Kingrefreshed: NIGERIA Don reach pension year. 60 years no be beans
Have we all worked hard in those 60 years to earn a good pension? Should we all stop working since we have earned a pension? Have Americans stopped working since their country is more than 60 years after independence from Britain, just like us? What of Indians?
1) Two houses in choice locations in Lagos and Abuja 2) Six brand new vehicles replaceable every 3 yrs 3) Salary for life 4) 300percent of that salary as furniture allowance every two years 5) Full medicals for him and his family 6) Security detail
Rotimi Amaechi's pension:
1) Two houses (one in Rivers and the other anywhere he chooses) 2) Full salary for life 3) 300percent of that salary as furniture allowance every four years 4) Three vehicles replaceable every four years 5) Free medicals 6) 10percent of salary as house maintenance 7) Full security detail cool 30percent car maintenance, 10percent entertainment, 20percent utilities.
Bukola Saraki's pension:
1) Three cars replaceable every 3yrs 2) A "well-furnished 5bedroom duplex" 3) 300percent furniture allowance 4) Full security detail (8 policemen, 3 DSS operatives one of which must be female) 5) 30percent for car maintenance, 20percent for utility, 10percent for entertainment and 10percent for house maintenance. NB: As a Senator, this ex-gov also draws salary worth millions and a N40m quarterly allowance.
Sani Yerima's pension:
1) Salary for life 2) Two vehicles replaceable every 4yrs 3) Two personal staff 4) Free medicals for the govs and their families 5) A house and free office 6) Free telephone 7) A 30day paid vacation abroad NB: This ex-gov too is a serving Senator who recieves outrageous salaries and allowances.
Every one who has some grey matter, no matter the quality, should ask:
WHAT TYPE OF CHANGE ARE YOU BRINGING WHEN YOU HAVE CORNERED THE FINANCES OF YOUR PEOPLE FOR YOUR PERSONAL COMFORT?
Racoon: This nation is just a glorified village.Nigeria is not even belong to the inglorious third world country ranking again because our mates here have long displaced us to the 7th world country level.
Including Lagos where the bullionaire godfather is allowed to loot and fcvk up Lagosians as he desires?
Lagos light rail’ll be ready in June – Fashola January 9, 2013
The Lagos State Governor Babatunde Fashola on Tuesday said the first phase of the state Blue Light Rail project would be completed by June this year(2013).
He expressed confidence that Lagosians would start enjoying the services of the rail project immediately.
The first phase would run from Marina and terminated at Okokomaiko area in Ojo Local Government.
Fashola spoke during an inspection of ongoing projects in the state which took him and his cabinet members to Orile-Iganmu, Alimosho and Ejigbo areas among others to assess the level of works being done by contractors.
The governor, who inaugurated the trackwork of the blue light rail at Alaba Suru, Coker-Agunda Local Council Development Area, said the level of work on the road and those of the National Theatre and Alaba-Mile 2 rail stations, would ensure early completion
He said, “In order to finish the project, the contractor did not go on vacation during the festive period. This will ensure that the project is delivered on time for the use of Lagosians.
“The first section of this rail, which started from National Theatre, Orile-Iganmu to Mile 2 Bus Stop, would be fully completed with the tracks laid.
“Construction work will continue on the project from Orile-Iganmu to Marina, the expansion work on the road from Mile 2 to Okokomaiko will also be intensified.
“This is what we do with the loan collected by the government. We don’t use our loan to pay salaries and other recurrent expenditure, what we do with our loan is to provide capital projects that would serve the residents.
“When the project is completed, the state would be at par with other major cities of the world.”
TTC in talks to sell old trains to Lagos. Are they safe enough? AUGUST 10, 2011
As Toronto trainspotters gleefully take maiden rides on the TTC's Rocket, commuters in Lagos, Nigeria may be about to get some new trains of their own. Our old ones.
A TTC spokesperson has confirmed that the commission is negotiating with a private group to sell up to 260 used train cars to the West African megacity's new transit project.
"I can confirm that the TTC is in discussion with a third party that wants to purchase trains for Lagos," said commission spokesperson Brad Ross. "Over a period of time, they will be taken out of service and then transported over to Nigeria."
The cars being considered for sale are the TTC's old H-5 and H-6 models, which will be decommissioned as the TTC rolls out its new fleet of Rockets. Ross predicts the earliest they could be shipped to Nigeria is sometime in 2012.
Traffic snarls are already a major economic problem in the Nigerian capital, a booming city that will reach an estimated population of 25 million by 2015. A new above-ground rail system designed to carry 1.5 million people a day has already broken ground, and Lagos Governor Babtunde Fashola has said it "will be the most multi-dimensional and most impactful" of the government's efforts to reduce traffic congestion.
Fashola visited Toronto earlier this year to inspect the TTC trains.
The Lagos deal would be the first of its kind for the TTC. Decommissioned cars are usually sold for scrap metal and can fetch up to $1,500 dollar each. While Ross declined to discuss specific figures, he says the sticker price for Lagos is "significantly more" than scrap prices, putting the potential profits to the TTC in the millions of dollars.
It is not unusual for technology from western nations to end up in poorer countries. Marketplaces in Africa and Asia are flooded with North American clothes, computers, and even cars, but the purchase of larger technology like trains is rarer.
The cars will have to be significantly refurbished to fit existing infrastructure in Lagos, and some Nigerian media reports have lamented that the government appears to have settled on "tokundo," or used, trains instead of brand new vehicles.
Although half the cars are more than 30 years old, Ross is adamant they are perfectly safe and are only being decommissioned for capacity reasons. But he also admitted the TTC is not required to make sure the cars meet any safety standards before selling them.
"Once sold, it's up to the new operator to ensure they are in good working order," he said. "They do need to be maintained much more frequently than the new trains, simply because of their age. At some point they will run out their useful life."
Murtaza Haider, director of the Institute of Housing and Mobility at Ryerson University, said the age of the cars is definitely a cause for concern.
"We should be ensuring that there is some service life left in these vehicles and we're not going to be playing havoc with the lives of those who would ride these vehicles," Haider said. "There's metal fatigue, and that metal fatigue could result in dangerous conditions. I would be paying a close watch on this for the next ten years to see how many accidents do happen in Lagos."
He also warned that while rail systems are glamorous as far as transit infrastructure goes, they are not always as effective at reducing congestion as other options. Nevertheless, new rail systems are frequently preferred because governments can take advantage of kickbacks from large contracts.
According to media reports, the cost estimates for the Lagos rail project have varied wildly from $1.2 billion to $30 billion. In 2010, a Nigerian government watchdog accused Fashola's government of widespread corruption.
"More often than not, politicians favour rail transit because it is more expensive," Haider said. "It's almost useless in some cases, and less productive in most cases, than a bus system. But you can't buy busses for $30 billion. You can inflate prices and make a lot of money buying a rail system."
ojuoluwani: LAGOS State Governor, Babatunde Fashola, yesterday, gave a breakdown of how his administration expended the N160 billion World Bank loan it acquired, saying the state maintained a healthy debt profile.
Fashoa, who spoke during his commemoration of 2,700 days in office and achievements in the last 100 days, in Alausa, Ikeja, said long overdue refund would go a long way in reducing the debt profile of the State, which he said the Federal Government recently published to mislead the public.
He said, “Recently, our political adversaries issued statements that we have borrowed N160 billion. What they have not told you is what we are doing with the money.”
Enumerating his government’s activities within the period under consideration he said; “In the last 100 days, we have commenced work on providing street lighting on the Muritala Muhammed Way in Yaba.
This is 10 kilometres of public lighting which will be completed by the end of this month. On Eko Bridge, Carter Bridge, Ikorodu Road, Lekki-Epe Expressway and every street and highway where there is street lighting in Lagos, it is the Lagos State Government that supplied the poles, the bulbs, the diesel and the maintenance.
“The only major highway we are not managing for street lights is the 3rd Mainland Bridge.
Fire engines, to secure lives, rail transport from Okokomaiko to Marina, with four stations of eight kilometres completed, and work heading to Marina, with piles appearing near the Eko Bridge every day are the places your Government is spending money. The expansion of the Lagos Badagry Expressway to a 10-lane highway is another place where your Government is spending money.
President Muhammadu Buhari has berated Nigerian youths for being 'uneducated' and 'not ready to work'.
President Buhari, while speaking during a panel discussion at the Commonwealth business forum in Westminster, London, expressed displeasure with youths in Nigeria because they were dependent on revenue from oil to survive.
He said the youths, who make up 60 percent of the population, were waiting to get social amenities free without doing anything.
"And then the economy. We have a very young population and our population is estimated conservatively to be 180 million. The 60 percent of the population is below the age of 30. A lot of them have not been to school and they are claiming that Nigeria has been an oil producing country and therefore they should sit and do nothing and get housing, healthcare and education free,"
The moderator had asked Buhari to give his final thoughts on the issues discussed. The President said he had fulfilled his campaign promises by improving on the nation’s security and the economy.
White007: This is Yusuf. He doesn't like to work. He stays in a free house, eats free meals and rides a power bike all day long. When sick, he flies a chartered or presidential plane to some of the finest hospitals to treat himself all for free. Yusuf is a #LazyNigerianYouths Don't be like Yusuf
Because they bought 3 fairly used 1990 trains from China with the loan china gave them... They feel they have arrived.
The money to make Lagos better like London, Tokyo etc is in the bullion vans of the Bourdillon godfather who wants to continue his empire’s expansion into Ondo after Edo people rejected his acid throwing cultist and thief soundly.
Elvictor: they don't have two heads or half heads but they have what we don't have, they have common interest and a will to better things around them.
they have the sense of belongingness and say, do you have that in this useless country call Nigeria?
Thanks for confirming that they are the same as we are. When we have suffered enough, we will reset our heads to also have a sense of belongingness and say, which we will work on to make our own country less useless to us.
chakula: Pensioneers in my state used to recieve alert on 12th of every Month. God bless our govener for committing himself of paying them on due time.
You omitted the key information- the name of your state.
When will ThiefNuibu make another video ordering Ondo people to vote for his godson there so his bullion vans can be filled Maybe he is afraid of another Edo tsunami.
hush15: You didn't finish it now, lemme help you...
Is also that one that's appointed his daughter as commander of all markets in Lagos of whatever form. Is the one that selects all LGAs and LCDAs chairman and councillors. He is also the one that approves which project needs attention in Lagos. He is the only one that has never been satisfied with all that he has and even further dispatched his fools to other states to also conquer.
All Progressives Congress chieftain, Bola Tinubu, has again stated that he is richer than Osun State and that he indeed said he was richer than Osun State during the run-up to the Osun State governorship election last year.
This comes months after Tinubu’s media team had claimed the APC chieftain was quoted out of context.
Tinubu had during the countdown to the Osun governorship election last September, paid a visit to the Ataoja of Osogbo, Oba Jimoh Olanipekun, where he boasted that he was richer than Osun State.
While addressing party faithful ahead of the postponed Presidential and National Assembly elections in Lagos last Thursday, the former governor of Lagos State said he indeed made the statement but he did not know he was being recorded.
The APC chieftain also boasted that President Muhammadu Buhari did not possess the kind of money he can steal, adding that he did not even need to go to the Government Secretariat, Alausa, before he could get money.
He said, “They insulted me and said I used my mouth to speak anyhow. However, that rough-handedness paid off in Osun. They claimed that we brought candidates from Lagos to become governors in Osun; people like (Rauf) Aregbesola and (Gboyega) Oyetola.
“If we train your children, and they become experts in their fields, won’t we ask them to come home to make things better? How much is your money that I’ll embezzle? You can’t match my pocket. I told them so, and their traditional rulers were seated.
“They were even recording the incident and published it.
garfield1: So seriake Dickson and t.a orji did not singlehandedly impose their successors and the speakers of their assemblies? Are there not collecting a share of the state revenue even if it is 5%? Are you ok?
CheGuevara101: Godfatherism is when one man in Bourdilion singlehandedly elects who governs Lagos State and tells him what to do, appoints Speaker of the State assembly, gives other political appointments and also collects 40% of the state revenue monthly come rain or shine.
FreeGlobe: In Lagos, Alpha Beta, as consultants, gets 10 percent of whatever Lagos State generates monthly. If this statement confuses you, you are not alone. There are just a few things you need to keep in mind though: Lagos State generates roughly 31 billion Naira a month. Ten percent of that is going to a consultancy firm owned by the former governor of Lagos State, Bola Tinubu. 75% of the revenue generated by Lagos State comes from taxes.
If you need to read the paragraph again, you are not alone. However, the truth of the matter is that Alpha Beta Company has been the tax consultant to the Lagos State government since 1999, when the former governor Tinubu began his tenure.
That year, Alpha Beta Company had definitely succeeded by delivering a dramatic rise in monthly state revenue from about 600 million Naira to 7.7 billion Naira. A laudable achievement indeed, but it would have been less so if the citizens of Lagos State knew what they had traded it in for. Alpha Beta Company had charged the state of Lagos a whopping one billion Naira a month for their services.
Now, just to reiterate, Tinubu owns Alpha Beta Company. Tinubu was also at the time, the Governor of Lagos State. Alpha Beta Company became the tax consultant for Lagos State in 1999, and they charged roughly 13% of the entire state revenue.
Today, Alpha Beta Company is still the tax consultant for the state. They now charge roughly 10% of the entire state revenue and Tinubu still owns it. The only thing that has changed is that Tinubu is no longer the Governor of Lagos State, or so it says on paper. With utmost respect to the office of State Governor, Tinubu is still very much in control of the state’s affairs, or at the very least, its revenue.
Despite all feelings of being scandalized here, one must look at the big picture. Governor Fashola is still working for Bola Tinubu. If he was not, things might have changed. New relationships would have been forged with the State Government and interest groups. However, the standings beg the question: what has really changed since then?
Undisclosed sources claim that Tinubu’s role in installing Fashola as Governor of the State is the biggest hindrance for the present regime. An agreement between Fashola and Tinubu over the duration of the tenure of governorship, as well as the selection of certain cabinet members paints a vivid picture on the sort of bind Fashola is in. At the moment however, one wonders whether or not he finds it at convenient as he used to, or if he ever did.
What is clear, however, is that there appears to be a lot of money changing hands, and the masses are still bewildered over the fate of roughly 31 billion Naira in revenue per month. There are a number of allegations regarding Fashola’s spending penchants. Here are just a few of them that beg to be disproved:
1. That in 2009, Fashola gave N250 million to the Rotimi Akeredolu-led executive of the Nigeria Bar Association (NBA) for the NBA conference held in Lagos, at a time when Lagos teachers and doctors were on strike for improved welfare package.
2. The Babatunde Raji Fashola Government within six months, January to June 2009, spent N420 million on the hiring of private security – to guard who? – despite his heavy investment in the Police Force through the State Security Trust Fund.
3. Babatunde Raji Fashola spent N1.5 billion to demolish the Bank of Industry (BOI) building, paying a company introduced by one Tunji Olowolafe in cash transfer, only for him and his cronies to claim the land adjacent to it.
4. The Babatunde Raji Fashola Government awarded a part of Western Avenue (Funsho Williams Road), about two kilometres road for N7.7 billion, just between Abalti Barracks and Costain. And without the construction of any bridge, the project was carried out by Julius Berger. This project must certainly be investigated.
5. Between January and June 2009, the Babatunde Raji Fashola Government claimed to have fuelled 225 vehicles in his office alone with N135 million. These figures amount to about N800,000 per day at a time that petrol was sold for N65 per litre. The Government always got fuel cheaper, but Babatunde Raji Fashola claimed to have bought it at N85 per litre.
6. Between January and June 2009, Babatunde Raji Fashola’s Chief of Staff and Personal Assistants expended N290 million in sending text messages and phone calls on their lines.
7. It is also very sad to know that the Babatunde Raji Fashola Government awarded the construction of a road and drains inside Gbagada General Hospital for over N1.8 billion to the same Tunji Olowolafe’s company (DEUX Projects Limited).
8. The sum of N1.5 billion of un-appropriated funds, without approval, was claimed to have been spent on the demolition of Oshodi.
9. The Helicopter Deal was a big fraud. The helicopter was not built for any kind of emergency evacuation, rescue or to even combat urban fire. Over N5 billion has been spent on the two helicopters. And the seal of Lagos State is not on it, and it is not even in Lagos but in the Niger Delta making money for some private people in Government. The whole helicopter deal stinks to high heavens; it constitutes the biggest governmental fraud of all times and confirms the rot in the State. See THISDAY December 19, 2009.
10. The Senior Special Assistant, SSA (Media) to Babatunde Raji Fashola spent N183 million in six months on press coverage and editors outside the approved budget but funded directly from the Governor’s Office.
11. In a State where children are sitting on the floor in classrooms, where unemployment is rampant and poverty pervasive, Babatunde Raji Fashola paid the wife of a controversial pastor over N600 million in two years for Christmas decorations for about six streets in Lagos.
12. In six months, between January and June 2009, Babatunde Raji Fashola spent monies on several faceless organisations, subventions, grants and donations such that they quickly pocketed N2 billion.
three: The erstwhile Managing Director of AlphaBeta, the Lagos State consultant on IGR took to twitter to share his petition to the EFCC via the law firm Adetunji Shoyoye and Associates.
He Accuses the firm among other things of corruption and money Laundering.
lekki1444: you know for a while now it has been boggling my mind why the brethrens from the eastside hate tinubu so much but a bell just rang in my head as to why. the fact that tinubu a yoruba man has full grip on the affairs of lagos is a constant reminder that LAGOS is not no mans land. it is yoruba land. and therein lies the anger from the eastside brethrens who will love to see such a progressive place as a no mans land so that they dont feel like they are under the rulership of yoruba in lagos I FINALLY GOT IT
See why reasonable Yorubas dislike the way ThiefNuibu has turned Lagos state into a rotten place below.
eluquenson: REVISITING SOME OF THE LATEEF JAKANDE'S GOVERNMENT ACHIEVEMENTS FROM OCTOBER 1979 TO DECEMBER 1983 (FOUR YEARS AND 3 MONTHS) IN LAGOS STATE
* His government built the current Lagos State Secretariat which houses all the state ministries as well as the popular round house hitherto occupied by all subsequent governors of the state.
* His government built the Lagos State House of Assembly complex.
* His government built the Lagos State Television
* His government built the Lagos Radio
* His government built Lagos State University
* His government established General Hospital in zones all over the state with assurance of free health care.
* His government established Teacher Training College and the College of Education.
* His government built low cost houses in Ijaiye, Dolphin, Oke-Afa, Ije, Abesan, Iponri, Ipaja, Abule Nla, Epe, Amuwo-Odofin, Anikantamo, Surulere, Iba, Ikorodu, Badagry, Isheri/Olowu, Orisigun etc.
* His government established the Water Management Board and Waste Disposal Board on the 18th of August, 1980.
* His government constructed the Adiyan Water Works to increase water supply in the state to 18.16 million litres per day.
* His government modernized and expanded the Iju Water Works which was first commissioned in 1915. This increased daily capacity from 159 million to 204 million litres per day.
* His government purchased and commissioned the giant car crusher equipment. The equipment was designed specifically to crush derelict vehicles in Lagos State. It had the capacity to crush 45 vehicles per day.
* His government constructed, rehabilitated and resurfaced Epe/Ijebu-Ode Road, Oba Akran Avenue, Toyin Street, Town Planning Way, Alimosho-Idimu-Egbe Road, Idimu-Iba-LASU Road, the new secretariat road and several others.
* His government constructed Victoria Island/Epe Road and thereby creating an ‘oil rig’ for Lagos State.
* His government established Asphalt Plant for the Department of Public Works.
* His government established Electricity Board for Rural Electrification with provision of street lights.
* His government modernized, expanded and commissioned Onikan Stadium in 1982.
* His government established a singular school system and ensured genuine free education in Lagos State and the beneficiaries of this policy are in different positions of eminence in the country and around the world.
* His government raised the primary schools in Lagos State to 812 with 533,001 pupils (against 605 primary schools with 434,545 pupils he met in 1979) and secondary schools to 223 with 167,629 students (against 105 schools with 107,835 students in 1979).
* His government constructed 11, 729 classrooms with the maximum of 40 children per class between March and August 1980, by 1983, he had constructed over 22,000 classrooms.
* In July 1983, two commercial passenger boats christened "Baba Kekere and Itafaji" to run the Mile 2 - Marina (CMS) route via the lagoons were inaugurated by his government to mark the official launch of the Lagos State ferry services.
* His government took over the ownership and financing of Lagos State Printing Corporation in July 1980
* His government established the first State Traffic Management Authority (Road Marshals).
* His government established small scale Industries Credit Scheme which preceded the EKO bank.
*His government established LASACO Insurance.
*His government expanded existing market and built new ones.
*His government established Traditional Medicine Board.
WHO SAYS 4 YEARS IN OFFICE IS NOT ENOUGH FOR MEANINGFUL ACHIEVEMENTS?
IT'S A FACT THAT 90% OF GOVERNORS IN NIGERIA SINCE 1999 WITH REVENUES AT THEIR DISPOSAL CANNOT BOAST OF A QUARTER OF THESE ACHIEVEMENTS EVEN WITHIN THEIR EIGHT YEARS IN OFFICE.
Babasessy: Awo Family Without An Awo By Sam Omatseye (The Offensive Article)
The Awolowo rebirth in the Southwest has inspired gongs, songs and rhetoric of sorts. But they have missed one point.
It occurred to me in Abeokuta last week amidst the big crowds and euphoria of the swearing-in of Senator Ibikunle Amosun as governor. In all the states from Lagos to Edo, where Awo has witnessed ideological resurgence, hardly a single family member has played a role.
So we have an Awo family without an Awo. That is an irony. But history overwhelms us with this sort of twist. Obafemi Awolowo toiled for his reputation. His roots were lowly, he toiled to school both home and abroad, launched into careers in law, business, journalism and eventually politics. He carved a niche for himself, and became the first methodical and charismatic leftist in our history. Other leftists abounded but they did not inspire comparable drama and following.
He faced tribulations, went to jail, failed in elections, won a few, but he imprinted his ideas and legacy in the country, and no single mortal has beaten him in the history of this country. His greatest achievement was in the area of ideas, and that was how he fashioned a family. Most families are born of biology but his issued from ideology. That family suffered with him.
In a spoof of Jesus Christ, these were the men who followed him in his teachings, and endured with him in his temptations. So he formed a kingdom for them in the Southwest, in the old Western Region, presiding over his projects, his legacies and people.
In all of these, the family he had was not his flesh and blood. In another spoof of Christ, who were his family anyway? Those who were with him must be counted as his family. So, I combed in the ambience of Babatunde Raji Fashola (SAN), and I found none. I went to Ogun, I frisked the crowd under Amosun’s bower, hardly any. Around Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola in Osun, I could not lay a finger. With Governor Kayode Fayemi in Ekiti, where are the forbears of Awo? Yet, I can hear the chants of Awo. Hardly in any of the inaugural speeches or any of their other public intervention would you miss the philtre and filter of Awo from these gentlemen. To parody Novelist Joseph Conrad, they are the sparks from Awo’s sacred fire, the messengers of the might within the man.
Already all of them are pursuing the legacy ideas of Awo: free education, free health services, infrastructural development, urban renewal and economic engineering.
Lagos has posted itself as the John the Baptist. The others are putting up valiant efforts, and the world of course is watching to see how well they will perform. It will call for great work, resourcefulness and cooperation. They are the real Awoists, and Awo was a man of rigour and vigour.
The Awo son that many expected to take after the father was Olusegun, who unfortunately died in a car crash. We shall never know if he could have pulled it off. But the others have not shown much of the paterfamilias’ brio and depth. In the past decade, under this republic, they have blended with the wrong crowd. Even H.I.D, hobnobbed with Alao-Akala, who brought illiteracy to governance; with Oyinlola who turned the grace of office into a hell-hole of despots; with Daniel who could not arrest his quick fall into megalomania.
I wrote once that this woman whom Awo once described as the jewel of inestimable value has lost value to his cause. If he came back to life, he would have committed the extraordinary act of divorce after death. Even his newspaper, The Tribune, has so stumbled and fallen that it swims in Awo’s vomit.
Groucho Max, one of the funniest satirists in American history, said of a man that he got his looks from his father. Then he quipped, “He was a plastic surgeon.” That means the son is not his real son, or he did not inherit his natural looks. Ideologically, when we talk of Awo’s family, the chief inheritor is Asiwaju Bola Tinubu as the leader of all the others. He was the one who stuck his neck out. He could have lost his life or ended his career in politics. The so-called real Awolowos who bear his surname cannot come up for mention. They are Awolowos but not Awoists. They stabbed their father in the back. They have committed ideological parricide.
The only person that made a real try was Awolowo-Dosunmu in the early 1990s and she lost roundly. She was accused of trying to ride her father’s coattail. Political families are good for democracies. They can exemplify the high ideals of diligence, dignity, ideas, character. We have seen these in such families as the Kennedys, the Adamses, the Roosevelts, the Ghandis. They just don’t claim family. They appeal to the high ideals that endeared the families to their societies.
It’s also an irony that these families are falling into twilight. Some of them have vanished. Enoch Powell, a British MP, once gave us the famous line: “All political lives, unless they are cut off midstream at a happy juncture, end in failure because that is the nature of politics and human affairs.”
Columnist Ambassador Dapo Fafowora adverted to this idea in a recent outing, and I debated it with him afterwards. I don’t believe that a political life should be judged by how it ends but what it means. The quote is often missed by many who mistake “careers” for “lives.” A political life should be judged by its legacies. If we judged Awo by how he ended, we would look at him only as the loser to Shagari. That is why I see an intrinsic mischief in Enoch’s quote. But I would agree that political families end also in failure if you judge how they peter out and not the legacy.
Awo’s legacy is alive and well. Members of other families in flesh and blood can carry on. Immediate families tend to suffer from what an author, Noemie Emery, describes as dynastic curse. The children tend to be intimidated by the standards set by the fathers. So they just don’t want to try. They feel they cannot match them or come even close. The problem probably comes from the fathers themselves. The Adams, who produced important presidents, later gave birth to moral vagrants and drunks. The Bush daughters showed themselves as party girls when their father was contesting the political battle of his life.
But Joe Kennedy groomed his sons assiduously, and they excelled in politics. They also had a fair share of tragedies. Ted Kennedy regained his sobriety and voice in America after a season of debauchery. In Nigeria, we are seeing the Sarakis fade. A Saraki – Bukola - is wiping out the Sarakis from politics. It is a classic case of oedipal tragedy, something I predicted earlier this year on this page.
It is not late though for the flesh-and-blood Awolowos to join their father’s fold. But they must be genuine. Awo was the most important Yoruba personage in history after Oduduwa. They had stellar men like Oranmiyan, Balogun Latosa, Lisabi, Sodeke, et al. None of them had the unifying vision and organisational acumen that Awolowo gave the race. The wife, children and grandchildren should not watch others glow in his jewel without them.
fuzek: THE General Overseer of the Latter Rain Assembly and running mate of Major-General Muhammadu Buhari (rtd) during the April 16 presidential election, Pastor Tunde Bakare, declared that it would be fool-hardy for “any bastard and the son of a concubine” to assume the leadership mantle of the Yoruba.
While preaching in his church in Lagos on the topic: “It is time to speak”, the fiery cleric said: “Look at the madness going on in Yoruba land. slowpoke, nincompoop, people without family background causing problem because of money, ill gotten wealth. If a town or settlement is at peace, the bastard there is yet to grow up.
“If you are a bastard, there is nothing you can do to cover up with money. Where is your father’s compound? A bastard pretending to be a patriot. We are proud of our heritage because we have goodly heritage. There are those who call themselves nobles who are under the influence of Jezebel. Until they drink kainkain, they cannot function. They pretend to be larger than life,” he added.
He likened the person angling to take over the leadership of the Yoruba to the Biblical Abimelech who forcefully took over a kingdom that did not belong to him and was eventually destroyed.
allthingsgood: Politics without godfather is impossible. Let's be honest. Obaseki just used people to win election then dump then after. Pdp go chop their own cane too
Can you please point out which PDP national leader looter asked for the governor of another state to be impeached as they are preparing for election? ThiefNuibu is such a useless rogue milking smart Lagosians anyhow as he wrecks their state with his greed.
anonimi: Edo 2020: Obaseki Has Committed Impeachable Offence — Tinubu AUGUST 8, 2020
The National leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu has waded in on developments in the Edo State House of Assembly, blaming the state governor, Mr. Godwin Obaseki for what he called his “perverse” actions.
In a statement last night, Tinubu said the blocking of the legislative house to prevent the inauguration of the two-third lawmakers of the APC was a mockery of the constitution.
He argued that “Governor Obaseki’s conduct in the past year is undoubtedly impeachable”, adding that “these legislators have made no threat to impeach the Governor. Their only desire is to peacefully perform the duties asked of them by the constituents who elected them”
According to him, “By his refusal to permit duly elected members of the Edo State House of Assembly to perform their constitutional duties, Governor Obaseki betrayed contempt for the people of his state and, unfortunately, his ignorance of Nigeria’s constitutional order.”
He stated that as a Governor, Obaseki “ought to know better than to obstruct the functioning of his own legislature, but perhaps he is in need of a quick lesson.”
deomelo: lol @ wike the new godfather and his disciples.. Instead of going to work on behalf of the people, this wanderer go spend the next 4 years vising and paying curtesy call with other useless and jobless delegation. And the one in the picture below is definitely lost and out of place far far away from home, he did follow follow all the way to edo just to do sidon look like mumu. s ;Dmh
anonimi: Edo 2020: Obaseki Has Committed Impeachable Offence — Tinubu AUGUST 8, 2020
The National leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu has waded in on developments in the Edo State House of Assembly, blaming the state governor, Mr. Godwin Obaseki for what he called his “perverse” actions.
In a statement last night, Tinubu said the blocking of the legislative house to prevent the inauguration of the two-third lawmakers of the APC was a mockery of the constitution.
He argued that “Governor Obaseki’s conduct in the past year is undoubtedly impeachable”, adding that “these legislators have made no threat to impeach the Governor. Their only desire is to peacefully perform the duties asked of them by the constituents who elected them”
According to him, “By his refusal to permit duly elected members of the Edo State House of Assembly to perform their constitutional duties, Governor Obaseki betrayed contempt for the people of his state and, unfortunately, his ignorance of Nigeria’s constitutional order.”
He stated that as a Governor, Obaseki “ought to know better than to obstruct the functioning of his own legislature, but perhaps he is in need of a quick lesson.”
comos: The Inspector-General of Police, Mr. Ibrahim Idris, on Friday justified the arrest of only suspects of Yoruba extraction over the recent clash in Ile-Ife, Osun State, which resulted in the death of about 46 persons. He said crime neither has tribe nor identity.
Idris spoke with State House correspondents shortly after briefing President Muhammadu Buhari of security situations in parts of the country inside the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
The police had been in the eye of the storm for arresting and parading 20 Yoruba persons, including a monarch, over the clash while not a single Hausa/Fulani person was detained.
The pan-Yoruba group, Afenifere; and the Oodua Peoples Congress are among groups and individuals that have been criticising the police over the development.
Idris however said the police would not hesitate to apply the law once criminal cases are established against individuals, irrespective of their tribe.
He said, “You know we are police officers. Crime has no tribe. If you are a criminal, you are a criminal.
“Crime has no face. We don’t look at crime in the identity of where you are coming from.
“As far as you are a criminal and the police find you wanting, we apply the law.”
He said investigation had revealed that the crisis started with a disagreement between two people selling food along the road.
Otunski: You guys deceived Nigerians and promised to end Boko Haram in three months once you take over the mantle of leadership from Jonathan and PDP. Today this story in different, Buhari and his cohorts have succeeded in reducing this country to abysmal level where we now ranked 3rd in Global Terrorism. Keep deceiving the fools that have faith in your Government.
Firefire: I am really worried about the increasing death toll...
Buhari said: “If you elect me as the President of Nigeria on February 14 (now March 28), I am assuring you that our government will chase Boko Haram out of Nigeria within two months because it is the responsibility of any reasonable government to secure the lives and property of its citizens.”
SignalNG1: December 23, 2015 The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, said on Wednesday that the Nigerian military had met the December deadline to defeat the Boko Haram terrorists.
The minister said this during his maiden meeting with editorial heads of media houses in Lagos.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that President Mohammadu Buhari had, upon assuming office, issued a December 31 deadline to the military to defeat the Boko Haram terrorists.
“Today, I can report that the war against Boko Haram is largely won.
“I can confidently say this because just recently, I led a group of 33 journalists from both the local and international media to the hot bed of the insurgency, that is, Maiduguri, Kondugua, Kaoure and Bama.
“Today, I can report to you that the entire 70 plus kilometres stretch from Maiduguri to Bama and all the way to Banki which leads to Cameroun and the Central African Republic are in the hands of our gallant troops.”
He said the military presence could be felt ”every few metres along the road; at a point along that road we were just a kilometre to Sambisa forest.
“They have so degraded the capacity of Boko Haram that the terrorists can no longer hold on to any territory just as they can no longer carry out any spectacular attack.”
Mohammed, however, said that though there were still cases of suicide bombings, it was pertinent to note that such was the nature if insurgency globally.
“Unlike a war between two armies, an insurgency never ends with arms victory
“Even in countries like Colombia where insurgency was supposed to have ended decades ago, attacks like this still happen.”
He said that the insurgents had adopted a new style of attacking soft targets like motor parks, schools, entertainment centres, religious centres, killing innocent people mostly women and children.
He, therefore, urged Nigerians to support the military in the fight against terrorism in the country, saying that the military had availed itself creditably.
shariff84: We’ve paid some Fulani to stop killings in Southern Kaduna – El-Rufai DECEMBER 3, 2016
Kaduna State Governor Mallam Nasir el-Rufai has said his government has traced some violent, aggrieved Fulani to their countries and paid them to stop the killings of Southern Kaduna natives and the destruction of their communities saying that the renewed violence is carried out by bandits.
El-Rufai made this known while fielding questions from some select Journalists in his office in Kaduna.
He said: “For southern Kaduna, we didn’t understand what was going on and we decided to set up a committee under Gen. Martin Luther Agwai (rtd) to find out what was going on there. What was established was that the root of the problem has a history starting from the 2011 post election violence.
“Fulani herdsmen from across Africa bring their cattle down towards Middle Belt and Southern Nigeria. The moment the rains starts around March, April, they start moving them up to go back to their various communities and countries.
“Unfortunately, it was when they were moving up with their cattle across Southern Kaduna that the elections of 2011 took place and the crisis trapped some of them.
“Some of them were from Niger, Cameroon, Chad, Mali and Senegal. Fulanis are in 14 African countries and they traverse this country with the cattle.
“So many of these people were killed, cattle lost and they organised themselves and came back to revenge.
“So a lot of what was happening in Southern Kaduna was actually from outside Nigeria. We got a hint that the late Governor Patrick Yakowa got this information and he sent someone to go round some of these Fulani communities, but of course after he died, the whole thing stopped. That is what we inherited. But the Agwai committee established that.
“We took certain steps. We got a group of people that were going round trying to trace some of these people in Cameroon, Niger republic and so on to tell them that there is a new governor who is Fulani like them and has no problem paying compensations for lives lost and he is begging them to stop killing.
“In most of the communities, once that appeal was made to them, they said they have forgiven. There are one or two that asked for monetary compensation. They said they have forgiven the death of human beings, but want compensation for cattle. We said no problem, and we paid some. As recently as two weeks ago, the team went to Niger republic to attend one Fulani gathering that they hold every year with a message from me.
PRESIDENT Goodluck Jonathan yesterday in Maiduguri, accused Borno State Elders of playing to the gallary over the activities of Boko Haram Islamic sect insurgency in the state, describing the situation as unfortunate.
Jonathan spoke during an interactive session with Borno State stakeholders at the Multi-Purpose Hall, Government House Maiduguri, in continuation of his two- day working visit to Borno and Yobe States, the epicentres of Boko Haram.
He was responding to requests by the Elders for the Federal Government to grant amnesty to the sect members as well as withdraw the military Joint Task Force, JTF from Maiduguri and other areas in the state during the second day of his working visit to Borno State..
President Jonathan lamented that none of the elders in the state had publicly condemned the killings and bombings being carried out by the sect members and advised them to put their ‘’house in order,’’ by talking to their children who had been causing havoc in the country to drop their arms against the country.
Buhari faults crackdown on Boko Haram JUNE 3, 2013
Presidential candidate for the Congress for Progressive Change in the 2011 Presidential election, Maj.-Gen. Muhammadu Buhari (retd), has frowned on the emergency rule in parts of the North. He alleged that innocent civilians were being killed in the states.
Buhari speaking during a Liberty FM Hausa Service Programme, Guest of the Week, on Sunday in Kaduna said that Boko Haram members were being killed and their houses demolished unlike the “special treatment” given to the Niger Delta militants by the Federal Government.
Celebrities › Re: Laycon's Fans Block His Vehicle From Leaving As They Hail Him (Video) by anonimi: 11:02pm On Sep 30, 2020
