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ADAMAWA'S FLEDGLING DEMOCRACY AND THE PEOPLE. The dynamics of political appointment/election is imperative in several ways. First of all as a job and as a patronage and the person whom the cap fits in this office is assumed to be a leader. Obviously such a person should be one whom others will follow willingly without coercion. That rules out tyrants, bullies, autocrats and all those others who use coercive power to impose their will on others. Usually in achieving this, due respect is paid to the sanctity of truth and transparency devoid of impurity. But in the life of Hong LGA, I make bold to say that these fine attributes of good governance have been trampled upon with a bit of recklessness. There is no doubt, pockets of achievements have been recorded in few sectors since then, but over all, all these have been subsumed in the thick clouds of controversy and false hood. Unlike what obtains in developed democracies where the universal spoils system died long ago, in Nigeria political administration jobs are still regarded by many participants in the political process, as an important part of the rewards system. They are very essential to those who get the jobs, and also to those who make it possible for such to happen. Whatever the patronage or symbolic value of those political offices, however, office is registered most clearly in their impact on public policy. In contrast to the foregoing, the noble concept of internal democracy has been bastardized in Adamawa by Senator Jibril Aminu and Dr Aliyu Idi Hong, Former Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, under the tutelage of former President Olusegun Obasanjo. One of the notorious legacies Obasango bequeathed to the duo is the imposition of candidates in supposedly elective posts. For the records, both the Minister and the Senator are alleged to have imposed some governor and the 21 LG Chairmen in the state. This they did not out of likeness for the impostors, but allegedly for their selfish political considerations. Infact, in the wake of the era of imposing especially the Council Chairmen, no soul dares any of them and go scot-free. This category of appointees was untouchables. But possibly due to the change in the political configuration going in the state, there are palpable fears that, reckoning time is in the offing for the political godsons in the state. The first casualty was Malam Ibrahim Gayus of Hong LGA. According to impeccable sources from the area, his godfather was miffed by the Chairman’s rumored excitement over Dr Hong’s removal from office for a period of 2 weeks, before his reappointment, other sundry issues, leveled against the Chairman by the minister’s loyalists. After stabilizing in his new office, the minister commenced a plot to remove Malam Gayus from office by way of instigating members of the legislature to formally impeach him as a revenge mission. The other factor which manifested in Hong town was at the funeral of late Alh. Iliyasu Njanusu Hong, an Hon. Member of House of Reps, where in the presence of the minister, his political thugs openly rained abuses on the Council Chairman ostensibly to ingratiate themselves with their boss. It was reportedly gathered that all attempts by the Chairman to scold the thugs from embarrassing him in the midst of sympathizers at the deceased compound, was allegedly rebuffed by the minister, who equally is the Chairman’s godfather as far as the May 2nd, 2009 purported LG election is concerned. This altercation continued, and in a bid to assert his authority as the Chief security officer of the area, the Chairman was reported to have authorized the arrest of those thugs by the police for detention. In the process, the minister got the wind of the arrest and ordered the immediate release of the boys by the police authorities in the area as the action of the thugs the minister was quoted, is just an internal family matter. And that order was carried out to the latter, leaving the Chairman as an underdog in his domain. It should therefore be noted that the operational principle that shapes political behaviour of politicians and their action in a democracy, is the notion that all its participants share, they elective decisions of a people is important. They have a significant effect on the outcome of policy decision of government. It therefore goes to show that Dr Hong and Prof Jibril Aminu, ought to follow the path of honour and apologize to the people of Adamawa for their individual and collective roles in subverting the people’s will in the last three years. For instance, if really they want the people of Hong to believe and accept that, there was an election, a peaceful one for that matter, and not to talk of the fact that Ibrahim Gayus was duly elected, how could he have emerged from a contest that had no other contestants? If he was adopted by party faithfuls as they want people to believe, where is the relevant form those concerned filed? Where and when were the Primaries that selected him conducted? Who was the returning officer of the said election? These questions need deserved answers if the duos are to be taken serious and as responsible people. From the bits and ends of the issues, it is alleged that the tactful refusal of Ibrahim Gayus to remit an agreed sum of money to the minister’s account in appreciation of the former’s imposition on the good people of Hong, had put the duo on a collision course. This latest development has just confirmed that Dr Hong’s wild interest in imposing Mr. Gayus in the first place was not a patriotic one. Both of them and their fellow co-travelers have proved their critics right. What a shame you will say.
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VARIOUS CORRUPT PRACTICES OF FORMER MINISTER OF STATE FOR HEALTH; WHO IS NOW CAMPAIGNING FOR ELECTION AS SENATOR UNDER ADAMAWA CENTRAL SENATORIAL DISTRICT UNDER (PDP). Nigeria’s Minister of State for Health, Dr. Idi Aliyu Hong seems to be a man that can’t live without scandal if the latest information coming out on him is anything to go by. While the young minister is yet to come out clean on the allegation that he bought a N300 million mansion in Utako area of Abuja, he has again been accused of ‘stealing’ government vehicles for his 2011 governorship ambition in his Adamawa home state. Late last year, Hong was accused of paying N300 million for a property located at plot 331 Utako district in Abuja barely a year after he was appointed a minister of the federal republic. The lid was blown off the deal when the minister allegedly failed to pay some agents who introduced the property to his aide, their own fee. The minister was however said to have set security agents after the property merchants for trying to blackmail him. He was also said to have confirmed that he bought the mansion but with a loan from a bank which is the usual defence tactic of many officials caught in a similar web after they would have struck a deal with their bankers for a fee. While Nigeria’s anti-graft agency, EFCC is yet to let the minister off the hook of its searchlight on the source of the money used to buy the mansion, iReports-ng’s investigations have revealed that Hong has been fighting yet another battle with some officials of the National Museum and Monuments Commission. The officials under the aegis of concerned staff of the Commission revealed that while the present Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Adetokunbo Kayode and Hong were minister and minister of state for Culture and Tourism respectively, “the parastatal was asked to supply cars for the exclusive use of the minister and the minister of state. That was done with the understanding that after their appointment they return the cars.” According to the officials, “one of the cars given to Hong, a Toyota corolla has an engine number 2933678 and chassis number JTDBR 22e703217112. After Kayode was reassigned to ministry of labour, he returned his cars, while Hong who we are made to understand is interested in future elections has refused to return his own.” Beside the Toyota car, Hong is also being accused of keeping another Honda Accord car which belongs to the Commission. The officials alleged that he had taken the vehicles to Adamawa state to keep as part of preparation of logistics for his gubernatorial ambition in the next election year. The aggrieved workers have threatened to drag Hong before the EFCC if he fails to return the vehicles he inappropriately took away from the Commission. Investigations by iReports-ng revealed that what Hong is being accused of is a common corrupt practice among ministers. It was gathered that ministers in Nigeria have the habit of forcing agencies and parastatals under their supervision to put some cash together for their (ministers’) welfare package especially when they just get into a new ministry while they equally demand vehicles from these agencies as gifts. A minister who was just removed from a very important ministry is said to have received over 20 of such car gifts from agencies under his ministry. Suspecting that security agents may go after him after his sack from his juicy ministry, the minister was said to have hurriedly transferred the vehicles mostly assorted jeeps to the homes of relatives and friends for safe keep and take away the prying eyes of security agents from him. Source - http://ireports-ng.com/2010/03/07/minister-of-state-for-health-idi-hong-in-another-corruption-scandal/ http://ireports-ng.com/
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OBAMA CUT SHORT INDIA TRIP TO PAY CALL ON SAUDI ARABIA. President Barack Obama will shorten his trip to India and divert to Saudi Arabia, paying respects after the death of King Abdullah and meeting with the oil-rich nation's new monarch, the White House said Saturday. The scheduling shift, announced just before Obama left Washington, underscores the desert kingdom's pivotal role in U.S. policy in the Middle East, including the military campaign against the Islamic State group. Saudi Arabia's status as one of Washington's most important Arab allies has at times appeared to trump U.S. concerns about the terrorist funding that flows from the kingdom and about human rights abuses. White House spokesman Josh Earnest said Obama would meet on Tuesday with King Salman bin Abdul-Aziz Al Saud and other officials to "offer his condolences on behalf of the American people." The president called Salman from Air Force One to express his sympathies on the passing of his older brother. The White House said the king welcomed the news that Obama would be traveling to Riyadh. Obama's pivot comes two weeks after the White House faced criticism for not sending a high-level representative to Paris for a peace rally in the wake of terrorist attacks in France. The White House later said it was a mistake that someone with more stature than the U.S. ambassador to France had not joined the dozens of world leaders who marched arm in arm through the boulevards of Paris. White House officials said Obama's stop in Saudi Arabia was not influenced by the Paris misstep, but it could keep similar criticism at bay as other world leaders head to Riyadh to offer condolences. Obama's willingness to visit Saudi Arabia, a country with ties to the terrorists behind the Sept. 11 attacks, could give critics a fresh reason to question why the president did not stand with Western allies in a symbolic show of defiance against violent extremism. The schedule change meant that Obama, who arrived in New Delhi on Sunday morning local time, would skip a visit to the Taj Mahal, India's famed white marble monument of love. The rest of Obama's travel itinerary was to remain intact, including meetings with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, a summit with U.S. and Indian business leaders, and his participation in the annual Republic Day festivities marking the enactment of India's constitution. Modi, who took office in May, surprised the White House by inviting Obama to attend the parade as his guest, the first time that honor has been bestowed on an American president. Given Obama's commitments in India, the White House originally had said Vice President Joe Biden would travel to Saudi Arabia following the 90-year-old Abdullah's death on Friday. Officials said that as plans for Biden's trip came together, they realized that the window for the U.S. delegation's visit coincided with Obama's departure from India, and they decided the president would make the four-hour flight from New Delhi to Riyadh. In keeping with Islamic tradition, only Muslims attended Abdullah's funeral Friday. Other Western leaders were making plans to visit Saudi Arabia throughout the weekend. Obama made an overnight visit to Saudi Arabia last March and met with Abdullah at his desert camp outside Riyadh. The king was in frail health at the time and appeared to be breathing with the help of an oxygen tank.
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