APGA rejects Soludo

It was indeed one of the biggest political surprise coming from the state of Anambra in recent times, with already made speculations by some political analyst that he will be the next Governor owing to the fact he was coming from APGA, a political party that have captured Anambra state with a very strong hold. Ekwunife, Odenigbo, others scale through but the great Soludo did not pass the party’s test.
The screening panel set up by All Progressive Grand Alliance, APGA, to screen all aspirants for November 16 governorship election in Anambra State, failed to clear former Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, Professor Charles Chukwuma Soludo and five other contenders.

Out of the 13 aspirants contesting under the party, only seven scaled through the hurdle at the conclusion of the screening exercise which took place between August 15 and 16, 2013 at the party’s national secretariat in Abuja.

The successful aspirants include, Hon. Chukwuemeka Emmanuel Nwogbo, Paul Odenigbo, Hon. Uche Lillian Ekwunife, Chief Willie Obiano, Mr. John Nwosu, John Okechukwu Emeka and Nwachi Patrick Obianwu.

Those who failed the screening include Emmanuel Nweke, Ogbuefi Tony Nnacheta, Chinedu F. Idigo, Dr. Chike Obidigbo, Mr. Oseloke Obaze and Professor Charles Chukwuemeka Soludo.

Chairman of the Gubernatorial Screening Panel, Alhaji Tayo Sowunmi  said the reason (s) for the non-clearance of the unsuccessful aspirants are as contained in the provisional certificates issued to them.

Other members of the panel were Ifeanyi Mbaeri and Chief Onwuka Ukwa who served in the panel as Secretary and member, respectively.

It would be recalled that the National Chairman of All Progressive Grand Alliance, APGA, Chief Victor Umeh while setting up the three-man screening panel, assured that the party has laid down a transparent process that would produce a worthy and an acceptable candidate for the November 16 governorship election in Anambra state.

Professor Charles Soludo shortly after facing the screening panel Thursday in Abuja, had told journalists that he joined the APGA not because of the governorship contest but to build the party.

According to him, “I am saying my priority in joining All Progressive Grand Alliance, APGA,  is to help to build APGA as a formidable political party. Running for governor is not why I joined APGA.

“Did that surprise you? I have joined APGA primarily to join forces with the other compatriots, other Nigerians to build APGA as a formidable political party.  An APGA that will some day mainstream what APGA stands for, what APGA has to offer Nigeria.

“APGA is the only political party in Nigeria that talks about true federalism. No other political party aspire to bring true federalism to Nigeria. No other political party talks about revenue allocation, physical federalism that would allow each region or state to develop according to its own space.  There is no other political party that talks about competition.

“To me, APGA should be the manifesto, national mobilisation because that is the only way Nigeria can move forward.  “I have to come here to visit the national office of APGA, but principally, this is a new family for me. Like I have said, my first mission is to join others to build APGA as a formidable movement. And that is basically what it is. Governorship thing is aside.”

On whether he will still remain in APGA if he fails to pick the party’s ticket, he said, “I am APGA in the morning in the afternoon and in the night. I am in APGA today, I will be in APGA tomorrow, I will be in APGA next year, I will be in APGA for the next seven years to come.”

He also said he had to quit the PDP because it was not a political party but a mere platform to grab power.

Speaking to journalists in Abuja, yesterday, Prof. Soludo said that he joined PDP by accident and now had to make a choice on where to pitch his political tent.

His words, “recently I resigned my membership from PDP and joined APGA. The basic question people kept asking is why? That is a short question to ask but with a long answer.

“I joined PDP by accident .  I did  not belong to any political party before I was appointed as the president’s chief Economic Adviser and CEO of National  Planning Commission which is more like a minister of National planning Commission.

“It was a political appointment and has some kind of requirement, if you like. Though it is  not explicitly demanded of you so I joined the PDP without even knowing what the party stood for.. “Having stayed there for a while, I have now had a chance to review the political  parties in Nigeria and have reviewed their constitutions and manifestos and also review the operations  of the various political parties and I think this is now the time to make the decision of the political party that I should belong to out of choice, out of volition.  It is now time to make a choice based on one’s conviction rather than convenience.

“PDP started off as an amalgamation of diverse groups and individuals  who really had nothing in common- probably to ease off the military but since then it has been grappling to find a bearing as political party.

“As it is today, in my considered view, it is not a political party in the true sense of a political party.  Why did I say that the PDP is not a political party?.  I just describe it as a platform to grab power.

Asked if the change of party was not to actualize his dream of governing Anambra through an arrangement with incumbent Gov Peter Obi, the economist- turned politician said that even though he was aspiring to contest on the platform of APGA, he would remain in the party if he fails to secure the ticked at the primaries.

“My decision to join APGA is not just limited to my aspiration to govern Anambra State.  In as much as I would like to fly the APGA flag, even if I am not given the ticket, I will still remain in APGA and support whoever emerges.  This is the party in which ideology, the constitution, manisfesto, aims and objectives are in line with my views and what I believe in.

“My decision to join APGA was a decision I made made more than a year ago.  I would have joined more than a year ago and the reason that I didn’t join was that when I decided to as I was about to join, the crisis in the party erupted and so I didn’t want to join when the party was in crisis and then you would have to join one faction A faction B.”

DO NOT KILL THE ALBINOS IN NIGERIA AGAIN

Speaking in Abuja ahead of the national albinism day, Mr Epelle says Nigerians living with albinism suffer discrimination from their families, schoolmates and peers in addition to a deliberate failure to educate children living with albinism.

Mr Epelle therefore appealed to the various arms of government to come to the aid of persons living with albinism.
Dressed in yellow T-shirts and face caps, albinos converged on the national press centre in Abuja to listen to talks on albinism ahead of the national albinism day.
Some promoters of the albinism cause also appealed to privileged members of the society to assist persons living with albinism and stop all forms of discrimination against them.
Members of the albino foundation appealed to the federal government to assist them particularly in the area of acquiring education.
Albinism is an health condition that occurs in people of all race and gender and Nigeria is estimated to have one of the highest albinism prevalence rate in the world with children constituting about 40 per cent of the albinism population.
With the campaign for a national albinism day, the challenges of albinos may reduce stereotypes against persons living with albinism.

Former Delta State governor, James Ibori, lost a legal appeal on Thursday against a 13-year prison sentence for embezzling more than $250 million.

 
An appeal to reduce the 13 years sentence of Mr Ibori, a founding member of Nigeria’s ruling party who ran the affairs of Delta State for 8 years has failed.
Judge Antony Edwards-Stuart rejected that argument at the appeal hearing and also said that money laundering should attract close to the maximum 14-year sentence.
Mr Ibori pleaded guilty to 10 charges of fraud and money-laundering in February 2012 and is the most prominent Nigerian politician to be successfully prosecuted for corruption.
The former governor’s case was heard in London after prosecutors argued that, although much of the activity in question took place in Nigeria, some money did pass through Britain and British banks.
During his trial last year, a London court heard the stolen fortune was used to buy six foreign properties and a fleet of cars, although the judge said the total amount stolen may in fact be “in excess of 200 million pounds”.
The biggest single fraud involved misappropriating $37 million in fees when Mr Ibori’s Delta State sold its stake in the Nigerian mobile telecoms company V Mobile.
The Ibori case was heralded as a major success for London’s police, with Britain long seen as a destination of choice for corrupt Nigerian politicians to spend their ill-gotten gains.
Mr Ibori, who was elected governor of Delta in 1999 during Nigeria’s transition from military to civil rule, could still play a prominent role in Nigerian public life on his release.
Eligible for parole halfway through his jail term, he is likely to be out of prison in 3-1/2 years, having served a year since the trial, a year beforehand awaiting trial in London and a year in Dubai from where he was extradited to Britain.

UBA ARRESTED AND RELEASED.

UBA ARRESTED.

Ifeanyi Ubah who is the Managing Director of Capital Oil and Gas Industries Limited was yesterday arrested by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission(EFCC).

he was arrested by security operatives of the commission in his Abuja home in connection with the fuel subsidy scam.

His level of involvement in the scam could not be ascertained as of press time.

He was however  interrogated by the operatives of the commission and allowed to go home.

Confirming the arrest, EFCC spokesman, Wilson Uwujaren, said, “It is true he was arrested. But he has been allowed to go home.”

Asked when he was expected back at the commission, Uwujaren said, “That will be communicated to him, but for now he is no longer with us.”

About 40 persons and companies are facing trial over the fuel subsidy scam.

Okorocha moved to israel

The Governor of Imo state Rochas Okorocha has left London where he was receiving medical treatment for Israel.

Okorocha who left Nigeria on April 20th 2013  to London after  sustaining a head injury in a car accident  had left London for Israel.

Okorocha’s Senior Special Assistant on Media, Mr. Ebere Uzoukwa, confirmed that the governor had left London. “He has left London and he is doing very well. He is currently in Israel,” he said.

Another top government official said that the governor was in Israel for  a second round of examination.

Uzoukwa, however, denied that the governor moved to Israel on health grounds.

 “He only went to Israel to attend to certain matters and will be back soon,” he said.

Okorocha was involved in a car crash on Orlu-Owerri Road in the state on April 19.

The accident occurred when a Mercedes Benz 200 ran into the governor’s convoy and had a collision with his own car.

Okorocha was on an inspection tour of projects in Orlu area when the crash occurred.

“The accident led to a minor cut on the governor’s scalp,” Uzoukwa had said.

He said Okorocha’s head was bandaged, but noted that he was stable and strong.

Okorocha had said he would seek further medical attention due to the level of impact of the accident on him.

“Although the accident left me with a cut and some minor injuries, I am fine. I will, however, seek further medical attention because of the degree of impact made by the crash,” the governor was quoted as saying after the crash.

Imo State Governor in an auto crash.

The Governor of Imo state Owelle Rochas Okorocha was involved in an auto crash which led to a minor hear injury. The Governor was on a scheduled inspection tour to some state projects in the area when the accident occurred.
A statement signed by the media aide to the Governor; Ebere Ozoukwa, stated that the Governor’s convoy was involved in the accident in Orlu town in Orlu Local government area of the state.
According to Mr Ozoukwa, “the governor sustained a minor injury which is a minor cut on his head but he is presently in a good and stable condition and has been attended to by medical personnel.”
The Governor can be seen in the picture with a bandage rolled all over his head with some blood stains.
The statement advised the general public especially Imo citizens not to “panic and should go about with their normal duties since the Governor is in a good and stable condition and responding to necessary treatment.”

BOMB BLAST IN BOSTON

It was a sad news in Boston as an explosion disrupted the Boston marathon killing 3 and leaving many injured. An eyewitness has painted a vivid picture of the blasts that rocked the popular Boston Marathon in the US late yesterday (Nigerian time but about 2:50 p.m. Boston time), killing three persons and leaving at least 114 injured.

“I was there at the finish, shooting finish line scenes, and then, bang!, it just went off, and then less than 15 to 20 seconds after, there was a second explosion, closer to Fairfield Street.Blood and broken glass covered sidewalks in the area after the blasts.
“There was blood everywhere; there were victims being carried out on stretchers. I saw someone lose their leg. People are crying. People are confused,” said Silva, who captured one of the explosions on video, said moments after the blasts.
There was instant chaos after two powerful explosions detonated in quick succession near the finish line in Boston’s Back Bay section.
“When the smoke cleared from what officials said may have been a terrorist attack, dozens of victims lay in the street, some unconscious, some grievously injured, including some whose limbs had been torn off by the blast,”
The dead included an 8-year-old boy, according to two law enforcement sources briefed on the investigation. Boston Children’s Hospital reported that those treated there included a 9-year-old girl, a 7-year-old boy, a 12-year-old, and a 2-year-old, according to the report.
No arrests have yet been made but President Barack Obama has vowed that whoever planted the explosives would be found and brought to justice.
“We will find out who did this and we will hold them accountable,” Obama said in a statement last night.

Gun men kill NNPC boss' brother in Kaduna

It was a sad sunday in Kaduna as the insecurity in Nigeria everyday give birth to ugly news that breaks the heart. Gun men had in the early hours of today attacked motorist in Kachia road in southern Kaduna with many injured and one confirmed dead. Eyewitnesses said this is not the first time that armed robbers are attacking vehicles during day time along the road in spite of the several military and police checkpoints on the road.
Although an eyewitness said the attack was carried out by suspected Fulani herdsmen, the Kaduna State Commissioner of Police who confirmed the incident  said it was an armed robbery attack.
According to him, the robbers blocked the road at about 7am Sunday morning and robbed all vehicles. In the process of their operations, one of the victims who was driving in a private car and identified as the brother of the Group Managing Director of Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) was brutally injured and later died at Saint Gerald’s Catholic Hospital where he was rushed for treatment.
According to the commissioner, the armed robbers fled the scene of the attack before policemen could rush to the area while a combine team of policemen, soldiers and navy have been drafted to the area to forestall a reoccurrence of the ugly incident.

REVIVING UPN : Awolowo's Party Relaunch

The founder of Ooduas Peoples Congress (OPC), Mr Fredrick Fasehun has stated that the great Awolowo's party Unity party of Nigeria (UPN) will be relaunched after 30 years of extinction. He was speaking during channels Television program " Politics Today" where he said that some Nigerians in Diaspora called on him to revive the late Awolowo's party which according to him will soon be registered. It was however gathered that a few days ago, opposition Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) had accused Fasehun of being sponsored by the Presidency to launch a new party in the South-West with a view to undermining the strength and power of the ACN in the zone, an allegation the OPC leader denied.

 According to him,he has consulted with the Awolowo's party and has gotten a Go Ahead.

 

Governor Peter Obi's support for an Anambra North Governor

  

The gubernatorial aspirants from Anambra North pose for a group picture after the meeting

As the next gubernatorial election in Anambra draws near,the Executive Governor of Anambra state is making moves to zone it to the North, this has been the story in the state as the people of Anambra north are crying for a turn.Thirteen gubernatorial aspirants from Anambra North and from different political parties recently met with Governor Peter Obi to thank him for his unwavering support for a Northern agenda and governorship in 2014.  The aspirants reaffirmed their determination to see the governorship come to the Anambra North, their respective party affiliation notwithstanding. They resolved to work together and on a non-partisan basis to ensure that a candidate from the North senatorial zone emerged as the governor of Anambra in 2014.  They recalled that in the 22 year old history of Anambra State, not one single individual has emerged as a governor, even though Section 14 of the 1999 amended Constitution recognized the need for balancing of elected and appointed positions within the States and local governments.  The aspirants also agreed with Governor Obi, that the North producing the next governor was a matter of equity, justice and fair play. Finally. Only time will tell as the final decision will be made by the good people of Anambra state and not Mr Peter Obi.

Easter gift from PHCN to President Jonathan

 The PHCN indeed packaged their gift of power outage to GEJ, as Mr president was sweet talking about his administration in Lagos where he came to worship with Christians as they celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

The President speech was interrupted as the power outage occurred while he was delivering his speech to the congregation.

He was talking about his administration’s restructuring of the Nigerian economy when the church was thrown into darkness as seen in the picture on a very sunny day in Lagos.

Laughing along with the cheering congregation, Dr Jonathan remarked that by the power outage, officials of the Power Holding Company of Nigeria are telling him not to sleep until the nation’s power crisis is fixed.

He however vowed that by next year the power in the church will be uninterrupted.

The Easter Sunday service also had in attendance, former Head of State General Yakubu Gowon.

RED ALERT AS CHRISTIANS IN NIGERIA CELEBRATES EASTER.

As Christians celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ ,they do so with active mindset of being alert,especially those in the Northern part of Nigeria. However security agencies involved in anti-terror response are on red alert to contain possible attacks by Boko Haram.Even Lagos State in Southern Nigeria is on red alert as well, following last week’s discovery in the area of arms, and the arrest of some suspected terrorists alleged to be nationals of Chad and Niger Republic.

States with stepped-up anti-terrorism activity in the North include Kaduna, Kano, Plateau states, aside Borno and Yobe.

A military officer in Kaduna confirmed that important infrastructure and institutions in and around Kaduna are being heavily protected and monitored in different ways following tips that suspected terrorists are planing attacks.

Last year in Kaduna State, there was a terror attack on Easter Day in which about 50 persons lost their lives and a lot of property was destroyed when a bomb-laden car on a suicide bomb mission exploded on a major road while transiting to a target.
 

THINGS FALL APART IN NIGERIA AS A LEGEND GOES BEYOND.

It all came as one of those rumuors that always dance in the market place of the Nigeria space, Chinua Achebe picture was a popular display Pictures in the Blackberry messenger,with many saying RIP. Suddenly I remembered the popular "Things fall Apart" by this great man that have over the years refused to destroy the beautiful name he has built with an award from the Government of the day because of bad governance. 

Achebe won the Commonwealth poetry prize for his collection Christmas in Biafra, was a finalist for the 1987 Booker prize for his novel Anthills of the Savannah, and in 2007 won the Man Booker international prize. Chair of the judges on that occasion, Elaine Showalter, said he had "inaugurated the modern African novel", while her fellow judge, the South African Nobel laureate Nadine Gordimer, said his fiction was "an original synthesis of the psychological novel, the Joycean stream of consciousness, the postmodern breaking of sequence", and that Achebe was "a joy and an illumination to read".

Nelson Mandela, meanwhile, has said that Achebe "brought Africa to the rest of the world" and called him "the writer in whose company the prison walls came down".

The author is also known for the influential essay An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad's Heart of Darkness (1975), a hard-hitting critique of Conrad in which he says the author turned the African continent into "a metaphysical battlefield devoid of all recognisable humanity, into which the wandering European enters at his peril", asking: "Can nobody see the preposterous and perverse arrogance in thus reducing Africa to the role of props for the break-up of one petty European mind?"

According to Brown University, where Achebe held the position of David and Marianna Fisher university professor and professor of Africana studies until his death, this essay "is recognised as one of the most generative interventions on Conrad; and one that opened the social study of literary texts, particularly the impact of power relations on 20th-century literary imagination".

Born in 1930 in Ogidi, in the south-east of Nigeria, the author won a scholarship to the University of Ibadan, and later worked as a scriptwriter for the Nigeria Broadcasting Service. He chose to write Things Fall Apart in English – something for which he has received criticism from authors including Ngugi wa Thiong'o – but Achebe said he felt "that the English language will be able to carry the weight of my African experience. But it will have to be a new English, still in full communion with its ancestral home but altered to suit its new African surroundings".

His fourth novel, 1966's A Man of the People, anticipated a coup that took place in Nigeria just before the book was first published. "I'd ended the book with a coup," Achebe told the Guardian, "which was ridiculous because Nigeria was much too big a country to have a coup, but it was right for the novel. That night we had a coup. And any confidence we had that things could be put right were smashed. That night is something we have never really got over."

His most recent work was last year's mix of memoir and history There Was a Country, an account of the Nigerian civil war of 1967 to 1970.

Achebe was a supporter of Biafran secession, but after the end of the civil war in 1970 he took what he described as a "sojourn" in politics. There he found that "the majority of people … were there for their own personal advancement", deciding instead to devote himself to academia.

He went on to write what he called a "limited harvest" of five novels – the most recent of which was 1987's Anthills of the Savannah. "I go at the pace of inspiration and what I can physically manage," he said.

In 1990 a car accident in Nigeria left him paralysed from the waist down, and forced his move to the US. "I miss Nigeria very much. My injury means I need to know I am near a good hospital and close to my doctor. I need to know that if I went to a pharmacist, the medicine there would be the drug that the bottle says it is," he said in 2007.

Achebe has twice rejected the Nigerian government's attempt to name him a Commander of the Federal Republic – a national honour – first in 2004, and second in 2011. In 2004 he wrote that "for some time now I have watched events in Nigeria with alarm and dismay. I have watched particularly the chaos in my own state of Anambra where a small clique of renegades, openly boasting its connections in high places, seems determined to turn my homeland into a bankrupt and lawless fiefdom. I am appalled by the brazenness of this clique and the silence, if not connivance, of the presidency … Nigeria's condition today under your watch is, however, too dangerous for silence. I must register my disappointment and protest by declining to accept the high honour awarded me in the 2004 honours list."

Black Monday in Kano state.

It was indeed a black monday in Kano state today with the bomb blast that have killed scores of innocent Nigerians who never knew that today will be the end of the road for them.

Witnesses said the explosions occurred at a popular and busy commercial luxury bus park in Kano.

The police have confirmed the blast but are yet to confirm the casualty.

The area has now been cordoned off by soldiers and police officers.

No group has claimed responsibility for the attack.

Other witnesses said an Improvised Explosive Device, IED, was planted near the park causing one of the buses to go up in flames.

This has made it difficult to ascertain the casualty figures.The blast caused a stampede with many people getting hurt and cars crashing.When contacted, the spokesperson of the Police in Kano, Magaji Majiya, confirmed the incident. He however, said he has not gotten the full details.

President Goodluck Jonathan has condemned the bomb blasts. The President said the barbaric incident will not deter the Federal Government from its strong-willed determination to overcome those who do not mean well for the nation. He said the Federal Government will not be stampeded, for any reason whatsoever, into abandoning its unrelenting war against terrorists in the country.

President Jonathan reassured Nigerians and foreigners in the country that the Nigerian Government will continue to do all that is required to ensure the safety of lives and property, including continued collaboration with local and international partners and stakeholders to check the menace of terrorism.

President Jonathan commiserated with the victims of the Kano explosions, their families and friends, and assured the Kano State government of the Federal Government’s continued support.

 A call on the Anambra state government to conduct local     government election in Anambra state.

It is another beautiful day and all that is in my mind is the next decision. 2015 general election is what i refer to as the NEXT DECISION. But just before then i have been wondering to find reasons to understand why Anambra state has not conducted local government election for more than a decade and yet it seems everyone is turning mute  . The good people of Anambra state have been subjected to military democracy since 1999 when Nigeria photocopied Democracy . The people no longer decide who will be their chairman , rather they hear all sort of names that bring sadness and shows wickedness from the government . The local government is the closest government to the people , so denying them the right to choose who governs the affairs of their communities is an act of wickedness that have killed so many people without justification . They wake up every morning without smiles on their beautiful faces , they see the same thing and hear the same old stories everyday . In a bid for change , they cry everyday , waiting to make the next decision where they will correct their mistakes . Mistakes of avoiding the politics of the mind and embracing the politics of give and take . They are waiting to make the next important decision to protect the generation unborn , because our leaders have proven to be men without conscience, most of them are now political beasts . Education is still fighting for survival,but the government do not want to heal the wounds of education and save the Nigerian child and the Nigerian youths who everyday go to school hoping to learn.

I therefore call on the Anambra state Government to please Save Our Souls regardless of who is there as Governor. Mr Peter Obi inherited it and decided to add his own quota. Posterity is waiting! There are stories to tell the unborn.