Nigeria Content Online

Sensitive election
materials, including ballot papers and result sheets to be used in the
National Assembly election will be delivered to polling centres by
commercial transporters, NEXT has learnt.

The materials will be deployed to respective areas at least 24 hours before the hugely-anticipated elections on Saturday.

The April 9
rescheduled parliamentary elections is deemed critical to the
credibility of subsequent elections, as well as the well-battered image
of the commission which plunged further after Saturday’s cancellation
of the national assembly election. It will expectably also shape the
future of the Attahiru Jega’s leadership of the electoral body.

“If he fails this
time, there will be no other option for him than to leave; it is make
or mar,” said Victor Umeh, who chairs the All Progressive Grand
Alliance (APGA).

Though much of last
week’s failure had been blamed on late arrival of the materials from
foreign vendors, the commission yesterday acknowledged that part of its
troubles – though it said this was to a lesser extent – was scarcity of
vehicles that could convey materials and officials to voting spots.

In areas where
accreditation and voting took place across the country, officials
arrived aboard city buses and cars; while in some places, materials
were reportedly transported with personal cars.

Yet, a N600million
contract for the purchase of more than 500 Hilux pickup vans, meant to
deal with the situation, was awarded months ago. The delivery had also
been delayed, along with the election materials.

Mr. Jega’s
spokesperson, Kayode Idowu, said yesterday that 530 vans finally
arrived in Nigeria this week. This highlighted the tenuous planning
structure the commission maintained in the weeks ahead of the botched
election, while it sustained assurances of normalcy in the open.

The vehicles, some
of which were sighted around the commission’s headquarters in Abuja,
are being dispatched to the states ahead of the elections on Saturday
and the final ones will arrive the various states latest Thursday, he
said.

Vet the transporters

But to pick up the
slack, the commission formally sanctioned the use of “screened and
vetted” transporters to augment its vehicles in delivering the
materials and staff.

“Last week,
adequate transportation arrangement may not have been made, but now I
believe Saturday will be different,” Mr. Idowu said.

“It cannot be
possible for INEC alone to have vehicles that will cover the 120,000
polling units. The RECs have directives to engage transporters, but
they should be vetted and well screened.”

Part of decisions
reached with the Resident Electoral Commissioners on Tuesday, NEXT was
informed yesterday, was that the ballot papers and the result sheets
are to be moved to their respective areas at least 24 hours before
elections. This is a measure which the commission hopes will almost
completely eradicate incidence of late arrival of materials for
accreditation, which is due to commence by 8am.

“The commission is taking adequate measures to contain the hitches
that arose from transportation and logistics deficiencies on Saturday,”
Mr Idowu said.

The Labour Party in
Plateau State has dismissed as “cheap blackmail” allegations that the
campaign of its governorship candidates is being funded by Islamist
groups in Saudi Arabia and Libya.

Speaking at a
world press conference called by the party in Jos, yesterday, Pam Dung
Gyang, who is the running mate to the party’s governorship candidate,
Pauline Tallen, said those spreading false stories that the party in
Plateau State is being funded by some groups in the Arab world, are
merely trying to tap into the existing frosty relations between
Christians and Moslems in the state to shore up sentiments against the
party.

He said the state
government, headed by Jonah Jang, has been encouraging division among
the people of the state for the last four years.

“This being an era
of e-business, e-banking and e-commerce, if indeed the opposition is
sure of our dealings with any group anywhere, they should produce
proofs of transactions by way of computer print outs or any other
vouchers,” Mr Gyang said.

The candidate said
the Labour Party and its 2011 campaigns in Plateau State are funded by
contributions from its members and supporters, whom he said are
stopping at nothing within the law to ensure that political change is
effected in the political leadership of the state come May 29, 2011.

He said his party
is working hard “towards a state where all shall cohabit without the
fear and uncertainty that has engulfed the state under the Jang
administration.”

Mr Gyang also said the botched elections of last Saturday has thrown up a lot of lessons.

“The rigging
machinery of the so-called ruling party in the state has been exposed.
It is unacceptable that in areas where the Labour Party is strong, such
areas, as we pointed out before last Saturday, were starved of election
materials,” he said. “For instance, had the elections been allowed to
proceed, a lot of the electorate would have been disenfranchised. In
some polling units where about 2000 voters were registered, only the
names of fewer than 1000 were available for accreditation. The number
of ballot papers for the House of Representatives election which went
to the polling units equally fell far short of the required number. The
same was the case with other materials like result sheets,” the
statement added.Party to beat

Jimmy Chetto,
chairman of the party’s gubernatorial campaign organisation, also said
the party has uncovered plans by the ruling People’s Democractic Party
to circumvent the process of the re-scheduled elections.

“In areas where
they consider their party to be weak, they are working earnestly
towards ensuring that the process does not enjoy a smooth sailing,” Mr
Chetto claimed.

He said the ruling
party olan to do this by “intimidating civil servants and harassing
traditional rulers from such areas to do its bidding.”

Mr Chetto said whatever the quality of security provided, the Labour
Party is determined to participate and go fully into the elections
“because it remains the party to beat in Plateau State in the 2011
elections.”

The Expenditure
Review Committee (ERC) inaugurated last September to look at ways to
help government reduce the country’s spiralling recurrent costs and
overheads yesterday called for a radical amendment of constitutional
provisions that promote unrealistic budgetary provisions and processes.

Presenting the
report yesterday in Abuja, the Chairman of the 23-member committee,
Anya O. Anya, said a situation where successive governments since 2003
continue to devote 80 percent of the country’s financial resources to
recurrent expenditures “tends to portray governance as irresponsible,
unresponsive, self-centred and clueless pretenders to leadership.” Mr
Anya, who is also the former Chairman, Nigeria Economic Summit Group
(NESG), said as of last year, two-thirds of the country’s resources
were allocated to recurrent and overhead expenditures, pointing out
that the 2011 budget hardly showed any marked departure from the trend,
despite the pledge by the National Assembly for a 30 percent reduction.

Spending binge

Indicting the
leadership at the various levels of government, Mr Anya noted that “the
mission of a responsible political leadership surely includes
maximising the quality of life of the citizens, while making provisions
for and enhancing the opportunities of future generations.

“The prominent
political actors must know that we are at a historical conjuncture
where demography, economics and social dynamics suggest that unless
there is a drastic redirection of our fiscal operations, the judgment
of history will be harsh,” he warned.

Underscoring the
need to create the environment to attract foreign and local investments
to the economy, the committee declared that it is practically
impossible for the country to achieve the development aspirations of
Vision 20:2020 if the current mix of recurrent and capital expenditure
and high level of fiscal indiscipline are maintained.

“The major drivers
of the high level, but low value recurrent expenditure include
unbridled multiplication of structures and process; overloading of
recurrent items, especially through overheads, and pervasive defiance
of the extant rules and regulations on government’s fiscal operations,”
the committee noted.

While urging
government to identify opportunities for reduction of recurrent
expenditure as well as for switching to making capital expenditure more
important in the fiscal mix, the committee suggested that the ratio of
recurrent expenditure to gross domestic product (GDP) be pegged at 6
percent, and not more than 100 percent of non-oil revenue.

Minister of
Finance, Segun Aganga, while receiving the report, said the committee
was part of the effort by government to review the legacy issues to lay
a solid foundation for the building of the country, adding that this
would not be achieved without resolving the issues about how the
country’s resources are allocated.

The Minister
promised that government would review the committee’s recommendations
and ensure that they are effectively implemented, pointing out that the
present administration has already taken a number of measures to
enhance the quality and efficiency of government budgetary spending to
add value to the quality life of the people.

Ahead of the
National Assembly elections re-scheduled for Saturday, tension is
mounting across Oyo, self-acclaimed Pacesetter State, as the state
governor, Adebayo Alao-Akala, has reportedly given a standing directive
to all the acting chairmen of the 33 local governments in the state to
deliver their territories or face sack.

The governor had appointed all the caretaker chairmen after the expiration of term of the elected ones last year.

A source said the
governor gave the directive at a stakeholder meeting of the People’s
Democratic Party (PDP) held at Government House, Agodi, Ibadan, on
Tuesday, after assessing the near failure of the party at the botched
election of last Saturday.

Already, the
alleged order has started generating tension in the state as charges of
threats, violent clashes, and arms buildup are becoming the order of
the day.

Speaking through
Adeolu Adeleke, his campaign director, a former governor of Oyo State,
Rashidi Ladoja, described the alleged directive as an invitation to
anarchy.

Mr. Ladoja’s
observation came a day after his predecessor, Lam Adesina, raised a
similar alarm. The Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) leader in Oyo State
had alleged that the governor was desperate about winning for the PDP
at all costs.

According to him,
Mr. Alao-Akala had set aside N1billion for use by the acting local
government bosses to buy people’s votes, and to resort to the use of
violence, “if the carrot option fails”.

Mr. Adesina warned
against the alleged plan, and said members of his party are equally
ready to match them strength for strength.

Already, the much
dreaded anarchy has started rearing its head as scores of people were
said to have been injured at a violent clash between suspected PDP
thugs and traders at Araromi/Gate Motor Dealers Market, Ibadan, on
Wednesday, when the former were said to have swooped on the market to
destroy a wooden rostrum built to host Ladoja’s campaign team.

The Accord Party,
on whose platform Mr. Ladoja is contesting the governorship seat of the
state, is said to enjoy the sympathy of the majority of traders in the
market. It was reported that the attack was led by a local government
caretaker committee chairman, but was effectively rebuffed by the
traders, who were said to have been prepared for such possibilities.
Following the attack and subsequent security reports, the Accord Party
governorship candidate called off the rally.

While the incident
was going on, a member of the House of Representatives, Lanre Agoro, in
a press chat at the ACN state office, in Ibadan, alleged that Mr.
Alao-Akala wanted to get him out of circulation before the next
Saturday elections at any cost.

Victory is certain

The lawmaker, who
defected from the PDP and is now re-contesting his seat in the National
Assembly under the banner of the ACN, said he has been under incessant
attacks from the ruling party, particularly the state governor, since
his exit from the party.

Mr. Agoro, who said
he was sure of winning the ticket to represent Irepo/Orelope/Olorunsogo
Constituency at the lower chambers of the National Assembly on
Saturday, said the governor pushed him out of the PDP, after feeling
uncomfortable with his comments on what he calls the governor’s
mis-governance of the state.

He explained that
his rising popularity has become his undoing and the ruling party has
resolved to get him out of the way, so that he would not be able to
mobilise people for the election.

The plot, he added,
included his recent quiz by the State Security Service (SSS) over an
unsubstantiated allegation. He said three of his men are still being
held by the organisation over the allegation, adding that when the PDP
saw that the SSS were not really acting to their expectation, the party
then wanted to involve the police.

The plot, he claimed, does not end with getting him into custody till the end of the elections, but his possible extermination.

The police, however, have denied the allegation.

The Peoples
Democratic Party (PDP) in Ogun State yesterday said it has placed the
state governor, Gbenga Daniel under surveillance. The party said this
is following reports that Mr Daniel is working against the presidential
ambition of Goodluck Jonathan.

Addressing a press
conference at the party secretariat located in Onikolobo area of
Abeokuta, the Chairman, Dayo Soremi accompanied by other leaders of the
party alleged that Mr Daniel held secret meetings with some leaders of
the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) to work against PDP both at state
and federal levels.

“The first of the
meetings was held at the private residence of the Ogun State ACN
governorship candidate, Ibikunle Amosun, in Ikeja GRA, last Friday
April 1.

The second of such meeting was held yesterday at the Ikoyi residence of the ACN chieftain,” Mr Soremi revealed.

“By this desperate
action of his, he has jettisoned President Jonathan, the PPN candidates
and their followers. The implication of this is that PPN will vote for
the ACN governorship candidate, Ibikunle Amosun and ACN Presidential
Candidate, Nuhu Ribadu.” The PDP leader explained further that, part of
the plot also include offer of Secretary to the State Government, to
the governorship candidate of the Peoples Party of Nigeria (PPN),
Isiaka Gboyega who will jettison his governorship ambition.

“We believe that
Otunba Gbenga Daniel is going into this unholy alliance with his avowed
political enemy as part of his desperation (which) in the first
instance led (him) to pick somebody who is his preferred governorship
candidate of Ogun State.”

Daniel’s reaction

However, reacting
to the press conference, the governor said the claim by PDP was
heinous, “nothing could be farther from the truth and the new phantom
claim is indicative of the desperation of Chief Soremi and his
cohorts.” In a statement signed by his Chief Press Secretary, Gbenro
Adebanjo, it added, “for the avoidance of doubt Otunba Gbenga Daniel
did not leave his Sagamu residence all through Tuesday, April 5, 2011”.

“Indeed at the
time under reference he was in a meeting with the leadership of the
Nigerian Union of Teachers led by Comrade Sam Idowu. The meeting took
place at the Library of his Asoludero residence, Sagamu.

“Anybody who is in
doubt can contact comrade Idowu and his executive members who came to
iron out issues relating to the payment of deducted check-off dues and
cooperatives remittances.” The statement added that, after the meeting
the governor gave directive that the outstanding money up to March
should be paid to the Union by the Accountant General of the state from
the excess crude money which accrued to the state, a decision that has
since been carried out to the delight of the generality of the teachers.

“So while Governor Daniel was busy charting the way forward for
Ogun State, some individuals were busy concocting new lies to be sold
to the people of Ogun State. It is very saddening that the leadership
of the PDP for pure political reason would concoct such a blatant lie
against the Governor of Ogun State.”