Friday, December 10, 2010

Lying politicians

Why is it that in this country we are fond of suppressing the truth. I can remember the pandemonium that the then ailing president Umaru Yaradua caused aand how the cabinet led by the then Attorney General and minister of justice Michael Aondokaa and the Governor's forum tried to suppress the truth.

Now with the advent of wikileaks with documents that the United State Embassy has not denied its contents, the presidency is denying the authenticity of the document and instead trying to play us for fools.

Excerpts from the cable suggested that Jonathan told Sanders that he (Jonathan) lacked ‘political and administrative experience.’

He was quoted as saying, “I was not chosen to be Vice-President because I had good political experience. I did not. There were a lot more qualified people around to be Vice-President, but that does not mean I am not my own man.”

“I am not a politician and had very limited experience as an administrator; I will not tolerate a brawl.”

The account also said Jonathan blamed some influential persons for the political crisis in the country at the time.

“This terrible situation in the country today has been created by four people: Turai Yar’Adua (the ailing President’s wife), his Chief Security Officer (CSO) (Yusuf Mohammed Tilde), his Aide-de-Camp (ADC)(Col. Mustapha Onoyiveta) and Professor Tanimu Yakubu (Yar’Adua’s Chief Economic Advisor).”

However, the Presidency, in response to the publication, said the website’s accounts of the discussion was ‘a souped up version,’ aimed at portraying the President in a bad light.

In a statement titled, ‘On Wikileaks and all that,’ the Special Adviser to the President on Media and Communication, Mr. Ima Niboro, said Jonathan, with all his experience in public office before becoming vice-president to the late Yar’Adua, could not have told Sanders that he lacked political and leadership experience.

The statement reads, “WikiLeaks is the new travesty that international diplomacy has to deal with. Nigeria is no exception. The point to be made is that the accounts of meetings between President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan and US diplomats are essentially third party narratives, and are largely inaccurate.

“The President, in those tempestuous days during which the nation tottered on the brink, held meetings, and then more meetings, with different groups, the diplomatic community inclusive. The President met with different diplomats and special envoys, who offered different suggestions on a way out of the impasse that our late leader’s health had imposed on the nation.

“We note that this account is largely silent on these suggestions. Instead, what is served up is an unfair account severely impacted by selective perception and individual expectations. For instance, how can it be said that a man who had been a Deputy Governor, an Acting Governor, a Governor, a Vice-President, and then Acting President could have described himself as lacking in administrative experience?”

“That the President holds a Ph.D, was a lecturer for 10 years and was an Assistant Director in the defunct Oil Mineral Producing Areas Development Commission do not make the statement less rankling. This only goes to show that the report itself is a souped up version of the standard conversation that takes place in such meetings.

“We find this account as wholly unfortunate and we are only employing the best of diplomatic finesse in that statement!

Thursday, December 09, 2010

Christ Embassy Sued

An Abuja High Court on Wednesday ordered Christ Embassy Church to pay N1 million to Ivory Properties, Managers of Coscharies Plaza, as damages.

Presiding Justice, Mohammed Dodo, gave the order after finding the Church liable by bridge of contract. “This court is awarding the sum of N1 million as damages, N2,167,187.50 being arrears of rent owed the plaintiff, N350,000 being cost of renovation carried out by the plaintiff after the defendant had vacated the property and N200,000 for cost of action,’’ Dodo said. The plaintiff (Ivory properties) had stated that it granted for one year a portion of the first floor Office of Cosharies plaza, Wing B, from October 1,

2005 to September 30, 2006 to the defendant (Christ Embassy) to be used as Church. “Christ Embassy stayed three months after the expiration of its tenancy without paying in full” adding that the rent to be paid by the defendant from Oct. 1, 2007 to Sept. 30,

2008 was N3,318,750, but they made part payment of N1.5 million only in July 2008. The counsel to the plaintiff Seun Olekeogun said “the defendant’s failure to pay its rent in whole sum and being in arrears is a breach of contract, thereby entitling the plaintiff to a claim of damages.” The defendant never appeared in court to defend the claims and so lost opportunity for cross-examination of witnesses.

Smart Nigerians

An undisclosed number of the Direct Data Capture machines ordered by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) have been stolen from the cargo section of the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos.

The remaining machines, some of which carry the tags of the Saudi Airlines Cargo with airway bill number 06584662572, were sighted at the National Aviation Handling Company premises yesterday. The contractor was identified as Zinox Nigeria Limited.

At the scene, Custom officials and staff of the Federal Aviation Authority of Nigeria were seen monitoring the movement of the remaining machines to the tarmac. When asked why, one of the officials who was in mufti and refused to identify himself replied, “we are asked to return them or what do you want to know?” The missing machines had led the authority to stop further clearing of other consignments.

According to clearing agents at the scene, officials of the State Security Services came to the place early in the morning to arrest the Customs Officer in charge of operation who was simply identified as W. Waziri and some other officials who were on night duty when the machines arrived the country.

Porous security

“It is not a new thing, but this must be from above,” one airport official said, adding, “Who needs such things (DDC machines) if not the politicians? So many things use to go missing here and I cannot blame anybody for that. The equipment to offload them from the aircraft are not many. So due to that, they sometimes allow the clearing agents and some individuals to go into the place, especially that place from the tarmac (pointing at the gate that linked a warehouse called Shed 4 to the tarmac) to find their goods.”

According to an official of one of the companies involved in the importation of the data capturing machines, the theft is not such a shock. He said, ”that is Nigeria for you. It is not only DDC. I heard they stole some PHCN equipment also.”

He blamed the lax security in the airport and the cargo section for the theft, observing that many people who had no business entering the place are allowed to loiter there aimlessly.

However, he said as far as the company is concerned, the consignments are still with the Customs and clearing agencies and have not been handed over to the company, “they are still at the airport. I learnt it was at the clearing point in the airport that they learnt that some equipment have been tampered with inside the shed of FAAN.’’

In a telephone interview, Kayode Idowu, the spokesman to the chairman of the Independent Electoral Commission described the news that some of the data machines have disappeared as “a bizarre piece of fiction.”

According to him, “I think somebody is playing games with fiction. Only a while ago, somebody called me to say some ballot boxes have been stolen and now this. The truth of the matter is that it is a bizarre piece of fiction. It is not true.”

Silence rules

The State Security Service whose officials were said to have come from Abuja to make some arrests refused to talk. Marilyn Ogar its spokesperson did not respond to both calls and text messages sent to her. She later told the reporter to call her this morning as she was busy in a meeting.

An e-mail to Jamil S. Zamzami, the spokesperson of the airline that brought in the cargo also went unanswered. However, airport officials who spoke to NEXT on condition of anonymity said there was no doubt that the disappearance occurred on Nigeria soil.

Although other sources said the missing items were ballot boxes, Mr Idowu described this as untrue. He said, “How could ballot boxes have been stolen? The contracts were just awarded just last week. How can it be that they are in the country already? You need to ask questions.”

Expensive equipment

Firms contracted for the manufacturing and supply of the DDC Machines include Zinox Technologies Ltd. which is to supply 80,000 units at $1, 771. 73 per unit; Messrs Haier Electrical Appliances Corp Ltd, which is to supply 30,000 units at $1, 699. 60 per unit; and Avante International Technology Inc., expected to supply 22,000 units at $1, 699. 60 per unit.

The total unit costs of the 132 units stand at about $230m, inclusive of all taxes and charges.

Already, the commission had embarked on the training of its staff that would in turn train the ad-hoc staff to be engaged for the exercise, which will be mainly Youth corps members.

The contract for the supply of about 150,000 pieces of the collapsible ballot boxes for the sum of N1.95 billion has been associated with controversies since it was awarded by Mr. Jega.

Just last week a law suit brought against INEC, the Federal Government of Nigeria and four others by Beddings Holdings Limited, was thrown out by an Abuja High Court. The plaintiff claimed he has the patent for the collapsible boxes, and has filed a new action asking that he be paid 50% of the total sum of the contracts.

SHELL IN NIGERIA

Online whistleblower, WikiLeaks, has revealed that multinational oil giant, Shell, has inserted staff into all the main ministries of the Nigerian government, giving it access to politicians’ moves in the Niger Delta, the Guardian of London reports.

Ann Pickard, then Shell’s vice-president for sub-Saharan Africa, told US diplomats that Shell had seconded employees to every relevant department and so knew “everything that was being done in those ministries.”

The leaked US diplomatic cable said the unnamed executive boasted that the Nigerian government had ‘forgotten’ about the extent of Shell’s infiltration and were unaware of how much the company knew about its deliberations,

The cache of secret dispatches from Washington’s embassies in Africa also revealed that the oil firm swapped intelligence with the US. In one case, it provided US diplomats with the names of Nigerian politicians it suspected of supporting militant activity and requested information from the US on whether the militants had acquired anti-aircraft missiles.

Cables from Nigeria show how Pickard sought to share intelligence with the US government on militant activity and business competition in the Niger Delta – and how, with some prescience, she seemed reluctant to open up because of a suspicion the US government was ‘leaky’.

According to the report, “But that did not prevent Pickard disclosing the company’s reach into the Nigerian government when she met US ambassador Robin Renee Sanders, as recorded in a confidential memo from the US embassy in Abuja on 20 October 2009.

“At the meeting, Pickard related how the company had obtained a letter showing that the Nigerian government had invited bids for oil concessions from China. She said the minister of state for petroleum resources, Odein Ajumogobia, had denied the letter had been sent but Shell knew similar correspondence had taken place with China and Russia.

“The ambassador reported, “She said the GON (government of Nigeria) had forgotten that Shell had seconded people to all the relevant ministries and that Shell consequently had access to everything that was being done in those ministries.”

According to the paper, a spokesman of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, Dr. Levi Ajuonoma, denied the report.

He said, “Shell does not control the government of Nigeria and has never controlled the government of Nigeria. This cable is the mere interpretation of one individual. It is absolutely untrue, absolute falsehood and utterly misleading.

“It is an attempt to demean the government and we will not stand for that. I don‘t think anybody will lose sleep over it.”

Pickard also said Shell had learned from the British government details of Russian energy company Gazprom’s ambitions to enter the Nigerian market.

The report adds, “Pickard alleged that a conversation with a Nigerian government minister had been secretly recorded by the Russians. Shortly after the meeting in the minister‘s office she received a verbatim transcript of the meeting “from Russia,” according to the memo.

“The cable concludes with the observation that the oil executive had tended to be guarded in discussion with US officials. ‘Pickard has repeatedly told us she does not like to talk to USG (US government) officials because the USG is ‘leaky‘. She may be concerned that ... bad news about Shell‘s Nigerian operations will leak out.”

Thursday, August 26, 2010

Governors fooling themselves

By Jide Ajani, Dayo Benson & Henry Umoru
CALABAR—CROSS River State Governor, Senator Liyel Imoke, said yesterday, that all the 28 governors of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, were behind the President and would carry on with their support if he decides to contest next year’s presidential polls.

This came just as President Goodluck Jonathan is expected to meet state governors in Lagos today in continuation of his consultations on his political future.

Meantime, the PDP Governors’ meeting for the purpose of picking a consensus presidential candidate for next year’s elections ended in a deadlock, yesterday, as the governors were split over the choice of President Goodluck Jonathan.

Speaking in Calabar yesterday when he granted audience to a select group of journalists, Imoke said it had become imperative for the governors to back Jonathan because as the leader of the country, he needs all the support he could get to succeed.

He said that as Chairman of the South South Governors Forum, he owed the region a duty to project Jonathan to the country and work for his success at all times.

He said though the PDP has agreed to retain the zoning formula, the party had also agreed to allow Jonathan to contest, adding that they would do everything possible to support the President.

Imoke said the support of the governors was very crucial if the country’s democracy was to make a headway, stressing that it was wrong for Nigerians to assume that the governors had become too powerful now.

He said the alleged influence of the governors played a stabilising factor for the country during the illness of late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua and the subsequent emergence of Jonathan as acting president in February this year.

Imoke said: “Our influence did not start today. It was not by accident. If you look at what happened in 2003 and 2007, the governors were very visible in political activities of the country. In fact in 2007, governors emerged both as the President and Vice President. So if you consider the crucial role we play in the sustenance of this democracy, you won’t say we are too powerful.”

On whether the President should sign the amended constitution before it becomes operational, Imoke urged Nigerians to savour the joy of achieving a huge feat by the amendment process, saying the country should not dissipate energy on technicalities which might later overcome the success recorded.

PDP govs split over Jonathan

The Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Governors’ meeting for the purpose of picking a consensus presidential candidate for next year’s elections ended in a deadlock, yesterday, as the governors were split over the choice of President Goodluck Jonathan.

Vanguard gathered that the meeting, which lasted more than four hours, became very stormy between those in support of Jonathan, who were in the majority, and those who were opposed to him

The meeting which was held at the Kwara State Governor’s Lodge, Asokoro, was billed to commence at 8.00 pm, but did not start until 9.00 p.m, Tuesday night and ended 1.15 a.m, yesterday, with the Chairman, Governors’ Forum and the Kwara State Governor, Dr. Bukola Saraki, presiding.

It was gathered that the governors had earlier discussed with President Goodluck Jonathan on Tuesday, and that the President informed them that he would be seeking the party’s nomination.

Thereafter, the governors returned to the Asokoro meeting to take a position.

Vanguard learnt that while the governors were meeting, the National Chairman of PDP, Dr. Okwesilieze Nwodo, also held an all night meeting with the 36 states’ chairmen and that of the Federal Capital Territory.

It was understood that the meeting was designed by the chairman to reach out to all stakeholders ahead of the elections, especially before the leadership of the party issued guidelines for the primaries.

A source told Vanguard that the meeting which ended at 1.00 a..m, yesterday, was part of the chairman’s consultative meetings with the leaders on how to arrive at decisions that would be favourable to all members of the party across the country. The meeting took place at the National Secretariat of the Party, Wadata Plaza.

Vanguard gathered that at the PDP governors’ meeting, all the South South governors spoke in favour of President Goodluck Jonathan contesting, just as the Southwest governors also spoke solidly in favour of Jonathan contesting the 2011 presidential election.

The source said the President faced very strong opposition from the Northern governors, where the ten governors that had earlier insisted that zoning should be retained, maintained their position at the meeting. It was gathered that as the meeting progressed, it got to a point that the PDP governors asked their Chairman, Dr. Bukola Saraki, to tell them whether he had an interest in contesting to become the presidential candidate of the party.

The source said that when Saraki failed to give the governors an answer on whether he was contesting for the Presidency, he was then asked to state his position because of his opposition to the presidential aspiration of President Jonathan.

Governors in support of Jonathan

Those who championed the presidency of Jonathan in 2011 at the meeting were Governors Jonah Jang of Plateau, and Gabriel Suswam of Benue State.

Opposing governors

Those who were opposed to Jonathan’s presidential aspiration were Governors of Kebbi, Zamfara, Bauchi and Katsina states. It was gathered at the meeting that these governors were at the forefront of those opposing the presidential aspiration of Jonathan, even as the source said: “This is understandable, because they were the same group that insisted on zoning when we met to take a position on the same matter in Kaduna last month.”

At the end of the meeting, the governors left, just as the governors of Rivers, Kwara, Bauchi and Delta began another meeting which lasted for thirty minutes. At the end of the meeting, the Delta State governor left at 1.15 a.m, while his Bauchi State counterpart came out at 1.45am.

Chairman of the Governors’ Forum and Kwara State governor, Dr. Bukola Saraki, who left the venue of the meeting at about 2.00 a.m, refused to speak to the waiting journalists.

It was gathered that the governors’ inability to arrive at a compromise following a very strong division among them, made it impossible for the governors to issue a communiqué on the meeting.

Governors that attended the meeting

Present at the meeting were governors of Akwa Ibom, Godswill Akpabio; Isa Yuguda of Bauchi; Timipre Sylva of Bayelsa; Gabriel Suswam of Delta; Liyel Imoke of Cross River; Emmanuel Uduaghan of Delta; and Martin Elechi of Ebonyi. The others were Segun Oni of Ekiti; Sullivan Chime of Enugu; Ikedi Ohakim of Imo; Sule Lamido of Jigawa; Patrick Ibrahim Yakowa of Kaduna and Ibrahim Shema of Katsina.

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Abacha "go to hell"

The Correspondents' Chapel of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Kano State chapter, on Wednesday rejected a consignment of rice allocated to it by Mohammed Abacha's Campaign Organisation.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Mr Abacha is believed to be one of the four applicants for the Governorship of Kano state on the platform of the Peoples' Democratic Party.

The journalists returned the five bags given by Ibrahim Ado Gwagwarwa, director of publicity of the organisation and thanked him, after a decision which its members unanimously agreed to.

In his response, Mr Gwagwarwa, a former director of press to former Kano State governor, Rabi'u Kwankwaso, expressed dismay at the reporters' action, saying it showed their ‘lack of appreciation' towards the gesture.

He explained that the gift was of his own volition, as the chapel was not one of those listed as beneficiaries.

Meanwhile, each of the 50-kg bags of the rice carried the PDP logo and the following phrases: ‘Ramadan Kareem', ‘Compliments of Alhaji Mohammed Abacha'.

The other candidates jostling for the party's flag are: House of Representatives member, Faruk Lawan, Sen.Mohammed Bello, and former military administrator of Niger and Plateau states, Habibu Shu'aibu.

Back

First lady scolds Rivers State Governor

In the Nigeria constitution, there is no place for the first ladies of the federation neither is there no place for their counterparts in the state as there are none for the first men. THE First Lady’s two-day visit to Rivers State ended in a fiasco Tuesday.

All was well, until Dame Patience Jonathan and her chief host, Governor Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi got to Okrika – the First Lady’s home town.

The governor was explaining by video his school project in Okrika, saying there must be demolition of some buildings to have space for the schools.

Mrs Jonathan cut in, grabbed the microphone and said the governor should reconsider the way he was going about the demolition.

An attempt by Amaechi to explain the situation sent the First Lady boiling.

She shouted at Amaechi: "Listen!, you must listen to me!"

The governor was embarrassed, like a scolded school pupil. The audience hailed Mrs Jonathan, goading the First Lady on.

The President’s wife, however, described land as a serious issue in Okrika and told Amaechi to always avoid "must" when talking about waterfronts’ demolition.

The governor never mentioned "waterfronts", but Mrs. Jonathan went on: "I want you to get me clear. I am from here (Okrika). I know the problems of my people. So, I know what I am talking. I do not want us to go into crises. We are preaching peace and we must maintain peace at any time.

"But what I am telling you is that you always say you must demolish. That word ‘must, you use is not good. It is by pleading. You appeal to the owners of the compound, because they will not go into exile. Land is a serious issue."

Downcast, Amaechi shunned a reception organised for the First Lady. The reception was, however, not on the programme.

Mrs Jonathan hurriedly left for Abuja. Her planned visit to Port Harcourt prisons, where the Chief Judge, Justice Iche Ndu, was expected to release some prisoners, was cancelled. So was her visit to the new Model Secondary School at Ebubu-Eleme, among others.

A civic reception in honour of the President’s wife was held at the Sharks Stadium, Port Harcourt on Monday. Her pet programme, Women for Change Initiative (WFCI), was launched.

This was followed by a state banquet/Award Night at the Government House, Port Harcourt, where the former Miss World, Agbani Darego, who hails from the state, and some women were honoured for their outstanding contributions to society.