Saharareportes
Sunday, 7 October 2012
Certificate forgery: A’Ibom lawmaker challenges NewsDay …as former council boss stands by publication
Hon. Paul Owo
The member representing Ini
State Constituency in the Akwa Ibom State House of Assembly, Rt. Hon.
Paul Akpan Owo has reacted to a publication in Newsday Newspaper
publication of Vol.10. No.2 of Monday, January 17-21, 2011 with the
banner “Attention PDP” Paul Owo: How old are you, who is fooling who”?
In the said publication which had an advertorial, the certificates of the lawmaker were displayed signed by Hon. Emmanuel Ebe a former chairman of Ini Local Government Area describing the purported certificates being paraded by Rt. Hon. Paul Owo as fake, a criminally minded act which is unbecoming of a lawmaker.
Hon. Emmanuel Ebe had stated in the advertorial that it was “unbelievable that Hon. Paul Akpan Owo sat for his First School Leaving Certificate in 1981 before he was born in 1983 as indicated on his (SSCE) 2003 result and he equally obtained his West African Examination Council (GCE) 1986. Who is fooling who?”
He further stated that “This is to say that in six years of age, he acquired both his First School Leaving Certificate and (GCE) and also swore a false affidavit of age in the court of law. This is criminal and unbecoming of a lawmaker.
Reacting through his lawyer, one Kenechukwu Azie through a letter sent to Newsday office, Hon. Paul Owoh described the story as most unfortunate, unfair, damaging, libelous and incriminating which has portrayed him in bad light causing several insinuation.
The lawmaker further threatened to sue Newsday Newspaper if the said publication was not retracted and the sum of N20,000,000.00 (Twenty million naira) as compensation.
However, in a swift reaction, a former Executive chairman of Ini local government area,Hon Emmanuel Ebe said Hon. Paul Owo should address the issues raised and stop diverting attention.
Hon. Emmanuel Ebe who spoke with Newsday said that Hon. Paul Owo through his lawyer failed to address the issues raised if they were true or false and should come out explicitly to address these issue rather than “beating around the bush” in order to save face.
He said that he had expected the lawmaker to painstakingly address the issues which have been brought to the public glare to be considered rather than casting aspersions, diverting attention and sustaining a deceitful cover on his academic qualification.
The former council boss restated his earlier statement standing by the story challenging Hon. Paul Owoh to contest the facts as presented.
NewsDay
In the said publication which had an advertorial, the certificates of the lawmaker were displayed signed by Hon. Emmanuel Ebe a former chairman of Ini Local Government Area describing the purported certificates being paraded by Rt. Hon. Paul Owo as fake, a criminally minded act which is unbecoming of a lawmaker.
Hon. Emmanuel Ebe had stated in the advertorial that it was “unbelievable that Hon. Paul Akpan Owo sat for his First School Leaving Certificate in 1981 before he was born in 1983 as indicated on his (SSCE) 2003 result and he equally obtained his West African Examination Council (GCE) 1986. Who is fooling who?”
He further stated that “This is to say that in six years of age, he acquired both his First School Leaving Certificate and (GCE) and also swore a false affidavit of age in the court of law. This is criminal and unbecoming of a lawmaker.
Reacting through his lawyer, one Kenechukwu Azie through a letter sent to Newsday office, Hon. Paul Owoh described the story as most unfortunate, unfair, damaging, libelous and incriminating which has portrayed him in bad light causing several insinuation.
The lawmaker further threatened to sue Newsday Newspaper if the said publication was not retracted and the sum of N20,000,000.00 (Twenty million naira) as compensation.
However, in a swift reaction, a former Executive chairman of Ini local government area,Hon Emmanuel Ebe said Hon. Paul Owo should address the issues raised and stop diverting attention.
Hon. Emmanuel Ebe who spoke with Newsday said that Hon. Paul Owo through his lawyer failed to address the issues raised if they were true or false and should come out explicitly to address these issue rather than “beating around the bush” in order to save face.
He said that he had expected the lawmaker to painstakingly address the issues which have been brought to the public glare to be considered rather than casting aspersions, diverting attention and sustaining a deceitful cover on his academic qualification.
The former council boss restated his earlier statement standing by the story challenging Hon. Paul Owoh to contest the facts as presented.
Robbers invade flood victims’ camp in Anambra
*Two suspects nabbed *As Obi warns against playing politics with flood crisis
BY VINCENT UJUMADU
AWKA – SOME people suspected to be robbers have invaded the Crowder Memorial Primary School, Onitsha, where 950 flood victims are camped and carted away some of the food items and cash donated to them.
This came as Anambra State governor, Peter Obi, yesterday warned against playing politics with the human tragedy that had so far trailed the flooding ravaging parts of the country, and warned those involved to desist.
The robbery happened as a philanthropist, Mr. Patrick Obianwu, who visited some of the displaced persons weekend, urged Governor Peter Obi to take measures to prevent the outbreak of epidemic in the communities affected by the flood disaster ravaging parts of the state.
It was gathered that two of the robbers who went to steal at the Onitsha camp were apprehended, while others escaped.
Some of the flood victims, who were cursing the robbery suspects when Vanguard visited the camp, wondered why such an inhuman treatment should be meted out to them, especially at this time.
Meanwhile, Governor Peter Obi of Anambra State has warned that it amounted to the worst form of cynicism for some people to be play politics with human tragedy brought about by the unfortunate flooding ravaging parts of the country.
Obi, who spoke through his Senior Special Assistant on Media, Mr. Valentine Obienyem, was reacting to a statement credited to an official of Campaign for Democracy, CD, who insinuated that the governor was making showmanship with the flood issue without doing much.
Vanguard
BY VINCENT UJUMADU
AWKA – SOME people suspected to be robbers have invaded the Crowder Memorial Primary School, Onitsha, where 950 flood victims are camped and carted away some of the food items and cash donated to them.
This came as Anambra State governor, Peter Obi, yesterday warned against playing politics with the human tragedy that had so far trailed the flooding ravaging parts of the country, and warned those involved to desist.
The robbery happened as a philanthropist, Mr. Patrick Obianwu, who visited some of the displaced persons weekend, urged Governor Peter Obi to take measures to prevent the outbreak of epidemic in the communities affected by the flood disaster ravaging parts of the state.
It was gathered that two of the robbers who went to steal at the Onitsha camp were apprehended, while others escaped.
Some of the flood victims, who were cursing the robbery suspects when Vanguard visited the camp, wondered why such an inhuman treatment should be meted out to them, especially at this time.
Meanwhile, Governor Peter Obi of Anambra State has warned that it amounted to the worst form of cynicism for some people to be play politics with human tragedy brought about by the unfortunate flooding ravaging parts of the country.
Obi, who spoke through his Senior Special Assistant on Media, Mr. Valentine Obienyem, was reacting to a statement credited to an official of Campaign for Democracy, CD, who insinuated that the governor was making showmanship with the flood issue without doing much.
Vanguard
Dangote donates N430m to flood victims, women in Kogi
The state is home to Dangote’s Cement factory, said to be one of world’s largest. It also hosts Dangote Academy of Learning and Development, where young local talents are trained to boost the manpower needs of the nation’s industries.
At a ceremony attended by top government functionaries in Lokoja, the state capital, Dangote said the contribution was administered by his foundation to complement the effort of the government in providing materials to flood victims and resettling them as soon as possible.
The renowned industrialists said foodstuff and relief materials worth N50million would be donated to the victims and N150million would be given in cash.
He said N230million would be shared to women at N10,000 each to boost their businesses.
Dangote said he was touched by the pains of the flood victims, adding that the floods caused the death of some residents and the destruction of property.
According to him, it may lead to the spread of diseases and epidemics.
He said: “Obviously, the government alone cannot shoulder this onerous responsibility of bringing relief to the victims. The private sector and public-spirited individuals should join hands with the government to assist the victims of this national disaster that has ravaged about 21 states of the federation.”
Dangote said his foundation was increasing its philanthropic profile across the world.
Dangote, who was accompanied by his daughter, Hajia Halima, hailed Governor Idris Wada for quickly taking measures that reduced the suffering of the victims.
He praised the Federal Government for its intervention through the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), saying the agency dispatched a search and rescue team to Ibaji Local Government Area to rescue victims and donate drugs, clothes and other items.
With the governor, the philanthropist inspected some of the flooded areas of Lokoja and visited some victims at their temporary camp at St. Luke’s Primary School, Adankolo.
Wada described the gesture as overwhelming.
The governor noted that it was the largest donation the state had received for the victims.
He said the floods were of historical significance to the people because many of them took things for granted.
The Nation
Gowon, Awo behind genocide –Col Achuzia
…Says his coming book will lend credence to Achebe
By CHIDI OBINECHE
A participant and apparent living encyclopedia of the events that led to the fratricidal civil war in Nigeria between 1967 – 1970, Col Joe Achuzia (Air raid) has joined issues with critics of celebrated novelist, Prof Chinua Achebe, who in his latest work “There was a country,” blamed former head of state, Gen Yakubu Gowon (retd) and the Yoruba political leader, and vice chairman of the then National Executive Council, the late Chief Obafemi Awolowo, of formulating policies that led to the horrendous genocide against the Igbos of Eastern Nigeria.
Achuzia yesterday told Daily Sun that the duo were squarely responsible for the genocide, while dismissing critics of Achebe. Pointedly, he accused Gowon of playing the ostrich while brazen murders of his military superiors and massive genocide were being perpetrated under his watch. He also accused Awolowo of using his position after his release from prison to extract a pound of flesh from his perceived enemies, whom he believed, unwittingly, through the NPC/NCNC Accord (Northern Peoples Congress/National Council of Nigeria Citizens) contributed to his imprisonment.
Achuzia, who is putting finishing touches to his own civil war memoirs, said that when released, it would finally settle the issue, and put the duo in vintage position as prime perpetrators of the genocide of more than three million Easterners who were said to have died during the strife. He went down memory lane to exhume salient facts to buttress the professor’s stand: “I landed in the country from overseas on the day of the July 29 coup. I had known the late Murtala Mohammed and knew he was one of those involved in the crises at the time. He met me at the Murtala Mohammed Airport, Lagos and arranged accommodation for my family and me for two days before we departed for Benin.
There was intense struggle for power between Murtala Mohammed and Gowon before and during the Coup. The middle belt who had more numerical strength in the army supported Gowon.” He continues, “When Gowon took over, he relied more on Awolowo and the permanent secretaries – Allison Ayinda, Phillip Asiodu, in formulating policies. Immediately Awo was released from prison, which Ojukwu was instrumental to, thinking he had a friend, strong anti-Igbo sentiments welled up in the government. Unfortunately Awo never forgives nor forgets.
The events that led him to prison were never lost on him and somehow, the NPC/NCNC accord was the issue. He became the minister of finance and went after the Igbos through his policies. I was in prison when Gowon held the so-called security meeting that declared police action. The strategic studies institute was originally planned to be located in the Mid-West then. Gowon, at the meeting,directed that I should be released from prison and head the institute. The then head of prisons, Giwa Osagie divulged the information to the late Anthony Enahoro and Awo. He suggested that instead of sitting down in a house for the discussion, since walls have ears, they should drive about and talk in the car, so that his secrets would be secured. He forgot that the driver of the car was an Igbo man, who later ran to the superintendent of prisons at Kirikiri and squealled.
The prisons superintendent summoned me and asked the driver to narrate his story again. Thereafter, I demanded to see Barrister Okuzo and the late Chief Collins Obih of ACB (African Continental Bank). They came in the morning to see me and I narrated what I heard to them. Later, they reached out to the military hierarchy including Gowon. Four days after the incident, Osagie was sacked and it caused a lot of commotion. That was in 1970.
Achebe got to know about these and he reflected them in his new book. These two people were responsible for the formulation of policies and execution of the civil war including the genocide. When I release my own book which is in the making, many things will come to the fore. I remember that after the declaration of police action by Gowon, I urged those who used their position to unleash horror and death on innocent people, before and during the civil war, advising those that are still alive among them to seek for forgiveness and atonement of their sins against humanity.
The Sun
The little proxy war in Lagos
By Emmanuel Aziken, Political Editor
The court verdict on the outcome of last October’s local government election in Ikoyi/Obalende Development Council Area of Lagos State is a tonic for the long suffering opposition PDP in the state. Is it sustainable?
Justice Dolapo Akinsanya’s reputation as a fearless and courageous woman in the judiciary was not achieved recently. As a High Court judge in the Lagos judiciary she came to national limelight in 1993 when she delivered the judgment that removed the legal framework under which the interim national government contraption of Chief Ernest Shonekan had vainly sought to legitimise itself.
Now retired from the bench, Justice Akinsanya as head of a five man local government election tribunal in Lagos State, again came to fore last Thursday with a judgment on a nationally watched proxy political battle in Lagos.
In its judgment, the Justice Akinsanya led panel overturned the
declaration of the Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN’s Adewale Adeniji as
the winner of the local government chairmanship election conducted last
October. Going more, the panel in a landmark 4 to 1 decision declared
the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP’s Ibrahim Obanikoro as the winner of
the election.
The reverberation of the judgment was of serious consideration and cause for celebration for the long suffering Lagos PDP which until now had not made any electoral impact in the state since the advent of the Asiwaju Bola Tinubu phenomenon. What is even being celebrated by the Lagos PDP is the fact that the Ikoyi/Obalende council is the registered home of the national leader of the ACN, Asiwaju Tinubu.
“We commend members of the panel for being bold to declare the judgment in favour of PDP in an area where the residence of the national leader of the ACN, Bola Ahmed Tinubu is and our councillor candidate was also declared winner in the ward where former Governor Tinubu resides,” Barrister Taofeek Gani, the PDP’s state publicity secretary told Vanguard at the weekend.
Remarkably, the PDP’s candidate, Babajide, is the son of Senator Musiliu Obanikoro, Nigeria’s current High Commissioner to Ghana and a former Local Government Chairman in the State. Senator Obanikoro was also at one time a commissioner in the Tinubu cabinet before he went to the jumped ship to the PDP.
After cancellations of alleged illegal votes and other deductions, the Akinsanya led panel declared that Obanikoro won the election by 6780 votes to 6,248 votes attained by his ACN counterpart.
The local government election of last October was the first one that the PDP had participated in since the creation of the 52 local councils by the Tinubu administration. The PDP had before last October boycotted the council polls on the premise that the councils were illegally created. in other national elections, however, the ACN in almost every case overwhelmed the PDP.
when the PDP, however, decided to participate in the local government elections last year only few could have given the party any hope of success despite the internal divisions that bedeviled the ACN prior to the polls on account of alleged imposition of candidates.
At the end of polling the PDP claimed to have been cheated out of some chairmanship positions it claimed to have won, notably the princely Ikoyi/Obalende council and Badagry.
Protests by national and local officers of the party were followed by admonitions from ACN leaders that they should go to court. The outcome of the court battle in the Ikoyi/Obalende council was Justice Akinsanya’s remarkable verdict.
The Lagos ACN was quick to rebut the declaration declaring it an impossibility for the PDP to ever win in Lagos .
“It is not possible for the PDP to defeat ACN in any council in Lagos . ACN is the most popular party in the state,” the ACN’s Assistant Publicity Secretary, Chief Funso Ologunde declared shortly after the judgment.
In a more comprehensive rebuttal, the ACN through its state publicity secretary, Comrade Joe Igbokwe declared that the declaration was a vindication of the fact that elections truly took place in the state and the willingness of the ACN to open up the democratic space unlike the trend in PDP controlled states.
“We challenge the PDP and its allies to allow for such credible process in the states they govern. A situation where it is only in Lagos that a different party from the one that controls the state can lay claim to victory and go to the tribunal to have such claim affirmed should worry the PDP, which delights in closing the democratic space in all states it control through fair and foul means and striving to employ all means to control local government councils in states it does not control.”
“We want them to learn immensely from the Lagos State process and give other parties fair chances of contesting and winning elections in the states they control,” Igbokwe said as he disclosed that the party was still considering an appeal.
“We acknowledge that we may not win it all and that if we eventually lose the case at the appeal, it is no big deal to lose one out of 57 LCDAs. We urge our members to remain form and steadfast in their support for our great party.”
The notice of an appeal was being received with ominous signs in the PDP at the weekend as Taofeek feared the worst.
“The State Chairman of ACN, Ajumolae said that our victory will not last and that they will get it back. I don’t know what he means because it was a verdict of 4 to 1 and for him to say that the victory will not last it means that they are up to another Salami style at their own level here but we will resist it.”
“The people of Ikoyi/Obalende have spoken, they voted and their votes must count and the court has also confirmed that we were voted for and that we won. So, if they come up with any thing that will prcepitate violence, they should be held responsible.”
Vanguard
The court verdict on the outcome of last October’s local government election in Ikoyi/Obalende Development Council Area of Lagos State is a tonic for the long suffering opposition PDP in the state. Is it sustainable?
Justice Dolapo Akinsanya’s reputation as a fearless and courageous woman in the judiciary was not achieved recently. As a High Court judge in the Lagos judiciary she came to national limelight in 1993 when she delivered the judgment that removed the legal framework under which the interim national government contraption of Chief Ernest Shonekan had vainly sought to legitimise itself.
Now retired from the bench, Justice Akinsanya as head of a five man local government election tribunal in Lagos State, again came to fore last Thursday with a judgment on a nationally watched proxy political battle in Lagos.
Tinubu: ACN National Leader; Justice Akinsanya and Obanikoro: PDP leader
The reverberation of the judgment was of serious consideration and cause for celebration for the long suffering Lagos PDP which until now had not made any electoral impact in the state since the advent of the Asiwaju Bola Tinubu phenomenon. What is even being celebrated by the Lagos PDP is the fact that the Ikoyi/Obalende council is the registered home of the national leader of the ACN, Asiwaju Tinubu.
“We commend members of the panel for being bold to declare the judgment in favour of PDP in an area where the residence of the national leader of the ACN, Bola Ahmed Tinubu is and our councillor candidate was also declared winner in the ward where former Governor Tinubu resides,” Barrister Taofeek Gani, the PDP’s state publicity secretary told Vanguard at the weekend.
Remarkably, the PDP’s candidate, Babajide, is the son of Senator Musiliu Obanikoro, Nigeria’s current High Commissioner to Ghana and a former Local Government Chairman in the State. Senator Obanikoro was also at one time a commissioner in the Tinubu cabinet before he went to the jumped ship to the PDP.
After cancellations of alleged illegal votes and other deductions, the Akinsanya led panel declared that Obanikoro won the election by 6780 votes to 6,248 votes attained by his ACN counterpart.
The local government election of last October was the first one that the PDP had participated in since the creation of the 52 local councils by the Tinubu administration. The PDP had before last October boycotted the council polls on the premise that the councils were illegally created. in other national elections, however, the ACN in almost every case overwhelmed the PDP.
when the PDP, however, decided to participate in the local government elections last year only few could have given the party any hope of success despite the internal divisions that bedeviled the ACN prior to the polls on account of alleged imposition of candidates.
At the end of polling the PDP claimed to have been cheated out of some chairmanship positions it claimed to have won, notably the princely Ikoyi/Obalende council and Badagry.
Protests by national and local officers of the party were followed by admonitions from ACN leaders that they should go to court. The outcome of the court battle in the Ikoyi/Obalende council was Justice Akinsanya’s remarkable verdict.
The Lagos ACN was quick to rebut the declaration declaring it an impossibility for the PDP to ever win in Lagos .
“It is not possible for the PDP to defeat ACN in any council in Lagos . ACN is the most popular party in the state,” the ACN’s Assistant Publicity Secretary, Chief Funso Ologunde declared shortly after the judgment.
In a more comprehensive rebuttal, the ACN through its state publicity secretary, Comrade Joe Igbokwe declared that the declaration was a vindication of the fact that elections truly took place in the state and the willingness of the ACN to open up the democratic space unlike the trend in PDP controlled states.
“We challenge the PDP and its allies to allow for such credible process in the states they govern. A situation where it is only in Lagos that a different party from the one that controls the state can lay claim to victory and go to the tribunal to have such claim affirmed should worry the PDP, which delights in closing the democratic space in all states it control through fair and foul means and striving to employ all means to control local government councils in states it does not control.”
“We want them to learn immensely from the Lagos State process and give other parties fair chances of contesting and winning elections in the states they control,” Igbokwe said as he disclosed that the party was still considering an appeal.
“We acknowledge that we may not win it all and that if we eventually lose the case at the appeal, it is no big deal to lose one out of 57 LCDAs. We urge our members to remain form and steadfast in their support for our great party.”
The notice of an appeal was being received with ominous signs in the PDP at the weekend as Taofeek feared the worst.
“The State Chairman of ACN, Ajumolae said that our victory will not last and that they will get it back. I don’t know what he means because it was a verdict of 4 to 1 and for him to say that the victory will not last it means that they are up to another Salami style at their own level here but we will resist it.”
“The people of Ikoyi/Obalende have spoken, they voted and their votes must count and the court has also confirmed that we were voted for and that we won. So, if they come up with any thing that will prcepitate violence, they should be held responsible.”
Vanguard
Omatseye: The brotherhood of Cain
The Yoruba have a word for all renegades: Omo osan n ii ko ba iye e. Amunibuni, the Yoruba say of the one-eyed goat whose owner is also one-eyed, eran Ibiye.
Right now as we speak, the local government executives in the 57 compartments of the abundantly-blessed yet chronically-exploited state of Lagos State are said to have been asked to contribute N15 million each to prosecute the battle of Ondo State, so that “the only oil-producing state’’ which the chameleon himself mentioned in his “Brother today, gone tomorrow,’’ can come under the control of fraudsters from an illegal state, a band of criminals who define existence by the rustle of stolen currency.
The people of Lagos, the masses of Oworonsoki, Ajegunle, Epe, Ikorodu, Mota, Isiwu, Oke Abiye and the entire Agbado Ijaye neighbourhood will never taste good governance until their resources come under the control of their own brood, and until the tyranny of an irredeemably-corrupted, one-eyed media is dealt a devastating blow and the myth of Lagos explodes in the face of the traitors of the race.
Sam Omatseye, attack dog of a born political robber who lusts after but cannot obtain the Awolowo name written in gold, is here again with the doggerel which will consume him and his masters.
Rehabilitated from a wasted time in the United States and recently disowned by his own people the Itsekiri, Omatseye will abuse anybody who refuses to worship his lord and master, and will tell anyone who cares to listen to him that the villain is the saviour of the race, since he does not credit the Yoruba race with common sense, the ability to sift falsehood from truth, and he does this by heaping half-hearted praise on Awo and then gunning down the sage’s very heritage in the manner of the foolish fly which follows the corpse into the grave.
His entire existence is woven around sycophancy and boot licking: it is a job implanted in his blood. Even when given the errand of a slave, the Yoruba expect you to deliver the message as a free born. But that is where the matter of the intricate word (oro sunnukun) which must be untangled from an equally intricate perspective (oju sunnukun la a f ii wo) lies, because the ancestry of the gnomes in question is shrouded in mystery: their certificates were Chicagoed from unknown universities, the money pushing them to certain doom belongs to a people perpetually betrayed and held tight by political demons in gates of brass, they live and sleep in drugs and the embrace of loose women and suffer from debilitating diseases disguised by flowing agbada.
The road to hell is more beautiful than Los Angeles, classier than Paris and holier looking than Jerusalem. The date of their doom and the beginning of a long-earned journey into political eclipse: October 20, 2012. Their waterloo: Ondo. The husband of their mother (oko iya won) : Iroko, the man who defines his existence by the comfort of the people, the man whom the United Nations has just given a crown beyond the contemplation of the carnivores currently eating the flesh of the South-West and exulting in its blood, the agents of darkness.
The ACN is so pained by the Mimiko anti-thesis to their fraudulent and visionlessness : oro na dun, say Yoruba children, o fe ke. Ekun egbere (tears of a ghommid) flow freely from the eyes of the fraudsters whose forefathers Mimiko has castrated with good governance.
When he poured venom on the matriarch of the Awo family, Chief (Mrs) H.I.D. Awolowo, he almost went out of circulation. But the high and mighty prevailed on the heritage of the sage and the dunce was spared further wrath from an incensed race. Now, he is attacking another true Awoist recognised and honoured by the Tribune family, Dr Olusegun Mimiko, the fear of ACN, the real issue in Nigerian developmental rather than media-megalomaniac politics, the only governor in today’s Yorubaland who demonstrates true Awoism, the only governor who has improved on the benchmark set by the sage, no matter what the likes of Sam Omatseye and their colleagues in Jagabanic malady may say. And hear this: slaves may dance with brooms, but authentic Yoruba sons and daughters dance with the horse tail.
“The markets he built are for local governments, and is that how to account for the money he collected in three and a half years as the only South-West oil-producing state,’’ wrote Omatseye in the doggerel inspired by envy.
Dr Mimiko built state-of-the-art neighbourhood markets at zero cost to the market (wo)men, markets where you will see a crèche, a fire station, a police post and sheer splendour of architectural excellence, at zero cost to the traders (As we speak, even the N50 the traders pay per week is for the maintenance of the world class markets).
Can Omatseye mention any such market built by any of his brothers in perdition? If he were not so naive, he would have noticed the place of markets in Yoruba culture, as centres of civilisation, which is why they were always located close to the palace. Markets are so important in the Yoruba cosmology/cosmogony that even human existence is termed a market interaction (aye loja) while heaven is the eternal home (orun nile).
In Eye of Earth, Niyi Osundare writes : “temporary basement/and lasting roof.’’
This temporary basement is a market in the Yoruba world, which everyone must leave some day, which is why the Yoruba enjoin the wise “not to strap the world to their chest’’ (e ma wa ile aye mo aya).
The target of Omatseye’s venom is the masses of Ondo State, including the members of the NURTW for whom the governor built a driver’s airport, again what you will not find anywhere in the world.
What Mimiko has done is to leverage on culture, to harness the gains of culture driven by technology and contemporary commerce. Yes, Mimiko is a market governor.
“He set himself to build a model school, on whose dream he has not delivered.’’ Indeed, Mr Omatseye? With 54 mega schools?
Omatseye is obviously jealous, because his god, while being inaugurated in 1999, promised 50 millennium schools but only managed to build three, which are really no schools when compared to the mega schools in Ondo.
He also promised a Fourth Mainland Bridge and many more projects, but, like his certificates, no one knows where they are situated.
Like other jejune writers banking on a heritage of fraud, Omatseye cannot fail to mention the ACN theory of integration : “He has cast himself a pariah to the story of brotherly love in the South-West with the cold eyes he casts on the cooperative spirit of the Southwest.’’
Bravo, Mr Omatseye, but that is the “brotherhood’’ of Cain, a brotherhood by which the resources of Ondo State would be harnessed by foreign gods like they have done in the ACN states.
And, by the way, would Mr Omatseye kindly tell Nigerians what the “cooperative spirit’’ of his ACN gods have achieved for the South-West?
Where are the joint education, rail, etc, projects executed by his lovely brothers, the self-confessed Omoluabis who are intolerant of dissent?
And, by the way, was it not the Judases of the ACN that robbed the region of the speakership of the House of Reps? With brothers like these, who needs further enemies?
Oro sununukun again: if the death of the home does not kill one, the one from outside cannot.
Mr Omatseye, sorry, we cannot accept your theology: we have seen what timeless your “brothers’’ are capable of doing.
Well, we understand why Mr Money, whenever, he has a dirty job at hand, sends only disowned dunces from another race on those errands. A Yoruba proverb unlocks the mystery: only a stranger’s child is sent on midnight jobs (omo olomo (a stranger’s child) lan ran nise de toru toru,’’ particularly if that child is a greedy fool.
Omatseye, like many before him, makes a singsong of Mimiko having belonged to different parties---he even has the temerity to talk about ideology. But your god destroyed the AD, then formed the AC (later ACN) with a band of renegades?
Omatseye is a one-eyed writer writing for a one-eyed paper and even that one eye is cataract-laden. We say once again: Ondo State will never come under the grip of political lepers and bearded fraudsters, no matter the colour of their beard.
Nigerian Compass
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