PATRICK OBIAHIAGBON SPEAKS ON EDO POLITICS.

Edo APC crisis: Obahiagbon blows hot, says Obaseki unleashed ‘deprecable gambit of state terrorism’ on Oshiomhole
On Zamfara: S/Court vindicated National Chairman
On Rivers: Centrifugal interplay of political forces is a problem
Airport attack on APC leader opprobrious, lugubrious, anti-democratic, Machiavellian
Godfather accusation is arrant bunkum and a farrago of baloney
June 18, 2019 shall remain a day of anti-democratic infamy in Edo
With or without Obaseki, Edo remains APC state
By Chris Onuoha
Hon Patrick Obahiagbon, a former member of the House of Representatives and Chief of Staff to Comrade Adams Oshiomhole as governor of Edo State, is popularly known for his genre of grammar. In this interview, the close associate of Oshiomhole, who is the current National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), speaks on the many crises rocking the ruling party at the centre.
Excerpts:
Let’s start with the incident of last weekend in Benin when Comrade Oshiomhole visited. There are conflicting accounts of the incident. Some reports said hoodlums hired by the Edo government attacked Oshiomhole at the airport. Another said there were gunshots at the airport. Yet another report said Oshiomhole house was blocked by people believed to be state agents. It has been a fall out of the ‘roforofo’ fight between Gov Obaseki and his predecessor. As someone who should know, what happened last weekend?
The macabre dance that played out last weekend where agents of the Edo government sought to prevent the National Chairman of APC, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, from leaving the Benin airport to his house was not only opprobrious, lugubrious, anti-democratic and machiavellian but it was also a deprecable gambit of state terrorism.
I watched Edo State governor justifying the disgraceful act on television that he had requested that Comrade Oshiomhole should always get his official imprimatur before each of his peregrinations to the state. Really?
When you juxtapose this vacuous rationalization with his earlier threat to deal ruthlessly with his predecessor if he dared come into Edo without his approval, then you can’t blame people who finger the state government for that act of brigandage with a view to intimidating and manacling the National Chairman of APC.
Anybody who is in doubt as to the fact that the Benin weekend airport show of infamy was sponsored by the state government must have had that doubt dissolved and pulverized with the additional fact that the two trucks deployed to block the two ingress and egress points to Comrade Oshiomhole’s residence after he got home allegedly belonged to the Edo Waste Management Board.
Let us not also forget that there was an audacious attempt to attack Comrade Oshiomhole’s residence on the 13th of October 2019, and the fact of Edo turned into a theatre of war and sanguinary piazza on the 13th of December 2019 when the APC National Chairman arrived Benin to receive over 50, 000 PDP stalwarts that adjusted into APC.
This same act of political vandalism and corrosive apacheism was also demonstrated against the APC National Chairman on the 25th of January, 2020 when he again received over 20, 000 PDP stalwarts at Auchi who adjusted to the APC. What about the widely reported invasion of the Iyamoh residence of Comrade Oshiomhole by state agents on the 3rd of November 2019? Should all these be happening, given where we are coming from only about four years ago? No.
How do you see the role of the police in the weekend incident?
In all the unfortunate incidents thus far, the police have largely turned blind eyes because these state merchants of violence are no spirits and it is the belief of reasonable men of our society that the police are seised of their identities, and that it is the cavalier and Olympian predilection of security agencies that has emboldened them with each macossa orgy. The time has come for the police and indeed all security agencies to stop playing security chichi dodo before it comes face-to-face with a freinkenstious monster and ambience.
Many people think Edo may eventually explode ahead of the election later this year. What do you think?
That position may not be a mendacious one to take because but for the self-restraint of the APC National Chairman and the numerous party leaders and activists unalloyed loyal to him, Edo would have witnessed political topsy-turvydom by now but the burden of peace is that of the APC National Chairman and those of us he enjoys his loyalty.
But given the early signals of political despiradoism and harum-scarum brinkmanship, that is all the more reason the police and security agencies should be decisive, trenchant, intrepid and personage blind in the discharge of their constitutional and statutory responsibilities.
There is the Akande committee in place and there are so many issues between the governor and the National Chairman. To what extent do you think the committee can bring truce taking into account that the election is close?
I subscribe to the dictum of the late Prime Minister of Great Britain, Leonid Spencer Winston Churchill when he asseverated that “it is better to jaw than to war-war”. But I must be brutally frank with you that there can be no truce now if we understand truce from the rosette lenses of getting all the political stakeholders to automatically become political Romeos and Juliets. That expectation would amount to locking the stable doors after the horse has bolted. But of course, there can be true if we understand it to mean getting all the stakeholders to see themselves as brothers and agreeing to pursue their respective ambitions within the democratically acceptable rule of play devoid of violence and acrimony.
I am very sanguine as to the capacity of the Chief Bisi Akande reconciliation committee to bring the latter about, given the solid antecedents of the committee chairman and those of its members, but with the sardonic Benin airport weekend event hereinbefore mentioned, I doubt if the political aggressors are ready for any modicum of reconciliation.
So many claims have been made concerning how the feud started. The account from the Obaseki side shows that Oshiomhole wanted to be a godfather after being governor for two terms and the governor was trying to resist it. Is that the correct situation?
That accusation is arrant bunkum and a farrago of baloney. I can say this from mountain Olympus that it is simplistic and fallacious to reduce the Edo political imbroglio to one between the governor and National Chairman. The issues are between Mr Governor and the majority of APC stakeholders who were and are still being handled with an iron fist, lackadaisical, aloof, shabby, megalomaniacal and contemptuous manner. All the National Chairman did was to advise a change of strategy to accommodate and molly coddle those who worked tirelessly and laboriously for Mr Governor’s success and let nobody play ducks and drake’s with people’s emotions by interpreting this to mean a call to share state resources with politicians. After all, Comrade Oshiomhole himself has proven beyond doubt that you can pay attention to the sensibilities and sensitivities of your party members without compromising on your onerous duties to Edo citizens.
l know for a fact (because he told me so ) that Oshiomhole deliberately stayed away from his house in Benin because it became a Mecca of complaints to everybody who felt horrified and alienated from their government. I also heard Mr Governor on national television complaining that the National Chairman overturned the party primaries conducted by both government and party in the state. Need I state here that the Supreme Court has since upheld the position that the conduct of party primaries does not belong to the state government and chapters of the party? Let us not also undermine the pestilential and insidious role of political contractors, carpet baggers and mercenaries who have warmed themselves to the power sanctum sanctorum of Mr Governor.
Another claim is that Oshiomhole wanted to manipulate government when he made two of his loyalist’s close aides of Obaseki in the hope that they will constantly fight and always run to him for resolution. What was Oshiomhole game plan really? To continue in office by other means?
You are certainly referring to the Deputy Governor of Edo and the Secretary to the State Government. I have certainly read that from some propagandists but that is an overdrive of goebbelianism. I have my doubts that both the Deputy Governor and Secretary to the State Government will corroborate that mischievous claim even in the heat of this political fracas.
The governor’s side said Oshiomhole appointed most of the people into the Obaseki government initially. What actually happened?
That again is another canard not sustainable and falls like a pack of cards in the face of unassailable evidence. Nobody can refute the fact that Comrade Oshiomhole only had one nominee as commissioner into the government of Edo when it was constituted and that nominee he had to ask the understanding of Mr Governor. He didn’t request to nominate anyone else into any other position and he was not also offered one. To him, everybody was his own and his overriding interest was the consolidation of his legacies in terms of infrastructural deliverables and people’s empowerment.
What is the situation now in the House of Assembly after the controversial inauguration by Obaseki?
I am happy you referred to it as controversial because that’s exactly what it is. That fateful day, June 18, 2019, shall remain a day of anti-democratic infamy when under the paternalistic and argus eyes of the Edo government, the state House of Assembly was illegally inaugurated with nine members out of 24, viet armis and at an ungodly hour, about 9.30 pm, with a plethora of cases dogging its trail. All attempts to make the government see reasons to reverse itself has failed and the House continues to sit illegally in my view whilst we await judicial pontifications on the matter.
How do you feel that many people who were with Oshiomhole are now against him? Some people think it says something that is not complimentary about him as a leader, that his style of leadership is probably faulty.
Of course, I feel very disturbed and pained that majority of those fighting him today were not only just close to him but you can confidently assert that they have benefited from his gesture and generosity immensely and, in fact, they have benefited from him the most in all ramifications. Does this speak to a faulty style of leadership? All I can say is that Comrade Oshiomhole, like all human beings, is not perfect. He certainly has his own foibles just like we all do but I can emphatically say that he is not just only a good man but he has a divine heart and passionately committed to friendship. He certainly doesn’t deserve this.
There have been twists and turns in the Edo crisis. Some people think some other governors are fighting Oshiomhole because they are sympathetic to Obaseki cause. Do you share that perspective? And there are calls for the resignation of the National Chairman especially after APC lost Zamfara and Rivers States and now finally Bayelsa. How do you respond?
It is a fact too plain to be contested that the National Chairman of APC is also being fought by some external forces not necessarily because they are sympathetic to the Edo Governor. Far from it! Truth is that at the time he became National Chairman of the APC, several entrenched forces had impunity as their middle name with almost irreconcilable political schisms gnawing at the heart of the party in most state chapters. He had two options: To play along and become a political hallelujah boy to these ossified forces or enforce party rules and discipline. He chose the latter with the attendant backlash from those who felt their entrenched apple cart upset. These are the people fighting and that is even the more reason Comrade Oshiomhole should be robustly supported. Look at the Zamfara case for example. He insisted on enforcing the mode for conducting party primaries as legally canonized and he was resisted. Where are we today on Zamfara? Did the Supreme Court not eventually vindicate his position on Zamfara and mischief-makers now blame him? On the Bayelsa issue, did he not set up a screening committee? Yes, he did. Could he have proceeded to screen candidates by himself? No. Did he not coordinate a campaign that led to the electoral victory of the party? Yes, he did. Again on Rivers, we are all conversant with the centrifugal interplay of political forces there. You can see, therefore, that the protests are being orchestrated by nattering nabobs of political negativism.
Many people believe APC will lose Edo if the crisis does not end now. What is your take?
Edo is an APC state; it is safely in the democratic kitty of APC. Edo people are not in a hurry to forget the impact APC has brought to their lives. We will retain the state by the grace of the people’s ballot.
Some Edo officials say Oshiomhole regularly stokes a fire in Edo APC especially by not informing government anytime he visits. Why should he not inform the state government as an elder statesman anytime he visits?
Haba my brother! That is a vexatious violation of his fundamental human rights. It’s outrageously provocative. An ad hominem porous policy somersault. It is a cascading condescension from the sublime to the ridiculous. So all former governors will have to inform the government of Edo State before they get into Benin. l beg ask me the next question jare.
The Obaseki administration obviously does not recognize Oshiomhole as the leader of the party, saying he is under suspension. What is your take?
His non-recognition of the leadership habiliment of the APC National Chairman does not dejure and defacto de-robe him of that status and the so-called suspension of the APC National Chairman was a cabaret show for entertainment purposes and Comrade Oshiomhole cannot stop people from entertaining themselves.
You are more popular as a man who speaks big grammar than a notable politician. What inspires you?
I don’t know about not being a notable politician ooo. But I have been a councillor in my local government. I represented my state constituency in the state House of Assembly for eight years and my federal constituency at the federal House of Representatives and also served my state as Chief of Staff to Governor Oshiomhole (as he then was) for four years. For big grammar, I hope I have not spoken any big grammar today. I feel humbled, however, that about two people, to my knowledge, have written their doctoral thesis on what they call my genre of grammar. What inspires me? I am just a visceral lover of words.
You wanted to go to the Senate but, unfortunately, didn’t win the last election. What is your next political move? You probably want to throw your hat in the ring at the Edo governorship election?
Governorship contestation is for big boys. My power never reaches that one. As for my next political move, I am a robot in the hands of God.

Qasem Soleimani: Why his killing is good news for IS jihadists. culled from www.bbcnews.com

By Jeremy BowenMiddle East editor, Baghdad

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Image copyrightAFP

Image captionIraqi militia chief Abu Mahdi-al-Muhandis died in the same US strike that killed Qasem Soleimani

The Islamic State (IS) group has welcomed the death of Iranian general Qasem Soleimani, the head of the elite Quds Force.

In a statement, it described the general's demise as an act of divine intervention that benefitted jihadists. However, it made no mention at all of the US, which carried out the deadly drone strike against Soleimani in Baghdad on 3 January.

President Donald Trump's decision to assassinate Gen Soleimani set off a chain of consequences - one of the first was on the unfinished war against jihadists.

Almost immediately the US-led coalition fighting IS suspended operations in Iraq. The US and its allies announced that their main job was now defending themselves.

From a military point of view, they probably had no choice.

• What does international law say about the assassination?
• Voices from Iran: 'Soleimani did not deserve such a fate'
• Qasem Soleimani: Who was Iran's 'rock star' general?

Iran and the militias it sponsors here in Iraq have sworn vengeance for the killings caused by the missile fired by a US drone at Soleimani's vehicle as it left Baghdad airport on Friday.

That puts US forces in Iraq, and those from Western allies working alongside them, squarely in the firing line.

It is also very good for IS, and will speed up its recovery from the blows it took when its "caliphate" was smashed.

It is also good news for the extremists that the Iraqi parliament passed a motion demanding an immediate American withdrawal from the entire country.

Image copyrightANADOLU AGENCY

Image captionUS forces and their European allies have trained and advised Iraqi forces fighting IS

IS has been grimly resilient over many years. It regenerated itself from the ruins of an earlier group, al-Qaeda in Iraq.

A big military operation in 2016 and 2017 was needed to end IS control of territory straddling Iraq and Syria.

Many jihadist fighters ended up dead or in prison. But that did not kill the organisation.

It is still active in its old stamping grounds in Iraq and Syria, mounting ambushes, extorting funds, and ending more lives.

Media captionJeremy Bowen in Baghdad: shock and anger among Iran's allies

The Iraqi state has effective elite army and police units, mainly trained by the Americans and European allies who joined the fight against IS.

Since Soleimani's assassination, the US has suspended training as well as operations. So have Denmark and Germany.

The Germans are pulling military trainers out to Jordan and Kuwait.

Iraqi forces take most of the risks on the ground in operations against IS. But as well as training, they have relied on vital logistical help from US forces, who are now hunkering down in their bases.

Image copyrightIS PROPAGANDA

Image captionIS sleeper cells continue to carry out deadly attacks in Iraq

IS militants have something else to celebrate. When Mr Trump decided to kill Soleimani they were gifted the spectacle of one of their enemies, the US president, assassinating another.

In 2014, the jihadists went on the offensive, seizing broad swathes of Iraq, including Mosul, the country's second city.

The leading Shia cleric in Iraq, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, issued a call-to-arms to fight the Sunni extremists.

Young Shia men volunteered in their thousands - and Soleimani and his Quds Force were a big part of their transformation into armed units. The militias were ruthless, often brutal foes of IS.

Image copyrightAFP

Image captionIran-backed Shia militias in the Popular Mobilisation force played a key role in the war against IS

Now, the Iran-backed groups have been absorbed into the Iraqi military under an umbrella organisation called the Popular Mobilisation. The most prominent militia leaders have become powerful political leaders.

In the years after 2014, the US and the militias faced the same enemy. But the Shia militias now look certain to return to their roots, which lie in the fight against the US-led occupation after the 2003 invasion.

They killed many American soldiers - helped by training and better weapons supplied by Soleimani - which was one of the reasons that President Trump gave for ordering the attack last week.

Since Mr Trump unilaterally pulled out of the Iran nuclear agreement in 2018, the Americans and the Iranians have been spiralling down towards the edge of war.

Image copyrightAFP

Image captionProtesters attacked the US embassy in Baghdad after US strikes on an Iraqi militia

Before Soleimani was killed the Shia militias were already going back to targeting the Americans.

An attack in late December on a base in northern Iraq that killed a US contractor was answered by air strikes that killed at least 25 fighters from a group called Kataib Hezbollah.

Their leader, Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, met Soleimani at Baghdad's airport and was blown to pieces alongside him in the same car.

In an editorial of the weekly IS newspaper al-Naba, the group said that Soleimani and al-Muhandis died at the hands of their "allies" - a reference to the US.

It said the enemies of IS were busy fighting each other, which would drain their energy and resources and ultimately benefit jihadists.

History has shown that jihadist extremists thrive most when they can take advantage of instability, chaos, and weakened, divided enemies.

That has happened before and there is a strong chance it will happen again..

Culled from https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-51021861

ZAMFARA STATE: MELTING THE METAL GREED OF LEGAL ROGUES by SHABA MAFU.

Zamfara State has always been known for its peculiarity. When democracy was restored in Nigeria in 1999, it was Zamfara State that introduced Sharia law as a full-blown legal system in the State defying the secularity of the Nigerian constitution. This was when Alhaji Shetima Yerima was the Governor. The legal system ‘died’ a natural death as rightly predicted by the then President of Nigeria, Chief Olushegun Matthew Aremu Obasanjo. The State has also been ruled most times by the opposition parties of the ANPP and the APC, until the present Governor who came to power of what could be seen as divine intervention. He is of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party, the PDP.

In the run-up to the gubernatorial elections in the State held on March 9, 2019, the then ruling party in the State, the All Progressives Congress (APC) could not conduct acceptable primaries that met the conditions and acceptability of the Electoral Umpire, the Independent National Electoral Commission, (INEC). The candidates produced by the primaries were all rejected by Professor Mahmoud Yakubu-led INEC. Intrigues, court judgments, and counter-judgments reeled out from Nigerian Courts just to ensure that the APC participated in the elections. The party actually participated in the elections by virtue of the Appeal Court ruling. Unfortunately for them, at the end of the exercise, the Supreme Court in its lead judgment by Justice Paul  Adamu Galinji on the 24^th May, 2019, held that all the votes cast for the APC during the elections were ‘wasted votes”.  He further declared that all the political parties with the highest second votes in the elections and the required spread are elected into the various elective positions. This was the circumstance that brought the incumbent Governor Bello Matawalle into the exalted position as the Governor of Zamfara State.

When the Governor assumed office, it appeared that the bandits too in Zamfara were all waiting to be equally sworn in to their own offices with him. Zamfara State in no time was besieged with bandits and kidnappers and it appeared there was war in the entire State. The Governor in his dexterity thought of what to do to curb this unacceptable and unprecedented tide of violence and insecurity. In his wits, he proposed and declared amnesty for repentant bandits. The decision was criticized by many. But as a man in the conviction of his own vision, he remained undeterred by the criticisms. Like an esoteric magical wand, no sooner than later after the declared amnesty, the spate of insecurity in the State subsided drastically and dramatically, as bandits voluntarily surrendered and 'submitted' their weapons of destruction to the Amnesty Committee. This was a feat on the side of this Governor.

Some days ago, the immediate past Governor of the State Alhaji Abdulaziz Abubakar Yari wrote a letter to the Governor that his monthly upkeep of N10 Million (Ten Million Naira) and his pensions have not been paid for some time now. The former House of Assembly, when Abdulaziz was the Governor of the State under the APC rule, had passed a bill signed into law that all former Governors and their Deputies, the Speakers, and their Deputies were entitled to some whooping monthly upkeep running into millions of Naira. This was what the former Governor banked upon to write a reminder to the incumbent Governor Matawalle. Yari complaining that since he has left office, he was only paid his monthly N10Million, just twice, that was in the moths of June and July 2019.

In a deft move by the action Governor, he coordinated an assault against this repressive law passed by the previous government. Without any iota of conscience, how could a past Governor be demanding the sum of N10 Million every month for his upkeep, besides his monthly pensions? The present crop of divinely elected or appointed leaders in Zamfara State has abolished this so-called law that was on the side of the legal rogues.  This is the action of a man who has a vision for the common man.  The demand of former Governor Yari is not only selfish and roguish but a dearth of common sense of feeling for a feeble economy such as Zamfara's.

In the first instance, how does Yari want Zamfara State to sustain the dolling out of such an amount of money to someone who ought to be thinking of what further contributions he could make to such a State? How can a State that is struggling to pay its pensioners and workers their entitlements, be equally struggling to service roguish entitlements of past leaders? There are civil servants that have served the government for the statutory thirty-five years whose cumulative pensions are not up to what Yari would earn in a month. If the former Governor is paid N10 Million every month, then in a year he earns N120 Million for grossly doing nothing for the State apart from gallivanting everywhere across the globe brandishing his former status as a former Governor of a poor State. We must commend Governor Matawalle for stopping this metal thievery. What he did is beyond the rudimental and sick politicking in Nigeria. Any right-thinking mind will commend this action irrespective of party affiliation.

We urge other States executing this inordinate illegality to emulate the decision of the incumbent Governor of Zamfara State and stop this executive stealing. More so, the Governors Forum should use that platform to learn from one another. It is not formed to take a common front on how to cheat the governed, for instance, arriving at a consensus on not paying the new minimum wage to workers or their grand plan of becoming Senators after their tenure is ended. Wise and sagacious Governors like Matawalle of Zamfara State and Seyi Makinde of Oyo State are good points of reference for prompt emulation by other Governors. These are men of great coordination and wisdom to rule. The Governors Forum should be a forum to borrow and share sophisticated and helpful ideas for good governance.

Compliments to Governor Matawalle and the current Zamfara State House of Assembly for expeditiously enacting a law abolishing the deliberate waste of State resources. If APC had won Zamfara State this time, such waste could not have been curtailed because of partisan party affiliation and primordial solidarity. More so, the idol of godfatherism would have played a vital part, particularly if Yari was instrumental to the emergence of his successor. The coming of Governor Matawalle and his team was divine from all reckoning so far.

BAYELSA ELECTION: IS DR GOODLUCK JONATHAN A CIVILIAN COUP PLOTTER? By Mafu SHABA.

If prophets descended raw from Heaven and told Nigerians, and particularly the Bayelsans that Bayelsa State would be overrun by the opposition political party in the State, the All Progressives Congress, in the November 16, 2019, gubernatorial elections, no one would readily believe. What happened in 2015 when the then ruling party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) was summarily dislodged by the All Peoples Congress in the presidential elections was replicated in Bayelsa state after twenty years of PDP’s holding forth in that State. Coincidentally or is it by fate, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan former Nigerian President was involved in both events either actively or passively.

Dr. Goodluck Jonathan is from Bayelsa State; a strong PDP State since 1999 when democracy was restored to Nigeria. He has been in that party for the past twenty years. It was on this political party that he became the President of Nigeria in 2011. But since 2015, the APC has been ruling at the national level following the defeat of then-President Goodluck Jonathan in the general elections held that year. In 2019, Bayelsa State, the home State of Jonathan has fallen into the hands of the APC as well. So he is primarily breathing in the APC political air wherever he goes in Nigeria, even right in his own state.

On Saturday, November 16, 2019, there was an election in Kogi and Bayelsa States of Nigeria for gubernatorial seats. Both States were won by the APC. More mesmerizing was the defeat of the PDP in Bayelsa State.  Kogi State was hotly contested with all intrigues and alleged violence involved. Summarily, the APC won in Kogi State. The defeat of the PDP in Bayelsa State was more surprising. 

The incumbent Governor, Mr. Seriake Henry Dickson’s name will go down memory lane on how in his time PDP in Bayelsa State fell into the hands of the opposition party just as Dr. Goodluck Jonathan’s name has already been engraved to history as the first civilian President to be defeated by an opposition party in Nigeria’s political history. It was learnt that Bayelsa PDP fell primarily because of the internal wrangling occasioned by the alleged acidic selfishness of the incumbent Governor who like his political counterparts around the country was eyeing the Senatorial seat after he has left office. And that he wanted to single-handedly pick his successor, Duoye Diri, to occupy the Government seat. This selfishness did not obviously go down well with most party leaders.

The stance of the Governor prompted the visit of two former Presidents of the country. They were Chief Olusegun Obasanjo and Dr. Goodluck Jonathan; both former Presidents were produced by the PDP. They visited Seriake Dickson possibly to convince him to drop or adjust his suicidal plans. The Governor allegedly rebuffed the visit of these wise men.  The consequence was the summary defeat of the Governor and his party and the consequent victory of the opposition 

Before the elections, the mother of Dr. Jonathan prayed for the APC candidate, David Lyon. Dr. Jonathan was said to have also told Bayelsans to vote for the candidate of their choice since both candidates of the APC and the PDP were all his ‘children’. This was a subtle way of not endorsing the candidate of the PDP, Duoye Diri. Before the Election Day, it was seen that the APC candidate, Lyon, who is now the Governor-elect was seen in the house of Dr. Jonathan, portending to the fact that the former President has thrown his political weight behind him. In all these, the incumbent Dickson remained irredeemably adamant to all known realities of the possible outcome of the Bayelsa elections. He stuck to his guns like the characteristic Nigerian politicians whose lives are consumed by deadly selfishness. Dickson did not care what the consequences of his actions would cost him and the entire party.  Rather than concede personal egotism, he placed his party on the slaughter slab for deliberate butchering. And butchering they did actually!

Now that the ruling party has lost its ground to the opposition in Bayelsa State, some have begun to point to Dr. Jonathan that he was the one that planned the civilian coup that ousted the PDP in Bayelsa State. I personally disagree with this submission. Jonathan visited Dickson; he humbled himself and respected the office of the Governor by the visit. I am not personally surprised because Jonathan has been known for his humility. The two former presidents tried to remove the log of wood from Seriake’s eyes. But the Governor ordered for more superglue to fasten the bolts of his glaucoma as precipitated by his suicidal selfishness. If Jonathan’s mother prayed for Lyon, she has a right to do so as an elder, a mother, a mother of a national figure.  Dickson downplayed the power of Elders. Many may have been seriously aggrieved for his rebuffing the visits of the former Presidents and hiss grand design to outwit the entire state. This, therefore, led to a protest vote by the Bayelsans.  If PDP had won, it could have been compared with the elongation of the hitherto political dynasty of the Sarakis in Kwara State; but the Bayelsans are not Kwarans The best way to treat pride and obstinacy is to puncture the tube of their survival.

Dr. Jonathan should be left alone; for he is not a civilian coup plotter. All blame should be heaped firmly on the head of Seriake Dickson and all the sycophants who urged him on in his selfishness, as he wanted to turn Bayelsa into his personal estate. I would also want the Nigerian electorates to learn from the people of Bayelsa State that they are well informed and no-nonsense people. It is a big lesson to the greedy; and also to the electorates that in sane climes, sovereignty belongs to the electorates (the People) in a democracy. True leaders are actually followers and not the other way round. Through the instrumentality of the ballot, we should sack any disgraceful and aberrant, self-conceited leaders. Partyism should settle as second fiddles in dealing with political deviants. We should settle for those ready to dispense the dividends of democracy as we elect leaders into political offices.

Finally, if anyone has any grievance against Jonathan concerning the alleged Malabu Oil deal, he should petition the EFCC. As for Bayelsa State, the APC will rule there for a long time.

THROWING STONE AT THE SATAN IN THE YAM-EATING SENATOR by SHABA Mafu.

The yearly festival of the Muslims usually culminates in a hajj to (the pilgrimage) to Mecca as not just a fulfillment of one of the cardinal beliefs of that religion, but also to stone the devil in such a celebrated visit. This has been the desire of every Muslim despite the fact that not all could realize this because of the financial cost implications. It does not make one less a Muslim if such one can’t afford to go on a pilgrimage.  One of the things that had interested me most in this pilgrimage experience is the collective resolve to throw stones at Satan. Millions do this. In both the Christian and Muslim religions, Satan and his activities are always denounced because they are an anathema to human existence. While Satan is disdained with passion in the Christian faith, the Muslims go further to show their own morbid hatred  by practically readjusting the brain-setting of Satan every year through the symbolic stoning by millions of Muslim faithful on this recalcitrant Satan. This is a practical lesson for those who align with Satan and his activities in the midst of a decent society such as some of our disgruntled public officials.

Recently, one of the distinguished Nigerian Senators and the longest-serving one in the Nigerian federal Parliament was invited to Germany by the Ibos living there for a festival.  The Ibos are one of the major tribes in Nigeria. The Senator was invited for their new Yam festival celebrations. Ike Ikweremadu, the man in question joyfully accepted the invitation. He practised the dancing steps several times at the backyard of the Senate House for a peculiar display over there in Germany. He may have also conducted more rehearsals during the breaks by the Senate; because it appears the Senators can even meet less than 80 days out of the constitutional 180 days to meet, without anyone holding them to ransom. These are the bourgeoisie in the impoverished Nigerian society who purchase their official cars with 5.5Billion Naira in spite of biting poverty amongst the majority of Nigerians.

Ekweremadu got to Luxemburg - Germany, the venue of the celebration. He waited patiently for the time the traditional Ibo music will rent the air and the exhibition of his practiced display of his imported dance-steps right away from Nigeria. His smiles broadened, reminiscent of the period when the Senators are about to share the booty – the National Cake! As the stage was about to be set for the dance, Ekweremadu treated to the preface of the programme, a programmed slap. He was first confused and tried to figure out whether the Ibos have a mixture of the German culture of introducing a particular ‘ceremonial’ slap in the Yam festival. While musing on the sudden development, another slap from the opposite direction greeted his fleshy cheeks. He knew that what was about to befall him was an introduction to a hellish treatment. Before he could think out an escape route, he was drenched in a rain of foreign blessings of German-customised blows wrenched out viciously by the foofoo-powered muscles of the IPOB members. The Senator turned round as to sample who might be sympathetic of his newly-found predicament. He saw everyone with clenched teeth of no mercy. He quickly remembered his athletic skills when he was in secondary school. He ran like a wild hog. At this time, he knew that the yam he was invited to come and eat will never be served, but even if served, he would be left with no tooth to masticate the memorial yam celebrated in strange blows.

Ekweremadu attempted to run to safety. But being that he was not familiar with the terrain, he hit brick walls. If this beating was in the Senate chambers, he knew every corner where he would maneuver to the chagrin of his assailants. But this time around, he was beaten to the game. More blows rammed his head, not actually knowing when and where the next blow would fall. It is said that when the need to run had not come to a woman with a massive backyard, she would think she is highly gifted. The gift becomes a curse if she is not able to maneuver for escape in trying times. The Senator forgot his chieftaincy title and his distinguished personality of a Senator on which he rode to swagger into the venue of the ceremony. His pontification soon faded to vanity when it was dawn on him that serious troubles awaited him... He flung away his walking stick and ran like a conventional mad man escaping from traditional flogging. He was “stoned” like Satan in Germany by his own people.

While this action is roundly condemnable because there are civilized ways of addressing grievances by not humiliating ourselves in the open glare of the international community but a lesson has been drawn from the action. But like stoning the Satan we need to also glean some lessons from the Acts of Ibos in Germany on the visit of Ekweremadu, the “I Yam that I Yam”. The lesson to others in authorities is that leadership is wholly about responsibility and accountability, and not by deliberate social segregation between the haves and the have-nots when elected to power. The Nigerian Senators are said to collect a whopping monthly salary of 13.5Million Naira. This is an organized and legitimized corruption especially in a society where even Master’s Degree holder would be offered a job of paltry N50,000 monthly salaries with stringent conditions of service. The constituency votes, funds allocated for the development of geo-political delineations which runs into millions of Naira never translate to any developmental projects of any constituencies. Some few years ago, a Local Government Councillor commissioned one electric pole in his community with millions of Naira budgeted for that sick project.  A governor launched Wheel Barrows for his citizens as part of alleviating poverty programme. Recently a Councilor from Ondo State commissioned four motor tyres. This is all they can do with public funds.  An audit to these kinds of projects would reveal that millions of Naira have already been sunk into such a ‘project’. This is the level of decay and grand corruption on the political scenario in Nigeria encouraged by the so-called law-makers.

Ekwemadu’s Germany-treatment is just a foundation-laying legacy of how these public officers would be beaten and stoned as they do to Satan, in coming days. The beating has started and I wished that the lesson learnt from Ekweremadu’s treatment by the malevolent IPOB members will go a long way in addressing the decay and lack of accountability of Nigerian public officers. If these money-bag politicians are treated to legal action, they have the means and ability to bail out themselves especially if they, fortunately, come across a corrupt Judge like them. In the interim, Ekweremadu’s treatment might be the immediate potent solution to the thieving officials.

IKE IKWEREMADU, THE YAM AND HIS BEATING by SHABA Mafu

The Country of many events including the beating of a Senator in far away Germany because of yam. Funny, not so!
Many more stories coming your way soon. Thanks for your reading patronage, and your earnest patience in waiting while the blogger was engaged.

EDO STATE POLITICS OF THE “HE-GOAT AND THE COCOYAM” by SHABA Mafu.

Politicking in Nigeria is not a profession. It is for those with wits; those who can compromise with ultimate personal interest in view, even sometimes to the detriment and betrayal of their political party on which they rode to their positions. Examples of such politicians are former Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, and a host of all grand party-hoppers. Those who are regarded as godfathers are in other words referred to as the King-Makers in the official language of politics. The 2019 general elections with the preceding campaigns and (exaggerated) promises of politicians are now over. The battle for ascendancy to different political positions has been fought, won and lost. It is time for action. It is time for the electorates to begin to enjoy the dividends of democracy. In Nigeria, the opposite is usually the case. It is now rather time the electorates are treated to isolation, deliberate marginalization, pauperization, social segregation and worst of all shameful embarrassments. The last ‘dividend’ is our point of consideration in this discourse, as it relates to the political game currently playing out in the Edo State House of Assembly.

 Governor Godwin Obaseki is a core civil servant and not a politician by calling, at least not the Nigerian type. He may have crafted his own style of politicking or followed those who are more experienced politicians and with childlike observation vis-a vis the way the game is played. It is not out of place for him to sample the game theory of late politician Tony  Anenih, the celebrated and very subtle politician of Edo State.

Governor Godwin Obaseki is testing the waters formally in the role he is masterminding in the inauguration of the current Edo State House of Assembly. How far he can go with his scheming will be determined on which side he falls by the time the Chairman of his party, the All Progressives Congress Party, the radical and vibrant Adams Oshiomole would bare his fangs on the activities of the innocent-looking, but jacobic Obaseki.

On Monday., 17^th of June, 2019, the Edo state House of Assembly was inaugurated. This was preceded by the letter of proclamation sent to the Clerk of the House , Alhaji Audu Omogbai, by the Edo State Governor as required by the law.   The Clerk consequently ushered in members-elect into the chambers for the official legislative business to commence. The Speaker of the House of Assembly was quickly elected with only 9 members out of the 24 members present during the inauguration and the election into principal offices. Frank Okiye of Esan North-East constituency, was elected the new Speaker while Yekini Idiaye of Akoko-Edo Constituency 1 was elected the Deputy Speaker.

It was reliably gathered that the 9 legislators who attended the ceremony were those loyal to the Governor. The process of the inauguration and election was as clandestine as it was funny. The new speaker was said to be only on his shorts in the hallowed Chambers for the events, showing he was not prepared for the rapture-like elections. He is a “short-kneeker Speaker” of the Edo State House of Assembly.

The questions begging for answers are: why is this kind of garrison approach to electing key officers into hallowed chambers of the legislature in a democratic society? What happened to the other 15 lawmakers sidelined? What is Governor Obaseki set to achieve by dividing a legislature that is exclusively an APC House? Why the haste typical of political brigandage of the highest order in conducting nocturnal election in a coven? Governor Obaseki has something very strange up his sleeves, no doubt.

This game is a similar version of what played out in the 2015 election of Nigeria Governors Forum where the former President Goodluck Jonathan was very comfortable with the victory of Jonah Jang , the then Governor of Plateau State who scored 16 votes against Governor Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers  State who polled 19 votes in same election. Amazingly, both the Governors were from the then ruling party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). When 16 was favourably greater than 19 in PDP’s  arithmetic, and very suitable to President Jonathan because of his personal interest on the matter as represented by Jonah Jang, little did they know that the consequence of their action was their loss of the presidency to the then opposition party, the All Progressives Congress. Five of the Governors defected from the ruling PDP to the APC prior to the 2015 general elections. This was the huge rock that broke PDP’s back in 2015 elections. They lost the elections

In the case of Edo State, Governor Obaseki has been openly fraternizing with PDP H

heavyweights in Edo Sate, amongst whom is the celebrated Igbinedion. The moves Governor Obaseki is making so far is clear enough that he is preparing his way for defection to the PDP because his relevance in APC is dwindling fast like the impatient harmattan fire. His days in APC are numbered as Adams Oshiomole, the APC Chairman, might burst his testes any moment from now with unequalled vendetta and a turbulent blow.

If Governor Godwin Obaseki is not checked right now, his romance with the opposition party sets his relationship with the APC like the friendship between the he-goat and the cocoyam. While the he-goat was pretending to be friends with the cocoyam, it was at the same time scheming how the cocoyam will graciously end in his stomach one day. Obaseki will swallow APC and convert all stalwarts of the party to the PDP to win his second term easily. If the APC is not fast enough, it would become a weak opposition very soon, struggling for survival from no other place but from the belly of the very clever Godwin Obaseki.