Osun Election: Jonathan, Oyinlola in closed-door meeting

“All I am telling is that Oyinlola in the face of the law remains the authentic secretary of the PDP.”

Perhaps buoyed by its performance in the Ekiti governorship election, the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, has begun moves to resolve the crisis in its Osun chapter with a view to winning the coming governorship election in the state.

As part of the strategy, President Goodluck Jonathan on ‎Tuesday held a closed-door meeting with a former Osun State governor, Olagunsoye Oyinlola, at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

Although the agenda of the meeting was not disclosed, PREMIUM TIMES learnt that it is part of efforts by Nigeria’s ruling PDP to win the August 9 governorship election in Osun.

The PDP’s candidate in the election, Iyiola‎ Omisore, is the major challenger to the incumbent governor, Rauf Aregbesola, of the All Progressives Congress, APC.

Mr. Oyinlola was accompanied to Tuesday’s meeting by the National Chairman of the PDP, Adamu Muazu.

How Saraki, Tinubu, Odili, others rob their states blind through obnoxious pension laws

Sen. Bukola Saraki

A massive public outcry forced Akwa Ibom Governor, Godswill Akpabio, to backtrack on a scandalous multibillion pension plan for himself and other former governors of the state this week.

But a review of similar pension laws in at least half a dozen states shows how Nigerians have spent a fortune maintaining their profligate former governors, and ex-deputies, with pensions for life, free health care, security, transportation, cars, accommodation and jobs- the same needs other citizens are deprived of daily.

The worst cases yet examined by PREMIUM TIMES are in Kwara, Lagos, Gombe, Zamfara, Akwa Ibom and Rivers States.

Kwara

The Kwara pension law was first passed in 2003 and approved by former governor, Mohammed Lawal.

The Lawal law merely stipulated that qualified former governors and their deputies be paid pension for life, without other perks  like accommodation, cars and other perks.

The law was reviewed in 2010 by Bukola Saraki, a former governor of the state and a serving senator, who, with the support of the state House of Assembly imposed outrageous raises on all the benefits.

The 2010 law gives a former governor two cars and a security car, replaceable every three years. The governor is also entitled to a “well-furnished 5-bedroom duplex”, furniture allowance of 300 per cent of his salary (which totals over N6 million).

The law also gives the governor five personal staff paid for by the state, eight policemen, three SSS operatives(of which one must be a female), free medicals for the governor and the deputy

I can’t be poor again, poverty is like HIV —Okorocha

 

Governor Rochas Okorocha
| credits: File copy

The Governor of Imo State, Rochas Okorocha, has described poverty as worse than the Human Immunodeficiency Virus, adding that nothing would make him, his family and generation return to poverty.

He said this at the fourth Nigeria Governors’ Forum retreat in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, on Friday.

Okorocha stated that it was not necessary for governors and other political office holders to pretend they were poor, adding that paraphernalia of political offices had nothing to do with poverty.

“I was poor and I decided to fight against poverty and nothing will make me, my family and my generation to go back to poverty again. Poverty is worse than HIV. You can’t pretend to be poor.

Jonathan’s war against media enters second day

CLAMPDOWN: An empty newsstand
| credits: Olanrewaju Smart

The President Goodluck Jonathan regime on Saturday continued its onslaught on the media by impounding packs of major newspapers, their circulation vehicles and arresting drivers.

The clampdown, which began on Friday, entered its second day on Saturday with greater ferocity. Our correspondents, who monitored developments round the country, report that early on Saturday morning, soldiers stormed newspaper distribution centres in the Federal Capital Territory and other parts of Nigeria.

In Abuja, Saturday Punch could not distribute early because soldiers barricaded the newspaper distribution centre at Garki, ‘Area One’, marching out newspaper marketers, distributors and vendors around 2am.

This was similar to what happened on Friday when soldiers and officials of the State Security Service tore wrappers of The Punch at the Murtala Mohammed Airport, Ikeja, Lagos, damaging copies of the newspaper in the process.

On Saturday, the armed soldiers prevented marketers from offloading newspapers from distribution vans that brought the papers to the centre.

The military men searched each of the marketers, distributors and vendors, before allowing them to enter the centre.

I’m contented— Dora Akunyili

Prof. Dora Akunyili
| credits: File copy

For one who was a former Director-General of the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control and former Minister of Information and Communications, Professor Dora Akunyili was always on the move.

You wonder how a pharmacist, who has gained international recognition and won hundreds of awards for her work in pharmacology, public health and human rights, was able to take care of her family then.

“I must give much of the credit to my husband, Dr. Chike Akunyili, for being very supportive and understanding,” she says. A mother of six children, Akunyili would make some women go green with envy when she adds: “If all husbands could be like him, I am sure married women who wish to pursue careers or engage in politics would be able to soar to greater heights.”

Also attributing her success at the home front to hard work, the Anambra-born academic-turned-politician states: “I am spending more time with my family now. I’m trying to make up for all the years I’ve been largely kept away from them by one appointment or the other. I have also worked hard to maintain my home, fully aware that being a successful wife and mother is the greatest appointment any married woman can get. Life goes on after public office; so if you destroy your home due to political or professional appointment, where do you return to at the end of the day? It’s surely not worth it for a woman not to pay attention to her home which is her primary constituency.

“It is all about getting your priorities right. I believe that a woman’s husband is her crowning glory, so whatever a woman achieves should never get into her head because her husband remains her husband and the head of the family. I always tell people that I wouldn’t have been serving my husband the way I do if I were to be less successful than I am by the grace of God. Just as women need constant reassurance of our husbands’ love, our husbands also need constant reassurance of our respect and submissiveness. A happy home makes a woman emotionally stable for greater achievements.”

Nigerians mourn Dora Akunyili

Dora Akunyili

Professor Dora Akunyili, a delegate at the ongoing National Conference and former Director-General, National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control is dead.

She died at 10:00am in a specialist cancer hospital in India on Saturday. Before her death, she had been battling with cancer for two years.

Since the news of her death broke, many Nigerians have expressed their sadness and paid tributes to a woman many considered as brave, incorruptible and an amazon.

Among those that have paid glowing tributes to her are President Goodluck Jonathan; a former governor of Anambra State, Mr. Peter Obi, who officially announced her death; Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu; Niger State Governor Babangida Aliyu; and Chris Ngige, Paul Ohii.

Akunyili was forthright — Jonathan

President Jonathan on Saturday said he received with shock and sadness the news of the sudden and untimely death of Akunyili, who was a former Minister of Information and Communications.

Swiss defender Senderos agrees deal to join 

Villa

By Brian Doogan

Philippe Senderos, who will fly to Brazil tomorrow with the Swiss national team to take part in his third World Cup finals, has agreed to join Aston Villa on a two-year deal beginning July 1.

The 29-year-old former Arsenal and Fulham defender becomes the first signing by Villa manager Paul Lambert this summer.