Imo state government has disclosed plans to engage in massive rice production under the agricultural transformation programme. Gov. Owelle Rochas Okorocha made the disclosure at Arondizuogu, Ideato North LGA while speaking in a thanksgiving church service in honour of the member representing Ideato Federal Constituency at the National Assembly, Hon. Eddy Mbadiwe. The governor stated that government has entered into negotiation with some experts from Thailand to commence massive production and processing of rice at a location in Arondizuogu, Ideato North. He said “As I am speaking, the state government has commenced negotiation with a team of experts in rice production who are already in the state. Our intention is to ensure that we produce enough rice for local consumption and commercial purposes. Therefore, the Arondizuogu Rice Mill has been taken over by government and with the aid of these experts, we will commence cultivation and processing of rice in a commercial quantity.” Gov. Okorocha added that similar steps have been taken to ensure that each community in the state plants at least 20,000 improved palm seedlings. The governor, however expressed that the state under the ongoing agricultural transformation would be economically independent even as massive job opportunities would be created for the teeming unemployed youths. He restated the commitment of his administration to remain focused in the bid to rebuild Imo into a model state with vast investment opportunities. The Lawmaker representing Orlu/Orsu/Oru East Federal Constituency, Hon. Jerry Alagbaso enjoined all Imolites to support the governor in his good work, describing Gov. Okorocha as a ‘detribalized man’ who sees the entire Imo as his constituency. Also speaking, the member representing Owerri Federal Constituency, Hon. Onyewuchi Ezenwa urged the governor to remain focused with his massive transformation projects, adding that the governor’s economic programmes will make Imo an economic viable state with great investment opportunities.
Indications emerged yesterday that the newly elected members of the
State Working Committee of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Ekiti
may have been sacked; composition of a new State Working Committee
(SWC) through a fresh congress recommended, and it will take place
soon.
After considering petitions filed by aggrieved candidates, including
one of the Chairmanship candidates, Mr. Akin Omole, the Mrs Romoke Edu
Ogunlana-led Appeal Committee set up by the party to look into
complaints arising from the Sunday, March 18, 2012 congress, faulted
the congress and recommended cancellation of the exercise.
The Appeal Committee, which concluded its sittings last Tuesday,
submitted its report to the National Working Committee (NWC) in Abuja
on Wednesday, March 21.
The four-paged report, which was signed by the panel chairman, Mrs
Ogundala, Secretary, Mr Humphrey Ohagwa and member, Mr Festus Agbo,
with their telephone numbers included.
The report read in part; “The crux of the matter was that out of the
16 local government areas, two local government areas of Emure and
Ekiti South West had lists of delegates from the National Secretariat
different from the ones with the transition committee who handled the
election at that level. At the end of the day, the two lists were
purportedly harmonized which gave way for the election to be partially
held.
“Obviously, there were two major factions, one led by the former
Governor Engr. Segun Oni and the other led by the Minister for Police
Affairs, Captain Caleb Olubolade. Amidst these protests, accreditation
was concluded and election supposedly carried out.
“However, there were agitation on the purported harmonized list of
delegates for Emure Local Government Area in which some authentic
delegates who were duly elected at the local government congress were
illegally replaced from the list and disenfranchised. This
harmonization was not also equitably handled which gave way to the
ugly situation that ensued.
“In view of this, the election was to the best of our knowledge and
understanding not the true reflection of the mandate of the entire
people of Ekiti State PDP. For only one faction to occupy the entire
executive position with the other abandoned implies that the other
faction is not wanted in PDP and therefore it can never be a
successful election. Attached are copies of petitions arising
there from.”
“In the light of this, it is the opinion of the Appeal committee that
the party sets up a true harmonisation committee drawn from members of
the incoming National Working Committee (NWC) to share the positions
among the two factions in order to have a solid, compact and
formidable PDP to beat in Ekiti State instead of subjecting them to
another contest.”
It would be recalled that on the March 18, 2012 Congress, Chief
Makanjuola Ogundipe polled 318 votes to defeat Akin Omole, who polled
310 votes. Omole had protested the election result, calling for a
recount of the votes but the Chairman of the Congress Monitoring
Committee sent by the National Working Committee (NWC), Abuja, Alhaji
Ganiyu Olododo declined.
Omole subsequently walked out of the Congress venue with his
supporters, while the elections into other offices were held
thereafter.
In his petition to the Appeal Committee, Omole had alleged that lists
of delegate for Emure Local Government was doctored, with 14 out of
the real delegates disenfranchised.
Omole, who attached sworn affidavits by the 14 delegates, whose names
were removed from the delegate list, letter from the Acting State
Chairman of the PDP alleged that “instead of the delegate lists that
emanated from the Ward and Local Government Congresses, and duly
endorsed by the State Transition, Reconciliation and Congress
Committee (TRCC), and also displayed at the party secretariat,
handwriting delegate lists for Emure Local Government was used.
“Protest by the original delegates from Emure Local Government was
overruled by Alhaji Olododo-led Congress Monitoring Committee from
Abuja.”
Also, he (Omole) alleged that delegate list from Irepodun/Ifelodun
Local Government was fraught with irregularities, with former members
of the Labour Party (LP) that recently decamped to the PDP allowed to
vote as delegates without first getting waiver from the State Working
Committee (SWC).
“Former governor, Mr. Ayodele Fayose who recently decamped to the PDP
from LP is yet to be accepted into the party (PDP) by the NWC. Yet, he
was allowed to vote as an automatic delegate,” Omole said.
Three days after the Congress, the immediate past Southwest Zonal
Chairman of the PDP, Alhaji Tajudeen Oladipo also placed a newspaper
advert, disclaiming Fayose’s membership of the party. He said he
(Fayose) was yet to fulfil Articles 8:9 and 17:g of the party’s
Constitution.
The Ogunlana-led Appeal Committee has however sealed the hope of
remaining in office by those elected in the congress.
In its recommendation, the panel said; “A cursory study of the
foregoing will make any lover of PDP in Ekiti State to suggest that
for this party to move forward cohesively and win election, all
factions must be brought together. Should this election stay, it will
be a house divided against itself which our opponents will always
capitalise on.”
The Rivers State Chapter of the Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN says Governor Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi’s recent public acknowledgement of spending about half a billion naira monthly on Refuse Contractors calls for probe and must not be taken for granted.
A press statement issued and signed by Jerry Needam, Publicity Secretary of the party expressed shock that such colossal sum is spent on monthly Refuse Contractors yet everywhere in Port Harcourt metropolis is littered with dirts and heaps of uncleared refuse.
The ACN wonders where and when the contractors are domiciled and do the job, pointing out that it’s only same rickety trucks that regularly block motorways rather than dispose of waste on the streets of Port Harcourt.
The ACN Spokesman Jerry Needam frowns at the politicization of an essential health related issue like regular and thorough disposal of refuse in the State, stressing that Amaechi’s stupendous spending is only mere allocation of funds to PDP chieftains and his political allies.
He challenged Gov Amaechi to make public the list and names, and the addresses of the Refuse Contractors on whom he spends monthly such embarrassing amount of State resources.
The ACN Publicity Secretary reminded Gov Amaechi to always remember his oath of allegiance on the judicious use of the State resources for the welfare and development of the people of Rivers State and not members of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
Part 1 – Obtaining slaves on the African continent
Slavery has been rife throughout all of ancient history. Most, if not all, ancient civilizations practiced this institution and it is described (and defended) in early writings of the Sumerians, Babylonians, and Egyptians. It was also practiced by early societies in central America and Africa. (See Bernard Lewis’s work Race and Slavery in the Middle East1 for a detailed chapter of the origins and practices of slavery.)
The Qur’an prescribes a humanitarian approach to slavery — free men could not be enslaved, and those faithful to foreign religions could live as protected persons, dhimmis, under Muslim rule (as long as they maintained payment of taxes called Kharaj and Jizya). However, the spread of the Islamic Empire resulted in a much harsher interpretation of the law. For example, if a dhimmis was unable to pay the taxes they could be enslaved, and people from outside the borders of the Islamic Empire were considered an acceptable source of slaves.
Although the law required owners to treat slaves well and provide medical treatment, a slave had no right to be heard in court (testimony was forbidden by slaves), had no right to property, could marry only with permission of their owner, and was considered to be a chattel, that is the (moveable) property, of the slave owner. Conversion to Islam did not automatically give a slave freedom nor did it confer freedom to their children. Whilst highly educated slaves and those in the military did win their freedom, those used for basic duties rarely achieved freedom. In addition, the recorded mortality rate was high — this was still significant even as late as the nineteenth century and was remarked upon by western travelers in North Africa and Egypt.
Slaves were obtained through conquest, tribute from vassal states (in the first such treaty, Nubia was required to provide hundreds of male and female slaves), offspring (children of slaves were also slaves, but since many slaves were castrated this was not as common as it had been in the Roman empire), and purchase. The latter method provided the majority of slaves, and at the borders of the Islamic Empire vast number of new slaves were castrated ready for sale (Islamic law did not allow mutilation of slaves, so it was done before they crossed the border). The majority of these slaves came from Europe and Africa — there were always enterprising locals ready to kidnap or capture their fellow countrymen.
Black Africans were transported to the Islamic empire across the Sahara to Morocco and Tunisia from West Africa, from Chad to Libya, along the Nile from East Africa, and up the coast of East Africa to the Persian Gulf. This trade had been well entrenched for over 600 years before Europeans arrived, and had driven the rapid expansion of Islam across North Africa.
By the time of the Ottoman Empire, the majority of slaves were obtained by raiding in Africa. Russian expansion had put an end to the source of “exceptionally beautiful” female and “brave” male slaves from the Caucasians — the women were highly prised in the harem, the men in the military. The great trade networks across north Africa were as much to do with the safe transportation of slaves as other goods. An analysis of prices at various slave markets shows that eunuchs fetched higher prices than other males, encouraging the castration of slaves before export.
Documentation suggests that slaves throughout Islamic world were mainly used for menial domestic and commercial purposes. Eunuchs were especially prised for bodyguards and confidential servants; women as concubines and menials. A Muslim slave owner was entitled by law to use slaves for sexual pleasure.
As primary source material becomes available to Western scholars, the bias towards urban slaves is being questioned. Records also show that thousands of slaves were used in gangs for agriculture and mining. Large landowners and rulers used thousands of such slaves, usually in dire conditions: “of the Saharan salt mines it is said that no slave lived there for more than five years.1”
Part 2 – Using slaves on the African continent
The most favored of all Islamic slaves seems to have been the military slave — although performers were the most privileged. By the ninth century slave armies were in use across the whole of the Islamic Empire. The early slave armies tended to be white, taken from Russia and eastern Europe. However, the first independent Muslim ruler of Egypt relied on black slaves and at his death is said to have left 24,000 (white) Mamaluks and 45,000 Nubian military slaves. In north Africa the source of black slaves from Nubia and Sudan were too convenient to ignore. At the time of the Fatimid defeat, in the twelfth century, black troops formed the majority of the army. By the fifteenth century black military slaves were being favored with the use in battle of firearms (the Mamaluks refused to use such dishonorable weapons). Slave troops in Tunisia in the seventeenth century even included cavalry, and the Sultan of Morocco is recorded as having an army of 250,000 black slaves.
Even as late as the mid-nineteenth century, Egyptian rulers actively recruited black slaves into their army — for example, they were included in the Egyptian expeditionary force sent by Sa’id Pasha to Mexico in support of the French in 1863.
The transatlantic slave trade sent Arab slavers into overdrive, here was a new market which could be exploited. When the Europeans abolished slavery in the 1800’s, the taking of slaves in Africa continued. The eradication of such practices was cited as a major justification by the Europeans for the colonization of Africa. Certainly Britain had a significant fleet of ships patrolling the coasts against such slave traders.
Encyclopaedia Britannia’s Historical Survey of Slavery1 points out that “The European colonization movement of the second half of the 19th century put an end to slavery in many parts of Africa…” and that “the British turned their attention back to Africa. They moved onto the continent, took control of those governments that were thriving on slavery, and attempted to abolish the institution.” Further “in the 1870’s British missionaries moved into Malawi, the place of origin of the Indian Ocean Islamic slave trade, in an attempt to interdict it at its source… In Dahomey the French abolition of slavery resulted in the cessation of ceremonial human sacrifice.”
Unfortunately this was not enough for “some parts of Africa and much of the Islamic world retained slavery at the end of World War I. For this reason the League of Nations and later the United Nations took the final extinction of slavery to be one of their obligations. The League had considerable success in Africa, with the assistance of the colonial powers and by the late 1930’s slavery was abolished in Liberia and Ethiopia“. The problem was such that “After World War II the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights … proclaimed the immorality and the illegality of slavery. Slavery was abolished in most Islamic countries, although it persisted in Saudi Arabia into the 1960’s. It finally was made illegal in the Arabian Peninsula in 1962.“
TEHRAN (FNA)- Iran’s Intelligence Ministry announced on Tuesday that its forces have discovered and disbanded a large and sophisticated Israeli terror and sabotage network after months of operations.
In a statement issued Tuesday afternoon, the Iranian Intelligence Ministry said its forces “have discovered one of the biggest terror and sabotage networks of the Quds Occupying Regime (Israel) and protected cells of its operatives and arrested groups of criminal terrorists and mercenaries cooperating with them”.
The Iranian intelligence forces said the move followed a series of sophisticated operations in several Iranian provinces along the borders and also in the Central country.
“…the complicated and months-long measures and moves made by the Iranian intelligence forces to identify the devils led to the discovery of the Zionists’ regional command center in one of the regional countries and discovering the identity of the agents active in that command center”, the statement added.
The statement also mentioned that the successful operation of the Iranian intelligence forces could foil several terrorist attacks in Iran in coming days since “a number of operating cells of this terror network were arrested as they were preparing for new terrorist operations”.
The ministry also said that it has discovered and seized large caches of ammunition, weapons and military and telecommunication tools and equipment in the operation.
The ministry declined to reveal any further details due to security considerations, but said it will provide the public with more information in due time.
Despite being in hiding from the law by virtue of a controversial court injunction, Peter Odili, a former Governor of Rivers State, who the EFCC says “misappropriated billions of naira” while he was governor, is about to be made even richer through a state legislation.
The proposed legislation is courtesy of a bill tagged the “Rivers State Public Office Holders (Payment of Pension) Bill 2012”, which is currently before the Rivers State House of Assembly. It is meant for the benefit of former governors and their deputies who completed their term in office.
Should the bill be passed, Mr. Odili would be given two houses in any area of his choice in Abuja and Rivers State.
Also, presuming that Mr. Odili acts like the conventional Nigerian politician, he would choose a house in the rich exclusive areas of Maitama or Guzape in Abuja, where a house can cost as much as 400million naira. A similar house in the highbrow GRA area of Port-Harcourt, where Mr. Odili can also choose, costs just under the same amount.
If the controversial bill is passed, Mr. Odili’s two houses alone, could be enough to pay the salaries of 3300 Rivers State civil servants for a whole year at the current minimum wage of N19, 400.
Not just Houses
It is not just posh houses that the state legislators propose as gifts for Mr. Odili and co. The former governor would also receive three brand new cars that would be replaced every three years. Other material benefits include 100 per cent of the basic salary of the incumbent governor, 300 per cent of basic salary as furniture allowance, 20 per cent for utilities and 10 per cent for entertainment.
Aside the financial benefits that Mr. Odili would be getting, and despite that Nigeria is heavily under-policed with one police officer to 800 people, Mr. Odili would get eight police officers for personal and domestic security; another two officers of the Nigerian secret police, the State Security Service; and domestic staff including a steward, gardeners, cooks, and drivers to be paid from the state account.
Hiding from prosecution
With the fear that he would be arrested and prosecuted for corruption by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) after his second and last tenure as governor, Mr. Odili, in February, 2007, approached the Federal High Court in Abuja for an injunction restraining the anti-graft commission from arresting him.
As governor, Mr. Odili, who is married to a Justice of the Nigerian Supreme Court, Mary Odili, was granted immunity from arrests or prosecution for any crime; courtesy of Section 308 of the Nigerian constitution.
On March 23, 2007, two months before losing his constitutional immunity, the Rivers State politician got another injunction, this time, a court-granted immunity. Ibrahim Buba granted Mr. Odili’s prayers, giving him a perpetual injunction from arrest or prosecution by the EFCC.
The commission had investigated Mr. Odili and found him culpable for large scale corruption. According to an interim report by the EFCC, “over 100 billion Naira of Rivers State funds have been diverted by the Governor, Dr. Odili”.
An EFCC source involved with the investigation told Premium Times that “Odili stole just as much as (James) Ibori [convicted former Governor of Delta State]; he just knows how to play his game by lying low.”
The Perpetual Injunction
Despite the injunction however, Mr. Odili still feared for his prosecution and so proceeded to the court again to demand an enforcement of the injunction.
On March 5, 2008, Mr. Buba, despite EFCC objection, again granted Mr. Odili’s wish. In a landmark ruling, which was described as bizarre by the Human Rights watch, the court ruled as follows: “The subsisting judgment of March 2007 by this court is binding on all parties. Therefore there is a perpetual injunction restraining the EFCC from arresting, detaining and arraigning Odili on the basis of his tenure as governor based on the purported investigation.”
Status Unknown
Since that ruling, the EFCC has been unable to prosecute Mr. Odili. Though the commission said it would appeal the ruling after several complaints by Nigerians and the International Community, it is not clear if the commission has done so.
Wilson Uwujaren, the commission’s spokesman answered our reporter’s call and said he would return the call. He did not do so nor respond to subsequent text messages as at the time of filing this report.
Speaker defends bill
Even if Mr. Odili is eventually convicted of stealing state funds, he would still enjoy the largesse proposed by the state parliament.
“The bill is for those Governors and deputy governors who served out their terms without being impeached,” said Udede Jim-Opiki, the press secretary to the speaker of the Rivers State House of assembly, Otelemaba Amachree.
When asked if it was fair for any former governor who is indicted or convicted of corruption to enjoy such benefits, Mr. Jim-Opiki said “it can be amended and somebody else can go to court.”
The assembly speaker’s spokesperson however emphasized repeatedly that “the essence of the bill is to stop acts of corruption.”
“It is to help them know that after they leave office, the state will still take care of their welfare,” he said.
The Nigerian constitution under Section 124, subsection 5 gives state houses of assembly the power to make provisions for pension and gratuity of former governors and their deputies.
It’s Amaechi’s bill
Though Peter Odili will be a major beneficiary of this largesse, he did not propose it. The proposal was done by the incumbent governor, Rotimi Amaechi.
Premium Times learnt that, Mr. Amaechi, who served as the speaker of the Assembly during the tenure of Mr. Odili as governor, is hell bent on ensuring the passage of the bill.
“Governor Amaechi wants to safeguard his future, he wants to ensure that he still enjoys much of what he is enjoying now when he leaves office,” a close ally of the governor, who does not want his name mentioned for fear of losing political patronage, said.
Mr. Jim -Opiki, who confirmed that the bill was an executive bill, also stated that the bill would prevent corruption as “they (Governors and deputies) don’t need to bother about their hereafter after leaving office.”
Efforts to reach Mr. Amaechi were unsuccessful as Ibim Semenitari, the state information commissioner did not answer or return calls made to her telephone.
She also did not respond to text messages. Mrs. Semenitari’s father, Gabriel Toby, a former deputy governor of the state, will also benefit from the law.
It is not clear if Rufus Ada George, who was governor odf the state between 1992 and 1993, would benefit because his tenure was truncated by the military.
A Nigerian governor said: “When I have provided roads and electricity to my people, I would have done all for which I was voted to this office.” Prof. Nnaji asked: “When has the provision of basic amenities become the most significant accomplishment of government anywhere?”
Prof. Bart Nnaji
The Guardian, 6th March, 2012, page 80.
“The Federal Government, in partnership with the private sector, especially foreign investors, has targeted $14.2 billion (N2.22 trillion) yearly, to fix the nation’s phenomenally parlous infrastructural facilities…electricity, roads, railwaylines, portable water, healthcare and education…through the establishment of Infrastructure Bank Plc…for eliminating or even just narrowing infrastructure deficit will add at least four per cent to the GDP growth of the country.”
The Guardian, 30th March 2012, page 15.
These quotations clearly show the exaggerated and deceitful attention Nigerian leadership accord the provision of infrastructure. To them, once infrastructure is provided, the country is developed. This line of thinking is wrong because infrastructure is not and it is different from development.
To be sure of what infrastructure is, Cobuild English Dictionary for Advanced Learners (Third Edition 2001) defined it as follows: “The infrastructure of a country, society or organization consists of the basic facilities such as transport, communications, power supplies, and buildings, which enable it to function.” The Chambers Dictionary (2006 Edition) defined it as: “inner structure, structure of component parts; a system of communications and services as backing for military, commercial etc. operations.” The New Webster’s Dictionary of English Language (International Edition, 2004) defined it as: “ the whole system of bases, services, training establishments etc. required for use of troops in military operations or the basic framework of any organization.” The Latin prefix “infra” means below. Putting all these together, infrastructure refers to the basic physical facility needed for the functioning of systems, organizations, nations and societies.
On the other hand, what is development? Development is an omnibus word. But our interest here is to consider development in relation to a people, community, nation, country or society. As a Social Scientist, it could be defined as a situation where a people have the capacity to articulate and implement their progress by transforming their environment, talents, resources, positive systems and traditional occupations for the purpose of satisfying their needs. In development parlance, one of its theories is the Modernization Theory of Development. It suggests that to be a developed people, Third World countries need to imitate the physical features and characters of Europe or North America. They did not define development based on their own experiences; but they defined it for us. However, this theory had been the most favored and accepted by Third World leaders as the path to development. Third World leaders therefore decided that to become developed is to build and replicate the kind of infrastructure they see in Europe and North America like roads, bridges, electricity, water, schools, computers, tractors without farms, buying of transit motors, building of airports and railways, telecommunications, hospitals etc. Yet, despite the quantity and the millions, billions and trillions spent on providing these facilities, these countries still remained underdeveloped. Why? The reason is that development goes beyond building of infrastructure and living like Europeans or Americans. Put together, development is about what you are doing with your items of development: your environment, your natural resources, your people’s talents, their positive systems and traditional occupations. The people’s development can only occur when and where there is consistent improvement in these items of development under the people’s management and mastery.
To be able to do this, the people need a leadership that should be able to provide first the relevant development ideological construct that should at the onset, define what type of development the people need? Is it European, American, Asian, Arabic or African development? Taking Nigeria as an example, what type of development does the country have? It is well known that Nigeria is developing as Europeans, Americans, Asians, Arabians and truly less and less of Africans. When a country develops this way, it is surely odd and confusing. But take note that one civilization is better than the other depending on what you do with your items of development. Otherwise, the United States of America (USA) would simply have copied Europe and developed as Europeans. They did not and today, they are better developing according to who they are, what they have and what they need. Nigeria needs to make a difference by developing as Africans within the Global System and that would be the only time her development would be meaningful.
Having decided on the type of development the people need (through a referendum), the next thing to do would be to see how development can be achieved among the items of development. For example, if Nigeria needs infrastructure to preserve and improve her environment within the African milieu, what type of infrastructure does she need? Given the nature of her environment, what must she not do to hurt her environment? If Nigeria succeeds in preserving and developing her environment, Nigeria would be capable of employing over five million Nigerians. As for natural resources (waters, deserts, sand, sand-glass, heat energy from rocks and sun, forests, mineral deposits etc.), what exactly are they? We need to have an above average knowledge of the resources, their locations, quantity and quality of deposits etc. What exactly do we need out of them? Can they be processed from one commodity to another? What desirable system of education does Nigerians need to learn and know more about them, discover them, refine and manage them as businesses? A well managed and developed natural resources industry in Nigeria could employ over fifty million Nigerians. What about Nigeria’s agriculture? Are Nigerians learning, teaching and studying it enough to be able to transform it into giant industries capable of cultivating and processing cocoa, palm oil, groundnut, yam, cassava, melon, okra, mangoes, pears, pineapples, oranges, cashews, potatoes, tomatoes and numerous vegetables into industrial and consumable goods? What about the numerous species of fishes in Nigerian waters? A well managed and developed Nigerian Agriculture Industry would be capable of feeding Africa and employing over one hundred million Nigerians.
As per people, what are the individual talents domiciled in the estimated 167 million Nigerians? Is Nigeria’s educational system, whether it is for the Almajiri or the abused-child hawker, able to discover the talents in Nigerian children, grow these talents and equip them intellectually and seamlessly move them into entrepreneurship capable of organizing all the other items of development into a national synergy? Talents development should be the centre and hub of Nigeria’s educational system. Any educational system that does not know how to identify and grow talents (the work-seed of a human being) is irrelevant. A well managed and developed talent-based educational system would produce business owners and employers of labour across all facets of human endeavor in Nigeria. This can produce over two hundred and fifty thousand (an estimated number of graduates produced in Nigeria every year) entrepreneurs annually, who in turn will employ at least five same-talent employees and this simply translates into one million employment every year. Given the massive resources, talents and agricultural potentials as explained above, Nigeria has no business with unemployment and youth idleness. By this calculation, Nigeria could productively engage over 156 million people by the year 2060 at an average of 3.25 million yearly. Building infrastructure without development cannot even employ 15 million.
In all of these, certain type and quantity of infrastructure is needed. So the symbiotic relationship between infrastructure and development is that infrastructure facilitates a well thought out development item and process. Therefore the provision of infrastructure should not be regarded as development until it is provided to achieve a defined development. This makes development a synergy and a super-structure that must be organic, complete, complex, embracing and a continuum; while infrastructure is just a one-off stuff.
From the above, it is clear that national development commences from the thinking-through of the development the country needs. Her development depends on the nature, quantity and quality of her items of development. The thinking-through would provide the necessary development ideology or “big picture”. It is the development ideology that should determine what and the extent of infrastructure needed with respect to the transformation of each item of development. Upon the determination of an appropriate development ideology, it is the duty of leadership to think and provide the necessary vision, mission, objectives, policies and tactical plans and programs to achieve development. In this process, whatever infrastructure that is provided must be in consonance with the development ideology. But in Nigeria, the reverse is the case: leadership provides infrastructure first and hope that development (which they had never given a thought) would automatically be achieved later. This had been the misleading approach since 1960; they put more efforts, resources and emphasis on providing infrastructure, not development. This way infrastructure is seen and provided as a stand-alone idea and this is incongruent with any society development process.
All through the last 98 years of Nigeria’s existence as a country, she had been planning and implementing the provision of infrastructure and the fact that the country still remains an underdeveloped country should cause her leaders to have a rethink. This is the tragedy of Nigeria’s efforts towards her development: no development ideology in her politics. Infrastructure is not development; it is a facilitator of development. Infrastructure is like the human body, while development is like the human soul. Which should society target to develop first: the soul or the body?
When Governor Rochas Okorocha came to power in Imo State last year, Imo people heaved a sigh of relief. Everybody including school children jumped for joy that finally, a ‘messiah’ has arrived. That life in the state will change for good. But some of us cautioned because Imo State has not been lucky in ‘choosing’ who governs them. This line of argument is based on the verifiable fact that the State has never had a good leader with the exception of Chief Sam Mbakwe of the blessed memory.
Almost one year in office, all we hear is ‘Rochas is doing well’ in Imo State. The truth is there is little or nothing to show for his ‘doing well’. Development Proposals and the renaming of Assets are not signs of ‘doing well’. Anybody can make Proposals or re-name State assets given the opportunity. I am not discounting some patchy efforts that litter the state. The truth is that Imo has not been touched by the present government if you equate the development on ground with the euphoria that greeted the governor’s victory last year.
Like his predecessor, Chief Okorocha knows how to work the media to achieve maximum effect. He has made some pronouncements in the right places including motor parks and got boundless publicity. But the reality is that his administration has not done much in the last one year. And looking back, one could say that Governor Okorocha’s handlers over-reached themselves in the minds of Imo people.
Now the undoing of chief Okorocha’s government is here. It is the 4th Tier Government he is rushing to put in place in our villages. Rather than conduct Local Government Elections as stipulated by the Constitution and once more test his popularity, the governor has abandoned his duty post and gone to the villages to tap palm-wine and play draughts with political sycophants. Governor Okorocha’s 4th Tier is a flat tyre. Firstly, the space is already occupied. The Media is the 4th Tier in a democratic society and the idea is not well thought out. It is like his predecessor’s Autonomous Community bazaar which has only succeeded in creating disaffection and made Imo Communities litigious. However, Imo people are daily becoming aware of the reality and the danger in dissipating the State Towns Unions in the name of illusory 4th Tier government
Igbo, particularly Imo people love innovative ideas, but any innovation that creeps into their family or village life is bound to fail. Owelle Rochas’s 4th Tier government is a political gimmick. He knows the idea will not fly. He pulled a fast one and today people are talking about an issue that is unworkable or dead on arrival instead of how to move the state forward. The 4th Tier Government is bogus, diversionary and imperils Imo village life.
The Town Unions should call his bluff and protest openly for the governor’s inability to conduct Local Government Elections in the state after one year in office. The Town Unions should also ask him what he has been doing with the millions in Statutory Allocation the Federal government has been pouring into the Local Government Councils in the State since he came to power. The N2million each he promised the Town Unions after their elections is an insult. Who keeps the balance of the Local Government Statutory Allocation and more important too, is he going to pay the N2million monthly to the Town Unions or is it a one off payment?
The important roles Town Unions play in Imo state in particular and Igbo land in general cannot be over-emphasised. Their functions are many and varied depending on their locality. But the dissolution of the Unions by the governor by mere pronouncement as if they were his creation erroneously suggests that the villagers are rubbish and one measure fits all for the Unions. Town Unions know their members by their first names and serve as bulwarks for their members’ families anytime any day.And for those who do not know, Town Unions, Religion, Rangers International FC just to mention but a few were the ‘machines’ that kept Ndigbo trudging at the end of Biafra/Nigeria civil war.
Truly some of these ‘machines’ have diminished since the end of the civil war but the Town Unions have remained resilient, resolute, local but global in their outlook. It is also important to mention here that Sam Mbakwe International Cargo Airport in Owerri was built thanks to the organisational acumen of the Town Unions of Old Imo State. Imo People were able then to build their own Airport because the Town Unions were non partisan and deep rooted in their various village activities. Above all, the Unions were run by unremunerated but highly committed apolitical people. The Town Unions mobilised and encouraged Imo sons and daughters to pay the Airport levy to their respective branch where they reside. The levies were then remitted to Central Town Unions in the villages from where they were paid into the Imo Airport Committee Bank Accounts. The Town Unions knew those who did not pay the Airport levy.
Town Unions also function like insurance especially for poor Igbo who live in cities in Nigeria where people have little or no confidence in insurance companies. In Town Unions, people pull their resources together and get some kind of benefit in good and bad times. In case of death, Town Unions help in ferrying the body of their dead member’s home, participate actively in their Members Events like Christening (naming), Marriage and other Ceremonies which Governor Rochas Okorocha 4th Tier Government cannot do.
It is also important to point out here that the Town Unions Governor Okorocha claimed he has dissolved have branches outside Imo State and in other States in Nigeria. Some even have branches in the US, Europe and Asia where the governor cannot reach nor have the power to dissolve. To maintain their political neutrality, the branches could decide not to have anything whatsoever to do with Governor Rochas Okorocha’s elected leaders in their respective villages. The consequence if they choose this line of action is as good as mine.
Now, why is it that, unlike in other parts of Igbo land, Imo State people give in to excessive control by individuals and organisations in various layers of Authority. For example, if your loved one dies in the State today, the churches bulldoze themselves in to tell you when and how to bury him or her. Government of all shades bully the citizens too. And if Governor Okorocha succeeds in destroying the Town Unions, he will move on to take control of the Imo WOMEN’s YEARLY AUGUST meeting, our bedrooms and finally the number of children each and every one of us is allowed to have in our respective villages. I hope the governor has dissolved also Association of Imo Town Unions in Lagos.
As Governor Okorocha has wagged the tails of the Town Unions they should not let him run away with his own tail between his legs. They should come together now as a matter of urgency and form a Union in their respective Local Government to look into how the Statutory Allocations to their Councils are spent as Federal Allocations are basically Town Union Funds and not fund the governor can dip his hands into willy-nilly.
Sam Asoluka is the Publisher of THE AMBASSADOR MAGAZINE in London. You can reach him on theambassadormagazine@gmail.com
One day after Sudan’s April 8TH deadline expired, the government began registering Southern Sudanese as foreigners. Majority of them have been stripped of their identity cards and other documents, and most of them don’t have the money to pay the hefty registration fees. Several months ago, after South Sudan declared its independence from Sudan, Sudanese authorities issued an ultimatum to South Sudanese to either become Sudanese citizens, register as foreigners, or leave the country.
The director of foreigners’ registration in Sudan said today only ten South Sudanese arrived at the center yesterday and registered as foreigners. A Brigadier General, who has been instructed not to speak to reporters, said he doesn’t not expect more southerners to show up because registration requires a valid South Sudan passport and a visa, two things most South Sudanese citizens do not own.
Sudanese Information Minister Abdallah Masar said South Sudanese citizens are now considered foreigners. “From today, all South Sudanese are foreigners and they must regularize their status as happens to every foreigner, and we are working on this now, our registration centers are going on” he said.
South Sudan has asked Sudan to extend the deadline, but the government has refused. The spokesperson in the Sudanese Ministry of Information Sana Hamad said South Sudanese wwere given enough time to put their papers in good order. “We will not push the date because we gave them nine months which was enough to reconcile their status, but the government of South Sudan was not serious; all we asked the South Sudanese government to do was to give them necessary documents, now all their Sudanese passports and identity cards are no longer valid”.
The Interior Ministry has asked police stations to register Southerners in various neighborhoods, but scores of police stations told VOA they have never received such orders. Most of the South Sudanese living in Sudan view the registration process as a major obstacle, with little money for passports or traveling back home. Sana said the government has opened a national registration center for Abyei citizens, who live along the border of the two Sudans.
Meantime, international organizations said they are trying to fly elderly and sick people back to South Sudan who have no chance of making home alone.
TEHRAN (FNA)- Tehran has devised the necessary plans and measures to defuse the potential threat of the US missile shield project in the Persian Gulf, a senior commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) said.
“We have thought of the necessary measures to counter this plan,” Commander of the IRGC Aerospace Force Brigadier General Amir Ali Hajizadeh told reporters here in Tehran on Monday.
He said after the recent announcement and deployment of the so-called NATO missile shield in Turkey, Tehran knew that the US would announce a second such plan to complete the chain of its early warning system in the region.
Hajizadeh added that the Washington and Tel Aviv are seeking to establish security for Israel at the expense of the Arab countries.
“All assessments have been made (by Iran) and we know that (establishing security for) Israel is the goal of all these issues,” he said, but meantime stressed, “Yet, we are not worried about the deployment of such systems.”
Last week, Iranian Defense Minister Brigadier General Ahmad Vahidi called on the neighboring states to avoid joining a US-Israeli project for deploying a missile shield in the Persian Gulf.
“This missile defense shield (in the Persian Gulf) is a US-Israeli project and everyone should pay attention to the fact that anyone who gets involved with this project is, in fact, implementing the US and Israel’s plot,” he said on Wednesday.
“Since the very beginning we have rejected this project as we saw it against the regional security, and we have recommended our friends not to enter such fields (of activity),” he noted.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton last Saturday promoted the missile shield idea at a Persian Gulf-US security forum in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Washington has been seeking hard to portray Iran as a threat to the regional states, specially the Arab countries on the rims of the Persian Gulf, but many Arab leaders in the region stress that they do not see Iran as a threat.
US officials have said it is their “priority” to help the six Persian Gulf Cooperation Council (PGCC) states build “regional missile defense architecture” against Iran.
Clinton stressed Washington’s “unwavering” commitment to Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Oman, all longstanding US allies.
In reply, Iranian officials said that the US plan to establish a missile shield in the Persian Gulf is a source of “tension”.
