by Cheta Nwanze

Following his outburst about Nigerians being too timid, Rotimi Amaechi is doing his bit to prove it. He is owing ajuwaya in his state 10 months in back pay. Expect them to clap happily when he stands on a podium before them to tell them that he will splash water on them if they come and ask for the money.

Over the Easter weekend, my trusty inverter, which had shielded me from the realities of my country for two years, finally lay down, and gave up the spirit. It did not resurrect on the third day. In that time, I have come to realise that all of my prior complaints about the power situation were made from the viewpoint of an outsider. The word “terrible” does not even begin to describe the power situation. Now we know why. NEPA officials and assorted suits from the Ministry of Power are saying different things. Methinks we ought to know what exactly the problem is, is there a breakdown in the gas supply to the power plants? Or has the system really broken down?

Problem is that our right to know may not be as sacrosanct as some may like to believe, and if some pesky journo goes ahead to tell us what the real problem is with power, he would end up as part of a mosquito orchestra at Louis Edet House. Thankfully, the four journos from the Leadership who sang such hymns have now been let go. In reply, two of them have slammed a N10 million lawsuit on the Man-In-Black. The money would be useful for a bank statement when they are applying for a US visa.

You see, it pays to have all of your documents, including bank statements in order when making such a visa application. That was what an unnamed member of the House of Reps found a few days ago when he sauntered into that depressing concrete monolith that serves as the American Embassy in Abuja. Denied a visa, he resorted to the typically Nigerian hubris, “Do you know who I am?” The consular officer, obviously not a follower of Nigerian politricks, simply shut the door in his face. For me, the sad part of the story is that the editor at the Compass failed to publish the name of the Rep.

Public service

The House of Representatives will be holding Public Hearings on the Petroleum Industry Bill in the six geo-political zones. To my knowledge the dates have not been announced, neither have the venues. As soon as I can confirm something, I will let you know. Please keep an eye on the hearings, and attend if possible, the price of democracy is eternal vigilance.

Bits and bobs

Following his outburst about Nigerians being too timid, Rotimi Amaechi is doing his bit to prove it. He is owing ajuwaya in his state 10 months in back pay. Expect them to clap happily when he stands on a podium before them to tell them that he will splash water on them if they come and ask for the money.

12 high ranking PDP members had their elections to the PDP’s National Working Committee nullified for violating an INEC regulation. We will not be hearing Olisa Metuh for a while. He was one of them.

Typically, the FG is about to flip-flop on something. JAMB and NECO will remain in place after “due consultations” are done with.

Former Papa Eagles wall, Terrible Taribo did not lie about his age. This was revealed by his former club doctor at Inter Milan. “Taribo may have been born in 1972 and not in 1974 and have removed two years, three at the most, but twelve is impossible,” said Piero Volpi.

One of the pillars of Nigerian sports, Patrick Ekeji has decided to call it a day. As Sunday Oliseh, Tijani Babangida and Finidi George would confirm, that fellow was not one who pulled his punches. They were eased out of Papa Eagles after the 2002 Nations Cup for daring to demand for silly things such as player rights under his watch. Bear in mind that the body he headed, the National Sports Commission is illegal as there is no enabling law establishing it. Which brings us smartly to the question, just how many illegal bodies are operating out of the Federal budget and paying N1.2 millions for a Facebook account?

Right of reply

Chidi Okoye wrote,

Have you read the story? If not, do so and take a hard look at that ‘presidential directive’. ‘Treason’ is loosely defined and that is a criminal offence that requires arrest and detention. 

Meanwhile the two editors were released last night.

Oria Iyayi wrote,

Is that directive real? Wow, first I’ve heard of it. Anyway, one of my colleagues says y’all would publish anything, so he doesn’t believe that thing is real. And he does have a point, most of y’all WOULD publish anything as long as someone handed over a brown envelope.

Ebi Bozimo wrote,

You know, if anybody actually believes that rubbish ‘presidential directive’ then no further proof is needed of the preponderance of numb skills in Nigeria. Can there be a more obvious forgery? Such nonsense! Any ‘journalist’ that actually published that tripe should be jailed, drawn AND quartered! No apologies. And no, the government does not need to provide a counter to every piece of junk misinformation that some fatuous fools dream up.

When people – journalists and others alike – replace facts with their fears, follies or fantasies, then the grounds exist for true journalists (for whom you proffered an apology) to actually distinguish themselves. Step away from the ‘me too’ mentality; observe and analyze what is actually happening outside of the Lai-r Mohammed-led lore and you might be surprised.

Chxta responds to all three,

Err, last time I checked, there are proper ways of taking care if indeed a newspaper publishes a false story. We have slander and libel laws. If the FG is genuinely convinced that the Leadership fed the public with deliberate falsehoods, then the FG should take them to court for all that they’ve got. 

Sending the police to harass and lock them up reeks of a cover up, especially given that the police were more interested in finding out the “source”. As you probably know, journalism ethics mean that a journalist must protect his source lest they all dry up. 

Finally, a very interesting point here, it is the journalists who are now making use of the judicial system. The people who accused them of lying have yet to file charges, rather are still bullying and telling the chaps to report to the station at 10am each day. Why not file a charge? Tells me something about the veracity of the story…

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Op-ed pieces and contributions are the opinions of the writers only and do not represent the opinions of Y!/YNaija.