TODAY NEWS
PDP: An uncommon brawl
THE Peoples Democratic Party, had prided itself until last Saturday as the only political party to have survived since the advent of the Fourth Republic without altering its identity or name. But not anymore.It all seemed to be going well last Saturday as the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP held a special national convention in the Eagles Square. Security concerns arising from the Boko Haram insurgency had been almost adequately addressed with the decision to block traffic on all major roads leading to the Eagle Square.
Entry into the square was strict as all entering the square were passed through tough security screening. The impression that the gathering was moving towards success was further given when President Goodluck Jonathan arrived the convention ground that morning in a bus alongside the party’s governors.The governors had converged at the Presidential Villa that morning to join the president as part of his convoy to demonstrate to delegates that the troubles that had bedevilled the party in recent times were about to end.Before the convention day, the president it was learnt, had agreed to resolve the issues that had pitched many of the governors against the leadership of the party. Among the issues that were bothering the governors was the president’s determination to seize the party structure to himself.In agreeing to heed to the concerns of the governors, it was agreed that all the nominees of the governors in the last National Executive Committee, NEC of the party that voluntarily stepped down on account of the report of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC that ruled their election last year as irregular, should be returned to office.However, the governors were said to have been shocked as they stepped down from the bus with the president as they were encountered with a list dubbed “Unity List” allegedly endorsed by the presidency and party hierarchy as those endorsed for office. Many of the nominees of the governors for the positions on the NEC were dropped. Prominent among those replaced was Dr. Sam Jaja, the erstwhile Deputy National Chairman in whose place the former National Organising Secretary, Prince Uche Secondus was fitted in.Also unnerving for the governors was the decision of the party leadership to bar delegates from Adamawa and Rivers States from voting at the convention. The import of the decision was that only statutory delegates would vote at the convention. So while the convention festivities continued, the governors consulted among themselves.Remarkably, before then, five Northern governors (Rabiu Kwankwanso (Kano); Aliyu Wamakko, Sokoto; Sule Lamido, Jigawa; Babangida Aliyu, Niger and Murtala Nyako, Adamawa had drawn national attention to themselves with their agitation against the alleged slide in the party. They had to the chagrin of presidential aides made consultations with some of the country’s leading elder-statesmen during which they raised allegations of injustice to them by the president and the party leadership.A day before the convention, Governor Lamido also paid an unusual courtesy visit to former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar in the latter’s Asokoro, Abuja residence.The purpose of the visit, Saturday Vanguard learnt, was to reunite Atiku and Nyako. The two men who are both from Adamawa State have had an unsteady relationship since Nyako emerged as governor. That visit was indicative of a plot by the governors to form an alliance with Atiku in the coming fight which they obviously had been preparing for.So it was not surprising that when the governors noticed that they were totally about to be short-changed at the convention that they consulted among themselves and quickly resolved to meet at the Yar Adua Centre, about two kilometres away where they proclaimed a parallel leadership of the party.The five Northern governors were joined by Governors Abdulfatah Ahmed of Kwara and Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers State who himself had been suspended from the party some three months ago.Governor Ahmed’s presence among the rebel governors was attributed to what sources claimed as the persistent harassment he had lately received on account of his continuing loyalty to Senator Bukola Saraki.
Ahmed was Commissioner of Finance for a period of time when Saraki was governor of the state between 2003 and 2011. According to sources, the Ahmed government has serially been host to agents of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC. His patron, Senator Saraki who has lost his own immunity since leaving office as governor has according to associates been the guest of the EFCC several times and yet without being charged to court. The senator it was learnt, has another invitation to be a guest of the EFCC next Monday.“It has gotten to a point that he is better charged to court so that all the issues can be resolved legally,” an associate of Senator Saraki told Saturday Vanguard.At the press conference that Saturday, the rebel governors were joined by a number of lawmakers from the National Assembly including some from outside the states of the rebel governors.Alhaji Kawu Baraje, the former Acting National Chairman of the PDP was proclaimed the national chairman of a parallel executive that also had Chief Olagunsoye Oyinlola as National Secretary.Baraje at the press conference said the PDP had lost the principles upon which it was founded and pledged that they would ensure that the party was returned to its original ideas.President Jonathan who was shaken by the developments, it was learnt, reached out to his one time patron, former President Olusegun Obasanjo. The following morning, President Obasanjo was ferried in a presidential jet from Lagos to Abuja. In Abuja, the former president had meetings with Dr. Jonathan in his private residence and attended church service with him too in the Presidential Villa Chapel.Obasanjo’s involvement in the peace process was understandable. Five of the rebel seven governors were known to be direct offspring of President Obasanjo’s political legacy.Following consultations with Obasanjo, the President that Sunday, summoned a meeting with the PDP governors to resolve the issue.It was learnt that some of the rebel governors were disinclined to attend the meeting and in the end, four of the seven rebel governors joined others to meet with the President and other party leaders including Chief Tony Anenih, the Chairman of the PDP Board of Trustees, BoT.In the course of the meeting the ‘rebel’ governors, it was learnt, alleged serial cases of injustice perpetuated against them by the party. They were alleged to have cited among others the suspension of Governor Amaechi from the party, the harassment of the governors by the EFCC, the removal of party structure from them by the national party and the betrayal at the Eagle Square among others.The meeting which ended sometime around 2.05 a.m. was supposed to resume on Tuesday after consultations among the different sides.Also on Monday, elements in the Baraje faction of the PDP filed a petition before an Ikeja, Lagos High Court seeking to remove legal recognition from the Tukur -led faction of the party and transfer same to the Baraje -led faction.Even more striking, is a prayer by the Baraje group represented by Oyinlola praying the court to declare that Tukur is not a member of the PDP on account of the claim that he has not been formally re-admitted into the party following his 2001 expulsion from the party.But even before the consultation could resume, the crisis escalated as 26 PDP senators pledged their loyalty to the Baraje led nPDP.That was followed a day later on Tuesday by the members of the House of Representatives who were able to mobilise as many as 58 of their members to declare allegiance to the Baraje led faction.As the situation deteriorated, Anenih announced the postponement of the Tuesday scheduled meeting with the rebel governors.Anenih, normally a strong associate of the President, in a communiqué announcing the postponement of the meeting affirmed that some of the governors indeed have genuine grievances.That nonetheless, the President the same Tuesday night met with loyalist governors during which he was said to have vowed not to kowtow to the demands of the Baraje group.At that meeting, it was gathered that the President also vowed not to stop the EFCC from doing its duties in investigating the governors belonging to the Baraje group. His hard posture some alleged flowed from what some claimed as the demand put to him by the Baraje governors to give an assurance that he would not contest the 2015 presidential election and that he would drop Tukur as their conditions for peace.Perhaps driven by a determination not to give up control of the party to the governors, the President was quoted as saying at that meeting with the loyalist governors that he would not give in to the blackmail. Perhaps fired by the alleged resolve of the President, Tukur on Wednesday came out smoking, vowing to ensure that the governors and National Assembly members who crossed over to Baraje’s faction of the party were made to lose their political positions.Addressing newsmen, Tukur who refused to take follow up questions said: “The PDP has only one duly elected National Executive Committee (NEC) under my chairmanship. I wish therefore to state with all emphasis that any group of persons parading themselves as leaders of NEC or any other organ of our party are impostors and I urge all Nigerians, especially the security agencies and other institutions of democracy to regard them as such.“Let me state categorically that the PDP as the sole custodian of the sacred mandate of over 160 million Nigerians and which in the last 14 years has lifted high the banner of democracy will not fold its arms while some undemocratic and unpatriotic elements destroy our common destiny by causing divisions and confusion among the people.“Consequently, we shall ensure that any person who is not duly elected into any leadership position in our great party and has not been duly assigned any role but goes ahead to arrogate such to himself will be made to face the full wrath of the law.“Similarly, all persons elected on the platform of our great party at all levels who identify with these enemies of the oneness and greatness of our party shall have their seats declared vacant as required by law.“We shall leave no stone unturned to ensure that such persons and indeed any other individual who attempts to subvert the leadership of the PDP shall reap in full, the consequences of such actions.“I wish to emphasize that the PDP has adequate mechanism for internal conflict resolution. All party members are, therefore, advised to ventilate their grievances through this medium. There is only one lawfully recognized PDP and I am firmly in charge. I thank you and may God bless you.”Baraje immediately replied him, saying: “They are all jokers, they don’t know what party politics is. We are not surprised because he (Tukur) is ignorant of party politics. In any case, the process of declaring a seat vacant or recalling members of the National Assembly is well known in the constitution; to wake up and say he is going to recall people or declare their seats vacant is sheer ignorance. He is not fit to be called the National Chairman of the PDP.”Speaking in a similar vein, spokesman of the House of Representatives, Rep. Zakari Mohammed said: “The man should go and read the Electoral Act and be guided as that will guide his utterances. This is about the law. What he does not understand is that when a party is factionalised, I can decide to say that I belong to PPA today, it doesn’t matter because it is public knowledge today that we have two factions of the PDP and nobody can pretend about it”.The crisis has inevitably opened a way for the radical elements in the party seeking to break away to do so given that the only legal avenue for members of the National Assembly to leave the party on which they were elected is a crisis in that party.But the danger for the President and the PDP as an institution is that the ensuing crisis could in due season break the party’s control of the National Assembly. Already the party has turned into a minority in the two houses of the National Assembly.For now, the agitation among members has not inflamed angst against the leadership in the two houses who understandably have kept a low profile in order to avoid collateral damage.
Why Nigerian languages are dying – Dr. Adeniyi
NIGERIA is trapped in the local language dilemma, accustomed to speaking English, the language of British Colonialism as the Imperial power tended to wield together, people of diverse ethnic languages, cultures, traditions and religions. English was regarded and seen as the language of unity and administrative convenience in the amalgamation of northern and southern protectorates in 1914 to form such a big country in Africa with the largest population in the continent.
It was just impossible to choose a local language among about 400 with Hausa, Igbo, Yoruba as the main ones, none yielding to the other out of these three as the lingua franca even up to Independence in 1960.In this interview, Dr. (Mrs) Kikelomo Adeniyi who holds Ph.D in English, Chief Lecturer in the Department of English, AOCOED and Deputy Director, Passages, Linkages and Collaboration of the institution bares her mind on what it takes to entrench the use of mother tongue or the local language.To what will you attribute this national predicament of Nigerians finding it difficult to speak their indigenous local languages and English the preferred language?My overview is that Nigeria is a multi lingual country with more than 400 languages each standing on its own, apart from several other dialects that cannot be counted. For example, Yoruba language has many dialects. These include Ekiti, Egba, Ijebu, Ondo, Ijesha, Egun (Badagry), Oyo dialetcts. So also with Hausa, Igbo, etc, having different dialects.
Dr. (Mrs) Kikelomo AdeniyiWith the arrival of British colonial masters, there was the need for a language to unify us (Nigerians) at least for the purpose of communication, hence the introduction and use of the English Language. But it did not stop at that. Something had to be attached to it, in order to motivate speaking of English. The English Language became compulsory in public examinations and to get jobs and appointments. For instance, interpreters, who translate from local language to English in those days, were highly regarded and valued. They were rich at that time and so our people were gradually interested in English while our native languages or mother tongues were ignored.However, in our respective homes, we were compelled to speak our mother tongues.But as a country, for peace to reign, there is need for a central language. Yoruba, Hausa or Igbo won’t be accepted as a common language which can be spoken by all. English was seen as neutral. No one will oppose it because it does not belong to any of us. It was the language of unity.How did English Language become our lingua franca?In our constitution, English had been recognised and allowed. For instance, in the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as amended, it was stipulated that the business of the National Assembly shall be conducted in English, and in Hausa, Ibo and Yoruba when adequate arrangements have been made therefore. But nobody is using these native languages apart from English, which is still thriving. At the level of the State Houses of Assembly, only in Lagos to be specific, that a resolution was passed for the proceedings to be conducted in the mother tongue (Yoruba). Legislators were asked to use the mother tongue, but it is not done. In fact, it has not been possible.I know that in London, England, children of Indian parents know how to speak the Indian language. This is because when they finish learning in school with English, on their return home after school, parents speak Indian language to their children.In the National Policy on Education, it was stated that our children should be taught at primary and Nursery level in the mother tongue, or in other words, teach them in the language of the immediate environment.But this is not so. After paying so much in primary and nursery schools for their children, no parents want them to be taught in the mother tongue, except in English.Why do parents resist teaching their kids in the local language?Let’s take Lagos for instance. Lagos is a Cosmopolitan City, so English is used generally. There is no central local language. The lingua franca is English. The next to it is Pidgin English. But inspite of this, the English spoken today by these children or even youths is rubbish. They cannot speak good English and also cannot speak their mother tongue. They cannot write good English. To compound the situation, everybody loves English. You need to pass English Language in WASSSCE or WAEC among other things to enter theThey don’t hate Nigerian language. It is because there is no law to compel them do so. Before now, there was a stipulation by the Nigerian Educational Research and Development Council, NERDC, that Nigerian children must offer a local language at SSSI. But it is no longer compulsory now.People hate things Nigerian in nature. We like only foreign things, treat things like speaking the mother tongue as “Idiotic” But if our children speak English wrongly, we are angry and reprimand them.Access to internet, GSM and social media had compounded it. Children use SMS language while writing English nowadays.How do you find the situation today?Nigerian languages are gradually dying. While some parents can speak the native language, the children cannot speak the mother tongue.Even grand mothers are forced to speak English to the kids, even if the English spoken is not correct.In those days, there was a Yoruba proverb which says: “If you speak English in your in-laws house, you must interprete it.”Inter-tribal marriages are now forcing people to speak English at home.It is very simple for children to hear and speak the local language than adults. In some time to come, people who cannot speak the local language may not be considered for elective positions as governors or legislators. There was the case of some children who went for scholarship test in Bayelsa State and performed well. But when asked to count one to ten in their mother tongue, majority of them could not and so missed the chance of getting scholarship.What do you think can be done to save the local language from extinction?There should be psychic re-orientation; need for jingles on radio and TV appreciating Nigerian languages, advertisements in print media to make people love and enjoy speaking the local language. We thank God for Yoruba Nollywood and Movies. Children are compelled to watch and listen. These Yoruba and may be Ibo and Hausa movies are helpful to parents whose children are not speaking the mother tongue.The NERDC should re-visit the school curriculum and make Nigerian languages to be compulsory, enforce the policy of learning in the language of the immediate environment. I want to recall the Ife project by late Prof Babs Fafunwa in which two groups of primary school children were set up. One group was taught all the subjects in Yoruba language; the other group was taught in English. The Yoruba group performed better than the group taught in English.It’s unfortunate that most people in the National Assembly don’t care about the use of the local languages. Hausa language won’t die because parents speak it at home with their children. No matter how educated the Hausa man is, he speaks his language to the children at home.The Yoruba are trying, but not up to Hausa people who speak it at home level first. The Igbo are worse in this respect. They hardly speak Igbo at home with their children. To speak and understand other languages is better for you, it’s also for survival. If you can speak the language of the immediate environment, one can buy things at cheaper price in the market than speaking English. Once you speak English in the local markets, prices are often inflated.There is clear difference between theory and practice. I read English, but speak Yoruba. We have this concept called socio-linguistics which has to do with language and culture, language and society. Use of language in the context and situation that you find yourself. But for the children, they are forced to speak English at all contexts.What advice do you have on this?People should try to always speak the mother tongue at home. It would then be easier for children to speak it because it’s informal, in the natural setting. Curriculum should be revisited in order to enforce mother tongue in learning while at school.When there is inter-ethnic marriage, like Ibo married to Yoruba, the couple should decide what language the children will learn and acquire it at early age.Language acquisition takes place informally. We can expose our children to more local languages and would be better for them. They have plasticity of being easily receptive to learning a new thing including language.
Obama Rejects G20 Pressure To Abandon Syria Air Strike Plan
U.S. President Barack Obama resisted pressure on Friday to abandon plans for air strikes against Syria and enlisted the support of 10 fellow leaders for a "strong" response to a chemical weapons attack.
Obama refused to blink after Russian President Vladimir Putin led a campaign to talk him out of military intervention at a two-day summit of the Group of Twenty developed and developing economies in St. Petersburg.He persuaded nine other G20 nations plus Spain to join the United States in signing a statement calling for a strong international response, although it fell short of supporting military strikes, underscoring the deep disagreements that dominated the summit.A senior U.S. official said German Chancellor Angela Merkel, the only European leader at the summit who did not sign the statement, held off because she wanted to let the European Union have a chance to weigh in first.Leaders of the G20, which accounts for 90 percent of the world economy and two-thirds of its population, put aside their differences to unite behind a call for growth and jobs and agreed the global economy was on the mend but not out of crisis.But there was no joint statement on Syria, despite a 20-minute one-on-one talk between Obama and Putin on the sidelines of the summit on Friday, following a tense group discussion on the civil war over dinner late on Thursday."We hear one another, and understand the arguments but we don't agree. I don't agree with his arguments, he doesn't agree with mine," Putin told a closing news conference dominated by questions about Syria.Participants at the dinner said the tension between Putin and Obama was palpable but that they seemed at pains to avoid an escalation. Obama said credit was due to Putin for facilitating the long discussion of the Syrian crisis on Thursday night.But he defended his call for a military response to what Washington says was a chemical weapons attack by forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad that killed more than 1,400 people in rebel-held suburbs of Damascus on Aug. 21."Failing to respond to this breach of this international norm would send a signal to rogue nations, authoritarian regimes and terrorist organizations, that they can develop and use weapons of mass destruction and not pay a consequence. And that's not the world that we want to live in," Obama told a separate news conference. .Putin said Washington had not provided convincing proof that Assad's troops carried out the attack and called it a "provocation" by rebel forces hoping to encourage a military response by the United States.Chinese President Xi Jinping tried to dissuade Obama from military action during talks on Friday, telling him that Beijing expected countries to think twice before acting. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon warned against military action that did not have the approval of the U.N. Security Council.Unable to win Security Council backing because of the opposition by veto-wielding Russia and China, Obama is seeking the support of the U.S. Congress instead.He declined to speculate whether he would go ahead with a military strike in Syria if Congress opposed it, but said most G20 leaders condemned the use of chemical weapons even if they disagreed whether to use force without going through the United Nations."The majority of the room is comfortable with our conclusion that Assad, the Assad government, was responsible for their use," he said.Those who signed up to the call for a strong international response were the leaders or other representatives of Australia, Canada, France, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Saudi Arabia, Spain, Turkey, Britain and the United States.The senior U.S. official said the statement had been worked out over the past two days and while there were changes to a draft produced by U.S. national security adviser Susan Rice, the final version had in it everything the United States wanted. A final chat at the summit between Obama and French President Francois Hollande sealed the deal, the official said.The statement's endorsement of the U.S. approach represents an implicit backing of the use of military power, even if that is not spelled out in the statement, the official added, contradicting Putin's assertion that the only countries to support the use of force are Canada, Saudi Arabia, France and Turkey.Washington's ambassador to the United Nations, Samantha Power, made clear on Thursday that the United States had given up trying to work with the Security Council on the issue, and accused Russia of holding it hostage.Hollande, who supports Obama over military action against Syria, said he would try to bring together a coalition of states in favour of such an intervention if the Security Council could not agree on action.
HUMAN RIGHTS TALKSThe dispute over Syria has deepened strains in U.S.-Russian ties, already difficult because of differences over human rights and Moscow's hosting of Edward Snowden, a spy agency contractor who revealed details of U.S. surveillance programmes. Putin said Obama had not requested Snowden's extradition on Friday, adding that it would be impossible anyway.Obama later met rights activists, including gay rights campaigners, to show support for civil society in Russia, where critics say Putin has clamped down on dissent in his third term.But some invitees declined to attend, citing what they said were repeated changes in the timing of the meeting. One added her voice to warnings against a military strike on Syria.The G20 achieved unprecedented cooperation between developed and emerging nations to stave off economic collapse during the 2009 financial crisis, but the harmony has since waned.
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