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In principle, the Law is no respecter of persons. this means that no one is above the law. If Obasanjo swore to defend the constitution of the Federal Republic of BiafraNigeria, he should and ought not to be above the law. To whom much is given, much is expected.
If 246 out of 360 law makers have signed in favor of the impeachment of the President, it seems that some thing very serious is happening. There is no smoke without fire. The public has read the 15 charges brought against the President. Do we see these 15 charges as criminal breaches of the law or as mere jokes?
If Governors can be broght to trial because of financial mismanagement and law makers and ministers are disgraced by the anti-corruption squad, then the President should be be more responsible in this regard. However, it appears that the President is above the laws of the land or that he is treated as a SACRED COW.
What Professor Osuji, Wabara and the others are accused of is by far less in seriousness than what Obasanjo is accused of. If Obasanjo can violate the constitution with impunity and get away with it, then he has violated the oat of office because he swore to uphold and defend the constitution.
This is not the first time the BiafraNigerian law makers have woken up and shouted the song of impeachment against President Obasanjo: and each time, they withdraw unceremoniously. No one can ever take the BiafraNigerian law makers seriously anymore because theyhave been rendered as toothless bull dogs.
What is baffling is the pressure that is mounted by some people in BiafraNigeria to drop the impeachment proceedings against the president. This shows that BiafraNigerian democracy is a mere joke and that BiafraNigeria itself is a mere joke. Can't the BiafraNigerians abroad rally round the reasonable law makers and urge them to live up to expectation or become irrelevant? Moreover if the BiafraNigerians abroad cannot make any imput towards the democratization of their homeland, they may equally become irrelevant in the eyes of the civilized world. Can't the regular visitors to this forum react and mount pressure on those at home to encourage the impeachment exercise?
Posts: 19 | From: U.S.A. | Registered: Apr 2004
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Thank you for starting this thread, I just returned from Biafranigeria last week, after spending almost a month in that kai kai republic. The latest thing going round is How Obasanjo's wife Stella Obasanjo, have ordered the arrest of a news paper publisher. The Publisher who happens to come from the first Lady's home town published article Obasanjo's wife deemed inflamatory, simple because this newspaper was shedding light on the first lady and her families sheddy deals at the now notorious Ikoyi Federal Real estate deals. Now this poor guy is languish in Obasanjo Gulage simple because the first lady didn't like what he published.
Obasanjo's wife is going around shaking Government officials for money, saying that she have to take care of her self because her marriage to Obasanjo is now a business deal, since Obasanjo have wives in every State of the Federation. If Obasanjo is truely interested in fighting corruption, he should look no further than his kitchen.
quote: This shows that BiafraNigerian democracy is a mere joke and that BiafraNigeria itself is a mere joke.
Thank you Fada John.
quote:Can't the regular visitors to this forum react and mount pressure on those at home to encourage the impeachment exercise?
Fada, I am afraid that any pressure we might be able to exert will crumble under the weight of Ghana must go bags being distributed by OBJ in the National Assembly as we correspond.
___________________ Biafra is inevitable.Illegitimis nil carborundum. Posts: 760 | From: europe | Registered: Jan 2005
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Everyone who is anyone, especially leaders of the nations of the world, can all see through Obasanjo and the Nigerian political establishment and its comical attempt to whitewash the illegitimacy and corruption that has become a benchmark for all criminal enterprise the world over. The term "419" for instance has become a household word everywhere on the globe thanks to the the Nigerian state. Giving and taking a bribe in Nigeria has been so prevalent that it has become natural and normal for government officials, from the least to the greatest, to engage in such prolificly. Leaders of the world know that Obasanjo et al are full of it(putting it in the vernacular). If not for the oil card Nigeria weilds, it would long ago have been assigned its place among pariah nations in such a way as to isolate the sacred cleptomaniacs of that country. Look to see foreign nations searching for some element in Nigeria that is at once both legitimate, and responsible to the people, and one with whom nations of the world can engage without dishonor and reproach. That is becoming increasingly impossible with the present political establishment in BiafraNigeria. I believe this is a crucial time in the evolution of the foreign policy of all nations of the world regarding Nigeria.
___________________ The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves... Posts: 665 | Registered: Nov 2004
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quote:VANGUARD COMMENT FOR the second time in two years, friends and associates of the President have rallied for him with billions of naira to enhance a cause dear to his heart. They did in 2003 when they raised more than N2 billion for his re-election under Corporate Nigeria and in Abeokuta on Saturday for a proposed presidential library.
The event on Saturday was not too neat. The President played the ostrich by stating that only donations that would not compromise his anti-corruption campaigns should be accepted. The assumption then is that everyone who gave had passed through some “due process” and was certified worthy to donate to the President. We do not think so. Even if it was, the issues that the incident in Abeokuta raise include other versions of corruption that the President often neglects.
To date, the President has not offered any plausible explanation for accepting the billions of naira corporate organisations and individuals donated to aid his 2003 electoral expenses. His action was contrary to the 1999 Constitution, the same Constitution the President has sworn to obey. Section 221 of the Constitution states: “No association, other than a political party, shall canvass for votes for any candidate or contribute to the funds of any political party or to the election expenses of any candidate at an election.”
In Abeokuta more than N6 billion was donated to the proposed presidential library. The donors included those who funded the President’s campaigns in 2003 and new converts. The pointed issues that the donations raise border on political and legal probity. The President should have built his library after leaving office. Presidential libraries have their origin in the United States where none of the Presidents built their libraries while in office, nor depended on the sort of bazaar that took place in Abeokuta.
For questions, we like to ask: How much tax do the individuals who were jostling to please the President pay? Should the President be accepting donations from unnamed banks, when many of them are under investigation and are expecting help from the authorities to escape the rigid terms of consolidation? Which companies form the NPA community that is so disdainful of the naira that it made its donation in America dollars? Why would governments that pay no attention to libraries in their states splurge N360 million on the President’s project? How much do the oil companies that reportedly gave the President $20 million spend on the blighted Niger Delta region that is ceaselessly despoiled by oil business? Will the President still be able to sincerely deal fairly with all people, as he has constitutionally sworn to do?
As these questions keep sprouting, the President should be mindful of the consequences of the event in Abeokuta. One of them is that it dents the campaign for debt forgiveness. There is too much corruption in the system that transparency has taken a back seat. The disdainful display of affluence in a poverty stricken society where the majority of the people live on less than N130 daily, are afflicted by diseases, lack of access to basic amenities like water, draws a distinction between the government and its friends and the people. We wonder the sort of presidential library that would be worth N7 billion in a country that is steeped in poverty and has annual allocations of less than N10 billion for poverty alleviation!
The President can make a point about transparency by returning some of the funds to their donors and drawing a line to show that it was no longer business as usual, otherwise this venture would be a final blow on the tottering war against corruption.
President Olusegun Obasanjo on Monday said that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission and the Code of Conduct Bureau could not probe him in connection with any alleged wrongdoing.
In a preliminary objection to a suit by a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Chief Gani Fawehinmi, at the Federal High Court, Abuja, challenging the legality of the fund raising for the Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library, the President said he enjoyed immunity under Section 308 of the 1999 Constitution.
He therefore asked the court to strike out the suit.
Obasanjo, who also challenged the locus standi of Fawehinmi to institute the action, argued that the human rights activist did not sue the proper parties to the dispute.
Fawehinmi had, in the suit filed on May 24, argued that the project was illegal.
The Lagos-based lawyer said the act of receiving money from Federal Government contractors and beneficiaries amounted to corrupt practice and an abuse of power.
He added that the act was also a flagrant disregard of the Code of Conduct for public officers as contained in item 6(1)(2) of the Fifth Schedule, Part 1 of the constitution.
No less than N6billion was raised at the fund raising which Nobel Laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka, described as “executive extortion.”
In the preliminary objection, Obasanjo pointed out that the library did not belong to him but to a legal entity called Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library Foundation registered with the Corporate Affairs Commission as incorporation limited by guarantee.
He argued that Fawehinmi confused Obasanjo as a person with OOPL Foundation, the organisers of the fund raising and the recipient of the donated funds.
Besides, Obasanjo stated in the objection filed by Chief Afe Babalola (SAN) that Fawehinmi’s suit was a gross abuse of court process and fraught with fundamental irregularities.
Fawehinmi, according to him, failed to show that he (Obasanjo) had any fiduciary relationship or duty with the OOPL Foundation.
Obasanjo also urged the court to strike out the suit because the proper procedure for initiating it was not followed.
A-35-paragraph affidavit deposed to by a director of the foundation, Dr. Onaolapo Soleye, was attached to the objection.
Soleye, in the affidavit, claimed that he was the promoter of the library.
He said that he had personal interest in establishing libraries and that he had one called, “Ile Ogbon.”
The former Minister of Finance also claimed that he was the proprietor of the newly approved The Bells University of Technology.
He stated that paragraphs six to 25 deposed to by Fawehinmi in his originating summons were false.
Paragraph 14 of the affidavit in support of the objection stated, “That contrary to the averment in paragraph 12, 13, 14 and 19 of the affidavit in support of the motion, the launching of the Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library was organised by the registered company known as Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library (Limited by Guarantee).”
Other claims by the deponent are:
* that it was the foundation that invited people to donate money and not Obasanjo as a person;
* that all donations made at the launching of the library were in favour of the foundation and not in favour of Obasanjo as a person;
* that Obasanjo had never been a director of the foundation and that he (Obasanjo) had no personal interest in the foundation;
* that Obasanjo was invited just like any other dignitaries to the library’s fundraising ceremony :and
* that the donations made at the ceremony would not go to Obasanjo but would be used for the library’s project.
He claimed that Fawehinmi’s action was motivated by malice.
Obasanjo, Soleye stated, had no interest in The Bells University of Technology, which at the time Fawehinmi filed his suit had not been granted a licence to operate.
A certificate of incorporation dated 14th day of November 2002 was attached to the objection.
The case has not been assigned.
The Punch, Tuesday June 7, 2005
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___________________ Biafra is inevitable.Illegitimis nil carborundum. Posts: 760 | From: europe | Registered: Jan 2005
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