A Story I Wish I Didn’t Have To Tell

Azubuike Ishiekwene

For three weeks, I have been trying to wrap my mind around it. Moaning is our creed. When two or three are gathered together, moaning completes the party. If it gets worse at election time, you can understand. It’s the only time once in four years we can get the ears of politicians and hope our voices count.
When you read in advertisements or see on billboards the things that politicians claim they have done, for which they insist they deserve election or re-election, you wonder if they’re referring to the same country in which misery has become the daily companion of millions of hard-working families.
Lying politicians don’t give a damn. They worsen our misery by playing politics with it. But they don’t care because they think we’re either too stupid to remember or too impotent to confront them.
On this particular morning about three weeks ago, it was the claim by President Goodluck Jonathan – that he had created over two and a half million jobs in the last four years – that got the conversation going. “Where did he create the jobs?” one of those in my company asked.
And then she told the story of a family I know so well for whom the elegant story of Jonathan’s job creation can only be matched by the puzzle of a Greek movie.
The Adodos (not real name), a family of five, including three boys between ages 16 and 12, are what you may call the average middle-class family. Citizen Adodo, a university graduate, was doing well as the manager of a stockbroking firm. His wife was a trader, bringing in stuff from China. Then the stock bubble burst around 2008 and Adodo lost his job.
At 41, he knew it wasn’t going to be easy finding another job, but he tried all the same. After trying and failing for three years, he started a yoghurt factory with his own savings and half a million naira loan from a finance house.
The business was picking up but he soon discovered that, apart from problems with dodgy staff, defaulting wholesalers were also tying down his capital and shrinking his margin dangerously.
As if that was not bad enough, the costs of generating his own electricity and replenishing raw material stock have gone up nearly three times in the last 18 months, leaving his business on the ropes.
His wife’s business did not fare better, either. In spite of all the nice things finance minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala has been saying about the Nigerian Customs and the seaports, wharf rats continue to give Mrs Adodo a raw deal, extorting bribes sometimes over 50 percent of the value of her goods. Her trading business, which supports her family, has now been brought to its knees by a combination of corrupt port officials and a catastrophic exchange rate.
What does it mean when the modest income of hardworking Mum, Dad, or both, can no longer take the family home? Or when Mum and Dad know they cannot ask a neighbour or relation for help because those they may think of asking may, themselves, be in desperate need of help?
It means trouble coming home with its own chair.
Who cares? It’s either you believe Jonathan’s success story or you spare a thought for the Adodos and millions of families around the country like them living a nightmarish existence. To be fair, I’ve heard stories about beneficiaries of YouWin and such government programmes introduced to give a head start to small businesses. But show me one winner and I’ll show you millions of losers denied a fair shake.
Adodo’s landlord, for his part, couldn’t care less about Jonathan’s life-size campaign posters. About nine months ago, he sold his house and turned in all the tenants – including the Adodos – to a new shark, who asked everyone to quit, except if they were ready to pay new rent for two years.
The Adodos have since quit; not to a new, rented house, but to three different destinations. Mum and Dad are living separately, squatting with friends, while the three children were split among good Samaritans.
As nature never fails to leave a witness in every dark cloud, the Adodos got their own silver lining. In the midst of all their troubles, Adodo Jnr obtained seven credit passes, including four A’s, in his school certificate examination. This was at a time when fewer than 30 percent of those who took the school certificate examination passed.
But the joy of his success is fading. Adodo Jnr’s parents are begging him to shelve his results for now because they cannot afford to pay his fees. His younger brother had been forced to repeat primary six, not because he failed but because his parents cannot afford the cost of a private secondary school. Where would the money come from when the family cannot even afford a roof over its head?
When Jonathan asks for votes and his spin doctors tell us he deserves it because of how well he performed in his first term, I think of the Adodos and millions like them with even more heart-wrenching stories. I can’t get my head around them – families on the verge of destitution, shattered by the hard times, and hopelessness for breadwinners and children as well.
Yet somehow, in the shaft of the grim and uncertain days that lie ahead for the young Adodos, our connected world may bring them face-to-face with the story of another young boy, Vidal Chastanet.
Vidal is the 12-year-old boy saved from the streets of Brooklyn, New York, by a documentarian, Brandon Stanton. Just by the simple act of recording and sharing on social media the story of how Vidal became a street kid, Brandon changed his life.
The story caught on with the White House, brought Vidal face-to-face with President Barack Obama and raised enough money to open the doors of Harvard University to the young boy and to many others from his school who may never have dared to dream.
For the Adodos, young and old, it’s a different story. With the children’s education already in jeopardy and their parents running from pillar to post, the last few years under Jonathan have been a nightmare. Should they ever read the Vidal story, it will never cease to amaze them how unkind this world can sometimes be.
Yet it is not incomprehension or cruelty that is at the heart of the two stories; it is incompetent leadership determined to continue.

Olu Obasanjo: Politics Of The Garrison Ideologue

NOT many people know him as Olu nowadays. When the police authorities in Port Harcourt, Rivers State decided to name a police station after General Olusegun Obasanjo, they found the name more appealing or at least to make the police station look a bit friendly. To a very large extent, the shortened form, Olu instead of Obasanjo or Obj; seems a very practical way to emasculate Obasanjo’s attributes especially his hideous aspect and ignoble designs. At his first coming as military Head of State in 1976, the ready image of Obasanjo was that of a soldier and that image was well advertised by his launch of operation feed the nation, (OFN) programme in the fight against world hunger. Some people do not fail to associate the image of Obj in full military regalia with the Unknown Soldier figurine. In politics, especially at his second coming as democratic president of Nigeria, Obasanjo’s image and public perception changed. That was when the Obj sobriquet came into full application.
But what happened recently when the members of his Ota ward in Abeokuta, Ogun State; visited him depicted the true character and content of General Obasanjo’s political philosophy.  Nigerians were in shock as they beheld Baba telling the Ita Eko ward chairman, Surajudeen Oladunjoye,”tear it”. As a soldier, the former President loves the ‘command and obey’ style of the military. As Yoruba man, Obasanjo cherishes the traditional respect reserved for the elderly. Perhaps a combination of both roots, the former president appreciates loyalty and does not recoil from using men: he understands the meaning of proxy and master-servant relationship. Baba encourages cronyism! However in all aspects, Obj’s dicta give elucidation to his jackboot mentality. Brutal use of power and ferocious use of words go together to define Chief Obasanjo’s garrison ideology. Those who have come in close political contact with him, especially those whose ideas or stances bifurcate from his do not fail to recount their encounter with the Ebora of Owu. And they are legion:
At the build up to the 2007 election, towards the tail end of his eight-year two terms, Obj descended on his Vice President, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar. When the Vice President saw that enormous road blocks had been raised against his ambition to succeed Obasanjo on the Peoples Democratic Party, (PDP) platform, he quickly moved to the Action Congress of Nigeria, (AC.N). But before he could consummate his defection plans, Obasanjo had served the Vice President notice to quit his government. Atiku, who saw the order as a show of ignorance of the workings of a democracy on Chief Obasanjo’s part, decided to ignore it. The bull in Obasanjo was unleashed by that show of ignominy and he ordered that the VPs section of the Villa was barricaded thus literarily sacking his Vice President by fiat. Wincing from that show of impunity, Turaki approached the courts.  So tensed and heated up was the Nigerian polity that on the day the Federal Appeal Court sitting in Abuja, ruled that “President Obasanjo does not have any right to sack the Vice President” people in the wide court precincts went wild in exultant jubilation. A touchy feature of that judgment was that all the Appeal Judges were unanimous in the ruling delivered by the President, Court of Appeal, Abdullahi Umaru that “the allegiance of the Vice President should be to the constitution, not to the President”.
Many people also see Chief Obasanjo’s tireless tirades against incumbent President Goodluck Jonathan as further evidence of his aversion to young people who show independent affront to his command and control politics. The only posture from young people that is acceptable to former President is that of a crouching, unquestioningly obedient, subservient underling. Perhaps that must have explained his dismissal of the younger generation as incompetent, effeminate and dishonest leaders. Speaking at a summit for sustainable development in University of Ibadan two years ago, Chief Obasanjo declared that emerging Nigeria’s leaders are highly deficit in integrity. From that summit another image of Obasanjo loomed large: that of holier-than-thou! He engages in unconscionable sanctimonious verbifications. Continuing his remarks at the occasion, Obj stated: “During my administration as president, we had some people who were under 50 years in leadership positions. One of them was James Ibori, where is he today? One of them was Alamieyeseigha, where is he today? Lucky Igbinedion, where is he today? The youngest was the Speaker, Buhari, you can still recall what happened to him”. “You said Bola Tinubu is your master. What Buhari did was not anything worse than what Bola Tinubu did. We got them impeached. But in this part of the world, some people covered up the other man. The man claimed he went to Government College, Ibadan, but the governor went to Government College and packed all the documents so that they would not know that he did not go there… I wanted someone who would succeed me so I took Atiku. Within a year, I started seeing the type of man Atiku is. And you want me to get him there?”
Obasanjo’s years as civilian President gave Nigerians few reasons to smile, but greater part of his eight-year reign was lived in tears, sorrow and blood. From the Odi and Zakibiam massacres to the dubious impeachments of state governors he encouraged and supported, Olu Obasanjo sees force as the veritable expression of leadership acumen. The Four governors that received the impeachment treatment included Governors Lateef Ladoja, Ayo Fayose, Diepreye Solomon Peter Alameseigha and Joshua Dariye. While six out of 24 legislators impeached Dariye, 15 out of 24 impeached Alameseigha and 18 out of 32 impeached Ladoja. In the case of Ekiti, out of the 22 legislators that okayed Fayose’s impeachment, 10 later turned back to confess that they were misled. It is not only lowly state legislators that Obasanjo’s misleads into taking wrong actions, wealthy and influential people also fall victims to the man’s guile. It took the confession of one big man for Nigerians to know that.
Mr. Buruji Kashamu, while reacting to Obasanjo’s legendary letter to President Jonathan, disclosed that former President Obasanjo used him in a proxy political warfare to conquer former Ogun State Governor, Otunba Gbenga Daniel. Short of shedding tears of regret, Kashamu lamented that Obj was an ingrate stressing that he, (Olu) used him to achieve his political designs. “He used me to fight Gbenga Daniel and I spent over N3 billion to fight his cause and took the PDP structure from Daniel and handed it over to him,” Kashamu moaned. It is not as yet known whether the quarrel between Obasanjo against President Jonathan is the incumbent president’s reluctance to or rejection of any suggestion to hound Kashamu to US for alleged phantom trial for drug related offences.
To former Abia State Governor, Chief Orji Uzor Kalu, Obj is a vindictive leader. Kalu had a running battle with the former President during which both were thorns in each other’s flesh. The former Abia chief executive disclosed that he fell out with Obasanjo when he prevailed on the erstwhile national Chairman of PDP, Chief Barnabas Gemade, not to refund the N500 million he loaned the party. Kalu believes former President Obasanjo is the worst leader ever produced in Nigeria since the advent of democracy in 1999. He said that apart from obstructing the refund of his N500 million lifeline, Baba Iyabo ensured the grounding of Slok Airlines, owned by him, (Kalu). In an interview with The Guardian two years ago, the former Abia State governor disclosed that his political quarrel with Obasanjo started when he took the then president on over issues that affected the (Enugu-Port Harcourt) Express way, the Igbo people, and Onitsha-Owerri expressway. “I quarreled with him on issues that bordered on the dry port he promised and never did. In fact I quarreled on issues concerning my people… I have a lot respect for the person of President Obasanjo and his office then, I still love and respect him as a statesman, he loves this country but he applied a different way to different people,” Kalu noted. He added that Obasanjo’s plot to have an unconstitutional tenure elongation widened their disagreement.
Perhaps still reeling from the bitter experience he had with Obasanjo, former Bayelsa Governor, DSP Alameseigha, accused Obasanjo as an expert in corruption by proxy. The former governor while speaking during the last National Confab said Obasanjo has a list of oil thieves in Nigeria who he shielded as the petroleum minister during his administration. Alameseigha had said: “I had one experience. Tankers were loaded in Bayelsa. I got the information and laid ambush for them and arrested them. About 14 big tankers and they were handed over to the police. They were charged to court and the judge ordered that the product should be tested if they were crude oil. NNPC was invited, they came took the sample and after a week the result came out as agro chemical and before I know it all of them were released”. “I went to President (Olusegun) Obasanjo. I even accused him that he is the chief bunkerer, that he should not call me again. I also accused him that those that are involved are also sitting in this arena and if he pushed me beyond that I am going to mention names. It became so hot that I was persuaded to follow him to his office”.
In Lagos parlance, ‘Obasanjo no send’. That is usually how most people chose to describe the fact that the former cannot be intimidated or shamed. Add that he has an acerbic vocal capacity. When he in 1980 Obasanjo espied the growing popularity of Chief M. K. O Abiola, he said Abiola is not the messiah a lot people believe the late philanthropist to be. Now in order to get even with President Jonathan, Obasanjo remembers espirit de corps to favour General Muhammadu Buhari, who he mobilized Nigerians against in 2003 and 2007. He had once engaged in sordid altercation with former military President Ibrahim Babangida. Watching his politics and style, many people are wont to ask, what makes Obasanjo restless? Perhaps, he loses his cool when he is not in charge. As such feeling uncomfortable with the possibility of joining a political party founded by the Bola Tinubu political engineering and bitter at the reality of staying put in a PDP where new Pharoahs that do not recognize Joseph hold sway; Olu had to invite his former ward colleagues to showcase the vintage Obj style! Chief Obasanjo may not be a Barkin Zuwo equivalent in Nigeria politics but there cannot be another like him. There is a possibility that as he elects to join the late Bola Ige’s party, SLLP (Siddon Look Political Party); more yabis is sure to flow from the celebrated garrison ideologue.

IS 2015 ELECTIONS ABOUT RELIGION?

Opposition asks INEC not to recognise substituted candidate
THE All Progressives Congress (APC) has alerted Nigerians on a fresh plot by desperate politicians to circulate leaflets in mosques and churches asking Moslems to only vote for Moslems in the forthcoming elections.
  In a statement issued in Lagos yesterday by its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the party said the plot was in line with the track record of those who had consistently been using religion to divide Nigerians in order to feather their political nest.
  ‘’They are hoping that by further inflaming passion with the highly emotive issue of religion, they can revive their shrivelling political fortunes. That is why they have devised the latest strategy of pitching Christians against Moslems through the circulation of satanic leaflets. Nigerians should not be taken in by this cheap plot,’’ it said.
  But the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) said the alert by the APC that certain desperate politicians were planning to circulate leaflets in mosques and churches to urge Moslems to vote only Moslems in the coming elections is an unintended leak from the APC’s massive arsenal of religious bigotry and viscous divisive politics.
   A statement yesterday by the National Publicity Secretary of the PDP, Olisa Metuh, said the APC whose presidential candidate stands to benefit from such unpatriotic conduct and who together with his party has consistently been aligned to such insensibilities is scared of the possible backlash and desperately looking for a scapegoat.
  In another development, the national executive of APC has asked the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to reinstate Wasiu Eshilokun as the candidate of the party for election into Lagos Island Constituency 1 of the Lagos State House of Assembly.
  Eshilokun, who was the chairman of Lagos Island Local Council, had sued the party for substituting his name with that of Hakeem Masha after he had won the primaries.
  The instruction to reinstate him was in an affidavit attached as exhibit by applicant, which was a letter jointly signed by the party’s National Chairman and Secretary, John Odigie-Oyegun and Mai Mala Buni respectively, washing their hands off the applicant’s travails and instructing his reinstatement.
  Dissatisfied with the substitution, Eshilokun had filed a suit before the Federal High Court, Lagos, challenging the action and sought among other orders, an order reinstating him as the candidate of the party.
  The PDP further said:   “The PDP needs neither religious nor ethnic cleavages to campaign and win the 2015 presidential elections.  Our history of consistency in form, structure and core values as well as track record of delivery, which have endeared us over the years to Nigerians have not changed. We, therefore, remain the best and do not need recourse to narrow politicking, especially when our presidential candidate, President Goodluck Jonathan epitomises the unity, progress and prosperity of the nation.”
  When the matter of reinstatement came up before Justice Ibrahim Buba yesterday, Masha’s counsel, Bonojo Badejo (SAN), informed the court of an application which he just filed and served on other parties to the suit challenging the service of the processes in the suit on his client.
  Badejo, therefore, requested for more time to respond to a counter-affidavit filed in response to the said application by the applicant (Eshilokun).
  But the applicant’s counsel, Wahab Shittu, said despite the fact that the matter was adjourned for almost a week, the second defendant (Masha) did not serve his client until Wednesday evening.
    Also, counsel to APC, Femi Falana (SAN), had initially filed a preliminary objection to the suit asking that same be dismissed owing to lack of jurisdiction.
 But Justice Buba said it would be in the interest of justice to give the defendant time to respond, but assured that the matter would be heard timeously.
  The judge then fixed February 26, 2015 for definite hearing after all the necessary processes must have been exchanged.

CBN Introduces New Policy On Dormant Accounts



Nigeria’s apex bank has introduced new guidelines for the treatment and management of dormant account balances by deposit-taking financial institutions across the nation.

According to the Central Bank Of Nigeria, CBN, part of the objectives of the policy is to ensure that dormant account funds are identified and channelled through appropriate institutions to make them more productive to the economy and eliminate the possibility of banks converting dormant account balances to income, Punch reports.

This development was communicated on Tuesday, February 17, 2015 via a circular released and signed by its Director, Financial Policy and Regulation Department, Mr. Kevin Amugo.

Amugo observed that the disproportionate treatment of dormant account balances by addressed financial institutions was as a result of lack of clear guidelines for the management of such accounts.

According to him, the idea was born in order to enhance the banking system and the Nigerian economy.

The circular said, “It is in view of the above and the imperative to promote transparency in the financial system that the CBN hereby issues these guidelines to provide a standard for the treatment and management of dormant account balances in Nigeria.

“The purpose of the policy is to curb possible abuse in the operation of dormant accounts, set operational standards for banks and other financial institutions in line with best practice, and to reinforce the property rights as guaranteed in the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended).

“A dormant account shall be a bank account that has no customer or depositor originated transaction within a specified period of six years after the last customer or depositor initiated a transaction. However, such an account shall be recognised as inactive after the first six months of non-depositor or customer originated transaction in it.”

The band added, “Accounts shall retain their interest earning status during the period of dormancy in the bank. Deposit-taking financial institutions shall continue to monitor accounts that show tendencies of inactivity and where necessary, initiate actions for their activation or protection from wrong usage.

“Once dormant accounts exceed a six-year period, they shall be reported to the CBN along with efforts made by the obligor bank to locate the owners or their personal representatives.”

The CBN stated that three months to the end of the six years, both the account holder and the next-of-kin would be notified, adding that revalidation of inactive/dormant accounts would not attract any charge to the account holder as the banks would have made ample use of the idle funds.

It said, “Dormant account balances shall continue to be reflected in the books of banks as deposit liabilities until they are eventually withdrawn by the account holders or disposed of on their instructions. Dormant account balances shall, therefore, be regarded as deposits and shall be covered by deposit insurance.

“In the case of government-owned inactive/dormant accounts, banks shall notify the relevant government agency of their existence, with periodic returns of such notification sent to Banking Supervision Department. Banks are also required to turn over the funds to the concerned treasury after six years of inactivity.”

The directive further stated that account opening forms would provide a space for the next-of-kin, who would be contacted at the point of declaring the accounts dormant.

“The provisions of the guidelines shall take immediate effect. Sanctions for contravention of the provisions of the guidelines shall be imposed under Section 60 of the BOFIA (1991) as amended,” the CBN said

APC Majority: Tambuwal Blocks Leadership Change In Reps


With the emergence of the All Progressives Congress (APC) as the majority in the House of Representatives, a plot by the federal lawmakers from the APC to effect a leadership change in the House failed yesterday.

At yesterday’s plenary, the House deputy minority leader, Hon Suleiman Kawu Sumaila (Kano/APC) raised a point of order, reminding the House of the new majority status of the APC following mass defections from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

He said based on this, APC should be the party occupying the positions of House leader and deputy House leader as well as chief whip and deputy chief whip in accordance to the Rules of the House.

The House speaker, Hon Aminu Waziri Tambuwal, however, cautioned against any move to change the House leadership, reminding lawmakers of a court action on the issue of defections.

Following six defections (all from PDP) yesterday, the 360-member House now features APC with 181 seats; PDP 156 seats and other parties 23 seats.

The members that defected yesterday were Tobias Okwuru, PDP to LP (Ebonyi); Peter Ali, PDP to LP (Ebonyi); Chinenye Ike, PDP to APGA (Abia); Micah Umoh, PDP to ACCORD (A/Ibom); Robinson Uwak, PDP to APC (A/Ibom) and Ibrahim Garba, PDP to APC (Jigawa).

In January, APC emerged as the political party with majority members in the House, a first by an opposition party since 1999. The PDP had dominated the House since Nigeria’s return to democracy in 1999.



Poll Shift, A Dent On Integrity Of 2015 Election – Tambuwal

Speaker, House of Representatives, Hon Aminu Waziri Tambuwal has said that the postponement of the general elections has “inflicted an indelible dent on the integrity of the 2015 Elections and indeed the country’s entire electoral process”.

Tambuwal said majority opinions showed that the postponement was ill-timed, the excuse of security concerns notwithstanding.

“Government owes Nigerians a duty to make deliberate and honest efforts to restore public confidence in the process and in it’s commitment to free, fair, peaceful and transparent elections,” Tambuwal stated in his welcome remarks as House members resumed from their month-long recess yesterday.

Ahead of the March elections, Tambuwal said recent inflammatory utterances by some Nigerians which are inimical to the nation’s unity, peace and public order give cause for serious concern.

He said, “I am persuaded that the nonchalance or at best reluctance of the security agencies in resorting to the laws of the land in arresting the trend constitutes a direct affront on the revered doctrine of the rule of law. Nigerians have never needed intimidation or threats from any quarters to vote candidates at elections and they surely do not need any now.

“Our Constitution makes elaborate provisions for the rights and liberties of all citizens and, therefore, when certain misguided individuals or groups seek to unlawfully curtail these rights and liberties, the appropriate agencies of state must rise as a bulwark against such infractions”.

Tambuwal added that Nigerians will elect their leaders through the ballot and will resist all retrogressive forces that seek to truncate democracy.

On the 2015 national budget, Tambuwal assured of speedy passage despite the budget’s “belated submission”.



Constitution Amendment: Reps Approve Free Education, Healthcare For Nigerians

Deputy speaker, House of Representatives, Hon Emeka Ihedioha, yesterday presented the report of the concluded nationwide review process of the 1999 Constitution, highlights of which include the right to free basic education and free healthcare services for all Nigerians.

The House members unanimously adopted the report.

The report is a summation of the resolutions of the State Houses of Assembly on the amendment of the constitution which is a culmination of the process for amending the nation’s grundnum after both chambers of the National Assembly have harmonised their positions as stipulated by law.

In another landmark amendment which returned approved from the states, national security agencies, the Nigeria Police, State Houses of Assembly, attorneys-general and auditors-general are now listed as bodies and offices to enjoy a first line charge from the Consolidated Revenue Fund of the Federation.

“This shall grant them financial autonomy to enable them carry out their assignments without the hindrance of non-release of their allocations and ensure their operational autonomy,” Ihedioha said, quoting the report.

NGF crisis: Obasanjo peace move crumbles -PUNCH

THE efforts of former President Olusegun Obasanjo to douse the tension among the governors elected on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party have failed.

Obasanjo met with the governors on Tuesday night at the Presidential Villa, Abuja to intervene in the crisis rocking the Nigeria Governors’ Forum.

A major decision at the meeting was to persuade both Rivers State Governor, Rotimi Amaechi; and his Plateau counterpart, Jonah Jang, to step down for a neutral person as Chairman of the NGF.

But The PUNCH learnt on Wednesday that the two governors had refused to step down.

Amaechi and Jang are both claiming the chairmanship of the forum since its controversial election three months ago. The NGF has since split into two with Amaechi and Jang controlling different factions.

Before the Tuesday’s meeting, which ended at a few minutes after 3am, Obasanjo had earlier met with the governors on Monday night.

The two meetings were said to have centred on discipline in the PDP, the NGF crisis and sundry issues among which are the crisis in Rivers State; matter of  automatic tickets for political office holders, and lack of cohesion among the governors.

On Wednesday, it was gathered that some of the governors in the Jang faction of the NGF raised the matter of persuading both Jang and Amaechi to step down but those in the Amaechi Camp objected, saying that the matter was beyond what could be discussed at the meeting.

Though a source at Monday’s meeting said that there was hope that the issue would be resolved, he said that the matter assumed a new dimension at the resumed meeting on Tuesday when both parties refused to shift ground.

A source close to the two governors, on Wednesday, said, “There was nothing like that. Both of them have agreed to stick to their mandate.”

He added that though Jang was “almost ready to step down because those who voted for him were at the meeting, Amaechi however said he needed to meet those who elected him since his supporters cut across party lines during the election.”

The source added that Obasanjo had agreed to meet with President Goodluck Jonathan on the matter.

Speaking through the Plateau State Commissioner for Information, Mr. Yiljap Abraham, Jang said, “The meeting is still inconclusive.”

The Rivers State Commissioner for Information and Communications, Mrs. Ibim Semenitari, described Amaechi as a defender of democratic principles and would not hesitate to yield to the opinion of the governors that voted him as their chairman.

Semenitari, who spoke with one of our correspondents in Port Harcourt on Wednesday, explained that the governors had not asked Amaechi to step down, so he remained the NGF chairman,

She said, “What I know is that Nigerians are aware of the democratic process by which the chairman of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum was picked. As far as I know Governor Chibuike Amaechi, I also know that he believes that the democratic process should not in any way be one that we will treat with levity.

“Everybody who knows Amaechi knows that he does defend democratic principles. What I am certain of is that the Chairman of the NGF as of today is Rt. Honourable Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi.

“But if all of the governors, especially the governors who voted for Governor Amaechi, ask him to step down, that would mean that the majority of the governors have decided that there should be a new chairman. Naturally, he would concede to his colleagues. But today, that is not the case.”

Meanwhile, one of the aggrieved northern governors, Murtala Nyako of Adamawa State, on Wednesday met with the President behind closed-doors at the Villa, Abuja.

That was the first time Nyako would meet with Jonathan alone since the crises rocking the PDP and the NGF started.

While speaking with State House correspondents at the end of his meeting with Jonathan, Nyako insisted that Jang did not have any claim to the NGF chairmanship because he did not win the election.

When asked specifically whether the governors resolved at their recent meeting with Obasanjo that both Jang and Amaechi should step down as the chairman of the NGF, the governor said, “You are saying Jang should step down, step down for what? Did he win the election? What we are saying here is that if he is going to step down because he is second winner, then that is their business and it is not the business of others or the winner to tell him to step down. He is number two, he got the second highest votes and that is the way forward. Step down for what? From number two to where? Number three or four?”

Nyako said the crisis in the NGF was unnecessary because it was clear that Amaechi won the election.

He said one of the criteria of electing a leader for the forum was that their chairman must be trustworthy.

He said while the governors wanted a chairman that would have a cordial relationship with the President, they could not be comfortable with a chairman that would turn himself to the President’s “yes man.”

Nyako said, “The election in the governors’ forum has become an issue. It should not be an issue. When you say 16, 17, 18, 19, and 20, even someone who is in elementary school knows which one is higher.

“If one group got 19 votes and the other got 16, in a democracy even in the eyes of the people in elementary school, they know that 19 is higher than 16. It should not be turned into a controversy.”

When asked whether the NGF issue was discussed in the meeting with Obasanjo, he simply said, “It was part of it but you should understand the rationale.”

REGINA ASKIA WRITES FEMI FANI-KAYODE OVER SEX RANTS

 

I’ve Just Been Told That Having Sex With An Igbo Woman Is A Great Accomplishment!!! After reading another hard-drug-influenced-essay by the Yoruba idiot parading himself as Femi Fani-Kayode,Ex-Minister of the Nigerian Federation, I felt there was no need to blame him for giving us another reason why his family members should as a matter of urgency, BUNDLE HIM BACK TO A REHAB! No! I don’t blame Femi Fani-Kayode for having a fun-filled day telling us how he ‘breezed’ through Bianca Onoh before our very revered Eze-Igbo married her… I blame Bianca Onoh , Chioma Anasoh & Adaobi Uchegbu for being naive or to have rather stooped so low to have intimate relationship with a Yoruba rascal/urchin/idiot whom i’m very sure was on heavy use of cocaine (and still is) at the time!

Were Bianca, Chioma & Adaobi blind to Femi’s madness/drug-addiction or maybe he flashed his Ministerial/Ex-Ministerial portfolio to entice them? This is the first time a former public figure (I blame Former President Obasanjo for giving him that privilege) has preferred to reel out the names of women he had sex with, in a bid to show-off how he has been able to conquer tribalism in Nigeria or maybe trying to tell others he has been able to have sex with one of the prettiest ex beauty queens another tribe may boast of, like Bianca Ojukwu (Nee Onoh) of the Igbo tribe.

Some persons have adviced that Femi Fani-Kayode should be ignored due to his MENTAL INSTABILITY but i say NO to it! I will not ignore him because when a mad-man chases one into his house & still want to exhibit that madness there, the owner of the house will definitely react except he doesn’t value his house!

This has taken a tribal angle & its such a shame that many Yorubas have been applauding Fani-Kayode’s spiteful comments against the Igbo. I may not want to generalize the behavioural disorders of even the average Yoruba, but i want to use this ample opportunity to remind our single Igbo sisters that if “He” is not Igbo, He can’t be like an Igbo-man who won’t be so ridiculous to think that giving us some of the names of our ladies he had sex with makes him a superman, as Femi Kayode must be ‘thinking’ in his fool’s paradise.

Right now in Nigeria, the likes of a Yoruba bastard like Femi Fani-Kayode have proved that Igbo women should think “wisely” in making choices as regards whom they allow ‘ACCESS’ to their much fancied bodies. An Igboman would NEVER do what Femi Fani-Kayode did with the names of Bianca Ojukwu (Nee Onoh), PDP’s Adaobi Uchegbu & the relatively unknown Chioma Anasoh or even women from other tribes. He typically exhibited behavioural disorder of the Yorubas, which is to them, a normal way of life. What a shame!

Bianca Ojukwu & the other two ladies should as a matter of urgency, reply Femi Fani-Kayode’s show of lunacy, stupidity, foolishness, infantile reasoning & utter disrespect for them!

Femi Fani-Kayode consciously & gladly made a spiteful remark of Igbo women & our women should take the fight to him in a very deserving impudent manner! I am waiting for the responses by Bianca, Adaobi & Chioma.

By the way, I never knew men from other tribes take having sex with an Igbo lady as a great feat… Bianca & others should hold their heads high up.