The Political Hysteria of the 2023 Elections in Nigeria

The Political Hysteria of the 2023 Elections in Nigeria

The 2023 elections in Nigeria are becoming great stuff for historical epics on the political history of Nigeria; with the  good, the bad and ugly scenarios of human frailties and depravities.

Nigeria is what Nigerian are.

Majority of them are as dirty as their dirty politics of tribal bigotry, religious buffoonery and Machiavellian demagoguery.  

No Nigerian politician is a saint.

No Nigerian politician is incorruptible.

Everyone of them is either corrupt or a beneficiary of political corruption.

The 2011 elections were the worst in electoral malpractices and violence since 1999 to date.

The 2015 elections were also bad and bloody with "Rivers of Blood" in Rivers State.

I included the live reports sent to me by SMS in my book, "The Victory of Muhammadu Buhari and the Nigerian Dream: My Eyewitness Account of the 2015 Presidential Election" printed in Raleigh, NC, USA and distributed by Amazon, Barnes and Noble and other booksellers.

- Ekenyerengozi Michael Chima.

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2023: Professor Ikonne Sets to Adjust Abia's Sail

2023: Professor Ikonne Sets to Adjust Abia's Sail

- By Chief Maxwell Kanu. 

In the words of the American author, John Maxwell, "the pessimist complains about the wind. The optimist expects it to change. The leader adjusts the sails.”

Professor Uche Ukonne perfectly fits into Maxwell's definition of a leader.

His emergence as the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP's gubernatorial flagbearer is indeed a trigger for a new Abia.

Professor Ikonne's expected victory in next year's gubernatorial polls will be a fitting, proper and deserving call to service, a call to reinvent Abia by recalibrating its economy and infrastructure.

He is not coming to learn on the job.A consumate administrator and academic colossus, Professor Ikonne is eminently qualified, prepared and equipped with innovative ideas with  which he will be adjusting Abia's sail for the better when he becomes governor next year.

His exhilarating performance as the Vice Chancellor of Abia state University still resonates. 

Like a goldfish, Professor Ikonne has no hiding place. It is not therefore, a surprise that the PDP spotted him and saddled him with the task of deepening Abia's socio-economic and infrastructural ascendancy.

It is obvious that the party recognises  a competent leader, a doer and an achiever when it see one. For sure, the PDP sees one in Professor Ikonne.

With a plethora of youth and women organisations, civil society groups, academics and religious leaders as well as traditional rulers routing for him, Professor Ikonne is the man to beat in the 2023 Abia guber contest.

Born in Agburuike, Nsulu in Isiala Ngwa North, Abia State, Professor Ikonne's academic career spans over three decades.

He attended  Ngwa High School, in Aba  and later proceeded to Manila Central University, Philippines to study Optometry.

He also holds specialist master's degree programme in Hospital Administration at St. Jude College, also in the Philippines.On his return to Nigeria in 1985, Professor Ikonne served as consulting optometrist at the Park Lane General Hospital, Enugu, and was later to obtain a Doctor of Philosophy degree in Environmental Health Science from Abia State University.

In an ironic twist of fate, he would in later years, serve the University as Vice Chancellor.

From 2010 to 2014, Ikonne served as the Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academic), Abia State University and was seconded to Abia State Polytechnic, Aba as Rector on what was described as  Rescue  Mission.

Upon returning to the University, he was appointed its 7th Substantive Vice-Chancellor in December 2015.

He also attained the following positions:

Head, Department of Optometry – Abia State University.

Director, Institute for Distance Education, Abia State University.

Acting Dean, Faculty of Health Sciences, Abia State University.

Deputy Provost, College of Medicine & Health Sciences, Abia State University.

Professor Ikonne is a member of several professional bodies and has sat on many professional and academic Boards and Committees including:

Member, Optometrists and Dispensing Opticians Registration Board of Nigeria from 1993 to date

Chairman of the Education Committee, 1993 to date

Chairman, Disciplinary Committee, 2007 to date

Vice-Chairman, Optometrists and Dispensing Opticians Registration Board of Nigeria, 2009 to date. He was also Registrar, Nigerian Postgraduate College of Optometrists.

Professor Ikonne has in his kitty, an avalanche of awards including,  the African Optometric Educator Award of the year 2003 and the Distinguished Meritt Award of the Nigerian Optometric Association, 2006.

If elected governor next year, Professor Ikonne will join the list of erudite academics, especially Professor who were/are in partisan politics and who offered quality leadership and contributed immensely to national development.

The roll call include the second Republic governor of the defunct Bendel state, the late Prof Ambrose Alli, former Education Minister,  

Professor Jibril Aminu, Former Vice Chancellor of ABU, Processor Ango Abdulahi, Late Minister of Petroleum, Professor Tam David West, Former Health Minister, Professor Onyebuchi Chukwu, Former Health Minister, Onikoye Ransom-Kuti, Former Education Minister, late Professor  Babs Fafuwa, Former Minister for Science and Technology, late Professor Godion Ezekwe, incumbent Governor of Borno state, Professor Zulum among others.

***

Chief Maxwell writes from Isukwuato, Abia State.

Ozigbo as Anambra's Breath of Fresh Air

Ozigbo as Anambra's Breath of Fresh Air

- By Peter Osakwe

Val Ozigbo stands out in the galaxy of candidates for November 7, 2021, Anambra gubernatorial election not because he is flying the flag of a popular party but because he is the knight in the shining armour for Anambrarians.

You need not be clairvoyant to tell that Anambra is in dire need of fresh breath after eight years of mindless suffocation. And who will bail the cat?

Here is Ozigbo. Young, energetic, urbane, cerebral and unassuming yet well wired. His robust academic resume, uncanny strides and exploits in the corporate world firmly project him as the breath of fresh air Anambra urgently needs.

Valentine Ozigbo is the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for the governorship elections in Anambra State and I dare say that the party got it right in the choice of flagbearer.

For a man who connects seamlessly with the people he is seeking to govern with his well-articulated Ka Anambra Chawapu socio-economic and infrastructural module which is also his campaign slogan, Ozigbo wears the Anambra shoe and knows where it pinches the people.

"The Chawapu project is designed to touch the future by building social and economic systems that last”, he says.

Val, as he is affectionately called by admirers, is a hard-boiled business administrator and entrepreneur and has dedicated close to three decades of his life garnering and putting into work experiences in the corporate world.

He is a thinker who thinks outside the box, visionary and purpose-driven. Ozigbo rises above the fray to stamp competency and accomplishment.

Ozigbo is not your janu-faced everyday politician. He is a straight talker who speaks the language of service delivery. This candidate comes across as a man of unadulterated zeal for enduring positivity, one who is adequately prepared for the task of reinventing Anambra.

Grassroots' favourite, Ozigbo has become a movement in Anambra. His state-wide acceptability and popularity attest to the fact that his message of redemption for the Ndi Anambra positively resonates with them.

Come November 7, Anambrarians will be saddled with a simple choice: Choose as their next governor a compassionate, shrewd, urbane and cerebral manager of men and resources or a perpetuation of the dark, anachronistic politicking and voodoo governance Anambra has endured.

Ozigbo represents the former. In him, American author John C Maxwell's characterization of a leader takes flesh and blood. Maxwell: "A leader knows the way, goes the way and shows the way."

Starting as a young goal- getting financial manager, the PDP candidate have traversed the business and financial firmament leaving impactful and enduring imprimatur in all spheres- hospitality sector, banking, manufacturing, energy etc.

Until March 2020 when he quit to explore other areas of service to humanity, including the possibility of serving Ndi Anambra as governor, Ozigbo was at the driver's seat of Transactional Corporation of Nigeria, Transcorp, a top-flight business conglomerate with an interest in agriculture, banking, hospitality among others.

Appointed President and Chief Executive officer of the Corporation in 2011, Ozigbo brought his corporate wizardry to bear on the outfit resulting in its burgeoning success.

For example, while at Transcorp, Val developed five new projects worth over $500 million including two new hotels in Lagos and Port Harcourt as well as other retail facilities that catapulted the conglomerate to a global height.

Born on July 20, 1970, Valentino Ozigbo attended Christ the Redeemer College where he obtained his SSCE certificate.

He obtained a degree in accounting from the University of Nigeria Nsukka (UNN) in 1994 and an MBA in Banking and Finance from the same University in 2000.

In 1998, he obtained a professional qualification in accounting from the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria and Taxation from the Chartered Institute of Taxation of Nigeria in 2000.

In 2004, Val Ozigbo obtained an MSc in finance from Lancaster University, United Kingdom.

Val Ozigbo obtained a professional qualification in Credit Administration from the Institute of Credit Administration in 2015. 

Ozigbo's rise to the top of the corporate ladder was swift and meritorious. Before he was appointed the CEO of Transcorp, he had17 years of experience in the banking sector working with notable Nigerian banks including NAL Merchant Bank, Diamond Bank, Continental Trust Bank, FSB International Bank, Standard Trust Bank, United Bank for Africa and Bank PHB.

Between 1995 and 2000, he was the Head of Commercial Banking at Diamond Bank Plc. He proceeded to become the business manager at the United Bank for Africa (UBA) in 2000.

In 2001, Ozigbo was Acting Regional Director of FSB International Bank but returned to pick up the position of Head of International Banking at the United Bank for Africa (UBA) in 2004.

He left UBA for Keystone Bank as the Global Transaction operation in 2008.

Anambra is in for impactful, purposeful leadership as Ozigbo awaits coronation on November 7.

Congratulations to Ndi Anambra in advance.

***

Peter Osakwe wrote from Inland Town, Onitsha.