[dropcap]B[/dropcap]ukola Saraki, President of the Senate and the Director General of the Atiku Abubakar Presidential Campaign is suffering and needs urgent attention. Were he still familiar with Medicine- his primary profession- he could have properly examined himself for the destructive symptoms of delirium and hallucination. If he were, we would have urged him to embrace the age-old axiom: Physician heal thyself!
Nothing demonstrates Bukola’s fusty state of mind than his recent hallucinations with official figures of fuel importation into the country. Saraki had claimed during an interview on Channels Television on Wednesday that Nigeria’s petrol consumption is about 20-22 million litres per day and that the current import level of about 50 million litres per day is a “a big-time fraud.”
Saraki rubbished his position as the number three man in the Government when he made such a grave deliberate falsification of figures without quoting any official document. The senate president glibly stated that “any expert” will tell you that Nigeria’s daily PMS consumption could not be more than 22 million litres.
Everyone understands that this is campaign season and politicians would capitalize on anything that could give them electoral victory. But it becomes an unpardonable political gaffe for anyone, especially a President of the Nigerian Senate, to lie about figures that are documented just to sell himself to the electorate.
Let us remind Saraki that the 7th Senate of which he was a member conducted several hearings on fuel subsidy and NNPC where it was publicly disclosed that the daily PMS consumption in 2014 and 2015 was 35-40 million litres. In January 2014, for example, the average monthly consumption was 38 million litres per day.
By January 2015, under the same government of PDP they reported 36 million litres per day and in March 2015 the daily consumption reported by the PDP Government was 45 million litres, while importation was at levels above 80 million litres per day. These are official figures in the custody of the senate, and most likely in the document shelve of Saraki.
It is strange that Saraki would now tell Nigerians on television years later that fuel consumption figure had gone down to 20-22 million litres of fuel per day! It defies economic logic, and even commonsense to suggest that a country where population, rural-urban drift and vehicles are on the increase will see such a drastic fall in fuel consumption rate.
During the same interview, Saraki also exposed his fading political career when he blamed the rejection of his presidential candidate by Nigerians, especially wealthy donors on the Muhammadu Buhari Administration. He accused the Administration of stifling the opposition because no one is willing to donate to his cause.
Read him: “The atmosphere does not allow the kind of campaigns people are used to. The general feeling is that the APC is choking the campaigns. If you look at support groups, fund raising dinners. Fund raising dinners in 2015 were everywhere. People were having dinners with the business community trying to raise money. Now most business communities don’t even want to come out and see that they are getting involved in politics. The environment now is different”, he said.
Saraki should be ashamed of himself for blaming the Administration for the rejection of his campaign. Is Saraki so delirious that he has become incapable of analyzing situations rightly? Is he so dumb that he cannot see his own political denouement? Can he not see, as most Nigerians have seen, that he, like a film unraveling before our very eyes, is coming to an end?
No responsible Nigerian will be willing to donate to the presidential ambition of either Saraki or his principal Atiku Abubakar, after what is already in the public space about them and some of their colleagues. Saraki has become a bad product even in his home state of Kwara. His famed but phantom political empire has crumbled under the weight of his infamous actions. His masquerade has been unmasked and he no longer has a hiding place.
Anyone who doubts my views should just walk into any streets in Ilorin, the state capital, and ask questions about Saraki. It is shocking, but not unexpected, how quickly Saraki seemed to have unraveled. Today, influential clerics in the state are denouncing him and his political ideology, and urging people of the state to reject him and everything he stands for. His candidate lost the bye-election into the House of Representatives recently conducted by INEC in the senatorial district of Governor Ahmed!
Saraki also said the campaign for the forthcoming election should not be on sentiments but be based on “what we see.” And he went on to make his characteristic false claims that there were no security problems in 2015 in the North West, North Central and North East! But that today all three zones have security challenges. I beg your pardon?
Did Saraki truly believed himself when he uttered those statements? Or was he just playing his usual politics of mischief and propaganda? Even school children would know Saraki was lying through his teeth. Where was Saraki in 2013 when cattle rustling started in Kaduna and Plateau States and scores were being killed? Where was he in 2014 when Benue(Agatu) experienced the worst bloodletting in their history at a time their son, David Mark, was senate president? Where was Saraki when hoodlums killed over 100 mobile policemen in a Lafia, Nasarawa State while on a mission to arrest a so-called spiritual leader of a village in 2014?
I could go on and on. But the point is not to celebrate crisis but to put the current crisis in proper perspective. It is undeniable that almost the whole of Northern Nigeria was paralyzed economically by the Boko Haram insurgency May 2015 when Buhari was sworn-in as president. Less than one year after his inauguration, the North came back to life and businesses started booming again. The recent unfortunate resurgence of Boko Haram activities cannot diminish the commendable achievement of our military and the resolve of the Buhari administration to bequeath a prosperous, secure and peaceful Nigeria to our youths.
Saraki deserves pity because his days of glory are counting out. Although it may be too early yet to conclude that the lofty narrative of a silver spoon thrust into political leadership by his father is about to end. But if the morning shows the day, we may be witnessing his tragic denouement. And nothing demonstrates the turn of events better than his unaccustomed struggles at home. He is facing continuing revolt and rejection in his home state of Kwara where he has held sway for the past 16 years, first as two-term governor and as political godfather of the current governor Abdulfatah Ahmed. He must ask himself questions about where and how he got it wrong. If he does, and is able to redeem himself, perhaps he may safe himself from the imminent political storm.
[dropcap]A[/dropcap]bia State has been lucky to have a leader who fits the description of a visionary properly defined. Governor Okezie Ikpeazu proved to be the meteor which appeared when least expected. For the period that he was governor, he shone brightly, lighting up the state with developmental strides that has made Abia a cynosure of states in the Nigerian nation-state.
On being sworn into office on 29 May 2015, Governor Ikpeazu left no one in doubt that he knew exactly what to do with the mandate the people overwhelmingly gave him. Thus, part of his inaugural speech informed the people that he was here to “steer the Abia Stateship to a destination where our indigenes burst forth from the shackles of tribalism, subservience, pettiness, blackmail, character assassination, inferiority complex, poverty, to a fulfilled, peaceful, virile and united Abia State.” Four years down the road, the Governor delivered on this promise.
Critics can easily advance the argument that Akwa Ibom State earns bigger allocations than Abia State. Agreed! But evidence has shown that it is not how much one receives that counts. What counts is how the money has been utilized. A reckless spender can squander N1billion naira in less than 24 hours, while a judicious and prudent manager can use the same amount to produce eye-popping accomplishments. While the Federal Government was hyping its transformation agenda, the Abia State Government under Ikpeazu was flaunting its tantalizing agenda. The so-called legacy projects were tantalizing projects, not life-transforming projects, which was what the people really needed. I do not subscribe to the school of thought which says leaders are born, not made. To me leaders are made by the circumstances that shape their development into adulthood. Power is the central element that shapes the lives of leaders. You can only know the real worth of a leader when you entrust him with power. Before he became Gov.Ikpeazu was deemed to be a humble, cool headed and resourceful person. At least that was what we were able to glean from his outward appearance.
The Holy Scripture states that when the ways of a man is pleasing to the LORD, he makes his enemies to be at peace with him. This assertion has been fulfilled for Okezie Ikpeazu PhD, Governor of Abia State and that is why many of Governor Ikpeazu’s former adversaries have turned his apostles.Is it surprising that those who led campaigns against him in 2014 and 2015 are today pleading with him to run for second term as Governor of God’s Own State?
The governor has indeed succeeded in demystifying the office of the governor and cut down on unnecessary expenses including his entourage and personal salary “all in an effort to boost the revenue base of the state and to also add value to the lives of the masses and develop infrastructure.”
Gov. Ikpeazu government has succeeded in introducing within the time of assuming office on May 29, a new initiative called Integrated Payroll Verification System (IPVS), which has successfully captured the biometric data of staff and all civil servants in the state taking governance away from the old fashion where there is bloated number of workforce and unprecedented numbers of ghost workers(War against Ghost Workers Syndrome).This has saved a lot of cost and wastage in governance and Abia people appreciated it.
Governor Ikpeazu administration has been a regime of work and projects in the midst of what should have been a huge distraction or a psychological setback for other people. What should have been a threat is rather a motivation and a source of inspiration for Governor Ikpeazu. He is being fired on by a seeming challenge. He is in full control of his environment, displaying doggedness and showing courage in the face of an obvious threat. He is inspiring everyone and this is the hallmark of a leader. After his inauguration as Governor of Abia State on May 29, 2015, Dr Okezie Ikpeazu resumed work the next day in the swampy streets of Aba. Residents of the Enyimba City which over years had lost its glory, as a result of deliberate neglect and abandonment by previous governments, were shocked when they saw the newly sworn-in Governor in rain boots walking in the moldy streets. Many doubting Thomases and political opponents made a mockery of him and alleged he was merely showing off and playing to the gallery.
Guided by passion and empathy, Governor Ikpeazu recalled how precious Aba is to the State and her residents. He immediately awarded contracts for the reconstruction and rehabilitation of the roads in Aba. As soon as the contractors commenced work, residents of Aba began to jeer and questioned the wisdom of commencing road reconstruction works in the rainy reason.
Ikpeazu ignored negative comments and mockery of people who doubted his ability, sincerity and determination to rescue Aba from the mess which the former pride of the Nigerian business community had been debased to. He encouraged contractors not to be deterred but to endure the harsh environment and unfriendly behaviour of some Aba residents. All he requested of them was total reversal of the ugly and felonious narrative which Aba had been associated with since after the second republic when Chief Sam Onunaka Mbakwe,(now late) former Governor of old Imo State, paid good attention to Aba and reconstructed its major roads. It is on record that since 1984, no other administration either in the old Imo State or present Abia State, paid adequate attention to the wellbeing of Aba and her residents until 2015 when an Aba boy became the Governor of Abia State.
Governor Okezie Ikpeazu through his immense commitment towards the transformation of Aba, has completely changed the narrative of prolonged bad image of the Enyimba City. Majority of those who mocked and jeered at the commencement of the reconstruction works in Aba, have sang a new songs full of praises for Dr. Okezie Ikpeazu, the only Governor after Chief Sam Mbakwe, that has rescued residents of the Enyimba City from destructive health challenges which they suffered for years due to huge refuge dumps and swampy/stinking impassable roads.
The Grassroots Publishers commended Gov. Ikpeazu on Umuagu- Umuda erosion control work where a lot of work has been done to control massive flood erosion that had threatened human existence within the area. Before the control work, many buildings including the residence of the former Finance Minister, Ngozi Okonjo Iweala were at risk. In fact, some people whose buildings were badly affected before now had abandoned their homes and relocated to safe places. So, the State Government’s intervention was a welcome development which however did not come easily. Abia State Government had to pay a counterpart fund of N350 million to attract the World Bank’s intervention through a reputable company, Heartland, that is currently handling the project.One of the areas where the Governor Okezie- led Government has made major achievement is in the area of road construction.
At the last count, not less than 80 road projects have been awarded in parts of the State. Many have been completed and commissioned while steady progress is being made in many others. Aba the commercial nerve centre of the State is certainly the better. Roads which were hitherto abandoned have received proper attention. Worthy of mention in this regard include Faulks Road being handled by SETRACO, work has also commenced on the strategic Port Harcourt Road not to mention the Ukaegbu, Ehere, umuola and many others.
Aba Road, Umuahia, Nbawsi Road, Umunkpeyi-Amaiyi Road, Umuaro-Umuanunu-Ekwereazu –Akwa Ibom Road, Umuobiakwa-Owo-Onicha Ngwa Road, Osusu Amaukwa model school, Ukaegbu road, Ehere road, Umuola and Ururuka road projects.Osusu road, junction of Faulks road, Ugwunagbo Road, Ifeobara flood control.
Among over 40 ongoing projects include Construction of Ozuabam-Ndi Okereke-Arochukwu Road, Arochukwu, construction of Ebem Layout Road, construction of first ever flyover bridge at Osisioma,etc. Apart from the road projects, another project which is very important to the State, is the Nsulu Poultry cluster. When completed, it is expected that it will create job opportunities for the teeming unemployed youths in the State. The idea behind the project is to provide a central facility where all those interested in poultry business will come and live.
Government will be responsible for the facilities and at the end of the day the proceeds from the business will be shared between the investors and the State.
Gov. Ikpeazu’s work is already speaking for him in 2019. Grassroots Publishers are happy with what he has been able to achieve since he assumed office.‘Our surprise is that Abia is one of the states that receive the least revenue but the number of projects we have seen in Abia is overwhelming which means that the Governor is working and he has performed very well.’He is a silent achiever. He has achieved so much for his people and delivered the desired goals and projects”, Dr Ikpeazu has surprised all with the level of work done at all nooks and crannies of the State. We commend him for achieving a lot and working silently despite distractions. We are impressed with the quality of the projects, asserting that the Governor is holistic in his governance. “Governance is not about making noise but leaving legacies”, we congratulated Dr Ikpeazu for doing a good job for Abians.
Evaluating the achievements of Governor Okezie Ikpeazu’s administration recorded since his assumption of office, one striking thing downed on me – Governor Ikpeazu has a larger part of his achievements made on ‘intangibles’.
One may ask, what are these intangibles? Intangibles are assets that don’t have a physical presence but are critical in ensuring and maintaining human capital development at all cadre, helps in building a competitive edge in economy growth of a State or nation.
We have seen massive ongoing road construction, we have seen immense efforts been invested in promotion and marketing of our indigenous products. We are also witnessing gradual but sure redress on the issue of salary payment, Osisioma interchange and other bridges are on speedy lane of construction. But all these put together does not equate Governor Okezie Ikpeazu’s ‘intangible’ achievements, which points to the glaring fact that he is, indeed, ‘the servant leader’.
Robert K. Greenleaf, describes ‘The Servant Leader’ “as an ideal leadership form to which untold numbers of people and organizations aspire. According to him, servant-leadership seeks to involve others in decision making, is strongly based in ethical and caring behavior, and it enhances the personal growth of workers while improving the caring and quality of organizational life. The servant leader asks the questions: “do those served grow as persons: do they, while being served, become healthier, wiser, freer, more autonomous, more likely themselves to become servants? And, what is the effect on the less privileged in society; will they benefit, or, at least, not be further deprived?”
The GEEP loan programme of the present administration which in collaboration with the Bank of Industry gave out seed funds to about 30,000 Abians has put the Governor of Abia State, Dr Okezie Ikpeazu on the drivers’ seat of a servant leader as defined above. That is one of the intangibles of the Okezie Ikpeazu administration. There are others of such intangibles which positively impact on the lives of the people of the State. The general outcome will be reduction in criminal activities among youths, youth restiveness and empowerment of the youths.
It should be recalled that previously in the state, youths of different ilk were empowered with the distribution of barrows, motorcycles and other empowerment which were designed to reduce unemployment in the State among other societal ills. As much as those were commendable, they didn’t address the intellectual dimension of such empowerment programmes which will adequately cater for unemployed graduates. Turning graduates to commercial drivers will undermine the potentials of some of these graduates who spent many years in the university to cater for the intellectual needs of the society.
Accordingly, on assumption of office, the State Governor decided to cater for the needs of these category of Abians hence the policy initiatives which will cater Abians across the broad spectrum of the State. That is what all these programmes and policy initiatives where designed to take care of. Some of these policies are stated hereunder:
– Inspected 90 Cooperative Societies business activities and operations in line with the cooperative law.
– Trained 3000 cooperative societies in the three Senatorial zones in collaboration with the CBN and stakeholders on Cooperative governance and credit opportunities. The training for the three senatorial zones was carried out on 5th of October 2016, 11th of October 2016 and 18th of October, 2016.
– Arbitration of cases of 5 cooperative societies to logical conclusions.
– Collaborated with United States Agency for International Development (USAID) to train 2000 Cooperators in cocoa farming on the 17th of March, 2017 at Eastern Comfort Hotel, Umuahia.
– 20 women drawn from the 3 Senatorial Zones were trained in Enugu under Women in Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises.
– On-going Reactivation of Women Development Centre (WDCs) in three LGAs, each in the three senatorial zones of the State in collaboration with National Centre for Women Development, Abuja.
The affiliation with the Australian NGO, Precious Kids Education Empowerment (PKEE), which has given birth to the training of 800 teachers on class room management, teacher student relationship, first aid management, security alert, professionalism in teaching and leadership management from May 2016 till date. It is another pointer to the truth that Dr. Okezie Ikpeazu has always shown burning interest and passion for human capacity building. No one can dispute the fact this initiative has brought tremendous positive result in Abia educational sector. By this single partnership, Abia State Government and PKEE took practical steps to not only train the teachers in the primary sector but also make some infrastructural rehabilitation.
Furthermore, in the area of education and in line with the Abia State blue print and vision of the State Governor, Dr. Okezie Ikpeazu bearing in mind the SDG 4 –Education 2030 Agenda which is to “Ensure inclusive and equitable Education and promote life-long learning opportunities for all”; the Ministry of Education within the past two years, set SDG Agenda as her goal and policy thrust and has successfully built a Functional, Focused, Responsive and Inclusive education System that promote life-long learning opportunities for all. Consequently, the Ministry implemented the entrepreneurship and trade subjects curriculum in both Public and private Schools compulsorily as well as identified and trained technical and vocational subjects instructors in the State. The Ministry also trained and retrained technical and vocational teachers in the State school system and adopted a comprehensive Educational Policy for all schools – inclusive learning opportunities for both male and female students to acquire technical and vocational skills in school even as it converted some secondary schools to technical and vocational colleges as to meet the set target. These are the intangibles of this administration.
The E4E is another plank through which unemployment is attacked in the State. The graduands are educated but in the same breadth trained to be professionals and entrepreneurs. This singular policy has at the heart of its implementation the elimination of unemployment among the youths as well as make them capable employers. In pursuance of this objective, about 36,000 unemployed youths were identified in the State. This programme is packaged to give skills to the youths.
Already the first set of trainees are at the E-library undergoing training.In furtherance of the intangibles of the Dr. Okezie Ikpeazu administration, the Office of Wife of Governor trained over
500 youths across the State under its Skill Acquisition Programme. The said programme has gone to Obingwa, Ukwa Axis, and it is currently ongoing in Bende LGA. After the trainings, startup kits and seed funds are issued out to the
trainees by the Wife of Governor.
The Ministry of Industry, Science and Technology ensured that the State Government entered into a 1 billion Naira funding arrangement for MSMEs. Consequently the Bank of Industry has within a short time granted various supports and funding to MSMEs in the State to generate the immediate reflation of the State economy through the real sector.
Accordingly, the State Government artisans from the State have demonstrated the capacity to produce better quality
conference bags in Aba over the ones they import from China which has led to placement of orders by the ICPC for 2000 bags after samples were verified. Presently, they are the sole producers of all ICPC conference Bags for their events in all 36 States even as all the orders are shared amongst registered artisans with the ministry.
Additionally, the Abia Business community currently leverage on the African Growth Opportunity Act (AGOA) to position the State’s products for export to America. About 20 SMEs were mobilized to exhibit Made-in-Abia products in New York recently. Proceeds from these exhibitions do not get into the State Government coffers but Government is mindful of the impact it will have on the State if the youths are employed, engaged in profitable ventures which will dovetail to growth in the real sector of the economy through human capacity building.
Other capacity building initiatives of the State Government which are intangibles of the present administration in the
State are the establishment of the South East Entrepreneurship Development Centre (SEEDC) in Umuahia for the training of new and existing entrepreneurs from the five (5) South Eastern States of Abia, Anambra, Ebonyi, Enugu, and Imo.
Presently, the Centre has graduated five (5) batches of average of 500 in each batches of its participant- Entrepreneurs and the sum of N100m released to the technical advisory committee for start-up funds for the graduates of the South East Entrepreneurship Development Centre (SEEDC). Process of disbursement is on-going and in some cases completed.
The State hosted the maiden edition of the Nation Wide Micro, Small and Medium Enterprise Clinic in Aba, Abia State, a programme coordinated by the office of the Vice President of Nigeria to offer MSMEs the opportunity to interact with stakeholders and development partners on issues confronting them and to showcase the products and ingenuity of Abia Entrepreneurs to the purview of the public. The impact has increased patronage of their products and services. The successful outcome of all these is that the participating banks have opened a wide window of opportunities to finance Abia Entrepreneurs. Currently about 1500 entrepreneurs have accessed this fund. These are the intangibles which people don’t see on the streets yet they impact heavily on the wellbeing of the people as they affect individual families with favourable outcome. Government also ensured the resuscitation of the N30m fund for Small Scale Industries (FUSSI) Micro Credit Revolving Loan to make it operational so as to meet the expansion and working capital needs of the existing MSMEs in Abia State. These constitute part of the intangibles.
Governor Ikpeazu has, in just three years and above, earned himself a ticket for a second term. Grassroots Newspaper Publishers Network of Nigeria has announced Governor Ikpeazu as their nominee for “Grassroots Governor of the year 2018”.
Politics aside, Ikpeazu, in less than four years, has surpassed previous records.He has unarguably changed the Abia
narrative.One good term,as they say,deserves another! Let’s support the Governor at work!
Compt. Kayode A. Olusemire CAC, Federal Operation Unit (FOU) Zone ‘C’, Owerri
[dropcap]T[/dropcap]he Nigeria Customs Service, Federal Operation Unit (FOU) Zone ‘C’ Owerri Command has recorded seizures worth of N591 Million.
The Area Comptroller of the Zone ‘C’ Mr. Kayode A. Olusemire made this known to newsmen while briefing journalists at the scene of the seized items in the Zone; where he said that the command has intercepted 22 cars, including eight bullet proof exotic cars and 1901 bags of foreign rice with the estimated cost of Duty Paid Value (DPV) put at N591 million. According to him, six suspects have been arrested in connection with the seized goods and they are helping them on their investigations and at the end of their interrogation, those who have cases to answer would be charged to court.
Mr. Olusemeri wondered why some Nigerians, who have the money to purchase these vehicles, could not provide money to pay the Duty Paid Value to the Federal Government.
He warned that the Nigerian Customs Service would not rest on its oars to ensure total eradication of this ugly trend of economic saboteur being performed by unpatriotic Nigerians.
While advising foreign rice importers to take advantage of loans being provided by the Federal Government for those cultivating rice in the country than importing foreign rice into the country, he also urged genuine importers to acquaint themselves with import customs advice and be adequately informed of what constitutes import prohibitions, noting that‘Ignorance has no place in law’.
Olumisere explained that management of customs is solely interested in trade facilitation, but equally constrained by law to intercept offensive importations and stop smugglers from ruining our economy and national growth. He said, “In the past four months, we have brought you here to showcase seizures made by our officers. We are here again but not so much to showcase seizures but to appeal to Nigerians to strive to do the right thing. Why is it that every time, we have people travel abroad to buy exotic cars, cars that are worth millions of naira, and they prefer not to pay duty on them? And we are also having other importations that have potential security risk. “Here we have bullet proof Land Cruiser, no document, smuggled into the country with DPV of N95million. This is another one here, Range Rover with DPV of N81million, these are vehicles that are controlled, they are supposed to obtain End-User-Certificate to make it possible to trace, so that they do not fall into evil hands. “This government has gone extra mile to encourage the production of local rice, farmers are been given loans, yet some people prefer to sabotage the economy by smuggling in imported rice, rice that may have stayed so long in the silos, rice that is certainly less nutritious than our local brands in Ebonyi, Kebbi and other states”, adding: “Importers should please get necessary information on cars they wish to buy from the Customs website. They can also visit any customs formation nationwide, where you can get any information on import from Customs Help Desks.”
[dropcap]T[/dropcap]he N-Power, one of the various federal government’s social intervention programmes focused on job creation and employment, remained the most popular initiative by the current administration.
According to the report on the national awareness levels of social investment programme, which was conducted by the research arm of the Presidential Delivery Unit (PDU), under the Office of the Vice President, N-Power awareness among Nigerians was recorded at 81.3 per cent, the highest among other social intervention schemes.
The study further noted that while the national awareness of the Government Enterprise and Empowerment Programme (GEEP) and the National Home Grown School Feeding Programme stood at 66.3 per cent and 67.4 per cent respectively, the Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) programme recorded 53.1 per cent.
Head of the PDU, Mr. Tunde Osibamowo said: “What we find most interesting, apart from the relatively high level of awareness of the Social Investment Programmes, is that respondents almost universally – that is, about nine out of 10 Nigerians, believe that the programmes are very good initiatives, even when asked if they would prefer the government to use the money for other programmes.”
The report came amid criticisms from some sections that the various social intervention programmes were largely unpopular and of no impact.
But, Osibamowo, in a statement issued by Communications Advisor, Presidential Delivery Unit, Temitayo Dada, argued that the outcome of the survey indicated that: “Nigerians as a people support the government’s provision of direct help to the poor, vulnerable and elderly.”
“Surprisingly, the results show that the programmes are most popular in the northern states,especially in the North-West, with the highest average awareness of 73.8 per cent,” the report stated.
It however, pointed out that the initiatives are least popular in the South-South and South-East, where average awareness stood at 63.8 per cent and 62.1 per cent respectively.
The report observed that in each of the six geo-political zones, average collective awareness of all N-SIPs was over 60 per cent while awareness at the zonal level indicated that collective support of the programmes was strongest in the North-West and North-Central at 95.9 per cent and 92.4 per cent respectively.
“In the other zones, average support ranges from 88.8 per cent to 90.8 per cent. The collective PDU survey findings will provide policy makers and programme implementers with detailed data to support critical decision-making and programme impact assessments. More importantly, these results will stimulate nation-wide discourse on the government’s role in socio-economic development in Africa’s most populous nation,” the statement added.
Essentially, the PDU was established to drive and support the achievement of priority goals of the federal government.
With current focus on the Social Investment Programmes (N-SIPs), the PDU supports delivery by tracking results, facilitating problem solving and reporting. In addition, a key objective of the PDU is ‘hearing the voice of the beneficiary.
[dropcap]S[/dropcap]ince the emergence of Peter Gregory Obi, former Governor of Anambra State, as Atiku Abubakar’s running mate, last October, the name of the Deputy Senate President, Sen. Ike Ekweremadu has been dragged around.
The author, Law Mefor
What is being promoted even without facts is that Ekweremadu is not happy he was not the preferred choice. Now, the campaign of calumny has grown to reach that Ekweremadu for his angst does not want to play any role in the Atiku/Obi campaign and wouldn’t care if they succeed or fail.
Some of these undertakers have dismissed Ekweremadu’s sense of entitlement, querying what he has achieved as a senator representing a senatorial district in the South East to be deserving of even being consulted by the Party, which they say, has done so much for him with little or no reciprocation.
Oh Really?
Come to think of it, in Social Psychology, there is what is called Displaced Aggression. It compares fairly well with an Igbo adage, which goes thus: the chicken leaves the knife, which killed it to make face to the cooking pot.
Displaced aggression can occur when someone cannot aggress towards the source of incitement or provocation, so instead takes it out on something posing lesser and behaves aggressively towards another individual that had nothing to do with the initial conflict. This is the fate of Ekweremadu, it seems.
Yes, there is a narrative setting up Sen. Ike Ekweremadu for slaughter.
He is being heckled into a devil’s alternatives position in the Atiku/Obi dawdling (some with good reasons say floundering) campaign – whichever option he takes he would have to take the blame if the ticket fails to deliver.
So, Ekweremadu has been an underperforming opportunist who has not represented Enugu West nay South East well?
It does appear that in politics in Nigeria, the big idea remains to run whoever has anything to offer out of the way.
Or, is it that some may be feeling eclipsed by the man’s towering profile and should not be left to be the only cock crowing in the yard? Or, is pull-him-down the Igbo way of doing politics?
The documentation of the achievements of Ekweremadu as a senator along with the raving testimonies of communities he brought into light from total darkness is in the public domain.
A ranking honourable member from Enugu West told me that about a decade ago; most of the communities in the senatorial district were without light and access roads.
But today, 70% of these communities now have light and access roads among other crucial social amenities, courtesy of Ekweremadu. Performance certainly must have another definition for his hecklers.
With over 2000 projects and programmes and thousands of scholarships to postgraduate to his credit, Ekweremadu probably is the all-time performing senator despite the claim of those who, catching at anything, would want Ndigbo and Nigerians to believe that the senator has not done anything to deserve any honourable mention.
Enugu-Onitsha and Enugu-Port Harcourt Expressways as well as 2nd Niger Bridge are the Federal Government projects in South East often called out by such persons to justify their vilification of Ekweremadu.
Their argument has been that Ekweremadu as Deputy Senate President for so long ought to have influenced their timely completion.
Such people need to be reminded that Sen. Ike Ekweremadu is a legislator (not President or Governor) and the role of the legislature is to ensure that new and ongoing projects receive adequate funds during budgeting.
And a cursory check at past Nigeria budgets would show these 3 critical projects have received billions of naira in appropriation in the last one decade.
However, budgetary allocation is one thing and actual releases and cash backing is quite another. Budget implementation is essentially an executive responsibility.
During oversights performed by committees of both Houses of the National Assembly, the much that can be achieved by the legislature is ensuring that the released funds are ploughed into the stipulated projects accordingly.
Let it be known by such detractors that the legislature cannot force the executive arm to release funds, and since 1999 the nation returned to democracy, capital expenditure has been hardly implemented up to 50%.
Now, fairly understanding the workings of government and the roles of legislators in budget formulating, passing, funding, and completion of projects, one can easily see that such narratives being promoted against Ekweremadu and other South East law makers have only glossed over certain facts, thus showing such ill-conceived positions as instigated by grievances over personal losses rather than common good.
They could blame Ekweremadu and other South East law makers only if these strategic FG projects in the South East were not captured and well provided for in the budgets over the years. Apart from budgeting process, a legislator can only lobby and lobby.
And I am aware Ekweremadu particularly has done that greatly and several federal projects in the South East came through the efforts of a few like him.
It is equally to the credit of Ekweremadu’s sagacious leadership that the South East now boasts of an international airport.
It is on record that he led the delegation of the South East Senators to request the long-awaited and politicised Enugu International Airport from the late President Umaru Yar’Adua in November 2007.
Yar’Adua instantly directed the former Minister of Transport, Diezani Allison-Madueke, to issue a statement designating the Akanu Ibiam Airport an international aviation facility.
How many know that since the FG said it had no funds to immediately capture the upgrade of the facility in the 2008 budget, Ekweremadu mobilised the Enugu State Caucus of the National Assembly to channel all the funds for their constituency projects to the airport project?
Yar’Adua, who was touched by this sheer selflessness and determination, then directed that the funds they so consolidated be augmented to get the project into the 2008 budget.
Even when contract for the airport upgrade was finally awarded, former Minister of Aviation, Babatunde Omotoba, told a rather baffled South East, while on the inspection of the upgrade project in 2009, that he was not aware Enugu had been designated an international airport.
Thus, it was after lobbies that led to the appointment of Mrs. Fidelia Njeze and subsequently Senator Stella Oduah (and later Osita Chidoka) as Ministers of Aviation following the emergence of former President Goodluck Jonathan that real progress was made.
It was Njeze’s first assignment in collaboration with Ekweremadu that ensured the gazetting of the Enugu Airport by the FG as an international air facility.
Appointments of Senators Hope Uzodinma and Ayogu Eze as Senate Committee Chairmen on Aviation and Works respectively, also brought legislative pressure to bear and were no coincidences with Ekweremadu as Vice Chairman of Selection Committee of the Senate.
It is difficult to find a legislator, who has achieved so much even as a Senate President. Such other projects to his credit include the several federal roads connecting Enugu State and Ebonyi State.
The truth is that the reason Jonathan could not construct the East-West Road after six years; the reason Obasanjo could not construct Lagos-Ibadan Expressway in eight years; and the reason Abuja-Minna Road is in bad shape despite producing Generals Ibrahim Babangida and Abdulsalami Abubakar is the same reason Enugu-Port Harcourt Expressway, Enugu-Onitsha Expressway, and other signature projects were not done – executive priority.
Those fighting the coming of Nigeria President of Igbo extraction should please note.
Ekweremadu snatched the position of Deputy Senate President from the APC. Since then, the ruling Party has fought tooth and nail to oust him along with Senate President, Bukola Saraki.
The Police, the EFCC and the Judiciary have been deployed to hounding Ekweremadu. On the floor of the Senate, the ruling Party offered Ekweremadu the respite of joining the APC as a pre-condition for truce and peace.
For his commitment to the survival and repositioning of the PDP, he refused taking the cheap route many like Godswill Akpabio gladly took to peace.
It is on record that the IG’s Special Squad invaded his official guest house in search of nonexistent stockpile of arms.
Police also held him hostage at his official residence on the day APC wanted to forcefully remove him and Saraki as well as prevent the defection of APC Senators to PDP.
Even the Presidential Panel headed by Obono-Obla, a man with questionable WAEC certificate, was also unleashed on Ekweremadu for refusing to disobey the Constitution and kowtow to that body unknown to law.
The FG arraigned him and Saraki in 2015 over trumped forgery of Senate Standing Rules, a crime they weren’t even in a position to commit.
It didn’t also matter that the police investigation report filed as Proof of Evidence didn’t mention Ekweremadu or Saraki or that the report was a subject of litigation.
FG eventually withdrew the lawsuit since it had no iota of truth against both men.
Yet, Ekweremadu refused to submit to APC or betraying his party, the PDP, the same party, which now postures as if he has no stake in it.
Otherwise, why would the PDP constitute the Campaign Council the first time without including Ekweremadu, and rejigging it later grudgingly to include him without any role?
Those who claim Sen. Ike Ekweremadu has not been playing any visible role in the Atiku/Obi campaign should tell Nigerians in what capacity he should be doing so.
Are they saying Ekweremadu should just throw himself at the campaign?
If truth be told; the PDP has simply decided to take its chance with the returnee members who once deserted the Party and left it carcass and President Goodluck Jonathan stranded.
Who does not know where the rain started beating him will never know where he took shelter.
There wouldn’t have been any Party to return to were it not somebody like Sen. Ike Ekweremadu. Let him be!
[dropcap]I[/dropcap]t was the sixth day of the new year and the Kwara State chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) was calm and all smiles as he ushered party officials into and out of his office in his expansive home in the old GRA, Ilorin.
Could Mr Shittu be unaware of the higher-than-usual excitement in the state over the coming general elections, driven by the resurgence of the opposition in the state? At street junctions and on almost every wall in Ilorin, even around Mr Shittu’s house, bright billboards and posters screamed the message: Oto Ge! meaning “Enough is Enough” in Yoruba.
It is the battle cry of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and it is echoing even in the most unexpected places in Ilorin and other parts of Kwara. It refers to the long dominance of the politics of the 51-year-old state by the Saraki family.
“Place a table by the roadside anywhere in Ilorin, shout Oto Ge! and see the reaction of people,” Iyiola Oyedepo told Grssroots Publishers.
Mr Oyedepo was the state chairman of the PDP until last July when he fled to the APC to avoid sharing the same camp with Bukola Saraki, the Senate president.
Mr Saraki, the current “leader” of the Saraki political family, had that month made a grand return to the PDP from the APC, followed by the state governor, Abdulfatah Ahmed, and all the elected office holders from the state.
When Mr Saraki moved from the PDP in a similar fashion in 2014, he flipped the state to the APC, which went on to win every election there in 2015. But Mr Oyedepo said the tide has turned.
“The people are resolute that enough is enough and you can feel it in the air everywhere in Kwara,” he said.
Ilorin on knife’s edge
Two recent events in the state give an indication of a changing political canvass.
Usually on Christmas Day, the predominantly Muslim indigenes gathered under their umbrella, Ilorin Emirate Descendants Progressive Union at the palace of their revered emir. At the gathering, they would raise fund for the development of the emirate and review public issues that affect the people within and outside Kwara. It was a key event in the socio-political calendar of the people and everyone turned up gaily dressed. In 2017, the Senate President as the chief donor announced a donation of N10 million.
At the event, however, last December, the unusual happened. As Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq, the APC governorship candidate, was called to the podium, a band of rednecks sprang to their feet chanting “Sai Bukky,” the slogan of supporters of the Senate President in the state. They were immediately countered with chants of “Oto Ge!”
The ensuing commotion overwhelmed the organisers who called an end to the event after the emir, Sulu-Gambari, hurried out of the scene in embarrassment. The next day, the president of the IEDPU announced his resignation.
The PDP supporters accused the Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, of orchestrating the tumult at the event, alleging it was the reason he had the NTA broadcast the event live.
Mr Mohammed, an indigene of Oro about 100 kilometres away in the southern senatorial district of the state, denied the allegation. He said he had no foreknowledge of the event and could not have arranged its coverage by national television. Still, it was significant that a group would stand toe to toe against Mr Saraki’s supporters at such a grand event in the very heart of Ilorin, his hometown.
Political Fortress
The Sarakis control the politics of Kwara from their political fortress in Ilorin and buttress their hold by using it for negotiation at the federal level. This means that they not only control the resources of the state, but also those accruing from Abuja, including political and public service appointments.
The emirate, covering the entirety of Kwara Central Senatorial District and a small part of Kwara North, has about 55 per cent of the voting population of the state.
Because the Sarakis have always enjoyed solid support in Ilorin, other parts of the state consider it politically suicidal to stand against them in the Nigerian winner takes all politics where 50.01 percent is equal to 100 percent. Thus, any support the Sarakis draw from outside their home fortress has been based on the pragmatism of the giver. A substantial erosion of the support in Ilorin is thus nunc dimitis to the hegemony.
But in the last eight years, Mr Saraki has faced a rising opposition in Ilorin, indicated especially by the desertion of key allies. Some of these include Gani Cook-Olododo, Yinka Aluko and Moshood Mustapha who served him either as chief of staff, commissioner or special adviser when he was governor and were commanders of the foot soldiers at elections.
Abdulraheem Oba, a professor and former vice chancellor of the University of Ilorin, is also an influential indigene of Ilorin who has deserted the Saraki camp. Other young Turks never beholden to the Sarakis are also emerging and marking out turfs across the emirate. The fact is that Mr Saraki has not managed to win the adulation his father enjoyed among the Ilorin people.
In other parts of Kwara too, many old allies have jumped ship. Many of these are in Kwara South, but there are prominent cases like Ibrahim Bio, a former member of the House of Representatives, speaker of the State House of Assembly and minister; and Ahmed Ahmed, a former senator from Kwara North.
One reason that he Sarakis have survived all seasons is because they are adept at forecasting the political weather of Nigeria. In 2003, their timely movement into the PDP helped them in kicking out Governor Lawal of the then ANPP, an indigene of Ilorin who had a strong base there. They enjoyed that advantage of federal might until 2015 when they took a ride on the Buhari train.
But now that he is shorn of federal might and has no big sentiment to cling to, Mr Saraki for the first time has to run solely on his own steam. Mr Oyedepo said that steam will not take him far.
“We long realized that you no longer need the Sarakis to win an election in Kwara. But each time I said this to our leaders in our former party (the PDP) in Abuja, they looked at me as if I were some clown,” he said.
The opposition are scenting blood especially after their victory at last year’s by-election in Kwara South senatorial district.
Funke Adedoyin, a member of the House of Representatives, died shortly after following Mr Saraki from APC to PDP. In the by-election at the Irepodun/Isin/Ekiti/Oke-Ero Federal Constituency in Kwara South to fill her seat, the candidate of the APC was returned as the winner. It was the first time that Mr Saraki would lead a party to defeat in Kwara. His political family had made a clean sweep of every general election in the state since 1999, under three different parties. And the winning streak extended much further back.
Of the six governors the state has elected since 1979, only one was not handpicked by a Saraki. Even in that odd case in 1983, Cornelius Adebayo of the defunct Unity Party of Nigeria got a helping hand from Olusola Saraki to breast the tape.
That time, the father of the current Senate President was the Senate Leader. He had fallen out with Adamu Attah, the first elected governor of the state who he installed in 1979. When their ruling National Party of Nigeria (NPN) sided with the governor and renominated him, Mr Saraki vowed to unhorse him anyway.
He asked a protégé to run on the ticket of the Nigerian People’s Party but soon realised that it would take the combined force of the opposition in the state to stop the federal might of the NPN from returning Mr Attah. He then asked his supporters to vote Mr Adebayo.
The Second Republic quickly ended with the military coup of December 1983. But the 13 years military interregnum that followed did not weaken the hold of Mr Saraki on Kwara politics. In the short-lived Third Republic, he installed Shaaba Lafiagi, now a senator, as governor. When the Fourth Republic arrived in 1999, he again handpicked Mohammed Lawal, a former Navy admiral, as governor on the platform of the now defunct All Peoples Party.
After his incubus of falling out with his anointed king made a reappearance, Mr Saraki decided to put himself up for governor but was advised by his new suitors in the PDP to instead field his then 40-year-old son, Bukola, a medical doctor who had run the family’s now defunct Societe Generale Bank.
The younger Saraki would become the first governor to be reelected in the state. But by the end of his second term in 2011, he too was at odds with his father. This time, it was over the father’s insistence on his daughter, Gbemisola, succeeding his son as governor.
The face-off with his son ended the political career of the patriarch with a comprehensive defeat in the 2011 elections. He had taken Gbemisola to the fringe National Congress Party of Nigeria. She not only returned a distant third in the governorship election, none of the candidates Mr Saraki put up for other seats across the state fared better.
Unlike his father, Bukola has managed to retain the loyalty of the governor he installed, Abdulfatah Ahmed, through two terms. However, the new kingmaker has developed a dangerous passion of his own – fighting his friends at the federal level where he became a star player.
After leading a rebellion in the then ruling PDP in 2014 as a first time senator, he defected to the newly formed APC. Last July, he returned to the PDP as Senate President after three years of cat and mouse game in the party he helped push to power. Again, the governor, all federal lawmakers from Kwara and all but one of the 24 members of the State House of Assembly were in his tow.
However, the current buzz even in Ilorin and the result of the by-election in Kwara South suggest Mr Saraki has on his hands a tougher battle than in 2015 to keep Kwara under the umbrella of the party he has returned to.
But Mr Shittu urged against attaching too much significance to the outcome of the by-election.
“One, that election was not democratic enough because the true result of the election was not allowed to come out,” he said. “There was rigging in that election where APC used the force of incumbency to change electoral figures and to thumbprint at collation centres. … PDP actually won that election.”
But to APC supporters in the state, the by-election result is credible and is a harbinger of what will come at the general elections.
“People have realised that development cannot come to the state until it is freed from dynastic rule,” Mr Oyedepo said. “Kwarans now want to elect their leaders based on merit, not by attachment to a godfather.”
According to the opposition and other critics, the development of the state has been arrested under the Sarakis’ suzerainty, especially in the last 16 years when the Senate President served two terms as governor and handed over to his protégé, Mr Ahmed, who is completing his own second term next May. They cite alleged rampant corruption and privatization of state resources, the poor network of roads in the state, collapse of public water works, poor and irregular salaries of teachers as well as state and local government workers, neglect of pensioners and the poor states of the health and education sectors in the state.
But Mr Saraki’s supporters say the critics are unfair, citing to his credit the reform of the revenue system of the state and projects such as the Shonga Commercial Farm under which Mr Saraki in 2004 brought in 13 White Zimbabwean farmers to establish large farms in the state, Kwara State University, Kwara College of Aviation, Kwara Diagnostic Centre, Kwara Vocational Centre (established in Ajasse-Ipo by the succeeding administration of Governor Ahmed), and the attraction into the state of big businesses such as Shoprite and the Dangote Flour Mill.
According to the unflappable Mr Shittu, the PDP is so proud of the record of the Saraki leadership of Kwara that it built its message to the voters on it.
“Our central message is continuity – we want the development of the state to continue uninterrupted, in line with the continuity we have run since the Bukola Saraki governorship,” he said.
Flying that flag of continuity as the PDP governorship candidate is Razak Atunwa, a Britain-trained lawyer who since returning to Kwara in 2005 has held several cabinet positions under Mr Saraki, served as Speaker of the State House of Assembly from 2011 to 2015 and is currently a member of the House of Representatives.
“Our chances are very bright; in fact, we intend to win all the elections in the state – the presidential, governorship, all the National Assembly and State House of Assembly seats. Everything,” Mr Shittu said.
Game of Subterfuge
Mr Shittu, understandably, would not disclose how his party plans to neutralise the ”federal might” and the “Oto Ge!” storm behind the sail of the APC in the state. But it is clear from other things playing out that both protagonists and antagonists consider all, including subterfuge, to be fair in war.
The APC was firmly under the control of Mr Saraki until he moved out of the party last year. He had installed a long time follower from Ilorin, Ishola Balogun-Fulani, as the state chairman and picked all the members of the state executive committee. In July, Mr Balogun-Fulani told journalists at a press conference in Ilorin that the leaders and members of the APC in the state wanted Mr Saraki to take them into another party, in protest over his alleged maltreatment by the President Buhari administration and the national leadership of the APC.
Ostensibly heeding his followers’ call, Mr Saraki a few days later moved back into the PDP. However, Mr Balogun-Fulani and members of his exco curiously decided to stay put in the APC and retain their positions. The national secretariat of the party swiftly expelled Mr Balogun-Fulani and replaced the state exco with a caretaker committee before announcing a new exco headed by Bashir Bolarinwa. Mr Balogun-Fulani reacted by heading to court.
On December 19, Justice T.S Umar of the Kwara State High Court in Ilorin delivered judgment on Mr Balogun-Fulani’s application and granted all the reliefs sought by the claimants.
One of the 13 reliefs Mr Umar granted states: “A declaration be and it is hereby made that the claimants as the duly elected and duly constituted members of the Kwara State Committee of the 3rd defendant (The APC) in Kwara State are entitled to exercise all the powers and functions specified for members of the State Executive Committee of the 3rd defendant in the Constitution, Guidelines and Regulations of the 3rddefendant pertaining to the conduct of primary elections or other processes for the nomination of candidates to occupy party posts or contest elections for the posts of Local Government Council Chairman and Councillors, State House of Assembly, House of Representatives, Senate, Governors and President on the platform of the 3rd defendant from Kwara State during the four (4) years tenure of the claimants as a members (sic) of the Kwara State Executive Committee commencing from 6th day of June, 2018.”
By this declaration of the court, the nominees of the Balogun-Fulani exco, will be on the ballot as candidates of the APC for the general elections, including Abdulwahab Omotose, a former Majority Leader of the State House of Assembly, as the governorship candidate.
Mr Omotose was one of the representatives from Kwara at the formal introduction in Abuja of the Buba Galadima-led Reformed APC (R-APC) formed by those who would the following month in July leave the APC for the PDP. He was, in fact, announced at that event as the interim National Treasurer of the R-APC.
Did Mr Balogun-Fulani have a Damascus road conversion that led to his abrupt decision to stay put in the APC after encouraging those who took him there to leave?
“It is true that I called on him to go to another party. But specifically, I did not mention which party. When they defected to PDP, it did not go down well with me and my executives. So, I decided to stay with APC. And I wish to refer you to other people who had done same thing like myself, including Senator Shehu Sani,” Mr Balogun-Fulani explained the curious development.
The APC described Mr Balogun-Fulani’s action and the court’s judgment he obtained as “the hand of Esau but the voice of Jacob.”
According to Mr Oyedepo, “Ishola Balogun-Fulani is a tool in the hand of Saraki to disrupt the process of APC in Kwara State. He is a lackey always at Saraki’s becks and calls. It is clear to everyone that he was left behind to disturb us and cause confusion.
“Saraki wants to have the two major parties in the state in his pocket in Kwara. But fortunately, the National Working Committee of the APC was smarter by dissolving the Balogun-Fulani Exco on July 39, 2018. He was also expelled from the party.
“A lot has taken place after his expulsion. Another registration of members was done and it was the new register that was used for the congresses. People like us who moved in from the PDP were not in the register with Balogun-Fulani.
“We did a direct primary to elect our candidates. The electoral officers came from Abuja to conduct the primaries. It was not a delegates-based election where the party leaders would have elected the candidates, party members across the state elected the candidates.”
Mr Oyedepo, who is a lawyer, said the APC has appealed and also asked the Court of Appeal to arrest the court judgment. “By and large, we are confident that Balogun-Fulani and those who sent him on errand are wasting their time.”
But Mr Shittu of the PDP saw nothing strange in Mr Balogun-Fulani’s flip-flop.
“In politics, 24 hours is a long time. Somebody can take a decision today and change it tomorrow. It is not strange. May be as a Fulani man, he wants to stay with his fellow Fulani, Buhari (President Muhammadu, who is the APC presidential candidate).”
However, he agreed that the development and the court judgment are playing out in favour of his party.
“As of today, you are aware that the faction of Lai Mohammed APC led by Bolarinwa has no candidates to field for the elections from the court judgment,” he said to underscore his optimism over his party’s chances in the general elections. “It is the faction of Balogun-Fulani that has candidates to field, and that is another thing. They are already in disarray now. They will end up like Rivers and Zamfara states ended up. They will have no candidates to field. All these things are working in our favour.”
Mr Saraki is a political strategist and dogged fighter. He demonstrated this on the national stage when he outwitted the APC leadership to seize the Senate presidency, the source of his woes in the party. Since the defeat at the Kwara South by-election, he has taken steps to improve his fortunes in the area. The governor, Mr Ahmed, sacrificed his senatorial ticket so that the incumbent, Rafiu Ibrahim, can seek reelection. Mr Ibrahim is from Ojoku in Oyun Local Government and can draw votes away from Lola Ashiru, an indigene of Offa who is running on the ticket of the APC.
Due to a series of developments climaxed by the bank robbery last year, Offa is virtually a no-go for Mr Saraki and his party. But with votes from Oyun and if Mr Ahmed can help draw votes from his Ifelodun Local Government Area, the PDP may not need to write off its chances in Kwara South.
The state government has also upgraded many chiefs in the area, apparently to historically temper hostility in the area.
What is clear is that the next two months will be very interesting in this multi-ethnic and multi-religious state of about 3 million people that has always punched above its weight in the politics of Nigeria.
[dropcap]D[/dropcap]elta state Head of Service, Reginald Bayoko, has urged civil servants in the state to key more into the SMART Agenda of the Okowa administration to facilitate the realisation of the set goals of government.
Bayoko made the call while going round the offices in the office complex of the Head of Service in Asaba to interact with the staff and felicitate with them for making it into the new year.
The Head of Service said the contributions of civil servants were necessary for the political class to succeed, stressing that governance was not the responsibility of politicians alone.
He noted that Governor Ifeanyi Okowa had so far done well in the area of staff welfare by straightening workers record of service through the biometric capture exercise, introducing the Contributory Health Scheme, regularly paying workers salaries, investing in the training and re-training of staff of MDAs and creating a conducive work environment for the Office of the Head of Service.
Bayoko stated that the recent Owner Occupier Policy of government for the Junior Staff Quarters and the ongoing construction of an additional state secretariat to accommodate MDAs currently in rented apartments were all geared towards the welfare of workers.
The Head of Service, accompanied by the Permanent Secretary of his office, Frank Isume and all directors, assured the staff of a better deal in the new year.
[dropcap]T[/dropcap]he President of the Nigerian Football Federation, Amaju Pinnick, is in trouble as President Muhammadu Buhari has ordered his prosecution over an alleged multi-billion Naira scam in the organisation.
It was also learnt that the Federal Government through the Presidential investigative panel headed by Mr. Okoi Obono-Obla, had placed Pinnick on travel ban.
Punch reports on Saturday that Buhari gave the order for Pinnick’s prosecution when the Obono-Obla presented a preliminary investigation report to him.
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission also addressed a report on the NFF to Mr President detailing the outcome of their investigations which tallied with what Obono-Obla’s panel had submitted to the President.
EFCC Chairman, Ibrahim Magu had in his six-page report informed Buhari that the anti-graft agency had investigated and prosecuted the Director, Finance and Administration, Christopher Andekin; Head, Finance and Administration, NFF, Jafaru Mamzah and a cashier with the Finance and Administration department of the NFF, Rajan Zaka over an alleged financial scam in the football governing house in connection with financial payments from the Federation of International Football Associations and Confederation of African Football to NFF between 2014 and 2016.
But Buhari who was said to have been visibly angry over the alleged monumental scam ordered Pinnick to also be prosecuted. He directed Magu to embark on a wider investigation into the remittances to the NFF between 2017 and 2018.
The president, who was reportedly shocked by the mind-boggling report and additional revelations directed Magu to ensure a comprehensive and discreet investigation with watertight and unassailable facts and
pieces of evidence that would nail the suspects at the court.
According to the EFCC preliminary report sighted by Punch correspondent, EFCC stated that it commenced full investigation into the finances of the NFF where it discovered that the domiciliary accounts of the NFF domiciled with Zenith Bank and UBA had received total inflow of $16,417,761 from FIFA and CAF between January, 2014 and June, 2016 as follows:
1. 18/12/2014 Zenith Bank, Ac No: 5070407456, $8,400,000 (FIFA); 23/01/2015, Zenith Bank, Ac No: 5070407456, $450,000 (FIFA); 25/03/2015, Zenith Bank, Ac No: 5070407456, $1,081,000 (CAF); 13/10/2015 Zenith Bank, Ac No: 5070407456, $3000 (CAF); 12/01/2014, UBA, Ac No: 3000004944, $1,500,000 (FIFA); 15/01/2014 UBA, Ac No: 3000004944, $1,746,745 (CAF); 19/03/2014 UBA, Ac No: 3000004944, $249,950 (CAF); 12/12/2014 UBA, Ac No: 3000004944, $301,467 (FIFA);14/05/2015 UBA, Ac No: 3000004944, $30,000 (FIFA); 31/07/2015 UBA, Ac
No: 3000004944, $315,149 (FIFA); 14/08/2015, UBA, Ac No: 3000004944, $399,000 (FIFA); 11/09/2015 UBA, Ac No: 3000004944, $300,000 (FIFA); 16/10/2015, UBA, Ac No: 3000004944, $850,149 (FIFA); 18/11/2015, UBA,
Ac No: 3000004944, $2,990 (CAF); 12/02/2016, UBA, Ac No: 3000004944, $79,540 (FIFA); 15/03/2016, UBA, Ac No: 3000004944, $299,000, (CAF); 22/06/2016 UBA, Ac No: 3000004944, $9,930 (CAF).
Magu in the report also informed Buhari that investigation into the case had been concluded. He added that Christopher Andekin; Head, Finance and Administration, NFF, Jafaru Mamzah and a cashier with the Finance and Administration department of NFF, Rajan Zaka were indicted and arraigned on October 15, 2018 before Justice P.O. Affem of the Federal Capital Territory High Court, No 19 Maitama Abuja on five criminal charges of conspiracy and criminal breach of trust by a public officer.
The EFCC’s boss further informed Buhari that the commission also received another petition dated April 24, 2016 captioned ‘Monumental stealing and financial crisis in the Nigeria Football Federation’, from James Peters of Amal Pepple Estate, Abuja.
He stated that in the course of investigation, the Minister (Sports) forwarded to the commission, documents in support of the petition revealing sponsorship deals amounting to N1.14bn and $1.55m via his letter No. HMY &SP/003/2018/55 dates August 7, 2018.
Magu said, “Investigation into this petition has so far established that the NFF has sponsorship deals with 21 corporate organisation. The investigation further revealed that between 2008 and 2018, 11 out of the 21 corporate organisations made sponsorship payment of N5,288,990,000 and $1,550,000 to NFF as against the amounted stated in the ministers’ letter under reference above.
“One of the companies appointed as financial consultant to the NFF is owned by the 2nd Vice President of the NFF in person of Alhaji Shehu Dikko. The audit trail of the funds and its utilisation is currently ongoing with a view to prosecuting anyone found culpable of any offence.”
[dropcap]E[/dropcap]ight days after being held up in his house, Senator Dino Melaye, on Friday finally surrendered to the police. He left his house with some lawmakers from the National Assembly who paid him a solidarity visit. They went to the police in company of Melaye’s lawyer, Mr. Mike Ozekhome.
Melaye had been invited by the police to answer allegation of attempted murder.
He is alleged to have been with his thugs who shot and and injured a police officer on the 19th July 2018.
Police spokesman Jimoh Moshood said that the police officer was yet to recover from the gunshot injury he sustained during the attack and was under intensive medical care.
An Abuja high court had on Thursday refused to grant Dino Melaye’s application to order the removal of police blockade on his residence.The Nigerian Police Force had said its men sent to arrest Senator Dino Melaye in his residence in Abuja will not retreat until the senator surrenders himself for arrest and investigation.
According to Moshood, the officers have a duly obtained Warrant of Arrest to pick the senator, representing Kogi West.
“Senator Dino Melaye is wanted by the Police for a case of Criminal Conspiracy and Attempted Culpable Homicide, committed on 19th July, 2018, when Senator Dino Melaye and his armed thugs attacked Police personnel; shot and wounded Sgt. Danjuma Saliu, attached to 37 Police Mobile Force (PMF) on stop and search duty along Aiyetoro Gbede, Mopa Road in Kogi State”, Moshood said.
Senator Dino Melaye surrenders
“It is on record that the Police investigators submitted a Letter of Invitation dated 23rd July, 2018, signed by the Commissioner of Police, Kogi State Police Command addressed to the Clerk, National Assembly, Abuja, inviting Senator Dino Melaye to report on 26th July, 2018 at 1100Hrs at the Kogi State Police Command, CIID, Lokoja to answer to a case of Criminal Conspiracy and Attempted Culpable Homicide against him under investigation in the Kogi State Police Command.
“The claim by the Senate President in the Media that the Police did not submit a letter of invitation to the Clerk of the National Assembly is therefore incorrect as can be seen on attached letter with acknowledgment stamp of the Clerk, National Assembly, Abuja “24 JUL 2018“. Despite this, Senator Dino Melaye bluntly refused to report himself to the Police till date.
For avoidance of doubt, attached to this Press Release are the copies of pictures of the shot Police Officer, Sgt. Danjuma Saliu, the Police Invitation Letter addressed to the Clerk of National Assembly, Abuja and the Medical Report from the Federal Medical Centre, Lokoja, Kogi State, confirming the admission of Sgt. Danjuma Saliu into the Hospital for treatment of the gunshot injury he sustained from the attack by Senator Dino Melaye and his armed thugs while on Stop and Search duty along Aiyetoro Gbede, Mopa Road in Kogi State on 19th July, 2018.
[dropcap]T[/dropcap]he Director of Media of the Buhari Campaign Organisation, Festus Keyamo has replied those against the appointment of Mrs Amina Zakari, as Chairman of the Collation Centre Committee for 2019 general elections by Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
In reacting to criticism of Zakari’s appointment, Keyamo said how can a woman from Jigawa be connected to a man from Sudan. This is in response to earlier claims that the man in Aso Rock is Jibrin Al Sudan and not President Muhammadu Buhari.
The appointment of Mrs Amina Zakari has generated a lot of criticism especially from the main opposition party, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) who has called on INEC to reverse Zakari’s appointment. PDP stated that she’s a blood relation (niece) of President Muhammadu Buhari.
Keyamo’s tweet reads: Mrs. Amina Zakari of INEC is a lady from a town in Sudan & is related to Jibrin Al Sudan who is the body-double of PMB. She arrived on the same flight with Jibrin Al Sudan and was smuggled to INEC the next day. Or, how else can we connect a woman from Jigawa to a man from Sudan?
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[dropcap]T[/dropcap]he N-Power, one of the various federal government’s social intervention programmes focused on job creation and employment, remained the most popular initiative by the current administration.
[dropcap]S[/dropcap]ince the emergence of Peter Gregory Obi, former Governor of Anambra State, as Atiku Abubakar’s running mate, last October, the name of the Deputy Senate President, Sen. Ike Ekweremadu has been dragged around.
![Gbemisola Saraki. [Photo credit: Facebook page of Gbemisola Saraki]](https://i0.wp.com/media.premiumtimesng.com/wp-content/files/2018/08/Fullscreen-capture-812018-90754-AM.bmp_.jpg?w=600&h=458&ssl=1 "Fullscreen capture 812018 90754 AM.bmp")
[dropcap]T[/dropcap]he President of the Nigerian Football Federation, Amaju Pinnick, is in trouble as President Muhammadu Buhari has ordered his prosecution over an alleged multi-billion Naira scam in the organisation.
[dropcap]E[/dropcap]ight days after being held up in his house, Senator Dino Melaye, on Friday finally surrendered to the police. He left his house with some lawmakers from the National Assembly who paid him a solidarity visit. They went to the police in company of Melaye’s lawyer, Mr. Mike Ozekhome.
