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Tag: Victor Afam Ogene

  • Anambra: Ndigbo must embrace APC now or lose out of 2023 equation – Ogene, Ex-Rep member

    Anambra: Ndigbo must embrace APC now or lose out of 2023 equation – Ogene, Ex-Rep member

    …says the APC bug is burning like harmattan fire across South East

    Former House of Representatives member and chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Hon. Victor Afam Ogene has called upon the people of the South East region to wholly accept the party now, or risk losing out of the permutations for the nation’s presidency in 2023.

    In a statement personally signed by him on Monday, September 20, 2021 in Abuja, Hon. Ogene contended that the forthcoming November 6, 2021 Anambra governorship election has afforded the region an ample opportunity to ingrain itself in the burgeoning national consensus currently being forged.

    “Already, there appears to be a growing national consciousness, that the ruling APC should be supported, once again, to not only complete the myriad infrastructural developments it has embarked upon, but also lead the charge in forging national unity and healing.

    “This message appears to resonate across the polity, leading to the gale of defections into the APC – with serving and former governors, past and present members of the National Assembly, and eminent stakeholders, all catching the APC bug.

    “In deed, with several landmark projects, including the iconic second Niger bridge, the Onitsha – Enugu, Arochukwu – Ohafia – Bende and Enugu – Port Harcourt expressways, completion of the Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe mausoleum, construction of a brand new runway at the Enugu International Airport, the Ariaria Market Electrification project, Onitsha Inland Port project, payment of pension arrears owed ex-Biafran soldiers since their presidential pardon in 2000 and impact of NIRSAL and other loans which promote business, the APC, without a doubt, ought to be a destination of choice for Ndigbo.”

    Describing the recent appointment of Senator Ifeanyi Ararume as chairman of the new Board of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, and Senator Margery Chuba-Okadigbo as member representing the South east on the same Board, Hon. Ogene urged Ndigbo to take the appointments as an extension of fresh hands of fellowship by the President Muhammadu Buhari administration to the region.

    “With many more of such appointments in the offing, the South east must seize the moment and play a defining role in the politics of the 2023 presidential election.

    “In fact, since it is common knowledge that the rival People’s Democratic Party, PDP would most likely look towards the North for it’s presidential candidate, the right politicking for Ndigbo would be to support the APC win Anambra, and therefrom make a determined bid to produce the party’s standard bearer for 2023,” Hon. Ogene stated.

  • Ogene, others float 365Daily Newspaper

    Ogene, others float 365Daily Newspaper

    The flourishing and vibrant Nigeria media space has welcomed a new platform, 365Daily, an online newspaper.

    Operating as 365daily.com.ng, the new publication will hit the cyber sphere on Wednesday, November 4, 2020 with its unique motto: news uncensored!

    A statement by the Publisher and Editor-in -Chief, Hon. Victor Afam Ogene, said the newspaper is seeking to be the most influential, informative and reliable online newspaper, by preserving, serving and seeking for the unity, peace and development of Nigeria.

    Ogene, a former editor of The Source, a national newsmagazine and former member of the House of Representatives, said:” 365Daily is coming at a very tenuous time when our country is not only deeply fragmented, polarised and tethering on the precipice, but also gravely challenged by leadership deficit.

    “Given the role of news management in redirecting societies towards order and progress, 365Daily’s grand entry is, therefore, intended to help chart a new course for Nigeria, by sticking to the grand principles of Truth, Fairness and Equity in our handling of news and analysis.”

    Ogene stated that against the background of multiplicity of online publications, the distinguishing feature of 365Daily is it’s decision not to jump on the bandwagon of those who jostle to break falsehoods. “We’d rather tarry on the side of caution, than rush to dish out untruth or unsubstantiated news,” he said.

    Other founding members include Honourables Chizor Obidigwe and Debo Ologunagba, former members, House of Representatives, Justus Nwakanma, former Editor, Daily Champion and Edward Dibiana, a renowned development journalist and former Editor, Servant Leader News, a publication of the presidency during the late Umaru Yar’Adua years.

    Adesuwa Osunde Tsan, an authority on legislative reporting and former Editor of OrderPaper.ng, leads the news crew as the Editor of 365Daily.

  • Nigeria @60: ‘Proposed 365-day 60th Independence celebrations ludicrous’

    Nigeria @60: ‘Proposed 365-day 60th Independence celebrations ludicrous’

    The Network for Best Practice and Integrity in Leadership (NEBPRIL) has called on the National Assembly (NASS) to vote against the proposed 365-day celebration of Nigeria’s 60th Independence anniversary by the Federal Government (FG).

    TheNewsGuru.com (TNG) reports the Civil Society Organisation (CSO) made this known in a letter to both the President of the Senate, Ahmed Lawan and Speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila, made available to newsmen in Abuja on Sunday.

    Titled: ‘the legislature, budgeting and oversight in post-covid Nigerian economy’, the letter signed by the chairman of NEBPRIL, Hon. Victor Afam Ogene, a former deputy spokesperson of the House of the Representatives in the 7th Assembly, regarded the 365-day celebration of Nigeria’s 60th Independence anniversary by the FG as ludicrous.

    NEBPRIL also described the 365-day celebration of Nigeria’s 60th Independence anniversary as inappropriate, poor judgement and a shocking contradiction to President Muhammadu Buhari’s earlier stance that the celebration would be low key as a result of gloomy economy and current covid realities.

    While calling on the NASS to lead a patriotic initiative, hinged on fiscal discipline, prudent budgeting, and reinvigorate its oversight functions to put Nigeria on the path of speedy post-COVID-19 economic recovery, NEBPRIL also urged NASS to vote against the executive’s recently proposed ‘Proceeds of Crime Recovery and Management Agency Bill’.

    The CSO also urged the NASS to suspend constituency projects for a period of one year; strengthening oversight mechanisms to ensure blockage of avenues of wastage; application of NASS legislative powers on budgeting to redirect subsidy removal savings, to invest in healthcare and education e-learning infrastructure and capacity building; the two sectors the pandemic has exposed grave inadequacies and pathetic fragility.

    While noting that records show that Nigeria was paying an average of N 11 trillion annually for petroleum products subsidy, NEBPRIL said the “dwindling economic condition makes it imperative for government to begin to devise creative means to manage scarce resources and make conscious efforts to block every avenue of possible wastage.”

    “Now that government has stopped subsidy payment, NEBPRIL requests that NASS applies its legislative powers on budgeting, to ensure that the huge savings from this new policy, is warehoused as special fund and invested in tackling headlong, the crisis in healthcare infrastructure and capacity building in the sector over the next three years.

    “That e-learning infrastructure and e-teaching capacity development, in our educational sector, which were brought to the fore by Covid-19 pandemic, receive special budgetary attention from the subsidy removal savings, in order to align with the new development, occasioned by the pandemic.

    “That National Assembly, in a gesture of goodwill, leading by example and in appreciation of the current economic exigency, should consider the suspension of constituency projects for a period of one year, starting from the 2021 budget; the allocation for the projects (intentioned to impact on constituents across the nation), should rather, be redirected for the same purpose, but in providing specific, purpose-driven, legacy critical health infrastructure, across the six geopolitical zones; that would be attributed to NASS, as its post-covid special contribution in bringing solution to the health sector.

    “NEBPRIL also implores NASS leadership to take deliberate steps to reinvigorate and strengthen the legislative oversight functions and activities, going forward, to reflect the current realities, in order to ensure that Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) are made more accountable, and that rules of public service are upheld, in line with their mandates and rules of engagement.

    “NEBPRIL urges NASS to vote against the proposed “Proceeds of Crime Recovery and Management Agency Bill”, recently approved by the Executive, as it largely amounts to unnecessary duplicity and waste of scarce resources, especially coming at a time of crushing economic condition; as a result of covid and other adverse economic indices. Nigeria cannot therefore afford to enable a policy that would inflict more strains on her scarce resources. At best, such agency should function as a department under the Ministry of Finance or Budget and National Planning.

    “We also request that NASS votes against the proposed extravagant 365-day celebration of Nigeria’s 60th Independence anniversary, by the federal government. We regard such obscenity as inappropriate, poor judgement and a shocking contradiction to President Muhammadu Buhari’s earlier stance that the celebration would be low key, as a result of gloomy economy and current covid realities.

    “As a Civil Society Organisation (CSO), that advocates democratic accountability and integrity in leadership, we consider the National Assembly as a partner in progress in pursuit of the overall good and interest of the people, in the true principles of democracy that prioritize the genuine welfare of the people,” NEBPRIL stated.