On the first day of January 2013, an annual ritual of our first ladies at the federal and state levels opened our eyes to some obscure and oppressive human situations. As an annual event, first ladies visit hospitals to take delivery and welcome the first newborn in the New Year. This is not strange, what is strange is what followed after her Excellency Lady Mercy Odochi Orji had received Little Favor Chimezie Uchendu, the first baby of the year and native of Obowo in Imo State. There and then, she enquired about the status of some patients who looked healthy yet interned at the Federal Medical Centre Umuahia Abia State.

These people though cured, were not able to leave the hospital because they could not defray the cost of the Hospital services due to indigence. It was like setting the captives free as the first lady of the state paid outstanding bills of eleven women totaling over one million naira. She went across to the male ward and repeated the same act on three men one of who comes from a neighbouring state of Akwa-Ibom. The act above should be inculcated in our minds. It is highly charitable, commendable and worthy of emulation for so many reasons. Chief Mrs. Odochi Orji has a right to be selective, insisting on giving her gift to an Abia child, rather than one from Imo state. She may have been satisfied assisting the female folks only in gender solidarity but no, she extended to the male ward towering above discrimination based on gender, ethnicity and state of origin, and rather she based her assistance on indigency and mankind. It could be recalled in the past that the Governor’s wife has been living the full meaning of her name to the fullest. She has attracted charitable collaboration with many groups home and abroad notably, Ejay foundation USA, Tolaran Charity Foundation, Lagos, Hannah May Foundation, launched in April 2 2012, Mtn Foundation, Imaging Consultants USA, Health African Cancer Mission, USA, Abia State Med Mission, USA, and Associated Health Resources Centre USA. Beyond the bargain, she hosted and provided logistics to these bodies that attempted and succeeded to a great extent in ameliorating the health conditions of Abians and neighbours.

Over the years, people have been screened for cancer, groups have tested and advised on handling of non-communicable disease like high blood pressure and diabetes. Others have received eye glasses, crutches, hearing aids. Most HIV positive have not been left out. Through her pet project, widows have moved into newly constructed and furnished houses, childless couples have been assisted in adoption staving off separation and divorce that would have resulted from barrenness. Through the Hannah May Foundations, Youths and adults alike have acquired skills, received machines and equipment free of charge to offer services like computer analysis, hairdressing, dress making, event, management and catering as to live successfully, become lawful and marriageable members of society. She has raised family values to an enviable height by example as her mode of dressing has become a dress code in Abia and beyond. She has given out her only daughter at the ripe age to a deserving son not waiting and insisting as some would do that it should be a Governor or the president’s son that can have her hand in matrimony.

Above all, His Excellency Chief T.A. Orji has enjoyed rancor free family life and thus able to proffer solutions to many issues of Governance. Strangely enough, her office gets no budgetary appropriation but she has risen assiduously to the challenges becoming a powerful fund raiser. By all these, we call on Abians to emulate Her Excellency. The bible is replete with injunctions on helping the needy, not only our brothers or sisters but taking the teachings of Jesus Christ in the book of Luke through the story of the Good Samaritan that your neighbor is not necessarily one who lives in your neighborhood but anybody who needs your help.

To this end, let us as a hobby, duty and precept visit hospitals, orphanages and churches to assist in one way or the other. No amount of cash or kind is too small. Denying yourself of some leisures and converting the proceeds to some token gifts can give a needy or somebody bedridden, wreathing in pains and gnashing of teeth a lifeline. Remember the widow’s mite became the greatest gift of all times and the story celebrated, read from generation to generation. Today it is a popular sermon on the lips of our clergies on radio, Television, and Churches. Let us be merciful at least we all live by His grace and mercy. Any service thus rendered is for the growth of mankind and the glory of God.

If Information reaching is anything to go by, then the Sagbama Local Council will soon experience break down of law and order as forerunners of the governor had sowed a bitter seed to unseat the present executive chairman in the council, Chief Koku Gariga at all cost. Our reliable source revealed that the senior special assistant to thegovernor on domestic matters, Mr. Richman Samuel went to sagbama council with a tainted coastal bus with security agencies to carry away the elected councilors after their marathon sitting on that day. The source went further that on reaching government house, mobile phones were seized from the councilors before deliberations as both making calls and recording will not arise.

It is a public knowledge that last December 14, 2012 the Supreme Court in Abuja ruled that the former chairmen were illegally occupy the seat and therefore Chief Koku Gariga of Sagbama, Mr. Selekibina Saboh of Ekeremor and Deacon Ineye Igbaifegha of Kolokuma/Opokuma local

Government areas of the state. One councilor who pleaded not to be mentioned on print said they were actually invited to government house to ensure that the council Boss is removed from office before the proposed local government election in March this year.

“The government asked us to remove the chairman if he (chairman) fails to accept the nomination of government choice. Our mobile phones were seized and instructed not to disclose anything but I felt it is inhuman to punish an innocent man who had his mandate from the Supreme Court to rule the council, and the government is bent on causing problem in the council. I am also returning as councilor to the council but this is unfair even to a right thinking person in oursociety,” the source said.

A close aide to the governor said what the governor is doing is wrong in a democratic setting of our country because imposition of council vice chairman on the chairman is totally wrong, simply because the Nigerian first Lady, Dr. Dame Patience Jonathan suggested Hon. Waripamowei Dudafa who is now Special Adviser to the President on Domestic & Social Events as running mate to him, Governor Henry Seriake Dickson vehemently rejected the first lady’s nomination and picked the retired naval officer. So he should equally respect the rights of other elected political office holder because the chairman is the chief security officer of the local government area.

“If the governor fails to drop his ambition to nominate the vice chairman which the chairman whom I know will not succumb to his desire, will ignite uncontrollable political crisis in the area and the state because the present little peace the people are witnessing in the state,” the government house source said. A failed chairmanship aspirant said, the governor is self centered in the sense that the local government PDP chairman is from his constituency including the wrong chairmanship flag bearer who emerged after a Supreme Court pronouncement nullifying the election of the former chairmen as illegal.

“Even the state secretary of the party was not allowed to produce a councilor in his own ward, what a government is this? He presided over the party primary in the Sagbama local government area where he fixed his people and openly go against his political opponents in the area. Is this service to the people? How can governor produce all the councilors without recourse to other politicians? This is undemocratic and is authoritarian in nature,” he lamented. A professor of law said the Supreme Court Judgment stands as no chairmanship election in those three local government areas is conducted as the previous occupants were declared illegal.

Going by the Judgment, the sacked chairmen are to refund all money spent during their illegal tenure as required by law. The governor who is a learned colleague should know this by making no mistake to conduct any chairmanship elections, if he refuses and go ahead as he planned the law will bring them back as this will affect the smooth arrangement of council poll in the state. As this was done by his predecessor that has endangered the earlier arrangement, so the governor should think wise or else the law will take it own course, he warned.

When the chief press secretary to the governor was contacted, calls made to him were not pick for comment.

The Supreme Court, yesterday, set aside the ruling of the Appeal Court which ordered the Edo State Election Petitions Tribunal to hear afresh the matter of non-qualification of Governor Adams Oshiomhole for the July 14, 2012 Edo state gubernatorial election.

Justice Bode Rhodes-Vivour who gave the Supreme Court judgement said the Appeal Court erred in its ruling, as the Edo Election Petitions Tribunal which earlier struck out the paragraphs relating to non-qualification was correct in doing so.

The Supreme Court maintained that the respondent, Maj-Gen Charles Airhiavbere made an unpardonable blunder of not including the ground of non-qualification in the original pleadings at the tribunal. The apex court maintained that the court is not a father Christmas who dishes out what is not asked for and that a party is bound by his pleadings.

The Supreme Court however maintained that there is no nexus between the issue of non-qualification and alleged corrupt practices in the election, it subsequently ordered the tribunal to hear paragraph 30 of the petition which sought to disqualify votes in 61 out of 2,642 units in the state over alleged electoral malpractice.

It would be recalled that the Edo State Election petitions tribunal had, on September 27, 2012, dismissed the petition filed by Major General Charles Airhiavbere (rtd) in which he challenged the educational qualifications of Edo State Governor, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, describing it as a wild goose chase.

In his ruling, the Tribunal Chairman, Suleiman Ambursa said the petition is a pre-election matter that ought to have been dispensed with long before the July 14, 2012 governorship election.

Mr. Ambursa had averred that in line with the provisions of the constitution, candidates are expected to submit copies of their documents to the Independent Electoral Commission (INEC) before the election and that the same constitution mandates the electoral body to publish the said documents in order that any other candidate that is not satisfied with the information therein contained might approach the Federal High Court for appropriate interpretation.

Dissatisfied with the tribunal ruling, Airhiavbere approached the Appeal Court to quash the tribunal ruling and restore some paragraphs in the petition.

In its ruling given on November 15, 2012, the Court of Appeal sitting in Benin in a unanimous ruling, ordered that the petition filled by Airhiavbere be remitted to the lower Tribunal “for trial denovo.”

Chairman of the three-man panel, Justice Helen Ogunwumiju said the tribunal was wrong to have said it lacked jurisdiction on Oshiomhole’s academic qualification being a pre-election matter that should be heard by the conventional court.

The appellate court said by the provision of Section 177 of the 1999 Constitution as amended, the lower tribunal had jurisdiction to entertain Airhiavbere’s petition bordering on Oshiomhole’s qualification because the Court can hear pre-election and election matters on qualification.

Not comfortable with the Appeal Court ruling, Oshiomhole approached the Supreme Court which in its judgment, yesterday, faulted the Appeal Court ruling and upheld the decision of the tribunal.

Once again the United States of America (USA) has shown that its own brand of democracy is primarily based on exchange of ideas, debates, dialectics, and dialogue especially with respect to her internal affairs. This is reflected in her handling of the “fiscal cliff” and gun control issues. Yes, it may not always be the case in international affairs where force was used especially under the Republicans, who had destroyed great World civilizations in Iraq, Afghanistan etc.  The difference between a democrat’s approach and a republican approach is that the democrats believe you do not kill your enemies to be their friend. The republicans believe you must kill your enemy to be their friend. Despite the difference, both agree that “exchange of ideas with the hope of ultimately reaching agreement” is the first best approach to leading a nation and evolving it into a united country. Theirs’ has always been a combination of Philosophy and Realism. It is a proof that coercion alone does not guarantee a united country; rather dialectics, debates and discussions.

So it remains very incorrect to say that Nigeria’s unity achieved through guns should be sustained by guns. Nigeria’s so-called unity today is so fragile and unsustainable we must allow ideas and discussions of the issues surrounding it. The un-discussed, fragile and unsustainable Nigerian unity is ticking away and it is responsible for some negative attitudes of Nigerians towards development. But will Nigerian leadership allow the discussion process? These are fundamentals easily ignored but eating deep into the Nigerian complex rot.

The process of nurturing ideas into policy is simple provided the leadership believes and allows it. When an issue erupts and it is of a national scale and significance, it provokes idea-solutions of various colour, contour, content and context from different persons, groups and organizations especially in federalism. The first thing government should do is to rightly define the issue in the light of its circumstances and history. The next thing to do is to bring the challenge to the public for debate and put in place government agency or ministry to monitor and report on all the critical idea-solutions offered by the public. That debate must be totally free of government interference. The fourth thing to do at the end of the debate is to get a National Orientation Agency (NOA) and the relevant ministry to articulate the idea-solutions into a draft document. Next, the articulated document is submitted to the Federal Executive Council (FEC) for deliberation. The sixth thing to do is to draft a government position paper reflecting FEC’s position. Next is to develop it into an Executive Bill. Next, is to deposit the bill with the National Assembly (NASS). The bill is passed into an Act of the NASS. The tenth stage is for the government to put together all necessary machinery for the successful implementation of the Act. The eleventh stage is to set up the Policy Monitoring & Evaluation machinery for the assessment of the impact as well as public reactions to the policy and report back to the government. This is the policy feedback loop. The last stage is the constant reviews, amendments and refining of strategies of the policy and its implementation. Private bills should pass through the same stages.

This process does not vitiate the different roles of the three-tiers of government in tackling challenges within their constitutional responsibilities. So the process could also be applied at the micro levels with minor modifications, if any. This caveat saves us from unnecessary duplication of government efforts at resolving society problems. An example of such duplication is government’s efforts to develop the Niger Delta. There are the Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs, 13% derivation fund, Special Adviser to the President on Niger Delta, Special Adviser on Amnesty Programme, Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), River Basin Development Authority in Niger Delta states, state governments in the Niger Delta, Local Governments in the Niger Delta etc. Yet, development in the Niger Delta is hardly commensurate with the millions, billions and trillions of Naira spent in the Niger Delta.

The significance of allowing public debate on national issues before making a policy is that when such issues erupt in the future, the government can always remind the people of the decision that was taken on this matter in the past, and the people will always agree because they were involved. Again public debates are the iron-crucibles that shape, strengthen and refine ideas into utilitarian policy state for the enrichment of the common good.

Unfortunately for Nigerians, this had not been the case. The reason is that Nigeria’s political leaders hate contrary ideas, public disagreement, debates, dialogue etc. This is why most of the important issues that should have been discussed had not been discussed and they had remained unresolved. For example, the fact that Biafra was conquered by Nigeria does not mean that the security of the Igbo in Nigeria is better today than in 1966. Or does the killing of Kenule Saro-Wiwa in 1995 mean that the survival of the Ogoni is better today than it was in 1995? Both are not; so how can we determine that these people will have confidence in the unity of Nigeria?

Many have argued that the ideas-hating-attitude by the Nigerian political leadership was inherited from Nigeria’s colonial masters and the military. But both the colonial masters and the military are gone! The truth may be that their effects are still around. Hence Nigeria’s leadership still strongly believes in the use of force and the continued suppression of alternative ideas, debates, dialogue and dialectics on issues of national importance. For example, in the interview granted to The Guardian and published on Sunday December 30, 2012, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo who ruled Nigeria for eleven years was proud and happy to say that: “… my own generation fought for the unity of this country.” It was this fighting mentality that led to his mass killings at Odi, Choba and Zaki-Biam as civilian President. These are issues that political solutions would have resolved without killing Nigerians and a good example was late President Yar’Adua’s amnesty solution to the Niger Delta militancy. Can the peoples of Odi, Choba and Zaki-Biam forgive Nigeria without discussing and reconciling the issues? Never! So, how can Nigeria remain one country with such anger in the minds of the people?

It is this kind of anger (which, for example, Prof. Chinua Achebe had succeeded in bearing for 45 years) in people on whom force was visited that had led to Achebe’s recent book on the Nigeria-Biafra civil war. The same anger produced by the use of force had led to Shell not producing crude oil from Ogoni since General Abacha killed Kenule Saro-Wiwa in November 1995. The use of force on people does not produce lasting unity; it rather produces hate, intolerance, suspicion, the feeling of rejection and the incessant move for separation, which Obasanjo, in the said interview, feels is a joke. I would rather think Obasanjo was joking because he appears not to understand that the complaints of the people are stronger than military weapons. The military power of the former USSR could not stop small ethnic groups from leaving the union.

So, one way to have Nigeria’s fragile unity strengthened is for government to be courageous enough to put up a platform (not the kangaroo-type recently organized by the NASS for their so-called constitution review exercise) for the thorough discussion of the key issues that have hurt the minds of the Nigerian people and have led to hate and intolerance amongst Nigerians. Some of those issues to be discussed should include the amalgamation of the Northern and Southern Protectorates on January 1, 1914; Bakassi people’s demand for self determination;  the creation of Nigeria into three regions that led to the abuse of ethnicity; the ethnic minorities second class status in Nigeria; the common claim that the Yoruba is tribalistic and they appear not to care about it; the sacking of Prof. Ita Eyo by Azikiwe from the Eastern House; the imprisonment of Obafemi Awolowo; the Operation Weti; the 15^th January 1966 coup; the 1966 genocide against the Igbos in Northern Nigeria; the 29^th July 1966 Danjuma coup; Biafra; the Gideon Orka coup in April 1990; Dele Giwa; the annulment of the June 12, 1993 Presidential Election; the killing of MKO Abiola; the Ogoni Bill of Rights; the Odi, Zaki-Biam, Choba and Zagon-Kataf killings. My own ethnic group, Ikwerre, is angry that since 26^th April, 1993, the Nigerian state could not produce who killed Dr (Senator) Obi Wali in his bedroom at his home village Rumuigbo.

The success of this discussion may mark the beginning of the true healing process of Nigeria’s hateful past because these are the key issues that had embittered Nigerians against themselves and they are all products of force or Realism. The use of force to rule a people can only put the country together for a while, but it surely cannot sustain the building and development of the nation which requires the sincere cooperation of the people.

Nigeria may disintegrate through a very violent revolution if we continue to disallow these issues to remain suppressed and unresolved. Nigeria cannot use force at all times and succeed, she therefore needs to imbibe the culture of allowing social discourse that would generate the requisite ideas needed to sustain national unity. It is never a matter for the Realist Prince alone or the Philosopher King alone, it is indeed a matter for both with the latter having over 60% consideration. If you still doubt how it works, ask the Americans!

Edo State governor, Adams Oshiomole, has threatened to publish the report submitted to him by the police to drive home his accusations that the police was involved in the murder of his private secretary, Olaitan Oyerinde.

This is coming after the Inspector General of Police, Mohammed Abubakar, labelled the accusation by the former Labour Union president as “unfounded”.

Abubakar today in a meeting with senior police officers said the police authority will respond to Oshiomole’s claim appropriately.

Addressing senior police officers in Abuja, IGP Abubakar promised to reply the Edo state governor appropriately.

The Edo State governor had at a national summit on security and a launch for new Code of Conduct in Abuja called for the sack of the Deputy Inspector General of Police in charge of criminal investigation department for alleged complacency in unraveling those behind the murder of the late Oyerinde.

Source: Channel Tv

Irked by Monday’s castigation of Chief Timipre Sylva by the Bayelsa State Commissioner for Finance,  Hon  Duate Iyabi, particularly claims that the Hon Dickson Seriake administration inherited a paltry N4,451 from his predecessor and the challenges posed by the N50bn bond his predecessor secured, Niger Delta leaders have risen in defence of the ex-governor, describing the recent attack on Sylva as a ploy to whip up sentiment that would make the ex- governor unpopular and also divert attention from  Dickson’s poor performance.

Rising from a meeting in Lagos on Wednesday, Chairperson of the Publicity Committee of the Assembly of Niger Delta leaders, Mrs. Ibifuro Tatua in a statement said Dickson and his collaborators were executing a plan to discredit and hang Sylva.

“It’s obvious that the intention of Dickson and his associates is to destroy Sylva completely apparently because they consider him an obstacle in their life mission to control Bayelsa State and its people” the leaders alleged.

Rather than address issues of development, the leaders accused the governor of resorting to cheap blackmail, blatant lies and diversionary tactics.

“When Sylva took office, he not only inherited an empty treasury but a huge debt burden, which for the sake of decency and respect for his kinsman and predecessor, he refused to disclose publicly” the leaders said.

Reviewing Sylva’s tenure, the leaders said the ex-governor performed excellently in most sectors to the envy of his foes.

“Sylva  devoted his energies and state resources to solving the problems of infrastructure in the state,  training the youths in Information and Communication Technology in India, sustaining overseas scholarship, protecting oil installations in the creeks, ensuring life changing developmental projects, attracting foreign investments, laying  solid foundation for growth and investing in skill development and job creation centres” they said.

Insisting that Sylva’s humility, simplicity and humane disposition made him a friend of the masses, the leaders said Sylva’s dogged commitment to principle in the practice of politics, the rule of law and the best democratic tradition of fairness and justice were some of the attributes that brought him into collusion with the enemies of democracy.

The leaders while asking God to rescue Bayelsa from the likes of Seriake Dickson, urged officials of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to be thorough in the course of carrying out their duties.

“We perceive the attack on Sylva by the EFCC as a political showdown to settle political scores”

They also appealed to critics of Sylva to visit Bayelsa State to see how the state had been plunged into darkness through the leadership style of the present governor.

“The relentless and vicious manner in which Dickson has haunted and poured venoms on Sylva clearly reveal that he is the arrow head of a dark and abhorrent conspiracy meant to destroy the ex-governor at all cost.

“We as a people cannot but admire a man of Sylva’s style, capacity and stature. We identify with him” they added.