In what some analysts have described as a “`fall from grace to grass”, former Deputy Senate President of Nigeria, Ike Ekweremadu was on May 5, sentenced to nine years and eight months in jail after a United Kingdom (UK) court found him, his wife, and his doctor culpable in a case of organ trafficking.
Author: Editor
When I first saw the headline yesterday, I thought it was a joke. All papers reported that President Buhari has just launched a long-tern national development plan three weeks before leaving the office he had spent eight years in. I read the story and he is indeed proposing an economic governance plan for the country until the year 2050. For the first two of his eight years in power, he refused to even appoint economic advisers. When he eventually appointed a team and they proposed a plan – the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP), he refused to implement it on the grounds that the Central Bank Governor, a nice man, has been giving him trillions of Naira through “ways and means” so he does not need to take any tough economic decisions.
Nostalgically, my hope of a better tomorrow for Katsina state was kindled in 2008 when I joined experts from ABU Zaria who were commissioned to make a project proposal for revamping agriculture in the state. On that note, I subconsciously dreamt of Katsina state gloriously galloping ahead of its peers at the envy of Kano and Kaduna states. The revamping project took us to all nooks and crannies of the state and dug out the actual and potential of agricultural resources littered across the state. I led the Irrigation team that appraised 25 selected irrigation schemes/projects under State and Federal Governments. The state has 36,200 ha of potentially irrigable land in the Fadama and over 10,000 ha of land that can be developed for irrigation under the irrigation projects of the Federal government for the Zobe, Jibia, and Sabke dams. Irrigation provides meaningful employment during the dry season, intensifies land use, and provides food during periods of scarcity. It is also a source of foreign exchange when food crops are exported outside the country. Additionally, irrigation prevents rural-urban migration with its consequent social ills and sure way of reducing poverty.
Behavioral academic and author, Steve Maraboli, could not have said it any better in his book, Unapologetically You: Reflections on Life and the Human Experience, when he said, “The victim mindset dilutes the human potential. By not accepting personal responsibility for our circumstances, we greatly reduce our power to change them.”
In a move normally seen in Hollywood spy thrillers, Tukur Mamu, publisher of Kaduna-based Desert Herald and an aide to Sheikh Ahmad Gumi, a popular Islamic cleric, was arrested in September last year at the Cairo International Airport on his way to Saudi Arabia for lesser Hajj, and detained for 24 hours before he was repatriated back to Nigeria.
Yesterday, the Cuban Embassy held a briefing session on their recently held elections which took place in March. Cuba, with a population of just over 11 million has a National Assembly of 470, with each member representing just about 30,000 people. This means constituents actually know their representatives. Their National Assembly is not full time, members remain on their work posts and run their normal life and simply go to parliament when it is in session. While the National Assembly is directly elected by the people, the President is elected indirectly, that is, by the National Assembly. The high level of participation in the elections, 75%, in a context deep economic crisis provoked by the American blockade was widely seen by both pro- and anti-government groups as a litmus test to gauge support for the Cuban leadership at this time. Once again, the message seems to be the legendary resilience of both the people and government of Cuba remains strong. No wonder the Cuban President, Miguel Diaz-Canel hailed the vote as a “victory” for the Cuban people.
The battle for the leadership of the 10th National Assembly leadership has already started heating up, with the major contenders of the number three and four seats in the country exhibiting their qualities, capacities, qualifications and flexing their muscles. The underground works and lobbying have also started. Also, there are insinuations that vote buying has taken shape, too, as it is part of the business in the country’s politics. On the other hand, the ruling All Progressive Congress has kept mute on its position regarding where the leadership of the 10th National Assembly will go while stakeholders within and outside the party have been advising the president-elect and the party’s leadership to quickly address this by zoning the positions so as to avoid what happened in the eight assembly.
Peter Gregory Obi, a 1984 graduate of Philosophy from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka is a dogged political fighter and appears to be a committed nationalist struggling to take Nigeria out of economic doldrums and developmental stagnation. His political sojourn is full of ups and downs, with each down making him a stronger and more ferocious fighter for the next round of fighting. As written in this Column, a few months ago. His tenure as the governor of Anambra state was marred by upheavals. Obi’s victory in the 2003 governorship election of Anambra was awarded to Ngige, which was overturned by the Court of Appeal on March 15, 2006. Obi assumed office on March 17, 2006, but was impeached On Nov. 2, 2006, by the State House of Assembly after seven months in office and was replaced by his deputy Virginia Etiaba. He was re-instated on Feb. 9, 2007, by the Court of Appeal sitting in Enugu. In April 2007, Obi was removed from office after a new governorship election was held by INEC, but the judiciary intervened again and ruled that he should be allowed to complete a full four-year term. In 2010, he won re-election for a second and final term in office as the governor. Despite these happenings, Obi was able to perform “wonders” in Anambra. His testimony is full of fantastic stories.
The victory of Adamawa State Governor, Ahmadu Umaru Fintiri of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) on the just concluded supplementary election declared inconclusive by INEC was a collective fight by party loyalists, and those who believe that evil shall not triumph over good.
After the annulment of the presidential election of June 1992, judged the freest and fairest in our electoral history, and said to have been won by the Social Democratic Party’s Chief MKO Abiola, many thought Armageddon was starting from Nigeria.