The Lumine News

Category: Opinion

  • Sad Story Of The Life And HAck Journalism Of Comrade Obi Ojage BY DOMINIC Kidzu

    Sad Story Of The Life And HAck Journalism Of Comrade Obi Ojage BY DOMINIC Kidzu

     

    POSTSCRIPT – I have never read any of Obi Ojage’s essays to the end.

    No one who has something to do, anything, will read Obi Ojage’s lengthy, boring regrets to the end. For all his body of work is on his regrets about what ought to be that is not and where he should be that he is not, and his imagination about how lofty his brain and art are, even when the general consensus among those who know him is that he is a well managed man who is unwell.

    Obi writes for a living and that should take you directly to the heart of the matter. For anyone who writes articles for and about people for a living must first relinquish his self respect and then disavow the truth, because doing otherwise would take away the bread or reduce it substantially. When you are not even a good writer in the first place, the penalty is worse. You become an intellectual dandy, a fop, living life entirely in your inevitable loaf of bread and the breathless substitute of yourself which you alone have created and which you alone can see.

    Such is the story of Comrade Obi Ojage, a reptile that is neither fish
    nor animal, neither APC, nor PDP, neither Ejaham nor Efik, neither Nigerian nor Camerounian. He has
    created a picture of himself as a stirling intellectual, frothing at the mouth and cannot see that all the members of the community are standing at the village square pointing at him and shaking their heads in pity. Anyone who takes Obi Ojage seriously nolonger needs to take themselves seriously heretofore.

    Comrade Obi Ojage took on Senator Sandy Onor yesterday when his blackmail was called off. Senator Onor had met him in his undergraduate days in the early eighties through his uncle and some kind of affinity developed. While Obi remained chained to the floor in his mother’s house in Big Quo Town socially and politically, Sandy became a local government chairman, a commissioner, a Senator and now a possible Governor. Many years ago he implored the Senator to come to his humble quarters and the Senator obliged him. After that visit the Senator was moved to place his uncle’s friend on a monthly stipend of N50,000 which he still collects till date.

    But recently Obi demanded for a pay rise but was reminded that he was receiving the money gratis, since he was really not capable of doing anything for the Senator. He asked for one of the buses Governor Wike graciously gave the Senator or another car for him to use. Unfortunately, he was told that his demands could not be met at this time. Obi got angry and threatened that Senator Onor was going to hear from him. Yesterday, we all heard from him.

    Last Sunday I went to buy fruits at Mobil by MCC Junction and I saw Comrade Obi Ojage trekking with a packet of biscuits in his hand which he crunched on noisily. He complained to me that “tell Sandy that he is being too arrogant and greedy “. When I reminded him that he was in APC and working for Bassey Otu, he said to me ” that one is an incurable Efik tribal jingoist who has surrounded himself with Efik people only. You people will see wonders. Just wait and see”. I could not offer him a lift him in my car because I was driving in an opposite direction, but I said a little prayer for him and drove home.

    Comrade Obi Ojage is incapable of relating with people or sustaining his relationships and those are two of his many problems. When the quintessential Donald Duke made him a board member of Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria (FRCN) Obi went there and fought every member of the board. In fact the board had to be reconstituted, leaving Obi out before the end of its tenure. That is where the comrade would have baked his own bread and save himself from his present
    ‘kpenklemess’ but the black spirit following him would not give him respite.

    He has abused Donald Duke too, Liyel Imoke also and Dr Pius Tawo who he claimed he grew up together with in the Cameroons, not to talk of his lawyer, Paul Erokoro (SAN). He could have been a genius if he had taken the trouble to go through school properly, but Obi does not have the patience to do anything properly. The little muses in his head remind him all the time that he is a genius and a great man, far above the mortals who hold or aspire to lofty offices today (at his expense?). The tragedy is that he listens to these mobid spirits and does their bidding. We all need to say a prayer in church today for Comrade Obi Ojage’s possible redemption even though he has strayed rather too far into the bush.

    My apologies to Senator Sandy Onor for this response, because he told me clearly ” Dominic, don’t respond. Obi does not matter “.

     

    DISCLAIMER: The opinion expressed in this article is clearly that of the author, Dominic Kidzu and does not represent the represent TheLumineNews or it staff.

     

  • The Impending Battle For The Soul Of Cross River North BY DOMINIC KIDZU

    The Impending Battle For The Soul Of Cross River North BY DOMINIC KIDZU

     

    This is by far, the most expected battle ground in the elections of 2023, more than the FIFA World Cup in Qatar after, ofcourse, the Governorship itself. And the reasons are quite simple. It is already shaping up to be the contest between the Leviathan and the people, the monstrous influence of government and the convinced resolve of the citizens. The dramatis personae are also both equally determined to win the diadem and bring the trophy home either as a personal memento or the carcas of a slain elephant to be shared amongst all, at the village square.

    Who would have thought that the day will come when someone will look a sitting Governor in the eye and stake a similar claim to his cherished fancy. But that day has already come in the Northern Senatorial Zone because the Governor dropped the ball. And now the die is cast! And the man of power and means, the gorgon medusa, finds himself standing bare nockled in the ring with the man of the people, who he has driven to become his nemesis, poised for battle in Philipi.

    If only Professor Ben Ayade had heeded to the often repeated cliché that “a stitch in time saves nine” , Napoleon’s Waterloo may well have been averted. But he did not. He spent too much time listening to the sound of his own voice and dancing trendy steps to the singing and clapping of his appointed choir. No wonder Oscar Wilde wrote that “education is an admirable thing, but it is well to remember from time to time that nothing that is worth knowing can be taught.”

    In the sunset of 2014, Senator Jarigbe Agom was as excited about an Ayade Governorship as Ayade himself is now inebriated by the pomp and circumstance of his own reign. It was he who broke the news to me in Ikom with excitement, that Governor Imoke has asked Senator Ayade to go ahead and pick the Governorship form. Jarigbe thereafter pulled all the stomps to help put him in office, buoyed such as he was with the idea of a Northern Governorship at last, and his ironclad belief in the ability of the then Senator to positively come through for the North and for the state.

    Alas, no sooner did Ayade ascend the apogee than he looked down from Olympus cursing the base degrees upon which he recently ascended. (I’m sure Shakespeare wrote something of the sort). And then he kicked away the ladder, sending it cantering unto the ground. Oh, what a tragic fall that was! Out of the ashes, however, Jarigbe rose like the phoenix in classical mythology putting on an iron coat to become not even a third term Congressman, but a Senator of the federal republic.

    As Senator, Jarigbe has reset the standard for that office and carved a broad new spectre for himself where even angels will fear to thread without his express permission. He has been creative, resourceful, caring and generous. He has shown the people of the North that it is possible to bring the dividends of democracy to them from Abuja and the people believe him. They believe him because they have seen his work and felt his impact both personally and in their communities. The even call him “the Governor of the North”.

    Governor Ayade is by all means also a worthy son of the North and a scion of Obudu. With his government left with only a few months to put to shore, he has appointed thousands of people into nonexistent offices to help him win back the Senate. For him it is an existential threat and failure is not an option to contemplate because his pride, his future safety and happiness are all at stake. For Ayade the senate is both his life and his future.

    As government appointees prattle and rattle with irreverent pomp and bombast, gushing out expletives and adamant Facebook posts, the word on the street is saying otherwise and every signal continues to point irrevocably in the direction of the Unconquered Generation and its army of self-convinced, self-propelled combatants. Welcome to the Kingdom of BIVAS, the boogeyman of the men in power and of power.

     

    

  • #500m Stabilization Fund: Cross River State Is A Crime Scene BY UMEZULIKE DESMOND-CRUZ

    #500m Stabilization Fund: Cross River State Is A Crime Scene BY UMEZULIKE DESMOND-CRUZ

     

    A senior citizen of this State called me earlier today and insisted that he would love to read my opinion on the trending issue of #500million Stabilization fund received monthly by the government of Cross River State as revealed by the RMAFC recently. Though, a Chieftain of the APC and a close ally of the Governor from the Northern Senatorial District, he had expected me to heap a truck load of coal on the governor over the issue. While I admit that the CPS to the governor tried strenuously to robe the past administration of His Excellency, Mr Liyel Imoke, into the inglorious Bakassi-gate saga, by alluding to the fact that the state have been receiving the #500million since 2008. By making reference to past administration, the CPS aimed to gaslight Cross Riverians and stylistically shift the focus from an issue-based debate to partisan Politics. The aim is simply to share the blame equally between Leaders of the PDP and that of APC, thereby turning a serious matter into Political chicanery.

    But then, I feel there’s a dimension to this whole thing that we care less about. The truth is, there’s an organized crime going on in this state, orchestrated by the elites and fueled by their inordinate desire for resource control and one of the conduit pipe for such display of avarice is the Bakassi Resettlement Project. Since the lost of Bakassi peninsula to the Republic of Cameroon and the subsequent lost of 76 Oil wells to Akwa Ibom State, they have been a few elites eating fat from the plight of Cross Riverians, irrespective of their Political Party affiliation. Till date, they are still Cross Riverians amongst the elites whose company accounts are used to launder money and subsequently shared amongst few cartels in this State. Have you bothered to ask yourself why some elites, even those in the opposition Party, don’t have the nerves to speak even if our state is on fire? The answer is simple, most of them are complicit in this heinous crime against our state. I know of one woman that have continued to make a heavy fortune out of the plight of the people of Bakassi, unfortunately, while she continues to milk her own people, she’s lionized and canonize by the same people whose future and destiny she has bastardized.

    The control of resources, like in most Capitalist venture, is the major yardstick for Politics in this state. Most of our leaders are not necessarily interested in what becomes of the State. They are only interested in what becomes of them and their pockets. This is why you hardly see or hear them condemn the ills of this current administration, because they are either benefiting from it or hoping to benefit.

    By the way, why are we all acting surprised about the #500million as if we are not aware that this current administration is the era of Intellectual Money and Other People’s Money? Is this not the same administration that received 18billion Naira from Federal Government as payment for the Federal Government Roads constructed/maintained by past administrations? Is this not the same administration that received Paris Refund money, Bailout funds and receives ecological funds yet cannot holistically account for it. If they can voraciously gulp 18billion Naira, Paris Refund, Ecological fund, Bail out Funds, what is small sum of #500million that they cannot embezzle?

    #500million is it for eba, is it for Garri, is it for Ewa, dodo or Agbado?

    May Affliction Never Arise The Second Time!!!

    *©Umezulike Desmond-cruz*

  • N500m Stabilization Fund: The Lie From Abuja And The Silence From Calabar BY AGBA JALINGO

    N500m Stabilization Fund: The Lie From Abuja And The Silence From Calabar BY AGBA JALINGO

     

    Barely forty days to the end of former Cross River Governor, Senator Liyel Imoke’s administration, in a petition dated April 16, 2015, Cross River lawyer and former presidential aide, Okoi Obono Obla, petitioned the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission EFCC, to investigate the expenditure of allocations to the 18 local governments in Cross River State from the federation account, under Imoke’s watch.

    The petitioner, Obono Obla, amongst other demands, asked the EFCC to investigate the expenditure of the sum of N15 Billion by Governor Liyel Imoke approved by the Federal Government of Nigeria to ameliorate the economic losses suffered by Cross River State as a result of the judgment of the Supreme Court that led to the loss of 76 Oil Wells to Akwa Ibom State by Cross River State and the transfer of the sovereignty of Bakassi Peninsula to the Republic of Cameroon.

    And to also investigate the expenditure of a monthly augmentation of N500m (Five Hundred Million Naira) from the Stabilization Fund paid to the Cross River State Government in 2013 by the Federal Government of Nigeria for two years at the first instance.

    Obla’s request was sequel to information disclosed in a leaked letter dated April 12, 2014 which the RMAFC sent to Imoke, requesting to visit the State to monitor and evaluate what the Bakassi intervention fund had achieved. The letter also disclosed that a lump sum of fifteen billion naira was released from the Stabilization Fund by RMAFC, to the Cross River State government, plus five hundred million naira monthly augmentation for two years, amounting to 6 billion naira, which was also paid in bulk in June 2013. In addition to another N400million Naira every month. (The letter is attached here.)

    Then in May 2017, a former Chairman of the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC), Aliyu Mohammed, during a visit to the State to see Governor Ayade, said as part of efforts to assuage the pains caused by the loss of Bakassi, about N38billion has been paid as special allocation to the State by the Federal Government over a period of 11 years, as compensation.

    CrossRiverWatch has been tracking this development since 2012. So when the incumbent Chairman of RMAFC, Mr. A.M. Shehu, mentioned $500million, it conflicted with all I have heard previously about this matter and created doubts in my mind. While it is clear that A.M. Shehu, told a lie about the currency they send to Cross River State and replaced Naira with Dollars, it is even more worrisome that Calabar is silent on the whereabouts of the money. Calabar is more anxious to tell us it wasn’t Dollars but reluctant to tell us what the Naira they accept they have been collecting has been utilized on.

    After joining their political party, Obono Obla, abandoned the petitions he wrote against Governor Imoke and the press statement from Governor Ayade’s office on Friday, though conceded that they get N500m every month, still didn’t not tell the public what exactly the money has been used for. That exactly should be our bone of contention. It is our right to know and we need to know and we actually need to know NOW!

    Meanwhile, I was abruptly corrected yesterday during an interview with a relevant source. A top source in RMAFC, who pleaded anonymity, told yours sincerely that, contrary to what people are saying, the Bakassi augmentation fund is meant for the entire Cross River State and not one LGA alone.

    The source said: “Before Cross River lost the Bakassi oil wells to Akwa Ibom, money for the 76 oil wells was not sent to Bakassi LGA alone. It was part of the Cross River State share from FAAC for the development of all the LGAs. Bakassi LGA has its own share from the center like the other 17 LGAs. The augmentation is to serve the same purpose that the oil revenue was serving and I am sure the revenue was not used in Bakassi alone. It is for the whole of Cross River State to augment her allocation for the lose of revenue following the ceding of Bakassi to Cameroon. I need you to correct that impression out there please.”

    Yours sincerely,
    Citizen Agba Jalingo.

  • Matters Arrising From That 500M Monthly Manna From Heaven BY DOMINIC KIDZU

    Matters Arrising From That 500M Monthly Manna From Heaven BY DOMINIC KIDZU

     

    As a leading member of PANDEF in Cross River State and the All Cross River Nationals Forum, together with Honourable Bassey Ekefre, Eric Ani Esin, Dr Joe Edet, Col. PAM Ogar Senator Bassey Henshaw, General Ennang, late AVM Osim, among others, we have severally discussed strategies to engage the Federal Government on the necessity to provide adequate compensation to Cross River State for the loss of the notorious 76 oil wells to Akwa Ibom State. Little did we know that the Federal Government was already providing such necessary assistance to the state on a consistent basis.

    There had been a flurry of activities on the back of that loss in the form of compensation to the people of Bakassi and provision of living homes for those who relocated back to Nigeria back then, but regrettably, neither Governors Liyel Imoke nor Ben Ayade has told Cross Riverians the true facts and figures thereof. It would take the Chairman of RMFC (who himself could not distinguish the difference between Naira and USD) to bust open the Pandora box.

    What is clear to the people right now is that the N500m monthly payment is not lumped into the monthly allocation to the state, but rather paid alone, or perhaps under the table. Therefore when figures of income accruing to Cross River State are advertised by the Governors freely to underscore the poverty of the state, the regular and consistent payment of the N500m to shake off our sterile and mendicant curse is never mentioned.

    In the present dispensation, the question to ask is whether that sum is reflected in the budget of
    QUANTUM INFINITUM, or its mouth-filling predecessors in the last seven-plus years, or not. If it has not been captured in all these budgets, then where and how has the money been expended? Again, why have Governor Ben Ayade and his predecessor, Liyel Imoke been so close-lipped about these payments?

    I was bemused by the Press Release from the Governor’s Office in which the use of the wrong currency was sufficiently belaboured, followed by a tortured admission of the receipt of the invisible monies. Even if the entire windfalls have dissolved into debt repayment should the people on behalf of whom Government collects these monies not know about it? Why should it take one Fulani man who could not tell the difference between the Naira and the greenback to make the great announcement on national television for Cross Riverians to know and for government to finally admit the fact?

    The very idea of democracy is coterminus with transparency because it promises a government of the people, by the people and for the people. That being the case, the people reserve the right to know about their money and the use to which it has been put even as they continue to endure an electoral authoritarian regime in the hands of people who may have come to town without a stitch of moral fibre or a whif of political philosophy.

  • Now That We Have Seen Governor Ayade’s Last Budget… BY AGBA JALINGO

    Now That We Have Seen Governor Ayade’s Last Budget… BY AGBA JALINGO

     

    Yesterday Governor Ayade presented his 2023 budget proposal to the State House of Assembly, and as usual, he gave the N330Billion proposal, which is his last budget in office, another buzz name: Budget of Quantum Infinitum.”

    For the records, let’s see the budgets from year 2016, since Governor Ayade took over:

    2016, Budget of Deep Vision – N350Billion.

    2017, Budget of Infinite Transposition – N707Billion.

    2018, Budget of Kinetic Crystallization – N1.30Trillion.

    2019, Budget of Quabalistic Densification – N1.43Trillion.

    2020, Budget of Olympotic Meristemasis – N1.10Trillion.

    2021, Budget of Blush and Bliss – N277Billion.

    2022, Budget of Conjugated Agglutination – N355Billion.

    2023, Budget of Quantum Infinitum – N330Billion.

    That’s a cumulative Total Eight Year Budget of: ( *Five Trillion, Eight Hundred And Forty Nine Billion Naira)*

    Budgets are proposals not birds in hand. But these proposals are meant to be measured by realistic frameworks and based on concrete projections and not only wishful thinking. Close to Six Trillion Naira has been budgeted in eight years. I am till this date, still mounting pressure on my brother, the governor of our State, Senator Ben Ayade and waiting for the commencement of functionality and market presence of products from his 38 industries. It will be to the delight of all of us, including yours sincerely.

    In 213 days time, we will have a new governor and most of those factories he built are not functioning yet. There is no guarantee that they will function and get their products to the market after his tenure. That model has not worked in our State since 1999. I don’t want to be fed with the periodic optics when the governor visits those places. I just want to see those products hit the market and folks earning genuine income from there and I think that is the desire of most Cross Riverians and trust me, I will be out there drumming it, once that happens.

    Yours sincerely,
    Citizen Agba Jalingo.

  • As University Students Return To Class… BY AGBA JALINGO

    As University Students Return To Class… BY AGBA JALINGO

     

    There is one alarm button I won’t stop to press mainly because of the consequences of it’s imminent explosion. The piling numbers of thousands of graduating students without any skill or ability to solve any problem is something that we must not stop to talk about. While several of our country’s most disciplined pioneers and high performers scored so high only with high school education, many are churned out of tertiary schools today and rather than arriving with problem solving skills, they are becoming the problems that society is grappling to solve.

    Carpenters, plumbers, vulcanizers, painters, tailors and others who trained informally are toiling within the excruciating economy to offer their services daily and keep up their families, yet a greater majority of graduates are just finishing their NYSC or MSc program, and returning home to begin a second childhood or returning to the same artisans they call illiterate, to learn a trade and then return home again.

    Most of those returning from our ivory towers today can only recite their textbooks and authorities in their field of study. They cannot solve any practical problem including the ones related to their course of study. Ask even some of the most brilliant graduates that simple question, “Now you have graduated or you have a Master’s degree, what can you do, what value are you bringing or what problem do you think you can solve for our organization? A great lot will begin to stutter and face down or they start reeling out their CV as if that’s what you asked for.

    That elevator pitch promptness to summarize your own abilities and strength is stunted. And this situation is worsened by their superiority complex and ingrained sense of entitlement conferred on them by the certificate. They feel they are entitled to a job merely because they have graduated not because they have any problem solving skill. They prefer that a person who can solve a problem, but did not graduate be kicked out in preference for them who graduated even if they cannot solve any problem.

    A combination of several factors has created this bizarre picture, many of which the Academic Staff Union of Universities ASUU and the government are tussling over. After eight months hiatus, the classes have reopened without the resolution of the issues that resulted to their closure. That means another closure is only a matter of time. And this circuitous rigmarole will continue unabated to the detriment of students and the future of our country.

    The students themselves must now re-invent the meaning and content of student activism and unionism and demonstrate the organizational depth to reclaim their campuses in words and deeds. NANS and it’s affiliates must return to history and study what motivated their predecessors like Segun Okeowo, Lanre Arogundade, Olusegun Mayeigun, Omoyele Sowore, Malachy Ugwumadu, Olasupo Ojo, Bamidele Aturu etc.

    The students must coalesce and invent an ingenious method of compelling the government and the teachers and every stakeholder in the education sector to declare an emergency, sit down in the real sense of sitting down and negotiate a return of their campuses to learning centers instead of killing fields, scam theatres and hook up arenas, that they have become.

    Yours sincerely,
    Citizen Agba Jalingo.

  • Prioritising Second Chance Education (SCE) Teachers: A Panacea For Ending Gender Based Violence (GBV) BY KEBE IKPI

    Prioritising Second Chance Education (SCE) Teachers: A Panacea For Ending Gender Based Violence (GBV) BY KEBE IKPI

     

    5th of October every year is marked as World Teachers’ Day (WTD). WTD marks the anniversary of the adoption of the 1966 ILO/UNESCO recommendation concerning the status of teachers. UNESCO adopted October 5th as WTD in 1994. Prior to this time, 5th September was celebrated in India as National Teachers’ Day. The students of the second Indian President, Dr. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, had approached him to inform him of their plans to celebrate his birthday (5th September), instead, he requested that the date be celebrated as National Teachers Day in India. WTD is an opportunity to celebrate teachers for their contribution and commitment to nation-building in general and the impact they have on their learners in particular.

    This year, the theme of the celebration is “Transformation of education begins with the teachers”. This theme calls attention to the important role that teachers play in educational transformation which in turn transforms individual and society at large. The future of any nation can be mirrored through its education (and their teachers). Communities that have poor educational facilities, low and discriminatory (enrolling more boys than girls) enrolment into school have turned out to be low on the human development index. This is why we must take the welfare of teachers seriously. Education and human development are Siemens twins; one cannot be achieved without the other. As important as education is, more important is the teacher, through whom lessons are delivered. According to this year’s theme, the “transformation” of the teacher is at the centre of educational transformation. This is the case of building the capacity of teachers so they can deliver quality lessons. This is were Second Chance Education (SCE) Teachers also called Facilitators come in.

    There is currently a global drive to end Gender Based Violence (GBV) against Women and Girls under the Spotlight Initiative. This initiate is a partnership between The European Union (EU) and the United Nations (UN). In Cross River State, UNESCO, one of the UN agencies implementing Spotlight, is supporting Second Chance Education through Education Today for Sustainable Development Initiative (ETSDI). ETSDI, a Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) has a mandate to reach 2,000 marginalised women and girls in Obubra and Obanliku Local Government Areas of Cross River State. This intervention is aimed at empowering women and girls from hard-to-reach communities, who did not have an opportunity to go to school or dropped out as a result of all types of GBV. As commendable as this initiative is, it is time bound and has limited resources for implementation. Hence, the need for government to factor in SCE facilitators when planning for the 2023 budget.

    What ETSDI is doing with the support of UNESCO is not enough. Government can replicate and expand on this by studying the NGO’s model of intervention. The NGO in partnership with the Agency for Adult and Non-final Education (AANE), and Ministry of Women Affairs (MOWA) recently trained 40 Facilitators to support SCE and 10 Vocational Skills Facilitators to train women and girls in different skills. The SCE Facilitators should be co-opted into the administration, given more training and paid Montoya stipen to continue offering this service to our remote communities after the six months period that ETSDI’s intervention will last.

    Partners on the Spotlight Initiative programme have a consensus that if Goal 5 (Gender Equality) is met, all other goals would have been met. One of the ways to get this done is through exposing women and girls to their rights, what constitutes GBV, helping them build life skills, giving them livelihood support and empowering them to manage their finances. All of these and more happens through the SCE. Facilitators (teachers) will be driving this process. My appeal is for Government to commit to sustaining this very important non-formal education when ETSDI’s intervention ends in six (6) months. If we must meet the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), we must take teachers serious especially, Second Chance Education Teachers.

    Kebe Ikpi Writes from Calabar
    Please follow Kebe on Twitter: @KebeIkpi

  • Dear Thief, Kindly Steal With A Human Face BY AGBA JALINGO

    Dear Thief, Kindly Steal With A Human Face BY AGBA JALINGO

     

    Regardless of how scary it may sound, it is axiomatic that life was longer when it was slower, and as life gets faster with technological leaps, life will continue to get shorter. I don’t know the calendar or the lunar cycle that was in place at the time, but we are told in the Bible for instance that one Methuselah lived for 969 years. Clearly that was a time when there was no knowledge of life beyond the precincts of where people found themselves.

    There were no roads. No transportation other than foot. No telephone. No internet. No satellites. No letter writing or post office. Nothing that has today given our lives a juicy turn existed then. Life was slow, so life was longer. As life got faster, when man began to impact on his environment to improve the quality of his life, and make it faster by building roads, airports, telephones, internet and the likes, life has consequently become shorter on the calendar and shall continue to, as long as it gets faster.

    But whether this life gets shorter or longer, the bottom line is that life will eventually come to an end here one of these days. And no matter the length of time God allots to each one of us here, how much money do we really need to survive for that time and even stockpile for our generations, if we must?

    It is a very important question that we need to ruminate on because our inability to interrogate this reality has led us to seeing some of the most humongous stealing in the history of politicking and public sector assignments in world’s history. Mindless stealing that when the figures are broken down, you conclude that those who do these things are not humans like the rest of us.

    No matter how much money you amass, if you spend 1million everyday from the day you are born non-stop, and live for 100years, you will only have spent thirty-six billion five hundred million. And if you spend 5million everyday from the day you are born non-stop, and live for 100years, you will spend: One hundred and eighty-two billion five hundred million Naira.

    Yet with all those bogus calculations, we only need a tiny percentage of that money to live comfortably here because we can’t start spending from the day we are born till the day we die for so many reasons and how many of us will even get to 100 years?

    So when you hear that public officials are stealing and sharing hundreds of billions of Naira from public coffers, the first question that comes to mind is, “what do they need all these numbers for? How long are you going to stay here? Why deny others the chance to taste a good life? That biggest mansion you are excited about buying or building, even your children will not sleep inside unless the ones that fail and are unable to build theirs.

    In taking it home, let me assume that there are not many people in this country who spend 5million daily nor desire to. For tens of millions of Nigerians, their desire is to have a system that can work and secure their daily bread for them. There is no man in Nigeria today that needs money to the tune of the embarrassing and mind boggling figures we read they are pilfering from government at all levels. None!

    It is sheer wickedness and a debilitating mental condition for our public officials to continue to neglect public needs and steal monies they really don’t need. The simmering anguish in the country is almost bursting. It is trite that stealing public money in Nigeria has been democratized and corruption now has a tribe amongst us, but when that endemic compulsive desire to steal has come over you and you must steal, please kindly steal with a human face.

    Yours sincerely,
    Citizen Agba Jalingo.

  • Gov Ben Ayade And The Challenge Of Politics With Ethics BY DOMINIC KIDZU

    Gov Ben Ayade And The Challenge Of Politics With Ethics BY DOMINIC KIDZU

     

    It will be difficult to count the number of times that Governor Ben Ayade has told the public that he plays politics with ethics. Although the claim has remained largely nebulous, since he has never offered a detailed explanation of what the ramifications and parameters are, the general assumption has been that he was going to level the playing field and allow the voting public to make its choice. With virtually nothing to leave behind as legacy outside the signature nepotism, corruption and under performance in office, one thought that like his senior brother, Buhari, he was going to at least allow Cross Riverians to freely make their choice about who should come and clean the miasma and stench of his ill – fated adventure.

    Unfortunately, it now appears that those hopes were merely a pipe dream seeing as the Governor is pulling all stumps to ensure that the opposition is denied legitimate constitutional liberties that are the bedrock of free and fair elections, which also could have in some manner aggregated to any semblance of ‘politics with ethics’. One hopes that the claim of Politics With Ethics does not go the way of most of the miracle projects which the Governor has began and completed in the air, and which the citizens are not likely to ever see let alone enjoy or benefit from?

    Only yesterday, the Caterpillar Movement, which is the advocacy arm of the People’s Democratic Party Governorship campaign framework wrote an open letter to the Governor outlining the frustrations and denials of their right to place their billboards and other publicity materials in the public space, even after they have made due payments and completed documentation with the public agency responsible for that purpose in the state. Ironically, the same agency has allowed candidates of the ruling party to place their advertisement all over the city with pomp and pageantry.

    The Governor has a responsibility to ensure that all political parties and their candidates enjoy the same rights and privileges as the ruling party if he still remembers that he has always bragged about practicing Politics With Ethics. He has a responsibility to call the government agents at CRISA to order before they make him and his ruling party appear frightened by the momentum of the PDP candidate and lily- livered about the prospects of a fair contest. For CRISA to collect monies and revenues from the PDP and then block the party from enjoying the benefits of that expenditure is shameful to say the least and criminal by all standards.

    The jury on Ben Ayade’s government returned with a guilty verdict since morning and clearly there is no official arm – twisting and village tactics against the opposition that will come anywhere near to changing that verdict. The part to honour open for the Governor is to play according to the rules and attempt to supervise a fair process leading to a credible election in 2023. Let me state here for clarity that the underhand manipulation being implemented right now even if they were to get away with it can still not ensure that Governor Ben Ayade will succeed in putting a cloned administration in his image and form in office in the year 2023.