I’ve declared my assets according to law – Wike

:-) RIVERS State Governor, Chief Nyesom Wike, said on Wednesday that he had declared his assets to the relevant authority according to the law. Wike explained that he had by his action, fulfilled the country’s constitutional requirement, adding that declaring his assets publicly was not part of the dictates of the law. The governor, who spoke through his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Sir Opunabo Inko-Tariah, pointed out that it was necessary for people to de-emphasise asset declaration, but the sincerity behind such exercise. He stated that some public office holders could over-declare their assets to pave the way for them to steal public funds in future while others, who had held public offices in the past, might under-declare their personal belongings in order to give the impression that they were never involved in corrupt practices while in office. Wike explained that the most important thing for public office holders was to deliver the dividends of democracy, adding that his main interest was to develop the state and the people. “The governor has declared his assets and this is exactly what he told newsmen during the tour of his administration’s projects. There is no law compelling him to make his declaration public. He has declared his assets and the declaration was made to the relevant authority. “Let me also say that it is not just about asset declaration; it has to do with the sincerity of the person because some may over-declare when they want to steal in future. So, they declare to accommodate the theft in future. “Some may also declare for whatever reason; maybe they have held public offices in the past and they don’t want people to know that they have stolen money. So, people will declare; it is not all about the declaration of assets. “What is crucial is the sincerity of the person declaring and you are supposed to declare when you get out of office. But the truth is that if you are a governor or a minister, what matters is the delivery of the dividends of democracy. That is what is important and it is not about what you declare and how much you declare,” Wike added. On the claim by the All Progressives Congress in the state that most of the projects completed by his administration were started by the immediate past governor, Mr. Rotimi Amaechi, he said it was wrong for anybody to personalise governance. According to the governor, projects that will impact on the lives of the people should not be abandoned by any successor.

Gov. JONAH DAVID JANG of plateau state to run for senate.

#Kanzee Ebola: Jonathan condemns discrimination against Nigerians Via @iKanzee_RR

President Goodluck Jonathan on Wednesday
condemned the stigmatisation of Nigerians by
some countries over recent cases of Ebola
virus in the country.
Jonathan made this known at a meeting with
Dr David Navarro, the Special Representative
of the United Nations Secretary-General on
Ebola, at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
This is contained in a statement issued by the
Special Adviser to the President on Media and
Publicity, Dr Reuben Abati.
The president, according to the statement,
decried discriminatory actions by some
countries against Nigeria, including the
incident which forced Nigeria’s team to the
Youth Olympics in China to abandon its
participation.
He said that there was no justification for
such stigmatisation of Nigerians since the
Ebola Virus had been effectively contained in
the country and never attained epidemic level.
He called for the immediate cessation of every
discriminatory action against Nigerians
around the world over the virus and urged the
UN Secretary General, Mr Ban Ki-Moon, to
support the call.
Acknowledging the secretary-general’s
commendation of Nigeria’s response to the
Ebola outbreak, the president attributed it to
the efforts of the Federal Ministry of Health,
Lagos State Government and citizens.
“All hands have been on deck to contain the
virus here. I commend my team and the Lagos
State Government.
“We have been able to set politics aside and
work in unison to deal with a national threat.
“All other Nigerians have played a part too by
complying with the directives and advice we
have issued to stop the virus from spreading
any further.
“The success we have had is a testimony to
what we can achieve as people if we set aside
our differences and work together,’’ he said.
He assured the UN that the Federal
Government and its agencies would remain
vigilant to guard against further cases of
Ebola in the country.
“We will continue to monitor the situation and
we will also support other affected African
countries as much as we can.
“This is because we cannot be completely safe
from the virus as long as it continues to
ravage some countries in our sub-region and
continent.
“We will continue to work with the
international community to curb the outbreak
in other countries,’’ Jonathan said.
Earlier, Navarro who had visited Liberia,
Guinea and Sierra Leone, before coming to
Nigeria said he was in Nigeria on the
instruction of the UN Secretary-General to
applaud Nigeria’s successful containment of
the virus.
“The Secretary-General asked me to come here
too, not because you have an Ebola problem,
but because you have tackled it in an
exemplary fashion. Your personal leadership
on the matter has been key.
“There may still be some work to be done
before the virus is completely cleared out from
here, but other countries can learn from your
fine example,’’ he said. (NAN)

#Kanzee I'm not surprised by the massive failure recorded in WAEC exams this year - Usha Anenga Via @iKanzee_RR

Usha Anenga - I'm not surprised by the massive failure
recorded in WAEC exams this year. It's not
been so long since our time in Secondary
School but there's been a massive drastic
drop in the quest for knowledge. A Lot of
young boys and girls don't know anything
other than what's on TV. If Don Jazzy,
Davido and the likes haven't sung it, they
won't know it.
During our time, we wanted to be good, we
competed against ourselves, education was
an active and big part of our lives but fast
forward to these days, students are busy
browsing cheats for WAEC and even after
the results are out, one of the most
searched topics on Google is "how to check
WAEC result without scratch card", why
would you want to do that?
There need to be a change of priority and
attitude in secondary students of this
generation else we'll be talking about this or
even worse for a long long time.

[READ & SHARE] FG approves dredging of Calabar channel Via @iKanzee_RR

Abuja – President Goodluck Jonathan has
approved the dredging of Calabar channel to
boost the economy of Cross River and the
country.
The Minister of Transport, Sen. Idris Umar,
made this known when he received South-
South and South-East traditional rulers led by
Edmund Daukoru, the Amanyanabo of Nembe,
in Abuja on Tuesday.
Umar said the delay in the dredging of Calabar
channel had impacted negatively on the
economic activities of Cross River and the
entire country.
“The delay had also affected the economic
fortunes of the area and the entire country.
Tinapa Resort, Calabar has been a little bit
dormant because of the non-functionality of
the channel.
“At last the matter has been concluded and
President Goodluck Jonathan has graciously
approved that work should commence at the
channel.
“The remaining part of the channel that has
not been dredged will now be dredged and the
Calabar Channel Management Company will
take charge of the capital and maintenance,’’
he said.
The minister thanked the council on the
approval granted by the president for the
commencement of work at the Calabar
channel.
He said the present administration was
determined to transform the transport sector,
saying that government had revitalised the
railway system, which had been out of
operation for two decades.
The minister said that the Federal Executive
Council had approved development of
additional deep seaports which included Lekki,
Badagry, Ibaka and Warri seaports, in an effort
to improve the maritime sector.
He said the present administration recognised
the support and continuous cooperation of the
council of traditional rulers.
Earlier, Daukoru commended the Federal
Government over the contract, and described
the approval of the presidency as gratifying
news.
According to the monarch, the economic
significant of the award of the contract is
enormous.
“The Calabar port is of strategic importance
because it links Port Harcourt, Warri and
Lagos and any effort made to open up the port
will improve the country’s economic growth.
“Any kind of maritime activities in Cross River
generally will be of immediate benefit to the
entire geo-political zone,’’ he said.
The delay was caused by some controversial
issues surrounding the award of the dredging
contract since 2005.

#Kanzee Ebola: Group calls for fumigation of public places Via @iKanzee_RR

A civil society organization, Civil Society
Awareness Response on Epidemic Diseases
CARED has called for the fumigation of all
public places in the country to prevent the
spread of Ebola virus to parts of Nigeria.
The organization also urged the Federal
Ministry of Health to embark on air spray as a
means of preventing the deadly Ebola virus in
most parts of the country.
The Co-ordinator of the organization, Mr
Stephen Aremu who lamented the rate at
which the deadly virus spreads, called on the
federal government to consider the possibility
of preventing hunting expedition in the
country.
Mr Aremu said areas where bats and other
animals are populated should be sprayed to
prevent the people from contacting the virus
through consumption of animals.
He also advised that hotel, religious centres
and other public places in all the parts of the
country should be fumigated from time to time
to prevent the spread of Ebola virus.
Also, Aremu who hinted that his organization
has concluded arrangements to collaborate
with security agencies and other relevant
bodies in the country to prevent the spread of
Ebola stated that the Federal Government
should prevent foreigners from countries where
Ebola had been discovered from entering
Nigeria.
He also urged the federal government to
mount surveillance in the entire boundaries of
the nation and other entry points to the
country where strangers would be screened
before entering into the country.
He warned health workers in all hospitals
across the country not to send patients with
Ebola related symptoms away for fear o
contacting Ebola virus, saying “we are amazed
at reports of several patients being refused
treatment when they present with such
symptoms when the
right response should have been to notify the
relevant authorities about such suspicions
than to send them back into the community.”
“The consequences of sending such persons
back to the communities untreated and
uncared for are best imagined if any of the
persons affected are truly infected with Ebola
virus,” he added.
He enjoined the Federal government to include
the civil society organizations on monitoring
of Ebola at both National, state and Local
levels

#Kanzee Battling with politics of self-destruct Via @iKanzee_RR

WE can never underestimate the evil in politics
until we are victims; this is where the strain
between loyalty and deceit is chaotic. Many
equate deceit for loyalty but loyalty entails
telling the truth and giving facts to promote
societal good; unfortunately for “political bats
and mosquitoes” blackmail is the bedrock to
political ascendancy.
Alhaji Ibrahim Waziri, leader of GNPP in the
second republic knew this when he introduced
“politics without bitterness” in 1979. My
odyssey reveals the bad and the good that
pollute our body politics, they sprout like
weeds that destroy crops and prosper in
mischief.
A party leader who once enlisted you for his
trivial venture but failed can resort to
blackmail to destroy your political career.
Their victims are those who refuse to
compromise good for evil in the years of
struggle but man’s memory is short and a
monster in blackmail can terminate good
victims at Golgotha.
This is evil repeating itself as reason and
good deeds of their prey count less in
persecution but if political loyalty in trenches
against undemocratic forces does not count in
sanity, why the vengeance to destroy good
values in a man?
These vices negate democratic commitment;
politics in Nigerian is entrenched in blackmail,
lies and victimization. We have the honest
that labours in vain and the dishonest that
reaps where he never sow, these shady
characters that dance, drink and eat in parties
claim unmerited medals for their chameleonic
slippery steps and make the words in our
national item “ the labour of our heroes past
must not be in vain” treacherous.
Lack of patriotism could be traced to a
chaotic system that rewards indolence and
failure in place of competence. Many Nigerians
who laboured for President Jonathan in his
acting capacity and election in 2011 are not
holding political offices but are resolute in
their commitment to continue to support his
re-election bid in 2015 despite their
limitations.
These are heroes because their support is not
tied to “a loaf of bread” unlike “stomach”
political destitudes hovering in corridors of
power to claim others sweat. Politics of
bitterness, recriminations and pull him down is
consuming our values, they were mines that
decimated the first and second republics and
are evident today. Tribalism, religious bigotry
and sectionalism in the land are traceable to
political bitterness, greed, sectionalism and
the blind greed for political power.
Until politics is devoid of these, leadership will
continue to be tainted, policies will continue to
be questioned and the political space laced
with destitudes.
We must rejuvenate ethical values to guide
our sustenance as a people if we are
concerned for the future. Politics today is
schemed towards destruction of opponents
rather than growth and development; we are
all victims of this contamination. The Boko-
Haram insurgency that is a national tragedy,
like all cancers, started from a minor part of
the body before becoming a national
catastrophe.
The challenges of President Jonathan are
similarly hooked on rumours, lies, and
blackmail by mischief makers. President
Jonathan’s place of birth or religion is not his
own making like other Nigerians. We must live
together in tolerance because discriminating a
Nigerian on the bases of birth, region, religion
or tribe is questioning God’s will.
The President’s critics dressed in this
bitterness in the guise of politics are wolves
and Nigerians are asking whether President
Jonathan would have received same
antagonism from the north if he was a Hausa-
Fulani Muslim?
These sentiments are distractions; they hinder
good governance, unity of the nation and the
war against corruption. Our homes, streets
and public institutions are becoming brothels
where girls of easy virtue hawk their anatomic
curves for pleasures, our traditional rulers
reward criminals and fraudsters with garlands
and traditional titles to sustain their elegant
lifestyle.
These characters with no education but
stupendous wealth use their new found status
to arrange marriages to highly educated
women in strata of the society, as ornaments
to boost their ego. Our moral resistance is
weak due to lack of anti-dot to resist these
strange anti-bodies virus.
Those against Jonathan are ethnic bigots,
economic saboteurs and religious fanatics
using blackmail to promote bitterness and like
rapists that defile our women and society,
heartless. We cannot blackmail Jonathan’s
government and expect growth and
development. When confronted by these social
misfits we must demand facts before reaching
conclusion because those who indulge in
destroying others are as contagious and
deadly as the Ebola epidemic.
Areghe Abugo, a political analyst, wrote from
Uzere, Delta State.
We need to encourage nationalists like Chief
(Dr.) E.K Clark because the Presidency is the
birthright of every Nigerian. We must not
reward vultures that mill around the corridors
of power to feed on our unity and identity. We
must build Nigeria on a value that sustains
its people and a political ideology that
encourages fertilization of ideas.
Back in Delta State Governor Uduaghan is also
a victim, as every tale from misfortune to
inaction is tied to him. When a man fails to
impregnate his wife or his wife suffers
miscarriage, Uduaghan is blamed. The moral
decay and failure of parents is blamed on him.
We need social and political education as we
cannot continue in this blind race of
destroying values because of greed.
Integration and national unity in a nation so
divided by greed, tribalism, sectionalism and
bitterness is necessary; we need a nation that
sees strength in her diversity.