Fake Certificates Saga And A Nation’s Future

By Matthew Ozah

Among a group of young men gathered in a barber’s shop, the other day, as I had a hair-cut, the topic of the conversation was how to gain admission into the institution of higher learning to acquire basic knowledge and be awarded a degree certificate.

One among them said: “Why would I waste my time in the four walls of a university for four, maybe five or six years, strike inclusive to obtain a sheet of paper called certificate”? The easiest way, as he reckoned, was to visit Oluwole and within minutes, you have a certificate at hand to brandish as a graduate and gain employment with.

Without mincing words, education is the key to unlock success in today’s society. Hence, it has become everyone’s desire to acquire a moderate qualification in any field of endeavour. It is, however, disheartening to say that many unscrupulous persons, like the young man in the barber’s shop, in their desperate quest to reap where they did not sow, are ready to go at any length to achieve their aim.

Such is the case in point, as recently reported in Cross River State, over certificate scam, where a head teacher was demoted to a gateman and a security man equally became a teacher.

Over the years, the decay in the education sector has been alarming and a lot has been cited as the cause. Of course, teachers with fake certificates are not without a share of the blame, as they cannot give what they do not have. More so, paucity of funds and the inconsistency of the education system among others have contributed to the decadence.

Nigeria: In Search Of The Messiah

By Bayo Ogunmupe  

The alert that the occupants of the Bakassi Peninsula will soon become stateless, (being refugees) in Nigeria now, gives cause for concern. This alarm was sounded by the representative for Nigeria and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) at the signing of the memorandum of understanding with ECOWAS Parliament in Abuja recently. The alert drew the attention of the world to the displacement of the people of Bakassi. These people are Efiks with linguistic and cultural affinity with Efiks of Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria. Being Nigerians until Bakassi was ceded to Cameroon in August 2008 by the International Court of Justice.

Since then, Bakassi belonged to Cameroon but its residents remained Nigerians. Worse still, the two countries have not been serious in governing the territory inhabited by this people. Due to neglect by the Nigerian government, these people have nowhere to call their country. But evidence abounds that they are Nigerians because they registered and voted at Dayspring Island, Cross River State, Nigeria in 2015.

The people of Bakassi have chosen to remain Nigerians in spite of neglect. This is why we need a messiah to rescue Nigeria from predators who don’t see more than cornering oil money in Nigeria. We need a leader ready to tackle those seeking to balkanise Nigeria to satisfy their security concerns. Like the Jews who are still waiting for their messiah, we should start searching for an emancipator now. We need a leader who will emancipate Bakassi and lift us out of poverty.

Amidst the great yearning for a messiah came the confirmation by the First Lady, Mrs. Aisha Buhari that the government of her husband had been hijacked by a mafia. The Senate President, Dr. Bukola  first broke the news at the height of his feud with Buhari over his alleged alteration of Senate standing orders last year. The confirmation of the mafia takeover was a huge blow to us who view Buhari as the much awaited messiah that will transform Nigeria to the Utopian land of our dreams. It means this government is in the hands of a few jejune individuals.

Cross River's Politics Of Name Dropping

By Dan Amor

It is alarmingly discomforting that Cross Rivers State, unarguably one of the most endowed states in Nigeria in terms of human capital and its twin benefit of modern civilization, is gradually slouching towards sentimental politics, if not politics of bitterness. Politics of integrity, tolerance and civility for which the state was highly rated was recently threatened by fellows who suddenly invaded the terrain with the sole intention to loot and perpetuate themselves in office as though the state was no longer capable of regeneration. Indeed, the gain-politicians from within the ruling Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, filled with intractable ambition and desperation to hijack the political machinery from their benefactors hit a dry well when they found out that the then governor Senator Liyel Imoke who was leader of the party in the state was not a pushover as they had thought. 

*Former Gov Liyel Imoke 

This development generated a dry rot of apathy, infighting and distrust culminating in last minute defections to other parties. But the arguments, the back-hall scheming, and the last minute flip-flops that somehow produced real accomplishments also set in motion an almost tragic series of events that threatened the peace and stability of the state. Since, as they say, to the funeral of an elephant, all manner of knives are invited, the foibles and frailty came to a defining moment when the unpopular ones saw themselves roundly defeated and their sense of frustrated ambition got understood in their bones. Rather than appreciating the reality of their predicament and re-strategize for yet another round, they are dropping Imoke's name here and there as being responsible for their failure.

Yet, beyond the empire building, the raining of insults and abuses on Imoke, the backstabbing, the restrained idealism, the cynical posturing, the raw ambition, and, above all, the endless political spinning in the state, the public deserves an overview of the real issues fueled less by any score-settling agenda than by an honest investigation into what really happened. For dispassionate observers of the political scene in Cross River State since the current democratic political dispensation began in 1999, the PDP, after the struggle of the primaries with Kanu Agabi (SAN), went on to win the general elections even though the odds were against Donald Duke, its candidate. It could be recalled that the All Peoples Party, APP, had more members at the local governments than the PDP and had members at the State House of Assembly. It also had members at the National Assembly. Imoke was the Director General of Donald Duke Campaign Organisation and a founding member of the PDP who brought the party to the state. Sixteen years down the road he and his team were able to deliver the state to PDP to the glory of God. 

Duke/Imoke Tango And The Death Of Honour

By Dan Amor

"If our credit be so well built,
So firm that it is not easy to be shaken
By calumny or insinuation,
Envy then commends us,
And extols us beyond reason
To those upon whom we depend,
Till they grow jealous,
And so blow us up
When they cannot throw us down"-  Clarendon.

Former governor of Cross River State (1999-2007), Mr. Donald Duke and his successor, Senator Liyel Imoke, who governed the state between 2007 and 2015 have been best of friends. They know how they and one of their own, Senator Gershom Bassey, came together and drew up a blueprint for the New Cross River  State prior to the current democratic civilian dispensation in 1999. 

*Duke handing over to Imoke in 2007 

(pix: crossriverwatch)

As progenitors of the intricate power calculus in the state, they know what arrangement they had behind closed doors as to who among the three musketeers would give the first shot at the governorship of the massively agrarian state. They also know how they have been helping one another from when they met up until today. As politicians, they know that crisis is part and parcel of the game of politics. And they have, individually or collectively, been in and out of crisis after crisis in the course of their involvement in the political engineering of the state. It is common knowledge in Cross River State that in 2007, Duke did not support Imoke to succeed him. He actively encouraged and financially supported his Deputy, Walter Nneji to run against Imoke, an aspirant whom Imoke roundly defeated at the primaries.

Yet, since the build up to the 2015 general elections, Duke's political temperature has had to rise to fever pitch time and time again. At a time when even erstwhile strange bedfellows were aligning and re-aligning for relevance, Duke who, at a time, dumped the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) on whose platform he rose to power but was brought back by his benefactor, Imoke, was said to have openly lambasted the latter in a clandestine or cavalier manner. According to reports, Duke, against the backdrop of the 2015 political engineering, had an ulterior motive to hijack the party structure from Imoke who ideally was the leader of the party in the state as the then sitting governor. At a reception for Goddy Jedy Agba, a governorship aspirant, by a faction of the party in Calabar, the State capital, Duke was said to have derided Imoke for the crisis that rocked the State chapter of the party.

He was said to have queried the veracity of Imoke's claims on the development of the state vis-a-vis the economic health of the state under Imoke. As though he was out to disparage his successor or to challenge him to another round of political combat, Duke called Imoke a dictator without looking back at how he (Duke) behaved while in power including his relationship with his late Deputy, John Okpa. Like the proverbial monk who wants to have his cake and eat it, Donald Duke is once again in the news, for the wrong reason of promoting mischief. In a cover interview he granted Newswatch Times magazine dated July 2015, Duke gave a false narrative of his relationship with Imoke and his successor's role over the fate of his legacies. It was headlined "How Imoke Ruined My Efforts- Duke." As if that was not enough, Duke granted another interview to a new magazine, The Interview dated August 2015, a section of which was used to attack Imoke.

Imoke Denies Lobbying Emir Of Kano To Stop EFCC Investigation

Press Release 

Senator Liyel Imoke, the immediate past governor of Cross River State has dismissed an online news report alleging that he is running from pillar to post trying to lobby the Emir of Kano, His Royal Majesty Sanusi Lamido Sanusa to stop EFCC from probing him as the height of falsehood and a ploy ostensibly to smear his image and instigate a war of attrition against him by the Federal Government. Sponsored by his detractors and political opponents, the story seeks to malign the former governor and to portray him in bad light to the reading public.

Titled: "Imoke Lobbies Obol Lopon, Emir of Kano To Escape EFCC Noose", the story is a mendacious miscarriage of the politics of hate by sociopaths who promote politics of vendetta and acrimony in an era of growing political maturity in the country. The only substance in the story is that  Senator Imoke's chief antagonist, Chief Okoi Obono Obla has written series of petitions to anti-graft agencies urging them to probe the immediate past administration of Senator Imoke. But this after-dinner grandstanding is not capable of causing the former governor his sleep since every activity of the state government under his watch is in black and white for all to see.

Interestingly, the claim by CrossRiverWatch that the former governor was 'clandestinely' reaching out to Obla with an appeal to soft-pedal using Abi Chiefs and the Obol Lopon of Ugep, is spurious and fallacious, to say the least. It is pathetic that people could go to any length to pull others down just to score political goals. In fact, since his coronation in June, 2015, Senator Imoke who was out of the country at the time, has not met the Obol Lopon in person and has never had any communication with the monarch. It is simply the figment of the imagination of pimps in the state who have no other means of livelihood than petition writing.

Not only has the publication lied through its news source, that the former governor insulted President Muhammadu Buhari during his campaign tour of Calabar, it also averred that Senator Imoke reached out to HRM Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, the Emir of Kano to get the ear of the President for him. Imoke has never met with the Emir of Kano since he ascended the throne of his ancestors. Undoubtedly, Senator Imoke has never been known to be arrogant or boisterous in the course of his political career not to talk of insulting anybody. 

You may not like his style, and call him whatever you will, but no one can deny the fact that Imoke has handled all his assignments, from national to state levels with uncommon composure, tolerance, candour and patriotic fervour. He believes that criticisms, even ruthless ones are part of the democratic culture provided they are not meant to tarnish one's reputation.


Dan Amor
Media Adviser to Senator Imoke
Abuja,
August 15, 2015.