While I agree the amount might be too much, we do need to criticize rightly. Someone saying the ambassadors should pay their children's school fees is ridiculous. Nigeria sent them on the mission. They didnt send themselves. But the ministry should look into the expenses and trim it down seriously.

omo9ja1:

JT is a nut he is mature experience enough to know right from wrong, no matter how the emotion of the game he should not have behave like that a senior player for that matter, well I don't pity him he deserve what he got more to come

and what exactly has he done? He hasnt been convicted of anything. The last time they changed their captain, they were dump out of the world cup after playing crap football

While I agree the amount might be too much, we do need to criticize rightly. Someone saying the ambassadors should pay their children's school fees is ridiculous. Nigeria sent them on the mission. They didnt send themselves. But the ministry should look into the expenses and trim it down seriously.

Police arrested the mob but didnt attend to the dead. O, I forgot, the police men must have been deployed by the FG. Fashola has no hand in it! He is a very nice guy and very democratic! In short, the best thing since sliced bread! Eko O ni baje!

sheyguy:

fashola is not driving  them away because he is reasonable. If he drive non indigenes out nothing is going to change. If any foreigner thinks he is doing Lagos a favour let him tell where he hails from and i will prove to him native lagosian are the reason lagos is what it is.

So exactly what percentage of Lagos are native Lagosians? I have lived in virtually all parts of Lagos from Okoko/badagry to Ojodu Berger and i dont see many native Lagosians.

^^^So where did u have the meeting where they swore Nigeria will never be good? Where u in attendance? If there is anything I have learnt recently, it is the fact that those that are crying wolf are the real traitors and corrupt people. Even u talking crap herre are more corrupt than anyone out there. Sowore is a corrupt guy who collects money from politicians to print false stories.please spare us the saintly picture u r trying to paint. Go check his records from unilag. He has always being a scam. Is it el rufai or yam david west or who? Corrupt and evil folks trying to score cheap points. Let the president do his job and stop trying to bring him down. You will only continue to fail however u try.

^^^My good friend. Try and show some intelligence. How can u compare showing the details of a meeting to the names of the persons in presidents entourage? Haba! At least u finish secondary school na. The list of people in a presidents entourage is a security matter. A simple breach could mean the assasination of the president. U no dey watch movies at all? Abi na home video u dey watch? No presidents spokeperson will reveal that to u. Not in US or UK or anywhere else. Reuben Abati's rejoinder didn't reveal that. He only threw some light on the composition of the group. And didn't call names. It would have been foolish to do so. That is not standard government protocol. Just to educate u a little, in a presidents entourage, a translator or cook or copywriter can also be a security agent under cover. So u want Abati to list such people for u? Please help urself na. You aint looking good!

^^^You are spreading lies. You can't hide on this one. Using blackmail and falsehood to fight only give u up as a hater and a bigot

^^^Shouting urself hoarse won't change a lie to truth. No credible African media has reported it. That would have been a standard news on reuters if it were true. But only these funny southwest blogs reported it. Hmmmm! Typical, isn't it?

^^^the st.u.p.idity of ur post is how can a chief spokesman of the government provide an online blog owner with the list of names of persons in the president's entourage. That would be the height of incompetence. That is a major major security breach. Which country would ever grant that? Some posts here are really funny.

^^^Why are u still quoting the lie that there was a contest for the AU leadership? Haven't u noticed that no other African media has reported it apart from SR? Or u think SR now has exclusive right to publish AU matters. Blackmail is a tool for the weak and defeated! Doesn't make u lot look good.

@kingofflag. So in all ur smartness, u couldn't check to see that GEJ only contested on the pages of SR? Did u see any report on the AU site on the contest? Did u see any other African news media report on the contest for the AU leadership? Hmmmm! So only SR had access to the conference? Hmmm! U r really intelligent. Just to ask, can u do a one paragraph articulation that will make sense and is devoid of insults. It might help redeem ur image!

^^^Why are you quoting lies like they are truth. No matter how much you shout out lies, they will never become truth!

^^^Sorry. Please tell Boko Aram that you didnt succeed in getting the list. Nice try!

This whole hate drive is really becoming very silly. And the interesting part is that the haters cant stop now because they will suddenly look stu.p.i.d. So they try to keep it up by trying to look for new reasons to justify their hate. The problem is, since they are blinded by hate, they cant think straight any more so they dont even realise they are gradually fallen into a ditch. When you throw so much mud at a man and he keeps stepping over it, he emerges very strong and always will have the last laugh. I think this is going to be very interesting at the end. lol

Demdem:

^^^^^

Abati's "Spokesman". The man who knows Abati. 
This makes u the "spokesman" to the "spokesman" to the president
Ask him to release the list for public consumption and scrutiny and not for sowore alone, afterall na democracy we dey. The list isnt an official secret whatsoever and nothing is wrong with that.

Saharareporters are really a comedy outfit. That a president of a country should hand over to you, an individual, the list with the names of people in his delegation? This guy is a comedian and they will soon nail him! He is sure exposing himself as a paid spy and international saboteur! Very funny!

Someone will soon be tried for treason.

-------------------------


No presidential entourage in the world would do such a stu.p.id thing. That will be the height of foolishness. Not even the pope can demand that! Except haters and saboteurs like you

And for those of you wondering why Abati replied. Abati used to write for SR. So he is not a stranger to SR. He isnt replying because SR is getting to the presidency but because he is probably a reader of SR and has been long before he joined government

Saharareporters are really a comedy outfit. That a president of a country should hand over to you, an individual, the list with the names of people in his delegation? This guy is a comedian and they will soon nail him! He is sure exposing himself as a paid spy and international saboteur! Very funny!

Someone will soon be tried for treason.

http://www.ourchangingglobe.com/how-many-personal-assistants-does-michelle-obama-have/



The following article and figures come from the Canadian Free Press and was written by Dr. Paul L. Williams

No, Michele Obama does not get paid to serve as the First Lady and she doesn’t perform any official duties. But this hasn’t deterred her from hiring an unprecedented number of staffers to cater to her every whim and to satisfy her every request in the midst of the Great Recession.

Just think, Mary Lincoln was taken to task for purchasing china for the White House during the Civil War. And Mamie Eisenhower had to shell out the salary for her personal secretary from her husband’s salary.

Total Personal Staff members for other first ladies paid by taxpayers:

Mamie Eisenhower - One Paid for personally out of President’s salary.
Jackie Kennedy - One
Roseline Carter - One
Barbara Bush - One
Hilary Clinton - Three
Laura Bush - One
Michele Obama - Twenty-two

How things have changed! If you’re one of the tens of millions of Americans facing certain destitution, earning less than subsistence wages stocking the shelves at Wal-Mart or serving up McDonald cheeseburgers, prepare to scream and then come to realize that the benefit package for these servants of Ms. Michelle are the same as members of the national security and defense departments and the bill for these assorted lackeys is paid by YOU,
John Q.Public.

Michele Obama’s personal staff:

One $172,200 Sher, Susan (Chief Of Staff)
Two $140,000 Frye, Jocelyn C. (Deputy Assistant to the President and Director of
Policy And Projects For The First Lady)
Three $113,000 Rogers, Desiree G. (Special Assistant to the President and White House
Social Secretary for Mrs. Obama)
Four $102,000 Johnston, Camille Y. (Special Assistant to the President and Director of Communications
for the First Lady)
Five $100,000 Winter, Melissa (Special Assistant to the President and Deputy Chief Of Staff to the First
Lady)
Six $90,000 Medina , David S. (Deputy Chief Of Staff to the First Lady)
Seven $84,000 Lilyveld, Catherine M. (Director and Press Secretary to the First Lady)
Eight $75,000 Starkey, Frances M. (Director of Scheduling and Advance for the First Lady)
Nine $70,000 Sanders, Trooper (Deputy Director of Policy and Project for the First Lady)
Ten $65,000 Burnough, Erinn (Deputy Director and Deputy Social Secretary)
Eleven $64,000 Reinstein, Joseph B.(Deputy Director and Deputy Social Secretary)
Twelve $62,000 Goodman, Jennifer R. (Deputy Director of Scheduling and Events Coordinator For The First
Lady)
Thirteen $60,000 Fitz, Alan O.(Deputy Director of Advance and Trip Director for the First Lady)
Fourteen. $57,500 Lewis, Dana M. (Special Assistant and Personal Aide to the First Lady)
Fifteen $52,500 Mustaphi, Semonti M. (Associate Director and Deputy Press Secretary To The First Lady)
Sixteen $50,000 Jarvis, Kristen E. (Special Assistant for Scheduling and Traveling Aide To The First Lady)
Seventeen $45,000 Lechtenberg, Tyler A. (Associate Director of Correspondence For The First Lady)
Eighteen $43,000 Tubman, Samanth a (Deputy Associate Director, Social Office)
Nineteen $40,000 Boswell, Joseph J. (Executive Assistant to the Chief Of Staff to the First Lady)
Twenty $36,000 Armbruster, Sally M. (Staff Assistant to the Social Secretary)
Twenty-One, $35,000 Bookey, Natalie (Staff Assistant)
Twenty-Two $35,000 Jackson, Deilia A. (Deputy Associate Director of Correspondence for the First Lady)

Total $1,591,200 in annual salaries !!!

Note: The above list doesn’t include makeup artist Ingrid Grimes-Miles, 49, and “First Hairstylist” Johnny Wright, 31, both of whom traveled aboard Air Force One to Europe.

It’s not clear who sets up Michelle’s photo ops and soup kitchens but it’s somewhat clear what kind of snacks the First Lady enjoys when she gets back to her hotel.


"The truth is, in order to get things like UHC (Universal Health Care) and a revamped education system, then someone is going to have to give up a piece of pie so that someone else can have more".
“The truth is, in order to get things like UHC (Universal Health Care) and a revamped education system, then someone is going to have to give up a piece of pie so that someone else can have more”.
Michelle Obama

And one can but wonder why this and similar information has to come from foreign press, perhaps because the USA is close to not having a free press; not a right wing one anyway.

^^^Ok I get it. You have run out of ideas

Kobojunkie:

That is actually very wrong perception. There are college professors who spend their time updating WikiPedia pages and will tell you they are quite reliable as long as you keep in mind, that just like books, you have references on there to dig into if you question any of the information presented.
In the Science community, Wikipedia holds a place . . . So, don't just assume that because one or two people claim Wiki is wrong, then it is sensible for you to assume that as fact.

I attended one of the early conferences in capetown where wikipedia was introduced when they just started. I heard from the founders mouth. Their goals is to preserve information and make it more available. You can not have a community managed information as an authentic source of information. Anybody can go there and write their opinion. You can actually write facts but skew the article to present a biased picture. That is why they try to use moderators but the number of article have made moderating impossible and ineffective


Anyway, back to the topic and stay on topic

Kobojunkie:

That is actually very wrong perception. There are college professors who spend their time updating WikiPedia pages and will tell you they are quite reliable as long as you keep in mind, that just like books, you have references on there to dig into if you question any of the information presented.
In the Science community, Wikipedia holds a place . . . So, don't just assume that because one or two people claim Wiki is wrong, then it is sensible for you to assume that as fact.

Wikipedia was never meant to be an authoritative source of information. The whole concept of community managed information is geared towards making information available and preserved rather than being authoritative.

kizito96:

Michelle is a Lawyer who earns more than the husband, She can afford any luxury first lady or not. Some of her aids are those she had before the first lady issue. She pays most of them from her pocket. Our First Lady Patience ha been a house wife and never had any source of lively hood. She now has 3 vessels that transfer oil from the ship at sea to the deport

[size=16pt]Glenn Beck says First Lady Michelle Obama has 43 on her staff while Nancy Reagan had just 3[/size]

http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2011/mar/04/glenn-beck/glenn-beck-says-first-lady-michelle-obama-has-43-h/

[size=18pt]Obama Taking Entourage of 500 To Europe
[/size]

http://sandrarose.com/2009/03/obama-taking-entourage-of-500-to-europe/


[size=18pt]Obama and the G20 Summit: 500 Strong Superpower Entourage, Including “The Beast”[/size]

http://deathby1000papercuts.com/2009/03/obama-and-the-g20-summit-500-strong-superpower-entourage-including-the-beast/

An extraordinary entourage will accompany President Obama and his wife Michelle when they sweep into London tomorrow.
The team of at least 500 will include White House aides, a six-doctor medical team and a squad of personal chefs. There will be more than 200 secret service agents, many of them armed.
The President will travel in ‘The Beast’, his gigantic bomb-proof General Motors Cadillac with eight-inch thick armour-plating on its doors. The limousine will be accompanied by a motorcade of at least 20 vehicles plus a dozen police motorcycle outriders.



http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1389825/Obamas-Beast-Cadillac-flown-US-London-drive-Mall.html

@assetstrap Defend what? There is nothing to defend there. I am only correcting ur ignorance. As much as I do not subscribe to waste by any government, u should know whenit is waste and when it is normal. 32 people or like someone corrected, 57 people in the president's entourage is perfectly normal. From 100 could be questioned. especially when it is an African conference. You forget that the presidents and head of countries are more of ceremonial heads in these meetings. Their presence is to give credibility and weight to the issues. The real ground work is done by members of his team. There is absolutely nothing to defend here. The only reason it sounds bad is because some of you guys are trying to make it look that way

^^^Again you fail to use google though it is free. Where ve you ever seen a country commit the security of the first family in the hands of the host country. Why can't you guys learn to read? And who told u the 32 people are all security personel. In an international entourage, you have a cook, translators, protocol personnel, medical personel, and many more. You ve no clue at all. You just read a st.u.pid story from saharareporters and u come running ur fingers. A presidential entourage is a serious business. And for ur education, first families all over the world receive constant threats daily. Even in very peaceful countries.

@ola_pluto you tried to make sense but goofed along the way. Did anybody tell you a verification was done to ascertain those who were aides and those who were participants? Or you just rely on a junk article from an armchair journalist and you base your rant on it? Do you no how many security detail a president or members of the family go with anywhere in the world? Do you know the security threats they face daily? Obama travels with an entourage of over 300 people anytime he goes abroad and that excludes his advance party. Please read and learn and don't just follow the ignorant and bigot mob

Most of you are so ignorant and pathetic, I feel sorry for Nigeria. Do you even know what an AU summit entails? Have you ever attended any international conference? You think the other countries are going to come with less number of participants? I didn't know many Nigerians were this daft. You just come to a forum, real 2 lines of statements, and start doing the animal farm bleep. The last west african conference I attended had about 12 Nigerians attending. And we were not even high profile people. You think an AU summit is a jamboree? That Nigeria is having issues does not mean events like AU summit should not hold and everything should come to an end. And to say the presidents wife should not represent Nigeria in an event is not only stu.p.I'd but a show of bigotry. What does it matter if her english is bad? Does the president of wives of president of most europian countries speak good english? Some of you are so full of inferiority complex. Who says she has to speak good english? This is the reason oyibos call us monkeys. Pathetic

Kobojunkie:


Before you go calling others st.up.id, make sure you are not yourself presenting a silly argument.

He was asked if it was possible to negotiate with them, and he responds that they should come out and talk. It was recorded on video . . . and broadcasted all over the world on Aljazeera . . . yes, Goodluck Jonathan called on BokoHaram to come out and talk/ let them demands be known i,e Negotiate a deal  . . . a terrorist group, trying to impose itself on Nigerians, inflicting pain and death . . . a group that killed over 50 Nigerians last year, and have killed well over 250 this January 2012 alone . . to come out and make their demands known. Really? And you tag others are being stu_pid for stating this request from the president is s.tu_pid?

You are right about the Education system there . . . ROFLMAO!!

You are not doing yourself any good bro. Its a pity. Some of you are nothing but arm chair engineers or front desk personnel with zero knowledge of diplomatic processes. You think if Obama were asked the same question, he would respond differently? The reason they say America does not negotiate with terrorist is because terrorists make demands and issue threats to try to get their demands met. You think if hezbolla or Al qaeda were to annouce that they have ceased from violence and ask that the US should look into issues that they feel they are aggrieved about, the US will ignore them and say they dont negotiate with terrorists? You think if the question was put to Obama if there was a possibility they can discuss with Al Qaeda, he will say no?

You think you are intelligent, but you are far from being intelligent. Knowing how to connect wires or networking cables or passing MCSE is not the be all and know all you know. You should broadden your knowledge of life. Join a group and get enlightened bro.

Why are people in NL so stu.p.i.d? The man didnt say he wanted to negotiate with BH. He was simply responding to a question asking if it was possible to negotiate with them and he was stating the obvious that even if you intended to negotiate, it was virtually impossible because they were faceless.

Do we have to start explaining simply articles here in pidgin for some of you to understand?

Our educational system is really a mess!

@betathings point of correction. Nigerians do not make jest of their president. Bigot yoruba folks in the south west make jest of their president, especially when he is not yoruba. You think the rest of Nigeria behave like lagos folks? You must be very myopic. And for the records, you didn't even understand my post. I am simply saying you yoruba folks think insulting GEJ because he is not ur tribe is cool. Have u ever insulted Tinubu wit all the stealing of Lagos money? Did u insult fashola for increasing LASU school fees by over 1000 percent and by clamping down on innocent protesters? Of course not, because u are a tribal bigot