₦airaland Forum

[size=15pt]Another Nigerian Murdered in London[/size]
08.25.2008

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A Nigerian, Ezekiel Ojo, 24, was weekend shot dead in south London.He was killed just streets away from where a teenager was gunned down earlier this month.
Police were called to Penrose Street in Southwark where they found Ojo. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
A post mortem examination found the cause of death to be gunshot wounds to the chest.
The attack followed the shooting of 18-year-old Ryan Bravo on August 6 as he entered a Costcutters store in Walworth, just a few streets away from Penrose Street.
It is thought he could have died as a result of mistaken identity.
While police said Bravo’s death was not thought to be linked to Ojo's, they are not ruling out any possibilities.
In recent times, knife culture has been on the increase in Britain as scores are often stabbed to death.
Nigerians are often the targets and recently, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown called for communities across Britain to "rise up" and help end the spiralling violence of knife crime by making the carrying of weapons socially unacceptable.
Speaking at the Edinburgh International Book Festival, the Prime Minister admitted to author Ian Rankin, creator of the fictional detective Inspector John Rebus, that the law alone was not enough to bring order to the streets and end the epidemic of fatal stabbings, the Guardian of London reported.
“Young people are thinking it's acceptable, fashionable, necessary for them to protect themselves, to carry a knife,” said Brown who called for parents and community leaders to help get across the message that carrying a knife put people at greater danger of violence than not carrying one. “Just like we made guns unacceptable, we should make knives unacceptable.”
According to him, “You need, not just young people but parents and other people to say that knives in Britain, like guns, like bullying, like racism, all these things are unacceptable.”
Brown interrupted his holiday to appear as a mystery guest at the festival, which is celebrating its 25th year.
“There are certain boundaries in a decent society you don't cross and these boundaries are cultural. In America it is acceptable for many people to carry guns, it's not in Britain. We've got to make it as unacceptable to carry knives. Most decent people would want to do that and I think what you will see over the next few months is this sort of campaign, which is led not just by government but people in the country, to say ‘get knives off our streets’,” Brown said.
On November 27, 2000 Damilola Taylor set off from Peckham Library at 4:50pm, on his way home, approaching the North Peckham Estate was stabbed in the left thigh.
Running to a stairwell, he collapsed and bled to death in the space of about 30 minutes. He was still alive in an ambulance on his way to hospital.
On August 9 , 2006 Ricky Preddie and Danny Preddie, after a 33-day re-trial, were convicted of the manslaughter.
In July this year, a model pupil, David Idowu, was stabbed in the chest and stomach in a London park because he was wearing the wrong school uniform.
Idowu, 14, died three weeks after. He was due to deliver a speech in the world's biggest speaking event for young people in which he was to implore teenagers to give up knives,
The Prime Minister said one of his biggest ambitions before leaving politics was to see Burmese dissident leader Aung San Suu Kyi released and in power.
“I want Aung San Suu Kyi not only to be released but to be in power in Burma. That's one of the great causes of the 20th century, every country should be a democracy and Burma is one of these countries that has been prevented from doing so. There is a need for China, India and the other countries around Burma to bring pressure to bear on the Burmese government to embrace democracy and respect human life,” he said.

source:http://www.thisdayonline.com/nview.php?id=120642

[size=15pt]Yar’Adua, Obasanjo not on speaking terms – Investigation [/size]
By Musikilu Mojeed
Published: Monday, 25 Aug 2008
There were strong indications on Sunday that the relationship between President Umaru Yar’Adua and his predecessor, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, may no longer be cordial. The two men are no longer on speaking terms.

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www.news.yahoo.com
President Umaru Yar’Adua

Reliable sources close to the two leaders disclosed to our correspondent that Yar’Adua and Obasanjo were bickering seriously and had not spoken to each other in the last couple of months.

A former aide of the ex-presidents who informed our correspondent of the development, said Obasanjo decided to stay away from the President after he began to experience “consistent difficulty” in getting unhindered access to him.

The source, a presidential aide during the last administration, quoted the former President as having told him that he (Obasanjo) was now keeping Yar’Adua at arm’s length.

The source said, “I went to visit Baba (the former president) at his Ota farm house that day to solicit his assistance to help talk to President Yar’Adua to get me a job. Since Baba left office, some of us who were his former aides and worked hard for Yar’Adua’s election are yet to be appointed to positions in government.

“So, I went to Ota to plead with Baba to help us talk to the President to consider us. But Baba’s response to my request shocked me. He said I should leave him out of anything that has to do with Yar’Adua. He said the relationship between him and the President was over and that he was not even on speaking terms with the President.

“When I asked him the reason for the stand-off with a man he helped install as president, Baba said he was not in the mood to talk about the wrongs that Yar’Adua had done to him. I left Ota in disappointment.”

Another source, who is Obasanjo’s close political associate, also confirmed that the cosy relationship between Yar’Adua and his predecessor had fizzled out.

He said, “Some of us are aware that all is not well between Baba and the President and we have been trying to see what can be done to reconcile them.

“As you know, I am close to the two of them and I will do my best to bring them together again. What is happening between them is unfortunate and is definitely not in the interest of our party.”

Presidency sources also confirmed the simmering hostility between the President and Obasanjo.

The sources said Yar’Adua hardly responded to the former President’s calls until Obasanjo allegedly stopped calling him altogether.

An Aso Rock source said the President had to call Obasanjo’s bluff after it became clear in the early days of the administration that the ex-President was bent on controlling him.

The source added that Yar’Adua did not see Obasanjo as his political godfather.

The source added, “When we first came in, Obasanjo was always pestering the President, telling him what to and what not to do. It became clear that he wanted to continue to rule from the backdoor.

“Of course, that did not go down well with Turai (Yar’Adua’s wife) and some forces within the administration who moved quickly to checkmate Obasanjo and whittle down his influence in the Presidential Villa.”

One of the fallouts of the disagreement between the two men, our sources said, was last Monday’s scrap of the Chief of Staff post in The Presidency and the sack of the acting Chief of Staff, Dr. Gbolade Osinowo, and the other staff in his office.

Osinowo and his colleagues were presidential aides who served Obasanjo and were retained by Yar’Adua.

Our source said they were sacked because they were regarded as moles in the Presidential Villa who had been feeding Obasanjo with information on “classified developments” in The Presidency.

Investigations also indicated that the former president had of recent been boycotting many party functions in anger.

Obasanjo reportedly stayed away from the meetings of the national caucus and the national executive committee meetings, of the Peoples Democratic Party, the two powerful party organs to which he and Yar’Adua are leading members.

An associate of the former President quoted Obasanjo as having complained bitterly that he felt betrayed with the way the Yar’Adua administration was reversing the policies introduced by his (Obasanjo’s) regime.

He was also said to have expressed disappointment that the President failed to halt both the ongoing probe of his administration by some committees in the National Assembly and the plot to amend the PDP’s constitution as a way of dethroning him as the chairman of the party’s Board of Trustees.

Also said to have angered Obasanjo was the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission’s recent incarceration of his daughter, Senator Iyabo Obasanjo-Bello, and some of his close associates for corruption. It was learnt that Obasanjo was shocked that Yar’Adua did not intervene in the matter.

According to a source, Obasanjo feels that the probe and the incarceration of his associates are meant to rubbish all that he did for the country during his eight-year reign.

But the national leadership of the PDP said it was not aware that Yar’Adua and his predecessor were bickering.

The National Legal Adviser of the party, Chief Olusola Oke, who spoke to our correspondent on the telephone, said though there had been speculations that the two leaders were quarrelling; there had been no concrete evidence to support the insinuations.

He said some people had pointed at Obasanjo’s conspicuous absence from the two party functions (the meetings of the PDP national caucus and the NEC) as an indication that he was no longer at ease with the President and the party.

Oke said, “But even that is not enough evidence to say that all is not well between our two leaders. Though former President Obasanjo was not at those meetings, he sent apologies.

“There is nothing from our end to suggest that anything is amiss between the President and his predecessor. As far as we are concerned, there is no way the two leaders won’t talk.

“People should remember that Baba is a very close friend of the President’s late brother and there is no doubt that the President will continue to regard former President Obasanjo the way he did to his brother.”

An official of the party, who did not want to be named, however, confirmed the development, saying the party was finding a way to reconcile the two men.

Both Obasanjo and Yar‘Adua could not be reached for comments on Sunday. Several calls made to the former President indicated that his mobile phone was switched off.

The calls made to the mobile phone of Yar‘Adua‘s Special Adviser on Communications, Mr. Olusegun Adeniyi, were not picked.

source:http://www.punchng.com/Articl.aspx?theartic=Art200808253573996

[size=15pt]Suffering and smiling in Lagos [/size]
By Uche Nworah

ON a recent visit to Lagos, Tony, a friend who manages a branch of one of the new generation banks in Abakiliki, Ebonyi State remarked thus; "You guys don't have a life here in Lagos, you are all suffering and smiling". Tony had to dig up a popular phrase of late Afro-beat musician Fela Anikulapo - Kuti in describing the lives of Nigerians living in Lagos (Lagosians). This was after a gruesome 4-hour traffic along Falomo bridge occasioned by the partial closure of Babangida's Third Mainland Bridge.

I had to agree with Tony, as I have often asked myself what I am doing in Lagos when there are other towns in Nigeria such as Enugu, Kaduna, Owerri, Abuja, Awka and so on where one could still earn Lagos salaries, enjoy Lagos lifestyles without experiencing the dreaded Lagos miseries including waking up at 3 a.m to begin the daily commute to work, coming back home at midnight, daylight armed robbery attacks, pot-holed and flooded roads, traffic gridlocks, polluted air, dilapidated infrastructure, hyper-inflation and all other woes associated with 'shuffering and shmiling' in Lagos.

With challenges like these, it is difficult to be envious of the job of Babatunde Fashola, the well-intentioned Lagos State Governor. Every major effort of his aimed at improving Lagos state gets immediately overshadowed by the visible decay and rot left by previous governments. A glance through the windows of a descending airplane shows a sprawling and decaying town begging for its glorious past. Perhaps some people in the corporate world could be pardoned for still enduring the crazy and soulless Lagos lifestyle. These are people doing what could be described as Head office jobs. But for the rest, I would encourage a discovery trip to Nigeria's other towns and regions where another and better life is very much possible.

Popularly called Eko, its original name before the Portuguese arrived in the 15th century and subsequently renamed it, Lagos is the Hollywood of Africa. Everybody comes to Hollywood and Lagos in search of fame or fortune, or both. For some, the search for the fame or the fortune never materializes in their lifetime. For others, the actualisation of either the Lagos or Hollywood dream comes at a huge prize. In Lagos' many roads, particularly at major traffic junctions, you will see beggars of all sorts, mothers with their young babies strapped to their backs begging for arms in the hot scorching sun, quadriplegics strapped to wheelchairs angling for positions with the cars, school age kids with tongues as sharp as razor, and as deadly as caustic soda whose learning is done everyday on the street, sickly individuals contracted by Lagos - smart businessmen and women, some with intravenous drip tubes dangling and sticking out from various parts of their bodies, others with heart-wrenching cancerous growths, wounds and open sores standing in the way of the traffic begging for money.

In Lagos, a common fate binds both the beggars and their potential patrons;. For the former, it is physical misery; for the later, it is emotional torture and guilt. Many go home and pass up their dinner in frustration and anger as they reflect on the living dead walking and working all around them. In such a city, how can one even enjoy what little fortune fate and hardwork has thrust their way. Lagos, Nigeria's former capital and the economic hub of the country is a city of over 10 million people. UN projections is that the city's population will reach 20 million by 2010. it is now ranked the 30th most expensive city in the world, and the most expensive in Africa according to Mercer's 2008 Worldwide Cost of Living Survey published recently.

Lagos is probably the only town in the world that has no official "Welcome to, " signage on its borders. What Lagos has is just a "This is Lagos" sign. The hidden message in this cold and unwelcoming signage is that 'This is Lagos, what you see is what you get'. Those who live in and love Lagos say that Lagos holds a special type of appeal and magic. They love the Lagos hustle and bustle. There are stories of those who arrived with just a Ghana-Must-Go nylon sack with a one-way ticket on 'The Young Shall Grow' Luxury bus.

On arrival, there is usually no welcoming relative or party, waiting accommodation or livelihood. For some, securing a sleeping space under Lagos' many bridges becomes the first true test of survival. Such persons go ahead to compete against man and the elements. There are the marauding ritualists (the Clifford Orjis) to evade at night and the heavy rains to shield from in the day. There are also the faulty breaks of Lagos' many crazy drivers, including the commercial bus (Danfo and Molue) drivers to contend with. Lagosians claim that surviving in Lagos actually means that one can survive in any other city in the world. I tend to agree.

For civil servants and other paid employees, perhaps the time has come for an aspiring gubernatorial candidate to run on the promise of introducing Lagos Weighting Allowance (LWA) if elected. This will compensate at least in some small measure for the escalating cost of living and working in Lagos. This special allowance is currently being used in London where workers living in London are paid a little extra, sometimes over Five Thousand Pounds for living in, and working in London. What this means is that Mr A and Mrs C may be working for company Q and performing similar job roles at two different locations (London and Luton). Mr. A who lives in London gets paid more than Mrs. C who lives in Luton every month because Mr. A spends more to get to work every month. There is also additional compensation for housing and other expenses associated with living in a big city. While this may not fully solve the many problems of workers living in Lagos, it will at least serve as some kind of palliative.

I visited Enugu recently with some friends and was shocked at the Four Thousand Naira bill the restaurant owner gave our 5-man lunch party for all we had eaten including second helpings and drinks. Charles Okoli, a friend who works for UBA in Lagos actually placed this in perspective for all of us. He remarked that what we had paid could hardly pay for one person's meal at Yellow Chilli, a restaurant patronized mainly by the corporates in the Victoria Island area of Lagos.

Also during a recent business visit to Kaduna, I was informed by my colleagues in the North that the cost of renting an up market 4-5 bedroom duplex complete with servant quarters is about Five Hundred Thousand Naira (rent for similar houses in upmarket locations in Lagos range between 2-3 Million Naira) . This sum will not even pay for a one-room boys quarter in the Island area of Lagos. I remember my colleague Biodun's expression when I told him of the asking prices of houses on sale around the Island and Lekki areas of Lagos. He wondered if the amounts Lagos letting agents and landlords were asking for was actually for buying places in heaven.

The situation is now such that while banks and other employers have started giving mortgage loans to their employees, the loan amounts being offered are usually not enough to meet the asking prices of Lagos landlords and letting agents, whereas similar employees living in other towns are able to buy multiple houses with their mortgage loans. Another case of 'shuffering and shmiling in Lagos'. But just before you contemplate packing your bags, soul and sanity and moving to another city in Nigeria before life passes you by, ask yourself what you will miss most about Lagos. If you can answer this question, that's your decision already made for you.

For the rest of us living in Lagos, the die-hards and stay-putters; perhaps the time has come for us to make our case before our employers for a Lagos Weighting Allowance.


Nworah, a company executive in Lagos is the author of The Long Harmattan Season

source:http://www.guardiannewsngr.com/editorial_opinion/article02//indexn2_html?pdate=250808&ptitle=Suffering%20and%20smiling%20in%20Lagos

[size=15pt]7 Die After Drinking Fura Da Nono[/size]
From Imam Imam in Gusau, 08.25.2008

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Seven persons were yesterday confirmed dead at Moda village in Anka local government area of Zamfara State after taking a millet drink popularly known as Fura da Nono.
The dead persons, four male and three female, were all from a single family and they all died shortly after taking the fura believed to be contaminated. The fura was allegedly prepared by one of the deceased according to eye-witness account in the village.
The sudden death of the seven people created apprehension among the people of the community who were seen in groups discussing the incident. Moda village is close to the country home of the state Deputy Governor, Alhaji Mukhtar Ahmed Anka.
All the deceased have since been buried according to islamic injunctions at a burial ground located in the village.
Efforts to get to the only surviving member of the family, the husband , whose name was given as Bala was not successful as sympathizers were seen trooping in their hundreds to his house.
Already, chairman of Anka Local government, Alhaji Ahmed Sharu, has constituted a committee to investigate the cause of the incident and submit the report immediately for necessary action to be taken.
Team of medical personnel and security agents were seen trooping to the village in order to investigate the immediate and remote causes of the incident.In a telephone interview , spokesperson of the Zamfara state police command, ASP, Lawal Abdullahi confirmed the incident but could not ascertain the number of victims . He said the command had commenced investigation into the incident.

source:http://www.thisdayonline.com/nview.php?id=120638

how could you place both the victim and perpetrator on the same scale, its unfair.

this is now the latest thing in Naija, records and reports are suddenly developing legs and working away

[size=15pt]Records on Pentascope, NITEL transactions missing [/size]
By OLUWOLE JOSIAH and JIDE BABALOLA
Published: Sunday, 24 Aug 2008
VITAL records required by thttp://www.punchontheweb.com/Articl.aspx?theartic=Art200808240133348he Senate for investigations into the controversial transactions between Nigerian Telecommunications Ltd and Pentascope are reportedly missing.

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Kemi Dayo-Aiyetan
Senator Sylvester Anyanwu

The Senate Committee on Communications, which is investigating the transactions, claimed it could not lay its hand on the documents after contacting several relevant quarters.

The Senate Committee on Communications had on July 30, declared as “fraud” the deal that led to the sale of NITEL to Pentascope.

Therefore, it vowed to take drastic measures against anybody who was involved in the sale.

The committee also alleged that barely six months after NITEL was acquired by Pentascope, it took a loan of N40billion from the banking sector, about N13bn in treasury bills and that Pentascope could not make the N59bn it was supposed to have made during that period.

The Chairman of the committee, Senator Sylvester Anyanwu, told our correspondent in Abuja on Friday that the consultants involved in the sale of NITEL had also not been able to produce detailed records of all the transactions.

He said, “They formed NITEL Trustees which sold all NITEL properties, but there is nothing on the ground to show that such an entity existed.

“Nothing at the Corporate Affairs Commission to show that such an organisation existed, yet it was what was used to sell all NITEL properties.

“We have written to the consultants, some of them have replied, but have failed to give us correct information; they are evading the real issue.

“They said they have gone to BPE, but BPE has claimed that they don‘t have the records with them.”

Senator Anyanwu said consultants who had worked with BPE on NITEL should begin to ensure that their records were put straight ahead of the coming investigations into their activities in NITEL.

“These corporations and organisations, as well as their former and current employees are reminded that they are still liable and answerable to the National Assembly and the nation.

“Arrangements have been completed with the appropriate security agencies to ensure that all individuals and documents relevant to this investigation will be made available to the Committee,” he said.

Anyawu also singled out PMB Paribas as the consultants that valued NITEL for sale to Pentascope and also participated in valuing the company for Transcorp.

He noted that the committee had written to the Federal Government not to use the consultant for any of its dealings because it devalued NITEL and contributed to the present state of affairs in the company.

“We are aware that most of the Nigerian workers with PMB Paribas are former staff of the BPE, and BPE handled the privatisation exercise with PBM Paribas,” he added.

But the BPE responded swiftly saying that it had records on NITEL transactions, particularly those that had to do with BPE.

BPE’s Head of Communication, Mr. Joe Anichebe, told our correspondent in a telephone interview that it had submitted dozens of information to the National Assembly in the past and was prepared to make further submissions if any specific record within BPE’s possession was required.

He denied that NITEL Trustees was used to sell NITEL properties, saying that rather a liquidator was used to sell the properties to fund the non-funded pension liability of NITEL.

He also clarified that NITEL was not sold to Pentascope as erroneously held by many, adding that the organisation only entered a management deal with NITEL.

source:http://www.punchontheweb.com/Articl.aspx?theartic=Art200808240133348

the foolish man that built his house on the sand, when the wind comes it blew it away

[size=15pt]The dismantling of Obasanjo [/size]
Written by Tony Momh
Sunday, 24 August 2008
THE meeting of the National Executive Committee of the Peoples Democratic Party at Abuja on Tuesday, August 5 marks the beginning of the losses that await former President Olusegun Obasanjo in the next few months.
Some key figures who may have been there may have decided to keep our former head of state, life leader of the PDP and maker of modern Nigeria, company outside the venue.

They were mainly governors of the southwest whose grudging support for Obasanjo has never been hidden; Senate President David Mark who has been a faithful ally was not there; so also House Speaker Dimeji Bankole whose presence Obasanjo would, in any case, have detested and discountenanced. He once had him walked out of a caucus meeting.

Ogun State Governor Gbenga Daniel did not have to be there to prove that he was no longer in the good books of Obasanjo. His presence would have been pushing salt and pepper into a gaping and bleeding political wound.

Not even just political, but also economic and social. But loyal Andy Uba was there, and so also was Bode George that many did not know EFCC had been stalking.

But the important thing to note was that the four-star general who is the only military leader in the history of Nigeria that accessed political office at the highest level and was there for eight years knew what awaited him at the National Executive Committee meeting of the party he seized control of in December, 2005.

And at the height of his power, he transformed into the Leader of the Party, the Founder of Modern Nigeria, the Sole Dispenser of favours… His image loomed larger than the country that gave him a pedestal to stand on, to speak from. And he spoke as if no one sent him!

And instead of standing on that pedestal and immortalizing his name for him to be regarded as the leader among our heroes past, by restructuring a country that needed to be better and more properly managed, he wanted to strengthen the centre to continue to rule.

Greed replaced service and the bodies he set up to defend the weak were turned into instruments to weaken the strong.

He had his hand in every pie, did what he liked with the budget, obeyed what laws he wanted to obey, used security agencies to do his bidding, ran his government as if there were no ministers, aside of the fact that he held the key ministries in the energy sector to his chest for the period he was in office…

His leaving office was the first step he took on the way downstairs. What that PDP meeting did showed clearly that Obasanjo’s time is up as leader of the party, as chairman of the Board of Trustees, as the sole determinant of who in the party gets what.

I am frightened for Obasanjo in spite of the fact that he is a cat with nine lives. Can’t you see that if you put a number to the lives of cats, you have cause to worry because as the end draws nearer the closer you are to the number nine?

As the outcome of a war is determined by who the gladiators are, what is happening shows clearly that the military cannot cope with politicians outside recourse to the sheer force of material weaponry. That fact is not only true with Nigeria; it is true world-wide because the word “politician” is the description of one whose armoury contains weapons for scheming.

Even those who have been part of coup-making in Nigeria have confessed that they were prodded by politicians, most of whom have never seen more than dane guns in their life. Look at Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan.

Maximum effect

He is the most recent victim of the deadliness of political panzar onslaught that only politicians can organize and execute.

Their weapons are words, and they specialize in using them to maximum effect. It was an American politician who told his colleagues in congress when he was being taken on for misconduct that, like every other of his colleagues, he was exercising his prerogative as a politician to tell lies.

Yes, telling lies is the motto of the politician, but there is no end to his seeking to put power behind the words he utters. Only last week, we were reading the deadly impact hypnosis can have on those who have handed themselves over to prayer warriors and native doctors.

Former NDDC chairman Sam Edem is now in court charged with handing over N800 million of the commission’s money to a 34-year-old native doctor who claimed that his religion is paganism and that he is spiritual consultants to many of our top leaders.

But who knows if some of the weapons fashioned against Edem who had been Nigeria’s high commissioner to Canada and our ambassador to Senegal, was not the potent weapon of obedience without question buried in the tongue! We were told when we were growing up that powerful men powered their utterances with invocations and incantations.

Every politician seeks this weapon of control and uses it to advantage. Someone stole my walking stick when I attended a political meeting at Abuja.

Someone said the thief must have thought it was there my power lay! I wished he had also taken away the pain in my knee the stick was meant to be a support for!

Imagine how helpless and subdued Musharraf was when he opted to resign as president of Pakistan instead of facing impeachment proceedings that opposition groups had packaged. He was a maximum ruler for the better part of nine years.

He was associated with killing, maiming, assassinations, blackmail, and ruthlessness in dealing with challenges to his authority. So effective was he that even the United States of America found use for him in their definition of democracy.

But when the politicians had put their acts together, Musharraf discovered a gaping hole in his upbringing. His dependence on force had robbed him of the opportunity to learn the ways of those who depend on the tricks of foxes.

He knew not how to play political chess. Did you watch him deliver that boring parting speech when he said he was leaving his future “in the hands of the people”? Those were the same people he had ruled with an iron fist, the people whose protests he broke up when they told him about the irreducible minimum demands for taking part in democratic elections.

He said he had consulted his lawyers and advisers before he decided to throw in the towel, yet he had, in his days of glory, dismissed senior judges of the judiciary who had opposed his decision to remain in office as military head of state and presidential candidate.

In answer to mass protests of the people, he had declared a state of emergency in his country and set rules for electioneering! And this is the man looking straight into television cameras and saying he was leaving his future in the hands of the people! How are the mighty fallen!

What is happening to our Baba Iyabo is not different. Someone who said the way he is being treated by his party would never have been contemplated by the Opposition has a point. But many things seem to be so wrong in the boldness with which Obasanjo demonised this country that even his son would have risen against him.

That he did was for another reason! But killing his political children one by one is a more painful way to destroy our mother hen. Look at the demolition arrangement - Nuhu Ribadu and his sudden need to be trained at Kuru, El Rufai and all those lands that were allocated to Obasanjo at a time when those allocated to former heads of state were revoked; the arrival of Etteh as Speaker of the House of Representatives and the decision of the House to remove her even after Baba himself had intervened; the replacement of Etteh with a candidate Baba was directly and still opposed to; the cornering Iyabo, his daughter in the Senate for an offence I still believe is a non-issue;

the different national assembly probes that are showing up rot unprecedented in the history of governance anywhere in the world; the arrest and temporary incarceration of two of his political sons he assigned to the aviation ministry and empowered to help sanitise the sector; decision from the blues to demote Ribadu and 139 others for reasons that had been there all the while; the reversal of most of the economic decisions he had taken, many of which, understandably, were meant to create image problems for his hand-picked president and vice president. And so on and so forth.

The latest as I packaged this piece is the removal of the last Obasanjo man standing in the presidency, Dr. Gbolade Osinowo whose position as the acting chief of staff has been scrapped. The Punch of June 11 had published that President Yar’Adua was under pressure to scrap the Chief of Staff post. Who pressurized him? Why are you asking me?

The fact is that if our president has achieved nothing for you to see since he took office in May 2007, he has through a policy to have a country that is not ruled by one man, given us one that is ruled by a group. The composition of that group, and how spread they are to reflect what the constitution demands is an area the servant leader must find time to reflect on.

As is, it will be difficult for the centre to hold.
No, I am not wicked telling of what fate awaits our man who came, saw and goofed in every department of his tenure.

What I am doing is part of the progress report you are entitled to. Some people were angry with me because of my claim in my March 16, 2008 piece entitled Fixing Mr. Fix It that Chief Tony Anenih’s days had not been numbered because of what was happening to him then in the struggle to control the PDP in Edo State.

I said then that people were looking at the crescent of the moon, not the full moon because I saw clearly the war games that were being played country-wide and I knew that Anenih belonged in the group that would castrate Obasanjo.

With all the decisions announced after the August 5 meeting, decisions reflected in a communiqué that may well have been written before the NEC meeting, who is in doubt about where the wind is blowing? If you still doubt that the nine lives of the cat infer limitless tenure, then let’s keep up with the waiting game.

Time speaks at the end and we will all be there, hopefully, when the trumpet of explosive changes in the PDP sounds.

source: http://www.vanguardngr.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=15084&Itemid=0

[size=15pt]Corruption Incorporated Nigeria Limited PLC[/size]     

the more you hear the less you understand

[size=15pt]EFCC report on corrupt govs missing [/size]
Written by Emmanuel Aziken & Bukola Ojeme
Sunday, 24 August 2008

* Controversy in Senate

Controversy is deepening over the whereabouts of the latest annual report of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, which details, among others, the extent of investigations of allegations of corruption against some serving and former governors in the country.
The report could not be traced in the upper legislative chamber just as the EFCC began investigations into the allegation of fraud levelled against Governor Ikedi Ohakim of Imo State and some of his top aides.

The last publicly acknowledged EFCC report submitted to the Senate was that of 2005 and was read in the Senate chamber by the erstwhile chairman of the commission Mallam Nuhu Ribadu on September 27, 2006.

Ribadu, before he left office, was believed to have submitted the 2006 report of the commission’s activities to the Senate last year, a fact corroborated by Senator Sola Akinyede, chairman of the Senate Committee on Drugs, Narcotics and Financial Crimes. The committee oversights the affairs of the EFCC.

It could, however, not be established at the weekend when and to whom the report was submitted. Senator Ken Nnamani, the immediate past president of the Senate, doubted receiving the report when contacted but insisted that the report, if submitted,should be in the records of the office of the Senate President.

Nnamani left office in early June 2007 and was succeeded by Senator David Mark.

However, sources in the office of the Senate President denied the presence of the report as one senior aide to Mark told Sunday Vanguard that the report could not be found in the records even after an extensive search.

Section 37 of the EFCC Act requires the commission to submit a report of its activities in each year by or before September of the following year.

The section reads thus:

“The Commission shall, not later than 30th September in each year, submit to the National Assembly, a report of its activities during the immediately preceding year and shall include in such report the audited accounts of the Commission.’’

Akinyede, speaking in an interview, told Sunday Vanguard:

“The report was submitted because I spoke with Mallam Nuhu Ribadu on it. This year, the report will be submitted because it is one of the things I will be discussing with the chairman. It is in the law regulating the EFCC, there is supposed to be an annual report submitted to the National Assembly on the 30th of September each year,’’ the senator said. Nnamani, speaking in a telephone interview from Washington D.C. USA where he is attending this week’s Democratic Party’s convention, said:

“I don’t remember receiving the report. I am in Washington now. I have put all those things behind me and I have moved on to other things. I am not sure but call those people that are there, they have a way of checking it, it is an institution.’’

However, checks in the office of the Senate President could not confirm the whereabouts of the report.

“We have checked and the thing is not here and if it had come it would have been recorded and passed on to Senator Akinyede,” one official in the Senate President’s office said on the basis of anonymity.

Akinyede, on his part, claimed not to have received the report which ordinarily should come through the office of the president of the Senate.

Ribadu, in an appearance before the Senate on September 27, 2006, formally presented the commission’s report for 2005.

Following his presentation of an overview of the commission’s affairs, the then Senator Mark had challenged him to be specific on the cases against the governors on the basis that former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar and some senators were publicly accused of corruption.

“The name of the vice-president was mentioned. If our own colleagues can be called, then we urge you to name the governors and all those who have been involved including the biggest thief in the world who is a Nigerian.’’

Following the prompting, the former EFCC boss moved on to assert that the commission was as at then either investigating or had established cases of corruption against thirty of the sitting governors. Among the exceptions were the then Governors Umaru Yar‘Adua and Donald Duke of Katsina and Cross River States respectively.

Not less than six of those former governors alleged as having criminal cases against them are now in the Senate.

Meanwhile, the EFCC has begun investigations into allegation of fraud against Ohakim and some of his top aides.

The investigations came on the heels of a petition against the Imo governor to the anti-graft agency by a cartel of commodity traders which alleged that some of his aides, claiming to be acting on his instruction, fraudulently collected N28 million for the state allocation of grains from the strategic food reserve.

However, the state commissioner for justice and attorney general, Mr. Ken Njemanze, dismissed the allegation as unfounded and an attempt to disparage the reputation of the governor.

Sunday Vanguard had on July 20, blew the lid off the activities of some state governments allegedly involved in the sale of their grains allocation to commodity cartels instead of releasing the allocation to the local market to boost food supply and consequently bring down the soaring cost of food stuff.

Ohakim and some of his aides, as alleged by the petitioners, through their lawyer, Mr. Kayode Ajulo, in a petition dated July 24, 2008, “ collected the sum of N28, 300,000 from your petitioners under the guise of selling the Imo State allocation of grains from Federal Grains Reserve to your petitioners based in Ibadan, Oyo State, South West Zone of Nigeria.”

Besides the governor, those mentioned in the petition include the chief of staff in the Government House, the state commissioner for agriculture, Chief Longers Anyanwu, personal assistant to the governor, Mr. Thadeaus Ochoma, one Mr. Izuchukwu Ochioma and one Mr. Obinna. The petition to the EFCC alleged further:

“It is pertinent to inform you that this most unfortunate, callous and degrading role of the above mentioned personalities have led to food crisis and its attendant effects.

“ Against the above background, we urge you to use your good offices to request for a comprehensive investigation and ensure that those found culpable are brought to justice”.

An affidavit sworn to by one Mr. Abiodun Awobiyi, a member of the cartel, and attached to the petition, among others, alleged paying out money running into several millions of Naira at different times and locations, including the governor’s private quarters in the Government House to Ohakim’s personal assistant inorder to secure the state allocation of Federal Government grains. The petition alleged that, in one of such instances, the governor’s PA, “drove me and others straight through two security posts to the Governor’s Lodge where we were directed to sit in the governor’s sitting room.

“That Mr. Thedeaus Ochoma (Teddy) at the Governor’s lodge later told me and I verily believe him that the governor and the chief of staff are busy and therefore had directed him to continue the transaction in the governor’s sitting room”, it added.

Awobiyi further averred, “I paid the sum of N10, 000,000 for the grains to Mr. Thedeaus Ochoma (Teddy) who gave me a receipt for the payment.”

But the state commissioner for justice, in a letter obtained by Sunday Vanguard, dated August 4, 2008, dismissed the allegation, insisting that “ the governor of Imo State does not know and has no dealings with the aforementioned individuals in any capacity whatsoever, be it official or private, neither has he authorized anybody to deal with them.

“ The honourable commissioner for agriculture, Chief Longers Anyanwu, does not know and has had no dealings with the aforementioned individuals in any capacity whatsoever, be it official or private.

“Neither the governor of Imo State, the Imo State Government nor any of her lawful functionaries has any legal or moral obligation to the said persons in the sum of N28, 300,000 being the alleged amount given for the alleged procurement of fertilizers, or at all.”

The state government also disowned the governor’s alleged PA, insisting, “There is no personal assistant to the governor of Imo State known and described as Mr. Thedeaus Ochoma and the said Mr. Thadeaus Ochoma did not collect any sums of money on behalf of His Excellency, the governor of Imo State, the hon. commissioner for agriculture, the chief of staff, or any of the lawful representatives of the Imo State government.

His Excellency, the governor of Imo State views this as an unwarranted and intolerable acts of callous and cheap blackmail. This campaign of calumny so viciously orchestrated by unscrupulous authors is an unmistakable gold digging attempt and will undoubtedly be stifled and effectively resisted”.


source:http://www.vanguardngr.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=15141&Itemid=42

for its written that man shall live by bread alone ,

its ignorant.

there is a period /ovulation calculator sold at the family planning centre in Nigeria. its simple to use and effective, it help to calculate and chart your menstrual circle. You can use it to help in conceiving and also for safe sex during free period.

For the diasporians, consult your GP

OBJ said it all when he was accused of working with corrupt politicians, " if I have to work with a clean person, there would be nobody to work it".

all have sin and come short of glory of God

MC Usman

It baffles me alot why most of his wives are from southwest mostly from lagos

Are you one of his son , because I didnt see anywhere in the write up where the names or state of origin of the wives was disclosed

[size=15pt]home is where you find peace[/size]

Dear God I commit thy soul into thy hand
Forgive the ignorant for they know not what they do

[size=13pt]JNI’s death threat: I’m not moved – Man with 86 wives [/size]

By Francis Falola, Minna and Demola Oni, Abeokuta
Published: Saturday, 23 Aug 2008
An octogenarian with 86 wives, Pa Bello Mohammed Abubakar, has dismissed the fatwa (death sentence) passed on him by a foremost Islamic group, the Jamatu Nasril Islam.

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Pa Abubakar

The JNI had on Thursday reportedly given Abubakar, a prince from the Masaba ruling house in Bida, four days to repent and revert to four wives, failing which he stood condemned according to Islamic law.

The JNI’s Central Fatwa Committee, in the statement signed by its chairman, Sheikh Usman Abubakar Babantunle, and Secretary-General, Abdulkarim Mu’azu, stated that any Muslim who married more than the approved number of wives at a time either by mistake or out of ignorance could choose four of the lot and ask for Allah’s forgiveness. The report, which quoted Babatunde as saying that Abubakar challenged any Muslim scholar to produce any order restricting marriage to only four wives, stated, “He would wish to also know that there is punishment that Allah (S.W.T) has prepared here in this world or the hereafter for any Muslim who has transgressed this boundary to have more than four wives.”

He added that although Abubakar “refered to the Holy Quran Suratun Nisa’I, in which Allah says women of your choice, two, three or four… vividly, he is ignorant of the proper meaning of this verse according to the Standing Fatwa Committee of JNI.”

However, in a telephone interview with our correspondent, Abubakar said he was not moved by the threat. He declared, “I am fully aware of the death threat, but I am not shaken. If I believe that Allah is the giver of life and He alone can take life, I should not be cowed by any threats to my life.”

A defiant Abubakar challenged the Moslem Ummah or jury, as well as others who believe that his action was contrary to the teachings of Islam, to come out with proofs. He said, “There is nowhere in the Quran, or any religious scripture for that matter, where it is said that any man can take another person’s life.” He also described those who issued the death threat as anti-Islam.

Abubakar also lamented what he observed as the frequent misinterpretation of doctrines by religious leaders, most of whom he accused of using religion for their own selfish interests. “God has used me to affect many lives positively. Therefore, no death threat can take me away from the path of truth, justice and honour,” he said.

The Secretary-General of the Nigeria Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs, Dr. Abdul Lateef Adegbite, was said to be out of the country when our correspondent visited his office on Friday.

Also, the Inspector-General of Police, Mr. Mike Okiro, and the Force spokesman, Mr. Agberebi Akpoebi, could not be reached for comment as they were said to have travelled out of Abuja. Attempts to reach the Minister of Information, Mr. John Odey, and officials of the Presidency were also futile.

But the spokesman of the Niger State Police Command, Mr. Richard Oguche, told our correspondent on the telephone that the police would protect Abubakar from harm. He said, “It is our duty to protect lives and properties. He has the right to life and there is no law that permits that he should be killed. If a group of persons threaten his life, we cannot fold our arms and allow him to be killed.”

source:http://www.punchng.com/Articl.aspx?theartic=Art200808232245534

Lepashandi

can see the problem is so big - can i ask a question - when was the last time you guys been home?

Well - noone will answer - the same disaporic nigerians are the ones doing credit card fraud - half are in jail in the UK - half are running around on fake papers - they are the one giving Nigeria a bad name - they can't live in Naija but the go outside naija and continue to spoil the name Naija - give them to me - i will fry their arses one by one -

Na devil go hammer that your mouth wey you dey take talk nonsense

I better put into top gear plan to relocate mum abroad, if the president home can be burgled, nobody is safe

Kwara is a village, populated by illitrates and backward people. Saraki is running a one man show, because he is the only politician of note from kwara. he is like a one eye man , in the country of the blind. Its a small pond, and he is the only big fish.

Kogi is populated by the Igalas, followed by Igbira while Yoruba are the minority. Even the late Awoniyi, despite his national influence does not control the politics of Kogi, which is dominated by the igalas.

The Igalas have always produce the governor irrespective of the party. Attempt by the PDP in 1999 to impose a Yoruba candidate failed because Dr Steven Achama , one of the main power broker, switch allegiance to the opposition party ANPP, where an Igala man is the candidate.

Saraki influence stops in his village, Kwara. And like Adedibu he uses amala politics.

Both Saraki and Adedibu are big fish, but for a proper comparison we need to look at their domain. Comparatively, kwara is like a village when justapose with Oyo. Ibadan is the political headquater of the youruba people during the first republic. It has more population, more educated people , more elites and national politicians, more developed ; compared to kwara.

Among some of  it top politicians who are on equal or more footing than Saraki are; Late Akintola, Richard Akinjide, Oladipo Alayande, Theophilus Adeleke Akinyele among others.

International musicians from Oyo; Sade adu, Hakeem Seriki, American rap artist better known as Chamillionaire.

Kwara village has just Saraki doing a solo act.
For Adedibu, despite all these to dominate Oyo, he comes ahead of Saraki

Saraki plays scientific politics. The major difference between him and Adedibu is that he rarely talks. He operates openly-silently, that is he makes everybody know this is his candidate and talks no no more.

Dont deceive yourself with fancy terminology, there is nothing called scientific politics in Nigeria. the Nigeria political scene has made political scientist redundant and elevate thugs and area boys to analyst. Politicians follow a simple political maxim: its not the person that vote that matters, rather its the person that counts the votes.

Mahmud Waziri, former ANPP chairman openly called on their supporter to rig the election, if it will guarantee victory.
Even Obasanjo concede that the last election was flawed, and both the government and opposition were guilty of rigging.

Knowlegeable people of Kwara politics will tell you that Saraki influence those not extend to Kogi and he plays as much amala politics in kwara just like Adedibu in Ibadan

Adedibu is ruthless and a great student of Machiavelli. his grasp of politics and grassroot militancy allowed him control of his domain without exception. He was more open and liberal than his critic gave him credit. Every presidential candidate , sought his support, even those in the opposition party. Through sheer will power and superb political calculation, he remain relevant in both state and national politics.

For somebody like Adedibu to control Ibadan, the political headquarter of the yoruba people, with all its intellectuals and elites, I rate him ahead of Saraki.

Adedibu is a big fish in a big pond, while Saraki is a big fish in a small pond.

In Nigeria people dont voluntarily retired, they are pushed away

at least, baba go slow is showing he can bite

[size=15pt]Nigeria military chiefs dismissed  [/size]

Umaru Yar'Adua took power more than a year ago
Nigerian President Umaru Yar'Adua has dismissed the country's chief of the defence staff, together with the heads of the army and navy.

Mr Yar'Adua made the announcement before going on a pilgrimage to Mecca.

No reason has yet been given for the surprise dismissals, but correspondents say it is not unusual for a new president to change military chiefs.

Nigeria has been plagued by military coups since independence but has had civilian rule since 1999.

Last year, Mr Yar'Adua became the first Nigerian civilian leader to succeed another.

This is the first time he has replaced his military heads since taking power in May 2007.

Oil unrest

The announcement was made at a press conference at the presidential villa in the capital, Abuja.

Presidential spokesman Segun Adeniyi said the men were taking compulsory retirement.

The head of the air force, Air Marshal Paul Dike, has been promoted to become overall defence chief, the country's top military position.

The sacked three were seen as being loyalists of former President Olusegun Obasanjo.

Despite coming from the same People's Democratic Party (PDP) as Mr Obasanjo, since Mr Yar'Adua took over, there has been a series of allegations of corruption against senior members of the former administration.

Before the sackings were announced, the PDP held a press conference to criticise a group of political opponents who had been calling for the removal of the present government.

The BBC's Sola Odunfa in the commercial capital, Lagos, says making the changes at this time will not upset the apple-cart.

He says most Nigerians now accept that the military should not intervene in politics.

But he says there has been speculation that the government is not happy with the way the military has handled the unrest in the oil-producing Niger Delta region.

Attacks by militants have cut Nigeria's oil output by about 20% - a problem Mr Yar'Adua promised to address when he took power.

Local analysts accuse some military officials of being involved in the large-scale theft of oil, which Mr Yar'Adua says is behind the unrest.

Earlier this month, Mr Yar'Adua suspended the head of the government agency responsible for the development of the oil-producing Niger Delta over allegations of corruption.

source:http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7573644.stm

the guy has innocent blood in his hand, and guilty before man and God. he provided the platform for the pogrom as a royal revenge. there is no way the pogrom will have succeed without his involvement

l look forward to the strike

l look forward to the strike