The Eagle Gate

Tag: APC

  • The Buhari Administration Claim on Rice Production Is False

    The Buhari Administration Claim on Rice Production Is False

    ATIKU MEDIA PRESS RELEASE…..

    The Buhari Administration Claim on Rice Production Is
    False

    Abuja, Nigeria, 06 November, 2018: On several occasions, the Buhari administration has bragged that their biggest achievement is reducing Nigeria’s dependence on foreign rice. Recently, President Buhari himself made this boast when he said to British Prime Minister, Theresa May on April 16, 2018 as follows:

    “We have cut rice importation by about 90%, made lots of savings of foreign exchange, and generated employment.

    People had rushed to the cities to get oil money, at the expense of farming. But luckily, they are now going back to the farms. Even professionals are going back to the land. We are making steady progress on the road to food security.”

    This claim was also made by the Minister of Agriculture, Chief Audu Ogbeh, who on May 2, 2018 said as follows: “Unemployment in Thailand was one of the lowest in the world, 1.2 per cent, it has gone up to four per cent because seven giant rice mills have shut down because Nigeria’s import has fallen by 95 per cent on rice alone”.

    However, recently released data from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) World Markets and Trade Report has proven these claims by President Muhammadu Buhari and his government to be false.

    According to the World Markets and Trade Report of the USDA, which is a public document, Nigeria imported three million metric tonnes of rice in 2018, which is 400,000 metric tonnes more than the quantity of the product
    imported in 2017.

    It does not end there. The report shows that there has actually been a steep drop in commercial rice production from its 2015 peak under the previous Peoples Democratic Party administration.

    According to the report “Nigeria had consistently milled 3,780,000 metric tonnes annually – a drop from 3,941,000 metric tonnes recorded in 2015.”

    The Atiku Presidential Campaign Organisation therefore wishes to appeal to President Buhari and his government to be truthful to the Nigerian public, rather than claim progress they have not made, because no matter how far and fast falsehood has travelled, it must eventually be overtaken by the truth.

    Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar will always be honest and transparent with the Nigerian people as he carries all citizens along in his mission to Get Nigeria Working Again.

    Atiku Presidential Campaign Organisation
    120, Adetokunbo Ademola Crescent, Wuse II, Abuja, Nigeria.

  • Dr. Umar GANDUJE and the Concept of Anti-corruption Propaganda

    Dr. Umar GANDUJE and the Concept of Anti-corruption Propaganda

    In 2015 – 2016, I was privileged to be a political consultant to a gubernatorial aspirant in my home state, a fairly unknown individual then. We took the task to digitally market him for over a year before the primaries. We created contents, advertorials, edited speeches, managed invented scandals and propaganda against him, wrote his feasible manifesto…Our constant social media marketing made him a darling of the people but all these was not without some sacrifice from me. I was before then not into partisan politics, I just wrote freely on critical issues: social reforms, justice, philosophy, morals, religion, relationships, truth, trust and other thematic issues that came to me as my own human effort. Some people who followed my writing keenly on the social media inboxed me and told me they were disappointed that I could be consulting for PDP. In as much as I explained to them the reasons, an article was wrought out of me, ‘Persons over Parties.’

    In all ramifications, I choose to disagree that parties are basically bad. No, it’s humans that are bad, that are corrupt, that are incompetent, that are soulless, that are clannish, that are without ideas, that without political focus…not necessarily parties. Parties are mere vehicles to gain political positions, just as sleep could be vehicle of death. Should we now say sleep is bad?

    The propaganda that no longer sells on our political space today is that PDP was corrupt for 16 years so they should not present a candidate to be voted in even when APC present the a candidate without the minimum certificate to qualify one for such contest. I don’t think that is only illogical, it is a compressed fallacy, I look at as a Post Traumatic Disappointment Disorder, PTDD (my own personal coinage). PTDD to me is a kind of disorder people experience when they are disappointed in those they believe after revealing events.

    Now, if we still hold on to the stowaway thought that PDP was corrupt as a party because some members were in the time past, how do we define APC today which has become a temple for fleeing corrupt people and houses, in comfort, abjectly corrupt members like GANDUJE of Kano State? Should we now use the members to define the entire party to be politically correct? This is a governor in APC that has been viewed in three videos by millions of Nigerians taking bribe from contractors, yet without a midget of evidence, they want ‘stupid’ you to believe Alhaji Atiku is the most corrupt Nigerian. How folly can a people be, how controlling.

    The fact without doubt remains that the anti-corruption campaign by Buhari was a mere populist propaganda, it has never and it will never work. APC will tell you they are studying the Ganduje video while chasing corrupt shadows. Nothing will ever happen to Ganduje even as we speak he has been summoned by the state assembly over the bribery allegations. He is one of the strongest supporters of Buhari, he cannot afford to allow his man go down over mere dollars he dipped into his babaringa (agbada). Ask me what happened to Babachir Lawal, the professional multi-million Naira grasscutter? Ask yourself what happened to Maina, the pension thief and fugitive. Ask yourself what happened to Baru of NNPC or Abba Kyari of the MTN bribery. Ask yourself where they got the billions to buy votes with police force in Ekiti and Osun States. Ask what would happen to Oshiomole who is asking the courts not to go on trial for corruption. If you ask them these thematic issues, they would tell you Sai Baba till 2023! That vexatious clamour for Simpleton from Simpletons.

    During the Obasanjo Era, he haunted corrupt members of PDP and those who were even in his cabinet with EFCC and other unconventional means. He disposed some using their state assemblies to impeach them. Some went on trial and were sentenced according to the law. Even his police chief, Tafa Balogun, was not spared.

    Today, even corrupt members of the public are blackmailed to join the incorruptible party with some hallelujah triumphant welcome in the Absence of Shame. The just conducted APC primaries were fraught with corruption and high level fraud. Members of INEC were bribed to conduct primaries in hotel lobbies and personal living rooms and the other rooms shortchanging less connected aspirants. Ask Pat Utomi. These and others are echoes and echoes of Shame and Dishonour.

    Elempe Dele

  • MOUNTING PRESSURE ON BUHARI’S INTEGRITY

    MOUNTING PRESSURE ON BUHARI’S INTEGRITY

    “Buhari has tarnished whatever is left of his battered reputation and Integrity and that of his office by condescending this low to purchasing WAEC attestation certificate for an examination he obviously never sat for.”

    Prior to the 2015 presidential election, the selling point of Mr. President was Integrity. It was used to veil his tyrannical disposition which him and Idiagbon exhibited when they took over power forcefully from a duly elected government making themselves criminals and subverters of the will of the people. But the sale of integrity was widely accepted by some simpletons, which constituted a larger population of the electorates. Many didn’t have the opportunity to interrogate his personality because he was a recluse and was incommunicado. He lived behind the closed walls of his mind, coming out once in four years to contest elections and to fail.

    When he took over power in 2015, so much of his personae started coming to the fore, and somehow, people started doubting his claim to integrity. His first failure was his lopsided appointment which was supposed to be guided by the Federal Character as enshrined in our Constitution. Over 80 % of his appointment came from his tribe, state or and his family. This earned him the notorious Nepotistic Tribalist. Other regions were marginalized which resulted to the aggressive campaign by the Ingenious People of Biafra, IPOB for secession. Even the Yorubas who gave him block votes through Tinubu were disengaged through the trapdoor and thrown out from the scheme of things while strangers took over the government, that irresponsible cabal.

    His second test to integrity was his fight against corruption having said in his inauguration he was for nobody and was for everybody…Him and his handlers were married to the anti-corruption slogan. However, his one-sided fight against corruption questioned his integrity. While his corrupt associates walked freely, he is harassing members of the opposition and members of his party who are critical of his policies. His party became a refuge for fleeing corrupt elements. The grass cutter, Babachir, NHIS boss Prof Yusuf, Abba Kyari, the MTN scandal and presidential COS, Baru of NNPC, Buratai, the Army chief, Maina, the pension thief and fugitive…were among those who have been fingered in corruption but are being shielded by Mr Integrity himself.

    Who could have guessed or predicted that Mr Integrity would be involved in a certificate scandal without summoning courageous integrity to say the truth? Who had the prescient perception to predict this national embarrassment where elderly people are dancing to the store bought attestation?

    The certificate narrative has been changing like a chameleon. When the issue first came out some years ago, a lawyer went to court on it, it took Mr. President over 12 SANs and a threat to the life of the lawyer for the matter to die down then. Like a cat with nine lives, undying, the matter has risen again this time with such a great vermin that it is ready to consume anything on its ways.

    The president initially said in a published statement that his credentials were with the military. And that left us with a throwback question: who lives his original documents with a board after sighting them? At most after sighting the original, you leave photocopies and go home with the original, that’s the standard practice all over the world.

    Well, we asked that INEC should compel him to bring his original not sworn affidavit he has been using to contest elections, this cannot be business as usual. Suddenly the narrative changed, the credentials which were safely with the military had disappeared. A little time lasted for presidential retrospection and sober reflection. Precisely on the 2nd of November, 2018 a badly plotted play ensured. The president was given an attestation by WAEC in an over publicized Noble Prize-like show. Yet the probing masses have mounted unrelenting pressure on Mr integrity to do the needful: show us your original certificate, show us the WAEC master list from which the attestation was written from or decline from contesting to face perjury probe.

    If however, he scales through this trial he has set before himself, his greatest test to integrity would be his acceptance of defeat which is imminent and 60% loading. This is not about PDP or APC. If he fails to accept defeat, he will be bundled out of Aso Rock.

    Elempe Dele

  • ADAMS OSHIOMHOLE: MAN WITHOUT HONOUR OR REPUTATION

    ADAMS OSHIOMHOLE: MAN WITHOUT HONOUR OR REPUTATION

    Adams act like Fayose, submit yourself to EFCC.

    How dare he say the petition is stale or that Edo people don’t have locus to demand that he is investigated for corruption.

    Adams Oshiomhole has no good reputation that is deserving of protection by the honorable court. (Defendants statement in libel suit Adams Oshiomhole ran away from)

    He has been caught in a lie about his birthday

    He has been caught in a lie about the primary school he attended.

    He has been caught in a lie about the size of his mansion in Iyamoh.

    He lied about the commissioning of Central Hospital Benin.

    He lied about the Storm Water project in Benin.

    Adams Oshiomhole lied his way to head APC.

    “They say I am a very corrupt megaphone of falsehood and deceit who is unfit to occupy and remain in office as the duly elected Governor of Edo State” … (Statement of Claim of Adams Oshiomhole in the libel suit he abandoned)

    I dare add office of national chairman of government party.

    Mr Adams Oshiomhole: SUBMIT YOURSELF TO EFCC!

    On December 31st 2014, the N.N.P.C. paid $54.9 million dollars to Edo State Government and her Local Government Councils as contributions to Power Sector “Special Sector Intervention Fund”.

    The money did not reflect in the income of the State and till date was never captured by an Appropriation Act for the State. There is no place in Edo State where any project was built with funds from the so-called Special Sector Intervention Funds. The said funds were merely diverted for private use by Mr Adams Oshiomhole.

    #SubmitYourselfToEFCC

    #RescueNigeria

  • Removal of Acting DG SSS May Be the Last Straw

    Removal of Acting DG SSS May Be the Last Straw

    PRESS STATEMENT
     

    Removal of Acting DG SSS May Be the Last Straw
     

    The attention of the Southern and middle Belt Leaders Forum has been drawn to a clandestine plot to remove the Acting Director General of the Department of State Security (DSS), Mr. Matthew Seiyefa from office by a cabal in the Buhari presidency.
     
    We ordinarily would have ignored this report but for the clannishness, sectional proclivity and exclusive handling of the security architecture of the country by President Buhari in the last three years.
     
    He had defied all protestations from all well-meaning Nigerians in making appointments into all key and sensitive security positions in sectional and kith and kin affairs in a very insensitive and you-can-do-your-worst manner that until the recent sack of Daura 16 out of 17 service chiefs were from his corner of the country. It is equally not surprising to us that since the President returned from his holidays in London he has not made a comment on the invasion of the National Assembly by the DSS in his absence which led to the Acting President, Prof. Osinbajo rightly removing the former DG, Lawal Daura confirming speculation that he is not happy with the removal.
     
    The plot to remove the Acting DG is said to be hinged on the professional reorganization of the service by him which the cabal is now interpreting as removing APC elements in DSS for PDP apologists, a clear indication of the divisions this administration has caused in every facet of our life as a nation.
     
    Facts at our disposal however show that what the Acting DG has done is a good example of how to run a diverse polity which this administration has ignored in the last three years.
     
    It was said that under Daura, every need to organize the service along federal character and fill existing vacancies were ignored as he concentrated on nepotism in running DSS and keeping a coterie of those who have retired or have passed retirement in service and many of them having nothing to contribute. The service rule says such people can only be taken on contract if they have special skills.
     
    The Acting DG reportedly noticed that there were three other Directors from the South-South apart from himself and decided to relieve 2 of them so that a Director could be brought in from the South West that had nobody on the management and another person from the North West.
     
    There were about 40 senior officers who were due for retirement or pre-retirement leave whom he had found competent replacement for in a fair manner and according to the service rules.
     
    The Chief of Staff to the President, Mallam Abba Kyari is said to have given instructions that the DG should ask all the newly promoted to go back to their previous positions, a directive that ought to have come from the National Security Adviser if there was the need for any. Now the plot is to remove Seiyefa himself.
     
    All these confirm the politicization of a purely security outfit and the denigration of all institutions by an administration that has shown scant regard for the due process.
     
    We call on President Buhari to immediately call his Chief-of-Staff to order so that he can withdraw the obnoxious directive and allow the agency to run professionally.
     
    We also warn of the consequences of further alienating sections of the country by the administration particularly the Niger Delta where the Acting DG is from and the South West whose only representation on the Management of DSS has now been reversed.
     
    The rest of the country has lived with the insensitivity of Mr. President in handling the security architecture in the last three years with equanimity. It may be necessary not to overstretch it by removing the Acting DG and stopping the professional reorganization in the DSS because it is not in tandem with the ethnic domination script of Mr. President.
     
    It may turn out the proverbial last straw!
     

    Mr. Yinka Odumakin
    South-West
     
    Senator Bassey Henshaw
    South-South
     
    Prof Chigozie Ogbu
    South-East
     
    Dr Isuwa Dogo
    Middle Belt

  • DREAMING AS A NATION

    DREAMING AS A NATION

    The 2019 elections are fast approaching. The political tempo in the land is gradually cruising into high altitude. Whether the elections would be free and fair is of concern on one hand, while the other serious worry is whether those that would be elected have any worthy dream to rescue our very emasculated nation from the abyss of poverty, ignorance, disease, insecurity, human and capital flight. It would be wishful thinking to assume that the mere successful conduct of elections would deepen our democracy without a corresponding dream as a Nation to renew our national life in the hope of joining the league of developing nations.

    Many, may, underestimate the power of dreams, but let no one make a mistake about its potency. Several of the leading Nations of the world and industry captains of today are where they are because they dreamed dreams and worked sincerely to realize those dreams. For those who are Christians, the Bible is not only a spiritual authority, it is a veritable source of the history of mankind and Nations. The Bible lends credence to the theory of the potency of dreams. Let me recount one of the most common accounts in the Holy Bible, this account can be found in the Book of Genesis, Chapter 41.

    Pharaoh, the king of Egypt had a dream. In that dream, “Seven fat, healthy looking cows suddenly came up out of the river and began grazing along its Bank. Then seven other cows came up from the river, but these were very ugly and gaunt. These seven other cows went over and stood beside the fat cows. Then the thin ugly cows ate up the fat ones”. Pharaoh became very concerned about the meaning of that dream and sought the interpretation from one Joseph, a young Hebrew who had a huge reputation for interpreting dreams.

    Joseph told Pharaoh that the seven fat cows represented seven years of prosperity while the seven thin cows stood for another seven years of famine that would follow those years of prosperity. He then advised Pharaoh to appoint a wise man to be in charge of a nation-wide programme to prepare for the famine that would follow the prosperity. He recommended that such officer should store 1/5 of the crops to be harvested during the year of prosperity into the royal store houses. In that way there would be enough to eat during the period of the expected famine. Pharaoh took no chances. He appointed Joseph to be in charge of such National programme. Joseph dealt with the situation in a prudent manner. As interpreted, the years of famine truly followed the years of prosperity but there was plenty to eat and a national calamity was averted from just a dream.

    If anyone still doubts the power of dreams, how about this popular one that most of us already know. Martin Luther King (jr) was born in 1929 in Atlanta, Georgia, to the Reverend and Mrs. Martin Luther King. He followed his father’s foot steps and became a Baptist Minister in 1947. In 1955, Rosa Parks, a black Seamstress, took a seat in the section of a Montgomery bus reserved for whites in the USA. When the driver asked her to move to the back under the state’s segregation law, she refused and was arrested. Martin Luther King (Jr) then launched the Montgomery Bus boycott. He became the symbol of the civil u movement and America itself. On the occasion of the “March on Washington for jobs and freedom” the August in 1963, King delivered the famous “I have a dream” speech on the steps of the Lincoln memorial in Washington to 250,000 civil rights supporters. The dreams were indeed many. I would only deal with the few that are related to this piece;

    – “ I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: we hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal”

    – “I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of slaves and the sons of former slave. owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood”

    – “I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the colour of their skin but by the content of their character. I have a dream today!”

    King did not just have dreams. He worked hard to realize those dreams. By 1964 the world acknowledged his hard work and rewarded him with the Nobel peace prize. Even when he was aware of threats to his life, King continued to work for his dreams to come true. With a premonition of the imminence of his death, King said, “well, I don’t know what will happen now. We have got some difficult days ahead. But it doesn’t matter with me now. Because I’ve been to the mountain top … And I’ve seen the Promised Land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight that we, as a people will get to the Promised Land”.

    Today, the American people have truly reached that Promised Land. America is living out the true meaning of its creed that all men are created equal. The election of Barrack Obama as the US president in November, 2008 marked the total realization of King’s dreams. Together, Obama and Biden sat at the table of brotherhood in the white House to preside over the United States. The content of Obama’s character prevailed over the colour of his skin. Such is the power of a dream.

    The Nigerian Nation must therefore not despair in this trying moments of our national life. We must dream as other great nations did. Hon. Justice Chukwudifu Oputa, a retired Justice of the Supreme Court at the third Obafemi Awolowo Foundation Dialogue once asked a useful question: “can we make Nigeria greater than nature made her…?” The learned Judge provided his own answer. He said as follows: “my answer is yes … if and only if our leaders have the sagacity of an Otto Von Bismark, the wisdom of a Cavour, the adroitness of a Mazini, the patriotism of a Gandhi and the selflessness of a Nyerere. ”

    Part of our National creed is to be found in the 1999 constitution of our country which states interalia; “AND TO PROVIDE for a constitution for the purpose of promoting the good government and welfare of all persons in our country on the principles of freedom, Equality and justice and for the purpose of consolidating the unity of our people”. Are we truly dreaming of living out the real meaning of this creed? Can we claim to have promoted the principles of equality and justice when there is no equal access to good Medicare and Education in our country? What is the state of our public schools today and how many of the children of those charged with the governance of this Nation attend such schools? What has happened to our public hospitals over the years and why have they become glorified death places for very minor ailments?

    The truth is that there is neither equality nor justice in our national life. The Buhari regime may have had the heart to begin the process, but that momentum appears stunted by policy duplicity, official lethargy of public functionaries and excessive bloodletting of uncommon proportions. The regime may have learnt its lessons and the entire country now wants a better deal.
    The good news is that we can begin to dream of it now. Let us start with the basic dreams:

    – That some day before year 2022, this nation would generate over 25,000 MW of power for the use of its millions of citizens.

    – That someday, this nation would upgrade its public schools at all levels to globally accepted standards and the products of such schools would no longer face the international discrimination that they suffer today.

    – That someday, this nation would upgrade its health institutions to health-care delivery levels away from its present day notoriety of being regarded as death centres.

    – That someday, this nation would truly be governed by the rule of law and founded on equality before the law, where high profile thieves in public life would no longer scorn the law and make only petty thieves of necessity to face the law.

    But these dreams would never come to pass until we find leaders who would “show the light and people will find their way” as Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe epitomized by the slogan of his now defunct newspaper, the West African Pilot. Our Nation must learn from Queneau Raymond, a twentieth century philosopher who fizzled out all doubts about the need to dream in his famous statement that “man’s usual routine is to work and to dream”.

    *Dr. Ehiogie West- Idahosa is a former Member of the House of Representatives, lawyer and public policy expert.

  • CAN A MEMBER OF THE MINORITY PARTY LEAD THE MAJORITY AS PRESIDING OFFICER IN PARLIAMENT?

    CAN A MEMBER OF THE MINORITY PARTY LEAD THE MAJORITY AS PRESIDING OFFICER IN PARLIAMENT?

    There have been many views expressed on this topic by many. Significantly, the APC leadership has made heavy weather of the fact that this cannot be so. They have therefore called on Saraki to resign. One thing that is fundamental to Nigeria’s democracy is its very constitutional nature. There are so many threads of our national life woven neatly by the 1999 Constitution of Nigeria as amended. This is not so with the American model of presidentialism that we unnecessarily copied. We are not a union of voluntary federate states. We did not even mandate those who chose the model on our behalf to do so. More importantly , we did not write the said constitution for ourselves.

    Having said that, we are stuck with our Supreme law and anything done which is inconsistent with its provisions is certain to fail the test of the law, no matter how well intentioned. Bearing this in mind therefore, it is settled that a presiding officer of a law making body is usually elected to the the seat by a simple majority of his colleagues for different reasons. They range from party affiliation, personal friendship to perception of competence.

    Usually, Members of such bodies vote by roll call when the House first convenes. The practice is for individual members to nominate candidates of choice, but members normally vote along party lines and sometimes vote for any other candidate of their choice. In most parliaments, several parties would present candidates for the contest. The majority party normally wins, if their party members stay on line. However, an unfavored candidate within the majority party can reach a deal with other party members and still win the contest if he gets the majority of votes for that purpose on the floor of the House.

    This was precisely the scenario in the 8th Senate. Saraki had a deal with PDP and won as Senate President. This is an acceptable worldwide practice in parliament. It is not strange. A good example in the United States is the election of James Clark of the Democratic Party as Speaker of the US House of Representatives. While he served as Speaker, the Democratic Party lost the plurality or majority of seats in 1917. They no longer controlled the House. The Republicans did. Congressman Clark retained his seat as Speaker as the majority of House Members kept him there.

    Even in the Westministerial Parliamentary model where having majority in parliament is so pivotal to running government business, there are many instances where the Speaker was chosen from a minority party. In 1992, Betty Bothroyd, the first female speaker of the House of Commons in UK was a Labor MP chosen in a Conservative-controlled House of Commons.

    What then is the whole fuss for? What we need most is visionary and pragmatic leadership tailored to meet our present unenviable circumstances in the interest of rapid national development. Such leaders must fully understand Gabriel Almond’s Structural Functionalism or Easton’s System Theory in managing the component parts of Nigetia and the various arms of government for the good of all.

    Dr. Ehiogie West-Idahosa
    Former member of House of Representatives, Lawyer and Policy Expert

  • Edo people say no to cattle colonies

    Edo people say no to cattle colonies

    WHILE former Edo State Governor, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole was being crowned in Abuja during the weekend as the national Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), over 3,000 members of the ruling party decamped to the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) at Fugar, Etsako Central local government area of Edo state.

    At a well attended ceremony which was described as a political tsunami by Edo state chairman of the PDP, Chief Dan Orbih, rejected the new National Cattle Policy of President Muhammadu Buhari.

    Orbih told the mammoth crowd which included the two former member of the House of Representatives, Alhaji Abubakar Momoh (Owan), Johnson Abolagba (Owan); member of the Edo State House of Assembly, Mr. Sylvanus Eruaga (Etsako West 11), a former member of the Edo State House of Assembly, Mr. Pascal Ugbomhe and a host of others that the new federal government policy was an indirect way of instituting the discredited cattle colonies.

    He advised Governor Godwin Obaseki not to cede any portion of Edo land for the purpose of the new policy on cattle which he insisted is a subtle way of grabbing Edo people’s land.

    He said: “Edo people say no to cattle colonies. Edo PDP openly rejects the New National Policy on Cattle. It is an attempt at grabbing our land. No Edo community has agreed up till date to give a portion of their land for the purpose of establishing a cattle colony. We say no to the new National Policy on Cattle by President Muhammadu Buhari.”

    The decampees who were led by a an erstwhile Secretary of the defunct Action Congtress of Nigeria (ACN) in Etsako Central local government included Capt. Phillip Itsede; Mr. Imakhue, a former PDP chairman in the council; Mr. Benjamin Enakpene, a former APC youth leader; Comrade Augustine Anomhe wet TT r3, former President of the Student Union Government of the Agenebode campus of the College of Agriculture, Iguoriakhi; and Mr. Felix Igbanoi, a former Supervisory Councilor of the council.

    The decampees who were former members of the PDP said that it was sweet homecoming after wandering in the wilderness for a long time.

    Itsede said that the lack of internal democracy and, the dictatorial tendencies of some of the leaders of the ruling party has resulted in a situation where the decisions of the party are being taken by people outside the council.

    Left with no choice after persistent protest, Itsede said that he decided to go back to his roots, adding that the APC was doomed.

    HENDRIX OLIOMOGBE- BENIN

  • Saraki/Ekweremadu’s Failed Removal: How APC Lost its Argument Morally & Constitutionally

    Saraki/Ekweremadu’s Failed Removal: How APC Lost its Argument Morally & Constitutionally

    By Chidiebere Nwobodo

    Having failed repeatedly to effect leadership change in the Senate via unconstitutional means, embittered ex-wife called APC has resorted to blatant blackmail and mudslinging in its renewed quest to oust Senate president Bukola Saraki and his deputy, Sen. Ike Ekweremadu from their coveted seats. The more they attack the duo, the clearer it becomes to Nigerians that we have a government run by tyrants, who does not give a freaking damn about survival of our hard-earned democracy. These anti-democratic forces are hell bent on setting Nigeria ablaze, just to have their way. I think the time has come to cage this beast and small tyrant called Oshiomhole; enough of his excesses cum impunity.

    Section 52 of Nigeria’s constitution made it crystal clear that for a presiding officer of the senate like senate president or his deputy, to be removed from office, you need nothing less than two third majority of senators. In a Red Chamber of 109 senators, the 2/3 majority is 73 senators! The mind-boggling questions racing through the minds of discerning Nigerians are: can those tyrants in Presidential Villa and their foot-soldiers in the senate muster 73 senators to remove Senate President Saraki and his deputy, Sen. Ike Ekweremadu? Can they infiltrate the impregnable support base of current senate leadership? Can’t they accept the stark reality that they have been outfoxed in this political game of thrones once and for all? Is it too late in the day to give peace a chance, at least for the sake of impoverished Nigerians, that are desperately yearning for the “change” promised them over three years ago?

    President Buhari and his mindless cabal, should be told categorically that they have lost this argument both in the eyes of the law and court of public opinion. They have also lost the moral aspect of the argument. For supporting Hon. Aminu Tambuwal to retain his seat as speaker of House of Representatives, having defected from PDP to APC in 2014, APC and its herd of zombies, masquerading as supporters, have lost the moral ground on which to demand Saraki’s resignation, using the benchmark of morality.

    The APC should better wake up from its hallucination that Saraki and Ekweremadu will be removed “by all means” as leaders of senate. Saraki is not carrying any moral burden as senate president, because APC never supported him to emerge in the first place. Power-drunk APC leaders cannot take back what they did not give in the first place. Nigerian constitution never implied that senate president or his deputy MUST come from majority party (if APC is still majority). Saraki/Ekweremadu senate presidency has come to stay till June, 2019.

    Any unconstitutional attempt to effect change of senate leadership, will be tantamount to toppling Nigeria democracy. President Buhari’s name will be written boldly in the hall of SHAME if he watch his party chairman, aides and conscienceless supporters push Nigeria down the deepest valley of anarchy and political turmoil. Oshiomhole and his fellow desperados in the APC, should know that Senators Saraki and Ekweremadu have become the rallying pillars and formidable shield to roll back the forces of fascism and dictatorship, of which President Buhari’s government has metamorphosed into. Nigerians are solidly behind them as commanders leading the army of democrats, against rampaging chariots and soldiers of tyranny, as we head into 2019 general elections.

  • Press Release: Response to Adams Oshiomhole

    Press Release: Response to Adams Oshiomhole

    Press Release
    August 10, 2018

    Response to Adams Oshiomhole

    1. It is rather surprising that Mr. Adams Oshiomhole is behaving like a rain-beaten chicken, crying all over the place about Dr. Abubakar Bukola Saraki, as if the Senate President is the apparition haunting his life and the sinking ship that he captains.

    2. Having decided not to join the pigs in rolling in the dirt; we would not like to be involved in any meaningless exchange with the demagogue now in charge of APC. However, because he claimed that he was reacting to the issues raised by the Senate President during his World Press Conference, we thought it necessary to give the APC chairman some attention.

    Alas, we found that instead of addressing any issue raised by the Senate President, his press conference merely showcased his obsession and those of his sponsors with Saraki’s removal, which he did without any decorum befitting of his age or his awarded office. He brimmed with hate, hurled abuses, threw tantrums, told lies, huffed and puffed. In the end, he said nothing.

    3. It is indeed amazing that the same Oshiomhole, who is now describing Saraki as a politician of no consequence was the same one who only a few months ago was crawling all over the place pleading for Saraki’s support to become chairman. We are sure that those who took him to Saraki several times to plead his case must now be thoroughly embarrassed by his reckless and uncouth manner.

    4. By his conduct and utterances, Oshiomhole, who accused Saraki of not acting in national interest needs to do more to convince Nigerians that his desperate desire to become party chairman is not simply to feed his over-sized ego.

    5. The position of Oshiomhole and his cohorts in the APC that the Senate President must resign is a mere wishful thinking. They will continue to dream about their planned removal of the Senate President. They will need 73 Senators to lawfully remove Dr. Saraki and they will never get that in the present eight Senate.

    6. The argument of APC that the Senate President must come from a majority party; that the Senate Presidency is their crown and National Assembly is their palace is only supported by ignorance and dangerous delusion. First, the issue of which party is in the majority will only be resolved when the Senate resume. Two, Section 50 (1) (a) of the constitution is clear that any Senator can be elected as Senate President. If the only thing left of the APC change agenda is to change the Senate President we can only wish them good luck.

    7. Perhaps, Mr. Oshiomhole needs to be better educated about our parliamentary history when he Stated that “For the first time in parliamentary history in Nigeria, we had a situation where the APC had majority of Senators and went on to elect a PDP as Deputy Senate President”. Where is Mr. Oshiomhole when Senator John Wash Pam of the Nigerian People’s Party (NPP) became Deputy Senate President in the Second Republic even when the National Party of Nigeria (NPN) had the majority. The same thing happened in the House of Representatives when NPP’s Rt. Hon. Edwin Umeh Ezeoke was elected Speaker in an NPN majority House. But then, it would require a level of education to understand these things.

    8. What hypocrisy! To think that this same APC were jubilating when Rt. Hon. Aminu Tambuwal retained his position after he defected from the PDP and still retained his seat, even when his new party was in the minority. These are people whose standards of morality are infinitely elastic.

    9. We are sure the remaining APC Senators need to do a lot of work to bring Oshiomhole up to speed about parliamentary practice. His ignorance are too clear in his comments about how the Senate was adjourned on July 24, 2018, the distribution of committee chairmanship in the Senate and the difference between the post of Senate President and Minority Leader.

    10. He has made so much song and dance about Mr. Godswill Akpabio resigning as Senate Minority Leader when he left the PDP to join APC. For this, Akpabio has become his hero and a symbol of honor. He obviously does not understand that the post of Minority Leader is a strictly party affair. And the PDP simply decided who to give it as it is not even a position that was mentioned in the constitution. Whereas, the Senate President position is a constitutional creation, which required majority votes of all the members. Again, we don’t expect people whose only experience in politics is at the provincial levels to understand this. No wonder they are talking of crowns and inheritance.

    11. The fair distribution of the Committee chairmanship is one of the stabilizing factors in the 8th Senate and has helped it in achieving more than all its predecessors.

    12. We need to inform this divisive element who now leads APC that if he wants to know why the 2018 budget was delayed, he should ask the heads of the MDAs. We reckon that should be easy for him since he is now their ‘headmaster’, moving around with canes to whip ministers into line.

    13. Oshiomhole once again demonstrated his lack of sense of history by talking of Buhari winning more votes in Kwara than Saraki. We are sure President Buhari himself will disagree with the APC chairman. We invite the APC chairman to look at the figures of votes secured by the President in 2003, 2007, 2011 and 2015 to know that the difference is clear, like a commercial advert stated.

    14. We hereby assure this garrulous, tactless and reckless APC chairman that a million of Adams Oshiomhole cannot remove Saraki as Senate President. His illegal plots, can only feed his insatiable ego and keep him awake at nights. But it will remain an exercise in futility.

    Signed

    Yusuph Olaniyonu
    Special Adviser on Media and Publicity to the Senate President