Mariam Mariam
“To question the ability of the chairman to own property andwhere, given his family background and successes in private business is callous and uncharitable… The allegations against the National Chairman of the People’s Democratic Party, Prince Vincent Eze Ogbulafor are petty, frivolous and in bad taste”. – Pro. Ahmed Alkali, National Publicity Secretary, PDP.
“What has he been doing in the last five years that brings in money? He should tell Nigerians about his investments… It is a personal issue. It is for him to defend himself. He should simply tell Nigerians where he has been making money from, which enabled him to buy a N400million house. Status is not an issue here”. – Alhaji Lai Mohammed, National Publicity Secretary, Action Congress.
Fellow countrymen and women, I am very angry today; angry, against all the members of the Bad Belle Association of Nigeria (BBAN). I am also livid with rage against sundry rumour mongers; those who enjoy hearsay as well as the jobless or idle whisperers who make up an uncomfortably sizable section of the Nigeiran population. Yes! I am angry that in recent days, these idle members of the BBAN have chosen to question the right of the chairman of the largest political party in Africa, Chief Prince Vincent Eze Ogbulafor to purchase a ‘mansion’ which cost just N400million only!
Let us be clear about this point. The chairmanship of the largest party in Africa is not for a poor man; rather like David Bonaventure Mark, as Nigeria’s Minister of Communications, many years ago, reminded Nigeria’s quarrelsome poor of his days that telephones were not invented for their use! For crying out loud, what do they expect Chief Prince Vincent Eze Ogbulafor to do? Live in a rented flat in Lugbe? This is a man that is making the sacrifice to carry on his head the burden of the largest party in Africa, for God’s sake! And if all the registered and unregistered members of BBAN do not know; have forgotten or merely chose to ignore it, the PDP is the party that has produced the president with a seven-point agenda that is leading Nigerian (as steadily as a snail0 towards becoming one of the 20 largest economies in the world come 2020. So must the chairman of such a party not live the part? Are they saying that he must not live in a mansionthat fits his status? How much is N400million SEF?
Bad Belle people should be reminded that in the PDP, they do not amass poverty; no way! And if you annoy the PDP and its chairman, he might even go for a bigger mansion! Not all politicians love poverty like Alhaji Balarabe Musa; the PDP is not a party for Spartan disciplinarieans like Gneral Buhuari or Chief Anthon Enahoro! If you are unhappy about N400 million or you don’t have that much to purchase a house, isn’t that your own business? Why must your poverty now detain the chairman of the PDP? Please read the lips of the PDP’s Publicity Secretary, Prof. Ahmed Alkali; it is “in bad taste… to question the ability of the chairman to own property anywhere…” given his background.
Well, as for backfround, Chief Prince Vincent Ogbulafor was a defeated APP governorship candidate who subsequently became a minister under Obasanjo. The poltically astute man that he is, Ogbulafor saw where palm oil can be better sourced to eat his piece of yam in the PDP, so he crossed the carpet. BBAN people are even reminding us that Chief Prince Vincent Ogbulafor was indicted by the ICPC (this is on the Sahara Reporters website). Don’t mind them JARE! It is a clear case of bad belle; they don’t have N400 million to buy a house in Asokoro; but given “his backgroun”, Ogbulafor has the money, made his purchase and now detractors won’t let all of us rest! Where were they when the late Chief Augustus Meredith Adisa Akinloye had his name emblazoned on champagne bottles, as chairman of the PDP’S precursor, the NPN? Look, the PDP chairman has distinguished people he can learn from in Nigeria’s political past! Chief Prince Vincent Eze Ogbulafor has the spiritual fortification of prayer warriors, and if he wants, given his status, he can even secure the retainership services of the high priests of Okija shrine, to shake off the persistent hounding of bad belle people! But he will ignore them, keep carrying on his straining neck the burden of leading ‘by consensus’, the largest party in Africa, with an agenda of continuous capturing of Nigeria into the next sixty years; the party of presidential wisdom opening the aperture of 20 by 2020! Bad belle people can’t even fathom the poetic rhythm of all these developments!
Prof. Alkali, please fire on! Keep defending the intrepid chairman of the PDP. Remind detractors that in the PDP, N400 million is mere chicken change! Chief Prince Vincent Eze Ogbulafor’s forefathers have always been multimillionaires, dating back to the days of the slave trade! He inherited the millions made from slave trade; when slave trade was ended (thanks to those abolitionist busy bodies!) Ogbulafor’s far-seeing forefathers moved into legitimate trade in produce, which helped to power the industrial revolution in Europe; and when Nigeria discovered oil, Ogbulafor’s family also invested heavily in oil blocks! That is why the good Profesor Ahmed Alkali stressed the family background (of wealth!). That should also settle the query issued by Lai Mohammed of the action Congress. Ogbulafor will not be distracted from leading the PDP to the glory land of sixty years of rule in Nigeria. He does the planning in the enabling environment of a N400 million only mansion at Asokoro. We might need David Mark in the Senate to include in the upcoming constitution review, the possibility of an amendment that gives the PDP chairman an even bigger mansion, to facilitate the work he does: leading the largest party in Africa! Thinking day and night of how to secure the fiefdom it conquered, a certain country called Nigeria! David Mark, the famous fighter against the poor people of Nigeria and defender of Obasanjo’s Third term Agenda should really help with this novel constitutional amendment! That way the mouths and pen dos the BBAN can be rendered totally ineffective!
Let us resate the facts through the worlds of Professor Ahmed Alkali: “Prince Ogbulafor is an avowed beliver and firm practitioner of Presidents Yar’adua’s dogged war on corruption…” The allegations against Chief Prince Vincent Eze Ogbulafor are therefore “aimed at tarnishing his hard won…reputable career both in and outside politics”. The attacks have come from those “whose stock in trade is intimidation, harassment and blackmail with a view to attracting unwarranted attention and perhaps maternal benefits”. These people would have been ignored by the hardworking PDP team but was “constrained to come out openly and forcefully to condemn this breed of rumour (which is the rumour? The house or its coust or where the money came from?). As Chief Prince Vincent Eze Ogbulafor, he remains unfazed (especially since EFCC is thankfully, looking the other way); he can therefore pledge “to reforem, reorganize and reposition that party” for more electoral conquests into the next 60 years! Professor Ahmed Alkali, please keep exposing those who play the “indecent politics of opportunism” those “merchants of anarchy”! Fire them! It must be “fire for fire” henceforth! If they don’t have N400million that is their kettle of fish; Chief Prince Vincent Eze Ogbulafor had the money and he purchased a mansion and he owes no busy bodies, any explanations! Now you see why ia ma so angry today: why should they query the chairman of the largest party in Africa for the purchase of a N400 million mansion or begrudge the fact that he has secured the palm oil to eat his yam?
The tenure elongation madness in Nigerina politics.
SUNDAY PUNCH of March 8th, 2009, carried an investigative piece which revealed that a panel to review the White Paper on Electoral Reforms, headed by Michael Aondoakka, the Attorney General and Minister of Justice, recommended that Yar’adua should stay in office till 2013, in a six-year tenure elongation arrangement. Other members of that committee, according to the report, were SGF, Yayale Ahmed and Permanent Secretary, General Servces, Hakeem Baba Ahmed. If it was a joke, a kite flying exercise or a momentary flight of lunacy, they should wake up and reclaim reality. Why these characters in government and its bureaucracy think they can be rude to the Nigerian people and go away with it, is something that countinues to beat my imagination! Tenure elongation, after the Nigerian people defeated Obasanjo’s Third Term Agenda? Wonderful! But if they need reminding, tenure eleongation is a SETTLED ISSUE of Nigerian politics; IT WILL NEVER HAPPEN!!! I am sure that President Yar’adua will not play with fire: trying to defy the Nigerian People. He should end his lack luster tenure of four years and ship out!
