President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe has sacked the Vice President, Emmerson Mnangagwa for showing what he called “traits of disloyalty.” According to the country’s information minister, the abrupt removal of the Vice President is meant to halt him from succeeding the President, who is already the 93-year-old. Mnangagwa’s removal is said to also provides a boost for Mugabe’s wife, Grace, who has been a vocal critic of the vice president and is also seen as a potential successor to her husband. “The vice president has consistently and persistently exhibited traits of disloyalty, disrespect, deceitfulness and unreliability,” Information Minister, Simon Khaya Moyo told reporters. “It had become evident that his conduct in his discharge of his duties had become inconsistent with his official responsibilities.” Mnangagwa’s top aide, Christopher Gwatidzo said that he had not seen the statement by Khaya Moyo and therefore declined to say whether the vice president had been at his office today, Monday or not. Grace, 52, nicknamed “Gucci Grace” for her love of shopping, called Mnangagwa a “coup plotter” and a “coward” on Sunday in a speech that inflamed an already bad-tempered rift in the ruling Zanu-PF party. It followed a speech by Mugabe at a rally on Saturday where he publicly rebuked his deputy for the first time. The reaction of the military could be key. Some army generals backed Mnangagwa to succeed Mugabe and have publicly said they will not allow someone who did not fight in the 1970s independence war to rule. Grace did not fight in that war. Grace made international headlines in August when a South African model said the Zimbabwean first lady had whipped her with an electric cable in a Johannesburg hotel suite. Grace denied the allegations. The fight over the future control of ZANU-PF has overshadowed an economic crisis marked by chronic shortages of cash and spiraling prices of goods that has raised fears of a return to hyperinflation. Mnangagwa was Mugabe’s protege and had been at his side through five decades of prison, guerrilla war and then post-liberation government, and questions are being raised about what caused the fallout between the two men. However, Grace said on Sunday Mnangagwa had always been plotting against her husband, even months after independence. Mnangagwa’s biggest undoing may well have been his vocal supporters, who kept prodding Mugabe to step down. Mugabe has a history of punishing ambition in ZANU-PF. Relations also cooled between the two men in August after suggestions by Mnangagwa’s allies that he had been poisoned by ice cream from a dairy owned by the Mugabes. That Mnangagwa’s expulsion was announced by a government minister and not the chief secretary to the president and cabinet also spoke to the deterioration in the relationship. Mugabe plans to contest elections due next year and will likely face a weakened and fractured opposition. His main rival Morgan Tsvangirai has been in and out of a South African hospital after announcing he had colon cancer in 2016.
A business mogul and top ranking industrialist, Chief Tony Elumelu has called on the Nigerian government to stop double taxation to improve on the status of ease of doing business in the country. Elumelu, who expressed happiness over the World Bank rating of Nigeria as number 24 in the world on the ease of doing business, said that Nigeria could achieve more in this area if the government work hard towards stopping double taxation. “Everything that is done is good but I think we need to streamline our taxes; avoid multiple taxation. We need to have double taxation treaties with other countries so that Nigerian investors who go out to invest don’t pay double taxes and those who come here to invest don’t pay multiple taxes. “I think it’s good to make sure that our infrastructure works. I think the rule of law is extremely important, strong governance, contract accessibility, sanctity of contracts, property rights. These are things that drive investors to go and invest.” Elumelu, who spoke to news men shortly after a close door meeting with Abba Kyari, the Chief of Staff to President Muhammadu Buhari, is also happy that the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) had already addressed the foreign exchange issues. “It was very high, but now. It is affordable; it’s predictable; it’s available, so to speak, in market is improving. The industrialist said that he is happy with what is happening in the country. “The ease of doing business ranking by the World Bank that moved Nigeria up in 24 places is very impressive and not just that, as top ten reforming country in the world. Counting Nigeria as one of the top ten reforming countries in the world is very impressive. So, I think things are getting better. I think we are turning corners and things are getting better. I think Nigerians who have resolved to invest in the country will invest in Nigeria so that we can create employment and friends of Nigeria and global investors who are looking for a safe place to invest, a place where rule of law is strong; a place where there is sanctity of contracts; a place where tax reforms regime is good will come to invest in Nigeria.” Elumelu said that the World Bank report shows that Nigeria is ready and open for business, saying that there is so much private global captain looking for investment destinations “and with this signally is all saying come mad invest in Nigeria. “I speak as Nigerian who invest in Nigeria and if course I the African countries, there is where else I get returns on investments as I get in Nigeria and this is time for people to come on board and take the advantage.”[myad]
“The Buhari government doesn’t believe in cheap propaganda. It’s not about responding to the attacks, false allegations and insinuations of the PDP or of the still very active media machinery of the previous government. We believe in taking active steps to ensure that the future of Nigeria is better than it is today and we are glad to see that the United Nations has acknowledged this.” These were the views of the Senior Special Assistant to President Muhammadu Buhari on media and publicity, Malam Garba Shehu, when he spoke to news men at the Presidential Villa, in reaction to the prediction by the United Nations that 2019 elections in Nigeria will be credible and violent free. Acknowledging that the UN comment is an indication of the world’s confidence in Nigeria’s current administration, the Presidential spokesman attributed the success of the 2015 elections to the presence and diligence of Professor Attahiru Jega, the umpire. Garba Shehu said: “under the government of President Buhari, a number of credible elections have been conducted in states and local governments across Nigeria and, so far, there has been no cause for fear or worry. “ At one of its meetings, the Council of States last year put on record the appreciation of the nation for the conduct of the 2015 elections and commended the leadership of Professor Attahiru Jega as Chairman of the Commission for bringing that about. “In addition to the steadfastness of the INEC, the ECOWAS, AU, EU, UN and other international bodies also had to be on guard to ensure that there was no opportunity for the kind of foolishness we saw at the INEC collation center from people in the circle of power to flourish. “But, in 2019, the international community will have nothing to fear, and I am happy that the UN can already sense that several months in advance.” During the Channels TV interview, Head of the UN Office for West Africa, Dr. Mohammed Ibn Chambers, had pointed out the credible and peaceful local elections that have so far taken place in different states across Nigeria, and used it as one of the indices to judge what to expect for the presidential elections in 2019.[myad]
A letter emanating from an unidentified writer that has gone viral may have responsible for the quick release of funds for the payment of operational allowances and logistics for the Third Quarter 2017 from the Ministry of Defence to soldiers who are engaged in fighting with Boko Haram insurgents in the Northeast. The anonymous letter detailed the untold financial and psychological difficulties which the soldiers have been going through in war front with the insurgents. The soldiers complained in the letter that because of financial hardship, some of them had resorted to borrowing money from the civilians around their areas of operation to be able to survive, apart from the danger of death from the enemies bullets on daily basis. However, less than 12 hours after the said letter went public, the Chief of Army Staff (COAS), Nigerian Army, Lieutenant General Tukur Yusufu Buratai announced the release of the funds by the Defence Ministry. The Army Chief, in a letter, said that the funds that have been released would take care of the payment of operational allowances for two months. Copies of General Buratai letter were sent to various formations and corps Commanders, as well as Commanders of the various training institutions of the Nigerian Army yesterday, Sunday. He assured the soldiers that all funds meant for them and, especially, those on Operation LAFIYA DOLE, will always be paid promptly when received from the appropriate Ministries. He further assured that the Nigerian Army High Command under his leadership will continue to remain responsible, responsive and accountable to troops’ operational requirements. In the letter, the Army chief praised the soldiers for the unflinching loyalty, perseverance, courage and dedication to duty which brought about the desired success in the fight against terrorism, insurgency and other criminal activities. He commended the troops for their bravery, discipline and loyalty, even as he reminded them to always have confidence and trust on the leadership of the Nigerian Army and indeed that of the nation. General Buratai asked them to work hard to flush out the remnants of the Boko Haram terrorists wherever they are hibernating including the cyber terrorists. The Army Chief also paid glowing tribute to those troops stationed outside the shores of our great nation, assuring those on Operation LAFIYA DOLE that their welfare would remain a top priority for the government.[myad]
Sule Lamido, remember him? He is the voluble, you can say loquacious, former governor of Jigawa State who strikes a multiple-personality image in his public conducts. Sule Lamido shows off as a follower, or bag carrier for late Mallam Aminu Kano and late Alhaji Abubakar Rimi, two prominent and hugely popular politicians from the north whose catholic followership draws from their close affinity to the commoners (Talakawas). Lamido valued his closeness to the duo and rode on the crest of that affinity to power. But a combination of power and circumstances proved that Lamido has no common attachment to the deceased duo but merely rode on their backs to power. Ever ready to talk, Lamido is always sanctimonious on national issues but his stewardship n Jigawa was a cesspit of corruption and primitive acquisition, which departs radically from the politics of both Aminu Kano and Abubakar Rimi.
Rather than join a populist party that professed and cared for the masses, in deference to his much vaunted Talakawa persuasion, Lamido was to join the rabidly reactionary PDP and was in league with its leaders in the series of notorious acts that eventually led to its fall in March 2015. Lamido loves to talk in his desire to pontificate on national issues but he is hardly pinned to any uplifting and ennobling principle both in his talks and practice of politics. His politics, like the average PDP member, was buccaneerist and shorn of the concern for the poor masses he pretends to align with as he followed Aminu Kano and Rimi while they were alive. Most of Lamido’s actions were bereft of principle and the buccaneer he is, he fully subscribes to the Italian social scientist, Nicholo Machiavelli’s political theory that the end justifies the means.
As the PDP floundered enroute to the historical 2015 election, Lamido, joined forces with some PDP governors to form a splinter faction that protested the impunity and highhandedness that eventually rocked the PDP boat. But unlike his confederates in that protest, Lamido ensured that no one caught him firmly committed to the cause for which they formed the splinter group. The split personality in him was at full display as double-talk, equivocation and shifting of positions marked his commitment to that group. He ensured he was floating between the group and the main PDP faction that showed unquestionable allegiance to former president Jonathan ad his political career. So Lamido played both sides of the PDP divide. A bat and gecko rolled into one, you might say but that is Sule Lamido for you.
When the splinter group left PDP with five governors eventually left the PDP to join forces with the opposition to form the APC, Lamido with his Niger State counterpart, went back to their vomit and recanted all the criticisms they levied against the impunity in the PDP and subsumed themselves once more in the same leadership and conducts they had previously pilloried. What was ruling this volte-face was nothing more than selfish interests. Lamido, being the opportunist he is, like an average PDP member, felt more secured anchoring his nest in the PDP that had the keys to the country’s central bank and the enormous power of incumbency going to the 2015 election than banking with the tenuous coalition which the APC was then. The selfish man, which had ruled Lamido’s voyage in politics, was what was at play when he decided to retrace into the PDP. But God moves in a mysterious way as PDP sank with Lamido and all those that betted on the invincibility of an incumbent PDP.
My focus in this report however is not on the multi-faced politics and personality of Sule Lamido. I am rather focused on his recent outcry in an interview in a national paper that Nigerians see PDP members as demons which they loathe touching and that he is deeply worried about that. By the way, Lamido says he is contesting for the 2019 presidency, even as he is facing multiple corruption charges with his sons. So he should be concerned about the notorious perception his party draws from Nigerians today. He hopes to fly the PDP flag in that election so he should be rightly concerned about how Nigerians, the electorates, perceive his party. His fate in that contests rests on this perception so he should rightly feel concerned. Lamido, in the interview, said that this noxious perception presents a great challenge to him and other concerned leaders of the PDP as the 2019 election approaches. I wish him and his party men good luck in that enterprise. At least they are not behaving like their party chairman, Ahmed Markarfi who recently made a boast that the party that is floating on life support will win the presidency, all state governorship seats and all national assembly seats in the 2019 election. He is not reveling like Fayose or Fani Kayode who have made loud boasts that their rickety party, which today is a little fraction of the party that APC comprehensively trounced in the 2015 election, will capture power in 2019.
Lamido is being realistic in bemoaning the bad fate of his party and the notorious perception Nigerians hold of PDP members. He is not pretending or indulging in the self-flattery that still rule some of his party men like Markarfi, Fayose, Fani Kayode, Wike, etc. He is being frank and this is a credible route towards making a credible quest for power than indulging in a vacuous moonlighting as some of his fellow PDP members are doing.
But for him to make a credible impact in redressing the negative impression that is giving him and his fellow concerned PDP members some worries, Lamido must do well to locate where the rain starts beating him and his fellow PDP members. He must first admit that the negative impression Nigerians hold of PDP members majorly stems from the carnivorous leadership the party superintended for a whole 16 years. This noxious impression peaked in the last six years of PDP’s eadership of the country. He must admit that the deification of corruption which became the guiding philosophy of PDP’s corrosive governance of the country accounts for its terrible image amongst Nigerians today. He must admit the reckless impunity the party demonstrated while in power, the rank cluelessness and purblind mediocrity it laundered here are responsible for the horrible impression Nigerians hold of PDP and its members. He must locate these in the comprehensive defeat the PDP suffered in 2015 despite emptying the country’s treasury and employing so many deadly and desperate means to swing the election to its favour.
Then Sule Lamido, if he is serious of correcting the notorious impression Nigerians hold of PDP and its members, must locate the solidification of that bad notion to PDP’s post-election activities and behaviours which sees playing the opposition as indulging in repulsive fabrication, marketing and dissemination of abhorrent lies, hate, ethnic incitement and empty propaganda against the government of the day. He must locate the worsening perception of PDP and its members in the bitter, acrimonious and acutely frustrated activities of some of his party men like Fayose, Fani Kayode, Nyesom Wike, Reno Omokiri and others who are fixated on indulging in persistent vending of jeremiads and falsehood as opposition politics. Lamido must know that they more his fellow PDP members spew ill-digested venom as unflagging tactics against the government, the more Nigerians loathe them and mass around the present government. He should understand that PDP’s worsening perception is exacerbated by its annoying belief that trading in often childish lies and fabrications, sponsoring deliberate hoaxes to present President Buhari as a sectional leader are self-deprecatory antics that will not only conscript PDP and its fortunes but present its leaders and members as vindictive anarchists that want to set the house on fire just because PDP lost power.
So, if Lamido can identify where the shoe pinches his party, he will take up the charge of Ibrahim Mantu, a leading PDP member, that the party must apologize to Nigerians or its egregious failures in leadership. He can then seek a new image for his party as a repentant party that had realized its mistakes and are ready to turn a new leaf instead of a bitter, hate vending divisive, vengeance-seeking party that is ruled by a bitter passion to pull down the house as had been PDP’s vocation since it found itself in the cold in March 2015. The visage of Wike, Fayose, Fani Kayode, Omokiri, ranting angrily at every issue and seeking to manipulate every issue to present a sectional, religious colouratiom or fabricating and selling howling lies as political propaganda will only continue to worsen the present sorry state of PDP and if Sule Lamido is really concerned about the notorious perception of PDP members, he and his fellow concerned members of the prostrate party must work on these or continue to acquire more opprobrium from Nigerians who not only suffered the brunt[SU1] of PDP’s corrupt leadership nut continues to tolerate the efforts of its minions to rub more salt into our festering injury.
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) is set to open more business opportunities in Nigeria through the National Collateral Registry (NCR). This was made known in Abuja today, Monday, by the Acting Director of Corporate Communications of the apex bank, Isaac Okorafor. He said that soon the NCR would move to the next phase of its mandate of easing business practices in Nigeria. According to him, the efforts being put into strengthening the NCR by the CBN were a fall out of the recent World Bank report, which indicated Nigeria’s meteoric rise in the “Ease of Doing Business Index.” The index had rated Nigeria 145th from a previous position of 169th, out of 190 countries. Okorafor stressed that the Bank would do all within its mandate to strengthen the NCR in order to improve Nigeria’s current ranking of 6th on the “Getting Access to Credit” index. On the role of the bank in ensuring a robust financial sector, he said the reduction of information asymmetry had assisted lenders in making sound decisions on credit solutions and ultimately improved access to credit by Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs). Since its inception in 2016, the NCR has acted as a catalyst to credit improvement by significantly improving the credit culture in the Nigerian banking system. The NCR equally made it possible for MSMEs to leverage significant portion of their moveable assets as collateral for loans from the financial institutions to grow their businesses. The activities of the NCR have proved effective in complementing the Anchor Borrowers’ Programme (ABP) initiative of the Bank, which has been embraced by many more states of the Federation as a tool for job creation and food sufficiency. [myad]
Nollywood star actress, Lizzy Anjorin, has described single motherhood (bringing up children without fathers’ care) is terrible and worst than hell
She declared in a post she shared on Instagram: “Behold, single life is terrible! it’s only meant for ladies with iron heart, believe me it’s worst than hell.”
According to her, Single women sleep alone, pay bills alone, and most of the times, turn to enemies like friend to share their secrets: “their pillow is their soul mate and life is pretty terrible for them.”
Lizzy Anjorin offered some words of advice to married women who envy successful single ladies.
She wrote:
“Choose wisely, Career or Family woman? Single women sleeps alone, pay bills alone, they most times turn to enemies like friend to share their secrets, their pillow is their soul mate, sm of these single ladies ve kids and sm don’t ve, sm got duped by the so called married men to put food on the table for his family… dnt envy ur single friend bcos she’s more successful than u, dnt fight with your hubby bcos u want to be single like your friend; u assumed she doing better than u.. walahi I pity u, bcos the bills she shoulders alone as a single lady is heavier than container, you are bn mislead bcos of her flamboyant life style. Behold, single life is terrible! it’s only meant for ladies with iron heart, believe me it’s worst than hell.
Back to single ladies; bcos your friend’s husband bought her a new car, house, or he’s very rich: you also want to get married by all means.. Omo! I laugh in Spanish bcos some of those married women u are seeing are going through hell, some of their hubby are so terrible that when devil see them, ESU himself will take a bow, some hubby has slept with their maid, some talk evil against their wife bcos they want to sleep with their wife’s friends or relatives, some are so fetish that they hav turn the house to shrine, some will bring another woman to their matrimonial bed, some even spend quality time in club, some can’t even deal with his wife sleeping in his room for overnight, some would beat his wife like kampala, but bcos of her endurance ..
Mr. man will want to shower her with some ojuaye gift, trust my ladies they won’t tell u those horrible things their hubby does they will only give u the good news; OMG!! Baba yi just got me 2018 range, we are moving to ogede Island next week. If only u know what the alakori is going through … Anyways, we should all prepare for what we want, close your eyes and do it; single Ladies should not envy married women and married ones should not see single Ladies as their role model.. Let’s be contented with what we have and be thankful for everything -tag a frend dat need dis.” [myad]
Shell Nigeria Exploration and Production Company (SNEPCo), has awarded full boarding six-year secondary school scholarships to 104 pupils chosen from Nigeria’s six geo-political zones.
The scholarships were the third set of the NNPC/SNEPCo National Cradle-to-Career (NC2C) programme designed to give top quality education to bright but indigent youths.
A statement by the Media Relations Manager of Shell Nigeria, Bamidele Odugbesan, said that the latest awards bring to 267 the total sponsorship since the NNPC/SNEPCo NC2C was introduced three years ago.
According to him, the latest beneficiaries have joined the other recipients who are enrolled in six leading private schools – Lead Forte Gate College, Lagos; Premiere Academy, Abuja; Nigerian Tulip International College, Kaduna; St. Francis Catholic Secondary School, Lagos; Top Faith International Secondary School, Akwa Ibom State; and Grundtvig International Secondary School, Anambra State.
Bamidele recalled that during the award ceremony held at Lead Fort Gate College, Lekki in Lagos last Tuesday, the deputy governor of Lagos, Dr. Idiat Adebule, commended SNEPCo for the success of the NC2C which she said had achieved its purpose by helping to bridge educational inequalities resulting from socio-economic differences.
Represented by the Permanent Secretary, ministry of education, Adesina Odeyemi, the deputy governor said: “SNEPCo has kept faith with the commitment of supporting indigent Nigerian youths to attend some of the best secondary schools in the country and helping to reduce the number of school dropout before completion of basic education.”
The Managing Director of SNEPCo, Bayo Ojulari, who was represented at the award ceremony by the General Manager, Exploration, Mr. Dayo Adewuyi, said the educational initiative contributes towards the actualisation of the UNESCO ‘Education for All’ goal.
“We also do this because, to us in SNEPCo, education is key to national development. In the three years of the programme, we are already seeing signs of success. Last year, for instance, one of the scholars was awarded a scholarship by the implementing school because of her exceptional academic performance. So, I expect that this set will settle for no less.”
The the spokesman said that the award recipients emerged through a competitive process, starting with an aptitude test which was opened to graduating pupils in public primary schools in the 36 states of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory.
They then underwent a two-week orientation programme with introductory courses in academics, character and psychology to prepare them for a seamless integration into their new learning environment.
Bamidele said that the NC2C scholarships are just one of the many programmes in SNEPCo’s social investment portfolio in Nigeria.
Other programmes, he said, include the equipping and donation of information technology and communication centres in many primary, secondary and tertiary institutions and hosting of health outreaches in different parts of the country.
He said that the SNEPCo had recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding MoU) for the construction of a multi-million naira eLibrary for the Niger Delta University, Bayelsa State, and the company signed another MoU last week for the construction of a centre of excellence in Geoscience at the University of Lagos. [myad]
The Federal Government has allegedly made secret moves towards blocking some online newspapers, blogs and websites perceived to constitute “threat to national security.”
Social media and Internet users may also not be exempted from the clampdown, which will begin any moment from now.
There is already a bill aimed at regulating social media, which has passed second reading in the Senate.
It was gathered that the government, through the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), has engaged the services of a firm in Lagos to block the domain names of several identified websites that are considered to be threatening national security.
The Office of the National Security Adviser (NSA) was said to have drawn the list of the offensive websites, believed to be in excess of 21. It was contained in a memo written by NCC.
The letter, which was dated October 20, 2017, is a reminder memo, indicating that other letters had earlier been written to the same firm by NCC.
The memo was entitled: “Re: Request to Prevent the Commission of an Offence under Section 146 of the Nigerian Communications Act, 2003.”
It was signed by NCC’s Head, Legal and Regulatory Services, Yetunde Akinloye. Official of the agency co-signed on behalf of Engineer Haru Alhassan, who is the Director, New Media and Information Security.
It said: “reference is made to another letter dated September 27, 2017 on the above subject matter, directing the contracted firm “to restrict access to several identified websites threatening national security as identified by the Office of the National Security Adviser.
“Further to the directive, the firm…is hereby required to immediately take steps to restrict access within the Nigerian cyberspace in respect of 21 (twenty one) additional websites by blocking the domain names. (The list of websites is attached).”
Section 146 (1) of the NCC Act 2003 states: “A licensee shall use his best endeavour to prevent the network facilities that he owns or provides or the network service, applications service or content application service that he provides from being used in, or in relation to, the commission of any offence under any law in operation in Nigeria.
“(2): A licensee shall, upon written request by the Commission or any other authority, assist the Commission or other authority as far as reasonably necessary in preventing the commission or attempted commission of an offence under any written law in operation in Nigeria or otherwise in enforcing the laws of Nigeria, including the protection of the public revenue and preservation of national security.
“(3): Any licensee, shall not be liable in any criminal proceedings of any nature for any damage (including punitive damages), loss, cost or expenditure suffered or to be suffered (whether directly or indirectly) for any act or omission done in good faith in the performance of the duty imposed under subsections (1) and (2).”
Reacting to the development, the minister of Communications, Alhaji Adebayo Shittu, said that he was not aware any memo from the NCC that instructed any firm to gag the press, particularly online newspapers, Internet and social media users or shut them down.
Adebayo Shittu said that no instruction would be given to the NCC without such passing through him as the minister supervising the NCC.
“I am sure NCC will never ever write such a memo. I am sure it never happened.
“President Muhammadu Buhari or any of the people working for him will never do or encourage anything that will amount to gagging of the press.”
World football–governing body, FIFA, has given approval for the international friendly between Nigeria and Argentina to go ahead as scheduled in Krasnodar, Russia on 14th November 2017.
This was contained in a letter forwarded to the Football Union of Russia, addressed to the General Secretary, Aleksandr Alaev, and signed by FIFA’s Director of Competitions, Christian Unger.
The letter, dated 31 October 2017 read, inter alia: “FIFA would like to thank you for complying with the Regulations Governing International Matches by submitting the relevant information and authorizations for the following tier 1 international match: Argentina Vs Nigeria, Krasnodar Stadium, Krasnodar, 14 November 2017.
“In accordance with article 7 of the regulations, FIFA is happy to provide official authorization for this men’s tier 1 international match.
“Please note that this authorization is conditional upon FIFA receiving details of the referees who will officiate in the stated match. We will confirm authorization once the referee details have been received and checked. We would like to remind you that only referees included in the 2017 FIFA Refereeing Lists can officiate in an international “A” match.
“We would like to take this opportunity to remind you that in accordance with article 12 of the Regulations Governing International Matches, your association is required to ensure that a completed association report, list of players for both teams and the referee report are submitted to FIFA within 48 hours of each international “A” match.” [myad]
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Sule Lamido And Politics Of End Justify The Means, By Peter Claver
Sule Lamido, remember him? He is the voluble, you can say loquacious, former governor of Jigawa State who strikes a multiple-personality image in his public conducts. Sule Lamido shows off as a follower, or bag carrier for late Mallam Aminu Kano and late Alhaji Abubakar Rimi, two prominent and hugely popular politicians from the north whose catholic followership draws from their close affinity to the commoners (Talakawas). Lamido valued his closeness to the duo and rode on the crest of that affinity to power. But a combination of power and circumstances proved that Lamido has no common attachment to the deceased duo but merely rode on their backs to power. Ever ready to talk, Lamido is always sanctimonious on national issues but his stewardship n Jigawa was a cesspit of corruption and primitive acquisition, which departs radically from the politics of both Aminu Kano and Abubakar Rimi.
Rather than join a populist party that professed and cared for the masses, in deference to his much vaunted Talakawa persuasion, Lamido was to join the rabidly reactionary PDP and was in league with its leaders in the series of notorious acts that eventually led to its fall in March 2015. Lamido loves to talk in his desire to pontificate on national issues but he is hardly pinned to any uplifting and ennobling principle both in his talks and practice of politics. His politics, like the average PDP member, was buccaneerist and shorn of the concern for the poor masses he pretends to align with as he followed Aminu Kano and Rimi while they were alive. Most of Lamido’s actions were bereft of principle and the buccaneer he is, he fully subscribes to the Italian social scientist, Nicholo Machiavelli’s political theory that the end justifies the means.
As the PDP floundered enroute to the historical 2015 election, Lamido, joined forces with some PDP governors to form a splinter faction that protested the impunity and highhandedness that eventually rocked the PDP boat. But unlike his confederates in that protest, Lamido ensured that no one caught him firmly committed to the cause for which they formed the splinter group. The split personality in him was at full display as double-talk, equivocation and shifting of positions marked his commitment to that group. He ensured he was floating between the group and the main PDP faction that showed unquestionable allegiance to former president Jonathan ad his political career. So Lamido played both sides of the PDP divide. A bat and gecko rolled into one, you might say but that is Sule Lamido for you.
When the splinter group left PDP with five governors eventually left the PDP to join forces with the opposition to form the APC, Lamido with his Niger State counterpart, went back to their vomit and recanted all the criticisms they levied against the impunity in the PDP and subsumed themselves once more in the same leadership and conducts they had previously pilloried. What was ruling this volte-face was nothing more than selfish interests. Lamido, being the opportunist he is, like an average PDP member, felt more secured anchoring his nest in the PDP that had the keys to the country’s central bank and the enormous power of incumbency going to the 2015 election than banking with the tenuous coalition which the APC was then. The selfish man, which had ruled Lamido’s voyage in politics, was what was at play when he decided to retrace into the PDP. But God moves in a mysterious way as PDP sank with Lamido and all those that betted on the invincibility of an incumbent PDP.
My focus in this report however is not on the multi-faced politics and personality of Sule Lamido. I am rather focused on his recent outcry in an interview in a national paper that Nigerians see PDP members as demons which they loathe touching and that he is deeply worried about that. By the way, Lamido says he is contesting for the 2019 presidency, even as he is facing multiple corruption charges with his sons. So he should be concerned about the notorious perception his party draws from Nigerians today. He hopes to fly the PDP flag in that election so he should be rightly concerned about how Nigerians, the electorates, perceive his party. His fate in that contests rests on this perception so he should rightly feel concerned. Lamido, in the interview, said that this noxious perception presents a great challenge to him and other concerned leaders of the PDP as the 2019 election approaches. I wish him and his party men good luck in that enterprise. At least they are not behaving like their party chairman, Ahmed Markarfi who recently made a boast that the party that is floating on life support will win the presidency, all state governorship seats and all national assembly seats in the 2019 election. He is not reveling like Fayose or Fani Kayode who have made loud boasts that their rickety party, which today is a little fraction of the party that APC comprehensively trounced in the 2015 election, will capture power in 2019.
Lamido is being realistic in bemoaning the bad fate of his party and the notorious perception Nigerians hold of PDP members. He is not pretending or indulging in the self-flattery that still rule some of his party men like Markarfi, Fayose, Fani Kayode, Wike, etc. He is being frank and this is a credible route towards making a credible quest for power than indulging in a vacuous moonlighting as some of his fellow PDP members are doing.
But for him to make a credible impact in redressing the negative impression that is giving him and his fellow concerned PDP members some worries, Lamido must do well to locate where the rain starts beating him and his fellow PDP members. He must first admit that the negative impression Nigerians hold of PDP members majorly stems from the carnivorous leadership the party superintended for a whole 16 years. This noxious impression peaked in the last six years of PDP’s eadership of the country. He must admit that the deification of corruption which became the guiding philosophy of PDP’s corrosive governance of the country accounts for its terrible image amongst Nigerians today. He must admit the reckless impunity the party demonstrated while in power, the rank cluelessness and purblind mediocrity it laundered here are responsible for the horrible impression Nigerians hold of PDP and its members. He must locate these in the comprehensive defeat the PDP suffered in 2015 despite emptying the country’s treasury and employing so many deadly and desperate means to swing the election to its favour.
Then Sule Lamido, if he is serious of correcting the notorious impression Nigerians hold of PDP and its members, must locate the solidification of that bad notion to PDP’s post-election activities and behaviours which sees playing the opposition as indulging in repulsive fabrication, marketing and dissemination of abhorrent lies, hate, ethnic incitement and empty propaganda against the government of the day. He must locate the worsening perception of PDP and its members in the bitter, acrimonious and acutely frustrated activities of some of his party men like Fayose, Fani Kayode, Nyesom Wike, Reno Omokiri and others who are fixated on indulging in persistent vending of jeremiads and falsehood as opposition politics. Lamido must know that they more his fellow PDP members spew ill-digested venom as unflagging tactics against the government, the more Nigerians loathe them and mass around the present government. He should understand that PDP’s worsening perception is exacerbated by its annoying belief that trading in often childish lies and fabrications, sponsoring deliberate hoaxes to present President Buhari as a sectional leader are self-deprecatory antics that will not only conscript PDP and its fortunes but present its leaders and members as vindictive anarchists that want to set the house on fire just because PDP lost power.
So, if Lamido can identify where the shoe pinches his party, he will take up the charge of Ibrahim Mantu, a leading PDP member, that the party must apologize to Nigerians or its egregious failures in leadership. He can then seek a new image for his party as a repentant party that had realized its mistakes and are ready to turn a new leaf instead of a bitter, hate vending divisive, vengeance-seeking party that is ruled by a bitter passion to pull down the house as had been PDP’s vocation since it found itself in the cold in March 2015. The visage of Wike, Fayose, Fani Kayode, Omokiri, ranting angrily at every issue and seeking to manipulate every issue to present a sectional, religious colouratiom or fabricating and selling howling lies as political propaganda will only continue to worsen the present sorry state of PDP and if Sule Lamido is really concerned about the notorious perception of PDP members, he and his fellow concerned members of the prostrate party must work on these or continue to acquire more opprobrium from Nigerians who not only suffered the brunt[SU1] of PDP’s corrupt leadership nut continues to tolerate the efforts of its minions to rub more salt into our festering injury.
Peter Claver Oparah
Ikeja, Lagos.
E-mail: peterclaver2000@yahoo.com
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