₦airaland Forum

bcomputer101: Tolerance is good...

Why so many hidden post?

The Federal Government of Nigeria has declared Tuesday 14th January, 2014 as a Public Holiday to commemorate the Eid-el-Maulud cerebrations.

The Minister of Interior, Comrade Abba Moro made the declaration on behalf of the Federal Government in a statement signed by the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry, Fatima Bamidele and made available to the Press on Thursday.

He enjoined all Muslim faithful and Nigerians in general to support, co-operate and join hands with President Goodluck Jonathan in his sustained effort to build a peaceful, united and virile nation.

While wishing all Nigerians a happy Eid-el-Maulud celebration, he further urged them to use the occasion to pray for peace across the nation.

bcomputer101: As much as I hate to generalise , something always
worries me about the way we react to issues in Nigeria.
We are a terribly impulsive people. Ever ready to arrive
at conclusions without deep thought. We pass judgment
almost always too soon. Even when awkward things
happen in our society, we do not reflect on them, we
rush to take sides and in no time, move on like nothing
has happened and then wait for the next record -
breaking ignominious event. We are like the drunkard
who constantly forgets the indignity of the previous
night.
Earlier this week, allegations filtered in through an
online media platform that Nigeria’s current Aviation
Minister, Ms Stella Oduah, might have made bogus
claims about her qualifications. According to the report,
officials of St. Paul’s College Lawrenceville, Virginia,
United States where Oduah claimed to have gained a
Master’s degree in Business Administration (MBA) told
the news platform that no such programme ever existed
in the institution. The report further insinuated that the
lady may not even have obtained her first degree from
the institution.
Although the silence of the Minister and allegations that
she has gone to work online in a bid to pull off any
information related to her educational attainments
smell of guilt, I would still treat this as an allegation until
we hear Oduah’s side of the story. I would also advise
commentators to tarry a minute and let us reason
together, just before you cast a stone.
Thinking about this matter, I recall that the Oduah case,
if it turns out to be true, would be the third high -profile
false educational claim scandal in the 14 years of
Nigeria’s return to democratic rule. The first was blown
open by The News magazine some weeks into our new
democratic experience in 1999. It involved a young man
with the name Salisu Buhari, who was just elected
Speaker of the House of Representatives. The News
reported that Buhari did not attend the University of
Toronto in Canada as he had claimed and that he
falsified his age. After a series of denials and the
magazine’s insistence on its scoop, Buhari admitted that
he indeed forged documents and perjured himself.
Not long after, Tell magazine went to town with the
alleged fraudulent educational claims by the then Lagos
State Governor. In some sense, the claims against the
governor were a tad more grievous than Buhari’s. The
former governor was alleged to have lied about
information regarding his primary, secondary and
tertiary education.
That is where we are now, a point where two of the
most prominent examples of falsification of records are
not just walking the streets but are back in national
prominence. The former, after a ”go and sin no more”
Presidential pardon was recently appointed to the
Governing Council of the University of Nigeria (UNN),
Nsukka, Enugu State, while the latter is the current
poster boy for what is the most progressive of Nigerian
politics. Only God knows what reward Oduah would get
if she is eventually proved guilty of this accusation
While condemning the detestable act of taking Nigerians
for granted, the point must be made that what we see in
high places is the simple manifestation of an infested
system. We have a system which has decimated merit, a
polity that has devalued morality and slaughtered all
known values. In this country, I have seen different
levels of compromises. I have seen parents buy
examination questions for their children, just to give
them an advantage over others. I have seen parents pay
for their children to be coached in the middle of
examinations. I have heard of false oath-taking in our
courts, I have heard of false marriages in our courts
especially by graduands who want to evade National
Youth Service Corps (NYSC) postings, that is not to
mention the almost widely accepted lack of capacity of
Nigerian artisans to speak the truth. I have heard of
teachers giving marks in exchange for one form of
inducement or the other. I have seen people falsify their
age to fit into the requirement for a job or some other
benefits. There is just no end to what a lot of our
compatriots would do to get their heart desire.
But do you really blame them? Resilient as they are,
Nigerians will always find ways to circumvent and
survive the frustrating collapse of institutions of the
state. In Nigeria, children would pass matriculation
exanimations but not get into institutions until someone
bites a carrot. Here is a country where students end up
spending six years to complete a four-year course as
lecturers are sure to embark on ceaseless industrial
actions in the course of their academic career. Then
they graduate two years later than they anticipated and
employers, including governmental organisations,
would place some age requirement that they no longer
meet. So what do they do? These graduands approach a
ready court clerk, claim to have lost their birth
certificates and swear to an affidavit claiming that they
were born two years later than their actual date of birth!
It is called Declaration of Age and that gets them ready
for any age requirement by companies, but then, they
have perjured themselves. Only God knows how many
people in top positions in today’s Nigeria are guilty of
this infraction. It is a country where companies without
any iota of academic roles insist on employing
candidates with first class degrees or at least a second
class upper degrees. To beat them at their game, some
dumb blonde whose only aptitude is a pretty face would
seduce a lecturer, settle herself and curiosly come up at
the top of her class. Not to be left in the cold, the young
man who is not so endowed would bring out some
money, (usually nothing enough to prosper anyone),
and buy any class of degree that he wants ready for
sucker companies that value certificate over the quality
of the personality that they intend to employ. No
wonder so many companies end up employing
incompetent impostors who cannot help themselves
when confronted with the reality of the task at hand.
This is the tragedy of a nation without class. A nation
which stifles the ability of its people to attain to their
best potential would most definitely breed
manipulators, some of who will falsify things just to
survive or for an ego trip, a desire to lord it over others.
The latter is the reason why public officials lie to us
since you can be anything and everything in this country
with your school certificate.
Although perpetrators of these acts are most certainly
sure to end in ignominy, the ultimate loser is the
country and its future. The tendencies described above
engender the failure to build a society capable of
competing in the technological world of the 21 century
not to talk about the future. While we wait for the latest
case of deception in high places to play out, we need to
rededicate ourselves to excellence in spite of the
brickbats that our politicians are throwing at each other.
Unless we reorder our priorities and put merit over
parochial considerations, generations after us will have
no idea what it is to be meritorious. They will celebrate
mediocrity, lies and vice, tendencies on which no
country can survive. And just before you get self-
righteous and cast that stone, check yourself and see if
you are guilty of some little infractions that may one day
blow up in your face.


Source: www.punchng.com/opinion/the-stella-oduah-in-all-of-us/

jjcbuthot: Senseless ranting from PDP... How will a party in Nigeria has religious agenda?

GEJ card has always being ethno-religious sentiments. Where did we get it wrong to have allowed a naive person like GEJ to be president of Nigeria?

bcomputer101: Former President Olusegun Obasanjo on Tuesday said
he was not losing sleep over recent attacks on him by
presidential aides and a former Federal Commissioner
for Information, Chief Edwin Clark, because of the
letter he wrote to President Goodluck Jonathan.
Obasanjo, who spoke with The PUNCH through his
media aide, Mr. Tunde Oladunjoye, also said he was
ready to meet with the Peoples Democratic Party’s
Board of Trustees members, over his reported feud with
the President.
Insisting that he was not at war with Jonathan,
Obasanjo said he was unfazed by the letter written to
him by Clark and the rantings and abuse by the
President’s aides.
The Ijaw national leader had in his letter dated January
3, described the former President as an unrepentant
troublemaker, liar and manipulator.
In the 10-page letter titled, ‘Let The Truth Be Told Before
It Is Too Late, Clark said, “Mr. former President, I will
also like to use the language of your daughter, Iyabo, to
describe you to Nigerians.
“You are ‘a liar, manipulator, two-faced hypocrite…. You
have egoistic craving for power and live a life only men
of low self-esteem and intellect thrive.”
But Oladunjoye said that Obasanjo was not disturbed
by insults and abuses being hauled at him because of
the December 2, 2013 letter to Jonathan.
The media aide said, “I was with him (Obasanjo) this
(Tuesday) morning in Abeokuta for about five hours. He
received some visitors. He was full of life. He was in high
spirits. He was playing Ayo game. He bears no one no
grudge.
“After being with him for about five hours, he told me,
‘Tunde I want to go and sleep.’ That means he has not
lost sleep, regardless of abuse, rantings and insults. If I
am to use his words, I will tell you that Baba still dey
kampe.”
On the plan by the PDP’s BoT to settle the rift between
Obasanjo and Jonathan, he said that the ex-President
had received the BoT members in the past, adding that
he was ready to receive them again.
Oladunjoye said, “I want to tell you that Chief
Obasanjo is not at war with anybody, including
President Jonathan.
“He has always maintained that his doors are open to all
Nigerians, regardless of political affiliations. If members
of the BoT decide to visit him, it will not be the first time.
If he is in the country, he will receive them.”
Meanwhile, the governing board of the National Human
Rights Commission will meet not later than two weeks
from now to consider major issues before the body.
One of the issues is a memo from the Attorney-
General of the Federation and Minister of Justice,
Muhammad Adoke (SAN), asking for an investigation
into Obasanjo’s letter.
Adoke had in the December 23 memo addressed to
the Executive Secretary of the NHRC, Prof. Bem Angwe,
requested the commission to investigate the allegations
bordering on human rights violations contained on
pages 9 to 10 of the letter.
The commission’s chairman, Prof. Chidi Odinkalu, told
one of our correspondents on Tuesday, that the board
had yet to meet over the memo because some
members travelled abroad.
He said, “I want to ensure that everything is done under
the authority of the council. That is what we proposed to
do. We will meet not later than two weeks from now.
Some of our members are not in the country.”
Odinkalu also debunked insinuations that the
commission had received a contrary order from the
Presidency not to investigate the letter again because
the PDP wanted an amicable resolution between
Obasanjo and Jonathan.
Besides, he explained that the NHRC was an
independent commission not subject to the control of
the President.
Odinkalu said, “To begin with, we have not received
anything from the President. What we have received is a
referral from the office of the AGF on a matter of public
interest. It is important for people to understand.
“Our rules provide for possibilities of receiving referrals
from the AGF, state Attorneys-General or high courts.
What we are dealing with is well provided for in our
rules.”
Referring to Section 6(3) of the NHRC Act 2010, Odinkalu
maintained that the commission was not under the
directive or control of the President.
The section provides that, “In exercising its functions
and powers under this Act, the commission shall not be
subject to the direction or control of any other authority
or person.”
In the memo, Adoke had asked the commission to
investigate the allegations snipers were being trained
by the government to terminate the lives of Jonathan’s
political opponents.
The PUNCH also gathered on Tuesday that security
agents had not begun investigations into Obasanjo’s
allegations.
A senior police officer confided in one of our
correspondents in Abuja that the police did not have
record of investigations of the allegations made by
Obasanjo.
The officer described the issues as political which,
according to him, will be resolved by the parties
concerned.
He said, “Do we have any record of such an
investigation of Obasanjo’s allegations? I will say we
don’t have such information with us. In any case, there
is no way we can investigate the former President and
those close to him would not know. Such an
investigation cannot be hidden and the police will have
to comment on it publicly if it is true, but for now, no
information or record on any probe against Obasanjo.”
The Force Public Relations Officer, Frank Mba, could not
be reached for comments as he did not respond to calls
to his telephone. He also did not respond to a text
message sent to him.



Source: www.punchng.com/news/im-ready-to-meet-pdp-bot-members-obasanjo/

bcomputer101: The Peoples Democratic Party and the All Progressives
Congress on Tuesday exchanged words over alleged
plan by the opposition party, the APC, to Islamise
Nigeria.
The ruling party said that an Islamic cleric, Yusuf Garba,
and the Religious Equity Promotion Council exposed the
plot by the APC to balkanise the nation along religious
lines by imposing an Islamic agenda like the Egypt
Muslim Brotherhood.
But the APC said that the ruling party was behind the
alleged claim by the Islamic cleric and the group.
The cleric and the group had accused the APC of having
such an agenda as the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood in
Egypt, alleging further that this was the reason why the
party was having more Muslims than Christians among
members of its Interim Executive Committee.
However, the opposition party described the allegation
as untrue, saying it was part of the agenda of the ruling
PDP and the Presidency to discredit it, a plan which it
said would fail.
A statement by the National Publicity Secretary of the
party, Chief Olisa Metuh, in Abuja on Tuesday, further
claimed that the alleged plan by the opposition party
might have been responsible for its alleged preference
for violence.
Metuh said, “Nigerians are now no longer at a loss on
the real reason the APC has been desperate to hold
power.
“They now know why they have been moving round the
country organising protests and investing heavily in
planting seeds of discord and disagreements among the
people using their stock-in-trade of propaganda, deceit,
falsehood and doomsday prophesies.
“We thank all Nigerians, especially true Muslims for
exposing and rejecting the APC and its devilish plot.
Now that their plot has been exposed, we advise the
APC leaders to retrace their steps and purge themselves
of their evil machinations.”
He said that in the PDP, it was their “unshakable creed
that Nigeria belongs to all Nigerians irrespective of
religious, tribal, ethnic or regional affiliations.
“This country belongs to Muslims, Christians and citizens
of other religious persuasions alike and our people are
free to live and work in any part of the country and
aspire for any office irrespective of religious or ethnic
affiliations,” he added.
Metuh added that the PDP remained committed to
national unity as encapsulated in the party’s manifesto
and the ideals of its founding fathers, adding that
because of this, the party would resist anything or
anybody seeking to cause divisions among the people.
In his reaction, the Interim National Publicity Secretary
of the APC, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, said both the PDP
and the Presidency were desperate to cause problem in
the polity.
He said the popularity of the opposition party was giving
the ruling party and the Presidency sleepless nights,
hence the resort to what he described as “amateurish
propaganda” against the party.
He nevertheless explained that out of 35 officers in the
Interim National Executive Committee of the party, 18
are Muslims while the remaining 17 are Christians.
Mohammed said, “But let me tell you that the allegation
is not true. We have made it clear that we have 18
Muslims and 17 Christians, making it 35 in the interim
executive of our party.
“Before the merger of the three political parties, they
said we were regional parties, but now that five
governors from the PDP are with us, they say we are a
religious party.
“Nigerians are smarter than that and they are not
worried by religion but unemployment, corruption,
missing billions of dollars from Nigeria National
Petroleum Corporation and the money used to buy
bullet proof cars by the Minister of Aviation.”


Source: www.punchng.com/news/pdp-apc-disagree-over-alleged-plan-to-islamise-nigeria/

Tolexander: Stellahara reporters, that's cool mehn!

It isn't new, that is what is called Aba made certificate.