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The old man was
amusing us with stories of early 70s Lagos, the Volkswagen factory
where he worked, and the radiance of the Army officers who visited.

“You know that
engine oil that the Germans make? The one that drips in such clear
tones that you almost wish you could drink it?” he asked. Someone said
we sure did. “Well, that was how Babangida’s skin shone back then,” he
said.

He looked around
him, pausing, like a good storyteller, to gauge the reaction of his
audience. A woman sighed and said, “Na wa o.” The man had our
attention, all right. He continued. “The hairs on his hand were so
fine, and the skin so light, that you could see the veins,” he said.

More passengers
bent their ears towards the man. You wouldn’t think to look at his
spare frame, thick skin, and forsaken shoes. But he was someone
important once. He said while Volkswagen Nigeria existed, he was the
fellow you saw when the German manager was away. Or was too busy at the
Bar Beach. “The white man trusted me. He would say, ‘Tunde, take care
of everything, I am going to relax.’ And he would be off for the whole
day.”

I liked the way he
told his story, the lack of drama, in a gentlemanly sort of way. “The
day Babangida came, I was the most senior man around. I met him at the
gate and apologised for the absence of our manager, but IBB just smiled
and waved it away. ‘It’s okay,’ he said, real nice chap.” “What was he
at the time?” asked a banker who had just taken a call from his pastor
and couldn’t stop talking about the man of God. I tried to get the name
of this wonderful Christian but it was impossible without asking
directly. Besides, the story of how Volkswagen worked, the staff morale
and German efficiency, was riveting.

“Babangida was
commander of the armoured corps,” said our storyteller. “He was a
dashing young colonel. They were all so dashing then: Babangida,
Buhari, Yar’Adua. They all lived in Dodan Barracks. It was such a great
time to be in Lagos.” The banker nodded in admiration. “These people
have been enjoying for a long time,” he said. And then the talk shifted
to how the country had been ruled by the same group for too long; how
charmed their lives have been compared to our drudgery.

The conductor was
the only person who was not impressed. He had just parted with N50,
which the police insisted on collecting for no reason, so talk of
authority was hardly endearing to him.

“Dem be thief, all of them,” he said, looking directly at the storyteller, daring him to contradict his assertion.

The old man was
thrown out of his stride. Before now, the conversation had been light,
peppered with anecdotes. But the conductor’s tone had been hard, like
his stony face. Some of those who had listened to the anecdotes in rapt
attention suddenly withdrew, as if they had been caught doing something
shameful.

“I am not defending
anybody’s actions,” offered the man. “This talk is not about that.” But
the conductor was not interested in subtleties. He was like a dog who
had got hold of a good bone and was not about to let go. On the other
hand, the old man seemed to want to avoid any crudities; any talk with
someone so obviously disgruntled could not stick to the niceties of
polite conversation.

“Oga, you wey dey
talk about how another person skin dey shine like oil,” began the
conductor, spoiling for a quarrel, “You for follow thief money now make
your own skin too shine.” The banker fellow must have felt the old
man’s embarrassment. “No be everybody be thief,” he said to the
conductor. “We are even talking of the 70s when you had not even been
born.” The conductor sneered, “How you know when dem born me?” he
challenged.

At this point, the
old man rallied. “You know, the time I was talking about,” he said,
taking time to address his words to the young banker, “Babangida was
just a colonel. He had not become president then,” he said and the
banker fellow nodded in understanding.

He turned to the
conductor and said, lightly, “You see, no be your money make the man
skin dey shine,” he said, “Na nature.” The conductor had lost interest.
‘’Thief na thief,’’ he said.

The leadership of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC)
in Oyo State has called for the prompt implementation of the new
minimum wage recently approved by the federal government.

The newly elected state chairman of the congress,
Bashiru Olanrewaju, made the request at the governor’s office in Agodi,
Ibadan, on Thursday, when he led other members of the new executive on
a courtesy call to Governor Adebayo Alao-Akala.

Other members of the executive in his entourage were
Ayobami Ajayi (vice chairman), Mrs. Agbaje (vice chairman), Edema
Olorunwa (secretary), Elijah Oluleye (auditor), Eniola Kolawole
(auditor), Mr. Adisa (ex-officio), and Modupeoluwa Arinola (ex-officio).

Mr. Olanrewaju praised the governor for offering to
pay the minimum wage of N18,000 to the state’s civil service. He
informed Mr. Alao-Akala that the state’s workforce shares his vision,
describing him as a worker-friendly executive.

According to him, the governor has worked to ensure
that development is spread evenly across the state during his first
term, particularly in the areas of road network development and
improved healthcare facilities.

The NLC boss also sought the governor’s intervention
to unify the labour unions in his domain, stressing that the effort
would benefit the workers and the government, and increase development
in the state.

A positive response

In his reaction, the governor, who congratulated the
new NLC executive, calling Mr. Olanrewaju a good crisis manager, hoped
that he would be able to achieve the needed unity among the unions in
the congress.

Mr. Alao-Akala said the new minimum wage has become a
law, which his government is willing to implement. He said his
government is always ready to attend to the welfare of its workers, but
offered that it could only act within the limit of its resources.

The governor then counseled the workers against
resorting unnecessarily to strikes every time they want the government
to fulfil their demands.

Free and fair
elections will elude the nation should political office holders
continue to depend on public funds for electioneering activities, the
national chairman of the All Nigerian Peoples Party (ANPP), Ogbonnaya
Onu has said.

Mr Onu, who made
the remarks during a visit by a delegation of the National democratic
Institute (NDI) to the ANPP’s national secretariat, yesterday in Abuja,
said the act gives undue advantage to candidates who are still
occupying public offices.

“Like in the US, if
the president or a governor is going on any function that is not purely
for the benefit of the state; maybe it is for personal or political
purpose, such a leader will not use public fund. This is not what is
happening here and if election must be free and fair, you must have a
level playing field for everybody,” he said.

“This is very
disturbing because money was being freely given while on the queue in
the last election, especially in the South-East and South-South, which
is against the law. And quite often, this money is public fund which
should have been used for the development of the country.”

Speaking further on
last Saturday’s election, he said the party is worried that the
government is yet to organise elections that can really be said to be
free and fair in the country going by the party’s experience.

“The pre-election
conditions are very important because if you have so much insecurity
leading to intimidation, harassment, then you create a situation where
people will be afraid to participate fully in the process,” Mr Onu
said. “We had instances of a lot of insecurity before and during the
election itself. The level of insecurity is very worrisome even though
it has reduced.”

Objective report

Mr Onu urged the
NDI to ensure that its preliminary and final reports of election
monitoring exercise were objectively carried out to gain the public
trust.

The leader of the
delegation and former Prime Minister of Canada, Joe Clark, promised
that the institute will be impartial in its report, adding that it will
release an interim report on the presidential report next Monday.

“We will be objective,” Mr Clark said.

The Conference of
Nigerian Political Parties (CNPP), in Akwa Ibom State is advocating for
violence-free presidential elections devoid of political, ethnic,
religious or any other form of sentimental colouration that may plague
the election.

The group, which
is advocating that the people of the state and the South-South
geopolitical zone support the candidacy of President Goodluck Jonathan
by voting him back as president on Saturday, appealed to the electorate
to make their conscience their guide at the polls.

State chairman of
the CNPP, Prince Udofia in a statement in Uyo yesterday, encouraged
voters not to relent in their efforts at ensuring that the remaining
elections were conducted successfully.

Cautioning against
the attitude of making the elections a do-or-die affair, Udofia said,
“the conference appeals to all Akwa Ibom people, South-South
geopolitical zone and Nigerians that they should shun all political,
ethnic or religious sentiments in all its ramifications.

“That they should
vote for good performance, transformation and good governance in
Nigeria, and conduct themselves in a more proper and matured manner. So
the presidential election should be devoid of violence, political
sentiment and rancour.” The group also called on the electorate to
ensure that their votes protected.

The group’s call is coming on the heels of the ethnic tension that
has built up, especially among the Annang and the Ibibio where the
state governor and PDP governorship candidate, Godswill Akpabio and his
ACN counterpart, John Akpanudoedehe, hail from respectively.

It was a bad day
for the Labour Party in Oyo State on Thursday, as its candidate for the
office of deputy governor in the next election, Samuel Adejumobi,
dumped the party for the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN).

Mr Adejumobi is
the majority leader of the Oyo State House of Assembly and was elected
to the house on the ticket of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP).

He led a group of
ten members of the legislative arm last year to seek the removal of
Governor Adebayo Alao-Akala, over alleged misappropriation of the
state’s funds. The attempt led to violence in the house, in which some
members of his group were wounded and were all later suspended.

Despite a court
order directing that they are re-absorbed and the arrears of their
entitlement paid them, the lawmakers are still being barred from
discharging their duties and the money is still not paid.

He, however hinged
his decision to join the ACN on the party’s showing in the last
parliamentary elections and consultation with “family, friends, opinion
leaders, students, market women and many other stakeholders”.

Stepping down

Mr Adejumobi
defected to the party along with six other colleagues at the state
assembly who were denied payment of their entitlements. These include
Kazeem Ayilara (deputy speaker), Mohammed Inakoju (chairman, house
parliamentary caucus), Michael Okunlade, Abiola Ayorinde, Tijani
Ademola Razak and Kayode Anumashaun.

Mr Ayilara, who is
contesting the seat in the Ibadan South West/Ibadan North West
constituency on the platform of Labour Party, has also offered to dump
his ambition and join the ACN.

Mr Adejumobi said
all other colleagues seeking to return to the state legislature on any
other platform other than the ACN, will step down for the contestants
in their new party. He said the state needed a new leader who will save
it from the backwardness the incumbent governor is leading it to.

“The results show that the ACN has the highest number of votes at
332,027 votes and careful analysis of the results show that the party
also has the widest spread in all the geo-political zones of Oyo
State,” he said while positing that Abiola Ajimobi, the ACN
governorship candidate, is better positioned to lead the state.

Five days after the
National Assembly elections, the Independent National Electoral
Commission has yet to release the official comprehensive results for
the polls, breaching its self-imposed deadline of 48 hours. Ahead of
the polls last Saturday, the commission announced it will push for a
prompt release of the total results within two days after balloting, as
part of a series of measures to shore up its commitment to the
transparency of the exercise before Nigerians.

In the commission’s
reckoning, a well-conducted election would remove delays with the
results and also curtail the propensity of multiple litigations that
have weighed on the outcome of past nationwide polls.

Yet, the complete
results have remained unreleased 120 hours after, and 24 hours to the
second in a series of national elections.

Officials have
struggled to justify the delay which has continued even after Tuesday’s
meeting between the commission’s leadership and the 37 Resident
Electoral Commissioners. They argue that though the results had not
been centrally released within 48 hours, they were announced at the
state level before 24 hours.

INEC is investigating

At Wednesday’s
media briefing, the Chairman, Attahiru Jega, said: “What is worth doing
is worth doing well. We do not want to make mistakes,” he remarked to a
question posed after the main telecast interview. He said with the
number of petitions and complaints from politicians reaching his
office, the commission chose to verify some claims-for instance, the
Anambra senate tussle between Dora Akunyili and Chris Ngige- before
making a final declaration.

Despite a near
certain prospect that whatever results is posted by the electoral body
will be contested in court as many aggrieved candidates have indicated,
he said the commission should better be certain of its result before
certifying one.

He assured that the
results should be uploaded to the commissions’ website on Thursday.
However, as of 6 pm yesterday, the document was yet to be placed on the
web.

Emmanuel Umenger,
the commission’s Director for Public Affairs said many of the states
had yet to fully transmit their results to the commission assuring that
the electoral body would not delay in making that public as soon as
they are received.

“It is a public
document and they will be made public,” he said yesterday. Mr Jega’s
spokesperson, Kayode Idowu, said the 48 hours earlier announced by the
commission was not to be regarded as a “dogma” but rather as a
guideline to result release.

Meanwhile, the
commission has reassured the last Saturday’ mode of voters
accreditation, which some international observers and political parties
say is rigorous, would not be suspended during the presidential
election tomorrow.

Modified open ballot continues

Mr Jega told a
delegation of the European Union Election Observation Mission to
Nigeria, that the Modified Open Ballot System will not be jettisoned.

He said since the
prevalent national mood was that the commission must not fail, it would
be unwise to adopt a new voting strategy midway into the general
elections. “In the meeting that we had on Tuesday, we paid a lot of
attention to strengthening the accreditation system, making it more
efficient, and also the voting procedure.

“With time when we
restore sufficient credibility to the process, then we can begin to
look at other ways of ensuring a more convenient procedure. But for
now, we will make do with the Open Modified Ballot System,” he said.

On preparations for Saturday, he said the needed materials are
already on the ground and have been distributed to the states and from
the reports we are getting, in many of the states, deployment to
far-flung corners had already commenced.”

The insistence of
the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) to produce the vice president was
responsible for the failure of the party’s planned alliance with the
Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), the party’s presidential
candidate, Muhammadu Buhari, has said.

Mr. Buhari noted that with only a few days to the election, it was foolhardy to change his party’s vice presidential candidate.

“By the electoral
laws, this was virtually impossible before this election. We suggested
that they should let us jointly go into the elections and jointly form
the government after our victory. But our friends were not ready to
take us on our honour and went to the media,” he said.

In a statement
signed by Mr. Buhari’s spokesman, Yinka Odumakin, the former head of
state said the notion that he was responsible for the inability of his
party and the ACN to forge an alliance ahead of Saturday’s polls was
“baseless and unfounded.”

He said he was
responding to set the record straight and regretted the inability of
the parties to harness what he called their electoral fortunes.

Not exactly

The ACN, on the
other hand, continues to blame Mr. Buhari for the missed opportunity. A
source at the meeting said the CPC vice presidential candidate, Tunde
Bakare, had behaved in a manner that suggested that he had no intention
to honour the accord.

“We are aware of
the electoral act. We did not say they should change their ticket now,
but after the election,” says an ACN senior official.

NEXT learnt that
although Mr. Bakare agreed to resign after the election, and even to
write the resignation letter, he chose to address such a letter in a
manner that gives him wiggle room.

“It was not a
resignation as vice president but a letter addressed to the chairman of
the board of trustees of his party offering to resign anytime Buhari is
no longer happy with him, which left the room open, as the ACN guys saw
it, for not resigning at all,” said the source.

‘Nigeria is my client’

People have
wondered why, in selecting an ACN candidate to be Mr. Buhari’s vice
president, Bola Tinubu did not deemed it fit to name his party’s vice
presidential candidate, Fola Adeola.

Instead, Mr. Tinubu
named three others: Yemi Osinbajo, a former Attorney General and
Commissioner for Justice in Mr. Tinubu’s administration; Yemi Cardoso,
who was Mr. Tinubu’s budget commissioner; and a former Lagos State
finance commissioner, Wale Edun.

However, Mr. Adeola told NEXT yesterday that he was not particularly bothered by all that.

“My selection was
to run with Nuhu Ribadu, so once we were going to go with Buhari, it is
only right, the party has the right, to look at what was best,” Mr.
Adeola said.

The ACN vice presidential candidate also praised Mr. Ribadu’s selflessness and patriotism.

“The only client I have in this whole thing is Nigeria. I am proud
of the party on whose platform I am running. I am proud of the man I am
running with, for his magnanimity and his generosity in agreeing to
drop his own ambition and step down for another candidate. I am sorry
that the other side decided to scuttle a good chance to win our country
back by not agreeing to this simple request for a resignation letter,”
he said.

The Action Congress
of Nigeria (ACN) presidential candidate, Nuhu Ribadu, yesterday, said
he did not feel threatened by either the collapse of alliance talks
between his party and the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), or the
overwhelming endorsement being enjoyed by the PDP presidential
candidate, Goodluck Jonathan.

Mr. Ribadu, who
made the statement in Abuja while fielding questions from journalists
at a world press conference tagged, ‘Farewell To Nostalgia’, said
though the alliance talks have collapsed, Nigerians still believe in
the ACN.

“I don’t feel
threatened by any party’s endorsing Goodluck because we have also got
endorsement of 12 parties. What matters is Nigerians’ endorsement,
those who are going to vote on Saturday, and that is why we are
pleading to Nigerians to vote wisely because PDP is a continuation of
the rot we are currently experiencing,” Mr. Ribadu said.

Although he agreed
that he had earlier offered to step down for the CPC presidential
candidate, Muhammadu Buhari, he clarified that he did not eventually do
so.

“There was no
stepping down; offer is a different thing. During the negotiation,
offers were made by both sides. ACN made a big sacrifice and the other
side made a promise and failed to deliver.

“So, that is the
cause of the failure of the alliance and that is why I still maintain
that I am the candidate. I am standing and asking Nigerians to vote for
me because I did not step down for anybody,” he said.

Art of rigging

Mr. Ribadu noted
that in the history of elections in Nigeria, electoral malpractices
have become the most formidable huddle that had stood against electing
a truly representative and responsible government, and cautioned
against tampering with votes in the remaining elections.

“In last week’s
National Assembly election, the same challenge reared its ugly head
again and the main perpetrators are the same gifted captains in the art
of election rigging and manipulation.

“They are roaming
the streets about now, getting set for action, and if they did it last
week, we would all be naïve to imagine that they would yield on this
criminal and unpatriotic act and go on vacation this coming Saturday,”
he said.

He called on Nigerians to vote wisely in order to ensure that a credible leader emerged in the poll.

Ahead of the presidential poll
tomorrow, the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) has urged the Independent
National Electoral Commission, INEC, to correct the irregularities and
logistics challenges recorded during the April 9, National Assembly
election.

The group also called on Nigerians to turn out en-mass to exercise their civic responsibility in electing credible leaders.

In a statement signed by, Anthony Sani,
the group noted that the turnout of voters during the National Assembly
election especially in the northern parts of the country was below
expectation compared to the total number of registered voters in the
region.

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In Benue, the
presidential election votes will be split between Nuhu Ribadu,
candidate of the Action Congress of Nigeria and President Goodluck
Jonathan, the incumbent, considering last Saturday’s voting pattern.

At the National
Assembly elections which held last week in some zones in the state, the
PDP won the two contested senatorial seats and six of the nine
contested Federal House of Reps seats.

However, an
analysis of the voting pattern shows that PDP won marginally on
aggregate. The PDP polled 373,775 votes, out of the 769,281 total votes
cast, representing 48.6 per cent of the total votes cast. Their closest
rival, ACN, polled an aggregate of 351,209 votes out of the total votes
cast, representing 45.6 per cent of the total votes cast.

The All Nigeria
People’s Party (ANPP) came a distant third with an aggregate of 29,710,
representing 3.8 per cent of the total votes cast in the election. The
Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) scored 10,740, a meagre I.4 per
cent share of the total votes cast.

Battle for Benue

The contest is thus
visibly between the PDP and ACN in Benue. The PDP has held the
frontline position in Benue politics since 1999 but its grip on power
is being fiercely challenged.

Some of the
masterminds of the PDP’s previous victories now lead the ACN in the
state. That notwithstanding, loyalists of the PDP in the state believe
the party will keep winning without these masterminds.

The PDP held a
closed-door caucus meeting in Markurdi on Thursday, where the leaders
agreed to go back to their localities to work harder and improve the
size of the party’s victory in the presidential elections.

A political analyst, Benjamin Friday, described the presidential poll as a make or mar one for the ACN.

“If the party loses
this time again, then the people will start thinking they are not as
strong as they claim and that will affect them in the gubernatorial
elections,” Mr. Friday said in Gboko.

“The Tiv speaking
north has always decided the political future of the state with their
lager electorate, and they are the one leading this opposition. So, it
is going to be a strong battle between PDP and ACN on Saturday,” he
added.

Benue INEC ready

Meanwhile, the Independent National Electoral Commission in the state says it is ready for the presidential polls on Saturday.

Jacob Iyanda,
public relations officer of the commission in Benue, said on Thursday
evening that the state has recieved all the required materials from the
national INEC office and has started the disbursment of same, including
sensitive materials.

“Everything has
arrived, and we have started distributing sensitive materials to the
various local governments,” Mr. Iyanda said.

He added that the
materials arrived quite early from Abuja and they are doing same for
the local government areas so that they too will be properly prepared
for the Saturday polls.

This week’s
distribution comes a day earlier than last week’s. However, last week,
some far flung villages complained of late arrival of materials at
polling centres.

Mr. Ayanda said the commision has concluded the retraining of its officers who will participate in the elections.

The Benue INEC
office has also been put under heavy security survilance by a joint
security team of the Army and Police, ahead of the polls.