October 30, 2019
October 17, 2019
Discordant Tunes Trail Killing Of Delta Politician
Discordant Tunes Trail Killing Of Delta Politician
*Killing, Politically Motivated - ADC State Chairman
*Murder, A Case Of Communal Crisis - Police
By Patrick Ochei
Confusion has set into Delta State as a grassroots politician, the Chairman of African Democratic Congress, ADC for Warri South-West Local Government Area and candidate of same political party for the 2019 House of Assembly election for Warri South-West Constituency, Hon. Taylor William Ogofugha was yesterday, October 15, 2019, shot dead in his own house at the local government area.
The ADC Delta State Chairman, Prince Joe Chukwu has alleged that his party man's gruesome murder was politically motivated, citing that his overwhelming popularity in the area might have fueled envy that had metamorphosed into his death.
Chukwu who spoke to our correspondent via a telephone conversation, revealed that Taylor brought ADC into Warri South-West and had since been the Chairman of the party in the LGA. He said during the 2019 election, he was equally found worthy, grounded and qualified to contest the Delta State House of Assembly election and he was elected as candidate for the party.
According to the ADC State Chairman, "We are shocked at the killing of Taylor who happened to be one of our most worthy and outstanding members."
"Just last week he called me that he had already convinced three aspirants from three local government areas to contest for the Delta State Local Government election as chairmen, that he would need forms for them. And I told him that DSIEC had not announced the time table for Local Government election, that he should exercise patience till when that window is opened."
"We even have a state meeting on Friday and hotels had been booked for members and delegates from Abuja and other places, but I have shelved the meeting due to this sudden and unfortunate news. He was a loyal and committed party man who built his personal house and converted it to the party's secretariat in Warri South-West."
"We are investigating the cause of his death; we have sent people for that task. We suspect his killing was politically motivated, because this was a man so popular to the extent that he had wooed key APC and PDP members into ADC in Warri South-West."
"If they said the killing was as a result of land dispute between Aladja and Ogbe-Ijoh, we got information that the issue had been settled amicably. Now, why the killing? Why was he shot inside his home? Who were those that killed him and for what reason?", Chukwu asked.
However in a swift reaction, the Police Public Relations Officer in the State, DSP Onome Onovwakpoyeya has debunked claims that the politician was politically murdered.
She said it was a case of communal crisis, occasioned by land dispute between the Aladja and Ogbe-Ijoh communities of Delta State.
" As I speak with you, almost the entire police formation in the state are in those areas trying to maintain peace and order. It's a crisis, and a serious one at that; so anything could have happened."
"We urge the people of Aladja and Ogbe-Ijoh to maintain peace and comply to peace process. We need peace in the state. But I must assure Deltans that the police is on top of the situation, having mobilized our men to restore calm and order in the area. We will not take lightly any form of lawlessness and mindless violence in the State", the PPRO posited.
*Killing, Politically Motivated - ADC State Chairman
*Murder, A Case Of Communal Crisis - Police
By Patrick Ochei
Confusion has set into Delta State as a grassroots politician, the Chairman of African Democratic Congress, ADC for Warri South-West Local Government Area and candidate of same political party for the 2019 House of Assembly election for Warri South-West Constituency, Hon. Taylor William Ogofugha was yesterday, October 15, 2019, shot dead in his own house at the local government area.
The ADC Delta State Chairman, Prince Joe Chukwu has alleged that his party man's gruesome murder was politically motivated, citing that his overwhelming popularity in the area might have fueled envy that had metamorphosed into his death.
Chukwu who spoke to our correspondent via a telephone conversation, revealed that Taylor brought ADC into Warri South-West and had since been the Chairman of the party in the LGA. He said during the 2019 election, he was equally found worthy, grounded and qualified to contest the Delta State House of Assembly election and he was elected as candidate for the party.
According to the ADC State Chairman, "We are shocked at the killing of Taylor who happened to be one of our most worthy and outstanding members."
"Just last week he called me that he had already convinced three aspirants from three local government areas to contest for the Delta State Local Government election as chairmen, that he would need forms for them. And I told him that DSIEC had not announced the time table for Local Government election, that he should exercise patience till when that window is opened."
"We even have a state meeting on Friday and hotels had been booked for members and delegates from Abuja and other places, but I have shelved the meeting due to this sudden and unfortunate news. He was a loyal and committed party man who built his personal house and converted it to the party's secretariat in Warri South-West."
"We are investigating the cause of his death; we have sent people for that task. We suspect his killing was politically motivated, because this was a man so popular to the extent that he had wooed key APC and PDP members into ADC in Warri South-West."
"If they said the killing was as a result of land dispute between Aladja and Ogbe-Ijoh, we got information that the issue had been settled amicably. Now, why the killing? Why was he shot inside his home? Who were those that killed him and for what reason?", Chukwu asked.
However in a swift reaction, the Police Public Relations Officer in the State, DSP Onome Onovwakpoyeya has debunked claims that the politician was politically murdered.
She said it was a case of communal crisis, occasioned by land dispute between the Aladja and Ogbe-Ijoh communities of Delta State.
" As I speak with you, almost the entire police formation in the state are in those areas trying to maintain peace and order. It's a crisis, and a serious one at that; so anything could have happened."
"We urge the people of Aladja and Ogbe-Ijoh to maintain peace and comply to peace process. We need peace in the state. But I must assure Deltans that the police is on top of the situation, having mobilized our men to restore calm and order in the area. We will not take lightly any form of lawlessness and mindless violence in the State", the PPRO posited.
October 16, 2019
BREAKING| Nigeria Becoming A Strategic Failure and Irrelevant to the World ~ Princeton Lyman A thought provoking piece!
BREAKING| Nigeria Becoming A Strategic Failure and Irrelevant to the World ~ Princeton Lyman
A thought provoking piece!
Princeton N. Lyman, the former U.S. Ambassador to Nigeria and South Africa, delivered a very poignant speech on the panel titled “The Nigerian State and
U.S. Strategic Interests” at the Achebe Colloquium at Brown University, USA.
Thank you very much Prof. Keller and thanks to the organizers of this conference. It is such a privilege to be here in a conference in honor of Prof. Achebe, an inspiration and teacher to all of us.
I have a long connection to Nigeria. Not only was I Ambassador there, I
have travelled to and from Nigeria for a number of years and have a deep and abiding vital emotional attachment to the Nigerian people, their magnificence, their courage, artistic brilliance, their irony, sense of humor in the face of challenges etc.
And I hope that we keep that in mind when I say some things that I think are counter to what we normally say about Nigeria. And I say that with all due respect to Eric Silla who is doing a magnificent work at State Department and to our good friend from the legislature, because I have a feeling that we both Nigerians and Americans may be doing Nigeria and Nigerians no favor by stressing Nigeria’s strategic importance.
I know all the arguments: it is a major oil producer, it is the most populous country in Africa, it has made major contributions to Africa in peacekeeping, and of course negatively if Nigeria were to fall apart the ripple effects would be tremendous, etc.. But I wonder if all this emphasis on Nigeria’s importance creates a tendency of inflate Nigeria’s opinion of its own invulnerability.
Among much of the elite today, I have the feeling that there is a belief that Nigeria is too big to fail, too important to be ignored, and that Nigerians can go on ignoring some of the most fundamental challenges they
have many of which we have talked about: disgraceful lack of
infrastructure, the growing problems of unemployment, the failure to deal with the underlying problems in the Niger-Delta, the failure to consolidate democracy and somehow feel will remain important to everybody because of all those reasons that are strategically important.
And I am not sure that that is helpful.
Let me sort of deconstruct those elements of Nigeria’s importance, and ask whether they are as relevant as they have been.
We often hear that one in five Africans is a Nigerian. What does it mean? Do we ever say one in five Asians is a Chinese? Chinese power comes not just for the fact that it has a lot of people but it has harnessed the entrepreneurial talent and economic capacity and all the other talents of China to make her a major economic force and political force.
What does it mean that one in five Africans is Nigeria? It does not mean anything to a Namibian or a South African. It is a kind of conceit. What makes it important is what is happening to the people of Nigerian. Are their talents being tapped? Are they becoming an economic force? Is all that potential being used?
And the answer is “Not really.”
And oil, yes, Nigeria is a major oil producer, but Brazil is now launching a 10-year program that is going to make it one of the major oil producers in the world. And every other country in Africa is now beginning to produce oil.
And Angola is rivalling Nigeria in oil production, and the United States has just discovered a huge gas reserve which is going to replace some of our dependence on imported energy.
So if you look ahead ten years, is Nigeria really going to be that relevant as a major oil producer, or just another of another of the many oil producers while the world moves on to alternative sources of energy and other sources of supply.
And what about its influence, its contributions to the continent? As our representative from the parliament talked about, there is a great history of those contributions. But that is history.
Is Nigeria really playing a major role today in the crisis in Niger on its border, or in Guinea, or in Darfur, or after many many promises making any contributions to Somalia?
The answer is no, Nigeria is today NOT making a major impact, on its region, or on the African Union or on the big problems of Africa that it was making before.
What about its economic influence?
Well, as we have talked about earlier, there is a de industrialization going on in Nigeria a lack of infrastructure, a lack of power means that with imported goods under globalization, Nigerian factories are closing, more and more people are becoming unemployed. and Nigeria is becoming a kind of society that imports and exports and lives off the oil, which does not make it a significant economic entity.
Now, of course, on the negative side, the collapse of Nigeria would be enormous, but is that a point to make Nigeria strategically important?
Years ago, I worked for an Assistant Secretary of State who had the longest tenure in that job in the 1980s and I remember in one meeting a minister from a country not very friendly to the United States came in and was berating the Assistant Secretary on all the evils of the United States and
all its dire plots and in things in Africa and was going on and on and finally the Assistant Secretary cut him off and said: “You know, the biggest danger for your relationship with the United States is not our opposition but that we will find you irrelevant.”
The point is that Nigeria can become much less relevant to the United States. We have already seen evidence of it. When President Obama went to Ghana and not to Nigeria, he was sending a message, that Ghana symbolized
more of the significant trends, issues and importance that one wants to put on Africa than Nigeria.
And when I was asked by journalists why President Obama did not go to Nigeria, I said “what would he gain from going? Would Nigeria be a good model for democracy, would it be a model for good governance, would he
obtain new commitments on Darfur or Somalia or strengthen the African Union or in Niger or elsewhere?”
No he would not, so he did not go.
And when Secretary Clinton did go, indeed but she also went to Angola and who would have thought years ago that Angola would be the most stable country in the Gulf of Guinea and establish a binational commission in Angola.
So the handwriting may already be on the wall, and that is a sad commentary.
Because what it means is that Nigeria’s most important strategic importance in the end could be that it has failed.
And that is a sad sad conclusion. It does not have to happen, but I think that we ought to stop talking about what a great country it is, and how terribly important it is to us and talk about what it would take for Nigeria to be that important and great.
And that takes an enormous amount of commitment. And you don’t need saints, you don’t need leaders like Nelson Mandela in every state, because you are not going to get them.
I served in South Korea in the middle of the 1960s and it was time when South Korea was poor and considered hopeless, but it was becoming to turn around, later to become to every person’s amazement then the eleventh
largest economy in the world. And I remember the economist in my mission saying, you know it did not bother him that the leading elites in the government of South Korea were taking 15 – 20 percent off the top of every project, as long as every project was a good one, and that was the difference. The leadership at the time was determined to solve the fundamental economic issues of South Korea economy and turn its economy around.
It has not happened in Nigeria today.
You don’t need saints. It needs leaders who say “You know we could be becoming irrelevant, and we got to do something about it.”
A thought provoking piece!
Princeton N. Lyman, the former U.S. Ambassador to Nigeria and South Africa, delivered a very poignant speech on the panel titled “The Nigerian State and
U.S. Strategic Interests” at the Achebe Colloquium at Brown University, USA.
Thank you very much Prof. Keller and thanks to the organizers of this conference. It is such a privilege to be here in a conference in honor of Prof. Achebe, an inspiration and teacher to all of us.
I have a long connection to Nigeria. Not only was I Ambassador there, I
have travelled to and from Nigeria for a number of years and have a deep and abiding vital emotional attachment to the Nigerian people, their magnificence, their courage, artistic brilliance, their irony, sense of humor in the face of challenges etc.
And I hope that we keep that in mind when I say some things that I think are counter to what we normally say about Nigeria. And I say that with all due respect to Eric Silla who is doing a magnificent work at State Department and to our good friend from the legislature, because I have a feeling that we both Nigerians and Americans may be doing Nigeria and Nigerians no favor by stressing Nigeria’s strategic importance.
I know all the arguments: it is a major oil producer, it is the most populous country in Africa, it has made major contributions to Africa in peacekeeping, and of course negatively if Nigeria were to fall apart the ripple effects would be tremendous, etc.. But I wonder if all this emphasis on Nigeria’s importance creates a tendency of inflate Nigeria’s opinion of its own invulnerability.
Among much of the elite today, I have the feeling that there is a belief that Nigeria is too big to fail, too important to be ignored, and that Nigerians can go on ignoring some of the most fundamental challenges they
have many of which we have talked about: disgraceful lack of
infrastructure, the growing problems of unemployment, the failure to deal with the underlying problems in the Niger-Delta, the failure to consolidate democracy and somehow feel will remain important to everybody because of all those reasons that are strategically important.
And I am not sure that that is helpful.
Let me sort of deconstruct those elements of Nigeria’s importance, and ask whether they are as relevant as they have been.
We often hear that one in five Africans is a Nigerian. What does it mean? Do we ever say one in five Asians is a Chinese? Chinese power comes not just for the fact that it has a lot of people but it has harnessed the entrepreneurial talent and economic capacity and all the other talents of China to make her a major economic force and political force.
What does it mean that one in five Africans is Nigeria? It does not mean anything to a Namibian or a South African. It is a kind of conceit. What makes it important is what is happening to the people of Nigerian. Are their talents being tapped? Are they becoming an economic force? Is all that potential being used?
And the answer is “Not really.”
And oil, yes, Nigeria is a major oil producer, but Brazil is now launching a 10-year program that is going to make it one of the major oil producers in the world. And every other country in Africa is now beginning to produce oil.
And Angola is rivalling Nigeria in oil production, and the United States has just discovered a huge gas reserve which is going to replace some of our dependence on imported energy.
So if you look ahead ten years, is Nigeria really going to be that relevant as a major oil producer, or just another of another of the many oil producers while the world moves on to alternative sources of energy and other sources of supply.
And what about its influence, its contributions to the continent? As our representative from the parliament talked about, there is a great history of those contributions. But that is history.
Is Nigeria really playing a major role today in the crisis in Niger on its border, or in Guinea, or in Darfur, or after many many promises making any contributions to Somalia?
The answer is no, Nigeria is today NOT making a major impact, on its region, or on the African Union or on the big problems of Africa that it was making before.
What about its economic influence?
Well, as we have talked about earlier, there is a de industrialization going on in Nigeria a lack of infrastructure, a lack of power means that with imported goods under globalization, Nigerian factories are closing, more and more people are becoming unemployed. and Nigeria is becoming a kind of society that imports and exports and lives off the oil, which does not make it a significant economic entity.
Now, of course, on the negative side, the collapse of Nigeria would be enormous, but is that a point to make Nigeria strategically important?
Years ago, I worked for an Assistant Secretary of State who had the longest tenure in that job in the 1980s and I remember in one meeting a minister from a country not very friendly to the United States came in and was berating the Assistant Secretary on all the evils of the United States and
all its dire plots and in things in Africa and was going on and on and finally the Assistant Secretary cut him off and said: “You know, the biggest danger for your relationship with the United States is not our opposition but that we will find you irrelevant.”
The point is that Nigeria can become much less relevant to the United States. We have already seen evidence of it. When President Obama went to Ghana and not to Nigeria, he was sending a message, that Ghana symbolized
more of the significant trends, issues and importance that one wants to put on Africa than Nigeria.
And when I was asked by journalists why President Obama did not go to Nigeria, I said “what would he gain from going? Would Nigeria be a good model for democracy, would it be a model for good governance, would he
obtain new commitments on Darfur or Somalia or strengthen the African Union or in Niger or elsewhere?”
No he would not, so he did not go.
And when Secretary Clinton did go, indeed but she also went to Angola and who would have thought years ago that Angola would be the most stable country in the Gulf of Guinea and establish a binational commission in Angola.
So the handwriting may already be on the wall, and that is a sad commentary.
Because what it means is that Nigeria’s most important strategic importance in the end could be that it has failed.
And that is a sad sad conclusion. It does not have to happen, but I think that we ought to stop talking about what a great country it is, and how terribly important it is to us and talk about what it would take for Nigeria to be that important and great.
And that takes an enormous amount of commitment. And you don’t need saints, you don’t need leaders like Nelson Mandela in every state, because you are not going to get them.
I served in South Korea in the middle of the 1960s and it was time when South Korea was poor and considered hopeless, but it was becoming to turn around, later to become to every person’s amazement then the eleventh
largest economy in the world. And I remember the economist in my mission saying, you know it did not bother him that the leading elites in the government of South Korea were taking 15 – 20 percent off the top of every project, as long as every project was a good one, and that was the difference. The leadership at the time was determined to solve the fundamental economic issues of South Korea economy and turn its economy around.
It has not happened in Nigeria today.
You don’t need saints. It needs leaders who say “You know we could be becoming irrelevant, and we got to do something about it.”
October 14, 2019
ADC DNA RUNS
Ralphs Okey Nwosu
ADC National Chairman
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