₦airaland Forum

igbodefender:
Why did Awo's supporters in the military carry out a coup that killed many great Nigerians? The January 1966 coup plotters clearly stated that their aim was to make Awolowo Prime Minister. Awolowo was then in jail after being convicted of coup plotting in 1962.

Read Why We Struck by Ademoyega, one of the January 1966 coup plotters. Nzeogwu, Ademoyega, Ifeajuna and co should have retired from the army and campaigned for their hero Awolowo in elections, rather than carry out their coup.

I have read Why We Struck by Ademoyega. It says nothing about the false conclusion you are presenting. The book is a good read and exposed the greed for power that led to fall of democracy in Nigeria. It detailed the injustices that was perpetuated by the ruling class to retain power and how Azikiwe lacked the courage to do the right thing when he was briefly in power during the election impasse to put Nigeria on the right path because of selfish interest. Frankly, after reading that part, I lost every interest in Biafra agitation. You guys have sealed your fate and every passing day your actions have shown that you will destroy your yourself and by yourself. Every tribe has their contributions to the present challenges we are facing. But when youths choose to put ethnicity above truth they will never make progress. You never pointed out how Azikiwe repeatedly aided the north for his selfish reasons, how Ironsi demolished the regional structure that we are now agitating for or how Ojukwu began a senseless war and ran away because of his own selfish interest. Awolowo has been your nightmare and you will never be free from that nightmare until you tell yourselves the truth.

jrusky:
But balotelli did not say anything wrong for anyone to be attacking him. To be honest the party Iwobi stood for has a terrible record in racial discrimination and at a point people thought Iwobi will change things within the party but at a stage he put up a full black bastard behaivor.

I followed his campaign and his interview on several platform I'm not too impress that is the truth. I'm so sure God must be regretting the day he created black race because too many bastards low lives among the black. If you have lived in US you will understand how some bastards African Americans hate us from African with passion same the animals in South Africa will protect the white and went on street to kill their fellow black.

And for my people I think soon the chest beating will begin because I can see the name *Iwobi*soon e-war will start.

Get live*

You must have a very low self esteem about yourself and your colour for you to say that God must be regretting the day He created the black race. Obviously, you also have limited information about other races throughout history and what they have done. Rather than categorize the evil done among black people because you have been overwhelmed by the superiority play by other races (mind you all the other races have their fair share of evil practices) you should either be a shining light or keep your peace.

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Ajaokuta: Witnesses throw up can of worms at Reps sectoral hearing



ABUJA—Witnesses at a sectoral debate on the revival of moribund Ajaokuta Steel Company organised by House of Representatives, yesterday, revealed that politicians and government officials frustrating the completion of the complexity.

They also stated that the balkanization of the complex, which had given vents to moves to concession the complex, was being championed by officials with vested interest.

In the meantime, the House of Representatives has directed the Federal Government to halt the concessioning moves.

The House also resolved to set up a powerful adhoc committee to probe all the allegations raised about the consessioning and the completion of the company.

Testifying before the House, one of the witnesses, Hadiza Akpoti, specifically fingered Governor of Kogi State, Yaya Bello as one of those deeply involved in the Ajaokuta Steel Complex scam.

In her presentation, Akpoti alleged that Global Infrastructure, the concessionaire of the steel complex has a direct link with Gov Bello, who probably is a co-owner of the company registered with the Corporate Affairs Commission,CAC, as Ajaokuta Company Ltd.

She said: “The government of Shehu Yar’Adua had indicted Global Infrastructure after an administrative panel had recommended it should not run the affairs of the complex.”

The company went into arbitration and finally won and the Goodluck Jonathan government paid Global Infrastructure $525million as compensation.

A former Attorney General in the Yar’Adua government was said to have played a prominent role to ensure the company won.

Regrettably, Akpoti said:  “It’s this same company that has returned as concessionaire working with a company suspected to be owned by the Governor of Kogi State.”

The witness also stated that she had made several calls to the Economic and Crimes Commission, EFCC to reopen the case against Global Infrastructure but to no avail.

“Last year, we wrote to EFCC several times to reopen the case because we believe that a crime against Ajaokuta is a crime against Nigeria”, she said.

Akpoti also numbed the argument that Nigeria lacked the financial capabilities to complete the project.

“If the Minister of Finance were to be here, I would have asked a very. Important question. How can we say that Nigeria doesn’t have the financial capabilities to revive Ajaokuta? It is not true. We do have funds.”

Also revealing the participation of the former minister of Justice, Mr. Mohammed Adoke, the activitst cautioned against concessioning the complex to individuals.

“Concession agreement by Adoke in Jonathan’s era. Did he review the agreement of the same agreement.

“Ajaokuta is too important to be in the hands of one individual. A company that as it is should be the property of the federal government of Nigeria. The idea that somebody can own such a magnificent building create an uncontrollable greed.”

She also asked the federal government to turn to the loots stashed in foreign accounts by the former Head of State, Sanni Abacha as an avenue to fund the project.

Other presenters which included Comrade Isa Aremu from the Nigerian Labour Congress, NLC, Engr. Sanusi Mohammed, Chairman, African Iron and Steel Producing Countries had underscored the importance of the complex to the Nigerian economy, asking the lawmakers to stand against its concessioning.

Halt concession, Reps tell FG

Suspicious of under-hand dealings in the unapproved concessioning of Ajaokuta Steel Company, the House of Representatives asked the Federal Government to halt the moves.

The House also resolved to set up an high powerful adhoc committee to investigate all allegations, indictments and factors militating against the completion and operation of the company, said to have the capacity of generating millions of jobs for Nigeria.

Members of the House while taking the decision expressed concerns that government could fathom such thought to commit an-all important sector of the economy into the hands of a few individuals.

In his contribution, the Deputy Speaker of the House, Yusuf Lasun, said:  “We are not ready for development. It touches on how we are running our government.’’

Also, the leader of the House, Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila said the ministry of Solid Minerals and Steel Development should halt the concession moves.

He said: “That the ministry should put hold on whatever they are doing. How does a nation concession a company that has the potential of manufacturing weapons? It is unconstitutional to concession a major sector of the economy. I think it’s time to roll our sleeves and dig deep on what is going on with Ajaokuta.”

Also speaking, Aminu Shagari from Sokoto State recalled that a certain European had boasted that Nigeria wouldn’t be made another “Japan” of Africa.

“Most of what we need to do about Ajaokuta steel company has already been said. A highly placed European told my Dad that we cannot allow Nigeria to be another Japan of Africa”, he said.

On her part, Betty Apiah from Rivers State suggested the setting up of an adhoc committee to probe the matter.

“The House should set up an adhoc committee to collate the various perspectives”, she said.

Tajudeen Yusuf stated that “No country would love Nigeria better that Nigerians. Corruption has no party affiliation. Let’s commit ourselves to see this to the end.”

Ruling on the matter, speaker of the House, Yakubu Dogara, said that the company must not be concessioned.

He said: “All of us are deeply touched. It must not be concession. Concession to Global Infrastructure wouldn’t work. The decsion of this house is that we will constitute a powerful adhic commiitee and I want to implore the Minister and all those working with him to avail themselves of this opportunity to cooperate with the committee.

“Halt any further plans to concession. Until that adhoc committee is able to turn in their decision. There is no country out there that will help us except if we do this moreso now we are borrowing money from China. When we talk about the money, we have the money and I believe we can find unless we are not serious.”

Reps pass vote of no confidence on Ministers Fayemi, Bawa

Earlier, the House had passed a vote of no confidence on the Minister of Solid Minerals and Steel Development, Dr. Kayode Fayemi.

Equally declared unfit to occupy a portfolio in public office was the Minister of State for Mines and Steel Development, Abubakar Bawa Bwari.

The vote followed the non-appearance of the two ministers to the sectoral debate.

Most members of the House had taken turns to describe their non-appearance as a contempt to the House and executive recklessness.

This came after speaker of the House, Dogara read a series of communications between the ministers and the leadership of the House in response to their invitation to the debate.

The Ministers through the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry, Abubakar Mu’azu, had cited foreign engagements as their reasons for not attending to the debate, subscribing to the concessioning as the only option available to the government.

Pained by the position of the Ministers, especially their non appearance. the House Leader, Femi Gbajabiamila said in a motion: “ I now move that this House does move a vote of no confidence on the two ministers of the federal republic of Nigeria.”

In his remarks, the Speaker of the House, Dogara warned that it would be an exercise in futility to “fight” the House.

He said: “It will amount to stupidity for anyone to engage in a box match with the institution of the legislature. We represent the people. We were elected and the Perm Secretary wasn’t elected and that the difference. If they choose to engage us this way, because they are our friends, we can only wish them hard luck.”

Why we passed vote of no confidence on the ministers-House Spokesman

Briefing journalists after the sectoral debate, spokesman of the House, Abdulrazak Namdas, said the ministers showed no respect for the institution of legislature.

He said: “Their action simply point to the fact that they have no respect for the legislature and make people insinuate that there’s crisis between the executive and the legislature.

“The essence of organizing the debate is to enable the ministers meaningfully contribute to the debate and proffer the way forward but see how they rubbishes the whole exercise.

“The steel industry has potential of employing over 20,000 workers yet they chose to treat it with levity.”

Reacting to the vote of no confidence passed by the lawmakers, the Minister of Mines and Steel Development, Dr Kayode Fayemi, said it was unfair for the legislators to categorise their absence as a boycott, even as he described their action as “most unwarranted and unfortunate.”

Special Assistant to the minister, Mr Yinka Oyebode, stated that “while the offices of the two ministers have been inundated with countless media enquiries regarding their absence shortly after the pronouncement, it is important to state unequivocally that the inability of the two ministers to attend the debate was duly communicated to the leadership of the House in two separate letters.

“One then wonders why the House members took such a draconian stance against the two ministers who have very cordial relationships with the National Assembly. It is rather unfair for the House members to categorise the ministers absence as “boycott”, when they were adequately notified.

“Tolerance and moderation are essential ingredients in public service engagement. In this particular case, they appear to be in short supply and the ministry believes that there is more than meets the eye on this matter.

‘’After all, the ministers are always willing to engage the honourable House and its leadership at all times. It is on record that Fayemi was the first minister to address the sectoral debate in 2016 and the Ajaokuta Steel Complex was extensively addressed on that occasion.

‘’Subsequently, the House Committees on Privatisation and Public Petitions held special sessions on Ajaokuta and the Minister of State, Bawa Bwari, addressed the members on those two occasions. Given this past record, today’s action is most unwarranted and unfortunate.”


https://www.vanguardngr.com/2018/03/ajaokuta-witnesses-throw-can-worms-reps-sectoral-hearing/

Give me more time to decide on 2nd term, Buhari tells APC Govs




Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari has, Thursday, asked Governors under the All Progressives Congress, APC, party to give him more time to decide if he would seek a second term in office come 2019. President Muhammadu Buhari President Buhari who had a closed-door meeting with the APC governors at the First Lady’s wing of the presidential villa, Abuja, on Thursday, told them he needed more time to carry out consultations before deciding.

Disclosing this to State House Correspondents shortly after the meeting, the Chairman of APC Governors Forum and Governor of Imo state, Rochas Okorocha, said that President Buhari would address the nation and the caucus of the APC on the matter at the appropriate time. President @MBuhari is in a meeting with members of the Progressive Governors’ Forum (PGF) at the State House. Earlier today the President chaired a Meeting of the National Council of State, focusing on Security, the Economy, and other issues.

Governor Okorocha also revealed that all the APC governors wanted the President to seek re-election in 2019. He also said that Nigerians would be better off if President Buhari seeks re-election. According to him, “We discussed so many issues that affect the nation, our party and Mr President’s ambition to run for 2019 elections.

“Anyhow, Mr President in his usual manner has requested that we give him time and that he will address the nation and the caucus of the party very soon. “So, we should be full of expectations that Mr President will make it known to Nigerians his intentions officially. “But we hope that his response will be in line with what the governors are thinking,’’ he said.” Okorocha also said that, “We believe that if he continues Nigeria will be better for it.’’

Read more at: https://www.vanguardngr.com/2018/02/give-me-more-time-to-decide-on-2nd-term-buhari-tells-apc-govs/

Gov. Ganduje accepts Accountant General’s resignation

ON FEBRUARY 22, 20189:43 PMIN NEWSCOMMENTS

Gov. Abdullahi Ganduje‎ of Kano State has accepted the resignation of the state Accountant-General, Hajiya Aisha Bello who resigned volunterily on Thursday.

This is contained in a statement signed by the state commissioner for information, Malam Muhammad Garba‎ and made available to newsmen in Kano on Thursday.

The Governor thanked Bello for the service she rendered to the state as Commissioner of Budget and later Accountant General of the state.

He then wished her God’s guidance in her future endeavours.

The statement added that the Director, Treasury in the Ministry of Finance, Malam Shehu Mu’azu, would serve as the Acting Accountant General.

The statement further added that thorough investigation of the management of state finances including contracts payment, salary payments and alleged salary deduction, among others, by the state Public Complaints and Anti Curruption Commission will continue.

“Government takes appropriate necessary measures on the management of the offices of the Accountant General and Sub-Treasurer pending the final conclusion of the investigations,” it added.

Newsmen recalled that the Accountant-General, Hajiya Aisha Bello, on Thursday tendered her resignation to the Kano State governor, Dr. Abdullahi Ganduje even though she did not state reason for her action.Fgh

https://www.vanguardngr.com/2018/02/gov-ganduje-accepts-accountant-generals-resignation/

2019: How Sultan Of Sokoto Clashed With Gov El-Rufa’i, Mobilized Monarchs To Boycott Kaduna Centenary



The clash between the Sultan of Sokoto Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar III and Kaduna State Governor Nasiru El-Rufa’i over 2019 was the reason behind the boycott of the Kaduna Centenary celebration by northern governors and some prominent traditional rulers, this newspaper reliably gathered.

Multiple sources at the Kaduna Centenary secretariat told our correspondents that the anniversary was almost sabotaged by the Sokoto monarch, who is the spiritual head of Nigerian Muslims over irreconcilable differences with the Kaduna state governor over 2019 presidential elections.

“The fact remains that the northern traditional rulers, the state governors are sharply divided over the 2019 presidential elections. That ugly incident vividly played out at the Kaduna centenary celebration. Some of the governors and traditional rulers are not even on speaking terms,” the source at the Kaduna centenary secretariat confided in this newspaper.

One of the sources narrated how the incident played out culminating in the Sultan mobilizing some state governors and traditional rulers to stay away from the event at the last minute.

Governor El-Rufai, it was gathered, first announced during a Northern Governors Forum (NGF) meeting that his administration was organising a one hundred years anniversary of Kaduna as the defunct capital of Northern Nigeria. British colonial master Sir Frederick Lord Lugard moved the northern capital from Zungeru in present Niger State to Kaduna in 1916.

At the meeting, El-Rufa’i rolled out the events scheduled at the centenary that included a colloquium, musical events, workshops, among others. But the Sultan observed that a durbar was missing on the list. He said excluding the durbar means excluding the traditional institutions from the important event.

“It was therefore agreed at the meeting that a durbar should be part of the event and a committee was established purposely to coordinate it. And the Sultan appointed former Inspector General of Police, Ibrahim Coomassie (Sardaunan Katsina) as chairman of the durbar committee. Coomassie was to work with a larger centenary committee, which the membership of all northern states Secretaries to the State Governments (SSGs),” the insider said.

Some weeks to the event, the Kaduna state government sent money to the traditional rulers scheduled to participate at the event “for logistic support.” It was at that stage that some northern state governors who are nursing presidential ambition felt that El-Rufa’i was trying to use the durbar “to kickstart Buhari’s 2019 presidential campaign; and therefore, vowed to scuttle it,” another source said.

The insider said “The Sultan and Governor Aminu Tambuwal of Sokoto state felt that the durbar was going to be used as a campaign platform for the president and thus decided to boycott it, having earlier agreed to attend and contribute funds for it during the NGF meeting. They believed that the durbar was being organised by El-Rufa’i as a launching pad for Buhari’s presidential campaign.”

On the other hand, the Sultan started mobilizing leading northern emirs, asking them to stay away from the event. “The Sultan called Emir of Katsina Abdulmuminu Usman, Emir of Gwandu Muhammadu Iliyasu, Emir of Daura Umaru Faruk, Emir of Argungu Muhammad Sama’ila Mera, Emir of Gusau Ibrahim Aliyu, Etsu Nupe Yahaya Abubakar, and Emir of Kano Muhammadu Sanusi II, asking them to stay away from the centenary durbar,” the source inside the centenary secretariat said.

On his part, after sensing the eminent boycott, Governor El-Rufa’i chartered an aircraft and flew to Sokoto on that fateful Friday to “beg the Sultan.” But on his arrival, the Sultan refused to take his phone calls. “Governor Tambuwal had to meet him at the guest house where he lodged. Tambuwal used his mobile to call the Sultan. When the Sultan picked, he handed the phone to El-Rufa’i but the Sultan dropped the call when he heard El-Rufa’i’s voice,” the source privy to the incident said.

While most of the leading emirs obliged the Sultan’s request, those of Kano, Zazzau, Hadejia, Gombe, and Shehu of Borno, clearly “revolted” and ignored the Sultan’s order by attending the durbar. Another source said Emir Sanusi told Governor Ganduje that he won’t stay away from the durbar because “Nasiru (El-Rufa’i) is his bosom friend.”

While the Emir of Gusau almost “ran into trouble with Governor Abdulaziz Yari because he acceded to the Sultan’s request. The emir collected the El-Rufai’s money for logistic support and the Zamfara state government gave him money as well. So, there was serious confusion when he finally said he wouldn’t attend,” our insider said.

Shehu of Borno Abubakar Ibn Umar Garbai El-Kanemi and Emir of Zazzau Shehu Idris also defied the Sultan and attended the durbar. “Shehu Borno said his kingdom isn’t part of the Sokoto Caliphate to be dictated to, by the Sultan. While Emir of Zazzau said the centenary durbar is an opportunity for the traditional rulers to converge and showcase their cultural regalia,” the source said.

In the case of Etsu Nupe, his entourage was already in Kaduna for the event when the Sultan asked him to back out. “The Etsu Nupe was in his guest house in Kaduna and his horses were even at the venue. But he still stayed away because of the Sultan,” the source said. dent told this newspaper.

Sources told this newspaper that the crack in the northern governors’ rank may continue to deepen as 2019 elections draw nearer. “Some northern governors like Tambuwal are nursing presidential ambition. They are, therefore, not happy with President Buhari’s overbearing alliance with El-Rufa’i,” another source said.

El-Rufa’i may have also coveted for himself the wrath of the Tambuwal and Sultan’s camp when he recently mobilised governors to perform series of “visitations of allegiance” to the President – all for 2019 presidential elections.

This newspaper further learned that it was in protest of the Kaduna incident that the Sultan took the 9th General Assembly of the National Council of Traditional Rulers of Nigeria to Rivers state, controlled by the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), led by Governor Nyesom Wike.

The traditional rulers’ security summit in Port Harcourt, according to insiders, may not be unconnected with a 2019 project where Tambuwal is contemplating pairing with Wike in a presidential ticket, another source said.

Insiders said both the northern traditional rulers and the governors are sharply divided over 2019, “with most of the governors such as Tambuwal, working with some eminent traditional rulers, looking for alliances and political platforms outside the APC, and beyond the shores of the north.”

The Sultan, another insider said, whose relationship with President Buhari is at its lowest ebb, may likely be working on the same wavelength with the former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s coalition movement. “It’s an open secret that there is no love lost between the Sultan and Buhari’s administration. He never hides his disdain for Buhari’s presidential ambition long before now. And Buhari’s ineptitude and glaring inefficiency have so far provided him with enough reasons to work against him in 2019.”

His romance with Governor Tambuwal is becoming stronger and bonding by the day which “explains Tambuwal generosity towards him. This is evident by the Sokoto state government’s controversial purchase of the N700 million guest house in Abuja for the Sultan, as well as appointing him to chair the heavily budgeted Education Revitalisation and Strengthening Committee in the state. "

http://247ureports.com/2019-sultan-sokoto-clashed-gov-el-rufai-mobilized-monarchs-boycott-kaduna-centenary/

‘Black Panther’ Is the Highest Rated Superhero Movie Ever


Looking back, it’s almost funny to think that there was such concern about Black Panther getting sabotaged on Rotten Tomatoes. In a bizarre end to a head-scratching anti-Disney conspiracy theory, disgruntled DC fans were organizing widespread efforts to tank the movie’s user score on the internet review aggregator as some kind of vengeance on its studio for allegedly buying off critics and, by proxy, lowering the score of rival DCEU movies (of course ignoring the fact that those movies were, except for Wonder Woman, terrible).

This is the same effort that lead to The Last Jedi netting an acutely negative user score. That was in spite of its incredibly high critic score and numerous other score aggregators posting uniformly positive reception from general audiences toward that movie.



But the plot, such as it was, was uncovered. Rotten Tomatoes took measures to guard its website from conspiratorially negative review bombings. The movie came out to unilateral praise. The world kept turning.

And now Black Panther stands as the highest reviewed superhero movie in the website’s history. It debuted with a 100% rating not all that long ago, and while movies inevitably shift and settle in the days after their release to a somewhat lower score, Black Panther has barely moved at all. As of this writing, it has dropped a mere two points among critics: from a 100% to a 98%.




This beats out its next-highest competition, The Incredibles, by a single percentage point. It beats out the highest rated Marvel TV series, Agents of SHIELD, by three points. It beats out the highest rated Marvel Netflix series, Luke Cage, by five points. It beats out the highest rated DC movie, The Dark Knight, by four points. It is, simply put, at the top of its field.

Admittedly its audience score is somewhat less than what one would imagine it to be. While 74% is still an extremely positive score, it is worlds behind its nearly perfect critic score. And given that these are usually the kinds of movies that go over better with genera audiences than critics, it might just be that a few anti-Marvel trolls snuck through to artificially lower the movie’s user score. If that even is the case, though, it clearly hasn’t succeeded on the level that it was planned for and Rotten Tomatoes’ methods, whatever they are, have been sound enough to curtail the worst offenders.



So if you’re the kind of moviegoer that only wants to see the very best that the medium has to offer, the data holds that Black Panther is your best bet. It is a beloved movie that the movie world is bending over backwards to praise however it’s able to. It is doubtless one of this year’s must-see offerings.


http://www.tvovermind.com/movies/black-panther-highest-rated-superhero-movie-ever?utm_source=Cultural+Commentary&utm_campaign=788393f34c-Jim%27s+Daily+Article+%281%2F12%2F18%29&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_51f776a552-788393f34c-274016129&mc_cid=788393f34c&mc_eid=c27bd64241

2019: Why north cannot produce consensus candidate – Junaid Mohammed



•Says Buhari has failed and should not be voted again
•Reveals that  APC members are behind the revolt against him

How time flies. In the build up to the 2015 elections, Dr.  Junaid Mohammed, a leading northern politician, was
one of those who campaigned vigorously for the election of Muhammadu Buhari as Nigeria’s president. Strangely, barely three years into Buhari’s presidency, Junaid is now leading the pack to stop Buhari from going for a second term, accusing him of promoting corruption and nepotism.


Mohammed: Buhari has failed and should not be voted again
In an interview with Saturday Vanguard, he said Buhari should go home and rest instead of thinking of a second term, having failed Nigerians woefully during his first term which is yet to end
Excerpts:

You must have lifted for joy when both former presidents Olusegun Obasanjo and Ibrahim Babangida wrote statements on why President Buhari should not be considered for a second term

To be honest, none of the two letters came to me as a surprise. They merely reinforced what I have been saying in the last two or three years ago. I have been shouting to the roof top that the Buhari government is full of his family members most of who have no qualification to occupy such positions. I have been shouting but no one was listening that the government was promoting corruption at the highest level while shouting about leading anti-corruption war.

The so-called anti-graft war by the present government is a fraud meant to persecute only those in opposition who stole money but done in a way to protect and defend some others to loot the treasury and go free. You can see that while the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission is pursuing those in the opposition who looted the treasury before the 2015 election, some top officials in the present government who have stolen money are either not arrested and detained or at best investigated.

Members of the National Assembly are doing their best in the Senate and in the House of Representatives and some of the ex-governors are doing their best to make sure that the corruption war is defeated. Nobody can deny that; not even the president himself.

In fact, the mere fact that Buhari has been unable to come to the assistance of the anti-corruption agencies now being ridiculed by corrupt persons in his administration clearly demonstrates that this is not an honest or sincere war. It is selectively being fought and the worse abusers of the commitment to fight against corruption are friends and relations of the president himself.

But that sounds like an irony because even Obasanjo acknowledged that they have fairly done well in the war on corruption and insecurity.

That was a self-seeking assessment by Obasanjo to protect another soldier. Since he found nothing to praise as far as this man’s performance in government is concerned, he had to come up with something good to say about the man. Sentiments are also affecting performance of the military in the fight against insecurity.

On the fundamental issue of the economy; I have always described Buhari as lacking on economic matters. He does not know much about the economy and we cannot continue to pretend that he knows anything about it. This man does not know a thing about economy or managing it in order to move Nigeria out of the doldrums.

But even the Borno state Governor himself Kashim Shettima has openly praised the generals for working hard to thin out the insurgents in the Northeast and paving the way for displaced persons to return home.

Shettima must have been speaking not as the Governor of Borno State, but as a politician and a very ambitious politician for that matter. Secondly, I believe that if the war had been fought professionally and without some strings attached to it, it would have long been won.

But how do we place you in this country? You criticised former President Goodluck Jonathan until he left office. You campaigned for the election of Buhari but now you are asking him to quit. Some people may begin to ask what do you really want from every government that comes to power.

Simple reason. I have always believed in assessing people on the level of their performance on ground. I was not praising Buhari because I believed Buhari was an angel.   I never believed in angels being in politics anyway. I believed that during the unfortunate civil war, Buhari exhibited high level of integrity when he held sway as the Quarter Master General and managed the little money that the country had at the time well making it possible for Nigeria to win the war and return to nationhood. Without being an incorruptible man, this would not have been possible.

Subsequently he was given command appointment, lucrative appointment, and petroleum minister and so on, all based on his integrity before and after he went to the war college in the United States of America  and came back. But in all fairness there was nothing spectacular about his performance in all these important political appointments.

Now, when he became Head of States it was clear even to the media that it wasn’t he who ran the government; it was Tunde Idiagbon and other younger officers who ran the government for him.

I suggested the idea of a think tank to Buhari and he agreed and he put together a think tank with quite a number of formidable brains and started meeting in 2015 until I stopped coming. I suggested a number of books for all of us to read and those books were procured. One of the books I recommended to Buhari personally, because it has to do with economic matters especially in dealing with the World Bank and the IMF group, was a book written by a Nobel prize laureate in economics, Joseph Stiglitz.

Buhari took the book and opened it, just wrote GMB on it and that was all. Over a year later when I came I found that Buhari had not read two pages out of that book. To me, that is a very dangerous leadership position.

No matter what you say about Obasanjo, he is a very hard working man and he reads and listens and he goes out of his way to get people to come and advise him; the same applies to IBB. Both of them read.

I am scared of a leader who does not read and who does not look for experts and I don’t believe any leader no matter how distinguished, who claims and believes that only his own people have all the knowledge in every subject matter in the world; this is a very dangerous attribute Buhari has.

We are moving towards 2019 and two days ago precisely on Saturday, some northern politicians converged on Abuja and one of the decisions they took which may give the impression that indeed the entire north has decided to take a serious political decision was that they are looking for a consensus presidential candidate for next year’s election. Is it possible for the north to pick a consensus presidential candidate and if that happens under which party will that be?

Well, while watching the television, I saw some northern names, I saw a couple of Kano names and both seemed to be speaking on an agenda which they claimed to be a northern agenda. I was born in Kano, I grew up in Kano and after my overseas training I came back to settle in Kano. I don’t believe anybody who attended the meeting can claim to have attended that meeting on behalf of Kano people because we have history of making our mind and doing our own thing politically and that is why we started opposition politics in this country from 1950. The Kano man I knew those days as I was growing up is still the Kano man I know today.

I find that gathering fanciful because we have had this idea, it was never a progressive idea, and it was never a mainstream idea of the north. The north does not have the prerogative to decide a particular presidential candidate come 2019.  In fact, we believe the north should work hard as any other part of the country if it wants to produce the presidency in 2019.  Nigeria has gone beyond a situation where some powerful people will just sit down and hand pick someone who they know is either ill or weak and impose them on Nigerians.This is what Obasanjo did before and we must learn to walk away from this form of political tragedy now and in the future.

So, who do the people of the north have in mind for 2019 if not Buhari?

It would be premature for me to give you a name because I don’t have a name out of my pocket or out of the heart. But I also believe that in politics like in everything else people should and can afford to be rational. The rational thing to assess a politician is to assess him on the basis of what he says before he came into power and on the basis of his performance after coming to power.

If that were one very important rational basis in addition to others then I can’t see how anybody will come and say that Buhari should be asked to continue because there is no basis for that.

Don’t tell me that maybe I don’t know Nigerian politics because I have been in this game for over 45 years having sacrificed my career to go into politics. I am not like some of these generals for whom politics is a retirement job.

But I believe this is a great country and it is worth sacrificing a career for and I don’t believe that I have to reach retirement age before engaging in political life.

Buhari came into power with strong promise to make Nigeria better and add value to the people and country. We all believed him and had hopes and expectations on this man. But he has failed woefully in every aspect of the polity. The worse aspect of his failure is nepotism. Why also be indifferent to some people accused of corruption?

This aspect was not evident when he was a governor, minister and GOC. We strongly believe this aspect did not come into light because there was no opportunity for that.

People who worked very closely with him, like Late Chief Sunday Awoniyi, told me the kind of character profile he presented then. Now, we are where we are today, we are confronted with incontrovertible facts that this man has a penchant for appointing his relations, his friends and what have you into key positions. And given the general disappointment that he has caused Nigerians and the failure of his administration to rein in graft, it is not possible that Nigerians can massively vote for him as they did in 2015. I think it would be utterly irrational for them to vote for him again.

I don’t like the idea of saying the north can make or unmake a leader; the country does not belong to the north. The north is so badly dented, badly divided and demoralized to the extent that on their own they cannot produce a consensus candidate or any leader, and they cannot because they need other people before they can pass the exam.

So why are we saying that it is the time of the north, which time of the north is it? You are now conferring validity on people who have no value reason to claim to power. If you produce a leader who failed and you produced another one who died in office, so what are we talking about? So, are we saying we have to give them the right to continue leading and you produce somebody who lacks academic qualification and then we are going to go through four or eight years of suffering? God forbid!

So, have you made any effort to see Buhari and perhaps offer him some advice lately, given the way things have been falling apart in his administration?

No, I have not seen him for some time now even though some persons tried to arrange a meeting. Let it be known to all Nigerians that I am not seeking to see Buhari for anything. I must make it clear that I don’t need anything from this government and I don’t want any post from them.

Now, if you were to see Buhari today what would you advise him to do, given the things you know about him and his government and the feelings of Nigerians about him?

First, I would advise Buhari to retire home so as to be able to take care of his health and his family. Secondly, I would ask him to investigate and ask all those who made humongous fortunes out of   his administration to go and render account how they came about such stupendous wealth.

Tell all your relatives and their in-laws and what have you, who have gotten to important positions in NNPC, ministry of finance, ministry of power and steel and what have you and those who got huge contracts to go and render how they came about the contracts because if the contracts did not follow due process, they should be made to vomit what they swallowed like python.

I would also tell him that economics is a subject matter for which he must have the aptitude and the knowledge. I would make it plain to him that if he does not have economists to run the country, he should go and bring them from wherever they are, whether from the south, from the sea, from IMF, World Bank to come and put the economy right for the overall interest of all Nigerians. Without a sound economy there can be no Nigeria.

Finally, I would tell Buhari that he has failed the nation and that he should give room for others to come and try.

Let me say it here and now that the 2019 election may be very expensive and turbulent if Buhari decides to run because many Nigerians are fed up with him and his administration. He should just go home and rest after managing to finish the first term.

There is likely to be a lot of cross carpeting, don’t you think that 2019 may be very expensive?

It will be very expensive, it may be turbulent. A lot will depend on if Buhari is running.

What do you make of the change of election order by the National Assembly after INEC had announced the election timetable?

Clearly, the National Assembly appears to be overreaching itself by going to change and re-order the format of elections which INEC had released about two months ago as part of its constitutional role because the constitution says that it is the duty of INEC to plan, organise and run election.  In my understanding as a learned man it is not correct. In fact it is a glaring example of irresponsible overreach by the Senate and the House of Reps.

Secondly, this breach would not have occurred if Buhari had taken control of the party as the leader that he is supposed to be. But he failed woefully by pretending not to be interested in the affairs of the party and the result is that there has been a hijack by those in the NASS. His declaration that he belongs to nobody contributed to the current mess that you are seeing in the land today.  Members of his party are also the ones leading the revolt against him and the APC in the Senate and House of Representatives and it will surely hurt him as a weak leader.  He is the architect of his misfortune and the mess that is now playing out in the National Assembly.

And the idea that people who won election into the parliament on the same platform with the President now behaving as opponents of the president and their party and behaving as if they in the NASS are superior to the president and all Nigerians is arrant nonsense and that has happened because the system that brought them is utterly bankrupt.

We knew what happened.   Of course, we knew how  the leadership of both the Senate and House of Representatives emerged.. For the President to assume that he is everybody’s head belonging to nobody, you can see how naïve and dangerous such a claim could be. He created the crisis that is now threatening to swallow him and his party.


https://www.vanguardngr.com/2018/02/2019-north-cannot-produce-consensus-candidate-junaid-mohammed/

JeffreyJamez:
I watched it yesterday bros and I stand on my 9/10. Only God knows how you came to the conclusion that I havent seen it.

I haven't watched Black Panther but I wonder what yardstick people use to rate movies on this forum?

Finally, Govs’ Forum Backs State Police as Buhari Vows to End Security Challenges


State control of police gained more strategic converts Monday as the Nigerian Governors’ Forum (NGF) threw its weight behind the idea that has been variously thrown up as the panacea for worsening insecurity in the country.
But the support is conditional as the forum said only states that could afford to establish their own police should be allowed to do so, while the federal police would continue to secure the others.

The shift in the governors’ position on state policing came just as President Muhammadu Buhari rose from a meeting with security chiefs at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, vowing to end the mounting security challenges plaguing the country.



The president had met with the security chiefs for two and a half hours Monday with none of the officials willing to speak with State House correspondents on the outcome of the meeting.
But a post on the president’s Twitter handle read: “Today I presided over a meeting of the Security Council. We fully understand the seriousness and urgency of Nigeria’s security issues, and are determined to implement carefully considered solutions that will not only earn the confidence of Nigerians, but also stand the test of time.”

The meeting was attended by Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo; Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Mr. Boss Mustapha; Minister of Defence, Brig. Gen. Mansur Dan-Ali (rtd); Minister of Interior, Lt. Gen. Abdulrahman Danbazzau (rtd); Minister of Foreign Affairs, Chief Geoffrey Onyeama; and National Security Adviser, Maj. Gen. Babagana Monguno (rtd).
Also in attendance were the Director-General of the Department of State Services (DSS), Mr. Lawal Daura; Director of the Nigeria Intelligence Agency (NIA), Mr. Ahmed Abubakar; and Inspector General of Police, Mr. Ibrahim Idris.

The service chiefs at the meeting were – Chief of Defence Staff, Gen. Gabriel Olonisakin; Chief of Army Staff, Lt. Gen. Tukur Buratai; Chief of Naval Staff, Rear Admiral Ibok-Ete Ekwe Ibas; and Chief of Air Staff, Air-Vice Marshal Sadique Abubakar.
The heads of Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS), Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), Nigeria Fire Service (NFS), Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC), Nigeria Prisons Service (NPS) and Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) were also at the meeting.

Stating the new position of the NGF, its Chairman, Governor Abdul-Aziz Yari of Zamfara State, on the sidelines of the National Security Summit convened by the Senate, which ended in Abuja Monday, said the governors had agreed to find a way to fine-tune the policy.
Majority of members of the forum had opposed the establishment of state police, an idea which required an amendment to the 1999 Constitution for it to fly.
The bill seeking to establish it was subsequently killed in both chambers of the National Assembly during the constitutional amendment votes last year.

But hope that a rethink of the issue was gaining ground rose last week when Vice-President Osinbajo at the opening of the security summit made a strong case asking states to establish their own police, saying it holds the key to reducing the high level of violent crimes and insecurity in the country.
Yari rekindled that hope Monday when he announced the shift in the position of the NGF, saying allowing states that could afford it have their way, would reduce the pressure on the federal police system.

Clarifying the initial rejection of the idea, he said it was opposed by many states on the ground that they could not afford it.
He explained: “That is why we are saying that it is not all the states that are supposed to have state police. Those that can, should have it. For instance, Lagos State, as rich as they are, can have state police. The number of Federal police in Lagos can then be reduced (and deployed) to Osun, Ogun and other states that cannot afford it.

“If Rivers State can afford it, more Federal police can be redeployed to Cross River and other neighbouring states like Enugu that cannot do it. If Kano State can do it, they can take to my state (Zamfara) that is not all that rich. It is something that we can’t take up at the same time.”
He noted that while the NGF was ‘unfortunately’ divided over the matter, the number of police in Nigeria was grossly inadequate, and fell far below the global standard ratio.
Yari lamented that the challenges of insecurity such as banditry, militancy in the Niger Delta, cattle rustling and others had caused the economy to dwindle and were threatening national unity.

According to him, “The take home from this summit is that the vice-president raised some of the key discussions about the issue of state police. Today, we have reiterated the position of the Vice President on the security summit we held in August that there is a need for state police.
“Internal security is supposed to be handled and managed by the police but the police of today are inadequate. There are about 4 million people in Zamfara State but we have less than 5000 policemen. If we look at the ratio, it is far below international standard.
“Therefore, we in the forum agreed that we can find a way that we can fine-tune the issue of State police.”

Also speaking with journalists, the Senate Minority Leader, Senator Godswill Akpabio, said there was a consensus on the need for state police at the summit, particularly when considering the nation’s population.

He said: “We centralised security in the hands of the police, which basically should provide security of lives and property. At independence in 1960, we were less than 60 million in population. Today, we are about 200 million and the number of policemen cannot really police the entire country and provide security for Nigerians.

“Therefore, there is the need to decentralise that aspect and that comes under devolution of powers. We may need to rejig the Constitution to bring security under the Concurrent List of the legislature so that it will be easy for the states to set up something that will be in line with proper guidelines. State policing has been accepted by all and sundry. I have not seen anybody speaking against it. I think that is one major thing we can take out of this summit.”
He also spoke on the federal government’s bid to re-create grazing routes, to reduce the constant clashes between farmers and herdsmen and stated that ranching would be more appropriate in contemporary Nigeria.

“The implication now is that with the current population growth in the country, there is now a lot of competition between the cows, the grass and the infrastructure. If the routes are no longer existing, we have to modernise the system,” he said.
Senator Victor Umeh (Anambra, APGA) also speaking, said the issue of the National Conference of 2014 was also raised at the summit, with queries on why the government is not considering implementing the report.

“Some of the leaders who came here were at the national conference. You talked somewhere and abandoned the resolutions somewhere, only to come here and start to talk again. When are the solutions going to be found? You must be open and accept the means of addressing the grievances of the people,” he said.
Umeh said serveral issues of marginalisation, particularly of the South-east, were raised at the closed door summit.

“These are the issues the government must look at to assuage the feelings of the people. Those who have not been treated well, when they are complaining, don’t think because you are comfortable today, others are making noise. If you find grievances that are genuine, find a way of addressing them,” he added.
Meanwhile, a statement issued by the Ad hoc Committee on the Review of National Security Infrastructure Monday said important assessment briefings were provided by heads of security and intelligence agencies.

“The primary purpose of the summit is to reassure citizens that all arms of government are serious about addressing insecurity and are working collaboratively to find solutions,” it said, adding: “Out of the whole-of-government efforts, Nigerians can expect a higher level of security to protect lives and property.”
The Chairman of the committee, Senator Ahmed Lawan, said the data gathered from the proceedings would be used to improve the security sector through legislative interventions and advocacy.


http://www.thisdaylive.com/index.php/2018/02/13/finally-govs-forum-backs-state-police-as-buhari-vows-to-end-security-challenges/

estolaB:



no, ola means wealth, glory is ogo

1. Ola that means wealth has its own markings. It is spelled and pronounced as Ọlá

2. However, OLA that means glory is pronounced differently from the above. It is spelled and pronounced as ọlà

3. Just as Ola that means tomorrow is pronounced differently from the rest. it is spelled as ọla

The first two have tonal markings on the first and last alphabets and the last has only one tonal marking on the first alphabet. You will need to familiarise yourself with Yoruba alphabet before you can understand the difference in pronunciation and then the varying meaning of the words. Keyboards are not often equipped with special characters to show the markings on each alphabet.

laydoh:
pls hw did OLA turn to glory instead of wealth.or is dia a new version of yoruba language i dnt knw?

1. Ola that means wealth has its own markings. It is spelled and pronounced as Ọlá

2. However, OLA that means glory is pronounced differently from the above. It is spelled and pronounced as ọlà

3. Just as Ola that means tomorrow is pronounced differently from the rest. it is spelled as ọla

The first two have tonal markings on the first and last alphabets and the last has only one tonal marking on the first alphabet. You will need to familiarise yourself with Yoruba alphabet before you can understand the difference in pronunciation and then the varying meaning of the words. Keyboards are not often equipped with special characters to show the markings on each alphabet.

Rohr picks two CHAN Eagles for World Cup


Super Eagles coach Gernot Rohr has picked two players from 2018 CHAN to be part of his World Cup preparations – goalkeeper Ikechukwu Ezenwa and central defender Stephen Eze.

“Rohr has decided to pick Ezenwa and Eze for his World Cup preparations and it is now up to the two players to fight for a place in the final squad to Russia,” a top official disclosed. Nigeria reached the final of the CHAN in Morocco, where they lost to the home team.

Ezenwa was already widely tipped for Russia 2018 after his five-star displays in more recent World Cup qualifiers against Cameroon and Zambia. He also enhanced his high ratings with superlative displays at the CHAN in Morocco. He is expected to soon recover from a knee injury he suffered in Morocco.

Stephen Eze, on the other hand, has for months been on the radar of Rohr since the CHAN qualifiers in Cotonou last year. The effective giant central defender, who is already bound for Bulgarian club Lokomotiv Plodiv, played every minute as Nigeria reached the championship game at the CHAN in Morocco.

Plateau United goalkeeper Dele Ajiboye’s chances may have been undone by the 4-0 spanking Nigeria suffered in the CHAN Final after his Man-of-the-Match performance against Sudan in the semi-final.

Rohr has already announced he will name his squad for two important World Cup warm-up matches against Poland and Serbia by the first week of next month. The Eagles are away to Poland on March 23, before they battle Serbia March 27 in London.


https://www.vanguardngr.com/2018/02/rohr-picks-two-chan-eagles-for-world-cup/

Buhari reinstates NHIS boss under probe for alleged N919m fraud



President Muhammadu Buhari has recalled the Executive Secretary of the National Health Insurance Scheme, Prof. Usman Yusuf, who was suspended by the Minister of Health, Prof. Isaac Adewole, on July 6, 2017, has learnt.

In a letter with reference number, ‘SH/COS/10/6/A/29’, signed by the Chief of Staff to the President, Abba Kyari, the President informed the minister of Yusuf’s recall, adding that he (Yusuf) had been “admonished to work harmoniously with the minister.”



The letter, it was learnt, was sent to the minister on Tuesday evening. When our correspondent called the minister to confirm the new development, Adewole only said, “Yes, what you have heard is true.” He refused to answer any further inquiries about the issue.

Sources at the federal Ministry of Health also confirmed Yusuf’s reinstatement. They did not, however, disclose when the NHIS boss would resume.

The letter made no mention of the probe Yusuf was facing at the EFCC.

Incidentally, Yusuf was being grilled by the men of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission on Tuesday when his letter of reinstatement was sent to the Federal Ministry of Health.

Yusuf, who is being probed by the EFCC and the Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offences Commission, was accused of perpetrating fraud to the tune of N919m.

A committee set up by the minister had submitted a probe report to the President last September accusing Yusuf of abuse of office.

In the report which was compiled by senior officials of the health ministry, the Department of State Services and the ICPC, the panel described Yusuf as a public servant who “portrayed a holier than thou attitude but at the background, milked the agency dry” by conniving with others to perpetrate fraud to the tune of over N919m.

According to the panel, the N919m was dubiously given as payment to consultants for staff training.



The committee said as the head of the agency, Yusuf was personally responsible for all administrative, procurement and financial lapses.

According to the report, “His (Yusuf’s) deceitful attitude coupled with ‘name dropping’ of Mr. President as having sent him to sanitise the NHIS but he caused more harm than good to the scheme.”

The committee, therefore, recommended that the EFCC probe the agency for diversion of funds and contravention of the Procurement Act of 2007.

The report stated that Yusuf contravened the Procurement Act of 2007 through nepotism and other irregular award of contracts and should be sanctioned in line with the provision of the Act.

Explaining how the alleged staff training scam took place, the committee said in some instances, the number of trainees was far more than the entire number of employees at the agency while in some other instances, some employees were registered for the same training in two different states at the same time.

Most of the consultants were said to have charged about N250, 000 per participant.

The PUNCH had exclusively reported in December that Yusuf, who is close to the cabal in the Presidency, had been making moves to return to his post.

When our correspondent reached out to him to respond to the allegations levelled against him last December, Yusuf had said, “F*ck you, and f*ck the minister.”

Meanwhile, it was learnt that Yusuf was grilled for over 12 hours at the EFCC on Monday and Tuesday.

A source at the EFCC said, “The NHIS boss was with us all through Monday and returned on Tuesday for more questioning. His passport was also seized. He will return on another day for more questioning.”


http://punchng.com/buhari-reinstates-nhis-boss-under-probe-for-alleged-n919m-fraud/

miqos02:
Cool
Papa u forgot to inform us that you spent some money to pay doctors who treated her

The role of Doctors in the process of treating her are well documented in the book she wrote after she was healed titled, Rescued From Destruction.

How China spied on the African Union’s computers


China built and paid for the African Union’s computer network – but inserted a backdoor allowing it access to the continental organisation’s confidential information

In January 2017, the information technology unit at the African Union’s headquarters in Addis Ababa noticed something strange, according to a stunning investigation in French newspaper Le Monde.

Every night, between midnight and 2am, there was a strange peak in data usage – even though the building was almost entirely empty. Upon further investigation, the technicians noticed something even stranger. That data – which included confidential information – was being sent to servers based in Shanghai.

The African Union’s shiny new headquarters was built and paid for by the Chinese government, as a gift to its “African friends”. But when the building was officially opened in 2012, China left a backdoor into the African Union’s computer network, allowing it to access the institution’s secrets at will.

“According to several sources within the institution, all sensitive content could be spied on by China,” wrote Le Monde. “It’s a spectacular leak of data, spread from January 2012 to January 2017.”

The Chinese mission to the AU did not respond to Le Monde’s request for comment.

Once the problem was discovered, African Union officials acted quickly to fix it. The organisation acquired its own servers, and began encrypting its communications. In July 2017, a team of experts from Algeria – a country with a notoriously efficient intelligence community – along with cybersecurity experts from Ethiopia combed the building from top to bottom, looking for hidden microphones and other potential weaknesses.

China would not be the first supposedly friendly superpower to spy on the African Union. A separate investigation in December 2016, conducted by Le Monde and The Intercept, revealed that African Union officials were targeted for surveillance by British intelligence.


https://mg.co.za/article/2018-01-29-how-china-spied-on-the-african-unions-computers/

How China spied on the African Union’s computers


China built and paid for the African Union’s computer network – but inserted a backdoor allowing it access to the continental organisation’s confidential information

In January 2017, the information technology unit at the African Union’s headquarters in Addis Ababa noticed something strange, according to a stunning investigation in French newspaper Le Monde.

Every night, between midnight and 2am, there was a strange peak in data usage – even though the building was almost entirely empty. Upon further investigation, the technicians noticed something even stranger. That data – which included confidential information – was being sent to servers based in Shanghai.

The African Union’s shiny new headquarters was built and paid for by the Chinese government, as a gift to its “African friends”. But when the building was officially opened in 2012, China left a backdoor into the African Union’s computer network, allowing it to access the institution’s secrets at will.

“According to several sources within the institution, all sensitive content could be spied on by China,” wrote Le Monde. “It’s a spectacular leak of data, spread from January 2012 to January 2017.”

The Chinese mission to the AU did not respond to Le Monde’s request for comment.

Once the problem was discovered, African Union officials acted quickly to fix it. The organisation acquired its own servers, and began encrypting its communications. In July 2017, a team of experts from Algeria – a country with a notoriously efficient intelligence community – along with cybersecurity experts from Ethiopia combed the building from top to bottom, looking for hidden microphones and other potential weaknesses.

China would not be the first supposedly friendly superpower to spy on the African Union. A separate investigation in December 2016, conducted by Le Monde and The Intercept, revealed that African Union officials were targeted for surveillance by British intelligence.


https://mg.co.za/article/2018-01-29-how-china-spied-on-the-african-unions-computers#.Wm89xhONfhM.facebook

DankemzI:
SESS its time to keep our differences aside and align with a candidate that has the interests of our regions at heart! Remember the region that betrayed GeJ & be wary of their manipulative hand of friendship

The SW never betrayed Jonathan. He was foolish enough to think that he could sideline the SW and give all appointments to the SE and SS and romance the North. He was warned but he refused to listen until it was too late for him.

Prophets or Fortune Tellers? How to Measure Prophecy


Kenneth E. Hagin

BELIEVERS WHO Inquire about God's direction in their lives through a prophet are on dangerous ground. Under the New Covenant, prophets are not placed in the Church to lead, guide, or direct people's lives. In fact, believers can wreak havoc in their lives by going to a prophet for guidance. Why? Because we are to be led by the Spirit of God (Rom. 8:14), not prophets.

One time a wealthy businessman came to one of my meetings. The minute I saw him, the Lord spoke to me about him. He had started going to a so-called prophetess for direction before he would make any business deal. But it wasn't the Holy Spirit that was in operation through her. She was nothing more than a fortune teller.

I told this businessman what the Lord had told me to tell him—that he was going to lose everything if he didn't quit listening to that woman. But some people only hear what they want to hear. He kept going to her for direction until he went bankrupt. He was so deceived, he wouldn't make a business move without calling her.

First Thessalonians 5:20–21 says, "Despise not prophesyings. Prove all things; hold fast to that which is good." We aren't to despise prophesying. On the other hand, we aren't supposed to believe everything everyone prophesies to us. The Bible tells us to prove all things to see if they are of God.

But just because some people get off into error doesn't mean that we do away with the legitimate prophetic ministry. A true prophet, however, doesn't try to run people's lives.

Holy Spirit or Familiar Spirits?

Because prophets weren't set in the Church to lead and guide people's lives, they will veer off course spiritually if they try to do so. They will open themselves up to occult powers and familiar spirits.

A man once inquired about a certain minister saying, "Our church helped sponsor this minister in a meeting here in town. Nearly every day he would come into my office, and we'd talk or go out to lunch. One day the minister said, 'You have a seven-carat diamond ring you inherited from your father. It's wrapped up in a handkerchief in the right-hand corner of the third drawer in your dresser. God said you are to get it, and give it to me.' "

That's supernatural knowledge, isn't it? It's not only supernatural knowledge but it's also spectacular knowledge. But remember that the devil also operates in the supernatural realm. Watch out for folks who prophesy rings off your fingers and money out of your pockets into theirs. Don't have anything to do with them.

Shortly after that incident, I was sitting behind that same minister on a platform as he addressed a congregation. Just as if someone were talking behind me, I heard the Holy Spirit say, "Occult powers. Familiar spirits." That's what was operating through him, enabling him to know about that heirloom diamond ring!

Familiar spirits are evil spirits that are familiar with people. They know facts about people—including believers—and those facts are often correct. For example, they could know how much money someone has in his billfold or what he has in his pocket.

The Holy Spirit knows those things, too. He could reveal that information through the gifts of the Spirit if He wanted to. But why would He want to? What purpose would it serve to know what someone has in his pocket? How would that glorify God? No, that's typically the work of familiar spirits.

The Holy Spirit reveals things that glorify God. For example, He could reveal a disease someone has and then heal the person! That would glorify God. But He doesn't very often demonstrate Himself like that unless it serves a definite purpose to help someone.

Sometimes there is a fine line between fanaticism and true spirituality and between false and genuine manifestations of spiritual gifts. Many are not able to distinguish the difference, but the Body of Christ needs to be able to do so. The Holy Spirit will always draw attention to God and exalt the Word and the Lord Jesus Christ—not man.

The Inward Witness

Believers are to be led by the inward witness, not by the office of the prophet. If we're not careful, we can reason things out and override the inward witness.

Years ago when everyone was holding tent meetings, time after time people prophesied to me that God wanted me to get a tent. But God had never told me to get a tent. So I'd just smile and say, "Well, when He tells me, I'll do it." I knew in my spirit what God wanted me to do.

One time a Rhema student asked me about a person who was supposed to be a prophet. This person had prophesied that the student was called to Africa and would be there in so many months. But the thought of going to Africa had never entered the student's mind, nor did he ever have anything in his spirit about it. He said he had already knew what God wanted him to do through prayer and waiting before the Lord.

"Does it have anything to do with Africa?" I asked.

"No," he answered,

"Forget what that man told you then."

"Yes, but that fellow said he was a prophet."

"Just because he said he's a prophet doesn't make him one," I told the student. "Don't pay a bit of attention to what he said. You do what God told you in your heart to do."

The Bible says a man's gift makes room for him (Prov. 18:16). If a person is called to the office of the prophet, he shouldn't have to advertise it. People will know it sooner or later by the spiritual equipment that goes along with that office.

When you are grounded in the Word, you are not going to be moved by so-called prophets or their so-called prophecies. Those who are moved by them are still spiritual children tossed about with every wind of doctrine (Eph. 4:14).

God wants us to go down the middle of the road spiritually and enjoy the scriptural operation of the prophet's office. Don't allow people to run your life through prophecy. You can be led by the inward witness of the Holy Spirit in your spirit man. Get into the Word for yourself, and get ahold of God for yourself. After all, you are in contact with Him if you are a believer!

[Editor's Note: This article was adapted from He Gave Gifts Unto Men by Kenneth E. Hagin.]

http://www.rhema.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2722:prophets-or-fortune-tellers-how-to-measure-prophecy&catid=271&Itemid=11

Cont'd


So, what is the way out of all these problems?

There is need to restore the principles of justice, fairness, truth, equity, liberty, compassion and well-being of Nigerians in general so that the objective of governance in Nigeria, which is about the attainment of the greatest happiness for the greatest number of people, is realised. It is for the foregoing good reason that the biblical priesthood, Solomon, taught that where there is no vision, the people perish. (Proverbs 29:18).This is exactly what has happened since Nigerians lost their only two visionary leaders, Chief Awolowo and Alhaji Ahmadu Bello. There is need to enlighten and mobilise a critical mass of Nigerians, to educate Nigerians to the level whereby they are driven by core values rather than falling prey to the animalistic instinct to meet their immediate needs. There is need to raise Nigerians’ awareness of their inalienable rights; for instance, their liberal democratic right which, according to Abraham Lincoln, “no man is good enough to govern another man without that other person’s consent”. There is need to restore Nigeria to the appropriate framework/structure/ system of governance that can facilitate the attainment of the foregoing vision and mission and provide Nigerians with the options for choosing potential leaders who have values in line with the foregoing vision. We need to encourage massive participation of Nigerian youths in the conduct of transparent national census and free and fair elections and create a platform that will facilitate the emergence of independent candidates; create a support system for credible individuals who have the political will to serve the country but not the financial support or influence of corrupt cabals and godfathers who presently run the political arena in Nigeria. We need to sensitize and mobilize Nigerians to the need to having a truly independent census and electoral commissions. To achieve these, there should be a steering committee to develop the road map for what is most likely going to be a movement; such committee should be comprised of individuals and statesmen who are known for good leadership in their own spheres of influence. Members of this committee must have no intent to run for political office at this time as this might compromise the integrity of the platform.

The handshake across the Niger has commenced. What do you think should be done as many people don’t seem to understand the concept so as to key into it?
The handshake across the Niger is long overdue in the sense that the internal colonies do not want the two main ethnic groups in the South of Nigeria to unite, the Igbo and the Yoruba, and it is really great credit to the likes of Chief Ayo Adebanjo, Chief Olu Falae, Yinka Odumakin and the Ooni of Ife at the background, on one side and, on the other side, the eminent and amiable Ohanaeze President-General, John Nnna Nwodo, Ike Nwachukwu, Admiral Ukiwe, Ndubisi Kanu and Chief Joe Irukwu. All these men mean well for Nigeria by embracing the handshake across the Niger. This is why the handshake is tilted towards the East and also towards the Middle Belt. And also Jonah Jang being present at the meeting is a great plus. By the way, you must realise that Jang was hated because he stood as Ortom is standing in deference of his people against the foreign invaders. The governor of Benue is forced to do what he needs to do and that is why it is surprising that the governor of Plateau has suddenly become a willing tool to extend their religion to the South. Now, Gov. Lalong came out to completely show that he does not understand what democracy and constitutional authority is all about. The governor of Benue followed due process. He didn’t need to consult the people outside his state. He needed to consult the people in his state and follow the due process of passing a by-law through the state House of Assembly and that is enough. We shouldn’t forget that the federal and state governments should be coordinate governments; one is not superior to the other. It’s just that we have forgotten what government is and we now practice abnormalities. So, it is most irresponsible for Lalong to be trying to play to the gallery of those who are killing people: the Junkum people in Taraba, the Bachamas in Adamawa and that is why he singled out Taraba and Benue and it is not surprising why many of the eminent generals who fought the civil war for Taraba and Benue are trapped. If there is really Arewa solidarity, would ACF stand by and Northern Governors Forum stand by, to see General T.Y. Danjuma’s state being destroyed by foreign invaders?

The truth of the matter is that some of the governors because of lucre of office and the greed for another term in office are selling the destiny of their people. They are playing politics with people’s lives, but in a state like Ekiti, Governor Fayose has drawn the line…

In this matter, one can say that Governor Fayose cares for his people. He rises up to his responsibility as a governor and is protecting his people. The others are not like that. This is why I said earlier that it is a real shame that APC governors and the party are being subjected to attacks by foreign Fulani invaders and the APC government has not done much. It is only to bring out one chap who has been jumping from party to the other to come out and defend the APC whilst we know that the APC Chairman, Chief John Oyegun has realised his mistakes and is working hard to ensure that the president is not allowed to run a sectional agenda.

Herdsmen are everywhere, not only in Taraba and Benue, even in the southern states, wreaking havoc and their grand patron and other patrons don’t seem to appreciate the pain of those whose wives, husbands and children are being killed.

I want to move forward and, in doing that, I thank President Muhammadu Buhari for listening to the cry we made a few days ago be sending troops to Taraba, Benue and other states that transnational Fulani invaders are attacking. The government is doing something now I believe it is tackling the problem.

I don’t believe government is serious. Inside the cities, the FCT, Lagos, everywhere, even government houses, schools, classrooms, across states in Nigeria, cows are grazing and everybody is treating herdsmen as sacred people.

President Buhari is grossly being mis-advised or people are afraid to tell him what he needs to know. If Buhari listens to the people and continues refusing the call for restructuring, if Buhari stops being sectional and stops favouring the Fulani and the people from the North-West and the North-East and begins to build a legacy which is anchored on restructuring Nigeria, I will support him in 2019. I must point out that he has listened to the cry we made, thanks to the media houses, when we cried that he needs to go beyond the police and bring in the troops. He has done that. We thank him for listening and we require him to listen more and stop thinking that he can lecture Nigerians. He’s elected to do the will of Nigerians and not his own will.

He is opposed to restructuring Nigeria and his henchmen who are the beneficiaries of Nigeria’s lopsidedness are toeing the same line, talking to Nigerians as if they don’t have brains. Now, such people, do we need them in 2019?

Look, I am not a respecter of persons. I am a respecter of principles. Now, what do I mean, anybody who will put the principles I mentioned into practice, I will vote for that person. So, if Buhari today changes his mind, and begins to work towards the restructuring of Nigeria and doing something that is beneficial to the people, I will vote for him, but if he continues in his way, well, there is nothing I can do. I wrote a book in 2012, that if we don’t have true federal democracy, the awaiting implosion will come. Now, it has come. We are already facing it. You asked me a question what Nigeria needs to do. And that is what made me take part in the pro-democracy action against government in 1990. What we are asking for is, first, we need constitutional reforms. How? We don’t need national conferences anymore. We have had many. What I am suggesting is that President Buhari needs to work with about three leaders from each geo-political zone to review the 2014 National Conference report and the one before it and then use those two documents with the 1963 Constitution to come up with a new draft constitution for Nigeria. That is the first important first step. The second step is that when Nigerians focus on elections, they forget that in other climes, elections do not go without the underlying census figures. That is why in other countries, electoral and census commission are one and the same. They are not separate. I am saying that anybody focusing on the processes of election, even as it has happened before and will happen in 2019, should know that they have already rigged the election structurally. How? They rigged in such a way that whether Nigeria likes it or not, the North-West geo political region has been given undue population advantage that they will always use to influence whoever emerges as Nigerian leader. This, you see evidently whenever it comes to political parties automatic tickets for primaries. The number that comes from the North-West is much more than what comes from the South-East and South-West states put together. Some people want young people in and old people out but they forget that the election has already been rigged because of the fraudulent census figure we have at the moment, the figures have given undue advantage to two far North geo-political zones which means the two will always determine who emerges the president of Nigeria. That is where the battle should be.

But this will not count where power is rotated across the six geo-political zones…

That is why I am saying that equity will come in a restructured constitution. What you said underscores the point of having restructuring to stop those benefiting from the injustice, the unfairness, because they prefer these advantages to short-change the other four zones, the South -West, the North-Central, the South-East and the South-South. One thing to do, I believe, is to educate Nigerians to the level where they are driven by core values, so they don’t fall prey to animalistic instincts. Nigerians are looking forward to their immediate needs. Like I pointed out, many people are focusing on the election without knowing we are going back to square one. A lot people rushed and jumped in, ‘oh, change, change’. Many of those people are now regretting. We need to raise Nigerians awareness to their inalienable rights. We need to restructure Nigeria; the appropriate framework to restructure the system of government can facilitate the attainment of what I am talking about.

Former President Obasanjo has asked President Buhari to forget 2019, alleging he is grossly incompetent in the face of the challenges facing the nation. What do you think?

Obasanjo is only explicitly expressing what some of us have been implicitly hinting if PMB continues in his rigid and persistent ignorance of the inevitability of restructuring and being a Bororo Fulani warlord. The de facto president of Nigeria is over 80-year-old Mamman Daura, Buhari’s uncle and unelected occupant of Aso Rock. That is why Buhari disregards his wife’s wise counsel. Buhari has been rendered not to be in charge. The ship of the nation-state shall sail away from PMB, if he continues in his rigidity, especially the one driven by ignorance. The 80-year-old Aso Rock occupant would seem to have used his associates to compel the Minister of Agriculture to accept cattle colony rather than what Chief Audu Ogbeh has been a long advocate of. Daura controls the political and economic power while Buhari is in office. PMB’s directives are known to be not only ignored but also changed before his eyes and nothing happens. Genuine loyalists of Buhari’s aspiration for integrity in governance are not allowed by the hand of the de facto C-in-C, the CoS, Abba Kyari, to have audience with the president. Through the CoS, the unelected Mamman Daura wants to use the window of opportunity, which PMB regime provides, to add Taraba, Benue, Plateau, Southern Kaduna, Borno, Adamawa to the Hausa they have social-culturally enslaved and then use such to take over the South-East, the South-South and the South-West.


https://www.vanguardngr.com/2018/01/buhari-listens-80-year-old-uncle-tony-nyiam/amp/

Buhari listens only to his 80-year-old uncle —Tony Nyiam


•Says President is merely in office and not in power
•Claims only two southern ministers have access to C-in-C
•Explains why corruption thrives in the oil sector

By Chioma Gabriel, Editor, Special Features


Retired Lt Colonel Anthony Nyiam is one of the army officers who attempted the April 22, 1990 coup. He was also a member of the Presidential Advisory Committee, PAC, which packaged the National Conference during the Jonathan regime but resigned after an altercation with then Edo Governor Adams Oshiomhole during the committee’s public hearing in Benin-City. In this encounter, Nyiam takes a swipe at the Buhari regime for failing to contain the insecurity problem in Nigeria especially the raging issue of herdsmen who have unleashed terror on Nigerians. He also flays “corruption” in the oil and gas sector.

Many people say Nigeria is sitting on the keg of gunpowder as strange things are happening and the APC government, in the eyes of several Nigerians, has failed them. Aliens are said to be taking over our land. Do you agree?

The people of good conscience in the All Progressives Congress, APC, need to wake up to their responsibility of not allowing the national political party, which they initiated and worked for to become the ruling party of the Federal Government of Nigeria, to turn into a party serving one or two ethnic interests alone.

The leaders of the APC at the national headquarters and chieftains from the South-West, North-Central, South-East and South-South are being made to look like zombies. The siddon look tactical response of these people is being overstretched.

If the party Chairman and other members of the APC National Executive Council (NEC) and the South-West, North-Central, South-East and South-South chieftains were not cowed by hegemonists in the top echelon of their party, they would not have condoned the sophisticated armed Fulani herdsmen killing the Tiv, the Idoma and the Egede communities of Benue State, the Jukun and co in Taraba, the Bachama in Adamawa and the Berom in Plateau.

Why have the members of the APC reduced their supposedly national political party to a sectional party?

The APC leaders of goodwill need to restore their political party to the position from which it can challenge social, cultural and political norms that engender the born to rule and associated tendency to covet or colonise other people or their properties.The majority of ethnic nations of northern Nigeria are still being subjected to a form of internal colonialism or the other by their born to rule colonial masters. Hence, the use of the term cattle colonies instead of cattle ranches would appear insensitive to the historical background of those who have been subjugated since the Jihad. The question begging for answer at this junction is this: Where is the Arewa Solidarity or Northern Governors Forum (NGF) when the non-Fulani or Kanuri people of the so-called Arewa are being murdered by sophisticated armed Fulani invaders? With the recurring killing of the Tiv people by armed Fulani mercenaries, it is a time for Dr. Paul Unongo to see that we have a common interest to defend. I say this as Paul Unongo had many times attacked me personally for highlighting the danger coming which sadly Unongo’s people are suffering from. Thank God, Unongo now sees the significance of state police which we who are pro-restructuring have been calling for. Some masters of double-speak or mischief-making have misled President Muhammadu Buhari to join their ranks in reinforcing his refusal to recognise that constitutional reform is inevitable. The president’s New Year’s address declaration that Nigeria does not need restructuring is a clear ignorance of the significance of Nigeria having an appropriate national constitution. President Buhari view that what Nigerians need is the addressing of the processes involved in governance and not a review of the structure of government is most misleading. The president appears unaware that a process not anchored on appropriate foundational structure leads to two steps forward and four steps backward outcome actions. The determinant of worthwhile processes of governance is, without doubt, having in place an appropriate political framework. Just as the structural skeleton of a human being is responsible for the human to walk erect, only a democratic federal system of government can meaningfully bring unity to a country of many ethnic nations which Nigeria is. While a process is a series of steps, or actions, taken in order to achieve a particular end, structure is the causal and sustaining basis without which the process cannot be in order. I hope this enlightens the president to see why he cannot run away from restructuring Nigeria.

President Buhari is focused on war against corruption but, currently, the worst corruption is alleged to be happening in the petroleum industry; fuel scarcity is the order of the day…

It is not surprising that whilst the president is focusing on the surface of corruption, the real graft is going on in the ministry where President Buhari is the senior minister. The strategic consequences of focusing on process and ignoring the underlying structural interactions are what we see in the current non-transparent pre-shipment inspection of Nigeria’s oil and gas exports. Under President Buhari’s watch, crude oil has, since July 5 2017, that is over six months ago, being lifted from Ajakpa, Aje, Ima, Ukpekiti, Obe, etc, without competent pre-shipment inspection. The unnecessary delay in the appointment of the eight pre-shipment inspection firms, who the Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP) has carried out their due diligence duties on and found qualified, is cause of corruption concern. There are allegations that the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has not, since the last two or three months, gotten accurate records of crucial oil and gas exports. So, one can only imagine the billions of US dollars Nigeria is losing to fraud or corruption. What’s undoubtedly non-transparent is the fact that two pre-shipment firms (Trobell and Robinson International) have been temporarily appointed as pre-shipment inspection agents since July 5, 2017. The second of the double jeopardy is the danger in the impossibility of only two pre-shipment firms doing the work which at least six competent firms are needed. It is such a pity that the pro-due process Minister of Finance is being remotely controlled by a high Presidency or Aso Rock official. The question is that in spite of the National Assembly’s intervention, the temporary appointment is still overstretching a duration that is temporary. We do hope we do not have another senior female member of the Federal Executive Council (FEC) openly disagreeing with a member of the cabal that is exacerbating the president’s lack of attention to details.

The non-transparency of the shipments of Nigerian crude oil and gas in the last few months, has led to Nigeria’s crude oil being hawked in different crude oil tankers. The largest scale bunkering and illegal sale of Nigerian crude oil and gas has taken place during the Buhari administration as a result of deliberate non -appointment of pre-inspection monitoring agents. This illegal activity has been on for the past two years. But since the president has lost control of the oil and gas sector, which is the bed rock of Nigerian economy, appointment of inspectors should be a matter of national concern. The Council of State must be involved and a board of inquiry set up without delay to investigate what has happened in the past two and a half years on the export of oil and gas.

Insecurity is escalating in Nigeria; herdsmen are holding the nation by the jugular…

The danger of Nigeria’s top national security management not having a constitutionally backed coordinator is a huge problem. The National Security Adviser, NSA, is not constitutionally pre-disposed to coordinate national security agencies operations. The NSA is the president’s Special Adviser and not an executive officer; otherwise he would have been subjected to confirmation like the EFCC Chairman. You may have observed that there was a clash between the operatives of the EFCC and those of NIA and DSS sometime ago. This shows that there is lack of proper coordination of our security agencies. The point I want to make is that there is danger in the national security agencies not having a constitutionally backed coordinator. Somebody will argue that the NSA is the Chairman of the joint national security board. That is not enough because the NSA is the president’s Special Adviser and not an executive officer. The responsibility of coordinating national security is too important for such an appointee not to be confirmed by the National Assembly. We do not have a constitutionally backed or legally supported power or office holder to coordinate all the national security agencies. And that is affecting security. There is need for people of good consciences to challenge deliberately perpetuated misleading narratives like some Federal Government officials’ narratives of some national security crises, such as the knowingly misrepresentation of what is clearly sophisticatedly armed and well military trained, transnational Fulani invaders of Nigerian farming communities as herdsmen, farmers’ clashes; the reduction or down grading of what’s evidentially the armed invasion of Nigeria farming communities by essentially armed foreign Fulani militia to the misleading narrative of communal herdsmen and farmers’ clashes. It is mischievous or provocative or insensitive to describe an essentially armed stranger invasion of one’s community as one’s neighbouring community, especially when the victims of the armed invaders attacks fear that the assaults are aimed at being colonised or ethnic-cleansing colonisation of their ancestral land. The other misleading narrative in need of continuing challenge is the generalisation involved in the referring to all the states around, and the North of the Niger and Benue rivers as the North. Those who want to pitch the whole North against the South do not make distinction between the Fulani or Kanuri colonised far North and the non-Fulani and Kanuri people who have always resisted the colonisation of their land in the rest of the southern or Middle Belt of the North. Nigeria needs visionary leaders which we do not have. The only visionary leaders we had were in the first republic.

Is there something the National Assembly should do that it is not yet doing to solve the problem?

I humbly respond to the National Assembly’s call for suggestions on how to fill the gaps in our national security architecture as follows: There is urgent need for an internal security strategy and a fit-for-purpose institution for containing enemies within the Nigerian territory or foreign invaders such as the armed transnational Bororo Fulani militia who are invading our farming communities. Secondly, there is need for across the board four-fold expansion of armed forces, police and other national security agencies personnel strength. Thirdly, there is need for an independent Nigerian national security think-tank which, in addition, will be resource persons to the Presidency in addressing immediate security threats, initiating and advising the Commander-in-Chief on medium and long-term solutions to security problems which persist. Fourthly, there is need for something like the United States National Guard which, in the Nigerian context, could be known as, for example, Katsina State Guard. The states’ guards should be armed up to only the small arms level. Then, at the national level, there should be the National Guard with heavy arms so that, with the consent of the National Assembly, the president can direct to reinforce a challenged state guard. What does former President Obasanjo’s recent insistence that the country must continue to renegotiate its unity amount to, if it is not constitutional reforms or what many Nigerians describe as restructuring? Same inquiry goes for Asiwaju Bola Tinubu’s reminder that the APC government must embark on deep reforms. That is another way of saying that PMB should stop the pretext and accept the inevitability of restructuring. What I have suggested above would neatly complement the existing good structure for defense against external threats known technically as Armed Forces Order of Battle (ORBAT). The failure has always been with our internal security architecture. Lest I forget, there is need also for a national coast guard. All the proposed national and state guards and coast guards and other agencies should be coordinated by a Coordinator of Internal Security Operations (COISO). The COISO’s office, like that of the National Security Adviser should be in the Presidency, but his appointment must be with the consent of the National Assembly because of the executive nature of the duties of the envisaged coordinator. PMB should stop insulting Nigerian people’s intelligence on the fact that he is the most nepotistic and tribalistic Nigerian president. The appointments he was listing for the South-East are of officials in office but not in power. Ndigbo are not stupid as the sychophantic house slaves who frequently parade the villa. They are just watching. Why is an Igbo not fit to be in the corridor of power? Does President Buhari think we don’t know that only one or two ministers can readily be allowed to see the seemingly meek but indeed imperial Commander-In-Chief? Those who can see the president anytime they want by virtue of the power of their appointments don’t include any Igbo or Middle Beltan. Only one South-South and one South-West appointee can do that. The appointment of the Chief Justice of Nigeria came only after months of crying out loud. We are not ignorant that the SGF, the CoS, the DG NIA, the CNS, the CAS, the IGP and the bosses of the INEC, the EFCC, the Customs, the NDLEA, and so on are the movers and shakers of power in this dispensation. The only South-West slot of DG National Intelligence Agency was recently replaced by another PMB’s ethnic man. I forgot to add the boss of Immigration amongst the powers-that-be. I have in fact been warned that one or two or three of these security agencies could be used to frame me for doing my patriotic duty of contributing to ensuring that PMB does not continue to bring the nation-state in harm’s way by his nepotism and favouritism to give his kinsfolks advantage over the people of the South-West, the South-East, the South-South and the Middle Belt. By PMB’s actions so far, he has made incredible his statement that he is not a president of all. What a pity for a man to disown being a general or statesman; reduced himself from the position hitherto of a respectful general and head of state to a Fulani warlord. It’s no wonder the Hausa, one of the most culturally, politically and economically enslaved people, are beginning to question why hegemonic practices are being done in their name. The town Fulani and the bush Fulani of good conscience are also unhappy that PMB’s divisive practices of governance is exposing them to notoriety. The afterthought information of the DSS begs many questions. Could it be an attempt to distract gullible Nigerians’ attention from the sophisticatedly armed transnational invaders threat? Why is the information conveniently coming now? Isn’t it the NIA, an agency like the United States CIA, which is constitutionally charged with the responsibility of foreign and transnational intelligence which should have informed us? Is the armed Bororo Fulani militia part of the Islamist plan to take over the Nigerian aborigines’ land?

https://www.vanguardngr.com/2018/01/buhari-listens-80-year-old-uncle-tony-nyiam/amp/

Murder On The Orient Express

Buhari lacks physical, intellectual capacity to govern – Na’Abba


A former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Alhaji Umar Gali Na’Abba, has said President Muhammadu Buhari lacks the physical and intellectual capacity to govern Nigeria.

Na’Abba said this when one of our correspondents contacted him to confirm comments attributed to him concerning calls on the President to seek a second term.

He told one of our correspondents over the telephone in Abuja, on Sunday, “He (President Buhari) hasn’t got the capacity physically and intellectually to govern Nigeria this is my honest opinion.”

In response to a question as to whether he said the ‘President feels that since he is now in charge, everything is in order,’ Na’Abba said, “I confirm what I said in the interview with Osasu on the Ossasu TV show.”

He said the President would not get his support should he seek a second term come 2019.

Na’Abba, who is a member of the Board of Trustees of the All Progressives Congress, said this on the Osasu Show anchored by Osasu Igbinedion.

Asked whether he would be supporting Buhari, he said, “There is no way I can support him.”

He said when he met with Buhari to advise him, the President said he should not worry, that everything was going as planned.

Na’Abba added, “I had the opportunity of sitting with the President and tell him that this is what is wrong but he told me that things were wrong before but with his election, everything is right now. That was what he told me and I was very disappointed.”

The ex-speaker said Buhari refused to carry the APC leaders along because he believed that all politicians were evil.

He said the President only recently decided to appoint party members into boards because he was seeking re-election.

The ex-lawmaker said, “I decided to move back to the APC from the PDP to support him because from his utterances, I believed he wanted to add value to democracy and this is three years into his administration and he doesn’t work with the party, he regards party members as evil, he doesn’t work with anybody, he doesn’t consult with anybody in the party.

“I am a member of the Board of Trustees of the party even though we don’t have it officially. We had a meeting of such a board or whatever you call it in February 2016.

“That meeting was only called again in November 2017 when he decided that he wanted to get re-elected and he needs us. He promised to reconstitute boards. He had earlier refused to do that because he believed politicians were responsible for all the evil in this country and he also promised to increase the number of ministers. In a nutshell, the President has not added value to democracy by an inch.”

Na’Abba said he was aware that about seven governors had endorsed the President’s re-election bid.

He, however, argued that the governors were acting alone, without the support of their state chapters since no one was consulted before the endorsement.

But the Presidency may not be surprised at the outburst of Na’Abba.

Rather, it is expecting that as the next elections draw nearer, more chieftains of the ruling APC will still go public to support Na’Abba’s position.

A Presidency official who spoke on the condition of anonymity said this in an interview with one of our correspondents on Sunday.

The government official said Na’Abba’s outburst did not come as a surprise because it was clear that the President could not pay for his expensive lifestyle.

He said more party chiefs who belong to the same category with the former Speaker would still join him.

The source said, “Ghali Na’Abba’s position is not strange to us and it did not come to us as a surprise. The truth is that more party chiefs which still toe the same line with him. They will come out to support him.”

He said many of those who were opposed to Buhari had expensive lifestyles, which Buhari could not pay for.

When contacted on the telephone for his reaction to Na’Abba’s claim, the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, declined comment.

“I won’t comment on this statement credited to Alhaji Ghali Na’Abba,” Shehu said.




http://punchng.com/buhari-lacks-physical-intellectual-capacity-to-govern-naabba/

Foreigners employed to kill in Benue, others, DSS tells Buhari


The Islamic State in West Africa network operating within some North Central and South-South sections of Nigeria may be responsible for the recent killings recorded in Benue State and other parts of the country.

This information is said to be contained in an intelligence report presented to President Muhammadu Buhari by security agencies, including the Department of State Service.

A top government official who spoke on the condition of anonymity told journalists on Sunday that the security organisations told the President that the ISWA network is using foreign terrorists and recruiting young men to fight and kill innocent persons “ostensibly to exacerbate tensions along the county’s ethnic, religious and regional fault lines.”

He said the discovery was made following the arrest of several suspected attackers made up of Fulani herdsmen, government-sponsored militias, militants and other miscreants in Benue State.

Among those in custody, according to the Presidency source, are many suspects who cannot speak any Nigerian languages.

They are, however, said to be fluent in French language.

He added that this is the first time that security officials would be confirming that the ISWA members are operating as a unit in Nigeria.

The source said, “A good number of the Islamic State terrorists have been arrested not only in the Benue valley but significantly in several towns in Edo State, specifically in Akoko-Edo, Okpella and Benin as well as in Okene, in Kogi State.

“It is understood that the cell which has members in different parts of the country concentrates on recruiting young men to fight for the Islamic State in West Africa by unleashing the cold-blooded murder of innocent citizens.

“There was intelligence report that they had planned several attacks here, before and during Christmas and the New Year. Their bombing targets included fuel depots, foreign missions and police and military establishments.

“Their network is very wide. But so much was achieved by the DSS which had made a significant number of arrests in the last two months that helped to preempt those attacks.”

The Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, confirmed that Buhari has been receiving a lot of reports on the killings in Benue and other states.

Shehu however said he had no knowledge of the content of any of the reports.

“President Muhammadu Buhari has been receiving reports upon reports on the situation in Benue and other states.

“I can also confirm that the DSS has recorded a lot of success lately but I have not been briefed on any of those reports submitted to the President,” the presidential spokesman said.


http://punchng.com/breaking-foreigners-employed-to-kill-in-benue-others-dss-tells-buhari/

Ex-Naval chief to sue herdsmen’s sponsors in Zamfara, Niger, others


A former Chief of Naval Staff, Vice Admiral Samuel Afolayan (retd.), says he has contacted a Senior Advocate of Nigeria to take legal action against owners of the cows which destroyed vast acres of crops in the ex-naval chief’s farms in Kwara State last week.

He explained that this was to ensure that the law took its course against the owners of the cows, who he believed should rather be held more responsible for the atrocities of the herdsmen.

Afolayan lamented that the herdsmen burnt about 20 hectares of his orange farm, 20 hectares of his cassava farm and five hectares of his palm tree farm.

He noted that he had incurred huge losses in the past 10 years to the criminal activities of the herdsmen but had decided to keep quiet.

The retired naval boss lamented that despite his outcry over the recent destruction, the herdsmen still invaded his farms with their cows on Thursday last week.

He berated the federal and Kwara State governments for abandoning him to his fate.

According to him, there has been no response from the Federal Government and the Kwara State Government since he made public the destruction of about 45 hectares out of his 500 hectares of farms at Obbo-Ile in the Ekiti Local Government Area of Kwara State.

Afolayan told SUNDAY PUNCH in Ilorin on Friday that he briefed the Kwara State Governor, Alhaji Abdulfatah Ahmed, on the burning and destruction of his farm last Tuesday.

He added that since he addressed journalists about the development on Wednesday, the ministries of agriculture at the federal and state levels had yet to respond to his ordeal.

Afolayan stated, “Nobody has contacted me. I have briefed the governor; I briefed him (the governor) even before I granted the interview but nobody has contacted me.

“My line of action is that I will then give a thorough briefing on the series of things they have been destroying. I have the pictures.

“Yesterday (Thursday) they still invaded my farms with their cows which ate up my cassava.”

The former naval chief added, “I have already contacted a SAN. He visited the farm yesterday (Thursday). So, I asked him to take legal action. One of the perpetrators has been arrested and he is in detention at the moment.

“The owner of the cattle is in Zamfara. The action is against the herdsmen and their sponsors.

“I have made only one arrest (for the last destruction). The people being arrested are of no consequence. For anybody who has emotions, those are not the people that I can be fighting because I know they are not the owners of the cows.

“The people that led the cows to destroy farms are of no consequence. The owners of the cows are the ones that I asked the police to arrest. One of them is in Zamfara State; his name and village are known.

“The owner of the cows, which destroyed my farms not quite long ago, is in Minna. So, the people who are moving about with the cows are just errand boys.

“If you take them to court, they cannot appreciate the value of what they had destroyed. I know that they are deliberately doing all these things.”

The spokesperson for the Kwara State Governor, Dr. Muyideen Akorede, however, said the governor was concerned about the ordeal and loss of the ex-naval boss.

He stated that the governor had directed appropriate authorities, including the Commissioner of Police, Mr. Lawal Ado, to investigate the destruction and report back to him.

Akorede said, “Actually, he (Afolayan) briefed the governor and the governor had directed the appropriate agencies, including the Commissioner for Police, to visit the farm, investigate what happened and give him a feedback.

“Maybe things are not moving at the speed he wants, but the governor is looking into it. The issue came up for discussion at the last security council meeting and the governor, who chaired the session, received a briefing on the matter.

“The governor deeply sympathises with him. It is unfortunate and tragic. This loss could have been avoided if the dialogue and compensation mechanism that the state government has put in place was fully imbibed by all parties involved.

“However, I can assure him that he will not be left alone and that he will get every possible support from the government of Alhaji Abdulfatah Ahmed.”



http://punchng.com/ex-naval-chief-to-sue-herdsmens-sponsors-in-zamfara-niger-others/

Molly's Game DVDSCR on TFPDL

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valentineuwakwe:
good point you just outline here, infact the most important lies in the fencing of the land...I did just dat when I bot my land far back in 2004 and WHEN I started building in 2013 it was so easy..no one molest or encroach into my land despite other building have been erected in the area....it's good to follow due diligence in everything we do....today this is my house here in portharcourt...sitting on a one plot of land....
heavens be praised!

Nice design for a living room.

highchief1:
if I post d pic of my house u will go back to work and start looking for money to build a house what u posted is not it

You must have a very low self-esteem. Your type can never have self satisfaction in whatever they do without comparison. You need to recognise that you need help otherwise you will live a vain life.

Super Eagles to take on England at Wembley June 2

Abuja – The Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) on Wednesday in Abuja said a friendly match between the Super Eagles and England’s Three Lions would hold at the Wembley Stadium in London on June.

The match will be only the third between both countries at senior level, and will serve as the Super Eagles’ final preparatory game for the FIFA World Cup finals in Russia.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the Eagles’ first match at Russia 2018 is against Croatia in Kaliningrad exactly two weeks after. Seyi Akinwunmi, NFF’s First Vice President and Chairman of the Federation’s Organising Committee, Seyi Akinwunmi, disclosed this in a statement by the federation’s Communications Department on Wednesday.

“The match is now confirmed. We had been doing a lot of work in the background, even going back to last year. “Now, we are happy to say that it is all sealed. Certainly, it is going to be a big match, between two countries of remarkable historical affinity and similarities. “We have other matches and programmes for the team, and we will soon roll out the entire plan for matches, camping sites and training camps,’’ he said in the statement.

Akinwunmi added that the NFF decided to be strategic in its choice of opponents for the Super Eagles leading to the World Cup. He said also that it was in total agreement with the preferences of the Technical Adviser. “That is why we opted for England. We played Argentina (in November 2017) without even knowing we were going to be in the same group at the Finals.”

NAN reports that Nigeria came from two goals down to defeat two–time world champions Argentina 4-2 in that match in Krasnodar on Nov. 14, 2017. The statement added that Super Eagles’ Technical Adviser, Gernot Rohr, was elated about the development. “This is good news for myself and the entire team. England is a very strong team presently and I believe they will give us a very good match. “We will be able to test our readiness for the World Cup when we meet the Three Lions at Wembley.”

NAN reports that, at Russia 2018, while the Eagles play Croatia, Iceland and Argentina in Group D, England are up against Belgium, Panama and Tunisia in Group G. England is one of only eight countries to have won any of the previous 20 editions of the FIFA World Cup finals. Nigeria and England first clashed at senior level on Nov. 16, 1994, also at the old Wembley Stadium.

David Platt’s headed goal towards the end of the first half separated both teams, before both teams met again at the 2002 FIFA World Cup. The encounter at the Nagai Stadium in Osaka, Japan on June 12, 2002 ended 0-0, with the Super Eagles being eliminated from the finals at the group stage.

NAN reports that the Super Eagles already have a confirmed date with Poland in Warsaw on March 23, with other dates being March 27 and May 27. Poland are 1974 and 1982 World Cup bronze medalists, and they play Senegal, Colombia and Japan in Group H in Russia.(NAN)

Read more at: https://www.vanguardngr.com/2018/01/super-eagles-take-england-wembley-june-2/

Russia 2018: We can’t surprise Argentina again – Rohr

Nigeria’s manager, Gernot Rohr has admitted that the June 26 match with Argentina at Krestovsky Stadium, St Petersburg will be a difficult one. The Nigeria coach told an Argentine publication, Olé that he anticipates that the encounter will be a classification match. The publication reported that Rohr spoke with Argentine radio station, Radio Rivadavia.

Rohr reportedly remarked that the match will determine who follows who. In essence, he is projecting that both Argentina and Nigeria will emerge from the Group D and the last match will only determine the group leader and the runners-up. The runners-up face a potentially difficult Round of 16 match with projected Group C leader, France. The French side eliminated Nigeria at that stage four years ago.

Rohr has a link with the French, even though he was born a German. A substantial part of his adult life has been in France; hence he is often described as Franco-German. His dream may be to be the Group leader as Nigeria did in 1994 in a group that also had Argentina.

On the South Americans, Rohr reportedly remarked: “You know how we play, so we cannot surprise them like the last time”, referring to the 4-2 defeat Nigeria inflicted on Argentina two months ago. He acknowledged that this time it will be more difficult to beat the Sampaoli as they did in the friendly at Krasnodar Stadium, Russia. “It will be more difficult this time than in the friendly because they know how we play, so we cannot surprise them like the last time.”


https://www.vanguardngr.com/2018/01/russia-2018-cant-surprise-argentina-rohr/