Opinion
Rivers: As Light Of Peace Shines
The Holy Bible in John 1: 5 declares : “And the light
shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.” That is the case of Rivers State where the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, represents light and the APC represents darkness.
The choices we make define our direction and our philosophy. The Rivers State APC last Monday clearly made a choice to remain in the dark with their decision to exemplify their false procession with an all black outfit. In their quest to politicise the security of lives and property in the state, the Rivers State APC exposed their unpopularity and general rejection by the peace-loving people of the state.
The Black Day political rally brought to the fore the ill-motive of the Rivers State APC and the fact that the defeated political party is not on ground in the state. Without doubt, the APC is less than five percent in the political and social equation of the state.
To show the unpopularity of the Rivers State APC, the Party had to rely on the importation of over 1000 policemen and more than 300 soldiers and other security agencies for their three thousand hired supporters to march for a distance less than a kilometre. This short march from APC State Secretariat in Old GRA to Polo Club by the APC, was tantamount to a police parade as the policemen competed with the few APC supporters in terms of number.
Indeed, it became clear that the APC chose black as their preferred colour because they wanted to camouflage in the overwhelming presence of policemen. They hid their black failure in their ugly colour.
The case of the Rivers PDP and other non-governmental organisations who marched for peace on Friday in Port Harcourt indicate that the state is still dominated by men and women of goodwill who have Rivers State at heart. It proved that those who believe in progress and development outnumber those who are devilishly inclined and steeped in darkness. Light dispels darkness at all times. Darkness bows to light, irrespective of the weight of the lies and propaganda.
To show that Rivers State is PDP, the people of Rivers State numbering over 50,000 marched peacefully on Friday for over 10 kilometres. The peace march started from the PDP State Secretariat at the foot of the old GRA on Aba Road to the Rivers State College of Arts and Science on Rumuola Road. It was a celebration of peace and the values of Rivers people built on development and the respect for human lives and constituted authority.
It was a carnival of the people’s preference for Governor Nyesom Ezenwo Wike, the leader chosen by the majority and ordained by God to transform the state. The Friday people’s peace march further exposed to the world the lies of the Rivers State APC and her leaders.
While the people marched freely with minimal security presence, the Rivers State APC hired boys trekked for less than a kilometre with maximum security because they feared the wrath of the people who made their choices during the general elections without any form of violence.
The Friday peace march in Rivers State was extremely successful because it was from the people to the nation and the world. It was a statement of fact. As the peace march moved on the popular Aba Road, other citizens keyed into the celebration of the virtues of the state.
Rivers State PDP Chairman, Bro Felix Obuah, captured the essence of the march when he declared that the people of the state will remain practitioners of peace irrespective of the antics of the defeated APC. He urged the people to continue to stand for peace, despite the propaganda and lies of the APC. Obuah said that the calls by the APC for state of emergency to be declared in the state shows their desperation to truncate peace in the state.
Member representing Obio/Akpor Federal Constituency, Mr Kingsley Chinda, exposed the fraudulent persons hired by the APC to make false testimonies during their unfortunate Black Monday campaign rally. He listed the address of the APC member and the name of his 10-year old child who is still alive, pointing out that it was regrettable that the said hired hand claimed his son died before the election.
Rivers State PDP Secretary, Walter Ibibia, described the APC State Chairman, Davies Ikanya, as a man who promotes disunity in the state because he believes only in pecuniary issues.
It is disheartening that the Rivers State APC and her governorship candidate have allowed the desperation for power through the back door to derail their sense of political reasoning and respect for the rule of law. These men remote controlled by external forces, are bent on destroying the very fabric of peace in the state in order to justify the lies they propagate on their sponsored media platforms. Like always, the Rivers people on Friday in Port Harcourt sent the right message of peace and development to the world.
Governor Wike represents the present and future of Rivers State, hence the people voted overwhelmingly for him on April 11 and 12. They made that choice in substantial compliance with the law and under a peaceful atmosphere that pervaded the state. The people streamed out to declare that they cannot be tampered with via vain propaganda and unnecessary drama.
Like Governor Wike told the national leadership of the Labour Party when they visited him recently, he is committed to peace, security and development of Rivers State and Nigeria. A politician and statesman of note, Governor Wike declared that the elections are over, hence all political parties and politicians should put aside their personal interest to allow good governance for the good of the people.
Governor Wike has the spirit of peace and development. This spirit has been transmitted to all his supporters and admirers, who have regards for human lives and property. They are on ground and have no reason to engender violence.
Rivers State remains the home of peace, light, development and implementation of people oriented programmes under the leadership of the people-endorsed Governor Nyesom Ezenwo Wike. No black evil machinations by leaders of darkness will shake the resolve of the people to stand by their governor. The very best under the present dispensation. The voice of the people is the voice of God.
Nwakaudu is Special Assistant to the Rivers State Governor on Electronic Media.
Simeon Nwakaudu
Opinion
Soludo’s Mandate, Austerity Or Prudence?
The Governor of Anambra State, Prof. Chukwuma Soludo, recently celebrated the anniversary of his two years in office. Prof. Soludo won the Anambra State 2021 guber elections with a remarkable landslide, in one of Nigeria’s most popular and freest elections. A professor of economics and former governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, who spearheaded banking sector reforms and reconsolidation that became points of reference, Prof Soludo was heralded as the Messiah of Anambra State, especially as he promised to make the State the “Dubai and Japan of Africa.”
But mid-way into his administration, the euphoria about the Soludo magic has long dissipated. The disappointed well-wishers who gathered at the venue of his anniversary at Awka, may have come to get first-hand account of the happenings, and to reassess their stand. Usually such events are opportunities for office holders to recount their accomplishments. Governor Soludo, while narrating a litany of achievements said he runs an austere government in the State to the point of claiming not taking any salaries since assumption of office, and that even the first lady does not have any car allocation from the State.
What stands out however, is that the governor said he had insisted not to borrow, even though records show that the governor has sought and got approval from the State assembly to borrow N100 billion. So far, Soludo’s decision not to draw the loan is commendable, because records show that as at January 2023, the State’s debt deductions stood at N872,425,828.86 per month, which was 27.8 per cent of net statutory allocation, and 12.4 per cent of total allocation. Today, that burden is more than double due to naira devaluation.
Additional kudos goes to Soludo from Anambra’s 2024 budget summary documents, which show that the approved 2023 budget estimate of N260,394,690,434 yielded a revenue of only N155,647,114,526.22, of which the State spent only N76,905,169,399.35 to realise a whopping surplus of N78,741,945,126.87.
However, how austere is Soludo’s administration? And is austerity a measure of development? As sympathetic as the first family’s acclaimed self-denial may sound, the office of the first lady is not a constitutional creation, and therefore has no entitlements. The governor’s basic salary is N185,306.75, while his hardship and constituency allowances are N92,654.37 and N370,617.50, respectively, all of which sum to N648,578.62, a negligible amount compared to the governor’s monthly security vote of N850 million, amounting to over N10 billion per year, plus other perks of office.
Former Governor Obiano is currently facing charges of diverting N4 billion from security votes. Soludo should have told the public if he has cut down such humongous allowances.
Anambra State’s approved 2024 budget of N410,132,225,272.11 also shows that the governor’s office receives N11,199,200,089.19 comprising personnel bills of N4,668,243,574.08 and capital expenditure sum of N6,530,956,515.11, for the State’s Boundary Commission, Anambra State Public Procurement Agency, Anambra State Investment Promotion & Protection Agency, Anambra State Action Commission on AIDS (ANSACA), Christian Pilgrims Board, Muslim Pilgrims Board, Anambra State Small Business Agency (ASBA), Greater Onitsha Development Agency and the Greater Nnewi Development Agency, whereas these agencies should belong to requisite ministries, while the office of the governor is saddled with developmental concerns.
On the social sector, Soludo’s administration allocates a paltry annual purse of N175,000 for the upkeep of each secondary school in the state, which translates to less than N60,000 per term, and may be the reason some principals got tempted to request fees from students.
The plight of 656 health centre in the state are more pitiable as most receive N140,000 per year, which is about N11,667 per month, may be to fuel generators and other expenditures. The Orumba General Hospital is allocated N105,000.
The Anambra State should be more realistic in funds allocation to ensure that meager funds do not stifle essential institutions.
Anambra’s 21 local councils that draw a total monthly federal allocation of over N8 billion, continue to be ruled by illegal Transition Committee Chairmen appointed by the governor, thus denying the State of political tutelage at the council levels that groom vibrant politicians to the national level, while Anambra State Independent Electoral Commisson lies idle with allocation of N197,301,110.40.
As for roads construction, the governor may have done well, with the Ekwulobia on-going project standing most prominent, but what is on ground across the State lags far behind expectations. It took him two years to deliver his flagship campaign promise at Okpoko in Onitsha, combined with a re-election fever, to deliver the Okpunoeze road at Nnewi, probably out of wariness of the Senator Ifeanyi Ubah factor. Governor Soludo almost turned the road commissioning at Nnewi into a campaign ground.
In a country where politicians envision themselves as construction project management officers, road works, however inappropriate, have become the be-all-of- the-average. But for a professor of economics, who had sat at the vintage position of a Central Bank governor, where the impacts of policies and big industries are clearly understood, there are far bigger development expectations for which Soludo’s coming sounded messianic.
While his tax administration reforms are commendable, the brigandage of the Ocha Brigade and ANJET, who enforce tax drives, are eliciting sorrowful tales from the masses, especially road transport drivers. Insecurity remains a terror in the State. Meanwhile, in less than nine months, Alex Otti of Abia State has initiated rapid ‘positive disruptions’ as Soludo likes to coin it, and capped it with Geometric Power’s 24-hour of electricity in Aba, a project worth $800 million. In Imo State, Seplat Energy and Nigeria Gas Infrastructure Company (NGIC) are rounding-up a $700 million ANOH Gas Processing Plant, while Shell/NNPC is completing a $3.5 billion Obiafu-Obrikom-Oben OB3 gas pipeline network, despite insecurity, to link the Escravos-Lagos pipeline system. The revenue that would accrue to Imo State when it comes onstream far outweighs what Anambra gets harassing struggling transporters. Moreso, Shell has just empowered youths from the host communities of Assa, Ochia, Awarra, Obile, Avu, Obissima, Obuomadike, Ununwaku, Ohoba, Obitti and Umuapu, who graduated from its one-year training. Road construction and contracts in Imo would be usual community development accompaniments.
While the rat-race for revenue drives continues in Anambra, the State sits on 50 billion barrels of crude oil reserve, and 10 trillion cubic feet of gas awaiting development, out of its seven gas acreages, only two are being minimally tapped. Vested interests bind State-owned Orient Petroleum Plc with inept partners, First Modular Gas Systems Ltd, in ways that may have repelled big Oil and Gas players like Seplat Energy whose major shareholder, Dr. ABC Orjiako, is from Anambra State, and Mr. Emeka Offor’s Chrome Group, whose Interstate Electric Company Ltd are stakeholders in Enugu Electricity Distribution Company (EEDC) and the Alaoji Power Plant. It is obvious, the State has the human resources to develop its potentials, but needs prudent leadership.
Anambra, home to the Innoson Car Assembly plant, industries and businesses that are suffocating under poor electricity, needs visionary managers that draw down greater benefits, even if they do not forego salaries.
By: Joseph Nwankwo
Opinion
Nigeria Must Not Become A Wasteland
The political, business and economic classes seem to lose sight of the fact that a land without a people is in another word known as a wasteland. And what is a wasteland?
A wasteland is a society uninhabited by a people, and therefore the exploiters, manipulators and abusers of the commonwealth will have nobody and nowhere to ply their trade, whatever that may be. This is a fact that most of them seem to have so missed in their blind rush to rob the common people of everything, including their sanity.
Religious leaders are part of this ruthless group, but we decided not to mention their insidious role in the exploitation of the commoner because we have spoken about them in an earlier article on the subject of corruption. The word ‘corruption’ is not supposed to be spoken in the same breath with the phrase ‘religious leaders’, but what is abnormal elsewhere is very normal in Nigeria, especially when it comes down to the exploitation of the common people.
It is a known fact that despite its abundant resources and potential for extreme wealth, Nigeria is one of the backward nations in which only an insignificant number of people benefit from the commonwealth to their satisfaction and, above all, wish.
This is the way they want it, because theirs is a group, regardless of members’ religion and race, that does not welcome gate crushers, until it is absolutely necessary to do so. And so is mostly done by way of marriages. It is like a secret society, the secret of which it does not want outsiders to know and share with others outside the clique. It is a clique that non-members are fiercely not allowed to know what goes on in it. Along the way, a non-member may even lose his life with the members’ fierce protection of their exclusive conclave.
As stated earlier, when marriage calls with a ‘commoner’, members try all they can to disallow it, but when that is not achieved, it is reluctantly agreed upon until the ‘common’ party is fully integrated into the conclave. And so, a new member is then reluctantly born into the otherwise exclusive group. And all of the members of the group belong to one religion or the other, with, maybe, some holding firm to the traditional beliefs. Still, they feast on the commonwealth as if it was their own to do as they please.
It would seem that we believe in a different God. Muslims among us believe that our God is a just God, Who does not condone injustice on one over another, and that everyone must account for their actions in what we generally call ‘the hearafter’ before God (SWT). It is my belief that some members of this group do not believe in accounting for what they did while they were on this earth, even though those who believe in Christianity believe that Prophet Isa (AS), (Jesus Christ) ‘died for their sins’. This much is evident in their blind quest to exploit the common person, and they keep ‘acquiring’ from the commonwealth that which they, their children and grandchildren cannot spend in a sensible manner in their lifetime, try as they may.
Yet, the common person celebrates these people as heroes, which gives them the licence to continue their exploitation (of the Common person) of what by the laws of the land belongs to all. Celebrated on these shores, these people steal the Commonwealth blind and bring out a pittance by way of supposed charity or ‘assistance’ to the poor in the name of help. How is it possible to help a person from the proceeds of what you ingeniously or forcefully stole from him? This only happens in the land of the Mafia or in Nigeria, which is controlled by its own mafia. The earlier the Nigerian mafia is done away with, the better for the common person, now in the pole position to utilise, defend and enjoy the Commonwealth, as the laws of the land meant it to be.
By: Abdu Malumfashi, Abuja.
Opinion
Nigeria Must Not Become A Wasteland
The political, business and economic classes seem to lose sight of the fact that a land without a people is in another word known as a wasteland. And what is a wasteland?
A wasteland is a society uninhabited by a people, and therefore the exploiters, manipulators and abusers of the commonwealth will have nobody and nowhere to ply their trade, whatever that may be. This is a fact that most of them seem to have so missed in their blind rush to rob the common people of everything, including their sanity.
Religious leaders are part of this ruthless group, but we decided not to mention their insidious role in the exploitation of the commoner because we have spoken about them in an earlier article on the subject of corruption. The word ‘corruption’ is not supposed to be spoken in the same breath with the phrase ‘religious leaders’, but what is abnormal elsewhere is very normal in Nigeria, especially when it comes down to the exploitation of the common people.
**It is a known fact that despite its abundant resources and potential for extreme wealth, Nigeria is one of the backward nations in which only an insignificant number of people benefit from the commonwealth to their satisfaction and, above all, wish.
This is the way they want it, because theirs is a group, regardless of members’ religion and race, that does not welcome gate crushers, until it is absolutely necessary to do so. And so is mostly done by way of marriages. It is like a secret society, the secret of which it does not want outsiders to know and share with others outside the clique. It is a clique that non members are fiercely not allowed to know what goes on in it. Along the way, a non member may even lose his life with the members’ fierce protection of their exclusive conclave.
As stated earlier, when marriage calls with a ‘commoner’, members try all they can to disallow it, but when that is not achieved, it is reluctantly agreed upon until the ‘common’ party is fully integrated into the conclave. And so, a new member is the reluctantly born into the otherwise exclusive group. And all of the members of the group belong to one religion or the other, with, maybe, some holding firm to the traditional beliefs. Still, they feast on the commonwealth as if it was their own to do as they please.
It would seem that we believe in a different God. Muslims among us believe that our God is a just God, Who does not condone injustice on one over another, and that everyone must account for their actions in what we generally call ‘the hearafter’ before God (SWT). It is my belief that some members of this group do not believe in accounting for what they did while they were on this earth, even though those who believe in Christianity believe that Prophet Isa (AS), (Jesus Christ) ‘died for their sins’. This much is evident in their blind quest to exploit the common person, and they keep ‘acquiring’ from the commonwealth that which they, their children and grandchildren cannot spend in a sensible manner in their lifetime, try as they may.
Yet, the common person celebrate these people as heroes, which gives them the licence to continue their exploitation (of the Common person) of what by the laws of the land belongs to all. Celebrated on these shores, these people steal the Commonwealth blind and bring out a pittance by way of supposed charity or ‘assistance’ to the poor in the name of help. How is it possible to help a person from the proceeds of what you ingeniously or forcefully stole from him? This only happens in the land of the Mafia or in Nigeria, which is controlled by its own mafia. The earlier the Nigerian mafia is done away with, the better for the common person, now in the pole position to utilise, defend and enjoy the Commonwealth, as the laws of the land meant it to be.
Abdu Malumfashi
Malam Malumfashi writes in from Abuja.
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