How evil people purged from PDP took over Edo ACN – Owie

PIONEER Chief Whip of the fourth republic Senate, Senator Rowland Stephen Owie, has been a recurring factor in the politics of Edo State since creation. Arguably Nigeria’s leading proverbial political pundit, Senator Owie distinguished himself for his politics of rebellion against the establishment both in the Senate and even outside. Following his exit from the PDP he trudged many political paths eventually becoming a foundation member of the Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN in Edo State. After a long period of muttering arising from internal dissensions in the ACN, Owie last year resigned his membership of the party. Last weekend he came back home to the PDP at a reception organized for him in Benin. Hours before the reception he spoke to Vanguard  and narrated his political odyssey. Excerpts:
BY SIMON EBEGBULEM
How we formed PDP.
I was a founding   member of the PDP. When we founded the PDP, my brother Chief Igbinedion was in the APP. Igbinedion came in very late into the PDP when I was already gunning for the governorship on the ticket of the PDP. So along the line, Dr Ogbemudia came as leader of the Binis in the PDP, when Lucky Igbinedion came in to express interest in the governorship. The Binis met and selected one person so that one person will face Azeez Garuba who was running from the North.
The mini primary was held in the home of the Iyase of Benin between myself, Lucky Igbinedion, Dr Ehigiamoso, Capt.Okhomina, Dr Micheal Asemota. At the end they said Lucky won, defeated me with four votes. I went home, all of them including Dr Ogbemudia came to me the next day begging that I should not rock the boat. I said no I will not do that and they now said okay, I should go to the senate without primary.
I told them that I don’t want to be taken again to another bazaar as they did in the governorship and I said they should write and sign it that I will go to the senate without primary. They wrote and signed and Rev. Egharevba you see today is a decent young man.
A man with a lion heart. He told me to take the agreement to the court so that it can be actionable in court if they fail to honour the agreement. But surprisingly, only a week to the primary, I saw on the television Idada campaigning for senate. I went to Chief Igbinedion to find out what was happening, he said it was not his fault, that Ogbemudia is asking him to support Gen. Idada, while some people were asking him to support Jim Adun.
That he won’t forget what I did for his son in the governorship primary by not rebelling against the party. He said he will deal with the matter. I went to Dr Ogbemudia. He said Rowland are you sure that those who signed that document still believe in it. I said Daddy what is wrong, if you feel they don’t believe in it call a meeting so that we can discuss it. He agreed and he told Egharevba to call a meeting in his house.

Senator Rowland Stephen Owie,

On that day, the chairman of Egor said they have agreed that Senator Owie should go to the senate without primary. A lot of them concurred with him. The logical conclusion one should have expected from our leader Ogbemudia was to appeal to Gen. Idada and Adun to step down. But instead Dr Ogbemudia said he cannot stop any body. He directed that the primary should be conducted in his house. Solomon Aguele came to conduct the primary himself. That was the greatest shock of my life. I went into the primary and I must say today, I thank the Binis who defied all the inducement and went ahead and voted for me in that primary. And as soon as I was nominated, Igbinedion, Dr Ogbemudia all of them disappeared.
I never saw them in my campaign, Lucky was already governor. He was the only one that called us to his guest house and gave N150,000 to each of us. In that my election, only Chief Anenih gave me N200,000. He gave the money through Rev. Egharevba, I received no other support apart from any other one apart from the ordinary Binis who are not politicians. I won the election to the senate and started campaigning for the position of the pioneer Chief Whip of the senate.
But leaders of Binis in the PDP were now afraid that if I become the chief whip of the senate, I will become too powerful and will now come to contest the governorship. Before I knew it they ganged up against me. But fortunately I won the election and from that point it was one problem to another from home. I was very close to Governors like Alamieyeseigha, Ibori these people will always visit me in my quarters but my own governor never came because he was being told to avoid Rowland Owie, he wants to take over your job. By nature of heart, I don’t see Lucky as a wicked person but the gang up was too much. When I found I could not cope any longer, a party that we formed before they came in, I decided to leave the party on the 15th of August 2002 and declared for the ANPP.
While Nigerians are known for leaving the opposition party for government party, I was the first Nigerian to leave government party at the federal and state and local government level to a party in opposition at the Federal, state and Local Government levels. Because I knew that with Christ in me I can do any thing. And I thank God that between August 15, 2002- December 2002, every corner of Edo state has turned into ANPP with a sitting government of PDP. We went into the election in April, history is there that I won that election but it was rigged. Those who did it confessed and we have forgiven ourselves.
How we formed ACN in Edo
Having fought this battle in the ANPP, and the senate, we started the present ACN in Edo state as Akugboehin. From there we went to the MRD, from MRDD to ACD. We left ACD and moved to Edo United. That was the time those who were de-registered in the PDP, members of the Grace Group now joined us. And a responsible clergyman brought Lucky Igbinedion to my house that we should work together. I was skeptical but what do I do? Politics is like a church, you cannot stop any body from entering. That name Edo United was suggested by Charles Idahosa and supported by one other person.
From Edo United we moved in to Action Congress. At this stage we shared positions. PDP brought the state chairman and brought the women leader while the ANPP wing that I brought in, brought the state secretary and Publicity Secretary. Our plan was to bring a Bini man for governorship, some body who will do what our son (Lucky Igbinedion) could not do, to prove that the Binis are good administrators.
Within that period of sourcing for a Governor, one morning Pastor Ize-Iyamu and Lawrence Orka came here to see me. Ize-Iyamu who was SSG then said, sir I will be resigning as SSG on Monday to contest for governorship. I said on which party platform, he said Action Congress. He said I should talk to Lucky Igbinedion on his behalf but I said Lucky is the one to tell me that he wants him since both of them have been working together. But when they were about leaving I told Ize-Iyamu that he should have known that he cannot win governorship because of what happened in Igbinedion’s government.
That was the singular offence the boy said I committed against him. That I did not support his ambition. As soon as that was done, I called a meeting of Edo South, we adopted Charles Idahosa as the Bini candidate that will now compete with other candidates from other zones. It was announced and there was tension. I was now hearing that Charles Idahosa was too pompous, that he will not be accepted by the Binis . And I told them that the only problem Charles has is that he is too close to Chief Igbinedion. No other thing, he is a patriot of the Binis. And that was how Comrade Oshiomhole came about.
Though, before all this while, I had called him the previous year to come and run governorship. I knew him when I was in the senate and UPN with his late brother Tom Osu. After we had done the Charles Idahosa thing, Lucky Igbinedion and Co said no, they are not accepting Charles. We said no too, that we are not accepting Ize-Iyamu. We had a meeting in Sam Iredia’s house; I told them that since Adams has been the chosen one whom I know, we will accept him. We finished the meeting and Oshiomhole won the election through the tribunal at the end of the day.
How the cabal hijacked Oshiomhole
Immediately after the tribunal that we won, again blackmail came up. Oh Rowland Owie did not work. Crisis came up but I kept quiet. This is because I don’t follow them to Government House to do sycophancy and drinking together. But to be honest with Oshiomhole, I can give him credit. At this initial stage, he stood firm. He was not ready to be used against any body, every attempt that was made by the cabal to rubbish me, he resisted.
But unfortunately along the line he caved in. But you can not blame him because every day they go to Government House to give negative report about Owie. They hijacked him, and used him to hijack the party. People who want to declare for the party will go to Government House to declare. Before we knew it the party had lost its image, Airport Road office became deserted. I kept warning that it was not right until we got to the stage we are now. We tried to be managing ourselves and at this stage of my life politically, I no longer lead, my supporters do the leading.
So each time I wanted to vibrate, my junior brother Charles Idahosa and my wife will ask me to relax. If I want to take action, Charles will say leader relax it will be well. Along the line Igbafe joined the party from the PDP and in the presence of the state Woman Leader, Modino Emovon, a London trained secretary, well educated, Igbafe was appointed Director of Poverty Alleviation to the detriment of the old members of the party. I kept quiet. The next was Herbettar Okonofua, she came from PDP, she was named Director of MDG. Meanwhile we have a lot of women that are educated, that have suffered in this party. Things started happening showing that no regards for old members of the party and even leadership?
On appointment of his son as Chairman of Board of Internal Revenue
Yes he appointed my son and I thanked him for that but I never begged for it. I was going on Pilgrimage and I visited Comrade and in the process he asked me, that was the first and the last time he asked me about my view on any appointment. He asked me what I think about the appointment of chairman of Board of Internal Revenue. I said Comrade Governor, that is a very strategic area that I will recommend Useni Ellamah since he has worked as chairman of Labour Pension Board.
The following day I went on Pilgrimage. I was in Rome when my son sent me a text that he has been appointed as Chairman of the Board. I sent Comrade a text and thanked him. Do you know, I gave him credit because as soon as my son was announced, the same people that held this state ransom for eight years, put pressure on Comrade not to swear in this boy. I tell you a very weak person would have caved in to their pressure.
He went ahead to swear in this boy. That tells you what I went through in the hands of these vampires. During the one year anniversary, Charles Idahosa was appointed chairman of the one year anniversary but only a few days later, he was removed and replaced by Pastor Ize_Iyamu.
A lot of things started happening. When I made some of these observations to the Governor the last time we met in my house few weeks ago, he said but I have been with these people in the same party. I told him yes, that I knew that these very people were cancer but I thought that cancer will not grow because you as the Chief Executive will come and be a check to stop the cancer not to grow. I don’t think that I was at that Government House more than five times since Comrade became a Governor. I have told him before that Comrade Governor be careful because 50 per cent of the vote we got in 2007 election were votes for you as a person and for other members of the party who worked while the other 50 per cent were votes against the immediate past administration. So I said he should be careful. I said further that I praised his efforts on how he has been able to keep the goat and the lion in one room but I don’t know how long he will do that.
Why I am dumping the ACN for the PDP
Then we started the move to form a mega party. I told them in one of our meetings in Lagos, Atiku and others were there I stressed the need for us to have a formidable opposition because if the formation of a mega party fails, the opposition should forget about power in Nigeria . I told them what happened in the second republic. An alliance we wanted to form of UPN, NPP, GNPP and PRP. But the personal ambition of our leaders ruined the move. I think after that Buhari left to form his own party, Atiku returned to PDP. Some of our people failed to remember that in the First Republic Action Group ended up in Ondo.
May be they forgot that in the Second Republic UPN ended up in Ondo. AD ended up in Ondo, ACN will end up in Ondo and nothing will stop it. It cannot grow. In putting all these things together, from the month of June 2010, my spirit in the ACN left. I stopped attending any meeting of the party and called Charles Idahosa, and I told him that please your father was my father and I am your father, please attend meetings on our behalf.
If you have any thing to ask me come and ask me. I am tired of these people they cannot change. The primaries came, wards that the cabal cannot win, what they did was either they cancel or they ask for harmonization. I told them, you don’t harmonize after election, you harmonize before primaries. After primaries let those who win go. Because they were not on the ground they were canceling right and left. Because many of my followers were in the system, I still advise them.
Omoaghe the former state chairman of the party could not run for re-election because he could not buy form. I was told that the cabal said he will not return, Retti Uzzi will not return and Amegor. I thought they were joking. I called these people and asked them to go and take form. They said they could not find form to take. The state primary they said was going to take place at Oba Akenzua at 9am, they did not start until around 4am when they read out the list of nominees the next day.
They dropped Amegor and put Osaro Idah who as at the time he was named Secretary of the party, he was not a member of the party. Dropped Retti Uzzi, who was a graduate of Yaba Technical College and former Editor of Observer, as Publicity Secretary, and put my in-law Dan Uwegie whose highest qualification is that he was a Catechist in the Catholic Church. Can you imagine? In a party that I was the co founder. Then the worst of all, they dropped Prince Eweka, who was South South Vice Chairman and put Pastor Ize_Iyamu, SSG during Igbinedion’s government. Find out what is the meaning of Ihogbe family in Benin.
You don’t buy into it you are born into it! As a product of Ihogbe, I cannot pretend that all is well, that I don’t know what is happening in Benin Kingdom. The band that you play for the royal majesty, you don’t play that band for any body in Benin Kingdom. I am a politician quite alright, I come from a family and I come from a home, but I have a boundary that I draw. Above all, after all these various changes that did not go on well, with me and my followers, they went on to mess up the primaries.
What we do before is that if you want some candidates to emerge you discuss with the people involved and ask those concerned who want to run not to run for the election.
The party will promise them some thing and they will step down, but you don’t do it with impunity as it was done in the case of my brother Senator Uzamere over Urhohide. Such matters are discussed and you now tell them the reason why you want a particular candidate. Not after the thing has been done, it is done before it is pronounced. So what they did both in the appointment of party officials and the selection of candidates for the election was abominable. And no party that believes in one man one vote should be involved in such nonsense. And for me, if I don’t say what is annoying me, I became sick and that was why I decided to call it quits with ACN.
Similarities between PDP and ACN
The truth is that I was a founding member of the PDP. I did not leave the PDP in joy I left in pain because I wanted to make a point. I knew they were going to rig me out in the 2003 governorship election with Obasanjo at the helm of affairs.
But I wanted to prove a point that the owner of the land is God and the people. And each time I see Adams Oshiomhole, I see a fulfillment of my own personal rebellion against the PDP because he emerged from the ashes of our own party, the ANPP. The only thing that we did not have was the financial muscle, we had the people. The PDP in 2003-2007 here, was no longer commanding any respect because of the way the government dealt with the people.
So the grassroot remained the ANPP, because we did not have the financial muscle those that joined us from the PDP had the financial muscle that I must say. And this game, while you have the popularity on the ground, you must also have the financial muscle. Yes when I left the PDP, I said it was an assembly of the ungodly. I borrowed that word from my late mentor, SB Awoniyi. Now, the late Chuba Okadigbo was leader of our wing in the National Assembly. All of them Senator Gbenga Aluko and some of us left PDP for the ANPP.
You know late Chuba was the Vice_Presidential candidate to Buhari in that election. My friends kept telling me after the whole battle to come over to the PDP, I said no, I want to make my point. The truth is all other parties in Nigeria as at today are mushrooms, the ACN remains a Yoruba party. After my decision to quit ACN I had two options.
I have decided and I have no apology at all, I am returning to the PDP because one major attraction for going back, apart from being a home that I co-founded, is that Jonathan is our son and this is the first time that our son, from the South South is running for Presidency on a platform that is viable. Like I said in one of my interviews, Jonathan is the gold for the South South and all responsible South Southerners must go for the gold and that is one of my attractions for returning to PDP.
And besides, I want to take part in reforming the PDP.
I agree there were problems there but the same problem crept into the ACN.  And I can tell you clearly, before I made up my mind to leave the ACN, one of the first persons I consulted was Ibrahim Babangida. He told me that Rowland, you know I don’t control the political party of my friends. My friends are in all the parties, but if I were you I will return to the PDP. You have been a national figure what ever is the problem there, you stay and sort it out.
I met Chief Anenih and we sorted ourselves, I was the chairman of PDM in Edo State and we know ourselves. In fairness, Anenih is one man that if you agree on any political terms, he will not turn back. Politics is a game of planning and agreeing on equitable distribution of issues. When you agree with him, he will keep his own bargain.  And I told him that I want the second phase of the Benin outer Ring Road to be done and he agreed with me that after the elections, our National Assembly members will work towards that.
So I can assure you that by the grace of God all will be well. My appeal to my supporters, the good work that they did in installing Comrade Oshiomhole, those who are yet to reap the reward, God will bless them. Whatever sacrifice they made, God will use it as reparation for their sins. But they should please not lose hope. As we move back to the PDP, let them pray for God’s protection and goodness.
Because what has happened to the ACN today, PDP has been purged of all the evil people and they emptied themselves into the ACN. What happened to the evil spirit that Jesus Christ exorcised from the demonic man in Luke Chapter 8 VS 260-39, exactly what happened to the pigs is what is happening to the ACN so the last may suffer it.
Vanguard

Edo election tribunal and Nigeria’s judiciary-less judiciary

 by Tony Afejuku 

A couple of months ago, I did two pieces on the law and the judiciary of our country. Those two essays pertained to the currently suspended President of the Court of Appeal.
After all that transpired (and are still transpiring) about Justice Ayo Salami and his modus operandi before his suspension, I promised my good self that I would refrain from concerning  In and Out with the p’s and q’s of the Nigerian judiciary. Perhaps I should also aver here very urgently that the way and manner that the judiciary went into Nigeria’s forest of laws to manufacture for ex-Governor Ibori of Delta State a peculiar alabaster of acquittal of all charges against him at different times, also affected my judgment and self-promise.
Of course, there are other pertinent examples to cite to justify my turn of mind concerning the Nigerian judiciary that everybody knows is now too corrupt to embrace the true notion and truthfulness of dura lex sed lex (“the law is hard, but it is the law”). I shall examine this aspect or doctrine of our corpus iuris (“body of laws”) shortly even though I am not a practitioner of the law.
The point I wish to present immediately coram populo is to the effect that the Edo Gubernatorial Election Petition Tribunal is compelling me to disagree with my principles and their habits and traditions. The more I try to let the matter go, the more it takes shape, in the new order of my journalistic and philosophical mind. In any case, the media must play its role as the fourth estate of the realm and release opinions that should enable the people and all sufferers of incalculable and exceptionally acute distress and injustice to find place in their environment and polity.
The judiciary is expected to play a hugely prominent role in this respect, but because in this country, the judiciary is turning or, better put, the judiciary has turned itself upside down, the media, regardless of its own inadequacies, must brace up and speak what it must speak as a noble challenge to the new order of our judiciary–less judiciary. Im  being pessimistic about Nigeria’s judiciary? Sure. The reason, which is not really fare-fetched, has just been ballooned into prominence by the Edo Gubernatorial Election Petition Tribunal. But let me state, before I am charged for contempt, that the central focus of my submission today is the rejection of General Charles Airhiavbere’s, PDP’s gubernatorial candidate’s petition or challenge of the Comrade-Governor’s requisite educational qualification.
The Tribunal struck off this vital aspect (if not the most vital) of the General’s petition/submission, we were meant to believe, on the loose or untenable grounds of the Tribunal’s lack of jurisdiction to entertain the specific and material matter pertaining to the Comrade-Governor’s requisite qualification that the electoral law allows for prospective gubernatorial candidates. The Tribunal’s acceptance of the plea of coram non iudice tendered before it by the Comrade–Governor’s lawyers is a decision/judgment I would personally have appealed up to the Supreme Court (or even the ECOWAS Court or both), if I was the PDP’s gubernatorial candidate.
I don’t understand why the Tribunal in its wisdom, which is anything but progressive asked (or shall we say advised?) the PDP’s candidate to go to a High Court to pursue his case. Without wanting to admit it in open “court”, the Tribunal clearly knew and believed that the PDP’s candidate had a pertinent case before it, hence it asked (or advised?) him to argue it there. Is that a cleverly deliberate and deliberately clever way to prolong the case unnecessarily?
Let me also aver here that if that “strong” ground of the General’s petition before the Tribunal was acceptable to the Tribunal, the Comrade–Governor himself would exercise his right of appeal to the highest court in the land (or to ECOWAS Court). That would have been fair, fine and well in the spirit of justice that would not create any upheaval in Edo State or in the land of Nigeria. What this averment amounts to is that the PDP’s candidate should pursue the matter to the logical end in the spirit of dum spiro spero (“while I breathe, I hope”). He should go to further courts to plead the coram nobis caused (deliberately?) by the Edo Tribunal. The General must go the whole hog in the interests of our society, for the judgment of the Edo Gubernatorial Election Tribunal as per the requisite qualification of the Comrade-Governor is, in my view, certainly contra boros mores (“against the best interests of society”). So the soldier must soldier on.
Why do I say all this? Governor Oshiomhole is presently not an ordinary citizen of Edo State and of Nigeria. He ought to be or should be a model to be copied and to be followed by our teeming youths, at least. If he does not know, I put it to him, his lawyers, his party and teeming supporters that the youths’ silence that speaks volumes (dum tacent clamant) on this matter bordering on alleged certificate forgery is not one that is doing the ebullient Governor any good.
The Tribunal’s technical rejection of his number one opponent’s case of alleged certificate forgery against him, is something that Mr. Adams Aliyu (or Aliu) Oshiomhole should not allow on the mere grounds of technicality. Or is the allegation of General Airhiavbere right and correct in every particular and material way? Speak, Comrade, speak!  The world (yours, mine and others’, including your party’s and teeming supporters’) will not come to an end if you do so. After all, while there’s life, there’s hope (dum vita est spes et). Now the Tribunal said that the alleged certificate forgery petition against our comrade–gentleman Governor should be seen as a pre-election matter.
Was the Tribunal telling us that it would condone examination and certificate cheats who would gain pre-election advantage that they ought not to or should not at all gain? In Nigerian Universities, at least, as at today, screenings of certificates of students happen every now and then at the points of entry, any time before the graduation of students (and even after their graduation once there is need to revisit earlier screening exercises).
What message was the Tribunal sending to the youths and potential and current University cheats with its dodgy judgment? Let us for the purpose of argument accept that our once-upon-a-time, that is, our pre-election oratorical and loquacious Governor, did not forge any certificate or that he did not hoodwink INEC to accept an abnormal certificate, what would stop an open Tribunal committed to truth, fact, morality and justice, all rolled into one, to test the veracities of the documents/arguments he would present and the counter ones from his opponent?
I find it strange that our Governor of glamour and ornaments in speech and gubernatorial decorum has suddenly become glum. Or is my observation off the mark? By the way, I have said this little to my Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) friends. The good news is that the glossy comrade is changing tactic for once. We all should wait for the final bomb that will send the equally taciturn General and his battalion of some new electoral gladiators scampering hither and thither for cover that may elude them. After all, in the present day Nigerian judicial system, as already indicated above, there is nothing any longer like dura lex sed lex. I am not a psephologist, although I am currently engaging myself in an enterprise on and a study of the pattern of election-rigging in Nigeria. It has three phases: the pre-election rigging phase; the election-in-progress rigging phase, and the post-election rigging phase. The “case” the Tribunal struck out definitely, in my journalistic, literary, philosophical, critical and common-sensical perspectives belongs to the pre-election rigging phase. The Tribunal ought to have heard it in full to determine the merit or otherwise of the General’s postulations, and on the legal grounds on which they are erected.
Last lines. Please join us, Primate Olabayo and I, to say full and steady prayers for Lady Patience Jonathan. What we are seeing is not looking too good. Your joining us in prayers will assist in a mighty way to postpone or banish that which shall be postponed or banished. In the name of the Father, of the Son and of the Holy Ghost, we pray. Amen. 

Edo election tribunal and Nigeria’s judiciary-less judiciary (2)

by Tony Afejuku 

AS far as this matter of the Edo gubernatorial election petition is concerned, In and Out must be humble enough to do justice to the dramatis personae, which must include the judiciary itself. But this justice can only be dispensed with all our united powers, that is coniunctis viribus. The media, the plaintiff and defence, and the public at large, including our traditional institutions should harp on the need to do undiluted justice on this matter. Cui bono? (“Who stands to gain?”). The masses and their friends, and our fatherland.
Indeed, for the sake of posterity, and of our dear, dear fatherland we must for once, in our part of Nigeria, let the ruling on the alleged certificate forgery petition against the Comrade-Governor enhance our thoughts on the need for civic and political justice. De bono et malo (“Come what may”), we must endeavour to use this petition to rescue justice, noble and fertile justice, from the jaws of curious justice. The Nigerian judiciary must not only give justice; it must also be seen to be giving justice that is not dubious at all times. Unfortunately, this country has for quite sometime, beginning some decades back, been witnessing  justice without tastes. In fact, the motto of the Nigerian judiciary now seems to be something likes this: “There’s no accounting for tastes” (De gustibus non est disputandum). If not, why this now famous phrase quoted time after time in mockery of the Nigerian judiciary: “Sentenced but not convicted”? Why this famous phrase which now famously belonged to the Nigerian judicial lexicon and jargon?
Let me make it clearly and abundantly obvious that I am not saying (and I have not said) that our Comrade-Governor is guilty of certificate forgery as General Charles Airhiavbere alleged in his petition. What I am saying (and have said), which needs reiteration here is that such a grave allegation now in the open consciousness of the masses and that of the teeming supporters of Mr. Adams Aliyu (or Aliu) Oshiomhole needed (and still needs) to be tackled on its merit or lack of it in open “ court”.
The Edo election tribunal ought to be that open” court” of first instance. Rather than striking it out, the tribunal ought to have accepted the petitioner’s plea to hear it. Unless there was more to it, Mr. Oshiomhole himself ought to or should have allowed it to be taken, heard and addressed squarely there and then. Unless I am suffering from a deception of vision (deceptio visus), I don’t see how the High Court, which the Edo tribunal has asked or advised the petitioner to go to argue his case of alleged certificate forgery against the Comrade-Governor, can decide the matter expeditiously and Dei Gratia (“By the grace of God”).
For one thing, the Nigerian judiciary as it currently is, is God-less and has no direct access to the Divinity. But I have heard from two reporters covering the tribunal’s proceedings that the petitioner has appealed the ruling, as I posited here in my first instalment. It is gratifying and gladdening that he has done so. But let me aver here and now, as follows: until the present Chief Justice of Nigeria sets machinery in motion to cleanse and revolutionise the judiciary, nothing tangible may happen positively for the petitioner. But I like his choice, which is to choose the lesser of two evils (de duobus malis, minus est semper eligendum). Certainly, going on appeal rather than going to a High Court is the lesser of two evils. I don’t know the grounds of the appeal and the legal foundation on which it is being erected. But it is worth a try. After all, there are still some angels in the judiciary. Am I contradicting myself? Don’t put any blame on me. Nigeria itself is full of countless contradictions.
A few days ago, University of Benin off-loaded (pardon this phrase) 146 or so “students” who allegedly forged certificates to gain admission into its portals. Many of the alleged cheats were in their final academic session. How they beat the system to get that far is anybody’s guess. But evil always somehow inevitably meets its waterloo that must halt and apprehend it. Of course, in an institution headed by a Vice-Chancellor who one day posterity shall remember with a wholesome and welcome nostalgia as “The Oshodin of UNIBEN”, no certificate forger can escape the furnace of justice. Did UNIBEN need to wait for a High Court of our judiciary-less judiciary to terminate rightly the “studentship” of the fake students?
A role model such as the Comrade-Governor is to teeming students in the land should not be seen or heard to be an exam or a certificate cheat. If gold should rust, what will iron do? But any human-being can go off board or do wrong anytime or once in a while. We can and will understand if this is the case in the current circumstance. But the Comrade-Governor must speak up, and if the masses and their friends desire it, he then can resign with full or un-full benefits as the masses and their friends who once-upon-a-time saw and accepted him as their idol may so deem fit to say. But that is if our Governor-in-the-news thinks the petitioner is right and admits it ianuis clausis (“behind closed doors”) with his commissioners and party’s top echelon(s). If not, justice then must take its full course. I believe that this ought to be so, for justice is the heart and soul and nerves and brain of any nation and of any institution including our current judiciary-less judiciary. When justice dies, everything dies.
Not long ago, there was a report that the President or so of Hungary plagiarised his doctoral thesis. This happened well before an election which he won to be the President of his country. He has since quit office via the open and transparent door of resignation. This is part of the responsibilities and hallmarks of a responsible leader. Accept your error and move on, dear Comrade, if truly you have erred. After all, humanum est errare (“to err is human”). Don’t wait for the die to be cast in the Court of Appeal. Now let me quote a text message from an ardent reader of this column who initially did not quite see eye-to-eye with me when I began to let my pen speak on this matter: “Re-Edo election tribunal…. I didn’t know before now that the allegation by the General against Oshiomhole’s victory was as grievous as certificate forgery! And that your judiciary, the last hope, should be condoning IMPURITY! I am disappointed with the failure of the judiciary to COMPEL the Governor to produce whichever certificate is in dispute. Lanre Oseni.”
Anybody who loves justice must shudder at the ruling of the tribunal on this matter of alleged certificate forgery, which borders on pre-election rigging, I repeat and repeat and repeat. But why I am truly interested in this matter? Answer: Ducit amor patriae (“Love of country guides me”). For what legacy will our children’s or youths’ models and heroes leave for them, after all said and done? All men of honour must be prepared to stand for the fatherland whose positive values we must at all times protect. We must imbibe the lesson of duke et decorum est pro patria mori (“there’s no greater honour than to die for one’s country”.) Does our judiciary-less judiciary want us to have anything to do with this lesson? All great Nigerian students and true friends of the masses are waiting to imbibe this lesson, whether Nigeria’s judiciary-less judiciary is committed to its import or not.
And do I dislike the Comrade-Governor? No. Do I have any problem or any quarrel with him? No. And is the General, the petitioner my friend? No. Am I a politician? No. And am I a judge? No. Who am I? I am a humble Nigerian Tribune columnist, critic and writer committed to attacking pre-election abnormalities, election-in-progress ailments and post-election stench and rottenness in the Nigerian polity. The state of Denmark is rotten. Nigeria is that state of Denmark, O Hamlet!

Edo election tribunal and Nigeria’s judiciary-less judiciary (3)

by Tony Afejuku 

UNLESS further events compel me to have a re-think and a review of proceedings, this is the last part of the subject-matter under focus. And it is my wish to hop-step-and-jump to the post-election-rigging phase which I adumbrated earlier in the first two parts. I am skipping, deliberately, the second phase of election-in-progress-rigging, which is part of the petition of the General which the tribunal is yet to hear and rule on in favour of or against either party.
But before I dwell on the last phase of election-rigging, Nigerian style, I must compel readers to go back a little time and recall the case and matter of “Toronto” Salau Buhari, a once-upon-a-time Speaker of Nigeria’s House of Representatives during the first term of Chief Olusegun Obasanjo’s presidency. When Mallam or Alhaji Buhari “Torontoed” the PDP and Nigeria and became, unlawfully, the Speaker of Parliament of the central legislators, he did the rightly and honourably wonderful thing by quitting his endearing post. Today he is in a political limbo, but I must continue to remember him and President Obasanjo for the timely display of the needful thing, the needful honour of resignation, rather than dragging the matter of the allegation to needless legal acts of gymnastics. President Obasanjo was sympathetic then to the cause and course of honour, and allowed “Toronto” Buhari to go. Clearly, the General and President from Owuland proved to Nigerians that he and the “Toronto” Speaker were not (and still are not) eiusdem farinae (“birds of a feather”).
One would expect the political advisers, friends, executive cabinet members of the Edo State Government and House of Assembly and leaders of the ACN, locally and nationally, to prevail on the Comrade- Governor to throw in the towel if truly their gubernatorial candidate did not, before the last gubernatorial election, possess the requisite and pertinent academic qualification and certificate allowed for the post of Governor. It is needless stubbornly to drag the case.
The tax payers of Edo State who are suffering from the pangs and pains of excessive and over-burdened taxation should be saved the further burden of allowing their money to be wasted on needless litigation. Or is the erstwhile Labour hero and model wasting his own money to prosecute the case? In any case, my simple advice to the inner circle and torch-bearers of ACN is to look at the proof (ecce signum) and take appropriate steps in the interest of righteous justice on behalf of the good and over-taxed workers and people of Edo State. They should not allow the petition of alleged certificate forgery against Mr. Adams Aliyu (or Aliu) Oshiomhole to go the full distance. Or they have absolute faith and confidence (fide et fiducia), for obvious reasons, on Nigeria’s judiciary-less judiciary?
Those who of late have seen the Governor ceaselessly on television have wondered if the amiable orator ever again rouse to positive action students, hawkers and Okada-riders, many of whom are genuinely academically certificated?  And I wonder how students and academics in Edo State’s tertiary institutions are feeling now. The remover and appointer of Vice-Chancellors is truly in the news!  Fiat lux (“Let there be light”) of righteous justice in Edo State, after all said and done.
Will Nigeria’s judiciary-less judiciary allow it? We all who were grown up and sensible enough in 1979 still remember vividly the electoral, or, better put, the post-electoral math of twelve-two-third that rigged Chief Obafemi Awolowo, diabolically, out of the Presidency. Some legal pundits have informed me that, that Supreme Court’s ruling or judgment is not citable in the annals of Nigeria’s jurisprudence maybe primarily on account of its indefensible jurisprudential logic. Recently, the late President Musa Yar’Adua faulted the electoral irregularities that won him the Presidency. But our judiciary-less judiciary gave consent to them. What I am trying to say, and in fact saying, is that our judiciary, the supposed bastion of our righteous justice has, over time, been turned into an instrument of post-election-rigging in Nigeria. By the way, why truly is Justice Salami suffering what he is suffering today? This question shall remain answer-less pro tempore because it is still sensitively hot in court. And I don’t wish to have any hot bath in the hot river of contempt which our judiciary-less judiciary may wish for me. Yet, we must state and re-state it that our judiciary, our expected Fidei Defensor (“Defender of the Faith”) of justice in the land has disappointed us time after time on matters of electoral justice.
At few weeks back, a SAN (Senior Advocate of Nigeria) who, as we say, did not catch a glimpse of my brake-light in college, I mean secondary school, informed me with great and lawful glee that he is a conqueror of money. He, according to him, at the time he broached the subject, had made above N300m on prosecuting election matters. He said this amount was even small when placed side by side other lawyers and SANs (I am withholding their names) who had made more than billions of naira on election cases. Of course, some of the judges who are aware of what the lawyers make, millions- and billions–wise, and who deliver their rulings and judgments cannot be left out of this nice way of millions-or billions-making.
Many a judge obviously becomes a bosom pal (fides Achaetes) of an election petitioner or his/her opponent. He or she who cares, can research or investigate this claim or allegation as the EFCC is currently doing, I hear. But such a researcher or investigator must look to the end (finem respice) for such an irreversible research or investigation, like the current exercise I have embarked on by doing this series, is risky, very risky. He or she who cares must watch his or her back. But I say: fiat iustitia ruat caelcum (“let justice be done though the heavens fall”.).  We must say no to post-election-rigging via our judiciary-less judiciary.
O Moshood Abiola of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) of yester-years! How your party faithful and top echelon(s) sold you away! How they sold you away to your untoward end! How your victory was post-election rigged via your own men and people who connived with the gap-toothed master of dribbles and Nigeria’s judiciary-less judiciary to do you in!
In a way, Edo State’s PDP (and PDP national as well) are re-enacting the electoral pattern and joke of 1992 that unleashed today’s tragedies in our polity. If you disagree with this simple and humble averment, how do you sincerely, in your true Christian or Muslim or spiritual heart, explain the “Punic treachery” that is the lot of General Charles Airhiavbere today? Why the Punic war that his party has carried or is carrying on with him post-gubernatorial Edo State election? The General is obviously now bearing a double cross (fides Punica), but all men, all persons, including media practitioners of truth and decency must stand for light fide et amore (“by faith and love”). If you cannot, say nothing and send me no text messages or e-mails of abuse and insult of no consequence to my conviction that is ever ready to yield to a superior perspective. You simply must hold your tongue (Favete linguis). I conjure you.
The essay ends, but grant me the indulgence to ACKNOWLEDGE two remarkably pertinent text messages: (1) Sir, your articles on Edo gubernatorial election makes so much sense to the majority of Edo youths, elders and other well meaning Nigerians. Please I look forward to the concluding parts. Though I can’t afford papers daily, I have set aside money to buy Tribune on Mondays henceforth. Omoh Odihiri”; (2)” My big brother, Tony, your write-up about Edo tribunal is very right. God will bless you and your family. Amen +23480332535536.”
My thanks go to numerous others I cannot quote on this matter. I enjoyed your text messages and phone calls, even from detractors, who abused and insulted me for obvious reasons. It is not easy and funny to be a columnist. It is no joke at all - at all, at all, and at all.
Last lines: You can’t reach In and Out on phone for sometime. The penner is outside the shores of the Nigerian Tribune until further notice. But the penner’s lyre will not cease its notes. Thanks, readers dear for your understanding.
NigerianTribune

Edo not against mission schools -Oshiomohole

EDO State governor,  Adams Oshiomhole, has said the state government is not against the return of mission schools to their original owners, but said some issues must be resolved before it is done.
The governor disclosed this on Thursday during the presentation of the laurels won by Lumen Kristi International High School, Uromi, for emerging winner in the National High School Quiz championship, and for being the school with the best West Africa Examination Certificate (WAEC) result in the country.
According to him, “I am not necessarily hostile to the return of schools to missions, there is room for that, but there are a couple of issues that need to be addressed, one of which is the entry barrier,  which must not debar children of the poor on the account of their background. If this and other issues are cleared, then we can look at it.”
The governor congratulated the principal, parents, staff and students of the school for the achievement, which he noted was a move to return Edo State to excellence and a reminder that other students could do better.
He said the competition had been able to inculcate in the children that they had to work hard to achieve success on the basis of merit and he urged them to see the laurels as an incentive to work harder.
“What the National Quiz competition organisers are doing and the students have demonstrated is that Nigeria must be merit-driven. You have won based on merit and not on sentimentsm,” the governor said.
NigerianTribune

MONEY LAUNDERING: PDP raises fresh issues in Ajimobi wife’s defence

BY OLA AJAYI
Ibadan—The ripples generated by the alleged money laundering by the wife of the Oyo State Governor, Mrs. Florence are yet to settle as an opposition party, Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in the state said the public is waiting to get the accurate number of times that Mrs. Ajimobi travelled since her husband, Senator Abiola Ajimobi assumed office.
The First Lady in the state had denied that she had traveled 52 times as alleged by the publication.
PDP through its Publicity Secretary, Mr. Lukuman Agboluaje,  said in as much as it would not want to join issues with the governor’s wife on the money laundering allegations, there were more salient issues which should not be glossed over.
According to the party, it is improper for the governor, who had made much noise about quality free education to now send his daughter abroad for a mere secondary education.
Agboluaje said: “As much as we are not in a position to join issues with Mrs. Ajimobi on the alleged money laundering charges as reported by a local newspaper using an online publication as its source, we are constrained to ask some fundamental questions, especially from her own defence on arrival.
“We are aware of the free education policy of the present administration in the state and our concern is the inability of the state’s first couple to allow their kid daughter enjoy the free education being dished out to the populace rather than for the First Lady to incessantly visit her daughter every three weeks in a UK secondary school.”
This, the party went further, was more so critical as the First Lady, though, had promised to tell the public the number of times she travelled abroad since her husband’s assumption of office 17 months ago, up till now the public was still waiting.
Another thorny issue which the PDP claimed was more curious to learn through the online publication was that the State Agency for the Control of Aids, SACA, was now placed under the office of the First Lady.
Wondering why this could be, Agboluaje said it was an indication that either Mrs. Ajimobi was more qualified than officials of the supervising Ministry of Health or that the ruling Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN, in the state was suffering from dearth of qualified politicians that could be saddled with such sensitive responsibility.
The release further stated that it was a good thing that Governor Ajimobi had sued the offending medium  to the law court as the public was very much interested in knowing how the case goes in court.
“This is more so important when it is realised that a major shareholder of the offending publishing house, Independent Communication Ltd, is Senator Bola Tinubu, National leader of the ACN and the godfather of Governor Ajimobi,” the release added.
Vanguard

Why we suspended recruitment of teachers – Oshiomhole

BY SIMON    EBEGBULEM
BENIN – Edo State Government has suspended the recruitment exercise by the state Post-Primary Education Board, PPEB, following the allegation of fraud that marred the exercise.
In a statement by Mr. Peter Okhiria, Chief Press Secretary to the Governor, the government said: “Preliminary investigations into the exercise revealed that it was fraught with unwholesome practices as the exercise sacrificed merit on the altar of selfish motives.
“Consequently, in accordance with our commitment to transparency and accountability, the exercise is suspended and the appointment letters issued are hereby revoked. All those purportedly offered appointment through the exercise are advised to stay away.
“Government will review the entire exercise and give room to all to re-apply and only those who scale through the fresh test which will be transparently conducted, will be offered appointment.”
Vanguard

Corruption In Judiciary

WAS Justice Olufunmilola Adekeye’s parting shot as she retired from the Supreme Court intended to exonerate judges from the corruption in the legal system?
She said at a book presentation that politicians sought out judges who they offered bribes on election petitions. She said nothing new, though Nigerians only speculated it.
Corruption in the judiciary is not only on election cases. From land disputes to murder cases, those who disagree with the decisions resort to allegations of corruption against the judge.
Election petitions are a class apart. The stakes are higher, as election winners have access to more national resources than their fantastic earnings. Elections have become the most profitable business for contractors (including legal consultants) and the winners.
When  Adekeye made her case, she pressed the role of judges in the matter as passive. Few things can be further from the truth. Was she unaware that a federal high court judge was retired years back for accepting bribes on behalf of his colleagues handling election petitions? Or the more recent legal foxtrots between former Chief Justice of Nigeria Aloysius  Katsina-Alu  and former President Court of Appeal, Justice Isa Ayo Salami,  where allegations of interference with election petitions are still being traded? Were politicians the sole participants in these cases? There are more that did not assume prominence.
Corruption in the judiciary is an expressway with all the characteristics of such a thoroughfare. Judges and politicians are familiar with the applicable laws on the route. There may be politicians over speeding, just as there are traffic officers who refuse to enforce the law.
With all the allegations about politicians attempting to induce judges, “through their relations, friends and close associates”, there is no case of a judge ordering the arrest of a politician, or his contact for offering bribe, which ordinarily is an offence, moreso when intended to skew the judicial process.
Politicians are ruthless in their bid for power, but we also hear about the growing levels of desperation among judges to be included in panels that hear election petitions. Why would election petitions appeal more to judges than other cases? The judiciary requires higher standards for its integrity.
“We  must always stand up and defend our judges and protect their integrity. It is a pity that most times, even the political class does not understand the role of judges in democratic settings,” Justice Adekeye suggested.
She may  be right about a general ignorance of the role of judges. However, Nigerians know about integrity of the judiciary.
Judges  accused of corruption, get soft treatment from fellow judges who recommend their retirement, usually with full benefits. Nigerians will not defend this type of integrity.
Vanguard

Ojude Oba: Display of tradition, culture

The dance steps were entertaining, different shades and colours of fabrics, elegant horse riders and different age grades paraded before the king felicitating with him and expressing their delight for yet another year and successes.

The streets were filled with canopies from Folagbade Junction to Moborode Junction  a distance of about one and a half kilometres and the whole of Olisa Street.

The Gbelegbuwa road,  leading to the palace and the palace extension, was  completely blocked to traffic by law enforcement agents leaving only Very Important Personalities to pass through while all the sides of the roads also had canopies.

Music blared from within the canopies leading to a cacophony of noise. The streets were filled with people.

From exotic lace fabrics to assorted shoes, bags and other fashion accessories, the venue of the celebration is always sparked with a display of colours. The traditional Etu, Aso Oke always come alive. It is a mixture of the ancient and modern when some men came out in Aso Oke mixed with damask fabric. Ojude Oba can also be tagged a parade of fashion.

Groups made up of different age grades like the Otunbas and Oloroguns [war chiefs], other categories of chiefs and people of the town came out en_masse gaily dressed to pay homage to their king.

Streets were filled with canopies, roads virtually blocked, exotic cars on display and rare show of opulence on display by the people. The celebration was a study in display of tradition and culture wrapped in modernization.

With about 5,000 capacity pavilion, guests were comfortably seated in an enclosure which looked like a modern sports arena.

The age grades, called Regberegbes,  had enough space to sit while guests  were also comfortably accommodated.

The Awujale sat  at his side of the pavilion which had 650 customized seats provided by Globacom, the GSM service provider owned by a prominent  Ijebu son, Dr. Mike Adenuga. The horse riders had enough space to display  in front of the Awujale  and the guests.

Sponsors for the festival have also grown with Globacom, the official sponsor parading prominent music stars that thrilled the mammoth crowd. First City Monument Bank [FCMB] too among others.

As early as 7.30 a.m., indigenes and invitees started trooping into the arena in anticipation of the commencement of the festival slated for 10.a.m.

Such were the features of the annual Ojude Oba, a ram slaughtering festival of the Muslims peculiar to indigenes of Ijebu Ode in Ogun State. This festival has emerged a rallying point for not only sons and daughters of Ijebuland but to non natives alike as they converge on the ancient city to rejoice with their king, the paramount ruler of Ijebuland, Oba Sikiru Adetona, the Awujale of Ijebuland.

Age group creates the spectacle at the expansive lawn that separates the king and his guests from the crowd. The Gbobaniyi group; middle-aged men, which has former Governor of Ogun State, Otunba Gbenga Daniel as its patron, has one of the most special appearances by dressing in rich traditional Aso Oke clothes.

The  Ojude Oba festival  is usually held in two days after the Ileya. The festival shifts from Ijebu Ode to Ijebu-Isiwo for another three day celebration after the Ileya fundamentally to honor their king and do obeisance.

Historically, the festival started with an Islamic cleric, alongside members of his family, paying a courtesy call on the Awujale as a way of showing appreciation to the traditional ruler for allowing Islam to grow peacefully in Ijebu Ode.

This festival which has survived for almost a century has emerged as a dominant cultural festival anticipated by the people. Corporate organisations too are not left behind as they have added values to the celebration with their different promotional strategies aimed at putting their brands on a vantage position.

Prominent among these conglomerate is the Globacom company. Prior to the festival, the telecom company said it is committed to elevating the Ojude Oba festival to an enviable cultural fiesta capable of attracting investments in tourism in Ijebu land.

It promised to introduce milestones to stimulate local and international investment in tourism in Ijebuland in particular and Ogun State in general. True to its promises, Glo donated a block of fully equipped classrooms to Ijebu Muslim School as part of the activities marking the 2012 festival. Globacom had during the Ojude Oba festival last year promised to deliver the block of classrooms with ICT equipment to the school.

Dr Mike Adenuga, Chairman of the telecoms giant, Globacom, said the festival had grown in importance and scope and had emerged as the melting pot of culture, glitz, fashion and panache, adding that it afforded the Ijebu people, home and abroad, the opportunity to contribute to the development of the land.

Responding, Oba Adetona praised the company for injecting pomp into the festival, adding that the telecoms firm had brought many innovations and had turned the carnival to a world class.

He described the chairman of the company, Dr Adenuga, as a pride, not only of Ijebuland, but Nigeria as a nation.

The Senate President, Senator David Mark who was a special guest at the event pledged his support for the actualisation of Ijebu-State.

Speaking at the 2012 Ojude-Oba, he said that one of the ways to achieve rapid development in the country is when more states were created.

The Senate President who was reacting to the plea of the Awujale and paramount ruler of Ijebuland, Oba Sikiru Kayode Adetona on the need for Ijebu State, said he had received various delegations from agitators of state creation, saying that one of the highest delegations was from Ijebuland.

He said: “I support the creation of Ijebu State, the National Assembly must work to actualise it, we know that it is through it that government can move closer to the people, and I pledged that when next I shall be coming here, the dream would have been actualised.”

The festival is competitive because financial gains are attached to it, hence, age grades try as much as possible to outshine the other. Six age grade groups won awards at the ceremony. Egbe Olugbadebo Okunrin won a trophy and cash prize of N750,000; Egbe Mafowoku Okunrin and Egbe Bobagbuyi Okunrin won N500,000 and N300,000 respectively.

Egbe Arobayo Obinrin won the star prize of a trophy and N750,000, while Egbe Obafuwaji and Egbe Bobajolu Obinrin Basiri won N500,000 and N300,000 respectively.

 Many of the groups names is related to the king such as Gbobaniyi, Obafuwaji, Bobakeye, Gbobayo, and Gbobalaye. The parade of the Baloguns and Eleshins is usually the most colourful and breathtaking event of the festival.

A Balogun or Elesin is a direct descendant of the war heroes who gained notable victories for the Ijebu nation during the inter-ethnic Yoruba wars in the pre-colonial history of Nigeria. It is commonly believed that it was at Ojude Oba that the families of the war heroes led by the reigning Balogun and deputies, exhibited their prowess by simulating mock battle shows and displays.

It is always a spectacle to behold as each Balogun and Elesin families take their turn to pay homage to the king amidst martial music, jubilation and gun shots, passing through the town with participants, visitors and tourists.

In reality, this year's festival underscores  the importance of peaceful co-existence among Nigerians, despite their differences in language or religion. The  festival was indeed a celebration of the unity of the people and a show of Nigeria's rich cultural heritage.

NigerianCompass