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Palliatives: We don’t trust Otti’s government – group *Warns against hording
Abia Renaissance Movement (ARM), a group of activists in Abia State, has expressed fears that the palliatives announced by the Federal Government a fortnight ago to cushion the effect of subsidy removal, would eventually get to the target groups in the state, citing the poor governance structure of the new government of Alex Otti.
The group, which is already complaining about the delay in the commencement of the distribution of the palliatives allocated to states, indicated that the people were already worried that the goodies might end up being hoarded and diverted by government officials.
ARM, in a statement signed by its Convener, Ukachukwu Chinonso and its Secretary-General, Comrade Maria Nwokoma, decried how poor policies of the Otti government and its propensity for propaganda, had brought negative impacts on the people, stressing that this could also affect the effective distribution of the largesse.
“The policy somersaults, abandonment of campaign promises to the people, lack of transparency in government dealings and destructive propaganda that have become attributes of Mr Alex Otti’s administration have caused palpable fears among the people that the Abia State share of the Federal Government palliatives to states to cushion the effects of fuel subsidy removal on the people may be diverted by state government officials who have developed an unrestrained knack for subjecting the people to extreme hardship due to harsh policies of the Alex Otti government,” the statement, said.
Babagana Zulum, Governor of Borno State, had on August 17, announce a set of measures including the disbursement of N5bn and an additional five truck-loads of rice to each state of the federation for immediate distribution to the people especially the vulnerable, as part of the FG’s measure to cushion the effect of the fuel subsidy.
He said it was part of the outcome of a meeting of the National Economic Council meeting chaired by the Vice President, Kashim Shettima, adding that the disbursement was strictly to address food shortage in the interim and therefore each state was expected to use the fund to procure 100,000 bags of rice, 40,000 bags of maize and fertilizer to be shared to the citizens
The states were also directed to get an accurate and acceotable social register to be used for the cash transfer of the $800 million World Bank loan to vulnerable people in states, as part of the further step to end the hunger and suffering in the land.
But the group, regretted that the state had remained reluctant to announce a clear subsidy palliatives plan for the people, adding that the alarm such a delay might not be unconnected to allegations which are now rife in the state that government henchmen were planning to hoard and divert the palliative cash and materials meant for the people.
“We wish to state categorically clear that such acts will not be tolerated by Abians. We are ready to mobilise the people against such acts if the state government does not do the needful in the next few days. We are shocked that while other states have since commenced the palliative distribution exercise to their people, our own government in Abia is still toying with her citizens and even making life harder by denying people their salaries under one guise or the other.
“We view this action by Alex Otti as a deliberate ploy to discredit the Presidency and drag it into disrepute before the people. Our people are hungry and dying. It is unconscionable for anyone to try to play politics with what has been sent to them to alleviate their hardship. We shall not tolerate such act of wickedness any longer and we shall resist any further attempt to shortchange our people by officials who have shown by their speeches, body language and actions in the last three months that their purpose of being in government is for the primitive accumulation of our commonwealth. Not even their media propaganda that they have commenced distribution of the items when no single person in the state has received anything of such will save them from being exposed,” the statement, said.
For not only pardoning Ken Saro-Wiwa and eight others on Thursday, but decorating them with national honours, Suage Bade, son of Albert Bade, one of the four prominent Ogoni leaders killed by a mob in 1994 has a word for President Bola Tinubu – you have killed my father a second time.
“Since yesterday (Thursday) night, I started mourning my father again,” the scion of Bade, a retired permanent secretary in Rivers State Government, who later took on the role of a traditional ruler in his native Ogoni community, said on Friday.
A guest on Prime Time, a public affairs programme on ARISE NEWS, television network, Bade saw the move as propelled by the quest for money, accusing Tinubu of being too eager to see to the commencement of resumption of oil drilling in Ogoni land that he did not care about the consequences of his action.
The pushback came just a day after Tinubu, at the celebration of the 32nd anniversary of June 12, 1993 presidential election, now being marked as Nigeria’s Democracy Day, pardoned the Ogoni-9, led by Saro-Wiwa, leader of the Movement for the Survival of Ogoni People (MOSOP), the family of the slain leaders also known as the Ogoni-4, hold culpable for the murder of their parents.
Though the President, who made the declaration in a speech he delivered at the joint-sitting of the National Assembly, did not absolve them of guilt in the crime, which led to their arrest, trial and eventual hanging by the military government of Sani Abacha, after their conviction by a military tribunal, he went ahead to confer on them national honours.
Palpably anguished by the gesture, Bade told his host on Friday: “It is a complete disregard for the memory of our fathers, who actually served this country diligently without blemish over the years and were killed, murdered in cold-blood in broad daylight by the same men that are being honoured today – yesterday – and they made no mention of the four. It’s a very sad development.”
Acknowledging that Saro-Wiwa and the rest might not have participated in physically killing the Ogoni-4, he said they remained blameworthy by vicarious responsibility, because they were the ones who instigated the mob as leaders of MOSOP, the group agitating over the activities of oil companies in the community.
He added: “It is actually a vicarious responsibility on the part of those who were at the leadership of MOSOP at that time. So, if they were leading MOSOP and people were defamed and at the end of the day, they conspired, hacked them down, butchered them and today we have not seen their bodies, how else do you – you know that if somebody assigns somebody to go and kill and you’re not there, you have also killed that person.
“So, he was the mastermind of the killing. I’ve said that before, he was the mastermind for the murder of the four. However, for me, I don’t have anything with the pardon, what I feel that is wrong, which is an aberration is how do you honour a murderer that you have just pardoned. Then you said nothing about the four, our fathers that were butchered to death. They didn’t disappear.
“Pardon is okay, as I said. It’s the President’s prerogative to grant pardon. But to now honour murderers, I think we are now introducing a new low in our Nigerian society, because a lot of Ogonis who escaped and went under the cover of United Nations Refugee Programme, are you telling me if they return, you’re also going to accord them an OON (Officer of the Order of the Niger)?
“We have a lot of respectable Nigerians like Wole Soyinka and other people who deserve such honour. But I can now see why Chinua Achebe turned down such an offe,r because it looks like values are not being considered anymore. You can now be a career murderer and be given an honour in Nigeria. That’s what it means. That’s the new low.
“So, I’m not happy about this because my father was a man who was straightforward. He served and at the end of the day, contributed in development, not only in the sphere of his service, but in Ogoni. But all he got from the people he served, through Saro-Wiwa’s evil rhetoric was for people to hack him down, cut him into pieces and take his body away and till today, there’s no remorse.
“Well, we can’t cry on for more than 30 years. If certain people in Ogoni don’t want to be remorseful for what they did and they want to stand by all the lies, and continue to promote themselves, because they want to enrich themselves – because they have protruding stomachs that cannot be filled and continue an activism that is not real to the people – I want to say for the Bade family and for others, we have reached a point, we hand it over to God.
“I think all of these is all about how to come to Ogoni and get oil and they are in a hurry about it. I’m not in a hurry to betray my father for any form of compensation. In fact, honouring him and putting him side by side with murderers, I don’t think I will accept that. I don’t need compensation.”
Regarding to many who are calling for the total exculpation of the Ogoni-9 of blame over the incident, Bade, attributed it to disinformation, which he said usually led to misinformation adding that a lot of people, particularly the younger generation who did not know the true story, saying if they truly knew the correct story, the situation would be different.
“Just imagine that a man left his house and then he was hacked down. I was there. I saw blood splatter all around the wall in the palace. Today, they refer to that place in Gokana as “slaughter.” People leave their homes and say they’re going to “slaughter.” Then people like Ledum Mitie, Professor Ben Nanem and all those who are agitators for MOSOP, who have the responsibility to turn around for good, they have created a transgenerational catastrophe in Ogoni land.
“This is going to pass through generations and Ogoni is remain divided. I’m so sad. What the President did is wrong. I used to see him as one who listens to both sides and does the right thing. But unfortunately, I think he is misguided and I don’t know why he fell to that.”
A woman who was scheduled to board the Air India flight that tragically crashed in Ahmedabad has spoken about her narrow escape, saying she missed the doomed plane by just 10 minutes, The PUNCH is reporting.
Quoting Mail Online news, the report said Bhoomi Chauhan was en route to Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport in Gujarat to catch flight AI-171 to London when heavy traffic caused a critical delay, preventing her from boarding, and eventually spared her from a devastating crash that claimed 241 lives, leaving only one survivor.
Chauhan, a resident of Ahmedabad, who due to being stuck in heavy traffic, reached the airport 10 minutes later and ultimately ended up missing her flight, told local media that upon receiving information of the devastating crash just moments after she was turned away from the boarding gates, she shivered badly and her legs started shaking.
The Gatwick-bound plane carrying 242 passengers, including 53 British nationals, crashed just moments after take-off.
The Boeing 787 Dreamliner careened back down to earth in the densely populated Meghani area of the city just minutes after leaving the runway around 1.40pm local time (8.10am BST).
Terrifying CCTV footage shows the plane appear to lose control before it starts rapidly descending with a high nose angle and landing gear deployed.
Chauhan said her ‘mind went numb’ after she learned of the incident before she returned home. She had been visiting India for a holiday while her husband remained home in London.
Akpabio: Diary of a legislative czar in the Red Chamber
Pardon of Ogoni nine: Tinubu has murdered my father a second time – Bade
How traffic jam saved me from ill-fated Indian plane – woman narrates
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