Legal expert says Jonathan’s administration is the worst since independence

Constitutional lawyer and Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Mr Robert Clarke has described Nigeria’s system of government as a civil form of government and not a democratic system of government.
Mr Clarke, made this know while evaluating Nigeria after its 52years of independence, stating that having experienced all the various system of government practiced by the country since, 1960, the current manner of government is the worst since the history of the country came into being and since the advent of democracy in 1999.
Clarke, who was speaking as a guest on Channels Television’s breakfast programme, Sunrise Daily, said “I have seen it pre-independence governance, I have seen first independence governance, I have seen military governance, I have seen the second republic governance and I am seeing now the so called third republic governance”.
Having a clear view of what the governance road has been before the Union Jack was lowered till now, the legal luminary said “I can assure you from my own experience, this is the worst since 1999, and this is the worst system of governance we have”.
He took a swipe at the president saying “I can assure you he (President Jonathan) cannot name twenty of his minsters off head”.
He also accused ministers and governors of having a long thread of aides that are paid for doing nothing with tax payers’ money.
Mr Clarke said the system of government being run in Nigeria is nowhere close to a democracy.
He said “Look let’s not deceive ourselves, we have no democracy in Nigeria, what we are running today in Nigeria is a civil form of government”.
He went further to explain what a true democracy is positing that it is “the entrenchment of institution”.
He said the institutions in Nigeria lack the autonomy to operate on their own, a trend he traced to Obasanjo’s civilian government that began in 1999.
“The police is still subservient to the governor, subservient to the president. The EFCC is still subservient to this..we have not entrenched the institutions we have to make them independent so that we can feel the effect of democracy”.
 ChannelsTV

EFCC to arrest Catholic priests over Atuche’s N45m tithe

by Hauwa Gambo

inShare

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, is set to arrest reverend fathers and leaders of the two Catholic Churches in Delta State which received from Francis Atuche, former managing director of Bank PHB, money believed to be stolen depositors’ funds, the International Centre for Investigative Reporting has reported.
Mr. Atuche, who is standing trial at the Lagos High Court, Ikeja, paid N45 million he allegedly stole from depositor to St. Monica Catholic Church and St. Augustine Catholic Church, both located in Ibusa, Delta State.
While St. Monica got N35million as tithe from Atuche, St Augustine got N10million.
Sources in the commission told icirnigeria.org that the agency has taken a decision to recover the entire amount and plans to arrest the priests and leaders of  both churches to help in the recovery of the money.
The EFCC, our sources revealed, wants to use this as a test case to deal with religious bodies who help criminals to launder money in the guise of performing religious obligations such as tithes, offerings and vows.
The commission is said to be worried that many Nigerians, in both the public and private sectors, who steal money hide under such religious obligations to launder some of their loot and anti – graft agencies and the police have found it difficult to deal with the matter because of it’s sensitive religious nature.
But one of our sources in the EFCC said the commission will “no longer tolerate religious institutions, whether churches or mosques, synagogues, shrines or whatever, receiving stolen money in the guise of offering or tithes”.
“It is money laundering, simple. You might pretend to be ignorant of the source of the money, but under the law if you receive money from proceeds of crime you are guilty of money laundering and ignorance is no excuse under the law,” the source said.
According to the source, henceforth, any money illicitly obtained and given to any religious body or organization will be fully recovered.
Apart taking from action on this particular case, it was gathered that the EFCC will also come out with a stern warning to religious houses to investigate the source of funds that come to them from worshippers, particularly when it involves public figures and large amounts of money.
The commission may also engage religious houses and organizations in the country through seminars and interactions to sensitize them about  what the law says about receiving stolen funds.
The EFCC has great latitude under the Money Laundering (Prohibition) Act 2004 to prosecute persons who receive proceeds of crime.
In fact, such persons, under the Act are liable to a jail term of between two to three years.
YNaija.com

Who Can Stop Airhiavbere?
By Okharedia Ihimekpen

The voice betrayed his emotions. He tried to be as calm as he could, possibly managed talking, as it were, on such a highly volatile issue. But the frustration was palpable. You could almost feel it. Finally he uttered with utter exasperation, “Airhiavbere must be supported to go to the court tribunal”. The meeting was at ubiaja, the country home of Senator Odion Ugbesia, senator representing Edo central senatorial districts.
Such a verdict coming from top member of the Peoples Democratic Party, clearly indicates the seriousness of the political division between the Edo state leadership and followership of the party. The Speaker, whose face wore a painted look swamped with a feeling of betrayal, is a highly regarded member of the Edo elite. He is also one of those aspirants whose presidential ambitions have apparently gone up in smoke in the matrix of the June 12, 1993 presidential election that produced the late M.K.O Abiola in the defunct Social Democratic Party.
But if members of the stakeholders of the Peoples Democratic Party PDP feels marginalized and not being carried along in the party’s decision to withdraw from the suit challenging the July 14 governorship and the eligibility of Adams Oshiomhole, what about the candidate General Charles Airhiavbere himself who was not part of that decision, apparently the party leadership shaving his hair in his absence.
The lack of political will in the PDP has long been identified as the major odd against the party’s progress in the state, and this goes as far back as 2003, when inspite of the loud cry that Lucky Igbinedion as a PDP governor has performed below expectation, the party represented him before Edo electorate with a declaration that there was no vacancy in Government House. The second was when the party could not discipline Igbinedion when he formed the “Grace group” within the PDP as a platform to launch the ACN and Oshiomhole in the state and the third is the recent betrayal of their governorship candidate General Charles Airhiavbere as they withdraw from the election petition tribunal.
We are fully aware that the comrade governor came to office through the instrumentality of the same court tribunal and ever since it has been the norm that all electoral contests end in the court of law. The question then is what does the PDP got to lose if they file behind their candidate to the end. Except there are other agenda behind the party leaders position, the PDP should realize fast, that had Oshiomhole had these certificates being alleged to have been forged, as a propagandist Oshiomhole would have placed them on advertorials, on his comrade buses to bike rides and in the Ring Road for the people to see.
This perhaps is giving confidence and impetus to the PDP faithfulls to go on with Airhiavbere just as the party’s withdrawal from the suit is fastly painting the state leadership of the party in the negative. To compound issues for the party, it is the later immigrants into the party, from the ACN most of whom lost out at different elections primaries in the ACN and had become electoral liabilities that had now positioned themselves as the mouthpiece of the PDP in the state. What a pity…
Another germane question is, assuming Airhiavbere even has no case to prove at the tribunal, what does the party stand to lose, if they support him to prove that the party justly, are proud of having the General, as their flag-bearer to whom they are justly committed, come rain, come sunshine.
General Airhiavbere has gone to the Edo state election tribunal to challenge the election of Comrade Adams Oshiomhole and also the academic credentials he presented on oath which is alleged to have been fake. Oshiomhole has in turn responded that, the tribunals dismiss the petition in the light that the electoral act did not specify any specific academic qualification to contest for the office of a governor. The issue therefore borders on perjury and forgery, and not educational equivalent of a school certificate.
Who knows perhaps Oshiomhole needed not to have presented the certificate afterall, if in his view the “suya mallam, pepper and tomato seller” can contest the office of a governor of a state, or put it the other way the Okharedia Ihimekpen would not have needed to send their children to school, if they too can be governors and president without education, and do not need to have specific educational qualifications. Another issues is the disconnect in the names in the certificate so presented, “Adams Aliu and Aliyu Adams” without Oshiomhole in them, when in the same form he has earlier admitted that he has never had any change of name nor added any additional names in his certificates. Then who is fooling who?
For me I really sympathize with the comrade governor who has thus be humbled by the controversy. When last I saw him in the Samuel Ogbemudia’s birthday celebration, he wore a pensive and stoic look that typifies the tragedy of a peevish school boy in an examination hall who only remembered the solution to a problem when the time was up. For me if he could scale through 2007 without presenting these certificates, it was a grievous fault to have presented them now.
Even if he eventually snaps out of this political liturgy, he will still have a long way to go. From all indications, he and his ACN are so politically disorganized today that if they were to be graciously offered an alternative option to this quandary by the tribunal, they may not know how to handle it. Haven been so used for so long to arrogance just to survive politically, the opportunity to be calm for once may be too tempting for the comrade governor to accept; hence there seems no one in sight that can stop Airhiavbere in this political duel.

The Golden Voice of Africa - Alh. Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa official visit to USA in July 25-28 1961

Group Identifies Gas Flaring As Cause Of Flooding

The Environmental Right Action and Friends of the Earth, an NGO, has attributed the incessant flooding in Nigeria partly to gas flaring by oil companies.
Mr Chima Williams, the Head of Legal Resources of the organisation, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Benin. that there was the need for climate experts and government agencies to find lasting solutions to the problems of oil spillage and gas faring in the Niger Delta.
Williams said oil companies operating in the region should be held accountable.
``It is on record that Nigeria flares more gas, associated with oil extraction, than any other countries thereby cooking the skies through gas flaring.
``This continuous flaring has contributed immensely to the climate change issues by releasing carbon, methane, and nitrous oxide, among others, into the atmosphere,’’ he said.
Williams explained that the climate change had negatively affected many communities, disrupting the environment and the economy through flooding.
``Although government, the international community and the oil companies have agreed to stop gas faring, government lacks the political will to do so,’’ he said.
According to him, gas flaring endangers human health, harms local ecosystems, and destroys plants and animals, food production and water among others.
``From pronouncements on climate change, coming from government agencies, it is obvious that government cannot plead ignorance of the massive contribution of gas flaring to global warming.
``After years of paying lip service, government must take urgent actions to protect the lives of its citizens and rescue the nation from the menace caused by oil companies.
``It is not enough to set up committees to look at the flooding problems but efforts should be directed at solving the problem of gas flaring holistically,’’ he said.
Williams said gas flaring had caused untold hardship to host communities, and called on the National Assembly to do more to stop the flaring.
He urged the government to review the nation’s environmental policies, which he said, had become obsolete.
Leadership

Ghali Na'Abba: Obasanjo Sabotaged Internal Democracy in Political Parties

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo

By Ibrahim Shuaibu

The former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Honourable Ghali Umar Na’Abba on Monday identified godfatherism as the bane of Nigeria’s political parties.

And he laid the blame squarely on the shoulders of former President Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, accusing him of encouraging dictatorship and godfatherism not only in PDP, but in all the political parties in Nigeria.

“In all honesty, since the inception of the Fourth Republic, in all the political parties, there is absolutely no internal democracy.”

Speaking further Na’Abba said “Our best brains are becoming causalities; and they are the ones that understand the workings of democracy. People now engage themselves in sycophancy so that they can remain relevant in the scheme of things.”

He added: “Sycophancy has stripped Nigerian politics of morality.”

Na’Abba pointed out that all political parties in Nigeria are guilty of these anomalies, saying that lack of internal democracy in the parties is gradually killing the system.

Addressing reporters in Kano on Monday at the NUJ Press Centre, Ghali Na’Abba noted that a great number of those in political positions in the country got there through the back door.

He explained that “While I was the Speaker of the House of Representatives, I did so much to entrench internal democracy - to see to it that the phenomenon does not continue and I did a lot, including even trying to impeach Chief Obasanjo.”

“You see, anytime this problem of lack of internal democracy is being discussed, Obasanjo’s name must be mentioned. He pocketed the PDP and planted his stooges as leaders and political office holders. He also planted his stooges in other political parties and caused confusion in the system.”

He continued: “During Obasanjo’s tenure, every region in the country, including his own zone, the South-West, complained of marginalization. I was aware that Obasanjo’s project was to destabilize the North; and at least three northern political leaders were helping him to achieve this agenda.”

Ghali Na’Abba further noted that: “The situation in the country is so bad that people don’t ask who is elected, but who is given the party’s ticket!”

The former Speaker, who is a chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), noted that “Our political parties today operate without manifestoes because politics have been privatised. Nobody talks of party manifestoes. The failure in the system is symbiotic. It is both the failure of the President, governors and the party leadership.”

This Day

Jonathan Set To Drop Service Chiefs Friday

EKELE PETER AGBO

There are strong indications that President Goodluck Jonathan may drop the nation’s service chiefs this Friday, following the impending retirement ofthe incumbent Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), Air Chief Marshal OluseyiPetinrin after thirty-five years of service.
The president is scheduled to have dinner with all the service chiefs tomorrow, Wednesday, where he is expected to thank them for their immense contributions, especially to internal security.
LEADERSHIP investigation has equally revealed that the President is likely to disclose his decision on the appointments of new service chiefs when he meets with the incumbents tomorrow, but is likely to delay the announcement till Friday.
In the past few weeks, feelers from informed military quarters have suggested that Jonathan may have pencilled some names in the military hierarchy to take over from the current service chiefs who have been in office for two years now.
Among those pencilled for the post of Chief of Army Staff (CAS) are: Major-General Lawrence Ngubane, Major-General JA Okunbor, Major-General MD Abubakar and Major-General Sarkin Yaki Bello, Head of Counter Terrorism, office of the National Security Adviser (NSA).
Leadership