Sun News- October 14, 2012

SUNDAY SUN

October 14, 2012

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October 14, 2012 Africa U-17 qualifier

Eaglets test might against Guinea

Sports

By ONYEWUCHI NWACHUKWU

fter posting a scintillating display in the preliminary round of the Africa Under-17 Championship qualifier, the Golden Eaglets face a more formidable opponents, the Guineans, at the U.J. Esuene Stadium today in a first leg, first round game in the qualifying series.

The Eaglets under Coach Manu Garba, who was assistant to the late Yemi Tella when Nigeria won the FIFA Under17 World Cup in South Korea in 2007, were ruthless in the preliminary round of the qualifier with the way they crushed Junior Mena of Niger Republic 10-1 on aggregate.

The Nigerian cadet side humiliated the Nigeriens 4-1 in their backyard in Niamey, and finished the job in the second leg in Calabar with an emphatic 6-0 victory to underline their blistering form of late.

However, the Eaglets will have another opportunity to ascertain if their performance against the Nigeriens was a fluke with today's encounter against Guinea. This is because the West African country has a better football pedigree than Niger.

Moreover, whereas the Eaglets have missed two consecutive Africa Under-17 Championships, the Guineans qualified for the continent's cadet tournament and even went ahead to qualify for the last edition of the FIFA Under17 World Cup. Apart from the recent good form of the cadet teams of both Nigeria and Guinea, the rivalry •Nigerian striker, Victor Moses, jumps on goal scorer, Mikel Obi (l), Obiora Nwankwo (c) between the two countries and Ahmed Musa, as they celebrate Nigeria’s fourth goal against Liberia during the 2013 dates back to the inaugural edition of the Under-17 World African Cup of Nations qualifier in Calabar, yesterday.

Cup in China, when both countries met in the quarterfinal,

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NATIONS CUP QUALIFIER

Eagles land in South Africa

By EMMA NJOKU, Calabar igeria's Super Eagles, yesterday, whitewashed the Lone Star of Liberia 6-1 at the U.J. Esuene Stadium in Calabar to book a ticket to next year's Africa Cup of Nations holding in South Africa.

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It took less than a minute into the match for defender, Efe Ambrose, to put Nigeria ahead with a beautiful header off Victor Moses' free kick after Ahmed Musa was fouled close to the Liberian penalty box.

The visitors, thereafter, switched the heat on the Eagles' defence. But it was the Nigerian team that drew the blood yet again, when Mikel Obi initiated a move that saw Emmanuel Emenike's crossing scrambled into the net in the 37th minute for Nigeria's second goal. Eagles went into the interval with the 2-0 advantage.

The Nigerian team began the second half on the same tempo as the first half, with Victor Moses grabbing his first goal in the national team to make it 3-0 against the Liberians barely two minutes into the second half.

Mikel capped his return to the national team with a perfect kick from the penalty spot in the 51st minute after the Liberian goalkeeper fouled goal-bound Nosa Igiebor. Super substitute, Ike Uche, made it 5-1 for Nigeria in the 62nd minute, while Liberia's consolation goal was scored by substitute, Wleh Patrick Ronaldinho in the 80th minute.

Victor Moses completed the routing of the Lone Star in the 88th minute with his

…Demolish Liberia's Lone Star 6-1 second goal to put final scores at 6-1.

Nigeria, thus, qualified for next year's

Nations Cup in South Africa on 8-2 aggregate following the 2-2 scores in the first leg in Monrovia.

with the game going into extra time before Nigeria won 5-3 on penalties.

In today's tie, Coach Garba and his lads could pick inspiration from the victory of their senior colleagues, the Super Eagles, who demolished the Lone Star of Liberia 6-1 to qualify for the South Africa 2013 Nations Cup on the same venue.

If the Eaglets continue with their recent form, then their opponents might be in for the bashing of their lives. But whatever happens, the Guineans still have the advantage of hosting the return leg in Conakry in two weeks time.

•Kelechi Iheanacho of Golden Eaglets vs Niger Republic

I'm proud of my players –Keshi uper Eagles’ gaffer, Stephen Keshi, has revealed that he was not expecting a huge score line against Liberia in yesterday’s 2013 Nations Cup final qualification match, adding that his boys were very impressive in the game.

Fielding questions from the media in a post match interview, the Eagles’ head coach, also commended the fans and Nigerians for believing in the team, just as he made a passionate appeal to Nigerians to have patience for the team.

“I want to thank God and the people of Nigeria that came out massively to support us.

My gratitude also goes to the people of Calabar, the governor and his wife, and more especially, the Nigerian media, which for the first time took the fight as their personal project. The massive support was a motivation to the players,” he noted.

Asked if he expected the massive score line, Keshi said: “I was not expecting it, but I knew that the boys were ready. I saw them in training and knew that they were rearing to go. I’m proud of them and I just want to appeal that the fans should continue to support the team.”

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Eagles’ victory, good birthday gift –Musa Stories by ROMANUS UGWU, Calabar

•Wins N.5m MVP award

ussian-based Nigerian dashing winger, Musa Ahmed, has described the comprehensive victory over visiting Lone Star of Liberia as a deserved birthday present for him, noting that he dedicated his goal in the encounter to himself as he marks his birthday today.

Speaking to the media shortly after the victory that secured the South Africa 2013 Nations Cup ticket for Nigeria at the U.J. Esuene Stadium in Calabar yesterday, Musa commended his teammates for living up to expectation in that game.

“I’m dedicating my goal to myself because (today) is my birthday. The goal is a good birthday present for me. Besides, everybody gave good account of himself in that match. We lived up to the expectations of Nigerians and I’m very happy with the result,” he said.

Commenting on the challenges from the Liberians, Musa argued that the visitors gave Eagles a good fight. He, however, gave special commendation to the Calabar fans for cheering the Nigerian team all through the period the encounter lasted.

“The Liberians are very good. They played very good football, even as they gave us a good fight. But we proved to them that we are better with the score line.

“I want to also use this opportunity to thank the fans for cheering and supporting us till the end of the match,” he added.

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Meanwhile, the CSKA reliable winger will smile to the bank for winning the $3000 (about N500,000) Most Valuable Player award of the match. He scored a goal in the 6–1 Liberian demolition to crown his effort.

Why we crumbled –Liberia coach, captain isappointed Liberia Head Coach, Keetu Smit and his captain, Grimes George Duncan, unanimously agreed that the Super Eagles were the better side in the comprehensive victory over them in the run for the Nations Cup ticket to South Africa.

However, while the coach blamed the defeat on loss of concentration by his boys after the second goal, the captain came hard on the Liberia Football Association (LFA) and attributed the loss to the team’s shoddy travelling arrangements.

“We would have done better on a good day, but we have no choice than to accept the victory. The Super Eagles are obviously the better side and it reflected in the victory,” the coach began.

“On what went wrong, I would say that the second goal really contributed to our ordeal. We were playing well until the second goal came. It was very difficult for us to recover. The first and

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second goals caused the problem for us.

“The goals came as a result of poor judgment from my defenders. In fact, they lost concentration. The Nigerian side played with more confidence. I have to admit that my boys disappointed me,” he said.

In the same vein, the skipper, who incidentally could not complete the game due to the red card that was issued to him, said that the LFA did not tidy up their travelling arrangements, which resulted in their coming into Nigeria very late.

“I have to accept the decision of the referee for giving me a red card. I don’t think I deserved the matching order, but there was nothing I could do about it.

“As for the result, we have lost out in the Nations Cup in South Africa and I hope the younger players will learn from what we did.

“Yes, I have to also blame the loss on the untidy travelling arrangements by the FA. It really contributed to the result. The planning was not just good and it did not help us,” he said.

October 14, 2012

SundaySUN Sports

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e-mail:erniestar@yahoo.com

Paralympics gold medallist, Grace Anozie, reveals…

Unemployment drove me Titan, Rima, Agad rule Kano 2012 Polo Fiesta into sports K

By MADUABUCHI KALU

orld record holder and Paralympics gold medallist, Grace Ebere Anozie, has revealed that it was unemployment that drove her into sports. According to the disabled athlete, after graduating from the university in 1998, she could not find a job. But a visit on a faithful day to her fellow physically challenged friend, who was into sports, was all that changed the course of her life.

Her friend advised her to stop wasting her time, but to join her in sports. She took the advice and ever since then, she has never looked back.

In a chat with Sunday Sunsports in Lagos, Anozie stated: “It was actually unemployment that drove me into sports.

“When I left the university where I studied Accountancy,” she continued, “I searched for job to no avail. You can imagine someone like me who is physically challenged looking for job in an environment that is filled with able-bodied men and women, who are also searching for jobs and have done so for many years. Of course, it was not easy and I couldn’t find any.

“One day, I visited a fellow physically challenged friend of mine, who is into sports, and in the course of our discussion, she said to me, ‘my friend, stop wasting your time looking for job that does not exist, and even if it exists, employers are not likely going to look in your direction considering your condition when there are able-bodied individuals roaming the streets looking for the same job. They are not going to employ you on sympathy ground because they are not charity organisations, but business concerns that are out to make money and as such, would always give preference to able-bodied people’.

“She, therefore, advised me to join her in sports and stop idling away looking for the non-existing job. The advice sunk into my brain and that was how I joined sports. I thank God for leading me in making up my mind on that.

“The Games in London was my fourth outing at the Paralympics. I started in 1998.

I have been winning medals for the country but at the moment, I am the world record holder in my category with a gold medal to show for it,” Anozie stated with joy written all over her.

On what retired her to the wheelchair, she explained that poliomyelitis cost her both legs. But she was full of gratitude to her parents for their love and support all through her growing years. She described her parents as the best in the world, even as she revealed that they could deny her siblings some level of com-

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…Calls for eradication of poliomyelitis in Nigeria

fort to make her happy.

The gold medallist, therefore, called on government and parents to work hard towards kicking polio out of Nigeria.

She said it saddens her heart that Nigerian kids were still ravaged by polio in this 21st

century, when the affliction has been eradicated in most other countries of the world. Anozie indicated her interest in leading the campaign towards the eradication of polio in the country.

Meanwhile, the athlete called on other physically chal-

lenged individuals in the country to embrace sports and enjoy the good side of life instead of idling away and living in selfpity. She stated that her case would remain an example to many.

•Anozie

Williams becomes CANA Zone II president

By MADUABUCHI KALU igeria has added another feather to her sporting profile, as the President of Nigeria Swimming Federation (NSF), Mr Babatunde Fatai William, recently, emerged as the Confederation of African du

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Natacion (CANA) Zone II president.

Williams was elected as the sub-regional president during the CANA Congress that was recently held in Nairobi, Kenya.

With the election, the Nigeria swimming boss has automatically become a member of CANA Bureau, which is the

SPDC/Rivers State Governor’s Cup

Ogolo vows to end Obio-akpor’s title chase pobo-nkoro’s reliable hit man, Evans Ogolo, has said that his side would end the title ambition of Cup holders, Obio-akpor in tomorrow’s quarterfinal duel of the ongoing 2012 SPDC/Rivers State Governor’s Cup at the Liberation Stadium in Port Harcourt.

Ogolo has been in fine run to the match-up against champions, Obio-akpor, having done excellently well in his sides wins against Eleme and Akuku-toru.

Their opponents, Obioakpor showed strength in previous encounters against Andoni, Ogu-bolo, Omuma and Onelga.

The Opobo-nkoro hit man, said though bookmakers favoured their foes to go through, they have shock waves waiting for them.

“Obio-akpor is the favourite being the defending champion.

They’ve shown character in their past matches. We’re clearly the underdogs and that’s the spirit we’ll bring into the game tomorrow. We’ll shock them. I think they’ve come to the end of the road as

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far as this year’s game is concerned.

“We’ve anxiously waited for this match with keen interest since the pairing was made. We intend to approach the match as if it is the final.

We’re not under any illusion that it would be cheap. We envisage a tough battle.

“For us to have come this far, our focus is targeted at the trophy and we’re determined to emerge champions at the end of the day,” he said.

Other quarterfinal matches are the evenly matched tie between Oyigbo and Ahoada West at the Training Pitch of the Liberation Stadium in Port Harcourt. Last year’s beaten finalists, Okrika, will square up against hard nut in the shape, Abua-odual. And the last-eight onslaught would be the titanic battle involving Akuku-toru and Onelga.

Facilitators of the competition, Deportivo Vandyke International, through its director, Stella OsayameEbohon, assured that the aim of the biggest grassroots football competition in the land would be realised when the curtain fell on October 19.

highest decision-making organ of the continental swimming body, and the vantage position has placed Nigeria on the right path of development in the aquatic sport if only the government and corporate organisations would give him the needed support.

However, it was not all good news for the country at the CANA Congress in Nairobi, as the effort of Nigeria’s Chairman of the Legal Committee of FINA, Chief Olatukunbo Thomas to become the next president of the continental swimming body could not be realised. Chief Thomas was humiliated at the pool after he garnered four votes against 14, which his South Africa’s contender and winner pooled. A total of 19 countries attended the congress in Nairobi.

While in a chat with Sunday Sunsports, the NSF President, Mr Williams, explained that the failure of Chief Thomas to secure the presidency of the continental swimming body does not affect his membership of the Legal Committee of FINA. He explained that Chief Thomas would remain the chairman of the committee pending when elections are held next year.

He further revealed that the much-awaited First CANA Zone II Age Group Championship, which Ondo State Government is sponsoring and hosting, would now hold from November 7–12 this year.

According to him, the Main Organising Committee (MOC) for the event has been constituted after a meeting of Ondo State government with the officials of CANA Zone II, which took place in Akure recently.

ano Polo captain, Tajudeen Dantata, has played inspiring roles in all his Titan’s victory memories, and the 2012 record was no exception. He leaped into the sky in celebration of another milestone, as the decisive golden goal sailed through the post to give Titan its first Emir of Kano Cup title.

“Attacking polo has been the hallmark that has fetched us great victories over the years,” Dantata said, with smiles. “I think the boys understood the import of the game.”

Donning their trademark abridged white trousers and red and blue jerseys, with the silhouette symbol of their beloved Titan on their left sleeves, the Kano Polo kings won the Emir of Kano Cup in a stunning comeback that would dominate media headlines for a long time.

The much-waited MTN International Polo Tournament, which took the ancient city of Kano by storm, has come and gone, but the enduring legacies of the historic fiesta would, for a long time, remain evergreen in the minds of thousands of people who watched the grand event and the millions who followed it on the media.

Kano Polo Chairman, Bashir Dantata, who had participated in every Kano tournament since 1978, picked the titanic cup final, which went straight to the wire as one of the biggest highlights of the grand event.

The Kano Polo boss, who participated in the fiesta alongside three of his sons, Bashir, Abba and Baba, described the sensational victory as an apt momentous highlight, which truly celebrated the depth of Kano Polo and the promise of what future holds for the club.

One winner, which took off from where it left off two years ago, was Kano Polo reigning king - Titan (1), which took its attacking polo style record to a new height, winning its first Emir of Kano title since the royal crown was elevated to become the biggest prize at stake in Kano two years ago.

To win the MTN’s biggest polo crown in Kano, the Emir of Kano Cup, the Titan Warriors relied on the spectacular form of South Africa’s Duncan Watson, who scored a

million-dollar goal against Lagos Machines in the nervewrecking sudden death chukka to give the champions their hard-earned victory.

Pitched against the hardfighting Lagos Machines, which had the like of Lance Watson, Bashir Dantata (Jnr.), Ahamdu Umar and Ali Birjawi, the Titans, who had earlier lost their opening game to the Lagos team, fought the battle of their lives to force the game to the cliffhanging sudden death, with final scores standing at 6–6. The resultant tension-soaked sudden death chukka was as dramatic, with Titans losing a 30-yard chance and Lagos Machines throwing away a golden chance with only two minutes left on the clock.

The winning goal came in the last gasping attack by Titans, with Duncan lashing on a poor pass to score the seventh and the all-important golden goal in the sixth minute of the nerve-wrecking final.

Embolden by Titans’ victory, host, Kano Polo Club, added two major titles in a commanding performance that highlighted the improved competitive prowess of Kano teams. Returnee, Kano Rima, powered by Hassan Ghamal, defeated a strong field of five teams to win the Dangote Cup, while Kano YY, outpaced Titans (2) to win its first Dantata Cup title.

The last of the four major titles went to the top-firing Lagos Agad, which defeated 13 teams to cart home the coveted MRS Cup. Ibadan Club, which fielded two teams in the Kano firestorm this year, could only managed MRS Cup runners-up. It finished after Ibadan Challenge, which succumbed to the firepower of Lagos Agad in the final.

Other glittering prizes carted home by the winners were the Muhammadu Sanusi Cup, Governor’s Cup, Gen. Hassan Cup, Gen. Abacha Cup, Dantata & Sawoe Cup, Beginners Cup and the Veterans Cup, among others.

Off the field, there were plenty of social events to excite the teeming polo enthusiasts and tourists, who arrived from different parts of the country and beyond to be part of the MTN Polo Festival.

•Kano Titan Patron and Captain of Kano Polo Club, Tajudeen Dantata, leading his Titan Warriors during the Dantata Cup final against Kano YY at a recent 2012 MTN International Polo Tournament.

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POWER GAME SERIES Ondo guber poll: How prepared is INEC?

By OMONIYI SALAUDEEN

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ARELY six days more to the October 20 governorship election in Ondo State, all eyes are now on the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for the level of its preparedness for the onerous assignment of conducting a hitch-free and credible poll. This is no less one of the most unpredictable elections many Nigerians have been anxiously waiting to see its outcome. Like all the previous governorship elections recently held in some states of the federation, Ondo gubernatorial poll will be another litmus test for the capacity of the electoral umpire to supervise a hitchfree contest. From the past experience, the problems of late arrival of election materials and delays in the commencement of accreditation and voting in many polling units have always been a major factor militating against smooth and credible elections. Therefore, as the time ticks gradually and steadily towards the D-day, anxiety is understandably high among the stakeholders that the same experience might still repeat itself unless the INEC has taken enough measures to block all the loopholes that often lead to this perennial problem.

However, if the assurance by the state Residence Electoral Commissioner, Mr. Akin Orebiyi, is anything to go by, this election may be a radical departure from the past experience. According to Orebiyi, every logistic arrangement has been put in place to ensure a hitch-free poll. “We have put in place machinery to ensure that the October 20 governorship election is an improvement of that of Edo State. In fact, this coming election will be the best ever conducted by INEC and it is going to be a model. With adequate security personnel including the military men, we are sure that this election will not only be free but will be fair,” he said.

In order to avoid the pitfall of the past, he assured that materials for the election will arrive in all wards across the state on Friday, October 19, a day before the election. Apart from that, he said, some 42,200 party agents recently trained by the INEC would be on hand to accompany the sensitive materials, polling officials, right from the INEC office to the various local governments, to the wards and polling units on the election day.

The training was recently organised by the INEC and United States-based International Republican Institute. In his words, “These are supposed to serve as the eyes and the ears of the candidates they are representing in the whole process of the election. It is necessary for the agents to know precisely what their duties and responsibilities are as well as their rights on Election Day. This is why INEC in conjunction with the IRI decided to organise the programme.”

On the issue of security, the INEC said that security personnel would be deployed from 11 states of the federation to maintain peace and order during on the day of the election.

Each of the 3,007 polling units in the state, according to the umpire, would be manned by at least four security agents to provide cover for voters and materials. This is in addition to an unspecified number of soldiers and naval personnel that would be involved in the election to satisfy the yearnings of almost all the political parties that troops be deployed to maintain order during the exercise.

All this assurance is coming amidst accusation and counter accusation by the three leading political parties to rig the election. Some couple of days ago, the Mimiko Campaign

•Jega

Organisation raised an alarm, alleging the plot by the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) leaders to rig the election by using some workers of the commission. In a statement by its Director of Publicity and Media Relations, Kolawole Olabisi, the MCO alleged that opposition elements had resorted to underhand tactics of compromising some INEC officials to rig the polls.

The statement reads in part, “Since ACN made a foray into Ondo State political firmament, it has brought with it violence hitherto unprecedented in the annals of Ondo State politics- shooting, maiming, intimidating the people and making the state seeming unsettled. A meeting was held recently in the home of an ACN leader in Lagos with some INEC officials where modalities were mapped out on the rigging plans in favour of the ACN candidate in the October 20 election.”

But in swift reaction, the Akeredolu Campaign Organisation, in a counter statement by its Director of Media, Publicity and Strategy, Idowu Ajanaku, described the allegation as “not only baseless and untrue but a product of hallucination. “We in the ACN do not need to meet with INEC officials to win elections in Ondo. The question Mimiko should answer is whether we met with INEC officials before we won in Oyo, Ogun and Edo. We will win the October 20 election because the people of Ondo State have been able to see through the charade and cosmetic projects that Mimiko has been parading as his achievement for the past three and half years. We have blown the whistle on his socalled biometric registration scam which is actually intended to compromise the INEC database, and now that it is clear they cannot carry out their plan, they are now trying to taint the ACN, it’s a case of the kettle calling the pot black.”

Orebiyi, reacting to the allegations at a stakeholders’ meeting attended by representatives of political parties, said “INEC is aware of all the allegations being made by politicians against each other and we are looking at every case with all the attention they deserve. We are also carrying security agencies along in all our investigations.”

Beyond the allegations of rigging, the Police command in Ondo State has also raised an alarm over the influx of firearms into the hands of politicians and their hired hoodlums to be used during the forthcoming governorship election. In a statement during the week, the police authority said: “It has uncovered a plot by some disgruntled elements to cause panic and put fear into the minds of innocent citizens. They intend to achieve this by sponsoring thugs to unleash terror on some peace-loving members of the society under the guise of being supporters of political parties.”

Accordingly, the state Commissioner of Police, Danladi Mshelbwala has implored all those who have genuine licence to own firearms to regularise their papers to distinguish themselves from illegal owners as policemen would soon begin massive search to retrieve illegal arms. Assuring of the readiness of the police to maintain peace before, during and after the polls, the Police Command said “those in possession of firearms illegally are, in their own interest, warned to surrender them before they are caught or be ready to face the full wrath of the law.”

He disclosed that security personnel would be drawn from 11 other states to assist the men of the Ondo command. Aside the policemen, other security organisations would contribute men and material to the conduct of the election.

The growing anxiety and apprehension

over the security challenge is an anticlimax of violence threat that has characterized campaign rallies of the ruling LP, ACN and the PDP. Since public campaign by political parties began on July 12, political temperature in the state has literally hit the rooftop with occasional skirmishes involving supporters of the three foremost political parties in the state. With aggressive electioneering, they are not leaving anyone in doubt that the stakes is extremely high. The way and manner the three respective candidates go about their electioneering suggest a preparation for war rather than a peaceful electoral contest. The recent violence in Akure, Owo and some other places are still fresh in the memory, a development which prompted the police to ban the use of armed private security arrangements during processions, rallies or campaigns. Even at that, the security agencies have a huge responsibility on their hands to ensure a hitch-free poll.

Although the resident commissioner has consistently allayed the fears of the people, assuring that the commission is fully prepared for any antics that the politicians may want to play during the election, there are still strong indications that all is still not well. The threat of violence still remains palpable in the air.

The Deputy Governorship candidate of the ACN, Otunba Akinfulire, in an interview with Sunday Sun commended the INEC for its preparation but berated the police for allegedly conniving with a particular party to intimidate supporters of his party. He said, “So far, we are optimistic that they (INEC) will do well going by the Edo State precedent. But let me quickly add that some ballot papers and voters cards have been discovered in some areas of Ondo town. I hope this is not the plot by the ruling party to stage-manage the election. It is left to the INEC to live up to expectation.”

He was worried about the threatening security, saying, “The security situation in the state is porous. In areas like Okitipupa, police are collaborating with LP to intimidate our supporters. They are chasing people out of Okitipupa. Police have no responsibility interfering in party matters. It is the height of irresponsibility for the state commissioner of police to be taking sides with a particular party. We have petitioned the InspectorGeneral of Police to investigate the role of the commissioner in this matter and if found culpable, he should be removed. He is trying to truncate democracy we have been praying for. In my own local government, Mimiko has been using hospitals to stockpile arms and ammunition. Since election is here, we are not too sure that those things are not going to be used to truncate our democracy. With the way things are going, they may plunge Ondo State to what happened in 1983. They have been arresting my members arbitrarily.”

In a text message he sent to our correspondent, he further raised an alarm over the threat of his arrest. “I may have to travel to Lagos this evening due to the threat of my arrest from the Labour Party members. Also most of the youths in Ikoya are now in disarray.

Our leaders should act fast before things get out of hand.”

But the state Chairman of the LP, Barrister Ogidan, on his part, expressed optimism that the election would be free and credible in view of logistic arrangement that had been put in place. “They (INEC) are fully prepared and we are also prepared. From the look of things, preparation is water tight.”

As the voters anxiously wait for the D-day, the expectation is that INEC and the security agents would live to their billings and work together to deliver a credible poll.

OCTOBER 14, 2012 SUNDAY SUN 61

THE POWERG GAME SERIES Niger Delta planning secession –Waku

By OMONIYI SALAUDEEN

It has always been a common catchphrase among the political leaders from the immediate post independence era to describe this existing geographical expression called Nigeria as an indivisible entity.

Yet, 52 years down the line, the much sought unity still remains largely elusive. In this interview, Senator Joseph Waku threw a fresh bomb, saying Nigeria Delta region is on the path of secession with the policies of Jonathan administration. Excerpts…

Nigeria has just marked her 52nd independence anniversary. How has the nation fared?

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T is a celebration of disaster in terms of economy, absence of social amenities, insecurity, lack of job creation and political development. A nation suffers when the leaders promote their ego rather than the common interest of the people. There is no need for what we are going through today, if we have good leadership. This country is well blessed but corruption has taken over the minds of our leaders.

If we had continued with the legacies of Sardauna of Sokoto, Obafemi Awolowo, Dr Nnamdi Azikwe, Tafawa Balewa, Akintola and others, Nigeria would have been an envy of all in this black race.

The younger generation of today too has failed this country. Awolowo, Sir Ahmadu Bello, Dr Nnamdi Azikwe, Tafawa Balewa, Michael Opara, Akintola and Osadebe were all in their youthful age when they served this country. And they served with commitment to the development of this nation rather than their personal pockets. There was no money as it is today but they were able to manage available resources to develop their various regions. A country that cannot hold free and fair election can never see peace. Peoples’ aspirations have been short-changed. Part of reactions to such short- changing comes in different dimensions. One of these is agitation for a separate republic by a particular section of the country which recently led to the hosting of their flag. Some are calling for regional police. Some are calling for regional government. All this is as a result of disenchantment. We have abandoned the norms of our founding fathers. Because of our selfishness, we have lost the vision of keeping Nigeria as a united country. Let there be one man, one vote and Nigeria will have hope.

It is only in Nigeria that corrupt people whose cases are still pending in the judiciary are being given national honour. It is only in Nigeria where people do not find out where you make the money you donate to church or mosque. It is only in Nigeria that corrupt people are being celebrated. How would there be unity when the few that stand by the truth and honesty are being discouraged? That is why some people will say if you can’t beat them, you join them. And government capitalizes on this to do what they like. In this part of the world, governors are like a mini-god.

Then, what is the future of this nation in this sorry state?

I am not comfortable with the future of this country. Nigeria needs a good leader who will see everybody as a citizen of this country and not a leader that will speak from both sides of his mouth. For instance, Boko Haram is something that can be tackled in a week if Nigerian government wants it done.

But people are feeding fat on it. So, they want it to go on. Boko Haram is a self-induced cri-

sis. It can be dealt with in a couple of weeks, if the government wants it done. There are various kinds of security mechanisms that can bring them out wherever they are. But the government is not interested. Security is not about government, it is about you and me. In Britain, taxi drivers, stewards in hotels, shop attendants are security agents. So, it is also in the US. But here, our Chief Security Officers want you to book an appointment to see them and it takes weeks and months. Sometimes, you don’t even see them at all. In the end, you get frustrated and go your way. Security should not be tackled in that manner. And Nigerians know it. They get good training in overseas and come back and remain what Nigerians want them to be. It is only in Nigeria you see a construction engineer or mechanical engineer wear suit and tie and sit down in the office. It is only in Nigeria that information minister gets up to say what he wants to say without thinking of repercussion.

The present younger generation has failed Nigerians. At any given point in time, it was the young people that govern this country. During Obafemi Awolowo, they were young at their own time. During Gen Yakubu Gowon, they were young at their own time. At 29, Gowon became the president of this country and prosecuted the civil war without any ambush or skirmishes. In the entire world, it is only in Nigeria that war ended when it was pronounced ended without any skirmishes from anybody. So, Nigeria has what it takes to govern when we have a good leader. The regime of Buhari/Idiagbon was short-lived, of course, but Nigerians learnt something from it-discipline. If you get a good leader, Nigerians are good followers. If you find a leader that is disciplined, Nigerians will be more disciplined than the leader. If you find a leader that is corrupt, Nigerians will be more corrupt than that leader.

Nigerians are good copycats. Our problem in this country is good leader. Through corruption, good people have been denied the opportunity to render their service to their fatherland.

How will a leader who can forge national unity emerge?

There are many Nigerians who could provide quality leadership but they are being denied the opportunity. But in the eye of the Almighty

God, it is too little to put Nigeria on the right part. It may be that God is giving us time to amend our ways. I am sure, when He gets tired, He would react. By then, those that will be alive will make Nigeria great.

Barely two years into the administration of President Goodluck Jonathan, the race to 2015 has already begun. How do you see this development?

It is highly irresponsible. But one cannot be too surprised because they were not democratically elected in the first instance. This is the unfortunate situation that we are facing. In the First Republic, Tafawa Balewa, Sadauna of Sokoto, had the power to stop any other political party other than NPC from winning election in the North. But they didn’t. So also Awolowo and Nnamdi Azikwe had the powers to stop the opposition from winning election in the West and South East respectively but didn’t. But now, all political parties want to win by 100 percent.

They even use such language as capture as if they are in the war front. In democracy, you don’t capture power; you convince electorate about your programmes. But our political leader will tell you that they are going to capture a particular state in an election. It negates the norms of democratic dispensation and it is like that in all parties. Let there be conference of all political parties and political elite to discuss the future of this country so that we can move forward.

Our politicians have taken politics as an economic investment rather than service to the people. And it is very dangerous. So, we need to mend our ways. In Nigeria today, there are just only two classes of people- the upper and the lower classes. No more middle class. It is either you are rich or you are poor. Nigeria’s population is about 150 million but those controlling the government are less than 2 million people.

There is no portable water, hospitals have become mere consulting clinics, schools are overgrown with weeds and teachers that have the responsibility of moulding the lives of the younger generation are not paid. That is why the zeal to teach is no longer there.

How would you then react to the report that the government now employs ex-militants in the Niger Delta region to protect oil installations and pay them in millions?

They are preparing for secession. It is not for the oil. What happens to the military?

What happens to the police? Where are your SSS? Where are your several governmental agencies? Let no one deceive us. We are too old for that kind of gimmicks. Do you know the number of arms that have got into the Niger Delta through bunkering? Government knows, our leaders too know. No genuine educated human being will want to identify himself as a militant. It is a derogatory name; it is not a name that anybody will want to be identified with. But they have become something to the extent that people now cherish them, instead of treating them like common criminals which they are. Yet, they are being given first class treatment. Why can’t Boko Haram too continue and remain there? My quarrel with Boko Haram is their refusal to come out and say what they want rather than bombing churches and mosques. If they come out to say this is what we want, then one will be able to say that they should be recognized because Nigeria has set a precedent.

But they are not coming out. Nobody is seeing them and they are living among us.

Nigeria’s security agencies will say they don’t know where they are hiding. There are certain things too sensitive to reduce to media publication. When some of us are invited by the government, we will be able to tell them the home truth. If they want to heed to advice, it will help this country.

How do you also see the issue of onshore/off shore dichotomy?

The federal government is in charge of anything in the water. No individual has control over anything on the high sea. I think it is just an attempt to create a problem and government hasn’t got the will to stamp its feet. The water was created before people went there. If you talk about the water that destroys your crops, it is a different matter.

What is your take on the regional or state police?

With the way Nigeria is today and the lesson we have learnt from the state electoral body, we are not mature for it yet. I am still advocating for the abolishment of state electoral commission. Let the federal electoral commission conduct all elections. As to the ongoing constitutional review, the National Assembly can only bark but can’t bite because they will lose elections in their states.

If they will do the right thing, then I will recommend regional police. The regional police can be very important if is not going to be misused. More so, the people in each locality know the criminals in their midst. But will they stand by that? That is the fear that I entertain. So, it is not a bad idea? But one day, they will just pick one of their political opponents they don’t like and send him to jail. In as much as it is a brilliant idea, experience has not shown us how freely we can operate it.

If the federal government has to conduct all elections, will that not lead to over centralization?

And so what? It happened before. All election matters should be controlled centrally.

Many of these governors just sit in Government Houses and write results. No matter how corrupt INEC is, it has somebody with integrity that will not allow that to happen. Today, some states are preparing arms for local government elections because they know governments there will sit in one place and write results. I am afraid, in some states, it will be bloody. Is that what we need? You deny people to make their choice and you think you will have peace. Election is about majority, it is about choice.

How would you reconcile this position with those calling for regional government?

I tend to agree with regional government because we are not mature for presidential system of government in Nigeria. It is too expensive and there is too much power concentration in the hands of individuals. The present governors have too much power. It is the governors that decides who becomes a councilor; he also determines when to hold election. What will help this country is a revolution.

62 OCTOBER 14, 2012 SUNDAY SUN

POWER GAME SERIES Budget benchmark, politics and other matters

By IHEANACHO NWOSU, Abuja

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T last, the budget presentation brouhaha between the National Assembly and President Goodluck Jonathan came to a halt last Wednesday. The President laid a N4.92 trillion budget estimate for 2013 before the lawmakers for the 2013 fiscal year.

However, everything points to the fact that a new warpath may likely be opened between the legislators and the President soon. The cause of the new feud will be some issues in the budget. The senate President gave a clue to what to expect from the two chambers when he told the President not to expect them to rubber stamp the budget.

The presentation of the budget may be a ceremonial exercise that was expected by the public every year. But that of last Wednesday was not perceived that way by the lawmakers. They saw it as an opportunity to play up their relevance. That was why it had to suffer a postponement. It was originally billed to hold on October 4 but the House of Representatives stood its ground that it was not ready to receive President Jonathan and his 2013 proposal.

It anchored its stance on the oversight programme which it has scheduled for members.

The House has not pretended since June this year that it is not happy with the way President Jonathan is running the country. In July, it openly flayed the slow pace of implementation of the 2012 budget by the President and his ministers. It had given a September deadline for a 100 percent implementation or it would invoke an impeachment article against him.

The position of the lawmakers generated huge controversy in diverse quarters but that did not cause them to shift ground. When they resumed from a two months recess last September, they didn’t keep alive their impeachment threat but maintained their focus on the 2012 budget.

Members were dispatched to different states for inspection of projects executed by ministries and agencies.

Incidentally, that was the time the President’s letter for the presentation of the budget came. The Medium Term Expenditure Frame work for 2013-2015 was also submitted. The legislators brushed both the President’s letter and the medium term budget aside. They insisted that they would only consider the two after they were satisfied that the 2012 budget had been reasonably implemented.

The President’s men saw the House’s position as a slight but there was little they could do.

Rather, they stooped to engage the leadership of the House and that of the Senate in a dialogue.

And that was how the October 10 date for the budget presentation was arrived at.

The President who arrived the House of Representatives chamber where the joint session took place at 10.09am said that N591.76 billion would be expended for Debt Service. Whereas N2.41 trillion is earmarked for Recurrent (NonDebt) Expenditure, he said that N1.54 trillion would go for Capital Expenditure.

In what seems an admission of the poor state of infrastructure, the President promised that his government “shall therefore complement available resources with a proposed Infrastructure Euro Bond of about $l billion in order to complete gas pipelines and other infrastructure investments” He stressed that the Christopher Kolade led Subsidy Reinvestment programme (SUBE-P ) will be supported to carry out its assignment of providing intervention in critical areas especially infrastructure. On agriculture, he said “To promote Nigerian agriculture and industry, we will continue to implement supportive fiscal measures for some priority areas. You will recall that in my 2012 Budget speech, I announced fiscal measures on rice, cassava, wheat, and machinery for the agriculture and power sectors. In this regard, I am pleased to announce the following additional measures which will be effective from 1st

•Mark January 2013”.Sugar: Machinery and spare parts imported for local sugar manufacturing industries will now attract 0% duty” He also announced that “there will also be a 5year tax holiday for “sugarcane to sugar” value chain investors.

On the package the budget holds for women, President Jonathan said “This administration is gender friendly and has worked to improve the position of women in society and empower them economically.

He announced that three roads will be built in each of the six geopolitical zones that would connect socio economic centers owned by women.

President Jonathan promised to ensure that the budget achieves its set goal of transforming the economy and raising the standard of living of Nigerians.

However, the leadership did not hesitate in

telling the President how they felt about the budget. Though they acknowledged that it was well crafted, they told him in clear terms that they cannot cheer him because they are displeased with the attitude of his administration to budget implementation.

Senate President, David Mark and Speaker, House of Representatives, Aminu Tambuwal said that rather than the condition of most Nigerians being bettered by previous budgets, the opposite has been the case. He said the National Assembly would continue to show more than a passing interest in the articulation and implementation of budgets because, according to him, members are elected to speak for the people. He said the President should not expect them to rubber stamp the estimates.

Tambuwal was the one that arguably gave President Jonathan the greatest shocker.

According to him, the claim by the government that Nigeria was recording some growths existed only in the lives of few government officials and their patrons.

“It remains for me to state once again that the pace of governance must take cognizance of the fact that the nation is grossly in arrears of its developmental potentials and expectations and accordingly a “business as usual” approach is totally unhelpful and unacceptable.”

Tambuwal who commended the President for the early presentation of the 2013 estimates said the impulse of the nation clearly show that the implementation of the 2012 budget has been shoddy and has not made any impact on the wellbeing of the masses.

He reminded the President that “ The Composition of the Public Procurement Council provided under the Public Procurement Act is very critical to budget implementation”.

The speaker whose submission elicited applause from senators and House members tackled the President on the issue of budget deficit. He said: “It will be recalled that the 2012

budget contained a deficit and the main source of funding this deficit was domestic borrowing.

Figures emanating from the Debt Management Office regarding domestic borrowing are however worrisome. At a whopping 33.6 Billion US Dollars, government appears to be monopolizing domestic borrowing to the unhealthy exclusion of the private sector. This is certainly a matter of grave concern because global statistics on sustainable debt-GDP ratio percentages can not continue to be used as guide for an economy that is not keeping pace with global trends.”

He said that the House which passed the 20132015 Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) took a realistic look on the issue of oil benchmark before pegging it at $80 as against the $75 earmarked by the executive.

On the issue of excess crude, Tambuwal flayed the management of the revenues.

Expressing displeasure with the way the executive has been treating resolutions by the National Assembly, Tambuwal said it was disheartening that the Presidency had failed to act on some important resolutions passed.

To show how Tambuwal’s speech made meaning to the President, the latter moved straight to the former and personally collected the speech and handed it to his Aide de- Camp.

The development that followed after President Jonathan left the National Assembly gave a clue to what to expect. The Spokesman of the House Hon Zakari Mohammed and the Chairman of House Committee, Hon Abdulmumuni Jibrin quickly held a press conference to reject the pegging of oil benchmark at $75. They accused the executive of hiding something by insisting on the amount instead of the $80 recommended by the House in the Medium Term Expenditure Framework the House passed on Tuesday.

What to take from the submissions of Zakari and Mumuni is that another fight is looming.

Will it lead to another delay in the passage of the budget, this is one question that is begging for an answer.

Between Tambuwal and the President’s Media Men

By IMAM IMAM

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INCE the presentation of the 2013 budget by President Goodluck Jonathan to the joint sitting of the National Assembly last Wednesday, some members of the President’s media team have come up with what can best be described as hysterical responses to the remarks made by Senate President, David Mark and Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon Aminu Waziri Tambuwal.

From innuendos to outright insults, the President’s media managers, led by Dr. Doyin Okupe, sought to denigrate the submissions of the two leaders of the National Assembly who in their estimation, had the temerity to tell their guests gathered at the hallowed Green Chamber that fateful Wednesday that not all things were right with past budgets and that more was expected from the Executive arm of government in the future. It is worth mentioning that Mark and Tambuwal’s speeches were made with the best of intentions aimed at finding lasting solutions to the myriad of socio-economic problems confronting the nation.

Speaker Tambuwal, who gave the vote of thanks in his capacity as the Deputy Chairman of the National Assembly, toed the line of the Senate President and Chairman of the National Assembly, Senator Mark, to lay on the table, the fears of Nigerians and how the National Assembly thinks those fears can be better allayed.

The Speaker rightly asserted that as elected representatives of the people, the legislators, representing 469 federal constituencies and senatorial districts of the country, have closer interaction with the nooks and crannies of the nation. In essence, the legislature, more than any arm of government, is privileged to feel the people’s pulse more intensely and feel same on behalf and for the benefit and guidance of all the other arms

•Tambuwal of government.

It is therefore highly incongruous to now turn around and say such views showed disrespect to the person and office of the President.

It is appropriate to state here that section 81 (1), (4) as well as section 83 (2) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended) classify the proposed budget documents by the President as mere ‘estimate’ and therefore only a constitutional amendment can alter this.

The phrase ‘mere’as used by Senator Mark was not intended to demean, rather it only distinguishes between a document of finality and a proposal. It is therefore mischievous to read meanings other than those intended.

On the oil benchmark which the House made it clear it will set at $80 per barrel, all variables were considered in arriving at the figures. The chairman of the House Committee on Finance, Hon Abdulmumini Jibrin, has since availed the public such superior variables which apparently may not have been countenanced by those who drafted the estimate.

As for the poor implementation of the capital budget for 2012 which Dr. Okupe brazenly attributed to non-utilization of already released votes, there could be no better self-indictment, as all the Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) that ought to execute these projects are

all under the Executive watch and control.

The assertion that the National Assembly will not rubber stamp the estimates as stated by the Senate President was intended to clear the erroneous impression created in the minds of the public by military apologists in the corridors of power that the laying of the estimate by the President is akin to budget broadcast by a military dictator which is only a notice and to enlighten the people. But for the avoidance of doubt, by the clear provisions of section 59 subsection 4 of the constitution, the legislature has the final say on the budget document.

I am sure President Jonathan does not share the overzealous and rather morbid views and sentiments of Dr. Okupe and some of his co-travellers in the President’s media office. If they had cared to carefully study the President’s transformation agenda as it affects the kind of legislature the Number One citizen desires, they will certainly discover their errors.

As clearly stated in the past and for the avoidance of any doubt, Speaker Tambuwal is not on a popularity contest with any official of government. Instead, he embodies the wishes and aspiration of the Nigerian people, and expresses, at every point, only the position of the members of the House of Representatives.

On the rather funny issue of alleged Tambuwal’s disloyalty to the PDP which one of the aides raised in a newspaper article, nothing can be farther from the truth. It is safe to say here that Nigerians are tired of worn out sentiments dished out to them at every given opportunity in order to justify unnecessary attacks on the person of the Number Four Citizen of Nigeria.

As seen during the budget presentation, of all those who spoke at the event, only the Speaker recognised the presence of the PDP National Chairman in his order of protocol while delivering his vote of thanks. As a matter of fact, this loyal gesture to the largest political party in Africa drew the ire of opposition lawmakers who shouted ‘Nay’ repeatedly to show their disapproval at the Speaker’s recognition of his party chairman.

•Imam is the Special Adviser on Media and Public Affairs to Speaker Tambuwal.

SUNDAY SUN OCTOBER 14, 2012

63

POWER GAME SERIES

By FEMI OGBONNIKAN

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HE’S no pushover in the political calculus of Ogun state.

Veronica Iyabo Anisulowo, an erstwhile Senator, who represented Ogun West (Yewa/Awori) Senatorial District between 2003 and 2007 in the National Assembly, reflects on her experience at the upper chamber of the National Assembly, the strong interplay of political intrigues at the Presidency which forced her out of the PDP before pitching tent with the ANPP for her re-election bid in this interview with Sunday Sun. The one-time Minister of State for Education during Late Gen. Sanni Abacha’s military regime also comments on her relationship with the incumbent governor of Ogun State , Ibikunle Amosun (SIA), her role in midwifing the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), Yewa/Awori politics, among others.

Excerpts: How would you describe your experience in politics?

I have seen the good, the bad and the ugly side of it. The good in the sense that I came back to this town for real politicking. As a young girl, I loved this place so much and I detested the fact that we were not at the centre. So, when I eventually came back from the North where I was domiciled for 18 years , I told my good people of my political ambition and they really embraced me , because they saw my zeal to serve . Initially , I was not a good politician but I was an activist. My activism convinced Yewa people that they needed me. They embraced me and Mrs. Iyabo Apampa who was already on ground. She started with the PFN, while I was with the defunct Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN) . Even when I was in the North, I fraternized with the defunct UPN. The good thing was that they found us suitable for their political intrigues . Due to my activism and my positive disposition to life, I was a bit lucky with the military, because they were looking for daring people. People that could help them oil the wheels of governance at that time. That was how I became Ogun State Commissioner for Agriculture and later, Minister of State for Education. It wasn’t always rosy. In 2007 there was a gang-up .

Somebody wanted an Ilaro man to be governor of Ogun state and I became a victim.

How? The reason was because the man vowed that I wouldn’t go back to the Senate if he had his way. So, invariably, I knew it , but I was depending on God. In the first instance, my going to the Senate for the first time wasn’t palatable to him. They all knew that I wouldn’t conform to immorality, and you should know they didn’t want someone like me, but I thank God, because He saw me through. The sitting governor then made me Commissioner, Civil Service Commission and he knew my capabilities. He was looking for a leader and especially a Yewa person. He did not support them. They feared that if I went back to the Senate, there was a tendency again for me to want to contest the governorship. They didn’t want that. So, they stopped me and that was the anti-climax.

From there, I decamped to the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) and fought them to a standstill . Eventually, I won the Ogun West Senatorial seat. The ugly side of my political experience has made me stronger. I did not lose support as I knew that well, if they stopped me and wanted a Yewa person to be governor, that would be no problem and I couldn’t disagree.

Tell us your experience as Senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria between 2003 and 2007?

Yes, I went to the Senate, because what I had in mind was that we would have power. We did, at least in terms of representation.

In my senatorial district, I don’t think they’ll have another Senator Iyabo Anisulowo , because my people enjoyed my stint at the Senate. I adequately represented them . In fact, there is no ward out of the 59 wards that I did not touch. I gave our youths ample opportunities. Anytime, any goodies were in the offing I was there to tell those in charge that these are my people. Mention it, in the police, Navy and the Army, except where there is no vacancy. I did all that to help our youths. For me, I can live among my people. I can walk freely among them. My experience has afforded me an opportunity to know my people. I know every nook and cranny of this state, even before going round for campaigns. I listened to their problems. I built a N55 million bridge at Ijale Ketu, but, I claimed from the Federal Government , N15m, because there was a limit for a Minister to spend for a rural setting like Ijale Ketu. I still want to see Governor Ibikunle Amosun, and talk to him to do more on that bridge. People in these areas respect me whenever they hear my name and they keep asking Mama Wa (our mother) when will you come over here again? It’s good for me. You can’t be there all the time and as you are getting older you should leave the stage better than you meet it. For me, politically, once again, I have seen the good, the bad and the ugly .

You had a raw deal with a male colleague at the Upper Chamber of the National Assembly during your stint as a senator. What’s the genesis of the issue?

Not really, with a sense of modesty, I must say I am highly focused. I do have issues with people, especially when it comes to managing money. In this case, the man just tried to manipulate me, honestly, but he apologized for what he did and I forgave him. He was manipulated and the manipulation came from Ogun state and the Presidency. I’m saying this for the first time, because the man didn’t know me. He thought I was a fish that swims in shallow waters and because of money, because his father as they say, is

Why I support Amosun –Senator Iyabo Anisulowo

influential he thought he could do it and go scot-free. People still fault me till date especially my good people from Ekiti state for forgiving him. They said lai lai (never, never) our wife, you can’t beat her and go scot-free. Even Late Lamidi Adedibu said, “no Omo Oodua (child of Oodua) could be ill-treated in such a manner but it was I that pleaded with Late Adedibu for God’s sake and said, no Baba, e ma se yen (Baba, please, just don’t do that). He never knew that I was well known, that I was so, connected and that if I went about my duties quietly it was because I wanted to identify with my people. I want to be relevant. I am controversial in a positive way and if you are not , people will detest it and you can’t live among them. But that is water under the bridge now.

You were a staunch chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party of Nigeria (PPN), ex-governor Gbenga Daniel’s party. Why did you decamp to the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN)?

Let me tell you what happened. I have told you the background of the story. I came back from the PPN because of the governorship thing. My people talked to me and said “Mama, you have suffered a lot in this pursuit” and they asked “ why did you stand aloof, and why haven’t you joined the governorship train? I now said, since they have centred everything around Ibikunle Amosun, we can’t say we would not move up and therefore, I came to the Peoples Party of Nigeria (PPN). When I came in, it was my brother (Olurin), the people were supporting. I didn’t support retired General Idowu Olurin for the governorship but I said I would support one of the other aspirants . I said out of two evils, if you are to take a better evil I would take a better one. So, PPN was a better evil for me. For all I have suffered in the hands of PDP, in the hands of so many leaders, in the hands of people that I had even helped .

At that time, I could not do otherwise. PPN brought this man from Imeko, Gboyega Isiaka, and Gboyega Isiaka came and talked to me about what he would do if he became the governor of Ogun state. We had a deal. We had a heart-to-heart talk which made me to feel that it was better for me to pitch tent with Isiaka than with my own brother who had never been involved in anything in the development in our district, except the military. So, that was why I threw my weight behind PPN and in Nigeria , you cannot be an independent candidate , you have to identify with a group. That was what brought me into PPN. I would not say I wasn’t a chieftain , because at any level I join a party now, I will remain a chieftain.

You have now pitched tent with ACN, what informed this decision?

It’s because of Ibikunle Amosun. This ACN metamorphosed from Alliance for Democracy (AD). It was initially, AD and later AC. As it became ACN I was a party to his going to ACN , because the AC was the initial AD group but the N is for the ANPP.. As at that time, the atmosphere was not clear. What I sensed was that ACN would not give Ibikunle Amosun the Ogun state governorship ticket and I did not know that there were groups of people, elders in that party, that were gunning for Ibikunle Amosun and he (Amosun) did not tell me. That was the problem I had with most of my colleagues. I am a conformist if only you tell me. It may not benefit me. I don’t care whether what you tell me may be beneficial or not. But if I have a covenant with you, I am with you and if I am with you, you can be sure of my 100 percent loyalty. If 100 percent you tell me what you have in mind, I read Mathematics at the university and I will work to the solution.

He did not and I said, well, let me leave him alone. I was afraid of his baba (Obasanjo).

I was afraid of all that I did. I spent all that I had for that election.

When it was over, I am telling you, I didn’t have N10, 000 on me.

They scuttled it. He went to court and the same thing resulted.

Then, I knew there must be something personal between him and those people. Again, I did not want to have a feud with Ibikunle Amosun in any party that he belongs, because I knew what we suffered together. If they didn’t give him, I reasoned that I’d watch events unfold and not disagree with him , because it would be like betrayal. When he won the election, we did talk occasionally during the time I was away. I’m committed to my relationships. So, when the ACN won all the National Assembly seats for Ogun in April 2011, he called me and said, sister, you should have been the one to go back to the senate. “Ki le tun nduro se nibe”, he asked me (What are you still doing there?).

I said no, it wasn’t like that, not just because your party was winning now. Even when I joined ACN, I gave conditions. I have everything on tape. Even before then, I told ex-Gov. Gbenga Daniel if he was no longer pursuing the cause of Yewa land , he should let me know. I said he should let me know if he was no

longer going to help us. I thought he was helping us and even, if we didn’t get it but he promised, we would . I think you can see what’s happening in Egba land now because their son is in charge, but I now believe that, it’s better late than never. Now, that I am with Governor Amosun, I can see whether he is real or fake concerning the development of the state. As he usually says, “Mama, if your son is the one in charge here, he would not do more than what I have been doing here.” Well, I gave him attention. It continues to bother me and I am not very flexible, that is my problem because when I want to see something done I will hold on to it so that I will be able to tell my people why we will need to move.

Now, I’m the secretary of the Senators’ Forum in the southwest, so, I relate with him through the forum.

It was even becoming embarrassing to be continuing from where I am without yielding to his overtures so, I decided to move aside. I did not take anything from him. He hasn’t really promised me anything because at my level what do I need? Now that I am here in Ilaro, whenever I pass through the Model School under construction I don’t talk to the contractor but I know my presence will make it happen. If I move from here to Imeko and return , if there is anything they feel I should talk to the governor about I will tell . He has fast-tracked development. It’s not anytime you join a political party that you will get immediate reward. If you want your people to have a fair share, you will have to succumb and do their biddings.

I’m back and he has embraced me. I’m back and I had a second thought that this is somebody I have known for sometime now, about ten years. He knows me and what I stand for. I also know much about him. These are my reasons for backing him, to know whether he would fulfill his promises or not just as an Egba man.

What’s your assessment of the governor ?

Yes, he has tried. When he came in, I disagreed a little bit on certain issues personally, but I didn’t voice it out. I felt he was too much in a hurry. That was it. I wondered why he was in a hurry to deliver. We that were in the PDP/PPN then, knew that the state was bankrupt. We knew at that time that ex- Gov. Daniel had accumulated a lot of debt and that was why he wanted to go to the capital market to borrow funds to finance his projects so that he could meet up with all his commitments and it didn’t materialize. So, with that, I felt his economic team was not working hard and that it was too much in a hurry. With time, I now found out that anybody who wants to deliver must also inculcate speed, because there’s a fixed term. Aminimum of four years, and a maximum of eight years. So, initially, I disagreed with him when he promised free education and free health.

64 OCTOBER 14, 2012 SUNDAY SUN

POWER GAME SERIES

The Governor as public intellectual

By FESTUS ADEDAYO

I

N states with a history of display of intellect by their leadership, there is the tendency to dismiss the current leadership of Oyo State’s new-found romance with display of the cerebrum as a non-issue. In Oyo, renowned for its acronym as a Pacesetter but which had, over the years, lost both the pace and the setting potentials, as intangible as it may sound that its governor arrests national and international audiences with impeccable intellectual delivery, this is a major celebration for the people of Oyo State.

In the recent past, Oyo State suffered terribly in the estimation of the world as one administered by a leadership that was everything but deep. Every anti-intellectual story that filtered from the state to the world then stuck as emerging from a familiar terrain. When miscreants of the National Union of Road Transport Workers, (NURTW) reported to have permanent chalets inside the Government House, had their villainy and spillage of blood abetted by the state, this cohered with the perception of Oyo as a state run by everything but intellectual leadership.

But Oyo had not always been like that.

For a state once run by geniuses like Bola Ige and Omololu Olunloyo to have relapsed that irretrievably became a song on the lips of dirge-crooners. Many analysts bemoaned the fate of Oyo, once administered by Ige, poet and literary icon and Olunloyo, mathematical genius and wizard of polemics, falling into the hands of such a vacant-minded leadership.

Doubtless, this nostalgia to reconnect with a deep-minded past recommended the election of Abiola Ajimobi at the April, 2011 polls. Engaging polemicist and a man who can answer to a description of French author, Voltaire as one unusual brain homed in a human skull, his rich credentials as Managing Director of a multinational oil corporation persuaded the electorate that his could not be a replay of the vacuity of Oyo’s recent past.

Having set on an even keel the construction of 199 roads, about 20 fallen bridges in the state, mobile health to the nooks and crannies of the state, treating almost half a million people in the process, Ajimobi, on September 20, 2011 set the ball rolling. His unspoken intention, no doubt, was to rebrand Oyo State as the intellectual capital of South West Nigeria that it had always been. Sitting on the same seat where Obafemi Awolowo sat to proffer those intellectual responses to the post-colony of Nigeria, it would be uncharitable of Ajimobi not to rekindle the flame of an intellectual incubator

which Oyo had always been.

So to Igbinedion University, Okada, Edo State, Ajimobi moored the intellectual boat. The hall was filled to the brim.

Could anything good come out of Nazareth, the audience seemed to be asking. Decked in the academic hood and gown of a Guest Lecturer, the Oyo governor went on an academic journey that struck his audience as unique and scintillating. Speaking to the topic, Challenge of Progress In The Midst Of Plenty, Ajimobi pleasantly shocked the institution’s Vice Chancellor, himself a foremost scholar on federalism, Eghosa Osaghae, who listened as the governor cited his journal articles of yore with astonishing rapidity.

Then Ajimobi went into the nitty-gritty of the topic, dissecting it as a cheetah would an impala. He dissected the concept of crisis, submitting that it is at the core of the Nigerian nation and that it is impossible to take a shuttle into the Nigerian past without giving an ample space to its conflictual background.

Indeed, while summarizing the Nigerian situation, Ajimobi said that the country’s post-independence situation was a long drawn-out decay or decline, whose empirical features are political instability, a low level of national cohesion and economic crisis, stating that all these indices, as far as Nigeria was concerned, are mutually reinforcing.

He went into the post-independence Nigerian situation, especially during the First Republic where crises among the political class tore the republic apart.

Thereafter, he went comparative on African experience of crises and expatiating on the interwoven nature of crises in Africa. “What makes conflict or a conflicting situation at the core of today’s globalized world’s concern” he began, “is its tendency to leave its border, making an internal conflict to burst out of its seams, and refusing to be confined within the borders of a single country... A good example of this could be found in the recent conflict situation that sprung up in Liberia in the 1990s. This Liberian crisis sowed the seeds of conflicts that eventually spread to countries like Sierra Leone, Cote D’Ivoire and Guinea.” The audience was enthused.

And he drew the crises situation home, to the Oyo State example. At this stage, the university audience could not hide its delight at the depth of his analysis.

Encouraged by the enraptured silence of the audience, Ajimobi went on: “You will recall the periodic violent skirmishes that our state was renowned for under this regime. Blood was shed at will as if in appeasement of some blood-sucking deities. Politicians became indistinguishable from thugs and motor-park kingpins.

Inside this vortex was the state government which was said to be in cahoots with the motor-park kingpins. The very sad episode of the death of a notorious

•Ajimobi

NURTW kingpin, who, with the support of the state godfather, took over our state House of Assembly in 2006, is still very fresh in our memory. Indeed, an NURTW thug moved the motion for the impeachment of the then state governor, hitting the gavel on the table in a manner reminiscent of how it is done in a sane legislative House. And rather than pronouncing the governor, who was the target of his patrons, he “the Speaker is hereby impeached”. The rest, as they say, is history.”

By the time the governor finished delivering the lecture, the audience gave him a standing ovation.

No doubt due to the news of his intellectual intervention, Ajimobi was again invited to deliver a keynote address at the Town Hall meeting held at the Dusable Museum of the African-American history, Chicago, United States. “The Need for True Federalism in Nigeria: The Oyo State Example” was the topic he had to do justice to.

Ajimobi first went into the history of the contiguous territories of Nigeria’s 350 ethnic groups and the constitutional history of Nigeria, from Clifford, Macpherson to the current effort at constitutional amendments. He itemized the four phases of the attempt at federalism in Nigeria which he named to be, one, under colonial rule when Nigerian nationalists struggled for the enthronement of a federal system as an integral part of the political independence agenda; the post-independence era when the political class debated the political architecture bequeathed by the departing colonial power; the third being under military rule when Nigerians rose against elements of military unitary system that ran contrary to their federalist expectations and final phase which began immediately the present democratic dispensation started in 1999.

The governor then went into the antifederal nature of the Nigerian federal practice. “Extant laws that are anti-federal include the Land Use Act; the Laws on Petroleum and Gas that give these resources to the federal government; the Federal Inland Revenue Act of 2007 which empowers the Federal Inland Revenue Service to collect revenue for the three tiers of government, the Monitoring of Revenue Allocation to Local Government Act of 2005, which compels states to set up joint local government account committees and empowers the federal government to deduct from funds allocated to states money they failed to pay to local governments in the previous year.”

He also went experiential in his governance of Oyo State. “From my experience as a Senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria between 2003 – 2007 and governor of Oyo State since last year, I make bold to say that there are too many responsibilities and resources at the feder-

al level to allow for efficiency. The federal government has become so big that it is theoretically and practically impossible to guarantee efficiency… There is no way, given the capacity of the bureaucracy at the federal level, that efficiency can be guaranteed in the deployment of resources in this circumstance.”

By the time he ended the address, he had succeeded in drawing the attention of the foreign audience to the wonky federal practice in Nigeria, especially through his conclusion that, “For me, the federal government should be limited to setting policies – after consultations with the states – on areas like road, agriculture, sports, etc. while the states are granted the powers and resources to manage these responsibilities that affect the lives of our people at the grassroots.”

It was apparent now that Ajimobi’s renown as a public intellectual had reached a crescendo. This must have informed the London Chamber of Commerce and Industries’ (LCCI) invitation to him to address it on the business potentials in Oyo State. The governor, speaking through a power-point presentation, took his audience on a shuttle into the historical greatness of his state, the stasis it relapsed into and the promise it holds for investors. As usual, at the end of the presentation, the audience, which comprised white investors and friends of Nigeria, gave him a resounding applause for his mastery of the turf and his exhibition of high mental acuity.

Two days after, Ajimobi was at the prestigious Chatham House. Asked to discuss, extempore, the topic, ``Review and Reform: Key Elements and Implications of Nigeria’s Constitution Review Process,’’ again, he received a standing ovation of his deep understanding of the issues under reference. By the time, the second day, the governor arrived at the University of Oxford to talk on “Federalism and the Imperatives of Political Restructuring for the Development of Nigeria,” the audience had been convinced that in its midst was an emerging public intellectual who, at lecture podia, theoretically dissects knotty issues, while at home, in his Oyo State enclave, he brings solutions to a people who still have nostalgia for a state that was a complete package of a performer and one they could be proud of his élan.

On the whole, it is becoming clear to all that Governor Ajimobi had become a public intellectual who intervenes in issues of our contemporary society.

Unlike others, however, as he dissects them, he proffers solutions to the sociopolitical crises that bedevil the Nigerian nation.

•Adedayo is Special Adviser (Media) to Governor Abiola Ajimobi of Oyo State.

OCTOBER 14, 2012 SUNDAY SUN

65

POWER GAME SERIES

PDP’ll reclaim Ondo from Labour Party –Agagu

By WILLY EYA

B

ARELY a week from today, voters in Ondo would file out to elect the governor of the state. Expectedly, there is no gainsaying that there is political tension in the ‘Sunshine State’. In this interview, former governor of the state, Olusegun Agagu speaks on the political atmosphere in Ondo among other issues.

Excerpts…

We read recently in the papers that the security report obtained to remove you from office as governor was forged. What is your position on this issue?

The origin of this is that during the tribunal hearings in Akure in 2007 and 2008, some security reports were tendered by the Labour Party which wrote that there were election irregularities in 10 of the local government areas where we won. There are 18 local government areas in Ondo State, the Labour Party won in seven, while the PDP won in 11. As per INEC results, the PDP won but the Labour Party went to the tribunal to raise objections as to the fairness of the elections in 10 local government areas where the PDP won. The Labour Party did not have any cogent case to make except that they tendered some purported SSS report saying that elections were manipulated, that there was violence, ballot snatching in those 10 local government areas where the PDP won. Our lawyers objected to those reports because they were tendered across the bar and the judges said they would look at the merits and demerits of whether to give considerations to these reports or not.

To cut the long story short, we found out that in their judgment, they wrote clearly that elections should be cancelled in Okitipupa, Ilaje and few other local government areas because of a report written by the SSS. Specifically, they said elections were manipulated based on that report.

Our lawyers objected to the report at the tribunal and the Director of SSS was subpoenaed to come and give evidence; and the legal officer of the state department of SSS in Ondo State was sent to come and give evidence and he said clearly at the tribunal that those reports did not emanate from the SSS. Based on that, we never knew that the judges would take any consideration and make any judgment based on the document. Alas, when the judgment came, it was written that results should be cancelled in a number of local governments based on the reports at the tribunal.

We appealed, objecting to the declaration, especially because the SSS official came and denied that such reports emanated from their system. Again, we thought the Court of Appeal judges would hold our view, because that was the truth, unfortunately, the court again ruled that they would uphold those reports. The Court of Appeal actually said that the officer of the SSS must have been a hostile witness. How they arrived that he was a hostile witness, only God knows. That was how we were removed from office.

Painful as that was, I decided to take it as the will of God. About a year later, I think it was on May 19, 2010 because we were removed from office on February 23, 2009, I thought that I might not have to go and fight to be governor of Ondo State but it would be wise to put the records straight for the sake of posterity. And that our democracy will be at risk if people deliberately concoct security reports and use them to obtain judgment in cases where they have lost election.

So I wrote to Mr President complaining and that I will want the case to be investigated. I wrote first to late President Yar’Adua, who did-

n’t respond to my petition until he passed on. By the time President Jonathan came on board as Acting President, I sent another letter to him and I must thank him very much. Within a week, he instructed the Inspector-General of Police to investigate the matter. The matter was investigated, I was visited by SSS personnel and I was also invited to Abuja to write a statement. The long and short of it is that at the end of the day, the Police officers in the Special Investigation Unit told me that they have found out that the SSS has confirmed that the reports were forged and that they were going to prosecute Dr Olaiya Oni, who as chairman of the Labour Party, at the tribunal tendered those documents. That is where we are. For about two years now, the matter has been laid to rest. I therefore, decided about two weeks ago, that for posterity and for one’s name, the last thing I want people to think about me is that I stole somebody’s mandate. And the Labour Party people never ceased for one minute to keep saying that their mandate was stolen whereas they are the people who stole somebody’s mandate by forging security reports.

I thought this matter should be made clear to all and sundry, so I wrote a petition to the Chief Justice of the Federation that the matter should be looked into so that the right decisions can be taken by the system. First is to exonerate me, secondly is to expose people who have procured judgment in a fraudulent manner so that the whole world can see.

What was your initial reaction when you read the police report stating their findings?

Honestly, I knew that security reports were forged.

How? Because I was still governor when these reports were found out and I invited the Director of SSS in Ondo state and he came and swore with everything he had in life that those reports were forged and showed me what a normal SSS report would look like. So, we were clear in our

minds that they were forged, but the judiciary refused to see it that way and used them to rule us out. So, we were aware.

The police investigation and eventual report only went to vindicate our position and I want to thank the hierarchy of the police and the SSS for the excellent job they did, coming out clearly that those reports were forged. It is a criminal offence and they have vowed to charge those people who were behind it to court.

How optimistic are you that justice will prevail at the end of the day?

If one will dispassionately look at the judiciary in the country and its role in the last ten years or so with regards to election matters, one would see between 2006 and 2010 that judgments were a bit unusual in a number of cases. In a number of places like Osun, Ekiti, Edo and Ondo, you could see question marks in some of those judgments. Alot of protestations have been going on in some of the states mentioned. Such expositions will want to make one doubt the judiciary as to whether we can get justice or not, but I think the judiciary itself, since the period of the last CJN had been looking at itself with the view to trying to cleanse the system and ensure that the judiciary stands above board as they are supposed to be.

I have had some comments about Justice Mukthar that she is a no nonsense woman and that she would always stand on the side of the truth. That is what encouraged me to write to her to see her views about the matter.

But what do I intend to make out of this?

I am not keen on going back to be governor of Ondo but I am not happy about people who have procured some judgment by fraud to be enjoying that unquestioned. I also think that Nigerians should know about this, our electoral system should know about this so that we can start to expose and deal with and guard against people who have fraudulent intentions from derailing our nascent democracy. Those are the things I

expect and all I need to hear is that we know that this is phony and I will go and rest in my house.

How would you react to the warning from the Labour Party that you should desist from your quest?

This is not about abuse, they are simple questions: were security reports tendered? The answer is yes. Who tendered them? The answer is Labour Party. Are the security reports real of fake? We know now that the reports are fake.

The owners of the security report, that is the SSS and Police have said that those reports are fake.

These are clear facts, but what happens after that, depends on the judiciary. I am happy if the world knows about these things.

The governorship election in Ondo State has been tagged a three-horse race, but do you think your party stands a chance to win at the poll considering the incumbency factor?

When people talk about incumbency, it is a double-edged sword. When you are an incumbent, you have power to manipulate by influencing the police and other security agencies and INEC. We think that the umpire will not allow themselves to be used, so we expect the Police, SSS and INEC to create a level playing ground for all. The other side of incumbency is that the occupier of the seat now, will be viewed and judged by all as to how their government is performing, if possible in relations to previous governments. So, the person on the seat is like on the witness box.

We don’t think if a level playing ground is maintained that our party is at any disadvantage and we urge everybody who is to play the role of an umpire to do so according to the law. From what I have seen, because I have gone out with Chief Olusola Oke on one of his campaigns, in terms of enthusiasm of the people, I think the PDP has the brightest chance of winning this election. The reasons are clear not minding all the propaganda in the newspapers, it is clear that the PDP is very much entrenched in terms of structure all the way to the grassroots in the state.

We have a candidate who is well known in the state because he has been in the politics of Ondo since 1991.

People say it loud and clear especially PDP members, some members of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) and non politicians singing it loud and clear that development today in Ondo is not as good as it was when the PDP administration was in government between 2003 and 2009. And Chief Oke keeps singing it that he would bring back the good old days of progress that the PDP gave to the state. It is clear that the present administration is not impacting enough in terms of infrastructural development, wealth creation, and employment generation.

They saw something expansive when the PDP was there and they believe if the PDP comes back, the good time will start to roll again. So, the chances of the PDP are very bright and for good reasons. I think the PDP is doing well and I am confident that by October 21 when the election results will be announced, Chief Oke will be voted in as the next governor of Ondo State.

But are you not disturbed that some PDP members are working against the success of the party?

That is the sad thing we have about Nigerian politics. It is not happening only in PDP; there are few members of my party I can say are not working for us. I also want to tell you that we also know that there are people within the Labour Party who are not working for the Labour Party and people within the ACN who are not working for the ACN. So, it will balance itself out.

It is bad that it is happening but it is not a PDP matter alone. It is orchestrated propaganda that wants to make it look like PDP is in disarray, which is not correct because what is on the ground, does not indicate that.

66 OCTOBER 14, 2012 SUNDAY SUN

POWER GAME SERIES River Niger dredging:

Nigeria is a sick nation-Evah

By WILLY EYA

C

OMRADE Joseph Evah is the coordinator, Ijaw Monitoring Group and former Publicity secretary, Ijaw National congress (INC). He is one man that is not afraid to say his mind especially on issues concerning the Niger Delta people. In this intervierview, he speaks on various issues.

What is your reaction to the current flood ravaging most parts of the country? Don’t you think that with the seeming helplessness on the part of the federal government that the international community should assist?

The international community knows that Nigeria is a lawless country and they know Nigeria tells lies to cover up the crime they committed against its citizens. Nigeria committed a crime by dredging the River Niger without acceptable environmental impact assessment (EIA). All the embassies of various countries are here in Nigeria and they are feeding their home government about the true position of things. The world is a global village and so all information are available to world leaders. This is the only country in the world where a minister will say one thing on the same matter, the permanent secretary will say a different thing, Director-General in the same ministry will say another thing, and Nigerians will see it as a normal situation because we all know that Nigeria is a mad country. So, the international community you talk about is aware of the fake EIAthat government used to dredge the River Niger. The dredging has destroyed all the natural protections meant to help limit the effect of this kind of disaster. If Nigeria were a normal country, United Nations (UN) would have arrested all those involved in this dredging and charge them for genocide.

But UN will not want to waste their time because they know that this country is a sick nation. You can see that even the lies you hear from government officials that there is no coordination. So how can the international community rely on lies to send relief materials and send international Red Cross to help our people?

And if they do, our corrupt politicians will block the international community from intervening because of the billions of money already released. There is nowhere in the world where international community will be involved in controversy.

If the international community decides for the sake of the suffering citizens, they should find a way to help like they do in other countries. This is unlike Nigeria that relies on lies and deceit to manage their affairs. I tell you that Nigerian politicians will kick against it because they see this flood crisis as a means to make money for their pocket while our people are suffering. In every situation like this, when you watch CNN, BBC and other world media, you will see the armed forces being mobilized to carryout evacuation and relief job but have you seen our armed forces doing that here? Instead, Nigeria will prefer to mobilize our soldiers to go and die in Sudan, Somalia for other nations. It is sad.

But could the federal government have done anything considering the information that it was caused by a dam in Cameroun?

My brother, which officials are saying this? We have over 10 officials saying different things at the same time over one issue in Nigeria, the most populous country in Africa. So, we are in trouble. If they say it was a dam that was opened, why are other officials saying it is a natural disaster? Was Dam not man made? Some say a dam was opened in Niger Republic, others say a dam was opened in Liberia, some say it was opened in lake Chad or Ghana.

I will not be surprised if someone tells us a dam was opened in heaven or hell.

The government officials ought to have gone down to spot where the flooding started and televise how it started but you won’t see that. Why is it that the country they claim a dam was opened is not seeing what we are experiencing here? It is a magic dam in the dream?

How do you feel about the devastation caused by the flood?

The water level is increasing and more communities are crying for help and we pray that God should touch the heart of those the president has nominated to assist with the funds released and the same with the governors’effort. And let me warn all those running around and planning to steal the money meant for the flood victims that anybody who does that has stolen blood money. I place a curse on anybody that embezzles that money.

Another fear is the level of food scarcity that will affect our people after the flood crisis because all farmlands are washed away. In fact, workers in my farm in Igbogene area of Bayelsa State has been completely washed away. All the hectares of land have been submerged and the same story along the River Niger communities in Benue regarded as the food basket of the nation. Recently, I asked Journalists to go to my farm area along Yenagoa-Ibiama express to video the place but they told me they could not even assess the expressway to the sign board indicating “JOSEPH EVAH

FARMS”. It is a disaster, as we speak people are dieing of disease and homeless people are crying for help. We want to thank the Etete Family of Kayama for mobilizing relief materials and other forms of assistance for our people in the creeks. The Etete family assistance go beyond Bayelsa State and we thank God for the National Association of Ijaw female students (NAIFS) for being the foot soldiers like the NYSC touching the lives of our people positively.

During the military era, you went to court to stop the dredging of River Niger and today flood disaster around the River Niger is causing a lot havoc. Do you feel vindicated?

The situation along the River Niger is getting worse everyday.

It is so bad that as we speak, families are suffering and some are mourning their loved ones and the flood is getting worse everyday, and the federal and state governments are all helpless. What is causing the uncontrollable flooding and helplessness is because government dredges the River Niger without environmental impact assessment. It was one of my reasons for going to court through my lawyer, Mr. Femi Falana (SAN). My arguments were presented in the federal high court Benin and I got historical ruling and when the civilian government came in 1999, our governors and the so-called honorable men threatened me to withdraw the case from court and I refused. They threatened that they wanted to be part of the case if I refused to hands off. They argued that they are the true representatives of the Niger Delta people. Since democracy has emerged, it got to a point that lives of members of my family were threatened by the politicians to please Obasanjo.

And by the time Yar’Adua emerged as president, our politicians had done the final sale of our own part of the River Niger to dredge without acceptable environmental impact assessment. You see what we are seeing now is natural disaster but it is uncontrollable now because man (Federal Government) has tampered with the natural mechanism that was supposed to adjust itself when natural disasters occur. You can see that the agencies of government only get to the affected areas and fold their hands to watch the display of nature because they don’t even know how to start helping the situation.

But the government told Nigerians that an EIA was conducted before the dredging?

The federal government displayed only fake EIA to the public.

Any EIA without any input by the local people (communities) along the River Niger is fake and it is not of international standard.

If you gather professors and consultants who are strangers to that environment to write a report without involving the local people who are naturally gifted with climate change even when they were in their mother’s womb, your report is fake and you know those in government prefer fake reports to manage Nigeria. That is why Ghana is better than us. Today the oil companies are using fake report to destroy our environment.

You said several reasons led to your court action. What are the other reasons?

Economic survival was my second reason outside the environmental reasons that led to my court action. I was shocked that the federal government that abandoned Burutu ports, Warri port, Sapele Port, Akassa Port, Patani Port and other sea ports built by colonial masters, prefer to build new inland ports at Lokoja and Baro including the proposed Abuja inland port. So, I was angry and I addressed a world press conference as the spokesman of Ijaw National Congress. I said that the Ijaw will resist General Sani Abacha’s intention and in fairness to the military government at that time, they slowed down the move until democracy produced Zombie politicians that even clapped hands for Yar‘Adua for the flag off of the dredging. This is despite the fact that all our seaports are dead while the government approved billions of dollars to build new inland ports to bring goods through our waterways from London, USA, Canada to Abuja. It is a shame.

Nigerians are shocked to hear that at a time when Goodluck Jonathan is the president of Nigerian, his state governor is creating state flag and coat of arms to threaten national unity. What is your reaction?

You see, those Nigerians suggesting that Governor Dickson is threatening national unity are suffering from “On Unitary Government we stand Mentality.” Every patriotic Nigerian who recognizes Nigeria as a federation will applaud Dickson’s move.

When Nigeria was practicing true Federalism, this country was making progress until the military came and forced unitary system mentality in us. Why are people behaving as if it was Dickson that started the move for true Federalism? Why are people not condemning Lagos, Osun, Ondo, Ogun, Ekiti, Kwara, cross River states for adopting these symbols even before Dickson moved to encourage true federalism.

But some people are complaining that the president’s home state should be careful on national matters?

I reject that blackmail from unpatriotic Nigerians. You see, it is the same blackmail they are using against the president in the villa not to do anything for the Niger Delta till he

leaves office. If the president wants to do something about development for his people, some fake characters will tell him that such a step will make him look like a Niger Delta president or Ijaw president; that is nonsense.

Some people felt the governor took the decision too early and the suspicion is that he is working for the break up of Nigeria.

Nigeria has broken-up before Dickson became governor. A country that lacks trust among the federating units; a country that annulled free and fair election in 1993, killed the winner; a country that the resources of one area are used for development of other areas alone, is not a united country. You said Dickson’s action is too early or why is he in a hurry? You know Dickson is a product of Ijaw struggle. So, he knows the secret of Nigeria. He was part of Ijaw National Congress team when we left the leadership of INC. When he emerged as governor, the spirit of the struggle started haunting his body and soul to actualize the dream of the struggle. So, that is why he is in a hurry to further unite the Ijaw nation and set Ijaw nation in a strategic position that can quickly compete with the Yoruba nation that is the most advanced in the country.

Like what Tinubu did in Lagos in those days, he will appoint you into a position whether you are from Ekiti, Ondo or Osun state as long as you are good even if you are not a politician. Tinubu will give you appointment to work for Lagos. That was why Tinubu could produce over 500 Fasholas within a given period. Dickson’s appointments are not based on PDP structures line-up but his central focus is the Ijaw nation. For example, the governor invited me to Yenagoa and urged me to take up appointment but I declined to take political appointment. Instead, let me stay outside to help him by condemning any bad policies or commending good policies.

You recently rejected appointment by Governor Dickson, what happened?

The governor meant well when he requested me to accept an offer to serve. I did not campaign for him during election and I am not even a PDP member or any party member. It is very difficult to campaign in Bayelsa because of the terrain and I did not enter the jungle with them. But he felt I have something to offer in government.

I told the governor that I prefer to stay outside and enjoy what I am doing. I like visiting universities and other higher institutions to address Niger Delta students, organizing programmes for the blind, physically challenged people and widows, helping them to get assistance to improve their lives. I like to visit our villages with students to deworm our children in the creeks yearly and I am used to seeing people coming to my office to seek help and I try to help them.

Again, I also felt that it is not proper for all Ijaw activists to be in government. If we all enter government, then we are in trouble because the struggle is not over yet. When I was discussing with the president in Aso Rock Villa in 2010, I told Jonathan that I don’t want appointment in government because it is dangerous for all activists to be holding political position even though our activists holding political positions treat us like lepers while considering themselves as living in paradise. I felt it is wrong for all of us to hold government appointments.

OCTOBER 14, 2012 SUNDAY SUN

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POWER GAME SERIES

October 20 and Ayobolu’s theory of democracy

By BAYO AKINTAN

“W

populism and serious-mindedness is a fitting epitaph to the criminal abuse of human rights by his paymasters. Ondo State and its people abhor legalism.

Ayobolu can give Akeredolu the rating that suits his master’s imperialistic designs, but that is how far he can go. He cannot wipe out Youtube. People of Ondo State will not be swayed by one-eyed Lagos newspapers-and this is what the jejune writers and their corrupt paymasters do not want to hear-Governor Mimiko will win the October 20 election by a wide margin.

Ayobolu indeed had the effrontery to say that Mimiko’s endorsement by Chief Ayo Adebanjo, Chief Olu Falae, Chief Reuben Fasoranti, Dr. Tunji Braithwaite, Dr Frederick Faseun and Mrs Ganiat Fawehinmi will not be of “any meaningful electoral value to Mimiko on October 20,’’ because “In any case, none of them has come out with any detailed facts and figures on why they believe Mimiko deserves a second term.’’Yet if he cared to watch Governor Mimiko’s declaration at the Democracy Park, Akure, he would have noticed that the said leaders gave adequate facts to back up Mimiko’s endorsement. Even ignoring the sheer rudeness in his demand that these great nationalists should supply him (Ayobolu) with facts and figures on why they are supporting Mimiko, it’s not inconceivable that a charlatan of his caliber would restate the idiotic claim that “The Labour party is a hollow shell and does not pretend to be an alternative to any party.’’ Indeed? The Labour Party has proved to the whole world, through the revolution in Ondo State, that it is indeed the alternative to government by media megalomania.

Ayobolu and his masters have launched vitriolic attacks on the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS), the Nigerian Labour Congress, the Trade Union Congress, the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW), market women associations, pensioners’ associations, and eminent Nigerians such as Pastor Tunde Bakare, Professor Olu Akinkugbe, Governor Peter Obi among many others who have openly associated with the revolution in Ondo State, because they can see beyond the lies peddled by bootlickers and the political lepers in Lagos who look at Nigerians from every other state with scorn, whereas that state is collapsing under the weight of indebtedness despite making the highest internally generated revenue in the country. But Ayobolu and his gang of bootlickers whose existence revolves around sycophancy and

HY this campaign of calumny against Mimiko at all cost by those at The Nation?,’’ a commentator, Efeturi Ojakaminor, asked while reacting to Segun Ayobolu’s “Above all, democracy’’ on that paper’s website on Saturday.

The piece was the latest in the series of orchestrated attacks on Dr Olusegun Mimiko, the Ondo State governor, by Ayobolu and his team working assiduously to assault the sensibilities of the Ondo State people because of their media power. In the bolekaja piece, Ayobolu combined the trademark of outright lies for which his medium is known with vile abuse of Governor Mimiko, describing him as “a non-existent product.’’ But why would a “nonexistent product’’ be the target of venom and envy for many months? Sam Omatseye, Lateef Raji and Ayobolu himself have called Dr Mimiko names for months, with Omatseye even calling the concerned Nigerians who responded to his acerbic “Brother today, gone tomorrow’’ “Mimiko’s mimic men.’’

The Ondo State governorship debate organized by AIT, in which Dr Olusegun Mimiko was adjudged by many viewers to have won and at the end of which he received a standing ovation, can easily be downloaded on Youtube. But like all rabid liars whose conscience is defined by loyalty to a bandit making a boast of his desire to bring the entire Yoruba nation under servitude, Ayobolu stated that ‘the confident and self assured Governor Olusegun Mimiko was testy and tense. He was clearly on the defensive.’’! On the contrary, Dr Mimiko was the only candidate who spoke with facts and figures, who tutored Akeredolu, for instance, on “why Alhaji Aliko Dangote would prefer to site his cement facotory in Ogun State’’ because there is gas. Akeredolu showed that he did not know the difference between the money and capital markets; he could not defend his award of contracts to members of his family while he was NBApresident, and neither has he, till today, been able to refute allegations that he embezzled funds while serving as commissioner for Justice under the regime that harassed Chief Adekunle Ajasin. His submissions were laced with unpardonable grammatical errors and he had to be told that Dr Mimiko himself , contrary to his submission that Ondo State was not experiencing housing challenges at the urban centres, there was actually a challenge, as the housing units built at Oba Ile are being bought even before completion. Akeredolu promised to create 30,000 jobs within 100 days in office, but he could not explain how he would generate funds to manage that project. However, to Ayobolu and his readers who live in a dream world, “he is more legalistic and serious minded rather than populist in his approach to issues.’’

Ayobolu’s choice of words here is sadly inaccurate and unfortunate, and betrays the same illiterate mentality that his paymasters are associated w i t h .

Ay o b o l u ’ s binary dichoto•Mimiko my between

the sustenance of fraudulent empires would cast aspersions on great Nigerians who are doing their utmost to lift the populace out of the morass of poverty. It is interesting that Ayobolu would claim that the October 20 election is “all about democracy’’ but that this democracy must not involve voting for Dr Olusegun Mimiko. Rotimi Akeredolu was handpicked by political lepers who did not even allow any primary to be held, and he will be terribly beaten on October 20, even in his home town of Owo. It is certainly not in Ondo that a district officer with a shabby outlook will carry the business of banditry and political remote control to government house. Perish the thought: Ondo will not be overrun by aliens who sponsor terrorism and run Boko Haram-style governments.

And talking about “Marxian dialectics,’’ which of these charlatan governors can withstand Mimiko? It was Mimiko who, in a classical analysis, predicted the fall of the Soviet Union. Those familiar with the trajectory of his thought know his ideological maturation as a member of the Wantu Wazuri, the Nigerian Young Socialist Movement, etc, and the uncontested fact that students of Ondo State are paying the least fees anywhere in the country (N25,000). We know how much is paid in the “compassionate states’’of Osun, Lagos and Ekiti. At the appropriate time, these political lepers who oppress the masses while mouthing progressive platitudes will go into political oblivion. Certainly, Mimiko’s ideological commitment to uplift has given birth to mega schools, an achievement for which his traducers will be in torment all their wretched lives, because it was through education that the great Obafemi Awolowo fashioned the modern Yoruba person. Ayobolu can mention this or that road that he thinks has been abandoned because he neither lives in Ondo nor is concerned with the welfare of its people. He only lives by doing hatchet jobs for Mr Bola Tinubu, the Asiwaju of Lagos, the world’s third worst city to live in.

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OCTOBER 14, 2012 SUNDAY SUN

A President under undue attacks (2) RALPH EGBU egburalph@yahoo.com

08186958958 (SMS only)

T

his essay began last week. In the first part I held that it is true President Goodluck Jonathan has indeed been a target of vicious criticisms. My view was and remains that a greater percentage of the criticisms are not criticisms in the real sense, they are attacks motivated mainly by political considerations. There is certainly a big difference between criticism and verbal attacks. The political fights Jonathan has had to face are of a unique kind, and the peculiar nature of these conflicts has made forgiveness the first major casualty. In this nation, political power has been denied some groups by those who weave intrigues and manipulate the system and yet those denied the chance to govern were willing to forgive and forget on the basis that the interest and wellbeing of the citizens and the progress of the nation supersedes any other interest. The Jonathan emergence was against formidable foes, who, from the look of things, have refused to call a truce. That is part of the bigger problem. This is why the good side of Jonathan is never given a mention, let alone reception; and will not gain real attention except those involved in this government find unique means of attracting attention away from critics, hostile political forces and the unusual security situation to government and its activities. This is one big challenge facing President Jonathan and his team.

(One way to do it could be to allow the much talked about National Conference to take place).

That is the cross the Jonathan administration has had to carry with so much discomfort. This is the political side to the whole development, which I pointed out in my last outing. There is an ethnic side to it, too. Some have said that some sections of the majority tribes have this “disdain” or condescending attitude for a minority leadership of a complex nation such as ours. There could well be a degree of truth in this. What I don’t know is whether the level of disapproval is enough to torment a man with state power, the way we see it. My angle to it all is that with the ascendance of Jonathan to power came the resurgence of Yoruba nationalism and activism.

Make no mistake about this; the Yoruba are the best when it comes to political activism in this nation, and using it to get results. We saw this when the northern branch of the military used force to monopolize power. The ceding of economic control to the Yoruba was not considered enough by them. They reacted well by applying this unique attribute to great effect. Check the books and you will find that the West has the highest number of activists who gave the military hell and saw to their hasty retreat. It was their act that essentially saw the Abiola magic, which made a southerner break the myth that no southerner could get the presidency by popular election. It was also Yoruba activism that made power manipulators in our nation to see the sense in conceding the presidency to

the South-West, and by extension the South, when every indication showed that the SouthEast was better positioned to produce the next President of Nigeria in Dr. Alex Ekwueme.

Their gain came with the election of President Olusegun Obasanjo in 1999. Curiously, too, that marked the retreat or partial end to open and loud advocacy. During the era in review, there were lots of developments to talk about. Some of the policies tasked the people’s endurance. Issues of commercialization, privatization and even subsidy on fuel appeared novel but serious issues. We began to hear retrenchment, right sizing, down-sizing and that government has no business being in business.

There were also matters of corruption, many of them directly traceable to activities of those in power. Sometimes, we wondered aloud if the rule of law would not be destroyed and democracy returned to the odious path of deep aberrations. I recall with some tinge of repulsion the avoidable incidents in Odi, Rivers State, and Zaki-Biam in Benue State, where whole communities inhabited by citizens had the full might of the military unleashed on them, with all the nasty consequences on lives and property. In all of these, the clan of activist thinned down and at some points, these voices of caution went to sleep. Many of us in this nation kept wondering what became of them; was it that they suddenly lost focus and voice?

Or that the battle was against a more formidable foe? Or better still, whether it was a case of blood being thinker than water? In 2003, elections were rigged and by 2007 it was becoming as if it was a normal path to follow. Yet, the kind of righteous indignation I see and hear today were absent. Then came third term, and it was as if all the citizens surrendered, waiting only to see what the politicians would make of themselves.

Even such politicians like Atiku, Orji Uzor Kalu, Babangida and a few others, who stuck out their necks to curb an obvious aberration, which could have consumed the rest of us and the nation, got rewarded with hostile reactions by the powers that be at the time, and branded with all manner of evil even from the people they desired to save. There were no rallies neither did we see street demonstrations.

The resurgence of activism came in small measures during the Yar’Adua era and now under President Jonathan it seems to be experiencing a boom. I have no problem with this. Democracy, in fact, needs the eternal vigilance of the citizens to blossom.

Citizens must at all times be willing to say in the most constructive and result-yielding manner what they perceive to be the issues and what they desire. My concern has to do with the question that has remained unanswered: that question is: where were the activists at the other times? How come their numbers increase and voices louder when the leading personalities change? Did the silence between 1999 and 2007 not cast a blur on what we see now? Now, I desire some tutorship at this point. In a democracy, should disagreement over policy direction amount to “war”? Must elected governments be pulled down before we can come to an agreement that our point(s) of discord has been well registered? The act of constructive engagement even over policy differences does it include vehement refusal to see the good part of the other party and or arguments; and does it include using very abusive languages and banal words to describe personalities and actions of an opposing party? These are some of the things I see and I wonder what direction we are going. Often I do ask if this is the real democracy we hear about elsewhere.

•Jonathan

Are those elected not supposed to have tenures? When is it appropriate to reach conclusions about their performances; at the beginning, middle or the end? To my consternation, I have seen an opposition that has a strategy to talk at every move, including the very inconsequential ones.

As I made to write this piece, I was not too sure the number of Nigerians that can stand on good authority to say this is a programme or manifesto the opposition will implement if Nigerians give them power to lead. The issues and styles have become routine, bringing mainly on what we call in street parlance “yabis”. Even in toeing this path, all manner of vain words are employed to deride cherished institutions.

Criticisms, which I agree are necessary tool for proper development, ought to be sparingly made. It should be constructive and contain seeds that can add value. It must provide clear alternatives. Criticisms would lose potency when the objective is designed to serve narrow political or group interest. I told some of my friends recently that it is wrong to speak the truth only when it is convenient to do so. Call it selective activism. Correctional contributions should be made even when one’s group interest is on the line. This is the only way we can build the great nation we want.

Now, would it then be correct to say that the Jonathan administration has been all about motion without movement? I don’t think so. I believe I have seen a group that is genuinely troubled about our circumstances just like most of the citizens. I also believe that better than before, public officers are burning the mid-night oil and exuding energy in the day time to find solutions to our many troubles. Today, the number of critics has increased, we all can talk and even abuse the highest man in the land and nothing happens. This is good! It shows that the democratic space is consciously being nurtured and opened. At some point, this right was not available or when allowed it was in small measure.

Now that we have it, it should be appreciated for what it is – a new dawn. And for initiating this posture, somebody should take the credit. This, of course, should be the president. Electoral reform is another issue; and unlike in the past, opposition is beginning to win handsomely. We seem to forget the Imo wonder that brought superlative Okorocha to power against a formidable opponent, and more recently the Edo miracle in which an opposition party dusted the party of the central government with a landslide. In both examples, we congratulated the winners, gave them all manner of valiant tags, but refused to commend the president without whom it would not have been possible. The 2011 Presidential election was averagely fair.

That Buhari got over 12 million votes tells a story. All these tell me that with a little more conviction and effort, things can get better. We have to acknowledge these right efforts, and be happy about these foundational steps and rest on the assurance that we have something to build on.

On roads: I am aware that a lot is happening. All around Abuja, construction is going on. The Apapa end of Oshodi road was in a mess. It was a small portion, but it nevertheless caused huge problems leading to great economic loss.

Somebody solved it. The Ore-Benin road for years has been in shambles. When it caused Nigerians to sleep there, we saw pictures of the queues and the bad portions. Today, it is far better yet, we don’t see the pictures. Worst; no commendation. I passed through the OnitshaOwerri road about a week ago and I noticed that this strategic road was almost completed. I screamed for joy, the construction was almost completed. This is not clearly known to the citizens and the critics, otherwise they would have been better informed, and possibly to extend appreciation. These are the ones I know, it is possible that some good works are going on at other points across the nation. In the aviation sector, I just got to know this through Sunday Sun Editor’s interview recently, that about 11 airports are witnessing massive renovation and equipment, all at the same time.

What about education; recently ASUU extracted some concessions. All these should be about qualitative education.

The one that has gladdened my heart is the take-off of nine new universities. The day I saw this on television, I stood up from my sitting position in wild jubilation. Whatever anybody may think about it, this nation still needs more educational institutions with entrepreneur contents to cater for the new era we have on our hands. For an underdeveloped society such as ours, affordable yet qualitative education should be the goal. Education is the shortest path to greatness both for the nation and for the individual. Even on this score alone, given our circumstances, a president should gain re-election. In the same token, we all agree that power supply is changing for good. It is on this power issue that you see the hypocrisy in us. We have seen improvement but in place of giving credit, we throw up new assumptions that it may be as a result of the rainy season. The same good story you find in sports and employment generation efforts. The credit of a new minimum wage must go to Jonathan. The implementation may not have met our expectation, but what has happened has raised lives. This much I can confirm.

This is not to say the Jonathan administration has no minuses. It has, and they are plenty. The style is imperial. There is no urgency to it all. The other issue has to do with prioritization. I would love to see the administration restrict itself to selected projects. Take some strategic roads, name them, put the finance and target dates on them and pursue with zeal.

There is nothing wrong if more than one competent contractor handles most of the strategic roads or projects. After all, politics and legitimacy - two vital variables for political survival - are involved. In health, take few hospitals across the zones and bring them to world standards.

Do the same for education and the others and know what in specific terms the Jonathan administration intends to do in the first four years. Subsidy and tariff take toils. It is doing so already. Jonathan can leave these ones for now and concentrate on the basics. In the security war lies an important key to a greater future.

I just hope the President knows.

•Series concluded.

Sunday Sun OCTOBER 14, 2012

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BEASTS AND BLOOD

SHOLA OSHUNKEYE sholaoshunkeye@yahoo.co.uk (0805 - 618 - 0011)

I

WEEP as I punch my computer’s keyboard this morning.

Though it is a clear and cloudless morning in Lagos, this particular morning comes with a melancholic strain. It comes with deep mourning in its wings. It comes with reels of sorrowful images that have, regrettably, stamped Nigeria, our fatherland, as a nation that is in perpetual conflict with itself. A country in auto reverse to the eerie era of savagery and bestiality that would make the brutality depicted in Thomas Hobbes’ State of Nature a kiddies’ stuff.

The State of Nature deduced by the 17th Century political philosopher, depicts an era in human history when there was no government. An era when men lived “without a common power to keep them all in awe…” And because “In this state every person has a natural right or liberty to do anything one thinks necessary for preserving one’s own life,” men were in constant condition of war. Every man was against every man.

All warred against all. And life was “solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.”

(Wikipedia) Our country returned to the nasty age of brutes and savages early this month, when, first, on October 1, some gun-wielding monsters invaded some tertiary institutions in Mubi, Adamawa State, and slaughtered 40 students in cold blood. While the world was still trying to figure out what really happened, some beasts baying for blood in Umuokiri Village, Aluu, Ikwerre Local Government Area of Rivers State, lynched and burned four students of the University of Port Harcourt, UNIPORT, to death. That was on Friday, October 5, 2012, four days after the Mubi massacre.

I was shuttling between Owerri, the Imo State capital, and Oko, the homestead of former vice president, Dr. Alex Ekwueme, in Anambra State, when the story of the tragic four broke. Since I was always on the road

almost all day while the tour lasted, I got varied accounts from initial reports. But I followed the flow and got the heart-rending details of the murder. Boy, was I sad and mad!

Maybe I would still have been able to maintain some measure of sanity had I rejected a suggestion by one of my brothers, Obadare Oshunkeye, who phoned to voice his outrage after seeing the video clip of the brutal murder on YouTube.

“This country has lost it!” my brother yelled on the line.

“This is one more evidence that would make the rest of the world wonder if we weren’t back in Stone Age!” Then, he commanded angrily: “Brother, you people in the media must not let this crime go unpunished.”

Later that evening, back in my hotel room in Owerri, I logged on to YouTube and I saw the raw horror.

In the video, I saw young people, some of whom looked educated, leading the listless students-Chiadika Lordson Biringa, Ugonna Kelechi Obuzor, Mike Lloyd Toku and Takena Elkanah, to Golgotha, without a stitch on. Stark naked. And the brutes were enjoying every moment of it. I saw, in the video, the bestial mob clubbing the four youth to death with glee. The amateur video showed the murderers putting disused tyres round the young men’s necks, drenching them with petrol, before setting them ablaze.

Such barbarism. Such bestiality. Such callousness in what ought to be an age of gold but which has suddenly turned the age of steely savages. Even the most virulent of beasts in the wild would squirm at the abominable act in Aluu. Even the lion, the most impatient killing machine in the wild, would show some revulsion at the raw horror recorded in that video. Yet, the perpetrators of the evil are men, humans, who are supposed to be higher in all faculties than beasts in the jungle.

Nothing can justify this 21st Century savagery.

Nonetheless, the vampires, and their conniving elders, manufactured some warped justifications for the dastardly act.

First, the unfortunate young men, aged between 20 and 21,

Chiadika were supposed to be cultists who had been attacking other students in the area. Second, they were supposed to be members of a terror gang that specialized in robbing, raping and maiming students. Thirdly, they were supposed to be thieves who specialized in stealing laptop computers and mobile phones.

But those close to the unfortunate four have rubbished all those postulations. They said the lynched youth were none of those horrible personages their assailants gave the world.

In fact, Mrs. Biringa, mother of one of the victims, said her son and his friends were actually in Aluu that day to recover a debt that a native owed them.

Assume, for a second, that the tragic four actually committed the crime their executioners accused them of, there is nothing in our statutes that empowers the brutes to summarily execute them without trial the way they did. No matter the magnitude of the malfeasance, nobody has any right to mete out any punishment to another person without following the full rigours

Lloyd of the law as established by the 1999 Constitution and other laws of the land.

The murder of the four students has cast a big slur on our image as a nation. It has dealt a devastating blow on our country at a time we are struggling to convince the world that we are not a nation of terrorists and sundry savages.

The murder at Aluu is a travesty of justice. It must not go unpunished. The police must not leave any stone unturned to expose the masterminds and bring them to account. The investigation must be comprehensive and should not be skewed in favour of anyone suspected of having the remotest link with the tragedy.

Investigators must diligently interrogate all parties to the unwarranted murder. And these should include the local chief, who, like the African rulers of the slave trade era that facilitated and supervised the capture of their kiths and kin for sale as slaves, refused to stop the murder; to the policemen who Miss. Ibisobia Elkanah, elder sister of Tekena

Tekena Friday Elkanah, one of the executed youths, said she saw not only watching her brother executed but actually encouraged them to “ burn them alive.” They must all be made to face the same justice that they denied the tragic four.

Lastly, our leaders must seize this moment, tragic as it is, to effect a compreUgonna hensive and scientific line of action that love and respect for fellow would stop other brutes in our humans, respect for the sancmidst. As the late Lloyd Toku tity of life and the rule of law, and Ugonna Obuzor, who and, above all, living in the were cousins and popular rap- true nature and purpose of pers in Port Harcourt’s music God. The campaign must circuit, sang in their demo tape, spread to offices and towers titled: ‘Heart of the city’, the of power across the country massacre in Mubi, and the whose occupants must strive murder in Aluu have, once to use their offices and posiagain, underscored the fact that tions to showcase their love our society is desperately sick. for God, nation, and what is It has sold its soul to the devil. noble and just. They must It needs speedy redemption. hold the light for the society The campaign to salvage the to walk without falling. These soul of our sick and loveless and many more we must do society must start from the to save this society without home with parents teaching soul. their wards the love of God, So, God help us.

YOUR TURN Readers’ reactions to ‘Where is Dame Patience Jonathan?’

Mind your business!

Why all this secrecy?

What is your take (business) about somebody else’s wife? I don’t expect you to be poke-nosing. Where is your own wife?

-Cynthia Opara, 08056055937

Shola, may you ink never run dry.

Something is definitely wrong with our nation. Anything that works in other countries hardly works here while bizarre things that never happen elsewhere not only happen but are also condoned and dignified here. In fact, this country is a paradox. Everything about our national life is shrouded in secrecy, even minute things that ought to be in the public domain. This accounts for why Nigerians do not know when they are short-changed until it becomes late as their leaders take advantage of the secrecy system to manipulate things.

Shola, stop these hypocritical sympathies Shola! I read from The Nation’s Palladium that some commentators don’t like criticisms due to oversized egos; hence you don’t display readers’ reactions like Femi Adesina and Onuoha Ukeh. You spared no unkind words for the cabals who laid mines in Aso Rock to prevent Jonathan from becoming president. Should this not attract your sympathy? Why ridicule him, reference whereabouts of beautiful Dame Patience? As a seasoned journalist, visit Germany, France, USA and whatever, at your expense, to unravel what Mr. President is hiding about his wife to give your paper bumper sales.

In southeast, where Jonathan hails, we don’t mix official/executive duties with cheap material gains. So, stop your hypocritical sympathies! Alive or dead, beautiful and ever smiling Dame Patience would surface in due course!

Jonathan can’t stop being president even if Dame dies. But Dame can’t be First Lady if Jonathan is not there in Aso Rock!

-Chief Iheanacho, 08101358690

The whole world was notified about the death of Ghana’s immediate past president, Prof. John Atta Mill, the very day he passed on and within two weeks, he was interred. But if it were to be in Nigeria, for a whole month, nobody will know of it. We were told that Mrs. Jonathan went to have some rest when actually she has been sick. What is so special in knowing one’s health status?

Well, such hypocrisy of government will only give room for dangerous speculations and nobody should be blamed for that. All the same, truth is like smoke, it may not be covered for too long.

-Kingsley K. Achor, 08187626419

Great job Your article on the health condition of the First Lady as well as the therapeutic

effect of goodwill and prayers in this situation is quite commendable.

-Sir Dr. Amos Agwamba, 08033399677

Lie! Nobody prevented Jonathan from seeing dying Yar’Adua It’s funny that you people believed stories of the then VP, now President, being prevented from seeing the dying Yar’Adua. It was the century’s greatest lie or rather manipulation/fraud par excellence. Please, count me out of this.

-Omoba Adekunle, 08183641389 Warri

Such amateurism!

Over the years, yours is a column I attach deep respect. But it lost it when I read the opening paragraph of your September 30 edition. Need you attach that cliché adjective (“shoeless”) to the president, which has no bearing with your topic? Smacks of amateurism!

Well, still looking for the Dame? Did you watch Newsline on (last) Sunday?

Meanwhile, please, take note that Jonathan was sworn in as president on 6th of May 2010, following the death of Yar’Adua on the 5th, and not as Acting President.

-Charles Ezenwa, 08035035716 Awka

SHOLA OSHUNKEYE ON

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A mother’s pain FUNKE EGBEMODE egbemode_funke@yahoo.com 08100993984 (SMS only)

A

mother’s worst nightmare?

Unimaginable pain. The gruesome killing of your son playing over and over on the world screen because that is what Youtube is. It’s a different thing to watch your son ill, very ill and the doctors running up and down or finally wringing their hands and telling you “ madam, we are sorry.

We’ve done all we know how to do.... but go to church with your son” and hours later, cannibals cremate him in broad daylight.

How does a mother go on with images of her son being beaten with planks and held down so flames could finish what their clubs and sticks started. One day, you are planning his graduation and the next your house, your space, your entire life is about sympathizers and sympathy, tears and questions no one could answer. Even if you have lost a child before, you really can’t say you understand the pains of the mothers of the four undergraduates of the University of Port Harcourt whose sun was forced to set at noon by a monstrous mob last week.

Though the tragedy has attracted the right outrage and uproar, I have fears that it will all die down soon. Lawyers will step-in and confuse us. The judges will adjourn the case and the courtroom will go quiet. There are antecedents and precedents. It is a deepseated fear and I am angry that the fear is in there in the first place . I am also afraid that my worst fears are gradually playing out; the children that we didn’t train are finally mowing down the ones we trained. Because most Nigerians do not think much of their law enforcement agents, they are taking laws into their hands. Because we have failed to do what we should for so long, blood, plenty of blood is flooding our land of milk and honey. The innocent infants we brought home from the maternity wards have grown into draculas and jobless adults have fully matured into blood sucking citizens of the federal republic.

Before the Aluu tragedy was the roll call of death in Mubi. The killers of about 30 students called out the names of each student before pumping lead into them. Some kind of judgment day roll call? Boko Haram has denied responsibility, so whodunit? We may never really find out, and that is what is at the root of my fear. Murders take place all the time and they’re met with “investigations are on going and the culprits of the dastardly act will be brought to book.” Then we wait and eventually the culprits go home

and we never get to see that ‘book’.

According to those who know that Rivers state Golgotha, it is within a mile of five different police stations and outposts of the Joint Task Force (JTF). So it is not in the middle of nowhere. According to those who have seen the video, the blood sucking Aluu crowd were armed with sticks, planks, petrol and matches.

The last time I saw a policeman harassing an okada rider (and that was last night), he had a big gun. Now, the sound of a shot into the air would surely have dispersed those evil men.

A second and third shot could have cleared the place. Was it not in that same Rivers state that policemen shot a young man on his way from church for daring to remind them to “remember to keep the Sabath holy” instead of taking bribes on a Sunday? How come it was so difficult for them to fire shots to disperse a bloodthirsty crowd when they saw nothing wrong in sending a young man to an untimely grave on a Sunday afternoon? Or is there a conspiracy by cops deployed to some states to reduce the youth population? It just doesn’t add up that no police patrol team got to that place in time to save Llyod Toku, Chiadika Biringa,Tekena Erikena and Ugonna Obuzor. Is it also true that the policemen told the mob “if dem be cultists, go ahead and kill them?” Did those who killed those boys actually say that the dead boys deserved to die because they lived in GRA and still had the audacity to go collect money owed them?

And then we can’t sue the police and this investigation can hit a dead end, no thanks to a few hungry lawyers throwing the lawbooks at us. Ah. The evil chicken has come home to roost and plucked out the eyes of its owner for dinner. Those four boys are gone forever. Nothing we do will return them into the loving arms of their mothers. On the day their mates graduate from UNIPORT, their parents will remember it all over again and weep. Their photographs, certain fragrances, jokes they shared, certain television programmes. What will happen when Chelsea, Arsenal and ManU play? Their birthdays every year? This is the kind of pain that does not go away, ever.

As a mother, I have refused to watch that bloody video but I wept when I saw the pho-

•Mrs. Toku, Lloyd’s mother.

tograph of Chiadika Biringa in his matriculation gown. So much promise, so many dreams cut down and buried alive. What kind of people do that and are still able to sleep at night? What kind of lawyers are going to defend those monsters caught on camera?

But since I can’t do anything about that thing called the rule of law, beyond wailing on this back page, join me in entreating God to do what no man can do.

Lord, the giver of all laws, the One who does not adjourn cases once He decides a man’s cup is full, please remove your hands from the folds of your garment and avenge the death of these four young men who were so brutally murdered. Like Cain, put a mark on their killers so they do not escape your anger no matter how deeply in the folds of their lawyers’ gowns they hide. These dead boys did not choose to be born by parents who live in GRA, just like Moses did not choose to be called to lead Israel out of Egypt. Yet Korah, Dothan and Abiram conspired against Moses for being singled out in your presence. For daring to query your arrangement and preference, the three conspirators died spectacularly along with their goats and chickens. Because you can repeat miracles, in the full glare of the Nigerian

nation, let all those who clubbed Lloyd, Chiadika,Tekena and Ugonna and poured petrol on them die deaths nobody will forget.

Let those who scratched the matches that burnt the young man who sat through two services and bought a book on faith for his mum go down to Sheol alive. This angry mob have relocated these young men from Port Harcourt GRA into the morgue. The Aluu mob worked so hard last week, they deserve to rest. Father relocate them to their deserved rest in the cemetery.

The sword of Goliath was what was eventually used to cut off his head. The beautiful long hair of Absalom became the rope that hung him on a tree as he fled justice. And Haman died on the gallows he prepared for Mordecai. We solemnly ask that all those who called out the students of Mubi and killed them find death where they least expect. Cut them off in the middle of their days that they may know that you, the Almighty, is the giver of life, not a few gun-toting dry-eyed mere men.

Dear Lord, you know why we are calling you into this matter ‘sharp sharp’? Nigeria is a busy place. The National Assembly will soon move on to other matters. Their plates are already full. The media will soon move on to other stories. We have to report terrorism, flood, CBN governor and subsidy scammers.

But you God can deal with everything at the same time. You even knew those killers from their mothers’wombs. You know the thoughts of the hearts of those who would want to pervert justice in spite of the pains unleashed by killers of children, even as I type this. Do not be silent Lord, you who delivers the weak from those stronger than him. We are defenseless...

On a last note, for now, could friends and family of Mrs Chinwe Biringa keep an eye on her. She sounded so composed on television and some people have told me she is a strong woman. Please, that is not strength. She is not strong. She is bottling it all up. She is prone to depression, mood swings that may not leave her for the rest of her life. She needs to weep, break down. She needs to fall apart. Then she can start healing. It’s a lonely road the Mubi and Port Harcourt mothers are walking, a very lonely rocky road.

Re: The spare tyre

Y

our piece on “The spare tyre” is the most realistic I have ever read. A lot of women and folks will not like it, but that is the truth.

I am married with kids and I have had my own fair share of ups and downs of marriage, including spare tires. I’m not saying it is right to do it, but your perspective is just right.

Please, help use this medium to enlighten couples to learn to manage marriages. It is like a fire that needs good air and fuel to keep burning. Take one out and the fire goes off. It is the responsibility of both couple.

Let me also say (with all due respect to women) that based on my experience with colleagues and other RESPONSIBLE men I have met, a larger percentage of men go out because of the unfriendly atmosphere at home. The women stop being our girl friends

immediately they get married. I understand child bearing is quite challenging but there’s nothing that cannot be managed.

I have also met a few who believe that sampling out there is normal.

Please, keep writing. Do you have books?

–Henry Adelemoni hadelemoni@yahoo.co.uk Quite interesting! Yes, the number of men that would not cheat on their spouses given a level-playing ground is highly insignificant.

However, and arguably, the best solution to the shocks of revelation of infidelity is love. I mean the type of love that would make a man to embrace and forgive his wife instantly when he happily returns home, because his flight was cancelled only to be confronted by a thick backside pounding the yam that is

exclusively reserved for him. Or, the case of the woman who on reaching home late one evening discovered that the match is now being played on her own pitch. And being the good wife, decided to spread a mat on the floor to spend the night while the players are busy sweating it out. Early in the morning, our dutiful wife even went the extra mile of preparing a hot bath for the team to clean up and a delicious breakfast waiting for them at the table to replenish lost energy. What love can be greater? However, the adulterous husband later repented because of the rare quality he saw in the woman. He polished his boots and hanged them, promising only to use them on match days with his loving wife. dank23@rocketmail.com •Continued on page 15

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