Information available to 247ureports.com indicates that a Mosque has been bombed in the oil-rich community of Sapele in Delta State. The prayer house was bombed at 5am Saturday morning. This is according confirmed sources.
The bombing comes on the heels of series of threat and warnings by the militant group in the Nigeria Delta region by the name Egbesu Mighter Man – an Ijaw based group. The group which also goes by the name, Water Lion, had made several warnings to the Islamic militant group, Boko Haram, over their continued killings of southerners and Christians living in the northern part of Nigeria. The Ijaw group pleaded with the Boko Hakam to stop the killing or have the Moslem in the Delta region face like treatment. They followed their pleadings with a seven day ultimatum to the Moslems living in the Delta region to vacate the land or face dire consequences.
247ureports.com had reached out to the zonal administrator of the Sapele police but he indicated not to have any information as to the bombing.
The imbroglio in the Bayelsa political tussle may have taken a new surprising twist as the various political camp set stage to begin open campaign for the gubernatorial election. This is as information available to 247ureports.com indicates that the President’s choice to mount the seat of governor [Henry Seriake Dickson] may have been receiving the “cold” shoulder treatment from the Presidency of late.
According to the information received from sources within the Dickson political camp, the political steam generated during the preparation for the Peoples Democratic Party [PDP] primaries through the perceived support of the presidency may have waned. One of the sources pointed to a change in the Dickson camp’s operations shortly following the conclusion of the PDP primaries in Yenogua, Bayelsa State. “Our funding, as promised, has not been forthcoming” stated the source who went on to add that the campaign operation is ‘seriously’ starved of funds – and recent attitudes from the President’s men show the presidency has lost interest in the Bayelsa State gubernatorial elections, or may have already achieved it’s sole aim in Bayelsa – the removal of Timipre Sylva from the field of competition.
Interestingly, the activities of the President’s men in relation to the Bayelsa election appear to auger with the suspicions of the members of the Dickson camp. The ease of access to the President by Henry Dickson which Dickson enjoyed previously is reported to have been sabotaged by the men surrounding the President. Some of the vocal members of the Dickson camp tell our correspondent that it appears the Presidency may have given instructions to his men to deny Dickson access to him – that the President’s men must be acting under instructions. But in an unofficial discussion, the President’s men denied the allegation. One of the President’s men [ who spoke off-record], in denying the allegation, acknowledged that Henry Dickson have ,of late, been unable to meet with the President. He credited Dickson’s inability to reach the President to conflicting schedules.
The unfolding development comes as no surprise to mutual friends of the President and Hon Henry Dickson. In talking to 247ureports.com, they indicated authoritatively that the President’s interest in the Bayelsa gubernatorial election has little to do with hoisting Hon Henry Dickson to power. They stated that it had to do with the removal of Gov Timipre Sylva from the race. “Jonathan sees Seriake Dickson as the same as Sylva“, stated a close ally of the President when was the Bayelsa State Governor. “Jonathan will not fund Seriake’s campaign” added the source.
It is recalled that Hon Dickson had served under the then Governor Goodluck Jonathan at the capacity of a Commissioner – and they had worked closely enabling for Goodluck Jonathan to catch a grip of the personality traits of Henry Dickson.
Some of the informed political pundits in Yenogua discounts the allegation against the presidency as misplaced. They point to the peculiar political terrain of Bayelsa State as the principal reason for the President’s shift in attention. In their analysis, the selected/elected PDP candidate in Bayelsa gubernatorial race will win the race – and that the President has done what he needs to do to deliver Henry Dickson. One of the pundits noted “Dickson should not be going around looking for money from Jonathan, he has the ticket“.
The implications of a shift in the political mechanization in Jonathan’s PDP Bayelsa may pose grave for Dickson and his candidate-ship. In Bayelsa politics, historically, majority of the populace vote for candidates that are perceived to have the President’s blessing/support.
WASHINGTON—A Brooklyn, N.Y., man was sentenced today in U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Va., to 12 years in prison for operating a credit card fraud ring that used counterfeit credit cards encoded with stolen account information up and down the East Coast of the United States, announced Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer of the Criminal Division and U.S. Attorney Neil H. MacBride for the Eastern District of Virginia.
Jonathan Oliveras, 26, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Gerald Bruce Lee. In addition to his prison term, Oliveras was ordered to forfeit $770,646 and to serve three years of supervised release. Oliveras pleaded guilty on Aug. 10, 2011, to one count of wire fraud and one count of aggravated identity theft.
In his plea, Oliveras admitted that he managed a ring of co-conspirators who used stolen credit card account information in New York, New Jersey and the Washington, D.C., area. According to court documents, Oliveras sent payments to individuals he believed to be in Russia for the stolen account information. Oliveras then distributed the stolen account information, which was re-encoded onto plastic cards and used to purchase gift cards. The gift cards were used to buy merchandise that ultimately was returned for cash.
Federal and local law enforcement executing a search warrant in July 2010 at Oliveras’ apartment found, among other things, credit card encoding equipment and more than 2,300 stolen credit card numbers. According to court documents, credit card companies have identified thousands of fraudulent transactions using the account numbers found in Oliveras’ possession, totaling more than $750,000.
The case was prosecuted by Michael Stawasz, a Senior Counsel in the Criminal Division’s Computer Crime & Intellectual Property Section and Special Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Eastern District of Virginia, and Assistant U.S. Attorney Ryan Dickey of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia. The case was investigated jointly by the Washington Field Offices of both the U.S. Secret Service and the FBI, with assistance from the New York and New Jersey Field Offices of both agencies
The Sports Writers Association of Nigeria (SWAN) has called for the immediate reorganisation of Nigerian football to checkmate the systematic collapse of the round leather game in the country, which has continued to bring untold embarrassment to the nation both at the continental and international competitions in the recent time.
SWAN observed with dismay the complete circle of failure of Nigerian football with the ouster of the Under-23 Olympic team, the Dream Team V at the recent qualifiers in Morocco.
“With this development, no Nigerian football team would be on parade in any of the continental and international competitions next year. This, exactly tells about the level of decadence Nigerian football has degenerated into.”
The association further reasoned that the problems militating against Nigerian football are multifaceted and the constant sacking of national team coaches would only remain a palliative measure that would never have a far-reaching effect. SWAN, therefore, tasks both the Nigeria Football Federation and the Ministry of Sports to end the festering cold war between them, stressing that no meaningful progress would be made under such a chaotic atmosphere. It rather advised that both bodies should collaborate and work towards the general interest of Nigerian football by laying an enduring foundation upon which the game would thrive.
SWAN also calls all stakeholders in the game of football in the country to rise and join hands together to salvage the country’s football from further decay.
(KHARTOUM) – The Sudanese army on Wednesday repelled an attack by South Sudanese troops in a contested area on the border between the two country, a military spokesperson said in Khartoum and Juba confirmed the fighting.
Sudan and South Sudan have in the recent months escalated accusations of supporting rebel groups on both sides. Sudan’s army (SAF) has been conducting a large-scale campaign against the rebels of Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N) following the end of the rainy season.
Last Saturday SAF announced the control of Jau, located on the border and claimed by the two sides. Khartoum said the SPLM-N headquarters were in Jau but also said captured South Sudanese troops there. Juba confirmed the incident and urged the release of its soldiers. South Sudan also warned on Tuesday that it would use force to retake disputed area.
Al-Sawarmi Khaled, SAF spokesperson, said the Sudanese troops defeated SPLM-N rebels in a position located south to Jau called Alatmor where SAF destroyed a tank and seized another besides different arms and ammunition.
He went to say that SAF was now fully in control of the areas of Jau and White Lake despite six attempts undertaken by the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) of South Sudan to capture the area. He said the last attack by SPLA occurred on Wednesday afternoon.
Meanwhile, a statement issued by the SPLM-N said its forces “inflicted heavy causalities” on the Sudanese army. It said that SAF’s offensive targeted areas of civilian population and called for the delivery of aid to the affected areas.
In Juba, the South Sudanese army spokesperson Philip Aguer confirmed the attacks on SAF troops stressing that since Saturday the SPLA were defending South Sudanese territory.
“The SPLA is trying to repulse the attackers, the Sudan Armed Forces,” said Aguer in a statement to Reuters.
Today’s statements about the direct clashes between the north and South Sudanese armies were largely expected in view of the war of words both sides have been waging against each other since June 2011 after clashes erupted in Sudan’s border state of South Kordofan between SAF and SPLM-N who fought alongside the former South Sudanese rebels.
The two parties sought to win the international support to their cause. For several months, Khartoum lodged a complaint after complaint to the UN Security Council accusing Juba of supporting the rebels in S. Kordofan and Blue Nile while Juba petitioned two days ago the Security Council over the seizure of Jau by SAF.
An international troika of, Norway, UK and US issued a statement calling on the two Sudanese states to resolve their dispute over oil transportation and called on other international stakeholders to “play a positive role in engaging with both Sudan and South Sudan to help peacefully resolve outstanding issues”.
However regarding the growing tension between Juba and Khartoum, the joint statement just noted “with concern the recent and dangerous escalation of military action along the Sudan-South Sudan border” without elaboration.
Sudan foreign ministry condemned the “armed aggression” carried out by South Sudanese army “inside the border of the Republic of Sudan”.
In unusual way, the foreign ministry in Khartoum was the first to announce the first direct battle between SAF and SPLA soldiers since the independence of the South Sudan last July.
Khartoum further announced that a complaint on this “blatant aggression on Sudan’s sovereignty and territorial integrity” would be lodged at the UN Security Council, describing Juba government of being “element of regional instability”.
Yesterday South Sudan’s foreign minister Nhial Deng Nhial warned that continuous provocation by the Sudanese army might lead to a war between the two countries.
“We will not attack president Bashir directly, but if his forces continue invading our territories, then we will have no option since we have to protect our territories and it’s our citizens,” he said in a press conference held on Tuesday.
Rep. James Sensenbrenner: “Tell me what’s the difference between lying and misleading Congress, in this context?”
Attorney General Eric Holder: “Well, if you want to have this legal conversation, it all has to do with your state of mind and whether or not you had the requisite intent to come up with something that would be considered perjury or a lie.”
— Exchange from a House hearing on the Operation Fast and Furious gunrunning sting.
Celebrity cabinet members are rarely helpful for presidents.
They can, as Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has done, lend their credibility and esteem to an area where a president is perceived as weak. But more often they become distractions.
Such is the case with Eric Holder, who turned in a snappish, hair-splitting performance in his latest round of testimony before congressional Republicans irate over his agency’s handling of a gunrunning sting in the Southwest.
Holder sounded like he was dissembling as he discussed the legal definition of perjury when pressed about his department’s evolving responses to inquiries into Operation Fast and Furious, in which agents lost track of the weapons they sent into the hands of Mexican drug cartels.
He also played martyr, invoking red-baiting Sen. Joseph McCarthy to attack his chief inquisitor, Rep. Darrell Issa, asking if the California Republican had “no shame.”
Holder did worse than in his last round of questioning and he will likely do worse the next time as he visibly chafes at being badgered by Republicans who he believes are only interested in political gain. The problem for Holder is that the underlying case and initial response from his department look just dreadful. The more he bristles, the more attention will come to the botched sting.
But as the pressure builds from the right, liberals are rallying to Holder’s defense. He is an increasingly revered figure on the left for not just what they see as his victimization by Republicans but also his status as the liberal conscience of an administration so many liberals have found wanting.
While President Obama is seen as caving in to public opinion with his policy on terrorists, overseas interventions, drone killings and the continued operation of the prisoner of war camp at Guantanamo Bay, Holder has been there fighting to close the prison and trying to import the inmates for trial in civilian courts.
Holder has also been forcefully opposing state laws designed to reduce the number of illegal immigrants and voter fraud, taking a hard-line stance on issues many Democrats believe are the return of Jim Crow laws in disguise.
These things may make Holder more popular on the left and establish him as the favorite cabinet member of the self-styled Washington intelligentsia, but they only make him more of a lightning rod out in the rest of the country, where Obama must now, as his press secretary put it, “venture forth” in an effort to get people to vote for him again.
But Obama can’t lose Holder before the election because it would simply reinforce the doubts and disappointments of the left with the president they once believed would be their champion.
Who would have guessed that Hillary Clinton would be Obama’s least troublesome celebrity cabinet member?
Americans Know Gingrich Well, for Good and for Ill
“I am a cultural teacher, with a political campaign to change a government. And that’s how I see myself.”
— Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich in an interview with the New York Times explaining why he continues to hold promotional events to sell books instead of campaigning or raising money for his cash-strapped campaign.
In the latest FOX News poll, Newt Gingrich widely trails both Mitt Romney and Barack Obama on the most important intangible for a general election candidate: being presidential.
Only 43 percent of registered voters saw Gingrich as “presidential,” while 57 percent saw the current office holder as fitting that description and 53 percent saw Romney the same way.
Gingrich edged out Romney and beat Obama on being “a strong leader,” held his own on being seen as “patriotic” (beating Obama, losing to Romney) and “smart” (beating Romney and losing to Obama) and was 13 points ahead of Romney as being a “true conservative.”
But the place where Gingrich lost were painful losses.
Gingrich was seen as “phony” by 40 percent of voters, one point worse than Obama and 4 points worse than Romney, who has been called a phony by Democrats and his Republican foes for years.
On being “caring,” Gingrich trailed half-billionaire moneyman Romney by 18 points and famously aloof Obama by 24 points. Worse, on being “honest,” Gingrich scored only 40 percent, 17 points behind Obama and 14 points behind Romney.
It all adds up to Gingrich’s low score on being “presidential.” Another word for that could be “plausible.” When Americans think about someone being presidential, they think about the ordinary and ceremonial things – representing the nation at summits, throwing out first pitches, reviewing the troops, etc. – and extraordinary things – leadership at a time of crisis, talking to them from the Oval Office in times of darkness, having the power to destroy the world, etc. They can’t see Gingrich in the big chair.
That wouldn’t be such a problem for a candidate about whom less was known, as Bill Clinton puts it “not famous yet.” Obama, George W. Bush and Bill Clinton would have all fared poorly at one time in this measure, mostly because they were little-known figures. They had time to introduce themselves and pass the presidential plausibility test.
Peggy Noonan writes in today’s Wall Street Journal that Gingrich is the first modern presidential contender “about whom there is too much information.”
Gingrich has been the most recent beneficiary of conservative angst about the moderate, technocratic Romney, based on the essence of his humble brag to a South Carolina radio host: “I don’t claim to be the perfect candidate. I just claim to be a lot more conservative than Mitt Romney and a lot more electable than anybody else.”
And polls do show that Gingrich, who is already well known, especially to older voters, starts with some serious advantages when it comes to persuading middle of the road voters in the general election.
But, he also has the disadvantage that his negatives are well known, too. Gingrich has little chance to reshape public opinion about his honesty, authenticity, charity, and plausibility. Unlike with the previous GOP boomers Cain and Perry, it’s hard to argue that Gingrich could overcome early negative perceptions as Americans came to know him.
The former speaker’s negatives are like fossils from the Cambrian era – very old and clearly etched on solid rock. And the Romney campaign is working hard right now to put every nasty trilobite on display. If Gingrich survives that, he would likely enter the general election with higher negatives than any presidential challenger of the modern era.
His best hope and his central claim of electability hangs on one idea: that Americans are so freaked out right now that they will ignore their reservations about Gingrich’s character and plausibility and give him the big job on the basis that he is a dynamic leader brimming with revolutionary ideas.
It may sound more plausible than Cain’s claims to Republicans, who are indeed very freaked out about the future and desperate to beat Obama. But that’s still one hell of a bank shot.
[Yesterday, A mosque was bombed in Warri, Delta State]
Boko Haram merciless bombing and killings going on in the NORTH. The continuous killings of Christians in the North are unbearable to us now. Boko Haram has been leaving bombs around churches and other places with clusters of the innocent. why all these killings of innocent Niger Deltans? With this trend, we can’t leave together. Leave Niger Delta now!!! Your failure to leave at the expiration of this letter, we’ll start to kill any MUSLIM WE SEE IN THE NIGER DELTA REGION full stop and no going back.
No section of this country is an embodiment of killing others. Muslims can’t live in our land freely (Niger Delta) while BOKO HARAM will be killing our people in their land. This is our message, If you like stay and test our ultimatum and see what will happen. We are fully ready to kill if muslims test us. What happened in Warri today is minor and we shall continue more if they don’t leave our land. Every muslim should leave now or BLOOD.
We have tasted blood war during the days of our agitation for equal right. These Boko Haram live among you and pray in the same mosque. So you can’t claim that you don’t know where the Boko Haram is. Every Niger Delta to return home as our message will going to be implemented without hesitation. And any person or individual that make inflammatory statement against us will be dealt with. We the EGBESU MIGHTIER FRATERNITY have giving you our word. We have killed and we will not hesitate to kill again if you dare us.
EGBERI faooo!!!!
This is signed by the Joint Revolutionary Council.
An International Donor Organisation, Community Social Humanitarian Project, COSHUP, says it is set to take development to the remote rural areas of Nigeria.
Head of Media of the Organisation, Walter Duru disclosed this during a chat with newsmen in Abuja yesterday.
Duru, who described COSHUP as an Interventionist Organisation, working with the rural dwellers as partners explained that its primary concern is with the development of the rural areas in Nigeria.
“Community Social Humanitarian Project (COSHUP) is an International non-governmental Donor Organization, with local partners in the Community to fight poverty and injustice. We do it by intervening in developing Projects in the rural areas”.
“The difference between our Organisation and others is that we shall match challenges with available opportunities. Any challenge we have, we look for the right opportunity to match it and move on”.
Continuing, Duru explains, “The objectives of COSHUP are to understand the environment well and to bring development to the rural areas. COSHUP intends to bring Infrastructure closer to the rural people. Our rural areas need more than they have now. In most places, they have food, but do not have access roads to bring the food to the customers. Most people walk long distances to get basic health services. Most of them have no good Schools. Their children still study under trees and you can only see this kind of setting in typical rural areas, where eyes are very far from the people that are in power”.
Speaking on COSHUP’s areas of interest, the spokesman identified Mass Housing, Energy and Power, Agriculture, Transportation, Education, Rural road rehabilitation and construction and Micro-Credit, as their core areas.
On why the Project has not kicked off, he said: “We have been planning and strategizing, Studying the needs assessments, developing a workable work-plan. In the process of doing this, some of the proposed Staff have been sent to China, Germany and Holland for training, to bring the latest technology on take-off. We have also used the last few months to put up some fundamental foundational structures that will enable the Organisation operate optimally. In 2012, the Project will commence in full swing. We are working on a massive Project that will have a direct touch on the lives of the common people.”
On the modalities of operation, he explained that the Organisation has mapped out a 4-year development action plan that will transform the Country.
“We have designed a 4-year development action plan. In the next four years, we must have built reasonable number of houses in the rural areas of Nigeria. These houses shall be donated to the beneficiaries free of charge. There are so many other packages we are coming up with. By the time we kick off early next year, Nigerians will see and believe that COSHUP is God’s special answer to the age-long prayers of Nigerians”.
Wide range consultations with the rural dwellers and key stakeholders have been on-going, to guarantee a smooth take-off early next year. We believe in proper planning and that is one thing that will distinguish us from others”
He however called on rural dwellers to embrace the Project with utmost sincerity, in order to benefit optimally from it.
In fact one lacks words to describe the riot of emotions that course through my mind. A state that is blessed with natural resources and talents but which has been grounded due to poor leadership. It beats my imagination how each administration since we started this present democratic dispensation in 1999 have turned the state which ironically bears the appellation ‘God’s own state’ (because the name has roots in the Holy Bible) to an object of scorn and ridicule in the comity of states. It is a shame that instead of moving forward, Abia State keeps retrogressing. A lot of writers have commented on the issues I will raise in this piece and on each occasion they have been replied by an ever ready army of minions and sycophants who buy up space in the media to defend the indefensible. (Such people will actually sell their soul to the devil for the right price).One of them told me that I can continue to write but it will not make any meaning. This he attributed to the fact that Abians and Nigerians in general are complacent. Due to the gross poverty and unemployment in the land, people have become helpless and have gradually withdrawn into their shell like snails. This is probably why we have an army of sycophants who can do anything to eat from the crumbs of the feet of the governor. We also erroneously believe that religion will save us from the inept leadership that has been inflicted on us. We expect that by being positive minded and by pretending to see no evil and in return not commenting on the ill doings of our leaders that they will change from their and work for the people. But anybody who still thinks so is surely living in dream land.
The beauty of democracy is that the electorate have the right to keep their elected representatives on their toes at all times in order to enhance better performance .This is how it is done in the western world where there is respect and sanctity for human rights and the electorate at large. This is obviously not so in Nigeria where public officials become inaccessible and become dictators in civilian garb after elections. They become demigods with license to kill, maim, arrest and imprison every dissenting voice. They use every arsenal in their armory to subdue the agitation for the provision of the basic rights for which they were elected to provide. They hate been criticized and will bare their fangs at the unfortunate fellow who does so. Times have changed and political officials are now being held liable for the promises they make on the campaign trail in a desperate bid to win elections at all cost. And with the advent of the internet, citizens now have an opportunity to air their grievances and point out lapses on the part of the political class if there is no access to the traditional media. Besides, in sane societies where there are leaders with the fear of God, citizens could embark on peaceful protest with placards to protest one wrong policy or seek for the provision of an important amenity without harassment from security officials but not in Nigeria.
I have always maintained that a governor who is worth his onions should not be reminded of his duty to the electorate .This is bearing in mind that he, his family, extended family, mistresses, et al, live in opulence at the expense of the tax payers. In any case, the average governor is not better in any way than the ordinary man in the street. It is just that nature and to a large extent luck chose to bestow him the honour of being in that position. It does not in any way make him special. Most of our problems in Nigeria are self inflicted; we give elected officials the impression that they are rare breeds while they in fact ride to power on our crest. We make them seem infallible by praising them to high heavens which is what their bloated egos want. We tell them what they want to hear just to get part of the national cake from them. That is why things will never get better in Nigeria. That is why governance has been reduced to propaganda in Nigeria.
I therefore find it difficult to understand why someone who does not spend a dime of his own money right from the first day in office till the day he vacates office will find it difficult to provide the basic and fundamental infrastructures for the citizens of the state. It is absurd and such a person deserves to be stoned out of power. I also condemn in all totality the culture of praising a governor for any infinitesimal thing he does in a state with our commonwealth, it should be stopped. Why? It makes us look stupid. It is the zenith to which people can degrade themselves. No wonder they see us as tissue that can be used and discarded after elections. Nobody in his right senses should praise someone who is entrusted with public funds to provide basic infrastructure that would make life better for his fellow beings. Besides, that is why the person ran for the office in the first place. In any case such infrastructures are usually provided at inflated, bogus and outrageous prices. At any rate there is no paucity of people who can deliver the so-called dividends of democracy in our society. The recent events all over the Arab world has shown that citizens (no matter how docile) can react and overthrown the dictators in power when they are fed up with them. And with the way things are going on in Abia State a revolution would not be long in coming.
Abians have had it rough in the past twelve years, right from the kleptomaniac Orji Kalu whose ‘itching fingers ’made him turn a whole state into his business conglomerate. A man who is alleged to have acquired about nine hundred shops in one market in Abia State among other malfeasances. At the end of his inglorious reign, he inflicted Governor T.A. Orji who obviously lacked the capacity to govern the state on hapless Abians in order to cover his tracks. It is a known fact that T.A who was his chief of staff was the conduit through which funds were siphoned from the state treasury and this was highlighted when the latter sprang him from EFCC net and swore him into office in his private quarters in 2007.But that is a subject of discussion for another day.
Abia is one of the oil producing states in Nigeria but the two most important towns, Aba and Umuahia are nothing to write home about and the worst hit is Aba , which has a lot of creative people and is supposed to brim with industrial activities but the reverse is the case. The level of poverty is abysmal, public utility services are absent and environment degradation has become prevalent. One sore point is the bad roads in the state. This writer accompanied a journalist who did an analysis on Abia roads about three years ago. We went round Aba and captured all the roads on camera, he did the story and it exposed the governor’s underbelly then. The funny thing is that those roads are now in even worse state of disrepair. The governor keeps giving lame excuses and for the umpteen time, he said that contractors will be mobilized to the bad roads after the rainy season but it turns out to be a serial lie as usual. The people of Aba went through hell during the last rainy period as they have been passing through in the past four years. Aba was so disgusting and people could not move freely after each rain fall. People had to wait for water to recede from the flooded roads riddled with pot holes before going out. There was/and is still no road for car owners to ply on. In the past four years, the governor tried to downplay his inefficiency by giving various excuses why he could not perform. In some instances, he said the security situation in which kidnappers nearly over ran the state prevented him from working. Another excuse was that the deluge of petitions he faced after the 2007 election prevented him from focusing on his cardinal duty to the state. A lot of mundane excuses were bandied about while other focused governors in neighboring states were busy working. The masses bided their time and waited for the 2011 general elections to shove him out. During the buildup to the 2011 general election, it was evident that the governor stood no chance of returning to power but he was helped to the seat by President Jonathan and the PDP who had an unusual interest in Abia State, although it is evident that their interest was rather personal and selfish and not in the interest of the long suffering people who evidently needed a change. This can be deduced from what is happening right now in Bayelsa (the state of the president) where a governor who has been ruling the state under the umbrella of PDP for the past four years was denied a return ticket on the allegation of non performance, and other misdemeanors, but in the case of Abia, the governor was lured from another party into PDP and giving the ticket on a platter of gold. Abians were irked by this development and this manifested when people refused to come out in Aba when the governor came to campaign. In fact they pelted him at the campaign ground with sachets of pure water to show the depth of their grievance with his inept government. But, unfortunately, PDP had their way while the people only had their say. The governor who is very skilled at passing the buck of his failure back to other people during his campaign blamed his predecessor for his inability to perform. He told the public that he was in bondage for four years while the wealth was being shared by the Orji Uzor clan. The level of degradation in Abia State as at that time was painted succinctly by Dimgba Igwe of the Daily Sun newspaper in the February 8th 2011 edition and he said “The governor of Gombe State, Danjuma Goje, earns about the same revenue with say, Abia State, plus or minus. With that he was able to build a state university from the scratch with 22 courses- as at the time I visited about three years ago- accredited. He built roads, built a multi-billion waterworks that turned a landlocked state into a state with pipe borne water flowing everywhere and he built an airport from the scratch, which is now in use………..” .He went further, if you are from Abia and you had to choose a governor to run Abia State in terms of utility value, would you go for the present incumbent or for a Danjuma Goje if he were to run for governorship in Abia State? From his analysis the difference between the two governors was crystal clear. The elections has come and gone but Abia is still in stagnation despite the fact that we have been liberated from Mamacracy (according to the governor and his cohorts). The question now is what excuse will be given to Abians at the end of this tenure? It is now evident that his predecessor was not really the problem for the glut in transformational plans for the state. Some people in the state are of the opinion that the governor should be tolerated and his obvious shortcomings over looked so that he would end his tenure and fade away peacefully. They argue quite convincing that since the man did not perform in his first term which is the criterion for getting a second term and he still got the second term on a platter of gold, he would not work again. This is in fact true because there is nothing going on in Abia State except media propaganda which is being sponsored by the governor and his cohorts to give an impression that a government is in place. But on the other hand it would be a cowardly option to keep silent because the governor is sustained in power by tax payers’ money and he is duty bound to provide the basic infrastructures and services for the people whether he likes it or not. It is a right and not a privilege.
The most absurd thing however is that while the government has not impacted positively on the lives of the citizen .Abia State is always in the news for very bad reasons. There was the Absu 5 gang rape controversy. There was the case of his son Chinedu (a.k.a Ikuku) who is not a government functionary but who goes around town in convoys with sirens and police escorts for effect. His word is law in the state and political appointee live in fear of him. A man who would not buy something in a shopping mall where people are but chase them away before making his purchase. But he met his waterloo when he stepped on a toe that was obviously bigger that him. Do we mention the infrastructural levy fraud being forced on companies and landlords? Do we mention the various indiscriminate levies, keke, taxi and bus drivers pay daily by force to agents of government .Do we mention the incessant increment of school fees in the state owned tertiary institutions? Do we explain how the students of Absu defeated him when he wanted to plant a surrogate as to do his bidding as the students’ union government president in the state owned university? The government generates lots of revenues from different sources daily but one wonders why there is nothing tangible on ground to show for all the generated revenue. One seriously questions the rational for having a government in place when it abdicates its responsibilities. What is the essence of having a government if we cannot have good roads, adequate security, et al? Is junketing all over the world in search of nonexistent investors the essence of having a government? And any serious person would tell you that in this digital age with the advent of the internet, one can just sit in the comfort of one’s office and make any arrangement with any investor in the world with the click of a computer. The world is now a global village. The problems of the average Abia citizen in this administration are legion and cannot even be exhausted. Do we even talk about the misguided demolishing of shops going on without provision of stalls for the displaced traders to use? What about the retrenchment of workers from other states which might have serious repercussions if other states decide to pay the state back in kind?
The governor also appears to have a field day because he has emasculated the opposition. There is no opposition in Abia State for now. The few people who kept him on his toes in the past are now in the same party with him and for certain political reasons cannot speak out against him .These people in high places were willing to stand up to the governor in the past, they were courageous enough to stand for the truth, but that was then. They now grumble in their closet as to how powerful and monstrous the governor has become but can no longer say so openly. Everybody has suddenly gone into a deep slumber now. They are waiting for 2015 to begin to say the truth about the rot in Abia State. By then it will be politically correct to speak out against the governor but for now they have their political future to protect. It is politically expedient for them to be silent now. The question now is who will speak for hapless Abians? Who will deliver them? We demand a change in Abia State. The governor should either seat up and work for Abians or ship out. Governance is not easy, it is not a tea party, I concur, but on the other hand it is no reason for laxity and maladministration. There is a marked difference between working, trying to work and not working at all. We travel to other states and we see what able governments are doing. The problem with our democracy is that everybody wants to be at the helm of affairs for selfish reasons (usually material wants) and not for the populace. And unfortunately very few politicians with vision and the determination to work for the people have access to power. The rains have gone now, the roads should be rehabilitated. To whom much is given, much is also expected from
The railroad engine has a peculiar way of announcing her metallic presence. It is by means of intermitent long notes that habitually pierce the silence of the night, and in the day time, audible enough to stand out of the ever rumbling noise of city life. In Lagos as in Kano, Kaduna, Jos, Ibadan, Enugu, Port Harcourt and in other railway towns in Nigeria, this used to be a constant feature that reminded the railway community of the arrival and departure of the train. Unfortunately, when bankruptcy, huge deficits and total neglect by the Federal government apparently forced the Nigerian Railway Corporation, NRC out of mainstream transport business, passenger journeys as well as freight movement dropped. Consequently, the usual rumble of the railway engine with its trademark warning device was reduced to an uneven distant drone; steadily fading out of urban and suburban consciousness.
Of recent, however, residents of Iddo, Ebute-Metta, Yaba, Oshodi and numerous other railway communities along Ilorin-Lagos and Ewekoro-Ilorin routes have testified that the orchestra is playing again. The train and her fabled air horn alongside their ferrous ensemble are becoming louder, much more frequent and steadier than usual.
Prior to the decay in the Nigerian railway industry, which began in the mid 70’s, the NRC was a leader in the Nigerian land-based transport system. The locomotive rolling stock of the NRC was noisy, congested, slow and cheap. It was the way the world moved bulk. It was a vestige of a colonial past, which the new indigeneous order was supposed to build on. The trains worked and were reliable to the extent that passengers could telephone a railway station to find out when the train was due. The railway espoused the development of new towns that ultimately became large industrial and commercial cities. It also helped develop early potentials for tourism.
Following the failure of NRC, traffic moved from the railways to the roads leaving loss of jobs, loss of revenue, infrastructural decay, over-capacity and bankrupcy as its telltales. The road network totalling 194,000km and crisscrossing the country’s hinterland however, proved grossly inadequate as huge volumes of freight and passengers still could not be transported in time. Above all, there have been problems of poor road network, road pavement failure, unstandardised vehicles, lack of professionalism and general ugliness pervading the road transport industry.
While previous administrations had blamed the failure of NRC on underinvestment, and as a response had come up with mearsures that further deepened the situation, the present administration is being more practical and indeed more realistic in its approach to resolving the issue of underinvestment and other underlying problems confronting the NRC. In the short run, we’ve come to see that the reasons why there has been underinvestment in the railways is the failure of Strategic Management, Project Management, and the lack of political will on the part of the political class. There is also corruption which undermines the best efforts of providing for Nigerians an infrastructure on which they can build a robust transport system for the generations to come.
It would be recalled that efforts to revive the ailing rail system dates back to the days of the military when General Sanni Abacha, in 1995, contracted China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation, CCECC for track rehabilitation and procurement of locomotive and rolling stock for the NRC. By 2006, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo also engaged CCECC for the modernisation of the Lagos-Kano rail line in commencement of the first phase of the proposed three phase line upgrade. It is believed that some 125 billion Naira was spent between 1999 and 2008 on railway rehabilitation project.
As part of the on-going efforts of President Goodluck Jonathan to launch Nigeria into the realm of the 20 most developed economies by the year 2020, railway transport has been identified as one of the areas where Nigeria must continue to invest. Accordingly, the Federal government has since 2010 embarked on numerous capital projects aimed at restoring NRC’s lost glory. The projects range from rehabilitation of workshops, training schools, railway stations, wagons and coaches to procurement of workshop equipment, railroad cranes, wagons and coaches, and upgrading of signalling and communication systems. Other projects include procurement of locomotive engines, pressurised tank wagons for movement of Petroleum products and the on-going rehabilitation and provision of special wagons for the movement of agricultural produce to boost rail services in Nigeria.
The expectation of Nigerians is captured in the mission statement of the NRC; “To emerge as the leader in the Nigerian land-based transport system, using well-motivated work force with modern technology to offer high quality and reliable rail transport services with guaranteed customer satisfaction. To be a world-class rail transport organisation, which provides efficient, affordable, reliable, widely connected and customer-oriented services.” Incidentally, the NRC management team is headed by a Technocrat with experience in the cognate field of Engineering, Business Management and Project Management Consultancy.
British rail was the model on which the Nigerian railway was built. The strategic objective was to create access to the natural resources in the hinterland to the ports.But it is noteworthy here that the British did not restrict the model to the conveyance of raw materials ftom the hinterland to the ocean corridors. The model allowed much room for Nigeria to extend the frontiers of rail transport to make it more flexible and adaptable for both freight and passenger transport. Evidently, though, railway extension programmes were in progress until the oil boom days in the 70’s when the economic game plan changed. Spending on the roads more than trippled against the rail. The road network increased from about 70,000km in the early 60’s to 150,000km in the 80’s. Airports also multiplied from 2 in 1970 to about 16 by the end of 1980. In contrast, the rail network had seen little or no investment. Sadly, though, while advanced nations like Canada, China, USA, Japan, India, UK, France, and Russia invested more on railway, Nigeria resorted to the importation of Tankers, Trailers, Buses and Cars and the expansion of roads without considering the attendant effects of congestion, pollution and high mortality incidents.
It is not a coincidence that Engr. Adeseyi Sijuade had served at various high profile capacities in the British Railway industry before joining NRC. That is just what professionalism calls for. His appointment as Managing Director for NRC was possibly an experiment in President Umar Yar’Adua’s seven-point agenda which, though naturally, metamorphosed into President Jonathan’s Transformation agenda. Epectedly, this experiment has been observed to be impacting positively on the fortunes of NRC. Perhaps, by induction, the states are adopting railway project initiatives as a means of alleviating the problems of mass transit and also delivering the dividends of democracy to their people. At present, Guangdong Xinguang International Group is at the verge of completing the 357 billion Naira, Abuja Light Rail Project. This project is aimed at decongesting the Abuja City traffic by providing a rail option for Commuters and Freight. The need for railway transport in the FCT is so urgent as a recent report by the Nigerian Institute of Transport Technology, NITT Zaria reveals. Accorrding to the report, FCT attracts an average of 700,000 cars and 9 million passengers each week. In the same vein, Lagos State government is vigourously pursuing the completion of the first phase of its light rail project while Enugu State has completed plans for her 256 billion Naira light rail project.
Engr Sijuade should look beyond the primary task of reviving the existing railway infrastructure, which unquestionably, is on course. He should consider the light rail dimensionm which the states are providing as complimentary to his overall task of relaunching Nigeria into the sphere of railroad passenger and freight transport. His readiness to effectively coordinate these interests as they emerge would, over time, stimulate much more investments in rail transport. Above all, he should continue to see his appointment as a call to contribute to the transformation of Nigeria by way of putting his experiences to good use as NRC goes through total and aggressive repositioning for improved productivity.
Chigozie Chikere
Member, The Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport, CILT Nigeria
7 Samuel Ladoke Akintola Boulevard, Garki II, Abuja.
