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OPINION: The Fowl of Mecca and Nigeria’s Census Palaver

May 5, 2023

By Azu Ishiekwene

We have a measurement problem eloquently illustrated in a Yoruba tale about a Mecca has-been. The fellow in this tale had just returned from a pilgrimage to Mecca, apparently the first to do so in his community. Upon his return, folks were understandably curious and wanted to know about the Holy Land.

Thinking of what would best illustrate the majestic splendour of Mecca, the sojourner decided to use a native fowl as an example.

“You all know our native fowl?,” he began.

“Of course!,” his curious, attentive listeners chorused.

“The fowl in Mecca is as big as a cow, if not bigger!,” he told them.

“Oh no!,” one rather incredulous listener said, amidst the rapturous gasps of h-e-n-e-n-h-e! “Big as a cow or big as a goat?”

“Ok,” the sojourner replied, “Let’s say it’s as big as a goat!”

“Oh no!,” the incredulous interlocutor reposed again. “Big as a goat or as big as a rabbit?”

This encounter continued until the sojourner, lowering his hand each time he was challenged, grudgingly lowered it until the point where nearly everyone finally concluded that the size of the fowl of Mecca was not significantly different from the size of the local one.

The tale of the fowl of Mecca is a metaphor of our census dilemma. We have spent nearly 60 years counting ourselves and yet, the answer to Nigeria’s census question is: it depends on whose hand is at play.

The Nigerian Population Commission (NPC) estimates that Nigeria is 218 million; the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) puts the figure at “over 200 million”; while the UNFPA and the World Bank estimate Nigeria’s population at between 216 million and 218 million, or thereabouts.

Former President Goodluck Jonathan even said at a recent event that Nigeria is not 200m. “Far from it,” he reportedly said on April 14. “We should be about 150m.”

As things stand, Nigeria is in the company of Afghanistan, DR Congo, Uzbekistan, Madagascar, Eritrea and Lebanon as countries without a census population. The only thing certain about the Lebanese population, for example, is that there are more Lebanese in the Diaspora than at home!

The recent attempt to have another count in Nigeria, already overdue by 17 years, has been postponed indefinitely. After a hasty meeting on Friday night between President Muhammadu Buhari and the Chairman of NPC, Nasir Isa Kwarra, the Federal Government announced that it had decided to let the incoming administration handle the census.

The postponement did not surprise me. After years of doing nothing, the Board of 36 commissioners and a relatively unknown chairman have become so used to pay and prestige without work that getting any serious census off the ground was always going to be a tough job.

Ten years ago, former Managing Director of Nigerian Breweries Plc and Chairman of NPC, Festus Odimegwu, was forced to resign his position because he said Nigeria could not have a meaningful census except certain fundamental changes were made.

He said at the time, “If the current laws are not amended, the planned 2016 census will not succeed.” By that, of course, he meant laws that make the population of states a basis for the sharing of oil revenues and political representation.

His comment ruffled feathers. President Jonathan who already had his back to the wall sacked Odimegwu to appease deeply offended interests in the North who thought the NPC chairman could not be trusted to conduct a credible census.

It turned out, however, that Jonathan’s sacrifice was neither enough to secure him Northern sympathy in the 2015 election nor did the census hold as planned in 2016. His successor, Muhammadu Buhari, after promising to hold the census in May 2023 has now kicked the can down the road, with no shortage of excuses.

The most obvious one was the shift in the date of the governorship and state house of assembly elections. The NPC said the shift in state elections from March 11 to 18 complicated its original plans to have the census between March 29 and April 2.

That is potentially true, but mainly false. The shift by one week may have momentarily affected NPC’s planning and execution, but only momentarily. The Commission was not ready, simple. Apart from those in its glass-panelled offices in Abuja and a few staff in the states, NPC has been very busy talking to itself.

It was not the shift in election dates by a week that complicated NPC’s problem. Its unseriousness was worsened by widespread complaints about the failure of the Independent National Electoral Commission’s (INEC) bimodal verification system. NPC was deeply worried by the prospects of a flawed count piling on the unresolved BVAS mess.

Another sign of unpreparedness was the questionnaire – the basic instrument for the 2023 census. On April 14, the NPC Director of Public Affairs, Dr. Isiaka Yahaya, was quoted to have said in Kano that the Commission would not ask questions about religion and ethnicity in the census!

Why not? What is it about respondents’ religion and ethnicity that NPC is so afraid of that it desperately wants to expunge from the questionnaire?

If there was anything that needed a review, it is the often-weaponised “state of origin” which could have been replaced with “state of residence,” for example. But to pretend that it’s OK to strike out religion/non-religion and ethnicity and make us a bunch of aliens is, well, largely alien to population census. I don’t know where this idea is coming from or what NPC hopes to achieve.

But none of the countries I have searched turned up this demographic insanity. Not India, the world’s largest multi-ethnic democracy, where everything from caste to mother-tongue and migration status is required; not South Africa or Kenya; and certainly not Ghana, Nigeria’s neighbour.

Yet, what these countries have in common, but which Nigeria lacks, is significant degree of reliability in primary data on births, deaths, school enrolments, migrations and so on, managed in secure systems and regularly updated. Without reliable primary data, any census conducted — whether every five, seven or ten years — is a waste of time. And without this data also, no reliable planning or forecast is likely.

It would seem that the real elephant in the room, though, is that the NPC knows the Bola Ahmed Tinubu government would reject the outcome of a census rammed down the country’s throat with only days before President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration leaves.

They’re dealing with a familiar customer. It was Lagos State, under Tinubu, that dragged the Federal Government to the tribunal over the 2006 census, on grounds that the state’s population had been underreported by nearly half its size.

The current Lagos Deputy Governor, Femi Hamzat, who was the Commissioner for Science and Technology at the time, produced a book on behalf of the state, entitled, “Errors, Miscalculations and Omissions: The Falsification of Lagos Census Figures,” which essentially said that instead of the 9.1 million which the NPC had awarded the state, its own shadow census showed the state actually had a population of 17.6 million.

Nothing much came out of the legal challenge, but Odimegwu’s complaint seven years later re-echoed the sentiments of Lagos and significantly explains the scramble, this time, to nick the census before May 29.

If Kwarra and his commissioners are deceiving themselves, Buhari knows that Tinubu’s government will not accept any census result under the current circumstances. That is why the census was postponed.

Yet, given the current structure of the country, especially the conservatively dominated National Assembly, it would be difficult to have a credible census, even under Tinubu, without a review of the law that makes population the basis of sharing oil money.

Under the “horizontal sharing” formula of 26.72 percent of revenue in the federation account, for example, population accounts for 30 percent. This figure could be cut to 10 percent; while internal revenue which currently gets 10 percent could be increased to 30 percent.

Appeals not to politicise the census is empty, self-serving noise. Politicians will not relent, unless there is also a countervailing legislation that ties the extent and scope of Federal intervention in states to the taxes or royalties collected from the states and, fundamentally, to how much wealth the states themselves create.

Nothing short of a drastic action will cut the politics of our census fowl to its true size.

Ishiekwene is Editor-In-Chief of LEADERSHIP

Egbu Diocese Celebrates Pioneer Bishop Iheagwam’s 80th Birthday –10 Years After Bowing Out

The Source

May 5, 2023

Professor Emmanuel Uchechukwu Iheagwam and His Wife

By George Best Okoroh

The entire congregants of the Diocese of Egbu, Anglican Communion, Oweeri North, Imo State, on Tuesday, 2nd May 2023, celebrated their pioneer Bishop, the Rt. Rev. Professor Emmanuel Uchechukwu Iheagwam who clocked 80 years. This celebration came 10 years after the retirement of Iheagwam as the Bishop on clocking 70 years of age.

Iheagwam, an academic-turned Bishop, a Professor of Zoology, University of Nigeria, Nsukka, accompanied by his devoted wife, Mrs Ada Iheagwam, a Geographer, was full of joy that he was celebrated alive and not in death. He gave all thanks and praises to God Almighty who made it possible.

In his sermon, the Bishop of the Diocese of Egbu, Iheagwam’s solid successor in office, since 2013, the Rt. Rev. Geoffrey Enyinnaya Okorafor, described the octogenarian as an epitome of humility whose good legacy will always be remembered in the annals of Egbu Diocese, popular as Holy Ghost Diocese.

According to Bishop Okorafor, the Rt. Rev. Prof Emmanuel Iheagwam was being celebrated because of his leadership qualities and pragmatic approach to issues.

He quoted the pioneer Bishop as always saying that ”we are all learning in every day of our lives”.

Bishop Okorafor recalled that Egbu Diocese, when established in 1996, was not giving the chance to survive based on the circumstances surrounding it at that period while under the Diocese of Owerri. But pointed out that with the pragmatic leadership qualities of the pioneer Bishop, the Diocese has clocked 27 years, and still standing very strong on its feet.

Bishop Okorafor highlighted some of the achievements of Bishop Iheagwam before he bowed out of office to include the establishment of Archdeacon Dennis Foundation International Boys Secondary School, Egbu which kick-started same year the Diocese was established, the recovery of Egbu Girls Secondary School as a Missionary School owned by the Diocese from the State Government, Palm plantation project at Emeabiam area of Imo State as well as other agrarian projects provided huge income to the treasury of the Diocese and many more.

In the words of the Lord Chancellor of Orlu Diocese and a retired Judge of Imo State, Goddy Anunihu KSC

“I joined the Service and Ceremony marking the 80th Birthday anniversary of Rt. Rev. E. U. Iheagwam Rtd. Via Zoom from my holiday location in Manchester United Kingdom. It was really glamorous.”

He Congratulated the Bishop Emeritus, the Incumbent Bishop and the Planning committee ” for a good outing.

Some of the dignitaries who graced the event include the Archbishop emeritus of Ecclesiastical Province of Owerri and retired Bishop of Orlu, Most Rev. B.C I Okoro, Bishops Chidi Oparaojiaku, Emma Maduwihe PhD, Chamberlain Ogunedo, retired Bishop of Mbaise, Rt Rev Bright Ogu and their wives.

The Chancellor of the Diocese, Chief Magistrate Maureen Onyewuotu, and the Legal team were also present as well as Hon. Justice Ijeoma Agugua.

Others present were Senator Sam Anyanwu (Sam Daddy), the Governorship Candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, who unveiled a book, “Autobiography of the Rt Rev Prof. Emmanuel Uchechukwu Iheagwam” as part of the events which marked the Bishop Iheagwam’s 80th birthday.

Also in attendance were Hon James Onyeriri, the Lord Chancellor of Oji River Diocese, Bar. Aham Eke -ejelam (SAN), Hon. Rogers Nwoke, and Sir Sam Ojukwu amongst several others.

Save Democracy In Nigeria

The Source

May 5, 2023

As the Presidential Election Petitions Tribunal gets set to begin hearing on the various election petitions before it, the NEO AFRICANA CENTRE (NAC) has called on the judiciary to rise to the occasion and be prepared to play its role as the bastion of democracy. The public policy think tank said it is compelled to make this charge in the light of the many flaws and infractions that characterized the 2023 general elections. The Centre believes that there is an urgent need for the judiciary to intervene in order to save democracy in Nigeria from total collapse.

In a statement by its Director of Public Affairs, Jenkins Udu, the Centre expressed grave concern over the charade called the 2023 elections, a situation which it said has given rise to the plethora of litigations the tribunal is saddled with. It has therefore charged the judiciary to live above board by cleansing the Augean stable of the 2023 general elections.

The statement reads in part:

“As a Public policy think tank concerned with the tripartite principles of democracy, good governance and the rule of law, we have remained scandalized by the elaborate charade which the Independent National Electoral Commission shamelessly passed off as elections in Nigeria in 2023. The exercises which held on February 25 and March 18 remain a huge national embarrassment. The electoral commission did not just subvert its own rules, it abandoned midstream the technological innovations which would have made the conduct and outcome of the elections almost seamless. While we do not intend to go into the nitty gritty of the flawed exercises, we make bold to say that the February 25 presidential election was the worst of its kind that Nigeria ever experienced. The electoral commission failed the country spectacularly.

“The Centre is of the considered opinion that this failure by the electoral body should be mitigated. This is where the judiciary comes in. As the bastion of democracy, the judiciary cannot afford to fail where other arms or institutions of government fail.

“Regardless of what many perceive as miscarriages of justice which have dogged the judgments of the courts in recent years, we still believe strongly that the judiciary can salvage itself and the country from the mess we have on our hands.

“Unlike what obtained in the recent past where our courts, including the Supreme Court, have been pooh poohed over scandalous judgements, the judiciary must put its acts together this time. It must shun those pitfalls that have made some of our judges objects of ridicule and derision. If the judiciary fails, the country would have failed holistically. Such a grim prospect will be injurious to the survival and sustenance of democracy in Nigeria.”

The Centre said it wants the judiciary, as was the case in the past, to put the country first by upholding the principle of integrity and keeping dirty compromises or inducements at bay.

“The people are watching and you cannot afford to fail,” the statement concluded.

Uzodimma, Adamu Commission Ehime Mbano FG Water Scheme

The Source

May 5, 2023

A Federal Government initiated Water Scheme located at Ezeala Akpaka, Umueze 1 in Ehime-Mbano Local Government Area of Imo State was on Thursday handed over to the Imo State Government after it was commissioned by the Minister of Water Resources, Eng. Suleiman Adamu, assisted by Governor Hope Uzodimma.

Addressing the people at the handover and commissioning ceremony at Umueze 1, Governor Uzodimma thanked President Muhammadu Buhari for granting approval that the project be located in Imo State and assured that it will be protected by the people.

The Governor said that the project was one of the numerous projects President Buhari was gracious to grant their approval and location in Imo and said the people of the State will remain grateful to him.

He reminded the audience that the Water project belongs to the community and the entire Okigwe zone and urged the community members who turned out in good number to protect the project and ensure it is not vandalised by thieves and criminals.

The Governor said that he had it on good authority that the Water project was originally conceived to serve 200,000 households but what is on ground can only serve 50,000 households and pleaded with the Minister of Water Resources to endeavour to ensure that the remaining 150,000 households are not denied the opportunity of drinking healthy water.

He thanked the Minister for personally coming to commission the project and for his efforts in the Inyishi Mega Water Scheme in Ikeduru, noting that reports before him indicate that the “Inyishi Water Scheme can still be completed by this administration.”

In his address, the Minister thanked the Governor for all his support towards the success of the project.

He said that Imo State is one of the States in Nigeria to benefit from the World Bank Sustainable Water Scheme.

Adamu joined the Governor in asking the community to protect the project “because government will not be always there to protect the project.”

He informed that the investment in the Water Scheme is huge and the benefits are enormous.

The Managing Director of Anambra Imo River Basin Authority thanked the Minister for making the project a reality. He also thanked the Governor for the conducive environment he created and the community, for providing their land for the project.

He further thanked President Buhari for the approval to locate the project in Imo State in general and at Ezeala Akpaka in Ehime-Mbano LGA of Imo State Nigeria in particular.

Earlier, the Imo State Commissioner for Water Resources, Lady Ann Dozie had assured that the Scheme will be reticulated and protected.

She thanked the Governor for the opportunity and all the necessary support that made the project come to fruition.

The Governor was accompanied by the Secretary to the State Government, Chief Cosmos Iwu, the Chief of Staff, Bar Nnamdi Anyaehie and members of the Expanded Executive Council.

Uzodimma: Lawyers Play Stabilising Role In Society; Declares 2023 Law Week Open in Imo

The Source

May 5, 2023

Hope Uzodimma with Court of Appeal Judges

The Imo State Governor, Senator Hope Uzodimma on Thursday, May 4, 2023 declared the 2023 Law Week, organised by the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) Owerri Branch open, submitting that lawyers play stabilising role in the society and should not abuse the privilege.

In his speech at the ceremony held at Villa Garden Hotel, New Owerri, Governor Uzodimma assured the lawyers that the State Government will continue to support their stabilising role to the society by way of providing enabling environment that will help them to discharge their duties effectively.

The Theme of the Law Week 2023 is – State of legal practice in Nigeria: Imo State in Focus.

The Governor who decried the attitude of some lawyers with regard to pursuit of frivolous petitions and motions that often cause delay in court proceedings, urged the judges to discourage such acts as they contribute in disrupting the processes of justice delivery.

He bemoaned a situation where some lawyers have deliberately delayed and asked for adjournment to enable them continue to collect appearance fees among other despicable acts.

He reiterated that the significant role lawyers play in the society is such that “the rich and mighty will not trample on the less privileged.”

Governor Uzodimma insists that the duties of lawyers should centre around “upholding and maintaining the rule of law as well as defending dignity of humanity,” and that “a lawyer should show good conduct, be diligent to the service of his client,” while “Judges should recuse themselves from handling cases they have interest.”

The Governor said that his administration has made the welfare of lawyers in Imo State a priority since he came to office, paid arrears of salaries he met in office, provided official cars to judges, signed into Law the Criminal Justice Act, in addition to the establishment of Alternative Dispute Resolutions (ADR) to ease justice delivery “and have continued to appoint only men and women of proven integrity into the Bench.”

According to him, the provisions of the Administration of Criminal Justice Laws, which he signed into law as soon as he assumed office “was to encourage speedy trial and discourage unnecessary adjournments.”

Governor Uzodimma further tasked judges on speedy dispensation of justice, especially as it concerns the common man.

In her speech, the Chairman of the opening ceremony and Presiding Justice, Court of Appeal, Ibadan Division, Hon Justice Chioma Nwosu-Iheme, said she was delighted to be with the lawyers, noting that Owerri Bar remains her Base where she started her Bar assignment.

Justice Nwosu-Iheme described Owerri Bar as one of the best, not only in the Eastern part of Nigeria but the entire Nation.

She said this year’s theme is very apt in legal practice in Nigeria and told the lawyers to think again about what they do in courts today with Exparte motions.

In his welcome remarks, the Attorney General/ Commissioner for Justice Imo State, Barr. C.O.C Akaolisa welcomed the Governor and all that graced the occasion and thanking the Governor in particular for his financial and moral support to the Bar.

He promised on behalf of the Bar that the lawyers will continue to support his administration.

Earlier in his opening address, the Committee Chairman of the 2023 Nigerian Bar Association Owerri Branch Law Week, Bar Jude Nnodum, said that “for some years now, each year’s Law Week had focused on a diversity of issues of national importance,” emphasizing that “this year was a time for self examination, a time to access the state of legal practice in Nigeria.”

“This is the reason for choosing this year’s theme: “STATE OF LEGAL PRACTICE IN NIGERIA: IMO STATE IN FOCUS.”

In his address of welcome, the Chairman, NBA, Owerri Branch, Mr. Ugochukwu Damian Alinnor thanked Governor Uzodimma and other legal luminaries for honouring their invitation.

He said: “There is the urgent need to purge ourselves of various interests which tend to restrict us from assuming our pride of place in the court of public opinion and the Nigerian polity. Our aim, therefore, at this year’s NBA Owerri Branch Law Week is to check our scorecard, to see whether we are progressing or retrogressing, as well as finding out how to make meaningful progress in this new age ”

The event was attended by Judges of the Court of Appeal Imo, Chief Judge of Imo State, Justice Theresa Eberechukwu Chikeka, President Customary Court of Appeal Imo State, Hon. Justice V.U Okorie, the Speaker Imo State House of Assembly, Secretary to the Imo State Government, Chief Cosmos Iwu, the Chief of Staff, Barr Nnamdi Anyaehie, former NBA President, Mr. Olumide Akpata, among others.

One Woman’s Fight Against Impunity

The Source

May 5, 2023

By Dan Abubakar

Daily, we are faced with sundry manifestations of the gross impunity that rule the land in nearly every facet of governance and in the interaction of citizens with their institutions and even with one another.

The deterioration has long been coming to a head such that the more brazen the flouting of basic rules and abuse of common decency, the greater the likelihood of getting away with it.

Indeed so far have we descended the slippery slope of condoning – and being ruled by – criminality that it takes a very brave soul indeed to insist on things being done properly.

Like Mrs Maimuna Chionuma. After a quarter century of service at Union Homes Savings and Loans, she had her appointment as company secretary summarily terminated on March 20. There was no Board to approve this step as is required in her case being the Company Secretary duly appointed by a Board.

Even after having terminated her appointment precipitately, she was given a written warning not to divulge or disclose information pertaining to the company, not because she was bound by an oath (non-existent) to keep company secrets, she was “threatened” with both civil and criminal actions against her including reporting her to the Nigerian Bar Association and that she could be summoned at any time to answer queries. All of which in its true sense is tantamount to a ‘gagging order’.

For good measure her persecutors – operatives of Aso Savings and Loans who had failed to consummate their takeover of Union Homes but had somehow browbeaten the regulatory authorities into believing otherwise – petitioned the Police hierarchy and the DSS in Abuja that the one Mrs Chionuma was planning to kill them!

But in reality, she and her family were being trailed, with strange movements around her home and she persistently received strange calls from unknown numbers even at odd hours of the day or night.

As has become the case in Nigeria, money is at the root of the evil.

What is the story?

The Lagos State Government, after a protracted legal case involving the demolition of several numbers of shops and other facilities, agreed to pay N2.5 billion Naira compensation to Union Homes and two other parties for the said demolition of their properties. The money rather than go to Union Homes through the agreed Trust Account provided in the consent judgement, was rather intercepted and illegally diverted by the operatives of Aso Savings and Loans who had failed to consumate their takeover of Union Homes and was never a party to the legal action that resulted in the compensation being awarded.

Why did the Lagos State Government dole out such money to a body that was not party to the settlement?

The Handling Solicitor upon getting information that the compensation sum had been paid out, sent a petition to the Lagos State Government demanding the reason for their paying the compensation to a third party.

The Lagos State Government quickly reached out to Aso requesting them to officially acknowledge receipt of the said compensation.

Realizing the grave implications of their action, the Aso operatives insisted that Union Homes acknowledge receipt of the money and directed the Company Secretary of Union Homes to do so, a request which the Company Secretary demurred since no such funds ever came to the coffers of the distressed institution.

Rather than pay down depositors who are being owed about N23 billion Naira and serving and retired staffers eking out a miserable existence, 50% of the compensation in the sum of N1.250 billion Naira was said to have been paid to “political people” ( presumably politicians who it was claimed facilitated the payment of the compensation by the Lagos State government).

Another N75million Naira was said to have been paid as fees to consultants for supervising the sharing of the money to the “political people”.

It gets curiouser and curiouser.

From what was left, the powers-that-be at Aso decided to sequester N126 million Naira as “reimbursement to Aso for legal fees” . Magically, names of lawyers who were not in any court record as having participated in the legal process that culminated in the compensation being paid, suddenly appeared as beneficiaries.

No wonder the gag order on Mrs Chionuma. No wonder the perpetrators of what appears to be a brazen heist took the further step of petitioning the Police hierarchy in Abuja and the DSS alleging that Mrs Chionuma was planning to blackmail and kill them!

She honoured their invitation to Abuja where she stated her case in detail to the consternation of the interlocutors at the two institutions who were evidently shocked at the chutzpah of the petitioners and, therefore, refused to act on the expectation to have her detained.

Earlier in the year – in what is now obviously a calculated move to intimidate – one of the principal figures in this episode tried to warn off Mrs Chionuma thus: “You can get away with anything in Nigeria. It depends on the language you speak, who you know and your sex.” And of course on disposable cash to spread around the press, crooked cops and other enforcers.

One major question leaps out in this sordid saga.

Where were the regulatory authorities notably the CBN, SEC and NDIC?

When Aso made a bid for Union Homes in 2015, the whole transaction (Transaction Implementation Agreement – TIA) was supposed to have been consumated within 90 days. To date that has not been done and which meant Union Homes and Aso remain two separate legal entities. But somehow Aso continued to successfully browbeat the regulatory authorities into believing that Union Homes had been subsumed under Aso.

Many of the ingredients that have brought Nigeria prostrate are present in this tale: corruption, abuse of office, flagrant flouting of rules, intimidation.

When the few abusers of our commonwealth engage in such impunity, the society suffers. Institutions are eroded, values are debased, systems fail and banditry results.

In the case of Union Homes many retired staffers who could not claim any benefits have suffered untold hardships. Some have died. So have depositors to whom Mrs Chionuma and her colleagues were paying whatever little came in thus bringing down the exposure from 29 billion Naira in 2015/16 to about 23 billion Naira as at 2022.

The devastated state of Nigeria today with bandits in the bush and bandits in the corporate world is a result of the moral failing of people in a position to say no. And unless there is a critical mass ready to do so, we will continue to have failed institutions and hucksters as leaders.

Is all hope lost? One little company in distress on Ikorodu Road, Lagos is about to offer a cautionary tale.

Exclusive: North, Southwest APC Pick Akpabio as Next Senate President, Plots a 24-year Exclusion of Southeast from Power

The Source

May 4, 2023

By Stanley Ekpenyong, South-South Breau Chief

Except miracle happens between now and the inauguration of the 10th National Assembly, the Southeast will find itself in a political wilderness, the worst since independence.

In a brazen poke into the eyes of the geo-political zone, northern and southwest power brokers in the All Progressives Congress, APC have ceded the next Senate Presidency to the South south and specifically to former Akwa Ibom Governor, Senator Godswill Akpabio.

The magazine was informed that, but for his defeat in the last senatorial election, the plumb Senate position would have landed on the laps of Cross River’s out-going Governor, Professor Ben Ayade as he was the preferred pick.

However, should Akpabio’s corruption case prove an obstacle to his ascension to the nation’s number three position in the power hierarchy, the immediate past Edo State Governor and former APC Chairman, Adams Oshomhole will step in as a substitute.

The Oshomhole angle is the reason the outgoing 9th Senate under Senator Ahmed Lawan will in few days clandestinly amend Senate rules to allow first timers to vie for its leadership positions.

The current Senate rules allow only ranking Senators to vie for principal positions.

The former Edo Governor will be a first timer in the Senate having won election in February to represent Edo North in the Senate.

*Senator Orji Uzor Kalu: End of the road?*

While the Speaker of the House of Representatives will be produced by the North Central, the Deputy president of the Senate will be produced by the Northwest with his Deputy coming from the South west.

Out-going Kano state Governor, Ibrahim Ganduje, while on a courtesy call on Ayade Thursday, in what appears as an insight into the power brokers’ decision told his Cross River state counterpart that “we from the Northern part of the country, right from the beginning said the next president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria should come from the Southern part of this country and we made our pledge a reality.

“I will now like to make another pledge; I and my colleagues have pledged that the next Senate President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria will come from the South south and he is no other person than the former governor of Akwa Ibom, Senator Godswill Akpabio; the uncommon governor, the uncommon Minister is waiting to be inaugurated as the uncommon President of the Senate”

The exclusion of the Southeast was the fallout of a secret meeting hosted by a highly placed Northern chieftain of the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC ( name withheld) and attended by the party’s leaders from the North and Southwest shortly after the 2023 general election where the exercise was reviewed geo-zone by geo-zone.

At the end of the meeting, it was noted that the Southeast rejected the APC totally and massively in 2015, 2019 and 2023. It was therefore, concluded that the geo-political zone will still reject the party even if elections are held 100 times and APC contested 100 times.

The meeting further noted that even in local elections such as governorship, state and National Assembly elections in Southeast where the APC managed to win few seats, the results would have turned out differently if not for “some other means employed by our party to win”.

The Northern and Southwest APC leaders then resolved not to reward “Southeast’s rejection of our party with inclusion or with a kiss and a pat on back”

Hawkish elements at the meeting, livid with anger over Labour party Presidential candidate, Peter Obi’s audacious performance at the presidential election and his insistence that the election was rigged, proposed a 24- year uninterrupted exclusive power rotation between the North and Southwest to “demonstrate that he who has the numbers has the power”

Former Abia state Governor and the current Senate Chief Whip, Senator Orji Uzor Kalu, Senator Osita Izunnaso and out-going Ebonyi state Governor, Engr. Dave Umahi are the three contenders for the President of the Senate from Southeast.

With the power brokers’ decision, the ambitions of the three Southeast candidates may have suffered a stillborn.

WASSCE Starts Monday; Almost Two Million Students Involved

Ayodele Oni

May 4, 2023

By Ayodele Oni

The West African Examinations Council has announced that this year’s West African Senior School Certificate Examination, (WASSCE) will begin on Monday with a total of 1,621,853 candidates from 20,851 secondary schools that have registered for the Examination.

Head of the Nigeria National Office, Mr Patrick Areghan, during a press briefing on Thursday, said the WASSCE will last till Friday, the 23rd of June, 2023 in Nigeria, spanning a period of seven weeks.

He added that candidates would be examined in 76 subjects, saying about 30,000 practicing senior secondary school teachers, nominated by the various State Ministries of Education, would be participating in the examination as supervisors.

“A total of 1,621,853 candidates from 20,851 secondary schools have registered for the examination. Out of this number, 798,810 are males, amounting to 49.25%, while 823,043 are females, which is 50.75% of the total candidature.

“The statistics show that there is a further increase and decrease in the number of females and males respectively, compared to the 2022 diet.

“On the whole, the candidature for the 2023 WASSCE (SC) increased by 13, 868 over the figure of 2022 1,607,985.”

Areghan added that schools that failed to upload the Continuous Assessment Score, (CASS) within the expected time frame after several free upload periods face possible penalties.

“CASS score is a major component in the computation of grades for candidates in the WASSCE (SC) examination. The use of technology has made it possible for the Council to provide platforms to enable schools to upload, manage and access students’ CASS data seamlessly and make such data available to schools on request.

“Currently, the Council allows upload of CASS data in SS1, SS2 and SS3, designated as CASS Year 1, CASS Year II, and CASS Year III at different upload periods.

“For each period of upload, the Council opens its portal free of charge for all schools and also extends the period of upload from time to time to enable all schools to upload.

“Schools that fail to upload within the expected time frame after several free upload periods face possible penalties. No school will have any result without complete CASS upload.

“The Council is facing a challenge in the implementation of the CASS policy due to the uncooperative attitude of some schools.”

How Iraqis Exploit Nigerian Women – NAPTIP DG, Waziri Azi

Akinwale Kasali

May 4, 2023

By Akinwale Kasali

It has been revealed that Nigerian Women in Iraq are being exploited in diverse ways by the employers in the country.

The Director-General of the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons, NAPTIP, Fatima Waziri-Azi, said that the plight of young Nigerian women, on daily basis, most of whom work as domestic workers in Iraq, is very troubling.

Waziri-Azi said that most of the young Nigeria women were now requesting for assistance to return home.

She said that NAPTIP was currently investigating several rogue labour recruiters who are reported to be big players in the massive recruitment of Nigerians to Iraq for domestic servitude.

The DG also said that awareness by the Agency and other partners on the well-known destination countries across the globe had now made traffickers to shift attention to Iraq.

“We are inundated with pleas for rescue and repatriation from female victims trafficked to Iraq, especially to the cities of Baghdad and Basra where they are distributed to homes by their recruiters to a hard life of domestic servitude.

“Available information shows that many of these victims have been admitted to hospital many times due to long work hours under harsh conditions they are forced to undergo.

“Most of them have complained of deteriorating health resulting from the weight of work.

“They are constantly under threat of being harmed either by their direct employers or the Iraqi agents, each time they complained of unbearable workload.

“Many of them have no access to their phones because their phones are seized immediately, they are paired with an employer.

“They are never allowed out of the premises where they are serving and even when communication is established with them for rescue, they cannot give details of their location,” she said.

The DG stated that the situation was a scary one, adding that the workload imposed on the vulnerable by their taskmasters was very worrisome.

Waziri-Azi stated that Nigerian women were constantly being sexually harassed by members of the household where they were serving, and this aggravated their situation.

She called on Nigerians to be cautioned on this desperate quest to travel out of the country for greener pastures, adding that it was the reason many Nigerians wanted to travel.

The DG stated that many Nigerian women had fallen prey to traffickers and the lies of labour recruiters who promised them juicy jobs overseas.

She stressed the need for people to evaluate every offer that came their way carefully and seek for second and third opinion before accepting such offers outside the country.

According to her, “If a sponsor facilitates your travel, you will be forced to do any job to pay off your sponsor before earning money for yourself.”

The DG stated that NAPTIP would continue to work with relevant Ministries, Department and Agencies in Nigeria and partners to ensure the safe return of the victims from Iraq.

We Are Not Holding LG Funds – Gov Oyebanji

Ayodele Oni

May 4, 2023

By Ayodele Oni

Ekiti State Governor, Mr Biodun Oyebanji has declared that his administration has released all monies accruable to the 16 local government councils from the Federation Account since assuming office about seven months ago.

Governor Oyebanji spoke on Thursday while receiving the Auditor-General for Local Government, Dr (Mrs) Iyadunni Oke noting that local government administrators no longer have reason not to develop their areas.

He added that his administration has given necessary approval for people-oriented projects expected to be carried out by the local government councils which would also be monitored regularly by a team from his office in order to ensure compliance.

“I decided to invite the ALGON chairman here so that he will listen to my own view on this matter, since we came to office and now, we have released all the monies meant for local governments to them and I know that all the local governments have been given approval for one project or the other.

“Just two weeks ago, we set up a monitoring team from my office to go and inspect the status of all these projects. I also hope with respect to both the capital expenditure and the recurrent, the audit department are also doing their job because local government is so critical to service delivery, they are the nearest to the people.”

Oyebanji commended the crop of quality Auditors being paraded at both state and local government levels for their commitment and dexterity at delivering quality service which has led to efficient management of the state’s resources and exposure of shady deals.

He stressed the need for top civil servants to mentor younger ones that would effectively take their position when they eventually bow out of service and ensure continuity of quality service delivery in all sectors.

“I will like to place on record that accountability is very key to service delivery, the six pillars are just aspirations and if care is not taken, they will remain in that realm, if the structure to implement are not accountable because the currency is money, the lubricant is money but the vehicles are individuals that will spend this money must be accountable.

“And that is why your office is so critical to the delivery and implementation of the six pillars development agenda.

“I must say this openly that the quality of Auditors we have at the state and the local government levels are top notch. I can vouch for their integrity.”

Earlier, the State Auditor-General for local government, Dr Iyadunni Oke, who thanked Governor Oyebanji for appointing her, promised to carry out the responsibility of that position to bring improvement to the state’s accounts as well as ensure continued commitment of rank and file members of her office.

To drive her vision for effective auditing in the state, the Auditor-General, who is also the first female to occupy the position noted that actualization of the six pillar of this administration would require a virile and effective auditing that would be hinged on monitoring of both financial and personnel budget of all local government and LCDA’s, ensure that due process was followed in all the activities of the state and ensure that there is value for money in all programmes, and policies of government.

She also stressed the importance effective auditing on all government undertaking, occasional investigation into the special programmes of government for the attention of the Governor and training and retraining of all Auditors in the state to ensure success of all government policies.

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