January 11, 2015

Newspaper of the Year

Child suicide bomber kills 20 in ket Maiduguri market –Page 6

APC to Jonathan: Address nation on Baga massacre

EFCC holds ex-minister’s former son-in-law over N750m scam –Page 70

Rep Elumelu: He promised me Delta PDP guber ticket

Nigeria’s widest circulating newspaper

Vol.09, No. 3092

TRUTH IN DEFENCE OF FREEDOM

SUNDAY

JANUARY 11, 2015

N200.00

EKITI LAWMAKERS FLAY ELITE OVER SILENCE ON CRISIS

–Page 71

Verdict 2015: Northern Emirs rebuff pro-Jonathan lobby Split in NSCIA, CAN, NIREC over candidates

–Page 4

Baba, calm down!

Fresh from berating unnamed elderstatesmen for talking like ‘motorpark touts’, President Goodluck Jonathan yesterday gave out the hand of his foster daughter, Ine, in marriage to Dr. Simeon Onyemaechi in Abuja. First Lady, Patience Jonathan, middle, appears to be imploring former President Olusegun Obasanjo who’s been engaged in a war of words with the president to calm down. First right is Senate President David Mark. Behind him are Pastor Enoch Adeboye and Bishop David Oyedepo.

JONATHAN VS BUHARI REMATCH –Pages 9-12, 73, 74

AS IT WAS IN 2011

LATEST 2015 SCENARIOS

OBASANJOSTUNS GUESTSATJONATHAN'S DAUGHTER’S WEDDING Stampede as police teargas guests –Page 4

THE NATION ON SUNDAY, JANUARY 11, 2015

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CAPTURED

Switzerland millionaire hit by record speed fine

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SWISS millionaire has been handed down a record speeding fine of $290,000 by a court.

The man was reportedly caught driving a red Ferrari Testarossa at 137km/h through a village.

The penalty was calculated based on the unnamed motorist's wealth - assessed by the court as $22.7m - and because he was a repeat offender.

It is more than double Switzerland's previous record speeding fine handed to a Porsche driver in Zurich in 2008.

In the latest case, the motorist was clocked speeding 57km/h faster than the limit, according to the cantonal court in St Gallen, eastern Switzerland.

"The accused ignored elementary traffic rules with a powerful vehicle out of a pure desire for speed," the court said in its judgement.

Swiss media reported that the man owns a villa with five luxury cars, including the Ferrari.

A walking bathroom Filipino traffic wardens display the adult nappies they have been issued with to ensure they can stay at their posts when Pope Francis visits the Philippines between January 15 and 19, 2015.

BAROMETER

poon, it will be recalled, came barely a week after President Jonathan's publisunday@thenationonlineng.net cised and humbling visit to the former head of state where he solicited for support over the February poll, a support that was apparently controversially and disingenuously turned down. Gen Babangida had damned President Jonawith faint praise.

In fact, the former president said is to blame for our misery, and should They are not senior citizens and they thanExcept perhaps for former Head of much worse, and with an intensity and not be rewarded with a second term. can never be. They are ordinary motor State Yakubu Gowon and former PresPresident Jonathan felt he had had park touts." 'gentle' ferociousness that drove the ident Shehu Shagari, who have manpresident up the wall. Explaining how enough. He had begged and flattered The president is of course entitled to disguise their views on the presPresident Jonathan frittered away the and humoured Chief Obasanjo, but the to be angry, and perhaps throw caution aged it is not clear whether any forexcess crude account and the external former president was not to be pla- to the wind now and again. He can ident, Nigerian leader is behind Presireserve by more than a half of their cated. Playing host to a group of fawn- even surrender to the use of expletives mer Jonathan. They are miffed by his 2007 value, he offered this poignant ing northern elders led by Tanko occasionally. But this time, perhaps dent inability to graprhetorical conclusion: “God made Yakassai last week, the president blew not unusually, he really let go, lips absentmindedness, with the country's multiple probNigeria a great nation. Is it that those his tops, calling his eminent critics quivering, gaseous words pouring out ple and his parochialism, intolerliving here have no brain? Is it that the unflattering names. "Some people call rapidly, tremulously. He as usual did lems, ance, and closet sectarianism. It seems leaders are not thinking? Or that we themselves statesmen, but they are not not mention names, but the public they can no forbear. But if their don't have the resources?" Then he statesmen, they are just ordinary poli- believed he was referring to either or patience haslonger worn thin, so, too, has the proffers this quaint solution: “When I ticians. For you to be a statesman, it is both Chief Obasanjo, who himself is patience of the president, who in his was in the army, our slogan was, not because you have occupied a big comprehensively unsparing of his quar- Lagos presidential rally 'There are no bad soldiers but bad offi- office before but the question is what ries, and former head of state, Ibrahim angrily, viciouslycampaign and testily cers.' Wherever soldiers are not doing are you bringing to bear on the Babangida, who just last week com- denounced his critics and the opposiwell, blame the officers. The same thing nation?...They are making provoca- pared his regime to the Jonathan gov- tion party in distinctly unpresidential obtains in the family, communities, tive statements that will set this coun- ernment and concluded his military and unstatesmanlike language. This towns and the nation." In other words, try ablaze. How can someone tell me government was run by angels and campaign is shaping up to be Nigeria's President Jonathan's poor leadership that such people are senior citizens. saints. Gen Babangida's merciless lam- worst moment of angst.

Jonathan, Obasanjo in bare-knuckle fights

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T is shaping up to be a battle between a relentless and vengeful former President Olusegun Obasanjo and an intemperate, unyielding and pugnacious President Goodluck Jonathan. Few have ever seen them so bitterly and desperately opposed to each other. Sure, they fought like Kilkenny cats, vibrissae bristling with animosity and unadulterated spite, but no one, it seems, had ever seen them so full of rage.

Unhappy that Aso Villa had seemed to ignore and dismiss him as a spiteful and vindictive old man and former Nigerian leader, Chief Obasanjo once again sought occasion to push the knife deeper into the president's back. He had met with leaders of Southwest market women in Abeokuta, and had regaled them with sanctimonious piffle about his superior airs and leadership competence, especially his legacy of projects and financial wizardry. But it was clear whose head he intended to scald or pulverise. President Jonathan was a spendthrift, he summed up, and it would be a disaster to return him to office. Vote wisely, he counselled. In other words, don't touch President Jonathan with a 10-foot pole.

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DSS and APC hackers

HEN it broke into the opposition party All Progressives Congress (APC) data centre in Lagos a few weeks ago, the Department of State Service (DSS) told the public they got information the party was cloning INEC permanent voter cards.

Reminiscent of the famous Watergate scandal in the United States, or perhaps worse, the service destroyed equipment and carted away materials without warrant and not minding to justify its actions. It is after all the secret service, and they are the only patriots and defenders of the nation and its constitution. But the controversy never died down, nor was the brazenness of their action mollified by their status as the secret service.

Many weeks after that egregious action, the DSS has finally condescended to offer their beleaguered countrymen an explanation. The APC data centre, said the DSS, was doing a lot of illegal things, including registering babies and infants and security personnel to inflate their membership register. The opposition party, it said, also had a video of how to hack into the files of other establishments, among which was INEC. I was in company with a group of students when the DSS spokesperson announced their findings.

The students were aghast. There are a few people who don't have the said video, they said, for any computer operator, not to talk of a data manager, must know how

data and computers are hacked into in order to know how to protect their own data and fight against hostile hacking activities.

Nor am I quite clear how the APC's membership, even if it were to be inflated to 100 million, would translate into votes.

But of course, the DSS is entitled to interpret its powers as liberally as it wants. What it must not do, but has done repeatedly, is to interpret the constitution as liberally and ruthlessly as it has done.

Leaders of the secret service should ask themselves that in view of their obvious partisanship and unconstitutional behaviour, what if the opposition they have laboured to harass and intimidate should win the general elections?

By ADEKUNLE ADE-ADELEYE

THE NATION ON SUNDAY, JANUARY 11, 2015

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THE NATION ON SUNDAY JANUARY 11, 2015

NEWS

Feb poll: Emirs rebuff pro-Jonathan lobby S

EVERAL influential emirs have rebuffed a lobby by a fellow emir on behalf of President Goodluck Jonathan ahead of next month’s election.

The emirs, it was gathered, have chosen to be neutral and back whoever is freely voted into office by the electorate.

In the same camp as the proJonathan emir are other traditional rulers from the North central and North west, according to a source familiar with the development.

One source said: “The Emir has been telling his colleagues that Jonathan has been fair to the North and to avoid a dent in the North/South south relationship, the President should be allowed to have a second term in office.

“Some of these Emirs and royal fathers pointed to the volatility of Northern politics and opted to take the back seat to await the people’s choice.

Remember how a special

adviser was burnt to death in the Second Republic for querying the Emir of Kano.

“A few other Emirs have discovered that the lobbying Emir has some vested interests to protect and they have chosen to ignore him.

“So, these Emirs may not be able to reach any consensus on either Jonathan or Buhari.”

It was also gathered that division has crept into the Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA), the Nigerian-Inter-Religious Council (NIREC) and the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) over who to back between President Goodluck Jonathan and Gen. Muhammadu Buhari.

NIREC has not been able to meet for almost a year owing to what a source described as “sheer politics.”

According to investigation some prominent NSCIA, NIREC and CAN members have taken

FROM: Yusuf Alli, Managing Editor, Northern Operation

a position on a presidential candidate but others yearning for change have disagreed.

Some however argued that these organizations should be neutral and rally round whoever wins the race.

It was gathered that some of these top leaders attributed their position to certain favours, perks and honour they stand to enjoy if their choice wins.

Findings revealed that the division in these top organizations has led to mutual suspicion among members and leaders.

A top source, who spoke in confidence, said: “There are issues about Jonathan and Buhari among members in these organizations. The body language and comments of some of these leaders have shown the direction they are going.

“The situation degenerated to the extent that in a meeting of one of these organizations, a

leader was advising members on why a candidate must not be supported.

“Some of us are however saying that we should not take sides at all in the overall interest of the country.

“Of what use will it be when you are holding a position of trust to ensure unity and stability of the country and you are taking a partisan position.

“The inherent danger is that you will lose focus. Whatever favours or opportunities anyone might have enjoyed in the past and present, it remains a private matter.

“Before you know it, whoever is elected will be looking at how to cripple these associations.”

Investigation confirmed that NIREC appears worse hit by petty politics because the Inter-Religious body has been unable to meet in the past one year.

Another source said: “Contrary to what the public is

•2nd right, APC Presidential candidate, Mohammed Buhari, the Vice Presidential candidate, Prof. Yemi Osibanjo, the National Chairman, Chief John Oyegun and the DG of Buhari presidential campaign organization/Governor of Rivers State, Rotimi Amaechi…..yesterday PHOTO: OBI CLETUS

being fed with, NIREC had fixed a meeting for Gombe but one of our leaders said he was uncomfortable with the state because of Boko Haram insurgency. This was after Gombe State Government had bankrolled our meeting and even guaranteed our safety.

“Later we shifted the NIREC meeting to Abuja and Gombe State Government was still ready to assist us. But some people did not just want the session to hold because of politics.

“Yet, this is a body which ought to assist the nation to address ethno-religious crises nationwide.”

The Emir of Zauzau, Alh Shehu Idris had in March last year pleaded with President Goodluck Jonathan to resuscitate NIREC He made the plea when Jonathan met with traditional rulers from Kaduna State shortly before attending the zonal unity rally of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

He said: “I want to make a passionate appeal to the government to resuscitate the Nigerian Inter-religious Council at the national level “After this, there should be the establishment of branches of NIREC in all the 36 states of the Federation.”

Obasanjo stuns guests with appearance at Jonathan’s daughter’s wedding •Scores of others tear gassed at reception

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HERE was an unlikely guest at the church wedding of President Goodluck Jonathan’s daughter, Inebharapu, yesterday, in Abuja: former President Olusegun Obasanjo.

His presence at the National Christian Centre venue of the wedding stunned many guests who had read last week’s exchange of insults between both men.

Chief Obasanjo had fired the first shot when, at a meeting with women leaders in the Southwest at his Abeokuta residence, accused the Jonathan administration of squandering $25billion from the nation’s foreign reserves.

That was a few weeks after claiming in his latest book, My Watch, that the Jonathan administration and the National Assembly were involved in monumental corruption.

President Jonathan himself hit back on Wednesday, saying some senior citizens behave and talk like motor park touts.

Obasanjo was accompanied to yesterday’s wedding by Senator Andy Uba, among other associates, drawing applause from guests.

From Augustine Ehikioya, Abuja

President Jonathan acknowledged Obasanjo’s presence, calling him ‘our father’.

He thanked him for gracing the occasion.

The President and his wife, Patience exchanged pleasantries with the former president before taking their seats.

However, scores of guests at the wedding reception held at the International Conference Centre, Abuja, got more than they bargained for when they were tear-gassed at the entrance of the hall.

The invitation card holding guests had gathered at the entrance for security clearance before being admitted inside.

Such was the crowd that a struggle to go in soon ensued.

Finding the situation to be getting out of hand, the security men at the entrance reached for their tear gas canisters which they threw at the crowd.

The result was a stampede that left many of them injured.

Some lost valuables like handbags, shoes, money, head gears, and mobile phones.

Enugu, Awka unprecedented crowd, welcome Buhari

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HE presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), General Muhammadu Buhari declared yesterday that he is contesting next month’s election to correct the anomalies which the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has failed to tackle in its 16 years in charge of the nation’s affairs.

Speaking to an unprecedented crowd which the chairman of the party, chief john Odigie-Oyegun described as fantastic, Gen Buhari listed some of the anomalies as insecurity in the land, youth unemployment, kidnapping, corruption and inadequate electricity.

Also speaking in Awka, Anambra State, in continuation of his nationwide campaign ahead of the election, he cited the failure of the federal authorities to rescue the over 200 Chibok schoolgirls abducted last April

by Boko Haram, stressing that if the federal government was truly alive to its responsibility, the girls should have been freed.

The APC is ready and determined to take Nigeria to the great height it deserves to be and that the Southeast will be

•Why I’m in this race, by ex-Head of State •Okorocha, Ngige, Onu, others canvass votes for party •APC observes minute silence for Maiduguri blast victims •Laments Nigeria has become sitting duck to terrorism Nwanosike Onu, Awka/ Chris Oji, Enugu and Tony Akowe, Abuja

given its prime of place if he wins the election, Buhari told thousands of broom waving supporters at the Emmaus House Field venue of the rally.

Also speaking, former Governor of Anambra State and Senator representing Central Zone, Dr. Chris Ngige said that the Igbo have been taken for a ride for too long by the PDP, and said this is the time for them to say enough.

He said that PDP government had given Ndigbo broken promises ranging from the second Niger Bridge to River Ports and failure to rehabilitate South East roads.

Ngige said the APC would have its agents in all polling booths across the nation to ensure that the PDP does not

succeed in rigging.

Governor Rochas Okorocha of Imo State said an APC government at the federal level would give Nigeria an effective leadership.

“That is why we searched everywhere to check who has the pedigree to lead this country out of the doldrums and the lot fell on General Muhammadu Buhari, who everybody knows is a man of integrity and character,” he said.

He said PDP members are afraid of Buhari because of his anti-corruption stance.

Others who spoke in the same vein were former Governor of Abia State, Dr. Ogbonnaya Onu, and APC National Auditor, Chief George Muoghalu.

Three House of Representatives defectors from PDP and All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) were in

attendance.

They are Victor Afam Ogene (Ogbaru), Forte Dike (Ihiala) and Emeke Nwogbo (Awka North and South).

Also there were Buhari’s running mate, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo (SAN), former Governor of Ondo State, Olusegun Oni, National Chairman of APC, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, Governor Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers State, Senator Osita Isunaso, National Woman Leader Sharon Ikeazor and APC members in the state House of assembly in the state.

A minute silence was observed in honour of those who lost their lives in an explosion at a poultry market in Maiduguri yesterday.

General Buhari and his entourage paid courtesy visits to the traditional ruler of Awka, Obi Gibson Nwosu and the Anglican

Bishop of Awka, the Most Rev. Alex Ibezim, who presented him a copy of the Holy Bible.

Seeing the Enugu crowd, Gen. Buhari was left speechless when he arrived the venue at about 5.15pm.

People started waiting for the APC campaign train as early as 8am.

An elated Gov. Rochas Okorocha of Imo told Buhari, “Now you can see with your two eyes that we have broken the jinx.”

Buhari in a short speech due to lack of time promised that the coal industry in Enugu would be revived and the Oji River power station revamped to supply enough power to the area.

He promised to evolve a policy that would enable rice farmers produce greater quantity for exports.

Odigie-Oyegun who spoke both in English and pidgin asked the people of South East zone what they have gained from the PDP in the 16 years they have been following PDP. The highlight of the event was the handing over of the party flag to the governorship

candidate, Chief Okey Ezea by the party chairman.

Meanwhile, Gen. Buhari yesterday expressed disappointment that Nigeria has become a sitting duck to terrorist attacks, while victims of such attacks are left to their fate.

General Buhari in a statement on the Boko Haram attack in Baga, Borno State, asked the federal government to introduce more proactive and effective security strategies to curtail the menace of terrorism in the country.

He said it was high time government reviewed its counter-terrorism strategies.

He maintained that the security, welfare and the happiness of the citizens are the basic responsibilities of any government, saying a situation where the citizens are helplessly living with the specter of terrorist attacks contradicts these basic functions.

He said : “on our way back from campaigning in two states in South Eastern Nigeria, we were informed of the unspeakable massacre that took place in Baga earlier Thursday.

THE NATION ON SUNDAY, JANUARY 11, 2015

COLUMN

The falcon turns on the falconer

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Turning and turning in the ever widening gyre, the falcon finally rounds on the old falconer. It is a scary scenario.

When W.B Yeats, the great Irish poet and statesman, penned his famous poem of anarchy and the dissolution of the old order from which our own Chinua Achebe took the title of his most famous novel, he could not have had Nigeria in mind.

As a matter of fact, the proud Irish genius was ruing the dire consequences of English colonialist disruption in his own homeland.

The damning ironical similarities could not have escaped a master of sublime irony like the late Chinua Achebe. As it was in colonial Ireland, so it is turning out to be in post-colonial Nigeria.

The rift between former President Olusegun Obasanjo and his former protĂŠgĂŠ and current president, Goodluck Jonathan, is slowly and inexorably assuming the proportions of a great Shakespearean tragedy. This past week, Jonathan, in a breach of presidential protocols and etiquette, dismissed his tormentor and benefactor in very unsavoury terms. Judging by Jonathan's moody and irascible mien at the opening of his presidential campaign in Lagos, this ferocious reprisal appeared to be a mere opening salvo.

In fairness to President Goodluck Jonathan, there ought to be a threshold for presidential patience and punishment absorption.

For weeks General Obasanjo, a grandmaster of the war of punitive attrition and psychological destabilization, has had the full measure of his man, peppering him with vicious jabs while baiting him to exhaustion like a bear at bay.

But we must learn to separate the message from the messenger.

The way out of the unseemly rumpus between political father and his estranged son on whom he has showered undue and promiscuous preferment is to locate it within the crisis of political leadership in a post-colonial polity teeming with ethnic and religious contraries.

The colonial authorities, in a bid to retain the political initiatives, deliberately foisted a weak and divided political class on their conquered territories. Whereas different regional factions of the nascent Nigerian nation did not formally come together until the end of the forties, the army in whatever rudimentary form has been in existence even before the amalgamation.

With its residual discipline and organizational cohesion, the military is thus the most organic national institution created by the colonialists capable of throwing up messianic nationalists at short notice.

The bigger the colonial head, the bigger the post-colonial headache. In a post-colonial nation brimming with pre-colonial nationalities of unyielding vibrancy and resistant modes of religious, economic and political productions, the post-independence army is usually the most privileged institution with the capacity to produce unifying figures of nationalist fervour whatever their personal deficiencies and lack of adequate mental preparations. In other words, it is a fake and cruel cue that comes with the peculiar flavour of perfidious Albions.

Yet whatever our umbrage at the ugly and nasty turn of events, we must give this to our ancient generals. Obasanjo is possessed by the abiding and resilient hubris that comes with this historically deter-

•Obasanjo

mined military messianism. It is this hubris that has propelled the crusty warlord, ahead of most of his colleagues and contemporaries, to the dizzying heights of a postcolonial society rigged against rationality and order. But it has also seen him at least on one occasion plummeting to the nadir of his fortunes.

It may be a question of personal vanity or extreme narcissism. But when it works, it works very well for the old Owu warrior.

But the problem is why the general always ends up at daggers drawn with his own political creations. From Alhaji Aliyu Shehu Shagari whom he singlehandedly and craftily imposed on the nation and who was later to bitterly resent Obasanjo lecturing him on the politics that he claimed to have learnt while the general was still a mere school boy , through Umaru Yar'Adua whom he recklessly and single-mindedly foisted on the nation in a grotesquely rigged election, and now to Goodluck Jonathan, a test tube baby of his political laboratory, Obasanjo has always ended up in mortal conflict with his own.

In all probability, Obasanjo, blinded by hatred and personal aversion for his fellow Yoruba man, never studied the confidential files on Alhaji Shehu Shagari to determine his suitability for the mental rigour and discipline of presidential office. The same can be said of the bizarre political engineering which led him to plump for the medically challenged younger brother of his beloved and loyal former second in command against more compelling and competitive rival claims. In the case of Goodluck Jonathan, it would seem that a meek and compliant mien was all that mattered to the patronizing and paternalistic general rather than preparation, temperamental suitability and adequate mental magnitude for the daunting task.

But whether we like Obasanjo or not and whether we are sold on what he has to say or not, what cannot be denied or taken away from

him is the fact that his harsh and unflattering criticisms of his own creations and former military subordinates often resonate with, and are in complete alignment with, the dominant mood of the nation at their particular moment. This was the case with his merciless pillorying of General Ibrahim Babangida and General Sani Abacha as well as his devastating endgame savaging of Alhaji Shagari, Umaru Yar'Adua and now Goodluck Jonathan.

It has been said that a man can make for himself a throne of bayonets, but whether he will be able to sit in it is another matter. Yet by some paradoxical logic, Obasanjo stands head and shoulder above his fellow colleagues and members of the Nigerian caste of retired rulers in his inability to sleep with evil even when it is a product of his own devilish imagination. While others, probably in deference to the ancient code of feudal nobility, maintain the sealed lips of complicity with the ascendant status quo, not so the rampaging and rambunctious general.

This is why Obasanjo's interventions, however self-serving and apparently disruptive of order and peace, also come with the hallo of profound patriotism and gamechanging possibilities. Given what is known as the cunning of history, what is currently working out may well be a case of the iron law of nemesis and the logic of creative destruction.

This is where Obasanjo, like everyone else in this hour of grave national crisis, also needs help. A pandemic crisis is an equal opportunity employer which does not discriminate against anybody. After surveying the ruined tapestry of his gargantuan appetite for mischief and diabolic scheming, General Simon Bolivar, the great Latin American icon and liberator, was known to have rued to himself: "How am I ever going to get out of this labyrinth?"

While Obasanjo's misgivings often resonate with the ascendant mood of the nation, his preferred solutions are almost always at vari-

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nooping around With

Tatalo Alamu ance with the mood of the country.

During the June 12 crisis, Obasanjo was known to be openly rooting for an interim government while insinuating that MKO Abiola was not the messiah Nigeria was waiting for. This was after fourteen million Nigerians have voted with a whopping nine million rooting for the martyred business mogul.

Given his essentially authoritarian cast of mind and anti-democratic temperament, Obasanjo is often led to despotic "solutions" which often compound the national crisis rather than ameliorate it. Already, there are whispers and in fact open canvassing for an interim national government. The more things change, the more they tend to remain the same. But it is impossible to step into the same river twice. The Nigeria of 2015 is not the Nigeria of 1993. Too much murky water has passed under the bridge and for one there is a dramatic upsurge of painful awareness in the post-military polity.

Let us get this clear. After the bungled and deliberately mismanaged Constitutional Conference, the Nigerian ruling class lost the last opportunity of imposing a solution from above on the crisis both in the interim and in the long run. Constitutional Conferences are elite driven mechanisms for imposing nationalist solutions on a national crisis which require elite discipline and cohesion. This was precisely what was lacking in the last shambolic outing at Abuja.

To be sure, and as this column has stated ad nauseam, elections, particularly in a country hobbled by the trauma of abiding ethnic,

religious, regional and economic polarities, do not resolve the national question. In fact, they tend to worsen and exacerbate it. As we have seen in the case of Kenya, Cote D'Ivoire and also Nigeria, elections tend to tip fragile and unstable nations over the abyss into conflagration and civil wars.

But we cannot terminate a full pregnancy without the gravest danger to both mother and baby, just as you cannot abort a flight after the plane has reached a certain critical momentum without crew and passengers being imperilled. Having boxed ourselves into a corner, we must now go on with the election willy-nilly. It is no longer an elite-driven initiative. The Nigerian multitude having been critically engaged in the electoral process, they can no longer be easily disengaged without dire consequences. There is no way the elections can now be postponed without playing into the hands of extraconstitutional forces already on the prowl.

Without any doubt, the nation is trapped between the devil and the deep blue seas. There is no easy way out. The gravest danger of the next few weeks is the fact that with the hounds of national distemper and disaffection relentlessly baiting and chafing at him, an exhausted and disoriented President Jonathan might be miscued into reaching for his own extra-constitutional "final solution" which may then topple the nation into the yawning abyss of anarchy and millennial mayhem. This nation has once again arrived at a critical conjuncture. May the legendary luck of Nigeria save us once again.

Samuel Goldwyn re-membered

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ND whilst we are still on the subject of increasing political desperation and unease in the land, it is meet to report that all has been very well in the field of semantic infelicities and linguistic howlers. It is an embarrassment of malapropist riches and verbal indelicacies. Were Kingsley Ozumba Mbadiwe, the great exponent of felicitous infelicities, to be alive---to appropriate Samuel Goldwyn--- he would be turning in his grave.

Nigeria seems to be blessed with an abundance and endless supply of politicians with a colourful turn of phrase and capacity for mangling syntax and muddling up meaning. President Jonathan seems to be well ahead of the pack in this department. What with his memorable dismissal this past week of his former benefactor turned major political adversary as a motor pack tout pretending to be a statesman.

Phew!!!!

We will leave the collection of the golden gems of Jonathanisms to future academic researchers, as advised by a famed columnist. But it is not only Nigerian politicians who have a capacity for creative misprision bordering on linguistic genius.

Snooper remembers his mechanic at the great university for culture and learning telling him that he did not come to work because he came down with a bad case of "He-fever".

When he was pressed, he replied in the vernacular that he had "ako iba".

In order to capture the vicious ferocity of this type of fever, the Yoruba decided to masculinize its deranging capacity. Our man then took it upon himself to find an ad-

equate English expression.

But who was Samuel Goldwyn?

Goldwyn was an Eastern European immigrant who arrived in America shoeless, penniless and unable to speak a word of English to boot.

But by dint of hard work and sheer force of personality, he went on to become fabulously rich and about the most famous and influential of American film moguls in the last century. Many believed that his linguistic contretemps and verbal howitzers hid great wit and a lacerating intelligence. Goldwyn himself put things classically when he noted that "If I appear confused, it is because I am thinking".

Snooper will leave the readers this morning with a few of this great man's remarkable contributions to English language. Welcome to golden goldwynisms.

1. Please include me out of that one.

2. A verbal agreement is not worth the paper on which it is written.

3. I don't think anyone should write their autobiography until after they are dead.

4. A hospital is no place to be sick.

5. It's absolutely impossible, but it has possibilities.

6. Don't pay any attention to the critics-don't even ignore them.

Disclaimer. Charlie Chaplin, a bosom friend and great crony of Samuel Goldwyn, has been known to confess in private that he mischievously made up some of these famous sayings only to attribute them to his friend. Well, please include snooper out of that one.

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THE NATION ON SUNDAY JANUARY 11, 2015

NEWS

APC challenges Jonathan to address nation on Baga massacre

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HE All Progressive Congress Presidential Campaign team yesterday tasked President Goodluck Jonathan to address the nation on last Wednesday’s massacre of residents of Baga, Borno State by Boko Haram insurgents.

Amnesty International says up to 2000 people were killed in the attack which it described as the deadliest ever by the sect.

The campaign team said that instead of the PDP to focus attention on pressing issues ,it has been dissipating time and energy on the academic certificate of General Muhammadu Buhari.

The APC team said:”This government should not go on being insensitive. They have to be accountable to Nigerians.

The issue of certificate of General Buhari is a non-issue as everyone knows that Buhari is a product of Daura Primary School, Katsina Provisional Secondary School (now Government College, Katsina) and the Nigerian Military Training College. This is in addition to several other courses he attended at home and abroad.

“While the PDP government has failed in its duty and responsibilities to the citizens and the nation, they have intensified effort to pull wool over the eyes of Nigerians.

“Unfortunately, the PDP has become a political party that is so fixated with keeping an incompetent government in power and is lustfully engaged in pursuing a non-issue about an individual’s academic qualifications.”

Boko Haram: 10- year- old suicide bomber kills 20 •Two others blow selves up in Potiskum

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HE terror sect, Boko Haram, yesterday let loose a 10 year old female suicide bomber in Maiduguri, killing at least 20 people.

Scores of others were injured in the explosion at a crowded poultry market in the Borno State capital at about 12.20pm.

Two other suicide bombers, arrested by police in a vehicle, blew themselves up in the main police station in Potiskum, in neighbouring Yobe State.

The Maiduguri market was targeted twice in a week by female bombers late last year.

Civilian vigilante Ashiru Mustapha said the powerful explosion rocked the market when it was packed with traders and shoppers, adding that the girl “was about 10 years old”.

A Red Cross official, who declined to give his name, said: “We have so far evacuated 10 bodies to the mortuary at the (Borno) State Specialist Hospital.”

Borno State police spokesman Gideon Jubrin said yesterday that the girl suicide

bomber let off an improvised explosive device near the market.

A security source, said the suicide bomber’s body was “completely shattered.”

“Because of the high calibre explosive she strapped to her body, the upper part of her body was flung apart and found about 500 metres away,” the source said.

The explosion triggered a fresh wave of panic in the city, coming so soon after Wednesday’s massacre of residents in the fishing town of Baga by Boko Haram.

Up to 2000 people are feared killed in the attack during which the insurgents also seized the military base in the town.

Amnesty International called the attack the deadliest massacre since the sect launched its terror six years ago.

The Christian Association of Nigerian-Americans (CANAN) shared the AI’s position and wondered what the rest of the world is “waiting for before taking drastic actions.”

The group, in a statement, said the Baga massacre and last week’s terror attack in France “deserve the attention of all

people of goodwill across the world.”

It added: “The numbers are adding up fast and it is becoming clearer and clearer that the Nigerian governments both federal and states are failing resoundingly in their responsibility to protect innocent lives and prevent these mass atrocities from going forward. These atrocities are increasingly becoming worse and worse as the times go by.

He who feels it knows it!

“According to the United Nations, Responsibility to Protect doctrine, while the duty to prevent and halt genocide and mass atrocities lies first and foremost with the state, yet “the international community has a role that cannot be blocked by the invocation of sovereignty.”

Specifically, that doctrine says “sovereignty no longer exclusively protects states from foreign interference.”

“Earlier this (last) week on Thursday, the United Nations Security Council in New York was briefed about the worsening situation in the northeastern parts of Nigeria.

The conclusion of the report put

before the council was that “Counter-Insurgency measures have failed to provide adequate protection of civilians in Northeastern Nigeria.”

“At this point, the Christian Association of NigerianAmericans, CANAN, may be left with no other options than to ally with other frontline groups in the international community regarding the situation and formally ask the UN to invoke the Responsibility to Protect doctrine as enshrined in article 1 of the Genocide Convention regarding the areas in NorthEastern Nigeria that is being ravaged by terrorists.”

In Potiskum, Yobe State residents said two suicide bombers, arrested by police in a vehicle, blew themselves up yesterday in the town’s main police station .

A death toll was not immediately available.

Yobe is one of three Northeastern states frequently attacked by Boko Haram.

On Friday evening, the army repelled an attack by insurgents in Yobe State capital, Damaturu.

US condemns escalating Boko Haram attacks

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HE Coordinator of Buhari/Osinbajo C a m p a i g n Organisation in Osun State and a Senator representing Osun West Senatorial District, Senator Mudasiru Hussein, has asked President Goodluck Jonathan to start preparing his handover note.

He made the statement while reacting to the one credited to President Jonathan that the APC Presidential candidate, Gen Muhammadu Buhari, can’t remember one of his phone numbers, a visibly angry Hussein said “What has phone number got to do with individual capacity to offer good governance? The president is not only confused on the state of the nation but he is also fighting a lost battle to retain the seat.”

He advised the president to stop justifying corruption like he did in the case where he accused Buhari of jailing Jim Nwobodo for looting the country’s fund.

The Osun coordinator urged the electorate to keep faith with APC and all her candidates for offices being contested for by voting for them.

He reassured Nigerians that the Buhari/ Osinbajo team will restore Nigeria to its glorious and prosperous status if voted in.

Sokoto APC flags off campaign today

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HE United States yesterday condemned the escalating strikes

by Boko Haram in the Northeast, and urged all responsible for the “recurring terrorist attacks” to be held accountable.

The wave of unrest — starting last week when Boko Haram invaded the fishing town of Baga in northern Borno State, believed to be the worst attack in the bloody six-year insurgency — has left homes burnt to the ground and caused at least 20,000 people to flee.

The US said the escalation of attacks “shows no regard for human life.”

The State Department in a statement at the weekend said: “The United States abhors such violence, which continues to take a terrible toll on the people of Nigeria and the broader region, including Cameroon.

“We extend our sympathies to the loved ones of all victims of violence at the hands of Boko Haram.”

It pledged US support for efforts “to end the scourge of Boko Haram,” while urging Nigeria not to let the “horrifying attacks” distract from the need for “credible and peaceful elections.”

Senator asks Jonathan to prepare handover note

HE All Progressives Congress (APC) is flagging off its campaign for next month’s elections today in Sokoto, the state capital.

The event is scheduled for the permanent Trade Fair Complex, Sokoto.

Expected at the grand rally are party leaders and faithful led by the National Chairman Chief John Oyegun, the party’s presidential candidate, General Muhammadu Buhari , Governor Aliyu Wamakko of Sokoto State, Speaker of the House of Representatives and APC governorship candidate in Sokoto State ,Alhaji Aminu Tambuwal and the acting state chairman of the party Alhaji Usman Suleiman Danmadamin Isa. The Director-General of APC Campaign organisation for the 2015 general elections in Sokoto State, Alhaji Muhammadu Maigari Dingyadi (Kankan Sokoto), named Governors Babatunde Fashola of Lagos State and Abdulfattah Ahmed of Kwara as special guests at the ceremony.

All the party’s candidates in the February general elections will be presented at the rally.

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• From Left: PRO Ogudu Taxi Driver Association, Mr Olaniyi Oladipo, Chairman Ogudu Taxi Pack Association, Prince Adeleke Azeez, All Progressives Congress (APC) Lagos State governorship candidate Mr Akinwunmi Ambode his running mate, Dr Oluranti Adebule and Chairman Gbagada Taxi Pack Association Mr Moshood Adisa during the Taxi Drivers Courtesy visit to All Progressives Congress (APC) Lagos State governorship candidate, Mr Akinwunmi Ambode Campaign Organization Gbagada Lagos.

APC candidate lights up Ogun communities with N50m •Pays to restore power supply to waterside areas

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LL Progressives Congress (APC) senatorial candidate for Ogun East, Prince Dapo Abiodun has released N25 million to the Ibadan Electricity Distribution Company (IBEDC) being the first tranche of the N50 million required to provide power supply to Ogun Waterside communities.

The people of Ogun Waterside local government have been in darkness for over two years owing to poor connection, bad cables and faulty equipment.

Abiodun had, at the commencement of his political campaign, asked communities in the district to prioritize their challenges.

It was in that process that

he was told about the predicament of the communities in the Ogun Waterside.

He was said to have had talks with IBEDC on the situation and promised to assist to the tune of N50million so that electricity supply might be restored to the area.

While receiving the cheque, the Corporate Affairs Manager of IBEDC, Mrs. Bolanle Onagoruwa, said:”Prince Dapo Abiodun took it upon himself to partner with us and basically told us that his objective is that those Waterside communities should have power supply.

“We submitted the

quotation to him which covers what we call the 33KVA line. It’s quite a long line that will end up in the Waterside. By the time we fix the line, there would be power supply in the area.”

At the cheque presentation at the palace of the Awujale of Ijebuland were seven traditional rulers from Ogun Waterside.

The Awujale, Oba Sikiru Adetona, also speaking, expressed displeasure about incessant power outage in Ijebuland as a result of obsolete equipment and lack of maintenance.

He, however, tasked the company to ensure that the work is done within the 30day timeframe agreed with

the APC candidate.

The monarch declared that such was unprecedented, adding that the efforts being made by the politician are indications of what to expect when he gets to office.

Responding on behalf of the beneficiary communities, the Onisin of Ilusin, Oba Adesanya Taiwo Oseni, stated that “the power project is the most important thing we desire in the Waterside.

Our sons and daughters don’t come home during festive periods and their major complaint is power supply. As this project is done, Prince Abiodun has written his name in gold in Ogun Waterside.”

THE NATION ON SUNDAY JANUARY 11, 2015

NEWS

Bayelsa gov race: First Lady’s camp shops for running mate

Jonathan hypocritical over railway revival, says APC

•Sacked female aides jostle to emerge Dudafagh’s deputy

•Doubts his love for SW

•Impeachment looms

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T

HE immediate past Commissioner for

Local Government in Bayelsa State, Marie Ebikake, and former Special Adviser to the Governor on Federal Government Projects, Remi Kuku, are being considered by the camp of the First Lady, Dame Patience Jonathan, as the governorship running mate in next year’s election in the state.

The duo, who are loyalists of the first lady, were recently fired by Governor Seriake Dickson over political differences.

The first lady’s choice for the governorship ticket is her confidant and Senior Special Adviser to the President on Domestic Matters, Dr. Weripamowei Dudafagh.

The camp is fiercely antiDickson and is said to be preparing grounds for his impeachment and if that fails,it hopes to prevent him from getting a second term.

Other prominent members of the ‘Dicksonmust-go’ group are leaders of the Transformation Ambassadors of Nigeria (TAN) and federal and state lawmakers who are unhappy with the governor.

The group favours a female as the running mate to Dudafagh and has already zoned the position to Bayelsa East Senatorial District.

It was also learnt that former Deputy Governor and the state Chairman of TAN, Mr. Werinipre Seibarugu, has been appointed as the DirectorGeneral, Dudafagh Campaign Organisation.

Seibarugu was said to have been promised a ministerial slot if President Goodluck Jonathan wins the forthcoming presidential election.

Dudafagh hails from the Opokuma clan, KolokumaOpokuma Local Government Area, in Bayelsa Central Senatorial District.

Ebikake was the Deputy Director-General, Dickson’s Campaign Organisation.

Political sources in the state said she fell out with the governor after failing to clinch the senatorial ticket of the PDP, which was zoned to her Brass area, during the party primaries.

It was further gathered that the camp is making frantic efforts to begin a process of impeaching the governor before his tenure expires.

Series of meetings have been held in the state and Abuja to perfect the governor’s removal which one source said may commence after next month’s elections.

The source said:”They have shared positions already. They are waiting to see the result of the forthcoming election so that they can begin to move against the governor aggressively.”

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•Lagos State Governor, Mr. Babatunde Fashola, SAN (3rd right) and HRM The Onojie of Uromi Kingdom, Zaiki Anslem Eldonojie II (2nd right) cutting the ribbon to commission the dualised Amendokhian-Ugboha Road while the Edo State Governor, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole (3rd left), Commissioner for Works, Edo State, Barrister Osarodion Ogie (2nd left) and others watch during its inuguration in Esan Local Government, Edo State, ..weekend.

APC will sweep PDP out of Katsina, says Masari T

HE All Progressives Congress (APC) governorship candidate in Katsina State, Alhaji Aminu Masari, has said the power of the electorate in the state will win next month’s elections for the party.

The former Speaker of the House of Representatives said the APC’s appeal and support at the grassroots have put it head and shoulder over other parties in the state.

From: Dele Anofi, Abuja

According to him, citizens’ disenchantment with the current PDP government over worsening security and poor state of the economy are responsible for the yearning of the people for change.

Masari spoke in Katsina at the presentation of Alhaji Mannir Yakubu to party leaders and other candidates as his running mate in the

forthcoming election, by the chairman of the party in the state, Dr. Mustapha Inuwa.

He said the issue of homogenous relationship within the party has become pertinent, going by the antics of other political parties in the race to capture the state.

“APC is ready for the polls and we will ensure that their plans to manipulate the voters did not succeed,” Masari declared and

enjoined party members to maintain their trust in the party and where there were grievances, such issues should be tabled and addressed.

He pledged that an APC government would institute mechanism aimed at curbing insurgencies and youth restiveness in the country.

Yakubu in his acceptance speech asked for more commitment and loyalty to the party by supporters and members alike.

Dickson accuses pro-Jonathan group of destabilising Bayelsa

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OVERNOR Seriake Dickson of Bayelsa State yesterday drew the battle line between him and the state leadership of the Transformation Ambassadors of Nigeria (TAN), the group in the vanguard of a second term for President Goodluck Jonathan.

Seriake who has been locked in a power struggle with the group yesterday alleged ‘subversive tendencies’ which according to him “have almost been taken to a treasonable level.”

The governor mentioned no names in a statement by his Chief Press Secretary, Mr. Daniel Iworiso-Markson, but he recently sacked his Commissioner for Local Government, Mrs. Marie Ebikake, and his special adviser, Mrs. Remi Kuku, for allegedly romancing with his detractors led by the immediate past deputy governor of the state, Mr. Werinipre Seibarugu.

The state’s TAN is firmly in the grips of loyalists of the First Lady, Dame Patience Jonathan, who are believed to be working hard to sack the governor or prevent him from getting a second term.

Some members of the group were said to have joined in taunting the governor at the recent traditional wedding of the president’s daughter in his Otuoke country home.

Iworiso-Markson in his statement yesterday accused the leadership of TAN in the

•Threatens prosecution of suspects Mike Odiegwu, Yenagoa

state of causing division within the PDP. Although the governor reaffirmed his total support and commitment to the re-election of the President, he vowed that he would not allow enemies of the state to disorganise the ongoing restoration in the state.

Dickson said that contrary to reports that he ordered his aides not to attend the president’s daughter’s wedding, he as the leader of the government and PDP, personally mobilised women and youth groups from all over the state and also led the state delegation to attend the ceremony.

He berated politicians led

by Mr. Werinipre Seibarugu, Kuku and “their cohorts” for creating divisions among the women.

He said Seibarugu and co

were creating division mostly to serve their own selfish interest other than promoting the genuine objectives of TAN. He described their antics as childish and most deplorable and said their activities belie their claims of working for the success of PDP and President Jonathan in the forthcoming elections.

Dickson said while Seibarugu and his group were operating under the aegis of TAN, they rallied senior members of the previous administration in the state to engage and promote the politics of subversion and needless divisions in the state.

He said Kuku did not only create division among the women, but also displayed total disrespect for senior officials of the state government by her actions.

He said such attitude of Kuku could no longer be

condoned in his government.

He said: “We want to sound a clear note of warning to all, that in the interest of peace, even as the elections draw near, that this state is bigger than every one of us and nobody, no matter how highly placed, will be spared from facing the wrath of the law, if found wanting.

“Similarly, ahead of the 2015 general elections, we warn politicians in the state to eschew every form of subversive and divisive tendencies, capable of threatening the existing peaceful, harmonious, united and conducive environment the restoration government has worked hard to put in place that has also ushered in the rapid and massive development in the state.”

He called on security agencies in the state to be alive to their constitutional roles and duties.

Over 7,000 Nigerian refugees flee to Chad

A

BOUT 7,300 Nigerian refugees have fled to the neighbouring Chad, over the last 10 days, following violence in Borno State, according to the United Nations at the weekend..

Citing the UN Refugee Agency, UN deputy spokesperson, Farhan Haq, said that the newly arrived refugees in Chad were staying with local communities in villages about

450 km northwest of the Chadian capital of N’Djamena, according to a Xinhua report.

Boko Haram militants seized the Baga military base and several nearby locations in the state on January 3, forcing residents to flee to neighbouring countries.

UN Refugee Agency teams in Chad were at the border and were seeking more information on the newly arrived refugees

and their needs, Haq said, noting the number of refugees from Nigeria in Chad has crossed 10,000.

The Chadian government has requested the assistance of aid agencies to help the refugees.

The conflict in the Northeast has led to the exodus of 135,000 people and at least 850,000 people were displaced within Nigeria, the UN said.

HE All Progressives Congress (APC) yesterday accused President Goodluck Jonathan of hypocrisy over his persistent claim of reviving the railway “when in actual fact he has bluntly refused to grant the necessary right-of-way approval to the Lagos Metropolitan Transport Authority (LAMATA) for the construction of its redline light rail project from Iddo to Ifo in Ogun State with a capacity to carry one million passengers per day.”

The APC said investors are ready to invest over one billion dollars in the project.

In a statement in Lagos, National Publicity Secretary of the APC, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, said that in failing to grant the approval, which has been pending since May 2013, President Jonathan premised his action on the fact that Lagos is an ‘’enemy state.”

His words: ‘’President Jonathan is simply being hypocritical when he listed the revival of the railway as part of his administration’s socalled achievements, during the kick-off of his electioneering campaign in Lagos, and during which he also tried to project himself and his party as friends of the South-west in general and Lagos in particular. His words and actions since assuming office six years ago do not support that ‘’He claims to have revived the railway but did not tell Lagosians how he has stopped, in its tracks, the LAMATA Red Line Light Rail Project that would have alleviated the suffering of Lagosians as they commute daily across the densely-populated city, not to talk of the loss of over 30,000 jobs that would have been created by the project.”

APC said there is no stronger indication that President Jonathan holds the Southwest in general and Lagos State in particular in contempt than his failure to grant the right-of-way approval for this project, considering its massive benefits that include ease of transportation, the decongestion of the city, the creation of at least 30, 000 jobs and the attraction of huge investments that the project, if approved, would have brought to the state. ‘’What about the new economic activities that would have been generated along and in the vicinity of that corridor of the new rail line if the president had granted the rightof-way approval? If indeed Mr. President is now a convert for economic growth and progress of Nigerians of all tribes who live in Lagos, as he pretended to be during his electioneering campaign flagoff, he should grant the approval today,’’ the party said It said contrary to the image of friendship with the South-west in general and Lagosians in particular, which the president sought to project during his electioneering campaign in Lagos, he has nothing but contempt for the people of the region.

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THE NATION ON SUNDAY, JANUARY 11, 2015

9

THE NATION ON SUNDAY JANUARY 11, 2015

• Buhari

• Jonathan

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HE die is cast with the hot tempo of campaign by both the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the opposition All Progressives Congress (APC).

Beyond the soap box jibes is the reality of the jostle for votes by the parties. According to Section 133(a) and (b) of the 1999 Constitution, the President is deemed duly elected with majority of YES votes and onequarter of the votes cast in at least 24 states.

Going by the vexatious comments by the President, the 2015 electoral contest appears keener than that of 2011 because of political and election indices that have changed nationwide. These include the merger of opposition parties into APC; mass defection of PDP governors and members to APC; intense security challenges leading to the declaration of emergency in Adamawa, Borno and Yobe; and economic problems which have put the ruling party on the edge.

For Jonathan who polled 22, 495, 187 votes (58.89 %) to defeat Gen. Muhammadu Buhari (hitherto of CPC and now APC) who garnered 12,214,853(31.98%), the 2015 poll is not a race he can take for granted in any part of the country. The PDP is more so in a tinder box with the introduction of Permanent Voter Card (PVC) by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) an electoral sanitization device which might make rigging impossible. The era of jumbo votes from some parts of the country, especially from the South-South, the South-East and the North is gone with the introduction of PVCs. One of the battle grounds is the North which comprises the North-Central, NorthEast and North-West. The Post-AFIS number of registered voters recently released by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) shows that out of 70,383,427 eligible voters nationwide, the North-West, the NorthCentral and the North-East have a combined voters' strength of 37, 120, 011. While the North-West accounts for 18,616,499 voters, the North-East has 10,447,510 and NorthCentral is 8,056, 002. The final release of voters' register on Tuesday will determine where each geopolitical zone now stands because

Jonathan versus Buhari Rematch * As it was in 2011 * Latest 2015 scenarios As the 2015 presidential campaign assumes a feverish dimension, YUSUF ALLI, MANAGING EDITOR, NORTHERN OPERATION takes a second look at the Northern flak, the past and present chances of President GoodluckJonathanandhisarch-rival,Gen.Muhammadu Buhari of the challenges facing the nation on the distribution of Permanent Voters' Cards (PVCs).

In the 2011 poll, Jonathan polled 8,351,472 votes in the North- the North-West (3,395,724), North-East (1,832,622) and North-Central (3,123, 126) compared to Buhari's 11,691, 355 as follows: North-West (6,453,437), North-East (3,624,919) and North-Central (1,612,999). The scenarios have changed in the 19 states in the North.

KWARA With the defection of most PDP stalwarts led by the new scion of Kwara State politics,

Dr. Bukola Saraki, to APC, the failure of the ruling party is sealed in the state. Although Saraki had wanted to be the nation's president in 2011, he later mobilized Kwarans massively to vote for President Goodluck Jonathan. The twist made the President to secure 268, 243 votes in Kwara State and left Buhari to scratch the surface for 83, 603 votes.

The story is different today with APC as the ruling party in the state. PDP and Jonathan now have to struggle to get at least 25 per cent of the votes in the state and improved on its 1999, 2003, 2007 and performance. . In spite of the fact that Jonathan

attempted at a rally in Ilorin to underestimate the strength of Saraki Dynasty, the PDP has not presented the people of the state with an alternative choice. The party's governorship candidate, Senator Simeon Sule Ajibola poses no threat to APC. Apart from Ajibola being politically weak, religious factor might work against him because the electorates in Kwara Central and Kwara North won't want to vote for a Christian candidate. A friend of the President's family, Hajiya Bola Shagaya, a blessed businesswoman, is an emerging political factor in the state but she cannot match the Saraki Dynasty. The loss of her favoured governorship aspirant, Dele Belgore (SAN) at the party's primaries indicated that Shagaya is not yet politically on ground in the state. The Minister of National Planning, Dr. Abubakar Olanrewaju Suleiman has done much for the employed graduates within a short time in office, his political weight is nit divorced from his mentor, Shagaya. If the PDP leaders in the state can close ranks at the 11th hour, the party can make some inroads but not to the extent of displacing APC. NIGER The apparent low performance of the Governor of Niger State, Dr. Babangida Aliyu may be PDP's undoing and add to its electoral woes in the state. Were it not for a quick intervention of the presidency, PDP almost lost the senatorial bye-election which was won by Sen. Nuhu Zagbayi. The President realized this deficiency when he quickly made an emergency shuttle to a foremost kingmaker in the state, Ex-President Ibrahim Babangida to save the situation. The presidency was aware that the governor had been having a cat and mouse relationship with former Heads of State and retired Army Generals in the state. APC is stronger than it was in 2011 in Niger State. But the shuttles to the Hilltop in Minna might do little to save Jonathan because he lost the state with a wide margin in 2011. While Buhari earned 652,574 votes, Jonathan got 321,429 votes.

•Contd. on page 10

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THE NATION ON SUNDAY, JANUARY 11, 2015

NEWS REVIEW

AJAOKUTA STEEL COMPANY

President Jonathan, Buhari •Contd. from page 9 GOMBE This is a tough terrain for PDP where it had always won overwhelmingly. In terms of performance, Governor Ibrahim Dankwambo has endeared himself to the people of the state. But his Achilles heel was his being politically estranged from key politicians and leaders in the state, especially his hitherto godfather, ex-Governor Danjuma Goje. This political naivety and the muzzling of the opposition have made the opposition popular in the state. A top politician, who spoke in confidence, said: "Though I am in PDP, the truth is that Goje controls a substantial part of the state politically. The desire for change in the North-East because of insurgency might have a bandwagon effect on PDP's chances in Gombe. I see our people voting for APC notwithstanding the good performance of Dankwambo." Even at that, Buhari has always had upper hand than Jonathan in the state. In 2011, while Buhari scored 459,898, Jonathan obtained 290, 347.

NASARAWA The PDP is still being haunted by the loss of the state to the defunct Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), which has merged with others to form the APC. All attempts by the PDP to retain its groove have failed due to intra-party crisis over governorship ambition. The situation degenerated to the extent that ex-Governor Abdullahi Adamu (a former Secretary of the Board of Trustees of the PDP), arguably the soul of PDP in the state, defected to the APC. In 2011, Jonathan got 408, 997 votes to Buhari's 278, 390. With the defection of exMinister of Information, Labaran Maku(who had voraciously defended Jonathan and PDP) to the All Progressives Grand Alliance(APGA) and siddon look of crack politicians like Solomon Ewuga and exGovernor Aliyu Akwe Doma, the ranks of PDP had been further depleted. The botched plot to impeach Governor Tanko Al-Makura also created enmity for PDP in the state where there are more than 100 ethnic groups. The chances of PDP have become slimmer in the state.

PLATEAU Despite the fact that Plateau State is a second home of Gen. Buhari, the deft church politics which Governor Jonah Jang is obsessed with, may not let the APC candidate to earn significant vote mileage. Being a Fulani, Buhari may still be a victim of Middle Belt politics because the agitation for the emancipation of Middle Belt started in Plateau State with the late Governor Solomon Lar as the arrowhead.

The unending attacks on villages by gunmen have created some enmity for this pastoral group. An average Plateau indigene sees any Fulani man as an oppressor. . The results might still reflect the 2011 pattern when Jonathan got 1,029, 805 votes and Buhari secured 356,551.

BENUE This is a state where the APC has won more defectors from the PDP due to imposition of candidates, alleged highhandedness and hijack of the party structure

by Governor Gabriel Suswam. It is a state of heavyweights with the President of the Senate, Chief David Mark and Suswam on one side and ex-Governor George Akume, Chief Audu Ogbeh, Sen. Barnabas Gemade, ex-Minister Ortom among others on the other side. Though Jonathan overwhelmingly trounced Buhari with 694,776 to 109, 680 in 2011, the political calculations have really changed. The angst among workers and teachers over non-payment or untimely payment of salaries has made the PDP administration unpopular. This was further fuelled by the crisis in Benue PDP which has not abated. Mark appears to be having a firm grip of Idomaland but the electoral bout is in Tivland which has the largest voting population. Apart from Christian factor, some smart PDP leaders have resuscitated the Middle Belt politics, which late J-S. Tarka also championed, to displace the growing influence of APC.

BORNO The seeming lack of capacity by Jonathan administration to address the insurgency in Borno State has made the President and PDP to lose much political will. The abduction of 220 Chibok girls was the icing of the cake.

Life is not worth a penny anymore in the state and the people are desirous of nothing but a change. The fate of PDP is compounded by the perception that the Boko Haram insurgency was designed to deplete their voting strength. Though ex-Governor Modu Ali Sheriff recently defected to the PDP from the APC, he was a lone ranger in his choice as most party leaders refused to defect. Since Boko Haram insurgency began during the administration of Sheriff, the electorate have not forgiven him for allowing the crisis to fester. Except for the use of troops and security agents to rig the poll, the sympathy for Buhari has quadrupled in the state with the sterling performance of Governor Kashim Shettima.

In 2011, Buhari secured whopping 909,763 votes while Jonathan made 207,075.

SOKOTO The defection of Governor Aliyu Wammako, who is a grassroots politician and games master, and the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Rt. Hon. Aminu Tambuwal, to APC has made a mess of the electoral fortunes of PDP in the caliphate. The dilemma of the ruling party heightened with the persistent crisis in PDP over the choice of governorship candidate. Sokoto State Deputy

Governor, Mukhtar Shehu Shagari, who has been the unifying factor of the party, was denied the ticket, leaving room for protest votes. Vice-President Namadi Sambo has gone to Sokoto for reconciliation but the warring factions have remained adamant.

Sokoto is a natural political habitat of Buhari who scored 540, 769 to Jonathan's 309, o57 when PDP was intact. To shore up its image, the PDP wooed ex-Governor Attahiru Bafarawa to its side but he has not added value to the party till date. The National Security Adviser (NSA), Mr. Sambo Dasuki, is also under pressure to return his state to the ruling party. Though not a politician, Dasuki could wield influence to back the ruling party.

KEBBI The imposition of a former Coordinator of the Counter Terrorism Centre in the Presidency, Maj-Gen Sarki Yaki Bello (Kebbi Central) as the party's governorship candidate has become an albatross for PDP in the state. Governor Saidu Dakingari cannot deliver the state to Jonathan going by the gale of defections from the PDP to the APC. Although the state voted for Buhari by 501,453 to Jonathan's 369, 198in 2011, PDP's rating has fallen drastically. The APC has the sympathy of the likes of the political godfather of the state, ex-Governor Adamu Aliero; exSecretary to the State Government, Ahmed Samma; Dr. Yahaya Aliyu; Malam Bukhari Bello; Dr. Yahaya Abubakar Abdullahi,

Abubakar Atiku Bunu, Abubakar Chika Malami, Ahmed Mohammed Sama, Salihu Isah Nataro, Bala Musa Sakaba, Mohammed Nasir Sala Koko, Sadeeq Sule Iko-Sami, Suleiman Mohammed Argungu, ex-Military Administrator, Col Inuwa Bawa and Sadiq Yelwa among others.

KATSINA Complacency and intra-party wrangling were the lot of the defunct CPC in Katsina State in 2011. But even at that Buhari earned cool 1, 163, 919 votes to beat Jonathan with 428, 392. If PDP has anything to salvage its image, it is the record performance of Governor Ibrahim Shema. Yet, with the cult following of Buhari, he will still defeat the President again without blinking an eye. The people of Katsina are desirous of returning power to the state following the unfortunate death of ex-President Umaru Yar'Adua in May 2010. Buhari's luck is brightened by the support from the Yar'Aduas and their loyalists in the state.

KADUNA This is a familiar battleground where Vice-President Namadi Sambo is spiritedly struggling to deliver to prove critics wrong that he is a paper weight politician. Without Permanent Voter Cards in 2011, JonathanSambo secured 1,190, 179 votes to lose the state to Buhari, who polled 1,334, 244. The defections of Suleiman Hunkuyi and some die-hard supporters of ex-Governor Ahmed •Contd. on page 11

THE NATION ON SUNDAY, JANUARY 11, 2015

NEWS REVIEW

battle for northern votes

•Buhari at River State rally

•Jonathan at Lagos State rally

Makarfi might deplete the votes of PDP in 2015. The emergence of ex-Minister of FCT, Mallam Nasir el-Rufai and the anger of the people of Southern Kaduna against Governor Ramalan Yero over the incessant killings in their area by gunmen have created electoral obstacles for PDP in the state. Most supporters of the late Governor Patrick Yakowa are unhappy with Yero's style for allegedly not creating a sense of belonging for all. The removal of the former Group Managing Director of NNPC, Engr. Andrew Yakubu (a Southerner from Kaduna) has fueled the anger against PDP. JIGAWA With the political sagacity and organisation ability of Governor Sule Lamido, Buhari still defeated Jonathan in 2011 with 663,994 to 419, 252. The 2015 scenario is more interesting in Jigawa State as the governor is only keen on how to retain PDP's control of all elective offices except the presidency. It is also difficult to place Lamido who also recently abused Buhari and other key opposition leaders. A few weeks ago, Lamido rejected his appointment as the North-West Coordinator for Jonathan's campaign because he was not consulted before the appointment was made public. Apart from being angry about the jailing of his son for money laundering, Lamido is also unhappy with the ongoing public spat between President Jonathan and his political godfather, ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo.

Given the choice any day, Lamido will pitch

his tent with Obasanjo. He has consistently said Jonathan is yet to redeem all the pledges he made to the people of the state in 2011.

Jigawa is an open electoral mine for Jonathan and Buhari to explore. But Buhari has mass followers in the state. He might gain more votes in February.

KANO This is another electoral enclave of Buhari who got 1,624, 543 votes in 2011 to Jonathan's 440,000. The defection of Governor Rabiu Kwankwaso to APC and his growing political popularity (having come second to Buhari at the APC presidential primaries) have weakened the PDP further in the state.

Expectedly, the PDP played a fast one to draw ex-Governor of Kano State, Ibrahim Shekarau to its side to curtail the influence of the APC. But nothing has changed as Kwankwassiyya (acronym for Kwankwaso's political ideology) is the rave of the moment.

Shekarau cannot confront Buhari and Kwankwaso at the same time and win. He was a beneficiary of Buhari's mass support base in 2003 and 2007 respectively. INEC records confirmed that Shekarau got 917, 012 votes (2.40%) as a presidential candidate in 2011 out of the 38, 209, 978 votes cast. Other factors against Jonathan in Kano are the Boko Haram insurgency which is ravaging the state, the presidency's face-off with ex-CBN governor Sanusi Lamido Sanusi and the gang-up of Kano elites against PDP. KOGI

The slow or non-performance of Governor Idris Wada is a major threat to the electoral success of Jonathan in February. Due to alleged heavy debt burden inherited from his successor, Wada could not pay salaries of teachers in the state. This has made the PDP unpopular. But the PDP is banking on its usual wielding of ethnic sentiments to defeat APC. The opposition appears stronger in Kogi Central and some parts of Kogi West which had been marginalized by the administration of Wada. It is still 50-50 in Kogi State where Jonathan earned 399, 816 in 2011 to Buhari's 132, 201. The fact that there will be no governorship poll in the state in February may lead to voters' apathy in the state where local politics is the in-thing.

BAUCHI This is the heartbeat of the North-East where Buhari is widely accepted even when the National Chairman of PDP, Adamu Muazu was the governor. With much financial war chest, the PDP has not been able to dissuade the electorates from voting for Buhari. Just last week, some PDP chieftains advised Jonathan to ask Muazu to come and campaign in Bauchi State to test his popularity. Going by 2011 pattern when Buhari scored 1, 315, 209 votes to Jonathan's 258, 404, the terrain is still Buhari's. The quiet and behind-the-scene role of Governor Isa Yuguda speaks volume about Jonathan's rating in the state.

ADAMAWA The impeachment of Governor Murtala

11

Nyako, the biting Boko Haram insurgency, the pains of emergency rule and the irresolvable acrimony from the PDP primaries have added much value to APC's advantage in Adamawa State. The desire for political vengeance by aggrieved PDP leaders may account for Jonathan's loss in February 14.

Many PDP leaders are still angry over the governorship primaries and the dissolution of the State Executive Committee (SEC). When the ruling party was united, Jonathan was able to earn 508, 314 in 2011 leaving Buhari with 344, 526. The PDP may however deploy in huge cash to save it from being disgraced.

The APC will still benefit from the goodwill of ex-Vice-President Atiku Abubakar.

YOBE The problem with Yobe since 2011 is lowturn out of voters. Without insurgency in the previous poll, about 45.3 per cent of registered voters turned out at the polling units. With the prevailing Boko Haram rampage, the leading parties will have to embark on mass mobilization of voters. But this is largely APC terrain because since 1999, the people of the state have not voted PDP into power in the state. Also, the kingmaker in the state, exGovernor Bukar Abba Ibrahim is irrevocably committed to the cause of the opposition. Yet, Yobe people have detested the Jonathan administration for not finding solutions to Boko Haram insurgency in the state. The crisis within PDP in the state is additional blessing to APC. Another factor to the advantage of APC is that the National Secretariat of the party is conceded to Yobe with the emergence of Mala Buni as the National Secretary.

In 2011, Buhari polled 337,537 votes to defeat Jonathan with 117, 128. In fact, Jonathan's Minister, Ibrahim Shekarau was second in the presidential election in Yobe with 143, 179 votes. To win the sympathy of the people of the state, Jonathan's administration drew Major Hamzat AlMustapha, a former Chief Security Officer to the late Gen. Sani Abacha, closer but the man has been treading softly.

TARABA The legal emergence of Taraba State acting governor, Danladi Abubakar and the formation of a unity government have consolidated PDP's leverage on the state. The manner in which the row over Governor Danbaba Suntai's illness was managed had also reduced tension in the state. Many leaders in the state attributed the political feat to the unseen hands of a former Minister of Defence, Lt. Gen. T.Y. Danjuma. Once Danjuma sneezes, Taraba catches cold. As usual, religious sentiments, Middle Belt politics, and the preservation of the status quo, especially entrenched interests of some leaders of the state in the oil and gas sector, might give Jonathan an edge in the February poll. Jonathan played his cards well when he appointed a seasoned administrator, Mr. Danladi Kifasi from Taraba State as the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation. In 2011, Jonathan recorded 451,354 and Buhari got 257, 986. This was the second state Jonathan won in the North-East.

The first was Adamawa. But APC is not a push-over with the penetrating political force of Sen. Aishat Alhassan.

ZAMFARA The politics of Zamfara State follows a similar pattern since 1999 when a new generation of politicians, led by Sen. Sani Yerima, emerged. The Yerima dynasty had been in charge in the last 16 years and mostly pitching tents with the opposition. Though the Minister of Defence, Lt. Gen. Aliyu Gusau is from this state, he has less focus on politics these days. Buhari may still defeat Jonathan as the case in 2011 when he secured 624, 515 to the President's 238, 890.

FCT Notwithstanding the presence of natives, the FCT is virtually now for all Nigerians. With increasing population, the development in the territory might be a reflection of national politics. The influx of more people displaced by Boko Haram to the FCT will make its politics interesting in February. In 2011, Jonathan got 253, 444 votes and Buhari earned 131, 576.

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THE NATION ON SUNDAY, JANUARY 11, 2015

NEWS REVIEW

F the 2011 presidential election result in the South-East region remains a credible reference point for 2015 projections, President Goodluck Jonathan of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) would not lose sleep at all.

In that election, four years ago, Jonathan, who also flew the flag of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), got a whopping 98 percent average votes in all the five South-East states while General Muhammadu Buhari, who flew the flag of the now defunct CPC, got a dismal 0.41 percent average votes in four, out of the five SouthEast states where his party recorded votes.

But times have changed radically since then and the region, which used to be an exclusive PDP stronghold, has become deeply disappointed, sharply divided and therefore an open battle ground for political parties and their candidates.

The 2011 scenario The result of the 2011 presidential election in the five South-East states showed an overwhelming support for Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate, President Goodluck Jonathan and an open rejection of CPC candidate, former Military Head of State, General Muhammadu Buhari.

In three of the states, Jonathan got over 98 percent of the total votes cast to get a landslide. There are Abia, where he polled 1,175,984 votes or 98.96 percent of the total votes cast; Anambra, where he got 1,145,169 votes or 98.96 percent of the total votes cast; and Enugu, where he got 802,144 votes or 98.54 percent of the total votes cast.

Jonathan also got over 95 percent of the total votes cast in the remaining two states. In Imo, the president got 1,381,357 votes or 97.98 percent of the votes, while in Ebonyi, he got 480,592 votes or 95.57 percent of the total votes cast.

On the contrary, Buhari and his CPC got dismal results from the zone.

He was unable to record up to one percent of the votes cast in any of the states in the South-East zone. For example, Buhari got only 3743 votes or 0.31 percent in Abia, 4223 or 0.36 percent of the votes cast in Anambra; 3753 votes or 0.46 percent of the total votes cast in Enugu and 7591 votes or 0.54 percent of the votes cast in Imo State.

Battle for South-East votes Signals that the equation may have changed can be traced to last year's November 9, when the first attempt to get the leadership of the apex Igbo socio-cultural organisation, Ohanaeze Ndigbo, to endorse Jonathan as the consensus candidate of Ndigbo for this February's presidential election fell flat.

That drama was re-enacted early this year, when Imeobi, the apex body of Ohanaeze Ndigbo again threw out a motion seeking to adopt Jonathan as the consensus candidate of Ndigbo for next month's presidential election.

At this year's Imeobi meeting at Ohanaeze's national secretariat in Enugu, Chief Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu, a top PDP chieftain, who also wields enormous influence within Ohanaeze's highest organ had personally tabled the motion to endorse the president. This bold move was pointedly rejected by many members of imeobi present, who argued that it would be suicidal for Ndigbo to endorse any candidate for this year's election, especially when the Jonathan government had, according to them failed to fulfill most of the promises it made to Ndigbo and to Nigeria.

Apart from this development, some recent comments and actions of some influential Igbo leaders are also a source of worry and a sign of what may play out at the February election.

Just this Friday, co-founder of PDP and former Vice President of Nigeria,

2015 PRESIDENCY

Not business as usual in South-East Associate Editor, Sam Egburonu, reports that unlike what obtained in 2011 presidential election, when President Goodluck Jonathan's Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) swept the South-East votes in an unprecedented landslide, various factors have combined to change the game, thereby giving the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate, General Muhammadu Buhari, an opportunity to challenge the PDP in the zone at the February election.

•Jonathan campaigns in Enugu

Dr. Alex Ekwueme, in an interview with The Sun accused Jonathan of taking Ndigbo for granted, saying in clear terms that things have changed so much that PDP may not get the kind of support it used to get from the South-East.

As he puts it: "Now, we have election in less than two months, people are disgruntled. At the last election, the state (Anambra) voted overwhelmingly for President Jonathan, we had the highest percent of all the six geo-political zones for the President. In less than two months when elections are held, many people from South- East may not vote for Muhammadu Buhari for reasons which I will not go into now, but it does not necessarily mean they will vote for Jonathan because of how things have evolved. Many will not vote at all. Not casting their votes at all is a minus for the President, so he shouldn't take the South-East for granted that it will be the same 99 percent votes that will come from the South-East in 2015. It might not be."

Lamenting the worrisome state of PDP in the South-East zone, the former Vice President expressed concern that the leadership of PDP is still taking for granted that it would get South-East votes.

As he puts it in that interview: "The PDP in every state in the SouthEast does not have coherency, well organised PDP structure today.

Ebonyi is in disarray, Enugu is abdicated, Abia, Anambra have about six different factions, Imo is not serious at that, so it requires hard work for PDP to bring together the South-East to how it was eight years ago. My worry is that many of them

in the leadership of PDP don't even realise that there is this danger, they think it is business as usual, so they take South-East for granted that they will vote that same way they voted, 90 per cent of vote to President Jonathan, it may not happen."

Before the publication of Ekwueme's scathing comments this weekend, some other influential Igbo leaders, including respected Catholic Priest, Reverend Father Mbaka, had openly expressed dissatisfaction with the performance of the Jonathan administration in the South-East and the country at large.

Mbaka, in a sermon said; "The way Nigeria is going right now, the office of Goodluck Jonathan let another take. I'm not campaigning for anybody. I'm filled with tears over what is happening in Nigeria.

Some of us who have nongovernmental organisations funding charity, I know what I'm suffering.

The more they are looting our resources, the more they are rending you unemployed, the more some of us suffer the more. If I have been paying for the school fees of 500 people, it would now jack up to 3000, or more.

"What the government should do, individuals are struggling to achieve. When there is no road, no power, all this fake promises… where is the power? That Onitsha Bridge, has it now been built? No. After 6 years, and Goodluck has what it takes to do whatever. He surrounded himself with hooligans.

By the time he comes down, he won't have anybody to work with. He played himself into the hands of hooligans."

In apparent response to the growing disaffection in the zone, Jonathan, while speaking at the Presidential Rally in Enugu on Friday, acknowledged the South-East zone as his support base when he demanded 100 percent vote from them. "We will not accept 99.9 percent," he said.

Vice President Namadi Sambo, in the same vein, described Enugu and the South-East as "the bedrock of PDP." Jonathan had lashed on the All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential candidate, General Muhammadu Buhari, of trying to misinform Nigerians on the issue of corruption, alleging that the former military Head of State selected Igbo leaders and threw them to jail on the pretense of fighting corruption.

"They want me to fight corruption by arresting their perceived political enemies and send them to jail.

"They want this administration to play to the gallery in order to satisfy their vendetta. You cannot just arrest people and send them to jail without evidence of trial," he said.

According to him, the APC Presidential flag bearer 'selectively' arrested Second Republic Vice President Alex Ekwueme, former governor of the old Imo State,the late Chief Sam Mbakwe, Second Republic governor of the old Anambra State,Chief Jim Nwobodo and the late Igbo leader, Dim Emeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu, and sent them to jail on 'trumped up charges'.

Given these crossfire, it is evident that South-East vote has become a major issue even for PDP, which under normal circumstances, would have, as Ekwueme said taken it for granted that Jonathan, from the

neighbouring South-South would win.

A source told The Nation that even within South-East governors; the treatment of Ndigbo in the last four years of Jonatha's administration is an issue. One of the latest signs that all may not be very well between South-East governors and the camp of President Goodluck Jonathan's People's Democratic Party (PDP) was the yet-to-be fully explained absence of nine governors of the ruling party's inauguration of the Ahmadu Ali- led Presidential Campaign Organisation in Abuja on Tuesday.

It is particularly instructive that all the three South-East PDP governors, Martin Elechi of Ebonyi, Theodore Orji of Abia and Sullivan Chime of Enugu states, were among the nine PDP absentee governors at the important event.

Although Orji and Chime, who were not at the inauguration of the PCO, attended a closed door meeting Mr. President later held that day with PDP governors at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, where they reportedly discussed his reelection strategies, the absence of Elechi at that crucial meeting speaks volumes of his current resolve.

STATE BY STATE Abia: Abia State is one of the South-East states where President Goodluck Jonathan and his party, the PDP is very hopeful to record a landslide victory. This is because of his unshaken relationship with Governor Theodore Orji, who controls the PDP party machinery.

Aside the hope of utilising the incumbency factor of Governor Orji, the fact that First Lady, Patience Jonathan's mother hailed from the state, have been used to mobilize support for Jonathan.

According to Chief Udensi Ukoma, a community leader in Abia North, "PDP has managed to dictate the pace in Abia State politics over the years because of Governor Orji's style of governance. Until recently, he has succeeded in rendering opposition parties redundant in Abia."

Our investigation confirms however that while governorship and other legislative elections would be a close contest between the ruling PDP and the opposition, Jonathan is likely to win the presidential election here but not with 98 percent as was the case in 2011. In fact, most respondents to The Nation's questions are optimistic that APC's candidate, Buhari may get 25 percent votes here unlike 0.31 percent he got in 2011.

Enugu: Following alleged reconciliation of the Senator Ike Ekweremadu-led faction of PDP in Enugu and that of Governor Sullivan Chime, Jonathan's supporters are optimistic he will also win in the state, where he got 98.54 percent votes against Buhari's 0.36 percent in 2011.

While it may not be out of place for PDP to be optimistic in Enugu, insiders to Enugu State politics said many interests have been hurt in the pre-election politicking. This includes but not limited to the bitterness of the Senator Ayogu Eze's camp of the PDP, which is yet to be appeased.

Added to this is the dynamic campaign of Okey Ezea-led APC incursion, which is poised to serve as a major boost to Buhari's political fortunes in the state in February. With its Catholic dominated population, there is also the fear at the PDP camp that Father Mbaka's recent sermon may sway some precious votes to Buhari's box.

Anambra: Though an All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA)-led state, Anambra has consistently voted for PDP at the presidential election. In 2011, Jonathan, the PDP flagbearer

•Contd. on page 73

Ropo Sekoni

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Femi Orebe Page 16

SUNDAY, JANUARY 11, 2015

Angel IBB tunjade@yahoo.co.uk 08054503906 (sms only)

His statement at first seemed ridiculous; but at a point, he was making sense

F

ORMER Head of State, General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida 's interview with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) press crew for the agency's in-house magazine, Zero tolerance, was a disaster for the President Goodluck Jonathan political campaign. The interview, which was published last week, must have thrown spanner in the works of the campaign. The president, who would have been happy with himself for whatever gains he thought his visit to Babangida's Minna residence on December 27, last year, as part of his efforts to shore up his waning image had brought, must have been shocked by Babangida's bombshell. The Minna general had more or less given the president a pass mark during the visit; at least so we all thought, when he said: "What I will say is simple: the president means well for this country and he is working well for this country. Anybody who means well for this country should support the President to make sure that Nigeria survives as a united country."

As usual in journalism, this did not make big headlines, neither did it attract more than passing mention in the media. In journalism, when dog bites man, that is no news; but when man bites dog, then that is news. What else would Babangida have said? We were almost putting the story behind us when the EFCC interview got to the public domain on January 5; barely nine days after Babangida had asked Nigerians to support President Jonathan. It was a damning interview: "I don't have the facts, but if what I read in the newspapers is currently what is happening, then I think we were angels", he told the EFCC press crew. But pray, which fact does Babangida want that he cannot have access to in this country? He continued: "Yeah, I know … but anybody with a sense of fairness has no option but to call us saints. I give you an example, in a year I was making less than $7billion in oil revenue. In the same period, there are governments that are making $200billion to $300billion. "With $7billion, I did the little I could achieve. With $200billion, there is still a lot to be achieved." These figures may appear somewhat exaggerated, but that in no significant way detracts from the picture the general is painting.

Stopping short of asking Nigerians to tender unreserved apologies to him for our misperception of his administration as most corrupt, Babangida said: "… You believed quite wrongly that we are all crooks and I bear no grudge whatsoever against anybody, but I know time will come when they will say after all, they did something and this is what is happening". I hereby repentantly crave the permission of Nigerians to tell the general that that time is already here, the clouds are gone and we have seen clearly that Babangida and his team were saints and angels indeed.

But this a serious matter, considering that there are two major things that the Babangida administration (1985-1993) is known infamously for, and these a little child who can talk will tell you were his annulment of the June 12, 1993 presidential election won by the late Bashorun Moshood Kashimawo Abiola.

The second was corruption that was rampant in his administration. At least so we thought then. In retrospect, we have seen that what we called corruption then was mere pickpocketing. I remember that it took the

• Babangida

criticism of a prominent Nigerian for the Babangida government to begin to talk about corruption, despite its pervasiveness in his regime. The government apparently did not see it as any big deal. Indeed, the word 'corruption' was simply alien to the government. So, we may have to retrieve the cup and belt that we erroneously gave the Babangida government for being the corruption champion and give it to its rightful owner now that we have realised our mistake. And this should go with unreserved apologies to the Minna general that we thought would hold the title for life as the head of that government. We have now realised our mistake; Babangida therefore does not have to offer any long explanation. Our most crucial issue with his government on corruption was the $12.4billion Gulf Oil windfall. We have lost count of the billions of dollars that are missing today. Again, on behalf of Nigerians, I hereby give Babangida and his team a clean bill of health; they were indeed angels. They have been discharged and acquitted, with costs that must be paid by every Nigerian who saw his government in that terrible light.

Jokes apart, however, it must be clear to all and sundry now that President Jonathan's administration must be bad through and through for Nigerians to be giving the two former heads of state who had spoken negatively about his government in recent times audience. I am talking of former President Olusegun Obasanjo and General Babangida. In times like this though, that is the fit and proper thing to do: we have to separate the message from the messenger. And, as a Yoruba proverb has it, we have to drive away the thief first before pointing out to the owner of the stolen property that he too did not keep his property well.

It is a matter for regret that despite the fact that everyone was accusing the Jonathan government of corruption, the president for a long time did not see what they were seeing, or he merely chose not to see it, until corruption has literally bolted away. It would interest us to note that, when the other day one of the president's aides said the president was fighting corruption seriously, in reaction to one of the numerous criticisms against the government, I simply laughed. The matter called for sad laughter because his principal himself had told the world before that there is nothing like corruption in

“So, we may have to retrieve the cup and belt that we erroneously gave the Babangida government for being the corruption champion and give it to its rightful owner now that we have realised our mistake ... And these should go with unreserved apologies to the Minna general that we thought would hold the title for life as the head of that government”

Nigeria; that what we are calling corruption is (mere) "stealing" (emphasis mine). How can a government that does not believe there is corruption be fighting what does not exist? The point is, these government people always think that the rest of us are complete morons, whenever they attempt to defend the indefensible about the government.

The contradiction was even compounded again when the president conceded at a New Year special service at the Dunamis International Church, Abuja, that corruption was one of the major challenges facing the country (how do we reconcile this with his earlier position that what people call corruption in Nigeria is stealing?) Still worsening matters, he said: "We are coming out with programmes and plans to clean up. These are things you just don't use a magical wand to wave off; otherwise even before I became President, there wouldn't have been corruption in Nigeria." There you are! The president is just "coming out with programmes and plans" on corruption, about five years after mounting the presidential saddle, yet his aide said his boss was already fighting corruption! Anyway, since only the deep can communicate with the deep, the discerning must have got the message in what may look like Babangida's doublespeak.

As of the time this piece was submitted, the presidency had not responded to Babangida's interview. I guess they were too shocked to offer an immediate response because that was like throwing quinine into the tea that they thought they drank when they visited Babangida on December 27.

Those wondering how Nigeria came to this sorry pass must have stopped worrying when the President, apparently in a feat of un-presidential anger, said Chief Obasanjo, his political godfather talks like a motor park tout. We await what they would liken Babangida to. You are in their good books until the moment you tell them they are not doing well or that they have failed Nigerians.

We had thought the president had only one father, but he has told us that Babangida too is his father. So, his spokespersons must be mindful of this when reacting to Babangida's comment, to avoid being ridiculed again.

"Of course, you know that this is the end of the year. Within this period, people pay visits. So I have come to visit him. You know he just came back from a hospital abroad, not too long ago. Since he came back, we have not seen. I need to see my father to know how he is feeling. I am quite pleased the way I have seen him … He is one of our experienced leaders. As somebody who is sitting where he was before, I need to see them from time to time to listen to their suggestions. That is one of the areas how we can collectively move the country forward and ensure that Nigerians live in peace. That is the key thing and I am quite pleased that we had fruitful discussion," the president said.

His aides should therefore not come and tell us that the president's visit to IBB was only symbolic and that they never hoped to reap any political benefit from it because Babangida no longer has any political relevance. That is the kind of stuff they are made of.

IBB has spoken; he says he and his team are angels, what do the government spokespersons have to say about this? Is he correct, is he also missing the point? What kind of elder statesman is he now - motor park tout, a common jester, or what? We need to know. We know the angels of the living God, and by and large what they represent. Angel Michael we know; Angel Gabriel we know; Angel Raphael we know and Angel Uriel we know. And now, Angel IBB, the man who has repudiated the corruption championship and passed on the belt most befittingly to our current rulers.

Long live Charlie

“I

S it true that a journalist can be killed in the course of doing his or her work?"

A student journalist once asked me at a seminar. I wished I could tell him no, knowing that a yes response would further convince him that the journalism profession is too risky for anyone who doesn't believe anything is worth dying for. Unfortunately, I couldn't deny his fears considering that chances of being killed on the job is one of the hazards of the profession, especially those covering crises situations like war and others.

According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, 61 journalists were killed worldwide in 2014. The breakdown of the beats of the victims indicates that 59 percent of them covered war, 69% politics, 54% human rights, 15% corruption, 16% crime and 5% culture. The percentages add up to more than 100 because more than one category applies in some cases.

Although no Nigerian journalist was among those killed on duty last year, we have had cases in past years, like the journalists killed while covering the bomb blasts by the Boko Haram insurgents in Kano and Maiduguri.

Last Wednesday's killing of 12 persons, including four cartoonists of a French satirical newspaper, Charlie Hebdo, by masked gunmen in Paris has again confirmed how dangerous journalism can be.

The suspected Islamic militants who carried out the attack were reported to have claimed that they have avenged anti-Islamic publications by the newspaper.

Like every other terrorist attack which has claimed hundreds of lives, the killing of the cartoonists, policemen and others is condemnable.

There is no justification for the attack on the newspaper, notwithstanding how provocative their publications could have been. In a world where freedom of expression by everybody is guaranteed, the attack is an assault on individual rights and press freedom.

The action of the gunmen and whichever group they may belong to is typical of their intolerance for the views of others regarding their religious beliefs. Like they have always done, they have taken the laws into their hands to unleash yet another round of terror which is gradually becoming the order of the day globally.

As long as terrorists continue their endless killings in the name of defending a prophet or religion, those who regularly lampoon and expose them for the evil which they truly represent - like cartoonists of Charlie Hebdo will have every reason not to spare them.

The terrorist groups worldwide have wrecked so much havoc that the media cannot afford to keep quiet about their unjustified violent activities. Journalists will be failing in their duties to be the voice of the voiceless against extremist Islamic tendencies which most adherents of the religion do not subscribe to.

While anybody or group may disagree with any publication, resorting to killing journalists should not be the option. Killing of the cartoonists cannot stop the media from reporting the heinous crimes by terrorists.

The gunmen might have succeeded in killing the cartoonists, but cannot kill the driving force behind the principles Charlie Hebdo stands for. The newspaper will be back on the newsstands soon to continue to haunt the terrorists and their cohorts.

From the reactions of journalists in particularly France, there is no killing Charlie.

Journalists have declared 'Je suis Charlie' meaning 'I am Charlie'.

Long live Charlie!

0

14

THE NATION ON SUNDAY JANUARY 11, 2015

COMMENT

Transition government and other shadow chasing efforts Postponing election for two years is another form of annulment, regardless of how much it is packaged as a national security scheme

J

UST a few days after The Vanguard published a story which insinuated that General Olusegun Obasanjo has been calling (to no one's hearing) for an Interim government, another call came from what many activists and believers in the possibility of a Nigerian variant of liberation theology would readily call a most unexpected source: one-time leader of Save Nigeria Group (SNG) and Senior Pastor of the Church of Latter Rain Assembly. The call, put simply, is for postponement of national elections for two years and installation of a Transition Government to be headed by the incumbent president and assisted by specially invited or anointed citizens to prepare for postponed elections when the term of the special regime lapses. In other words, the call seeks national consent for suspension of the most important aspect of democratic governance: elections.

Had Obasanjo's call for Interim Government been audible to citizens, most citizens would not have been upset by this, given the general assessment of General Obasanjo as having no fear to say whatever he chooses to say about persons and institutions. This writer would also not have been surprised, knowing that General Obasanjo comes from a professional background that is popular in the country for preferring interim governments manned by members of the military or headhunted civilians.

But the call from a man who led hundreds of Nigerians (including General Alani Akinrinade, Admiral Ndubuisi Kanu, and hundreds of citizens including this writer) under the aegis of SNG on protest marches in Lagos and Abuja on behalf of due process and rule of law is hard to dismiss, the way such calls from Obasanjo (if actually made) would have been ignored by citizens who define themselves as lovers of democratic culture.

Having worked with Pastor Bakare for a few years on various political issues, I am not

impressed by the noise in the social media that he is preoccupied with assisting President Jonathan to enjoy the eight-year tenure allowed by the constitution without necessarily having to go through the rigor of election. I make bold to say that I know him well enough to know that he does not need to stake out his neck for any president on account of favour seeking, not after he had served as vice presidential candidate of General Mohammed Buhari in the bid to unseat President Goodluck Jonathan in 2011, about two years after he mobilised Nigerians to struggle for respect of the constitution with regards to appointing Jonathan as substantive president after the demise of President Umaru Yar'Adua.

But it is necessary to ask for more details of the proposal to bypass election and appoint someone who was elected four years ago to the same office, in order to avoid any threat to peace and stability in the polity after an election that was scheduled four years ago.

Without doubt, there is no better time for the Cassandra syndrome to afflict citizens than the current election season. Since the announcement of the candidacies of Buhari and Jonathan for the highest office in the land, the polity has been unduly heated.

Security agencies have been promising fire and brimstones against politicians who make whatever security experts consider to be inflammatory statements.

Party spokespersons and even professional prayer warriors have been warning and praying against violence and disintegration. Even leaders of political parties that no longer appear on the political radar have been screaming about their chances to win elections and warning against post-election violence. What could have been a moment of excitement for citizens of other democracies have become a source of worry to citizens, largely because many people have become scared that the forthcoming election is not

likely to be free and fair to the point that reasonable party men and women will accept the will of the electorate.

It must be the tension in the air that has pushed otherwise well-meaning people to make proposals that are likely to deny citizens of their political and civil rights to choose the leader they want at elections. On one hand, a former minister called for a memorandum of undertaking between Buhari and Jonathan on an irrevocable pledge to restrain their supporters from becoming violent after the election, regardless of whether the election was free and fair or not.

In another instance, a national leader in the movement for justice and democracy in the land and one-time presidential candidate called for cancellation of the 2015 election and coronation of the incumbent as president for two years.

The proposal to cancel or postpone the 2015 election for another two years shows very little respect for citizens. Millions of citizens had made so much sacrifice to obtain their permanent voter cards from grudging distribution centres in the last few weeks in preparation for a chance to assess their leaders. Other millions are losing sleep for INEC's decision to dole out PVCs that constitutionally belong to citizens by right, all in an effort to exercise their right to vote and their duty to the State. What makes the need for President Jonathan to have an eightyear tenure so crucial that citizens' rights will have to be abrogated? What verifiable evidence does anyone have to suggest that there will be violence after a free and fair election? Or, are those that have fallen victims of fear mongering sure that the election will not be free and fair to the point that it will induce violence?

The country had gone on this road before.

Many military rulers had shifted election dates on account of national security. General Babangida cancelled party primaries all in the

name of national security. He even annulled the 1993 presidential election in order to ensure the country's peace and stability. It is too soon to forget the huge sacrifices made by citizens after the annulment of the June 12, 1993 presidential election. Hundreds of citizens died at home and some in exile as a result of government's repression of citizens who chose to protect and defend their votes after the annulment of 1993.

Postponing election for two years is another form of annulment, regardless of how much it is packaged as a national security scheme. The only person to gain from such proposal is the incumbent president. All citizens and other contestants for office are losers. Are governors and legislators also supposed to enjoy tenure elongation? Which of the agencies in the country are to determine members of the Transition Government at federal and state levels? If the country is so much at risk because of conducting the 2015 election, what evidence do we have that arranging a transition government will not be more risk prone than the arbitrary arrangement? Should the proposal of the founder of SNG be adopted, the country stands the risk of failing to achieve peace and stability and lending credence to the Yoruba saying: Ole baa ti o bere fun odo nla (a lazy person is unable to do the simple task at hand and asks for something more complex).

Whatever may be the flaw of the 1999 Constitution and the electoral laws, they both provide for straightforward ways to enable citizens choose their political office holders from president through governors to lawmakers. Opting sixteen years after the exit of military dictatorship for annulment and suspension of elections in the name of national security is sheer escapism. What is needed at this stage is for all patriotic citizens to struggle for free, fair, and transparent elections that are capable of making post-election violence unnecessary for voters.

THE NATION ON SUNDAY JANUARY 11, 2015

COMMENT

15

The Mbaka sermon Truth is bitter; particularly when spoken to power

B

EFORE God and man, at the popular Catholic Adoration Centre in Enugu, Enugu State, Revd Father Ejike Mbaka who heads the church, openly canvassed the rejection of incumbent President Goodluck Jonathan in next month's presidential election. The fiery priest did not mince words and he was not apologetic about asking Nigerians to vote for a leader who can tackle the country's many challenges. He also had harsh words for men of God who hobnob with those in power, currying one favour or the other. Indeed, the title of his New Year’s Day sermon defined the message: "From Good luck to Bad luck." Give it to him, Father Mbaka did not leave his congregation groping in the dark; he itemised major areas that the Jonathan administration has failed, which naturally should have sufficed to buttress his points.

"When Goodluck met Yar'Adua, he got bad luck and died. When Goodluck met our oil, it poured away and met bad luck. When Goodluck met our Naira, it met bad luck", Mbaka said. Citing the problem of unemployment that has become the lot of youths in the country, the priest said: "Look at you brilliant youth but nobody has any plans for you - jobless - our leaders should come and apologise; 2015 cannot be the same. We announce change." And, in apparent allusion to the intractable Boko Haram insurgency that has virtually crippled the northeastern part of the country, Mbaka said: "Many are saying that it is Buhari, that he said he will make our country ungovernable. Even though Buhari never said such a thing like that, but if you are the president, will you not arrest such person?" Another rhetorical question: "Are you waiting for your own church to be bombed before you speak out?" Then the clincher: "If my father will be my leader and my siblings will all die, let a stranger be my leader and let my family live."

In line with the mood of the nation, the video of the sermon has since gone viral. If truly religion is the opium of the people, then Father Mbaka served his congregation the right dosage as they chorused thunderous 'no' when the answer should be nay and ‘yes’ when they meant yea, more or less agreeing in toto with the Reverend Father's submissions.

But that is only one leg of the story. The other is that Father Mbaka has come under severe criticism from two quarters. The first comes from those who see a contradiction in the Revd Father's earlier position allegedly endorsing the president; and the second from some sections of the public, including the Catholic Church itself; that felt the priest went overboard in his sermon. The latter has rekindled the debate as to whether religious leaders should dabble into political matters and the extent to which they can go.

The Archbishop of Enugu Anglican Province and Bishop of Enugu, Most Rev. (Dr) Emmanuel Chukwuma, is unsparing. He wondered why Revd Father Mbaka would criticise the president after al-

A

S the state and, indeed, the nation move towards the general elections with the emergence of gubernatorial hopefuls from the various political platforms, it is instructive and incumbent on us to articulate the Benue State that we want. The Benue dream has been articulated by many for various reasons ranging from pork profits to transition to political hibernation at the national assembly. That the Benue people deserve a better deal is not new in the politics of contemporary Nigeria.

Previously regarded as second class citizens in the then Northern Nigeria political equation when it was alleged that her stool was the resting feet of regional leaders, the state has evolved into a strategic decider of Nigerian politics that deserves the best. The self worth of the average Benue indigene and resident has no less been de-

legedly collecting N5milion from the First Lady, Dame Patience Jonathan, who visited the Adoration Ground, and he (Mbaka) had eulogised the president. National Coordinator of the House-2-House Network, a proJonathan group, Prince Chidi Ibe, also said the priest is angry over his inability to secure oil blocks in the Niger Delta region. "Ordinarily, I will not reply when a clergyman has his own views, but I can categorically tell you that Father Mbaka has travelled severally in quest of oil block in Nigeria. I know he has not succeeded and I know that he is not happy that he is not getting it. So, has he been promised oil block

by Buhari to categorically stand at the Adoration Ground and say Goodluck is a bad luck to Nigeria?"

But a socio-political group in the South-East, Ndigbo Unity Forum, defended Mbaka, and berated Rt. Rev Chukwuma. Augustine Chukwudu, President of the forum, said that some religious leaders who were condemning Mbaka were guilty of hovering around Aso Rock to get gratifications from the president. Hear him: "if Bishop Chukwuma is afraid when Mbaka said some religious leaders, like vultures, besiege Aso Rock to seek for one favour or the other, then, he should check himself and stop pointing fingers at an ordained man of God".

These claims are neither here nor there. But even if it is true that Revd Father Mbaka got N5million from the First Lady, for instance, what was the money for to bribe the priest or to bribe God? Anyway, what is of interest to us is the message and not the messenger. Has the Jonathan administration solved the country's power problem? The answer is no. Has it solved the problem of unemployment?

Again, the answer is no. Has the government any firm grip on the economy? No. How much was the exchange rate when the government came on board about five years ago and how much is it now? Has the government tackled the problem of corruption? No. And how far has it been able to curb insurgency, armed robbery and kidnapping? Even President Jonathan himself admitted recently that these are serious challenges that his administration is now poised to tackle, about five years after he became president!

Without doubt Mbaka's bombshell cannot but resonate the way it has given its weighty allegations and those smeared by them. Nigerians know that many men of God in the country have visited the seat of TRUTH IN DEFENCE OF FREEDOM

•Editor Festus Eriye •Deputy Editor Olayinka Oyegbile •Associate Editors Taiwo Ogundipe Sam Egburonu

•Managing Director/ Editor-in-Chief Victor Ifijeh •Chairman, Editorial Board Sam Omatseye •General Editor Adekunle Ade-Adeleye

power on every ostensible ground imaginable. Some had been invited while others invited themselves, knowing they would not return empty-handed. Even vultures would have done things in a more dignifying manner.

The sermon was particularly a damning verdict for the Jonathan administration, especially coming from a popular priest in the southeast which had been thought to have endorsed the president's second term ambition.

All said; the debate as to whether the church should get involved in political matters or not will not disappear anytime soon. But then, one major problem we have in the country is the failure of the church to live up to expectation as the conscience of the people, and the priests as God's representatives on earth. Priests should not be silent when things are going awry like they are in Nigeria if only for the fact that they too would be affected when the country begins to reap the fruits of injustices and deprivations that pervade Nigeria today. How many people can go to church in the troubled regions? So, it is high time our men of God realised that many of our political leaders who seek their attention are not doing so for altruistic purposes. Rather, they do so to compromise and give them a false sense of reverence by the political leaders. If our leaders truly respect the religious leaders, they would honour God and when they do that, they would in turn govern responsibly. That, indeed, should be the message of the religious leaders to the political leaders whenever they visit or consult them for spiritual guidance.

Perhaps many of the country's leaders would not have failed abysmally as they did if religious leaders are courageous enough to speak truth to power. We recall those years when the (then) Archbishop Olubunmi Okogie (now a Cardinal) was in the vanguard of the critics of our military rulers. Okogie's role then not only showed him as an activist who had the interest of Nigerians at heart but also projected the Catholic Church as a catalyst of social consciousness.

Even in the scriptures, there are many examples of prophets that God sent to speak truth to those in positions of authority then. But what we see in many of our churches today is nauseating. After fraternising with those in political positions, many of our religious fathers lose their voice and when they manage to retrieve it, they speak, understandably, in incoherent tunes.

We sympathise with those who genuinely fear that the involvement of religious leaders in politics is dangerous; indeed, we acknowledge the contributions of the Catholic Church to nation-building. But we dare say that many of those asking for Revd. Father Mbaka's head are behaving like old women who can never be at ease when dry bones are mentioned in a proverb, for obvious reasons. If it was true that Mbaka once openly supported the president, why did they not protest then? Why now?

LETTER

The Benue we want graded to a status that is abysmal in the Nigerian state. As we move to 2015, Benue deserves the best in leadership and resource sharing formula for the following reasons.

First, Benue produces one of the most hard working labour forces in the country and deserves a leader that will be in the fore-front of job creation to absorb its teeming graduates.

As a state that is home to indigenes-by-birth and residential status from various parts of the country, the next governor must be prepared to create competitive opportunities as is obtainable elsewhere in other leading states of the federation.

Second, the Benue

Diaspora, whether locally or internationally, must be accommodated in the scheme of things or affairs that affect the state. A Benue Diaspora Commission will have to be established by the incoming governor in 2015 to cater for the needs of indigenous professionals who want to return home either as retirees or on career advancement option.

This is most important because it will be recalled that when Benue State University was established, the bulk of the Benue academia that started the university were returnees from politically-stagnated careers from federal universities that had gone political in consider-

ing their promotion criteria instead of academic productivity. Today, the story has not changed as many Benue indigenes still suffer the same fate in various federal and state universities.

Third, as far back as the 1980s, an elder statesman, Pius Igbax, had advocated a Benue database for the skilled and unemployed in Benue from which the state government can source for her labour force. Although this was not recognised at the time, technology and local needs have made it pertinent in the current times to have such a tool in our hands through the facilitation of the state government. There are some posi-

tions in which political affiliation is not a requirement but merit which such a database or commission can provide.

Fourth, thankfully, all my first three points are dedicated to the benefit of the youths. Now we have to look at the mainstay of the Benue economy, which is agriculture. A new Benue governor will have to take a cursory look at agriculture in the state and effect a change.

Yearly, our farmers don't have enough of the product which must be adequately addressed through the establishment of a fertilizer factory in the state. Some would rightly argue that does the presence of a cement factory in Gboko

mean accessibility and affordability to the product in the state? Everybody knows that the cement is readily available and quite affordable to builders in the state and so the same would apply to a fertilizer factory in the state. Again, there is the problem of storage facilities for agricultural produce in the state.

Fifth, there is the need for the establishment of agricultural processing factories to be established based on a publicprivate initiative by a new Benue Governor in 2015.This does not imply that some are already in existence in the agrarian state even though they have been suffocated by politics of recognition.

In conclusion, the Benue that we want deserves even development, state allocation notwithstanding. Indeed, the Benue that we want begins today.

Emmanuel Tyokumbur Department of Zoology, University of Ibadan

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16

THE NATION ON SUNDAY, JANUARY 11, 2015

COMMENT

Gov. Muazu Babangida Aliyu where exactly are your morals?

It says so much for this man, that with his possession of a doctorate degree, he could still display such banality and decorum as well as a complete lack of morality

U

NTIL he uttered the words we would, quite regrettably, have to repeat in a decent newspaper like this, Nigerians had thought that Governor Babangida Aliyu's greatest weaknesses were his arrogance and loquaciousness. But by his own mouth, he has proved us wrong by showing himself much worse and therefore very unworthy of his high office.

While inaugurating the PDP gubernatorial campaign committee this past week, the man, one of Obasanjo's greatest errors in office, who, as a decoy to deceive the people of Niger State, had described self as Chief Servant, threw away all decency and caution, declaring unabashedly as follows: "If you cannot lie, get out of politics. Anything you are involved in has its own rule. You are in politics to win, win first and let other things follow.

Don't be the one crying out louder lest you will be the one they will take to court. If you are talking of honesty and morals, go and become an Imam or a pastor. Politics cannot be the way it used to be. The challenges are more now, the variables have changed. Our society is not as grateful as it used to be, the values and morals have gone down. If you want to win, use the modern morality." Now, I invite Nigerians to mentally picture this man advising the president, his party's candidate, on the next election. What would he not tell him? For starters, he would inform President Jonathan that winning is all that matters, no matter how, and whatever the likely conse-

quences on the nation. It says so much for this man, that with his possession of a doctorate degree, he could still display such banality and lack of decorum as well as a complete lack of morality.

What exactly does he teach his five children and others who look up to him?

And given that he doubles as Chairman, Forum of Northern Governors, it is no surprise that a solution to the Boko Haram menace and the myriad socio-economic challenges confronting the north seem further and further away because Aliyu cannot give that which he does not have - good leadership. He just must have been lying to his colleagues in the forum.

Nigeria! The fastest growing champagne country after france This millennial discovery, as the topic indicates, came to public knowledge, courtesy that invigorating columnist, Mohammed Haruna. Like or hate him, you cannot ignore him -what with his intimidating power of recall - even of events spanning decades making him, unarguably, the greatest archivist of Nigerian columnists. But any Nigerian over the age of 30 should not be surprised that in another resurgence of NPN, as PDP in our clime, champagne is making headlines again. In the earlier incarnation, its national chairman, a top Ibadan chief, actually had champagne made out and branded in his name at a time Awo was stridently

warning the NPN government, under the leadership of Alhaji Shehu Shagari, of a looming economic catastrophe which, of course, came with a venom.

In like manner, beneficiaries of PDP's rent-seeking, Washington driven economic policies, are back after their various deals, and dubious licences ( which should be why they are mostly anonymous), donating billions for the PDP candidate in the coming presidential election when millions of Nigerians do not know where the next meal would come from and thousands more, of Internally displaced persons, are left out there in the cold being buffeted, day and night, by the elements.

It is in the above circumstances that the following verses, edited mainly for space, should be quite helpful in the forthcoming presidential election which a PDP state governor has described as WAR, urging the president, a candidate, to use the army and the police, which he controls, maximally for his own victory.

I, therefore, fully recommend the contents as determining factors in how Nigerians should vote, come 14 February, 2015 "My thesis is NOT that Buhari is the awaited Messiah who will take all our pains and sorrows away and establish all living and unborn citizens on 'Easy Street' of Nigeria forever because I know that he is not God. Rather, my point IS THAT PDP has been in power for one and a half

decades without any commensurate improvement in the lives of Nigerians and am yet to meet any Nigerian, aside those benefitting from their government, who has said he is better today than he/she was four years ago.

President Jonathan has been in office for six of the 15 years and another four will be an illegality given that the Nigerian constitution prescribes , at most, two terms of eight years for any one president. One cannot but wonder as to the place of the rule of law in the country and what exactly Nigerian courts are up to.

Yet, insecurity, corruption, and poverty remain the lot of the masses.

All I am canvassing, therefore, is a democratic change of the party at the centre to the opposition APC so that Nigerians will be able to compare and contrast between a conservative party of self-seeking individuals and a progressive party dedicated to the welfare of the majority.

Governance in a county as big and endowed as Nigeria - a country the entire black world should be looking up to - should be by the most competent, irrespective of demographic peculiarities. For me, the next president could be a Buddhist or Hindu as long as he or she can deliver enduring welfare for all lawabiding citizens and pursue a road map of development as distinct from stomach infrastructure.

Without a shred of doubt, I prefer a Buhari who attempted to kidnap Umaru Dikko ( a fellow Muslim-Hausa-Fulani) from the

United Kingdom to face charges of corruption here in Nigeria to a Jonathan who pardoned Diepreye Alamieyeseigha, (his fellow Christian- Ijaw) now inching his way to the Nigerian senate, as president."

During the past week, the president, looking very unusually agitated, was in Lagos to kick off his campaign. After thoroughly lambasting some of his predecessors, he made a detour to clinically crucify MEND, that once-upon a beloved Ijaw group which had earlier in the week endorsed his opposite number, General Buhari, the APC candidate.

He even alleged the organisation wanted to kill him. A president knows quite a lot but it is funny Nigerians are just being informed of this malicious intent towards their first citizen. But Dr Olumide Ayeni will not let the matter rest like that.

So, again this week, this intensely patriotic Nigerian wrote: "The president by coming to Lagos to disown MEND ought to realise that we do not all suffer from collective amnesia. The PDP should realise that shortly upon his assumption of office as president after the bomb blast terrorist attack near Eagle Square in Abuja on 1st October, 2010, he was quick to absolve MEND of any responsibility even before investigations before he was cautioned by the late Chief S.D Lar and General Gowon among others!"

Somebody should help tell 'Mide that presidents too do change their minds.

The funny thing about Change...

'Change will not come if we wait for some other person'

T

HIS morning, I obtained my PVC. I know, I know, some of us might be thinking I was rather tardy about it, while others might be thinking that they might be so lucky. As they say in teenland, 'whatever.' Prior to getting it, I was a little worried that if I didn't I could get into some kind of trouble. What if the government woke up one day and decided you could not send your children or wards to school, or enter a government building, or get buried, or God forbid, even vote without your PVC? So, you can imagine my relief when I got it. I immediately thought, now, the government has no right to prevent me from being buried, should I be so thoughtless as to die.

As I held the card, it occurred to me that the picture on it was not quite to my taste. It was a reflection of me alright, but I thought I looked a little hazy and unsure of what the whole process was about, just like a woman suffering from dementia being woken up early in the morning to go and give a lecture on astrophysics. I however consoled myself with the fact that the candidates would hardly be after my beauty (they don't want that), brains (they don't need that) or brawn (ho, ho, they have enough thugs, thanks). Perhaps, I had that confused look because of the presidential candidates and what people are saying about them.

I understand that there are about twenty-six registered political

parties, out of which only about eleven or so have fielded presidential candidates. Yet, only two of them are said to be in strong contention. Wonderful, said I, we are having a personality-based election where you choose between one set of tribal marks over another; rather than a party-based one where you choose one ice cream flavour over another. In other words, this election is saying there is no difference between the parties: they are all about eating ice cream.

You can therefore empathise with me I'm sure as I'm in a dither over which of the candidates to choose, or whether I am even going to vote at all. Right now, there are two gimmicks being peddled. The one is about continuing the process of transforming the old order while the other is about changing the old order. The one is about the old order transmuting while the other thinks the old order needs transmigrating. Here's my objective take.

My Encarta says transforming is changing things dramatically, and to change is to transform or make something appear different. So, clearly, both candidates are peddling words centred on how they would wave their magic wand and the old order would transmute in Nigeria. As of now, the programmes are not yet clear, but I guess as they become clearer to the participants, they would let us know. For now, it is enough for us to know, according to a TV ad., that Dr.

Jonathan is comparable to Mandela, Martin Luther King Jr., Barack Obama...

I wonder, did the list include Isaac Newton, Albert Einstein, Mother Theresa...? I don't know; maybe I missed those parts. Anyway, that ad parades the list of world figures who have given their brains, blood or even life to make a difference while gaining little or nothing, as a premise for us to understand how to view the achievements of our current president.

Hmmm! Thing is, the copywriters of that TV add forgot one major truth: the people mentioned were made world figures by history not by ads or people. In other words, history judged them, they were weighed in the balance, and they were not found wanting. Sadly or happily, that same history awaits us all. So, I would prefer that we wait for history to add our dear president to that exclusive league of extraordinary gentlemen or... It is too early to decide whether the country has been transformed or not.

For now, we will do well to remember that in most parts of this country, there is no electricity for more than three quarters of the day (if and when), pipe borne water is absent, many major highways are practically impassable, people are still being abducted as we speak, others sleep with one eye open, possibly waiting... One major culprit in all these is what many of us have pointed out, and that is corruption. Yet, the president has stated that if he would be given a second coming, he would not send anyone to jail for it (perhaps because of the first stone and all) but would rather study the phenomenon and decide on the best procedure, perhaps strengthen institutions.

Anyway, on account of all the billions of the nation's funds flying left, right and centre but ending up untraceable, the people are now clamouring for change in the nation's body politic. In response, the other candidate has also been peddling the slogan of change at the end of a long hook for the people to bite. And are they biting! Now, everywhere you turn on the internet, the month of February has been turned to ... Go and find out yourself; I am not the man's campaign manager.

Still, on my part, I am hesitant.

For one thing, we have a presidential candidate, Rtd. Gen. Buhari, who has been a soldier all his life (I suspect even from the womb) suddenly transmuting into a politician. Something is not sitting well. Remember how angry he got when the nation did not vote him into power in 2011? That was a real, soldierly anger, forgetting that it was quite possible that people really did vote in Dr. Jonathan, in all their innocence. Can that righteous anger change? True, a few things are changing. For one thing, I think the candidate is realising that neither an insular north, nor south west, nor south east, can Nigeria make. A part, in this instance, can never make a whole; so to be wholly accepted in one part is not the same as being accepted in the whole part. For quite another, have you noticed his dressing lately?

Anyways, people clamouring for change need to do some sitting up. I checked the internet for quotations on change and I found a site that registered 2,536 of them! And what's more, many of them agreed that change is not an external thing; it is an internal thing. Listen to these: 'be

the change you want to see' (M. Ghandi); 'everybody thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself' (L. Tolstoy); 'never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed, citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has' (M. Mead). I like this one: 'change will not come if we wait for some other person, or if we wait for some other time. We are the ones we've been waiting for. We are the change that we seek' (B. Obama); 'and that is how change happens. One gesture. One person. One moment at a time' (L. Bray). 'We are taught you must blame your father, your sisters, your brothers, the school, the teachers - but never yourself. It's never your fault. But it's always your fault, because if you wanted change you're the one who has got to change' (K. Hepburn); 'I alone cannot change the world, but I can cast a stone across the waters to create many ripples' (Mother Theresa).

I suspect that the Nigerians clamouring for change expect someone to come and change other Nigerians so they can continue to cheat and fleece them. Few Nigerians are ready to forsake the illegal perks they are receiving from their offices: misuse of office properties, funds, personnel, and misapplication of office rules and etiquettes, etc. People are not ready to give up their own corruption; but they expect someone to come and make every other Nigerian give up their rights to be corrupt. How realistic is that? So, I look at my PVC in my hands, and wonder what it is worth: promise of transmutation, or change that I'm expecting? I can't decide, so I pocket it.

THE NATION ON SUNDAY, JANUARY 11, 2015

COMMENT

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(98) After the deluge: beyond corruption and regional realignment of forces in a post-PDP Nigeria (2) My generation has failed... we are gone. We are a spent force.

President Jonathan, at the launching of his reelection campaign in Lagos

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ARADOXICALLY, the most eloquent testimony so far in giving an indication that we are very close to a post-PDP Nigeria came from no other person than President Goodluck Jonathan himself at the flag off for his reelection campaign in Lagos this past Wednesday. It is a universal phenomenon for all incumbent administrations in liberal democratic countries to be defensive in reelection bids, especially where such administrations - like that of Jonathan - have performed abysmally poorly. But at the launching of his campaign this past week, Jonathan went far beyond this norm. He was not only defensive, but he was pretty close to being defeatist; moreover, he gave a clear, unambiguous indication that the source of his defeat is not Buhari and the APC but nothing less than history itself. How did he, how could he make such a devastatingly negative summation of his political legacy at a rally to launch his reelection campaign? Let me explain.

Jonathan started his speech at the event by apologizing to government workers and contractors who have not been paid their salaries, wages or due recompense for work done. But he quickly went beyond this defensiveness and both in tone and substance he began to sound as if he was not only battling Buhari and the APC but against all past administrations before his own. He asked his audience at the event as well as the whole nation to ask all his predecessors what they had done with the nation's wealth. On corruption he stated emphatically that if all the past governments we have had in Nigeria had played their parts in fighting corruption it would not have heightened beyond control today. It is of course very strange for an incumbent President to admit that corruption has gone beyond control in his time in office; far worse is it for the same President to declare that the failure was not only his own but, collectively, that of all past administrations and, indeed, his whole generation.

Thus, while the Chief Host at the event, Dr. Segun Mimiko, described Jonathan as "the most abused and negatively profiled President in the history of this country", the "oga patapata" himself made the declaration that serves as the epigraph for this piece about not only himself but his generation: "My generation has failed… we are gone. We are a spent force".

It would of course be erroneous and misleading for me to give the impression that Jonathan at that launching of his campaign more or less conceded defeat by Buhari and the APC. Nothing could be further from the facts, the truth than such an observation, such a claim. Indeed, the essential point of my comments on what transpired at the PDP rally in Lagos this past Wednesday is to highlight the fact that Jonathan included Buhari, APC, Obasanjo and all past administrations

•Obasanjo

•Shagari

•Buhari

•Babangida

•Shonekan

•Abacha

•Yar’Adua

•Jonathan

course the day of reckoning will be delayed yet again. In this series, I take the position that that day of reckoning, that new space of political discourse and possibility is at hand and we must prepare ourselves for it.

In last week's opening essay in this series, I identified two factors as the twin pivots around which the defeat of Jonathan and the PDP in the coming elections revolve. These are, respectively, corruption and the coalition of mainstream politicians of the "core" North and the Southwest as the dominant formation within APC. In this concluding piece, I now add that these are expedient but not sufficient indices of a true post-PDP political order in our country; expediency, I am urging, is not the same thing as sufficiency. This is because neither the war on corruption nor a realignment of forces among our political elites, nor indeed a combination of the two factors will produce a political order that will clean up the colossal rot and end the great suffering and insecurity for millions of our peoples that the PDP has left as its political legacy for any successor government, any new ruling party in our country. Thus, the fundamental question is or will be the sort of capitalist or bourgeois democracy that comes into being in a postPDP Nigeria. To put this in very blunt terms, the question is whether a postPDP Nigeria will still be a pseudobourgeois, "agbero" or "area boy" capitalism with its thieves' headquarters

at Aso Rock or a people's progressive capitalist democracy. How do the twin factors of corruption and the realignment of forces that will be at the centre of the coming elections relate to this fundamental question?

Concerning corruption, there is a joke making the rounds of elite political circles in the country at the present time that is very pertinent to the subject of our discussion in this piece. Here it is: at the very earliest indication that Jonathan and the PDP are losing the presidential contest, say a few hours into the vote count, many private jets will fly out of the country as the kleptocrats and "lootocrats" close to Jonathan and the PDP flee the country in terror of the punitive measures they expect from Buhari. To this, I add the following questions: What of the kleptocrats and "lootocrats" close to the APC and the other ruling class parties, will they also take off in their private jets or will they feel secure in the knowledge that only miscreants and felons close to the PDP will face the day of reckoning? Will the war on corruption extend to a much needed project to end the monumental waste and squandermania that are endemic to virtually all our ruling class political parties, state governments, National Assembly men and women, local government bureaucrats and their hundreds of thousands of cronies and supplicants? Will the privatization of national and public utilities and assets that are no more than another form of

•Abdulsalami

•“All failures?”

in our country in the monumental failure that he admitted and bemoaned. In essence then, what Jonathan was saying amounts to a declaration that both he and Buhari, both the PDP and the APC, and both his administration and all past governments in our country put together are failures.

At this point, I take note here and draw the reader's attention to the fact that Jonathan in his speech at that rally again and again compared himself to Buhari and logically, he presented his opponent as a worse failure himself, as indeed a previous ruler of the country unfit for being returned to the seat of power. That is the voice, the promptings of candidate Jonathan who wants to win at all costs and come what may. But we must, I urge, pay attention to the weight of historical and political contradictions bearing down on Jonathan as "the most abused and negatively profiled President in the history of this country", as Mimiko put it. Thus, the essential point I am making here is that almost against his own conscious aspirations and desires, Jonathan at the rally to launch his reelection campaign gave more than a mere hint of a subconscious intimation, an involuntary presentiment that we are on the cusp of a political space, an order of governance that is post-PDP. If the PDP loses the coming elections - as it should and probably will - then we will be plunged into that new political space very soon.

But if the PDP rigs itself into perpetuation of its admitted "failure" then of

looting since they do not conduce to functioning capitalist enterprises continue or will a post-PDP administration undertake a massive review and revision of the privatization bonanza for the rich and the powerful of the land? And finally: corruption has many faces and wears many masks that hide its gaping wound on the body politick: will a post-PDP dispensation strip away the masks and get to the beating, pumping heart of the nation and its millions of looted lives or will it be business as usual with a mere change of the cast of characters?

The coalition of big political forces of the "core" North and the Southwest that is the dominant formation within the APC presents an even more complex factor in any preliminary projections into the political order of a postPDP Nigeria. The popular view, the common assumption is that this is largely a Hausa/Fulani/Kanuri and Yoruba alliance to which politicians of the other zonal and ethnic groups of the country are very important and very volatile supplements. While this is not an entirely factitious view, it is nonetheless a massively oversimplified perspective on the politics of a post-PDP Nigeria. Nigeria is not different from virtually all the other multiethnic and multicultural democratic countries of the world in which any political plurality that confers hegemonic domination on a ruling party is usually necessarily based on alliances like the one that produced the APC. But what is lacking in the dominant political discourses in Nigeria is the recognition that in all the coalitions and alliances that produce ruling parties in the bourgeois democracies of the world, politicians not only represent their zonal, ethnic and religious groups but also their class interests, especially as these are based on the forces and means of production from which their wealth and power are derived.

Perhaps the most concrete way to express this is to pose the question as to whether the terms "centrist", "centerright" or "centre-left" can be applied to the APC in particular and, more generally, the political order that will supplant the reign of the PDP. The answer is of course yes, a resounding yes. But the question is not being asked now, as we approach February 14, 2015. But it will be asked thereafter, no question about it, that is if the coming elections move us to a truly post-PDP Nigeria.

Beyond the "corruption sublime" of the PDP era, and beyond the return of power or the presidency to the North, the fundamental question of redistributive justice for all our peoples will be raised; and it will be raised in a manner that was not possible when we were all so completely absorbed during the reign of the PDP by the social, moral and spiritual ravages of corruption. In other words, if and when corruption becomes reduced to a scale not higher or worse than we find in most countries of the African continent and the world, we will then face the real challenges and problems of producing a 21st century capitalist democracy that is either functional and bourgeois or social-democratic and popular or perhaps even a brand new combination of these two archetypal forms.

Biodun Jeyifo bjeyifo@fas.harvard.edu

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THE NATION ON SUNDAY, JANUARY 11, 2015

COMMENT

sms only: 08116759748

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F we categorise them by advanced age and exalted positions in which they served their country, Nigeria's elderstatesmen are a very small tribe.

Those who make the sort of statements that have provoked President Goodluck Jonathan to make his now famous jibe belong to an even smaller tribe of one: Olusegun Obasanjo.

Just as the president was warming up to kick off his election campaign, the pesky old man summoned a conclave at his Abeokuta hill top redoubt with leaders of market women from across the land. You didn't need to be a seer to know that he wasn't about to lecture the women on Keynesian economics.

It turns out that those who feared the worst had reason to do so.

Obasanjo didn't disappoint in his latest bid to torpedo MV GEJ 2015.

He accused the incumbent of squandering billions of dollars painstakingly built up in the Excess Crude Account (ECA) by his predecessors. The summary of the day out with the traders was that squandermania mixed with managerial incompetence had brought Nigeria to her current sorry economic pass.

It was hardly the sort of testimonial with which PDP wanted to go into battle. Aso Villa went into firefighting mode. First, Minister of Finance, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, offered a restrained rebuttal - leaving the brutal bit to the president himself.

In a moment of uncommon transformation, mild and meek old Jonathan was changed into a fireeating combatant who declared: "Some people call themselves statesmen but they are not statesmen; they are just ordinary politicians. For you to be a statesman is not because you have occupied a big office before but the question is what are you bringing to bear? Are you building

E-mail: festus.eriye@gmail.com Twitter: @EriyeFestus

Statesmen, motorpark touts and pickpockets

•Jonathan

•Obasanjo

•Abdullahi

this country? Or are you a part of people who tell lies to destroy this country?"

"Making provocative statements in this country, statements that will set this country ablaze and you tell me you are a senior citizen. You are not a senior citizen you can never be; you are ordinary motorpark tout."

Although Jonathan didn't mention names, the media decided there were enough hints in the soundbite to conclude the salvo was aimed at Obasanjo's doorstep. There's also the Yoruba proverb that says "an owl (witch) cries in the night and a child dies in the morning: who doesn't know that it is the witch that killed the child."

The problem with the president's angry swipe at his elderly critics is

that his failure to name names left the statement broad enough for anyone who sees himself as falling into that category to be offended. Not only that, hurling insults at others leaves you open to a sucker punch from those with the capacity to improve on whatever you have dished out.

So, quick as a flash the Alhaji Maitama Sule-led Northern Elders' Forum (NEF) hit back with choice commentary of its own. Group spokesman, Prof. Ango Abdullahi, called out Jonathan for being abusive towards elders who fought for the unity of Nigeria.

He said: "President Jonathan should know that in a motorpark, there are touts and there are pickpockets, so if some past leaders are touts, some sitting leaders are pick-

pockets and thieves. So, you have to make your pick from that." Ouch!

I agree that being at the receiving end of an unending stream of flak cannot be fun. Still, describing prominent but voluble old men as 'motor park touts' just because they gave a less-than-flattering assessment of your performance is a disaster on any given day.

If the barb was aimed at Obasanjo then it missed him and landed in the 'overreaction hall of fame.' For one thing the former head of state in his meeting with the market leaders didn't use foul language. His critique was cutting but he went out of his way to be civil - even saying that he didn't have anything personal against Jonathan.

In our environment, and I dare say

in many African societies, scolding elders in such coarse manner is unacceptable - and that is putting it mildly. Jonathan might be the occupant of the most exalted office in the land but it isn't licence to speak that way to people who may be nearly 20 years older than him, and who were even once his benefactors.

Indeed, the high office he holds demands a certain kind of behavior.

A president is expected to project dignity, poise and calm in his public interactions. He is the captain of the ship and in the midst of a storm when all around him are flustered and losing their cool, no one should know he's sweating.

Jonathan lowered the dignity of the office of president with his crude insults. By so doing he invited the offended to dish out even more gross invectives in reply. He is entitled to be angry but presidents don't get their hands dirty saying such things. That is why they have attack dogs. For him to have to have done the dirty job himself is further evidence that Jonathan is beginning to show the strain.

Embarrassingly, the 'motor park touts' episode came shortly after the same president asked his campaign team not to insult his opponents. But I guess it is tough practicing what you preach when there's fire raging on all sides of the mountain.

All the same I ask myself when hurling abuse became electoral strategy. The president and his supporters seem content with just insulting their interlocutors. At this point in the game voting intentions are already set for the vast majority.

Between 10 and 20 percent of the electorate might still be undecided.

How does a volley of silly little insults convince them to vote for you? Insults are not going to win you friends; conviction would do it. I suspect, however, that those who have chosen to go negative don't really 'give a damn anymore.'

Making a MEND

Why does Jonathan want four more years?

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IKE many others who looked forward to hearing why Jonathan wants four more years in office, I was surprised he blithely threw away the opportunity to make his case when the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) kicked off its presidential campaign in Lagos on Thursday.

Much has already been said about his lack of composure and how agitated he looked. He had barely got going when he inserted his foot in his mouth by declaring that he and his generation were old, expired failures - effectively ruling himself out as an option.

Rather than explain to the watching world what he would do with another term that he could not accomplish in the almost six years he's been in office, he spent the bulk of his time trying to demonise Buhari.

Anyone watching would have thought the former head of state was the incumbent and the president the challenger.

At his next campaign stop in Enugu, he reached into the archives for the speech made by General Ibrahim Babangida to justify the overthrow of Buhari. He proceeded to read through the list of the exmilitary ruler's cabinet pointing out that it had no woman. He then asked rhetorically whether this was the sort of person Nigerians wanted to hand the country to.

I agree that if we are to put the

president's performance under scrutiny, Buhari's record in office must also come under the spotlight. But such an examination is only relevant to the extent that it tells us something about the man's character and his ability to do the job he seeks. It would have been especially relevant if Jonathan was not running and the two contenders were outsiders without any incumbency burden or record to defend.

However, this election is about much more than that. Though some would love to see it cast in those terms, it is NOT about Buhari's past. It is a referendum on what Jonathan has done with power in his initial term. What candidates have done is usually the platform for seeking another term. That is why people should be asking themselves: Is my life better than it was four years ago? Given what I have seen can I endure another four years with this man in charge?

Those questions are not going to be answered by merely demonizing Buhari. The president and his team should ask themselves why in spite of their best efforts to cast the former head of state as a devil with two horns, his popularity isn't waning.

Many frustrated Nigerians have reached the point where they are saying 'Anyone but Jonathan.' They are not hearing anything new from the man who wants four more years.

Four days before Jonathan came to Lagos, Boko Haram stormed the Nigerian town of Baga and razed it.

Several other towns and villages suffered a similar fate. It is projected that as many as 2,000 people may have been killed in what Amnesty International is calling Nigeria's worst massacre.

Many are still waiting to hear the president say what he would do differently to end the insurgency. They are waiting to hear when the Chibok girls would return. They want to hear about job creation initiatives; they are anxious to know what the plan is to cushion impending shocks arising from crashing crude oil price. And they are hearing nothing! Instead we are being assaulted with one long whine about how his predecessors did nothing.

The president spent his time playing the victim and being angry that the only one who can see the 'great' work he has done is himself. And there's the rub! A while back, disturbed at unrelenting criticism of his administration, he once declared that his team would no longer depend on the media to rate it. They would henceforth assess themselves internally.

The trouble with that is we all look handsome when we peer in the mirror.

The next person's assessment of our looks might be radically different.

Jonathan fails to realize that it is the job of ordinary citizens, the electorate, to assess him. It is not in his place to do so.

We do the rating and decide whether he deserves another four years. Until he realizes that he would be giving himself serious heartburn.

But if he cannot make a compelling case for his second term, there are more than a few loyal party men eagerly waiting to do so. Take the unlikely example of the PDP gubernatorial candidate in Lagos State, Jimi Agbaje. A report in The Punch quoted him as warning that the South-South zone would shut down the economy if Jonathan wasn't reelected. The PDP governorship candidate reportedly said this at meeting in London organised by his supporters and the UK chapter of the PDP. That Agbaje hasn't refuted the assertion is shocking. How can any democrat attempt to push a candidate on the basis of blackmail and threats?

Democracy is about the freedom of a people to choose their leaders in an atmosphere devoid of intimidation.

We can't be browbeaten into voting for someone just because gunmen are going to attack the nation's economic interests. That would no longer be a democracy but a thug-o-cracy.

Lest we forget, the Nigerian constitution only makes provision for individuals to run for two terms of four years each in the executive branch - and not an eight year stretch. The allocation is to persons and not their zones or regions. Political parties in their internal arrangements may opt to keep positions in certain areas but whoever they choose still has to make a case for us to reject or endorse. Make your case Mr. President.

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ITHERTO comatose, the shadowy Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) has resurrected and landed feet first in the 2015 campaigns. In Lagos, Jonathan disclosed that the militant group twice tried to assassinate him.

The group's notoriety scaled new heights October 1, 2010 when its agents were implicated in bomb blasts that rocked Abuja. MEND took responsibility for the incident which claimed 16 lives. But surprisingly a day after President Jonathan said the government knew the persons who masterminded the bomb blasts, and that they were terrorists and NOT (MEND) as was widely speculated.

Speaking at a colloquim organised by the ECOWAS Parliament he said: "We know the persons behind the terrorist attacks on the nation. We know they used an organisation that operates in the Niger Delta called MEND as a front, but we are aware that MEND is not a terrorist organisation."

Fast forward four years and the same MEND that is 'not a terrorist organisation' endorses Buhari for president and all hell breaks loose.

Whatever happened to the clean bill of health given to the organization in 2010? Or is this another case of selective amnesia?

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LIFE

SUNDAY

THE NATION ON SUNDAY, JANUARY 11, 2015

HOUSEMAID HORRORS

A working mother’s worst fear

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•Tumuhiirwe, assaulting little Arnella

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•Little Arnella

D th b

•Continued on Page 21

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SUNDAY LIFE 21

Dr. Leonard Okonkwo, a clinical psychologist and hypnotherapist with the Lagos State university Teaching Hospital, Ikeja, explains the reasons behind some horrific housemaid behaviours.

•Okonkwo

•Continued on Page 26

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•Continued on Page 23

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•Continued from Page 22

SUNDAY LIFE

•The happy couple

PHOTOS: Taiwo Abiodun

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• Young skaters at the National Stadium, Lagos

•Continued on Page 25

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SUNDAY LIFE 25

Spraying: When cash becomes carpet • Young skaters at the National Stadium, Lagos

•Continued from Page 24

•Continued from Page 24

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•Continued from Page 21

•File picture of a model

•Continued from Page 21

And thirdly, try as much as possible to be nice to them. Every human being is a child of someone else, so don't be nasty, because that could also be a precipitant to some of these behaviours.

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30 GLAMOUR

ADETUTU AUDU

crownkool@yahoo.com

08023849036, 08112662587

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Akeen Shodeinde changes gear

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GLAMOUR/OUT & ABOUT

Glorious day for Squadron Leader Abraham Funshoako

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T was a day of Glory for Squadron Leader Abraham Funsho Funshoako when he said "yes, I do" to his lovely Patience Oboh Peters at Our lady of Apostle Catholic Church on Independence Way, Kaduna. After the glorious solemnization, the wedding train moved to Zamani College Hall, Junior section, G.R.A, Kaduna for a sumptuous reception. Gen. David Jemibewon was the chairman of the occasion. Among those who graced the event were Air Marshal G.B Olukole, Wing Commander Sodeyi, Col. and Mrs. Bako Enebi, former deputy governor of Kaduna State, PHOTOS: OLUSEGUN RAPHEAL Mrs. Pamela Sadauki.

•Couple with Air Force officers

•Bride's parent; Mr. and Mrs. Johnson Oboh Peters

• Groom's parent; Mr. and Mrs. Funshoako

•L-R. Air Marshal G.B Olukole and Wing Commander Sodeyi

•Former deputy governor of Kaduna State, Mrs. Pamela Sadauki and chairman of the occasion, Maj. General Jemibewon (retd)

• Couple: Squadron Leader Abraham Funsho Funshoako with his wife, Patience

• Col. and Mrs. Bako Enebi

The Nation’s Sam Egburonu turns 50

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HE Nation's Associate Editor, Samuel Egburonu, clocked 50 on December 24, 2014. The Golden cake was cut at the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG), House of David Parish, Matogun, where friends and well wishers joined his family for a special thanksgiving service.

•(Up) The celebrant, Samuel Egburonu and wife, Chinyere, cutting the Golden cake.

(Right), (It's a family's joint task) Back row (L-R); Sam, Chinyere, Esther (Ijeoma) and Victor (Ogbonna). (Front row, L-R) Emmanuel (Thompson) and Wisdom (Udochukwu)

•Worship time: (L-R) Guest minister, Pastor Akinyemi Akinmusire; Pastor Samuel Egburonu and wife, Deaconess Chinyere Samuel-Egburonu

•Some friends and colleagues joined the Egburonus at the colourful event. With them here are (L-R) Mrs. Mgboo Austin, Adetutu Audu of The Nation, (Carrying Adedaramola); Engr.

Okechukwu Mba of FrieslandCampina Wamco Plc (carrying Esther Samuel-Egburonu) and Tunde Abatan, the Chief Press Secretary to the Deputy Governor of Lagos State, who supervised the cutting of the cake.

•With some Pastors in attendance (L-R) Pastor Rotimi Adebanjo (Zonal Pastor), his wife Pastor (Mrs.) Adebanjo, Sam and Chinyere, the Guest Minister, Pastor Akinyemi Akinmusire, his wife, Pastor (Mrs.) Olabisi Funmilayo Akinmusire and Pastor Sanya Oni, the Opinion Page Editor of The Nation newspapers.

•Some of the Good Women of RCCG, House of David also witnessed the cutting of the cake

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IN VOGUE

By Kehinde Oluleye

Tel: 08023689894 (sms) E-mail: kehinde.oluleye@thenationonlineng.net

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New WOMAN

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PILLOWTALK YETUNDE OLADEINDE molaralife@yahoo.com

Fate of untrusting climber

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PURSUE YOUR DESTINY (XI)

“

We have seen the lord's goodness, his mercies and compassion, we have seen the lord's goodness, hallelujah, praise the lord. Oh lord, you have been so good, you are so good to us, oh lord, you are excellent in our lives every day. Oh lord, you have been so good, you are so good to us, oh lord you are excellent in our lives!”

My darling sisters and every fan of this column whose life is about to change forever, As we sing the above song joyfully seven times, every good thing we've ever lost, will come rushing back to us 7fold in Jesus name. AMEN! I am most delighted to be with you again today and thank God for our lives because right from today we shall all be congratulated for one thing or the other in Jesus name. AMEN! I welcome you all to school on Sunday. We've had ten great weeks of discussing how to pursue our destiny and have our “original” manifest. You'd recall we've discussed, so far, three main topics which are keys to unlocking the mysteries of our lives, getting God on our side and hearing from Him. They are as follows: 1. Separate yourself 2. Alone with God 3. Fear of God I pray with all my heart that we shall all turn out well and shine like the sun out of a clear azure sky. AMEN! Today we shall be discussing another key which is Spiritual Intelligence.

Spiritual Intelligence Everything about our existence on earth comes from the super-natural and there is so much more about us and the power of the spirituality inherent within us is capable of making us avoid getting hurt in our journey through life or if unavoidable, getting out of it as quick as possible. It must be noted that because our very source is super-natural, a lot of things that happen to us in the physical had already been established in the super-natural realm. This means for us to enjoy life, we need to have a grip on our spirituality as this may be the only and in fact the strongest means of manifesting our original destiny.

Unfortunately, at a very young age, too many people in the world and in the grave-yard had their glorious destinies re-constructed and satanically diverted out of sheer ignorance. Intelligence is to use what you know in the right way at the right time in the right place with the

right intention.

Spiritual intelligence would then include how God works in us, through us and our ability to recognise how we can tap into a greater power for energy to coast through life. Your spirituality is your connection/deep relationship with God without which you will be groping in darkness and life will be a dark abyss full of unending trouble.

You will agree with me that the world is too complex and intricate to live in without a thorough understanding of our source and a high spiritual connectivity. In our journey through life, we often encounter very terrible situations which money cannot solve, which no other human can solve and which more often than not makes us wish we were never born. Some of these vicissitudes could push us out of the path God wants us to be and totally derail us. In such cases, for us to get out unscathed, we have to depend on a higher power which we believe is our source. Our spiritual intelligence, if well developed, gives us a clearer picture of what has befallen us and our fate. It helps us to discern how to manage the situation and in fact reveals to us how to get out of it. It also strengthens us to make the most of the ugly situation and if we are deep and patient enough, it teaches us how to make a gold mine out of it and live the best life we never even imagined we could experience.

No matter how learned you think you are, or how wealthy you are enough to rule the world, if you are not spiritually intelligent, the spirituality of that man who cannot even afford a three-square meal could ruin you forever and reduce you to nothing. No wonder the great warrior in the Holy Bible, King David, said, “I have more understanding than all my teachers: for thy testimonies are my meditation.” Psalm 119:99 He believed in God as his source and his ultimate power, though he erred a

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good number of times and got punished, he depended solely on God and followed His precepts. He communed with God day and night and depended on Him absolutely to succeed in his journey. He not only won his battles, the Holy Bible recorded him to be a man after God's heart: that is God loved him a great deal. He had a deep understanding of God such that even when he had to be punished by God, he took it in his stride and would never cut off from God. His meditation of God's instructions was his greatest power. He knew by so doing, he was feeding on God Himself.

Now if you constantly feed on your source, who or what can rule your world or drive your destiny? No one but you!

Girls, please pay attention to these articles. The whole world lies in wickedness and the battles you have to fight are commensurate with your star.

There are too many who lost the battle.

Do you know you could be destined to be the world's no. 1 youth soon? Your star must shine! May God visit your life this week with signs and wonders.

To be continued.

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OR more inspiring articles and prayers against sexual perversion (masturbation, lesbianism, addiction to pornography and immoral thoughts etc.) please visit my blog www.temiloluokeowo.wordpres s.com

For our sisters in captivity

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HE voice of God that shaketh the wilderness of Kadesh and discovereth the forests, roar at the enemies of Nigeria and release the captives of Sambisa forest in Jesus name. Amen.

FINAL WORD

HASTITY does not belong to the past. It saves you a lot of trouble, preserves your beautiful destiny and stands you out from the crowd.

You are better off not engaging in pre-marital sex. Stay chaste!

Miss Temilolu O.Okeowo is the founder of Girls Club of Nigeria, an NGO for girls of secondary school age aimed at influencing a positive change. She published her debut-book for girls - THE BEAUTY OF LIFE - as an undergraduate and has other books and publications. She was called to the Nigerian Bar in 2003 and is a Certified Forensics Examiner.

magine you are 20 ft. up in the air, climbing a wall with nothing keeping you from falling except a harness, rope and your climbing partner who is down there holding that rope. The first thing that comes to mind is how sturdy is this rope that is holding me up and the next thing that comes to mind is if your partner would prevent you from falling.

It is, therefore, up to your partner to pay attention to what you are doing and to adjust the rope accordingly. It is also up to you, the climber, to trust that you will be eased gently down the wall to the ground when you have reached the top. The crux of the matter is that a distracted partner could mean not only a bumpy ride down the wall, but also your safety in jeopardy. At the same time, an untrusting climber could hang indefinitely on the wall, refusing to move.

It is literally a leap of faith when you let go of the holds and allow yourself to be lowered down. Just like in the love relationship, the climber and partner must work together, stay present, and communicate clearly so that the climbing experience will be enjoyable, so that none of the parties concerned ends up in a casualty ward. So it goes with intimate relationships. It is not uncommon for one or both people to feel vulnerable and wonder whether or not the other person will be there when needed.

Pamela had been in three different relations in three years and they all crumbled living bitter memories behind.

At a point, she made up her mind not to entrust her heart with anyone again. However, her parents kept on bothering her about the need to settle down because they believed that age was no longer on her side. It got to a point when she just had to have a change of mind and give another heart a chance.

Shortly afterwards, she found a heart that was as sober as hers and gradually they began the emotional journey and discovering the better sides of each other. It was great fun and she thanked God for giving her the opportunity to have a rethink about heart matters. Everything worked as planned and in a short while they got married. The first two years was like a miracle and everyone admired this lucky twosome.

However by the third year, Pamela began to notice some gaps and the worse was that her Romeo thrived on lies.

Almost everything he had told her in the past were lies; he continued to tell more lies and there were times when she could not tell what was true and fake in the things he did or say. This, she discovered, was a disaster. How do you continue to forge ahead in a relationship with a full time liar?

The decision to opt out was also very tough. Where was she going to begin from and anything she said against him would be backed up with lies that would entangle and destroy everything she had built? Building trust in a relationship is the best thing to do but sometimes this can be very difficult. A lot of people think they know how to go about their relationships, but most times it doesn't work as planned. Building trust is a very important part of a relationship, and without it relationships can be very stressful.

Unfortunately, trust is often taken for granted when it comes to intimate relationships. After taking the emotional leap, lovebirds come to the realisation that things are not going the way they wanted or dreamt romantically about. We usually trust or don't trust that the agreements we've made with one another will be kept.

These may include staying faithful to one another, continuing to deepen your connection, or “being there” for each other no matter what, among other possible agreements.

Interestingly, when we really look at the day to day lives we lead with our partner, the big question we need to ask ourselves is if there is really a strong sense of trust?

Weaknesses in trust can range from intense to more subtle.

Even when there is no real evidence to indicate it, many still worry about their partner cheating on them from time to time.

Creating trust and intimacy with your partner is very important if you want it to be successful. Almost every one of us has had a past relationship that left us feeling wary of loving or trusting anyone again. Tune into your current situation and allow yourself to move on from those old hurts. This may require acknowledging the ways that the past comes up for you in the present.

Sometimes we hide habits, tendencies, even desires that are important to us because we don't trust that our partner will approve of them. We undercut intimacy by keeping this barrier up to hide what we think won't be loved. In effect, we don't feel lovable as our true selves. Make it a goal to appreciate yourself - “warts” and all - and then allow every part of you to be seen by your partner.

Chances are your love will be more accepting than you think.

THE NATION ON SUNDAY, JANUARY 11, 2015

•Jonathan

-- Page 53

‘Nigeria needs a credit-based economy’

Drainpipes in 2015 budget Page 60, 61 •Onalo

Page 62

59

•Nwagwu

‘We have total commitment to Nigeria’s industrial growth’ Page 63

Group lauds $84m Nigeria’s stocks suffers compensation deal for worst fall ahead of polls Niger Delta oil spill •As Goldman Sachs' former boss says Jonathan's loss will T boost foreign investment A HE nation's stocks experienced the worst shock in the world at the weekend as investors spurned Africa's largest crude producer with political tensions rising five weeks before a key vote and as oil prices continued to slide. This is coming just as Jim O'Neill, former chairman of Goldman Sachs Asset Management projected that President Goodluck Jonathan's loss in next month's polls will be a boost to foreign investment.

The Nigerian Stock Exchange All Share Index fell 0.9 percent by the close to extend its five-day decline to 13 percent (NGSEINDX), the most among 93 global indexes tracked by Bloomberg.

The naira depreciated 1.4 percent to 181.50 per dollar and Brent crude dropped to $50.40 a barrel for a weekly retreat of 11 percent.

The 55 percent decline since the end of June in crude, Nigeria's biggest export, uncertainty over the outcome of the Feb. 14 election and rising attacks by Islamist militants are pushing investors out of Africa's biggest economy. President Goodluck Jonathan and the ruling People's Democratic Party are facing a challenge from a merger of Nigeria's biggest opposition parties, the All Progressives Congress.

"The risks around Nigeria have increased," Joseph Rohm, a fund manager who helps oversee Investec Asset Management's $2 billion Africa fund, said by phone from Cape Town. "It's a combination of uncertainty ahead of the elec-

By Ibrahim Apekhade Yusuf with agency report

tion, increased violence in the northeast driven by Boko Haram, and a collapse in oil prices."

According to O'Neill, a loss by Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan in general elections next month may be viewed "positively" by foreign investors and probably won't rattle markets.

While Jonathan, 57, has presided over the sale of the nation's mismanaged power utilities to private investors, his economic policies in the last four years "could have been better," O'Neill said in an interview in the capital, Abuja. Firing central bank Governor Lamido Sanusi last year, who brought "a lot of credibility" to the government, sent out a negative signal, he said.

"If he doesn't get re-elected, and it's because of Nigerian people wanting something different and something better, I think the markets would be happy with that," said O'Neill.

"Foreign investors are pretty negative about Nigeria, so I don't dismiss the possibility that if he lost people actually might react positively."

O'Neill ranks Nigeria, Africa's biggest oil producer, alongside Mexico, Indonesia and Turkey in his MINT group.

The countries have four of the largest emerging-market populations outside the BRIC nations

of Brazil, Russia, India and China, an acronym he coined at Goldman.

Jonathan will slug it out with former military ruler Muhammadu Buhari, 72, a Muslim northerner and candidate of the opposition All Progressives Congress in the Feb. 14 vote.

The ruling People's Democratic Party, which has won every contest since army rule ended in 1999, faces its stiffest challenge against the APC, a merger of Nigeria's biggest opposition parties. Africa's most populous nation of more than 170 million people is split between a mainly Muslim north and predominantly Christian south.

It isn't clear what a Buhari victory would mean for investors because he hasn't set out an economic policy, O'Neill said.

"People would be a bit worried," said O'Neill, who is also a Bloomberg View columnist. "But it depends on what would happen with the institutional framework and policies."

Buhari, characterised by supporters as having a tough stance against corruption, came to power in a 1983 army coup and ruled for 20 months before he was unseated by a rival military faction. Buhari lost the 2011 presidential vote to Jonathan and failed to win in 2007 and 2003 elections.

The status of Africa's largest economy as a prime fron-

tier-market investment destination has been dented by oil prices that have fallen 52 percent over the past year, rising insurgency attacks in the country's northeast and increasing political tensions ahead of next month's elections.

Jonathan also removed central bank Governor Sanusi in February last year after Sanusi alleged the state oil company hadn't remitted about $20 billion in revenue to the government. The Nigerian National Petroleum Corp. denied the allegations.

Finance Minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala said in May auditors would take three to four months to clarify what had happened to the unaccounted oil receipts that stood at $10.8 billion.

With crude accounting for about 70 percent of government funding and 95 percent of foreign exchange, lower prices have reduced revenue and increased pressure on the naira, which the central bank devalued in November. The naira has fallen 10 percent in the past three months, the second worst performer out of 24 African currencies tracked

by Bloomberg.

The lower oil price "exposes the lack of needed structural changes, that hopefully would still come," O'Neill said. "Nigeria, like any country, shouldn't be so dependent on the commodity cycle."

GROUP under the aegis of the Youths Aids Awareness Network, (YAAN), a nongovernmental, non-profit organisation has described as heartwarming the plan by the oil giant Royal Dutch Shell to pay $84 million (£55m) settlement to residents of the Bodo community in the Niger Delta for two oil spills.

Ina statement issued on behalf of the group, its Coordinator, Abdullahi Inapeh, said, it was a move in the right direction.

According to him, "It is a victory for justice. The blighted community of Bodo which suffered a lot of privations in the hands of the oil giant owing to the despoliation of their ecosystem by the multinational can now heave a sigh of relief that indeed justice has finally come after such a torturous agony."

It would be recalled that lawyers for 15,600 Nigerian fishermen said their clients will receive $3,300 each for losses caused by the spills.

The remaining $30 million will be left for the community, which law firm Leigh Day says was "devastated by the two massive oil spills in 2008 and 2009".

The settlement was announced by the Anglo-Dutch oil giant's Nigerian subsidiary SPDC. "From the outset, we've accepted responsibility for the two deeply regrettable operational spills in Bodo," its managing director Mutiu Sunmonu said.

Shell says that both spills were caused by operational failure of the pipelines.

However, the company maintains that the extent of environmental pollution in the area is caused by "the scourge of oil theft and illegal refining".

It also suggested that earlier settlement efforts had been hampered "by divisions within the community".

"SPDC has made efforts to raise awareness of the issue with the government of Nigeria, international bodies like the United Nations, the media, civil society and international nongovernmental organisations (NGOs), and we will continue to play an active role in the search for solutions.

"We urge all those with influence, including Bodo community leaders and NGO groups, to support this effort."

The deal, which ends a three-year legal battle, is the first of its kind in Nigeria, it added.

An Amnesty International report into the effects of the oil spills in Bodo, a town in the Ogoniland region, said that the spills had caused headaches and eyesight problems.

The two spills came from the same pipe on the Trans Niger Pipeline, operated by Shell, which takes oil from its fields to the export terminal at Bonny on the coast. It carries about 180,000 barrels of oil per day.

Africa.com named global partners for Harvard Business School

A

•From left: Group Managing Director/CEO, Zenith Bank Plc, Mr. Peter Amangbo, Group Managing Director/CEO, Ecobank Nigeria, Mr. Jubril Aku, Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria, Mr. Godwin Emefiele and President/Chairman of Council, Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria ( CIBN) Mrs. Debola Osibogun at the CIBN 48th annual dinner held in Lagos…recently

FRICA.COM is set to receive a team of students from Harvard Business School this week. The team of six students will be in Johannesburg for a week as part of a required first-year course at Harvard Business School called FIELD, which stands for Field Immersion Experiences for Leadership Development. Africa.com is one of 156 FIELD Global Partners spanning 13 countries around the world. Together they will host more than 930 students in all.

"We are pleased to be working with Harvard Business School to provide students with a real-world learning experience in South Africa." said Teresa Clarke, Chairman and CEO. "We feel certain that the students will gather insights here that they would never be able to glean from a classroom discussion alone."

FIELD has three modules that run through the entire first year of the two- year MBA programme. The first module focuses on developing individual leadership skills through team feedback and self-reflection. The second focuses on developing global intelligence by immersing them in a foreign country to develop a new product or service in country for their Global Partner organisation. The final module brings all the lessons together by challenging students to develop and launch their own microbusiness as part of a small team back in Boston.

Africa.com executives have been working with the team remotely in the months leading up to their arrival in South Africa.

While in the country, they will pitch their ideas to the leadership team, conduct field research with consumers around Johannesburg and present their final recommendations to management.

60

T

THE NATION ON SUNDAY JANUARY 11, 2015

BUSINESS

HE 2015 budget is in clear dissonance with the current economic realities assailing the country. That much, many economic and financial pundits have said.

Reason: despite the orchestrated austerity and other belttightening measures announced by the federal government, what the budget proposal show is clearly at variance with the socalled measures announced by the federal government, thus fuelling fears that there is no sincerity of purpose on the part of government after all.

Crux of the matter In the 2015 budgetary proposals, President Goodluck Jonathan and Vice President Namadi Sambo are expected to spend over N4billion on food and travels during the financial year.

The presidency is allocated a total of N26.6 billion broken down as follows: N12.9 for personnel, N11.1 billion for overhead and N2.5 billion capital development fund respectively in 2015.

Specifically, President Jonathan will spend N1.9 billion on travels and transport, while others under the president's office will spend N1.3 billion on local travels and transport, and another N621.067 million on international travels and transport.

Besides, Sambo will spend N42.4 million on travels and transport, while officials in his office will spend N19.6 million for local travels and transport and N10.7 million for international travel and transport. Local travel and transport will also get another N12 million.

President Jonathan will also spend N517 million on miscellaneous, N456 million on honoraria and 'sitting allowance' and N60.8 million on publicity and advertisements.

The vice president will spend N117million on miscellaneous items, N15 million on honoraria and sitting allowance, as well as N35 million on publicity and advertisements.

The president and vice president will together spend N1.2 billion on foodstuff and kitchen items. And another N310 million will go for purchase of drugs and medical laboratory equipment.

Separate from the transport expenses is an allocation to the presidential air fleet of N5.3 billion, with N36.1 million as salaries while the remaining sum to be spent on overheads and capital expenditure.

Irreconcilables in the 2015 budget In the current fiscal plan, capital vote was projected to be N1.552 trillion. However, on paper, N610 billon has been released; whereas, actual funds made available to the MDAS for which implementation has been effected is only a little above N400 billion owing to "crude oil production quantity shocks, price shocks and under-remittances of internally generated revenue by some MDAs." Justification for huge recurrent expenditure The increase in the recurrent votes, is informed by the huge wage bill of the federal government as personnel cost alone is to gulp more than N1.836 trillion, up from N1.727 trillion in the 2014 approved budget.

Under the plan, Defence and Security; infrastructure and health sectors received generous attention, with the allocation beingN985.79 billion, N93.66 billion and N592.03 billion respectively.

Drainpipes in 2015 budget The proposed 2015 budget has been largely pilloried by discerning Nigerians, many of who have argued that the current fiscal plan not only undermines the clamour for frugal spending by the federal government, but also contains some outlandish items, reports Ibrahim Apekhade Yusuf

•Jonathan

•Sambo

•Okonjo-Iweala

This decision, The Nation learnt, was taken because of the sectors' impact on the generality of the citizenry and their potentials to facilitate growth and generate employment in line with the Transformation Agenda's vision of diversifying the economy to insulate it from over dependence on oil mineral resources.

The priority vote represents about 30 per cent of the entire 2015 aggregate expenditure.

Surcharges in 2015 budget According to the Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, the Finance Minister and Coordinating Minister for the Economy, a 10 percent import surcharge would be imposed on new private jets, which is estimated to yield about N3.7 billion in 2015; 39 percent import surcharge on luxury yachts, which is estimated to potentially raise N1.6 billion in 2015; and 5 percent import surcharge on luxury cars, which is estimated to yield about N2.6 billion of additional revenues.

Besides, there is a surcharge on business and first class tickets on

•Nweze

airlines.

Others are: the imposition of three percent luxury surcharge on champagnes, wines and spirits to generate about N2.3 billion in 2015; and a one percent FCT Mansion Tax on residential properties with value of N300 million and above, which should yield additional N360 million. These surcharges would yield a total of about N10.56 billion in 2015."

Based on these parameters, the 2015 budget envisages net federally collectible revenue of N6.9 trillion. Of this, a total of N3.6 trillion is envisaged to fund the FGN 2015

Budget, representing about 3.4 percent drop from N3.7 trillion for 2014 budget. This is with more emphasis on non-oil revenue sources to partly compensate for the shortfall in actual oil revenue.

Growing apprehension over bogus budget It is understandable why the propriety or otherwise of the 2015 budget has become a hotly debated issue among discerning Nigerians.

Speaking with a cross-section of Nigerians, including experts in diverse socio-economic sectors, they minced no words in their ver-

Parameters of proposed budget 2015 • • • • •

Oil Production (bpd): 2.2782m Benchmark Oil Price: $65/Barrel; Projected GDP Growth Rate: 5.5%; Exchange Rate Assumption: N165/$1 Non-Oil Revenue (Including Non-Federation Account): N1,684.63 Billion; • Fiscal Deficit: N755bn (0.79 Percent Of GDP) • Domestic Borrowing: N570bn (Down From N571.9bn In 2014) Source: Finance Ministry

dicts when they told The Nation that the ruling class has lost touch with the present realities of life.

To many, these outlandish allocations do not take into account, or completely ignore the belt-tightening measures that the federal government said it expects Nigerians to make this year as part of a cost-cutting initiative.

"It is one of the most insensitive budgets I have seen in recent times," declared Mamood Isibor, a former financial analyst with PwC. What is particularly worrisome, Isibor said, is that the federal government did not hint at any possible adjustment to the provisions to his office when he addressed the nation in his New Year message.

"Don't be deceived, many Nigerians are slipping into poverty.

But sadly, our president prides himself with the fact that his administration is 'creating' more billionaires in Nigeria."

Echoing similar sentiments, Mr. Tonye Ignatius has argued that the country has more blighted population judging by the rising number of internally displaced persons due to the activities of insurgents.

"Many Nigerians are in dire need of a lifeline. I just find it hard to believe that the presidency awkward wage bill is clearly insensitive to say the least."

While noting that the president by virtue of his high office holds court with people from all over the globe, as such, needs to entertain them, Ignatius, however, said: "The presidency should as a matter of necessity should be frugal in tune with the times."

Also commenting on the incongruity in the 2015 budget, Dr. Austin Nweze, a political economist at the Pan Atlantic University, in an interview with The Nation raised some posers: "The pertinent question regarding the austerity measure the government plans to adopt is whether they do not affect the presidency? Is the budget not to the detriment of the masses considering the fact that it would further squeeze out life out of the average Nigerians? Why is the presidency not ready to make the needed sacrifices if it truly wants to send the message that we are experiencing austere times?"

Nweze, who is the gubernatorial flag bearer of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) in Ebonyi State, while faulting the budgeting process in the country, attempted a prognosis of the crisis inherent in the fiscal policy development.

In the 2015 spending plan, the federal government, Nweze said, has undertaken a drastic cut on capital expenditure as the vote has slumped to N633.53 billion from the N1.552 trillion in the 2014 approved budget. The recurrent vote proposal, however, is raised to N2.616 trillion from the N2.468 trillion in the approved 2014 plan.

"This is clearly laughable. If you say you're addressing austerity measures, you're supposed to cut down on recurrent expenditure and not capital expenditure.

But in Nigeria's case, it is the re-

THE NATION ON SUNDAY JANUARY 11, 2015 verse. If last year, refreshment for presidency was over N300million and you now increase that to over N500million in 2015, what sort of austerity measures are you adopting? There is no austerity measures anywhere, except, of course, elsewhere among the masses.

Austerity is for the masses and not for the rest of them..."

According to him, at the centre of the problem concerning budgeting is the issue of corruption.

"The government is just playing lip-service to the whole idea of austerity and belt-tightening measures. As part of the austerity measures, the federal government did asked the MDAs to close down their individual accounts in the banks...But I can tell you the civil servants know how to move around these things. With a few exception, almost everybody has a price he can be bought."

The nation's budgeting process is one that aids corruption one way or the other.

"Corruption is to blame largely for the problems with our budgets. A situation where we have to undertake fiscal planning on a yearly basis where most MDAs end up sharing unspent monies among themselves and line pockets of their conniving ministers and public officers this is corruption at the highest level."

"If you say you're cutting N5m from the allowances of House of Reps' members, it won't solve the problem. The only solution is to cut down the cost of governance.

Our government is over bloated."

Mr. Odilim Enwegabra, a development economist, is also on the same page with Nweze.

According to him, the federal government lacks the political will to fight corruption.

Eweagbara who picked holes in some of the economic postulations as contained in the 2015 fiscal plan, said: "IGR to Budget in Nigeria is barely 12 percent, whereas in most countries it's more than 90 percent. The little IGR generated or declared in Nigeria is diverted "legally'' to the extent that in 2009, for example, N3.06tn was declared generated but only N46.8bn was remitted to government; in 2010, N3.07tn was generated, but N54.2bn remitted; in 2011 N3.17tn, only N73.8bn was remitted. Thanks to section 22(1), which legalised this diversion.

"Government will lose (in 2015 alone) as high as N3.6tn from its numerous revenue generating agencies had it not been that section 22 (1) of FRA allows these agencies only to remit 20 percent of their operating surplus, which allows these agencies to fraudulently push their operating costs so high to the extent that their operating surpluses ended up becoming close to zero. With close to zero operating surplus, 20 percent to be remitted to the consolidated federal revenue account, becomes insignificant. That means that, every year, revenuegenerating agencies like NNPC, NCC, SEC, CBN, Nigeria Customs, FIRS, etc, remit close to nothing from their internally generated revenues.

"Reducing fiscal deficit from N993.68bn in 2014 to N755bn in 2015, makes no sense when a progrowth, pro-investment and projobs government should increasing deficit spent even beyond the 3 percent GDP as the ceiling required by section 12(1) of the 2007 Fiscal Responsibility Act. "Most growth-focused and dynamic economies have fiscal deficits as high as 15 percent of their GDP as long as the money is for infrastructure and fiscal stimulus.

That is why it doesn't make any

fiscal policy sense that at a time of revenue shortages government should be reducing fiscal deficit spending rather than increasing it to meet the impending shortage.

"Had government used higher exchange rate than the present N165 to a dollar, both federal and state governments would have earned more naira from 2015 oil revenue than the current budget makes available to them," Enweagbara argued.

Okonjo-Iweala's self assurance The Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, the Finance Minister and Coordinating Minister for the Economy, said that the 2015 plan was anchored on the need to save cost and reduce waste and leakages, warning that, henceforth, internally generated revenue (IGR) by Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) will be thoroughly monitored to ensure that remittance is properly done.

Any official caught pilfering with government's independent revenue, according to her, will be seriously dealt with.

Besides, she said surcharge for luxury items have been introduced, as part of measures to instill prudence in the management of public resources On IGRs, she said: "Over the last three years, government has been working to increase its independently generated revenues (IGR) and has, in fact, sustained an upward trajectory in IGR receipts. Actual receipts have continued to grow from about N182 billion in 2011 to N274 billion in 2013 and then, N328 billion as of October 2014.

"While this is encouraging, there are still leakages and incidences of non-remittance of requisite funds to Treasury by some agencies. Mr. President recently summoned a meeting with revenue generating agencies to address this issue, and subsequently issued an unequivocal directive to all revenue agencies to ensure remittance of their obligations to Treasury. With this strong support, we are working with the banks to ensure strict compliance, and so we have projected IGR receipts of N450 billion for 2015."

Way forward In the view of Nweze, one better way to ensure the system works is by addressing the leakages.

"I recall at a committee put up by the Nigeria Institute of Management at the National Conference, in which myself and Henry Boyo were asked to write a policy brief for a model governance structure. What we proposed at the time was a collegiate system.

With a collegiate system, you practically cut down on the huge cost of governance as we have presently.

"We proposed a system whereby we would have just 36 senators one each from state. You don't need more than six people to make laws in the state. That way you crash the cost to a very minimum level so that these monies can be used to invest in other relevant things. The problem is the system...The system has made it so. Correct the system and everything will be in order."

Nigeria's democracy, Nweze stressed, "Didn't take cognisance of our heritage and that's why we have the issues we have now. If we don't address the system, no matter what you do, we will continue to have problems. We can experiment with it even this year.

The high cost of governance is really killing this country slowly.

We just have to apply the brake, and urgently too."

BUSINESS 61 Lafarge records giant strides in CSR

U

NLIKE in the recent past, today most companies worth their salt take corporate social responsibility very seriously and the reason for this is not far to seek: how corporate social giving and other philanthropic gestures are managed can make or mar the fortunes of companies.

Perhaps, it is for this simple reason that a company like Lafarge WAPCO, a major player in the built and construction sub-sector, has come to pay a heed and tries as best as it can to pay attention to the finer details as it concerns its CSR engagement in its host communities.

The era of corporations being separate and distinct from their locale of operation has long passed; the new model of business operation presents corporations with human faces and hearts - hearts that are directly connected to the needs, aspirations and goals of not only the immediate members of the community where the company operate but also the members of a wider community with the sole objective to become an integral part of the fabric of the community and a major contributor to the socioeconomic growth of these communities.

As it is largely self-regulatory in form, Corporate Socially Responsible organisations are those that exhibit a genuine sense of responsibility and strong belief in the upholding of the ethical standards, norms and nuances of the environment where they reside by volunteering and passionately committing their resources towards the betterment of such an environment. It has evolved beyond the provision of face-saving initiatives to a more organic and strategic process that bears directly on the bottom-line of any discerning organisation.

In an industry that manufactures a product that is key to the provision of a basic need of man - shelter, Lafarge Africa takes this global phenomenon to heart by outlining specific objectives and goals for its subsidiaries in this concern.

In terms of funding and better CSR engagement, Lafarge has not faltered in the last few years.

For example, the 2013 CSR report of WAPCO Operations indicates that the company's annual budget appropriation on community development between 2006 and 2012 had continued to witness a steady growth from an expenditure of N77million in 2006 to N189 million in 2013. An authoritative source confirmed that the CSR budget for year 2014 was over N200 million.

With factories in the South-West, North East, and South-South regions of the country, the company's investments Nigeria make it a leading cement manufacturer and marketer in the country with a range of high quality brands on its stable.

These investments deliver a pedigree now spanning over 54 years and a relationship with its host communities that is nurtured through a need-based, strategic, and highly sustainable approach to CSR; an approach born of its recognition for its host communities as strategic partners to whom it owes and visibly accords a sense of mutual respect.

Lafarge Africa's clear-cut proactive policy and strategy which allows for a prompt deployment of its CSR activities is hinged on four cardinal points; youth empowerment, education, health and poverty alleviation, and shelter (affordable housing). Cardinal points that are supported by a dedicated annual budget and key objectives aimed at building stakeholders' relations through the implementation of a set plan as well as support the development of host communities.

These objectives serve as the guideline that directs every step taken by the company and acts as the

• Plans robust CSR engagement in 2020

By Ibrahim Apekhade Yusuf measure of success for all initiatives taken and the considerable investments committed to the articulation of these cardinal points is proof positive of the inherent determination to enhance the standards of living of its host communities and be "… a blessing to its hosts."

Lafarge Africa - through Ashaka Cement and Lafarge WAPCO Operations - has a track record of initiatives spanning the provision of rural electrification projects, a robust youth empowerment scheme aimed at banishing poverty from its territories, youth skills acquisition where yearly, host communities present a list of youths desirous of acquiring tradable skills and procuring trade equipment and tools to guarantee subsistence.

One of the key levers of the Sustainability Ambitions 2020 is volunteerism coupled with a passion for the priority area of education and the enrichment and the preparation of the minds of the youth for the challenges of the future was recently consolidated through the Lafarge Friends of Community (Lafarge FOC) hosting of the grand finale of a Literacy Competition designed for primary school pupils involving no fewer than 18 states in the three regions of South-South, South-West and North East - in partnership with the Ovie Brume Foundation - where Akwa Ibom State emerged overall winner of the competition.

This culture of volunteerism by the FOC is further evidenced by the hundreds of work hours being invested by staff teams to meeting community and social needs within their territories. They dedicate hours to environmental sanitation services, teach school children and donate items to meet the needs of orphans.

Yearly bursary awards to indigenous students in higher institution of learning to assist not only the parents of the students but also the students themselves some of whom have openly shown their appreciation for these initiatives as they see them as succor that afforded them concentration.

In recognition of the reality that not all Nigerian youth can gain admission into these institutions, the Artisans Capability Enhancement Scheme was set up to bridge this knowledge and skill gap. The objective of the ACES programme is to promote best practices in construction, by creating awareness on relevant standards for block making, enhance the technical know-how of block-makers and artisans group with respect to product application; educate artisans and block makers on the features, usage and benefits of different cement types among others.

The ACES is designed and wholly sponsored by Lafarge in its drive towards solving the technical

skills deficit in the society. The scheme is targeted at young school leavers from the host-communities along with others from the larger Nigerian society for them to acquire skills in Electrical, Mechanical, and Instrumentation/Automation Craftsmanship. In furtherance of this - Lafarge as a member of the board of the Cement Technology Institute of Nigeria (CTIN) - recently signed an MoU with the Industrial Training Fund (ITF) to be part of a consortium of cement manufacturers to contribute to a N15billion fund for the training of youths in skills for the construction sector in an end-toend programme that will in the long run transform Nigeria into an exporter of skilled manpower.

Over 1,000 people have benefited from the skills acquisition scheme from the centre in various trade tests with a training period of three and half (3 ½) years and a takeaway of a National Board of Technical Education Certificate (NABTEB) OLevel certificate.

To ensure that the critical mass is spread participants are recruited from the catchments areas comprising of Adamawa, Bauchi, Borno, Gombe, Taraba and Yobe States with an average of 17 artisan trainees graduating on yearly basis.

4-5 graduate trainees proceed to gain admission into higher institutions with their certificates.

According to Lafarge, "Our Sustainability Ambitions 2020 will help us to make a net positive contribution to society. This is not about philanthropy; it's about defining our role towards society while at the same time creating value for shareholders, customers, employees and communities. Our operations aim to optimise the use of natural resources and protect the environment. We want to be among the leading companies in terms of health and safety, to promote diversity and human rights, to implement strict rules for governance, and to engage in comprehensive and transparent dialogue with our stakeholders."

Little wonder, Lafarge Africa has consistently won several awards in recognition of its sense of responsibility towards the society across Nigeria and beyond.

From the Ogun State Government Overall Best Company in Corporate Social Responsibility award, to the Most Responsive Tax Payer Award for 2013 in Ogun State and the jewel in the crown; Overall Best Company SERA Awards in 2013 and first runner up in 2014.

Outside the shores of the country at the Assemblée Nationale in Paris, Lafarge Operations in Nigeria was honoured for its work on Diversity and Inclusion at the Gender Equality European/International Standard (GEEIS) Awards. Obviously, a standard has been set for Lafarge Africa itself and also for other organisations in Nigeria to take up the mantle of CSR with a face - The Lafarge Way.

•From left: Mr. Saheed Anibaba, Council Manager, Eredo Local Council Development Area, Alh. Tajudeen Adekanbi, Chairman, Community Development Council and Mrs. Rasidat Buari, Headmistress, UPE School, Odo Gbawojo, during the official commissioning of Ultra modern toilets in the primary school recently.

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THE NATION ON SUNDAY JANUARY 11, 2015

BUSINESS

S the doyen of credit mana-gement in Nigeria, how would you describe the evolution of credit management in the country thus far?

If you consider where we are coming from as a country, you can say we have come a long way.

Credit management is ranked first in the United States, for instance, where it has been in existence for over 150 years and the next is the United Kingdom, it is as lasted for over 70 years now. And you won't believe it, Nigeria, is the third country where credit management practice has taken root also.

However, to answer your question more broadly, if you talk in terms of our journey as a country in developing a credit regime, I would say, we're still evolving, we're still an emerging market compared to other advanced economies.

Tell us your role in evolving credit management in Nigeria…

Credit management is like a calling for me. As a journalist, of course, you must have chosen journalism as a calling to serve… (laughs).

But having said that, I always want to illustrate the story of how credit management came into the country with the story of the biblical Noah, who was mandated to build an ark. If you recall the story, Noah told the people God asked him to build an ark, where he hoped to rescue the world.

He was preaching his gospel.

Each day he took two animals: male and female, plants, and crops, and living things. But everybody thought him mad and stupid…Like the biblical Noah, I was a lone ranger, a lone voice in the wilderness when I started the quest to introduce credit management into the country. It was not a tea party at all.

When this whole journey started, several people discouraged me and even went as far as advising me to change my cause arguing that our economy will always be cash-driven and it will never change in the next 50 years. It was tough for me, rejections that I received from CEOs, directors and people who were not thinking beyond their present circumstance.

I faced that frustration that was between 1983 to the early 90s. Every day, new ideas were coming to me and I couldn't have any savings because I was running a graduate school of credit administration, which name was later changed to postgraduate school of credit and financial management. I introduced the first magazine on credit because it was strange to the media at the time and I needed a mass media platform to be able to push it in the front burner of public discourse.

It started from a newsletter titled, The Credit World, which I distributed free in major offices across Lagos.

It later became a full blown magazine and the name was changed to Credit News.

At a stage, First Bank and Union Bank began to support the project and opened their training school for us to teach credit management due to the credibility I had built as a

'Nigeria needs a credit-based economy’ Dr. Chris Onalo is the Registrar/Chief Executive Officer, Institute of Credit Administration, the foremost institute for the standardisation and practice of credit management and administration in Nigeria. Onalo, the doyen of credit management in Nigeria and one of the leading lights in the field of credit management globally, was recently named professor of credit management by the London Postgraduate Credit Management College, UK, the first African to achieve that incredible feat. In this interview with Ibrahim Apekhade Yusuf, he speaks on the vast opportunities Nigeria and the African continent stand to gain from running a credit-based economy. Excerpts: result of my unrelenting efforts.

At some point I partnered with the University of Lagos to start a study centre to engage those willing to take credit management as a full career. I began to give birth to many followers and the new profession grew. It has taken a lot from me. And as some people who have watched me from the sidelines during all these years, they have come to appreciate the tenacity, the drive with which we pursued this passion.

Looking back now, for me, essentially, the struggle is no longer to put food on the table, but rather to institutionalise the virtues of credit administration in our private, public and national life. As a result of these, I have lived most of my adult life without savings.

The only thing I know in my life is credit management.

I have seen how dangerous it is to live on a cash system as a nation and the benefits of a fully developed and robust credit system. Many of these fellows today Chris Onalo is surely a like a dogged fighter.

You were named the first professor of credit management in Africa by the London Postgraduate Credit Management College, UK and other affiliate universities recently. What informed your choice among other eminently qualified persons?

As I mentioned before, at the risk of sounding immodest, I can tell you without any fear of contradiction that I have devoted the whole of my life to credit management.

But then when they said I was the first professor in Africa, the question I asked them is how did you reached that conclusion that I'm the first professor of credit management in Africa and they said it was after a due diligence check was done. But I didn't stop there. I on my own went on the net, I used the search engine and what I found is that there is nothing to show that any known person in the African continent has been so named a professor of credit management at anytime. So that in itself was very heartwarming for me. I feel highly elated and I'm very humbled by the fact that from my little corner of the world, the little efforts one was putting in all these years is being finally recognised.

•Onalo I must say again it is quite interesting why me out of more learned Africans who has been singled out for professorial appointment by the London Institute of Credit Management and its university affiliate. There, they take research seriously and they want to convince themselves that the process is thorough, genuine and transparent and it has worldover acceptance.

I had commenced the process of credit management engineering since the 80s in Nigeria and because it is academic, all that I did had been documented.

Professionally speaking, I have been a member of Institute of Credit Management in UK since 1985. I have been affiliated strongly with the National Association of Credit Management in the USA. I have attended a lot of international conferences and contributed to debates on credit management for a very long time.

All that I have done including a live television programme on NTA that last

over two years, put me in good stead for this recognition.

Strangely too, in all of the international conferences I had attended, I found myself as the only coloured man among whites. Interest was drawn quickly on me and people wanted to know more about credit management in Africa.

I like to speak, ask questions and challenge views that are not well placed at such fora, people took note of that and I was consistent since the 80s. For instance, I looked at the curriculum of the Post graduate school of credit management, which I felt was not too mature and I had to submit a detailed curriculum development from our own institute, which I defended over there about seven years ago and the curriculum was modified.

So, all these and more, I want to believe is what informed my choice as the first professor of credit management produced in African as a continent.

What does your new status portend for Nigeria and Africa as a continent?

Generally speaking, credit is taking something now and paying for it at a later date, the question to ask is what can I take now and make quick use of that will produce enough income to pay for it with the little interest added.

That way, several job opportunities and wealth would be created.

Credit management has already taken rook elsewhere in the West unlike in Africa.

However, I see my recognition as an indication of the fact that we Africans have also come along way.

For a fact, credit management is still developing in Africa. The Institute of Credit Administration ICA) which I singlehandedly founded after taking me 12 years to scale through the legal processes because some indigenous professional institutes who thought the only way to remain relevant was to ensure other professional institutes are not registered, which was a major stumbling block.

By the time ICA came on board, there was no existence of any credit management association in Africa. In 2007, a delegation came from Kenya to understudy the Nigerian Institute of Credit Administration. Today, they have the Kenya Institute of Credit Management.

Before then, South African had pattered their own after the ICM in UK. After these two countries, I am not sure if there are credit administration institutes in any other African country. I have long fulfilled the criteria for the appointment of a professor. It is my hope that in future, there will be a faculty of credit management in Nigerian universities.

The future of credit management in Nigeria is extremely bright because no economy can survive without credit system. Government policies may be very slow or not encouraging but there is continual economy that people must eat and engage in credit system to survive.

A cash and carry economy cannot take Nigeria anywhere in development index. The future is massive and the starting point is to build that foundation of credit line availability and access. It is not enough to have a cashless economy but it must be supported by a credit system.

The option for any economy to grow is to put in place policies that stimulate

people to bring out the best in them not just use of liquid cash but investment possibilities. The only system that can checkmate the yearning of everyone is when you introduce the credit system.

Sadly, the huge number of banks and financial institutions we have in the country have not translated to a robust credit administration due to some unfavouble policies. In an ideal economy, bank loans are easily accessible to SMEs to enable them grow the economy. It is not the duty of government to generate employment, it is the private sector and citizens that generate sustainable employment.

As one of the leading lights in the field of credit management in Nigeria, what efforts do you hope to make to ensure that it becomes a course of study in our conventional universities now or in the future?

Personally, I have invested a lot in the field of credit administration and management. So, naturally, I should be interested in ensuring that credit management gains foothold across the nation's ivory towers because at present there is no university that has a full faculty where credit management is being taught.

But I remember a certain varsity I won't name sometime in 2012 attempted to introduce credit management as a course through the backdoor. I sent a tem there only for them to later discover that what they were actually planning to do was a seminar paper which was to be delivered by some bankers …

After then, two universities also attempted to collaborate with the institute.

It was a very fruitful collaboration. But then the process was stalled because the NUC demanded to know the level of preparedness by the universities to run the course. And when it was discovered that they lacked the capacity they lost NUC approval at the end.

My attitude is that we are open to ideas but I don't share the same mindset of some of those coming from the university environment that since they are universities, I have to be made to hold the short end of the stick. I'm for a partnership that works, not one where anyone party would have the upper hand over the other. We have trained faculty members with versed experience. I have a well-stocked library with upto-date information on trends and innovations in the field credit management, which I'm not ready to surrender.

The thing is, our tertiary institutions should to be flexible and should not be seen to be rigid as some of them have tend to show.

But having said that, we're working assiduously to introduce a wholly-run university of credit management either in Nigeria or within the sub-region, just to ensure that we provide grounding for core professionals interested in building their skills set in the field of credit management. I may not be able to place a timeframe on that because it is quite capital intensive. But we're more than positive that this is doable and achievable.

THE NATION ON SUNDAY JANUARY 11, 2015

G

E has spent a record four decades in Nigeria thus far, and could best be described as worthy partners. Reason: the company has contributed its quota to the development of infrastructure in key facets of the economy thus far, chief among which is in the area of power, oil and gas, to mention just a few.

Naturally, as the Federal Government steps up efforts to ensure that International Oil Companies (IOCs) and other major players in the oil and gas industry comply with its laws on local content, global technology and infrastructure company GE appears to have perfected a strategy of localisation and local content as an imperative for business rather than a mere compliance issue.

No other person understands this best than Uzo Nwagwu, who is at home with the manufacturing capabilities in different spheres including oil and gas.

"Indeed, beyond Nigeria, GE is a world leader in advanced technologies and services for all segments of the oil and gas industry and, for the last 20 years, has played a crucial role in economic and industrial development across the continent. By maximising efficiency, productivity and reliability, we help customers adapt to increasingly complex challenges at the same time as the local industry goes through unprecedented growth in terms of product demand, human resources, supply networks and infrastructure. GE Oil & Gas is committed to creating local employment, eliminating imports and ensuring sustainable long-term operations in Nigeria."

O

RIJIN, the iconic drink from the stables of Guinness Nigeria Plc, recently got the blessings of royal fathers across the country as the brand was formally presented to traditional rulers as part of its marketing drive to further promote the drink as a drink of heritage among Nigerians.

From Aba in Abia, Agbor, Warri in Delta, Calabar, Kalabari in Rivers, Oyo, Ife, Egba land, the major theme that resonated during the different tours across the length and breadth of the hinterlands and urban centres was what could easily pass for overwhelming acceptance of what they largely called a trulyindigenous drink.

Amidst cheers and fanfare depicted of the royals, the brand received the blessings of the royal fathers as they all showed their appreciation for a truly Nigerian drink rooted in African tradition with the flavours of African herbs and fruits.

Presenting Orijin to the Alaafin of Oyo, Oba Lamidi Adeyemi, Mr. Afeez Ajibowu, Regional Sales Director, South and SouthWest, Guinness Nigeria Plc explained the innovation behind the production of Orijin and expressed appreciation for the monarch's support of Guinness operations within his kingdom.

"Guinness Nigeria respects the tradition of the society it operates in and our kings and traditional rulers all over the country have been the custodians of the

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'We have total commitment to Nigeria's industrial growth' Uzo Nwagwu is Chief Operating Officer, General Electric, Nigeria, with responsibility for the company's oil and gas operations. Nwagwu speaks on the inroads GE has made in the over four decades experience in the country, reports Ibrahim Apekhade Yusuf "Our facility in Onne has been operating since 2002; this purpose-built facility is the first and only quayside facility of its calibre in Nigeria. It has an exceptional safety record, and is a cornerstone in GE's commitment to the country's oil and gas industry. With continually expanding capabilities, the site provides complete assembly, testing and lifecycle service for subsea tree systems, subsea control modules, specialty connectors and pipe. It also includes a dedicated onsite training center and offers broad business development opportunities for local suppliers.

"In fact we are glad to announce that after several years of capital investment, recruitment and training, we are launching the fabrication of subsea wellheads in Nigeria. This means that the manufacture of surface wellhead systems used in drilling for oil and gas both on land and offshore can now be manufactured in Nigeria by GE. This is a major milestone and achievement for GE in Nigeria. What's more, we have trained Nigerians to operate and service these equipments in Nigeria. It may in-

•Nwagwu terest you to know that nearly all our Field Service Engineers are indigenous Nigerians who have been trained over the years within and outside the country.

"Also, we are committed to developing a pipeline of

local leaders capable sustainably getting the job done. "It's about localising our people, localising our capabilities, localising our suppliers and localising the human capital."

He said as a matter-of-fact

that over the last four years GE has invested not less than $7million dollars in expanding the capabilities of this facility in Onne. "Beyond being in line with the federal government's directives on local content, this move more than anything else surely validates our longstanding commitment to localisation and local content.

"As the industry continues to explore new sources of production, operations are increasing in complexity - this is driving significant demand for better technology in equipment and services. GE delivers expertise to Nigeria by being a "big business" that acts like a nimble, localised, "small" business. We do this by combining a deep understanding of local demands, challenges, and opportunities in the energy sector with GE's global scale and R&D." On GE's Calabar investment, Nwagwu said: "GE's capabilities not just in the Oil and Gas industry alone but also in the Power industry.

Nigeria's economy remains heavily dependent on the export of primary commodities and the import of finished goods.

"The planned facility in

Calabar provides a powerful example of how a company like GE can help the country move up the value chain. GE hopes that the facility, which will create 2,300 jobs, and become the supply hub for the local market and potentially the rest of the region."

On the major benefits and barriers to expanding business in the country, Nwagwu deadpans: "Nigeria has evolved over the years."

Pressed further, he said: "The fundamentals of Nigeria represent huge opportunity for us as in GE - over 170 million people, which means a huge market for goods and services; abundant natural and human resources and more importantly, the government is creating the enabling environment for foreign direct investment. " O r d i n a r i l y , infrastructural gaps will be seen as major barriers in doing business here but for us, these challenges represent opportunities for GE whether it is power, healthcare, transportation, aviation or oil and gas. These are sectors where GE has built global pedigree and reputation. We are committed to increased investments here."

Pomp, as royal fathers endorse Orijin cultures and heritage of our people for many centuries.

Therefore, it is only proper for Guinness Nigeria to pay homage to these esteemed personalities and obtain their blessings for this unique product which is the fastest selling beverage in the bitters and Ready-to-Drink categories in Nigeria today," Ajibowu explained.

While receiving and blessing Orijin, Oba Lamidi Adeyemi, went down memory lane confirming the fact that innovation has always been a major part of Guinness operations since the company was established in 1962.

"As a young man, I was a major distributor of Guinness products and it was a good experience. This new productOrijin from the stables of Guinness Nigeria is an addition and an attestation to the fact that we can make use of our local content in a lot of our productions in Nigeria.

For instance, some of the local contents used in this product have helped our forefathers live long and healthy lives, a feat we all aspire to achieve," Oba Adeyemi said.

At the Alake of Egba lands palace, Oba Adedotun Aremu Gbadebo while receiving the Guinness team led by Mr. Sesan Sobowale, Director, Corporate Relations, blessed the drink and encouraged Guinness to always stay on the path of innovation.

"Over the years, Guinness has been a company known for quality and great products.

When I travel abroad, Guinness products are what Nigerians in

• From left: Head, Policy and Public Affairs, Mr. Michael Onuoha, Alake of Egbaland, His Royal Majesty, Oba Adedotun Aremu Gbadebo, and Director, Corporate Relations, Mr. Sesan Sobowale, during the blessing and official presentation of Orijin by Guinness Nigeria Plc to the monarch at his palace in Abeokuta, Ogun State‌recently

diaspora consume. I want to thank Guinness for honouring our heritage, bringing the Orijin brand to my kingdom. My Chiefs are witnesses of the uniqueness of Orijin, a drink produced from our local herbs.

Since the introduction of Orijin, many of them have since changed to drinking this great and innovative brand. My prayer is that the brand will grow, do well in the market and Guinness as a company will continually flourish," Oba Gbadebo prayed.

Moving further south at the palace of the Obong of Calabar, His Royal Majesty, Edidem Ekpo Okon Abasi Otu V, the atmosphere was merry as the Guinness team led by Divisional Sales Manager; Mr. Dennis Ebeye officially presented Orijin to the

monarch.

While receiving the team, the Obong expressed delight at Guinness' thought leadership in manufacturing a product made from African herbs and fruits. He appreciated Guinness' recognition of the traditional rulers as custodians of the African heritage; a heritage the Orijin drink represents. "We thank Guinness for introducing this drink. We bless it and pray it continues to satisfy your consumers across Nigeria," the Obong prayed.

At the palace of Enyi of Aba, His Royal Majesty, Eze Isaac Ikonne, Mr. Chizoba Ojielo, Regional Sales Director, Guinness Nigeria Plc presented the drink to the monarch.

While accepting the drink and offering his blessings, Eze Ikonne espoused Guinness

appreciation of the fact that using local content, Nigeria can create a brand it can rightly call its own. He informed that he was expectant of the visit, thus very glad that his kingdom was recognised by Guinness to be officially presented with Orijin.

At the palace of the Dein of Agbor, His Royal Majesty, Dr. Benjamin Ikenchukwu, the atmosphere was merry as the Guinness team led by Divisional Sales Manager, Mr. Henry Okpe, presented Orijin to the Chiefs.

While receiving the team, Chief A. U. Emenim, the Iyase of Agbor expressed delight at Guinness' thought leadership in manufacturing a product solely made from contents found within Nigeria. "We bless this drink and pray it continues to satisfy your

consumers across Nigeria," Chief Emenim said.

Presenting Orijin to His Royal Majesty, the Amayanabo of Kalabari Kingdom, in Port Harcourt, Mr. Dennis Ebeye, Divisional Sales Manager Guinness Nigeria Plc further espouses the role of traditional rulers as custodians of our heritage.

While accepting the drink and offering his blessings, the Amayanabo of Kalabari Kingdom, Prof.

T.J.T Princewill, informed the audience that he was expectant of the visit, thus very glad that his kingdom was recognised by Guinness to be officially presented with Orijin.

"Before you came for this blessing, Orijin has been blessed and accepted by people of the Kalabari Kingdom. This drink is made

by Africans and for Africans.

It is a good development which we so much appreciated and we are proud to identify with as a people. I love this brand and I will love to be part of growing the brand. We know Guinness is a responsible brand and we feel privileged to identify with the company. We hope to see more of this kind of innovation from Guinness and indeed other companies in Nigeria," said Prof. Princewill.

The Guinness train also visited the Enyi of Aba, His Royal Majesty, Eze Isaac Ikonne and the Olu of Warri, His Royal Majesty, Ogiame Atwuwatse II.

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S a student at the University of Reading, United Kingdom, some years back, I bought some beautiful dresses and sent them to my daughters in Nigeria.

"Washing one of the dresses," narrated Dr. Gloria Elemo, the Director General of the Federal Institute of Industrial Research Oshodi (FIIRO), "my mother who was looking after my kids said that the colours ran making a mess of the beautiful flowered dress.

"My mother sent the dress back to me in England insisting I return it back to the shop for an exchange or a full refund. That was about three months after I made the purchase.''

Still speaking, she said she tried to back off but her mother insisted. So, reluctantly, she went back to Marks and Spencer with the ruined dress.

On getting to the shop, she said: "immediately I brought the dress out, the shop manager recognised it to be their product and immediately took me inside her office so that other customers would not be privy to what was happening.

"Apologising profusely to me for all the inconveniences it would have caused me, the manager asked if I wanted a full refund of my money or to take something else in exchange.

Fortunately, sales were going on then, so I ended up getting more with the initial money I paid for one dresses."

At the Consumer Brands Award held at FIIRO premises, Lagos, Elemu queried: "When are we going to get to that point in Nigeria where a customer will buy a defective product and return it months later and get a cash refund or an exchange with apologies also?"

In Nigeria, there is no government policy regulating the return-and-refund transactions between the seller and buyer. Everything depends entirely on the seller.

Mrs. Obiamaka Okoye bought a pair of children's wedge sandals from her customer, 'Saint Theo Enterprises' at Shop 20, No 2 Gbajumo Street Balogun market, early last month.

When she got home, however, her sevenyear-old daughter rejected the sandals, opting for red coloured foot wear. Two weeks after, precisely last Tuesday, she went back to the shop with her daughter and the girl chose a pair of shoes of the same value. But the seller wanting to take advantage of the situation insisted that the woman should pay extra N500.

Reminding the seller of her years of loyalty to the shop, the seller reluctantly allowed her the exchange without any extra money.

Lucky her, you may say.

However, Miss Jumoke Adesina was not that lucky. During the hustle and bustle of Christmas shopping she went to the same Balogun market and bought a hair wig. In her hurry, it did not occur to her to try the fitting.

On getting home, she fitted the wig and found she did not like the fitting at all. Packaging it back in the original pack, she went back to the market early the next day request-

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How effective is return-andrefund policy in Nigeria?

•Gloria Elemo Director-General, Federal Institute of Industrial Research, Oshodi

ing for an exchange with the one that will fit better, but the seller refused to take it back even denying that she bought it from him. Unfortunately, receipts are not issued for such products in the open market though the seller knew it was from his shop, as similar wigs were still hanging there.

According to Jumoke, she even offered to pay the man extra for another wig but the man with a bloated ego flatly refused to exchange the item and rudely asked her to leave his shop.

At the Ikeja Shopping Mall, one of the managers with Shoprite, Mr. Jonathan Onovo, explained that the issue of refund and exchange greatly depends on the product and how long the product has been with the customer.

"We do not refund or exchange perishable products, especially frozen items, and for other goods you must come with your receipt of purchase and the product which must be in its original form," explained Mr. Onovo who also doubles as the Stock Administrator.

However, the management of Shoprite clearly state 'non refundable' on their yellow nylon carrier bags. I know that most shoppers may not have seen it as it is at the lower part of the bag. In more developed countries, such arrogant and flagrant statement would have been

enough for consumers to boycott the shop and force it to close down, but Nigeria is where consumers have refused to exercise their consumer rights. Without you consumers, Shoprite will not be in existence. You have been shopping long before they entered the country in 2005.

At Justrite super stores, which is another mega store, the company's policy does not allow cash refund but allows for exchange of products which only the shop manager is authorised to do. So if the manager is not there, or is very busy, an aggrieved customer will be made to wait endlessly.

At one of the big branches, at No. 4 Okeho Street, Dopemu - Lagos, the shop manager, who simply preferred to be addressed as Mr. Tunde, said that perishable goods and baby food items are not accepted back, but other products with receipt of purchase and in its original condition will be accepted back.

As I was interviewing him, I recalled an incident which occurred in their store in December which warranted the offended customer to get in touch with me. Mrs. Sherifat Odusile had gone to the shop with her kids.

Her son took a game product which she paid N6,500 for.

However, on getting home, the little boy saw it was not exactly what he wanted and not the right brand. Without any damage to the product and within less than 24 hours of purchase, they went back to the store with the receipt. However, the staff refused to exchange the product. They contacted me and I advised they insist on seeing the manager who later emerged and resolved the issue by asking the family to take products worth the monetary value of the one returned.

My question to the management is: why will other staff not be trained to do exchange?

Reacting, the manager said if he is not available he would delegate another staff to do the job.

According to the online shop, Konga, while cash refunds are not done, defective items can be exchanged for another one if the item is brought back within seven days from the date of receipt and if the item has not been damaged.

Where the buyer initiates a return for non defective product for instance on receiving the product you no longer want it, then the said customer will have to bear the shipping cost but where the company determines that the product is indeed defective, they will reimburse the cost of return shipping.

The down line, however, is that where the return time frame has elapsed and the product still has active warranty then the customer is advised to trace the manufacturer who can be in any part of the world.

Jumia, another online shop, however, is more generous with their return time policy.

Customers are allowed up to 14 days from the delivery date to get an exchange or even cash return as the case may be.

According to them, the items must be in the new condition with all the accessories intact. If they find the reason for return valid, the customer is given a choice of exchange, voucher refund or bank refund. But if the return is invalid, customer will be notified and goods sent back to them.

Just like Konga, if the return time frame has elapsed, you are advised to chase the manufacturers around no matter where in the world they may be. Oh what a poor service to mete out to a customer!

Bear in mind, however, that there are some products that cannot be returned in the majority of shops because of hygiene and for safety reasons.

Coca-Cola Nigeria launches “Share a Coke”

COCA-COLA Nigeria has launched the popular "Share a coke" campaign in the country. For the first time in Nigeria, Coca-Cola is replacing its iconic logo with popular Nigerian names on all its packaging - the returnable glass bottle, cans and PET bottles.

"Share a coke transforms the global CocaCola brand into a special, personal experience for our consumers," said Patricia Jemibewon, Marketing Director, Coca-Cola Nigeria Limited. "By swapping our iconic Coca-Cola logo with personal names, we give all our consumers a unique opportunity to connect and share their personalised coke with the people who matter the most to them - friends, family and loved ones," she said.

Giving more details about "Share a coke", Jemibewon further disclosed that the campaign recognises Nigeria's culture and diversity as 600 popular names have been

•(L-R): National Commercial Director, Nigerian Bottling Company Limited, Matthieu Seguin; Marketing Manager, Colas, Coca-Cola Nigeria Limited, Bolajoko Bayo-Ajayi and Marketing Director, Coca-Cola Nigeria Limited, Patricia Jemibewon, at the media launch of the Share a Coke campaign of Coca-Cola, held at Protea Hotel, GRA Ikeja on Wednesday, January 7th.

selected from the rich array of names across the various regions of Nigeria."Share a coke does not only reinforce our ongoing commitment to refresh the world but also to inspire shared moments of optimism and happiness," Jemibewon concluded.

From this weekend, consumers will be able to buy personalised coke in glass, can and PET from retail outlets across the country.

Consumers who are unable to find their names in-store will have the chance to create their own personalised coke during the nationwide activation which commences on 2nd February, 2015.

The 'Share a coke' campaign was first introduced in Australia in 2011. Since then, the company has launched the 'Share a coke' campaign in over 50 countries around the world, including New Zealand, Argentina, Brazil, South Africa, Great Britain, Turkey, Germany, Spain and Chile.

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POLITICS EXTRA

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HE Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Governorship Primary Election held under the supervision of the King Asara Asara-led PDP National Electoral Panel has continued to dominate discussions in Enugu political arena. The reviews and comments arise mainly from the overwhelming endorsement of Hon. Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi's candidature on one hand and the flawed claim

by Senator Ayogu Eze that some “authentic party delegates” elected him in a parallel primary also.

However, Senator Eze's claims, when interrogated, leave gaping holes and missing links.

For example, Eze has failed to controvert the fact that the Enugu State chapter of the PDP and the national headquarters chose the Nnamdi Azikiwe Stadium, Enugu as the venue for the PDP gubernatorial primary election and that the INEC, security agencies, and all delegates were duly informed of the venue for the election and they duly attended to perform their respective roles.

He has also failed to prove that the Panel from Abuja headed by King Asara Asara did not conduct the election with the official delegates list, ballot papers, and result sheets obtained from the party headquarters with which it returned the winner, Hon. Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi, who was duly issued a Certificate of Return after the exercise. He has not also shown us where the Electoral Act, which he had participated in amending as a Senator, empowers aspirants to procure electoral materials (ballot papers, result sheets, return certificates) from the streets and use same to return themselves as duly elected candidates of political parties?

This is why the petition sent to the Commissioner of Police in Enugu by the state PDP leadership calling for the investigation, arrest, and prosecution of Senator Eze for alleged forgery of the PDP Primary Election Result Sheet should not be swept under the carpet by the police or treated as a PDP “family affair”.

Furthermore, while it is on record that all the statutory delegates from the Governor and Deputy Senate President down to the local government party chairmen and council chairmen, etc. participated in the primary election that produced Hon. Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi, Senator Eze has also refused to name any of the chieftains, INEC, etc. that attended his “roadside parallel primary” or who certified and accredited the delegates that supposedly “elected” him.

Ayogu Eze gives the impression that the ad-hoc delegates are his personal property. He claims that he had all the elected ad-hoc delegates in Enugu East and North Senatorial Districts and two local governments in Enugu West (Governor Chime and Ekweremadu's district), namely Udi and Ezeagu. That is a total of 657 ad-hoc delegates out of 780. It is common knowledge that Senator Ekweremadu led the struggle for what Ayogu Eze now flaunts as the “authentic delegates list”, although he decamped to that camp as a latecomer after Hon. Ugwuanyi was chosen above him by

THE NATION ON SUNDAY JANUARY 11, 2015

Missing links in Ayogu Eze's claim to Enugu PDP ticket

•Ugwuanyi

•Eze

By Godfrey Ugwu Nsukka Stakeholders and Enugu PDP. In other words, Ayogu is now telling us that all that Ekweremadu who had openly endorsed and canvassed support for Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi's candidature after his reconciliation with Chime, has to show for all struggle was a miserly 123 number of ad-hoc delegates? And when you subtract 657 ad-hoc delegates from a total number of 1008 (ad-hoc plus about 200 statutory delegates), he is telling us that all that the whole of Enugu PDP stalwarts, including Sullivan and Ekweremadu put together could boast of was N360 delegates. The claims convey a false sense of self-worth and make no sense.

On what basis does he lay claims to “ownership” of delegates almost across board? Is he even the political leader of his Nsukka zone where Ifeanyi also hails from? What has Nsukka benefited from his eight years in the Senate or four years

as Commissioner in Enugu State let alone running over to Enugu East and parts of West? Is it the effective execution of the celebrated N2.5 billion Adada Dam and Water Treatment project for which the contractor handling the project was reportedly duly mobilized since May 2014? Or is it the N12. 9 billion Ogurute UmuidaUnadu AkpanyaOdolu Road linking communities in Enugu and Kogi States, which had since been abandoned even though he chairs the Senate Committee on works?

It is also false/erroneous to compare the Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi/Ayogu Eze scenario to the Governor Rotimi Amaechi/Celestine Omehia scenerio or live with the illusion that the courts would make him Governor like Ameachi. In Rivers, both Omehia and Amechi contested the same primary, which Ameachi won. However, His Imperial Majesty, then President Olusegun Obasanjo refused to hand Amechi the party's flag at the rally, insisting that it had a "K-Leg". He imposed

Omehia instead.

In Enugu's case, Eze bouycotted the primary election. He went to Filbon hotel to perform a charade, fabricated PDP result sheets (the basis of the PDP's petition to the Police) where he declared himself winner in a matter of minutes. The law is clear that the basis to challenge the outcome of a primary election, is that the person must have partaken of it. The same defect applies to the Sam Onyishi's suit as he boycotted the primary too. And if Ayogu calls his charade a parallel primary, the Supreme Court has already held in Senator Lado Vs. CPC that when there are claims of parallel primaries, it is the party's business, not the court's, to determine which is authentic.

What Ayogu Eze did after the PDP National Panel told him they could only rely on the official list given to them by the party's national headquarters for the assignment rather than accept the one he attempted to force on them is like a JAMB candidate saying he would not partake in the official exam of the body because he did not like the questions or the centre.

He goes to the roadside or his bedroom, manufactures his own questions, answers scripts, marking scheme, then marks his scripts and declare himself the higest scorer. Then he expects to gain entrance into the university with such “Oluwole” result. The mere fact that Ayogu Eze went to the Federal High Court, Abuja to obtain a “Certified True Copy” of the Enugu PDP Delegates list did not confer on him the right to compel the PDP Electoral Panel to use his list and dump the official list from headquarters, especially when the party as a lawabiding legal entity must have taken the law and the position of the court into cognizance in handing any list to its panel.

Besides, Ayogu was not a party to the suit that gave rise to the court verdict on Enugu ward congresses where the adhoc delegates list emerged. If there were any manipulations, I am sure that the plaintiffs, Mr. Orji Chinenye Godwin, Chiefs Cletus C. Akalusi and Orji C. Orji who filed suit number FHC/ABJ//CS/816/2014) on behalf of themselves and all delegates elected on November 1, 2014 would have been the ones crying foul.

Therefore, Ayogu's claims to the PDP governorship ticket holds no water. It is rather one of the most unexciting comedies of the current democratic process.

Ugwu writes from Obolo-Afor, Enugu

In search of Father Mbaka

•Continued from Page 65

the workers said the resumption will be first Friday of next month.

They were seen relaxing in some of the spots and stalls in the premises. A lady by name Grace told The Nation that the one month break is part of the tradition of the programme to enable workers have some rest.

She said, “Soon after every New Year message for the nation, we normally close so that we can resume a month after. So, this is not new; people have been saying that Fr. Mbaka did it out of fear.

Fear of what or who? He has given his message. Let the people concerned go and repent and do the right thing to make us happy.”

She went on to ask: “Is this the first time he would be attacking them, telling them to change?

He is not here to talk to please man but to tell the people the voice of God. If he has told the people and their leaders what is wrong in the society, why do they want to kill him? And they think they can get him? I only wish they will leave him alone to say more if that will make Nigeria move for-

ward.”

Even though Mbaka spares no one, when he is in the mood to speak against religious and political misdeeds, they still throng his adoration service, most Fridays, to listen to him. Before the last New Year message, however, it was gathered from impeccable sources that he had told his congregation at his usual morning masses that he would release a bumper New Year message for the people. He said, “Go tell whomsoever you care to tell, that many things will happen on that day.”

The source also revealed that few days to the sermon, December 22, 2014, many trailer loads of rice were delivered to him from Abuja. The message accompanying the rice read, “it is for you Father to distribute to widows as Christmas and New Year present.” Even though he was reluctant to accept, he was assured that he was the only person who would distribute them without recrimination. He was said to have told his flock: “this will not stop the message from God. Let them wait and receive what is in the offing for them.”

A native of Ikiti in Awgu LGA of Enugu State, Mbaka is the only son of a herbalist father.

Before he became a priest, his father was reluctant to allow him but having been encouraged by his mother, he went ahead to become a priest fifteen years ago.

His New Year message still rankles. This has led to many avoiding to make any comments for or against it. In fact, most of the people approached for comments politely declined to talk, while those who did pleaded anonymity.

THE NATION ON SUNDAY JANUARY 11, 2015

NEWS

Nigeria loses N1.2 trillion to oil theft in 12 months, says Aregbesola

Kano, Sokoto, other airports to face flight cancellation -NIMET

From Adekunle Jimoh, Ilorin

N

IGERIA has lost about N1.2 trillion to crude oil theft, Osun State governor, Rauf Aregbesola, has claimed.

The governor said this in Ilorin, the Kwara State capit,al at the celebration of life/ books presentation of the National Vice President of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Isa Aremu.

He added that the mismanagement of the country's resources by successive governments is responsible for Nigeria's current travails.

Aregbesola argued, "Presidential system of government is wasteful and expensive. The real issue with Nigeria is that since 1999, we have had a crop of people who have no business in governance; administering our resources and wasting same; and I will situate this position on something that most of us take for granted.

"From July 2013, the federal government announced to Nigerians that 400,000 barrels of crude oil were being stolen everyday and as a result, the revenue coming to government either federal or states fell by 40 percent. We must ask ourselves: how does 400,000 barrels translate to 40 percent decline in revenue?"

The governor added, "Nigeria produces about 2.5 million barrels of crude oil per day. About 500,000 of that go into what they call domestic consumption, so we are left with 200 million barrels. If we want to use local calculation that cannot and must not be 40 percent, it should be at best 20 percent.

"So how does 20 percent now translate to 40 percent reduction in revenue of government in Nigeria? If that is too mathematical for us to comprehend, let us look at what Nigeria has lost in 12 months between July 2013 and July 2014 as a result of the loss of 400,000 of crude oil being lost to theft.

"Let us assume that stolen oil cannot attract premium price. Between those months, oil price in the international market was between 110 and 115 dollars. Let us say because the 400,000 barrels of crude oil would be sold at 50 dollars per barrel, if you multiply 50 dollars by 400,000 barrels of crude oil you, will get 20 million dollars.

It simply means 20 million dollars is being lost to theft.

Now multiply 20 million dollars for 12 months by seven days in a week and by 54 weeks.

I did a summary of this and I arrived at $7.5 billion dollars.

Between July 2013 and July 2014, Nigeria has lost that princely sum of money to oil theft. For those of you who can still not comprehend what $7.5 billion dollars means, practically Nigeria lost N1.2 trillion to oil theft."

Warning of dire times ahead, the governor noted, "Beginning from August last year, oil is now at its lowest level in recent times. It sells for below 50 dollars now. I pray that God will not bring it to as low as 10 dollars. If that happens, Nigeria will be in such a dire situation that riding an Okada, as depressing and degrading as it is will be a luxury."

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From Faith Yahaya, Abuja

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•Sympathisers at the scene of the inferno that gutted over 100 shops at the popular spare parts market in Agodi, Ibadan on Saturday.

FG releases N3b to Kaduna for 2011 post-election violence victims

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ICE President Mohammed Namadi Sambo has said the federal government has released N3 billion for onward disbursement to victims of the 2011 post-election violence in Kaduna State.

He spoke at the weekend during the 40th anniversary of the coronation of the Emir of Zazzau, Alhaji Shehu Idris, in reaction to the recent protest by

From Abdulgafar Alabelewe, Kaduna

victims of the crisis over nonpayment of compensation promised by the government.

Sambo said the money which was already in the coffers of the state government would be disbursed to the affected victims accordingly.

He, however, stressed the

need for people to live in peace with one another to enable government at all levels effectively deliver the dividends of democracy to the electorate.

While congratulating the Emir for attaining 40 years on throne, Sambo attributed the success recorded by the Emirate to patience, fairness, justice and truthfulness.

Kaduna State Governor, Mukhtar Yero, in his remarks advised both politicians and the electorate not to see the forthcoming election as a door-die affair in the interest of Nigeria's democracy.

Highlight of the occasion was a durbar performed by district heads and traditional title holders of the Emirate.

Jonathan lacks good sense of history, say Buhari supporters T HE Buhari Support Organisation, an umbrella body of all groups and associations campaigning for the election of the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Gen. Muhammadu Buhari, has accused President Goodluck Jonathan of standing history in its head saying no amount of distortion will stop Buhari from winning the February 14 presidential election.

In a statement signed by its Head of Media and ICT, Dr. Chidia Maduakwe, the organisation said it was regrettable that rather than engage on issue-based campaign, the president and his team were more concerned about the age of Buhari and how he cannot remember his telephone number.

Maduekwe, who was reacting to Jonathan's campaign statement that Buhari never equipped the army as Head of

From Tony Akowe

State, said available records have it that the military were well taken care of during the Buhari regime than now.

He said: "Contemporary presidents worldwide usually drip with facts and records of history when addressing an audience particularly during an election year while on campaign. It is very regrettable that our incumbent president failed woefully in the litmus test he set for himself to run an issuebased campaign. With a PhD degree, he is highly educated to occupy the exalted post of the president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and so, accessing facts should not ordinarily pose a problem.

"Verifiable records listed below has it that even with less oil revenue accruing to both the Buhari and Babangida regimes

as compared to the heavy windfall which continued after Jonathan came into power about six years ago, the military then were by far better taken care off with modern equipment, welfare and high moral than now. Their glowing global performance then can attest to this simple fact.

"Please refer to Central Bank of Nigeria, Economic and Financial Review (Lagos), 23, June 1985, 80; and Economist Intelligence Unit, Country Profile: Nigeria, 1990-91, London, 1990, 25. Also based on information from United States, Arms Control and Disarmament Agency, World Military Expenditures and Arms Transfers, 1972-1982, Washington, April 1984, table III, 95; and United States, Arms Controls and Disarmament Agency, World Military Expenditures and Arms

Transfers, 1988, Washington, June 1989, table III, 111.

"With the current magnitude of insecurity, corruption and economic downturn facing this country, one is totally taken aback with this revelation of the intellectual shallowness of the decision making clique that has held this country hostage in the last six years.

"Fortunately, Nigerians are saying it loud and clear that the much younger PhD holding GEJ has failed to lead us out from the woods.

"We might just juxtapose the very important views of President Ronald Regan during the 1984 campaign for the presidency when he said he will not make age an issue in the campaign and will not exploit for political purposes the youth and inexperience of his opponent. Also Thomas Jefferson once said, 'We should never judge a president by his age, only by his works."

Group targets one million volunteers for Buhari/Osinbajo A HEAD of next month's general elections, a volunteer group, Coalition for Change (C4C), has set in motion plans to ensure that the All Progressives Congress (APC) emerges victorious at the polls by engaging at least one million volunteers in the 36 states of the federation.

At its inauguration held at the Buhari/Osinbajo campaign office in Victoria Island, Lagos at the weekend, the group called on Nigerians to vote out President Goodluck Jonathan.

While appreciating the various volunteers for their

By Precious Igbonwelundu

overwhelming support for Buhari and his running mate, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, leaders of the group said it was formed to synergise the activities of the various volunteers in line with the objectives of the campaign organisation.

Addressing a mammoth crowd of volunteers, one of APC campaign leaders in the state, Dr. Tunde Ayeye, said their motive was to move from door to door, preaching the message of change and

reigniting the voting spirit in people.

He stated that God has decided to smile on Nigeria by presenting two individuals with integrity, leadership qualities and the genuine desire to serve.

According to Ayeye, the Buhari/Osinbajo candidature signifies hope in the midst of despair, urging volunteers to go to their neighbourhoods and convince people to vote for the APC in next month's general elections.

He said: "I am certain that

there is hope for Nigeria with the Buhari/Osinbajo ticket. A lot of people despite the despair in the land, have committed their time and are determined to effect the desired change in the country.

"We want to ensure that citizen rights and responsibilities are fulfilled; we will do everything within the ambit of the law to ensure that. We are members of the same team and working for the same purpose. We found out that a lot of individuals and groups have shown interest and believe that the Buhari/Osinbajo ticket is the best option for our country today.

HE Nigeria Meteorological Agency (NIMET) has disclosed that some states in the North West would experience flight delays and cancellation.

According to the agency, the forecast is due to what it described as "dust outbreak".

Due to the dust outbreak, poor visibility which is already witnessed in some states in the North is expected to affect other states in the country.

In a statement issued by the agency, it said, "We have observed a fresh episode of dust outbreaks over the country with horizontal visibility as low as 100m over Katsina, Sokoto and Kano?.

This resulted from the dust plume raised over Niger/ Chad Republic in the past 24 hours and transported by strong Northeast winds into the country.

"By the 10th January, 2015, most parts of the country will be affected by moderate to thick dust haze with horizontal visibility less than 1000m. The poor visibility already affecting extreme north will extend to the central states with visibility between 500m to 1500m. The visibility in southern parts of the country is expected to be between 800m to 2000m."

The agency assured that it would continuously monitor the weather conditions as they unfold and provide regular updates and advisories to the general public.

CSO lauds CAC, NEMA, AMMC on performance From Bukola Amusan, Abuja

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HE coalition of civil society (CSO) in collaboration with some international partners in its independent assessment and evaluation of projects and programme of agencies of government in Nigeria have commended the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC)and Abuja Metropolitan Management Council (AMMC) for their performances in 2014.

In a press statement signed by the president, Comrade Etuk Bassey Williams and Kristen Taylor Wright of the Centre for Leadership and Democratic Studies, said despite the criticisms of governance in Nigeria, some government agencies delivered on their mandate last year.

The group said its 294 page report was based on the mandate, objectives and scope of the three agencies.

Also included in the report are quality and content impact of their activities on the Nigerian economy, an overview of their 2014 projects and capacity building for the staff and management, procurement/ transparency index, Servicom compliance and administrative uprightness.

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THE NATION ON SUNDAY JANUARY 11, 2015

NEWS

Mammoth crowd welcomes Ayade to Calabar

Rivers 2015: Peterside campaigns at NLNG base, promises to upgrade varsity

• After receiving PDP flag

From Bisi Olaniyi and Precious Dikewoha, Port Harcourt

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HE governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Rivers State, Dr. Dakuku Adol Peterside, has taken his electioneering to Bonny Island, the base of the Nigerian Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG) Company Limited and headquarters of Bonny Local Government Area of the state.

When he succeeds Governor Rotimi Amaechi on May 29 this year, Peterside said, by God's grace, his administration would work with the federal government to ensure the upgrading of the Federal Oil and Gas Polytechnic in Bonny to a university.

He also assured that his government would work with the Joint Industrial Committee of Rivers State to set up the Bonny Kingdom Development Foundation to fast-track the development of the island.

The Rivers governorship candidate of the APC, who is also a member of the House of Representatives, representing Andoni-Opobo/Nkoro constituency, stated these yesterday when he and his team visited the Amanyanabo (king) of Grand Bonny Kingdom, Edward Asimini Dappa-Pepple, in Bonny.

He said: "The federal government initiated the Oil and Gas Polytechnic. Your Majesty, we will explore that process and work closely with the federal government and push that the Polytechnic be converted to Oil and Gas University.

Peterside also assured that Bonny would have a special place in the efforts of his administration, if elected on February 28, especially to expand the economic opportunities for all Rivers people, which, according to him, would be the main focus of his administration.

He said: "The focus of this in-coming government from May 29 will be on growing the economy and expanding economic opportunities for all our people. In our focus area, Bonny will occupy a special place. We will look at the economy of Bonny. We will work with the Joint Industrial Committee to activate the Bonny Kingdom Development Foundation, so that we can bring all development efforts under one basket and leap-frog the development of Bonny Kingdom.”

King Dappa-Pepple, in his response, through the Chairman of the Bonny Traditional Council, Col. Manilla Pepple (rtd.), pleaded for support for shoreline protection, job creation and empowerment of the people.

Meanwhile, over 2000 Rivers widows yesterday gathered at Rundele community in Emohua Local government area of Rivers State to pray for Peterside in the forthcoming governorship election.

The widows under the egis of Alice Worluh's Widows Foundation said that it was the opportunity Governor Amaechi gave to the founder of Alice Worluh's Widows Foundation that made the widows under the organisation to become nation-builders in-

•Cross River State gubernatorial candidate of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Sen. Ben Ayade, in a motorcade saluting his teaming supporters shortly on arrival in Calabar, from Abuja where the party flag was handed over to him. yesterday.

Man kills brother over Owho soup • Eight-year-old defiled inside church A 57-YEAR-old man, Sunday Osamwekha, has been arrested by the police in Edo State for killing his half brother while arguing over Owho soup.

The suspect was said to have chopped off the hand of the deceased with a cutlass which led to his death.

Police said the incident happened at Evboesi village in Orhionmwon Local Government Area.

Sunday told The Nation during a parade of suspects by the police that his late brother dipped plantain

From Osagie Otabor, Benin

into the Owho soup he was eating and did not show any remorse.

He said he did not intend to kill his brother but that he bled to death.

Police sources said Sunday was an ex-convict who had only recently regained his freedom.

Also, one John Abiodun, aged 27, was paraded for defiling an eight-year-old girl in a church auditorium along Medical Store Road in

Benin City.

The suspect was said to have offered the victim N50 after he called the victim away from the church pastor's children she was playing with.

Police statement said the suspect later dragged the victim into one of the rooms in the church and have carnal knowledge of her.

Others arrested for defilement included 72 yearsold Solomon Ugiagbe, who defiled an 11-year old girl

at Evbuotubu, 32-years-old Kelvin Ohenhoba who slept with a 12-year-old girl inside a bush, and James H'shagbe who reportedly had carnal knowledge of a four-year-old child.

A total of 28 suspects were paraded for last month cult killings in the state which claimed over 15 lives.

State Commissioner of Police, Foluso Adebanjo, in a chat with newsmen, said the suspects have confessed to the crime and would soon be charged to court.

Presbyterian Church plans centenary celebration for Mary Slessor T HE Presbyterian Church of Nigeria (PCN) is set to celebrate Mary Slessor, a Scotland missionary, who helped to stop the killing of twins among other fetish practice in Nigeria, precisely in present day Akwa Ibom, Cross River, Abia and Ebonyi States.

Mary Mitchell Slessor was born in Gilcomston, Aberdeen, Scotland in 1846 and was appointed by the Mission Board, United Presbyterian Church, Edinburgh, to Calabar in 1876.

In a media interaction at the Akwa Synod of the Church on Wellington Bassey Way, Uyo, Akwa

From Uyoatta Eshiet, Uyo

Ibom State over the weekend, the Synod Moderator, Rev (Dr) Moses Edem, recalled that the young lady abandoned her marriage proposal at 28 years when she received the call to serve God and thereafter dedicated the rest of her life for the good of mankind in Nigeria especially in the present day Akwa Ibom, Cross River, Abia and Ebony States.

He said: "The Presbyterian Church of Nigeria (PCN) is set to celebrate the life and times

of one of the greatest early missionaries to Nigeria whose sacrificial service, particularly in the crusade for the preservation of the sanctity of human lives in the country are legendary - Mary Mitchell Slessor.

"Her crusades yielded many positive results such as: the stoppage of the killing of twin babies and the banishment of their mothers.

The stoppage of the application of "Esere beans" on people suspected of witchcraft in Okoyong, ltu, and lkot Obong areas."

2015: Urhobo elite divided over execution of Uvwiamughe declaration

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HIS might not be the best of times for the formidable Urhobo Progress Union (UPU) as cracks have been noticed among its leadership ranks over the direction to lead the fifth largest ethnic nation to in the next month's election.

The Nation had reported the avowed stance of the UPU leadership on Urhobo people's Uvwiamughe Declaration, which served as their article of faith and minimum demand for the 2015 elections.

The declaration, which was made on February 28, 2014, noted that the Urhobo nation, being the largest ethnic group in Delta, with a voting strength of more than one million vot-

From Bolaji Ogundele, Warri and Polycarp Orosevwotu, Asaba ers, would only give its votes in bloc, across all elective contests, to whichever of the ruling People's Democratic Party (PDP) and the All Progressives' Congress (APC) that gives its governorship ticket to an Urhobo candidate.

The UPU had, prior to the governorship primary of the PDP, had subtly advised President Jonathan to ensure his party worked its ticket for the candidate of choice of Urhobo extraction.

However, following the failure of the PDP to give the party's

governorship ticket to a candidate of Urhobo extraction, as the party's ticket was won by Senator Ifeanyi Okowa, who hails from Agbor in the Delta Northern Senatorial District, some leaders of the UPU, The Nation learnt, have been seeking means and ways of jettisoning the declaration and go ahead to endorse President Jonathan.

In a recent interview with The Nation, the President General of the UPU, Chief Joe Omene, had given a hint to the group's soft-spot for President Jonathan, notwithstanding the relegation of Urhobo ethnic ambition to produce the next governor in Delta state.

The Moderator added that though Mary Slessor came basically as a missionary of the Church of Scotland now PCN, she also played the role of a teacher, magistrate, medical officer and peacemaker.

Her activities helped to bring about a new lease of life to the areas administered.

The moderator who gave a rundown of the centenary celebrations which kickedoff since November 10 will end with a memorial/ thanksgiving services to be held at the PCN, Duke Town, Calabar with the governors of the four states and top echelons of the church expected.

Omene had said the UPU would still give President Jonathan the benefit of doubt by listening to his explanation of what led to the defeat of Chief David Edevbie, the preferred Urhobo aspirant at the PDP governorship primary, suggesting that the president might not, after all, be the one to blame.

But there are still some hardliners in the ranks of the executives of the UPU, who are of the opinion that the Uvwiamughe Declaration must be sacrosanct, insisting that PDP's insistence to take its ticket away from Urhobo land should be viewed as adversarial and thus President Jonathan and all others who would be contesting on the platform of the PDP should pay for that by not getting any of the huge votes from Urhobo land.

N what could be likened to a victory procession, throngs of supporters and party stalwarts numbering close to a million, yesterday, turned out at the Margaret Ekpo International Airport, Calabar, the Cross River State capital, to welcome Governor Liyel Imoke and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governorship candidate, Senator Ben Ayade, after receiving the party flag from the National Chairman of the party, Dr Adamu Mu'azu, at the presidential rally in Lagos on Thursday.

The governorship candidate had returned from Abuja at exactly 4,15pm, into the waiting hands of his teeming supporters, party members, women and youth groups who had waited at the airport as early as 10.am to receive him back in Calabar.

In a carnival-like procession, the crowd, comprising men and women, young and old clad in various cultural attires, drawn from the 18 council areas of the state, bearing different posters of President Jonathan, drummed, danced and chanted: "PDP, Power to the people", "Quintessential Imoke", "Jonathan is our man", "Ayade, the best choice for continuity", "Ayade carry go", "Ayade, nothing do you."

As early as 10.am, Calabar, the state capital, was literally shut down as hordes of ecstatic supporters, traders, artisans closed shop and lined up the streets to welcome back the governorship candidate.

Accompanied by a large throng of his political associates, party faithful drawn from across the state, Professor Ayade, who was driven in a motorcade waved the party flag to the jubilant crowd continuously as his convoy snaked slowly through the traffic gridlock.

An elated Ayade who was received by a mammoth crowd which had awaited his arrival, said: "Honestly, I am overwhelmed by what I am seeing.

I never could have believed that these great men and women, who have one thing or the other to do, could abandon their tight schedules and other engagements all because of me."

Continuing, he said: "This is a bold statement of what Cross River State stands for. It speaks volumes of the capacity of PDP in the state. And above all it speaks of the direction of the people which is to vote massively for the party, PDP and President Goodluck Jonathan come February 14, 2015. This turnout shows that we all share in a common vision. The vision to continue with what His Excellency started seven years ago. I really thank everyone out here today for believing in this vision."

On what he made of the huge reception for the governorship candidate, a former governorship aspirant and now House of Representatives candidate, Barrister Legor Idagbo said: "From the crowd gathered here, it is clear that we are all happy with our governorship candidate in the person of Senator Ayade. It shows acceptability and the fact that everyone is happy with the choice.”

THE NATION ON SUNDAY JANUARY 11, 2015

Otti expresses fear over future of Abia From Sunny Nwankwo, Aba HE gubernatorial candidate of the All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA) in Abia State, Dr. Alex Otti, has expressed fears over the future of the state if a Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate emerges the governor of the state in 2015.

Otti, speaking at Umunneochi Local Government Area during a consultative meeting with some stakeholders in the area, stated that hard times awaits the state in the next 4-8 years (2015-19 and 2019-2023 respectively) should PDP succeed in foisting on Abians a candidate that has lost the support of the people.

The governorship candidate, who was the state banker, made it clear that he was not coming to be the governor of the state to enrich his purse, but to bring to bear his administrative and leadership experience to transform and revitalise the economy of the state and to also put the state on the threshold of economic development which it was noted for.

The former MD of Diamond Bank after recounting how bad the state has been managed in the past eight years said he wept for the state after the result of a study on the state by a private consulting firm he contracted showed the state of decay in the state, contrary to the picture the incumbent administration paints that all is well in the state.

Otti, while calling on Abia electorate to go and get their Permanent Voters Card (PVC) to effect the needed change the state and the citizens yarn for, lamented the low success rate in Abia unlike their Kano and Yobe counterparts with over 80 percent success rate, stressing that the importance of PVC could not be overemphasised.

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Ikpeazu promises massive infrastructural development in Aba From Sunny Nwankwo, Aba

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HE governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Abia State, Dr. Okezie Ikpeazu, has promised his supporters in Aba North and South Local Government Area in the state that he would resuscitate economic and business activities in the commercial city as soon as he assumes office as the governor of the state on May 29.

Ikpeazu, speaking at Aba Town Hall and Boys Technical College (BTC) by Faulks Road during the inauguration of Aba North and South PDP campaign team respectively, on Saturday, stated that Aba, as the economic hub of the state, would receive massive infrastructural development within his tenure as the governor of the state.

According to the PDP flag bearer, traders from Cameroun, Rivers, Cross River, Akwa Ibom and other parts of the country who deserted the town were going to come back to come and patronse traders doing business in the Enyimba City.

He promised to provide security, embark on massive infrastructural development and initiate people programmes that would touch the lives of Abians positively.

Senator Emma Nwaka, Abia PDP state chairman, while inaugurating the Aba North Campaign team, expressed satisfaction over the turnout of party supporters who witnessed the exercise.

Nwaka who was at the event with some PDP national and state legislators from the state and the two local governments said he was optimistic that President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan and other PDP candidates in the state and other parts of the country were going to emerge victorious at the Feb 14 and 28 general elections.

NEWS

Umahi's PDP faction begs Elechi for forgiveness

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HE faction of the People's Democratic Party (PDP), Ebonyi State chapter, loyal to the state deputy governor, Dave Umahi, at the weekend begged Governor Martin Elechi for forgiveness ahead of next month's election.

The acting chairman of the party, Chief Joseph Onwe, made the appeal to the governor at the stakeholders' meeting convened by the governor at the party's secretariat in Abakaliki.

He appealed to the governor to ensure that the party's interest is promoted above others, stressing that PDP, since he was sworn-in in

From Ogochukwu Anioke, Abakaliki

2007 as the governor, has enjoyed uncommon progress and peace.

Onwe also begged him to forgive those that had wronged him in the past and move forward.

He also begged the governor to attend the official flag-off of the party's campaign in the state tomorrow (Monday).

Responding, Elechi stressed that he is not only the governor of the PDP that brought him to power but also to other political parties.

The governor also lamented the disunity in his party, saying he was not aware

that the party will kick off campaign on Monday.

He said his purpose for convening the meeting of the stakeholders of the party was to inform them of the coming of President Goodluck Jonathan to Ebonyi State scheduled to hold on January 16.

Elechi noted with dismay that the party he is leading is witnessing problems.

"Many people could not come here on time because of some reasons. I'm usually blunt when I speak. Our problems are of our own making, whether we accept it or not. There were conflicting signals for people not to come for this meeting.

"By the implication of my being the leader of this party and I was elected on the platform of PDP but having been sworn-in as governor of the state, I'm supposed to be responsible for the interest of everybody in the state regardless of party division.

I'm working for the wellbeing of everybody including those in opposition party. I'm supposed to protect their lives, property and interest just as I do with those in the same party with me.

"If we approach our business with narrow mindedness and bring unnecessary division among ourselves, we will get to nowhere," he said.

•Cross section of members of Catholic Knights of Saint Mulumba, Gwagwalada sub-council, at a mass during the inauguration of members of Catholic marriage tribunal, to mark the Catholic judicial year of Abuja Archdiocesan Ecclesiastical province at St. Paul Catholic Church, Gwagwalada in Abuja on Saturday

Publish our names now or..., Anambra PDP candidates warn INEC

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LL the three Senatorial, 11 House of Represenatives and 33 State House of Assembly candidates on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) have accused the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) of giving undue advantage to opposition parties in Anambra State by its refusal to publish their names.

According to the aggrieved PDP candidates, continued refusal of the electoral umpire to publish their names against court pronouncements was total disregard for court orders.

In a statement signed by Chief Tony Offiah, Hon Julius Oforma and Princess Ifeyinwa Anazonwa yesterday in Abuja, they said INEC's action was an invitaion to anarchy in the state.

According to them, refusal to publish their names is capable of inciting their supporters against INEC which they may not be able to control.

The aggrieved candidates said their protest against INEC was dictated by the pronouncement of S E Chukwu in his judgement in suit No. FHC/ 874/2014 that ordered the state's

executive committee, led by Ejike Oguebego, to conduct the party's primary election.

Besides, the candidates pointed out that INEC also declared it will participate, monitor and recognise only the congresses conducted by the Ejike Oguebego-led committee.

The statement reads in part: "INEC had in a memo to the PDP national leadership, stated that it will only monitor the congresses of Ejike Oguebego-led Executive and that it will be guided by court order.

"We wish to state that we were guided by the two factors before we took steps that

informed our involvement and participation in the primary elections."

The aggrieved candidates pointed out that their participation and eventual victory in the primary election was based on the belief that INEC was set to follow due process and the rule of law.

However, it was shocking that the electoral body's position was affected by certain events, they said.

They therefore urged the electoral body "to be law abiding and publish our names forthwith."

Armed bandits attack bank in Abia

group of yet-to-be identified gunmen attacked one of the new generation banks in Arochukwu Local Government Area of Abia State, killing a Lagos-based businessman and carted away undisclosed cash from one of the bank's Automated Teller Machines (ATM).

Sources within Arochukwu where the incident happened told our reporter that the incident lasted for about three hours and after the efforts of the robbers to break into the bank's vault, they turned to the ATMs where they

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From: Dele Anofi, Abuja

From Sunny Nwankwo, Aba

succeeded in vandalizing one of them and carted away undisclosed cash.

Another source said that a Lagos-based building contractor, Mr. Stephen Okereke, was killed because of the impact of the bullet wounds he sustained after the dreaded robbers shot sporadically at Tundra Sports Utility Vehicle (SUV) on sighting him within the area of their operation.

According to the source, "the robbers operated from 1am to 3am unchallenged. The police who were alerted of the incident could not do anything. In fact, they

(robbers) after robbing, drove pass the police and headed to the water where their speed boat was waiting for them before they made way to Cross River State.

"The robbers, we learnt, launched nine dynamites and yet, they could not have access to the bank's vault after breaking into the bank's main building.

When contacted, the Abia State Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), Geoffrey Ogbonna confirmed the robbery incident and was quick to dispel insinuations that police could not do anything to foil the robbery

incident, stressing that the robbers' inability to break into the bank's vault was because the police officers were courageous enough to confront the armed bandits.

In a related development, The Nation gathered that a branch of the same bank was similarly attacked at Isuochi, Umunneochi Local Government Area where they made away with an undisclosed amount of money. Though information about the robbery incident as at the time of this report was still sketch, sources within the area confirmed the robbery incident.

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Abia requires 1.9m nets, 19,000 personnel for insecticidal net replacement Ugochukwu Ugoji-Eke, Umuahia

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he Supervising Minister of Health, Dr Khaliru Alhassan, has said that Abia State requires about 1.9million long lasting treated mosquito insecticidal nets and 19,000 personnel who have been trained for the nets' replacement.

The minister said this during the campaign for the replacement of the treated mosquito nets which kicked off in Umuahia North Local Government council secretariat in Umuahia, for the people to be aware that they need to replace their earlier given mosquito nets.

The minister, who was represented by the National Coordinator, National Malaria Elimination Programme, Dr Nnenna Ezeigwe, said over 50million nets have been distributed since 2009 worldwide, including Nigeria.

The minister however lamented that the use of the nets has been low in spite of the increased awareness creation campaign and urged the people of the state to take the issue with seriousness, if they want to wipe out malaria.

Alhassan called on the state government to commit more resources to the fight against malaria, and reiterated that the nets were free having been paid for by the government through its partners.

In his address, Governor Theodore Orji, said the state government would not relent until malaria was eliminated from the state, stressing that it was regrettable that 25 percent of the population do not sleep under the nets.

The governor said the essence of the nets replacement campaign was to prevent malaria from spreading, "We need to sleep under the treated mosquito nets to avoid contracting malaria and help government wipe out malaria completely in our state".

Also speaking, the state Commissioner for Health, Dr Okechukwu Ogah, said about 1.4 million long lasting insecticidal nets (LLINs) were distributed in the state three years ago, adding that the state government is ready to continue from where it stopped.

Anambra PDP: INEC’s report declares Chris Uba, John Emeka, Annie Okonkwo winners From: Vincent Ikuomola, Abuja

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HE Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has declared Chief Chris Uba, Prince John Emeka and Senator Annie Okonkwo as senatorial candidates of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Anambra State in next month’s elections.

This is based on reports filed in by INEC officials who monitored the party’s primaries in the state.

However, Uche Ekwunife, Stella Oduah and Andy Uba say they are the authentic candidates of the PDP. It was gathered that the INEC team comprising Chika Okafor, an Assistant Director, Adam A. DanShuaibu, a Principal Admin Officer and Joy Uba, a Senior Executive Officer, described the PDP primaries conducted on December 7 as very peaceful.

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THE NATION ON SUNDAY JANUARY 11, 2015

NEWS

Herdsmen attack claims four in Kogi

Youths set ablaze Jonathan campaign vehicles in Jos

James Azania, Lokoja

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BOUT four people were said to have been killed in Kupa Abugi community in Lokoja Local Government Area of Kogi State following an attack by Fulani herdsmen in the area.

It was gathered that the community and the herdsmen have been having issues bothering on the killing of a youth who was sent on an errand in November last by some Fulani herdsmen in the area.

It was gathered that the youths in the area angered by the killing attacked a Fulani settlement leading to the death of one person.

It was also gathered that after the incident, the leader of the Fulani herdsmen conveyed a peace meeting with the traditional ruler of the community where they agreed to sheath sword and allow peace to reign.

A source said despite the peace meeting, late November, the herdsmen carried out a reprisal attack, killing five people, razing several houses and destroying property worth millions of naira in the process.

As a result, the Kogi State government set up a committee to look into the remote cause of the crisis and make recommendation, but the committee was yet to complete its assignment before the recent attack.

The recent clash according to findings was as a result of herdsmen that destroyed crops belonging to farmers in the community while grazing their cattle.

The source who pleaded anonymity said that following the skirmish, the Fulani claimed to have lost a cow, adding that in order to prevent further hostility in the area, the then local government chairman before his removal paid for the cow.

"But despite that, the herdsmen a few days back raided the village again, killing four persons and burning down houses and destroying property", he said.

Confirming the incident, the Kogi State Police Command Public Relations Officer, (PPRO), Elvis Aguebor, said the latest incident bothered on the lingering crisis between the indigenes and Fulani settlers in the area.

He said security men have been drafted to the area and that normalcy has since returned, adding that the command is holding a peace meeting with aggrieved parties to find amicable resolution to the crisis.

The PPRO who said there were casualties during the attack could however not ascertain the exact figures.

From Yusufu Aminu Idegu, Jos

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WO buses belonging to the President Goodluck Jonathan campaign organisation were yesterday set ablaze in Jos, Plateau State.

It was gathered that the buses were stopped and set ablaze by irate youths around Mango Street and Bauchi Road in Jos North local government area yesterday evening.

The occupants of the vehicle were however set free by the youths who were chanting "Bamua so Jonathan" in Hausa, meaning we don't want Jonathan.

An eye witness said the driver of the bus had attracted attention when he nearly hit a young lady as a result of over speeding.

• Cars seized from the suspect’s house

EFCC holds ex-minister’s former son-in-law over N750m scam T

HE Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) is now probing how a former governorship aspirant in Delta State, Ndudi Elumelu who allegedly lost N750million to a former son-in-law of an exminister.

Elumelu allegedly advanced the whopping cash to the suspect in the expectation that he would help to actualize his dream to be the next governor of Delta State.

The suspect is now in custody of the EFCC having been arrested last Friday.

Seized from his high brow Maitama District, Abuja residence were several posh cars valued at millions of naira.

The arrest was triggered by a petition to EFCC by Elumelu.

An EFCC source confirmed the development and said: "The Abuja based multi millionaire was arrested in the evening of January 9 when he turned himself in after the anti- graft agency raided his Gana Street, Maitama, Abuja home in the early hours of same day and executed a search warrant on the property.

"The EFCC had on December 23, 2004 invited the suspect who is a business associate of a National Vice-

•Rep Elumelu: He promised me Delta PDP guber ticket FROM: Yusuf Alli, Managing Editor, Northern Operation

Chairman of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party to the Commission for questioning, following a petition from Ndudi Elumelu, Chairman House of Representatives Committee on Health, who until recently was governorship aspirant in Delta State.

"The petitioner claimed that the suspect fleeced him of N750million under the guise of helping him to actualise his dream of emerging the flag bearer of the PDP in Delta State.

"The suspect who allegedly flaunted his connection to bigwigs of the PDP at national and state levels, told the petitioner that he needed the money to "persuade the executives of the party", to support his ambition.

"He however failed to deliver on his promise as the complainant lost the ticket "The suspect was supposed to report to the EFCC on December 24, 2014 but failed to do so."

Another source close to the investigation team claimed that the suspect had pleaded for time and promised to report on January 8.

The source added: "When we waited for him on January

8 and he did not report we decided to act, having already secured a warrant for his arrest.

"Several incriminating documents as well as five exotic cars were recovered during the operation that lasted for about two hours.

The suspect was still being grilled by investigators at the Idiagbon House, home of the Operations Department of the EFCC at press time.

No official of the EFCC was willing to speak on camera on the arrest of the suspect as at press time.

Prodded to speak in confidence, one of the top officials said: "It is true that we have arrested the suspect."

In what appeared a twist of fate, the EFCC had in 2009 arraigned Elumelu for trial before an Abuja High Court on a 157-count charge bordering on alleged N5billion fraud at the Rural Electrification Agency (REA).

Other suspects put on trial were the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Power, Senator Nicholas Ugbane, the Deputy Chairman of the House Committee on Power, Mohammed Jibo; the Chairman of the House

Committee on Rural Development, Mr. Paulinus Igwe; Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Power, Dr. Aliyu Abdullahi; and the Managing Director of the Rural Electrification Agency (REA), Mr. Sam Gakpe.

Others were the four directors of REA including Simon Nanle, Engr. Lawrence Orekoya; AbdulSamad Jahun; and Kayode Oyedeji.

But after a four-year trial, Justice Mudashiru Oniyangi (now of the Court of Appeal) on July 26, 2013 discharged and acquitted all the suspects.

He held that the proof of evidence filed by the anti graft agency did not disclose any prima facie case against the lawmakers as there was no nexus between them and the alleged crimes.

He also flayed the leave granted to the EFCC upon which the charge was filed.

He said such judicial discretion ought to be granted within the ambit of the law which presupposes that there ought to be a nexus between the alleged crimes and the accused persons before they would be called to take a plea.

The judge held that there was no basis for the leave initially granted the EFCC to arraign the lawmakers.

Jonathan, Yero are errors of Yar'Adua, Yakowa, says el-Rufai

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Former Minister of Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Malam Nasiru El-Rufai has identified the failure of the late President Umaru Yar' Adua and Governor Patrick Yakowa of Kaduna State to choose competent people as running mates, as the reason why Nigeria and the state are being misgoverned.

El-Rufai who is the Kaduna State governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), stated this during a Hausa

From Abdulgafar Alabelewe, Kaduna

political phone-in programme of DITV/Alheri Radio, which was monitored by our correspondent yesterday.

The gubernatorial candidate who justified the selection of Barnabas Bala Bantex, the Kaduna State chairman of APC as his running mate, noted that the choice was made after due consultation with party members.

According o him, most governorship or presidential

candidates prefer to choose people that they can manipulate as their running mates and not those who are competent, forgetting that a deputy governor or a vice president can emerge as substantive governor or president.

El-Rufai noted that President Goodluck Jonathan and Governor Muktar Yero succeeded their principals following their deaths. He added that they were not adequately prepared or the task ahead.

"The crisis of

underdevelopment and non performance that we are experiencing at the federal level and Kaduna state will not have arisen if the right calibre of running mates were chosen from the very beginning,'' ElRufai added.

The APC candidate said that the Yero administration has been claiming that it has executed several projects in the media but "the people of the state have not seen anything on the round.'' He pointed out that the projects in states like Kano, Katsina, Zamfara and Nasarawa are visible for all to see.

New Kano Acting Chief Judge vow to fight corruption Kolade Adeyemi, Kano

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HE newly appointed acting Chief Judge of Kano state, Justice Patricia Mahmoud has vowed to work towards a judicial system that would be enviable by fighting corrupt practices.

Justice Mahmoud in an interview immediately after being sworn -in as the state acting Chief Judge told The Nation that she would rid the judiciary of corrupt practices, adding that the state judicial arm of government under her watch would uphold the principles of justice .

The outgoing chief judge, Justice Shehu Atiku labelled his successor as incorruptible and hardworking.

He reposed confidence in her capacity to discharge the duties associated with her new office diligently.

Governor Kwankwaso tasked the new acting chief judge to work in partnership with the state government in maintaining continuous legal reforms, while calling on the state judiciary to sustain the symbiotic relationship between the state executive arm of government and the judiciary He stated that the appointment is in compliance with section 271 subsection 4 of the constitution, which handed that the most senior judge acts as Chief Judge pending the appointment of a substantive Chief Judge.

He hailed the outgoing chief judge for his dedication to duty, urging his successor to sustain the spirit. He also pledged that his administration would continue to work with the judiciary in the interest of a more equitable society.

Kwankwaso disclosed that under his administration, 30 Shari'a courts, and 26 magistrate courts, were constructed, coupled with the renovation of court complexes and the upward review of salary of judicial staff.

According to him, judicial officers in the state now operate from officially owned properties as against occupying rented properties as was the case in the past.

THE NATION ON SUNDAY JANUARY 11, 2015

Physically challenged people adopt Ambode

By Oluwakemi Dauda

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VER 10,000 physically challenged people in Lagos State has adopted the governorship candidate of All Progressives Congress (APC), Mr. Akinwunmi Ambode, for the February 21 governorship election in the state.

The adoption, they argued, is due to Ambode's assistance to them long before he emerged as a governorship candidate.

The physically challenged people from the 20 local government areas converged as early as 8.00am at the Teslim Balogun Stadium to give lend their support for the APC candidate.

Following the arrival of the APC candidate and his running mate, Mrs. Oluranti Adebule, the people jumped and cheered in jubilation, with some of them describing the rally as the first of its kind that was solely organised for them.

Speaking at the event, Ambode commended organisers of the rally while promising that his administration would take adequate care of those who are developmentally disabled and physically handicapped who require special care and supervision as a result of such disabilities.

He also promised to provide jobs and create a special office for them and others who are in need of personal services, supervision or assistance, saying, "Let me assure you that despite your challenge, you are going to take your rightful place in the corridor of government in the state."

Lagos begins Akin Adesola Street rehabilitation Monday

By Adeyinka Aderibigbe

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HE rehabilitation of Akin Adesola Street on Victoria Island in Lagos will commence on Monday, the Lagos Metropolitan Area Transport Authority (LAMATA) has said.

The road is being rehabilitated by the Lagos State Government through LAMATA to tackle the perennial flooding usually experienced as a result of blocked and dysfunctional drainage system.

The rehabilitation work, according to a statement signed

by LAMATA's External Relations Specialist, Mr. Kolawole Ojelabi, is being carried out by Hitech Construction Company Limited.

At a stakeholder meeting held in October 2014, LAMATA informed the Victoria Island and Ikoyi Residents Association (VIIRA) and business owners of the decision of the state government to rehabilitate the road with a view to completely solving, once and for all, the challenge posed by the flooding.

Both VIIRA and representatives of businesses expressed delight at the government plan and pledged support for the rehabilitation work.

NEWS

Fire destroys 100 spare parts stores, cinema house in Ibadan

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OODS worth over N500 million were destroyed in a fire incident that ravaged parts of the popular motor parts section of Araromi-Agodi Gate market in Ibadan, the Oyo state capital, at the weekend.

Men of the State Fire Service, however, successfully contained the inferno, which began according to eye witness accounts on Friday night at about 9:30pm.

Many of the traders, it was learnt, could not salvage their goods due to the iron nature of the goods in most of the shops.

Hundreds of the affected traders were seen wailing over the huge loss, while calling on well meaning individuals and government at all levels to come to their aid.

It was further learnt that fire fighters could not achieve

From Tayo Johnson, Ibadan

much due to inadequate water to contain the fire coupled with their inability to gain entrance into the market early enough.

Also, scores of affected traders were seen compiling their names and items lost to the inferno in order to seek government's assistance.

While conducting the Caretaker Chairman of Ibadan North East Local Government, Mr. Ladi Oluokun, around the burnt market, Chairman of Ibadan Motor Parts Dealers Union, Chief Gbolagade Orodele, said he was intimated on the incidence by security men stationed at the market at 10:30 pm, adding that men of the fire service, as well as some traders, battled for hours to put out the fire in order to save the rest of the market.

"This unfortunate incident

has consumed goods worth millions of naira; we want the government to come to our aid and assist us, because this is an irreparable loss for the traders, most of who borrowed money from micro finance banks to buy their goods," he lamented.

In his comment, Oluokun commiserated with the traders while expressing gratitude to God that no life was lost into it.

He assured the traders that the state and local government would come to their aid within the shortest possible time, but however admonished them to ensure that they insure their goods to mitigate future losses of such nature.

In a similar development, no fewer than four cinema halls inside Heritage Mall in Dugbe area of Ibadan worth millions of naira were gutted by fire around midnight on

Saturday morning.

The fire was quelled around 4:00 am with the aid of fire services men and the security men at the mall.

When our correspondent got to the scene of the incident, owners of Film House prevented journalists from capturing the scene and also refused to speak on the development.

Confirming the incident, Mr. Victor Ayetoro, the Corporate Affairs Manager of Odua Investment Company Limited who owns the Hertage Mall occupied by the Film House, said the fire started around midnight and was put off by men of the Oyo State Fire Service who were assisted by fire men from the nearby Central Bank of Nigeria and a private company, Sweetco.

• Ogun State Governor, Senator Ibikunle Amosun (2nd left) and his running mate, Mrs. Yetunde Onanuga (left) during Amosun's re-election campaign at Ode-Remo in Remo North Local Government Area on Saturday.

Lagos APC berates Agbaje over "blackmail comments"

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LL Progressives Congress (APC) Lagos State chapter has asked voters in the state to take a close and critical look at the personality of Mr. Jimi Agbaje, the governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) ,over his recent statement that the "South South can collapse Nigeria's economy" if President Jonathan is not reelected.

In a release signed by the party's Publicity Secretary, Mr. Joe Igbokwe, the party says Lagosians will be making a great mistake if Agbaje, who it claimed "lacks training in simple economics and the monumental power of a diversified economy, is voted into power in error."

The Lagos APC added, "APC is at a loss and completely dumbfounded that a candidate that says he wants to govern a dynamic, powerful, prosperous and enlightened state like Lagos is resorting to this type of cheap and strange blackmail in the 21st century in order to win elections.

By Oziegbe Okoeki

"For Jimi Agbaje's information, South-South crude oil has become a curse to Nigeria instead of blessing. Crude oil has ruined our capacity to reason, to think and to explore other areas like agriculture, science and technology, industrialisation, building and construction industry and many others sectors.

"Japan, Germany, France, Italy, South Korea, Spain, Netherlands, Turkey, Sweden, Switzerland, Singapore etc have no oil and yet they have given a good account of themselves in the global economy through commitments, power of critical thinking and dint of hard work.

"Even in the Third World, there are many countries that are surviving without oil. In 1997, Dell Computers made more money than Nigeria with just 12,000 workers. MEARSK Containers, a shipping company, Apple, HP make more money than Nigeria and yet Jimi Agbaje, a pharmacist, cannot think in the 21st century.

"We have told anybody

who cares to listen in Lagos that Jimi Agbaje is a pretender and a hustler who lacks the capacity and cognate experience to dream of governing a state like Lagos. Jimi has never been a councillor, he has never served in a local government, and he has never been a commissioner, a House of Assembly member or a Special Adviser. He has never served at the federal level either. So where is the experience for Lagosians to trust him with the treasury of Lagos?"

The party noted that Lagosians are not ready to allow a learner to experiment with the destiny of the state, adding that its candidate is a credible alternative, Akiwunmi Ambode, who served Lagos State for 27years as a civil servant and retired as the State's Accountant General.

"Those who know better tell us that the power of a man is in his head and not inside the soil as Jimi Agbaje will want us to believe. Nigerians are looking for a day when attention would be paid to other areas in Nigeria's economy instead of

running this mono economy that has ruined and destroyed our country," the Lagos APC stated.

In a similar vein, Deputy Whip of the Lagos State House of Assembly, Hon. Rotimi Abiru, has described the statement credited to the PDP candidate that he would rule Lagos like Plateau, Niger and Gombe, three states presently controlled

by PDP, as highly unfortunate and retrogressive.

Agbaje allegedly made the statement at the flag-off of the PDP presidential campaign at the Tafawa Balewa Square (TBS) Lagos on Thursday.

Abiru said: "If someone like Jimi Agbaje who some Lagosians thought had something upstairs could wish a state like Lagos regression, it's now clear that he is an enemy of Lagos. He wants to take the state backwards. If someone who is aspiring to lead the state of excellence could think of running Lagos like Plateau, Niger and Gombe states, such a person is a failure, because he wants to take us back."

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Ekiti APC lawmakers deplore silence of elders on Assembly crisis From Odunayo Ogunmola, Ado Ekiti HE 19 All Progressives Congress (APC) members of Ekiti State House of Assembly have expressed concern on the silence of eminent citizens on the alleged impunities being witnessed in the state.

They also vowed not to give up on the struggle to free the state from illegalities and constitutional breaches "where a lawless minority is lording it over the majority."

Addressing a news conference in Ado-Ekiti, the state capital, the deputy speaker, Adetunji Orisalade, expressed regrets that the state is being pushed down the precipice of avoidable and self-inflicted crisis "by an executive that has become powerdrunk and bent on throwing the state into chaos."

Orisalade maintained that the APC legislators have no regrets for their stance on the assembly crisis and would never apologise to the state governor, Mr. Ayo Fayose, for toeing the path of constitutional order and abiding by the rule of law.

Deploring the alleged propaganda mounted against the APC House members by the PDP-led administration, Orisalade denied that they were being influenced by external forces to destabilise the state.

The lawmaker, who represents Ido/Osi Constituency 2, expressed dismay that thugs have been permanently stationed at the House of Assembly complex with the intent of wounding and killing APC lawmakers.

Wondering why the thugs are yet to be arrested and prosecuted by the police, the deputy speaker noted that any attempt by the APC lawmakers to forcefully resume work at the assembly might result into violence, adding that they are not ready to engage the thugs in street fight.

He explained that all members of the APC caucus are back in the state and are ready to carry out their legislative functions but are being hindered by "deliberate emasculation of the legislative arm of government."

He, however, expressed sadness on the perceived silence of eminent citizens of Ekiti who have failed to condemn the gradual slide of the state into lawlessness, urging them not to stay aloof in the face of attacks on hallowed institutions.

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Esther Kokodoko is dead

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RS. Esther Abosede Kokodoko, (nee Akapo), wife of the immediate past Treasurer of the Lagos Catholic Archdiocesan Laity Council, Mr. Anthony Tolani Kokodoko, is dead.

She was 44 years old.

Mrs. Kokodoko passed on January 1,2015 in a private hospital at Ipaja.

Until her death she was an employee of the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH) Ikeja.

She will be buried on Friday, January 16, after a requiem mass at the St. Patrick's Catholic Church, Igbogila, Ipaja,Lagos State.

She is survived by her husband, children and an aged mother.

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THE NATION ON SUNDAY JANUARY 11, 2015 North Korea hints at nuclear test moratorium

Tail of crashed AirAsia lifted from seabed

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•No sign of Black box

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HE mangled tail of an AirAsia plane that crashed with 162 people on board was lifted out of the Java Sea yesterday, but without the crucial flight recorders, Indonesian authorities said.

The Airbus jet went missing in stormy weather on December 28 as it flew from the Indonesian city of Surabaya to Singapore, killing all aboard.

The wreckage of the tail, which contained the black box data recorders that are essential to explaining the disaster, was found in the seabed 10 days after the crash.

The 10-metre-long (33feet) stretch of mostly mangled metal was finally lifted on to a tugboat vessel yesterday using giant balloons and a crane, but there was no sign of the black boxes.

"It's definite that the black boxes aren't there," S.B Supriyadi, a director with the National Search and Rescue Agency, told reporters after the tail had been inspected.

The black boxes are seen as important because they should contain the pilots' final words as well as various flight data.

However Supriyadi said the boxes were still emanating ping signals and were believed to be buried in the seabed close to where the tail was found, about 30 metres under the surface.

Supriyadi said divers, from an elite Marines unit, would continue scouring the sea for the black boxes.

"The challenge is that these sounds are very faint. If a ship passes by, the sounds will be drowned out. So we really need calm waters," he said.

To aid the tracking of the signals, Supriyadi said the engines of the warships involved in the search operation would be turned off today.

Search efforts also involving foreign naval ships continued throughout Saturday for other parts of the plane's wreckage, as well as for the bodies of the passengers and crew.

Just 48 bodies have been found so far, according to Indonesian authorities.

There was no success yesterday in finding the cabin part of the plane where most of the passengers were.

"We strongly intend to find other parts of the plane as we are confident that the victims' (bodies) are still trapped in there," Indonesian military chief Moeldoko told reporters.

All but seven of those on board were Indonesian.

The non-Indonesians were three South Koreans, one Singaporean, one Malaysian, one Briton and a Frenchman - co-pilot RemiPlesel.

The Indonesian meteorological agency has said weather was the "triggering factor" for the crash, with ice likely damaging the engines of the Airbus A320-200.

•This combination of images released on Friday by the French police shows Hayat Boumeddiene (Left), wife of Amedy Coulibaly (Right), suspected of being involved in the killing of a policewoman in Montrouge on January 8. AFP PHOTO

France pursues female suspect after deadly siege F

RENCH police searched for a female accomplice to militant Islamists behind deadly attacks on a satirical newspaper and Jewish deli and maintained a top-level anti-terrorist alert ahead of a Paris gathering with European leaders set for today.

In the worst assault on France's homeland security for decades, 17 victims lost their lives in three days of violence that began with an attack on the Charlie Hebdo weekly on Wednesday and ended with Friday's dual hostage-taking at a print works outside Paris and kosher supermarket in the city.

French security forces shot dead the two brothers behind the Hebdo killings after they took refuge in the print works, and a Kalashnikov-armed associate who had planted explosives at the Paris deli in a siege that claimed the lives of four hostages.

Yesterday morning, there was still a visible police presence around the French capital, with patrols at sensitive sites including media offices.

There was a false bomb alert at the Eurodisney fairground

to the east of the capital.

"It's no longer like before," said Maria Pinto, on a street in central Paris. "You work a whole life through and because of these madmen, you leave your house to go shopping, go to work, and you don't know if you'll come home."

The attack on Charlie Hebdo, a journal that satirized Islam as well as other religions and politicians, raised sensitive questions about freedom of speech, religion and security in a country struggling to integrate a five-million Muslim minority.

Participation of European leaders including Germany's Angela Merkel, Britain's David Cameron and Italy's Matteo Renzi in a silent march through Paris with President Francois Hollande will pose further demands for security forces on Sunday.

Arab League representatives and some Muslim African leaders as well as Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu will also attend.

"French people need to know that all measures will

be taken for this demonstration to be held in a spirit of mourning and respect, and in full security," Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said after an emergency cabinet meeting.

"Given the context, we remain at risk and we will maintain the highest level of security in comings weeks."

Political and security chiefs were reviewing how two French-born brothers of Algerian extraction could have carried out the Charlie Hebdo attacks despite having been on surveillance and "nofly" lists for many years. They said before they were killed they had been acting on behalf of al Qaeda in Yemen.

Paris chief prosecutor Francois Molins told reporters late Friday the three attackers had had a large arsenal of weapons and had set up booby traps. He said they had a loaded M82 rocket launcher, two Kalashnikov machine guns and two automatic pistols on them.

The whereabouts of the partner of the Jewish deli attacker, 26-year-old Hayat

Boumeddiene, remained unknown. Police listed her as a suspect in that strike and an earlier shooting of a policewoman, describing her as "armed and dangerous".

An official police photograph shows a young woman with long dark hair hitched back over her ears. French media, however, released photos purporting to be of a fully-veiled Boumeddiene, posing with a cross-bow, in what they said was a 2010 training session in the mountainous Cantal region.

Le Monde daily said Boumeddiene wed AmedyCoulibaly in a religious ceremony not formally recognized by French civil authorities in 2009 and was questioned by police over suspicions of links to militant Islamists in 2010.

With one of the gunmen saying shortly before his death that he was funded by al Qaeda, Hollande warned that the danger to France home to the European Union's biggest communities of both Muslims and Jews was not over yet.

Afghanistan rally hails Charlie Hebdo attackers as 'heroes' H UNDREDS in southern Afghanistan rallied to praise the killing of 12 people at the French newspaper Charlie Hebdo, calling the two gunmen "heroes" who meted out punishment for cartoons disrespectful to Islam's prophet, officials said yesterday.

The demonstrators also protested President Ashraf Ghani's swift condemnation of the bloody attack on the satirical newspaper, according to the officials in Uruzgan province.

The rally came after wor-

shippers left Friday prayers at a local mosque in Chora district and swelled to several hundred people, said Chora police chief Abdul Qawi.

"The protesters were calling the attackers heroes and were shouting that those who had mocked the Prophet Mohammad were punished," Qawi said.

Provincial police chief Matiullah Khan said that police had been informed in advance of the demonstration, which was allowed under the

Afghan constitution's freespeech provisions.

"They provided good security and it was peaceful," he said.

Afghan President Ghani issued a condemnation the day after the newspaper attack saying "there is no justification for this brutal act".

Previous insults to Islam have sparked protests that turned violent.

Seven U.N. workers were killed during protests that raged across Afghanistan for

three days in April 2011 after a U.S. pastor burned a Koran in Florida.

However, this week many Afghans reacted in horror and dismay after the Paris newspaper attack, saying the insult to Islam did not justify bloodshed.

"Out of solidarity with the people of France, we strongly condemn this barbaric attack on #CharlieHebdo," read one Afghan posting on Twitter.

"Terrorism has no race, religion or country. Terrorism is everyone's enemy," another tweet said.

ORTH Korea has told the United States that it's willing to impose a temporary moratorium on its nuclear tests if Washington scraps planned military drills with South Korea this year, the North's official news agency said yesterday.

The U.S. has previously refused to cancel military drills with South Korea, even at times of high tensions, and has said the North must first demonstrate how sincere it is about nuclear disarmament before serious talks can resume.

The North's reported proposal comes at a time of animosity between North Korea and the U.S. over a Sony movie depicting the assassination of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. The U.S. blames the North for crippling hacking attacks on Sony Entertainment and subsequently imposed new sanctions on the country, inviting an angry response from Pyongyang, which has denied responsibility for the cyberattacks.

Two headless bodies found in Egypt's Sinai

T

TWO headless bodies were found in a village in Egypt's restive North Sinai region yesterday, police said, the latest in a series of beheadings allegedly carried out by jihadists.

The bodies of two men, believed to be civilians in their 30s, were found near the town of Sheikh Zuweid.

It was not immediately clear who had killed them.

Egypt's deadliest jihadist organisation, Ansar Beit alMaqdis, has previously claimed several beheadings of men it said were working for the Egyptian army or Israel's Mossad spy agency.

Four Bangladeshi citizens suffocate in Lebanon

F

OUR Bangladeshi workers suffocated as a result of faulty heating in their room in a mountainous region in northern Lebanon, the staterun National News Agency said yesterday.

The agency said the four were found dead yesterday in the Dinniyeh region.

Later in the day, Syria's state SANA news agency said that midterm exams at Damascus University have been postponed because of the storm, saying some students will not be able to reach their colleges. The university's director Mohammad Hassan alKurdi said a new date for the exams will be set later.

Classes at Syria's schools and universities stopped as of Wednesday because of the storm.

The latest deaths raise to seven the number of people killed by the weather in Lebanon since Tuesday, including three Syrians.

THE NATION ON SUNDAY, JANUARY 11, 2015

NEWS REVIEW

73

2015 PRESIDENCY

Buhari dares Jonathan in South-South The 2011 presidential election in the South-South region was literally a stroll in the park for President Goodluck Jonathan, but recent events in the run-up to next month's presidential poll suggests that unexpected surprises should not be ruled out this time around, reports Assistant Editor, Remi Adelowo

T

HE 40, 000-capacity Adokiye Amiesimaka International Stadium in Port- Harcourt, the Rivers State capital, was agog on Tuesday during the flag- off of the presidential campaign of the All Progressives Congress (APC).

Man of the moment, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari, the presidential candidate of the main opposition party, was in a convivial mood as he mounted the podium to address the over 50, 000 estimated crowd.

As he reeled out his plans and programmes if elected as president on February 14 to the huge and enthusiastic audience, the former military Head of State would have been chuckling inside of him wondering how his support base in the state, nay the South-South region, has gone full cycle within a space of four years.

Rewind to the scenario in 2011 when the Katsina-born retired Army General was practically a political persona non grata, whose only campaign in the whole of the region was in Yenagoa, the Bayelsa State capital, with a dismal attendance to boot.

But times have changed. Now running on a bigger and broader political platform, Buhari has kicked off his campaign in the home base of his major opponent, President Goodluck Jonathan who, predictably, recorded a landslide victory in the 2011 presidential election in the oil-rich region.

Breakdown of 2011 results In the weeks and days preceding the 2011 election, it was obvious Buhari, then contesting on the platform of six-month old Congress for Progressives Change (CPC), would be trounced by the president in the South-South zone. And the breakdown of the results aptly confirmed earlier forecasts.

In Edo State, President Jonathan won with a wide margin, polling 542, 173 votes as against Buhari's 17, 795 votes. Number of registered voters in the state in 2011 was 1, 412, 225.

In his home state of Bayelsa, the president got 504, 811 votes exceeding the number of registered voters put at 472, 389 voters. Buhari recorded a paltry 691 votes.

Rivers State people massively queued behind Jonathan, recording a landslide victory of 1, 817, 762 votes, with Buhari getting just 13, 182 votes.

Total number of registered voters was 2, 419, 057.

The scenario in Akwa Ibom State was not different. The president had 1, 165, 629 votes as against 5, 348 voters who voted for Buhari. A total number of 1, 714, 781 voters registered for the election.

It was also a big haul for the president in Delta State garnering 1, 378, 851 votes out of the total registered voters of 1, 900, 055 to Buhari's 8, 960, while in Cross

•Contd. frompage 12 got 98.96 percent of all the votes cast at the presidential contest. If not for the recent developments, one would have predicted the same trend, since APGA, as it did in 2011, did not have its presidential candidate but have pledged to queue behind PDP's Jonathan.

Given that boost, Jonathan will also do well here but as Ekwueme, a political father in Anambra State, pointed out, all is no longer at ease.

Anambra and Igbo vote can no longer be taken for granted. This is even so as Senator Chris Ngige-led state APC has taken the state by storm thereby popularizing the opposition party there. There is no

River state with a voter figure of 1, 018, 550, Jonathan had 709, 382 votes as against 4, 002 votes for Buhari.

Factors that worked for Jonathan in 2011 Central to Jonathan's resounding victory in the South-South in 2011 was the home boy factor, a development that ensured that both registered and non-registered voters spoke with one voice.

Coupled with this is the quest by the people of the zone to have their "son" as Nigeria's democratically elected president for the first time in the country's political history. It was one golden opportunity that the people of the region readily grabbed with both hands.

Another factor that worked maximally in the president's favour during the polls is the grass to grace campaign slogan of the president which resonated not only in the South-South but across the country.

The president's "easy victory" in the region, many posit, could also be attributed to the control of five out of the six states in the region, Akwa Ibom, Bayelsa, Cross River, Rivers and Delta by his party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), with the exception of Edo State then controlled by the defunct Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) now fused into the APC. The five PDP governors comprising of Godswill Akpabio (Akwa Ibom), Timipre Sylvia (Bayelsa), Liyel Imoke (Cross River), Rotimi Amaechi (Rivers) and Emmanuel Uduaghan (Delta) reportedly mobilised government machinery behind Jonathan in their states, just as Governor Adams Oshiomhole of Edo, though belonging to the opposition, was also alleged to

have provided tacit support for Jonathan's presidential aspiration.

2015 poll presents different scenarios Unlike in 2011, when the groundswell of support for the president in the South-South was as overwhelming as it was widespread, political watchers say the scenario currently playing out as the February 14 presidential election approaches is a clear indication that the president has a big battle to contend with if he is to repeat his 2011 electoral feat.

From the controversies trailing the PDP primaries in most of the SouthSouth states, to the defection of big wigs in the party to the APC and the peculiarities of the local politics in Delta and Akwa Ibom states, owing to the zoning formula adopted by the ruling party, appears to have seriously fragmented the ruling party down the line thereby putting its chances at the polls in jeopardy.

The first indication that the president was losing grip of control of his region was the defection of Governor Rotimi Amaechi and exgovernor, Timipre Sylva to the APC early in 2014.

And despite overt and covert moves by the Presidency to remove Ameachi from office, the governor has not only consolidated his hold on the state, he has since become a thorn in the flesh of his traducers with his regular and scathing criticisms of the president, his wife, Dame Patience Jonathan and the PDP-led federal government.

What is more, Amaechi as the Director-General of the Buhari Campaign Organisation, has given more fillip to the APC presidential campaign. That the APC also flagged

off its presidential campaign in Rivers State was even more instructive.

Compare and contrast this to the subdued tension within the Rivers PDP still battling to contain the disenchantment of some governorship aspirants kicking against the candidacy of Barrister Nyesome Wike.

Efforts by the party leadership to calm frayed nerves have only recorded a marginal success, with many of the aspirants allegedly threatening to work against the party during the polls.

Sylva is also another former ally of the president turned foe. From the same state, Bayelsa with the president, both men no longer see eye to eye, a situation not unconnected to the unceremonious exit of Sylva from the Bayelsa Government House in 2012 allegedly at the president's behest.

The former governor is now a chieftain of the APC to whose credit the opposition party has established a presence in Bayelsa State. Sylva, who sources say is still highly influential within some powerful circles in the state, is also the APC senatorial candidate for Bayelsa East.

With a campaign slogan, "A home job for a home boy," many Bayelsans are reportedly in support of Sylva to clinch the senate seat against his main challenger, Mr. Ben Bruce of the PDP, who is viewed rightly or wrongly as an "outsider."

And in Edo State, the president has an uphill task to win the state next month. Not only is the governor fully on the board of his party's campaign this time around unlike in 2011, Gen. Buhari's chances in the state is further boosted on account of the influence of the APC National Chairman, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, who hails from the

Buhari challenges Jonathan in South-East doubt that APC is very popular in Anambra State and so Buhari seems poised to take advantage of it.

Ebonyi: Although a traditional PDP State, which gave Jonathan 95.57 percent of its votes in 2011, Ebonyi State is a major battle ground in the February 14 presidential election.

The ripple effects from the crisis in PDP, which culminated in the political coup that dislodged control of the party from Governor Martin Elechi is poised to change the state's political game.

As it stands, supporters of the embattled governor, who have

already moved over to Labour Party, are too bitter with the national leadership of PDP to spare the party's presidential candidate.

Added to this is the increasing strength of the rival APC in the state, where Dr. Ogbonnaya Onu's influence has come to play.

Bookmakers say any of the two leading presidential candidates can take the prize at the February 14 election, given the depth of bitterness, betrayals, and resolve to pay back.

Imo In Imo State, General Muhammadu Buhari, the APC

candidate, is hopeful to defeat President Goodluck Jonathan his PDP counterpart. This is because the Governor Rochas Okorocha-led APC government in the state is fully behind him. Besides, the party, according to insiders, is not only on ground at grassroots level to deliver the votes but is popular because Okorocha performed creditably well.

But this does not mean that PDP's Jonathan would be taken for granted here considering that before the dramatic emergence of Okorocha-led APGA government and now APC government in the state, Imo had been

state.

Disturbing signals for the president is also coming from Akwa Ibom, with many PDP leaders defecting to the APC in protest against the governorship primaries of the party, which produced Udom Emmanuel, Governor Godswill Akpabio's anointed candidate.

The APC is presently fancying its chances in next month's polls as it boasts formidable politicians in the state including former Secretary to the State Government, Umana Okon Umana, a former ally of the governor, who is now the party's governorship candidate.

Other major stakeholders who are not on the same page with the governor and indeed the PDP in the state are two former governors, Akpan Isemin and Obong Victor Attah, Senator Helen Esuene, Dr. Ime Umanah and former Minister of Petroleum, Don Etiebet, to mention but a few.

The changing political permutations in Delta State is also another major challenge the president must contend with in his desire to win the state come next month.

Sources disclosed that the Urhobos, the largest voting bloc in the state, are peeved with the president and the PDP for not ceding the party's governorship ticket to the ethnic group, while vowing to work against the president's reelection.

The APC, it was gathered, is waiting in the wings to reap from this slip with recent reports claiming that the party's governorship candidate in the state, Otega Emerhor, is facilitating a meeting between Gen. Buhari and the leadership of the Urhobo Progressive Union (UPU), the umbrella body of the ethnic nationality anytime from now.

The outcome of the meeting, sources aver, would go a long way to determine where the Urhobos would cast their lot in the 2015 governorship and presidential elections.

Conclusion Within the political circles, fears are being expressed that President Jonathan many not have an easy run in the six states within the South-South geopolitical zone.

Unlike in 2011 when the region stood in solidarity behind Jonathan irrespective of political affiliations, major political stakeholders are presently speaking in discordant tunes for and against the president, and in the process allowing the major opposition party to make a huge inroad into the region.

A source puts it this way, "While the opposition is making incursion into the president's main stronghold, the same cannot be said of the president in the opposition's strongholds."

But for many political analysts, the president is still the man to beat in the six South-South states, but with visible bruises to show for it.

a traditional PDP state. Also, PDP still has very influential members from the state who are expected to get votes for the president.

As it stands, both Jonathan and Buhari are sure to get at least 25 percent of the votes, but all indices seem to suggest that APC's Buhari may take this state, which gave Jonathan 97.98 percent of its votes in 2011.

Conclusion Political developments and the peoples' mood across the five South-East states confirm that there would be no bloc vote for any of the two leading candidates in the February 14 presidential election.

The zone has become open.

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THE NATION ON SUNDAY, JANUARY 11, 2015

NEWS REVIEW

2015 PRESIDENCY

Pivotal contest for SouthWest votes A

HEAD of the all important February presidential election that will see former Military Head of State, General Muhammadu Buhari challenging incumbent President Goodluck Jonathan, analysts and political observers have been talking about how the voting pattern of the people of the South-Western states will influence who wins and who loses.

The importance attached to the choices to be made by voters in the region has given rise to quite a number of permutations with both the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Buhari's All Progressives Congress (APC), expressing optimism about the people of the states voting for them.

For the PDP, the 2015 presidential election will simply be a repeat of what happened four years earlier in 2011, when in spite of voting the defunct Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) in all other elections, the South-West voted massively for President Jonathan, the then candidate of the PDP in the presidential election. That helped in no small way to secure victory for him back then.

The 2011 election In that election, except in Osun State where the ACN scored 299,711 votes to prove unbeatable for the then rampaging Jonathan whose party, the PDP, got 188,409, the results in every other state indicated that the people were more comfortable with the incumbent President than with any of his opponents.

Below is a table reflecting the voting pattern of the people of the region in the 2011 presidential election.

While his promoters were quick to put his good showing in the region back then to Jonathan's popularity among the Yorubas, not a few analysts and political commentators named Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, then leader of the ACN, as a major factor in the development.

"The massive vote for Jonathan in 2011 was because of the last-minute discussions he reportedly had with Tinubu. This, coupled with the mood of that time occasioned by the intrigues that surrounded Yar'Adua's sickness and eventual death, produced that result, not Jonathan's popularity or anything like that," Hon. Barry Saula, former PDP scribe in Lagos West Senatorial District told The Nation.

2015 and the changing times But as the date of the next presidential election draws nearer, it is very clear that the South-West zone is one place where Jonathan and the ruling PDP may find it extremely difficult to garner votes in support of his second term aspiration.

This perhaps explains why the party has been making frantic efforts to woo the people of the region, to ensure the party's victory in the February presidential election. To this end, several rallies, meetings and programmes, featuring the President and his key associates, have been held in the region by the ruling party.

The Nation also learnt that apart from being jittery of the political situation in the region today, considering the obvious pro-APC leaning of the majority of the people in the South-West as at now, the PDP and Jonathan's strategists are worried that losing the South-West might cost them the presidential election.

"There is obvious concern in the party over the situation in the South-West. You will recall that several efforts were made to reposition the party before now. But intra-party wrangling and inordinate ambitions made a mess of all that. Now, it is obvious that the PDP and its candidates will struggle for votes in the region.

And as it is, PDP needs to win convincingly in the South-West and secure 25 per cent in all the states in the North-West and North-East, to avoid a second ballot in the presidential election.

How this will happen, is left to be seen," a former PDP gubernatorial aspirant in Oyo State said.

•Jonathan Apart from the obvious fact that the region is today a stronghold of the APC, allegations of marginalisation by politicians and massive displeasure with major policies of his administration among the elites and generality of the people are other factors that may see Jonathan losing the bulk of the votes in the South-West to APC's Buhari, pundits posited.

"No doubt, it will be impossible for Jonathan to replicate his 2011 feat in the South-West. This is because in spite of the massive support he enjoyed from the people of the South-West in 2011, his administration did little or nothing for the zone in all aspects of democratic dividends.

As independent electoral commentators, we in the Voters' Right Agenda (VRA) can recall the massive support Jonathan got from the region in 2011. Not many people expected that to happen given that the region voted ACN in all other elections across the states.

But the unimpressive reciprocation from the President to the people of the South-West in the last four years, as well as some major political factors like the growth in the popularity of the newly formed APC in the region, as well as the unending crises within the PDP in nearly all the six states of the zone, will likely ensure a poor outing for Jonathan this time around," Alexander Eva, Regional Director of the VRA, argued, while forecasting a landslide victory for Buhari in the region.

But in an attempt to make a case for the President, former Deputy National Chairman (South) of the PDP, Chief Olabode George, urged the region to vote for President Jonathan "massively because he has kept faith and strengthened the bonds of our national unity despite grave provocations.

"Let us re-elect our President for sustaining harmony among our ethnic divides and for the significant growth in the fields of commerce, aviation, power and transportation. The good people must stand together now to protect this democracy," George said.

However, Publicity Secretary of Afenifere, Kunle Famoriyo, challenged the likes of George to tell the people of the region what Jonathan did for the zone in the last five years. "No real Yoruba man or woman who supports a panYoruba political and developmental agenda will vote for Jonathan in the coming election. For the past five years under his administration, the Yoruba people have been deliberately marginalised and skewed out of national reckoning, especially in terms of key appointments and opportunity to partake in key sectors of the economy.

"We are surprised that President Jonathan believes the position of the Speaker of the House of Representatives, over which he has no control, is enough to atone for the deliberate

•Buhari

By Dare Odufowokan, Assistant Editor marginalisation in key appointments, over which he has control. Those Yoruba persons posing as Yoruba leaders know that leadership in Yoruba land resides in treasured virtues of Omoluwabi and Afenifere philosophy, not necessarily in persons. Yoruba people know their leaders," he said.

Chief Olu Falae, another Afenifere chieftain, alleged that the President never appreciated their contributions to his emergence as the President in 2011. This, he said, was reflected in the fact that the Yoruba were sidelined in appointments and control of political offices.

He listed the topmost positions as that of the President, Vice President, Senate President, Speaker of House of Representatives, Chief Justice of the Federation, Deputy Senate President, Deputy-Speaker of the House of Representatives, President, Court of Appeal, Secretary to the Government of the Federation, National Security Adviser and Head of Service of the Federation.

The former Secretary to the Federal Government argued that none of these offices was being occupied by a Yoruba, stressing that the absence of Yoruba in the power hierarchy had adversely affected the zone.

The states Determined to penetrate the region, President Jonathan flagged off his reelection campaign at the Tafawa Balewa Square, Lagos. Sources say the plan is for the campaign train to move round the region and appeal to the people directly by cutting off their leaders. But it is left to be seen if the strategy will yield fruits given the realities on ground.

If the political control of the states within the region is anything to go by, the odds massively favour the APC with four governors (Lagos, Ogun, Osun and Oyo) ahead of the PDP with two (Ekiti and Ondo), to garner more votes in the February presidential election.

Ondo However, the coming on board of Governor Olusegun Mimko of Ondo State may have boosted the chances of the president in the state considering the fact that Ondo was before now a Labour Party (LP) controlled state. With Mimiko's defection to the ruling party and his current role as Jonathan's pointsman in the zone, pundits say the PDP may replicate the 2011 feat in the state.

But there is a school of thought that feels the current crisis within the PDP in the state may affect Jonathan's chances in the state negatively. This argument is premised on the calculation that it was a united PDP, adequately supported by the then ruling Labour Party that gave Jonathan 85.66% of the total votes counted in the state.

With the now ruling PDP torn into shreds and the LP no longer in Mimiko's kitty, coupled with a fast growing opposition APC in the same state, pundits say though Jonathan may still do well in the state considering its proximity to his native Bayelsa State and the large presence of Ijaw speaking communities in the oil producing area of the state, he will definitely record a lesser percentage of votes this time.

"Jonathan and Buhari will fight hard for votes in Ondo State. Given that Ondo is now a PDP state following Mimiko's defection and its proximity to the President's native Bayelsa State as well as the large presence of Ijaw speaking communities in the oil producing area of the state, he will have a good showing in the southern part of the state.

But with Buhari running on the platform of the APC this time and the general feeling of marginalisation among the Yorubas, his performance in the mainland and other parts of the state are too early to predict. The situation in Ondo is such that Jonathan may just enjoy a very slight victory over Buhari in a close race. I see something like a 60% - 40% result," Eva posited.

Lagos Contrary to the posturing of people

like Bode George, the most popular position is that Buhari will outshine Jonathan at the polls in Lagos State. The political base of APC's national leader, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the state will naturally support its ruling party.

APC candidate for Ikorodu Federal Constituency in the State, Jimi Benson, said Buhari's victory in Lagos State is assured by the performance of the current Babatunde Raji Fashola-led administration in the state. According to Benson, the APC will benefit from the goodwill of its leaders in Lagos State like former Governor Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Governor Fashola, amongst others.

"God has used the likes of Asiwaju Tinubu and Governor Fashola to bring meaningful development to our dear state. The people of the state are living witnesses to the great efforts of our leaders towards making life better for the people.

"These and other goodwill is what will win the state for APC. Apart from that, take a good look at the candidates the party is presenting and you will agree with me that APC is the party to beat in this election. The fact remains that APC is the party of the people in Lagos State," he said.

Most pundits, as well as political realities as gathered by The Nation seem to agree with Benson whose permutation posits that Buhari may garner as much as 80% of the votes to be casted in the state in the February election leaving Jonathan and others to scramble for the remaining 20%.

Ogun, Oyo and Osun states In Ogun, Oyo and Osun states, which are all under the firm control of the APC, Jonathan may find it difficult to get listening ears during his campaigns.

Consequently, his performance at the polls will be abysmal, pundits say.

This will be no surprise in Osun where, in spite of his good showing in the region in 2011, the President still lost to the ACN by a wide margin. With Governor Rauf Aregbesola still in charge and the PDP declining in status by the day, Buhari is positioned to win massively in the state.

In Oyo and Ogun state, the tattered state of Jonathan's party will aid Buhari's victory. He will do far better than Jonathan on those states. This is because apart from being APC controlled states, these two are core Yoruba zones where the feeling of marginalisation is deep rooted. While Ogun is the home state of late Obafemi Awolowo, his deputy, the late Samuel Akintola hailed from Oyo," Eva submitted.

Ekiti During the June 21, 2014 governorship election held in Ekiti State, the APC failed to retain the state, which it lost to PDP. The surprise emergence of Ayodele Fayose as governor of the state is no doubt a boost for President Jonathan and the PDP in the February election.

However, the APC is not likely to go down without a good fight in the state given the fact that it is in the majority in the House of Assembly as well as National Assembly members in the state.

The Ekiti Central Senatorial District candidate of the APC, Gbenga Olofin, assured that the party's people-oriented programme will ensure victory for all its candidates. The candidate hinged his optimism on the discipline within APC as the most organised party grounded in grassroots appeal.

"Buhari is a reputable and responsible person with proven record of integrity, which will brighten the party's chances in the polls. Above all, Ekiti voters are wiser now and would not want a repeat of suffering and poor governance going on in the state and in the national and state assemblies," he said.

But state secretary of the PDP, Dr. Tope Aluko, said Jonathan will amass all the available votes in the state given the popularity of the Governor Fayose administration among the people.

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CHANGE CHANGE OF OF NAME NAME

CHANGE OF NAME

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OLUWADARE

MAKANJUOLA

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ONUORAH

OLALEYE

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OKUWA

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ENI

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UTIN

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ODUKA

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ALAKWE

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ADEBILEJE

OGUNDARE

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IBEABUCHI

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NNAJI

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OKUNOLA

ETUK

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ONOH

FALADE

AGADA

UGWUADU

OWOLO

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LONDON

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ORISASIKA

OJELADE

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CHANGE OF NAME

DALE

OBEDIAH

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OLAYEMI

UMAR

NWANKWO

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CONFIRMATION OF NAME I AKANMU SELIMOT TITILAYO, that I sat for Neco June/July 2012 with Examination No.: 23815760BA and my name was registered as AKANMU SELIMOT, that AKANMU SELIMOT is the same person as AKANMU SELIMOT TITILAYO. AKANMU SELIMOT TITILAYO is my my rightful name. All the documents that bears the two names remain valid. Osun State Polytechnic Iree and general public should take note.

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IKHIOYA

I formerly known and addressed as Miss Ikhioya Obofoni Joy,now wish to be known and addressed as Mrs. Oziegbe Obofoni Joy. All former documents remained valid. Nigeria Police Force and general public should please take note.

FATIMA

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FASASI

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THE NATION ON SUNDAY, JANUARY 11, 2015

THE NATION ON SUNDAY, JANUARY 11, 2015

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SPORTS THE NATION ON SUNDAY

Chelsea move two points clear with Newcastle win

C

HELSEA overcame Newcastle to record a 10th straight home league win and move two points clear of Manchester City at the top of the Premier League.

Newcastle's Moussa Sissoko hit the post early on as the Blues struggled.

But a quickly-taken corner afforded Oscar space to score from eight yards and Chelsea then took control.

Diego Costa rounded off a wonderful team move with a low strike as Jose Mourinho's side took advantage of City's 1-1 draw at Everton.

The manner of Costa's 15th league goal of the season contrasted with much of Chelsea's afternoon, as such a flowing move seemed beyond them for much of the day.

Eden Hazard's clipped cross, collected and flicked in one movement by Oscar for the on-rushing Costa was exquisite and buried low into the bottom corner by the striker.

When Diego Costa doubled Chelsea's lead, the Blues took full control Chelsea had drawn at Southampton and lost at Tottenham in league games prior to this meeting and though they were not at their best, built on a fifth straight home clean sheet to maintain their 100% home league record and now no longer rely on goal difference to top the table.

NFF: LMC Board to be inaugurated before new season

T

HE Nigeria Football Federation has announced that the new board of the League Management Company will be inaugurated before the commencement of the Professional Football League season in March.

Speaking at the end of the NFF Executive Committee meeting in Lagos, Chairman of the NFF Media and Publicity Committee, Hon. Suleiman Yahaya-Kwande clarified that there is no affirmation or ratification yet on who are the members of the new LMC Board.

“In line with the decision of the Congress at the General Assembly held in Lagos on November 23, 2014, the Selection Committee has met and come up with a list.

“However, it is important to make it clear that the list has not been ratified. We will finalize on the list very soon and I can assure, on behalf of the NFF Executive Committee, that the Board of League Management Company will be inaugurated before the commencement of the new season, which has been set for March 7.”

EXTRA

JANUARY 11, 2015

EPL Results Sunderland 0 - 1 Liverpool Burnley 2 - 1 QPR Chelsea 2 - 0 Newcastle Everton 1 - 1 Man City Leicester 1 - 0 Aston Villa Swansea 1 - 1 West Ham West Brom 1 - 0 Hull C/Palace 2 - 1 Tottenham

Cesc Fabregas tries not to bring down Ayoze Perez as the Newcastle striker tried to weave his way towards goal

INTERNATIONAL FRIENDLY

Amokachi: Eagles not intimidated by star-studded Cote d'Ivoire

A

HEAD of today's international friendly against the Elephants of Cote D' Ivoire in Abu Dhabi, Super Eagles stand-in coach, Daniel Amokachi says his players are gradually getting their sharpness back, and would give star-studded Cote d'Ivoire a good run for their

money.

“The tactical angle of play is what we're focusing on now, and they are getting their rhythm. They've made mistakes and we have had to select those on a higher level of fitness but we can not blame the players."

“I keep saying that the league has been off for two

months it's not the same when you train on your own and then you train with a team, that's all it is."

“But they've been good so far and after the first match, we still have about six days before the second one, so we have enough time to do what is right,” he told sl10.ng."

AHEAD NIGER 2015

Kaduna to host Nigeria-South Africa friendly

T

HE Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) at the weekend confirmed that the Ahmadu Bello Stadium (ABS) in Kaduna would on January 17 2015, host the proposed friendly match between the Golden Eaglets and Amajimbos of South Africa.

Both countries will be using the match to test the readiness of their youngsters for next month's 11th African Under17 Championship in Niger where they have been drawn in separate preliminary groups.

While the Golden Eaglets drew Niger, Guinea and Zambia in Group A, the Amajimbos who are coached

by Molefi Ntseki, are in

T

Group B alongside defending champions, Cote d'Ivoire, Mali and Cameroon.

Officials believe the friendly would also afford both teams the chance of playing against a team outside their sub regions.

Incidentally, the trip to Kaduna would be Golden Eaglets' second time under coach Emmanuel Amuneke after they recorded a 3-2 and 3-1 win against their colleagues from Egypt last May. Yet the forthcoming match promises to be even more exciting after the Amajimbos saw off the gritty Egyptians 43 on aggregate to book their appearance at the continental cadet championship hitherto

dominated by the Golden Eaglets including two gold medals in 2001 and 2007.

"This is a real good match to test our players against a quality opposition," noted Kabiru Baleria, Golden Eaglets' assistant coach."Playing against the South Africans would also give us an idea about how we can handle Zambia since they are from the same region."

It would be recalled that the NFF organised top friendly matches for the 2013 World Cup-winning Golden Eaglets and they remarkably beat Rwanda and Botswana in Calabar ahead of the CAN U17 in Morocco.

...As Eaglets beat Virgin Kids 3-1

HE Golden Eaglets in the meantime, beat Abuja-based Virgin Kids Academy 3-1 at the NFF/ FIFA Goal Project in Abuja on Saturday in continuation of their build up towards Niger 2015.

Kehinde Ayinde and Victor Osimhen scored three goals between themselves to cancel Virgin Kids' opening goal by Samson Ekemezie.

Coach Emmanuel

Amuneke started with a possible line up pairing the duo of Chidera Akachukwu and Kanu Chibueze in the central defensive positions in only their first match for the national U-17 team.

Virgin Kids started the game fast and furious and defended in numbers to keep the adventurous Eaglets' attacking duo of Samuel Chukwueze and Ayinde at bay. The Eaglets would later concede a corner kick on the

other end and Ekemezie wasted no time in volleying the ball behind goalkeeper Udoh Akpan in the 24th minute.

But 10 minutes later, Ayinde who was snapped from Kwara Football Academy, gave the Golden Eaglets the needed equaliser when he sneaked behind the opposing line of defence to slot the ball into the net behind goalkeeper Abayomi Oluwole.

In same vein, Warri Wolves skipper Azubike Egwuekwe, who would be leading Eagles defense line, said Nigeria 'B' team will not be intimidated by the pedigree of star-studded Cote d' Ivoire when both teams clash in a friendly in Abu Dhabi.

AFCON-bound Cote d'Ivoire are expected to line up their top stars like fourtime African Player of the Year Yaya Toure, Wilfried Bony, Salomon Kalou and Chieck Tiote against a Nigerian team drawn from the domestic league with only Switzerland-based midfielder Steve Ukoh from overseas.

Egwuekwe said he and some of his teammates have come up against the likes of Lionel Messi, Mario Baloteli and Iniesta and so he does not expect them to suffer inferiority complex on Sunday against the Elephants top stars.

"This is the time for the

home-based players to show that they can do it," said the towering central defender, who featured at t h e 2 0 1 3 F I F A Confederations Cup in Brazil.

"For me, I am never scared in any game. It's 11 players each on the pitch. I have played against top players like Iniesta, Fernando Torres and people told me I did well.

So who is Wilfred Bony?

We will match them man to man."

Nigeria defeated the Ivorians 2-1 in their last clash at full international level in a 2013 AFCON quarterfinal in South Africa, while the Eagles 'B' side eliminated their Ivorian counterparts to qualify for a first-ever 2014 CHAN, also in South Africa.

The Eagles are also due to face Sudan in Dubai on Saturday, January 17.

Stoke to unleash fit-again Moses on Arsenal

N

I G E R I A international Victor Moses is expected to return to Stoke City's starting lineup away at Arsenal on Sunday after recovering from a thigh injury.

Stoke City manager Mark Hughes said the former Wigan Athletic star is back to full fitness and looks good to go.

The Nigeria international returned to his parent club to undergo treatment and Hughes is happy with the job they've done on him.

"Victor is back in the group

and he looks okay, he looks sharp, but whether or not he is ready to start that's something I need to mull over,” said the Stoke City boss.

"But credit to Chelsea, he's come back well in terms of the rehab they gave him.

He's bang on track."

Moses has made 12 appearances for Hughes since joining on loan from Chelsea, but he suffered a thigh injury in November and has not played since.

He has scored one league goal this season.

THE NATION ON SUNDAY, JANUARY 11, 2015

79

QUOTABLE “Many will not vote at all. Not casting their votes at all is a minus for the president, so he shouldn't take the South-East for granted that it will be the same 99 per cent votes that will come from the South-East in 2015. It might not be.

SUNDAY, JANUARY 11, 2015 TRUTH IN DEFENCE OF FREEDOM VOL. 9, NO. 3092

—Former vice president, Alex Ekwueme, on why President Jonathan may not get maximum support from the South-East

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ARELY one week into their presidential campaigns, the leading contenders for the presidency, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the All Progressives Congress (APC), have given indications of the perspectives of their candidates and parties, as well as, strangely, the deep and fundamental intangibles of their worldview as they relate to the concepts of leadership, vision and philosophy, either real or abstract. It is not certain that the limited time available for campaigning is enough to make the PDP persuade Nigeria’s distraught, cynical and skeptical electorate to re-elect President Goodluck Jonathan, to overlook the many problems he has been unable to grapple with in a coherent, consistent and courageous manner, and to sympathise with his emotive responses to allegations of illiberal approach to politics and shocking lack of intuitive appreciation of the elementary challenges facing the country he has ruled for more than five years.

Nor is it also certain that the limited campaign time will permit Muhammadu Buhari, the APC presidential candidate, room to sell his candidature and virtues, and also to dispel the many criticisms validly leveled against his less than two years in power as military head of state in the early 1980s. Many of those criticisms, in spite of the long intervening years — nearly all of 30 years — still retain their potency and validity. There are doubts he has really transformed from a rigid, abrasive, ruthless and imperceptive ruler he once was. He is accused of jadedness, sectarianism, tribalism, lack of rigour or intellectual depth, and an unforgivable lack of empathy. His opponents will try to put him on the defensive and make the time very short for him to prove his bona fides.

Indeed, the dynamics of both campaigns will be influenced by the considerations above, some of them extraneous, others misplaced and specious, and yet others simply deliberately mischievous.

The more adept of the two campaigns will, however, utilise the limited time fairly effectively, if not to completely prove their competence to present the next president, at least to make their candidate the lesser of two evils. Given the constricted choices the country faces, the electorate will have to choose one way or the other, for choose they must. So far, as a matter of fact, both campaigns have emitted sublime signals, some of them quite portentous, of what their parties are, who their candidates are at bottom, how limited their vistas are, and what they mean to Nigeria. It is not quite clear whether a consideration of these intangibles, these so-called sublime signals, will influence the direction of voting, for the voters are themselves quite limited in horizon and are sentimental. But these signals will doubtless determine the direction, health and sustainability of the country in the medium to long run.

Take the kick-off of the Jonathan reelection campaign in Lagos for instance.

It was symptomatic of the partisan malaise that has turned the PDP into a fearsome behemoth with no internal moral core and absolutely no regard for other political parties and democratic fundamentals. The kick-off also showed in disturbingly bold relief Dr Jonathan’s intellectual weakness, questionable historicism and perverse logic, limited worldview, malignant extemporaneousness, sweeping and unpardonable generalisations and conclusions. “Those of my age and above are finished; we are gone,” moaned the president puzzlingly. “That is why I am addressing those of you that are voting for the first time. We believe it is you that will take us to the moon. My generation has failed, we couldn’t take Nigeria to the moon.”

The problem is not just that this questionable reading and understanding of history and contemporary events expose

Dynamics of APC, PDP presidential campaigns

•Muazu

•Oyegun

the president’s inadequacies, especially his lack of logical reasoning, but that they indicate a far more disturbing manifestation of the low quality of leadership in Nigeria, a lack of mastery of the existential and geopolitical threats facing the country, and an infatuation with boyish utopia.

The highlights of the president’s Lagos campaign, especially his tendentious rationalisation of his failing counterinsurgency war, his justification of his slow anti-corruption campaign, his defence of inept arms procurement methods, and his shocking inurement to his self-incriminating statements over MEND’s 2010 Abuja bombing, shocked and perplexed the thinking members of his audience, some of whom exclaimed in gasps behind him on the dais. Nonetheless, some of the facts mentioned by the president were incontestable, such as the neglect suffered by the military over the decades. But his suppositions, his inferences, and his conclusions were astonishingly unpresidential, not to say inimical to the growth, stability and good fortunes of the country. There is nothing he said in his Lagos campaign that entitles him to victory, or gives indication he had the subtlety and philosophical depth needed to rule a complex country in the 21st century. When he was right, which was seldom, he did not cut the figure of a president, or present the facade of a noble or of a philosophical-king.

And when he was wrong, which was often, such as when he guilefully and gleefully promoted sectarianism and ethnic divisions, he did not surprise.

Dr Jonathan, alas, displayed none of the composure associated with the high office of the presidency. In the Lagos campaign, as he sadly did elsewhere in recent times, he quiveringly and emotionally fulminated against his opponents, endorsed the anti-democratic tendencies of state security agencies, preoccupied himself and his presidency with elemental things, and propounded none of

the salient and uplifting ideas a complex society like Nigeria should embrace. None whatsoever. In the Lagos campaign, he tried to defend himself as much as possible, though he made a hash of it. And almost as an afterthought, he tried to sell a policy or two, but was unable to persuade either by logic or by force of his personality. The past few decades have been ideationally barren for Nigeria. Under Dr Jonathan, the sterility has grown incomparably. Four more years of him would not regenerate the country, as his campaign seeks to convince the electorate, or reposition it in line with the modernising ideas and infinitely changing complexities of the 21st century.

Conversely, the dynamics of the APC campaign exhibit a different hue. The opposition party, poised as it seems on the edge of victory, has about three weeks or four to prove the capacity of its presidential candidate and his advertised transformation into a modern, if unaccustomed, democrat and liberal. In Lagos, a hysterical Dr Jonathan said that that transformation was not possible, and a vote for Gen Buhari would ineluctably return Nigeria to the dark days of atavistic prosecution of the anti-corruption war, where suspects were crated and jailed without regard to the law. But compared to Dr Jonathan’s campaign volubility, Gen Buhari, not the most eloquent of men, has always spoken laconically, often with a terseness that belies his political and leadership experience and hunger for office. His gaffes and indiscretions are thus few and far between. Beyond seemingly partitioning the campaign between himself and his running mate, Yemi Osinbajo, a law professor, to achieve maximum impact, the general’s taciturnity and the silent and subterranean jostling for power and influence in the APC appear to cause dreadful unease in campaign and political circles.

Unlike the PDP

whose power structure had earlier been defined and shaped, perhaps disapprovingly, under the Olusegun Obasanjo presidency, with occasional eruptions between governors and the presidency, the APC has the onerous and compelling burden of campaigning for the highest office in the land at the same time as embarking on a difficult journey of selfdiscovery, self-definition, and self-actualisation. The ongoing internal jostling may have no significant effect on the party’s electoral chances if well managed, but in more ways than party apparatchiks think, the future of the party and its performance as a ruling party, should it attain the highest office, could be considerably stymied by that burden.

A faint trichotomy is thus visible in the APC. On one hand is the powerful and inspiring arm of the party responsible for the formation of the APC, an amalgam of parties many but that powerful and inspiring few at first believed impossible. On the other hand is the northern caucus desperate to regain the presidency, a desperation fuelled by the incontestably poor performance of the Jonathan government. And on the third hand is a coalition of forces made up principally of governors and other party leaders determined to gain the upper hand in the power struggle, an upper hand they hinge on what they describe as the political altruism of checkmating any domination within the party. The battle for supremacy in the PDP was brutally and peremptorily settled by Chief Obasanjo. It will take a little while for that battle to be settled in the APC, whether they win the presidency or not.

Though the APC is doing its best to conceal that jostling, a perceptive observer will notice the fault lines, as faint and imperceptible as they may appear.

But what cannot be hidden is that if care is not taken, and irrespective of whether the party wins the presidency or not, the internal struggle may be won by an arm of the party that does not have the passion, drive, depth and conviction that inspired its formation. On the surface, there may be nothing wrong with having many tendencies within a party, as some developed democracies have shown. But for a party still in formation, and one which seems close to winning the presidency on the strength of the appalling incompetence and failures of the ruling party, it would indeed be cynical for the jostling within the APC to be settled in favour of an arm more desirous of dominating and moulding it into a typical party, almost indistinguishable from the PDP, than imbuing it with the kind of substance and character both the party and country need to survive and flourish.

But perhaps this observation is an exaggeration. Perhaps the internal struggles in the APC are rather inconsequential. If that is so, the party is lucky. However, all indications show that there is a mild tremor within the party, even if that tremor may not hamstring both its campaign and battle to win February’s presidential poll. What is clear overall is that both the PDP and its candidate, Dr Jonathan, are “spent and finished,” a Freudian slip the president himself made in Lagos at his campaign kick-off. The dynamics of the PDP campaign are such that the party seems fated to lose the elections because of the president’s offputting personality and general incapacity. The dynamics of the APC campaign, on the other hand, are such that the party seems poised to outperform its expectations in spite of Gen Buhari’s inability to generate excitement by his speech and campaign style, and the dredging up of many of his past objectionable statements and policies by the ruling party.

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Website: www.thenationonlineng.net ISSN: 115-5302 E-mail: sunday@thenationonlineng.net Editor: FESTUS ERIYE