THE NIGERIA UNION OF TEACHERS (NUT) NNEWI SOUTH CHAPTER ENDORSED SOLUDO AS THEIR SOLE CANDIDATE FOR ANAMBRA GUBER..
…Says they are solidly behind him because his Consolidation, Continuity and Expansion Vision is divine.
…Anambra teachers are fully Soludofied and Soludonized. Dr Kay Chukwura( Education Secretary Emerita Cum National Teachers Coordinator,SSG Worldwide)
The governorship ambition of Chairman Anambra Vision 2070 and former CBN BOSS,Prof Cee Cee Soludo gained traction and accolade today. As the Nigeria Union of teachers (NUT) Nnewi South Chapter endorsed him as their sole candidate for Anambra Guber after a marathon Consultative and town hall Meeting at Central School Ukpor,Nnewi South LGA with a special delegation of Soludo Support Group (SSG)/ Teachers Structure led by Dr Kay Chukwuraa.
Earlier in his goodwill message to the teachers , the Anambra South Coordinator SSG,Hon Van George Ezeogidi, Ijele Utuh ably represented by the secretary SSG Nnewi South said he was highly delighted to be one of Soludo’s Apostles whom he described as an illustrious, industrious and trustworthy teacher who will consolidate,continue and expand teachers welfare packages as the maxim” He who wears the shoes know where it pinches”
On her part,the national teachers Coordinator SSG Worldwide, Dr Kay Chukwuraa charged the teachers to que behind Soludo whom she believe will continue from governor Obiano as the most teachers friendly governor in Nigeria. She buttressed the fact that;”Nemo Dat Quod Non Habet” Nobody gives what he does not have.In Isuofia his home town, he has contributed immersly towards the educational development of his community in terms of payment of salaries for Auxiliary teachers in primary and secondary schools in his community.She said that Anambra teachers have articulated the pack which Soludo will sign and endorse once campaign begins.
Lady Nonye Chukwuma who represented the Anambra South women leader SSG urged the teachers not to allow the street urchins to intimidate them during the election rather they should join SSG family in their Wards and participate actively as polling units agents and canvasses in their various wards.
Contributing during the town hall meeting,the Education Secretary and Coordinator SSG teachers structure in Nnewi South Mrs Ileka Nneka said for the first time in Anambra politics teachers are coming out openly to endorse a particular candidate because of intimidating clout and cresidential. She said that APGA government has been fair to teachers interms of alert every 25th day of the Month..”If not broken,Why mend it”
The deputy Coordinator SSG, Aguata,Hon Emeka Onwuka- Ezenwa elucidated more on Soludo’s achievements as former CBN BOSS and his scholarly article during the first phase of Covid -19 which saved most Sub Sahara African Countries from hunger and starvation. He reminded the teachers that currently ideals rule the World not Money.For him Soludo has ideas that will make Anambra economic destination of Sub Sahara African Countries.
Responding the NUT Chairman Nnewi South, Comr. Ohiajiaku Fidelia moved a motion on behalf of the teachers to adopt Soludo as their sole candidate for Nnewi South LGA and was supported by a thunderous accolades and standing ovation.
High point on the Consultative/ Town hall meeting includes: presentation of #10,000 to teachers by SSG Nnewi South for kola, Singing of SSG Anthem, Interactive Session, Group photographs,Light entertainment amongst others.
Other members of the delegation includes:
Comr.Onyejekwu Rita,Assistant secretary State SSG teachers Structure.
Comr.Mozie Chidimma, Provost state SSG teachers structure.
Mrs Ireka Nneka, Teacher’s Coordinator SSG NULGE.
Mrs Igwe Uzoma, Woman Leader SSG Ihembosi.
Comr Tomypadre Ezeoliobi Media/ Deputy PRO SSG Worldwide.
Another version of the Biafra agitation seemed to have berthed at the weekend as ex-militant leader, Alhaji Mujahid Asari Dokubo announces himself as the leader of the new Biafra defacto Customary Government (BCG).
In a statement by the Head of Information and Communication of the customary government, Uche Mefor, it also announced that George Onyibe will be the secretary while Emeka Emekesiri will be in charge of the legal matters.
Dokubo, according to the statement had attributed the injustice and marginalisation of Biafrans living in Nigeria as the reason for aspiring for a “better life for his people”.
He vowed that the defacto government will take care of the current insecurity challenges faced by the Biafrans as well as focusing on science and technology to make life easier for the people.
Part of his statement reads: “We as people have resolved that as Biafra, it’s time for us to take our destiny in our hands and bring freedom to ourselves and our children and the generation of Biafrans yet unborn.
“I hesitate a little but I thank God that it’s time for us to do our duty and our service to motherland, I have accepted this role. I have dedicated my life hundred percent to play this role.
“My first act today in taking this position is to name those who would be on the driver’s seat to navigate through this period of tempest, this period of uncertainty with me.
“I want to call on our brother, George Onyibe to come on board to join as the secretary of the defacto customary government of the State of Biafra. He will take care of the administrative, day to day administration of the Biafra State.
“I also call on our brother Bar Emeka Emekasiri to take care of the legal needs of this nascent government.
“My brothers and sisters, the four of us will kick start the process, others will come on board. We want volunteers who are committed, we want volunteers because there is nothing anymore. We are the people who have volunteered to salvage ourselves and the rest of us.
“I also call on Biafrans in the various province of the Biafra nations in Aba, Abakiliki, Anang, Awka, Calabar, Degema, Eket, Enough, Nsuka, Ogoja, Oji River, Okigwe, Onitsha, Opobo, Orlu, Owerri, Port Harcourt, Umuahia, Uyo and Yenegoa province.
“We are going to proceed to set up provincial structures of government starting with provincial assemblies and provincial governance and administrators.
“Let nobody be mistaking that a Biafrans will be worse than Nigeria. There is nothing that will be worse than what we are facing today in Nigeria,” Dokubo stated.
However, he maintained that the government will take care of the needs of the people.
Continuing, Dokubo said: “Fellow Biafrans, our government will concentrate on the following areas: security paramount, securing the lives and properties of our people, we are going to invest everything we have in science and technology to increase the scientific and technological discoveries, fabrications and making life easier for our people through science and technology.
“We are going to pursue rigorously the education of our people, we are going to make sure that we feed ourselves.
“You are all aware of the recent plot where they decided to stop food from the north. They failed woefully, they will continue to fail. The Government of Biafra States will look to make sure that we only eat what we can produce.”
The BGC leader however affirmed that to achieve this purpose, it shall never go into war with anybody but certain to actualise their aim.
“Nobody can stop us. Nobody can blockade us as they did in the first war. We’re not going to fight any war with anybody, we’re walking to freedom.
“We will not shoot any gun with them, they will prepare their weapon but they will have nobody to kill with their weapon,” Dokubo assured.
BIAFRANS REJECT THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT PROPAGANDA KITE FOR NIGERIAN ECONOMIC RESTRUCTURING BILL 2021 AND INSIST ON THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THEIR MEMORANDUM IN THE SENATE FOR RESTRUCTURING BY DEVOLUTION OF POWER
1. The Customary Government of Biafra (being the Plaintiff in the on-going case between Biafra and Nigeria in Suit No FHC/EN/CS/103/2019 now in the Court of Appeal) has seen the publication circulating on the social media described as a kite flown by the Federal Government on Restructuring. It is called The Nigerian Economic Restructuring Bill 2021.
2. We have enquired from the Senate and were informed that such a Bill is not before the National Assembly. We therefore believe that it is a propaganda kite being flown by the Defendants to sway and influence the mind of the public. It seeks to divert attention from the main issues and problems troubling the country by proposing seven States for each Region to make us believe that the Defendants have agreed to create equity and justice in the polity. It proposes to create two additional States for the South East to be called Anioma State with the capital at Asaba and Orashi State with the capital at Omoku.
3. The Defendants are trying in vain to avoid the total restructuring of Nigeria by way of devolution of power to the Regions. We are not talking about creation of additional States but creation of Regional Governments so that every Region will govern itself and develop at its own pace and pay the agreed percentage tax to the Federal Government. Regional Autonomy is the minimum we can accept from the Defendants otherwise Nigeria will certainly disintegrate. In our Originating Summons we had formulated the following issues for determination and made the following prayers:
(1) Whether, notwithstanding and in the absence of any directions, instructions, promises or offers from the Defendants, the members of the Claimant have the legal and inalienable right to self-determination pursuant to Articles 19 – 25 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights (Ratification and Enforcement) Act, Cap A9 Laws of the Federation of Nigeria 2004 (Cap 10 LFN 1990)
(2) Whether the right of self-determination provided under Article 20 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights (Ratification and Enforcement) Act overrides and supersedes the provisions of Sections 1 and 2 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 pursuant to the Judicial Authority in the case of IGP v ANPP (2007) 18 NWLR (Pt. 1066) 457 at 500, Para B – C
(3) Whether the amalgamation of the members of the claimant with the peoples of other ethnic nationalities in the south and north by the British Government to form one country called Nigeria was with the consent and agreement of the indigenous peoples of the lands; and if the answer is in the negative, whether the Order-in-Council 1910 – 1913 made by the British Government to create Nigeria in 1914 was null and void ab initio for lacking legitimacy as it could not form the basis of the Nigerian Constitution thereby rendering the amalgamation invalid.
(4) An Order affirming the Memorandum of Ohanaeze Ndigbo dated 28th June 2012 submitted to the National Assembly for the restructuring of Nigeria into six autonomous self-governing regions, namely: South East, South West, South South, North East, North West and North Central, as a manifestation of the Will of the People in the exercise of their right to self-determination and compelling the Defendants to present an Executive Bill to the National Assembly for a law granting autonomy and self-governing status to the six geopolitical regions in Nigeria; OR IN THE ALTERNATIVE, in the role of the Judiciary as the last hope of the common man, an Order directing the Defendants to present an Executive Bill to the National Assembly for a law dissolving Nigeria in peace along the compatible ethnic groups instead of allowing the country to break up in bloodshed.
(5) An Order declaring that the amalgamation of the members of the claimant and all the indigenous peoples of the lands by the British Government to form a new country in 1914 called Nigeria without the consent of the peoples of the lands is null and void ab initio for lacking legitimacy and therefore the peoples should be returned to their socio-political condition status quo ante prior to the amalgamation; or in the alternative, an Order compelling the Defendants to convoke a sovereign conference of the ethnic nationalities that make up Nigeria to decide and negotiate freely the terms of their co-existence without the interference of the Defendants.
4. Devolution of Power to the Regions to create autonomous regional governments is the only solution to the Nigerian problems. Every Region must be given the power to govern itself. This means that the Nigerian Constitution must be amended to create Regional Autonomy.
5. Section 2(1) of the Nigerian Constitution provides that Nigeria is one indivisible and indissoluble Sovereign State to be known by the name of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Although we have made our argument in Court that Section 2(1) is not sacrosanct and provided evidence to support the argument that the Federation of Nigeria is divisible and dissoluble, we shall not pursue the same argument in the National Assembly as the Defendants are now seeking for political solution to the dispute. We shall rather push for the re-engineering of the Nigerian Structure to create Regional Autonomy.
6. Section 3(1) of the Nigerian Constitution is the section that created the Nigerian Structure. It provides that there shall be thirty-six States in Nigeria. To restructure Nigeria, this section of the Constitution must be amended. We appreciate the group advocating for total rejection and pulling down of the Nigerian Constitution but we think that a proper restructuring from the foundation of Nigeria can still achieve the same degree of fairness, equity, justice and self-determination that we all seek.
7. Therefore, the Customary Government of Indigenous People of Biafra presented the Memorandum to the National Assembly and provided the following solutions:
(1) On the issue of devolution of power, we propose:
(a) That Section 2(1) of the Constitution be amended as follows:
“Nigeria is one indivisible and indissoluble Sovereign State to be known by the name of the Federal Republic of Nigeria without prejudice to the fundamental right of the people of any federating unit in the exercise of their right to self-determination by the rule of law”.
(b) That Section 2(2) of the Constitution be amended as follows:
“Nigeria shall be a Federation consisting of Regions and a Federal Capital Territory”
(c) That Section 3(1) of the Constitution be amended as follows:
“There shall be six Regions in Nigeria with thirty-six States as shown in the first column of Part 1 of the First Schedule to this Constitution without prejudice to the right of any region to create additional States within the Region or merge the existing States into one by a bill passed into law by the House of Parliament of the Region.”
(d) That an additional section be added as Section 3(7) as follows:
“Notwithstanding the provisions of sections 3(1) and 3(6) of this Constitution, the House of Parliament of every region shall have the power to organize the region and create such other political units as districts and councils or convert the existing states and local governments to districts and local councils in accordance with the need of the people”.
8. On the issue of Public Revenue, Fiscal Federalism and Revenue Allocation, the Biafran Memorandum referred to Paragraph 5 of the Proposal submitted by Barrister Emeka Emekesiri to the Federal Government of Nigeria in 2006 when he was the spokesman of Igbo Lawyers in Rivers State titled “The Road Map to Peace and Development in the Niger Delta” in which he proffered the solution as follows:
(a) Restore the Ancient Landmark of 50% Derivation Formula:
(i) God Almighty, the fountain of justice and truth, has commanded all mankind saying, “Remove not the ancient landmark which thy fathers have set” (Proverbs 22:28, The Holy Bible). In Article viii of the Kaiama Declaration, the Ijaw Youth Council traced the history of the removal of the ancient revenue formula as follows:
“That the Principle of Derivation of Revenue Allocation has been consciously and systematically obliterated by successive regimes of the Nigerian State. We note the drastic reduction of the Derivation Principle from 100% (1953), 50% (1960), 45% (1970), 20% (1975), 2% (1982), 1.5% (1984) to 3% (1992 to date), and a rumored 13% in Abacha’s 1995 undemocratic and unimplemented Constitution”.
(ii) It is pertinent to note that as at the date when the Kaiama Declaration was made in 1998, the present 13% derivation formula contained in the 1999 Constitution was not yet implemented. An article written by Senator David Dafinone on “Resource Control: Economic and Political Dimensions” and reported by Dr. Steve Azaiki in his book, INEQUITIES IN NIGERIAN POLITICS, 2003, Page 163, stated as follows:
“The 1963 Republican Constitution was not a perfect document but its stance was clear on the issue of the society, issues that were central to federalism. It directed that revenues from imports be paid 100% to the State in the proportion of the consumption of the product. The same goes for excise duty: 100% payment to the State according to the proportion of the duty collected. For minerals, the Constitution shared the revenue in the proportion of 50:20:30. That is, 50% for derivation, 20% to the Federal Government and the remaining 30% paid into the distributable pool to be shared among the States including the donor States”.
(iii) The Derivation Formula of 50:20:30 is the ancient landmark which our forefathers set in motion at Independence for justice and equity in the Nigerian polity. It started in 1960, but was changed to 45% in 1970 by General Yakubu Gowon’s Government and further reduced by his successors progressively down to 1.5% before the South East delegates went to the Abacha Constitutional Conference in 1995 and argued for increase of the derivation formula now to 13%, rotational presidency and creation of the six geopolitical regions. For removing this ancient landmark which their forefathers set at independence, Nigerians shall have no peace until justice is done.
(iv) Beginning at the Independence, other regions were receiving the 50% derivation and earning more revenue while Niger Delta earned less. Now that the table has turned, the 50% derivation was abolished. It is wickedness to remove the goal posts in the middle of the game when the losing side is about to score an equalizing goal. The elders of the South-South Zone at the Nigerian Political Reform Conference demanded for 50% Derivation graduated from 25% over a 5-year period. Their demand is fair and just. In fact they were very kind to have demanded it in a graduated scale to stabilize in the 5th year. The strictest sense of justice requires that the 50% Derivation should start with immediate effect, but the elders of the South-South Zone decided to temper justice with mercy. The argument by Northerners that the leaders of the South-South misused the 13% meant for their people and therefore should not be given 50% is a blind argument. Give the people what belongs to them, and stop diversionary argument! After all, the principle of federalism guarantees resource control to every region. Restore the ancient landmark of Derivation Principle of 50:20:30 which your fathers set at Independence otherwise you shall have no peace.
9. Considering that we have advocated for the Regions to become political units created by the Constitution under section 3(1), the derivation formula and revenue allocation under Section 162(2) of the Constitution shall therefore be as follows:
(i) 50% to the Region
(ii) 20% to the Federal Government
(iii) 30% to the distributable pool to be shared equally by all the regions including the donor regions.
10. The above formula was what our founding fathers agreed at the Lancaster Conference in London in 1958 which formed the basis of the federation with three Regions culminating in the Independence Constitution of 1960. Now we have six Regions for better balance and equity in the polity. We think that the Defendants are flying a kite of deception by stating as follows: “Over a 35 year period, we gradually migrate back to the 1957/58 revenue sharing formula agreed by our founding fathers at the Lancaster House Conferences in London under which the federating units will control all the resources within their domains and remit 50% to the centre”. It is a lie. It was 20% that was remitted to the centre and not 50%. We reject the deceptive kite being flown by the Defendants to enslave the people again.
11. Although we had argued in Court that the amalgamation of the various ethnic nationalities to create a new country called “Nigeria” without the consent of the indigenous peoples of the lands was unlawful and therefore null and void ab initio, we think that the concept of “Restructuring of Nigeria” is similar to the concept of finding a solution to the structural defects in a building. We know that structural defects on the foundation of a building will cause the building to collapse. It is our submission that Nigeria will certainly collapse if there is no urgent remedial work on the foundation. The foundation of Nigeria is the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
12. To save Nigeria, there must be a fundamental restructuring of the Nigerian Federation by an overhaul amendment of the Nigerian Constitution to accord with the will and yearnings of the people for freedom. It must be the peoples’ Constitution. At the moment, we are advocating for freedom within Nigeria by way of Regional Autonomy. This is what the majority of Nigerians want now. Let every Region in Nigeria govern itself and develop at its own pace just like we have the four autonomous Regions of England, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales in the United Kingdom. This is our minimum demand as presented to the National Assembly in our Memorandum for Devolution of Power otherwise Nigeria shall certainly disintegrate by itself. If Nigeria disintegrates by forces beyond human control, the present leaders of Nigeria must be held responsible.
Signed:
Emeka Emekesiri, Esq. (Chairman)
For: Customary Government of Biafra
Since the return of the country to democracy in 1999, the Legislature has been at the receiving end, taking all the heat from Nigerians who have been anxiously waiting for the dividends of democracy. This is understandable for the reason that the Legislators are the closest to the people and deliverables of government or lack of them are often gauged through the lawmakers by the citizens. The same thing goes for public perception of the malfeasances in governance, which are also held against the Legislature by the people in most cases.
Yet, the role of the Legislature in the nation’s democracy cannot be played by the other arms of government and it is the legislative arm of government that is the actual delineator of democracy. This is undeniable since the Executive and Judiciary Arms of Government were never disrupted in the days of military interregnums in the country. Both arms therefore have enjoyed continuity, deep and rich institutional memories and capacities garnered from the colonial times to date, unlike the Legislature, which was truncated each time the military hijacked the government in Nigeria. This is the very reason the Legislature has very shallow institutional memory and weaker capacity and therefore has to do much more than the other arms of government to catch up and discharge its responsibilities more credibly and creditably.
Despite the herculean task assigned to it by the Constitution, the Legislature or, if you like, the National Assembly has remained largely reactionary, doing very little to set an agenda for a healthy public perception of its functions and performance. For instance, since the return to democracy, the National Assembly has passed hundreds of Bills but only very few Nigerians are aware of this, and know about the institutions it has created such EFCC, ICPC, FERMA, etcetera, and dozens of other legislative interventions, which have strengthened democracy and democratic governance in Nigeria.
Though it is not yet uhuru, democracy in Nigeria has made significant progress and the National Assembly has been pivotal in making these landmark achievements possible and as such, the arm should be celebrated and made more virile and NOT vilified and demonized as is presently the case.
What is mostly out there in the public domain, in the main, are talks about the Federal Legislators enriching themselves and awarding themselves humongous remunerations to become millionaires and billionaires overnight. This sustained negative narrative and the poor image buildup created against the National Assembly ought to be confronted and dealt with decisively so as to set the record straight and get the Nigerian citizens to gain proper perspective about this most important arm of government in a presidential democracy.
Indeed if Nigerians really want democracy, they have to position and strengthen the Legislative arm to be able to effectively serve as the buffer and to check the inherent tyrannical tendencies of the executive arm, which easily occurs even in advanced democracies as the United States witnessed under Donald Trump.
There has been equally the blackmail of the National Assembly being a rubber stamp of the Executive. There is therefore equally a need to educate the Nigerian public on the real meaning, essence and quintessence of the principle of separation of power, and why legislative independence does not in any way mean the same thing as antagonism of the Executive arm by the legislative arm. After all, the arms are of the government and do not have to be on a warpath or in an adversarial relationship to check one another or prove its independence and essence.
Apart from putting out there the correct information and facts about the Legislature at the federal level, the message needs to be psychologically crafted and deployed to be able to make the desired impacts. If the image and public perception of the National Assembly is not redeemed, it will continue to impede its place in the nation’s democracy as the foundation of democratic governance hence the urgent need for the National Assembly to really engage the Nigerian public deliberately and constructively.
Lai Mohammed as Minister of Information unsmilingly has been up and about telling both who cares to listen and who doesn’t why Nigeria is best governed today and why Buhari is the best deal Nigeria has ever had since colonial times for making happiness and life much more abundant. Despite his claims being largely delusional (since there is abundant evidence and facts existing to the contrary) the old man has a job to do. Yet, the National Assembly, which actually needs such aggressive information dissemination more, has virtually nobody speaking for it or making its case. For instance, nobody can tell who the Director of Information of National Assembly is if there is anybody like that. The last one heard was when David Minima held the position and retired a decade ago or more.
Bottom-line is: the National Assembly has NOT been proactive with engaging Nigerians, thus creating the lacuna easily exploited by the Executive to run rings round it and paint it in bad light. Each time the National Assembly comes under the hammer, it is seen running from pillar to post, offering very feeble defence of its activities and actions.
For example, what a senator takes home has been a matter of controversy and public debate and needlessly too. The National Assembly has never offered any coordinated response to the allegations of primitive accumulation of wealth by the Federal Legislators at the expense of Nigerians and has allowed the wild speculations on the so-called humongous amounts each federal legislator takes home. Some sources even presented a Nigerian federal legislator’s total take-home as more than the salary of the President of United Sates.
A proactive response ought to lay bare the issues concerning the Federal Legislator’s total emoluments long ago and compare same with their counterparts in the Executive and the Judiciary. The capital budget of the Legislative arm and those of the personnel and agencies under the National Assembly are often lumped together and given as what the legislators share among themselves. This is laughable; yet, for not engaging proactively, such claims have been bandied about, and as uncharitable as these presumptions are, they are allowed to stick to the public consciousness as facts. This is happening largely due to the laidback approach of the National Assembly leadership towards a healthy image and perception for the critical arm of government.
The reason the National assembly must engage and become proactive towards a healthy image of the arm is obvious: as the most important arm delineating democracy, its functioning indicates how well Nigeria’s democracy is working. As things stand today, the Legislature inspires very little hope and that reinforces how fledgling the nation’s democracy still is.
Let the Legislature nay the National Assembly claim its place so that Nigeria’s democracy may stand.
• Dr. Law Mefor is an Abuja based Forensic/Social Psychologist .
Two out of every five people working in Nigerian banks are contract staff, analysis of data provided by the National Bureau of Statistics has shown.
According to the NBS, as of the end of September 2020, 23 banks operating in employed a total of 95,888 workers. Out of this number, 40,382 of them were contract on contract. This means that 42.11 per cent of the workers are on contract.
Institutions covered in the employment statistics include commercial banks, merchant banks and non-interest banks.
A contract employee is an individual retained by a company for a predetermined time and cost. .The employer is usually not responsible for providing a variety of traditional employer benefits such as pensions and health insurance.
A variant of contract job is casualisation. Shrinking economy and the consequent growing unemployment and underemployment have many workers susceptible to casual and contract jobs.
Further breakdown of the data provided by the NBS showed out of the banks’ total workforce, 241 were executive staff; 17,618 were senior staff, 37,647 were junior staff while the rest were on contract level.
The NBS revealed that the total number of contract staff in the banking sector stood at 45,350 in Q4, 2019, while the total staff was 103,610.
In the first quarter of 2020, the banks had 41,181 contract staff out of 96,975 workers; while in Q2, 2020, the sector had 38,942 contract staff out of 94,498 workers.
The need to cut down on cost had forced a number organisations to resort to contract employment which a number of labour unions are opposed to.
Election in Anambra State is fast approaching, yet most of our people are expecting to be given little money in exchange of their votes. Many of them don’t know the implications of their actions, they have no idea that selling their votes to the highest bidder is one of the major reasons for bad governance.
PRM mobilizers in Anambra are working hard to educate, sensitize and gather our people together to do the right thing. We must fix our politics and usher in Good Governance in Alaigbo starting from the light of the nation. Join us now, maka na ugo ebele go na m gbagbu.
Bayelsa has enacted a law prohibiting the open grazing of livestock in the state and establishment of ranching
Governor Douye Diri assented to the Livestock Breeding, Rearing and Marketing Regulation Law 2021 at the Executive Chamber of Government House in Yenagoa.
His words: “Bayelsa State welcomes all and sundry to eke out a living legitimately. The people of Bayelsa want to have a mutual and harmonious relationship with non-natives and natives.
“The essence of the law is to avert and forestall any clash between herdsmen, farmers, natives and non-natives as experienced in some states.”
The law, according to him, stipulates that any herdsman found with arms, whether licenced or not, should be arrested.
The law prohibits the movement of cattle on foot from other parts of the country into the state, inspection of livestock and certification by veterinary doctors at entry points into the state among others.
Diri said by assenting to the law any person found engaging in open grazing of livestock on foot commits an offence and would be arrested and prosecuted with the livestock impounded.
The Governor also signed into law the Violence Against Persons Prohibition (VAPP) Law 2021.
He explained that the law was to prevent certain harmful practices against women and children.He said with its enactment, Bayelsa has domesticated the federal law, which had been in existence.
Governor Ben Ayade of Cross River State says politicians do not have conscience when it comes to fulfilling their mandate to the people who elected them.
Ayade, who has been having a running battle with some federal lawmakers from the state over the control of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) structure in the state, said this at the flag-off of enrolment into the states’ Basic Health Care Provision Fund (BHCPF).
He tackled politicians for taking advantage of the people who they run to for votes during elections.
“After donations of Keke, they pay millions to national television to advertise instead of spending the money for the people.
“Let the politician show us what they have done for the people, stop abusing the poverty of the people, when the election comes you look for something to entice the people. When these people have accident, they don’t have health insurance. Politicians have no conscience. I challenge national assembly members to show the report card of what they have done.
“They never come to Calabar until during elections; the citizens are waiting for you to tell us what they have done,” the governor said.
Dr Basil Nwankwo, the Chief Medical Director of Chuwkuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu University Teaching Hospital (COOUTH), Amaku, Awka is dead.
Nwankwo’s death was announced in a statement signed by Prof. Solo Chukwulobelu, Secretary to the Anambra State Government, in Awka, on Wednesday.
Chukwulobelu who expressed Gov. Willie Obiano’s grief over the death of the CMD described it as saddening.
He said Nwankwo with his team at the COOUTH was in the frontline of the battle against COVID-19 in the state.
“Gov. Willie Obiano is saddened by the unfortunate passing of Dr Basil Nwankwo, who performed creditably well as the CMD of COOUTH.
“Dr Nwankwo, together with his colleagues at Anambra State Ministry of Health, and other partner agencies have been on the frontline of health officials fighting the coronavirus in the state, “he said.
Chukwulobelu in the statement also announced the appointment Dr Josephat Akabuike, Chairman of Governing Council, Anambra State College of Health Technology, Obosi, as the new CMD.
Dr Simeon Onyemaechi, the Executive Secretary of Anambra State Health Insurance Agency, was subsequently appointed as a replacement for Akabuike at the College of Health Technology, Obosi.
BVI Channel 1 gathers that late Nwankwo, an indigene of Ifitedunu in Dunukofia Local Government Area, was an ENT surgeon.
