A group under the aegis Rivers Democratic Vanguard says its attention has been drawn to a viral video where one-time Minister for Transportation, Dr Abiye Sekibo was seen whipping up ethnic  divisions in a multi ethnic state.

The group said, “While addressing a group of people in Ogu/Bolo LGA under the guise of a thanksgiving program, Dr. Abiye who once served as the Secretary to the State Government under Dr Peter Odili decided to reenact they described as the “era of the already abolished Upland/ Riverine dichotomy” in the state.

A statement signed by the group’s President, Tamunotonye Ibiba and his Secretary, John Igwegbe alleged that Dr Abiye’s utterances aimed at triggering another round of communal crisis reminiscent of his time as the Secretary to the State Government.

Text of the statement reads: “We the members of the Rivers Democratic Vanguard  wish to draw the attention of the relevant authorities to the plot to create unnecessary tension capable of throwing the state and the entire Niger Delta into crisis.

“The attempt to subvert the votes of Rivers State of diverse ethnic groups from the present Government of the day by alienating them while giving credence to only the Ijaw Ethnic group is akin to a civilian coup in broad day light and such a sinister and divisive plot shall be resisted as we will mobilise our people from other ethnic groups ie the Ogonis, the Orashis, the Ikwerres and Etche Ethnic nationalities to mention but a few who make up Rivers state.

“While it is the inalienable right of every group to assemble, we want to warn that no such assembly should be a smokescreen to cut out other groups and malign the person of the Honourable Minister of the FCT.

“When double faced individuals begin to play the ostrich, right thinking men only watch to see them meet their Waterloo.

Abiye Sekibo’s gradual descent is reminiscent of a persistent, colossal  failure in  Politics

“The recent grandstanding of Abiye at a Thanksgiving in Ogu/Bolo has again exposed his penchant for masquerading as a patriot.

“Those who know his disdainful past, know when he leads a “political orchestra”, those that follow the rhythm become victims of monumental disaster. No wonder his sojourn in politics has left a sore taste in the mouth. Sorrow and tears remain the trademark of this man as victims of his savagery never recover from his unquenchable appetite to remain the only cock that will crow.

“His gradual decline reflects a persistent and significant failure in the realm of politics. The former Secretary to the Rivers State Government who was dismissed by former President  Olusegun Obasanjo as Minister for Transportation has remained incorrigible as recent events have shown.

“As a key figure overseeing security challenges in the state, he positioned himself as godfather to different militant groups vying for control of illicit proceeds of the Cawthorne channels.  His recent declaration of war against the non-Ijaws  of the state  shows a lack of remorse for his past actions as the self-acclaimed Militant-in-Chief.

“Abiye’s strained relationship  with the former Governor  and  now Minister of the Federal  Capital Territory,  Chief Barrister  Nyesom Wike CON, GSSRS deteriorated during the the PDP Governorship primaries due to his opposition to Gov Fubara yet he now presents himself as the staunch supporter of Fubara’s Government, showcasing his chameleonic nature.  This is simply the chemelonic character for which he has been known for.

“His unexpected shift to endorsing President Bola Ahmed Tinubu after tarnishing his image while supporting Atiku Abubakar raises questions about his motives and loyalty.

“Following his dismissal from the Ministry of Transportation on grounds of alleged corruption and fraud, Abiye’s repeated setbacks led him to consider running for office once again.

“After facing a series of political failures after his dismissal from the Ministry of Transportation,  Abiye turned to a gubernatorial bid which also ended in defeat again.

“It was through the intervention of Chief Nyesom Wike, the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory in rehabilitating him as a politically displaced individual that Abiye regained some political relevance. However when his aspirations to succeed Wike was thwarted, he and his co-travellers aligned themselves with Atiku Abubakar.

“The moment his ambition to succeed Wike was stalled, he alongside his gangster group decided to pitch tent with Atiku Abubakar not because they had anything to offer but for their personal aggrandizement. 

“The nebulous posturing of Abiye symbolizes an irredeemable situation encapsulating his current predicament. Therefore, resorting to ethnic rhetoric to revamp his tarnished political image only exhibits proclivity for violence.

“His assertion that the Ijaws had Ijaws had  waited for 24 years to  produce another Governor should elicit gratitude towards HE Chief Barr Nyesom Wike, without whom the achievement would not have been possible.

“It is absurd for someone indicted by the Honourable Justice Samuel Kayode Eso Jsc. Truth and Reconciliation Commission to persist in promoting ethnic divisions and violence years later without demonstrating tangible contributions to his community.

“Abiye suddenly found his diminishing voice under the auspices of a Governor who uses Absalom’s  treacherous path to fight his father, King David.

“While he begs to return to his vomit in order to have his fingers dipped in the pie, Abiye Sekibo should boldly show where he ever campaigned for Gov Sim Fubara.

“As the saying goes, those who live in glass houses should not throw stones. Abiye’s deceitful ways have ensnared him in a web of his own making,  rendering him a wandering soul without a clear purpose.

“It is our hope that former Vice President Atiku Abubakar now recognises the true nature of the individual he once relied on for support in Rivers State. 

“Politicians must be cautious of associating with such a morally depraved figure whose rightful place lies outside the realm of respectable society.

“Ijaw people are yet to know the executioner of their two prominent sons. Until they are unmasked, no Ijaw son is more Ijaw than the other. Who killed Marshall Harry and A.K.Dikibo? How many Ijaw sons and daughters did Abiye Sekibo empower or raise as Minister of Transportation (Grade A Minister)? How many developmental projects did Abiye Sekibo attract to Ijaw land when he held sway? The time to answer these puzzles is now.

“Politics in Rivers State has gone beyond primordial sentiments because the immediate past Governor of Rivers State, HE Nyesom Wike promoted an all-inclusive government. Those who will try to reinvent ethnic sentiments in the governance of our dear state will be seen for who they are: serial betrayers and monstrous opportunists.

“We therefore call on all the people of our dear state across ethnic borders to remain calm even in the face of this provocation as we believe that the security agencies will nib the matter in the bud.”

By Jude Ndukwe

Recently, some Northern elders under the aegis of Northern Elders Forum declared that the north regretted voting for President Bola Ahmed Tinubu. The Forum stated this through its spokesman, Abul-Azeez Suleiman:

“The North made a mistake in voting Bola Tinubu to the presidency in 2023, and it is unlikely that they will repeat the same error in the future.”

“They have learned from their past misstep and will strive to select a candidate who can unite the country and govern in the best interests of all Nigerians.

“Moving forward, the North will be more cautious in selecting a candidate for the presidency. They will prioritise someone who is seen as more inclusive, less controversial, and more aligned with the interests of all regions of the country.

“The mistake of supporting Tinubu in 2023 has taught them the importance of unity and consensus in selecting a candidate for the highest office in the land,” he was quoted as saying.

This is another arrogant demonstration of a sense of exclusive right to determine who becomes President of Nigeria by the north. President Tinubu is only 11 months into his four-year renewable tenure and the north is already talking about regretting voting for him. The north does not seem to like it when presidents emerge from other regions other than theirs. They do everything to cause disaffection for the person and unnecessarily heat up the polity with all manner of infantile criticisms just to lower the estimation of government before the people and make it look incapable of leading the nation.

This same Northern Elders Forum saw absolutely nothing wrong with former President Muhammadu Buhari’s government that was arguably the most nepotistic, clueless, corrupt, unjust, inept and incompetent in the history of Nigeria. For eight years, Nigerians endured that government of anyhowness while the north cheered him on with impudent ecstasy.

Today, they have suddenly found their voice and are doing everything to discredit the Tinubu’s government. But beyond the facade of advocating for good governance, discerning Nigerians understand why the north has developed a bellyache so early into Tinubu’s presidency.

With decades of lopsidedness in appointments, siting of institutions and infrastructure by past presidents of northern extraction, to the detriment of other regions, which in turn weaken our unity as a nation and erode the principles of equity, any attempt by any government to correct this age-long anomalies in our body polity will surely be perceived as witch-hunt by the protagonists of such blatant nepotism. Tinubu as a progressive who believes in true federalism and restructuring is already exhibiting the needed courage to correct those anomalies and give every part of Nigeria their deserved sense of belonging.

For example, the north seemed to have forgotten that Abuja belongs to all Nigerians and not to any particular region of the country, hence, some of their leaders whipped up regional and religious sentiments against the appointment of Nyesom Wike, a Christian southerner, as minister of the Territory. But Tinubu did not budge. They heated up the polity unnecessarily when the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, took a purely administrative decision to relocate some of its departments from Abuja to Lagos for greater efficiency and effectiveness. Of all regions in the country, only Northern leaders cried foul over that decision until one of them, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, a former CBN Governor himself, backed the relocation exercise with incontrovertible reasons.

It was the same thing when some MDAs under the Ministry of Aviation were to be relocated from Abuja to Lagos, some Northern leaders read meanings into it even when it was obvious and clear that those MDAs would be more effective in Lagos being Nigeria’s air travel hub.

The Northern Elders Forum does seem shocked that a non-northerner is now the Inspector-General of Police, while their hitherto seemingly unbreakable grip on the Chairmanship of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, has finally been broken.

Maybe they are also alarmed that shortly after Buhari had unreasonably shut out the southeast from heading any of our nation’s security outfits for the entirety of his inglorious eight-year reign, Tinubu swiftly reversed that absurdity by making one the Chief of Naval Staff. That must have ruffled the feathers of some ethnic jingoists in the North even though they head the Office of the National Security Adviser, Minister of Defence, Minister of State for Defence, DSS, Chief of Air Staff among others. They rather not see anyone from the southeast head any of our military or paramilitary agencies. They celebrated that ugly trend under Buhari and when those affected complained and reminded them about the need to be fair in such appointments, they quickly retorted that Buhari had the liberty to work with only those he trusted and that he should be allowed to make his appointments based on merits only as if the other regions do not have even more competent hands than the north.

They also probably can’t believe that for the first time in the history of our collective ownership of Abuja, a south easterner is the Commissioner of Police, FCT Command, an assignment CP Benneth Igwe has carried out with uncommon courage, fervour and patriotism, clearing the FCT of violent crimes and criminality in record time after his appointment. And as the military gained more ground in the fight against terrorism, neutralizing many while rescuing victims and recovering swathes of lands from them, some of these northern leaders continued to bicker with the security agencies over their exploits against these terrorists. Why not? After all, some of them have been named as financiers of these criminal groups while others are well known sympathisers to them.

Or is it possible that these northern elders are angry that instead of constructing a highway and a railway from Katsina to Niger Republic like Buhari did, an action which many Nigerians considered a gross misplacement of priorities and an attempt to pander to his cousins outside the country at the expense of the nation, Tinubu has chosen to commence the construction of a more beneficial 700-kilometre 10-lane coastal highway cutting across several states from Lagos to Calabar with a rail line in its middle? They probably would have preferred it to be another highway of 861km leading from Yobe to Chad. But Tinubu chose Nigeria for Nigerians first, and the north cannot seem to understand why.

It is even possible that their anger stems from the fact that Tinubu’s presidency has effectively clamped down on black market operators of foreign exchange market nationwide most of whom could be agents of these political hawks parading as ethnic leaders who would have preferred the continued rapid fall of the Naira as long as they are selfishly smiling to the bank?

When you are used to doing things wrongly, anyone who comes to correct them will certainly look like an enemy. In Katsina State for example, the state and the federal-owned universities prohibited Christian worship on campus indefinitely and reportedly locked up Christian worship centres while their Muslim counterparts are allowed to worship on campus without any inhibition. Let us even assume without conceding that the state has rights to place such a ban since it is funding the university, what about the federal-owned university in the state that is being funded with federal resources? Why place such a ban? If President Tinubu declares tomorrow that such an illegal ban be lifted for the sake of fairness, equity and justice, some northern elders will pick up a fight with him. The north really needs to look inwards to help itself. They have led the country for the most number of years by far, yet they remain the most diseased, the least educated and the poorest of all the nation’s regions. It is either they stop their shenanigans or their region will keep deteriorating even if they are allowed to produce the president alone from now till ‘thy Kingdom come’.

While it is true that Nigeria experienced excruciating hardship at the initial stage of the Tinubu presidency due to unavoidable reforms that must be carried out to put the nation on the right track, things are easing off lately. The President and his team deserve some accolades for that, not some irritable distractions churned out from an impudent and sickening sense of entitlement by elders of a region. Tinubu is already the president and should be supported to succeed because his success is Nigeria’s success. That way, even if the northern elders regret his presidency because of their selfish interests, the majority of Nigerians will rejoice because of the overall general interest that benefit them as a people.

Jude Ndukwe sent this piece from Abuja

Towards improving the quality of town planning services accessible in government service, the Ogun State Planning and Development Permit Authority (OGPDPA) has embarked upon a technical training session on the reporting instruments essential to granting building permits in the State.

The training, according to Mrs. Ajibola Taiwo, Press Officer, MPP&UD would address the techniques and preparation of Physical Planning Analysis Report (PPAR), and Site Situation Evaluation Report (SSER), was organized by the Development, Research and Record Department of the OGPDPA to improve the knowledge of town planners towards enhanced service delivery.

The PPAR and SSER are statutory reports required by Ogun State government to process and grant building permits, and therefore requires an indepth knowledge on the part of town planners to adequately evaluate them.

In his address, the Commissioner, Ministry of Physical Planning and Urban Development, Tpl. Olatunji Odunlami called on town planners to consider the training as an upgrade exercise, where they are being trained to keep abreast of the elements of the requirements for granting building permits.

“By virtue of your profession, whatever you write or approve will live long after you are gone. You must ensure that you do due diligence in evaluating the reports submitted before permits are granted”, the Commissioner emphasised.

The resource persons, Tpl. Moses Ogunleye and Ayo Adesanya, discussed the contents, methodology and expected scope of the PPAR and SSER respectively, after which an interactive session was held to thrash out the gray areas.

Speaking on behalf of the participants, Tpl. Taiwo Adeoye appreciated the management for the well thought-out and timely training, saying the investment in their professional development would surely lead reflect positively in their different work deliverables.