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The nine aspirants
for the position of national chairman of the People’s Democratic Party
(PDP) will meet today in Abuja, as the party decides how they will
choose their next party leader.

The meeting follows
last week’s resignation of the party’s national chairman, Vincent
Ogbulafor. Mr. Ogbulafor is facing charges of fraudulently awarding
contracts worth about N200 million to fictitious companies when he was
the Minister of Special Duties during the Olusegun Obasanjo regime.

In the meantime,
candidates for the position are already emerging. Special Assistant to
the President on Political Matters, Polycarp Nwite, yesterday announced
his intention to contest for the position. Mr. Nwite is a Third
Republic senator and former ambassador to Botswana.

Others in the race
include former external affairs minister, Ike Nwachukwu, former Senate
President, Anyim Pius Anyim, former Ebonyi State governor, Sam Egwu,
Sunny Iroche, Dan Ulasi, and former Enugu State governor, Okwesilieze
Nwodo.

Mr. Nwodo is one of
the founding members of the party and is considered a favourite among
South-East senators who will meet later today to consider their
nominees for the chairmanship job.

Party at a standstill

While the race
ramps up, the ever-busy secretariat of the party in Wuse, Zone 5,
Abuja, was quiet on Monday. Car parks within and outside the premises
were empty and the secretariat is operating on skeletal staff. Workers,
who asked to remain anonymous, said that until a new chairman emerges,
they have nothing much to do.

An emergency meeting organized by party elder, Alex Ekwueme, to
discuss the emergence of a new chairman, was scheduled for Wednesday,
but has been postponed.

Nigeria’s
nationhood for the past 50 years with very little to show for it was
the centre of discussions yesterday in Benin, as the Edo state chapter
of the Nigerian Union of Journalists began its press week activities.

Julius Ihonvbere, a
professor of political science who was guest lecturer at the event,
attributed Nigeria’s slow pace of development to bad leadership over
the years, and blamed Nigeria’s upper and middle class of having ruined
the country’s present and future.

“The truth is that
I often feel sad when politicians, so called leaders and bureaucrats
try to confuse, mislead us with half truths, concoctions and
fabrications about our progress as a people and nation in several
respects,” he said. “Nigeria is more of an undeveloped rather than an
underdeveloped society.”

Bothering God for everything

Mr. Ihonvbere
lamented that Nigerians rather than face the realities on ground to
change the system turn to God for divine intervention.

“We bother God with everything,” he said. “God is our excuse for laziness and failure to organize our people for struggle.”

He said the country
and the states could only make progress through “discipline, focus,
sensitive, compassionate and visionary leadership, planning,
investment, savings, productivity, stability and good governance. We
just have to abandon political rascality, posturing, noise making,
populism and diversionary tactics for focused and strategy-based
planning and leadership to move forward.”

Government by committees

According to him,
the failure of leadership in Nigeria has also been exemplified through
the constitution of various committees who turned in reports that were
never considered.

“We believe in
government by panels or committees but have no regard for the report
from such committees,” he said. “Their reports are dumped as soon as
they are presented. We hear of assets verification but never know what
assets were verified.”

Mr. Ihonvbere, who
served as special adviser on project monitoring to former president,
Olusegun Obasanjo, and intends to run for governor of Edo state, lashed
out at political parties in the country who he said have been
infiltrated with sycophants and individuals who only believe that
political offices could only be got by moneybags and not people with
programmes to change the system.

“Candidates are
sponsored for political positions not necessarily based on competence
but their predispositions to being manipulated and ability to pursue
narrow interests,” he said. “Just have a godfather, sufficient wild
looking thugs, money- the source is not relevant- and strategise on how
to influence the electoral commission, the police and the media, and
pronto you are ‘elected’ into office.

Politics in our country is costly, diabolical, unsteady, uncertain
and announced results hardly ever reflect what took place on election
day.”

President Goodluck Jonathan on Monday in Abuja called for accountability and good governance in the public sector.

Mr. Jonathan,
represented by the Minister of Interior, Emmanuel Iheanacho at the
opening of the Regional Conference of Commonwealth Association for
Public Administration and Management (CAPAM), said without good
governance, there could neither be accountability nor trust in
democratic governance.

“In the same
vein, there can be no good government without good public sector
institutions with a critical mass of public servants who are
irrevocably committed to the promotion of the common good.

“Accountability
is also an embedded process of good governance within an agreed
framework for holding someone or institution responsible for the
delivery of anticipated results or outcomes,’’ he said.

The president said
global challenges could be effectively resolved through a regime of
good governance across nations, with enabling institutions in each
country.

“It is therefore
incumbent on us all as leaders in various spheres of our national life,
to take effective steps to improve the quality of public administration
and management in order to ensure substantial improvements in the
quality of livelihood in our respective countries,’ he said.

Speaking at the
event, the Head of Service of the federation, Stephen Oronsaye, said
public service in the 21st century should achieve relevance in
delivering the dividends of democracy to its citizens.

Mr. Oronsaye said
that globally, low ethical standards in the business of governance,
whether in public or private sector, had led to a degree of mistrust of
those saddled with the responsibility of leading.

“In Africa, like
in other parts of the world, efforts are now on to regain the long lost
trust that the citizenry had in their leaders, particularly the
political class.

“The public
service, on its part, must also mobilise required policy intelligence
to ensure that it earns the trust of the citizenry and aid state to
record quick wins in war against poverty and disease.”

Earlier, the
Chairman of the Conference, Amal Pepple, said institutions such as the
public service had to function efficiently and effectively.

“It is in this regard that we are gathered here, over the next
three days, to continue our shared journey on good governance,
accountability and trust as essential pillars of building more capable
states in the Commonwealth,” she said.

Wife of the General
Overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God, Folu Adeboye, has
urged Nigerian leaders to place emphasis on good governance in order to
improve the welfare of the masses.

Mrs. Adeboye, who
made the plea at the weekend, during a seminar with women in governance
in Ondo and Ekiti States, held in Akure, said the time has come for
Nigerian leaders to shun personal interest and ensure that Nigerians
experience the gains of democracy in good time.

She noted that the
purpose of the seminar was to give the people an opportunity to embrace
God, stressing that Nigerians should show more zeal to serve God.

According to her,
all women in position of authority should fear God, adding that they
should not use their positions to oppress.

“Every leader is a minister, and we are supposed to serve our states and run errands for our people for good,” she said.

“To lead is to
serve. Women are supposed to have submissive spirits because, one day,
you too will face the judgement of God where all your deals will be
blown open and there will be no hiding place for you any more.”

Discussing the problems

The wife of the
Ondo State governor, Olukemi Mimiko, said the seminar came at the right
time, as it would enable women in Ondo and Ekiti States to brainstorm
on numerous problems facing the development of the area.

“A leader who does
not have the fear of God cannot be compassionate,” Mrs. Mimiko said,
adding that when a leader fears God, he or she would have the interest
of others at heart.

Two time
governorship aspirant in Ogun State Kayode Soyinka at the weekend
declared his interest in contesting the 2011 governorship election.

Mr. Soyinka, who
made this known to members of the Action Congress (AC), at Ward 10,
Ago-Owu in Abeokuta, called on party members to give him support. He
also expressed optimism that if given the party ticket, he would be the
better candidate to reclaim the party lost victory.

‘I am confident
that if I emerge as our party flagbearer, the coast is clear for our
party to win the governorship election,” he said. “If I can contest in
2003 and 2007 and still remain consistent with the party, it shows my
genuine commitment and a plus to my credibility.”

Primaries first

The journalist-turned-politician tasked party leaders to conduct proper screening for all intending aspirants.

‘Our first hurdle is the primaries. It is not difficult to win if we put our house in order before the polls,’ he said.

Mr. Soyinka also
said the Action Congress (AC) should work as one to fight its common
enemy, which is the Peoples Democratic Party.

“I have been to all
the 236 wards in the state, there is no local government area they
don’t know me. The records are there, if elected am going to also use
all my international connections to better the lots of our people,” he
said, adding that he is starting the governorship race from his ward
10. He also promised that his official declaration would be done in
grand style.

No political prostitute

A leader of the
party and former commissioner of education Yomi Ademefun called on
party supporters to give Mr. Soyinka their support to win the ticket
which, he said, is the first phase of the general election.

He argued that Mr.
Soyinka’s constant identification with Action Congress (AC) is an
indication that he is not a “prostitute politician”, but is convinced
about the party philosophy and ideals.

“If we had given recognition to his personality and decided early
enough to throw our support behind him, we could have taken over the
government and he would have being governor by now,” Mr. Ademefun said.

Indigenous airline operators in the country have criticised the decay of infrastructure at the nation’s premier airport.

This is coming
after last week’s over three hours power breakdown that was experienced
at the Murtala Mohammed International Airport (MMIA), Lagos, which left
hundreds of international travellers stranded at the terminals of the
airport.

“We had mentioned
that these airports were a serious embarrassment to our nation, and we
wondered many times whether we are really serious about improving
aviation,” said Mohammed Tukur, assistant secretary general, Airline
Operators of Nigeria (AON), over the weekend.

Describing the
recent incident at the international airport as “an unbelievable
embarrassment to Nigeria,” Mr. Tukur disclosed that the disgrace should
be addressed by the appropriate authorities.

“This scandal is
simply unacceptable. It is obvious to all discerning Nigerians that the
Murtala Muhammed International Airport has failed. It is over crowded
and poorly managed,” he asserted.

Last week Thursday,
the Senate directed the committee on aviation to look into the issue of
the power outages at the Lagos airport which paralyzed flight
activities.

Mr. Tukur, however,
called on the government to move some of the airlines operating at the
international terminal to the Murtala Mohammed Airport 2 (MMA2), adding
that Nigeria’s image should not be further tarnished by the
developments at the international airport.

He urged the
Federal Government to implement programmes that would provide better
facilities for travellers and users of airports in the country.

According to him, for the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria
(FAAN) to function efficiently, debts owed it by airlines and users of
the authority’s facilities must be reconciled.

Following last
Tuesday’s shut down of airports in North African nation Morocco, and
some countries in Europe as a result of the second eruption of ash from
Iceland, Nigeria’s civil aviation has said that there are no plans yet
to close the country’s airspace.

The Nigerian Civil
Aviation Authority (NCAA), being the primary body saddled with the
regulating the industry, disclosed that if there is a need to have the
nation’s airspace closed, it would be alerted by the Nigerian
Meteorological Agency (NIMET), promising that the authority will not
hesitate to stop flight operations if the situation warrants such.

We have the technology

“NIMET forecast
weather, for they have the technology and manpower to get this done;
our role by law is to issue advisory circulars to airline operators,
pilots, air traffic controllers and other key industry personnel as to
weather developments made available to us by the meteorological
agency,” said Sam Adurogboye, media head NCAA over the weekend at the
authority’s headquarters in Lagos.

“For the fact that
Morocco shut down its airports does not mean we are to carryout same,
it can only be done when we have such information to do so from NIMET.”

Explaining that
the State-Weather-Minima (SWM), which is the minimum visibility level
for operating an aircraft within a particular state, is currently
normal in most parts of the country, the authority’s spokesperson
disclosed that pilots are occasionally updated on what to do at any
given point in time, adding that any violation to stipulated procedures
and principles automatically necessitates grounding.

“With the SWM they
will know which airport they must not go to, or the one that they must
not land in, for any thing below that means no aircraft is expected to
fly within that territory,” he said. “For instance that of Lagos is
800m as was made public during the last haze that was seen in the State
and you can recall that flight operations were suspended for a while
until the situation improved.”

Meteorological agency comments

When contacted,
Austin Udogwu, chief meteorologist for the central forecast office of
NIMET in Lagos, gave an assurance that the country’s weather is
presently safe for flight operations, but declined comment on how
possible the volcanic ash eruption disrupting flight operations across
Europe will impact Nigeria.

“As for our
weather there is no problem, but I cannot speak on international
weather issues for now,” he said. “The fact is that we are working hard
to relay up to date weather information to ensure safety.”

Hakeem Jimoh,
media consultant for Lufthansa Airlines, an international carrier that
operates to countries in Europe, disclosed that flights are still
operational, adding that the ash cloud experienced this time is not as
severe as the previous one that occurred last month which paralysed
aircraft services for at least five days.

“Everything is fine and our flights are operating as normal,” he
said. “The ash this time is not as harsh as that of April, so I don’t
think it will stop us from flying.”

The Senate may, on
Tuesday, swear-in Alphonsus Igbeke, of the All Nigeria People’s Party
(ANPP), as the senator representing Anambra North Senatorial Zone,
after almost a month of drama.

The Senate’s
decision, a source said, follows on last week’s ruling of an Appeal
Court sitting in Enugu, ordering the Senate President, David Mark, to
“immediately” swear in Mr. Igbeke (ANPP) as a replacement for Joy
Emordi who, despite previous rulings of the same court ousting her, had
stayed back in the Senate.

Mr. Mark confirmed
to the National Executive Council of ANPP that he would have sworn-in
Mr. Igbeke if the new senator had appeared at the chamber earlier than
he did last week Thursday, when he was denied admittance.

The Senate
President’s confirmation was in a report given to the ANPP’s National
Executive Council in their last meeting held in Abuja on Saturday.

Emmanuel Eneukwu,
the national publicity secretary of ANPP, said the party’s leadership
decided to give the Senate leadership a benefit of the doubt and
present Mr. Igbeke early enough for oath taking on Tuesday, when the
Senate resumes plenary.

Also, unconfirmed
reports said the leadership of the Senate have asked Mrs. Emordi to
stay away from Senate, pending the determination of a fresh case she
instituted in the Supreme Court, hours after the Enugu Appeal Court
ruled against her.

Even so, the
Senate President, in a press release signed by his senior special
assistant on media, Kola Ologbodiyan, said the Senate will never act
unconstitutionally.

No room for illegality

“The attention of
the Office of the President of the Senate has been drawn to news
reports claiming that the President of the Senate, Senator David Mark,
has refused to honour the order of the Court of Appeal asking him to
swear-in Alphonsus Igbeke as Senator representing Anambra North,” the
statement read.

“The President of
the Senate, Mark, has utmost respect for the Judiciary as a partner in
the onerous task of deepening our hard earned democracy. In the extant
case of Joy Emordi and Alphonsus Igbeke, the President of the Senate,
Senator David Mark, and indeed the Senate, has never and will not act
unconstitutionally,” Mr. Kola added.

Mrs. Emordi, who
was senator representing Anambra North Senatorial Zone was, on 25
March, asked to relinquish her seat to Mr. Igbeke by an Enugu Appeal
Court, following a suit filed by Mr. Igbeke claiming he got the
majority vote in April 2007 senatorial elections.

The Senate,
however, re-admitted Mrs. Emordi, following a notice of an application
she filed before the appeal court asking for the interpretation of the
ruling, which she claimed conflicted with an earlier ruling. The same
court had, on 10 February last year, in a separate case, upheld Mrs.
Emordi’s election.

The court, however, held that there was no conflict in its
judgments, pointing out that the judgment of 25 March declared Mr.
Igbeke winner of majority of lawful votes in that election, and that he
was not a part of the 10 February suit and asked the Senate to swear
him in immediately.

A veteran
journalist, Yakubu Mohammed, on Sunday called for a social revolution
against money bags in the nation’s polity in order to move Nigeria
forward.

Mr. Mohammed, a
deputy chief executive officer and co-founder of Newswatch Magazine,
told Lagos State Assembly correspondents in Lagos, that only a shift
from the usual norm of money politics could bring about development.

“What we are
expecting to happen in Kogi and the nation is a social revolution where
people would say ‘no’ to money bags and the influence of money,” he
said. He said most political office holders in mainstream politics have
let the society down.

According to him, Nigerians are looking for those who have what it takes to deliver the dividends of democracy.

Mr. Mohammed, who
plans to run for the governorship election in Kogi State in the 2011
general election, said he had written against corruption for 35 years
as a journalist and felt it was time to become part of the change
process.

The media expert,
who was also a former Pro-Chancellor of Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria,
said that he would be running on the platform of the Peoples’
Democratic Party (PDP).

He said that he would look beyond the broader party manifesto to address the problem of uneven development in Kogi State.

He called on President Goodluck Jonathan to ensure the
implementation of the Justice Uwais Electoral Reform in order to remove
the influence of money and increase the chance of credible Nigerians to
become leaders.