jonathan should give them the money,but will that be enough for them
in a country that is not at war,what is the need for those urgent-weapons?

If this in anyway is true,Jonathan would never agree to this, How can you give your opponent possibly the biggest this kind of contract?
Except Jonathan is a political illiterate and a dumb person which i think he is already

na war?

guys, read between that lines, please!
If this is true, it means that IBB is backing off from presidential race at a price! He is being bought, or rather he is selling his worthless self at an enormous price,

Mmmh,our people with their criticisms.Who said that the cash is even enuf to tackle the defence issues,military hardwares are expensive my friend.And do you expect the military to wait for war before it replenishes its old stocks,are you aware of peacetime training,peacekeeping missions and other protective duties ongoing? dont you also feel they should be given good accommodation and other basic requirements?we migth  only just sleep everyday without knowing what is happenin or forestalled out there.I wonder also how dambazau,yayale,kayode have done wrong,do you expect them to sit and watch their prestigiuos institutions decay during their time? I think the only prayer should be for the funds to be well utilized if and when approved.I also advice the poster of that military document to be wary of such next time cos its a classified document,whoever(military personnel) must have taken and published it is a SABOTEUR and will be charged accordingly when caugth(because he will be). My view,thanx for the attention

or could he be plotting a coup?

500 billion? Who ever reported this is sick. Inasmuch I hate corruption, I hate the attitude of Journalists that always talk without facts . Stop spreading false rumour Mr Journalist or whatever you call yourself. Nigeria is not so rich to be spending that kind of money,

jmoore:

500 billion? Who ever reported this is sick. Inasmuch I hate corruption, I hate the attitude of Journalists that always talk without facts . Stop spreading false rumour Mr Journalist or whatever you call yourself. Nigeria is not so rich to be spending that kind of money,

how much is 500bn in naira again? what is nigeria's ministry of defence budget?
u dont know what u are talking about

GEW:

how much is 500bn in naira again? what is nigeria's ministry of defence budget?
u dont know what u are talking about

what is the total budget of Nigeria? Tell me! Information minister .

jmoore:

500 billion? Who ever reported this is sick. Inasmuch I hate corruption, I hate the attitude of Journalists that always talk without facts . Stop spreading false rumour Mr Journalist or whatever you call yourself. Nigeria is not so rich to be spending that kind of money,

you seriously need urgent medical attention,bootlicker

Defence budgets are the most lucrative in Nigeria. I was informed by my source at the Ship House Procurement department that ALL procurements for the Defence Ministry are routed through the Defence Minister's office.

Incredible! What happened to the Public Procurement Act?

I smell some kinda problem in 2011,I pray not. But me i no go dey here when the gbege start,I go call[b] Bounce714 [/b] ask am if the war don start, As i said before I pray not.

~Bluetooth:

you seriously need urgent medical attention,bootlicker

this just shows that you are quack doctor!

stagger:

Defence budgets are the most lucrative in Nigeria. I was informed by my source at the Ship House Procurement department that ALL procurements for the Defence Ministry are routed through the Defence Minister's office.

Incredible! What happened to the Public Procurement Act?

2010 budget was about 4 trillion naira. If 500 billion is budgeted for defence, that is 25% of the budget. That source of yours lacks knowledge. 500 billion naira is not 500 billion zimbabwe dollars

If IBB think he is tough, and a master strategist, that was then. wait and see how Uncle Joe's slow and weak strategy that will send IBB to join Abacha

One of the problems I have with analysts here
we just believe everything that is negative about people we dislike and doubt negative facts about those we like

Army and Navy are spending N500b on procurement
What about airforce?
What about salaries and other recurrent expenditure?

Yet somebody has posted the entire budget = N4.6tr - it has even been revised to N4.4tr
Defence spending in that budget is N217b

This is why the Northern elites would do anything to perpertuate themself in power

Otio. . . This is serious. . .Undoubtedly Nigeria needs the arms,but Jonathan must take charge and make sure not 1kobo of this contract is awarded to IBB

And what is the likes of Dambazzau still doing in the Niigerian Army.  .
The guy should be retired immediately like OBAMA dealt with Mcchrystal

How i miss OBJ sometimes . .that guy does not take any nonsense

Uncle JOE i beg u ,  .retire that nicompup dambazzau and his ilk
and drop kayode and Yahale ahmed

where is BEAF come and defend your man,cause i don tire for this nonsense oh ,   .  

Why me? But, na, Uncle Joe doesn't need defending. He is a sheep among criminals, murderers and demons, but he has to be a master of the long game, which requires wisdom, intelligence and patience. Jonathan has consistently shown the right qualities and that he see's the bigger picture, not just the crude power levers we are accustomed to our "leaders" (or agbero's) displaying; and that is a strong benefit for the country, there has to be a different way of doing things for Nigeria to be reborn.

We cannot discount that one of Nigeria's greatest problems is unnecessary aggression. Lets give Jonathan  the support he needs to overcome these criminals and the prize would be everyones to reap; especially the prize of credible elections, which will finally deliver us credible leaders at all levels.

As for watching his back against Dambazzau  and his crew. . . Maybe Dambazzau  needs to watch his back instead? Afterall, someone close and pretty high up must have delivered the confidential info for pointblank news to publish!

Colonel Mustapha Onoyiveta is already facing investigation, its a chess game that the gra gra agbero's are bound to lose.

If this is true, my own problem is why a country like Nigeria needs N500 ($3.3) Billion worth of defense equipment? We are not in a war that I heard of, or could it be that we want to be ready in case Europe and the USA want to meddle in our 'affairs'?. How could our leaders forget that these are the same countries that manufacture the equipment and, therefore, would know how to render them somehow ineffective or even inoperable?. Just wondering.

At this point the best thing Jonathan can do for Nigeria is to conduct free and fair polls and handover to Donald Duke.

Jonathan as incumbent has not demonstrated real leadership.

After 50years of Nationhood we should be hoping for the better. President's should earn the right to be President, they should not be voted on sentiments or fear of IBB.

[size=14pt][B]JONATHAN WAKE UP!!!! REMOVE ANYONE WHO IS NOT LOYAL TO YOU FAST.[/B][/size]

All these billions to be spent on defence contracts when man no see food chop?
PHCN is comatose, roads, health and education are in terrible shape nation wide and we want to fritter away precious funds on
the military when we are not at war?
Even the police needs funding more than the military.

The Babangida years

By Tolu Ogunlesi
April 17, 2010 10:36PM   

In his first New Year Days speech as military president, months after deposing the Buhari-Idiagbon government in a bloodless coup enthusiastically welcomed by Nigerians, Ibrahim Babangida declared: I wish to reaffirm that this administration does not intend to stay in power a day longer than is required to lay the necessary institutional framework to bring about a better and more stable Nigeria. Babangidas bonhomie (its trademark an endearing gap-toothed smile) - in stark contrast to the stern, unsmiling façade of Muhammadu Buhari, his predecessor - made it easy for him to be believed.
The distinction between the two regimes in fact ran much deeper than personality quirks. Babangida, in action, proved to be the complete antithesis of his predecessor. He threw open prison doors, setting free hundreds of 3rd republic politicians convicted and jailed by Buhari. He repealed the obnoxious Decree No. 4 of 1984 with which the Buhari regime had shackled the media. He promised to run an open administration that is responsive to the yearnings and aspirations of all the people - a departure from the high-handedness of the Buhari/Idiagbon era.
One of his first actions as military president was to allow Nigerians to decide, through public debates, whether to accept the $2.5 billion International Monetary Fund (IMF) loan the Buhari government had been negotiating for.
After the terror of the Buhari years, Nigerians appeared to have found a statesman in military uniform.

Tough times that lasted

By 1985, Nigerias foreign debt had ballooned to $18 billion, up from $3.4 billion in 1980 (it would rise beyond $30 billion by the end of the 80s), and external reserves had dwindled to less than $2 billion. Oil prices had been in freefall for 3 years running, and in January 1986 they finally fell to less than $20 per barrel, a record low since the start of the decade.
To his credit Babangida made all the right noises about revamping the economy. In his Independence Day 1985 speech, barely two months old in office, he declared a state of economic emergency for the next 15 months. That speech went on to lay down a comprehensive plan for economic reconstruction.
This plan included a moratorium on new foreign debt, promotion of agriculture and industrial development, restriction of importation to essential commodities, financial sector reform and privatisation.

Populist leanings

IBB was a master of the populist move - ambitious government programs targeted at tackling poverty, and empowering rural dwellers. His government churned out program after program, in a bid to actualize his promises to run an inclusive, people-facing government. In 1986, Babangida launched the Mass Mobilization for Self Reliance, Social Justice, and Economic Recovery (MAMSER).
In 1987, the Directorate of Food and Rural Infrastructure (DFFRI) was launched to promote agriculture and transform Nigerias rural landscape by providing modern infrastructure. Other Babangida creations include the National Directorate of Employment (NDE), National Economic Reconstruction Fund (NERFUND), Peoples Bank of Nigeria (PBN), National Board for Community Banks (NBCB), Nigerian Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC), Nigeria Export-Import Bank (NEXIM), National Planning Commission (NPC), and the Urban Development Bank.
No other Nigerian government presided over such substantial expansion of government bureaucracy as the Babangida administration. In time, the fiscal prudence that Babangida espoused vanished: billions of naira were sunk into an endless transition programme, and in the early 90s, 12 billion dollars worth of windfall crude oil revenue (courtesy of the rise in the oil prices due to the Gulf War) could not be accounted for.
Mr. Babangida also came to perfect the art of dispensing patronage through political appointments (mostly targeted at leading members of the opposition) and a far-from-transparent allocation of lucrative oil blocks.

A man whose words mean nothing

Mr. Babangidas contradictions eventually overwhelmed his reputation so that when, in May 1993, the activist and lawyer Gani Fawehinmi described him as a man whose words mean nothing to him, evidence of this littered his eight years in power.
Only months after vowing to run a government by consultation with the people, Mr. Babangida in 1986 surreptitiously - and unilaterally - took Nigeria, an avowed secular state, into full membership of the Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC), a body which describes itself as the collective voice of the Muslim world.
Mr. Babangida lamented the large role played by the public sector in economic activity with hardly any concrete results to justify such a role.Ironically, over the course of the next five years, he would go ahead to supervise an unprecedented expansion of government. And despite his deference to the wish of Nigerians to reject the IMF loan, Mr. Babangida went ahead to implement some of the Funds most drastic requirements - a devaluation of the naira, and removal of subsidies, chief of which were the petroleum subsidies.
Mr. Babangida promised Nigerians that the belt-tightening was sorely needed: the painful injection that would usher in vibrant economic health; the mandatory dark lining before a cloud of prosperity. Those reforms, which he christened Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP), came into effect in 1986, with a far-from-pleasant impact on Nigerians. Purchasing powers dwindled, inflation rose, and the obliteration of the middle class began. In 1989, SAP riots rocked the country, as Nigerians had finally had enough of economic reforms which silver lining they waited in vain for.

Greatest failings

Mr. Babangidas greatest failings were however in two key areas: his human rights record, and his political transition programme. In December 1985, a group of soldiers, which included his close friend, Mamman Vatsa, were arrested on allegations of plotting to topple the 4-month old Babangida government. After Vatsa was convicted and sentenced to death, Mr. Babangida assured a delegation of distinguished writers (Wole Soyinka, Chinua Achebe and J.P. Clark), which had come pleading for mercy, that he was determined to do everything in my power to save (Vatsa).
Hours later, Vatsa and the other alleged plotters were executed.
As opposition to Mr. Babangidas rule grew, so did his intolerance for dissent, so that he routinely shut down or proscribed media houses; and harassed journalists, civil society and labour groups using the instruments of state (the State Security Service, Directorate of Military Intelligence and the Police).
In 1986, five students of the Ahmadu Bello University were murdered when mobile policemen invaded the campus to quell anti-IMF protests. He also promulgated a series of draconian decrees targeted at quelling all opposition, and on occasion did not hesitate to deport foreign critics (University lecturer Patrick Wilmot and journalist William Keeling).
In October 1986, frontline journalist Dele Giwa was murdered by a letter bomb in Lagos. Preliminary police investigations stated that senior officers of Mr. Babangidas intelligence services, who had hounded Giwa in his final days, had questions to answer regarding Giwas death. The mystery of the Giwa assassination remains unsolved till date.

An interminable journey

A maddeningly convoluted transition programme, whose terminal date soon became a mirage - first 1990, then 1992, and then 1993 - is one of the most significant things Babangida will be remembered for.
Early on in his administration, Mr. Babangida inaugurated a Political Bureau to kick off, as it were, the national debate on a viable future political ethos and structure for our dear country.
The political bureau was soon followed by a Constituent Assembly, which in 1989 fashioned a new constitution for the country.
Also, in 1989, he created, by presidential fiat, two political parties, the Social Democratic Party and the National Republican Convention. Then in 1991, he released a controversial list of prominent politicians whom he said were banned from participating in the transition programme.
In October 1992, he cancelled the results of the parties presidential primaries, causing new primaries to be held in March 1993. And then in June 1993 he annulled the results of the presidential elections, presumed to have been won by billionaire businessman MKO Abiola.

This was the final straw
.
By this time, Nigerians had finally had enough of his shenanigans, and violent protests forced him to step aside on August 27, 1993,My colleagues and I are determined to change the course of history, Mr. Babangida told Nigerians in his maiden speech as Head of State, on August 27, 1985.
By the time he reluctantly relinquished power exactly eight years later, he had achieved that goal, far more successfully than he, or anyone else, could ever have imagined.

Source: Next
====================

The Holy Book says "my people perish for lack of knowledge".
Will you allow 150m of us (Nigerians) perish or will you ALSO forward this article on the (mis) deeds of our self-proclaimed "evil genius" to all Nigerians that you know
Will you help confirm "maradona" IBB's claim (in Germany in the 90s during one of his radiculopathy treatment trips) that we, his fellow citizens are "docile" (MUGUs) by not sharing this mail
Find a way to get involved at all levels- local, state and federal- this election period for a better Nigeria!!!

Emmy Boy:

All these billions to be spent on defence contracts when man no see food chop?
PHCN is comatose, roads, health and education are in terrible shape nation wide and we want to fritter away precious funds on
the military when we are not at war?
Even the police needs funding more than the military.

EXACTLY
The man is looking for extra money for his campaign.

anonimi:

The Babangida years

By Tolu Ogunlesi
April 17, 2010 10:36PM

In his first New Year Days speech as military president, months after deposing the Buhari-Idiagbon government in a bloodless coup enthusiastically welcomed by Nigerians, Ibrahim Babangida declared: I wish to reaffirm that this administration does not intend to stay in power a day longer than is required to lay the necessary institutional framework to bring about a better and more stable Nigeria. Babangidas bonhomie (its trademark an endearing gap-toothed smile) - in stark contrast to the stern, unsmiling façade of Muhammadu Buhari, his predecessor - made it easy for him to be believed.
The distinction between the two regimes in fact ran much deeper than personality quirks. Babangida, in action, proved to be the complete antithesis of his predecessor. He threw open prison doors, setting free hundreds of 3rd republic politicians convicted and jailed by Buhari. He repealed the obnoxious Decree No. 4 of 1984 with which the Buhari regime had shackled the media. He promised to run an open administration that is responsive to the yearnings and aspirations of all the people - a departure from the high-handedness of the Buhari/Idiagbon era.
One of his first actions as military president was to allow Nigerians to decide, through public debates, whether to accept the $2.5 billion International Monetary Fund (IMF) loan the Buhari government had been negotiating for.
After the terror of the Buhari years, Nigerians appeared to have found a statesman in military uniform.

Tough times that lasted

By 1985, Nigerias foreign debt had ballooned to $18 billion , up from $3.4 billion in 1980 (it would rise beyond $30 billion by the end of the 80s ), and external reserves had dwindled to less than $2 billion. Oil prices had been in freefall for 3 years running, and in January 1986 they finally fell to less than $20 per barrel, a record low since the start of the decade.
To his credit Babangida made all the right noises about revamping the economy. In his Independence Day 1985 speech, barely two months old in office, he declared a state of economic emergency for the next 15 months. That speech went on to lay down a comprehensive plan for economic reconstruction.
This plan included a moratorium on new foreign debt, promotion of agriculture and industrial development, restriction of importation to essential commodities, financial sector reform and privatisation.

Populist leanings

IBB was a master of the populist move - ambitious government programs targeted at tackling poverty, and empowering rural dwellers. His government churned out program after program, in a bid to actualize his promises to run an inclusive, people-facing government. In 1986, Babangida launched the Mass Mobilization for Self Reliance, Social Justice, and Economic Recovery (MAMSER).
In 1987, the Directorate of Food and Rural Infrastructure (DFFRI) was launched to promote agriculture and transform Nigerias rural landscape by providing modern infrastructure. Other Babangida creations include the National Directorate of Employment (NDE), National Economic Reconstruction Fund (NERFUND), Peoples Bank of Nigeria (PBN), National Board for Community Banks (NBCB), Nigerian Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC), Nigeria Export-Import Bank (NEXIM), National Planning Commission (NPC), and the Urban Development Bank.
No other Nigerian government presided over such substantial expansion of government bureaucracy as the Babangida administration. In time, the fiscal prudence that Babangida espoused vanished: billions of naira were sunk into an endless transition programme, and in the early 90s, 12 billion dollars worth of windfall crude oil revenue (courtesy of the rise in the oil prices due to the Gulf War) could not be accounted for.
Mr. Babangida also came to perfect the art of dispensing patronage through political appointments (mostly targeted at leading members of the opposition) and a far-from-transparent allocation of lucrative oil blocks.

A man whose words mean nothing

Mr. Babangidas contradictions eventually overwhelmed his reputation so that when, in May 1993, the activist and lawyer Gani Fawehinmi described him as a man whose words mean nothing to him, evidence of this littered his eight years in power.
Only months after vowing to run a government by consultation with the people, Mr. Babangida in 1986 surreptitiously - and unilaterally - took Nigeria, an avowed secular state, into full membership of the Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC), a body which describes itself as the collective voice of the Muslim world.
Mr. Babangida lamented the large role played by the public sector in economic activity with hardly any concrete results to justify such a role.Ironically, over the course of the next five years, he would go ahead to supervise an unprecedented expansion of government. And despite his deference to the wish of Nigerians to reject the IMF loan, Mr. Babangida went ahead to implement some of the Funds most drastic requirements - a devaluation of the naira, and removal of subsidies, chief of which were the petroleum subsidies.
Mr. Babangida promised Nigerians that the belt-tightening was sorely needed: the painful injection that would usher in vibrant economic health; the mandatory dark lining before a cloud of prosperity. Those reforms, which he christened Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP), came into effect in 1986, with a far-from-pleasant impact on Nigerians. Purchasing powers dwindled, inflation rose, and the obliteration of the middle class began. In 1989, SAP riots rocked the country, as Nigerians had finally had enough of economic reforms which silver lining they waited in vain for.

Greatest failings

Mr. Babangidas greatest failings were however in two key areas: his human rights record, and his political transition programme. In December 1985, a group of soldiers, which included his close friend, Mamman Vatsa, were arrested on allegations of plotting to topple the 4-month old Babangida government. After Vatsa was convicted and sentenced to death, Mr. Babangida assured a delegation of distinguished writers (Wole Soyinka, Chinua Achebe and J.P. Clark), which had come pleading for mercy, that he was determined to do everything in my power to save (Vatsa).
Hours later, Vatsa and the other alleged plotters were executed .
As opposition to Mr. Babangidas rule grew, so did his intolerance for dissent, so that he routinely shut down or proscribed media houses; and harassed journalists, civil society and labour groups using the instruments of state (the State Security Service, Directorate of Military Intelligence and the Police).
In 1986, five students of the Ahmadu Bello University were murdered when mobile policemen invaded the campus to quell anti-IMF protests. He also promulgated a series of draconian decrees targeted at quelling all opposition, and on occasion did not hesitate to deport foreign critics (University lecturer Patrick Wilmot and journalist William Keeling).
In October 1986, frontline journalist Dele Giwa was murdered by a letter bomb in Lagos. Preliminary police investigations stated that senior officers of Mr. Babangidas intelligence services, who had hounded Giwa in his final days, had questions to answer regarding Giwas death. The mystery of the Giwa assassination remains unsolved till date.

An interminable journey

A maddeningly convoluted transition programme, whose terminal date soon became a mirage - first 1990, then 1992, and then 1993 - is one of the most significant things Babangida will be remembered for.
Early on in his administration, Mr. Babangida inaugurated a Political Bureau to kick off, as it were, the national debate on a viable future political ethos and structure for our dear country.
The political bureau was soon followed by a Constituent Assembly, which in 1989 fashioned a new constitution for the country.
Also, in 1989, he created, by presidential fiat, two political parties, the Social Democratic Party and the National Republican Convention. Then in 1991, he released a controversial list of prominent politicians whom he said were banned from participating in the transition programme.
In October 1992, he cancelled the results of the parties presidential primaries, causing new primaries to be held in March 1993. And then in June 1993 he annulled the results of the presidential elections, presumed to have been won by billionaire businessman MKO Abiola.

This was the final straw
.
By this time, Nigerians had finally had enough of his shenanigans, and violent protests forced him to step aside on August 27, 1993,My colleagues and I are determined to change the course of history, Mr. Babangida told Nigerians in his maiden speech as Head of State, on August 27, 1985.
By the time he reluctantly relinquished power exactly eight years later, he had achieved that goal, far more successfully than he, or anyone else, could ever have imagined.

Source: Next
====================

The Holy Book says "my people perish for lack of knowledge".
Will you allow 150m of us (Nigerians) perish or will you ALSO forward this article on the (mis) deeds of our self-proclaimed "evil genius" to all Nigerians that you know
Will you help confirm "maradona" IBB's claim (in Germany in the 90s during one of his radiculopathy treatment trips) that we, his fellow citizens are "docile" (MUGUs) by not sharing this mail
Find a way to get involved at all levels- local, state and federal- this election period for a better Nigeria!!!

dexmond you are naive? who is Jonathan going to remove. Now politics them dey play with IBB.

The ball is in GJ yard and it's left for him, what to do concerning 500 billion defence contract while the whole country is living in darkness.

Definitely, we need the weapons to kill self or IBB needs the money for election campaign. Why are we buying weapons that we are not going to use for life?

This is what you get when you allow a criminal to get away with his crimes, not only is this man brazenly nursing hopes of becoming the president come 2011 but he's also planning on amassing even more money by procuring arms for the nigerian army and navy!!! i suppose he used his MOSSAD contacts to set himself up as an arms dealer, well i suppose now it will be virtually impossible to topple him if he ever gets back into office,  the thing to note is just how invicible this man appears to be, to think that he has now moved from drug trafficking into arms procurement!!!! - how do you bring a man like this down?
To be involved in arms procurement you have to be extremely well connected it is not a business for small boys.

Jonathan is really just an errand boy when you look at the bigger picture, there is no stopping IBB, the americans have given him the green light to proceed and now he's raising money by way of lucrative arms deals, what next?

Abeg help me tell them say i get LIGHTNING AND THUNDER for sale,they shouldnt bother buying those things cos they wont do as much as LIGHTNING AND THUNDER

I dont see the contract sailing through. Goodluck cant empower his rival. In politics, you fight with everything within your disposal, and the contract is within the president's court and cant see it going to IBB.

@goggs
boy, it seems u don't understand things well. why talking like that? while u did not make out time to read the write-up well. can't u discern what the write up is all about?. the writer did not say the contract has been awarded, instead he said the people in question wrote to the federal government on the needs to procure the equipments, so in other words they are still trying to convince the federal GOV on the urgency to procure the equipments before other interested country/countries does.

I can't shout; IBB is our man oooooooooo

Vote for IBB come 2011