Profile: An Encounter With Anyim Pius Anyim
Senator Anyim Pius Anyim
By Jide AjaniWith his Sum ho-size massive frame, he outran every other senator. This was on Wednesday, January 30, 2002 – 10 years ago. Time was 12:15pm and the weather was temperate.
For Anyim Pius Anyim, it is about smartness. Going on a tour of the Ikeja Cantonment that had just been massively damaged by explosions from its armoury three days earlier, some unexploded bombs started going off. That was the cause of the scampering.
Today, Anyim Pius is the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, SGF.
As SGF, Anyim has enormous powers. And today Anyim purns 51!
Anyim’s day starts as early as can be – depending on the schedule of the day.
On Wednesdays when the Executive Council of the Federation, EXCOF, meets, it is more alacritous.
But EXCOF or no EXCOF, no day passes by without Anyim performing his morning devotion. Anyim can be described as “THE MAN OF GOD”.
“He believes in praying about everything first and foremost”, a source very close to the SGF told Sunday Vanguard. But Anyim is said to be pragmatic. He prays about everything but it depends again on the issue involved.
As you engaged him, he kept pouring over the files before him.
If he wasn’t marking the tip of the papers, he would axterrix some points therein.
Sensing the journalist in you, he would tilt the paper to an angle that made it completely impossible for you to see any print in the paper he was holding. And if you thought he wasn’t conscious of what he was doing and your craftiness, he would pack the files up, as if to straighten and properly adjust and set the papers inside, then move the files closer to his side of the table’ just to let you know that if you had ideas of looking too closely, the thought should be junked.
Occasionally, he would lift his head and say:
“Henhen! Jide I’m listening to you”.
You would go on and on, trying to convince him on the need for an interview, explaining what good it would do the state if Nigerians have an idea of, for instance, “the plans government has for the just-submitted Sheik Lemu Panel report on Boko Haram, the feeling of government on the United Nations Building that had just been destroyed by a suicide bomber who was a member of the sect just 24hours earlier; about his office and the role expected of him; his working relationship with President Goodluck Jonathan” and a host of other issues.
To all these, Anyim simply said:
“I am a secretary; I write”.
Laughter follows from him.
And as common when in the company of a big man, you quickly laugh along.
Then you attempt another approach, saying, “but as the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, people see you
everywhere and….”
He cuts in and says wryly:
“Yes, I may be seen everywhere.
“But I am not supposed to be heard.
“I have a boss and that is Mr. President.
What he wants to see is that I do my job very well.
“And I hope you would respect that”, he concludes.
His voice and his massive frame do not strike a recognisable synch. This is because he speaks in a low tone, often
picking his words.
But before you could get to see him that morning, you had spent about an hour waiting downstairs.
When he eventually emerged, he profusely apologised for keeping this guest waiting.
There were others. After the morning devotion, Anyim sets out for his Office at the Federal Secretariat.
For the Office of the SGF, there is enormous might – although this had sometimes depended on the level of bonding that had existed between the President and Commander-in-Chief and the holder of the office.
When the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, decided to zone the Office of the SGF to the South East geo-political zone following Jonathan’s emergence from the South South, there began a massive campaign from the leaders of the South East against the arrangement. It had been hoped that the zone would produce the Speaker of the House of Representatives.
But that would have gone against the grain of stability for the PDP zoning arrangement because Jonathan (some say working to favour former President Olusegun Obasanjo had wanted the Speakership to be retained by the South West) simply made a direct swap of offices – re-allocating the chairmanship of the PDP to the North East from the South East and the Office of the SGF hitherto held by the former to the latter. So, the east got the office of the SGF.
And to Anyim Pius Jonathan turned!
His appointment, which was one of the very first by President Jonathan, was heralded as a right choice.
So, what was Anyim bringing to the table for Jonathan that made the choice come across as a nice one?
Being a former Senate President during whose leadership a sense of stability was restored to that chamber of the National Assembly – after the internecine battle among senators from the south east zone – and one of the very first set of politicians to call the then Umaru Musa Yar’Adua cabal to order, demanding that power be handed over to Jonathan who was then in forced limbo, Anyim again earned incremental respect for himself – this, coming after a botched attempt to become national chairman of the PDP in 2008.
Anyim’s office at the Shehu Shagari Complex near the National Assembly in the Three Arms’ Zone area of the Federal Capital City, FCT, Abuja, is a beehive of activities.
From ministers to directors-general and other heads of parastatals, Anyim is a permanently busy man. He applies himself wholly to the task for the day which takes precedence over every other thing. If you refer to him as a work addict, you may not be far from the truth.
Immediately after every EXCOF meetings, he does not necessarily return to the office immediately.
This is because as SGF, he sits in almost all meetings of the government; he is permitted the luxury of having representation made in just a few, very few instances.
Anyim enjoys a very cordial relationship with Mr. President who is said to have so much confidence in him and is convinced that he is loyal and committed to his success. “With the rest of Mr. President’s staff, he is friendly and treats them and indeed everybody with respect. He sees the ministers as partners and he gives them due attention and treats their matters with dispatch and his greatest desire and aspiration is to see President Jonathan and his administration succeed and deliver to the expectations of Nigerians of goodwill”, a close aide told Sunday Vanguard.
This was evident on the day after the UN House bombing when Sunday Vanguard visited him at home. It was a somewhat crest-fallen Anyim who lamented the gross disservice the bombing “is capable of doing and has done to the image of the country; not to talk of those who lost their lives and those who were injured”.
Although Sunday Vanguard never had the opportunity of sitting-in at any of the meetings he held in his office, the impression created and conveyed was that his meetings are “very brisk and business like. He also makes people relax with some good sense of humour, but ensures that the focus of the meeting does not shift”.
He has a wife and three kids and he is a shy person.
Anyim loves his village of Ishiagu; he goes home regularly when he has the time.
Can we, therefore, call him a village man?
Well, not really.
But Anyim’s first days as Senate President in 2000 could as well suggest that a village man had mounted the senate president’s seat. However, with native intelligence he quickly adjusted well. Even from the way he picked his steps, the re-adjustment to the new level became manifest – not any more the swashbuckler or uncalculating walker.
And a sense of how native intelligence worked well in his favour became evident in how he brought former President Olusegun Obasanjo down to earth in getting things done in Anyim’s own way. He almost always had his way with Obasanjo, something some considered miraculous in those heady days of the Obasanjo presidency.
But both men fell out when he saw through it that his continued coziness with Obasanjo may cost the senate and its leadership some discounts. He simply opted to sacrifice the coziness for the retention of trust and confidence of his colleagues. Obasanjo never liked this and it cost him a return to the Senate. Today, he is closer to God and imbued with more wisdom.
Anyim enjoys reading as much as he enjoys home cooking: He eats his lunch brought from home for him. He wakes up early and goes to bed quite late owing to his very busy work schedule.
As he turns 51, we say birthday happy.(BIRTHDAY HAPPY)
‘Why we set up 200 health centres in Abia’
To many people in Abia State, the health sector is one of the areas the administration of Governor Theodore Orji has scored high. They believe the administration has touched virtually all the sectors in the state but beyond that the health sector has been revolutionised.
A top government official in Abia State spoke in tandem with the views expressed by the people. He said, “The state government, in line with Millennium Development Goals [MDGs], has built over 200 health centres across the 17 local government councils of the state.
Most of the health centres, which are mainly located in the rural areas, have been equipped, while some of them are being equipped. Health personnel have been posted to those already equipped.
Though they don’t have resident doctors, visiting doctors are sent there but qualified nurses are permanently there to attend to patients with the visiting doctors coming regularly”.
According to him, Orji recently directed the transition committee chairmen in the 17 local government areas to ensure that all the health centres that were ready have relevant health personnel. “The governor told them to inform the state government if those in their council areas lack personnel, especially nurses and visiting doctors.
He said the health centres were set up to ensure that health care services are within the reach of the rural masses who sometimes due to lack of health centres die or lose their children to minor illnesses that could be easily handled at the health centres,” the government official added.
The health revolution of the Orji administration also shows in the building of two world class diagnostic centres in Umuahia and Aba. The centres are run in partnership with Mecure, a first class Indian health institution.
The diagnostic centres, according to government sources, have been a huge success as ailments hitherto taken overseas are now diagnosed at the centres.
And as a result of the success recorded, the government has acquired more space at the Umuahia centre to set up a dialysis centre for patients with kidney problems.
According to the state health commissioner, Dr. Okechukwu Ogar, the governor has paid the counterpart funds that concern HIV/AIDS programme in the state.
The health commissioner said that the state government “has given grants to the state ministry of health and other agencies that have health related matters on AIDS, to run an awareness programme and also funds other organizations to manage the AIDS programme at Owaza in Ukwa West council area”.
Ogar noted that Orji has given approval for the employment of about 11 consultants to man the health centres across the state, saying once they are employed, the health situation in the state will improve.
He said that when the consultants resume duties, they will bring their wealth of experience to bear on the health sector in the state and also help to train general practitioner doctors that will be working with them.
The wife of the governor, Mercy Odochi Orji, has also been playing some role in the Abia health sector with her active involvement in the sensitization and mobilization of the rural women in the various maternal and child immunization programmes.
In one of the immunization programmes, she indicated strong interest in the health of the rural women and their children because “as a mother, I know the pains associated with child delivery. I’m therefore committed to the success of this follow-up action to combat deaths associated with child delivery. It is a comprehensive package that cares for both pregnant women and under five children.”
She added: “Mothers need not die in childbirth. We must give our young women information and the support they need to control their reproductive health, help them during pregnancy and care for the new born in childhood”.
Less than one year into the governor’s second term, the performance of Abia in the health sector gives hope for many people that, before his second year runs out in 2015, the state must have been taken to the desired level of affordable health services in the rural areas.
Sokoto guber: PDP in overdrive
BY ABDALLAH EL-KUREBE
THE Peoples Democratic Party, PDP is overdriving its campaign for the reelection of its candidate, Aliyu Wamakko in tomorrow’s gubernatorial election. Does the party really have a reason to fear given the party’s saturation of the structures and system of government in Sokoto State?
THE Sokoto governorship election holding tomorrow promises to be a more stiff challenge for the ruling Peoples’ Democratic Party, PDP than the walkover it did in Bayelsa last weekend. The party is seriously divided within and is challenged outside by a resurgent opposition that has been boosted by the return of the immediate past substantive Governor of the state, Alhaji Attahiru Bafarawa to the former ruling All Nigeria Peoples Party, ANPP.
Even with the internal and external challenges against it, the PDP is, however, expected to pull through. The PDP’s candidate is the former Governor, Alhaji Aliyu Wamakko. The major opposition to the PDP is coming from the ANPP, Congress for Progressive Change and the Democratic Peoples Party, DPP.
On his way to obtaining the PDP ticket Wamakko overcame serious challenges from Senator Abubakar Umar Gada and former Transport Minister, Yusuf Suleiman to pick the PDP ticket he polled 956 of the 961 votes at the primary election despite earlier apprehensions raised by the ferocity of the opposition within the PDP. Wamakko has working to his advantage the structures of the PDP at ward and district levels.
The Association of Local Government Councilors have particularly vouched to work for his success in the poll.
Closely working with them are Local government chairmen who are not making any pretence about their partisanship. The chairmen at a meeting towards the end of last year vowed that they would use their grassroots-based support to garner votes for Wamakko. As local government administrators, their influence would be crucial for the success of Wamakko during the election.
All thirty members of the state House of Assembly including the de facto Speaker and Acting Governor are equally not hiding their support for Wamakko using the structure of government to push the PDP’s candidate. They have constituted independent campaign committees, visiting and talking to their people on the need to reelect Wamakko as Governor of Sokoto State.
Members of the House of Representatives from Sokoto State, who are eleven in number, including Speaker of the House, Alhaji Aminu Waziri Tambuwal and the three Senators, including Umar Dahiru Tambuwal, Ahmed Maccido and Abdullahi Gobir last year wrote to the National Headquarters of the PDP, stating categorically that they stand by Wamakko. These are equally working hard to ensure that Wamakko wins election on February 18.
Acting Governor
The Acting governor of Sokoto state, Lawali Zayyana has persistently stated that the PDP as a family would be victorious as well as assured that the entire membership of the party in the state would work to ensure the return of Wamakko.
The assumption to office of Hon. Zayyana as Acting Governor of Sokoto State is an advantage for Wamakko. Zayyana was a Commissioner of Environment in Wamakko administration. He is assessed as an amiable, humble, simple, and has pledged to work for the return of Wamakko as governor.
Significant meaning
This has a significant meaning in that it confers the advantage of incumbency on the PDP candidate.
Abuja factor: Assertions that the presidency was working to sabotage Wamakko’s return were rubbished penultimate Thursday when President Goodluck Jonathan led the machinery of government in Abuja to campaign for the PDP candidate.
Local political enemies of Wamakko had prior to the primaries allegedly passed on to the presidency that Wamakko was against Jonathan during the PDP presidential primaries last year and as such the loss to Atiku Abubakar by Jonathan of the Sokoto votes. However, such assertions were countered by others who alleged a long standing relationship between the president and Wamakko when both were deputy governors in the period between 1999 and 2005.
The other candidates:
ANPP: Alhaji Yusha’u Mohammed Ahmed Kebbe
Kebbe is a retired banker, who worked with the Union Bank of Nigeria Plc and rose through the ranks to become a Senior Manager. He resigned to float a successful discount house and is now regarded as a successful businessman. As a new entrant into politics, Kebbe was not very well known before now causing him to lean on the shoulders of Bafarawa to pull through.
Under the tutelage of Bafarawa and the party chairman, Alhaji Ibrahim Milgoma; with the support of his other well-to-do siblings, philanthropist and oil dealer, Abdul-Rahman and Zayyanu Bashar, who runs Rahamaniyya, Kebbe seems to have built a good political clout. In truth, within the short time that Bafarawa returned to the ANPP, it has become the major opposition party, one that is now more ready to give the PDP a good fight.
Congress for Progressive Change, CPC
Engineer Abubakar Aliyu Yabo is CPC’s governorship candidate. He was a federal civil servant who rose to become General Manager of the Federal Housing Authority during the Babangida administration.
Comfort to other parties
The seeming absence of Hurricane Buhari which once gripped PDP stakeholders in the North is now a comfort to other parties. The CPC candidate has not been helped by the internal divisions within the party following the discontentment that arose after the party’s primary in 2011. The divisions have done so much damage to the party’s political strength.
Democratic Peoples Party, DPP
Alhaji Garba Ila Gada is the governorship candidate of the DPP. He was Sokoto State Commissioner of Economic Planning in the second republic and Senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria during the Babangida administration. Though he is highly reputed as a major political force, his party’s poor support base and the lack of resources seems to have turned many away from the party.
The DPP seems to be on its own now that its founder Bafarawa first decamped to the ACN and then to the ANPP. Again, the only financial giant that remained in the DPP and who was also its State Chairman, Alhaji Ummarun Kwabo recently decamped to the PDP.
The new politics of rice in Kwara
By Demola AkinyemiIT looked like a purposeful investment deal. However, plans by the Kwara State government to establish a rice cultivation deal with a Spanish company has taken centre stage in the ever raucous relationship between the ruling Peoples Democratic Party, PDP administration of Governor Abdulfatah Ahmed and the opposition Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN in the State.
Penultimate week after signing an agreement with Spanish investors in the midst of local and foreign bankers and the investors, Governor Ahmed’s joy could hardly be hidden.
The N70 billion agreement with the Vasolar Consortium of Spain was specifically aimed at boosting rice production in the state which has already marked its name as an investment haven for foreign farmers.
Ahmed at the occasion noted that the government would provide 30 per cent of the total package of the cost of the project while the Spanish investors would provide the balance 70 per cent.
As part of the deal, Kwara State would provide 70 million euros and release 200000 hectares of land for the project over a period of four years.
The governor also said that, the output of the project is expected to be 40,000 tons of rice on average of 5,000 hectares annually.
Ahmed who said that, the MOU would assist the local farmers to have transfer of technical assistance capable of helping them to boost their production called for the support of all and sundry in the determination of transforming the state into economic prosperity that would usher in new economic investment for the overall benefit of Kwarans.
Governor Ahmed urged the people of the state to make agricultural development a major priority so as to make food available for them.
Earlier, the leader of Vasolar Consortium of Spain, Mr. Ruben Gomez Parojo said that, Nigeria was blessed with good climate, arable land and human resources to transform agriculture. He stated that Nigeria’s reliance on oil as a major source of foreign exchange earnings would be altered with the diversification of the economy.
The ACN is, however, not enthusiastic, insisting that the Spanish company is “non existent.”
The chairman of the party in the state Mr. Kayode Olawepo in a statement titled “N70b MoU for rice farm: A contract with a nonexistent company argued:
“In line with our commitment to ensure that it is no longer business as usual in Kwara, we are again raising the alarm over what is clearly another attempt to commit public fund and property to yet another questionable project. Last Thursday, the PDP government signed an MOU with one ‘Vasolar Consortium of Spain’ for the cultivation, processing and packaging of rice in commercial scale in the State”.
“Under the agreement, according to media reports, “the Consortium will provide a total capital of N70 billion over a period of four years while the State Government is expected to provide about Seven Million Euros and 20,000 hectares of land to kick-start the project.”
“We deem the whole arrangement a monumental fraud. For one, our research since the Thursday event reveals that no company exists under the name Vasolar Consortium whether in Spain or anywhere in the world! Assuming without conceding that such a company exists in Spain, how come it is not listed or registered with the Spanish’s equivalent of our own Corporate Affairs Commission? Does that not raise the question of credibility which is sin qua non in any business deal?
But in a swift reaction, the governor’s senior special assistant¸ media and communications Dr. Muyideen Akorede debunked the ACN claims insisting that the Spanish company indeed exists with facts.
Dr Akorede in a statement titled, “Kwara: How We Clinched N70b Rice Deal” explained that the N70b rice joint venture with Valsolar Consultoria 2006 S.L. was the product of extensive negotiation, due diligence and Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) approval.
Giving the genesis of the agreement, Dr. Muyideen Akorede, said it received a letter of intent from the Spanish investors in October 2011, seeking to partner with the state government to set up a rice cultivation, processing and packaging project in the state following a recommendation by the Spanish Embassy in Nigeria”.
He stressed that considering that the company is undertaking similar ventures in other parts of Africa under Project Africa Rice and in line with the government’s policy of encouraging foreign direct investment, officials were subsequently dispatched to Spain to open discussions with the company”.
The governor’s aide also stated that delegation was also directed to conduct vigorous checks on Valsolar’s legal status as well as assess its capacity to invest the needed funds in the project.
These checks included original copies of Valsolar’s certificate of incorporation, the articles and memorandum of association which were sighted and duly notarised copies obtained for the state government’s record.
The struggle by the ACN to disprove these claims will, however, not ease the pains of the administration. The opposition after all, is doing its duty of putting the government in check!
My dreams of returning as governor – Mbadinuju
By ENYIM ENYIM
FORMER Governor of Anambra State, Dr Chinwoke Mbadinuju, was recently in Awka to pick his gratuity and pension raising emotive issues concerning his own administration’s handling of pension issues. In an interview following the payment of his pension, the former governor justified his performance in office and addressed what he described as the high level conspiracy against him and his dream to serve a second term. Excerpts:
Do you have any regrets over your actions as governor of Anambra State?
Well, my autobiography has covered everything you can think of what I did or even omitted to do, if any. I don’t think there is anything I did as Governor of Anambra State, which I can regret. I don’t remember one. When we came, the workers were down in spirit because when the military were leaving, they were being owed four months’ salary, I cleared those four months salary and began to pay them Christmas bonus, which no Governor has done till today.
I built the Judiciary headquarters, ABS, fully air-conditioned Women Development Centre of which I imported the upholstery from London. When Obasanjo came, after inspecting my infrastructure everywhere, he was marveled. He confessed, ‘I have come, I have seen, I have heard and I am satisfied with what I saw on the ground.’
He gave me A-plus on infrastructure development. And when it came to second term, the man who praised me so much; he wrote in the News magazine of 27th December, 2004, that he, President Obasanjo, single handedly stopped my second term in office. He was the person who said I scored A-plus in infrastructure and when it came to peace and security, I got Gold cup in National Competition in Abuja and in infrastructural development, I got B, second position.
So in terms of working as a governor of a state nobody can challenge me. When I asked him in Awka when he came to raise Ngige’s hand, I said, ‘ah Baba, why do you raise Ngige’s hand now, (yet) you gave me A-plus in my work?”
He said, ‘Odera, it is politics.’ I said, ‘politics with my second term?’ So, I don’t know, it might be one of the reasons Baba was stopped from third term.
Recently you were at the Government Lodge, Awka. Why were you there?
Government Lodge is for Anambra State, although inhabited by a Governor at a time. I have not been here for long, I have not been in Anambra for long, I mean the Government Lodge as a place.
Though, it is a place I lived for four years, but there must be reason for everything, time for every purpose. It has to do with my pension, pension arrears. You know I disengaged in public service as a Governor in 2003 and for eight years now, I have not had my pension. It has been shrouded in controversy and surprisingly the Governor, Mr. Peter Obi, phoned me while I was in Abuja and said that I should come for my pension.
He was the man, who was quoted in the papers that I will not be paid because I didn’t pay others when I was Governor. It is not that I didn’t pay others really, there was no money budgeted from Abuja and sent to Anambra for pension, which we didn’t pay. The one they were talking about did not come.
Even, they took us to ICPC, but it was discovered that the money didn’t come to Anambra not to talk of misusing it. Surprisingly, the Governor said I should come and have my own and I have been here for few days, he is a busy man, we talk sometime in the morning and sometime in the evening.
The primary problem we had was that the civil servants said that there was a pensions law passed in 2005 and then 2008 and that they were using that of 2008 to pay me, and I was trying to educate them that we made a law during my tenure in 2002/2003, the House of Assembly passed it and said only the Governor and Deputy can receive pension of 2003.
It is possible that Dr. Chris Ngige in 2005 made another pension law and expanded it in terms of people, who should benefit and then may be in 2008, there was one they were preparing under Governor Peter Obi of which Governor Obi has not shown interest in.
When I got here, we tried to let them know that during my tenure, there was a pension law, passed by the House of Assembly signed by the Governor, myself, and gazetted. So if any other person made law later, it was not annulling my own law. So for days we haggled and haggled over it, eventually everybody agreed that it should be 2003 and the Governor gave me a hefty package.
It was like manna from Heaven. I was saying at a time that I need help because the only thing you have after you have served is this pension. And part of the problem is that crooked people in Anambra said that I called pensioners “dead woods”. Dead wood is not my language.
I have sworn enough that I didn’t use such language. I just finished writing my autobiography on how I governed Anambra State and this matter came up, I gave it time and discovered that there was no such thing. And the second point, is to deny before Anambra workers through the Governor that I didn’t have anything to do with Barnabas Igwe and his wife.
You know, because the rumor then was that this man you carry the Bible and kill people. Nothing like that. I never thought of it or asked anybody. When Igwe and his wife died, I was in Houston attending the World Igbo Congress and it was there I was given a call that they have killed this man and his wife. How could I have come from Houston to kill this man and gone back. It was physically and spiritually impossible.
How much is your pension?
No, it is not decent to disclose the amount but it is an amount appropriate for my position.
How do you feel about it?
For Governor to make out time to phone me in Abuja and say that I should come down for my pension, we never saw it before. After all, Dr. Ngige was there, he never even mentioned it.
Dr. Ngige was my man when I was Governor, he was the secretary of the party in Anambra and when he came to Abuja, I accommodated him, bought a new car and gave him to work. But when he became Governor, he colluded with my opponents “the Ubas” and tried to reverse everything I had done. He did his best to try to reverse them. It is not fair. So the fact that a sitting Governor called me and said I should come means that God is already in him.
The point I am making is that it was good that the Governor invited me not me now forcing myself and fighting over it. So it came to me normally and naturally and I used the opportunity to look at what the Governor has done. The State University, I established it but he has expanded it and I looked at his infrastructure development, they are good. The man is a gentle man and he is guided. I think he comes from a good Christian background and I think Governor Peter Obi is doing the will of God.
Do you still have the ambition to govern Anambra State?
I was like a baby who was sucking her mother’s breast. If you remove the baby’s mouth from the breast by force, you know you are committing suicide. I wish President Obasanjo had left me because I won the primaries three times. He would have allowed me to go on. Rather than stopping me, he would have allowed me go through the process and then fail.
Let me tell you, I won the primaries three times and even if you conducted the main election three times, I would still have won because I had something on ground.
Look at the person who replaced me, Ngige, didn’t they fight throughout the two and something years? There was a list of eight governors from 1979 during the time of Jim Nwobodo till today; all ex-governors list was compiled.
I was the only ex-Governor from Anambra and then of course, Okwadike (Chukwuemeka Ezeife). Ngige was not in the list. Uba was not in the list. Don’t you see nemesis working? Ngige and Uba are not in the list of Governors in Nigeria, so what did they get by fighting me? That is the way God does his own thing.
The ambition of being Governor is because the constitution guarantees you two terms. Any Governor or any president has the constitutional right to go for second term. So as long as I am alive and interested in politics, I still have one term left.
Bayelsa: Any Sylva lining yet for Dickson?
BY IKECHUKWU NNOCHIRITHE Bayelsa State governorship election may have come and gone, nonetheless, the attendant legal ripples may continue to hold all the major players to ransom, even as political forces averse to the occupation of the proverbial ‘Creek Haven’ by Hon Seriake Dickson, may expectedly, intensify efforts towards sacking him from office via the instrumentality of the judiciary.
As it stands today, over five separate legal actions are posing threats to the newly elected governor, with the dislodged former governor of the state, Timipre Sylva, crying blue murder, accusing his party, the ruling Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, of perpetuating illegality by sponsoring an ‘illegitimate’ candidate, Dickson, in the election.
Though his efforts to move the Supreme Court to stop the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, from conducting the Bayelsa State governorship election pending the determination of the pending suits, crumbled, however, it is not yet uhuru for both the new governor and the party, considering that the apex court has reserved it judgment over the legal controversy trailing the November 19 primary election that secured Dickson the platform to contest the election, till April 20.
Upholding legal arguments
What then happens if the apex court in its wisdom, upholds legal arguments of the ex-governor to the effect that going by the express provisions of section 131 of the Electoral Act (2010), the governorship ticket that was ab-initio issued to him by the party following the previous gubernatorial primary election it conducted in Bayelsa State in January 2011, subsisted before last Saturday?
Determined to oust Dickson from his former office, Sylva through his lead counsel, Prince Lateef Fagbemi, SAN, argued before a panel of the Appeal Court that “Section 32(1) of the Electoral Act states that, ‘every political party shall not later than 60 days before the date appointed for a general election under the provisions of this Act, submit to the Commission in the prescribed forms, the list of the candidates the party proposes to sponsor at the elections.”
According to him, under the amended Electoral Act, a party has no right to withdraw the name of a candidate it has submitted to INEC, except the candidate withdraws or dies.
Nevertheless, Dickson has since called the bluff of his predecessor in office, Sylva, maintaining that he emerged after ward congresses were held by the party and a valid primary election conducted with a view to selecting its flag-bearer for the poll.
When it seemed that his quest was about to be scuttled after INEC left him out in the initial list of candidates it published, Dickson quickly went before the Abuja Federal High Court to challenge an earlier decision.
Dickson heaved a sigh of relief on January 18 when the High Court presided over by Justice Gladys Olotu ordered the electoral body to publish his name as the candidate of the ruling party for the poll.
That order, Justice Olotu, however, emphasized would subsist pending the determination of the originating summons that were entered before it by the plaintiff, Dickson. That inevitably entails that anything can still happen in the matter.
In a ruling the court delivered on February 2, it joined the ex-governor as a necessary party to Dickson’s suit, even as the trial judge maintained that since the plaintiff and Sylva are laying claim to the governorship ticket of the PDP for the same election on the basis of valid primary elections conducted by the party at various times, it would better serve the interest of justice if they were allowed to join issues before the court over the matter.
Aside the legal fisticuffs within the realm of the PDP, other minority political parties could have equally set any ‘judicial ambush’ with a view to exploiting the squabbles and the January 27 judgment of the Supreme Court that sacked the former governor of the state, Sylva, from office.
With barely 48 hours to the conduct of the election, the African Renaissance party (ARP) and its Governorship Candidate, Chief Kenneth Gbaliga Gbalikuma, as well as the African liberation Party, ALP, filed separate suits before an Abuja Federal High Court.
Though the latter succeeded in securing an ex-parte order that mandated INEC to include the names of its governorship candidate and his running mate, Chief Dumbo Hink and Mr. Adigio Austine Inangaebite, respectively, in the list of candidates for the election, however, legal questions that were raised by the ARP against the election, are yet to be answered by the court, a situation that portends suspense and worry for the just elected governor of the state.
Specifically, the ARP in a suit it filed through its counsel, Mr Kayode Ajulo, sought a declaration that by the combined effect of the subsisting judgment of the Supreme Court in a consolidated suit involving the five sacked governors, and the judgment of the apex court in the case of Osun State INEC & Anor vs Action Congress & Ors (2011) vol 42 WRN 1-92 and provisions of section 30 of the Electoral Act, 2010, the 12 days notice of the election into the vacant office of governor of Bayelsa State by the defendant is null and void as it is inconsistent with provisions of section 30 of the Electoral Act.
The opposition party is urging the court to declare that INEC cannot validly conduct election into the vacant office of governor of Bayesla State without giving statutory notice in accordance with section 30 of the Electoral Act.
Acceding to request
The court could not accede to their request for last Saturday’s election to be stopped with a judicial pronouncement, owing to inability of the high court bailiff to effect service of the relevant court processes on INEC in time, a situation that led to the presiding judge, Justice Donatus Okorowo, adjourning the case till March 5 for the electoral body and its National Chairman, Prof Attahiru Jega, to respond to the legal issues that were raised by the litigant, just as he has equally joined the governor elect, Dickson, and the PDP as a party to the suit.
With these unfolding legal hullabaloo and the emergence of Mr. Dickson as the new landlord of the ‘Creek Haven’, the pertinent question in the mind of political pundits remains, “could there be any Silver in Sylva’s lining?”
Insecurity: Why we must end bloodshed -Yuguda, Okorocha
BY SUZAN EDEHIT is no longer news that the country is weathering security challenges and the government and security agencies have been at their wits end trying to surmount them. For some time now, the fight against terrorism, ethnic and religious crises has been intense with a host of eminent persons and leaders proffering suggestions on how to address the issues. One the solutions is deeper commitment on the part of political leaders.
According to proponents of this idea, if the President, governors and other political stalwarts in the country championed the fight against terrorism and canvassed for peace, the rate of killings and terrorist attacks on the lives of Nigerians would go down.
Indeed, the crave for peace to reign in the country, particularly in the North, where terrorism and violence is the order of the day, has fostered ties between the Bauchi State Governor, Isa Yuguda and the Imo State Governor, Chief Owelle Rochas Okorocha. Although, they are from different political parties, religion, ethnic group and geo-political zone, the duo are making efforts to enthrone peace in the country.
Okorocha has been crusading for peace in North-East states. His mission is for Nigerians to learn to love, tolerate and embrace themselves irrespective of their religious, political and ethnic differences. With the rise in terrorist attacks in country and the countless loss of lives and properties, the one-time People’s Democratic Party’s presidential aspirant took the message of peace to Bauchi State on February 5, 2012, in continuation of his peace mission tour of states in the North-East.
rocha-okorocha
He was optimistic that if leadership at all levels showed more commitment towards the quest for peace in their respective states, the people would be more enlightened on why they should eschew violence and live in peace.At a grand occasion organized by the Bauchi State Government at the multi-purpose hall, Bauchi, in his honour, Okorocha urged all to shun ethnic and religious differences and listen to his message of peace.
At the event, the Igbo community in Bauchi welcomed their visitor in style. The Eze Igbo of Bauchi State, Jude Umezika led the procession of the Igbo community to honour their son, by presenting kolanuts.
Isa Yuguda and the Imo State Governor were also presented with awards as peace ambassadors by the Senior Special Assistant to the Bauchi State Governor on Peace and Conflict Resolution, Babayo Liman.
Vengeance belongs to God
Okorocha, who said he felt at home in Bauchi because Bauchi State was one of the states in the country he spent his childhood years, attributed the rising wave of violence, hatred and religious discrimination in the country to lack of communication among Nigerians from the different ethnic and religious groups.
He added that reprisal attacks would not solve the problem of violence, because vengeance belonged only to God.
While calling on Nigerians to embrace the spirit of tolerance and brotherliness, he gave reasons he decided to champion the cause of peace in the country.
“Many dead bodies lately were brought to Imo State and I took it upon myself to take this message of peace to every part of the country, particularly the North, where security challenges thrive. We must stop the bloodshed and if we do not act now, the generation yet unborn will be destroyed.”
In an emotional laden voice, Okorocha lamented the manner in which the lives of Nigerians were being wasted, “when I see the killings going on everyday, how we are losing our children, husbands, wives and future generation, I weep.”
Yuguda concurs
On his part, Yuguda concurred and read the riot act to Local Council chairmen in the state. Pained by the manner some criminals were trying to disrupt the peace in the state, He said that any local government council which records ethnic or religious crisis, resulting in the loss of lives, would henceforth forfeit their monthly allocations from the federation account, until the victims of such mayhem were adequately compensated.
“Any leader, who cannot provide security for his people is not qualified to be in government and there is nowhere that it is written in the Koran or Holy Bible that one should kill his fellow brother in the name of religion.”
Continuing he added that people were usually indoctrinated through the teachings of some criminals to perpetrate evil. “These criminals do not wish the country well and we must not allow them to destroy what our forefathers laboured to build.”
Climax of the occasion was the Commissioning of a road, Owelle Rochas Okorocha Avenue at the Industrial Area in the Bauchi by the visiting governor.
C/River guber: Two candidates fly ACN’s flag
Usani is our candidate – ACN.
AHEAD of the February 25, governorship election in Cross River State, the Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN is parading two candidates for the polls.
The ‘flagbearers’ are Pastor Usani Usani and a former member of House of Representatives between 1999 and 2003 and Dr. Mike Ogar. They emerged from the two factions of the party following parallel governorship primaries.
After the parallel primaries conducted on February 2, 2012, the faction of Hon. Cletus Obun, the embattled chairman adopted Dr. Ogar, while Mr. Usani picked the ticket on the side of the newly elected state executive under the chairmanship of Mr. Hillard Etta.
Speaking after being adopted by the Obun faction, Ogar claimed that Mr. Etta’s executive was illegal, as the Federal High Court sitting in Calabar had on February 3, 2012, in a Suit No FHC/CA/12/CS/2012, issued an injunction that the status of Hon. Cletus Obun’s exco remained valid, and that no other person should carry out any activities in the name of the party until the matter of the authentic leadership of the party was resolved.
Court order
The presiding judge, Justice Adetukumbo Ademola, had issued an order to restrain the new chairman Mr. Etta from conducting any form of activity in the state in the name of Action Congress of Nigeria, until the determination of the matter before it.
Ogar claimed that in spite of the court injunction, Etta went ahead to conduct the February 6, 2012, governorship primary, which led the emergence of Usani as candidate.
By Clifford Ndujihe & Johnbosco Agbakwuru
Usani is our candidate – ACN.
AHEAD of the February 25, governorship election in Cross River State, the Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN is parading two candidates for the polls.
The ‘flagbearers’ are Pastor Usani Usani and a former member of House of Representatives between 1999 and 2003 and Dr. Mike Ogar. They emerged from the two factions of the party following parallel governorship primaries.
After the parallel primaries conducted on February 2, 2012, the faction of Hon. Cletus Obun, the embattled chairman adopted Dr. Ogar, while Mr. Usani picked the ticket on the side of the newly elected state executive under the chairmanship of Mr. Hillard Etta.
Speaking after being adopted by the Obun faction, Ogar claimed that Mr. Etta’s executive was illegal, as the Federal High Court sitting in Calabar had on February 3, 2012, in a Suit No FHC/CA/12/CS/2012, issued an injunction that the status of Hon. Cletus Obun’s exco remained valid, and that no other person should carry out any activities in the name of the party until the matter of the authentic leadership of the party was resolved.
Court order
The presiding judge, Justice Adetukumbo Ademola, had issued an order to restrain the new chairman Mr. Etta from conducting any form of activity in the state in the name of Action Congress of Nigeria, until the determination of the matter before it.
Ogar claimed that in spite of the court injunction, Etta went ahead to conduct the February 6, 2012, governorship primary, which led the emergence of Usani as candidate.
He said in the injunction, the Court maintained that “the status quo be maintained pending the hearing of the motion on Notice dated 27th January 2012”, and advised Etta and Usani to stop parading themselves as state chairman and governorship candidate of ACN, respectively.
He described the new executive under Etta and his governorship primary as an illegality, since any activity carried out by the group after the court order was void.
His words: “shortly on arrival in Cross River State after my visit to the National Headquarters of our party in Abuja, where I went to complete the processes of obtaining my nomination forms, I was confronted with a situation where two parallel state committees were making frantic efforts to conduct governorship primaries. On inquiries, a subsisting court order obtained by the Hon. Cletus Obun state exco was made available to me.
After reading the court order, I decided not to align myself with Mr. Etta electoral body in order not to go contrary to the law. So, I contested unopposed, under the Hon. Cletus Obun group, which is the authentic group and emerged as ACN candidate for the election.”
Ogar said having served in two administrations in the state as Commissioner for Information, and later as a member of the Nation Assembly, it would have been an indictment on his personality to allow himself be seen as one of those perpetrating the unlawful act.
INEC observed Ogar’s election
Officials of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, in the state confirmed that there exists two factions of the party, but the commission observed the Obun-led faction governorship primary as a result of the court order that said that the status quo should be maintained.
The officials said, INEC, as a law abiding commission should always act according to the dictates and stipulations of the law, but however added that the factions went to Abuja to settle their crisis.
We’re the authentic ACN – Etta
However, Etta said that his faction was the one recognized by the national secretariat of the party and that his election penultimate week was supervised by the national officers of the party.
He said the party had already filed an appeal against the Federal High Court Judgment, insisting that Usani was the recognized candidate of the party.
Investigations revealed that in any election year in the state, there must be attempt to change the leadership of the party and after the election nothing will be heard about the change of leadership. The embattled chairman, Obun would always be accused instigating crisis in the party. This time, Obun is being accused of working for the ruling Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, by the Etta-led faction.
Usani is our candidate – ACN
However, the national leadership of the ACN yesterday reaffirmed Pastor Usani Usani as its duly nominated gubernatorial candidate for Cross River, dispelling reports that the party had two gubernatorial candidates in the state.
In a statement issued in Lagos on Monday by its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the party said Pastor Usani emerged at its primaries held in Calabar, which was witnessed by INEC officials, the police and other security agencies.
It said the misinformation on the emergence of two gubernatorial candidates was engineered by the former chairman of the party in the Cross River, Mr. Cletus Obun, who it said was apparently colluding with the PDP in the state “to try to thwart an impending ACN victory in the governorship election slated for Feb. 25th.”
‘’We are aware that Mr. Obun went to INEC to submit the nomination form for one Mike Ogar who, even though obtained the ACN forms, did not show up at the venue of the primaries in Calabar. Unfortunately for Mr. Obum, the form he took to INEC proved to be a worthless paper as none of the two authorized signatories, the National Chairman and the National Secretary, signed the form,’’ ACN said.
