buhari can stop nnamdi kanu's trial -umar gital - true vision

WEDNESDAY NOVEMBER 24 – SUNDAY NOVEMBER 28, 2021 *VOL 1 NO. 15 N200

A Smart Heart for the Needy

Fixing Nigeria, Before the Fall

Jonathan, a Great Patriot

Page 3

Atiku to Mark

Birthday

in Bauchi,

Commission

Bala

Mohammed’s

Road Project

PAGE 3 PAGE 31

Davido

Is The Labourer’s

Task Done?

Buhari Can Stop Nnamdi Kanu’s Trial -Umar Gital

Emeka Ihedioha:

PAGE 3PAGE 22PAGE 19

NEWSAll is set for

the recon-stitution of the cabinet of Governor

Hope Uzodinma of Imo State as he has forward-ed a list of 17 Commis-ioners-designate to the state House of Assembly for screening and possi-ble confirmation.

Truevision can dis-close that the recon-stitution of the cabinet is coming nearly six months after it was dis-solved by the Governor.

The names of the nominees were con-tained in a letter which Governor Uzodimma transmitted to the As-sembly through the Of-

fice of the Speaker, Rt. Hon. Kennedy Ibe and was accordingly read and considered at a spe-cial plenary.

The nominees in-clude: Prof. Duru Em-manuel Joseph Chuk-wuma, Dr. Prosper Ohayaagha Success Obinna Chinonso, Prof Ifunanya Okorodudu, Prof. C.O. Nwosu, Mr Keziechi Ogaziechi and Barr Rex Anunobi.

Others are Lady Love Ineh, Mrs Rub-by Emele, Mr Simon Ebegbulem, Mr Anuk-wem Okechukwu Chuk-wunyere, Chief Ford Ozurumba, Hon Stan-ley Obidiegwu and Hon Goodluck Nana Opia.

Uzodimma Forwards Names of 17 Commissioners-designate to House of Assembly

CBN Retains MPR at 11.5%, Other Parameters Remain Constant

Nigeria Can Become the Biggest Beneficiary of AFCFTA-Expert

Others that com-pleted the 17-man list are Mrs Ann Dozie, Prof Kenneth Amaeshi, Hajia Rabbi Ibrahim and Dr Elias Emedom.

It was gathered that the nominees have been referred to the appro-priate committee of the Imo State House of As-sembly for screening.

A financial expert with Fidelity Bank Plc, Mr Isaiah Nduk-we, says Ni-

geria can be the biggest beneficiary of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) with im-proved ease of doing busi-ness and enterprise com-petitiveness.

Ndukwe, who is the Divisional Head, Export & Agriculture Business, Fi-delity Bank Plc, said this while appraising the just concluded Intra-African Trade Fair (IATF) 2021 held in Durban, South Af-rica.

He told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) that the trade fair present-ed Nigerians, especially those who participated in the event the opportunity for partnerships, collab-orations and knowledge transfer.

Ndukwe noted that about 10 Fidelity Bank customers who partici-pated in the IATF 2021 secured product off-take contracts and partnership deals in excess of 100 mil-lion dollars because of the bank’s ease of doing busi-ness and opportunity they got.

“The one quick win for us is development of market access for our ex-port customers. We were at the inaugural IATF in Cairo in 2018 and the con-nections were quite an eye opener.

“We took several of our customers with us and also gave them platforms to exhibit and showcase their products.

“They all secured product off-take contract and partnership deals. Total deal size closed in Cairo was in excess of 75 million dollars.

“Same has happened on this outing with total deal size in excess of 100 million dollars.

“I strongly believe that if we can work on improving general ease of doing business and en-terprise competitiveness, Nigeria can be the biggest winner of the AfCFTA.

“The IATF is one of the key levers of the Af-CFTA in driving regional trade integration in Af-rica. On take-off, the Af-CFTA will help to connect Nigerian businesses to

By Chuks Ofurum, Owerri

Some unknown gun-men on Monday killed one soldier at Ishieke Community in Awom-mama Autonomy com-munity Oru West LGA in Imo State. According to an eyewitness account, the gunmen who drove a Sienna bus opened fire at an army checkpoint in the community killing one soldier while oth-ers sustained injuries. He told the True Vision that residents of the area scampered to dif-ferent directions as the shootout between the gunmen and the soldiers

The Monetary Policy Com-mittee (MPC) of the Central Bank of Ni-

geria (CBN) has again voted to hold the Mone-tary Policy Rate (MPR) at 11.5 per cent.

Reading a commu-niqué after the commit-tee’s 282nd meeting, the CBN Governor, Mr Godwin Emefiele, said the MPC also unani-mously agreed to hold all other monetary poli-cy parameters constant.

The Asymmetric Corridor was thus re-tained at +100 and -700 basis points around the MPR, the Cash Re-

served Ratio(CRR) at 27.5 per cent and the Liquidity Ratio at 30 per cent.

Emefiele said the parameters were re-tained to sustain the growth of the economy.

“This meeting MPC was gratified that its policy actions in the past had started to yield positive result through remarkable improve-ment in Gross Do-mestic Product, which stood at 4.03 per cent during the third quar-ter of 2021.

“There was also the sixth consecutive month moderation in inflation to 15.99 per-

cent in October.“Given the level of

its conviction about the efficacy of its actions on macroeconomic vari-ables, MPC felt that tightening could in-crease cost of funds and constrain growth, while loosening could com-pound distortion in the money market.

“The MPC believes that the existing mon-etary policy stance has supported economic growth and recovery and should be allowed to continue for a little longer for consolida-tion,” he said.

Emefiele added that consolidation would al-

low the MPC realise its mandate of price stabil-ity that is conducive to growth.

“The committee also feels that the old stance will enable it to carefully access the im-plication of unfolding global developments around policy deepen-ing and normalisation by the advanced econo-mies,” said Emefiele.

Considering the foregoing, he added that the committee de-cided to hold all policy parameters constant to support the enabling environment for sus-tained growth of the Nigerian economy.

Insecurity: Attack By Unknown Gunmen Leaves One Soldier Dead, Houses Burnt Down In Imo

lasted for about thirty minutes. Asked if there were other casualties, he said that there may be some casualties as a result of stray bullets as the traders hurriedly left their shops to escape the

mayhem. But in whatev-er could be described as a retaliatory measure, soldiers allegedly set fire on shops and other businesses around the area. However, a much bigger calamity was averted when a petrol station in the area which caught fire was not se-riously affected. But the Army has come out to deny that their men set fire on shops and other businesses in the area in retaliation of the death of their soldier accus-ing the Eastern Security Network, ESN, of mas-terminding the burning of shops and business-es. Confirming the inci-

dent, the Police Public Relations Officer,PPRO, Imo State Command, SP Abattam said the com-mand has commenced full scale investigations into the incident. He said that the command is on the trail of the hoodlums who attacked the soilders.

Military checkpoints in Imo state has become a target by the unknown gunmen. Recently two soldiers lost their lives in Izombe in Oguta LGA when some youths of the area clashed with sol-diers who were invited to settle a dispute between rival youth groups.

the continental and glob-al manufacturing value chain.

“This is why it is such a big deal to us and the reason we are taking pro-active steps to enhance the readiness and posi-tioning of our customers to take advantage of the growth opportunities that the IATF and the AfCFTA present to their business-es,” Ndukwe said.

According to him, IATF and AfCFTA were two economy drivers and that the country must take advantage of them for economic prosperity just as the bank has done with some of its custom-ers who export goods and services.

“This is what differ-entiate us from the other banks. From a business operations perspective, non-oil export trade re-quires a total mindset shift. It is a very compet-itive business landscape especially if you oper-ate in the realms of val-ue-added exports.

“Hence, human cap-ital development espe-cially around readiness of businesses for exports is a critical foundation block to positioning Ni-gerian exporters to be-come more competitive in the global market-place.

“The global mar-ketplace is a brutal ‘free-market’ arena akin to the Roman ‘Death-Fight’ Coliseums. It takes no prisoner and will pun-ish you if you neither come prepared nor have competitive and compar-ative advantages.

“For instance, if you are exporting something from Nigeria to UK, you are competing with busi-nesses from other coun-tries who are exporting into that same market.

Gov Hope Uzodinma

IGP Usman Alkali

Otunba Niyi Adebayo

WEDNESDAY NOVEMBER 24 - SUNDAY NOVEMBER 28, 2021

NEWSBuhari Can Stop Nnamdi Kanu’s Trial -Umar Gital

Jonathan, a Great Patriot

Atiku to Mark Birthday in Bauchi, Commission Bala Mohammed’s Road Project

Former President Goodluck Jon-athan has been described as a great patriot by

a broad section of Nige-rians.

The commenda-tions came from digni-taries from all walks of life and of different po-litical persuasions, at the maiden edition of the Policy Dialogue series of the Goodluck Jonathan Foundation in Abuja re-cently. The event, with the theme: Democracy and the unity of the state, attracted academicians, governors, legislators, members of the diplomat-ic corps and media chiefs, among others.

Leading the barrage of encomiums, was the Senate President, Alhaji Ahmed Lawan who made the commendation while commenting on the key-note address presented by Professor Abdoulaye Bathily of Senegal. Pro-fessor Bathily who spoke on the topic: “The Con-temporary Challenges of Nation and State-Build-ing in a Context of Multi-ple Diversities: Compara-tive Perspectives, opened the floodgates of Praise when he applauded Pres-ident Jonathan’s role in deepening democracy on the continent.

But commenting on

Nnamdi Kanu

Professor Bathily’s paper, Senator Lawan, observed that President Jonathan’s preoccupation with en-suring the unity of Nigeria since he left office was the hallmark of statesman-ship.

In an emotion-lad-en tribute, and looking pointedly at President Jonathan, Lawan said: “The fact that here, there are many people who are not members of the PDP testifies that you are a uniter, that you mean well for this country”.

Speaking earlier in the same vein, Gover-nor Yahaya Bello of Kogi State extolled President Jonathan’s role in the 2015 elections when he conceded victory to Pres-ident Muhammadu Bu-hari, the candidate of the All Progressive Congress. Addressing Jonathan, Governor Bello said: “You took the path of personal honour and national in-terest, a singular feat of selflessness and love for the state”.

For his part, the Gov-

ernor of Bauchi State, Senator Bala Mohammed said it was instructive that at a time that many parts of the country were pulling apart for various reasons, “we are here celebrating a hero”. He thanked Presi-dent Jonathan for his role in stabilising democracy in Nigeria by making the point that politics is about winning and losing and not a do or die affair.

Earlier, in his wel-come address, President Jonathan who was accom-panied to the event by his

wife, Dame Patience Jon-athan, had disclosed that he set up the foundation, an independent non-gov-ernmental organisation established for the ad-vancement of peace and prosperity on the African continent. It is also dedi-cated to promoting peace and reconciliation, ad-vancing democratic gov-ernance, advocating for inclusive governance and economic development, promoting citizens’ rights and continental and na-tional integration. To-

wards that end, the policy dialogue series had been structured to critically ex-amine the problems of the continent with a view to finding lasting solutions to them.

(PLEASE SEE PAGE 15, 16, 17 & 18 FOR THE FIRST PART OF OUR RE-PORT ON THE MAIDEN EDITION OF THE POL-ICY DIALOGUE SERIES OF THE GOODLUCK JONATHAN FOUNDA-TION).

Former Vice President Alhaji Atiku Abubakar is expected to Commission the Gombe-Maiduguri By-Pass in Bauchi today, on the occasion of his 75th birthday.

Described as a very strategic project, the im-portance of the 4.2 km road is said not to lay in its length but the envis-aged positive impact on the State capital city of Bauchi. With the commis-sioning of the road, it is

expected that the perenni-al traffic congestion in the city would be substantially reduced thereby easing the drudgery and delays experienced by intra-city commuters and long dis-tance travellers.

Moreover, safety of commuters will be as-sured with the heavy duty vehicles that plied the city centre now di-verting to the by-pass.

With the realisation of the by-pass project,

an air of satisfaction is pervading the entire Government circle in Bauchi given that the need for the project had always been there since the creation of the state 45 years ago. Bauchi is a major access route to many parts of the north, especially the North-East.

Besides, political watchers see the coinci-dence between the com-missioning of the project

and Alhaji Atiku Abuba-kar’s birthday as symbol-ic and an indication of the unity that is crystal-lizing in North East po-litical circles.

Media Adviser to Governor Bala Moham-med, Alhaji Mukhtar Gi-dado told the True Vision in Bauchi, yesterday that with the commissioning of the project, the Gov-ernor Bala Mohammed Administration would have completed over 30

road projects of over 300 km within the first two and half years since it was inaugurated on 29th May 2019.

The Governor’s spokesman also revealed that the road, which had been on the Master Plan of Bauchi City since the creation of the state, is regarded as a strategic component of the ambi-tious urban renewal pro-gramme of the Bala Mo-hammed Administration.

By Our Reporter

A leading member of the All Progressive Con-gress (APC) from Bauchi State, Alhaji Umar Gital, has advised President Muhammadu Buhari to halt the trial of the leader of the proscribed Indig-enous People of Biafra (IPOB), Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, in the interest of peace and in deference to the intervention of the elder statesman and First Republic Minister, Chief Mbazulike Amaechi.

Gital’s call is coming on the heels of the recent meeting between Presi-dent Buhari and a dele-gation of leaders of the South East, at the presi-dential villa, Abuja.

At the Abuja meet-ing, the leader of the delegation, First Repub-lic minister of aviation, Chief Mbazulike Amaechi had requested the Pres-ident to grant Nnamdi Kanus’s release as a spe-cial favour to him who, at 93, was compelled to make the tortuous jour-ney from Anambra State

to the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja in search of peace, despite being in poor health.

Responding, Presi-dent Buhari had promised to look into the request even as he described it as heavy and a matter that was ordinarily, for the ju-diciary.

But in his reaction, Gital who is known to break party lines, on mat-ters of principle, averred that under the 1999 Con-stitution, President Bu-hari had limitless powers to order the release of any

accused.Buttressing the case

for Nnamdi Kanus’s re-lease, Gital noted that since the Federal Govern-ment was the accuser and prosecutor, he did not see any problems if the same Government said it was no longer interested in the case.

While making the case for Nnamdi Kanu’s release, Gital noted that the intervention of the top Igbo leaders was ac-tually long overdue as, in his view, it was the re-sponsibility of the father

of the house to redirect a child who has stepped out of line.

Despite the delay in intervening, Gital ex-pressed satisfaction that it would seem that a con-vergence for peace was emerging on the horizon. He urged the Presidency and all strategic stake-holders to take advantage of the new situation to find lasting peace to the IPOB agitation and sim-ilar flash points all over the country.

Without peace, said Gital, the country will continue to run in circles as there can not be any meaningful development in an atmosphere of vio-lence.

In the last few months since the IPOB stay-at-home order took effect, economic, social and political life in the South-East has literally screeched to a halt. Secu-rity of lives and property could no longer be guar-anteed. Gital is of the po-

sition that though Kanu appears to be unpredict-able, embracing peace, at this time, would be in ev-erybody’s interest.

Gital said that he understood the misgiv-ings and opposition of some groups in the north to Nnamdi Kanu’s re-lease, noting that unlike the bandits whose mo-tive was making money, the IPOB insistence on the dismemberment of the country, was against the Constitution. In his words: “We cannot pre-tend about it; Nnamdi Kanu committed a blun-der against the Constitu-tion. This is not just about self-determination. You have to reckon with the aggression against secu-rity forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria”.

But the IPOB has al-ways denied responsibili-ty for the attacks on secu-rity agents.

It will be recalled that the coalition of Northern groups as well as the Are-

wa Consultative Forum had risen against grant-ing Nnamdi Kanu a re-prieve from the charges against him which he is contesting.

Apart from the el-der statesman Chief Mbazulike Amaechi, the surprise delegation in-cluded former Governor of Anambra State Chief Chukwuemeka Ezeife and President of Vision Afri-ca, a media conglomerate for the advancement of peace and people empow-erment, Bishop Sunday Onuoha. Other are former President of the pan Igbo organisation, Aka Ikenga Chief Goddy Uwazurike, Minister of Science and Technology Dr. Ogbon-naya Onu, Minister of La-bour Dr. Chris Nwabueze Ngige, Minister of For-eign Affairs Ambassador Godfrey Onyema, Min-ister of State for Educa-tion Hon. Chukwuemeka Nwajiuba and Mr. Tagbo Amaechi.


INTERVIEWNigerians should live out the National Anthem and Pledge

Ven (Dr) Gershinen Paul is many things to many people. Who is Ven Paul Dajur?

Thank you for the question. Well, I am Venerable Doctor Gershinen Paul Dajur. A Priest of the Anglican Church. I am the General Secretary of the Church of Nigeria (Anglican Communion).

Nigeria recently celebrated her 61 years independence anniversary. Has the country lived up to its expectations at independence in 1960?

I am grateful to God that I am alive. I must say that God has been faithful and has helped Nigeria and Nigerians. For that, there is every reason to say thank you to God for what we have experienced and what we are experiencing right now. But I think there is so much that need to be done as far as Nigeria as a nation is concerned.

The founding fathers, who fought for the actualization of the independence of Nigeria did it with the clear intention, that by independence Nigerians should be able to live life well, enjoy freedom, enjoy dignity, human respect and to also to be able to use their resources that God has giving them by themselves for the good of the land and for the good of the people.

This has been a challenge from the beginning and has continued to be because, we do not see the resources being used for the citizens of Nigeria. I can say that whereas Nigeria is making progress age wise, the dividends of an independent nation that Nigerians should enjoy is not fully been received. I can say that Nigeria has lots more to enjoy in independence than we are enjoying right now.

If Nigeria has not met the expectations of the people given the huge potentials that Nigeria is blessed with, what do you think is responsible?

What has gone wrong is that Nigerians themselves do not love the country called Nigeria. Also, our foreign partners are not lovers of Nigeria as an independent nation. The collaboration of some Nigerians and some foreign partners has made it impossible for

- Ven Gershinen Paul Dajur

Ven Gershinen Paul Dajur


INTERVIEWNigerians should live out the National Anthem and Pledge

We must believe in Nigeria and make Nigeria grow and make Nigeria prosper. Fourthly, I want Nigeria to stop this borrowing that has become the order of the day. Somebody analyzed and said that every Nigerian has a debt of one hundred and sixty-five thousand naira (#165,000) each.

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Nigerians to achieve her potentials. Why do I say so? As Nigerians what is our anthem saying, it calls us to obey and to act in a manner that would make Nigeria peaceful and a joyful nation for us to live in but we are not doing that.

We cannot blame any other person because we are the people killing ourselves, we are the people stealing the resources of the land, we are the people undermining one another in the same country called Nigeria, we are the ones engaging in corrupt practices, we are the ones fighting one another in the name of ethnicity, tribalism, religion and all other vices that do not make for a healthy development.

That is the problem of the Nigerian person. But I tell you the external powers or partners that I am referring to are those who support us to do corruption because you will agree with me that whatever money is stolen from Nigeria is taken overseas. Those who loot the treasury of this country are stocking them in some foreign countries and you know their names. But if those people where supporters of Nigeria they will not receive those stolen monies. However, since they also are willing to take those monies that have been stolen from Nigeria, it means they are collaborators in destroying Nigeria as a nation. So I would say that some Nigerians and some foreign partners have destroyed Nigeria and are destroying Nigeria.

What do you think is the way forward and in the process, restore hope and faith in the Nigeria project?

In the first place, Nigeria will make no progress without understanding her place in God. Psalms 24 verse 1 of the Holy Bible says that the earth and the fullness thereof belongs to God. By implication nothing will ever work well if you do not relate well with the owner of the land. The owner of the land is not the President neither is it the Presidency. The owner of the land is God Almighty. Therefore, the first point of call for us to rework our ways back to normalcy in Nigeria is to recognize God and give him the due that is His own.

We must allow him to take charge and by this I am asking that those who know that they are Nigerians should go back to God - whatever their religion, they should go back to God. And I believe that none of those religions that we have tells us to destroy our nation, to kill one another. I do not think so. God wants us to love one another to care for one another. So my first

recommendation is that we should go back to God.

Secondly, Nigerians should show the love of their country by acting it out. There is no reason why we sing the National Anthem, we recite the National Pledge and we confess our belief in Nigeria without acting the same. The same man who sings the National Anthem is the one running down Nigeria in his own office, but that should not be. The same woman who is pledging to be loyal and to be honest is the one that is not honest, it should not be. So the second point is that Nigerians should rise up and act what they say in the pledge and in the anthem. My third recommendation is for Nigeria to believe in itself.

We do not need America to be Nigeria, we do not need the European countries to be Nigeria and we do not need the Arab countries to be Nigeria. Nigeria can exist and can survive and can enjoy the fullness of life without those

outside countries dictating to us. We must believe in Nigeria

and make Nigeria grow and make Nigeria prosper. Fourthly, I want Nigeria to stop this borrowing that has become the order of the day. Somebody analyzed and said that every Nigerian has a debt of one hundred and sixty-five thousand naira (#165,000) each. To the best of my knowledge I did not borrow any money from nobody but based on record I am owing one hundred and sixty-five thousand naira as a person and that is just not me, every single Nigerian and that is wrong. We should stop borrowing money, Nigeria has a lot of resources. It’s unthinkable that someone has stolen billions of Naira only for himself - we should stop that. We should stop liquidating and destroying the economy and the resources of Nigeria.

Another way forward is for Nigerians to stop the bloodshed. The killings going on in Nigeria is unimaginable. Nobody is killing

Nigerians, it is Nigerians that are killing Nigerians and that has to stop. I know those who are kidnapping are taking ransoms and things like that but it is a vain business, its vanity. We should stop killing one another and love one another. It doesn’t matter where you come from, whether from the North or from the South or from the East or from the West, wherever you are coming from does not matter. We are Nigerians and we must stop killing, we must embrace one another, and we must love one another.

Ven Gershinen Paul Dajur


PROFILE

The Chairman of Ebonyi State Health Insurance Agency (EB-

SHIA), Chief Goddy Ogbaga has charged couples to uphold the initial love that brought them together made as husband and wife and avoid third party med-dlesomeness in order during to ntroduction of third party in order to guarantee a happy home.

Chief Ogbaga gave the charge at Ndu-lo, Ukwagba Ngbo, Ohaukwu local council of Ebonyi State at the traditional marriage ceremony of his second son, Professor Chuk-wuma Ogbaga with his wife, Mrs. Ernestina Ogechi Ogbaga

Ogbaga who was visibly noted that most marriages crash when couples start allowing third parties to meddle in their marriages.

The Chair-man of Oruk Anam Lo-cal Govern-ment Area,

Dr Kingsley Frank has ordered the demoli-tion of a shrine with a stern warning to na-tive doctors to desist from aiding and pro-viding “spiritual forti-fication” for criminals in the area.

Dr. Frank made this call when a gang of criminals were ar-rested and they con-fessed that their “suc-cesses in criminality and other social vices” to the services of na-tive doctors who per-form rituals common-ly referred as ‘juju’ for them to operate suc-cessfully.

Frank used the occasion to reiterate his earlier call on the youths of the local council to desist from all firms of criminal-ities as Oruk Anam

Avoid Third Party Interference, Ex-Minister Advises New Couple

Council Boss Orders Demolition of Shrine for Aiding Crime

Cut Down Burial Expenses,

By Victor Nwegede, Abakaliki

By Solomon Okpo, Uyo

He urged couples to learn to resolve their misunderstand-ings among them-selves without rushing to bring outsiders into their marriages.

Ogbaga expressed deep appreciation to all who turned out to share in the joy of the new couple and prayed for God’s abundant blessings for the newly married couple.

Earlier, the Chair-man of Ebonyi local council, Mrs. Chinyere Nwogbaga called on the couple to make love, peace and trust their priorities to achieve the objective of their marriage.

Nwogbaga while commending the young couple for their courage to come to-gether as husband and wife, prayed for God’s blessings all that make for a successful union.

In his remarks, the Chairman of the occasion, Sen Antho-ny Agbo represented by the Chairman of

Ohaukwu Local Gov-ernment Area, Barr. Clement Odah re-called that it was the third time that their izhi brothers married from the council while in power, describing the marriage between Prof. Chuks Ogbaga and his heartthrob as a welcome development and wished them a suc-cessful marital life.

In their separate contributions, the State Commissioner for Market and Park Development, Pst. Eze Nwachukwu Eze, the Commissioner for cul-ture and tourism who is also the Mother of the groom, Barr. Eliz-abeth Ogbaga, mem-ber peace and conflict resolution, Abuja, Mr. Aloysius Nwibo, Spe-cial Assistant to Eb-onyi State Governor SSG’s Office, Chief Christ Uchaji and the Permanent Secretary Ministry of Health, Dr. Chris Achi, enjoined the family of Profes-sor Chukwuma Ogbaga

to live a life worthy of emulation and wished them marital life that is granded in God and morality while encour-aging them to adhere to the culture and tra-dition of marriage.

Others who spoke included the Principal Big Bird Chambers, Barr. Sunday Ununu, Barr. Nduka Vincent Nwokpo, former Attor-ney General and Com-missioner for Justice Ebonyi State, among others wished the fam-ily happy married life, peace, love, prosperity and blessing as they pilot the affairs of their family.

Responding, the groom, Professor Chukwuma Ogbaga thanked those who graced the ceremony and pledged to live up to the expectation.

The event drew the presence of the distin-guished personalities in the State while the highlights was cultur-al troops by different groups.


Farmers identified as the Associ-ation of Or-ganic Agri-

culture Practitioners of Nigeria Ebonyi State Chapter, Tues-day in Abakaliki embarked on aware-ness campaign to promote organic ag-riculture system fol-lowing its amazing health benefits to human beings and their environment.

Speaking during the event, the State Coordinator of the Association, Mr Eze-kiel Igboji said the awareness on organ-ic agriculture was low and still at its in-fancy in Ebonyi.

Igboji said that organic agriculture practice would save lives and the envi-ronment, if integrity and standards were applicable.

He described or-ganic as food pro-duced by methods complying with the standards of organic farming, saying that the term organic was used only when it comes to the certifi-cation of a product

The coordinator said that the associ-ation would partner with the media and export promotion council to promote organic agriculture practice in Ebonyi State.

He said that the association has con-cluded plans to train extension agents of the ministry of ag-riculture and farm-er associations on organic agricultural principles, practices and entrepreneur-ship.

According to him, the training and practice were crite-ria for exports as far as a product passed through the process-es and has to be cer-tified.

He as well stated that farmer groups, cooperatives, through the state agriculture devel-opment programme

is not a safe ground for operation of so-cial vices. It could be recalled that prior to

Dr Frank’s election as council chairman, Inen clan in Oruk Anam was ten months

into cult clashes that claimed scores of lives in the Local Govern-ment area.

A governorship aspirant in Akwa Ibom State and Ad-visor, Inoyo

Toro Foundation, Mr. Udom Inoyo, has called on Akwa Ibom peo-ple to rcut down their burial expenditures and instead channel such funds to establish-ing small and medium Scale businesses in or-der to reduce poverty and unemployment in the land.

Mr. Inoyo made the call while speaking at a dinner he hosted in honour of Prof. Joseph Ushie, Dean of the Fac-ulty of Arts, University of Uyo, who was re-cently inducted as First

Fellow, Association of Nigerian Authors from Akwa Cross.

He lamented what he described as “ a deep passion for consump-tion and waste” by the citizenry particularly investment on burials and called for a change of attitude.

“Anytime, I mean every weekend, I am getting like 10 invita-tions for burials, and when we attend those burials, the canopies, drinks, food, uniforms, everything that is put into that consumption exercise is such that can stimulate SMEs”.

Inoyo wondered why people in an econo-my replete with poverty

and large scale unem-ployment could choose to invest in ventures that yield no benefits or add value to the econo-my, the society or their lives and queried “how much does it cost to set-up a small business that will employ 20, 10 or 5 people, like hairdress-ing, barbing saloon? N200,000, N500,000”

He believes that the Media and the church can help in educating the people about the dangers inherent in continued huge invest-ment in burials and high consumption ap-petite and urged the two channels of com-munication to help pass the message across.

Farmers Campaign for Promotion of Organic Agriculture in Ebonyi

at the hinterlands would be sensitised.

He condemned the claims by some people, saying they are organic farmers, but not keeping or-ganic standards by way of maintaining integrity and how-ever, assured that the gap would be bridged through the association’s aware-ness campaign.

The event chaired by Senator Samuel Egwu, represent-ed by Chief Austin Edeze was attended by eminent pioneers of integrated farm-ing and humanitar-ians, including the Traditional Ruler of Nkaleke Echara Autonomous Com-munity, HRH Eze S.N Oketa, the im-mediate past Vice Chancellor of Ebo-nyi State University Prof Francis Idike, his successor - Prof Chigozie Ogbu (rep-resented), among others who were en-couraged to stand in the front line for championing organ-ic agriculture in Ebo-nyi State and Nigeria at large.

Also at the event, Former Minister and State PDP Chieftain - Engr. Fidelis Nwank-wo, the Commission-er of Police in Ebonyi State, CP Aliyu Gar-ba, Mr Bestman Chi-ka Anoike, and other personalities were given Safe-Life Am-bassador of Organ-ic Agriculture Per-sonality of the Year Award 2021 as part of encouraging them to stand in the front line for championing the course of the as-sociation.

…….Invest More on SMEs-Udom Inoyo tells A’Ibom People

Gov David Umahi


PROFILE

Solomon Okpo, Uyo

Retired pri-mary school teachers and next of kin of deceased

teachers in Akwa Ibom State have gone spiritual in their quest to ensure that the state government pays an outstanding N28 bil-lion owed them.

Accordingly, to the Chairman, Retired Primary School Teach-ers and the Next of kin in Akwa Ibom State, Rev Felix Cookey, called for a solemn as-sembly to press for the release of the unpaid entitlements.

Cooley said the solemn assembly have become imperative in the face of their obser-vation that the trend of funds so far released by the state govern-ment for payment of their gratuity sug-gest that the admin-istration of Governor Udom Emmanuel may leave without making substantial payment out of the backlog of the entitlement owed them.

Cookey who is also a Committee member for the verification of payment of gratuity to late teachers said since their requests for substantial amount to be released has not yielded result, they are left with the option of approaching God through a solemn as-sembly.

While thanking the State government over their efforts to kick-start payment of gra-tuity in three batches so far, the Chairman offered insight to the fact that the payment so far made is like a drop in an ocean which only addressed the plight of a limited few.

He explained “The first batch was in 2020 when the sum of N220 million was released. That first batch took care of 1991 to 2009 for the teachers who are still alive while those of their depart-ed colleagues that was

Unpaid Entitlements: Retired Primary School Teachers Go Spiritual

NGO Empowers Indigents on Skill Acquisi-tion, Financial Education

Regina Pacis Foun-dation, a non-govern-mental organisation (NGO), has trained a group of indigent in Ebonyi state on skill acquisition and finan-cial education that would help them con-tribute meaningfully to the development of the society.

The Founder, Arc. Dr. Edward Nkwegu while interacting with Journalists during the 17th Anniversary of the Foundation and 2021 annual thanksgiving at Regina Pacis villa, Okpoduma-Agbaja in Izzi Local Government Area of Ebonyi State, disclosed that 52 grad-uates from the voca-tional institution of the organization have been gainfully em-ployed by multi-pur-pose companies except three of them retained in the school.

Nkwegu said he embarked on the ven-ture to give hope to the hopeless and to uplift the downtrodden.

“We were motivat-ed by geniune com-passion and empathy for the poor and less

...Say “Governor Emmanuel may leave without completing Payment”

addressed was be-tween 1991 to 2000.

“During second batch, N170 million was released for the next-of-kin and the living teachers. For next-of-kin, it covered from 2001 to 2007. For the living teach-ers, it covered 2010 and about six people in 2011.

“In the third batch, about N200 million was also released. This took care of about 26 people in 2011.

“We are now con-cerned over the meth-od of amount released. For instance, 2011, re-tired teachers who are alive, only 298 people. The sum involvement of 298 people is N1.15 billion while next of kin is about N700 mil-lion. When you add up together and see that N200 million is re-leased quarterly, (ev-ery three months) crit-ical analysis indicates that the period re-maining for Governor Emmanuel, he may not complete the pay-ment. The 2011 people may not receive gratu-ity going on that rate of releases and 2005 next of kin cannot re-ceive.”

Cookey noted that since the State Governor expressed readiness to make the payment, it is their request for adequate funds to be released to cover to at least 2015 batch.

The Chairman

pointed out that the unpaid arrears for re-tired Primary School Teachers from 2011 to 2018 batch is N25 bil-lion while next of kin is about N3 billion to-taling N28 billion.

While admitting that it may be difficult for the administration to clear N28 billion at once, he suggested that the State Gov-ernment can at least make the payment up to 2015 leaving what remains for the next administration.

Analysis of pay-ment made by the State Government shows that for the three batches, shows that N590 million has so far been spent.

Cookey explained that there are certain challenges unique to retired Primary School Teachers. He added “ Although the gratuity affects Next of kin and the living teachers, there are certain ar-eas that affect the liv-ing teachers that does not affect next of kin. For example, pension. The teachers who re-tired in 2015 are owed a year and 10 months pension. These ones retired during the ad-ministration of Gover-nor Emmanuel. This is not accumulated debt.

“Since October 2015, when the mon-ey did not accumulate, they cried to the State Government. Every retired teacher lives on pension. They are

571 teachers. In Janu-ary 2019, when retired teachers went out for solemn meeting, the Governor picked up retired teachers in Es-sien Udim and Ibesik-po Asutan and paid. I don’t know about oth-ers paid in secret. But these two LGAs are outstanding.

“These 2015 peo-ple are begging that at least their pension arrears should be paid so that they can wait for their turn when payment on gratuity will be made. There is no other sector owed pension arrears except teachers.”

The Chairman wondered the where-abouts of 7.5 percent contributory pension that was compulso-

rily deducted from source stressing that these money which for some has reached N500,000 is yet to be refunded to them at their retirement.

Cookey further called for the harmo-nization of pension for entire pensioners in the State noting that despite the new pension law, the State Government is yet to harmonize pension for her workers.

He added “ Some are still receiving N2,000 as pension. Consequent upon pen-sion law, the Federal Government has in-creased pension up to 40 percent. We met the Governor on it, he said a committee was set up for that but

from May till date, a committee report has not come out.”

Meanwhile, the Commissioner for In-formation and Strat-egy in Akwa Ibom, Comrade Ini Ememo-bong has said the ad-ministration of Gover-nor Emmanuel has so far spent over N600m on gratuity.

He stated this while on air in a pri-vate radio station in Uyo on Thursday.

“The Administra-tion of Governor Em-manuel has spent over 600 million on gra-tuity payment so far, there’s commitment to the payment of gratu-ities and we appeal for patience and under-standing”, Comrade Ememobong said.


previleged among us. It is a horrifying ex-perience not having anything to live on. It can undermine some-one’s confidence and self -worth. Poverty in all its three estates, meaning spiritual, mental and material condition can sabo-tage one’s life,” Nkwe-gu said.

He said this finan-cial education would make them to be self reliant in life.

He urged all other wealthy people in the society to invest in the less privileged ones.

The Chairman, Board of Trustee of Regina Pacis Founda-tion, Reverend Father Johnpaul Nwankwo said the foundation had done great things in development of mankind.

Nwankwo main-tained that the foun-dation was a nonprof-it organisation which has been performing humanitarian works.

He said the oc-casion featured the award for the best Rev-erend Fathers of the year, which was given during the church ser-vice by His Lordship, the Catholic Bishop

of Abakaliki Diocese, Most Reverend Peter Chukwu.

“Amongst them were Reverend Fa-ther Peter Amano and Right Reverend Fa-ther Abraham Nwali who were given award of humanitarian ser-vice,” he added.

Also, the founder of Ekeson Foundation, Chief Ekene Nwokoro congratulated Dr Ed-ward Nkwegu for the good works he is doing for mankinds.

“I learnt from him, I have been empower-ing people in my own capacity, I have facili-tated and given jobs to over 1,000 persons in Federal Government and other places,” he said.

Nwokoro said he has graded roads for his people and given empowerments in-form of skill acquisi-tion and funds.

Some of the guests in the ceremony, Chief Innocent Ugo Chi-ma who chaired the occasion, Matthias Adum, Anthony Oko Ewa, John Nkwuda, among others said the event simbolises love for mankinds by the founder.

Gov David Umahi

Gov Udom Emmanuel


By Ogbonnaya Ndukwe, Aba

It was a hilarious celebration of good life instead of mourning, as friends, relations and other associates of the Samuel Eneogwe Achilihu’s family, gathered at

their country home, Umuohia-Akpaa, Osokwa, in Osisioma, Abia State, to bid their matriarch, late Mrs Nwanyinma Comfort Achilihu, farewell.

Mrs Achilihu, died at the ripe age of 95 years, survived by two sons: the renowned Cardiologist, Dr Gordy Onyeakolam Achilihu and his brother, Chief Ajuzie Charles Achilihu.

Though without formal education, Mrs Achilihu’s, was instrumental to her children’s successful upbringing by imbibing the fear of God, hard work and doing good, as the only way to live, a situation that has brought the Achilihu siblings, to limelight, beyond their native Ngwaland.

No wonder, the Senate Minority Leader, Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe, in a short speech at the event, eulogized her as “Our mother”, and a woman of goodwill, who took other people’s problems as hers.

His words, “We are not crying, as Mama, lived long by dying at 95 years of age.

“She was a virtuous woman.“She raised children, grand

children and great grand children and us. She was a good woman.

“May God grant her eternal glory. Amen.

In his remark on behalf of Gov Okezie Ikpeazu, the Deputy Governor of Abia State, Sir Ude Oko Chukwu, noted that though the deceased never

attended school, she was able to raise one of the finest medical doctors in the country.

Oko Chukwu, said the State Governor, Okezie Ikpeazu, would have loved to be present at the funeral, but had urgent state matters to attend to, hence his being represented by him, and some other members of the government, as a mark of honour to the Achilihus.

The Deputy Governor urged the bereaved members of the family and the community, to bear the loss with fortitude in the belief that, their mother was resting in the blossom of the Lord, in view of the good life she exhibited while on earth.

In his testimony, the lead pastor and President of Aba South Conference of the Seventh Day Adventist Church, Pastor Joseph Ukaegbu, reminded the congregation that there was life after death and that God was coming with his reward for every man and woman.

Pastor Ukaegbu said Mrs Achilihu’s burial had brought people of diverse interests together to reflect on their activities and listen to the call to return to God’s salvation.

Using various portions of the Bible as reference with Rev. 14.13 as key, the SDA minister reiterated that those who died serving God and humanity will receive a reward of blessing and rest from their labour.

He asked the living to always identify themselves with “One good thing God will remember about me”, praying that from the tributes on the life of the deceased, God will visit her with eternal life.

Dignitaries at the burial included top government and business functionaries, Senate Minority Leader Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe and his wife, such as former Deputy Governor, Chief Acho Nwakanma, former Health Minister Prof. Onyebuchi Chukwu, former Labour Minister, Chief Emeka Wogu, Senator Ayogu Eze from Enugu State as well as serving and former members of the State Executive Council.

Elder Chibuike Nwokeukwu (SAN), former House of Representatives members, Chief Uzor Azubuike and Chief Eziuche Ubani, publisher of True Vision Newspapers Mr. Emma Agu, traditional rulers, friends from the nation’s capital, Abuja, among others, also attended the occasion, which took place at the St Martin’s Elementary School field, Akpa 1, Osokwa, Osisioma LGA, Abia State.

A major highlight of the event took place during the wake when the chief mourner, Dr. Goddy Achilihu, mounted the drum to entertain guests with the Ekpuru and Nkwa Mgba Dance of the Ngwa, in Abia State.

Here is how Achilihu’s performance was captured by some of the guests:

“On the occasion of his mother’s wake, Dr. Goddy Achilihu is possessed by the spirit of the drums as he supports Diogu on the ekwe instrument as they perform the Ekpuru and Nkwa Mgba of the Ngwa in Abia State of Nigeria. His wife (right) dances to the pulsating music”---Ugochukwu Okoroafor

“Simple. Invredible…Possessed

by the spirits or not, Dr. Achilihu has shown uncommon dexterity in playing the “Ekwe” instrument during the Ekpuru and Nkwa Mgba performance during his mother’s wake keep…I love this.” --Eluwa Sam

“Piqued and tantalized by Dr. Goddy Achilihu’s mesmerizing mastery of the handling and performing with his Ngwa cultural music ensembles and their deepest nuances as in this display, will surely make some wish for a chance, another chance, really, to do like him. Excellent display by Dr. Achilihu here, I must say”- Onugha Beneth

“He must be an old boy of the traditional music before he left for US. No wonder he is loved by all. His mother will be smiling wherever she’s now. You are my man”- Kachi Chidera.

“A piece of the rich Ngwa cultural music, possessed and under the inspiration of the Ngwa spirit, ready, just ready to go”- Rt. Hon. Uzo Azubuike

“This is truly tantalizing performance by Doc, blessings” - Dauda N. Iliya

“Awesome tribute to a loving mother” – Ify Eleje

“Oh! I am full of goosebumps and emotion” – Bright O.

“@Dr. Achilihu, the all-rounder! Such a scintillating performance on the Ekwe” – Don Nwokecha

@Thanks to God that Doc didn’t lose his Ngwaness in the US. Mama and her husband must have been smiling and dancing the Ekpuru in the Celestial Ballroom while Doc was beating (the drum)” -Paddy Njoku

Thrills and Frills as Achilihu, Popular Abuja Cardiologist Buries Mother

EVENT

Faces at the funeral of Mama Achilihu, last week. Watch out for detailed list of dignitaries and identities, in TRUE VISION, next week.


Thrills and Frills as Achilihu, Popular Abuja Cardiologist Buries Mother

EVENTRev Sister Maria Nnamdi Helen Osuji Laid to RestFor the Osuji family of Agbaghara Nsu in the Ehime Mbano LGA of Imo State, it was a solemn moment when their sister, Reverend Sister Maria Nnamdi Helen Osuji, of the Daughters of Divine Love (DDL) Congregation, who was laid to rest at the DDL cemetery Enugu on 12th November 2021. Sister Maria was born on 27th January 1950 and died on 14th October 2021.

Sister Maria

Left, Chief Frank Nwodu, Hon. Chief Pat Osuji (younger brother of the deceased) and his wife Lady Chika Osuji at the funeral mass

The funeral Mass

Mother General of DDL, Rev. Mother Ann E. Dike with Hon. Pat Osuji and his wife Lady Chika Osuji at the funeral.


Development

SustainabilityThe issue of sustainability is at

the heart of all discussions about development. Development itself is all about improvements in the general welfare, well-being and livelihood of the people. It is not a single, one-time event. It is a dynamic process that should be sustained over time. Ordinary dictionary meanings would talk about sustainability in terms of ability to keep an action or process going (Webster’s Abridged Dictionary of the English Language (1989)).

But the United Nations has given a widely quoted meaning of sustainable development as that “development that meets the needs of the present generation without compromising the ability of future generations to meet: their own needs” (Brundlland Commission, UN 2010). Among the indices espoused in the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SGDs) are ending poverty, ensuring food security, good health and well-being.

How has insecurity, therefore, impacted on food security and genera! well-being of Nigerians? Let us look at how insecurity has impacted on agriculture.

Agriculture and InsecurityAn increasing number of farmers

in Nigeria have abandoned their farms due to rising insecurity caused by Boko Haram attacks and conflicts between farmers and herdsmen (Nwanze, 2021). In March 2021, for instance, Governor Samuel Ortom of Benue State was attacked by armed herders when he visited his farm. Okojie (2021) notes that agricultural activities have been greatly and adversely impacted as farmers had to abandon their farmlands due to rising insecurity problems of banditry, kidnapping and terrorism in some of the major food producing areas.

Nagging security problems have led to decline in crop and livestock output and provoked food crisis. Terrorism/ banditry and herdsmen attacks in Northern Nigeria, as well as armed robbery and kidnapping in the South, are threatening farmers’ agricultural investments. Growth in the agricultural sector has, therefore, remained inconsistent and continues to slow down since the third quarter of 2016.

Reports of Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) for the first quarter of 2021 show that growth in the agricultural sector slowed down from

Impact Of Insecurity On Sustainable Agricultural And Economic Development

By Professor Jude Ejike NjokuFormer Vice-Chancellor, Federal University of Technology, Owerri, Imo State.

PART 2Continued from last week

3,43 percent in fourth quarter of 2020 to 2.28 percent in the first quarter of 2021. Nigeria loses about $2,3 million (N943m) annually as a result of the conflict between farmers and herders, according to Mercy Crops 2015 Report.

Reduction in national agricultural output resulting from insecurity, have created shortfalls in food supply that have significantly contributed to recent surge in food prices. According to NBS, the 1.30 percent growth in the agricultural sector during the second quarter of 2021, accounted to a decrease of 0.28 percent from the corresponding period of 2020, and a decline of 0.97 percent from the preceding quarter of 2021, due to insecurity.

There is also decline in agriculture’s contribution to-overall national GDP in real terms. From a GDP of 24.65 percent in the fourth quarter of 2020, it fell to 23.78 percent in the first quarter of 2021.

Insecurity has constituted a major setback to agricultural output and productivity and forestalled the country’s drive for sustained growth and generation of substantial foreign exchange for development.

Impact of Insecurity on the Economy

There is a mutually reinforcing interrelationship between the economy and insecurity. A very poor and deteriorating economy actively breeds insecurity, and high levels of insecurity reduce economic growth and development. The Presidential Economic Advisory Council (PEAC) estimates the economic cost of insecurity for Nigeria in 2020 at $10.3 billion, representing 2.6 percent of the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

Insecurity is a very big deterrent

to investment anywhere in the world. This has grave economic implications particularly for Nigeria that is already starved of private investments.

The Doyin Salami - led Presidential Economic Advisory Council has noted that conflicts arid heightened insecurity have reduced business confidence and resulted in declining foreign and domestic investment. Recent data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) show that Nigeria recorded a decline in Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) between 2019 and 2020 due partly to rising national insecurity. For instance, Nigeria received $9.68 billion from capital inflows in 2020, as against $23.99 billion’ in 2019, a decline of 59.6 percent when compared with 2019 figures. The 2020 figure for capital inflow is the lowest recorded by the country in the past four years. The last time Nigeria recorded capital inflows less than $9 billion was in 2016 when it recorded $5.121 billion as foreign capital inflows.

About 20 states in Nigeria did not record any capital importation in 2020 due largely to high levels of insecurity. All the unsecured states in the North-East, for instance, did not record any capital importation in 2020.

The Nigerian Investment Promotion Commission (NIPC) has reported that Nigeria lost about $188.29 billion investment opportunities between 2017 and 2020, representing 92 percent of investment opportunities available to the country. “Nigeria lost $188 billion Investment opportunities in four years”. The report showed that total Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) inflows captured by NIPC during the period was $203.89 billion, while actual FDI inflow was

Nagging security problems have led to decline in crop and livestock output and provoked food crisis. Terrorism/ banditry and herdsmen attacks in Northern Nigeria, as well as armed robbery and kidnapping in the South, are threatening farmers’ agricultural investments.

“

“

President Muhammadu Buhari Dr Mohammed Abubakar


Development


$15.6 billion, representing only 7.65 percent of potential inflow.

The implication is that most investment announcements and expression of interests to invest did not actually materialize or translate into investment inflows.

The gap between announced and actual FDI inflows reflects low levels of investor confidence resulting from structural problems of infrastructure and worsening insecurity. Investor confidence has been adversely affected by the worsening insecurity in the country.

Mabogunje (2021) has identified insecurity as a major driver of persistent food inflation in Nigeria in recent years. Increasing insecurity has put inflationary pressure on food prices and worsened the poverty conditions of the citizenry.

The disruption in movement of goods, services and people has adverse effects on agriculture, Agro-allied industries, trade and commerce in areas most adversely affected by insecurity.

There is a correlation between inflation and insurgency. Some analysts argue that insurgency causes inflation, while others believe that inflation and unemployment breed desperate and dangerous citizens. Economic insecurity is said to be the mother of hopelessness.

Clearly, insecurity has had a very devastating impact on the Nigerian economy. Its overall impact is far more than has been captured in this presentation. Insecurity has impacted every sector of the Nigerian economy, but this is more pronounced in the educational, agricultural and other service sectors of the economy.

It has, nevertheless, had more devastating impact in the Northern areas of Nigeria, particularly the North-Eastern, North-Western and North-Central states of Nigeria than elsewhere. These impacts, will linger for long with unpleasant consequences for the sustainable development of the country.

CURBING NATIONAL INSECURITY

Enthronement of the Right Leadership

It is practically and humanly impossible to completely eliminate insecurity. What is desirable is curbing and reducing insecurity to its barest minimum level that is consistent with normal human existence. In this regard, Tambuwal’s (2021) assertion remains plausible; that is that “Nigeria needs the right leadership to tackle insecurity”. Nigerians must, therefore, strive to install the right leadership for the country at all levels, in the shortest possible time in order to significantly curb insecurity in the country.

What is this right leadership? It

is leadership that cares; leadership that is competent, unbiased, nationalistic in orientation and not parochial; leadership that is visionary, tolerant, accommodating, impartial, that enthrones the principles of fairness, justice and equity, that is not corrupt or does not condone corruption; leadership that has integrity, honesty, is accountable and truly leads with the fear of God.

Providing a Just and Equalitarian Society;

Leadership such as is espoused above should be pre-occupied with creating and re-creating a just, peaceful, equalitarian, united and prosperous society where no man feels oppressed. This is indeed a necessary first step towards fighting and winning the war against insecurity.

We should create a Nigeria where fairness, justice, equality and equal opportunities for all prevail and no man feels oppressed, where citizens are imbued with a sense of pride and patriotism towards their fatherland.

Ensuring Good Governance: Nigerians should be determined, mare than ever before, to enthrone good governance by electing people who

have the right knowledge, competence and character to govern and bring prosperity to the people. Recently, the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) accused Northern Governors of being responsible for the widespread insecurity in the North because they abandoned the youths for long. This accusation can also go for other states in the country where the growth and development of youths has received limited priority. Governments should be inclusive and provide opportunities for employment, growth and development of their citizens.

Building Thrust and Confidence in Government:

There is a general feeling of distrust and lack of confidence in government by the citizenry. There is a feeling of complicity by the Federal Government over the herders-farmers conflict as well as the associated kidnappings, given that government has failed, so far, to take decisive actions against the perpetrators. The Presidential Economic Advisory Council (PEAC) referred to this in its report when it said “In the past, government had launched military operations, involving bombing of suspected hide-outs to tackle banditry and kidnapping. But since the kidnappings heightened in

December 2020, there have been no arrests and prosecution. The failure by government to step up security and intelligence operations, contribute to a deep-rooted sense of mistrust among vulnerable citizens and put them at odds with the government”. Government must, therefore, act and act decisively, in flushing out these bandits, insurgents, kidnappers and terrorists wherever they are, in order to restore the confidence and trust of the people and win the war against terrorism.

Building a Viable Economy: It is known that Nigeria has

deep-rooted economic problems that help to fuel criminality and insecurity in all their ramifications. Despite impressive growth projections recently, the Nigerian economy is still characterized by declining purchasing power parity, severe poverty, massive unemployment and under employment, high inflationary pressure, hunger, malnutrition, food insecurity and deprivation. Government must put in place appropriate macroeconomic and fiscal policies that reverse these trends, create jobs, increase income and reduce poverty and misery among the citizens, which are precursors to insecurity.

Nigeria needs to undertake a

number of policy reforms in order to attract greater foreign direct and local investments arid create jobs for its citizens, The country needs not only policy reform but also regulatory and institutional reforms to create a viable economy. Foreign exchange reforms, trade policy reforms, regulatory reforms that are investment-friendly, and creation of more opportunities for public, private partnership especially in infrastructural development are urgently needed for sustainable economic growth and development.

There is urgent need to Invest Heavily in Security Personnel”.

Security experts are of the view that Nigeria’s security agencies are over-stretched, poorly equipped,

There is a general feeling of distrust and lack of confidence in government by the citizenry. There is a feeling of complicity by the Federal Government over the herders-farmers conflict as well as the associated kidnappings, given that government has failed, so far, to take decisive actions against the perpetrators.

“

“ Continued on page 12

Continued from page 10

IGP Usman Alkali Babagana Monguno


Development

inadequately remunerated and, therefore, ill-motivated. Government should, therefore, invest heavily in the security agencies and equip them adequately, while beefing up their strength significantly. They should also be paid attractive living wages and all other welfare issues attendant to their operations addressed. They should also be regularly trained and re-trained to enhance their combat-readiness.

Improved Strategy and Modern Technology should be adopted: related to the foregoing is the issue of improved strategy and modern technology in the fight against insurgency, banditry, kidnapping and other forms of terrorism and criminality. In this digital age, when information and communication technology has revolutionized the world, the fight against insecurity should involve a combination of superior strategy and modern technology, as practiced in the United States of America and other developed countries of the world.

Government should invest heavily in technology-powered combat weapons capable of overpowering the terrorists. The requisite manpower that can effectively operate these weapons should also be trained adequately.

Decentralizing National Security Architecture is now the way to go. Nigeria’s security system needs decentralization. This is to enable other levels of government (state and local), to take security-related decisions and responsibilities in their areas of jurisdiction. The issues of state police and regional security outfits easily come to mind in this respect. The Federal Government should support these efforts at decentralization and assist in guiding their birth and maturity. The state, local government and communities need to play more active roles and maintaining peace and security in their areas of jurisdiction.

Enlisting Security into Concurrent Legislative List: To effect the devolution of security powers among the different tiers of government, the executive and legislative arms of government need to collaborate in moving security from the

exclusive to the concurrent list of the country’s constitution.

The Role of Society; Security generally should be the responsibility of everybody in society. There is currently widespread use and abuse of hard drugs which helps to fuel the existing high level of criminality and insecurity in the country. The family has a major role to play in the proper up-bringing of children and reducing addiction to hard drugs. The church also has an important role to play in this regard.

There is a raging controversy over open grazing and its ban. While the seventeen Governors of Southern Nigeria have endorsed the ban, the Federal Government is pussy-footing, and indeed against the ban. It is appropriate to state that open grazing is an outdated technology and should be done away with. This is particularly so

because it’s ban has great potentials for ending the clashes between farmers and herdsmen in most parts of the country.

The proposal has also been made to grant amnesty to some repentant Boko Haram insurgents who have surrendered in their thousands and laid down their arms, The genuineness of such repentant terrorists has also been called to question by critical stakeholders, particularly in the most adversely affected areas. Opposition is mounting against granting them blanket amnesty, and possibly integrating some into the armed forces.

Government should not be in a hurry to grant seemingly repentant insurgents and bandits blanket amnesty. They should be received and kept under watch for a reasonable length of time. Past experiences in some northern states, shows that some

bandits who were granted amnesty in the past, eventually returned to their trenches.

Government should rather show magnanimity and maturity by dialoguing with other groups like IPOB and the group led by Sunday Igboho, who are not terrorist perse, but agitators for self-determination.

Special rehabilitation programmes need to be designed to rehabilitate farmers and other vulnerable groups from the most adversely affected areas by insecurity to enable them return to their farms and increase their farm output and productivity. This way, agriculture can be revitalized and made to play its traditional role of providing adequate food supply for the growing population, generating surpluses for export and providing of foreign exchange to finance development.

There should be special security arrangement to protect children, students and staff in our schools and other educational institution against the spate of kidnappings occurring recently.

Universities, other tertiary institutions and research organizations should undertake well-planned and organized research into the history, nature, character and operational modalities of insurgents, bandits, kidnappers and herdsmen, to provide hard data for future plans and strategies for curbing insecurity.

Previous negotiations with bandits and insurgents in the north had also collapsed. Perhaps, the most plausible strategy is to declare war on them and fight them to total or partial submission.

CONCLUSIONFor Nigeria, the road to sustainable

agricultural and economic development is still a long and tortuous one. It requires immediate, short-term and long-term strategies, among which is the restoration of peace and security of lives and property. Some of the monetary and fiscal policy reforms earlier proposed, are also part of this strategy.

However, there is no quick-fix solution to the problem of national

insecurity. Insecurity is part of human existence, and we live in a world that is largely insecure. Our national aspiration, in this regard, should be to reduce insecurity to the barest minimum threshold consistent with decent and peaceful existence as a nation. This is where competent, strong, fair, just and equitable leadership comes into play.

It is only in an atmosphere of peace and tranquility that Nigeria’s agriculture can play its traditional role of contributing to sustainable economic development. The military and other security agencies alone cannot do this. A!! hands must be on deck to achieve this.

In the final analysis, it is God that will grant Nigeria victory over

Universities, other tertiary institutions and research organizations should undertake well-planned and organized research into the history, nature, character and operational modalities of insurgents, bandits, kidnappers and herdsmen, to provide hard data for future plans and strategies for curbing insecurity.

“

“


Continued from page 11Zainab Ahmed Godwin Emefiele


NEWS

All the contractors awarded the ring roads cutting across Abakaliki, Ebonyi and Izzi

Local Government Areas of Ebonyi State, by Governor David Nweze Umahi’s led administration have been assured of their security while executing the project in any part of the councils.

President General of Oha Izhi, the apex sociocultural organisation of Izhi people, HRH Eze S.N Oketa gave the assurance on during the advocacy and sensitization visit by the officials of the organisation to Izhi Inyimegu Autonomous Community in Izzi Local Government Area of the state.

The President General was speaking at the heels of a reported case on security threats against some contractors undertaking the ring road project in some parts of the state.

Eze Oketa, the Onuoha III of Nkaleke Echara Autonomous Community said that Oha Izhi Nnodo remains resolute in promoting peaceful co-existence among Izhi people, strangers in their land and the neighbourhoods, especially in driving development to their towns and communities.

“In Izhi land, we are known as a peace living people and lovers of strangers, - nothing will stop our accommodative spirit. So, we must always make sure that those working on the ring roads cutting across Izhi communities in Abakaliki, Ebonyi and Izzi Local Government Areas are well take care of, especially on their security. Oha Izhi is happy with our able Governor, for awarding this ring road, and our assurance is that the security of the workers are guaranteed in Izhi land,” the President General stated.

He also commended Govenor David Nweze Umahi’s developmental strides in the state, saying his performance in his current office remained laudable and prayed for his successful emergence as the President of Nigeria come 2023.

Oketa said the body has made voter registration


Two teams from the Turkish Hospital and Ministry of Aviation, Abuja

has arrived Ebonyi state to access the work done at the University of Medical Sciences (UMS), Uburu, and the Ebonyi International Airport.

Francis Nwaze, the special Assistant to the Governor on Media and Publicity said the team was led by Yasar Ovenc, Geberal Managing Director, GMD, Turkish Hospital, and Prof. Huseyin Sert Chancellor of Nile University, and Turkish Advisory Board Member.

The UMS has since become a reality with medical equipment currently being installed, while all is set for its

compulsory for every Izhi child at the age of eighteen years and above, noting that the enforcement would commence soon.

He urged all Izhi children living outside Ebony State to do the continuous voter registration (CVR) or transfer the already registered ones to any polling unit alotted to Izhi villages, to ensure their votes count in producing credible leaders, especially the President of the country and the governor of the state come 2023 elections.

“In 2023, Izhi son will become the Governor of Ebonyi State and our prayer is that our amiable

Governor, Chief David Nweze Umahi will move to Aso Rock as the President of Nigeria, because of his good works in our state,” Oketa said.

Lending his voice, the Oha Izhi Secretary General, Chief John Nkwuda said, unlike before, the clan has currently a constitution, serving as a guiding compass of the people, and urged individual families to get at least a copy to know the rules and regulations guiding the clan and to avoid falling victims of its provisions.

Nkwuda said that ‘the constitution allows every Izhi cultural practice, which promotes peace

and unity, championing human welfares and general development, but condemns kindred dicotomy, criminal activities including robbery, burglary, thefts, rape, cultism, notorious litigant, political thuggery, killings, among others their land.

On his part, the Oha Izhi Vice President, Chief Boniface Ezaegu enumerated the achievements of the organisation, which included the reconciliation of the conflict between Izhi community, Enyigba in Abakaliki LGA and that of her brotherly clan - Enyibuchiri in Ikwo Council Area, their intervention during the Fulani herders’ attack on the people of Nwori Nduobashi in Ndiegu Ishieke Autonomous Community, etc.

He advised the people to be promoting Izhi cultures, starting from child naming, by ensuring that their children bear original Izhi names, and not allowing them to be overtaken by the foreign ones, just because of their belief and civilization.

Ezaegu also encouraged the people to be observing the cultures of new yam festival (Ojiji), feast for the departed souls with

legacies (Otutara), special banquet for the kindred (Jioke), cultural carnival (Oboiphe), traditional marriage and burial rites, which he described as a genuine practice originated from their ancestors, that should not be allowed to go into extinction by all Izhi children successively.

Speaking further on the security of the ring road workers in Izhi land, the Publicity Secretary of the body, Apostle Benjamin Obaji urged all the community leaders to ensure a thorough and steady vigilance in their areas.

He tasked them on security of public facilities in their various towns, stressing that Izhi people remained ever grateful over the newly awarded ring roads by the governor of the state and called for a collective effort to ensure hitch free movement of the workers while executing the project in their various communities.

Izhi Inyimegu community stakeholders including the State Commissioner for Education - Dr Sunday Nwangele, Nnodo Development Coordinator - Chijioke Nwuzor, Izhi Inyimegu Traditional Ruler

- HRH Eze Linus Nwizi, the Traditional Ruler of Izhi Community in Lagos State - HRH Eze Cyprain Nwekee (Eze Izhi Gbirim), the Town Union President - Abraham Ugama, the Provost of Ebonyi School of Science and Technologies, Ngbo - Elder Stephen Nwamkpuma, the Chairman Planning Committee of the event, Edwin Nwekee, the Leader of Ebubeagu Southeast Security in Nnodo Development Centre, Ikechukwu Otozi, among others applauded Oha Izhi for embarking on such advocacy campaign, describing the sensitization as a huge investment for advancement of Izhi land and entire society.

Eze Izhi Gbirim therefore, pledged to carry out the sensitization programme to Lagos State, believing that other Izhi community leaders would extend the message to their people, to benefit from the new development in their land and as well, maximise it for wider consumption.

Donation of gifts including cows and cash by the community people with the launching of the constitution, cultural dance, displays of masquerades and refreshment were the highlights of the occasion.

Ebonyi Ring Roads: Oha Izhi Assures Security of Workers, Sensitizes on CVR

Turkish Hospital, Aviation Ministry Team Visit Ebonyi, Applaud King David Medical Varsity


maiden matriculation ceremony scheduled to hold next month with the initial students’ intake of about 300 students.

The two teams

who were visibly excited and satisfied after being conducted round the Medical Institution and Ebonyi State International Airport by Governor

David Umahi who explained stage by stage, the different departments of the institution, simply described the project as very monumental.

Departments inspected by the visiting teams include; the Cancer Center, the Kidney and Liver Transplant Center, the Eye Clinic, the Radiography and scanning departments, lecture halls, pharmaceutical sciences department, E-learning library, laboratory, anatomy department, and Dialyzer production center, among others.

The UMS Uburu, is the only medical institution in Africa that will soon start producing Dialyzers and Ebonyi State Government will have the patent.

Meanwhile, arrangements have been on top gear for the visit of President Muhammadu Buhari to commission the world-class Medical Institution and other key projects executed by Governor David Umahi in the state.

Gov David Umahi


EDITORIAL

It is not for nothing they are called ivory towers. A university or tertiary institution represents the highest level in learning, character and culture to be attained by man. It could be said that no one who has earned tutelage in a university environment would remain at the level of a lowly animal.

But it is the worst of human malevolence which manifested recently at the University Ilorin.

It must be noted upfront that UNILORIN, among the second generation federal citadels of learning has over the years acquited itself quite well. It has consistently been a high flyer in many faculties of learning representing among the overall best institutions of higher learning in Nigeria.

But the dark event of last week, may be a pointer to the depth of decay on which the institution currently sits.

As the story goes, a 400-level student of Microbiology, Salaudeen Waliu reportedly attacked one of his lecturers, Mrs Rahmat Zakariyyah, and beat her until she lapsed into a coma.

According to the story, Mr. Waliu had failed to do his compulsory Students Industrial Work Experience Scheme (SIWES). This is an industrial attachment which allows students to earn practical experience in between studies. It forms part of the overall learning process which qualifies students of such departments to earn a rounded degree.

Upon Mr Waliu’s return to school after two months, he had approached his teacher, Mrs Zakariyyah to grant him a waiver. His story being that he had been arrested and detained during the period he was to carry out the SIWES programme. As the story goes, his teacher had refused him and he pounced on her. As reported, he beat her freely in her office and even dragged her out and pummeled her some more until she fell into a coma.

The university authority has moved in promptly, putting Mr Waliu through the Students Disciplinary Committee which handed him an expulsion verdict. He

however, has a 48-day window within which he could appeal to the vice chancellor. He has also been handed over to the police, according to report.

The first point to be raised here is the question of the safety of work areas of lecturers. From the above account, Mrs Zakariyyah has no security protection whatsoever from the least predator. She could easily have been killed. In all the assaulting and battering, no help came from fellow lecturers, students or the school’s security system, until she was beaten to near dead. That suggests a huge security lacuna in the UNILORIN system that must be addressed urgently.

Another point to note is that Mr Salaudeen Waliu, aka Captain Walz’s behaviour tends towards deviance. From his nickname to his story about being mobbed in Ikeja and later to be arrested and detained by the police in Lagos for two months, are tales told by miscreants, not students. In the face of widespread drug use in the society today and acute deviancy which abound nigh everywhere, it is incumbent on university authorities to put up some resistance to antisocial behaviours on campus.

It is not too difficult to pick out students who are bad or are going bad - the drug addicts, the cultists and those who manifest various forms of deviant and antisocial behaviours. With just a minimum observation, such students would be identified in hostels, lecture halls, libraries or departmental offices. University authorities could set up antisocial behaviour teams which would find and invite such students for discussion and eventual help. The team should be set up in a way that the mere fact of an invitation should send a serious signal to any student to have a change of behaviour.

It seems that in the name of individual liberty and freedom, university authorities have become very aloof and much removed from the students’ body. Freedom has become licence for students to delve into acts injurious to both them and the entire

ecosystem of learning. The school shouldn’t wait until a heinous crime is committed by students before they face the Students Disciplinary Committee; flailing students must he identified and sent warning signals before they reach the stage where they are beyond salvage and the the only option available is expulsion and possible prosecution and incarceration as we have in the case of Mr waliu.

Orientation for freshers should be taken more seriously; and periodic acculturation programmes which could impact on students’ overall aggregate scores could be introduced.

Time was when it was a taboo for students to quarrel or fight on campus. The consequence was early graduation. Today, students terrorise fellow students freely and now lecturers are on the back foot against their students.

Mrs Zakariyyah could easily have been intimidated to grant the menacing student waiver for a compulsory programme he neglected to do. How many more lecturers have been forced by unruly students to dole out unearned marks to them.

The near-fatal assualt of Mrs Zakariyyah by her student who sought to coerce her into awarding him unearned points must be the limit in the growing bestiality on our campuses. Let the various authorities who have been charged to manage these institutions begin to live up to their assignments. The other day at the Obafemi Awolowo University, a female student died at the school’s health centre, an incident the student body blamed on the crass negligence of the authorities. Their protests spilled to the highway causing the closure of the school. This caused further setback to the university’s calendar already scrambled by the COVID19 hiatus. Have we heard of any disciplinary measures against the management of the university health system?

These lackaidesical ways cannot continue in our ivory towers. The university authorities in particular and vice chancellors in concert must arrest this incipient decay in the system.

To build a technology-driven, media organization that benchmarks global standards of corporate governance while promoting equity, justice and fairness as the primary drivers of economic development, anchored on liberal democracy.

To democratize the public information management space in such a way

that the people take ownership of the process, geared towards establishing

an inclusive society.

MISSION VISION

The Bestiality at Unilorin• Committee of Vice Chancellors must act in concert to seek to reclaim our

universities. They are currently consigned in the abyss of depravity...


WEDNESDAY NOVEMBER 24-SUNDAY NOVEMBE 28, 2021

INSIGHT

Africa: What Went Wrong?

Flag Plus Anthem Without Unity

Goodluck Jonathan Foundation, Spearheads Search for Answers (Part 1)

True

V ISION INSIGHT

INSIGHT

By Emma Agu

When Professor Abdoulaye Bathily took the podium to deliver the keynote address at the Goodluck Jonathan Foundation’s Policy Dialogue last Friday, anyone

with a faint idea of his pedigree would know that fireworks were to be expected. Though he started cautiously, by the time he had attained cruising level, it was obvious that Bathily had not lost any of his fiery background.

The first sign was the Nigerians whom he chose to pay post-humous tribute to, those he acknowledge, in a manner of speaking, as his mentors: Apart from history Czar, Ade Ajayi, all others, from Modupe Omolara Ogundipe, Sam Aluko, Essien Udom, Ikenna Nzimiro, Wahab Goodluck etc; were mostly left-wing leaning scholars and civil society leaders who were torch-bearers of the Marxist ferment that engulfed the country in the early seventies, up to the nineties. Is the ferment over? That is a debatable question.

Africa, Bathily started, was steeped in unremitting crisis, one that required radical and immediate surgery to excoriate the blights that obfuscate national identity and threaten national stability with cruel repercussions. In one word, Africa is dying. Can it be salvaged? Bathily led the discussion with professorial aplomb, digging deep into historical circumstances that birthed today’s disorienting governance paradigm.

An assemblage of technocrats, diplomats and politicians joined the fray to chart a trajectory that, hopefully, would extricate Africa, nay Nigeria from the path of contrived self-immolation. Edo State Governor Godwin Obaseki, Ekiti State Governor, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, Bauchi State Governor Senator Bala Mohammed, Her Excellency, Deputy Governor of Bayelsa State, Ambassador Nkoyo Toyo, Dean of Law at the University of Nigeria Professor Joy Ezeilo, took turns to answer the question: how do African nations navigate the paradoxical relationship between democracy and the unity of the state?

But before Bathily, and the discussants President Goodluck Jonathan who, long before guests had started arriving, was seated there with his wife Dame Patience Jonathan, to receive guests to the event, had set the tone for the day’s discussion.

Speaking to the theme of the policy dialogue: Democracy and Unity of the State, Jonathan whose was President of Nigeria between 2010 and 2015 and who has the distinction of being the first sitting president to concede in an election in Africa, said that the objective was to encourage the practice of democracy on the continent. “The democratic process in Africa must be mentored and encouraged” Jonathan said. Using apt biological comparisons, the former President likened democracy to the human being whose every behaviour followed some deliberate mentoring or shaping.

This shaping, he deposed, imposed responsibilities on various social groups-the media and the civil society who, despite the existence of institutions, should discharge their duty of ensuring compliance with best practices. The recognition of the role of civil society, said President Jonathan, had informed the intervention of the Goodluck Jonathan

Africa: Flag Plus Anthem Without UnityWhat Went Wrong?

Foundation, in the effort to deepen the democratic process on the continent.

Delving into history, he drew the attention of the audience to the Greek classification of members of the society into idiots, tribesmen and citizens and that the Greeks believed that to practice democracy, everybody must participate. Therefore, since only citizens could participate, the need for mentoring became inevitable as neither the idiots whose basic passions were

driven by personal satisfaction or hedonism, nor tribesmen who recognised only their kith and kin. As in being nepotistic, could approximate the ethical standards required by democracy.

Drawing applause from the enchanted audience, Jonathan waxed stronger as he posited: “We must share experiences” before adding the poser: “How do we come up with structures and processes that can mitigate the excesses in idiots and statesmen?” DIALECTICAL

President Jonathan (R), Sen. Bala Mohammed (L) and other guest

Guests

Gov. Yahaya Bello of Kogi StateSen Bala Mohammed (2nd left), Saminu Turaki, SAN (R) and other guest

President Goodluck Jonathan and Sen Adetunbi Olubunmi, representattive of Ekiti State governor, Gov kayode Fayemi

Gov Godwin Obaseki (2nd left), Prof Adebayo Olukoshi (3rd left), Ayuba Wabba (L), Prof Anthonia Simbile (2nd R), Dr. Idiyat Hassan and a guest


INSIGHT

INSIGHT

Flag Plus Anthem Without UnityWhat Went Wrong?

That was the stage when the Bathily, the ebullient professor of the social sciences, painted a gloomy picture of the African condition. Africa, millions of Africans, Bathily pointed out, had turned into refugees. The African condition, he said, was characterised by poverty, senseless killings by terrorist groups, xenophobia, chauvinism. Africa, he lamented, was faced with tremendous challenges, a situation he said, left the continent with one of two options: to

allow more chaos, dictatorship and slaughter or embrace resistance, democracy and unity.

He was unambiguous about the option that Africa must choose. Quoting Frantz Fanons timeless invocation to the effect that every generation has to discover its mission, fulfil it or betray it, Bathily charged that we (Africans) are to fulfil our mission. Challenging the continents leaders, he said: “It is up to African politicians to find solutions to African problems in solidarity

with each other”. Serious introspection and honest research into the root causes and how to solve the problems had become imperative.

Now, here is the problem, as identified by Bathily: Africa has long woken up to the realisation that national flag or national anthem does not guarantee legitimacy. Reason: the states in Africa inherited from colonialism are not the products of any agreement by the constituent units. They were imposed by violence by an “alien force”, the colonial conqueror who brought together fiercely different ethnic groups, at all levels. The colonial state did not have the objective of creating an African nation. Rather, the goal was to dominate, for resources and cheap labour. Thus, the crisis of nation-building currently bedevilling most African nations, is a product of how the states emerged coupled with the inability of the leadership to find solutions to the problems. He cited the examples of Cote d’Ivoire and Senegal where, especially in the former, the nationality question which remains unresolved, has derailed developmental focus and paralyzed the country in the past ten years or so. It was obvious that, in line with the finest traditions of diplomacy, Bathily carefully avoided mentioning his host country Nigeria that, even as he spoke, was enmeshed in the most invidious separatist agitations since post-independence. But the message was not lost on the audience who, each time it applauded, reflected a recognition that guest speaker was indeed coming closer home.

Bathily would explain that managing the diversity forced on African nation states should consider the historical origin of the states as excluding people who have lived in a place for hundreds of years was bound to create political crisis. “Managing diversity is a must for any state if it has to remain as a united entity. Unfortunately, during the battle for independence, the national project, whether it was through negotiations to accede to independence or through armed struggle, the national project did not incorporate the management of diversity…The national project was not reflected upon as a need to change the course of the history of the people”.

Based on that Bathily posed the nagging problem thus: “How do you create the colonial (I will say re-create) state into a new one where a new national consciousness and identity would emerge?”

He does not stop there; and better still to hear him in his own words:

“Between 1959 and 1960, almost every month, we celebrated one new flag. We thought that raising the flag and singing national anthem would be enough to create a new nation. But after 60 years of independence, we have seen that that is not enough. We need better than that. There is need to think through the conditions in which the state can be built more efficiently, the conditions in which the people can co-exist peacefully and harmoniously. In much of Africa, we have borrowed western political, economic and social institutions but in view of what is happening today in the continent, we can see that we have not been able to create new credible states which will cater to the needs of the people and allow for the interests of the people as a whole. We have not created a nation for the citizens.

“We have to revisit our political systems. For example, is the presidential system of leadership adequate as it is functioning in many African countries? The parliamentary system with the local government and judiciary: 60 years on, it is high time that we look at them very critically. We give more focus in politics and processes at the top level of the state at the expense of people at the grassroots level. Lip service is paid to the people at the grassroots level while political parties are hijacked by criminal gangs making money through illegal means. When this group is in power, they hold us to ransom.”

Gov Bala Mohammad in a handshake with Prof Josepgh Golwa while Emma Agu watches on

Gov Bala Mohammad answering journalists questions

Gov Bala Mohammed (M), Past John Kennedy Opara and a guest

Gov Bala Mohammed in a discussion with Ms Ann Iyonu, Executive Director, Goodluck Jonathan Foundation

Gov Bala Mohammed in a discussion with ast John Kennedy Opara

President Goodluck Jonathan in a handshake with ace broadcaster and Compere, Eugenia Abu


INSIGHT

Concluding his political prognosis, Bathily said: “The situation is compounded by corruption, nepotism and ethnic politics. There is an urgent need, he said, to urgently redressing this insalubrious state of affairs “before it is too late, before the states of Africa collapse one after the other, before chaos takes place irredeemably.

THE WAY FORWARDPondering the way forward, Bathily opined

that since the crisis of diversity management bedevilling the states of Africa reflected the crisis of leadership on the continent, there was the need for a new quality of leadership; a visionary leadership armed with new code of governance, a new ethic and a compassionate leadership; not somebody who pretends to know everything but one who is ready to learn from others-a humble leadership that will know that when in office, they do not represent their ethnic group, kith and kin, cronies but the whole nation, its diversity, who needs to be firm and honest in a dedicated manner.

Second, Bathily proposed, Africa needs to new state from the state inherited from the colonial system, a state that accommodates all the citizens irrespective of their ethnic and religious backgrounds, a state that is at the centre of the promotion of the interests of the people.

Thirdly, Bathily advocates the reform of the political party system; in an environment that strengthens the civil society as a counterweight to the executive and judicial branches

Fourth, the economic model must be reshaped from what he described as the “colonial pact”-a model of liberal economic policy which has put Africa in a situation of permanent suppliers of raw materials in agriculture, minerals etc.

“Looking at the partnership that Africa is entering into with the rest of the world, Africa is like a waste lamb on a table. All the other partners came with a fork or knife to cut us up”

The Bretton Woods system, he warned, still looms large and poverty will never be eradicated. Instead more hunger, more destruction and more famine will be the order of the day. therefore, a new economic agenda for the continent should be put on the agenda for the dialogue. But he did not state what form the economic agenda would take. Because, outside the liberal economic model of the West, what is left is the Chinese and Russian models. Should Africa go for either of the two or reinvent the wheel? He did not say.

Education, he said, should be prioritized and reformed, as the major instrument for the development of a nation given that cultural, scientific, political understanding among the citizens of a country depended on it.

Of course, he harped on the imperative of rebuilding peace due to the level of destruction that has taken place on the African continent. Based on the protracted crisis on the continent, he posited that the international concept of peace keeping does not work. It has not worked in DRC in all of 60 years neither has it worked in CAR in 20 years. Owing to this, he advocates a recourse to traditional mechanisms of peace building to rescue Africa from internecine conflicts and deep seated animosity.

THE OTHER VIEWSBathily’s submissions received resounding

applause not only for the profundity of thought but the candour with which he addressed issues that contemporaneously, buffeted the Nigerian

State. It was therefore not surprising when speaker after speaker underscored the need to create the enabling environment for peaceful co-existence, diversity management and sustained development.

Kogi State Governor, Yahaya Bello started by recalling President Jonathan’s statesmanlike legacy when he conceded the election to Muhammadu Buhari in 2015. Jonathan, Governor Yahaya Bello said: “took the path of personal honour and national interest, a singular feat of selflessness and love for the state”.

He described Africa’s democracy as a toddler still learning to walk, noting that the people hardly spoke with one voice. Going forward, he advocates a marriage of consensus that precludes parochial interests; he wants greater unity not division. He declared that his concept of one Nigeria was not one where every one is held down by force or fear, but one in which everyone is allowed to thrive at his or her own pace. He further advocates substitution of state of origin with place of residence as a panacea to the rabid ethnicity that is tearing the country apart.

Senate President Ahmed Lawan towed the line of heaping encomiums on President Jonathan whom he commended for committing his energy, since leaving office, to ensuring that Nigeria remained united and focused as a people.

NEXT WEEK: DETAILS OF THE DIALOGUE THAT ENSUED. (AHMED LAWAN. COMRADE WAHAB. BALA MOHAMMED. JOY EZEILO. DON’T MISS IT.

Flag Plus Anthem Without Unity

“We have to revisit our political systems. For example, is the presidential system of leadership adequate as it is functioning in many African countries? The parliamentary system with the local government and judiciary: 60 years on, it is high time that we look at them very critically.

“

“

President Goodluck Jonathan (M), Ms Ann Iyonu (L), Prof Joy Ezilo of UNN (2nd), Amb. Nkoyo Toyo, Gov Bala Mohammed ( 3rd right), Sen. Adetumbi Olubunmi (2nd right) and Eugene Abu

President Goodluck Jonathan and Dr. (Mrs) Patience Jonathan with other guest

President Goodluck Jonathan in a conversation with Emma Agu

Gov Bala Mohammed making a contribution


Empowerment Watch

The Beginning:It started like a joke. Standing

at the balcony of its posh hotel in Dubai, David Adeleke widely known as Davido playfully post-ed his account number, asking friends to donate for his birth-day.

That was the singular post that in less than 48 hours pro-duced about N200 million.

According to Davido, he ini-tially wanted to ask just close friends only, but ended up post-ing it online.

Few days later, Davido an-nounced that he was donating the N200 million plus his per-sonal donation of N50 million to orphanages to help give children in those places a good life.

According to Davido, who made a personal donation of N50million to the cause, giving and helping people around him was one of his biggest joys in life.

He said, “I wish to express my sincere gratitude to my friends, colleagues, fans and the public for the generous expression of love in recent days.

“In my usual playful manner, I requested a few days ago that my friends and colleagues send me money in celebration of my birthday. The response and out-come exceeded my expectations as I received about N200million in less than two days. I truly ap-preciate everyone who donated hard-earned funds and I am very thankful for your generosity.

“I have always been passion-ate about giving back and help-ing people. In view of this, I am delighted to announce that all the funds received will be donat-ed to orphanages across Nigeria as well as the Paroche Founda-tion.

“In addition, I will be making a personal donation of N50mil-lion, bringing the total amount to N250million,” Davido said.

Faces In The Distribution Committee.

The distribution of the fund will be overseen by a five-person committee made up of Mrs Titi Adebayo (Chairman of the com-mittee), Prof Jonathan Nwosu (Secretary of the committee), Prof Yahana Asabe of the North-ern Nigeria Seventh Day Adven-tist Union Conference, Pastor (Dr) Oyalabu of Spring Time Development Foundation, and Prof Uloma Onuoha.

All Donors Matter: In appreciating the donors,

the hip hop singer has acknowl-edged all categories of donors, big and small. Davido said that he was more fascinated by fans who sent him small amounts of money they could afford, be-

DavidoA Smart Heart for the Needy

“This N200m that I am hear-ing about and seeing on social media is surprising to me. If someone like me who is popular and well known was not helped, it is people and orphanages that no one knows that is be-ing helped; they are been given N250m, it is so funny. I will ad-vise Nigerians and Black people to be wise and stop all these things.

“White people do not do all these things. All what we are do-ing will look so funny to them. I am not saying that giving mon-ey to orphanages is a bad thing because I am an ambassador to an NGO that I do not collect a dime from. But funny enough, when I was depressed and had problems, the NGO did not re-spond. You see how we are. Now I am seeing N200m and they are posting it everywhere; Davido gives money to orphanages and inaugurates a five-man com-mittee to distribute that money. Everything sounds funny to me.

“If I see someone doing good, I appreciate them; I am not say-ing it is a bad thing. I just want to ask people why someone like me that people know, who cried out; why did they not help the person that they know? It is the people that they do not know or can see their faces that they are helping out with N250m. Let’s all think; will we call that wick-edness or ignorance?

“I tagged the Delta, Rivers and Lagos State government, none of them came to my aid. Is that wickedness or ignorance? But today I am seeing that N250m is going to be distrib-uted to orphanages all over Ni-geria. I will advise Nigerians to open their eyes.”

List of Donors; Some of the donors to the Da-

vido’s birthday include: Zlatan Ibile – 1,000,000Ikorodu Bois – 5,000Richie Richie – 1,000,000Mr Eazi – 1,000,000Papaya_Ex – UndisclosedE Money – UndisclosedKolaqalagbo – 1,000,000Aluya Richie – 1,000,000Chike – 1,000,000Nengi – 1,000,000Money Maker – 1,000,000Sir Banko – 1,000,000Adekunle Gold – 1,000,000Evih – 1,000,000Peruzzi – 1,000,000Mr Peak – 1,000,000Teni – 1,000,000Akin Alabi – UndisclosedBaba Ali – 1,500,000Charles of Play – 1,000,000Cubana Chief Priest – 1MNaira Marley – 1,000,000Patoranking – Undisclosed

Obi Cubana – Undisclosed

Femi Otedola – UndisclosedNasboi – 1,000,000M.I. Abaga – 1,000,000Eniola Badmus – 1,000,000Etc.

Who Is Davido:David Adedeji Adeleke, born

November 21, 1992 in Atlanta Georgia is a Nigerian-American singer, songwriter, and record producer.

Popularly known as Davido, the famous singer rose to fame after releasing “Dami Duro”, the second single from his debut studio album Omo Baba Olowo (2012).

In 2012, Davido won the Next Rated award at The Headies. Between 2013 and 2015, he also released a number of hit singles and in January 2016 he signed a record deal with Sony Music. He then founded the record la-bel Davido Music Worldwide (DMW), to which acts Dremo, Mayorkun, Peruzzi and Liya have been signed.

In July 2016, Davido signed a record deal with Sony’s RCA Records. In October 2016, he released the 5-track EP Son of Mercy, which was supported by the singles “Gbagbe Oshi”, “How Long” and “Coolest Kid in Afri-ca”.

In April 2017, Davido re-ne-gotiated his contract with Sony due to creative control issues and later that year he released five singles including “If” and “Fall”. “If” generated worldwide social media activity while “Fall” became the longest-charting Nigerian pop song in Billboard history.

Davido has been famously referred to as ‘The king of mod-ern-day afrobeats’.

Davido released his second studio album A Good Time in November 2019, supported by singles including “Blow My Mind”. Davido was cited as one of the Top 100 most influential Africans by New African maga-zine in 2019.

He released his third studio album A Better Time, on Friday 13 November 2020. As at August 2021, Davido is the second most followed African on the social media app Instagram.

Davido’s father, Adedeji Adeleke is a business magnate and his mother Vero Adeleke was a university lecturer. Davido is the youngest of five siblings and his father’s second-born son. He attended the British International School in Lagos, Nigeria, and at the age of 16, he moved back to the US to study business administration at Oak-wood University in Alabama.

Davido has three children. He was engaged to Chioma, the mother of his third child.

Davido

By Anthony Okechukwu

cause it could have been all they had. In a video posted on his Instagram page, Davido said, “It was not even about the mil-lions of naira that I was posting but I was surprised that people were sending N5000, N2000, N3000, N500 and even N100. The money might have been all they had, yet they donated it to me because of the love they have for me and what I stand for.

Davido As Charity Advo-cate:

Davido also encouraged his colleagues in the entertainment industry to collaborate with him annually to raise at least a bil-lion naira to assist the needy. He said, “Let us all put our ego and industry issues aside and help our people because it doesn’t take anything from us. It will be amazing if we could achieve this, and I would like this to be a yearly thing for me and my colleagues to donate to assist people to celebrate my birthday.

Wema Bank Officials’ Chase:

No sooner than cash started flowing in than officials from Wema Bank went to meet with Davido in the United Arab Emir-ates, for a crucial meeting.

The visit was not unconnect-ed with the over N200 million windfall in Davido’s Wema Bank account, hours after he asked his fans and friends to spoil him with donations.

Davido gave his fans a hint on Twitter that the bank wanted to have a meeting with him.

Later, Davido’s lawyer, Bobo

Ajudua, shared pictures of Da-vido and Wema Bank officials with the caption, “Wema Bank finally touch down from Lagos. Ent law life will have you doing meetings at the wildest hours.

Following the post on his In-stagram story, Davido said, “@wema_bank couldn’t wait”, re-vealing his location as the Unit-ed Arab Emirates.

The bank also reposted Ajudua and Davido’s post on their Instagram story.

What The People Say: Since Davido announced his

intention to donate the N250 million to the orphanage, many Nigerians have added their voice to the story. While the ace sing-er was criticised for donating N250m to ‘unknown’ orphans, many others appreciated his kind gestures to the orphans.

Reno Omokri, an aide to for-mer President Goodluck Jona-than has praised music star Da-vido for donating N250 million to orphanages in Nigeria.

Omokri described Davido as wiser than all those who gifted him money when he asked.

In a post on Facebook, Omokri said “Davido is much wiser than all those who gave him money for his birthday.

“He understands the spiritual realm and the ways of God. He has secured a soft spot in the Heart of the Creator, by virtue of James 1:27. I commend him.

“What a heart of Gold. What a man to watch for the future. Could his life trajectory be like Ronald Reagan’s? Those who gave to him are a different issue

entirely. They should read Prov-erbs 22:16.”

“To show you how vain hu-man nature is, very few people will donate N1 million to or-phanages, who really need the money, he added.

“But they will fall over them-selves to donate N1 million to Davido, who doesn’t need the money. Davido understood that. And did what he did.

“If he had asked them to donate to orphanages, you wouldn’t see the deluge of Naira rain you saw.

“Davido showed a deep un-derstanding of human nature. I personally believe that this was his intention all along. And I love how he added N50 million of his own money.

“That will show those who said that he was doing this be-cause he is broke that they are the ones who are broke, both morally and financially”.

Also, popular Nigerian sing-er, Baba Fryo, opined that he was disappointed that the singer neglected him, ‘a known face’, in his trying times, only to gift un-known orphans N250m.

In a speech via his Instagram account, the ‘Dem Go Dey Pose’ singer said, “There is something that I have been seeing on so-cial media that someone gifted orphanages N250m. To me, the thing is funny. I remember when I was depressed, they tagged many of my colleagues; they tagged Davido, Tuface, and oth-ers but none of them responded. It was people that have never seen me in this life, people that do not know me that responded.


NEWS

Aba the great Enyimba city re-cently was all agog as different personalities , from Abuja , Abia and beyond ,converged in Aba and commissioned the largest

shoe production company in the South East of Nigeria.

The Honourable Commissioner for Small and Medium Scale Enterprise and Businesses Development Hon. Adaku Uwaoma Oseiza and the Chairman of the Enyimba Automated Shoe Company - ENA-SCO Mac Chidinma Atasie had invited all Abians to the commissioning of Enyimba Automated Shoe Company, ENASCO - the largest automated shoe company in Aba and that ENASCO would be commissioned by the Senate President of the National As-sembly, His Excellency, Senator Ahmed La-wan who would be hosted by the Governor of Abia state ,Dr Okezie Ikpeazu

The Senate president, Senator Ahmed Lawan arrived Aba in the company of the Senator representing Abia North ,Chief Orji Uzor Kalu and the Senator representing Abia central chief T.A.Orji .

The Senate President of the Nigeria Senate Chamber , Senator Ahmed Lawan, actually commissioned the Enyimba Auto-mated Shoe company in Aba,with a promise to be at the fore front in search of support for the Shoe Company.

Speaking during the commissioning of the company built by the Abia state Gov-ernment, he pointed out that the Federal Government was ready to collaborate with any State with such ventures in order to to reduce the unemployment challenges in the Country.

Lawan commended Governor Ik-peazu, for embarking on the project, saying

The Commissioning of Enyimba Automated Shoe Company Aba by the Senate president

The Senate President during the commissioning of Enyimba Automated Shoe Company Aba, Abia State

...A Road Map To Creation of Employment opportunities To Nigerian Youths as well as An Avenue for Increment in Abia state Internally Generated Revenue

Okey Unegbu, Umuahiathat it is a sign that he was prepared to leave a lasting legacy for the State .

He further informed that Nigeria must patronize local production to remain a prosperous country, adding that the Sen-ate will end moves by Federal Government Agencies to import boots and shoes into the country and direct them to ENASCO which has the capacity to produce 5,000 pairs of shoes daily.

His words, “We cannot continue to im-port everything into Nigeria. We don’t even have foreign reserves anymore. So, this proj-ect in addition to providing employment in Abia directly, will indirectly provide jobs at the leather industries in other states.

“I believe that this project deserves the attention of every Federal agency more es-pecially the ministry of industries itself and indeed the Central BANK must be looking at this direction to expand company.

“While we have 120 youths been em-ployed here, I’m sure that two years after we should quadruple the rate of employment here and that will require improvement in all angles here. I’m sure that as one of you now, we’ll push for more support for this particular industry.

“We have our agencies already mak-ing requests for boots and of course some garments by the time the garment industry takes off. I think we should do more than that.

“We must do whatever we can as a country to create employment for our youths.”

Speaking further he revealed that as the Senate commence its budget defence, he would ask all senate committees that when-ever they see agencies that require boots, they must make sure they come to Aba.

“We cannot spend such monies outside

anymore. I believe that by the time we do that, the sky will be our limit. If this is the only thing this Governor will leave behind, he must have left everything.

“Whatever you need to make this place work better, please call on me, I will help whatever you think any Federal agency will do to enhance the capacity of this place, I’m waiting for you, your Excellency.”He said.

In his speech,The Abia state Governor Dr Okezie Ikpeazu, disclosed that ENASCO will help position Nigeria into the leather industry globally and ensure Nigeria derive much revenue from it.

He said, “ENASCO will push out 5000 pairs of shoes every day to launch Nigeria into the fast-growing shoe industry globally.

“ We can become major players in the leather industry ecosystem if we’re inten-tional about it.

“It is only through the patronizing of our own products that we can revitalize our economy and be self-sufficient in all we want.

“We are doing a similar factory that will have full automated garment factory. We are looking for a way to compete with Viet-nam and Bangladesh in the supply chain of garments across the world.

“And I’m optimistic that with the suc-cess we havee recorded, between now and the next six months machines would have arrived from Turkey and we will return to Commission it.

“I thank President Muhammadu Bu-hari for coming to Abia to Commission the Ariaria International Power Plant, we are also doing something to ensure Geometric Power kicks off.

“I am optimistic that very soon, Aba will have uninterrupted power supply through Geometric and Ariaria International Power

Plant”It could be recalled that Governor Ik-

peazu had recently disclosed that the Abia automated shoe factory, located in Aba, the commercial hub of the state, would com-mence operation in soon .

He had made this known while inaugu-rating the management board of the factory, at the Banquet Hall of Government House, Umuahia, the state capital.

He had charged the board members to operate as a commercial outfit and not like a parastatal of government, to consolidate the position of Aba and Abia State, as a glob-al hub for shoe and other finished leather products.

His words ,“the first-ever Enyimba shoe factory is the signpost of a culmina-tion of efforts to mainstream the Abia in the competitive global shoe market”.

The Governor had explained that the objective of setting up the shoe factory is to lead out a paradigm shift in the old way of shoe production and key into the new dy-namics of shoe production with acceptable global standards, while charged

He had charged Kito Dominic, manag-ing director of the factory, and other board members to bring to bear their wealth of experience in developing a brand that will compete favourably in the global market.

Members of the Board include Mark Atasie, chairman and Kito Dominic, manag-ing director.

Others are Chimaeze Nwafor, Chinenye Nwaogu, executive director, operations, Ada Oseiza, executive director, marketing, Ide John Udeagbala, and Osaro Eko, technical partners.

Meanwhile, Osaro Ekonweren, a tech-

Continued on page 21


BUSINSS

The Commissioning of Enyimba Automated Shoe Company Aba by the Senate presidentnical partner, Aba Automated Shoe factory, had described the Aba factory as currently having the most updated shoe producing machines in the country.

He stated that at present, the factory has an installed capacity for the production of 5,000 pairs of shoes every day, which translates to about 2-million pairs of shoes annually, with facilities for expansion and assured that they plan to actually expand this capacity within the next one year.

He applauded the foresight of Gover-nor Ikpeazu and confirmed that the factory will change the face of shoe production in Nigeria.

According to him, products from this factory will not just be for the local market here but will be sold across West Africa and beyond.

He assured that the factory will be run as a professional and commercial outfit with clear opportunities for value addition and job creation.

Chinenye Nwaogu, executive director, operations of the factory, observed that with the new management structure in place that Ikpeazu has sent a clear message that the factory will be run solely on a basis of pro-fessionalism, inspired by commercial expe-diency.

He explained that shoemakers from Aba, who were sent to China, by the Gov-ernor for training on the use of machines in shoe production would form the initial technical staff of the factory, while there will be a huge emphasis on training for more op-erators.

In similar development, Governor Ikpeazu had recently enrolled himself at a footwear academy in Aba, the commercial nerve center of Abia, to acquire a new skill as a shoe maker

Ikpeazu, in a tweet said he was eager to start learning the skill.

He explained that his decision to en-roll at the academy was to further push the made-in-aba campaign and to also encour-age Abia youths to “take advantage of the many entrepreneurial opportunities my ad-ministration is making possible”.

He said over 2,000 youths indicated interest in acquiring the skill after his enroll-ment.

The governor shared photos of himself taking a class at the Footwear Academy, Aba, and restated his commitment to the “made-in-aba” campaign.

He tweeted that he was, “…most fas-cinated by the quality of shoes and other leather works produced by our people in Aba, products that can compete with those being produced by the Chinese and other top nations in the global shoes and leather works industry.

“That’s why I’ve always worn Made-in-Aba wears, and showed my pride in them by going a step further to enrol at this Footwear Academy.”

Ikpeazu thanked the Nigerian Railway Corporation and the Nigeria Police Force for patronising manufacturers of leather works in the state.

He said, “I encourage other corporate and private citizens to toe the same line so as to help grow our economy rather than grow the economy of other nations by patronising their products at the expense of our own.

I also encourage our youths to take ad-

NEWS

vantage of the many entrepreneurial oppor-tunities my administration is making pos-sible in Abia State to acquire skills that will help them sustain a meaningful livelihood. It was based on this that I also committed to giving the Footwear Academy the needed government support including provision of land for its expansion in order to be able to take in more students.

“I’ve also advised the Academy and the Enyimba Automated Shoe Factory to col-laborate with each other for greater output.

“I must not fail to commend Mr Bentley Chukwuemeka, founder of The Footwear Academy, for heeding our call to investors to invest at home. This is another example of how our government supports both for-eign and local investors for the good of our people. And just like my government spon-sored 30 Abia youths to China to learn their shoemaking skills after which they have been transferring the acquired knowledge to others back home, we are committed to con-tinue to educate and train our youths to en-sure that, apart from establishing their own investors also have a pool of highly qualified, yet, competitively priced manpower they can tap from.

“Lastly, let me restate my gladness at seeing that the enthusiasm of our youth in shoe making has been rekindled following my enrolment, after which over 2,000 pro-spective student shoe makers are now on queue to enrol.

“Very soon, Abia State Polytechnic (ABIAPOLY) will commence programmes that will collaborate with The Footwear Academy (TFA) and the Enyimba Automat-ed Shoe Company (ENASCO) for practicals exposure that will lead to the award of Di-ploma certificates in leather technology, with emphasis on shoe designs and manu-facturing! We are poised to remain the lead-ing ecosystem for leather products in Africa!

“Having enrolled at The Footwear Academy, I shall do my best to graduate with distinction and become a shoemaker of choice to people of all classes.”

Governor Ikpeazu urged Nigerians to take pride in patronizing made in Nigeria products as a way of boosting the econo-my , adding that except Nigerians endorse their own products and take pride in them they will be merely supporting the economic growth of other nations.

He stressed the need for the country to leverage on the strength of its population for ready market for Nigerian products.

He added that there was need for Ni-gerians to take the lead in consuming their products to enable others follow.

According to him, Aba can compete with the Chinese and other world leaders in the Shoe Industry and expressed the hope that soon, no one will ignore the shoes pro-duced from Aba.

Speaking during a joint press confer-ence by the Abia state government media team ,held in government house Umuahia, the Abia commissioner for information , Barrister Eze Chikamnayo said that ,” Gov-ernor Ikpeazu is the most innovative Gov-ernor in Nigeria,if you look at the unique innovations ,he has brought to governance ,they are wonderful.The Senate president from his own mouth exhibited thorough understanding of the significance of what Governor Ikpeazu is doing in terms of Small and Medium Scale Enterprise development as exemplified by the Enyimba Automated Shoe Company and he said it is a genera-tional project.

“ A reputable national Daily newspaper the Telegraph after a thorough examination on the national terrain came to the conclu-sion that our dear Governor Ikpeazu is the governor of the year in SME development “

Speaking further during the media team press conference made up of the com-missioner for information, Barrister Eze Chikamnayo,the commissioner for docu-mentation and strategic communication ,chief Ugochukwu Emezue and the chief press secretary to the Governor ,Sir Onye-buchi Ememanka said “the vice president of the country Professor Osibanjo said Abia

under governor Okezie Ikpeazu is now the SME capital of Nigeria

In his Contribution, the commissioner for documentation and strategic commu-nication, chief Ugochukwu Emezue said, “ the president came to Abia state and gave a stamp of authority to what Governor Ik-peazu has done by launching the Enyimba Automated Shoe Company and the compa-ny is employing most of our youths .

“ Governor Ikpeazu has popularized made in Aba shoes”

Chief Ugochukwu Emezue, noted that “Governor Ikpeazu few days ago, led a team to South Africa for the signing of the 50m dollars Power project between AFRIXIM Bank and Geometric Power to fund the operationalization of the Aba Independent Power Project, as well as to personally sign an agreement between the State Govern-ment and the Nigeria Export Promotion Council for the building of Export Expan-sion Program Resource Center in Aba. This agreement will give Abia State the platform to benefit hundreds of Naira from the Pres-idential Economic Recovery and Growth Program.

“ The idea of power of the geometric in Aba ,if there is no electricity that will be uninterrupted ,then whatever we are saying will not make any sense, that why the Gov-ernor powered this and it is 50m facility that will be used for operationalize that agency in Aba and you can imagine how it is going to light up Aba and Abia state and it is going to help alot of our artesians .

He said that the Governor has also in-vested a lot in human capital development, saying that Human capital development is critical to development of any Society.

Finally with the official commission-ing and take off of the Enyimba Automated Shoe Company in Aba , Abia state is expect-ed to increase her internally generated rev-enue as well as create massive employment opportunities to Nigerian youths if properly managed .


Enyimba Automated Shoe Company, Aba


BUSINESS

Gentlemen of the Press,

*In the 93 years of God’s special Grace of my life, over 70 of which I have relentlessly spent in the strug-gle for a united, civilised, prosperous and federal Republic of Nigeria, and I have waited for some time in the de-parture lounge of life, and I owe it to posterity, to speak unalloyed truth to unconscionable powers, and to clarify the position of my people, the Yoruba of the Nigerian state, so that whenever I might be recalled home, it shall be said of me, that I not only did my bit, I indeed said my bit, and the position of the Yoruba people and Afenifere, were clearly and succinctly enunciated.*

*In spite of deepening disappoint-ments, the Nigerian Press has stood as, perhaps, the last and only beacon of hope in that realisation. I have invited you here today, therefore, as partners in that shared vision so that, through you, President Muhammadu Buhari and other political actors, blinded by ambition, may see the need to fix Ni-geria before the imminent eclipse of her horizon.*

Nigeria is dying. To be sure, the Nigerian state that was negotiated before independence in 1960, the one that was birthed and named on the 1st of October 1960, is long dead. It was mortally wounded in January 1966, and was then slaughtered in July of 1966. Its funereal obsequies were held between 1966-1970. The Frankenstein that was cobbled together in place of the dead nation that was agreed, has survived this long on the back of re-pression, lies, illusions, and outright delusions. But Buhari has finally killed it by his endless arrogance, the manifest incompetence, and the vile ethnoreligious agenda, with which he is dangerously strangle the insuffer-able Frankenstein.

The Nigeria that was agreed, is one that was deliberately FEDERAL in structure. The Nigeria that was AGREED, was by design, based on a parliamentary system of governance. The Nigeria that was agreed, was one that recognized the rights of the fed-erating regions, to nationhood within the ambit of the FEDERATION that was birthed. The Nigeria that was agreed was not a perfect place, but neither is anything constructed by men, and the proof of its imperfec-tions are embedded in the tragedies of the civil war that buried it.

I am constrained by the limita-tions of time to adumbrate, and I shall fast forward to the emergence of Ab-dusalami and the transition to civilian rule in 1999.

It was the position of Afenifere

For The Record For The RecordFixing Nigeria, Before the Fall

Being the Text of a Press Conference Statement by Chief Ayo Adebanjo, the Leader of the Afenifere at

Wheat Baker Hotel, Ikoyi, Lagos State, on Thursday 11th November 2021

and NADECO, that there existed an urgent need to convene a Sovereign National Conference of the ethnic na-tionalities that have become known as Nigerians. Afenifere’s position has not evolved. We remain convinced that the need for a sovereign national

conference is imperative. THE BASIS OF THE NIGERIAN STATE MUST BE CLEARLY NEGOTIATED.

We have heard and read countless ripostes to our considered position, many have pointed to Decree 24 of 1999, the same fraudulent document that is infamously known as the 1999 Constitution, and asserted that there is no need for an SNC, as the country already has a constitution. We dis-agree most vehemently, and INSIST, that Nigeria is not possessed of any expression of the WILL of the peoples, whose will it presumes to fraudulently appropriate.

It is instructive to note, that when the Midwestern Region was to be cre-ated out of the Western Region, a rig-orous process was embarked upon. The motion for its creation went through the Western Regional Assem-bly, and the Federal House of Repre-sentatives in Lagos, and the peoples of the proposed region voted for its creation in a plebiscite. This only after the fact of its economic viability had been scientifically established. This rigorous process birthed the addi-tional region that was created in 1962, and duly established under the 1963 Republican constitution.

Nigeria is today a Frankenstein with 36 states. How many of these states are viable entities that would have passed the 1962-1963 means testing of the Midwestern Region? By whose will were they created? Whose interests are they serving? The Ni-geria that has been set up for failure by these evil restructuring is visibly bleeding to death and is in its death throes on Buhari’s watch.

The entire country is burning. The Northeast was already aflame before the coming of Buhari, its peoples ren-dered as pawns in the power games of the northern elite, who allowed Boko haram to fester as the evil powers of the federal government was lost to them, and the insurgents were seen as ethnic champions, indeed, Buhari protested about the onslaught on Boko haram, and for those who might have paid attention, Gumi’s interven-tions are merely aping what Buhari used to say, before he gained office in 2015. But what used to be confined to the northeast, has today become a pan Nigerian problem.

The terrorists have crossed into the northwest and as they have rav-aged the entire region including the president’s home state, kidnapping hundreds of schoolchildren and their teachers, raping and pillaging the land, the Buhari regime has treat-ed them with kids gloves, and have blithely labeled them as bandits, busi-

The southwest, home to the Yoruba people and all men and women of goodwill, whom we have always welcomed, and who have made our lands their homes, have never had it so bad. Our hospitality has been violently abused, our generosity of spirit, taken for granted, and the security of lives and properties wickedly undermined.

“

“

nessmen, vandals, and even recently as Area Boys. Train track bombers, who were clearly intent on the derail-ment of a passenger train, are labeled as vandals in a clear advertisement of the complicity of the Buhari regime in the terrorist led insurgency, ravaging Nigeria.

In the Middle belt, what were once episodic outbursts of Fulani herdsmen and farmers conflicts, a conflict as old as man, has acquired a most evil dimension. The Buhari that stormed the Government House in Ibadan during the administration of Late Alhaji Lam Adesina, is the one established inside Aso Rock, and the extreme nepotism of the man, his un-bridled Islamist irredentism, are not only intact, they are unfettered by any pretense at presidential leadership. “Be your brother’s keepers” was Bu-hari’s response to the slaughter in the Benue debacle, and “give up your land in order to live” was the spokesman’s recommendation to the victims.

In the southeast, in the lands of the Igbo people, Gen. Buhari has been most indecorous with his words, but his actions are even worse than his words, and he has effectively lost con-trol of the East. The Anambra elec-tions are instructive on several fronts, and I shall return to the subject soon enough, but the facts of the restiveness of the East, is not a fact that might be said to be either in issue, or in dis-pute, and yes, this is without having factored in the existence of pockets of Fulani terrorists, in parts of Igboland.

The South-South has been up in arms for a while, and the Niger Delta is essentially a war zone. These are the realities of the Niger Delta, where the wealth being evilly dissipated around the length of Nigeria originates, but where all of the Nigerian deprivations are curated. The environment is even more violent, rendered so by decades of criminal exploitation of its land and peoples by the Nigerian state, and just as volatile as the hydrocarbons that are being taken from its bowels. The Niger Delta is a volcano waiting to erupt, and the PIA is poised to ignite it.

The southwest, home to the Yoru-ba people and all men and women of goodwill, whom we have always wel-comed, and who have made our lands their homes, have never had it so bad. Our hospitality has been violently abused, our generosity of spirit, taken for granted, and the security of lives and properties wickedly undermined. Bands of Fulani terrorists are in our forests and farms, they rape, rob, kid-

Continued on page 23

President Muhammadu Buhari


nap, and TERRORIZE the people. They bear arms brazenly and they act above the law, and when our people respond in self protection, they are victimized by the Nigerian police and the army, which have acted to estab-lish presidential complicity.

I have pondered Chief Awolowo’s words in his 1981 public letter to Al-haji Shagari, and I have found a part to be metaphysically intriguing, even though it has only served to deepen my alarm, such that I believe that I owe it to posterity to place my fears on the record; “the ship of state is fast approaching a huge rock and, unless you, as the chief helmsman, quickly rise to the occasion and courageously steer the ship away from its present course, it shall hit the rock, and the inescapable consequence will be an unspeakable disaster such as is rare in the annals of man”.

Buhari was to be that disastrous rock a few months after the warning. The problem with the rock this time, is that the rock is the helmsman of the ship, and he would appear to be DE-LIBERATELY AND INTENTIONAL-LY steering the ship to its END.

The Nigeria cobbled together by Decree 24, of 1999, yes, you get it. FRAUDULENTLY known as the 1999 Constitution, is built on sever-al lies, and the preservation of these lies, are predicated on several more lies. Buhari, is unilaterally imposing another lie, on top of the original lies, and these lies, are what have assured the death of Nigeria. The Fulani Isla-mist agenda of the Buhari regime has found accommodation for each and every one of the public rebuttals of the lies of Nigeria.

Confronted with repeated ques-tions about the identity of the spon-sors of terrorism, that were discov-ered by the intelligence services of one of the Gulf Arab countries, and the fact of the convictions of several Nigerian citizens by that country, the Buhari regime, was unequivocal in showing where its preferences and loyalties are;

“Naming and shaming of suspects is not embarked upon as a policy by the federal Government out of sheer respect for the constitutional rights of Nigerians relating to presumption of innocence.” Abubakar Malami SAN, AGF. But it is curious to note, that the same government, is quick to rush to the media, to declare the identities of those that it has declared to be the sponsors of Sunday Igboho, and Nnamdi Kanu., and the greatest victories of the Buhari regime, in its incestuous relationship with corrup-tion, has been won in the media. The speed with which it labels voices of dissent as terrorists, whilst ignoring and outrightly colluding with self de-clared terrorists, renders the Buharist regime a proven accomplice to the

Fixing Nigeria, Before the Fall

turing, before any FRAUDULENT ELECTIONS might be held in 2023, and the response of the Buharist re-gime to these equitable demands for restructuring the country along feder-alist lines, in order to restore it to its roots and original agreements, shall go a long way in shaping the position of the Yoruba people in the future, but let it be heard loud and clear; NIGE-RIA IS NOT ONLY NEGOTIABLE, IT IS EVIDENTLY DYING.

Gen. Yakubu Gowon (rtd) to keep Nigeria one, is it for the Fulani to dominate other ethnic nationalities?

Gen. Olusegun Obasanjo (rtd), Nigeria unity is non-negotiable, for the Yorubas to be under Fulani dom-ination?

Your Eminence Alhaji Muham-madu Sa’ad Abubakar, Sultan of Soko-to, Gen. Abdusulami Abubakar (rtd), Bishop Kukah, can we have peace without equity and justice?

GOD SAVE NIGERIACHIEF AYO ADEBANJOLeader of AfenifereLagos 11/11/2021

The Buhari regime has no plans for any elections in 2023, and this statement is not a difficult proposition to establish, once the parties to the debate, are fully seized, of their faculties. Anambra should be useful in ESTABLISHING this obvious fact.

“

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For The Record

sultation with the Nigerian peoples. The Buhari regime has no plans

for any elections in 2023, and this statement is not a difficult proposi-tion to establish, once the parties to the debate, are fully seized, of their faculties. Anambra should be useful in ESTABLISHING this obvious fact.

AS BAD AS THE SECURITY SIT-UATION IN ANAMBRA MIGHT BE, it is nowhere near as bad as the situ-ation in the NORTHWEST, NORTH-EAST, or the MIDDLE-BELT, and the rest of Nigeria is hardly at peace.

By official accounts, outside of the ones that might be deployed to carry their Oga’s briefcases or to hold um-brellas, the Nigerian Police deployed 34K officers to Anambra for the No-vember 6 elections. I am not sure if these are in addition to the ones that were already under the state police command, or if these 34K is the to-tality of the men. But it is important to note that these 34K represents ap-proximately 10% of the entire capaci-ty of the Nigerian police, if we are to accept the official numbers without considering the inherent lies that have been told to accommodate the ghosts. It is interesting to note, that for every three persons that voted in the Anam-bra mockery of democracy, there was a policeman, Civil Defence, or military personnel. THE ELECTION HELD, ONLY BECAUSE IT PLEASED IPOB TO CALL A TRUCE.

In the face of the facts and real-ities, the Buhari regime has labeled self determination groups as terror-ists, gone to extraordinary lengths to abduct MNK, invaded the home of Sunday Igboho and murdered two innocent men in cold blood, chased the same Igboho into Benin Republic, but rolls out the red carpets for ter-rorists. The same Buhari regime had labeled the just and peaceful demands of Omoyele Sowore’s RevolutionNow Movement as terrorist, and judicially curtailed his freedom. It is easy to see through the multiple lies of General Buhari if one is minded to look, but the question is, IS ANYONE LOOK-ING AT US AGAIN?

The world would appear to be tired of Nigeria, and the preoccupation of the world is fixed on a containment of the nuisance that we have become, because if the world has any care left for us, how has it found the grace of condonement, acquiescence, and ob-vious complicity? How has the cause of liberty been promoted in Nigeria by the British and the Americans? With ALL of their eyes in the Nigerian skies, what did they see on the 20th of October at Lekki. The Western world has found accommodation for evil in Nigeria. But if Harold Smith is to be believed, the ruination of Nigeria by the British is not an accident, it is by design.

Let it be heard loud and clear; Afenifere shall be leading the Yoruba nation to demand substantial restruc-

terrorist network that is destroying the country.

Commodore Olawunmi is on re-cord as saying that the security ser-vices had submitted a report to Gen-eral Buhari since 2017, and that a list of the names of the major sponsors of terrorism in Nigeria is one of the sev-eral pieces of information in that file. He went further to affirm, that several of these positively identified terror-ists and terrorist sponsors, are today sitting in the Buharist government at the highest level, and many more are serving senators and governors. The fact of Buhari’s terrorists sympathies are too glaring to require any proof beyond the demand that a man should believe the evidence of his own senses.

The Wall Street Journal in an ex-clusive piece, REVEALED THAT THE NIGERIAN MILITARY HAS been dealing with terrorists, and in the par-ticular instance, BOUGHT BACK from the terrorists, an ANTI AIRCRAFT GUN, that the terrorists had captured from a unit of the army, because the presence of the piece in the hands of the terrorists, was a direct risk to Buhari himself, who was apparently scheduled for an appointment in his hometown. If they knew the location of the terrorists to exchange guns for cash, they most definitely could have bombed the terrorists, instead of paying them off, but how do you bomb “businessmen” “bandits” “van-dals”? The terrorists are called several names but are rarely called what they are. Welcome to the land of REPEN-TANT BANDITS AND VANDALS. THE COUNTRY WITH THE MOST SUCCESSFUL DERADICALIZATION in the world.

I shall not waste any more time to establish the facts of Buhari’s eth-noreligious bigotry, he has saved ev-eryone the task of doing that, he hap-pily wears his ethnic and religious supremacist uniforms, and has never pretended to be anything else, but the time has come to state to the whole world as follows.

We shall be seeking to persuade our people to avoid being lured into a legitimization of Buhari’s ethnoreli-gious agenda by engaging with the pa-tently fraudulent lies of any elections in 2023, in the absence of a restoration of peace, and a substantial restructur-ing of a NEGOTIATED Nigeria.

WE ARE NOT ANARCHISTS, WE ARE NOT SESSIONISTS, we are DEMOCRATS. We recognize that there is a democratically elected pres-ident in Aso Rock. We are not asking for Buhari’s resignation, and since the National Assembly has not seen fit to impeach him, he remains the presi-dent of Nigeria until the 27th of May, 2023. But it is the considered position of Afenifere that he urgently consti-tutes a Government Of National Uni-ty, charged with the sole task of seeing to the restructuring of Nigeria, in con-



COUNTRYWIDE

The National Ag-ricultural Land Development Authority (NAL-DA) has trained

200 youths and women on its ‘Grow Your Vegetable’ programme.

The Executive Secre-tary of NALDA, Mr Paul Ikonne said the essence of the programme was to teach the participants how to maximise the little spaces they have in their environment to plant veg-etables.

“The essence of this programme is to inform us of what we used to know.

“And that is, while growing up; our parents used to use every avail-able space at the back of the house or in front of the house to plant vegetables.

“Urbanisation is try-ing to take that away, thereby making life in the urban city more expensive than the ones in the rural areas.

“But NALDA is trying to encourage you to grow your vegetables in order to reduce your cost of living.

“President Muham-madu Buhari has mandat-

The United Na-tions Develop-ment Programme (UNDP) Resident Representative in

Nigeria, Mr Mohammed Yahya, says that entrepre-neurship among youths is key to the sustainability of every nation.

The UNDP Represen-tative spoke with the News Agency of Nigeria(NAN) on Tuesday in Lagos on the sidelines of a two-day Nor-dic-Nigeria Connect con-ference on smart and green city solutions organised by the embassies of Finland, Denmark, Sweden, and Norway in Nigeria.

“UNDP works with youths across board and we continue to inject funds to support entrepreneur-ship for young people,” Ya-hya said.

He said that issues surrounding the youth was an economic imperative on reducing inequality and in-security.

According to him, if the country has a massive number or unemployed people roaming around, it’s a “social bomb” that should be dealt with early.

Yahya noted that de-mographic growth was a big challenge, adding that a lot of work had been done on demographic manage-ment in the country, espe-cially by the government.

“Lagos can do very lit-tle in terms of the migra-tion of people into the city.

“For us, creating smart city options is to use tech-nology, smart infrastruc-ture, while also getting the private sector involved in finding a way to make Lagos greener and able to deal with climate change.

“The challenge is how to make the city technolog-ically and data-led in order to accommodate the huge expansion for not just La-gos, but also Nigeria,” he said.

Also speaking at the conference, Chairman, Tony Elumelu Foundation, Mr Tony Elumelu, said that in an attempt to sup-port people, organisations needed to know what was lacking in specific sectors.

Elumelu said that the efforts of donor or-ganisations, development partners, and an enabling environment by the gov-ernment would make a dif-ference in the development of a nation.

“We need to develop an entrepreneurship ap-proach to the development of Nigeria.

“At the Tony Elume-lu foundation, we support 1000 young people yearly, but in 2021, we scaled up to 5000, because of the ur-gency of equipping youths and business owners.

“I appeal to public sector leaders to contin-ue doing more to identify and support young African leaders and in entrepre-neurship, he said.

MTN Nige-ria Com-mnucia-tions Plc (MTNN)

has obtained the approv-al of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for the offer for sale of up to 575 mil-

lion ordinary shares in MTNN held by the MTN Group

This is contained in a notice signed by the MTNN Company Sec-retary, Uto Ukpanah, posted on the website of the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Ltd.

As previously com-municated, the offer will be by way of bookbuild to institutional investors, and subsequently, a fixed price to retail investors.

“The institutional of-fer opened Tuesday and closes at 2:00 p.m on Friday after which a fixed

price will be determined for the retail offer.

“The retail offer is proposed to open after the institutional offer and an announcement will be published in the regard once clearance is obtained from SEC,” it said.

Access Bank Plc has partnered SME.NG, the Bank of Industry (BOI), LAPO Microf-

inance Bank, Chapel Hill Denham and the Impact Investment Foundation Ni-geria to launch the Ebi Mar-ketplace.

This is contained in a statement by Access Bank made available to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Tuesday in Lagos.

Ebi Marketplace is a Ni-gerian innovation for female entrepreneurs, consisting of an access to capital market, an e-commerce mall and a knowledge market for female entrepreneurs in Nigeria

seeking to digitise their busi-nesses.

The statement said that Ebi Marketplace was con-ceptualised and developed by SME.NG, as a tangible solution to the impact of COVID-19 on female entre-preneurs.

The Ebi Marketplace aims to close the gender digital divide in Nigeria by supporting women’s digital literacy and financial inclu-sion, while providing access to capital and markets.

Ms Thelma Ekiyor, “SME.NG is committed to in-vesting in facilitating female entrepreneurs’ profitability, so that they are positioned for infusion of capital.”

The Nigerian Up-stream Petro-leum Regulato-ry Commission (NUPRC) on

Tuesday outlined action plans to deal with the recent oil spill in Santa Barbara, Nembe, Bayelsa State, at an AITEO facil-ity.

The Commission also noted that its inves-tigations into the cause(s) of the spill continued and the result would be com-municated to the public when concluded.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) recalls that AITEO Eastern Ex-ploration and Production recently sought foreign

technical expertise to halt the ongoing oil leak at an oilfield it operates, which started since Nov. 5.

Mr Gbenga Komo-lafe, NUPRC’s Chief Ex-ecutive, in a statement issued by Mr Paul Osu, Head, Public Affairs of the commission, listed the action plans to deal with the spill.

Komolafe itemised the action plans to resolve the problem as: ”Aiteo to activate emergency Envi-ronmental Management Plan (EMP), AITEO to carry out Post Impact Assessment (PIA) study of the spill, and Joint Investigation Team to determine cause of spill

and to convey the extent of impact and quantity of crude spilled.”

Komolafe said that these measures would be put in place as the com-mission continued to in-vestigate and monitor the situation.

He said that the commission received a report of the spill, which occurred at the Santa Barbara Well, via the statutory regulatory re-quirement of submission of form A by Aiteo.

According to him, the commission imme-diately swung into action to investigate the inci-dent in conjunction with other stakeholders.

He gave an assur-ance that the commis-sion would ensure that all necessary steps in line with global best practic-es were deployed in the management of the situ-ation.

Komolafe that NUPRC would ensure that the spill had the least impact on the en-vironment and the liveli-hood of the people of the community, as remedi-ation would be done as soon as possible.

He reiterated that the result of the investi-gation into the incident would be communicated to the public when con-cluded.

SEC Approves MTN 575m Shares

Access Bank Partners SME.NG to Launch Ebi Marketplace

NUPRC Lists Action Plans for Santa Barbara Oil Spill

NALDA Trains 200 Women and Youths on Vegetable Cultivation

Entrepreneurship, Key to Sustainability of Nations — UNDP Rep

ed NALDA to encourage all Nigerians to grow what they eat and what we grow,

“And one of the eas-iest ways to get everyone on board is to introduce Grow Your Vegetable Pro-gramme.

“Whether you are a landlord or tenant, you can grow the food within your environment using used bags or broken buckets,” Ikonne said.

He urged the partic-ipants and residents of Abuja to turn their flower pots to vegetable pots, put a vegetable seed, then be-tween two to three months, they will start harvesting.

Ikonne said the pro-

gramme was aimed at en-couraging Nigerians, espe-cially those living within urban areas to grow their vegetables.

“The FCT beneficiaries are 200; we have provid-ed them with hybrid seeds like pepper, tomato, on-ion and pumpkin (ugwu), also fertilizer to encourage them to start growing their own food.

“Going forward, those that were not able to be trained, they should take advantage of this informa-tion to begin to grow their vegetables at home.

“This is because it is doable and they have all it takes to do it and I believe

they can do it.“We are starting off

from here in Abuja, the next stop will be in Lagos, then Port Harcourt so that we can sensitise them,” he added.

The Minister of FCT, Muhammed Bello was rep-resented by the Managing Director, Abuja Enterprise, Mr Shehu Abdulkadir at the occasion.

Bello said the pro-gramme would bring suc-cour to families and boost the implementation of the government’s Back to Farm Initiative.

“Agriculture used to be the mainstay of the economy and in these chal-lenging economic times, this initiative by NALDA will go a long way in pro-viding financial succour to families.

“It is my sincere hope that this programme will once more increase aware-ness amongst Nigerians on the benefits of backyard vegetables farming.

“This farming is not just for healthy and more nutritious diet, but also the renaissance of agriculture as mainstay of our econo-my,” the Minister noted

Paul Ikonne


countrywide


The South East Chair-man of the Christian As-sociation of

Nigeria (CAN), Very Rev Dr Fr Abraham Chukwuma Nwali has predicted woes against the politics of the Ebo-nyi State governorship should zoning system fails to play at gallery come 2023 general elections.

Nwali said this while delivering lec-ture on the theme: “Consolidation of Grace of Good Leader-ship in Ebonyi State,” during the opening ceremony of the 17th Anniversary of the Regina Pacis Foun-dation, Tuesday, at the foundation’s Villa, Okpoduma-Agbaja, Izzi Local Government Area of the state.

Nwali, also the Ebonyi State CAN Chairman and Senior Special Adviser to Gov-ernor David Nweze Umahi advocated for sustainability in gover-nance and emphasized on need to maintain zoning system of the governorship position in the state.

“If Ebonyi State doesn’t dwell on equi-ty, the people will di-minish, because, unfa-vorable treatment and marginalization will automatically become the case of one zone or the other. In Ebo-nyi, we have North, Central and South. If it’s so deserves that equity - two years ago, we were about to have that problem, a group come to Bishop Mi-chael Okoro that they would want the zoning to be cancelled.

“If the Bishop had consented to that re-quest, we would have destroyed the peace of this state. I thanked God that the Bishop said ‘no’ we will re-spect the equity.

“Any government that is not supporting equity and inclusive-ness is actually not on good governance. The equity is that the

2023 Guber: S’East CAN Chair Predicts Woes If Zoning Fails in Ebonyi

POLITICS

North has completed her period. The equity is that the central has completed her period and the equity is that, South is about to com-plete her period.

“If in 2023, and the north is cut off from taking her turn, by producing the gov-ernor of the state, it means the equity has been destroyed, and nothing will make any-body from the south to be the governor of the state in the next twenty years.

“To the govern-ment if you destroy equity, you have be-come poverished and that’s the worst never expected to happen because the South will never smell governor-ship position again in Ebonyi State. Any at-tack on equity in Eb-onyi, is attack against fairness and justice in the state.

“Nigeria is suffer-ing today because of disrespect to zoning and all the parties to-day are clamouring, and if equity is not maintained, the youths will take their stand and take over the lead-ership of the country. If Ebonyi State plays with equity, fairness and justice, Ebonyi State will experience bizzare in leadership found in some Igbo states today,” Fr. Nwa-li said.

Nwali who ex-plained that he was called to critically and constructively de-

fend the theme of the lecture bordering on grace of the good lead-ership in Ebonyi, prior to the second phase of the assignment - sus-tainability, which he considered as the epi-center of the activities in governancea; noted that the state has been a favourable child in her governance since her creation in 1996 while comparing her to the counterparts in the South East Zone.

He said his invita-tion to reflect on the consolidation on the grace of good leader-ship in Ebonyi State is an affirmative one, pointing that the or-ganisers of the pro-gramme, preemptively have approved good leadership in the state.

Nwali recalled that Ebonyi State was created in 1996, now 25years old, courtesy of the then President of Nigeria, Sani Aba-cha and within the pe-riod has been served by two military admin-istrators and three ex-ecutive governors.

Speaking on the pattern of their lead-ership, Nwali said, Walter Feghabor - the Ebonyi State’s First Military Administrator laid a very solid foun-dation, but his suc-cessor - Late Simeon Udoye emphasized on the role of functioning and functional civil service; while the first Executive Governor of the state - Senator Sam Ominyi Egwu in his

observation, restruc-tured and emphasized on education, his suc-cessor - Chief Martins Nwanchor Elechi built the bridges of uni-ty and championed on discipline in civil and public services, whereas his successor and the sitting Gover-nor today, Engr David Nweze Umahi focuses on infrastructural de-velopment, religious relationship and care of the indigent persons in the society.

He said that Ebo-nyi leaders both in the past and at the pres-ent since the creation of the state might not be without records of some blind spots while delivering services, hence, in his words, the state has been en-joying the proverb of “half cup full” of good leadership.

“No one is com-pletely bad and no one is completely perfect on Earth, because we are ongoing (Matthew 5:48)....,” he hinted.

He further enu-merated the criteria for good leadership which according to him, included trans-parency, accountabil-ity, observance of the rule of law, equity and inclusiveness, consen-sus oriented and re-sponsiveness.

Nwali said the cri-teria for good gover-nance were affirmed by many astute schol-ars in leadership to determine good and bad leaders in human

environment, whether in politics, church and other sectors.

Nwali maintained that a good leader must have a listening ear - being a consensus ori-ented and responsive, commended those who had served as the gov-ernors of the state, and equally recommended that the next admin-istration come 2023, should focus on ‘civil service and industrial-ization’ in the state.

The Catholic Priest recalled the challenges of the time, which in his words stand at a chance to pose a great threat to human ex-istence and the lead-ership system in the whole world.

“Our time distinct from Kairos is Chro-mos, it’s a generation, global age, of 5G net-work, technological era. Age dominated by Facebook, Twitter, Google, ISP and Vsat. It’s an age battling with the virtues of gratitude and content-ment. It’s far easy to be ungrateful, discontent, destructively critical, than be on the posi-tive. It’s age of chronic unemployment, youth revolution. It’s an age challenged by corrup-tion, social vices and moral decadence. In it, we are conquerors,” he said.

He equally called for the sustainabili-ty of good leadership in the state, through a regular practice of maintenance culture,

which he said, it re-quires a good succes-sor, enduring legacies, equity, justice, re-sourcefulness, promo-tion of diversity and activism.

He urged all the ministers of God to continue to pray for the leaders, saying that the church should see as its first priori-ty by praying for the government in power, preaching true words of God as the second and modeling truth, justice and righteous-ness as the third roles in service delivery, while commending the founders of the Regina Pacis Foundation, Sir Edward Okereke Nk-wegu and their mem-bers for their impactful contributions in assist-ing the vulnerable per-sons in the society.

Recall that the 17th Anniversary of the Regina Pacis Foun-dation was on Tues-day flagged off with a Pointifical Holy Mass Service by the Catho-lic Bishop of Abakaliki Diocese, Most Rev Dr. Peter Nworie Chuk-wu, ably represented by Rev Fr Monsignor Patrick-Mary Muo, who also commended the founder, Sir Archi-tect Edward Okereke Nkwegu and urged the well privileged individ-uals to emulate him by embarking on heaven-ly investment instead of trading riches in the darkworld.

The founder, Sir Nkwegu in interview with journalists urged individuals to to be tackling the root cause of any problem, and not just only combat-ing the negative re-sultant effects, saying that the foundation champions on chari-table services to make the less privileged ones and the needy feel self worth in the soci-ety. “How can one be struggling on how to cure maleria, without first killing the mos-quito that caused the sickness? How can one be stopping poverty without first stopping the causes of poverty?” Nkwegu asked.

Rev Dr Fr Abraham Chukwuma NwaliGov David Umahi


Amazons

The National Chairman-Elect, Peo-ples Democratic Party (PDP), Sen. Iyorchia Ayu, has said that for the party to re-claim power, it must demonstrate to Nige-rians that it could run a better government.

Ayu stated this at a two-day PDP National Retreat 2021 with the theme: “It’s time to rescue Nigeria” held in Abuja.

He said that Nige-rians would not vote for the party simply because it had done it before, but must demonstrate that it could do it better than the ruling All Progres-sives Party, (APC).

He said that no other party in Nigeria was better equipped and placed to rescue and rebuild the coun-try than the PDP, add-ing that the party did it before.

He recalled how PDP took over pow-er from military rule in Nigeria and within short years under for-mer President Oluse-gun Obasanjo admin-istration reversed the collapsed economic.

Ayu said that the administration also stabilised the ex-change and interest rates, made strides in the provision of in-frastructure, secured relief from foreign creditors and restored faith in Nigeria both by its citizens and for-eign investors.

“Many of our cit-izens in the diaspora returned and set up businesses here or contributed in other ways.

“Foreign inves-tors trooped in. Abuja and other cities trans-formed from sites of abandoned projects to thriving construction sites and livable cities.

“Do we remember what our telephone system was like before the PDP government gave us GSM,?” Ayu said.

He said that while PDP could do that again, it had to do the first things first.

“Nigerians are not going to vote for us

The House of Representatives has passed the bill abolishing dichot-omy between first Degree holders and Higher National Di-ploma (HND) hold-ers in the same field for the purpose of employment.

The bill passed its final stage at green chambers on Tuesday in Abu-ja, when members voted at the Com-mittee of the Whole presided over by the Deputy Speak-er, Rep. Ahmed Wase.

The passage was sequel to a unani-mous adoption of a report of the House Committee on Ter-tiary Education and TETFund after con-ducting hearing on the bill.

The bill which was sponsored by a lawmaker at the 8th Assembly, Edward Pwajok passed second reading in 2017.

While present-

The Independent National Electoral Com-mission (INEC) said that fresh registration in the ongoing Contin-uous Voter Registration (CVR) has hit 4,297,494.

The commission disclosed this in the sec-ond quarter, week seven, weekly update released

by the commission on Monday in Abuja.

The commission said that as at 7am on Monday, Nov. 22, some 1,856,771 persons have completed their online and physical registra-tion.

According to sta-tistics provided by the

commission, 1,856,771 persons who complet-ed their registration, include 941,098 males, 915,673 females.

It also added that 741,183 persons com-pleted their registration online, while 1,115,588 completed it through physical registration.

POLITICSTo Reclaim Nigeria, PDP Must Demostrate Capacity-Ayu

Reps Pass Bill Abolishing Bsc/HND Dichotomy

CVR: Fresh Registration Hits 4.2 million

just because we had done well before. Peo-ple do not vote for the past but for the pres-ent and the future.

“We have to demonstrate that we can do better than the current APC govern-ment. But we must start with putting our own house in order.

“We are a big tent, indeed a big umbrella. Yes, within the party we have different ten-dencies, worldviews and experiences. But our overriding inter-est should be Nigeria.

“To bring it back from the brink. To make it better. To present Nigeria to the world again as a coun-try of serious, com-petent and commit-ted people. When we rebuild it we will all benefit,” Ayu said.

He said that the party had to rebuild Nigeria to provide ed-ucation for all its citi-zens, secures its bor-ders and protects its law-abiding citizens wherever they may live, whatever their occupation and what-ever their language, religion or ethnicity.

“We have to re-build a Nigeria with roads, bridges and railways that criss-cross and connect different parts of this country to facili-tate and promote the movement of people and goods to grow our economy.

“We have to re-build a Nigeria that pays decent wages to workers so that we actually have a real economy driven by

higher productivity and consumer spend-ing.

“ We have to re-build Nigeria to be-come a fertile ground for our young people and other entrepre-neurs to unleash their creativity and inno-vativeness consumer spending.

“Let us rebuild Nigeria as a country that does not treat any of its peoples as sec-ond-class citizens,” he said.

The chair-man-elect added that “We have to enthrone internal democracy in our party and get ac-customed to it.

“Let us collective-ly rebuild PDP as a peoples’ democratic party, as our name says, a party that truly belongs to the grass-roots. Let us put be-hind us the quarrels of yesteryears.”

He urged the party leaders and members to direct their ener-gies towards reclaim-ing power from the APC and implement-ing a programme of rebirth, growth and opportunity for the country.

He noted that the retreat was to re-ap-praise and re-affirm PDP’s vision as a par-ty and its mission in Nigeria political space as well to energise the party leaders and re-dedicate them.

He added that the retreat was also to recommit the party leaders to the sacrific-es they need to make to rescue and rebuild the country.

“And talking about sacrifices, I ac-knowledge that, as PDP members, you have been making enormous sacrifices, especially those of you who have held firm to our principles in the last six years plus.

“ But think about the bigger sacrifices made by our found-ers who, at great risk, challenged the mili-tary leadership and played a critical role in winning back our civilian government.

“Without their sacrifices we would not even have a plat-form and a voice to-day, talk less of gath-ering here for this stock-taking,” he said.

Ayu added that the retreat was the first in its series of round table dialogues and conferences to help sharpen their positions on different policy issues.

He said “It is my hope that this will set for us a clear roadmap and clarify our think-ing on how best to help tackle the prob-lems of our people and country.”(NAN)

Sen. Iyorchia Ayu Hon Femi Gbajabiala

ing the bill for sec-ond reading, Pwa-jok said a research conducted on both certificates, showed that the discrimina-tion had no moral justification.

He said that those with first de-gree were placed on Grade Level 8, while those with HND in the same field were placed on Grade Level 6 or 7.

He said that in some organisa-tions, degree hold-ers were paid N100, 000 at entry level, while their coun-terparts with HND were paid N70, 000 monthly salary.

The lawmak-er said, in other countries, technical experts were paid higher than admin-istrators, saying that the reverse was the case Nigeria.

The bill will now be sent to the Sen-ate for concurrence and then to the President for as-sent.


Entertainment

The Nigerian entertainment in-dustry witnessed a major milestone on Wednesday, 17th of November 2021. It was the very day popular singing duo, Peter and Paul Okoye of the now-defunct P-Square group ended their long time feud and reconciled to the anticipation of everyone. Right in the presence of family members and associates, they shared a warm embrace.

The following day, being Thurs-day, both singers celebrated their 40th birthday.

Social media fans who never knew what was in the offing were stunned when the twin brothers took to their individual Instagram accounts to share birthday pictures they had taken together.

Peter, popularly known as Mr P, shared the picture with the caption, ”It’s our Birthday!” while Paul, professionally known as Rudeboi, wrote, “Happy special birthday to us.”

In the video, their elder brother and manager to the defunct group, P-Square, was also seen warmly greeting his twin brothers.

In the video shared by popular Nollywood actor, Mike Ezuruonye, the brothers seemed delighted to be in each other’s company while those around were glad that the Okoye brothers shared a warm em-brace.

This development comes barely after four days that the brothers began to follow themselves back on Instagram.

Fans React:Reacting to the video, fans of the

duo have expressed excitement on what they perceive to be a reunion.

In her reaction, Rudeboy’s wife, Anita said “For first time in five years, P-Square performs togeth-er I’m delighted I didn’t take sides during.

Quoting the lyrics to one of their songs, an Instagram user, Chimao-bi Wonder, simply wrote, “Peter and Paul dem be one not two”.

Another Instagram user, Kayode Obayelu, simply said a prayer for the brothers. “May the Lord God Almighty bless and keep you both together.

Genesis of The “Beef” The two brothers, Peter and Paul

Okoye,broke up before in 2016, supposedly over a disagreement about the role of their manger—their elder brother, Jude. They were able to patch things up how-ever, even releasing two new songs together at that time.

Sadly, the reconciliation was short lived, as Peter reportedly sent a termination letter on the 25th of September, 2017, request-ing to part ways with his brother once again.

According to reports, Peter claimed that his brother was be-ing generally uncooperative about matters relating to the group, and had even gone as far as to slander his wife and children on social me-dia. He called for a cancelation of their upcoming U.S. tour.

In the letter, Peter raised very serious allegations as he describes feeling as though his brothers posed a threat to him and his fam-ily’s well-being.

“Me and my wife have been get-ting life-threatening messages and I fear for my life and the life of my family,” he stated.

Remember Jude has threatened

to kill me and shoot my wife in the presence of Paul and Mrs. Imoke,” he said.

In one of his interviews, Peter said the whole drama began after Paul began posting the lyrics of most of their songs on Instagram and saying he was the writer.

Peter also accused Paul of being weak and not standing up to their elder brother.

“I remember I once told Paul something when Jude became our manager; he was using the term ‘our money,’ that was when we made our first one million (nai-ra). I called Paul and told him that our former manager used to make about 15 percent, and now Jude is our manager, let’s think of a per-centage that we’ll be giving him and put it on paper. Paul said it’s not necessary. He probably went to tell Jude about it.”

Peter also used the interview to address the reasons why he called out Jude on social media, adding that he did it to protect “our ca-reers.”

Even during their separation, the duo have not done badly in their

respective solo careers. Peter re-branded himself as Mr P while Paul became Rudeboy dropping hits like Reason With Me.

What The Future Holds:The coming together of Peter and

Paul is a welcome development. From all indications, it is self-ev-ident that the two brothers have squashed their “beef” .

For many years, P-Square grew to become an household name not just in Nigeria, but in Africa as a whole after they made their mark with their music and trademark dance moves since the early 2000s.

Even, when they went solo, the duo have not done badly in their respective careers. Peter rebrand-ed himself as Mr P while Paul be-came Rudeboy dropping hits like Reason With Me.

The implication is that they will do better if they harness and put together their talents for a greater achievement.

No doubt, their reconciliation will definitely bring more excite-ment to fans of their music over the years. This will spur them to move to greater heights in the nearest fu-ture.

A t L a s t P e t e r a n d P a u l R e u n i t e


LiFEWEDNESDAY NOVEMBER 24 - SUNDAY NOVEMBER 28, 2021

FOOD AS MEDICINE With CHINEDU AGU

Growing up, I did not really know much about Carrots, all I knew then was that every evening when my father was

coming back from work a bunch of carrots would always accompany the items he came back with. It became a routine, so much so that we started looking forward to the orange-coloured bunch of stick-like crunchy goodies with little bushes at the head, that he always carefully packed in a large brown envelop.

Then I started growing to love it and equating it with my dad’s presence so much so that whenever I see carrots, I remember my dad!

All that is the past now as I love them now for different reason! They are healthy, make good snacks, enrich your smoothie, and aid weight loss especially with intermittent weight loss programme

It is called Karas in Hausa kaooti in Yoruba and karot in Igbo. Despite that origin is traceable to Central Asia, it can be grown anywhere so long as it has the right soil and right atmosphere. It is said to grow best in in full sun with optimum temperature of about 16-21 degree Celsius and does well in loose sandy or loamy soil. You can actually grow a carrot garden today so long as you have the ideal soil and temperature.

Meanwhile, enjoy the following article culled from Healthline, an online wellness newsletter, to get more of the nutritional and health benefits of carrots.

Enjoy the reading.

CARROTS 101: NUTRITION FACTS AND HEALTH BENEFITS - HEALTHLINE

The carrot (Daucus carota) is a root vegetable often claimed to be the perfect health food. It is crunchy, tasty, and highly nutritious. Carrots are a particularly good source of beta carotene, fibre, vitamin K1, potassium, and antioxidants They also have a number of health benefits. They’re a weight-loss-friendly food and have been linked to lower cholesterol levels and improved eye health. What’s more, their carotene antioxidants have been linked to a reduced risk of cancer. Carrots are found in many colors, including yellow, white, orange, red, and purple. Orange carrots get their bright colour from beta carotene, an antioxidant that your body converts into vitamin.

A Nutrition factsCarrots’ water content ranges

from 86–95%, and the edible portion consists of around 10% carbs ,Carrots contain very little fat and protein.

CARROTS

The nutrition facts for two small-to-medium raw carrots (100 grams) are: Calories: 41, Water: 88%,Protein: 0.9 grams, Carbs: 9.6 grams, Sugar: 4.7 grams, Fiber: 2.8 grams,Fat: 0.2 grams,Carbs

Carrots are mainly composed of water and carbs. The carbs consist of starch and sugars, such as sucrose and glucose

They are also a relatively good source of fibre, with one medium-sized carrot (61 grams) providing 2 grams. Carrots often rank low on the glycaemic index (GI), which is a measure of how quickly foods raise blood sugar after a meal. Their GI ranges from 16–60 — lowest for raw carrots, a little higher for cooked ones, and highest for puréed

Eating low-glycaemic foods is linked to numerous health benefits and considered particularly beneficial for people with diabetes

FibrePectin is the main form of soluble

fibre in carrots can lower blood sugar levels by slowing down your digestion of sugar and starch. They can also feed the friendly bacteria in your gut, which may lead to improved health and decreased risk of disease

What’s more, certain soluble fibres can impair the absorption of cholesterol from your digestive tract, lowering blood cholesterol. The main insoluble fibres in carrots are cellulose, hemicellulose, and lignin. Insoluble fibres may reduce your risk of constipation and promote regular bowel movements.

Vitamins and mineralsCarrots are a good source of

several vitamins and minerals, especially biotin, potassium, and vitamins A (from beta carotene), K1 (phylloquinone), and B6.

• Vitamin A: Carrots are rich in beta carotene, which your body converts into vitamin A. This nutrient promotes good vision

and is important for growth, development, and immune function

• Biotin: A B vitamin formerly known as vitamin H, biotin plays an important role in fat and protein metabolism

• Vitamin K1: Also known as phylloquinone, vitamin K1 is important for blood coagulation and can promote bone

• Potassium: An essential mineral, potassium is important for blood pressure control.

• Vitamin B6: A group of related vitamins, B6 is involved in the conversion of food into energy.

Other plant compoundsCarrots offer many plant

compounds, including carotenoids. These are substances with powerful antioxidant activity that have been linked to improved immune function and reduced risk of many illnesses, including heart disease, various

degenerative ailments, and certain types of cancer. Beta carotene, the main carotene in carrots, can be converted into vitamin A in your body. However, this conversion process may vary by individual. Eating fat with carrots can help you absorb more of the beta carotene. The main plant compounds in carrots are:

• Beta carotene: orange carrots are very high in beta carotene. The absorption is better (up to 6.5-fold) if the carrots are cooked

• Alpha-carotene: An antioxidant that, like beta carotene, is partly converted into vitamin A in your body.

• Lutein: One of the most common antioxidants in carrots, lutein is predominantly found in yellow and orange carrots and is important for eye health

• Lycopene: A bright red antioxidant found in many red fruits and vegetables, including red and purple carrots, lycopene may decrease your risk of cancer and heart disease

• Polyacetylenes: Recent research has identified bioactive compounds in carrots that may help protect against leukemia and other cancers (

• Anthocyanins: These are powerful antioxidants found in dark-coloured carrots.

Health benefits of carrotsMuch of the research on carrots has

focused on carotenoids.

Reduced risk of cancerDiets rich in carotenoids may help

protect against several types of cancer.This includes prostate, colon, and

stomach cancers. Women with high circulating levels of carotenoids may also have a reduced risk of breast cancer

Dated research suggested that carotenoids could protect against lung cancer, but newer studies have not identified a correlation

Lower blood cholesterolHigh blood cholesterol is a well-

known risk factor for disease. Intake of carrots has been linked to lower cholesterol levels

Weight lossAs a low-calorie food, carrots can

increase fullness and decrease calorie intake in subsequent meals For this reason, they may be a useful addition to an effective weight loss diet.

Eye healthIndividuals with low vitamin A

levels are more likely to experience night blindness, a condition that may diminish by eating carrots or other foods rich in vitamin A or carotenoids

Carotenoids may also cut your risk of age-related macular degeneration.

culled from healthline online wellness newsletter


Politics

By Staff Correspondent, Chuks [email protected]

It is not by human power but by the grace of God Almighty that over two decades of the cur-rent democratic dispensation, Rt. Hon. Emeka Ihedioha, has

become a puzzle that power brokers in the nation’s political firmament have found a hard row to hoe.

Omenkeahuruanya, former

governor of Imo State, and former Deputy Speaker of Nigeria’s Federal House of Representatives, has re-mained an enigma, that keeps wax-ing stronger and escaping, in the process, the unceasing traps of his ever mounting socio-political tra-ducers. Talk of a cat with nine lives. His obsessions and struggles typified the indomitable human urge to con-front and revolt, an urge that is irre-pressible even with the realization of the absurdity of our condition.

From his days as a Reps member,

Ihedioha was a passionate defender of his conviction. It is therefore not unusual, neither should it be a sur-prise that such a passion, buoyed by the exuberance of age, would some-times break out in uncontrolled utterances which may strike us as beyond the norm of decency. We know that such occurrences were unfortunate. But we also know that they were not from the heart. And we know because Ihedioha said so.

Believe you me, and this is not

an exaggeration, this unfaltering torchbearer of progressive politics, looks set, to remain for a long time to come, a mystery that fake friends masquerading as his genuine allies, and confessed foes alike will try, al-beit unsuccessfully, to unravel. The Mbutu Mbaise born political prote-gee, despite his unrivalled contem-porary vilification by envious politi-cal gladiators and parasites, remains the most-sought-after politician and perhaps, one of the few most signif-icant of the Progressive hue in the South-East of Nigeria.

The reality, even amongst those

that hate to love him, is that he has become a veritable political brand that can be ignored at the peril of any political party or politician in Imo State. That is the power of packaging and vision. Not sounding patron-izing, the truth is that since 2003, Ihedioha has been the main issue in Imo politics. It has always been: will he contest? Even with 2023 still far away, the question is: Will Ihedioha contest? That shows how purpose-fully powerful Ihedioha has, so far,

Emeka Ihedioha:Is The Labourer’s Task Done?

been in our body polity. No doubt, Ihedioha has faced

fears, betrayals and treachery, but at the end of it all remain undaunt-ed. Today, in our political lexicon, Ihedioha has become a political brand whose name, most politi-cians deploy to win support during electioneering periods. Despite the sleaze of political mudslinging by mostly beneficiaries of his politi-cal large-heartedness, Ihedioha’s Democratic scorecard remains very glittering and unassailable. In essence, emerging political gladia-tors like Senator Samuel Anyanwu, Samuel Anyanwu, current National Secretary of PDP, Senator Ezenwa Onyewuchi, current Senator repre-senting Imo East, Hon. Jones On-yeriri, Hon. Bede Ekeh, Hon. Jerry Alagbaso, Hon. Henry Nwawuba,

Hon. Ikenna Elezieanya, etc, owe their political successes to Ihedi-oha. That is the fact. And that is what the Ihedioha phenomenon has become in today’s Imo politics.

Many believe that one thing go-

ing for Ihedioha is that he is always politically determined to succeed against all odds. Invariably too, the difference between him and the rest in the current political arena is that he sees possibility where oth-ers predict doom. His often-talk-ed-about political superiority com-plex does not mean haughtiness, although it might appear to be so in the eyes of the most mischie-vous among politicians/citizens who want to see it so. Rather, I be-lieve, rightly so, that Ihedioha feels a higher esteem over the obstacles he desires to surmount and he is

immensely blessed with the rare cour-age of overcoming them, with enough energy reserved for any eventuality. A great lesson for the young ones.

Admittedly,

Ihedioha is not a saint by any stretch of the imagination. Neither did he cast himself in the garb of a secular angel. Yet, despite what is widely perceived as occasional out-bursts, his yet to be defined author-itarian bravura in going after per-ceived political en-emies, it has been an endless emo-tional rollercoast-er for the people of Imo State since the Supreme Court of Nigeria judge-ment removed him as governor. Even his most adamant critics concede that Ihedioha rolled his sleeves to make Imo work.

In seven

months of bold and visionary leader-ship, he brought the resource-strapped and rather som-nolent state to the portals of moder-nity without caring whose ox is gored. To say the least,

Ihedioha, while he lasted, was an impatient and re-sult-driven moderniser committed to an infrastructural overhaul of the State. Nothing seemed to deter him. That was inspired and inspir-ing Leadership. Ihedioha led from the front. Thank God Imo people always appreciate a good leader when they see one.

Good leadership is like a lumi-

nous fish which cannot be hidden. This is not about shameless ca-nards which attempt to justify poor and uninspired Leadership or the resort to primordial sectional vic-timhood in defence of abominable performance. It is about facing the facts and weighing future options. We may not know what the future holds for Ihedioha. Only God knows. But surely, a labourer deserves his wage.


MONDAY AUGUST 23-SUNDAY AUGUST 29 2021 VOL 1 NO.9 N200

#Endsars and Nigeria’s Dearth of Institutional Integrity

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Apart from assembling a credible panel made up od people of tested integrity,

the government empowered the panel and allowed it free

hand to do its job. This is the basis under which the

panel’s 309 tome of a report is considered credible and

authentic

A t L a s t P e t e r a n d P a u l R e u n i t e

True Vision is published by Gavinta & Associate Limited. Abuja Address: MIB Plaza, First avenue, Gwarimpa, Abuja. www.truevisiononline.com. Associate Editor: Simeon Ogoegbulem. Tel: 07037707027; email address: [email protected]

CONTRAINDICATIONS

BY STEVE OSUJI

A government would be possessed of institu-tional integrity when it is organic, alive and empathetic to the needs

and yearnings of the people. But the #EndSARS episode has shown up the current government in the land as lacking in any of the above-listed virtues. The Justice Doris Okuwobi-led Judicial Panel of Inquiry on the #EndSARS pro-tests has turned in a damning and indeed, blood-curdling verdict.

Yet, the state remains in de-nial. Was the army called in? Yes, the army was invited by the governor of Lagos State after he met with President Muhammadu Buhari. Did the army and police fire life bullets at unarmed youths protesting peacefully, waving the national flag and singing the na-tional anthem? Yes, indeed, the army opened fire on these youths on the night of 20th October, 2020 at the Lekki Toll Gate, La-gos. These facts have been estab-lished by the judicial panel.

In specific terms, the pan-el was categorical in stating that there was truly a massacre on this night. The report says that nine persons were killed in cold blood, four remain missing and 48 were classified as casualties of the Lek-ki Tollgate massacre. Further, 98 other corpses were recovered from other parts of Lagos in the wake of an orchestrated orgy of violence perpetrated by hoodlums suspected to have been induced by the state to tar the peaceful #EndSARS protests. The panel also noted that there was clear ev-idence by the Lekki Concessions Company (LCC) damaged evi-dence by tampering with the cctv recordings and clearing the scene of crime the day after. The panel’s report is unequivocal in indicting the state, a stark pointer to the dangerous absence of institution-al integrity in the current admin-istration.

But the kakistocratic trend continues. The United States gov-ernment through the US Mission to Nigeria has said it welcomes the conclusion of the the Lagos State Government’s Judicial Pan-el of Inquiry. It looks forward to both the federal and state govern-ments taking suitable measures to address issues raised. In like manner, the UN has hailed the report hoping that the findings would accelerate the process of justice and accountability. Am-nesty and several other civil so-ciety groups have responded with same positive outlook.

However, the the Nigerian military remains true to type in it’s reaction. The Chief of De-fence Staff, General Lucky Ira-bor is more concerned about the procedure of release of report. He is also worried about Nigeri-ans talking down on the military: “It will not be right to disparage the men and women who have worked so hard to ensure that the territorial integrity of this nation is kept intact.”

The Lagos State government and it governor, Babajide San-woolu must be commended for its version of the Judicial Panel of Inquiry on the Restitution for Victims of SAR-related Abuses and Other Matters. Apart from assembling a credible panel made up od people of tested integrity, the government empowered the panel and allowed it free hand to do its job. This is the basis under which the panel’s 309 tome of a report is considered credible and authentic. Recall that the Lagos panel had been put in place a few days before the Lekki massacre on October 20, 2020, and was precursor to the panels set up na-tionwide at the behest of the pres-ident.

The panel has recommended prosecution and various other punishments for the army and police personnel who took part in the massacre of innocent youths at the Lekki Tollgate that fateful night. That would be the natural outcomes to be expected from a government in tune with the people. But one doubts that any such thing would happen. Still the small matter of institutional integrity. The government of the day sees the people as enemies of the state; the same citizens who

voted massively to bring the gov-ernment to be. The presidential broadcast made in the aftermath of the protests, President Buhari spoke to the effect that it was an attempt to topple his government. This mindset defines this govern-ment’s actions in all ramifications - utterly defensive, self-preserv-ing and self-serving.

Recall that President Bu-hari had offered a slew of pal-liative and incentive measures to assuage the angst of Nigerian youths. But apart from the panels of inquiry set up by various state governments, nothing else has been done. The N75 billion Youth

Fund promised in that presiden-tial speech is as good as forgot-ten. Not a word, not a dime, not a committee and not a structure is in place to drive that presidential promise. But most critical of all is the crux of the matter - police reform.

We are almost forgetting that #EndSARS is protest against a corrupt and vicious policing sys-tem that had infested the land. Since 2016, Nigerian youths had been campaigning against a police system that revelled in exra-judi-cial killings of the youth, steeped in impunity, and which corrupt ways stinks to high heavens. All entreaties to make the state see the need for reform fell to the floor. By 2020, the state and her police had become very violent and brutish enemies of the peo-ple. It was this decadent state that triggered the #EndSARS protests and the ensuing mayhem.

Were lessons learnt? Hardly. The wanton Special Anti-Rob-bery Squad (SAR) was hurriedly disbanded. It was to morph into SWAT. Nigerians roundly kicked against this idea but these days, we hear about SWAT. It has been stealthily corralled into the sys-tem. Not one police boss lost his job or went on suspension in the face of the untold atrocities re-vealed during the protests. The police remains a sordid institu-tion that hardly serves the pur-pose for which it was set up.

Again, it’s that small matter of institutional integrity. Our gov-ernment seems totally devoid of it. We can only pray

buhari can stop nnamdi kanu's trial -umar gital - true vision

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