A group of lawmakers are initiating a process of removing the speaker of the House of Representatives over alleged impropriety in the award of a N2.5 billion contract for the purchase of 360 Camry cars for committee activities, sources in the House told Daily Trust yesterday.
The House is due to reconvene in plenary today, after the Christmas and New Year holidays.
Sources told Daily Trust that series of meetings were held by the aggrieved members since Thursday to agree on how to launch their campaign against speaker Aminu Waziri Tambuwal.
A member of the House who was part of a meeting held at a hotel in Abuja at the weekend allegedly leaked the plot to the House leadership, saying that they planned to ask the speaker to explain the amount spent on the Camry cars and who executed the contract.
He said the group believes that the process of purchase of the cars lacked transparency and that this would be used against the speaker.
“First we are not happy with the amount they said they have purchased committee cars for the House. We want to know how much was spent and who was given the contract,” the member was quoted to have said.
When the House announced the cars purchase in late 2011, its spokesman Zakari Mohammed was reported to have said the project would be handled by the management of the National Assembly and not House committees.
Daily Trust could not confirm which procedure was used, as sources in the House said a committee might have been part of the process.
One of the House leaders who does not want to be named said yesterday the leadership has nothing to do with any contracts now, having surrendered this role to the National Assembly management since Tambuwal’s emergence as speaker.
Controversy over cars purchase is not new in the House, as it had happened during the tenure of erstwhile speaker Dimeji Bankole when he was accused of overinflating contracts for the purchase of Peugeot cars, which he denied.
The lawmaker being accused of spearheading the fresh moves against Tambuwal is among the leading legislators who backed the speaker’s rival Mulikat Adeola-Akande in June 2011.
But when Daily Trust contacted him yesterday over the allegations that he is leading a plot against Tambuwal, he denied it.
He said his group is just an “interest group” of Peoples Democratic Party members from within and outside the National Assembly which has the aim of “promoting and protecting the interest and objectives of our party.”
The lawmaker said he is being linked with the alleged plot just to smear his name and blackmail him, but vowed that this would only ginger the group towards achieving its objectives.
For his part, House spokesman Rep. Zakari Mohammed told Daily Trust he was not aware of the alleged moves to oust the speaker.
“It is news to me. We have not even resumed, and normally those issues will only come up when we resume,” he said.
The fresh plot against Tambuwal is believed to be getting support from the executive arm of government, which did not hide its opposition to his emergence as speaker in June 2011, sources said.
Tambuwal had survived at least two previous plots to remove him. In June last year, some lawmakers launched a bid to oust him over the Farouk-Otedola bribery scandal but it backfired when the House passed a vote of confidence in him.
In September, a report said legislators launched a bid for a N7 million increase in their quarterly allowances and some of them threatened to oust the speaker unless he agreed to that.
Lagos, Nigeria, Jan. 14, 2013— Nigeria ranks 120 out of 177 countries ranked in the 2013 Index of Economic Freedom, , according to the latest scores from the 2013 Index of Economic Freedom, published annually by The Wall Street Journal and The Heritage Foundation.
According to the Index, after a slight improvement in previous ranking, Nigeria slips -1.2 and ranks as mostly unfree in the economic freedom ranking. The Sub-Saharan Africa’s overall level of economic freedom “remains weaker than that of any other,” the Index editors write. A majority of countries in this region either fall into the Index’s “mostly unfree” or “repressed” categories. Indeed, 15 of the world’s 33 “repressed” economies are in Sub-Saharan Africa, and 22 are in the next lowest, “mostly unfree” category.
Sub-Saharan Africa continues to lag far behind the five other regions of the world in overall economic freedom. It is dead last in seven of 10 measures of economic freedom and collectively scores about 13 points behind average world scores in business freedom and more than 10 points behind in property rights and freedom from corruption.
“Nigeria continues to ranks low in the Index of Economic Freedom because of the increasing role of government within the economy,” said Thompson Ayodele, Director, Initiative for Public Policy Analysis. “Government spending has increased. We have continued to spend unearned money. Government borrowing has also crowded out private borrowing in the economy while debts owed-local contractors have ballooned. Ironically, government seems to think that more borrowing is the answer to our economic problem.
“The private sector, particularly small business, still remains engine of growth in the economy. Since the beginning of this administration Nigeria has resorted to more borrowing while other loans are in the pipeline. We cannot borrow our ways to prosperity. Should we continue in this trend, Nigeria is surely on the road to Greece,” Ayodele said.
Mauritius remains in the top 10 in annual worldwide rankings—the only one of 48 Sub-Saharan countries to do so. But while it is first for the region, its Index score declined slightly from last year. Second-place Botswana, meanwhile, moved from “moderately free” to “mostly free” by adding one full point to its score. At third place, Rwanda halted two consecutive years of progress by shaving eight-tenths of a point off its score.
Burkina Faso slipped to “mostly unfree.” Sào Tomè& Prìncipe and Ethiopia are now considered “repressed.” But several countries showed improvement, with Zimbabwe reporting the best increase by moving up 2.3 points to 28.6. Benin and Seychelles, meanwhile, both added almost two full points to their Index scores; Gabon added 1.4. Yet all three remain mired in the “mostly unfree” category, which shows how far the region has to go.
Launched in 1995, the Index evaluates countries in four broad areas of economic freedom: rule of law; regulatory efficiency; limited government; and open markets. Based on its aggregate score, each of 177 countries graded in the 2013 Index was classified as “free” (i.e., combined scores of 80 or higher); “mostly free” (70-79.9); “moderately free” (60-69.9); “mostly unfree” (50-59.9); or “repressed” (under 50).
The world average score of 59.6 was only one-tenth of a point above the 2012 average. Since reaching a global peak in 2008, according to the Index , economic freedom has continued to stagnate. The overall trend for last year, however, was positive: Among the 177 countries ranked in the 2013 Index, scores improved for 91 countries and declined for 78. In many countries, average government spending scores improved. Unfortunately, this was matched by a decline in regulatory efficiency, as a number of countries hiked minimum wages and tightened control of labor markets.
There was panic among shoppers and visitors to Ikeja City Mall on Tuesday as fire gutted Mr. Price, a boutique located within the mall.
Other shops in the mall, such as Shoprite, Bedmates and KFC immediately shut down while shoppers were evacuated from the building.
It was learnt that the fire at Mr. Price was caused by an electrical surge, which later spread throughout the clothing shop.
Witnesses told our correspondent that the fire started around 11am.
One of them, Doyin Adewale, said, “I was looking at a T-shirt when I heard sound of explosion. Before long, there was smoke everywhere, and we had to rush out.”
A shopper, Eno Harrison, said many people in the mall did not know what was happening at the time until a fire alarm went off.
“I just got to the mall and people started to run helter-skelter. I did not see any smoke and I was really confused because I had no idea what was happening. But a fire alarm went off and we were all told to move out. They said a store was on fire,” she said.
The operation manager of the mall, Mr. Steve Idornigie, said the surge was due to a partial contact from a power point.
He said, “At about 11:15am, the store manager on Mr. Price reported the incident to me and emergency staff responded immediately.
“In terms of damage, no goods were lost neither was anyone injured. However some clothes got wet as a result of the water used in containing the fire.
Idornigie said customers and shop owners would be admitted for business by 3pm.
The Director of the state fire service, Mr. Fadipe Idowu, said the electrical surge ignited all the bulbs in the shop resulting in the fire.
When our correspondent left the mall around 3pm, it was observed that shop owners were gradually being admitted into the building.
However, workers and other shoppers were denied entry.
The General Manager of the Lagos State Emergency Management Agency, Dr. Femi Oke-Osanyintolu, said the fire was put out before it could cause much damage by a combined team of the state fire service and his agency.
“The fire was apparently caused by power surge. Luckily there was no loss of lives and the fire was not allowed to spread. It would have been disastrous for the mall as a whole,” Oke-Osanyintolu said.
The incident is an addition to the numerous fire incidents that have occurred in the state in the last one month.
The LASEMA boss said the incessant fire incidents in the state had to do with the dry season, adding that the harmattan wind made it easy for a small fire to escalate.
He called on residents of the state to call the state’s emergency numbers -767 and 112 – in case of any fire outbreak in their neighbourhood. (Punch)
The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has warned job seekers of the activities of internet scammers who are advertising non-existent job vacancies in the Agency. While disclaiming such internet vacancy advertisement, the Agency said emphatically that it was not recruiting. The Agency therefore called on members of the public not to purchase forms from fake vendors claiming to be working for the Agency.
According to Ahmadu Giade, Chairman/Chief Executive of the Agency, “NDLEA is not selling recruitment forms. Members of the public are hereby advised not to patronise fake vendors. All recruitment notices by the Agency are usually publicised in both print and electronic media. This clarification is important to prevent fraudsters from taking undue advantage of unsuspecting job seekers. There are no plans to recruit at present and we urge members of the public to report whoever is selling the fake recruitment forms for necessary legal action”.
It would be recalled that the Agency concluded its last recruitment exercise around July 2011 and looks forward to increasing its workforce as soon as approval is received from the relevant authorities. “Drug control is an enormous responsibility. The Agency conducted a recruitment exercise in 2011 and looks forward to another selection process as soon as approval is secured. We also call for public support in the fight against illicit drugs” Giade added.
Monday’s statement says the men are employees of the China Railway 18th Bureau Group who were building a road in North Darfur just outside the regional capital of El-Fasher.
Sudan’s state news agency SUNA has blamed the abduction on a Darfur rebel movement, but it stopped short of naming which group.
The news agency has reported that five Sudanese were also abducted along with the four Chinese workers, among them drivers and engineers.
Since the Chinese nationals were kidnapped in Sudan’s Darfur region on Saturday, the Foreign Ministry has directed the embassy in Sudan to launch an emergency mechanism.
The embassy has made representations to Sudan’s relevant departments to strengthen the protection of Chinese nationals, Hong said at a daily press briefing.
The Chinese government attaches great importance to the safety and security of overseas Chinese citizens and institutions, Hong said.
He stressed that the Foreign Ministry will work with relevant departments to direct the embassy and relevant companies to make every effort to rescue the Chinese nationals.
But Li Xinfeng, an expert on Sudanese studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said the Sudanese government, gripped by ethnic and territorial disputes, often finds itself incapable of managing the task.
“Chinese citizens in the country should always be alert, and at the very least make sure they never venture out alone”, he said.
He Wenping, director of the African Studies Section at Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said the delay in claiming responsibility probably meant the kidnappers were likely to be seeking a ransom.
But Li said the kidnappers probably took the Chinese nationals because of the country’s close ties with Sudanese government, making them valuable bargaining chips.
In recent years, there have been a wave of kidnappings for ransom in Darfur, where ethnic rebels a decade ago began an uprising against the Arab-dominated Khartoum government.
Although violence is down from its peak, villages have been razed and rebel-government fighting, banditry, inter-Arab and tribal disputes continue to afflict the region, in Sudan’s far west.
In December, a Sudanese court handed down life sentences to four Sudanese for killing a Chinese worker during a raid on a workers’ oil camp, the state-linked Sudanese Media Centre said. It gave no details.
Particularistic circumstanciality and fastidious exactitude are not the proclivities of most historians and history. Some historians, cocooned in sensationalistic schmaltzy and tribal, socio-political prejudices write an anthology of incongruities and consummate calumniating lampoonery. Whilst others, write with a gossamer of objectivity. Where does the pendulum of objectivity swing in respect of the life and times of Chief Festus Okotie-Eboh (Omimi-Ejoh)?
Nigeria’s political history attained a remarkably eventful crescendo on Jan. 15, 1966, when Chief Festus Okotie-Eboh, Chief Akintola etc were assassinated in a military pogrom and putsch led by Major Chukwuma Kaduna Nzeogu. Major Nzeogu was quoted as saying in a Radio Broadcast that, “…Nigeria will never be the same again ………..”. The why, where, when, how and the justification for the assassination of these crop of Nigerian politicians and its subsequent causative and bandwagon effect on the Nigerian/Biafra civil war (1967-1970) remains a riddle in a conundrum superimposed in a riddle.
The thematic thrust and the kernel of the mission of the Nzeogu-led coup was the hook-line and sinker expunging of prebendalistic graft, psychotic corruption, tribalism, nepotistic idiosyncrasies amongst politicians and a call for the rekindling of national and patriotic zeitgeist amongst Nigerians.
The revolutionaries’ lebensraum, virginal flawlessness and redoubtable intrepidity became obstructed by the trajectory of political backstabbers, ethnocentric prejudices and the killings and massacres were skewed in favour of one major ethnic group, the Ibo or so most historians adjudged it to be. The Great Zik, Dr Okpara, Mbadiwe,Mbonu Ejike and Nwafor Rizu etc, all of Ibo extraction, were left untouched. The likes of Abubukar Tafawa Balewa, Ahmadu Bello of the North, Akintola of the west and Chief Festus Okotie-Eboh of the then Mid-West Region or today’s Niger Delta were hacked to death in cold blood. These killings and massacres set the stage for the Nigeria / Biafra civil war.
The moralistic and Victorian Grundnorm that precipitated the Nzeogu–led putsch became rubbished by the July 27, 1966 counter-coup with Aguiyi-Ironsi as the arrowhead. And like the susurration and crepitation of dry leaves, Nigeria became plunged in a precipitous political and ethnic epicenter. Truly, Nigeria has never been the same ever since the Nzeogu-led coup and the Nigeria/Biafra civil war. Historians of various genre and colours have tried to look at the justicability of history as a basis for moving Nigeria forward. Any attempt is treated as an epochal historical fraudulence, festering sore, nauseating gesture, parochialization of history and the mere intellectualization of trite matters.
Chinua Achebe’s attempt, to put the Nigerian civil war in obverse and reverse perspective in his book entitled “… There Was a Country;Then There Wasn’t:…..” is now suffering under the same sledge-hammer of jingoistic historians and some informed commentators. The multidimensional submissions of Mr. N.U. Akpan in his book entitled, ‘The Struggle for Secession’, Adewale Ademoyega’s , ‘Why We Struck’, Emeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu’s, ‘Ahiara Declaration’ and ‘Because I AM Involved’, Ben Gbulie’s, ‘Nigeria’s Five Majors’ and ‘The Fall OF Biafra’, Dr. K.O. Mbadiwe’s ‘Rebirth of a Nation’, Chief Obafemi Awolowo’s, ‘Travails of Democracy and The Rule of Law’, Olusegun Obasanjo’s, ‘My Command’ and ‘Not in My Character’ and ‘Biafra’s Government Press Enugu Release, Vol. 1-7 entitled, ‘ January 15 – Before and After’ 1966 Nigerian crisis’ etc.
All these publications shows that there are protean views on the political schism of January 15, 1966, the assassinations and the subsequent Nigerian/Biafra Civil War (1967-1970). It is a platitudinous truism that, in the political engineering process of making Nigeria metamorphose into political adulthood, i dare say that the Nzeogu-led coup was imperative at that point–in-time of Nigeria’s political history. But were the assassinations justified? I say capital NO! Nigeria would have been a different nation today, if all the innumerable coups and killings were calculated at making Nigeria a different and a better nation.
One school of thought posited that the architectonics of the political and power pyramid within the military institution was skewed against politicians in the NCNC, UPGA ,UMBC, MDF, NNDP and that of the NNA. Hence, the coup was calculated at eliminating politicians from other parties other than theirs. But some argued that Major Chukwuma Kaduna Nzeogu was a cosmopolitan citizen, a great revolutionary, disciplinarian and a cerebral soldier. His co-revolutionaries were soldiers of the same patriotic bent and ideology. They would have therefore opted for nothing-less than the fight for a corruption-free and a greater Nigerian Nation. But these are parts of the vagaries of history.
These killings over corruption and nationhood compared to the atrocities of present day politicians and our leadership remains unjustifiable. If corruption was the gravamen of the coups and killings, we have now learnt that our today’s politicians and bureaucrats are defiant in prebendalistic graft and have upped corruption into an ART and a religion. Our nation has now apotheosized mediocrity as our totem of honour and created the fecund field for the rise of Democratic Tyrants. Hence, the late Alfred Rewane grimly refrained “Yesterday, we yearned for a better tomorrow. But today, we mourn the loss of a glorious yesterday. HOW SAD!”. The killings were unwarranted and an act of bestial military savagery.
As we mark the tragedy of January 15, 1966, we recall with a heavy heart the death of our own Chief Festus Okotie –Eboh who would have marked his centennial and was killed at the age of 54 years. He remains the lodestone of the Niger Delta as a pioneering Minister of Labour and welfare and later the Minister of Finance. His achievements are still pragmatically tangible in Education, Industrial, Economic vide Central Bank of Nigeria for all to see. Not even one dim of pangyrical evocation by way of designating one university, college of education, street, town or airport after Chief Festus Okotie-Eboh has been eventuated. But history will vindicate the just.
I assert with unequivocal clarity, that Chief Festus Okotie-Eboh was killed because he was a meteoric star from the minority Mid-West Region, bluntly, the Niger Delta (QED). He was a victim of the despotism of the majority triumvirates in the then military institution and a guinea pig in the laboratory of military politicians. He was only a jolly good fellow locked in the throes of splendiferous flamboyancy and the theatrics of brummagem. He was never found guilty of corruption by any court of competent jurisdiction and by any interventionist body of graft. The military juveniles who carried out the coup and the killings have now been proved wrong and found guilty by the justicability and verdict of history.
History and historians are supposed to be watchdogs, hallmarks of horizontal and vertical integration of a country and its people’s integrity. But because of the prevalence of fraudulent historians, jaundiced chroniclers, paid hirelings and hack writers the truth that is supposed to be the quintessential grundnorm and foundational equipoise of a nations historical background are lost in the thickets of ponderous and somnambulistic commentaries,commendators, writers and historians. But the justicability of history must continue to remain a plinth of jurisprudential canons and facts in taking and making the backward integration of a nations push for progress. Chief Festus Okotie-Eboh is/was a victim of the Sisyphean albatross of myopic and skewed chroniclers.
Chief Festus Okotie-Edioh was a suaviter in modo, fortiter in re, a phenomenal and peerless pioneer, captain of industries, icon, political avatar, institution, oracle, legend, phoenix, satyagraha, laviathan and an epitome of true greatness O’ whenst cometh such another?
Finally we take solace in the words of John Donne, essayist and poet, “Death be not proud, though some have called thee mighty and dreadful. But thou arth not so, for those whom thou thinkest thou dost destroy, die not, poor death. Nor yest can thou kill Chief Festus Okotie-Eboh. One short sleep past he shall wake eternally and death shall be no more.
Death thou shall Die”.
The truth and absolute anatomization of the facts of the killings, pogroms and massacres that took place on January 15th, 1966 is yet to be exhaustively surgeonized. The ghost of that politically tragic and remarkably eventful day will continue to hunt Nigeria and its leadership until the time of the Nigeria’s political Armageddon and social Earthquake. NIGERIA BEWARE!
The Governor of Imo State,Owelle Rochas Okorocha, has inaugurated three judicial panels of inquiry to look into all contracts awarded by the Ikedi Ohakim administration, the local government system, as well as autonomous communities and traditional rulers.
The retired Chief Judge of Imo State, Justice Paul Onumajulu, was asked to probe the local government system. Justice Paul Onumajulu (retd.) is charged with the responsibility of identifying all types of employees in the local government system, including temporary, casual, permanent staff, the method of recruitment of staff, staff structure, and staff strength of each local government in the state.
The Panel is also to investigate any cases of salary padding, payment to ghost workers, illegal employment in the Local Government System including temporary, casual and permanent staff or related employees, as well as identify persons involved in illegal recruitment, salary padding, payment made to ghost workers and prescribe appropriate sanctions.
The Panel headed by Justice Goddy Anunihu was asked to identify all contracts awarded by or on behalf of Imo State government or its parastatals and agencies between May 30, 2007, and May 29, 2011, and ascertain the extent of work done.
The panel is also to ascertain the level of jobs done, detect any payments in excess of work done, including kick backs in cash or kind given to or received by individuals or organizations.
The Justice Chikeka panel was asked to ascertain whether all the autonomous communities in Imo State were originally qualified to be given autonomous status, in accordance with the law that was in force when each autonomous community was created. The Panel is also to ascertain the level of involvements of the traditional rulers in acts/misconducts and make recommendations to the government based on their findings.
Governor Okorocha explained that the essence of inaugurating the tribunals of enquiry was not to witch-hunt anybody in the state but to establish and bring back the lost glories of the state as well as the traditional institution.
Responding on behalf of the chairmen and members of the commissions, Justice Onumajulu thanked the governor for finding them worthy to serve in the commissions and assured the governor that they would do their best to carry out the assignment.
The People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in the South-West has berated the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) and its agents for their incessant media attacks on former Deputy National Chairman of the PDP, Chief Bode George over his conviction, saying; “the same way Bode George was convicted was also the way the ACN National Chairman, Chief Bisi Akande was jailed for fraud by the General Mohammadu Buhari Military Regime in 1984. How then, can pot continue to call kettle black?”
The party, which described criticisms of Bode George’s appointment as member of a panel to reorganise its Board of Trustees (BOT) as hypocritical, said; “The PDP has the rights to give responsibilities to any of its members and imprisonment of anyone should be reformatory and not a stigma with which someone’s existence must be terminated.”
Zonal Publicity Secretary of the PDP, Hon. Kayode Babade said in a statement issued today that rather than turning Chief Bode George’s conviction into an anthem that they sing everyday, the ACN should tell Nigerians the propriety of having Chief Bisi Akande, who was jailed for fraud in 1984 as its National Chairman and Femi Gbajamiala, who was convicted for professional misconduct by the Supreme Court of Georgia as the House of Representatives Minority Leader.”
“The statement read; “We have followed with keen interest the continuous media attack on the person of our party’s former Deputy National Chairman, Chief Bode George by the ACN and its cohorts, the latest being the criticisms of Bode George’s appointment as a member of a panel to reorganise the PDP Board of Trustees.
“While we do not want to bother ourselves with the propriety or otherwise of Chief Bode George’s conviction not stealing a dime of public fund but for flouting procedure for award of contracts, we make bold to say that the ACN as a party does not have the required moral standing to chastise Bode George or any other person for that matter because its own National Chairman was equally jailed for stealing funds belonging to the old Oyo State.
“Interestingly, Bisi Akande was only released from jail and not pardoned by the Ibrahim Babangida government, and Buhari, whose government jailed him (Akande) is now his political mentor and rallying figure for their much touted merger party.
“It also a fact that it was late Chief Sunday Afolabi who prevailed on the Osun State PDP not to go to court to raise the issue of Akande’s conviction vis his qualification to contest election as a governor in 1999.
“Apart from Akande, was the ACN Leader in the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila not also convicted in faraway United States of America for stealing his client’s money?
“If these characters in the ACN have any sense of shame, they ought to know that despite his conviction, Bode George had the right to belong to, and participate in the activities of a political party the same way Bisi Akande is the National Chairman of the ACN despite being an ex-convict.
“Can conviction stop somebody from belonging to a group or a trade union? And if he belongs to a group, can’t he take part in the activities of the group?
“Therefore, it is our challenge to the ACN hypocrites that they should clean their stinking house and leave Chief Bode George alone to live his life and exercise his constitutional rights.”
Coptic Christian churches in the United States say they are having to expand to cope with new arrivals, as priests in cities like Cairo and Alexandria talk of a new climate of fear and uncertainty.
“Most of our people are afraid,” Father Mina Adel, a priest at the Church of Two Saints in Alexandria said. “Not a few are leaving – for America, Canada and Australia. Dozens of families from this church alone are trying to go too.”
Father Mina’s church has an important place in the history of the Arab Spring. It was struck by a car bomb on New Year’s Eve 2010, Egypt’s worst sectarian attack in recent decades, in which 23 people were killed.
After the bombing, liberal Muslim groups staged protests in support of Christians, printing posters showing the cross and the crescent interlinked which then went on to be symbols of inter-faith unity during the Tahrir Square protests three weeks later.
But the victory of the Muslim Brotherhood in parliamentary and presidential elections has changed the mood – particularly as the biggest opposition party is the even more hardline Salafist movement which wants strict Sharia law implemented.
“Salafis meet Christian girls in the street and order them to cover their hair,” Father Mina said. “Sometimes they hit them when they refuse.”
President Mohammed Morsi has promised to respect Christians’ rights, and issued a New Year message insisting Egypt was “one homeland for all”. But several Brotherhood leaders and clerics issued thinly veiled threats against them during protests in late 2012, accusing them of being part of a plot to overthrow the government.
The biggest change in attitudes has come since the passing of a new constitution giving Sharia law more prominence.
“With the new constitution, the new laws that are expected, and the majority in parliament I don’t believe we can be treated on an equal basis,” said a congregation leader in Cairo’s Church of St Mary and St John the Baptist.
He said he knew a dozen families who had left already and 40 or 50 more friends who had applied – including, he added, liberal Muslim families who were also unhappy with the prospect of more restrictive laws.
There were 2 Coptic churches in the United States 40 years ago, whereas there are now 200.
The most recent opened in Arlington, outside Washington, last year. “We are trying to accommodate all of the new arrivals,” said Atef Yacoub, a member of the area’s Coptic community. “People are coming and staying by applying for asylum or seeking employment visas.”
The United States, like other countries, does not distinguish visa applications by religion, so there are no absolute figures. One estimate put the number of Coptic emigrants in 2011 at 100,000, of whom more than 40,000 went to the US.
“There is no body counting those who leave the country, neither on the Coptic side nor on the part of our embassies abroad, so it’s all just guesswork,” said Ahmed el-Qoasni, former assistant foreign minister for Egyptians abroad.
For most Christians, estimated to number between 6-8 million of Egypt’s 85 million population, flight is not an option, and many say the fear of Islamist takeover is worse than the reality so far. Most Christians are as poor as other Egyptians, currently afflicted by an economic as well as political crisis.
Nader said things could improve and he could still change his mind. But he added: “As Christians, we are in God’s hands, but I have a daughter, and I want her to be safe too.”
The news in Akwa Ibom is that Godswill Akpabio has dismissed, with immediate effect, both the Commissioner and the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Women’s Affairs; the reason for the dismissal? Well, at least according to the news report, the two women did not include in the plan for Akpabio to release the white doves in celebration of whatever it is that he was celebrating.
However, inside sources say the real reason for their dismissal (though that of Mrs. Okpo is conveniently referred to as a retirement) is the interference of Akpabio’s wife in the political and administrative affairs of the State. Reliable sources have confirmed that Unoma Akpabio has been suspecting her husband of having a discreet love affair with at least one of the women. However, several sources I contacted have confirmed that though the two women in this case are personalities with exemplary and responsible characters, who would never stoop themselves to that kind of rubbish with Satan Akpabio, Unoma Akpabio has been pressuring her husband to get rid of them. The dove incident comes in as a good reason to fool the unsuspecting public.
It could be recalled that not too long ago, Unoma Akpabio tried, though unsuccessful, to heap that kind of jealous rubbish on the Akwa Ibom State Head of Service. According to a source, “Mrs. Unoma Akpabio is so insecure that her jealous attitude has turned into madness. And what many people don’t know is that her attitude is causing problems for Akwa Ibom State and its people. On the other hand, I don’t blame the woman, because Akpabio has been known to sleep around with some female members of his Cabinet. The wife knows this and that is why she has been fussy.”
It is not clear if the allegations leveled against Unoma Ekaete Akpabio are true. However, the topic of discourse now is that while Akpabio has all the legal rights to dismiss his Commissioner from the Cabinet, it is unclear if Akpabio has the legal right to arbitrarily force the retirement of a Permanent Secretary from the Service of the State. This is the area of which interested parties are checking for the possibility of challenging the forced retirement of Mrs. Okpo. It appears the drama is on the planning stage, waiting to unfold.
