The National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) has wielded the big stick as it has revoked the broadcast licences of Silverbird TV, AIT, Raypower FM, and Rhythm FM amongst others.
This, according to the Commission, is over their failure to renew their broadcast licences amounting to N2.66 billion.
The closure is meant to take effect after twenty four hours.
In a statement, the Commission said these broadcast organisations, which list was published among stations yet to renew their licences, ignored the window of waiver that was expected to put them in the clear.
“Three months after the publication, some licensees are yet to pay their outstanding debts, in contravention of the National Broadcasting Commission Act CAP N11, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004, particularly section 10(a) of the third schedule of the Act,” the statement said.
“Therefore, after due consideration, NBC hereby announces the revocation of the licenses of the…stations and gives them 24 hours to shut down their operations. Our offices nationwide are hereby directed to collaborate with security agencies to ensure immediate compliance.”
As at the time of filling this report, the stations were still broadcasting.
There are indications that Ekiti State Government has finally offset fees of students that sat for the May/June West African Examination.
Results of the examination were released about three weeks ago. But that of Ekiti and other defaulting States were withheld.
Affected students and their parents had pleaded with the State Government to do the needful to enable them access results of the examination.
It was gathered that the State Ministry of Education, early in the week, paid over N300 million to the West African Examinations Council, (WAEC) as balance of outstanding fees.
Sources from the State Ministry of Education disclosed that the amount covers fees for over 16,000 students in public schools who sat for the final examination.
It was further learnt that worried by inability of students to access their results, and complaints by parents, Governor Kayode Fayemi directed the Ministry of Education to forward to him evidence of payment to the examination body.
Ekiti State Commissioner for Information and Values Orientation, Mr Akinbowale Omole had earlier described as untrue a purported rumor trending on social media that the failure of Ekiti State Government to pay WAEC fee was responsible for the delay in accessing the results of the examination by students.
Mr Omole noted that such was a lie from the pit of hell and it should be disregarded by members of the public.
He said the little delay experienced by the students was as a result of poor internet service on the website of the examination body and not the inability of government to pay WAEC fee as been speculated.
The Commissioner advised the opposition parties not to always play politics with every issue, saying that there are better things to be done than being petty.
“Issues that are of serious concern to the people of the state should not be politicized . If issues are Political, fine, it can be given political touch and not the ones that are of great concern to the people.”
Mr Omole appealed to members of the public to always get news from credible sources rather than platforms where the news could plunge the society into confusion and crisis.
Also reacting , the president, All Nigeria Confederation of Principals of Secondary Schools, ANCOPPS, Mr Victor Amele said that the students have been accessing the results of the examination stating that any delay being experienced in some quarters can be attributed to network issues.
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Ekiti State through its Publicity Secretary Mr Raphael Adeyanju and a former Governor’s aide, Mr Lere Olayinka had recently taken to social media alleging that the inability of the state government to pay WAEC fees of the students was responsible for the delay experienced in their results.
Few days after Amotekun Security Network in Ondo State intercepted trailers- load of suspected migrants from Northern parts of the country to the South West, Osun State Government has called on residents to be more vigilant warning that intelligence received indicated that criminals have arrived the State pretending to be minibus and Okada drivers.
A statement issued by the State Information Commissioner, Funke Egbemode, however revealed that the Government was taking necessary steps to arrest suspected persons.
Egbemode said, ”The Government, through intelligence report, is aware of the infiltration of the ranks of commercial transport operators in the state by some criminal elements who are now attempting to harm unsuspecting citizens using motorcycles and mini-buses (korope) especially.
“The video of a young lady making the rounds who was fortunate to escape the plot confirms the report.
“We are, therefore, calling on residents of the State to be more security-conscious as they move around the State, and especially avoid motorcycles, mini-buses or buses without registration numbers.
“Citizens are also advised to report, through the state’s emergency line, all suspicious movements or presence around their communities or places of residence.
“The various transport associations are also directed to dispatch their enforcement teams towards ensuring the strict adherence to the safety guidelines and rules laid down by the Ministry of Works and Transport.
“Specifically, the National Union of Road Transport Workers is charged not to allow any of its members to be used for nefarious activities that threaten the security of the state.
“The security formations of the State have been fully briefed on this new development, and appropriate actions are being taken to ensure that these unscrupulous elements do not disrupt the peace of the State.
“The Government of Mr Adegboyega Oyetola will continue to do everything possible to protect citizens of the state from actual and potential threats.”
Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike may have scores to settle with top echelons in the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, at the National level, but he remains firm, optimistic and assured that the Party will soar higher at the 2023 Elections in the State.
This is as a result of the massive defection of strong politicians and their supporters in the State who have renounced membership of their political parties in droves and joined the PDP.
Wike said that the defection- tsunami came into being following the ongoing infrastructural development by his administration and the belief that PDP is a better party to associate with.
The Governor who has been at loggerheads with PDP Presidential Candidate, Atiku Abubakar and major stakeholders in the Party following his failure to clinch the Vice Presidential ticket made this assertions at the flag-off of the 11th Flyover Project at the Rumuola-Ikwerre Road-Rumuokwuta Roundabout in Obio Akpor Local Government Area of Rivers State Commissioned by former Cross River State Governor, Donald Duke on Thursday 18th, August, 2022.
The Rivers State Governor explained that the ongoing collapse of the membership strength of other political parties in the State is definitely an electoral advantage for the PDP.
“We have collapsed every other party. Every day people from All Progressives Congress (APC) are joining our party. We are here doing that and some people are in Abuja; ask them how many persons have they brought to the party.
“It’s not to say I’m supporting our candidate. How many people have you brought to help your candidate. We are here everyday bringing people to join our party and you are there following your candidate from Abuja to Adamawa. Is it there you’ll win the votes? Come back home.”
He stressed that Rivers State is too strategic politically to be ignored by any serious minded politician who wants to win election.
He stated the futility of the claims by those who professed that they know the PDP presidential candidate, yet they are not at home where votes can be mobilised to secure electoral victory.
“This Local Government alone, Obio Akpor, where I come from, we registered not less than 600 thousand voters. This local government beats two States in their electoral strength.
“So, we are not a state that you can take for granted, not to talk about the Local Government where I come from.
“I believe that they must know us here because we have what it takes to deliver. They must come and know us. I’m not going to find anybody. You must come here. You can’t take 600 and something thousand votes away from my local government. You can’t take 3.2million votes from my State just like that.”
He emphasised that the days are gone when supporters and electorate offer their votes and do nothing in return.
“If we were father Christmas before, we won’t be father Christmas again? You must tell me what is there for me if I should vote. So, nobody should bother himself. At the appropriate time we will talk to our people and our people will understand.
“If you say we don’t exist, we will tell you that you don’t exits. I am not a son to anybody. I am a son of Rivers State. I am working to attract what will benefit Rivers State.”
He noted that the 12 flyovers, in the next three years, would be more appreciated because they will sufficiently address traffic related problems, as everything as been out in place including funds made available so that every project started by his administration is not abandoned but completed.
“As at yesterday (Wednesday), I have released the money for the compensation of every property that will be affected here.
“We have paid for the relocation of the electric poles and property from Mgbuoba to Ozuoba. We have paid for the relocation of electric poles and property on Azikwe-Iloabuchi Road. So, the total compensation we have paid is N4.3b.
Governor Wike noted that Julius Berger Nigeria PLC has started, in July, the deduction of N2b from the Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) account of the State, and would do so for the next 10 months, to execute the 11th and 12th flyovers.
He also explained that 80% of the contract sum has been paid to Julius Berger Nigeria PLC for the Azikwe-Iloabuchi Road construction.
While emphasizing that his administration is determined to complete the Andoni section of the Ogoni-Opobo-Andoni Unity road and has charged the contractor to expedite work.
“Andoni must get road before I go there to campaign. I have told the contractor, Opobo has gotten road, Andoni people must drive by road before the administration ends.
“The Trans-Kalabari road, we have paid 100%, that is over N13b we have paid and I believe by the grace of God, by this September, the first phase of Trans-Kalabari road will be completed.
“The one of Bori to Kono that CCECC is doing, which we have paid over N14b and finished paying.”
Duke, while Performing the flag-off, said the leadership capacity demonstrated by governor Wike assures that there is hope for Nigeria.
He commended Governor Wike for executing projects, particularly the flyovers that have made Port Harcourt livable city.
He also noted the medical succour the Dr. Peter Odili Cancer and Cardiologist Disease Diagnostic Centre would offer cancer patients, because of the terminal nature of the disease.
Providing a description of the project, Rivers State Commissioner for Works, Dr. Dakorinama George-Kelly said the 11th flyover is 1007.5 meters long, stretching from the Ebony junction on Rumola road to the Seventh Day Adventist church on Ikwerre road.
Following the controversy which dogged the annual Iri ji Mbaise, Imo State Governor, Senator Hope Uzodinma has given notice that he knows those to hold responsible if anything happens to Mbaise Monarchs or any of his appointees from Mbaise.
The 2022 Iri ji (New Yam Festival) was not only mired in controversy, but it was highly politicicised. It could easily pass as a battle between the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, in the State, and the main opposition party, the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP. More specifically, it was a battle between Uzodinma, and the man who he succeeded in office, the Rt. Hon. Emeka Ihedioha.
Ever since the Supreme Court removed Ihedioha from office, January 2020, in
favour of Uzodinma, the politics of hatred, the propaganda and the tension in the State have been unprecedented.
These were on display at this year’s Iri ji Mbaise. Ihedioha is from Mbaise.
The festival had been fixed against Monday, August 15, 2022. But the State Government and a number of Stakeholders had advised otherwise, considering the usual enforced sit-at-home order. They did not want hoodlums to take advantage of the situation, they said, to cause mayhem in the State, especially, as Uzodinma was billed to be given a Chieftaincy title by all the Traditional Rulers in Mbaise – Enyioma of Mbaise. The ceremony was shifted to Tuesday.
But Ihedioha and a section of the people differed. They advised people to stay in their homes and/ or communities to celebrate it. With his friends and well-wishers, Ihedioha celebrated at his Mbutu home.
Yet, it didn’t take the shine off the Tuesday event where the Governor was the Special Guest, and was conferred with a Chieftaincy title.
But there are fears that the Traditional Rulers who dared attend the Tuesday event and conferred the Governor with the Chieftaincy title could be at risk of physical attacks and/or worse. The Governor seems aware of it.
So, while addressing the people, he said: “Let me sound a note of warning. If anything happens to any Traditional Ruler, Political appointee or organisers of this event from Mbaise, we know those to hold responsible.”
According to a statement signed by his Media Adviser/ Chief Press Secretary, Oguwike Nwachuku, the Governor was given the Chieftaincy title by ranking Traditional Rulers from the area in appreciation of his good relationship with the people of Mbaise.
The honour, he said, was the climax of the 2022 Iriji-Mbaise national cultural festival which held at Itu Central School Field in Ezinihitte Mbaise Local government area on August 16, 2022.
In his remarks after all the pomp and pageantry associated with the festival such as the inspection of Yam Barn, the opening of yam dish and cutting of yam, Governor Uzodinma told the mammoth crowd of Mbaise sons and daughters who turned up for the occasion, that the development of Mbaise is top on his agenda.
”We cannot develop any other part of Imo State without developing Mbaise nation.”
The Governor gave the assurance that the development which has eluded the area for decades will be brought to them by his administration before other parts of the State.
Governor Uzodinma who described Mbaise people as highly intellectual, educated and as pacesetters, emphasised that as far as he is concerned “civilization started in Mbaise land.”
The Governor said though he was invited as Special Guest of Honour to come and show solidarity with the people over the Iriji festival, his instincts tells him that he is part of Mbaise Nation because of his past history with the people.
“This is home-coming for me. So it is erronous for me to be regarded as a Guest. Rather, I am a co-host at this Iriji-Mbaise occasion organized by a people who are my own.”
Governor Uzodinma assured that “despite the threats and animosity from some quarters, nobody will succeed in creating enmity between me and my people because of selfish and personal interest.”
He thanked the organisers for working hard to keep fate with a festival that has become synonymous with the Mbaise Nation.
Hope Uzodimma
The Governor appreciated the honour done him by the Traditional Rulers who conferred the Enyioma Mbaise Chieftaincy title on him, despite the threat issued to them not to do so or face serious consequences.
Governor Uzodinma assured both the Royal Fathers and the organisers of the event that no harm would happen to them as Government will ensure that no such thing happens.
“Let me sound a note of warning. If anything happens to any traditional ruler, political appointee or organisers of this event from Mbaise, we know those to hold responsible.”
He promised to deal the issue of bad roads as demanded by the organisers of the festival and Mbaise leaders.
“You will be living witnesses to my reassurance that development will come to Mbaise Nation under my watch. Take it from me that my government will leave Mbaise Nation better than we met it. There can be no development in Imo without first developing Mbaise Nation.”
In his welcome speech, President General, Olu Oha Mbaise, Chief Perry Opara thanked Governor Uzodimma and other dignatories for finding time to be part of the festival despite their busy schedule.
He lauded the Governor’s development strides in Mbaise in particular and Imo State in general, reminding him that Mbaise Nation will forever remain grateful for the flag-off of the Owerri-Mbaise-Umuahia.
Chief Opara, however, told the Governor that Mbaise Nation deserves good roads like yesterday and that his name will be etched in the psyche of the people if he does that.
In his remarks as Chairman of the occasion, Chief Paul Obasi (Paul and Paul), applauded the Governor for his numerous achievements touching on
the different political zones of Imo State, particularly the recent flag-off of the Owerri- Mbaise -Umuahia road among other projects and pledged the continuous support of Mbaise Nation to his administration.
He also emphasised the importance of good roads in Mbaise.
The event attracted the high and mighty from Mbaise and other parts of Imo State to Itu in Ezinihitte, the host local government area for this year’s Iriji-Mbaise festival.
Those in attendance include the Deputy Governor, Prof Placid Njoku, Secretary to Government of Imo State, Chief Cosmas Iwu, Chief of Staff to the Governor, Barr. Nnamdi Anyaehie, the Assistant Inspector General of Police Zone 9, Umuahia, Isaac Akinmoyode, the Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, Barr. C O C Akaolisa and all the members of the Imo State Expanded Executive Council.
Also present were the Eze Imo, HRH, Eze Dr E C.Okeke, His Owerri zone Chairman, HRH, Eze Akujiobi, among numerous other monarchs from Imo State.
The All Progressives Congress (APC) senatorial candidates for Okigwe, Orlu and Owerri: Mr. Patrick Ndubueze, Osita Izunaso and Alex Mbata respectively, as well as other candidates for elective political offices from Imo State were also in attendance.
Foremost businessmen, Chief Tony Chukwu, Chief Henry Amadi, Chief Charles Amadi to name but a few as, well as current and former APC leaders like Chief Marcellinus Nlemigbo also graced the occasion.
Abductors of High Chief Mukaila Bello of Ikare Akoko Kingdom in Ondo State, have been nabbed by the Ondo State Police Command.
The abductors, Ilyasu Lawal, 27; Mohammadu Sidi, 26; Garuba Bature, 36; Abubakar Dangy, 20, and Mohammed Mosere, 25, were paraded alongside 26 others persons allegedly involved in various criminal activities in the state.
The suspects were allegedly involved in robbery, kidnapping and murder, among others.
Parading the suspects at the Police Command Headquarters, Alagbaka, Akure, the State Commissioner of Police, Oyeyemi Oyediran, said the suspects were arrested in different parts of the State.
According to him, the suspects included the abductors of a Traditional Ruler in Ikare Akoko, High Chief Mukaila Bello, who was kidnapped along with three others.
Oyediran said, “On August 4, 2022, around 6.30pm, based on the information received that a gang of kidnappers, numbering about seven, attacked a Toyota Corolla with number plate KAK 818 AE, at Ago-Yeye, along Ikare/Owo Road and four others were kidnapped and held hostage for three days in the bush.
“Upon the receipt of the complaint, men of the anti-kidnapping squad, in synergy with the Oyo State Police Command, swung into action, which led to the arrest of Ilyasu Lawal, 27; Mohammadu Sidi, 26; Garuba Bature, 36; Abubakar Dangy, 20, and Mohammed Mosere, 25.”
He stated that three guns, five live cartridges, two face masks and two jack knives, were recovered from them, while the suspects confessed to the crime.
The Commissioner added that his men also arrested a suspect, Babatunde Adeoye, aka Para, believed to be a political party supporter, for allegedly shooting four people at a supermarket.
All Progressives Congress, APC, Presidential Candidate, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu is in the eye of the storm over alleged certificate forgery.
The Action Alliance Party, AAC, that fielded Journalist and Human Rights Activist, Omoyele Sowore, as its Presidential Candidate at the forthcoming 2023 Presidential election had sued the former Lagos State Governor on alleged certificate forgery before the Justice Obiora Egwuatu of Federal High Court, Abuja.
However, the Court had ordered the AAC to present its witnesses in court on October 12th, 2022, to establish a certificate forgery suit brought against Tinubu.
The Party in the suit prays that the Court disqualifies Tinubu from the 2023 pre-race on alleged certificate Forgery.
Justice Egwuatu issued the order on Thursday when he fixed October 12th as the new date to enable parties in the suit complete filing of their processes and exchange same as required by law before the adjourned date.
Senior Advocate of Nigeria, SAN, Babatunde Ogala, is the Counsel to Tinubu and is saddled with fortifying the defense of the former Lagos State Governor in the alleged certificate forgery suit.
At the proceedings, AAC Counsel, Ukpai Ukairo, informed the Court that he just received the notice of preliminary objection from Tinubu asking the court not to entertain the case against him on various grounds.
Amongst the grounds, Tinubu claimed that the foundation for the certificate forgery suit against him was rooted in the 1999 electoral forms he submitted to the then electoral body.
It also claimed that the report of the Lagos State House of Assembly which probed him on the alleged certificate forgery is the main foundation of the fresh suit and hence, has become statute barred.
However, Ukairo informed the Court that the claims of Tinubu, especially on the statute barred position would be adequately addressed in the subsequent proceedings.
Ukairo furthermore stressed that Tinubu’s claims made orally by his counsel had to be made formally and served on him to enable him respond appropriately.
In the Suit, electoral umpire, the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, which is the 1st Defendant in the suit, sought for time to respond to the suit, as the APC was not represented in court despite proof of service of the suit on it.
The Judge accordingly adjourned the matter till October 2, for parties to put their houses in order for proper hearing of the alleged certificate forgery suit.
It would be recalled that the AAC had on June 21st, 2022, asked the court to restrain INEC from including the name of the APC Presidential Candidate in the ballot of the 2023 presidential election.
The party in the Write of Summon marked: FHC/ABJ/CS/954/2022, predicated its request on the claim that both the APC and its presidential candidate, Bola Tinubu are not qualified to participate in the 2023 presidential election on alleged forgery committed by Tinubu in 1999.
The suit filed on behalf of the plaintiff by its lawyer, Ukairo, claimed that Tinubu forged his university of Chicago certificate he submitted in 1999 in aid of his qualification for the 1999 governorship election in Lagos State, which was won by Tinubu.
The suit, dated and filed on June 21, has the Independent National Electoral, All Progressives Congress and Senator Bola Tinubu as 1st, 2nd and 3rd defendants respectively.
The Imo State Command of the Directorate of State Services, DSS, has released a pregnant teenager who has been in its custody for about five months.
A native of Atta, Umunnam, Njaba Local Government Area, Chiamaka Okoro was released on Thursday, August 18, 2022, alongside six others.
Weeks back, the DSS had come under the hammer over the story of the teenager who allegedly got pregnant in its custody. The news had made headlines in the Social Media. It was reported that the teenager, allegedly, arrested because of her relationship with an alleged leader of unknown gunmen in the State, had become pregnant while in the custody of the DSS. Her offence, as well as that of other girls, it was alleged, is a suspicion that they are dating members of the Indigenous Peoples of Biafra, IPOB, and its militant wing, Eastern Security Network, ESN.
But a source at the DSS disclosed that the teenager was already about two weeks pregnant, unknown to the Service, when she and the others were arrested in a bid to use them to trace and arrest “a notorious leader of the unknown gunmen who specialized in the beheading of his victims in Imo. He is also alleged to be in the habit of intimidating young girls into a relationship with them. He became, still is, a security nightmare to security agents in the State as he has defied all efforts made to track him or arrest him to answer to the alleged atrocities he committed in the State.
The other girls released by the DSS on Thursday are: Oluebube Uzoma, Chidinma Oba, Favour Azubuike, Chidera Amaefula, Chibueze Ezike and Nmesoma Ezike.
“I’m going to waste my vote,” a friend told me recently. “And don’t argue with me,” he added. “It’s my right to do so.”
I defied him. Regrettably, even though I also recruited help nearby to press home my point, my unsolicited advice fell on deaf ears.
My friend’s mind was made up and nothing would stop him. What he intends to do, according to him, is to vote for a candidate in the 2023 presidential election that he knows would lose.
He did not name names, though in the countdown to next year’s election, I have heard the suspect mentioned by many in this way. His main point was to let me know that he intends to express his civic duty as an act of defiance.
He’s not alone. According to the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (IDEA), even though the number of countries that hold elections have increased over the years, there has also been a continued decline in voter interest.
In Nigeria it’s been around 50 percent in the last six election cycles. Still as the next election approaches, millions of Nigerians plan either to abstain or to vote for a potential loser.
It doesn’t appear to make sense, but former Governor Donald Duke’s recent viral video calling such contrarians fools doesn’t explain their action either. What is it about the psychology of the Contrarian Voter that equates a simple civic task with electoral homicide?
They say that choosing between any of the two leading presidential candidates for 2023 – Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and former Vice President Atiku Abubakar of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) – is like choosing between death by drinking acid and death by drinking hemlock. Either act, like Hobson’s choice or Cornelia’s dilemma, would lead to the same predictable outcome.
Isn’t that what we say of most, if not all, of our politicians – that they are mostly old and feeble and perennially corrupt, greedy and bereft? If that is the trope that politicians have canvassed of themselves and which the media has generously spread and reinforced over time who can blame my friend, the Contrarian, for preferring political homicide?
And let no one pretend there’s a last saint standing. The rose among the thorns, if there were any left, has been crushed by politicians who outdo themselves in mudslinging before every election cycle. They call themselves crooks, bigots and incompetents all of which have been adequately published in the press or logged in the bowels of search engines.
Pundits like me simply helped to finish off any virtue left, to the point where my Contrarian voter friend is now unwilling to touch politicians with a ten-foot pole. He would rather waste his vote than cast it for scoundrels, he insisted.
There was no use asking him on whom he intended to waste it. Framing his choice as a wastebasket may be a shade more polite or comforting, but in a way, his wastebasket – whoever he is – is just a cousin of the perennially maligned lot.
My friend’s position reminded me of an article by one of America’s most outstanding psychiatrist and political columnists, Charles Krauthammer, published in May 1984 and entitled, “The Appeal of Ordeal.”
Krauthammer, contemplating the decline of trust in politics, asked why anyone should worry about poor voter turnout or indifference when the standard fare every campaign season is that politicians are crooked, corrupt and useless?
Never mind that when the campaign is over and the day is done, the same politicians who dragged one another in the mud still get into office either in the executive or legislative branch. And yes, they still grant favours to their failed, maligned compatriots. They make the laws and enforce them and in-between even find time to banter and regale us on their follies.
Only last week, for example, in a rare moment of candour, former APC Chairman, Adams Oshiomhole, told former President Goodluck Jonathan that all the name-calling and thrashing didn’t not come from his heart. “I fought you,” he said, “because of politics”.
In what other vocation other than politics would subscribers still be expected to subscribe in large numbers after being warned over and over again that the only choices before them are between crooks and that voting either way would have disastrous consequences?
To adapt Krauthammer, in spite of the troubling record of Dana Air, is it ever likely that rival airlines Ibom Air or Air Peace would cite the crashes of Dana in adverts to promote their own sales. Or that AIICO Insurance would mention by name the failures of any other leading insurance company to boost its own premium-honouring credentials? Not even in a blood sport as cruel as boxing is the fight promoter obsessed with the personal hubris of the contenders.
Yet in politics, all bets are off. It is, in fact, expected of politicians in whose hands we entrust our lives each time we vote, that their closet should be ransacked, their darkest secrets found and exposed and every bit of their shenanigans brought to light as a rite of passage.
It doesn’t stop there. Apart from stipulating that politicians must be fiddle-fit, we also insist that they must travel the 36 states, reach all local government areas, bow before every traditional ruler or local idol and dress like the locals.
Which was why a) President Muhammadu Buhari was dressed in suit and a bow tie it seems for the first time in his life back in 2015 and b) Transport Minister Rotimi Amaechi ran round the Port Harcourt Stadium to prove his fitness for the APC presidential ticket, when families of those kidnapped in the Abuja-Kaduna train attack were drowning in despair. We have seen, haven’t we, that the circus always ends in tears!
But it doesn’t matter. Being a very religious people, we also insist that politicians must be religious people too. Whatever they do at night, or when no one is looking, all we care about is that they must carry one sectarian label or the other, preferably, Christian or Muslim. But again, haven’t we seen it all – whether in the Oval Office of the Bill Clinton White House with Monica Lewinsky or in the nepotism of the Buhari years – that the hood doesn’t make the monk?
I know I face the risk of being accused of giving politicians a soft pass and advocating the lowest common denominator. Nonsense. I’m simply saying that in the obsession to find politicians walking where angels fear to tread, we have failed to accept that humans will, be well, humans – foibles, warts and all.
Those who insist that politics is a special sphere, unlike any other, say standards of conduct must be impeccably high. They prefer to apply the favourite Truman rejoinder that those who can’t stand the heat must get out of the political kitchen.
We insist that only trial by ordeal can refine our politics. Fair enough. But also keep in mind that it was the frenzy of the Truman era that produced the red-baiting of McCathartysm, among other unenviable legacies of Truman’s broth.
It doesn’t make sense that we are searching for saints to elect or hoping for high voter turn-out when we spend cycle after cycle of campaign demonising politics and politicians only to end up moaning about the hopelessly corrupt choices before voters.
By all means let contenders be subject to the rules of the game that they have agreed to participate in. And sure, we also need to strengthen institutions as a safeguard. But in the end, they should be judged as humans and therefore as work in progress, like the rest of us. They should be judged on their record, not as irredeemable scoundrels or wastebaskets.
For indeed who knew that the 20th century’s most indispensable politician, Winston Churchill, could attain such a remarkable height and life of service after once declaring with his own mouth that he was finished?
Finished in politics, my Contrarian friend, is where the work starts.
Jobs exceeding 300,000 awaits youths from Imo State in no distant time as the Government of Senator Hope Uzodimma puts machinery in motion to tap into the global benefits of Digital Economy.
At the Imo State Executive Council Meeting held on Wednesday, and presided over by Governor Uzodimma, a Council Memo on Imo Youth Digital Training and Empowerment Scheme as submitted by the Chief Economic Adviser to the Governor, Prof. Kenneth Amaeshi was approved.
Addressing newsmen at the end of the Council meeting, the Chief Political Adviser and Head Political Bureau, Barr. Enyinna Onuegbu, said that the Memo was brought to the Exco by Prof. Amaeshi “in conjunction with the Commissioner for Labour, Employment and Productivity, Chief Ford Ozumba.”
“The objective of which is to have about 300,000 Imo youths pass through a training that will make them digitally sound and guarantee their expertise in digital technology and other training possibilities.”
Onuegbu added: “In addition, the training will increase their qualifications, by guaranteeing their knowledge as they will become employable as well as employers of labour.”
Flanked by the Commissioner for Labour, Employment and Productivity, Ford Ozumba, newly sworn-in Commissioner, Jerry Egemba and the Chief Economic Adviser to the Governor, Prof. Amaeshi, Onuegbu noted that the State Government is planning a digital training programme for thousands of youths in Imo State to be held soon, and that the Exco constituted an Inter-Ministerial Committee to drive the project.
Members of the Committee include: Chief Economic Adviser to the Governor, the Commissioner for Labour, Employment and Productivity, the Commissioner for Science and Technology and the Commissioner for Budget and Economic Planning.
Other members are: the Commissioner for Youths and Sports and the Chief Political Adviser and Head of Political Bureau.
The EXCO further mandated the Committee to work out the framework – modalities, logistics, time-frame and expenditure profile for the project.
The Chief Political Adviser in his contribution said: “The project when realized will be very beneficial to the teaming Imo youths, especially those who are likely to benefit from it not only as employees but will turn out to be employers of labour.
“The beneficiaries will contribute to the economy of Imo State as they will be working for International organizations while living in Imo State and paying their taxes and bills.”
He explained that the Governor assured the Exco that well established entrepreneurs and computer gurus such as Zinox Computers and the Federal Minister of Communication and Digital Economy have all already keyed into in the training project of Imo youths as far as the digital world economy is concerned.
