Monday, 12 January 2015
Gen. Buhari warns supporters.
Sunday, 13 July 2014
The origin of Catholic church
Stephanie announces Hollywood role
Tukur to support Jonathan if he decides to contest in 2015
End of Asup strike
Jonathan swears in four new ministers
Sunday, 9 February 2014
Southern Nigeria Minorities Confesses their Mistake.
Southern Nigeria Minorities Confess their Mistake in supporting Nigeria Against BiafranCulled from News ExpressLeader of the Niger Delta Peoples Volunteer Force (NDPVF), Alhaji Mujahid Dokubo Asari, late this morning spoke about his anguish over the failure by his people to allow the breakaway Republic of Biafra to succeed.Launched in 1967 by the old East under the command of the late Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu, Biafra was crushed three years after by the Nigerian Government and its international allies. In a post on his Facebook wall around noon, Dokubo regretted the role played by the then so called eastern minorities in sabotaging Biafra. He also cast his vote for an Igbo or Middle Belt person to succeed President Goodluck Jonathan.The post, which appears to be excerpts of a speech delivered at a meeting of Niger Delta, Igbo and Middle Belt groups, says thus:"Today, if anything will stir me to fight, it is my belief that Biafra was right. When I was growing up, we were told a lot of things to hate Biafra. Maybe some of us were persuaded. But the more I grow up, the more I realize that it was the greatest mistake we made for not allowing Biafra to stand."You might not feel the pain that I feel, but if an Igbo man does not feel the pain that I feel, I am sorry for him. If an Urhobo man doesn't feel the pain, I am sorry for him."What Ojukwu lived and died for, in the coming years, we will see it with our eyes because of the arrogance of a few people that were born to rule, and everybody accepts it. When you want to talk they say leave them alone. Why should I leave them? If you don't bend your back, nobody will ride you."For the first time in history, the divide and rule tactics of those who have kept us down failed and the Igbo voted more for President Jonathan than the people of the South-South."Our gathering today is to bring the gathering of the dispossessed and oppressed people of the Middle Belt, Ndigbo people and the people of the Niger Delta together and we are going to move like a force."Let nobody be apologetic. What we want is political power. Political power is the key to our development and our dignity, and political power we must own come 2015. If President Jonathan says he is not contesting, we must hold on to the presidency. Either an Igbo man takes it or someone from the Middle Belt, we will continue to hold it."
Saturday, 8 February 2014
Is this sugery or real?
Wednesday, 5 February 2014
E N L
Happy people of Nigeria!
Good people of Nigeria!
Great people of Nigeria!
Erayo Nig Ltd wishes you well;
God bless us more....
Sunday, 2 February 2014
Agbim happy over bronze win
Super Eagles Team B captain and first choice
goalkeeper, Chigozie Agbim has said that he is
happy winning the bronze medal of the African
Nations Championship.
Speaking after the 1-0 win over Zimbabwe,
Agbim said, ‘’football does not always come the
way you planned it. We came to win the
tournament but failed. However, we thank God
we are not going empty handed. I congratulate
my team mates for putting up an excellent
fighting spirit.’’
Zimbabwe coach, Ian Gorrows has expressed
satisfaction with the fourth placemen his team
team achieved in the African Nations
Championship.
In a post match briefing after his brave wards
fell 1-0 to the Super Eagles, Gorrows said, ‘’As
a nation it is a great achievement to be in the
final of CHAN. We believe we can now be
counted among the top four in Africa. In the
semi final we lost on penalties. As a nation
which has been starved of success for long, we
are proud of our achievement here.
Fashola to Jonathan: ‘You will hand over whether you like it or not’
In this session with Lagos State governor,
Babatunde Raji Fashola, he explains the style of
administration that has been put in place in the
state such that successive governments can
build and improve on what has been achieved so
far. He also takes a swipe at President
Goodluck
Jonathan and his aides who say no
administration in the history of Nigeria has
done as much as theirs.
You will find him as interesting as ever, with
views that are unique both in thought and
presentation.
Excerpts:
Lagos has been experiencing some urban
renewal. Is this renewal an attempt at taking
Lagos back to some forgotten development
plan, or a haphazard work in progress?
If you follow our communication on policy
statement closely, you will notice that I said
from the beginning of my tenure that this was
going to be a government of method; that we
are going to be methodical in things that we will
embark upon. Everything that we have done so
far had been based on very rigorous
examination of what the problems are, what
the choices of solutions are and how to
prioritise in order to make them sustainable.
One of the first things we did after assumption
of office was to conduct a trip round the
state; I commissioned a team based on this to
go and ask the citizens and residents around
the state to specifically tell the governor,
‘what do you want him to do for you?’
That was the beginning of our local government
tour. The results that came showed us that
there were six main items: roads, drainages,
schools, health, jobs and power. But we wanted
to validate that and we went for town hall
meetings in every local government. And while
those things resonated across, they resonated
differently. In some local governments, they
wanted roads first. In others, they preferred
schools. In some places, their drainages were
their main concern. This formed the basis of
our first full year budget in office (2008
budget). And we have kept faith with this
approach.
Indeed, from each tour after we came back, it
was to give instructions to each ministry or
department. When we came back from those
tours, we went straight into an executive
meeting everyday giving out assignments as
required; and we have kept track.
Regional plan
The second point was that of regional plan. I
think the last regional plan for the state was
done around 1991 or so. So, we decided to plan
the state into eight towns. We developed a new
regional plan. These towns are Badagry,
Ikorodu, Epe, Lagos Mainland (which covers
part of Oshodi, all through to Orile, to National
Theater and Iddo), Ikoyi, Victoria Island, Lekki
and Ikeja; and to link them up by transport
infrastructures.
Again, we did an audit of the available water
supply. And we saw that we had about roughly
45 or 48 percent water supply and we developed
a plan; a short, medium and long term plan to
provide water for the growing population that
we were anticipating. The short-term plan was
to do two million gallons per day, with facilities
in 15 locations. I have commissioned about nine
of them. And along with that short term plan
was to get the Iju water works to run at full
capacity because it was running at about 35
percent capacity because of power outages.
This led to the first IGP for Iju water works;
the Akute IGP now runs at about 90 percent.
But it doesn’t solve the problem. Some of these
facilities have aged; Iju was built around 1900.
That’s why you will see we are laying new pipes
through Eko Bridge.
Essentially, we have almost completed the
short-term plan. The medium term plan is to
build bigger water works. Oto-Ikosi is
completed now and being tested. That is four
million gallons to feed part of Epe and support
Ikorodu. We have Odo-mola, which is 25 million
gallons.
There is also the Adiyan phase II, which is 70
million gallons a day. We have already started
constructing this from the budget. We will
finish that in 2016.
That will help us supply Alimosho and Agege, who
are actually close to the water source (Iju) but
who don’t benefit from it because the
Europeans, who built it, didn’t include them
among beneficiaries.
In Badagry, we want it to stand alone. Ishashi
is four million gallons. And we are also
upgrading Ishashi to 12 million gallons a day.
The same thing with water treatment and
sewage! The capacity was barely 10 percent. We
drew up a 10-year plan. And that is why we now
have a Lagos State Water Regulatory
Commission, which will regulate the use of
clean water and recycling of used water.
We went into Yaba for massive rehabilitation of
what was once a prime middle class community.
Three roads were commissioned for
construction and we finished substantially 80
percent of the works there. We are
regenerating Apapa as well. Some of old roads
in Victoria Island are being constructed. The
same type of construction is going on in
Alimosho. We have finished LASU-Iba Road. It
is about 20 kilometers and four-lane, as well as
Governor’s Road and a couple of other roads.
This time last year, we handed over 11 new
roads in Alimosho.
In all this, we have consciously kept one
contractor; almost like a resident contractor.
Once you finished, we move you to the next
phase. In Ikorodu, for example, the resident
contractors are two; the Chinese and Arab
Contractors. The Chinese are doing the main
road and the Arab Contractors are doing the
inner ones.
In Mile 12 and Agiliti, there is a new bridge and
about seven new roads that will finish in about
June. In Ijegun-Isheri, you have Hi-Tec
there, constructing the bridge to link the two
communities.
So, there is a conscious effort to be
methodical so that, instead of demobilizing one
contractor and bringing another one, we have a
network of roads and we tackle them one after
the other.
*Fashola
As you wind down on your tenure, are there
any other development plans in the offing you
have not talked about? And how do you react to
the allegation that some of these projects are
elitist?
If it is the elite who live in Mile 12, in Agiliti,
then I am happy to serve them. If it is the elite
who live in Ajegunle, where we handed over a
new road last week, I am happy to serve to
them. Also,
if it is the elite who live in Mushin, where we
handed over 16 roads, then I am happy to serve
them. If it is the elite who live in Ikeja, where
we just finished Kodeso and Medical Roads, it is
my pleasure to serve them; they are taxpayers
too.
The biggest project that we are undertaking,
the transport project… from Mile 12 through
Ikorodu Road, if it is the elite who live in this
17 kilometer road expansion, I am happy to
serve them. If you go from Orile right through
to Alaba, Mile 2 we are doing the train station
and if that also is for the elite who live there, I
should be so delighted to serve them. These are
places where no activity of any sustainable
attention had been paid. Over the years, we
have not really had this long period of
government to really sit down, develop a plan
and run with it. Yes, we haven’t served
everybody and we can pretend we will be able to
serve everybody. But the fact that an asset is
built in a community where you live doesn’t
mean that it belongs to you. And the choices
that we have always made, given our limited
resources, is ‘where is the most impactful area
of need?’
People have now forgotten what the areas
around Stadium, Barracks and Alaka used to
look like. There is a seven kilometer of
drainage submerged under that road today,
because when we started the BRT system, that
was where the buses used to get trapped. It
occurred to us then that instead of going to do
residential roads, ‘why don’t we fix roads that
take people to places of their daily bread?’
Roughly about six million commuters move
around there daily. That’s one of the busiest
roads. Then we went to open up Agege Motor
Road and Oshodi to free traffic that used to be
a daily nightmare to people. I remember that
people at the Airport toll gate were not happy
with us because our effort impacted negatively
on their revenue. Then, people were paying to
avoid that gridlock at Oshodi only to come back
to Agege Motor Road. We succeeded in putting
that money back in their pockets. This debate
(on elitism or otherwise) will never go away. In
any case, I am proud to be serving somebody.
The pain on the other side is that, today, we
don’t have electricity, but does it really matter
who first got it? If some people start to get it,
the rest of us can hope it will soon get to us.
When you started out, not much of a politician
was seen in you. But for sustainability of some
of your projects, how concerned are you about
your successor? Have you now transmuted to a
political godfather enough to say, for
sustainability, you prefer Mr. A or Mrs. B as
successor?
The answer to that is to continue to insist
that a government that is run around
institutions is the most sustainable form of
government.
Lagos State has been very lucky so far to have
a lot of action governors. But how much we can
continue to build on luck is another thing. Up
to my immediate predecessor in office, they
have all been very wonderful people in office. I
think what we need is to move to action
government, where whatever happens, the
system will run. That is why we are doing a lot
of human capacity development, training public
servants; part of the reasons behind our last
retreat that had become very frequent. We
have also yielded a lot of independence to
parastatals so that we can hold people
responsible for implementation.
When ministries focus on policy formulation and
articulation and allow parastatals to
implement, you have a more efficient public
service. Examples are already there. For
example, the Ministry of
Environment is our policy formulator in waste
management, whether it is solid or liquid or
polluted airwaves while an agency like LASEMA
is dealing with air and liquid waste and LAWMA
dealing with solid waste. So, if there is
particular problem, the commissioner knows
who to call. We are also seeing the same thing
in the transportation sector; LAMATA is dealing
with the public through the BRT system and
coordinating the rail.
The Lagos State Water Authority is running the
water system, building the jetties and
developing the regulations for the ferries. The
same thing is in the Ministry of Works. The
ministry now takes over the segmented
maintenance of roads, through Public Works
Corporation. Last year alone they did more
than 900 roads – construction and
rehabilitations. There is now a separate
department in charge of traffic lights. So, if a
traffic light fails, the commissioner knows who
the head of that department is. We are
creating specialization in an organic way that
cascades to the pyramid of the organogram.
So, whoever becomes the next governor, all he
needs to do is to take those people’s budget,
give them the money they need; because they
already know what to do.
There are some new FERMA-trainees seen
around the state. How much do you know about
this development? And is FERMA going to
replace the Federal Road Safety Commission,
FRSC?
Honestly, I really don’t know a thing about it.
But when contacted, the Minister of Works
said it did not have his approval. The parastatal
is under the Ministry of Works, but the
question to ask is
what is going on? Where is the money for this
particular exercise coming from? If they are
recruiting, what is the purpose? If they want
to police federal highways, what is now the role
of the FRSC? Is it a task force such as
contemplated within the law? Have they
appropriated funding for it because you can’t
have an agency in a constitutional democracy
without having appropriation for it in the
budget! Or are you funding them with slush
fund? Is it SURE-P money, meant for the
development of Lagos State that is being used
to do this?
And, again, you ask yourself, ‘what is the need
for such a task force?’
There are about 10,000 roads in the state, out
of which 6,000 belong to the state
government. A little over 3,000 belong to the
local government. Less than 120 belong to the
Federal Government. So what do you need such
a large army for, unless there are some
ulterior motives? I hope we are not going back
to the days of machetes.
If the resort is violence, they have served
Lagosians notice. For me, if that is the way to
repay Lagosians for the votes they receive
here, we will review our strategies.
With the gale of defections into the All
Progressives Congress, there is hardly any
difference between that party and the Peoples
Democratic Party. If this were so, why would
one want to cast his or her vote for the APC
instead of the PDP?
Even our worst critics cannot sustain any
argument about the fact that in the state that
we have added value; visible and demonstrable
value.
Fortunately, in most of those states: Edo,
Ekiti, Ogun, Osun and Oyo, the electorate have
had the misfortune to have been governed by
the PDP-led governments. The choice is now
clearer to them. If you take Ogun State, for
example, in less than two years, bridges have
been built. If you take Oyo as another example,
the bad stories about the eyesores have
disappeared. They now even have a bridge,
which is the first in about 34 years. So, the
electorate have seen both sides of the coin
now and they are wiser. This can only suggest
to you that it is a model that is working, by
peer review, by peer influence and by healthy
competition among the governors to succeed;
that can only be good for the states.
Now, if you look at the other side that decided
to join us, you cannot dismiss their
achievement by a wave of the hand; even under
PDP. But they have seen clearly that
development cannot continue with sudden
disappearance of revenues while they are
expected to keep a conspiratorial silence and
continue benefitting. In terms of public
accountability, we bring that to the table.
Secondly, and perhaps, more importantly, like-
minds are calling unto each other about the
need for the development of the country. In
any political arena, people are complaining that
things are not moving in the country, where
the national government has 52 percent of the
resources. Even with the very best effort of
the 36 states and over 700 local governments,
if they perform at a 100 percent, in terms of
risk analysis and risk allotment, if they keep
less than 50 percent of resources, their 100
percent is still not a pass mark. But in spite of
these complaints, people still feel that nobody
can defeat this behemoth. ‘So, we will either
not vote or we will vote for them because we
know they will not lose.’ And that is what APC
also brings to the table for Nigerians — to give
them a real choice. Ultimately, it is people of
Nigeria who will get the opportunity to be in
absolute control of their destiny and then whip
governments into line.
Because in the cases where you have thin
margins between parliamentary
representation, state representations, one
bad choice and you are out because the other
party stands a fair chance to win
the election. Of course, there will be smaller
parties. Parties can be more definitive when
coalitions are necessary as we saw in Britain,
where Liberal Democrats and the Conservative
partnered to kick Labour out; and even they
have started fighting. None of the
disagreements that you have also seen here is
peculiar to us.
There are appointments Obama cannot make
today. You may quarrel with the morality of it,
but the legitimacy of it is unquestionable. That
is what lies at the heart of the doctrine of
separation of powers and checks and balances.
And the position our party has taken is a
contingent position. You cannot hide behind a
finger and say you don’t know what is going on
in Rivers State. If you don’t, it must be in
your enlightened best interest to know.
Security of life and property is the primary
reason government exists. And even if there is
no legal duty, I think there is moral duty.
As things continue to unfold, you will see
clearly that we are a party of method and of
process and in the fullest of time we will unveil
to you in a very clear detail what we are about.
But again, you
cannot have a party without people, and we are
following our plan. Our plan was to register the
party, against all the odds, against history that
no merger has ever been concluded. It is a
defining event in the political history of
Nigeria. Having finished that, we went into
contact and mobilization, we are now going
into membership registration which entails
producing the management of the party and,
when that is done, we will tell you Nigerians
why we want to be members of the APC.
Your party’s directive to its members in the
National Assembly to block executive bill, I read
about you defending it and you have also done
so here; in my word, I think it is pre mature
because your party doesn’t have that majority
in both houses and another thing is, what is
the case of constructive engagement?
You have rushed to judgment. I don’t think
that we should be repulsed by the idea, it
hasn’t happened, but we are saying, if certain
things do not happen as they relate to law and
order, we will come to a conclusion that this is
a pre-meditated design to use executive power
and, if there is no communication, we will bring
you to the table and one of the ways to do so is
by exercising our own powers; I have always
said that the virtue of power is the restraint in
exercising it, but it is sometimes important to
remind people that that power exists. When the
party was meeting and setting up its members
to withdraw operations from the executive;
they were withdrawing cooperation from the
executive.
If you know the way legislative business goes,
you cannot have clear lines in parliament. It is
also for our leadership to say, ‘Let us come
together and deliberate on issues’. I think that
because our democracy is just about 14 years,
it is going to throw up many learning curves, it
needs a lot of maturity for one to realise how
much power one has and to know that you can’t
act on your own. Therefore, we must see the
glass as half full all the time, we don’t want
the nation to collapse because we want to win
and we expect that we will win.
We are beginning to witness discontent on
defection from APC, how is the party handling
disagreements?
The more the Nigerian public gets involved in
politics and understand politics for what it is,
the better; it is about interests and human
beings and everybody wants something. There
are conflicts defined by interests that would be
resolved. That is high-wire politics going on.
Let’s just decompose these things and
understand them, it is happening on the macro
to the micro, it is local, international and
global.
The taxes in Lagos, following down to the
principle of federalism, which you have always
preached, will it be okay if the money you get
from Alimosho with the highest population and
all that is spent almost exclusively in Alimosho?
I think the first thing to do is to explain that
there are different sources of revenues.
Taking advertising for instance, it is income
that comes to the local government under the
management of LASA, which is a company
statutorily created, owned by the state and
local government; because the local government
has responsibility for advertising which takes
place on the land managed by the state, so
there is a joint business.
When the income is distributed at the end of
the year, there is a derivation principle that
goes to the local government. In terms of how
resources are allocated, the needs across the
state are not the same; in some places, all you
need to do is patch a road while in others you
have to start from the beginning. Every time
you construct a road, people take positions,
capital appreciation follows road construction
and the way to go is to ask where the taxes for
roads like the LASU- Iba and Ijegun come from.
There was a time when the kind of development
and construction in Alimosho didn’t go on and
so at the end of the day, it’s not easy to
isolate and say this is what came from here,
the only way we do that kind of isolation is if
we collect capital development levies for land
sold in any estate, we use the money from that
estate to build its roads, drainages and
infrastructure; it doesn’t go a lot but it helps.
*Fashola
That is why we have scheme accounts; Lekki
phase one has a scheme account. When the
residents pay, the money goes back to them;
after UACPDC bought 1004 Estate and paid their
capital development levy, we used it to start
phase two of Adetokunbo Ademola Road.But
that did not fund the road to completion of the
Lekki -Epe Expressway.
The point is that all the revenues go to the
consolidated revenues of the state and what
we do is a budget based on input and on
development plan.
Many of us are worried about the place of the
local government in your development plans.
Where I live there is absolutely no impact of
that level of government at all…
No, they may not have served your personal
needs at the moment and that will not be good
to generalise; because you don’t feel the
impact, those who could see appreciate it. Local
governments are driving primary healthcare
and primary education, which are the
foundation of development of the most
important resources, the human resources-
making him or her health and giving him or her
skills.
You can see that we are yet to develop certain
parts of Lagos. People are building at a pace
higher than we are able to respond and that is
not our fault or yours.
Now, it’s the understanding that we seek
because how fast can we get across to you is a
function of time.
We are not planning 100 rooms now but we are
planning 400 rooms at once across all the local
governments. So, at incremental level, the
work is progressing.
For instance, in 2007, how many streets did
you see with streetlight at night? But we
started with Awolowo Road. There were
streetlights but they were not working. What
happened? It was one vulcanizer at TBS, who
was heating tyre and melted the cable in one of
the poles and that affected light. We fixed it
and switched on. We started putting diesel and
we drove on that road and it looked like our
small London.
We continued like that; last year alone, we had
over 50 roads with streetlights because there
is an incremental capacity. We are making poles
in Lagos and this year we are looking at doing
another 100 roads.
Alimosho had about 11 roads lit up last year. And
around Agege Motor Road, we lit up the road
and traders can now sell till night and that
means doubling their income. These are the
elite that I’m serving.
In Shomolu, they used to stop selling their
akara and dodo by 6pm because of fear of
insecurity. We gave them light and, today, they
sell into the night. Obalende is back.
Your Commissioner for Budget and Planning
gave the debt profile at N120 billion, but I’m
aware that Lagos is the only state that pays
salary from IGR. How sustainable is this
system?
Simple, there are few things to understand.
There are upper limits of debt profiles by global
standards, in relation to a certain percentage
of the GDP. We are not near that threshold
anywhere.
Secondly, what types of debt profile is it, is it
for recurrent expenditure or capital? It is for
capital.
If in less than two years to go, I went to the
stock market to raise N85billion and it was fully
subscribed and you know bankers do not want
to lose money; they know what is coming from
that and they keyed in; with these projects
people earn income and because they earn
income, they pay taxes. We are simply moving
the money round.
In 1999, when my predecessor took over, we
were working with N14 billion IGR and we are
now having a budget of almost half a trillion
naira and how do you want us to finance that?
Is it the money under the pillow? You can’t
build a city like that. We want rail and all that,
you don’t do it waiting for people to bring kobo
kobo.
For instance, the track Europeans built are
still there. It is a 100-year asset. You have to
finance it by debt and it will pay off.
During Tinubu’s time, when he drew N15 billion
out of N25 billion bond, they said he had
mortgaged Lagos.
I paid that debt in my first year in the office.
The first bond that we took is maturing this
year.
It is a N50 billion bond. We have N90 billion in
trustees account to pay off N50billion.
If we keep waiting until the money gathers
together, you can’t begin to tell me that there
is no road to your house. Where am I supposed
to build them? The road that Asiwaju built with
N15 billion, I can’t touch again with the same
amount of money. The dollar was trading at
less than one to a naira, but it is almost
doubled.
When I assumed office, the dollar was at $1 to
N112 and we were borrowing at 10 per cent.
Now you are lucky to get at 17 per cent.
Dollar is now $1 to over N170. Those are the
realities and we must salute our economic team
for the investment they have been able to
achieve.
If not for that, would you have LASU-Iba
Road, that rail, or make Ikorodu Road
motorable today; Badagry expressway and
others? The money we are spending on Ikorodu
Road is a loan. It’s a long-term loan. Take the
money now and pay back later as long as the
people continue to pay their taxes and financial
capacity continues.
Was your visit to Edo State solely to endorse
the presidential ambition of Governor Adams
Oshiomhole?
Really, our country needs development and
knowing Edo well, with the things I saw there,
I think it’s a development that should come on
board every state if that experience is brought
to a larger theater of expression.
I’m in support of everybody, who has worked so
that we will not come up to say we will not have
electricity because we do not have gas.
That gas is not gotten from one alien country,
it’s seated underneath us.
It baffles me each time thing I hear we have
money, but we are looking for the whereabouts
of 12billion dollars. Let us even say for the
sake of argument, why couldn’t that money be
spent on pipelines to pump fuel over the
country or even repair the pipelines?
The issue is, after many years that the country
has been extracting crude oil, are the pipes not
due for change? I’m changing water pipes on
the bridge. So we spent huge sums on power
project yet there is no solution.
And I begin to wonder what the United Arab
Emirate spent in their total power energy?
They powered the desert. How much more can it
cost? So it was in that context that I said that
I will support any one who is doing well and who
has done well, so that such development will
come across on board.
In this moment of power shift, will the
northerners in your party support him?
I can’t speak for a group. That is your fear. I
have a stake. At the end, you can’t speak for a
group. They decide on what to be done.
For now we are still early in our party
programme to discuss the issue of candidates.
Until we put in place the organs of party and
officers, that question will not be addressed.
The Information Minister, Labaran Maku
recently said that, at all levels, no government
has done what the Jonathan administration had
done. But here you are reeling out
achievements. How does that make you feel,
compared to the assertion that they have done
the best?
All I can say is that I hope the best of Nigeria is
really further ahead. I don’t want to be the
best governor of Lagos. I want better
governors to come after me. I think that it’s a
leadership problem.
When this sort of statement is made, you must
contextualize it into whether or not we really
have prepared ourselves for the kind of
responsibilities that we have. Would there have
been a Nigeria if those who fought the war
didn’t sacrifice? So, for somebody to come
after that to say, ‘we are the best…’ That was
governance. Keeping the peace and unity of
this country, people lost their lives. They
served.
How do you dishonour their memory and service
by saying nobody has done what you have done?
I have never heard any government that wants
to progress say those kinds of things. There
must be a place for your predecessors. Its a
ladder and a house built on so many blocks of
blood, sweat and tears. And whether you like it
or not, you will hand over the baton. How would
you feel after that, when somebody says you
haven’t done anything? Let’s look at power.
Did they pass the legislation? They are
concluding the process.
There is pension reform today. Did they pass
the legislation? It’s a process of thinking and
doing sometimes. As
I told people, Thabo Mbeki hosted the World
Cup, was he the one who did the bidding for it?
What is the value they have added to the GSM
today? There are more drop calls now than
when the system started. Were they the ones
who did it? It was a government that licensed
private TV otherwise all of us would be locked
on to NTA today and you won’t be here because
there would only have been Daily Times. That’s
the incremental contributions of your
predecessors. So, how are they supposed to
feel? And you want to build a nation? You’re
provoking everybody? I think there can be
better tactics to underscore your development.
We can’t show that we are good by showing
that everybody is bad. Unfortunately, it’s a
strategy that has also worked in some states,
but I have always said, look, you must
acknowledge what your predecessors have
done. They may not have done as much as you
have done. They may have operated at a more
difficult time than you are operating, but they
added value. I don’t believe that anybody is
absolutely useless. Everything operates in a
time and space. It’s a leadership problem.
Democracy is growing. We are building a nation
undoubtedly, but we must recognize
everybody’s contributions.
Anti-same sex marriage law: Jonathan right in defying the West — Catholic Bishop
Bishops of the Owerri Catholic Ecclesiastical
Province have commended President Goodluck
Jonathan for ignoring threats from Western
nations and signed the Anti-Same Sex Bill into
law.
The commendation was part of the 10-point
communique issued after their first plenary
meeting for 2014, held at the Pastoral Centre,
Owerri, and signed by the Chairman and
Secretary, His Grace, Dr. Anthony J.V. Obinna
and Most Rev. Dr. Augustine T. Ukwuoma of
Orlu Diocese, respectively.
”We commend the collaborative effort of Mr.
President, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, and the
National Assembly for signing into law the Bill
prohibiting same-sex union in Nigeria”, the
bishops stated.
While describing themselves as “servants and
custodians of God’s laws”, the Catholic Bishops
unequivocally stated that “marriage is sacred
union between a man and woman”.
They expressed sympathy with people with
homosexual tendencies, adding that being a
homosexual or lesbian is moral perversion.
Govt shutdown:Why Jonathan will not intervene in Rivers crisis — Ben Obi
SPECIAL Adviser to President Goodluck
Jonathan on Inter-Party Affairs, Senator Ben
Obi, in this interview spoke on why the
president may not intervene in the crisis
ravaging Rivers State as demanded by the All
Progressives Congress (APC) leaders while
directing APC federal legislators.
He also spoke on how the president is handling
pressures to declare his 2015 political ambition,
allegations that the president is not fighting
corruption and the leadership tussles between
the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and APC in
the National Assembly. Excerpts:
ON the Independent National Electoral
Commission, INEC 2015 timetable
First of all, they have a constitutional
responsibility to take care of elections; it is
that responsibility they have adhered to. For
me, it is part of the transformation agenda
that those who are given responsibilities to
perform do so without let or hindrance. That is
what the Professor Attahiru Jega-led INEC has
done.
Nobody was expecting it. If anybody was saying
that they were under some influence that
person is wrong in his presumption.
It is the independent nature of the various
organizations under this administration that is
coming to play. We must thank the president
for making sure that these organizations have
a free atmosphere to function.
So, when is President Goodluck Jonathan
declaring whether or not to run?
I want Nigerians to understand one thing. I
have been on the side of the opposition for very
long. Now, I am in the executive, current
leadership.
Path of governance
President Jonathan appealed to Nigerians and
said he would not discuss politics until 2014.
Despite all the pressure mounted on him by the
opposition to draw him into politics much
earlier than 2014, he resisted it; he continued
on the path of governance and maintained that
he would say something in 2014.
Now we are in 2014, now INEC has spoken, we
do expect that with all of these, I am sure he
will sit down with his kitchen cabinet and look
at the pros and cons, what his administration
has done and then take a position clearly on
what his next line of action will be.
I want say, as somebody who has been deeply
involved in the management of political parties;
a political party will only sponsor a candidate,
whose achievements they are proud of. So,
when I see people talking about who the Peoples
Democratic Party (PDP) is going to sponsor or
not, I feel sorry for them because they don’t
understand how political parties are run. I
cannot tell the APC that because I had been
associated with most of them one way or the
other that A or B is a better candidate. I can’t
do that.
And I expect that they too will not try to put
themselves in a situation where they will be
dictating to the PDP. Their business is to go
and wait for whoever it pleases the PDP to
produce.
In every climate and political understanding
that I know of, particularly, when the
constitution is on his side, they concede the
first, the right of refusal to seek re-election
to the incumbent.
The constitution is on the side of President
Jonathan. His achievements speak for him.
If you feel offended or aggrieved, he has put
out a mid-term report, cataloguing his entire
achievements. I am still waiting to see a
critical objection and rejection of that
document rather than people just shooting in
the dark.
He has put down his achievements in black and
white. Take them one-by-one and dismantle or
dislodge them but that has not been the case.
So, as far as I am concerned, I serve a
president who has made a tremendous impact in
the lives of Nigerians judging particularly from
where he took off. What was the situation
when he came on board and what is the
situation today?
How soon will the President meet with his
kitchen cabinet over the issue?
Like I said he will meet with his kitchen cabinet,
they will study the INEC guidelines and
timetable and decide: what do we do? Where do
we go from here? Nigerians will be adequately
informed at the appropriate time.
As far as I am concerned, they (president and
his kitchen cabinet) still have some two to
three months to really concentrate on
governance and that is the Jonathan
philosophy.
His New Year message was very clear:
‘Nigerians will enjoy a better 2014,’ which
means there are certain things he will want to
put up that will make a difference. Let’s
complete that process before we go into the
political event. Let’s create the atmosphere
for a better Nigerian environment.
On allegations that the government influenced
INEC to put the presidential election first to
create a bandwagon effect in favour of the PDP
Go back to the past INEC elections and draw
your analogy from there. There is nothing INEC
will do today that people will not say it is doing
it in favour of the president in power.
But those of us who are part of the
government in power are really a bit perturbed
the way things were done without
consultations. Consultations I mean here is the
council of state and various bodies. They are
performing their responsibility as a body under
the constitution. For anybody to think that all
they are doing is in our interest is
unfortunate.
On leadership tussle in the House of
Representatives between APC and PDP with APC
claiming majority over PDP
We have legislators from APGA and Labour
Party. Have you taken their numerical
strength? Where do they stand? APC has 172
and PDP 171 members, if you add APGA and
Labour, who then constitutes the majority? It
is always better we do stocktaking before we
come to the public domain.
I must commend the Speaker for the matured
manner he handled the issue that day. Both
camps, APC and PDP poured encomiums on him.
APC tied its directive to shutdown government
to the resolution of the crisis in Rivers State…
Again it is a vindication of the position of the
President. If the president dabbles into the
issue of Rivers, he should be ready to dabble
into the issues of the 36 states plus one – the
Federal Capital Territory.
Having appointed people to take charge of the
various departments of government –the
Inspector General of Police, Director,
Department of State Services, etc, it is when
the matter overwhelm these people that there
can now be a communication to the
government.
Like many people talk about corruption, have
we had complaints from the Economic and
Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) or
Independent Corrupt Practices and related
offences Commission (ICPC) that they are
under-funded? Have they said there is this
intervention from the government that is
making us not perform? As far as the
presidency is concerned, the right people have
been put in place and they have been doing their
assignments. Until they fail, there is no point
to intervene. I was listening to Amaechi, he
said he spoke to the IG, ‘I am going to lead this
Save Rivers Rally myself.’ And he thanked the
IG because the IG sent men to make sure that
they are protected. Some of these things are
due to gap in communication.
On Speaker Aminu Tambuwal’s comment that
President Jonathan is not fighting corruption
the way he should given issues around Aviation
Minister, Princes Stella Oduah and Director
General of the Stock Exchange Commission
(SEC), MS Arunma Oteh?
On Oteh, I am a member of the Presidential
team, I do not know nor have I heard of how
the president found a way to fund SEC.
International politics
But I do know that Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala,
the Minister of Finance and Coordinating
minister of the Economy, a highly respected
international figure, who but for international
politics would have been president of the World
Bank and the President of the World Bank pays
her absolute respect, set up a committee and
that committee vindicated Oteh.
The legislature came up with its own issue.
Ordinarily what needs to be done here is to look
for solutions. It is not my duty to start
educating the legislature on what to do. I just
want to make sure, as somebody who has
served on both sides, I can tell you there is
always a way out of such a dilemma.
That is a way that must be looked into at
resolving the issue so that both sides can sleep
with their eyes closed.
On the issue of Speaker Tambuwal talking about
body language, when I was in the Senate a
couple of people talked to me about the Third
Term agenda. I was the person who coordinated
the project. I was not the chairman. Senator
Idris Kuta of blessed memory was the
chairman.
A lot of offers were made to me on how we
should allow the third project sail through. The
speaker talked about body language, when you
are in the legislature, the truth of the matter
is that you see permanently a challenge from
the executive. And the more challenge you put
across to the executive the more assured you
are of your position.
Purview of the executive
I say to my colleagues in the executive, the
young man (speaker) is managing 360
legislators from different political parties,
background and interest, etc.
So he has a duty to navigate the storms and as
long as whatever he says cannot be used
against him, all well and good. Talking about
Stella Oduah, the president did what he should
do. Within the purview of the executive, he set
up a committee immediately to investigate
Stella Oduah.
Let me tell you something and I say this with all
seriousness and experience as a politician, 35
years experience: this woman has done what no
minister of Aviation had done. She has done so
much in improving our aviation sector. I don’t
see how on earth she will bring herself to a
level of deliberately engaging in unexpected and
unbelievable scam.
A lot of Nigerians across the country have
commended her. I, as a son of Anambra State
where she comes from, I am exceedingly very
proud of her. I am happy. Whatever it is, a
committee has been set up. By the time a
decision is taken, it will be clear that the
president will not go out of his way to shield
anybody that is indicted. The President
Jonathan that I have seen and known in the
last two and a half years will not shield you if
you are found wanting President Jonathan is
not the typical Nigerian politician, who lies and
promises you what he would not do. He is not
the aggressive type of person. He is somebody
who means well for this country. He is
committed to seeing a true Nigerian nation
unfold. That is why he is all-accommodating. No
president has been bashed by the media as him.
Divine message
I keep telling our people, the way you make
your bed so you lie on it. If we ridicule our
president that is the way people outside will see
us. It is not about Jonathan. Beyond all of
these, there is a divine message in Jonathan’s
appearance on the political scene. It will be
better if all of us join hands to make this
country better.
Jonathan’s critics say he is too slow compared
to rulers like Obasanjo…
I was a victim of the Obasanjo era. All those
who say this now were saying a different thing
when Obasanjo was in power. Today, President
Jonathan is consulting. For every action he
takes, he consults. Every action he had taken
that needed to be reversed was reversed. Let
us give him his dues.
On comments that the national conference is
now threatened with discordant tunes trailing
the report of the Senator Femi Okurounmu
committee
I don’t agree. The national confab is not
threatened. The President set up a committee,
to come up with a template. The committee has
submitted its report and people are reacting.
Naturally, that is what it should be.
The committee is not all-knowing, it is not
omnipotent. People are reacting from the
various zones of the country, that is what it
should be so that by the time the report is
finally collated and the way we are going to hold
the confab is decided, everybody will feel
included and involved. I see the president’s
position as purely defined and straightforward.
Mu’azu’s appointment yielding positive results – FCT Minister
Minister of FCT, Sen. Bala Mohammed, on
Saturday observed that the appointment of Dr.
Adamu Muazu as the National Chairman of the
PDP, had started yielding positive results.
Fielding questions from newsmen at a civic
reception organised in honour of Muazu in
Bauchi, the Minister described the new
chairman as a “catalyst” for the
transformation of the party.
He said Muazu’s ability was already creating
the desired impact, especially in the area of re-
building the party, by reconciling all aggrieved
members.
“You can see the spirit of reconciliation already
penetrating across every length and breadth;
you can see his energy and his pedigree already
coming to bear on the polity.
“He has reached out to former president,
former governors and all the aggrieved
persons. This is a clear indication that he has
the capacity to bring everybody on board,” he
said.
According to the Minister, the emergence of
Mua’zu as the party’s national chairman, is not
unexpected, considering his pedigree.
“His emergence has rekindled hope; it has
reinvigorated our stamina in politics and built
inter-relationships across board, irrespective
of our personal interests, desires and
differences.
“It has also dissolved all elements of suspicion,
mistrust and bitterness, “ he added.
The minister said that Bauchi state, being the
home of the party chairman, had now been
saddle with a uphill task of ensuring the
success of the party in the forthcoming
elections.
“We cannot, in pursuits of personal interests,
create an impediment to the success of the
national chairman. We have therefore agreed
to suspend personal interests for the interest
of the state and the country at large.
“This has become necessary so that we can do
politics without rancour, division, suspicion or
conflict, “he said. (NAN)
FG lashes at critics ‘No hidden agenda on National Conference’
Security of the venue and places where
officials and delegates to the forth-coming
National Conference will be given top priority
by the Federal Government even as it denies
that there is a hidden agenda by the Jonathan
administration. The Federal Government lashed
out at those inputing hidden agenda on the
conference came on a day the oposition All
Progressives Congress (APC) dismissed it as a
Jonathan dialogue given the high number of
delegates to be nominated by the president.
The Special Adviser to the President on Political
Affairs, Alhaji Ahmed Ali Gulak, yesterday,
debunked the allegation of hidden agenda in the
Federal Government’s nomination of 114 of the
492 delegates to the conference who, according
to him, are draw from critical areas of national
interest and security.
“The Federal Government will go the extra mile
to protect the lives of the delegates and the
vital facilities that will be committed to the
business of the National Conference”, the
presidential adviser said while speaking to
Sunday Vanguard on security for conference
members..
”We have directed relevant security agencies
to ensure optimal security of the venues and
accommodation of delegates without disrupting
other activities in Abuja during the period.”
File: A cross section of members of the
Presidential Advisory Committee on the
National Conference during the inauguration of
the Committee at the State House, Abuja.
Photo: Abayomi Adeshida.
He said the experience of the 2010 golden
jubilee celebration venue that was bombed
remains fresh “and we are sure that some evil-
minded people would want to embark on such a
risky venture just to truncate the National
Conference, but those who would attempt such
thing would meet their waterloo”.
Gulak added, “Security agencies would be fully
mobilised to frustrate any plot to destabilise
the work of the National Conference when it is
inaugurated by President.Goodluck Ebele
Jonathan”.
On the claim that government has a hidden
agenda in nominating a large number of
delegates, the presidential aide said: “We know
that we have perpetual doubting Thomases and
professional critics who would always smell rat
even when they see a cockroach. The
administration of President Goodluck Jonathan
is working hard to correct this negative
attitude which built up over the years. We have
come to the point where we must invest trust
in our leaders if we want them to succeed in
actualising our aspirations.
“Those who have raised doubts may mean well
for the country, but they should have basis for
raising such doubts because this government is
not an occupation army,it is not a foreign
sovereign, it is a government that came to
power through the ballot box not through
bullet; it owes its responsibility to the citizens
of Nigeria, we must treat it as our own
government, otherwise, the government and
the people will work at cross purposes to the
delight of those who want the government to
fail.”
Meanwhile, APC said, yesterday, the National
Conference could turn out to be a Jonathan
Conference given the preponderance of
delegates to be nominated by the president.
Alhaji Lai Mohammed, interim national publicity
secretary of the APC said, nonetheless, the
party will this week decide on whether it would
send delegates to the conference.
Mohammed, at a press briefing in Abuja, also
challenged the President of the Senate,
Senator David Mark, to read the defection
letter submitted to him by 10 senators formerly
of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP.
This week’s meeting of the APC top hierarchy,
he said, would also finalise plans for the party’s
membership registration exercise which is
kicking off on February 5.
15 million party members are expected to be
registered during the exercise to be conducted
in 120,000 polling locations across the country,
the party spokesman said.
Given the modalities rolled out for the
nomination of delegates to the conference,
Mohammed was asked if the APC and its
governors would present delegates. He said:
“I am happy to say that right now, almost all
our fears are being justified and people are
now calling it Jonathan’s conference given the
fact that he alone is nominating about 90
delegates and even those who rallied round it at
the beginning are now seeing what we saw
right from the beginning.
“Our position on the National Conference is
now being vindicated. If you remember, we said
that we did not believe that the convener was
focused and that we were completely worried,
why a convener who all along had been
completely against the idea of a National
Conference would just now turn round and
that the kind of National Conference we
envisage is not the kind of National Conference
that will be ratified by the National Assembly.
“I am happy that what we saw that this thing is
just diversionary is what everybody is saying
now. I wouldn’t want to pre-empt my party,
but the whole thing looks very bizarre even
from the beginning”.
Wednesday, 29 January 2014
CHAN 2014
Today in the football match between Nigeria & Ghana, professionalism played a prime role.
Ghana: 3 - Nigeria: 1
Laws of Power
When Asking for Help, Appeal to People’s Self-Interest, Never to their Mercy or Gratitude If you need to turn to an ally for help, do not bother to remind him of your past assistance and good deeds. He will find a way to ignore you. Instead, uncover something in your request, or in your alliance with him, that will benefit him, and emphasize it out of all proportion. He will respond enthusiastically when he sees something to be gained for himself.
Laws of Power
When Asking for Help, Appeal to People’s Self-Interest, Never to their Mercy or Gratitude If you need to turn to an ally for help, do not bother to remind him of your past assistance and good deeds. He will find a way to ignore you. Instead, uncover something in your request, or in your alliance with him, that will benefit him, and emphasize it out of all proportion. He will respond enthusiastically when he sees something to be gained for himself.
Laws of Power
Pose as a Friend, Work as a Spy Knowing about your rival is critical. Use spies to gather valuable information that will keep you a step ahead. Better still: Play the spy yourself. In polite social encounters, learn to probe. Ask indirect questions to get people to reveal their weaknesses and intentions. There is no occasion that is not an opportunity for artful spying.
Laws of Power
When Asking for Help, Appeal to People’s Self-Interest, Never to their Mercy or Gratitude If you need to turn to an ally for help, do not bother to remind him of your past assistance and good deeds. He will find a way to ignore you. Instead, uncover something in your request, or in your alliance with him, that will benefit him, and emphasize it out of all proportion. He will respond enthusiastically when he sees something to be gained for himself.
Laws of Power
Use Selective Honesty and Generosity to Disarm your Victim One sincere and honest move will cover over dozens of dishonest ones. Open-hearted gestures of honesty and generosity bring down the guard of even the most suspicious people. Once your selective honesty opens a hole in their armor, you can deceive and manipulate them at will. A timely gift – a Trojan horse – will serve the same purpose.