It is safe to predict the Buhari/Osinbajo ticket will receive major lead from the Northwest and the Southwest, while managing an appreciable showing in the Northeast.

A comfortable lead is a risky prediction for the Buhari/Obi ticket in the North Central, as there is a rising disaffection with the ruling party in the zone.

Apart from the farmers/herdsmen crisis that has left the people of the zone frustrated, especially in Benue and Plateau States, the lack lustre performance of Governor Yahaya Bello of Kogi since his lucky emergence as governor of the state, may hurt the chances of President Buhari.

Also, Kwara will be a major battleground for the presidential election, as Senate President Bukola Saraki, will want to do all that is possible to retain his political hold on the state. Saraki’s resolution notwithstanding, the ‘Otoge’ movement sweeping across the state threatens his grip and bolsters President Buhari’s chances. Minister of Information, Lai Mohammed, who hails from the state, has also been working with opposition forces to ensure an APC victory.

The victory of the APC in the House of Representatives by-election, against Saraki’s candidate recently, may well be a sign of things to come.

These developments notwithstanding, some political pundits still believe that Saraki’s political structure may survive defeat, even if narrowly.

All things considered, the North-Central may determine who wins the February 16 election.

Another 2015 looming?
Many believe the 2015 presidential election was largely won, not only because all the 15 million Nigerians who voted for President Muhammadu Buhari believed in him, but many just wanted former President Goodluck Jonathan voted out by all means.

There was widespread discontent with the Jonathan administration and in the words of former President Olusegun Obasanjo, “anybody except Jonathan” would do. This drove many to vote President Buhari, giving him victory in his fourth attempt at the presidency.

The scenario in 2019 seems similar with that of 2015, as there is a growing sense that millions of Nigerians daily complain of hunger, poverty, insecurity and unemployment.

Will Nigerians, in a move reminiscent to the 2015 election, vote out another incumbent over the growing disaffection in the land? Can the widespread sentiment of growing hunger, poverty, insecurity and unemployment in the country lead to a protest vote against President Buhari?

The answers to these questions are not simple. For Nigerians who have been more hit by the growing rate of insecurity, especially in the North-Central, a protest vote against Buhari is a real possibility.

However, the cult-like following the president enjoys in the Northeast, where the Boko Haram insurgency holds sway, and in the core north, may be too strong to change the tide.

Some supporters of the president in the northeast argue that there have been improvements in security in the region since 2015. Others across the core north also commend the president for his investment in agriculture and infrastructure.

Generally, some Nigerians who supported the election of President Buhari in 2015 have backtracked, campaigning for a change of guard at the presidency, while others have dug in. The president has also gained new supporters especially in previously uncharted territories of the Southeast and South-South.

What this portends for Buhari’s chances at the polls is yet to be seen.

Full analysis here: https://www.ripplesnigeria.com/ripples-nigeria-2019-election-forecast-predicting-winner/

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on Monday revealed that it has uncovered a scheme by hackers attempting to alter card readers ahead of the 2019 elections.

INEC said the hackers were collecting Voter Identification Numbers (VINs) with the plan to preload card readers for the elections.

The commission also raised the alarm over “new tricks” of vote buying making the rounds.

INEC Chairman Mahmood Yakubu disclosed this in Abuja at the presentation of the Voter Register for the 2019 general elections to political parties.

Yakubu said that the commission had received credible information that some political actors were going around buying up Permanent Voter Cards from voters or financially inducing them to collect the Voter Identification Numbers on their PVCs.

“In some instances, telephone numbers and details of bank accounts of voters have been collected. By collecting the PVCs, their intention may be to deprive the voters of voting since no one can vote without the PVC.

“By collecting their phone numbers and bank details, the intention is to induce voters by electronic transfer of funds to their accounts since it will be difficult to buy votes at polling units.

“By collecting the VINs, they may be acting on the mistaken notion that our system can be hacked and the Card Readers somehow preloaded ahead of the election and compromised.

Ful details here: https://www.ripplesnigeria.com/2019-hackers-trying-to-preload-card-readers-inec/

Nigeria needs a leader who knows economics, ‘even Jesus understood the economy’— Obasanjo

Former president Olusegun Obasanjo says Nigeria needs a president who understands economics.

Obasanjo said this on Tuesday at the Foursquare Gospel Church annual public lecture in Lagos.

The former president cited the view of his late friend, Helmut Schmidt, a former chancellor of Germany, who said if the people in Africa are to make it, all their political leaders must have good grasp of economics.

He also referenced Bishop Matthew Kukah’s lecture in which he claimed that even Jesus understood the economy

He said there must be a balance of politics, faith and economy for the country to get it right.

“There is no doubt at all that if we have to get it right the three (economy, faith and politics) must go together,” he said.

“One of my international friends, the late Helmut Schmidt, who was a former Chancellor of Germany – he died at the age of 96 about three years ago, I was at the burial – and he said if we in Africa have to make it, all our political leaders must have good grounding in economy.

full details: https://www.ripplesnigeria.com/nigeria-needs-a-leader-who-knows-economics-even-jesus-understood-the-economy-obasanjo/

President Muhammadu Buhari on Tuesday wrote to the Senate seeking approval to raise $2.78 billion Eurobonds as part of the capital funding for the 2018 national budget, even as the nation’s external debt kept rising.

The Eurobond offering, which is the fifth in less than two years, is expected to be sourced from the International Capital Market.

An Eurobond is a special debt instrument issued in a currency different from the currency of the country or the market in which the bond is issued.

The latest demand of President Buhari would bring the total recent Eurobond offering to $9.78 billion, having obtained a total of $4.5 billion Eurobond in 2017 and another $2.5 billion Eurobond in February 2018.

The President of the Senate, Bukola Saraki, made Buhari’s intention known while reading the President’s letter at the plenary on Tuesday, the first sitting in more than two months after the National Assembly embarked on its annual recess which began on July 25.

According to the letter, the President wants the resolutions of the National Assembly to raise new external capital raising of $2.786 billion mainly to fund the N9.12 trillion 2018 budget signed into law on June 20, 2018.

The Senate President said Buhari also sought Senate approval for additional external capital raising of $82.54 million to refinance the balance of $500 million matured Eurobond in the international capital market.

Buhari said the requests were pursuant to Section 21(1) and 27(1) of the Debt Management Office (Establishment, Etc.) Act of 2003.

full details:https://www.ripplesnigeria.com/2018-budget-buhari-to-borrow-2-8bn-eurobonds-the-fifth-in-2-years/

Ceaseless blood-letting appears the order of the day. The latest occurred on Friday when bandits killed at least 29 people in attacks on four villages in Maradun Local Government Area of Zamfara
State.
Ripples Nigeria gathered that dozens of motorcycle-riding gunmen stormed the villages, firing at residents. Seven people were reported killed at Yan’ kamoji, nine at Sabon Gida, 11 at Tubali and two at Kaya village.


Full details : https://www.ripplesnigeria.com/2200-nigerians-die-nothing-buharis-watch/

Rotimi Amaechi, one time governor of Rivers State and now Minister of Transportation, is in the eye of the storm. The claims against him are damning, if stories told by aggrieved persons prove authentic anytime soon.

On Thursday, October 20, Justice Sylvester Ngwuta of the Supreme Court accused him of being behind his travails in the hands of the Department of State Services, DSS.

Ngwuta, one of the judges arrested by the DSS in a nationwide clampdown of senior judges in the country over allegations of corrupt practices and professional misconduct, in a letter to the Chief Justice of the Federation, Justice Mahmud Mohammed, indicated that his sin is his refusal to be compromised in the election petition appeals emanating from Ekiti, Ebonyi and Rivers states as proposed by Amaechi.

“My present plight”, he said, “started sometime between 2013 and 2014. I represented the then Chief Justice of Nigeria in an event…Hon. Rotimi Amaechi came in late and sat next to me at the high table…we exchanged contacts. A few weeks after, Fayose’s case

Full Details: https://www.ripplesnigeria.com/dirty-wars-battle-abia-aibom/

In this second part of the serial, Ripples Nigeria presents the concluding part of the findings from an investigative trip to Osun State to ascertain the fate of the Opon-Imo (Tablet of knowledge) introduced by the Rauf Aregbesola administration, as part of efforts to improve education in the state, but which has turned out to be a sham.

 

The brains behind the scam

Further investigation by Ripples Nigeria showed that Kabiru Aregbesola, the state governor’s first son, may be the brain behind the Opon-Imo project.

“But you cannot see Kabiru, who you’ll see is Bamgbo Bashorun. He is Kabiru’s best friend and a son to Aregbesola’s best friend, Chief Bashorun, whose first name I can’t remember at the moment,” a source alleged.

Bashorun, the project director of Opon-Imo, who is also seen as its Chief Executive Officer, our source alleged, was only a figure head, insisting that Aregbesola and his son Kabiru control Opon-Imo. “They are the ones in charge of it,” the source maintained.

Mr Ajao supporting this claim stated, “At one of the presentations, it took the intervention of a very high ranking chieftain of APC for us to know that the son of our governor was the one in charge of the contract of Opon-Imo. He revealed that Kabiru Aregbesola was the man in charge after he asked him to stand up.”

Full Details : https://www.ripplesnigeria.com/investigation-aregbesola-scam-called-opon-imo-2/

For the citizens of Osun, wearing the toga of a backward educational state has become a burden too shameful to carry. It is an open sore, a subject discussed in hush agonizing tones. Ripples Nigeria, in this two-part serial, digs in to find out why Osun, a centre of learning and Yoruba cultural heritage has slipped into 29th position out of 36 on the scale of educational performance in Nigeria.



Here is the big read:

Opon-Imo (Tablet of Knowledge), an e-learning device which was to solve ‘all’ educational needs of Senior Secondary School students of Osun State, introduced by Governor Rauf Aregbesola, may have become one of the biggest known scams in Osun’s educational history.



This is because, rather than solve the educational needs of the state and cut cost in the sector as promised by Aregbesola upon its inauguration, the project has rather compounded the educational problems of the state, leaving with it ugly situations that the state may have to battle with for a long time.



Billions of naira budgeted for the production and procurement of the tablets may very well have gone down the drain, or into private pockets.

Full details : https://www.ripplesnigeria.com/investigation-aregbesola-scam-called-opon-imo-1/

1. The University of Lausanne (aka UNIL) in Switzerland offers the UNIL Master’s Scholarship Grants to international students wishing to pursue a Masters Degree at the University.

2. ETH Zurich Scholarship Awards for International Applicants

3. 2017/18 Maria Pia Gratton International Award for Female Scholars

Details: http://techbrain.com.ng/top-10-full-scholarships-study-abroad-grants-bursaries-fellowships-strictly-africans/2/

1. 2017 UNIL Master’s Scholarship Grants For International applicant

2. ETH Zurich Scholarship Awards for International Applicants



3. 2017/18 Maria Pia Gratton International Award for Female Scholars

Full details : http://techbrain.com.ng/top-10-full-scholarships-study-abroad-grants-bursaries-fellowships-strictly-africans/

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