22052021

4 — SATURDAY Vanguard, MAY 22, 2021
Imo APC registration battle: Without me and
Araraume nothing like APC — Okorocha
By Chinonso Alozie,
Owerri
The former governor
of Imo state and the
Senator representing Imo
West senatorial district,
Rochas Okorocha, yesterday
said that without him
(Okorocha) and Senator
Ifeanyi Araraume nobody
can talk of the All
Progressives Congress,
APC, in Imo state.
Okorocha spoke in Owerri,
through his Special
Adviser on media, Sam
Onwuemeodo, while reacting
to the Imo state governor,
Hope Uzodimma’s
statement that Okorocha
has refused to participate
in the APC registration/revalidation
exercise in the
state.
Senator Okorocha said
that himself and
Araraume, were the ones
making APC, thick in the
state.
According to Okorocha,
“the media had reported
what the Imo State Governor,
His Excellency, Chief
Hope Uzodinma told the
APC’s appeal Committee,
on the Party’s Registration
and Revalidation exercise.
He said that, Senator Okorocha
refused to be registered
as APC member in
Imo during the exercise.
“This claim could only
be laughable to most Nigerians
who still remember
how APC came to Imo
and indeed, to the South-
East. Okorocha needed to
revalidate his membership
of APC and not to register
as APC member. Governor
Uzodinma has always delighted
in propaganda that
does not fly again.
“The registration and
revalidation exercise
didn’t take place anywhere
in Imo. It was done at the
Nick Banquet Hall in Government
House, Owerri.
The governor’s appointees
were generating fictitious
names at the Local Government
level and taken
them to the Government
House, to be enrolled.
“We Challenge the governor
to tell the public how
the exercise was carried
out in Imo. Whether it was
by Polling unit by Polling
unit, like Okorocha did
when APC anchored. Or,
Ward by Ward or by Local
Government by Local Government.
And let’s take off
from there.
“If Okorocha had refused
to be registered like
our governor had claimed,
what happened to Senator
Ifeanyi Araraume and his
Destiny Political family,
who produced six House
of Assembly members, that
joined others to give Governor
Uzodinma the Majority
in the House?”
“What happened to top
Imo Politicians in APC and
their supporters who could
not go to the Government
House to be part of the abracadabra,
including Sir
Jude Ejiogu, Lady Chidinma
Uwajumogu, who was
a senatorial aspirant and
a mobilizer of note, High
Chief Chidi Ibeh (MFR)
and so on?
Group commends Onuesoke’s consistent
support for PDP
A
group under the ae
gis of PDP Youths
Across States’ Border
(PYSB) has commended
Peoples Democratic Party
(PDP) chieftain and former
Delta State gubernatorial
aspirant, Chief Sunny
Onuesoke for his consistent
support for the growth
and development of the
party in Delta state, South-
South and Nigeria in general.
They equally appealed to
the party to elevate
Onuesoke to a position
where he could be empowered
strategically to further
pursue the growth
and development of the
party.
The group made the
commendation and demand
in a communiqué
signed by its National
President, Mallam Yahaya
Usman and National Secretary,
Joseph Osadolor
after a meeting
in Abuja saying whatever
support that is given to
Onuesoke will act as a
morale booster for others
to work harder for the
progress and development
of the party.
“If loyalists like Onuesoke
and others were rewarded
for their action
towards the development
of the party, it will act as a
morale booster for other
members to work harder.
Although, we have not met
Onuesoke one on one, but his
activities through the media
had made him a household
name not only among us
but other PDP and even APC
members across the nation.
“There is no day one
opens the national newspapers
or internet that one
will not read about Onuesoke
defending the interest
of the party. We guess he
must have been consistently
spending his own money for
the benefit of the party. If
such a person is empowered
he will do more for the good
of the party,” the communiqué
read.
We are raising African
Leopards to redefine
continent — Ooni
By Shina Abubakar, Osogbo
Ooni of Ife, Oba Adeyeye Ogunwusi has
disclosed that his leadership initiative
forum is raising new sets of leaders, tagged
“African Leopards” to turn the fortune of the
continent around.
Oba Ogunwusi, who spoke at a press conference
at his palace in Ile-Ife to herald the
2021 Royal African Young Leadership Forum
Award, said the new generation of leaders
would imitate the Asian Lions that transformed
the continent’s economic prosperity.
He said the forum is bringing together various
youths that have excelled in their fields
of endeavour to cross fertilize ideas with
emerging young leaders and mentor them for
larger role in the society.
“At RAYLF we believe in helping youths break
barriers, either of age for those seeking employment
or social status, we connect youths
across the continent to discuss leadership challenges
and proffer solutions.
“Out of the many youths that applied for the
programme only one hundred were chosen and
taken around different leaders across Africa
for mentorship programme. The selection process
was thorough and was conducted by prominent
scholars and industrial magnate”, he
said.
The monarch added that the 2021 programme
will take off from tomorrow, Saturday and last
through the next two weeks, adding that the
new emerging leaders would be corrupt-free
and instill new societal values in the coming
generation.
“We don’t encourage internet fraudsters in
our midst, we raise leaders with discipline that
would be corrupt free, that would build a society
with morals and values, not those agitating
wrongly but leaders with conscience”,
he added
The Nigerian Labour Congress and its continued relevance
By Emmanuel Ado
“The only way that we can
live, is if we grow. The only
way that we can grow is if
we change. The only way
that we can change is if we
learn. The only way we can
learn is if we are exposed.
And the only way that we
can become exposed is if we
throw ourselves out into
the open. Do it. Throw
yourself -Joy Bell C.
Benard Longe, the former
managing director and
chief executive officer of
First Bank of Nigeria, was
hated by the Nigerian
Labour Congress (NLC)
over the reforms he
initiated in the bank, which
at the time he took over was
literally speaking dead.
With an aging workforce
that was very comfortable,
that in fact celebrated
archaic banking as a way
of life, a workforce that
preferred the tally number
system that kept its
customers the whole day in
the bank, a workforce that
bluntly refused to embrace
technology that made life
easy. The reforms no doubt
transformed First Bank and
ensured that it remains to
date one of the strongest
banks. Young vibrant
graduates were brought in
and the bank embraced
technology, becoming in
the process the first bank to
introduce and implement
International Monetary
Transfer System in Nigeria.
Longe’s Enterprise
Transformation Project,
“Century II” and the
“Century II The New
Frontier” project were no
doubt a huge factor in
defining the fortunes of the
Bank. He was undoubtedly
bold and decisive, but
“wicked and heartless” from
Labour’s point of view.
Like Longe, Nasir El Rufai
the governor of Kaduna
State is in the bad books of
the NLC. The Congress surly
hates Nasir El Rufai’s guts
for embarking on critical
reforms – the Public Service
Revitalization Programme
and the reforms of the
educational sector,
especially the competency
test which many of the
teachers flunked. To the NLC
the reforms are “antipeople”
and a high crime –
treason – against their hard
working members. Labour
is not convinced that the
reforms are compelling, nor
urgent. It is an open secret
that Kaduna State the
regional capital of the old
Northern Region is lagging
behind other states in
virtually every area – the
worst being in the areas of
education and healthcare.
But there seems to be a tiny
minority that is clearly
contented with the state’s
consistent 44% performance
in national examinations
over the years. Kaduna State
has firmly held on to the 12th
position nationally, though
it remains a local champion
in the north. Is it that it would
rather compete against
Zamfara State which
presented 186 candidates
for the 2017 National
Examinations out of which
only 4 students passed with
5 credits, than compete
against Anambra State that
is presently topping the table.
Every organization,
entity, or even individual who
refuses or fails to reform and
change will definitely
become irrelevant with time,
locked into the past in a
dynamic world where the
only consistent is change.
The NLC itself recognizes
this fact and I quote it’s take
on reforms “The New
Beginning is a decisive
response to the imperative
of rebuilding the movement
in a direction that makes it
more relevant to union
members and other
segments of civil society,
which believe in its
empowering and socially
redemptive vision and
capacity”. So if Labour is
mindful of the need to
reform, why is protesting
just about every policy of
government its way of life?
This is especially so when
the outcomes of its various
protests have been near
negative. For instance, the
revelation by the Group
Managing Director of the
Nigerian National
P e t r o l e u m
Corporation(NNPC), that
the Muhammadu Buhari
administration is secretly
paying subsidy on imported
How can the
NLC demonstrate
against these
numbers – 83% of
teachers scoring
less than 25% in
maths and literacy
and primary two
pupils averaging
14% in English
and 27% in Maths
fuel calls for a public
apology from the NLC,
which had mobilized
Nigerians against the
Jonathan Goodluck
administration over its
decision to remove the
subsidy. Labour should
acknowledge that it has
gotten it wrong severally,
and that acknowledgement
will help it moving forward.
Are the protests like that of
Kaduna meant to remind
Nigerians that it is still in
existence?
If there was one policy
the NLC should have
handled with some tact, it
is that of the Kaduna State
Teachers who woefully
failed the competency test
administered on them by a
committee that included
members of the Nigerian
Union Teachers (NUT), and
the Teachers Registration
Council of Nigeria(TRCN).
The question that the
committee ought not to
have administered it and the
high cut-off point that the
NLC is holding onto in
protesting
the
disengagement shows the
congress as lacking in
elementary shame. The NLC
should be scandalized
rather than defending
what is clearly indefensible,
thereby rubbishing
whatever is left of its
reputation. The
demonstration is a public
relations disaster and very
unfortunate because it has
not changed anything. On
the issue of the
disengagement of the
clearly incompetent
teachers the Kaduna State
Government is on a very
high rational and moral
ground. The sheer number
of 21,000 failed teachers
out of 33,000 is enough for
Labour to have hidden its
head in shame. And if it is
about check-off dues, it is
going to earn more, as the
government is going to hire
4,000 more teachers.
How can the NLC
demonstrate against these
numbers – 83% of teachers
scoring less than 25% in
maths and literacy and
primary two pupils
averaging 14% in English
and 27% in Maths. The
primary four pupils didn’t
fare any better – they
averaged 13% in English
and 17% in Numeracy in a
Programme sponsored by
the DFID. The competency
test of June 2017 was
obviously the finisher. Of
the 33,000 that sat for the
examination, only 11,591
teachers(33%) scored 75%.
The rest fell by the way side.
How can the government
redeem the irredeemables?
That is the answer the NLC
is not providing, because it
prefers as always to defend
the narrow interest of
workers as against the
common good of the larger
society. The strike is
obviously face saving and
an attempt to convince the
sacked teachers that the
union stood by them.
I don’t want to agree with
Labour that El-Rufai is
heartless, though taking the
difficult decision might
portray him as such. The
fact remains that education
is too sensitive an area that
incompetent teachers
should be allowed to
control. And like El-Rufai
has passionately argued
“the poor are entitled to
equal opportunity, because
it enables every human
being to widen their
horizon, develop skills and
lift themselves up”. Audu
Amba, the Kaduna State
Chairman of the NUT is
also spot-on in his
description of quack
teachers as mass
murderers, because they
forever murder generations
of children , unlike quack
doctors who at best
murder one or two patients.
But why is Amba who
holds politicians that
employ their thugs as
hugely responsible for the
plight of the teaching
profession, resisting the
disengagement of the
thugs? The question is why
strike if a Daniel has
finally come to
judgement? Labour would
have won friends if for once
rather than protest, it
partnered with the
government in addressing
the rot in the sector.
In 1981 the Professional
Air Traffic Controllers
Organization (PATCO), a
trade union embarked on a
strike that would ultimately
lead to its de-certification.
Late President Ronald
Reagan declared the strike
illegal. More than 11,000
Air Traffic Controllers
ignored Reagan’s order to
return to work. Reagan
gave them 48 hours, while
the authorities made
contingency plans.
Thankfully the FAA’s
contingency plans worked,
as about 3,000
supervisors joined the 2,000
non-striking controllers and
the 900 military controllers
in manning the airport
towers. The strike was
broken and that was the
beginning of the end for
PATCO.
Continues on
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