Farem's Posts
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 Politics › Re: Oby & Pastor Chinedu Ezekwesili At Inauguration Thanksgiving (pictured) by farem: 11:37am On Jun 02, 2015 |
FrancisTony:Where on Earth do these conclude their stupidity? Where is it written here that it's the same church with PYO? Now let me agree, what about non-christians and other denomination, tribes. Being focus is being raised above sentimentalism. I have heard it, and I am repeating it.... OtuekeisImbecilitis is incurable! |
| Politics › Re: We’ll Renegotiate Our Coexistence In Nigeria —IJAW NATION by farem: 11:30am On Jun 02, 2015*. Modified: 11:48am On Jun 04, 2015 |
iloriolushola:How eminent are these sons and daughters who have lost thier bread and butter which vast majority (99.9%) of Ijaw people had no access to? So, it is when their pepper is rest that Nigeria is good. Even when ordinary Ijaws and other Nigerian are enjoying the govt, as long as things are not coming again to their private and dirty pockets in billions (as it used to be at the detriment of the people they claim to be 'fighting for') they will be shouting re-negotiation. Were they there when it was first negotiated? I pity the hapless, jobless, brainless goons that have this trash sold to them. Many of these here supporting these politico-capitalists are miserable in ALL outlooks if they are bold to come out in open for assessment. #Spits and walks out 5 Likes |
| Politics › Re: Photos From Osinbajo's Thanksgiving Service With Amaechi,others In Attendance by farem: 10:26pm On May 31, 2015 |
Mopolchi:Frustrated and pain-riddled political worms. I dey cry for their dismantled destiny |
| Politics › Re: Photos From Osinbajo's Thanksgiving Service With Amaechi,others In Attendance by farem: 10:24pm On May 31, 2015 |
SHARIAREPORTERS:Shebi dem say pres. Gej don pack all im gorilla go Otuoke |
| Politics › Re: I Submitted Onu’s Name For SGF – Okorocha by farem: 3:09pm On May 30, 2015 |
soe:We need technocrats like Pius Neckless Pius ko? |
| Politics › Re: Fashola’s Tenure, A Failure –PDP by farem: 3:02pm On May 30, 2015 |
sokera:You mean wisdom is better than brainless fist? |
| Politics › Re: Fashola’s Tenure, A Failure –PDP by farem: 2:59pm On May 30, 2015 |
DProdigy15:Better Fixed! |
| Politics › Re: Benue Governor, Anenih, Aganga Flee Nigeria - SaharaReporters by farem: 12:45pm On May 29, 2015 |
lilprinze:Who is this talking? Oh.. you a Suswan, abi na Aganga dem dey call U |
| Politics › Re: GMB As Head Of State In 1983 Vs Buhari As President In 2015 (photos) by farem: 12:39pm On May 29, 2015 |
kekakuz: |
| Politics › Re: President Buhari Inauguration Speech by farem: 12:37pm On May 29, 2015 |
Akon419:The deaf has no appreciation for good music! Esp the saTANised 419! 5 Likes |
| Politics › Re: Transformation Agenda: National Id Card Project Scam- Over N121 Billion Looted by farem(op): 12:20pm On May 29, 2015 |
IGBOSON1:I just wonder if KASHAMU has been an Ibo man: Biafra would have been long declared! because it will be against 'our son' even if the so-called son is a chronic mad man. The day we cease looking at things from myopic and senseless viewpoint, this country will soar. I don't recognise ANY criminal as my kinsman to be defended 1 Like 1 Share |
| Politics › Re: Fashola - Ambobe Handing Over: Tafawa Balewa Square Tastefully Decorated (photos by farem(op): 12:04pm On May 29, 2015 |
Btruth:The major shortcoming in NL is that nothing concrete has been done to keep infants from this honorable forum, What concerns Ambode and PMB with inauguration decoration? So much for unenlightened and/or jaundiced minds 3 Likes 1 Share |
| Politics › Fashola - Ambobe Handing Over: Tafawa Balewa Square Tastefully Decorated (photos by farem(op): 11:29am On May 29, 2015 |
Right now the TBS is wearing the look for the sweetest handover of our time... BRF to AA Tinubu is torn between the two venues; Abuja or Lagos Eko O ni baje o! 24 Likes 4 Shares
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| Politics › Re: Fashola Hands Over To Ambode Today- Photos by farem(op): 7:38pm On May 28, 2015*. Modified: 2:37pm On May 30, 2015 |
Whizzdom:E remain small may I abuse you bt for the Great CHANGE in Nigeria. Whenever you are reading comments here in NL, let it be in your mind that there are many people here who are better than your teachers and the best in your village, so you can not differentiate between MEN and MIEN? You open your 2 Likes |
| Politics › Re: ‘jonathan Returns Home Without State Visit To Bayelsa’ by farem: 7:19pm On May 28, 2015 |
Pres. GEJ NEVER, by himself, reefrs to anything he achieved in Bayelsa either in 2011 pres. campaign or 2015. |
| Politics › Fashola Hands Over To Ambode Today- Photos by farem(op): 5:16pm On May 28, 2015 |
See the mien, the conviviality. The atmosphere is cool and breezy. The SAN hands over to the Chartered Accountant. Lagos State; Eko O ni baje o! 68 Likes 9 Shares
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| Politics › Re: The President- Elect arrives Nigeria Flying Economy Class From UK- See Photos by farem(op): 8:54am On May 28, 2015 |
bettercreature: 2 Likes 2 Shares |
| Politics › The President- Elect arrives Nigeria Flying Economy Class From UK- See Photos by farem(op): 8:48am On May 28, 2015*. Modified: 10:07am On May 28, 2015 |
What am I going to call this? I call it; The sign of good things to come. What d'yo say? See as the other passengers are gazing at him. In their mind; "Can this happen in Nigeria" "So Nigeria has finally made it" "Final blow to saTANic wastefulness" 2 Likes
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| Politics › Re: Bicycle Ride By Osita Chidoka To Last Federal Executive Meeting (photos) by farem: 8:33am On May 28, 2015 |
The guy is protesting lack of (Aviation) fuel! |
| Christianity Etc › US Marine Court-martialed For Refusing To Remove Bible Verse From Her Computer by farem(op): 10:42pm On May 27, 2015 |
US Marine court-martialed for refusing to remove Bible verse from her computer lucinda-borkett-jones Lucinda Borkett-Jones CHRISTIAN TODAY FEATURES EDITOR 27 May 2015 Monifa Sterling was court-martialed for refusing to remove the verse "No weapons formed against me shall prosper" from her desk. A US Marine was convicted at a court-martial last year after she refused to remove a Bible verse from her computer work station, but now Liberty Institute, a religious liberty law firm, is appealing the decision. Lance Corporal Monifa Sterling was prosecuted for displaying a slightly paraphrased version of Isaiah 54:17: "No weapons formed against me shall prosper" around her computer while she was stationed at Camp Lejune in North Carolina. She represented herself at her trial in February last year, citing her right to religious expression under the First Amendment and her protection under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act. She lost the case and appealed to the Navy-Marine Corps Court of Criminal Appeals, but was told by both courts that displaying a Bible verse did not constitute religious exercise. According to Fox News she was found guilty of disrespect towards a commissioned officer and failing to go to her appointed place of duty, among other charges. Sterling's rank was demoted to private and she was discharged with bad conduct. She is currently looking for another job. Her case has now been taken up by the Liberty Institute and former US solicitor general Paul Clement, whose recent court victories include the high profile Hobby Lobby case against the Affordable Care Act. The appeal has been lodged with the Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces, the highest miltary court in the US. Sterling decided to display the scripture verse after she saw others had put personal items around their work space at the base, according to Liberty Institute. She chose the verse as it was a personal favourite. Her supervisor told her to remove it, and when she asked why, the supervisor said "I don't like the tone." Although she refused, the supervisor later took it down and threw it in the bin. "If the government can order a Marine not to display a Bible verse, they could try and order her not to get a religious tattoo, or go to church on Sunday," said Mike Berry, Liberty Institute Director of Military Affairs and Senior Counsel. "Restricting a Marine's free exercise of religion is blatantly unconstitutional." Berry added: "If a service member has a right to display a secular poster, put an atheist bumper sticker on their car, or get a Star of David tattoo, then Lance Corporal Sterling has the right to display a small Bible verse on her computer monitor." |
| Politics › Re: What Cost Jonathan Power In The End by farem: 9:36pm On May 27, 2015 |
demmy0325: |
| Travel › Re: FG Orders Airport Remodelling Contractors To Return N17.6bn by farem: 4:19pm On May 27, 2015 |
mrmetoo1:AND THIS HAPPENED WHERE THAT MORIBUND WORLD BANK DAMAGING DIRECTRESS HOLDS SWAY? Those who are STILL supporting GEJ have something worse than Ebola invaded their medulla 1 Like |
| Politics › Re: We Deceived Nigerians, Nothing Like SURE-P Fund – Gov. Aliyu by farem: 2:36pm On May 27, 2015 |
| Politics › Transformation Agenda: National Id Card Project Scam- Over N121 Billion Looted by farem(op): 1:09pm On May 27, 2015 |
Over N121 billion wasted, Nigeria’s troubled National ID Card project in fresh controversy The National Identity Management Agency [NIMC] has been engaged in expensive media razzmatazz and glitzy photo ops with top politicians and other prominent Nigerians in the past year. But these may just be a facade to hide the fact that the national identity card project currently lie in a legal limbo that may eventually cost the government as much as N44 billion of tax payers money in damages for an alleged breach of contract. The current legal logjam hovering over the project was occasioned by what the Managing Director of Chams Consortium Limited, Demola Aladekomo, described as an abuse of office and executive highhandedness by the Director General of NIMC, Chris Onyemenam. Chams, which was the initial concessionaires of the project, has therefore dragged NIMC to a Federal High Court in Abuja, seeking an order to stop further implementation of the programme. It is also asking the court to order the Federal Government to pay N44 billion in damages. In interviews with PREMIUM TIMES, Mr. Aladekomo said his company was awarded the concession in a transparent bid process that involved 65 international companies in 2007, following the recommendations of a 2006 Presidential Implementation Committee, headed by the then Minister of Federal Capital Territory, Nasir El-Rufai, on how to deliver on a project that has gulped several billions but has remained largely in limbo for decades. Other notable members of the committee were the Minister of Finance, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, former Managing Director of Zenith Bank, Jim Ovia and Chairman of Heir Holdings, Tony Elumelu, Mr. Aladekomo said. He said trouble soon started after Mr. Onyemenam started dilly-dallying in getting the concession agreement ready. He said it took the NIMC chief executive three years to prepare the concession agreement. “Unfortunately for us, the DG NIMC just got a law degree a year before he was appointed,” Mr. Aladekomo told PREMIUM TIMES in his office in Lagos. “He then used us as guinea pigs to practice his law. From May 24th when the contract was signed it took him to July 26, 2010 that he signed the concession agreement. He became more Catholic than the pope. He became more civil servant than the civil servant. He asked us to draft the concession agreement we drafted one and gave it to him. He appointed a law firm, Banwo Ighodalo and Co. He said what they drafted was not good. He now started to write the concession agreement himself in 2008 and finished in 2010.” He explained that in-between that time the company had invested upwards of N7.1 billion into setting up the facilities for the kick-off of the project. “Meanwhile, because we have promised the president that we were going to deliver in 2009 and he said ‘don’t wait for the concession agreement, start work’. We invested. We did an IPO, raised N8.4 billion, spent N7.1 billion on the project. One of the things we got out of the project was the Guinness World Record for the Chams City that we built. We built a switch that could handle 100 million Nigerians. We built a card plant that could produce 1.7 million cards a day in Abuja for national ID. We spent 7.1 billion of shareholders money preparing for the take off so that we can do consumer finance and credit bureaus, this man was busy writing concession agreement,” he explained. Mr. Aladekomo said by the time the concession agreement was ready for signing, Mr. Onyemenam had another surprise waiting for Chams. “By the time the concession agreement was ready we said let’s start he said. ‘No no no, I want to see all your designs, I want to see all your partners’. We gave him all our designs and showed him all our partners and had a big meeting in Abuja. We gave him our final design and showed him all our partners in 2012. “The day we showed him all our partners and gave him all our design that was the last day he spoke to us. The same night we introduced our partners to him in Abuja he went to all their rooms in the (Transcorp) Hilton that they should be dealing with him directly,” he said. When contacted Mr Onyemenam said he was not interested in engaging in media debate of the issue with Chams as it is a subject of an ongoing litigation. “As of today I am under advise to not speak on the concession which has been cancelled and over which Chams has gone to court and the next hearing has been fixed for sometime in June 2015,” he said in an email. A black hole The current controversy surrounding the project is not unprecedented. In fact, it is just another chapter in the troubled history of the Nigeria national identity card project. Since 1981 when the first contract was signed by the Shehu Shagari administration, the project has been a prime waster of taxpayers’ money. It is a financial black hole that consumes everything thrown at it without a trace. Like a compromised slot machine, it consumes but never regurgitates. From then to date, more than N121 billion has been spent on the project, meant to authenticate the true identity of every Nigerian, with nothing to show for it. An extensive review of government papers, contracts, court documents, newspaper articles and interviews with people who knowledgeable about the deals and agreements by PREMIUM TIMES shows that the project has been repeatedly torpedoed by executive high-handedness, mind-boggling corruption, sheer irresponsibility of government officials and asinine abuse of power. But how come a project that would have been immensely beneficial to Nigerians as the national Identity card project ends up stymied every step of the way. The answer could be traced to its corruption-laden beginning. The Stillbirth In 1976, former President Olusegun Obasanjo, then a military head of State, first conceptualised the national identity card project. However, the kick-off of the project didn’t happen until 1981 after Mr. Obasanjo had transferred power to a civilian elected government headed by Mr. Shagari. The project was rigged to fail from the beginning. According to a 2001 TELL magazine report, six companies originally bided for the project but the contract was awarded to Avant Incorporated, a company disqualified by a technical committee of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for its inability to provide a performance bond and its annual reports for three previous years. But the absurdity had only just begun. The project had a price tag of a $100 million, an amount too high for the government of the time to raise. So it ran to politically connected Arab-Jew, Nessim Goan, who brought in Optife of Switzerland, a company where he is major shareholder. While Avant handled the procurement and supply, another company owned by Mr. Goan, Afro-Continental, was to build the infrastructures across the country. By this calculation, Mr. Goan became the financier and the executor of the contract. The Shagari government also naively signed a loan repayment agreement that was not tied to the completion of the project. Though the contractors had 18 months to deliver the project, it became clear that Afro-Continental didn’t have the requisite know-how about identity card technology. Also not a single computer was even supplied. In a scramble for it to deliver on the project, which by this time was way past its deadline, Mr. Goan sublet the infrastructure phase of the contract to French technology heavyweight, Sagem. The arrival of Sagem marked another phase in the sordid history of the identity card project. Meanwhile Mr. Goan wasn’t done with Nigeria yet. Before Sagem could unpack its bags after it arrived the shores of Nigeria, the Shagari government was overthrown in a military coup. The identity card project was abruptly discontinued by the Muhammadu Buhari-led military junta. But after the Buhari regime was overthrown in 1985, the Ibrahim Babangida regime went back to doing business with Mr Goan. In fact, it ironically compensated Afro-Continental for not delivering on its earlier contract by awarding the company a new contract worth N70.7 million to refurbish containers for shipping goods to Nigeria, upgrade some of the computer supplied by Avant in 1982, install equipment as well as construct 20 computer centres across the country. This contract also fell through following alleged sharp practices between civil servants and officials of Afro-Continental. As if the old cow hasn’t been over milked already, in 1992, Afro-Continental was awarded another $73.4 million contract for the procurement of Automatic Finger Print Identification System (AFIS) and the re-activation of the computer centres across the country. Again, in 1998, the Abdulsalami Abubakar regime called for tender that would kick-start the national identity card project from scratch. This time, a consortium, led by a Nigerian company, Chams Limited, was awarded a $38.4 million contract to produce 52 million cards within four years. In April 1999, Chams delivered a pilot of 1 million cards. The era of Sagem In 2001, as Chams was waiting for the government to fulfil its obligations such as the purchase of four personalisation machines as stipulated in the contract for the second phase of contract to begin, the Obasanjo administration called for the submission of tenders for the printing of a new 70 million identity card. The administration explained that it meant to harmonise the identity card project so it can be used for voters’ identification during the 2003 general elections and for the 2006 population census. But it soon became clear that the entire process was actually set up to hand the contract to one company – Sagem. According to the Mr. Aladekomo, the company immediately informed the Obasanjo administration of the subsisting contract it signed with the Abdulsalami regime to produce 51 million cards and the legal implications of continuing with the fresh call for tenders. But Mr. Obasanjo and other top ministry officials ignored several letters explaining the subsisting deal sent to them by Chams and went ahead with the fresh tenders. In fact, the counsel to the government, F.B.I Egolum, testified at a Justice Kayode Esho arbitration hearing on the matter that officials of the Internal Affairs Ministry recommended that Chams should either be allowed to completely execute the subsisting contract or handed an upgraded one. “At the end of the day, even the though the claimant [Chams] was recommended by officials of the Ministry for the award of the contract, the government in its wisdom decided to award it to someone else,” he said while answering questions during the arbitration hearing on why the deal was not awarded to Chams but to Sagem. In the statement of his ruling on the matter, Justice Esho said the Obasanjo administration acted with unprecedented irresponsibility. “The respondent [government] showed obvious legally indefensible irresponsibility on the part of a government which could not complain of lack of warning not of the knowledge of the legal consequences. “The respondent intended to and did commit a breach of the agreement. They went on a curious voyage of governmental legal recklessness, probably unprecedented in a government wishing to be guided by law. They deliberately jettisoned the contract, which they had with the claimant,” he explained. While ruling against the government, Justice Esho awarded total damages of $410,390.60 to Chams. The government appealed the arbitration judgment and the case dragged up to the Appeal Court before it eventually settled for an undisclosed negotiated settlement with the company. The Sagem contract turned out to be another fiasco. The company managed to print only 35 million cards. Along the line, three ministers – late Internal Affairs, Sunday Afolabi, his successor, Mohammed Shata, former Labour Minister Hussain Akwanga – were implicated in a $2 million bribery scandal and the company was eventually blacklisted by the government. In awarding the contract, Mr Obasanjo also ignored warning from Nigerian intelligence agencies that Sagem was too close to the French intelligence network and that there was no telling what it could do with the data gathered from the project. Sources familiar with the behind-the-scene deals leading to the award of the contract to Sagem told PREMIUM TIMES that the French technology company had no business winning the contract in the first place. They claimed Sagem didn’t even make the initial shortlist from the bidding process. “Sixty-eight companies bided worldwide,” one of our sources said. “It was an international bidding in 2001 but it took about a year and two months before the bid could be analysed because some people tried to compromise the process. Eventually the first six companies were invited. The first company was Chams followed by MINT [Nigerian Minting and Printing Plc], then a Nigerian company and an American company. Sagem was the fifth company. The way tender was done in those days was that only the one to three is called, but they took it to six because Sagem was in number five. “At the end of the presentation to the exco, the companies retained their ranks but when the recommendation got to the president, some civil servants from internal affairs got Sagem to meet Obasanjo and said that the committee decision was wrong and that Sagem had made a lot of promises. “The French foreign minister flew in on a Thursday night, met the president Friday evening. The president called the 16 ministries involved, including INEC and the National Population Commission to a meeting on Saturday morning, Late Afolabi was there, Shata, his minster of State was there, late Guobadia of INEC was there, Akwanga was there. “The meeting held on Saturday 11 am, the president asked if anybody has taken money from Chams? They all said no that the process was transparent. The president said if nobody is confessing that they took money from Chams, he is going to give it to Sagem. That was how it was awarded to Sagem,” he added. 2 Likes 1 Share |
| Politics › Re: Within 18hrs Over 1500 Nigerians Sign Petition In Support Of Dr Ngozi Okonjo by farem: 8:45am On May 23, 2015 |
tochukwuifeduba:Why do tou decide to kill and bury Okonjo-Iweala this fast? How many supporters sign in her favor in almost a day? DO YOU KNOW HUNDREDS OF THOUSAND THAT WILL SIGN AGAINST HER IN LESS THAN 10 HOURS? Pls don't kill her quickly with this rubbish 'survey' 2 Likes |
| Politics › Re: Buhari To Inherit $60b Debt From Jonathan – Osinbajo by farem(op): 8:38am On May 23, 2015 |
kazmanbanjoko:#JegLegacyOfWaste |
| Jokes Etc › Re: PHOTO: Hilarious Photo Of The Week - What Caption (title) will you give this? by farem(op): 8:35am On May 23, 2015 |
The owner's corner! |
| Jokes Etc › PHOTO: Hilarious Photo Of The Week - What Caption (title) will you give this? by farem(op): 7:01am On May 23, 2015*. Modified: 8:36am On May 23, 2015 |
I can't stop laughing at the Hilarious possibilities that exist in Naija. Naija, I hail o Give it your own caption (title) The Yorubas will call this ADERUPOKO ( I beg interpret) My own...later
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| Politics › Re: Photos Of President-elect Buhari In London by farem: 5:30am On May 23, 2015 |
[color=#550000][/color] raumdeuter:#GejLegacyOfWaste |
| Politics › Buhari To Inherit $60b Debt From Jonathan – Osinbajo by farem(op): 9:45pm On May 20, 2015 |
Buhari to inherit $60b debt from Jonathan – Osinbajo May 20, 2015 Written by Tony Akowe, Abuja The Vice President elect, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, on Wednesday disclosed that the incoming Muhammadu Buhari administration will be inheriting a whopping $60 billion as foreign and domestic debt from the Goodluck Jonathan administration. Speaking at the opening of a two -day policy dialogue on the implementation of the agenda for change, Osinbajo also said current estimate revealed that about 110 million Nigerians are suffering from poverty. He also lamented the state of the Nigerian economy, saying it was unfortunate that the nation has to spend 21 percent of its 2015 budget on debt servicing, while two- thirds of the states in the country cannot pay salaries due to dwindled resources. He said: “We are concerned that our economy is currently in perhaps its worst moment in history. Local and international debt stands at $60 billion. Our debt servicing bill for 2015 is N953.6 billion, about 21 per cent of our Budget. On account of severely dwindled resources, over two-thirds of the states in Nigeria owe salaries. Federal institutions are not in much better shape. Today, the nation borrows to fund recurrent expenditure. “The figures of extreme poverty in our society- 110 million by current estimates- makes it clear that our biggest national problem is the extreme poverty of the majority. Thus, no analysis is required to conclude that dealing with poverty and its implications is a priority. “In the course of the election campaign, we ran an issues-based campaign that identified certain areas of public policy as high priorities for propelling Nigeria forward. We addressed the challenges of the economy, insecurity, corruption and jobs creation. “We spoke on the challenge of providing opportunities for self-actualization to millions of our young people who face an uncertain future with understandable anxiety. We also addressed the challenge of providing for the most vulnerable segments of our population by equipping them with the tools to emerge from the crippling limitations of poverty to achieve dignified and productive citizenship. “This is also against the backdrop of a highly unequal society in which, by some reckoning, the largest chunk of the benefits of our national wealth accrues to a small percentage of our population. Our manifesto offered a vision of shared prosperity and socio-economic inclusion for all Nigerians, that leaves no one behind in the pursuit of a prosperous and fulfilling life. “Our goal this morning is to interrogate these positions and propositions before a wider audience and to launch a robust public conversation on policy directions and priorities that will help inform our administration’s approach in the next four years. This forum exemplifies the sort of consultative and consensual approach to policy-making that our party and the new administration intend to model in office.” |
| Celebrities › Re: Yeni Kuti’s Daughteer, Rolari, To Wed British Beau by farem: 9:21pm On May 20, 2015 |
[color=#000099][/color] loomer:Dem no dey flaunt am. I mean those that have lost it. Where dem go take see am flaunt? Nobody counts gbese as assets |
| Politics › Re: Pastor Tunde Bakare Collapses During A Lecture In Lagos by farem: 10:20am On May 19, 2015 |
[color=#000099][/color] babyfaceafrica:You mean the source will only be credible if it were "Daura Spectacles" or "Otueke Daily"? I dont get you |
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