₦airaland Forum

http://nationalmirroronline.net/new/who-should-you-support-in-an-argument-between-your-mother-and-your-spouse/
http://nationalmirroronline.net/new/who-should-you-support-in-an-argument-between-your-mother-and-your-spouse/

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Stand up to mum

Arguments come and go but relationships remain the same. Getting along and managing disputes between your spouse and your mother for a man is one of the biggest challenges of married life. It is basically the art of swimming between the devil and the wide blue sea in a body of water infested with so many pitfalls and sharks.

If it seems you are supporting one or the other whether openly or otherwise you are in trouble. And if you don’t show support for either again you are in trouble. No matter what you do or say, you may end up being the one to bear the brunt of the fight in the end.

Being a man connotes a lot of expectations from these two women in your life and sometimes those expectations may overlap and cause confusion and disagreements or are a source for all out conflicts. Being a loyal son or husband entails learning how to jostle your loyalty between the two of them daily.

Becoming truly independent from our parents to be able to take a non-judgmental decision on our own is one of the first steps to becoming a man for us as individuals. A man needs to grow up and start making decisions on his own outside external influences of both our families and spouse.

The mark of truly being the “MAN” in a relationship is to be pro-active in treating potential issues that may cause conflicts even before they come up. It is easier for one’s mother and spouse to get along more if these issues have been eliminated before they come up. Once you have removed the need for both of them to be competing for your loyalty, they both will become more reasonable to sitting down to discussing issues that may create conflict. On the other hand, most women once they have become someone’s wife, starts immediately to defend what she believes is her turf.

She’ll fight tooth and nail to protect what she believes are her interests and for her, her man is her number one interest. She automatically forgets that the man is also someone else’s child and loyalty is expected from the man to his mother. She wants to have it all and be the man’s center of the universe. She wants his moon to revolve around her.

In as much as there’s nothing wrong with that and in fact is expected of, she also has to learn the act of being tolerant and a lot of times overlooking the acts and idiosyncrasies of her motherin- law.

For many people and in situations like these, the period of the argument will most probably be a time of heightened emotions because at this point it may be a lot difficult to think clearly and verbal missiles may be thrown at each other which may be very difficult to clear at the end of the argument.

Therefore, when reprimanding any of them, serious care has to be taken not to do so in the presence of the other. Doing so will definitely make the other person feel that you are biased and the hurt feelings will continue to simmer below the surface until a new situation erupts and the vicious circle will start all over again. Most times arguments between our mother and our spouse are really silly and are just a way of competing to see who really has a grip over our heart or a turf war for our loyalty.

For me, the question is why should there be a priority for my loyalty between the two of them in the first place. I believe both of them have different roles to play in my life so my judgement will definitely be with whoever is in concert with my understanding of the particular issue on ground.

While every man cannot really do without the love and affection of his mother, he should know the difference between loving his mother and standing up to her while saying and acting the truth as he sees it.

As much as I love my mother, I cannot allow her to interfere in my personal life to the extent that it may affect my marriage. I’m someone who really believes in drawing the line when it comes to this.
Play mediator

In our culture, it is usual for mothers to visit their children and spend some days/ weeks/months with them at their matrimonial homes.

This could be on the birth of a child or just any kind of visit. In some cases, mothers actually live in their children’s matrimonial homes. In such scenarios, one cannot completely rule out disagreements, which are of varying kinds.

In fact, people anticipate and ‘prepare’ for such disagreements because of the “mother-in-law wahala” mindset which most people have. Just like wise people always say: human beings will always have cause to disagree because no two people are the same.

We differ in our ideologies, likes, dislikes, priorities and principles; when these clash, disagreements are almost inevitable. In the same vein, a marriage is comprised of two people and their families from different backgrounds, ideologies, cultures, etc; they are bound to disagree from time to time. We should not forbid disagreements between someone and his/her spouse’s mother, but ideally, such disagreements should not escalate to fighting matches or unending malice. My stance is that no disagreement should lead anyone to the point where he has to ‘choose’ between his/her mother and his/her spouse.

Unfortunately, this happens very often. I do not believe in taking sides, but I believe that if it comes to a point where it seems you must, you should handle the matter in such a way that you show your spouse that he/she is priority.

Do not get me wrong; I am not saying that you should throw your mother into a trash can, but the truth is that the marriage bond is something you must protect. Your mother will always be your mother and the truth is that once your spouse sees that you have got his/her back, you can compel him/ her to apologise to your mother and work towards a more healthy relationship with her.

On the contrary, if you damn your spouse for your mother’s sake, you will be putting your marriage in a bad state and you may not be able to help your spouse and mother build a good relationship.

Ideally, it is your job to paint a good picture of your spouse before your mother and vice versa. Some people may not know or acknowledge this, but the truth is that if you do your ‘relationship management’ job well, you can bring disagreements between your mother and your spouse to the barest minimum.

It is not a crime to disagree of issues, but there is no reason why a disagreement between a mother and her son/daughterin- law should escalate into a heated argument which will require her child’s services as a referee.

For me, anyway, the best thing to do when you sense friction or witness an argument between your mother and your spouse is to play the role of a mediator/peacemaker. Simple! Always regulate your mind to acknowledge that there should be no basis for competition or the need to choose between your mother and your spouse.

You could call them two parallel lines which should never clash or two separate compartments in your heart which work together to keep the heart pumping, but never have cause to clash.

Assure them that you love each of them specially and that you need them to have a seamless relationship. So whose side should you take when your mother and your spouse ensue in an argument? Neither!



http://nationalmirroronline.net/new/who-should-you-support-in-an-argument-between-your-mother-and-your-spouse/
http://nationalmirroronline.net/new/who-should-you-support-in-an-argument-between-your-mother-and-your-spouse/

http://nationalmirroronline.net/new/i-want-to-date-tonto-dike-toolz-yvonne-nelson-wande-coal/
http://nationalmirroronline.net/new/i-want-to-date-tonto-dike-toolz-yvonne-nelson-wande-coal/

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One artist who is very vocal presently is Rotate singer Wande Coal. He hardly lets a week go by that he doesn’t make one comment or the other that will certainly get him in the news.

The latest comment from him is that he’ll like to date the actresses Yvonne Nelson and Tonto Dike and the on-air personality Toolz. Coal has become very vocal since his easy separation from Mavin Records and easy escape from Don Jazzy’s allegation that he stole Jazzy’s song, Babyface.

Normally, Coal has not been a really vocal person, but the song stealing allegation seemed to loosen his vocal cords, as, in reacting to the allegation, he said a lot and hasn’t stopped talking since then. Responding then to Jazzy, he asked why Jazzy was jealous of his success even though he had served him for years.

Afterwards, he disclosed that he was never signed on to Jazzy’s label, Mavin Records, hence his easy exit from the label. After that, he said there’s no beef between him and Jazzy and that he’ll hug him if he sees him.

His latest is however the hottest from him so far and it is only hoped that it won’t get him into trouble as one of the three ladies he’s eyeing is in a serious relationship but the other two are available and keep being linked with various men.

http://nationalmirroronline.net/new/i-want-to-date-tonto-dike-toolz-yvonne-nelson-wande-coal/
http://nationalmirroronline.net/new/i-want-to-date-tonto-dike-toolz-yvonne-nelson-wande-coal/

http://nationalmirroronline.net/new/10-types-of-sex-that-may-not-be-good-for-you/
http://nationalmirroronline.net/new/10-types-of-sex-that-may-not-be-good-for-you/


Think you know the difference between healthy and unhealthy sex? See if you’ve ever participated in any of the following…and if it was good or bad for you.

1. FIRST DATE SEX

There are no rules as to when a person should or should not have sex. If you’re feeling frisky after a few drinks on the first date or even want to have a one-night-stand, that’s your business. But for some, sex on the first date can make you feel used, dirty or bad about yourself the next day. When it comes to deciding on having sex on the first night, let your instincts be your guide and be safe about it. Just be sure you’re comfortable with your decision, whatever it is.

2. BREAK-UP SEX

You may be saying to each other, “Let’s just do it once for old time’s sake,” but that could just make the break up worse than it already is. Most people who want to have break-up sex are still trying to hold on in some way, which can only make the break-up linger longer than it should. Either decide to break up, break ties completely and move on, or stop playing around and decide if breaking up is really what you want to do. If not, then work it out. If it is a breakup, no more goodies. Even if you feel like you can move on after sex, the other person may still be in his or her feelings and you don’t want to take the other person on an emotional roller coaster. Don’t do it.

3. MAKE-UP SEX

Make-up sex can be fun, but it can be damaging in the long run if every argument is settled this way. If you have sex after you’ve come to a resolution to the conflict, then rock out! But if you both gloss over the issue by having sex just to shut the other person up or avoid the issuealtogether, chances are you’ll just keep arguing over the same thing and never come up with a solution. Some couples can function this way, and thriving on conflict is what keeps their relationship exciting. But chances are this can’t go on forever before one of you starts to feel resentful, cheated or dismissed. Also, some men or women may purposely start some ish JUST to have make-up sex because they think that’s the best sex. If you really don’t like confrontation or drama, make-up sex may only create more of it.

4. “DON’T LEAVE ME!” SEX

This is the desperate sex you have when you want to keep a man after he’s said that he’s leaving you or wants to break up. It’s that feeble attempt to save the relationship hoping that the man will realize all that good loving he’ll be missing if he leaves and no one can put it on him like you do. Chile please. Sex may get a man, but it won’t keep him. And if you think that’s all you have to offer him so that he’ll stay or that’s the only thing he’ll be missing about you, then you need to let him go so you can work on building yourself up.

5. PEER PRESSURE SEX

If you had sex because your friends are doing it or because you were being teased for being a 22-year-old virgin, then you probably didn’t enjoy it. Sex usually isn’t the greatest the first time anyway, so it’s best to wait until you are ready to do the do for the first time. Also, if a man says he’s not waiting anymore because it’s been three weeks and you still haven’t given him the cookies, don’t give in. If he’s not willing to wait, he’s undeserving of your love and sex anyway.

6. REBOUND SEX

You may think that having sex with the next guy you meet after a bad break-up will make you feel better, but chances are it won’t. Now, if it’s been months since you ended a relationship and are in a rut, then getting busy with someone new can bring about a sense of renewed confidence by feeling desired by another man. Sex can be a stress reliever too, so having sex with the next best thing may have its benefits at first to loosen you up. But if you’re looking to the rebound guy to fill a void before you’ve healed from a previous relationship, rebound sex may only make you feel worse.

7. DRUNK SEX

Some people like having sex while they’re inebriated because the alcohol helps them to lose their inhibitions and be freaky all night long. I can see how that might work. But drinking too much has also caused many men and women to make bad judgement calls when choosing who to sleep with, where, and even engaging in risky behavior – like not using condoms. Some say that alcohol also dampens sensation, decreases their ability to climax and some men say that they have a hard time getting it up when they’re drunk. If you plan on having sex, have just one or two drinks. If you don’t plan on having sex, don’t get so drunk that you wind up doing something you’ll regret.

8. PITY SEX

Having sex because you feel sorry for someone is just lame. Even if they don’t know it’s pity sex, you do…and it only makes you just as pathetic as they are. You may be making him feel better but what about you? If that person can’t get sex on his own, it’s probably for a reason. Don’t be the cornball who gives in to someone else’s shortcomings.

9. OBLIGATORY SEX

Obligatory sex usually happens when one partner doesn’t feel like doing it, or may no longer enjoy it, but feels he or she needs to do it anyway – not out of pity, but out of duty. He wants sex morning, noon and night and tells you it’s your “job” to make sure all his needs are met…or someone else will. If that’s the case, you should tell him to kick rocks. This kind of sex can lead to feelings of resentment and eventually, you’ll reach your boiling point and blow up. If you don’t feel like it, don’t do it, especially if it’s to the point where it feels like a chore. Explain to him how you feel and ask him to be respectful of your feelings. If he can’t understand that, then too bad. Regular sex is important to a relationship, but if you’re tired, sick or just need a break, tell him to buzz off until you feel up to it. However, if you NEVER feel up to sex, there may be something else going on that’ll need attention from a doctor or therapist.

10. ADULT VIDEO SEX

This type of sex happens when you or your man have watched too many adult videos and think that sex is supposed to be this reverse-cowgirl, flying from the chandeliers type of event EVERY SINGLE TIME you two get busy. Word of advice, don’t believe all the hype you see on these videos. They don’t have marathon sex, not all women scream like banshees and not everyone is limber or in shape enough to execute all of those twisted up sex positions. There is nothing wrong with experimenting and learning some new tricks, but be realistic. You and your partner can get creative and try what the other likes or wants without breaking a hip. “Regular” sex is just fine too.



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http://nationalmirroronline.net/new/10-types-of-sex-that-may-not-be-good-for-you/
http://nationalmirroronline.net/new/10-types-of-sex-that-may-not-be-good-for-you/

http://nationalmirroronline.net/new/do-you-need-privacy-in-your-marriage/
http://nationalmirroronline.net/new/do-you-need-privacy-in-your-marriage/


Yes

Everyone requires and deserves a little space in marriage and that little space may be what is actually required to grow the relationship and take it to the next level.

For a few people and myself included, being open and honest with my partner doesn’t mean that all thoughts, dreams, fears and fantasies must be shared without a conscious effort to censor some of those things.

Every man and woman for me deserves to have privacy. We do not only need it but, it’s a requirement for a healthy and normal emotional relationship growth.

Honesty as has been said by a lot of people older than me who I have interacted with on this issue even while growing up, is a double edged sword because knowing what to share and what not to share is an important communication skill that a lot of married couples must learn to use in their relationship.

The right to privacy is an embedded right which helps to expand your level of intimacy with your spouse because you cannot learn to be totally intimate with your spouse without being in touch with the innermost parts of yourself. A lot of people have issues from their past that they may still be battling with and which they may not even have full grasp of yet.

They may still be dealing with those issues and trying to find a solution that will not only be okay, but that will also minimize the hurt if we do get to find out in the end.

And at times the secrets may concern someone else who may have asked us to keep their secrets private and not reveal them to anyone, not even our spouse.

The sense of a “private me’ and space is important to many people who may have been married for a long time and it goes even beyond privacy in a relationship. For most people who care to hear, I always tell them that asking or hearing your partner saying he or she needs some space doesn’t really mean that you or your partner want out of the relationship.

Asking for time alone to be with oneself is actually a mature way to get to know who you are as a person more. What matters is how you put the request forward and how your partner receives the news. Most people throw the phrase of needed space out without really knowing the truism behind what they have said.

The space is privacy or time alone for just you. It’s what I call a “me” time. The funny thing is that a lot of people tend to feel guilty when they ask for this “me’ time because they think it’s a selfish act and that there shouldn’t be anything like that in their relationship. But the truth is that this “me” time is actually a time to re-energize and to create more time for one’s partner and others we love.

We tend to forget also that as individuals, we have our individual differences. Marriage for most people tend to box them in a tight corner that after a few years may feel like a cage and the reaction to free oneself may lie quietly below the surface, waiting for something or an incident to push it up into the open. I believe one of the ways to avoid this feeling or to minimize it to the barest level is to allow each other some time off to be alone in the relationship.

This will help to remove the feeling of exhaustion that may rear its ugly head once in a while in any relationship. Personal privacy as I see it is actually a time for selfrealization within the idea of marriage or a meaningful relationship. It’s a time for one to reconnect with that person in you who decided he or she wanted to get married in the first place.

One thing I also do tell people is that we shouldn’t wait till that feeling of suffocation gets to us before we decide that we need that precious “me” time.

Therefore to answer the question of whether personal privacy is required in marriage, I’ll gladly and unequivocally say it’s a yes and even go further on a limb here to say it’s as equally important as a “we” time which we all want in our marriages too.


Absolutely!

Like I said last week, we have ‘worlds’ outside that of our partners. These ‘worlds’ could be so wide that it may be practically impossible for our partners’ to have knowledge of every part of our lives. Some things are deliberately kept secret while some are so by default.

On the other hand, everybody needs some personal space from time to time; this could involve doing things without your partner, so long as those things do not amount to infidelity.

Whatever is the case, do you think it is unreasonable for a married person to be entitled to privacy of any sort? Can she decide to keep some things to herself, in her desire to retain some sort of privacy? Some synonyms given for the word “privacy” are: confidentiality, discretion, secrecy, concealment, solitude, seclusion and isolation.

This shows that the word has a wider meaning than we assume, even in the context of marriage. Privacy in marriage could range from some ‘alone time’ in the matrimonial home to ‘privacy’ which amounts to deliberately keeping some aspects of one’s life ‘concealed’ from a spouse.

Of course, there is a difference between doing ‘runs’ behind your spouse’s back and simply exercising your discretion on what areas to let your partner in. Someone may be quick to shout a big “NO!”

when asked the question being discussed because marriage means that two have become one, the couple should be naked and not ashamed, and being ‘one’ means one mind (and possibly one brain! LOL!!!).

However, the reality is that we are still individuals after marriage. We still want to retain personal dignity; we still want to be able to exercise a level of independence, and most of all, we would rather keep some ‘stuff ’ to ourselves because we do not want our partners to use them against us during our ‘down moments’. For instance, can you possibly gist your husband about every man who makes a pass at you?

It may be safer to just be silent about them, particularly when your spouse is very insecure or suspicious and you have a strategy from keeping those men far away from you (In my opinion, you should tell your spouse if the another man is seriously on your case and is in such close proximity to you that not telling your partner would make you look like you are interested in the man. This way, you can ‘fight’ the man together).

Another instance would be matters in your place of work. You may need to keep to yourself, information about happenings involving you at your workplace because you do not want to give them much attention or place a magnifying glass on them by gisting your spouse. You could have a senior colleague or supervisor who picks on you and gives you lousy appraisals because he/she feels threatened by you.

You may decide not to tell your spouse for many reasons, including the need to keep your spouse neutral about the person. This will help if your spouse gets to see the person often; you do not want any tension between them.

Also, in a situation where you have a colleague or boss who wants to have a relationship with you, and telling your spouse may compel him to demand that you leave the job, you could keep it to yourself, AS LONG AS YOU ARE SURE THAT YOU WILL NOT FALL FOR THE PERSON.

How about taking a vacation without your spouse because you want some privacy? Is this abominable? I don’t think so. Is it a crazy thing for a woman to have her own private room where she dresses up and spends some ‘alone’ time often?

I also do not see any qualms with such a private room as long as she sleeps in the same room with her husband and does not use her room as a tool for going on a sex strike. Anyway, there should be no hard and fast rule; I believe that each person should give his/her spouse the entitlement to privacy so that he/she does not have to demand for it. This does not have to be literarily given; one can tell when his/her spouse is liberal in this regard.

So, should one be entitled to personal privacy in marriage? Why not?



http://nationalmirroronline.net/new/do-you-need-privacy-in-your-marriage/
http://nationalmirroronline.net/new/do-you-need-privacy-in-your-marriage/

http://nationalmirroronline.net/new/jonathan-surrounded-by-bootlickers-sycophants-on-pretence-of-loyalty-lamido/
http://nationalmirroronline.net/new/jonathan-surrounded-by-bootlickers-sycophants-on-pretence-of-loyalty-lamido/

Governor of Jigawa State, Sule Lamido is a strong force among the seven aggrieved governors in the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP. The former Minister of Foreign Affairs, in this interview with journalists, speaks on the crisis in the PDP and his optimism towards the resolution of the crisis, President Goodluck Jonathan, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur, PDP’s disciplinary committee, and the speculation about their planned defection to the All Progressives Congress, APC. JAMES DANJUMA reports.

How do you see the crisis in the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP?

You see, the crisis has a history, which we identified and we listed our resolution as to which we are meeting. So, obviously, if all the issues raised are met then we would have no moral authority to say we would fight again because the fight is on principle, the fight is the desire in us to ensure that we remain the winning party; a winning party must have discipline; beyond making money and industry out of government.

There is something we call service and service can only be rendered by people who can make sacrifices, by people who have elements of human dignity and human decency.

The way the party is being run, it is being run by people who want to prove that they are loyal – that is the problem. It is one huge contest to deal with in PDP, between those who don’t want to prove a point to anybody and those who have to prove a point to somebody.

Now, people like Bamanga Tukur, within them, with the president, he would remain after 2015 and therefore, he is clinging on Mr. President’s ambition.

He is helping him. People who had no input in making the President are now brought on board and therefore those post- election characters have to prove that they are loyal to him and therefore they must play sycophancy, they must bootlick, they must praise-sing and they must say he is the best human being on earth. They would say anything because they have to prove to him their loyalty.

Don’t you think there is need to prove your loyalty to Mr. President with the way things are?

In my own case, my proof is him (the president). He is my proof because he knows, more than anyone knows, what I was to him. So, I cannot be competing with people like Doyin Okupe, Reuben Abati, Bamanga Tukur, Ahmed Gulak and the new people who are now brought on board and who had no idea of what happened before he became the president. They are now there and the place is filled with bootlickers and sycophants who are working hard to prove their loyalty.

Should I be competing with them? Should I go to his house and say Mr. President, you are the best man in this country, your head is beautiful. Must I say so? Must I say you are very powerful, must I even say so? Because he is mine! Together we got to where we are with him (Jonathan), from nowhere to somewhere.

Therefore, I don’t have to prove anything to the president because he is my proof. Others have to because they were not there before, so they can prove they are loyal to him.

This is what I call loyalty of opportunism because in that same office people were there who they sang their praises. During Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, people like Ibrahim Mantu (former Deputy Senate President) and many others sang the same song.

Under Babangida, they sang the same song. And it is one huge industry today. Our attention has been taken away from issues. Like I said, Obasanjo was there before and if you look at the personality of Obasanjo, it is something else. Babangida was there before, so also was Buhari and Gowon at different times.

These are people who were coming from huge institutions and yet Nigerians were able to prevail on them – they left office and Nigeria is still there.

So my worry is, this thing you are doing is upturning the PDP; ignore all these sycophants – these bootlickers because they are vultures pecking on what they think is a rotten flesh. Behind all this noise, would these things get us there in the next election? That is the bottom line. If it will, fine, we will keep on fighting. If it will not then I think we should be sensible enough.

With the crisis in the PDP, do you consider yourself leaving the party for the All Progressives Congress?

It is true there are changing dynamics but in spite of everything, we gave a condition and these condition are on issues bothering on PDP’s interest, not on individual interest. And the PDP is a family – a collection of a number of interests all over the country, therefore, we see that we are losing direction and that is why we said no, apply the brakes because we are not preparing for 2011, 2011 is already ours now.

We are saying let us work and see if these vultures can keep eating in 2015. That is all! From 2011 to 2015 is not an issue; it is something we did long before 2011 and therefore we are looking at the next level – how do we come back as the ruling party at the next election, united to be able to address the issues in Nigeria?

This is because after the stability of the nation between 1999 and 2011, we should be able to now focus on the next level – human development, which is the most difficult thing.

Now, are you saying this crisis that we are in is what would give Nigeria development? ASUU has been on strike for about five months, a lot of students have been denied the right to be able to be focused; they have distorted views. There are a number of things begging for attention much than the APC going around to see me or see anybody else.

Are you considering the APC overture?

Like I said, in our party, we met and a committee was set up by the president. It was made up of former President, Obasanjo as the chairman, elders of the party like Babangida, former party chairmen like Bernabas Gemade, Ahmadu Alli and others. We discussed these issues thoroughly and they were itemised and given to the president.

Now, we have not fully exhausted these issues yet, so the issue of where I go would only come in based on the outcome of this kind of demands we made.

They are not personal demands; they are demands arising from worry and concern of the party we know damn too well as the vehicle for this country at the moment, which is being hijacked and they see it as an industry more than the issues. So, when these issues are viewed either way, then from thereon we would know what to do.

How about the demands of the G-7 governors?

No! No! No! When we met for the second time, in principle all the demands were acceded to. First, restoration of Adamawa party structure; two, recall Rotimi Amaechi and give him his structure; three, sacking of Bamanga Tukur; four, new convention – election of new officials who have been shut out.

Then because there has been so much impunity, restoring the party to the path of legitimacy and legality as per the laid down rules has become difficult. In principle, all these were accepted.

Now it is only the pronouncement we are waiting for because there was a committee which was set up by the president, headed by me and we made a submission, part of which was that Adamawa structure should be restored to Murtala Nyako.

So, really that one is conclusive, so it only needs a pronouncement to bring it into being. That is all! Amaechi, because he went to court they said there should be a procedure, therefore, the chairman of Board of Trustees, BoT, would go and meet Amaechi and the others and then all cases pending in court in Rivers State would be withdrawn and that will also be restored. So, in principle, all the terms given were agreed to. It is simply the implementation that we are expecting.

So why is the implementation becoming difficult?

Ask them. But in principle, it was agreed.

With disciplinary committee in place and APC visit, doesn’t your group risk expulsion?

As journalists, I know where you want to delve into because it gives you the kind of excitement you want in terms of news making. I understand that but I would disappoint you.

You see, it is part of the aberration. Look at the committee headed by a very senior elder of this country, Umaru Dikko. Now when you are talking about discipline, you are talking about people who are part of a party who know the party culture and will be able to understand the breaches and see in the course of the offences so committed what and what do you think is wrong.

Umaru Dikko was not part of PDP. He is a personal friend of Bamanga Tukur and also a good brother to me, because he has been coming here.

So, you could see the approach is so laughable. When you put up a committee to discipline a governor of the PDP, Umaru Dikko has no idea of the sacrifices that the governors made.

He needs to have the understanding of some circumstances by which things occurred, so by the time you want to make a judgement you can be just and fair. Now Tukur is aggrieved whereas he is the principal problem of the entire crisis and he is creating a committee to discipline people. It doesn’t make sense!

Do you have any regrets on President Goodluck Jonathan’s choice in 2011

This is the thinking of a typical younger generation, because they allow the heat of the moment to judge their instinct. A single second under this circumstance, I have no regret for supporting Jonathan because I feel in my own judgement I was doing the right thing for Nigeria’s stability, for Nigeria’s continuity. That whatever sacrifice he made, we made it because doing otherwise would introduce other dimensions.

After supporting him, after winning the election, it is now up to him to earn my confidence for the next level if he wants to go there because at that time the reason was mine, the feeling was mine and the concern was mine and the analysis was mine. Now it is up to him to vindicate me.

What about threat from the PDP to treat some of the so-called dissidents like you as criminal?

There is a legal language and raw language. Look, in language, language should be legal as per definition of the law. So, what you consider crime in Nigeria is something understood in our statues books in law.

There are political parties in Nigeria and there are 60 parties with each having its own constitution, a breach of PDP constitution is not a breach of ACN constitution, a breach of PDP constitution is not a breach of Nigeria’s constitution. But then the word crime is defined under our laws.

The question is this who is the criminal between my son and his (Tukur’s)? His son made some money from fuel subsidy fraud, he is now in court on bail. My son was arraigned and convicted for having in his possession US$40,000. So who is the criminal?

Any end in sight to PDP crisis?

There is end in sight. I’m really kind of amused. Here is a political party that was formed with some kind of ideas and belief with the primary role of always capturing power to run the country.

It’s in crisis because the people who now claim ownership of the party have no idea of what is called party management and therefore would go to court and seek relief from the court to compel members of the party to stand by the party or use police to enforce followership of the party.

Now, this is a very primitive party culture. And there is just no political wisdom which is governed by political party managers and operators when they have crisis we are having.

What would it translate to on election day? Would the crisis make us win the election or lose the election? And then from these, take your own position. If the crisis would make them win the position in the PDP so let them continue with the crisis, but if the crisis would make them lose the election, which is the ultimate in political party formation, if we are going to lose the election through the crisis then it means that should be enough warning.

Do not go to the police, do not go to court because on election day, the court would not be there, the police would not be there. It is going to be the voters who are going to be there and there is no way the court would say this voter being a new PDP has no power to cast his own vote, or say this is a sycophant of the President who has been bootlicking and should not vote.

What should worry us in the current crisis in the party is that; at the end of the day, on election day, how would it not affect us? If we think we would win by the crisis, then we should continue with the crisis because what we want is to win the election. So, will the crisis win the election? But if we are going to lose the election by the crisis then it means we would apply a brake to it. It is as simple as that.

How viable is the Dutse airport?

You know if you have got a healthy growing baby, if you leave her after a month, you will find she has grown bigger, so Jigawa is a growing baby and has about 4.5 million people being the father, all working hard to develop it. The airport is not meant for one event affair per annum.

It is an airport which was conceived by the PDP government during the campaign, and therefore, Dutse would be so designated as a zonal airport for exporting agricultural goods outside Nigeria to the rest of the world. Primarily, it is going to be a cargo airport but it is going to also be an export centre for agriculture. And part of the plan is to build huge cold storages around that area to be able to preserve most of these perishable agricultural goods for exportation.

So, in term of concept, it is not really like what you said, so there is no fear. It is going to be a very busy airport if the commitment is given. Based on the earlier idea of building the airport, if there is commitment from the Federal Government, it is going to be a kind of hub for goods in Nigeria.

Recently, you held the Jigawa Economic Summit, how far have you gone with the implementation of the summit’s blueprint?

Even as presentations were going on, I saw the difficulties ahead. Mine is just the desire, the political will, the commitment. But beyond that you know there is also the reality. This should be something on the ground.

There are a number of things which have to be there and I know on the infrastructure we are doing very well. On power, I hope the Federal Government, through its own effort would be able to give us power.

But fortunately, there have been a number of what I may call memorandum of understanding signed. We signed about 11 of them or so with Dangote and many others. They have been coming here and there is a committee, which I called advisory committee on the economic conclusions of the summit.

They are working very hard to ensure they know all the MoUs signed and the requirements we have gotten now. We have gotten a one-shop facility whereby as an investor you come in there and get all the information on land, on taxation and on whatever.

They would try to minimize the difficulties of the entrepreneurs coming, get this information for them to be able to really come in. It is difficult but we’re working very hard and I think we have the commitment to overcome the difficulties.

Your state has been free from the menace of Boko Haram.

Let me say here that we are very lucky we have been praying and God in His own mercies has been able to secure our people. I think the phenomenon of Boko Haram, I cannot begin to simply boast and make any claim.

I’m just lucky, people of Jigawa State are also very lucky and I thank God because He also knows our own heart that we are genuine, we are sincere, we are God fearing and because we fear God, that is why God is protecting us.


http://nationalmirroronline.net/new/jonathan-surrounded-by-bootlickers-sycophants-on-pretence-of-loyalty-lamido/
http://nationalmirroronline.net/new/jonathan-surrounded-by-bootlickers-sycophants-on-pretence-of-loyalty-lamido/

http://nationalmirroronline.net/new/you-are-shielding-oduah-nlc-accuses-jonathan/
http://nationalmirroronline.net/new/you-are-shielding-oduah-nlc-accuses-jonathan/


http://nationalmirroronline.net/new/you-are-shielding-oduah-nlc-accuses-jonathan/


…kicks against hike in tariffs on imported vehicles

Police confirm gun attack on aviation minister’s vehicle

The Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, yesterday accused President Goodluck Jonathan of shielding the Minister of Aviation, Princess Stella Oduah, over her complicity in the purchase of two armoured vehicles at N255m. It also took a swipe at the Federal Government for raising the tariffs on imported vehicles without providing viable alternatives.

The union said that the protection being accorded the minister did not indicate that the present administration was serious about the fight against graft. NLC President, Abdulwahed Omar, who spoke in Kaduna at the union’s ongoing 12th Harmattan School 2013, specifically berated the Federal Government for initiating policies capable of inflicting pains on the working class. The theme of the year’s NLC education programme is: “100 years of nationhood: National development and challenges for the future.”

Omar accused President Jonathan of treating her case with kid gloves, stressing that the way he took the minister on a business deal abroad when corruption charges were dangling on her head was capable of presenting Nigeria as a laughing stock before the international community.

He said the President would have summoned the needed political will to drop the minister to clear her name rather than giving the international community the body language that the country condoned graft. Omar also accused the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, the Independent Corrupt Practices and other Related Offences Commission, ICPC, and the Code of Conduct Bureau of not doing much in the fight against corruption, stressing that they had failed to prosecute some of those involved in graft in the country.

He noted that out of about 31 ex-governors which the former EFCC boss, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, publicly declared before the Senate of involvement in corruption, only about six had faced the law. He added that even the six who were currently being prosecuted were moving freely along the corridors of power.

Omar stated: “The former EFCC Chairman, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, presented a list of 31 governors out of the 36 before the Senate for having engaged in various corrupt practices. “He threatened to name them, but members of the Senate prevented him from doing so.

Since then not up to six were arraigned. Those who were arraigned are still going about their businesses as usual. “Definitely, we cannot continue with impunity forever.

It is high time government did something about this official sleaze. We have become a laughing stock before the comity of nations as a result of our inability to deal decisively with the issue of corruption.

We will always be ready to face government if need be.” He noted that the organised labour would continue to insist on transparency and fight for the good of the masses even if it would mean confronting the Federal Government.

It will be recalled that at the unveiling of the country’s new National Automobile Policy recently, the Minister of Trade, Industry and Investment, Mr. Olusegun Aganga and the Finance Minister and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, reeled out new tariffs on imported vehicles, which raised the charges by about 70 per cent effective from January 2014.

Omar, who lamented the high rate of graft under the present administration, argued that the announcement of the new tariffs barely a few weeks to the commencement of their implementation further confirmed people’s fear that the Minister of Finance was merely implementing International Monetary Fund, IMF, programme in the country.

According to him, raising tariffs without providing alternatives will put Nigerians at the mercy of unscrupulous cars dealers who will exploit the situation to create artificial scarcity with its attendant effects on transportation.

“It is lamentable that the Federal Government has again come up with a programme that has the tendency to inflict pains on the working people in Nigeria.

“We were told that Coordinating Minister for the Economy and Minister of Finance has announced a new tariff regime that raises the charges on imported vehicles by 70 per cent.

“While NLC is not opposed to new policy, we hold that coming up with a new tariff barely a few weeks to its implementation without viable alternative is not proper. In the least, it will just leave Nigerian people under the grips of some unscrupulous dealers who will latch on the new tariff to create artificial scarcity,” he stated.

The Minister of Labour and Productivity, Chief Emeka Wogu, said that Federal Government had lined up some projects as part of the centenary celebration. The minister, who was represented by the Chief Information Officer, Mr. Monyei Dinma, said that one of the centenary projects would generate 5,000 direct jobs and over 10,000 indirect jobs. He added that it would also provide economic boost especially to the informal sector, the petty traders and the hospitality sector service providers.

Meanwhile, the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, Police Command on Monday in Abuja confirmed that gunmen fired shots at the car of the Minister of Aviation, Ms Stella Oduah in Abuja.

The spokesperson of the command, DSP Altine Daniel, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) that the incident occurred at about 10p.m. on Friday. She added that the minister was not in the car when the incident took place.

Daniel, however, said that the incident was reported to the police on Monday at about 5:30 p.m. According to her, some metal objects are found in the vehicle which does not look like the conventional bullet.

“The objects will be subjected to ballistic test,” she said. According to her, investigation into the incident has begun. Also, confirming the shooting, Special Adviser to the minister, Mr. Joe Obi, told NAN that the attack took place at the Ministers’ Hill, Maitama in the FCT.

“Fortunately, the minister was not in the car at the time the attack took place. “An official report has been made to the police and the police are currently investigating it, “ Obi said.


http://nationalmirroronline.net/new/you-are-shielding-oduah-nlc-accuses-jonathan/
http://nationalmirroronline.net/new/you-are-shielding-oduah-nlc-accuses-jonathan/
http://nationalmirroronline.net/new/you-are-shielding-oduah-nlc-accuses-jonathan/

Waspy: Sex shldn't be everything. I think sane and married women do this to drive home their points. Matured men know how to pet and resolve it most times,except If love has gone sour. BTW, Kongy dey hold women too o

YES!!!

But, we are talking abt a case when a woman gives a pre-conditions for sex, and if not met, her spouse will not enjoy / experience sex with her again. Have you not read the article, please click on he link for more explaination of this.

alutacontinua: Jesus Christ of Nazareth!

So, if your daughter were to be caught up in an abusive relationship, you'll tell her to sit down there and endure till she's killed, right?

And lemme guess, when they bring her dead body to you, probably with scars all over her body, u're gonna congratulate yourself and say you just obeyed the rule that said "what God hath joined together, let no man put assunder" Afterall, she choose to marry him!

hineyolu: please don't...that ain't love

Make no mistake abt it pls, som could be abused for love!!!

A man who desperately want to retain his relationship with his girlfriend was reported to have abused her sexually, hoping she did stay with him.

A mother was also reported to have abused her daughter physically for misbehaving. "I was only trying to correct her in love" - The Mother was quoted to have pleaded in court.

Therefore, some abuse may be done out of love and passion. However: for selfishness, wickedness, desperation, etc are the motives that ought to be addressed!!!

alutacontinua: ^ ^ ^The above is you tryna be sarcastic, right

I am not trying to laugh at issue, but I am just trying to say the fact abt it!!! REMEMBER: "Speak the truth always..............."

chiboy1928: Wat kind of a question is dis?

It is a life revolving question!!! You need to learn how to deal with situation dat affect people generally, so it wont caught you unaware!!

Everything is special abt sex!!! It is the base for human emotional comfort, it boost psychological stability, it eliminate stress and regulates the hormones among many other things!!! So, sex promotes lifes and living!!!

When your partner goes on sex strike, you go on infidelity strike!!!

If He/She refused to give you your rightful 'meal', then 'eat' in the available but very decent 'food canteen' around!!!

Abi I no talk well? Guys, wey tin bi wuna opinion?

http://nationalmirroronline.net/new/when-your-partner-goes-on-sex-strike/
http://nationalmirroronline.net/new/when-your-partner-goes-on-sex-strike/

Call her to order fast

Every day we hear of funny, weird and or sometimes new or not so new methods of punishing one’s partner of a wrong that may have or not have been committed against one’s person and these methods even when non violent, are supposed to go a long way in creating an impact through an awareness of how deeply hurt we are concerning the supposed act of omission or commission our partner may have committed. These methods in most cases are believed to be foolproof and without a serious side effect to our person.

One of these methods is that of a sex boycott or strike by a partner who believes he or she has been hurt and is seeking for a non violent means of redressing the hurt. People believe that globally now women have been relegated to being sex objects in their relationships and some people believe that there may be valid reasons while a woman may go on a sex strike.

When sex becomes a weapon of choice in a relationship, the bed becomes a battlefield. People across the ages have sometimes viewed a sex boycott as a form of passing a strong message across to their partners concerning issues they feel non-violence means can equally help solve as I’ve already pointed out above.

In fact, it is now the norm among a lot of educated females and some supposed enlightened ones who believe that they have a right to their body to say that having sex with your partner is an issue that is strictly yours and not supposed to be a shared idea. They say that you should only have sex with your partner only when you believe that you can respect him and get the same respect back.

They believe that women should be responsible for their sexual activity instead of the joint responsibility that is generally expected in a loving relationship and I’m not one to refute or say that the belief is totally wrong. I’m not saying here that a woman does not have a right to sexual advances refusal from her partner.

As much as our cultural and religious mores says that no partner can abstain from sex without the permission of the partner, over westernization or female liberation should not be used as an excuse to perpetuate something that is not morally right within any relationship.

For me, a sex strike or boycott is a destructive, passive aggressive behaviour of abuse, designed solely to punish a partner regarding their differences of opinion and or conformity. It is a sexist temper tantrum of an immature personality.

I believe women have always had a choice about issues concerning them and if at all there is a problem, verbal means of communications are even better and will yield faster and better results than a sex boycott that may lead to creating or worsening an already bad situation or creating something worse.

A lot of women at this point will say that it is just paying men back in their own currency. Women have always erroneously believed that the average man is always using sex as a means of punishing them. They will go further to say that men have always been in the habit of sexual withdrawal whenever there is a misunderstanding between couples but I want to beg to differ here.

I need to point out at this junction that a partner who is doing such is only creating an excuse for the other person to stray and look for someone else to help keep his or her partner happy outside the walls of the relationship. It is a silly means of trying to force your partner to see things from your point of view.

Sexual withdrawal or sex boycott is also another means of saying there is a deep rooted problem in the relationship. I believe that good sexual communication in any relationship is the first step in the direction of solving a lot of issues in a relationship.

When one partner therefore goes on a sex strike or boycott, the person is therefore saying that there’s no good sexual communication between the couple. A woman doing so is even worse off because our society is very permissive of a man having extra marital affairs that may lead to his marrying another woman.

Therefore as a man who cherishes good sexual communications in a relationship, I’ll try and call my partner to order and also see if we can handle the root causes that may have led to her taking the decision, but if she’s not ready to listen or heed my warnings,, I’ll go the route of the typical African male and get myself a new partner fast who will be on the same page with me.


Call it off!

Undoubtedly, sex is a major need, if not the number one need, of men in marriage. You know all the talk about conjugal rights? Just call it sex rights! One way to determine the state of health of a marriage is to gage the ‘sex life’ of the marriage. Researchers have come up with all sorts of statistics, one of which states that in a good marriage, the couple have sexual intercourse at least four (4) times per week.

Please do not ask me if they did the research amongst workingclass couples in Lagos who commute from the mainland to the island daily. People always preach to women not to use sex as a tool of manipulation or not to deny their husbands their ‘sex rights’ no matter how unhappy they (the women) may be. Why? The theory is that once a man does not get it at home, he will go out to ‘get some’. But let us consider the reverse side and look at this issue from the woman’s angle: what if your husband goes on a sex strike?

Unlike the kind of strikes that trade unions embark on, sex strikes are not usually announced or clearly expressed, most times. It may take a woman some time to know that her husband is on a sex strike if he does not state it. This is because most men still have sex with their spouses even when they are not so happy with them.

You know what they say about how men have sex with their heads while women have sex with their hearts? Topic for another day! Anyway, once a woman realizes that her husband is deliberately depriving her of sex for a continuous period, what should she do?

A school of thought says that men can beg for sex, but women should never do so. In the same vein, a woman can make ‘the moves’ towards sex, but not too often.

This is because a woman should be sought after and not vice versa. Based on this proposition, it seems that a woman whose husband embarks on a sex strike should just wait for him to call off the strike; she should not beg him or make the moves to break the jinx. If we go with this school of thought, then the woman should either become celibate or she should indulge in extramarital affairs. I do not subscribe to this.

Although I agree that a woman should be sought after and she should maintain some level of dignity, I believe that a woman should be able to do whatever it takes to salvage her marriage. Since we have identified the fact that sex is a vital part of a good marriage, then both parties should consistently make efforts to keep the fire burning.

I am therefore of the opinion that if a woman realizes that her husband has gone on a sex strike, she should make obvious and deliberate efforts to call off the strike. First, she should talk about it; ask the man why he has gone on strike.

Even if you think you know why, just seek clarification. Now, if the reason the man has gone on strike is that he is having an affair and does not need your home activities, do not expect him to tell you.

In this regard, the first step is not a final solution, most times. If his reason is that you did something to upset him or that you have failed to do something, please apologise and make fresh commitments to avoid the hostilities. You ask: what if he is the one who upset you and instead of apologizing, he is “carrying face”?

Nothing stops you from swallowing your pride and sorting out the issues. According to a wise marriage counselor, it is better to agree than to be right. Beyond the talk, give him some green light.

Men are moved by what they see. Make him desire you again. Think about what gets him in the mood and do those things! He is your husband, so please go all the way! If it does not work the first time, try again… and again…and again. My message to men: the above advice does not apply to women only. Therefore, if your wife goes on a sex strike, woo her all over again till she calls off the strike!

Do not let pride get in the way and compel you to start having extramarital affairs because you will eventually regret doing so. Sex is very important in marriage and scientific research shows that the sexual atmosphere of a marriage can affect the individual productivity of the man and the woman in all ramifications – health, career, finances, etc.

Clearly, a sex strike will negatively affect both the person who embarks on it and the other spouse. So, how should you react to a sex strike? Call it off !




http://nationalmirroronline.net/new/when-your-partner-goes-on-sex-strike/
http://nationalmirroronline.net/new/when-your-partner-goes-on-sex-strike/

Answer to the Question :

Yes! you must endure an abused in a relationship especially in marriage, because you freely choose to marry the abuser and so, what God has join togada, let no man put asunder!!!

http://nationalmirroronline.net/new/should-you-endure-abuse-for-love/
http://nationalmirroronline.net/new/should-you-endure-abuse-for-love/

Don’t!

Nothing is worth dying for, most especially love. If he loves you, he’ll want you to live for him and the love you both profess to have for each other. It is funny but also heart rending that with so many deaths and injuries caused by domestic violence both women and men will still choose to stay with their partners.

Yes, men too. You will be surprised at what some men are going through. One of the reasons why so many people stay in an abusive relationship is because they believe that they love their partner so much that they are willing to forgive them.

Some others think that if they leave their partner, they will be nothing without them because of their low self esteem. Most people stay because they believe that person gives them everything they need. They also believe if they leave them or tell someone about what they are going through, they will lose everything their partner gives them. For them, the benefits outweigh the cost.

Whatever the scenario is, thinking along this line will be applying what I’ll call the costversus- benefits principle. And this principle is not new at all, especially in this part of the world. Another reason is what I’ll call the appeal-to-force principle.

Most people are so afraid that if they leave their partner, that person would find them and hurt them even more or maybe kill them. They also think that their partner would always be hunting them.

A lot of the times, people are afraid that if they move on, their partner may seriously hurt them with other forms of abuse apart from the physical abuse which may hurt them more, so they elect to stay.

In some cases either women or men choose to stay because they are afraid that their partner might hurt or kill their loved ones. So when making a decision they think of all the consequences that their decision might lead to in the future. What they don’t realise is that by hanging on in an abusive relationship they might end up losing their life. Another fact we have to look at is that most times people may not have enough resources to make the decision of leaving their partner.

They also might not know how to ask for help because they are so afraid. Some are even encouraged to stay within that abusive relationship because they don’t have people that are close to them that would take them in and help them. Some people are so afraid that they don’t talk to anyone so they never find out that there so many places and people you can talk to that are there to help you.

The ‘Change Principle’ is also a well known excuse that people, especially women use when making a decision in whether to leave or stay in an abusive relationship.

Most people believe that the abuse, whether physical, emotional or psychological that they are going through in a relationship is just a passing face that will pass away so they would never do anything about it.

By the way they act or talk about it, it becomes obvious when you see the person being abused, that he or she is in a denial state whereby he or she will believe that the abuser will change. Even when you try to help them out they won’t let you because they are so into that believe or denial state of being.

There are so many reasons why a person stays in an abusive relationship, but whatever those reasons are, domestic violence is wrong in every way possible and you shouldn’t let it happen. Whether you’re a teen or an adult you shouldn’t let anyone hurt you in anyway.

People should value their life because that’s the most precious thing someone has and once it’s gone you would never get it back so why let someone ruin it for you. Because you love the person or because you’re scared of them doesn’t mean they have the right to hurt you.

There are so many people that are out there to help you, but they are not going to go look for you, it’s up to you to ask for help. My take as a man is that if he truly loves you, he won’t hurt you in any way. And if any kilt or kin or friend tells you to endure, ask that person if he or she values your being alive?


Run!

Recently, Nigeria was traumatised with the news about an ex-Skye Bank staff who was brutally murdered by her husband. It is such a pathetic story and there are many of such incidents which do not receive that much publicity.

The painful fact is that no matter how much we criticize and punish the husband who murdered his wife and no matter how much we come up with ideas of what the woman should have done to escape from her abusive husband; nothing can bring her back to life. We expect people to learn from the incident and avoid recurrences, right? But, is there any guarantee that women will on the basis of the sad incident (and other similar ones), leave their abusive partners? Is it okay for a woman to “hang in there” in the name of love?

Let us agree at this point that there are different types and degrees of abuse, and people suffer them in various combinations. Verbal abuse occurs when one person uses words and body language to inappropriately criticise another person. It makes the victim feel he/she is not worthy of love or respect, and that he/she lacks ability or talent.

Unfortunately, verbal abuse is not easily recognised as abuse, and therefore it can go on for extended periods, causing severe damage to the victim’s self-esteem and self-worth Psychological abuse (also known as mental abuse or emotional abuse) occurs when one person controls information available to another person so as to manipulate that person’s sense of reality. It often contains strong emotionally manipulative content designed to force the victim to comply with the abuser’s wishes.

It may be emotional abuse in this sense when it is designed to cause emotional pain to victims or to “mess with their heads” in attempts to gain compliance and counter any resistance.

Like verbal abuse, psychological abuse is often not recognised as abuse early on and can result in serious psychological after effects. Physical abuse occurs when one person uses physical pain or threat of physical force to intimidate another person.

It involves slaps, pushes, beating, punching, kicking, hair pulling, scratching, and real physical damage sufficient in some cases to require hospitalization. Sexual Abuse includes any sort of unwanted sexual contact perpetrated on a victim by an abuser.

It involves inappropriate touching with or without intercourse. Sexual abuse also occurs if one partner has agreed to a certain level of sexual activity and another level is forced upon her (or him) without prior explicit consent being given. Sexual abuse is often coupled with physical abuse (or threat of physical abuse) and emotional abuse. When the issue of abuse in relationships is discussed, the primary focus is physical and sexual abuse.

This is understandable because it is presumed that verbal abuse and psychological abuse can be tolerated, except in extreme (and rare) circumstances where the victim starts to lose his/her mind as to require rehabilitation. People argue that there is nothing like sexual abuse in marriage, and we shall address this issue in another edition. In the meantime, let us agree that there can be sexual abuse in marriage. Undoubtedly, love and abuse are two unrelated parallel lines which ordinarily should not meet.

So how do we explain the hateful and horrifying manner in which some people treat their partners? How much provocation can justify slaps, beatings and stab injuries?

More importantly, how safe can a woman be if she remains with a partner who constantly abuses her? Of course, it seems easier to advise a single woman to leave her boyfriend/ fiancé than it is to advise a married woman to leave her husband on account of abuse.

But is abuse part of the “worse” contained in marriage vows? And must the death referred to in “until death do us part” be caused by one’s spouse? In my opinion, no woman should stay in an abusive relationship in the name of love. Once a man starts to slap, beat, punch or push you, run for your life!

If he is just a boyfriend or fiancé, break up the relationship immediately and don’t look back. Even if it is just a few days to your wedding, just know that a broken engagement is better than a broken marriage/divorce.

Of course, he will come begging (in tears), promising to change. Do not be fooled. What is the guarantee that he will change? Don’t get me wrong, I believe in forgiveness and love. But wisdom tells you that if you break your leg from a fall caused by sitting on a faulty chair, you should not attempt to sit on the same chair again.

The greater challenge is where the abuse is by a spouse. I also don’t subscribe to divorce, so I will not be quick to tell a woman to file divorce papers on account of physical abuse.

But I also will not tell her to remain in her matrimonial home and love her husband “until death do them part”. So, should love keep you stuck to an abusive partner? Not closely




http://nationalmirroronline.net/new/should-you-endure-abuse-for-love/
http://nationalmirroronline.net/new/should-you-endure-abuse-for-love/

http://nationalmirroronline.net/new/national-conference-debate-apcs-opposition-amidst-growing-support/
http://nationalmirroronline.net/new/national-conference-debate-apcs-opposition-amidst-growing-support/

NATIONAL CONFERENCE DEBATE: APC’s opposition amidst growing support

http://nationalmirroronline.net/new/national-conference-debate-apcs-opposition-amidst-growing-support/
http://nationalmirroronline.net/new/national-conference-debate-apcs-opposition-amidst-growing-support/

The issue of national conference has been in the public domain in recent time with the All Progressive Congress, APC, threatening to boycott the exercise. In this report, SINA FADARE x-rays the contending issues.

The National Executive Committee, NEC, of the All Progressives Congress, APC, recently made its stand known on the proposed national conference by President Goodluck Jonathan, saying it was a fluke. The party, shortly after a marathon meeting of its governors, declared through the Interim National Publicity Secretary of the party, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, that President Jonathan has lost focus and the credibility required to organise such a conference.

Mohammed said: “What we see today is that this government has lost focus, it has lost credibility, it has lost control of the economy, security; corruption has attained uncontrollable proportion and at this point in time, this government lacks the credibility to organise a real meaningful national conference.” “I have put it clear to you, this is diversionary. If it is a clear, meaningful national dialogue, we will participate, but this isn’t.

The President himself has said whatever is discussed there will be subjected to National Assembly. So, what you are having is constitutional amendment.” The party threatened not to participate in the exercise.

The position of the APC on the longawaited conference has raised a lot of posers about what actually was the party looking for. Before the constitution of the Femi Okurounmu-led Presidential Advisory Committee on National Conference by the President, the APC has been in the forefront of agitation in most of their public fora with a forceful argument that before 2015 election, there must be restructuring of the country which would be decided by Nigerians at a round table conference. Before the party made its decision public, APC leader and former governor of Lagos State, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, gave an indication on the direction of the party on the national dialogue.

When Tinubu returned from a medical trip abroad, he lamented that the national conference committee set up by the President was a mere diversionary tactics to deceive Nigerians from the reality on ground of a failed system.

According to him, “National conference is by whom, for whom, and at what stage? How many level of deception? These people (Federal Government) are not even smart about the deception. I see a contradiction. I see a diversion. I see deception, lack of honesty and integrity.”

He added: “Nigeria has never been this divisive in its 53 years of existence, yet he (President Jonathan) now considers a national conference because of the apparent division in his party.”

Therefore it was not a surprise when APC eventually took the same position with its leader. Political pundits are of the view that if all along, the APC leaders have been agitating for a national conference and now that their request has been granted by the President, what else are they looking for.

It would be recalled that in a lecture delivered at a town hall meeting on August 24, 2012 in Chicago, USA, Tinubu emphasised that: “We need a national conference of all stakeholders in the country.

This is the only way we can build the proper and needed consensus on the precise nature of the political structure and the objectives of what that structure should be. Only in this way can we have a governmental arrangement that enjoys the support of all because all participated in the planning of it.”

According to him, “Nigeria has waited in the departure lounge to true federalism for too long. The cracks are starting to manifest as agitation grows for a more well-balanced federation. The connective tissues of the Nigerian union are weak in part because the Federal Government has tried to make itself too strong.”

Could it be that the APC is apprehensive that the committee will be like all the previous committees set up by the Federal Government and their reports not seeing the light of the day? Or could it be the party in its characteristic manner, want to put the ruling party, the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, on its toe to score cheap political point?

Speaking on the issue, the PDP National Publicity Secretary, Olisa Metuh said the APC is free to boycott the national dialogue, adding that since majority of Nigerians from all walks of life have agreed to the dialogue, the APC was on its own.

According to him, the leadership of the opposition probably took such a decision because it had nothing to offer at the conference, saying “the national conference is not going to be about political parties. It is about Nigerians and attendance won’t be by political parties.”

Methu regretted that: “This is a party that has penchant for sowing discord and ethnicity among Nigerians. It is a retrogressive party. Since the conference had been accepted by majority of Nigerians, members of the National Assembly and associations, then Nigerians should forget the views of the opposition party.”

If the political and economic crises the country is facing could be linked to lack of national conference all the while, then it is desirable that those opposing such a conference should exercise patience and see what will come out of the dialogue committee set up by President Jonathan, argued political pundits.

In his comment on the issue, Ambassador Ken Ajieh noted that the President was on the right track by listening to the yearnings and aspirations of Nigerians on national dialogue, adding that those opposing it are mere hypocrites who are just politicising everything in order to get cheap political point.

According to him, a national dialogue is overdue in as much as everybody is complaining that the country need restructuring, therefore we must start from somewhere.

Corroborating this view, a social commentator Mr. Kelvin Nwosu pointed out that it is too early to pre-empt the outcome of the committee in as much as everybody has been clamouring for a dialogue to address all fundamental problems.

Nwosu said: “In a nation like ours, we should create an opportunity for the people to talk about the basis of their existence. We should not mix our daily problem of governance with the issue of national dialogue; it was a right decision in the right direction.”

Speaking with National Mirror on the desirability of a national dialogue, the National Publicity Secretary of Afenifere, Mr. Yinka Odumakin, said the exercise is an opportunity for the country to get out of the bondage she was subjected to for many years, adding that the Yoruba will not allow self-serving politicians to use their personal interest “to keep us in bondage.”

“Whatever these people are saying are in their interests and not the interest of Yoruba people. And Yoruba people have shown them that they are not on the same page with them because you needed to be in Lagos and Akure venues of the stakeholders’ meetings where the authentic representatives and leaders showed up to take positions on the national conference,” Odumakin noted. He said that the APC’s threat to boycott the conference is inconsequential.

He said: “It is preposterous and it is sheer arrogance to say that they will boycott a conference to which they have not been invited. If the nations go to the conference and say they don’t want to be in the same country again, what is the fate of the APC?

The nationalities are the hardware of any country and it is when you have the hardware that you put the software. I even think the APC people are overrating themselves.”

In the same vein, the chairman of Coalition Against Corrupt Leaders, CACOL, Comrade Debo Adeniran while speaking with National Mirror lamented that those who are opposing the national dialogue are insincere and parochial in their thinking.

According to him, “Those opposing national conference are self-serving. It is like they are living under the illusion that if the status quo remains, their party may actually take over the government and they also want to enjoy the inordinate proceeds of the pseudo-federalism that we are enduring before there is restructuring.”

He challenged Nigerians to make success out of the proposed confab, adding that, “For once the people should be taken serious, and the people should conduct themselves seriously and force their leaders to be accountable and submissive to their authority, which is the main tenet of true democracy. We have discussed it in the past that democracy should be redefined as the authority of the people.”

Political pundits are of the view that if it is agreed that we are all responsible for the woes the country is passing through and that a roundtable conference is needed to sort things out, it is necessary that all hands must be on deck to make sure that the committee did not derail and meet the yearnings of Nigerians on the long run



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http://nationalmirroronline.net/new/national-conference-debate-apcs-opposition-amidst-growing-support/

http://nationalmirroronline.net/new/air-nigeria-tax-jimoh-ibrahim-denies-arrest/
http://nationalmirroronline.net/new/air-nigeria-tax-jimoh-ibrahim-denies-arrest/


…says NICON Group sold its shares in airline since 2012

Asks FIRS to go after John Nnorom over expatriate quota papers

The Group Managing Director of Energy Group of Companies, Dr. Jimoh Ibrahim (OFR) has described the online report of Sahara Reporters alleging his arrest as wicked, concocted and sheer imagination of the writer. Ibrahim, who issued a statement yesterday shortly after Sahara Reporters went public, said the report, which was evidently planted to scandalise him, was of no issue to him. He said he would have ignored the report but that there was need to put the records straight.

According to Ibrahim, “Our company, NICON Group, purchased 48 per cent shares of Air Nigeria sometimes in 2010 and the Federal Inland Revenue Service, FIRS, came with alleged tax liabilities for the period of 2006 to 2010. “They claimed that he who buys assets buys the liabilities of the company. That was in 2012.

“We requested for reconciliation of the taxes, which was however not conclusive. “We closed down the airline and sold our shares to a commercial bank in Nigeria,” he said. “Rather than pursuing the new owner for the taxes, FIRS instituted a civil suit against me at the Federal High Court, Abuja. “Whereas, the same law of who buys the assets buys the liabilities should apply which is why FIRS should pursue the liability of Air Nigeria with the new owners,” Ibrahim added.

Commenting further, he said: “Yesterday, the FIRS enforcement unit solicited my assistance about the new buyer; I opted to give them the full details and documents. “Before I finished doing that, I read in Sahara Reporters that I had been arrested and detained for N6.8bn fraud, which is not true.”

Commenting further on the issue, Ibrahim explained that before he gave them the details of the new owners of Air Nigeria, he said the FIRS had alleged that Air Nigeria procured tax papers in 2010 for expatriates, “But I asked them how that concerned a Board Chairman.

I asked them to ask the Executive Director (Finance), one John Nnorom, whose responsibility falls under that,” According to him, “We are genuine business people and we need a proper environment to operate our business.

“If I have committed any offence in becoming a nonexecutive chairman of a company like Air Nigeria where I do not have personal share, charge me to court and wait for the judgement of the court,” he added.

Ibrahim added that “if an officer of a corporation committed an offence such as forgery of tax papers and it is true, look for the officer and charge him to court not the Board Chairman of the corporation,” he stressed.



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http://nationalmirroronline.net/new/air-nigeria-tax-jimoh-ibrahim-denies-arrest/

http://nationalmirroronline.net/new/fg-set-to-privatise-four-refineries-in-2014/
http://nationalmirroronline.net/new/fg-set-to-privatise-four-refineries-in-2014/

Plans have been concluded by the Federal Government to privatise the nation’s four refineries from the first quarter of next year.

The planned privatisation was disclosed in London yesterday by the Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke. She spoke in an interview with Bloomberg TV Africa She said: “We would like to see major infrastructural entities such as refineries moving out of government, “Government does not want to be in the business of running major infrastructure entities and we haven’t done a very good job at it over all these years.”

She said a presidential audit of the facilities last year recommended their sale due to inadequate government funding and “suboptimal performance.”

The minister said the refineries, which have a combined 445,000 barrels-aday capacity, should be privatised within 18 months, according to the report submitted to President Goodluck Jonathan in November 2012.

Bloomberg stated that while Nigeria is also Africa’s top crude exporter and the most populous with more than 160 million people, it relies on fuel imports to meet more than 70 per cent of its needs.

It said: “Its state-owned plants operate at a fraction of their capacity because of poor maintenance and aging equipment. The West African nation exchanges 60,000 barrels a day of crude for products with Trafigura Beheer BV and a similar amount with Societe Ivoirienne de Raffinage’s refinery in Ivory Coast.” “We are right now undergoing a major turnaround maintenance programme” of the refineries, Alison- Madueke said.

The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, stated that improvements to the twounit 210,000 barrel-a-day Port Harcourt refinery, the country’s biggest, will be completed by the end of the year, to be followed by enhancements at the Warri and Kaduna sites in 2014.

The corporation added that Warri has a daily processing capacity of 125,000 and Kaduna 110,000 barrels. The state of the oil industry has remained a major challenge for the nation’s economy as it is seen as the bastion of corruption with huge revenues ending in private pockets while oil earnings have not largely reflected on the standard of living of Nigerians.

The privatisation of the refineries is seen as a key factor in ending the massive corruption that has characterised the fuel importation and subsidy programmes in recent years under system controlled by government officials and well-connected businessmen.

Following a recent report by Swiss non-governmental advocacy organisation, detailing how the NNPC and the Swiss oil trading companies allegedly duped the country of over $6.8bn, the House of Representatives has commenced an investigation.

The report by the Berne Declaration, titled “Swiss Traders Opaque Deals in Nigeria”, catalogued the “letter box companies” modus operandi employed by the alleged partners to defraud the country of over $6.8bn, noting that such a fraud is the greatest in Africa.

The NNPC has rejected the report as untrue. The report said: “No less than $6.8bn of unjustifiable subsidies were paid out in 2009 and 2011 – that is the equivalent of nearly four times the Nigerian health budget for 2013. “The all-powerful national company, the NNPC, categorised as the most opaque national oil company on the planet, itself is evidence of Nigeria’s ‘resource curse’ at work.”

The first and third largest Swiss enterprise in terms of turnover in 2012, Vitol and Trafigura, outclassed their competitors through opaque partnerships with the NNPC to defraud Nigeria, it said. It notes that more than half of Nigerian crude oil exports pass through Switzerland and that Nigeria is the only major producing company that sells 100 per cent of its crude oil to private traders, rather than marketing it itself and benefiting from the resulting added value.

It further gave instances to show how oil sales between the NNPC and the Swiss partners were carried out at prices lower than the market rates, adding that seven of the Nigerian ‘importers’ involved in this fraud have a subsidiary in Switzerland.

The report indicts the NNPC thus: “Swiss traders do not acquire this crude oil based on public and transparent calls for tender… each year the NNPC grants the allocations of exports under obscure conditions and on the basis of criteria that are unknown outside the restricted circle of the decision makers.”

The Berne Declaration said the profit generated by NNPC and its Swiss partners escape state coffers, adding that any profits that are collected in Nigeria for the state don’t get through.

The NNPC has however denied the allegations saying the call for tender for this oil lifting contracts is periodically published by almost all the newspapers in Nigeria via paid advert placements. It also said no company has a monopoly or exclusive right to lift any quantity of Nigerian crude oil as the selection process was competitive while also dismissing claims oil was sold below market rates. The House report is expected in three weeks.



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http://nationalmirroronline.net/new/fg-set-to-privatise-four-refineries-in-2014/

http://nationalmirroronline.net/new/2015-amaechi-and-the-apc-romance/
http://nationalmirroronline.net/new/2015-amaechi-and-the-apc-romance/


2015, Amaechi and the APC romance

In 1997, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo blatantly refused to accept the candidature of Rotimi Chibuike Amaechi as the gubernatorial candidate of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, for Rivers State. In fact, the former president refused to hand the symbolic party flag over to Amaechi who had won badly flawed PDP governorship primaries in Rivers State, describing his candidature as having “a k-leg”, a euphemism for abnormality.

In the end, Celestine Omehia, a gentleman in every sense, was settled for as the consensus candidate and Omehia, it was, who faced the electorate and got their votes as elected governor. Obasanjo considered Amaechi then as a poor choice for the Rivers people.

But that is ancient history as the Supreme Court in a controversial judgement imposed a man who never canvassed for the votes of the people on them as governor. Governor Amaechi in his first term strived to earn the respect of the people by providing good governance in the area of infrastructural renewal.

Yet a large number of his people still saw him as an interloper, a man they never voted for, and at best considered him the ‘Court’s Governor’. Again, that does not matter because the courts are an integral part of the democratic process.

It is unfortunate though, that the same Amaechi who was a product of the courts now appears to have only scant regards for the judiciary. Since a high court threw away the state executive of the PDP he favours in his state and recognised the Felix Obuah-led executive, Amaechi does not believe that the courts have a role to play in a party democracy. And to be sure, Amaechi has vowed never to accept that court judgement.

That is one of the ironies of the world. Amaechi is not only up in arms against the judiciary; he has declared a full-scale war on his party, the PDP, the Rivers people and the entire people of the South-South.

Or how else can anybody understand his unrestrained and disrespectful affront to President Goodluck Jonathan, the leader of his party, and the open confrontation with the leaders of the PDP both at the national level and in his state?

The latest of the series of Amaechi’s defiance of the PDP is the grand hosting of the leaders of the opposition party, All Progressives Congress, APC, in Port Harcourt, penultimate week. At the event, APC leaders, Bola Ahmed Tinubu and General Muhammadu Buhari extolled the qualities of Amaechi as a democrat and pleaded with him to come over to APC.

Although politics as practised in our land is defined largely by doublespeak, would Tinubu in all honesty be glad to have a man like Amaechi in his fold? Knowing that both Tinubu and Buhari are not good advertisements for democratic conduct given their dictatorial tendencies, are they sure they can put up with a governor whose anti-party credentials speak volumes? Are they really sure they can tolerate a governor who thinks he is the best thing that has happened to the Rivers people when indices on the ground do not support that?

Are they really sure that they want in their midst a politician who does not harbour an iota of respect for elders or a politician who is ready to trade off the political gains of an entire South-South for his own selfish ambition? Can Tinubu in all honesty stomach an Amaechi-like contumacious behaviour from any of his APC governors?

If APC can provide answers to these posers in the affirmative, then let them have Governor Amaechi! Interestingly APC leaders are not wooing Amaechi because of his discipline or “democratic qualities” as they claim. Their eyes are rather fixed on the rich treasure base of Rivers State, which Amaechi controls. And as it is said, politics is a game of interests.

Amaechi is shopping for a forum to supplant Goodluck Jonathan, by pushing through his ambition to be vice president, (even when the president is a son of the South-South) while the APC are looking to use the resources of the Rivers people to fund their 2015 elections.

In essence, there are coinciding interests here. Already, many citizens of Rivers State have started complaining of how Amaechi has turned the State House in Port Harcourt into a playground for South-West politicians, lawyers and intelligentsia; and how their resources are being wasted daily to fete Amaechi’s new circle of friends against the interest of the people.

Yes, there is no doubt that the Rivers governor is learning well from his new tutors in the South-West. He has mastered the act of propaganda by using every opportunity to portray himself as being persecuted when he is the troublemaker.

Amaechi has indeed been properly schooled and programmed to act in the manner he is doing these days to evoke cheap public sympathy. For instance, if the pilots of the tokunbo jet he bought for the state at the price of a new brand one failed to file the manifest of the passengers on board the aircraft as required by law, and his aircraft grounded, Amaechi must call a world press conference to show how Jonathan is persecuting him; if the police move to execute court judgement by sealing off an illegal office run by an illegal group called the new PDP near the Government House, then Amaechi must find a way to get into the mix and proclaim that he has been blocked from entering his office.

And if the First Lady, Dame Patience Jonathan, decides to visit her home town in Port Harcourt, the Rivers government will make noise about how the state has come under siege!

Since Amaechi started his new romance with the APC, governance has taken the back seat in Port Harcourt and the people are perhaps now cursing themselves for electing Amaechi as their governor two years ago.

Whereas other governors are spending time doing hard thinking on how to improve the life chances of their people, Amaechi is crisscrossing the length and breadth of Nigeria scheming for an election that is two years away; he is wasting the resources of the people servicing the political machinery of a godfather in the South-West in his narcissistic quest to be vice president to a northern candidate.

The capital city of Port Harcourt typifies its governor’s distraction from important things. The chaotic traffic situation, the uncoordinated road projects most of them now abandoned and the general sense of high handedness of the governor are telling enough.

What is annoying the Rivers people more about their governor is his poor sense of history. As they recall the struggles of the people of the Niger Delta from Adaka Boro to Saro-Wiwa, the blood of their people that have been spilled in the struggle to protect their resources and identity as a people, and how Governor Amaechi is working assiduously to reverse the gains the South-South has made politically, they are beginning to wonder whether their governor is emotionally stable.

Yes, they are incensed that one of their sons is using their own resources to fight his brother who is president just to be made vice president. Is it any surprise then that the people of Rivers are telling Amaechi in unmistakable terms to count them out of his misadventure and romance with the APC?

•Ainofenokhai contributed this piece from Benin City, Edo State Capital.

http://nationalmirroronline.net/new/2015-amaechi-and-the-apc-romance/
http://nationalmirroronline.net/new/2015-amaechi-and-the-apc-romance/

http://nationalmirroronline.net/new/after-muscle-flexing-national-assembly-receives-jonathans-2014-budget-today/
http://nationalmirroronline.net/new/after-muscle-flexing-national-assembly-receives-jonathans-2014-budget-today/

The National Assembly will receive the 14th Appropriation Bill from President Goodluck Jonathan today in a special session. Presentation of budget estimates by the executive and their eventual passage into law after much inter-arm sparring and buck-passing is routine. But for a government in dire need of trust and public confidence, this budget, as a departure from others, must perform for a peaceful 2015, TORDUE SALEM writes.

Today, President Goodluck Jonathan will lead his entire cabinet with a coterie of aides to the National Assembly to present his proposal for 2014 Appropriation Act (Budget). To go with the ritual, security men are armed to the teeth as a frightening cordon greets entrants to the National Assembly.

The lobby of the two arms is laced with a red carpet from the floors of the back door to the chamber of the House of Representatives, which is flung open to allow the Presidential train untrammelled access to a hallowed chamber with a sea of expectant lawmakers. The House is the hosting arm as it is the tradition.

Because the House is seen to be more organically representative of the people than the Senate. While the Senate represents the equality of states, the House represents the population or demography of Nigeria.

The budget would have been presented last week Tuesday November 12, but the President sent in a quick memo to the Senate President, David Mark, and the Speaker, Aminu Waziri Tambuwal asking for a postponement, which was granted for today.

A circular signed by Dr. Ishaya Habu Sarki, a Director of Management Personnel on behalf of the Clerk of the National Assembly, and made available to National Mirror, gave the announcement on Thursday, November 7.

A day earlier to the announcement of the postponement (Wednesday, November 6), the House of Representatives was thrown into a row as a letter from President Goodluck Jonathan notifying lawmakers of his intention to present the 2014 Budget on November 12 was read by Tambuwal. Hon. Aliyu Madaki (PDP-Kano) had raised a motion under “Personal Explanation” to oppose the intention of the President to come with a fresh budget when he was yet to present the Medium Term Expenditure Frame Work, MTEF, of the government.

The mover of the motion also regretted that the 2013 Budget must be performed to at least 80 per cent before a new budget estimate is received from the President. Lawmakers who took sides with the motion, insisted that the 2013 Budget performance has not been impressive, therefore, presentation of the 2014 Budget proposal should be postponed until a reasonable implementation is recorded.

The Deputy House Leader, Leo Ogor, had moved a motion to admit the president and his entourage in a joint sitting with the Senate on Tuesday, November 12, to present the 2014 budget proposal when a counter-motion was raised by Madaki. After Hon. Mohammed Ibrahim Idris (PDP-Kogi) had seconded the motion, Madaki coming under matters of personal explanation on the poor implementation of the 2013 Budget argued that the House should not receive the 2014 proposal until an appreciable state of implementation is attained.

Madaki said the 2014-2016 Medium Term Expenditure Framework, MTEF, earlier submitted by the president to the House has not been considered and approved, insisting that the lawmakers should shift the presentation of the budget until further notice.

He warned that “we must not turn the budget into an annual ritual where the president comes and we make a ceremony and then the budget is never implemented. Let’s shift this budget presentation until we are convinced that this year’s budget is implemented at least 80 per cent.

We are not asking for 100 per cent.” Madaki’s submission was supported by Hon. Ben Nwankwo (APGAAnambra), who argued that his motion seeking to review implementation of the 2013 Budget two days earlier was stood down pending the outcome of the House completion of oversight on the extent of implementation therefore, the budget presentation should also be put off.

Hon. Friday Itulah (PDP-Edo) also explained that since section 81 of the 1999 Constitution (as amended) provides that the president could lay the budget anytime within the financial year, the presentation be suspended. Others argued that the MTEF of the government needed to be considered, as is the norm, before admitting Jonathan to present his budget estimates.

But Hon. Raphael Nnanna (PDP-Imo) kicked against the motion, saying the presentation should not be stopped. Also opposing the motion, Hon. Warman Ogoriba (PDP-Bayelsa) submitted that there was no law barring the president from laying the budget.

In his argument, Hon. Nkem Abonta (PDP-Abia) said the president should be allowed to present the budget and any other issue would be discussed during consideration. It was later gathered that, one of the reasons for Jonathan to have postponed the presentation of his budget was because he wanted the National Assembly to take the MTEF first. But while considering the MTEF on Thursday to pave way for the 2014 estimates today, the House was again divided.

This time, clearly along party lines. Though the House approved the 2014-2016 MTEF, Fiscal Strategy Paper, FSP, the opposition won the day, as the benchmark price of crude oil was raised from Jonathan’s proposal of $76.5 to $79. After a three-hour executive session on the M-TEF, division among factions of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, still resurfaced, with the new PDP in cooperation with the opposition All progressives Congress, APC, winning the day. The new PDP and APC got 79 votes while the old PDP garnered 62 votes, when the decision on the money document was put to vote.

This contrasted with the figure passed by the Senate which stood unchanged from the proposed $76.50 it received from the executive. Adopting the recommendations of the report on the MTEF and FSP submitted by the Committees on Finance, Budget and Research and Aid, Loans and Debt Management, the lawmakers also pegged the average crude oil production at 2.3883 million, 2.5007 million, and 2.5497 million barrels per day for 2014, 2015 and 2016 respectively. The average exchange rate of N160 to a dollar was approved for the next three years with corporate tax fixed at 30 per cent and Value Added Tax, VAT, at five per cent respectively.

Other recommendations include that: “The government should strengthen and consolidate its fiscal strategy to narrow the gap between projected and actual revenue for the period 2014-2016 curtailing oil theft and diversifying the economy to increase tax bases so as to increase tax revenue. “The details of SURE-P projects to be executed be attached as an addendum to the annual budget estimates for approval by the National Assembly.”

On the Excess Crude Account, ECA, the lawmakers approved that “the distribution to the tiers of government of N666.9bn from the excess crude account as proposed by the executive and augmentation from the ECA should the projected crude production falls below budgeted, provided there are funds in the account.”

In more than 10 years, that would be the first time the House would be so divided on the M-TEF. But again, it tallies with the signs of the time. The 2014 Budget like the previous ones in 2003 and 2010 has been contentious and controversial, because it is the budget that would almost decide Jonathan’s fate in 2015.

For example, the National Assembly is already in a battle with the Finance Minister, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala over the percentage of the 2014 budget implemented. The issue of the ECA is also yet to be resolved as well as the issue of the Sovereign Wealth Fund, SWF, which is being contested in court by the governors.

Also, the Senate last week described the pace of implementation of the 2013 Budget as unreasonable and unsatisfactory, even as it regretted that the impact of its implementation remains unimpressive. The lawmakers also expressed concerns that the budget has followed the old practice of heavy recurrent and light capital projections.

The position of the red chamber was contained in the report of its joint committees on finance and appropriations on the 2014-2016 MTEF and FSP, which was accepted and approved after protracted debate by the lawmakers.

However, the passage of the MTEF report was not a smooth sail as many senators criticised the contents and projections contained in the document. They also faulted many of the assumptions contained in the budget as well as the inability of the formula tours of the paper to have consulted widely with all the stakeholders before coming up with the document.

It took the strong intervention of the Senate President, Mark, to dissuade the lawmakers from jettisoning the report before the lawmakers finally voted to accept the report. According to Mark, discarding the report subjectively would imply the rejection of the document, which would deny Senate’s input in the 2014 Appropriation Bill.

In a passionate appeal, Mark urged his colleagues to avoid regional and party sentiments as the document in question affects the economy of the nation. “We need a document that will help us make our input when we consider the budget.

That is what this paper is all about. And it has given us all the highlights that we need when we are making our own input into the budget. So, if you say ‘reject this paper’, then, you are saying ‘reject looking at this input when you are looking at the budget. “So, there is no need of rejecting the paper. It is a report from our own committee and it is saying that we should look at these issues when considering the budget.

If you are saying that when we are looking at the budget, we should not look at the shortfall in oil production, it is saying, ‘look at the shortfall in oil production, remedy it when you are making your input’. “It is not a matter of assumption. It has looked at all the figures. In their recommendations, they are saying that the ECA is not a legal entity and that government is not rendering a proper account.

“So, if we say no to the report, we are saying ECA is a legal entity and that government is giving proper account. We should not look at it on any partisan or regional basis.

It is a paper that affects the economy of the country and I think the committee has done an excellent job. “These are the issues we truly need to address when we are making our input into the budget. Keeping the external reserve so high at the expense of local infrastructural development is unacceptable. That is what the paper is saying,” Mark said. Consequent upon this appeal, when the report was put to vote, those in support managed to outweigh those opposed to it and it was thereby passed.

The MTEF and FSP provide the basis for the annual budget planning as required by the Fiscal Responsibility Act, 2007. “An assessment of the performance of the 2013 budget shows that reasonable progress has not been made,” the joint Senate committee report observed.

It stated: “From the progressive, optimistic but cautious MTEF and FSP projections and policy objectives over the years, the nation has not moved from the old practice of heavy recurrent and light capital projections and subsequent poor implementation of the budget in the years past.” The 2013 budget act and the amended act contained an aggregate regular expenditure of N4.987 trillion.

The projected regular revenue for the budget was N4.1 trillion, while the aggregate expenditure is made up of statutory transfers of N388 billon, debt services of N591.76 billon, recurrent non-debt expenditure of N2.415 trillion, and capital spending was pegged at N1.591 trillion.

The report by the joint Senate Committees on Finance and Appropriation observed that of this sum, only N872 billon had so far been released and cash-backed for the implementation of capital projects as at the end of the third quarter of 2013 for reasons the executive claimed were occasioned by reduced revenue inflows from oil and non-oil revenue sources, especially revenues from the Nigerian Customs Service.

The MTEF report, which was passed by the Senate contained the following projections: benchmark oil price $76.5 per barrel of crude oil, up from the $74 projected by government. It adopted the 2,3883 forecast for crude oil production per day by government, while it also adopted the exchange rate of N160 to the US Dollar by government.

Regarding domestic borrowing, the Senate observed that the current rate of N7.53 trillion and the budget deficit of 1.90 per cent of GDP proposed for 2014, which would partly be funded through borrowing, cannot be said to be the best approach to economic development. It said already, the 2014 budget is contemplating new borrowing of up to the tune of N572 billon.

If approved, according to the report, it would raise our debt profile to an all-time high sum of N8.25trillion, excluding the AMCON contingent liability, which could be in trillions of Naira. In view of the foregoing, the report recommended that fiscal prudence should be exercised by government in line with the Fiscal Responsibility Act 2007.

Concerning the issue of ratio of recurrent to capital expenditure, the report expresses concerns over the overwhelming advantage of recurrent to capital expenditure and recommended drastic reduction in the cost of governance and improved revenue collection with a view to attaining a recurrent/capital expenditure ratio of 60/40. Also, the Senate approved the joint committee’s recommended corporate tax and VAT rate of 30 per cent five per cent.

http://nationalmirroronline.net/new/after-muscle-flexing-national-assembly-receives-jonathans-2014-budget-today/
http://nationalmirroronline.net/new/after-muscle-flexing-national-assembly-receives-jonathans-2014-budget-today/

Buhari can win 2015. And he will win Isha Allah!!!

http://nationalmirroronline.net/new/buhari-not-viable-for-2015-presidency-having-lost-thrice-zwingina/
http://nationalmirroronline.net/new/buhari-not-viable-for-2015-presidency-having-lost-thrice-zwingina/


Says, ‘Nyako worked against Jonathan in 2011’
[/i]
[i]Senator Jonathan Zwingina has been actively involved in three presidential elections. He was campaign manager for Chief Olu Falae and late MKO Abiola and actively participated in the 1979 and 2011 presidential elections. In the 5th National Assembly, he was the Deputy Senate Leader. In this interview, he speaks on the crisis rocking the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, G-7 governors, President Goodluck Jonathan’s re-election bid and the opposition’s threat. AYODELE OJO reports.

Your state, Adamawa, seems to be going to the opposition All Progressives Congress, APC, as Governor Murtala Nyako appears to have declared for the party. Is the governor carrying all of you along with him to APC?

Let me first and foremost say that it is not entirely correct that my state, Adamawa, is going to the opposition. What is happening is that the governor and a few of his supporters have indicated interest to go to APC.

For those of us who know the politics of the state very well, Governor Nyako had always been in the opposition because as of fact, I know that in the 2011 elections, while all of us were running round fighting for the President, he was very actively supporting Gen. Muhammadu Buhari’s presidency, together with his commissioners and permanent secretaries who came down to the local government where we were working. So, we have always known that he was there.

But soon after that election, he was the first governor to come to Abuja to greet the President and we obliged him. If after the election he has seen the light to come back, we are ready to welcome him. So, he will not be a stranger in the APC as he’s just gone back home. As to whether some of us are with him, I will like you to observe what happened in the last by-election that took place in his own local government for one of the two House of Assembly seats.

In that by-election, the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, defeated the candidate of the governor. He had a candidate in one other party whom he fielded and all his commissioners and officers in government campaigned for that gentleman and he brought a section of the law enforcement agencies that were loyal to him in that election. But we mobilised effectively and defeated the candidate of the governor; we had 14,000 votes and the governor’s candidate had 7,000 votes.

That is the measure of the size of Adamawa population behind him. I agree that he has supporters but they are not in the majority and he is not going with the state. He is going with a few of his supporters. I can tell you as a fact now that most of his key operators have declared support for the PDP and they are not going with him.

He has the right to go where he wants and I give him that right. Among the stakeholders in Adamawa, I make bold to say that 90 per cent are with the PDP. He’s gone with some but they are no more than 10 per cent.

Former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar is in the same boat with Nyako and one expects that he also should have taken a chunk of the Adamawa electorate to the other party?

I would also say that that may not be really accurate. Right now, I am not sure whether they really are together. I have seen a number of meetings of the APC together with the G-7 or G-5, but I have not seen the former vice president.

So, I do not know to what extent that one can say they are still together. But I would also want him to know that Adamawa has been consistently PDP. People have left and come back, but the bulk of the state has been consistently PDP.

Even at a time when the former Vice President left, the PDP won the election. Nyako’s victory on the platform of the PDP is not his own making but the tradition of the state. The state is predominantly PDP. People can exit and re-enter, but the bulk of the majority of the state is PDP.

There are reports that some of the PDP governors may soon join the new PDP. What does it mean for the stability of the party ahead of 2015?

If the seven of them desire to move away from the PDP, you cannot deny them the right to do so. But I will also like to say that the party is a national party and that the party has overwhelming majority in the state and that it is not in all cases that the state moves in the direction of the governor. So, the fact the seven of them are moving in the opposite direction doesn’t mean that they will all end up in that direction.

There are already discordant tunes coming out of the G-7 where a few of them want to retrace their steps.

They have looked at their situation and what they have at hand in the PDP is now what they are actually begging for in the APC and they are not even sure of getting what they are asking for.

For example, they have their own structures actually in their hand in the PDP. Out there in the APC, they do not have that guarantee. So, we’ve seen some of them coming back. The second stage of the development is that most of them will go without their support base. Thirdly, we are likely also to fish in the APC camp.

If they can fish in the PDP, who says that we cannot fish in their nest. As they are planning to have a few of the G-7 and even one or two rumoured others interested in them, we also have credible evidence that there are some of them who are actually desirous to come over to the PDP, apart from those who are rethinking their movement away from PDP.

So, it will be a diffusion of movement that at the end of the day will balance out. We may end up having lost G-7 but in the process maybe gained G-9 and the end of the day, we have the majority.

You don’t seem to see the planned defection as a threat to the PDP at all?

I will also say that politically speaking, the action of the G-7 has come very conveniently for the PDP and that it has given us a long notice that we will get ready and repair whatever damage that would be done by that movement before 2015.

So, I will say that their strategists did not calculate the timing very well, because there is enough room to repair whatever damage the exit of some of them may cause, take some of them back before 2015 or take away the bulk of their support base. Right now, majority of their supporters are not happy with them and those who may go with them perhaps are those who are on salaries and allowances and have contract.

But the free agent politicians are not likely to play along with them. Personally, I would wish that they would rethink their position and go to the platform of the party that gave them prominence, rather than run to an opposition that has not been tested.

What do you think is the extent of the damage that will be done by the G-7 before you think of repairing it?

If G-7 had come out maybe in the middle of 2014, maybe I would agree with you that the hiccups would be such that the water will not come down in time for repair work to be done. But this thing has happened before now and I believe very strongly that there is enough time to repair the damages.

What if the G-7 remains in the PDP and still maintains the same opposition view within.

Well, since we already know that they are an opposition and an aggrieved group, it would be very disadvantageous to allow a cankerworm remain inside when serious work is to be done. I’m not the party structure but I know that they are responsible enough to know what to do. I also know that the party will also take positions that will enable them to have a dateline as to how long they are going to drag out a mere conversation with the President, since the President has humbly agreed to sit with them over and over.

Imagine a President of a country sitting down at a conference with seven out of 36 governors who are telling him not run. Many presidents will not even go to that meeting, but our own has gone and that humility is a mark of strength, rather than a weakness and I hope they read it like that. He has gone and keeps going. You meet people who say you should not run when you have the constitutional right to do so, just as they too have the constitutional right to support whoever they will support. But no one in the constitution has the right to tell another person not to use their own right.

Are you aware of any agreement between President Jonathan and the aggrieved governors?

I have said it before to the best of my knowledge and as a member of the campaign structure of President Goodluck Jonathan, I am not aware, either by direct information or by briefing by my principal that there was such agreement. But let me tell you that if there was an agreement, it would have been in the papers. You know Nigerian journalists are the most creative anywhere in the world.

They are more vibrant, more intelligent and they have better security network than many other countries. They would have pasted that agreement on the internet and we would have seen copies of it.

It may have been a gentleman agreement, but let me also tell you that many politicians do not contest elections on the basis of their own desires. Most time as political leaders, we yield to pressure from our constituencies, just like it is common knowledge that the President did not desire to be President.

Circumstances pulled him into it. He did not even desire to be Vice President. He was dragged screaming. So, he may desire not to contest, only to find that a bulk of Nigerians and his support base desire him to do so. Many of the governors, including the G-7 did not actually want to be where they were.

They were propelled into it, including our own governor, Admiral Nyako. He has been saying it every day that he didn’t want to run, but that he was compelled into it and he now yielded to pressures of those who urged him.

So, why is he not giving the President the right to also yield to the pressures of those who want him to run again? He had the right to yield to the pressures of those urging him and he is trying to deny somebody the same right to yield. The right to yield should be equivocal and also reciprocal and equitable.

Besides the said agreement, the G7 governors are of the notion that power should shift to the North. Do you think power should actually shift to the North in 2015?

Let me say something that is also obvious but maybe it has not occurred to you being very active observers and maybe not participants directly. I took part in the preparation of the last election in 2011 and I can tell you that apart from Governor Rotimi Amaechi, all the other governors from the G-7 did not deliver the President in 2011.

So, they are not saying anything new. They are simply saying what they themselves and the electorate had done in 2011. That is why I am telling you that I’m not worried because they are simply repeating the old song. It is only in Rivers that we may suffer a setback.

But in the other states, there will be no setbacks we will only repeat a setback, but not suffer a new setback. As to whether power should come back to the North, I concede the right of the North to want power to return to them, just like I concede the right of the President to want to run for a second term for which he has a constitutional right.

However, it is the zone and the President that strikes the most alliance and the larger support base that will eventually get the ticket. It is not by threat or by compulsion that that alliance can be built. It is through persuasion, dialogue and give and take. The language of some elements in G-7 is a language that is very anti-Northern interest because you seek to scare away people, rather than to endear people to their cause.

You seek to threaten rather than to seduce. You seek to compel, rather than to persuade and as a politician, I do not think that majority of the politicians are happy with the language coming out of G-7. It is not a language that draws sympathy for the cause of the North. It is a language that does disservice to the cause of the North.

Looking at the political configuration of Nigeria, how will you look at the APC?

The South-West alliance with the North as represented by the emergence of APC is based on convenience and this seems shaky, untestable and never lasting. As someone that is also fairly familiar with South-West politics, I was not only a student there but I played politics as a student there. I was in the UPN and I was in the same campaign outfit with Chief Obafemi Awolowo as far back as 1979, I was also the campaign manager to Chief Olu Falae and I was the campaign manager to Chief MKO Abiola and I delivered June 12, so I have a fair idea of the direction they take.

The South-West is the most sober political block in Nigeria and they strike their alliances based on pure political calculations. When the time comes, they will calculate the direction of their votes based on national interest and based on the ticket that will give them peace and order and based on what they see that will promote their interest because right now, the South-West is not quite ready for the Presidency, both from the history of Nigeria and the history of their leaders.

So, they are not going to do a do or die in the presidential election. If they find the Goodluck Presidency will promote the peace that they have had and does not threaten their governorship ambitions, they will be better advised to settle with it than any other presidency. The Goodluck Presidency is not a vindictive Presidency and has not taken advantage of any group and has not in any way created hatred among the communities.

If President Jonathan decided to seek re-election in 2015 what are the things he would rely on to convince Nigerians and market the second term ambition?

The things that the President would need to do would be to consolidate what he has started and I think the most important would be the power sector, which he really has concentrated upon and delivered it. It’s all clear that it cannot be fixed in a month or in a year, but if he can concentrate on that and be remembered as the President that eventually resolved the power question, you know the power sector has a spinoff effect for industries, for agriculture, for infrastructure and for everything.

So, once that is fixed, I’m sure many Nigerians will not forget that. Of course, there are other reforms waiting to be consolidated; the petroleum industry bill which will reform the petroleum sector and in the infrastructural bill which is going to turn round the infrastructure of the country through PPP.

These are the things that should be continued. I do not envisage new projects or new programmes for the President but the consolidation, expansion and completion of the ones that he has started, not biting too much and being unable to chew but concentrating on what has been achieved so far and delivering them.

Do you not see the APC coalition as a threat to the ambition of the PDP in anyway, the Presidency in particular?

I don’t think so because of a number of factors. The PDP has been together for over14 years. APC has been together for less than six months and it will take lots of energy to push away an incumbent party, led by an incumbent President. They have not stayed together long enough to know each other very well. The second most important reason is that APC has no central pillar of what one can call centre of gravity.

They have many centres of gravity, not one centre of gravity and so there is certain anarchy in their ranks; anarchy of authority and anarchy of financial direction and the time to settle down. Maybe in the next five or seven years, they could be a threat. But right now, they are not a threat. Thirdly, most of the chieftains in APC are only concerned about their states and not the federation.

They are more concerned about how to protect the gains they have made in their individual states and they are ready to spend only in those individual states and not in the federation. So, that’s why they are not a threat to the President.

They are only a threat in the states where they are. If they are well organised, they could actually seize some of the states. But they are not a threat to the Presidency because they have not consolidated to that level. Finally, the PDP has the advantage of a sitting President that has not harmed anybody, even with his words or with his actions. If anything, people have thrown all sorts of banana peels at him and he has remained calm and has even sat on the table of people that convened meetings to abuse him and he will sit down and listen. But the APC do no not have a presidential figure in their ranks as we speak.

What of Gen. Buhari?

Gen. Buhari, with all due respect, is not a viable presidential material because he has lost the Presidency thrice. In the United States, if you lose once, nobody allows you to come back. To lose three times and still desire to come back, for Nigerians to resolve three time to reject you, unless you say they are foolish, which they are not.

For Nigerians to resolve three times and reject you and you keep coming, then you need another interpretation of the resolve of Nigerians. I’m sure if his advisers are honest, they will advise him that look, the electorate that rejected you three times must have a good reason to do so. I respect him as a leader but I do not think that these are the times for a Buhari presidency.

These times require a younger and more vibrant President that will connect with the kind of leaders that are coming out of the world. Gen. Buhari did well when he was a military President but he serves better when he was in the military. I don’t think these are his times.

You can see examples in the CPC. Even in Katsina where he comes from, there were two candidates and he could not resolve the two of them. Bauchi went into election with four CPC candidates, not even aspirants. If this is the kind of inability to organise the home that will be visited on Nigerians, its no wonder that they have said no three times and I’m sure the fourth time will be a more resounding no.

You should not humiliate a leader like that with too many nos. You should save him the honour of being a former President and not be repeating too many nos at his face. It doesn’t do him any good because he could go to his grave very unhappy.



http://nationalmirroronline.net/new/buhari-not-viable-for-2015-presidency-having-lost-thrice-zwingina/
http://nationalmirroronline.net/new/buhari-not-viable-for-2015-presidency-having-lost-thrice-zwingina/

this is a case of a married woman whose concubine came to lay claim to her child in her matrimonial home. Her Concubine came to fight her husband and claim a son born into wedlock.

wonders shall never end!!

http://nationalmirroronline.net/new/paternity-claim-goes-awry-man-plucks-rivals-eye/

When Idris Alamu had his first child six years ago, he probably did not know that he had just embarked on a journey that would cost him an eye

Hell was let loose recently at Joga town, in Yewa North Local Government Area of Ogun State when two men engaged in fierce fight over the paternity of a six year old boy.

The two men were said to have inflicted deep cuts on each other during the fight which led to one of them losing his sight. It was reported that Idris Alamu, 38, a native of Odeda Local Government Area of Ogun State has been married to Florence Alamu in the last seven years and their marriage was blessed with Toib, 6, and Hadiza, 3. But before Omolara married Idris, she was reportedly married to one Yakubu Koku, a native of Port Novo, in the Republic of Benin.

It was learnt that Florence had been separated from her first husband before she moved into Idris’ house. Several months after moving into Idris’ house, Florence reportedly gave birth to her first child, and current subject of dispute between the two men, Toib.

In the last six years that the husband and wife had been living together, there was no cause for worry about the paternity of Toib until recently when Yakubu came with two elders from his village to confront his former wife about Toib, claiming the boy is his son. Neighbours of the Alamus told reporters that sometime in August 2013, Yakubu was in the area to ask Florence to allow him take his own son.

The woman was said to have warned Yakubu to desist from such request as the boy was not his. Yakubu reportedly returned again that same month demanding that the boy be released to him. But during those two periods, Idris, an inter-state commercial driver, was away.

However, on Sunday, October 20, 2013, Yakubu again surfaced at the Joga home of the Alamus. Yakubu knocked at the doors of the couple while they were having their breakfast. Apparently thinking the person at the entrance of the room was his friend, Idris reportedly left his food and walked to the door to open the door for the visitor. Idris who was reported to have always been briefed by Florence every time Yakubu came to demand for Toib, was shocked to the marrow to discover that the man who had been laying claim to his son was the one at the door.

A neighbour, who spoke to Saturday Mirror on condition of anonymity claimed that Yakubu was unruly and without exchanging pleasantry with Idris, he started raining abuses on Idris. “It was the voice of the man that made me rise from my bed. I initially did not want to come out, thinking it was a mere exchange of words between co-tenants.

“But it was my son that ran into our room to inform me of the development. By the time I put on a shirt to come out, the two men had dragged each other into Mr. Alamu’s house and had started fighting, “the neighbour added. He also claimed that while the Idris held Yakubu’s cloths and shouting at the top of his voice, the latter allegedly grabbed a knife the Alamus were using on the margarine they were using on the loafs of bread on the table.

It was reported that while the two men engaged in a fight, Yakubu grabbed the knife on the table and aimed it at Idris’ eye. As the knife caught Idris in the eye, he reportedly let go off the cloth of Yakubu and collapsed into the single sofa in the living room.

Florence, immediately reportedly picked up a stool and threw it at Yakubu while neighbours rushed into the living room to pick Idris from the floor. Bleeding profusely, Idris was reportedly rushed out of the house to a clinic close by.

He is said to have been transferred to Abeokuta for further treatment. Yakubu and the two people that came with him reportedly took to their heels upon seeing the damaged he caused. He, however, did not succeed in taking Toib with him.

According to Florence, who managed to speak on the issue, “The man is just a trouble maker. He claimed Toib is his son and the question you ask him is that when did I leave him and when did I have Toib. I was never pregnant for him so how would he come now to say our son is his?”
http://nationalmirroronline.net/new/paternity-claim-goes-awry-man-plucks-rivals-eye/

this is incredible!!!!

http://nationalmirroronline.net/new/bloody-treachery-two-friends-in-knife-fifi-ght-over-woman/

Sesi Anumundu and Lati Adekoya had a long friendship that began in childhood until 15 October, 2013 when they fell apart. Reason: one was having an illicit affair with the girlfriend of the other.

An auto mechanic, Sesi Anumundu, was reported to have been stabbed several times on the head by his friend during a scuffle over a woman. Anumundu, a native of Delta State is said to be recuperating in an undisclosed clinic in Lagos. The 37-year-old was said to have engaged his childhood friend, Lati Adekoya, in a fierce fight over the latter’s lover, Fortune. The bloody event occurred on Tuesday, October 15, 2013.

Both Anumundu and Adekoya had reportedly been friends since their early childhood days at Adamasingba, Ibadan, Oyo State. When both came out of the secondary school, Anumundu relocated to Ibeshe, Lagos State with his uncle while Adekoya remained at Ibadan.

But it was said that because of their closeness, Adekoya always stayed in his friend’s Uncle’s house anytime he was in Lagos. Since Anumundu could not proceed to the tertiary level, he reportedly opted to learn auto mechanic while Adekoya reportedly secured admission into one of the Polytechnics in the South South region of the country.

At the time he was in school, Adekoya often times sped his breaks in Lagos with Anumundu, who by then, had already secured a room apartment for himself at Ogijo, via Ikorodu in Ogun State. In one of his visits to Anumundu last year, Adekoya was introduced to a woman, Fortune, by his friend.

Before long, Adekoya and Fortune became serious lovers to the knowledge of people in Anumundu’s neighbourhood. It was also reported that Fortune had twice visited Adekoya in school and on one such occasions, the latter had equally visited Fortune’s mother in Ughelli, Delta State. By 2012, Adekoya was through with his education and had to go for the one year national youth service in one of the North Eastern states of the country.

Because of the far distance to Lagos, Adekoya reportedly hardly come to Lagos during his service year. However, it was one of those rare occasions that he came to Lagos that he reportedly met Anumundu and Fortune naked in bed making love.

An eye witness told Saturday Mirror that a neighbour of Anumundu, who was also close to Adekoya had earlier intimated him of the amorous relationship between his bosom friend and his girlfriend.

The later always rubbished such claims and reportedly began to keep malice with the whistleblower. That was around June, 2013. When the news of the romance between his friend and Fortune became persistent, Adekoya had reportedly called his friend on phone one day to challenge him on the issue but he rebuffed the claim. The bubble, however, burst recently when Adekoya chose to come to his friend’s house for a break. It was said that Adekoya gave no one any inkling of his home-coming. Fortune, an auxiliary nurse at a private hospital in Ikorodu always had her off days on Tuesdays and Sundays.

So, it was on Tuesday, October 15, 2013 that Adekoya chose to come to see his friend. He neither informed his friend nor Fortune of his visit. On that fateful day, around 11:00a.m, when apparently no one was in Anumundu’s compound, Adekoya, who had arrived Lagos the previous night but stayed away from his friend’s house, suddenly bumped into Anumundu’s apartment. He reportedly met his friend and girlfriend stack naked, making love.

The youth corps member reportedly wasted no time in engaging his friend and the one that connected him and the woman in a heated war of words. Rather than show remorse, Anumundu chose to lambast his friend and reportedly ordered him out of his apartment. At that point, Adekoya could not hold back his anger; he descended on his friend. It was reported that during the fight, the youth corps member grabbed a knife on Anumundu’s shelve and cut the auto mechanic in several parts of his body. Fortune, in the interim, reportedly fled the scene while the two men fought each other.

Anumundu, on his own, collapsed on his sofa. Speaking on the incident, a neighbour, Mama Chinonso, claimed that Fortune was a regular visitor to the house but that she was not aware who her real lover was between the two friends.

“The lady comes here every time but I am surprised to hear that she was the other man’s girlfriend. We just moved into this area so I did not know that she was actually dating Adekoya. It was the noise of the lady running out of the compound that drew some people’s attention to the scene. By the time we got there, the man (Anumundu) had been stabbed several times and people around had to rush him to the hospital.”

Anumundu also spoke with reporters on phone. According to him, “I initially introduced him (Adekoya) to the lady but he told me he did not like her. After a while, the lady told me that she preferred to date me and we started”. Neither Adekoya, nor Fortune could be reached on phone as their mobile telephones were switched off.



http://nationalmirroronline.net/new/bloody-treachery-two-friends-in-knife-fifi-ght-over-woman/

http://nationalmirroronline.net/new/bigiano-returns-with-norty/

Don’t you think that the agitation of the people of Anambra North in conjunction with the governor’s support that the zone will produce the next governor, will reduce the chances of your party?Bigiano?

Remember him? If you are a music or entertainment lover, you certainly will, as his song, Shayo, was a monster hit a few years ago, and people have been wondering where he’s been since then, just as they keep wondering what’s happening with Olu Maintain too since his star hasn’t shone as brightly as it did with his own monster hit, Yahoozee.

Well, Bigiano is finally back with a song that sounds promising enough to return him to the heights he reached with Shayo. The song is titled Norty, and it isn’t his first release after Shayo. It is however enjoying the most buzz of all his post-Shayo releases.

http://nationalmirroronline.net/new/bigiano-returns-with-norty/