The attention of the All Nigeria Peoples Party [ANPP] has been drawn to media reports where it is stated that the Senate on Wednesday gave President Goodluck Jonathan a two-day ultimatum within which to sack the Chairman of the Pension Reform Task Team, Mr. Abdulrasheed Maina, from the Federal Civil Service. Considering that the whole nation has been ripped off of hundreds of billions of naira in pension funds, while the Federal Government is boasting of fighting corruption to a standstill without any parameter to convince the people, we believe the Maina affair is a veritable litmus test for the government’s resolve to fight corruption.
Just a couple of weeks ago most Nigerians were shocked beyond belief after an Abuja High Court sentenced an Assistant Director, Police Pension Board, John Yusuf, to two years’ imprisonment, with an option of a paltry sum as fine, for his role in the theft of N20 billion of pension fund. It was so outrageous that the EFCC had to hurriedly re-arraign the man, who was deemed not punished enough in the public perception. So also the array of suspects in the fuel susbidy scam is still free while the nation bleeds from the fiscal rupture they have inflicted on us. Our great party also maintains that the culture of impunity is the cause of the vicious circle of corruption in our dear nation.
It is glaring that this present government is paying lip service to the fight against corruption, as it continues to beat its chest and gloat over infinitesimal achievements while the big issues and are swept under the carpet, and the big fish go scot-free even when they are caught. We must remember that there are two courts: the court of law, and the court of public opinion. The Nigerian people who are the owners of the pensions squandered by these officials, have palpably declared them guilty, and are just waiting for the Government to give them justice. Now it seems their hope in the government is turning out to become a mirage, as even the one’s found guilty are not punished.
The ANPP therefore calls on the Executive arm of the government to reconsider their stance on this whole affair, for, how can the war on corruption be taken seriously if it appears as if there are sacred cows? Let the relevant agencies work in concert with the National Assembly and ensure this pension affair is settled once and for all. Granted, the resolutions of the National Assembly do not have the force of law, but for the mere fact that it is a critical arm of democracy, the resolutions that are well informed and valid should be adopted by the Executive for the good of the whole nation. As a party, we advocate for harmony between the executive and the legislature, for that is the only way our democracy can take a deep root, and earn us respect in the comity of nations.
A U.S. communication firm has admitted setting up at least one interview for President Goodluck Jonathan for a fee, but denied it received up to $60,000(N9.5 million) as initially agreed.
Fleishman-Hillard Inc. said in an email to PREMIUM TIMES that parts of planned “communication services”, including media interviews for the president in 2010, were later suspended, with equivalent $20,000(N3.2 million) reduction in its fees.
That implies for arranging one interview, the firm was paid $40,000 (N6.3 million). The company did not state which media interview went through, but said the service was in support of the president’s trip to New York for the 2010 United Nations General Assembly.
“Due to urgent ad-hoc meetings held for the African nations at the 2010 UN General Assembly, the original services proposed were not able to be fully executed,” a Nigerian firm, Quadrant Company, representing Fleishman-Hillard, said in an e-mailed response.
The company said “planned media interviews and other services” for the president were cancelled with only one appointment rescheduled for a later date.
“As a result, Fleishman-Hillard fees were more than $20,000 less than those originally proposed,” the statement added.
But the company’s claim is inaccurate given the documents in the possession of this newspaper. In one of the documents, Fleishman-Hillard informed its contact in the Nigerian presidency that although it was unable to get an interview for Mr. Jonathan in the United States, it succeeded in getting the CNN to interview the president in Nigeria.
The reaction followed an earlier report by PREMIUM TIMES examining how the president paid thousands of dollars to agents for arranging interviews with foreign media outlet, a choice seen as wasteful and unnecessary.
Documents available to PREMIUM TIMES indicate that Fleishman-Hillard Inc anchored the deal with the Nigerian presidency through Enyi Odigbo, Chairman of Lagos-based advertising and public relations company, Caser’s Group.
In the bill, seen by this newspaper, the company requested $59, 200 from the Nigerian government for arranging an interview for President Jonathan with the CNN Nigerian affiliate in late 2010.
The interview, anchored by Isha Sesay, held in Aso Rock in Abuja on September 30, 2010 in preparation for the Golden Jubilee Celebration of Nigeria Independence.
Fleishman-Hillard was also to contact other foreign media outlets such as Bloomberg, Wall Street Journal, New York Times and Reuters as Mr. Jonathan planned at the time to announce his intention to run for president in the 2011 presidential election.
The firm only delivered the CNN interview.
In its response, signed by Bolaji Okusaga, the Managing Director of Lagos-based The Quadrant Company, who is representing Fleishman-Hillard in Nigeria, said a part the contract awarded to the company was suspended “at the last minute” due to the exigency of time.
The company denied carrying out lobbying activities for the presidency, and said what it offered to the presidency was a “one-time assignment”.
“Fleishman-Hillard has not provided any service to the Office of the President since that time,” the firm said.
The president’s penchant for foreign media has drawn him criticism. Critics have questioned why the president requires third parties for arranging media interview showcase with at least three top media aides at his disposal.
After the story was published, a poll requesting public opinion on the president’s decision reflected that concern with 175(68 per cent) votes out of a total 259, condemning the president’s procedure of lobbying the media, instead of the press seeking him out for interview.
Another 44 votes (17 per cent) described the amount deployed as “lavish,” while a further 24 votes (9 per cent) wished off whatever choice was taken provided the interview yielded foreign investments.
Since taking office early 2010, some of the president’s key decisions have been made public on foreign outlets, mainly the CNN.
Mr. Jonathan delivered his first public comments on late President Umaru Yar’Adua’s health, in an interview with CNN’s Christiane Amanpour in 2010, where he spoke of how the ailing president’s family blocked him from seeing Mr. Yar’Adua.
Russia revealed it was supplying guns to Mali’s government, as French troops defused a massive bomb in the north of the country, the latest bid by Islamist rebels to strike back.
The head of Russia’s arms export agency said it had delivered small amounts of light weapons for the West African nation’s poorly equipped and deeply divided army.
“We are in talks about sending more, in small quantities,” said Rosoboronexport chief Anatoly Isaikin, quoted by the Interfax news agency.
In the centre of the northern city of Gao, the scene of twin suicide bombings and a street battle in recent days, French troops defused a homemade bomb they said contained 600 kilogrammes (1,300 pounds).
The bomb, four metal barrels filled with explosives and connecting wires, was in the courtyard of an abandoned house and had been there since at least Monday, according to an AFP correspondent at the scene.
The United Nations said Wednesday it was working on a “regional strategy” for the Sahel, the semi-arid region south of the Sahara desert. Analysts say a dangerous mix of Islamist extremism, kidnapping, drug trafficking and organised crime are fuelling the unrest there.
Mali’s army is struggling to restore security after a French-led military intervention helped it push out Al-Qaeda-linked rebels who had seized the country’s north.
Romano Prodi, the UN’s special envoy for the Sahel, and UN West Africa representative Said Djinnit began a three-day visit to the region Wednesday to discuss the situation in Mali with the presidents of its neighbours Senegal, Mauritania, Burkina Faso and Niger.
On Tuesday, UN rights chief Navi Pillay warned that Mali risked descending into a cycle of violence.
The problem, she said, was not just rebel groups but also the army and black majority who have carried out reprisal attacks on light-skinned Tuaregs and Arabs accused of supporting the insurgents.
Rights groups have accused the Malian army of killing suspected rebel supporters and dumping their bodies in wells. Tuaregs and Arabs have also come under attack from their black neighbours in northern towns such as Timbuktu.
In all, the crisis has caused some 377,000 people to flee their homes, including 150,000 who have sought refuge across Mali’s borders, according to the UN.
“The recent developments in the conflict have sown panic among these people, who have fled for fear of being trapped between two fires,” Nawezi Karl of aid group Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said Wednesday.
Refugees, who had taken few belongings with them, were living in precarious conditions and threatened by hunger, the agency said.
Mali imploded after a March coup by soldiers who blamed the government for the army’s humiliation at the hands of north African Tuareg rebels, who had launched an uprising in the north two months earlier.
With the capital in disarray, Al-Qaeda-linked fighters hijacked the Tuareg rebellion and took control of the north.
France launched its intervention on January 11, after Mali’s interim government called for help fending off the Islamist insurgents as they made incursions into government territory.
But after pushing the rebels from the towns under their control, France is eager to wind down the operation in its former colony and hand over to United Nations peacekeepers.
In Bamako on Wednesday the leader of the March coup, Captain Amadou Sanogo, was sworn in as head of a military reform committee.
Sanogo, under pressure from the international community, handed power to the interim government last April, but continued to exercise influence behind the scenes.
Sanogo’s new post comes with living quarters at the army chief of staff’s offices in Bamako — an arrangement political and military insiders say is a bid to lure him away from his loyalists in the garrison town of Kati.
The Society for Rule of Law in Nigeria (SRLN), a non-governmental organisation has called for the immediate dismissal of the suspended President Court of Appeal (PCA), Justice Isa Ayo Salami, saying; “With the Police Report indicting him of unethical telephone interactions with Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) leaders during the pendency of the Osun and Ekiti States Election Appeal cases, Justice Salami has become a stain on the white garment of the Nigeria judiciary.”
The group commended the Nigerian Police for unravelling the truth behind the Judicial robbery of the Governorship Election Appeals in Osun and Ekiti states by the ACN leadership through Justice Salami’s unethical communications with the party leaders during the pendency of the cases before the court.
Reacting to the release of the police investigation report on the suppression of evidence by the MTN at the National Judicial Council (NJC) probe panel, the SRLN stated in a press statement signed by its National Coordinator, Comrade Chima Ubeku that “the report has now confirmed the invidious roles of the ACN in the manipulation of the judiciary for political ends in the country.”
The society urged the police to conduct further investigation on whether financial inducement was involved and the magnitude of the amount involved in the saga in view of the well-known capacity of the ACN leader, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu to financially compromise any institution or person in the country.
The group called on the NJC to revisit the decision of the Justice Umaru Abdullahi Panel set up to probe allegations of misconduct against Justice Salami and other justices, who sat on the panel of Osun and Ekiti states, saying; “it is now clear that Justice Salami and others were cleared of allegations of unethical behaviours on the Osun and Ekiti States Election Appeal cases based on the ignoble role played by the MTN, by deliberately concealing vital information required from the Call Logs provided to the panel by former Governors of Osun and Ekiti states, Prince Olagunsoye Oyinlola and Chief Segun Oni respectively.”
“Police investigation has now confirmed that Justice Salami compromised his position as the President of the Court of Appeal and that MTN assisted him to escape the NJC hammer.
“Therefore, it is now time for the NJC to dismiss him (Salami) from the bench, failing which we call on President Goodluck Jonathan to reactivate his letter to the Senate for the dismissal of the suspended PCA from the bench for breaching his oath of office and code of ethics of the judiciary.
“We are also calling on the Attorney General of the Federation to immediately order the prosecution of MTN for its ignoble and unethical corporate conduct in frustrating security agents in unravelling a grievous act of corruption in Nigeria.
“The question MTN must be asked is whether or not the Company can perpetrate such act in South Africa, its base.
“This case is therefore another litmus test for the President Jonathan-led government to demonstrate its willingness to eradicate corruption in Nigeria.”
The group, which said it was aware that MTN, through its pilfering and plundering of its customers, had enormous financial resources to corruptly induce and compromise any institution in the country, said it was sure that President Jonathan would once again rise to the occasion by ordering the Attorney General of the Federation to prosecute the company in line with the transformation agenda of eradicating corruption in Nigeria.
Former President Olusegun Obasanjo yesterday lauded Governor Adams Oshiomhole for the transformation taking place in the state even as he advised the Governor to learn from him, and opt for a private-sector driven economy.
Chief Obasanjo who made the commendation at the Edo State Government House during a courtesy call on the Governor on his way to deliver the 1st Dr. Abel Guobadia memorial lecture, explained that when God gave him a second chance to become President of the country, he learnt from his past experience.
According to him, “I can see the signs that this state which was run down is now being run up.”
He said he learnt from his experiences as head of state to run a better eceonomy when he was elecvted President in 1999. According to him, “I was Head of State and I see that there was no way to manage Nigeria economy except by indigenization and we went for indigenization.
“But the truth is that indigenization did not succeed the way we wanted and I became an apostle of genuine private sector-driven market economy. I hope Governor Oshiomhole is learning the lesson I have learnt so that this state, I can see the signs, which was run down is now being run up.”
In his response, Governor Oshiomhole said he learnt from the style and courage of the former President when it comes to taking major decisions which every leader requires to drive change.
He told the visiting former president that his administration was re-focusing and re-inventing governance to give the people confidence so that democracy can work, adding “and indeed, it is working and we are able to deliver on some critical areas of infrastructure.”
He commended the former President on the launch of the Obasanjo Foundation, saying the former president has demonstrated that as an elder statesman, “he can continue to contribute to national and international efforts in dealing with the basic needs of the under-privileged and to create a platform for sustaining constructive engagement on development options and strategies to lift the level of development in Africa.”
The former President who spoke to reporters after the courtesy visit said government must expose corruption as it would not help covering it up, he maintained that he has flogged the horse of corruption internally and externally with some people agreeing with him and others abusing him.
“Some people do all sorts of things but the point is that when you have a problem and you attempt to cover it, you are not solving the problem. If anything, you are complicating the problem.”
On security, he said ; “even security, I have talked about it, I have been called names. I have gone out on fact finding. I have found out what is there and what is not there. I have talked and reported, I have nothing more to add.”
Cross section of Batch A 2012 NYSC members during her passing out parade in Asaba, Thursday
Delta state governor Dr Emmanuel Uduaghan has rewarded 11 corps members who distinguished themselves in their area of primary assignments with various cash awards ranging from 500,000 to one million naira each.
The governor who announced the awards during the passing out ceremony of the 2012 Batch A corps members in Asaba said the provision of various cash awards was to encourage youths to channel their efforts towards self-employment instead of relying on white collar jobs.
Other awards dished out to corps members who excelled in the NYSC DG games in Abuja includes the relay quartet, 400,000 Naira each, the football team 250,000 Naira each, 100 meters race 200,000 Naira and their coaches received 500,000 Naira each.
Explaining that the cash award was not a display of wealth, Dr Uduaghan said that the import was to encourage youth self-employment and promote Human capital development in the state.
“What we are doing is to assist corp members to establish businesses especially viable businesses that have good feasibility studies. It is also to promote economic boom in the state because we will encourage the corp members to encourage our people. The corpers should not go to their states to bring their own people because we will resist such a move. The condition is that they will employ our own people,” he said.
The governor who restated the determination of his administration to build a state beyond oil, said empowering the corps members through micro credit scheme would enable the state achieve the mission.
In what looked like a question and answer section the governor asked the outgoing corps members whether they were interested in establishing their businesses in the state and their answer was a thunderous yes.
The governor therefore promised to encourage as many corpers interested in establishing their own businesses in the state with micro credit loans provided their business outfits have the potential of employing other youths.
Reacting to the failure of some local government areas to pay corpers their state allowance, he directed the state head of service Mr Okey Ofili to within one week period pay the outgoing corpers their allowances.
He commended the outgoing corpers for faithfully serving the state and contributing to the development of the state.
In his speech the NYSC State Coordinator Mr Joseph Ezechukwu announced that 5 corp members had their service year extended for 1 year because they absconded from their area of primary assignment while 23 others who committed various offences will have their service year also extended from 2 weeks to 4 months.
He also announced that 11 corpers excelled and received various awards from the governor and the Chairman NYSC governing board even as he disclosed that a corps member Mr Obinna Anyanwu emerged the overall best corper of the year.
Mr Ezechukwu commended the state government for the fast tempo of construction work going on at the NYSC orientation camp and pledged their support to the state government.
In a brief address the chairman NYSC governing board Comrade Ovuzorie Macaulay enjoined the corps members to pursue the lofty ideas of the NYSC skill acquisition programme to be gainfully employed.
He commended the corpers for their contributions towards transforming the communities they worked in.
Highlight of the occasion was when the state governor called out corps members who intend to get married to one another and promised to sponsor any genuine move for marriage between the corpers even as he directed them to registers their names with the secretary of the state government once marriage plans has been consummated.
It was not by mere conjecture or political gamble that the United Progressive Party (UPP) resolved to zone the presidential ticket of the party for the 2015 presidential election to the Igbo people of the South East geo-political zone of Nigeria. The decision to hand over the presidential flag of UPP for the 2015 election to a credible and qualified Igbo person was borne out of a deep research and highly intellectual analysis of the potential but latent political movement of Nigerian masses which only the Igbo have the natural force to galvanize and lead.
1. NDIGBO: A MINORITY WITH A UNIQUE MAJORITY POLITICAL FORCE
(a) It is a fact of Nigeria’s man-made geo-political structure that the core Igbo people of Nigeria have been confined to 5 out of Nigeria’s 36 states structure. Ndigbo have for several decades lamented over this lopsided structure designed and executed by the military junta that ruled Nigeria after the Biafra – Nigeria war which ended in 1970 or 43 years ago. This has left Nigerians including some unwary Igbo people with the erroneous impression that Ndigbo are the least populated ethnic group in Nigeria and therefore least likely to ever win any presidential election in Nigeria in a democratic contest.
(b) It is also axiomatic and beyond any debate that Ndigbo constitute the second largest ethnic group in the remaining 31 states of Nigeria. Put differently, Ndigbo are the largest minority group in all of the remaining 31 states of Nigeria. Implicit in this unrivalled geographical spread in Nigeria is an intimidating political force which can surmount any political obstacle in a democratic encounter for the presidency of Nigeria if effectively mobilized, deployed and managed.
(c) It is unarguable that minority groups whether religious or ethnic share common experience and face the same kind of problems in the states of Nigeria where they are domiciled. Even where such groups are indigenous in those states, they remain victims of oppression for as long as they are in the minority.
Expectedly, these more vulnerable groups have always looked up to the larger minority group which is Igbo to lead them in a concerted effort for political protection from their majority over-lords and oppressors. It stands to reason that the Yoruba of South-West are vulnerable minority in non-Yoruba States of Nigeria. This is also applicable to all ethnic and religious groups who are majority in a few states but miserable victims of majority oppression in majority of the states of Nigeria.
This unique position of Ndigbo as the largest minority in 31 states of Nigeria poses to the people the challenge of providing the initiative and leadership necessary for a mass movement to occur, for an equitable and egalitarian society that will engender unity, development, citizenship rights, sovereignty of the Nigerian people and accountability of elected persons to the citizens who freely elected them into office, in a free and fair democratic election.
This mass mobilization of Nigerians to challenge the status quo and take their destiny in their hands cannot be achieved by socio-cultural, ethnic or religious organizations. It is only on the platform of a truly progressive political party that is insulated from the control and ownership of cabals that can be trusted to mobilize over-whelming majority of Nigerians for an enduring political revolution in Nigeria.
3. UPP Vs APC/PDP
It is by divine providence that birds of the same feather have practically coalesced on a single political platform known as All Progressives Congress (APC). Before the emergence of APC, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) used to enjoy exclusively the unenviable reputation of a political party with the largest assemblage of oppressors, and mindless treasury looters. Now, by a single stroke of divine order, APC has mopped up whatever is left of political leaders with well known criminal political credentials. APC and PDP are for every intent and purpose, two sides of the same coin. In these two political parties one will find all the cabals that have left Nigeria prostrate and almost comatose. APC and PDP are like kettle and pot. None can call the other black.
In spite of certain pretentions to progressivism by some of the leaders of APC/PDP there is no gainsaying the fact that the most visible leaders of these two political parties have held and are holding political offices in Nigeria from 1970 to present time. They cannot deny responsibility for the deplorable state of the Nation
Nigerians crave for and earnestly desire a total change of the status quo. Nigerians only need a credible, free and fair election where their votes will count, and they will not have any difficulty in retiring permanently from political office these pretenders posing as progressives. Recent publications have given the impression that Nigeria is there only for APC and PDP to plunder, balkanize and cart away.
The United Progressive Party (UPP) with the tiger head as it symbol has been unleashed and is on the prowl. UPP is a mass movement, pure, and unencumbered. There are no money bags, cabals, political god-fathers laying claim to its ownership and control. Our party’s progressive credential is unassailable. Our candidates in all forth- coming elections shall emerge democratically, without the usual imposition of candidates that characterize the PDP and the parties that constitute what is yet to be registered as APC.
UPP is the miracle of 2015. We are here to challenge the status quo and nothing shall be the same any more. The people shall from the next general election take their destiny in their hand through the instrumentality of the UNITED PROGRESSIVE PARTY (UPP). In UPP we do not need the merger of strange bed fellows, treasury looters, political god-fathers, religious bigots, ethnic irredentists and local imperialists to win political power to guarantee the welfare of the long suffering Nigerian masses. What we need and that is what we are working for is a coalition of progressive forces on the undiluted and untainted platform of the United Progressive Party to overthrow the forces of oppression and retrogression.
Nigerians must come to terms with the hard fact that the missing third leg in Nigeria’s political tripodal sub-structure is fully resurrected through the United Progressive Party (UPP).
We are fortified and geared towards an epic democratic battle with reactionary forces masquerading as progressives.
Chief Okorie (Oje Ozi Ndigbo) is the National Chairman of United Progressive Party (UPP)
Those that answer Valentine dread the month of February like a plague. Besides close friends who always demand that you celebrate your name in grand style, most confront you with all manner of questions bordering on the concept that your name is supposed to embody. Thus, you are asked whether you were born on the 14th of February or whether you were a by-product of love affair that took place in the month of February. One fact I have come to discover over the years is that people take those that bear the name of Valentine as experts in all known techniques of love, starting with its fundaments to its metaphysics.
Despite much research, we cannot tell unarguably the exact date the feast started, nor the route by which it entered into history. Perhaps it is connected to the life of a certain St. Valentine who was said to have suffered martyrdom in Rome as the Church hagiography would want us to believe. Perhaps, as the legend of the saint’s heroic faith says, it grew out of the love shown to prisoners by the saintly Valentine. Perhaps it has to do with the period in the year when birds of the earth look for mates. Perhaps it is another case of substitution of a pagan feast by Christian feast as a subtle way of blighting paganism at the bud. We do not know. Valentine’s Day is part of history whose beginning has been forgotten, and whose end we shall never reach.
The popularity of Valentine’s Day could be linked to the nature of the theme it celebrates – love. Writing about love, Archbishop Fulton Sheen called it “the most used, and the most misunderstood word.” The misunderstanding inherent in the nature of love often provokes people to ask questions such as: How much of what we claim as love is love indeed? Does love have different levels and spheres? Is it possible to love our neighbour as ourselves, as the Holy writ prescribes? What is love? These are the questions with which the most comprehensive theories, treatises, and analyses of love find it necessary to begin.
To the Greeks, love could be Eros, Philia, and agape. Plato’s ladder of love in the Symposium has different loves for its rungs, up to what we commonly call “Platonic Love”. St Thomas Aquinas distinguishes between love in the sphere of the passion and love as an act of will. The former he assigns to what he calls the “concupiscible faculty” of the sensitive appetite; the latter, to the rational or “intellectual appetite”. Sometimes, people talk about metaphysical, contemplative, material and acquisitive love, etc.
Whatever form love takes, it implies a complex psychical experience of strong attraction to, intense desire for, vivid appreciation of, a profound interest in, ones object of love. The object of love could be a fellow being, institution, cause or even nature. It involves tender affection, sympathetic understanding, admiration and loyalty, with reference to its object.
But apart from a few people who recognize the fact of plurality of love in their analyses, most of us, especially the youth, talk abundantly of love, commonly in the sense of amorous appetite. These are people who confess their loving the object of their love more than their own mothers. Recall the “sugar in my tea” and similar stuff. Our elders consider this form of love to be a form of “possession” or “madness”, and would frown at anyone who would propose it as a fit guide in the choice of marriage mate. They do this, knowing that once the erotic side of love diminishes or fades away altogether, the disinterested element fades too; interest in the other’s happiness evaporates, all tender feeling is eroded, and the one desire is to get away. This is what Lucretius called “erotic befuddlement”. What Dedriot deridedly described as “the voluptuous loss of a few drops of liquid.” It is a spark thrown off by the contact or nearness of two opposite bodies.
In pursuit of this type of love there is nothing that human beings have not done, or are not capable of doing. The love portion that some ladies brew for men they suspect of unrequited love has no platonic aim. It is not out of generosity, rather to get the object of their longing, that men spend lots of money in wooing women. Women themselves do as much. To attract men, they dress in manners to arouse precipitate passion. Eyelashes are darkened with gum ammonia. Checks and lips are painted with sticks of minium or alkanet roots. Adjustable eyebrows are used and often pencilled with lampblack or pulverized or sulphuret of antimony, sometimes it is thinned to diverse shapes or shaved off entirely and painted “crescent moons” or other forms. Eyelids are shaded with kohl. All sort of things are rubbed on the face, in the hope that it will make them look beautiful. Some in the villages still wrap their fingernails over night with henna leaves to make them purple. Padded brassieres are used to make the breast look poised and … Breast enhancement has since become part of beauty regimen. There is no part of the woman’s body, in pursuit of men, that has not been perfected, decorated, refined, stretched and squeezed, bleached, reformed, compacted and shortened.
Higher than the afore-described love is what is often called genuine friendship. In this type of love, there is often the predominance of altruistic motives. It springs from mutual admiration. Here, love is thought to precede desire and to determine its wishes. Marriages built upon this type of love are often successful. Mature lovers discover that marriage transcends the act of multiplication of the species or the fantasy of sexual acts. There are some men who think that all a woman appreciates in a man is when he brandishes the erectile organ to her satisfaction. No. Marriage is more than that. It demands deep understanding and maturity from both partners.
All the foregoing classifications and distinctions, inexhaustible though, belong to the theory of human love. But the fact of love’s diversity extends to the Christian theory of love. Christianity brought about a basic shift in man’s thinking about love. Christianity sees love not in the emotion or passion, but from the infinite perfection and creativity of God. Writing to the Corinthians (2 Cor 13: 6) St Paul said that “love takes no pleasure in other people’s sins but delights in the truth…”God Himself is love (I John 4: 4). “Love ye one another”. In this profound sentence, God summarized all the commandments. Love rules the world and was, perhaps, as Parmenides thought, “the very first thing created by the gods to rule the world”.
The key to peace in the world is for men to embrace the ethics of Christ – love. Confucius taught a version of it in his rule of reciprocity (golden rule). Immanuel Kant espoused it in his book, The Metaphysics of Morals in what he called the “Maxims of Categorical Imperative”. All great religions teach it. Until we start to imbibe this golden rule (love), the battle to re-make the world can as well be labelled a utopia.
The sooner we use the day of Valentine to promote this type of love, the better the world will become. Here we are again celebrating another Valentine. How do we make it serve the purpose of making the world a better place? Is it for us just a day to buy expensive Valentine’s gifts and flowers and caress one another in the happy ignorance of the true meaning of love? These are the central questions.
It is a mistake to think that just any criticism of those in authority is intended to spur action in the positive direction. Many do not fully understand the unique and complex background from which Abia state recently emerged. it was a failed state in every sense of it . For 8 solid years Abia state remained under the struggle hold of despotism and demagoguery. It was a regime that smacked of inconsistencies in word and action. People like ‘yours faithfully’ were hunted down for daring to speak out against official malfeasance and unbridled profligate life style at the expense of the public till. There was deliberate policy of state terrorism endorsed with the executive red pen.thuggery was legitimized and it formed an inseparable arm of government .’Yours faithfully’ and few others who braved the situation to speak out had all the paraphernalia of executive incumbency unleashed against us. Communities like Idima Abam were almost destroyed on false information to the police in an attempt to arraign ‘disloyal’ on trumped up charges. These and a myriad of other vices were the woes that Abians daily struggled to live with during the eight years of Orji Uzor kalu ‘s rule in Abia state.
I am not just a living witness but a victim of the misrule and highhandedness that befell Abiastate for eight years. The story of what happened in Abia between’ 1999 to 2007 is one that would require a fulltime narrative and it should be left for another day. My concern today is to draw a contrast between the erstwhile regime and the present one, for purposes of utter clarity.
What would be the yard stick to measure performance in Abia state in terms of good governance to the people .certainly not one offered by the likes of Orji Uzor .
I am, to say the least, very stunned to note that Orji Uzor has the effrontery to accuse the present Governor Non performance in the administration and management of the state resources. In one of his diatribes he accused the Governor and his children of amassing so much wealth and even dared to query his source of wealth’.
The question is what does Governor T.A Orji and his children have that a governor can’t legitimately afford. The former governor , within his 8 years of governorship floated an airline , a bank in Gambia , acquired hotels and two oceans liners , a larger than life property in Potomac, Maryland, united state , etcetera.
It should be recalled that in Orji Uzor kalu overmastering desires to subjugate the Abia political elite , he cultivated a horrendous intolerance of any form of dissent between 1999 t0 2007 . This was a period that no well informed Abia is in a hurry to forget.
It was a period when governance equated to prodigality and ostentation, while vagueness and ambiguity was the norm in virtually every official transaction. Memories of history do not fade away quickly. It is strange as it is amusing t read the former governor of Abia state in his ‘good governance ‘in Abia during his 8 years rule. I can only grief for the reading public who might not have the facts to effectively situate the two regimes and personalities. For the avoidance of doubt these are two extremes with a marked difference in perception, emphasis, objectives, values and priority.
During the period of that regime , when inclination to malfeasance gained ascendancy over reason , and many politicians were cowed made to cultivate a slave mentality that consistently crawled for parental adoption , there were few of us who had the steely determination to call the bluffs.
A person‘s true greatness does not fully surface until he vacates the scene, otherwise the private and public life of the present governor of Abia state would bear true of an ancient injunction that ‘honour be given to whom it is due; understandably, this injunction has evolved to a nascent political axiom which canvasses ‘honour’ as the function and product of the performance ethics that bother on selfless sacrifice for collective good.
In the thinking of the ancient, honour’ becomes the group recognition of the relevance of character and action to the development of human collective.
It insults the sensibilities of Abians to read Orji Uzor trying unsuccessfully to inflict dent on the character and integrity of Governor T.A Orji, perhaps in vexed protest to the expose of his moral ills as then governor, by the sterling qualities of his successor.
It is not the fault of Governor T.A Orji that Orji Uzor chose to fritter away 8 solid years on thealtar of prodigality and ostentation an embraced actions that were visibly inimical to the objectives and logic of collective development . The spoilsport propensities in which the Abiaexecutive arm thrived under his regime left much to be desired and riled many of us whom he hunted down with all the war chest available to him as governor. The bestial reign of Orji Uzor’sregime was anchored on vile propaganda and cruelty that surpassed those of the roman emperors.
Contrariwise, the conscientious, considerate spirit with which Governor T.A Orji has marked his dealing with people has earned him the respect and admiration of people like me and we are in the greater majority of the Abia populace. He has, by consistent moral uprightness, struck a note on the imperatives of selfless service of Abians , considering public good greater than his personal convenience –a clear departure from what it was under Orji Uzor Kalu .
According to melford okilo,’Honour is the practice of right actions’. This statement bears true of the character and persons of chief T.A Orji, who merely endured Orji Uzor for 8 years , being a career civil servant at the time.
The former Governor has no moral standing to utter a word against Governor Orji, or any member of his family because what stands sure behind Governor T.A Orji is priceless andtimeless. It is beyond the mundane, and radiates transcendent values. It is the beauty of his humble but firm spirit which daily seeks to practice prestige conferred by wealth and the material privileges bestowed by class that engulfed the former governor while in office.
Governor T.A Orji cannot condescend so low to join issues with him. Those who quite understand Orji Uzor’s antics and unbridled cruelty will defeat him in his own game on his own turf when the time comes.
If it takes a pause to inform us of the liberation of Abia state from the grips of sinister demonism in oath-taking of all practical office holders as stand practice of that regime while it lasted ; the tacit deployment of silent elimination by hook or of all those who failed to succumb to the evil order. Or those who were found to have breached the oath ; the sudden decimation of personalities through hire and fire , using the air waves as the preferred medium of communication to inflict maximum injury on the targeted personalities ; the trumped-up charges usually ever available to hound opponents of the regime, notwithstanding their membership of the same political party ; the solicited hero worship of sorts savored by both mother and son; the celebration of mediocrity in governance ; the near total disrespect to elders and hunting of thosewho would not mortgage their conscience ; corruption in the highest order with direct debit on public treasury into private companies ; the hide and seek strategy as state craft; intimidation and extra judicial killings , etcetera, etcetera .
The victims and near victims of these social ills and criminalities, some of who are still around,can testify. I am one of such people. In the period, prominent sons of Abia in the capacities of ministers of the Federal Republic, National secretary and Republic, legal luminaries of note –some of who wear the silk today, were causalities’ of the despotism and cruelty that held court in that regime and would easily attest to the veracity of these piece . The investigative machinery ofthe EFFC equally testifies to that.
Abians have been librated and we have no apologies to anybody. we rather have vowed to remain grateful to God for his infinite wisdom and mercy that saw to the emergence to Governor T.A Orji , who came in the caste of Moses-serving in the court of pharaohs’ to receive the requisite training for the arduous task of liberation . it is history replayed in Abia . Just as Mosesendured the stench of injustice against all odds, to fit the man God required for the job. He hasnever failed to inform all who cares to hear, that he did not perform this feat by sheer strength or sophistication of his own, but by the Devine mandate entrusted on him by God.
For me, it is the freedom of speech and after the speech, the restoration of the dignity of all Abiapoliticians to operate without fear that makes all the difference. The provision of infrastructure by T.A Orji’s administration, which is verifiably littered all over the state, becomes secondary.The Arab spring is a testimony that freedom is a basic need of all humans, Irrespective of creed or race. If all these are acknowledged, I would need to know what else makes Orji Kalu’sdefinition of good governance – and let all who love justice and freedom say Amen.
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Sampson Orji was a member of Abia state House of Assembly during the 1st tenure of Orji Kalu’s regime and a member of the state executive council of Abia state in the present administration.
NYSC PASSING OUT: Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan of Delta State (centre) inspecting the parade mounted by the Batch A 2012 NYSC members during her passing out parade in Asaba, Thursday.NYSC PASSING OUT: Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan of Delta State (centre) inspecting the parade mounted by the Batch A 2012 NYSC members during her passing out parade in Asaba, Thursday.Cross section of Batch A 2012 NYSC members during her passing out parade in Asaba, Thursday Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan of Delta State inspecting the parade mounted by the Batch A 2012 NYSC members during her passing out parade in Asaba, Thursday.
