₦airaland Forum

L ionel Messi may not be the clear favourite to win the Ballon d'Or this year, but he claimed 48 percent of the votes in a poll organised by France Football, the organisers of the award.
Mohamed Salah was in second place, with 31 percent, and Cristiano Ronaldo was in third, with eight percent, before the online vote was then removed.
While public opinion doesn't factor into who wins the prize, France Football decided to take this vote down, angering many football fans.

https://www.marca.com/en/football/barcelona/2018/10/11/5bbf0990e2704e16058b45c9.html

Former Deputy National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Chief Olabode, has pleaded with the party’s stakeholders in the Southeast region to concede the position of running mate to Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, the party’s standard-bearer, to Southwest.

George, who made the appeal yesterday in a phone discussion with The Guardian, said it was imperative of the Southeast zone to concede the running mate slot to Southwest now on the grounds that in the event that Atiku wins the presidential election next year and takes eight years in office, whenever the pendulum shifts back to the South “the presidential slot would automatically go to Southeast.

“But if the region decides to take the vice president slot now, it would be awkward for it to say after spending eight years as running mate that it would go ahead to produce a president.


“Such calculation will not work, because a region cannot produce the vice president and president for 16 years running.”

George therefore appealed to the stakeholders in the Southeast to consider the future and on the benefit of doubt that the party would trash the ruling All Progressives Congress in the next general election, Igbo people should allow the Yoruba produce Atiku’s running mate.

The former deputy national chairman said: “Putting into consideration the importance of numbers in the coming election and the need to defeat APC, Southwest stand a better advantage in terms of registered number of voters.

https://t.guardian.ng/politics/concede-vp-slot-to-southwest-george-urges-southeast/

Christian group, Christians in Power Network, CIPN, has advised the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, and its flagbearer at the forthcoming 2019 general elections, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, to choose a former minister of aviation, Chief Femi Fani-Kayode, as their vice presidential candidate.
In a statement signed by Apostle Chikezie Onyekere and Pastor Solomon Ayuba, the organisation’s Coordinator and Secretary respectively, the group said “we predicate our advice on the fact that Chief Femi Fani-Kayode, unlike many Christians, is the one man who has stood firmly for the faith and has suffered immense persecution in the hands of the establishment because of this. He is one man many Christians believe has been ordained by God to rescue us from the hands of our relentless traducers and murderers”.
The statement continues: “The population and spread of Christians in Nigeria cut across regions and ethnicity. The greatest fear of Christians today is that of insecurity where priests, pastors and their members are wantonly killed, our churches continuously desecrated and destroyed, and our sources of livelihood wasted, we as Christians will not vote for any party that parades a Christian who cannot effectively represent our cause at the highest levels.
“Apart from the votes that Fani-Kayode would get from the southwest as one from there, he will also get massive votes across the nation and everywhere Christians are found because we have come to see him as our voice, not just us but also evry oppressed Nigerian irrespective of religion, ethnicity or party affiliation.
“This will be the masterstroke for both Atiku Abubakar and the PDP”.
“Fani-Kayode is loved for having been consistent in playing the roles of voice for the voiceless and defender of the defenceless without any immunity covering him even while those with one refused to speak up for the people.
“No doubt, an Atiku/Fani-Kayode presidency will be an ideal team that would tackle our economic crises and insecurity satisfactorily. We shall sensitise and mobilize our people massively to vote for the PDP at the presidential election should we be sure that we have a strong voice for us there. Fani-Kayode is widely loved across the major religions of the country.
He has spoken up for the Shiite Muslims who have suffered untold hardship in the hands of the current government. He has spoken up for Dasuki, a Fulani Muslim, who is being unjustly held in detention even after multiple valid court orders had granted him bail. He has also spoken up for Sheikh El Zakzaky who is suffering a similar fate to that of Dasuki etc. So no one can accuse him of religious bigotry.
“We pray Alhaji Atiku Abubabkar and PDP to strongly consider this advice if they want to make any inroad among our people with humongous population in the country.”

https://www.vanguardngr.com/2018/10/choose-fani-kayode-as-running-mate-group-tells-atiku-pdp/amp/

Pius Anyim has said his relationship with President Muhammadu Buhari transcends partisan politics and should not be seen as a prelude to his defection to the All Progressives Congress.

“My friendship with President Buhari transcends politics,” the former Senate President told PREMIUM TIMES by telephone Friday night.

Mr Anyim met with Mr Buhari in camera on Friday afternoon, an unusual and unexpected mingling in which many are already seeing a political undertone.

Similar visits by politicians who were not previously aligned with Mr Buhari often resulted in them defecting to his All Progressives Congress (APC).

Perhaps the biggest and most recent of such realignments came on August 8 when Godswill Akpabio, a PDP stalwart, moved to the APC.

Prior to the move, Mr Akpabio held talks with Mr Buhari, and later with other APC leaders, behind closed doors.

Mr Anyim was also once questioned by the anti-graft EFCC, but detectives did not immediately say whether they found anything incriminating he did while in office and no charges were filed.

Some politicians have been accused of moving to the APC to escape EFCC prosecution, but Mr Anyim assured that he was not joining the APC under any immediate circumstances.

“The idea that I met with the president to lay the groundwork for my defection does not arise at all,” he emphasised.

“I have been friends with the president for a long time and I will continue to be for a long time,” Mr Anyim added. “We can be friends without aligning politically.”



Mr Anyim said he had arrived in Port-Harcourt for the PDP national convention on Saturday.

“I came into Port-Harcourt this evening to participate in our national convention tomorrow,” he said.



https://www.premiumtimesng.com/news/top-news/288637-why-i-met-buhari-in-private-pius-anyim.html

Bureau de change operators especially those located opposite Hotel Presidential Port Harcourt are having a hectic time attending to hundreds of customers suspected to be PDP delegates who are crowding around them to exchange money.
One of the foreign exchange operator opposite Hotel Presidential , Musa Danladi said he attended to more than 50 persons as of 4.00pm on Friday.

https://www.dailytrust.com.ng/pdp-convention-delegates-besiege-bureau-de-change.html

2019 would be interesting

https://www.vanguardngr.com/2018/10/obiano-commends-buhari-on-suspended-nigeria-air/

Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar is still very confident of his chances despite the glaring wish of Nyesom Wike, Governor Rivers State, for Aminu Tambuwal, former Speaker of the House of Representatives, to emerge the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
The PDP presidential primary holds on Saturday in Port Harcourt, Rivers State — a venue that was single-handedly picked by Wike, who is currently the ex-ruling party’s financier.
A source very close to Wike told SaharaReporters on Thursday that Wike intends to “do everything” to ensure Tambuwal emerges victor.
“The idea is to give everything to help Tambuwal get the ticket,” said the source, who asked not to be named.
“And this shouldn’t be too difficult because Wike controls PDP now. He is the biggest spender; he is the moneybag. He is the one holding PDP financially. He is backing Tambuwal and he will succeed in it.”
SaharaReporters understands that despite all his presidential posturing, Bukola Saraki and his team understand that their chances are limited, and the plan, in any case, was always to make a statement because the presidential ticket is out of reach.
“Saraki will not get it because he can’t go far, and we know all of these things,” said a source from Saraki’s camp. “I think Saraki is just trying to make a statement. We know he doesn’t stand a chance of getting the ticket. It is between Atiku and Tambuwal.”
Atiku, meanwhile, is “feeling very good” and is "banking on the next 48 hours" to turn the tide against frontrunner Tambuwal.
“The assumption has always been that Tambuwal will easily get the ticket,” a source in Atiku’s camp told SaharaReporters, “but I believe a lot of things have taken place in the last 48 hours in such a way that events may not play out as people think. You just watch out what will happen in the next 48 hours. And I can tell you that for now, we’re looking very good.”
Pressed on what exact strategy would be explored in the 48 hours, he said: "No chance. No chance. Don't let me jinx it. YOu will know at the eleventh hour."

http://saharareporters.com/2018/10/04/exclusive-atiku-banking-next-48-hours-beat-tambuwal-pdps-presidential-ticket

The President, Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Samson Ayokunle, on Monday defended Berom Christians over the Dura-Du pond incident. It will be recalled that the car of a missing Muslim general, Idris Alkali, was found at the bottom of a pond after the army forcefully drained it. More than 500 Berom women had made spirited efforts to stop the army from draining the pond by staging protests half nude near the pond.
Reacting to this development, the Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC) expressed disappointment.
In a press statement signed by its director, Professor Ishaq Akintola, the organization said, “We note with serious concern that CAN president stopped short of condemning the Berom Christian terrorists. This is very disappointing. It is jejune, puerile and insipid. CAN is defending the indefensible. It would have been better to keep mute if the Christian umbrella body could not denounce or disown its own.
“Why can’t CAN condemn Berom terrorists the same way that Muslims condemned Boko Haram? Nigerian Muslims washed their hands off Boko Haram terrorists even when they attacked Christians. We did not wait until they attacked Muslims before condemning them. But CAN president wants to pamper Berom Christian terrorists even when it is evident that they have been responsible for the killing of hundreds of their Muslim neighbours and other Muslims and Fulanis who were mere travelers passing through the axis.
“Nigerian security agencies were able to encircle Boko Haram terrorists and they were able to restrict their activities to a small area within Borno because Nigerian Muslims wasted no time in denouncing and disowning them. For failing to condemn Berom terrorists, CAN president may be nurturing a killing machine. Berom terrorists are capable of growing into a more vicious terrorist group whose deadly tentacles will spread to all nooks and cranies of Nigeria.
“CAN president is joining forces with Berom women who protested that soldiers should not come near the pond. The women lied that it was their only source of drinking water when there are more than thirty similar ponds around the vicinity. When that failed to stop the soldiers, they tried the superstition angle claiming that strange deaths would start to occur in the community if the pond was drained but this is a community of Christians, not one filled with idol worshippers.
“What has CAN president said about the missing general? What has he to say about the general’s car that was found right at the bottom of the same pond where the wives of terrorists protested deceptively? What of the other four cars that were found inside the same pond? What do the findings mean to him?
“Furthermore, Ayodele was quick to condemn the action of security agents but found it difficult to condemn the Berom Christian terrorists who perpetrated the atrocity. It is double standard of the highest order. We are stupefied.
“To add salt to injury, CAN president referred to the missing general as “a missing ex-soldier”. That is an unforgivable understatement. Ayokunle should know that General Alkali (rtd) is more than an ordinary ex-soldier. This is a whole army general for crying out loud and he dismisses him as “a missing ex-soldier”. General Alkali was the Chief of Administration in the Nigerian Army up till the time of his retirement. We take exception to this attempt to trivialize the issue.
“Afterall we know how CAN regularly mobilizes retired Christian army officers to intimidate the entire nation. While we find no need to do the same thing with retired Muslim officers, we are worried that the CAN president attempted to equate the general with an ordinary recruit.
“We are constrained by the latest development, to caution both serving and retired senior military and police officers who are Muslims to take extra security measures around them, to avoid regimented pattern of life and, where possible, to avoid taking the same routes everyday”.
Speaking further, Akintola urged the army to make safety of Plateau highways its priority. “The Nigerian Army should make it impossible for the Beroms to block the highways in future. It is a barbaric behavior. Community clashes happen everywhere in Nigeria but the combatants have never been known to block the highway and start killing innocent travelers.
“Berom community has taken on Nigerian Muslims. They stop vehicles on the highways, pull out Fulanis and Muslims in such vehicles and kill them. Their vehicles are dumped in the ponds. Another 18-seater bus was found at the bottom of the Dura-Du pond yesterday. Anybody can guess the whereabouts of the occupants. There is no gainsaying at this point that Nigerian Muslims need protection from Berom Christian cannibals.
“This is a very irrational behavior although we are not surprised because any community which jointly participated in the killing, roasting and eating of hundreds of other human beings can never be normal again. We recall the massacre of hundreds of Jos Muslims in 2001 and the gruesome killing of Muslim worshippers (at the Id ground during Salah) whose bodies were then roasted and eaten up in 2011. Nobody was tried for this genocide by Jang’s militia men. Cannibalism has taken its natural toll on Beroms. This community needs to be quarantined for some time in order to undergo rehabilitation. Our hearts bleed for children who are growing up in that community.
“We urge Muslims all over Nigeria to prepare a record of all their missing members for the past twenty years. This can be done through their local mosques. We must collate the statistics of all Muslims who used to pray regularly in our mosques but who disappeared suddenly without explanation or who travelled and did not return. The details should be sent to the headquarters of the Jama’at Nasril Islam (JNI) in Kaduna or to any major Islamic organization closest to the mosque for onward transmission to the JNI.
“In our concluding remarks, we charge the military to sustain its action in the Berom community. The killers and their sponsors must be found and dealt with according to the law. To find General Idris Alkali (rtd) dead or alive is a task that must be done. The Nigerian military has never been known to cowardly abandon a good cause or forsake camaraderie. There is no better way to prove the army’s professionalism and gallantry than in this case. We also call for coordinated security measures that will ensure that the Berom are never able to block Plateau highways again. We urge CAN to rope in its wild Berom terrorists instead of seeking to extenuate their crimes”.
Professor Ishaq Akintola,
Director,
Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC)

Aspirants on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party for its Kogi West Senatorial District ticket have vowed to work against the party in the 2019 general elections .
The aspirants in Abuja on Saturday protested what they called their unjust disqualification by the party from the race .
They , however , vowed not to quit the party but work against it in the 2019 elections , should the party leaders fail to do the needful over the alleged injustice they claimed had been meted to them .
In a statement in Abuja on Saturday , the aspirants also accused the President of the Senate, Dr. Bukola Saraki, of being the architect of their last - minute disqualification.
They said they were meted with the treatment in order to pave the way for Senator Dino Melaye who recently defected to the party from the All Progressives Congress .
The disqualified aspirants are a member of the House of Representatives , Sunday Karimi; a one time Speaker of the state House of Assembly and former Acting Governor of the state , Mr. Clement Obafemi ; a two -time member of the state House of Assembly , Mr . Henry Ojuola and a former member of the State House of Assembly and former Chairman of Yagba East Local Government of the State respectively , Mr. Oreniya Salaudeen.

https://punchng.com/2019-crisis-hits-kogi-pdp-as-aspirants-accuse-saraki-of-favouring-melaye/

Wike: We know those PDP presidential aspirants who are agents of PDP. We know them. The presidency and the APC have planted people within our party, and we know it. They planted Modu Sheriff and we fell for it.

Who could this moles be?

"Blood money" over there is the money one pays to the family of the person one killed. It is usually very extensive, usually equivalent to the price of 100 matured camels.

Dash Banks 7 billion dollars fa

In his statement on Thursday, Mr Abubakar rhetorically asked, “How uncompromising a President can be when he allows a minister accused of forgery to remain at her job?”

https://www.premiumtimesng.com/news/headlines/282803-adeosungate-atiku-knocks-buhari-on-ministers-forged-certificate.html

I see

So after PDP has gone through the rigours of choosing one from its multitude of candidates, that person would still compete with other 38 Aspirants from the other parties to become consensus candidate.

NonsoWow:
Atiku and Saminu Turaki are two of those who have indicated interest in APGA presidential ticket, though discreetly. 2019 will be a spectacle to behold.

You and I know that Turaki is not the "heavy-weight politician".

. However Daily Post gathered that the party was targeting a particular Northern presidential candidate, who a source described as a heavy-weight politician.
“The aspirant is not in APGA for now, he is in another party, but it is hoped that he would move to APGA if he is unable to secure the ticket of his current party.”

They look very healthy, you did a nice job.

Sadly it happened just as I predicted. Many people have abandoned their cassava farm because of very low prices. A farmer was complaining that a buyer was pricing an acre of her cassava farm twenty five thousand naira. With the massive scale cassava was planted last year, I doubt if the price of cassava would go up for five years.

Federal government that have been encouraging people to go to the farm should come their aid. Federal government should provide means for the surplus cassava to be exported.

sky4r:
please will this method reduce the plant yield?.

We use this method in our commercial ugu production and there is no reduction in yield.

Asquare84:
Thank you my brother for the advice. What I want to venture in to again is native fowl I already have a cock and a hen but I am planning to add more since it very much cheaper in my area

That's great, they multiple like crazy especially if you have a good hen that is good at taking care of her chicks.

Asquare84:
Let me share my ugu garden experience

One day I was coming back from office I decided to buy ugu seedling for 200 naira which is Eight seedling in number

I went back home and planted them out of the eight seedling seven generate successfully

Few week later I discovered that one of the seed that did not germinate was uprooted by rat and kept inside the block, but later on it germinate on it own

Finally the ugu has matured and their is no food I eat now without enough vegetables

The only challenge I have is rat do plug it occasionally.

And the most unique part is that my Neigbour planted the same ugu but without success

I thank God

Attach are with picture of the ugu

Beautiful, food harvested from one's garden taste sweetest. As for the rat, you could place rat poison close by.

You cold expand your garden by planting other vegetables like pepper.

Also there are many Universities in the east and South south where there are no mosques for the Muslim students to pray. One of such is Michael Opara university of agricultural. In this universities lecture/exams hold during time for Muslim Friday prayers.

PDP has many presidential aspirants, Iwuanyanwu, Ihedioha shouldn't have declared support Atiku. They should have just said good thing about him and say good things about any other aspirant that comes to them.

These are a huge majority of the 12.7 million people who voted for Buhari in 2003 or the 12.2 million who did in 2011. In the last three years, nothing has changed about Buhari’s popularity in the North. As seen by the mammoth crowds that welcomed him during his recent visits to Bauchi, Jigawa and Kano, Buhari is still the most loved northerner alive. Pure, blind love.

Enough said

Shukuakukobambi:
Yes na

I believe Atiku. He's a pious man. He doesn't lie

I believe you

Shukuakukobambi:
Tambuwal should step down since Atiku has promised to do just one term

One term....

Who will step down for who?

This man and pain self.

"In the last three years, nothing has changed about Buhari’s popularity in the North. As seen by the mammoth crowds that welcomed him during his recent visits to Bauchi, Jigawa and Kano, Buhari is still the most loved northerner alive."

Enough said.

netting the opener against their U19 side in a friendly on Sunday.