadu Bello, Western Premier, Ladoke Akintola, Finance Minister, Chief Festus OkotieEboh among other casualties. The coup was needless and the killings preventable, if our leaders had chosen to do the right thing at the appropriate time. The build-up to the 2015 general elections has manifested in so many ugly trends, which if unchecked, they create problems. All attempts made by desperate politicians,
to either retain or capture power at all cost, is dangerous to the polity. It benefits everybody if we can play according to the rule. If we choose to do whatever we like, then we should be prepared for the consequences of our actions or inactions. It all started on the floor of the Rivers State House of Assembly (RSHA), where two factions resorted to fisticuffs. The dexterity they exhibited made trained boxers green with envy. The River State government-led All Progressives Congress (APC) are in the majority in the House, while the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) are in the minority. The then Police Commissioner of the state, Joseph Mbu, was seen by majority of Nigerians to have taken side. Mbu recently got a reporter with Africa Independent Television (AIT) arrested and detained for having the gut to ask why he took sides on an issue.
Government officials are not above the law. The problem in RSHA still persists. In Ekiti State, some thugs descended on two judges within the court premises, who were hearing cases against Mr Ayo Fasoye, the newly-inaugurated governor. Should disagreement or differences be settled through physical power? In the State of Osun, the interpretation of a Court of Appeal ruling is almost tearing the state apart through lack of understanding by the opposition PDP. The chairman of PDP in the state, Alhaji Gani Ola-Oluwa’s interpretation is that by the ruling, all elected officials of APC in April 2011 supervised by Toyin Akeju stands nullified. To him therefore, thugs would be sent to disrupt the proceedings of the State House of Assembly. But for the fact that the Speaker of Assembly was proactive in asking for security officials to beef up security t the premises of the House, something untoward would have occurred. The rumour in Osogbo was that thugs would sack the House of Assembly. To confirm the position of the opposition party (PDP), Ola-Oluwa enquired why the House plenary last Monday took place in the afternoon rather than the usual morning time? Some questions are begging for answers. Even if the PDP interpretation of the ruling is right, should it resort to self-help by implementing court decisions? Is it not better for the PDP to go back to court to ensure that its decision is complied with if they are sure of what is in their possession? In Edo State, the official quarters of members of the State House of Assembly in Benin was turned into a battle ground to harm lawmakers and destroy their valuables. In all these cases, the police took sides, except in the case of Osun. The President ought to know that as the Commander-In-Chief, he ought to ensure that peace always reign supreme. An executive president has the whole country as his constituency and must ensure that his policy impacts on every segment of the country. He should be above partisan politics. He must be statesmanly. President Goodluck Jonathan has not exhibited these qualities. The Bringback Our Girls team could not access the President at Aso Rock recently because of security officials. Was it not the President that ought to show concern by interacting with parents of the missing school girls? The President should be wary of some official decisions, which may not be in tune with popular wishes of the people.
OSUN DEFENDER is published by Moremi Publishing House Limited, Promise Point Building, Opposite Guaranty Trust Bank GTB, Gbongan Road, Osogbo, State of Osun. All correspondence to the Managing Editor, KOLA OLABISI, Telephone: 08033927286 (kolaolabisi@yahoo.com); Editor, KAYODE AGBAJE, Telephone: 0803-388-0205, E-mail: osundefender@yahoo.com, kayodeagbaje@yahoo.com. ISSN: 0794-8050.Website: www.osundefender.org.