DELTA 2015 AND THE ISSUE OF INDEGENESHIP No need heating up the polity over Obuh – Amb. Echegile

9 November 2014

By DAPO AKINREFON

AMBASSADOR Godson Onyemaechi Echegile, Nigeria’s envoy to Sierra Leone from 2008 to 2011, is a chieftain of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in Delta State.

In this interview, the PDP stalwart faults the insinuation that a frontline governorship aspirant in the state, Sir Tony Obuh, hails from Itsekiri land. He speaks, among other issues, on the 2015 governorship race in Delta. Excerpts:

As a stakeholder, what is the state of Delta politics today? 

It is as cordial as it could be. This is the season of primaries and you hear all sorts of comments. The only snag is what I will call not paying attention to real issues. People should tell us what they want to give to the people in terms of dividends of democracy so that we will have a barometer with which we can measure them at the end of their tenure, rather than trying to run each other down.

There is this growing agitation for power shift. What is your opinion on the controversy? 

I think that is more or less a settled matter. The leader of the party in Delta State, the governor, has reaffirmed that; the Chairman of the party in the state has reconfirmed that it is time for Delta North to produce the governor. But we need the support of our brothers in Delta Central and Delta South, some of whom are also interested in the race, to do it.

Naturally, when former Governor Ibori came from Delta Central, there were contestants from other senatorial districts. When Governor Uduaghan emerged from Delta South, I contested from the North.

So, you will always have people contesting but the preponderance of the party faithful know that there is zoning and they will move in their voting pattern along that zoning formula. I can bet you, you will see the results.

Still on the zoning controversy, some people have argued that the issue might heat up the politics of the state, if not well handled?

No. If you remember, eight years ago, it was worse than what we are having now. We had the Equity Group, the G-3 and the rest of them, but at the end of the primaries, we were able to resolve the crisis. It is a question of having a mechanism to manage the post-primary crisis, which I think Delta PDP has to manage.

But was there any written document or agreement on the rotation of the governorship seat among the three senatorial districts?

The best of agreements are never written. So, there is no written agreement but there is that understanding.

Are you not worried that the issue might lead to members of your party defecting to another party?

Not at all, we have seen it before. When the present governor emerged as an Itsekiri man, there were all manner of threats, but at the end of the day, we all still voted for him. Some people will make comments but when the chips are down, they will still toe the party line.

But some people say the governor’s continued silence on power shift shows he is not disposed to the idea. What is your take on it?

No. The governor has not been silent on power shift; he has spoken at different fora that power should go to Delta North. I am close enough to him to know. He has said it at different fora that power should go to Delta North.

As a stakeholder and PDP chieftain from Delta North, are you throwing up a consensus candidate from the region? 

We are not likely going to throw up a consensus candidate for two reasons. Not all Delta northerners are PDP members. Second, the beauty of democracy is for everybody to lay down what he wants to do and the plans he has, then, the people will decide. I don’t think consensus is possible.

It is been speculated that Sir Tony Obuh has been adopted as the candidate of the PDP and that he is an Itsekiri man, but this is generating heat in the state. Can you clear the air on this?

Let me take it this way. Sir Tony Obuh is not an Itsekiri man. He is an Ika man from Delta North. The wife is also from Delta North. I have known him for upwards of 30 years. These are propaganda thrown up by opponents, but I want to say that the people should focus their campaign on what they will deliver to the people.

I can authoritatively tell you that Tony Obuh is from Delta North, the parents are from Delta North. This is coming from mischief makers.

Whether the governor has adopted him or not are stories flying all over the place, and coming from gubernatorial aspirants. You see, all the aspirants are looking for the governor’s endorsement and they are praying for the governor’s endorsement.

I am aware that all the aspirants, at different times, have gone to see the governor to plead for his support, but I do not see why they should now say that one person has been adopted.

If they had been adopted, would they turn back and criticise that? I am not aware that the governor has adopted anybody, but the point I am making is that they have all gone to the governor for his blessing and they are still praying for his blessing. So, people should not use that as the basis for campaign.

I don’t think there is anything about a Permanent Secretary running for election. First of all, Permanent Secretary’s position is political. Obuh has been a party man. He has shown his membership card. He has paid his party dues. Those are not the issues.

If people want to raise issues, they should raise issues based on what they will deliver and not trying to attack somebody because they believe he is a front runner or he has the backing of some of the leaders. I don’t think that the right way to go.

The gubernatorial issue is said to be causing problem between the Ndokwa and the two other ethnic groups in Delta North. What is the situation really?

Like I said, any of the three ethnic groups, from Delta North, can produce the governor.

I think it was the Anioma Congress that submitted a list. I have not seen the list, but if what I read is anything to go by, they limited their choice to the two ethnic groups of Ika and and Aniocha/Oshimili leaving out the Ndokwa. To me, the Anioma Congress is a very credible organisation, made up of our elders, but I think it was a big omission on their part to leave Ndokwa nationality and that is what is causing the protest from the Ndokwa. We cannot marginalize them in that list. I want to use this opportunity to appeal to our Ndokwa brothers not to overreact on what the Anioma Congress did.

There are speculations that you are still interested in running for the office of governor. How true is this?

I have grown older. I want to leave it for the younger ones to try their luck in the governorship race.

Critics have flayed the governor’s performance since assumption of office. They say he has not performed to expectations.

That is totally wrong. Today, I can go to Asaba from Lagos in the morning and come back in the afternoon because there is an airport there. You see, we cannot do all these things in one day. Look at his health program; look at the issue of peace and security.

When he came, you could barely go to Delta because there was kidnapping and all kinds of violent crimes, but, today, security has improved.

If you go to the model schools, you will agree he has done well and, in terms of infrastructure, I will score him high. We need somebody to build on this and take us to the next phase of our development.

National Honour

I want to thank the President for finding me worthy of that award. It is a call to service to do more for my country. It is a call to be more dedicated to this country.

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PDP shifts National Convention, now holds December 10, 11

9 November 2014

By Henry Umoru

The national Leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, yesterday, shifted the party’s National Convention, slated for December 6, to December 10 and 11, just as it extended the submission of expression of interest and nomination forms by President Goodluck Jonathan for the 2015 presidential election by one week.

The PDP also moved its governorship primary election to December 8 while that of the Senate will now hold on December 7, even as submission of expression of interest and nomination forms for governorship aspirants was extended by one week.

With the new time-table released by the party, the president will now submit his forms by November 15 as against yesterday, while governorship aspirants will now submit their forms November 14.

In the 2014 guidelines released after the 66th National Executive Committee, NEC, meeting, the PDP had fixed the governorship primary election for November 29 while the Senate primary election would have taken place November 22.

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9 Months after, SSS Returns Sanusi’s Passports

9 November 2014

Emir of Kano, Muhammadu Sanusi II

By Ibrahim Shuaibu in Kano

Barely a week after the meeting between President Goodluck Jonathan and Emir of Kano, Muhammadu Sanusi II, the Department of State Security (DSS) has returned the international passports it seized from the former in February this year.

The return of the passports is coming nine months after the DSS seized them, following his suspension as governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) by Jonathan. The State Director, State Security Services, (SSS), Bassey Etang, handed over the two travelling passports to the emir at his palace Saturday.

The release of the passports may not be unconnected with the recent visit of the emir and his senior counsellors to President Jonathan at  the Presidential Villa in Abuja.

Emir Sanusi's diplomatic travelling passport was seized at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport in Lagos when he returned from Niger Republic while the ordinary international passport  was collected from him at the Malam Aminu Kano International Airport when he was about boarding Turkish Airline to France.

Confirming the handover of the passports, the Senior Special Assistant to Governor Rabiu Kwankwaso on Chieftaincy and Emirate Council Affairs, Alhaji Tijjani Mailafiya, disclosed that the emir got back his travelling documents yesterday morning.

Mailafiya lauded the gesture of the federal government in returning Sanusi's passports, saying it will allow him to travel when necessary as he continues to work for his people at home and abroad.

Sanusi had a running battle with President Jonathan following the allegation of missing $49.8 billion oil money. His insistence on the alleged missing  oil money, which pitted him against the President earned him a suspension, which eventually led to his ouster as CBN governor.

The genesis of the battle was the leakage of the September 2013 letter he wrote to President Jonathan, in which he raised  issues about the management of the country’s crude oil revenue.

In the letter, where Sanusi alleged that the NNPC failed to remit more than two-thirds of the oil money earned by the country between January 2012 and July 2013, the former governor insisted that out of the sum of $67 billion, only about $18 billion had so far been accounted for, while the sum of $49.8 billion was unaccounted for.

He however reviewed the alleged missing fund downward to $12 billion and later $10.8 billion upon reconciliation with the ministry of finance. He thereafter brought it up to $20 billion.

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‘INEC has no ulterior motive’

9 November 2014

MR. Kayode Idowu, Spokesman to INEC Chairman, when contacted, denied any ulterior motive on the part of the commission.

He said, INEC had announced all along that the exercise would only take place in 11 out of the 20 local government areas in Lagos State. This, he said, is because the permanent voter cards were not yet ready for the remaining nine local government areas.

He said as a result, the exercise in these nine local government areas has been postponed till towards the end of the month.

Kayode Idowu

He attributed the hitches experienced in the 11 local government areas where the exercise was to take place today to technical problems that came about during the previous data capturing exercise at the polling units whereby most of the eligible voters did not have their fingerprints properly taken.

He also said some of the data got missing as a result of the storage disks crashing and some officials not being able to handle the card reader machines properly.

Idowu said in order to correct these anomalies, the commission had announced that those affected in these isolated areas should come out on Wednesday to re-register and have their data recaptured.

He said in the 11 areas where the PVC exercise is currently taking place, distribution of materials is ongoing and the Resident Electoral Commissioner has announced the extension of the exercise by a day till Monday.

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Battle for the Soul of National Assembly

9 November 2014

The search for political relevance in the build up to 2015 polls is taking its toll on legislation at the National Assembly, reports Omololu Ogunmade

A pall of darkness has fallen on federal legislation in the country in the last two weeks, as both chambers of the National Assembly have put the two chambers of the federal legislature under lock and key.
The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Mr. Aminu Tambuwal, defected from Peoples Democratic Party to All Progressives Congress on October 28 and announced the adjournment of sittings till December 3, while PDP senators last Tuesday shut down legislation in protest against alleged losses at the party’s ward congresses on November 1.

According to the PDP lawmakers, President Goodluck Jonathan has handed PDP structures in their various states to the governors, leaving the legislators in the cold. Therefore, they opted to employ the boycott of legislative activities as a way to compel the president to guarantee them return tickets to the Senate next year.

Shock
The situation shocked many Nigerians, as they frowned on the situation where a key institution like the federal legislature was turned into a tool for the pursuit of lawmakers’ personal political ambitions.
All through last week, the social media was awash with rain of curses and abuses on the representatives at the National Assembly. They were accused of taking the people for a ride by choosing to use an institution meant for the advancement of the collective national interest as a tool of vendetta in pursuit of self-centred goals.

The Genesis
When Tambuwal shut down the House of Representatives on October 28 by adjourning sittings to December 3, his intention, obviously, was to exploit the tool of adjournment in violation of the 2014 legislative calendar to avert repercussions that would follow his defection. Tambuwal believed frayed nerves would have been calmed when the House reopens for legislation on December 3.

The speaker, who is also a lawyer, has been accused of defecting in violation of Section 68(1)(g) of the 1999 Constitution, which stipulates that any defection that is not predicated on factionalisation of the lawmaker’s original party or its merger with another political party is null and void and ultra vires. The constitution provides that anyone found culpable under this provision shall have his/her seat declared vacant. But Tambuwal alleged that there was “a development” in the PDP chapter of his home state which warranted his defection.

It would be recalled that in the same House of Representatives in 2012, a member who represented Akure South federal constituency of Ondo State, Ifedayo Abegunde, lost his seat after a court ruled that his defection from Labour Party to the then Action Congress of Nigeria was unconstitutional because there was no division in LP at the time. The judgement was later upheld by the Court of Appeal.
However, while Tambuwal’s defection did not come to many as a surprise, the action of senators took many by surprise as the Senate had been noted as an ardent supporter of Jonathan since inception. Any request from Jonathan sailed through largely unhindered, despite objections from opposition senators.

Many were shocked last Tuesday when PDP senators wore long faces into the chamber. The session was presided over by Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, while Mark was attending a National Council of State meeting at the Presidential Villa. The day’s drama started after the adoption of votes and proceedings for October 28. Thereafter, Ekweremadu read a letter addressed to Mark by the president, imploring the Senate to confirm one Okwu Joseph Nnanna as a Deputy Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria.

Feud
Few minutes later, the Senate Leader, Victor Ndoma-Egba, who had reportedly lost out at the ward congress in his home state, Cross River, immediately moved a motion that all items on the Order Paper be stood down and sitting adjourned till the following day to enable them attend a caucus meeting of PDP senators. The motive behind the suspension of the day’s sitting was not immediately known until one of the senators volunteered information on why the action was taken and how the trend would continue for so long.

According to him, PDP structures in the states had been handed to governors while senators on the party’s platform were stripped of return tickets. This, he said, implied that their political careers had been ruined. He also insisted that the president should redeploy the governors for whom he had shown preference to legislate for his government.
The senator talked tough, saying in expression of their bitterness and betrayal, they had declared support for the defection of Tambuwal from the PDP to APC. Not done yet, he added that the upper chamber would team up with the House of Representatives to impeach the president if it became necessary.

Indeed, the senators made real their threat to sustain boycott of legislation as they repeated the same action on Wednesday, throwing out all matters slated for deliberation on the Order Paper as they again marched out of the chamber, shutting it down the second time.
But unlike the situation the previous day, when there was no serious opposition to PDP senators’ action, their opposition counterparts tried to no avail to stop them from halting legislation the second day but Senate President David Mark ruled in favour of the former. In their desperate bid to let the president know that they merely wanted to use legislation during the period of budget consideration to settle scores, the Senate didn’t adjourn Wednesday’s sitting to the following day (November 6) but rather till November 11.

Angry Youths
As if torrents of abuses poured on the senators on the social media during the week was not enough, a group of angry youths opted to take their anger further on Wednesday as they stormed the National Assembly under the aegis of Nigerian Youth Movement for Peace Empowerment and Transformation. The group besieged the National Assembly complex, threatening fire and brimstone in protest against the senators’ action as well as the simultaneous closure of the lower chamber.
The group issued a 10-day ultimatum to the federal lawmakers to resume legislative business or face violent and forceful take-over of the National Assembly, which they claimed the senators were not worthy to occupy. The youths, who came in their numbers, said they were enraged by the federal lawmakers’ decision to shut down both chambers of the federal legislature in pursuit of their selfish objectives.

The group’s spokesman, Rex Anighoro, described the Senate’s decision to shut down the chamber as a show of impunity, selfishness and an aberration that will not be allowed to go unchallenged.
Anighoro said, “The odious oddity is the senators’ decision to engage in macabre dance. Nigeria’s union is sick and needs medical attention. These people are serving their personal and parochial interests. They expressed solidarity for Tambuwal’s defection not on the basis of morality but because of their selfish interests.

“Because they lost at their ward congresses, therefore, they shut the Senate and declared solidarity for Tambuwal with the intention to put the president under pressure. That is why we are saying no to impunity in every stratum of government. This is an aberration. The people of Nigeria are not in their calculations. They are only concerned about the survival of their selfish interests.”
On Tambuwal, Anighoro added, “It’s a shame for Tambuwal to go on recess when he’s needed most. Members of Nigeria’s National Assembly are the highest paid in the world while our military are the least paid in the world. They shut down the National Assembly when Adamawa, Borno, Yobe are on fire and yet money keeps coming into their pockets. It is a sin on them. People ought to rise up against this impunity. It is a disservice to us.

“Tambuwal ought to be representing the youth groups. All over the world, leadership age is coming down. We expected Tambuwal to give us hope but, sadly, he is eating the same pie. We are saying the House should reconvene. If they don’t reconvene in the next 10 days, we will mobilise all youth groups to compel them to reconvene, else, we will pull down this gate and the congress of the people will take over the National Assembly. If they don’t reconvene, it shows they are the real Boko Haram (which should be fought).”
Also speaking, Bishop Amakiri, said since Tambuwal, a lawyer, knew the constitutional provision in Section 68(1g), he should have honourably resigned after announcing his defection on October 28.

Opposition Senators Enraged
Unlike the situation on Tuesday, when APC senators looked indifferent to the sudden suspension of legislative business, they attempted to stop PDP senators from further adjourning proceedings in pursuit of their personal goals on Wednesday. Expectedly, however, they could not muster the number to halt the trend, thus, affirming the age-long axiom that the minority will have their say while the majority will have their way.

After the adjournment, one of the opposition senators, Babafemi Ojudu (APC, Ekiti Central), lambasted his PDP colleagues, accusing them of foisting on them and the entire nation the alleged impunity reigning in their party. Ojudu said the PDP senators were the architects of their own misfortune, as they were reaping whirlwind from the wind they had earlier sown. He also threatened that if APC senators had their way, they would reopen the chamber on Thursday and carry out their legislative assignment.
“Now, they have seen injustice, they are fighting. We have seen injustice for more than two and half years. We wanted to fight, our colleagues did not allow us to fight.  Why must it be when it affects us that we act?” he queried.

“People should have standards. Now that they have seen that a lot of them are no longer welcome back in their homes, they have realised that they have made themselves slaves to the executive, they are shouting.  When you present yourself as a slave, definitely, you will be treated as a slave. That is the consequence of their actions over the years. But Nigeria voted them here to come and work. We must work... It is unfortunate that the 2015 budget will be affected but we are in the minority, we have our say but they have their way.”

President’s Attention
The central idea of the PDP senators’ action was to force a change in the attitude of the president and the PDP leadership to the legislators and ensure their return to the Senate next year. And since there are obvious threats from APC to break the seeming invincibility of PDP as the dominant political party since 1999, Jonathan did not fail to summon the aggrieved senators to a meeting on Wednesday night. But the meeting scheduled for Wednesday night did not hold until Thursday, probably, because of the president’s trip to Ougadougou, the Burkinabe capital.

The meeting was also attended by members of the National Working Committee of PDP and governors. It was learnt that the meeting adopted a proposal that at least two senators from each state would be allowed to return to the National Assembly next year. It remains to be seen how this will work out, as the resolution does not stop governors itching to seek election into the Senate from doing so.
Having got some relief, the senators would be eager to work this week.

Senators Who May Not Return
At the last count, PDP senators whose governors are warming up to replace include James Manager (Delta South), Barnabas Gemade (Benue North-east), Ike Ekweremadu (Enugu West), Nkechi Nwaogu (Abia Central), and Alloysius Etok (Akwa Ibom North-west).

In states such as Akwa Ibom, Benue, and Enugu, the battle for supremacy over Senate seats has been so fierce in the past one year that the affected senators and their governors have engaged in open confrontations in the media.
Other senators whose governors want to replace are Paulinus Nwagu (Ebonyi Central), Isa Galaudu (Kebbi North), Sardiq Yar’Adua (Katsina Central), and Adamu Gumba (Bauchi South).

While Governor Martin Elechi of Ebonyi State is said to be preparing to replace Nwagu, his Kebbi State counterpart, Saidu Dakingari, is also said to be eyeing Galaudu’s seat. In the same vein, while Governor Ibrahim Shehu Shema of PDP may wrest power from Yar’Adua of APC, his Bauchi State counterpart, Isa Yuguda, is said to be interested in taking Gumba’s seat.

But the case of Ndoma-Egba (Cross River Central) is quite different from that of his counterparts, as Governor Liyel Imoke has declared that he would not seek any elective office in 2015. However, Imoke is said to have anointed John Owan-Enoh, who currently represents Obubra/Etung federal constituency of Cross River State in the lower chamber.

Ndoma-Egba, hitherto said to be Imoke’s friend, fell out with the governor after he allegedly took one Jedy Agba to the Presidency to solicit presidential support for his governorship ambition without the governor’s prior knowledge. The governor was said to have viewed this as an affront and vowed to ensure he doesn’t have his cake and eat it. Since then, the Senior Advocate of Nigeria has been fighting the battle of his life. But it ended in his alleged loss at the November 1 ward congress.

It was, however, learnt that Mark had been working to ensure that Ekweremadu and Ndoma-Egba return with him next year. Will he succeed? Only time can tell.

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2015 AND 30,000 PUs: Plans to rig presidential poll exposed!

 09 November 2014   

*Questions Jega must  answer

In what now appears to be an ego problem for Professor Atahiru Jega, National Chairman, Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, his messianic pursuit of the lopsided allocation of 30,000 Polling Units, PUs, fresh strong signals suggest that his ability to deliver on  successful general elections next year may be suffering a massive discount on account of the many deceptive postulations that he recently made on the matter.

This report will show clearly that but for an agenda that is at best confusing as well as suspect, it should be clear to all lovers of democracy that Jega may have concluded plans to deliver elections molded in a furnace  and shrouded in secrecy.
The inherent danger in this fools’ errand is that just as the INEC boss  went into the April 2, 2011, elections with misplaced optimism, so is he going into the 2015 general elections with deceptive assurances on a grander scale based on the advantage he has already handed his northern region.

2011: AN EMBARRASSMENT FORETOLD
Just after voting on April 2, 2011, journalists asked President Goodluck Jonathan for his thoughts about the process.  An anxious Jonathan expressed joy that “so far, everything is going smoothly”.

But had Jonathan chosen to cross-check from the man in whose hands the destiny of a guesstimated 73.5million voters laid, Professor Attahiru Jega, the INEC Chairman, Nigeria’s President would have discovered, rather embarrassingly, that Jega had failed the nation.  Before that fateful day, Sunday Vanguard had made some revelations about the contract award for voting materials in context, content and volume per figures, the profits therefrom and why Nigerians needed to pay more attention to Jega’s inclination, especially in the light of the tens of billions of tax payers’ money involved – N30,000 (that figure of 30,000), for instance, was paid to each of the about 360,000 registration agents, 8,000 of whom were INEC staff.

It was a flustered Jonathan who was to hear on the airwaves like other Nigerians that Jega had canceled the elections and postponed them. Jega’s statement read in part that morning:

“As you know, the National Assembly (House of Representatives and Senate) elections are supposed to be taking place as I speak. You would also have noticed that things have not proceeded smoothly as expected with the elections.

The reason for this is the unanticipated emergency we have experienced with late arrival of result sheets in many parts of the country. The result sheets are central to the elections and their integrity. Accordingly, in many places, our officials have not reported at the polling units, making it now difficult to implement the Modified Open Ballot Procedure that we have adopted”.
For a man who just less than 24hours earlier assured Nigerians and the international community that all materials were on ground and were ready, Jega’s trust quotient suffered a battering.

For whatever reason best known to him, the INEC boss  has embarked on another voyage; but, this time, presenting Nigerians a Greek gift.

L’INEC C’EST MOI – I AM INEC
Just as Louis XIV declared that he was the state, Jega’s serial quest for total domination, as against his status as first among equals, at INEC reflects a certain desperation to achieve a goal.  From his attempt to grab the powers of an Accounting Officer of INEC, to his failed attempt to carry out manual, house-to-house registration of voters, which could have again seen camels, cows, sheep and under-aged people, as well as birds and dogs populating the Voter Register, Jega’s approach to running INEC sends the wrong signal.  That elections appear to be heading in the right direction is also partly a function of the elements and the growing awareness of Nigerians.

Last week, while fielding questions, the INEC  Chairman elevated the art of half-truths and manipulative postulations to another height.  Rather than answer the real questions thrown at him, he chose to triangulate.  What he did was to present the need for credible elections as a front, ease of access to PUs, instead of providing reasons why less populated areas of the North would have more PUs than densely populated areas of the South.

Jega, it was discovered, through investigations at the INEC headquarters in Abuja, did not consult with key stakeholders like National Commissioners, Resident Electoral Commissioners, RECs, and INEC Operation Directors in the 36 states on the allocation of the 30,000 Pus. He also flagrantly refused to appreciate security agencies’ negative report, via a letter on the potential dangers of his actions regarding the allocation. There is a litigation regarding the allocation which he has refused to address.

And to demonstrate that the electoral boss  has a hidden agenda, his refusal to honour the counsel of the Senate Committee on INEC, which insisted that he should stop, speaks volume.

As if possessed by an uncommon spirit, Jega’s manifestly warped position that only a resolution of the National Assembly can stop him is not, as INEC would have put it, cogent and verifiable because when INEC wants to defend its budget or submit itself to oversight, it is to the Committee it goes and not the whole house.  Whereas he lied that there was nothing like the execution of the lopsided allocation, he issued a directive to state offices to carry on.

A WEB OF DECEPTION: DAYLIGHT IN JEGA’S MAGIC
Jega was categorical in telling his audience that no “Post-Business Rule Register” exists in INEC. That was a lie!  In past reports, and even admittedly by his own presentations, it had always been the selfsame INEC boss who told Nigerians about ‘’Post Business Rule Register”.

Until daylight appeared in his magic because of the voodoo in the allocation of the 30,000 PUs, he  had never denied the existence of a ‘’Post Business Rule Register”.

In any case, the question to ask him regarding this is: Which register is INEC using to print and distribute its Permanent Voter Cards, PVCs?

If Jega insists that it is AFIS (Automated Finger Identification System), what is the essence of the Continuous Voter Registration, CVR, an exercise designed to ensure that all the cobwebs associated with AFIS are removed and a smooth transition made to the “Post-Business Rule”? The ‘’Post AFIS Register” contains the electorate who do not have complete finger thumb-prints or the minimum two finger print as well as those with no photo or faded photo.

That is why the AFIS register is neither used for the conduct of elections nor for the printing of PVCs. But the Post Business Rule Register  is the register of the highest clean up stage that contains names of voters with complete required minimum fingers thumbprints, an opposite of the

AFIS register that is deficient in integrity and completeness.
It is important to note here that, that is why INEC used  it for elections like those of Anambra, Ondo, Ekiti and Osun States, and would be used for the 2015 elections. In fact, Jega himself, in his public address at stakeholder briefings before recent elections, had repeatedly said the ‘’Post-Business Rule Register’’ was the most credible and was the basis for the production of the distributed PVCs in over 24 states and the proposed PVC distribution exercise  commencing in Lagos and 11 other states on the 7th November.
Insisting on nationalism and altruism as the basis for his allocation, Jega has never been able to address the basis for allocating to 11 states in the North at over 1,000 PUs each while only Lagos State in the South got same.  Interestingly, Jega’s allocation got to war-ravaged states like Yobe and Borno even in the face of fleeing residents.

CARD READERS AND INNOVATION IN CROOKEDNESS
Another truth that Jega is not telling Nigerians is the confusion that is about to blow up in his face. Then, should the ultimate agenda of availing the North the expected advantage from the lopsided allocation be the driving force, this would see crookedness at its best.  It has to do with the card readers for the election.  The card readers that INEC has opted for are going to be PU-specific (that is each card reader to each PU).

However, because of the time factor and the reality that the prospective voters whose PVC cannot be configured to these new 30,000 PUs, because they require names and codes just like the existing 120,000 PUs, INEC, Sunday Vanguard learnt, would be going for card readers that would not be PU-specific; that is, 30,000 card readers would freelance.  Going by the over 21,000 PUs already allocated to the North, the dangerous reality of this is that 21,000 freelancing card readers, in a total of 150,000 PUs, constitute about 14% of the total.

This is significant.  That is just one leg of Jega’s magic.
The most dangerous part of it is that of the 30,000, only one zone in the North, the North-West, got 7,906 PUs; and when you add the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, Abuja’s 1,167, you get a total of 9,073; whereas the entire southern Nigeria got just about 8,414.
At the rate of 500 voters to each PU, an allocation of extra over 1,000 to those 11 states in the North is a guarantee for no fewer than over 5,500,000 voters more than the entire southern Nigeria – mind you, the North West and the FCT match the whole of southern Nigeria in this Jega-inspired magic.  By the time you add the allocation to North-East and North-Central zones, daylight would enter the crookedness of the whole engagement.  Yet, the INEC Chairman wants Nigerians to believe that he is doing all a favour by making PUs closer to the people.

Going beyond the surface, the freelancing card readers to be used for the new 30,000 PUs would have the capability to read just about any PVC, which means votes could be freeloaded, depending on the inclination that holds sway.
See box on allocation
See box on the history of how PUs have been allocated by northerners since independence.

INEC’s DATA SHOWS JEGA IS WRONG
Chief among the reasons that have been given for condemning INEC’s skewed creation of new PUs, was that they were created from the whims of its regionally dominated decision-makers and their paternalistic subjectivity, without reference to actual reality from field data.

Hence it was asked how INEC arrived at its proportions while it was still collecting data in the field regarding actual figures of voters in each jurisdiction? An outcome that should inform voter logistics, one of which is the number of polling units required for each jurisdiction.

As the emergent figures from INEC’s authentication of eligible voters and the continuous registration of voters in different jurisdictions show below, INEC was only throwing bones to decide how to create its new PUs, and did worse than an Ifa priest, in its allocation. At least the Ifa priest relies on the gods, but in the case of INEC, its operatives were playing God. Like Obatala, the proverbial Yoruba deity, they were creating PUs at the pleasure of their whim,  hence they created 1,200 additional polling units in Abuja, and 1,167 new polling units for the whole of the South-East,  whereas extant data, and now emergent data from INEC’s own field reports, as shown below, indicate again that not only does just four states in the South-East far exceeds the voting strength in Abuja,  the number of newly registered voters in the zone is 919,097/37,235 or about 25 times more.

From the emerging data below even though the full national data has not emerged, the clear deduction can be made that INEC’s decision-makers who created the new PUs which gave 21,000  to the North and 8,000 to the South, were only playing a regional card instead of doing a professional electoral management job.

Even if the final data results in a double voter strength between the North-West and the South-East, which is unlikely given the estimated voting population of the states yet to be accounted for in both zones from the data above, it cannot justify the 8 to 1 disparity in the allocation of new PUs to both zones.

PU Allocation: Twice as bad (a history)
The brief history of PU allocation is necessary for the reader so as to understand the systematic approach that the North had always used to gain political power.  Just as it has become near impossible except the North agrees, the 774 LGAs in the country and the 36 state-structure (with the South having five and the North-West having seven) may never be altered using the 1999 Constitution.

Regarding the allocation of PUs, the only southern INEC Chairman, Professor Maurice Iwu, who attempted to alter it did the wise thing when one of his colleagues, Muhammed Jumare, objected, thereby shattering INEC’s consensus approach to tackling issues.
But in Jega’s case, despite the massive outcry of foul, he insists on going ahead.

Sunday Vanguard learnt that during Iwu’s tenure, the Commission agreed to do an increase based on some criteria and the only states that were supposed to benefit were Ondo, Cross River and Taraba.  But because of Jumare’s objection, that INEC Board dropped the idea. Dr. Lisa Handley, a  renowned consultant on delimitation, advised that INEC required a minimum of three years in-between general elections to commence and conclude a review including managing the challenges and securing National Assembly’s  approval. For the delimitation, whatever you do would require Senate’s  approval; just as the ward review and then the creation of Pus. Jega only abandoned the delimitation and ward review exercise two months ago.  So, why prepare an answer in the mold of PUs when the delimitation and ward review exercise are yet to be done?

Sunday Vanguard has been made to understand that it is part of a grand plan to influence the coming census exercise.  Jega’s planned delimitation and ward review is to be based on the unreliable 2006 census figures.  Worse still, what was his hurry when, in just under two years, fresh census would be conducted?

At an INEC retreat  held at Nike Lake, Handley and some consultants from Liberia and Kenya expressed doubts about the process. The Kenyan, not mindful of our sensitivity in Nigeria, noted that in the northern part of Kenya, they do not have more people unlike in the coastal areas where the population is more.  In fact, the Kenyan pooh-poohed Nigeria’s population configuration as an anomaly.  But he did not know that a chunk of his audience were from Nigeria’s North.

SOURCE: 

Kano blast: My brother in NYSC is 38th of 50 corpses I counted – Witness

on August 01, 2013   /   in News 

BY DAUD  OLATUNJI

ABEOKUTA — A man who said his brother was one of those that lost their lives in a bomb blast, Monday,  at  Sabongari in Kano State, has said that he counted no fewer than 50 dead bodies in a mortuary in the city.

The  witness who simply identified himself as Godwin,  from Edo State claimed that his dead brother wore  number  38 tag  at the mortuary in Kano State with more bodies in the morgue.

He said his brother was a member of  National Youth  Service Corps, NYSC, whom he said was mobilised from Ebonyi  State where he schooled to serve  in Kano State.

Godwin who spoke on phone on a  live radio progamme ‘Day Break Show’ in Abeokuta, yesterday, said though normalcy had since returned to the troubled area, there  was  still feeling  of insecurity among non-indigenes in the state capital.

He said: “As I’m speaking, I am at the mortuary to collect my brother’s corpse and he is number 38 and I can see more bodies.

“The total figure is about 50. The 12 causalities claimed by the government is not correct.

“Kano has been peaceful in the last three months, but, with this latest one, we are again living in fear. Even though we were born here, we still see ourselves as non-indigenes, which should not be. It is terrible and worrisome here.”

SOURCE: 1 August 2013

ASUU strike: NANS exco splits, disowns president

on August 01, 2013   /   in Education ts

BY KELECHI AZUBIKE

ABUJA—Executive members of the National Association of Nigerian Students, NANS, have disowned the national president, Mr. Yinka Gbadebo, on his support for the Federal Government in the ongoing strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU.

Some members of the executive told newsmen, yesterday, that students were largely unbiased in the crisis and the inclination of Mr. Gbadebo to support the government was a deviation from the students’ collective goal of resolving the crisis.

The executive members who included national assistant secretary general, Ali Mohammed , the national sports director, Talib Abubakar Gumel,  director of travels and exchange, Olusegun Oyebisi, said there was no consultation on the issues before Gbadebo declared NANS support for the Federal Government.

The students also dissociated NANS as a body from the ongoing face off between officials of the Federal Government and the Rivers State government saying that their president did not have any right to speak on the issue.

“The national president did not have our mandate to support the federal government over the strike as we are a neutral body. We do not support either the federal government or ASUU because it is the students that bear the brunt of the strike,” Ali who spoke on behalf of his colleagues said yesterday.

“We call on ASUU and the Federal Government to resolve the issue within seven days so that the students can return to their campuses.”

“We do not understand why the national president should support the federal government or what concerns students with what is happening between the Rivers State governor and the President. The matter is between the two of them it does concern the students.”

SOURCE: 1 August 2013.

Why INEC registered All Progressives Congress

Posted by: Yusuf Alli in News

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) registered the All Progressives Congress (APC) based on four factors, The Nation learnt yesterday.

The four factors are: •substantial compliance with Section 222 of the 1999 Constitution and Section 78 of the Electoral Act by merger parties; •absence of any injunction restraining INEC from registering the party; •the commission’s stand to be courageous and take a definite position; and •the need to open up the electoral space for a free and fair contest.

According to sources, despite the fact that a department tried to delay the registration of the APC on technical ground of a subsisting court process, INEC decided to be courageous.

It was gathered that INEC discovered that if it had not acted within the law, APC would have been automatically registered within 30 days of the submission of its application.

A National Commissioner, who spoke in confidence, said: “We subjected the application for merger of the parties to Section 222 of the 1999 Constitution and Section 78 of the Electoral Act.

“The field report confirmed that the ACN, the ANPP and the CPC met all the requirements to merge. So, we have no cause to deny them this right. There were no fault lines; they kept to the guidelines. Denying them registration could overheat the system as if INEC is being stereotyped by some forces.”

Responding to a question, the commissioner said APC’s registration was not subjudice to the ongoing court action by a group laying claim to the acronym.

The source said: “One, there is no injunction restraining INEC from registering All Progressives Congress. Although some officers cited ongoing court action by All Peoples Congress, we got legal advice that we should stick to the provision of the Electoral Act.

“Section 78 of the Electoral Act says: ‘A political association that meets the conditions stipulated in the Constitution and this Act shall be registered by the Commission as a political party within 30 days from the date of receipt of the application, and if after the 30 days such association is not registered by the Commission unless the Commission informs the association to the contrary it shall be deemed to have been registered.

“What it means is that since we have no objection to the merger of the three parties to form APC, they will stand registered automatically after 30 days whether we make a pronouncement or not.

“Instead of allowing APC to emerge by default, we decided to be courageous in registering the merger party. INEC does not want to be seen as cowardly at all.

“The court hearing the application of the pseudo group had adjourned till September or October and there is no way INEC can wait till then to determine the fate of the All Progressives Congress. If we had waited, we will be violating the Electoral Act and there will be no legal basis for registering the new merger party again.”

The commissioner also added: “The Chairman of INEC, Prof. Attahiru Jega, and his team opted to widen the electoral space to promote a free and fair process or contest.

“I think with this decision, Nigerians can have more choice. It is part of the mandate of INEC to make the electoral process transparent.”

SOURCE: 1 August 2013

ACF, Tinubu, others hail APC registration

AUGUST 1, 2013 BY JOHN ALECHENU, OLUSOLA FABIYI, FRIDAY OLOKOR AND GODWIN ISENYO 149 COMMENTS

Buhari, Tinubu and Onu
| credits:

The Independent National Electoral Commission on Wednesday approved the registration of the All Progressives Congress, thereby putting an end to the series of  political horse-trading over the ownership of  the acronym, APC.

 A terse statement issued in Abuja by Mr. Kayode Idowu, the Chief Press Secretary to INEC Chairman, Prof. Attahiru Jega, said with the approval,  the  Action Congress of Nigeria, All Nigeria Peoples Party and the Congress for Progressive Change which formed the APC,    had  satisfied the requirements for registration.

INEC  also approved the withdrawal of the individual certificates of the   three parties   and   issued   a single certificate to APC.

The statement reads: “The Independent National Electoral Commission   has approved the application by three political parties – the  ACN, the  ANPP  and the   CPC  – to merge into one, to be known as the All Progressives Congress.

“On considering the application, the commission found that the applicant-parties have met all statutory requirements for the merger, and has accordingly granted their request.

 “Consequently, the commission has approved the withdrawal of the individual certificates of the applicant-parties, and the issuance of a single certificate to the APC.”

 The registration drew immediate reactions  from the APC, the Peoples Democratic Party, Arewa Consultative Forum,  a former Lagos State Governor, Bola Tinubu, and  the presidential candidate of the former ACN in the 2011 presidential election,Mallam Nuhu Ribadu.

While the APC described  the development as victory for Nigerians, the PDP said it would not lose sleep over it.

 The  APC, in a statement   by its Interim National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, said with its registration,  Nigerians now had an alternative to  the  ruling  PDP,   which it said had  taken  them “ for a bad ride in the past 14 years.”

It  added that its  registration   would  propel  the country to the league of top democratic nations with two major political parties.

 The statement reads, “The journey has been long and tortuous. All sorts of obstacles were thrown onto  our path by anti-democratic forces, but we were painstaking, determined and unrelenting in our quest for a formidable platform that will allow our country, Nigeria, to achieve her full potential and join the league of respectable nations.

“With the approval of our merger by  the INEC and the emergence of the  APC, today (Wednesday) marks the beginning of a new dawn for our country and her long-suffering people. We thank Nigerians both here and in the Diaspora for standing by us.

 “We thank the media for their fairness and we commend  the INEC for doing the right thing and for not succumbing to pressure from phantom political associations that sought to force it to circumvent the law.

 “We promise not to disappoint Nigerians who have reposed much confidence in us. We say that contrary to the lies being peddled by the naysayers, we are not seeking political power for the sake of getting it, but in order to use it to empower our people and allow their long-nursed hopes and dreams to become a reality.

“And to those who have vowed to change their names if APC survives for a year, we hope they will live up to their words.’’

The party promised to unveil, in the days ahead, its membership registration plans to give all Nigerians, especially those disenchanted with the way things were  going on in the country, the much-awaited opportunity to be a part of the country’s democratic process in the true sense of the word.

‘’We will also be unveiling our plans to turn today’s hopelessness into a time of great opportunities, to reverse the downward slide in our socio-economic development, and to ensure that every Nigerian benefits from the commonwealth, instead of the present situation in which a few fat cats are milking the system dry at the expense of the citizenry,’’ it said.

One of the  founders of the APC, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, said the registration by INEC signalled  “the commencement of a new phase in the struggle to bring true democratic change to Nigeria.”

Describing the coming together of the ACN, CPC and ANPP as not just a merger, he said  “this is    the first   ever merger in the history of Nigeria and it represents a paradigm shift in our  politics.”

 Tinubu, who congratulated the ACN, CPC and ANPP governors as well as  other leaders of the APC for making the registration possible, however,  challenged all progressive politicians    to “ rise up to answer the call of history to liberate our people.”

He also  hailed  “millions of Nigerians who stood by us during the long process to form the  APC,”  and the leadership of INEC “for this positive pronouncement.”

“Nigerians must give INEC a pat on the back for complying with the law of the land. What INEC has done is to follow the constitution and the electoral act to the letter. We hope INEC will continue in this spirit of independence and respect for the rule of law in all its future operations, “ Tinubu said in a statement by his media aide, Sunday Dare.

A co-founder   of the  APC and the presidential candidate  for the CPC  in the last presidential poll , Maj-Gen. Muhammadu Buhari, said he would not react now on the registration  because  the National Chairman of the  new party, Chief Bisi Akande,  had yet to brief him.

“ The general cannot react to the registration now because he is yet to be briefed by our  national chairman , Chief  Akande. So until  the general hears from the national hierarchy of the party, he will not comment on the registration of the party. He will talk to the press as soon as he is well informed from the national level,” said  Buhari’s  spokesman, Yau Darazo.

Ribadu also welcomed the registration   and charged members of the APC to strive hard  for the ultimate goal of dislodging the PDP.

 In  a statement in Abuja, he congratulated key players in the ACN, CPC and ANPP  “for  setting  their personal interests aside  in order to allow for  the mutation of a pan-Nigerian party that can provide a credible alternative to the ruling party”.

The statement by his  media aide, Abdulaziz Abdulaziz,  quoted him as  saying, “Like millions of Nigerians from all over the country, I am immensely delighted over the successful registration of the All Progressives Congress by INEC.”

According to him, the registration of the party by the electoral body “is not the end but the beginning of the end of misrule and cluelessness” by the PDP.

The  former CPC also threw its weight behind the INEC  decision, saying it had  given Nigerians a choice between “good and evil.”

 “Today(Wednesday) Nigerians now have a choice between good and evil. Now that the APC has been registered, genuine choice has been put before Nigerians.For the very first time, Nigeria and Nigerians have now been put at the driver’s seat of their destiny, it said through its  ex-National Publicity Secretary, Rotimi Fashakin.

On its part, the ACF  said  the registration of  APC  would enhance the growth of democracy in the country.

Its National Publicity Secretary, Mr. Anthony Sani,   told one   of our correspondents that   any democracy without a viable opposition was as good as a fraud.

 “The registration of  the APC as a political party is a healthy development needed for the growth of democracy, especially when regard is paid to the fact that any democracy without a viable alternative platform is a sham,” it said.

However, the PDP which   also welcomed the  registration,    said the APC    was  not a threat  to its dominance of the nation’s political scene.

 “The registration of the new party poses no threat to the PDP. The ruling party still maintains its preeminent position and enjoys the widest popularity and acceptance among Nigerians across the country,”  its Acting National Publicity Secretary,  Mr. Tony Okeke, said  in a statement.

 The PDP added, “With the registration of the APC, Nigerians now expect the leaders of the opposition party to eschew all forms of bitterness and desperation and desist from politics of propaganda which characterised their former parties.”

According to the PDP, Nigerians would like to see a  “vibrant opposition” that   would be constructively engaged in  issues of governance   instead of overheating the polity.

 One of the groups that almost thwarted APC’s registration, the  African People’s Congress   held an emergency  meeting, barely 30 minutes after  INEC  issued its statement approving the new party.

The  African People’s Congress  which will on Thursday (today) issue  a statement on the APC registration,  may have  assembled  a  legal team to fine-tune the suit it filed at a Federal High Court, Abuja challenging  its non-registration by INEC.

“We are aware of INEC’s decision. We are currently meeting on it.  We will come out with a press statement tomorrow (today) and you will hear our appropriate response,” its

SOURCE: The Punch - Nigeria's Most Widely Read Newspaper 1 August 2013