TODAY IN HISTORY; 12 JANUARY 2006; Governor Rasidi Ladoja of Oyo state impeached

On this day in 2006, governor Rashidi Adewolu Ladoja was impeached on allegation of corruption. His impeachment was later reversed by the courts.

There has been this serious impasse between governor Ladoja and his political godfather, Lamidi Adedibu since late 2005. All efforts to resolved the issue proved abortive, as both parties remained adamant and each claiming to be right.

Adedibu not wanting to be beaten to the game was hell-bent on removing the governor by any means necessary. He did not go the Anambra way (kidnapping and forcing the governor to re-sign) but chose to use the Oyo State House of Assembly. The required two-third of the house approved the impeachment of governor Ladoja after receiving a report of a committee they had setup to investigate the governor.

The official reason for the governor’s impeachment is that he had embezzled the sum of N2 million belong to the state.

Security forces immediately moved in to arrest Rashidi Ladoja as soon as his impeachment was completed and flown to Abuja for interrogation by the EFCC. The deputy governor, Otunba Adebayo Alao-Akala was then sworn in as Governor of Oyo State. After the swearing-in, the new governor immediately moved to Molete (a suburb of Ibadan, to pay homage to his political god-father, Chief Adedibu.

TODAY IN HISTORY; 12 JANUARY 1932: Hattie Wyatt Caraway, 45, emerges first woman elected to U.S. Senate

On this day in 1932, Hattie Ophelia Wyatt Caraway, a Democrat from Arkansas, becomes the first woman to be elected to the U.S. Senate. Born on February 1, 1878 near Baskerville, Tennessee, Caraway, had been appointed to the Senate two months earlier to fill the vacancy left by her late husband, Thaddeus Horatio Caraway. With the support of Huey Long, a powerful senator from Louisiana, Caraway was elected to the seat. In 1938, she was reelected. After failing to win renomination in 1944, she was appointed to the Federal Employees Compensation Commission by President Franklin Roosevelt.

Although she was the first freely elected female senator, Caraway was preceded in the Senate by Rebecca Latimer Felton, who was appointed in 1922 to fill a vacancy but never ran for election. Jeannette Rankin, elected to the House of Representatives as a pacifist from Montana in 1917, was the first woman to ever sit in Congress.

TODAY IN HISTORY; 07 JANUARY 1789: U.S. goes to first presidential poll

The U.S Congress sets this day in 1789 as the date by which states are required to choose electors for the country's first-ever presidential election. About a month later, George Washington was elected President by the state elections on February 4th and sworn into office as the First American President on 30th April, 1789.

As it did in 1789, the United States still uses the Electoral College system, established by the U.S. Constitution, which today gives all American citizens over the age of 18 the right to vote for electors, who in turn vote for the president. The president and vice president are the only elected federal officials chosen by the Electoral College instead of by direct popular vote.

Today political parties usually nominate their slate of electors at their state conventions or by a vote of the party’s central state committee, with party loyalists often being picked for the job. Members of the U.S. Congress, though, can’t be electors. Each state is allowed to choose as many electors as it has senators and representatives in Congress. During a presidential election year, on Election Day (the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November), the electors from the party that gets the most popular votes are elected in a winner-take-all-system, with the exception of Maine and Nebraska, which allocate electors proportionally. In order to win the presidency, a candidate needs a majority of 270 electoral votes out of a possible 538.

On the first Monday after the second Wednesday in December of a presidential election year, each state’s electors meet, usually in their state capitol, and simultaneously cast their ballots nationwide. This is largely ceremonial: Because electors nearly always vote with their party, presidential elections are essentially decided on Election Day. Although electors aren’t constitutionally mandated to vote for the winner of the popular vote in their state, it is demanded by tradition and required by law in 26 states and the District of Columbia (in some states, violating this rule is punishable by $1,000 fine). Historically, over 99 percent of all electors have cast their ballots in line with the voters. On January 6, as a formality, the electoral votes are counted before Congress and on January 20, the commander in chief is sworn into office.

Critics of the Electoral College argue that the winner-take-all system makes it possible for a candidate to be elected president even if he gets fewer popular votes than his opponent. This happened in the elections of 1824, 1876, 1888, 2000 and 2016 between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump.

Author

History.com Editors

TODAY IN HISTORY; 05 JANUARY 1998: Sonny Bono killed in skiing accident

On this day in 1998, in his usual blunt and self-deprecating manner, Sonny Bono transformed himself relatively late in his life, morphing from the shorter, homelier, masculine half of a 1960s husband-and-wife singing and acting sensation (alongside his glamorous second wife, Cher) into a respected California lawmaker and U.S. congressman. On January 5, 1998, Bono’s unusual journey was cut tragically short when he was killed in a skiing accident while on vacation with his family in South Lake Tahoe, California.

The 62-year-old Bono and his fourth wife, Mary, were visiting the Heavenly Ski Resort, located on the Nevada-California border some 55 miles south of Reno, Nevada, with their young son and daughter. The accident occurred when Bono left his family to ski alone on the afternoon of January 5. He was reported missing several hours later, and his body was found that evening. Police said Bono had skied into a wooded area and hit a tree; the cause of death was massive head injuries. Coincidentally, Bono’s death occurred less than a week after another high-profile accident killed Michael Kennedy, the son of the late U.S. Attorney General and U.S. Senator Robert F. Kennedy, on the ski slopes of Aspen, Colorado.

Born Salvatore Bono in Detroit on February 16, 1935, Bono moved to Los Angeles when he was seven years old. As a young adult he became a songwriter and singer at Specialty Records. He later teamed with the prominent songwriter Phil Spector and sang back-up for the Righteous Brothers. While married to his first wife, Donna Rankin, Bono met the 16-year-old Cherilyn Sarkasian; they made several recordings together, but struck gold with their 1965 mega-hit “I Got You Babe.” Bono divorced Rankin and in 1969 had a child, Chastity (now Chaz), with Cher; they later married. In August 1971, the couple’s TV show, The Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour, premiered, featuring the tall, dark-haired Cher decked out in spangled designer outfits and the mustachioed Bono playing the straight man in bell-bottom pants. The show’s run lasted until 1974, when the couple split amid rampant gossip about extramarital affairs.

A latecomer to politics (he admitted he voted for the first time at age 54), Bono got his start after he became frustrated by the bureaucratic hassle involved in erecting a new sign at the Italian restaurant he owned in Palm Springs, a city in the Southern California desert with a current population of some 40,000 residents. He was elected mayor of the city in 1988, and four years later ran unsuccessfully in the Republican primary for a seat in the U.S. Senate. In 1994, Bono won a seat in the House of Representatives as part of a sweeping Republican victory in the House led by Speaker Newt Gingrich. As a lawmaker, Bono stuck closely to the conservative agenda, but he was known to reach out across party lines, forming friendships with such prominent liberals as Barney Frank, an openly gay Democratic congressman from Massachusetts. 

Reelected in 1996, Bono continued his campaigns to extend copyright laws and repair the damage done to the Salton Sea, a giant lake in Southern California’s Colorado Desert, by large-scale salt mining operations in the region. After Bono’s death, his widow, Mary Bono, completed the remainder of her husband’s term in the House.

Author:

History.com Editors

Petrol seller sets friend ablaze over charger

A roadside petrol seller identified as Akpan Okon Akpan has allegedly burnt his friend to death over a phone charger.

Okon was said to have set the victim identified as Junior Ime Philip ablaze and left him to die after a disagreement over a phone charger.

The Akwa Ibom Police Command confirmed the development after the suspect was arrested by operatives of the command.

Parading the suspect and others at the command headquarters in Uyo, the Commissioner of Police, Olatoye Durosinmi, said the suspect doused the victim with petrol during an altercation and ignited the fire that lead to Philip’s death.

“On 15th December 2022 relying on a petition from Rev. Emmanuel Ime ‘m’ of Ikot Ekwere Ubium Village in Nsit Ublum LGA, at about 6:30pm, operatives of the homicide unit of the SCID Uyo, arrested one Akpan Okon Akpan ‘m’ of same address who poured fuel on his brother, one Junior Ime Philip and set him ablaze leading to his death because of a disagreement over a phone charger.”

Narrating what led to his action, the suspect said, “I don’t know the guy before, he ran into my shop and said he was looking for someone who collected his charger, I told him that such a person was not in my shop. Out of anger, he took a bottle and started fighting me and I fought back.

“I used the petrol I’m selling and poured it on him, honestly I didn’t know what I was doing until he started burning and people gathered, we were trying to put out the fire but it was already late because when they took him to hospital, he died there.”

Source:

The PUNCH

TODAY IN HISTORY; 04 JANUARY 2008: EFCC Chairman, Nuhu Ribadu meets President Yar'adua in Aso Rock

On this day in 2008, contrary to media reports that the chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, has been barred from entering the presidential villa, the head of anti-graft agency meets President Umaru Musa Yar'adua and other officials in Aso Rock for an undisclosed meeting.

There have speculations that the EFCC chairman had been stopped from visiting the villa or having direct access to the president as a result of the fallout from his nomination to proceed on study leave at the National Institute for policy and Strategic Studies (NIPSS), Kuru, Plateau state.

It was earlier reported that President Yar'adua yielded to pressures from James Ibori on the removal of Nuhu Ribadu and approved a memo submitted by the Inspector General of Police, Mike Okiro to send Nuhu Ribadu on a one-year compulsory study leave to the Nigerian Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies, Kuru -Jos.

The sources in the Aso Rock Villa told newsmen that Yar'adua yielded to James Ibori's pressure because James Ibori was set to release what his aides called an "Atomic Bomb" of information on the financing and rigging of the April 2007 election that brought Yar'adua to power. 

Supporters of Nuhu Ribadu also fired back by mounting pressure on Yar'adua to rescind the decision. Nuhu Ribadu was summoned to the Aso Rock villa for an all night meeting said to be an attempt to extract some concession from him should Yar'adua rescind the approval but he did not attend.

It was gathered that hawks within Aso Rock wants Nuhu Ribadu to publicly repudiate his association with Muhammed Buhari, who Ribadu is accused of working with to discredit the Yar'adua administration.

TODAY IN HISTORY; 04 JANUARY 2007: First female Speaker, Nancy Pelosi emerges in the U.S. House

On this day in 2007, John Boehner handed over the gavel of speakership of the United States House of commons to Nancy Pelosi, a Democratic Representative from California. With the passing of the gavel, the 124th speaker became the first woman to hold the position, as well as the only woman to get that close to the presidency. After the Vice President, she was now second in line via the presidential order of succession. Pelosi became Speaker again in 2018 and 2021 respectively. 

“It is an historic moment for the Congress, and a historic moment for the women of this country. It is a moment for which we have waited over 200 years,” Pelosi said after receiving the gavel. “For our daughters and granddaughters, today we have broken the marble ceiling. For our daughters and our granddaughters, the sky is the limit, anything is possible for them.”

Pelosi’s Congressional career began 20 years before, when she was one of only 25 women who served in both the House and the Senate. She became the Democratic whip in 2001 and served as the minority leader between 2003 and her election as speaker in 2007. In 2002, she was one of the House members to vote against President George W. Bush’s request to use military force in Iraq.

During her first two terms as Speaker of the House from 2007 to 2011, she developed a reputation as a tireless fundraiser and a successful securer of votes within her caucus. Her terms as speaker also coincided with Barack Obama’s first presidential term, and Pelosi was instrumental on organizing House votes for the Affordable Care Act.

During the 2010 midterms, the National Republican Congressional Committee cited her in 70 percent of its ads. The Democrats lost their House majority that election and Pelosi returned to her position as minority leader. After Democrats reclaimed the House in the 2018 midterms, she received her party’s nomination to be its official candidate for Speaker of the House. In 2019 and again in 2021, as Speaker, Pelosi oversaw the first and second impeachments of President Donald Trump. Pelosi announced she was stepping down from the leadership position in 2022, though she would remain in the House to represent her California district. 

Nigerians shouldn’t trust Obasanjo over Obi's endorsement– S’West group warns

A South-West political organisation under the aegis of Conscience Bureau, on Monday, called on Nigerians to ignore the “curious” endorsement of the presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Peter Obi, by former President Olusegun Obasanjo.

The South-West group warned that Nigerians must beware of such an endorsement.

It, however, added that the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, Abubakar Atiku, can be trusted with the task of changing the negative narratives of Nigeria with the current challenges.

A statement issued by the General Secretary of CB, Said Ologuneru, recalled that when the All Progressives Congress led by Bola Ahmed Tinubu and its other leaders went to seek Obasanjo’s endorsement then for President Muhammadu Buhari  presidential ambition on December 13, 2013, Nobel Laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka, acting on his premonition, said that such an endorsement could lead the nation to a shipwreck.

He said going by what Nigerians have gone through between 2015 and now, under the APC presidency, it was apparent that the country had experienced a shipwreck, as Soyinka predicted, warning Nigerians not to allow a repeat of that horrible experience.

“We are under no illusion therefore that Obi’s endorsement by Obasanjo this time is tottering on the same lane as when the APC designated Obasanjo as its navigator in 2013, a development which Prof. Soyinka described as heading for a shipwreck,” Ologuneru said.

He said that only a shipwreck could take the Nigerian Naira from N190 to one US Dollar in 2015 to N780 in 2022 or a litre of petrol from N85 in 2015 to N350 in December 2022.

While warning Nigerians to avoid another shipwreck, which the endorsement of the LP candidate portended, the CB said that Nigerians must reject any attempt to perpetuate the APC’s evil reign beyond 2023.

The CB said, “As widely reported by the national newspapers in Nigeria on December 23, 2013, the Nobel Laureate, Prof. Soyinka, had noted that Nigeria might be heading for a ‘shipwreck’ after the APC said it was choosing Chief Obasanjo as its ‘Navigator’ in its touted effort to wrest power from then President Goodluck Jonathan in 2015.

“As nature had it, the ‘Navigator’ led the APC into Aso Rock Villa, and President Muhammadu Buhari replaced Goodluck Jonathan. Today, we all are witnesses to the wreckage the nation’s ship had experienced.”

The South West group also said that Soyinka’s warning, to which Nigerians refused to listen in the 2015 presidential election, eventually led the country into troubled waters as evident in the country’s ailing economy, growing insecurity and hardship being faced by Nigerians today.

Ologuneru warned that it was important for the electorate to save the country from another shipwreck ahead of the 2023 general election, saying that Nigerians must look beyond the APC, which Obasanjo endorsed in the past and Peter Obi, as both cannot help the country in its present state,

According to him, the huge challenges now facing the country after eight years of the Obasanjo-recommended regime should be an admonition to Nigerians not to follow another sentimental endorsement from the former president, just as they should not allow individuals such as Tinubu, who brought Buhari’s misguided administration upon Nigeria, to take the saddle of leadership.

The CB charged the electorate to save Nigeria by electing the PDP presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, whom it described as possessing the wealth of experience and know-how that can transform the country and halt its fast-paced traffic towards the edge of the precipice.

Ologuneru said, “It is curious that the same Tinubu, who led Buhari and other leaders of the newly-formed APC to Abeokuta in 2013, to consult former President Obasanjo, describing him as the ‘Navigator’ and the ‘political compass’ of APC’s false attempt to rescue Nigeria, could turn around to describe Obasanjo’s take on the Nigerian polity as ‘worthless and meaningless.’

“Nigerians have to be wary of Tinubu, APC and Obasanjo, who colluded in 2015 to bring the clueless APC administration and the resultant hardship upon the country. This time around, Obasanjo has endorsed Obi, but he appears to be working secretly to foist the APC on Nigerians, in an avowed commitment to lead Nigeria to destruction.

“Atiku represents Nigeria’s best opportunity to get out of the economic doldrums. He remains the best and most prepared candidate on offer.

The former Vice-President represents the best opportunity for Nigeria to exit the economic woes foisted on it through Obasanjo’s miscalculated endorsement in 2013, which brought in General Buhari, and the only way APC would not continue in office beyond May 2023.

“The Conscience Bureau recalls that Tinubu had, in 2013, told Obasanjo that he and APC leaders were in Abeokuta because of Obasanjo’s courage and that to realize a stable Nigeria, they had resolved to make him their Navigator.

“It is hilarious that the same Tinubu could rubbish Obasanjo’s presumed courage at this time and his choice of Obi. The whole development points to the error of judgment and the double standard of both Obasanjo and APC. They both cannot be trusted to salvage Nigeria at this auspicious period.”

The group further wondered how Obasanjo could allow emotions to cloud his judgment at this period when all hands were supposed to be on deck in the task of retaking Nigeria from the APC buccaneers.

“It is curious how Baba Obasanjo could even say he is endorsing Peter Obi. This was the Obi that could not run the Anambra State chapter of the PDP. Is that not another ploy to pave the way for Tinubu, who designated him as a navigator in 2013?

“In the last governorship election in Anambra State, Obi was given the leadership of the party and instead of going for a popular candidate, he went for a rookie and lost woefully, which was why he was yanked off the leadership of the party ahead of the 2022 national convention.

“It’s also a clear signal that he failed to learn from his experiment that brought the Willie Obiano, the man he imposed on Anambra as gov, who eventually turned his policies upside down and became his arch enemy. So, that tells a lot about his experience and  the choices he will make if elected to higher office.”

Source:

The PUNCH