sbashir10:
ABU voted for suspension

Confirm.

seunH:
From my own independent assessment (Pls if there are any additional information to adjust this assessment, it is very WELCOMED)

Atiku's stronghold
1) Abia
2) Enugu
3) Ebonyi
4) Anambra*
5) Bayelsa
6) Cross rivers
7) Delta
Akwa Ibom
9) Rivers
10) Taraba

Buhari's stronghold
1) Katsina
2) Kebbi
3) Zamfara* (Though no candidate, APC still incharge)
4) Borno
5) Yobe
6) Niger
7) Bauchi
Jigawa
9) Nassarawa
10) Osun* (APC +Omisore collaboration)
11) Kogi
12) Oyo
13) Kano

Battle zone tilted towards Atiku
1) Imo
2) Edo*
3) Plateau
4) Benue
5) Adamawa
6) Gombe*

Battle zone tilted towards Buhari
1) FCT
2) Kwara*
3) Sokoto
4) Lagos
5) Ogun
6) Ondo
7) Ekiti
Kaduna

I live in Kogi, your assertion about Kogi is wrong. Is it the impoverised people of Kogi State who Buhari romances thier tomentor? Buhari will only be voted for by people in Kogi central as a result of religious and ethnic sentiment. Please talk about your immediate environment.

Caseless:
He came out unhurt.

Yes.

Confirmed at Kabba.

No be this guy the say e get small preek?

Failed party

Hi Festus, I woke up the other day to a Tweet by you referring to my party as “Lootocrats” and challenged Nigerians to question the source of wealth of those who want to serve them. Very well Festus. Ordinarily, I would not have engaged you for three reasons:
1. I don’t respond to aides
2. I believe the candidate of the party has capable persons who can deal with you
3. The unwritten convention is that those from our tradition do not battle each other.
However,I have taken the task to have this talk with you given that you are not an aide in the truest sense of the word but promoting a candidate .Also,since the PDP candidate has warned his aides to refrain from going low with the likes of you, you may likely get away with this
arrogance , but you see, I am not an aide of Atiku and not even an official of the party so,we can dance.
Thirdly, I will have to throw the code for activists overboard Cos by maligning my party, you also insulted those of us from the same tradition that happen to call the PDP home.
Now, that I am done with introduction, can we now get right to it, shall we? Festus, for years now we have been letting you feed fat with a reputation as an “anti military era activist and human rights defender”. But Festus, let’s let the cat out of the bag.
In reality, you were a military apologist or your actions portrayed you as one.
Festus, when Gani Fawahinmi, Femi Falana, Baba Omojola, Segun Mayegun and others were arrested by the junta in 1992 and a decision was to be taken by the mass of students at a Congress in Ekpoma for a protest to be undertaken to ask for their release,did you not vehemently argue against it?Did you not mobilize to frustrate that move via counter revolutionary arguments until your plot was frustrated by the dialectical superiority of radical progressive elements on ground?
Chief Gani Fawehinmi overlooked this early trait of your treachery and still gave you a place in his Chambers following your call to Bar. How did you reward him?.
While you go about telling spurious stories about your fall out with Gani,isn’t it indeed true that at the heart of the kerfuffle was Gani’s disenchantment with the way you were handling the legal tussles and struggles with the military? Isn’t it true that Gani suspected that due diligence was not being applied in matters that involved the military which you were handling? This trait followed you in life and I will come to that.
While others in the Chambers who Gani asked to leave went quietly, were you not thrown out ? Did you not mount an unbelievable campaign of calumny and hate against Gani? What kind of names did you not call the great man? You would call press conferences everyday to heap insults on Gani , calling him unprintable names. The same way you wake up to insult everyone right now! Wasn’t Gani moved to the point of cursing you?
Somehow, Festus, you have built your career around destroying Great people!
Where is your buddy, Fryo, these days? How a man who self-confessed to killing the Great Uncle Bola Ige became your client is still a stuff of legends. Festus, how is it that you relish handling cases many reactionary lawyers won’t touch with a long pole?
It was not enough that You took Fryo as a client but were you actually prepping him to blackmail people you wanted to use to rise to fame? It is still the same Gani you maligned early in your career that came to your rescue after forgiving you of your transgressions. Perhaps, your love for the dark art Of the legal profession has something to do with your sudden wealth?
You asked us to interrogate the source of wealth of people, so let me start with yours.Nice houses you have in Maryland in Lagos and Zone 5 in Abuja.
Is it mere coincidence that you started rolling in cash after you became an EFCC prosecutor? Yes, the same EFCC you insulted many of your colleagues for representing, calling them thieves and vowing NEVER to have anything to do with them. Shortly thereafter you swallowed your vomit and became their lawyer. Was that when you “blew?”
Or was It after your deal with Chief Kenny Martins? Remember him? I am sure you do, 200m and a Prado Jeep is not what one forgets easily. Kenny Martins swore to an affidavit that he gave you those and you still came back for more as an EFCC prosecutor. A case you lost.
Festus, You not only served EFCC but you worked under the administration of one of the most notorious person’s to Head that agency. Indeed, is it not true that staff within the Commission were suspicious of your moves given that you lost virtually all the cases involving huge sums assigned to you?
Festus, can you tell the world your role in the Ladoja/Oyo state Airtel Shares sales? Do we tell the world about a certain $200,000 under the table payment? We have names too if you want us to go that far.I am asking, can your source of wealth be directly traced To this period? Just asking. You shamelessly call the PDP an assemblage of “Lootocrats” but had no qualms to work for a PDP government appointee, someone the PDP government fired for allegations of corruption.
Festus, you have come full circle. While we are at this, can we tell The world why you can no longer visit your ancestral home freely? The APC you defend right now was the same you called “frauds” in 2013 during a press conference in Benin following your loss of the party gubernatorial ticket. What changed? New paymaster maybe?
Finally, Festus, when you live in a glass house, beware of stones. I know you will come for me, and I happily await you, my records are there but, before you act be advised thus: what I just brought out now is a compromise following calls by friends that know you. If you Choose to escalate,I will go further down low.We may have to tell the world certain other stories you will certainly not like. For example, that your closely guarded secret of your real crew. You know what I mean? Or how you became SAN.And some other things we shall keep secret.
Secondly, I am also loaded enough to get the best of lawyers , so don’t even try your ’we meet in court nonsense’. It will be a pleasure to show the court that you lack any modicum of reputation to protect .
My advice: defend your candidate and promote your candidate, no shame In that but, you cannot insult people and hope to intimidate everyone into silence with your rabble rousing noise. I am not Sowunmi, I fight dirty and clean. You decide the one you want. This is my Killshot!
*copied from a friend's FB page.

ojikeebere12:
Ahead of NJC meeting tomorrow there are insinuations that acting CJN justice Tanko maybe suspended by the Council for offering himself to be sworn in as acting CJN but I want to submit that it is not going to happen.

The question to ask is whether he offered himself as justice Obisike did in Abia State?

He did not just offer himself, he offered himself based on a valid court order by the CCT which up on till now has not been vacated except it's vacated tonight Justice Tanko is going nowhere.

The NJC being a law abiding body will also take note of that in arriving at a decision tomorrow.

In the case of justice Obisike of Abia State as cited by Olisa Agbakoba, he drove to Govt House at the instance of the Governor to be sworn in just like that...


This is my humble submission... You are free to add yours....

You think NJC is NURTW headed by MC Oluomo?

I remember Edwin Clark during the time of GEJ was like Sagay, where is he today.
Sagay an elderly who refused to learn from history. Foolish man.

[s]

Dididrumz:
EXCLUSIVE: Obasanjo, Sanusi Among Those Who Convinced Ezekwesili To Step Down

SaharaReporters understands that these talks, which began on Sunday and continued till Tuesday, received big inputs from Obasanjo, Sanusi and the international community, notably the European Union (EU). Nobel Laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka, was also credited with some faint involvement in the talks, but sources very close to him told SaharaReporters that this is very unlikely, as he prefers to stay out of the politics of electioneering.

Olusegun Obasanjo, former President and Sanusi Lamido, former Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), are among high-ranking Nigerians who convinced Obiageli Ezewesili, candidate of the Allied Congress Party of Nigeria (ACPN), to with[b][/b][b][/b]draw from the 2019 presidential race.

Ezekwesili withdrew from the race on Thursday morning after “extensive discussions with Nigerians at home and in the Diaspora”, citing the need to “focus on helping to build a veritable coalition to ensure a viable alternative to the #APCPDP in the forthcoming elections”.

“It is my ardent belief that this broad coalition for a viable alternative has now become more than ever before, an urgent mission for and on behalf of Nigerian citizens,” she had said. “I have therefore chosen to lead the way in demonstrating the much needed patriotic sacrifice for our national revival and redirection.”

Talks for the emergence of a consensus candidate under the Presidential Aspirants Coming Together (PACT) initiative were on earlier in the campaign. While seven candidates —  notably Tope Fasua, presidential candidate of the Abundant Nigeria Renewal Party (ANRP) and Omoyele Sowore, presidential candidate of the African Action Congress (AAC) — pulled out of it, 11 more — including Fela Durotoye, presidential candidate of the Alliance for New Nigeria (ANN) and Kingsley Moghalu, candidate of the Young Progressives Party (YPP), stayed till the end. Durotoye emerged the winner, but Moghalu refused to step down, after which Ezekwesili herself joined the race.

However, after monitoring the performance of candidates at Saturday’s presidential debate organised by the Broadcasting Organisations of Nigeria (BON) and the Nigeria Elections Debate Group (NEDG), some concerned Nigerians became convinced that two of those candidates — Ezekwesili and Moghalu — could defeat President Muhammadu Buhari, candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and Atiku Abubakar, candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). They, therefore, began a series of “intense talks” towards presenting just one candidate. 

SaharaReporters understands that these talks, which began on Sunday and continued till Tuesday, received big inputs from Obasanjo, Sanusi and the international community, notably the European Union (EU). Nobel Laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka, was also credited with some faint involvement in the talks, but sources very close to him told SaharaReporters that this is very unlikely, as he prefers to stay out of the politics of electioneering.

“The international community was involved,” a diplomatic source deeply involved in the talks told SaharaReporters on Thursday evening. 

“They were here before the debate, and afterwards they held several meetings in Abuja. You also had a former President who pretends to be supporting Atiku. I will tell you for free that Obasanjo’s support of Atiku is not genuine. He wants a coalition but he agreed to support Atiku so that in the event that the coalition does not work, Atiku will be a better President than Buhari is for him.”

A second source with extensive knowledge of northern Nigeria politics also told SaharaReporters about the influence of Sanusi, the Emir of Kano, on Ezekwesili’s withdrawal.

“Sanusi has been involved, too. He is the chief sponsor of Moghalu. He is the one mobilising the northern elites for Moghalu,” he said. “That is where Moghalu has always got his confidence from. Sanusi believes in Ezekwesili too, but he and some others feel that Moghalu, being a man, will pull more weight.”

The source, though, ex

pressed doubts that Moghalu would step down for anyone should the new idea of a consensus candidate produce someone other than him.

“You know Moghalu will never step down for anybody,” he said. “Now, somebody has to sacrifice his/her ambition, and the woman wants to sacrifice hers so that in the coming days others will also sacrifice theirs.

“You’ve seen also that ACPN also will never support a coalition. Galadima never wanted a coalition; he has always said that in 2015 when he was the candidate of the party, the party came fourth in the presidential election. And now that the party has Oby as the flagbearer, they will definitely win the election.

Already, Galadima, the National Chairman of ACPN, has disowned Ezekwesili, claiming that she never wanted to be President in the first place but only wanted to use the position to negotiate for the position of Finance Minister. However, SaharaReporters understands that this is unlikely, as Ezekweisli, since leaving office as Minister of Education in April 2007, is privately known to have turned down ministerial offers from two presidents.

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has also turned down her withdrawal, saying it came in two months after the deadline.

http://saharareporters.com/2019/01/24/exclusive-obasanjo-sanusi-among-those-who-convinced-ezekwesili-step-down

[/s] Beer parlour story from Soworeporters.

[s]

sogodihno:


Of course, Atiku is ur best bet, vote for Atiku, Likewise Buhari is our best bet in SW, and we will vote for him, u know where it get irritating is u ipob pigs telling us how and who to vote for, and getting emotional about it, it is really irritating, U guys should vote for ur Atiku and leave us to vote for our Buhari, by FeBuhary, everyone eyes go clear.

All I know is SW is voting for Buhari and we are all moving to the next level, let me see the foolish APC governor that will not deliver his state to Buhari.

Sai baba till 2023
Osinbajo till 2031

[/s]

The supressor of the cabal.

TRUSTEDGUY:
Is so annoying to see lazy politicians use their veto power over intellectuals


Do you know what takes to be a Prof and Chief Medical director. And they were sacked simply because the governor holds the status of Visitor.

The one way dey thief reach that of the useless 109 senators way Neva do anything meaningful for Nigerians.

I am waiting to see how ASUU handles this.

Imagine not even demotion but outright sack .

I don't about others, but the Vice Chancellor of EKSU really messed up. He is worse than the politicians we are pointing accusing fingers at. He is corrupt, nepotic, sectional, vindictive and a religious bigotism.

*Copied from a WhatsApp group*

There is no need to reinvent the wheel. There are funding bodies in advanced countries that have a road map to adapt for how to organize and manage funding from Govt.

The first way to solve this is to do a fundamental restructuring of academic assessment and rewards in the Nigerian University system and bring it out of the Middle and Dark Ages.

Saying each paper is worth 5 points and divide the 5 points by number of authors is so outdated it breaks my heart. The first author is not necessarily the most important author in life sciences.

In modern biology, genetics and genomics single author papers are unheard of. There is no way to do the kind of work that gets published in top journals by anything less than a large team.

To convincingly identify a new immune gene for instance these days and show that it is involved in an immune pathway, you may need an immunologist, computational biologist, biochemist, physiologist, biostatistician and physical chemist. You may be deploying mass spectrometry to identify proteins, generate a knock-out mouse model to test gain of function mutation effect, screen for variants in a large population, determine de-novo sequence structure, conduct genome-wide computational analysis, profile expression in different tissues and you cannot be an expert in all these areas. Doing this kind of work will take 5 to 6 years, cost $2.5 million and end being published in Cell, Nature, Science or PNAS.

I am not saying everyone does this kind of work and can spend this kind of money. My point is modern research is such that our current backward and broken system is not optimized to do world class work.

Folks from Dept of Zoology cannot use stuff in Dept of Microbiology and Vice versa much less collaborate. Even guys in the same department hide reagents bought by the department and relocate the only functioning pH meter so that no one can use it and get that promotion before them.

And please a paper in Science or Nature with 50 authors is not the same as a single author nonsense paper on "effects of particle size on leg width of ants" in *River Benue International Journal of Research*

I may sound harsh but our senior people bear the most blame. If a department or entire system is dysfunctional you cannot blame the low level people but the leaders who make and implement policy.

I keep saying more money in and of itself will not solve the sickness of the Nigerian academic system. We need to agree on changing the fundamental rules first. Leaders in the system must be selected on merit and evaluated on performance.

There are high impact papers on genomics these days in Nature or Science with 500+ authors. That single paper will cost millions of dollars, analyze say 200,000 samples for say 1 million molecular markers and involve dozens of research groups in dozens of counties on multiple continents.

The impact factor of these journals exceed 40...of course we are not saying we must be able to do this particular kind of work but they serve as models to aspire to.

At the risk of being misunderstood and offending many, our current academic leaders are underperforming like our political leaders, maybe even worse given how well educated they are.

Once again implementing good ideas alone will improve things long before you get any more money into the system.

Every time money was injected into the system it was mostly mismanaged. The World Bank gave us $120 million for staff development in the mid 1990s as my career began in the system..not sure how it was spent. Of course some were trained...

TETFund to be fair has injected hundreds of billions of naira into Universities but what we have mostly to show are large, fancy, sometimes empty buildings which may also have fancy non-functional equipment.

Yet folks aren't getting trained to do modern research, not taught grant writing skills to access TETFund grant funds because nothing to chop there.

And until we have a paradigm change that affects how our people are assessed nothing is going to change. Unless we go back to change the rules to reward merit, change how papers are assessed and make it worthwhile to write grants nothing will change.

How many Universities have grant offices? Provide serious grantsmanship training to faculty members?, encourage grant writing through action rather empty words?

We start by acknowledging the main problems in the system and that lack of money is not at the top or the most crucial.

No where in the world do they have enough money. Even Universities in the rich West complain of not having enough money.

If ASUU holds NUC's feet to the fire it will get the conversation started. I feel that NUC accreditation exercise is mostly a farce and a joke. How can say a Department of Computer Science lack a serious computer lab but they get accredited?

How can a Dept of Biotechnology lack a serious biotech lab and yet they are awarding degrees? I dont want to mention names but I know many such departments personally where you can't even measure pH, never mind extract DNA or RNA. How did they pass accreditation?

All it takes is just ONE Vice Chancellor to step up and decide to radically transform his or her University in a 5 year tenure. It will catch fire...generate buzz and get the ball rolling.

Imagine if you went to a University in Nigeria and toilets all work with WCs that actually flush with toilet paper? Each faculty can have a borehole, no?

Imagine if you visited the teaching lab and saw *functional* basic equipment and the students were in there learning by doing, even if it is 2, 3 or 4 per station?

Imagine if you went to a University and the Dept of Electrical Engineering and Mechanical Engineering had designed a solar power system implemented by the University to make sure they got some power for a few hours a day instead of operating in near perpetual darkness or each faculty or department struggling to buy diesel for a generator that sometimes even HOD or Dean uses their personal to service or buy fuel? I personally know Deans who spend their money buying diesel so they wont totally be in the dark.

Imagine if you went to a University and found that a good deal of the large expanse of land inside campus has a commercial farm inside using outside contract farmers growing crops or raising livestock to feed the University community and sell to the public? Universities may be able to tap internal resources and external financing to establish commercial farms on campus if the folks in charge dont chop it all.

Imagine if you went to a University and found that it has a serious consulting firm that deploys the highly credentialed faculty members to bid for and execute projects for the public and private sector? After all it is the Universities that train the experts out there doing the same things, no?

Imagine if you went to a University and found that it has a University Grants Office or as we sometimes call it here in the United States, Office of Sponsored Programs headed by a director who has actually written and won grants? And this office operates a strong training program for faculty to learn how to write grants and provides support through advocacy, administrative back stopping and information on grant opportunities through say a quarterly newsletter to all faculty members?

Imagine if you went to a University and find out that it has a Student Employment and Placement Office that helps students with job hunting skills like resume writing, interviewing and networking? It goes out to talk to companies about employment and placement for its graduates.

Imagine if you went to a University and there is Center for Teaching and Learning to help faculty members learn how to better teach, provide pedagogical tools to students, feedback from students and improve faculty teaching skills? This Center will organize regular training workshops to help faculty create truly modern learning spaces and go beyond droning on and on during lectures putting students to sleep or simply giving student notes to photocopy, the same notes they were given as students decades ago?

Imagine if you went to a University to see that the students are not deathly afraid of their lecturers who basically terrorize students, make unfair and even illegal demands from students including extortion of money or sexual favors and other kinds of indiscipline?

Imagine if you went to a University and find a regular seminar series at the departmental and/or faculty levels that allows each faculty member to give a biweekly or monthly talk about their work creating an exciting scholarly environment to be intellectually engaged? In the vast majority of Nigerian Universities folks have no real idea of what their colleagues are doing by way of research.

Imagine if you visited a University and see that its Senate had revamped its promotion criteria to include encouraging folks to publish in better journals and the VC has set some money aside to help with publication charges, even it is a 25 to 50% subsidy? Each department is mandated to come up with a list of 10 to 15 best, better, good and average journals in that field and faculty are encouraged to publish in those journals. The University goes ahead to incentivize it by giving extra points calibrated to reward getting into better journals instead of *Crackpot International Journal of Science* with no website, DOI numbers or availability in Google Scholar?

Imagine if you visited a University and found that it has decided to tackle the issue of assessing publications using modern criteria instead of the current one from the Dark Ages? It puts emphasis on impact factor, quality of contribution, scope of research and recognition by peers instead of the broken and patronizing system we have now that just celebrates mediocrity and substandard work?

Imagine if you visited a University and found that the hallways and classrooms are actually clean, scrubbed and mopped? The seats and desks are functional, louvres on windows clean and transparent instead of caked with dust of the last 15 to 30 years, whiteboard exist and overhead projectors work (powered by a small inverter or solar panel on the roof of that particular building in csse of power failure)?

Imagine if you visited a University and see that there are nice classy name plaques on each door, uniformly done by the University and looks like what you would see abroad?

Imagine if you were trying to go to a University in another city and as you near the city you see several large sign boards with arrows directing you towards the University making it seem like it is a serious place that wants to be found?

Imagine if you visited a University and you see a serious Office of Alumni Affairs tasked with the job of hunting down former students to develop relationships with them, organize events, engender pride in their alma maters, sends out regular newsletters to them, gives out awards for achievements at the department, school/faculty/college and University levels to reward excellence in various field of endeavors? And this office mobilizes financial support from its alumni to help develop the University?

I could go on and on...very few of all the above require money to implement them.

Let me say this again, the Nigerian academic system may be under funded but its biggest problems are not lack of enough money. No amount of money will fix this system.

What we need are visionaries committed to implementing good ideas. These ideas are not rocket science and not hard to find and many if not most dont require a lot of money or even money at all. We need transformational leadership in the Universities.

Do we have VCs, DVCs, Deans, Directors or even HODs who will step up and be counted or are they all mostly just talk and no action

As for NUC, that is the subject of another post!

Via: MB Maina, PhD

One of his attack dog (Sagay) told us he will not attend earlier, the excuse is an after thought.

Gosh! See raw display of stupidity �

Ok, let's go there.

Minimum 50% of those that attended this rally will attend PDP rally. Crowd on campaign ground does not translate to vote, most especially at this time of unprecedented hunger.

Crooks everywhere, APC! I hail o!

post=74709611:
The WORST senate President in the history of Nigeria.

We will get it right in the senate this coming election BBG.

Worst Senate President because he did not do the bidings of the Executhieves.

Whoever wrote the Onnoghen script is a bad adviser, that is hell bent on bringing PMB's government down.
Wetin concern me sef, so far we #getnigeriaworkingagain
Waiting for my friends to start shouting "Kwaraption" up and down.

Unfortunately, politics is a game of numbers and as it stands now majority of the actual voters will vote for either Buhari or Atiku.
Amaechi's suggestion is the only way out....kill all of them!

obailala:
Something interesting about this audio recording saga is that it will not stop Buhari supporters from supporting Buhari and neither will it add a single extra vote to PDP. Just amusing how Nigerians spend so much energy on irrelevance.

Meanwhile, I'm still yet to have anyone explain how Amaechi's statement is an INSULT to buhari?... Sounded more to me like Amaechi mocking Nigerians... Except something must really be wrong with my comprehension today.

Gbam!

myettiallah:
[s][/s]

I beg to differ...UBA has the best customer service
And the Best App there is..
Wether u call on them thru twitter, facebook or mails they answer u ASAP....

Agreed

omotoniwa:
The stadium was built by him and who can deny him of using it.

With his father's money? _{Eranko, amu ni buni.}

Hmmmm, Lion no dey born goat.

NLC! I don't have confidence in these labour guys. Labour activism died in Nigeria a long time ago. The only Union with near credible leaders is ASUU.
Wahaba and co should go and sit down.

Meanwhile, Kogi workers are owed 3months salary with no hope of receiving any for the rest of the year.

If this is true, Buharideen's and Buharist will be like, he should visit the 50 states in the US to prove he does not have any case to answer.

Waste, labour room reject.