KHARTOUM (Reuters) – Sudan plans to increase oil production to 180,000 barrels a day by the end of the year by using more efficient technology and improving the recovery rate, a senior official said on Sunday.
Sudan lost two-thirds of the around 490,000 bpd of oil production when South Sudan became independent in July under a 2005 peace agreement that ended decades of civil war.
Sudan’s current production was 115,000 bpd, Azhari Abdalla, director general of the Oil Exploration and Production Administration (OEPA), told an investor conference.
“Production before the end of 2012 will be 180,000 bpd,” he said. “This is from existing fields, existing blocks.”
He said Sudan planned to improve the recovery rate to 47 percent from currently only 23 percent as more efficient technologies would applied.
The increase would mainly come from Block 6 adding 40,000 bpd, while Blocks 2 and 4 would add 15,000 bpd and Block 17 around 10,000 bpd, he said.
Production would be stable at 180,000 bpd until 2016 after which Sudan wanted to increase production to 320,000 bpd, he said.
The oil ministry launched at the conference bidding for six new oil and gas blocks listed as Blocks 8, 10, 12B, 14, 15, 18.
Mainly Chinese, Indian and Malaysian companies operate in Sudan.
Sudan is trying to boost oil production to help overcome a severe economic crisis as a result of southern oil.
The country is in the middle of a row with the landlocked South Sudan over sharing southern oil which needs to be exported through a northern pipeline and port.
Both sides have failed to reach a deal on a transit fee. South Sudan has accused the north of blocking the loading of its oil shiments at Port Sudan. Khartoum itself has accused the South of having failed to clear port duties.
COLUMBIA, S.C. — Newt Gingrich veered off the traditional GOP primary campaign trail Saturday for an African-American church — and a colloquy on race relations and urban policy that only seemed to strengthen the audience’s resolve to vote for Barack Obama.
Far from where his rivals spent their time just a week before the make-or-break primary in the state — and from where many likely Republican voters can be found — the former House speaker chose to spend his afternoon in front of a hostile audience at the Jones Memorial AME Church.
The reason, Gingrich said, had more to do with the future of the GOP than his own candidacy.
“Whether it’s La Raza, or it is LULAC or it is the NAACP or it’s the Urban League,” Gingrich said at Jones Memorial AME Church here, “I think that conservatives and Republicans have to get in the habit of thinking about the whole country.”
African-Americans made up just two percent of the Republican primary electorate here in 2008 and several members of the church said they thought their fellow congregants leaned heavily toward Obama.
Still, Gingrich offered about 50 minutes of back-and-forth, explaining why he thinks poor children should have part-time jobs and why his brand of bipartisanship is different than the one that Obama offered while campaigning in 2008.
Jobs might help children in poor neighborhoods develop strong work ethics, earn some money and potentially “slow down the dropout rate and give young people an identity within the community and a desire to go back to school,” Gingrich said, defending a proposal he’s come under fire for on the trail.
“Good response,” the African-American man who asked the question said as Gingrich finished up his answer.
But not everyone in the crowd was so amenable. Minutes later, an African-American woman asked him if his views of minorities changed after he traveled the country with the Rev. Al Sharpton a few years ago to encourage cities to develop charter schools or if he is still “a racist and a bigot.”
“What I’ve said is that we want everyone … to be able to use English and be able to rise in the whole country,” Gingrich said as the woman interjected again, reading a quote about “lazy ghetto black people” that has been misattributed to the candidate.
The woman persisted, asking Gingrich how he could refer to Obama as a “food stamp president,” as he often does when campaigning, since Obama graduated at the top of his class at Harvard Law School.
Gingrich said that was an accurate description not because of Obama’s own socioeconomic background, but because “more Americans today are on food stamps than any other time in American history.”
The former speaker of the House said he wasn’t troubled to be probed by the woman or by other voters in the mostly African-American crowd.
“I think that there was a very honest, very open dialogue that was very good for the country. We ought to have more conversations like this,” he said afterward.
“It was good to be in a room where she could see me face-to-face, we could have that conversation and hopefully she left the room a little more open to the conversation when she walked out,” he added, referring to the woman who’d asked about his food stamps remarks. “I think you had a lot of folks who get various distorted comments, make their mind up. You’re either going to be permanently separated or you’re going to be in the same room and talk.”
Gingrich spokesman R.C. Hammond said the candidate had chosen to visit the church – and to make the four-hour round-trip to and from Charleston to do so – at the request of Broderick Smith, the church’s head of outreach, who came to like Gingrich after asking him a few questions at another campaign event.
But the crowd wasn’t convinced.
“His answers were a lot of rhetoric and politician conversation,” said Rose Kelly, of Columbia. “I sure hope that President Barack Obama is given a chance to make the country better,” she quickly added, arguing that Obama needs eight years to correct what she felt George W. Bush had done in his eight years.
E.T. Williams, another member of the church from Columbia offered the same message during the town hall.
“Give the man a break,” Williams said, referring to the president. “I want you … [to] stop jumping on this man.”
Gingrich responded smoothly. “I think you just gave the best case for Obama he’s going to get,” he said. “If I were him I’d take that statement and turn it into a campaign commercial.”
Certainly, political leadership is fundamentally performed on the theatre of economic and social circumstances of a people – during peace time and conflict moments. This article presents a reflection by drawing from one of Prof. Okey Ndibe’s social media short entries in this column on the ongoing Nigeria’s debate on what to ask of the Jonathan’s administration as he transforms Nigeria – not in his own terms but that of the collective Nigerian people.
For any reader who might have followed the numerous write ups and seasoned commentaries of Prof. Okey Ndibe in different newspapers and electronic websites, facebook and tweets, you will seem to surely realize how influential his lead writings and ideas are impacting Nigeria’s leadership expositions on the political job performance. Whether a reader has followed him up in the facebook or in any other social media outlets, Prof. Okey Ndibe writes simple and straightforward essays and commentaries that critically appeal to the rulers of Nigeria to rethink and act better for the Nigerian masses.
The kitchen budget of the presidency has raised a whirl-wind dust and it has continued to do so currently. At least, Nigerians are becoming more critical than being sympathetically in love with regard to how the presidency gluttonously feeds on the tax payers. Dr. Okey Ndibe was the writer who in his thorough way of bringing out facts to the education of Nigerians revealed that President Obama of USA pays for his meals and wonders why President Jonathan and his team should be fed by Nigerian tax payers endlessly, and at the same, gets paid huge salaries and allowances of every magnitude they apportion to themselves at the expense of Nigerians who cannot afford to feed properly for a common good life.
The ongoing debates and actions on the removal of Fuel Subsidy in Nigeria have been highlighted enough, demonstrated enough; and equally, one can say, enough calls have moved from not only reinstating the fuel pump price at #65.00 but also to do more than that fact in the real terms Nigerians accepted their conditions. As it is hoped to revert to the pump price at #65.00, it is cautioned that doing so now will even no longer do enough given the outstanding present Nigerian political and economic predicaments and Boko Hram Sect electrified violence. That is, there is a need to emphasize the meaning of transformation to understand better what Nigeria is faced with in reality and in the perceptions of inequality of opportunity. In other words, the wide gap experienced in the living conditions between political office holders and the poor masses should be focused on and bridged. In that view, rooting out the obstacles to hardship – namely corruption and insensitivity of Nigerian leaders – to tame the unfortunate conditions of Nigerian masses should demand for enough focus and practical action that must respond to the reality on the ground. Nigerians, as Okey Ndibe likes to argue, most of the time, desperately live their daily lives meshed in the calamity of insecure lives and discriminatory economic opportunities. Empowered security and equal opportunity should spread across the geopolitical and social boards to touch everyone’s lives.
The president of Nigeria living on a food budget of over 1 billion naira of the Nigerian currency – when its citizens live on a less than two dollars (US$2.00) a day – in a year with all other full benefits at the expense of Nigerian tax payers does not speak to what it takes to show exemplary transformational skills, attitudes and programs to touch and change lives in Nigeria. When the kitchen budget of the presidency far outweighs or out-costs the lives of millions of jobless Nigerians and other vulnerable population groups put together, one wonders how the presidency and its administrators rationalize the meaning of transformational agenda of actions to realize transformation. The call for a rethink is to help the leaders to actively think bold in line with the reality of Nigerians on how resources are created and expended in leading Nigeria to be progressive and competitive with its human and material resources.
Below you will read in a paragraph one of such significant entries Dr. Okey Ndibe recently posted in one of the social media outlets that I have been reflecting with and modelling out in a curious way. I have considered it necessary to share it in this column and invite you to reflect with what Nigerians at this opportune moment in its historic leadership experience and popular uprising should be asking our elected and appointed leaders and bureaucratic administrators to be doing now with the program of its transformation of Nigeria.
I think also that we all should know that a government that promised Nigeria a transformational agenda is a government that owes Nigeria a program that must be so visible and so realizable in the making of transformation a reality. An economic and human growth killer corruption – re-baptized in Nigeria as 419 – is the one most single topic everyone understands how it works in this country. It is inbred in Nigerian pattern of living and only Nigerians can undo it through policies of its leaders. Bribery – by expecting, a sense of sorting out and settling, asking and giving and by receiving is patterned in Nigeria as a fixed culture, a fixed expectation, a fixed attitude, a fixed life way, a fixed manner of going about things – by connection, flesh – bottom power, material loot, bumping over merit in favour of mediocrity, political compensation, godfatherism, unfair contract awards and return of 10 – to 45 % dividends, resale of properties to cohorts, etc. Yet social scientists tell us that no culture is a fixed system. That every culture is fluid and, indeed, in a flux. In other words, ever changing – can be invasive, expansive, borrow and get borrowed in terms of its values and virtues. Holding all of the trends and virtues to be true, one is puzzled and needs to ask, why is corruption not being helped to change and transform the lives and Nigerian society? Why has the expansive cultural system of no-fixity only centered on deprivation and rip-offs than on promoting the good aspects? Why have religious pastors and evangelists of the day become more of crusaders of wealth and fame than that of poverty in spirit and simple lives for the other, the society for God? Sexual favours and inclinations shaped around religion have also become a prize tag for loyalty and goodfaith to the pastors and church governors or administrators in Nigerian cities. Adopting active sex life performances as part of religiosity in practice despite its condemnation on the pulpits beats one’s imagination as to what to really take as good or bad for the gods and for human followers.
It can therefore not be a surprise for prolific writers like Okey Ndibe and his likes in the field of public intellection to have continued to up-rise Nigerians to face their leaders to deliver on their promises to transform Nigeria. Again, to transform Nigeria is not a theory. It must be an action package, a realistic thing or issue that is well discussed, consulted and planned for. Transformation must not be limited to any individual, group, agency or institution. Transformation in the concrete sense of it must be broad based, all encompassing, all-inclusive and all touching and changing of lives and society as a whole. One thing transformation MUST NOT do in Nigeria and for Nigerians is to humiliate lives and means that will subsidize, govern and sustain the same livelihood that they aspire to have and carry and consequently it forward. Insecurity, joblessness, terrorism, excessive corruption, killings, ethnic and religious intolerance and all other evils in Nigeria are wheels and threads that connect to the treatment and debasement of the transformational system.
As I said earlier about Oke Ndibe’s propositions, here is what he clearly states that we should all consider and reinforce in demanding for social justice and benefits of democracy from the Nigerian leaders of today:
“We, the people of Nigeria, ought to seize this moment to define the terms of the debate. Let’s not waste this opportunity to roll back the organized fraud in Nigeria that enables the president, governors, ministers, legislators, local government chairmen/councilors to live like emperors – at the expense of the rest of us. Labor leaders and workers as well as professional associations ought to insist… on removal of the scams called security vote and constituency allowance; that Jonathan sell off the planes in the presidential fleet (bloody hell, Nigerian officials ought to travel commercial!); drastically reduce ministerial portfolios; ban foreign medical trips for Nigerian officials (if they’re “transforming” Nigeria, as they claim, they must enjoy the same medical services as other Nigerians); remove the immunity clause that protects criminals in office; institute part time legislatures (where law makers are paid allowances for the days they sit); identify, prosecute and jail the fuel marketers (and their bureaucratic enablers) who have defrauded Nigerians through inflated fuel subsidy claims etc, etc.”
There are many other things President Goodluck Jonathan, “the merciful one leader”, as his name ascribes him (Ebele) and his team can do. But what has baffled Nigerians the most is why did this president start with the fuel subsidy removal at 100% one time action and at a wrong time, and even when it did not follow the fiscal year – of April? Should the cabals or mafias in Nigerian economic system continue to hold the nation at ransom? We want to hear and observe how this government is going to go tough on all those who are linked to Boko Haram and other pockets of terrorist sects in Nigeria.
We want also this administration to try and understand what transformation means, including the realities of transformation on the lives of Nigerian people. A difficult or dangerous situation, especially a sad or desperate predicament brought about by the fuel subsidy removal is asking more on this government to seize this moment when the critical ovation is high – is to address corruption and spread the benefits of reduced corruption to everyone.
I strongly consider the fact that transformation, which is focused on the benefits of non-subsidy on corruption as many social commentators have said it in different ways is persuasively one unavoidable implications of the match on the streets of Nigeria by Nigerians and their allies around the world cities in support for dealing decisively with the so-called Nigeria’s oil cabals, corrupt and corruptive political office holders in the country.
A time when political office holders in Nigeria will begin to travel in public and commercial vehicles and feel like other members of the public is a time we will begin to think that transformation has come to Nigeria and that it is for everyone.
Moreover, a time, when hospitals in Nigeria will be used by everyone and medical attention given to everyone on equal terms as it is a right to have them on a non-segregated health care services basis and opportunities will be a time we will feel that transformation is coming to Nigeria.
In addition, now is the time when we can press hard on the government to stop playing on the public intelligence. Realizing that Nigerians are more politically and socially sensitized than ever, the social media will not rest until social justice in terms of development, security and opportunity to Nigerians and their friends are rendered to them. To stand on bettering themselves, going progressive and becoming all-inclusive in all aspects of Nigeria for Nigerians will be seen as a time we will know that, indeed, the gospel of transformation is a message of reality to advance human life and dignity; and not the notorious one like the fuel subsidy imbroglio to de-empower and impede Nigerians from living the next day due to intolerable pains of hardship.
Let me wrap this small discussion up by stating that Nigerians and their political behaviours have become progressively linked to human rights issue of the moment and there is no going back to the yester-day and yester-year measures of Obasanjo and other military juntas Nigeria ever had. Nigerians should therefore be encouraged to think wisely, act wisely, and demonstrate against policies that degrade and malign them; and of course build together for national reason and growth with the government of the day wisely.
Politics of the day is a plight of the population of day. A government of the day should therefore systematically listen to that plight and frame transformation of the day with the collective plight – that is, indeed, the true condition of everyday lives of the population. Nigeria will not be Nigeria without the Nigerian population of human beings. As such, transformation should think human. Thinking human by Nigerian policy makers should embrace humanity anthropologically. That way, it is sure that Nigerians will get focused and transformed to promote the human nature that makes Nigeria a nation of a people of its kind and values.
Like it or not, it is right to demand from this leadership a typical tough policy and protest play-card on corruption, particularly a historic tough line against the cabals in the oil and gas field, including all political and public office holders to render what is due to Nigerians. Let us join and make transformation a ‘principle and practice’ of a new life culture of total inclusion in health care services, education, employment, safety of lives and property, as well as a liberty to choose and live – as one’s home town and hall of personhood in any region or ethnic part of Nigeria for Nigerians. Anything short of these is non-transformational and far-seeing in the reality and state of things in the country today.
I need to add quickly that whatever we seem to be writing and commenting on Nigeria’s corruption, leadership style, unity and principles of solidarity and inclusion presently had been well stated in 1966 through 2011 by Chief Emeka Ojukwu of the memories of Nigerian-Biafran conflict and time. Ojukwu should be read at his grave site a “crowned hero of transformational foresight and agenda for Nigeria” because that was, indeed, the central eugenic part (good gene side) of life he lived and championed for Nigeria.
Finally, I want to offer that the proper way to situate and appreciate the overwhelming protests by Nigerians at all levels against the fuel subsidy removal on the 1st of January 2012 is to deeply state that Nigerians have believe in this current leadership and expects it to fight for them. It suggests that the current administration has no political alternative mantra than to work for Nigerians in their own terms; namely on how they critically feel, act and want to be represented in the things that affect their lives and society.
Essentially for all Nigerians right now, this is a season of demanding from the Jonathan administration all that matter and bother Nigerians at home and far away from home. Let therefore no one important item be missed out as we audit and add to the list.
The scheduled meeting between the organized labor and the federal government of Nigeria ended in a deadlock following 3hours of closed door discussions on Saturday January 14, 2012 in Abuja, the capital of Nigeria. The meeting ended unceremoniously few minutes to 12midnight and saw the slim window of opportunity to avert the possible breakdown of law and order in Nigeria close shut.
The entire cabinet members of the President, Dr. Goodluck Ebelemi Jonathan and seven other select State governors were present for the meeting – which also saw eighteen [18] members of organized labor in attendance. President Jonathan was not in attendance.
According to firsthand information gathered by 247ureports.com, the meeting ended abruptly due to the new tactics adopted by the representative of the federal government of Nigeria [FGN] towards organized labor during the said negotiation. The representative of the FGN during the talks told the representatives of organized labor that the FGN has the luxury of holding them on treasonable offenses if they decide to hold their grounds to the N65 per liter demand or nothing. The labor leaders were also threatened that it is possible for the FGN to hold them responsible for the killings and damage to properties that occurred during the 5-day protest across the country.
The tone and demeanor of the FGN representatives were said to have taken a new face. The negotiations were said to be one-directional – with the FGN dictating to the representatives of labor. But 247ureports.com gathered that the labor representative remained calm and collected and were able to discard the threat – to lay their claims on the table – adding that the workers on the oil rigs are in-line to down their tools pending the outcome of the talks.
The talks immediately took on another turn. The data and figures pointing to the need to remove the oil subsidy began to make its way onto to the tables – as the Oil Minister managed to make the point that it was necessary to stick with the N140 per liter price marker. She was brute and dictatorial in her presentation. She implied ignorance on the part of the labor representatives – while accusing them of instigating unrest. The same notion was espoused by the finance minister and the other representatives.
The mood of the meeting became charged and turned into a slight shouting match between the two parties. The secretary to the federal government cleared the air – and told the labor representatives that no further compromise can be reached beyond what was reached on Thursday – that the President will have to be briefed before further compromise/shifting can be made.
To this, the labor representatives called it quits. But the secretary to the federal government, Anyim sought confirmation that organized labor would hold-off on shutting the oil rigs till the President is briefed. Organized labor gave him till Sunday.
The meeting between the federal government and the organized labor began their scheduled meeting of Saturday January 14, 2012 in Abuja, the capital of Nigeria. The previous meeting between the two parties had ended in a deadlock. The President of the federal republic of Nigeria, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan is reported to be desperately acting to halt the protests and strikes to avert what some of his aides termed “A Nigerian Awakening”.
NLC MEETING, NGOZI WITH OMA AND ESELENLC MEETING, MARK, OMAR, AMAECHI AND ESELENLC MEETING, MARK, ESELE AND OMAR
1. The attention of the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mr. Mohammed Bello Adoke, SAN, CFR has been drawn to Reports making the rounds in the social media including Sahara Reporters, Point-blank News, I-Reports etc, to the effect that he maintains accounts with First City Monument Bank, Diamond Bank and Zenith Bank Plc into which lodgements running into several Millions of Naira, Dollars and Pound Sterling have been made.
2. While these spurious allegations/reports would ordinarily have been ignored, the tendency for Nigerians to believe such blatant lies and malicious stories has necessitated this response so as to put the records straight and re-assure all well meaning Nigerians especially the Attorney General’s friends, close associates and relatives who are worried and greatly saddened since these allegations began circulating in the social media.
3. We wish to categorically state that while the Attorney General maintains accounts with Diamond Bank and First City Monument Bank, the balances in those accounts are certainly nowhere near the outrageous figures quoted in the publication. It is instructive to note that Mr. Mohammed Bello Adoke, has been a Legal Practitioner for 26 years and was in recognition of his achievements elevated to the rank of Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) in 2006. As an investment lawyer, he made careful investments which yielded good returns. At the time he was invited to serve as Attorney General of the Federation, he was by the grace of God, a successful legal practitioner, by every standard.
4. It is also instructive to note that the Attorney General of the Federation declared his assets including all his accounts on assumption office as Attorney General of the Federation. Mr. Adoke further directed that no money should be paid into all his accounts except the salary account he maintains with Intercontinental Bank Plc. Consequently, the authentic balances in the accounts maintained by Mr. Adoke only reflect his earnings as a legal practitioner/investor before he took public office. We therefore advice anyone interested in knowing the net worth of the Attorney General to check his asset declaration with the Code of Conduct Bureau.
5. It should also be appreciated that no allegation of wrongdoing has been made against the person of the Attorney General of the Federation. It is therefore clear that the objective of the publication was to damage his reputation and expose him to public odium. The Attorney General has therefore lodged a formal complaint to the Inspector General of Police and has called on the Inspector General of Police to cause a painstaking investigation to be carried out on the allegations made in the publication and the Report made public.
6. This is necessary to prove to Nigerians that the Attorney General has nothing to hide and can account for his earnings and wealth. Mr. Adoke has maintained a consistent lifestyle in the last 15 years and will by the grace of God continue to maintain his cherished values of honesty, probity and accountability in public office.
7. Finally, we make bold to state that if the motive of the publication was to discourage and distract the Attorney General of the Federation in the discharge of his duties and commitment to the development of this country, such endeavour has clearly failed.
Ambrose Momoh
Chief Press Secretary to the Honourable Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice
APPEAL COURT DISMISES ALIERO’S APPEAL, RULES THAT A REMITTED PETITION CANNOT BE EXTENDED BY ANOTHER 180 DAYS
The hopes of former Governor of Kebbi State and CPC candidate for Kebbi Central District in 2011 Senatorial Election, Senator Mohammed Adamu Aliero of upsetting the victory of Senator Atiku Bagudu of PDP was dashed over the weekend when the Court of Appeal sitting in Sokoto dismissed Aliero’s appeal for lacking in merit.
In a unanimous summary judgment delivered by Hon. Justice Amiru Sanusi and concurred by Justices Datti Yahaya and Sidi Bage, the Court held that the lower Tribunal which struck out Aliero’s petition for being time barred after it was sent for retrial on merits was in order.
The implication of the decision of the Appeal Court is that petitions pending at various Tribunals that were remitted for re-hearing on merits but had exceeded the constitutional duration of 180 days from the date of filing of the petition are now liable to be dismissed for want of jurisdiction.
Prior to the final dismissal of Senator Aliero’s petition, the matter had been remitted for hearing on merits by the Court of Appeal. Upon the petition coming up before a panel headed by Hon. Justice Ka’akan, Senator Bagudu through his counsel, Yusuf Ali, SAN challenged the jurisdiction of the Tribunal re-hear the case contending that the matter had exceeded the 180 days provided by the Constitution. Aliero’s counsel, Kola Awodein SAN argued to the contrary.
The lower Tribunal upheld the objection and struck out the petition. Dissatisfied with the decision, Senator Aliero appealed to the Court of Appeal contending that upon remittance of the petition for hearing on the merits, a fresh 180 days had been generated for the hearing of the petition. Justice Sanusi while dismissing the appeal indicated that fuller reasons for their decision will be delivered in due course.
Barely 24 hours after ireports-ng.com published details of multi-billion dollars secret bank accounts of Nigeria’s controversial Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Mohammed Bello Adoke,his close allies who are angry with his role in the on-going nationwide strike in the country have provided documents giving further details of the Minister’s stupendous wealth hidden in over 25 bluechip companies, some of which have been sharing in the the contentious oil subsidy funds.
A rundown of the documents made available to ireports-ng.com indicate that Adoke is a major investor in Oando Oil which has taken over N228 billion out of the N1.4trillion shared by about 100 oil marketers between January and August, 2011. The Minister has about N1.5 billion investment tucked in Oando Oil PLC. Apart from Oando, available documents also show that Adoke is equally a major investor in Eterna Oil which has within the same period benefitted about N5.57 billion from the fuel subsidy cake. He is said to have about N1 billion investment in the company, with another N2 billion tucked in a company called Novasys Ltd.
It has also been discovered that the Minister has his hands and hidden investments in major banks in the country. Some of them include about N400 million in Oceanic Bank; aboutN200 million in UAC properties; about N20 million in Guaranty Trust Bank; about N360 million in Access Bank; about $400,000 US dollars in MTN; about N1 billion in Japaul Oil& Maritime; about N15 million in Bank PHB; about N100million in First Bank; about N20 million in FCMB and aboutN6 million in Unity Bank PLC among others.
One of our sources hinted that the Minister has already begun moves today to begin the process of depleting funds in the four bank accounts exposed in our earlier story in collaboration with the account managers
Chief Azuka Okwuosa was a chieftain of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), who was a former Council Chairman of Nnewi, Former Commissioner for Works during the administratioin Governor Chinwoke Mbadinuju. In this no holds-barred interview with CHUKS COLLINS, he spoke on the lack of progress and healthy changes within APGA; some perceived hirelings and inconsistencies within the National, state and ward excos. Excerpts
How can you asses the performance of APGA so far in the country
By the Feb.6 2010 governorship election nobody gave our All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) any chance in the state. And earlier when I had my Anambra South Senatorial re-run after a successful legal struggle with the Peoples Democratic Party/its candidate in the 2007 elections, the party (APGA) was in shambles. That was also when the governor was impeached and struggling to return, while Dame Virgy Etiaba was then the governor. So you can see that the party was having some serious problem
By the Feb.6 2010 governorship election nobody gave our All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) any chance in the state. And earlier when I had my Anambra South Senatorial re-run after a successful legal struggle with the Peoples Democratic Party/its candidate in the 2007 elections, the party (APGA) was in shambles. That was also when the governor was impeached and struggling to return, while Dame Virgy Etiaba was then the governor. So you can see that the party was having some serious problems. We were then like orphans, as a lot of factors were not in our favor. In fact we were doing some damage control trying to reconcile various factions because without unity you cannot make meaningful impact or progress in an election. So, coupled with the fact that the dividends of democracy were not there, we were battling against so many odds. People vented their pent up anger on us and of course it affected our fortune in the election because we worked from a disadvantaged position though it was a price we had to pay because of the spirit of the party as epitomized by the late Ojukwu. The election was rigged and even when we were at the tribunal, the party never gave us any support there were promises of legal aid to assist candidates because you need lawyers with solid background and political clout in an election matter. You can’t talk of embarking on legal battle for a Senatorial seat and go for just any lawyer when your opponents have already engaged the services of powerful Senior Advocates (SANs). So you have to spend. And the average money you spend for a fee for a SAN is nothing less than N10m at any level if litigation whether at the tribunal or at the appeal; this is excluding appearance fees, transportation and hotel accommodation. Calculate how many sittings and for two years. We also faced the problem of our opponents trying to buy over our witnesses. They succeeded in buying the witnesses of Chief Chris Atuegwu, the ACN candidate. To keep these witnesses is money and especially in the face of very heavy financial inducement from your opponents. So without any single help from the party or any other quarter we bore the cost hundred percent and at the end of the day, I was the only candidate that won my case at the appeal. All others lost at the tribunal because they all had no such powerful financial muscle to prosecute it or to match our opponents’ naira for naira. When it was time for the election, after empty promises of party support, the party did not put in a dime. It was between me and my campaign organization. My opponent, the then incumbent Senator, Ikechukwu Obiora of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and his party took it as a party war. All the leadership of the party, Ministers and Deputy Senate President, virtually all their House of Representatives members from the zone converged here to give massive support to their own. I was like an orphan. And from the look of things, the re-run in 2009 was lost not because I didn’t work but because of internal and external conspiracy in APGA. So I found it very difficult to speak on these issues since then but I needed to speak because the events of the recent past have shown that we have learnt and forgotten nothing. The last election was a case study. Ignore all the legal grandstanding. The party lost out in all the senatorial zones. Why? If the experiences of the past were corrected such mistakes wouldn’t have repeated itself. I want to be contradicted or corrected.
Does it mean your party is averse to change or learning?
I wouldn’t want to say that the party is averse to change or reality on ground, but to certain extent I see lip service treatment to the reality of the day. Check out from the formation of the party including Governor Obi’s election. Obi almost single handedly financed his campaign, his election and litigations. Up to our own time the same thing happened and the pattern appeared to have remained, unfortunately. During my own time we paid a nun-refundable deposit of over N500, 000. We didn’t get any help from the party. These days I learnt some people paid N5m, some N3m, I don’t know the correct graduation and even N1m for chairmanship aspirants.
The point is not paying those fees but what the party is doing in return or with it. The party could have gone beyond where it is now if the right things were done. The party shouldn’t be talking about capturing just two states, Anambra and Imo. It should be controlling the whole of the South East now and with serious incursions into South-South.
Why I say the issue of paying lip service is that you don’t expect a candidate to pay so much without a single help from the party. We footed the bill of litigation for two years without a single financial assistance from the party and succeeded in winning at the appeal; went for a re-run all alone. I don’t know the type of hope we have for such issues. I was not surprised about what happened in the last election. Am not saying this to disparage anybody, neither am I trying to run anybody down. What am saying is that the right things should be done so that the progressive ideas of the great Ikemba can be actualized. What he labored for with his life, fought and died for should not be in vain. We the earliest apostles of Ikemba who believe in him, who stayed with him from 1982 when he came back from exile till his demise, will not want his ideas to die with him.
What are those right things you want done?
The first thing is selfless service to humanity especially within the Igbo nation and the country at large. Ikemba during his life time never idolized money. Ikemba believed in the Igbo course even in a disadvantageous position. He always stands out for what he believes in. I want our leaders to imbibe that quality and attitude because that is the spirit of APGA. APGA was like the yearnings and aspiration of a down trodden people. It was like a virus of people who felt they can express their free will through party in Nigeria based on truth and honesty.
What things does not fit into this setting, in your views?
When a student sits for exams, the only thing you can assess him with is the report card. From the formation of our party up till now, look at the elections we’ve lost, these are clear cut indices that point to the fact that things are not normal. Even the current cases do not augur well. There should be a great sense of maturity in handling APGA matters. We should go down to the basics. It’s like when you want to build a skyscraper, you must do a soil test and solid foundation before you put the structures.
A potential replacement for Ikemba yet?
I’ve said it times without number that Ikemba is irreplaceable. We can never ever have another Ikemba. We can have other leaders in different mould but not another Ikemba. Ikemba is akin to the Biblical Moses. Moses led the Israelites out of captivity, took them through a furious journey for 40 years. At the death of Moses, they never had another Moses. They may had Aaron, Joshua and others, but not Moses. Moses’ position in the Bible was sacrosanct. I regard Moses as the greatest leader of the Jews. The same thing is applicable to the great Ikemba. The shoes he left behind are damn too big for anybody to put their tiny feet in. it’s impossible. Though people can try to mimic him, but the most important thing about Ikemba can be seen through his personal crest which I was privileged to produce for him. it has two horses, a shield and other amnds. But consider deeply his slogan and catch phrase- “to thyself be true”; this has been the guiding philosophy of Ikemba. So what I will tell the aspiring leaders of Ndigbo is, to themselves be true. Igbos can have leaders but the issue of having a leader for the Igbo nation is not something to aspire for. It something that evolves based on confidence.
Do you think APGA is now well positioned to win major elections in future.
Like I said when you talk about APGA winning election, you have to look at different indices, you mentioned the problem in PDP; the strength of your opponent is a factor and your own too is important and even if your strength is so great, you have to utilize it wisely. I agree with you that PDP is engulfed in so many crises in the state. I see it as an act of implosion when you have so many power blocks that cannot agree. The issue is to what extent APGA has utilized the weakness of her opponents. I don’t think we have used this to maximum benefit but then look at what is happening in South-West; the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) under Bola Tinubu in less than five years is running rings everywhere. Today they are not just controlling the entire geo-political zone; they are making powerful and purposeful incursions into other zones. By now APGA should not be talking about two states. The issue should be akin to the time when the defunct Nigerian Peoples Party (NPP) under Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe had so much goodwill of the people that everyone begun to say that if you tag a goat in NPP it would win election in the zone. That is the kind of cult followership APGA ought to be enjoying now.
But no one appear to mind, even the party elders
The founding fathers of APGA are not reaping any dividends of democracy instead it’s outsiders that are enjoying it. This does not augur well for anyone at all. You talked about empowerment, when you empower the people the party will grow. The prolonged absence of Local Government election in the state for the past ten years has not helped the party. Without due representation at that level, the party can not take root. Imagine the last LG election was in 1998. Why are we afraid of LG election in Anambra it’s a constitutional issue. We have no justification, no right whatsoever to deny the masses of this state that opportunity. If APGA had conducted this election, it would have helped the party to enthrone itself further in the psyche of the people within the state, zone and elsewhere. So for whatever reason, it’s not a good political move. The composition of government at grassroots would have given a clearer picture of your strength and not assumptions and presumptions. The only viable option now is the credibility of candidates.
Victor Umeh’s embattled position, what’s your views?
In every political party, you have hiccups. Look at the PDP, they’ve their own dose of problems. The Alliance for Democracy (AD) almost went into extinction because of the same kind of problems. The All Nigerian Peoples Party (ANPP) for a long time had theirs which resulted in Gen Muhammadu Buhari leaving the party to pitch his tent elsewhere. So APGA is not isolated or insulated from such problems but the point am saying is there are channels to resolve crisis. We have constitution in the party and things should be done constitutionally through a proper channel. I don’t believe in paper tigers. It’s like fanning the embers of inordinate ambition of some people. Every action in a party should follow due process. I really pity Chief Umeh but what he is passing through is price of leadership. He should be encouraged. Politics is all about conspiracies. The late Chuba Okadigbo once described politics as concerted race of conspiracies. If you handles one, another will crop up. But I think maturity and sense if reasoning should be allowed to prevail the party and through that is necessary through that we get to a point if change is necessary will not be at the detriment of the party. This should be the basis of taking the party to the next level.
Would you then support his replacement now?
I know very well that I have paid my dues, at my level in politics; posterity will never forgive me if I see the truth and refuse to say it. Am saying this because it’s the truth, to me it’s not a matter of party but a matter of what should be done and done right even if it’s PDP or ACN government in the state. I will say the same thing. LG election is not a party matter and the constitution is supreme. Lack of LG election is inaction. We should not be afraid of failure or experiments. No one should be persecuted or vilified for saying or standing on the side of truth. Umeh as a human being has his failings, but he should not be destroyed for standing on the side of the people.
Like I said earlier, due process must be followed so that we come out stronger. We should avoid over-heating the system and over sensationalism. Don’t throw the baby away with the bath water.
Anambra Political forum
Was born out of necessity, you know politics is a game of interest we reviewed from the past and see that my people have not befitted democratic dividends and the needs of the people. and then to fight for the actualisation, so that that interest can be protected not minding that they have played a leading role in supporting government in power. So at inception I was made the chairman. We are trying to correct existing imbalances. The forum cut across all political parties. There is also the Oraifite Political Forum we are not talking about selfish interest or benefits. Its chairman cannot aspire for any office
Controversy appears set to becloud preparations for Ikemba’s burial. Can’t we handle any simple thing orderly?
You mention a rift between the government forum, Ohaneze and the family, well; we should know that Ikemba is not just a normal person. It’s like when you look at an elephant viewed from different angles. Ikemba connotes different things to different people. He was Dim Umudim. From the traditional parlance, people that bear that title must be buried by night, in a special way. He was Ikemba Nnewi, you cannot talk about his burial without carrying the community along as a major title holder. Apart from holding traditional titles he was a man of the people. Governors’ forum wants to accord him state burial, Ohaneze wants to take part; all these things are good. But there are too many that want to be part of it. The more the merrier, the most important thing is planning and execution. No single group will ever attempt to hijack the role of another group or try to politicize the death and burial of Ikemba. That is something people like us will oppose with the last drop of our blood Ikemba should be given any legend. People should be accommodated most especially those that have to do with the Ikemba Question. You know Ikemba was an enigma. He was a jigsaw that meant diff things to diff people. Ikemba is for everybody the guiding principle in this burial is to imbibe his ideals. We must all struggle to get the Ikemba qualities more than struggle to take part in the burial or score cheap political.
Nnewi is important because of Ikemba and because of the strategic nature of the town because of its numerous industries.
Suspected hoodlums in Ilorin, Kwara State Capital, yesterday hijacked the ongoing protest against the fuel subsidy removal and set ablaze the Peoples Democratic Party’s campaign office in the state.
The campaign office, popularly known as Mandate House, located in Garin-Alimi, UTC Western Reservoir in Ilorin West Local Government Area, had its front side and some rooms burnt.
The hoodlums were also said to have carted away with valuables belonging to the staff of the office.
Addressing newsmen after the incident, Governor Abdulfatah Ahmed, who regretted that the incident negated the protest by the organized labour, said his administration would not hesitate to impose a curfew in the state to forestall a reoccurrence.
“The recent escalation of the protests into violence across the state indicates that these protests have been hijacked by miscreants and opportunists who intend to settle political scores”.
“No responsible government can sit by and allow the breakdown of law and order. In recognition of this, I met today with leaders of the NLC, TUC and the National Association of Nigerian Students to identify solutions to the emerging crises and agreed that government would employ all constitutional means to secure the lives and property of all law abiding citizens across the state”.
Also condemning the incident, the immediate past governor of the state Senator Bukola Saraki, in a statement yesterday by his media aide Fatigun Akintola, urged Nigerians to give room for dialogue over the fuel subsidy.
He also cautioned against ethno-religious bigotry and partisan politics in the interest of the nation’s corporate existence.
