The Encumbrances of Minister of Works – By Odimegwu Onwumere

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Nigeria is fighting many manmade and natural disasters at a go. The fuel subsidy probe and its distinguished scams seems has subsided and now, we have ocean surge promoting the many impoverished people in many towns and villages across the country to migrate to set-aside places which are presumably far from being protected considering the relaxed Nigeria’s factor to things. The ocean rushing forward kept travellers and people in the affected areas marooned. The flooding of the River Niger that entered Shiroro and Kainji dams impaired the Abuja-Lokoja-Okene Road and barred people from the South from entering the Federal Capital Territory (FCT). The Ajaokuta-Ankpa-Makurdi road was advised to be used as an alternative to enter the FCT and other parts of the North. Canoe was used to ferry people to their destinations. Minister of Works, Arc Mike O. Onolememen (FNIA, FNMGS) led a presidential squad that went and evaluated the affected areas.

Onolememen in his observation held that President Goodluck Jonathan was exceedingly in stroke by the miseries of the flood victims. This is after the Federal Government (FG) has declared the menace as natural disaster. While we may agree that the flood was a natural disaster or a global occurrence as had been posited in many quarters, we must also agree that our government was not prepared and was not behaving like it was preparing for the heralded climate change. This is evident as a traditional ruler in one of the affected areas has advised the Federal Government to beam its watchfulness on the Cameroonian authorities against releasing water from their dam which has been fingered as the cause of the flooding problem that sacked homes, schools, leveled farms and caused other difficulties in some of the affected states.

In a well oragnised country government would have responded punctually to the distress, but what we saw in Nigeria were individual canoes been used to assist the flood victims and stranded travellers and a delegation of pot-belly Abuja politicians who went to the affected areas to make more politics with the situation. What else apart from announcement upon announcement that the affected roads were cordoned off? Maybe, monetary donations! This behaviour has further explicated the problem with leadership in Nigeria: Those in the helm of affairs are ready to die protecting the name ‘Nigeria’ to remain as a sovereign entity whereas the individual’s fate is threatened by carelessness such as we can see in our country that is so loosed to politics to the disadvantage of any other thing that a defined-mentally healthy country is known for. This is why any well meaning Nigerian must be laughing on hearing from Onolememen that the FG has freshly engaged the services of about three hundred and fifty engineers. We also heard that the engineers were not only employed but training programmes has been organized for them before they would be deployed to their different sites. Just to make this loudly!

Onolememen made this disclosure at the cavity service of the 21st engineering assembly of Council for the Regulation of Engineering in Nigeria (COREN), on September 4, 2012. Onolememen did not end there, he also in the information said that the Ministry of Works has transformed its endeavour to revitalize the Highway Training Schools in Badagry, Kaduna and Benin City. To some people, Onolememen might be doing very well in his Ministry with such theories as we could see. But to majority of Nigerians he was yet to show his mettle in matching these theories with action. The Ministry of Works is one federal department that is very fundamentally to the welfare of the country. If in earnest it executes sizeable portion of the Federal Roads as it implements considerable fraction of the annual budget of the Federal Government on the Rehabilitation and Construction of Federal Roads across the Country, the many accidents we have read and experienced on our Highways would not have happened. Unlike the ocean flooding which is attributable to a natural disaster, decayed roads in Nigeria are manmade. And it would take a humane mind to come to the plight of Nigerians in term of road reconstruction and construction. Without a humane mind, there was no amount of engineers that would remedy this peril, no matter such engineers’ proficiencies in the engineering profession. It’s not about the size of engineers that Onolememen or the FG employs that would get Nigeria out of the hazard she had found herself in recent times in term of unpalatable roads but sincerity to work.

For that reason, it’s most to the point that Onolememen forgets his swagger of vowing to work closely with indigenous engineers on assumption of duty because the many roads that the Ministry is supposed to redeem their images are still experiencing vacuum upon his retinue and parading of employed engineers and the ones that are yet to be employed. This has helped in asking if the Ministry of Works under Onolememen is out to work or out to create jobs for his fellow engineers. By the way, who are these engineers? Are they from which states and residing in which states? Is the employment a quota thing or a selected thing or a man-know-man thing? Federal Civil Service Commission and its employment sef!

Whilst Onolememen might have his perception for the Nigerian roads, every Federal Road in Nigeria needs urgency approach that will measure with the numerous numbers of engineers that this Ministry of Works-led by Onolememen has employed so far through the Federal Civil Service Commission. By the way, what is the call for these employments when the Council for the Regulations of Engineering in Nigeria [COREN], and the Ministry of Works cannot boast of a robust coordination which is supposed to enhance bursting cooperation for the realization and promotion of the occupation that Onolememen spent years to study in the formal school? Are we not tired that the talk about of the Ministry is replete compared to the work it is supposed to have done on the Federal Roads?  To buttress a point that this Onolememen-led Ministry of Works is running an anti-people Ministry but is always sermonizing of the capacity of engineers in its employ that will bring down the moon on our roads, it is a shocker that the Ministry now prioritizes projects it knows that will bring money to the Federal Government and not minding those that will bring money to the individual. The Ministry had said that it’s doing this on what it claimed was the Federal Government’s limited resources. But did it not know about this “Federal Government’s limited resources” at first and they were employing the outrageous number of engineers as we have seen? Hear Onolememen briefly: “We have targeted all the roads leading to the sea ports, refineries, the major arterial roads and major dual carriageways. These priority projects are the Abuja-Abaji-Okene dual carriageway; the Enugu-Port Harcourt dual carriageway; Benin-Ore-Sagamu dual carriageway; the Lagos-Ibadan expressway; the section II of the Ibadan-Ilorin expressway; Kano-Maiduguri expressway and the second Niger Bridge”.

At the same time as many Nigerians have now become refugees in their own country due to flooding, it is absurd that the Ministry has not yet proved false its initial announcement during a tour of inspection of the healing work at the Third Mainland Bridge, where the Minister publicized that construction work on the second bridge across the River Niger at Onitsha will begin in the first quarter of next year (Q1 2013). To show that Onolememen is settled with his job, and if not, which serious leader sounds very shylockic piteous in his approach to the extent of not benchmarking his command? But hear Onolememen again: “The deadline we have given to Lagosians on completion of the maintenance work will not change but rather we will work hard to see if we can get some mileage of say a couple of weeks. I thank Lagosians for their patience and perseverance”.Did you see that he was not rigid with his decisions? And he continued: “When the (Subsidy Reinvestment and Empowerment) SURE Programme was put together, the second Niger Bridge featured prominently and one of the decisions at the time was that the counterpart funding of the project will have to come from the SURE programme. That is why, if you look at the SURE key programmes, over N20 billion was budgeted for the second Niger Bridge. That represents 30 percent of federal government’s counterpart funding of this particular project.” Did you hear about ‘counterpart’ and all that crass that does not enliven hope?

It is not about sounding piteous as Onolememen had always shown, saying that he had directed all Directors and Chief Executives of Parastatals under his Ministry to guarantee that all Contractors managing chief projects in the Ministry meet the terms of employing Nigerian Engineering Personnel, and not about the Federal Ministry of Works continued effort in ensuring far-above-the-ground training and re-training of engineering personnel for its ostensible turn round, but pursuing purposeful works on the many roads we have and do not have that are crying for help. This is paramount that Onolememen should make our Highways benefit more than he has boasted of renewing the Highway Training Schools in Badagary, Kaduna and Benin City and when fully outfitted, will be greatly to the advantage of the Highway Engineering Personnel.

Conceivably, Onolememen does not know that people are dying on the pit-of-hell called Federal Roads in Nigeria and the individual businesses have dwindled. Consequently, Onolememen should wake-up from slumber to meet with the expectations of the people. The flooding that ravaged many cities in Nigeria and now seemed to have abated, how prepared is the FG to checkmate further occurrence? Your guess is good as mine, when majority of the useless roads in Nigeria do not have drainages. Common flooding from the rains even makes the road impassable for vehicular and pedestrians. We are tired of this Ministry always ‘disclosing’ what the FG is consulting or planning to do with the Highways: It is either the Federal Executive Council meeting was held or a Consultancy Advisory Committee was inaugurated or the other was about to happen, yet Nigerians continue to suffer and die immeasurably from manmade and natural disasters in Nigeria.

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Odimegwu Onwumere, Poet/Author, Media/Writing Consultant and Motivator, is the Coordinator, Concerned Non-Indigenes In Rivers State (CONIRIV); and Founder, Poet Against Child Abuse (PACA), Rivers State, Nigeria

Phone: +2348032552855 (OR) +2348057778358

Email: apoet_25@yahoo.com, nirivpol@gmail.com

Website: www.odimegwuonwumere.com

Buy His Books On Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0089WYSVSand http://www.amazon.com/dp/B008223IBG

Obama high-five unforgettable for 6-year-old Kent boy

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Less than four years after he caused his parents to miss President Barack Obama’s inauguration, 6-year-old Aiden Williams gave his family a memory with the president they will never forget.

The first-grader at Kent’s Holden Elementary School gave Obama a high-five after his campaign stop at Kent State University Wednesday.

Aiden was with his parents, KSU doctoral students Traci Easley Williams and RaMone Williams, who lifted his son out the crowd of 6,600 to reach the president.

“Aiden had his hand out to shake it, and the president said, ‘Hey buddy, give me a high-five,’” Easley Williams said.

Aiden said since Wednesday, he has been telling his friends and classmates “all the things (Obama) said” in his speech. He said he likes the Obama because “the president is good.”

Easley Williams said she, her husband and Aiden had a chance to see the president in-person in 2009, but in a slightly bigger crowd. The Williams family visited Washington, D.C. for Obama’s inauguration, but left before Obama arrived because the event overwhelmed Aiden.

“It was just too much for a 2-year-old to be around all that chaos,” she said.

After missing the president at his inauguration, the Williams family suffered a different kind of letdown after Obama’s stop in Kent. After all the excitement died down, Easley Williams realized neither she, nor her husband took a photo of Aiden with the president.

“My husband and I were so bummed when we got home,” she said. “(I said), ‘I can’t believe we didn’t get that picture.’”

Luckily for the Williams family, the professional photographers at the Memorial Athletic and Convocation Center, including the Record-Courier’s Lisa Scalfaro, saw the president extending his hand to the grinning boy and snapped away.

After Obama’s speech, Scalfaro said she noticed Aiden extending his arm while sitting on his father’s shoulders, and waited for the president to notice, too. When Obama reached out for his young fan, Scalfaro said she knew she had a great shot.

One of Easley Williams’ colleagues in KSU’s Department of Pan-African Studies called her the next day to tell her a photograph of the high-five made the front page of the Record-Courier.

“I just started screaming,” Easley Williams said. “I threw on some other clothes and just ran and just bought like 30 copies.”

The Williams family later learned photographs of Aiden and the president made an appearance on the Washington Post’s website, along with a few other blogs.

“When (Aiden) saw the paper, he couldn’t stop laughing,” Easley Williams said. “He thinks he’s a celebrity now.”

Easley Williams said the president’s visit to Kent made her son an Obama supporter for life. Unfortunately for Aiden, he might not be able to help the president as much as he thinks he can in November.

“I was trying to explain to (Aiden) that he can’t vote yet, but I think he really thinks in his mind he can vote,” Easley Williams said.

Contact this reporter at 330-298-1126 or tgallick@recordpub.com

15 people massacred in central Syria by “terrorists”

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DAMASCUS, Sept. 30 (Xinhua) — A pro-government Syrian TV said 15 people were massacred by “armed terrorist groups” in central Syrian towns on Sunday, while activists reported violent clashes between the Syrian troops and armed rebels in the northern province of Aleppo.

The Sama TV reported the massacre in the towns of al-Haidarieh and Ghasanieh near the central province of Homs, placing the initial toll at 15.

On the same incident, the pan-Arab al-Mayadeen TV said hundreds of armed insurgents stormed the two towns overnight and rousted locals out of their homes before killing 17 of them and kidnapping seven others.

Al-Mayadeen gave no further details, but also reported a big blast targeting a command center of the rebel Free Syrian Army in Hass area near the northwestern province of Idlib and killing four of its leaders.

In separate accounts Sunday, the opposition Local Coordination Committees (LCC) said intense clashes are taking place in the northern Aleppo city between the government troops and armed rebels.

The clashes are taking place at the neighborhoods of Salahuddien, al-Azamieh and Saif al-Dawla in Aleppo, the activists said.

The pro-government Sham FM said scores of armed insurgents were killed Sunday at Dar-Azzah and al-Jandoul roundabout in Aleppo, a city of about 3 million, which has emerged as a key battleground in Syria’s conflicts.

In the capital Damascus, the LCC said the Syrian troops stormed Sunday the restive suburb of Harasta, carrying out house-to-house raids and arrests.

The LCC also reported violence throughout the country including clashes between troops and rebels, who are trying to turn the tide in the 18-months-old crisis in Syria.

The activists’ claims could not be checked independently, but clashes in the suburbs of Damascus have become increasingly common despite the lull every now and then in those areas.

Flood Scatters Over 3,000 Students And 500 Staffs Of Anambra Federal Polytechnic

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SUBMERGED HOTEL AT AT LOKOJA ON SUNDAY – 23/9/12

More than 3,000 students and staff of the Atani Campus of the Federal Polytechnic, Anambra State, have been displaced by flooding arising from the overflowing of the River Niger. Ten offices and 15 classrooms were totally submerged after the downpour of Thursday night, the Public Relations Officer of the polytechnic, Mr. Obini Onuchukwu, said on Friday.

“Documents and other equipment of the institution were lost. Our students are currently being evacuated by the school authority to safe areas awaiting emergency relief from the government,” he said. Onuchukwu said the management was contemplating closing down the campus in view of the development, which did not seem to be abating. He said the institution was in dire need of support and assistance from relief agencies.

ANPP: Independence Day Message

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PRESS RELEASE

As our dear nation celebrates its 98th year as a country and 52nd year as an Independent nation, the All Nigeria Peoples Party [ANPP] wishes all Nigerians a happy Independence Day Celebration.

Our country Nigeria was born with so much hope. It is this hope that inspired the great statesmen and women who fought for our independence. Our future is great. However, as a nation, we have been passing through so many difficulties. But we have also made a number of achievements.

Nevertheless, the time has come for all Nigerians to believe in our country and work together as one people for the good of all. We must start practicing those values that bring progress to a nation, such as justice, fairness, and the rule of law. No Nigerian should be allowed to be above the law; this is what is needed to build a strong, stable and a united country with confident and happy citizens.

We in the ANPP believe that with the proper vision, our nation will occupy its rightful place in the comity of nations. Our dear country has a very important role to play in sustaining peace and progress in the world. We are confident that we will achieve it, because our great party believes in the emerging greatness of our dear nation.

Signed

Dr Ogbonnaya Onu

National Chairman

ANPP

President Jonathan to Address the Nation On Oct 1

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As part of the activities marking Nigeria’s 52nd Independence Anniversary, President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan will address the nation on Monday, October 1, 2012.

The broadcast will be aired at 7.00 am. All television stations are advised to hook up to the Nigerian Television Authority for clean feed, while radio stations should hook up to the Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria.

The President will also watch a ceremonial Change of Guards by the Nigerian Army Brigade of Guards, at the State House, Abuja. This ceremony will be witnessed by Vice President Mohammed Namadi Sambo, Senate President David Mark, House of Representatives Speaker Aminu Waziri Tambuwal, Chief Justice of Nigeria, Mariam Aloma Mukhtar, former heads of state, members of the diplomatic corps, political leaders, government officials, and other dignitaries.

The event will be transmitted live, from 10.00 am, on the NTA and FRCN Networks, and other broadcast stations across the country.

JTF raids Boko Haram Bomb Factory in Zaria, many dead

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The might of the Islamic Terrorist group, the Boko Haram may be fast dwindling amidst what appears overwhelming crackdown by the men of the Joint Task Force [JTF] in the recent days.

Information available to 247ureports.com indicate the men of the JTF raided a suspected bomb factory belonging to the Islamic terrorist group. A source within the JTF revealed that the operative discovered the said house last night [Saturday] through a Boko Haram source who told the men of JTF  that the residence was being used for making Bombs. According to source, the house belonged to a popular/prominent Alhaji. It is located at the back of Barewa college, Zaria

Before the men of JTF raided the residence [bomb factory], the men of the Boko Haram were said to have been tipped off by another source that the JTF has uncovered their hiding place – and that they were to raid the place the following day – being Sunday. As gathered, the men of the Boko Haram decided to hold their ground and defend the residence against the planned raid of the JTF.

As the JTF men arrived at 9am to raid the bomb factory, the factory immediately turned to violent. Gunshots were exchanged before the bombs exploded – killing the bomb makers. Up to four of the bomb makers died.

No men of the JTF were recorded as killed or injured.

Stay tuned

Late Dr. Lateef Adegbite, A Bridge-Builder – President Jonathan

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President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan has described the late Dr. Abdul-Lateef Oladimeji Adegbite as a bridge-builder who reached across ethnic and religious divides to promote peace and unity in the country.

The President said “Dr. Adegbite’s tenure as the Secretary-General of the Nigeria Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA) would forever be remembered for fostering peace and unity among religious groups in the country and for his moderating influence.”

President Jonathan observed that Dr. Adegbite’s wealth of experience in government, private practice and especially in handling inter-religious matters would no doubt be missed.

“He was a devout Muslim leader, distinguished lawyer and academic,” the President further noted, adding that the late Seriki Musulumi and Baba Adinni of Egbaland served meritoriously as Chairman of the Presidential Committee on Public Awareness on Security and Civic Responsibilities.

President Jonathan urges the Adegbite family, the people of Ogun State, the Muslim community and Nigerians to take consolation in the knowledge that the late renowned Muslim leader made indelible contributions to the development of the country. He prays that God Almighty would grant his soul eternal rest.

REUBEN ABATI

Special Adviser (Media & Publicity) to the President

September 29, 2012.

Nigeria governors have grown bigger than their parties! – APGA leader, Victor Umeh

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By Maxwell Oditta

Chief Victor Umeh, a real estate surveyor and the National Chairman of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), speaks on various burning national issues and chides state governors for growing bigger than their parties.

 

A lot has happened lately. For instance, in the judiciary, the National Judicial Commission (NJC) suspended the Court of Appeal President, Justice Ayo Salami with the consent of President Goodluck Jonathan, and the new Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Dahiru Musdapher, has since assumed duties. There was so much controversy on the issue of Salami because many felt that his suspension, while his issue was in court, amounts to overreaching the court. What is your view?

I’m sure I have made statement on this for our party. One was on the 26th of August, during the swearing-in of new Senior Advocates of Nigeria (SANs).

I did warn that the judiciary should not be politicised. The officers of Nigerian judiciary should resist attempts from politicians to drag the judiciary down.

If you take a look at the crisis that is rocking the Nigerian judiciary now, they are all on political issues, power acquisition and all that.

The judiciary being the last hope of the common man in terms of settling disputes, it would be a tragedy for Nigeria if Nigerian people lose faith in the judiciary.

The integrity of the judiciary must be protected at all costs.

The NJC was right to intervene, to protect the integrity of the Judiciary.

It doesn’t matter to me that in trying to go into those matters that some people may have been found to be wrong, because if you are found to be wrong, no matter how highly placed you are, you must go.

In fact, I did warn Justice Ayo Salami personally through an interview I granted THISDAY early this year.

I did warn him when the NJC gave him a query to reply and he refused to reply. I told him as a judge he knows what it means that if he refuses to put his own side of the case, he will be adjudged to be guilty.

That is the principle he applies in his own court too.

I see no reason why the Chief Justice of Nigeria will promptly reply the query given to him by the NJC and the Court of Appeal President will refuse to file reply.

It is even unfortunate that the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) that was the principal accused in the matter is the one holding rallies and public debates defending the President of the Court of Appeal that was accused of taking sides with ACN. They shouldn’t have done that.

 

How do you see a situation where a person like Chief Emeka Ngige (SAN), younger brother of present Senator Chris Ngige, was reported as having appeared for Salami free of charge in his suit against the NJC even when the SAN was not there at the onset?

Well, the Action Congress is now defending the president of the Court of Appeal in court. That is what I’m saying.

They are giving themselves away as not being objective in the matter.

For them to show that type of manifest interest in the affairs of the president of the Court of Appeal, they’ve cast doubts as to the propriety of what happened.

The president of the Court of Appeal knows many Senior Advocates of Nigeria in this country that can pursue his case.

He didn’t need to take mainly members of the Action Congress to defend him. That was wrong.

Since they started that, they have lost sympathy.

 

One of the allegations made against Salami is that ACN leaders themselves had been going around expressing confidence in him that no matter what happened to their candidates at the first instance, they would always get a reversal at the appellate court. A recorded statement between you and the ACN national chairman, Chief Bisi Akande, was said to have been played at the NJC, in which you reportedly told Akande that APGA candidate for Anambra Central Senatorial District, Prof. Dora Akunyili, would defeat ACN’s Dr. Chris Ngige at the tribunal, and Akande retorted that should Akunyili win at the tribunal, Ngige would win at Salami’s Appeal Court.

I am surprised to hear this. It means that ACN is involved in espionage activity.

We were at the parley with Mr. President on June 1, in ACN delegation were Bisi Akande, Bola Tinubu, Dr. Chris Ngige and Senator George Akume.

When Ngige made a statement that tended to cast a negative impression of APGA, I told him that he should remember that he didn’t win the election, that Akunyili won and that we are in court and we are confident that we will recover the mandate.

When I was saying that, I wasn’t hoping to have support of any judicial officer. The reason is that APGA has always been a party that would pursue justice through the court and we have always prevailed. Through Peter Obi, we prevailed so many times.

When I looked at Professor Akunyili’s petition, I was convinced that she has a strong case.

I wasn’t thinking about what a judicial officer would do or not. Otherwise, such things is not something you tell the opponent and in such manner. So, it’s unfortunate.

 

President Goodluck Jonathan is insisting on the bill for one term of six years for elected executives at the federal and state levels… Don’t you think that he should have been guided by the initial reaction that greeted the bill?

One of the essential aspects of a functional democracy is that the leadership of any country must defer to public opinion.

A leadership that is not sensitive to public opinion would most of the times get its actions wrong.

On the single tenure bill, the president feels strongly about it, despite the preponderance of opinion expressed by stakeholders against the bill. He is passionate about the bill.

My attitude to it now is if he is able to sail it through the National Assembly and it comes into being as one of the reforms he is seeking to put in place, Nigerians would go by it and test those things that he has enumerated and what would be the advantages.

If the advantages are absent, another reform would take place which would lead to a repeal of that reform. Reform is a constant activity in a political process.

I am telling you that by the time these criminals parading themselves as leaders in Nigeria would assume office under that single tenure of seven years, after the first trial, there would be a massive call for its repeal, because the greatest weapon in democracy is the ability of the electorates or the citizens to use their votes to vote in their leaders and remove them at the shortest possible time if they begin to fail them.

The president says he wants to reduce the cost of election with it and many other arguments that he has adduced.

So, it is for him to experiment it. If he succeeds, so be it.

But APGA has said that the best thing to do would be to retain the four-year tenure that would be renewable.

Instead, the president should put more efforts on strengthening the democratic institutions in Nigeria with a view to making our elections more credible over time.

If we make our democratic institutions strong like making the Independent National Electoral Commission truly independent and formidable, I will tell you that the money spent on elections would also drop.

People who are desperate are exploiting the corruption in the system to make elections look expensive.

If you have a strong electoral body that has trained its staff and paid them very well and imbued them with patriotism to serve their country, you will save so much.

 

Some people are annoyed with the president for referring to Biafra as a proposed state during his recent media chat… Was the president as an easterner not being sentimental?

What the president said is perfectly right. There is no way you can foreclose that anything can happen in life.

Biafra is a struggle. It may not be possible today. It may not be possible tomorrow.

Sometime in the future, it may be possible. The MASSOB that is agitating for the Republic of Biafra is doing it with no violence.

The Nigerian nation that is resisting MASSOB activities, what guarantee do they have that they will keep staying together as a nation?

So, the president saying it should not be misunderstood by anybody. There is no reason why anybody should be afraid of anybody who is agitating to be on his own.

It’s a matter of nature that if you are not comfortable in a room, you want to go outside to take fresh air.

If Nigeria is becoming unbearable to some part of the country, you cannot force them to remain part of Nigeria.

Rather what people should be doing is to make Nigeria comfortable to all parts of Nigeria to remain.

So, if they don’t exercise restraint the way they treat people in this country, I don’t see why Biafra should be a pipe dream. It cannot be a pipe dream.

There must be a time when everybody will say okay, let’s divide into ten. Let’s have ten republics. And all these things would be actualised.

In Sudan, the Southern Sudan that has been in the struggle for self-independence, people were laughing at them that it won’t be possible because of the fact that Muslims are in the majority in Sudan.

But the Southern Sudan that is predominantly a Christian enclave rich with oil deposits, have gained independence and recognised as an independent state. So, there is nothing that is impossible in life.

Nobody should attack the president for admitting a fact of life.

 

The governor of the second APGA state, Imo, has been in power for more than 100 days, barely enough time to assess a governor…. Do you feel fulfilled with the manner Imo State is being run under APGA?

If what you have alluded to have been a harvest of protests and complaints, there is no way we can feel fulfilled.

Our fulfillment will come in the happiness of the people that are being governed. That is the objective of any political party.

We’ve read several editorials criticising the governor of Imo State that was produced by our party.

We don’t want to be quick in joining people to begin to criticise him or attack him.

We have our own channel of communication to proffer advice if the person is amenable to advice and it is too early for us to get into the ring with the governor.

He has his own ideas and we will allow him to try his own ideas. But if those ideas are not meeting the purpose of governance, as we’ve been seeing from the complaints of the people governed, we will be compelled to seek an audience with him.

For now, it is just three months. We will give him the opportunity to make mistakes and correct himself purely on a But it is so because of the way the constitution of the Federal Republic has made it.

The constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria requires anybody who wants to seek elective office to belong to a political party.

The constitution did not say any control that party will exercise over the person if he gets elected.

When you are elected as a governor or a president, anything that would happen to you in terms of redress would largely depend on the State Assembly or the National Assembly.

The party has not been given any power by the constitution to call an erring member to order.

Because of that, governors in Nigeria grow bigger than their parties.

They look at people running their parties as little things because they control the resources. So that is what is unfortunate about it all.

 

Mali Islamists destroy saint’s tomb

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Islamist group Ansar Dine controls the region (AFP/File)

BAMAKO — Islamists destroyed Saturday another tomb of a Muslim saint in a northern Mali region under their control, witnesses said.

“I saw the Islamists in Goundam destroy the mausoleum of Alfa Mobo, beside the cemetery,” local municipal councillor Mamadou Cisse told AFP.

Another witness, who declined to be identified, said, “They smashed the mausoleum down to the level of the tomb.”

He added that “there were 11 of them and someone was filming it.”

The witnesses said the Islamists were armed with axes and other tools.

Goundam, 90 kilometres (55 miles) from Timbuktu, is in the hands of the Islamist group Ansar Dine (Defenders of Faith), which with other radicals has been destroying local Muslim shrines since seizing northern Mali in April.

The Islamists say the shrines, venerated by local people and declared part of the world’s heritage by the United Nations, are “haram”, or forbidden in Islam.

Ansar Dine sparked widespread condemnation when they began destroying the renowned cultural treasures of Timbuktu on July 1, shortly after UNESCO placed them on a list of endangered World Heritage sites.

They destroyed seven of Timbuktu’s 16 mausolea of ancient Muslim saints and the sacred door of the 15th-century Sidi Yahya mosque.

On September 15 militants of the Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa (MUJAO) demolished the mausoleum of another saint, Cheik El-Kebir, 330 kilometres (200 miles) north of the city of Gao.

Kebir’s tomb is venerated by the Kunta tribe whose members live in Mali, Algeria, Mauritania and Niger.

Tuareg rebels initially seized northern Mali in the chaotic aftermath of a March coup in the capital Bamako, but were themselves quickly swept aside by Islamist extremists who have imposed Sharia law.

Control is now shared by Ansar Dine, MUJAO and Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), arousing fears that they intend to use the vast region as a base to spread their creed by violence across neighbouring countries.

The UN Human Rights Council on Friday accused them of “violence against women and children, killings, hostage-taking, pillaging, theft, destruction of cultural and religious sites and recruitment of child soldiers”.

It also voiced concern over “the impact of the activities of organised transnational crime networks on the situation of human rights in Mali and in other countries in the region”.

West Africa’s 15-state ECOWAS bloc wants to send troops to wrest northern Mali out of the Islamists’ hands but the United Nations is reluctant to give its approval.

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