Former President Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida; Vice
President Mohammed Namadi Sambo And Pdp National Chairman Alhaji
Bamanga Tukur During The 71st Birthday Celebration Of Former
President Ibrahim Babangida At The Ibb Golf Classic Club 2012 In
Maitama,Abuja. On Saturday
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By: Ugochukwu Favour-Mayor
The prime mover and head honcho of Magic Lens Pictures, Charles Awurum has said that if the third high-rated movie industry in the world, Nollywood is not been rescued soon, that it will head to the rock.
Awurum made this disclosure at this year’s bi-annual award and talent hunt ceremony of Magic Lens Pictures Academy, which held last Saturday at the Nigeria Union of Journalists Press Center, Enugu State.
He stated that the only solution left for the industry is except the stakeholders and practitioners of the movie producing industry in Africa could reason together and find a long lasting solution that will revive it, and also sustain it for future growth.
The Nollywood actor and comedian, Charles Awurum disclosed that soon, his production company would be embarking on projects that will assist in the rebuilding of the fallen standards of the entertainment industry in Nigeria,“as to make our movies acceptable both locally and internationally,” adding that there is no doubt that the industry the people cherish so much will soon head to the rock by 2015.
“We need your advice, encouragement and assistance to enable us move forward. Nollywood is our collective business, and so, let us collectively support and build it up. Your assistance will go a long way in making a difference. Already, we are engaged towards establishing a School of Arts that will be aimed at helping the young people to hone their skills through courses and programmes, as to abreast with the current development in the movie industry,”he urged.
To achieve his company’s vision, Awurum stated that his production firm has the capacity to actualize any dream that surrounds the Nigeria entertainment industry, adding that Magic Lens Pictures as an active player in Nollywood had earlier avowed itself with commitment to deepen the industry through capacity building and creation of opportunities for up and coming artistes.
Continuing, the screen comedian stressed that with regards to deepening the character of Nollywood that Magic Lens Pictures had over the years proved its stand by producing high quality movies, which showcases the country’s cultural heritage and style in the very finest details.
The lingering tension between the two political titans of Kano State political theater appear to near a climax on the evening of Sunday August 26, 2012 as both men crossed path at the Aminu Kano International Airport in Kano.
According to the information available to 247ureports.com which was obtained through sources close to the activities at the Kano State government house, the former governor of Kano State, Malam Ibrahim Shekarau and his men were attacked by men attached to the present Governor of Kano, Malam Rabiu Kwankwaso on the evening [7pm] of Sunday August 26, 2012 at the protocol lounge of Aminu Kano Airport.
As gathered, the former governor, Malam Shekarau and some of his men were on their return trip from the Holy Land for pilgrimage. Their plane had arrived Aminu Kano Airport on Sunday evening – approximately the same time when the flight carrying the governor of Kano State, Rabiu Kwankwaso arrived from Abuja.
According to a source close to the State governor who was present on the said Sunday evening, “Shekarau returned that day to a rousing welcome which they [Kwankwaso] were not happy about” and, the governor, who was not received in the same manner was visibly irritated. Minutes after Malam Shekarau had acknowledged the crowd that had gathered to welcome him, he dashed into one of the vehicles that had come to pick him from the airport – leaving behind his men at the airport to retrieve his luggages from the conveyor belt.
As Malam Shekarau departed the scene, men dressed in uniform of security vigilante, trooped into the protocol lounge in search for someone. They had come to receive the governor. But according to the source, “they came to receive Kwankwaso who was returning to Kano from Abuja. And they now saw Shekarau’s car parked outside the airport and proceeded to destroy the vehicle [a 2011 Honda Concerto]“. The source believes that the men had walked into the protocol lounge after they had destroyed the vehicle – hoping to see some of Shekarau’s men or Shekarau himself.
The vehicle’s windows and windscreens were smashed and the vehicle body destroyed.
The estimate cost of the damage meted to the vehicle is stated to be in excess of N500,000. The Kwankwaso men have refused to bare the cost of the repairs. This is according to a source close to Shekarau.
Efforts to get a reaction from Kwankwaso’s men failed. 247ureports.com placed calls nd text messages to the Chief Press Secretary [CPS], Malam Dantiye, and the State Commissioner of Information, Prof Farouk but they refused to respond. Malam Dantiye, on his part, after having received the text message sought to know the identity of the sender. When the identity was revealed, he switched off his phone.
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Recently, the Students’ Security Committee of the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife received pathetic reports of sexual harassment and physical molestation being meted on innocent students residing outside the university campus. Before hand, our attention has been drawn to the activities of men of the Osun-State’s Swift Action Squad (SAS) who have illegally extended the constitutional framework of the armed forces and the police from guaranteeing the security of lives and property to the incorporation of “cultural values”. Under the influence of security uniform, and government ill-sanctioned policy, these security personnel have been battering, insulting and molesting innocent Nigerians on the premise that they do not meet “their tastes” of good dress code, walking posture, acquisition of electronic properties, good human physique and other human factors. Sadly enough, these actions which are product of a blatant legal fallacy have been extended to the innocent and defenseless students who have stayed in Ife for SIWES or medical students’ extension. First we reject the continuation of such actions. We term these actions sanctioned by the Osun State government and as perpetrated by security personnel majorly drawn from the armed force as illegal, unwarranted and superfluous.
Our rejection of this unnecessary and unlawful military attacks on ordinary citizens, especially students, is predicated on reasons ranging from legal logic to moral fallacies. Obviously the Nigeria constitution has made no equivocal error in defining the operational frame-work of military and paramilitary institutions in the country. The law has made it the primary responsibility of the armed forces to defend territorial sovereignty, and to the police and other similar constitutionally recognized policing institutions it has allotted the responsibility of maintaining law and order. All these, derived from the organic law of the land! Now the question is where the state government got the locus standi to put into security-fore, issues of private morality. Glaringly the laws of the land has never specified which cloth is legal to wear or which hairstyle to wear, neither has it stated that youths are not privy to own electronic properties nor that it is a matter of security threat for females to be naturally endowed. Then why are innocent Nigerians continually battered, molested and insulted for all these reasons when the security personnel constitutionally lack the locus standi under the law to correct these things. Apparently the government action is a legal contradiction that makes the government to act contrary to the law it has sworn to preserve by infringing on the rights of citizens instead of protecting it. It is even interesting that these actions are being perpetrated at a time when the IGP has officially banned the ill-conceived roadblocks. It is vital to remind these law-breaking “security outfit” that it is illegal and unconstitutional for security agents to arrest defenseless citizens without a warrant backed by the law, or a prior knowledge of the alleged crime he or she commits.
We are not also oblivious of the fact that the government has fallaciously predicated its action on moral and cultural values instead of the law, upon which its legitimacy is derived in the first instance. Still, appealing to moral does not save the uncalled-for actions of the SAS from illogicalities and gross superfluity. Had it been that these policy makers have considered the historical development of cultural values, they would have clearly acknowledged that cultural cum moral values are not static and that they are distinct- they vary with locations. Some decades ago in this part of the country it would be considered eccentric to see ladies in trousers, but what do we have now? A wave of change in cultural mentality and norms! For the government to be in a subjective position to determine whether a dress code is right or wrong is such a display of idleness. It only translates to subverting the always transiting nature of cultural values. In the face of global civility, the action of the state government to determine cultural values by use of force is undemocratic.
Good fated Nigerians who believe in democratic principles and the rule of law should reject this tyrannical action that is capable of making the control of States over force apparatus to degenerate into fascism. A situation where a governor would wake up one day and deploy policemen on the street to enforce grey uniform on civilians should be forestalled at this early stage of military tendencies in the Osun-State current democratic dispensation.
We demand (borne out of the fact that the uncalled-for activities of the SAS in Osun-State fail to meet up with legal and logical reasoning) that the SAS activities be checked, and be limited to the set constitutional framework guiding activities of security personnel rather than they harassing easy-going civilians out of idleness. We also warn that continual assault of any kind on students, or SAS movement on campus would not be taken slightly by great Ife students. We hence call on peace loving Nigerians to call the Osun-State government to order, before its action force students to take radical actions against it.
In conclusion, we are not opposed to good security in Osun-State, but we are rather opposed to the use of security apparatus to intimidate innocent workers, students and the poor. We hence advise the governor to concentrate on providing the good people of Osun-State qualitative security over forcing morals on them.
SIGNED
Samuel Adeolu (Com. Sammie)
Chairman, Students’ Security Committee.
Reuben Abati, the once fiery columnist with The Guardian newspaper is the current Special Adviser to President Goodluck Jonathan of Nigeria on Media and Publicity. Recently, he published a widely criticized article titled “The Jonathan they don’t know”.
In this piece, Abati who has a doctorate Degree in performing arts and therefore respected as one of the firebrand articulate writers of his generation by virtue of his once prodigious and extensive outpouring of rich articles whilst he served as the Chairman of the editorial board of The Guardian [the flagship of Nigerian press media], rather deviated from the kernel of the said article and instead dwelt extensively on what I may call ‘the kitchen etiquette of President Jonathan and his official house hold in the formidably fortified Presidential mansion in Abuja, the Nigerian political capital city.
In this treatise on the kitchen etiquette of the Nigerian President by Dr. Abati, a man who has worked in the Presidential mansion for the last fourteen months, Nigerians were inundated and unnecessarily embarassed with the claims by Dr. Reuben Abati that President Jonathan, contrary to the widely held belief that as a man born in the riverine community, that he [Goodluck Ebele Azikiwe Jonathan, the husband of Patience] may be deeply interested in consuming daily, some good measures of original whisky or what is called ‘kainkain [SAPELE WATER]. But Abati, who was my boss while I worked in The Guardian stated uneqivocally that President Jonathan nevertheless is a great fan of fresh fish pepper soup but that he [Jonathan] does not drink hard wine.
The Presidential spokesman wrote in that piece thus; “…Okay, he drinks coffee. And yet there are people out there who keep claiming that there is a feast in the Villa every day. They say at every meal, the table is decorated with roasted turkey, and every delicacy under the sun. Lies. Lies. ThisPresident is not a glutton. We have a disciplined, hardworking President who enjoys his privacy, and the company of intelligent people….”
Well, few days after this controversial write up hit the news stands all across the country, President Jonathan paid a one day Presidential visit to Anambra State to among other engagements, to commission the first ever crude oil refinery East of the Niger since Nigeria discovered Crude Oil in huge commercial quantties over half a century ago.
The occasion also marked the berth/emergence of Anambra State into the exclusive class of States in the Federation that are now Crude oil producing and therefore entitled to receive the constitutionally approved thirteen percent derivation from the Federation Account of Nigeria.
During that event, the Nigerian President who is said not to be in the company of unintelligent persons nor is he a glutton, however made a statement that questioned the credibility of the kitchen etiquette of Mr. President regarding consumption of alcoholic wines as affirmed by Dr. Reuben Abati. There were also an unrestrained outpouring of unintelligent statements by some politicians at that consultation forum with Mr. President staged by the Anambra state Government in which virtually all those puritanical kitchen etiquette claimed by the Presidential spokesperson collapsed like a pack of cards.
There is little doubt in the minds of independent observers that President Jonathan was impressed by the half-baked praises showered on him by some political contractors including an unintelliegent counsel by one of the speakers at that exclusive meeting which goes to say that the Igbo race should forego their political aspiration of vying to become Pesident of Nigeria in 2015 but should allow Jonathan to vie in 2015 to complete his constitutionally guaranteed two terms of four years each after which the North should have a go at it for another eight years before the South East can dream of assuming the mantle of political leadership of the federal republic of Nigeria.
In his own remarks, President Jonathan vigourously attempted to over perform the deceitful feats of his predecessors who had lied to the people of the South East that if they voted in the Peoples Democratic Party’s Presidential Candidates right from 1999, that a second Bridge would be built to compliment the collapsing first Niger Bridge built for five million pounds in December 1965. Three successive civilian Presidents under the current democratic dispensation since 1999 have come and gone without fulfilling this slemn pledge to the people of the Igbo speaking South Eastern States.
Jonathan indeed surpassed the flowery and sugar- coated language used by both Olusegun Obasanjo and the late Umaru Musa Yaradua who had promised but failed to deliver the second Niger Bridge when he told his select audience made up of contractors and politicians that he [Goodluck Jonathan] of Bayelsa State would go on exile if his administration fails to complete the second Niger Bridge before 2015 when his tenure in office would terminate.
His words; “If I don’t deliver second Niger Bridge at the end of my tenure, I will leave this country and go and live elsewhere because the failure cannot be defended”.
President Jonathan in this statement has indeed set a World record even far above one gentleman, a retired military General who made several billions from crude oil well licence who said prior to the 1998 Presidential election that if Chief Olusegun Obasanjo did not win the Presidential election that he would go into exile.
But the South East political elite who are so largely selfish have not learnt from these torrents of politcal lies about this second Niger Bridge concocted by ambitious politicians who seek national office and who are indeed aware that the votes of the people of the South Eastern Nigeria were necessary if they will ever become elected as President of Nigeria. Even some supposed elder statesmen who ought to querry the commitment of this Government to equitably provide amenities and facilities with enduring quality to the South Eastern zone, have all but compromised and are already going about with what may pass as ‘idiotic adoption’ of President jonathan for 2015 election when it is very clear that the Igbo people have suffered several deaths in the hands of Islamic rebels in the North under this Government of Goodluck Jonathan more than any other ethnic nationality.
Many Igbo traders and investors who have life investments and assets in the far Northern Nigerian States of Yobe, Borno, Adamawa, Taraba, Gombe and Bauchi States, have lost them to the atrocious terror-related activities of these armed Islamic insurgents under the very watch of this Government but yet some persons with selective memory are already beating the political drum in support of the imaginary political ambition of President Jonathan in the 2015 Presidential election. What a big shame?
Have the Igbo speaking people forgotten so soon that the South Eastern States have suffered systemic neglect since after the fratricidal civil war in which children, women and young men totalling three million by some estimates were massacred by the might of the Federal force alongside foreign fighters from some of the Western World and that the South East is one place in the whole wide World where war has happened that did not get facelift and reconstruction of the destroyed infrastructure?
In Afghanistan, Irag and much of Kuwait and Libya which suffered series of wars, there have been concerted effort on the part of the parties especially the developed western World that constituted the allied forces [NATO], to bring about enduring reconstruction of the war ravaged infrastructure of those communities that suffered monumental damage similar to what the former Eastern Nigeria faced during the thirty months civil war and yet some political contractors with enormous wealth that can not be defended have already started betraying their people on the alter of huge contracts. Have these contractors forgotten so soon how hundreds of thousands of children of Igbo origin were left to starve to their untimely and cruel deaths by the policy introduced by the then Finance minister under General Gowon- Obafemi Awolowo which embargoed food assistance from abroad into the then Eastern Nigeria? The ghosts of these murdered martyrs are crying out for justice and fairness in the running of affairs in the federation of Nigeria.
These persons who are now campaigning for jonathan for 2015, shameless as they are, should please cover their faces in shame and demand equity and justice from this federal administration for the South Eastern Nigeria which has become the den of armed kidnappers that are scaring away willing investors and thereby complicating the massive youth joblessness and restiveness.
The South Eastern states are shamelessly known as the place where there are more hotels than there are manufactring firms because the federal Government of successive administraions have never come under consistent and intense pressure by the elite to do the needful by providing infrastructure to the South East geo-political zone. The only Federal presence seen today in much of South East are military, police barracks and derelict prison facilities. Our Federal Roads have all but collapsed under the heavy weight of poor maintenance even as erosion and heavy traffic is threatening the integrity of te fifty year old Niger Bridge.
How come that the South East is the only political zone in the whole country with less number of States even when the law of demography have shown that there are more actual populations of human beings in this zone that is richly blessed with rain forests? Do we now have more populations of human beings in the deserts much more than in the richly blessed rain forest belts of South East Nigeria?
Recently, the Federal Government claimed that N325 million contract has been approved for what the Federal Government under Jonathan called trasactional advisory design of the second Niger Bridge and that this project awarded to an unknown company called Roughton international limited would be completed in 16 months after which what the Government minister of works Mr Mike Onolememen called groundbreaking of the project would be done by the Federal Government in the third quarter of the coming year.
Government at the Federal level is interested only in telling the people lies regarding the actual completion date of the actual second Niger Bridge. Government of Jonathan should be told in black and white that the people are not interested in knowing when the drawing/design of the second Niger Bridge would be completed but the people want to know when the actual second Niger Bridge will be completed in the World of reality and not in the World of political fantasy and dreams.
This Government will never learn to start telling the people the whole truth and nothing but the truth and I am not too sure that they are aware of the saying in the Holy Bible that knowing and saying the truth shall set us all free as Nigerians.
In their usual political lies, the Federal Government has started dancing around with self praises over the award of contract for the design of the second Niger Bridge when the same Governmen has not told Nigerians the simple truth about when the second Niger Bridge would be completed practically.
The Works minister has already praised the President to high Heavens. His words; ” The Government is desirous of taking immediate action to construct the second Niger Bridge that will provide a smooth movement of traffic that will link South West and South East”.
He also confirmed that the project would be carried out under what is called Public Private partnership [PPP].
In 2008, Governor Peter Obi told Journalists that the second Niger Bridge would be constructed under the Public Private Partnership agreement meaning that Anambra and Delta States would contribute 20 per cent of the cost at 10 per cent each while the Federal Government contributes 20 percent and the contractor would borrow 50 per cent of the total contract sum.
The question on the lips of most South Easterners is why do this project under the so-called public private partnership [PPP] when other bridges are constructed fully by the Federal Government and why does the Federal Government intend to impose this hardship on the people of the zone assuming the job is completed and the operators start taxing users prohibitive amount of service charges?
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+Emmanuel Onwubiko, Head, Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria, blogs @ www.huriwa.blogspot.com.
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President Obama is still a fan of Clint Eastwood.
The president, in an interview with USA Today
, suggested he was not offended by the actor’s performance during the closing night of the Republican National Convention — in which Eastwood engaged in a one-man repartee with an empty chair meant to represent Obama.
“I am a huge Clint Eastwood fan,” the president said.
“He is a great actor, and an even better director,” Obama added, giving particular praise for his recent movies, which include “Invictus,” “Gran Torino” and “Million Dollar Baby.”
The president said in the interview that organizers are planning to play it “pretty straight” during his party’s national convention this coming week in Charlotte, N.C.
“One thing about being president or running for president — if you’re easily offended, you should probably choose another profession,” Obama said.
Eastwood brought down the house in Tampa when he launched into a scathing routine in which he bantered with an empty chair, challenging the invisible president over the state of the economy and other grievances. The routine, though, prompted a backlash from the Hollywood community and some in the media.
We read with anguish the recent precipitous and ill advised call on President Goodluck Jonathan to contest 2015 election by a certain Chief Arthur Eze and his gang of faceless so called Igbo elders.
Many of us are aware of the pedigree of this business man, who is unfortunately of Igbo origin, including his 1997 call on despotic General Sani Abacha to lead Nigeria for life. Luckily for Nigerians, God in His infinite wisdom intervened. He is back on this part of infamy.
Whereas Ndigbo overwhelmingly supported the election of President Goodluck Jonathan in 2011 elections, we remain of the view that the President should not be distracted by relevance-seeking political jobbers with such calls, even when he is yet to deliver on his major promises to Ndigbo.
It is no secret that President Jonathan promised to construct second Niger Bridge within his first tenure as well as convert Enugu Airport to an International national hub. He also promised that south East Roads will receive urgently needed attention within the his current tenure.
As at today, non of these promises have been fulfilled. Second Niger Bridge is still in the “drawing board” and no international flight has yet landed or taken off from Enugu Airport. South East roads remain the worst in the country, including the Enugu-Onitsha Federal highway that Chief Arthur Eze traveled to Onitsha from Ukpo through. Enugu-PH highway is at best a death trap while Aba-Ikot Ekpene highway is virtually non existent as a road.
Even in sharing of national resources Ndigbo are yet to get any favors from this regime. No single refinery out of the six promised by President Jonathan is located in the South East even though three south east states, Abia, Imo and now Anambra are oil producing states. Revenue allocation is heavily skewed against Igbo states with one state receiving more monthly allocation than all 5 SE states. Even desert states that contribute next to nothing to the national revenue pool are getting more than two times the monthly allocation of oil producing Igbo states. Nobody is even discussing the promised 6th state for Ndigbo, to put the South East at par with other regions that have 6 states.
Our sons and daughters in this regime have not fared better. As recently as last week, one of the best performing Ministers in this administration, who is also of Igbo origin, was forced to resign his appointment because of intrigues and in fighting within the regime. As a reformist who is expected to naturally attract opposition from vested interests in the perennially corrupt power sector in Nigeria and we expected the President to have protected him. That the President attested to the man not having done anything wrong makes it all the more unbearable that he was forced out because of ill defined conflict of interest. Other ministers of Igbo origin are not faring better within this government.
It is therefore important to unequivocally state that while Ndigbo are not at war with President Jonathan, there is absolutely no reason, at this time, to endorse him or any other politician for 2015 election. More so when we are also interested in producing the best President of Nigeria in 2015 as already articulated by Ohaneze Ndigbo.
We are committed to working with Mr President to achieve his electoral promises, especially as relates to Ndigbo. If by 2015 we review his performance and determine that he has done well enough to deserve second term, we will join authentic Igbo leaders to make our position known.
For now, we encourage the President to focus on his work including securing the life and properties of all Nigerians. The frequent massacre of Ndigbo in parts of the country by terrorists masquerading as religious zealots is giving us sleepless nights. Real Igbo elders should be seeking a solution to this unfortunate targeting of Ndigbo rather than stomach-induced endorsements and calls for anyone to contest elections.
We also wish to warn those who will use our name to make all kinds of pronouncements without seeking the opinion of the generality of our people to desist from doing so or prepare to be ostracized. Even Joshua in the Bible spoke for himself and his family, not for the entire children of Israel. When Ndigbo want to speak, we know through whom we will speak.
Enough is enough!
Signed
FOR: Oganiru Ndigbo Foundation/Igboville
Emeka Maduewesi (Leader)
Uche Onuh Lucas (President General)
Maxi Okwu
Okey Igbokwe
Onyema Uche
Obichi Ikechi
The law establishing clamping of wheel of vehicle wrongly parked along major roads and even some marked streets in Enugu metropolis came into operation in 2011. This was later extended to some selected streets early this year. The major aim of the rule is to regulate the parking of cars along roads and streets with a view to decongesting the roads and streets for easy and free flow of traffic. Those who go contrary to this rule do have their vehicle plate numbers removed and taken to the EASIPARKoffice for the defaulters to come and collect them, after they must have paid fine of N5,000 (five thousand naira). And if the defaulter is within close quarters where his or her car is wrongfully parked and clamped, he or she has two or more options explore – to pay five thousand instantly or later or have the car plate number removed and towed to the EASIPARKoffice. This is the scenario which has continued to play out since the law came into existence unfortunately to the disadvantage of the common men who are mostly civilians and visitors who are unaware of the existence of the rule.
As good as this initiative of the Mr Sullivan Chime’s led administration is, it is important to note that there are some few people who are alleged to be above this law. This ought not to be so as the law is meant for everyone. As the rule of law entails and applies, no one is above the law no matter how highly placed the person is in the society – every Tom, Dick and Harry should be subjected to the same law. But this is a far cry as longer as observers of the trend are concerned. Is there justice when a person who belongs to the military, paramilitary, a top government official or Enugu State PDP bigwig goes contrary to this law and he is left off the hook (that is without paying the fine) just because of his status while his “bloody” civilian counterpart (pays) or is made to pay the said fine. This was what happened around Mbanugo Bus Stop last month according to an eyewitness who wouldn’t want his name mentioned in print.
According to the eye witness, an officer of the military parked his car by the side of the road close to Mbanugo Bus Stop without opening the “boot or bonnet” of his car, (because this is the only way to avoid the wheel of your car from being clamp by EASIPARK officials) and likewise his civilian counterpart, the duo went to nearby motor spare parts dealers to make one purchase or the other, but when EASIPARK official arrived at the scene where the two cars were wrongly parked, they let go of the military man’s car because of his position and towed the civilian’s car. The purported unfair application of this law especially to the ordinary man who has no powerful connection to those at the helm of affairs in Enugu state should be addressed.
The above situation was akin to what happened immediately the Enugu State government passed the law prohibiting the use of motorcycle, popularly known as “Okada” for commercial and private transportation, to forestall the many disadvantages it portends. As soon as Okada operation was banned, didn’t residents in Enugu metropolis notice the use of motorcycle by policemen unchallenged while the ordinary people who flouted the law had their motorcycle confiscated? And when public outcry heightened as to why uniform men (policemen) should use their motorcycle to go to work, directive was immediately passed to all formations to call their officers, men and personnel to order and this was immediately carried out. Today in Enugu according to reliable sources, it is uncommon to see lower as well as high ranking military men or paramilitary men using their private motorcycles. No doubt, this is how law should be applied.
The administration of Governor Sullivan Chime should extend same law of wheel clamping to highly placed persons no matter their status – cronies of the government in power, government officials, policemen, military men etc. by fearlessly empowering EASIPARK officials to clamp their cars when wrongly parked if he wants the public to take him serious. This has become expedient to douse the air of above the law, intimidation and superiority the above persons have which make EASIPARK officials to fidget, develop servant attitude, sudden inferiority complex at the sight of such military men, policemen, government officials among others and cowardly recoil from clamping their vehicle wheels. Governor Sullivan, local government chairmen and those they have given power to enforce this law should borrow a leaf from Fashola, Lagos State governor who arrested a colonel and a staff sergeant not too long ago for violating road rules and regulation. If this leaf is borrowed, it will reinforce the perception of the general public that there are no sacred cows in the application of the law.
It is therefore one thing to make such law as the aforementioned and another to provide car parks at strategic places known to be heavily congested with vehicles to ease free flow of traffic. Marking a particular portion of the road mainly for parking cars and erecting “no parking” signposts are not enough. It is the humble suggestion of this writer to the Enugu State government and local government chairmen whose influence is in the metropolis to build car parks at strategic places known to be congested with cars not only for commercial vehicle owners but also private car owners as this will serve as a revenue generating venture for the state government or local government. The Enugu State government should spread information about its “wheel clamping” policy to every nook and cranny by exploring the following avenues ; churches, mosques, schools, town criers, social media, online media websites and blog spots, radio, newspapers and magazines. It is when this is done that many who would have been penalized for violating the law will be fully aware of it and obeys it.
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Nwaorgu Faustinus writes from Igboetche, Port Harcourt, Rivers State. Email:ngorokpalaresearcher@yahoo.com
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