The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila, has stated that the state Houses of Assembly and not the National Assembly should be held responsible for the delayed autonomy for local governments in Nigeria. Gbajabiamila recalled how the 8th National Assembly passed a bill to grant autonomy to the LGs but the proposal did not get the nod of two-thirds of the states to scale through. The Speaker made this known in Abuja on Monday when answering questions from journalists, when he was at a leadership training sponsored by the Minority Leader of the House, Ndudi Elumelu, for council chairmen and councillors from Delta State. Gbajabiamila was asked what the federal parliament was doing to prevent the third tier of government from going into extinction. He said, “It is not for us as legislators (of the National Assembly) to do that. I am sure you are surprised, but it is actually for the people to address, the reason being that we have a constitutional amendment, we will throw it to the people and they will make their decision. “We did it the last time but we went back to the states and we couldn’t get two-thirds. There is a process; we followed due process. We amended it (the Constitution) the last time but two-thirds of the states did not agree with us. “So, it is the people that will decide whether they want autonomy or not. We will do what we need to do as the Constitution provides.” The Speaker expressed his belief that at the end of the training, the council officials would have received a lot of education on what leadership is all about. “Some people are born leaders, some learn to acquire leadership but either way; whether you are born a leader or you acquire it, you have to go do that training exercise to be able to use your experiences and qualities you have in order to maximise your skills. And what better place to start than with the local government councillors? As you all know, that is the bedrock of our society,” Gbajabiamila noted.

The Director-General of the Progressive Governors’ Forum, Salihu Lukman, has advised the All Progressives Congress against having what he called “blind trust” in some of the leaders of the ruling party towards the 2023 general election. Lukman warned that the APC may not be able to win the next presidential election or have its candidate to succeed the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.). The DG of PGF, in a statement issued on Monday and titled ‘Determining Factors for 2023 Contests in APC: Internal Contest and Inconvenient Reality,’ recalled how the ruling party lost governorship election in some states in the 2019 general elections, which he attributed to sabotage by APC leaders in the affected states. Lukman, therefore, called for regulation of party leaders’ activities, saying there is a need to ensure that “appropriate conditions exist to regulate the conduct of political leaders especially elected representatives.” He said, “Given that APC has become the go-to party in Nigerian politics, the need to regulate the conduct of party leaders is paramount. Inability to develop the capacity to regulate the conducts of party leaders will be injurious to the vision of developing the APC as a truly progressive party. “As much as it is a welcome development that the party is winning new members, there must be corresponding effort to regulate the conduct of party leaders, based on which efforts are made to provide new orientation to all party leaders, especially the newcomers. “Beyond the need to regulate the conduct of political leaders, there is also the need to appeal to leaders of the party to rise above the narrow attitude of relating with challenges based on estimation of support or opposition for ambitions of party leaders. “Once political leaders are able to estimate support for their ambitions, what follows is blind trust for both officials of the party and decisions they take even when such decisions are wrong and contravenes provisions of the party’s constitution.” The DG of PGF pointed out that the immediate past National Working Committee of the APC led by Adams Oshiomhole between 2018 and June 2020 “was a classic case of how many party leaders overlooked the obstinacies of some actions of the Comrade Oshiomhole-led NWC. He stressed, “Had all leaders of the party been able to insist that Comrade Oshiomhole-led NWC convened meetings of organs of the party where the required decision to resolve issues could have been taken, perhaps even Comrade Oshiomhole himself would have still remained as the National Chairman of the party. “Unfortunately, factors of blind trust by many party leaders which produced inconsiderate tolerance for wrong actions became the case. The truth is also that Comrade Oshiomhole and many members of the dissolved NWC became emboldened by the awareness of a divided APC leadership. “So long as APC leaders are divided, the potential that elected officials who will emerge in the reconstituted NWC will take advantage of such divisions to manipulate internal processes and in some cases, members of the new NWC may also become part of the problem of the party, in the same way that Comrade Oshiomhole led NWC was, if not worse. According to Lukman, part of the requirement for the APC to be able to retain the electoral advantage of Buhari is that “factors of blind trusts in the party must be eliminated.” He stated that “no matter the estimation of support or opposition of members of the new NWC to the ambitions of leaders, APC leaders must have very high moral credentials such that when the NWC erred, they are not beyond correction; or at least, they should not be allowed to be emboldened by any division in the rank of leadership of the party to block interventions by statutory organs of the party to resolve problems.” The DG of PGF added, “Similarly, members of the party must not relate with ambitions of party leaders based on blind trust. Members should be able to speak out and critically engage party leaders. “While there is no guarantee that critical positions of party members will not become the source of disqualification for consideration to appointive and elective positions, it is important that it is recognised that no matter what, it is better to be members of a party in power working to develop Nigeria than to be governed by any party whose mission is adversative to Nigeria’s development. “The other related issue is that when all leaders of the party relate with elected representatives based on demands for appointive positions in whatever form, it also weakens the capacity of party leaders to influence the initiatives of elected representatives. “Part of it also is that once leaders prioritise issues of securing appointments as the basis of relationship with elected representatives, rather than acting as sources of support for elected leaders, they become sources of distraction. This is dynamic, which played out in APC in 2015. Moving towards 2023, this needs to be rectified.” According to Lukman, an “inconvenient reality” which every APC leader and member who is committed and working towards protecting the electoral viability of the party should be worried about is that the strongest opponent of the APC is within the APC. He stated, “The truth is; other parties, especially the PDP, are shadow opposition whose electoral prospects are largely dependent on the outcome of internal contests in the APC, mainly because of the reckless and undisciplined conducts of some APC leaders. “If anything, the lesson from the 2019 elections, which every APC leader and member should be reminded of is that APC was defeated in Rivers, Zamfara, Bauchi, Adamawa, Oyo and many other places by aggrieved APC leaders who worked against candidates or leaders of the party as a result of internal disagreements around candidate selections for governorship of these states. “Such internal disagreement almost cost the party the loss of Imo State until the Supreme Court confirmed the victory of the APC. In Ogun, it was a traumatic victory. Kano State governorship election certainly had

Former President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, on Sunday, declared that June 12, 1993, presidential election said to have been won by late business mogul, Chief MKO Abiola, was annulled on ‘bad belle’. He said this shortly after his investiture .c.f.,ras a Trustee and the conferment of Late Abiola as Vice President of the Club posthumously, at the 46th President party of the prestigious Abeokuta Club, founded in 1972. The octogenarian opined that if the election was not annulled, Egbaland would have gotten the opportunity of producing three prominent sons as number one citizens at different times. Recall that Obasanjo was military Head of State and later a democratically elected president, with Chief Ernest Shonekan as Head of Interim National Government while Abiola would have become the third Egba indigene to administer the country if not for the annulment. He appreciated the leadership of the Club for honouring Abiola, saying the late politician deserved the award. The former president assured the Club of his readiness to support its programmes towards promoting the development of not only Abeokuta, Ogun State and the global world. “When Abeokuta Club was in the process of being birthed, things in Abeokuta were not as rosy as they are today. And the sons of Abeokuta who were in Lagos put their heads together in late Chief Sobo Sowemimo’s House to think of what they could do to improve the development of Abeokuta as a city. I pay tributes to all those founding members, those who have departed this world and those who are still here. “I want to thank the club for this honour being bestowed on me and the honour being bestowed on my school mate MKO Abiola which he richly deserved. “Kabiyesi, the Alake (of Egbaland) alluded to it. Normally when you win a cup three times, you keep that cup. Isn’t it? If not for bad belle, Abeokuta would have produced President of Nigeria three times, in which case we should have kept it permanently. “But be that as it may, we have a great heritage. And we should be proud of our heritage. On this note, I will say on this occasion, I thank the President, the patron and grand patron, members of the Board of Trustees, the executive; I want to say this, I will continue to contribute my quota to the development and growth of this club and by extension, the development and growth of Abeokuta, of Ogun State, of Nigeria, of African and indeed the of world in whichever way I could.” The Alake and Paramount Ruler of Egbaland, Oba Adedotun Aremu, who presented the plaque to Obasanjo, also submitted that some “bad blood’ did not allow Abiola to become the nation’s president. He acknowledged the leadership qualities of both Abiola and Obasanjo, describing them as worthy sons of Egbaland . The President of the Club, Engr Tokunbo Odebunmi, acknowledged the unquantifiable contributions of Obasanjo and late Abiola to the development of Nigeria. He admonished prominent sons and daughters of Egbaland, to contribute their quota to the development of Egbaland, nay Ogun State. Odebunmi highlighted various interventions of the Club in promoting the socio-economic and educational advancement of the land.

ABUJA- AHEAD of the 2023 presidential election, a northern pressure group, Arewa Progressive Front, has endorsed foremost philanthropist and former governor of Imo State,Owelle Rochas Okorocha. To this end, it has enjoined the Igbo to rally around the Senator representing Imo West Senatorial District to actualize the South East’s ambition of producing a Nigerian President in 2023. The group insisted that Okorocha’s disposition as a detrabalized Nigerian, puts him at advantage over other Igbo contenders, adding that the North will throw its weight behind a candidate that puts the unity of the country above ethnoreligious sentiments. Spokesman of the group, Ahmed Bawa, who spoke with journalists in Abuja, weekend, observed that “Okorocha remains the best ticket that can guarantee the Igbo’s push for the presidency in 2023.” According to the group, “the former governor has pursued a united Nigeria, far before he joined partisan politics.” “This is evidenced in his free education programme that is open to all indigent children, irrespective of their ethnicity or religion,” According to him, “If the Igbo must make any cogent push for the Nigerian presidency, then, they must be ready to project their best and most acceptable leaders. We are aware of the campaign of calumny against the former governor, especially from his state, but we’re more comfortable with him than any other Igbo politician. “No politician of Igbo extraction has assisted the North to solve the major challenge of out-of-school children as much as Okorocha has done through his free education programme. We have the records and the North will not ignore such huge investments”. Bawa, who is also a Chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC), hinged the choice of Okorocha on the fact that he is “the most widely acceptable candidate from the pool of Igbo politicians angling for the Presidency at the moment. “When you look at the potential or assumed aspirants for the presidency from the Southeast or the entire Igboland, you would agree with me, that none of them can boast of the kind of acceptability enjoyed by the former governor of Imo State, Rochas Okorocha.” “Okorocha’s free education, his longstanding affinity with the North, and his visible human capital investments across the length and breadth of Nigeria cannot be rivaled by any of those conspiring for the presidency from among the Igbo”, he said. The APC Chieftain advised key Igbo groups and stakeholders to unite behind Okorocha in order to enhance the chances of an Igbo man becoming Nigerian President by 2023. “I think the Igbos need to bury their political differences and pursue this project with a common front, else they may as well perish the thought of making an Igbo man President in 2023”, he insisted.

The governor of Imo state, Hope Uzodinma, Sunday said that Ndigbo wants justice, equity, fairness and not Biafra. “What Ndigbo wants is justice, equity and fairness. A Nigeria that provides a level playing ground for all citizens. That is what we want, not Biafra”, he said. Uzodinma disclosed this while delivering his opening address at the first South-East security meeting, in Owerri, the Imo State capital that berthed ‘ Ebubeagu regional security outfit’ in the South East. On insecurity bedeviling Owerri, Uzodinma debunked myriads of theories propounded by few Nigerians, noting that they are further from the truth. According to him: “Following Monday’s attacks in Owerri and the preceding ones in various parts of the South-East, many people have come up with varying degrees of theories concerning the motive of the attackers and its consequences on our people. “The most ridiculous of these theories is the one that posits that Igbo no longer want to be part of Nigeria hence their belligerence and predilection for war and violence. “Nothing can be further from the truth. Perhaps that is the intendment of these merchants of violence across Igboland. “But that is a wicked and malicious conspiracy theory, concocted by enemies of Ndigbo. Let us therefore in one voice declare here and now that the South-East is not at war with the federal government. If anything, we are on the same page in not only condemning terrorism anywhere in Nigeria but in fighting the same with all the arsenals at our behest. “Like I have propounded time after time, Igbo are not at war with anyone neither is anyone at war with Ndigbo. The fact of the matter is that Igbo are the highest stakeholders in Nigeria. In most cities in Nigeria outside Igboland, our people constitute the second-largest in population, after the indigenes of the state. Our people have more stakes in real estate in virtually all the major cities in the country. Our people control the commanding heights of commerce all over the country. “So who has more stakes in Nigeria than the Igbo? As I said at a different forum recently, no sane man will urinate into a well he and his family drink from. I know for sure that Igbos are wise enough to know that. “What Ndigbo wants is justice, equity and fairness. A Nigeria that provides a level playing ground for all citizens. That is what we want, not Biafra. And we believe we can get what we want through constructive and tenacious engagement with fellow Nationals and relevant institutions, not by violence or war. “Igbo have seen war, not in storybooks or in movies but real war. No right-thinking Igbo, who experienced the excruciating and devastating effects of the civil war on Igboland and our people, will vote for another war. The young and inexperienced may zealously want to beat the drumbeat of war, but it is our duty, as their parents and elders to talk them out of it. “Those creating the erroneous impression that Igbo want to leave Nigeria are either naive or mischievous. Igbo need Nigeria just like Nigeria and Nigerians need Igbo. “We also have those who see what is happening as a dress rehearsal for 2023. The motive here is to create again an erroneous impression that Igbo are not united and therefore unfit to produce the next president of the country. This again begs the question. I don’t think there is any ethnic group in Nigeria that is as united as Ndigbo. “We all can’t be in the same political party just like other ethnic groups are not in one political party. In fact, we, the Igbo, are more united than any other ethnic nationality in Nigeria, through our shared struggles, our chequered history and our deep-rooted extended family traditions and brotherhood. These values make our belief and commitment to a united Nigeria beyond reproach. “Therefore we should jettison these conspiracy theories and treat this security threat purely for what it is. As a region, there is an absolute need for us to collaborate and work out a solution. Like our people say when we urinate together it foams.”