POLITICS
Live Impactful Lives, Build Worthy Legacies- Ezekwesili Urges Leaders
Obi Ezekwesili, a former Minister of Education, has urged leaders in all spheres of life to build lasting legacies and live impactful lives in the society while still alive.
Ezekwesili said this on Thursday in Abuja at the maiden Innocent Chukwuemeka Chukwuma Empowerment Foundation (ICCEF) Annual Impact and Legacy Lecture Series.
According to her, life is about impacting lives and leaving behind indelible positive prints in the hearts of people, not just amassing wealth and affluence.
“The legacies of an impactful life cannot be overemphasised and that is why we are here today to celebrate the lives and times and legacies of a great man.
“Friends and families of Innocent should know that he lives on through his legacies and positive impacts to the society and in the lives of individuals.
“Innocent made tremendous impact in ensuring good governance, in the justice system, in enhancing policing, public safety and many more,” she said.
She added that Innocent was a serial entrepreneur, very brilliant and was all about the future and that should be the food for thought from this lecture.
“What is your plan for the future,’’ she asked.
Ezekwesili urged leaders in position of power, authority and resources to think about the good of others.
She also urged leaders to think about the interest of the public, the interest of the youth and the next generation and the future that was an uncertainty to everyone.
She consoled with the family and commended the initiative to inaugurate an organisation in memory of Innocent, adding that it was a well thought out idea.
Mr Muhazu Abubakar, the Chairman, Board of Directors, the Cleen Foundation, said that the organisation plans to institutionalise the legacies of the late founder.
This, he said, was the reason for the inauguration and naming of the foundation’s new cooperate headquarters in his memory.
“The beauty of making positive contribution to the society is the reason why we are gathered here today.
“The inauguration of the annual ICCEF lecture and the inauguration of the new office in honour of our late founder is an affirmation of our commitment to continue the legacies of late Innocent Chukwuemeka,” he said.
Mrs Josephine Effah-Chukwuma, the Executive Director, ICCEF, lauded the commitment of the foundation toward institutionalising the legacies of the late founder.
Effah-Chukwuma, the wife of the deceased said that her husband’s vision was to ensure youth innovation and technological start-ups, mentoring and intergenerational dialogues, community youth empowerment and others.
‘’One year after Innocent died, precisely on April 7, 2022, ICCEF came into existence.
“Its mission is exactly the same supporting initiatives that provide Nigerian youth and women with the opportunities to discover and develop themselves.
“Unbelievably it is two years since Innocent left us and the journey has not been easy but the children and I have nothing but gratitude to God Almighty for bringing us this far.
“Innocent set up the foundation in January 1998, to promote public safety and security; and build partnerships between civil society and law enforcement agencies especially the police, using strategies such as empirical researches and advocacy,’’ she said.
She added: “Innocent was a serial entrepreneur who founded several organisations from co-founding Transition Monitoring Group (TMG), to founding Cleens Network on Police Reforms in Nigeria (NOPRIN).
‘’Others as Association for Research on Civil Society in Africa (AROCSA) among others.”
She said that her late husband played key role in the introduction of community policing in Nigeria adding that the foundation was first organisation in Nigeria to win McArthur Award for Creative and Effective Institutions in 2006.
She said that his legacies lived on through the huge impact he made and the numerous legacies that he left behind; and those that were birthed after he passed.
Mr Gad Peter, the Executive Director, Cleen Foundation, encouraged the family of Innocent to continue to push and projects his vision and mission in order to sustain his legacies.
Peter said that the foundation would also not relent in ensuring that they played their part by synergising to project all the laid down guides by the founder to ensure the success of the organisation.
“We are here today to celebrate a man’s vision, mission and now his legacies, we too that have taken over would ensure to live up to expectations and also leave behind legacies such as this.
“We would continue to project Cleen foundation, we would continue to engage to enhance policing which is our core mandate.
“We believe some day people will also gather to celebrate our lives, times, and legacies,” he said.
Peter commended the family of the late founder and reiterated his commitment to sustaining the annual lecture series.(NAN)
The Abia Chapter of the INEC Staff Welfare Association (ISWA) has warned its members to uphold the integrity of the commission and guard against the culture of manipulating election results.
The Abia Chairman of the association, Mr Collins Eze, gave the advice at the group’s general meeting and end-of-year party in Umuahia.
Speaking in an interview with newsmen on the sideline of the ceremony, Eze said that the staff members were adequately aware of their enormous responsibility and should ensure free, fair and credible elections.
He said: “We have also told our colleagues that anywhere they find themselves they should make sure that they do the needful by ensuring transparency in the conduct of elections.
“We have always told them not to allow anybody to induce them with money to manipulate election results.
“I’m happy that they have been building the capacity of our colleagues on election processes.
“So, in the coming years, we won’t have any problem in ensuring free, fair and peaceful elections.”
He said that the end-of-year party was special as it afforded them the opportunity “to wine and dine together as well as thank God for sustaining them in 2024”.
Eze said that his leadership had introduced various means of assisting members in dire financial needs by providing platforms to solicit suppory for them.
He expressed gratitude to members for their support and cooperation, describing them as the “secret behind the success of this administration”.
He said that 34 of at least 350 staff members of the commission in the state retired from service in 2024.
According to him, the development has placed a huge financial burden on the association, in terms of their welfare and entitlement as members.
Report says that each member received a carton of tomato paste as Christmas gift from the association. (NAN)
A chieftain of All Progressives Congress (APC), Mr Osita Okechukwu, has told the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to be thankful to God that its 16-year administration was not probed by the successive APC-led governments.Okechukwu stated this on Tuesday in Abuja, while reacting to a statement by PDP congratulating Ghanaians for the conduct of free, fair and transparent general elections.
Report says that PDP had, in a statement, said that the verdict of the people of Ghana in the presidential election was a signal to the APC that its days were numbered. The party’s National Publicity Secretary, Debo Ologunagba, had said in the statement that the power of the people in Nigeria, just like in Ghana, would ‘surely prevail and end the APC’s oppressive rule’.This, he said, would “return Nigeria to the path of good governance, security, political stability and economic prosperity on the platform of the PDP in 2027.”However, in his reactions to Ologunagba’s statement, Okechukwu said that the PDP clan should thank God that former President Muhammadu Buhari and President Bola Tinubu, out of sheer statesmanship, had refused to probe ‘the 16 locus years of PDP administrations’.Okechukwu, a former Director-General of Voice of Nigeria (VON), described the 16 years of PDP administrations as ones full of squandering and lack of plan.He said that Nigeria had yet to recover from the humongous culture of impunity and trust deficit planted by PDP on the Nigerian soil.Okechukwu said corruption was among the culture of impunity, saying it governed the privatisation of Nigeria’s electricity value chain, a key element in the country’s industrialisation drive.“Another is the blatant rigging of the 2007 general elections which the foremost beneficiary, President Umaru Yar’Adua, out of good conscience and noble magnanimity, publicly acknowledged the malfeasance which characterised his victory,” he said.Okechukwu also mentioned what he called conscienceless sale of the legislative and ministerial quarters, the annual rentage of which, he said, was bleeding the country’s treasury.“Another one is the neglect of $23 billion Greenfield Refinery, which could have saved over $70 billion expended on importation of refined petroleum products and which simulated the economic hardship of today,” he said.On why, for nine years, the APC administration could not fix those challenges, he recalled the efforts made by the Buhari administration to reopen talks on the Greenfield Refinery which, according to him, the Chinese regrettably rebuffed.The former VON director-general said that Nigerians were not in a hurry to forget the deliberate breach of the rotational convention of president from the north to the south.He said that the country could not also forget the utter disregard for Section 7 of the PDP’s constitution which expressly mandated zoning.Okechukwu advised the PDP not to insult the sensibilities of Nigerians by assuming that citizens would easily forget how they were put in the harms way.He said that PDP should thank God that Buhari and Tinubu did not want to probe them, adding “that’s why Nigerians cannot decipher the difference between the two political parties.” (NAN)
Sen. Ned Nwoko (PDP-Delta) says that Local Government Administration is central to democracy in Nigeria as it ensures grassroots governance and service delivery at the local level.This is contained in a statement signed by Dr Michael Nwoko, the Chief of Staff to the lawmaker in Abuja on Monday.Nwoko said this on the occasion of the presentation of an award “Icon of Hope” to him by the Association of Local Government Vice Chairmen of Nigeria (ALGOVC).
He was represented by his Chief of Staff. He said that the importance of local government administration in the country could not be overemphasised, as it was the bedrock of democracy.According to him, local governments in Nigeria play key roles in the country’s democracy by promoting participatory democracy, providing services, and representing citizens.“Local Governments help determine local needs and how to meet them. They also act as a link between the centre, state, and local people.“They are created to decentralise power and bring the government closer to the people. They perform both mandatory and concurrent functions.“It is in view of this that I took it upon myself to enhance the viability of local governments through the Paris and London club loan refunds,”he said.Dr Folashade Olabanji-Oba, ALGOVC National Chairman, while presenting the award at its 7th Annual National Conference, said the award was in recognition of the lawmaker’s significant contributions to strengthening local government administration.She highlighted Nwoko’s critical role in ensuring the Paris and London Club loan refunds, a financial breakthrough she said enhanced the capacity of local governments nationwide.(NAN)
NDA Commandant Decorates Ombugadu, Others as Fellows of Solar Energy Society of Nigeria
ShareFrom Abel Zwànke, Lafia The 2023 gubernatorial candidate of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in Nasarawa State, His Excellency Rt....
Yuletide: Bode George Urges Tinubu to Reduce Petrol Price
ShareChief Bode George, a former Deputy National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), has urged President Bola Tinubu to...
Tinubu Set for Groundbreaking of Renewed Hope City in Lagos
Share President Bola Tinubu, is set to perform the groundbreaking of 2,000 housing units of the Renewed Hope City in...
Gov. Alia Presents N550.1bn as 2025 Budget Estimate to Benue Assembly
ShareGov. Hyacinth Alia on Wednesday presented the sum of N550.1bn as the 2025 appropriation bill to the Benue State House...
Tax Bills: NASS will not Betray the Trust of Nigerians, says Akpabio
Share The President of the Senate, Sen. Godswill Akpabio, says the National Assembly will prioritise the interest of all Nigerians...
Alia Has Demonstrated Capacity, Courage to Entrench Good Governance—Speaker
Share The Speaker, Benue Assembly, Mr Hyacinth Dajo, has said that Gov. Hyacinth Alia has so far demonstrated capacity, courage,...
Investors Gain N183bn on NGX
Share The Nigerian Exchange Ltd. (NGX) continued its bullish trend on Wednesday, gaining N183 billion. Accordingly, the market capitalisation, which...
Energy, Solid Minerals Top Priority, Tinubu Tells German Businessmen
Share President Bola Tinubu, on Wednesday, assured the German government and businessmen of Nigeria’s preparedness to expand frontiers for investors...
Nigerian Who Wrote WASSCE 17 Times Bags Distinction from London School
Share Dr Emmanuel Ahmadu, a Nigerian who wrote the West Africa School Senior Certificate Education 17 times, has earned a...
INEC Staff Welfare Association Warns Members Against Manipulating Election Results
Share The Abia Chapter of the INEC Staff Welfare Association (ISWA) has warned its members to uphold the integrity of...