A teenager has been convicted of murdering an 18-year-old man in Hackney, east London.


A teenager has been found guilty of stabbing a Nigerian boy to death in UK after the convict prowled the streets of Hackney in a car before attacking the young man.

Jonathan Abora, 18, was found guilty of the murder of Israel Ogunsola, aged 18, of Hackney following a three-week trial at the Old Bailey in London.

The court heard how shortly before 20:00hrs on Wednesday, 4 April, officers on patrol in Morning Lane, E9 were alerted to a serious incident close by.

Officers arrived in Link Street, junction with Morning Lane, and found Israel suffering stab wounds. They assisted an off-duty paramedic in providing emergency first aid until the London Ambulance Service and London’s Air Ambulance attended.

Israel was pronounced dead at the scene at 20:24hrs. His next of kin were informed.

A post-mortem examination took place on the afternoon of Thursday, 5 April at Poplar mortuary and gave the cause of death as multiple stab wounds.

An incident room opened under the Met’s Homicide and Major Crime Command and a 17-year-old male was arrested late on Wednesday, 4 April on suspicion of murder.

The first of those arrested was Abora who was 17 when he carried out the fatal attack. He admitted being at the scene and driving the car involved.

He claimed to be acting in self-defence of a friend he refused to name. CCTV footage and forensic evidence confirmed his involvement in the fatal attack. Israel was riding his pedal bike when Abora and a second male located him.

They immediately alighted their car and begun to attack Israel with large knives that they were carrying. The victim suffered six separate stab wounds in a sustained attack.

Police believe Israel knew Abora and his associate and were and embroiled in a dispute.

When interviewed, Abora refused to answer any of the questions put to him by detectives but admitted to being at the scene and carrying a large knife for self-protection. A member of the public who witnessed the attack told investigators how the attack against Israel was relentless with the clear “intent to kill.”

He will be sentenced on Monday, 5 November at the Old Bailey.

Minimum wage: Employees Cannot Dictate Salaries To Their Employers, Says Ngige
Posted

Amidst the growing rage for the upward review of the national minimum wage, the Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr. Chris Ngige, says employees cannot dictate to their employers what they ought to earn but an agreement must be reached collectively.
 
A statement by the Director (Press) at the Ministry, Samuel Olowookere, said the minister said this when the new Director-General of Nigeria Employers Consultative Association, Mr. Timothy Olawale; and his predecessor, Mr. Olusegun Oshinowo, visited him.
 
Ngige said, “We need to arrive at a figure which the employers can afford to pay as an employee cannot fix a figure for the employer. Rather, it must be based on mutual agreement by the tripartite partners.

“It is not a function of moving motions or voting at the National Tripartite Negotiation Committee that the figure must be as the organised labour appears to make it look.

“There is absolutely therefore no need to heat up the polity. The government’s proposed new minimum wage figure is clearly based on critical facts and indices incapable of causing disequilibrium in the economy.”
 
The minister said it was important for the organised labour to accept a new minimum wage based on the capacity and the ability of both the government and the private sector to pay.
 
He appealed to NECA to appeal to the organised labour to accede to the new minimum wage. figure mutually agreeable to all the social partners.

Olusegun Obasanjo was unable to recall Tinubu's position within the ranks of the ruling All Progressives Congress.

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo says he doesn’t know the position Asiwaju Bola Tinubu currently holds in the ruling All Progressives Congress.
 
Obasanjo said this during a programme titled, “The Talk,” which was aired on a YouTube Channel, “Voice of the People.”
 
The former President had been asked to identify the designations of certain political figures in the country. He identified Muhammadu Buhari and Prof. Yemi Osinbajo as the President and Vice President respectively, while he also identified Senator Bukola Saraki as the Senate President.
 
When asked to identify Tinubu, he said, “Oh, Bola? Bola is supposed to be the leader of the APC. I don’t know the position of his leadership as you and I are talking.”
 
In the interview, which seemed to have been recorded before he openly endorsed the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, Atiku Abibakar, the former President said he had hoped that Atiku would succeed him as President in 2007.
 
Obasanjo said this was the reason he gave Atiku a lot of responsibilities but his former deputy made some wrong decisions.

“Atiku didn’t want to become even a Vice President (in 1999). He was elected as a governor,” he recalled.
 
He, however, said his plan was to mentor Atiku to be his successor but his former deputy failed him.
 
Obasanjo added, “My plan was that he would be given a lot of work to do domestically and Atiku even used to complain that I gave him too much work to do, which was intentional because I wanted him to get to know things.

“My second term was that having prepared him for domestic issues, I would want him to represent Nigeria for one year at the African Union, Economic Community of West African States and the United Nations for a year so that he would be fully prepared, but the first thing I found out was that his judgement was not right on many occasions.”
 
The former President, who insisted that Buhari had not done well in government, said as a watchman, he would continue to speak up when things were going wrong.
 
He said there was the need for Nigerians, especially the youth, to elect leaders that could fit into a “digital 21st century post-modern era rather than electing analogue personalities.”
 
On the Boko Haram crisis, Obasanjo said after he left office in 2007, his successor (late Umaru Yar’Adua) mismanaged the issue, which caused the group to become terrorists.
 
Obasanjo said had he been President at the time, Boko Haram would not have become what it is today.
 
He recalled that in 2011, with the permission of former President Goodluck Jonathan, he visited the family of Boko Haram founder, Mohammed Yusuf, and other aggrieved persons in the terrorist group and they explained why they were carrying out attacks.
 
The former President added, “In 2011, I went to Maiduguri. This was after Boko Haram had attacked the UN building in Abuja and I just wanted to know who they were and if they had leaders and what their grievances were.

“I found out that these elements of Boko Haram had been there even while I was in government. And they, through their intermediary, said they were there and I didn’t disturb them so they didn’t disturb me.

“They were preaching Sharia and that was what they wanted. But, according to them, when I left government, they were being chased and haunted and they lost a number of their adherents and they decided to fight back and even the leader of their sect, Mohammed Yusuf, was killed and his in-law was also killed.
 
“They went to court to try and get compensation which was granted to them but the state government did not pay.”
 
Source: Punch

My “Politics of Grammar” column in the Daily Trust on Sunday. Snippet: 12. “Inconclusive.” Nigeria’s Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) earned notoriety for its inability to conclude elections. At some point, by its own admission, nearly 40 percent of elections it conducted were declared “inconclusive.”

Before long, Nigerians renamed the agency as the “Inconclusive National Electoral Commission.” That must have really hurt the organization and caused it to reevaluate its conduct. After the appellative mockery of the organization went viral, it began to conclude its elections, even if in controversial circumstances. However, the organization appears to have relapsed to its “inconclusiveness” in its conduct of the election in Osun State.
Nevertheless, “inconclusive” is also used to describe the tentativeness, mutual contradictions, inconsistencies, policy somersaults, and denials and counter denials that characterize the Buhari administration. For instance, the 2016 budget was tagged an “inconclusive budget” by Nigerians. It was “padded,” got “missing,” was found, “unpadded,” but ended up being no different from its original “padded” form. And the 2017 budget was even worse than the 2016 budget.

13. “Wailer.” “Wailer” now just means a critic of President Buhari (see my September 6, 2015 article titled, “From Febuhari to ‘Wailing Wailers’: Linguistic Creativity Decline of the Buhari Brand”.) It was intended to be pejorative, but in light of the president’s serial letdowns of the people who elected him and his government’s rank ineptitude, people now wear the tag as a badge of honor. There are several informal groups that go by names such as “Wailers Association of Nigeria,” “Association of Wailers for Fair Nigeria and Good Governance,” the “Wailing Wailers Association of Nigeria,” etc. They all say they are wailing against the deceit, hypocrisy, double standard, nepotism, and corruption that fester in the current government.

The transmutation of “wailers” from a negative term to one that is embraced by those whom it was meant to taunt and hurt reminds me of the semantic transformation of the term “muckraker.” Former American president Theodore Roosevelt used the term to derisively refer to investigative journalists as people who dealt in dirt. (Muck means animal sh*t). American journalists embraced the tag and wore it as a badge of honor, and today “muckraker” is synonymous with a fearless investigative journalist.

14. “Hailer.” A “hailer” is a Buhari partisan for whom Buhari can do no wrong. It was chosen both for its rhyming quality with and semantic contrast to “wailer.” Another name for a hailer is SaiBabarian (also spelled as Saibarbarian). It blends “barbarian” (a crude, uncouth or ill-bred person) with “Sai Baba,” the battle cry of Buhari supporters, and suggests that Buhari’s vociferous supporters are obnoxious boors.

15. “Whailer.” A Whailer is someone who alternately criticizes and praises Buhari. It’s a blend of “wailer” and “hailer.”

Farooq Kperogi

nepabox

Published on October 19, 2018 By Johnchuks Onuanyim

Ribadu, Abe, Usani, Utomi, Uzodinma lose guber appeals APC, PDP send Buhari, Atiku, others’ names to commission

There was palpable tension at the national headquarters of the All Progressives Congress (APC) yesterday as aspirants for the Senate and House of Representatives elections stormed the secretariat to have a knowledge of the outcome of the screening and probably the list of candidates sent to Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) by the party.

The APC Director of Organisation, Alhaji Abubakar Kari, who led some officials of the party to submit the list to INEC was seen at about 2p.m. cuddling the list of candidates which has been kept secret. New Telegraph gathered that the former Chairman, Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, the Senator representing Rivers East, Magnus Abe, and the Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Usani Uguru Usani lost out in the tussle for the governorship ticket of their states. Others who also lost out in the governorship race in accordance with the committee report include brother to the wife of the President (Aisha Buhari), Dr. Mahmoud Halilu; President of the Trade Union Congress of Nigeria (TUC), Bala Bobboi Kaigama; Ogun State Governor, Ibikunle Amosun; Hope Uzodinma of Imo State and Ikechi Emenike of Abia State.

It was, however, gathered that many members of the party across the country who were not sure of whether the decision of the appeal panel was in their favour have been making frantic calls to the secretariat to know their faith, while some other aspirants came in person. Among those that stormed the party secretariat were Senator, Ovie Omo-Agege (Delta) and three senatorial aspirants from Niger State who won the first senatorial primaries before it was cancelled. However, they could not achieve much in terms of information as no national officer was handy. It was learnt that several of the petitions submitted to the Appeal Panel headed by Prof. Oseriehem Osunbor were either not entertained or dismissed for lacking in substance.

A source at the secretariat revealed that the two petitions against the governorship primaries in Rivers by Senator Abe and Chief Dumo Lulu-Briggs were not upheld, while the only petition from Delta submitted by Prof. Pat Utomi was dismissed and tagged “overtaken by event”.

Also in Borno State, there were four petitions against the conduct of the governorship primary, with the committee recommending that a consensus option be explored to be driven by the National Chairman in consultation with the President. For the petitions against the conduct of the Senate and House of Representatives primaries it was gathered that they were not upheld for various reasons ranging from lack of merit, lack of proof to lack of time for fresh primaries while no reasons were adduced for not upholding some others. Similarly, some petitions were upheld and some of the petitioners declared as candidates of the party either because they actually won the primaries and were substituted or for other reasons ranging from lack of clearance and others that were not adduced by the committee. A summary of the report indicated that all petitions against the Senate and House of Representatives primaries were rejected by the panel, the same position with Bayelsa, Rivers and Cross Rivers states.

The report also showed that in Delta State, eight petitions were upheld for winning the primaries and having their names substituted, while seven were rejected, while the three petitions against the conduct of the governorship primary in Akwa Ibom State was rejected alongside eight House of Representatives seat, while five were upheld. From Kaduna, six petitions were treated for the senatorial primaries with five of them rejected while one (Shehu Sani) was upheld. Nine of the 10 petitions received for the House of Representatives were rejected. Similarly, two petitions each were received against the governorship primaries in Sokoto and Jigawa and were rejected, while three House of Representatives and three Senatorial petitions were rejected from the two states.

In Kebbi and Katsina states, the petitions were also rejected while the two against the conduct of the governorship primary were referred to the National Working Committee (NWC) for decision, while the petitions from Kano were either upheld or referred to the party national secretariat for action. From Taraba State, it was gathered that 10 petitions were received against the conduct of the governorship primary, four against the Senate primary and nine against the House of Representatives primaries, with all petitions rejected. A similar situation was witnessed in Adamawa and Bauchi states, with only one Senatorial and one House of Representatives seat in Bauchi upheld.

Ena Ofugara

nepabox

Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has said it will not extend the deadline for submission of list of candidates’ names by political parties for the 2019 general elections.

Chief Press Secretary to INEC Chairman, Rotimi Oyekanmi, disclosed this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja.

Oyekanmi said the Commission had scheduled the submission of candidates’ names for the Presidential and National Assembly between October 10 and 18, and deadline for the governorship and State Assemblies election for November 2, and there is no extension.

“The Commission is following its timetable and schedule of activities for 2019 general elections. No extension of deadline for submission.”

Rotimi, who was unable to give the precise number of political parties that met the deadline as at the time of filing this report, said “over 80 political parties made it but I am still waiting for the precise number.”

A visit to Aso Hall, International Conference Centre (ICC) in Abuja, the venue of the submission after the deadline, indicated that some officers of political parties, who got tallies on Wednesday night were still going through the submission process.

NAN

Economic and Financial Crimes Commission Thursday disowned an audio recording of a conversation currently circulating in the social media in which the Acting Chairman of the Commission, Ibrahim Magu, purportedly made comments to the effect that, nothing will happen peradventure Ayo Fayose, former governor of Ekiti State, dies in custody.

“Interestingly, the audio tape did not disclose the place where the conversation occurred and the person that Magu was supposedly talking to.

“Members of the public are advised to disregard this disingenuous creation as it is the handiwork of mischief makers intent on distracting the Commission from the serious work of wrapping up the investigation into the corruption allegations against the former governor of Ekiti state.

“The audio recording is fake as the comments did not emanate from the Chairman of the EFCC.

“Purveyors of this fake news especially a former spokesperson of a leading political party are warned to desist,” said EFCC, in a statement by its Head of Media and Publicity, Wilson Uwujaren.

Meanwhile, Fayose, through his media aide, Idowu Adelusi, has told EFCC to charge him to court as he has no statement to write or anything to tell the commission.

Idowu Sowunmi

nepabox

Senator Shehu Sani representing Kaduna Central Senatorial zone, has finally dumped All Progressives Congress (APC) following a failed attempt to get the party’s ticket for re-election in 2019, various sources have indicated.

The automatic ticket initially given to him by APC National Working Committee (NWC) was trailed by controversy as Kaduna State Governor, Nasir el-Rufai, rooted for another candidate, Uba Sani.

The primary election, which was later conducted, was won by Uba Sani.

Sani, however, boycotted the primary election, describing it as “Kangaroo” one and directed his supporters not to participate in it.

Idowu Sowunmi

nepabox

If you kill for the boss, he will throw you under the bus as a scapegoat to save himself from justice. Don’t worship anybody blindly.

Loyalty ends where a crime begins. Murdering someone extra-judicially is not part of loyalty to anybody. Many holocaust perpetrators that were convicted at the Nuremberg War Crimes Trials were low ranking fall guys obeying illegal orders to kill.

How can a man who is a suspect in murder case set up a committee to investigate the case? Who can indict the Crown Prince? In the eye of the rule of law, a royal title doesn’t shield you from justice.

Unfortunately, Saudi Arabia is not a democratic state. My consolation, however, is that Saudi rulers may now face harder and fiercer international scrunity over their odious human rights record.

Na-Allah Mohammed Zagga

nepabox

“In a previous column, I argued that President Muhammadu Buhari has so lowered the bar of governance that it won’t take a lot for any person who succeeds him to impress Nigerians. So the best campaign against Buhari is to promise not to be like him, which is really sad because there is much more at stake in the task of governing Nigeria than just transcending Buhari’s incompetence and mediocrity.

Atiku Abubakar has started to excite voters by promising to not be like Buhari. On October 12, for instance, Atiku’s statement on Twitter that he won’t take six months to name his ministers resonated wildly with a lot of Nigerians. It reminded people that Buhari took six months to assemble the least impressive cabinet in Nigeria’s recent history, which is peopled by NYSC dodgers, certificate forgers, malefactors, liars, etc.

I extensively researched to see which other country in the world in recent memory elected a president who took six months to name his or her cabinet. There was none. So promising to name a cabinet shortly after inauguration ordinarily shouldn’t be a campaign promise because that’s what every elected president is expected to do. But you can’t fault Atiku because Buhari has lowered the bar to an unprecedented degree.

Atiku also promised that 40 percent of his cabinet would be composed of women and young people. Again, ordinarily, that would have been uninspiring, even condemnable, because the promise implies that 60 percent of his cabinet would be composed of old men, which is unfair, unbalanced, and regressive. However, look at Buhari’s cabinet, which he has failed to rejig in more than three years, and you will see why such an unimpressive pledge would strike a chord with Nigerian voters.

See below an excerpt from my February 3, 2018 column titled “How Buhari Has Lowered the Bar of Governance” to gain an insight into why Atiku’s popularity has been soaring in the last few days. Buhari’s unexampled incompetence is propelling Atiku to heights he is unworthy of:

“I had hoped that even if Buhari wasn’t a stellar president, he would at least not lower the bar. But that is precisely what he has done. He has set the bar of governance so low that all it would take for any president who comes after him to impress us is to:

1. Constitute his cabinet within a few days of being sworn in. It took Buhari nearly six months to appoint his cabinet, which is the worst record in Nigeria’s entire history. It slowed the country and hurt the economy. On September 17, 2015 when France 24’s François Picard asked him why he hadn’t named his ministers months after being sworn in, he said ministers were worthless and just “make a lot of noise.” That was a low point. And the cabinet he took months to put together turned out to be one of the most colorless and lackluster in Nigeria’s history.

2. Appoint members of governing boards of government agencies in the first few months of being in power. It took Buhari nearly three years to do this. Since government agencies can’t legally function without governing boards, governance basically halted for more than half of Buhari’s first term. That’s why I once observed that while previous administrations were guilty of misgovernance, Buhari is, for the most part, guilty of “ungovernance,” which is worse.”

Farooq Kperogi 

nepabox

The order came from the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) highest leadership hierarchy to Senators on the party’s platform, and it was direct enough: remove Senate President Bukola Saraki “by all means possible.”Having made up their mind that Saraki was a ‘dissident’ that was fast becoming a leader of internal opposition against the party’s leadership and the government, whose very important legislative arm he is heading, the feeling among APC’s top echelon was that he was a stumbling block to development of party politics.
 
The APC leadership’s decision was part of the plan of the new helmsman and former Edo State governor, Adams Oshiomhole, to enforce party discipline among members; the lack of which the ex-labour leader said was the major factor against the party’s growth.Many of those in Oshiomhole’s school of thought believe that the leadership’s loss of control was responsible for the rise of several layers of influence to undermine the apex authority, thereby creating parallel levers of power that in most cases turn the platform into a divided house.
 
Among these layers of influence are the governors on the party’s platform, who have become so powerful that they single-handedly decide for the party, in most cases, in accordance with their selfish political interests and in such a way that the collective interests are jettisoned.

In all the states, with perhaps the exception of Lagos, where the governor, Akinwunmi Ambode, is unable to sever the umbilical cord with his godfather and claim independence, all the governors have become lords who determine the tempo of politics in their domains to the chagrin of national leadership.
  
Inside sources said Oshiomhole’s emergence, which is believed to have the blessings and support of the party’s National Leader, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, was to reduce the influence of other levers of power and create a strong leadership that can instill discipline in all party members.
 
It is also believed that the existence of other influences outside party authority and a weak leadership under Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, the immediate past chairman, was responsible for Saraki’s emergence, through the support provided by opposition elements, as the leader of National Assembly against the party’s wish, a development that many of them believed was responsible for the lingering feud between the executive and legislative arms of government, with a high toll on governance and party politics.
   
Coming with a background of labour activism and the will to damn every consequence to take back the party’s control, especially with backing of Tinubu’s powerful political force, Oshiomhole looked set to change the narrative and bring all other levers of influence under his authority.
 
It was in light of this that the plan to take back the federal legislature after defection of Saraki, who had never been in the good books of those insisting on party control, to his erstwhile platform, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), became one that must be achieved “by all means.”
 
In the course of executing the plan, which now has nod of President Muhammadu Buhari, who has been convinced to renounce his earlier stance, in the wake of Saraki’s emergence, that he can work with anybody, the cabal of powerful individuals behind the Presidency, alleged to wield enormous authority that even sometimes override Buhari, is said to have deployed all state resources.
 
There were several attempts to have Saraki removed, one of which was done in collaboration with the Police and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), two government agencies that were unsuccessfully engaged to keep the Senate President and his Deputy, Ike Ekweremadu away from the Chambers to facilitate their removal by loyal Senators. That exercise boomeranged and led to the sack of former Director General of the Directorate of State Services (DSS) Lawan Daura, whose operatives sealed the legislative complex, by Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo, while Buhari was away on vacation. Those were signs of the cabal’s commitments to change the National Assembly’s leadership “by all means.”
 
Also, in the course of executing the plan, apart from die-hard anti-Saraki lawmakers in the Red Chamber, the party leadership dangled the carrot of reelection for many of its Senators, while those who have been identified or even suspected to have sympathy for the Senate President were marked for withdrawal of tickets.

However, in the politics of intrigues that followed the Saraki-must-go plan, which involved some known pro-Saraki Senators frequenting the Villa and the APC Abuja National Secretariat to pledge allegiance, the governors saw an opportunity to also deal with perceived enemies in the Senate and build a fresh nest of loyalists by coming up with their surrogates.
 
The result was a clash of interests between the party leadership and governors, who, in the attempt to consolidate their fiefdoms, openly challenged the party. While the Oshiomhole leadership was unyielding in its commitment to rein the governors in, it was also faced with the task of coming up with a list that could help in realising its determination to have Saraki removed.
 
In all these, the Senators were also taking advantage of the situation to lap on the party’s desire on Saraki, either by agreeing to the proposal or using it as a blackmail chip to get fresh tickets.And coming at a very tight period, when the two dominant parties, in their race for time, are foreclosing possibility of cross-over by disgruntled Senators that may receive the short end of the stick in the bargaining, it was obvious that personal political dexterity must be employed to save individual necks.
   
Aside the request for Saraki’s removal and the desire to retrieve the party from the vice grip of governors, there are other variables like intense power play between forces at state and regional levels that determined who eventually succeed in securing fresh tickets.
 
Although the picture of those who scaled the hurdle was still hazy last Friday, hours after the party met the October 18 deadline for submission of final lists of candidates for the National Assembly to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), many have been confirmed to have lost out in the power game that reached the climax in the last one week.
   
In Lagos State, where Tinubu, the main protagonist of Oshiomhole’s take-it-back and Saraki-must-go plans holds sway, the Senator representing Lagos East, Gbenga Asafa lost the bid for reelection, allegedly because of suspicion that he may be sympathetic to Saraki, while attempts by Ondo governor, Rotimi Akeredolu to deny the Senator representing Ondo North, Robert Ajayi Boroffice a third term ticket was foiled by the national leadership.
 
Boroffice is a known anti-Saraki Senator, who was denied a principal position at the commencement of the 8th Senate because of his preference for party directive that didn’t favour Saraki, and he parted ways with Akeredolu in the aftermath of the governorship primary elections he lost to the governor two years ago.
 
But because he sought the protection of Oshiomhole, who was bent on returning all anti-Saraki Senators to carry out his plan and the support of Tinubu, who of course is not on the same page with Akeredolu in APC Southwest politics, Boroffice got his ticket while the governor’s preferred aspirant, Dr. Tunji Abayomi was left in the cold.
 
In Kaduna, it was a battle between Senator Shehu Sanni and Governor Ahmed el-Rufai, and the Senator had to drop his open tacit support for Saraki, refused to follow him to the PDP as allegedly planned and sought the Presidency and the party leadership’s support. After a protracted political scheming that allegedly got Sanni to support the position on Saraki, he was eventually given the clearance to contest a second term.
 
Like Asafa in Lagos, examples of other APC Senators who lost to the power play that put them against superior forces are Lanre Tejuoso and Rilwan Akanbi, whose seats were desired by their governors, while many, because of other variables like local political configurations, did not secure fresh tickets.

Yet there are others like Hope Uzodinma of Imo West, who, because of higher political interests, refused to seek reelection into the Senate.
There are also those whose seats were negotiated away in new political configurations, such as Fatima Raji Rasaki of Ekiti Central, whose seat was reserved for Opeyemi Bamidele, a former member of the House of Representatives, who escaped death by the whiskers, when he was hit by a stray bullet during the pre-election declaration campaign for the new governor, Kayode Fayemi.
 
With about 42 Senators not seeking or losing fresh tickets across the political parties and a substantial number of them in the APC, and the rest seeking to contest in an election that is already putting the two leading parties almost neck-to-neck, it is clear that the call by the party leadership for Saraki to be removed “by all means” has hit the rocks.
 
This is so because many of the lawmakers in the current political realities have no strings attaching them to the outcome of the party’s decision, as most of them would be at home in a tranquil chamber devoid of bitter bickering that may again result in scaling of fence to gain access.

And if the party leadership is bent on having its decision implemented on Saraki, there is the possibility that the anti-Saraki Senators may found themselves a small minority that will find it difficult even to mobilise colleagues on the same side of the aisle.It is in light of this that the volte-face of the Senate Leader, Ahmed Lawan that the Senate has decided to drop the idea of removing Saraki should be viewed.
 
Lawan, at the special convention to ratify Buhari’s candidature barely 72 hours to resumption of the Senate penultimate Tuesday, had vowed that the first agenda of APC Senators would be to remove Saraki “and heaven will not fall.” He now sings a different and conciliatory song.
And some of the lawmakers, whose subterfuge plan was to create a false impression of amity for the Senate President to drop his guard, may have realised the futility of the proposal and have been forced by circumstances to embrace the peace option.
 
Indeed, the peace option is aiding governance and thawing the frosty Executive/Legislative relations with the passage of many bills and approvals of some appointments last week alone, confirming assertion that democracy can only grow without unnecessary frictions between state institutions.

guardian

The former governor of Anambra State, Mr. Peter Obi has assumed the epicenter of discussions in the southeast zone since his announcement as running mate to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Presidential flag-bearer, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar.
The news, which ended days of speculation over where and who the PDP presidential running mate would be elicited debate that has thrown the zone into parallel lines. While the choice has received commendation in some quarters, in others, especially among the political class, Obi’s choice fell short of expectation, more like an ambush.

Leading what seemed like a protest against the choice, the three governors of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) had met with the southeast leadership of the party at an emergency session in Enugu on October 13, where they did not only ventilate their anger over the development, they also denied existence of such.

It was a meeting attended by governors Dave Umahi (Ebonyi State); Okezie Ikpeazu (Abia State) and Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi (Enugu State), former Deputy Speaker, Emeka Ihedioha and party chieftain, Chris Uba; among others at the residence of Deputy Senate President Ike Ekweremadu. Emerging from the meeting, Southeast Zonal Chairman of the party, Chief Austin Umahi, who is Ebonyi governor’s younger brother briefed the party members thus:

“This meeting came on a very short notice. It was yesterday that this meeting was actually announced and circulated and the attendance demonstrates that PDP is southeast and southeast is PDP. Despite the shortness of time, the attendance is very encouraging.

“I will simply address this august gathering on the outcome of our long hours meeting at Deputy Senate President’s residence. First, let me say that I congratulate the PDP for conducting transparent and credible convention since the inception of democracy in Nigeria. It is our suggestion that INEC should come and copy, and replicate it in 2019, and then we must have advanced. Despite the number of presidential aspirants, everybody is happy and now working together and this is a rebranded PDP.

“Yes, so many issues were discussed. Again a burning issue came up and that is conceding Vice President’s slot to southeast. Our leaders came together to appreciate the PDP for the recognition of southeast and keeping to their promise to give the Vice Presidential slot to the southeast. However, southeast leaders met and said they saw this thing on social media. They are not yet aware that something like that happened. So the good thing is that the Presidential candidate has promised to meet with the southeast leaders after his tour overseas to explain this thing to us. So we will wait and hear him out. One thing is very certain, the PDP is assured that 2019 is our year.”

Although the stakeholders who gathered denied that their meeting was basically to mull support against the choice of Obi, the circumstances under which the meeting was convened clearly indicated that the announcement jolted them.For instance, apart from convening an emergency meeting, Governor Umahi, who also doubles as the chairman of Southeast governors forum had denied the statement issued by his Chief Press Secretary earlier congratulating Obi. He had told the world that his Press Secretary did not get his approval before releasing the statement.
 
Again, the meeting was billed for Enugu Government House. It was gathered that a protest by Enugu governor, that he would not want to be seen as providing facility to sponsor opposition against the choice of Vice Presidential candidate made the leaders move the meeting to the zonal secretariat of the party located on the same street with Ekweremadu’s private residence. Yet, while the officials gathered at the secretariat, those approved to be at the meeting were directed to Ekweremadu’s house where the decision was reached. Austine Umahi, who was mandated to convey the decision of the meeting to the stakeholders who waited from 10.00am till around 6.00pm had a herculean task doing so, as he had barely finished when a good number of those present opposed their position, describing it as “not only selfish but borne to cause bad blood.” Many had wanted to know the Igbo leaders that should be consulted? They wanted to know at what point in the history of the zone has consultation become an issue before anything was done and why Atiku needed to consult everybody in Igboland before picking his running mate? Was the consultation for general interests or to massage the ego of a few?
 
One incontrovertible thing about politicians and their style of politics in Igboland is the penchant for nominating those regarded as their puppets or close family members to offices that accrue to the zone, whether they are competent or not. They do so without consulting anybody.

Pointers are being raised regarding how Ebonyi governor nominated his younger brother as Zonal Chairman of the PDP for southeast.The point of discontent was said to emerge when it became clear that Ekweremadu lost the bid. The Deputy Senate President was said to be interested in being vice president, a deal he was said to have struck when he midwifed the party’s reconciliation committee that zoned its Presidency to the north and Vice to the southeast.

It was gathered that he believed that his prime position as the highest ranking office holder in the southeast would have given him the position effortlessly, adding that disappointed that he was not nominated, he summoned and hosted the Enugu meeting where they kicked against Obi.

One of his aides came close to confirming this and the fury of the Deputy Senate President when he wrote: “Even if Ekweremadu were to be angry as those conjuring up all this thrash want us to believe, is it out of place? Hasn’t he paid his dues as a party man and the highest-ranking office holder from the southeast region in holding the party alive? Hasn’t he paid his dues in the last three years as highest-ranking public office holder in the PDP until recently? Hasn’t he taken the bullets enough for the party? How many leopards does one need to kill before he becomes an Ogbuagu. If he defected after the 2015 elections defeat and emergence as Deputy Senate President, would there have been a strong PDP today for people to return to and vie for presidency?

But a statesman and one of the founding fathers of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), Chief Onwuka Ukwa, wondered how the personal interest of the governors and other leaders of the party who would want to “stand on the top at all times” could jeopardize the general interest of the people to the point of convening an emergency meeting to discuss what  was termed  “a burning issue.”

He said there are several issues that required emergency treatment and more “burning” in Igboland but had been neglected on the altar of politics than the emergence of Peter Obi.He said: “I think our governors and whoever called the meeting missed the point. If there is anything that requires emergency, it is the parlous state of infrastructure in the southeast zone. It is the poor road network, it is how to attract international airlines that should ply the Akanu Ibiam International airport, Enugu, to open up business in the zone; it is a visible agenda to absorb the legion of unemployed graduates roaming about the zone; it is working towards the establishment of Consulate in the zone, so as to reduce the risk of travelling to other zones of the country by our people to obtain their travelling permits.

“There is a dry port that has been promised us a long time; that project is almost still-born because nothing is happening there. It is about time, they meet and lead a delegation to the Presidency about the state of affairs in the southeast zone and seek assistance. You can imagine the urgency with which that meeting was attended. It shows you that they are acting somebody’s script who is probably unhappy that Obi has been chosen over him.

“It is only in the southeast that a gift from someone should be made an issue. We must take advantage of this very one to work closer to producing a president in the next dispensation. Obi should be supported. The choice was sound and well thought out. This is a valuable nomination. He is coming to the table with focus and track record of performance. He has stamina for work and above all, he has been in government and did not soil his hands in corruption,” he said.
 
Also reacting, President Emeritus, Aka Ikenga, Chief Goddy Uwazuruike said: “I have read with disgust the vituperations of the enemies of this country on the choice of Peter Obi as the running mate of the PDP presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar. The complaints range from non-consultation to why the choice should be from the southeast to the ridiculous protest of non-PDP members.

“For the avoidance of doubt, very few people parade the intimidating credentials of Peter Obi. Again, very few people parade the integrity of Peter Obi. Furthermore, very few people parade the commonsense economics of Peter Obi. Finally, very few people parade the ability of Peter Obi to overlook personal aggrandizement in public and private life.

“For those who wish this country well, Peter Obi will bring a lot of good to the economic revival of this country. One of the prayers of ordinary man like me is that we allow our first eleven to come to power. The names brandished as possible nominees are first class. Now, only one can be chosen and he has been chosen.

“Our job is to ensure that the Peter Obi who performed excellently well in Anambra will repeat the feat at the centre.”Addressing a press conference in Enugu, President of Alaigbo Development Foundation, Prof Uzodinma Nwala, said Ndigbo must rally round Atiku/Obi ticket to deliver the country and reposition the economy of the southeast now at its abysmal level.

He said: “The fact is that there are great obstacles on the way which we must struggle to eliminate. Issues of development of Alaigbo, homeland security and protection of our people from the menace and killings of the Fulani herdsmen, dismantling of the military siege of Alaigbo, near comprehensive elimination of our people from the federal bureaucracy, total decay of our infrastructure, hounding of our businessmen, harassment and torture of our youth. We must continue to press on for regional autonomy or total freedom for our people; we cannot wait until that ultimate goal is achieved before attending to these challenges.”

On why it supports the choice of Obi, ADF said the former governor would not be in a regime that continues to hunt and willfully destroy Igbo businesses and Igbo businessmen.“Mr. Obi is a pragmatic business man and we expect that he will be sensitive to the basic interests of the development of Alaigbo in the interim. Someone told us that the choice of Peter Obi is premised on his vast experiences in the areas of investment, economic and social development, an area Nigeria is scoring below par at the moment,” he said.

Move To Pacify The Aggrieved
THERE have been heated arguments on whether those who “opposed” Obi’s nomination could still work for the victory of the PDP in the 2019 general elections in the zone, especially when some of them are said to have openly canvassed support for President Muhammadu Buhari’s return. A school of thought believes that although majority of the governors are PDP, winning a second term for them is more fashionable than the victory of the party in the presidential election. This is because, even with the condemnation that greeted their position against Obi, many of them are yet to accept the fact and send words of congratulations.With his appointment into the campaign council as the southeast director, all eyes are now on Ebonyi governor to lead the zone into accepting Obi and working for the victory of the PDP in the elections

guardian

Dino Melaye, Senator representing Kogi West has reacted to the resignation of Shehu Sani from the All Progressives Congress, APC.

DAILY POST reports that Senator Sani resigned from APC following controversies that trailed the primaries of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Kaduna State.

The lawmaker who had been at loggerheads with the Kaduna State Governor, Nasir El-Rufai sent his resignation letter to the chairman of the APC today.

Reacting, Melaye took to his Twitter page, sympathizing with the Kaduna lawmaker, saying the ruling party were double-minded concerning Shehu Sani.

“Sen Shehu Sani has just dumped the APC. People who did not like you in the morning and afternoon but claim to like you at night,I beg, borrow urself some brain.

“Baba God I thank you say I no become suya in the hands of cash and carry party. (APC) Aboki accept my condolence.Oh my home.”

dailypost

Reno Omokri, former new media aide to ex-President Goodluck Jonathan on Saturday said the All Progressives Congress, APC, used and dumped Senator Shehu Sani representing Kaduna Central despite his loyalty to the party.

According to Omokri, APC chairman, Adams Oshiomhole deceived Sani from decamping alongside Senate President Bukola Saraki with the option of automatic ticket.

He stated this while reacting to Sani’s resignation from the party on Saturday over prolonged crisis in the state chapter of the party.

The former presidential spokesman wrote: “Poor Shehu Sani, when you should have honourably left with Bukola Saraki, you allowed yourself be deceived by Oshiomhole’s empty promise of ‘automatic ticket’.

“Now that automatic ticket has become automatic trick, you now realise you were used and dumped.”

Omokri further called on politicians to learn from Shehu Sani resignation.

“Nasir El-rufai kicking Senator Shehu Sani out of the APC after they have finished using him. Let this be a lesson to all politicians. Don’t call a cow your mother just because you want to eat meat,” he added.

dailypost

A former National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Chief Bisi Akande, has stated that minority Fulani rulers are being perceived to be manipulating the North to rule Nigeria since independence.

He said that people understood minority Fulani rulers to be manipulating the North to rule Nigeria through “Islamic emirate system since two centuries ago.”

Akande said this while delivering a paper titled “Devolution of Powers and National Restructuring” over the weekend at the APC-USA Second Annual Convention in Washington DC.

The former Governor of Osun State also said restructuring was a herculean task for all Nigerians.

According to Akande: “The North is a largely Hausa-speaking people traditionally mix-bred and assimilated with and governed by minority Fulani rulers through Islamic emirate system since two centuries ago.

” The North has been amalgamated with the South in-law and in fact since a century ago. And, presumably, the Fulani has been perceived to be manipulating the North to rule Nigeria since independence.

“Even if one does not like the minority Fulani rulers of the North for being hegemonic in characteristics, can one separate them from the original majority Hausa-speaking people of the same North?

“Unless one was ready for another civil war, could one ostracise the whole North in the political considerations of the country.”

Akande said it was within that “context that some of them who were not ready to wait for another civil war to effect a geo-political restructuring of the country decided to go ahead with the APC arrangement, while our opponents are left behind to assume a loud coarse noise on mere sloganeering-restructuring- without any clear definition or a peaceful workable strategy.”

The former APC chairman also said “constitutional amendments or not, Nigerians have begun to see themselves as belonging to geo-political zones-North-western, North-eastern, North-central, South-western, South-eastern and South-southern zones.”

Akande insisted that the “South-west, on its own, had moved further to create a Development Agenda Commission for Western Nigeria, DAWN Commission, to conduct research to generate pieces of advisory information for the benefit of the each of the South-western state governments on integrated development programmes.”

He stressed that as a “first step, the people of these South-western states are trying to key into the APC to back up the possibility of their governments to speak with one political voice, using one manifesto under one political party.”

The APC chieftain recommended this initiative to other geo-political zones, saying it was an “experiment worthy of encouragement and emulation for the strengthening of a federal political attitude towards physical and social development within each zone.”

dailypost

a previous column, I argued that President Muhammadu Buhari has so lowered the bar of governance that it won’t take a lot for any person who succeeds him to impress Nigerians.
 
So the best campaign against Buhari is to promise not to be like him, which is really sad because there is much more at stake in the task of governing Nigeria than just transcending Buhari’s incompetence and mediocrity.
 
Atiku Abubakar has started to excite voters by promising to not be like Buhari. On October 12, for instance, Atiku’s statement on Twitter that he won’t take six months to name his ministers resonated wildly with a lot of Nigerians. It reminded people that Buhari took six months to assemble the least impressive cabinet in Nigeria’s recent history, which is peopled by NYSC dodgers, certificate forgers, malefactors, liars, etc.
 
I extensively researched to see which other country in the world in recent memory elected a president who took six months to name his or her cabinet. There was none. So promising to name a cabinet shortly after inauguration ordinarily shouldn’t be a campaign promise because that’s what every elected president is expected to do. But you can’t fault Atiku because Buhari has lowered the bar to an unprecedented degree.
 
Atiku also promised that 40 percent of his cabinet would be composed of women and young people. Again, ordinarily, that would have been uninspiring, even condemnable, because the promise implies that 60 percent of his cabinet would be composed of old men, which is unfair, unbalanced, and regressive. However, look at Buhari’s cabinet, which he has failed to rejig in more than three years, and you will see why such an unimpressive pledge would strike a chord with Nigerian voters.
 
See below an excerpt from my February 3, 2018 column titled “How Buhari Has Lowered the Bar of Governance” to gain an insight into why Atiku’s popularity has been soaring in the last few days. Buhari’s unexampled incompetence is propelling Atiku to heights he is unworthy of:
 
“I had hoped that even if Buhari wasn’t a stellar president, he would at least not lower the bar. But that is precisely what he has done. He has set the bar of governance so low that all it would take for any president who comes after him to impress us is to:
 
1. Constitute his cabinet within a few days of being sworn in. It took Buhari nearly six months to appoint his cabinet, which is the worst record in Nigeria’s entire history. It slowed the country and hurt the economy. On September 17, 2015 when France 24’s François Picard asked him why he hadn’t named his ministers months after being sworn in, he said ministers were worthless and just “make a lot of noise.” That was a low point. And the cabinet he took months to put together turned out to be one of the most colorless and lackluster in Nigeria’s history.
 
2. Appoint members of governing boards of government agencies in the first few months of being in power. It took Buhari nearly three years to do this. Since government agencies can’t legally function without governing boards, governance basically halted for more than half of Buhari’s first term. That’s why I once observed that while previous administrations were guilty of misgovernance, Buhari is, for the most part, guilty of “ungovernance,” which is worse.
 
3. Not be so incompetent as to appoint dead people into government-and living people without first consulting them.
 
4. Periodically speak to Nigerians through the domestic media, not when he is abroad.
 
5. Personally visit sites of national tragedy, show emotion, and make national broadcasts to reassure a grieving nation. In my March 18, 2017 column titled, “Why Buhari should learn from Osinbajo,” I wrote:

“In a tragic irony, it took Buhari’s sickness for Nigeria to get a chance at some health. It also took his absence for the country to feel some presence of leadership. Why did it take the ascendancy of Osinbajo to the acting presidency for this to happen? The answer is simple: symb

According to popular news making the rounds on social media, a serving youth corps member was assaulted by the principal of the school she was serving in.

School Priincipal (L), Corps member ®

A school principal allegedly flogged a female corps member in Akwa Ibom for helping a friend to write attendance at her place of primary assignment.

The corps member was mercilessly flogged by one Deacon Friday Udoka, the principal of her PPA, the Government Technical College in Abak, Akwa Ibom State.

According to reports, the assault was because the lady, Kolawole Olaitan Adeola, helped her friend write her name in the attendance register of the college, on Friday, October 19, 2018.

The principal was said to have flogged her in his office before dragging her outside to continue the flogging in the presence of students. Udoka then proceeded to notify the NYSC Local Government Inspector that he no longer needs her in the school.

Nnamdi Kanu who recently resurfaced in Jerusalem after a 13-month disappearance is going to address a world press conference tomorrow.

Nnamdi Kanu

The Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB Saturday said its leader, Nnamdi Kanu who appeared in Jerusalem in Israel on Friday for prayers will make a life radio broadcast in Radio Biafra on Sunday.

IPOB in a statement by its Media and Publicity Secretary Comrade Emma Powerful, said its leader during the life broadcast tell Biafrans, friends of Biafra and the world at large on his whereabout over a year now and what transpired on 14th of September, 2017,the day the Nigeria military invaded his father’s compound during operation python dance 2 and why he decided to talk.

The statement by Powerful said Kanu's appearance in the church in Jerusalem was the first after his disappearance since September last year after Nigerian Army invaded his compound that resulted to the deaths and killings of many IPOB members and other Biafrans who were coming to visit him in his compound at Afaraukwu Ibeku Umuahia, Abia State.”

“Following the second coming and appearance of IPOB leader Mazi Nnamdi Kanu who was sighted praying at the Wailing Wall in the city of David in Jerusalem state of Israel, we the indigenous people of Biafra, IPOB, wish to announce to Biafrans, friends of Biafra, lovers of freedom, men and women of goodwill across the world that the supreme Leader of the Indigenous people of Biafra, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu will be coming live on Radio Biafra London on Sunday 21st October 2018 at 6pm Biafran time.

“IPOB leader Mazi Nnamdi Kanu has been missing since September last year after Nigerian Army invaded his compound that resulted to the deaths and killings of many IPOB members and other Biafrans who were coming to visit him in his compound at Afaraukwu Ibeku Umuahia, Abia State.

“IPOB leader Mazi Nnamdi Kanu and other reputable and hardcore Biafrans will leave no stone unturned to restore Biafra sovereignty irrespective of the attempt by Fulani and other Nigerians to hold Biafrans down.

“Biafra independence and freedom is gathering momentum around the world right now we will not relent in pursuing hard for total Biafra freedom in the near future.

“With this, we are advising all Biafrans to be resolute and committed towards this fight to free our people from the bondage and slavery in Nigeria.

“Our leader Mazi Nnamdi Kanu will speak during his broadcast to Biafrans, friends of Biafra and the world at large on his whereabout over a year now and what transpired on 14th of September, 2017 as Nigeria military invaded his father’s compound during operation python dance 2 and why he decided to talk.

“Mazi Kanu will also highlight about our upcoming and uncompromised referendum for Biafra freedom.

“We therefore, urge you to inform your friends ,families and well wishers to join us on Radio Biafra London on the above date and time as it will be a golden opportunity for Biafra and their friends all over the world to hear from Mazi Kanu.

Following his sudden reemergence since been declared missing, Nnamdi kanu has reportedly put a call to his friend, Femi Fani-kayode.Nnamdi Kanu and Femi Fani-Kayode

Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, stalwart and ex minster of Aviation Chief Femi Fani-Kayode has said that he has just received a call from Nnamdi Kanu the leaders of the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB who on Friday was seen in Jerusalem in Israel praying.

Fani-Kayode in an email said ‘I just received a call from my brother Nnamdi Kanu. I am delighted that he is alive and well. I commend his strength and courage even as I marvel at the loyalty, resilience and commitment of his lawyer Ifeanyi Ejiofor and IPOB. We have agreed to work together to VOTE Buhari out.’

Kanu went missing in September last year after the military invaded his home in Abia state and there had not been any trace of him until now.

He was declared missing by his community in Abia state, after the alleged “Operation Python Dance II” operation by the Nigerian Army in the South East.

Many relatives of Kanu had also been allegedly declared missing by the Afara community in Umuahia following the invasion of his home by the Nigerian army.

Can a journalist not move on with his/her own life by establishing their own newspapers? When Bayo Onanuga resigned from African Concord on principle and established his own magazine–The News–one of the most intrepid publications I have ever known in Nigeria, why should Abiola be held accountable for the stories and editorial contents of his magazine?

Onanuga resigned from Concord because his publisher had wanted him to apologise to former military ruler General Babangida over a cover story that the foxy general found unflattering and offensive. The former African Concord Editor however rejected his publisher’s advice on the grounds that no man of principle should apologize for publishing the truth.

I hailed Onanuga for his courageous decision to resign. Both Abiola and Babangida were friends. Abiola was a businessman and a politician, an apology wouldn’t have meant nothing to him, even if it was morally damaging. To an editor, however, you shouldn’t apologise for telling the truth or for quoting a man exactly. Because he valued his principles, Onanuga chose to quit and establish his own publication.

Against this background, would anybody have blamed Abiola if Onanuga had published some unfavourable stories about them? Onanuga was no longer Abiola’s employee and the fact that he was running his own magazine means that his former employer couldn’t be accountable for the editorial contents of his magazine.

It is, therefore, very amazing why Kwankwaso should be blamed for the publication of the corruption scandal against Ganduje by the Daily Nigerian newspaper published by Jaafar Jaafar. Yes, Jaafar Jaafar was once a media aide to Kwankwaso, but does that mean Mr. Jaafar cannot establish his own newspaper? Does that mean he cannot move on with his own life and be on his own? Does that mean he must permanently live in Kwankwaso’s shadows, taking dictation from him about the editorial contents of Daily Nigerian? Anita Pratap was once an employee of CNN, she is now a writer and documentary producer. Should CNN be held responsible for what she currently writes or produces just because she once worked for the television channel?

Many critics of Jaafar Jaafar are missing the point, they are desperately beating about the bush and tilting at windmills instead of being upfront about the moral crisis tossing Governor Ganduje. Was the man we saw in that video Ganduje or someone else? Was he collecting stones or dollars? Did Ganduje say he wasn’t the person captured in that bribery videos? Did Ganduje win American jacpot recently? Was he collecting his salaries and allowances? Is he officially paid his salary and allowances in dollars? Why were those salaries and allowances not paid into his bank account? Was the man giving him the dollars a government cashier or a contractor? If it was a government cashier, why did he have to secretly record Ganduje as he was nervously collecting the dollars and tucking them into every available pocket on his babban riga and his trousers?

It is normal for leaders and even ordinary people to deny what they are ashamed of, but there are moments when denial does more damage to your cause and destroy your credibility even further. Being held in contempt and derision by the people is not flattering. Truthfulness is more helpful to minimize damage than stubborn insistence on defending falsehoods. Calling Jaafar Jaafar names won’t in anyway add any credibility to the strategy of sustained denial which the Ganduje spin doctors have adopted. Attributing sinister motives to Jaafar Jaafar won’t help their strategy either. Honest admission of poor judgement is likely to earn Ganduje more public sympathy and understanding than the strategy of attacking the truth with falsehoods. Truth ultimately trumps falsehoods.

Na-Allah Mohammed Zagga

It turned out that the news below (one year ago) was another PR scam. That’s why I’ve learned to take every good news from Buhari’s  administration with a pinch of salt. It’s almost as if this government is incapable of doing anything genuinely good, so it resorts to lies, half-truths, deceit, and unintelligent propaganda.

APC PR STUNT FROM ONE YEAR AGO??: 

News that Buhari has approved the payment of pension to ex-Biafran police officers who served on the rebel side during Nigeria’s 30-month Civil War from 1967 to 1970 is heartening. It is little symbolic gestures like this that nurture national cohesion.

National cohesion won’t magically emerge out of thin air because some leader proclaimed that Nigeria’s unity is “settled” and “non-negotiable”—or that the question of Nigeria’s unity had been settled with some dead rebel leader at a private meeting. Nation-building is never “settled” and is always in a state of negotiation and renegotiation.

Unity is consciously sowed, watered, and nourished by acts of kindness to the disadvantaged, by equity and justice to all, by consensus-building, by deliberate healing of the existential wounds that naturally emerge in our interactions as constituents of a common national space, and by acknowledging and working to cover our ethnic, religious, regional, and cultural fissures.

If Buhari, from the incipience of his presidency, had offered this sort of olive branch to parts of Nigeria that didn’t vote for him, we won’t have the current disabling fissiparity that is threatening to tear down the very foundation of the country. But it’s never too late to do the right thing.

Farooq Kperogi 

Daniel A. Noah Osa-Ogbegie Brings the Atiku corruption controversy to the front burner. Can we have knowledgeable and fact-filled counter to this position?

“Egbon, I actually downloaded the 328 page document on the 4 cases including Atiku and read it all. There are many points of interest.

The US govt were concerned about the $40m Atiku brought into US accounts, especially as he was a politically exposed person.

Please note that the funds were mostly brought from Panama and British Virgin Islands from the accounts of his business partner at Intel’s, Mr Volpi. Surely if Atiku knew his funds were proceeds of corruption rather than the legitimate business of Intel’s, he would have left the funds in the tax havens from where they came, and where they would have been safe from the prying eyes of the US govt.

Also interesting is that when notice was given to him that his accounts would be closed, he was allowed to transfer the funds, which he did…to the UK, no less! Again I would wonder why a smart ‘criminal’ such as him would keep his ‘proceeds of corruption’ in economies where they can be easily probed and seized.

The main accusation the US govt made against him was that $2.8m was paid to his accounts by Siemens. But the same accusers admitted that there was a consultancy agreement giving legitimacy to those funds. They also noted that Siemens’ books showed purchase of watches worth $170k for ‘P’ and ‘VP’, which they ASSUMED to mean OBJ and Atiku. At no point did the report ever confirm the assumption.

His 4th wife who operated the accounts in question is a US citizen, who at the time was living in the US. It is interesting that she was made to answer questions and then nothing happened!

His lawyer, who is very prominent in those parts, at one point after an account was closed, opened an account for Atiku under his law firm and was a signatory to the account…hardly the actions of a lawyer who knows his client’s funds are proceeds of corruption. In case you don’t know, he could have gone to jail for that if the money was indeed proceeds of corruption. Again he was asked to answer questions and provide documents, and then nothing!

The same report details the profits from Intel across several countries in Africa, which ran into at least a couple of hundred millions per annum. $40m seems like a minor amount in that context.

I know that APC people are a bit allergic to thinking through issues before bandying slogans and propaganda around. But any one who has any amount of money in foreign accounts and is Nigerian knows how those funds are treated with extreme suspicion often to the point of shutting the accounts down. In fact when your principal Buhari went to England and said that all Nigerians are corrupt, there was a huge wave of British banks shutting Nigerian accounts down. I’m sure those people who were affected will protest vigorously that their money was not proceeds of corruption. Indeed the banks and the governments doing this know that, otherwise the funds would have been held pending investigation.

Please Sir, stop bandying these stories around. They don’t help your Principal one bit. On the contrary, they make him look like a desperate man who will do anything and say anything to hold on to power, even though he cannot deliver the minimum results.

“The maladministration and the way the country is being run through proxies is unacceptable.

“President Buhari is not in charge. It will be suicidal for him to return to power for another four years. So, we don’t want a situation whereby that will continue anytime after May 29, 2019.

“We want a situation whereby the President of Nigeria will be hands on, on issues of good governance, respect for the rule of law and the way this country is governed.

“So, I have given my commitment and I mean it…By the grace of God, we shall support Atiku Abubakar and PDP to win elections throughout Nigeria. I want to reassure you, our party men and women and Nigerians that I’m committed to the success and victory of our party at the general elections, come February 2019…

“I made my commitment immediately after the convention that I am going to support our candidate, Atiku Abubakar 100% for us to have victory at the general election. I am not wavering, I am not looking back.

“Work has started for us to ensure that the PDP family remains united and other lovers of democracy come and partner with us for us to ensure that we convincingly win this election. It is not about my personal ambition. It is about this country.”

Words of Sokoto State Governor, Aminu Tambuwal

nepabox

The Oni of Ife, Oba Adeyeye Ogunwusi, yesterday, unveiled his new wife, Queen Morenike Naomi Oluwaseyi.

The new queen, 25, a prophetess, is the Founder/President of En-Heralds, an interdenominational ministry based in Akure, Ondo State.

She started public ministry at the age of 18 and became a full-time evangelist in October 2011.

The monarch, who made the announcement through his social media platforms, praised Morenike for her beauty, uniqueness and royal qualities and especially, the fear of God she has.

He stated: “I waited patiently upon the Almighty the King of kings. He eventually did it in the midst of many trials.

“Shilekunola, Morenike, Naomi; the greatest arsenal you can apply on this highly revered throne with many rules and regulations in the midst of undiluted tradition, heritage and culture is the ‘Fear Of God In You,’ which is the beginning of your wisdom on this throne of Oduduwa.

“You are welcome home, my beautiful and adorable queen.”

Oba Ogunwusi was previously married to Queen Zaynab Otiti-Obanor, who confirmed the end of her 17-month-old marriage to the monarch with an official statement on her Instagram handle.

Her post partly read: “What I can confirm is that the Ooni and I are no more. I inhale love and exhale gratitude.

“My journey continues as a humanitarian aiding women and victims of domestic violence and abuse with the United Nations (UN).”

guardian

Mrs. Comfort Alhassan, the Chairman of Agatu Local Government, has advised officers of Nigeria Airforce (NAF) on “Quick Response Mission” in the local government council area to avoid illicit relationship with village girls or face the wrath of gods.

Alhassan told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Friday in Agatu during the activation of the 21 Quick Response Wing of NAF in Agatu that any illicit sexual relationship with the girls would spell doom for the soldiers.

The Chief of the Air Staff, Air Marshal, Sadique Abubakar, was in Agatu to activate the 21 Quick Response Wing of the NAF situated in the local government to deal with cases of insurgency in the area.

NAN reports that in 2016, the whole of the local government area was sacked by herdsmen who forced their way into the place, displaced farmers and set houses ablaze.

The chairman said the advice was imperative owing to the fact that “your body is not wood, but I advise you not to get swelled by your emotions, if you are in love with them, notify their parents of your intentions, but avoid illicit sex with them”.

She, however, commended the Federal Government for situating the quick response wing of the Air Force to her local government council, saying, ” now we can sleep with our two eyes closed”.

She promised to support the soldiers by providing their food needs, adding that “whatever their needs, they should ask of us”.

Alhassan also commended the Federal Government for drilling a borehole within the vicinity of the military facility to supply water to the host community and assured that the facility would be protected.

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