The Eagle Gate

Tag: PDP

  • The Shame of a Propaganda Government: The Holy Aruosa Primary School Video Exposé

    The Edo state APC led government that thrives and propelled by propaganda was exposed and I believe embarrassed by the very damaging video of Holy Aruosa Primary School that went viral yesterday, Wednesday, June 20, 2018.

    It is however pleasing to hear that the government acted swiftly by relocating the pupils and teachers to another school. Just like the “Go and Die” jolted Adams Oshiomhole to render apologies for his bad and uncultured behavior, so has this Holy Aruosa Primary School Video woken Gov Obaseki from his deep slumber and penchant for signing MOUs and endless ground breaking ceremonies!

    That video is actually the tip of the iceberg in relation to the infrastructural decay that litters the nooks and crannies of our beloved state.

    It was a sorry sight to see and preposterous to hear that EDSG is blaming vandals for the rot it has superintended over in the last 10 years and then went into overdrive again posting videos of the few schools it had managed to apply “band aid” to. Even more laughable and unforgivable is the lame statement that they will investigate why the initial relocation order of pupils and teachers of Holy Aruosa Primary School was ignored. This is an after-thought and should be beneath even a government as clueless and insensitive as this Godwin Obaseki led government. Instead of Governor Godwin Obaseki to get to work, his government is still coming up with fancy acronyms to bamboozle a citizenry that he was imposed upon. What is Edo-Best?

    The major reason Holy Aruosa Primary School suffered this fate is because it not a polling center. This government and its predecessor government in preparation for the 2012 and 2016 elections, applied some cosmetic renovations over and over again to the same schools that were voting centers in an attempt to hoodwink Edo people . They forgot that the chickens will come home to roost. The proverbial wind like it is said, has exposed the rump of the chicken.

    Our sympathy goes to the parents, pupils and teachers who were exposed for political expediency to such harsh conditions not fit for animals.

    As a political party, we will continue to expose the ills of this government and propagate good and responsible governance.  

    PDP… listening to the cries of Edo People!

    Signed

    Chris Osa Nehikhare
    SPS PDP EDO STATE

  • Open Letter to Mr. President

    Open Letter to Mr. President

    Dear Mr. President,

    You seem to be changing each passing day, each passing day. Our collective dreams about you are no longer quiet as they seem, no longer as quiet as they seem. Prior to 2015 election, we never felt like this, never. Now we are feeling more disappointed these ills are coming from you. We are opening up everyday seeing some strange principalities coming from you, are they demons you can’t leave behind? You are looking and acting strangely different.

    We wanted more than this from you Mr. Integrity, that’s why our pain and disappointment are impossible to ignore, impossible to ignore. This that is coming from you is an impossible attitude, an impossible attitude.

    And now we are telling you openly, our hearts are broken. You have become what we can’t define. A totally changed man, so insensitive and so unkind. That’s what you have become. You have become everything we do not wish for.

    You were supposed to be the concept of service and love. Please come talk to us, what’s on your mind? Do not listen to sychophants; why can’t you no longer hold on to the concept of service and love? Why do you now take power as if it is between life and death, as it is for sinners and infidels? Why are your footfalls going backwards? We can no longer hear you.

    We are no longer free and wide open to our thoughts; we now leave in perpetual fear even when we close our eyes to the things happening under you. We have been trying to control ourselves, so please don’t stand on our ways, we have waited for 3 years and there is a climax coming our way, we are no longer fond of you.

    Don’t you analysize and tabulize the magic of the revolution to come? There is war in Syria and Libya, can’t you see the rage is building up, the rage from us all? This is not worth it anymore as we are descending into paths of destruction and war. We can’t take it anymore.

    So return to where you came from because of this embarrassment, this harassment and this decadence.

    We are free to decide and we shall give you our word when the time comes, so please come away with your footfalls, go back to where you come from, go back to where you come from, you have enough time in your hands.

    Elempe Dele

  • Going to the USA is not a constitutional criterion to contest for President

    Going to the USA is not a constitutional criterion to contest for President

    We have heard and continue to hear about presidential hopeful Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, Waziri Adamawa going to the United States of America (USA) before he can contest or be voted for. I am alarmed that this went viral even with the knowledge that this is not a criterion to contest for the seat of President, nowhere in the Nigeria Constitution is it stated.
     

    Some say he is on a list, such list has never been produced nor submitted for public viewing, neither has a document or instrument charging him to a USA court for corruption been produced nor is there a warrant for his arrest from any agency here and abroad. He has not been invited by the Economic Financial Crime Commission (EFCC), and he never been indicted for any crime.
     

    Bad news travels fast and far, and the opposition has seen it fit to use the grapevine to taint his image, knowing fully well that many Nigerians go by what they hear and many do not verify information nor ask questions before they believe.
     

    Like any other Nigerian who wishes to travel out of Nigeria to a foreign country on a Nigerian Passport, a visa is required, he must submit his passport to the embassy in question and they may or not approve a visa for him. Alhaji Atiku Abubakar has traveled on many occasions to several countries including America as an ordinary citizen and as Vice President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
     

    What has changed? There is a new sheriff in town called Donald Trump who dislike immigrants though a product of an immigrant family. A white supremacist, who came up with radical policies concerning immigration that even Americans disagree with. Nigeria is obviously a target, some have disgraced Nigeria by participating in fraudulent activities, and of course President Buhari who went about telling the world that Nigerians are corrupt forgetting that he too is a Nigerian. Trump has on more one occasion insulted the African continent, the black race and specifically Nigeria. In the first part of Trump being in office, he placed Nigeria on a list; Nigerians were harassed and disgraced at US entry points, some sent back even with visas or green cards. This harassment and molestation of Nigerians is still going on.
     

    So let’s get the record straight, void of any evidence to prove any wrongdoing by the Waziri Adamawa, this matter should be laid to rest and real politics played. May the best man win.

     

     

    Omololu Ojehomon

  • Response to Mr. Femi Falana, SAN by Olufab

    Response to Mr. Femi Falana, SAN by Olufab

    I have read the opinion of the learned Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Mr. Femi Falana, SAN, where he posited that in the main, the President Muhammadu Buhari [PMB] is not prohibited by law to confer national honours on deserving Nigerians, dead or alive.

    In this riposte, I intend only to challenge the opinion of the learned SAN that the award of the GCFR on Chief M.K.O. Abiola, of blessed memory, is legal. On the sanctification of June 12 as democracy day and a Public holiday, I do not wish to express an opinion.

    In the submission of the learned SAN, the former CJN was wrong as he (the former CJN) did not cite a specific provision of the Honours Act or any other law that had been violated by the president.

    Mr. Femi Falana is legally misconceived in his opinion that no illegality has been occasioned by the award of the national honours on Chief M.K.O. Abiola & Chief Gani Fawehinmi, SAN.

    The enabling legislation is the Honours Act and the applicable provisions are as follows:

    “3. Mode of appointment to Orders, etc.

     

    (1) The President shall by notice in the Federal Gazette signify his intention of appointing a person to a particular rank of an Order.

     

    (2) Subject to the next following paragraph of this article, a person shall be appointed to a particular rank of an Order when he receives from the President in person, at an investiture held for the purpose-

    (a) the insignia appropriate for that rank; and

    (b) an instrument under the hand of the President and the public seal of
    the Federation declaring him to be appointed to that rank.

     

    (3) If in the case of any person it appears to the President expedient to dispense with the requirements of paragraph (2) of this article, he may direct that that person shall be appointed to the rank in question in such a manner as may be specified in the direction.”

     

    A quick recap. The retired CJN opined that the national honours cannot be awarded posthumously, “much less the GCFR”, which is the highest honour in the land. Mr. Falana, SAN, on the other hand stated that it could and that the retired jurist did not state the law violated.

     

    Mr. Falana is very much mistaken in thinking the former CJN needed to provide the sections of the law violated, when it is quite elementary that violence was done to the entirety of the law itself and general principle of law.

     

    The right of the PMB to award national honours is in no doubt. The germane question to pose is, on whom might a national honour be awarded? The answer stares one in the face much like a star. National honours are to be awarded to persons. If we are agreed, and there can be no divergent opinion on that unassailable fact. The next question is to ask whether Chief M.K.O. Abiola and Chief Gani Fawehinmi fall within the LEGAL definition of persons.

    The Supreme Court in Ibrahim v. Judicial Service Committee, Kaduna State (1998) 14 NWLR (Pt. 584) 1 at 36 (1998) 12 SCNJ 255, espoused thus:

    “The definition of the word “person” in the legal sense under the Nigerian law is not limited to natural persons or human being only. It clearly admits and includes artificial persons, corporation, sole company or any body of persons corporate or incorporate.”

    It follows therefore that persons in the legal sense includes “natural persons or human beings” and also “artificial persons” such as corporate & incorporate bodies. Ipso facto, there can be no doubt that PMB may validly bestow national honours on “natural persons or human beings, and on artificial persons. To add further fillip to the definition of persons, the Interpretation Act, CAP 123 LFN 2004 defines persons as:

    “person” includes anybody of persons corporate or unincorporate;

    On their demise, could it possibly be argued that Chief M.K.O Abiola and Chief Gani Fawehinmi, SAN continued to share or retained the characteristics of natural persons or human beings? Absolutely not; it would be preposterous and do violence to language to contend so. However, reject my own IPSE DIXIT on this matter. Do I have legal authorities in support of my position, that the dead cannot by any stretch of the imagination be natural persons or human beings?

    In the case of UDEOGARANYA V. ADEYI (2010) LPELR-4415(CA), the Court of Appeal instructively defined a person as follows:

    “It is beyond dispute that the word “person” when used in legal practice, such as in a legislation or statute connotes both a “natural person”, that is to say, a “human being” and an “artificial person” such as corporation sole or public bodies corporate or incorporates”.

    Just to pre-empt some of my colleagues or lay men who may say, ‘but the Court of Appeal is not the highest Court in the land’; I have good news. Let me dispel any doubt.

    The Supreme Court of Nigeria, in OMOKHAFE V. ESEKHOMO (1993) LPELR-2649(SC), explicating on the Legal Personality of a dead person, has this to say, per Onu, J.S.C.:

    “Generally, a dead person is no longer in the eyes of the law a person but in the eyes of the law, he is a person who ceased to have any legal personality from the date of his death and as such, can neither sue nor be sued personally or in representative capacity.”

    If the highest Court in the land has asseverated that a dead person is no longer in the eyes of the law a person, then to have conferred the respective national honours on both Chief M.KO. Abiola and Chief Gani Fawehinmi has been done in clear breach of the National Honours Act. Respectfully, in my opinion, nothing more needs be said on this said over that issue.

    POSTSCRIPT

    On the issue of whether the honours bestowed on both Chief M.K.O Abiola & Chief Gani Fawehinmi may be conferred posthumously; it is pertinent to state that there is no specific provisions allowing posthumous awards in the enabling Act. Until the National Assembly amends the Act, it is respectfully submitted that any such posthumous award is clearly illegal. It is absurd for anyone to read into an Act of the National Assembly what is not therein provided for.

    Compare the above position with the enabling legislation for members of the Armed Forces, you will find the following:

    “3. Eligibility for award of medals

    (1) The Nigeria Star may be awarded to any member of any of the armed forces for the most conspicuous bravery in the presence of the enemy, or for a pre-eminent act of valour or self-sacrifice in the presence of the enemy, or for devotion to duty in the presence of the enemy, and may be awarded posthumously.”

    The legislation pertain to the Armed forces makes specific provision for posthumous award! One would have thought that the lawyers advocating so vociferously for posthumous award would have asked themselves one simple question: “why would one legislation be silent on the issue of a posthumous award whilst another piece of legislation be specific on the point”?

  • Rebuild Nigeria International Forum (RNIF) supports Atiku on restructuring

    Rebuild Nigeria International Forum (RNIF) supports Atiku on restructuring

    The Rebuild Nigeria Initiative Forum, a non-government and patriotic citizens’ support-driven organisation has thrown its full weight behind former Vice-President and Presidential aspirant Atiku Abubakar’s model for restructuring Nigeria.

     

    In a statement by the forum’s Vice-President, Otunba Wale Fasan, the organisation recalled that Atiku was the first Nigerian to suggest restructuring as a mode for reuniting a multi-tribal Nigeria that had hitherto been plagued by misunderstandings and strife amongst the various nationalities comprising it.

     

    The statement came as a followup to the group’s show of solidarity to the Waziri of Adamawa’s presidential ambition during his electioneering campaign held recently at Oshogbo, the Osun state capital, home state of the hopeful’s wife, Chief (Mrs) Titi Atiku Abubakar.

     

    Fasan, during an interview with newsmen at the occasion said that the group was gladdened by the Waziri Adamawa’s support for restructuring and urged Nigerians to be referred to several publications in Nigeria’s major newspapers, dating as far back as July 13, 2001, in which Atiku had championed the cause for the inevitability of restructuring the entity Nigeria.

     

    “Waziri Atiku Abubakar is the one person that has the moral authority to say restructuring is possible because he has engineered it before. He is not saying I can do it, he is saying I have done it”, Fasan said.

     

    “Many Nigerians may have forgotten that there was once a dilemma in Nigeria called the onshore/ offshore dichotomy. In 1984, Major General Mohammadu Buhari (rtd) reduced the amount of derivation funds paid to oil producing states to a paltry 1.5 % by military fiat and left the offshore oil revenues to the federal government. It was not until the 1994-95 Constitutional Conference that patriots led by Shehu Musa Yar’Adua and Atiku Abubakar mobilized other members of the conference to come up with a unique solution to the onshore/ offshore dichotomy. Their solution provided a formula for the administration of the derivation principle and contained three very significant embodiments”, he added.

     

    According to him, the first embodiment was that allocation to derivation should stand at a minimum of 13 percent. The second was that the dichotomy between onshore and offshore exploration should not be taken into account for the purpose of revenue allocation. The third was that the boundaries of littoral states were clearly defined as extending to Nigeria’s exclusive economic zone which at the time stood at 200 nautical miles.

     

    “When the 1999 Constitution refused to take this unique solution into consideration (being that it was forced on the nation by the military), the onshore/offshore dichotomy raised its ugly head and threatened to tank the then nascent Obasanjo administration and the nation with it. It was precisely Atiku Abubakar who used the network he built at the 1994-95 conference to persuade both President Obasanjo and Niger Delta Governors including Obong Victor Attah and Dr. Peter Odili, (who were his colleagues at the 1994-95 constitutional conference) to reach a political solution and just like that, and by an Executive Order, President Olusegun Obasanjo, with the intervention of Atiku Abubakar, used a political solution to solve a problem caused by the constitution”, Fasan declared.

     

    Earlier in his speech at the Osogbo Freedom Park venue of the event, Waziri Atiku Abubakar urged Nigerians to unite against all forms of division currently threatening the peace of the country and take back their country from the voyage of destruction!

     

    Ojomo, Olusegun Adebambo Esq. (Communications’ Specialist)

    Credit: firstnigerianews
    Com

  • Is the trial of Chief Dan Orbih, Shekarau and the others, not one of the entire Nigerian political class?

    Is the trial of Chief Dan Orbih, Shekarau and the others, not one of the entire Nigerian political class?

    The rumor slowly but steadily made the rounds. It then gained momentum that the APC controlled Federal Government planned to put many political opponents on trial for allegedly spending public funds on political campaigns, as part of the “fight” against corruption. Unsuspecting members of the public welcomed it.

    The likes of Oliseh Metuh who was at one time Publicity Secretary of PDP and a few others were arrested. They were thereafter arraigned in a court of law.

    Metuh was accused of receiving money traceable to the Office of the National Security Adviser. There was a huge applause. Suddenly, it dawned on President Buhari and his Government that such involvement was amongst persons few and far between. There was no significant political capital to be made out of such exercise. They changed the narrative in the middle of the game.

    The chase shifted to any political opponent who purportedly shared campaign funds. It didn’t matter whether it was public funds or purpose-driven generated private funds for a political event. As far as this Government was concerned, any politician who is said to have distributed campaign-funds in support of PDP in the 2015 presidential election and refused to decamp to the ruling APC is a thief who should be in jail. For those who could not stand the heat, they got the message and did the needful. Their sins were quickly forgiven. For those who remained faithful to their political party, they became endangered species.

    So the likes of Chief Dan Orbih who is chairman of PDP in Edo State and Pastor Ize-Iyamu who was PDP’s governorship candidate in the same State were arrested and charged before the Federal High court in Benin City by EFCC, the persecution agency of Buhari’s Government. Elsewhere, HE Shekarau of Kano State PDP, HE Shagari of Sokoto State PDP were arrested with others and similarly arraigned in the same court in their respective States for the same reason.

    Their crime is that they are believed to have distributed campaign funds in excess of five million naira contrary to section 1(a) of the Money Laundering Prohibition Act 2011 ( As amended by the 2012 Act) in 2015. This time around, it was clearly established that the funds that they allegedly distributed were from donations and contributions by individuals and private companies and ware-housed by one of the Commercial banks. The bank undertook to distribute the said funds to the various States using their outlets nation wide. The donated funds received by the various PDP chapters were distributed through the chain of party hierarchy down the line for campaigns and the eventual general elections of 2015.

    There was no difference in the preparations of APC. As a party, it raised funds from individuals, private companies and even from Public sources from the States of the Federation within their control. By charging the PDP operatives with money laundering, is the Buhari Government suggesting that members of APC and those of other political parties never distributed such funds for campaign and election purposes during the period under reference?They can tell that to the marines. The other parties distributed funds likewise.

    How were the funds that delegates received in Lagos during the APC primaries that produced President Buhari shared? Were they distributed to their delegates through financial institutions? How did APC distribute the funds which were used during the primaries of the party that produced Governor Obaseki in Edo State as candidate of the party and the governorship election that followed? His challengers in the primaries cried out at the time that they were outspent with most delegates receiving about #300,000 each. Over 2000 delegates received that amount at different locations within Edo State from various sharing points where hundred of millions of naira were disbursed.

    Only recently in Ekiti, the APC primaries were fought with naira for naira. One candidate came into the State with loads of money worth hundreds of millions of naira. The money was shared in cash to the delegates before the said primaries. What was different from what they did in Ekiti and what the PDP stalwarts now on trial did with the campaign funds raised for that purpose? None, I believe.

    As far as I know, the use of cash to induce delegates for primary tickets of political parties is not peculiar to PDP. In the same vein, the distribution of funds by cash to prepare for campaigns and elections in Nigeria is also not limited to PDP as a political party. They are common to all the parties. They all do it and are perhaps preparing to do it again in 2019.

    Any Government that wishes to be taken seriously by citizens under its watch, must largely uphold the rule of law in a constitutional democracy like ours. One of the non-negotiable elements of the rule of law is equality before the law. In other words, every one must be treated equally before the law irrespective of class, creed, religion, tribe or political party affiliation. Sadly, this is not the case in our country.

    If the Buhari regime really means business about trying stalwarts of political parties for money laundering each time they distribute sums of money over five million naira as campaign funds, the government would need to build many more prison yards to accommodate the hundreds of political leaders who help political parties to distribute billions of naira nation wide for both intra-party and inter-party political contest. If that were so, President Buhari may just find out that more than half of those that would populate the prison yards are his party men and women. That is how bad it is.

    It amounts to sheer hypocrisy and cheap competition tactics for President Buhari’s Government to hound his challengers for political power by raising criminal charges against them in respect of political practices that the ruling party itself has perfected. If President Buhari really wants to fight corruption, he should turn his attention to the Police, Civil Service, Parastatals, CBN and its foreign exchange deals, NNPC and its questionable transactions. They are all still in business as usual as nothing has changed. The only substantial difference is that the circle of looters of public funds has narrowed down to a few, while the the hunger and want of the populace appears to be on the increase.

    To the political party stalwarts who are on trial for money laundering for distributing campaign funds made available to them by their party, they should weep not. Their real crime is their challenge for power and not the distribution of campaign funds which the entire political class, including the President’s party men freely engage in. They are only a metaphor for the entire political class which in my own opinion is on trial for what they are reputed for. Its all crass policy hypocrisy and Nigerians know it.

     

     

    Dr. West-Idahosa.

  • WHERE IS LOIUS ODION FROM?

    WHERE IS LOIUS ODION FROM?

    My attention has been drawn to the write up of one Loius Odion. I understand that he is a columnist with the Nation, but chose to use his privilege to vilify my person on the pretext of responding to my clarion call for the restablishment of the Benin political class. He accused me of ethnicization of the contest between Oyegun and Oshomhole for the post of the National Chairman. For God sake, we all belong to one ethnic group or the order and I have a duty to defend my tribe of origin against the overbearing influence of fortune seeking strangers tending to treat my ethnic group as a conquered territory. The points I raised in my said article were never really dealt with in his response.

    The bad news for Loius Odion is that my article was well received by the target audience and the renaissance has begun with various Benin groups gearing up to change the political narratives of the Benin people.

    Louis Odion tried hard to deride my person for no reason. Beyond the invective language used in his piece, he gave the impression that my write up was founded on imaginary malice against Oshomhole for failing to support my senatorial bid when I approached him for help in APC. Odion was dead wrong. I never sought a senatorial seat on the platform of APC. I did on the platform of PDP. In any case, Odion’s story confirms my call for Benin political renaissance. If indeed Oshomhole can influence how a senate seat is occupied in Benin province from Iyamoh, a village in Edo North Senatorial District, it is enough reason to justify the views I expressed publicly.

    The most shocking of what Odion wrote about is that he is a “conscientious Bini”. How is he a Benin man? It is true that the Benin heritage is proudly attractive and many, including Odion applaud this. That does not make Odion a Benin man. Those who knew him when he ran media errands for Chief Tony Anenih maintain that Odion claimed to have hailed from Ewu in Ishan land. Some of his professional colleagues have also revealed that Odion confided in them that his ancestral home is in Ondo State and they are prepared to bet on this.

    However, when he was to serve as a Commissioner midway into Oshomhole’s regime, he was transferred to a village called Odiguetue, a trading outlet between Edo and Ondo States. Odiguetue is a village in Ovia North East LGA , within Benin province in Edo State. This was after his rejection by Edo Central ACN leaders on the ground that he was not from Ozallah in Esan West LGA as he claimed. This development made it clear to all that his ancestry was difficult to trace. By this time, Hon. Orobosa Omo-Ojo had already been given the slot of Commissioner from the same LGA. In the end, that LGA had two Commissioners within the said period. One, a son of the soil and the other, a complete stranger. How then is Odion a Benin man? No blue blooded Benin man would have written what Odion wrote on his column against Chief Oyegun, irrespective of what drips into his mouth from the honey pot of his puppeteer.

    I may not be as educated as Odion, but I challenge him to a television debate on any topic of his choice in order to refute his innuendo about the composition of a stark illiterate or whatever he meant by that. I admire Odion’s hard work and how he developed himself from an office typist to what he is now. That is not a reason to disrespect others. Like Odion, I worked very hard for my Ph.D.

    I am a responsible family man with a wife and children and do not move around pepper-souping as Odion has insinuated. Above all, I am a serious minded person and not passion boy for any fellow man. I run a complete and disciplined home as a true Benin man. I do not lack the strength of character to publicly hold my views on contemporary political issues and those who know me can attest to this. Odion must learn to be humble with the pen and work hard to acquire the values that traditional African men are known for.

    Upon the completion of my tenure in the House, I returned to manage my law firm. I have a second address and therefore not a crass opportunist. I stand by my publicly expressed views on the need for the Benin People to resist Oshomhole’s over bearing political influence on the Benin majority in Edo State. I am confident that this would be achieved soon.

    I will not be deterred by the likes of Odion who think that a newspaper column is their preserve and they must use it at will to lampoon others for expressing rationale and pragmatic views that they do not agree with. Great columnists make their points without needlessly being scornful of the authors whose work, may have attracted their commentaries.

     

    Dr. Ehiogie West-Idahosa.

  • The disingenuous claim by the Buhari Media Organization

    The disingenuous claim by the Buhari Media Organization

    This is another attempt to deceive the people of Nigeria. It’s foolishness on the part of the Buhari Media Organization (BMO) to even claim anything Holy in it’s criticism of Atiku’s proposal.

    Verbatim, the former Vice President said, “on the restructuring of Nigeria’s oil and gas sector by result oriented and stepwise privatization of some aspects of the ailing sector to engender its vibrancy and enable it to stand solid as Nigeria’s major energy provision source”.

    So clearly, the former Vice President in his wisdom talked about means and ways of revitalizing the sector by privatization of “some aspects of its ailing”part.

    But of course, when these propagandist want to deceive people, they turn every word on its head to rubbish the substance of the whole story. Why not! when you consider a government that promised to reduce the pump price of petroleum but got to power and increased the pump price instead. Perhaps they think the people have forgotten, no we haven’t!

    How could they not misrepresent the former Vice President when this government cannot tell Nigerians for certain how much crude flows out of this country and how much it receives and how much it discloses to Nigerians. This is the most deceitful and malicious government in modern times.

    How does this government begin to talk of anti people policies! This is preposterous! This is a government that in all its ramifications is anti people both in words of deceit and by its action in raising the pump price contrary to its promise to reduce same.

    This government wants the status quo to remain only because it provides to them a source of illicit funds for their campaign.

    You know what! Another shall rise and the whole world would then appreciate the magnitude of the recklessness and decadence of this regime that has no respect to the rule of law.

     

    Neda Imasuen, Esq.

  • IN SUPPORT OF TY DANJUMA; A NATIONAL STATESMAN

    IN SUPPORT OF TY DANJUMA; A NATIONAL STATESMAN

    TY has benefited from Nigeria and he has a duty to keep it one. He said what we all know. The problem with most of his critics is partisan epilepsy which puts them in momentary fit whenever they are confronted with the truth. That is not patriotism. It is patrimolianism. Some of us were very critical of PDP misbehavior even as Members of the House of Representatives. It may have cost us principal officership, but we are alive by the grace of God to continue to speak truth to power. Party membership or affiliation is not a reason to endanger humanity with indecisiveness on security of lives and properties. Some of us have never witnessed what is now going on in this country in our adult lives.

     

    We heard of Tafawa Balewa. We saw Usman Shagari. We worked with Umaru Yaradua. They were northerners and Muslim. They may have had Fulani blood in them but their sense of national duty was exemplary. None of them would have tolerated this menace of some irresponsible heardsmen spreading terror to the ancestral land of others in a jet age. Rather than restrain them with decent and globally tested policies, the Government is overwhelmed with nepotic constraints and thereby preventing the avoidable deaths of thousands of innocent citizens.

     

    More than any government in our republican history, this government has been the slowest to act on matters that require urgent government attention. It cannot continue like this merely because a few privileged people have formed a vanguard of blame-him-not around President Buhari. They are definitely not helping Nigeria but themselves. Let me remind all such persons of the proverb that those who ride on the back of the tiger, end up in its stomach.

     

    Obasanjo wrote his 20 page letter of caution to the President. He was called names by the holier-than thou supporters of the President. Gen. Babaginda issued a press statement on the way forward. He was lampooned by the same band of economic and tribal clappers.

     

    Gen. TY Danjuma, more than these hallelujah brigade, contributed enormous personal resources to the campaign process of President Buhari over the years. He was the chairman of the President’s advisory group when the President assumed office. He mobilized support for the president across the length and breadth of the country. How would a man who made these contributions to the emergence of Buhari as president standby and watch the ship of State sink deeply without qualms? Danjuma is made of sterner stuff. He was a full blooded General in the Army and knows the difference between the Army they belonged to and today’s Army.

     

    Those casting aspersions on the eminent citizen have done nothing to help our country. They do not want anyone to stand up for Nigeria. They like the country as it is. They are fanning the embers of inefficiency, nepotism and insecurity in order to profit from the situation. How many of these champions drive on Nigerian roads form one part of the country to another? How many of them sleep in their houses without surrounding themselves with armed Police guards?

    The truth is that we are now more unsafe than we have ever been in Nigeria in Peace time. I give kudos to the Northern Elders who recently called a spade a spade by telling the nation that they would not vote anyone from their region who has not lived up to expectations. They know that all is not well with our country and are themselves worried about the state of affairs. We cannot say that the professional clappers love President Buhari more than Prof Ango Abdulahi, Hakeem Baba-Ahmed and their group of northern elders. The same group joined others to mobilize the country to vote against President Jonathan and usher in President Buhari in 2015.

     

    The simple message to Mr. President by all those who have cautioned him is that he is performing far below the expectations of most of our country men and women. Let the President listen to them and ignore the Buhari-does-no-wrong group. They would be the first to jump ship if the President doesn’t make it back to Aso Rock in 2019. I wish the President all the best.

     

    God bless Nigeria.

     

    Dr. Ehiogie West-Idahosa.

  • Right of reply Chief Mike Ayegbeni Oghiadomhe, CFR is still a full time member of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)

    Right of reply Chief Mike Ayegbeni Oghiadomhe, CFR is still a full time member of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)

    My attention has been drawn to a publication in the social media and to correct the misleading report by mischief makers of my exit from PDP to SDP.

    For the record, l was never part of any group where a decision was made of dumping PDP for SDP.

    To my great party PDP and millions of our members, no one has my mandate to determine or associate my name to any political party without my written consent.

    Whoever must have affiliated my name to any political party other than PDP does not have my mandate and this should be disregarded as handiwork of mischief makers.

    My membership and loyalty is to Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) alone which is my party of choice since its formation.

    Signed
    Chief Mike Ayegbeni Oghiadomhe, CFR