Governor Adams Oshiomole warns Chief Igbinedion

EDO STATE GOVERNOR

I read in the Punch today that Governor Adams Oshiomhole of Edo State on Monday warned the Esama of Benin, Chief Gabriel Igbinedion, to stop undermining the laws of the State. Oshiomhole said this at the inauguration of the 14 newly elected Local Government Chairmen in Benin.
 
 
 ESAMA OF BENIN KINGDOM

Apparently the Esama's cup is filled because the man has been carrying on as the Lord of the manor for years even before his son became the Governor of the State and no one stopped him. For Governor Oshiomole to now get angry means the Esama is out of control.  The Governor said his government has the capacity and the will to contain Igbinedion’s excesses and he is going to do it. If you ask me, I will say the excesses of not only the Esama but all those people either in power or out of it should be checked and contained.  Hear the Governor, -

 “There is evidence that he (Igbinedion) has undermined the prosperity of the state for a very long time. Those who live in glass houses do not throw stones.
“I want to send a warning to Chief Igbinedion that he should take it easy; he has acquired a lot of government land that the people have not engaged him on. He walks as if he is above the law. He was a chief tax collector in this state, pocketing 25 to 30 per cent of every kobo that accrued while his son was the governor.
“I have not looked back because my mandate is to look forward. I want to put him on notice that if he continues with elderly rascality, I will bring him to justice.
“He must never ever underestimate the fact that I have the will and I have the capacity to deploy that will; if he crosses the law, he will be cut to size.
“Elders must teach the younger ones to behave responsibly.

The Governor further condemned what the Esama of Benin Kingdom was alleged to have done on Saturday, the 20th of April 2013, during the Local Council election in Okada, Edo State where his business empire is.

“You heard how he is using ITV ( Igbinedion Television) in a very reckless manner, in clear breach of the NBC code. He reduced himself as a high chief, leaving where he is registered to vote and going all the way to Okada on a day movement was restricted across the state.
“He got to Okada and illegally used mobile policemen to walk on the street; going to the police station where sensitive election materials were kept in order to vandalise the sensitive electoral materials to ensure elections did not take place.
“If he misleads himself into believing that he has the birth right to continue to appropriate and privatise the resources of Edo State, he is living in a fool’s paradise.”

 Oh yes my Comrade, tell him he is not above the Law ojare. He is a citizen just like every Nigerians and every Edolites. Elders must show the younger ones how to behave. No one is above the law, not even the Queen in England or President Obama in the US. If the law says no one should leave one point to the other during election day, then no one. By the way, is the Esama an electoral officer? Why was he going to inspect election materials? It's about time we behave within the law.

The Governor accused the High Chief of pocketing 25 to 30 percent of the total tax accrued to the State for 8 years, why has he not reported him to EFCC so that they can charge him to court or preferably force him to return part of the stolen state money? The State could use the money for roads construction and repairs.

No wonder the State was not developed all that time that Lucky Igbinedion was Governor. For 8 years, major roads in Benin City, the capital of Edo State were not tarred, maintained or expanded. There was no new infrastructural development in that State. In fact, some major roads in the city had turned to motorcycles  and foot paths because weeds had taken over.

Flood was the order of the day in the State as flood channels were blocked and no new channels or outlets were created as Fashola is doing in Lagos State.

I smiled when I read that Oshiomole called his activities,'elder rascality'. It reminded me of the Esama's attitude at the book launch of one of my friends father at NIIA last month. The man was at the High table with Chief S.O.U. Igbe (Author of the Book) and was really disturbing Sony Irabor the MC by calling him to come over for one correction or the other. To the Esama, It was supposed to be a show but to some of us it was unnecessary distraction. I know the MC is a gentleman but you could see, he was not finding it funny.

Anyway, the man and his son ruled the State for 8 years so he thinks he owned the State and may find it difficult to stop now except the Governor stops him.

Talking about all the lands the Esama has acquired legally and illegally, tell me who is going to challenge him? The Governor can but is he ready to do that now?

Governor, you are the chief law officer of Edo State and if someone has contravened the law, use the weight of the law to deal with the situation accordingly. If the Esama has no regards for constituted authority, do something. If he has pocketed 20-30% of Edo revenue illegally, please get it back.

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First Lady Returns from Foreign Trip

Dame Patience Faka Jonathan, the wife of President Goodluck Jonathan came back on Wednesday 17th October after six weeks absence from the Country. As usual the paid crowd and other political appointees were waiting to receive her at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja where the presidential jet that brought her back landed at about 4pm. She debunked the allegation that she went for cosmetic surgery but claimed she went for foreign trip. I wonder what type of foreign trip this was? So when you went for foreign trip, was it holidays, business trip or spiritual obligation? Why were the people not told? Is it not the taxpayers money that will be spent on her?

Anyway, it was a real show she put up at the Airport. When the aircraft doors opened, she came out with 'goggles' on then later removed them to properly acknowledged the hired crowd by lifting up her hands to wave at them as if she is the President.

I remembered the day she came to Lagos early this year for a 'Thank you' electorate tour. The roads were closed as all the women organisations in Lagos were threatened to be there or ceased to exist. One of my friends who is an executive in one of such association told me so. She said she didn't want to go but the threat forced her to. So when I saw the crowd, i knew there were either forced or threatened apart from the government officials, governors’ wives and politicians.

On arrival, as usual, the President's wife did not allow the opportunity to talk pass her. She is one of a kind. Unlike Turai Yar adua, who is seen and not heard most times, Dame Patience Jonathan wants to be seen and to be heard always. Hear her: “I am happy to be back in Nigeria.

“There are a few Nigerians that are saying whatever they like, not what God planned because God has a plan for all of us. “God has said it all, that when two or three are gathered in His name, that He will be with them. And Nigerians gathered and prayed for me (Prayed about what? If Nigerians do not know what ailed her and she said she was not in the hospital, so what did the country pray for?) and God listened and heard their prayers, so I thank God for that. “At the same time, I will use this opportunity to speak to those few ones saying that anybody that goes to the Villa or Aso Rock will die. “They mentioned the late Gen. Sani Abacha, they mentioned the late Stella Obasanjo, they mentioned the late President Umar Yar’Adua and other people. But why didn’t they mention those ones that went there with their families and succeeded and they still came out alive? “We should remember that Aso Rock is the seat of power and that is where God has ordained for Nigerians that our leaders should rule from and to rule us right. “At the same time, I read in the media where they said I was in the hospital. God Almighty knows I have never been to that hospital. I don’t even know the hospital they mentioned. “I have to explain what God has done for me( What did God do?). I do not have a terminal illness. I did not undergo cosmetic surgery, let alone a tummy tuck. “My husband loves me as I am and I am pleased with how God created me, I cannot add to it. “But at the same time, I will use this opportunity to thank my beloved husband and my children, my staff in general and all Nigerians for standing by me during my trying time." “God has given me a second chance to come and work with women of Nigeria, children and the less privileged. I have come to serve Nigeria. I have come to work with Nigerians, I am there for them. “Once more, I am pleased to be back. I love Nigerians; they are my family.” Nigerians wish you well and pray for the first family.

First lady or Permanent Secretary?

Patience Jonathan, was on Friday in Yenagoa the capital of Oil rich Bayelsa State sworn in as a Permanent Secretary by the Bayelsa state Governor. She becomes the first wife of a serving President or Governor to be sworn in as Permanent Secretary

Mrs. Jonathan in a hand shake with Gov Dickson shortly after taking the oath of office as Perm Sec. Dickson is said to be close to the president and accusations of nepotism and patronage have long plagued Nigerian politics, but the governor insisted that the first lady “merits the appointment”.

“I have not done anything wrong and illegal,”

Dickson said at the ceremony. But some people in the State think the appointment was greased “with the oil of corruption” and the First Lady lacked the requisite experience. It is believed that her official credentials were doctored following the public uproar that ensued when her appointment was revealed on July 11, 2012. One of the opposition members said

“They must have re-arranged the document to cover-up the scandal that followed the announcement,

” The position of permanent secretary is not a chieftaincy title you splash around like confetti or an honourary tittle conferred on inexperienced people with money. A Permanent Secretary in the Ministry is a Civil Servant that has grown over the rank in the Ministry and has become an expert in that profession. A Permanent Secretary is a seasoned administrator. As a permanent secretary, Mrs Patience Jonathan becomes the administrative head of a ministry but right now no clue as to the Ministry she will be assigned. I hope the specific portfolio to be assigned to her at a later date would not be Education. Read some where that she was a teacher. I was shocked because the woman cannot read the speeches prepared for her so how was she communicating to her pupils? Was she teaching them in Ijaw dialect? Many people do not think Mrs Jonathan is better than the rat in the cellar when it comes to public-speaking. Michelle Obama is an intelligent woman. She could hold her own intellectually, even if her husband wasn’t the President of the United States. But she is the first Lady of United State for now until her husband's terms (I pray he wins a second term)in the White House is over. Hilary Clinton is a good lawyer and a professional politician but she suspended all that once the husband became the President of the United State of America. Even Peter Odili's wife, a Judge, suspended her career to be the first lady of Rivers State and so was Fati Abubakar. These women are intelligent and smart but confined themselves to the constitutional role of a First Lady until the expiration of their husband's terms in office. Is Dame Patience Jonathan going to leave her husband's side to seat in an office in Bayelsa and be answering sir to the Governor? Unfortunately, whatever we say now is not going to stop them as Mrs. Jonathan with 18 other permanent secretaries, were sworn in by the Chief Judge, Justice Kate Abiri at the State Banquette Hall Government House in Yenagoa. Well, the appointment of the First Lady as a permanent sec has caused a lot of controversy but the Governor who made the appointment is not fazed. Infact the Governor, Sekibo Dickson insisted that he followed due process in the cause of selecting the permanent secretaries and the First lady was not an exception. Patience Jonathan who spoke for the permanent secetary's, said that their appointment is a confirmation of Dickson administration’s resolve to transform the state economically, socially and politically.

Senator Sani Yerima

I read in the National Dailies and heard from other sources of information that a former Governor of a state and now a lawmaker of the upper chamber(the Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria) is taking a 13 years old girl to be his fourth wife. A 13 year old child to be a wife? That was shocking to me. It was shocking because the man is supposed to be a pace setter, an upright individual, a repository of sound moral values and a maker of good laws that Nigerians can be guided by. If this supposed lawmaker is the one defiling an innocent child, then there is a problem.
Of all the adults, grown up women in the world, Yerima did not see but saw a child just learning to understand the world and even become aware of herself as a person. Why a child? Honourable, why this dishonourable act? Unfortunately their culture allows such offensive, barbaric, primitive and despicable act. But the outcome is always disastrouus for the female child. The child whose reproductive organ is not matured and ready for motherhood tears and perforates during child birth. The child becomes a Vestico Vagina Fistula (VVF) victim. The child does not have control over her organs anymore if this happens as faeces and urine leak uncontrolaably through the perforated organs. The child stinks and automatically becomes an outcast in the community. What a punishment? First the child is defiled, secondly her health, wellbeing is destroyed and thirdly for no reason of hers she is made an outcast because she stinks. What a calamity!.
Why are the enlightened people in the north not campaigning against this? What do they stand to gain by keeping quiet? Who are they protecting? Are they happy seeing innocent girls that are supposed to be in school roaming around or abandoned in hospitals to die?
I feel sorry for all the young girls from the Northern part of Nigeria who are victims of a religious and cultural system that do not recognise them as human being but object to be controlled and used anyhow.
This type of marriage between a child of 10 to 16 and an old man of 40 years should be discouraged and stopped immediately. If religions allow you to marry ten wives, that is your business but please marry a woman whose reproductive organ is well formed. Stop subjecting innocent female children to sexual abuse. It is disgusting, nauseating, vile and revolting.
It is only a sick mind like Yerima that can stoop so low to take advantage of a parents' poverty to abuse their under age girls. I pray he does not subject the girl to a lifetime disease and ridicule.
I sincerely hope Nigeria government will do something urgently to stop this.

Nigerian Politicians and Obama

When President Barack Obama was elected the 44th President of United State of America, Nigerians were amongs the millions of people all over the world that celebrated the victory of a black man of an African father over a white American. The wild celebration was due to the fact that racism was openly practiced in America and blacks were treated as second class citizens. To aspire to be the Pressident of the most powerful nation in the world was a dream which Martin Luther King had in the early 60s when he gave that speech, 'I HAD A DREAM'.
Barrak Obama, the strategist whose intelligence and oratory has been widely acclaimed shot into recogning with his approach to campaign. He simply relied majorly on the mass contribution of cents and pennies from the people who believed in him to the few corporate organisations with billions of dollars. He insisted on the cents to ensure a mandate of maximum independence and a true government for all. Obama came into power through popular and overwhelming votes of the people of America. And in his acceptance speech, he acknowledged the people for standing for collective governance of progess and development in every sector of their life.
With what President Obama stood for and still standing for, honesty, simplicity, good governance, it was strange to see those in power in Nigeria, the self styled 'Giant of Africa'angry that Obama did not visit Nigeria on his first and historic visit to Africa. Why will President Barack Obama come to Nigeria? Why will the man that came to power through a respect for the manifested will of a people and through a system that recognises the people's right to good governanace visit a country that just conducted a corrupt ridden election and whose leadership is to the highest bidders or to the stooges of the most powerful and corrupt godfather.
The level of electoral robbery is so high in Nigeria that the voters preferred to sleep at home during election instead of going to perform their civic responsibilities. Who would go and queue in the sun to cast a vote that does not count? Who will watch ballot boxes being snatched at gun point (as if they are stealing money) to be returned in the night filled with fake ballot papers and will risk his llfe. IF a Nigerian cannot tolerate such rape on democracy why will a respected President tolerate such abuse and electoral robbery. The perptrators of this evil in our land are those mediocres who call themselves politicians who are not contributing anything but systematically looting every kobo that is coming into the treasury. There are a select hegemony that have resolved to remain in power and have perpetual control of the nation. These politicians are selfish, unproductive, arrogant, shameless and bereft of ideas yet they are not ready to let go. They used to be two of those old 'cargoes' in the Nigerian political system, one in the west and the other in the middle belt. Fortunately for Nigeria, the one in the West died sometime ago and his political son was away from the country but the one in the middle belt is left.
The former President Olusegun Obasanjo said election was a do or die affair so all his party men started buying guns and looting the treasury to finance 'this war' otherwise known by civilised people as election. In the villages the elderly were scared away by heavily armed policemen so that the thugs can have a field day stuffing the ballot boxes with fake ballot papers. These leaders are mean and evil because in the process, innocent people were killed and they did not care.
Is this the type of people that our leadership wanted President Barack Obama to come and shake hands with? Definitel NO. I was happy that he did not come. I pray our current President will learn from this and approve Justice Uwais electoral reforms report so that sanity and the so called rule of law can prevail during campaigns and election into all the tiers of government in Nigeria.