An operative of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, Marcus Olatunji, who was attached to the Ooni of Ife, Oba Enitan Ogunwusi, has been shot dead by suspected armed robbers that were running away from a nearby armed robbery scene. Olatunji was killed at the gate of the palace as he made to buy recharge card at a nearby kiosk. Those who witnessed the killing said they suspected that armed robbers who were passing by shot Olatunji and took his service gun away. The Head of Public Relations of the NSCDC, Wale Folarin, confirmed the incidence, saying: “it is true one of our officers attached to the Ooni’s palace was shot dead by some unidentified persons in front of a private residence of the Ooni. The killers went away with his gun. He died at the teaching hospital, Ife. “We have arrested three suspects in connection with the crime and investigations continue as the command will get to the root of the matter.” [myad]
Lagos State Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Mr. Steve Ayorinde, has made it clear that there is no job for which people are being invited to apply.
He advised Lagosians, in a statement today, to be wary of dubious outfits that are fraudulently seeking patronage from unsuspecting job seekers. He added that state government is worried by the increasing activities of unscrupulous individuals and organizations, employing various tactics to advertise for phony job placement and in the course take advantage of unsuspecting innocent citizens.
The commissioner warned criminally-minded individuals and organizations to desist from these despicable acts as anyone caught will be prosecuted according to the Law.
Ayorinde called on the residents to always ascertain the genuineness of all job advertisements and patronize only those that can be traced and verified to be authentic.
It would be recalled that the Lagos State House of Assembly, in a Resolution passed recently, called for public sensitization and awareness on activities of illegal organizations seeking for patronage for non-existing jobs by defrauding innocent people in the process. [myad]
A prosecution witness in the corruption case against Olisa Metuh, the embattled national publicity secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Junaidu Sa’id, has told a Federal High Court in Abuja how he (Metuh) shared the N400 Million he collected from the former National Security Adviser (NSA), retired Colonel Sambo Dasuki.
In a cross examination in the case today, Sa’id who is an investigation officer in the Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC), said that N21.7 million was transferred from Metuh’s company, Destra Investment Limited to a former Chairman of the PDP Board of Trustees, Chief Tony Anenih while N5 million was transferred to the former National Woman Leader of the PDP, Kema Chikwe, even as N25 million was transferred to a former political adviser to the former Vice President Namadi Sambo, Alhaji Abba Dabo. He said that he discovered that N500 million in Destra Investment’s account was paid to one Daniel Ford International company for the purpose of buying a landed property in Banana Island, Lagos, adding that the money was transferred in tranches of N300 million and N200 million to the company. According to Sa’id: “I did not discover any contract approval from the office of former National Security Adviser, Sambo Dasuki, to Destra Investment Limited to carry out publicity for former President Jonathan and PDP. “The N400 million purported contract has no approval and I know there should be an internal process where each contract is approved and where it can confirmed that such contract had been executed. “My lord, during investigation, we discovered that the sum of N10 billion had been withdrawn from the account of former NSA’s office to finance PDP’s presidential convention.” The judge adjourned the case to February 18 to enable the defence open its case. [myad]
The Presidency has raised a security alert over the possible attacks by the terrorists, ordering extra security measures around the Aso Rock. The Chief Security Officer to the President, Bashir Abubakar, who gave the directive in a memo dated January 26 this year directed that all vehicles entering the Presidential Villa, including those of highly placed persons, must henceforth be thoroughly checked. The memo, titled: “Use of tinted cars around the Presidential Villa, Abuja,” reads:
“It has been observed that some staff of the Presidential Villa driving tinted cars, especially security personnel, are in the habit of refusing to wind down their windscreen for security checks before driving into the villa. “It is most worrisome that some of them use the excuse of either driving official cars or driving VIPs to justify their acts. “This act, which is not in tandem with standard security drill and procedure, poses serious threat to the safety and security of the Villa. “It is important to note that the insistence of security operatives at the pilot gates to properly screen vehicles coming into the villa whether tinted or not tinted, official or unofficial is not out of place. “Therefore, there is need for all to subject themselves and their vehicles to security checks as the case may be, so as to prevent unscrupulous elements from exploring the situation to launch attacks on the Villa. More so, that most of the major attacks by terrorists groups on high profile targets around the world are being carried out using hijacked vehicles or vehicles with tinted glasses. “Heads of units/ departments are to advise personnel working under them to always subject themselves to proper security checks and not take the duties of security personnel for granted.” [myad]
Senior Special Assistant to President Muhammadu Buhari on media and publicity, Malama Garba Shehu has described as prosperous, the news going round that President Buhari called all Nigerians criminals in the recent interview he granted London Telegraph newspaper.
In a statement today, Garba Shehu emphasized: “it is preposterous for anyone to imagine that the President of Nigeria would describe all the citizens of the country he leads as criminals, when he himself is a Nigerian–obviously not a criminal–and when there are many Nigerians of honest living making their country proud all over the world.”
He stressed that the various interpretations of President Buhari’s comments in an interview granted to the UK’s Telegraph newspaper on February 5, 2016 were unfortunate even as he noted that the wave of negative reactions to the President’s remarks about the reputation of Nigerians abroad was as a result of an incomplete understanding of his point.
“President Buhari was asked about the flood of migrants from Nigeria and the fraudulent applications for asylum put in by people desperate to leave their motherland at any cost, and it was this question that elicited his response,” he said, encouraging Nigerians to avail themselves of a full text of the interview, which has now been made available on the Telegraph’s website.
“Unfortunately, there are also Nigerians giving their country a bad image abroad, and it is to those Nigerians that the President referred in his comments,” he said, adding that people may play politics and online games with the President’s comments, but the fact of the matter remains that Nigeria’s reputation abroad has been severely damaged by her own citizens.
“These Nigerians who leave their country to go and make mischief on foreign shores, have given the rest of us a bad reputation that we daily struggle to overcome,” Garba Shehu said, even as he recalled the many efforts of President Buhari to clean up the image of Nigeria, such as the war on corruption.
“President Buhari is very aware of the problems the people of Nigeria face both at home and abroad, and he is not shying away from admitting them even as he focuses on solutions to bring them to a permanent end.” [myad]
At the weekend, I was in Edo state for a funeral. The trip from Abuja took us approximately six hours. We traversed two states and the Federal Capital Territory on a distance of over 450 kilometers of largely incomplete and abandoned road projects, from the Gwagwalada end of the cadastral Trunk ‘A’ road to Uromi in Edo. It was a trip of woes evident by worn-out and congested roads littered with crashed vehicles alongside and even on the main expressway. Sights of wailing passengers standing by casualties of fatal car crashes, victims who a few hours earlier were co-passengers were the main features. The absence of rapid emergency operations for survivors made the scenes more depressing.
This scenario was particularly common between Lokoja and Okene. On the busy single-carriage way road shared by cars, buses and trucks, the road was mostly partially or permanently blocked by cement ferrying trucks from the nearby Dangote Cement factory in Obajana and from Okpella in Edo State. A few kilometers before Okpella, a new town is coming up. A fast growing settlement from where limestone are ferried to the Okpella cement factory. I learnt that the sprawling settlement will also accommodate a new cement manufacturing plant under construction by one of Nigeria’s leading manufacturers. Sadly, there was no noticeable presence of any form of government in sight. No law enforcement agents, no town planners and no sanitary inspectors. All you find are poor, struggling and desperate Nigerians who have built shacks to display wares for sale and huts, probably to house truck drivers who may wish to make use of such makeshifts structures as temporary abodes in the settlement. One could count over 300 trucks on the crudely excavated land on the left hand side of the road from Okene in Kogi State, which is only a few dozen kilometers north of Okpella. I’m sure the ever knowing Edo State Governor, Adams Oshiomhole, is already aware of the development or he is playing blind to it now until it has grown out of proportion just ready for tax collections then it will be recognized. At that time it would have grown from a small community into a small cosmopolitan town, probably providing hideout for all kinds of criminal elements. That settlement is akin to the sorry state of Nigeria today. This is a country that provides for a few who then lord it over all and still label them criminals. If you observe very carefully, in the past 55 years, the Nigerian budget has been developed to service only about three million living and dead public servants who served and are still serving in different capacity. Their children and those of their cousins, the traditional rulers are sponsored abroad on scholarships. Others attend military academies, intelligent services trainings and foreign services to remain within the realm of government and circle of affluence. The government has never been for the poor and the have nots. There has been no social security programme for poor and vulnerable amongst us since the beginning of time. None championed by past administrations in this country just for the masses. None! What you hear and see are superficial programme especially after coups and during campaigns geared at enriching the already rich elite, party faithfuls and conduit pipes for exploitations of resources. It’s 2016 and it hasn’t stopped. A nation of more than 170 million people yet unable to accurately register its citizens and have no clue who they are or what they do. It’s laughable that such an administration is pretending to formulate a policy on providing social benefits for its one million poorest citizens. Who are the 1 million poorest of the poor? Anyways, that’s one for another day. The Nigerian people have been so plundered and exploited by those that stole it’s mandate since the discovery of oil in the Niger Delta and the oil boom that followed in the 70s, 80s and 90s. Those who held sway in military uniforms when their counterparts in East Asian countries like Singapore, Indonesia and Malaysia were building economies are today named political fathers. Others are using the new opportunities they have to make amends by just curbing corruption in the form of arrests, detentions and court trials when other developing nations are moving on, building vibrant economies and transparent institutions that make the incidences of corruption minimal, easily traced with culprits apprehended and punished appropriately. At every given time the country wants to leapfrog into growth it is denied that opportunity out of selfishness and sectional greed. We are down to the basis again 101 years after the formation of Nigeria. The only countries in which you can’t walk up to a bank as an ordinary citizen to access soft loans except you are a politician or civil servant. Or being amongst the other privilege few. You pay taxes despite building your own community schools, educating yourselves, sheltering yourselves, providing borehole water for yourselves and even providing yourselves access paths to and within your neighborhoods. It’s your duty to pay dues to the police officers detailed to a division near you to effect regular patrol of your neighborhood against common criminals. You are at the mercy and favour of the government and its officials who swore to an oath to be faithful, fair and sincere but drum it on you that they are cleaning Augean stables that the over 170 million Nigerians made dirty when the government is seen not to be working. Employing us to clap for them when an alleged corrupt official is under investigation and hail them for mopping up funds into a channel from all the numerous banks where they were being held. Forgetting that, that is why they are voted and are paid to do. Every flimsy thing is an achievement that overrides the true definitions of success. Achievement is getting something from nothing. Using skills and applying courage and not getting something from something. It is therefore embarrassing when a government and its headship get on the cup in hand begging mode from one country to the other drench in self pity to arouse international sympathy in asking for assistance in a world that most country’s economy is crippling. With all regional divides, north to south and east to west seriously affected but a few exemptions. No desperations at going into the drawing board to see how it can make a change or turn things around for the people. But making inconclusive pronouncements as to what it will do and what’s doing and who it will undo. The administrations do not need all of that. The government has been voted in to provide the social developmental deficits it identified in its campaigns. Now it has the floor and the opportunity, it should design its visions, make them missions, build on them and recreate them where necessary. Since the government doesn’t also want to consolidate on past achievements, if there are any, then they should build new things like roads on new paths so we can stop using the ones built over the years by the Peoples Democratic Party administration and are now wearing away. There is no time for these window dressing we see every day on televisions and read in the newspapers. Oil prices have fallen. That is a fact! So, plan according to what you have. Various taxes have been introduced into an economy that is reeling from the impact of fallen oil prices with no complains about what they are losing because we all have faith in the administration. Use those taxes for the works you want to embark upon. They are not funds for savings and no one is going to praise you for keeping a depreciating naira. There is no value in it. Make use of them. Complete road, rails and housing projects. Provide good policies for the private sector to thrive in the provision of electricity, water and industrialization. Not giving opportunity to noise makers and government workers who must do their works whether in good or bad fate. The president knows that these set of people are always the major beneficiaries of a failing state. Their counterparts, the civil servants, work with all administrations and administrators. Sometime when people say some civil servants made their money through corrupt means I laugh at their ignorance because you could be a multi millionaire without stealing a dime for just being a privileged public servant. There was a case of a photographer who received a call from his bank manager for managing very huge accounts. Making monthly multiple deposits without single withdrawals and showing no physical presence in banking halls to demand anything during the Obasanjo era. That has not changed today. Anyone who works with the President, Vice President and any other of the officials amongst equals and is permanently on the foreign trip of the President, governors and ministers collecting estacodes (in scarce dollars) and still getting his accommodation paid for by the government can never feel the economic pinch. He will be growing richer while his contemporaries are experiencing a quick lean. He will see everything good about the administrations’ non economic direction and the absolute stasis in the provision of infrastructures. Because he is returning from foreign and local trips to bank his naira or change his dollars to naira in the hands of Zone 4 money changers who the President has however labeled as dubious not knowing that his staff could also be providing them with foreign exchange at parallel market rates. That is the reality that you wouldn’t hear from the supposed army of change. Only the Emir of Kano, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi had gotten the President conscientized about it just yesterday. Alas we are still in it together. When the country suffers degradation and its people are disparaged because of the deed and pronouncements of its leaders, it’s not just the people that suffers it but everyone of us including the children of such leaders if not now but after their days in office. We don’t have any other country but NIGERIA. If we have to build it we must and do it now. There is no reason to being political, regional and sectional or playing lip service about it. There is no gain at disapproving that we are retrogressive disgraceful. However we can be better criminals who would want to be known to better the lot of their people like the fairy tales hero, Robin Hood than gambling on our last chances to make impact in the era of global economic competitions and internal growth and development. Twitter @MOkpogode [myad]
63 years old Hajiya Belli, mother of the Deputy Governor of Taraba state, Alhaji Haruna Manu, has been kidnapped by unknown gunmen from her residence in Makera area of Mutum Biyu in Gassol Local Government Area of the state.
Reports said that Hajiya Belli was kidnapped along with others who have been released after paying ransom of between N1million and N5million.
The kidnappers according to eye witness, stormed the area on motor cycles, shooting their ways into the town, and abducting their victims in the process. Hajiya Belli was abducted at about 10:30pm on Monday, by hoodlums who bundled her onto one of the motorcycles they rode into the town with.
There is no official statement yet from either the police or the state Government, but eyewitnesses said that Chairman of the Local Government, Alhaji Tukura Bashir has been making frantic contacts to get help.
Apparently, the entire area, including Garba Chede, Tella and surrounding communities where there have been cases of kidnapping lately has been thrown into confusion, our correspondent said. [myad]
Health Minister, Professor Isaac Adewole has told the Senate Committee on Health that the original budget of his ministry had been distorted and strange by unknown Nigerians with strange figures smuggled in.
Professor Adewole asked the committee to discard the budget before it and await a new one to be re-submitted today which he said would reflect the programmes of the health sector in 2016.
The minister’s disclosure further reinforced a recent discovery that some unscrupulous Nigerians had imported strange figures into the 2016 budget in pursuit of their greed and corrupt tendencies.
Last week, Senate Committee on Education discovered N10 billion tucked into the education budget.
The revelation compelled the Chairman of the Senate Committee, Senator Lanre Tejuosho, to announce an imminent executive session with the minister with a view to thrashing out emerging issues on the budget as the minister further disclosed that there were some issues on which conclusion had not been reached by the ministry and yet allocations had been made to them without the ministry’s knowledge. [myad]
About two weeks into office, Kogi State Governor, Alhaji Yahaya Bello has finally picked Hon. Simon Achuba from Ibaji local government area of the state as his deputy in replacement for James Faleke who had bluntly refused to take up the position. Governor Yahaya Bello forwarded the name of Achuba to the state House of Assembly yesterday and the lawmakers are expected to work on him today for confirmation. The governor’s letter to the state House of Assembly reads: “In line with the provision of Section 186 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (1999) as amended, I have the pleasure to forward herewith, the name of Hon. Simon Achuba for approval of appointment as the deputy governor of Kogi State. “Hon. Achuba (JP) hails from Ibaji Local Government Area of Kogi State and was a two-time honourable member of the state House of Assembly from 1999 to 2007 where he was Deputy-Speaker during his second tenure. “In view of the above, it will be highly appreciated if the request is treated and approved with utmost speed to pave way for his assumption of office.” James Faleke, who is a member of the House of Representatives, who was the running mate to the late Audu in an election that was inconclusive due to the death of Audu bluntly refused to be sworn-in with Yahaya Bello as his deputy on the ground that it was him that was supposed to be sworn-in as governor following the death of Prince Audu. The leadership of All Progressives Congress (APC), after several abortive attempts to convince Faleke to take the deputy governorship position, went ahead to inaugurate Yahaya Bello as the state governor on January 27 without deputy. Since Bello took over office about two weeks ago, the state had been without a deputy.
The immediate past minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Bala Mohammed has described the chairman of the Senate committee on the FCT, Senator Dino Melaye as ignorant who does not know the provision of the constitution on the limitation of the separation of power in the constitution.
The former minister reacted to media reports in which the Senate Committee on FCT accused the previous administration of illegally converting the green areas of Maitama District into developable lands and allocating same to named individuals.
In a statement signed by his media consultant, Mr. Emma Agu, the former minister said that while he had not wanted to join issues with the Senate Committee, “however, the exuberance of the Committee’s Chairman that borders on ignorance of the limitations of the doctrine of separation of powers under the constitution”
The full text of the statement goes thus:
Our attention has been drawn to various media reports in which the Senate Committee on FCT accused the previous administration of illegally converting the green areas of Maitama District into developable lands and allocating same to named individuals.
While we had not wanted to join issues with the Senate Committee, however, the exuberance of the Committee’s Chairman that borders on ignorance of the limitations of the doctrine of separation of powers under the constitution has necessitated us to set the records straight:
1. Throughout the tenure of the previous administration, all allocations of land in the FCT were based on professional advice, availability of layouts and the provisions of the Land Use Act. In reference to the Ministerial Hill, which the Senate Committee gave the Department of Development Control directive to stop work, we state as follows:
That sometimes in 2010, the FCTA under Senator Adamu Aliero commissioned Messrs. Fola Consult Limited to advise the FCT Administration on the extent of the area in Maitama Ministerial Hill that could be converted for residential use;1
That Messrs. Fola Consult Limited submitted its report highlighting the history of the area and rationale for its development as follows:
The redesign of Plot 2278 was carried out during the regime of Air Vice Marshall Hamza Abdullahi in 1998 to accommodate the Federal Ministers who moved from Lagos into the FCT;
That the change in land use was captured by the Land use plan produced in June 1989 by Messrs. Dynasys Resource Company in association with Alpha Consult Rome;
That the redesign of Messrs. Dynasys Company was not comprehensive since the sole aim of the design was just to create plots to accommodate some few Ministers’ houses;
That the area was not designated as recreational area or park but was designated as undevelopable area based on its difficult terrain and that the level of technology at the time was the major consideration for its classification as undevelopable;
That Fola Consult Limited advised the Aliero Administration that additional plots should be created to justify existing underutilized infrastructure In line with its land use
categorization as a low-density residential area;
That sometimes in 2014, the Department of Urban & Regional Panning also made recommendations that additional plots should be created on plot 2180 to justify existing underutilized infrastructure around the Mississippi street of Maitama;
That the immediate past FCT administration was fully convinced that the master plan is a dynamic road map for the city’s land use and infrastructure development, guided by the demands of change and time. Hence, on the basis of the above recommendations, and in recognition of its responsibility to ensure full utilization of resources, the administration approved the redesigns and subsequently, allocations were made in line with the Land Use Act;
That the FCT Administration allowed for commencement of work on the plots after the allottees got due building plan approvals from the Department of Development Control which approval, needless to add, can only be reversed by the authority of the Hon. Minister;
Apart from insisting that such new developments were based on the green city concept, the approval process was predicated on a robust environmental impact assessment conducted by a team of professionals within the FCT Administration.
That the Senate Committee is advised to seek adequate information from the FCT Administration before issuing wrongful directives. With the above said, we consider it imperative, at this juncture, to make some clarifications on the concept of the master plan, green areas and the dynamism of city development.
The Master Plan Concept
I am not a Town Planner, but a Master plan has been defined by professionals as that broad policy document meant to guide the growth and development of a town or city.
May I add that the life span of a master plan which is not less than Ten years minimum, is so wide that there is no way changes will not occur for a document based on assumptions, predications and projections. As soon as gaps are observed between these proposals and realities, as is the case of the Abuja master plan over time, a review or redesign becomes impera ive.
Above all, nowhere in the world and on any town or city is a master plan implementation achieved at 100 percent level even in developed countries.
Concept of Green Areas and the Dynamism – of City Development
Green area is a land use provision within the master plan for recreation, flood drains, city buffers, urban farming, reserved lands and contextually undevelopable area. However, for reasons of population growth, expansion in infrastructural facilities, security concerns and logistical demands, city development all over the world has never remained static. Rather, it has been a dynamic process. Abuja has not been an exception.
Thus, long before the advent of the last FCT Administration, Ministers had reviewed and re-conceptualized green area provisions in the Abuja Master plan. For instance, part of the Presidential Villa was a green area in the master plan. So also were the office of the National Security Adviser (NSA), the High Court, the residence of the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN) and recently, the residences of the presiding officers of the National Assembly. Military formations such as Camp Wu Bassey and Niger barracks, and urban fringes including Usuma, Maitama Extension and Mpape Districts etc. were part of the changes made to the master plan. Many other examples abound of green areas being converted to other uses by previous ministers based on need of the time to make the city more functional and more socio-economically viable.
In fact, all of what is termed the “Urban Fringe” including Usuma and Mpape Districts, was a green area and was supposed to constitute a buffer zone between the city on the one hand and the regional space, on the other. However, it was utilized by previous administrations for the building of the various barracks, Asokoro District, Guzape District, Sunrise Hills Estate and parts of Apo. These urban fringes were redesigned by previous ministers in accordance with the powers conferred on them by the Land Use Act.
For emphasis, it is important to note that even part of the present Presidential Villa and the Eagle Square were changed from Transportation Center to what they are today, while under the Master Plan, what is now known as Maitama Extension was supposed to be a Sports Center but was redesigned by previous administrations. Even in the city center occasions arose where the Boulevard Project in the Central Business District area led to redesign of many plots in the original master plan.
For the enlightenment of all stakeholders and members of the public who are ignorant of the historical background to this matter, it was Mallam Nasir EI-Rufai as FCT minister who, seeing the lack of capacity on the part of the FCT Administration, to maintain the green areas, started allocating them to individuals in the hope that the allottees would live up to expectation. Unfortunately, they did not. Instead, most of the park allottees converted the green areas to commercial uses thereby placing them on a collision course with the Development Control Department. Overnight, restaurants, hotels, showrooms, beer parlours, pubs etc. sprang up in these areas, in complete negation of the master plan. In some cases these unapproved conversions constituted not only a nuisance to the public but a grave security threat. To tackle the deplorable situation, the immediate past leadership of the FCT set up a committee headed by former Director General of the Nigerian Tourism Development Commission, Otunba Segun Runsewe which, in the course of its activities, established that most of the beneficiaries had made heavy investments in the green areas. It was therefore decided, that in deserving cases, the allottees should retain only 10 of the green areas while the remaining should be developed for public use with the firm belief that if the administration needed to recover the whole land, it could do so since it was not covered by deeds and titles.
We have gone to this extent to explain dynamics of the transformation of the green areas to prove the point that the immediate past FCT administration was simply following precedents in adopting out-of-the-box strategies that would guarantee more effective land use management. The truth is that the previous administration drew immensely from both the Accelerated Development Program of EI-Rufai and the Sunshine Hills Estate of Abba Gana, in prosecuting its highly ambitious mass housing programs. It is on record that the administration, under Senator Bala Mohammed, collaborated with estate developers and institutions like the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC and the Trade Union Congress, TUC to develop districts for workers while the administration itself conceived three social and affordable housing schemes in Wasa and Mamusa Districts which were allocated to co-operatives to provide housing to the lower cadre.
Conclusion
From the above, we want to conclude as:
The Minister never acted outside the limits of his powers in the matter of land management in the FCT.
The Abuja Master Plan has never been inviolable. At various times in the past, Senator Bala Mohammed’s predecessors had managed the plan to achieve a functional and harmonious development in the city. For all his actions in the area of land management, there were precedents by his predecessors some of whom are still serving the nation in various capacities.
What we do not understand is the Senate Committee Chairman’s unusual interest in the Minister’s Hill. The committee needs no reminding that all the beneficiaries of plots at the redesigned Minister’s Hill are Nigerians who are legitimately and eminently qualified to receive the allocations that were made within the constitutional powers of the minister following laid down procedures and precedence set by his predecessors. Some of these Predecessors are not just around they are still very much in the service of the nation
We recognize the prerogative of the Chairman of the Senate Committee on FCT to carry out his oversight functions in any manner he chooses but that should never include making unguarded statements that tend to ridicule those who served to the best of their ability or derogate the powers of the executive to carry out their normal constitutional duties.
The committee will need to be reminded that a similar effort to revoke the last minute allocations by EI-Rufai on the eve of his departure could not stand. Ironically, it fell on Senator Bala Mohammed to resolve the matter and restore the status quo, which led to massive development in the FCT and alleviate unnecessary litigation.
The former minister is available at all times to clarify his actions in the area of land management thereby avoiding unnecessary dramatization of ignorance or grandstanding for media attention.
Emma Agu
Media Consultant to Senator Bala Mohammed, CON Former Minister of the FCT. [myad]
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An operative of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, Marcus Olatunji, who was attached to the Ooni of Ife, Oba Enitan Ogunwusi, has been shot dead by suspected armed robbers that were running away from a nearby armed robbery scene. Olatunji was killed at the gate of the palace as he made to buy recharge card at a nearby kiosk.
Work More, Talk Less, By Moses Okpogode
It was a trip of woes evident by worn-out and congested roads littered with crashed vehicles alongside and even on the main expressway. Sights of wailing passengers standing by casualties of fatal car crashes, victims who a few hours earlier were co-passengers were the main features. The absence of rapid emergency operations for survivors made the scenes more depressing.
This scenario was particularly common between Lokoja and Okene. On the busy single-carriage way road shared by cars, buses and trucks, the road was mostly partially or permanently blocked by cement ferrying trucks from the nearby Dangote Cement factory in Obajana and from Okpella in Edo State. A few kilometers before Okpella, a new town is coming up. A fast growing settlement from where limestone are ferried to the Okpella cement factory.
I learnt that the sprawling settlement will also accommodate a new cement manufacturing plant under construction by one of Nigeria’s leading manufacturers. Sadly, there was no noticeable presence of any form of government in sight. No law enforcement agents, no town planners and no sanitary inspectors. All you find are poor, struggling and desperate Nigerians who have built shacks to display wares for sale and huts, probably to house truck drivers who may wish to make use of such makeshifts structures as temporary abodes in the settlement. One could count over 300 trucks on the crudely excavated land on the left hand side of the road from Okene in Kogi State, which is only a few dozen kilometers north of Okpella.
I’m sure the ever knowing Edo State Governor, Adams Oshiomhole, is already aware of the development or he is playing blind to it now until it has grown out of proportion just ready for tax collections then it will be recognized. At that time it would have grown from a small community into a small cosmopolitan town, probably providing hideout for all kinds of criminal elements.
That settlement is akin to the sorry state of Nigeria today. This is a country that provides for a few who then lord it over all and still label them criminals. If you observe very carefully, in the past 55 years, the Nigerian budget has been developed to service only about three million living and dead public servants who served and are still serving in different capacity. Their children and those of their cousins, the traditional rulers are sponsored abroad on scholarships. Others attend military academies, intelligent services trainings and foreign services to remain within the realm of government and circle of affluence. The government has never been for the poor and the have nots. There has been no social security programme for poor and vulnerable amongst us since the beginning of time. None championed by past administrations in this country just for the masses. None! What you hear and see are superficial programme especially after coups and during campaigns geared at enriching the already rich elite, party faithfuls and conduit pipes for exploitations of resources.
It’s 2016 and it hasn’t stopped. A nation of more than 170 million people yet unable to accurately register its citizens and have no clue who they are or what they do. It’s laughable that such an administration is pretending to formulate a policy on providing social benefits for its one million poorest citizens. Who are the 1 million poorest of the poor? Anyways, that’s one for another day.
The Nigerian people have been so plundered and exploited by those that stole it’s mandate since the discovery of oil in the Niger Delta and the oil boom that followed in the 70s, 80s and 90s. Those who held sway in military uniforms when their counterparts in East Asian countries like Singapore, Indonesia and Malaysia were building economies are today named political fathers. Others are using the new opportunities they have to make amends by just curbing corruption in the form of arrests, detentions and court trials when other developing nations are moving on, building vibrant economies and transparent institutions that make the incidences of corruption minimal, easily traced with culprits apprehended and punished appropriately.
At every given time the country wants to leapfrog into growth it is denied that opportunity out of selfishness and sectional greed. We are down to the basis again 101 years after the formation of Nigeria. The only countries in which you can’t walk up to a bank as an ordinary citizen to access soft loans except you are a politician or civil servant. Or being amongst the other privilege few. You pay taxes despite building your own community schools, educating yourselves, sheltering yourselves, providing borehole water for yourselves and even providing yourselves access paths to and within your neighborhoods. It’s your duty to pay dues to the police officers detailed to a division near you to effect regular patrol of your neighborhood against common criminals.
You are at the mercy and favour of the government and its officials who swore to an oath to be faithful, fair and sincere but drum it on you that they are cleaning Augean stables that the over 170 million Nigerians made dirty when the government is seen not to be working. Employing us to clap for them when an alleged corrupt official is under investigation and hail them for mopping up funds into a channel from all the numerous banks where they were being held. Forgetting that, that is why they are voted and are paid to do. Every flimsy thing is an achievement that overrides the true definitions of success.
Achievement is getting something from nothing. Using skills and applying courage and not getting something from something. It is therefore embarrassing when a government and its headship get on the cup in hand begging mode from one country to the other drench in self pity to arouse international sympathy in asking for assistance in a world that most country’s economy is crippling. With all regional divides, north to south and east to west seriously affected but a few exemptions.
No desperations at going into the drawing board to see how it can make a change or turn things around for the people. But making inconclusive pronouncements as to what it will do and what’s doing and who it will undo. The administrations do not need all of that. The government has been voted in to provide the social developmental deficits it identified in its campaigns. Now it has the floor and the opportunity, it should design its visions, make them missions, build on them and recreate them where necessary. Since the government doesn’t also want to consolidate on past achievements, if there are any, then they should build new things like roads on new paths so we can stop using the ones built over the years by the Peoples Democratic Party administration and are now wearing away.
There is no time for these window dressing we see every day on televisions and read in the newspapers. Oil prices have fallen. That is a fact! So, plan according to what you have. Various taxes have been introduced into an economy that is reeling from the impact of fallen oil prices with no complains about what they are losing because we all have faith in the administration. Use those taxes for the works you want to embark upon. They are not funds for savings and no one is going to praise you for keeping a depreciating naira. There is no value in it. Make use of them. Complete road, rails and housing projects. Provide good policies for the private sector to thrive in the provision of electricity, water and industrialization.
Not giving opportunity to noise makers and government workers who must do their works whether in good or bad fate. The president knows that these set of people are always the major beneficiaries of a failing state. Their counterparts, the civil servants, work with all administrations and administrators. Sometime when people say some civil servants made their money through corrupt means I laugh at their ignorance because you could be a multi millionaire without stealing a dime for just being a privileged public servant. There was a case of a photographer who received a call from his bank manager for managing very huge accounts. Making monthly multiple deposits without single withdrawals and showing no physical presence in banking halls to demand anything during the Obasanjo era.
That has not changed today. Anyone who works with the President, Vice President and any other of the officials amongst equals and is permanently on the foreign trip of the President, governors and ministers collecting estacodes (in scarce dollars) and still getting his accommodation paid for by the government can never feel the economic pinch. He will be growing richer while his contemporaries are experiencing a quick lean. He will see everything good about the administrations’ non economic direction and the absolute stasis in the provision of infrastructures. Because he is returning from foreign and local trips to bank his naira or change his dollars to naira in the hands of Zone 4 money changers who the President has however labeled as dubious not knowing that his staff could also be providing them with foreign exchange at parallel market rates. That is the reality that you wouldn’t hear from the supposed army of change. Only the Emir of Kano, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi had gotten the President conscientized about it just yesterday.
Alas we are still in it together. When the country suffers degradation and its people are disparaged because of the deed and pronouncements of its leaders, it’s not just the people that suffers it but everyone of us including the children of such leaders if not now but after their days in office. We don’t have any other country but NIGERIA. If we have to build it we must and do it now. There is no reason to being political, regional and sectional or playing lip service about it. There is no gain at disapproving that we are retrogressive disgraceful. However we can be better criminals who would want to be known to better the lot of their people like the fairy tales hero, Robin Hood than gambling on our last chances to make impact in the era of global economic competitions and internal growth and development.
Twitter @MOkpogode [myad]