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Pendulum: Why Are Our Leaders Hiding Behind One Finger?

Published

5 years ago

August 17, 2019

Eric

By Dele Momodu

Fellow Nigerians, permit me to borrow one of those wisecracks popularized by Chief Moshood Abiola, “no one can hide behind one finger.” He should have been here today to see how our leaders are struggling to hide behind one finger. His initial complete confusion would have been replaced by subsequent total amazement!

I don’t know if you have noticed the jamboree going on between Abuja and Daura, this Sallah season. Visitation upon visitation by both the high and the lowly, the rich and the poor, even the military Chiefs have joined the fray, with one thing in mind to fawn over a leader that has been turned into a swan! It is becoming sickening for those who realise and discern that we are now living in a circus and making merry when the serious business of nation building is in abject neglect and the country is generally unravelling and falling apart at the seams. Indeed, any visitor to Nigeria is likely to be instantly dazed about the parlous state of our nation and our national ethos and progress juxtaposed with the reckless, comical and jejune behaviour of our leaders when they should be serious and sober. This leads me to think that the strategy of our politicians is borrowed from the aphorism, “if you can’t convince them, confuse them.” Terrible.

How can a nation bedevilled by some of the worst disasters known to mankind continue to live in fool’s paradise? How can a President we once adored for his simplicity and frugality encourage these flights of fancy and comic relief? How can a President threatened with a barrage of Law suits and under siege by the scourge of fratricidal and secessionist talks, terrorism, insecurity, unemployment, poverty, illiteracy, poor health and failing infrastructure fall for scammers who are only out to deceive him and his band of merry makers by treating him like an Emperor and them as his courtiers? It is astonishing and unbelievable!

I am beginning to subscribe to the view that there must be some irredeemable and incorrigible demons inside the Aso Rock Presidential villa, walahi. Is it that Buhari is not aware that Nigeria has virtually collapsed under his watch? Is it that Buhari is blinded to the fact that the people are groaning under the weight of poverty and famine in the land? Is it that Buhari believes he has performed so wonderfully that everyone must come to worship at his feet for doing Nigeria a big favour like none before him? Too many questions begging for answers. Let me tell our President what my unlettered but intelligent Mum used to tell anyone who cared to listen, “if someone is deceiving you, please don’t deceive yourself.”

Unless Buhari lives on another planet, our dear President should know that Nigeria is haemorrhaging dangerously on many fronts and may actually bleed to death if all hands are not on deck to salvage what is fast becoming a monumental disaster. The nation is running adrift, rudderless with seemingly no pilot or captain at the helm. Instead, the President is furiously fiddling, plucking violently at his violin, whist the nation is consumed by a conflagration of epic proportions. It is time for President Buhari to be told that he should please, in the name of Allah, stop this frivolous crap of behaving like all is well with Nigeria and he can, therefore, copy and replicate the Hollywood style of the American President. He should know that the politicians who, on a good day, have been looking for opportunities to misbehave and go on a binge, will go all out, ostentatiously, with little encouragement, such as that presently being offered by the President and his government. The few reflective, sincere, hardworking and cerebral members of the Government are being made to look like fools as they helplessly watch the debacle unfolding around them knowing that the hound no longer seems to hear the whistle of the hunter. This is not the end. This cannot be the end. We may be at the precipice, but we can still be pulled back and saved. There is only one human saviour on this ride to perdition apart from God. That is the President himself. He must be prepared to do what it takes to shear his government and himself of the deadweight, the cankerworm, the jetsam and flotsam if indeed Nigeria is to survive the gathering storm.

What the President needs to do, speedily, is to climb down from his high horse and face the job he’s been asked to do by Nigerians. What I see is a clear validation of Paulo Freire’s thesis in Pedagogy of the Oppressed; tempt a man who was once poor by elevating him to a higher status and see how he will scatter ground. No serious-minded soul can defend the current abysmal profligacy and recklessness that we are being assailed by.

Rather than wait at home for his acolytes to come and pay obeisance to “he who must be obeyed” President Buhari should take time out of his gilded cage and go around Nigeria to see the desperate, desolate, disastrous and despicable state of things. He should muster the same or a higher amount of energy than he expended on his national campaign and speak to his people. They yearn to hear from him. Such a simple gesture will again endear him to the people who loved him because he appeared to be one of them. It would dispel their current belief that he has sold out to the rich and the powerful. It is not too late to rekindle and find the love and support of the people. This second term offers President Buhari the last chance to do what is right and what is just. It offers him an opportunity to stamp and etch himself positively on our minds and give him a legacy that he would be proud of. I proffer that there are seven basic tasks ahead of Buhari if he is to change the present narrative that portrays him as a ceremonial President intent and content with only the pomp and pageantry that attends his lofty position.

The first task would be for him to unite Nigerians. This is probably the most important task because he would otherwise be infamously and ignominiously known as the man who set the country ablaze again and divided Nigeria for good. I believe I know the President, who fought in the last civil war, to the extent that this would be the furthest thing on his mind. Despite his current posture, it is my feeling that the unity of Nigeria is not negotiable to the President for all manner of reasons. However, the reality is that the President has offended most of the regions outside his own. His policies appear designed to curry the favour and further the interests of only one section of the country. His appointments are lopsided. The few that seem fair are in the end merely tokenism and crudely patronising. The President may be told that there are no complaints from the generality of the people and that the shrieks are coming from the wailers on whose feet he has cruelly trodden. However, the President should not believe all that he is told by lackeys and charlatans. He should not take the silence of the usually rambunctious Nigerians for acquiescence or stupidity, it is just that they are tired, frustrated and weakened. They have been pummelled into submission by the harsh and bitter vagaries of life that the government regularly serves on them as slop for the condemned man. Nigerians are wounded externally and hurting internally, like victims of an accident and ulcer respectively. They may not wear it on their faces and visible body parts, but the indelible scars are there when the covering and layers are removed. Baba, simply put, Nigerians are going through excruciating pains. They live in hell on earth. These glee, boisterousness and rumbustiousness that we daily witness from your flunkeys, hustlers and mountebanks are totally reprehensible and unjustifiable.

The second task, even if it sounds simplistic in the midst of the major problems facing the country, is for him to take off his babanriga dress some of the time because it makes him look too ceremonial when worn on a daily basis, like someone who is simply enjoying the good life, not busy at all, and certainly not in a hurry to fix the myriad of problems afflicting Nigeria. As a retired Major General, he should treat the security challenges, especially, the cases of terrorism and herdsmen menace, wherever they came from, as a declaration of war and should roll up his sleeves to show seriousness and purpose in his determination and effort to deal decisively with the peril that threatens to engulf us. There is nothing more disdainful and disgraceful than the sad reality that we have a hawk in power who cannot catch chickens in his territory, notwithstanding the fact that they are in his eyrie and thus within reach for him to deal a deadly blow.

The third task is how to persuade his foot soldiers to take it easy on Nigeria in the manner of their spending spree. As poor as Nigeria is right now, our leaders should work and look more like those old communists and not like people on fashion parade. Their lavish and ostentatious lifestyle beggar’s belief when the rest of the country are impoverished and lacking. President Buhari no longer has the excuse that he was surrounded by enemies in his first term. He now controls heavens and earth in the form of both the legislature and the judiciary, in addition to the executive. He should now be able to get things done easily, readily and cooperatively. A leader who controls all the different tiers of government should know that the days of flimsy excuses are over.

The fourth task is for President Buhari to make up his mind about his cabinet. Even if he was waiting for the Oracle to return the list of Ministers to him, it should have been done by now. After the backlash received in 2015 when he could not assemble a simple cabinet for approximately six months after his election, there is no reason or justification for the same scenario to play out again. One tends to go superstitious by concluding that there is a spiritual problem in the affairs of our Leaders. It is again about six months since the elections took place and we are still in limbo, even after the National Assembly that used to be the scapegoat has confirmed the Ministers. I cannot fathom why the Ministers need to be sworn in after an induction course. To make matters worse, they will not even know their portfolios until the conclusion of this new-fangled adult education. What then is the essence of this rigmarole? Where is this ever practised? A grave error of judgment at a time when only solemnity is needed. Methinks it is just another avenue of jobs for the boys!

The fifth task is the President should give the nation a clear blueprint of what to expect from him and his cabinet in these next three and a half years plus commensurate milestones for targets set. The people need to know what to expect and the basis for assessing the President and his performance. A situation where the nation is just floating and gliding, relying only on gossip and guesswork for governmental policy and direction cannot augur well for the country. What we will get is half-baked, ill-thought and sometimes highfalutin ideas which cannot take us out of the dense inhospitable woodlands that we currently find ourselves. All these are preposterously inimical to progress and development.

The sixth task is that President Buhari should act urgently on the rule of Law. Nigeria seems to have descended further into anarchy since 2015 to date with no hope or sign in sight that a miracle may happen. Courts are ordering the release of detainees and the law enforcement agencies and the Attorneys-General are refusing to obey them. Courts are mindlessly granting bail in staggering sums and demanding that public servants put up this sum in a banal endorsement of corruption. Pray tell, how is a civil servant meant to have saved even 25 million Naira that he would frivolously imperil as bail for another person? Yet bail is being set in multiples of hundreds of millions of Naira. Properties are being summarily seized with reckless abandon and no regard to law or lawful court orders on the whims and caprice of some anti-corruption czars! To worsen matters dog is now eating dog and soldiers are beating up, shooting and killing their own colleagues in the Police Force to facilitate the escape of hardened criminals. Why? Their body language suggests that they feel protected by one of them who happens to be the President. And truly nothing has happened to the irresponsible culprits. The harassment of our hapless citizens must stop before we have a mass rebellion in our hands.

The seventh task is the President must urgently reverse the ugly state of our infrastructure. It is just too archaic, especially our healthcare, education, power, transportation systems and roads. A country that neglects its infrastructure or does not even maintain them has nowhere to go.

Nigeria is in its dying throes. The President must now awaken from his slumber and jollification and live up to his responsibilities. Nigerians are not asking for too much.

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Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway: Prioritize Existing Unfinished Projects, Peter Obi Tells FG

Published

3 days ago

April 22, 2024

Eric

Mr. Peter Obi, the Labour Party’s presidential candidate in the 2023 general election, has advised the federal government to prioritize existing unfinished projects spread across the country instead of the Lagos-Calabar coastal highway project.

Obi, in a series of posts on X (formerly Twitter) on Monday, stated that the project was a misplaced priority given the numerous unfinished roads throughout the country.

The former governor of Anambra State mentioned that the budget allocated to the Ministry of Works is insufficient for significant progress on the country’s various unfinished roads, much less their completion.

Obi therefore, advised that the government prioritize the existing infrastructural projects in the country before embarking on any new and colossal projects like the Lagos-Calabar super highway project.

“The Federal Ministry of Works 2024 capital budget of N892,461,262,656.00, additional funding from multilateral loan projects of N94,828,535,243.00, alongside other expected contributions from sources like the China-Exim Bank and the World Bank, will not be enough for serious work on all the critical roads, some of which I enumerated above, let alone their completion.

So, why embark on another huge project that will not be completed in the next 20 or 30 years?

“To do so will only exacerbate the problem of abandoned, uncompleted projects that are not contributing to economic growth and overall development.

“Therefore, while acknowledging the potential benefits of coastal superhighway infrastructure, I urge prioritization of our existing uncompleted projects. We must allocate resources towards repairing and completing existing infrastructure.

“In any development formula, the primary focus should be on completing and rehabilitating existing infrastructure rather than embarking on colossal new projects that may never reach completion within the next 30 years,” Obi said.

Back in March, the Federal Government began constructing the 700-kilometer Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway, designed to extend through 9 states with two spurs leading to the Northern States.

Recall that former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar, had earlier described the project as a fraud.

“Umahi had announced that Hitech would fully fund the project, and based on this, there was no competitive bidding. He (Umahi) then said that Hitech could only raise just 6% of the money for the pilot phase. This smacks of deceit,” Atiku said.

Headline

2027 Presidential Race: Opposition Parties Under Attack

Published

4 days ago

April 21, 2024

Eric

By Eric Elezuo

While it is still a whole three years before the next general election in 2027, The Boss has learnt that opposition parties in the countries are being muffled to pave the way for the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) to return to, and retain power.

From the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), to the Labour Party (LP), and down to the New Nigerian Peoples Paty (NNPP), crises have engulfed the rank and files, in what a source told this paper was the attempt and making of the ruling party, APC, to decimate, destabilize and make redundant the machineries of the opposition parties.

It is believed that by 2027, the apparatuses holding together the various opposition parties would have weakened irredeemably to the extent the country would seemingly nosedive into the inglorious one party state that every civil right advocate and democrats abhor.

It is alleged that all the crises in all the opposition parties are being engineered by the President Bola Tinubu-led ruling APC, with the hope of getting the fibres of their system weakened, thereby luring the members of the crisis-ridden parties into the APC.

Slightly one year after the last presidential election, the two major opposition platforms, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the Labour Party, have separately been embroiled in a crisis of confidence which has diminished their capacity to provide viable opposition to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).

The crises in both opposition parties got to a head. The Labour Party led by its national chairman Julius Abure held its much-opposed national convention which was boycotted by its 2023 presidential candidate, Peter Obi; its only governor, Alex Otti of Abia State; federal and state lawmakers elected on its platform, and the organised Labour.

In the Labour Labour, members have been embroiled in endless battle of supremacy with a faction led by Mr. Apapa steadily contesting the leadership of Julius Abure.

Consequently, the presidential candidate of the party in the 2023 elections, Mr. Peter Obi, reverence as a leader in the fold, noting that whatever the party faces presently, that Nigeria’s problems are far bigger than the crises in his party.

The LP has been embroiled in crises — ranging from allegations of misappropriation of funds, and leadership tussle, to calls for the resignation of the party’s national chairman.

TheCable reported that “On March 27, the LP conducted a national convention in Anambra state where Julius Abure was re-elected as its national chairman.

Obi did not attend the convention, fuelling speculations that he may be mulling over ditching the LP for another platform.

Speaking during an appearance on HaveYourSay247, an interactive online session hosted by Rudolf Okonkwo over the weekend, Obi said he is confident that the crises rocking the LP will soon be resolved amicably.

“Whatever is happening in the Labour Party is so minute compared to what is happening in the country,” Obi said.

“So, for me, it is something we will resolve amicably, and it is not anything to worry about. Let us worry about the country.

“Let us worry about how the average Nigerian would be able to have a means of livelihood to be able to eat, that should be our worry.”

Obi said he has no interest in being the party’s leader but only to make sure things are done properly.

“I don’t see what I do in politics as being the leader of any place or not. My position is that just like I always say, I am not desperate to be president of Nigeria, I am desperate to see Nigeria work because I know it can work,” he added.

“We have a more desperate situation. Parties are just a means to be able to contest elections. What is important is that being a leader of a party does not reduce the price of food.

In the PDP, the shenanigans of former Rivers State Governor, Mr. Nyesom Wike, has practically kept the party in constant crisis with many observers concluding that the now Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) is working for the APC, and is just a mole in the PDP. Wike has denied the allegation, however,

But news filtered in last week as that the immediate past Governor of Rivers State, and Minister may have concluded plans to attend the much advertised National Executive Council (NEC) meeting of the main opposition party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), billed to hold on Thursday, in Abuja.

Impeccable source, who is in the know, told The Boss that the minister, whose membership of the PDP is yet to be revoked even as he frolicks with the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), and serving in the President Bola Tinubu government as a minister.

The Source told The Boss that Wike’s impending presence at the NEC meeting on Thursday was not unconnected with plans, already hatched with some governors, to weaken the opposition PDP.

“Yes, we have on good authority that FCT minister, Wike is planning to attend the NEC meeting tomorrow all in a bid to weaken the fabrics of the PDP, and pave the way for the continuation of the Tinubu administration come 2027, and by extension, relapse Nigeria to a full blown one party state.

“From every indication, Wike and his co-travellers, are bent on unleashing the same crisis ravaging the third force, Labour Party, and Senator Rabiu Kwankwaso’s Nigerian National People’s Party (NNPP) on the PDP for the APC to remain the only political party in the country, and ensure that Tinubu has no challenger, come 2027,” the Source said.

It would be recalled that Wike has boasted over and again that there’s no opposition against Tinubu’s re-emergence in 2027, and that they have made sure of that. He has been compensated with the Ministerial job after he withdrew support for his party, and supported the APC and Tinubu to emerge as national government.

The Source further revealed that in the attempt to actualize the intended one party state, a lot of funding is ongoing to ensure that concerned stakeholders are ‘settled’ handsomely.

Wike, prior, during and after the 2023 general elections, has been floating in between the two major political parties; the APC and the PDP. While he claim to still be a member of the PDP, he is functioning as a minister in an APC government, mocking the inability of his party to discipline him.

While political stakeholders concluded that the outcome of the Thursday’s PDP NEC meeting will determine the path Nigeria’s political trajectory will take, and that it may portend the end of multi-party system and political democracy if Wike succeeds in his plan; every page of what finally transpired at the meeting pointed to the fact.

The much touted removal of the party chairman, who is believed to be a crony of the Abuja minister, Damagum, retained his seat, with his executives.

“It is very clear to everyone that a lot of money politics is being played to cajole many loyal members of the party, forcing them into frustration, and eventually it of the party. The option afterwards, will be the APC. This, will for all intent and purpose actualize the intended one party state as an APC agenda.

The Musa Rabiu Kwankwaso-led NNPP is not faring better either. The only governor under their ticket, Abba Kabir Yusuf, just had the confidence of their party on him withdrawn. He was fighting for his political life until suddenly it was announced the the APC in Kano has collapsed its structure into the NNPP.

“This is just another APC strategy to actualize their hidden intentions. Time will reveal the very sinister agenda they harboring,” an analyst said.

Much as 2027 is still three years away, but intrigues are in play to render Nigeria a one party state, and perpetuate the APC in power. The three other opposition parties are basically under attack to bring to pass this unpopular agenda.

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Akwa Ibom Government, Governor Umo Eno Receive Top Honors at the 10th Wonders of the World Expo in Lagos

Published

4 days ago

April 21, 2024

Admin

The Akwa Ibom State Government and Governor Pastor Umo Eno were recognized with Travellers Awards at the 10th Wonders of the World Expo in Lagos for their sustained enhancement of infrastructure, support for local talent, and dedication to investment in the tourism sector. The ceremony took place at the National Museum in Onikan, Lagos.

While Akwa Ibom won the Most Active Tourism State of the Year, Governor Eno was adjudged the most Tourism-Friendly Governor of the Year at the event that had Minister of Tourism, Mrs. Lola Ade John in attendance.

According to Amb. Ikechi Uko, Founder/Publisher of ATQ Magazine, the organizers of the event which is in its tenth edition, Akwa Ibom State won the top prize “in recognition of its valiant and resourceful efforts to drive and sustain domestic tourism by promoting the industry.

‘In 2023, Akwa Ibom was one of the states that hosted World Tourism Day (WTD ) events. The state also organized the famous Christmas Unplugged, which featured music, food, and cultures from all 31 LGAs as well as ensured friendly policies.”

While hoping that the Travellers Awards would spur Akwa Ibom to do more to dominate the domestic tourism industry, the organizers hoped that the state would gradually evolve into one of Nigeria’s top international tourism destinations.

That was not all, the state Commissioner of Culture and Tourism, Sir Charles Udoh was also recognized as one of the Top 100 Tourism Personalities in Nigeria for demonstrating exceptional leadership and innovation in the travel and tourism industry, while other Akwa Ibom indigenes and entity were also celebrated: Mrs. Ime Udo, Honorary Special Adviser to the Governor( Tourism) won Tourism Promoter of the Year, Favour Udo won Tourism Photographer of the Year, Loretta Effiong and Prince Uduak Sunday (Qua Tours) were listed among the Tourism Personalities of the Year and Ibom Air won Airline of the Year International.

In his remarks, Sir Charles Udoh, who represented the Governor at the event, thanked the organizers for the awards and noted that Akwa Ibom is certainly enjoying the golden era when it comes to tourism development. He stated that Governor Umo Eno is very keen on making Akwa Ibom a leading tourism destination with his programmes and policies.

He revealed that with the new Victor Attah International Airport nearing completion, the purchase of a ferry for the Oron-Calabar route, new developments along its coastline and the restoration work that will be done at all its major tourism sites, Akwa Ibom is well on the way to becoming the number one destination for all domestic and foreign tourists.

In her speech, Tourism Minister, Mrs. Ade John hailed the organizers for hosting the Expo, where practitioners were lectured by top experts while also rewarding those who have excelled in the past year.

She affirmed that her ministry is open to partnership with public and private sector operators, adding that tourism development can only be successful through collaborative efforts.

The event, which attracted leading and budding tourism professionals, also featured interactive and entertainment sessions.

Apart from Sir Charles Udoh and Mrs. Ime Udo, the Akwa Ibom State delegation, also included: Mr. Michael Effiong James, Senior Special Assistant (Lagos Liaison) to Governor, Mrs. Eme Bassey, Special Assistant to Governor (Lagos Liaison) and Akparawa John Offiong, Deputy Director ( Culture) Ministry of Culture and Tourism.

More photos below: