Ex-militants’ war threat is unacceptable

 Dokubo-Asari

TAKING impunity to a new level, some ex-Niger Delta militants, joined by some intemperate public officials, gathered in Yenagoa, the Bayelsa State capital, last week to declare war against Nigeria in advance, should President Goodluck Jonathan lose next month’s presidential election. While disdain for law and order is not totally unexpected from pardoned ex-insurgents, the participation of Governor Seriake Dickson and a presidential adviser, Kingsley Kuku, in that provocative conclave is doubly unacceptable and should warrant a response from the government.

The bravado was shocking. According to news reports, the ex-militants, featuring some ex-warlords, vowed to take up arms against the country if Jonathan lost the February 14 presidential election. They also threatened reprisals for attacks on the President’s campaign team and vehicles in some northern states. Asari Dokubo, who has repeatedly trodden this path, urged attendees to get ready for war: “This action is calling the Niger Delta youths to war.”

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Like him, others, including Government Ekpemupolo, aka Tompolo, and Victor Ebikabowei, aka Boy Loaf, 

vowed to disrupt oil production. “If they take the power away from Jonathan, we will take our oil,” declared Ebikabowei. If the threats of persons who once violently resorted to self-help were disturbing, the benevolent presence of Dickson and Kuku was alarming.

Rather than moderate the extremism on display, Dickson, playing the amiable host, reportedly thanked the speakers for “backing the re-election of President Jonathan with greater vigour” and promised to relate their position to him. On his part, Kuku, the President’s Special Adviser on Niger Delta Affairs and Chairman of the Amnesty Implementation Committee, reportedly read the resolutions of the meeting, reiterating that the region’s youths would not take attacks on the President’s campaign entourage lightly.

If these reports are a true reflection of what transpired, Dickson’s and Kuku’s actions were simply treasonable. They have desecrated the high offices they occupy. Dickson imprudently provided the hallowed chambers of the Government House, Yenagoa, for the infamous meeting and lent the imprimatur of his exalted office to threats against the country and the 1999 Constitution that he solemnly swore to uphold.

Most offensive is the complete disregard for law and the electoral process. The militants did not hinge their angst on any universally acceptable present or future injustice to their preferred choice for president. Rather, they demonstrated utter disregard for the electoral process, vowing to declare war and disrupt oil production even if Jonathan lost in a free and fair contest.

This arrogance is insufferable and the rest of Nigeria should be concerned. First, leaders, elders, traditional authorities and even the youths of Ijawland, on whose behalf the incendiary threats were purportedly made, should come out to disclaim the preposterous provocation. It is an ill-wind that benefits no one, certainly not the 14 million population claimed by the Ijaw Foundation.

Jonathan should not play the ostrich on this one. The threat is too weighty to be ignored, especially with the presence of his aide, Kuku, at the meeting. He should not forget this statement that “nobody’s political ambition is worth the blood of any Nigerian.” Nigerians have risen as one against mindless, unprovoked violence or threats by any group. When misguided youths rampaged in some northern states after the 2011 presidential election, they received national and worldwide condemnation. His silence can only be interpreted as tacit agreement. Did he send Kuku to the meeting or was the adviser there in his personal capacity? No presidential adviser or state governor ought to be associated with such threats.

The central pillars of democracy are the rule of law and regular free and fair elections. Jonathan won one in 2011; he can remain in office for another four years only through another electoral victory. You neither go to war when your candidate loses an election nor declare war ahead of it.

The misguided militants forget that the votes of the Ijaw militants alone cannot secure election and Nigeria is a single constituency for an aspirant to the presidency. Jonathan won handily across the country in 2011. He fortuitously ascended the presidency, first, as Acting President, not by the actions of his kinsmen, who also played no role whatsoever in his nomination to the vice-presidency in 2007.

It is tragic that ex-militants, once accused of kidnapping, sabotage of oil facilities and killing of soldiers and policemen but were granted amnesty by the late President Umaru Yar’Adua, are once again threatening violence on the basis of a divine right to the Presidency. A media report published in February 2014 estimated that at least N260 billion was spent on ex-Niger Delta militants between 2009 and 2013 through amnesty payments and lucrative pipeline protection deals, while N35.8 billion was voted for ex-militants in 2014. Ekpemupolo’s company has been awarded a controversial multimillion dollar coastal protection contract just as Asari Dokubo, Ebikabowei and others also have been given contracts.

Thousands have received scholarships and monthly payouts.

Two years ago, Kuku had, during a visit to the United States, similarly threatened war if Jonathan was not returned to office in 2015. Asari Dokubo has been making the same threat for years with no response from the President. Nigerians can no longer accept silence from their President, whose then political adviser, Ahmed Gulak, reacting to yet another threat of violence from Asari Dokubo in 2013, said the ex-militant was merely expressing his own opinion.

The militants make no pretence to being well-armed. In any case, their security contracts enable them to legally procure sophisticated weapons, funded by the taxpayer, and immense wealth to buy more outside official channels.

The inaction of the Department of State Service and the police is baffling, but may not be unconnected with their reading of the president’s body language. Jonathan should not allow his ambition and supporters to plunge Nigeria into a blood-soaked crisis. The security agencies should shun partisanship and do their duty to the state by taking counter-measures against any violent threats to the country.

Agbaje, a tax defaulter —Fashola

 Governor, Babatunde Fashola

The Lagos State Governor, Babatunde Fashola, says the governorship candidate of the Peoples Democracy Party, Mr. Jimi Agbaje, is a tax defaulter.

The governor said this on Wednesday at the eighth Annual Lagos State Taxation Stakeholders’ Conference in the Ikeja area.

Fashola urged the residents of the state to reject “a serial tax evader” in the forthcoming governorship election.

He added that it was irresponsible for any politician seeking public office to evade tax and still claim to be a law-abiding citizen.

Fashola said, “All those who have paid their taxes have shown that they are lawful citizens. And anyone who has failed to pay tax is a bad citizen; he is also a cheat. Such person benefits from the roads, hospitals and other facilities provided with taxes paid by other residents.

“I know that you have to vote next month, but look at that candidate that will take over from me. And be careful of who to vote for. You will remember in 2007, Jimi Agbaje claimed that he was in Democratic People’s Alliance and later crossed to the PDP.

“You know that he manages a pharmacy called Jaykay Pharmacy, located at 9, Randle Close, Apapa. His pharmacy has not paid Land Use Charge for 2009, 2010, 2011 and 2012.

“They paid in 2013 and 2014 because they discovered that the election would be holding in 2015. His pharmacy owes this state N1, 629, 064.62.

“Let us do that mathematics to see how many facilities the funds would have provided in our hospitals and stationery in our schools. But this was the same person who complained that the state government spent three per cent of its budget on education. Local governments are responsible for the management of the primary schools and yet, he has withheld their taxes.

“This is the man who wants to be your next governor. I will advise that you avoid a deceiver and a tax evader.”

The Director, Media and Publicity, Jimi Agbaje Campaign Organisation, Mr. Felix Oboagwina, said Agbaje had been commended by the Commissioner for Finance, Ayo Gbeleyi, for paying the Land Use Charge on his residence and wondered why the government was bringing up the matter less than a month to the elections

He explained that Agbaje was no longer in charge of the Jaykay Pharmaceuticals and could not be held liable for any tax-related issue.

He said, “Although he founded JayKay Pharmaceuticals, Mr. Agbaje left the directorship of the company in 2006, and this is on record with the state. He is no longer involved in the running of the company. And today, he is not even an Executive Director.

“We have a letter signed by Ayo Gbeleyi, the Commissioner for Finance in Lagos State, where Agbaje received commendations for fulfilling his tax obligations.”

War threat: Danjuma calls for Dokubo, Tompolo’s arrest

 Lt. Gen. Theophilus Danjuma (retd.)

A former Chief of Army Staff, Lt. Gen. Theophilus Danjuma (retd.), has called for the arrest of an ex-Niger Delta militants, including Mujahideen   Dokubo-Asari and Government Ekpudomenowei(akaTompolo)   for   threatening to declare war against the nation if President Goodluck loses the February 14 election.

Danjuma, who described the threat as “unguarded and reckless,” warned that “miscreants” must not be allowed to hold the country by the jugular.

Dokubo-Asari, had at a meeting on Friday at the Bayelsa State Government House, Yenagoa, urged an end to what he termed, the intimidation of the Ijaw by other Nigerians.

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“For every Goliath, God created a David. For every Pharaoh, there is a Moses. We are going to war. Every one of you should go and fortify yourself,” he said.

At the meeting were Governor Seriake Dickson, Ekpudomenowei, Victor Ebikabowei (aka Boy Loaf), the   Special Adviser to the President on Niger Delta Affairs, Kingsley Kuku and the   President General, the Ijaw Youth Council, Udengs Eradiri.

Boyloaf also said at the meeting that if the North succeeded in regaining power on February 14,   the people of the Niger Delta would take their oil back.

However, Danjuma while inaugurating the Kwankwasiyya City alongside   Kano State Governor Rabiu Kwankwaso, on Wednesday wondered why Dokubo-Asari and Ebikabowei were heating up the polity.

He reminded them that since Nigeria and its resources belonged to everyone,   no one   must hold the government to ransom.

The former Defence minister, therefore, urged the necessary government agencies to immediately arrest the ex-militants.

“You should arrest Asari Dokubo, Tompolo, Boyloaf and other Niger Delta militants for making reckless statements, which in any way does not mean keeping Nigeria as one entity. They   create a war situation.

“Those were reckless statements coming from irresponsible individuals; they should be condemned and   arrested immediately,” he said.

In a situation like this, the issue of entrenching peace in the country is what is needed most. We should not allow some miscreants to hold us to ransom,” he said.

Danjuma, who served as a Defence minister during the Olusegun Obasanjo administration, added,   “Nigeria belongs to everybody and we must do everything possible to safeguard her unity.”

He also asked politicians to stop making utterances capable of overheating the polity.

The former minister said, “As we are approaching election time, we must strive to ensure that important issues are thoroughly discussed but not personalities. We want to have a perfect election where no one would have an axe to grind with anybody.

“Once   politicians base their campaigns on issues not personalities and avoid anything capable of causing disaffection, I am confident that we would have foul-free elections.”

He commended Kwankwaso for providing physical infrastructure in the last four years and described the Kwankwasiyya City as one of the modern edifices in the current democratic dispensation.

Amaechi’s criticism, a challenge – Jonathan

President Goodluck Jonathan

PRESIDENT Goodluck Jonathan has admitted the criticism by Governor Rotimi Amaechi that his government has not done anything for the people of Rivers State.

This, he said, was because he did not want to be seen as an ethnic leader. Hence, his resolve to ensure the equitable distribution of resources across the country.

Jonathan’s wife is from Rivers State.

President Jonathan, who spoke during the presidential rally of the Peoples Democratic Party at the Adokiye Amiesimaka Stadium in Igwuruta-Ali, Ikwerre Local Government of Rivers State, however, promised to develop the South-South region if elected for a second term in office.

The President was reacting to the criticism by Amaechi, who is also the Director-General of the All Progressives Congress Presidential Campaign Organisation, that he (Jonathan) had not done anything for Rivers and Bayelsa states.

Describing Amaechi’s statement as a challenge, Jonathan admitted that though he had not allocated more development to his people, the situation was an indication that he (Jonathan) meant well for the country.

He pointed out that he accepted Amaechi’s challenge, but would do “something” for the South-South states when he is re-elected,

The President said, “What I want to tell you and the rest of the country is that the director-general of the APC presidential campaign organisation, when he was in Yenagoa and when he was in Port Harcourt, mentioned clearly that the President had done nothing for the two states.

“Don’t worry. It is good news because people are saying that I concentrated development in the South-South. Bayelsa State was part of Rivers State. Then, if I don’t concentrate development in this state, that means there has not been development in Rivers and Bayelsa states.

“The DG (Amaechi) is telling Nigerians that I have not done this. That means that I am a transparent person. I did not allocate positions to my people. The DG would have been the very first person to expose me to the rest of the world; not just Nigeria. He would have taken me to America, to South Africa, to France, to UK, but that shows clearly that we mean well for this country.

“In our development, every part of Nigeria must be carried along. You will agree with me that when we looked at the university education, and we insisted that look, the Federal Government must make sure that all Nigerian youths must have opportunity for university education.

“We did not divide North or South; we made sure that all the states that had no federal university got a federal university. I am not going to comment on development in Rivers State and Bayelsa states. I can reassure you that just work with us; vote for us on February 14, for me and Sambo and on February 28, for Wike and Ipalibo. Since we have been challenged that we have not done anything, we will do something.”

Earlier, the PDP governorship candidate in the state, Chief Nyesom Wike, had expressed confidence that the party would win the February 2015 presidential and governorship elections.

Calling on the people of the state to vote for the PDP, Wike, who was formally presented with his party’s flag, criticised Amaechi for his (Amaechi) refusal to approve the application by the state PDP for the usage of the Adokiye Amiesimaka Stadium.

In her remarked, the President’s wife, Patience, boasted that the PDP would get over 2.4 million votes in Rivers State, adding that such a feat would be an improvement on the 2 million votes won by the party in 2011.

Mrs. Jonathan said that only the PDP had done a lot in the area of women empowerment, maintaining that the women had been able to manage the economy of the country.

Okonjo-Iweala, Ezekwesili clash over Soludo

 Dr. Obiageli Ezekwesili and Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala

The Federal Government on Wednesday said the five-year tenure of Prof. Chukwuma Soludo as the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria was a disaster to the banking sector.

While the Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, described Soludo’s criticism of the management of the economy under President Goodluck Jonathan as “intellectual hara-kiri,” a former Minister of Education, Dr. Obiageli Ezekwesili, called for a public debate by all parties on the actual state of the economy.

Similarly, a faction of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum led by Governor Jonah Jang of Plateau State described as illusionary and attention-seeking, Soludo’s recent article on the state of the economy.

Soludo, who was the CBN governor between May 2004 and May 2009, had on Monday written an article in which he claimed that the Nigerian economy under Jonathan had performed woefully.

While reacting to the article, Okonjo-Iweala through a statement issued by her Special Adviser on Communications, Mr. Paul Nwabuikwu, said not only was it littered with abusive and unbecoming language, it showed Soludo, whom she described as an “embittered loser in the Nigerian political space,” could get so derailed by misquoting economic facts and maliciously turning statistics on their head to justify a hatchet job.

However, Ezekwesili said on her Twitter handle shortly after Okonjo-Iweala’s response was made public, that the “nation and people seem to be on an accelerated race to the bottom. So sad! Why would a statement from (the) government read like that? Gosh!”

She also demanded to know what had happened to the report of the forensic audit on the reported missing $20bn from the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation as alleged by Sanusi shortly before he was suspended from office by the President.

Okonjo-Iweala had said the Federal Government had hired forensic auditors to scrutinise the accounts of the NNPC following the controversies generated by the allegation of the missing money. But up untill now, the report of the audit has not been made public.

In a telephone interview with one of our correspondents, Ezekwesili said that rather than resort to abusive language over Soludo’s comments, the government and the critics of its management of the economy should opt for a national dialogue where the touted achievements of the administration of the President could be subjected to deeper analysis.

In an earlier tweet, she had said that with the character of the response the managers of the economy, have given to Soludo, “a debate is imperative.”

She told one of our correspondents that if the government had been receptive to her observations made in a lecture she delivered at the convocation of the University of Nigeria, Nnsuka in January 2013 on the management of the external reserves and the ECA, the nation would not have found herself in the current economic crisis as a result of dwindling revenue from crude oil.

Okonjo-Iweala had said in her response to Soludo, “It is a sad day for Nigeria and the economics profession that someone like Soludo, a former CBN governor, should write such an article. If Soludo wants to regain respect, he should return to the path of professionalism. He certainly needs something to improve his image from that of someone whose sojourn into national economic management ended in disaster for the banking sector.

“His sojourn in politics ended in overwhelming rejection by the electorate, and more recently, his sojourn abroad has put him out of touch with the reality of the Nigerian economy.”

Okonjo-Iweala noted that the banking sector was practically brought to its knees and required a massive bailout by Nigerian taxpayers during the tenure of Soludo.

This bailout, which according to her, was carried out by Soludo’s successor, Mallam Lamido Sanusi, cleaned up all the bad debts and transferred them to the newly-established Assets Management Corporation of Nigeria, from where they are currently being managed.

She said, “There is definitely an issue of character with Prof. Charles Soludo and his desperate search for power and relevance in Nigeria. So much of what is written is outright nonsense and self-seeking aggrandisement that need not be dignified with a response.

“It is totally remarkable that Prof. Charles Chukwuma Soludo, the man who presided over the worst mismanagement of Nigeria’s banking sector as Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria between May 2004 and May 2009, can write about the mismanagement of the economy.

“The consolidation of the banking sector was a good policy idea of the (Olusegun) Obasanjo administration but Soludo went on to thoroughly mismanage its implementation, leading to the worst financial crisis in Nigeria’s history.

“So what did Soludo do? After consolidation, the regulatory functions of the Soludo-led CBN were very poorly exercised. As governor, he failed to adequately supervise and regulate the now larger banks, an anomaly in financial sector supervision.

“In fact, as every Nigerian knows in his time, there was very little separation between the regulators and the regulated, which is a violation of a key requirement of central banking success.

“This led to infractions in corporate governance in many banks as loans and other credit instruments running to hundreds of billions of naira were extended to clients without following due process, and several of these loans could not be paid back.”

The minister claimed that Soludo singlehandedly mismanaged the banking sector, which led to the accumulation of huge toxic assets, and allowed paralysis to get to the banking sector during the period of the global financial crisis.

The liabilities of the banking, according to her, cost Nigerian taxpayers the sum of N5.67tn to clean up the books of the banks.

Okonjo-Iweala said, “This massive accumulation of bad debts, or non-performing loans as they are called in the banking sector, meant that our banks were ill-positioned to deal with the global financial crisis when it hit. In fact, the banking sector was brought to its knees and required a massive bailout by Nigerian taxpayers.

“So, let it be noted for the record that Soludo’s single-handed mismanagement of the banking sector led to an incredible accumulation of liabilities that will cost taxpayers about N5.67tn (being the total face value of AMCON-issued bonds) to clean up.

“Let it be noted also that this amount, which is more than the entire Federal Government’s 2015 budget, constitutes the bulk of Nigeria’s ‘contingent liabilities’ mentioned in Soludo’s article.

“It is only in Nigeria where someone who perpetrated such a colossal economic atrocity would have the temerity to make assertions on public debt and the management of the economy.”

The minister said the cost-cutting measures introduced by the Federal Government were in response to the drop in crude oil prices.

A statement released in Abuja and signed by the Secretary and Administrator of the Jang faction of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum, Mr. Osaro Onaiwu, stated that members of the faction were at a loss as to the motive behind the Soludo article, adding that the “half-truths and falsehood in the article could not be a sincere attempt to contribute to the national discourse, but rather a failed attempt at self-aggrandisement.”