Let me dignify this simple piece by opening it with the profound words of Markus Cicero: “A nation can survive its fools, and even the ambitious. But it cannot survive treachery from within.” Since every nation is blessed with its fools, the over-ambitious and the treacherous, Tivland also has its fair share of these. But we concern us today with the treacherous i.e treachery from within. But what is this treachery from within the Tiv Nation? It is the treachery against truth, the truth; it is the conspiracy to decree a regime of silence in the Tiv country. Since a conspiracy usually involves a scheming minority, there is a minority in Tivland now that ardently seeks to redefine truth and impose a culture of silence on the population. If this small, but loud and powerful group succeeds, Tiv people can only clap its pleasure; and every Tiv man/woman will begin to see life through its skewed lenses. In this age and time, this should be an outrage, but in our poor Benue, the race for the crumbs has become so fierce and competitive that it has turned into a scramble. In fact, to stand aloof or not to join them is akin to economic foolishness; but to dare to question the drift is the same thing as committing economic suicide. This is the way Tivland is being structured now. A new Animal Kingdom is under construction, and its engineers, frenetic and fanatical, are intent on creating a timid society: where intimidation terrorizes the democratic spirit; where merit continues to serve mediocrity; and where nepotism locks the door against intelligence. Luckily, these engineers are doomed to fail. The vast majority of our people are decided on negating this treachery. But I return to this later. The on-going political drama between Comrade Dan Onjeh and Senator David Mark, with the attendant cheers from Tivland has inspired this opinion. The enfant terrible of Idoma politics, Onjeh, 41, has by turn been the President, National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) as well as President, West African Students Union (WASU). He holds a B.A. (Double Honours) in Political Science/Economics from the University of Ghana, Legon. This is his CV: very short, like a mini-skirt. Of course, he is brimming with idealism, but you cannot see that on his CV. His CV is not even padded by such auxiliaries as a chieftaincy title or an honorary doctorate. His is a brief political CV indeed, but as an ambitious comrade, he is as vocal as they come. Mark, 68, on the hand, is someone that can be described, in the reality of Nigerian politics, as a political juggernaut, an enigma, a colossus. We may want to protest, but a man who has been governor, minister as well as general, and has been being inaugurated five times as a senator cannot be anything less. If we want to borrow the words of the late Chief Kingsley Ozumba Mbadiwe, we can call him: “a man of timbre and calibre.” Otherwise, we can just call him: “a caterpillar and a bulldozer of a politician.” He is someone who, at once, approaches a political institution i.e. as far as winning elections against all odds is concerned. He dumbfounds his critics; he shocks and awes his enemies; he inspires his supporters; he ridicules text-book prescriptions; he confounds political analysts; he mocks the observations of election-observers; he shatters political permutations; and his fantastic wins sometimes defy statistical tabulations too. His consecutive election-wins may have the scent of the mysterious, and his political longevity may be said to be denominated by a distinctive, democratic unorthodoxy, but 2015 is the first time since 1999 that the courts have been impressed by the arguments of the serial victims of his political braggadocio. So like him or hate him, you must give it to Mark: he knows how to make his marks. It is either he knows the game thoroughly and/or he knows the system inside-out. This is why he can plan both the game and system so very well i.e. making his own unique marks (straight or crooked), snatching victories from the jaws of defeat, drilling his opponents to no end, and thrilling his fans beyond measure. A peep into his casualty ward will reveal the pained faces of victims like Gen. Chris Abutu Garuba, Gen. Lawrence Anebi Onoja, Chief Usman Abubakar (alias Young Alhaji), Chief Ameh Abute and Okibe Mike Onoja. Matter-of-factly, they are, politically-speaking, still on life-support as even in this 2015, they are still gasping for breath, and ruing over the devastating impact of Hurricane-Mark. In Zone C where he is said to be the lord of all he surveys, a saying has evolved that: “the fear of David Mark is the beginning of political relevance.” In other words, you challenge David Mark, you go into political oblivion. This is the stuff that is the David Mark phenomenon. It is this phenomenon that has made him the most-tenured senator in the history of the Nigerian senate. And it is this phenomenon, otherwise called Chief (Dr.) David Alechenu Bonaventure Mark, that the relatively unknown comrade wants to topple from his Olympian heights. And Daniel Donald Onyirofe Onjeh has taken more than the proverbial first step: he successfully challenged Mark’s putative victory right to the Appellate Court. The next and final step will be if/when he displaces Mark during the soon-to-be-held election, and replaces him in Abuja as a distinguished senator of the Federal Republic. And from many indications, the youthful and debonair Onjeh looks set to demystify the legend – what with the APC nation-wide momentum, the advantage of APC’s double incumbency, the band-wagon effect as well as Onjeh’s promise of fresh air. But politics is still not yet a precision science, and so to cast our projections in iron will be nothing short of political naivety. In other words, in a political contest, anything can happen. It is the classic case of: it is not over until it is over. This is more so in a high-stakes election where David Mark will be a candidate, PDP will be a candidate, myth will be a candidate, ego will be a candidate, blackmail will be a candidate and money will be a candidate. But David Mark is a personality whose name at once evokes and invokes strong emotions, moods and sentiments among Tiv people. And so, not surprisingly, some Tiv people are exultant over Mark’s imminent ejection from Nigeria’s most exclusive club: the Senate! The conspirators, who deify clay-footed gods in Tivland, worship the statusquo and scoff at any suggestion of change – whether in leadership or leadership attitude – have suddenly found their voice: “BAD Mark” must go. (BAD from: Bonaventure Alechenu David). The treacherous purveyors of inverted wisdom, who are deviously twisting the truth, dubiously manufacturing facts and labouriously re-writing our history, have become the cheer-leaders of the change-campaign in Idomaland. The contradiction is that even as they do this, they are simultaneously celebrating business-as-usual politics in Tivland! This sharp contradiction brings some questions to mind. What makes Idomaland ripe for change, but Tivland ideal for the statusquo or business-as-usual? What is Mark doing wrong and his Tiv counterparts doing right that we wish them different political fates? When we re-order his names to get “BAD Mark” or say he is bad, is it because he has shamed us by representing his constituency so very well that he has turned the Idoma-minority group into a forceful majority that majorly appropriates all and everything that is due to Benue state where we Tiv are the demographic majority? Put another way, is it that when Tiv elite see Mark, he indicts them by virtue of his purposeful, pragmatic, community- focused, representation of his people, with all the practical and collateral benefits? If not, why would Tiv elite, who are vehemently opposed to real change in Tivland be drumming support for change in Idomaland? And if not, why are Tiv leaders, who celebrate change, but only as a poetic idea or a romantic slogan (Chenji), be excited that “a small boy is going to finish Mark.” Do we not have small boys in Tivland? Are they not in politics? When they vie for political crowns, and the political disputes dovetail into judicial disputes, what do we counsel them to do as aggrieved litigants? Do we urge them on the course of justice or do we pressure them to withdraw their suits “for the sake of peace and unity?” And when they refuse, don’t we vilify them, blackmail them and even curse them? And even their loyal supporters, don’t we slander and assassinate their characters; labeling them traitors and enemies of progress? So when we now turn around, and hail the “stubborn” Onjeh and his steadfastness in yonder Idomaland, there is the hidden danger of this being interpreted as an advertisement of our elite hypocrisy. But of course, in rooting for Onjeh and gloating over Mark’s precarious fate, we could also be saying unlike the Tivland, Idoma people do not deserve “peace and unity?” These questions are rather many, but I have a basketful. If we are happy that Mark is “going” because of his permanence in power and the need for fresh air, can we first make the same arguments in Tivland where some people have appropriated, monopolized and personalized power for upwards of 30 years before we seek to export the change-mantra to our Idoma-neighbours? If his offence is that he is defines democracy outside the common orthodoxy of one-man-one-vote or that he ruggedly secures his electoral victories via unorthodox methods, do we not have such political juggernauts with their unorthodox tactics in such Tiv local governments as Katsina-Ala, Ukum, Logo, Gboko, Tarka, Guma etc, and do we not worship them? If we fault “BAD Mark” with the grievous sin that he is mean to Tiv people, and helps only his people, can we say it is also his fault that Tiv leaders do not help Tiv people except when such Tiv people come from their immediate or intermediate families? And yet the man we love to hate and are helping/hoping that “a small boy” will demolish and diminish has a good testimonial before his people of his long, even if crooked, tenancy in power. We attribute the over-visibility of Idoma people in the Federal bureaucracy, their choking hold on both the military and para-military recruitments vis-à-vis their demographic strength to this BAD Mark. And physically, he has Apa University as well as Joy FM in Idomaland to his credit, to mention but these two. Can his military contemporaries and political colleagues in Tivland raise their voices or hands and point at the Nursery Schools or “Pure Water” factories they have set up in Tivland as symbolic gestures of their long and lucrative stewardship? The corner-stone of David Mark’s political longevity (at least since 1999) is his advertised legislative agenda of Apa state. It may be a tall dream, but every big thing starts with a dream; it may be a fluke, but it resonates well with his people. And that is the spirit of representative democracy. Can any Tiv constituent, in all objectivity, say he/she knows the centre-piece of the legislative agenda of any of David Mark’s colleagues on the Tiv side? And yet we hold them as humans without reproach, even gods. It is a pity that in our intimidation-induced timidity, we do not see their clay-feet. This is why our “strong men” are very powerful in Benue state, but once they come to Abuja, and are confronted with “the arithmetic of politics,” (credit to Chuba Okadigbo), their power instantly dissolves into powder! I have not seen David Mark one-on-one since 2006, so no person can seriously accuse me of holding forth for him or being sponsored. And knowing the sociology of his politics too well, there is no way I can defend him. He, therefore, stands or falls by his craftsmanship or brinkmanship or both. The morale here is that Mark is not the Tivman’s problem: He never was, is not, and never will be. In the military, Tiv sons out-numbered him; and in politics today, Tiv sons out-number him. If he out-performed us yesterday, and today too he still seems to be out-playing us, the fault is not in him, but in us. There is no position Mark has held that a Tiv man has never held. If the obsession of his contemporaries has been the accoutrements or the paraphernalia of power, but he has concerned himself with the meat or substance of power, let the truth be told, and it is hereby told: the sin is not his, but ours. Let us, therefore, leave him to the fate of Zone Constituents. We complain about Idoma predominance in the Federal bureaucracy, but Mark did not collect money to employ the non-indigenes in the Benue State Civil Service. After gulping more than N7 billion, the Greater Makurdi Waterworks still needs another N6billion to work, and residents are still drinking water straight from River Benue – the way our ancestors did 200 years ago; but Mark is not responsible for this rape. We have leaders who use desperate tactics to capture power; only to discover that in their crooked haste to win by all means, they had forgotten to worry about a Development Blue-Print; they then start shopping for blue-prints. This can hardly be Mark’s doing. We know our leaders who do not go to work, or when they go, they sleep at the duty-posts; but this cannot be Mark’s fault. For long, we have been producing predatory leaders who, first, prey aggressively on the commonwealth, and thus empowered, commence a wholesale preying on our lives. This is why BAD Mark is neither responsible for the looted funds from Benue coffers, beginning 1999, nor can anyone mention his name in connection with the orchestrated mass killings in Zaki-Biam/Gbeji, Kusuv/Ikyurav-Tiev, Kwande or Tarka Local Government. There is a dearth of industries in Tivland. About 20-30 years ago, there used to be companies like Taraku Mills, Ikyogen Cattle Ranch, Agro-Millers, Lobi Bank, Ben Cola, Benue Printing and Publishing Company etc. Today, we can only recall them from the cobwebs of our memories. David Mark did not kill these. And if in the last 16 years, a succession of Tiv leaders have been establishing companies only on Radio Benue, it would be wicked to blame such wickedness on Mark’s head. For long, there has been a leadership vacuum in Tivland, with aspirants testing the waters, but getting drowned by their own greed; not Mark’s machination. And whether or not he leaves the Senate, the leadership void in Tivland will not go away. As long as we have no Strategic Road-Map for our journey; as long as we have no Strategic Plan in engaging Nigeria and demanding our share from the national commonwealth; as long as our leaders continue to consider themselves as demi-gods and view their followers as raw-materials for wanton exploitation and gratuitous manipulation; as long as we refuse to improve on our leadership choices, deliberately holding down big ideas so that pettiness can walk tall; as long as we are torn between the Church of Christ and the Swem-Karagbe Hills in the Ugbe-Country; as long as we remain divided between the democratization of power and the democratization of poverty; and so long as we keep seeing political power as an end in itself, and not a vehicle for mass mobilization/social reconstruction; and so long as we find the turf of local politics more appealing than the pitch of national politics where the real action is, we will continue to stagnate and atrophy even as Nigeria marches on. There is, thus, so much that is before us, and to become obsessed with BAD Mark is to take our eyes off the big picture. In fact, if Mark is as good as we credit him with all sinister schemes against Tiv people, it would not matter whether he is in the Senate or not: his Idoma-Project would be on auto-pilot by now. So if we get fixated with Mark, and his putative badness, we will be missing the real lesson of this unfolding drama. So what is the lesson in this blockbuster, Onjeh-Mark drama? The lesson is that a political contest is exactly what it is: a political contest. And under our extant laws, the contest does not end on election-day or even with INEC’s announcement of the outcomes; it extends to the tribunal/courts. So there is no mischief or witchcraft or anomaly deserving of demonization in seeking legal redress after an election, and exhausting the whole gamut of the legal process. If we missed the many examples in Tivland, we can now learn this important lesson from Idomaland – after all, foreign/imported things are beautiful. In this age of the knowledge economy, two societies have become evident: the Open/Interrogative Society and the Closed/Cultic Society. The Interrogative Society asks questions, it interrogates itself: its notion of truth, its concept of reality, its dreams and hopes, its fears, as well as its goals and methodologies of goal-actualization. But it does not stop there: it goes further to interrogate its leadership, its leadership recruitment process, its leadership choices, its leadership preparedness, its concept of heroes and heroism, its view of criticism, checks, sanctions and balances. It engages in this interrogative process with an eye on self-renewal, self-rediscovery and self-actualization. In summary, a society that is interrogative is a progressing-cum-progressive one. Conversely, a closed or cultic society conducts its business secret society-style, although it may continue to make declarations to the contrary and even follow up with symbolic actions. It brooks no questions; it interrogates nothing, gets no answers and just ambles along. And because it seeks no answers, it gets no answers. There is, therefore, no renewal, no accommodation of new ideas, no innovation, no regeneration; rather society atrophies. In other words, a closed society is a static society. So while an interrogative society sets benchmarks, and constructs new paradigms of reaching them, the cultic society seeks no answers, it bothers itself with neither benchmarks nor paradigms – it celebrates the stausquo and obsesses with power: the glamour of power, the trappings of power as well as the coercive apparatus of power and no more. Finally, the challenge before every Tiv man and woman is to domesticate the positive change we so admire outside the Tiv country. We can begin with the Onjeh take-away, and proceed to states like Cross River, Kaduna and Lagos. Rikght now, some of us are eating avidly while some of are watching. But let both who eat and those who watch keep in mind that there is another country, another place, a future, called tomorrow. The visa to that country is strategic planning. Let us, therefore, renew our ideas, let us rejuvenate our leadership and let us re-invent our society. This is the challenge before each and every one of us. May God have mercy on the Tiv Nation. Imobo-Tswam, a media consultant, author and public speaker, wrote from Abuja. He can be reached on: simonpita2008@yahoo.com. [myad]
Cameroon’s army has devastated the ranks of the dreaded Boko Haram as the troops killed 100 members even as they rescued freed 900 from hostage.
The country’s minister of Defense, Joseph Beti Assomo said today on the national radio that security forces have seized large quantities of arms and ammunition during an anti-terrorist operation carried out from November 26 to 28.
Hours before this announcement, a suicide attack left six dead in the north of Cameroon.
Two women detonated an explosive charge adhered to their bodies in the town of Waza, in the Far North Region. Soldiers killed a third extremist before she could detonate the explosives, according to a military spokesman.
The Government of Cameroon denounced that Boko Haram used girls and women, through threats and lies, to carry out suicide attacks in central places. [myad]
The Nigeria police authorities are now angry with Igbo people who have been agitating for the realization of the Biafran Republic, even as they are set out to exert some force to stop the agitation.
The authorities asked the agitator, comprising members of the Indigenous Peoples of Biafra and the Movement for the Sovereign State of Biafra to stop threatening public peace or face the full weight of the law.
A statement by the Force Public Relations Officer, Olabisi Kolawole, said that the move by the police to arrest the situation followed the increasing resort to acts of brigandage by sets of misguided individuals who apparently are hiding under the cloak of MASSOB and IPOB to threaten national security and public peace in parts of South East and some other states.
Kolawole said the latest manifestation of this threat was the attempt to block the Onitsha end of the Niger Bridge yesterday.
She said the action caused major hardship to innocent and law abiding motorists and citizens.
The act, she added, also occasioned serious dislocation of business activities.
“The Inspector-General of Police notes that the increasing resort to acts of brigandage of this nature is pointing to a clear attempt by the brains behind these protests to test the will of security agencies to restore order and guarantee internal cohesion. For the avoidance of doubts, the IGP further notes, the restoration and maintenance of law and public order, and protection of lives and property remain sacred and statutory Mandate of the Nigeria Police. This Mandate, according to him, shall be fully executed in the overriding interests of the nation and vast majority of citizens and residents of the South East geopolitical Zone.
“Consequently, the Inspector-General of Police has directed the mobilisation and deployment of Police Mobile Force (PMF) across the country to reinforce security in the State Commands that MASSOB and IPOB are currently attempting to utilise as launching pad for their sinister intentions. The Assistant Inspectors – General of Police Zone 5, (Benin); Zone 6, (Calabar) and Zone 9 (Umuahia) as well as all Commissioners of Police in the affected States in the South East and neigbouring States have also been directed to henceforth maximally exercise their statutory Mandate in relation to prevention and disruption of any gathering that threatens public order and national cohesion. Any person or group of persons so arrested in furtherance to the enforcement of this order will be made to face the full wrath of the law.
“To this end, the Inspector-General of Police advises parents and guardians to call their children and wards to order as the patience of the Force is being stretched to the limit. He firmly affirmed that no individual or group interest can override the interest of the nation and that democratic values provide for exploration of rule of law to advance any concern, not the resort to endless and misguided acts of brigandage, unless there is an ulterior motive as the extant instance tends to dictate. He concluded by asserting that the Nigeria Police Force will not fold its law enforcement arms to allow few misguided elements to continually force hardships on fellow Nigerians either in the South East or any other part of the nation for that matter.” [myad]
The Nigeria Comptroller-General of the Nigeria Customs Service, Retired Colonel Hameed Ali, has warned that he would discipline, dismiss or jail any officer found guilty of corrupt practices.
Ali who gave the warning while addressing officers and men of the NCS in Calabar, the capital of Cross River State, said that there is the need for them to be of good conduct and show professionalism while carrying out their duties.
The Customs boss said that he would have zero tolerance for corruption, hence the need for officers and men of the service to shun all forms of corruption.
“I want to make it clear to all of you that I have zero tolerance for indiscipline and corruption.
“I will dismiss and jail any officer found guilty of such. Indiscipline will no longer have a place in the NCS.
“We must have officers and men with impeccable character to promote the image of the service.
“Anyone caught falsifying any documents or compromising with fake imported goods will also be dismissed and jailed.
“The NCS has resolved that anyone caught in an unprofessional conduct, no matter the circumstances, will be dismissed and jailed for the offence.”
According to Ali, dismissal and jailing of erring officers will serve as a deterrent to others and result in the reformation of the service.
“I am determined to undertake reforms and reorganize the service so we can generate more revenues into the Federal Government’s coffers.
“We have been seen as the most undisciplined para-military organisation because we have refused to obey the laws that govern us.
“Para-military is all about discipline and we must operate on that basis.
“We must also work in line with the law establishing the service.”
Ali assured officers and men that just as the NCS would discipline erring officers, it would also reward those seen to be hard working.
On welfare for officers and men of the NCS, the comptroller-general assured them that arrangements were ongoing for the provision of suitable accommodation for them.
He said: “We are aware of the accommodation challenges you are facing in your command.
“We will try our best to provide better accommodations for you all.” [myad]
A 32-year-old female banker, Adejumoke Anthony, has been accused of stealing one of her customers to the tune of N90 million.
Anthony has therefore been arraigned in an Igbosere Magistrates’ Court, Lagos.
Anthony, who resides at Lekki area of Lagos State, is standing trial on a two-count charge bordering on conspiracy and stealing.
The prosecutor, Coupler Innocent Odugbo, told the court that the accused committed the offences sometime in March 2013, at Lekki, Lagos.
Odugbo said that the accused allegedly conspired with others still at large, to fraudulently obtain N90 million belonging to one Mr and Mrs Babatunde Oduewu, a customer at her bank.
The prosecutor said that the alleged offences contravened Sections 285 and 409 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2011.
The accused, however, pleaded innocent of the charges.
Section 285 provides three years imprisonment for anyone found guilty of stealing, while Section 409 provides two years imprisonment for anyone found guilty of conspiring with others to commit felony.
Counsel to the accused, O. A. Ojo, urged the court to admit the accused to bail on liberal terms.
The Magistrate, Mrs. A. O. Awogboro, admitted the accused to bail in the sum of N5 million, with two sureties in like sum.
Awogboro said that one of the sureties must be a blood relation of the accused and the sureties must have reasonable means of livelihood and must be tax payers.
She also said that the sureties must be resident in Lagos State and their addresses verified by the court.
The case was adjourned till Jan. 26 for mention. [myad]
The Nigerian Army is now putting measures together to finally crush Boko Haram insurgents in the next 28 days remaining before this year ends.
It would be recalled that President Muhammdu Buhari has given December 31 as the deadline to wipe out insurgency from the country.
The army said that its troops are now in pursuit of fleeing insurgents and are working towards preventing any incursion from terrorists in the North Eastern part of the country.
Spokesman of the Nigerian Army, Col. Sani Usman who said this in a statement in Maiduguri, the Borno State capital today, said that the locations recently attacked by terrorists have been reinforced and the troops were poised to squash any eventuality.
Usman said that the coming weeks would be critical in the operation geared towards destroying all known harbours of isugency in the North Eastern part of the country.
”As we enter the month of December, it is important to state that we have also entered a very critical part of the fight against terrorism in our country.
“The Nigerian Army wishes to reiterate its total commitment and determination to the war against the Boko Haram terrorists.
“Consequently, we solicit for the continued support, cooperation and understanding of all Nigerians in this regard.”
The Army spokesman said troops, during a recent operation in Gulak recovered a Toyota Hilux, several arms and items from the insurgents.
“Some of the arms include one PKM gun, one General Purpose Machine Gun, three AK-47 rifles, one Rocket Propelled Grenade tube and one Rocket Propelled Grenade bomb.
“Other recoveries include one charger, seven boxes of 7.62mm link, one GP 340 Hand Held Radio, four boxes of 7.62mm X 54mm ammunition, three Anti Riot Hand Held Grenade, as well as 30 Cleaning Kits, two Packets of Artillery Primers and 97 pieces of Zela fuse,” Usman said. [myad]
Dokpesi explained to the EFCC officials that the N2.1 billion that he collected from the former NSA was payment for publicity and media political campaigns during the 2015 General Elections.
Founder of Daar Communication, made up of Ray Power and AIT, Aleogho Dokpesi, has admitted that he actually collected the sum of N2.1 Million from the former National Security Adviser (NSA), Colonel Sambo Desuki but it was payment for for publicity and media political campaigns during the 2015 General Elections.
Dopkesi, in a statement signed by the management of DAAR Communications Plc, said that Dokpesi “made his statement on the various media exposures and campaign transactions which were dutifully carried out based essentially on contractual obligations/relationship.”
The statement however did not explain how the office of the National Security Adviser became the cashier office for the payment of campaign expenses and the source of the money.
The management explained what transpired yesterday, December 1, saying that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) Dokpesi at about 2.00pm through a phone call.
The statement said that on getting there, he was requested to, “shed more light on some payments that were made to him through the office of the erstwhile NSA”
“Dokpesi explained to the EFCC officials that the N2.1 billion that he collected from the former NSA was payment for for publicity and media political campaigns during the 2015 General Elections.”
A special panel and the EFCC are probing how trillions of naira budgeted for defence were spent in the last eight years. An interim report by the panel already reported phoney contracts in excess of $2 billion. [myad]
President Muhammadu Buhari has asked the people of Bayelsa State to vote for the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the December 5 governorship election in the state and bring the state to the change that is sweeping across the country.
Buhari who spoke at the grand finale of the APC campaign in the state, through Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, promised that the party would create jobs for Nigerians.
He said the party would ensure good governance, peace, infrastructure development and offer a new era for the people of Bayelsa State, urging them to vote for the APC’s candidate, Timipre Sylva.
“In Bayelsa, Sylva is the new era for peace and prosperity. This is the time to change Bayelsa. This is the time to pave way for job creation, security and development.
“I urge you to do the right thing on the Election Day. This is time to vote out under-development.
“Let us move from the Peoples Democratic Party to APC.
“On the Election Day, go out and cast your vote for the change that you need.”
Sylva, who was one time governor of Bayelsa State, restated his readiness to move the state forward if elected, saying that he would diversify and deepen the state’s economy.
“We have campaigned from community to community and I have promised my people that youth empowerment and job creation will be my priority.
“APC does not stand for darkness, backwardness and under-development.
“I promise you once again that when I emerge as governor, I will also strengthen the state’s workforce.”
The National Chairman of APC, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, asked the people to vote for the party that would guarantee development for Bayelsa State.
Odigie-Oyegun said: “APC is the party that will take Bayelsa to the Promise Land. Vote for the party and be free from darkness and backwardness.” [myad]
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has said that it believed in the war against corruption which President Muhammadu Buhari has since launched, but queried the arrest, yesterday, of the former Chairman of Daar Communications, Chief Raymond Dokpesi in connection to the arms purchase acandal amounting to $2.2 billion.
Dokpesi was said to have benefitted from the money disbursed from the office of the former National Security Adviser (NSA), retired Col Sambo Dasuki, running into billions of naira.
The PDP’s National Publicity Secretary, Chief Olisa Metuh, said in a statement in Abuja that the arrest of Dokpesi was government’s plan tailored to decimate the opposition and cow the media in Nigeria.
“While the PDP is not against the war against corruption, we insist that the crusade must be carried out within the limits of the law and not as guise to persecute and torture opposition elements.”
Metuh demanded an open and public trial of all those arrested so that all issues and charges against them as well as their defence therein would also be in the public domain. [myad]
Researchers and Scientists were said to have discovered a drug that will let human being live for over 120 years.
Reports from the table of the researcher in the United States of America said that they are pretty sure the diabetes drug, called Metformin can extend human lifespan to 120 years and prevent diseases like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.
The researchers said that they have already proven that the drug extends the life of animals, saying that mice treated with Metformin saw their lifespan increase by nearly 40 percent with their bones being stronger.
“That is why the Food and Drug Administration in the US has given the green light to a trial to test if these effects can be replicated in humans. Last year, Cardiff University found that patients with diabetes who were prescribed Metformin lived longer than others without the condition (even though they should have died eight years earlier on average). That makes the human trail even more promising.
“If all goes well, a person in their 70s that takes the drug will be as biologically healthy as a 50 year old.
“I have been doing research into ageing for 25 years and the idea that we would be talking about a clinical trial in humans for an anti-ageing drug would have been thought inconceivable,” said Professor Gordon Lithgow of the Buck Institute for Research on Ageing in California. [myad]
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Cameroon’s army has devastated the ranks of the dreaded Boko Haram as the troops killed 100 members even as they rescued freed 900 from hostage.
Onje Vs Mark: Lessons For Tiv Nation, By Simon Imobo-Tswam
Since every nation is blessed with its fools, the over-ambitious and the treacherous, Tivland also has its fair share of these. But we concern us today with the treacherous i.e treachery from within. But what is this treachery from within the Tiv Nation? It is the treachery against truth, the truth; it is the conspiracy to decree a regime of silence in the Tiv country.
Since a conspiracy usually involves a scheming minority, there is a minority in Tivland now that ardently seeks to redefine truth and impose a culture of silence on the population. If this small, but loud and powerful group succeeds, Tiv people can only clap its pleasure; and every Tiv man/woman will begin to see life through its skewed lenses.
In this age and time, this should be an outrage, but in our poor Benue, the race for the crumbs has become so fierce and competitive that it has turned into a scramble. In fact, to stand aloof or not to join them is akin to economic foolishness; but to dare to question the drift is the same thing as committing economic suicide. This is the way Tivland is being structured now. A new Animal Kingdom is under construction, and its engineers, frenetic and fanatical, are intent on creating a timid society: where intimidation terrorizes the democratic spirit; where merit continues to serve mediocrity; and where nepotism locks the door against intelligence. Luckily, these engineers are doomed to fail. The vast majority of our people are decided on negating this treachery. But I return to this later.
The on-going political drama between Comrade Dan Onjeh and Senator David Mark, with the attendant cheers from Tivland has inspired this opinion.
The enfant terrible of Idoma politics, Onjeh, 41, has by turn been the President, National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) as well as President, West African Students Union (WASU). He holds a B.A. (Double Honours) in Political Science/Economics from the University of Ghana, Legon.
This is his CV: very short, like a mini-skirt. Of course, he is brimming with idealism, but you cannot see that on his CV. His CV is not even padded by such auxiliaries as a chieftaincy title or an honorary doctorate. His is a brief political CV indeed, but as an ambitious comrade, he is as vocal as they come.
Mark, 68, on the hand, is someone that can be described, in the reality of Nigerian politics, as a political juggernaut, an enigma, a colossus. We may want to protest, but a man who has been governor, minister as well as general, and has been being inaugurated five times as a senator cannot be anything less. If we want to borrow the words of the late Chief Kingsley Ozumba Mbadiwe, we can call him: “a man of timbre and calibre.” Otherwise, we can just call him: “a caterpillar and a bulldozer of a politician.”
He is someone who, at once, approaches a political institution i.e. as far as winning elections against all odds is concerned. He dumbfounds his critics; he shocks and awes his enemies; he inspires his supporters; he ridicules text-book prescriptions; he confounds political analysts; he mocks the observations of election-observers; he shatters political permutations; and his fantastic wins sometimes defy statistical tabulations too. His consecutive election-wins may have the scent of the mysterious, and his political longevity may be said to be denominated by a distinctive, democratic unorthodoxy, but 2015 is the first time since 1999 that the courts have been impressed by the arguments of the serial victims of his political braggadocio.
So like him or hate him, you must give it to Mark: he knows how to make his marks. It is either he knows the game thoroughly and/or he knows the system inside-out. This is why he can plan both the game and system so very well i.e. making his own unique marks (straight or crooked), snatching victories from the jaws of defeat, drilling his opponents to no end, and thrilling his fans beyond measure.
A peep into his casualty ward will reveal the pained faces of victims like Gen. Chris Abutu Garuba, Gen. Lawrence Anebi Onoja, Chief Usman Abubakar (alias Young Alhaji), Chief Ameh Abute and Okibe Mike Onoja. Matter-of-factly, they are, politically-speaking, still on life-support as even in this 2015, they are still gasping for breath, and ruing over the devastating impact of Hurricane-Mark. In Zone C where he is said to be the lord of all he surveys, a saying has evolved that: “the fear of David Mark is the beginning of political relevance.” In other words, you challenge David Mark, you go into political oblivion.
This is the stuff that is the David Mark phenomenon. It is this phenomenon that has made him the most-tenured senator in the history of the Nigerian senate. And it is this phenomenon, otherwise called Chief (Dr.) David Alechenu Bonaventure Mark, that the relatively unknown comrade wants to topple from his Olympian heights.
And Daniel Donald Onyirofe Onjeh has taken more than the proverbial first step: he successfully challenged Mark’s putative victory right to the Appellate Court. The next and final step will be if/when he displaces Mark during the soon-to-be-held election, and replaces him in Abuja as a distinguished senator of the Federal Republic.
And from many indications, the youthful and debonair Onjeh looks set to demystify the legend – what with the APC nation-wide momentum, the advantage of APC’s double incumbency, the band-wagon effect as well as Onjeh’s promise of fresh air.
But politics is still not yet a precision science, and so to cast our projections in iron will be nothing short of political naivety. In other words, in a political contest, anything can happen. It is the classic case of: it is not over until it is over. This is more so in a high-stakes election where David Mark will be a candidate, PDP will be a candidate, myth will be a candidate, ego will be a candidate, blackmail will be a candidate and money will be a candidate.
But David Mark is a personality whose name at once evokes and invokes strong emotions, moods and sentiments among Tiv people. And so, not surprisingly, some Tiv people are exultant over Mark’s imminent ejection from Nigeria’s most exclusive club: the Senate!
The conspirators, who deify clay-footed gods in Tivland, worship the statusquo and scoff at any suggestion of change – whether in leadership or leadership attitude – have suddenly found their voice: “BAD Mark” must go. (BAD from: Bonaventure Alechenu David). The treacherous purveyors of inverted wisdom, who are deviously twisting the truth, dubiously manufacturing facts and labouriously re-writing our history, have become the cheer-leaders of the change-campaign in Idomaland. The contradiction is that even as they do this, they are simultaneously celebrating business-as-usual politics in Tivland!
This sharp contradiction brings some questions to mind. What makes Idomaland ripe for change, but Tivland ideal for the statusquo or business-as-usual? What is Mark doing wrong and his Tiv counterparts doing right that we wish them different political fates? When we re-order his names to get “BAD Mark” or say he is bad, is it because he has shamed us by representing his constituency so very well that he has turned the Idoma-minority group into a forceful majority that majorly appropriates all and everything that is due to Benue state where we Tiv are the demographic majority? Put another way, is it that when Tiv elite see Mark, he indicts them by virtue of his purposeful, pragmatic, community- focused, representation of his people, with all the practical and collateral benefits?
If not, why would Tiv elite, who are vehemently opposed to real change in Tivland be drumming support for change in Idomaland? And if not, why are Tiv leaders, who celebrate change, but only as a poetic idea or a romantic slogan (Chenji), be excited that “a small boy is going to finish Mark.” Do we not have small boys in Tivland? Are they not in politics? When they vie for political crowns, and the political disputes dovetail into judicial disputes, what do we counsel them to do as aggrieved litigants? Do we urge them on the course of justice or do we pressure them to withdraw their suits “for the sake of peace and unity?” And when they refuse, don’t we vilify them, blackmail them and even curse them? And even their loyal supporters, don’t we slander and assassinate their characters; labeling them traitors and enemies of progress? So when we now turn around, and hail the “stubborn” Onjeh and his steadfastness in yonder Idomaland, there is the hidden danger of this being interpreted as an advertisement of our elite hypocrisy. But of course, in rooting for Onjeh and gloating over Mark’s precarious fate, we could also be saying unlike the Tivland, Idoma people do not deserve “peace and unity?”
These questions are rather many, but I have a basketful. If we are happy that Mark is “going” because of his permanence in power and the need for fresh air, can we first make the same arguments in Tivland where some people have appropriated, monopolized and personalized power for upwards of 30 years before we seek to export the change-mantra to our Idoma-neighbours? If his offence is that he is defines democracy outside the common orthodoxy of one-man-one-vote or that he ruggedly secures his electoral victories via unorthodox methods, do we not have such political juggernauts with their unorthodox tactics in such Tiv local governments as Katsina-Ala, Ukum, Logo, Gboko, Tarka, Guma etc, and do we not worship them? If we fault “BAD Mark” with the grievous sin that he is mean to Tiv people, and helps only his people, can we say it is also his fault that Tiv leaders do not help Tiv people except when such Tiv people come from their immediate or intermediate families?
And yet the man we love to hate and are helping/hoping that “a small boy” will demolish and diminish has a good testimonial before his people of his long, even if crooked, tenancy in power. We attribute the over-visibility of Idoma people in the Federal bureaucracy, their choking hold on both the military and para-military recruitments vis-à-vis their demographic strength to this BAD Mark. And physically, he has Apa University as well as Joy FM in Idomaland to his credit, to mention but these two. Can his military contemporaries and political colleagues in Tivland raise their voices or hands and point at the Nursery Schools or “Pure Water” factories they have set up in Tivland as symbolic gestures of their long and lucrative stewardship?
The corner-stone of David Mark’s political longevity (at least since 1999) is his advertised legislative agenda of Apa state. It may be a tall dream, but every big thing starts with a dream; it may be a fluke, but it resonates well with his people. And that is the spirit of representative democracy. Can any Tiv constituent, in all objectivity, say he/she knows the centre-piece of the legislative agenda of any of David Mark’s colleagues on the Tiv side? And yet we hold them as humans without reproach, even gods. It is a pity that in our intimidation-induced timidity, we do not see their clay-feet. This is why our “strong men” are very powerful in Benue state, but once they come to Abuja, and are confronted with “the arithmetic of politics,” (credit to Chuba Okadigbo), their power instantly dissolves into powder!
I have not seen David Mark one-on-one since 2006, so no person can seriously accuse me of holding forth for him or being sponsored. And knowing the sociology of his politics too well, there is no way I can defend him. He, therefore, stands or falls by his craftsmanship or brinkmanship or both.
The morale here is that Mark is not the Tivman’s problem: He never was, is not, and never will be. In the military, Tiv sons out-numbered him; and in politics today, Tiv sons out-number him. If he out-performed us yesterday, and today too he still seems to be out-playing us, the fault is not in him, but in us. There is no position Mark has held that a Tiv man has never held. If the obsession of his contemporaries has been the accoutrements or the paraphernalia of power, but he has concerned himself with the meat or substance of power, let the truth be told, and it is hereby told: the sin is not his, but ours. Let us, therefore, leave him to the fate of Zone Constituents.
We complain about Idoma predominance in the Federal bureaucracy, but Mark did not collect money to employ the non-indigenes in the Benue State Civil Service. After gulping more than N7 billion, the Greater Makurdi Waterworks still needs another N6billion to work, and residents are still drinking water straight from River Benue – the way our ancestors did 200 years ago; but Mark is not responsible for this rape.
We have leaders who use desperate tactics to capture power; only to discover that in their crooked haste to win by all means, they had forgotten to worry about a Development Blue-Print; they then start shopping for blue-prints. This can hardly be Mark’s doing. We know our leaders who do not go to work, or when they go, they sleep at the duty-posts; but this cannot be Mark’s fault.
For long, we have been producing predatory leaders who, first, prey aggressively on the commonwealth, and thus empowered, commence a wholesale preying on our lives. This is why BAD Mark is neither responsible for the looted funds from Benue coffers, beginning 1999, nor can anyone mention his name in connection with the orchestrated mass killings in Zaki-Biam/Gbeji, Kusuv/Ikyurav-Tiev, Kwande or Tarka Local Government.
There is a dearth of industries in Tivland. About 20-30 years ago, there used to be companies like Taraku Mills, Ikyogen Cattle Ranch, Agro-Millers, Lobi Bank, Ben Cola, Benue Printing and Publishing Company etc. Today, we can only recall them from the cobwebs of our memories. David Mark did not kill these. And if in the last 16 years, a succession of Tiv leaders have been establishing companies only on Radio Benue, it would be wicked to blame such wickedness on Mark’s head. For long, there has been a leadership vacuum in Tivland, with aspirants testing the waters, but getting drowned by their own greed; not Mark’s machination. And whether or not he leaves the Senate, the leadership void in Tivland will not go away.
As long as we have no Strategic Road-Map for our journey; as long as we have no Strategic Plan in engaging Nigeria and demanding our share from the national commonwealth; as long as our leaders continue to consider themselves as demi-gods and view their followers as raw-materials for wanton exploitation and gratuitous manipulation; as long as we refuse to improve on our leadership choices, deliberately holding down big ideas so that pettiness can walk tall; as long as we are torn between the Church of Christ and the Swem-Karagbe Hills in the Ugbe-Country; as long as we remain divided between the democratization of power and the democratization of poverty; and so long as we keep seeing political power as an end in itself, and not a vehicle for mass mobilization/social reconstruction; and so long as we find the turf of local politics more appealing than the pitch of national politics where the real action is, we will continue to stagnate and atrophy even as Nigeria marches on.
There is, thus, so much that is before us, and to become obsessed with BAD Mark is to take our eyes off the big picture. In fact, if Mark is as good as we credit him with all sinister schemes against Tiv people, it would not matter whether he is in the Senate or not: his Idoma-Project would be on auto-pilot by now. So if we get fixated with Mark, and his putative badness, we will be missing the real lesson of this unfolding drama.
So what is the lesson in this blockbuster, Onjeh-Mark drama? The lesson is that a political contest is exactly what it is: a political contest. And under our extant laws, the contest does not end on election-day or even with INEC’s announcement of the outcomes; it extends to the tribunal/courts. So there is no mischief or witchcraft or anomaly deserving of demonization in seeking legal redress after an election, and exhausting the whole gamut of the legal process. If we missed the many examples in Tivland, we can now learn this important lesson from Idomaland – after all, foreign/imported things are beautiful.
In this age of the knowledge economy, two societies have become evident: the Open/Interrogative Society and the Closed/Cultic Society. The Interrogative Society asks questions, it interrogates itself: its notion of truth, its concept of reality, its dreams and hopes, its fears, as well as its goals and methodologies of goal-actualization. But it does not stop there: it goes further to interrogate its leadership, its leadership recruitment process, its leadership choices, its leadership preparedness, its concept of heroes and heroism, its view of criticism, checks, sanctions and balances. It engages in this interrogative process with an eye on self-renewal, self-rediscovery and self-actualization. In summary, a society that is interrogative is a progressing-cum-progressive one.
Conversely, a closed or cultic society conducts its business secret society-style, although it may continue to make declarations to the contrary and even follow up with symbolic actions. It brooks no questions; it interrogates nothing, gets no answers and just ambles along. And because it seeks no answers, it gets no answers. There is, therefore, no renewal, no accommodation of new ideas, no innovation, no regeneration; rather society atrophies. In other words, a closed society is a static society.
So while an interrogative society sets benchmarks, and constructs new paradigms of reaching them, the cultic society seeks no answers, it bothers itself with neither benchmarks nor paradigms – it celebrates the stausquo and obsesses with power: the glamour of power, the trappings of power as well as the coercive apparatus of power and no more.
Finally, the challenge before every Tiv man and woman is to domesticate the positive change we so admire outside the Tiv country. We can begin with the Onjeh take-away, and proceed to states like Cross River, Kaduna and Lagos.
Rikght now, some of us are eating avidly while some of are watching. But let both who eat and those who watch keep in mind that there is another country, another place, a future, called tomorrow. The visa to that country is strategic planning.
Let us, therefore, renew our ideas, let us rejuvenate our leadership and let us re-invent our society. This is the challenge before each and every one of us. May God have mercy on the Tiv Nation.
Imobo-Tswam, a media consultant, author and public speaker, wrote from Abuja. He can be reached on: simonpita2008@yahoo.com. [myad]