Nigerian Supreme Court today, asked a Federal High Court judge, Justice Okon Abang to continue the hearing of the criminal case against former Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), National Publicity Secretary, Olisa Metuh.
In a decision by a five-man panel of Justices, the apex court dismissed Metuh’s appeal for want of merit.
The lead ruling which was prepared by Justice Clara Ogunbiyi, ordered Abang to continue with the trial.
Metuh is currently standing trial before the Justice Abang for allegedly receiving the sum of N400 million from former National Security Adviser (NSA), retired Colonel Sambo Dasuki during the 2015 Presidential election.
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), had arraigned Metuh on a seven count charge bordering on money laundering.
Metuh had in the dismissed appeal, challenged refusal of Justice Abang to hands-off his trial.
The embattled former PDP Spokesman had asked Justice Abang to suspend further hearing on his case pending the outcome of an appeal he lodged against the dismissal of his no-case-submission by the trial High Court.
He argued that Justice Abang ought to halt the proceeding before him since the matter was already at the Supreme court.
In his substantive appeal, the PDP Chieftain is asking the Supreme Court to determine whether or not Justice Abang was right when he ordered the defendant to enter his defence to the criminal charge bordering on alleged N400million fraud. [myad]
The head coach of the struggling Sunshine Stars of Akure, Austin Eguavoen appears to have been frustrated out of his job in the Nigeria Professional Football League (NPFL)..
Eguavoen was said to have been angry with what he termed biased officiating that worked against his team in recent matches.
The coach, who was former Super Eagles boss, was said to have insisted that he no longer feel comfortable to continue in his role.
Under him, Sunshine Stars had fumbled to home defeats against Lobi Stars and Plateau United.
Meanwhile, the assistant coach, Akin Olowookere, has been asked to take charge of the club against Kano Pillars on Sunday, pending the appointment of a substantive head coach. [myad]
Godwin Obaseki of the All Progressives Congress (APC), has again, defeated his opponent in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the last Edo State Governorship election, as the Appeal Court has affirmed his victory. Obaseki first floored Iyamu when the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) declared him the winner of the election, which was held on September 28 last year.
The election petition tribunal had also, in April this year, upheld Obaseki’s election as governor of Edo State.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), reports that counsel to both parties on May 30, argued their briefs, where Obaseki’s counsel, led by Wole Olanipekun (SAN), urged the court to dismiss the appeal, saying that the grounds of the appeal were watery.
In the judgment read by Justice M.B. Dongban-Mensem, the five-man panel said the tribunal did a painstaking job in considering evidences presented before it. This, he said, made the job easy for them.
Chief Dan Orbih, the Edo Chairman of the PDP said the party would not relent until it gets justice.
In his reaction to the appeal court judgment, Orbih said that it was too early for him to say what went wrong that the Appeal had to dismiss the case.
He said that the party was yet to get copies of the judgment, but expressed optimisms that the party had a good case.
“In view of this, after reading through the copies of the judgment when made available, I can assure you, we will take our case to the Supreme Court.”
He however said that he had appealed to party faithful to remain calm and law abiding pending when the party will reclaim its stolen mandate.
In contrast, Anselm Ojezua, the State APC Chairman lauded the Appeal Court Judgment, saying the judgment was instructive.
He advised the PDP to embrace and accept the Appeal court’s judgment and join hands with the Obaseki-led administration to move the state forward. [myad]
Nigeria’s Finance Ministry has released a full list showing how much each of the 36 states received from the Federal Government, as their share of the refund of Paris Club debt repayments between 1995 and 2002.
The list showed that Rivers State is number one with N34.99 billion refund, followed by Delta State’s N27.60 billion and Akwa Ibom as number three with N25.98 billion.
The South East Senate Caucus captured the whole essence of the ongoing sad scenario in the country, which the three-month quit notice the Northern Youths gave to Igbo residing in the region, roused.
It is a scenario which started to play out when a certain young man, called Nnamdi Kanu, strangely emerged from nowhere to start the agitation for the creation of the Republic of Biafra, to be carved out of the present Nigeria. The young man was born in the 70s, just when the Nigeria civil war ended.
He began an agitation for the same Biafran Republic which a thoroughly educated, matured and trained senior military Igbo man, late Ikemba of Nnewi, Dr. Emeka Odumwgwu Ojukwu could not bring to fruition. The battle to ensure the actualization of the same Biafran Republic led to the 30-month needless war that resulted in the killing of millions of Nigerians (those on the Biafran side included).
From the word go, we in Greenbarge Reporters totally agree with, and recommend the South East Senate Caucus position that the Northern Youths should be ignored. So too, the Igbos that have been agitating for an independent country, and doing so by inconveniencing other Nigerians, including the Northerners in their region should be ignored.
Of course, it is too late for anybody to blame the leaders of the South East, including the Senate Caucus, the governors and traditional rulers for not cautioning their young ones, being led by a man who never witnessed the devastating effects of war: a man who was operating from far away safe haven in Britain, against attempt to re-write the history he was not part of.
It is indeed, too late for one to complain about obvious double standards being employed by the nation’s leaders in a matter such as this: where they pretend that it didn’t matter at the time the youths in the South East issued similar quit notice to all Fulani herdsmen and there was not even a whimper on the danger inherent in such matter.
The time to blame the leaders from the South East for not rallying round to educate their uneducated youths about the huge investments the Igbo people have made in the North which they stand to lose if Biafran Republic comes to fruition has been overtaken by event.
As a matter of fact, it is a little bit too late for one to blame the Igbo leaders, including the South East Senate Caucus for not coming out to condemn in loud voice, the arrant insults Nnamdi Kanu had continually heaped on Nigeria as a nation and President Muhammadu Buhari in particular, to the point of saying that “Nigeria is a stupid country.”
However, it is not too late for the South East leaders to insist also that Nnamdi Kanu and his fellow travelers in the dream land, plus their national and international sponsors should be ignored. In a matter such as this, the Northern Youths, who may just be responding to the drum of war being freely and un-disturbingly beating for long by Nnamdi Kanu, are most likely to respond in the same manner to the seizure of the beating of such drum.
Indeed, we concur and appreciate the position of the South East Senate Caucus and others on the same wavelength, that the Northern Youths and their sponsors should be ignored. For, after all, it takes two to tango: the Northern Youths are wrong in the stand they have taken, which of course, arose from the fire ignited by Nnamdi Kanu and his fellow travelers in the dream land, which is also wrong.
We are not unaware of the explosive nature of the North where this type of issue can be hijacked by miscreants hiding under the quit notice to take the law into their hands, far away from what the Northern Youths intend, but, there was certainly no reason for Nnamdi Kanu and his sponsors to visit their ignorance on the entire nation, as if he was told by his story-teller that his elders in the land were ever, and are sill being treated as slaves in this country.
What has Igbos never got in this country except civilian President, which of course, is their own making?
Nnamdi Kanu and his sponsors play out such a huge ignorance that they don’t know that Igbo people have occupied almost all the top positions of this country; from Head of Military, to Secretary to the Government of the Federation, to Senate President, to Chief Judge of the Federation, to most senior Finance minister (defacto Vice President), to Vice President and so on and so forth.
Indeed, the Northern Youths were only too quick to come out with such deadly quit notice, which should in essence, help the Igbo to reflect on what they stand to gain and or lose if Nnamdi Kanu of this world (their new hero), succeeds in carving out Republic of Biafra for them. Would they need the Northern Youths quit notice at all before they relocate to their new country if their new hero gets it for them?
Would the Igbos, who have remained silent over the serious matter they leave in the hands of Nnamdi Kanu and other yoyo guys, young enough to be their grand children, need to be prompted by anyone, least of all, Northern Youths, if the Biafran Republic becomes a reality, to move out of the North, the South West and Middle Belt all of which are in Nigeria? And perhaps, parts of the South South, including Edo State; and in a country where you have such indefatigable elders like Sir Dr. Alex Ekwueme, Chief Emmanuel Iwanyanwu, Chief Ken Nnamani, Chief Jim Nwobodo, Chief John Nwodo, governor Rochas Okorocha and a host of other top ranking, old, wise, educated, enlightened and exposed Igbo leaders?
The point that needs to be made clear is that either we all ignore the Northern Youths for the quit notice they issued, and also, ultimately ignore Nnamdi Kanu’s group for playing up ignorant on the issue of Biafran Republic that was settled in 1970, or the leaders across the nation sit the boys down and educate them that this country belongs to all of us: that Igbo people are fully and legitimately qualified to aspire legitimately and uprightly to any position, just like Hausa or Yoruba, or Nupe or other tribes or ethnic groups. And to do that, every such tribe or ethnic group should understand and abide by the tenet of democracy and that in democracy, the number counts while those with lesser number negotiate and convince others to get along. That hundred other countries carved out of the present Nigeria won’t solve the fundamental challenges of development in all ramifications.
The final point is that, if the respected and tested Igbo leaders find it difficult to call the younger ones to order on matters of international magnitude in Nigeria such as the clamour for another country, pray, what will happen if Nnamdi Kanu of this world fights and gains independent Biafran nation for them? [myad]
Recent political developments in the country have further accentuated our diverse fault-lines and confirmed even to the outside world that the chord of our so-called national unity is yet fragile, very fragile.
Regionalism, ethnicity, tribalism, nepotism, favouritism, religious bigotry and the provincial character of leadership have continued to conspire to exert pressure on the nation’s fragile unity as Nigerians of northern and southern extractions agitate for fair and egalitarian accommodation in the federation.
Those who have been opportune to lead our nation have, thus far, carried on as if they are not seized of the facts of history. Whereas, the vestiges and scars of the historical civil war of attrition to secede or to keep Nigeria together, depending on the angle that it is looked at, are everywhere in our body-politic.
The Igbo ethnic nationality which subscribed to the idea of separatism in order to cure the mischief of injustice in the distribution of power and positions by the then federal government is a constant reminder of how the unending agitation for Biafra was birthed.
Our leaders are certainly not ignorant of the historical trajectory from the past to the present. But they have egregiously chosen to defiantly scorn history. This is the tragedy of the cynical and obvious contempt with which the Igbo ethnic stock is treated within the context of our federation. It is rather inexplicable that in a federation that stands on the tripod of three major ethnic nations-the Hausa/Fulani, Yoruba and Igbo-only the Ndigbo stock is yet to produce a democratically-elected president.
With the objectionable refrain being that the Igbo cannot be trusted with power, the general perception is that the denial of the Igbo ethnic nation from the presidency is a product of deliberate political calculations to eternally punish it for the secessionist misadventure spearheaded by the aboriginal leader of Biafra, the late Odumegwu Ojukwu. Validation: even a super minority Ijaw ethnic nationality has produced a president in Goodluck Jonathan, even if it was by reason of force majeure, occasioned by the natural death in office of a Hausa/Fulani president, Umaru Musa Yar’Adua.
Besides, the backwardness in its infrastructure development compared with the other regions is fingered as a deliberate policy measure to diminish the Igbo, stifle their voice, constrict their political space and confine them into a cocoon of perpetual abandonment. Structurally, it is unjustifiable that having carved the ethnic nationality into the southeast zone, it remains the only geo-political zone with five states while the others have a minimum of six states. The northwest zone even has seven states.
To be sure, the problem with our leaders is not ignorance because the civil war to keep Nigeria together as a nation is still a subject of national discourse. This is the history, which lessons should have guided them to do the right things. But by failing to do the right things, which should have assuaged the ill-feelings and restiveness of all tribes, regions or zones of the country, the separatist agitation as typified by the ogre of Biafra continues to fester.
For long, Nigeria has been run in a way and manner that does not bolster the confidence of the Igbo in the federation. Even the sheer stigmatization of the Igbo as incapable of engendering national trust is patently unfair and has detracted from the fidelity to equity in the contemplation of a genuine federation. Therefore, by failing to do the right things, our leaders have expanded the frontiers of sectionalism to the exclusion of national interest and the nation is bound to keep interrogating the Biafra issue.
History, according to Karl Marx, repeats itself, first time as a tragedy and second time as a farce. Having witnessed the historical tragedy of the Nigerian civil war, it will amount to a mockery of our leadership and nationhood if the instrumentality of dialogue and compromises cannot be deployed to contain the lingering conflict before it explodes into a conflagration in our faces.
More than ever before, Nigeria appears to be a stone’s throw to preventable disintegration. The mere verbal exhortation that Nigeria is an indissoluble entity is not enough to make certain that the otherwise does not happen. Except and unless conscious steps are taken to mitigate the dialectics of injustice, both inherent and obvious, in our nationhood, our forced marriage by the executive fiat of Lord Lugard is capable of being ruptured by the agitation for Biafra exit (Biafrexit) from Nigeria.
When the tension of Biafrexit is thrown into the mix of the calls for restructuring by the Yoruba of the southwest zone, the minority ethnic nationalities of the South-south and North Central zones to accommodate even and equal development on the basis of exploitation and exploration of mineral resources under the soil of the respective zone and the states therein, the scenario cannot but foreshadow a looming apocalypse, which must challenge the sincerity of all stakeholders in the Nigerian project to justly deal with.
If the best way to deal with this is by way of restructuring, which marginalised ethnic nationalities seem to be enamoured with, then it is high time the government of the day began to take steps along that line. If the report of the 2014 National Conference is sufficient to deal with the issue, the federal government should bury its ego by implementing the recommendations contained therein whether partially or wholesale or as it may deemed fit.
There is no more time to waste. The future of Nigeria is now. With an enlightened army of restive youths across the country, leaders of the Nigerian federation can no longer entrench a discriminatory policy of exclusion and deliberate underdevelopment of any zone or region without justifiable agitations. The Biafrexit agitation is real. The Yoruba agitation for restructuring is valid. The middle belt agitation for egalitarian accommodation in the context of northern Nigeria is in apple-pie order. The southern minorities, specifically Niger Delta agitation for more recognition and empowerment on account of their exploited oil wealth is reasonable.
What is, however, odious in the crystallising scenario in which ethnic nationalities are trying to create conditions for dialogue towards economic, political and development accommodation with a view to achieving a genuine federation, was the unconscionable eviction order, a few days ago, by the Arewa Youth to the Igbo in the northern region. The order, following the successful sit-at-home order in Southeast states by the Independent Peoples of Biafra (IPOB) to mark the anniversary of Biafra at 50, was barbaric and tendentious.
While some “well-meaning” northern leaders had quickly condemned the group and its call, including a threat of arrest by the security agencies of leaders of the Arewa Youth group, the federal government must tread softly and understandingly in response to the clanging sounds of disintegration. The government should do the needful to reinvent the wheel in the direction of true federalism and genuine unity by gravitating towards restructuring because if it does not do it or set machinery in motion to doing it in this first term, if Nigeria survives anyhow after 2019, a new government may do it and claim the prize for posterity.
When Terrorist Nnamdi Kanu set up a pirate radio station in April 2015, and started insulting President Buhari and northerners, calling them all manner of unprintable names, no state governor from the Southeast called for the arrest of the cantankerous rabble rouser, Instead, as it later turned out, Nnamdi Kanu was just a front being used by Igbo politicians to intimidate, blackmail and subvert the President Buhari administration!
When IPOB grew and became a platform on which every mentally deranged Igbo youth stood to insult the person of PMB and his supporters, we have not seen nor heard any Southeast governor or prominent leader call for caution!
We have heard and seen from certain thugs, militants or terrorists from the South/South and Southeast worst statements of threats and insults against “parasites”, usually a euphemism for northerners. But while all those threats and insults lasted, never have we heard or seen any governor from down that side rebuking or ordering the arrest of those miscreants!
We have seen how the Southeast hired and commissioned a morally bankrupt hate merchant like Femi Fani-Kayode to be spewing hatred and insults on daily basis against President Buhari and northerners, to the point that an Igbo newspaper, DAILY SUN, gave him a column where he wrote hate-filled articles against PMB and the north, yet not once have we seen or heard any Southeast governor or prominent politician from that region condemn Fani-Kayode or even call for his arrest!
As a matter of fact, northern Nigeria has suffered incalculable insults, denigrations, and all manner of mischief from all such hate mongers since 1966 up to the conversion of Boko Haram to “Boko Haram”, and yet there seems to be no letup on the undeserved attacks and insults against the north and its leaders. What you need to be a “hero” in some quarters is to demonstrate that you are an imp like Femi Fani-Kayode, Ayo Fayose, and Nnamdi Kanu with undying thirst to fan hatred and mischief against PMB, and this visceral hatred against PMB by these sons of Lucifer is simply based on where he comes from, and we all know where their largest fan base is!
In spite of all that, it is condemnable that the Northern Youth Coalition chose to toe the path of IPOB, Femi Fani-Kayode, Ayo Fayose and all the ragtag groups that speak for Terrorist Nnamdi Kanu by calling on the Igbo to leave the north within three months. It is understandable, anyway, the anger and frustration a group of people may feel when they are the subject of hatred and ridicule by people with overrated self importance, but in times like this, it is always expedient to keep a cool head and show leadership in just the same way Governor Nasir el-Rufai showed how venerable monger power he was, by asking that those northern youths who asked that the Igbo leave the north be arrested!
However, patriotism in a diverse, multi-ethnic, and multinational country like Nigeria should not, and cannot be a one way traffic. As much as it is wrong for northern youths to ask for the departure of any ethnic group from the south from the north, it is equally much wrong for any group from the south to claim monopoly of sectional bigotry. I have seen hypocrites celebrating their full scale hypocrisy by condemning what those northern youths coalition said whereas they are well known as ardent supporters of IPOB and their allied groups. Tit for tat ain’t good but not everybody can endure persistent, unrelenting insults and regional blackmail.
El-Rufai has shown that in the midst of needless provocations, and dearth of leadership among the provocateurs, there is no leadership in the northern part of the country. And this is the same el-Rufai every moron that adorns themselves with IPOB flags love to label as Hell-Rufai on social media. [myad]
Their confusion, infusion and frustration, arising from pride and over estimation of themselves, has led Igbo from the South East to a series of saboteur maniac syndromes.
Igbos broadly divided other Nigerians into three broad categories: those they hate, those they deride and those they fear. Those they hate are the Yorubas whom they call traitors, tribalists and cowards. Yet, no race in Nigeria has been more tribal than the lgbos. There are historical facts to prove this.
If something is ten and Igbos are not allowed to take 15, so that the rest of us can share minus 5, lgbos will cry marginalization and label the rest us tribalists. However there is no race in this country that has been more accommodating of the lgbos than the Yorubas. There is no single Igbo leader that did not grow up in the South West or is a beneficiary of Yoruba largesse.
Late Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe went to CMS Gramma School; Adolphus wabara went to Ahmadiyya College; Ken Nnamani went to Loya College, Ibadan, Ojukwu and Ekwueme went to King’s College; Okpara went to Yaba Tech while Phillip Emegwali went to Aquinas College, Akure. Even my brother, Anadu went to Imade College, Owo, etc. All major Igbo politicians cut their political teeth in the West. Their major religious leaders cannot thrive outside the West. Pastor Muoka, Pastor Ezekiel of Four Square and Okonkwo of Trem are examples.
I remember that after the civil war, Igbos who came back to Ile Ife were allowed tuition free while the Yorubas in Nsuka were rusticated. Example is Pastor Adeboye. Yet lgbos reserve their greatest hatred for the Yorubas for reasons being that the Yorubas refused to be dominated by the lgbos to confront the North.
As to the label of cowardice, had there been any war between the Yorubas and the lgbos in which the lgbos defeated the Yorubas?
In the whole ancestral history of Ndigbo, which war has the forefathers or great forefathers fought? Any empire in their history? Yet the Yorubas have worsted the lgbos four times in the political history of Nigeria.
As to the label of treachery, had there been any agreement the Yorubas signed with the lgbos and they reneged? The answer is no. Yet the Yorubas have records of Igbo treachery on the two occasions they formed alliance with them.
In 1964 to fight the federal election, the Yorubas formed an Alliance called UPGA with the Igbos to be led by Okpara, because major the Yoruba leaders were in jail. There was an agreement that the election must be boycotted. The Igbos sabotaged it, went and contested election while the West kept to the agreement.
In 1979, the West went into alliance with the lgbos and formed PPA – Progressives People Alliance. Again Igbo sabotaged it so that they can produce Speaker of the House of Representatives. Who then is traitor?
The second category is the Eastern minorities made up of present Rivers, Akwa lbom, Cross Rivers and Bayelsa.
The Igbos see them as subhuman with tidal brain. Until the creation of Rivers State by Gowon, no Ogoni man can sleep on the hospital bed in Bori General Hospital. As at 1977, only Uyo, PHC and Calabar had electricity. They were so underdeveloped by their Igbo overseers that you will think that you were in the Congo jungle.
Until Diette Spiff, there was no Ikwere named Street in Port Harcourt. To show how deep the derision is, the present Biafran agitatators changed the name of Ribisi in Port Harcourt to Igwocha as if the Ikweres do not exist.
The third category are the Hausa Fulani. The igbos pretend to hate the Fulanis but the truth is that the Igbo man is subservient to them. Ignore the noise.
There are historical facts to justify this. Zik served under Balewa, Ekwueme served under Shagari and Ekweremadu zoned the PDP presidency to the North because he wants to be the Vice President to a Northerner.
After the civil war and Ojukwu was granted amnesty for his rebellion against constituted authority, he returned to Nigeria and joined the Hausa fulani party, (NPN): those he accused of genocide against his Igbo people.
It is Igbo tragedy that they hate and deride those who grow and sustain them while they cringe to those (the Hausas) who kicked them like balls.
Igbos are the only race in Nigeria that celebrate failure.
In 1982, the Igbos celebrated the defeat of Biafra by welcoming Ojukwu with fanfare on his return from asylum, haven been granted amnesty by the Igbo overlords- the Hausa Fulani. He reveled in the fanfare and promptly married FFK left over- forgetting about over three million lgbos that died in the war and with many of them languishing at Ojiri River Camp.
The second celebration is the release of Nnamdi Kanu with the most humiliating bail conditions ever granted an accused in the annals of Nigerian justice system.
A bail conditions targeted at the entire Igbo race and granted by an Hausa Fulani judge. I could not believe that with all the noise, such bail conditions will be signed. But he signed and in his eagerness to leave Kuje, he abandoned his two conspirators in Kuje.
The bail conditions wiped out the identity of the Igbos and Eweremadu was made the enforcer of the conditions. FFK is a polemist like Femi Aribisala.
They have the capacity to argue both sides of the same point. The Igbos regard him as their hero just like Ayo fayose, the Eze gburugburu the second.
I hope very soon the Igbo will not start blaming fayose as they blamed Awo for everything that went wrong with their prosecution of the Biafran war. [myad]
The Senate has gone far in its attempt at establishing the South East Development Commission (SEDC).
A bill, sponsored by Senator Samuel Anyanwu and co-sponsored by Senator Stella Oduah for the Commission scaled through second reading today, Thursday, on the floor of the senate.
The bill was subsequently referred to the relevant committee of the senate for further legislative action.
Below are details of the bill.
LEAD DEBATE ON THE SECOND READING OF A BILL FOR AN ACT TO ESTABLISH THE SOUTH EAST DEVELOPMENT COMMISSION AND FOR OTHER MATTERS CONNECTED THERETO 2016.
Sponsor: Senator Samuel N. Anyanwu, Imo East
Introduction / Background
Mr. President and my Distinguished colleagues I stand to lead debate for the Second Reading of the “Bill For An Act To Establish The South East Development Commission (SEDC) and for other matters connected therewith. This Bill was read the First Time on the 22nd of June, 2016.
The Explanatory Memorandum:
“This Bill seeks to Establish South-East Development Commission charged with the responsibility among other things, for the rehabilitation, reconstruction and re-positioning of the region for the development of the economic potentials needed to stimulate industrial growth and resource diversification; also to address the dearth of infrastructure and other related environmental issues posing a big challenge to the development of the South East States”
The bill is divided into six (6) parts and has thirty (30) sections, one schedule therewith;
This bill is seeking to establish a Development Commission for the South East geo-political zone to rehabilitate and construct roads to ameliorate the devastating effect of soil erosion and other environmental or developmental challenges in the region made up of Abia, Anambra, Ebonyi, Enugu and Imo states.
To identify and promote programmes that will enhance the development of boundless entrepreneurial capacities, technical skills, technological innovativeness and managerial competences for our economic advancement.
To give necessary attention and support needed to harness the abundant economic and ingenuous entrepreneurial potentials of the region, and to the development of the manufacturing and industrial activities capable of transforming the Nigerian economy and leading the way to a strategic domestic economic growth.
Retrospectively, the South East is ravaged by erosion and environmental degradation triggered mostly by the chemical impact of the civil war which rendered most of the arable lands devastated and unproductive in terms of agricultural yields. No remediation has been carried out till now.
Mr. President and distinguished colleagues it is incontrovertible that the Micro, Small and Medium scale enterprises are significant to the growth, productivity and competitiveness of any economy, this is one area the South East manifests strength and comparative advantage but lack the necessary encouragement and support to enhance their growth and maximize their full potentials to compete with countries like China and Brazil. Again, diversification is paramount in taking the nation out of a monolithic economy and the South East is strategically positioned to play this role with the passage of this bill.
Summary Of The Provisions Of The Bill:
Mr. Senate President and colleagues the bill provides as follows:
Headquarters- Section 1(3) provides the location of the headquarters in Enugu which has served as the political capital of the South East geo-political zone.
Membership -The membership of the commission is provided for under section 2(1) (a) (b) (1) –(IV) & (c), 2 (a) (b) (c) & (d) and drawn from the composing states of the zone and other interest groups.
Tenure And Rotation Of Office Of Chairman – Section (3) & (4) provides for the rotation of the office of the chairman respectively.
Also Part 1 of the bill contains mode of resignation, cessation or removal of the office from membership of the board, and remuneration and allowances.
PART II – Deals with functions and powers of the Commission etc.
PART III – Deals with the structure of the Commission
PART IV- Deals with the staff of the Commission
PART V- Deals with the Funding of the Commission and General Financial Provision.
Justification For The Bill;
The Bill if passed will address the issues contained in the early part of this lead debate and the provisions of the Bill viz: PART II sections 7 & 8.
It will also promote FGN’s development of zones that have been affected/ ravaged by war, terrorism, hunger, degradation like the North-East zone of Nigeria
The South-East zone historically stands out as the first zone to suffer innumerable losses as a result of military action arising from civil war and a truncated policy of the famous 3Rs.
It therefore follows that the Bill will now revive the 3Rs and ensure the implementation of that laudable policy of the Federal Government of Nigeria in respect of the South East zone to address the issues of physical and human devastation which still persist.
The passage of this Bill will not impact negatively on the other geo-political zones but rather support the re-visitation of the need to address the issues raised by this Bill which all zones of Nigerian State have argued positively in support.
The passage of this Bill will be critical in addressing the Biafran agitation for marginalisation through an integrative development plan that will promote and strengthen the sense of nationalism.
A thriving and strong economy in the South East consequent upon the tackling of their problems will definitely lead to improved revenue streams into the Federation Account in terms of taxes and other Non-Oil revenue sources.
A precedent has been set with the passage of the North East Development Commission (NEDC) Bill which in all ramifications represents and reminds us of the experience of the South East zone which was first in time.
Conclusion And Prayer
In conclusion, Mr. President of the Senate and Distinguished colleagues I strongly urge and seek your support for the passage of this Bill based upon the arguments rendered thereof and the deserving benefits to the zone in particular and the country in general. [myad]
The leaders of the Arewa Youth Consultative Forum (AYCF), have insisted that they want Igbo people to quit the Northern region within three months because they (Igbos) have consistently showed that they don’t believe in Nigeria.
“Our declaration (that they leave the North) did not mention violence at all. The Igbo have consistently insisted that they don’t want to be in Nigeria, let them therefore, go back to their places. They don’t believe in Nigeria, so, we also don’t believe in them.”
One of the leaders of the group, who read their declaration yesterday, Tuesday, Abdulaziz Suleiman, said that they held a meeting in Kaduna today, Wednesday after the threat of arrest by the Kaduna state government, and concluded that “there will be no retreat, no surrender”.
Abdulaziz, who is the National Coordinator of Northern Emancipation Network (NEN), said that contrary to the position by Kaduna State government, they are not advocating violence even as he accused Governor Nasir El-Rufai of Kaduna State of playing politics over the matter.
“Where was El Rufai when the Igbos gave the Fulani ultimatum to leave their areas?
“Where was he when over 500 northerners were killed in Ile Ife? These people just politicise everything.
“Because he wants to run for President, he chose to ignore his people and appease the Igbo? Good luck to him.”
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The North Shows Leadership…..
When Terrorist Nnamdi Kanu set up a pirate radio station in April 2015, and started insulting President Buhari and northerners, calling them all manner of unprintable names, no state governor from the Southeast called for the arrest of the cantankerous rabble rouser, Instead, as it later turned out, Nnamdi Kanu was just a front being used by Igbo politicians to intimidate, blackmail and subvert the President Buhari administration!
When IPOB grew and became a platform on which every mentally deranged Igbo youth stood to insult the person of PMB and his supporters, we have not seen nor heard any Southeast governor or prominent leader call for caution!
We have heard and seen from certain thugs, militants or terrorists from the South/South and Southeast worst statements of threats and insults against “parasites”, usually a euphemism for northerners. But while all those threats and insults lasted, never have we heard or seen any governor from down that side rebuking or ordering the arrest of those miscreants!
We have seen how the Southeast hired and commissioned a morally bankrupt hate merchant like Femi Fani-Kayode to be spewing hatred and insults on daily basis against President Buhari and northerners, to the point that an Igbo newspaper, DAILY SUN, gave him a column where he wrote hate-filled articles against PMB and the north, yet not once have we seen or heard any Southeast governor or prominent politician from that region condemn Fani-Kayode or even call for his arrest!
As a matter of fact, northern Nigeria has suffered incalculable insults, denigrations, and all manner of mischief from all such hate mongers since 1966 up to the conversion of Boko Haram to “Boko Haram”, and yet there seems to be no letup on the undeserved attacks and insults against the north and its leaders. What you need to be a “hero” in some quarters is to demonstrate that you are an imp like Femi Fani-Kayode, Ayo Fayose, and Nnamdi Kanu with undying thirst to fan hatred and mischief against PMB, and this visceral hatred against PMB by these sons of Lucifer is simply based on where he comes from, and we all know where their largest fan base is!
In spite of all that, it is condemnable that the Northern Youth Coalition chose to toe the path of IPOB, Femi Fani-Kayode, Ayo Fayose and all the ragtag groups that speak for Terrorist Nnamdi Kanu by calling on the Igbo to leave the north within three months. It is understandable, anyway, the anger and frustration a group of people may feel when they are the subject of hatred and ridicule by people with overrated self importance, but in times like this, it is always expedient to keep a cool head and show leadership in just the same way Governor Nasir el-Rufai showed how venerable monger power he was, by asking that those northern youths who asked that the Igbo leave the north be arrested!
However, patriotism in a diverse, multi-ethnic, and multinational country like Nigeria should not, and cannot be a one way traffic. As much as it is wrong for northern youths to ask for the departure of any ethnic group from the south from the north, it is equally much wrong for any group from the south to claim monopoly of sectional bigotry. I have seen hypocrites celebrating their full scale hypocrisy by condemning what those northern youths coalition said whereas they are well known as ardent supporters of IPOB and their allied groups. Tit for tat ain’t good but not everybody can endure persistent, unrelenting insults and regional blackmail.
El-Rufai has shown that in the midst of needless provocations, and dearth of leadership among the provocateurs, there is no leadership in the northern part of the country. And this is the same el-Rufai every moron that adorns themselves with IPOB flags love to label as Hell-Rufai on social media. [myad]