January:
One of the most noteworthy political events of 2009 was the inauguration of Barack Obama as the first black President of the United States of America on January 20. This historic inauguration instilled a sense of peace, unity and harmony not only in America but the whole world.
The significance of this event is that we have entered an era of limitless possibilities. Anyone can become anything they want to with the right grit and determination. Prejudices based on race, colour and gender have no place in the present day.
So also were the cases of Kebbi, Sokoto and other states of the federation that had reruns. PDP had won virtually every court-ordered re-run elections at whatever level except the senatorial reruns in Plateau State between Senator Gogwin Satti, formerly of Action Congress and Ibrahim Mantu of PDP. There had been six gubernatorial rerun elections in Kogi, Sokoto, Bayelsa, Cross River, Adamawa and Ekiti states; PDP ‘won’ all.
The party lost Edo and Ondo states gubernatorial seats to AC and Labour Party respectively through judicial verdicts. In the last one year or thereabout, three governors and many of their supporters dumped the parties that brought them to power for PDP. They are Governors Aliyu Shinkafi of Zamfara State, Isa Yuguda of Bauchi State and Ikedi Ohakim of Imo State who decamped to PDP on July 25, 2009.
February:
The year 2009 is definitely a presidential year; besides Barack Obama being the 44th and first African American President of the United States, on February 1st, Johanna Sigurðardóttir was appointed as the new Prime Minister of Iceland, thereby becoming the world’s first openly lesbian head of government. On 11th of the same month, Morgan Tsvangirai was sworn in as the new Prime Minister of Zimbabwe following the power-sharing deal with President Robert Mugabe.
The month also witnessed the assassination of the President of Guinea-Bissau, João Bernardo Vieira, during an armed attack on his residence in Bissau.
March:
Also on March 4th, 2009, the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued an arrest warrant for Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Darfur. Al-Bashir is the first sitting Head of State to be indicted by the ICC since its establishment in 2002.
April:
The President of Madagascar, Marc Ravalomanana, was overthrown in a coup d’état, following a month of rallies in Antananarivo. The military appointed opposition leader Andry Rajoelina as the new president of Madagascar.
On 7th April, fSormer Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori was sentenced to 25 years in prison for ordering killings and kidnappings by security forces. In addition, the former President of South Korea, Roh Moo-hyun, under investigation for alleged bribery during his presidential term, committed suicide.
El-Hadj Omar Bongo Ondimba, President of Gabon died in Spain. In another dimension, Mahmood Ahmadinejad was re-elected as the president of Iran.
On 7th April, 2009, Alberto Fujimori, president of Peru from 1990 to 2000 was found guilty of grave human rights violations and sentenced to 25 years in prison – the maximum penalty allowed by Peruvian law.
The prosecution and conviction of Fujimori was reported to have marked a watershed in efforts to achieve accountability after atrocity in Peru.
May:
North Korea announced on May 25th that it had successfully conducted its second nuclear test defying international warnings and dramatically raising the stakes in a global effort to get the authority to give up its nuclear weapons programme.
June:
On June 25th, 2009, pop star Michael Jackson was pronounced dead after paramedics found him in a coma at his Bel-Air mansion.
July:
Sweden assumed the EU’s six-month rotating presidency from the Czech Republic on 1st July as Europe battled its most severe economic recession in decades and facing an uncertain institutional future. This could be history’s last fully-fledged EU presidency.
New civil service tenure system in Nigeria: In a circular personally signed by Stephen Oronsaye and dated July 27, 2009 and copied to 27 critical officers and heads of government agencies, including the Principal Secretary to the President; Governor, Central Bank of Nigeria; Chairman, Federal Character Commission; Chairman, Code of Conduct Bureau; Clerk, National Assembly; Chief Registrar, Supreme Court; Auditor-General of the Federation; Accountant-General of the Federation; all Permanent Secretaries; Directors-General/Chief Executives of Parastatals; agencies and government-owned companies, he directed that career officers who wish to take up tenured appointments should at the point of taking up the tenured appointments retire from service to ensure they run their term uninterrupted; that career officers who have not retired or chosen not to retire from service before the commencement of their tenured appointment must leave office on attainment of the mandatory age/years of service for retirement; and that career officers who are currently holding tenured appointments are required to retire from the service with immediate effect and continue to run their term. Failure to do so would mean that they would vacate office on attaining the mandatory retirement age or at the expiration of their term, whichever comes first.
The Head of Service noted in the circular entitled: “Interpretation of Public Service Rules on Compulsory Retirement age/year of Service in Relation to Tenured Appointments of Serving Public Officers,” said that “the content of this circular should be brought to the notice of all concerned for strict compliance and uniform application in all federal parastatals and agencies.”
The issue generated a lot of dissenting voices and controversies. Nigeria also experienced one of her most serious outbreaks of another kind of religious violence provoked by Islamic fundamentalists. At least, 180 people were killed in five days of clashes. Boko Haram (literally means Western or non-Islamic education is a sin).
The group was founded in 2002 in Maiduguri by Ustaz Mohammed Yusuf. In 2004, it moved to Kanamma, Yobe State, where it set up a base called “Afghanistan”. Yusuf was said to be hostile to democracy and the secular education system and was eventually killed a few months into the crisis.
However, in Bauchi, the group was reported to have refused to mix with local people. Boko Haram opposes not only Western education, but Western culture and modern science as well. In a 2009 BBC interview, Yusuf stated that the belief that the world is a sphere is contrary to Islam and should be rejected, along with Darwinism and the theory that rain comes from water evaporated by the sun.
August:
Floods and mudslides unleashed by Typhoon Morakot on April 7th killed about 500 people on the island. Morakot destroyed the homes of 7,000 people and caused agricultural and property damage in excess of 50 billion New Taiwan dollars ($1.5 billion), President Ma Ying-jeou was quoted as saying at a national security conference.
There was the cleaning of the banking sector by CBN Governor Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, including some Nigerian banks that had been identified by the regulator as “troubled”.
The clean-up of the Nigerian banking sector continued in early October as the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) bailed out four more banks and sacked three of their chief executives two months after doing the same to five other banks in August.
N/Delta: The amnesty granted by the Federal Government of Nigeria to the Niger Delta militants kicked off on August 6 and was one of the priority events of the Federal Government considering its viability to the nation’s economy, peace and stability.
In the same vein, the disarmament process by the Niger Delta militants which is a core aspect of the amnesty achieved some good results because some of the militants have so far surrendered.
September:
The 2009 Guinea protest was an opposition rally in Conakry, Guinea on 28th September, 2009, with about 50,000 participants protesting against the junta government that came to power after the Guinean coup d’état of December 2008. The protest march was fuelled by the indication of junta leader, Captain Moussa Dadis Camara, breaking his pledge not to run in the next presidential vote due in January 2010.
The government had already banned any form of protests until 2nd October, and when the demonstrators gathered in a large stadium, security forces opened fire at them. At least 157 demonstrators were killed, 1,253 injured and 30, including Cellou Dalein Diallo, the leaders of the opposition Union of Democratic Forces of Guinea (UDFG), were arrested and taken away in lorries.
October:
The International Olympics Committee awarded the summer Olympics hosting right to a new continent. In a stunning decision that saw the early knockout of Chicago despite personal lobbying from U.S. President Barack Obama and his wife Michelle. On 2nd October, the IOC awarded the 2016 Summer Olympics to the Brazilian city of Rio de Janeiro.
The Central Bank governor in Nigeria continued the banking sector clean-up.
The conviction of Bode George:
The Peoples Democratic Party Chieftain, Bode George and five other persons accused along with him by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, over allegation of N85 billion fraud at the Nigeria Ports Authority, NPA, were sentenced to 28 years imprisonment without an option of fine. He was convicted by Justice Olubunmi Oyewole of the Ikeja High Court.
George was specifically convicted on 35 out of the 68-count charge which border on contract splitting, inflation, abuse of office and disobedience to lawful order. Justice Oyewole sentenced all the six accused persons to two years each on seven counts of abuse of office and another six months for 28 charges bordering on disobedience of lawful order.
The judge held that all the accused persons were guilty of splitting numerous contracts as members of NPA board from 2001 to 2003.
November:
South Philippines: State of emergency!
Certainly, one of the worst days for the profession of journalism; November 23th witnessed the massacre that left about 57 people dead, Philippines military said.
Here are the quotes of various media reports:
“The mass killings of aides and relatives of a local politician in southern Philippines, as well as journalists accompanying them occurred on Monday in a remote farming area on the volatile southern island of Mindanao.
According to military spokesman, Lieutenant-Colonel Jonathan Ponce, “The search will continue in the general area today”.
On November 27th, the global financial world was stunned when the state-run Dubai World announced that it would need to restructure its debt estimated at USD59 billion to pre-empt default. The Dubai World also asked creditors for a six-month deferment.
Hosting of Under-17 FIFA world cup:
The best Under-17 players from all over the world gathered in eight centres across Nigeria for the 13th edition of the FIFA U-17 World Cup in the month of November. All the bigwigs of the world football governing body, FIFA, were also in Nigeria for the competition, which is one of the most important in the body’s calendar.
December:
The 2009 United Nations Climate Change Conference was held at the Bella Centre in Copenhagen, Denmark, between 7th and 18th December.
The conference included the 15th Conference of the Parties (COP 15) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and the 5th Meeting of the Parties (COP/MOP 5) to the Kyoto Protocol. According to the Bali Road Map, a framework for climate change mitigation beyond 2012 was to be agreed there.
6,000 megawatts of electricity in Nigeria:
With less than two weeks to the December 2009 deadline given by the Federal Government to achieve 6,000 megawatts of electricity promised Nigerians, the government later disclosed that it would not be able to achieve the feat, citing gas problem as one of the militating factors.
With the billions of dollars spent to improve electricity supply in Nigeria by past administrations to no avail, many Nigerians were hopeful that the Yar’adua administration would at least find a lasting solution to the electricity crisis which has plagued the country for years.
This indication was borne out of what transpired at the National Assembly when the Minister of Power, Mr Lanre Rilwanu Babalola appeared before the Senate Committee on Power to defend his Ministry’s proposed N156.787 billion expenditure in the 2010 budget currently under consideration by the Assembly.
The senators who drilled the minister wondered if the 6000mw was still achievable with about two weeks to the end of the year. They asked him to apologise to Nigerians for the deception.
President Yar’adua’s ill-health:
President Yar’adua who is currently being treated at King Faisal Hospital in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia for acute pericarditis, an inflammation of the membrane covering the heart, has been a big topic of debate in the country, particularly because the country was without Mr President till the end of the year.
Yar’adua’s ill-health has been described variously by watchers of political events as dramatic. As at the last count, no fewer than three prominent groups emerged as a result of the illness. While one group called for the resignation of the President as the panacea to the stampede that the country seems to have run into, another group warned against attempts to price sectional agenda above the constitution. Nevertheless, the third group dismissed the call for the president’s resignation as ill-conceived and in bad faith.
