National Dialogue: Apologies to Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu – Wale Adedayo

I was among those at the forefront of castigating Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu when he voiced opposition to President Goodluck Jonathan’s National Conference. Tinubu did not mince words in describing the proposed gathering as a Greek gift that’ll bear no useful fruit. But, along with others, I argued otherwise. And forcefully too.

We felt it was the first time a sitting president would on his own without any prompting from known agitators agree that Nigeria’s component units sit at a round table to chart a new course for the polity through a workable constitution. More importantly, Jonathan picked a cerebral former General Secretary of Afenifere, Senator Femi Okurounmu, as chairman of the committee to prepare a road map for the conference. That sealed it for us given Afenifere’s long held position that the ethnic nationalities, which make up Nigeria must return to the negotiating table as they did before independence to fashion a new constitution for the country.

Okurounmu was not just another Afenifere scribe. He had a pedigree. Apart from serving as a senator on the platform of Alliance for Democracy (AD) (1999 – 2003), he carved a niche for himself as a staunch proponent of a Sovereign National Conference. A scholar and a person many of us considered a deep thinker, we had no doubt he’d not disappoint. We said so in so many words in several places using different platforms to confront those who did not believe in the conference. But we now know better.

With developments arising out of Okurounmu’s work thus far, I want to admit that we missed it. Jonathan sold us a dummy. And Okurounmu disappointed us in his old age. And I wonder what these old men are leaving behind as legacies with the decreasing distance between them and their graves. How will Chief Adekunle Ajasin feel? What’ll be the position of Pa Solanke Onasanya? What kind of words would Senator Abraham Adesanya reserve for Okurounmu, who for whatever it is worth has put a final nail in the coffin of whatever little respect the average Yoruba has for Afenifere?

A National Conference is a veritable admission that the foundation of a polity has given way. It is the shortest route to dismantling that polity without the chaos and casualties of a civil war – and putting the humpty dumpty back again before detractors get to know what is happening. And that can only be done as it was in the beginning before Nigeria got her independence from Britain – our different ethnic nationalities MUST sit and discuss the basis of the Nigerian union.

Any National Conference without the ethnic nationalities as primary participants remain a mere talkshop. It cannot work. It will fail. It is also a wrong position to have a National Conference submit what it arrives at to the National Assembly. A genuine gathering to change the current constitution should have the National Assembly and two-thirds of the state Houses of Assembly giving a go-ahead to the National Conference that whatever it comes up with is final and binding as articles of faith in running our affairs as a nation. That is what we were expecting to happen in this instance, not a return to the same circle of political actors who brought us to this sorry state – a patient cann ot treat him/herself.

It appears Tinubu, with his many shortcomings, is better at seeing deeper than most of his critics as I am one of them.

There is hardly anything an average Yoruba wants than a restructured polity in today’s Nigeria with its flawed federal structure. Of course, genuine South-South patriots – not militants turn merchants – want the same thing. But this Jonathan CONference has turned out a 419 project to get mainstream Yoruba behind his re-election bid. It is now clear the whole charade is political 419. And Tinubu said this earlier. But we did not listen. Instead, we hurled abuses in his direction. Those of us on this side meant well for ourselves, and our people. But we appear too romantic in our reasoning and arguments. And I don’t think that is bad because we desperately want things to work despite all the visible obstacles. So, any little sign of light proving the end of the tunnel is here, we rush there with joy. But in the case of this Jonathan’s CONference, my sincere apologies to Tinubu. He got it right. We missed it.

- Wale Adedayo

Sent from my HTC

Maradona writes his own Open Letter: The Happenings In the Country Call for Worry – IBB to Jonathan

Former Nigerian Head of State, General Ibrahim Badamasi Bamanga today released a statement through his media aide, Kassim Afegbua more or less advising the President to see things a bit differently especially beyond what his aides tell him.

The statement reads: “The happenings in the country in recent times call for worry if we must be sincere with ourselves. Every day, the nation is treated with one form of political issue or the other. From security challenges to economic challenges, Nigerians are asking several questions that deserve responses from government at the various levels. Democracy is when it is a people-driven government with its fundamental principles of freedom of expression, freedom of association, rule of law, accountability, probity and equal representation amongst others.

“I will like to advise President Goodluck Jonathan to tread cautiously so that those sycophants in, and out of government will not derail his focus, resilience and perseverance. He needs all the comportment, resilience, perseverance, introspection and determination to be able to take the right decisions for the good of the country. The arrest and release of Mallam Nasir El-Rufai is a deliberate distraction which the President must run away from.

“He must avoid gambling with decisions and he must be willing to seek a third opinion on issues before he takes his decision. President Goodluck Jonathan must understand that there is a whole body of people out there who are not happy with happenings in the country. It is his responsibility as President of the country to reach out to them and make his mission understandable to the common man on the street so that they can buy into his government.

“If his body of advisers do not understand the temperament in the country and decide to embark on arresting and releasing people on very questionable allegations, they will be making enemies for the President instead of friends. The prerogative is that of the President and no one else.

“President Jonathan should as a matter of responsibility listens to voices of the opposition and or dissent, as he stands to gain experience and knowledge from their well-informed criticisms rather than build hostilities around them. He has to ensure that he minimizes and maximizes his discretionary powers in a manner that will not be subject of abuse.

“President Goodluck Jonathan must sit back, collect himself and carry out a critical self-appraisal before he takes his decisions. He is aware without mention, that the country is presently faced with several developmental challenges.

“Also, security agencies must avoid getting involved in political issues. Modern day security has evolved to a point where you do not require seeing gun-wielding Policemen on the streets. The ability to collate information and analyse same in a proactive manner will help improve the security situation in the country. We must carry out moral healing as well as political healing in the land.

“The President must make it a point of duty to reach out to people, groups and individuals with the sole purpose of selling his presidency. It is becoming instructive that the concept of winner-takes-all which has pervaded the system for so long may not flourish as such again.”

APC waging rebellion against Nigeria, says Lagos PDP

Opeyemi Adesina

The Lagos State chapter of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has described the recent actions of APC as acts of waging rebellion against the Nigerian Nation and it has consequently charged president Goodluck jonathan to resist being blackmailed as partisan but to direct the law enforcement agents to treat the APC actions accordingly.

The party's position is its strong reaction to the directive from the APC to its members in the NASS that they should block all executive bills.

In a statement made available to journalists in Lagos and signed by its Publicity Secretary,  Barrister Taofik Gani, the party opined that APC is sabotaging the nation's development going by the recent open actions of APC, especially the said directive to its National Assembly Members . Such sabotage can be traced to: Boko Haram insurgency, Oil and Gas pipeline vandalising, recurrent strikes in some sectors of the economy, to mention a few.

The party therefore calls on Nigerians to rise up against the APC chauvinism and declaration of war against the Nation's Administration.

" Now we can confirm that the APC has redefined opposition politics to mean rebellion. Theirs is a merger of unpatriotic and desperate politicians who would go to any extent to grasp power. They are Posing enough threat to the cooperate existence of the nigerian Nation.  Their deeds and actions have now betrayed their false claims of being progressives. Nigerians must rise against them now and the security agencies should begin consequential reactions"

The party therefore urged the security agencies, as a matter of urgency to rise up against the deeds and actions capable of causing disaffection and overheat the polity, no matter whose horse is gored.

APC slams critics, says sanity now returning to Rivers

The All Progressives Congress (APC) has described critics of its directive to its National Assembly members to block all legislative proposals as those who are either ignorant of the workings of democracy or those who have chosen to play to the gallery for pecuniary gains.

In a statement issued on Sunday by its Interim National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Muhammed,  said the directive is already yielding result, as members of the Save Rivers Movement (SRM) were able to stage a peaceful rally on Saturday without molestation.

APC' s directive had attracted criticisms from various quarters, including a recent one  by a group, known as the Youths for Ebele Jonathan (YEJ) which described it as amounting to blackmail and  legislative recklessness .

However, in the statement, APC said there was nothing anti-democratic, anti-people or inciting about the directive, which is aimed at ending sn alleged reign of impunity in Rivers state.

It said the parry's action has become necessary so as to arrest the situation before its spreads to other parts of the country and truncated the nation's democracy.

Aregbesola has liberated Osun people – Okanlawon

2

share

Mr Semiu Okanlawon, a journalist, is Director of Bureau of Communications and Strategy in the office of the Osun State Governor. He is as such the spokesperson to the governor, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola. In this interview with WALE ABIODUN, he opens up on various issues including the administration of Governor Aregbesola.

What is the experience like as the Director, Bureau of Communications and strategy, office of the governor, State of Osun?

It is a pleasure working in my state and we are doing it with all the commitment required. I have been a journalist all my life. I am still a journalist. Apart from that, I am also a strategist. It has been three years down the lane; it has been quite interesting experience in the area of informing the people adequately about the various policies and programmes of the administration.

As a professional journalist, what are the challenges of dealing with journalists vis a vis carrying out your roles as the image maker of the Osun governor, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola?

Journalists must do their work and I must also do my work. So far, it has been a kind of symbiotic relationship. I have been a journalist. I am still one. I know that journalists must report it as it is and I must also say it as it is. I must do my own in such a way that my colleagues will be able to see the essence of what the government is doing. It is my duty to communicate with my colleagues,  journalists who are the means through which we communicate to the mass of the people. I help my professional colleagues to do their jobs better by providing

information as at when due. We ensure that the information is passed in a positive manner to aid development. You remember what we call developmental journalism. There can never be development if the activities of the government are communicated in a negative manner. Governor Aregbesola understands and sees the nexus between politics and communication. He is a communication and political strategist aside being an engineer.

Let’s talk about the various developmental agenda of Governor Aregbesola?

When you are talking about development, we need to understand what we mean by development. Development for whom and for what? My governor also believes that there is a need for physical developmental infrastructures like good roads and good buildings. Physical infrastructures are the things we can see with our eyes. They are tangibles. But the foundations of physical structures are the intangibles. Things that ordinarily you will not see them with your eyes. The society requires them to be able to function well. The governor believes that if you don’t develop an individual, the person, the physical infrastructures are a waste. You have to build the mind of man to be able to utilise adequately the infrastructures you are putting in place. If you have a five-star hotel in a community dominated by peasant farmers and you are having high scrapers everywhere, who are the people that are going to use it? Of course, foreigners are going to use such facilities, like people that come for holidays. And the highest your sons and daughter can be in those facilities is either cleaners or cooks. It will be difficult to get a manager because such position requires intellectual ability. If you don’t equip your own people, they will be ill-placed to function in such society. Osun is a rural area; we are in a hurry to develop it. This is translating to physical infrastructures we are witnessing today.

Before that we have been building the mind of the people. It is from the mind that you are building the structures. At the end of the day, that is when you will say development is not misplaced. The people must be economically positioned to be able to contribute to the economic development of the society. We need to develop the mind first. That is why we came up with the issue of our education. In modern day, if you don’t have education, you are badly placed to function well in the society. In the past up to fifty percent of our students were

unable to secure admission into the higher institutions, despite the large number of students that graduate from our secondary schools yearly. This is as a result of poor performance. That was why we organised education summit which is the foundation of what we are doing in the educational sector now. What we are doing in the educational sector like reclassifying schools, providing buildings in our schools, training and retraining teachers, recruiting new set of teachers and motivating the teaching personnel. We are creating a totally new

environment from what we met on ground. Whatever we are doing today is as a result of economic summit that was chaired by Professor Wole Soyinka. In education, we have also done things that look like extra curriculum activities like Omoluabi for both boys and girls. We give them training that make them total men and make them people who understand cooperation and integration. We also have the Youths empowering scheme, which has become a household name in Nigeria emanated from Osun. The Federal Government had no choice rather than to copy it. The World Bank commended it that it is a noble programme.

Within the first 100 days we employ 20,000 youths. When we started this programme people were criticising it that we are using graduates to cut grasses. These are social services. Go abroad. Who are the people doing these jobs? We also have what we called Oyes-tech which is a training scheme for another set of 20,000 youths. They are being trained with a Ghanaian company on how to handle technology devices like phones, ipad and TV, and so on. We also have what we call Omoluabi Garment factory in Osun. This came out of our initiative of the school uniform. We asked the company to come and sew the uniforms in Osun that led to the creation of the factory in Osun. This company has employed over 3,000 youths from Osun and the company is also getting contracts from outside the country. On agriculture, we set up what we call Oloba cattle ranch. We even sent 20 of our youths to Germany to study the modern way of rearing animals.

Some stakeholders are saying that merging of schools is not in the best interest of the students, that students now walk extra miles to their schools. What is your reaction to this?

The students in the high school have grown up and they are already near higher institutions. We have elementary, middle and the high schools in the new reclassification programme. We merge these schools to save resources. Some of these schools in the past don’t have more than 50 students. We now said it is better to have these schools concentrated in one place with

facilities in place for the use of these people. We are building 100 elementary schools, 50 middle schools and 20 high schools. Each of our school is a combination of schools. One elementary school will take 800 to 1,000 pupils and one high school will take up to 3,000. People of Osun are well informed now. They are liberated and nobody can pull wool on their faces now.

On the Opon Imo, some stakeholders are saying that laptops promised students are yet to go round. What is your reaction to this?

The journey of one thousand years starts with one step. Before the administration of Aregbesola, was there any computer in any school? But we came up with this idea. It is a project in process and the process is ongoing. I know that nothing less than 20,000 have been distributed to the students. We said we would get 50,000 from the manufacturer while the remaining 100,000 will be manufactured in Osun. We want industries to spring up in Osun.

Some stakeholders in the state are saying that the current administration in Osun is just copying programmes from Lagos without considering the peculiarity of the state, like the issue of LCDAs. What is your view on this?

When you talk about copying things from Lagos, you have to know that the governor in Osun has been part of the government in Lagos. The government in Osun is a product of political structure in Lagos. The story of modern Lagos will not be complete without mentioning the name of Rauf Aregbesola. By applying the system of Lagos we have moved from N300million IGR to N1.7 billion through blocking the loopholes. If they say we are copying, copying is good.

Source: DailyNewsWatch

Aliyu Mohammed Gusau Should Be In Jail Not The Federal Executive Council – Dr. Peregrino Brimah

Coup plotter Aliyu Mohammed Gusau staged the Babangida military coup that ousted one of our better regimes, the Buhari-Idiagbon government in 1985. Aliyu Mohammed Gusau was a pivotal part of the Babangida dictatorial regime that embezzled billions of dollars and destroyed Nigeria’s economy and state of security.
Aliyu Mohammed Gusau occupied several power roles under the Babangida regime, NSO, NSA, etc. He is culpable for the massacres of the Babangida administration. Aliyu and Dasuki in government is as good as Babangida himself in our current administration. Aliyu Mohammed Gusau who occupied several power roles in Babangida’s regime is culpable in the assassinations that marked the administration; Dele Giwa, Kudirat Abiola are some of the main ones.

Aliyu Mohammed Gusau is part of the regime that took spurious IMF loans, accepted SAP policies and destroyed the nation’s economy while enriching and securing wealth for the junta, including himself.

Aliyu Mohammed Gusau was the NSA in charge of securing Nigeria when MEND terror evolved. He is culpable for the evolution of MEND under his watch. Aliyu Mohammed Gusau is suspect in the assassinations of General Tunde Idiagbon and MKO Abiola in paving a path for the return of Obasanjo. Aliyu Mohammed Gusau was the NSA when Obasanjo ordered the massacre of Odi and Zaki Biam; he is as responsible for these atrocities as is ex-president Obasanjo.

Aliyu Mohammed Gusau was the NSA when Boko Haram came into being. Steven Davis, as reported by PMNews on September 14, 2011 pointed out that Gusau, the then NSA directly facilitated the current national security terror state by suspiciously neglecting his sworn duties.

PMNews on September 14, 2011, further reports that Aliyu Gusau protected Boko Haram in its earlier stages, then known as the Nigerian Taliban, by telling Obasanjo that “no such group existed.”

The same report alleges that Aliyu Gusau, again as NSA under Goodluck Jonathan, released Boko Haram terror sponsor suspects to some northern leaders, for them to “rehabilitate” them, in clear violation of the nation’s national security, and in dereliction of duty that is implicated in thousands of deaths.

The report alleges that Aliyu Mohammed Gusau as NSA did not prepare any reports on the state of terror initiated by Boko Haram, covering up this group; thereby failing his role as NSA to alert the government and even the people. Rather than do so, he covered up the terror organization, hence protecting them.
Aliyu Mohammed Gusau is a Spy, according to several WikiLeaks cables. There is tons of embarrassing information on the internet where NSA Gusau as a state traitor, revealed tons of sensitive national security information to foreign agents in Nigeria and abroad. Aliyu Mohammed Gusau, Babangida’s right-hand man, and ‘estate keeper’—married to current NSA Sambo Dasuki’s sister, Babangida’s bank-Aliyu Dasuki’s daughter—according to NigerianPilot was suspected and investigated for links to the recent cache of deadly ammunition in a bunker in Kano, linked to Hezbollah cells.

Aliyu Mohammed Gusau as NSA never declared terrorists wanted; a primary function of state security departments to alert the masses and international security departments and enable them assist enforcement in capturing terrorists and fugitives.

When Gusau was replaced as NSA, we have an example of how serious and committed people with no tolerance to terror deal with terror. Major Gen. Sarki Mukhtar as NSA under Yar’Adua, packaged a proper amnesty for MEND and dealt firmly with Boko Haram, slaughtering 700 and even the group leader when “he tried to escape.”
Nigeria can no longer feed wicked and dangerous officials recycled from the bins of our painful past, septuagenarians and octogenarians that the administration keeps employed and reemploying. Bamanga Tukur, just compensated by being put in charge of our decaying and in need of dynamic resuscitation Railway, is an 80 year old recycled politician who should be reprimanded for violating the anti-terror act with his statement in May of 2012, claiming Boko Haram was fighting for justice and another name for Justice.

The nation also needs a new NSA, because Sambo Dasuki, who strongly supports an amnesty for Boko Haram psychopathic rapists, drug users and killers, and is the in-law of Mohammed Gusau, also a dictator Babangida accomplice, is clearly not fit for the sensitive security role.

Likewise, the die-hard to be President Aliyu Mohammed Gusau should be immediately detained and fully investigated for his role in facilitating the reign of Boko Haram terror during his regimes as NSA.

Terror is not a joke and Nigerians are not disposable.

Dr. Peregrino Brimah ?http://ENDS.ng [Every Nigerian Do Something] Email: drbrimah@ends.ng Twitter: @EveryNigerian

Views expressed above are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of Donflexy.com nor its associates.

Culled from Omojowa.com