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Sam Omatseye, Everyone’s Obituary Is Inevitable

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The Source
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Sam Omatseye

By Chuks Iloegbunam

Sam, you threw Mr. Obi’s data out of the window because you must be seen to be frantically propagating a character of disputed age, of unknown pedigree, unascertained genealogy, unsubstantiated name, uncorroborated curriculum vitae, and unverified academic diplomas. You shout from the rooftops that Peter Obi is not fit to govern. But you posit as fit for the presidential palace a specimen of incontinence, tremulous lower extremities, slurred speech, unsteady gait and memory lapses. You cannot be serious, my friend

Some have called you foolish, dear Sam Omatseye. Others insist that you are plain stupid. There are those who hold you to be beneath contempt. Their howls of execration upon you are in reaction to your August 1, 2022 article entitled Obi-tuary.

For me, however, you are a dear friend. Our friendship started in the 1980s at Newswatch magazine where both of us practiced journalism before you travelled to the United States for further studies.

It continued upon your return and strengthened to the point that, sometimes, you get the producers of your TV Continental programme to connect me to field questions live.

Besides, living in different states, we often chat by telephone.

I demonstrated our amity again last May when I was in Nigeria’s commercial capital for the Lagos International Book Fair. I phoned you and, within the hour, you were at my stand where we spent quality time reminiscing about the good old days and prognosticating on the future of our dear fatherland.

Armed with this handle of friendship, I have just the one advice for you: Be careful. It is in elaboration of this counsel that I write all that you read hereon. Please look back to the time of the Nigeria-Biafra war of 1967 to 1970. You will find that, military or civilian, none of the political actors of that era is still in a position to fight elections today. The final curtain long fell for most of them. Of the lot that remains, some have become vegetables, or are propped up with a suffusion of drugs or would not find their way to the loo unless hired attendants or swearing relatives point it out.

Together with the handful that is still blessed with something close to robust health, they have one thing in common. They are seated, restless or restive, in various existential departure halls, clutching fitfully at their boarding passes and waiting for that inevitable voice that cannot be disobeyed, to announce their flights into past tense.

In a broad sense, the departed leave their legacies, good, bad or ugly, for those standing in line and waiting their turns to also check out.

What legacies, dear Sam, are you and I feverishly working day and night to leave for those coming in our wake? When you write an article that denigrates the Igbo nation of over 50 million people, and make nonsense of some of those things that mean the most to them, do you really believe that your disposition is justified by the pay and perquisites that accrue to you at Ahmed Bola Tinubu’s The Nation newspapers?

This is you: “The Biafran babblers are alive and well. They just swapped icons, rechristened the shrines and rewrote the rites. They left the prophet for a secular priest. They have had a switch of battle gear.”

This clearly is a perfidious way of sentencing Ndigbo to the status of the bat that is neither bird nor mammal. Their fight for Biafra five decades ago was stopped. Their fight now for democratic integration impels you to call them babblers, i.e., people who are no more than endless talkers of nonsense. One would think that the bat sobriquet aptly becomes your Bola Ahmed Tinubu whose initials provide the BAT acrostic that he wears like a badge. I will sooner return to the BAT.

This, again, is your characterisation of the Igbo: “They can say they have a legitimate tribe and rhetoric. They may pretend to love Nigeria. They may claim to embrace INEC, cling to a political party no one in the police or DSS will harangue.”

Isn’t this the height of Igbophobia? We may go back in history. Before Tinubu, there were other Yoruba presidential candidates, including Chief Obafemi Awolowo, Chief M. K. O. Abiola, General Olusegun Obasanjo, Chief Gani Fawehinmi and Chief Olu Falae. None of these personages indexed their presidential ambition on stoking inter-tribal animosity between the Yoruba and the Igbo. As a matter of fact, Chief Philip Ezebuilo Umeadi, Igbo and one of the oldest Senior Advocates of Nigeria, was Papa Awolowo’s running mate in the 1979 presidential election.

Why does it make sense to you and to your principal that the only route to his vaulting presidential ambition must be one that sunders two ethnic groups that have since before the amalgamation been living together in amity, harmony and peace, two peoples that have always, in peace or in peril, lent each other a helping hand?

At the height of the Western Nigeria political crisis of the mid 1960s that pitted Chief Awolowo against Chief Samuel Ladoke Akintola, the former’s Action Group (AG) and Dr. M. I. Okpara’s National Convention of Nigerian Citizens (NCNC) entered into a coalition that birthed the United Progressives Grand Alliance (UPGA). We have it on Wole Soyinka’s authority – see page 73 of his autobiographical “You Must Set Forth At Dawn” (Bookcraft, Ibadan 2006) that Dr. Okpara lent the then incarcerated Awo a voice by dispatching Mazi Anyogu Elekwachi Ukonu and a complement of seasoned broadcasters that installed a transmitter right inside Awolowo’s Ibadan home.

Ndigbo were not a part of Awolowo’s treason trial and his imprisonment for ten years. Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe even said that he was the one that insisted on Awolowo being imprisoned in Calabar, rather than in Northern Nigeria where the chief feared that poisoning could end his life.

It was not the Igbo that nullified Chief Abiola’s victory in the 1993 presidential election. Rather, Ndigbo were in the forefront of the NADECO (National Democratic Coalition) struggle against the gross injustice. At least a third of those that formed the NADECO were Igbo, according to a list in Battlelines: Adventures in Journalism and Politics, Chief Segun Osoba’s autobiography published in 2020 by Diamond Publications Limited, Lagos.

They included Commodore Ebitu Ukiwe, the late Admiral Ndubuisi Kanu, Okwadike (Dr.) Chukwuemeka Ezeife, Prof Anya O. Anya, Chief Ralph Obioha, Chief Empire Kanu, Chief Michael Anyiam, Chief E. Duru, Chief Vincent Nwizugbo and Dr. Uma Eleazu.

NADECO had an international arm. In the United Kingdom, its meetings were held in the late Raph Uwechue’s Africa Books Limited offices in Hammersmith London. Chief Uwechue was Igbo. Dear Sam, I do not know exactly where you were at the time, and I concede that, among Nigerian politicians, there is something known as selective amnesia. If, therefore, your Tinubu, who lived in London for a portion of his exile, does not remember Uwechue’s role in NADECO, I am sure that none of General Alani Akinrinade, Professor Bolaji Akinyemi and Professor Sylvester Monye will ever forget.

All the Igbo fighters for June 12 were not dissuaded by the fact that their struggle was to actualise the electoral mandate of Chief Abiola, a Yoruba politician. Apart from incarceration, harassment by security operatives and the alienation of exile, some of these men paid heavily in other ways for their commitment to cause of justice. Chief Bobo Nwosisi died in exile in London. Chief Obioha lost his bank, the First African Trust Bank Limited.

In the light of the above, readers would have to judge for themselves whether or not it is right for you, Sam, to say the following of Ndigbo:

“They have transferred the temperament of their former master into the new. And they have not spared any incoherence, any lack of finesse, and threats and tantrums, any show of rabid, primitive cants, or any ululations. They have abused, cursed, thrown imprecations. They have hugged lies about their candidate. They have pelted lies about others. They have distorted material. Obi has turned out to be an excuse for even closet Biafrans to betray open emotions about Biafra without being accused of it.”

To be sure, your writing is not an aberrant occurrence. On July 17, 2022, an Adedamola Adetayo posted on the Internet an anti-Igbo diatribe in which he said, among other things that “They have a POLITICAL ZIONISM already in play. It is in the thing they deceptively call Obidients. That Movement is going to RALLY the Igbos of Lagos in a way that they haven’t ever been rallied. THEY ARE SET TO DETERMINE THE LEADERSHIP OF LAGOS. The priority is to remove Tinubu first. In future they will call the shot. This is what Peter Obi is all about. He has no plans for any Presidency. I can imagine that the ZIONISTS already have their IPOB/UGM all over the places in Lagos, in the Garrisons called Markets, under cover, masquerading as Igbo traders.”

Years before this ranting Adedamola Adetayo, John Femi Kusa, who had been a script editor at The Guardian in Lagos, also showed his claws. In March 2019, he published an article on the Internet with this sentence of a title: Okota: The Igbo Question, Jimi Agbaje, Afenifere And The Rest Of Us. In it, he claimed that, “The major problem, in my opinion, is the Igbo penchant to wish to take over another person’s land…Lagos was either a colony or a part of Western Nigeria. But because of the generosity of Yorubas and the foresight of their forefathers which made this region the star region in West Africa, the Igbos would like the Yorubaman to believe that LAGOS IS NO MAN’S LAND. Can anyone say that of Benin without eating his pounded yam as raw yam?”

Dear Sam, your Obi-tuary piece is as incendiary as the hateful views of Kusa and Adetayo. Kusa, now well into his 70s will not physically go feeding the Igbo raw yam. But all the vitriol you guys have been pushing against the Igbo is the stuff that leads the M. C. Oluomos into mindless violence and murder and arson and brigandage. You pen pushers of evil are the ones that egg on the rabble into wielding guns and cudgels and massacring innocent people for transient political offices. Is it right to promote this permittivity simply so that Tinubu will attain his wild goose chase of the presidential crown?

Kusa schooled at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, earning a degree in Mass Communication. All through his years in the Igbo country, not once was he molested or denied his citizenship on account of his origin. Did his welcome at Nsukka lead him into believing that the town was a part of the Yoruba country?

According to Facebook, the acerbic Adetayo guy schooled at the Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, and earned a degree there without abuse, let or hindrance. Maybe it got fixed inside his brain that Awka is an extension of Lagos, or that Azikiwe after whom the institution was named was his progenitor.

If there are Ndigbo who say that Lagos is a no man’s land, can one Igbo person be put up who simply seized a piece of land in the metropolis and converted it to his use? If Nigerians, including Tinubu’s daughters, who have been buying up choice properties in New England, United States, can own houses in Europe, North America, the Middle East and elsewhere, why must it rankle that Ndigbo own property in Lagos? Why must ownership of landed property in one’s own country lead to calumniation and physical harm? Is it not too steep a price to pay in order that Tinubu should become Nigeria’s president?

The Igbo were not responsible for the recent bloody massacre of congregants inside the St Francis Catholic Church in Owo, Ondo State. The Igbo are not among those sentenced to death by hanging for the murder of Afenifere leader Chief Reuben Fasanranti’s daughter. The herdsmen marauding, pillaging and plundering Yoruba land, looting, raping women, destroying farmlands and spreading death and destruction are not Igbo. The Igbo man did not kill a soul. He did not contest the governorship of Lagos. He hasn’t ever claimed ownership of Iga Idungaran.

The Igbo always lived in peace with the Yoruba – until Tinubu surfaced with his divisive politics. Are the vociferous Igbo supporters of Tinubu no longer of the ethnic group because of their partisan predilection?

Sam, informed readers of your articles are aware that your allusions to classical Anglo-Saxon, Greek and Roman mythologies and literary divergences are no more than an egregious attempt at appropriating the intellectual centre circle. Otherwise, you would appreciate the importance of adding depth to your fulminations.

Any owner of a book of quotable quotes or a glossary of literary terms can fill their verbiage with citations. But that is no scholarship, my friend.

Look at you: “Obi is like Zik, Kanu like Ojukwu. One is a flair, the other a flare.” Yet, it doesn’t strike you as reasonable to accord some of Zik’s aptitude to Peter Obi, a man who earned an honours degree in Philosophy from Nigeria’s premier indigenous university that was built by the great Zik of Africa.

And Ojukwu is no more than a flare. By impugning him with combustibility, you forget that in January 1967, Ojukwu went to Aburi, Ghana, not with an incendiary device, but with the sole purpose of putting out the smoldering fire that was threatening to become a national conflagration. You forget that it was not Ojukwu but those that reneged on the Aburi Accord that tossed a lit match in an ocean of gasoline.

I agree with those that have invested you with the coronet of a seasoned journalist. Except that your coronation disdains the fact that your brand of perceptive journalism is only seasonal. That explains why it bothers you that “Obi hops from church to church,” but means absolutely nothing to you that as Dele Sobowale reported in the Sunday Vanguard of July 10, 2022 “…Bola Tinubu has charged the Supreme Council for Sharia in the country to create a department of political affairs to create political awareness among the faithful towards producing a Muslim President in 2023.” Neither do you care a hoot that, as Dr. Sobowale added in the same article “Tinubu has followed up that injunction to the Supreme Council for Sharia, by making secret pledges to expand the reach of Sharia to more Southern States if elected.”

Rather, you call Peter Obi a hypocrite. But Mr. Obi gave his date of birth, the name of his parents, the town he hails from, the schools he attended and the businesses he is into. All were found to be correct. Not being at all interested in the truth, you threw Mr. Obi’s data out of the window because you must be seen to be frantically propagating a character of disputed age, of unknown pedigree, unascertained genealogy, unsubstantiated name, uncorroborated curriculum vitae, and unverified academic diplomas. You shout from the rooftops that Peter Obi is not fit to govern. But you posit as fit for the presidential palace a specimen of incontinence, tremulous lower extremities, slurred speech, unsteady gait and memory lapses. You cannot be serious, my friend.

Of course, it is your entitlement to advertise even ordure if that captures your fancy, but you may not carry on as though your readers are imbecilic. By raising the Biafran bogey, your intention was clearly to create doubt and apprehension. But your gambit only registered a calamitous failure.

Jonathan was President of this country. It didn’t obliterate Niger Delta agitation. Buhari is president of this country; those of his people campaigning for the Islamic State haven’t thrust their swords in their scabbards. You have a fondness for excoriating Nnamdi Kanu. Excellent! Except that your seasonal flair for journalism has never prompted you into examining the Sunday Igboho phenomenon. You make yourself a laughing stock by encapsulating in ethnic strictures the pan-Nigerian Peter Obi Movement that is youth led. You reckon not one bit that the youths that are sick and tired of the sanguinary dreariness and aridity of your principal’s vanishing epoch.

Nonetheless, you cannot contest the truism that, in the last analysis, everything goes and turns round. All metals are bound for the anvil. We are here today – those, like Peter Obi and his equally competent and credible running mate, Yusuf Datti Baba-Ahmed, that wish to place a new heart in the Nigerian nation; and others like your principal and his paid battalions of blinkered acolytes that, as Pa Ayo Adebanjo finely put it, are only interested in continuing and escalating the rot they inflicted on hapless Nigerians in 2015.

Whatever tomorrow brings, you must continue to ruminate over the legacy you will leave for coming generations. Every one of us will have their entrance and their exit, it being a settled fact that obituary’s certitude rings true for all comers, not just for Peter Obi as you wantonly asserted.

Iloegbunam is the author of the upcoming book on Mr. Peter Obi entitled The Promise of a New Era

Jaiz Bank MD, Officials Face Probe Over N109bn Accountant General’s Fraud

By
The Source
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Hassan Usman - Jaiz Bank MD

The Managing Director of Jaiz Bank Hassan Usman and other top officials of the Islamic bank will soon be invited for questioning by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC over their roles in the N109 billion allegedly stolen by Ahmed Idris, the disgraced former Accountant General of the Federation, sources in the commission said.

Idris, who is currently being prosecuted by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC alongside two other accomplices Godfrey Olusegun Akindele and Mohammed Kudu had stolen the huge funds by compromising the Treasury Single Account (TSA), Government Integrated Financial Management Information System (GIFMIS), Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS) and carted away billions of naira belonging to the government, the anti-graft agency said during his arraignment in last week.

The trio was last week arraigned before Justice A. O. Adeyemi Ajayi of the Federal Capital Territory High Court, FCT, Maitama, Abuja.

The EFCC had upon investigations, discovered that the former Accountant General opened bank accounts with the Islamic Bank, and used the same to perfect his money laundering schemes.

Even though the magazine cannot ascertain the extent to which some officials of the bank were involved in the fraud, investigations revealed that the bank was used to launder a large sum of money to top government officials at the federal and state levels.

The Source magazine learnt that the commission is now trying to unravel the possible underhand deals the former AGoF had with some officials of the Islamic bank that ‘allowed him to use the bank to launder public funds. The bank has serious questions to answer” an EFCC source said.

“The Accountant General and his accomplices must have chosen Jaiz bank, in order not to draw any suspicion from the public and banking regulators. But it’s now obvious that there’s no hidden place for the bank and greedy  government officials who committed the fraud. The EFCC will get to the bottom of the fraud and expose those involved” another EFCC top official said on Tuesday.

“There is a need to question more top officials of the bank apart from the chief executive who must be privy to how and when huge sums of money were moved without deeming it fit to alert constituted authority in the country and EFCC. There’s no way huge sums will be moved without the MD’s knowledge, and we are quite sure these officials are not unaware of the money laundering law,” the official said.

A huge part of the stolen funds, the EFCC said were used by Idris to set up businesses and acquire properties in Kano where he hails from, and Abuja, amongst others.

Such properties include the Gezawa Exchange Limited, Gezawa Integrated Farms, and Kano City Mall, amongst others.

The disgraced former accountant general also used part of the stolen proceeds to bribe top states and federal government officials, including former Governor Abdul’Aziz Yari of Zamfara state who was at the time Chairman, Nigeria Governors’ Forum, NGF.

During the trial last week, an EFCC prosecution witness Hayatu Ahmed, said Idris has accounts with Jaiz Bank which he used to make payments to individuals and companies, including a N280 million he paid into “Gezawa Commodity Market with Jaiz Bank.”

It was also learnt from EFCC sources that many transactions the disgraced Idris had with bureau de change were done through the bank. “We have verifiable evidence that many bureau de change in Kano and Abuja were paid through the bank. The equivalent of the dollar value was then collected in cash, which were later paid directly to those who benefitted from the fraud,” the source said.

Giving a break down of the fraud last week, the EFCC witness said the stolen funds were shared by three groups, including officials of the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission, RMAFC represented by one of its commissioners, Peace Akomas, former deputy governor of Abia State who allegedly collected N18.8 billion.

“The second group is the AGF group, and it got a total sum of N18.01 billion.

“The third group, the Commissioners of Finance in the nine oil producing states, received N21.4 billion. The money was withdrawn by Akindele, converted to US dollars, and handed over to Akomas on behalf of the group.

“The fourth group is called the Yari group. This group received N17.15 billion. The entirety of the sum was transferred to the account of Fimex Professional Services on the instruction of the representative of this group – Abdul’Aziz Yari, former Zamfara state governor.

“The remaining N8.9 billion was retained by the second defendant. Furthermore, N4.29 billion was converted to US dollars by Akindele as appreciation for the consultancy contract, and the balance of N4.6 billion was given to Akindele,” the EFCC witness said in court.

CVR Exercise: INEC Applauds Lagosians Over Peaceful Conduct; Register 585,629 During Exercise

By
Akinwale Kasali
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Voters Cards

By Akinwale Kasali

The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, which ended the Continuous Voters Registration, CVR, Exercise few days ago, has appreciated residents of Lagos State for the support and their peaceful conduct during the month long exercise from 28th June, 2022, to July 31st 2022.

In the cause of the CVR Exercise, the Lagos State Resident Electoral Commissioner, Olusegun Agbaje, said that the Commission registered 585,629 eligible citizens to exercise their franchise in the forthcoming 2023 election.

Agbaje said the Commission decided not to extend the exercise inspite of clamour for its extension by different bodies, because it has to pave way for the Commission to carry out other functions required by the Electoral Act 2022 with regards to the Voters Registration  that will require time for such functions to be performed.

The Commission said that it is still a long walk ahead as it is saddled with the responsibility of carrying out display of Voters for claims and objection by members of the Public; Clean Up Register to remove multiple registrants using the Automated Biometric Identification System, ABIS; Consolidate the data of existing voters and newly registered for the production of national registers of voters; Produce Permanent Voters Registration, PVC, for all fresh registrants and applicants for transfer, replacement of lost or damaged PVCs.

Agbaje added that the Commission has other activities that needs urgent attention for the success of the 2023 Election.

The Commission called for more support from citizens and Lagosians as it forges ahead in carrying out its mandate as the electoral umpire of the nation.

NLC Wants Governors To Intervene In ASUU/FG Faceoff

By
Ayodele Oni
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NLC Protest to Suuport ASUU

By Ayodele Oni

With the extension of strike by Academic Staff Union of Universities, (ASUU) by another three months, stakeholders are reaching out to prominent Nigerians to intervene in the interest of suffering students.

This is just as the protests organized by the labour unions in the country seem to have little or no impact on ASUU and federal government to come to terms on the prolonged strike.

Ekiti state council of the Nigeria Labour Congress, (NLC) in its view believes intervention by the Nigeria Governors Forum, (NGF) can make federal government to shift ground.

The leadership of the NLC, has therefore appealed to the Governor of Ekiti State, Dr Kayode Fayemi, who is chairman of NGF, to use his influence to intervene and resolve the ongoing impasse between the Federal Government and university workers.

The Academic Staff Union of Universities and other unions had embarked on strike for almost five months now with no end in sight.

Speaking in Ado Ekiti, the NLC Chairman, Kolapo Olatunde explained that the situation requires urgent steps to put an end to it because of its consequential effects on the nation’s economy, education sector and future of the students.

He urged Governor Fayemi to reach out to other Governors in a bid to meet President Mohamadu Buhari and the minister of labour so as to put heads together towards bringing the issue to a logical end.

Investigation reveal that some state owned universities have backed ASUU by joining the strike, while few are currently in session.

There are indications that the state controlled institutions are waiting for the ASUU to call off its strike before commencing their own.

Some of them are being owed four to six months salaries, while subvention has been drastically reduced or outrightly stopped by state government.

Four tertiary institutions owned by Ondo state government, state polytechnic, Owo; Adekunle Ajasin University, Akungba;(AAUA); University of Medical Science, Ondo; and Olusegun Agagu University of Science and Technology, Okitipupa, recently cried out over their plight.

Workers of the institutions, under the umbrella of the Joint Action Committee (JAC) of the Ondo State owned Tertiary Institutions comprising of National Association of Academic Technologies (NAAT), Non-Academic Staff Union (NASU), Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU) and Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Polytechnics (SSANIP) from the four Tertiary Institutions owned by Ondo State government, said some of the are being owed 12 months salaries.

According to Tayo Ogungbeni, Chairman, JAC-ODSTI, “The most important of our challenges as state institutions is poor funding since the advent of this present administration in the state.

“Before, grants for capital projects and subventions were released as at and when due unlike what we are presently experiencing.

2023: Lalong, Oshiomhole To Lead Tinubu’s Presidential Campaign

By
Tosin Olatokunbo
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The All progressives Congress, APC is set to announce Governor Simon Lalong of Plateau state as the Director General of its presidential campaign baring any last minute change, the magazine has learnt.

Governor Nasir El Rufai of Kaduna state and former Governor Adams Oshiomhole had earlier been penciled down by the party to lead the campaign in the make or mar 2023 presidential election.

The party has now made a U-turn, following the backlash that trailed its Muslim-Muslim presidential ticket, according to sources who said the party is worried as a result of the outbursts that have greeted the choice of Kashim Shetima as the running mate to Bola Tinubu its presidential candidate.

Tinubu had met with some APC governors and other chieftains on Monday, in his Lagos home where the decision to appoint Lalong was arrived at.

Governors who attended the meeting are Abdullahi Ganduje, Kano, Atiku Bagudu, Kebbi, Abubakar Badaru, Jigawa, Bello Matawalle, Zamfara and Babajide Sanwo-Olu, Lagos.

A source who spoke with the magazine said the ruling party was not happy that many APC governors did not attend the meeting.

“There was need to speak to the feelings of those that are angry, particularly those who are not happy with the choice of Shetima as Tinubu’s running mate. The last-minute decision to choose the Plateau governor was arrived at in order to assuage the feelings of particularly Northern Christians. El Rufai and Oshiomhole were already in consideration as DG and Deputy DG, respectively but we don’t want to go into the election without addressing this issue,” a source said.

The high-profile meeting comes on the back of a meeting held last week in Abuja, the nation’s capital by APC Christians top shots from the northern part of the country, including former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, former Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Babachir Lawal, Senator Abo, amongst others where they roundly condemned the party’s decision to contest next year’s election with two Muslims as its presidential candidate and running mate.

Dogara and Lawal had at the meeting called on Northern Christians to vote against APC Muslim-Muslim ticket on the basis that Christians were being undermined by the ruling. Party.

The former Speaker said; “For me, it is a rude awakening and I am so happy it happened sooner than later. The very fact that they said we should not worry about a Muslim-Muslim ticket while a Muslim-Christian ticket gave them sleepless nights should make you worry the more.

“To worry about a Muslim-Christian ticket while counselling others not to worry about a Muslim-Muslim ticket is the very textbook definition of cognitive dissonance and an attempt at gaslighting gullible Christians. Truth must be told that anyone who is not bringing us together is consciously tearing us apart.”

Few hours after the meeting, the two APC stalwarts met with Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers state fueling rumour that they may soon dump the party for the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP.

NIMASA Increases Financial Support To Cadets Studying Abroad

By
Tosin Olatokunbo
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0

The Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency, NIMASA, is currently reviewing the cost of direct sponsorship of Nigerian cadets undergoing foreign training under the Nigerian Seafarers Development Programme (NSDP).

The Director General of NIMASA Dr Bashir Jamoh noted that the review of ongoing sponsorship cost has become necessary due to the global inflationary trends which is very pronounced in the Philippines, India and some other countries where Nigerian cadets are undergoing Certificate of Competency (CoC) Examination training under the NSDP programme.

The sponsorship covers training leading to obtaining a Certificate of Competency, CoC.

“We are not unmindful of the unforeseen global inflationary trend which has affected the cost of sustaining our cadets who are on sponsorship in some schools under the NSDP programme.

“Though NIMASA paid the tuition fee, examination fee and the original cost of feeding and accommodation in full, with allowance for extra funds as pocket money, however, it’s obvious that cost of living has increased particularly in the Philippines due to the global inflation. The Agency is working closely with the Nigerian Embassy in the Philippines to address the challenges associated with the unexpected price increases.

We have put in place immediate and long-term arrangements to minimize the effect of inflation on their living standard during the programme. The Management of the Agency has approved an additional $2,000 dollars for each cadet, as extra fund due to inflation. This is a short-term measure to cushion the effect. I am sure the Nigerian Embassy will get in touch with the students immediately the funds are ready to be disbursed. It is a well-coordinated arrangement through the embassy.

While working closely with the Nigerian Embassy in the Philippines to establish appropriate extra funds that may be required, NIMASA Management is deploying a team on fact finding to interact with the students currently in the Philippines, officials of the Nigerian Embassy, the Maritime Industry Authority (MARINA), Philippines, some Licensure Examination Training & Review Centres (TRCs).

146 cadets have acquired the Philippines sailing license through the NSDP programme with 134 currently undergoing the Programme and a further 170 being prepared to proceed to the Philippines for the examinations.”

The Agency has also made firm arrangements to ensure those cadets who have spent the stipulated 6 months approved for the CoC programme in the Philipines return home immediately. NIMASA urged the cadets to ensure they conclude their CoC examinations as scheduled.

NIMASA initiated the Nigerian Seafarers’ Development Programme (NSDP) in 2008 with the aim of addressing the dearth of Nigerian seafarers on ocean going vessels and the need to meet the indigenous manning requirements of coastal and inland shipping (Cabotage regime).

The programme is designed to train Nigerian youth to become seafarers and Naval Architects in some of the best Maritime Training Institutions (MTIs) across the World.

The Agency has so far trained 2,241 cadets from inception of the programme, with 841 graduates having obtained sailing licenses (Certificate of Competency) from Maritime Administrations of various countries. Out of this number, around 388 are now gainfully employed in maritime related organizations, while others are in their final stages of the Programme.

Train Abduction: Professor of Medicine, Four Others, Released

By
Adesina Soyooye
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Mustapha Umar Imam

By Adesina Soyooye

Mustapha Umar Imam, a Professor of Medicine at the Usman Dan Fodio University Teaching Hospital, has been released by the Terrorists who attacked the Abuja-Kaduna bound a little over four months ago.

The Professor, who was among those mercilessly whipped a couple of weeks ago, was released alongside four others – Akibu Lawal, Abubakar Ahmed Rufai, Murtha Shu’aibu and Sidi Aminu Sharif.

In an unprecedented attack, on March 28, 2022, the Terrorists ambushed the train, threw explosives at it, immobilized it, and followed up with a statacco of gunfire.

In the ensuing pandemonium, eight passengers were killed and about 68 others, including children and babies and pregnant women abducted.

One of the pregnant women gave birth to a baby girl in captivity. Till date, she and her baby are still in the forest, captives of the terrorists.

The terrorists have been releasing the captives in batches. Two days after the horrifying  flogging of the abductors which they videod and posted, they released eleven of the passengers. And on Tuesday, they released another five.

It is not known how much was paid for the release of the passengers, but the Terrorists have been charging a whopping N100m per released passenger.

38 of the passengers, including women, children and babies are still in captivity.

The Presidency, last week, expressed helplessness over the fate of the passengers. It Saud it knew what to do – a blanket bombing of the forest where they are, for example – but feared the passengers could be killed in the process.

OPINION: Sam Omatseye As A Kept Man

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The Source
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Sam Omatseye

By Maxim Uzoatu

I had an extravagance of laughter when a dear friend of mine showed me a so-called column written by Sam Omatseye.

To give him his due, Sam Omatseye has been somebody I always wanted to encourage; for instance, agreeing to serve as the official reviewer of his novel at its launch in Lagos barely a week after burying my father in the East.

I had my hilarious laughter upon seeing Sam Omatseye’s column because when you already know the end of a writing after reading just the first sentence, there’s no doubt that the writer is not up to par.

Sam Omatseye slavishly serves his paymaster through his many bought-and-sold writings with a frightening giddiness that belies his age.

I’m yet to see as much feather-brained excitement in any infant.

This make of soppy adoration of a paymaster can only be seen in a kept woman – and Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary defines Kept Woman thusly: “a woman who is given money and a home by a man who visits her regularly to have sex.”

We are of course dealing here with the first and only Kept Man in the history of the world, but I have to admit, as we learnt in the Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky affair, that the sex act has stopped short of penetration.

There is the local proverb which says that a freeborn given the job of a slave must at the very least apply the work ethics of a freeborn.

Maybe I’m even making the mistake of calling an excited slave a freeborn.

Obviously no medicine, local and foreign, can cure Sam Omatseye of acute and chronic Igbophobia.

Well, a man suffering from devastating inferiority complex should be left strictly alone to play an indulged toady and lickspittle to his masters.

Truth be told, Sam Omatseye has been a laughingstock in our circle such that one young journalist brought to our notice that the compromised columnist does not know the difference between Ben Jonson and Samuel Johnson, and thus quotes one as the other.

I shall not reveal the name of the young journalist who keeps feeding us with the pathetic bloomers of Sam Omatseye because I do not want to expose him to danger, given that the likes of the crude columnist is actually a dangerous state agent, what the East Africans call “askari”.

Even as he serves as the butt of jokes, Sam Omatseye deigns to pose as a jumped-up intellectual in some primordial spheres with his pseudo-intellectual illogicalities and cut-and-join prose.

There is always the minority minion’s anxiety to praise-sing fiercely to be counted among the court jesters of the major man.

The Sam Omatseye tragedy is that he has spent his entire lifetime serving certain interests such that he has completely lost touch with broad-minded reality.

Like Rip van Winkle of Washington Irving’s short story who slept for 20 years and thus lost touch with reality, Sam Omatseye appears to be caught in a time warp such that he uses the ancient dictation of his crumbling owner to approach modern logic.

Sam Omatseye has given me cause to have a belly laugh, but he has to watch it by not bringing too many enemies for his master because, as things stand, if he should give me cause to write about his paymaster, he will be promptly given the sack in short and very fast seconds.

The only Kept Man in history deserves his title to be celebrated by all, so I am advising all my people to put “KM” after writing the name of Sam Omatseye, thusly: Sam Omatseye (KM).

The KM stands for “Kept Man”, a title he richly deserves because I am sure that he will put it in his CV that he has risen so high such that Borojah wrote about him.

OPINION: On Sam Omatseye’s Obituary

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The Source
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By Valentine Obienyem

The other day, Mr. Sam Omatseye – a writer many used to have respect for due to some reasons, including the fluidity of his prose –  wrote an article entitled “Obi-nomics”. In the said article, clearly embittered by resentment, he hurled obloquies at Mr. Peter Obi. He saw Obi as a rising sun that must be totally eclipsed. I did a rejoinder to that piece as part of the respected “right to reply”, which readers are supposed to enjoy. I appropriately sent the rejoinder to Mr. Sam Omatseye, who, contrary to the liberality of “The Nation” newspaper refused to present it for publication. Of course, I felt bad. Omatseye may not know that I have come a long way with “The Nation”Newspaper not to be denied such a right.  In any case, I was privileged to have written the first letter to the Editor at the birth of “The Nation” (then Comet) Newspaper entitled “The Comet Cometh”. Am I not qualified to be a stakeholder?

A few months after that piece, Omatseye was at it again. On the 1st of August, he wrote another piece entitled “Obi-tuary”, literary wishing Obi dead and buried as the easiest route for his patron to become the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. In his recent piece, he pelted Obi with poisoned ink by inventing imaginary flaws in Obi’s character which he served in hot-peppered sauce. It is hard to find, in all records of opinion-writing, a piece more barbarous, stinking,  and oozing  scalding lava of obscene volcanic words not just about a person, but also about a people – The Igbos. Like a sightless lover whose inexplicable increase in hydraulic pressure drove to a blind erotic hunger that led to rape, Omatseye employed the weapons he is at home with: satire, ridicule, vituperation and crafty distortion of the truth. What are those untruths? We shall see them through the narratives he tried to push through.

The first segment of his venomous vituperation may be summarised through the lines he addressed directly to the Igbos with the aim to injure them in body and spirit: “They have transferred the temperament of their former master into the new. And they have not spared any incoherence, any lack of finesse, and threats and tantrums, any show of rabid, primitive cants, or any ululations. They have abused, cursed, thrown imprecations. They have hugged lies about their candidate. They have pelted lies about others. They have distorted material”. Here, Omatseye simply presented the symptoms of a man who is worried by sleeplessness on account of the popularity of Mr. Peter Obi by trying to make his candidacy an ethnic movement. Just like our Uncle Joe You-Know-Who, would you blame Omatseye for vigorously attacking a man who appears to have made a ship-wreck of their sweet dreams of occupying Aso Rock in 2023?

For the instruction of Omatseye and his admirers, Peter Obi’s candidacy cannot be reduced to an ethnic movement. If there is anybody who has raised the banner of ethnicity, it was the man who gleefully pronounced that it was “his turn”.

Nigeria is bleeding on all fronts. Our leaders of today have plunged the country into hostile halves of the North and the South; the rich and the poor; the haves and the haves-not. Daily, they are guiding Nigeria into anarchy. Today, there is hardly any spot or town where the torch of insurrection does not openly flame. Rather than write responsibly and contribute to extinguishing that fire, Omatseye is bracketing the Igbos as the problem of the country.

To prove to you how depraved Omatseye has descended into, because the “turn” of his master is “challenged”, let us consider some of his words: “Kanu lashes out at Obi as governor and stated what this essayist wrote about him over building a NEXT supermarket while still the governor of Anambra State. The video clip referred to him as a sort of sexual being on the fringe. You can imagine an Aso Rock sweltering with romps of the evil flesh. His so-called Obidients know this. But it counts for little.” The fact is that Next Mall in Abuja was conceived and started long before Peter Obi became a State Governor.  Before then, Next already had facilities bigger that the Abuja Mall.

On the issue of sexual perversion,  all I can state is that many Obi-watchers are appalled as certainly as most Nigerians are by Omatseye’s ungracious scurrility.  I observed some people that called themselves “Batists,”  those he is old enough to be their fathers, hailing him with guffaws of applause. Deep inside him, is he happy trying to destroy another man with obvious lies?

There should be limits a gentleman should go in tarnishing the image of others simply because he is fighting for a master they place value in his favours than his reputation. I understand he is avoided in  “The Nation”Newspaper because of his habitual gossips and snitches to BAT about those that support or do not support him.

No writer has the monopoly of lies and use of empty amplifications, deceptive analogies and rhetorical tricks. The difference is that sometimes it is a matter of choice or being constrained by maturity and objectivity.  We have obvious truths about other presidential candidates, which nobody that works closely with Peter Obi has used because it is not his style. Who says we cannot, for example, refer to some candidates thick and dropping under lips, hesitant and incoherent speeches, and hands that twitch spasmodically as evidence that age and narcotics have rendered them unsuitable for the post? Who says we cannot demand from Omatseye the real name of his patron, the clearing of the cloud surrounding his education and the clarification of the fact of having been jailed in the USA once upon a time. We would not write certain things, especially those bordering on the use of diapers as it will amount to disrespect for the aged or the sick. It could be you or I tomorrow. However, our stand does not vitiate the fact that such are factors in governance.

Exhausting the arrows in his quiver, Omatseye wrote confusedly about Obi: “This is Obi, who claimed he saved money, while pensioners were looking desperately at their graves”.  The verifiable fact is that pensioners had it best under Mr. Peter Obi in Anambra State. Besides clearing arrears of pensions and gratuities that had accumulated in the State since 1999 till he became Governor – to the tune of over 35 Billion Naira –  Obi did not owe any pensioner till he left office. Under him, retirees got their benefits within three months of disengaging from service. Sam Omatseye should know and anyone else can go and verify.

Dourly inflexible and embittered by Peter Obi’s rising profile and elevation to stardom of good governance, Sam Omatseye wrote: “But no economy works in history by saving money. It stifles the economy. He has not been able to tell us how he will do it, and whether he has done it.” Would it be reasonable to think that Omatseye does not have a savings account as a private person? If he could save for any reason, why does he rationally think that States should not save? Could he point at any prodigal State that he knows that expended all their revenues without savings? In any case,  Obi is ever ready to explain the rationale behind saving for the  State. Here he goes: “I saved N48,629,473,469 in local currency some of which we tied to specific projects like payment of 2-year salary of civil servants we employed for him [his successor, Willie Obiano] not to be encumbered, Agulu and Onitsha Hotel, Awka and Nnewi Malls and some critical roads like the completion of the dualization of the Dual carriage road over which we had got permission to do so and be paid back by the Federal Government. We also left some for him to continue what we were doing aggressively”.

On the US$156 million saved, Peter Obi explained the purpose thus: “After our study of the Chinese phenomenal achievements as we were coming to the end of MDGs, we learned that the Chinese Regional governments were able to attract a number of investments because of the ability to contribute or partner with the investors in setting up productive facilities within their regions.

“For example, some of them effectively made equity contributions of 10-20%, which they were able to achieve due to their robust saving.

“So, our calculation was that if the State would be able to save a particular amount (US$18-20 million) as we did in eight years, up until 2030 at the average interest rate of a little over 6%, we would be able to achieve about a billion Dollars in savings and earnings. We would then use about 50% of this amount to attract investments, considering that the average Chinese Small and Medium Scale Enterprise (SME), for example, was set up with about two million Dollars. Our goal was that if we would be able to invest 25% in each enterprise, which is $500,000, we would be able to achieve 1000 SMEs facilities scattered all over Anambran State, which would jump-start aggressive economic growth within the State, especially as income from oil is coming to an end”.

What else do we add to this pragmatic explanation? It is, however, intriguing that a man of the Sam Omatseye’s status is ignorant of this fact or more likely, chose to suppress it.

A few days ago, Mr. Peter Obi visited Dunamis Church in Abuja  to commune with the Creator and  was warmly received. As usual, those that are feeling hurt by Obi’s candidature as represented by Omatseye had their BP reaching to bursting point. Externalizing his inner feelings, he wrote: “He is therefore using religion as a bait. He is now on a weekly pilgrimage to churches.”  The truth which you may verify is that since 2014 when Obi left office, he has been visiting schools and Churches to support what they do towards the good of the society.  From Sokoto to Nassarawa  States, through Kogi and Anambra States, and elsewhere, he has been donating to schools owned by the Churches in his passion for education. He is also contributing to the upgrade of health facilities nationwide. Peter Obi is not prompted by politics, but by the love for the society and humanity. During COVID-19 pandemics, he donated hundreds of millions to the Federal Government as support; this was besides millions he spent on his own through about 30 hospitals.

Yesterday, while Omatseye’s article was being debated, the usually-frank Nwachukwu Ngige interjected:  “The more they attack him, the more they promote him. Poor PR strategy!” As if offering advice to Omatseye and his tribe, he concluded: “Sell your product first.” In Igbo parlance, a child without parents gain when the one with parents is advised.  I have taken the advice and will momentarily sell my candidate while challenging Omatseye to sell his with decorum.

Born on the 19th of July, 1961, Mr. Peter Obi  had good parents who tried early enough to inoculate him with every virtue. Curiosity and the urge to succeed burned like lava in him. He attended Santa Maria Primary School and Christ the King  College (CKC) –  both at Onitsha. Thereafter, he graduated with 2nd Class in Philosophy at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN). He has been to some of the best universities in the world on specialised training on leadership and management. His certificates – with names and addresses of issuing institutions –  are intact and available for scrutiny or as “Obidients” will say reminding us of logical positivists, for verification.

In all the educational institutions Peter Obi attended, he absorbed knowledge avidly and became the centre of attraction in his class. He has deployed his extensive learning to building the society. What others do with Agbado and Ewedu  he does with statistics. Evidently, he possesses the right and agile intellect needed for the governance of Nigeria. When last did you listen to him speak?  What a mind he has! – as rapid as an electric spark, and as bright; one could almost hear the crackling of the fire of his thoughts in the incisive sentences of his speech that made his listeners fall into trance of admiration. At Dunamis, even without uttering a word, a rainbow of excitement hung over the congregation that set some commentators crazy with hate. It is not easy to become a living political saint!  I suspect it was one of the reasons that provoked Sam Omatseye’s piece – ‘We must stop this man at all costs!’.

For what he habitually does, Omatseye is another example of how not to be a man of letters. You cannot brandish the pen as an instrument of terror and expect to be genuinely respected! Even when the likes of Peter Obi tries everything possible to make others see politics as friendly struggle for power by  playing it with the categorical imperative of love, Omatseye and his ilk make it look forbidden.

Peter Obi was recently an object of contumely by his followers when he advised cautious restraint in the use of language. I believe he needs to speak to people like Sam Omatseye on the need to see politics as the contest among brothers (and sisters) rather than enemies. Did you not hear him say that when people show him hatred, he tries to show them love? Sam Omatseye too needs that soothing vaccination. His is obviously a troubled soul and would need a little of Obi’s love to avoid psychic encumbrances.

Faithful to the advice from Dr. Chris Ngige, Omatseye should concentrate on selling his candidate by reasonably-fair means. Winning the Presidency or selling a candidate should not be by the assemblage of over 100,000 youths, buying computers for them and teaching them the propagation of falsehoods.  I learnt that some of them that write pure, unadulterated nonsense against Obi are among the resource persons that tutor these youths on all the techniques of spreading falsehoods; thus drawing them into the vortex of worthlessness.

The destructive inclination of Omatseye and his tribe reminds us of Quintus’ disgraceful advice about electioneering. In one of Cicero’s campaigns, his brother, Quintus, drew up for him a manual of electioneering technique.

“Be lavish in your promises,” Quintus advised. “Men prefer a false promise to a flat refusal. Continue to get some new scandal aired against your rivals”, Quintus continued, “for crime, corruption, or immorality”. Is this not what Omatseye is doing?

Again listen to one of his lumbering bashful expressions of Pugilism: “The Obi followers accept Biafra but reject Nigeria.”  So elders of the West that are supporting him have accepted Biafra?  Is this the reason they are trying to buy Nollywood Stars in Nigeria with 5 million Naira each to denounce Obi? Thank God the struggle in the land today is about the future of the country and not about what money can buy. Those hoping that money will do it for them would soon discover that a New Nigeria is gradually evolving from the ashes of the old through peaceful revolution.

What else? Shall we now, being exhausted, jumble together the last phase by way of advice to Omatseye? May we, therefore, commend Sam Omatseye to such writers as Dr. Okey Ikechukwu, Dr. Reuben Abati, Mr. Simon Kolawole for emulation. Despite great learning and reasoning, they are amiable in discourse, cheerful of mood, moderate in controversy, tolerant of opposing views and not letting diversity of politics abate the cordiality of friendships.

Camp Wike Gives Condition For Peace; Demands  Ayu’s Sack; Decries Lopsided Positions  In PDP

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Adesina Soyooye
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By Adesina Soyooye

Camp Wike has given conditions under which its members would work for the Presidential aspiration of Atiku Abubakar, the Presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party.

Camp Wike is made up of supporters of the Governor of Rivers State, Nyesom Wike, during his failed Presidential aspiration.

Members of the Group are still together, and disappointed over Wike’s loss to PDP candidate, Atiku Abubakar, and Atiku’s failure to pick Wike as his running mate. Atiku picked Delta State Governor, Dr Ifeanyi Okowa over Wike. Since then, Wike and his Camp have been cold towards Party activities and nobody could confirm whether they would support the Atiku/Okowa ticket or not.

On Sunday, they and Wike met for the first time since Atiku’s victory and Okowa’s choice, at the Rivers State Governor’s Lodge, Abuja.

Even though no official statement was released after the meeting, snippets from the meeting point to some decisions by the group. They have given conditions, this medium was told, under which they can work for Atiku.

One of the conditions is that the National Chairman of the Party, Dr Iyorchia Ayu, must quit his high profile office for a Southerner. Ayu is from Benue State, a Northern State.

The Wike Camp is insisting that since the Presidential ticket has been given to the North, it is only fair that Ayu stands down for a Chairman from the South.

A member of the PDP Board of Trustees, Professor Jerry Gana who spoke to Journalists after the meeting said:

“We know that developments will unfold, and when they do, we shall brief Nigerians. We met together for the first time after the primaries of the PDP.

“We have frankly reviewed matters among ourselves. We want to confirm we are solidly together as a group.”

The group also lamented what it called the lopsidedness in the leadership of the party. It said it favoured the Northern zones.

The Group pointed out  that in addition to Atiku and Ayu coming from the North, Dr Ayu’s second in command  in the party’s National Working Committee, Umaru Damagum (Deputy National Chairman, North) is also from the North, as well as the Chairman of its Board of Trustees, Walid Jibrin, and the Chairman of the PDP Governors Forum, Governor Aminu Tambuwal of Sokoto State.

Said a member of the Camp who spoke to  The Cable:

“How can a party that is systematically one-sided sell itself in the South?”

According to the Cable,

“The leaders also accused Atiku of sidelining party leaders outside his core supporters in his decision-making. They said they were aware that those in Atiku’s camp have allegedly shared key Government positions among themselves, even before next year’s elections.”

It quoted the source as asking: “How can we work for a presidential candidate who is already sidelining other leaders who are not in his camp and expect that he would change when he becomes president?

“The candidate has not demonstrated good faith at all. The election is for Atiku to lose. If he wants to win, he knows what to do. The ball is in his court. We were clear at the meeting that he alone can decide if he wants to win or lose the election.”

The Governors who attended the meeting were Wike, Rivers, Seyi Makinde, Oyo State, Okezie Ikpeazu, Abia State, Samuel Ortom, Benue State and Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi of Enugu State.

In attendance, also, were former Governors Donald Duke of Cross River, Gabriel Suswam of Benue, Olusegun Mimiko of Ondo, Seriake Dickson of Bayelsa, Ibrahim Idris of Kogi, Jonah Jang of Plateau and Hassan Dankwambo of Gombe.

Also at the meeting were a former PDP Deputy National Vice Chairman (North), Suleiman Nazif; and a former Attorney-General and Minister for Justice, Mohammed Adoke.

Others are sitting and former senators Hosea Agboola, Phillip Aduda, Zainab Kure, Garba Lado, Sandy Onoh, Olaka Nwogwu and many members of the House of Representatives.

There were, also, Mohammed Sani Abacha, the party’s governorship candidate in Nasarawa , David Ombugadu, and Mike Omeri, a former Director-general of the National Orientation Agency.

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