Check this out

check one out. Carnival 27/12/07

Hello all,
This thread is open for pictures, narrations and experiences of the christmas celebration in Calabar. I have so far witnessed the Calabar Carnival Queen (photos here attached), the musical jives, and today is the Carnival for kids.  December 27, (tomorrow) is slated for the full Calabar Carnival.  The town is full, every hotel space has been taken over, Calabar is bubbling with plenty of life. Please share your experience here.

Afam,
If my findings and allegations dont fly after investigation, then goodluck to them. I've made my case. Its up to the agencies of the state to investigate. If am a disgruntled former employee, so what? If your employer forges your signature to obtain money behind you, is that ok? If an organization double-invoices the state, and does not pay tax, is that ok? I dont need to repeat these. If an agency bribes state officials to corner contracts, and bribes government agencies to hide the dark side, is it ok? If an agency, set up by the state to enforce law and order compromises its credibility and actually obstructs the cause for which it was set up, is it ok?

I made an allegation. It is up to the agency responsible for investigating such matters to do their own part. THAT IS HOW CIVILIZED societies are run. Enron went down due to some misdeamenour of its management. Siemens is under global scrutiny now for similar reasons. If the EFCC (or some of its operatives) cannot do their work, we have a duty to force them to so do. After all, am a tax-payer and I guess, you are too.

I guess I respect everybody's opinion in this forum, even when I may not agree with a lot of them. Some guys have refused bluntly to understand the reason for my 'fight'. I have pointed it out severally that this matter has nothing to do with my person. I lead a modest comfortable live. No doubt about that. Any guy in IT who knows his onions would tell you that there is plenty to look out for, in the field out there, especially in Nigeria. No doubts!

But, I feel we cannot continue to keep silent and allow a few gluttons feed fat on our common patrimony. We must each do the little we can individually, to cause a change. It is my conviction (and I may be wrong in the eyes of many others, no apologies) that the entire system that sustains the contraption called PPP in the organization in question is designed solely to make a few 'white' men and their Nigerian collaborators, milk us dry and take a walk, while generation unborn bear the consequence of the greed. And, since I have access to the sordid details of this pot-of-mess, I came here to seek for advices on how best to call them to order or worse of all, curtail them.

It however seems that we Nigerians have found comfort-zone in swallowing these bitter pills and coloring any dissent, bad just because we cannot 'rock the boat'. Question: For how long shall we wallow in that mindset? The update I have however is that I have caused the financiers of the project (the World Bank) to start looking into the books hoping that they would not also be compromised.

We all must rise to defend this nation, not through armchair criticism but through concrete physical actions. We have no other country than this that we can call our own. Point!

Baba, yes!
Marina Resort is by the Calabar ocean bank and has accomodation but is highly sought after.

I Dey Vex,
Hotels are of classes.  The most expensive presently (with the best facilities) is the Metropolitan, a 4-star hotel in all respects. A room (single) goes for 20k/night.  That is the cheapest.  ChannelView comes second, with a single room at 14k/night, double 24k.  Am afraid,you may not get any room in either of the 2 until early next year.  They are fully booked!

There are others like Pyramid Hotel with lower rates.  We have Noble Place,Le Chateau, etc with rates as low as 6k/night,single and progressing in that order. You may contact me if you need further assistance and info.  We are here to share whatever we can. Cheers! mel_celestine@hotmail.com

Am a full blown Calabar man.  The town is fun. Whomsoever comes here is on a journey to catch fun of a lifetime. I live in Channel View Hotels (courtesy,my employers) and my experience here is that the town is the best place to invest money especially in tourism support and related areas.  Photography is very rewarding.Yes, a former top PDP man owns Cybermul (the only top photograpy shop) and I tell you, the market is only evolving.There is plenty room for competition.   Eateries and fast-food joints are spinging up everywhere.  At the last count,Mac Bite and Fiesta Bar just opened shop. Many more are on the way.  There's boom for business.  Hotels are fully booked into 2008. Same for air travel. If you need any of these, you need to contact persons on the ground to assist you get over them.

The carnival is slated for 26th and 27th of December! Two full days of non-stop fun! Xmas shows have been on, since the beginning of the month.  There is Miss Calabar Carnival Peagant to be held in Studio 2 at Nollywood, Tinapa on the 22nd.  Reservations are about to be sold out.  Each table for ten guests goes for N25,000; minimum retail rate. The street lights are being ferrociously rehabilitated, to be linked to the Tinapa power plant and will sure be running before the next few days.  It means, with or without NEPA (or PHCN?), the lights would remain on.  WE are having our fun here.  You are welcome to join us experience life in Calabar. No fears at all!!!!!!!

Maybe, I need to shed more light on this. 
There is existing a public-private partnership aggreement to manage jointly, the Operations Division of the Water Board by my former employers and the Water Board.  The private partner (Ortech) provides KEY critical staff in the partnership who are paid from the commonwealth.  Then, members of the partnership (Ortech and Waterboard) would share the profit accrueing from the sales of water at an aggreed percentage, after deduction of cost of business.  All cost incurred in the course of executing the partnership are submitted at the end of the month by the two partners to the Partnership Committee for vetting and reimbursement from the commonwealth. Now does one partner have the right to submit and claim stuff like air fares, hotel accomodation, staff development and training, medical, etc when no such facilities are enjoyed by any staff, and they actually get paid?

How on earth would one white man (stylishly called expertraite) with a maximum qualification of Primary School Certificate and Certificate in Welding obtained after 2 weeks of training in a UK auto-shop be employed to work in Nigeria as Manager and be paid the USD equivalent of N4 million a month, is paid exactly the same, lives in a free house, is entitled to 4 flights back and forth any part of the world per annum (he actually gets this) while the qualified Nigerian Engineer on an invoiced salary of N800,000 per month, takes home N110,000 physically?

What, if a National Diploma Certificate holder is employed to occupy the slot of a graduate engineer, is made to work and function in that capacity, is paid salary as a Diploma technician while the invoice reads ENGINEER with with 20 times the value he is paid?

What if your company supplies Pentium II used computers to the organization in your state in place of NEW Pentium 4 systems, issues invoices to the partnership as if they were new, and gets paid amounts that are completely far from the possible cost of such systems?  And the systems are never used for a day because they were not good in the first place? What if you discover that invoices are forged, staff signatures are forged with the intention to drain money from the system and repatraite same abroad?

What if your organization that is directly working with a state government agency deducts tax from staff salaries but does not pay same to the government? They had to go settle a backlog of one years' arears in one day, after this writer had started taking them to task and demanding for his tax particulars? What if the expertraites do not pay any form of tax to the government even as they repartraite huge monies in hard currency back to their home-country? What if a fictitious hotel accomodation is invoiced monthly in respect of each expartraite staff who also has N1 million accomodation lump sum invoiced in his name?

Everyone,
The reason for making the 'disgruntled' noises is not for the heck of it.  The invoices that are sent by these guys are added to an already huge internal debt owed by the state govt to them. Now, the project itself is funded by a World Bank loan facility.  Loans are loans, and must be repaid no matter how long it takes.  And, if international development partners give loan to Africa, and their brothers come back here, siphon the money and walk away, how and who will repay the loan?  These are issues that prick my conscience.  As I said in the initial post, am an IT person, meaning that it was very easy to get on with my life.  But, all the parties involved in the fraud sorrounding that project are in my opinion, culpable.  I started the fight from within before I was laid off.  I shall continue the little struggle.  I am only looking for alternative ways and ideas from NLanders.

On the EFCC:
The matter was reported. An operative actually visited to make initial contacts. He was convinced that there is massive fraud within the system.  An agent (Senior Advocate of Nigeria) was appointed by the accused 'stakeholders'  to liaise with him and find the best way to 'settle' the matter.  They met in Calabar twice. Met in Abuja many times too.  The matter had a life of its own. We were following. Suddenly, a lull set in. The files vanished. The agent was not picking calls again. Stalemate!

Who has a clue?

Mama, thanks. I was looking for ideas, I guess I had one. Must we follow the same path coz no laws protect whistle blowers? How can we change the system if everyone has d same mindset? If the EFCC is not up to its responsibility, can't someone hold them to account? And, if everyone gets settled, for how long shall we be in the same rocking chair called Nigeria? Once more, thanks for the input. I guess you are first, a typical Nigerian. But, I can never be settled! No price can buy my conscience!

someone changed d password to that box. crazyyyyyyyyy people. Please someone shd help

I have just had a personal experience which I want to share here, now.

I'm an IT proffesional. I used to work in the operations division of the Cross River State Watre Board Limited, employed by the private-partner operator of that agency called Ortech Nigeria limited as the Information Systems Administrator.  Way back in 2006, I realized that the pay I was getting was 200% lower than what was incidental to my office as contained in the contract papers between my organization (Ortech) and the Cross River State government.  I accosted my employers and requested for a commensurate review.   My investigations also showed that so many other shaddy deals were going on within the organization. 

Ortech is a 'so-called' foreign company but with very little physical presence in any location, except a one-room office space in VI, Lagos.  My curiosity lead to a lot more personal investigations which yielded tremendous surprises.   The organization got wind of my efforts to find things out and decided to dispense with my services.  I left, determined to fight on.  The matter was taken up by my lawyers.  Several negotiations were held in Calabar and the company offered to pay some 'chiken' change to me, to enable me get off their back.  I refused.  The dialogue ended in a deadlock, after some persons attempted to offer gratification to my attorneys.   We then proceeded to report the matter to the EFCC in September, 2007.  Surprisingly, the petition, the evidence and all the matters connected therewith vanished from the EFCC.   All efforts to locate this has proved abortive.  My investigations within the EFCC system revealed much to my surprise that some of the operatives in that organization are richer than oil-industry workers.  They have fleet of cars and live life in the fast lane.   I have run out of options.  I have proceeded to report the matter to the World Bank (the financiers of the Water Board Operations) but felt, I may get better suggestions from NLders.  What do u guys think?

Death is reality. Thats it. A reality show brought a real incident.Chikena! Let the show go on. I watched BBA and I had to close and open my eyes several times to convince myself, i was still in Africa. We are the masters of copy copy. What we sow, we reap. The moral fibre of our society has decayed horribly yet, people (so-called producers) think they can make easy money of the moral crises. Whats do we get in return? Disasters, just like this. On BBA, that senile and completely corrupt Loreta (I hope I get the name right) was busy, showing off the nipples of her breasts yesterday and, MNET was very happy, sending those offensive pictures into our TV screens. You may ask, for what purpose? The answer is simple! To lead our teeming young population into believing that the 'nuder' you are, the more successful you get. I wish that God, who avenges a sick generation will send down more of His fire and rage to consume all persons, connected to the evil schemes called reality TV. This is just the beginning!

Hello all,
The topic is hot and sizzling. I've tried to read MITITIA's mind but I must confess, its very difficult to dissect through. She's made so many uncomplementary comments about TINAPA and all the hoopla that follows the project. As one living in Calabar and a regular visitor to TINAPA, I must confess that I get fascinated and amazed by the wit and sheer courage of Donald Duke to even contemplate embarking on TINAPA. Most of us on this forum have never experienced the awe of Tinapa, hence the innuendos being bandied about by posters like MILITIA. Ignorance they say, is a disease.

I wont join issues with her, but would rather most humbly invite her to come over to Calabar, have a feel of the town, take in the awe of Tinapa and go back home born-again! Anything less would amount to striving after the wind. Her arguement would become hollow if she ever steps into the wonderland called Tinapa. I swear.

For all other members, I'd say that Duke has creditably discharged himself among the hordes of political jobbers and shenanigans that paraded the govt houses of this country for the 8 years of the last dispensation. I, being an Akwa Ibom son feel very ashamed of myself each time I wake up to see the efforts that Duke pushed into transforming his home-state to an el dorado, with the meagre resources he got from the centre. If all the governors we've had in Nigeria since independence had tried one-third as much as Duke did, so many of our best brains wouldn't have run to London, USA, Canada, etc only for us to meet on blogs like this to discuss the merits or otherwise of the Duke era. They'd have had reasons to stay on and hope that someday, things would get better.

I urge all fellow compatroits to rethink Nigeria and stop blame tripping. I once more invite MILITIA to come over to Calabar and take in Tinapa, and go back home changed and more knowledgeable. I'd afford to feed and house her, and provide her logistics as long as she stays. This I think, would go a long way in teaching her what we are enjoying here in the yankeeland of Nigeria.

Na wa o! Naija!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

They have the money to spend

This thread reminds me of Do Not Say I Told You and Wakabout in the defunct Lagos Weekend.

Na wa for naija people o! Joblessness dey kill all of una!

@denex
Please don't confuse us. NLC said that the cost of production of a barrel of crude in Nigeria, as confirmed by PENGASSAN is $7 (not the cost of petrol). It means if we sell crude at $70 per barrel, we make net profit of $63/barrel shared between NNPC and the JV partners, Shell, agip, exxon etc using their wayo wayo formula.  Remember, we produce an average of 2.5 million barrels/day! Just put down d mathematics and lets see, since u are good with numbers.

It is completely wrong-headed to draw analogies from only one side of d arguement. If we must pay international and competitive prices for goods, then our economy must be internationally competitive too. My grandmother in the village needs kerosine to survive.  She has no electricity, and you imagine that she just cannot afford the equivalent of a tiny tomato-tin measure of kerosine which now sells for N50 in the village!  The people are suffering my brother.  If we envy the american economy, we must sit down and plan to be like them.  How much does an average Nigerian earn as wage?  Now that you argue that we must buy fuel at at least N108, how much does that translate into, for a person who needs to fill a car with 60 litre tank capacity?  And how much is his income?

And, who on earth said the NCC does not regulate the tariff we pay for GSM?  At the inauguration of the technology in nigeria, Ernest Ndukwe fixed call rate at N50/min flat for local calls.  All networks (Econet, MTN and later Glo) charged that rate/min, until they reaped their millions and started competing.  So, everyone who says NCC doesn't regulate prices is wrong on this score!

Back to the strike, I'd profer my own solutions.  First, d multinational gold-diggers must be compelled by deliberate government policy to build and refine all the crude produced in nigeria within.  It's nonsensical to sell crude oil! The word crude means, raw! And it is a fool that sells his resources raw.  When crude is refined, value is added.  Just imagine what kind of superppower we would be in the world, if we had capacity to refine 2.5 million barrels a day!  Imagine the employment and wealth this would generate.  It means, we could now be ruling the world and playing games with america just like venezuela is doing.  When hurricane katrina hit New Orleans, it destroyed more than 100 refineries in that state alone! It means, there are several hundreds of refineries in the USA!

I have it in good authority that Exxonmobil ships all its crude produced everywhere in d world to the USA where it has capacity to refine all, and resell to the world!  In 2005 it paid tax  to the USA that was more than the total revenue Exxon made in the USA!  For as long as the oil industry is seen as a cash-cow by all stakeholders, we shall continue to move round this cycle.  For me, I feel that insofar as the govt isnt doing what it should do to give nigerians leadership and protection it no reason not to continue subsidizing the price of fuel. Let the strike be! QED.

Millenium Park

The few pics I have hre are not clear. Took them in d evening with poor cam. I hope they still make meaning. This is Calabar Gate.

nothing spoil. We dont need oyibo's in this country to survive. If anything, they are here to milk d system and walk away. To hell with them!

@ lafile

N75 per liter? is that new? The only place where we've ever bought fuel at the regulated N65 per liter price is Lagos. It is economically impossible to buy fuel at N65 per liter anywhere else. Why? Because we import and it lands at Lagos. Most Oil marketers get fuel into their tanks at N63.5 or N64 per liter. It costs N1 to transport it within Lagos. N12 to take it to P/Harcourt N15 to Kano.

This post is not true.  I live in Calabar and I have never bought fuel higher than N65 before, and I've been mobile in the last 3 years.  All major marketers sold fuel at N65, NNPC, N64 and others N75.  I buy from the majors and they never increased their prices until now.  The last time I drove to Lagos from here, I bought Fuel at Asaba at N65, in march.

I think you are committing a fallacy of generalisation.  Big grammar, huh!?!?  

These are political tricks PDP is playing. It is a strategy to change the legitimacy crises hanging around Yar'adua's neck. Let me tell you guys how this would play out. We shall cry a lot, and ask that something starts to happen. Then, Yar'adua would come on air soon to say, ", fellow Nigerians, I have listened to the hues and cries of the suffering masses and as a listening government elected by the people, bla, bla , bla, I have directed the reversal of the price of petrol to N70 naira/litre. I promise to run a people oriented govt, bla, bla, bla, May Allah bless Nigeria, ", and we'll all jump up and say "halleluyah!, the Messiah is here!". Its the petty politics people play with us. By their calculation the act of reversal or 'reduction' of fuel price would portray Yar'adua as a good man and would then earn him the 'Ngige' effect (where he didnt win an election but was loved by the people).

Nothing is impossible in Naija! Watch out!

Then Omo Eko, you r the same as 2face!

"Grammar no be money" - Shina Peters

It's as if the fans of Faze are affected by the Kolomental thing.  How on earth can we utter these kinds of gutter stuff in a public forum like this?  Omo Eko, you go skull at all? Abi na sunday school you attend only?  Na wa o!

   

I hate comaprisons. Faze is unique and different from 2face. They r both talented musicians and one cannot be 'better' than the other.  They make their different unique songs in ways that inspire millions to listen to them and derive joy.  2face cannot be a substitute for Faze, and vice versa.  People should stop these crazy comparisons.  Yours sincerely loves Tu Face and Faze.  I enjoy listening to their songs, depending on the mood I am in. 

Reminds me of Mikel Obi who said in a newspaper report quote "I am better than Okocha".  This is completely crazy because Okocha and Mikel are talented in different ways and their skills are gifts from God.  They both are good footballers and entertain their fans.  Same for Faze and 2face.  They are good musicians, and have their fortunes made from our listening pleasure. For the lovers of 2face, Faze is not a match.  For fans of Faze, 2face is a beginner!  'Better music', is abstract.  It depends on emotions of the judge.

I only urge them to try and get more serious with their career, put in more hardwork and training.  That is what makes the western stars like Beyonce, P-Didy, Wyclef, Janet Jackson et al remain sparkling and spanking for so long.  They need a lot of more training, dedication, committment and seriousness to remain in contention for long.  We have seen superstars rise and fall in Nigeria.  I cannot forget Majek Fashek, Evi Edna Ogholi, Orits Williki and others in a hurry.  They made music, rose quickly, became household names and suddenly, disappeared!

Goodluck to both of them!

@ Iyke-D
I have few questions for you.  Did you vote on the 14th and 21st of April?  Am sure the answer is a big No!  Do you know how it feels like for u to goto a polling station to vote only to wait in vain forever for polling officials that would never turn up?  And for you to hear on radio the next morning that the very voting that you did not see occur has been won by a landslide margin by a little corrupt politician around the corner?  And, what on earth makes you believe that Yar'adua has been elected to preside over the affairs of Nigeria?  With whose mandate would he ever contemplate of fighting corruption?  These are issues that should prick our minds!  Not, I repeat, not the impeachment of a corrupt politician who's tenure is guaranteed to come to an end someday with all the  corresponding immunity.  EFCC has no business in impeachment.  Let them investigate Dariye and all other thieves including the biggest of them all, OBJ.   Afterwards, they can wait for the thieves to come down from their olympian heights and be arrested and jailed!

If we impugn on the integrity of the supreme court, which has been recently delivering justice without fear or favour, then I suppose we are finished as a people, for the judiciary has so far proved to truly b the last hope of the common man. Democracy means government of the people.  The people of Plateau elected the house of Assembly in Plateau state.  They also elected the Governor.  If the actions of the governor are dissattisfactory, the house has the power to impeach him.  If however, the house does not feel disatisfied by the conduct of Dariye, they have the prerogative to keep him, no matter how bad all other persons may feel.  That is how democracy works.  And, it cannot be different in our own case.

Excerpts from the judgement of the Supreme Court:

[b]"It appears that the intention of the framers of the Constitution is that the number of the members required to transact the particular business of the legislature is a percentage or proportion of the total number or the totality of the assigned membership of the House under the Constitution. In the instant case, it is two-thirds of ALL the members of the Plateau State House of Assembly, which is made up of 24 members, that is 16 members. It is not in doubt that the word "ALL" means entire, complete, the whole number of, every one of. See page 47 of Webster's New Twentieth Century Dictionary, Unabridged Second Edition, 1975.

"In the instant case, it is not disputed that eight out of 10 members in a House of 24 membership initiated and carried out the impeachment of the 1st respondent Dariye. There is no doubt there existed in the Plateau State House of Assembly 14 vacant seats as a result of the cross-carpeting. It is my view that until the vacancies created by the carpet crossing members are filled by the process of by-election, the Plateau State House of Assembly can only transact such legislative duties that require the participation of less than 2/3rd majority of ALL the members of the House, which duties definitely exclude impeachment proceedings.

"It is clear that the Court of Appeal was right in coming to the conclusion that the said impeachment was not in conformity with the constitutional provisions and consequently invalid.

"In conclusion, it is clear that the appeal lacks merit and is accordingly dismissed by me with N10, 000 costs against the appellants: I wish I could award more, but my hands are tied.

"The judgment of the Court of Appeal restoring and re-instating the 1st Respondent Joshua Chibi Dariye to his office as the Governor of Plateau State of Nigeria with all rights, privileges and perquisites of the said office is hereby affirmed. The appeal is dismissed."[/b]

Please be better informed!

@CBANJ

At the time of impeachment, 14 of the 24 seats were vacant, therefore 8 out of the ten remaining members constitute over two thirds majority.  Afterall, any decisions to be made during that period, whether to do with impeachment or anything else could only be made by a maximum of ten members, given the 14 vacant seats.  But that is just my opinion as a lay person.  The Supreme Court is supreme, and its judgement is final.

The matter in contention at the supreme court wasn't whether or not Dariye stole.  Everyone agrees that Dariye and in fact, the entire PDP empire stink of corruption; huge and stupendous.  That's a fact.  OBJ however used corrupt means to 'impeach' Dariye and the honorable justices of the supreme court have just said no!  2/3rd of 24 cannot be 10.  And, who declared the seats vacant?  There is no provision under the laws of Nigeria for (a) law-maker(s) to declare the seat(s) of fellow law-maker(s) vacant.  It is unconstitutional.  That is the arguement.  If Dariye stole and was caught, the honorable thing he should have done was to resign!  The alternative was for the house to sit in FULL session, serve him with notice of impeachment and upon the reciept of his reply to the notice, pass a motion calling for the state chief judge to setup a panel to investigate the allegations and if the panel finds him guilty, a motion of impeachment would then be moved.  If the motion is supported by AT LEAST 2/3RD OF THE MEMBERS OF THE HOUSE OF ASSEMBLY (not 2/3rd of the members present and voting) then he would stand impeached and removed from office.  That is the LAW!

In the case of Monica Lewinsky and Clinton, a simple majority of the house of representatives of the US congress voted in favour of the impeachment of Clinton.  But the house did not muster the 2/3rd as required by law to remove Clinton from office.  That is why he was able to serve out his tenure even when he was impeached!  That is how democracy works!  Sometimes, the outcome may not be the desired results no matter how noble the intentions are, yet we live with it.  And, it is the duty of the supreme court to serve the role of umpire in this dangerous political terrain called naija.  

Therefore we cannot sit down and cast aspersions on the integrity of the supreme court simply because they are interpreting the laws for us.  The supreme court did not write any of the letters of the law.  Whoever wants to arrest and prosecute serving governors should first ammend the laws that give them immunity and then, go ahead to file criminal charges against them later.  The constitution we operate now was written by Abdulsalam Abubakar and handed over to OBJ.  OBJ had all of 8 years to rewrite the constitution and arrogate all the powers he needed to himself to enable him carry out thorough cleansing.  But what did he do instead?  He spent all of the past 3 years scheming and plotting to stay on in power,using anti-corruption  war as the canopy.  The intentions were self-serving and had nothing to do with our welfare and the protection of our tresury from looters.

When it was expedient, he and Ibrahim Mantu collected 200 million naira from Joshua Dariye (Plateau Ecological Fund) and used in prosecuting the 2003 campaign.  By that time, Dariye was not corrupt!  When it became apparent that Dariye would not endorse his 3rd term agenda and would instead, stick with Atiku's presidential ambitions, Dariye became  a very corrupt governor!  He was suddenly discovered and arrested in London with huge sums of money!  I can't be fooled by any politician who thinks he can work on my brains to acquire cheap publicity.  Obasanjo is as corrupt as Dariye.  If he wants to prove otherwise, let him declare his assets for the world to see.  He therefore has no moral right to fight a moral war.  Lets not be fooled!

Hello guys i the diaspora,
I appeal to u guys to come back home and know exactly whats going on. Our votes were stolen on the 14th and 21st of April by OBJ's PDP! That is more sacrilegious than the few million dollars Dariye stole. OBJ has built the most expensive university in Nigeria (Bell's University, Otta), He has acquired our commonwelath thru Transcorp (including Nicon Hilton, NITEL, MTEL, etc) He has the biggest farm conglomerate in africa (this farm was in tatters by 1999), he has sold the Ports to himself, he has stolen everything steal-able, including ballot papers, ballot bags (boxes), election result sheets, elections and all. We must call a spade by its name! OBJ is not credible enough to persecute any of his fellow thieves! All of them are the same.

This Guy
Who makes OBJ the prosecutor? And loopholes? Yes, there are.  But they are still the laws.  It is the law that gave OBJ the presidency.  It's the law all of them swore to abide by.  It is the law that made it possible for us to have EFCC, no mater how imperfect.  The same law says, if you must impeach then u can only do that with 2/3rd majority of the house.  Chikena!  Whether Alams, Dariye or Attah steal a zillion dollars, the law must be allowed to take its course, else u are doing the right thing using the wrong tactics and it won't stand, just as this Dariye case.

celemel, prosecuting alamesigha* at this moment is not proper since he has immunity  according to the  law of the land,right?

Yes sir!  That is the law!  If we are not comfortable with it, we change it.  And it is only when the laws are changed that we can operate it differently according to the letters of the law.  Else, we are inviting anarchy!  No government intention, no matter how noble should be done outside the law.  The danger is, someone who doesn't mean well would assume the same powers and arbitrarily use the same impunity to harrass innocent governors all i the name of fighting corruption.

And one last point:  The moment the govt of Nigeria is sincere about corruption would be the moment corruption shall dissppear.  MKO Abiola said "if you want to know whether a fish is bad, smell the head". A govt that is born thru corrupt means cannot fight corruption because coruption formed the basis upon which such a govt thrives.  OBJ, Dariye, Alams, Attah et al were rigged corruptly into power in 2003!  The circumstances of their birth make them morally bankrupt to pursue the war against corruption.  That is the reason why people like Lamidi Adedibu, Anthony Anenih etc are free men today.  No matter what we feel about it, the supreme court is the highest court in the land, and so we must abide by its judgement.  If OBJ is fighting corruption, let him start with such men who do not enjoy any immunity.  Let  him arrest Anenih and try him for looting over 600billion Naira meant for fixing our roads.  The many stories that sorround Dariye do not seem to be as smelly as that sorrounding even OBJ himself.  You guys need to shine your eyes!

@ Dis Guy

I understand what you are saying about following procedures BUT there are times when new procedures have to be introduced to correct a fault; if that doesnt happen, Alamiesigha and co withe the aid of immunity will probbaly still be in there knowing full well they can cover their tracks and reach some sort of agreement with the speakers.

Do two wrongs make a right?  How can you say you introduce 'new procedures' in a constitutional democracy?  That is nothing more than dictatorship.  Now, if 4 members of a 24 member  house can impeach Dariye, don't u think that 10 senators can as well sit down and impeach OBJ under any guise?  Democracy has inbuilt mechanisms for checking and correcting the system.  No one needs any pontification from a corrupt dictator like OBJ before one knows that the long arm of the law would someday catch up with any filthy politician.  The fight for corruption is a just fight, we all encourage it but it must be done in consonance with the law.  Nobody, including President OBJ is above the law.  I repeat, nobody.  Not even EFCC!  The laws are designed to check arbitrariness.  If the anti-corruption system is institutionalized, we won't need any kangaroo impeachment before the culprit is brought to book.  All the gymnastics tha OBJ and cronies are playing with our intelligence would soon crumble on his head.  OBJ is the MOST corrpt politician Nigeria has ever produced.  He has surpassed even Gen. Sanni Abacha's record of pilfery and looting.  Who shall jail the emperor?

@ MAMAJAMA

AMAZING, the people that wrote the constitution can not even interpret the law of the land.  I seriously don't see how or then there will be hope for Nigerians that can't speak or write in English when we can all come together and kick this criminals out.  people are praising due process. why did he Dariye ran out of the country if he truly believer he was persecuted for not supporting the 3rd term?  A true man will stand and defend his house.

The supreme court or even the judiciary did not WRITE the constitution.  They only INTERPRETE it as was writen.  You seem to have forgotten that Dariye is as corrupt as every other Governor in Nigeria.  And, the court ruled that Joshus Dariye was improperly impeached because the required 2/3rd majority was not met.  The court was not saying he is not corrupt.  If anybody must be impeached, the constitution upon which everybody subscribes to must be respected and followed.  That is the way it is done even in America, Britain, Germany or even heaven.  The law must be respected by all.  The law is no respecter of persons.

My 2 cents!