59
MONdAY, febrUARY 13, 2017• T H I S D AY
NEWSxtra
Darah Calls for Restructuring of Nigeria Wike emerges Independent Man of the Year Davidson Iriekpen A university don, Prof. G. G. Darah, has called for the restructuring of Nigeria on the basis of fairness, equity and justice. Darah, a professor at the Delta State University, Abraka, stated this in Lagos at the weekend during the investiture of the Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike, as the Independent Newspapers Limited ‘Man of the Year 2016.’ The event which was witnessed by politicians, corporate players and captains of industries, the Managing Director of Independent Newspapers, Mr. Ted Iwere, in his welcome address, said Wike was considered worthy of the prestigious award based on his sterling performance since assumption of office as governor on May 29, 2015. He said the governor is a
grassroots politician that is loved by his people and has passion for the development of his state. Meanwhile, in his lecture titled: ‘Who is Afraid of Nigeria’s Restructuring?, Prof. Darah said it was unfortunate that the Niger Delta region that is producing oil which is Nigeria’s main resources is in a deplorable state. He said those who amalgamated Nigeria did a lot of injustice which should be addressed. “If three people own a thing and one of them forcibly takes it, it is because the other two allowed him.” “Those who did the amalgamation of Nigeria are bandits and vandals,” he said. With the current decline in economic growth of the nation despite its natural resources, Darah said Nigeria was an empire and not a nation.
Darah said it was high time Nigerian leaders took a bold step to implement democratic principles that would move the country forward. He said Nigeria must return to her old structures since 1960 when the states were encouraged to function at their maximum capacity in relation to the resources available in the various places. He acknowledged Lagos and Rivers States as two most viable states in the country, saying that other states were merely surviving on handouts. “That is not a country, that is an empire like Saudi Arabia, Yemen and the rest. Those are
the non-democratic countries of the world. Nigeria is a democratic country. Some Nigeria leaders want to lead us to the direction of the eastern world. Let Nigeria return to democracy. The war ended in the 70s,” he said. He stressed that one of the major challenges of the country is its sole dependence on crude oil and its inability to explore other solid materials. “There are 42 solid minerals in Nigeria. In Taraba and Plateau States alone, we have 25 solid minerals which is more than the whole of Asia. Bitumen in Ondo is second to that of Venezuala but Nigeria
prefers to buy bitumen to build road. Wickedness is not a religion. If President Buhari is not implementing 2014 reports of constitutional conference, no problem, Nigerians will implement it one day.” Darah also stated that for Nigeria to become a crime-free nation, each state must have its own police force. “For a new rebirth, every state will have its police force. The current 400,000 police cannot protect Lagos alone. We need not less than five million police in Nigeria. With this, you can track down any form of crime including
Boko Haram insurgency. I am trying to warm you up for a better and brighter and more efficient country. By the time we achieve all these, Nigeria will be self sufficient and the western world market will eventually close down. Please join in the movement for democracy, for justice and liberation of Niger Delta. Join the movement for the restructuring of the Nigerian nation.” Also honoured at the event were three leading Nigerian financial institutions – Fidelity Bank Plc., United Bank for Africa (UBA) and Guaranty Trust Bank (GTB).
APC Clears Council Polls in Yobe Michael Olugbode The All Progressives Congress (APC) in Yobe State, has won all the 17 local government areas elections recently held in the state. The election was made easy for the party when few days to the polls, all other political parties withdrew with little excuse. Surprising was the withdrawal of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) on the excuse that it cannot afford to sponsors any candidate due to high cost of nomination form. The chairmanship election was unopposed as they were contested by only APC, but few councillorship positions were contested by other parties. Announcing the elections results at a news conference in Damaturu, the Executive Chairman of Yobe State Independent Electoral Commission (YOSIEC), Alhaji Jauro Abdu, said having received and compiled the election results, 17 candidates of APC were declared the winners of last Saturday elections. He said pursuant to the powers conferred on YOSIEC by section 197, Sub-section 1 paragraph (b) and part two of the third schedule to 1999 Constitution as amended and the provision of section nine of the state electoral commission and Local Government Election Law, 2003, the APC candidates have been declared winners by the commission. He said in Bade, Bursari and Damaturu council areas, Aji Sale Suleman, Zanna Abacha and Bulama Modu won the elections with 41; 159;25,908 and 20,484 votes respectively. “In Fika, Damaturu and Geidam, Adamu Usman Bazam and Mulima Idi Mato, pulled 56,051; 62,121 and 41, 585 votes to win the concluded council elections,” Abdu stated. Other candidates who were declared winners, according to him, were Kyari Batarama,
Babayo Hassan Gulani and Babangida Ibrahim Jaba from three councils of Gujba, Gulani and Jakusko with 33,606, 3,3659 and 49, 030 votes in that order. He said other candidates who have been declared winner also, were Ubaliyo Musa Gambo (Karasuwa-32, 864 votes), Idrissa Alh.Bukar (Machina-24, 991 votes), Baba Langawa from Nangere with 40, 875 votes. He said the election in Nguru, Potiskum and Tarmuwa council areas, were won by Ali Mai Dami, Mohammed Musa Potikum and Muhammed Gidado Abubakar with respective votes of 37, 746, 82, 006 and 20, 712 votes in that order. “While the declared winners from the two council areas of Yunusari and Yusufari are Yerima Lawan Mahmud and Balama Budu, pulled total votes of 42, 302 and 26, 117,” Abdu said at the declaration of elections results in Damaturu. An interesting scenario however played out during the press briefing by the independent observers as it ended in near fisticuffs with the parties disagreeing with the presentation. The head of the coalition of the observers, Victor Kalu, had though admitted that the elections were contested by a party, he declared that it was “free, fair and keenly contested.” This provoked many of the observers who had to raise their voices to express displeasure at the submission. The press conference was brought to abrupt end when a woman, Chinyere Manukwem, stood up to state that the communique when not signed by all, the election could not be said to be keenly contested as it was never even contested by any other party other than the ruling APC. She equally alleged that some of the observers might have been settled to come to the press with such falsehood.
Networking
L-R: Regional Commercial Manager for West Africa, British Airways, Mr. Kola Olayinka; Founder, smartmoneyafrica.org, Arese Ugwu; and New Business Development Manager, British Airways, Ehi Edet, at the On Business Breakfast Event for Travel Consultants in Lagos....recently
Tambuwal: I Never Hated Jonathan as a Person Mohammed Aminu in Sokoto
According to him, this is the only way to create jobs Sokoto State Governor, Alhaji and boost the economy of Aminu Tambuwal, yesterday the country. said he had nothing whatsoever “Ask any economist around against former President, Dr. the world about the panacea Goodluck Jonathan, but only to recession, he or she will tell opposed some of his policies that you that it is the injection of were inimical to the progress money into the economy. That of the country. is why we are asking the federal Speaking during an interview government to give us the Paris with journalists in Sokoto, Club money to enable us inject Tambuwal averred that he huge funds into the economy. disagreed with Jonathan because “Former President of the of some of the policies adopted United States of America, Barack by his administration. Obama, used this strategy of “As the Speaker of the House massive construction works to of Representatives then, I was take America out of recession. always raising the alarm on the So construction projects alone way things were being managed will create a lot of jobs and get in the country especially lack Nigeria out of recession. of prudence, but some people “I know that Nigerians are felt that I was against Jonathan. not happy and are running out “I never hated Jonathan as a of patience but they should be person, but only disagreed with patient. It is very easy to destroy his policies. The recession we are but to rebuild the economy currently facing was as a result takes time.” of the way the economy was He disclosed that the state mismanaged by the Jonathan government had adopted administration,” he said. measures to cushion the effect He emphasised that the only of high cost of food items in way out of this recession was the state. for the federal government The governor said the newly to inject more money into established state commodity the economy especially in board would soon spring into construction projects. action to stabilise food prices
in the state. “Of course, the leadership of the Sokoto State Commodity Board had been appointed. We have been talking to the office of the vice president through the commodity board also in collaboration with Flour Mills of Nigeria to take over the silos in Sokoto so that we can buy and store grains and some food items. “This is to enable us do some interventions when the need arises, and of course when the board comes on stream fully, we intend to use it as a platform and can always uptake excesses of our farm produce. “So, this is a very important vehicle we intend to use for the benefit of our farmers. On our own part, the commodity board will be the platform we will use to intervene and stabilise food prices,” the former House speaker said. On ways to improve the internally generated revenue in the state, Tambuwal posited that the management of the state Board of Internal Revenue was dissolved two days ago with a view to achieving the desired objectives.
“We have already constituted a new team and we gave them the mandate to look at areas of generating revenue without imposing hardship or making life difficult for the people. “As at the time we came in, the highest the state Board of Internal Revenue generated and gave the state monthly was between N340 million and N400 million. When I double -checked with the state Ministry of Finance, we gave the board a monthly target of N500 million. “But since the time we assumed office and up till yesterday, the management was not able to meet that target not even once. We realised that even tax deductions from salaries of federal and state civil servants in the state should be able to give us at least N400 million and upwards. “In fact, we gave the management of the board several warnings to come up with more proactive measures to improve revenue generation but to no avail.That is why we desolved it,” Tambuwal added.