By Donu Kogbara
LAST week, I angrily accused the Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN, of treachery, inconsistency, religious insensitivity and political parochialism.

This tirade was largely motivated by the fact that various Rivers people, including my cousin Kenneth Kobani (the ACN’s former National Treasurer), have told me that they joined the ACN in good faith before the 2011 election but eventually resigned because they felt disrespected.

From left: Aremo Osoba, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari (rtd.) Chief Akande, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, Malla Nuhu Ribadu, Senator Lawal Shuaibu and others ACN, members at the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) National Convention held at Onikan Stadium, Lagos Island. on 18/04/2013. Photo: Bunmi Azeez

Most of the Vanguard readers who reacted to my comments shared my view that the ACN can be amorally pragmatic and has not invested much energy in winning support outside Yorubaland. Much to my surprise, a couple of senior ACN members contacted me to say that they felt that I had been truthful.

Only two people, including Kayode Fayemi, the Governor of Ekiti State, objected to my criticisms. And Fayemi is so articulate and well-intentioned that I’ve concluded, on reflection, that I should be more balanced and say that the ACN is, despite its shortcomings, a credible organisation that contains quite a few impressive individuals who intelligently challenge the status quo and quite rightly highlight the multiple failures of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party, PDP.

This desire to be fair also compels me to praise the ACN Governors who visited Rivers State last week – for sensibly advising their embattled colleague, Rotimi Chibuike Amaechi, to reach out to President Jonathan in a bid to actively seek a lasting solution to the crisis that has engulfed our state in recent months.

Even PDP stalwarts such as Dr Doyin Okupe, Senior Special Assistant (Public Affairs) to Mr President, have commended Fayemi, Fashola, et al, for being laudably statesmanlike on that occasion.

Having said all this, I cannot resist the temptation of making a naughty little observation concerning Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the famously overbearing and nepotistic ACN leader, who recently inspired grumbles from bona fide traders when he appointed his daughter, Folashade Tinubu-Ojo, to replace his late mother as Head of the Lagos Market Women’s Association.

I laughed heartily when I heard this story because I strongly suspect that the only marketing experiences with which Mrs Tinubu-Ojo is truly familiar revolve around fancy foreign retail outlets like Harrods (an exclusive London department store that is frequented by folks who are way too rich to worry about boring stuff like the price of a tomato or yam!).

What A Guy!

THE Minister of State for Health, Dr. Muhammed Pate, has just resigned from the Cabinet to take up a Professorship in the United States. He will work for Duke University’s Global Health Institute and also serve as a Senior Adviser to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which is based in Washington DC.

I salute this fine gentleman for being so different from the average Nigerian. While others are scrambling to drop perfectly adequate foreign jobs, so they can come home to enjoy the ridiculously numerous perks that are lavished on Nigerian government officials, Pate is going in the opposite direction.

In America, he will not be treated like a demi-god. Nor will he have access to billions of dollars worth of ill-gotten gains or be allowed to get away with performing lousily. He will have to cope with a finite salary and will be addressed like a normal human being and will be expected to achieve good results.

I wish this paragon of integrity maximum success in his new job.

Stop child molesters!

AHMAD Sani Yerima, a serving Senator, sharia law advocate and former Governor of Zamfara State, has gone all out to prevent his National Assembly colleagues from setting a minimum age for marriage (from a female perspective).

According to Yerima, it is  “un-Islamic” for the Nigerian Government to tell Muslim males and females what they can and cannot do on the marital front..

I’ve read many passionate condemnations of Yerima’s perverted views in the past few days; and the best article I’ve seen so far was written by the former Aviation Minister, Femi Fani-Kayode, in this newspaper (check it out via Google).

In the meantime, I just want to firmly assure anyone who is willing to listen that any grown man who wants to have sex with innocent little girls has a sick, twisted mind and urgently needs psychiatric treatment and a jail term.

Yerima married his driver’s early adolescent daughter and is determined to force the rest of us to regard this abomination as “normal “ and “acceptable”.

Even in diehard Islamic societies, there are men who are not remotely interested in sleeping with minors and parents who share my view that it is our sacred duty as adults to protect youngsters from salivating paedophiles.

God will punish this unrepentant destroyer of innocence…and the fellow legislators who do not have the guts to tell him to go to Hell…! A Vanguard reader made the following comment:

“Please give the female Nigerian child a pen not a penis. Concentrate on her books, not her boobs. Pay her school fees, not bride price. She needs education, not ejaculation….”

I couldn’t agree more!