How Tinubu lured five govs out of PDP — Tony Momoh

By Bashir Adefaka
Former Minister of Information, Prince Tony Momoh in this interview speaks among others on the import of President Mohammadu Buhari’s visit to the United States of America and the deals high-wire politicking that landed the All Progressives Congress at the presidency.


What do you think  Nigeria stands to gain from President Muhammadu Buhari’s visit to the United States of America?
Nigeria is looking up to the world in securing and stabilising the country through development.  That is one of the things  President Buhari’s visit will achieve for Nigeria.  Being in the US with President Barack Obama,  Nigerians have been able to discover that Buhari  is not stubborn and rigid but  simply a man with disciplined mind and a high sense of putting things in proper shape.
With that visit, America will assist Nigeria.  Americans knew about the  thefts  that we are talking about.  They knew about them before now but they were unwilling to relate to Nigeria because, apparently they knew more than us.  They knew about the indiscipline and corruption in the land but, Buhari is ready to fight corruption because he never indulged in corrupt practices.
Corrupt practices
So, the visit to the US has provided diverse opportunities for Nigeria to achieve stability and development.
Are you in support of plans to probe  ex-ministers over alleged oil theft?
President Buhari is not going to investigate and is not going to set up any commission of enquiry.   He will allow the security agencies to  do their work and they are already doing that.  Is it not because the security agencies are doing their work that  these revelations about oil theft and missing funds are becoming known?  The security agencies should be allowed to do their work.  Nigerians should be ready for the cleansing job that is going to take place.
But in doing what you regard as cleansing, the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP and Jonathan’s people are seeing it as witch-hunting.  What about that?
Are you saying that what these people are alleged  to have done that they did not do them?  If the rules are there and then Buhari says, ‘follow the rules,’ is that witch-hunting?
Many have been complaining that the Buhari administration is slow. When you hear complaints like that, how do you feel?
People  cannot say that the government is slow or not working because, even without the ministers, the permanent secretaries have shown that the civil servants are the major officers concerned with the business of government. They have really been performing since Buhari became President.
President Buhari is a man that I have been with since 2003.  I was the head of his campaign organisation in 2003, 2007 and chairman of the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) where he contested again for presidency in 2011.  I know him so well that he is never a push over.  He does his own things at his own pace.  So, he doesn’t bother about  detractors.
Smooth performance
Don’t forget that Nigerians will not ask those detractors who are complaining about not appointing ministers.    Buhari  needs to carefully prepare the ground for smooth performance. Nigerians should be patient.  They will be proud that Buhari is their President.
He came in 1984 and this is 2015.  He needs to understudy things properly.   He is trying to secure the ground and then fight the enemy of good governance which is corruption.  It is only then that  he can appoint ministers.
How confident are you that Buhari will  fight corruption, insecurity and still  have his feet on the ground to handle other functions of government?
I have confidence in  Buhari and I believe strongly that he has all it takes to achieve all those things that you have listed.  He  is the only elected President of Nigeria that started by wanting to become President.
In 1960, Sir Tafawa Balewa was made Prime Minister.  His  ambition was  to become a broadcaster.  In 1979, Alhaji Shehu Shagari became President.  He had wanted to be a senator.
Chief Olusegun Obasanjo was made President in 1999.  He was in prison and his thought was to be free and not to die in prison.
In 2007, Yar’ Adua was made President by those who chose him.   He had wanted to finish his eight-year term as governor of Katsina State and thereafter return peacefully to his job as lecturer at Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria.
Goodluck Ebele Jonathan was very comfortable with his job as governor of Bayelsa State.  But he was brought to Abuja first as Vice President and later as President.  None of them ever thought of being President.
But when you talk of somebody who started out by really wanting to be President, it is President  Buhari.  Some people had put a book together and the book was titled, “Project Nigeria.”  In the  book, they had spelt out how they wanted to rebuild and develop Nigeria.  They gave it to Buhari to look at and when he looked at it, he made some jottings out of the book and then made up his mind about it. It was put together by a group of Northerners, who are very  intelligent.
Meanwhile, President Buhari had always said that he was feeling sad seeing little children selling pure water and running around in the streets at a time they should be in school.
Interest in politics
All these put together motivated him into developing interest in politics.  He had the vision  to change the existing lifestyle of Nigerians  particularly the little children. And because he is the only one who is in politics to become President, he contested 2003, he didn’t make it.  He contested 2007 and in 2011 when he couldn’t make it, he said, “ Nigerians have opportunity for their lives to be made better but they lost it.”  And he was about quitting but I said to him, “don’t stop. You will wait for your time and the time will come.”
On Tinubu
That is why we can never underrate Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu in the success that we achieved in the 2015 election that produced this government.  Tinubu is an excellent crowd mobilizer, very highly proactive and exceptionally digital politician.  He was the one who knew how he wooed the five governors of the New PDP  and brought them into the APC.   You cannot underrate Tinubu’s contribution to the success of the emergence of this government.
I only pity the PDP who are thinking that the so called crisis in the National Assembly is to their favour.  There is no problem with what  happened in the Senate and House of Representatives because we cannot say because Saraki emerged as Senate President that he is PDP or that because Dogara emerged as Speaker of the House he is a PDP person.
On Ekweremadu
The  House voted in  Ekweremadu as  Deputy Senate President.  We thank God that David Mark did not emerge the Senate President because they would have said that it is constitutional.
We should give kudos to Tinubu because of his role in the influence that brought the PDP governors into  APC.  He wooed Saraki and Atiku and he knew how he went into the PDP and played all those games. I would tell you that two politicians that should be respected most in Nigeria today are Tinubu and Bisi Akande.
But I will also blame Tinubu for the crisis because having brought Saraki, Atiku and the five governors, you should know that it is not proper to think that Saraki, Dogara, Atiku, Kwankwaso will ever still be thinking of being PDP in APC.  No.  None of them is PDP any longer and they will ever remain APC.  So, they should be so treated. What we owe Nigerians is delivery on our change mandate.
Change mandate
APC was just lucky to be the vehicle used to drive the change because, even without the APC, the Nigerian people would still have overrun the system and achieve the change by themselves.  I congratulate the APC for being  lucky to be the vehicle for driving the change.  It is sad that the debt Jonathan plunged us into as a nation will take a  long period to repay.
On planned probe of Jonathan’s government
If anybody had done anything bad in the past, it is the business of the security agencies to investigate.  President Buhari won’t be the one to do that.  He believes that the security agencies should know what to do to anybody, who has committed a crime, be it financial or whatever.
So, the security agencies should not wait until the President tells them to go after such a person because Buhari will not ask any security agent to do so.  He believes that the constitution has stated  clearly the roles of security agencies.  If they now see an offender, who committed a crime and fail to handle such a person according to the law, then the law enforcement agents should be blamed.

How God, US made me — Buhari

By Garba Shehu
Shortly after the August 1983 military coup that brought a 40-year-old Muhammadu Buhari to power, he received a phone call from a top personnel in the United States Army.  General Smith was the Commandant of the U.S. War College from which General Buhari graduated in 1980. The school’s 1979 set had graduated its first Nigerian, General Wushishi, who was the Chief of Defence in the just ousted Shehu   government.
Obama and Buhari
Obama and Buhari
“Please, be kind to him,” General Smith said over the phone. The essence of the phone call was not just to congratulate Nigeria’s new Head of State, but to ensure that the first Nigerian to graduate from the U.S. War College would not suffer any indignity under the government of the second Nigerian to graduate from the same school.
Former classmates
On Wednesday, July 22, members of the U.S. War College Class of 1980 gathered at the Blair House in Washington, DC, to welcome the man they had selected as their football team referee 36 years ago. “Being referee all those years ago taught me to be fair and just,” President Buhari said during the meeting.
Among the former classmates gathered were Lt. General Granrud (Commander of the U.S. forces   in Japan Rtd), Brigadier General Jack Pellica, General Ronald Griffith (Former Vice Chairman of the U.S. army central command ), Colonel Lany Gordon and Colonel Paul Summerville. General Smith has since passed on, as have all the directing staff and a larger percentage of the old students from the set. “This just shows that all of us are on the queue,” President Buhari said, “waiting for our turn.”
The Nigerian Commander-in-Chief said he hoped that the U.S. would continue its tradition of training Nigerians in the war college. At the time he attended the school, he was the only African in his class. The only other foreigners were from Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Israel, Indonesia, Thailand, France and Japan. The Japanese student went on to become the head of his country’s army.
President Buhari then went on to update his classmates on his life since he last saw them: his different appointments, his accomplishments and his family.  “I have just received my 13th grandchild,” he said.
He added that the wife they knew him with at the time had since died, and that he had also lost a son and a daughter from his new wife.  “Of all my eight children,” he said, “only one is a boy.” Some of his former classmates were curious to know if President Buhari would place his only son, Yusuf, in the army.
“I stopped him from joining the army,” President Buhari replied.
He explained that the military he joined was very different from what it is today, adding that he was the second Nigerian to be sent to the U.S. War College—based on his records alone, without connections. “Things took a wrong turn in Nigeria,” he said. “Your records no longer mattered.”
Some of the former classmates present at the meeting stated that at the time they met President Buhari back in 1980, they knew little about Nigeria or Africa. They credited the Nigerian leader with giving them their initial enlightenment about the continent. Others recalled how he always overworked himself.
However, President Buhari described   his war college experience as being responsible for his subsequent life of hard work, endurance and perseverance. “I contested for president three times and failed,” he said. “Then I did it the fourth time and won.” A roar of laughter followed the president’s apt illustration.
He then rendered his narrative of the collapse of the Soviet Union, breaking into 18 republics and how that influenced his decision to join politics.
“The collapse of the Soviet empire in 1980 without a single shot being fired convinced that the multi-party democratic system was the best for all countries.”
President Buhari then expressed appreciation to President Barack Obama and to the U.S. for the role the country played in Nigeria’s successful elections, recalling Secretary of State, John Kerry’s visit to him and to former president Goodluck Jonathan, as well as to Attahiru Jega, the electoral commissioner at the time.
Electoral commissioner
“Kerry read the riot act to all of us,” he said, “saying that the conduct of the election must be free, fair and in line with the Constitution.”  He added that, without US intervention, the electoral malpractices of the past   twelve years would likely have happened again. “God made me but America made me,” he said.
The Class of 1980 gave President Buhari the full assurances of their support, stating that they were willing to use their experience to assist him in any way they can, particularly with tackling terrorism in northeast Nigeria. They promised to put together and forward to him a compendium of their thoughts on the security situation in Nigeria.
In September, President Buhari will be meeting once again with his former classmates, at another event scheduled to take place at the United Nations.
Garba is the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity.

We’ll arrest, prosecute some former ministers for oil theft — Buhari

 

         

President Muhammadu Buhari said on Wednesday that his government was examining pieces of evidences that would lead to the arrest and prosecution of some former ministers and other government officials for stealing Nigeria’s crude oil.
Mr. Buhari said this at the Nigerian Embassy in Washington while answering questions at a session with Nigerians in the Diaspora. He said it will take at least 18 months to revive the economy.
He lamented that some of the affected officials were involved in illegal sale and diversion of crude oil monies belonging to the Federal Government to multiple private accounts abroad.
“We are now looking for evidences of shipping some of our crude, their destinations and where and which accounts they were paid and in which country.
“When we get as much as we can get as soon as possible, we will approach those countries to freeze those accounts and go to court, prosecute those people and let the accounts be taken to Nigeria.
“The amount of money is mind-burgling but we have started getting documents.
“We have started getting documents where some of the senior people in government, former ministers, some of them had as much as five accounts and were moving about one million barrels per day on their own.
“We have started getting those documents. Whichever documents we are able to get and subsequently trace the sale of the crude or transfer of money from Ministries, Departments, Central Bank.
“We will ask for the cooperation of those countries to return those monies to federation accounts and we will use those documents to arrest those people and prosecute them. This, I promise Nigerians.”
The President frowned at the way and manner the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation was mismanaged, saying his administration would check the excesses of the corporation.
He said his administration was carefully studying the issue of oil subsidy.
Mr. Buhari said he would not be a party to taking decisions that would further impoverish Nigerians in the name of removing oil subsidy.
“When people ask you to remove subsidy ask them to define it. Who is subsidizing who? Let me make it clear. The people are gleefully saying ‘remove subsidy’.”
“They want petrol to cost N500 per litre. If you are working and subsidy is removed, you can’t control transport, you can’t control market women, the cost of food, the cost of transport.
“If you are earning N20,000 per day and you are living in Lagos or Ibadan, the cost of transport to work and back, the cost of food. You cannot control the market women they have to pay what transporters charge them.
“If there is need for removing subsidy, I will study it. With my experience, I will see what I can do. But I’m thinking more than half the population of Nigeria virtually cannot afford to live.
“Where will they get the money to go work? How can they feed their families? How can they pay rent?
“If Nigeria were not an oil producing country – all well and good. Our refineries are not working. We have a lot of work to do.”
On the appointment of ministers, Mr. Buhari dismissed those accusing his administration of being too slow in taking crucial decisions relating to governance and appointment of political office holders.
He cited the immediate past PDP government, which he said spent more than two months to settle down during its 16-year rule.
“In some quarters they are now calling me `Baba Go Slow’. I’m going to go slow and steady.’’
Mr. Buhari also pledged to study the Diaspora Bill with a view to signing it into law as requested by the Nigerians in the Diaspora.
He advised Nigerians living abroad and searching for government jobs back home to suspend their ambition as the nation’s economy is in a bad shape as it would take his administration at least 18 months or more to resuscitate it.
The president, however, promised that some of the job seekers would be engaged by the Nigerian Government as consultants to enable them contribute their quota to the nation’s development.
All those who spoke at the interactive session expressed their readiness to assist the APC-led administration of Buhari to achieve its campaign promises for the benefit of Nigerians.
They also called on Mr. Buhari to sign into law the Diaspora Bill.

PremiumTimes

Onaiyekan to Buhari: Tread softly on corruption probe

 

 By: Augustine Ehikioya, Abuja

 

The Catholic Arch-Bishop of Abuja, Cardinal John Onaiyekan, on Tuesday night advised President Muhammadu Buhari to go slowly on his anti-corruption drive so that his actions are not seen as “persecution.”
He gave the advise during an evening dinner organized for Catholics in Politics at the Church of the Assumption, Asokoro, Abuja.
Pointing out that fighting corruption goes beyond making “few arrests here and there” he urged President Buhari to carry out his anti-corruption fight in a way that will not be seen as selective.
He also said that fight against corruption can only succeed where there is transparency, just and honesty.
He said: “This challenge obviously lies squarely on those who now have the power to rule our nation. I want to beg them, and I am glad the Chairman of the ruling party is here, to resist the temptation to rub in the plaques of defeat on the losers and try to avoid policies of persecution, some even talk of execution of losers.”
“We have to tackle dishonesty and I believe we need to retrieve stolen goods, especially those that are just piling up other peoples money. While we do that, it is my strong feeling that we should try to avoid as much as possible humiliating or disgracing people who may indeed have tried their best to serve the nation.
“How to do this and keep these two elements together requires a lot of sagacity and clear mindedness. But we should pray for our leaders to be granted the grace.
“We must be clear minded on this matter and not allow ourselves to be naïve thinking that it is just enough to make few arrests here and there and the matter is settled. Let us pray that God will guide our nation.”
On insecurity, he said that Nigeria needs to go beyond arms and ammunitions in order to reconcile minds and hearts for genuine peace.
The time, he said, has come for all to link hands and seriously tackle the problems facing the country.

President Buhari receives indicting documents on ex-Ministers and others.

Olalekan Adetayo, Abuja





President Muhammadu Buhari on Wednesday confirmed that he had started receiving some documents which indicted some former ministers and other top government officials of massive fraud, including oil theft.
While describing the amount of money involved in the shady deals as mind-boggling, the President promised that his administration would use the indicting documents and others still being compiled to clamp down on the culprits and prosecute them.
He also said while many Nigerians nickname him ‘Baba Go Slow’ because of the delay in forming his cabinet, he would prefer to be ‘slow and steady’ in taking decisions.
The President stated these while speaking at an interactive session with Nigerians in the Diaspora at the Nigerian Embassy in Washington DC, United States, in continuation of his four-day official visit to the country.
Buhari said the documents revealed that some top government officials moved as much as one million barrels of crude oil per day for their personal purposes.
He said such officials also opened as many as five bank accounts abroad for the purpose of laundering money.
He said by the time the process of compiling and identifying the shady deals and those behind them were completed, his administration would approach countries where the loots were kept to assist in repatriating them.
The President said, “We are now looking for evidences of shipping some of our crude, their destinations and where and which accounts they were paid and in which country.
“When we get as much as we can get as soon as possible, we will approach those countries to freeze those accounts and go to court, prosecute those people and let the accounts be taken to Nigeria.
“The amount of money is mind-boggling but we have started getting documents. We have started getting documents where some of the senior people in government, former ministers, some of them operated as much as five accounts and were moving about one million barrels per day on their own. We have started getting those documents.
“I assure you that whichever documents we are able to get and subsequently trace the sale of the crude or transfer of money from Ministries, Departments, Central Bank, we will ask for the cooperation of those countries to return those monies to Federation Accounts.
“And we will use those documents to arrest those people and prosecute them. This, I promise Nigerians.”
Buhari faulted the mode of operation of the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation, saying his administration would check the excesses of the corporation.
The President restated his position on the removal of subsidy, that it would bring more hardship to Nigerians.
He however said he would study the debate and take a decision based on his experience.
“Who is subsidising who? But, people are gleefully talking, ‘remove subsidy’. They want petrol to cost N500 per litre.
“If you are working and subsidy is removed, you can’t control transport, you can’t control market women: the cost of food, the cost of transport.
“If you are earning N20,000 per day and you are living in Lagos or Ibadan, the cost of transport to work and back, the cost of food. You cannot control the market women because they have to pay what transporters charge them.
“If there is need for removing subsidy, I will study it. With my experience, I will see what I can do. But I am thinking about more than half of Nigerians, who, virtually cannot afford to live.
“Where will they get the money to go to work? How can they feed their families? How can they pay rent? If Nigeria were not an oil producing country – all well and good.
“Our refineries are not working. We have a lot of work to do,” he added.
Buhari decried those he said had started calling him ‘Baba Go Slow’ because he had yet to form his cabinet, weeks after his inauguration.
He cited the example of previous government under the Peoples Democratic Party which spent more than two months to settle down during its 16 years of ruling the country.
He said he would prefer to go slowly and steady in administering the country.
The President, however, said though his administration might be accused of being slow, it would be steady in fulfilling its campaign promises to Nigerians.
Buhari said, “Within the past two weeks, I am being asked when I am going to form my cabinet. And in some quarters they are now calling me ‘Baba Go Slow’.
“I am going to go slow and steady. Nigerians should be patient to allow this administration put some sense into governance and deal with corruption.”
He also pledged to study the Diaspora Bill with a view to signing it into law as being demanded by Nigerians in the Diaspora.
The President advised those Nigerians in the Diaspora looking for government jobs back home to suspend their ambition as the nation’s economy was in a bad shape and it would take his administration about 18 months or more to resuscitate it.
He, however, promised that some of them would be engaged by the Federal Government as consultants to enable them contribute their quota to national development.

You can’t judge Buhari in two months — Fred Agbeyegbe

Call him a playwright, lawyer, author or activist and you will not be wrong. Chief Fred Agbeyegbe, who turns 80 years on Wednesday is many things to many people depending on the angle you are viewing him from. In this engaging interview, he speaks on the state of the nation, his experience in the last eight decades, how to check graft and the way forward for the country.
By Japhet Alakam & Gbenga Oke
AT 80, how do you feel?
I thank God for keeping me this long and I owe him all the gratitude.
Fred Agbeyegbe
Fred Agbeyegbe
Activities have been planned for your birthday celebration, what can you say about that?
I was given an award by the National Association of Theatre Practitioners, NANTAP. The award was called the Grand Living Legend of Nigerian theatre. They said they were tired of waiting for people to die before they celebrate them. So, they wanted to change the tide by giving me the award. Some of them have said to me that it is their prophecy that is taking place now that I am going to make 80. Let us celebrate people while they are alive so I am happy to be one of the pioneer celebrities for this new philosophy in Nigeria.
You are a playwright, lawyer, activist and so on. How exactly can we describe you?
I don’t know. So many times people ask me what I do. I, too, am confused as to what to tell them but there are people who know me in certain regards. For example, not so long ago I got into a waiting room where people were arguing about who Fred Agbeyegbe is and I sat down and joined them. They didn’t know me, a lot of people don’t know me but they know my name. In fact when some are talking to people about the Agbeyegbe family, they say they know one of them and they mention my name even in my presence because they don’t know me personally. Some described me as a journalist, some have described me as a civil defence person, some have described me as a lawyer and some as a business man. Whatever they call me, provided they don’t call me a thief there is no problem.
Do you think the judiciary is leaving up to expectations?
When I came back from England 45 years ago, things were not like this. I think that the mistake started from 1999. It is from 1999 that things became even more rotten.
Corruption in Nigeria is not by accident. Even the 1999 constitution that we are operating today is a corrupt document. To start with, it is a lie that Nigerians made a constitution for themselves. It never happened. The contents of that constitution cannot be something that a willing people would impose upon themselves.
Root cause of corruption
Therefore, all attempts at stopping corruption might even be a waste of time until you tackle the root cause of corruption. I am Itsekiri, I have never heard the word ‘corruption’ in my language. Is corruption a Nigerian word? No! Corruption is an English word.
Those things that make it impossible for Nigeria to progress are what I call corruption.
Having said all these, are you trying to say Nigeria was built on falsehood?
I have written poems and several articles on it. One of the books is called Budisco. It was a play that was commissioned by the Nigerian Bar Association when they celebrated 100 years of law practice in Nigeria. I was the one they picked to do something to celebrate that period.
Buhari, Idiagbon and Sowemimo, that is what Budisco means. It also means something vulgar in Yoruba language. Who is the President today? The same Buhari. So what explanations are you looking for? A people get a government that they deserve. Nigerians are getting what they deserve because when it is happening to you, the other person says it is not happening to me, by the time it comes to happen to you, all the people who could have stood behind you will be gone.
n 2011, my movement came out to say Nigeria was a failed state, those who thought they can patch it and repair it, by the time the Americans said 2015 is going to be a terrible year, they started calling them names. Thank God, Jonathan saved all of them. If Jonathan had stood up and said that election was rigged against him this country would have been in flames.
On NADECO
We live under this illusion that we are operating a democracy. And the way this country is organized is that when any issue comes up, Igbo man, Yoruba man, the Ijaw and Itshekiri, and other groups would have different interpretations.
This country is organized such that there will never be consensus. For example , I am an Itsekiri man and my neighbours are Urhobo and Ijaw, but these ethnic groups hardly live in harmony. NADECO fought against the trampling of the right of Nigerians.
So we did not come out in NADECO to show that we are brave, we came out to fight against the military because we felt they forced themselves on us. NADECO can function now because it was put together for a purpose.
How will you rate this administration putting in mind some of the decisions that has been taken so far?
From what I have told you, you don’t expect me to be a pro-Buhari person. But I am neither anti-Buhari. Like I said earlier, he was the people’s choice and they voted for him. Whether I voted for him or not does not stop him from being our President and he also said it that he is the President of everybody and that is how it ought to be.
But I can say that is it too early to judge him, it was the same type of judgement that Jonathan got. From day one, even before he won the last elections, he was told not to contest. Some said they will make the country ungovernable for him. And he dared to contest and he dared to win. And what happened to him, they made the place ungovernable for him and behold it is the same people who came back to judge him on performance after they had told him they will make it impossible for him to govern. That was what they did. So the guy had no opportunity.
Achieving change
I say the same thing about Buhari, give him a chance. I called him a magician and the media also called him a magician. People think he will just come and change things overnight, he is no longer a military man. We cannot achieve change in two months.
He has been criticized for the appointments he has made so far. I laughed because a lot of people do not understand the politics of this country. All the people he has appointed so far are all Northerners from his area of this country, I don’t know if the guy has a choice because psychologically, he cannot feel comfortable with anybody else.
He doesn’t know what people are going to do to him if he comes to Warri to pick me. But I will tell Nigerians to wait, if he then continues in that line of appointment then you can begin to blame him.
Do you think the proposed merging of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, and Independent Corrupt Practices and other relataed Commission, ICPC, will strengthen the fight against corruption?
When I heard that President Buhari is trimming down the number of ministries from 40 to 19, I concluded that the man is truly a magician. The ministries are one of the ways we fritter away this country’s resources.
Why do you need over 40 ministries? Is it that the work load is so much such that a few people cannot do it? Is that what government business is all about? Thank God somebody has come and has seen reasons to reduce them.
Prosecution of governors
The EFCC and ICPC, were they actually meant to work? How many governors have they prosecuted? Is it that there are no more corrupt governors? What has ICPC done? What examples have any of those two entities given to us? This is a situation whereby the institutions are used to serve the whims and caprices of individuals.
What do you then think needs to be done to move this nation forward?
There are many issues that divide us in Nigeria. And it is my hope that those issues will disappear for things to get better.
Our beliefs are not the same in every aspect. Sadly, religion has become a divisive tool.
You remember at a time, I lost a cousin to assassins. He was Captain Jerry Agbeyegbe, how can you convince me that Nigeria is not a place where people are killed any how? You may convince some other people but not me. Also, the one document that is supposed to bring all of us together called the constitution is itself a lie. Any document that tells a lie against itself is forgery. The 1999 constitution is not our constitution. We had no agreement on it.
Having criticised democracy as being practised in Nigeria, what form of government will you recommend to make the country work?
To make democracy work, we need to have a redefinition of the content of that word ‘democracy.’ I recently wrote an article that the Europeans came here last time and certified our last elections saying democracy is now thriving in Nigeria.

Meaning of democracy

What did they know and what did they see? I lived and worked in England for so many years, I know the meaning of democracy as an English word and I know the meaning of democracy as a Nigerian word.
The only thing Nigeria accepts about the word democracy is that the majority must have its way. They don’t even buy the other half of that same statement which says the minority must have its say.
So those things God has given me as of rights as an Itsekiri man in Warri, democracy makes it easy for somebody to come from the desert in Sokoto to teach me how to swim in Warri river where God has put me. The time Mandela started fighting their oppressors and they eventually got to where they got now, did they change the definition of democracy?

Buhari to Privatizatise Telecommunication, Energy, Solid Minerals, Health and Infrastructural Facilities

Tobi Soniyi in Abuja
President Muhammadu Buhari in Washington on Tuesday invited American business people to come and invest in Nigeria by taking advantage of the liberal trade and investment climate in the country.
The president, who gave the challenge at a business forum organized by the United States Chamber of Commerce and the Corporate Council on Africa, said his administration would go ahead with the ongoing privatization programme with improved moral architecture.
According to him, the privatization exercise will be expanded to include aviation, telecommunication, energy, gas, solid mineral, health and infrastructural development.
Buhari also enjoined the business communities in the United States and Nigeria to take advantage of the excellent political relations between the two nations to expand trade and investment activities including joint venture projects in priority sectors of the Nigerian economy.
He said: “It is my intention to create the necessary environment for future investment in Nigeria. We are the most populous nation with the largest market in Africa with vast human and natural resources and blessed with abandoned young skilled workforce.
“We are therefore proud candidate to become the destination of choice for United States investments in Africa.
“I work assiduously to welcome new investors to ur country.
“I will like to remain you all that we are continuing in major privatization programme with sectors ranging from telecommunication energy, gas, solid minerals, aviation, health and infrastructural development but with improved moral architecture.“