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Alienvirus's Posts

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Christianity Etc › Re: Top 10 Reasons Why Jesus Christ Is Not God by alienvirus: 8:23pm On Oct 15, 2011
The greatest thread ever surface on NL
Islam › Re: Is It Permissible In Islam For A Female To Woo A Male She Truly Loves, Even If Hes A Muslim? by alienvirus: 7:27pm On Oct 09, 2011
He is trying to say he never fornicated unlike u toba that doesn't free anything in skirt. Hope that sinks into ur medulla
Islam › Re: Why Are Yoruba Muslims More Backward Than Yoruba Christians? by alienvirus: 7:16pm On Oct 09, 2011
He says, brush your mouth before you talk to me
Politics › My Apologies, President Jonathan by alienvirus(op): 1:37pm On Oct 05, 2011
Dear President Jonathan,

I’m ashamed of myself. I want to apologize for my heartless abuse of your meek and gentle self. Please accept my sincere apologies.

I did not mean any harm. If I had known that you were as fragile as an egg, I would have been massaging your tiny ego instead of throwing darts to strengthen your muscles.

Just like you, Mr. President, I want to move Nigeria forward. I want to do it in a gentleman’s way - without shedding any sweat. But I have seen that Nigeria is such a heavy load that anyone involved in that venture must be ready to perspire.

Despite the impression I must have given over the years as a professional critic, I am a thoughtful man. I know it must be hard being the president of a dysfunctional country like Nigeria. But I did not know it was this hard. And surely, you did not have the slightest idea how hard it would be when you allowed your name on the ballot.

At a non-denominational service to mark Nigeria ’s 51st Independence Day, you lashed out at me and other critics of yours. I truly deserve it. But your frustrations drew no sympathy in me.

As a member, in good standing, of the National Association of Armchair Critics (Home and Abroad), I want to respond to you.

It wasn’t my intention to be abusive. I wanted to use sweet words to present my thoughts. But it hasn’t been easy. And that is for the simple fact that the Nigerian political space that you head is so rude to me. Everyday, your people insult me. They dish out foul acts. When they speak, obnoxious words come out of their mouths. Your people exert cruelty on me and on ordinary folks like me. The vicious disregard of our feelings makes it hard for me to be loving and kind.

I do pity you, Mr. President. But I cannot sugarcoat things because I’m livid that you haven’t declared your assets yet - and this, in and of itself, is a form of abuse to me and my humanity.

Often, I hear you and your friends in high places say that you don’t mind constructive criticism. You ask that we proffer solutions when we criticize. Well, I thought by pointing out the problems we have invariably made the solution obvious. Must we spell it all out?

We say that we are outraged that 469 people in Nigeria’s National Assembly get paid over N150 million (about $1million) each every year. That’s about $500 million in total. What does that say to you? Do you need from us a solution on that?

We say that we are mad that the Nigerian government spent $3.2 billion of our money to build Delta Steel Co that is over N480 billion without factoring in inflation. Later, the same steel company got sold to a company that is a front for Obasanjo for mere $120 million, i.e. N7.5 billion. What does that say to you? Do you need from us a solution on that?

We say that we are fuming because Mr. Jimoh Ibrahim bought NICON, valued at N50 billion for N1.05 billion. He used equity in the company to borrow N41 billion from Union Bank PLC. What does that say to you? Do you need from us a solution on that?

We say that we are furious because Theophilus Danjuma made $4.5 billion when he sold to a Chinese corporation 45% share of a company he build around the two oil blocks Gen. Sani Abacha “dashed” him. He said that after paying taxes and taking care of all he could think of, he had $500 million left. To avoid having his children fight over too much money after he’s dead, he used $100 million to set up a Foundation. What does that say to you? Do you need from us a solution on that?

We say we are incensed that governors across Nigeria cart away hundreds of millions of naira each month as security vote. They commit crimes and hide under immunity. They leave office and live above the law. What does that say to you? Do you need from us a solution on that?

Forget about them-others. What about you? Why haven’t you declared your assets? How much do you get as security vote? Even if you are so helpless about stopping others, why can’t you live by example?

We are enraged. We feel the violence you and your people exert on us right inside our hearts. And all you want us to do is to stop abusing you. Forget you!

In your swipe at us, you essentially said that while we were busy hating you at home, world leaders were busy extolling you abroad.

“President Obama commended me,” you said, like a teenager asked out on a date by a cheerleader. Eeyaah!

Maybe I should tell you that President Obama commended me too? And I never met him. I have a letter written and signed by Obama to prove it. In the letter, Obama called me his friend. He even sends me emails every Friday. So what is the big deal?

I noticed that Obama’s commendation wasn’t all that when I discovered that it doesn’t mean a thing to my children. And frankly, I am more interested in what my children think about me than what Obama thinks about me.

Also, I saw the picture of you taking instructions from Hilary Clinton. Her pose was not that of someone commending. It was more of someone commanding. And your pose wasn’t that of a lion or a Pharaoh or an army general. Yours was that of a schoolboy taking instructions from the headmistress.

You said that you can change Nigeria without being a Nebuchadnezzar. Well, so you know, we don’t care what you are or what you want to become. All that we care about is to see the changes. No need talking. Just show us the change.

Let the critics be critics. Let you, the president, be president. That’s all that we want. You must not use us, the critics, as an excuse for your failure. And we, the critics, must not use your tears as an excuse to quit our job.

As far as I can see, nobody asked you to rule with impunity. All that you are asked is to show some audacity. If you don’t have it in you, just convince us that there is sanity in our polity. Is that too much to ask for?

You don’t have to be the King of Syria to change the lives of Nigerians.

Whatever pact you have with God, that is between you and your God. What we, the critics, think is the reason why you are there is more important than what you think is the reason why God placed you there.

Just in case you have forgotten, you are there to serve us. You said you wanted to do so. And by every means possible, you got yourself there. Now that you’re there, do what presidents are supposed to do.

Gear up and guide the nation. Don’t sit there and grumble.

God does not use grumbling men to change a society. Passionate men who pledged their honor, their fortunes and their lives grab the horn and turn their society around.

Only the dead do not have forces bent on frustrating them. A market woman has forces bent on tearing her ten kobo bag. So get over yourself. Get over the excuses. Get over the self-pity. Give us results. Inspire us. Nothing you say will make the forces against you to pull back. The more you look like a pussy, the more they push you around.

We have heard that one about ‘moving the nation forward.” We have even felt the movement. The only problem is that when we look around, outside of Abuja and your friends in high places, we notice that we are actually moving backward and not forward.

But listen, it doesn’t matter what we think. If you are sure you are moving the nation forward, by all means, don’t worry about what we say. Keep on moving. Majority of the people will notice it eventually.

You don’t want to waste your energy dealing with your enemies. You’re the president, for Christ sake. If all you see are Goliaths everywhere, you are looking at the wrong effigies.

And mind you, Mr. President, I know David - you are not David. Maybe you’re kind of confused. While you are searching for the forehead of Goliath, remember that you’re exposing your forehead too.

Maybe in your days as an intellectual, you did not have to do literature review and thesis proposal where you critic old arguments and advanced new ones. Critics have to do that on a daily basis.

If God is your pilot, I say, good luck to you. But God is not Nigeria ’s pilot. Don’t embarrass God that way. Your PDP is Nigeria ’s pilot. So the sooner you get that into your head, the better.

If you have no plans, no amount of prayers will lead you to your destination. And if you have no destination, no God can guide you there.

I don’t know about others, but I am not praying for you and all your friends who waste the resources of that country, living large in Abuja while ordinary men and women perish for nothing.

I am praying for that breadwinner who will die tomorrow night when the bus he is travelling in collides with an abandoned trailer left in the middle of Lagos-Ibadan road. I am praying for the women and children who will die in a fire tomorrow night because there is no fire truck anywhere in their local government.

I am praying for that pregnant woman who will die in labor tonight because the doctor has no tools to perform surgery. I am praying for the trader whose business will come to an end because ill-educated and unemployed youths will set his goods on fire tomorrow. I am praying for the girl who will be raped tomorrow by men who have copied the impunity of our national life, which you and your friends advertise.

Let Pastor Enoch Adeboye pray for you. Let Pastor Chris Oyakhilome mediate for you. Let Evangelist Helen Akpabio transfigure for you. Let T.B. Joshua splash you with Holy Water. Let David Oyedepo knock you into a winner. All I know is that, “vanity is vanity.” What use is a conscience that is deeply asleep?

Oh, by the way, Happy Independence Day, Mr. President. I hope you’ve received the card President Obama sent you. I’ve got mine here.

I’m your most humble subject,
Rudolf Ogoo Okonkwo
Politics › Presidential Election: Compromised Tribunal Summons Inec, Goodluck Jonathan, 40 by alienvirus(op): 1:33pm On Oct 05, 2011
SaharaReporters has obtained a copy of the original subpoena sent to the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Professor Attahiru Jega, to appear before the Presidential Election Tribuna to give evidence in the challenge of last April’s presidential election by the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC).

That order has now been cancelled by the Tribunal in favour of another to the spokesman of the CPC spokesperson, Rotimi Fashakin and some Nigerian Tribune reporters to appear before it in an irrelevant contempt of court issue.

The original subpoena, which was signed by the Presiding judge, commanded Professor Jega and 41 others, including the declared winner, President Goodluck Jonathan; the Independent National Electoral Commission; and the National Electoral Commissioner, to appear to give testimony at the tribunal. The other defendants are the Resident Electoral Commissioners in all the states to appear in September 20, 201.

The defendants were further ordered to bring with them an armada of evidence that include:

• The National Biometric Data Bank containing the National Register of Voters;
• A Certified True Copy of the Independent National Electoral Commission Manual used in the conduct of the General Election of 2011; and the
• Certified True Copy (Hard Copy) and electronic copy of voters register used in the presidential election evidencing accreditation of the registered voters in all polling units of the Federation.

[Full text of the order]:
IN THE COURT OF APPEAL
HOLDEN AT ABUJA

PETITION NO.CA/A/EPT/PRES/1/2011

THE ELECTION TO THE POST OF PRESIDENT OF THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF NIGERIA HELD ON SATURDAY, 16th APRIL, 2011.

BETWEEN:

CONGRESS FOR PROGRESSIVE CHANGE …… PETITIONER

AND

1. INDEPENDENT NATIONAL ELECTORAL
COMMISSION (INEC)
2. CHIEF NATIONAL ELECTORAL
COMMISSIONER
3. DR. GOODLUCK EBELE JONATHAN
4. ARCHITECT MOHAMMED NAMADI SAMBO
5. PEOPLES DEMOCRATIC PARTY
6. RESIDENT ELECTORAL COMMISSIONER, ABIA STATE
7. RESIDENT ELECTORAL COMMISSIONER, ADAMAWA STATE
8. RESIDENT ELECTORAL COMMISSIONER, AKWA IBOM STATE
9. RESIDENT ELECTORAL COMMISSIONER, ANAMBRA STATE
10. RESIDENT ELECTORAL COMMISSIONER, BAUCHI STATE
11. RESIDENT ELECTORAL COMMISSIONER, BAYELSA STATE .RESPONDENTS
12. RESIDENT ELECTORAL COMMISSIONER, BENUE STATE
13. RESIDENT ELECTORAL COMMISSIONER, BORNO STATE
14. RESIDENT ELECTORAL COMMISSIONER, CROSS RIVER STATE
15. RESIDENT ELECTORAL COMMISSIONER, DELTA STATE
16. RESIDENT ELECTORAL COMMISSIONER, EBONYI STATE
17. RESIDENT ELECTORAL COMMISSIONER, EDO STATE
18. RESIDENT ELECTORAL COMMISSIONER, EKITI STATE
19. RESIDENT ELECTORAL COMMISSIONER, ENUGU STATE
20. RESIDENT ELECTORAL COMMISSIONER, FCT
21. RESIDENT ELECTORAL COMMISSIONER, GOMBE STATE
22. RESIDENT ELECTORAL COMMISSIONER, IMO STATE
23. RESIDENT ELECTORAL COMMISSIONER, JIGAWA STATE
24. RESIDENT ELECTORAL COMMISSIONER, KADUNA STATE
25. RESIDENT ELECTORAL COMMISSIONER, KANO STATE
26. RESIDENT ELECTORAL COMMISSIONER, KATSINA STATE
27. RESIDENT ELECTORAL COMMISSIONER, KEBBI STATE
28. RESIDENT ELECTORAL COMMISSIONER, KOGI STATE
29. RESIDENT ELECTORAL COMMISSIONER, KWARA STATE
30. RESIDENT ELECTORAL COMMISSIONER, LAGOS STATE
31. RESIDENT ELECTORAL COMMISSIONER, NASSARAWA STATE
32. RESIDENT ELECTORAL COMMISSIONER, NIGER STATE
33. RESIDENT ELECTORAL COMMISSIONER, OGUN STATE
34. RESIDENT ELECTORAL COMMISSIONER, ONDO STATE
35. RESIDENT ELECTORAL COMMISSIONER, OSUN STATE
36. RESIDENT ELECTORAL COMMISSIONER, OYO STATE
37. RESIDENT ELECTORAL COMMISSIONER, PLATEAU STATE
38. RESIDENT ELECTORAL COMMISSIONER, RIVERS STATE
37. RESIDENT ELECTORAL COMMISSIONER, PLATEAU STATE
38. RESIDENT ELECTORAL COMMISSIONER, RIVERS STATE
39. RESIDENT ELECTORAL COMMISSIONER, SOKOTO STATE
40. RESIDENT ELECTORAL COMMISSIONER, TARABA STATE
41. RESIDENT ELECTORAL COMMISSIONER, YOBE STATE
42. RESIDENT ELECTORAL COMMISSIONER, ZAMFARA STATE


FORM 23
ORDER 20 RULE 20 OF THE FEDERAL HIGH COURT (CIVIL PROCEDURE) RULES, 2009

SUBPOENA DUCES TECUM AD TESTIFICANDUM

CHAIRMAN
Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC)
HEADQUARTERS, PLOT 436 ZAMBEZI DISTRICT CRESCENT
MAITAMA DISTRICT
FCT, ABUJA, NIGERIA.

You are commanded in the name of the President and Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria to attend before the Court of Appeal (Presidential Election Tribunal) at ABUJA, NIGERIA, on TUESDAY THE 20TH Day of September, 2011 at the hour of 9 ‘O’ Clock in the forenoon, and so from day to day until the above cause is tried, to give evidence on behalf of the Petitioner and also to bring with you and produce at the time and place aforesaid the following document (s) thus:

1. National Biometric Data Bank containing the National Register of Voters;
2. A Certified True Copy of the Independent National Electoral Commission Manual used in the conduct of the General Election of 2011;
3. Certified True Copy (Hard Copy ) and electronic copy of voters register used in the presidential election evidencing accreditation of the registered voters in all polling units of the Federation;
4. Certified True Copies of all Forms EC8A, EC8B, EC8C, EC8D and EC8E used for the conduct of the Presidential Elections held on the 16th April, 2011 evidencing the returns of the result declared at the Polling Units, Wards, Local Government Areas, State and Federal Constituency declaration respectively.
5. Certified True Copy of List of Accredited Local & International Observers for the purpose of the monitoring the presidential elections held on the 16th April, 2011.
6. Certified List of Local Contractors (Indigenous) engaged by INEC (1st Respondent) to print ballot papers used in the presidential elections and copies of contract papers executed by INEC evidencing the award of contracts to them.
7. A CertifieTrue Copy of the Tabulation of ballot papers distribution evidencing the serial numbers of the ballot papers shared across the country on polling units, Wards, Local Government Areas and States basis including the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja.
8. Certified True Copy of delineation of Poling Units by their Codes on the basis of States, Constituencies, Local Government Areas, Wards, and Polling Units.
9. Excel application used in computer summation of the result for Presidential Election used across the Nation in the Presidential Election.
10. Down Loaded result declared by the 1st Respondent (INEC) for the 36 States of the Federation and the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja held on the 16th April, 2011.
11. Original Copy of letter to the Chairman of the 1st Respondent (INEC) from the Congress of Progressive Change dated 30th March, 2011;
12. Original Copy of Letter dated 18th April, 2011 by the Congress for Progressive Change to the Chairman of the 1st Respondent (INEC).
13. Certified True Copy of Summary of Results (Katsina State) Governorship election held on the 26th April, 201;
14. Original Copy of Congress for Progressive Change’s Letter dated 2nd April, 2011 drawing attention of 1st Respondent (INEC) to massive disenfranchisement of CPC Voters.
15. Letter from 1st Respondent (INEC) in Reply to CPC’s letter dated 2nd April, 2011;
16. Certified True Copy of the letter of 1st Respondent (INEC) dated 5th May, 2011;
17. Original Copy of Petition dated 16/4/2011 Written by Messrs Ogu Chikaodi and O. Chika on behalf of the Congress of Progressive Change to the Resident Electoral Commissioner (21st Respondent);
18. Certified True Copies of Specimen copies of ballot papers used across the nation in the Presidential Election of the 16th April, 2011
19. Certified True Copies of relevant forms for electoral materials receipt and ballot paper account and verification statement in which entries of ballot papers dispatched for the Presidential Election of the 16th April, 2011 was recorded.


------------------------------
PRESIDING JUSTICE (CHAIRMAN)

IN THE COURT OF APPEAL
HOLDEN AT ABUJA

PETITION NO.CA/A/EPT/PRES/1/2011

THE ELECTION TO THE POST OF PRESIDENT OF THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF NIGERIA HELD ON SATURDAY, 16th APRIL, 2011.

BETWEEN:

CONGRESS FOR PROGRESSIVE CHANGE …… PETITIONER

AND

INDEPENDENT NATIONAL ELECTORAL
COMMISSION (INEC) & 41 ORS
Politics › Re: Patience Jonathan: Children, Children, How Old Is Independence Today? by alienvirus: 9:52am On Oct 04, 2011
@kasiem can u beat this huh huh huh huh huh undecided

…be obscurantive or to be gymnosophist in my communication.
There has been no deliberate attempt at all to obfuscate or envelope my audience in a state of orgamoga , no no no no no, far, far from it. Like I have always said, it is just that by the grace of God, by the grace of the great grand architect of the universe, I put my nose to the grindstone, and I am sort of an omnivorous reader.

I read practically everything that comes across my way. I am sure you can see here now ‘The mystical life of Jesus’. This may be outside the purview of an ordinary lawmaker or a lawyer.

If you are a polyvalent and an elliptical reader , chances are that you are bound to come across one or two idiolects and if you make it as your pastime , to be able to know every new word you come across, what it stands for, they are part and parcel of you, and when you speak, at times they come like the rattle of a gun and that goes beyond my control, but to say that I, Honourable Patrick Obahiagbon have deliberately set out to mystify my audience is far from it.

It is an opportunity for me again to use the platform of Sahara reporters, a latitudelerian platform to render an unreserved apologia to my audience if at any point in time; they find it a little bit difficult to comprehend what I am saying. I want to apologise that it is not intentionally at all excepting you are saying that I should be deaf and dumb, excepting you are saying that I should not speak. You know, so an apology again. I can’t stop reading.

SR: Hmm, having said that, when we look at your contribution on the floor of the house, you have been very – you have been quite hard when it comes to the state of the nation. I remember on e of your contributions during the disappearance of the former president, Late Musa Yar’ Adua. Being a member of the PDP, you know, how did you feel at that point in time, going contrary to the general feeling of members of the political party to take an opposing view?

HPO: No, no ,no no, you see as a parliamentarian you have more than one , or two or three constituencies, you have loyalty to your party, you have loyalty to the nation, and you have your loyalty to your conscience. And for me, I have never found myself in any quandary as to the fact that when there is a mismatch, when there is an interpose between loyalty to your party, or loyalty to your nation or loyalty to your conscience, you must tilt the scale in favour of the nation, you must tilt the scale in favour of your conscience. So for me, even when the entire national assembly at that point in time, both the house of reps and the senate, took a position that it was not the business of the national assembly to call on late President Yar Adua to transmit a letter to the national assemble, my mind, my conscience wriggled and I thought we were just being politically loyal boys. SO at my expense, I called a world press conference and I said no no no, true, yes the provisions of the constitution made it discretionary but the national assembly could call on the president to exercise that discretion in favour of public safety, in favour of the stability of democracy and once I aired that view, irrespective of the fact that it ran against the grain of the leadership of the national assembly, irrespective of the fact that it ran against the grain of my political party , I became an happy man, and for me my happiness is what matters to me and that was why again, when we were told that a presidential jet flew in the late president into the country without the imprimatur of the then acting president, I came again on the floor of the parliament to say no no no no, I see this as a veritable bugaboo which must be pooh poohed, by all cosmopetis homo sapiens.

SR: And was that why you crossed to the Action Congress of Nigeria, because I am made aware that you have left the PDP for the ACN?

HPO: Yes, I am a member now of the Action Congress of Nigeria, Edo State. That itself has generated a life controversy of officio. But the way I look at this matter is that I take succour in Plato. Plato said that at all points in time in any democracy, the people and only the people must remain the philosopher kings, and I find myself in Edo State where a preponderant number of my constituents had techivastated from the People’s Democratic party to the Action Congress of Nigeria, for no reason other than the fact that the comrade governor himself, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole has given meaning to governance. Edo state that was in a state of economic quagmire, political phantasmagoria, and social stupor was gradually and is being gradually transmogrified into a state of infrastructural El Dorado. So you see a dominant number of my constituents adjusting to the Action Congress of Nigeria and I can’t stay here, I can’t stay here Kayode, to begin to admire the bridges in Abuja and pretend not to see the yearnings, not to listen to the yearnings and aspirations of my people.

SR: So what if you opponents call it political opportunism, that Oshiomhole and the Action Congres of Nigeria, being the party of the day, the ideology of the PDP to the ideology of the CAN, what do you have in common with the Action Congress in terms of policy?

HPO: What is the ideological difference? What is the ideological difference between the PDP and the ACN? What is the ideological difference between the PDP, the CAN and other political parties? If there is any ideological difference at all, it is but a twiddly dormant twiddledee. No, no basic, no basic ideological difference. It is all elitist, a band of elitists, gathering together, you know, for the sole purpose of acquiring political power, to see how that political power could be deployed, either in service of the nation or in service of self, you know, so if the ACN political platform for me is the platform that has become the bedrock upon which the economic status…

…interesting developments, unfortunately and sardonically and lugubriously so, we do not seem to have a very efficacious and potent political armada in form of an opposition political party in Nigeria just now, otherwise, this was the opportune time for Nigerians to have an alternative government to the People’s democratic party. Because I foresee a lot of implosions flowing here-from, and in any case, in any case, Kayode, that 50 years of Nigeria’s independence, we are still apostatizing the faucet aurigae of a presidential aspirant, that is to say where the presidential aspirant comes from, and not his merits, not what I can do, not his political pronunciamento, shows that there is something wrong with Nigeria’s federalism, shows that we need to re-negotiate the character of the Nigerian state. What is zoning after all? To me, I am less perturbed whether a south southerner, a south-south man becomes president or a man from Sokoto becomes president, because, after all, there is one common denominator; - the common denominator is that it is a government of the elites, by the elites, and for the elites. The northerners have ruled the country for over 30 years, what have they used their 30 years of rulership – have they used their 30 years of rulership to transform Aminu Kano talakawas, have they used their 30 years to transform the modus Vivendi of the rag tag and the bob tail in the northern political, socio and economic pathosphere ? When President Obasanjo from the South West was president of the federal republic of Nigeria, to what extent did that enhance the welfare of the hoi polloi in the Oduduwa republic? So, zoning is a contrivance by the elitist political class to have access to power to continue the pillaging and plundering of oil for their own egocentric benefit, to continue to masturbate their selves in the corridors of power. If a man from X, from Lanktang state becomes president of the country, it does not affect the economic fortunes either way of a man from Lanktang state. Poverty is poverty, whether in the north or in the south, dilapidated state of infrastructure exists whether in the north or in the south. Bad healthcare delivery system exists whether in the north or in the south. So, all of this zoning is just a contrivance of by the Nigerian elites and unfortunately we seem to be falling n to this trap and we want to rely and ask of very sensitive and very dialectical and very clinical and soul searching platforms such as Sahara Reporters to continue to unveil these masquerades. It does not serve the interest of our people other than serve the interest of the elites. It shows that Nigerians are still falling assoc deep into the aqua of what Papa Jeremiah - Chief Obafemi Awolowo, the [….] philosopher said when he described Nigeria as a mere geographical expression, 50 years after independence, we are still talking about zoning, is reflective of the fact that Nigeria still wallows in a state of menicisetal statetism , cankerous tribalism, ethnocentric chauvinism , syphilitic parochialism, epileptic nepotism, catalytic parapoism and state brigandish, of the bluest dye…

Interview conducted by Citizen reporter, Kayode Ogundamisi. Transcript of interview provided by Aina Olatunji-Mason
Politics › Re: Gen. Gowon interviewed hours after surrender of Biafra; he blames Ojukwu for war by alienvirus: 11:51am On Sep 28, 2011
very very interesting. as far as i am concerned, the best head of state ever mentioned is muhammad buhari. the man should be given second term. oh, no wonder he shed tears. he knew those to deal with and restore our confidence. he is far better than the incumbent i must confess but ethno-religious sentiments beclouded nigerians. here we are, PEACE!
Politics › Re: I am not a Lion, A General, Goliath, Pharaoh Or A King - GEJ by alienvirus: 2:43pm On Sep 27, 2011
grin grin grin grin grin grin grin grin grin grin grin some should help me laugh. i no fi laugh eeh
Politics › Re: I am not a Lion, A General, Goliath, Pharaoh Or A King - GEJ by alienvirus: 2:20pm On Sep 27, 2011
wowwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww! I will always read this thread over and over again. This is much more interesting than any nollywood movie. I wish GEJ could go through the thread. Am sure he will drop his resignation letter except if he is a stubborn type!
Politics › Re: If Nigeria Is Been Divide Which Part Will Enjoy It The More by alienvirus: 9:51am On Sep 25, 2011
^^^ very very correct. Lagos is more than a state, it is a republic on its own that can cater for d rest of d SW
Politics › The Very Truth About Jos Crisis. U Must Read This! by alienvirus(op): 6:43am On Sep 25, 2011
There seems to be no end insight yet to the ethno-religious crisis in Jos. When the Chief of Defence Staff was mandated to ensure peace and stability in the troubled city, a lot of people heaved a sigh of relief in the hope that the crisis would soon be put behind them. But in spite of that, the city still remains balkanized along religious lines such that it is now dangerous for residents to move freely.

In this interview, Alhaji Danladi Passali, the politician who claimed he won the Jos North primary election conducted by the PDP for the local council poll in 2008, spoke on the endless search for peace in the state, saying the pains currently being experienced by the people are self-inflicted. Excerpts:

Why I dumped PDP for Labour Party
I was born and brought up in Jos. I am a politician and businessman. I am presently in Labour Party but was formerly in PDP. I contested and won the local government election in 2008. I won the primary election but Jang gave it to his cousin. I won in an open primary at the stadium. I petitioned the party before I went to court.

The court even pronounced that I won the election. But Jang refused because he did not respect court orders. I was the pioneer chairman of PDP in Jos north. I was the state’s Legal Adviser of the Social Democratic Party in 1992 before we formed the People’s Solidarity Party (PSP). I was the Secretary of the party for the former Jos Local Government Area, when Jos North and South were together. In fact, I pioneered the PDP in the northern zone of Plateau state. At the national level, during Obasanjo’s second bid for the presidency, I was the national financial secretary of Grand Alliance of Nigeria; the umbrella body of Obasanjo campaign organization. Then Tony Anenih was our national leader. I was the National Director of Finance. I was the National Coordinator of Ibrahim Babangida Campaign Organization for the youths.
Hausa-Fulanis founded their resettlements in Jos

The takeover of the control of security of Plateau State from Jang to the Chief of Defence Staff is a temporary measure because the government has to get to the roots of the problem and solve them once and for all. There were two Commissions of Inquiry set up on the crises in Jos. Even Jonathan set up the Solomon Lar Panel on Jos Crisis comprising of stakeholders in Jos. Its recommendations need to be implemented. There was even the Abisoye Panel.

The main root of the problem in Jos is the issue of settlers and indigene. We had a situation where 48 villages inhabited by the Fulanis were attacked and people were killed and thrown out of their villages. These are people who have been living in those villages for over 300 years. That is why they are coming back to the villages for reprisal attacks. These people have to be resettled in their villages to live their normal lives. How can you call people that have been living in a place for 300 years a settler? How can you kill and throw them out and think you will have peace? Is 300 to 400 years a joke? Fulanis were driven out of 48 villages in Plateau state.

If you go to Kuru Baba, there is no single house belonging to the people who formed the place left. The people who were formerly living there have been scattered. Some were killed and their cows have been taken away and nobody is asking questions about them. The same thing happened with Gadan Dagi, Dilimi and Dogon Na Hauwa villages. All these places were founded by people after whom villages were named. They have all been thrown out and their lands taken over from them. There are 48 villages in Berom land and they have all been taken over.

Jang, Gbong Gwom, architects of Plateau crisis
President Goodluck Jonathan has done the best he can do. Even the governor cannot provide security for his own village. He cannot even take care of where he comes from because he is an interested party. He is fuelling the crisis and is the main architect of the problem. If you look at all the reports, including that of the Human Rights Watch, the governor was indicted. In all the reports, the governor is at the centre. He is an interested party.

Even the Fulanis at the back of his house were killed and thrown out. He cannot even stop the youths within his own environment to stop killing the Hausa-Fulani because it was part of his agenda to throw them out and take over their lands. He has said this many times. So was the Gbong Gwom Jos when he was summoned to a peace parley by the commissioner of police. His utterances as published in the newspaper are the same. He is the cousin to the governor and their agenda is the same. Anybody in Plateau who is not Berom is a settler. The Hausas have been living in the present Jos for over 1000 years. We have historical facts to that. Somebody that came from Niger; that are not Nigerians are now saying those people are settlers.

Jonathan on the path of peace
Let me tell you something, initially people were not happy with Jonathan’s administration because he allowed people to be killed at random. But now he has seen the whole thing that Jang is the problem of security in this state. If Governor Jang cannot provide security within his environment, how can he be allowed to continue creating problem for the state or the country to the extent of mobilising people to go and kill worshipers who were praying in the mosque? It is Jang. We have all the facts. It was Jang. We have all the facts and we are taking up the matter.

You people do not even know what is happening in Plateau state. He has been the architect of crisis since 1988. Since he left his military Career and came back to Plateau, crisis has started. Even after the Gero crisis, he was invited by the security and cautioned. Out of all the Berom elders, it was only him that was invited by the elders. We did not vote for Jang; he only manoeuvred his way in. Every governor in a state has a time he will sit down with the security operatives. All security reports first goes to the governors and he is the chief security officer of his own state.

That is why he is liable for every single person that died in Plateau state. He swore to the Bible that he would protect the lives of every Muslim and Christian. There is no single time a Muslim was killed and Jang ever sent a letter of condolence. He has never made any comment on attacks on Muslims. But when he sees his kinsmen being attacked, he immediately jumps into action. He has never sent a single letter or made a pronouncement on series attacked on Hausas. That goes to show you that he is an interested party in the whole issue. The statement of Gbong Gwom Jos even showed clearly that it is his agenda because he (Gbong Gwom) is his brother.

We have confidence in CDS
The crisis is only in Beromland. Even in Berom land it is mainly the people from Du who are creating the problem. That is the place the Governor comes from. The whole crisis started from his village. People did not go down to history. If you talk of Dogon Na Hauwa, it is the name of an Hausa man. They were driven away from the village and Beroms entered their houses. Government has to intervene so that people that are being thrown out of their villages are returned back. People of Dogon Na Hauwa, Kuru that were being killed should be allowed to return to their villages.

The government should go and dialogue with them. They should rebuild their houses and take them back. That is the solution. It is unthinkable to believe that people that have stayed for 300 to 400 years will remain a settler or he cannot be provided with job and enjoy scholarship and employment. Let me give you examples. Do you know that Yorubas migrated and became indigenes of Kogi state? Can you as all the Sunday Awoniyis or Adebayos to go back to their state? Can you tell the Igbos in Asaba that founded the place to go back to Onitsha? Or can you go to Rivers State and tell the Igbos in Okigwe that they should leave and go back to Abia? Or go to Kwara and tell the sultanate or the Gambaris that they should leave and go back to Sokoto?

They only got there during the jihad. But the Hausas have been here for over 1000 years. We are talking of a period of trans-Atlantic slave trade which was in about 16th century. We have told our people to cooperate and welcome the CDS. We know that with his coming, government is ready for peace. If he calls on us we are ready to give him candid advice. The only option is that all those Fulanis should be returned to their villages and for the government to pay them back their cows. These conditions are not too difficult to meet. Do you want them to be roaming about in Nigeria and be homeless?

This people have nowhere to go. Do you know that there was problem recently in Zonkwa in Kaduna state? Government said those of them that had their houses burnt should be resettled and reconciled with the people there and that is why we do not hear anything about them again. During the Zango Kataf when people’s houses were burnt down, government rebuilt the houses and asked the people to come and stay and reconcile with the people there. Is it only in Plateau case you will say whenever people are thrown out they should go away forever and you expect that there will be peace. We expect the government to play its role of protecting lives and property. But if it fails to do so, then there is a problem. There displaced people must be paid compensation.

Hausa-Fulanis must be given equal opportunities
It is not that we want to be regarded as indigenes; we are indigenes of this state. We founded this place and should be given equal opportunities as normal human beings and carry out our activities. For the past 50 years, we cannot get employment or scholarship in this state. We have 90 percent of unemployed youths in Jos, which is abnormal. There is no state that has as much as that. Our youths are now becoming drug addicts and this is why we have high rate of crisis.

These youths are all roaming about; no scholarship, no employment; nothing. How do you think we can have peace without solving that problem? Even if you bring the battalion of soldiers in Nigeria here, immediately the soldiers leave, there will be crisis, unless you go to the root cause of the crisis and solve it. The press must bring out the truth so that we solve this problem. We have 777 local governments in this country.

Out of this, it is only in Jos north that the people from that very place cannot enjoy the good things of life; no scholarship, no employment or anything. Even the markets they owned have all been burnt down. They no longer have markets in Jos. So they do not encourage entrepreneur because of crisis. The business environment is not healthy because the state government does not allow people to come in and invest because they do not want non-indigenes. They do not give Certificate of Occupancy even to Igbos or other tribes. They even discourage the investors from coming to the state to employ the youths. The rate of employment in Plateau is escalating.

We need our own rulership
The constitution is clear about these things. But have you ever seen where a non-indigene goes to settle in the centre of the city? Even in your own village, if some strangers come to your village, is it not the king that provides for them where to settle? In this case, the Hausas are in the heart of the city because they are the founder of the city. They have about 15 Hausa chiefs that have ruled Jos for over 200 years, while the Beroms have two or three.

The issue of Gbong Gwom Jos started during the period of Solomon lar. The Rwang Pam was given a certificate by one European administrator. He was given the certificate to come and become Sarkin Berom in 1948. That was when the last sarkin Hausawa, Sarki Ishaku died. The problem the Hausas in Jos had with Sardauna was that they were always in opposition group, always having alliance with UNCP, NCNC and NEPU groups. When there was election, they supported the southerners as president. That was where their problem started with Sardauna.

The stool of ther Gbong Gwom Jos is one of the bones of contention; but we are not interested in the issue of the rulership of Jos now. All we are saying is that recently there was a problem in Tafawa Balewa in Bauchi state with the Seyawa. The emir of Bauchi said he could not give chieftaincy to settlers but at the end of the day the government of Bauchi made a compromise and gave them their chiefdom. The same thing should be done to the Hausas in Jos.

If the Tivs can have a chietaincy title in Benue and the Emir of Zazzau would concede to the katafawas in Southern Zaria, why not Jos Hausas? The Hausas are over one million people. If now there is a crisis, you cannot call on any Hausa man and say take care of your people. The Gbong Gwom Jos said he does not recognize any sarki; whether you are Hausa, Yoruba or Ibo. He called them last week and warned that he is the only Sarki.

No, you are ‘foreigners’
From Kenny Ashaka and Mariam Agboola, Jos

T hat Jos, the capital of Plateau State hitherto known for its serenity has lost its glory is no more news. The tin city is now a shadow of itself following an endemic crises which have defied solution. But the tragedy of the Jos situation is that it has created more questions than answers. In this interview, former Commissioner for Local Government and Chieftancy Affairs in Plateau State, Aminu Agwom Zang, a native of Jos, Anaguta by tribe speaks on the history of the crises. Excerpts…



Introduction
My name is Aminu Agwom Zang. I am a native of Jos. I am Anaguta by tribe, native to Jos in all of its meaning and ramification. I was born about 50 years ago; grew up in Kano, Kafanchan, Zaria and Jos. Part of my primary education I did not start from Kafanchan because of the nature of the work of my late dad, a policeman.

He was transferred to Zaria and I continued there, from where we came back to Jos. I did my secondary school education here too. And then went to the university, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria; then Tafawa Balewa University, Bauchi. I had a stint with the Radio Plateau. That was after my secondary school education before I went to the Ahmadu Bello University in Zaria.

I came back home and has since then been trying my hands on business and politics. In 1990, I was the Supervisory Councillor for Education in the then Jos Local Government Council. At various times, I contested elections. In 1993, I won elections here in Jos to the National Assembly, precisely House of Representatives. In the year 2003, by his grace, because of my active participation in politics, I was in the campaign team of Chief Joshua Dariye as zonal coordinator for the northern zone. When he won election, I was compensated with the appointment of commissioner. I was Commissioner for Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs for the second part of his four years. Right now, I am into business again. I have a factory. I produce water. It is called Dupia and in my dialect, it is called spring water. I am also into the importation of enzymes.

The price of hospitality
When you are in a relationship with somebody, it is expected that you will mutually benefit from the relationship. And such a relationship must be borne out of trust and respect for one another so that you co-exist meaningfully. But a situation where when it suits the other party, you are a necessary friend and when it suits him, you must consistently be playing the second fiddle. It gets to a time where you take stock and now ask where the relationship is going. Am I truly benefiting from this relationship or as it were, I am merely into it as a servant.

From time, you know that the average Middle Belter is a timid person. But you know with education and exposure, everybody is now beginning to redefine and rediscover himself. Now, he wants to carve a niche for himself. In doing that, you begin to discover that you have not been treated fairly. Agreed in any relationship, somebody must play the fool for the thing to thrive. But for how long would you continue to play the fool. It is when you weigh it against the fact that you have to account to your children and your children’s children, then you are left with hardly any option but to now begin to redefine such relationship again.

We are paying the price for our hospitality. As it were, our people are very hospitable people. You will hardly suspect that people will pull the rug off your feet, on account of which you deal with people on face value. And today, one is amazed that the Europeans claim to have discovered Nigeria. Some people also said they founded Jos. It is mind boggling and amazing that a claim like that can be thrown up by people. How did they found it? And I know that it couldn’t have been by conquest. If you go to Ilorin where you have an Emir, there can be explanation for that. But here you don’t even have an Emir. All these things are as surprising as they are abusive.

Its bunkum for Hausas to say they founded Jos.
All the claims these people are making are just contraptions. We have had our traditional institutions from time immemorial and when they came here to settle, characteristic of their style, in fact, anywhere you go to, including Lagos where there is a congregation of Hausa people, they will have their leader who they will always like to refer to as Sarki. Even in my village, they have somebody there who they call Sarki. So, anywhere you find more than five, six people of Hausa-Fulani stock, they usually have Sarki. So, there is nothing hard and fast that they had a Sarki then. Oh yes, they have always had and they will always have.

Hausas cannot be indigenes in Jos
How we got to where we are today is a long history, one that will suggest that these people that have come now would want to assume total political control, to some extent traditional and some other stuff like that. You see, you can only be accommodated in these climes today if you are tolerant of the cultures of the people that you have come to live with. But then if you now come and you want to institutionalize these claims to Sarki, of course, people will resist.

So, many things developed, suspicion crept in and it was only waiting to blow up. I think the government, too, were not helping matters, as it were, particularly during the military administration because you discovered that they were posting people of Hausa-Fulani extraction here. So, they try to at least fan those claims that their brethren on the ground were postulating. That built up a lot of acrimony. As it were, until you live within the dictates of your host community, respecting their values, their culture and what have you, you are bound to be resisted. We were not conquered. So, if they are coming like one Army of occupation, you can be sure that anybody will resist that.

That they were born and brought up here does not give you the status of indigene. It doesn’t work anywhere. Like the Hausa-Fulani in Obalende, Lagos with a huge presence, would they say that because they have lived there after the First World War, which is over a 100 years ago, they have become indigenes of Lagos State? Haba! There was even once somebody gave an example of a settler in those days. They call him Mallam Umaru Altine. He even rose to the position of the Mayor of Enugu.

This man was a trader. He went to Enugu and settled there in 1940. But what he did was to join the Zikist movement then. And he became a member of the NCNC which was pushing for the exit of the British colonialist then. After sometime, appreciating the role he has played, embracing their culture, integrating himself into the socio-political arrangement on ground then, he was made the Lord Mayor of Enugu in 1952. There is nothing you cannot become.

But then, the bottom line is that you have to integrate yourself; you have to respect the culture of your host community. In the same token when Sardauna visited Enugu and discovered that one of their own was made the Mayor of Enugu, there was this Kano-based Igboman too. As if in reciprocating that gesture, he was made a member of the Northern Region House of Chiefs in Kano. So, this issue of settler/indigene kind of thing, if you say citizen, it is entirely a different thing. If they are talking of citizenship, no doubt they are citizens, but that they are indigenes, as far as I am concerned, they are not correct.

You can’t Islamize us
I was asked sometimes ago, what is it that this people want? I replied that I do not know what they want. If it is the right to stay here, they have the right to stay here. They are doing their businesses without any hindrance. They have aspired to many offices. Even the member representing my constituency in the state House of Assembly is an Hausa man. For traditional institution, they can have their Sarki, but to govern over their people there; nothing to do with the land except if it is in the sky.

I think the solution is for them to know that that thing they may be looking for, they cannot get it. So, the sooner they left that thing, the better for us. They can go ahead and do their businesses and contest for any office. So what else do they want? Let them know that scholarships are received from an applicant’s state of origin.

I am going to give you this book, “The History, Ownership, Establishment of Jos and Misconceptions about the recurrence of Jos Conflicts. There is this man that was Minister from here. His name is Nakande. If you go through this book, you will see where this man filled his form. State of Origin, he wrote Kano. But they are the people pushing for the ownership of Jos. Now, this man is from Kano. If now you want to enjoy scholarship from Jos, how will it work?

Even then, some of them have benefited from this scholarship. I can tell you that on my honour. I am at a loss as to what they want. Is it that we must be Islamized? That one is not possible. Nobody has denied anybody victory in an election. When Samaila Mohammed won the chairmanship of Jos North, who denied him? I went to the House of Representatives. But a Hausa went before me. I succeeded an Hausa man.
It is an aberration to substitute the governor with the Chief of Defense Staff as the Chief Security Officer of Plateau State.

People have made various comments on this. But one thing that I pray and hope is that the President is not caving in to any pressure from any quarters because that is what they did during Governor Dariye’s administration. To make sure a state of emergency was declared, they went and brought Ali. Ali came, served and left. But then, the problem has not stopped. The thing is socio-political. It is still going on. So if the President is caving in to pressures, it will be very unfortunate. But then to say that it is a direct indictment on the governor and the Gbong Gwom, I think we will be getting it wrong because the military has been part and parcel of the attempts to solve the problem.

They have always been here. Are they now going to be here in a different way? Are they going to bring soldiers from outside the shores of Nigeria? Soldiers have been with us. Policemen have been with us and I know that the governor does not have the right to deploy troops even as he is the Chief Security Officer of this state. It is the constitutional responsibility of the governor. So, we are waiting to see the details of the operationalization of this new directive.

Who now becomes the chairman of the state security council? Who is the chief security officer of the state because it will amount to the usurpation of the power of the governor if, for instance, he is substituted with the Chief of Defense Staff. It will be an aberration. I see them partnering like they have been doing; maybe we will now notice more deployment, more movement of troops and may be more vehicles and helicopters so that the helicopters that have been hovering, if there was one, there will now be two or three now. There is no way they will succeed; either the governor or the CDS without active collaboration.

Jos leading to national crisis
One reprisal attack begets another. What we should do now is to draw the line, agree that enough is enough. We are ready to live like we used to live. For anybody to say that the Fulanis were wiped out from the villages you mentioned is not true. These people left on their own volition because of the tension that has been there. Of course, there is no way, in my right frame of mind I will go to Ungwar Rogo, except if I am going on a suicide mission.

And even these ‘Achaba’, (commercial motorcyclists) go to Bauchi road and tell them to drop you at Bupia Plaza (along Gada Biu area), pay N1000, he will not come. In the same token, those people who are in the area where the Beroms are thickly populated will rather leave than stay without being able to sleep. I fear more for the sicknesses that will develop in our people for fear of even living in their houses. In fact, most people are sleeping in farms with the hazard of cold weather. Let us not be thinking of the dead only; we should also be thinking of the fall out of how many people would fall sick.

If we are able to draw the line and sincerely come together and say we have had enough, the Fulanis, if they want to come back can do so. But if you come and stay and then kill one Berom man, kill one Anaguta, kill one man from another tribe, then they are not likely to let go. That is why I said one reprisal attack begets another. The unfortunate thing now is that I want to travel up North now; but I cannot go because if anything happens, they will begin to stop vehicles on the road and if you are unfortunate to look like a Christian, even around Bauchi Road, here in Jos and they hear that they have killed a moslem, you are gone. In most cases, it is for no reason of your own.

You do not know anything about their grouse. In fact, some don’t even know Jos, let alone put up a claim to Jos, they are killed. I believe we should think more of the fall out that this thing has the potential of generating a national crisis. In fact, that is my fear for it. For instance, like in Dilimi, where the Igbo spare part market is located, they have all left there. Even where they stay to sell electronics, you find them having skeletal trading.

They said they killed some Igbo people along that Bauchi Road. Now if the Igbo people in the East hear this one now and begin to pounce on the Hausa-Fulanis that are there, then we will have a national crisis on our hands. So I like the new approach that there would be heavier deployment of troops to Plateau State so that this thing is nipped in the bud

• Zang
• Photo: The Sun Publishing


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Christianity Etc › Re: Alethea; This Is For You. So Tell Me The Name Of You Ghost God. by alienvirus: 7:48pm On Sep 23, 2011
Keep ur mouth shut there plap! What is d name of d holy ghost and don't derail d thread
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Op must be st**p*d
Christianity Etc › Re: How Do You Explain Contradictions In The Bible? by alienvirus: 4:19pm On Sep 22, 2011
Frogbell must ve used telepathy! Lol
Politics › Re: Waiting To See If Gej Is Grandstandingly Smart Or Incredibly Stoopid by alienvirus(op): 1:30pm On Sep 22, 2011
my thought too
Politics › Re: What Is Wrong With This Picture? by alienvirus: 11:22am On Sep 22, 2011
Godmother:
Is that his wife. . . . lipsrsealed
YES! His otumama/otuabula queen
Politics › Re: Sanusi For President In 2015? by alienvirus: 11:12am On Sep 22, 2011
Some pple are naturally deluded. U can't do anything about them. They create and spread mischief. This is just the beginning for Nigeria. We ain't serious yet. Someone who is transparent, truthful, no-nonsense is nigerians enemy so far he is a muslim and comes from the north. As I said earlier, this is the beginning of your problems. When u are ready to change, let the whole world know.
Politics › Waiting To See If Gej Is Grandstandingly Smart Or Incredibly Stoopid by alienvirus(op): 10:45am On Sep 22, 2011
NIGERIA is under a rising diplomatic pressure from both the United States (U.S.) and Israel not to support the expected Palestinian statehood request tomorrow at the United Nations Security Council.

Although President Goodluck Jonathan is in New York for the yearly General Assembly summit, he has been holding meetings on the issue of the Palestinian statehood, which has been dominating the ongoing UN meetings here in New York alongside the Libyan crisis.

As soon as Jonathan arrived in New York for the ongoing UN yearly summit on Monday night, he received both the U.S. Secretary of State, Mrs. Hillary Clinton and the Israeli Defence Minister, Ehud Barak, in what diplomats at the UN are calling intense diplomatic manoeuver to secure Nigeria’s support when the Palestinians send their request for statehood recognition to the Security Council tomorrow.

The Palestinian Authority President, Mahmoud Abbas, has already indicated that he would be asking the Council to recognise the Palestinian State tomorrow and by yesterday, U.S. President Barack Obama was billled to hold bilateral talks with Abbas in New York on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly debate which opened yesterday morning.

The talks between Obama and Abbas are said to be aimed at how the U.S. can get the Palestinians to rescind their decision to table the statehood request to the Council.

Under the UN charter, such a request is to be tabled before the Security Council, which would then recommend a decision for the approval of the UN General Assembly.

But the Americans who have vowed to use their veto to stop the request in line with the American traditional protection of Israel is seeking to try to get some other Security Council members like Nigeria to vote against the request if and when it is tabled.

If the request does not enjoy the majority of the 15-member Council, then the U.S. will not need to use its veto. To accomplish that, there has to be eight members of the council opposed to the request.

On Tuesday, Barak was the first to hold a closed-door meeting with President Jonathan in New York, where Barak asked for Nigeria’s support of Israel by opposing the request as a member of the Security Council.

At the meeting, informed sources said that Barak tried to persuade Jonathan to vote against the bid of the Palestinians. However, Jonathan has not committed the country to any line of action, according to Federal Government’s officials.

Again yesterday evening at his hotel in Ritz Carlton, New York, President Jonathan received Hillary Clinton, accompanied by the U.S. Permanent Representative and Ambassador to the UN, Dr. Susan Rice and the American top diplomat on Africa, Dr. Johnnie Carson, on the same issue, seeking to get Nigeria to support the Americans in stopping the Palestinian statehood request.

Top officials said yesterday that while President Jonathan was yet to formally decide a line of action, he would be conferring with his foreign affairs advisers and senior diplomats to ensure that Nigeria’s own peculiar interests and security were weighed in, in the decision the Federal Government would ultimately take over the matter.

An informed source in New York disclosed that Nigeria would likely abstain considering the fact that in matters concerning Israel and the Palestinians, Nigeria has remained neutral.

One of U.S. major TV networks yesterday morning, National Broadcasting Corporation (NBC), in its major daily news programme featured a video report of the U.S. Secretary of State and her delegation being received by President Jonathan.

With Jonathan at the Clinton meeting yesterday night were the Foreign Affairs Minister, Olugbenga Ashiru; Minister of Power, Prof. Barth Nnaji; Minister for Petroleum Resources, Mrs. Diezanni Alison-Madueke; Nigeria’s Ambassador to the U.S., Prof. Adebowale Adefuye, Nigeria’s Permanent Representative to the UN, Prof. Joy Ogwu and the Presidential Spokesperson/Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Dr. Reuben Abati.

Reporting on the Barak meeting with the Nigerian President on Tuesday in New York, the Jerusalem Post said the Israeli Defence Ministry issued a statement on Tuesday “that Ehud Barak has convinced Nigeria not to support the Palestinian statehood bid.”

The report added that “as part of the lobbying efforts, Defence Minister Ehud Barak met in New York Tuesday with Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan. The meeting between the two was set up about a week ago, and - according to the statement put out by Barak’s office - was coordinated both with (Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu and the U.S.”

But neither the American nor the Nigerian governments have issued any statement so far regarding the closed-door diplomatic negotiations about the expected request of the Palestinians for statehood.

According to the Israeli report, in addition to discussing the Palestinian issue, the statement said the two – Jonathan and Barak -also discussed the “challenges of international terrorism and ways the two countries can cooperate in this area.”

But even the Jerusalem report also noted that “Nigeria, one of Israel’s closest friends in Africa, has been plagued over the last number of years by radical Islamic terrorism,” indicating how this may be a difficult decision for the Federal Government to make.

Other African countries on the UN Security Council currently are Gabon and South Africa, both of whom are believed would be supporting the Palestinian bid for statehood recognition at the UN.

If the Security Council of the UN rejects – as the U.S. has threatened to impose its veto  - the Palestinians can proceed to the General Assembly to seek a non-member observer status which countries like Switzerland had actually used before it eventually became a full member of the UN.

As at press time, while the U.S. continues to actively seek support of some members of the Security Council, it is also making frantic efforts to stop the Abbas from going forward with the expected request to the Security Council tomorrow. UN diplomats  added that if that fails, the U.S. in order to hold down the use of its veto, may find a way to defer the Council from an immediate consideration of the request, unlike in the case of South Sudan, which was speedily considered and granted speedily.

http://nigeriamasterweb.com/paperfrmes.html


[color=#990000][/color]IF NA GEJ MAMA BORN AM, MAKE HIM SUPPORT ISRAEL AND US. WYH THE LOBBY BY OBAMA. AM PATIENTLY WAITING FOR THE OUTCOME.
Christianity Etc › Re: The Position Of A Deaconess Doesnt Exist In The Bible? by alienvirus: 6:58am On Sep 22, 2011
^^satan is a sinner, if he had been part of angels, he would be called angel. That is ur judgment. Just a grammar
Christianity Etc › Re: How Do You Explain Contradictions In The Bible? by alienvirus: 6:54am On Sep 22, 2011
Too many fathers in xtianity. **shaking my head**
Politics › Re: Its Time To Move The Federal Capital To The East by alienvirus: 10:11pm On Sep 20, 2011
Shattap there^^^ if the capital should move to igboland, after that where else, capital is now turned to draft tiles that u can movw around. Can u imagine d senselessness being displayed here
Islam › Re: Why Is It Wrong To Defecate On The Exterior Walls Of A Mosque? by alienvirus: 6:38pm On Sep 20, 2011
Ask the cloth
Politics › Re: Sanusi For President In 2015? by alienvirus: 3:55am On Sep 20, 2011
Wow! Some pple are naturally deluded. U can't do anything about them. They create and spread mischief. This is just the beginning for Nigeria. We ain't serious yet. Someone who is transparent, truthful, no-nonsense is nigerians enemy so far he is a muslim and comes from the north. As I said earlier, this is the beginning of your problems. When u are ready to change, let the whole world know.
Christianity Etc › Re: What Did The Bible Says About Muhammed. by alienvirus: 8:12pm On Sep 19, 2011
Muhammad was like moses. So d bible prophesied Muhammad. I agree
Islam › Re: Why Is It Wrong To Defecate On The Exterior Walls Of A Mosque? by alienvirus: 10:16am On Sep 18, 2011
Keep on equating man to animal. I wish u could say all animals are human. I will then know something is wrong upstairs
Islam › Re: Why Is It Wrong To Defecate On The Exterior Walls Of A Mosque? by alienvirus: 6:53pm On Sep 17, 2011
Pagan must be one of d danfo conductors that urinate while running behind d bus in lagos hold up. No shame, nothing. Paganistic diabolical tendencies
Politics › Re: Gej Vs Yara'dua by alienvirus(op): 9:33am On Sep 10, 2011
huh huh huh huh huh huh huh
Politics › Re: Gej Vs Yara'dua by alienvirus(op): 7:36am On Sep 09, 2011
Don't finish ur nysc again. U go hear wehn!
Politics › Re: Gej Vs Yara'dua by alienvirus(op): 9:36pm On Sep 08, 2011
If I have my way, I would remove him from the list on nigerian president. I repeat! He is not my present!! I have put him behind me and he knows it. Are u from utuoke
Politics › Re: Obasanjo: Nigeria's Best Or Worst Leader by alienvirus: 9:31pm On Sep 08, 2011
Obj was one of the worst but far better than gej

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