"Trust in Nigeria's Future"

"Trust in Nigeria's Future"
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Monday 27 May 2013

APGA’S heroes and villains


                     

While success remains princely, failure forever is an orphan. Both characters are however neither scripted nor played-out in the heavens. They dwell among men. Irrespective of their sworn contradictions, both forever conspire to tug whoever contemplates life as window for self expression, and who therefore thrives to earn at least a moment mention among the successful. While all of us seek success, few attain it at times at great cost to the disconcerted majority who occupy the outside flank of the comfort-penury concentric. This is consistent with the concepts of success and failure, the making of one’s composite psyche and the covert and overt response of all of us to these phenomena. Heroes as well as villains, in their rise and fall therefore, are products of their socio-political milieu.

The All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) has made memorable imprints in the nation’s politics. Not wanting in generous contributions to the pulsating politics of the nation, APGA has maintained an exemplary profile of talking-it-over instead of drawing blood. These talks somehow however get too malicious and vicious that they appear uncannily packaged in hell and mischievously couriered through cantankerous and cruel agents who care less what becomes of the people, as long as their mischief is served. This mischief while hurtful to the target individuals, injures everyone else even more. At the least, it leaves the people stranded at crossroads not knowing what or who to believe. It furthers speculative conceits where even nonchalant spectators swear to be sole custodians of the truth. This sorry state of the All Progressives Grand Alliance contradicts the warmth and camaraderie that characterized its postulations at emergence in 2002.

Apart from the burning zeal of those who originally conceived, worked and nurtured APGA, the successes in the recruitment of its frontline flag-bearers have been phenomenal. What with the commanding presence of Dim Emeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu whose spirit, as a recourse factor, hovers still over the party. It is only Ikemba who has run through APGA and emerged unscathed at heaven’s gate. He has therefore assumed the status of a totem for the liberation of the people from the throes of abandonment.

Not as endowed with strong character, the first National Chairman of the party, Chief Chekwas Okorie, quickly fizzled into nothingness as his plot to ditch APGA’s noble mission for the benefit of the People’s Democratic Party’s fraudulent machinations was torpedoed by Ikemba-endorsed staunch resistance. Chief Okorie’s santics found him out early and felled him consequently. Okorie’s misadventure, like the original eating of the forbidden fruit, proffered a preamble to the multidimensional intrigues which were to trail the All Progressives Grand Alliance. We now have elders who disregard the privileges of their advisory role and adopt juvenile rascality in preaching discordant doctrines which spell anarchy. Chief Nwobu-Alor, a father figure to Mr. Peter Obi, has proved a very bad influence on the thoughts and political decisions of the governor. When the over 80-year old man led the pack that unleashed untold mayhem on traders in parks and markets, Mr. Obi though refusing to take responsibility for the ‘Ndi-mpiawa-azu’ madness failed to tame the excesses of the rancorous old man. This failure marked another milestone in the trials of the party. Obi’s choice to swim or sink with his uncle jeopardized his openness to sound reason as, any voice that resented Chief Nwobu-Alor’s appeal was marked an enemy’s and silenced.

Not one to shirk his responsibility to the party under his leadership Chief Victor Umeh, aware of the imminent persecution, spoke out in defense of sanity. The reaction from the governor and his cronies was ‘How dare you step where angels fear to tread?’, and Chief Umeh from thence became demonized and ceased to neither know nor do any good. Obi’s absolute access to state paraphernalia of power was deployed towards whittling down Umeh’s popularity and control of the party. The governor however failed to contend with the poverty of his human relations against the natural effervescence of Chief Umeh. Umeh has continued to increase while Obi has continued to diminish as the fury flows. But instead of retreating, Obi’s unguarded anger has continued to pull him down the dungeon; and he would not be counseled aright. Surprisingly, Dr. Tim Menakaya who ought to appreciate the sanctity of service has chosen to emasculate the dignity of the human species for the cheap reason of Obi’s adoption of son as commissioner. The price of loss of dignity is total and therefore ought not to be toyed with for the lures of transient pay-offs.

Nonetheless, the underhand acts of subterfuge against the All Progressives Grand Alliance designed by Mr. Peter Obi have undermined the vivacious character of the party and its appeal to the masses particularly among the southern nations in the country. The All Progressives Grand Alliance desires an awakening of the sort that Mahatma Gandhi exhorted the timid Indian populace, to take ownership of their affairs since their salvation can only be procured by courageous support for dynamic party structure. For none among the high and privileged would secure it for them’. People should realize that they are as good as dead when in the face of systemic turmoil, they either sit on the fence or trade off cherished convictions for a cosmetic flash of carrot.

The kangaroo convention at Awka the other day portrayed all the shameless faces in attendance as unthinking opportunists who would rather opt for the vestiges of wealth from a nearly gone administration. I however am of the belief that majority therein merely sought for part of their erstwhile personalized resources. Is it not common knowledge that Governor Peter Obi cannot be said to have any trace of selfless charity. Why will he release funds selectively only when the ground is eroding under his feet: suddenly trying to be a party man because Chief Umeh needed to be hanged, or sanctimoniously partnering with churches because he seeks obvious patronage from them? But the mechanical approach in all these gives him out as a pretender. Thank God though that the churches while receiving cheques and thanking him see beyond the façade.

Against all odds, the APGA crises have confirmed Chief Umeh as the underlying force behind the party’s many victories for which Obi took credit in the past. I am sure that if Obi had prefigured the present revelations he could have sacrificed anything to preserve the myth of his phantom heroism. Let the truth be told and the spirits of our forebears will cease to be restive.

Cost of feeding awaiting trial inmates now N5.5bn yearly





The Metropolitan Grand Knights of Saint Mulumba has said the cost of feeding  awaiting trial inmates in Nigeria had risen to N5.5billion per year.

Head of the group, Sir Patrick Ikemefuna, disclosed this at the prison reform conference on administration of Nigerian criminal justice and reform of the penal code organised by the group in Lagos.

He said Nigeria currently had over 30,000 awaiting trial inmates, with cost of feeding them put at N15 million per day.

According to him, of the 45,000 inmates in the Nigerian prisons, about 30,000 are awaiting trial, leading to prisons’ congestion.

He added that Ikoyi prisons was designed to accommodate 400 inmates but noted that at present, there were about 1,600 inmates in the prison, while some inmates had spent up to 10 years without trial.

Ikemefuna also noted that some of the inmates had spent between five and 19 years on trial.

He said some of the inmates were suffering from various diseases, including tuberculosis and other communicable diseases.

Those that were present at the event are Justice Akaahs of the Supreme Court, Revd. Matthew Kukah, Bishop of Sokoto, Mr Olasupo Sasore, SAN, former Lagos State Attorney General and Commissioner of Justice.

2014: Ex-Anambra PDP chair faults Ezeife on power shift






FORMER chairman of Peoples Democratic Party in Anambra State, Chief Ifeatu Obi-Okoye, has faulted former governor of the state, Chief Chukwuemeka Ezeife’s position that Anambra North senatorial zone should produce the next governor of the state.

According to Obi-Okoye, Chief Ezeife is allegedly among those who have frustrated the zone from producing a governor for the state and wondered his sudden u-turn.

He said: “What Dr. Chukwuemeka Ezeife should have done first is to apologize to the people of Anambra North Senatorial zone before his insincere sympathy and the crocodile tears he is now shedding for the people.

“As the state secretary of the Social Democratic Party in 1991, I would wish to remind Dr. Chukwuemeka Ezeife, of how he, in collusion with his kinsman from old Aguata Local Government Area, Prof. Humphery Nwosu, who was then in charge of the National Electoral Commission, truncated and denied Anambra North senatorial zone of an opportunity to produce the governor of Anambra State.

“I recall that we conducted primaries of the SDP three good times in order to nominate our governorship flagbearer and on all three occasions Dr. Raymond Okechukwu Odunze, who hails from Umunya in the North senatorial zone, beat  Dr. Chukwuemeka Ezeife, to emerge the governorship flagbearer of SDP in the state.

“As it were, it was Dr. Chukwuemeka Ezeife, who in collusion with Prof. Humphery Nwosu orchestrated the disqualification and ban of Dr. Okey Odunze from contesting the election. I recall also how Dr. Okey Odunze as he is popularly called was arrested and detained on trumped up charges.

“Consequently, upon Dr. Odunze’s disqualification, Dr. Ezeife, became the beneficiary of this undemocratic act as he went ahead not only to contest and won on the popularity of Dr. Okey Odunze.

“That was, therefore, the most undemocratic manner of denying the people of the North senatorial zone of an opportunity of producing the governor of Anambra State.

CBN Deputy Governor, Operations, Mr. Tunde Lemo









The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has said Lagos and the six other states control about 90 per cent of cash transactions in the country.

The other States are Rivers, Anambra, Abia, Kano, Ogun and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
The CBN Deputy Governor, Operations, Mr. Tunde Lemo, disclosed this.
According to Lemo, this was one of the factors that necessitated the planned extension of the cashless policy to those States from July 1, this year.

He, however, pointed out that there were still some challenges with the cashless project, saying that most of them are being resolved. Lemo identified inter connectivity as one of the challenges.
Lemo said that besides the use of alternative channels of transactions such as Point of Sales (PoS), the cashless project would be driven through the telephone.

Lemo also said the cashless policy had been successful in Lagos, adding that the number of point of sale (PoS) terminals in the state has increased significantly from about 5,000 when the policy took off last year, to over 150,000.
“We still have a few challenges, but if I look back, I really would say that we have done a lot to transform the payment system in Lagos through PoS,” he said.
The cashless policy, whose implementation began in Lagos in January, last year, is aimed at reducing the dominance of cash in the system. The policy specifies penal charges for individuals and corporate organizations that want to withdraw or lodge cash above prescribed limits.
Under the policy, the CBN pegged the daily cumulative cash withdrawal or deposit limit for individual accounts at N500,000 per day and N3 million per day for corporate accounts.

The Chief Executive Officer, Electronic Payment Providers Association of Nigeria (E-PPAN), Mrs. Onajite Regha, had said the coming on board on the next phase of the cashless policy in July may raise the value of electronic funds transfer in the country to N160 billion per day by the end of the year. The E-PPAN boss had also said that the current value of electronic fund transfers – put at N80 billion per day by the CBN, would likely double because more people would be compelled to use e-Fund transfer channels.

Court Upholds Akwu As APGA National Chairman


 







An Anambra state High Court has dismissed the petition brought by Mac Joe Onwudinjo challenging the authenticity and outcome of the April 8 national convention of All Progressives Grand Alliance APGA) in Awka, praying the court to stop the winner of the convention Maxi Okwu from parading himself as the national chairman of the party.

Delivering the judgment on Monday, Justice Hope Oguguo Ozo, dismissed the petition on grounds that it lacks merit and substance.

Justice Oguguo Ozo upheld the election of Mr Okwu, as the winner of the election and as the national chairman of the party on grounds that the petition lacked merit and substance.

Neither the plaintiff nor his representative was in court.

Reacting to the judgment, counsel to the defendant said the plaintiff’s prayer to the court to nullify the convention on grounds that he was deceived by the National Planning Committee of the party by shifting the earlier scheduled venue of the convention from Enugu to Awka was baseless.

In his reaction, counsel to APGA and Victor Umeh, who is another leader of the party as ruled by the Appeal Court, said they were not allowed to be heard and that the judgment was a product of collusion between the defendant and the plaintiff and cannot stand in the face of the Appeal court ruling of February 8.
 

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