₦airaland Forum

nelronaldo:
This is rubbish. A state with more than 20million people, a certain group can't determine their fate. Democracy is government for the people and not for a mandate group.

It's okay to have a group of top political players in a state but it is stupid for them to decide the fate of a performing governor because they are unhappy.

To even make things worse, this useless group is loyal to "ONE MAN". If it is this group that determines the governor of Lagos state, then it means Tinubu is god over Lagos. Tueh... *spits*

HegenIkomkeh:
Just three years on,GEJ now fatter and fresher
Managing Nigeria is definitely no small task.

adesaeed2020:
[s]Mrs Kemi Adeosun, the finance minister until today, in her letter of resignation to President Muhammadu Buhari responded for the first time officially to the allegation of forging the NYSC exemption certificate, by expressing profound shock.


ADEOSUN
In the letter dated 14th September, 2018, the British-born Nigerian said she did not relocate to Nigeria until she was 34 years old, four years older than the 30-year limit for participation by corps members.



She blamed those she called ‘trusted associates’, who helped to arrange the ‘exemption certificate’, that came back to haunt her many years after.

“I obtained my first Nigerian passport at the age of thirty-four (34) and when I relocated there was debate as to whether NYSC Law applied to me. Upon enquiry as to my status relating to NYSC, I was informed that due to my residency history and having exceeded the age of thirty (30), I was exempted from the requirement to serve. Until recent events, that remained my understanding.

“On the basis of that advice and with the guidance and assistance of those, I thought were trusted associates, NYSC were approached for documentary proof of status. I then received the certificate in question. Having never worked in NYSC, visited the premises, been privy to nor familiar with their operations, I had no reason to suspect that the certificate was anything but genuine.”

Her letter also revealed that she took the decision to resign after an internal investigation ordered by President Buhari declared the exemption certificate as fake.

Read her full letter:

14th September, 2018

His Excellency

Muhammadu Buhari

President, Federal Republic of Nigeria

State House

Aso Villa

Abuja

Dear Excellency,

Let me commence by thanking you profusely for the honour and privilege of serving under your inspirational leadership. It has been a truly rewarding experience to learn from you and to observe at close quarters your integrity and sense of duty.

I have, today, become privy to the findings of the investigation into the allegation made in an online medium that the Certificate of Exemption from National Youth Service Corp (NYSC) that I had presented was not genuine. This has come as a shock to me and I believe that in line with this administration’s focus on integrity, I must do the honourable thing and resign.

Your Excellency, kindly permit me to outline some of the background to this matter. I was born and raised in the United Kingdom, indeed my parental family home remains in London. My visits to Nigeria up until the age of thirty-four (34) were holidays, with visas obtained in my UK passport. I obtained my first Nigerian passport at the age of thirty-four (34) and when I relocated there was debate as to whether NYSC Law applied to me. Upon enquiry as to my status relating to NYSC, I was informed that due to my residency history and having exceeded the age of thirty (30), I was exempted from the requirement to serve. Until recent events, that remained my understanding.

On the basis of that advice and with the guidance and assistance of those, I thought were trusted associates, NYSC were approached for documentary proof of status. I then received the certificate in question. Having never worked in NYSC, visited the premises, been privy to nor familiar with their operations, I had no reason to suspect that the certificate was anything but genuine. Indeed, I presented that certificate at the 2011 Ogun State House of Assembly and in 2015 for Directorate of State Services (DSS) Clearance as well as to the National Assembly for screening. Be that as it may, as someone totally committed to a culture of probity and accountability I have decided to resign with effect from Friday, 14th September, 2018.

Your Excellency, It has been an exceptional privilege to have served our nation under your leadership and to have played a role in steering our economy at a very challenging time. I am proud that Nigeria has brought discipline into its finances, has identified and is pursuing a path to long term sustainable growth that will unlock the potential in this great economy. Under your leadership, Nigeria was able to exit recession and has now started to lay the foundations for lasting growth and wealth creation. Repositioning this huge economy is not a short term task and there are no short cuts, indeed there are tough decisions still to be made but I have no doubt that your focus on infrastructural investment, revenue mobilisation and value for money in public expenditure will deliver growth, wealth and opportunity for all Nigerians.

I thank His Excellency, the Vice President and my colleagues in the Federal Executive Council for the huge pleasure and honour of working with them. I also thank most specially, the team in the ‘Finance Family’ of advisers and heads of agencies under the Ministry of Finance. Your Excellency, this group of committed Nigerians represent a range of backgrounds, ethnicities and ages. They have worked well above and beyond the call of duty to support me in the tasks assigned. The diversity in my team and their ability to work cohesively to deliver reforms, convinces me that Nigeria has the human capital required to succeed.

Your Excellency, let me conclude by commending your patience and support, during the long search for the truth in this matter. I thank you again for giving me the honour of serving under your leadership, it is a rare privilege, which I do not take for granted. As a Nigerian and committed progressive, I appreciate you for your dogged commitment to improving this nation.

Please be assured, as always, of my highest regards and best wishes.

Kemi Adeosun(Mrs)[/s]

Source: Vanguard

Amumaigwe:
With same mouth which you castigated the yesterday's sit-at-home as failure, you are also calling it 'largely successful'. Afonja and fluidity. I will advise you once again; go look for a decent job. Hate will continue to set you back while those you are hating are progressing.

citizenY:
[s]I will understand this protest if you all sit at home..... AND REFUSE TO COME OUT.[/s]

mrbaba18:
Comparing ngozi wit kemi is lyk comparing messi wit bakayoko Mr op dis is an insult 2 Mrs ngozi

FortifiedCity:
The Nigerian press made it look like the exercise wasn't successful

farem:
[s]BETWEEN OKONJO-IWEALA AND KEMI ADEOSUN.

The conspiracy theorists are at it again. They claim that Kemi has resigned her appointment as Finance minister. If Kemi's time is up, how can her stewardship be compared to that of Madam Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala?

**Public Accounting System: For 16yrs, Ngozi used the outdated Incremental Budget System. This system simply adds a certain percent to a previous budget to get a new budget. Kemi introduced an advanced Zero Based Budgeting system which uses cost benefit analysis and divides a project into smaller packages for easy funding and monitoring.

**Anti-graft: Ngozi initiated Treasury Single Account where every govt revenue generating agency pays into one single, govt account. For 16yrs, Ngozi could not implement this laudable policy. Kemi, within 3yrs has achieved more than 90% compliance. The 10% got waivers from above.
BVN was initiated by Ngozi but could not be implemented. Kemi under few months achieved complete compliance.

**Revenue Generation: Under Ngozi, Snake swallowed billions of JAMB revenue generated. Under Kemi JAMB, FIRS, CUSTOMS and basically all other generating agencies are generating 100s of percentage increases in revenue generation.

**Foreign Reserves: Ngozi saw our foreign reserve increase to $67billion. At the pick of oil boom, Ngozi saw our foreign reserves drop to $27billion. In a time of oil doom, Kemi saw our Foreign Reserves increase from $27billion to $37billion.

**Foreign Exchange: In 1999, a dollar sold for #97. Ngozi saw the naira peg at #197/$. Kemi watched naira rise as high as #305/$ for official and $360/$ for parallel market.

**Cost of living: In 1999, fuel sold at #22/litre. A bag of rice was below #1000. Ngozi coordinated prices to 100s of percentage increases. Fuel pecked at #87/liter and a bag of rice #8000. Kemi watched fuel hit #145/liter and a bag of rice rising to an average of #14000.

**Foreign Debt: At the pick of oil boom our external debts was about $6billion. Kemi added $11billion under 3yrs under oil doom.

**The least is endless.II dont know these ladies paper qualifications and one doesn't have an exemption letter from NYSC. But my accounting training tells me that Kemi made more accounting sense that Ngozi. But their principals, PMB/GEJ, may have contributed in some ways.

-Steve Mbanugo [/s]

MayorofLagos:
[s]Twenty-four hours after her claim to have acquired a Masters degree from the St. Paul’s College in the United States was punctured, PREMIUM TIMES has uncovered another false claim by our embattled Minister of Aviation, Stella Oduah.

This time, the minister lied on oath to the Nigerian Senate, claiming another American ‘university’, Pacific Christian University awarded her an honorary doctorate degree in 1998.

Mrs. Oduah made the claim in a 7-page resume she distributed to Nigeria’s 109 senators during her confirmation hearing on July 2, 2011.

On page four of the document, the minister claimed the university, which she said was based in Glendale, awarded her an honorary doctorate in Business Administration.

It was based on this document that she was grilled and eventually confirmed by the lawmakers.

But investigations by PREMIUM TIMES suggest that no university called Pacific Christian University exists in the United States.

The U.S. Department of Education, through its National Centre for Education Statistics, keeps an up-to-date database of all public libraries and educational institutions in the country – public, private and colleges.

PREMIUM TIMES reporters spent hours on Wednesday searching this database.

Our reporters searched by state (California), city (Glendale) and name of institution (Pacific Christian University). Yet, nothing came up in the name of the university Mrs. Oduah claimed gave her an honorary doctorate.

According to the database, there are six colleges (universities) in Glendale, a city of 191,719 inhabitants in Los Angeles County, in the state of California.

The colleges are American Medical Sciences Centre, Brand College, Glendale Career College, Glendale Community and North-West College.

There is no such university known as Christian Pacific College as claimed by the minister.

The spokesperson for the National Centre for Educational Statistics, Susan Ad, could however not be reached for comments.

She is yet to return calls and reply an email sent to her by this newspaper.

The spokespersons for the minister appear unwilling to comment for this story.

Efforts by PREMIUM TIMES to get them to react to this new revelation were unsuccessful.

Joe Obi, her special assistant on media, did not answer or return calls.

Yakubu Datti, the spokesperson of the aviation agencies, who usually speak for her, answered our call but immediately said he would call back. He is yet to do so as at the time of publishing this.

Meanwhile, in the same resume she submitted to the Senate, Mrs. Oduah did not indicate that she got a Masters from St. Paul, raising questions on why she made that claim in her official citations and profiles posted on the Ministry of Aviation website, her personal website and her Wikipedia page.

She only claimed in the document to the Senate that she obtained a Bachelor of Science degree from St. Paul’s College in 1982, a claim that PREMIUM TIMES is investigating.

The spokesperson for the Nigerian senate, Enyinnaya Abaribe, tried Tuesday to extricate the senate from blame as Nigerians criticize the lawmakers for conducting a sham screening exercise that allowed Mrs. Oduah to get away with lies and deceits.

Mr. Abaribe said the lawmakers depend largely on the nation’s security agencies to help them investigate claims by appointees of the president.

He said in conducting screening exercises, the senate relies largely on reports forwarded to it by the security agencies.

Mrs. Oduah, and her associates have spent the last several hours scrambling to clean up the minister’s biographies on the Internet, following allegations that she lied about her academic qualifications.

Already, Mrs. Oduah’s biography on the website of the Ministry of Aviation has been revised, with references to St. Paul’s College now wiped out.

The Wikipedia page of the minister was also edited and it now has no reference to the university Mrs. Oduah attended. The last edit on the Wikipedia page was done at 14:41 p.m. Nigerian time Tuesday.

All links and reference materials on the Wikipedia page capable of linking the minister to the university that has disowned her have also been deleted.

Even the minister’s personal website has been reviewed to remove any reference to St. Paul’s College.

Mrs. Oduah had since October been enmeshed in a a N255million armoured cars scandal in which she was accused of compelling an agency under her supervision, the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority, NCAA, to buy her two exotic bullet cars at clearly inflated prices.

The purchase of the cars generated outrage for weeks because its cost was inflated, and it was neither listed in the government-approved budget nor did it comply with the Nigeria’s public procurement law.

The House of Representatives has since asked President Goodluck Jonathan to sack the minister but the president has failed to act.[/s]

Almaiga:
[s]Bloody COWARDS, is this how you intend to actualise Biafra, By hiding in your houses?
If you need Biafra, go out and demand for it like men with Balls.

Bunch of LOOSERS. [/s]

chigoizie7:
The truth is very clear. In south east. People survive on their own. They don't benefit anything from the government (FG), from good roads, to jobs, to major infrastructures to electricity and so much more. Everything done in south east is determined by two group of people. The commercial bus drivers and the traders. Once these two go on strike, the whole of south east will be on shut down .


Just imagine that no market is open for businesses in Onitsha and then no commercial bus drivers on the road, automatically, all banks will not work, as there is no one to attend to, even though their ATM channels are open. Then for other civil servants, no one can go to work because they can't do so trekking if there are no means of transportation.


The government has no influence on businessmen and women. U can't penalise them for not opening for business. Same as commercial bus drivers, u can't force any of them to work against their wishes.


That's what happens when the govt doesn't do anything for the masses, they grow thick skin to survive without the government presence in their lives.

There are so many people willing to go out today, but can't because they can't trek ,so they just stay back at home.

2ndly, from the past, the people of south east has seen how lawless the security operatives are in the past, as such, everyone is taking measures to avoid being caught up in the crossfire of their lawlessness. Otherwise those that has private vehicles would still go out today.


Ike nkwucha aburo ujo.

Nukilia:
[s]Its so sad the Igbo race have not been blessed with intelligent people who can lead an intelligent struggle.
Namdi KANU remains the biggest conman in the world.[/s]

Henryjr:
What is terrorism?[s]
Terrorism is the calculated use of violence or threats of violence against civilians in order to attain goals that are political, religious or ideological in nature.

Today, being the 14th of September has been declared " a sit at home day", by Ipob group who has been agitating for the sovereign state of Biafra. The sit at home order given by the group was not just a threat to commercial activities but was actually a promise to use violence against other citizens of the nation. The rights due to the people of Nigeria has literally been taken away by the despicable activities of Biafra in most parts of SE and SS zones of the country.

In particular, my drive to term them a terrorist group is as a result of what happened in Port Harcourt where our staff bus was attacked and damaged by the IPOB group . If they wants to take such an action, I see no reason why the security agencies will not resist them in whatever way possible in defending the rights of Nigerians.

What's your take[/s]?