"We saved 16.7bn in Katsina State without borrowing a kobo" - Katsina Gov

By KINGSLEY OMONUBI & INALEGWU SHUAIBU
Katsina state governor, Ibrahim Shema who was sworn in May 29 for a second term, in this interview with explains that the primary responsibilities of government are to provide for the general well being of the people.

He throws light on how his administration in the last four years, saved N16. 7billion and provided projects that touch the lives of the people without borrowing a kobo for four years.

How has it been governing Katsina State in the last four years?

I have always said that power belongs to God and he gives it to whoever he pleases. First of all I thank God for giving me the opportunity to serve.

Ibrahim Shema

Through his mercies, we have done so many things in the last four years to improve the lives of our people. In agricultural sector, education, commerce and health, we have shown that we are here to work for the people. We have put together a 250 bed hospital, the first of its kind to be built and owned by a state government. In the entire northern Nigeria , there is only one such hospital in Kano .

But now this administration has completed a 250 bed hospital. The equipment has been ready, they are on their way, they will soon be here and a 100 percent payment has been made for them. The rural mobile ambulance scheme will be monitored very well because that touches on the very lives of the rural communities.

Every ambulance goes from village to village, to attend to the needy and when there is need for referrals, the ambulances are used to carry people to medical facilities in the state. We did not leave out sporting events. We have expanded and improved most of our sporting facilities.

We are currently building a 35, 000 capacity stadium in the capital in Katsina. In infrastructure, the housing projects will continue. We have built 1, 772 houses in the last two years and this was all done from the purse of the government. We did not borrow a kobo from any bank. We have done road infrastructure.

There is huge demand for road infrastructure in the state. So far, we have built 27 road projects that are new. Eight that we met on ground that were new. Over 500 kilometers of road that were built by this administration and we are still going strong on that. And we will continue to build and build roads where we have the need for them in this state.

Tourism development was not left out. We improved the quality and the statues of the hotels which are owned by the state government to a three star hotel status. We will try to see what we can do in the transport industry, we have the state transport company that have about 50 vehicles that were there for all this years.

There has never been any change in the issue of the number and size of transport companies that we have in the country. But at the same time, we felt the need for us to expand the services to the people. We introduced different varieties of transportation mix. We introduce some township bus services that did not exist before we came in. we introduce students bus service scheme that carry students points to point, from home to school at the cost of N10 per drop.

These buses have been doing very well in three major towns of Katsina, Daura and Funtua and we have introduce car hire service, still within the state transport company and we introduce long distance bus services that goes from Katsina to Maiduguri, Katsnia to Lagos, Katsina to Onitsha, to the South-East, South-South and to the furthest points of the north.

The company has equally introduced an inter-country transportation between Niger Republic and Nigeria . So they even got an award as the best transport company in Nigeria . The programmes I have just enumerated are just some few of the things I can just remember off hand. And I can tell you that whatever I say here, we are going to make it better insha allahu. But there are some fundamental areas that we pay serious attention to.

Employment generation especially youth employment and water supply. Because of the demand we receive from the communities, water seems to be our number one priority and we provided over 2000 bole holes since the inception of this administration. We bought three brand new drilling machines from Germany , the best in the market now in the whole of Europe . And we placed one in each Senatorial district.

Education is not left out. We have made scholarship available to our boys and girls in institutions abroad. We have some that are studying environmental engineering in the Americas . We have some that are in Sudan training in Arabic computing, calligraphy and printing and we have some that are studying medicine, pharmacy and BA nursing. These are sponsored directly by the state government.

And what we do when we send a child to go and read a particular course, maybe medicine or pharmacy, we compute his entire course fee from the beginning of the course to the end of it and we pay lump some, the entire amount of his tuition, accommodation, everything, we pay the whole amount into the coffers of the university, so they pay him monthly.

His entire course is guaranteed, he does not have to come back to me for money year after year or month after month. Still on education, we have been able to pay TSS (teachers’ salary scheme) for teachers in primary and secondary schools. We have improved the salary of university lecturers to the new salary approved by the Federal Government; we have negotiated and have arrived at some figures.

We have increased the salaries of health workers, and you know all this government workers’ salary have been negotiated by the state government. We have paid about 80 percent across the board what the Federal Government has agreed to pay workers and we continue to improve on the quality of service of our civil servants by sending them on training regularly.

We have been paying our salaries as and when due. This administration has never paid salary beyond 23rd of each month in the last four years and we pay leave grants every year. In January of each year ,we give civil servants, states and local government leave grants. And indeed we closed the four-year tenure with a bonus of one month salary for every staff of government in local and state and staff in tertiary institutions as well. So every staff in Katsina state has got one month salary bonus at the end of this administration.

As far as the issue of staff development and welfare is concern, we have been consistently giving promotion to our staff at all levels. We have paid our pension and gratuities as at when due and the beautiful part of all the things I have enumerated, Katsina state never borrowed a kobo from any institution.

We do not owe any contractor. All contractual obligations are met, the only contractors that have any claim on government are those that have on- going projects and we do not pay until they reach a stage for payment. We do not owe any contractor any money. And still as I mentioned in my speech, we had N16.77 billion liquid cash in the coffers of the state government. We did invest in stock and you know the stock market has crashed and we invested in special trust funds.

During your swearing in, you talked about the American experience of opponents joining hands with government, have you reached out to your opponents after winning the election and how are you going to run this inclusive government?

Firstly, as far as I am concerned, politics should be a civilized contest between two people. Obviously in every contest, there must be winners and losers. In this respect, we won the election in Katsina state. There are elections we lost, for example in the presidential ,we got about 26.7 percent in the state and Buhari got victory here but we did not complain. We are civilized enough to understand and appreciate that you must lose some places yet PDP was lucky to have won all over Nigeria .

So, the 26 percent that we got was enough for President Jonathan as a complementary support from this state. What is however important is that politicians should learn to put this nation first before their personal interest and ambition. When we go out to campaign, what every politician tell the public is that look, if you elect me, I will do ABCD for you. I will do better things than what the present government is doing.

That is what we all tell our people. But once you are not elected, a person is seen as an enemy of the people because he will be working even against the government of the day that is trying to work for the people. That is not the correct way to do politics. People should bring all hands on deck to join governors that have won interest of the people. I cited the example of Clinton . She was the strongest opponent of Democratic Party primary elections in America and she lost the election. It was a very tough fight between them.

Everybody saw it, she easily might have won the election, but God in his wisdom gave it to Obama and when Obama emerged as a President, Hilary joined him and when the election was won, she took the position of the Secretary of state which is basically equivalent to a foreign minister here. You can imagine and she did that for the interest of the nation and her people.

But here in Nigeria , everybody who loses will go to court; bitter court fight ensues until two, three years down the line. He has not contributed anything to the development of the people, he is not helping the government of the day to operate and at the end of it all, a circle of fresh hate and anger is built and we start running around in circles. That is not good politics.

You have listed so many projects and the evidences are there. How were you able to achieve this without borrowing any kobo, yet you left so much in the state account, how were you able to achieve this?

It is possible when you have a simple approach to governance. First like in every thing you do in life, we made plans. We started by making the plans because like what Moa Se Tung said ‘To fail to plan is to plan to fail’, so we started by planning and conceptualizing what we want to do.

When I was campaigning in 2007, I was looking at the activities of government in the state and I was opportuned to be an attorney general here in the government of Yar’Adua. So, I knew quite well how they are operating. So I had a plan of what should be in place for Katsina to move gradually in terms of development. After the planning, I also observe that Nigeria is littered with so many uncompleted projects since independence.

And the problems and projects that have been put in place, some of them have been there. Some roads have been built since the 70s, nobody cares to maintain them. So I have seen them and I felt that there is the need for us to deal with the projects that have not been completed. Because when you start a project and you invest huge amount of money in it and you abandon it, the waste is colossal.

The money you put there has gone to waste. The opportunity to build and complete to allow people to use it is not there. So I felt I had to complete every project I inherited from the government before me. And I made a public statement at my first outing as a governor that I was going to complete every project from the Yar’Adua administration. And the on going projects I met were colossal. For example, the expansion of Katsina airport was just awarded shortly before we came in.

It was awarded at the end of November, mobilization was done in February, March and in April there was election and handing over. So ,I made it my business to stay on the neck of the contractors to be on the site every fortnight of every project that is on going. And that gulped up two third of the budget at that time. Now, besides using the airport for specific purposes which was the intention, we have a big burden aircraft landing in Katsina, We have introduced commercial flight which was not there before.

We handled hajj operations to convey people from Katsina to Jeddah four times for four years in a roll. After we finished that, we looked at what is the next major project. We had the university project that was just awarded. Obasanjo laid the foundation of the university when he came here on the last campaign train of President Yar’Adua, so you can imagine, the foundation was just laid. I told the contractors to sit with our government officials and give me a time line of completion.

Week by week, I want to know where the contractor will be and what the financial requirement is. So, we did a financial floor and from that we know from week A to C, they will have achieved this level, they will have required this money. So we kept the money for that purpose. In 18 months, we finished that university. We furnished it; we put equipment, laboratory equipment, computers and everything and we moved the students from the temporal site to the permanent site.

Look a the Turai Yar’Adua Child Mortality Hospital which was just awarded when we came in. We have some other projects like the expansion of Funtua road, there were water projects. We targeted 18 months completion of all the projects but we overshot the target with three months. The university gulped about N11.8 billion and the hostels were quite modest. It took about N800 million.

We had eight road projects inherited from the previous administration and were just awarded when we just started, there are so many. We have finished all those projects. How did I manage to finish all these? I have a floor. I worked out how much I was getting per month. It was about N3. 4 billion. I have a salary bill of about N1.2 billion, with overheads, it is about N1.5 billion. So I had N1.9 billion to play with. Then, I felt there is need for me is to find additional source of income.

We tried to work on the issue of revenue generation for the state. We made about N130 million monthly from internally generated revenue. So ,we try to do our best to expand it by hiring some consultants. It was not much and by and large, the revenue will always come from Vat, tax but they were able to jack it up to N250 million and then we started placement with banks as deliberate policy.

And we were asking the banks the give us the highest amount of interest rates anybody can give. From eight percent, we were able to get 14.5 percent and we negotiated. So we are making between N500 to N600 million from our deposits. And then we created another account within the commercial bank, UBA. Every bank now will give us a check at the end of every month of what is the due interest accrued to a state and we lodge it in that specific account. Within eight months, we have built about N20 billion reserves.

So we calculated all our projects that are on ground including the new ones and we said okay, how much we need to spend in a month in all the projects we are doing. In one month, we will decide that we are going to spend N1.5 billion, another month we say we are going to spend N1 billion because we know what is coming in from the federation account.

We know what we are generating internally, so our cash floor was managed between incoming fund and IGR and what reserve we have to keep. So in that order, there is no project that went out of contest. Then, our costing method equally helped. We made sure we have high professional people who will do evaluation for us for the job and we ensure reasonable profits.

via Vanguard Newspapers

Boko Haram promises fiercer attacks, training members in Somalia

KANO, Nigeria — A Nigerian Islamist sect that staged a series of deadly attacks mainly in the country's north on Wednesday threatened "fiercer" attacks and said it would not enter into talks with the government.

The Boko Haram group, which had two days ago laid down conditions for any talks with government, also disclosed for the first time that it had links with Islamists in Somalia.

"Dialogue with President (Goodluck) Jonathan has collapsed," because of the statements made by the inspector general of police and governor of northern Borno state, the group said.

It said it was angered by the police chief Hafiz Ringim's declaration that "the days of Boko Haram are numbered".

"Very soon, we will wage jihad...We want to make it known that our jihadists have arrived in Nigeria from Somalia where they received real training on warfare from our brethren who made that country ungovernable...," said the group in a handwritten statement.

"This time round, our attacks will be fiercer and wider than they have been," it said, adding it will target all northern states and the country's capital Abuja.

The statement in Hausa, a widely spoken language in the north, was anonymously delivered to journalists in the northeastern city of Maiduguri, capital of Borno state, where the attacks are concentrated.

The sect admitted links with a foreign Islamist group connected to Al-Qaeda, although security experts had already speculated that it had established ties with Islamists in north Africa.

The statement purportedly emanated from "Jama'atu Ahlis-sunnah lidda'ati wal Jihad", another name the sect calls itself.

Boko Haram had on Monday issued a statement setting conditions for ceasefire and dialogue with the government, which included the strict application of sharia law in the 12 predominately Muslim states in the north.

Also known as the Nigerian Talibans, the group launched an uprising in 2009 which was put down by a brutal military assault that left hundreds dead.

The sect, which has pushed for the creation of an Islamic state, has been blamed for shootings of police and community leaders, bomb blasts and raids on churches, police stations and a prison.

Why ACN – CPC talks collapsed, FULL DETAILS

ABUJA—ACTION Congress of Nigeria, ACN, yesterday, formally pulled out of alliance talks on presenting a joint candidate with the Congress for Progressive Change, CPC, for this weekend’s presidential elections.

From left: ACN spokesman, Alhaji Lai Muhammed; National Chairman, Chief Bisi Akande; and National Secretary, Senator Lawali Shuaibu at the news briefing on the failure of discussions on alliance with CPC in Abuja, yesterday. Photo:Gbemiga Olamikan

The breakdown in the talks followed the refusal of CPC Vice-Presidential candidate, Pastor Tunde Bakare, to sign a post-dated letter of resignation that would have enabled the ACN place its nominee for the post after the election.

Despite their initial hesitations, ACN chieftains under pressure from their national leader, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, had reconciled themselves to advance the CPC presidential candidate, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari, as the joint presidential candidate of the two parties at the late night talks that commenced on Tuesday.

A pledge by CPC representatives at the meeting to resume the talks at 10.00 a.m. yesterday was not fulfilled leaving many ACN chieftains livid.

ACN govs under pressure

ACN Governors who had been under tremendous pressure from President Goodluck Jonathan, the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, were even more enraged that they were being scorned by Buhari while President Jonathan was on his part seriously courting them through telephone calls and emissaries including traditional rulers.

CPC National Chairman, Prince Tony Momoh, while regretting the breakdown of the talks told Vanguard that Bakare was entitled to exercise his right to freedom of association.

The talks as exclusively reported by Vanguard had been brokered by two former heads of state from the North and a former Vice-President, all of them with strong attachment to the ruling PDP.

Vanguard gathered that former Military President, Gen. Ibrahim Babangida, former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar and erstwhile National Security Adviser, Gen. Aliyu Gusau had, Monday, made contact with Tinubu as to the possibility of forging an alliance with ACN against the PDP.

It was learnt that Tinubu had immediately relayed the request to the national caucus of the ACN that also met in Abuja, Monday. Majority of the caucus members were said to be against it on the basis of what they claimed were past disappointments from Buhari. The persistent pleas from Tinubu and Chief Tom Ikimi to give Buhari another opportunity, however, paved the way.

Ribadu’s mature response

Among those present at the Monday ACN caucus meeting was the party’s presidential candidate, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu. Party insiders informed Vanguard that Ribadu responded to the matter of stepping down very maturely.

One source said: “He was very mature in the way he took it. He said that everyone was aware that he was less than eight months in politics and that Buhari has been involved for some time and that he was willing to learn more. But then, he went on to lay down his plans and compared them with Buhari’s and by the time he finished everybody clapped for him.”

Following Monday’s national caucus meeting, it was resolved that the ACN would dispatch a team of negotiators including governors to meet with the emissaries from Buhari. The ACN caucus was firm that Buhari must be present in person at the meeting which was scheduled to hold at 2 p.m. on Tuesday.

It was expected that after the meeting with Buhari the ACN negotiation team would report back to the ACN national caucus at 4 p.m. same day which would give its final approval on the issue.

While Buhari met with his emissaries at about that time in Abuja, he was according to one source, not inclined to a face-to-face meeting with the negotiating team from the ACN.

His decision not to engage the ACN chieftains in a face to face meeting enraged many party officials who were already raising doubts on the worth of the talks with Buhari. At about the same time, Tuesday, ACN gubernatorial candidates from across the country who were in Abuja for a scheduled parley with the party officials also met where the issue of adopting Buhari as a joint candidate of the two parties was discussed.

A party source privy to the deliberation told Vanguard: “All but one of the northern gubernatorial candidates are opposed to the alliance.”

Meanwhile seeing the determination of the ACN to confront him on the issue, Buhari it was learnt requested for the meeting to be deferred till 9 p.m. on Tuesday. ACN national caucus members yielded to him. But by that time enthusiasm on Buhari had started to wane. Governor Adams Oshiomhole of Edo State who was part of the team expected to meet with Buhari indeed left Abuja that afternoon.

By 9 p.m. on Tuesday evening as they waited for Buhari some party hardliners began to canvass strong conditions for adopting Buhari. They were particularly moved by intelligence reports that the CPC may not be able to even finance the payment of its agents during the weekend presidential poll.

Buhari shifts meeting

Buhari meanwhile had again shifted the meeting to 10.00 p.m. where he was expected to come along with five other officials of the party. The ACN team was also to be represented by a team of six officials.

By 10.30 p.m. the ACN officials including Asiwaju Tinubu, Alhaji Yusuf Alli, Senator Lawan Shuaibu, former Governor Segun Osoba, former Governor Niyi Adebayo, Dr. Muiz Banire and Dr. Garba Abari departed for the meeting.

The mediators, Gen. Babangida, Atiku, Gusau and erstwhile Inspector General of Police, MD Yusuf were on hand to receive them. Buhari, however, was not available. He came some time before midnight.

He came along with Pastor Bakare, Prince Tony Momoh, the national chairman of the CPC and Alhaji Sule Hamman, the erstwhile director general of The Buhari Organisation, TBO.

The ACN team was quick to present its conditions for an offer and that was a post dated letter of resignation from Pastor Bakare as Vice-President and the adoption of reforms in the polity. While they muttered over the matter of reforms, eyes allegedly shifted on Bakare for his agreement on the issue of resignation. Bakare, it was learnt stonewalled on the issue.

Giving reasons for the collapse of the talks, one of the state governors from the South West zone, told Vanguard categorically: “The conditions for an alliance are very simple and straight forward under any circumstance. It is about weighing the possibilities in anyprospect and building on it. That is the real essence of an alliance in the first place.”

No alliance with CPC—Akande
In his statement, Akande said: “The Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN, wishes to inform all its teeming supporters as well as all Nigerians that there is no alliance between the party and the Congress for Progressive Change, CPC, ahead of Saturday’s presidential election.

“While it is true that representatives of both parties have engaged in talks aimed at forging an alliance that could dislodge the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, the clueless party that has frittered away the huge opportunities that could have transformed our great country in the past 12 years, we regret to announce that such talks have not led to any alliance.

“We as party that believes in democratic values have, therefore, decided that in the overall interest of the parties involved, our democracy as well as our country, it is better for each of the parties to go into the presidential election on its own platform. If at the end of the election on Saturday there is no clear winner we will make a decision on which way to go, in the overriding interest of all Nigerians.”

Bakare has right to express own opinion—Momoh
While reacting to the breakdown of talks with the ACN and why Pastor Tunde Bakare refused to sign a post dated resignation letter, Prince Momoh, National Chairman of the CPC said: “He (Bakare) has a right to express his own opinion.

“He has a right to freedom of expression and freedom to associate. Both the CPC and ACN were interested in the alliance. As far as I am concerned, it was an individual that expressed his own opinion on the issue and he has the right to express it.”

On the possibility of the CPC forging an alliance with any other political party before the presidential polls, the former Minister of Information said “anything can still happen.”

Alliance against Jonathan will fail — Clark
Elder statesman of the Ijaw nation, Chief Edwin Clark, yesterday, waved aside the purported plans by leading opposition parties in the country to form a common front against the PDP in Saturday’s presidential election, stressing that any unwholesome alliance against the political aspiration of President Goodluck Jonathan not based on the overall interest of the electorate would flop.

Clark who stated this in a statement in Abuja, equally urged politicians to eschew regional and religious sentiments capable of inciting disaffection among Nigerians, just as he canvassed for more support towards ensuring that the ‘one man one vote’ doctrine of the present administration was not truncated at the alter of mediocrity.

Via Vanguardngr,com

Revealed: INEC's vendors! What really went wrong...

Prof. Attahiru Jega, INEC Chairman

The identities of the six firms and their facilitators contracted by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to print ballot papers, result sheets and other sensitive materials for the 2011 general election were Tuesday unravelled by THISDAY.

They were Tip3, a Spanish company represented by Hashim Dikko, and Graphic Inline (Gi) with Sanni Lamido as proxy.
Also on the list were Kalamazoo, represented by Dick Jackson, a Nigerian-Briton married to a lady from Kano; Aero-vote represented by one Yerima; and SanFrano, a German/Polish company represented by Sanni Musa.
The sixth company that benefited from the printing contract was VI Solutions, sponsored by Yahaya Sani.
SanFrano, according to investigation, was the firm that went to China to print the papers but failed to deliver on time for the April 2 elections.

The six contractors received over N13 billion for the printing of the 75 million ballot papers and result sheets for each of the elections. The contracts were awarded to the companies by INEC in late February this year, according to investigation.
Going by the terms of the contract, each of the companies was expected to print 75 million ballot papers and result sheets for the elections in respect of the National Assembly, presidential, governorship and state assembly elections. The number of registered voters is 73 million.

THISDAY gathered that 75 million copies for the main presidential election and another 75 million copies for a run-off, totalling 150 millon were authorised by Jega and awarded to Tip3 Company, the Spanish firm.
It was also leant that the Nigerian partners of Tip3, having assessed the volume of work involved in their contract, made representation to the commission that given the time constraint, they could not guarantee timely delivery of the job, but INEC was said to have urged them on.

THISDAY investigation also showed that the Spanish firm being naïve about the importance of the job, went ahead to print the run-off election papers first and returned the job on the main election to INEC on March 23 with the excuse that it could no longer handle it.

Sources at the commission also revealed that the trio of Jega, his chief of staff, who also doubles as a consultant, Prof. Okechukwu Ibeanu, and an unnamed senior Presidency official took charge of the award of the contracts for the printing of 200 million copies of the ballot papers and result sheets.

According to the source, INEC in December 2010 set up four committees to traverse the United States, Canada, England, Ireland, Germany, France, Italy, Liechtenstein, Switzerland and Lithuania, South Africa, Asia and the United Arab Emirate (UAE) to search for suitable printers.

Jega, as chairman of the committee ‘A’, visited the United States and Canada, with Prof. Lai Olurode and U.F. Usman as members of his committee.

It was further gathered that Mr. Nuru Yukubu, chairman of committee ‘B’, visited England and Ireland, with Mrs. G.N. Nwafor, Dr. Oniyangi, Col. M. K Hammanga, D. I. Anumba as members of the committee.
The third committee had Mr. Philip Umeadi, Mrs. T. Iremiren and K.N. Ukeagu as members and visited Germany, France, Poland, Italy, Liechtenstein, Switzerland and Lithuania, while the fourth committee headed by Dr. Ishmael Igbani visited South Africa, Asia and UAE. Members of the committee included Dr. Chris Iyimoga, Prince Solomon Soyebi and Mrs. Amina Yusuf.

THISDAY gathered that trouble started when the four committees returned from their overseas assessment tour of facilities of printers of security materials and raised another committee headed by the INEC National Commissioner in Charge of Logistics, Col. M. K Hammanga, to harmonise the reports.

The harmonisation committee, in its report, recommended that the ballot papers, result sheets and other sensitive materials be printed in Germany, France and Poland.
The committee also recommended that US should be excluded because of distance, while England was also rejected because of high cost of printing there.

It also rejected South Africa because of the 2007 general election experience which led to the delay, as some of the sensitive election papers were still on ground during the poll.

The Hammanga committee subsequently shortlisted 21 companies and the list was submitted to Jega.
It was discovered that to the utter surprise of the committee members, INEC dumped the shortlisted companies.
“Since then, the issues on the award of the contracts for the printing of the ballot papers, the result sheets and other sensitive election materials was shrouded in secrecy. The files relating to the contracts were always kept in the office of the INEC chairman,” the source said.

Graphic Inline, one of the firms that mistakenly went ahead to produce the ballot papers for the re-run elections, told INEC afterwards that its next delivery for the ballot papers would be April 12.
This development, THISDAY learnt, accounted for the firm’s failure to meet the deadline and forced INEC to re-award it to another firm, V.I. Solutions.

Meanwhile, President Goodluck Jonathan Tuesday expressed his continued support and confidence in Jega, saying he was optimistic that he would do a good job and get the desired free and fair elections in the country this time around.
Contrary to speculations that he had lost confidence in Jega, Jonathan said he would have initiated the process for his removal from office if he had the slightest doubt that he was no longer capable of delivering the elections according to the expectations of Nigerians.

He spoke at a photo exhibition by George Esiri, a photo journalist, on his campaign trail titled: “The People’s President” at the Shehu Musa Yar’Adua Centre, Abuja, where he assured Nigerians that there was no cause for alarm as they would not be disappointed.

To him, the decision of the electoral body was the best in the circumstances, adding that if they had gone ahead with the exercise, result sheets would have arrived centres very late at night which would have raised other issues and concerns.
He also asked Nigerians to see the postponement as a demonstration that the electoral body wanted to get things done the right way so that it would be obvious to all that the exercise was open and credible.

“You know that of course, if he is no longer performing well, I will communicate to the National Assembly to terminate his appointment. Until I do that, I am fully in his support and I know that he will do well,’’ he said.

The president acknowledged that going for the same election at a later date was a sacrifice all Nigerians have to make to sustain democracy in spite of the cost to those who, like him, travelled to exercise their franchise before it was cancelled.

Via: ThisDay.

JEGA postpones National Assembly elections

At around 12:30 AM Nigerian Time, Professor Attahiru Jega, the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), the body responsible for conducting elections in Nigeria, addressed the Nation. He announced that the elections would have to be postponed till Monday, the 4th of April, 2011.

The reason? Election materials, in particular, the EC8 form/result sheet, that is used to record the results of elections at the polling units arrived the country late and could not get to polling centers on time. He said the Vendors hired by INEC was to blame for this. The vendors had constanstly promised INEC that the election materials would arrive 5:30 pm yesterday evening but only got into the country at 9 am, this morning. The vendors blamed the delay on the Natural disasters in Japan, the scarcity of Boeing 747s for hire etc.

Various reactions have followed this postponement. The Lagos state governor, Babatunde Fashola, has said that he would not postpone secondary school exams scheduled for monday. This could lead to chaos as secondary schools are mainly used as polling units.

The Akwa Ibom Governor has also said his people should kick against the postponement of elections.

The President is yet to speak. He is en route Abuja from his hometown in Otuoke, Bayelsa.

This could degenerate into an electoral crisis if the President doesnt intervene and bring the governors and INEC chairman, Jega, into agreement.

What do you think?

Nigerian Presidential candidate remanded in prison for issuing dud cheques

The presidential candidate of the United National Party for Development, Mrs. Ebiti Ndok, may miss the presidential election as she has been remanded in the Maximum Security Prison, Keffi, Nasarawa State, for issuing dud cheques to two hotels in Abuja.


The court ordered that she should be remanded till April 19, 2011.


Ndok was arraigned by the police before a Chief Magistrate's Court, Karu, Abuja on Thursday for issuing a N1,050,000 bounced cheque to Onnyx Hotel and Apartment, Abuja, where she lodged between November 20, 2010 and January 27, 2011 when she was evicted by the hotel management.


She allegedly issued another dud cheque to Hilton Suites, Abuja, for the sum of N500,000.


The candidate had lodged at the Onnyx Hotel and issued the cheque, which turned out to be dud, when the hotel took it to the bank.


A source at the hotel said that the police searched for Ndok for two months before they arrested her on Tuesday and arraigned her on Thursday.


The Federal Capital Territory Police Public Relations Officer, Moshood Jimoh, confirmed to SATURDAY PUNCH that Ndok was arrested and arraigned in court for issuing dud cheques, an action he said was a criminal offence in the Penal Code.


He said, I can confirm that Ndok was arrested and charged to court for committing a criminal offence; that is, issuing dud cheques. The court has, however, remanded her in prison custody.

via Myondostate.com

JETA AMATE FLEES NIGERIA FOR HIS LIFE

Jeta Amata flees Nigeria to escape Niger Delta Militants

“This is a warning to you. It has come to our notice that you have produced a video about the problem in the Niger-Delta without proper consultations regarding the true state of affairs in the area. You are hereby warned not to release that video or be faced with grave consequences.

We are very well informed about your daily routine and that of your child. Your address is 35 Colorado Close, Maitama, Minister’s Hill and your child schools at Ecole Francais Marcel-Pagnol d’Abuja, Durumi district, Abuja. Be warned”!

Those who have watched the movie said it revealed some uncomfortable secrets behind the struggle of the Niger-Delta and how some disgruntled leaders are playing politics with the lives of the citizens.

These and more are what the said group does not want to be made public knowledge.

The Niger Delta region of Nigeria has 606 Oil-fields and exports 50% of all its oil resources to the United States and is the world’s capital of oil pollution.

Corrupt government officials, greedy oil companies and violent rebels are always on the war path over oil spills and the degradation of the land caused by oil exploration

The film x-rays fifty years of uncorrected oil spills and lack of clean-up which has destroyed the environment and ecosystems leaving the area almost uninhabitable while obliterating the livelihood of its residents costing them basic human rights such as health, access to food, clean water, and an ability to work.

Black Gold was to be premiered on February 24th at the Silverbird Galleria in Lagos but the latest development may have disrupted the plans of the movie producers.

The film has an impressive casts, starring Mbong Amata, Tom Sizemore, Vivica Fox, Billy Zane, Hakeem Kae-Kazim, Sarah Wayne Callies, Razaaq Adoti, Dede Mabiaku, Eric Roberts, Larry Manetti and Michael Madsen.

The film produced by Starkid productions owned by America based Nigerian, Ori Ayomike, was directed by Jeta Amata in collaboration with Suzanne De Laurentiis was shot in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria and in Los Angeles, California.

via This Day

BREAKING: Governor Fashola's Financial Excesses...

Facts have emerged about an alleged financial recklessness on the part of the Lagos State government headed by Governor Babatunde Fashola.For almost four years that the governor has been at the helms of affair in the state, his administration has made it a policy to keep secret every financial dealing relating to the state.

But the revelations show huge contract inflation and financial recklessness.

Among these is the cost of the demolition of the collapsed Bank of Industry which the government allegedly put at a whooping N1.5 billion.

Huhuonline.com learnt that the rehabilitation of two kilometres portion of the Funsho Williams Road, formally known as Western Avenue, cost the government N7.7 billion.

The LASU-Iba Road, a project handled by the Chinese Civil Engineering Construction Company (CCEC) which contract was first awarded by former governor Bola Tinubu at the cost of N5 billion was jerked up by another N5 billion by the current administration. Yet the company did a shoddy job as few months after the construction, a part of it caved in forcing the members of the State House of Assembly to raise alarm.

The awareness that residents of the state have knowledge of the substandard project has been the reason the project has not been commissioned since completion.

Huhuonline.com also learnt that the governor who is alleged to have spent N2 trillion in the past four years, claims he spent a mind boggling N5.2billion on the renovation of the City Hall which was gutted by fire sometime ago. The structure was only rehabilitated and not rebuilt.

Controversy is still trailing the state government's purchase of a helicopter at the cost of N5billion the sand-filling of the Badagry-Marina foreshore was done at the sum of N1.5billion without transparent bidding process even as the State Assembly was not considered before the project was embarked upon.

The governor in the midst of the controversy had stated that the helicopter was meant for security in the state.

The state governor has also been accused of giving out N250million to the Rotimi Akeredolu-led executives of the Nigerian Bar Association, N420million of tax payers money to hire private security for just six months and another N135million to fuel 225 vehicles within six months.

Fashola had further allegedly spent N290million to send text messages and make phone calls in six months just as he also allegedly spent N1.5billion in the demolition of the Oshodi Market to ease traffic congestion in the area.

In the last six months, N183million was spent on press coverage for the state government while N600million was allegedly spent in the last two years for Christmas decoration in the state.

Some unspecified organisations have received grants and subventions totalling N2billion according to a statement released to Huhuonline.com by sources close to power.

The governor, who has also allegedly spent $62million for a CCTV project which has not been seen to be executed and another N100million to produce a documentary on him is said to always earmark N30million per trip for the governor's wife for six trips per year.

All these, last year, forced the state House of Assembly to set up a probe panel to investigate some of the allegation which was first blown open by some people privy to the financial dealings in the state.

Twice, the House set up panels and twice they were stopped by a court sitting in the state after a lawyer, Bamidele Aturu, sought the court for a perpetual injunction to stop the house from carrying out its proposed investigation.

A lawmaker confided in Huhuonline.com that majority of the allegations may be true as the House has a dossier of financial dealings in the state under the current governor.

"Does it not baffle you that he has been frustrating us from carrying out our oversight functions of investigating him?" He asked. "If we do, the lid would be blown open and Lagosians would know that the saint is not actually what he claims to be."

Also, early this year, at a legislative get-together at Speaker Adeyemi Ikuforiji's official residence, the number one lawmaker in the state accused the state executive arm of corruption adding that its officials were more corrupt than the legislators.

The governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Ade Dosunmu, has also thrown the questions before the governor.

In his case, he alleged that the state government earmarked N50billion for the construction of 50 kilometres of the Lekki-Epe Expressway. Only six of the entire stretch of the road has so far been constructed.

Two of the state government officials contacted for the reaction of the government said they were in no position to say anything. The Commissioner for Information, Opeyemi Bamidele, who was supposed to react, has resigned to pursue his House of Representatives ambition on the platform of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) in Ekiti state.

via huhuonline.com

How $2.8bn Disappered from Midland Bank When Gen. Buhari was Petroleum Minister in 1977

All our military heads of state were largely insensitive, corrupt, almost illiterate, self-appointed tyrants who seized their stripes of honour (dishonour is probably more appropriate) through coups rather than the rigours of formal training, experience or war. Each one of the military heads of state simply got up from bed one chosen morning, pistle on the hip, jackboots on the ready to besmear our constitution to loot our treasury to their hearts content. Of course, they soon made up on the job for their lack of proper war or soldiering experience by detaining, tear gassing, shooting and bombing citizens protesting against their high-handedness and misrule. Everyone of our coup Generals aspired to be the richest lazy fool in the world sitting like an over-fed baboon atop the tallest tree in our devastated and rotting vineyard, savouring their exploits amidst squalor, hunger and decaying corpses. General Muhammadu Buhari was one of such military heads of state.

Shagari’s regime (1979-1983), incurred Buhari’s wrath when it decided to investigate the US$2.8 billion that disappeared from the Midland Bank, London account of the Nigerian National Petroleum Cooperation, (NNPC), during General Obasanjo’s era as military head of state that preceded Shagari’s. Dr. Olusola Saraki, Turaki of Ilorin, was the majority party leader of the Senate at the time and he headed the Senate Committee set up to trace the stolen money after some three years of clamour for such an investigation by members of the civil society. The money was traced to the Midland Bank London branch fixed account of Obasanjo’s appointee as military head of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company. The Committee’s report was presented to the Senate during the tail end of Shagari’s regime in 1983, so the House decided to deal with the matter and expose the rogue military head of the NNPC soon after the 1983 general elections. The attempt at civilian-to-civilian transition provided the fillip for mayhem at the time. The elections were marred by massive rigging because incumbent political office holders were refusing to slacken their stranglehold on Nigeria Plc., mortgaged as the leaders private property.

On the 31st December, 1983, Buhari struck under the cover of the political commotion that trailed the presidential election results. Buhari generally had no agenda for leadership but vendetta against those he called critics and rabble-rousers. Buhari did not see any moral wrong in his conversion of our oil money into his personal use. Rather he railed at the press and what he described as the self-righteous sections of the country for making a big deal out of the issue. He locked up without trial, politicians and critics including Fela Anikulapo-Kuti, notorious for clamouring for the exposure of the oil money rogue. Satire saved my neck at the time. Vera Ifudu, who was an NTA reporter then, was sacked through his prodding as military ruler, for reporting what Dr. Olusola Saraki had told her in an interview about how the missing money was traced to Buhari’s account at a Midland Bank London branch. Vera eventually won her case of wrongful dismissal in court against the NTA and was financially compensated.Buhari’s ‘War Against Indiscipline’ was obviously a swathe to camouflage his moral decadence. He did not see anything wrong with the over 50 suitcases an Emir smuggled through the Murtala International Airport without routine checks. And as a master of selective justice, he refused to convict Shagari, claiming not to find direct evidence against him but making a mountain out of a molehill on the indulgencies of Shagari’s lieutenants. His regime’s masterstroke to divert attention from his moral ineptitude was exemplified by his crating of Umaru Dikko to airfreight back to Nigeria from London. Despite his moral degeneracy and his high handedness and intolerance of dissent, his regime was not a total disaster. He maintained a vibrant foreign policy with Africa as its principal focus. Nigeria was already a failed state economically when he seized government from Shagari. We had a staggering foreign debt load of US$18 billion, so Buhari stopped all further borrowing, and in defiance of the IMF and World Bank, provided a homegrown alternative to the IMF’s SAP and pegged the exchange rate of the naira at one to the US$1.50. He stopped all further borrowing from abroad; instituted counter trade for essential or desperately needed commodities and put a ceiling (or an upper limit) on the amount of foreign exchange earnings to be used in servicing foreign debts. After sorting out and rejecting all the dubious and unverifiable foreign debts in our portfolio, he paid off nearly 50% of the genuine debts by the end of his regime in 1985. Even Britain was already scheming to enter into counter trade agreement with Nigeria when Babangida was sponsored in 1986 by the West to sack Buhari in a military coup that reversed our limited economic gains.Not much is known about Buhari’s family background. Not a great deal has been heard about his educational qualifications either. As head of state, he was a recluse to the core. At least, that was the image he portrayed. His deputy, the late Gen. Idiagbon, was considered by most Nigerians to be the star of Buhari’s regime. It is to Idiagbon that any credit due to that regime is generally attributed. Idiagbon was the defacto head of state. He was honest, upright, disciplined, and like Murtala Muhammed before him, he succeeded briefly in introducing order and sanity to our lives.

After consigning the vexatious matters that brought him to power, to administrative oblivion with the help of Shinkafi, his Secret Service guru, Buhari announced his readiness to quit office. Idiagbon, as Buhari’s lieutenant, naturally insisted on taking over as head of state from his apparently prematurely retiring boss. Babangida, who was Chief of Army Staff at the time and a member of the Supreme Military Council, insisted it was his turn to rule because he had been involved in virtually every military coup up to that time. The quarrel split the Supreme Military Council members almost equally behind the two principal combatants and eventually led to the overthrow of Buhari’s regime by Babangida. America, Britain and the other leading western nations hailed Babangida’s coup and immediately sent emissaries to strategize with him. President Reagan went out of his way to send him gifts including books such as Niccolo Machiavelli’s: the Prince, advocating the destruction of civil freedom to strengthen despotism.The June 12 annulment provided Buhari with the opportunity to publicly wear a messianic toga while quietly pursuing private vendetta against someone he considered his enemy. He attended meetings at Ota to join with others to condemn Babangida’s decision and as soon as the decision was reached to ask Babangida to step down, he stopped attending further meetings. He had achieved his revenge.

Abacha rehabilitated Buhari with the chairmanship of the Petroleum Trust Fund (PTF) before he (Abacha) died in 1998. When Obasanjo returned to power in May 1999 as civilian president, he found that over 2.5 billion naira had not been properly accounted for in the PTF and that there was not much on the ground to show for the colossal expenditure the agency was claiming. On the day Obasanjo announced the scrapping of the PTF, a non-staff brother-in-law of the boss, allegedly serving as his conduit on some PTF projects, died suddenly from what appeared to be heart failure. Most of what he was able to achieve in the PTF, was focused in his backyard. Haruna Adamu, who was appointed by Obasanjo to investigate the PTF before finally consigning it to the dung heap, quickly pocketed one hundred million naira of PTF’s money before operating table could be set up for him, thus forcing Obasanjo to hurriedly close the place down without further investigations. Buhari has been trying desperately since to return to power, perhaps to get a chance to shred the PTF documents?

Buhari is a tribal and religious bigot. When he lost the presidential election in April 2003, he threatened the nation with mass action and refused to go to court. He organized a rally in Abuja, as one in a series of such civil acts of disobedience to protest what he described as the massive rigging of the election that brought Obasanjo to power the second time.

He almost succeeded in launching his Jihad. The alleged taped sermon of an unnamed pastor at an unidentified church in Adamawa claiming that: “Whether Muslims like it or not, Obasanjo must continue” and that “any Muslim who does not want that, can die or move to Niger” was obviously a blatant forgery. It was very likely to be the handiwork of the ‘Crater of Dikko brigade. For a start, the language of the sermon was too brash to be true, especially coming as it was claimed, from a Christian minority likely to bear the brunt of the consequences of the offensive sermon in a predominantly Muslim state. The Christian minority would have had to be mad to the last man, to call for their own annihilation in such a careless and irresponsible manner.

It is not logical that the Christian cleric would send hundreds of his suicide sermon tapes, not to Christians, but to Muslim clerics and the media around the country. Someone who desperately wanted to kill Nigeria must think we are all morons and I suggest we look for him at the backyard of our current number one Jihadist. Where else to look when Buhari was threatening he must occupy the Presidency whether he won the election or not. We begged him to go to the Electoral Tribunal to settle the matter but he insisted that he would rather clubber us to death, with religion than subject himself to the in indignity of being judged by another man. That is how badly he cares about our welfare and survival.

One is not always sure if he is truly a Nigerian because let’s face it; no true Nigerian would hate Nigeria so much as to threaten her with a Jihad. May be the problem is of a mental nature considering the gutter snipes often credited to the supposed statesman on the Hausa service of the BBC and other foreign media about his fatherland. He seems to love to speak before he thinks. There is something definitely troubling about the mind of this crater genius because it is probably not just Nigerians that he hates but life itself in its totality. In other words, we are probably all trapped in the vicious grip of a cool and calculating sadist. In fact, I am told that no one has ever seen him smile or laugh.

Sam Omatseye, writing about Buhari in the Sun newspaper at the time said: “He (Buhari) uses Sharia to justify his worldview; to justify a certain selfish view of the world that serves his interest at a particular time. He played that card in the presidential election in order to secure a base for himself. But he needed more than his northern base to become president. You must be flexible to pull non-sharia base with you and the man has no flexibility in his bones so when he tries to play the chameleon, he fails. He tries to carry a veneer of a man of principles but falls short when selfish interest is involved.”Buhari has no respect for democracy. Under his behest, the ANPP humiliated five highly respected South-Eastern Presidential aspirants at their primary for the 2003 presidential election despite having Dr. Okadigbo as Buhari’s running mate. After rigging his party’s primary to become its presidential candidate, Buhari then felt he stood on moral grounds to preach election morals to the world. Buhari ignored the South-West completely, as if it did not exist and offered the South-South, the unattractive, legally diminished constitutional option on derivation. To rob salt into injury, he threatened to swap NDDC with PTF. If he wasn’t playing with words, he betrayed his selfish ethnic agenda because we all know what happened in his PTF. It concentrated its activities in the North.

Buhari definitely was not a sellable presidential candidate across Nigeria. What happened was that the incumbent ANPP governors needed a Buhari to help them hold on to their states on religious grounds. Even in the area of public debate, Buhari was not articulate or detribalized and he lacked charisma. He ignored all entreaties to explain his programmes to the ‘bloody civilians.’ Arrogant and condescending, he was unable to climb down from his high horse as a former military dictator. Infused with the moribund myth that Nigerian leadership was the sole property of his ethnic group, he assumed he could cow the rest of us with a jihad. If that failed, some said, military coup was a possibility because a kaferi must not continue to rule. He concentrated his campaign (if it could be called that, because he said very little at every stop), in the North-East and North-West of the country. The little he said, was only in the Hausa language to titillate the warrior nerves of his jihadist gang.

With 19 states in the North, he was convinced he could, at least, force a re-run in the elections, forgetting that the North Central states are already a little weary of jihad. Even the core North itself has some 30% Christian population. Awolowo and Zik exposed the fallacy of the monolithic north by winning elections all over the place during their time. Abiola proved that religion is not the cocoon the Buharis think it is in modern Nigerian politics.

He prostitutes his political ambition by moving from party to party, with the sole aim of becoming the presidential candidate of any party he joins. He is not prepared to serve under anyone else, definitely not under a southern candidate. On seeing that he would not be able to realize his selfish ambition in the mega party he initially joined with others to form, he hurriedly formed a break away party where no one would challenge him as presidential candidate. Since there is no hope of his legitimately ever becoming the Nigerian president or head of state again, Nigerians need to be preparing now for a possible jihad led by this man in the not too distant future.

NAIWU OSAHON, Hon. Khu Mkuu (Leader) World Pan-African Movement); Ameer Spiritual (Spiritual Prince) of the African race; MSc. (Salford); Dip.M.S; G.I.P.M; Dip.I.A (Liv.); D. Inst. M; G. Inst. M; G.I.W.M; A.M.N.I.M. Poet, Author of the magnum opus: ‘The end of knowledge’. One of the world’s leading authors of children’s books; Awarded; key to the city of Memphis, Tennessee, USA; Honourary Councilmanship, Memphis City Council; Honourary Citizenship, County of Shelby; Honourary Commissionership, County of Shelby, Tennessee; and a silver shield trophy by Morehouse College, USA, for activities to unite and uplift the African race.Naiwu Osahon, renowned author, philosopher of science, mystique, leader of the world Pan-African Movement.

via Huhuonline.com

David-West seeks Ijaw leader Clark’s arrest

Former Minister of Petroleum Prof. Tam David-West has called on the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to arrest and prosecute Ijaw leader, Chief Edwin Clark, for alleged illegal possession of Direct Data Capture (DDC) machines.

The machines were allegedly found in Clark’s home in Warri, Delta State.

David-West made the call during an interview in Ibadan, Oyo State, yesterday.

Clark has explained that the commission is aware that the machines are in his home.

He said they were meant for Ayakoromor community in Burutu Local Government.

Clark said the community chose his house as its centre for the registration because many residents were displaced during the face-off between the Joint Military Task Force and militant leader John Togo last December.

David-West insisted that the Ijaw elder must be made to face the law.

He said: "Clark must be arrested and prosecuted because INEC has said that it does not keep machines in the homes of individuals.

"The commission needs to establish its credibility. Clark is one of the loudest supporters of President Goodluck Jonathan. Discovery of DDC machines in his home compromises the integrity of Mr President and his vow for free and fair election. He should be prosecuted."

On the exercise, David-West said the difficulties experienced were unimaginable.

He said they shook the hope of having free and fair elections in April.

The ex-minister said it took him three hours to register.

He wondered how professionals and students could spare such enormous time to register.

He said: "I am not a prophet of doom but I am very circumspect when it comes to socio-political analysis.

"It is said that a job well begun is half done. On the contrary, a job badly started is ominous for the entire project.

"I am not blaming Prof. Attahiru Jega at all; I’m blaming politicians, who have refused to change their style of politics."

via: the nation