Tag: Politics

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.
May 27, 2018
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.
May 19, 2018
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
March 3, 2018
IS PLATFORM MOBILITY THE REASON FOR POOR GOVERNANCE?
By Dr. West-Idahosa

Nigeria’s independence was not the product of any tough or ideological struggle. It came as a result of Britain’s political decision to let a number of countries off the hook following the popular crave for independence at that time. Nigeria happened to be one of them. There were no strong ideologies like the type that existed in some former colonies that got their political emancipation through ” blood and iron”.

The early set of political elites probably founded their political parties on some sort of development theories. NPC was anchored on a catch-up- the south development prototype. Action Group was predicated on populist welfarism and NCNC on nationalism. Even then, the advent of decamping gained prominence in the then western region, when Action Group is believed to have instigated indigenes of the region to leave other parties for ethnic reasons. Nationalists like Azikiwe who had won elections in the west were left in bewilderment.

Subsequent generations of politicians diminished in character and preparedness for real governance. The decline of the political environment led to the militarization of governance with the Babaginda era signposting the final fall of official morality. The post Babangida era politicians came in with an inherent settlement culture that commercialized the electorate at a time when everyone was expectant of a share of the national cake. The public became less interested in the quality of governance as long as their votes were procured.

The political parties became zonked in patrimonialism and side effects like godfatherism, impunity, imposition, purchase of party tickets etc became characteristic of the partisan political system. Those who were lucky to occupy the positions of power and influence schemed to exclude rivals from the centre of control. Dominant elites squeezed life out of challenging elites.

The survival struggles promoted platform mobility which enabled politicians to search for platforms of convenience. It must be remembered that the 4th Republic which has been the longest, started with the likes of Bola Ige preparing the manifesto of PDP, APP and AD in the same spirit but different semantics. There was no real difference. Ige and his co-travelers left PDP on the excuse that there were unwanted elements in their midst. They formed APP. They again left for the same reason and formed AD.

The seed of platform mobility which they sowed germinated into a home grown acceptable political behavior. Innumerable number of politicians have benefited from this over the years. It can no longer be regarded as an aberration or can it be credited for the failure of any elected public officer in office. This practice existed before 1999 and has remained thereafter. There are very few real political operatives in our country who may not have changed their platforms. The likely reason for that may be that they are members of the clique that manipulate the party’s control apparatus. Once they lose it, they too may be on the move.

The public is aware of this behavior and seem to have endorsed it over the years by continually voting for politicians without any regard for his platform history. This is clearly a ratification of such practice, which by evolution is now part of the political culture of our country.

Can this be the reason why some public officers let the electorate down after being elected to office? Certainly not. Public officers fail for for many reasons. Some have no capacity to cope with the large demands from the office they occupy. Others are too neck deep in their plan to enrich themselves and nothing else matters to them than their plot to steal the nation dry. A category of elected officials are slaves to nepotism. They think corruption is all about stealing money and turn government appointments and contracts into a theater of mediocrity. Of course, they end up failing.

Most elected executives end up larger than the political parties that sponsored them. They fail to consult with the parties or even glance at the manifestos of such parties. They maintain an olympian aloofness from their political parties. What a pity! The parties may have created their own irrelevance in the political system that we operate. When party leaders and delegates are paid to fly their parties’ tickets and sometimes by all manner of people, what really do they expect from such commercial contractual mandate? Can you eat your political cake and have same? I am sure you cannot.

Platform mobility is not the problem with Nigeria’s political system. It is a mere symptom of other underlining political problems. We must look deeply into the causes of such mobility in order to proffer pragmatic solutions to the real problems with our political system in the hope that we can achieve our dream of an egalitarian society.
November 26, 2017
INEC acted as Judge on PDP Matters
By Omololu Ojehomon-Ogbeni

Having read the statement made by the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Professor Mahmood Yakubu as published by the Nation Newspaper, titled “Court will decide Edo PDP candidate – INEC chairman”, on August 21, 2016, I became concerned about the explanation he gave to wave off the grave error done by his establishment as it concerned the elections in Edo State based on the list it published on its website.

One thing I have understood, is that when it suits us we have selective amnesia, we choose when to acknowledge or ignore facts.

This is the statement that worries me, “We have to submit the name of a candidate by the 11th of this month. But, when we did so, we put in bracket, court order. Again, Ize-Iyamu has dragged INEC to court and was granted an interim injunction by the judge saying that we should maintain status quo. So, apart from the leadership tussle in the state, there is this one about candidacy in Edo State.”

How possible is this when there was an existing order On July 28, 2016, Federal High Court in Abuja sacked Markarfi as National Chairman and reaffirmed Sheriff as the national Chairman and held that every action the committee had taken since it emerged through a convention the party purportedly held in Port Harcourt on May 21, amounted to nullity. And that having regard to the order of the court, PDP had no lawful authority to hold the convention that led to the emergence of the Markarfi-led Committee.” It went on to say, “The convention was unlawfully held and the caretaker committee was unlawfully and illegally appointed and could not take any legal decision for the PDP in view of the subsisting order of the Lagos Division of this court. Consequently, any action taken by the Markarfi-led Committee, including the purported mandate for legal representation in this matter is hereby declared illegal. Parties have an uncompromising duty to obey court orders until it is set aside. The Lagos Division made order on May 12 and 20, forbidding the PDP from removing the Sheriff-led Caretaker Committee. That order is still subsisting.” And that Ali Modu Sheriff is the National Chairman of the PDP. Any decision NOT taken by the Sheriff-Led Committee is NOT binding on the PDP.

What Status quo? The one that originated from an illegality, and a court order no one but the INEC was served, where they failed to publish the case number and date, where such order was given and by whom. And why was the other faction of the PDP not joined.

It is true that the INEC are no police neither do they have police according to Prof. Yakubu, however, it is my belief that he found it necessary to make this statement to cover up for the error done by the INEC and to justify the action by one of their own who may have from all indication been on the take.

So my concern remains the same that if in fact a final judgement comes will the Independent National Electoral Commission decide to do the wrong thing because of corrupt influences or will Prof. Yakubu do the right thing and maintain his integrity.
August 23, 2016
The Facts About Government
Having worked twice at the Nigerian Presidential villa and once at the British Parliament, if there is anything I have learnt, it is that it is impossible to over inform a leader. You can under inform him, but no matter how much information you give a leader, you cannot give him too much information.

In today’s world, strength and weakness are gauged differently than they were, say in 1984. In the millennial age in which we live in, information is power and lack of information is weakness.

My concern is that there are a lot of weaknesses in Nigeria’s seat of power because not enough information is being given to President Muhammadu Buhari.

I, like other Nigerians, have heard or read reports of ministers in President Buhari’s cabinet being afraid to challenge him or disagree with him. Perhaps unawares, the minister of state for petroleum, Dr. Ibe Kachikwu, corroborated these reports in a recorded YouTube video now circulating where he revealed that the President ignores his ministers when they bring up issues that he does not want to discuss.

Having such anodyne personalities around you just means that you are living in a bubble, seeing things as you want them to be and not as they are.

On Friday May 20th, 2016, Dr. Yemi Kale, the Statistician General of the Federation and head of the Nigerian Bureau of Statistics revealed that Nigeria’s economy had not grown in the first quarter of the year but had rather shrunk by 0.36%, the worst contraction in 25 years!

Since the announcement was made, there has been various reactions with pundits pointing at this or the other as being the cause of this setback. But I am convinced beyond any reasonable doubts that this negative trend owes more to President Muhammadu Buhari’s utterances on our economy and polity than to any other single causative factor.

The bigger problem is that even though I suspect that his ministers know that what I have just said is true, they would rather pander to the President and like Dr. Chris Ngige, say that Nigerians are lucky to have President Buhari (obvious Ngige does not know the meaning of luck).

In the last eleven months, the President had traversed the globe and has spoken about Nigeria’s economy as if he was the chief undertaker of our polity rather than the chief marketer that he is meant to be.

Of what benefit is it to the President’s agenda or to Nigeria’s economic well-being for him to go to foreign nations and instead of highlighting the positive things that are happening in Nigeria, he begins to regale his hosts with the most unsavory stories about Nigeria.

And some of the stories the President tells are just that-tales.

They are not factual. At best they are arguable. You go to India for a summit where other world leaders are competing with you for the attention of venture capitalists and foreign investors and while your counterparts are talking about how great their countries are, you tell the audience how everybody in your country is corrupt except you and oh, can they come and invest in your country?

Only a foolish investor would go and invest in a country whose President thinks his citizens are ‘criminals’ (as the President said to the Telegraph of UK in February) and whose officials are ‘fantastically corrupt’ (as the President said in agreement with British PM David Cameron when questioned by Sky News).

The President speaks on the Nigerian economy and polity without any filters and his comments are causing his chickens to roost with devastating consequences for all of us.

Never in the history of Nigeria has there been such a divestment of investment as we have seen in the past year.

Truworths has pulled out of Nigeria, Virgin Atlantic has closed up shop, Iberia is pulling out, RenCap is pulling funds from Nigeria, both Alquity Investment Management Ltd. and Duet Asset Management Ltd. are divesting their Nigeria holding. Zenith Bank laid off 1,200 staff, FCMB let go 700 employees, Ecobank sacked 50% of its top management staff. The President of the Abuja Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Mr. Tony Ejinkeonye revealed that in just two months 50,000 staff were laid off in Abuja alone.

The results are telling. A little over a year ago, Nigeria was projected by CNNMoney to be the third fastest growing economy in the world behind China and Qatar yet just two weeks ago the International Monetary Fund released its World Economic Outlook and Nigeria is not even among the top 15 fastest growing economies in Africa let alone the world!

And when you try to raise the alarm, the refrain from the government and its horde of unofficial spokesmen is that the downturn is caused by the fall in crude prices.

Yet this logic is flawed. The government’s own economic monitoring agency, the National Bureau of Statistics itself reported that the exponential growth Nigeria enjoyed especially from 2012 to its 2014 climax (when our economy overtook South Africa to be Africa’s largest economy) was spurred not by the oil sector, but “this growth was largely driven by improved activities in the telecommunications, building and construction, hotel and restaurant and business services” to quote the NBS.

Yes, oil accounts for something like 90-95 percent of our foreign exchange revenues but it only accounts for a mere 15% of our GDP.

The service sector and the commercial and real sector are the engine or used to be the engine of our economic growth. But these sectors are heavily capital and technology intensive and require cooperation with foreign investors and when you consistently bad mouth your economy and its regulators investor confidence tanks and the result is what we are seeing today.

I support President Buhari’s anti-corruption war but it should not be a substitute for sound economic ideas or policies.

And the way the President has carried out his anti-corruption crusade is in itself self-sabotaging and feeds the narrative of those who say that Nigeria is far too complex and dynamic a country to be run by someone who should be quietly collecting his pension.

And President Buhari’s behavior is flowing down the pyramid. There is a contagious effect in the utterances of major figures in his administration. For instance, when Vice President Osinbajo tells the world that the Jonathan administration looted $15 Billion in security contracts, many people in the West who like to read such stories to justify their hidden opinion that the Black man cannot govern himself, will clap for him.

Coming from the nation’s own Vice President, the Western press will report the news as a fact. At that level, such a statement carries the weight of an admission.

But then ask yourself, what was the entire security budget for the five years that Jonathan was President of Nigeria?

In 2011, defense and security had a budget of ₦348 billion or just over $2 billion. In 2012 it skyrocketed to ₦921 billion or $5.7 billion. It grew to ₦1.055 trillion in 2013 or $6 billion. In 2014, ₦968 billion was budgeted for defence and security or $5.8 billion. The 2015 budget was passed in April and President Jonathan handed over to President Buhari a month later so I cannot see how the previous administration could have ‘chopped’ that money.

So of the $19 billion budgeted for defence and security while former President Jonathan was in office, how could $15 billion have been looted when more than half that amount went to paying salaries?

Did Vice President Osinbajo think this accusation through?

The President and his vice with their cabinet and their political appointees are not a court. They cannot convict anybody. As such when they speak this way, what it amounts to is propagandized activity.

In an anti-corruption war one must separate activity from results. Results are convictions from a court after due and diligent prosecution. And when you look at it from that perspective, this administration has been delivering activity and not results.

For instance, then candidate Muhammadu Buhari and his party, the All Progressive Congress, had called the subsidy payments made by the Jonathan administration a fraud! They claimed that the amount was too high at ₦1.1 trillion in 2014. Well if fuel subsidy had been a fraud, the first thing that should have happened naturally when President Muhammadu Buhari took over was that the amount should have reduced, but it DID NOT reduce. As a matter of fact, Nigeria spent over $5 billion on fuel subsidy in 2015 and President Buhari was in power for most of that year!

The point I am making here is that the elections are over. President Buhari and his administration should stop tarnishing the image of Nigeria in the mistaken belief that they are rubbishing the person of former President Jonathan. The President should take in the big picture and realize that you need to be below somebody in order to pull him down.

One year has come and gone and has seemingly been wasted pointing fingers in blame instead of at solutions. The time for blame games have gone.

Only last month, President Buhari complained that the Sahara Desert was advancing southward. He should also realize that that is not the only thing going south. The Nigerian economy is going south at perhaps a faster rate and blaming others for it will never stem the tide.

The President should focus on marketing his plans and policies when he travels abroad instead of de-marketing the plans and policies of former President Jonathan’s administration.

It has been said that if you want a conversation with a habitual complainer to end abruptly, just ask him how he intends to fix the problem. That is the question Nigerians want answered by President Buhari.

Under former President Jonathan, Nigeria’s economy exploded and became the largest economy in Africa and the 24th largest economy in the world. Let it not be said that under President Buhari that economy collapsed like a pack of clouds because the hand that should have steered the ship was too busy pointing an accusing finger.
May 29, 2016