20062021 - Student thrown out of vehicle by fleeing attacks survives

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PAGE 12 — SUNDAY VANGUARD, JUNE 20, 2021 Much Ado about INEC nominations This column- Nigeria Today, opened this month with a call on government to speedily fill all vacant statutory positions in our electoral body to stop her from continuing to operate with half engine, asshe had done in the last 7 months. A few days after the call, a list of nominees which government had previously sent to the Senate for clearance and which had been put on-hold resurfaced. Although it may have been a coincidence that both actions occurred simultaneously, one is still encouraged to believe that perhaps there are times when those in authority listen to people. In which case, there is merit in drawing attention to issues calling for action. That call however had a second segment which was a plea for government to not only make appointments but to ensure that any such appointment capable of derogating from the impartiality of INEC is never made. The high level of criticism which greeted the inclusion of Lauretta Onochie, a presidential media aide, in the list seems to show that our second plea was discountenanced. There are two immediate reasons why the supercriticisms occurred. The first is the general feeling that PhD,Department of Philosophy, Universityof Lagos 08116759758 opuruiche2000@gmail.com On the increasing possibility of Nigeria’s disintegration (4) It is a notorious fact that northerners have more oil blocks than their southern compatriots in whose areas the crude oil is located. Now, the practice of individuals owning such an important source of national income is wrong; it is even abominable that non-indigenes from parts of the country without a drop of oil (and as a result their communities do not experience the serious environmental problems that arise from crude oil exploration and extraction) are benefiting more than those from oil-bearing communities. Make no mistake about it: the civil war was essentially a war about the control of the revenue from crude oil, which explains why Harold Wilson, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, supported Nigeria in order to retain and expand existing lucrative oil deals that lubricated British economy. Generally speaking, with what has been going on in the country since 1970 typified by the senseless recycling ofmediocrity in leadership especially at the federal level, one can be forgiven for thinking that Nigeria was designed to fail. Considered retrospectively, the eagerness with which Lt. Col Yakubu Gowon and the hawks in his government declared war on the new nation, Biafra, had very little to do with preserving a when constituting an umpire for elections, anything that candiminish public confidence in INEC must be avoided. The second is the long-standing assurances of President Muhammadu Buhari that he would personally distance himself from any breach of the constitution. Even when the ruling party had crisis with its executive and people proffered simple political solutions, Buhari insisted on following the party’s constitution. On this note, there is the suspicion that the President’sattention was not drawn to an amendment to our constitution which now expressly provides in Paragraph 14 of Part 1 of its Third Schedule that a member of the Independent National Electoral Commission “shall be nonpartisan.” Government officials who have defended Onochie’s nomination are probably on the same page with lawyers who are quoting the old law which only required such appointees to simply be persons of proven integrity. From the provisions of the law stated above, there is no basis for the heated debate in the country over who qualifies to be an electoral commissioner. The only country that works for everybody. So whenever former military dictators from northern Nigeria claimed that the Biafran war was fought to preserve the country’s unity, they deliberately omit to tell Nigerians that the real reason for it was to maintain northern political dominance which allows Fulani caliphate colonialists and their enablers to appropriate economic resources from the south. There is documentary evidence that right from the very beginning northern Nigeria has been economically dependent on the south, as late Prof. B. C.Ijoma conclusively proved some time ago in his wellargued riposte to the falsehood by one of the theoreticians of Fulani caliphate colonialism, Prof. Ango Abdulllahi. Indeed, one of the major reasons for the amalgamation was that British colonial officials wanted to shift the financial burden of administering northern protectorate from the British treasury to “the southern lady of means,” as explained in 1913 by Sir William Harcourt, Secretary of State for the colonies (1910-1915). Of course,northern dependency syndrome has not gone down at all since that time. On the contrary, it has grown worse, to the extent that the northern ruling class will go to any reason for the controversy is a current trend in the country where everything is politicized. In other countries no one needs to find a legal provision for supporting or defending the appointment of a politician to serve as impartial umpire in an election between his party and other parties or other positions requiring institutional neutrality. In our pioneering days at the National Orientation Agency (NOA), we found that that if a partisan official was appointed to sensitize people on the correct political culture, opposition politicians never listened to such an official hence we canvassed that the Chief Executive of NOA must never be partisan. Although the law reflected that, it has never been obeyed right from the PDP days. Indeed, in all sectors, politicians lobby to appoint non-professionals into technical positions in public organizations thereby deprivingsuch bodies of viability. Is Nigeria the only country with political parties? Arguments in support and against the nomination of Lauretta Onochie have been taken to a level that makes it look as if it is the only issue at stake right now in our electoral process. Apart from party officials, there are several support groups falling on each other on this subject just to be noticed for patronage. One of them said the other day that impartiality was unnecessary because after all, everybody is a political animal. He obviously didn’t know the subtle difference between politics and partisanship. Another said anyone could be an electoral commissioner It is unfortunate that up to this moment most prominent southern leaders have not learnt the most important lesson from the civil war and its aftermath length to maintain the colonial amalgam staunchly supported by the former colonial master. Therefore once the northern continuing quest for political domination and economic exploitation of the south are inserted in the Nigerian equation, the rationale for the shibboleth “One Nigeria” by Yakubu Gowon, his successors and “useful idiots” from the south since the civil war ended leaps into bold relief. In all this, southern Nigerians (particularly Ndigbo and their immediate neighbours) should stop blaming northerners alone for dominating the country even if their divide-and-rule strategy for sustaining One Nigeria which gained traction when Gowon carved the eastern region into three states on March 27, 1967has aggravated the forces of disintegration. Why? Because Dr.Azikiwe, Chief Awolowo and their successors at various times had the opportunity to alter the trajectory of Nigerian political evolution but they blew it. As I have already argued, British colonial officials were not really keen to hand over Nigeria to the best hands and brains from the south. Incontrovertible Almost every lawyer in Nigeria purporting to throw light on the subject is now described by the media as a constitutional lawyer; some are probably unconstitutional provided he subscribes to the oath of impartiality. As for the learned segment of society, the long period of the judiciary workers’ strike may have rendered some redundantmaking them opt to comment on every topic within several media discussion slots. Almost every lawyer in Nigeria purporting to throw light on the subject is now described by the media as a constitutional lawyer; some are probably unconstitutional. In reality however, we are only distracting INEC with a fundamental topic that requires no contentions if only we can allow our societal institutions to do their work. The impartiality of an election umpire is too critical to be subjected to debate.But we can hardly prevent that considering the number of people who are so carefree about the implications of a compromised INEC. In 2019, different groups had to cry out to the Senate to disallow one Raheem Olalekan who was nominated to represent Osun state. As it turned out, he was an active member of the APC in his local community. His colleague Alalibo Johnson proof of that can be found in Prof.Omoruyi’s work cited earlier where he details how and why the last British governor-general, Sir James Robertson,anointed TafawaBalewa as Prime Minister even before results of the 1959 federal elections were fully in for reasons that have nothing to do with competence and proven track record of performance. Moreover, Islam the dominant religion of the Fulani ethnic group, mandates muslims to rule wherever they find themselves in furtherance of the long term aspiration of those who wrote the Koran regarding Islam’s global domination. At any rate, without the One Nigeria ideological political praxis championed by Dr.Azikiwe and other prominent southern politicians of the First Republic, probably there would have been concerted move by the first two southern regions to form a country of their own or, at the very least, their political leaders would not have made concessionsany time northern leaders threatened to secede, concessions that eventually helped Fulani caliphate colonialists to consolidate their stranglehold on power with the passage of time.It is ironic that the north whichclamoured for a federation with very weak centre and strong federating units later embraced completely a highly centralised political system or unitarism. For those conversant with Nigerian history, the change in approach is not puzzling at all: the northern volte-face occurred after the revanchist coup of July 29, 1966, an indication that key figures in the northern military-civilian establishment executed the representing Bayelsa state was cleared and deployed as Resident Electoral Commissioner in Edo state. During the governorship elections in the state, there were petitions that he had earlier been involved in partisan politics. INEC issued a formal state which instead of denying the allegation blamed the public for not providing the information at the appropriate time. We insist that it is never late to deal with any electoral commissioner who presents a likelihood of bias. It was for such reason we supported the redeployment of a rather hardworkingofficial- Amina Zakari before the 2019 presidential election. The crusade against politically tainted though prospective election personnel is not restricted to the Buhari era. During the Goodluck Jonathan administration, the Independent Election Monitoring Group(IEMG) urged the President to withdraw the nomination of Ambassador Lawrence Nwuruku as a National Electoral Commissioner. It also called on the Senate to not confirm Nwuruku’s nomination because it breached Section 156 of the 1999 Constitution as amended which seeks to insulate the commission from undue political pressures. The group which was incidentally led at the time by popular activist, Festus Okoye persuasively argued that “the injection of a person with clear partisan inclination into the top hierarchy of INEC will create an unfortunate atmosphere of suspicion and fear as other commissioners may perceive such a person coup not just as a repulsive payback for the so-called “Igbo coup” six months earlier but also as a means of seizing and retaining political power in line with Ahmadu Bello’s vision of using minorities of the north as willing tools and the south as conquered territory. Ken SaroWiwa and top federal civil servants from the south such as Solomon Akenzua, H. A. Ejueyitchie, Phillip Asiodu, and Allison Ayidaunwittingly played a key role in furthering Bello’s subjugationist intention by persuading Gowon not to implement the Aburi accord that probably would have saved the country from the devastating Biafran war. During the civil war proper, the Yoruba led by Chief Awolowo and minorities of the middle-belt fought against Biafra. Even, prominent indigenes from the old Rivers and South-Eastern states abandoned Biafra and switched sides. Betrayal of the Biafran cause by fellow southerners was part of what the iconic novelist, Prof. Chinua Achebe, tried to explain when he said that resentment of Ndigbo by compatriots from other parts of Nigeria was caused by ekwolo (envy and jealousy) triggered by the unsurpassed success of Igbo people nationwide made worse through crude and noisy exhibitionism. It is unfortunate that up to this moment most prominent southern leaders have not learnt the most important lesson from the civil war and its aftermath, namely, that the muslim Fulani ruling class is committed to making Nigeria the homeland of all Fulani in West Africa and beyond. That is why since 1970 several notable as a mole deliberately planted by the government to checkmate independent decisions and initiatives.” There is therefore nothing special about public disapproval of the nomination of Onochie who had become famous as the president’s defender and attacker of the opposition. Of course, if she is eventually appointed it would be a minus for the current administration just as it would entrench public disbelief in the ability of the Senate to have the guts to check the executive branch. While the fight against the nomination is rational, I believe the campaign against her should not have been so ferocious because we need to remember that belonging to a political party is not an offence; it only bars the person from a referee’s position. The lady is a very widely educated Nigerian both at home and abroad, who has distinguished herself in previous assignments. An educationist, pastor, mother and grandmother, her tweets were always to the point and often helpful in clarifying issues. For instance, when the Accountant General mistakenly informed the nation that the recovered Ibori loot had been sent to Delta, it was Onochie who promptly corrected the story while at the same time offering explanation for why it was not sent to the state. She is therefore proficient in her job and can be considered for higher positions in government otherwise, with the raging war on social media, her doggedness in her present position is a major plus for government. Nigerians from the south have actually helped midwife policies that entrenched northern domination, with the Sokoto caliphate as the invisible government or puppeteer controlling the visible puppet governmentsin both military and civilian dispensations. Remember, Justice Akinola Aguda, a Yoruba, headed the panel that recommended Abuja in the north as the new federal capital to replace Lagos, while Gen. Olusegun Obasanjo was the military head of state when the 1979 constitution was packaged and promulgated. Groundwork for that very document was spearheaded by late Chief Rotimi Williams and Prof. Ben Nwabueze, chairman of the constitution drafting committee and a subcommittee chairman respectively. Needless to say, the 1979 constitution reaffirmed the overcentralised or unitary system which the north leveraged on to enhance its control at the centre and also opened the door for recognition of sharia hitherto categorised under customary law as a full– fledged distinct legal system applicable in both civil and criminal cases. Since the gravely flawed 1999 constitution now in operation is a mutant or clone of the 1979 version, Obasanjo, Williams and Nwabueze are jointly responsible for abandoning what is sometimes euphemistically referred to as “true federalism” in favour of a highly centralised political arrangement that has crippled the federating units particularly in southern Nigeria notwithstanding the fact that successive administrations in the southern states with few exceptions have taken mediocre leadership to unprecedented low levels. To be concluded.
AKEREDOLU: 100 Days Of ‘Talk And Do’ In Ondo •‘The governor’s lodge built by the immediate past administration has several defects which pose huge threat to human living’ By Dayo Johnson Akure •Akeredolu commissioning new patrol vehicles purchased for Amotekun No doubt, since taking the oath of office on February 24, 2017, Arakunrin Rotimi Akeredolu has, in no small measure, moved Ondo State to enviable heights as governor. Doing a critique of how Akeredolu has fared in his journey to a greater Ondo showed that he has not only left his imprints on the sand of time, he has equally engraved his nickname ‘Aketi’ in the minds of the people of the ‘Sunshine State’. Popularly referred to as governor “talk and do”, Akeredolu has truly fulfilled his electoral promises to the people of the state in the last six years that he has been in the saddle. One of these was the payment of the six out of the seven months unpaid workers salary by the immediate past administration in Ondo. Akeredolu, by this singular action then, won the hearts of civil servants. But paucity of funds has made the governor to now resort to payment of percentage salaries. In a fair assessment of his performance, Akeredolu has measured up to standard in many areas and scored low marks in few areas. A quick rundown of his achievements in various sectors of the Ondo economy shows that he would be remembered by the legacy projects initiated by his administration. That aside, his first 100 days of his second term in office has further punctured the belief that second term governors go to sleep after inauguration as Akeredolu has not stopped breaking new grounds in taking the ‘Sunshine State’ to higher heights in the various sectors of the state economy. The governor has made it a point of duty to distribute projects executed by his administration across the three senatorial districts of the state. Water Ondo, over the years, had suffered inadequate supply of potable water that led many individuals into seeking alternative from unhygienic water sources which, invariably, exposed the majority to waterborne diseas- es Ṫo ensure water security in the state, Akeredolu introduced ‘Kamomi Aketi’, a water project is designed to solve the need of potable water supply across the 18 local government areas of the state. Also, over 2, 000 boreholes have been constructed in 15 council areas of Ondo. The Kamomi Aketi water scheme expanded the story of water supply in the state in 2017 from four per cent to about 30% This led to the commissioning of the Kamomi Aketi accelerated water scheme in Owo and water treatment plants at Ile-oluji Okeigbo, Oba Akoko and Ido Ani. Bursary No fewer than 7, 000 students of Ondo extraction were given bursary in the 100 days of the Akeredolu administration. N10, 000 was disbursed to regular students while their counterparts studying law as well as medicine got N50, 000 each. Roads The Akeredolu’s magic touch on roads rehabilitation and construction does not discriminate against federal or local government roads. This is the case of the Owo- Ikare Road and several other roads spread across the three senatorial districts of the state. Those commissioned include the Orita Obele Road, Adetade Road, Akure, Omolayo Street, Akure, Ijapo Estate Road network, St. John’s Road, Oba- Ile and Araromi-Obu Township Road. Governor’s Lodge Although his predecessor constructed a new governor’s lodge, Akeredolu said the building had structural defects hence the urgent need to construct a new lodge. He noted that “it would take a superman” to live in that defective building. The governor said the construction of the mosque inside the Government House exemplifies the essence of unity in diversity, love and peaceful coexistence Akeredolu said his administration is embarking on a new governor’s lodge because the state does not have one, adding that shelter cannot be abrogated in human’s scale of preference. “The governor’s lodge built by the immediate past administration has several defects which pose a huge threat to human living”, he said, noting that the poorly constructed building appears to be weak and may collapse anytime. “The new aesthetic governor’s lodge was conceived with the best expectations of any governor’s lodge in Nigeria”, he added. “The structure sits on approximately 2,000 square meters of land and measures about 18 meters from the ground floor to the tip of the iconic roof. “The facilities will house a banquet hall to sit about 250 guests, basement parking, indoor and outdoor kitchen, swimming pool, sitting lounge, atrium sitting room, bedrooms and other functional spaces. “Information Communication Technology (ICT) software and gadgets will be applied in the finishing of this edifice while the entire environment will be adorned with both soft and hard landscape”. Mosque The construction of the first government house mosque within 100 days earned Akeredolu accolades from Muslims within and outside the state. Akeredolu named the mosque after the erstwhile Chairman of the state Muslim Welfare Board, the late Alhaji Khaleel Fawehinmi, who died last year. The governor said the construction of the mosque inside the Government House exemplifies the essence of unity in diversity, love and peaceful coexistence. “The commissioning of the mosque would now afford public servants in this environment the opportunity to perform their religious obligations with much ease”, he said. “It would also avail our Muslim visitors the opportunity of a conducive place of worship.” SUNDAY VANGUARD, JUNE 20, 2021, PAGE 13 The mosque has an office accommodation for the Imam, adequate ablution facilities for male and female faithful with attendant conveniences, ramp for special persons, terrace tiles among others. •Ground breaking of new governor’s lodge Amotekun Akeredolu, being the Chairman of the South-West Governors Forum, spearheaded the inauguration of the regional security outfit codenamed Amotekun despite opposition and high level conspiracy against the outfit to stem the activities of the ravaging herdsmen across the region. This outfit has been helping to curb crime in Ondo. Within his 100 days in office, the governor purchased 20 patrol vehicles to boost the operations of Amotekun and equally ensured that over 530 new personnel were employed for the outfit. Not only that, in a bid to provide conducive working environment for the management and staff of Amotekun, the administrative headquarters and control room was built by the administration. Consequently, the impact of Amotekun in Ondo has been remarkable and has given hope in the management of security. It has also reinforced the long time view that state and community-based policing are the panacea to the country’s security challenges. Training for 3, 000 unemployed graduates in digital programme To address the challenge of teachers deficit in public primary schools in the state, Akeredolu employed over 1, 200. He equally flagged off a Digital Training Programme tagged ‘Ondo-Engage’ for 3, 000 unemployed graduates in the state as part of the activities marking the first 100 days of the second term in office. The training, which will last nine months, will focus on digital economy and was organised through the State Information Technology Agency (SITA) in partnership with Envivo Communications Limited and Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). Participants will be paid monthly stipend throughout the period of the training and get laptops and data. Also, to demonstrate his commitment to the welfare of the state workforce, the governor approved the promotion of 3, 000 teachers in the State Teaching Service. Red Gold Project The governor said that the Red Gold Project was designed to revolutionise the Ondo oil palm sector, noting that the dwindling economy of the country predicated upon the monolithic nature of its earnings had made diversification inevitable “Dwindling and erratic market of crude oil globally has made it imperative for Nigeria as a nation to diversify our revenue sources”, Akeredolu said. “We have over-relied for too long on fossil fuel revenue. The need to diversify the economy is imperative for any hope of a future for our country”. The governor highlighted the various value chains of oil palm to include domestic consumption and industrial uses. Piggery A piggery project located at Ilutoro in Akure North is expected to employ 4, 000 youths and women in value chain process. Akeredolu’s reason for the piggery project was to address capital flight on meat consumption, describing as mind boggling millions of naira that leave the state weekly on beef consumption in form of capital flight. Other feats achieved within 100 days include the groundbreaking of the first privately owned Inland Terminal LPG Storage Facility in the country. The facility, sited within the Ore Industrial Hub by Alles Charis, will gulp over #5.5Billion with over 300 jobs to be created initially. Findings showed that over 2000metric tones of Liquefied Petroleum Gas will be produced when the first phase is completed within the last quarter of this year. Akeredolu also extended the celebration of the season to over 720 elderly people and widows across the state by treating them to a sumptuous meal and presentation of special packages to them. The widows and the aged, 40 from each of the 18 local government areas of the state, were given N5,000 each.
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