Nigeria: Where Are The South South Governors?

 By Dan Amor

Undoubtedly, the emergence of brilliant, energetic and dynamic young men as governors in the South South States of Cross River, Akwa Ibom, Rivers, and Delta, following the 2019 governorship election is evidence of what God has in stock for the oil producing but largely neglected Niger Delta region. The governorship election couldn't hold abinitio in the two South South States of Bayelsa and Edo because the tenure of their governors had not expired then. The Bayelsa state governorship election was eventually held and Duoye Diri emerged the winner after the Supreme Court case while Gov Godwin Obaseki was declared winner for his second term after the 2020 governorship election in Edo state. 

*South South Governors 

In all, governors of the six South South States are: Chief Duoye Diri, Bayelsa; Hon. Nyesom Wike, Rivers; Mr. Udom Emmanuel, Akwa Ibom; Prof. (Sen.) Benedict Ayade, Cross River; Mr. Godwin Obaseki, Edo; and Sen. Dr. Ifeanyi Okowa, Delta. While acknowledging Their Excellencies' well-deserved victories at the polls and commending them for the vigour with which they have started their new assignments since their assumption of office, yours sincerely is inclined to observe that the task ahead is enormous and demands hardwork, resoluteness and team spirit to accomplish. But there must be regional integration in the South South. It is overdue for this development template. 

Improvement In Power Sector: Kudos To Obasanjo

By Desmond Orjiakor
Every well-informed Nigerian living in the country since the second coming of the military in December 1983 knows that very little investment was made in the power sector until the Olusegun Obasanjo administration came on board on May 29, 1999. For many, this is a misconception. Another misconception was the one peddled by the late political orator and former minister of power, and later Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Chief Bola Ige, that the sector could be fixed within six months. Those two misconceptions drove the thinking in the power sector. There were also very fundamental structural problems. Public utilities were run as a monopoly. Not just a monopoly, but also very top heavy and centralized in its administration, in the case of the power sector. And so, there were a number of things that had to be done. 

*Obasanjo
There were the reforms, for instance, the 2005 Act, which provides for the unbundling of the utility into different entities which happened during the Obasanjo administration when Senator Liyel Imoke was minister. I think, Imoke worked closely with the Bureau of Public Enterprises, BPE, to make sure that the law was passed. In fact, the Power Reform Act was one of the most difficult laws to be passed in the National Assembly for obvious reasons. But it was passed, and that was the beginning of the reforms in earnest. With the passage of the law, Nigerians started seeing the unbundling of the utilities into smaller entities and this, in turn, saw them independently managed and being run more like business entities. This, of course, was a step in the right direction heading towards ultimately what we now see as the privatization of these utilities.

All the structural amendments that needed to happen, and all started during the Obasanjo administration. There was an attempt to re-bundle the utilities during the Umaru Musa Yar'Adua administration. This delayed for over two years the reforms and progress that had been made. Yet, the fact that the Goodluck Jonathan administration came back to that same blueprint of the Obasanjo era has led to some of the improvements we see in the sector today. We now see that the Federal Government budget for the power sector was very huge. Now, with the private sector buying in and taking some ownership through the privatization process, we are now seeing the Federal Government spending less and the private sector taking more responsibilities for investment in power supply. 

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.

1999-2015: Akpabio As Best Governor

By Dan Amor

One major sign of the growing sophistication of Athenian society in the Golden Age was the rise of history as a critical record of the nation's past. As myth gave way to more accurate chronicling and prose replaced verse as the medium for preserving fact, the fifth century Greeks came closer to the scientific spirit of free inquiry in modern times. In fact, it was then that Plato declared that a life not examined was a life not worth living!

Memories are made of these. Yet, nothing seems more characteristic of the present age than the homogeneity of  its world view. We may frown at its developmental smugness but we must admire its optimism, its cosmopolitanism, its intellectual refinements, its spirit of true enlightenment and the critical engagement with which it examines the world and its leaders. For, it is always instructive for the serious student of history to start by trying to determine what an age thought of itself.

Such an investigation is made the easier by studying the lives and times of the important men and women that shaped the age with their actions. In documenting the life and times of a towering personality, exciting experiences are selected, which present emotional and spiritual values, to interpret the tale as it is rehearsed in imagination or told to an admiring listener or hearer. As a faithful servant, a dedicated realist and reformer, who bridged all gulfs, leveled all mountains and put a lamp in every tunnel, as exemplified by his selfless stewardship to the people of Akwa Ibom State since the past eight years, Obong (Senator) Godswill Akpabio CON, the immediate past governor of Akwa Ibom State, has undoubtedly come to be seen as a modern day phenomenon whose corpus requires a large canvas.

Cross River 2015: Legor As The Bride

By Dan Amor
Much of the significant critical issues in the Cross River State 2015 governorship contest would most likely be centred on the pedigrees of the contestants. This is much so as it is glaring that a precedent has already been set in the quality of materials the State has indubitably thrown up as governors since the beginning of the current political dispensation in 1999. 


*Ochiglegor Idagbo (Legor)

Two personalities who have governed the agrarian state since then, Donald Duke and Liyel Imoke, represent a bold testimony to the emerging trend of enthroning young and brilliant people at the apogee of political leadership across the world. Talking about young , good-looking, brilliant and adequately educated people in leadership positions in government? 

There is no doubt that brains and looks appear to be the unassailable clinchers these days as far as elections are concerned. In fact, the advanced democracies of the world discovered this mystery at the dusk of the twentieth century. In the United States of America, for instance, brains and looks did earn the Democratic Party a rare two-term spell under the youthful personage of the ever-voluble, hand-pumping and telegenic Oxford-trained lawyer, Bill Clinton. Even in Great Britain, the electorate, in May 1997, demonstrated a certain unabashed bias for yapper, dapper looks with all the histrionic gestures and dramatic turns of phrases, when they elected Tony Blair of the New Labour, another Oxford-trained lawyer , then 43, as Prime Minister. He was the youngest in 187 years.