₦airaland Forum

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President-elect, Gen Buhari happy about news of the rescue of 293 girls and women from Sambisa Forest by Nigerian troops yesterday April 28th.


http://lindaikeji..com/2015/04/buhari-expresses-delight-at-rescue-of.html

Miwa Hirono has packed her bags and returned to Japan from Britain. Her problem wasn't her job: she worked at Nottingham University from 2008, and her employer wanted her to stay. Her research into China's foreign policy was valuable, and she collaborated with the U.K. Ministry of Defence and Foreign Office. Her problem was a promise made by David Cameron.
The Conservative leader, seeking election as prime minister in 2010, said he'd cut net immigration to the "tens of thousands.'' But because Britain is in the European Union, he had no power to stop anyone coming from the 27 other EU nations. Instead, officials focused on blocking, removing and making life difficult for people they could stop, including highly skilled migrants from outside the EU - scientists, engineers and academics.
As Britons head for the polls again on May 7, the immigration question Cameron is constantly asked is why he hasn't met his goal. He says he wishes he'd done more and repeats a commitment to hit the target if re-elected. What goes largely unasked is whether deterring immigrants is a good idea.
The danger for Britain is that such people are highly mobile and can take their skills away. After a year fighting the Home Office, the ministry that oversees immigration, in the courts, Hirono decided she'd had enough and accepted a job at Kyoto University.

Miwa Hirono raised her family in the UK but has decided to go back to Japan
Photographer: Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg
"I used to say to all my colleagues overseas, 'how lucky am I to be able to work in an English university?''" she said in an interview. "Now I'm saying completely the opposite. This is such a volatile environment to work in. I'm saying: Don't come.''
She's not the only person reaching this conclusion. According to Alison Harvey, legal director of the Immigration Law Practitioners' Association, the most mobile workers are increasingly looking at taking their skills elsewhere.
"The people you're talking about are generally people with a choice,'' Harvey said. "They could go to the U.K. or Japan or the U.S. That choice is undoubtedly affected by the things they're seeing.''
British employers are also struggling, according to Harvey.
"What business needs is real certainty,'' she said. "It needs confidence that things will not change. If I bring someone here, I've got to be confident that I'm not spinning that person a line. Why not base your headquarters in Paris, Ireland or Berlin?''
Neil Carberry, director for employment and skills at the Confederation of British Industry, praised the government for allowing companies to bring in overseas staff they already employ, but said the problems come "when you're trying to do something a little bit different.''
He cited technology companies and Japanese carmakers wanting to bring specialists to Britain for a few months - "people who've got a global supply chain, and a global customer base'' - as meeting difficulties.
"The system is bureaucratic,'' he said. "There's a risk of creating an image of the U.K. that's detrimental to investment. And there's a risk that you clamp down where the levers are easy to pull.''

U.K. immigration figures
Bloomberg/ONS
Policy change
Hirono, 38, came to the U.K. in 2008 on a government-funded fellowship to teach and study at Nottingham in England's East Midlands. She specializes in the way China uses its military to influence developing countries. That involves a lot of foreign travel.
"What I do is go to those places where China sends its peacekeepers, and do interviews,'' she said. The visa she was granted by the U.K. permitted this, and she was overseas for more than 200 days in both 2009 and 2010. She intended to renew her visa and take up a lectureship at Nottingham.
"I just had to turn the letter over, and not look at it for two days. I couldn't believe it was real.''
After Cameron's government took office in 2010, the policy changed, and immigrants could no longer renew visas. Instead, Hirono was told she must apply for permanent U.K. residence, which she did in 2014 for herself, her Australian husband Peter Trebilco, and their son Tada, born in 2013. And here she hit a problem: Anyone abroad for more than 180 days in a year is disqualified from applying.
On a Friday evening in July 2014, she heard from the Home Office.
"I received a letter saying that my family and I would have to be removed from the U.K. immediately,'' Hirono said. "I just had to turn the page over, and not look at it for two days. I couldn't even imagine the problems my family was facing, the implications of what the letter was saying. I couldn't believe it was real.''
Hirono was caught in a bureaucratic trap.
"This policy came into effect in 2012, and they're applying it retrospectively,'' she said. "It's outrageous, it's an absolute joke. I'm sitting in between these two different laws.''
Reluctant to give up life in Nottingham, she appealed. On top of the 2,400 pounds ($3,600) she'd already spent applying for residency, the appeal cost almost 4,000 pounds. The Home Office was holding her passport and those of her family, so she couldn't travel for work intended to benefit other government departments, and Peter was unable to return to Australia when his uncle died.
Still, it seemed worth it when, at the start of December last year, Judge Peter Hollingworth ruled in her favor. Hirono, he said, made a "significant and profound'' contribution to British academic life, and it was unreasonable to ask her to leave. "I was so happy,'' she said.
Then, just after Christmas, she learned the Home Office was appealing.
"I thought, I can't live like this any more,'' she said. "I decided I have to get out of this country.''
Harvey said this experience was typical, as the government puts up a series of soft barriers to discourage immigrants, such as more complicated application forms and a tendency to fight cases. "The Home Office generally seems to be appealing the overwhelming majority of cases that it loses, regardless of merit.''

UKIP Leader Nigel Farage wants to cut migration to the U.K. by taking the country out of the EU
Photographer: Jason Alden/Bloomberg
Debates about immigration in British politics used to be about race, rather than overcrowding. In 1964, when handmade posters appeared in one election battle urging voters not to back Labour if they didn't want black people as neighbors, more people were leaving the country than entering it. Even so, according to Rob Ford, who teaches politics at Manchester University, many people thought immigration was too high.
"The net level of immigration - people arriving minus those leaving - doesn't seem to matter,'' he said.
Cameron and U.K. Independence Party leader Nigel Farage say they want immigration to return to 1980s levels; net inflow peaked at 58,000 in 1985, when the largest numbers were from the U.S., Australia and New Zealand.
Farage argues that until Britain leaves the EU, the bloc's free-movement rules mean it can't control its borders. In 2013, net immigration from the EU was 123,000. But even if all that stopped, the net inflow from outside the EU was 143,000.
The problem facing those seeking to stop immigration is the march of history. With the collapse of communism and cheap air travel, it's much easier for people to cross borders. And promises of immigration crackdowns are never going to satisfy the voters they're aimed at, according to Ford.
"A lot of political promises are on things people don't care about that much, but the voters who care intensively about immigration link it to everything that's wrong with everything,'' he said. "And when they say they want less immigration, they mean they want the process of cultural change that they don't like reversed.''


http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-04-29/welcome-to-britain-thanks-for-the-hard-work-now-get-lost

The just released audit report by PricewaterHouse Coopers PWC on the financial management of the NNPC has revealed that there were many cases of duplicated subsidy payment by the NNPC to many oil marketers between 2012 and 2013.

According to the report, payment of subsidies for petrol (PMS) and kerosene (DPK) between January 2012 and July 2013 when investigated had a difference of $980 million (about N195 billion) due to duplicated payments.
“Our review of the subsidy documentation revealed that the subsidy due to NNPC between January 2012 and July 2013 on PMS and DPK import was $8.99billion compared to the $9.97 billion stated by the Reconciliation Committee.
The difference was due to the following: Exclusion of October 2011-December 2011 subsidy claims of $1.2billion. This does not relate to the review period of January 2012 to July 2013; $0.13billion increase in PMS subsidy claimed for the 19 months period, $0.09billion increase in DPK subsidy claimed for the 19 months period; duplicated discharges noted in subsidy computations Our examination of the PMS and DPK import verified by PPPRA revealed that some discharges were apparently verified and subsidy advised to NNPC more than once,” the report stated.

According to Leadership, the report showed NNPC spent $18.53billion (or N3.65 trillion) as operational costs without a duly approved budgetary allocation. The report also indicated that the total gross revenues generated from the federal government crude oil lifting between January 1, 2012 and July 31, 2013 was $69.34 billion and not $67 billion as earlier stated by the federal government’s Reconciliation Committee.

The report also stated it was unable to verify the exact unremitted revenues accruing to the Federation Accounts as it did not have access to NPDC’s full account. The Nigerian Petroleum Development Company is a subsidiary of the NNPC. “We did not have access to NPDC’s full accounts and records and we have not ascertained the amount of costs and expenses which should be applied to the US$5.11billion Crude Oil revenue (net of royalties and PPT paid) per the NPDC submission to the Senate Committee which should be considered as dividend payment by NPDC to NNPC for ultimate remittance to the Federation Account.

Between 12 January and 29 January 2015, NNPC provided transaction documents representing additional costs of $2.81 billion related to the review period, citing the NNPC Act LFN No 33 of 1977 that allows such deductions. Clarity is required on whether such deductions should be made by NNPC as a first-line charge before remitting the net proceeds of domestic crude to the Federation Accounts. If these are deemed not to be valid deductions, then the amount due from NNPC would be estimated at $2.07 billion (without considering expected known remittances from NPDC) or $4.29 billion (if expected known remittances from NPDC are considered).”

The forensic audit became necessary following a letter in September 2013 by the former governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, to President Goodluck Jonathan stating that from January 2012 to July 2013, NNPC lifted $65 billion worth of crude on behalf of the federal government but remitted only $15.2 billion into the Federation Accounts, with $49.8 billion as outstanding to the federal government. On December 13, 2013, the NNPC responded that no money was missing.

A Reconciliation Committee comprising representatives of the CBN, NNPC, Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR), Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), Office of the Accountant General (OAGF), the Budget Office of the Federation, Federal Ministry of Finance and the Federal Ministry of Petroleum Resources was set up On December 18, 2013, the Reconciliation Committee, in its report, estimated the unremitted funds at $10.8 billion while the CBN said it was $12 billion.

The CBN on February 4, 2014 informed the Senate Committee on Finance that the NNPC needed to account for $20 billion as the CBN could only confirm receipt of $47 billion of $67 billion revenue. On February 13, 2014, the NNPC provided explanations of the $20 billion shortfall while the finance minister and coordinating minister for the economy recommended an independent forensic audit. On June 5, 2014, PwC was appointed by the office of the Auditor General of the Federation (OAuGF) to conduct a forensic audit into the allegations


http://lindaikeji..com/2015/04/nnpc-audit-reveals-double-payment-of.html

Please Read article below

TOPIC: Fears linger around Nigerian president’s commitment to a free press

When Muhammadu Buhari hit the campaign trail in Nigeria earlier this year, he got help from an unlikely source: Tunde Thompson. As a reporter for the Lagos-based Guardian newspaper in the 1980s, Thompson was one of two journalists jailed under the repressive military regime led by Buhari.

Thompson was a casualty of Decree 4, a draconian piece of legislation that allowed the government to imprison any journalist who embarrassed the country’s military leaders — a nebulous charge that was frequently invoked to muzzle the press and civil society during the 18 months of Buhari’s rule. After Thompson and his colleague Nduka Irabor published a report on diplomatic postings that involved top military brass, the two were arrested in February 1984 and held for eight months.

Three decades after his ordeal, Thompson said that “time is a healer of certain wounds,” and he came out in support of Buhari in his campaign against incumbent President Goodluck Jonathan.

“People should learn to be charitable. They should learn to forgive and let bygones be bygones,” Thompson told the online Premium Times newspaper. Saying that Buhari wasn’t personally responsible for his 1984 arrest, Thompson added that he “bear[s] no grudge against him.”

Buhari defeated Jonathan in the March 28 election, and as Nigeria prepares to peacefully hand power to a man who 30 years ago seized it by force, forgiveness is on the minds of many. Even those who suffered during Buhari’s brief reign hope that the notoriously hard-nosed disciplinarian can stem the corruption and the growing tide of insecurity that undid his predecessor. For journalists too, there is guarded optimism that Buhari, now a professed “converted democrat,” has turned over a new leaf in his transition from military strongman to civilian leader.

“What happened during the military regime of Gen. Buhari cannot happen in [a] democracy,” said Mohammed Garba, president of the Nigerian Union of Journalists. “I think we are going to see a different Buhari.”

Skeptics question how long the commitment to democracy will last for Muhammadu Buhari, a former military man who showed little tolerance for dissenting voices the last time he was in power.
Buhari’s ascent to power in December 1983 ushered in a period of crackdowns on civil liberties and freedom of speech, with the arrests of Thompson and Irabor part of a broader effort to muzzle the country’s once vibrant press. Journalists and editors were regularly detained on trivial offenses, and self-censorship became the norm, with newspapers fearful of publishing stories that could incur stiff fines and jail sentences. By the time Buhari was overthrown in a coup in August 1985, a commentator in The Concord newspaper reported that the local press was in a “comatose condition.”

Since the return of democracy in 1999, though, the industry has managed to make slow but steady gains. With dozens of publicly and privately owned newspapers and TV and radio stations, Nigeria now has one of the most diverse and boisterous media climates on the continent, although the industry faces a rash of challenges. Buhari tried to offer assurances on the campaign trail that he would uphold those freedoms once in office, promising “to promote the consolidation of democracy … by guaranteeing that the media’s freedom is not compromised in any way.”

“Without a robust and thriving media, the masses would have no voice,” he added.

Yet skeptics question how long the commitment to democracy will last for Buhari, a former military man who showed little tolerance for dissenting voices the last time he was in power.

“You think that you’re going to have all the time to continue [the media’s] goodwill,” said Jahman Anikulapo, a former editor of The Sunday Guardian, referring to the honeymoon period Buhari is enjoying. But if he struggles to deliver on some of his campaign promises, “there’s going to be a lot of criticism. And that’s when you will see how democratic he is.”

Nigeria is one of the world’s most dangerous places for journalists. The Committee to Protect Journalists last year ranked the nation 12th on its list of deadliest countries, citing “a steady rise in unsolved murders in recent years.” It was the second year in a row that Nigeria appeared on the list, with group noting that the country’s “press freedom record is on the decline.”

The broader unrest in Nigeria has taken its toll on journalists, who struggle to operate freely in much of the country. With the continuing threat posed by armed group Boko Haram in the north, kidnappings in the oil-rich Niger Delta region, rampant criminal and politically sponsored violence and a general culture of impunity, Dapo Olorunyomi, the editor-in-chief of The Premium Times, suggested in a 2013 op-ed that this is “perhaps the most dismal period” for the profession in its 150-year history in the region.

The run-up to this year’s presidential polls was especially troubling, according to the Lagos-based International Press Centre, which documented 32 attacks against journalists in Nigeria from November to February. On Monday the military released two Al Jazeera journalists it had detained for nearly two weeks, underscoring the IPC’s findings that “police and other security agencies have continued to be the principal perpetrators of attacks,” a fact that it called “particularly alarming."

Citing the broader culture of impunity in Nigeria, Garba noted, “We are yet to see a serious case against either the state security forces or individuals that have committed crimes against journalists.”

Still, within the industry, there is hope that Buhari “has a chance of cleaning up” that culture, according to Femi Adesina, the president of the Nigerian Guild of Editors. Despite his heavy-handed time as a military ruler, Buhari entered the campaign season with a no-nonsense reputation that enamored him to the many voters who had grown weary of the rampant corruption and waywardness of the Jonathan era. Yet Adesina cautioned it “remains to be seen” how Buhari would manage to push reform while abiding by the country’s democratic institutions, as opposed to ruling by decree, as he did 30 years ago.

Perhaps the greater threat to Nigeria’s press stems from powerful controlling interests in a country where, according to Mohammed Garba, president of the Nigerian Union of Journalists, roughly 70 percent of media companies are owned by politicians.
Perhaps the greater threat to Nigeria’s press stems from powerful controlling interests in a country where, according to Garba, roughly 70 percent of media companies are owned by politicians and the dire financial straits of most organizations leave them particularly susceptible to outside influence.

The issue was brought to bear during the bitterly divisive campaign season, when the press was routinely criticized for failing to maintain its objectivity, publishing slanderous attack ads and promoting hate speech. Last month a Lagos high court issued an injunction against several broadcasters — including the state-owned Nigerian Television Authority — for running a negative and specious documentary against Buhari’s running mate, Yemi Osinbajo. The broadcasters reportedly received roughly $50 million to produce and air the program, which was bankrolled by Jonathan’s ruling party.

The lapses in ethics throughout the campaign season, said Anikulapo, reflect the broader struggle by media in recent years to live up to their mandate as watchdog in a country hobbled by corruption. He pointed to the Freedom of Information Act, signed into law by Jonathan in 2011, which mandates that institutions receiving public money disclose their operations and spending and that citizens have the right to access information about those groups’ activities. At the time, the act was hailed as a victory for transparency and accountability, but it has only sporadically been used by the press since, and Ankikulapo cited it as an example of the media’s failure to “engage with power … and raise the necessary questions,” even with legal tools at its disposal.

That failure, he said, raises doubts about whether the media can “wake up from that slumber all of a sudden and start to tackle a former general.”

“Now that you’ve dined with the devil,” he asked, “how do you extricate yourself from it?”


http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2015/4/7/fears-linger-about-nigerian-presidents-commitment-to-press-freedom.html

https://thenationonlineng.net/new/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/Jude-Okoh-620x330.jpg

Prior to 2000, Jude Okoh was an integral member of the Nigeria National Table Tennis Team but when the opportunity presented itself for him to travel to Mexico, he did not waste time to grab it.
On getting to Mexico, he fell sick and had to undergone operation which was successful and for more than five years, he could pursue a career in table tennis.
And when the chance came to put his talent to use, Okoh grabbed it and made the Mexican national team to the 2008 World Table Tennis Championship in Guangzhou, China and for more than three years he was an important member of the Mexican team.
In 2011, Okoh guided Mexico to his first international title with a bronze medal in the team event of the Pan America Games hosted by Mexico.
This feat paved way for the Nigerian to improve himself in the art of table tennis and today, Okoh is a member of the Mexican national team to the 2015 ITTF World Championships in Suzhou, China.
Married to a Mexican and blessed with three children, Okoh told Nation Sport on Monday in China that he never regretted moving to Mexico.
“When I left Nigeria I was still playing in the national team with the likes of Segun Toriola and Monday Merotohun and on getting to Mexico I fell sick and I had to undergo operation and it was successful.
“I played for Mexican national team and later I became coach/player and it was then in 2011 that I led the Mexican team to win their first international medal in table tennis at the 2011 Pan American Games in the men’s team event. I am now a coach with the team and things have been working well for me”.
“It was while in Mexico I met my lovely wife and we have three wonderful kids with a beautiful home to live and what else will I ask God to do for me.
“I will remain grateful to God for this and the Mexicans have appreciated what I have done and still doing and it has become my adopted country,” he said.
However, Okoh could not but admit that the feat achieved by Aruna Quadri has also made the Mexicans to appreciate him more. “I think the Mexican now appreciate me more after seeing what Aruna Quadri did in the world and for me that is a big boost for my profile and I am looking forward to seeing more Quadri making impact in table tennis,” he added.


http://thenationonlineng.net/new/nigerian-athlete-takes-mexican-citizenship/

The South African Government takes note that the outgoing Government of the Federal Republic of Nigeria has recalled its Acting High Commissioner to South Africa. A government resorts to such an extraordinary diplomatic step to express outrage at actions or behaviour of another government.

We are not sure which actions or behaviour of the South African Government the Nigerian Government is protesting. It is only Nigeria that has taken this unfortunate and regrettable step. If this action is based on the incidents of attacks on foreign nationals in some parts of our country, it would be curious for a sisterly country to want to exploit such a painful episode for whatever agenda.

Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa has just returned from Indonesia to attend the Africa-Asia Summit and the 60th Anniversary of the historic Bandung Conference. At no stage did the Nigerian delegation present at that gathering, expressed its intention to formally raise the issue with the South African side.

South Africa remains committed to a strong bond of friendship and bilateral relations with Nigeria. It is for this reason that when 84 of our citizens perished on Nigerian soil, we did not blame the Nigerian Government for the deaths and more than nine (9) months delay in the repatriation of the bodies of our fallen compatriots, or for the fact that when these bodies eventually returned, they were in a state that they could not be touched or viewed as required by our burial practice.

We will raise our concerns through diplomatic channels with the new administration that will assume office in Nigeria next month.

The South African Government, as well as all political parties, religious organisations, non-governmental organisations, business, sports fraternities, including artists, musicians and ordinary people of South Africa, have been decisive and unequivocal in condemning and rejecting the attacks on foreign nationals.

Through our interventions, relative calm and order has been restored. We are encouraged by the solidarity our country continues to receive from other African countries and the international community. We shall also continue to support and not blame the Nigerian Government as it battles to deal with Boko Haram that continues to kill many innocent civilians. We hope that the more than 200 girls kidnapped by Boko Haram will someday be reunited with their families.



http://www.cnbcafrica.com/news/western-africa/2015/04/26/safrica-responds-to-nigeria-recalling-high-commissioner/

President Goodluck Jonathan and the President-elect, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), are currently meeting behind closed-doors.

The meeting is holding inside the new Banquet Hall of the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

Buhari arrived for the meeting at exactly 3pm.

Shortly before his arrival, Jonathan moved from his office to the venue in company of his Principal Secretary, Hassan Tukur.

Details later…




http://www.punchng.com/news/jonathan-buhari-in-closed-door-meeting/

Remnants of the Boko Haram terrorists have run out of arms and ammunitions, as the Nigerians military intensifies attack on Sambiza Forest, an escapee and military sources have revealed.
This is even as the Director Defence Information, Major General Chris Olukolade confirmed to newsmen in Abuja that ground troops with support from airstrikes have stormed sambisa forest combing terrorists from their hideouts.
Although, Olukolade did not disclosed whether military troops have succeeded in killing or destroying terrorists camps in the ongoing raid which began on Wednesday, an escapee from Tabe village of Damboa local government area who narrowly escaped from the area said “the Boko Haram terrorists have run out of arms and ammunitions as the military intensify attacks on Sambiza Forest”.
He said “you can find more than 500 members of the insurgents with only few of them having rifles and even when one or two of them have rifles, it is like a stick, as they have run out of ammunitions, because the usual supplies they get are not forthcoming.
“I am optimistic that the military will succeed by killing many of these sect who have been terrorising residents in the past three years in the shores of Sambisa forest””. He stated
Another resident of nearby Yamtake village who does not want his name in print told our correspondent that “ As a result of the recent aerial bombardment on the Sambiza forest, many of the sect members including their commanders have fled into the nearby bushes of Yamtake, Tabe and Jangoro villages of Damboa local government area of the state.”
He called on the military authorities to come to their aid by mopping up the remnant of the insurgents who fled to these areas before they regroup to unleash terror on innocent villagers.
He said “the Boko Haram terrorists have only bow and arrows, matchets, daggers and other local weapons, as they have run out of arms and ammunitions and were roaming about in the bushes of the villages along the fringes of the Sambiza forest”.
Meanwhile, a security source from Bama, one of the recaptured local government area in Borno said the Boko Haram has caused a lot of destruction in Bama town, as corpses were scattered all over the streets, some were dumped in destroyed buildings and wells.
He said “only few structures still standing, as the terrorists have virtually destroyed all structures in the town. Very soon we are also going to the Sambiza forest for mop up operations, as we have been directed to clear the Sambiza before the May 29handing over dateline”. The security source also revealed.

http://www.vanguardngr.com/2015/04/boko-haram-runs-out-of-arms-ammunition-says-escapee/

The Nigerian economy added a total of 369,485 new jobs in the fourth quarter of 2014 (Q4, 2014), according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).


According to the latest job creation statistics released on Tuesday, the fourth quarter results showed an improvement over the 349,343 jobs added in the previous quarter.

Of the total employment generated in the period under review, the informal sector of the economy recorded the highest number of intakes with 227,072 jobs or 61.5 per cent of the total figure, while the formal sector recorded 138,026 jobs or 37.7 per cent as well as the public sector which accounted for 4,387 jobs or 1.2 per cent of total jobs created.

According to the NBS, although the formal sector experienced a decrease of 7,438 or 5.1 per cent from the 145,464 jobs recorded in the third quarter of 2014, the public sector also decreased by 1,348 or 23.5 per cent jobs from the 5,735 jobs recorded in the previous quarter.

The informal sector jobs however, increased from the previous quarter with 28,928 jobs, representing 14.6 per cent.

A breakdown of the job spread by economic sector indicated that the government’s education sector generated the most number of new jobs in the fourth quarter, with 54,729 Jobs or 39,65 per cent of the total, compared to third quarter in which manufacturing sector had the greatest Jobs created with 54,446 Jobs or 37.43 per cent of the total.

The manufacturing sector ranked the second most dominant employer of new labour in the period under review with 22.75 per cent of all jobs, while the wholesale and retail trade sector was the third most dominant with 10,659 Jobs or 7.72 per cent of the new jobs total.

The report noted:”The most commonly cited reason for hiring new staff was, ‘Business Expansion’, for which 63,635 new Jobs or 46.10 per cent of the total were created. The second most cited reason was ‘New skill required’, 44.527 jobs or 32.26 per cent of the total created was on the account of new skills required.

“The third most reported reason for hiring was “to fill a position vacated by an employee”. It was responsible for the hiring of 15,311 new positions or 11.09 per cent of total new employment in the formal sector. The least common reason given for hiring new employees was ‘promoted former occupant of position’, which was cited for 211 or 0.15 per cent of all new jobs.”



http://www.thisdaylive.com/articles/nbs-nigerian-economy-generated-369-485-jobs-in-fourth-quarter-of-2014/207424/

The Chief of Army Staff, General Kenneth Tobias Minimah in an interview with Vanguard responds to issues concerning the army’s preparations for the 2015 general elections, the recent pounding of the Islamist Boko Haram terrorist group, the court martial of some officers and men among others.
The COAS spoke following a visit by a delegation of statesmen led by former head of state, General Abdusalami Abubakar who came on the aegis of the National Peace Committee.
HOW would you describe this unprecedented visit of such revered Nigerians?
We are filled with humility that the committee has been watching and observing what we have been doing. I think it is a highly pleasant commendation just as it is a surprise to us, that they want to come and thank us and commend us for what we have done. . We are humbled that we are commended by a committee of this level; I think it is also a reflection of the feeling of the senior citizens and a good percentage of the elites in the country, that we did our best in the election.
People went to court saying military should not be used to do this and that, but at the end of the day, a winner emerged and the army was not in any way blacklisted for any acts of impropriety. Troops had to be deployed to ensure that there is security and there is no violence; that a good atmosphere is provided for the ordinary citizen to come out and vote without fear for his life without fear for intimidation, without fear of his environment and family which we did and I’m sure everybody came out and voted well.
Democratic process
Most of us here today are products of this same democracy, I have always believed and with my colleagues too, that the Nigerian military is better off, under a democratic government because our needs are more and enormously addressed than in a military government. In that direction we believe strongly that our military would be able to sustain more in observance of its constitutional roles in a democratic process.
Would you say your soldiers did well or were there any hitches?
Chief of Nigerian army staff Lt.General Kenneth Minimah attend the commissioning ceremony of the "NNS Centenary", an offshore patrol vessel built by Chinese Shipbuilding and Industry Corporation (CSIC) for Nigerian Navy, on February 19, 2015 in Lagos. Nigerian President Jonathan commissioned into the service of Nigerian Navy four patrol vessels to enhance maritime surveillance, protection of offshore resources and infrastructure. One of the vessels, a frigate was acquired from the US Coast Guard, and one of two others built by Chinese firm was donated by the Chinese government to its Nigerian counterpart.
I think if you ask me to score myself, I will score myself 100 percent because for our state of political development, we cannot expect to see our elections hold as it is done in the most advanced nations. We are still bogged down by little prejudices of inter party wrangling where we always have issues about thuggery, violence, ballot box snatching and confusion around the arena of polling units and so forth which has to do with our level of political development. For now I don’t think we can say that this will stop easily. I believe the more the democratic process and electioneering process strengthens and develops, then people will learn over time that thuggery cannot change results; and if you go hire a thug he will tell you why he would not be available. But for now there are several reasons why he would be available.
So what did the soldiers do right on election deployment?
Honestly I will speak from my own perspective which is that we have a responsibility to ensure peace, no violence. We have the responsibility to ensure that the country is stable though others have their interpretations. From our own perspective, what we went out for, we achieved. Because we deployed in the possible flash points, flash areas where violence always erupt, where violence starts, where people converge to hatch ideas order than positive feelings. We were deployed all over those places, drawing from the experience of the post election violence of 2011 where those unfortunate skirmishes emerged from.
We deployed in all those areas, and hooligans, vandals and thugs did not have freedom of action, so everybody is in retrospect believing that it worked. Of course there will be people who for whatever reason will never accept defeat and would never agree they lost, they would keep shouting either wolf or foul or whatever, that they have lost. But majority of law abiding citizen believe that the deployment of soldiers calmed everywhere, and enabled them to come out and they voted and there was no violence.
The North East was the excuse or reason for shifting of the election from February to March. What miracle did the army use to secure it for election in six weeks?
I’m sure you know that before the postponement, the atmosphere in the Northeast was still charged with the activities and violence of the Boko Haram sect. They still had a handful of local governments across the three states, and inclusive of the fourth state, Gombe State. They had also threatened that they would disrupt elections and the elections will not hold. There are also those who had fears that the army or the Nigerian military did not have visible capacity, to doing much between the time frame of reducing the menace and invincibility of the terrorists.
Anyone could have as well believed it that it was not going to be possible. Alas today the reality on ground has vindicated the armed forces of Nigeria because so much has been done that as at today we are moving already into Sambisa forest and hopefully very, very soon the military action will be rested in the Northeast.
At the last Council of State meeting before the shift, most of the speakers disagreed and wondered what could be done by the military if in the last five years they couldn’t do anything. Is it a miracle or how is it that they would achieve this? Of course I convinced them that it was very much achievable, more so that our neighbours, who had been lukewarm, all of a sudden decided to join the battle.
They realized in their own right that if Nigeria eventually defeats this terrorism, they (terrorists) will empty into their own territories if they do not join the war. Of course Chad was suffering economic blockade and had to join the war for economic reasons to reopen the routes vis a vis Maiduguri, Malam Fatori, Pulka, from Cameroon side to Chad was blocked by these elements.
The Nigerian side was blocked by them and as far as much of their goods and services were coming from Cameron and Nigeria, they had no choice but to join the war. Niger also saw the genuine reason to join in the war because they knew their country was like a traffic for both Boko Haram the arms and ammunition, and sometimes for recruitment of individuals who they used as war machines and so forth and indoctrinate them.
They too decided to join the war, because they saw it lately that we were going to turn this thing and if we turned it, that these elements would run into their countries. Prior to this time, these countries had always been sanctuaries to Boko Haram terrorists; they moved in freely and came out freely. Cameroon did not show much enthusiasm, not until they moved in en-mass into Cameroon and started causing destruction, killing, kidnapping and so forth; they now realized they also had to fight the Boko Haram terrorists.
I tried to explain it to that august body that with our contiguous neighbours showing greater enthusiasm to participating in the war, that the end is near, because all we needed now is to push them up. They cannot run into any of those countries; once they all block their borders, we are good to go and of course it was reluctantly agreed but today we are witnesses to what has become of it. So it’s a feat that was never thought of but we have achieved it.
How do you react to the allegation that the six weeks emergency operation in the Northeast was politically motivated and that Nigerian troops were reluctant to take over territories captured by foreign troops?
Who will say his or her mother’s soup, is not sweet; everybody eulogizes his own bearing, his own person or his community. I am sorry to say, it is the Nigerian media that fail to eulogize the Nigerian armed forces but I will not speak on that. Let me rather address the one I know. You see it is plebeian, it is plebeian fury.
It is common knowledge that the Nigerian army had been demanding equipment from the government; it is common knowledge too that part of the teething problems of the war against the insurgency has been requisite modern equipment for the Nigerian Army and the Nigerian armed forces.
It is common knowledge too, the equipment the Nigerian army had, were old, aging, obsolete equipment and that we were doing local repairs to maintaining them. It is common knowledge too that Nigerian troops were running from battle. It is also common knowledge that the government was doing everything it could to buy equipment for the army.
At one point this equipment came in, and with my personal effort of ensuring that officers and soldiers were court-martialed and dismissed for running in the face of adversaries; for abandoning the equipment we had and running away and so forth, the psyche of the Nigerian soldier changed. The equipment that arrived changed the battle dynamics; changed the battle platform, everything reversed.
The terrorists started running, and we changed the battle, that is what happened. So I will say the personality of the Chief of Army staff; utility of the equipment that arrived; changing the dynamics; and changing the commitment of the individual soldiers, that is what did. So for the man who does not understand, let him have his rights to free speech, he can interpret it any way he wishes, but for you who knows, you know that certainly no body was keeping war, to see his soldiers dying and losing colleagues everyday because he hopes he was going to win at the end. What if victory does not come at the end?
Any regrets convening the court martial?
One million times, I will do it again. Mind you, the courts are still on.
In spite of the public outcry?
Is it the public that is fighting the battle? Is it not the public now that is saying that why did they not do this thing earlier; why are they doing it now? The public has its say, but war has to be fought and in fighting war, there must be sanctions for people who breach the process of war or for people who ran away from battle.
Now, where do you draw the balance between what you just said that soldiers ran away from battle because there were no equipment?
Okay, what you did not know, is that the battle had been turned before the equipment arrived; because the average officer realized that now, if he runs, he would be court martialed.
The soldier knew that if he runs away he will be dismissed, so everybody was prepared to stand and fight and die. Because if you run back there is nothing to gain. And because they stopped running, stood and fought, the Boko Haram was surprised, he turned and ran and started saying, these people (soldiers) are not Nigerians; because before when they come and we fired….everybody runs away.
Now people were standing to fight back, and in the sustained fire fight of two hours or three hours they said no, we don’t understand these people and they (Boko Haram) now ran away; that’s how it started. In Konduga I, Konduga II, Konduga III attacks, we held our ground.
When that fellow, the other Mr Shekau; I don’t know the number he is now, was killed, it was the old equipment we used and it was the soldiers themselves that said no way we are not running anywhere because when you run back, that ‘madman’ (Minimah) is waiting for you.
He will court martial you, he will dismiss you, he will jail you; so they remain there and fought; and that was when the ‘ice’ broke that this people (Boko Haram) are not invincible. Since then the thing picked up before the equipment arrived just six weeks ago.
Captured territories
It is the soldier that fights not the equipment. If I had set up the court martial as soon as I came on board, we wouldn’t have lost all those territories; because at one point they would have realized it that they had to stand and fight.
How can it become fashionable that soldiers are running, and while they are running, soldiers are telling civilians in Mubi, Boko Haram are coming; Boko Haram are coming; they are running, and now you want me to listen to some persons who ask why didn’t we do it earlier.
With all this successes in routing the terrorists, is there any lead to the rescue of the captured Chibok girls?
By the time we capture Sambisa forest completely, we will be able to find out where the Chibok girls are, because as it is now, anybody you ask in the captured territories so far, they say they did not see them. That they are not there.
When we capture Sambisa forest we will be able to know where they are and government will take it up from there and in the next six months I’m sure that Nigerians would have forgotten that Boko Haram existed and terrorized a region, I believe so.


http://www.vanguardngr.com/2015/04/the-strategies-we-used-to-rout-boko-haram-minimah-army-chief/

Minister of State II for Foreign Affairs, Senator Musiliu Obanikoro has explained why he usually wears Palm-slippers following harsh criticisms he received on social media last week from people who felt he dresses 'too informal for so a Minister of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.”

Speaking to Breaking Times today, Senator Obanikoro explained;
“I have serious problems with my toes. I was operated on them twice but the pain still won’t go away. This has made it very difficult for me to wear proper shoes as frequently as I would love to”, he said.



http://lindaikeji..com/2015/04/why-i-usually-wear-palm-slippers-sen.html

A Federal High Court in Lagos has suspended the enforcement of a judgment which stopped the Lagos State Government from imposing movement restriction on citizens during the monthly sanitation exercise in the state.

By implication, anyone found moving between 7am and 10am on the last Saturday of the month, either on the state or federal roads in Lagos, while the sanitation exercise is being observed, would be liable to arrest.

The fresh order, made by Justice Mohammed Idris on Friday, put on hold the enforcement of a March 16, 2015 judgment nullifying the power of Lagos State and its agents to arrest anyone found moving during the sanitation exercise.

According to the judge, the March 16 judgment would not be enforced until the outcome of the appeal filed by Lagos State challenging the judgment.

Idris, however, ordered the state to compile records of proceedings within 90 days otherwise the stay of execution would be voided.

The Lagos State Government, through its Solicitor-General, Mr. Lawal Pedro (SAN), had filed an application for a stay of execution, urging Idris to summarily suspend the enforcement of his judgment.

Idris had, on March 16, declared the movement restriction policy as illegal and a violation of sections 35 and 41 of the Constitution, which preserve the citizens’ right to personal liberty and freedom of movement.

Though, the judge did not overrule the sanitation exercise, he held that Lagos State and its agents lacked the legal backing to arrest or detain any citizen found moving during the exercise as there was currently no law to that effect.

“I have no doubt that the restrictions imposed on the movement of persons and sanctions meted out to those who breach them are clearly unsupportable in law and unjustified.

“I must state loud and clear that the environmental sanitation exercise is not in itself unlawful, but what is unlawful and unconstitutional is the restriction imposed by the respondents during the exercise,” Idris had held.

But Pedro, in a further affidavit, insisted that the judge did not consider or exhaust all the relevant provisions of the law before arriving at his judgment.

“We were able to show exceptional circumstances in our further affidavit; we exhibited a law, which, I must concede, was not brought to the attention of the court; the court would have been more comfortable while arriving at its judgment, if that law was brought before my Lord,” Pedro said on Thursday.

He made reference to and read Section 28 (1) and (2) of the amended Environmental Sanitation Edict of 1987, which empowered the police, a sanitary officer or a member of the then Military Task Force to arrest without a warrant, any person “found roaming about without lawful excuse within such specific period,” when any normal communal or other civic obligation directed by either the state or Federal Government was supposed to be observed.

Pedro further likened the movement restriction policy to what obtains during the general elections period, saying though he was not aware of any specific law that said movement must be frozen during elections, peculiar circumstances necessitated the policy.

In opposition, the respondent/applicant, Mr. Ebun-Olu Adegboruwa, had asked the court to refuse the application for stay of judgment execution, saying Lagos State had a penchant for disregarding court judgments.

He said the state had been known for undermining the authority of the court and accused the state of deliberately delaying hearing in its own appeal against Idris’ judgment.

But one Quduz Lawal, deponent to Lagos State’s further affidavit, debunked the claim, saying, “I specifically deny the allegation of the respondent that it is the trade mark of the 3rd-6th respondents/applicants to always disregard judgment of courts.

“There has been no environmental sanitation exercise in Lagos State since the judgment of this court was delivered on 16th March, 2015.

“I also deny that the applicant intend to delay the hearing of the appeal against the judgment of this honourable court.”

Idris ruled in favour of the application for stay of execution.

Adegboruwa had obtained the court judgment after arguing that the movement restriction policy in the name of sanitation was “an illegal and an obnoxious” policy.



http://www.punchng.com/news/sanitation-lagos-application-to-restrict-movement-succeeds/

The National Bureau of Statistics on Thursday released the Consumer Price Index for the month of March, stating that the inflation rate had risen to 8.5 per cent.

The March increase in the CPI, the bureau noted, was a marginal increase of 100 basis points from the 8.4 per cent recorded in the month of February.

The 0.1 per cent increase in inflation, according to a report by the NBS, makes it the fourth consecutive month that the index would be moving in an upward direction.

It said while the pace of increase in food prices held firm for the second consecutive month, the faster increase in the headline index was driven by increases in the non-food divisions.

The report, a copy of which was made available to our correspondent, stated, “In March, the CPI, which measures inflation, rose by 8.5 per cent (year-on-year), marginally higher from the 8.4 per cent rate recorded in February. This is the fourth consecutive month of a faster increase in the headline index to reach the highest inflation rate recorded for the year.

“The headline rate for March also equals last year’s high recorded in August. While the pace of increase in food prices held firm for the second consecutive month, the faster increase in the headline index was driven by increases in the non-food divisions.”

The report added that food prices as observed by the food sub-index increased at relatively the same pace in March as in February by 9.4 per cent.

This pace of increase, it explained, was weighted upon by a slower increase in the bread and cereals, oils and fats, dairy and confectionary groups.

Year-on-year, the report stated that both the urban and rural price indices recorded faster increases in March.

“The urban index increased by 8.6 per cent, 0.2 percentage points from February; while the rural index increased marginally from 8.3 per cent in February to 8.4 per cent in March. On a month-on-month basis, both the urban and rural indices increased at a faster pace in March, increasing by 0.9 per cent,” the report added.

On a month-on-month basis, the highest price increases were recorded in the fruit, fish, potatoes, yam and other tubers, and vegetables groups.

Reacting to the continuous increase in inflation rate, financial analysts blamed the development on the recent devaluation of the naira as well as the increase in election spending.

The Head, Research and Strategy, BGL Securities Plc, Mr. Femi Ademola, in a telephone interview with our correspondent, predicted that the upward trend might continue till June owing to the impact of election spending.

He said, “We have been complaining that election spending and the devaluation of the naira would put more pressure on prices of goods and services. We will continue to see increase in inflation until June because the liquidity caused by election spending and others will have to wear off.


http://www.punchng.com/business/money/inflation-rises-for-fourth-consecutive-month-to-8-5/

Former Head of State and chairman of the 2015 General elections Peace Committee, Gen. Abdulsalami Abubakar yesterday said he had not been intervening to stop the probe of any minister by the incoming government.

He spoke yesterday after a meeting at the Presidential Villa.

President-elect Gen. Muhammadu Buhari has declared his intention to investigate the activities of key ministries after his inauguration. Minister of Petroleum, Mrs Diezani Alison-Madueke, was reported to be lobbying the former Head of State to intervene on her behalf.

Yesterday at the Villa, Gen. Abubakar and the minister arrived few minutes apart at President Goodluck Jonathan’s office at the Villa.

Gen Abdulsalami told reporters who asked him whether he attended a meeting with the minister of petroleum as part of the alleged plan tom intervene on her behalf: “I think people are just trying to be mischievous, I have been meeting with a lot of people and a lot of ministers in the course of this transition. So there is nothing strange in me meeting with anybody.



“I wonder if you go through the records to see the number of meetings I have been engaged in, I don’t know why the last one will be a subject of media chat.

“This is not the first time I have been meeting with her and a number of ministers, so I don’t see what the whole hullabaloo is all about. People are just being mischievous.”

On why he visited the President, he said: “As the chairman of the peace committee, there is always interaction between the incoming administration and President Jonathan in order to ensure that the peace we have been able to get is sustained.”

Asked if serving as intermediary between Buhari and Jonathan was necessary, he said: “I’m not serving as an intermediary. I told you I’m coming here as the chairman of peace committee and naturally we have to interact, I go and see Gen. Buhari and I also see the President all in an effort to make sure than that this transition goes on smoothly and we maintain the peace.”


http://thenationonlineng.net/new/abdulsalami-im-not-trying-to-stop-alison-madueke-others-probe/

DUTSE—Governor Sule Lamido of Jigawa State and former minister in the Second Republic, Senator Bello Maitama Yusuf, are currently flexing muscles over N15 million campaign funds allegedly diverted by the latter.
Consequently, Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, which reportedly released the money to the Senator, is seeking to arrest him, with a view to recovering the money disbursed for purposes of electioneering.
It was alleged that he defected to All Progressives Congress, APC, after taking the money.
While Governor Lamido asked Senator Yusuf to refund the money or face arrest, the Senator dared the governor to arrest him.
Vanguard authoritatively gathered that Governor Lamido approved the release of N15 million to Yusuf for onward disbursement to the electorate in his Gwaram constituency during the governorship, state assembly and House of Representatives elections.
Senator Yusuf, in a swift reaction, denied ever taking campaign funds from PDP for disbursement to electorate in his constituency, adding that his defection to All Progressives Congress, APC, was the reason the story was concocted to malign him.
Yusuf said: “I am just a victim of circumstance; because I defected to APC.
“It is unbelievable. I do not have business with campaign funds. I spend my own money for the development of my people and the party.”
Publicity Secretary of PDP in Jigawa State, Alhaji Musa Abdullahi, confirmed that Senator Yusuf received campaign funds and that the party had reported the case to the state Police Command.
State Police Public Relations Officer, PPRO, ASP Abdu Jinjiri, confirmed that the command received a complaint from the state PDP in respect of the alleged campaign money.
He said investigation was ongoing, and that the command had sent its men to invite the senator for questioning.


http://www.vanguardngr.com/2015/04/governor-senator-flex-muscles-over-missing-pdp-campaign-funds/

Awka—OHANAEZE Ndigbo, the apex Igbo socio-cultural organisation, said yesterday, that it had no regrets not supporting the ambition of the All Progressives Congress, APC, presidential candidate, General Muhammadu Buhari, who won the March 28, 2015 presidential poll.
Ohanaeze also flayed the Oba of Lagos, Rilwan Akiolu, over the death threat he allegedly issued to Igbo people residing in Lagos before the governorship election.

Speaking in an interview in Awka, the national treasurer of the group, Chief Damian Ogene, said the apex Igbo socio-cultural organisation supported President Goodluck Jonathan because of what he described as Buhari’s negative antecedents to Ndigbo.

According to him, the rejection of Buhari during the presidential poll is to remind him of the injustices perpetrated against Igbo during his earlier tenure as military Head of State.

He, however, said that since God had given Buhari an opportunity to be a democratic President of Nigeria, he should strive to right his earlier wrongs.
Ogene said: “We are ready to co-operate with him and to believe in his administration in the hope that he will, this time, address the injustices meted out to us since after the Nigerian civil war.”

He also advised the President-elect to deal only with the core people in Igbo land, rather than with the money-bags that were out of touch with Igbo nation and the masses.

“These billionaires have been using their oil money to block government from reaching the people at the grassroots level.

“He should liaise with people-oriented organisations like Anambra Association of Town Unions, ASATU, rather than with intermediaries,” he said.

He suggested to General Buhari to ensure that Igbo people, who were displaced in the northern part of the country due to the Boko Haram insurgency, received compensation as their northern counterparts, in the spirit of equity and justice.


http://www.vanguardngr.com/2015/04/we-dont-regret-not-supporting-buhari-ohanaeze/

President Goodluck Jonathan will hand over the reigns of affairs of the country to the President-elect, Maj.-Gen. Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), on May 28, about 24 hours before Buhari’s inauguration.

Minister of Information, Senator Patricia Akwashiki, disclosed this to State House correspondents on Wednesday at the end of the Federal Executive Council meeting presided over by Jonathan.

Akwashiki said Jonathan would hand over to Buhari at a dinner on the eve of the May 29 Democracy Day.

She said, “By May 28, the President intends to have the formal handing over done at a dinner so that we can reserve May 29 for the incoming government.

“By May 28, we are expected to have concluded our own government and we are welcoming the incoming government.

“Also you know May 29 is our Democracy Day. So, we have activities lined up all through that week, showcasing all what we have achieved and all other things we do normally on our Democracy Day except that this year is special with the inauguration of our new President that is coming up on May 29.”

She added that the President had directed all Ministries, Departments and Agencies to prepare their handover notes and submit same to the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Senator Pius Anyim, on or before April 20.

She said it was Anyim’s responsibility to compile the notes which will form Jonathan’s handover document to his successor.

She further said while the valedictory FEC meeting would hold on May 20, everything that requires the President’s approval must be presented to him latest on May 13 so that the incoming government would not accuse him of rushing projects.

The minister added that Jonathan had directed MDAs to brief him on inherited projects and the ones initiated by his administration under their jurisdiction.

She said the briefings were expected to include the status of the projects and levels of implementation.

The minister added, “The President emphasised on the need for all MDAs to submit their handing over notes to the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation by 20th of this month, that is next Monday. So we are going to be very busy this weekend putting our handing over notes together.

“The President also emphasised that he would require another little briefing from all MDAs to indicate inherited projects, how far they have been executed and initiated projects by his administration and the level of completion, whether completed, ongoing or abandoned.”

She said the present administration was doing everything possible to ensure smooth transition, adding that Vice President Namadi Sambo is heading the government’s transition committee while Anyim is heading the inauguration committee.

Akwashiki however said notwithstanding the transition programme, governance had not stopped in the country.

“That is not to say that governance has stopped, of course we are in government until the day the President-elect takes his oath of office,” she explained.

Meanwhile, Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke; and the Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, were among a few ministers who did not attend the Wednesday meeting.

The meeting was the first one held after the March 28 presidential election which Jonathan lost to Buhari.

Before the President arrived the venue, some ministers, especially the core politicians among them used the opportunity to review the polls and their performances in their various states.

They formed small groups to take stock zone-by-zone.

Minister of Police Affairs, Mr. Jelili Adesiyan; Minister of State II, Foreign Affairs, Senator Musiliu Obanikoro; Minister of State, Federal Capital Territory, Olajumoke Akinjide; and the Minister of State, Works, Dayo Adeyeye, were seen engrossed in discussion on the Peoples Democratic Party’s performance in the South West while awaiting Jonathan’s arrival at the venue.


http://www.punchng.com/news/jonathan-hands-over-power-on-may-28/

LAST Saturday’s election in Lagos was unarguably the toughest governorship poll ever held in the state since the return to democratic rule and proved the sagacity and strength of the political leader of the state, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu.
Indications that the 2015 governorship election would be tough emerged early. It became very obvious after the March 28 Presidential and National Assembly elections where the PDP gained a lot of electoral mileage in the state.
Though General Muhammadu Buhari (retd), the presidential candidate of the APC won in Lagos, his margin of victory was not very significant.
Indeed, the PDP picked a record five federal constituencies in the House of Representatives in that election provoking recrimination from top APC leaders against some party leaders in the region where the PDP won.
The development also provoked intense campaigns especially from leaders of the APC who were not comfortable with the PDP’s buckling up.
Their efforts were, however, almost derailed after the Oba of Lagos, HRM Oba Rilwanu Akiolu, at a meeting with some Igbo traditional rulers in his palace, admonished Igbo in Lagos over their seeming inclination towards the PDP?
The Oba’s comments provoked outrage in the polity especially from Igbo and some non-indigenes, who vowed to vote for Mr Jimi Agbaje, the PDP governorship standard bearer.
Thus, amid fear of violence, the stage was set a very tough duel.
At the end of the day, the elections lived up to the billing and the people voted for the candidates of their choice. The exercise was largely peaceful and credible.
Low voters turnout
The only drawbacks were low voters’ turnout and minor hitches in a couple of places.
Aside panning out as the keenest governorship and state legislative polls since 1999, the PDP also won seven seats in the 40-member Lagos State House of Assembly.
The opposition party also narrowed the gap with which the APC beat it in the presidential election with many voters in Amuwo-Odofin, Ojo, Ajeromi-Ifelodun, Oshodi-Isolo and Surulere voting for what they chorused ‘’Lagoon straight,’’ which means Agbaje in reference to Oba Akiolu’s threat.
Prof Isaac Adewole, INEC, returning officer for Lagos State governorship election, announced Ambode as winner having polled 811,994 votes Agbaje’s 659,788 votes.
APC won in 15 local councils while PDP won in five. Ambode beat Agbaje with a margin of 152,206 votes which is lower than Buhari’s 160,133 votes triumph over Jonathan.
Past polls: The 2015 exercise is the PDP best performance ever. The 2003 election is only second. And both polls, the winning party relied on the voting strength of Alimosho Local Council to sail through.
Among the 20 local councils of Lagos State, seven have a pedigree for churning out huge number of votes during elections because they have populations of over million people each.
These councils, according to the Lagos Bureau of Statistics, are Somolu (1,025,123 people), Agege (1,0033,064), Oshodi-Isolo (1,134,548), Surulere (1,274,362), Mushin (1,321,517), Ajeromi-Ifelodun (1,435,295) and Alimosho (2,495,896)
In terms of elections and bloc votes, Mushin, Ajeromi-Ifelodun and Alimosho constitute the three electoral pillars of Lagos of which Alimosho, unarguably, is the election Player or decider any day. It is difficult to win any election in Lagos without the three councils especially Alimosho.
In fact, considered as a microcosm of Lagos, any governorship candidate that wins in Alimosho is as good as having won the entire state.
The impact of Alimosho as an electoral warehouse was not very visible in the 1999 governorship election because Tinubu recorded a landslide victory. He polled 841,732 votes while Chief Dapo Sarumi (PDP), his nearest challenger, scored 184,900 votes and Alhaji Nosirudeen Kekere-Ekun of the All Peoples Party (APP) had 122,743 votes.
Its impact in local elections did not become very obvious until in 2003 when Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, who contested on the banner of the AD rode on the back of the area to get his second term as governor of Lagos.
Coming at a time that the PDP electoral tsunami swept away five of the six AD governors, Tinubu’s 2003 victory was not only unique but also consolatory.
Flash back to the open arena of the Birrel Avenue, Yaba Lagos office of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). Dateline: April 22, 2003.
Journalists, foreign and local observers and agents of the governorship candidates among others waited patiently as results from the 20 local councils trickled in. From the results, Tinubu and late Engr Funsho Williams of the PDP were running a very tight race. It was becoming increasingly difficult to predict where the pendulum of victory would swing. By the time results from 19 councils had come in, Tinubu had won in 14 while Williams won in five(Mainland, Badagry, Ajeromi-Ifelodun, Amuwo-Odofin and Ojo).
Electoral umpire
In terms of number of votes, Tinubu (801,311 votes) was leading Williams (671,745 votes) but there was anxiety and the fear on the faces of the party agents and stakeholders was palpable.
Tinubu’s 129,566 votes marginal lead could be levelled out as about 200,000 votes were being awaited from Alimosho.
And then it happened! Alimosho electoral officers arrived with the bloc votes. Observers listened with rapt attention as the electoral umpire reeled out the figures. AD supporters erupted in wild jubilation when it was announced that Tinubu polled 110,302 votes in Alimosho, the highest in the state, to PDP’s 68,751 votes.
Tinubu won with 911,613 votes to Williams’ 740,506 votes, a margin of 171,107 votes, in what passed as Tinubu’s most hard-won victory since he bestrode the political landscape of the state in the early 1990s.
Since the 2003 election, Alimosho has remained an electoral world bank, giving bloc votes to its preferred parties and candidates.
In 2007, Alimosho gave Mr Babatunde Fashola of the Action Congress (AC) 207,112 votes (25 per cent) on his way to winning his first term with 828,400 votes. PDP’s Musiliu Obanikoro got 86,096 votes in Alimosho and 389,088 overall. The closest local council to Alimosho in 2007 was Mushin where Fashola had 61,683 votes and Obanikoro scored 21,719 votes.
In 2011, Fashola got 156,384 votes in Alimosho while Ade Dosunmu of the PDP polled 33,750 votes in the area. Once again, Mushin was the next ranking council.
Voters in Mushin gave Fashola 129,655 votes and handed Dosunmu 13,881 votes.


http://www.vanguardngr.com/2015/04/lagos-how-ambode-won/

Nigeria, currently Africa’s biggest economy with a GDP of $510 billion, will be the only African country amongst the 20 largest economies in the world by 2030. This is indicated in a macro-economic projection by the US Department of Agriculture.

The US will lead this elite group of economies with a Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of about $24.8 trillion. China will follow closely with a GDP of $22.2 trillion, while India will be third with $6.6 trillion.
Despite narrowly escaping the bottom slot, the World Bank has predicted that Nigeria’s GDP will rise gradually by 5.1 percent till 2017.

Countries like Nigeria, the Philippines and Vietnam have distinguished themselves as “risers” in global GDP rankings over time. This indicates an average growth rate of 5.5 percent per annum till 2050.

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http://www.ventures-africa.com/2015/04/nigeria-will-be-africas-sole-representative-in-the-top-20-economies-by-2030/

THE leader of the five anti-Rotimi Amaechi lawmakers in the Rivers State House of Assembly, Mr. Evans Bipi, has made a return to the House after his victory at the polls.

Also, the lawmakers that rose against some of the decisions of the state governor returned to the House as they won elections into their various constituencies.

Apart from Bipi, the other anti-Amaechi lawmakers are Michael Chinda, Kelechi Nwogu, Martins Amaewhule, Victor Ihunwo and Ikuinyi Owaji-Ibani.

Bipi of the Peoples Democratic Party, represents Ogu/Bolo Constituency. He won with 33, 118 votes to beat his candidates from the All Progressives Congress and the Labour Party who got 696 votes and 191 votes respectively.

Speaking with The PUNCH in a telephone interview, Bipi expressed gratitude to the people of his constituency for finding him worthy to return to the House.

Bipi explained that he had always been in touch with the people of his area and maintained that it would always be difficult for anybody to defeat him in Ogu/Bolo in a free and fair contest.

“I have been a grass-root politician for a long time and I am in touch with the people of my constituency. I was confident of my victory before the election and I am happy that people have continued to stand by me. I will not disappoint them,” Bipi added.

However, in the 22 results out of the 28 constituencies released so far by the Independent National Electoral Commission on Monday, the PDP won 21 seats while the Labour Party won one seat (Ikwerre).


http://www.punchng.com/news/anti-amaechi-lawmakers-win/

I told y'all that former Minister Femi Fani-Kayode is currently dating model & beauty queen Precious Chikwendu (read here). Well, sources close to the situation revealed to me that he just bought her a brand new 2014 Range Rover (that's the car on the right). We called and she confirmed to LIB that she indeed has a new RR but refused to tell us if it was bought for her by FFK. Precious has been dating FFK for a few months now and currently lives in his Abuja residence. Congrats to her!

[img]http://4.bp..com/-tE7vgzJOJtI/VSuaR3YEDhI/AAAAAAAE87s/Qw_hbPae7ZM/s1600/unnamed.jpg[/img][img]http://2.bp..com/-J2vic7X6dUQ/VSuaSRwp3bI/AAAAAAAE87w/Zh-EMhpHdps/s1600/3.jpg[/img]


http://lindaikeji..com/2015/04/photo-precious-chikwendu-gets-brand-new.html

Port Harcourt residents took to the street this morning to celebrate the emergence of PDP candidate Nyesom Wike as the winner of Rivers state.

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http://lindaikeji..com/2015/04/photos-ph-residents-celebrate-wikes.html

UNICEF said on Monday that no fewer than 800,000 children had fled their homes in the North-East because of the activities Boko Haram insurgents.

UNICEF’s Regional Director for West and Central Africa, Manuel Fontaine, told newsmen in Berlin that the number of child refugees had doubled in 2014.

Fontaine said the children fled to Chad, Niger and Cameroon and within Nigeria.

“Scores of girls and boys have gone missing in Nigeria – abducted, recruited by armed groups, attacked, used as weapons or forced to flee violence,’’ the UN children’s agency said.

The agency’s report was released a year after the Boko Haram’s kidnapping of 276 girls from the Government Secondary School, Chibok in Borno State, inciting worldwide condemnation.

According to Fontaine, over 200 of the girls remain missing, adding that the abductions were only one of numerous tragedies being replicated on an epic scale across Nigeria and the region.

Boko Haram, which claims to seeks an imposition of Sharia, the strictest application of Islamist law, has killed about 14,000 people in northern Nigeria since 2009.

According to UNICEF, the group uses children as fighters, cooks, porters and scouts, rapes girls and women, forces them into marriage and sexually enslaves them.

“The children, fleeing the violence, are often traumatised, lose contact with their families and are cut off from education and health care,” it said.


http://www.punchng.com/news/boko-haram-made-800000-children-refugees-unicef/

The Independent National Electoral Commission has asked aggrieved politicians to take their grievances to the election petition tribunals.

The commission said that though some pockets of violent incidents were recorded during Saturday’s governorship and State Houses of Assembly elections, it still maintained that the exercise recorded a pass mark.

The electoral body stated this in a statement issued in Abuja on Sunday.

It said that INEC’s records showed that there were 66 reports of violent incidents targeted at polling units, the commission’s officials, voters and election materials.

The elections were held in 29 states, while the state Houses of Assembly elections were held in 36 states.

No election took place in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja.

It said its general assessment showed that the elections went well across the country.

The commission said that preliminary reports it got showed that 88.9 per cent of polling units opened for accreditation between 8am and 10am across the country and that only 5.2 per cent had yet to open as of 1 pm.

Also, it claimed that 73 per cent of the polling units had commenced voting by 2.30 pm.

The commission said, “The process of accreditation with Smart Card Readers was also successful in a majority of the polling units.

“Initial challenges were recorded in Edo and Abia states, but the technical teams deployed to support the states were able to resolve the issues in a timely manner.”

Overall, it said that many parts of the country remained relatively peaceful during the elections, but claimed that some states, however, recorded a significant number of violent incidents.

It listed states that were mostly affected as Rivers, Akwa Ibom, Cross River, Ebonyi and Ondo states.

The electoral body said, “INEC’s records show that there were 66 reports of violent incidents targeted at polling units, the commission’s officials, voters and election materials.

“These were in Rivers State (16 incidents), Ondo (eight), Cross River and Ebonyi (six each), Akwa Ibom (five) Bayelsa (four), Lagos and Kaduna (three each), Jigawa, Enugu, Ekiti and Osun (two each), Katsina, Plateau, Kogi, Abia, Imo, Kano and Ogun (one each).

“The commission is investigating these incidents and will do everything within its powers to bring the culprits to justice.”

INEC commended Nigerians for once again demonstrating their resolve and commitment to participate in the electoral process and by doing so, contributing to deepening democracy in our country.

The commission called on every citizen to maintain the peace “as the results of the governorship and state Houses of Assembly elections are being processed, and to accept the official outcomes.

“It would like to emphasize that winners can only emerge after collation of the official results and on the basis of the requirements prescribed by the legal framework.

“Any aggrieved persons or groups are encouraged to seek redress at the tribunals.”

INEC reminded all stakeholders that the process was not yet completed and urged restraint in their comments, as it strived to bring the process to an orderly, peaceful and credible conclusion.

http://www.punchng.com/news/go-to-tribunal-inec-tells-aggrieved-politicians-2/

The Akwa Ibom State Governor, Godswill Akpabio, has refused the All Progressives Congress the use of Uyo Township Stadium for the hosting of President-elect, Maj. Gen. Muhammadu Buhari (retd.).

Buhari was scheduled to visit Akwa Ibom on Thursday, but as the state government denied the APC use of the Uyo Township Stadium, the visit had to be postponed till after the governorship and state Houses of Assembly elections.

The letter denying the APC the use of the stadium emanated from the Akwa Ibom State Ministry of Youth and Sports, dated April 7, with ref. No. MYS/AD/146/VOL. 11/142 and made available to newsmen on Thursday.

The letter, which was signed by Mr. Nse Edem, on behalf of the Commissioner for Youth and Sports, Mr. Akan Uko, stated that the request to use the stadium was denied because the Peoples Democratic Party in the state had applied to use it earlier.

“I am directed to refer to your letter of April 6, 2015 on the request for the use of Uyo Township Stadium and to inform you that the ministry had already approved the use of the stadium to the Peoples Democratic Party on April 9.

“You are by this letter please requested to look for any other alternative venue since the stadium had already been booked and would not be free for April 9.”

Reacting to the development, the Head of Media and Publicity, Umana Okon Umana Campaign Organisation, Mr. Iboro Otongaran, said the President-elect would not visit the state as scheduled due to the denial of the APC the use of the venue.

He said that efforts to get alternative venue had proved abortive as the party was so confident that the Uyo township stadium would be approved.

He called on the APC supporters not to worry, but to go out en masse on Saturday to vote for Umana as Akwa Ibom governor and all other APC candidates in the state House of Assembly.


http://www.punchng.com/news/akpabio-denies-apc-use-of-stadium/

Flytefalls:
I'm sorry, have I missed a clue, how is this even an argument? The seat will live permanently in neither car because it will be swapped whenever the child goes from one car to another. In a house with multiple cars you wouldn't even fix it until you knew which car the child will travel in first...

YEA KIND OF TRUE

Topic of Article:Goodbye Ebele Jonathan - by Segun Adeniyi

It remains for me the most memorable moment in the movie. The captain was informing the ship owner (who had bought into the lie that no force on earth or in heaven could sink the Titanic) that the ship had hit an iceberg. “From this moment, no matter what we do, the Titanic will founder,” he said. Having put so much faith in his own propaganda, the ship owner retorted: “But this ship cannot sink.” Without missing a beat, the captain responded: “She is made of iron, Sir. I assure you she can. And she will. It is a mathematical certainty.”

Because those who survive on rent in our country are adept at marketing their greed, they always succeed in selling to whoever occupies the number one office in Nigeria at any period that he is not only above the law, he is so powerful that he can never be defeated in an election. But with the current defeat of Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan by Major General Muhammadu Buhari (rtd), it is now very clear that the president of Nigeria is human, afterall and he can be ousted by the same people whose votes put him in power. That message has been most eloquently passed and our country will never remain the same again. It is a new day!

For sure, the president of Nigeria has enormous financial resources he can mobilise at any given time while the security agencies and critical institutions of state work at his pleasure regardless of what is written in the Constitution. And he is forever surrounded by clowns and jobbers of all sorts—I was privileged to have seen many of them at work in the Villa—who sing the mantra that, as “President and commander-in-chief of the armed forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria”—a title that is so needlessly repeated for his pleasure almost as if it is a line in the national anthem—he has such unlimited power that he can even turn a man into a woman. Now we know better.

Having never bought into the scam that a president of Nigeria cannot be defeated, I have since about four months ago been telling some people very close to President Jonathan that he was electorally vulnerable. But they never took me serious. In my personal encounter with the president in his office on July 23 last year (he sent for me), I particularly explained to him that he was increasingly being perceived as “anti-North” and that it could hurt him at the general election. I recall the president interjected by saying “but Segun, you know me…” to which I replied that it was not my view but a perception challenge he should deal with. If he made efforts in that direction, they were either too little or too late, going by the results of the presidential election across the entire Northern zone where Buhari won outright in 16 out of 19 States. Details of that private encounter I had with the president will come in my coming book on the 2015 general elections in Nigeria that should be out before the end of the year.

Needless to say, I am not one of the people surprised by the outcome of the presidential election. In the fourth instalment of my 2015 election series, “A Time to Choose”, on 29 January this year, I wrote: “as the incumbent, Jonathan will run on his record which unfortunately would include not only his performance in office (which is not as bad as being projected) but also mismanaged relationships that may have been more costly in terms of the eroded support base. We may never know how much political damage the president inflicted on himself by his failed bid to install a Speaker for the House of Representatives in June 2011 and the refusal to accept defeat gracefully thereafter; the futile attempt to oust Rotimi Amaechi as the Nigeria Governors Forum (NGF) Chairman and how that eventually led to the split within the ruling party; the ill-feelings from aggrieved party members who lost out at the recent PDP primaries; the unfortunate Chibok ‘Waka-Come’ theatrics at the Villa by the president’s wife that went viral internationally; the saga of the ‘unaccounted for billions of Dollars’ in oil receipts that is yet to be conclusively resolved and the accompanying drama with Sanusi Lamido Sanusi that played out from the CBN Governorship office in Abuja to the Emir’s palace in Kano; the presidential redefinition of corruption as being different from--and perhaps more tolerable than—stealing; the evident contradictions inherent in the fact that those who once ran a vicious media campaign against Jonathan, baptizing him with the moniker, ‘clueless president’ are now the ones speaking for him etc. The thing about elections is that choices are usually made by most voters on the basis of sentiments (and emotions) such as the foregoing and that is why the incumbent is often disadvantaged, especially when the public mood is as fouled as it is in Nigeria today...”

I wrote that three months ago and I have been proved to be correct. However, despite the bitterness that characterised the 2015 presidential election campaigns, President Jonathan redeemed himself when it mattered most not only by the way he gracefully accepted defeat and congratulated Buhari even before the collation of results was concluded on Tuesday but also by the manner in which he rose to the occasion last Saturday.

Despite the discomfort of having to stand in the heat, Jonathan comported himself very well as the president, not a partisan, as we all watched on national television how three card readers failed to read his biometrics and accredit him for voting at his home town, Otueke, Bayelsa State. At a time television camera could project very clearly that his wife was already boiling with anger, the president said he was prepared to wait for as long as it would take for it to work before he was eventually accredited manually. Calm in disposition and measured in his utterances, Jonathan refused to be goaded by the reporters who were asking him leading questions about the use of card reader, knowing where he stood on the issue. “President Jonathan is just one person, so if we have problem with one person, as far as the election is going on well nationally, I am not worried. There might be a delay, my interest is that we conduct a credible election,” he said.

At the end, even if he lost the election, President Jonathan has turned out to be a man of his word. The fact most people ignore is that given the objection of his party to the use of the card reader, if the president had stormed out of the polling unit at Otuoke when three card readers failed him, that probably would have been the end of the election. And by now, Nigeria would be on the boil. Fortunately for all of us, Jonathan chose not to travel that familiar road often trudged by African leaders and history will forever be kind to him for it.
That Nigerians are today proud of Jonathan is not in doubt and it is a shame that it would take a defeat for him to approximate to the president many had wanted to see in recent years. But in the days and weeks to come when he begins the self-introspection as to how he lost the presidency, Jonathan should look no farther than his immediate environment. From his overbearing wife who used the campaign podium to preach hate, forgetting that there indeed is a God in heaven who promised in the Bible to “overturn, overturn, overturn... until he come whose right it is; and I will give it him” regardless of whether such a person is “analogue” or “brain dead” to people like Godsday Orubebe who made a disgraceful public show of himself on Tuesday not to mention Chief Edwin Clarke and confederates who, forgetting that politics is a game of addition, imagined they could abuse and blackmail the whole of Nigeria into re-electing their Ijaw kinsman.

How and why Jonathan lost will be a subject of interrogation in my coming book but it is a pity that his handlers paid scant attention to my warning of 19 January 2012, in a piece titled “Their Son, Our President”, which rankled Aso Rock and for which someone procured the services of hacks to attack me. I hope that Jonathan’s people will go back to read (http://www.thisdaylive.com/articles/their-son-our-president/107435/) and reflect on what might have been had they taken counsel in the Yoruba adage that when your tuber of yam is growing too big, you use your hand to cover it.
For an election that had been predicted to be the end of our country, Nigerians have every right to be happy about the turn of events but there are just too many heroes and the first to be commended is the ordinary voter who stood under the sun and in the rain to exercise his/her franchise. And then the much-maligned chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Attahiru Jega. Calm under pressure, mature in his approach to issues, serene in the face of provocation yet so firm and resolute in his conviction, Jega has written his name into the history books by delivering when it mattered most. With any other person, it is doubtful if we would be where we are today as a nation. And of course we must commend our president-elect, Buhari, not only for his tenacity of purpose (having lost three previous times) but also for the maturity with which he handled the campaign irritations from some PDP bigwigs and the president’s wife.

Finally, the biggest accolades go to the president who conceded defeat so that his nation can move on. By that simple but important gesture of patriotism, honour and nobility, Jonathan has earned the status that one old man imagined he could confer on himself just by the theatrics of tearing his party card before television camera. I just hope that the leaders of the victorious APC would have the decency to treat the president with respect in the remaining period of his tenure and after he leaves office. He deserves it.

I will be a bloody hypocrite to say that I was praying for Jonathan to win the presidential election. To be honest, I felt the country could do with some Change (even if I still don’t know its content) because of the way Jonathan mismanaged a couple of serious national issues, especially the Boko Haram insurgency in the North-east. There was also this academic interest about whether the proposition in my May 2011 research paper 'Divided Opposition as Boon to African Incumbents' on factors shaping incumbent elections in Africa with special focus on Nigeria, would prove to be correct. Now that my thesis has been validated, I enjoy no real satisfaction that Jonathan is leaving office this way because, despite my misgivings about some of the people around him or his mixed stewardship, I still have a strong affection for the president who I consider a very good man.

If the president needed any validation that he acted wisely, it is by the outpouring of congratulations to him from all over the world and the way he has practically repositioned our country for business. Perhaps nobody has captured the situation as succinctly as Mr. Mo Ibrahim, one of Africa’s wealthiest men and philanthropist, who said yesterday: “The news from Nigeria today is wonderful. Africa’s largest country has concluded a peaceful election process. Furthermore, the incumbent has already gracefully conceded and congratulated his successor – a first for Nigeria and a benchmark for other African countries to follow. Today, we Africans are all proud of Nigeria and President Jonathan. Thank you Mr. President. If you are seeking a legacy, you have definitely achieved it.”

Last Saturday in my hotel room in Lagos, my friend and research assistant, Dipo Akinkugbe, with whom I was watching on television the drama of Jonathan and the Card Reader as the election accreditation exercise unfolded, said after the president had fielded questions from reporters and left: “This is a rare display of statesmanship that I have not seen in President Jonathan for a long time.”

That, I told him, is the essential Jonathan whose Ijaw handlers and a few power mongers from other parts of the country did not allow to blossom. But in falling from power through the electoral process, Jonathan has risen in the estimation of Nigerians for his statesmanlike concession to General Buhari.
Perhaps, in this final moment of loneliness, the President finally acted as Jonathan, unencumbered by the hidden motives of the army of power merchants and ethnic salesmen who have held him hostage all these years. Perhaps it is this last act of selfless submission to the will of the people that will eternally redeem Jonathan in Nigerian history. This end, then, could justify the murky path of this humble man from Otuoke who started life without shoes but has risen to great power and now to the honour roll of great Nigerians.

The message from the foregoing is profound yet so simple: In losing power, Goodluck Ebele Jonathan has finally found himself.



http://lindaikeji..com/2015/04/former-yaradua-spokesman-shades.html

The two leading candidates for the Presidential election scheduled for tomorrow, President Goodluck Jonathan of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, and Maj-Gen. Muhammadu Buhari (retd) of the All Progressives Congress, APC, yesterday signed another peace accord, 48 hours to the election, where they affirmed their preparedness to accept the outcome of free, fair and credible elections.
Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan (L), and APC main opposition party's presidential candidate Mohammadu Buhari shake hands under the eyes of Chairman of the Abuja Peace Accord former Head of State General Abdulsalami Abubakar (C), after signing the renewal of the pledges for peaceful elections on March 26, 2015 in Abuja. Security is a major concern at Saturday's vote both from Boko Haram violence against voters and polling stations to clashes between rival supporters. In 2011, around 1,000 people were killed in violence after Jonathan beat Buhari to the presidency.
The meeting was facilitated by the General Abdulsalami Abubakar-led National Peace Committee on 2015 Elections and witnessed by members of the committee, including the Catholic Bishop of Sokoto Diocese, Bishop Matthew Hassan Kukah, who read the statement signed by the two candidates.
The Statement:
“Renewal of our pledges to peaceful elections
“Joint statement issued by His Excellency, President Goodluck Jonathan and Major-General Muhammadu Buhari on Thursday, March 26, 2015 ahead of the 2015 presidential elections.
“You may recall that on January 14, 2015, both of us, along with nine other party leaders signed what has now come to be known as the Abuja Accord. The substance of that accord was our commitment to free, fair and credible elections in our dear country.
“In the accord, we agreed to, among other things, run an issue-based campaign and pledged that our electoral campaigns will not involve any religious incitement, ethnic or tribal profiling, both by ourselves and all agents acting in our names.
“Now that the campaigns have come to an end, we meet today to renew our pledge for peaceful elections. We, therefore, call on all fellow citizens of our dear country, and our party supporters, to refrain from violence or any acts that may in any way jeopardise our collective vision of a free, fair and credible election.
“In addition, we call on INEC and all security agencies to ensure strict adherence to their constitutional roles. We also pledge to respect the outcome of free, fair and credible elections.
“Today, we again renew our commitment to a united, democratic and prosperous Nigeria. We want all Nigerians to stand together at this critical phase of our nation’s history.”
Both presidential candidates had on January 14, signed a peace accord witnessed by former United Nations Secretary-General, Kofi Annan, and former Secretary-General of the Commonwealth, Emeka Anyaoku.
Why accord was renewed — Abdulsalami
Speaking with journalists after the meeting, former Head of State, General Abdulsalami Abubakar said the renewal of the accord was to “reassure the world and make Nigerians understand that this country is more important than their own aspirations and that people should live and reflect these ideals.
He said: “This committee has been working round the clock to assist the parties and Nigerians to ensure that there is peace and harmony before, during and after the elections this time around.
“Mr. President was kind enough to see us yesterday (Wednesday). One, he is the President of the country and secondly, he is a contestant. And this morning, Gen. Buhari, despite his late arrival last night or early arrival this morning, was kind enough to meet with this committee.
“In essence, all the meetings were held to brief them on the current situation of the country and what we expect of them as stakeholders and as presidential candidates.
“I want to thank both the President and Gen. Buhari for finding time to meet with the committee. And I want to thank both party chairmen for the support received in trying to send this message of peace.
“I’m happy that both parties, the contestants are committed to free and fair elections, free of violence. And this morning a document to reiterate their commitment for this peaceful, free and violence-free elections was signed.”
DSS warns against unauthorised release of results
The Department of State Services, DSS, has warned against release of elections results by unauthorised individuals and groups.
It said in a statement by its spokesperson, Mrs. Marilyn Ogar, that the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, was the only organisation authorised to announce election results and warned that any other person or group planning to do so should desist or face the consequences.
The DSS also asked persons without any business with the elections to stay away from the polling station, while urging the electorate to be security-conscious.
Security is guaranteed
The statement reads in full: “Information at the disposal of this Service has revealed that certain mischievous persons or groups have concluded plans to announce election results before the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) concludes its collation exercise.
“This statement, therefore, is to advise all citizens of Nigeria, election observers and the international community to disregard election results which are not announced by INEC as INEC remains the only authentic body authorised to do so.
“Once more, we reiterate our call on all eligible voters to come out and exercise their franchise as security is guaranteed. We also want to seize this opportunity to remind voters to remain vigilant and to warn all those who have no business with the electoral process to keep away from Polling Units and Collation Centres.”
15 electoral offences to avoid, by Police
The Police, yesterday, came out with a list of 15 offences that may be committed which may lead to arrest.
According to a statement from Force Headquarters, the electoral offences are “casting of vote twice or more; announcing false election result; stopping any other person from voting and revealing information on a ballot paper of another person.”
Others are “being in possession of another person’s voter card; disorderly behaviour at polling units; canvassing for votes at polling unit; shouting slogan of a political party at polling unit; being armed with guns, sticks, stones or any other dangerous weapons at polling units and loitering or walking about in a polling unit.”
Also, tagged electoral offences include “using siren at a polling unit; snatching or destroying ballot boxes or card readers; holding public meeting during election hours on election day; wearing or carrying badge or poster of a political party and inflicts or threatens to inflict injury on any person or persons at a polling unit.”
The Police Force reiterated its advice to members of the public to avoid trouble, as any offender will be arrested and prosecuted.
FG reopens sea borders
Meanwhile, barely 24 hours after shutting all borders for the 2015 elections, the Federal Government yesterday reversed the order by reopening sea borders.
The reversal was announced by the Interior Minister, Abba Moro, at the commissioning of Koton-Karfe Prison.
The minister said the Federal Government had received advice that closing the sea borders would adversely affect the nation’s economy.
He, however, assured that officers and men of the Nigeria Immigration Service had been
directed to effectively monitor movements in and out of the country’s sea borders before, during and after the elections.
Inec set for polls
Already, INEC, says it is ready to conduct an election that will meet international best practices.
The commission has concluded the training of the ad-hoc staff that will operate in the 120,000 polling units across the country. Over 700,000 personnel will be involved in the exercise at different levels.
Certainly, one issue that really generated a lot of interest was the introduction of the card reader machine which the commission insists it will use for the accreditation of voters.
Interestingly, while some political parties kicked against the device which the INEC chairman, Prof. Attahiru Jega, said will check the spate of rigging, others gave their full backing to the new innovation.
And talking about the voter cards, that is one other area where INEC seems not to have gotten it right. Across the states, many registered voters found it very difficult to collect their cards from the designated points.
But after a series of the extension of the period of distribution, over 81 per cent of the about 68 million registered voters have collected their PVCs, a situation that has added to the credibility of the exercise.
INEC briefs 82 groups
Foreign and local observers are all at different parts of the country for the observation of the polls. Last week, INEC had a briefing of the 82 different groups in Abuja.
At the meeting, Jega told them to restrict themselves to the role of observation and not to act as monitors, insisting that only the real stakeholders including the commission can monitor.
The security agencies have also been fully mobilised through the inter agency on security, comprising the police and other military and para-military agencies.
IGP deploys DIGs, AIGs to zones
Meantime, the Inspector General of Police, Suleiman Abba, has redeployed states Commissioners of Police while Deputy Inspectors General of Police from Force Headquarters are to be deployed to man geo-political zones of the country
The IG said the redeployments were aimed at further repositioning the Police for a successful conduct of the 2015 general elections.
A statement signed by the Force Public Relations Officer, CP Emmanuel Ojukwu, named the redeployed senior officers as DIG Dan Azumi Doma, who is second in command as Coordinator South-East Zone; DIG Mamman Tsafe, who is DIG in charge Logistics and Supply, Coordinator South-South Zone.
DIG Hashimu Argungu, who is in charge of Training is Coordinator, South West Zone; DIG Christopher Katso, who is in charge Communications and ICT is Coordinator North West Zone while DIG Hilary Opara, who is in charge of Administration is Coordinator North-East Zone.
Others are DIG Adeola Adeniji, Coordinator North Central Zone; AIG Kalafite Adeyemi is the Asst. Coordinator South West Zone. AIG Bala Magaji Nasarawa is Assistant Coordinator North Central Zone.
Also, AIG Baba Adisa Bolanta is Assistant Coordinator North West Zone; AIG Usman Gwary is now in charge Federal Operations (FEDOPS) Abuja while AIG Mark Idakwo is the new AIG in charge Zone 9 Umuahia.
For the Commissioners of Police, CP Hosea Karma moves from Anambra State to Rivers State Command; CP Adamu Mohammed moves from Enugu State to Anambra State Command; CP Dan Bature from Rivers State to Enugu State Command; CP Usman Abdullahi is CP Katsina State Command; CP Jimoh Ozi-Obeh is CP Benue State Command while CP Hyacinth Dagala is CP Operations (DOPs) at FHQ Abuja;


http://www.vanguardngr.com/2015/03/well-accept-polls-outcome-jonathan-buhari/

Barely 24 hours to the Presidential elections, the presidential candidate of Alliance for Democracy, AD, Rafiu Salau has stepped down for his counter-part in the All Progressives Congress, APC, Gen. Mohammadu Buhari.
At a press conference in Abuja on Thursday where he announced the development, Salau said he took the decision to prevent Nigerian from becoming a one party State, urging the supporters of his party and indeed, Nigerians to vote for Buhari.
He said that vote out the ruling Peoples Democratic party, PDP.
Salau also told the people to eschew religion and tribe and vote for competence.
“Don’t give any other party your mandate to stay in power for more than 16 years. You deserve another team of politicians with different manifestos and ideology to serve you.
“As voters, don’t listen to those who based their campaign on tribe and religion. In politics, the difference is ideology. Religion or tribe has nothing to do with pure democracy. Those who see your vote by tribe or religious influence have no program to implement for the greatness of the country.
“The democracy is yours. Control it so that no party will take it away from you. PDP has been in power for 16 years and It has tried its best.
“No matter good the performance of PDP for the past 16 years, you need to vote for another party before you can know that you will always get a better performance when you create competition among the parties.
“All of you, the 68 million voters shoukd vote for General Buhari, the candidate of the democrats who will bring change. Vote APC. Show the world that you are in control of your democracy”, Salau said.
Responding, the National Chairman of APC, Chief John Oyegun thanked the AD candidate who was equally the national chairman of the party, said that Buhari was better qualified to lead Nigeria.
“By identifying with Buhari, it means that you must have to look at our programmes and our candidate and judge. You can see they are people-oriented. Our candidate is more qualified to lead the country.
“I am asking people to judge the administration of President Jonathan whether they really deserve any support of any kind. The PDP government has failed in every aspect. The main business of government today is corruption”, Oyegun said.


http://www.vanguardngr.com/2015/03/ad-presidential-candidate-steps-down-for-buhari/

The governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress, Mr. Akinwunmi Ambode, has said Nigeria will go bankrupt in four years if President Goodluck Jonathan is allowed to return for another term.

He said since the rulling Peoples Democratic Party had ruined the nation’s economy, the option left for Nigerians was to vote en masse for the APC, pointing out that victory for the party would ensure freedom.

The candidate spoke on Thursday at the campaign rally of the party in the Alimosho Local Government Area of the state.

He said, “Victory for the PDP in Saturday’s election will lead to further bankruptcy of the nation’s economy. Vote en masse for the APC. The victory for the party will ensure freedom and liberate the country.

“If we fail to vote and PDP is still in government, Nigeria will go bankrupt in the next four years. This election is election of freedom to liberate Nigerians from the shackles of poverty and misrule.”

Ambode said the present generation should start thinking of, not only themselves, but also of their children and generations to come.

According to him, if Nigerians fail to vote out the present administration at the federal level, they have ruined the future of their children.

He said, “Parents should vote out the PDP for the future of their children. It is not a vote of tribal, religious or ethnic sentiments, we want to vote because of the progress of Nigeria.

“If your children ask for what you have done for the progress of Nigeria, you should be able to tell them how you voted out retrogressive government and replaced it with a progressive one; we must vote the APC at the federal level.”

Present at the event were the Osun State Governor, Rauf Aregbesola, Governor Babatunde Fashola of Lagos State, his deputy, Adejoke Orelope-Adefulire and members of the Akinwunmi Ambode Kommittee of Friends, among others.

Meanwhile, the chairman of the Road Transport Employers Association of Nigeria in the state, Alhaji Musa Mohammed, led members of the association to declare their support for Ambode.

Also, a leader of the Alliance for Democracy, Dr. Abimbola Ojora, and some members of the Unity Party of Nigeria, led by its state Chairman, Tunde Osinbajo, defected to the APC.

The RTEAN boss, Mohammed, said the association took the decision based on the good performance of the APC-led government in the state.


http://www.punchng.com/news/with-jonathan-nigeriall-go-bankrupt-in-four-years-ambode/

Ewuro4:
Paranoia/ Insecurity or she's just looking for trouble.

Car seats are car interior worst enemies.

My husband details his car once a week , mine once a month... Mine takes much longer time than his.

Car/booster seats habor chunk of dirts (cookies,wraps, chips), and wreck leather seats. Gosh . So why would they install them permanently in their cars??
Men are exclusively picky and neat with their processions/toys . Lording them over it is looking for trouble. hubby puts his in his trunk and affix them only when needed. ( I don't like that truck anyway so who cares and I'm starting to think he bought it for a reason).

OP tell your friend to buy his own set and put them in his trunk or keep them in the garage and fasten them when needed. Simple.

#yall too bellefull dey look for trouble #

I agree with u, True talk

A colleague of mine told me, about the conversation he had with his wife this morning.

Basically it goes like this, His wife told him this morning that they needed a car seat for their new baby, which he was fine with. His wife now told him that the seat will be fixed in his own car, and he asked his wife why the seat should be in his car when she herself has a car as well( The seat should be in your car, as the mother of the child, it makes more sense and it is more logical.. those were his words to his wife)

The wife now told him that if he doesn't allow the car seat to be in his car, then he is either ashamed of his child or he is cheating on her.

O boy, my guy came to work today and was kind of shocked at his wife's accusations (wetin concern car seat with cheating)

I now asked him why he didn't accuse his wife of the same crime since she equally doesn't want the seat to be in her car?

.... And he was like see this woman dey tear eye for me, that was where we ended the conversation and everybody went back to work.


This conversation got me thinking. So my question to NLers is this... should in case you and your wife are having a child, who should have the baby seat in their car, the Husband or the Wife