ACN feedback

By Donu Kogbara
LAST week, I angrily accused the Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN, of treachery, inconsistency, religious insensitivity and political parochialism.

This tirade was largely motivated by the fact that various Rivers people, including my cousin Kenneth Kobani (the ACN’s former National Treasurer), have told me that they joined the ACN in good faith before the 2011 election but eventually resigned because they felt disrespected.

[caption id="attachment_380079" align="alignnone" width="412"] From left: Aremo Osoba, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari (rtd.) Chief Akande, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, Malla Nuhu Ribadu, Senator Lawal Shuaibu and others ACN, members at the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) National Convention held at Onikan Stadium, Lagos Island. on 18/04/2013. Photo: Bunmi Azeez[/caption]

Most of the Vanguard readers who reacted to my comments shared my view that the ACN can be amorally pragmatic and has not invested much energy in winning support outside Yorubaland. Much to my surprise, a couple of senior ACN members contacted me to say that they felt that I had been truthful.

Only two people, including Kayode Fayemi, the Governor of Ekiti State, objected to my criticisms. And Fayemi is so articulate and well-intentioned that I’ve concluded, on reflection, that I should be more balanced and say that the ACN is, despite its shortcomings, a credible organisation that contains quite a few impressive individuals who intelligently challenge the status quo and quite rightly highlight the multiple failures of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party, PDP.

This desire to be fair also compels me to praise the ACN Governors who visited Rivers State last week - for sensibly advising their embattled colleague, Rotimi Chibuike Amaechi, to reach out to President Jonathan in a bid to actively seek a lasting solution to the crisis that has engulfed our state in recent months.

Even PDP stalwarts such as Dr Doyin Okupe, Senior Special Assistant (Public Affairs) to Mr President, have commended Fayemi, Fashola, et al, for being laudably statesmanlike on that occasion.

Having said all this, I cannot resist the temptation of making a naughty little observation concerning Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the famously overbearing and nepotistic ACN leader, who recently inspired grumbles from bona fide traders when he appointed his daughter, Folashade Tinubu-Ojo, to replace his late mother as Head of the Lagos Market Women’s Association.

I laughed heartily when I heard this story because I strongly suspect that the only marketing experiences with which Mrs Tinubu-Ojo is truly familiar revolve around fancy foreign retail outlets like Harrods (an exclusive London department store that is frequented by folks who are way too rich to worry about boring stuff like the price of a tomato or yam!).

What A Guy!

THE Minister of State for Health, Dr. Muhammed Pate, has just resigned from the Cabinet to take up a Professorship in the United States. He will work for Duke University’s Global Health Institute and also serve as a Senior Adviser to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which is based in Washington DC.

I salute this fine gentleman for being so different from the average Nigerian. While others are scrambling to drop perfectly adequate foreign jobs, so they can come home to enjoy the ridiculously numerous perks that are lavished on Nigerian government officials, Pate is going in the opposite direction.

In America, he will not be treated like a demi-god. Nor will he have access to billions of dollars worth of ill-gotten gains or be allowed to get away with performing lousily. He will have to cope with a finite salary and will be addressed like a normal human being and will be expected to achieve good results.

I wish this paragon of integrity maximum success in his new job.

Stop child molesters!

AHMAD Sani Yerima, a serving Senator, sharia law advocate and former Governor of Zamfara State, has gone all out to prevent his National Assembly colleagues from setting a minimum age for marriage (from a female perspective).

According to Yerima, it is  “un-Islamic” for the Nigerian Government to tell Muslim males and females what they can and cannot do on the marital front..

I’ve read many passionate condemnations of Yerima’s perverted views in the past few days; and the best article I’ve seen so far was written by the former Aviation Minister, Femi Fani-Kayode, in this newspaper (check it out via Google).

In the meantime, I just want to firmly assure anyone who is willing to listen that any grown man who wants to have sex with innocent little girls has a sick, twisted mind and urgently needs psychiatric treatment and a jail term.

Yerima married his driver’s early adolescent daughter and is determined to force the rest of us to regard this abomination as “normal “ and “acceptable”.

Even in diehard Islamic societies, there are men who are not remotely interested in sleeping with minors and parents who share my view that it is our sacred duty as adults to protect youngsters from salivating paedophiles.

God will punish this unrepentant destroyer of innocence…and the fellow legislators who do not have the guts to tell him to go to Hell...! A Vanguard reader made the following comment:

“Please give the female Nigerian child a pen not a penis. Concentrate on her books, not her boobs. Pay her school fees, not bride price. She needs education, not ejaculation….”

I couldn’t agree more!

 

ACN messes up!

By Donu Koghara

The Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN, has always tried to position itself as a highly credible opposition party that is capable of appealing to voters in every geopolitical zone and can take on the ruling Peoples Democratic Party, PDP.

I once had enormous respect for the ACN but have gradually concluded that it lacks the integrity to challenge the rotten-to-the-core PDP.

Why have I lost faith in ACN?

Because it has consistently betrayed its supporters in Rivers State.

This betrayal started when ACN stalwarts like Bola Tinubu went out of their way to to form cosy relationships with the (PDP) Governor of Rivers State, Rotimi Amaechi, thereby totally ignoring the feelings of Rivers natives such as Dr Abiye Sekibo (an ex-Minister of Transport), who had joined ACN because they were at loggerheads with Amaechi or simply wanted an alternative to the PDP.

The ACN then spectacularly failed to provide its Rivers candidates with adequate financial or moral support during the run-up to the 2011 elections. And so many of these candidates felt so stranded and humiliated that they fled from the ACN, swearing that they would never again trust “Yorubas”.

And, by the way, having anointed the former EFCC Chief Executive, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, as its presidential hopeful, the ACN leadership then left Ribadu in the lurch and threw its weight behind his main rival, Dr Goodluck Jonathan.

[caption id="attachment_203479" align="alignnone" width="412"] File photo: CPC National leader, Gen. Mohammed Buhari discussing with National Leader of ACN, Bola Tinubu at a meeting in Abuja[/caption]

Now, the ACN mandarins are tired of Dr Jonathan, so they’re trying to merge with other opposition parties to form a brave new entity called APC. But they’ve – weirdly, if you ask me - only nominated Muslims for key APC positions:-

1) Party Leader - North, Gen Muhammadu Buhari (Muslim).
2] Party Leader - South, Bola Ahmed Tinubu (Muslim).
3] National Chairman: Abdulkareem Bisi Akande (Muslim)
4] Deputy National Chairman: Aminu Bello Masari (Muslim)
5] National Secretary: Tijjani Musa Tumsah (Muslim)
6] Deputy National Secretary: Nasir El-Rufai (Muslim)
7] National Publicity Secretary.: Lai Muhammed (Muslim)
8] National Treasurer: Sadiya Umar Faruq (Muslim)
9] National Financial Secretary: Alhaji Shaibu Musa (Muslim)
10] National Youth Leader: Abubakar Lado (Muslim)
11] National Legal Adviser: Muiz Banire (Muslim)
12] National Deputy Auditor: Bala Jibrin (Muslim)
13] National Women Leader: Sharon Ikeazor (allegedly a Muslim convert)
14] Ex-Officio Member: Muniru Muse (Muslim)
15] Ex-Officio Member: Alhaji Yemi Sanusi (Muslim)

My cousin, Kenneth Kobani – the ACN’s National Treasurer for quite a while - regarded this religious insensitivity as “the last straw” and recently resigned. Dr Sekibo, my former boss, has also just told the ACN to count him out.

I am close to lots of people who happen to belong to different groups and factions. And you can call me a cowardly fence-sitter, if you so wish, but I like to see myself as a journalist who should be as objective as possible; and I don’t regard any of my friends or relatives as total sinners or saints.

To cut a long story short, my genuine fondness for Amaechi does not prevent me from also loving Kenneth, Sekibo and other Amaechi opponents.

Nor does my disappointment about the ACN’s unprincipled tendencies and pathetic failure to inspire confidence in its main Rivers State supporters prevent me from being a no-shaking member of the Kayode Fayemi (brilliant and compassionate ACN Governor of Ekiti) fan club…or from liking and respecting Lai Mohammed, the ACN’s charming and immensely articulate media guru.

Bottom line?
The ACN/APC alliance contains several quality people. But ACN personnel do not appear to know how to maximize their party’s impact outside its core South-West heartland; and, in the interests of democracy (ruling parties generally perform better when they have strong critics), one can only pray that the ACN crowd will eliminate this weakness before the election campaign kicks in.

Condolences to a dear friend
Abiye Membere, a Group Executive Director (Exploration & Production) of NNPC, recently lost his beloved father…who will be buried this weekend in Abonemma, the Kalabari Kingdom village from which the Membere clan hails.

I got to know Membere long before he became a major VIP; and I think it is fair to say that his behavior has not changed at all since he was elevated to high office and ceased to be a regular professional. He continues to be humble and down-to-earth. He also happens to be one of the nicest and most intelligent people I have ever met in any of the many countries that I have visited.

I know that Vanguard readers will share my view that his Dad, Pa Henderson Membere, deserves endless kudos for producing such an impressive son…and join me in praying that Pa’s sweet soul rests in eternal and perfect peace.

Rivers House of chaos

By Donu Kogbara

I KEEP asking myself how a once-civilized city like Port Harcourt gradually morphed into the kind of place in which legislators-who
are supposed to uphold the law and be shining role models and pillars of polite society - physically attack each other so savagely that some of them wind up being hospitalised.

The internet is awash with horrifying video clips that show computers being smashed, punches being thrown, the mace being used as a weapon and a forlorn wall in the State House of Assembly chamber that is spattered with blood.

Tears came to my eyes as I watched these disgraceful visuals on my laptop screen. It was a real horror movie. It’s a miracle that nobody got killed.

[caption id="attachment_403063" align="alignnone" width="412"] House of trouble—Top left: Hon. Evans Bapakaye in a scuffle with Mobile Police officers during the fight at the Rivers State House of Assembly yesterday in Port Harcourt. Photos: Nwankpa Chijioke[/caption]

Meanwhile, various witnesses say that some of the security personnel who were at the scene of this crime either folded their arms or egged the antagonists on.  

And I hope that the authorities will rigorously and honestly investigate these extremely damaging allegations and sack any officer who failed to do his duty.

Some of the lawmakers should also be punished. It is fine to defend yourself if someone launches an assault on you while you are minding your business. But those who were instigators and those who used unreasonable force should go.

I keep hearing that Evans Bipi, whose determination to impeach the Speaker of the State House of Assembly (Otelemaba Amachree) triggered off this fracas, started the fight on Tuesday because the First Couple told him to make trouble. 

But I’m sure, on reflection, that this rumour is totally false. Twenty six local lawmakers are supporting Amachree. Only five, including Mr Bipi, are against him. And I think it is safe to say that even if Mr President and Dame Patience Jonathan do indeed regard Amachree as a toxic opponent and want him to be turfed out, they a) are smart enough to know that five cannot out-vote 27!...and b) smart enough to know that their reputations will be irretrievably tarnished if they encourage anyone to resort to illegal and thuggish tactics.  

A friend called me a few minutes ago to tell me about a radio report that claimed that tear gas cannisters have been tossed into Governor Amaechi’s residence and that gunshots have been heard in parts of Port Harcourt.
I wasn’t able to reach anyone who could officially verify or deny these claims before the deadline for submission of this column to my Editor. But even if the claims turn out to be exaggerated or mendacious, something has to be done about the anarchy that threaten to consume Rivers State.

Interventions from Elders, the House of Representatives, etc, might ease the tension and even lead to a cessation of hostilities in the short-term.

However, this political hooliganism was largely caused by the fact that our leaders have formed the habit of elevating the wrong type of individuals to important positions they simply don’t deserve. And
we will probably continue to suffer outbreaks of hooliganism until selection criteria are radically reviewed.

I once challenged a Governor who kept bestowing influential jobs on guys who were obviously ill-equipped. Since he himself was polished, well-educated and capable of delivering good results and boosting his state’s image, I told him that I couldn’t understand his allergy to quality individuals who were on his level.

The Excellency in question was not accustomed to being confronted so boldly. But, to his credit, he calmly tried to explain his recruitment policy and told me that loyalty was the characteristic he valued most.
And I was  SO disappointed because I felt that what he REALLY meant was that he only felt safe with cheap, sychophantic praise singers who would do  ANYTHING to please him.

It is time for Nigerian decision-makers to stop putting their egos first and foisting rubbish on us because what we REALLY need are exemplary public servants who can deliver results and conduct themselves appropriately.

Remembering Daddy
MY beloved father, Ignatius Suage Kogbara, was born 85 years ago. But he passed away in 2002. And I will never stop missing him and
praying that we will be reunited whenever God decides to remove me from this mortal sphere.

Most daughters reserve special corners of their hearts for the men who gave them life; and my darling Daddy was my Hero, my Friend, my Protector, my Conscience, my Inspiration, my Teacher, my Mentor, the Centre of my Universe and the Rock on which my morals, self-esteem and dreams were anchored.

He was a quintessential Old School Rivers Gentleman who had sound values and wholeheartedly believed that integrity, refinement, compassion and intellectual development were far more important than money, power or appearances.

And I’m willing to bet that he can see, from the Greater Beyond, the chaos and crudity that are being inflicted on our state by people who are shaming all Rivers indigenes with their dangerous antics. At the risk of sounding morbid or fanciful, let me say that I won’t be surprised if my Dad is turning in his grave.