In the human story, goodbyes are usually simple, touching transitions. But deploying quirky hubris, cant and divisiveness, the outgoing Edo State governor, Mr Godwin Obaseki has ignobly tried to change the narrative. I was reading the book of Daniel Chapter 5 earlier in the week and the story of King Belshazzar, son of Nebuchadnezzar, who was the notorious Babylonian King was very instructive even as it provided a compelling insight into the governorship of Obaseki. For those who do not know the story about how the Kingdom of Babylon was divided and taken from the lineage of Nebuchadnezzar, I would…
Author: Sufuyan Ojeifo
When the legendary musician and revolutionary singer, Sonny Okosuns, dropped the hit song, “Papa’s Land”, little did he know that the song would capture the public mood in his beloved Edo State at this time. In a few days, precisely on Saturday, September 19, 2020, we, the good people of Edo State, will go to the polls. Yes, we will go to the polls to perform our civic responsibility of electing someone to govern us for the next four years. Although there are several other candidates in the race to the Government House at Osadebe Avenue, let’s simply cut the…
The September 19, 2020 governorship election in Edo State should have been a family affair. A “referendum” of sorts or a “no-contest” scenario in which everybody, especially in the former All Progressives Congress (APC), (that was prior to the orchestration of the internal crisis and subsequent defection by Governor Godwin Obaseki), would have taken for granted the fact that the incumbent governor would just be passing through a simple process of revalidation of mandate. Three critical factors would have unfurled in his favour, to wit: the incumbency power, the platform of the APC – the governing party at the federal…
Govt tackling pandemic, recession with fiscal, monetary stimulus packages Minister of State for Budget and National Planning, Prince Clem Ikanade Agba, has assured Nigerians that the revision of the 2020 budget by the Federal Government was not intended to impose austerity measures on them. Agba said that President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration was looking at measures that would make economic recovery faster, in the aftermath of the ravages of the COVID-19 pandemic and the looming global recession. He said the major concern of government was how to ensure the retention of existing jobs and creation of new ones, adding that “we…
The Federal Government has inaugurated Technical Working Groups (TWGs) for the development of the thematic areas of the two new Medium-Term National Development Plans (MTNDP 2020 – 2025 and MTNDP 2026-2030) and the long-term national development plan, christened “Nigeria Agenda 2050”. Minister of State for Budget and National Planning, Prince Clem Ikanade Agba, who performed the virtual inauguration on Thursday, said the initiatives were designed to produce successor plans to the current Nigeria Vision 20:2020 and the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP 2017-2020), which would both come to an end in December, this year. According to Agba, “The Plans…
…commends effort of UN, EU through Spotlight Initiative Minister of State for Budget and National Planning, Prince Clem Ikanade Agba, says that the Nigerian government is committed to the global effort at decreasing violence against women and girls by intensifying collaboration with international partners in the fight against the scourge. Agba restated the commitment on Friday in a welcome address he delivered at the first bi-annual meeting of the National Steering Committee for the Spotlight Initiative in 2020 held in the auditorium of the United Nations’ House in Abuja. The Spotlight Initiative specifically backs a national action to end violence…
Nigerians can, at least, heave a sigh of relief, as the Minister of State for Budget and National Planning, Prince Clem Ikanade Agba, has confirmed that the nation’s financial records were not lost in the fire that gutted some offices in the Treasury House. The Treasury House, in Abuja’s Central Business District, is the multistorey building that accommodates the office of the Accountant General of the Federation (AGF). According to initial reports, offices on some floors of the building went up in flame on Wednesday morning due to a power spark from an air conditioner in one of the offices…
He is no less a child of providence, wielding power and privilege with fetching humility and exemplary focus. He has demonstrated with his life’s trajectory that royalty, economics, philanthropy and politics fundamentally address the transformation of the human condition for good. As yet, he unabashedly maintains this unique, philosophical footing in his private and public exertions. Little wonder, the famous American poet and essayist, Maya Angelou, once observed that “nothing can dim the light that shines from within.” Angelou’s captivating insight into the existential challenges that confront great men in the making fundamentally captures the life of Clem Ikanade Agba,…
Minister of State for Budget and National Planning, Prince Clem Ikanade Agba, has described the death of former Deputy State Chairman of the Edo State Chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Otunba Charlton Usman Magaji, as painful, shocking and diminishing. Prince Agba said Magaji’s death had depleted the tribe of loyal party men in APC in Edo but encouraged the APC family to keep hope alive and work even harder to preserve the legacy of commitment and loyalty that the late Magaji built during his life and times. A statement issued by his Special Assistant on Media, Sufuyan Ojeifo,…
A group, named Edo Transparency Initiative (ETI), has called out Governor Godwin Obaseki on his threat to probe the multi-billion naira Benin Storm Water Master Plan conceived by the administration of former Governor Adams Aliyu Oshiomhole. Minister of State for Budget and National Planning and former Commissioner of Environment and Public Utilities in the State, Prince Clem Ikanade Agba, had during his courtesy call on the Oba of Benin, Ewuare II, last Thursday, appealed to the royal father to request the state government to continue with the Storm Water Master Plan The storm Water Master Plan was conceived to combat the menace…
Minister of State for Budget and National Planning, Prince Clem Ikanade Agba, has pledged federal government’s support to the save-the-children initiative. Agba said, when he received a delegation from the international Non-Governmental Organisation, “Save the Children” led by the Country Director, Deirde Keogh, that every child deserved a better future. The “Save the Children” delegation was at the Ministry of Budget and National Planning on a courtesy visit. The Minister commended the organisation for the good work it had done over the years in the country, particularly in the North East. He assured the organisation of the ministry’s unwavering support in the…
“So say it loud and let it ring; we are all a part of everything; the future, present and the past; fly on proud bird; you’re free at last.” ~Charlie Daniels, an American singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist On October 28, last year, the curtains fell, bringing the life and times of the Iyasele of Esanland, Chief Anthony Akhakon Anenih, to a celebratory terminus; and so, he joyfully departed this terrestrial plane for a place in the celestial realm that typifies the future. Anenih passed on a few weeks after his 85th birthday, which he soberly marked on August 4 (2018) in a low key-fashion. Perhaps, beyond the economic…
A series of salacious stories were recently published by several online news portals about plots by a Lebanese engineer, Said Khalaf, to annex Setraco Nigeria Limited (SNL). Khalaf’s alleged gambit was not only to shortchange the progenies of the late Alhaji Inu Umoru, the principal partner of the 41-year old business, who passed on in 2009, but also to ensure, as alleged, the company goes under in the event the take-over plot fails. The allegations, supra, were some of the reinforcing themes of the media narratives. While I will not rehash the mind-boggling and questionable financial transactions that reportedly bore…
President Muhammadu Buhari has described as regrettable the continued loss of public funds through illicit financial flows, saying it remained an impediment to development and effort by developing countries to scale up resource mobilisation. The occasion was a high-level dialogue on “Financing for development” with the theme: “Putting resources to work for more equal, sustainable societies, including combating illicit financial flows” at the 74th United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in New York at the weekend. Minister of State for Budget and National Planning, Prince Clem Ikanade Agba, delivered the President’s speech on the occasion. The President returned to Abuja last…
The Federal Government has assured Nigerians and the international community that the domestication of the integrated Sustainable Development Goals (iSDG) simulation model in Nigeria was timely and would be used alongside other models to determine the size and scope of projects and programmes in the next national development plan. Minister of State for Budget and National Planning, Prince Clem Ikanade Agba, disclosed this on Tuesday in his remarks on the SDG implementation process in Nigeria at the Nigerian high-level side event on the margins of the 74th United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in New York. At the event attended by President…
According to the 1921 Nobel laureate for Literature, Frenchman Anatole France, “To accomplish great things, we must dream, as well as act.” Thousands of kilometres away from Europe, another bold visionary, entrepreneur and film producer – Walter Elias Disney – echoed the compelling philosophical thoughts of Anatole France. Observed Disney, who is American, “Good things come to people who wait, but better things come to those who go out and get them.” The deep, inspirational thinking of this duo must have provided the propellant that powered the fairytale-like trajectory of Nigeria’s top-notch professional, industrialist extraordinary and philanthropist par excellence – enabling…
The interviews granted by a former governor of Edo State and National Chair of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, to select Television stations, on Friday, September 6, 2019, were historic because they enabled him respond to sundry questions and to counter the series of complex narratives woven round the Edo House of Assembly crisis by the other party. Oshiomhole’s counter-narratives were downright frank, expansive – and he threw down the gauntlet, which Obaseki has yet to take up. He brought clarity to his actions. His grouse about Obaseki and his governance style was weighty and certainly, the weight…
· Minister commends Programme The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) said it was committed to the rebuilding of the three most-affected Boko Haram (BH) States of Adamawa, Borno and Yobe states, just as the Minister of State for Budget and National Planning, Prince Clem Ikanade Agba, commended the programme’s commitment in that regard. UNDP’s Resident Representative in Nigeria, Mr Mohammed Yahya, told the Minister during a courtesy visit to the Ministry in Abuja that there was a stabilisation facility to take care of the affected states in the areas of infrastructure development including roads, houses, clinics and police stations, among…
Minister of State for Budget and National Planning, Prince Clem Ikanade Agba, has assured the European Union (EU) of the President Muhammadu Buhari-led Federal Government’s commitment to the agenda of taking 100 million Nigerians out of poverty in the next ten years. Agba, who spoke at an audience in his office in Abuja with a team of the EU, led by Minister Counsellor and Head of Co-operation of EU Delegation to Nigeria & ECOWAS, Mr Kurt Cornelis, said one of the major thrusts of the administration’s priorities, in its second term, was the strategic and incremental liberation, over time,…
The single-mindedness of Captain Hosa Okunbo, a business mogul of international repute and a proud son of Benin Kingdom, is not an issue for speculation. He has consistently walked his talk and this is writ-large in the way he continues to put his nose to the grindstone in his commitment to add value to everything he does for country and for the uplift of humanity. His life is an open book that can be read and digested in order to appreciate the existential challenges he confronts and how, by a combination of providence and hard work, he continues to surmount them.…
At the recent presidential retreat for his cabinet members, President Muhammadu Buhari defined the ethos that would undergird the workings of the team, stressing complementarity and synergy among his ministers to realise the core goal of national development. The President’s message was succinctly communicated and I believe, rightly decoded by his audience. The cabinet would operate to serve the interest of an undivided executive under his headship as both head of state and head of government, in line with the theory and praxis of our presidential system of government. Essentially, the buck stops at Buhari’s table. In the concerted effort…
I have never known the former Edo State Governor and National Chair of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, to be a Moslem. As far as I know him, he is a Catholic of the Christian faith. I can, therefore, confidently attack the premise on which the beleaguered Governor of Edo State, Godwin Obaseki, visited him on the occasion of the recent Eid-el-Kabir. The visit, to put it unambiguously, was not fundamentally religious. It was just an opportunity to create a locus for political benefit. The over-the-top action of “invading” the Iyamho country home of Oshiomhole with an…
The fictional monster created by Victor Frankenstein in Mary Shelley’s 1818 novel – “Frankenstein” – continues to enjoy a similitude in the subsisting human catharsis always released to address existential questions birthed through the intercourse of politics, economics, socialization, religion and culture in Nigeria. Maladministration and inactions by leadership concerning critical day-to-day issues of life spawn diverse responses. The progressive mismanagement of public finance, with the ramifications of pervasive poverty, the widening gap between the rich and the poor largely accentuated by the liquidation of the middle class and falling standard of living, represents the elephant in the room. The…
It was, perhaps, not fortuitous that he was christened Godknows. His parents must have had some inkling that his trajectory in life would be phenomenal; that the Almighty God had predestined him for the top of his callings. And wait for this: Boladei, his middle name, as transliterated to me by an Ijaw daughter abroad, is “one’s turn has come”. That is also quite profound in the contemplation of Godknows Boladei Igali’s earthly voyage, encapsulating his public service engagements and his current political exertions. As a public servant, he attained the position of a permanent secretary. In the Foreign Service,…
I call it the Nuremberg madness. I solemnly consider it as grotesquely outlandish. It defies all manner of ratiocination and rationalizations. I had read a number of opinions that tended to either draw some bizarre corollary upon which a general warning was issued to other Ibo leaders and leaders of other ethnic nationalities to beware or that tended to justify the wanton assault in the context of the festering socio-political and economic ferment in Nigeria. It is a no-brainer to surmise that the act of folly that was garbed as ethnic revulsion or contempt for perceived immersion in government or laissez faire…
I had, in the past, written a number of tributes on the occasion of the anniversary of former military president, General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida (IBB). I penned the last one in 2017 on his 76th birthday titled: “At 76, IBB sustains his essential rhythm”. I had introduced the subject matter by pointing out how special the month of August is to him, being the month of his birth and the month he stepped in and out of the saddle as military president. Nothing has changed or can change the fact that the eighth month in the annual calendar holds a great…
I do not claim to have a catholic knowledge of the persona of Ishaku Abbo, the senator representing Adamawa North in the ninth Senate, as to make a magisterial assertion about the totality of his capacities as well as the possibilities of his existential being. Such omniscient indulgence is divine. But I can speak to some aspects of his individuality that I know fairly well and on which I can place a wager. However, let me state from the outset that the enterprise of vouchsafing a clean bill in respect of those aspects of Abbo’s individuality cannot in itself be…
Joseph Tarka lived for only 48 years. His life and times were eventful. He defined his eon with the magnitude of his individuality and politics. He produced and offered to the Benue people a visionary, pragmatic, inspiring and focused leadership. Since his demise on March 30, 1980, no Benue politician of Tiv ethnic stock after him has been able to command the kind of reverence, public approbation, sympathy and support that he enjoyed in the political space of Benue. Tarka left behind a legacy of loyal and committed leadership. He was loyal to his followers and sensitive to the yearnings…
Many statutory agencies in Nigeria have not effectively applied themselves to the discharge of their approved duties. Tragically bogged down by lack of capacity, personnel or staff members of the affected agencies have continued to mismanage service delivery. For example, the anti-corruption war has been faltering because the majority of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission’s (EFCC) investigators lack the requisite training and aptitude. Many of the investigators resort to psychological torture and intimidation as investigative tools, with largely counter-productive results. This explicates the Commission’s loss of many high-profile corruption cases in court. And, investigation is, perhaps, the most important in…
The aphorism by the Yoruba that “whoever does something that is unusual will experience a consequence that is unusual” perfectly mirrors Edo state governor, Mr. Godwin Obaseki’s self-inflicted political bind. Having stirred the hornets’ nest with the June 17, 2019 controversial inauguration of the State House of Assembly, a contraption that bears his imprimatur, he has been at the receiving end of assaults from stakeholders and arbiters from within and outside the state. Obaseki is, understandably, hysterical, seeking for critical support and legal ways to stave off the onslaughts against his position. Although, the prospects for survival in the short…
