TheNewsGuru

Author: Peter Tuketu

  • Delta 2023 and A Message to the Decampees – By Ajerese Okpo

    Delta 2023 and A Message to the Decampees – By Ajerese Okpo

    By Ajerese Okpo

    Politics can at times be a dubious game where principles are sacrificed for personal and selfish goals at the expense of the public good. Many a politician is in the game without ideals and sublime goals that will serve the common good. Former Governor of Ekiti State, Ayo Fayose, captured this tendency when he enriched Nigeria’s political sociology with the concept of “stomach infrastructure” which underlies the reason why many people are in politics to eat amala and gbegiri and by literal interpretation simply means the satisfaction of one’s greed. This is what has happened and manifested among a few disgruntled and disloyal party men and women in Delta State who announced their defection from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the All Progressives Congress (APC). Many observers of the political scene in Delta State have concluded that their defection from PDP to APC is not only poor calculation and poor reading of the political situation, but a leap from heaven to hell. Why will a right thinking person decamp from PDP to APC which is the political party that has turned Nigeria into hell in the last seven years? Why would a right thinking politician join an APC led by Senator Ovie Omo-Agege of all persons as if they don’t know his unpalatable antecedents?

    The decampees by their action have shown that they lack the capacity to think clearly and make the right decision. They are not good politicians and they have never really been loyal to the party. They also lack the much needed spirit of sportsmanship which every good and committed politician should possess. The reasons why they decamped are usually two which are that: their preferred aspirant lost the PDP primary election and that they are no longer benefitting from government. Are these good enough reasons for serious minded and principle oriented politicians to defect from one party to another? Are they saying that if their preferred aspirant had won the other people whose aspirants didn’t win should also have defected? Are they saying that they must always be in a position to feed fat on government?

    The decampees should know that for anyone of them who decamped there are ten thousand strong, faithful and committed PDP members who are working hard to ensure the party’s victory at the forthcoming general elections. They should also know that they heard and saw wrongly because the real leaders of the party in the likes of former Governors James Ibori and Emmanuel Uduaghan, James Manager, Ighoyota Amori, David Edevbie and many others remain committed to the PDP and will not decamp. The decampees are small tree branches that fell off while the big trees remain rooted in the PDP. Some of the decampees had floated the Delta Unity Group (DUG) which is now in a dilemma. Who are the decampees following and who is guiding or misguiding them? They should retrace their steps and return now before it is too late. The APC is a contraption that was intended to serve a purpose and that purpose was achieved in 2015. The APC is as good as dead for those who can see beyond today. On the other hand the PDP remains Nigeria’s most enduring and longest surviving political party. It is also the biggest party for all times in Africa. The decampees are probably not aware of these facts. They should have a rethink and return before it is too late.

    There are two political tendencies in Delta State as the elections approach. These are the PDP and the APC. The PDP is led by Governor Arthur Okowa, a consummate politician, deep thinker and strategist who doesn’t talk much. He is calm, but resolute and has an unblemished record of public service. He is well loved by people and he is a winner any day and has never lost any election no matter the odds. Governor Okowa is among the best three governors in Nigeria. His emergence as vice-presidential candidate of the PDP is a mark of his political dexterity. The other bloc is the APC led by Senator Ovie Omo-Agege who is more of a political prostitute. He is a serial decampee having changed parties four times in four months. He is boastful, lacks strategy and does not know how to choose his battles. He is heavily blemished by so many unwholesome activities in America that made him to drop the name Augustine, non-accountability for government money, accomplice in stealing of mace and too many other disgraceful acts. He would have been in jail in some sane societies. He has never won any election on his own. He won his senate election through Chief Great Ogboru whom he later betrayed. His second election into the senate was through his begging the PDP and assuring them he would decamp to the party in 2019. He lied to the presidency that he would win Edo State governorship election for the APC. He was allegedly wasted federal governor billions of naira, but he lost to the PDP ably marshaled by Governor Okowa.

    The PDP in Delta State is well rooted in every household, street, unit and ward. The leaders and followers are too numerous. The APC is alien. It is a hijacked vessel that will soon run aground. Who are the leaders? Where are Emerhor, Keyamo, Nwoboshi, Kokori, Ojougo, Ochei, Ogbuagu? They are all fed up with the party and Omo-Agege. The APC is choking and people are escaping from it. Those still clinging to Omo-Agege like Sobotie, Akpeki, Orubebe, Osanebi, have no political worth and electoral value. The bitter truth is that they all have a very poor opinion of Omo-Agege and they say it behind him.

    Omo-Agege has turned out a politician who refused to learn basic things about politics. He is all over Delta State running his mouth like a badly brought up child. As usual 98% of the things he says are lies and he has reduced politics to blame game and irrational talks. He is already in panic mode knowing that he will lose the governorship election. In case the decampees don’t know, Omo-Agege is already, or may soon be talking to his friends on how he can return to the PDP after losing the election.

    The decampees have lost their bearing politically. They will end up as third class members in the APC where they will taste the poison of Omo-Agege’s vindictiveness. Omo-Agege is clannish and nepotistic. He is senator representing Delta Central, but the reality is that he has only represented Orhomuru-Orogun in the last seven years. This man cannot be governor of Delta State because he has no Pan-Delta Character. Omo-Agege betrayed Ibori during the EFFC saga. Omo-Agege also betrayed Ogboru and Emerhor. He also betrayed his own Urhobo people by taking the projects meant for the whole of Urhobo to his quarters in Orhomuru-Orogun. Omo-Agege betrayed Delta State for 16 years by waging war against zoning and rotational governorship which guaranteed fairness, justice and equity in the State. Is this the kind of person some people are decampimg to meet? The decampees should think well and retrace their steps before it is too late. A word is enough for the wise.

  • Jakande Built Modern Lagos Before Our Eyes – By Lade Bonuola

    Jakande Built Modern Lagos Before Our Eyes – By Lade Bonuola

    By Lade Bonuola

    I have restrained myself from getting involved in this kind of controversy. This was why I made a strenuous effort from being drawn into the brickbat between Bayo Onanuga/Dele Alake on the one hand and Arise News on the other despite pressure on me to say something. “Oga, this is shameful, won’t you say something to guide us?” I resisted the pressure. The drive for political power in this clime has no respect for anything. Not for honour, nor anything with the tinge of sublimity! You will be hailed for calling black white and white, black even on the platform of journalists who are not just observers but chroniclers of developments and events.

    How can anybody say LASU was a glorified school? Oh, really?

    The Metro line was stopped by the Buhari junta, not by NPN!

    What NPN attempted to do was to stop the establishment of Lagos Radio and Television. The Shagari Administration sought to vest the Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria with the power to establish and operate state radio stations. The Nigerian Television Authority was to set up at least one television station in each state of the Federation. They said states setting up radios and TV would amount to the proliferation of broadcast stations. They did not know the person they were dealing with—someone who for years was the President of IPI, the founder of the Nigeria Guild of Editors, the founder of Newspapers Proprietors Association, (NPAN); founder of NIJ, managing director/editor of the Nigerian Tribune, one who led the media in battles with the military as well as irresponsible civilian administrations. Jakande fought it and was victorious. His administration was therefore the first state government to own a TV Station in Nigeria.

    The functional primary schools he built to abolish the three-session system he inherited were recommended by UNESCO for developing countries.

    When Gbolahan Mudasiru came, he started to upgrade them. And he did a lot. The Jakande schools were meant for a purpose and they fulfilled such that pupil enrollment leapt from 90, 172 in 1979 to 136, 987 in 1983.
    Secondary schools rose from 79 when Jakande took over in 1979 to 319 by July 1983. The student population was 59,584 by October 1979. By a year later it had leapt to 107, 835 students.

    The teachers were the highest paid in the nation with the right to car and housing loans like the state civil servants.

    Housing: He embarked on a crash programme to build 50, 000 housing units in four years. For 17 years before his ascension, LEDB, the state housing corporation succeeded in building only 4,502 housing units. His focus was on the low and medium classes of our people. He succeeded in delivering 21,000. An allottee was required to pay only N4,000 as a deposit. Whoever was unable to afford that could pay just N1,000 and he would be eligible for a loan to balance up from LBIC. He thus established 18 housing estates in the state. A two-bedroom flat was sold for N6,000 and a three-bedroom unit for N8,000.

    I have read in several places that by 1999, Lagos could only generate N600 million.
    Let’s hear it from the horse’s mouth who came to the saddle 20 years earlier, the one and only LKJ: “We generated enough to meet our obligations without dependence on the Federal Account.” And so, Lagos State under Jakande was the first State Government in the land to announce a billion Naira budget and it gave loans to some state governments, notably Borno!

    Jakande was the one who established the Lagos State Ministry of Environment under the headship of Alabi Masha. He then set up Lagos State Waste Disposal Board with Alhaji Mumini as chairman. Anyone of my generation who knew Mumini would remember the kind of person he was, and his unremitted application to assigned tasks. Equipped with a fleet of 157 vehicles, 21 mechanical shovels and 2,000 movable dust bins in every part of the metropolis, the board collected 400,000 tonnes of refuse yearly. Of course, the population of Lagos has increased by leaps, it should necessarily be expected of his successors to roll up their sleeves and Fashola fitted the bill. Fashola did remarkably well. We should remember that because of his shine, it was a tug of war to have him get the nod of the city fathers for a second term! Ambode continued in the line of Fashola to tackle the refuse problem successfully. Was it not part of building a cleaner Lagos that Fashola embarked on environmental transformation everywhere, turning Lagos into exemplary leafy surroundings—plants, flowers, green lawns even in the most unexpected terrain?

    Jakande established Flood Relief Committee deflooding Ebute Ero, Oroyinyin; Obalende; Aguda; Opebi; Apapa; Eric More; Simpson; Oba Akran and many more upto Somolu! Drains collectors were built at Gbagada; Oshodi Mafoluku; Ojota; Keri etc.

    To arouse public interest in environmental transformation, Jakande introduced the following:
    *Annual Sanitation Day for Market Women;
    *Annual Sanitation Day for Workers;
    *Annual Sanitation Day for School Children;
    *Annual Environmental Day for Community Development Committees;
    *Annual competition on environment among the 20/23 local government councils in the state.

    I won’t want to bore the platform with the roads Jakande built and paved nor his strategy to turn the finances of Lagos State around.

    Presently, I will mention just one area. Strategy on roads? Hold it: His strategy was to establish a Works Management Board. One unique activity of that board was that it had its asphalt plant which could produce 200 tons of asphalt an hour! So it was possible to build neighbourhood roads without much stress. That board also constructed 94 public buildings including the Lagos State House of Assembly; the rebuilding of Onikan Stadium; the Coconut industries in Badagry as well as Conference Hall in that town!

    Perhaps worthy of mentioning because of the exaggerated claims we are fed on this platform is Eti-Osa-Lekki which stretched to Epe! And also perhaps Epe-Ijebu-Ode ( 12,000 meters)! Ha! Let me quickly mention the opening up of Victoria Island-Lekki!

    Just one stream of financial turn-around: Jakande Administration invested in the following companies:
    Guinness Nigeria Limited;
    Nigerian Breweries;
    Dunlop Industries;
    Capps& Da’Alberto;
    Julius Berger;
    G. Cappa;
    UAC;
    BEWAC Ltd;
    UTC Ltd;
    CFAO;
    Volkswagen Nigeria Ltd;
    Nichemtex;
    Clay Industries;
    British American Insurance;
    Westminster Dredging
    Crusader Insurance!

    I have not exhausted all that Jakande did to be the modern builder of Lagos.

    As I said earlier, I have refrained from getting involved in this kind of thing. Were we living on the moon? Are we children? It is rude to attempt to pull the wool over the faces of journalists on their platform, many of them very senior journalists who, if not editors in the period under review, were line editors!

    What constitutes the index of development, of enlightenment if not education, environment and health, transportation? Jakande built LASU, polytechnic, colleges and schools which form the foundation of civilization anywhere. He met 17 hospitals since the colonial days, and within four years he increased the facilities to 22. He set up 10 mini waterworks which is a tool of sanitation. He established a ferry service from Festac to Marina and wool is being pulled over our faces as if we are children and uninformed – on this platform!!!

    Bonuola, famous as Ladbone, the columnist of “Caught Out: A critical look at the Nigerian Press in the Sunday Times”, the founding Editor and later Managing Director of The Guardian, contributed this piece on The Guardian WhatsApp Groups

  • Lets jail INEC chairman Yakubu and CBN Governor Emefiele – By Mideno Bayagbon

    Lets jail INEC chairman Yakubu and CBN Governor Emefiele – By Mideno Bayagbon

    By Mideno Bayagbon

    In the past three weeks, there has been a rash of court cases, contrived street protests, sponsored media lynching, general hoopla and confusion about whether the Independent National Electoral Commission Chairman, Mahmood  Yakubu and the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Godwin Emefiele, should still be left to breathe free air, live among the civilised society and continue to parade themselves as occupiers of their high offices. Question yet unanswered is: should they be found cosy beds in one of the nation’s maximum security prisons? The answer, if you ask me, should be a no brainer. But then, in the heat of the moment, are we not lumping luscious apples with rotten oranges?

    So strident, and of top national importance, are the calls that even the highly placed national security organisation, the Directorate of State Security got embroiled. It had gone to court to surprisingly seek an order to arrest one of them: the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Godwin Emefiele, who some have, before now, suspected is headed for jail on, before or after the expiration of the current government. This is mainly on account of the embarrassingly deplorable way the CBN, under his watch, has mismanaged the economy to the tears, sweat, death and regret of many Nigerians. Corruption is said to have developed unfettered wings under him, soared to heights unimaginable, like a drunken eagle, with him as the major facilitator. But funding terrorists? That’s a new one.

    Among his many perceived sins is the use of the dual foreign exchange window to service his political interests, making emergency billionaires out of members of the Buhari Aso Rock cabal, some select traditional rulers, his friends and cronies in an ill-disguised ambition to supplant the politicians of both parties and impose himself as president of the federal republic, a move which fell flat to his agonised astonishment.

    But these are not the sins, for which a segment of Nigerians do not want him to join the INEC chairman in going to jail. I must, on behalf of the gladiators, mostly politicians, who are prepping themselves for elective offices all over the nation, join in the call for both men to be thrown into the gulag for attempting to play the hero, for daring to turn their bad belle into national salvation policies.

    Let me explain. Take the instance of the INEC chairman. For four years he tolerated one gadfly, called Mike Igini, who was INEC Commissioner in Akwa Ibom state. Despite the huge cry of politicians led by the self-styled uncommon former governor of Akwa Ibom State, that Igini was not allowing them to simply write results and thrust themselves on the raped people of the state as their elected representatives, Yakubu not only turned a blind eye, he turned deaf and dumb as well. That and the results of some of the recent elections should have been pointers to those who wants him out. There are many other rascalities not befitting of an INEC chairman whose loyalty, occupiers of the office assume, is to the appointing authorities and their party and not to Nigerians and Nigeria. What silly bravado got into his head that he now wants to play the hero? What nonsense nationalism is he playing at? Why won’t he let our elections be unfair, shackled, disreputable, for the highest bidder or for the one who can shed more innocent blood?

    Conclusively, the most jarring of his sins, it now seems, is the hurried introduction of what is now commonly called Bimodal Voter Registration System, also known as BVAS; and its brother, the Election Result Viewing Portal (IReV). With this, INEC wants to do a complete ojoro, and change the face of elections in Nigeria. INEC wants to spoil our elections with technology. Yakubu wants to write his name with indelible ink as the one who started the journey to credible elections in Nigeria. For with BVAS, most of the wuruwuru and magomago of election rigging will be greatly curtailed. Yakubu is dreaming that a day will come when the votes of Nigerians will count, when elections will reflect the true wish of Nigerians. And such audacious nonsense.

    It beats me and most politicians why the INEC chairman and his team want to sanitise our electoral system now. We just can’t understand the rush, and why it must be started with this year’s election. What does he expect politicians to do with the billions of naira and the hundreds of millions of foreign currencies they have amassed, stored away, to blind the eyes of the elections and coat them in their own desired victory? How does he want to conduct an election where ordinary Nigerians will not be able to sell their votes or voters card for N1000, like we saw the Borno State government officials do, not so long ago? Has he not seen how that has empowered tens of thousands of those Internally Displaced Persons? Has he not watched the trending video making the rounds on social media? Why does Yakubu want to spoil the game this time around? Why this proposed Yakjayakja elections?

    And as if he has taking an oath with Yakubu’s INEC, the highly politically exposed CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele, has jumped into the fray. He now wants to do a me-too. First, he secretly redesigned the Naira. Then he is hurrying those who have stacked trillions of Naira in soakaway pits, underground strongrooms, bullion vans, refrigerators and all such like, to take them to the banks; something which is practically impossible, except the supervening authorities decide to turn a blind eye. Now, both individuals and corporate bodies cannot withdraw more than N500,000 and N5 million weekly. Who does that? To make matters worse, the old notes cease to be legal tender from the end of this month! What other definition do we need of bad belle? This is a good 25 days before the presidential and national Assembly elections. Infra-dig!

    What does Emefiele intend to achieve with this policy aimed at the jugular of the marauding politicians who want to buy their way into political offices? Did he actually think he would go scot-free? Did he assume that if the EFCC and DSS were truly doing their jobs sincerely, and in the interest of Nigeria, he would not long ago be in jail for the many other real atrocities which time will unveil, which he has perpetuated to gain the favours of the powers that be in Aso Rock and across the north and a section of the south? Not for this policy, but a day will surely come that serious questions are going to be asked of him, where forensic audits of his management of the official dollar rate became a tool for corrupt manipulations. Even if for killing the Naira alone and turning it into a worthless piece of paper, Godwin Emefiele deserves collective odium. Is Emefiele hoping that this smart move against election manipulators will be a redeeming feature of his perfidious reign at the CBN?

    I refuse to believe that the Director General of Directorate of Secret Service, without concrete evidence, will approach a court of law in Nigeria to ask for authorisation to arrest the CBN Governor for funnelling money to known terrorists because some aggrieved politicians, somewhere urge him to. I refuse to believe Emefiele is being prosecuted for political reasons. His many sins may have been swept under the carpet now but a day is coming wey breeze go blow and fowl yansh go open. That day any attempt to use the current political reactions to the CBN laudable redesigning and short circuiting of the zeal of the politicians to buy their way to power, will not hold water.

    Unlike him, however, President Buhari, shun of any concrete achievements to his eight year misrule, is now, and can always claim that he ordered the INEC and CBN to put these policies in place so that elections henceforth in Nigeria, will be credible, free and fair. And we will believe him, if truly the elections of February 25th and March 11, 2023 achieve a semblance of these. It will be a redeeming feature for a drowning man clutching at what seems a passing shadow that ends up a hand of rescue.

     

    Mideno Bayagbon: mideno@thenewsguru.ng

  • Between Atiku, Obi, Tinubu, who is your Man of the Year 2022? – By Mideno Bayagbon

    Between Atiku, Obi, Tinubu, who is your Man of the Year 2022? – By Mideno Bayagbon

    By Mideno Bayagbon

    Until the final votes of the 2023 elections are counted, any assumption as to who will emerge victorious, and be crowned President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a dice in the air. Yet it is only about six weeks away. At no time in our recent history has a presidential race been so close and confusing that even erudite pundits are left in the land of conjecture and permutations, enveloped in doubt.

    Yes, there have been a series of polls conducted by some “credible” organisations which posit one winner or the other. But as one who understands polling, I know most of them are fraught with environmental, geographical, and at times, sentimental errors. Yet they are pointers to possibilities. They have fueled dreams, challenged norms, raised angst and disbelief. I just can’t wait for February 25,when hopefully, we can say for certain if  most of the polls have been manipulations of the fertile imaginations of the organisations or not.

    For some of the polls so far, if the presidential elections were to be held on the days the polling were done, Labour Party’s Peter Obi, the phenomenon and major disrupter of the 2023 elections would be the run-away winner. Yes, it could be so if the elections were conducted in the major metropolis  in the South and Middlebelt areas of the country; and mostly among the youths and elites. He will also be confirmed winner if Nigerians in diaspora are allowed to be the voting universe of the elections. But that is not so, and will not be, at least for the 2023 elections. Unfortunately, rural Nigeria and most of the Northwest and Northeast are yet to know of or fall in love with him. As at today, if the election is held, he will probably come third, a phenomenal feat all the same by all reckoning.

    While there has been palpable frenzy among Nigerians for a major change in the politics and governance of the country, the traditional, structured parties and politicians, have been stirred into building major boulders of resistance hinged on the faith, ethnicity and poverty of the masses. Adept manipulators of the psyche of the poor-and-down ordinary Nigerians, the politicians of same plumage, despite their current abode in either the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, or same same All Progressives Congress, APC, are united in their zeal to perpetuate themselves and the current system which they embody.

    But even they know, for a fact, that their erstwhile rollercoaster, rough ride over the populace is imperiled and is threatening to burst at the seams. Things, they now realize, are beginning to fall apart. They are now beginning to recognize that even if they win the current battle and either Alhaji Atiku Abubakar of the PDP, (who from current standings is likely to), or Alhaji Bola Ahmed Tinubu, (gathering steam and could swing a major upset), emerges the winner of the Presidential Elections, currently projected to go into a tailspin of a re-run, the youths and elites have tasted blood. It might just be the last time the old guard of Nigerian politics will defy the mood and feelings of Nigerians and impose themselves in the leadership echelon of the country.

    But that is, only if Nigerians are tired of  enjoying their suffering-and-smiling disease, like the late Abami Eda, Fela Anikulapo Kuti, diagnosed. For indeed, it is beyond belief that after the havoc the All Progressives Congress, APC, has wreaked on the economy and the psyche of the people of Nigeria, there are still otherwise very educated, enlightened and hugely impacted people who are at the forefront of championing the ambition of a possibly mentally and health-challenged Asiwaju Tinubu who thinks Nigerians owe him a duty to make him president, whether he is fit or not. What of the PDP? Atiku Abubakar is 76 years old. A serial contester, he is perhaps best prepared to hit the ground running from day one. Nevertheless, among his supporters, /the general feeling is that an Obi win is the restart Nigeria needs now.

    Nigeria has a major chance to take the bull of development by the horns; a chance to mobilise its dormant energies and revive a belief in self again. Can you imagine if this election, the APC paraded Vice President Yemi Osinbajo or a Rotimi Chibuike Amaechi while the PDP counters with Peter Obi or Ifeanyi Okowa? Still at that, these may not represent the best in us, but they would have been a fair beginning, a fresh boost to getting our leadership on the right path.

    That is what Peter Obi’s candidacy epitomizes. He may be guilty of all the mud his opponents have tried to drench him in. It is likely, he might not win the Presidential Election as the egoistically ambitious governor of Obi’s home state, Professor Charles Soludo and the near illiterate but opportunistic billionaire, Chief Arthur Eze, have glibly postulated – what did the Bible say about a man’s enemies? They simply don’t get it. My reading of the Obi phenomenon is way beyond he, as Peter Obi, winning the elections; it would delight his supporters if he did. But he is just a symbol, a catalyst, an embodiment of the fears and hopes of the average Nigerian.

    It is a movement that encapsulates the frustrations of the average Nigerian, who instead of progressing has rather been pummeledand stomped, hopeless, into the cesspit of poverty. It is a movement to reclaim the nation, to save it from being the failed state that our unfortunate romance with the hugely incompetent, tribalistic and irredentist Muhammadu Buhari has led us to. Obi is part of the old guard; but he has somehow managed to fire our imaginations to the attainable possibilities that abound. He has infused himself into the alternative voice whose sentiments coalesce with that of the Nigerian on the street.

    This is especially so, given that of the three frontline candidates, Obi, based on a number of indices, which include leadership experience and reach, is possibly the least qualified! If Atiku and Tinubu were 10 years younger, given that they are from the same political pool, they potentially could have been better candidates. Nevertheless, any one of them is better than the mistake in Aso Rock now. But Tinubu is no longer the man we all knew. Tainted though he is, it is his state of health and what he represents that is the major reason he should not be entrusted with the nation’s leadership now.

    Atiku Abubakar was by my estimation one of the best prepared for the nation’s leadership which he has aspired for seven times now. He has a body of studies on every area of the economy and an economic world view that would have been most of what the nation needs now. But he too has an entitlement mentality; he too believes that it is his right to be president of Nigeria. But he is old and we can only pray that, should he be the one elected, he has the energy and health to turnaround a devastated nation like ours.

    Peter Obi, has changed our politics, shaking it to its very foundation to the extent that, though a deemed outsider, his phenomenal impact, has made the 2023 presidential election a nail biting experience; a toss of the coin in which anyone of the three front runners can end up President. But who that person will be, only God can, for now, say. That is what Obi has brought into the game. That is what makes him go head to head with Atiku and Tinubu as the Nigerian of the year 2022 for me. He can hold his head high no matter what the outcome of the presidential elections turns out to be.

     

    Mideno Bayagbon: mideno@thenewsguru.ng

  • An alarm on Alhaji Bola Ahmed Tinubu – By Mideno Bayagbon

    An alarm on Alhaji Bola Ahmed Tinubu – By Mideno Bayagbon

    By Mideno Bayagbon

    There was a hurriedly composed, sycophantic song, which ruled the political space in Delta State, some years ago, when Chief James Onanefe Ibori held sway. It was simply known as Odidigborigbo. It was in the days when President Olusegun Obasanjo sought to get his pound of flesh from Governor Ibori, who was deemed to be the arrow head of the supporters of Alhaji Atiku Abubakar. Abubakar, you will recall, attempted to stampede the General into relinquishing power after his first term. James Ibori, and a group of governors, who aligned with some political heavyweight in the then ruling PDP, had to fight many political battles. In most of them he managed to scrape through to the wonderment of all and loud applause of his supporters who usually burst into the song: Dem dey look am, he de go, Odidigborigbo.

    Governor Nyesom Wike, it seems, who was just a local government chairman of Obiokpo Local Government area in Port Harcourt, had a studied eye on the one his supporters also nicknamed the Sheik. So when you see Governor Wike’s exuberance when his supporters sing: as e dey sweet us, e dey pain dem; as e dey pain dem e dey sweet us, he had a mentor of sorts in the euphoric shenanigans of the sycophants around James Ibori.

    Alhaji Bola Ahmed Tinubu of the APC’s song is a different kettle of fish altogether. The one his supporters call Asiwaju spoke himself into the APC presidential candidacy, with a mantra,  Emilokan! But to his consternation and disgust, Emilokan soon became a hit song on the streets. No, not by fans or sycophants around the Asiwaju. It was composed by some members of the Pyrates Confraternity, whose founder, Professor Wole Soyinka, a close ally of Tinubu soon came out to denounce the song in no uncertain terms. In one of their sailing nights, they hit the streets and sang: Emilokan, Emilokan, Baba way no well, e day shout Emilokan; hand day shake, leg day shake, Baba wey no well, e day shout Emilokan… The song captured the fears and worries of Nigerians who saw Tinubu as another potentially sick president who, in fulfilling his life ambition, will sink the nation into a higher level of tribulations, into a deeper economic cesspit.

    I recall the song: Odidigborigbo, As e day sweet us, and Emilokan today because the controversies around Bola Tinubu have simply refused to go away. While Nigerians are seeking answers to them, his handlers are going ahead in their attempt to force him on the nation as President, whether Nigerians like it or not. His hatchet men, have adopted tactics which they hope will harangue the media and Nigerians into silence. These include media bullying, name calling, subterfuge and bamboozling. The media team of Bola Ahmed Tinubu, who is the Presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress, APC, spares no caustic language in harassing those who are asking genuine questions of candidate  Bola Tinubu.

    In the forefront of this are Dele Alake and Bayo Onanuga who are adopting all tactics in an attempt to silence the press. They chose bullying, harassment and haranguing of anyone who wants the four major candidates, especially Asiwaju Tinubu, to come clean on their past. They particularly want to sweep under the proverbial carpet the many issues that demand urgent answers from their candidate. They want those who demand answers to the many controversies around him to shut their mouths and join the alleluia gang;  join them in the unquestioned hailings which obfuscate the danger of having a sick president with a rich tapestry of a questionable past. They are attempting to turn Tinubu into the new Odidigborigbo. They think that whether we like it or not, as we dey look am , Tinubu dey go!

    Yet one of the questions: why is candidate Tinubu avoiding live interviews and debates?, that Nigerians are asking is easy to answer. About six weeks ago, I wrote: “when will Tinubu come out to address the many issues around him and his candidature? When will he call a press conference and personally address the issues of his alleged link to a narcotics ring about 29 years ago? When will he frontally put to rest the issues of his name, his parentage, his primary and secondary education? When will he come to show, through his personal tax payments, how he acquired the humongous wealth associated with him? When will he confidently showcase his chairmanship or directorship of companies associated with him? Where and how did he acquire his wealth? What does he do for a living? Last, most people know of him, is that he was a two term governor of Lagos State, a NADECO activist and former staff of an oil company.”

    Continuing I noted: “Many “rumours” abound about his alleged wealth and ownership of companies. For example, it is assumed that he owns the Nation newspapers and TV Continental, TVC, a radio station and Alpha Beta among a legion of other issues. But a check at the Corporate Affairs Commission turns a blank when his name is cross checked against ownership/directorship in these establishments. Like so many other issues, Nigerians deserve to know the truth, from the horses mouth.

    “Then there is the small issue of his health. True, since he went for his last medical tourism to Europe and the United Kingdom, he has been more spritely and less sluggish. His speech, especially if reading from a prepared text,  of not more than two pages, makes more sense now than before. Yes, his hands are still visibly shaky but his legs wobble less now. And if he speaks in the Yoruba language he is able to communicate with less gaffes. But will he be willing, for example, to join the other candidates in undergoing a medical fitness test? And when will he also grant a live, unscripted interview with journalists of his choice, in a television station of his choice, even if it is with TVC which he allegedly owns? By not doing any of the above he is giving the wrong impression about his health, state of mind, etc. He is giving the impression that he has something(s) to hide and wants to rough-ride Nigerians  and railroad them into making him another President Buhari who has spent the better part of his presidency hiding the true state of his health.

    “He is aspiring to the number one public office in the land. The well over 200 million people he aspires to be president over deserve to have him come out and address these issues and if for nothing else, put their mind at ease that they are doing the right thing by voting for him. They deserve nothing less. The current strategy of stonewalling and refusing to concretely address them may succeed in the short term. But it is foolhardy. These issues cannot be wished away.”

    It was, at first, watching him, almost a thing of joy, that when he refused once again to attend an AriseTV Live debate but chose to go abroad to honour the invitation from Chatham House, he tried to douse the apprehension of Nigerians by proffering  untenable answers to some of the questions Nigerians are asking. One, he insisted that he is a bonafide Tinubu, a true son and that he is ready for any DNA test. He didn’t mention the name of his father or mother. We know he claimed the late Iyaloja, Mogaji Tinubu as his mother. This is a woman who never had a biological son. He also spoke about the source of his humongous wealth. He says it was an inheritance from his parents  that he judiciously invested. Really? Before now, he had claimed a poor parental background.

    Alluding to the many questions about his qualifications and schools he attended, he informed that he has got a replacement certificate from the Chicago State University. Nothing was said about his primary and secondary school education or the Dale Institute which, in his earlier political days, he claimed to have attended.  The Chatham House event eventually enhanced the worrying questions about his mental and physical health. In trying to be smart, by claiming team-ship when he refused to answer questions but fanned them out to his followers, he exposed himself to more questions; and fears about his capacity.

    Nigerians must insist on knowing, if nothing else, the true health status of this man who thinks Nigerians owe him so much he must become their president, whether they like it or not; dead or alive.

     

    Mideno Bayagbon: mideno@thenewsguru.ng

  • For Okowa, Ibori and Uduaghan: the war can’t but end now – By Mideno Bayagbon

    For Okowa, Ibori and Uduaghan: the war can’t but end now – By Mideno Bayagbon

    By Mideno Bayagbon

    Recently l had a flying visit to Delta State and toured the state incognito. I even attended a few of the campaign rallies where I tried to make myself as inconspicuous as possible. From Asaba, Agbor, Abraka, Eku, Warri, Effurun, Sapele, Idjere and so on, I slept in villages without light and without telecommunication supply. I spoke to the ordinary people on the streets, and in the villages. In all, I tried to get a feel of the political vibrations on ground.

    I wanted to get to know, first hand, what the people think about the Okowa government and where the political pendulum is swinging. I wanted an educated-eye-view of the politics of Delta. What I found was truly dumbfounding, confounding but elating. But I will come to that.

    Toured Delta North, starting from Asaba, Okpanam, Igbuzor, Oshimili, Umunede all the way to the two Agbors; yes,two Agbors or more properly the two Ika local government areas of Delta State, split by the major road, now properly tarred and decorated by the Governor Okowa administration, with streetlights, which runs through them.

    On one side is Agbor proper (local government headquarters of Ika South) and on the opposite side, Owa Oyibu, Ika North East). There seems to be no unasphalted road on either sides of the two Agbors.

    Taking a detour and driving through the DDPA Estate where Jim Ovia, General Lucky Irabor, the Chief of Defence Staff and other notable sons of Agbor have their sprawling mansions, is a delightful sight of lush concrete wonders and unending tributaries of well asphalted roads. It could pass as one of the most luxurious estates in Nigeria. In Delta, it is second only to what has happened in Asaba where eye popping, state of the art, luxuriously humongous mansions make houses in Europe look so archaic. That is a story for another day.

    At Ethiope East, I chanced on the unique, first ward-to-ward local government campaign of the Governorship candidate of the PDP. I was there, at the background, when Erhiatake Ibori and Olorogun Ighoyota Amori, publicly, for the first time, endorsed the candidature of the Right Honourable Sheriff Oborevwori as the governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, to a few raised eyebrows and a tumult of joy rippling through the campaign grounds.

    There is apparently a campaign to return all the House of Assembly, House of Representative, Senate, Governorship and Presidential candidates of the PDP, in the state, in what they describe as 5/5.

    I left the rally, thereafter, and went on my mission to other towns and villages, ending up through Effurun to Ekpan, my Camp David of sorts for a few days.

    It is while there that I became one of the first persons to notice a change in the tide of the political imbroglio bedevilling the PDP in the state. I was one of the first to know of the curious invitation by the former Governor of Delta State, the one I call “Bros”, Dr Emmanuel Eweta Uduaghan, to all the major political actors and leaders of Delta South senatorial district, to a meeting at his Warri home. From inside the meeting, messages came from my sources: “Uduaghan don change o. He don dey stand for Sheriff back o.”

    Dr Uduaghan, who with the acclaimed leader of the party in the state, James Ibori were the pillar of David Edevbie’s claim to the gubernatorial candidacy of the PDP in Delta?

    A digression. A few days earlier, the camp of David Edevbie who had lost all the way to the Supreme Court in trying to quash the eligibility of Sheriff Oborevwori as flag bearer of the party, had held a meeting of their group where they resolved that the fight for the recognition of Edevbie as the candidate of the party was still on.

    This is despite the hand of amity which Edevbie had earlier extended to Oborevwori who the Supreme Court ruled was the candidate of the PDP. This, observers had noted, was ostensibly in continuation of the disagreement between Chief Ibori and Governor Okowa, on who should nominate the successor to the current governor. It has been a very major fight by two close friends; three, if you add Dr Uduaghan who sided with Chief Ibori, and political associates.

    People had thought that the fight had become a do-or-die affair for both sides as they strategised to have the upper hand. For reasons, only a few, including myself know, Governor Ifeanyi Okowa, is vehemently against the choice of David Edevbie as his successor.

    This was seen as an affront on the leadership of Chief Ibori, who until then had the major say in PDP matters in Delta State. Okowa’s insistence was interpreted as an attempt to retire Chief Ibori from the politics of Delta State and ridicule someone who has been his major benefactor. That has been the basis of the war, in what turned out to be two factions of the party, in the state, going forward.

    Journalistic instincts kicked in on hearing the news from the Dr Uduaghan Delta South PDP leaders meeting. A quick call to the PDP gubernatorial candidate, Sheriff Oborevwori and to his opponent in the PDP race, David Edevbie. “Bros, na wetin me sef dey hear o”, Oborevwori replied. But as usual, Edevbie, was his usual self, aloof, incommunicado. My next call, just after the meeting ended was to ex Governor Uduaghan. He not only confirmed the news but went further to give me reasons why he, as a major leader of the party in the state and Nigeria, had to take a step back and support the party and its candidates.

    His reasons accord with those of mine and Chief Ibori’s mutual friend, a former governor of a neighbouring state. Hearing that I was around, he decided to invite me to visit him in his state. In our discussing the Delta State PDP, he proffered a way forward. Both Governor Okowa, an out-going Governor of the State and now the Vice Presidential candidate of the party in the 2023 elections and Chief Ibori, the undisputed leader of the party in the state, who happens to be a personal friend of Alhaji Atiku Abubakar as well as being one of the national leaders of the party, knows that if they don’t resolve their disagreement, they both stand to lose massively.

    The All Progressives Congress candidate, also an Ibori associate is standing in the wings to harvest the fall outs of the fight in the PDP. Ibori moving his support to Ovie Omo-Agege of the APC is a two edged sword which could come back to hunt him, badly. Okowa too, if unrelenting, and toeing the part of war could also pay a costly price, losing votes which should naturally accrue to the PDP in the state.

    This is especially so, from my findings in the state, when it is realised that for the presidential elections, PDP needs all hands on deck to confront the new monster, called Peter Obi, who is gaining grounds among the young people of the state. For if the presidential elections were to hold today, APC will come a poor third, not hitting the 25 percent votes needed by Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu. The same cannot be said of the Labour Party candidate. From my findings, he is likely to get more than the 25 percent of the votes if the Okowa and Ibori camps don’t resolve their quarrel quickly and join hands.

    True, a counter to the Peter Obi phenomenon is on going in the state. The first phase, the ward-to-ward local government campaigns have just ended. It has been a major mobilisation tool as all the PDP leaders, political appointees, legislators, and aspiring candidates have all relocated to their villages and local government areas. A house to house vote canvassing is on. Which is good for them.

    That is why the initiative by former Governor Uduaghan in spearheading a reconciliation and going all out to not just unite the camps but also in stomping the streets for Sheriff Oborevwori is most critical at this time. The governor and the candidate must reach out to Ibori with the necessary assurances. Both sides need each other. That, at least, is what I found on the ground as one, as Rt Hon Oborevwori is fond of saying, who also has a lot of local content in the political affairs of Delta State.

     

    Mideno Bayagbon
    (mideno@thenewsguru.ng)

  • Fact Check: Who between Gov Wike, S-South Govs lied on 13% derivation?

    Fact Check: Who between Gov Wike, S-South Govs lied on 13% derivation?

    Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State is perhaps the most talked about governor in Nigeria today. And it is neither by accident nor is it a coincidence. It is a carefully choreographed and well funded strategy to dominate the national political and media space. He sure knows how to force himself, his views on the public and be the dominant topic of discussion. Hardly a day passes without the garrulous and sometimes comic governor being featured on paid live national television stations, raking up one allegation, lambasting a known enemy, going on an ego trip or dancing to his favourite tune: as e day pain dem, e day sweet us.

    He has so positioned himself that when he speaks, the Peoples Democratic Party, its flag bearer, Atiku Abubakar, the National Chairman, Iyorchia Ayu, and indeed the leadership of the PDP sneeze, and usually end up with a new cold. He is like a bull in a china shop or an inebriated  man throwing wild tantrums. While his group, the newly named Integrity Group, peopled with four other governors, and some senior party leaders, may have reasons to disagree with their party, the larger-than-life, self-promoting and whimsical self adulation of the Rivers State governor, is losing them public understanding and support.

    His enemies, and they are many, are tempted to describe him as displaying symptoms of  what Professor Sylvanus Ekwelie, Professor Emeritus of the Mass Communications Department of the University of Nigeria, UNN, describes as delusion of grandeur. Truth is, I am a bit worried about him, post office. After May 29th, 2023, with him out of office and no possible political appointment in view, how will he manage his mental health? He is used to ostentation, to grandeur, to being the centre of fawning adoration of the “anywhere belly face” political supporters, who of course would have shifted their perfidious sycophancy to the next occupier of Government House, Port Harcourt. When the calls stop jamming his phones, when he wakes up and spends the day alone in his expansive, luxurious mansion, when reality of after-office-life dawns, when to his shock, he discovers the Bible remains true: vanity of vanity, all is vanity! What would he do?

    But I like him. For his boldness, rascality and entertainment value. He is surely having a very sunny time of life. But like him, forget tomorrow is pregnant. Let tomorrow come. Let the next occupier of the governorship stool inherit the curse which has afflicted previous governors: Dr Peter Odili, Rotimi Chibuike Amaechi, and now Nyesom Wike. Today is all that matters. And there is no way the story of the 2023 elections in Nigeria will be written, in future, without a generous paragraph, for ill or good, been devoted to the antics of Governor Wike. That is how it was for Governor Odili, and for Governor Amaechi. By the way, what do they give them to eat and to drink in that Rivers State Government House?

    Nevertheless, while tomorrow waits, Wike must have his day in the sun and ruffle as many feathers as he deems fit. Take for instance, his recent outing where he hosted President Muhammadu Buhari and poured on him some sweet, loving words, like a long lost darling. Forgotten are his recent angst against the President. He became for a moment one of the sycophants he so lambasted for daring to say some good things about the Buhari regime. He had said then:

    “When I hear people declaring for APC, saying they want to continue the good job of Mr President, the good job of people dying every day; the good job of Naira falling every day, I feel so ashamed. That we have gotten to the level where sycophancy, people will come and say, ‘I want to continue the good job of Buhari”. What is the good job of Buhari? Hunger is good job? or poverty is good job? insecurity is good job? or the economy falling is a good job? Such a shameful change. I can’t believe that somebody can come out in today’s Nigeria and  say ‘I want to continue where Mr Buhari has stopped’ May God forgive you. May God never allow that evil to continue.’”

    But in  upping the ante against Alhaji Atiku Abubakar and the PDP, he decided to pepper them by inviting President Buhari to commission some of his government’s projects. His past opinion of Buhari did not matter. He had a score to settle with his party and fellow Niger Delta governors, who instead of teaming up with him, chose to follow Atitku Abubakar; with the exception of Professor Benjamin Ayade of Cross River State, who has pitched his tent with the APC. He decided to hit them hard, below the belt, and put them in a difficult spot with their people.

    Playing to the gallery, Governor Wike announced that President Buhari has benevolently stretched out a generous hand of financial fellowship  to, and baptised, the Niger Delta states with about one trillion Naira of previously unpaid 13% derivation. This, he said, has been kept from the public. Niger Deltans  are not aware of the humongous funds which his fellow governors have collected and kept quiet about. Throwing a challenge to them, he listed a number of projects which he said he executed with the Buhari billion of Naira which fell on the lap of Rivers State. He then called on the people of the other states in the Niger Delta to ask their governors what they did with their own share.

    As expected, the newspapers and social media were awash with Wike lauding President Buhari for paying money owed to Niger Delta states since 1999’: “Let me say it for the first time. So many people asked me: ‘where is he getting this money’? Let me say it. I want, through the attorney-General of the Federation, to thank Mr President. Money that were not paid to the Niger Delta states since 1999 – the 13 percent deductions  – monies that were not paid. Mr President approved and paid all of us from the Niger Delta states. And for me, it would be unfair not to tell the public. It is not from FAAC money. It is the money that is supposed to be for Rivers, Delta, Akwa Ibom, Edo, and Bayelsa states.

    “Yesterday, we commissioned the ninth flyover. In December, we will commission the tenth flyover. By February next year, we will commission the eleventh and twelfth flyovers. So i want to sincerely from the heart and on behalf of the government and people of the state, thank Mr President for this because as an opposition government, he could have said ‘don’t pay’. You can’t do anything.

    Since 1999, the money has not been paid. Did we do anything? So, I want to sincerely thank him.”

    He achieved his aim. The media lapped on it and there was, as one, a massive uproar in the states of the Niger Delta. Incredulous. Political opponents tagged on this and started a mass mobilisation to compel the governors to account for the humongous funds which Governor Wike said Buhari had generously given to each of the states.

    Edo state was one of the first to react to the heat. It quickly informed that the Edo state has received only N2.1 billion in three tranches of N700 million each, out of the N28 billion, due to the state. Commissioner for Budget and Economic Planning, Mr Joseph Eboigbe, at a press briefing said: “In respect to the 13 percent derivation refund currently making the waves, it was the states commissioners of finance in Nigeria under the aegis of FAAC, especially those from the oil producing states that spotted that there was an anomaly in respect of the federal government spending money from crude oil and gas sales and not taking out derivation, so the work was done and a total of about N1 trillion was established as due to the oil producing states.

    “It went through the whole process and the FEC approved it and a methodology for repayment, as approved by RMFAC, which they now agreed on what will be due to each state. Edo state share of that figure was N28 billion. It is a small figure out of the N1 trillion but that is what got to us. What was also approved was the way and manner this money will go to the states.

    “The net amount will come to each state over five years. Each year, you will have quarterly remittance which means four releases each year over five years. This disbursement was late this year but some states went to court to restrain the government so the releases now started in October which is just last month. By the time they started the releases, Edo state got N700 million per quarter and this is verifiable in our bank account.”

    Bayelsa state also came out to speak on the controversial payment. Governor Duoye Diri, in a statement by his CPs, Daniel Alabra, informed that: “For people who are talking about the 13 percent derivation funds due to the state, I want to to state that for one reason or the other, we were under-paid. When we discovered that, we followed due process from the state’s Executive Council to the state’s House of Assembly. Approvals were given and the funds were discounted.

    “I do not play politics with this kind of thing. Anybody who wants to see how we use our money, our monthly transparency briefing on our financial income and expenditures are available. One kilometre of road we build in Yenagoa is costlier than three or four kilometres of road built elsewhere.”

    But it was Delta State’s  Fidelis Tilije who is  State Commissioner for Finance who came out to give an elaborate explanation and situate the funds and how it will be disbursed to the states. Speaking on AriseTV, he noted that N240 billion is Delta state share of the fund. But he, however, revealed that only N14.7 billion had been received so far, with the rest spread for payment over the next four years plus.

    As it turned out, contrary to Governor Wike’s claim that the entire money had been paid to the states, the truth is, by the agreement reached, it will take a total of five years, spread over four quarters yearly for the entire fund to be disbursed to the states. What Governor Wike failed to say, and which Governor Diri of Bayelsa state alluded to, is that some of the states have gone ahead to borrow tens of billions against the expected disbursements. Which means that though the payment will come over 60 months, some of the governors have discounted the full or part of the amount and spent theirs. That is what Governor Diri described at discounting.

    VERDICT:  Did President Buhari gift the Niger Delta states one trillion Naira in one fell swoop? The answer is no. First, the payment has nothing to do with President Buhari personally. It was a long drawn out reconciliation, with some court cases in-between, which RMAFC compiled and sent to FEC for approval. Secondly, none of the states has been paid the full amount. Rather only three tranches out of 20 endings in four years plus time have been paid. Governor Wike was economical with the truth.

  • Drug baron accusation, Tinubu bares his fangs – By Mideno Bayagbon

    Drug baron accusation, Tinubu bares his fangs – By Mideno Bayagbon

    By Mideno Bayagbon

    Not very many people suspected it was fake. It looked and read like a genuine copy, letterhead, reference number, signature and all. But we at TheNewsGuru.com have had to establish a tradition, especially in these political times, of verifying every document, video and even photographs. Fact Check saved us the agony of publishing a press release purportedly released by the Independent National Electoral Commission. It was titled: 

    CERTIFIED TRUE COPY OF CRIMINAL FORFEITURE AGAINST APC PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE BOLA AHMED TINUBU IN THE UNITED STATES 

    Our attention has been drawn to the recently released certified true copy of an order of criminal forfeiture granted against Asiwaju Bola Tinubu the presidential flag bearer of the All Progressives Congress by the United State Court of northern Illinois district dated 23rd July 1993.

    The order borders on issues of criminal forfeiture of funds linked to narcotics smuggling conspiracy and money laundering. 

    WE are currently liaising with the Northern Illinois District Court in order to establish more facts about the case before taking a decision.

    We are also studying the judgment in order to determine whether offences which contradict the INEC guidelines and Electoral Act 2022 has (sic) been committed.

    We endeavour to expire the process and shall communicate the results of our findings together with our decision to the general public within ten working dates (sic) from today’s date.

    Festus Okoye Esq

    National Commissioner and Chairman

    Information and Voter Education Committee

    Friday 11th November 2022

    A large segment of the media fell for it. And now, after the expected rebuttal by INEC, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu is threatening judicial hailstones and brimstones on all the media who helped make such a tendentious, aspiration abridging,  fake press release go viral. It is a sign of the times we are in that even some very serious media platforms fell for the fake release. How the cranky brains behind it must be having a good laugh! And since bad news sells exponentially, the social media was not only awash with it, it was the major trending issue for well over 24 hours. 

    In a Facebook post, the Director, Media and Publicity, APC Presidential Campaign Council, Bayo Onanuga, lambasted the established media organisations: “All those people, including Arise TV, BusinessDay, and Channels TV spreading fake news and assassinating the character of Asiwaju Tinubu: ‘You have all thrown professionalism and objectivity to Jabi Lake because you are playing the script of your master puppeteers, Atiku and Peter Obi. The height of your shenanigans today was the wide use of a fake INEC statement.”’

    Nothing was, however, said about the contentious forfeiture of $460,000 to the United States government by the APC Presidential candidate in 1993 over an alleged narcotics trafficking offence. A US District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, according to published records, had ordered the forfeiture over alleged links with drug dealers. This is one of the many swords of Damocles hanging over the candidature of Alhaji Tinubu who is one of the three top contenders for the 2023 presidential elections.  There are many others which we will soon come to. 

    In this era of alternative truths, fake news, deep fakes, and Artificial Intelligence, AI, it is hardly surprising that the media is becoming a ready tool of manipulation by hired digital natives. Lies are masked in beautifully embroidered, seeming truths. In a frenzy to break the news, especially in a clime like ours where channels of confirming news and stories are usually an herculean bottleneck, most media are bound to make costly mistakes and fall victims of cheap political blackmails and manipulations. An avalanche of threats of legal actions will flood the space between now and the elections.

    Media platforms and those who will not invest deeply in checking and cross checking information are at great risk. And truth be told, every serious medium, bombarded daily by social media cretins, most of whom are in the employ of politicians aspiring for top offices, are bound to make the odd mistake now and again.

    What my senior colleague, Onanuga, simply did with the unfortunate broadcasting of the viral fake press release is to be clever by half, nevertheless. Why did he not go the whole hog to state categorically that his principal never suffered the forfeiture of $460,000 to the American government. Why did he stop at threatening to go to court over the fake INEC letter? 

    And for that matter, when will Tinubu come out to address the many issues around him and his candidature? When will he call a press conference and personally address the issues of his alleged link to a narcotics ring about 29 years ago? When will he frontally put to rest the issues of his name, his parentage, his primary and secondary education? When will he come to show, through his personal tax payments, how he acquired the humongous wealth associated with him? When will he confidently showcase his chairmanship or directorship of companies associated with him? Where and how did he acquire his wealth? What does he do for a living? Last most people know of him is that he was a two term governor of Lagos State, a NADECO activist and former staff of an oil company.

    Many “rumours” abound about his alleged wealth and ownership of companies. For example, it is assumed that he owns the Nation newspapers and TV Continental, TVC, a radio station and Alpha Beta among a legion of other issues. But a check at the Corporate Affairs Commission turns a blank when his name is cross checked against ownership/directorship in these establishments. Like so many other issues, Nigerians deserve to know the truth, from the horses mouth.

    Then there is the small issue of his health. True, since he went for his last medical tourism to Europe and the United Kingdom, he has been more spritely and less sluggish. His speech, especially if reading from a prepared text,  of not more than two pages, makes more sense now than before. Yes, his hands are still visibly shaky but his legs wobble less now. And if he speaks in the Yoruba language he is able to communicate with less gaffes. But will he be willing, for example, to join the other candidates in undergoing a medical fitness test? And when will he also grant a live, unscripted interview with journalists of his choice, in a television station of his choice, even if it is with TVC which he allegedly owns? By not doing any of the above, he is giving the wrong impression about his health, state of mind, etc. He is giving the impression that he has something(s) to hide and wants to rough-ride Nigerians  and railroad them into making him another President Buhari who has spent the better part of his presidency hiding the true state of his health.

    He is aspiring to the number one public office in the land. The well over 200 million people he aspires to be president over deserve to have him come out and address these issues and if for nothing else, put their mind at ease that they are doing the right thing voting for him. They deserve nothing less. The current strategy of stonewalling and refusing to concretely address them may succeed in the short term. But it is foolhardy. These issues cannot be wished away.

    If Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu will not dignify Nigerians with personally coming out to assuage their fears, and as they say, in Nigerian humour to “expatiate and elucidate”, on his state of health, his background and his wealth, then he does not deserve to be trusted with the presidency of Nigeria.

     

    Mideno Bayagbon: mideno@thenewsguru.ng

  • In Wike and Atiku fight, the heat comes on Governor Okowa – By Mideno Bayagbon

    In Wike and Atiku fight, the heat comes on Governor Okowa – By Mideno Bayagbon

    After months of a tempestuous fight and ill-fated recriminations, it is all over. The last we heard from former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar, the flag bearer of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, is that he has given up and is walking away from the reconciliation meetings with Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State and his four supporting governors. To him, it is no longer feasible investing his time and efforts in pursuing a peaceful reconciliation with a group of recalcitrant governors who have made up their minds to do him in.

    Governor Wike, on his part, has announced that Rivers State will not vote for Atiku Abubakar in  the Presidential Elections. This is  even when the rest of the PDP candidates, Wike says, will enjoy votes from the state. He has gone a step further and budgeted to splash N42 billion on 200,000 special assistants newly minted from his political over-do-factory or as his detractors would  say: his delusion-of-grandeur-brewery. Both sides have dug too deep, too entrenched in their positions to give room for a mutually agreeable solution. So Iyorchia Ayu remains PDP National Chairman to the chagrin of the Wike group who have now positioned to act as spoilers. Both sides have resolved that the roof should fall, no matter the implications. What a heavy price obduracy is about to inflict on vaunted egos!

    Nevertheless, contrary to the assumed meaning of the headline above, NO, Governor Ifeanyi  Arthur Okowa, the Vice Presidential candidate of the PDP, is not the fall guy from all the bad blood gushing out of the deep-seated, and now irreconcilable, fight. Rather, the doomed outcome of the intercourse and failed unification attempts have heaped a burden on him, to man up, and deliver the South South and to some extent, the South East region to the Atiku-Okowa ticket. All eyes are now on him as their joint ticket is definitely made weaker by the pull out of Wike and his group. That is five traditional PDP states going rogue. That is over 12 million potential votes at stake: Rivers State has well over three million, (3.2million), votes; Benue State has two point three million, (2.39million) registered voters; Enugu, one point nine million, (1.93 million); Abia, one point seven million, (1.79million); and Oyo, two point seven nine million, (2.79 million).

    However, one fact stands out. In the South South and South East regions, it  is Peter Obi, and not Governor Nyesom Wike, who is the real problem, the hard nut for the Atiku-Okowa ticket. If the frenzy generated around Peter Obi of the Labour Party holds till the election, the South East, which used to be mainly a PDP zone, will keel over and tilt towards harvesting its votes for the Labour Party candidate. PDP will find itself a poor second, and APC almost non-existent. The case in the South South will be slightly different. It is a traditional PDP zone with all the governors, except that of Cross River State, as members of the party. That is, until the imbroglio with Nyesom Wike and his band of four governors. Nevertheless, PDP is still likely, with serious hard work, to emerge the winner of the zone in the Presidential Elections. The major threat to its dominance of the zone is the Labour Party candidate, Obi. Alhaji Ahmed Bola Tinubu will come a very poor third in the race, all things remaining as they are now.

    Though the Wike group is yet to announce who their followers will be advised to vote for or what alignments they are going into, another thing that is clear, thankfully with the emergence of BVAS, is that the joke might end up being on Nyesom Wike in Rivers State. True, he has massively recruited foot soldiers to mobilise the state towards whatever direction he opts for. One nonetheless predicts that PDP will slug it out with Labour Party, and though badly bruised from the Wike schemings, It may still end up winning the state. This is especially so if Governor Ifeanyi Okowa liaises effectively with the large swath of disgruntled PDP elements which include Uche Secondus, (former National Chairman), Austin Opara, Celestine Omehia, Chibudum Nwuche and the whole gamut of APC chieftains who recently decamped to the PDP in the state.

    Governor Ifeanyi Okowa has his work cut out for him. Though a man that is highly underestimated, he is politically shrewd. Where Wike is bossy, loud and outrageously intolerant, Okowa is a man well heeled in  diplomacy. He is said to be cool headed, quiet by nature yet a very firm character. From the Arise Television Town Hall meeting he showed to Nigerians a side of him that his handlers must be very pleased with. He showed that he has capacity, is erudite with extensive knowledge and has sound appreciation of issues that need urgent national attention.

    But his traducers might point out the now abating political divide which threatened to tear the PDP to shreds in Delta State. They might wonder how Governor Okowa will be able to amicably resolve the issues he has with his political godfather, James Ibori, over the emergence of the popular Speaker of the Delta State house of assembly, Sheriff Oborevwori, as the governorship flag bearer of their party in the state. As is well known, Ibori had wanted his long time ally, David Edevbie, to be the flag bearer in the state but Okowa thought otherwise. With the Supreme Court putting an end to the nomination struggle of who the real flag bearer should be in the state,  and Edevbie being the first to congratulate his opponent, peace moves are said to be maturing.

    Both Okowa and Ibori know that they have to amicably resolve their differences if they don’t want the state to fall to their eagerly expectant rival, Ovie Omo-Agege of the All Progressives Congress. Should that happen, both of them would surely be the losers. Both of them would them suffer the indignity of having their party become the opposition party in the state. They both know that Omo-Agege, will not be an easy meat to handle if through their recalcitrance, he emerges governor of the state.

    Chief Ibori being a friend of the Presidential candidate of the PDP, Atiku Abubakar; and Ifeanyi Okowa being the Vice Presidential candidate of the party, it is in their common interest that their party wins the state at the Presidential, governorship and state of House of Assembly elections. This is what convinces one that both leaders who love power, will sheathe their swords, in their personal interest and that of their party the PDP. They seemingly have no other choice except they want to toe the Wike war path.

    That notwithstanding, most people are now more convinced about the suitability of Okowa for the vice presidential race with Atiku. He has shown himself to be cool headed, not ostentatious or flamboyant. As a Christian Ibo, their hope is that his pairing with Atiku will endear some segment of the society which the Wike shenanigans would have otherwise alienated. It is onerous on him now to bring the entire PDP in the South South and South East into the party’s umbrella. A lot rests on him bringing about unity in the two zones and in mobilising their members, in a unity of purpose, to turn out the votes in favour of the Atiku-Okowa ticket on election day. How he goes about it will make a lot of difference to the fortunes of the PDP, not just in the Presidential Elections, but also in the National Assembly, governorship and States Houses of Assembly elections.

     

    Mideno Bayagbon

    (mideno@thenewsguru.ng)

  • Now that Abuja and not Obi, Atiku, Tinubu, has become our number one problem – By Mideno Bayagbon

    Now that Abuja and not Obi, Atiku, Tinubu, has become our number one problem – By Mideno Bayagbon

    Nothing has de-marketed the nation, Nigeria, in the last seven years, as much as the unsolved spates of terrorist acts and the wide gamut of insecurity, fuelled by an incompetent, unfeeling government. And we have become more and more the butt of international jokes and disdain as we wobble and fumble on even the simplest of issues. In the eyes of the world, we are now being sold as a looming failed state, there for the taking; a country on the brink of falling to the terrorists who have been causing havoc in the North East for about 15 years now.

    Or how else do we interpret the recent action of the USA and some European countries who have not only publicly warned of imminent attacks on Abuja but have indeed evacuated their personnel and asked their citizens to leave the country? Ordinarily, one should wonder: how dare the United  States of America, USA, and the growing number of European countries to rubbish Nigeria’s image,  by issuing the security alert on Abuja and 14 other states in Nigeria? Is this what we have come to, the damage we have done to ourselves through the  collective mistake of electing Muhammadu Buhari as President? Is what is happening to us now, especially the disgraceful security alert, not “see-finish?”

    It is clear these foreign countries have put Nigerian leadership on a scale, found them wanting and powerless. With impunity, they have now decided to kick her frontally in the face. They know how inconsequential the  Buhari government has made the nation seem in the eyes of  the comity of nations. They have, through the public security alert and warning minimised Nigeria in the eyes of the international community, Nigerians in the diaspora and indeed Nigerians  who live in the country. They have reduced Nigeria to the level of the deeply troubled Afghanistan and other failed states where all foreign nationals scurry out of the country to preserve their lives, as the country fell to the Islamic rebel groups. In their eyes, Nigeria is walking,with eyes wide open, into being a failed state.

    Before now, America restricted itself to issuing travel advisories on Nigeria, insulting as that was. But they have upped the antennal, told the whole world rebels are about to overrun the Nigerian capital, Abuja. To point out the gravity of the security situation, they have effected the evacuation of all their non-essential personnel at their embassies in Abuja. Their message is simple: go to, or stay in, Abuja at your own risk! The government is genuinely infuriated while the people, justifiably, have turned a blind eye to the warning. To them all die na die!

    I have listened to a few international relations experts and have lived long enough to know that something, somewhere, is not right with the way the Americans, especially, have gone about the recent security scare in Abuja. I am one to admit that there must indeed be fire behind the smoke of the scaremongering. I must admit the Americans, even if in pretence, must have sought audience with the Nigerian government and possibly have a good sense of its security architecture, its attitude and political will. But is it right the way it has gone about the worsening security situation in the country? Is the situation so doomed that it is irreparable? Is there no ameliorating factor, no leeway to confronting and containing the risk posed by the current security situation orchestrated by foreign terrorists and bandits alike?. Or is it that the western nations have done all they could to assist the Nigerian government and it failed to cooperate or show any sign of grappling with the situation? Why are the Americans and the European countries so upfront, so seemingly impatient with the handling of the seemingly imperilled security situation? What do they know that we don’t?

    Nigerians know better than to turn to the President for succour. They know that if he didn’t keep his uncanny silence, his handlers would issue out tepid statements that end up infuriating the people more. But President Buhari will be President Buhari. His next action has been to chose this critical time, of all times, to go junketing on another medical tourism to Europe. And it is either of two things. It is either the President is using the medical trip as a calming balm to tell the rest of us that there is nothing to worry about, that we can go about our lives quietly secured. If one were to be mischievous, one would say the President embarking on the medical check up at this time was a design to damn the rest of the world and indeed all Nigerians.  Alternatively, the health situation of the President could  be in a state he considers more alarming than the insecurity enveloping the nation’s capital. True, people are wondering if this is not another situation of Rome being on fire while the emperor fiddles with trifles?

    Let’s look at this more closely. Truth be told, we have some of the brightest, bravest and very patriotic military  and security men and women, any nation of the world would gladly boast of. And it has  been proven over and over again, especially when they go on international assignments, that our Police Force, our Military and security personnel are some of the finest in the world. What is missing appears to be the political will and right funding to put them on the fighting pedestal  to put an end to the spate of terrorism and bandit activities. Yet the Buhari government does not appear hell-bent on crushing the terrorists and putting an end to their nefarious activities. Yet we know that the virulent wing of Islamic State of West Africa, ISWAP, a franchise of the deadly but defeated ISIS, peopled by foreign terrorist mercenaries and cross-border criminals, are those trying to hold Nigeria and Nigerians hostage with the very active connivance of yet to be identified government operatives.

    Nigerians have been bombarded with assurances from relevant sources about their security, going forward. Whether they believe any of it or not; whether they think the Americans and the Europeans should be believed or not, one thing is clear: there are more urgent issues attacking the life of the average Nigerian. The Abuja security scare is just one of many. For most, the attitude is just to find enough strength and resources to survive another day given the avalanche of problems which is their lived reality. There is food crisis, energy crisis, all kinds of problems which buffet them daily. The World Bank recently captured it well when it said: “Nigeria’s food, energy crisis worsened by Naira depreciation.” That is a diplomatic way of saying the massive devaluation of the Naira, which is currently on a free fall, has further compounded the miserable lives of Nigerians who are barely surviving the imbecilities and criminal incompetence of the government.

    Yes, Nigerians barely sleep now, even with one eye shut. Not with the hunger ravaging the land. The multi-dimensional insecurities strangulating their lives and the many other existence crises that crush them.  Like living dead, the only escape route now appears to be what in true Nigerian coinage is JAPA. That is finding all means to escape out of Nigeria to any other country. Houses, land, cars, and other properties and investments are being auctioned off in Nigerians desperation to escape the tragic Buhari government. Over 10000 doctors have fled. Ten of thousands more of our highly trained human resources have Japa-ed. More are on the way out. The latest security alert on Abuja can only fuel the deal to get out before the whole house comes collapsing. God forbid.