Wike:I Will Honour My Social Contract With Rivers People

Nyesom Wike

Ernest Chinwo in Port Harcourt

Rivers State Governor-Elect, Chief Nyesom Wike, has declared that he would honour the social contract he entered with the people of Rivers State during his campaign to lead the state to a prosperous future premised on good governance, transparency, accountability and the development of all parts of the state.

In a thank-you message on his election as the state’s governor-elect, Wike stated that the massive support he got from across the state was a challenge for him to ensure that the people of the state stepped into better days and experience compassionate governance with the right political will to positively transform the state.

While noting that he would never take the goodwill of the people for granted, Wike urged the people to support his administration and the PDP to resolve the developmental challenges facing the state.

Taraba Guber Re-run : Women Groups Threaten to Protest Nude

Adedayo Akinwale in  Abuja

Ahead of the April 25th re-run election in Taraba State, groups under the aegis of The Ladies of Grace and Agape Sisters have threatened to mobilise hundreds of thousands of Nigerian women to protest nude if any official behaved funny.

The Coordinator of the groups, Ms. Jane Onuh disclosed this on Friday while addressing a press conference in Abuja, alleging that there were noticeable series of intimidations  exhibited by the opponent of Sen. Aisha Jummai Alhassan, which they said included  men, military, police as well as suspected electoral officials.

Onuh stated that the women would have remained quiet and neutral but for their disadvantaged background and the clamour to sustain the goals set for Nigerian women in the post Beijing conference over two decades ago.

Her words, "We dare warn of adverse consequences should the establishment or otherwise known as Taraba Cabal insist on intimidating a female contestant in the Taraba guber race.

"For the avoidance of doubt, we will mobilise hundreds of thousands of Nigerian women to protest nude on April 25th if any official behave funny.  We will be exposing the cabals and their cohorts who are still living in the stone age that the position of woman, no matter how eminently qualified, still resides in her kitchen".

The women urged all the agencies to remain neutral during the re-run election, while also calling on Taraba women to ignore all kinds of intimidation and come out enmasse to vote for their own.

Marching Over Blood to the Throne

As a reporter, I have covered elections in Nigeria since 1992. I have, over the years, come to understand the psychology of Nigerian politicians: how many of them will prefer to discredit an election simply because it did not favour them. I am also aware of the several tactics politicians use to undermine electoral process for their own selfish ends.

In the March 28 and April 11 elections, two states stood out in perpetration of unbridled electoral fraud. The states are Rivers and Akwa Ibom.

As they say, long before the snake gave birth, everybody knew it will bear ‘a long child’. In Rivers, the sign that all will not go smoothly had been strong and glaring. It had worn the tag of a flash point state by all predictions. The pre-election incidents of violence only increased in tempo, frequency and sophistication during the election. In almost all cases, the victims of the attacks were either members and supporters of the All Progressives Congress (APC) or the party’s secretariat.

Too many times, the APC secretariats in some LGAs were bombed and their campaign rallies attacked, sometimes with the police wringing their hands in questionable helplessness.

If the election in Rivers was a straight fight between the APC and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and APC members were regularly being attacked, it is logical to conclude that the aggressors are the PDP members.

During the presidential and National Assembly elections, the scale of violence visited on the electorate was most disturbing. Several corpses lay on the streets during and after the elections. Blood of voters flowed. Too many gun shots were fired at voters. There was so much commotion. At Boro, Khana police station (in Ogoni area) some persons were seen (on camera) thumb printing ballot papers for the PDP. Two days after the March 28 election, hundreds of hijacked ballot papers were still found around that police station. Was the police station one of the polling booths? The picture and story of this electoral fraud trended on the internet for days.

At Omokwu and many other places in the state, people were just being killed like Christmas chicken. The violence was simply overbearing. The APC said over 54 of its members were killed even before the governorship election in Rivers.

During the governorship and State House of Assembly poll, the level of violence was simply taken a few notches higher. Police vehicles, INEC offices, private homes were burnt, just as several people were also killed with brute and mindless ease. Election materials were hijacked by hired thugs in many places.

Without mincing words, it was like the last battle the PDP was determined to fight in the state.
The undertone of the attacks seemed to have been “let’s first get the victory by hook or crook, and then we sort out the legal battle later”. The desperation was criminal!

Aided with federal might and arsenal, the normal electoral process was overwhelmed by the naked thuggery that was unleashed on the people. Policemen who were not willing to play along were quickly sent out of the state with presidential fiat. AIG Tunde Ogunsakin  has his tales to tell.

I have read three reports by the EU observers, the Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) and other local observers, and they all condemned the electoral rape that took place in Rivers, calling for the cancellation.  

At the end of the day, figures, it seemed, were simply awarded in most places and the PDP has long rolled out the drums celebrating it’s self-awarded victory, claiming that the election went so well.

Few days ago, Hon Chibudom Nwuche,  (former Deputy Speaker) who until very recently was a chieftain of the PDP in Rivers has also condemned the criminal violence that governed that election in the state saying election did not really take place in the real sense of the word.

The Labour Party gubernatorial candidate, Tonye Princewill has also cried blue murder about the election.
Pray, what does the EU, or the CSOs or Nwuche or Princewill etc., all have against Nyesom Wike and his PDP as to discredit the election? Is that the only state where PDP won? Can they all be biased against Wike and his PDP?

It is a similar abridgement of the voting right of the people in Akwa Ibom where voting materials were not distributed to many PUs, but at the end of the day, fabulous figures were recorded against such PUs where voting did not even take place.
This narrative of violence and underhand ability is quite in sync with the character portrait of the dramatis personae involved in these cases.

Several foreign and local observers have said thugs in Police uniforms hijacked polling materials in many places. It is crime of the highest order to appropriate the electoral right of the people, as it happened in Akwa Ibom as well. And typical with such politicians, they have organized carnivals to celebrate their victory.

But they must be told that they are operating in the mode of the old order. Electoral crimes must no more go unpunished. And the era where people march through human blood to sit on governance thrones, is over. Enough is enough!

Elections: INEC Urges Aggrieved Parties to go to Court

Chief Jerry Chukwueke; Imo State Governor, Chief Rochas Okorocha and  President-elect, Gen. Muhammud Buhari during a visit to Imo State...recently                                       

•  Issues Uba, Ekwunife, Oduah and others with Certificate of Return

Charles Onyekamuo in Awka 
       
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has asked candidates of parties who failed in the March 28 and April 11 general elections to proceed to the election tribunal when constituted to table their grievances instead of peddling unfounded rumours or working themselves up because they didn’t win.

The INEC National Commissioner for Anambra, Imo, and Abia states, Ambassador Lawrence Nwuruku gave the advice in Awka, the Anambra State capital yesterday while issuing certificates of Return to National Assembly winners in the state. He said the commission had no powers under the law to cancel an already declared result.

The Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) in the state, Mr. Edwin Nwatalari had earlier said that a lot of stories had been flying about, especially in the social media since the conduct of the election some of which said that the INEC was either writing fresh results or cancelling some areas or cheating, adding that none of them was true and that the elections were conducted in accordance with the electoral guidelines.

“I don’t have power to alter any result that had been declared. The social media is awash with stories that I altered results. Assuming a mistake was made somewhere, it is only the Tribunal that has powers to look at it. I don’t have such powers.

  “Virtually everybody in this state has called me since these stories began making the rounds.
“It is only God that has not called me. Those who are dissatisfied with the outcome should please go to the Tribunal. The only thing we obey is a valid court order,” he said.

Senators-Elect for Anambra South Senatorial District, Senator Andy Uba, Anambra Central, Hon. (Mrs.) Uche Ekwunife,  and Anambra North, Princess Stella Adaeze Oduah were all issued with certificates of Return. They all won on the platform of People’s Democratic Party (PDP).

Also issued with certificates of Return were nine House of Representatives members-Elect.
They included Mr. Peter Madubueze (Anambra East/West Federal Constituency, Hon. Emeka Idu (Onitsha North/South), Hon. Anayo Nebe (Awka North /South, Hon. Eucharia Azodo (Aguata Federal Constituency) Chuchu Onyema (Ogbaru),  Obinna Chidoka (Idemili North/South), Emeka Anohu (Ihiala), Hon. Chris Azubogu (Nnewi North/South/Ekwusigo, while Dr. Emeka Eze for Njikoka /Anaocha/Dunukofia Federal Constituency was not available to collect his.

The certificate of Return for Orumba North/South was not issued to the supposed winner because it was learnt that it was being challenged in court.

Senator Andy Uba who spoke on behalf of all of them enjoined losers to sheath their swords because it was not time for fight. Rather he said that both the winners and losers should join hands together to move the state forward.

As Gov Uduaghan Prepares to Sign Out

Governor Emmanuel Eweta Uduaghan

with  Eddy Odivwri

In 41 days, Governor Emmanuel Eweta Uduaghan will be referred to as former governor of Delta State. And he will go down in record as the third elected executive governor of the state.

His has been a chequered stretch of governance in the state. Both his ascension to the throne, the period of governance and his stepping down from office have been full of histrionics.
There is a refrain in a favourite Christian hymn (Fading Away Like the Stars of the Morning) which says… “Let us remember, Let us remember,  what they have done...”

He came with a trinity of programmes: Peace and Security, Infrastructure Development and Human Capital Development. Somehow, the entire  business of governance got compressed into these three broad portfolios.
And so, eight years after, it is appropriate to examine how well the governor has discharged his self-appointed tasks to the people of Delta State.

This piece, for the sake of space and time constraint may not be able to dig out, in details, the performance record on the three prisms of Uduaghan’s governance. But enough to say that on the issue of  Peace and Security, his administration, strove from day one to the last, to deliberately make efforts to promote peace and security. It is remarkable to note that his administration actually inherited a state steeped in all kinds of violence, skirmishes and general disquiet. Having been in government, eight years before becoming governor, Uduaghan was sufficiently familiar with the issues that had plagued the state. Indeed, his predecessor, James Ibori had spent his first one week in office shuttling between warring communities in the state.

Uduaghan had presided over many peace initiative meetings and knew deeply the issues and contentions. Yes, a couple of times, the level of disquiet spilled out of control, especially when the malaise of kidnapping hit the state and other parts of the country (which indeed claimed my own father), it will be right to say the Uduaghan years in office helped to contain the incendiary tendencies in the state.
His ability to manage the delicate complexities associated with a state that approximates mini Nigeria, with its many ethnic groupings, is a tribute to his capacity to manage people.

Perhaps his greatest disposition to peace is the sacrifice of his senatorial ambition in the state.
Although many believed he was harassed out of the senatorial race by the Ijaw mafia led by the trio of President Goodluck Jonathan, Chief E. K Clarke, and Government Ekpemupolo (alias Tompolo),  Udugahan had explained that he elected to step down from the race so that there will be peace. He followed peace with so much commitment. He said the security reports reaching him had indicated that there will be plenty of trouble in the state if he went ahead with the contest. In his place, James Manager, an Ijaw, and who had been in the senate for over 12 uneventful years was returned, even though he had remained bland and inarticulate in the senate chambers over the years. No thanks to Ijaw conspiracy.

Although the governor won the peace, he seemingly lost his groove, as he had changed his operational pattern, by becoming far more taciturn and socially disenchanted, ever since the events leading to his dropping his senatorial ambition.
Uduaghan never trifled with the concerns of safety and security. That explains the huge support his administration gave law enforcement agencies in wracking down the incidents of violent crimes in the state.

Perhaps one other area his administration strove to leave a mark is in job creation. More than four times, his administration embarked on near mass recruitment of unemployed persons in the state. The civil service has helped to absorb quite a number of hitherto unemployed youths, even though a large number remains yet unemployed. It is not just a national malaise, but a global one.
One way however Uduaghan would have achieved more in this regard is to drive high the plan to establish the Warri Industrial Park which he launched in 2007/2008.

It was one veritable programme that would have radically transformed the fortunes and economy of the state. Apart from opening up a wide gamut of opportunities for the private sector to bloom and operate, the very idea of Industrial park, needless to say, would have literally mopped up all, almost, the idle youths loafing around the towns and cities of the state. It remains a vex point that the project failed or put differently, that it has remained inchoate, especially as some good funds had been allegedly allotted to commence the building of the park. It is sad that the project, laudable as it was, merely got “trapped” in the system.

However, his human capital development rating got a boost with the well-celebrated micro-credit scheme. It was a scheme that was well co-ordinated as it provided a start-up capital base to thousands of people(largely women) who ran their small-scale businesses across the state. For the huge success it recorded, the governor won several awards from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and other institutions.

But the point must be made about the loan-recovery efforts. I am not aware if the loans have been or being paid back. Or were they not loans in the proper sense of the word?

Although the Asaba International Airport remains a signature project of the Uduaghan administration, even though it was inherited from his predecessor, and not exactly completed yet;  not many people are satisfied with the infrastructure development in the state.

Two major road networks: the Asaba--Ughelli highway and the Koko road dualisation network, remain uncompleted, despite the fact that they had been conceived almost the same time the governor assumed office. It is difficult to understand why the two roads, especially remained uncompleted, but some believe that the Uduaghan administration was rather “too cool” with contractors, hence they were hardly in a hurry to get done with their contracts.

The big plans of establishing Koko EPZ for instance, seemingly died at conception, perhaps because of Federal Government bureaucracy. His administration however tried to recast Warri city in a new mould of a modern city, what with the introduction of the metro  BRT bus service, just as major roads enjoyed asphalt overlay.
Street lightings improved greatly  even in villages, especially the Asaba-Onitsha expressway lighting scheme powered by dozens of generators.

Although some will write it off as normal, the fact that he was almost always on the same page with labour meant that he was paying his state’s workers well and promptly.
His devotion to education was also evident in his drive toward improved quality delivery in the sector. His model schools, though not enough, provided the taste of preferred standard.

The overhead bridge projects at Warri and Asaba are remarkable responses to   the growing vehicular traffic in the state.
Although some good efforts were directed at cleaning up the state, it still remains largely a dirty state bereft of a deliberate effort to promote greenery, even as Gov Uduaghan was an avid supporter and promoter of environmental preservation. He became a cheer leader in Climate Change campaigns.

However one other area that the Uduaghan administration achieved so much is in the health sector.  Aside the huge attention paid to establishing the University of Abraka Teaching Hospital in Oghara, the free maternity service to women as well as free medi-care to senior citizens are programmes that not only saved lots of lives, but also provided enormous financial reliefs to beneficiaries. Perhaps as a medical doctor himself, Uduaghan, right from his days as Commissioner for Health, had  placed premium prize on the health of the people.

His foray in sports is also remarkable, as the state did extremely well in winning laurels in national and international sporting competitions.
Beside every other virtue he has, many acknowledge that Uduaghan has a great listening habit. He listens a lot, sometimes to the vain and even profane, but he sifts through what he hears, albeit in a calm demeanour. He is an establishmentarian, never wanting to upset a status quo. No doubt, this nature has defined his political camp and operations. He is deft in his political calculations, wherein he moves as swiftly and silently as light.

Although a few doubt if one of his strengths is in forgiving those who ruffled him, many others (including yours sincerely) believe that he is  a burnished Baptist, suffused with a good heart that shows kindness and mercy to the needy and the  less privileged. I recall that in August 2009, he had suddenly stopped his convoy at the Effurun round about and adopted one of the young boys hawking petty items by the roadside. He transformed the life and fortune of that boy and his family.  All things considered, Uduaghan will pass for a great leader, one who kept his circle of friends in good and not-so-good times. He surely has his place in history as we wish him a great and peaceful life after service.