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Opposition
parties in the country are worried over the increasing defection of
elected public office holders, especially the federal and state
legislators, from the parties under which platform they were elected to
others.

They are also
lamenting the failure of the National Assembly to amend the provisions
of the constitution to make it possible for politicians, particularly
lawmakers, to lose their seats if they decamp to other parties.

Sections 68 (g) and
109 (d) of the 1999 Constitution says a member of the Senate or of
House of Representatives or State House of Assembly shall vacate his
seat in the House of which he is a member if “being a person whose
election to the House was sponsored by a political party, he becomes a
member of another political party before the expiration of the period
for which that House was elected: Provided that his membership of the
latter political party is not as a result of division in the political
party of which he was previously a member or of a merger of two or more
political parties or factions by one of which he was previously
sponsored.” During the just-concluded constitution amendment, the
National Assembly had proposed to alter the sections to make it
possible for lawmakers to defect without losing their seat. The
proposal, however, did not get the support of two-third majority of the
36 State Houses of Assembly. Following the rejection, the sections were
left intact.

But officials of
opposition parties who spoke with NEXT said the rate at which elected
office holders are defecting to other parties, particularly the PDP
could turn the country into a one-party state.

They also said that
the failure to change the law, by the federal and state legislators,
during the recently concluded amendment of the 1999 Constitution, has
not helped to deepen the nation’s democracy.

Sabo Muhammad, the
National Director of Publicity of the All Nigerian Peoples Party, said
his party is sad that the amendment of the clauses did not sail through
during the exercise.

“You know that is
what we have been canvassing. The ANPP under the leadership of Edwin
Ume-Ezeoke, and Saidu Umar, from the onset has been in the forefront of
the campaign to curtail the cross carpeting of politicians because ANPP
has suffered much from this unfortunate thing. And so, you don’t expect
us to be happy that the amendment was not carried through,” Mr Muhammad
said.

Money-bag politics

The national
chairman of the Progressive Peoples Alliance (PPA), Lisu Akerele
described the failure of the amendment as unfortunate. According to
him, the defection of members of a political party to others is
promoting money-bag politics, and it would not give room for
ideology-based political parties to thrive.

“The question of
jumping from one party to another has to do with money politics and
that is the problem we are having,” Mr Akerele said.

“It is not good for
the development of party politics. You have to stand for something and
not for naira, not for money all the time. It is either you are on the
left or on the right. Because of the way people are looking for money
you find that they lack principle and keep moving from one place to
another. Is that how to play politics. How do we grow?” The PPA boss
said if sanity is to be restored to the nation’s polity, the defection
of politicians must be curtailed. He disclosed that his leadership has
been trying to build a serious party to which everyone will not only be
proud to belong but also find it difficult to decamp to other parties.

Ifeanacho
Oguejiofor, the spokesman of the All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA)
and his counterpart in the Conference of Nigeria Political Parties
(CNPP), Osita Okechukwu also regretted the increasing rate at which
politicians are decamping, adding that it is weakening the opposition
parties.

But the spokesman
of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Ahmed Rufai Alkali, whose party
has been a major beneficiary of defections in the recent past, said the
failure to make the amendment was the wish of Nigerians, adding that
the party would abide by whatever law is made by the legislature.

“If that is the
decision of the legislature, we will go along with it,” Mr Alkali told
NEXT. “It is the wish of Nigerians that the National Assembly is trying
to reflect. I think they are handling the amendment well as
representatives of the people. We have confidence in them.”

Jumped ship

Since 2007 when the
present National Assembly was inaugurated, no fewer than 13 senators
and 15 members of the House of Representatives have decamped to other
parties. Among the senators who have dumped their parties are Patrick
Osakwe (Delta), Uche Chukwumerije (Abia), Patricia Akwashiki
(Nasarawa), Satty Gogwin (Plateau), Suleiman Nazif (Bauchi) and Sahabi
Yau (Zamfara). Others are Hassan Gusau (Zamfara), Alphonsus Igbeke
(Anambra) and Otaru Ohize (Kogi).

In the House of Representatives, those that moved are Uche Ekwunife (Anambra),

Ahmed Wase (Plateau), Abubakar Bunu (Zamfara), Mohammed Takoki (Zamfara),

Suleiman Abdul (Kogi), Salihu Abdulkareem (Kogi) and Bello Moriki (Zamfara).

Idris Keta
(Zamfara), Zubairu Dahir (Zamfara), Kareem Abisodun (Oyo), Patrick
Obahiagbon (Edo), Samson Osagie (Edo) and Ibrahim Misau (Bauchi) also
decamped to other parties. All of them still maintain their seats in
the parliament.

Hundreds of state legislatures as well as four state governors have also defected and are still in office.

The
expected defection of the Abia State governor, Theodore Orji to the
Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) less than a month after he cross
carpeted to the All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA) from the
Progressive Peoples Alliance has thrown politicians and the electorate
in the state into confusion.

The discordant
tunes at the weekend came to the fore when Uche Chukwumerije, senator
representing the Abia North senatorial district, was mandated by his
constituents to dump APGA which he recently declared for, along with Mr
Orji, for PDP.

At a meeting in
Umuahia of politicians from the five local government areas in the zone
to discuss the direction of the political wind that is blowing across
the state since the July 3 defection of the governor, they passed a
motion for Mr. Chukwumerije to join the PDP, arguing that they no
longer want to be in a minority party.

The same
constituents had, last month, directed Mr. Chukwumerije to move to APGA
with Mr. Orji after he left the PPA’s platform that gave him the
governorship ticket for Abia in 2007.

Mr. Chukwumerije,
at the meeting, intimated his constituents with political developments
in the state as it affects and will affect them.

After the analysis
and rationalization, his constituents insisted that he also moves with
the governor into the PDP – recalling that in the same July when they
mandated him to join APGA, they also directed him to always be in the
same political party/camp with the governor.

The chairman of the
meeting and a legislator in the Abia State House of Assembly,
Princewell Onyegbu, and two other colleagues, Matthew Ibe and Orji
Lekwauwa, said the people were constrained by the drawbacks of
belonging to a minority party which they had been in the past three
years and thus have no choice than to mandate their senator to pitch
camp with the PDP.

“This time around,
we must belong to the ruling party at the centre and thus return to the
mainstream of the Nigeria politics and from within, not from outside,
fight for our rights and dues and no more from the opposition that we
got nothing other than denial of our dues. Opposition has never helped
us,” he said.

Enter the mainstream

Seemingly
disappointed, perhaps thinking or expecting that his constituents’
reaction would be that he remain in APGA that many tagged to be the
Igbo party, the Senator became rather dumbfounded.

But the supporters
said the condition on which the men would join the PDP, which might not
be compromised, was that of giving automatic tickets to Messrs Orji and
Chukwummerije to represent the PDP, as they already have these tickets
in APGA.

Meanwhile the expected entry of Mr Orji to the PDP and the condition
of allowing him to control the party structure in the state, which the
party at the national level is acceding to, especially with the sudden
dissolution of the state executive of the party last week, is
generating bad blood as some members have headed to the court to
challenge the dissolution.

The Japanese
government has called for more support from partners on yam research to
prevent the threats of food crises in Africa.

The Japanese
Ambassador to Nigeria, Toshitsugu Uesawa, made the call at the
commissioning of Japan-assisted projects in IITA-Abuja station at the
weekend.

Mr. Uesawa lauded
the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture for its cutting
edge research in root and tuber crops which has produced several
innovative outputs such as the propagation of yam through vine
cuttings. “IITA’s efforts have contributed towards sustainable
development of agriculture in developing countries,” he said.

He emphasized that
“IITA’s role has been great,” but said more attention should be given
to the project. Part of the facilities commissioned by the Japanese
envoy included a root and tuber processing centre with processing
machines, soil preparation shade and a screen house.

The projects were
financed at a cost of over US$82,000 from the Japanese Grass Roots
Project, which aims to improve the livelihoods of rural people.
Hidehiko Kikuno, a yam Physiologist at IITA, called on farmers to tap
the available agricultural innovations from IITA and also to maximize
the use of the facilities.

Mr. Kikuno, who has
successfully propagated yam through vine cuttings, advised farmers to
adopt the method saying that with the vine propagation technique, the
propagation rate would be high with a possibility to reduce the cost of
seed yam.

Fortified banana

Meanwhile, in a
major scientific breakthrough, IITA-Uganda crop scientists have
successfully transferred genes from green pepper to bananas to enable
the crop to resist the Banana Xanthomonas Wilt (BXW). The research to
fortify banana against BXW using genes from sweet pepper was initiated
in 2007.

BXW is one of the
most devastating diseases of banana in the Great Lakes region of Africa
that causes about half a billion dollars worth of damage yearly. The
transformed banana was infused with plant ferredoxin-like amphipathic
protein (Pflp) or hypersensitive response-assisting protein (Hrap) from
green pepper and they have exhibited strong resistance to BXW in the
laboratory and screen-houses. Some of the findings of the research have
been published in the Molecular Plant Pathology Journal.

The Action Congress (AC) has asked
regulatory authorities to act urgently to defuse the crisis at African
Petroleum Plc, as it is endangering the investments of thousands of
shareholders.

In a statement by its national
publicity secretary, Lai Mohammed, the party said it was compelled to
make the call because the company is of strategic importance to the
country’s economy.

The N150-billion company is a major
player in the energy sector and boasts nearly 97,000 shareholders.
Media reports accuse the company of manipulating their accounts to show
profitability and hide losses of up to N15 billion.

The party also said it is worried about
infighting among the company’s management, which resulted in the
termination of the managing director and the suspension of an executive
director and the company secretary.

“In all this, it is the shareholders
who are holding the short end of the stick,” said the party. “After
all, it is said that when two elephants fight, it is the grass that
suffers.”

SEC intervention

The party called on the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to investigate and take necessary actions to stem the crisis.

“SEC must play its statutory role so as
to avoid the kind of crisis that was witnessed in the banks, with dire
consequences to the economy and to hapless investors, due to poor
regulatory controls.”

However, it warned that the commission
might be hampered in carrying out its duties in the case because of the
perceived closeness of the company’s chairman, Femi Otedola, to
President Goodluck Jonathan.

“We are also worried by the insinuation
that this perceived closeness to power has bred impunity in [the
company], more so at a time the chairman was bestowed with one of our
country’s highest awards – Commander of the Order of the Niger (CON) –
by Mr. President,” said the party.

“We have no reason to believe that this insinuation is true, but Nigerians must be shown clearly that it is not.”

The National
Broadcasting Commission has described as illegal and unacceptable any
political broadcast aired by radio or television stations earlier than
three months to the 2011 general elections.

Chris Okotomho, who
represented Yomi Bolarinwa, the Director-General of the commission, at
a one-day political broadcast forum held in Benin also said the NBC is
worried by the way broadcast stations air political campaigns without
recourse for laid down electoral laws and broadcasting code.

He said if something is not done urgently to curb such excesses, broadcasting would be brought to disrepute.

“Contravening electoral acts is criminal, and whoever breaks the rules could be charged and prosecuted,” he said.

“Members of the public depend on broadcasters to show the way, but they collaborate with politicians who break such laws.”

According to him,
electoral laws stipulate that election campaigns will be aired from 90
days to such election and end 24 hours to the election. He said many
stations act as if they are appendages to certain political parties by
cooperating with them in breaking the law.

“Broadcasters are
in a privileged position and should be seen as such,” he said, adding
that the commission can no longer tolerate the lawlessness observed
recently.

“Political campaign broadcast now is criminal and a violation of broadcast code, which could attract sanction,” he said.

Guest lecturer at
the forum, Osakue Stevenson Omoera, said the performance of the press
decides the outcome of elections in United States of America, Germany,
Switzerland, and recently in Ghana. He said that if Ghana could do it,
Nigerian press has the more reason to abide by the rule.

Review the code

He advised that journalists should be well-remunerated to avoid being bought over by corrupt politicians.

The Zonal Director
of NTA, Layi Ademokoya, observed that the proliferation of private
broadcast organisations has not helped, as they promote the political
interests of their proprietors.

The Ondo State
commissioner for information, Ranti Akerele, called for the review of
the broadcasting code, which he said was made by the military who did
not know anything about politics or campaign.

He called on the NBC to urgently convene a stakeholders’ meeting
with a view to amending the broadcasting code, more so now that the
nation’s constitution is undergoing a review.

Ten days ago, David Mark, the
senate president, was palpably enraged during a plenary session. Mr.
Mark’s anger was directed at senators who were members of the senate
committee on communication which was supposed to have screened the new
management team of the Nigerian Communication Commission (NCC). The
senators had publicly accused the committee chairman, Sylvester Anyanwu
of fraud over the screening exercise.

“This is an embarrassment to the
entire senate and I feel very sad about this; a senator accusing the
other publicly,” Mr. Mark said angrily. In that rage, he promptly
disbanded the committee over allegations that its chairman, Mr Anyanwu,
carried out the exercise alone at night, and forged the signatures of
two other members of the committee, claiming that six of the members
took part in the exercise.

For a nation that has increasingly
loathed the unending wrongdoings of federal legislators, that seemed
like a welcome decision and the general consensus seemed to be that Mr.
Anyanwu deserved what he got.

However, a more thorough
investigation of the events that led to Mr. Mark’s show of rage
indicates that the senate president’s furious display that day was the
final act in the drama he scripted the previous night.

It was also established that
although the screening of the new Executive Vice Chairman and chief
executive officer, and three other management staff of NCC took place
in the night as claimed, the nominees were vetted only by Mr. Anyanwu
and his deputy, Joseph Akaagerger (PDP Benue state) because of
pressures from the senate president. They had allegedly acted in
response to an earlier threat by Mr. Mark who directed both Mr Anyanwu
and Mr. Akaagerger to produce the report of the screening that night or
lose their plum positions.

Abubakar Argungu (PDP, Kebbi
state), a member of the committee who broke the scam on the Senate
floor narrated how six members of the committee converged for the
screening the previous evening but the event had to be postponed
because the security report and the Code of Conduct Bureau reports on
the nominees did not reach the committee before dark.

“The point Argungu raised is a
very serious one. I sent the security reports from my office,” the
Senate president said. But officials close to Mr. Mark’s office who
would not want to be named, said the senate president sent the crucial
reports later at night, after the committee members had left, and
threatened that if the assignment was not carried out by the committee
that night, it will be dissolved.

“It appeared the senate president was in haste to confirm the nominees,” one of the officials said.

But for the emergency plenary the
senate will hold on Tuesday, the day of the screening debacle was
supposed to be the last one before 29 September when the senate was
scheduled to return from a two month vacation.

“If the nominees were not
confirmed that day, they would have waited till the senate resumed at
the end of September,” Mr. Anyanwu, the chairman of the committee
confirmed in an interview.

Some in the National Assembly
spoke of the intersection of personal interests in an establishment
viewed in legislative circles as influential. “The senate president had
issued the threat apparently because he sensed the committee was
reluctant about the job because of their personal interests,” one
official said.

Loose funds

The Nigerian Communications
Commission is seen as a crucial government agency which averages N45
billion in subventions from the federal government and N18 billion from
external revenue annually. Another layer of pork is a seemingly loose
fund called Universal Service Provision Fund (USPF). It was established
“to facilitate the rapid achievement of national policy goals for
universal access to telecommunications, information, and communication
technologies (ICTs),” says the Communications Act of 2003. “It is a
honey pot which invisible hands lick from without trace,” said a staff
of the Commission.

It is managed by a secretary who
reports to the Executive Vice Chairman and the CEO who is under the
authority of the commission’s board chairman. It was not confirmed if
the propelling force for the battle over the fund’s control is because
of the approaching 2011 general elections.

Clash of Interests

There are clear indications that
the whole screening exercise was marred by the selfish desire of a
number of people to place ethnic sentiments ahead of national
interests. There were efforts to ensure that the next executive vice
chairman comes from a particular zone. The south east zone apparently
considered the position to be zoned to their area, while a section of
the north was bent on wresting it away for the first time.

The fierce campaign for who
succeeds Ernest Ndukwe, NCC former CEO, started shortly before he
retired last April. There were five contenders for the office, all
engineers, including two executive commissioners in the Commission,
Stephen Adedayo Bello and Bashir Gwandu. Others were Eugene Juwah, Umar
Garba Danbatta, and Johnson Asinogu, a former employee of the
commission.

When Mr. Ndukwe was leaving, he handed over to Mr. Bello, the Executive Commissioner, Stakeholder Management.

However, two months later, Mr.
Gwandu took over, as the acting CEO, from Mr. Bello who attained the
compulsory retirement age of 60, last June.

Immediately Mr. Gwandu took over
office, Funsho Fawemi, the secretary of the Fund embarked on a
compulsive annual leave of absence, although Mr. Gwandu has denied that
he ordered that.

Despite being recommended by Dora
Akunyili, the Information Minister, Mr. Gwandu was reportedly not
favoured at the presidency because Mr. Ndukwe who has more influence at
the presidency, had another preference.

“Mr. Ndukwe promoted Eugene Juwah, – former executive director of MTS First Wireless – to the presidency,

through Mike Oghadome, the chief
of staff to the President and former deputy governor in Edo state,” a
presidency source said. “Remember Ndukwe was arrested by EFCC (Economic
and Financial Crimes Commission) last year and Gwandu is his antagonist
and believed to be capable of throwing open some secrets if he was
retained as the Executive Vice Chairman. The senate president and his
deputy, Ike Ekweremadu, were then lobbied with an opportunity to
appoint the chairman and one Executive commissioner respectively,” the
source said. “The senate president nominated Peter Igoh from his
constituency and Ekweremadu nominated Okechukwu Itanyi, his former
senior colleague.” Mr. Itanyi was until 2007, the deputy governor of
Enugu State where the deputy senate president also served as
commissioner and chief of staff.

On 22 July, the letter nominating
the new management arrived in the senate and was read by Mr. Ekweremadu
who presided that day and referred it to the senate communication
committee. The committee was given four days to turn in a report.

Ethnic bias

At the committee, three members
were from Kebbi State; Mr. Gwandu’s home state. They were perhaps not
happy with the presidency’s choice and favoured Mr. Gwandu. Some
reports had also accused Mr. Gwandu of bribing the committee chairman
with N230 million to frustrate the screening and subsequently elongate
his stay in office.

Mr. Gwandu who was earlier
adjudged to be the most qualified for the job was considered to be the
first northerner to head the commission since its inception, 18 years
ago.

There was visibly a clash of
multiple interests, few options and little time left for deals before
the day the committee was disbanded.

When the ethnic argument was no
longer tenable, Mr. Argungu’s revelation of a scam at the screening was
the straw that broke the camel’s back.

“I am a member of the committee
and there was no screening,” Mr. Argungu said. “I am surprised the
chairman is presenting them for confirmation this morning.” Tanko
Ayuba, also from Kebbi state reacted sharply saying the committee
chairman approached them to sign the screening report that morning.

“It is time for us to own up on
this matter and say exactly the way it is” Mr. Ayuba said. “We signed
only this morning.” When the scandal took an explosive turn, the senate
president called for a closed door meeting where frayed nerves were
calmed.

However, before the closed
door-calming-meeting, the senate president had taken the hard line
option of disbanding the committee. “The senate president overreacted,”
a senator said in an interview.

Denials all

The players in the debacle
however denied they played any dirty role. In an interview, Mr. Gwandu
said he did not bribe Mr. Anyanwu or any other member of the committee.

“I know Sylvester (Mr. Anyanwu)
very well, of course, and I have cooperated with the committee whenever
required,” he said. “But I have never given money to him or anybody to
influence anything. Where would I even get that kind of money from? The
biggest contract I have given is for my complimentary cards.” He also
denied influencing the decision of the northern senators to prefer him.

Mr. Anaynwu, on his part, denied receiving any bribe from Mr. Gwandu ascribing the allegation to his political enemies.

Media assistants to the senate president also denied his involvement
saying the dissolution of the committee that day was a spontaneous act.

It’s
three years since former president, Olusegun Obasanjo, handed over
power, but the disagreement between his former deputy, Atiku Abubakar
appears unending. The discord between both men is blamed on Mr
Abubakar’s opposition to Mr Obasanjo’s tenure extension plot. Mr
Obasanjo, it appears, is still in contention with his former deputy in
his home state of Adamawa – especially after Mr Abubakar returned to
the PDP, following his sojourn in the Action Congress on whose ticket
he contested the 2007 presidential election.

Although the
state’s chapter of the PDP has refused to recognise the return of Mr
Abubakar, his former associates in the AC have flocked back into the
party.

Murtala Nyako, the
Adamawa State governor has now found himself fighting the outcome of
the return. Mr Nyako’s government has been at the receiving end of
non-salutary comments foisted on the people of the state by Mr
Obasanjo. The fight to oust Mr Nyako is seen perhaps among the opposing
camp, as a fight to undo the handiwork of his sponsor.

The governor has
repeatedly denied his imposition by Obasanjo, although he agreed that
Mr Obasanjo had impressed it on him to obtain the PDP gubernatorial
form despite his unwillingness to run for the office. He reportedly
said his only request was for Nyako to do him the favour of obtaining
the party form, saying that would not conflict with his prerogative not
to run eventually.

Mr Nyako, speaking
recently at the national secretariat of the party during a
reconciliation meeting summoned by the party chairman, Nwodo
Okwesielieze, expressed indifference to a bouquet of allegations
against the state chapter of the party under his watch, choosing only
to respond to allegations of his imposition without properly conducted
primaries. He explained how Obasanjo persuaded him to run and how he
had expressed restraint about the move.

However, the state
PDP chairman, Mijinyawa Kugama, denied the charge that the governor did
not emerge through due process. He said the decision to pick Mr Nyako
came during the party’s North East zonal delegates meeting held at
Bauchi. He said he and the present Minister of State, Aliyu Idi Hong,
were told they had to forward the names of candidates for the various
state and national election offices. An earlier annulment of the result
of the primaries won by Silas Zwingina created a void for the guber
office. Mr Kugama said it was then decided that the party delegates
should vote for a candidate to fly the party’s gubernatorial flag. The
lot, he said, fell on Mr Nyako, who was unanimously elected except for
two delegates who abstained from voting.

“Reports that the governor was imposed on the party without recourse to due process are wicked insinuations,” he said.

The charge of
imposition dogging the party gave impetus to the formation of a rival
splinter faction led by Medan Teneke, which supports the former Vice
president.

What is unsettling
in Adamawa politics is that since Mr Abubakar returned to the PDP, nine
AC members of the State House of Assembly recently renounced their
membership of the party for the PDP. Sajou Gela, member representing
Mubi constituency in the House said they were moving to the PDP because
they have been asked to do so by Mr Abubakar.

This movement has
strengthened the hitherto miniature opposition elements in the party.
There’s now talk of shifting allegiances among groups torn between Mr
Abubakar and Mr Nyako’s groups.

A loyalist of Mr
Nyako, who is also a broadcaster with the state radio station, openly
said on his show, Katakore, named after him, that the change in the
Assembly’s leadership was a prelude to a plot backed by external forces
to impeach the state governor.

However, Gibson
Nathaniel, the new Speaker of Assembly, vehemently denied the charge.
He said the change in leadership in the House was to pave way for a
“new and honest way” of handling issues in the state legislature.

“The change in
House leadership was to remove the House from the pedestal of
stagnation in terms of oversight and support function,” Mr Nathaniel
said.

Although Mr
Nathaniel had assured Mr Nyako of the support of the legislature to
move the state forward, many were stunned by the attack on the state
legislature by some youth calling for the return of the former Speaker,
James Barka. There are also discordant tunes of intra-party allegiance,
which explains why some of the youth caught in the attack on the
legislature allegedly confessed to being sponsored by the youth leader
of PDP in the state.

No divisions

However, Mr Nathaniel said the composition of the new leadership structure was predicated on performance.

“We are now in PDP
for the sake of equity, since equity is acceptable to everyone and we
in the House of Assembly do not measure you from where you come from
since we are one constituency,” he said. “We measure you by the
yardstick of your performance and coexistence and eventually along
those lines, we emerged, and three were former AC and three originally
PDP.” The former Speaker of the Assembly, James Barka, resigned his
office last Monday, but his deputy was not elevated to the office as
members of the state legislature passed a vote of no confidence on him.

“This House of
Assembly was dominated by six people out of 25. Major decisions on key
policy issues were taken by this group of six persons in terms of
running the house and in sourcing for funds. In the course of that, we
discovered that a high level of dishonesty was exhibited, by the
group,” Mr Nathaniel said. “We, therefore, thought that it was unfair,
ungodly and unholy to dominate and mismanage the affairs of this
House.”

He said, for one and a half years, the House did not hold any
leadership meeting – a meeting which was supposedly held at least once
in a month between the Speaker and other appointed leaders of the
House. He also alleged a mismanagement of the running cost meant for
the activities of the house.

Ten days ago, David Mark, the
senate president, was palpably enraged during a plenary session. Mr.
Mark’s anger was directed at senators who were members of the senate
committee on communication which was supposed to have screened the new
management team of the Nigerian Communication Commission (NCC). The
senators had publicly accused the committee chairman, Sylvester Anyanwu
of fraud over the screening exercise.

“This is an embarrassment to the
entire senate and I feel very sad about this; a senator accusing the
other publicly,” Mr. Mark said angrily. In that rage, he promptly
disbanded the committee over allegations that its chairman, Mr Anyanwu,
carried out the exercise alone at night, and forged the signatures of
two other members of the committee, claiming that six of the members
took part in the exercise.

For a nation that has increasingly
loathed the unending wrongdoings of federal legislators, that seemed
like a welcome decision and the general consensus seemed to be that Mr.
Anyanwu deserved what he got.

However, a more thorough
investigation of the events that led to Mr. Mark’s show of rage
indicates that the senate president’s furious display that day was the
final act in the drama he scripted the previous night.

It was also established that
although the screening of the new Executive Vice Chairman and chief
executive officer, and three other management staff of NCC took place
in the night as claimed, the nominees were vetted only by Mr. Anyanwu
and his deputy, Joseph Akaagerger (PDP Benue state) because of
pressures from the senate president. They had allegedly acted in
response to an earlier threat by Mr. Mark who directed both Mr Anyanwu
and Mr. Akaagerger to produce the report of the screening that night or
lose their plum positions.

Abubakar Argungu (PDP, Kebbi
state), a member of the committee who broke the scam on the Senate
floor narrated how six members of the committee converged for the
screening the previous evening but the event had to be postponed
because the security report and the Code of Conduct Bureau reports on
the nominees did not reach the committee before dark.

“The point Argungu raised is a
very serious one. I sent the security reports from my office,” the
Senate president said. But officials close to Mr. Mark’s office who
would not want to be named, said the senate president sent the crucial
reports later at night, after the committee members had left, and
threatened that if the assignment was not carried out by the committee
that night, it will be dissolved.

“It appeared the senate president was in haste to confirm the nominees,” one of the officials said.

But for the emergency plenary the
senate will hold on Tuesday, the day of the screening debacle was
supposed to be the last one before 29 September when the senate was
scheduled to return from a two month vacation.

“If the nominees were not
confirmed that day, they would have waited till the senate resumed at
the end of September,” Mr. Anyanwu, the chairman of the committee
confirmed in an interview.

Some in the National Assembly
spoke of the intersection of personal interests in an establishment
viewed in legislative circles as influential. “The senate president had
issued the threat apparently because he sensed the committee was
reluctant about the job because of their personal interests,” one
official said.

Loose funds

The Nigerian Communications
Commission is seen as a crucial government agency which averages N45
billion in subventions from the federal government and N18 billion from
external revenue annually. Another layer of pork is a seemingly loose
fund called Universal Service Provision Fund (USPF). It was established
“to facilitate the rapid achievement of national policy goals for
universal access to telecommunications, information, and communication
technologies (ICTs),” says the Communications Act of 2003. “It is a
honey pot which invisible hands lick from without trace,” said a staff
of the Commission.

It is managed by a secretary who
reports to the Executive Vice Chairman and the CEO who is under the
authority of the commission’s board chairman. It was not confirmed if
the propelling force for the battle over the fund’s control is because
of the approaching 2011 general elections.

Clash of Interests

There are clear indications that
the whole screening exercise was marred by the selfish desire of a
number of people to place ethnic sentiments ahead of national
interests. There were efforts to ensure that the next executive vice
chairman comes from a particular zone. The south east zone apparently
considered the position to be zoned to their area, while a section of
the north was bent on wresting it away for the first time.

The fierce campaign for who
succeeds Ernest Ndukwe, NCC former CEO, started shortly before he
retired last April. There were five contenders for the office, all
engineers, including two executive commissioners in the Commission,
Stephen Adedayo Bello and Bashir Gwandu. Others were Eugene Juwah, Umar
Garba Danbatta, and Johnson Asinogu, a former employee of the
commission.

When Mr. Ndukwe was leaving, he handed over to Mr. Bello, the Executive Commissioner, Stakeholder Management.

However, two months later, Mr.
Gwandu took over, as the acting CEO, from Mr. Bello who attained the
compulsory retirement age of 60, last June.

Immediately Mr. Gwandu took over
office, Funsho Fawemi, the secretary of the Fund embarked on a
compulsive annual leave of absence, although Mr. Gwandu has denied that
he ordered that.

Despite being recommended by Dora
Akunyili, the Information Minister, Mr. Gwandu was reportedly not
favoured at the presidency because Mr. Ndukwe who has more influence at
the presidency, had another preference.

“Mr. Ndukwe promoted Eugene Juwah, – former executive director of MTS First Wireless – to the presidency,

through Mike Oghadome, the chief
of staff to the President and former deputy governor in Edo state,” a
presidency source said. “Remember Ndukwe was arrested by EFCC (Economic
and Financial Crimes Commission) last year and Gwandu is his antagonist
and believed to be capable of throwing open some secrets if he was
retained as the Executive Vice Chairman. The senate president and his
deputy, Ike Ekweremadu, were then lobbied with an opportunity to
appoint the chairman and one Executive commissioner respectively,” the
source said. “The senate president nominated Peter Igoh from his
constituency and Ekweremadu nominated Okechukwu Itanyi, his former
senior colleague.” Mr. Itanyi was until 2007, the deputy governor of
Enugu State where the deputy senate president also served as
commissioner and chief of staff.

On 22 July, the letter nominating
the new management arrived in the senate and was read by Mr. Ekweremadu
who presided that day and referred it to the senate communication
committee. The committee was given four days to turn in a report.

Ethnic bias

At the committee, three members
were from Kebbi State; Mr. Gwandu’s home state. They were perhaps not
happy with the presidency’s choice and favoured Mr. Gwandu. Some
reports had also accused Mr. Gwandu of bribing the committee chairman
with N230 million to frustrate the screening and subsequently elongate
his stay in office.

Mr. Gwandu who was earlier
adjudged to be the most qualified for the job was considered to be the
first northerner to head the commission since its inception, 18 years
ago.

There was visibly a clash of
multiple interests, few options and little time left for deals before
the day the committee was disbanded.

When the ethnic argument was no
longer tenable, Mr. Argungu’s revelation of a scam at the screening was
the straw that broke the camel’s back.

“I am a member of the committee
and there was no screening,” Mr. Argungu said. “I am surprised the
chairman is presenting them for confirmation this morning.” Tanko
Ayuba, also from Kebbi state reacted sharply saying the committee
chairman approached them to sign the screening report that morning.

“It is time for us to own up on
this matter and say exactly the way it is” Mr. Ayuba said. “We signed
only this morning.” When the scandal took an explosive turn, the senate
president called for a closed door meeting where frayed nerves were
calmed.

However, before the closed
door-calming-meeting, the senate president had taken the hard line
option of disbanding the committee. “The senate president overreacted,”
a senator said in an interview.

Denials all

The players in the debacle
however denied they played any dirty role. In an interview, Mr. Gwandu
said he did not bribe Mr. Anyanwu or any other member of the committee.

“I know Sylvester (Mr. Anyanwu)
very well, of course, and I have cooperated with the committee whenever
required,” he said. “But I have never given money to him or anybody to
influence anything. Where would I even get that kind of money from? The
biggest contract I have given is for my complimentary cards.” He also
denied influencing the decision of the northern senators to prefer him.

Mr. Anaynwu, on his part, denied receiving any bribe from Mr. Gwandu ascribing the allegation to his political enemies.

Media assistants to the senate president also denied his involvement
saying the dissolution of the committee that day was a spontaneous act.

“We do not know who
is giving us the documents and we do not want to know.” These were the
words of Daniel Schmitt (not his real surname), the co-founder of
Wikileaks, the whistle-blower on-line media portal that has exposed
national secret files on the Internet.

Call it a bluff, but one cannot help but wonder at the driving force behind this organization.

Addressing young
journalists participating in the 2010 International Institute of
Journalism (IIJ) Summer Academy in Hamburg, Mr Schmitt – the only known
identity associated with the website, aside the founder of the
organization, John Assange – commanded rapt attention from everyone
present at the meeting; even as he boasted that his organization is
“the most aggressive press agency in the world.”

“We publish the
unpublishable documents and are ungagging the media,” he said. “We have
no political agenda, not right nor left or anywhere. We are just a
relay for neutral sources. What we do is to disclose what creates
transparency.”

Wikileaks has, in
the last two years, published classified documents released to it by
unknown sources on the ongoing war in Iraq and Afghanistan. This
highlights crimes committed by the coalition forces in the war-torn
countries. It has also published a number of documents that revealed
details of corruption in governance and the financial sector in several
countries.

The latest of such
publication, the ‘Afghanistan war log,’ a 90,000 page document released
a fortnight ago, detailed how the coalition forces in Afghanistan were
responsible for the deliberate killings of civilians in the war with
the Talibans. It also revealed how the Pakistani Intelligence service
(ISI) is funding the Taliban insurgency in the country. Wikileaks gave
a new twist to its model and journalism with this release by liaising
with three leading media organization: The Guardian, The New York Times
and Der Spiegel to analyze and publish the report on the same day.

The US government
claimed that Mr Assange now has “blood on his hand” by revealing names
of US secret agents in Pakistan in the report. However, Mr Schmitt told
the audience that the US is the guilty one if anything happens to the
secret sources.

“Prior to our
release of the documents, we approached the US authority and asked to
check the document so that they can take care of their agents, but they
told us they have no interest,” he said. “We are no more responsible
than the US government which says that they are not interested in
removing the names. It is very unfortunate. We did our absolute best to
minimize any possible harm that was there.”

Mr Assange; the founder of the website, has alleged that “crimes against humanity are clearly being committed in the war.”

Focus on human interest

When questioned on
the risk of threats to national security via the publication of
government secrets, Schmitt, who described himself as having a
background in information technology, responded that it is time the
world focuses on human interest and not on national interest. “We all
operate on a basis that is sick and seeks the welfare of just a few in
the name of national security while lots suffer,” he said. “Never in my
life, have I slept so well. I am happy and free and started the project
because I believed I am involved in a good project and doing anything
to me will not change anything.”

Ridiculing the information act

Interestingly, Mr
Schmitt has little regard for the Information Act, which is gaining
grounds in more countries. “Wikileaks has showed how useless the
freedom of information law/act is, which claims to provide a lot of
information but still strongly holds down information with the
different styles of laws in various countries which impedes the
validity of the law,” he said. “What is best kept secret… if
revealed, has the most potential to reform.” He also called on
journalists not to waste time on something everyone knows already.
“Help us publish history, as history is the only guidebook civilization
has,” he said. “Every good story is always controversial as it gets
people talking.” He further stated that the organization will be
building more collaboration with other media organization on how to
build a new system of information dissemination.

Donation from terrorist

As a non-profit
making publishing portal, donations are received by a German foundation
from anonymous donors whose identity they “don’t want to know”. NEXT
asked Mr Schmitt if the organization feels justified to spend donations
that might come from terrorist groups or drug cartels.

“What better thing
will they be spending their money on?” he asked. “I will feel good if
donations come from terrorist groups. That will be the best thing for
them to spend their money on. We cannot control who gives us money, but
we are going to use the money on something very good.” Asked what
Wikileaks wanted the world to do with the information it’s releasing,
the bespectacled man, took a deep breath and said: “in the long run, we
want people to take information seriously and focus more on information
than infotainment. To determine what to do with this information as a
people is very imperative because we have to learn how to deal with the
deluge of information out there. That is why we provide for the public
to decide.” A member of the audience then asked Mr Schmitt, on the
state of emotion of the whistle-blower who earns no glory whatsoever.
“We urge anyone submitting documents to Wikileaks not to talk to
anyone, but we absolutely understand the natural urge for recognition
and that is why we have the chat box on Wikileaks for people to talk
about whatever they want to talk about anonymously.” Citing the example
of a US soldier arrested for the leaking of the Iraqi collateral damage
video, Mr Schmitt said the soldier’s cover (which he said Wikileaks
cannot ascertain) was broken because he confided in a friend. “We have
never lost a source on a mistake that we made,” he said.

Leaks on Nigeria

NEXT asked Mr
Schmitt why nothing tangible is yet to be leaked on Nigeria, despite
the massive level of corruption that pervade the country. He assured
the audience that, pretty soon, the website will be releasing a lot of
information on the African continent. He also explained that the
website, in 2007, published a document on the Kenyan government, which
affected the nation’s election.

Mr Schmitt was also asked why the Wikileaks website looks so much
like the popular on-line search website: Wikipedia. “We decided to use
the same layout because Wikipedia is the most popular website in the
world and easily navigable for anyone, so we copied this format for
easy navigation for everyone” he said. “Aggressive nature of news
publishing is in humanity’s interest.”

The
Action Congress (AC), one of the foremost political parties in the
country, on Friday said that it will make public its decision on the
issue of the mega party proposal by Monday.

Bola Tinubu,
former governor of Lagos State and a chieftain of the party, while
speaking to correspondents at the presidential wing of the Murtala
Mohammed Airport (MMA), Lagos disclosed that the party, which is one of
the formidable oppositions to the ruling Peoples Democratic Party
(PDP), is doing all it can to claim victory, come the 2011 general
elections.

Admitting that he
is not the national chairman of the party, Mr. Tinubu disclosed that
his party is interested in ensuring the survivability of Nigeria,
adding that the PDP has not delivered in its promises to Nigerians.

“Just keep
looking, by Monday you will know what the party decides. I mean I am
not the national chairman or a member of the national working
committee, for we are looking at a country that is stable and
progressing and we want to work hard as the opposition party to wrest
power from this Poverty Development Party that has not done any
Nigerian any good,” he said. “At the last, they have drifted completely
from government and now it is all about zoning, running, they have
personalised Nigeria.” Outlining poverty, unemployment, poor
educational standards, amongst others, to be the characteristics
attributable to the Peoples Democratic Party, the former governor said
that a nation that is attaining 50 years of age is expected to be
making considerable improvement.

“Poverty is on the
line, unemployment is rife in our youth, education of our youth is
poor, as well as the opportunities in this country; last minutes of
fifty years in our independence and we are still talking about our
potential and not reality – the progress that a nation is made,” he
said.

National Assembly as an ‘imperial court’

Mr. Tinubu also
called on the National Assembly to allow the Independent and National
Electoral Commission (INEC) to act as an autonomous body and not to
interfere in the conducts of the elections.

“It is not about
the merger of which party or not. You look at the National Assembly
making laws in a customised and personalized form and not by the
constitution. Taking away the independence of INEC, when you say this
is an independent institution.

You are taking
their independence away by ordering the election, organising the order
of elections, making laws, legislating for the order of election and so
on and so forth. All sort of charade by the majority party in power.
You could see a National Assembly that is now an imperial court,” he
said.

Explaining that
the call for President Goodluck Jonathan to contest next year’s
election has nothing to do with the Action Congress, and that the party
is working towards changing the way things are being done by the PDP,
Mr. Tinubu disclosed that Nigeria is far from being a country with only
one party.

“We will not allow
this country to become a one party state. I don’t want to talk about
Jonathan running, or sitting down or broken ankle. No, that is their
problem; that is the problem of PDP,” he said.