₦airaland Forum

FEMI FALANA, ODINKALU, DEBUNK SAHARAREPORTERS BRIBERY STORY IN AL-MUSTAPHA JUDGMENT

Nigerians woke up this morning to an accusation on the notorious gossip site, saharareporters.com, to the effect that the Jonathan administration had procured the judgment that set former Chief Security Officer to Abacha, Major Hamza Al-Mustapaha, free via a $2 million bribe to the presiding judge, Justice Amina Augie. Not done with this allegation, saharareports alleged that the Chairman of the National Human Rights Commission, Professor Chidi Anselm Odinkalu, wrote the judgment. All this was done by President Jonathan in order to pave the way for his 2015 reelection which according to the site was going to be impossible if Al-Mustapha remained in jail per a prophesy from renowned seer, T.B. Joshua.

Saharareporters did not provide any evidence to back up its claims beyond stating that it got the information from an unnamed ‘source’!

However, NaijaPundit’s investigations have established that the saharareporters story is untrue and malicious. We have seen documents from both Chidi Anselm Odinkalu and Femi Falana which indicate that the story is a pack of lies.

Femi Falana revealed that rather than bribery as alleged by saharareporters.com, the Al-Mustapaha case was lost "due to shoddy investigation and procedural irresponsibility". It is instructive that the prosecution of the case was handled by the Lagos State ministry of Justice which is controlled by the Action Congress of Nigeria and not the Federal Ministry of Justice which is controlled by the ruling Peoples Democratic Party.

NaijaPundit exclusively brings you two emails from both Professor Odinkalu and renowned Human Rights Activist and foremost lawyer, Femi Falana (a known critic of the Jonathan administration) which put the lie to the saharareporters story;

The email below is from Femi Falana;

> From: falana*****yahoo.com
> Date: Mon, 22 Jul 2013 10:33:07 +0000
>
> Dear Carol,
>
> In a commendable manner, efforts were made by some of our colleagues to comment on the judgment of the Court of Appeal through this medium. I think that was last week.
>
> That should have continued instead of descending to the scandalous level of impugning the integrity of judges and lawyers over a case that was painfully lost due to shoddy investigation and procedural irresponsibility. For instance, why was Sergeant Rogers Jabila not turned into a hostile witness by the prosecution when he began to retract his copious confessional statements?
>
> Although there are disagreeable aspects of the judgment which have been highlighted in this medium it is difficult to dismiss the reasoning and conclusion of the Court of Appeal on the acquittal of Major Hamza Al-Mustapha and Alhaji Lateef Shofolahan.
>
> In another clime the legal profession would have wished to find out why the cases of those who were charged with the brutal assassination of Pa Alfred Rewane, Chief Bola Ige, Mrs Kudirat Abiola et al were all discharged and acquitted. Most of the on-going cases of murder involving rich suspects are bound to end the same way. It is a neo-colonial State that is on the verge of total collapse. The ruling class is just pretending to run a modern State.
> It is a banana republic.
>
> There are no measures in place to equip the investigation departments of the police or improve the skills of prosecutors. Witnesses are not protected by the system. Hence it is easy for defendants who are rich to bribe or scare potential witnesses from testifying for the prosecution.
>
> In the 2013 federal budget the sum of N300 bn was earmarked for the police. Out of that sum N293 bn goes for recurrent expenditure while the remaining N7 bn will service 10,515 police stations and posts, police colleges,laboratories etc as well as corruption. Where is the fund for investigation? It is collected from complainants or suspects or from both. At the end of the day reports of investigation are tailored in favour of the highest bidders. Such dubious reports are then forwarded to the office of the DPP for legal advice and possible prosecution!
>
> FF
>
>
>
> Sent from my BlackBerry wireless device from MTN



The email below is from Professor Chidi Anselm Odinkalu;

> From: ch******@hotmail.com

> Date: Mon, 22 Jul 2013 10:15:24 +0000
> Subject: Re: [OurCountryNigeria] The Scheme That Freed Al-Mustapha - SR
>
> IBK,
>
> Let me try and understand you. It is ok to accuse judges of taking bribes but not ok to read their judgments in order to be informed about what we're talking about;
>
> it is ok to believe allegations circulated by a web-based publication but a judgment is "inauthentic";
>
> it is ok for the ICTR to share its judgments by e-mail but only those that wish to "destroy Nigeria" can do that here. What else?
>
> IBK, my bother, no vex, joo: how many CTCs of judgments did you process in the ICTR? How many have you processed in England? Why is what is good for the climes in which you practice bad for us? White people can do it but if blacks do it it must be because we're corrupt? If a white person said that to me, I'd have dumped on them. But...
>
> Well, I circulated the judgment of the Kenyan Supreme Court on the elections the day it was given. No one said I shared money with any of the judges or parties nor asked about CTC - and by the way I have Long standing personal relationships with all the parties in the Kenyan case and all but one of the judges in the case. I shared the judgments of the South African Courts on Silk from High Court to the Supreme Court of Appeals, no on asked bothered to allege they were inauthentic. I could go on: What does consistency matter to us?
>
> Chidi.
>
> Sent from my BlackBerry wireless device from MTN
>
> -----Original Message

Source: http://www.naijapundit.com/news/femi-falana-odinkalu-debunk-saharareporters-bribery-story-in-al-mustapha-judgment

Re: 8th Most Corrupt Nation-Transparency International Refutes Malicious Story on Nigeria

Our attention has been drawn to a story on some news sites stating that Transparency International has listed Nigeria as the 8th most corrupt nation in the world for 2013. This information is completely untrue as Transparency International has not even released its annual Corruption Perception Index (CPI). The last CPI was the CPI of 2012 in which Nigeria made improvements.

Also, it is necessary to alert the public that Transparency International is the only body that undertakes the official Corruption Perception Index. Also, Transparency International has written to disassociate itself from an organization which passes off itself as an offshoot of the genuine Transparency International based in Germany.

Below is the statement from Transparency International;

Transparency International, the global anti-corruption organisation, has no links with an organisation calling itself ‘Transparency in Nigeria (TIN)’ and has written to the organisation demanding that it stop associating its work with Transparency International, its name and logo.

Several articles published in the Nigerian press last week referred to a report titled ‘Budget Discipline Perception Index (BDPI) 2012/2013’, by ‘Transparency in Nigeria (TIN)’, describing the organisation as the Transparency International chapter in Nigeria. Transparency International has no links with ‘Transparency in Nigeria’, nor does it currently have an affiliate in Nigeria.

Transparency International is not responsible for the report “Budget Discipline Perception Index (BDPI) 2012/2013” and does not endorse its content.

<end of TI official statement>

Nigerians should be alert to false reports smuggled into the media to malign the image of the country. The elements behind these reports are desperate and will do anything to gain traction even if it means damaging the image of their country by selling a bogus story.

Under President Jonathan, Nigeria’s anti corruption agencies have had unprecedented non-interference from the executive which has led to recent successes in the trial of subsidy thieves, pension racketeers and politically exposed persons accused of money laundering.

The public is thus reminded that certain media, particularly online media, have no editorial boards and in many cases have been set up by disgruntled politicians to achieve political ends.

http://www.transparency.org/news/pressrelease/20130412_ti_asks_nigerian_organisation_to_stop_using_logo

Reno Omokri
Special Assistant to the President (New Media)

Jerry Rawlings' Recorded Comments Exposes Premium Times as a Habitual Peddler of Falsehood.

Our attention has been drawn to the report on Premium Times with the title "Video Evidence Counters Jerry Rawlings' Denial" which is a desperate attempt by Premium Times to cover up their earlier malicious and dishonest story with the title "Jerry Rawlings slams Nigerian government, others for allowing corrupt politicians escape justice" which had been rubbished by former Ghanian President, John Jerry Rawlings, who released the transcripts of his speech at the event in Abuja which formed the basis of the Premium Times story. Former President Rawlings rightly described the report by Premium Times as a package of lies and distortions.

President Rawlings' office in exposing the lies in the Premium Times story said his "address did not make reference to the government of Nigeria and he made no scathing attack on the Nigeria government as the Premium Times reported. President Rawlings also did not make reference to the Nigeria leadership’s failure to punish politicians who steal public funds.The first three paragraphs of the report are complete fabrications".

The video of President Rawlings' speech put up by Premium Times to defend their story only reinforces what President Rawlings said that at no time did he indict Nigeria or the Jonathan administration's anti-corruption record. Their initial report was entitled "Jerry Rawlings slams Nigerian government, others for allowing corrupt politicians escape justice", but at no time in the speech he gave did President Rawlings ever make such an assertion.

Rather than using such words as "shame" and other ad hominen words and phrases to attack former President Rawlings for exposing their dishonesty, Premium Times should be bold enough to admit that they have a habit of misrepresenting the truth and giving the worst possible interpretation to the most innocent statements in service of the course of their sponsors.

Such misrepresentation is obvious when Premium Times claims in their defense that because President Rawlings gave his speech in Nigeria and to Nigerians then any reference he makes to corruption must be about Nigeria and President Jonathan. Such a defense is only indicative of their desperation. The media should not operate based on assumption but on certainty.

The fact remains that Premium Times has a demonstrated pattern of stories based on falsehood and I will detail a few instances.

On the 12th of June 2013, Premium Times published a report titled “World Bank indicts Jonathan’s government, says massive poverty, unemployment killing Nigerians”. That report was fictitious and malicious and had no basis in truth. The World Bank whose report Premium Times relied on released its own press release based on the same report with the title "Nigeria Economic Update: World Bank Forecasts Rising Growth, Less Inflation, Urges Closer Federal and State Government Cooperation". This official release is still available on the World Bank's official website (http://www.worldbank.org/en/news/press-release/2013/05/13/nigeria-economic-update-world-bank-forecasts-rising-growth-less-inflation-urges-closer-federal-and-state-government-cooperation). How Premium Times was able to come up with their own version of the story which contradicted with the World Bank's Official press release that praised rather than condemn Nigeria remains a mystery. Perhaps Premium Times live in an alternate universe with another World Bank other than the World Bank that exists on planet earth.

On June the 14th of 2013, Premium Times released the story with the headline "Nigeria: Exclusive - Okonjo-Iweala Opens Up, Says Nigeria Economy in Danger" and quoted an unnamed source. This story is false as was evidenced when the Minister of Finance and the Coordinating Minister for the Economy, Dr. Mrs. Ngozi Okonjo Iweala, released the transcripts of that meeting which showed that the Premium Times story had no basis in truth. Indeed contrary to their story, the Nigerian economy is healthy and has received the highest Foreign Direct Investment in Africa for the last fiscal year, is set to become Africa's largest economy when our GDP is rebased, and has been listed by multi lateral bodies including the Clinton Foundation and the Bretton Woods institutions as amongst the world's 10 fastest growing economies. This is even as the World Bank in May of 2013 promoted Nigeria to a Middle Income Nation from the Low Income Nation status Nigeria had hitherto had.

Today, in embarrassment at being exposed, Premium Times says “Now that the former Ghanian leader and choristers of the Nigerian administration like Reuben Abati and Reno Omokri are sweating profusely to confuse people that “Africa” does not mean “Nigeria and other countries” we ask them to also expand their imagination to understand the framework of interpretative reporting". However, it is enough to politely explain to them that it is not the media's job to "interpret" what people say, rather it is their job to report what people say and to report it truthfully.

Premium Times may be confusing tabloid journalism for responsible journalism. If they wish to be a gossip site, they should make that fact known to their readers and focus on gossip rumour and hearsay which seems to be their forte and desist from passing off falsehood as reliable news.

Reno Omokri
Special Assistant to the President (New Media)

Our attention has been drawn to a headline in an online news media, Premium Times, with the title “World Bank indicts Jonathan’s government, says massive poverty, unemployment killing Nigerians”. This headline, which is not supported by the story it purported to highlight, is totally untrue and false. At no time during the administration of President Goodluck Jonathan has the World Bank indicted Nigeria on poverty reduction. On the contrary, the World Bank this year commended President Goodluck Jonathan and the Nigerian government for reducing poverty in Nigeria.

It is a matter of record that the World Bank’s Vice President for Africa, Mr. Mouktar Diop, visited Nigeria in January of 2013 and on the 15th of January he praised the Jonathan administration for reducing poverty in Nigeria by 2%. His endorsement of the Nigerian economy was widely published by the print, electronic and New Media.

Also, on the 7th of May 2013, the World Bank Country Director for Nigeria, Ms. Marie Francoise Marie-Nelly, addressed a press conference and revealed that the World Bank has promoted Nigeria from a low income country ranking to a medium income position saying the level of endemic poverty in the country has reduced.

Speaking during her press conference, Ms. Marie-Nelly said “The decision also followed the growth in Nigeria’s revenue as her gross national income per capita had reached about $1,200 in the past two years, prompting the Bank to undertake an upgrade from its current IDA only status”.

I might add that this is the first time in the last 30 years that Nigeria has achieved this status. I might add again that the United Nation revealed in their Human Development Index that average Life Expectancy in Nigeria had risen to their highest levels since records were kept under President Jonathan. Before President Jonathan assumed office life expectancy in Nigeria was 47 years, after 2011 life expectancy increased to 51 years. Can there be a better proof of the gradual reduction of poverty in Nigeria?

Given the facts stated above, it is obvious that the publication by Premium Times is not only inaccurate and untrue, but it is a disservice to the administration of President Goodluck Jonathan and the millions of Nigerians whose hard work and increased productivity has seen Nigeria achieve the world’s fourth fastest GDP growth rate of 6.6%.

Let me also say that effective rebranding is a projection of positive things that are already happening and when a nation is showing positive growth the whole world notices. This may account for the comments by the British Prime Minister in his speech before the Conservative Party on October 10 2012 where he said “Yes, we’ve been hearing about China and India for years …but it’s hard to believe what’s happening in Brazil, in Indonesia, in Nigeria too. Meanwhile, the old powers are on the slide. What do the countries on the rise have in common? They are lean, fit, obsessed with enterprise, spending money on the future – on education, incredible infrastructure and technology.”

Finally, Messrs Premium Times should reflect on the fact that as members of the Fourth Estate of the realm their duty is to provide balanced and unbiased reportage to the citizens they serve. The fact that their top management may have been affiliated closely with a former presidential candidate who lost to President Jonathan should not becloud their objectivity.

Reno Omokri

Special Assistant to the President (New Media)

A WAR of words raged, once again between the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) and the Federal Government.

The opposition party faulted President Goodluck Jonathan’s statement on Wednesday that the critics of his administration were being unfair and that they were marking him down without clearly defined criteria.

According to the party, the President’s call was unnecessary because the people would not need to be told if an administration was doing well or not. In measured riposte, President Jonathan’s assistant on New Media, Reno Oritsebemigho Omokri, accused the party of playing politics with facts.

A statement by the ACN’s National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, declared that it is not the business of the opposition to spoon-feed the party in power on how to govern, even though the party has, time and again, gone out of its way to proffer solutions to the myriad of problems facing the nation, out of sheer patriotism.

”Needless to say that such suggestions from us and other well-meaning groups and individuals have been so arrogantly ignored by the administration,” it said.

The ACN wondered why President Jonathan was suddenly irritated that Nigerians had not given his administration a pass mark, after about three years in the saddle and two years since he was elected.

It said: Mr. President, Nigerians need no marking scheme to know that the rate of unemployment went up, under your watch, to an unprecedented 23.9% by December 2011, according to figures given by the National Bureau of Statistics. Today, the figure must be hovering above the 50% mark!

“Mr. President, Nigerians need no marking scheme to know that under your watch, security of lives and property, as well as the welfare of the citizens – the raison d’etre of any government – are at the lowest ebb. A day before you demanded a marking scheme from Nigerians instead of giving them better life, a popular musician was attacked by a nine-man gang that snatched his car and deprived him of his money in the country’s economic capital city – the fate being suffered daily by millions of your compatriots!

“Mr. President, what marking scheme does one need to know that despite the seemingly impressive economic figures being reeled out by your administration, the average Nigerian is worse off today than he or she was before you assumed office? What we are seeing is growth without development.

The so-called 6.5% economic growth announced by your Finance Minister is meaningful only on paper. How does that help the thousands of university graduates who are scrambling to work as truck drivers? How does it make Lagos-Ibadan expressway or the East-West road safer for Nigerians?

“Mr. President, what has been the impact for Nigerians of the high foreign reserves figure and the stable exchange rates for the naira reeled out by your Finance Minister? Is it not a cruel irony that as Mr. President was luxuriating in phantom economic indices on the second anniversary of his administration, Nigerians across the land could not even watch him on television because the power situation has been exceptionally poor in recent times?

“And in case Mr. President thinks it is only the opposition and the media – his administration’s favourite whipping boys – that are scoring his administration low, the Washington-based global advocacy and campaigning organization, ONE, was listing Nigeria – under President Jonathan’s watch – and DR Congo among “laggard countries”

pulling Africa back from reaching the MDG goals by 2015? Surely, this global body did not use any ’Jonathan-style marking scheme’ to name Uganda, Rwanda, Malawi, Ghana and Ethiopia as the top performing countries in Africa (on the MDGs), even when they are less endowed than Nigeria?” ACN added.

The party said it would not have wasted its energy commenting on the mid-term performance record of the Jonathan Administration, had the President not disingenuously decided to blame imaginary enemies of his administration for his token achievements in the face of mounting challenges facing the country.

It urged President Jonathan to shut his ears to praise-singers, especially those of the pig-at-the-trough hue from across the Atlantic who have never seen an African government, no matter its governance record, that is unworthy of their association, as they hunt for cheap funds from despotic governments across the continent to rehabilitate themselves back home.

“Mr. President, it is never too late for you to put your shoulder to the wheel, shun the political jobbers around you, reinvigorate your cabinet by chasing away the deadwood there – though some of them come highly recommended on paper – and giving Nigerians a more purposeful governance.

“When that happens, Mr. President, you will not need to waste valuable time on lecturing your much-sapped compatriots on how to assess your administration, and you would have succeeded in rending those seemingly implacable critics of yours in the media and the opposition jobless,” ACN said.

But Omokri fired back, accusing the opposition party of dishonesty.
He wrote: “Having read the ACN and Mr. Lai Mohammed's predictable statement stating that Nigerians need no marking scheme to score the current administration as a failure, let me say that in no way can the duo of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) and the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) compare with the People's Democratic Party (PDP) neither can their leaders compare to President Jonathan and this is a factual statement.

“For one, it is grammatically incorrect to even refer to a group centered around individuals as a party. The ACN and the CPC are centered around individuals and it is quite clear that without these so called 'National Leaders' of these parties, they would collapse. At best both organizations are personality cults not parties.

“I call on Nigerians to recall that only the People's Democratic Party Presidential candidate, President Goodluck Jonathan, emerged by a function of internal democracy in the form of a highly contested party primary.

The presidential candidates of the ACN and the CPC did not so emerge. Rather, they were imposed on those parties by their so called National Leaders without the benefit of primaries. It is therefore not surprising that both parties were too ashamed to include the word 'Democratic' or 'Democracy' in their party's names as there is nothing democratic about both parties.

“I further call on Nigerians to recall that not only was President Jonathan the only Presidential candidate that went round the nooks and crannies of Nigeria, visiting EVERY state, he is also the only candidate that told Nigerians of his plans and codified those plans in a Document called the Transformation Agenda which was released publicly in the website of the National Planning Commission (npc.gov.ng) and has on every anniversary of his swearing given Nigerians an update on the fulfillment of that agenda with time lines and specifics. If the ACN or the CPC have a party manifesto, Nigerians are yet to see it.

“If Mr. Lai Mohammed of the ACN now accuses the President of increasing the rate of unemployment in Nigeria, perhaps Mr. Mohammed may also want to accuse the President of bribing the World Bank to release its statement released this month indicating that poverty has reduced in Nigeria from 64.2% to 62.6%. Perhaps the ACN can explain why according to the United Nations Human Development Index report Life Expectancy in Nigeria increased from 47 years to 51 years after the first year of President Jonathan's ascension to power.

Obviously, Nigeria's population has benefited from the micro and macro economic policies of this administration which includes stabilizing the Naira at an exchange rate of 155-160 Naira to the U.S. dollar for the last 2 years, reducing inflation to a single digit rate of 9% and growing our Foreign Exchange to the $48 billion it stands at today.

“Farmers who constitute a majority of our work force are now able to access fertilizers directly from source with the voucher system of fertilizer procurement which cuts out the middle man. They are also able to get their goods to the market faster than ever before, courtesy of the revived intra city Rail Transit that exists throughout the Southwest where the ACN hold sway all the way to Kano.

“Under President Jonathan, all federal employees now benefit from the New Minimum Wage Bill he signed into law with all staff getting their wages in a timely and efficient manner. Can the ACN controlled states boast of the same? Of course it is public knowledge that many ACN governors have come out publicly to say they cannot pay the Minimum Wage, despite receiving much more money from the Federation Account under President Jonathan than at any time in their history. This however does not stop them from sending their state legislators and their wives on visits to London and other exotic destinations to 'learn' about legislative functions.

“President Jonathan in his efforts to bid farewell to poverty also increased the allowances of members of the National Youth Service Corp many of whom are serving in the ACN controlled states with a higher morale courtesy of the vision of Mr. President.

“Lai Mohammed asks how Nigeria's 6.5% GDP growth rate under President Jonathan benefits Nigerians when graduates are taking up employment as bus drivers.

This question itself betrays Mr. Mohammed and the ACN's lack of understanding of basic economic issues. Mr. Mohammed should note that there is dignity in labour rather than shame and that the fact that graduates are now being employed is better than the past when they sat at home doing nothing.

Mr. Mohammed may also note that it was precisely because of the steady GDP growth rate that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) promoted Nigeria from a Low Income nation to a Middle Income nation and both Fitch International ratings and Standard and Poor's increased Nigeria's rating to BB and Positive, which paved the way for states (particularly ACN states) to access loans internationally at better rates.

“Finally, Mr. Mohammed and the ACN may want take President Jonathan's advice and develop a Marking Scheme to use in gauging this administration's performance. If Lai Mohammed had done that, he would have been comparing what exists today with what existed before. Instead, he is comparing what exists today with what never existed before.

“Today, our railways are back and functioning and it is now possible to travel between Lagos and Kano for only 1500 Naira. Yesterday, there were no railways. Today, the Life Expectancy of the average Nigerian is 51 years. Yesterday it was 47 year. Today poverty in Nigeria is at 62.6%. Yesterday it was at 64.2%. Today, 93% of all Nigerians have access to mobile phones. Yesterday it was less than 70%. Today, Nigeria generates almost 4500MWs of electricity. Yesterday we generated 2800MWs. Today, it takes 4 hours to drive from Lagos to Benin. Yesterday it took 9 hours. Today, Nigerian workers are earning the New Minimum wage. Yesterday, they were not earning it.

Today Nigeria's crude production is at an all time high of almost 2.5 Million Barrels Per Day. Yesterday it had fallen to only seven hundred thousand. Today, our domestic refining capacity has peaked at over 10 million litres per day which is our highest level in decades. Yesterday we were importing almost all our domestically consumed fuel. Today, Nigerians now have access to information courtesy of the Freedom of Information Bill signed by President Jonathan. Yesterday they did not have that liberty.

These are verifiable facts that Mr. Mohammed and his co travellers can use to score President Jonathan. And so, I repeat Mr. President's words to Mr. Lai Mohammed; develop your own marking scheme and don't access this administration using "your heartbeat".

Obviously, knowing that they cannot compete with the President on the level of ideas, the ACN is desperate to direct the narrative away from the verifiable achievements the President and his team listed during the Mid-Term report so that the focus may be on gutter-sniping, an area where they have an undue advantage.”

Fashakin and the CPC are not Sinking, They Have Sunk!

By Jibrin Mamman


I just read Rotimi Fashakin's response (if you can call it that) to Reuben Abati's statement released earlier today. While Abati's statement was long on facts, Fashakin's was long on insults and pettiness and one begins to wonder if his statement betrays what Nigeria should expect of his party, the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) if it ever assumes power.

Firstly, it is befitting that Fashakin is spokesman to a party founded by a man who outlawed truthful reporting that embarrassed his government when he was in power as a military dictator. Obviously, the apple did not fall far from the tree. If the master does not like inconvenient truths, how can the puppet stomach it?

One would have expected Fashakin to dwell on the issues raised by Dr. Abati's statement viz that; President Jonathan went to Addis Ababa to represent Nigeria's interest. That he rightly judged a meeting with fellow Heads of States Governments which centered on moving forward on the Lagos-Abidjan highway (which is vital to Nigeria's economic interests in West Africa) to be more important that addressing the general gathering. That Nigeria lost nothing as the very words that the President would have spoken were spoken by his representative, the Minister of Foreign Affairs.

But rather than address these factual points, Fashakin chose to cast aspersions on Dr. Abati's past and to make doomsday prophecies for his future.

But, let us place the pasts of both Dr. Abati and Mr. Fashakin side by side. Before Reuben Abati became Presidential spokesman, he was the most widely read columnist in Nigeria as well as chairman of the editorial board of the Guardian Newspaper, Nigeria's flagship newspaper. A First Class graduate of Theater Arts from the University of Calabar and best graduating student of the University of Calabar for his year as well as a recipient of various national and international prizes for journalism including, the Cecil King Memorial Prize for Print Journalist and the Fletcher Challenge Commonwealth Prize for Opinion Writing. He is also a Humphrey fellow, a lawyer and a honorary member of the Nigerian Institute of Letters.

Now for Rotimi Fashakin, can anybody tell me his past? I honestly had not heard of him before he became CPC's mouthpiece. It is safe to say that while Reuben Abati brought something to his job as Presidential spokesman, it was the job of CPC spokesman that brought something to Fashakin.

Now, as to the future, no one but God can determine any man's future. So for Fashakin to say that Abati's future is sinking is to say the least ungodly.

I have a different theory however to Fashakin's vituperations. It is my opinion that the CPC has been very embarrassed by its founder, Muhammadu Buhari's recent statement which sounded almost like an advertisement for Boko Haram that they are looking for a fall guy to divert attention from Buhari.

Nigerians have not forgotten that only last week Buhari said “When the Niger Delta militants started their activities in the South-South, they were invited by the late President Umaru Yar’adua. An aircraft was sent to them and their leaders met with the late President in Aso Rock and discussed issues. They were given money and a training scheme was introduced for their members. But when the Boko Haram emerged in the north members of the sect were killed”.

I personally believe that it is to cover this embarrassing statement that Fashakin has sought to target Rueben Abati.

Finally, I must say that it is surprising that Fashakin thinks that the PDP led government is sinking along with Abati. Perhaps here we can consider some facts, those precise things that Fashakin seems to be allergic to. Only weeks ago, council elections were held in the Federal Capital Territory and the PDP swept the polls in a most credible election that was heavily monitored. The CPC did not win even one council. Now if the proof of the pudding is in the eating who between the Presidency, Abati and the PDP on the one hand and the CPC is sinking?

For the answer to that question, Buhari and Fashakin may want to consult their legislators in the National Assembly who disobeyed the directive of Buhari and the CPC not to vote for the Emergency Declaration in Yobe, Borno and Adamawa States and sided with President Jonathan and the PDP by voting overwhelmingly for the measure. If your own legislators are siding with your enemy then you are not sinking. You have sunk.

Jibrin Mamman

Reading the interview Major General Muhammadu Buhari (rtd) gave to Daily Trust which was published on Wednesday the 22nd of May 2013, I am compelled to raise historical issues that put the former military Head of State's words in perspective.

Major General Muhammadu Buhari (rtd) blamed President Jonathan for the insurgency occasioned by the militant sect, Jamā'a Ahl al-sunnah li-da'wa wa al-jihād, commonly referred to as Boko Haram and asked President Jonathan to resign saying “Jonathan should vacate and give way to competent hand to govern the country”.


Buhari further said “When the Niger Delta militants started their activities in the South-South, they were invited by the late President Umaru Yar’adua.

An aircraft was sent to them and their leaders met with the late President in Aso Rock and discussed issues. They were given money and a training scheme was introduced for their members. But when the Boko Haram emerged in the north members of the sect were killed”.



Major General Muhammadu Buhari (rtd) may wish to note that President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan never supported militancy and criminality in the Niger-Delta at any time in his political career. Furthermore, the administration of President Umaru Musa Yar'adua used a combination of carrot and stick to end the militancy in the Niger-Delta.

Stick was used in the form of heavy military intervention by way of the Joint Military Task Force which routed the militants by way of ground attacks and aerial assault with the use of Nigerian Air Force Jets and helicopters. After this initial pacification, the carrot was introduced whereby the administration offered an olive branch for those wishing to embrace dialogue. Those who accepted the offer to dialogue came out of the creeks and dialogue took place leading to the conditional amnesty (militants were made to surrender their weapons and renounce violence before they could benefit from the amnesty).

Major General Muhammadu Buhari (rtd) may or may not be aware that these same steps were taken by the current administration with regards to the insurgency occasioned by Jamā'a Ahl al-sunnah li-da'wa wa al-jihād or Boko Haram.

This administration in fulfillment of its constitutional responsibility to maintain law and order and enforce the laws of the Federal Republic of Nigeria empowered Nigeria's security forces to check the insurgency. As a democrat and listening leader, President Jonathan's ears were opened to the cries of the people in the affected areas and after meeting with different informed groups agreed to employ the dialogue option and called for the leaders of the Jamā'a Ahl al-sunnah li-da'wa wa al-jihād or Boko Haram to show themselves.



In furtherance of his desire to peacefully resolve the insurgency, President Jonathan inaugurated the Presidential Committee on Dialogue and Peaceful Resolution of Security Challenges in the North on Wednesday the 24th of April 2013 at the Presidential Villa Abuja under the leadership of a cabinet minister, Tanimu Turaki, Minister of Special Duties.

A week after the President's initiative, Jamā'a Ahl al-sunnah li-da'wa wa al-jihād or Boko Haram rejected the amnesty proposal yet the President kept faith with the Committee and met with them as recently as a week ago and in furtherance of that meeting he issued orders for the release of certain classes of detainees held in connection with the insurgency.

With the detailed historical TimeLines provided above, it is my considered opinion that Major General Muhammadu Buhari's (rtd) statement castigating President Goodluck Jonathan for not treating the Jamā'a Ahl al-sunnah li-da'wa wa al-jihād or Boko Haram as others were treated are not factual and are borne out of insufficient study of historical facts.

Major General Muhammadu Buhari (rtd) also accused the President of using undue force on the Jamā'a Ahl al-sunnah li-da'wa wa al-jihād or Boko Haram saying “In Bama and Baga towns, military personnel were reported to have been engaged in extortion and sometimes raping of women. And because a soldier was killed in Baga the whole town was sacked by military. This is not the best way military should have acted when they were sent to restore law and order in a town. How can a responsible government allow its people to be killed in this way”.

Let me say that I appreciate Buhari's concern for the victims of the Boko Haram attacks on Bama and Baga. However, Buhari should be reminded that the President ordered an investigation into the incidence at Bama. The investigations are being carried out by qualified persons and Buhari ought to wait for the results of those investigations before apportioning blame. Members of the Nigerian armed forces are sacrificially laying their lives down to protect Nigerians and they deserve more loyalty from us all, particularly from one who was once their Commander-in-Chief.

But going back to history, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (rtd) is reminded that this is not the first time that terrorists have unleashed mayhem on Nigerians.

Buhari is reminded that in February and March of 1984, the Maitatsine sect unleashed violence in Yola under the leadership of Musa Makaniki. A conservative estimate is that 1000 people died during those riots and half of the residence of Yola in present day Adamawa state were rendered homeless. The military was unleashed on the sect by the military administration of Major General Muhammadu Buhari. Similar charges as the ones made today by Buhari were made against the soldiers sent by his government to quell the Maitatsine riots of 1984. They were accused of undue force, destruction of property, raping women and killing civilians. Many human rights groups and activists including J. Peter Pham, the Director of the Michael Ansari Center at the prestigious Atlantic Council whom I have personally met and who is alive today have documented what took place during those riots. In putting down the Maitatsine insurgency, the military incurred collateral damages. Yet Nigerians understood with Buhari. Did anyone call for his resignation as military Head of State because of the incidence?

Also, it is a historical fact that Maitatsine riots again flared up more than a year after this in April of 1985, while Buhari was still Head of State, this time in Gombe in present day Gombe state. Hundreds of people were killed and the military again was called in. There were collateral damage and Musa Makaniki, the arrowhead of Maitatsine escaped to the Cameroon and was not caught until 2004 when Obasanjo had ascended to power. To the best of my knowledge, nobody called on Buhari to resign even though he could not apprehend the leader of the sect.



Is it too much to ask that Buhari show the same level of understanding that Nigerians showed to him in 1984-1985 to the President?



Some issues should be beyond politics. Anytime an elder statesman calls into question the abilities of our armed forces it goes a long way to weakening their morale and resolve which is precisely what should not be weakened when we face an insurgency such as the present one.

Finally, I would like to advise Major General Muhammadu Buhari (rtd) not to see security as just a job for the government. It is a job for everybody. In other nations when terrorists strike politicians close ranks and unite against the terrorists. Our case in Nigeria should not be different. And indeed, I have cause to thank Distinguished Senators and Honourable Members of the House of Representatives from Major General Muhammadu Buhari's (rtd) party the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) who saw wisdom in the President's Declaration of a State of Emergency in Borno, Yobe and Adamawa states and voted in support of the declaration yesterday. This is precisely the type of multi partisan collaboration that will see Nigeria achieve her developmental goals.

Reno Omokri is Special Assistant on New Media to the Nigerian President.

http://www.ynaija.com/conversations-with-mercy-abang-el-rufais-intelligence-is-governed-by-ego-reno-omokri/


Tell us about Reno Omokri?

Reno Omokri is a husband to a beautiful woman and father of three kids. Prior to my appointment by President Goodluck Jonathan I was Vice President Africa at a U.S. political consulting firm and prior to that I worked in the Obasanjo Villa under the Special Duties office of the then Vice President. My boss then was Chris Mammah one of the most decent men I have ever been favored to come across. That is me in a nutshell.

Do you think young Nigerians online are really “Children of anger”? as described by Reuben Abati?

Young Nigerians gave Nigeria Nollywood which is now the third largest movie industry in the world. They built it up from the scratch. Young Nigerians made it possible for President Jonathan to win the 2011 Presidential elections. Young Nigerians are sustaining the economy of this nation and causing it to grow at over 6% per annum. Young Nigerians just made us champions of Africa at the just concluded AFCoN. Young Nigerians are outperforming youths from other parts of the world at college campuses all over the West and of late in the Far East. I don’t think they are children of anger. I think they are an asset. What would Nigeria’s online community be without a Chude Jideonwu, an Eggheader, an Abubakar S. Usman, a Tolu Ogunlesi, a Feyi Fawehinmi and a R.M Ajayi? Sometimes they get carried away but their mistakes if they make any at all are mistakes of the heart and not of the head.

So in direct response to your question I don’t think they are children of anger.

In fact many people are now familiar with the term ‘breath of fresh air’ and associate it with the good work the President is doing. However it may or may not surprise you to know that that term was actually first used by Tolu Ogunlesi in June of 2010 to describe the President. How can I celebrate Tolu for saying that and still believe he is a child of anger? No. He and others like him are Children of Promise!

You were based in the United States before now, why did you return?

I returned to Nigeria to serve Nigeria by working for the President to implement his Transformation Agenda.

Why do you think young Nigerians online are always critical of President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration?

It is a fallacy to say that Nigerians online are always critical of President Jonathan. Perhaps you deal in hearsays but I deal with facts. I challenge you to do a scientific analysis of the comments on the President’s facebook page when next he puts up an update. For instance, one of his last few updates had about twenty thousand comments! Yes, you heard me right, twenty thousand. It is still there. Go and check it out.

Now of those twenty thousand comments, the vast majority were positive. Many of them are messages of support. A lot are prayers. There were and will always be the nay Sayers. So even though a hostile media will go and select some of the more negative comments for publication, which in some cases are planted, those cannot drown out the overwhelmingly positive comments.

So I challenge you Mercy Abang to go and analyze the comments on facebook. Now for Twitter, you need to understand that Twitter is a medium for instant communication. Now for such a media when you have many competing voices you have to do something different, may be something shocking, in order to stand out. As such people are losing all sense of proportion in order to get instant notoriety on Twitter. This is a phenomenon that started in the U.S. and mind you, my then boss, Joe Trippi, wrote the bible for New Media engagement titled ‘The Revolution Will Not Be Televised’.

On Twitter, if given the choice, people choose to say what will get noticed over what represents their minds. In many cases, the object is not to communicate, it is to be popular. And if you ever went to High School or College in the States you know that the personality of the popular kids is a facade which quickly falls apart when they graduate from High School or College and move on to the real world.

But guess what Mercy? It is the real world that counts and when you consider the results of the last election in Nigeria, by this I mean the FCT council elections, you will notice that opposition parties and personalities are famous on Twitter, but that fame does not translate to the real world. In contrast, President Jonathan and his party are both loved and hated on Social Media but their performance in terms of increasing the GDP of Nigeria, revamping the rail ways and making it possible to travel from Lagos to Kano in 30 hours for 1500 Naira, ensuring a modest and continuing increase in electricity generation, has earned them popularity in the real world.

You would notice that even the most virulent critics of the President could not successfully sell the argument that the FCT elections were rigged because those elections were well monitored almost to the point of over monitoring. You, Mercy Abang, monitored that election. It was free, fair and credible. So what was the excuse of these opposition parties for their dismal performance especially when you consider that the FCT is a mini Nigeria and elections there tend to reflect the mood of the nation?

How is your relationship with Mallam Nasir Elrufai, tell us about that?

Mallam Nasir El-rufai was introduced to me sometime in 2008 by Pat Utomi who was then a client of the political consulting firm I worked for as a Vice President. He and I struck up a personal friendship and I found in him one of the most intelligent human beings I have ever met and I have met a lot of people all over the world. Malam Elrufai introduced me to Malam Nuhu Ribadu who visited California, played with my kids and inspired me by his love for Nigeria. I also found Malam Ribadu to be extremely intelligent.

In any case, after my introduction to El-rufai, I believed he was being unjustly treated by the late President Yar’adua and so I began to organize politically and with the media in his defense. This was completely free of charge. I never asked him for a dime. I worked at a major U.S. political consulting firm and I had resources that he knew of.

I have personal emails where Mallam El-rufai thanked me for my friendship and my generosity to him. The bible says the left hand should not know what the right hand has done in love so I will not mention what I did for him in detail but he knows. He wrote me and he acknowledged them.

El-rufai was quite touched by what I had done for him that he called my late father, Justice Jean Omokri, in 2010. He spoke to my father and according to him he thanked my father for what I had done for him. The reason why I say according to him is that my father died after speaking with El-rufai. El-rufai was the last person to talk to my father.

Sometime after I began to organize for him El-rufai contacted me that he wanted to reimburse me. I never asked him for it and I did not solicit for it. But he insisted and ended up mailing checks to me in California.

When I was first offered a political appointment the very first person I consulted was Mallam El-rufai. He advised me to take it. However I refused to take it and preferred to remain in California to watch events in Nigeria.

In October of 2010 El-rufai called me livid with anger. He was upset at me for the way I responded to Muhammadu Buhari who he was having a spat with (at that time I was writing lot of his releases and media interviews). He complained that I was too measured in my response and that I should have completely taken Buhari to the cleaners. I warned him that he was popular in the South and unpopular in the North and as such it was unwise of him to antagonize Buhari who was popular in the core North where he was trying to penetrate. He would not listen to me and the conversation ended.

Around the later part of 2010 based on confidential information that was exchanged amongst El-rufai, a confidante of his named Mohammed Salihu and myself, I was led to believe that El-rufai was going to contest in the 2010 election. We exchanged emails amongst ourselves on that basis and I was prepared to return to Nigeria. However, soon after those emails were exchanged I read in Leadership Newspaper that El-rufai had declared support for Buhari who he had had me attack only a few weeks earlier.

I called him and confronted him with the news and for the first time since I had known him Elrufai was at a loss for words. He told me after he gathered himself that the news was planted by Nuhu Ribadu as revenge for his not supporting him. I believed him.

Imagine my surprise when after this I saw Mallam El-rufai campaigning for Buhari. Put yourself in my shoes. How would you feel? I felt betrayed! This was a man who was angry at me because I would not unleash an attack on Buhari and now he was within weeks campaigning for this same man.

There and then my spirit departed from him.

I returned to Nigeria soon after and I still maintained contact with El-rufai. When he began his back page column on Thisday Newspapers, I had cause to disagree with him and I wrote rejoinders based on principle. As is typical with El-rufai, he overreacted. He commissioned people to leak selected emails we shared.

Let me say to him that he knows the types of emails we shared. If I was like him and I release the more confidential ones how would he feel? But I was not brought up that way and I leave him to God to judge. But let me still say that he is still one of the most intelligent men I have ever met. His main issue is that his emotional intelligence never peaked at the same level as his Intelligence Quotient. This is the main difference between him and Mallam Ribadu who remains a bosom and dear friend. I may be wrong, but from interaction with the two, I found that El-rufai’s intelligence is governed by ego while Ribadu’s is governed by conscience.

Will you recommend for the regulation of social media in Nigeria?

On the regulation of Social Media, I believe that it is enough to enlighten people of the dangers in Social Media. The case of Cynthia who was lured to Lagos and killed is a pointer to this. Beyond that I think Social Media should be left alone. It only helps to expose people to the young elite who have access to the Internet. Some people actually think they are getting more popular because of the type of things they say on Social Media. In actual fact they are only getting more notorious and famous. A lot of the time politicians and activists don’t realize that they do not need more fame. What they need is more credibility. And while their compartment on Social Media will continue to add to their fame they pay the price for that by way of loss of credibility. I am fortunate to have learnt such lessons in the States, so I don’t let myself get bothered by such people. By the time they realize what they have done to their image it will be too late.

Do you consider yourself an elite member of the Nigerian TwitterSphere in other words what is called the twitter Cabal?

I don’t consider myself to be an elite member of the Twitter cabal for the simple reason that I am a member of a different class. My first love is the gospel and I am irrevocably attached to that both in public and private. Secondly, I work for President Goodluck Jonathan. As such I have to be careful in that my words and associations can be inferred as endorsements when they were not intended as such. My philosophy is that you can’t misquote silence and you can’t misinterprete solitude.

You have been a panelist at the United States Institute of Peace, do you think your twitter presence, vis-a-vis the many controversy speaks of you as a man of peace?

What you have to understand is that on Social Media I speak as the President’s Special Assistant on New Media. There is nobody who speaks for a sovereign that does not become controversial.

Consider this; my mentor in life is Jesus Christ. He spoke for His Father. In fact John Chapter one calls Him the Word of God. People who opposed Jesus opposed Him because they were controlled by forces in opposition to His Father. Those forces are in opposition to His Father because they want to take His Father’s place. Jesus being a perfect Son will not stand idle while His Father’s enemies speak ill of His Father. And in defending His Father Jesus was considered controversial.

What happened while Jesus was on earth is still happening and will continue to happen until the end of this age because in any geo political space there can only be one sovereign however there are many pretenders to the throne. You don’t expect those who despise the sovereign to speak good about him and his messengers.

What is your response to Pius Adesanmi’s constant criticism of you.

Pius Adesanmi has written so much about me yet I have never written about him so I must conclude that it is the job of one of us to make the news while it is the job of the other to tell it. My destiny is to focus on the future so I can achieve great things through God working in me. Perhaps it is the destiny of my critics to focus on me and write about the great things God will achieve through me.

Kathleen Ndongmo, amongst other young Nigerians criticized Government’s policy on fuel subsidy, why did you single her out to rebuke?

On Kathleen, it is unfortunate that she did not understand why I did what I did. During the Fuel Subsidy issue she was on Twitter mobilizing people to gather at Surulere in Lagos against the government. Several people did that. Why did I single her out? She is a Cameroonian citizen and I felt that it was wrong for her to mobilize against the government of the nation that has welcomed her as a resident and I said in quote “Kathleen, you are a Cameroonian and you are welcome in Nigeria, but please allow Nigerians to react to their government’s policy”. Please go back and confirm if I have lied in the quote I just gave you. Now do you think Cameroonians will tolerate a Nigerian resident of Cameroon mobilizing Cameroonian citizens against an economic policy put in place by the Cameroonian government? If a U.S. Permanent Resident who is not a citizen tried that in America that is enough grounds for the U.S. government to withdraw such a person’s Green Card.

Now I ask you, what is rude or uncouth in what I just said? In response the young woman used some choice words on me for which I did not respond. The next day I got a call from a respected Nigerian journalist saying that Kathleen had called her saying that she received an anonymous call from the SSS and some people were saying that they would hold me responsible if anything happened to her. I am a strong believer in God. I prayed about that incident. I am reasonably certain that such an incident never occurred but let me give her the benefit of the doubt. However, I am completely certain that I never instigated anything like that. And I know God enough to know that when I pray over a thing I have NEVER failed to get justice from my Maker.

This is a kind of self-assessment, describe today’s Nigeria led by President Goodluck Jonathan.

In describing Nigeria under President Jonathan let me quote the words of Prime Minister David Cameron at his speech at the Conservative Party annual Conference on October 12th 2012. He said “We’ve been hearing about China and India for years but it’s hard to believe what’s happening in Brazil, in Indonesia, in Nigeria”. Nobody ever said that about Nigeria in the past. Now it is those who we once looked up to that are looking up to us. That is saying a lot about Nigeria and President Jonathan in my opinion.

Before President Jonathan assumed power Nigerians had only two choices if they wanted to travel between North and South. They could either go by road or by air. Today they have a third alternative. They can go by road for the price of 1500.

You as a journalist you now know how much is spent on feeding the hundreds of soldiers and other security agents in the villa because the president signed into law the Freedom of Information Bill into law. Prior to this act such types of information was not available to you. Only a man who has nothing to hide would do that.

Before President Jonathan Nigeria had 11 million children known as Almajiri outside the formal education system. But today, while there are still Almajiri on the streets of Nigeria, the President has intervened by providing 400 schools situated in all the 19 Northern states exclusively to cater for these itinerant scholars.

Before President Jonathan, the oil majors were sourcing all of their heavy equipment from outside our shores. But as a result of the signing into law of the Local Content Bill into law Shell was compelled to award a contract worth $50 Million to SCC, a Nigerian company, for the production of deep pressure underground pipes. Ditto for NigerDock which was awarded contracts to build platforms by the oil majors.

Thousands of young Nigerians have benefited from training and grants from between 2 to 10 million Naira in the Youth Enterprise with Innovation (YouWIN) scheme.

All these are proof positive that we have a leader who has vision and who will not lose focus in implementing the Transformation Agenda he promised Nigerians.

You are the pastor of the church, Mind of Christ Christian Center, tell us about your Pastoral calling by God.

I am passionately in love with the living God of The Bible. The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. The Only True God and Jesus whom He has sent. That is my first identity. All others flow from that. God has been very kind to me and I never planned to go into the ministry. It is not something I chose for myself. But God who knows better than I led me into the ministry and I have found my passion in fulfilling The Great Commission Jesus gave to His believers in Matthew 28;18-20. I have hit my harmonic C in these instructions “And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen.”

__________

Abang Mercy-Asu is a Journalist, a Public Relations Personnel and can be reached for interviews at epacampaign@gmail.com, follow her on twitter @abangmercy

Christiane Amanpour and our Stockholm Syndrome- By Reno Omokri

As we approach 2014, the year in which Nigeria attains her centenary, it may probably begin to enter the consciousness of Nigerians that this nation has been in existence for much longer than many had previously thought. Alongside this realization, would be a dawning that many of the issues we need to address, as a nation, have been decades in the making and common reasoning would make it obvious that there’s no magic fix for problems that took decades to create. You don’t go to the gym from the first time at age 40 – unfit and completely out of shape – do a set of bench presses and expect to walk out with muscles. There’s a law of process in nature and you either learn to harness it or you break yourself trying to bypass it.

And it is in recognition of this law that Nigeria’s literary icon, Professor Chinua Achebe, a man who has lived through 83 of the 99 years of which Nigeria has been in existence advised in his most recent best seller, There was a Country, that ”we must learn patience and not expect instant miracles”.

We live in a world that spins on its axis, but we remain unaware of this movement of the earth, conditioned by our relative minuteness to remain unconscious of this scientific fact. However, there are those committed to the specific knowledge of this force of nature, who are continually in observation of this phenomenon. Once in a while, those ignorant of the scientific facts attempt to argue with the scientists, calling them liars. These arguments don’t make the scientists liars. Disagreeing with facts doesn’t turn them to lies. Facts remain unmoved by disbelief or cynicism.

This ignorant and loud approach to disagreeing with facts is the unfortunate trend I have observed in the Nigerian social media space where an extremely loud minority hold the preconceived mindset that ‘if it is not happening to me, it is not happening in Nigeria’. This is an extremely shallow and narcissistic view.



Responsible self-leadership requires that if one decides to assume the position of a public commentator, as so many on social media wish to be, there is also a responsibility of widening one’s world view, so as not to mislead the people whom you desire as followers. A true leader is a fact seeker and follows the facts wherever they may lead. A true leader makes research based conclusions.

For example, you can’t sit in your home and conclude that since the power situation in the country has not improved where you live, that it hasn’t improved at all for others in the country. That in itself betrays a selfishness and a corruption of the narrative because you have reduced Nigeria to your locality and give off the impression that you are speaking of Nigeria as a nationality.

Celebrated CNN anchor, Christiane Amanpour did a show on the Super Bowl power failure in America and decided to ask CNN’s correspondent in Nigeria to do some OpenMic interviews on the power situation in our country. What happened? Vladimir Duthiers found a location in Lagos where he asked Nigerians to appraise the power situation in their country. Some people said it was terrible, some said it had improved. But CNN, for the purpose of sensationalism decided to edit out the voices that projected a positive report and only reported those who painted a sorry picture. By shutting down voices that she didn’t want to hear, Amanpour misled the world in her report and that’s very sad.



Why did Amanpour do this? Her show was a calculated attempt to cover the national embarrassment of the Super Bowl outage by ridiculing Nigeria and video testimonials of Nigerians affirming that power in their country had improved would not fit into her pre-conceived narrative of selling the misery of African nations to the world, hence they were not used in her report.



I am saying this with all seriousness and those who would accuse me of spinning the truth may want to listen to the audio of the unedited interviews here (http:///9wthgaq) And compare with what Ms. Amanpour presented to the world here (http:///bxnquvz)





On the issue of the power situation in Nigeria, there are some who may disagree that the power situation in Nigeria is improving but it is a fact. Nigeria in the last three years has increased from 2800 MWs to 4500 MWs.



Obviously, in a nation of 170 million people this is grossly insufficient, however, Nigerians ought to remember that between 1980 and 1999 no new investments were made in the power sector. In fact, the Egbin power station that was commissioned in the very early 80′s was the last power plant that was built in Nigeria before the launch of the National Integrated Power Project (NIPP) and the contract for that plant was awarded in the 70′s.



So how can we have a situation where our population increased for 20 years and no investments were made in building new power plants and Nigerians who remained silent all that time want to heap all the blame on the administration that is finally doing what ought to have been done? As Lord Denning said in the celebrated case of UAC vs Mcfoy, “you can’t place something on nothing and expect it to stand”!



It used to be back in the day that activists were people passionate about their nation, but accidental activists of today are passionate about power. They criticize ferociously using the foulest language but are themselves so intolerant of criticism and have a horde of impressionable youngsters who would unleash a torrent of insults on any one who dares criticize them.



And the reason these men masquerading as activities are able to hoodwink many in the theater of Social Media is because they have clued on to the psyche of the Nigerian netizen which is that cynicism is celebrated as intelligence.



For example, it is a natural and spiritual law that what you appreciate increases in value and occurrence. So for instance if a child shows good manners and you celebrate him or her, the child is likely to display good manners more often, not because he/she necessarily wants to be good mannered but because the child likes to be celebrated.



Now imagine that two children lived in a home and there was darkness and the first child who was eight years of age was given N16 and then sent on an errand to buy batteries for a rechargeable lamp. Imagine that he bought just one battery and this was not sufficient. And so the second child who was three was given N4 and went to the same store and instead of buying just one battery, he bought two which was still insufficient. Under what scenario would the older child who was given more money have the audacity to criticize the younger child who was given less money but bought more batteries for the house?





It would be tempting to say that no scenario could exist for such an eventuality. But, then you don’t know this house. The inhabitants of this house are so present-minded. They remember not the N16 and the one battery. It is in the past, and after all the 8-year-old has explained his frustrations with the battery buying system, and even gave a half-hearted apology and though he never brought back change, he was forgiven. In this house, the fault must be that of the 3-year-old, he’s the problem. Why? He managed to buy twice the number of batteries his 8-year-old bought with one-fourth of what his elder was given. Unfair, you may scream.



But that is the exact situation we find ourselves in Nigeria. A social media user expressed anger at me for celebrating the revival of Nigeria’s previously moribund railway networks and asked me if that was what obtained in America where I lived for many years. Apparently this fellow wasn’t taught that in making comparisons you should first compare what is with what was and only then can you appreciate progress.



Before the American rail system got to where it is, there was a consistent investment by several administrations who kept building on what they met, till they went from A to B to C all the way to Z.



Nigeria’s railways had been moribund for over a decade and rather than applaud the leadership that removed the shame of a nation some people expect that we can go from moribund to fast speed trains, which is akin to asking a child to move from crawling to running.



James Russell Lovell once wrote that “No one can produce great things who is not thoroughly sincere in dealing with himself”. As Nigerians, we have to be sincere with ourselves. We cannot allow our narrative to be hijacked by tragic heroes, who have written epistles to rubbish all those whose backs they have climbed on to success and praise those whose backs they still need to climb.



Is it not said that a slave who has seen his fellow slave buried in a shallow grave must know that he too will be so buried when his own time comes? Social Media is now the ladder on which bitter people who served in government and left under a cloud of disgrace want to climb to power. One only has to look back at what these disgruntled elements did to the people who helped them rise to power, to know exactly what the future holds for the people they are presently using.



I appeal to Nigerians, to resist this tendency to display the symptoms of Stockholm Syndrome where victims of abuse end up having sympathy for their abusers. Even if you believe there is nothing you can do to make Nigeria great, at least believe that Nigeria can be great. Don’t let bitter persons sap away your faith in your nation. Of course, there are a lot of challenges but things are getting better!



Disgruntled persons may tell you that our economy is not doing well, but the facts don’t support them. Let me present some of the facts to you. Only last year, the Clinton Foundation identified Nigeria as one of the ten fastest growing economies in the world.



On the 10th of October 2012 while addressing the Annual Conservative Party Conference, David Cameron said “We’ve been hearing about China and India for years but it’s hard to believe what’s happening in Brazil, in Indonesia, in Nigeria.”



His Undersecretary of State for Africa, Mr. Henry Bellingham said of Nigeria, “Nigeria has averaged growth of 8.9 per cent which is really stunning. Nigeria is the world’s fourth fastest growing economy with solid growth in the next five years and beyond; this is truly remarkable.”



When the papers reported that President Barack Obama had declared Nigeria the “world’s next economic success story” on August 26th 2012, I tweeted about it and somebody actually tweeted back in response saying, “what does he know of economics?!”



Some may disagree that poverty is reducing but it’s not a lie. According to the World Bank, poverty in Nigeria reduced from 48 to 46%. I did not make this up and the Federal Government has no control over these foreign individuals and institutions. They cheer for no team in the contest, so why would they lie?



Only this morning I woke up to the cheery news that Nigeria’s inflation had reduced to 9% the first time it has hit single digit in four years!



We can invest so much intellectual and emotional energy on painting a negative image of our country on Social Media and celebrate when Miss Amanpour makes Nigeria the butt of her jokes to a worldwide audience, but not everyone will be laughing in scorn. Some will actually be laughing all the way to the bank. And I know some of those who will be among this lot. Only three days ago Leadership Newspapers ran as its front headline the story “Exodus, The Movement of British-Born Nigerians… Back to Nigeria”.



While some Nigerians resident at home are getting carried away by the gospel of negativity being peddled by tainted persons, Nigeria is seeing a reverse brain drain of highly skilled Nigerians born in Europe and the Americas who know that in a world where many nations struggle with negative GDP growth there must be many things right about a nation with consistent 7% GDP growth.

Reno Omokri is Special Assistant to the President (New Media) and is on twitter @renoomokri

Observations & questions for today's emergency activists - By Reno Omokri

Article written by Reno Omokri - Special Assistant ( New Media) to the President.

Some emergency activist DID NOT leave the PDP until they failed to get what they wanted. Being frustrated doesn't make you a progressive!

Their narcissism is evident when they make an article that probably refers to them in passing all about them.

Their vanity is evident when they criticize everything in government and the past as bad except what they achieved.

They claim to be critics but their intolerance comes to light when others criticize them as their paid social media activists go on overdrive to attack you.

They know what they are doing to the future of youths desperate for attention. Their own children are there but won't be used for such attacks.

Look at the Timelines of their kids and that of their paid attack dogs. They reserve slave work for their hired hands and the honorable for their kids

After sending other people's kids on blasphemous errands they shift the blame on them when the stuff hits the fan.

Those kids blinded by acceptance they may never have gotten at home don't realize their futures are tainted by the voice of Jacob and hand of Esau show they put up.

They use desperate for attention kids to insult religious leaders/political enemies while their own kids show respect in preparation for honorable future roles.

Watch their language out of power. It is so intemperate that the unbiased objective bystander wonders what they will do if given power.

Why wait until they lost out in power to come and say the 'truth'? Patriots don't wait until they are out of power before speaking the truth. Truth is constant. It doesn't become truth only when you lose out.

Reno Omokri

Any entity that employs unauthorized killing as a principle in achieving whatever goal it aspires is EVIL. Henceforth it is evident that the evil of terror is not confined to a small group of fanatical Muslims youth that employ the tools of terror to achieve their goals or revenge any perceived injustice against them or against Muslims as they claim. The Evil of terror is bigger and greater than that. The Evil of terror knows no boundary, religious, ethnic or racial. Evil killers are found everywhere.

For the Muslims, we are very fortunate that only a small fraction of misguided youth have recently adopted this evil ideology. Islam has seriously condemned the unauthorized killing of souls. The authority in Islam only belongs to a government duly elected by the consensus of the Ummah. We therefore see that except for very few instances, Muslims do not commit murder. The rampant murder committed in the west, is as a result of the irreligious life the west has adopted and bears little with the clamor of gun control. In Yemen, the populace is armed yet such murders are not an occurrence because Islam instills in the individual the discipline of self-restrain and control and forbids taking of one’s life and that of the others too. This cannot be said about the other religions.

The more deadly evil, is that evil that camouflage behind the ‘government’s security agencies’ to kill innocent people either to perpetuate power or score some political goals. For instance in Nigeria we have seen how some Christian elements in the Nigerian security apparatus have been killers of innocent Muslims leaders for political reasons. Such elements are deadlier evil than boko haram. They aimed to destroy the Muslims as a whole by decapitating their leadership thus exposing the Ummah to perpetual subservience. That is why, Ababakar Tafawa Balewa, Sardauna, Akintola, and Gen Murtala all went victims of these terrorist.

These similar terrorist are still the ones now that are supposedly ‘leading’ the war against terror or war against boko haram. It is a double edge sword of r them. Kill Muslim leaders and kill the youth at the same time all under camouflage. They are entrenched in the security apparatus. They are retiring good Muslims in the armed forces to enable them perfect their evil plans they started since 1966. They think they are in control because they are blinded by hate, rancor and evil, they cannot see that their evil is exposed and evident. They cannot see that Allah Has taken up the fight against them since their intentions are evil. Kaduna was meant to be devoured like Maiduguri when Allah The Al-mighty stroke.

They cannot see that you don’t guaranty your life by killing others; you do that by giving life to others. They fantasize that they can keep power by evil machinations whereas power belongs to Allah. Nigeria can only know peace and stability when such evil elements of the security apparatus are flushed out of the system instead of the good diligent officers. This is the deadliest segment that has been neglected and the public should know and watch. Evil will never prosper.

May Allah protect us all from all Evil.

https://www.facebook.com/AhmadAbubakarMahmudGumi/posts/301580846629078

Jaji Church Bombing: I Saw Bomber Praying in His Car-Witness

A British Broadcasting Service (BBC) Hausa news report monitored in Kaduna, on Monday, reported an eyewitness, who craved anonymity, saying that minutes before the blast, he watched as the suicide bomber prayed inside the car. This behaviour is in tandem with the behaviour of other suicide bombers including the one that targeted Thisday Newspapers who smiled on camera and looked very happy before he took off in the direction of the Thisday offices to bomb it.

Meanwhile, Malam Nasir Elrufai, the pint sized controversial minister of the FCT has upset quite a few by continuing to mock the President of the Christian Association of Nigeria, Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor, for his gift of an 18 year old private jet. Some were of the opinion that after the suicide bombing at Jaji, it was distasteful for someone of Elrufai’s status to focus on Ayo’s jet rather than focus on condemning the terrorists.

Tunde Bakare, Oritsejafor and the Private Jet

RELIGIOUS leaders and members of the Northern Christian Elders Forum (NORCEF) have criticised Pastor Tunde Bakare of the Latter Rain Assembly, Lagos, over his comments that a revolution would consume religious leaders in the country, just as he condemned the acquisition of jets by renowned Christian leaders in Nigeria.

Reacting to Bakare’s comments, the chairman of the Northern Christian Elders Forum, Evangelist Matthew Owojaiye, said Bakare’s comments should be ignored.

In a similar reaction, Apostle Isa El-Buba, General Overseer of Evangelical Bible Outreach Ministries International, Jos, Plateau State, defended preachers who own jets, concluding that Bakare’s condemnation of these men of God was blasphemous. “There is nothing wrong for a preacher to own a jet. If people in the secular world can acquire jets for chief executive officers of big private enterprises, there is nothing wrong in giving gifts to a man of God of Pastor Oritsejafor’s standing. This is a man of God that travels across the whole world. He deserves what he has been given.”

Similarly, the General Secretary of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Reverend Musa Asake, flayed Bakare, saying: “What is wrong with giving a gift to Pastor Oritsejafor? Did Pastor Oritsejafor embezzle church money? Did he collect somebody’s money? Some people came together and bought it for him so as to ease his work. This is to help him to continue with the work of the gospel. Oritsejafor is a man of God. He is doing everything for the work of God.

“It is a welcome idea. I support people who help ministers of the gospel in their work. He did not go out to lobby for it. It was a surprise for him. I was at that occasion. I saw things myself,” he argued.

President of the Delta State Baptist Conference, Reverend Gideon Oyibo, exonerated Pastor Oritsejafor, saying there was nothing wrong with such gesture.

“The environment influences the way people talk. If you come from a family background of poverty and a member of the family is rich, people will conclude that he is a ritualist. They will conclude that he has stolen money, because in that family, the members do not expect anybody to be rich.

“In Nigeria, we have a traditional environment in which a pastor is expected to operate by our own evaluation. Whenever a pastor is living above our own evaluation, then we can say anything about that person.

“The question we should ask is that: did Pastor Oritsejafor ask for the jet? Did he beg for it? Or was it that certain people gathered together under the leading of God and decided to buy it and present it to him as a gift?

“These ministers of God travel from one place to the other frequently. What is morally wrong if their movement is eased by getting a jet? What is morally wrong if someone gets a car for the purpose of making transportation easy? What is wrong if a pastor is given a jet as a gift so as to contribute to the expansion of the gospel which the Lord has entrusted to his care?” He asked.

However, Archbishop Magnus Atilade called on Bakare to exercise caution in his utterances, especially at this period of the nation’s history, just as he argued that his reactions were not necessary.

“It is not good to reject any gift. What is expected is that once a person is given a gift, then it should be taken and put to the use that it is meant for. If it is not needed, then it can be converted to other things that can help for the work of the gospel.

“I urge Tunde Bakare to exercise temperance in his statements and utterances. Nothing should be condemned outrightly. The Bible kicks against being judgmental. Billy Graham had a means of a private jet which aided him in travelling round the world. If your ministry is as wide as that and you can afford it, then there is nothing wrong with that,” he said.

‘Shut Up’ El-Rufai Tells Okonjo-Iweala

The pint sized controversial former minister of the FCT, and now chieftain of the Congress for Progressive Change, Malam Nasir El-Rufai, has told the Coordinating Minister of the Economy and the Minister of Finance, Dr. Mrs. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, to either name those she claims are sponsoring Dino Melaye or “sharrap”. El-Rufai spoke on twitter and facebook. NaijaPundit exclusively brings you the FB message below.

This present rudeness is a surprising development considering that Okonjo-Iweala and El-Rufai were both members of the kitchen cabinet of President Olusegun Obasanjo. They both were also members of the Economic Management Team of that administration. But as it stands now, things have fallen apart and the center cannot hold.

http://www.naijapundit.com/news/shut-up-el-rufai-tells-okonjo-iweala

Thisday Newspapers Kicks Out Elrufai

Controversial pint sized former minister of the FCT and now chieftain of the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), Malam Nasir Elrufai, has been kicked out by Thisday from his regular Friday column on the black page of Thisday.

This was confirmed by a tweet by Elrufai himself (see tweet below)


Elrufai had been using the column to launch his personal attacks against his enemies and it is suspected that Thisday got tired of being used for a personal vendetta.

Amazingly, the controversial pint sized former minister of the FCT and now chieftain of the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), Malam Nasir Elrufai, has accused Nigerian youths of being lazy and quick to judge.

Elrufai made the accusation today on the Social networking site, Twitter (see twits below)


Elrufai was apparently reacting to the youths who regularly accuse him of corruption and high handedness when he was in office. Elrufai is currently facing a corruption charge at an Abuja court bordering on the lands he seized from legitimate owners and reallocated to friends and his wives and Underaged son.

Amazingly the same Elrufai who is so sensitive to criticism regularly insults the person of the President of Nigeria on his facebook and twitter profile, using foul words to describe President Jonathan.

It may be recalled that Elrufai had asked Nigerians not to vote for Muhammadu Buhari in October of 2010 alleging that Buhari was too old to be president and that he was primordial having chosen his military vice, Tunde Idiagbon, from the same region (North) as himself. However, just two months after making that statement, Elrufai became one of Buhari's chief campaigners asking Nigerians to vote for the man he had condemned only weeks ago!

Sir P!:
i know this isn't related to the thread but pls who knows how long it takes to get a gtb master card

A week. In Lagos Head Office, could be same day (depending)

holladapooo: All my docs was perfect but I was refused under d excuse that they were unable to verify my waec certificate, cos waec didn't respond to dem. My latest start date is oct 15th, am thinking of getting a sealed confirmation from waec addressed to d embassy& then re-apply.but Am considering Time factor. Any 1 with any suggestion.

Call your school on phone and speak to them (dont do email). You might get further extension in writing, then go ahead an apply again with your extenstion letter and sealed confirmation from WAEC.

kayslimshady: God did it for me, I got it today!!! This forum has been wonderfl. A vry big thnk you to evry1. And for those still waiting, holdon he will surly do it for you.

Congrats.

Adiahabasi: Hi everyone,pls hw much is d maximum one can withdraw from an ATM in UK using a Nigerian Master card,first bank to be precise.

Ask your bank. You can also request they increase the withdrawal limit if necessary.

Charlesbro: I want to say a big THANK YOU to Justwise, Charles E. and others ,who contributed immensely to the success of this great forum and trend... I GOT MY ENTRY CLEARANCE yesterday.... Thank you all, God bless you. For those of you still waiting, please be patience... it took exactly 26days for my VISA to be out....God is Kind...

Please do anyone know how i can get a cheap ticket for saturday? direct ticket... maybe from 400 to 500 pounds?

thanks

Congrats man. GOD never fails.

Sorry guys. Been away. Cousin applied 6th September at Abuja, visa was ready morning of 26th Sept. Exactly 15 working days.

Visa Granted!!!

GLORY TO GOD ALMIGHTY.

Vinzz: Hello House!
How can a Nigerian who had studied abroad serve the fatherland? Bearing in mind that the university is not recognised by the National Universities Commission {NUC}. Thanks 2 ya'all.

Funny! As long as your Uni is approved as an educational institution by the authorities in whichever country you school, then NUC certainly cannot stop you from serving in Nigeria.

cosmatoz: @house @justwise @charles .E, can't say a big enough thank you to you guys, did not comment much on this forum but allowed your reply and comments guide me, i got my visa today, was stamped after 12 working days. Thanks thanks and once again thanks, may God reward all your efforts. By the way who is going to glasgow?

Congrats. GOD was/is always faithful as he promised.

Nbogu: Dear charles,

I come to you this morning with a heavy heart. I and my spouse were unexpectedly refused to board on arrival to lagos airport on the 20th. The reason being that I told the air flight agent that I was pregnant. He did not really have problem with that because I was about 5 months pregnant, it was the British high commission representative at the airport that started making phone calls about our case. She later told us that we can not fly until we go to British High Commission to have a talk with them. We quickly went there. But the outcome was heartbreaking as our visas were revoked on the ground that I did not mention it in my application form that I was pregnant, that my course started since 13th but I intentionally did not travel till 20th therefore, I am not a genuine student and that my aim was to go and give birth in the uk and recourse to public fund not to study.

Regarding my spouse, they said he did not mention in his form that his wife was pregnant. They called our offence false representation. And that our refusal was based on paragraph 320 (7A).

We did not intend to do all that, we did not see any need to mention that I was pregnant as there was no question in that regards on the application forms. I feel so down. I don't know if I should request an administrative review.

Again, I don't know if this will affect my future applications.

Please tell me what this might mean to me now and my future travel plans. Advice me on what to do to come out of this mess. I need you and any one that can help on this forum more than ever.

God bless you

This is certainly one of the kind of news I detest reading. I guess I have too much empathy in me. I am not familiar with the Paragraph 320 (7A) that they refer to and if the said paragraph comes with any consequences if violated.

However, if they have given you an option for administrative review, please prepare a water-tight case and do just that.

Justwise , please I hope you can assist with the request above as regards the Paragraph 320 and if it means anything deeper.

CBN Governor, Sanusi, is the Only Brain in GEJ's Govt-Elrufai

Pint sized controversial former minister of the FCT and chieftain of the Congress for Progress Change (CPC), Malam Elrufai, has sensationally criticized President Jonathan for succumbing to the wishes of the Nigerian people by suspending the introduction of the 5000 note. According to Elrufai, the CBN governor, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi is the only person with a brain in the government of President Jonathan. Unknown to many, the CBN Governor, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi is also married to the younger sister of one of the three wives of the pint-sized ex-minister.
Read More


The controversial former minister also said the President is indecisive and fickle.

He said this on his profile on twitter and NaijaPundit exclusively brings you the tweets below.

holloziggi: jst got a txt frm vfs that my passport is ready 4 collection,jst pray 4 me all,I hope 2share d gud news on monday

In GOD we Trust!

holladapooo: sigh....Thanks. At this point i guess all i got to do is to keep praying.

I have a friend who received her text on the 15th working day (11th Sept) and collected her visa the next day which was 12th September, 2012. On collecting her passport, she saw it was stamped since the 7th of September. Means this stuffs are processed faster but maybe administrative processes keep them till 15 days.

Charlesbro: @Justwise, @Charles E. ....Do you know of anyone who resumed school after the latest date of resumption due to delay in Visa application ? what was their experience like with the Uk boarder Agency...?

I know no one who has been in that situation, but if thats gonna be your case, you have to inform the school first and see if they are gonna give u another extension based on ur peculiar case. Lest u might have problems with ur school, thats if u go past Border Control.