Innocent Ojefia Blog

Dear Emmanuel, Thanks again for your well-elaborated informed response and patriotic stand on the UPU crises and the Urhobo Nation progress. But I will like to come from this angle and note some vital things to help us understand where we are right now. If you look very carefully and observe the happenings in the Nigerian polity over the years, you would realize that with the way the country is right now, all the ethnic and socio-cultural groups are becoming more and more ‘ political  and  getting   involved’  one way or the other in the Nigerian political structuring. Examples are Afenifere, Arewa Consultative Forum and so on. In fact, recently, a fter what had appeared as a group's indecision,  Afenifere (the pan-Yoruba socio-cultural ‘publicly’ endorsed President Goodluck Jonathan   for re-election. Even when it appears not every member of the Afenifere were in agreement with such endorsement, no one went as far as creating another ‘ facti...

This is what you get when some UPU leaders decide to make UPU a partisan organization (an appendage of PDP) rather than maintaining neutrality and serving as an umbrella organization for all Urhobos irrespective of political affiliation. The blunders keep evolved as follows: Firstly, the Uvwiamughe declaration was an unnecessary interjection of UPU into partisan politics. The UPU should allow Urhobo sons and daughter in the various parties to struggle for various positions and offices within their parties without any interference by UPU. Secondly, the UPU should not have organized a "primary" for all PDP gubernatorial aspirants and then select one. Afterall, UPU is not PDP. Why did UPU not do the same for the other parties? No other ethnic organization went as far as to make a "declaration" or select a candidate for a party. Thirdly, it was a fatal mistake for some UPU leaders to go to Abuja to pledge Urhobo support for GEJ/PDP. Nigeria is practicing ...

One essential fact of life is this: unless we treat others like humans too we shall all likewise perish. Much of this is lost on those who run the affairs of nations from the anti-establishment, especially the western world, which still treats Africa like farmlands of sorts. In this context, Nigeria is still a British old colony with a presumed welling of its ‘legit’ economic, social and political interests to protect and advance. This often involves colluding with locals to force regime change where such interests appear threatened. This is one certain way of putting in perspective the positions of some dissident actors who are colluding with their business and political partners in Nigeria to fund and develop the All Progressives Congress (APC) into a franchise and platform to wrest power from President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan by fair or foul means. Those who were disappointed by President Barack Obama when he blocked Nigeria from buying arms here and there to fight the Boko...

It was reported that Obasanjo arrived when President Goodluck Jonathan was inside Shehu Shagari’s house but refused to come out of his vehicle until Goodluck Jonathan had finished and left. Those present could not stop laughing as the former president was repeatedly poking his tongue at them from inside his vehicle. Also present at the event were the former head of the interim government, Ernest Shonekon, as well as ex-heads of state, Generals Yakubu Gowon, Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida and Abdulsalami Abubakar. Obasanjo and Jonathan have been at loggerheads following the former’s constant attacks on the Jonathan government. At the celebration President Goodluck Jonathan and the All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential candidate, General Muhammadu Buhari (rtd), congratulated the former president Shagari, on his 90th birthday.

An 18-year-old wife,  Rahma Hussaini , on Wednesday February 25, stabbed her newly wedded husband at Darmunawa quarters of Kano after the couple had a quarrel. A neighbour, I sa Alhassan  told  Vanguard  that the young couple got married last Friday, February 20 and also revealed that Rahma was forced to marry the 24-year-old  Tijjani Basiru . “ We were alarmed by a frightening scream of a subdued man in need of rescue and we rushed to discovered that the man of the house was in the pool of his blood. Neighbours mobilized and took the groom to the hospital but doctors confirmed him dead on arrival ,” Alhassan said. According to the eyewitness, the bride was handed over to the police after killing her husband. ' Vanguard reports that the Kano State Police Public Relations Officer,  ASP Magaji Musa Majia  confirmed the incident, saying “ at about 10:00hrs one Rahma Hussaini of Darmunawa quarters stabbed her husband, one Tijjani M Basiru on his...

Senator Okowa will not throw the goodwill of the great people of Delta State to the dust nor crush their hope like men with dead conscience or bring their free mandates to frustration.  Though the thoughts of men may not be known by others but Senator Okowa could be held by his words, for he will not lead our dear State to ruins but to greatness and much glory. The will power to transmogrify Delta State burns within him as he has pledged to all that he would put his exposures to use and draw in all his associates to ensure overall success, while making God the benefactor of his government, for without Him we will all fail.  Government is a continuum, hence the need to sustain the impetus of present development and surpass it. The sacrosanctity of his vision to transform this State to a private-sector driven economy is a mission that must be archived without repudiation, with collective efforts but not with a singular capacity. He will not run a gove...

Question: On what really are the threats which the Urhobo Progress Union (UPU) has been directing against both President Goodluck Jonathan and Senator Ifeanyi Okowa based? Answer: On nothing but false claims, if not bare-faced lies. The UPU had insisted that an Urhobo must be the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governorship candidate in Delta state for the 2015 election – or Urhoboland would oppose PDP candidates, especially at the presidential and governorship elections. Yet…yet, with amazing insistence and ferocious intensity, the UPU, before it factionalised into ineffectuality, betraying itself in all intents and purposes, had claimed repeatedly that it would exercise the tyranny of the majority and trudge other ethnic groups under its boots. This terrible stance heightened when Senator Arthur Ifeanyi Okowa, from Delta North Senatorial District, handsomely won the PDP gubernatorial primary election. Visionaries who attempted to steer UPU’s leaders to other ways of dabbling into...

Residents of Adefowope Street, off Beach Road, Etegbin, in the Otto Awori Local Council Development Area of Lagos are divided over the reasons that could have made a woman to push her husband from the balcony of a one-storey building on Valentine’s Day. It was gathered that the incident, which happened in the community, had left neighbours and residents at loss over what might have actually transpired. It was learnt that the woman, identified as Onyinyechi, in anger pushed her husband, George, from the storey building, leading to the husband’s death. While some residents claimed that Onyinyechi, who was a teacher in a private school in the area, was angry that her husband did not give her a Valentine’s treat on a day when most lovers made out time to celebrate each other, other residents said the couple was quarreling over a monetary issue before the incident. A man, who claimed to be a close friend of the deceased, however, insisted that the cause of the couple’s misunder...

ELECTION rigging is not just about falsification of the results of elections, snatching of ballot boxes, illegal thumb-printing of ballot papers or announcement of results different from the expressed wishes of the electorate. Any action that violates the Electoral Act will automatically result in election rigging. Any act that renders an electoral contest not FREE, FAIR and CREDIBLE means the election has been rigged. Free means every eligible voter is given full opportunity to register, obtain his voter’s card, given unhindered access to relevant information to enable him choose whom to vote for (voter education), and on voting day, is not hampered in any way while exercising his electoral franchise. Fair means that the conditions for the electoral contest are the same for all the political parties, candidates and the voters, and that no one is favoured above the rest. No obstacle is deliberately placed against anyone involved in the election from achieving his constitutionally-...