Edo State Governor Adams Oshiomole has berated the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) over their way of handling things in the Edo election. According to the Governor while speaking from his voting center claims people will however revolt if they get not to vote at the end of the day. He Made this assertion owing to the fact that voting materials are not supplied to all his stronghold, while there were also fake voters register sent to other places whereby people could not find their names in the voters register provided.
Meanwhile reports reaching 247ureports indicates that a Togolesse man simply recognized as Monday Asijolu was apprehended and fluff up by officials of the Nigerian immigration at Oba Akenzua Primary school, Uzebu. According to him, he said that he was brought in from Togo by one of the parties to engage in unlawful voting; he also confessed that they were brought in large numbers.
However, there has been massive turnout of voters in many parts of the state. News Agency of Nigeria, NAN, reports there was excitement in the air during the Edo Governorship on Saturday as voters trooped in large numbers to polling centres across the state to exercise their franchise. Voters turned out in large numbers with some arriving at the polling centres at 6a.m. In Benin and nearby local government areas, prospective voters arrived at polling centres as early as 7a.m. waiting for electoral officials to arrive so that they could be accredited to vote.
The paradox in Edo state: The very first Governor since the days of retired General Samuel Osaigbovo Ogbemudia of the defunct Bendel State, who has given Edo State a bunch of visible, quantifiable and palpable uplift, is now faced with the grim reality of possibly losing his bid for re-election. Governor Adams Oshiomole came into office on the heels of people’s expectations and had to tread the thorny path of armchair brigandry, stolen mandate, tribunals, godfatherism etc. before being finally manipulated into his rightful position. His facilitators and collaborators then were no other than those who fought running battles in the camp of his opponent, to assert their supremacy.
As time went on though, things fell apart and the rest is history. Today, Governor Adams Oshiomole is undisputedly, a very successful governor in terms of achievements and people’s expectations. Under normal circumstances, his re-election should have been a slam dunk case. The electoral reality on the ground in Edo state today is the clearest hallmark of a dysfunctional political system and process. Running for re-election as President of the United States of America in the year 1984, Ronald Reagan asked the voters just one question: “Are you better off today than you were four years ago?” This consequently became the bellwether magical question that defines the electoral chances of any incumbent contender whenever an office is up for grabs again. It has set a democratic benchmark that persists till today, several years after.
The basic question that should be serving the electoral interest of the political process in Edo State today should be “Is Edo state better off today than it was four years ago?” Even with the question unasked, the answer is heard everywhere from Benin City through the streets of Berlin down to the streets of Washington DC. This is the sole determinant factor that should have been beating the drums and blowing the trumpets of political realities in Edo state today.
Unfortunately, it is not.
When I wrote in my last analysis on the Edo State’s gubernatorial election that the odds were strongly against Governor Oshiomole in the strongly exacerbated state of negative political emotions in that state, many of my readers accused me of doing the bidding of the PDP. I wrote in that analysis that a PDP victory more “by crook than by hook” was getting increasingly likely. Very few people understood what that expression meant.
Today in political Nigeria, we live in an age of massive destructive positioning. Everyone seeks to take a clear position on issues in the manner of pitching one camp against another. The foremost and outstanding victim of this practice is usually the truth. When Olusegun Obasanjo was the civilian President of Nigeria, Nigerians massively sought to take a distinctive stance on political matters. Those who pitched their tents with the anti-Obasanjo camp felt obligated to defend the views of that camp with their last blood. Nothing good could or should be seen in the opponent and in fact, it was not permitted at all, to see beyond the scope of what the camp of favor ordained.
Pitiably, this tradition has taken a stronghold on public reasoning and general psyche in our present day. It has so degenerated to the basics and elemental qualification of reasoning that the concept of occupying the middle ground on matters of public debate is treated today, with contempt and almost as a taboo and an insult on the intelligence of the discerning public.
Now that the governorship seat of Edo state is at stake, whoever dares to talk about the weaknesses of Adams Oshiomole can only be a hostile propagandist on the payroll of the PDP. That is the view of Oshiomole loyalists. On the other hand, one prominent PDP leader in Edo state left a comment on my website ostentatiously praising the objectivity and neutrality of my analysis. In fact, not until someone called me to tell me that the man was not an ordinary reader I had no clue who this high-profile commentator was. It was to me like any other reader’s comment. It struck me so clearly that neither this PDP leader nor critics who branded me as a hostile propagandist had a clear grasp of what the expression meant that a PDP victory more “by crook than by hook” was getting increasingly likely.
A few days ago, I was least surprised to read in a Nigerian newspaper that a public opinion poll conducted by a private group of pollsters was giving the lesser known PDP candidate, retired General Airhiavbere a clear lead over the incumbent Governor Oshiomole. Ethnic considerations were said to be playing the paramount role. Even less surprising was the release one day after, in a nationwide circulating ACN newspaper, of another poll result to counter what appeared one day earlier. This time, the second poll was predicting a resounding victory for the incumbent Governor even in the home of his strongest adversary Mr. Fix-It. The lesser known, unpublicized and neutral polls conducted by a group of academic journalists that are closely affiliated with me however report a clear trend towards Adams Oshiomole. My sources declared unflinchingly that they did not poll for views and opinions. They polled registered voters that were likely to vote with the most practical scientific method at their disposal.
Today, the House of Representatives in Abuja is split along party lines. Assemblymen are reportedly trading vitriolic languages over the decision of the President of the country to deploy 3,500 soldiers to Edo State even though the state is not a troubled spot like Jos. On the other hand, people are however not oblivious of the presence of Niger Delta militants in Edo state in the services of the incumbent Governor. Eyewitness accounts have confirmed to me in private, the arrival of busloads of such thugs in campaign rallies and other political functions.
In other words, the stage is set in Edo state, for some anticipatory violence and electoral bloodshed. A strongly aggrieved leadership of the opposition party centered around elder Tony Anennih – an erstwhile facilitator of Oshiomole’s political shot to success – is hell-bent on seeing Oshiomole’s departure from government house. By hook or by crook! If in the traditional way of fishery, the fish becomes too smart to be caught by the ‘hook’ with some luring bonbons, modern fishery devised the ‘crooked’ fishing net to grab an entire population of fishes in a form of maritime genocide. With empirical indications now shedding light on the possible direction of the outcome of the elections in a level playing field, it will be safe to assume that only a miracle or the crooked option will put a smile on PDP’s face when the final toll is taken of all the valid votes cast.
The desperation and seriousness on the part of the PDP became clear to the incumbent Governor in the run-up to July 14th. He was reported to have arrogantly declared in conceitedness that he would go into the election without campaigning hoping that his achievements would speak for him. His narrow escape from death however seemed to have sounded a wake-up call! In the end, the incumbent Governor campaigned well in excess of what he had initially bargained for.
Learning their lessons from past by-elections and the last National Assembly elections however, the opposition PDP is leaving nothing to chance and seeks to match the Governor’s superior thuggery power in securing convincing and overwhelming victories. A trend that has served to legitimize the unnecessary use of fire-power in elections no matter the level of necessity! Adams Oshiomole is one politician in Edo state who has never had any real necessity to subscribe to the use of thugs during elections but had always done so all the same to avoid leaving anything to chance. The other party would have done and actually did so too anyway. Having taken inductive lessons from his mentor and predecessor Lucky Igbinedion, Governor Oshiomole had perfected the game and beaten the PDP to its own game and with its own weapon in several elections since his inception as Governor.
Having observed all developments from the sideline, the PDP is now desperate and has sealed its loopholes in one last ditch attempt to wrest power from Adams Oshiomole to teach him the lesson that those who installed him can as well unseat him. The response is the recruitment of more superior firepower replacing thugs with Niger Delta militants. It therefore remains to be seen, what role the huge number of soldiers deployed to Edo state will play in the final game plan.
All indications seem to point to an electoral process characterized by rigging on both sides with Oshiomole having the least need for any such practice. He will do it all the same because he will be driven by the urge to leave nothing to chance.
In what may be one of the last big acts for the aging Tony Anennih, the stakes could not be higher for the opposition PDP. An eventual PDP victory more by “crook” than by “hook” bears the huge potential of unleashing unspeakable bloodshed since a largely satisfied citizenry will express brutal disappointment at the departure of the achievement-prone Governor. Quelling such unrest will be a daunting task. This potential outcome may perhaps, persuade leading actors in the PDP to tread very cautiously and perhaps stop one step short of stealing victory.
In the end, Adams Oshiomole, who deserves to continue and bring to a logical conclusion, a project that he has started intelligently albeit with loads of flaws in process and method, will have learned the unenviable lesson that achievements alone does not give any man the opportunity and right to wallow in complacency and undue arrogance. In the end, this will turn out to have been the beauty of democracy only if the predators and desperate forces will let it be.
Without going through the biblical story of Esau and Jacob, sons of Isaac, I know you have smart idea of where I am heading to. The vituperations from former Federal Capital Territory Boss, Mallam Nuhu El Rufai wasn’t coming from him.
It was simply a camouflage for Ndigbo particularly Anambra state to start looking at him as Congress for Progressives Change (CPC) renewal committee Chairman while the main harm is done to us by our people within.
El Rufai was just executing the dummy of some political elites so to speak in Anambra. The piece wasn’t by him but he owned it up in his jargon for believability having got public attention for so long like his brother Farouk Mohammed Lawal, now in ignominy.
So, as House of Representatives Member Lawan went down from the pinnacle of unopposed Governorship candidate in his home because of bribery scandal shall El Rufai smell bad belly for misrepresenting issues in the South East, he never lived or stayed enough to run into conclusions.
Initially Lawan said he did not collect bribe of 620,000 Dollars, only to do a detour to admit he collected money but not as a bribery but as evidence to nail the oil magnate of Zenon Oil Femi Otedola .
Lawan was said to have called Otedola 16 times for the quantum of dollars bribe money to exchange hands. Who knows how much this Mallam was paid and how many times he was approached or called to adopt his name in the report published in his name by political opponents of Anambra state Government , progressive development in the state or to say the least opponents of Governor Peter Obi’s administration. Will El Rufai deny this report tomorrow?
I said this because his pen drifted to an unfamiliar territory and not only that facts and figures were distorted to his chagrin because I know true patriots must have lashed him back in eye for eye approach.
The miniature Mallam had enough issues to proffer solution for in his home stead, state and zone even Northern Nigeria at large where innocent souls are daily annihilated by his brothers in the name of Boko Haram. What has he said about that? He is rather than scheming to govern Nigeria as a vice President or Governor? The number of Alamajiris’ (that is school dropouts being used as urchins for destruction) in the Northern Nigeria are alarming yet Mallam like El Rufai has not deemed it fit to write about them.
In his piece on June 8, 2012 titled “Anambra’s Budget of Misplaced Priorities”, El Rufai rubbished the Southern states administration but busied himself talking about Anambra which he probably has not stayed more than two hours in his life.
What do we even expect from a man who does not know how to be loyal in politics. Point blank was what he did to his benefactor, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar who facilitated his emergence as Director General Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE). The numerous challenges we are facing today as a country was the shoddy manner, the business of the BPE was handled.
He recently lied against the administration of President Goodluck Jonathan by saying that his government is borrowing over 1 billion dollars every month however, the right man, Director General of Debt Management office (DMO), Dr Abraham Nwankwo came to the rescue by debunking El Rufai’s claims. He informed that the government has no such public debt. But before that he had already confused the gullible reading public.
This graduate of Quantity Surveying from ABU in his piece on Anambra’s 2012 budget was laced with inaccuracies and outright lies and misrepresentation of facts on ground. He talked about unemployment, insecurity, and lack of harnessing the natural resources in the state. He also talked about poverty which mesmerized me because I know that the poorest villager in Anambra state is richer than the richest villager in El Rufai’s state as a result of the entrepreneurial and capitalist nature of Ndigbo.
How could El Rufai say that level of poverty in my state has reached a frightening level of 22.8 percent, meaning that over 47 percent of my people are poor? He again goofed when he said Obi’s budgetary allocation to Education and Health -N10.99 Billion and N1.4 Billion in the N86.5 Billion Budget were meager.Only recently, the National Bureau of statistics visited Anambra and said that poverty has maintained a steady decline in the state with 22 percent all time low. So where did El Rufai get his figures that poverty is on the increase. I can shout it that least number of poor people is in Anambra.
UN Habitat had recently in China during an Expo in 2010 said that Anambra state has one of the fastest growing cities in the world and the World Bank in its report ,’doing business’ puts Anambra ahead of other states in the South East.
My in law once had buildings in not less than five choice areas Abuja. But today he has none and can hardly feed himself, courtesy of El Rufai, the Mallam. Before now, Ndigbo sequel to their Entrepreneurial spirits own Abuja by the virtue of owing 75 percent of the choice property in the Federal Capital Territory legitimately. Then came on board one Mallam called El Rufai and the entire lives of Ndigbo became miserable because they became target of El Rufai in collaboration of bad eggs among us, Igbos were deprived of their rightful position in Abuja. Their homes and mansions as well as offices and markets were demolished overnight.
We cry today not because of El Rufai’s assessment of Ndigbo particularly Anambra, but because some of our prodigal sons and daughters have not been able to read the hand writing on the walls that the people behind El Rufai do not want the progress of Ndigbo and would never want an Igbo man to come to limelight not talk less of becoming President in 2015 in Nigeria which is their Nigeria. A little empowerment for our fools and they have their field day. What happened after the war in 1970 was suppose to be a lesson to us but it is not.
If Senator Chris Nwabueze Ngige , Prof Chukwuma Soludo , Senator Andy Uba, Prince Nicholas Ukachukwu , Senator Ben Ndi Obi, Senator Joy Emodi, Hon Emeke Nwogbo, Hon Uche Ekwunife, Chief G.U Okeke , Chief Simeon Okeke to mention but a few wrote about Anambra then we have no need to question them like everybody is questioning El Rufai. We can only discuss it as brothers and probably correct erroneous points if any because they wont go on outright lies and misgivings about Anambra, our own Anambra.
Even, men and women in the academia or better still opponents of Obi from Anambra will not present it the way El Rufai did because they would be careful to say the wrongs only and not feeding the public with vile.
People who are afraid of the unity and love reigning among political office holders in the South-East irrespective of their political affiliations with Anambra Governor, Mr Peter Obi as the anchor person are trying to spoil it to enable crisis return for them to have their way. This is because with peace, nothing due the South East can be taken away by anybody no matter the collaboration.
They have ganged up against the people of South-East using Mallam El Rufai to make it believable but Mallam misfired. He could have discussed how CPC and Action Congress of Nigeria would do wonders against APGA and all that and have his peace minimally but delving into budget analysis when he is not a budget analyst or expert. If he was talking about issues that have something to do with Quantity Surveying and all that, we could have listened.
Some analysts felt that Mallam is being wrongly attacked but I was happy about the flurry of reactions against Mallam from Ndigbo high and low? Mallam could never be right in his summations about Anambra . He got it all wrong when he talked about neglect. I was not happy coming from Awka North where the highest deprivation was visible until Obi came in and did a poverty mapping listing my local government and four others. He did not stop at that rather,he went ahead to open up the communities in the local government.
Again having practiced journalism in Anambra for 12 years so to speak, I know the glaring things Obi’s administration has brought to Anambra but let me allow Obi’s pen soldiers to respond to El Rufai if they have not done so yet.
I can proudly say as Awka North man that if neglect is what Governor Peter Obi is giving us in Anambra , we are okay with that and want more of it to enable the Amansea-Ebenebe-Ugbene-Ugbenu road with a bridge to Amanuke get completed as well as the Isu-Aniocha to Achalla road through Amanuke to mention but a few. Once these roads in Awka North are completed hopefully before December this year , Awka North will be the true Eldorado it was positioned to be in the state because you can now asses Onitsha through Awka North and Enugu too.
Already the two major bridges across Awka North have been completed and one opened to traffic. From the council secretariat to hospitals , to schools renovation and rehabilitation , to College of Agriculture Mgbakwu, Electricity projects to communities that never had , to poverty alleviation to water projects , FADAMA projects to mention but a few. El-Rufai never visited Awka North and probably may never have spent over 2 hours in Anambra if he had visited and therefore could be a bad judge on happenings here. The chicken has finally come home to roast.
Only recently, the Vice President of the World Bank Oby Ezekwesili informed the public that the Gross Domestic Product of Anambra state is the highest. And I am aware that the senate report on financial stability of states informed the world that only Anambra and few other states are financially stable in Nigeria.
The Governor as at the last count has saved N10 Billion in the state account as money saved for the future of the state’s children. The state under Obi has not borrowed a dime from anybody. His government can beat its chest and boast of having the best of network of roads in not only the South-East but in Nigeria if care is not taken. How can you quantify the revolution happening in the Anambra school system where over N50 Billion have been invested directly and indirectly in renovating and rehabilitating schools, equipping them with modern laboratories and computers, school buses, Generators and just name it. There is school adoption exercise to start soonest and massive rehabilitation and renovation of public schools. Obi not only handed over schools to its former owners, he had given over N6 Billion to them to take care of the schools. Already, the Catholic Church got N762 Million and N498 Million went to the Anglican Church.
The theory of Obi’s matrix of development in the name of Anambra state Integrated Development Initiative (ANIDS) is still baffling to all including me because we know how we met Anambra and what is on ground now. He has done much good to the state than wrong, even though he has his minuses.
Obi may not be the best of man in keeping friends and relationships but he has said he has no regrets for that. He may have problems rewarding loyalty and supposedly good intentions but not to everybody. He may have his reasons of selective rewards as I may term it because only God knows what is in the heart of man.
There is no perfection expected from imperfection, meaning that there is no government in the world including that of President Barrack Obama that is perfect, Obi cannot be either.
Odogwu is a journalist based in Anambra state and can be reached on 08060750240, odoemslink@yahoo.com
Information recently made available to 247ureports.com through principal sources within the Federal Road Safety Corps [FRSC] reveal that the new improved security features imbedded in the new driver’s license of the federal republic of Nigeria has been approved for acceptance by the State of Maryland in the United States of America [USA] as a valid driver’s license in the state of Maryland. This information was confirmed by the department of motor vehicles in the State of Maryland following a comprehensive inspection and evaluation of the new security features imported into the new driver’s license being launched by the FRSC.
Already, the new driver’ license has been accepted by other European countries including Australia. Another North American country, Canada is said to be conducting an independent evaluation of the licensing process and the new security features to determine whether to begin accepting the new license as a valid driver’s license in their country.
The new driver’s license, as gathered, was launched to streamline the pervading duplicity in identity and the ongoing fraud within the issuing agencies. Presently, the FRSC created a single data base to house the bio-data of all holders of the driver’s license in a manner to enable complete background checks on would-be drivers or applicants for driver’s license. The data base houses the biometrics including advance methods of collecting and storing fingerprints, passport snap shots, verifiable address and next of kin contact information [phone number]. This information are captured by the new system and scans the entire database of driver’s license to find matches for existing duplicates in the database system. When matching duplicates are found – an alarm is raised. The search for duplicates normally takes less than a minute to a minute to complete.
Impressively, the process for applying for driver’s license [DL] has been overturned to ensure the integrity of the DL. Previously, DL’s are issues ate the various FRSC zones in the country. There are 12 FRSC zones in Nigeria. The new process requires for the entire DL to be issued [printed] at one source – that is the headquarters in Abuja. The application for DL now starts with a visit to the website [www.NigeriaDriversLicence.org] where the applicant will be asked to fill out the appropriate form [renewal/new/re-issue]- and then chose the closest FRSC office to pick up his/her license. From the website, a print out is generated which the applicant will take to the nearest FRSC office of his/her choice. At the FRSC office, fingerprints and other pertinent bio-data are captured electronically and transmitted instantly to the head office in Abuja. The local FRSC then issues a temporary driver’s license which has a validity period of 60days. A fee of N6,000 is paid directly to the Joint Tax Board via electronic means.
The headquarter office in Abuja will instantaneously input the captured data into the main database to scan for duplicates of fingerprints or photographs. When there appears a duplicate, the application is rejected. When there appear no duplicates, the application process is continued to the next level. The license is then printed and delivered to the local FRSC office.
In addition to the streamlined process, the new security features of the license appear to have improved considerably. New features imbedded into the new license make duplication of the license virtually impossible. This is particular to the quality of the material used for the new license. The barcodes at the back of the license are said to be scan-able by the field FRSC operatives while at the various checkpoints along the streets and roads throughout the country. And as gathered, the barcodes contain the bio-data of the holder of the license.
The Chief Executive of the FRSC, Osita Chidoka, is said to have been the brainchild behind the restructuring of the Nigeria Driver’s License program through the improved security features. It is believed the new process will provide a new realistic baseline for the start of a true identification process in Nigeria – for the various security outfits in Nigeria.
247ureports.com also gathered that the Chief Executive of the FRSC will be gradually introducing the point-system for repeat offenders of laws against road safety. With the new driver’s license, it will be possible to accurately record and score each offender in the database with each offense – and when a limit is reached, the offender’s driver’s license is either suspended or revoked.
It was also gathered that the majority of the DL holders are presently not captured in the main database of the FRSC due to the manner the process had been abused by the various FRSC zones. “Most of the licenses on the streets are mere plastic cards” said a top ranking officer of the FRSC who went to say that “as time goes on, the drivers will need to renew their licenses and we will automatically capture their bio data”.
Most importantly, the new process will enable checkmate the prevalence of insecurity in the country.
The Rivers State chapter of the Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN has described the petrol tanker fire incident that engulfed the Okogbe Community in Ahoada West Local Government Area of Rivers State in the early hours of Thursday, July 12, 2012 as one too many.
The party in a statement issued and signed by its Publicity Secretary, Jerry Needam regrets that under three months the State has lost several human and material resources to avoidable fire disasters, the preceding incident claiming over six lives including a pregnant woman and her entire family and property worth millions of naira along the New Airport Road, Igwuruta in Ikwerre Local Government Area.
According to Jerry Needam, weeping and wailing cannot resurrect the dead but to have a re-think on how the resources of the State are mis-managed which is responsible for the bad roads and abject poverty in the land.
The ACN Spokesman insists that if those at the helm of affairs at the Federal, State and Local Government levels have the interest of the masses at heart and are committed in rendering selfless services to the people, this kind of misfortune will be minimal.
Besides loss of lives through accidents, Jerry Needam said, the East/West Road in recent times has become a haven of sort, for armed robbers and kidnappers.
He therefore called for the immediate rehabilitation of the roads, provision of fire fighting services at the Council areas and 24 hour surveillance of such important busy border areas by security agents to checkmate such disasters etc.
The party prayed God for the repose of the souls of the departed and the fortitude to bear the irreparable loss.
The party also called for a day prayer for those who lost their lives in the unfortunate fire incident.
Weeping and wailing are not enough. They are understatements to describe what happened in Okogbe village of Ahoada West Local Government Area of Rivers State on Thursday 12th July, 2012. A petrol tanker carrying fuel damaged and fire later gutted and killed and injured over two hundred people who came to scoop the fuel it was carrying.
This happened along the East-West road the Federal Government said it’s dualizing for years now without end. This shows the level the government can go to neglect its citizens, but only to show chameleonic expression of concern later, when Nigerians perish on such incongruous road that dots all the parts of the country, but especially in the South-East and South-South.
Like the Federal Government, the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) is good at busy-bodying, calculating casualties of accident victims, but not to tell the government that instituted it, the number of roads in Nigeria that need urgent re-construction – not repairs – because their damage transcends beyond mere repairs.
If the roads were in good shape tankers and other vehicles would not have been attracting damages and falling per second on the Nigerian roads, let alone, to attract the people to scoop fuel from tankers. Now, those who perished in the incident were Nigerians burnt beyond recognition and they were punctually buried at the scene of the explosion by the government, without any form of remorse, as if the government was shying away from paying money, which may accrue if their remains were deposited in morgue.
What happened at Okogbe ought to call for sober reflection of where Nigeria is headed. Nigeria has become a country of those who stockpile gold and silver and spend it not in God’s path, and the masses are reaping the tidings of painful agonies in all facets of the Nigerian Project. Being ill as Nigeria is is shocking; she has become a place where people die with a pain and agony that are different, which yank the living out of theirselves. The money was always disappearing, which has culminated to hundreds of innocent lives gulped in swoops of insecurity of lives and property, occasioned by decays in all ramification of governance. Corruption has cost too much blood and agony to be surrendered at the contemptible price of speech-making of condolences.
Against that influence, it is not about Governor Chibuike Amaechi being “saddened” by the incident and had to truncate his official commitments in Abuja to rush to the scene of the incident, but about fulfilling his promises on such occasion as he once did when a similar incident occurred at Igwuruta in March, where about six persons died, and the governor promised that the Igwuruta road would be put in place. What has happened till date?
In earnest, the people and government of Rivers State should reject the Federal Government’s condolence message, because of its negligence to clarion calls to put the Federal Government-owned bad roads in the state in good shape. The Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC) should also be neglected, because it is much concerned with the new plate numbers and the new driver’s license and not about the condition of the roads the vehicles that will use those items will ply. The roads are in very bad shapes, but the FRSC is much concerned with catching drivers who pitiably make use of these roads better called pit of hell, and hardly mark any vehicle “off-road”. How many times has the FRSC called on, or sent proposals, to the Federal Government to repair its-owned roads? What they will be after are motorists to catch and send condolences when Nigerians perished in road and air mishap!
Anybody blaming the tanker drivers as illiterates who use alcohol, sleep in the brothel etc is making a grave mistake. In that sense, what has those in the government who are schooled been doing to help the poor conditions that Nigerians have come to endure in the country? Government always forgets the despair and agony on the Nigerians’ faces the awful successive governments have stamped on their faces.
The government has made Nigerians to bear greater agony and they are bearing an untold story inside their selves. The government is making Nigerians to look like Marathon runners with bad shoes who suffer the agony of the feet. The government will always send its sympathy messages when Nigerians perished in avoidable deaths because of infrastructural decays. But when will this end?
Odimegwu Onwumereis the Coordinator, Concerned Non-Indigenes In Rivers State (CONIRIV). Mobile: +2348032552855. E-mail: nirivpol@gmail.com
A female Permanent Secretary, PS, in the cabinet of Governor Babatunde Fashola of Lagos state, Mrs Adedoyin Anne Olusoga is now enmeshed in a big land scam, ireports-ng.com can authoritatively reveal.
Our investigations have revealed that the top government official who has been caught hands down misfired due to her desperation to gather enough resources for the wedding of her son coming up next month. Mrs Olusoga who is the current Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Home Affairs and Culture and due for retirement at the end of this year was said to have sold a plot of land to a church, the Grail Message, for N90 million few weeks ago after selling the same plot of land to a company way back in 1993 for N800,000.
Findings revealed that Olusoga was allocated the land in the high browLekki phase 1 housing estate by the state government in 1991. She thereafter sold the land to a now distressed finance firm, Mutual Assurance in 1993 for N800,000. The company had also years later sold the same land to a prominent lawyer, Chief Eyimofe Atake, SAN.
Unknown to Mrs Olusoga that the company had sold the land to the Senior Advocate of Nigeria, SAN, she again gathered some old documents about two months ago and offered the same land for sale. A source in the office of Mr Hakeem Muri Okunola, the Permanent Secretary, Bureau of Lands in Alausa, Ikeja Lagos told ireports-ng.com that “Mrs Olusoga was confronted by my boss when the SAN started making troubles and the only thing she could say was that she had to sell the land again because the company she sold it to in 1993 had gone down and there is no one doing anything on the land. she claimed she didn’t know the land has a new owner in the person of Chief Eyimofe Atake.”
However, when ireports-ng.com contacted Mrs Olusoga to seek her reaction to the scam, she initially feigned ignorance of the issue. When pressed further, she said “whoever gave you that information, I don’t know.”
The PS who had fought hard a few months ago to become the state’s Head of Service before the position went to Prince Adesegun Olusola Ogunlewe in May 2010 has however been running helter skelter to avoid a situation where the scam will mess up her retirement which is due in a few months. She has reportedly been taking money round to some godfathers to minimise the damage to her career should Chief Atake go ahead to report the embarrassing act to the governor who she views may order for her dismissal.
Today saw sadness in the quiet community of Ndiowu in Anambra State – as an entire family was buried in one grave. The Anyaene family lost their live in the Dana Air crash of June 2, 2012. They were buried today amidst tears and grief.
the cleargy lead by arch. bishop Ephraim Efobi
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speaker house of Rep. Aminu Tambuwal flanked by Dr. Alex Ekwueme
The Shehu of Borno, Alhaji Abubakar Ibn Umar Garba El-Kanemi and the Deputy Governor of the State, Alhaji Zannah Umar Mustapha escaped an attack by a suicide bomber suspected to be a member of the Boko Haram sect. The incident happened around 2:15pm, immediately after Friday Jumat prayers at the Mosque in front of the Shehu’s palace.
Eye witness account claim a teenager of about 15 years old was noticed walking towards the two dignitaries outside the Shehu’s mosque where they just had the Jumat prayers.
However, the suspicious manner in which the boy was approaching the Shehu and deputy governor, drew the attention of the security men guarding the Shehu who quickly tried to shield him.
The bomb went off in the process, killing at least 10 other people in the vicinity, wounding two of the soldiers according to eye witness.
Men of the Joint Task Force (JTF) and other security operatives immediately rushed the traditional ruler and the deputy governor to the Government House while the mosque and the palace were condoned off by soldiers and policemen to prevent further attacks.
Spokesman for the Joint Task Force, Lieutenant Col. Sagir Musa confirmed to Channels Television correspondent, Jonathan Gopep that five People were killed in the attack.
The area around the Shehu’s palace has been cordoned off and more soldiers have been deployed to the scene.
The idea behind the enactment of the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB Bill) originated about four years ago under former President Olusegun Obasanjo when he set up an Oil and Gas Reform Implementation Committee (OGIC) to assess modality for the reformation of the oil industry. The committee was saddled with the responsibility to carry out a comprehensive reform of the oil Industry with a view to bring Nigerian system under the international best practices and to replace the opaqueness haunting our oil industry with transparency. TheAct is to establish legal and regulatory framework, institutions and regulatory authorities for the Nigerian petroleum industry and to establish guidelines for the operation of the upstream and downstream sectors..
The Act which was generally applauded by Nigerians was some how prevented from not seeing the light of the day hence it was fraught with myriad of problems militating against it. This includes multiplicity of oil reform Bills at the National Assembly and lack of political will by the Federal Governmentto push through the PIB Bill. In addition, are the activities of multinational companies who wantedthe status quo to be maintained in respect of Pre-PIB Joint Venture Agreements with the NNPC/Federal Government.. They are afraid that tampering with the Joint Venture Agreements will cede too much control to the Federal Government. .The multinational oil companies are not comfortable with the fiscal regime and increased Royalty Payments in the PIB. Some provisions of the “PIB” were poorly drafted and not well articulated and some salient important issues not addressed at all and/or included in past draft versions of “the PIB” .For instance:
• Fiscal regime for gas not touched and/or addressed at all;
• Fiscal regime for offshore drilling is poorly drafted and omitted ultra deep offshore drilling;
• Blueprint for NNPC privatisation is completely superficial –need to include strong provisions for commercialising and privatising NNPC in line with international best practices;
• The role of Minister of Petroleum Resources in the post PIB regime is not properly defined – for instance:
• Who oversees the reform implementation process?
• Should the minister’s discretionary power to award and revoke licenses be retained?
• Should the minister’s role be restricted to policy making and setting directives for the industry only?
Despite the aforementioned obstacles on the way of the Bill, Nigerians breathed a sigh of relief when President Goodluck Jonathan in his national broadcast in commemoration of Nigeria’s democracy day on 29th May 2012 promised that a new PIB would be ready in June 2012 for onward transmission to the National Assembly.
Subsequently. Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke inaugurated a task force chaired by former senator and chairman of the Board of Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Udo Udoma Udo, was also expected to work alongside a technical sub-committee headed by the Director-General of Department for Petroleum Resources (DPR), Mr. Osten Olurunsola, which was charged with reviewing all former versions of the bill and come out with a draft within the next 30 days. They were saddled with the responsibility of drafting a new PIB Bill.
Thus, the new PIB Bill presented by Minister of Petroleum Resources Mrs Allison-Madueke to the President recently is meant to change everything from fiscal terms to overhauling the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), promote Nigerian content and significantly increase domestic gas supplies, especially for power generation and industrial development. The ultimate aim of the PIB was to refine the Petroleum laws, after more than 50 years of oil and gas operations in Nigeria. This was taking good care off by consolidating the 16 existing laws into a single set of provisions, leading to an overhaul of the legal, fiscal, commercial and governance frameworks.
The core principles of the new PIB, are to imbibe global best practices of openness, transparency, good governance, indigenous participation and sustained revenues for Government. Under the new PIB Bill two new institutions would be formed to replace the NNPC once the draft PIB was passed. These are the National Oil Company (NOC) and National Assets Management Company (NAMC). These institutions and the petroleum industry would be under the supervision of the petroleum minister. The NAMC is expected to be 100 percent government owned, while the government is to adequately capitalise and progressively sell government’s stake in the NOC, down to 49 percent.
A critical study of the Bill revealed that it reaches into all the facets of the petroleum industry and it liberates the sector from all the government constraints and impediments which hitherto rock the industry, rendering it unattractive to both local and international investors. It gives incentives to both small and big players in the industry through transparent and fair rules of participation. The concept of good corporate governance is also evident in the provisions of the Bill, which also features strong fiscal framework beneficial to the country. In a nutshell, it moves Nigeria clearly towards the international best practices in the extractive sector.
Furthermore, the Bill has far reaching provisions on the issues of Nigerian content. For example, it provides that no project can be approved without a comprehensive “Nigerian Content Plan” which must include obligations on the part of the investor to purchase local goods and services, increase employment, as well as to focus on training, education research and development. It also requires the foreign investors to follow guidelines in order to assist local companies. Adherence to the provisions of the Bill will surely boost the purchase of local goods and services leading to higher employment opportunities for Nigerians.
Series of landmark provisions are also addressed in the Bill to correct the anomalies of the current petroleum regime. For example, it is a notorious fact that the Deep Sea Water Blocks contract that Nigeria entered into in 1993 with foreign investors is one of the worst contracts any oil-exporting nation can enter into as it seems to foster unilateral advantages only on the foreign partners with Nigeria having very little or no gains under the production sharing formula in the agreement.
The royalties accruable to the country are Zero per cent! The foreign partners take I00 per cent of the products. Even the taxes system under the said “bad deal” contract does not provide much benefit for the country as the tax regime included generous tax credits to these foreign investors which wiped out a great percentage of the collectible tax by the Federal Government. Now under the Bill, there are a number of provisions on ventures like Deep Water operations that are much more beneficial to the countries and comparable to what other oil exporting nations do collect under such contracts.
In totality, the Bill would both eradicate the practice of discretionary award of licenses and contracts in the upstream sub-sector of the industry, as well as ensuring that only genuine investors with appropriate technical and financial capacity get the oil licenses.
In spite of all the advantages described above, it is very surprising and worrisome that the National Assembly, since 2008, has not given it the urgent attention it deserves by passing it into a law. As a matter of fact, there is a school of thought that believes that some cabalistic vested interests are the brains behind the non-passage of the bill through underground machinations. There is a belief that a regime of openness and transparency the Bill would usher in would erase some accruable gains under the present shady regime.
No doubt, the government must be losing billion of Naira daily as a result of non passage of the Bill by the National Assembly .Only a few days ago, Regional Executive Vice President, Sub-Sahara Africa, Shell Upstream, Mr. Ian Craig, who spoke at the opening of the 2012 edition of the Nigerian Oil and Gas, in Abuja, said Nigeria loses approximately 150,000 barrel per day to theft – an amount translating to a whopping N2.9 billion daily!
The pertinent question here is that “Is the prolonged delay in the passage of this all-important Petroleum Industry Bill attributable to underground manipulation of the vested interests or is it just a case of unpatriotic nonchalance on the part of the lawmakers?
Whatever maybe the situation, Nigerians are appealing to the law makers saddled with the responsibility of passing the Bill into law to as a matter of urgency save Nigerians the billions of Naira lost daily for the delay of the Bill by assenting to it once it is passed to the Chamber by President Goodluck Jonathan.
