Jonathan Signed Pact to Serve A Single Term – Gov Aliyu

Contrary to the claim by the associates of President Goodluck Jonathan, Governor Babangida Aliyu of Niger State said, yesterday, that the president reached an agreement with leaders of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and governors elected on the platform of the party in 2011 to serve only a single term.

Aliyu, who also leads the governors from the North where opposition to the president’s  alleged bid for second term in 2015 has been loudest, said the purported bid  by Jonathan for re-election should be seen as mere speculation.

The governor released his bombshell while featuring on a radio programme, Guest of the Week, aired on Liberty Radio 91.7, Abuja.

Earlier, yesterday, the Presidency restated its claim that nobody could stop Jonathan from seeking a second term as there was no constitutional provision barring him.

“I recall that at the time he was going to declare for the 2011 election, all the PDP governors were brought together to ensure that we were all in the same frame of mind,”Aliyu, the chairman of the Northern Governors Forum, said.

*Gov Aliyu Babangida of Niger State

He went on: “And I recall that some of us said that,  given the circumstances of the death of President Umaru Yar’Adua and given the PDP zoning arrangement, it was expected that the North was to produce the president for a given number of years.

“I recall that at that discussion, it was agreed that Jonathan would serve only one term of four years and we all signed the agreement. Even when Jonathan went to Kampala, in Uganda, he also said he was going to serve a single term

“For now, President Jonathan has not declared a second term ambition and we must not be speculating based on those who are benefiting from the campaign.

“I think we are all gentlemen enough; so when the time comes, we will all come together and see what is the right thing to do”.

Answering a question on the merger of four opposition parties on  the platform of the All Progressives’ Congress (APC), the Niger governor  stated that it will engender a situation where strong parties will challenge one another.

“I pray for the success of the merger because I want a situation where we will have parties that will challenge one another properly so that we don’t take it for granted that, because you have been winning elections, you can do as you wish,”he pointed out.

“There is a purpose for elections. There is a purpose for setting up government. You set up government for the competence and efficiency of running an administration.

“You don’t set up government so that a group of people can enjoy to the detriment of the majority of the people. So, to me, the success of the merger will look like what is happening in developed countries where one party does it for a period of time and another party does it for another period of time.

“We should encourage a situation where our party become rational and very organised and where our party has democracy within because that is the foundation of a democracy of a nation.

“A situation where a party is allowed to handpick candidates and put them up for elections should not be encouraged”.

He described the prediction that Nigeria will break up in 2015 as a result of normal intellectual research after looking at the variables and concluding that if our situation continues to degenerate, there is the likelihood of a breakup.

Aliyu, however, reminded proponents of disintegration that Nigeria did not fight a civil war to break up, adding that majority of Nigerians will fight to ensure that the country remain as one.

“Let us understand that a break up is not going to be as neat as some people think because I recall that when we had the civil war, there were some people who said if you allow that group to go, we will also go.

“Majority of Nigerians don’t want a break up. Only a few individuals are calling for a break up. And you don’t call for a break up simply because you have something today.

“We have gone to Mali to help them fight off what is becoming a civil war. So if it starts in Nigeria, I don’t think the world will stand by and watch. We will ensure that we stay as one nation to enjoy the benefits of what we have been fighting for”.

On  his purported ambition to run for president in 2015,  Aliyu said if it is the will of God for him to contest, God himself will create the proper avenue for him to do so.
“But I have not said to anybody that this or that is what I want to do in 2015. We will cross the bridge when we get to it”, he said.

‘Neither APC nor Panadol can stop Jonathan’
Meanwhile, the Presidency, yesterday, lashed out at those campaigning to stop Jonathan from contesting in 2015, saying that the campaigners were either ignorant of the law or were doing so out of selfish political interest to intimidate Mr. President out of the contest.

According to Alhaji Ahmed Gulak, Special Adviser to the President on Political Matters, Jonathan would have done only five years if he decides not to run in 2015 and would have done only nine years even if he contests and wins the 2015 without violating any section of the Nigerian constitution because his first tenure actually started in May 2011 and not 2010 as often claimed by ignorant and mischievous politicians.

He told Sunday Vanguard exclusively in Abuja: “His (Jonathan) tenure would have been abridged if he does not contest in 2015. Yar’Adua was incapacitated and he was naturally allowed to act. The law recognises Jonathan’s first tenure with effect from May 2011 and nothing more.

“If anyone says Jonathan should not contest in 2015, he would have spent only five years. My position is that if Mr. President is not going to contest, let it be on his own volition but let nobody intimidate him out of office for their selfish political reasons.
“Secondly, it is Jonathan’s decision and that of Nigerians at the polls that will determine what happens in 2015. Tell those who are talking about Jonathan not being qualified to contest in 2015 to do a proper calculation from when he was sworn in as President in 2011 and see if their calculation is right.

“If the President decides not run in 2015, so be it, but let no individual or group attempt to deny him his constitutional entitlement. It is not going to happen. Neither APC nor Panadol can stop him”.

Gulak pointed out that Jonathan deserved the respect and support of Nigerians for being the best leader in Nigeria to tackle corruption and infrastructural decay in the land.

According to him, the federal administration has uncovered more corrupt cases and tackled them than any other regime in the history of Nigeria.

Culled from Vanguard.

Mimiko in the Last four years

By John Ajayi

As the Ondo State governor, Dr Olusegun Mimiko, clocks four years in office, his popularity has continued to soar even though he has himself not sought it.

The governor, in the last four years, has evolved a number of unparalleled strategies for combating underdevelopment and actualizing the social democratic mantra on a globally acknowledged scale. In the last four years, Mimiko has revolutionised the educational sector in Ondo State by building mega schools with no parallels in Africa, winning accolades from across the globe.

At a record 50 scattered across the three senatorial districts in the state, the mega schools (with free school buses, uniforms, sandals, bags and books, alluring architecture, electro-magnetic chalk boards, the computer laboratory with 50 internet-ready computers for Type 1 schools, an imposing Senate building, encapsulated in a self-regulating internal mechanism with each of the main organs in the school conceptualised to be self-sustaining) have been hailed as Black Africa’s greatest success story in educational revolution.

The only Quality Education Assurance Agency in the country, established by the state government, is involved in maintaining standards and setting parameters in all the agencies and departments of government in the state

In its bid to make Akure and other towns in the state functional, the state government evolved the mechanic village, where auto workers would operate in a state-of-the art environment.

There are 80 workshops/bush bars, each of which can attend to four vehicles at a time, aside cars at the car wash area, the spray rooms, spare parts stores and those on relaxation. The fee paid is only N40 per day. The government also built specially designated relaxation spots for the people.

Ondo State Governor, Olusegun Mimiko

The Caring Heart Neighbourhood Recreation Park, Ilula, Akure, is one such facility where, after a hard day’s work or even while on holiday, workers enjoy themselves, watching channels on DSTV, playing table tennis, volleyball, etc, and having a swell time with barbeque and any kind of drink.

In Akure, the government built a driver’s airport with an arrival/departure lounge, a green area, rest rooms with world standard facilities, paved and painted sidewalks, duty-free lock up shops selling provisions, tastefully furnished parking areas with news cars lined up in serene order, and many more.

The environment was conceptualised to redesign the mind so that the three geometries –the humans, the plants and the non-living environment—would form a balance. Again, on Monday, April 2, 2012, the governor commissioned Africa’s first court within a prison premises under the state’s Rapid Justice System programme, namely High Court Number 10, at Olokuta Prison, Akure, promising to provide the prison with a clinic that would offer basic drugs for free.

Mimiko noted that if violent criminals were kept intermittently under remand without the assurance of conclusion of their trials, it might jeopardise the safety of the society, stressing that efforts must be intensified to address the situation.

In tackling street trading through state of the art neighbourhood markets, the state government identified markets as a major avenue of social interaction and congregation, and even an organ of governance in any Yoruba setting, submitting that if the problems of market women were addressed, poverty in communities would be almost 25 per cent solved.

In November 2011, at a ceremony at the highbrow Holiday Inn, Kessignton, London, attended by over 40 foreign ambassadors and members of the British parliament, Mimiko won the Best Governor of the Year Award, courtesy of Ben TV, United Kingdom. Said the organisers: “This committee traversed the length and breadth of Nigeria for three months, conducting empirical research and on-the-spot assessment of the state incognito and it found that Dr Olusegun Mimko towers above the others.

We found out that no state governor in Nigeria has approached the implementation of his election promises with great fervour and passion like Dr Mimiko. In the education sector, no state governor in Nigeria has ever planted the kind of structure Dr Mimiko constructed for primary schools in Nigeria. You will be amazed that these beautiful, child-friendly and academics- inducing structures are not only for the public, the common people, but that they will pay no fees.”

The governor was decorated in the same month as a Honorary Fellow of the Society of Gynaecology and Obstetrics of Nigeria (SOGON) in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital; “Achiever of Our Time” by Radio Nigeria, Ibadan. He was named Governor of the Year 2011 by the Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ) in December 2011; given the AES Excellent Leadership Award by the Academy of Entrepreneurial Studies, at the Golden Gate Restaurant, Ikoyi, Lagos; named Governor of the Year 2012 by the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) and, again, Governor of the Year 2011 by the Nigerian Tribune, among others.

In the letter announcing Mimiko as the winner of the United Nations 2012 Habitat Scroll of Honour award, the United Nations through its Coordinator on UN-Habitat Scroll of Honour, Ana B Moreno, said the choice of the governor was the unanimous decision of an international jury.

The agency said: “Dr. Mimiko was selected among many nominees for the most coveted award in the human settlement sector.The UN-Habitat Scroll of Honour is the most prestigious human settlement award in the world which aims to acknowledge initiatives which have made outstanding contributions in various fields such as shelter provision, leadership in developing and improving the human settlements and general enhancement in overall quality of urban life.

The areas considered for the award according to the statement include, housing and slum upgrading, Urban planning and design, Urban economy, Infrastructure rehabilitation and risk reduction.

The Centre for Strategic and International Studies, Washington DC, United States, while inviting Dr  Mimiko to deliver a lecture on the World Bank-endorsed Abiye model on January 16, noted that “the Abiye (Safe Motherhood) programme is winning praise as a promising model, creating incentives for expectant mothers to seek care and for health providers to deliver quality services.

Abiye model is a work in progress, and the initiative’s leadership is cognizant of the challenges associated with scale-up and sustainability over time. But the programme does provide a  positive preliminary model of how data collection, technology and innovation, efficient use of resources and mechanisms of accountability – backed by sustained political will – can come together in a comprehensive strategy.”

As the October 20 governorship election approached, however, the opposition stepped up its subversive agenda, mounting campaigns of calumny against the Mimiko administration: “The encircled Iroko,” “Brother today, gone tomorrow,” “Can an Iroko make a forest?”, among many others.

Yet, in spite of the intense and unrelenting attacks, the governor refused to be drawn into the vulgarism which had characterised the attacks on him even by the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) governors, using the very idea of regional integration which he (Mimiko) himself muted as a blackmail tool.

“They boast in their godfathers but we trust in God the Father,” he declared.

On October 20, the Ondo people gave a clear mandate to the governor to pilot the affairs of the state until 2016, erupting into massive celebrations as soon as the election results were announced. However, the governor has promised to give the people of the state a double portion of the landmarks of the past four years, ruling with the fear of God. The success story has only just begun.

* John Ajayi is a Public Analyst

Our leaders are Looters – Gov Shettima

Governor of Borno state, Alhaji Kashim Shettima, yesterday made a nostalgic reflection on the early days of Nigeria, which he said were much better, compared to the present that is characterised by “senseless theft and looting of public treasury.”
Shettima noted that shortly after independence, Nigeria’s founding fathers were known for their selfless service, honesty and integrity.
The governor stated this when he hosted the officials of the Sardauna Foundation, led by Justice Mamman Nasir, at the government house in Maiduguri, the state capital.
Nasir was minister of justice for the defunct Northern Region in the 1960s and was President of the Federal Court of Appeal in subsequent years.
Shettima said the initiative of the foundation to unite northern Nigeria by rekindling the late Sardauna of Sokoto and premier of the defunct Northern Region’s approach to leadership couldn’t have come at a better time.
Shettima said: “On the quality of governance, we owe it a duty to posterity to give the best to our people just like Sardauna and his eminent co-travellers did.
“That is why we have a lot to learn from this Justice Mamman Nasir-led delegation who, like Sardauna, served this country to the best of their abilities at a time when there was no special graft bodies like EFCC watching over you.
“You were leaders when there was no ICPC. You have had all the opportunities to steal, but chose the path of dignity.
“But what about now? Governance is all about stealing as much as you can, just to buy a house in Dubai, buy a house in UK and in America – houses you don’t even stay in for a week in one year! Because of sheer madness, you keep investing in others’ economy, to the detriment of ours. We have to do serious rethink as Nigerians, and northerners especially.”
Earlier, Nasir, who holds the traditional title of Galadiman Katsina, had informed the governor that their mission was to visit all the 19 states of the north, preaching peace and unity across the ethno-religious borders in order to rescue the region from implosion.
He noted that the Sardauna Foundation would be willing to support and assist government in the promotion of dialogue with aggrieved groups who are taking up arms against the nation.
Source: Blueprint

No ripples over APC merger – Sheriff

Former governor of Borno state, Senator Ali Modu Sheriff has said that there are no individual interests threatening the merger that led to the formation of the All Progressive Congress (APC).

Sheriff, who is also the Chairman, Board of Trustees (BoT) of the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) also said that there was no flexing of muscles amongst party leaders in the merger.

Sheriff, who led the ANPP to the negotiating table last week Wednesday, said members of the party are enthusiastic about the formation of the APC.

He said, “There is no truth in the report of emerging cracks in the ranks of key stakeholders and state governors. All interests have been adequately balanced in the marriage, and fears of perceived hidden individual agenda have been assuaged, without any particular group dominating the other.”

Sheriff, who was reacting to reports that he and some other stakeholders in the merger may have been compromised by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) against the merger, stressed that there are no issues threatening the cohesion the merger seek to achieve.

He said, “I have been an apostle of the merger of opposition groups all along, and those who associate me with a purported deal against the merger are being mischievous, with the aim of causing divisions amongst members representing the parties.

“We always acted in the interest of our party, which we have been nurturing for the past 14 years. So, we cannot do anything inimical to its progress. The merger has been sealed.”

He further said that state governors have remained passionate about the merger, taking into account its prospects for their individual and collective political fortunes, and have been working closely with party leaders.

Sheriff also said that the meeting of the interim leadership, appointed to midwife the merger; made up of 21 wise men; made up of both serving and former governors, drawn from each of the merging political parties, except APGA, which leadership is in crisis, and its two governors divided on the issue, agreed that the proposed logo was also acceptable .

Source: Blueprint