₦airaland Forum

Oby Edozieh Denies Arresting Mom
Posted To The Web: Saturday, December 12, 2009 - NigeriaFilms.com


https://news.onlinenigeria.com/articlefiles/11655-oby.jpg
Oby Edozieh



Following a story published in a weekly soft sell magazine that debonair actress, Oby Edozieh, allegedly arrested her mother, Madam Eunice Dozieh, over a minor family squabble, the actress has denied the report, describing it as malicious.

Speaking with nfc on the issue, the actress, who has just returned from a trip to London, said she felt more disappointed because the writer of the story could not substantiate the report.

“What on earth could make me arrest my mother when I'm not under spell? When I read the story, I was dumbfounded and shocked because it is not possible,” Edozieh said, adding, “I believe somebody is out there to dent my image with unfounded stories.”

Speaking further, the cross-over actress said that she has been very busy trying to improve on her career and therefore spends little or no time at home these days.

Also speaking with nfc, her mother, Madam Eunice Edozieh, who is in the middle of the controversy, said “I'm still surprised. The story is not true. What on earth, would prompt my daughter to arrest me? I think the story was falsely written to damage my daughter's image,” adding, “we did not even have an argument.”

Earlier in the week, a soft sell magazine nailed the actress in their report, alleging that Edozieh actually arrested her mom.

http://news.onlinenigeria.com/templates/?a=11655&z=31

How Aduke got her groove back
By Chude Jideonwo
December 12, 2009 10:33PMT



"I challenge any man to come and say he has slept with me for money," this 38-year-old said to a newspaper interviewer a few years ago. A grandiose declaration for sure, ("I believe my own bull you see," she once said), but one that reflects the core of Funmi's identity: a fierce self-independence.

Whilst Funmilola Aduke Iyanda was yet a child, the TV presenter/producer's mother went out of the house one day, and she has not been found since. Unfortunately, her father battled alcoholism for some years, leaving the young Funmi to care for her younger siblings. The fifth child in a family of 11 would eventually sell clothes and odds and end at the University of Ibadan to see herself and her younger brother through the school.

"Funmi likes to say she went through her own hardships as a growing child," her friend, the playwright Wole Oguntokun, says. "Success detaches people from their origins usually, but she managed to fight that failing. That lack of desensitisation placed her in a place, very few television people could reach."

Of course, Funmi is more than just a TV personality. If she is brilliant on-air, she is an even more spectacular writer - insightful and unfailingly witty (one of her pieces for her column, Jisting, in the defunct Tempo magazine was titled ‘Dear God, I need a man'). She also co-wrote the first of Newton Jibunoh's desert memoirs.

Amongst other things, she is a sports diarist, stemming from her experiences as official chaperon for the likes of Charity Okpara and Chioma Ajunwa, pre-competition facilitator (painting her face in the national colours) for France '98, and covering international sporting events like the 1998 World Cup, the 1999 female World Cup, and the Athens and Sidney Olympics.

A star is born

But it was New Dawn that gave her flight. The show started humbly in the NTA Channel 10 studios in Tejuosho Yaba, Lagos, knocked together from the remains of a store. "Part of my love hate relationship with NTA 10," she reveals, "is a deep loyalty to the station for trusting a red haired, hot headed, quick tempered 29-year-old to independently produce their flagship show; they gave me my voice."

It began in 2000. It wasn't the first time she was doing television - having hosted and produced a number of talk, sports and entertainment shows, most while working with the man who would father her daughter, football legend Segun Odegbami - but Funmi was finally being heard.

The enunciation was far from sleek, her dresses pushed the envelope and she was given to spontaneity that TV viewers had to get used to. But she was a quick hit - and soon shows like the NTA's AM Express tried to repeat that magic. Her viewers also saw her tranform from an awkward, earnest female to a celebrated, achieving woman - with more than 50 awards in tow.

In April 2008 however, after eight years, during which her show had been upgraded to the NTA Network Service, she woke up one morning - and stopped New Dawn.

Ace comedian Ali Baba, who is a friend, says: "When she stopped her show, I just thought, that's Nigeria for you. The people who care about education don't get school licence, the real bankers couldn't raise 25billion, the good footballers don't make national teams, "

Many pointed to new TV phenomenon, Mo Abudu, whose show, Moments with Mo, seemed to have taken Funmi's place, dealing with the same issues, and talking with the same (and even bigger) personalities - only this time with a proper set, professional sound and styling, above-par camera work, superb editing, and the ultimate cross-continental platform - Mnet.

But Funmi points to her own battles, blaming "the whole of New Dawn's experience with NTA, the frankly fraudulent advert agencies and clueless media owners."

She's back

For many months after, no one knew what would become of Funmi. Then, on the 5th of January this year, she announced on her blog: "I'm back. No noise, no fanfare, just a quiet statement of fact: I am back."

Weeks after, she launched the Change a Life Foundation, crystallising her partnership of over half a decade with the Lagos State government to put about 30 children of single mothers through school, at a moving event in Lagos. But that was just the beginning.

Author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie said at a much-praised TED talk this year: "My friend, Funmi Iyanda, is a fearless woman, who is determined to tell the stories we forget." Which is exactly what Funmi did upon setting up a new company called Ignite Media. She travelled around five states in Nigeria for four weeks in a ten-hour daily schedule that saw her "swinging from abject despair to desperate hopefulness."

The result of those journeys is her new show unveiled to the public in October: Talk with Funmi.

Gbolahan Faleye, who began to present the arts segment on New Dawn when he was 17, and who describes her affectionately as "quite mad really" says: "I, like everyone else, was greatly saddened by the show's demise. However, I was hopeful that the closure would eventually lead to the birth of something more beautiful. Funmi's return to television vindicates this hope!"

In this new show, shot on high definition video, Funmi speaks with Nigerians from all spheres of life. She visited the Oba of Benin's palace, got footage flying over Lagos and spent a whole day with two governors, just as she joined Charly Boy and other motocyclists in full gear, went hunting at the Ita Olorun Village and danced the ‘swo' in Ajegunle. It premieres across the continent in January 2010.

"I had a month ago sat on a canoe in one of the poorest places, paddled slowly by the hauntingly intense Dami through the dankest, blackest waters I had ever seen or smelt, watching human faeces in various stages of decomposition flow by. The toilet was an exact replica of the slum dog millionaire sh*t scene without the beautiful colouring and diffusion of rough edges of that film," she says of one of the episodes.

"The power of my experiences is less about my person but about the stories, the people, the events that effortlessly weave through it," she says, in one of those touching moments of reflection that her blog readers are blessed to share. "Life does tend to happen to me, and perhaps I will one day sit down and write my story." It is sure to be one helluva story.

Funmi Iyanda's ‘Talk with Funmi' premieres in January 2010 on DSTV's Africa Magic & Magic World (Primetime), NTA/AIT and other selected stations around Nigeria, with an international cut scheduled for a major UK network. More information on: www.talkwithfunmi.com.





http://234next.com/csp/cms/sites/Next/ArtsandCulture/x2/Entertainment/5491707-147/story.csp

How Aduke got her groove back
By Chude Jideonwo
December 12, 2009 10:33PMT



"I challenge any man to come and say he has slept with me for money," this 38-year-old said to a newspaper interviewer a few years ago. A grandiose declaration for sure, ("I believe my own bull you see," she once said), but one that reflects the core of Funmi's identity: a fierce self-independence.

Whilst Funmilola Aduke Iyanda was yet a child, the TV presenter/producer's mother went out of the house one day, and she has not been found since. Unfortunately, her father battled alcoholism for some years, leaving the young Funmi to care for her younger siblings. The fifth child in a family of 11 would eventually sell clothes and odds and end at the University of Ibadan to see herself and her younger brother through the school.

"Funmi likes to say she went through her own hardships as a growing child," her friend, the playwright Wole Oguntokun, says. "Success detaches people from their origins usually, but she managed to fight that failing. That lack of desensitisation placed her in a place, very few television people could reach."

Of course, Funmi is more than just a TV personality. If she is brilliant on-air, she is an even more spectacular writer - insightful and unfailingly witty (one of her pieces for her column, Jisting, in the defunct Tempo magazine was titled ‘Dear God, I need a man'). She also co-wrote the first of Newton Jibunoh's desert memoirs.

Amongst other things, she is a sports diarist, stemming from her experiences as official chaperon for the likes of Charity Okpara and Chioma Ajunwa, pre-competition facilitator (painting her face in the national colours) for France '98, and covering international sporting events like the 1998 World Cup, the 1999 female World Cup, and the Athens and Sidney Olympics.


[img]http://234next.com/csp/cms/sites/dt.common.streams.StreamServer.cls?CONTENTTYPE=image/jpeg&STREAMOID=p0RuiGpxeP$j_w12NyFfpC6SYeqqxXXqBcOgKOfTXxSGbDYm85CulHhrTEjc6Xm2nW_PgxgftuECOcfJwS6Jtlp$r8Fy$6AAZ9zyPuHJ25T7a9GKDSxsGxtpmxP0VAUyHL6IDcZHtmM2t7xO$FHdJG95dFi6y2Uma3vSsvPpVyo-[/img]
Funmi Iyanda


A star is born

But it was New Dawn that gave her flight. The show started humbly in the NTA Channel 10 studios in Tejuosho Yaba, Lagos, knocked together from the remains of a store. "Part of my love hate relationship with NTA 10," she reveals, "is a deep loyalty to the station for trusting a red haired, hot headed, quick tempered 29-year-old to independently produce their flagship show; they gave me my voice."

It began in 2000. It wasn't the first time she was doing television - having hosted and produced a number of talk, sports and entertainment shows, most while working with the man who would father her daughter, football legend Segun Odegbami - but Funmi was finally being heard.

The enunciation was far from sleek, her dresses pushed the envelope and she was given to spontaneity that TV viewers had to get used to. But she was a quick hit - and soon shows like the NTA's AM Express tried to repeat that magic. Her viewers also saw her tranform from an awkward, earnest female to a celebrated, achieving woman - with more than 50 awards in tow.

In April 2008 however, after eight years, during which her show had been upgraded to the NTA Network Service, she woke up one morning - and stopped New Dawn.

Ace comedian Ali Baba, who is a friend, says: "When she stopped her show, I just thought, that's Nigeria for you. The people who care about education don't get school licence, the real bankers couldn't raise 25billion, the good footballers don't make national teams, "

Many pointed to new TV phenomenon, Mo Abudu, whose show, Moments with Mo, seemed to have taken Funmi's place, dealing with the same issues, and talking with the same (and even bigger) personalities - only this time with a proper set, professional sound and styling, above-par camera work, superb editing, and the ultimate cross-continental platform - Mnet.

But Funmi points to her own battles, blaming "the whole of New Dawn's experience with NTA, the frankly fraudulent advert agencies and clueless media owners."

She's back

For many months after, no one knew what would become of Funmi. Then, on the 5th of January this year, she announced on her blog: "I'm back. No noise, no fanfare, just a quiet statement of fact: I am back."

Weeks after, she launched the Change a Life Foundation, crystallising her partnership of over half a decade with the Lagos State government to put about 30 children of single mothers through school, at a moving event in Lagos. But that was just the beginning.

Author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie said at a much-praised TED talk this year: "My friend, Funmi Iyanda, is a fearless woman, who is determined to tell the stories we forget." Which is exactly what Funmi did upon setting up a new company called Ignite Media. She travelled around five states in Nigeria for four weeks in a ten-hour daily schedule that saw her "swinging from abject despair to desperate hopefulness."

The result of those journeys is her new show unveiled to the public in October: Talk with Funmi.

Gbolahan Faleye, who began to present the arts segment on New Dawn when he was 17, and who describes her affectionately as "quite mad really" says: "I, like everyone else, was greatly saddened by the show's demise. However, I was hopeful that the closure would eventually lead to the birth of something more beautiful. Funmi's return to television vindicates this hope!"

In this new show, shot on high definition video, Funmi speaks with Nigerians from all spheres of life. She visited the Oba of Benin's palace, got footage flying over Lagos and spent a whole day with two governors, just as she joined Charly Boy and other motocyclists in full gear, went hunting at the Ita Olorun Village and danced the ‘swo' in Ajegunle. It premieres across the continent in January 2010.

"I had a month ago sat on a canoe in one of the poorest places, paddled slowly by the hauntingly intense Dami through the dankest, blackest waters I had ever seen or smelt, watching human faeces in various stages of decomposition flow by. The toilet was an exact replica of the slum dog millionaire sh*t scene without the beautiful colouring and diffusion of rough edges of that film," she says of one of the episodes.

"The power of my experiences is less about my person but about the stories, the people, the events that effortlessly weave through it," she says, in one of those touching moments of reflection that her blog readers are blessed to share. "Life does tend to happen to me, and perhaps I will one day sit down and write my story." It is sure to be one helluva story.

Funmi Iyanda's ‘Talk with Funmi' premieres in January 2010 on DSTV's Africa Magic & Magic World (Primetime), NTA/AIT and other selected stations around Nigeria, with an international cut scheduled for a major UK network. More information on: www.talkwithfunmi.com.

http://234next.com/csp/cms/sites/Next/ArtsandCulture/x2/Entertainment/5491707-147/story.csp

FL Gators:
On a serious note, cook for me a special treat on that special day. Thatz a romantic surprise enough

And buy some immodium on your way back.



https://photos-h.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc3/hs115.snc3/16233_1324912721555_1193007642_1003461_6766014_n.jpg

You'll like this and amala for a romantic dinner?

I mean I already have many of my teachers from high school on there so being careful of what I write isn't that hard.

You must have some deep seated secrets, if not why do you write carefully on facebook?

saintneo:
So even the middle-belt has some backyard face-off with their masters in the far north. 80% of there military men.

Except JosBoy. He is cool with their actions even if they are chopping off his yansh with cutlass.

[quote author=*jona link=topic=365301.msg5099907#msg5099907 date=1260645262]https://www.nairaland.com/nigeria/topic-363255.0.htm.
The Gov is more worried about Ogogoro, When he has about 400,000 people living with HIV in his State. [/quote]How did they get the number and how did you know he is not doing something about it?. Tell us the number of HIV patients in your own state and what your governor is doing about it or don't you have people living with HIV in your state?

uplawal:
[b]@Aloy Emeka,okay sorry about everything,let it die there,if youre called omoibo,it should not hurt you,or are u not from IBO LINEAGE?[/b]I dnt think she meant it the way you took it sha,sorry

First of all there is nothing like ibo, it's igbo. Secondly, many igbos here have expressed their disdain with that omo ibo which you and I know stems from an indirect method of segregation. Why not open a thread in the culture section and ask igbos how they feel about being called omo ibo. The gay.got tribalist knows what I am talking about and her reference to me as omo ibo has no place in this thread. The bi*tch  continued after I told her not to call me omo ibo again. Why not scold her instead of directing you attention to me?. islamic mafia, abi?

FayeZik:
My original post said 'u are a certified bas.tard', stamped and sealed.

Better than a certified prostitute which you are. You call on allah yet you you are a tribalist. Omo alata.

Good.

Aloy na you give am belly ?

Give tpia's 30 year old granddaughter belle?. Abeg I love classy women and not Mushin-fabulous ones. Even though tpia's surname is Juicytitepussy, its meant to be an irony.

I know; i feel like vomiting.

uplawal:
Aloy  Emeka,when av u become this wayward,i just wonder

I am now wayward because I asked your sister bi.atch  in mohammed to stop using derogatory words on me?. If someone asks you to stop calling him or her something, you better stop unless you have ulterior motive which am sure she had and its known as tribalism. That Fayebiatch is a horned tribalist fool.

I no sabi the kin shit wey no fit wait for 45 minutes.

Ibime:
The Turkish-cypriots must have done it. . . . but what do they stand to gain from it. . . . do they wanna inflame tensions with the Greek community?

My thoughts too.

FL Gators:
Where's ogidiboy?

Is ogodiboy a cheapskate?

jamace:
Are you sure that  it is Plateau people who do not want him?  Have you thought about the other interest group, who  are afraid that the man may  refuse to  bend in their favour this time around? 

ONLY Time will reveal the truth.

As at press time yesterday, only Plteau people were protesting his appointment. There are no other known detractors except his enemies from the village or the women he broke their heart in the 60's.

FL Gators:
My bad. An involuntary nerve.

But question still stands, what do they gain from it?

Kidnap the body and demand for ransom in cash. If you can kidnap Abacha's skeleton, you can cash it in for about $20M.

Give an example of an inexpensive romantic suprise for a woman?

If the plural of mouse is mice, shouldn't the plural of spouse be spice?

FL Gators:
I understand if they dug up the grave of an Egyptian king, but what do they gaint by digging up naija's ex-pressy's body?

Are these ppl insane?

Did you read the report?. Every evil is not Nigerian.

Caught short: Germany's number one goalkeeper takes a toilet break mid-match
Posted To The Web: Friday, December 11, 2009 - Mail Foreign Service

http://news.onlinenigeria.com/templates/?a=11589&z=12

https://news.onlinenigeria.com/articlefiles/11589-goal.jpg

Desperate: Stuttgart goalkeeper Jens Lehmann feels the call of nature during a Champions League game against Romanian side Unirea Urziceni



Stuttgart goalkeeper Jens Lehmann was lucky to get away with apparently taking a toilet break during a Champions League match.
The former Germany international leapt over the advertising hoardings and appeared to relieve himself just before half-time while play was still going on at the other end of the field.

Luckily for Lehmann, Romanian visitors Unirea Urziceni did not manage to launch an attack towards the vacated goal.

Even more fortunately, referee Viktor Kassai did not notice.

Since Lehmann left the field without permission, he should have been shown the yellow card for his actions, regardless of whether he urinated or not.

But Stuttgart's director of sport Horst Heldt told the Bild newspaper afterwards: 'It reminds me a lot of the Tour de France - sometimes you don't have any other possibility but to let it out.'

He added: 'He did it very expertly. He could have waited until half-time.'
When asked to confirm whether he had been caught short, Lehmann only smiled and said: 'I was more nervous than I have been for a long time.'

Stuttgart already led 3-0 during Wednesday night's match when Lehmann vacated his goal momentarily and they went on to win 3-1 to qualify for the last 16 of the competition.

Wife Seeks To Divorce Jobless Hubby: He’s Always Playing Draft Game
Posted To The Web: Friday, December 11, 2009 - Cyriacus Izuekwe


For been jobless and plays draft game all day, a middle aged woman, Adaebo Uzoka, has dragged her husband, Eugene, to Alimosho Customary Court, asking it to dissolve their 18-year old marriage.

She told court that her husband hold masters degree in political science but has refused to look for work, adding that all he does every day is to play a draft game, eat and sleep.

The estranged woman told the court presided by Mr. Eko that apart from feeding her husband and their three children, she had no rest of mind as the husband uses her as a punching bag.

The fashion designer told the court that they have been a laughing stock in their resident at 9, Ode Yale Street, Agodo Egbe, as her husband frequently beat her and the children with cain .

“Apart from beating us, he does not care for us,” she stated.

In his response, the husband told the court that he had lived abroad for 20 years and since he came back four years ago, he had no job.

He told the court that his wife started behaving strangely after the money he came back with finished. He denied all the allegations levelled against him by his wife, adding that he still loves his wife.

The president of the court admonished him upon all his academic qualifications, he remained idle. He advised him to go and look for a work and stop playing the draft game.

While the couple is in court in the divorce suit, they are still living together in the same apartment. The court mandated them to maintain peace, while the matter was still before the court.

The matter was adjourned till 16, February, 2010.
http://news.onlinenigeria.com/templates/?a=11624&z=12

Grave robbers have dug up the coffin of former Cyprus President Tassos Papadopoulos and stolen his corpse, Cypriot police said today

Mounds of fresh earth lay at the site of the robbery in the Deftera village cemetery in a southwestern suburb of the Cypriot capital, Nicosia. Police investigators cordoned off the area and were searching the site. The motive was unclear.

Saturday is the first anniversary of the death of Papadopoulos, who was Cyprus’ president from 2003 to 2008.

“The grave of the former president has been violated and the body robbed,” said police spokesman, Michalis Katsounotos.

Investigators believe the body was taken either late Thursday night or early

Friday morning. The motive is unclear. Grave-robbing is rare in Cyprus.

“What happened is macabre and utterly condemnable. I am honestly still trying to comprehend what kind of warped minds could even think of doing such a thing, let alone actually carry it out. This is a perverse act that will sicken society in Cyprus,” said the head of Cyprus’ ruling AKEL party, Andros Kyprianou.

“It is my hope that those responsible will be caught and made an example of Society needs to remain calm,” he added.

Kypros Chrysostomides, who served as justice minister under Papadopoulos, also expressed outrage.

“I totally condemn, with all my soul, this barbarous act of sacrilege,” he said.

“I cannot understand why somebody would want to do such a thing. … Such barbarous acts only do damage to Cyprus.”

Papadopoulos, a hardline president who ushered the ethnically divided island into the European Union after rallying Greek Cypriots to reject a United Nations-brokered peace deal, died a year ago on Saturday from lung cancer at age 74. He served as president from 2003 until March 2008, when he lost the presidential election to current President Demetris Christofias.

A British-trained lawyer, Papadopoulos was a veteran of Cyprus politics whose career spanned most of the island’s turbulent history since gaining independence from British colonial rule in 1960.

He was a leader of the Greek Cypriot guerrilla group EOKA, which waged an anti-colonial campaign, and served as the youngest cabinet minister in the island’s first post-independence government, at the age of 26.

Papadopoulos was for a time the chief Greek Cypriot negotiator in settlement talks with the breakaway Turkish Cypriots after 1974, when Turkey invaded the island in response to a coup by supporters of uniting the island with Greece.

The former president is probably best remembered for an emotional televised appeal to Greek Cypriots to reject a reunification plan brokered by then U.N.
Secretary-General Kofi Annan, which he vilified as entrenching the island’s division rather than ending it.

Three quarters of Cypriots obliged him in an April 2004 referendum. Two-thirds of Turkish Cypriots accepted the plan.

http://news.onlinenigeria.com/templates/?a=11623&z=12

Kobojunkie:
Ban ban ban ban bannity!!!! The All-Nigerian solution to most every problem we are UNWILLING to deal with. Problem is the Solution NEVER SEEMS to change the situation, EVER!

Exactly; although I support this alcohol ban.

No he's not; he is a politician.

You past will always haunt you.

No more shayo for Benue.

1976 Coup: Abisoye loses chairmanship of Jos crisis panel
By Lekan Fadeyi (Lagos) and Onoja Audu (Jos)

Emmanuel Abisoye seems to have been dropped as the Chairman of the Presidential Panel probing the violence in Jos in November last year because of his role in the aftermath of the coup d’tat staged by Buka Suka Dimka on February 13, 1976, in which Murtala Muhammed was killed.




http://odili.net/news/source/2009/dec/11/402.html


Abisoye, then a Brigadier, chaired the military panel which tried Dimka. He retired in 1979 as a Major General.

The Jos panel began sitting on Thursday at the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPSS), Kuru, without Abisoye in sight.

Protest had trailed his nomination in March, as thousands of Plateau indigenes trooped out to express fears that they would not get a fair hearing with him heading the panel.

They recalled that his military panel indicted the coup plotters which led to the execution of over 80 per cent of military officers from the then Benue Plateau State.

The Plateau State Government led the protest.

Former Information and Communications Commissioner, Nuhu Gagara, expressed the ill feelings still being nursed against Abisoye.

The people maintained that most of the officers killed because of the coup were innocent, and they considered the presence of Abisoye on another panel investigating a crisis on the Plateau as a new attempt by the federal establishment to accomplish what the far North started 33 years ago.

On Thursday, a member of the panel said Abisoye is “sick, that is why he is not here” at the sitting.

But further enquiries on his absence were made unnecessary by the presence of a new Chairman, Geoffrey Preware, who said 90 memoranda on the Jos mayhem have been received.

According to Preware, the order of appearance for the public hearing would begin with the officials of the state government, Plateau State Independent Electoral Commission (PLASIEC), University of Jos (UNIJOS), National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), and other public institutions.

They will be followed by residents of Jos North Council, officials of political parties, social and cultural organisations, private entrepreneurs, religious organisations, and individuals.

Preware said representatives of security agencies would be invited to react to allegations that may arise from submissions.

According to him, the panel is not a commission of inquiry, as there may not be need for lawyers to cross examine witnesses.

He assured petitioners that the panel reserves the right to invite anyone mentioned, if necessary.

He gave one week to those who may still wish to submit memoranda to do so, saying his panel and the Bola Ajibola commission of inquiry are all out to bring an enduring peace on the Plateau.

Preware disclosed that the public sitting would begin in full on Monday and continue until all submissions are treated.

No power can stop PDP victory in 2011, says Jonathan

Fashola tasks AC on nation's leadership
Nwabueze opposes INEC for states' elections
From John-Abba Ogbodo (Abuja) and Abiodun Fanoro (Lagos)


FROM Vice President Goodluck Jonathan yesterday came a declaration that reiterated the resolve of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to remain in power in the country when he boasted that no matter who conducted it, his party will win the 2011 presidential election.


http://odili.net/news/source/2009/dec/11/35.html

Essentially, Jonathan said that if presidential election is conducted hundred times in the country, even by angels from heaven, PDP will win.

The Vice President spoke as the Lagos State governor, Mr. Babatunde Raji Fashola (SAN), admonished his party, the Action Congress (AC), to rise to the urgent challenges of providing responsive and caring leadership for the people of Nigeria.

Meanwhile, the constitutional lawyer and chairman of The Patriots, Prof. Ben Nwabueze, has urged that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) be stripped of powers to conduct governorship and Houses of Assembly elections in the states.

Dr. Jonathan, who made the remarks at the 49th National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting of the PDP in Abuja, also said that there is no stopping the party from participating in the gubernatorial election in Anambra State fixed for February 6, next year. He hinged his position on the popularity of PDP in the country and what he described as the rigorous campaigns, which the party has been undertaking.
[size=14pt]
"I always tell people that even if you conduct presidential election 100 times and bring angels from the moon to conduct it, PDP will still win. [/size]Because as a human system, there may be some errors or flaws or perceived discrepancies in terms of the management of elections, but there is no other party today that I can say has a bigger followership than the PDP. If politics is a factor of the people, if the number matters, there is no reason any party will say I should have won.

In fact, immediately after the elections and whenever people come up with the feelings that PDP rigged, I used to say, 'look, I was the governor of Bayelsa State when we contested this presidential elections and in my state, though the population of Bayelsa is low, but because it is a strategic state because of the oil industry and the factors in the Niger Delta, any party that is worth winning elections is supposed to go there and campaign.' And not many parties campaigned there and the experience is quite like that in a number of states and some people would feel they would just sit down without campaigning and they say they will beat PDP," he said.

According to him, the feat achieved by the party in the previous elections was as a result of hard work.

On the forthcoming governorship election in Anambra State, Jonathan noted that the party has a challenge and should strive to overcome it because it would be a yardstick for the 2011 elections. He assured that in spite of the legal hurdles, PDP will still take part in the election "but the issue of candidacy has to be resolved."

In his opening address, the National Chairman of the party, Prince Vincent Ogbulafor, expressed concern over negative utterances by some people about the health status of President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua and said that people should not play God.

Reviewing the state of the nation, especially the enormous suffering the vast majority of Nigerians are going through in the midst of plenty, Fashola observed that the people are hungry for a people-oriented leadership that would liberate them.

The governor, who spoke in Lagos yesterday at a lecture organised by AC to usher in its yearly convention scheduled for the state tomorrow, Fashola urged his party men to double their efforts and devise fresh strategies that would enable the party provide the much needed leadership for the people of Nigeria.

His words: "We are at a great cost to liberate the people of Nigeria from this shackle of poverty and suffering in the midst of plenty. The expectation of the people rest squarely on a responsive leadership provided by our party, the Action Congress."

Apparently conscious of his wide rating as a performing governor, Fashola vowed to use the platform of AC to demonstrate to the rest of the world that Africa could perform, that Africa could deliver on promises and that Africa could take responsibility.

The governor used the forum to dispel rumour of in-fighting within the leadership of the party in the state.

There had been newspaper reports of clashes between him and the Speaker of the State House of Assembly, Adeyemi Ikuforiji, over 2011 governorship ticket of the party in the state.

"Those who think we are fighting are dreaming by the time they wake up, they would be surprised to see the amount of development that have taken place while they were dreaming. I enjoy a very good relationship with the 40 members of the state House of Assembly with whom we jointly signed up to develop the state and take it to a greater height," he remarked.

In the lecture delivered by the chairman, Nigeria Media Merit Award (NMMA), Alhaji Alade Odunewu, he espoused the important role the media have to play in order to ensure good governance and the sanctity of the people's mandate. "The mass media is the barometer of any society and the best indicator of the social, political and economic climate. The basic function of the press is to present information in response to a basic human need - the right to know, if the democratic process is to operate effectively," he stated.

Nwabueze, a constitutional expert and teacher, said such an arrangement in which INEC conducts governorship and Houses of Assembly elections is against the principle of federalism as it is practised in other parts of the world. Delivering the first Goddy Jidenma Memorial Lecture on: "Strengthening the foundations and institutions of democracy in Africa," Nwabueze wondered how an INEC whose leadership was appointed by a partisan president who has absolute loyalty to his party, could conduct a free and fair election in the states without pandering to the interest of the president and by implication, his party, which appointed him.

His words: "It does great violence to the federal principle as to be almost subversive of it that a body appointed and removable by the Federal Government which is, therefore subject to its control and direction, should be responsible for the conduct of election of the governors and Houses of Assembly of the constituent states and federation."

The Ogogoro ban in Benue

Friday, December 11, 2009

The consequences of alcoholism are as old as the habit itself. They take on more disastrous dimensions when a larger portion of a society is obsessed with it. The move by the Benue State Government to tackle the scourge, therefore, could be seen as timely and redemptive.

http://odili.net/news/source/2009/dec/11/223.html

The root cause of this wholesale addiction is traceable to the activities of politicians who recruit otherwise able-bodied youths to fortify their political arsenal. So, rather than engaging in productive ventures like farming, many young people are lured into politics, mainly as thugs and hangers-on. That gives them more money compared with genuine, legitimate labour.

The composition of the liquor in contention - ogogoro - makes the situation all the more troubling. It contains over 60 percent alcohol with ethanol. [/b]That makes it extremely risky for human consumption. Infact, when it comes in contact with fire, it ignites -a clear indication that it is absolutely unfit for ingestion.

But now, in numerous huts across Tivland in Benue State and beyond, this dangerous beverage is served regularly to men and women, many of whom were proud farmers.

The effects of this reversal are sad indeed. Agriculture which is the mainstay of the state's economy has come under direct threat. So also is Benue's status as Nigeria's undisputed, foremost food basket.

[b]Even the local Tiv names given to the drink that is known nationally as ogogoro or akpeteshi conjure images of a predatory substance. 'Jem usuh' means life charcoal, 'norgema-tyo' stands for elephant that turns its buttocks, while 'gyoor begha' suggests knocks from a lion.

A beer that has taken on a rampaging and dehumanizing character, no doubt, deserves to be checkmated before it wrecks the final havoc on a people known for industriousness.

Interestingly, the fight against this tragedy has commenced from within -an evidence of the capacity of Benue people to take their own destiny seriously.

The State House of Assembly has just passed into law a bill sponsored by the government of Governor Gabriel Suswan banning the sale, transportation and consumption of the alcohol -after an extensive tour of the state to feel the people's pulse on the matter.

Equally remarkable is the involvement of the National Agency for Food and Drugs Administration and Control (NAFDAC) in the campaign to remove ogogoro from the minds and mouths of Benue people.

The other day, its Director General, Dr Paul Orhii, also a Benue State indigene, commenced a mobilization effort in conjunction with traditional rulers and well meaning individuals who are deeply worried about the ogororo -induced social and economic crises.

Happily, Governor Suswan appears to have a good grasp of this dilemma. According to him, “They call ogogoro 'push me, I push you', yet people take it to destroy their lives.

With the Law that banned ogogoro, which received the support of the entire state, we shall work hard to save our youths suffering from the addiction to this deadly substance.

I call on all residents of the state to cooperate with law enforcement agents to ensure that those who sell and those who drink ogogoro are brought under the law”.

Forthright as this move seems, we are concerned about the other class of alcohol-consuming public in the state. If there is a legislation against the consumption of ogogoro, what happens to those who consume other liquour like beer, brandy, whisky, spirit or other expensive alcoholic drinks?

Much as we believe alcohol consumption, especially in excess, is bad, we hope this attempt in Benue is not directed at the poor and hapless class in the state. What is good for the goose is also good for the gander.

But stamping out this foible will require concrete steps beyond legislation and prosecution. The government should be prepared to identify and confront the sociological factors that have engendered it.

They must also earnestly begin a process of winning the hearts of the youths through a consistent awareness programme. And then, constructive, profitable alternative avenues like sports and mechanized farming should be created.

That will help in rechannelling youthful energies, saving individual and collective destinies and restoring the fading glory of Benue as a leading agricultural state in the country.