West Africa Presidents and Heads of Government have arrived Abuja, Nigeria’s Federal Capital Territory for the 46th Ordinary Session of the ECOWAS Authority of Heads of State and Government for tomorrow, Monday. A statement from Dr. Reuben Abati, special adviser on media and publicity to President Goodluck Jonathan said that the Summot will, among other things, deliberate on the current political and security situation in the sub-region. He said that President Jonathan and other participating Heads of State and Government of the regional body will also receive a briefing on recent developments in Burkina Faso and review the report of the 33rd Meeting of the ECOWAS Mediation and Security Council. Abati said that the agenda of the summit would also include the consideration and adoption of the 2014 annual report of the President of the ECOWAS Commission, the consideration and adoption of the report of the 73rd Ordinary Session of the ECOWAS Council of Ministers and the election of the Chairman of the ECOWAS Authority of Heads of State and Government for next year. “President Jonathan, the current Chairman of the ECOWAS Authority of Heads of State and Government, President John Mahama of Ghana, the Chairperson of the African Union Commission, Dr. Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma and the United Nations Secretary General’s Special Representative for West Africa, Mr. Mohammed Ibn Chambas will present statements to the one-day summit before it goes into a closed-door session.” Abati said that some of the participating Heads of State and Government have already arrived in Abuja ahead of the opening of the summit tomorrow. A communiqué on the summit’s decisions, he added, is expected at the conclusion of their deliberations tomorrow.
The results of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Presidential primary on Thursday which placed former Vice President Atiku Abubakar third, trailing behind General Muhammadu Buhari and Governor Musa Kwankwaso of Kano state, have raised some questions in the Nigeria’s political circle. What really is working against Alhaji Atiku, seeing that his Thursday outing was one defeat too many? Why would he appear larger than life in the Nigeria political platform but seems to be worth far less when it comes to the nitty gritty of election? Why is he so misunderstood by Nigerians? What is the root cause of such misunderstanding of his intention for Nigeria? If the love of the country and commitment not only to the flourishing of democracy but to the wellbeing of the citizens of the country are anything to go by, Atiku certainly towers over and above many people who are leading this country at many levels today. It is on record that he has invested in many socio-economic sectors, including education that provides employments to many Nigerians, especially the youths. Of course, the image that seems to have been unconsciously embedded in the minds of Atiku haters is the one of corruption, but this has been without basis. Another one is the fact that he is inconsistent in his quest for power: that he changes party like a lady changes her undies. On the issue of corruption, where are the evidences, except the ones cooked up by those who simply hate his guts? In any case, whichever way he made his wealth, and still making it, does not really bury the reality that he shows, in all respects, his total belief in Nigeria and the Nigerian project. That he is committed to such ideals. In other words, while many wealthy Nigerians, most of who acquired such wealth evidently through questionable means, would prefer to stash the major parts of their financial accumulation in Swiss accounts or other accounts in foreign lands: they neither assist the growth of Nigerian economy nor the growing number of unemployed youths to enjoy life, Atiku has been doing the direct opposite. It calls for repeating that, within the same polity where somebody like Atiku has shown a lot of patriotism, others like him or more than him are running down the nation’s economy in the guise of foreign investment. On the issue of his inconsistency regarding the political platform, Atiku appears to always want to be where he can properly place himself to get the leadership so that he would move fast to right all the wrongs in the nation’s body politics and other socio-economic malaises. We in Greenbarge Reporters don’t see anything wrong in that. We believe strongly that the notion about his inconsistency has been floated by those who fear he would overshadow them in political calculations or has actually done so. Those are they who have resorted to giving him a bad name so they can hang him. It is baffling but not totally surprising that Nigerians, in search of change for the better, are not keen in letting him to get the power to enable him translate his tall dream into reality. It is baffling that a man, like Atiku, who has been working very hard to ensure that the institutions of democracy work in tandem with international best practices; a man who oozes with ideas of how to make Nigeria work and, indeed, a man who has invested so much in human and capital development of the country from his individual efforts, has been so rejected by the same people he is working for, or is it the system? Who are responsible for shooting Atiku down politically each time he wants to “fly”? [myad]
The Minister of Education, Mallam Ibrahim Shekarau, has said that the government has been worrying over the mass failures in the last West African Examination Council (WAEC) across the country and that the government would work out modalities for the training and re-training of teachers.
Shekarau who spoke at the 22nd convocation ceremony of the Federal Polytechnic, Auchi, Edo, said: “Government is worried by the poor results recorded in the last Senior Secondary School Certificate Examination conducted by the West Africa Examination Council.
“To ramify this situation, government has taken steps to improve on the capability of the quality of teaching and facilities available in our secondary schools.
“In addition, government is working out modalities for the regular training and re-training of teachers through various short-term courses, workshops and seminars,’’ he said.
Shekarau said the government is very particular about the development of vocational and technology education and believed that strengthening them would reduce the high rate of unemployment and create wealth.
“It is for this reason that government, through the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFUND), provides financial support for the development of tertiary institutions.
“There is no gainsaying the fact that our educational system has its peculiar challenges, especially in the area of funding, where it competes with other sectors of the economy for allocation of financial resources.
“Nevertheless, the challenges have not been allowed to overwhelm us.
“This is clear evidence in the prudent manner with which available resources have been deployed for optimum results.”
The Minister urged managers of higher institutions to ensure available resources are deployed for maximum benefit and result.
He commended the rector of the polytechnic for its infrastructure development, done with the view to widening access to education in line with the ministry’s six point strategic plans.
“The Auchi Polytechnic has shown good example in this regard, which is commendable.
“The achievement recorded by the polytechnic in the last 50 years calls for celebration.
“And it is at the backdrop of this that I recognise and acknowledge the great and positive development of the institution, especially as they fall in line with the Transformation Agenda of Mr President,’’ he said.
Earlier, the Rector, Dr. Philipa Idogho said that the institution graduated students 3,748 with Higher National Diploma and 4,987 with National Diploma.
Idogho urged the graduating students to be good ambassadors of the institution wherever they find themselves.
“I urge you to remember always that you have this polytechnic as your ambassador.
“Those who graduated before you held afloat the worthy banner of this school. You can do no less,’’ she said.
President Goodluck Jonathan is a victim of good luck. Therefore, those who are accusing this poor man of classic incompetence, especially, in restoring Nigeria to the path of glory, are only being unfair to him. On the other hand, that Jonathan has not even the faintest idea of how to turn around the compelling tragedies that have become characteristic of this funny and contradictorily interesting country is no longer the issue. What remains to be addressed is how innocent Nigerians will not suffer unjustly from a president’s sheer visionlessness. Not that alone, that the president’s paladins of pleasure-seeking and crocodile tears-shedding lieutenants who, in their basically selfish nature, are repellently unpresidential in the discharge of their duties is no longer contestable. Little wonder their principal claims to be world’s “most criticized president.”
I am not a fan of President Jonathan and I don’t envy him either. But I honestly pity this president who has been condemned to searching – and, rightly, too – for solutions to problems he “did not create.” I pity him because, as a bloody zoologist whose professional destiny is tied to the kingdom of pests and rodents, dealing with human beings and their consciousness, especially, under “very sad and unusual circumstances”, is not as easy and as straightforward as one might conjecture. What more? Jonathan was obviously unprepared for higher responsibilities as at the time fate thrust on him the priceless opportunity of running the affairs of a country as diverse as Nigeria. Little wonder he continues to behave – and, truly, too – as if he has something to hide. From economic stagnation, to endemic corruption; from conditions of rancor, to cultures of violence; from acts of kidnapping, to out-and-out terrorism; and, certainly, with others still in their various stages of gestation, much as Jonathan may have to congratulate himself for providing first-rate government, especially, going by his being Nigeria’s first doctorate degree holder to occupy the office of the Nigerian president; and the first Niger Deltan to so do, that Nigeria under his firm grip is headed somewhere is no longer naysaying. Where dear country is headed or how soon this tension-soaked fifty something year-old infant is destined to access her fated destination is what now worries lovers of good governance.
But how did we get here in the first place? Why has Nigeria become one big racket where people opportunistically search for charades that only stagger their imagination? How come we are everywhere but nowhere in particular and why is it that what ordinarily get others into trouble elsewhere are things that sinisterly amuse our world? Why is our politics scanty? Why is it rich in crass class opportunism and puerile religiosity but bereft of the essentials of knowledge, leadership and togetherness? If politics is a product of “elite consensus which provides the framework for peace and stability”, why do we play politics only to spite the polity and why has our system become so bastardized that even those we look up to as leaders are now apostles of pettiness, artificialities and superficialities?
As earlier stated, I do not envy Jonathan because he is a poor student of history. As a Christian, he ought to have learnt some significant lessons from great kings like Herod the Great (37BC to 4BC), Ahaz the son of Jotham, Ahab the son of Omri; Rehoboam the son of Naamah; and Titus Flavius Caesar Vespasianus Augustus, the Roman emperor who actively partook of the Roma-Jewish war of AD66-70: how kingdoms under them fared and how history credited their era.
As an international figure, lives, times and travails of rulers who missed one-in-a-lifetime opportunities of having their names etched in gold ought to have helped him define not only the relationship between power and powder but also the transience of existence. Napoleon, for his insatiable lust for power; Joseph Stalin, in whose credit record has the largest death toll in war history; Pol Pot whose ‘Transformation’ transformed into disaster; Louis XIV who failed to lead France out of corruption and economic mess; the-sheep-in-wolf’s-clothing Chiang Kai-shek who embraced nationalism in the daytime but killed protesters in the nighttime; Franklin Pierce, for his ineffectiveness and indecisiveness; Richard Nixon, of Watergate fame; and John Norquist, that American Mayor who failed woefully in mayoral responsibilities, are some of the world leaders who, for reasons not far from personal, dared providence, jettisoned the very essence of purposeful leadership and paid dearly for it. Why did Robert Mugabe start as a “hero in the minds of many Africans” only to turn into a behemoth in the twilight of his sojourn on earth? Where is Laurent Desire Kabila and why did Muammar Gaddafi have to end that way?
As a student of contemporary Nigerian history, the crafty Yakubu Gowon, the erratic Ibrahim Babangida, the tormenter Sani Abacha, even the cocky Olusegun Obasanjo, Jonathan’s political lord and master, are examples of how not to be a hero. An informed Jonathan should have known that leadership is not only about those who dream dreams but also – and, in particular, too – those who are able to interpret dreams and actualize visions; that, but for fate which conferred heroism on Murtala Muhammad, Muhammadu Buhari and Abdusalami Abubakar, their sins would probably have remained unforgiven.
In the words of Henry Kissinger, “the task of the leader is to get his people from where they are to where they have not been.” In other words, a good leader need not pontificate about Transformation. Rather, he should be honest, efficient, excitingly futuristic and capable of creating confidence, especially in the area of developing the leadership qualities necessary for success. A leader worth his calling does not necessarily have to “follow where the path may lead.” Rather, he should strive to go “where there is no path and leave a trail.” In the eyes of a good leader, even “when nothing is sure, everything is possible.” Not one skilled in the jauntiness of leadership by permutations and combinations, if a leader once had “no shoes to wear”, now that he has, he need not limit his interventions to the protracted tantrums of once being in one’s shoes but must strive to teach others how to make their own shoes.
One fundamental feature of a weak leader is (his) woolliness. Another is bewilderment. A weak leader lives in fear and “always feels like the prey in the jungle”, with “a tendency to cry on other people’s shoulders about how overwhelmed and overloaded they are with work and responsibilities.” He always strives to avoid differences of opinion or potential conflicts. Contrariwise, good leaders “understand what is happening, size up the situation, put themselves in the right position to respond, prepare, and then act at the proper time.” Unlike weak leaders who “solve the wrong problems in the wrong way”, good leaders are “sure of their direction and they act boldly.” And herein lies my fears. So far, Jonathan has not demonstrated that he is in control or that he is on top of the myriad of avertible challenges ravaging our landscape. Since he is unsure of whom he is, he is at a loss on how to successfully steer the ship of the Nigerian state. Like Bernard Montgomery, we have a president who with displays outright timidity when aggressiveness is needed; and “too aggressive when caution would have been more advisable.” In fairness to him, Jonathan may not necessarily be a bad leader but, like Gunichi Mikawa, he is certainly one with bad timing. That is why he continues to rock the boat instead of rocking the road.
In his book, ‘Poem for Adults’, Adam Wazyk wrote: “When the vultures of abstraction pick out our brains, when students are enclosed in text-books without windows, when language is reduced to thirty incantations, when the lamp of imagination is extinguished, when good people from the moon deny us our taste, then truly oblivion is dangerously near.” Let us admit that President Jonathan didn’t create those problems Nigerians now want him to fix, he is no doubt part of Nigeria’s problems. This he surely knows! Do we need to say more on his achievements so far in office? Economic Indices, of course, speak volume. Between May 2011 and May 2012, Nigeria’s inflation figure rose from 11.3 to 12.9. Though Nigeria is Africa’s biggest nation and largest source market, she is now ranked 116th out of 156 countries on the Economic Freedom Index for 2012, a tragic decline from last year’s. Even, Rwanda, a country that is just smarting out of a genocidal war experience is freer than dear country. Conveniently, she is now world’s 14th Failed State, edging out countries like Burundi, East Timor and Democratic Republic of Congo. As we speak, oil accounts for more than 97% of Nigeria’s foreign exchange revenues. With over 50% of Nigerians living below poverty line and with over 70% of her population actually living on less than 1dollar per day, Jonathan presides over 75% illiterates. And, in the village of the blind, one-eyed is king! Little wonder Nigeria has become such fertile soil for “a few” who “wallow in unbelievable wealth and spend what should be for all of us so recklessly.”
Even as Jonathan continues to service the lifestyles of the principalities and powers that litter and loiter around the corridors of power, his indifference to the plight of the common man, the demonstrable wasteful attitude and uncommon hideousness remain unmatched. Unfortunately, one principal difference between Pharaoh’s Egypt and Jonathan’s Nigeria is that, in Egypt, Israelites were tortured by strangers – a different race; but, in our case, Nigerians are colonizing Nigerians. The saddest part is that, while the president still remains grossly clueless on how to successfully govern a country as diverse as Nigeria, efforts are already in top gear to represent this failing president for re-election, come 2015. And that is where the problem lies!
Let’s pray this good luck would not turn into a catastrophe we’ll all have to live with!
Thousands of protesters demonstrated today in Washington in the United States for a march to protest the killings of unarmed black men by law enforcement officers. They want the Congress to do more to protect African-Americans from unjustified police violence.
Organisers said the event and a protest march in New York City would rank among the largest in the recent wave of protests against the killings of black males by officers in Ferguson, Missouri, New York, Cleveland and elsewhere.
Decisions by grand juries to return no indictments against the officers involved in the death of Michael Brown in Missouri and Eric Garner in New York have put the issue of police treatment of minorities back on the national agenda.
Thousands of people assembled in Freedom Plaza, a couple of blocks from the White House, before setting off at noon on a three-mile march down Pennsylvania Avenue for a rally in front of the US Capitol.
“I came out today seeking justice and also policy changing when it comes to policing all throughout America,” said Aisha Wilson, 37, from Paterson, New Jersey.
The march was organised by National Action Alliance, a civil rights organisation headed by the Reverend Al Sharpton.
“We need more than just talk,” Sharpton said in a statement before the march. “We need legislative action that will shift things both on the books and in the streets.”
Sharpton urged Congress to pass legislation that would allow federal prosecutors to take over cases involving police. He said local district attorneys often work with police regularly, raising the potential of conflicts of interest when prosecutors investigate incidents, he said.
The Washington protest will include the families of Eric Garner and Akai Gurley, who were killed by New York police; Trayvon Martin, slain by a Florida neighbourhood watchman in 2012; and Michael Brown, killed by an officer in Ferguson.
In New York, the march was expected to draw about tens of thousands of people and was meant to reinvigorate protests that swelled after a grand jury declined to indict the officer who killed Garner using a chokehold, organisers said.
Ugandan President, Yoweri Museveni is obviously angry with the International Criminal Court (ICC) and has vowed to rally African nations to pull out of the treaty establishing the Court. This is coming on the heels of the accusations by many, that the court has unfairly targeted Africans.
Museveni who spoke today at a ceremony to mark Kenya’s 51 years of independence from Britain, against the background of the dropping of a case of crime-against-humanity charges against Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta by the chief prosecutor at the Hague-based court.
Museveni condemned the ICC which he accused of continuing with Kenya’s deputy president William Ruto’s case despite an African Union (AU) resolution that no sitting African head of state or deputy should be tried at the court.
“I will bring a motion to the African Union’s next session. I want all of us to get out of that court of the West. Let them (Westerners) stay with their court,” he said in Swahili.
Although prosecutors dropped charges against Kenyatta, the trial of Ruto on similar charges is under way at the ICC.
“With connivance, they are putting Deputy President Ruto, someone who has been elected by Kenyans, in front of the court there in Europe,” Museveni said
The AU is scheduled to hold its annual summit of heads of state at its headquarters in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, at the end of January, but has not announced a specific date.
The collapse of the Kenyatta case was a blow to the court, which has secured only two convictions, both against little-known Congolese warlords, and has yet to prove it can hold the powerful to account.
Many Africans accuse the ICC of unfairly targeting their continent although the majority of cases it has handled have been referred to the court by African nations themselves.
Museveni said he had backed the court before it turned into a tool for “oppressing Africa”.
“I supported the court at first because I like discipline. I don’t want people to err without accountability,” he said.
“But they have turned it into a vessel for oppressing Africa again so I’m done with that court. I won’t work with them again.”
Uganda has in the past sought the assistance of the ICC in bringing rebel warlord Joseph Kony to account for war crimes committed by his Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) in northern Uganda over two decades.
Kenyatta and Ruto also addressed the ceremony in an open-air stadium in the Kenyan capital Nairobi, saying they were confident Ruto and his co-accused would also be vindicated.
“I ask you all to join me in supporting my deputy and his co-accused as they also await their overdue vindication,” Kenyatta said.
Last year, African leaders tried but failed to pass a resolution at the UN that sought to suspend the trial of both Kenyatta and Ruto at the ICC.
Jamie Cooper-Hohn, 49, an American woman who divorced her British husband, Sir Chris Hohn, 48 has been awarded about a third of her husband’s £1 billion fortune which stands at about £337 in a divorce suit in London. It has been described as one of the biggest divorce money fights seen in an English court.
The couple were said to haev fought over who should get what at a High Court trial this summer. While the husband wanted a quarter, the wife insisted on half of the wealth.
The trial judge, Justice Roberts eventually awarded Mrs. Cooper-Hohn 36 per cent – £337 million.
The judge said Sir Chris – who was educated at a state school and studied business and accounting at Southampton University – was a “financial genius” who had made a “special contribution” to the creation of the couple’s fortune.
She had announced the amount Mrs. Cooper-Hohn would get last month.
But her calculations on the exact size of the fortune, and the exact percentage Mrs. Cooper-Hohn would get, only emerged today when she delivered a detailed ruling on the case.
Legal experts say it is “certainly” one of the biggest payouts to be pocketed by an estranged wife.
But lawyers for Mrs. Cooper-Hohn have indicated that they might appeal.
Justice Roberts concluded that Sir Chris was the “generating force,” had “innovative vision,” had generated “truly vast wealth” and had a “special skill,” adding: “his business success could be viewed as “exceptional.”
“I take the view that he qualifies as a financial genius in his particular field of financial investment,” she added, in a written ruling.
“In these circumstances, I find that, on any view, there has been a special contribution made by the husband in this case and that such contribution should and will be reflected in a departure from equality in terms of the overall award which I propose to make.”
Mrs. Cooper-Hohn said the wealth had been created as a result of their “partnership”.
She said she had worked long hours on behalf of their charitable foundation and travelled.
Nigeria’s Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has announced the cancellation of no fewer than four million voters from its record across the nation for their involvement in multiple registration. The Commission’s chairman, Professor Attahiru Jega made this known today when he briefed newsmen in Abuja. Jega said that the Commission was supposed to have prosecuted those who were involved in such sharp practices but that it lacked both manpower and financial resources to do so. According to him, most of the complaints coming from voters about none issuance of Permanent Voters Cards were as a result of such cancellation, adding: “we cannot issue Permanent Voters Cards to those who engaged in multiple registration.” He gave a rundown of how INEC has embarked on cleaning up of the electoral process since he became its chairman, saying that correct register is the first step towards credible election. Jega expressed confident that with what the Commission had done so far, the 2015 general elections will be better conducted more than the 2011 “which was even adjudged as the best.” The INEC boss insisted that next year’s elections would be held all over the country, including the trouble spots like Borno, Yobe and Adamawa states, hoping that the security operatives would do their own part of the job well.
The Minister of Aviation, Osita Chidoka, today, hinted that passengers’ air fares may face some downward review, following the recommendation of the committee on aeronautical fare disparities which submitted its report.
The panel submitted that the over 50 multiple charges by agencies and airline operators at the airport were inimical to the overall development of the aviation industry.
He said: “That is what we are going to look at and within the next one week, we shall come out with what will be the new rates. Some of the charges will have to go, those the airlines cannot explain we would do away with and those they can explain we will find out whether they are still available in today’s world.
He said he will find out the basis for the alleged recent fuel surcharges imposed in air transportation configuration, asking, what is the rationale for that surcharge. These are issues I think will be of interest to Nigerians to create a transparency in the core structure of the aviation sector, adding; “I think that this is most important for Nigerians that we should have transparency in what constitute this cost and why we are paying for it.”
A Federal High Court in Abuja has struck out the suit filed by Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), seeking to remove four governors who defected from the party to the All Progressives Congress (APC). The governors are Rotimi Amaechi (Rivers), Aliyu Wamakko (Sokoto), Rabiu Kwankwaso (Kano) and Abdulfatai Ahmed (Kwara) as well as Murtala Nyako (impeached governor of Adamawa state.
Justice Gabriel Kolawole, in a ruling that lasted about two hours today, held that the suit’s originating processes were invalid, on the ground that they were wrongly issued and served on the defendants.
The PDP had last December sued the governors, including former Adamawa State governor, Murtala Nyako, and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), asking the court to declare the defecting governors’ seats vacant, and for INEC to conduct elections for their replacement.
Nyako’s name was removed from the suit shortly after his impeachment.
The party had, upon an order of court, served the originating processes on a wrong address, which it claimed was the headquarters of the APC.
The court upheld the arguments of the governors and consequently set aside the service of the suits on them.
On June 27, the party again obtained an ex-parte order for substituted service of the originating processes through newspaper publication, which it published on July 3 in Thisday newspapers.
The defendants again, faulted the procedure adopted by the PDP in serving them, arguing among others, that the plaintiff failed to first obtain the leave of the court to serve them through substituted means, and that the originating processes were not endorsed as required under the Sheriff and Civil Processes Act (SCPA).
Justice Kolawole’s ruling was on the applications filed by Ameachi, Kwankwaso and Ahmed.
He upheld the governors’ argument that the originating processes, issued in the Abuja division of the Federal High Court, and meant for service outside jurisdiction ought to be endorsed as required under Section 97 of the SCPA.
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West Africa Presidents and Heads of Government have arrived Abuja, Nigeria’s Federal Capital Territory for the 46th Ordinary Session of the ECOWAS Authority of Heads of State and Government for tomorrow, Monday.
