Tracking down Pastor Sam Iyiogwe, a former LGA Chairman and former SSA to Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi for this interview was as difficult as anything one can think of. At a time politicians are avoiding the press ahead the 2027 election Iyiogwe couldn’t help but accept when the issue of infrastrucural development of his people was mentioned.
As Nkanu East LGA Chairman, Iyiogwe, led journalists through neglected communities in his area where schools were scarce, chemist shops doubled as hospitals, and some areas lacked road access for decades. In Amankanu, residents recalled transporting pregnant women in wheelbarrows to distant health facilities.
Iyiogwe began opening up rural roads and improving access to services before Governor Peter Mbah’s election in 2023. In this chat with PETRUS OBI, he reflects on the situation of his people 10 years later.

PASTOR Beloved-Dan Anike, the chairman of Enugu East LGA, in this interview said that council fiscal autonomy is working well in Enugu State, adding that the metropolitan council is complementing the state government’s economic and social policies.
He asserts that Governor Peter Mbah is changing the narratives and politics Enugu State.

What has been your over 100 days experience as the council chairman of Enugu East Local Government?

It has been 100 days full of activities, trying to convert vision to realities, navigate the new environment and connect with the promises made during the campaign and maintain the social contracts with the people. Another influencing factor in the state is the kind of governor we have. Governor Peter Mbah is changing the narratives and politics in Enugu State such that if you’re a public officer, you must rate performance over politics. If you’re not ready to perform, then you won’t even be ready to navigate the scheme and see his break light. So he is a factor that makes everybody to be on their toes, especially the local government because he is working on every ward and so you have to match his strides.

How the grassroots felt his impact in 100 days

From the word go, we announced that we would introduce what we call City Charter which will not leave anyone behind. We will involve people to increase participation. We invited all communities, not wards, to conduct needs assessment and they stated clearly what they want. Our goals are clear, our major target is human capital development, upon which we now launch what we call the greater tomorrow scholarship for young students and also the One youth, one skill.

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As part of the greater tomorrow scholarship, 50 students were selected from local schools and they migrated to major highbrow secondary institutions of private and missionary schools, just like a brand of the smart schools that are coming up in Enugu State.

About 1,750 students have been enrolled for WAEC of which about 70 per cent are non-indigenes, only 30 per cent are indigenes of the local government. We still have other educational programmes that are still pending such as the scholarships and bursaries for undergraduates. We have also declared that we want to train nurses as professionals in the health sector and education. These are purely targeted to support the state’s ongoing Primary Health Centres and smart school projects.

On infrastructure, we have commenced the construction of 1.4km road leading to the smart school in Ugwuomu, we have also commenced the construction of 1.2km road leading to a PHC centre at Emene, near Emenite. Drainage and earthworks are ongoing. On power, we said one Ward one transformer and we have 12 wards. So we have 12 transformers which we have distributed and are currently being installed and energized in various wards.

On public participation and open governance, we set up seven committees and I have received five reports of those committees. One was on the Needs Assessment of all our rural roads so as to match them with the state government’s vision of one ward 10km road. The state government has a 60/40 per cent infrastructure financing plan with the local governments, we are even saying if we can get 80/20 per cent rebate having seen the deficit we have on our roads.

Our former secretariat building covering over 3,000 square meters of land is being envisaged for the take-off of the Metropolitan School of Health Technology and Nursing, which we are working on now. We have written to the state government for provisional consent for us to proceed with that project. These are some of the projects under three months and in our budget this year, we are going to launch what we call Family Economic Empowerment Program (FEEP) and that will be a component of One youth one skill. We trained about 350 people in various skills and we have about 10 being trained in ANAMCO now in mechatronics. Some people have enrolled in heavy machines training.

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They are being paid N70,000 monthly while on training and after one year of training, they will be engaged where they could earn about N500,000 per month. We received over 200 entries because most of our mobilisation and recruitment are done online. In fact, we have other offers from those who want to train people in China and people from even Niger State applied. Our target is human capital but beyond that, we have done foundation-laying for Type1 Public health centers in five communities of Neke-Uno, Obinagu-Nike in Ujudo, the one that is pending is in Nokpa, Ugbene II and Nkpologu. This is to complement the Type2 PHCs that are 12 ongoing in Enugu East Local Government. We look at communities that are far from places where those Type2 PHCs are located and we cite our Type1 Health centres.

On market developments, because we want to decongest Abakpa market, we’re looking at establishing neighbourhood markets in Ugbene II, Umuchigbo, Ogwuagor, and Ibagwa and two markets are already ongoing in Ugwogo – that is the Amankpaka market and the new Orie Ugwogo produce market.

To achieve this, in the next one month we are going to have an investment dialogue because our budget moved from about N5 billion to over N200 billion, which is about 400 per cent increase and it won’t be feasible if we don’t bring in critical investors in this journey. We want to create spaces and bring in investors who will bring in money to grow our economy.

What has been your experience on the fiscal autonomy of the local government councils?

Actually, the local government councils are in charge of their finances. Every remittance goes to the local government purse and every disbursement has been approved by me since September 2024 when I came in. It comes through the joint state account but it goes straight to the designated account of the local government and from salaries to capital expenditures, to overheads, recurrent and other economic commitments are done by the local government.

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Does the state dictate to the local governments how the money is being shared or disbursed; does the state tamper with LG funds in any way?

No, I have told you that all money comes to us and we disburse the money according to our needs. There are obligations we have at the state level, I mean economic obligations like joint ventures with the state such as the 60/40 per cent on road construction and there are others like the 17 local governments coming together for whatever we want to do together; they are obligations on joint economic policies that benefit everyone.

Former Minister of Health and eminent statesman, PROFESSOR A. B. C. NWOSU, in this interview responded to some of the issues raised by General Yakubu Gowon in his recent interview, on his roles in the Nigeria – Biafra War.  He is of the view that there are critical issues that the former Head of State did not address, warning that “Nigeria will continue to be an unstable state until we restructure.”

You must have read General Yakubu Gowon’s interview; as a person close to Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu and final year undergraduate who was politically active, how did you feel at the time?
I felt sad.  Very sad because I had expected that Gowon would reveal at least some of the things which have bothered me and Ndigbo from 1966 till now.  Gowon’s interview was not only sad for me because of his self-serving half-truth but for the major things not said. I don’t think that Gowon believes that total deviation from the Aburi agreement was the cause of the civil war but everybody, and I mean everybody who was a “Biafran” at the time, doubted that it was.  That’s why ‘On Aburi We Stand’ was the war cry from the East.  If Aburi had been implemented there would have been no Nigeria – Biafra War.  I thank the respected Journalist, Chuks Iloegbunam, for his masterful response to General Gowon published in the Vanguard.

For example, when General Gowon said that he didn’t call his Secretary to Government to the Aburi meeting whilst Ojukwu did, I said to myself that General Gowon has lost it because Aburi was not a single’s tennis match between him and his so-called friend, Ojukwu.

Why is Aburi critical for Nigeria?
Aburi was critical because every other discussion on what had happened namely, the January 15 coup, May 29 pogrom and the July 29 counter coup had failed to resolve the matter as the various delegations had feared for their lives and would not attend further meetings. Chief Obafemi Awolowo’s meeting with Ojukwu on May 5th and 6th, 1967 did not succeed in bringing the Eastern delegation to the meeting. As Gowon correctly said, the East could not attend any meeting in Nigeria because they feared for their lives. As Gowon also said, a British war plane as well as a Naval war ship were considered but rejected by the East because of the involvement of Britain in the conflict.  So the acceptable venue was General Ankrah and his offer of Aburi in Ghana.  It was not a meeting between Gowon and Ojukwu, that’s why I insist it was not a single’s tennis match between the two of them.  It was a meeting between General Gowon, who came with the federal cabinet secretariat; General Hassan Usman Katsina and the Secretary to the Northern Government; Governor David Ejoor, who came with the Secretary of the Midwest Government; Governor Adeyinka Adebayo, who came with the Secretary of the Western Nigerian government and Governor Odumegwu Ojukwu, who came with Eastern Nigerian government.  So, it was a full-fledged Nigerian meeting to avert a war and not a meeting between Gowon and Ojukwu.

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One of the key unanimous decisions at Aburi was that the conflict would not be settled through a war.  Therefore to say that we fought to live together is not true since all of them had agreed that fighting was not necessary and would not be used to settle the matter. In any case, the matter of dividing Nigeria into 12 states was neither tabled nor discussed at Aburi. What was discussed was devolution of powers from the centre to the federating units including coercive agencies of State like Police, Army etc.  What was discussed with unanimity was in making appointments to  “Super Permanent Secretaries”, Inspector General of Power, etc.   This greatly irked the super permanent secretaries at the time, who submitted an anti-Aburu agreement memo.

What was required in order to keep good faith was a follow-up meeting by all those present at the original meeting where the original agreement was reached.  The other members cannot implement their version of the agreement without consulting and getting the concurrence of the Eastern government that wore the shoes that were pinching them on all sides – refugees and  rehabilitation, burial of so many dead bodies and fleeing citizens, etc. So, it was wrong to have implemented the civil servant-mutilated Aburi Agreement.  If one checks the sequence of events leading to the Nigeria – Biafra war, the creation of 12 states on 5th May 1967, which was not part of Aburi, was done to take the wind off the sails of the urge for the creation of Biafra. This was clearly bad faith shown by the federal government.  Unfortunately, this was the impetus that accelerated the declaration of Biafra on 30th May, 1967 because people of the East feared that the federal government could declare a state of emergency and invade the East.   Biafra was not declared before the creation of the 12 states, which was not in the spirit of the Aburi agreement.

One of the major agreements of the Aburi was the repatriation of soldiers to their states of origin.  The West continued to whine over this until the Nigeria – Biafra war, where they joined the fight against Biafra.

But Aburi will continue to hunt Nigeria in the form of RESTRUCTURING of the Nigerian polity along the intentions of the founding fathers of the republic, where there are no senior or junior Nigerians, and where the federating units are coordinate government, not this nonsense of sub-national government.  Sub-national government implies that Tafawa Balewa was senior to Sir Ahmadu Bello, Chief Obafemi Awolowo and Chief Dr. Michael Okpara.  To me that is arrant nonsense, and all these people using the term Sub-national government don’t know what a federation is.

You said you are worried about Gowon’s silence over January 15 coup in 1966 and the counter coup of July 1966, what are your worries?

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I am worried about the January 15th coup because I know it was fully investigated by the special branch of the police under late Inspector General of Police MD Yusuf and the report up till now is not public, even though some people have managed to lay their hands on it.  The report was said to have been submitted to the Chief of Army Staff under General Ironsi (which would be General Gowon) but Gowon has said nothing about it so far.  I would have liked to know how many people were investigated; the statement that they made and in particular, whether it was an Igbo coup. I know for certain that the report indicated that Emmanuel Arinze Ifeajuna and Demola Ademoyiga were the central figures of the coup and that Chukwuma Kaduna Nzeogu was involved towards the later part of their planning.  There are rumors that others were involved but Nigerians would like to see what the report was like.  It was also sad that General Gowon kept total silence on the counter coup of July 29 and how he became Supreme Commander.

That interview by Gowon was also totally silent on the pogrom and killing of civilians in the North and West of Nigeria.  Easterners, especially Ndigbo, would wonder why he was silent because these were the bases of fears of insecurity by Easterners, especially Ndigbo, about their lives and property in their own country without being protected by their own government. Knowing the reason why people get killed and their properties seized when they venture out of their states of origin, is critical for stability in Nigeria.

 Gowon stated that he gave specific instructions on the rules of engagement for the Nigerian Army for the war…(cuts in)
Really, and were these rules enforced?  I never read of the tribunal and trials of those behind the Asaba Massacre for example.  Meanwhile, “Asaba still mourns” and have erected a memorial to give their sons respectable rest. The other day Ogbomosho people wanted National Honours for their son and hero, Brigadier Benjamin Adekunle. I wonder whether it was the same Brigadier Adekunle, the Black Scorpion, who ordered that anything moving should be shot, even the dogs, but I leave that for now.  And the West still feels that Colonel Emma Nwaobosi should be publicly hanged for killing Governor Akintola and his wife whilst idolizing Chief Awolowo.  It perplexes me.  ,

Finally, on war crimes, I am still to come to terms with the fact that starvation of new born children, their mothers and toddlers could be a legitimate instrument of war.  Is that part of the UN Convention?  And yet nobody talks about these things, just wishing that those who lost their loved ones should just hide in the corner and shut their mouths.  And Gowon kept quiet on this in the interview.

It is obvious, from what you said, that you expected more from Gowon’s interview…

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Yes.  As I would have expected from Ojukwu, if he ever gave an interview in the later part of his life.  In three months it will be 55 years since the war ended and Nigerians are living together but the same problems that were to be solved by Aburi are still very much with us.  We keep having conferences upon conferences on how to live in a more stable united country. We even had under Obasanjo a Truth and Reconciliation Commission under the renowned jurist, Chukwudifu Oputa with also renowned Bishop Matthew Hassan Kukah as Secretary, but nobody was ready to talk. Nobody also had any regrets. Governor Usman Farouk, Governor of Northwest State when Nigeria was a 12 state structure and member of the investigative panel of MD Yusuf Panel for the January 15 coup, wrote his book titled, “There were Victors and There were Vanquished”.  Some of us have copies. Nobody is still ready to talk and say exactly what happened.  Even when these national conferences agree on issues like State Police, Devolution of Powers, Less funds for the Federal Government, more percentage on Derivation Principle, they don’t get implemented either by a president who throws the report into the trash bin nor by a president, who is supposed to be an  apostle of true federalism and fiscal federalism.  The consoling issue is that we shall all go the way of all mortals  whether we like it or not.  And Nigeria will continue to be an unstable state until we RESTRUCTURE.

Nollywood ace, Binta Ayo Mogaji, has urged women over the age of 35 to embrace the idea of having children outside the traditional bounds of marriage.

In a recent candid interview with Oyinmomo TV, the accomplished 60-year-old actress delved into her personal beliefs surrounding marriage, motherhood, and the relentless societal pressures that often dictate a woman’s choices.

She shared her own journey to motherhood, having welcomed her first child at the age of 40—a decision that has profoundly shaped her life and perspective.

Mogaji encouraged women who find themselves unmarried but yearning for the fulfillment of motherhood to seriously explore the liberating option of having children without the wait for a wedding.

She emphasized that the desire to nurture and raise a child should not be confined by societal expectations, urging women to prioritize their personal happiness and the invaluable bond that comes with motherhood, regardless of marital status.

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What I’m saying is, once you’re 35 or older and you don’t have a husband, but there’s someone in your life who is with you but not ready for marriage, and he wants a child, have a child with him, even if he won’t accept responsibility for the child,” she advised.

Ayo Mogaji emphasised that women should prioritize motherhood over societal expectations.

She also encouraged women to consider adoption if they cannot find a partner.

“When she is looking for a husband at 35, they’ll say she’s too old and won’t be able to wash clothes for her mother-in-law or be controlled,” the actress said.

“They’ll advise the man to find a younger lady to listen to him. Even if she’s fortunate to marry at that age, she’ll already be old when her child grows up. Some people at 45 or 50 are already grandmothers.

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“When your mates are grandmothers, and you’re still saying you’re looking for a husband, when will you find a husband and become a grandmother?

“So, my advice is, if God blesses you with someone who likes you and you can have children together, go ahead and do it.

“If you find someone you like, ask him to impregnate you as long as you want a child and can take care of the child. But if you want a child and cannot find a man to impregnate you, then consider adoption.”

Benson Upah is the spokesperson for the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC). In this interview he expressed concern that the price of fuel may increase to N5,000 per litre. He added that the recent increase runs contrary to the agreement the union reached with the federal government.

During the week, the price of petrol went up again. What will the NLC do about it?

We are planning to have a meeting with the appropriate organs of the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC). Those organs will take the decisions. We will take decisions that we believe would be in the best interest of our members and possibly, this country.

Not to pre-empt the outcome of the meeting, what should Nigerians expect?

It will be difficult for me to preempt what the NLC will do because the organ has a very large membership. Let me use the example of the National Executive Council of the NLC; it comprises the president, general secretaries and treasurers of all affiliate unions.

It also comprises state chairmen and secretaries of the state councils of the 36 states and the FCT, as well as members of the National Executive Council of the NLC. So, you can see it is a big family. In the absence of a delegates’ conference, it is the highest organ making body of the congress. So, there will be multiple ideas coming in; you know, we usually have robust debates. We look at issues and the implications from multiple perspectives. I will not be able to preempt the direction for you.

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Nonetheless, the mood, I can tell you, is that of anger and I want to say that it is not only within the Nigerian Labour Congress that you have anger. Virtually every Nigerian is angry, except that first one per cent that is maintained by the state. You know, that one per cent has everything; we give them everything, those are the only ones who are not complaining. Every other Nigerian is complaining. So, our mood is reflective of the general mood of the country.

Recently, the president of the NLC said President Tinubu betrayed the union, can you elaborate more on this?

After the announcement, the next day, a Senior Special Assistant to the President on Print Media, Mr Abdulaziz Abdulaziz, said we were lying and there was no agreement. We want to reiterate that we feel betrayed by the present increase in the pump price of petroleum products.

One, when Mr. President called for the negotiation, recall that we were stuck at N62,000 and he made two offers; the first was to agree on the N250,000 we recommended while the price of PMS will rise to N1,500 or N2,000 or he will pay N62,000 and the status quo remains. He told us we had a few hours to consult. The labour leaders did not take the bait, rather we asked to be given more time and later requested at least one week to consult outside the Villa. At the end of that one week, the Presidency met again and the labour leaders unambiguously said we would not accept the offer of N250,000.

This was out of consideration for the well-being of the average Nigerian, because we said ‘what would be the effect of this on the ordinary person?’

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To keep this brief, the president acted in breach of his promise to labour leaders and he knows the truth. But let us even look at this matter; what has happened goes beyond the parameters of minimum wage and negotiation. It negatively affects the generality of Nigerians. Since the first wave of price increase, occasioned by the removal of fuel subsidy on May 29, 2023, Nigerians have been trying to reorder their lives to accept the fate they never bargained for.

Coming to terms with 500 per cent hike in cost of education, transportation, food and everything else is not easy. At a time they were just trying to adjust to the new normal, you introduce another shock. So, what we have now is uncertainty; we have moved from pain to uncertainty. In fact, this matter goes beyond the logic and philosophy of our national minimum wage.

When the president mentioned that fuel price will increase to N2,000, one of the labour leaders interjected him and said, ‘Sir, you have removed fuel subsidy, so which other thing are you removing again?’ Remember, the subsidy was removed and prices were stabilised.  So, how many times are you removing subsidy, that you have removed? Subsidy was never restored at any point in time as they claimed. So, what will inform moving the pump price of PMS from N650 to N1,500 or N2,000?

I want to tell you something, what this signals is that Nigerians have not seen the end yet, we may end up paying nothing less than N5,000 per liter for fuel in this country. We hope not to get there but if we get there, the decision will be left to Nigerians.

Can the president justify the increase from N650 to N1,000 vis-à-vis the current minimum wage?

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I would have said let the president answer that question, but clearly, there is no correlation between the national minimum wage and what he has done. In fact, at the time we demanded N615,000 as the national minimum wage, we broke it down to say N40,000 for rent, N20,000 for food for a family of six. Our permutations were based on a family of six, a husband, wife and four children. We were able to justify that.

We were patriotic enough by coming down to N250,000. But of course, even at that, you saw what the president did. He gave us the devil’s alternatives to choose from and we chose the one we felt was going to be less injurious to Nigerians, believing that he will keep his word but barely a month after, he violated it.

What is the status of the minimum wage, has the federal government commenced payment?

Only one state has started paying and it is Adamawa. We commend the governor for the spirit. But of course, while the process of negotiation was going on, the Edo State governor paid N70,000, with a promise to pay more if the minimum wage was to be resolved to something higher. Lagos paid N70,000. Other than this, I am not aware that other states have started paying, though committees have been put together to work out consequential adjustments to enable them commence payment.

I must tell you; governments are very rich now. What they declare and share from the federation account used to be N700bn, which has since moved to N1.3trn. That is what they declare and it does not include the ones they keep aside and pass under the table. With all of that, have you seen any improvement in the quality of the life of Nigerians? There has been no commensurate improvement, rather what we have been getting is pain, penury and trauma.

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What do you think will happen to the other promises the government made; like the CNG buses and other incentives they promised after removing the subsidy in the first instance?

We do not expect much from those promises. How many CNG buses have you seen as an individual? At the time those promises were made, we were also meeting with Innoson Motors, a local brand. We were also in discussion with a reliable foreign firm that makes CNG buses, Yutong, in China. They said they were ready. They assured us they will provide facilities to offer Nigerians soft loans to convert to CNG. At that time, the government said it would cost N800,000 to do it but these people were ready to do it at N250,000.

These facts were made available to the government, yet nothing happened and those conversations fizzled into thin air. So, compare that with what General Ibrahim Babangida did, when he made his own increment. IBB ensured that every state government had a transport company and even labour had a transport company known as Labour Transport Company. It was by virtue of what IBB did, trying to manage the effects of the minimal change when he did his own increase. It was even a minor increase that IBB did compared to what we are now seeing. So, he was prepared and there was no noticeable side effect.

Also, Abacha introduced PTDF, chaired by Gen. Muhammadu Buhari. The impact of PTDF was cross-sector, including providing exercise books. Clearly, our military leaders were better prepared than what we are witnessing today because they anticipated the effects and they were prepared for them.

The president announced that subsidy was gone and did not think of what will be the consequential effects of this policy pronouncement.

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The Nigerian government and some other persons believe the current economic challenges are pains Nigerians have to bear for a better tomorrow, what do you have to say to that?

They are insulting our collective intelligence. Those who make such comments are not competent to do so because they are isolated from the pains we bear. The National Council of State passed a vote of confidence on the president the other day, all of them are on subsidy. Let me say this, all of them don’t pay for petrol; they don’t pay for light. We did say that they were not competent to pass any vote of confidence. It is Nigerians; those who face this heat that are competent to pass a vote of confidence.

Those that say we should bear the pains should be jailed or shot. For how long are we supposed to continue like this? This situation has gotten to a point where our yesterday is always better than our today.

I keep telling people who say Buhari was the worst that they are joking. For us at Labour, we found Buhari very accommodating. He did everything humanly possible to ensure that life was stable and good. When he came in, he gave money to the states to pay the backlog of salaries and pensions but it was diverted. He made other interventions to avoid the insane increases.

If you ask those same people now, they will tell you that the Buhari administration was very good. We are talking about less than two years ago. Before Buhari came, it was Jonathan. We said Jonathan had messed up this country, but now look at the indices and compare the exchange rate, the interest rate, the debt. So, we are in a situation where we are progressively getting worse.

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Those people who say we need these pains should be shot, how much of these pains would they bear themselves? They can’t even bear one per cent of it. It is because they are isolated from this trauma; that is why they have the effrontery to say that we need the pain. We don’t need these pains. We don’t need the president who will come and complain. When this one first came, he said, ‘I asked for this job’. I was impressed by that, but later he said that these problems were caused by his predecessor. When any leader begins to talk like that, that leader has come to the end of the road in terms of ideas.

 Daily Trust