₦airaland Forum

The Austrian parliament has passed controversial reforms to the country's century-old law on Islam. The bill, which is partly aimed at tackling Islamist radicalism, gives Muslims more legal security but bans foreign funding for mosques and imams.

Austria's Integration Minister, Sebastian Kurz, defended the reforms but Muslim leaders say they fail they to treat them equally. The 1912 law made Islam an official religion in Austria. It has been widely held up as a model for Europe in dealing with Islam.
The new measures, first proposed three years ago, include the protection of religious holidays and training for imams. But Muslim groups say the ban on foreign funding is unfair as international support is still permitted for the Christian and Jewish faiths.

They say the legalisation reflects a widespread mistrust of Muslims and some are planning to contest it in the constitutional court. Mr Kurz told the BBC the reforms were a "milestone" for Austria and aimed to stop certain Muslim countries using financial means to exert "political influence".
"What we want is to reduce the political influence and control from abroad and we want to give Islam the chance to develop freely within our society and in line with our common European values," he said.

Mr Kurz also stressed the bill was not a reaction to recent attacks by Islamic extremists in France and Denmark. Meanwhile the legislation has drawn wide reaction from Muslims across the world, with Turkey's head of religious affairs, Mehmet Gormez, adding his condemnation on Tuesday. "Austria will go back 100 years in freedom with its Islam bill," Mr Gormez said, according to Turkey's state-funded Anadolu news agency.
Roughly half a million Muslims live in Austria today, around 6% of the population. Many of them have Turkish or Bosnian roots. The parliamentary vote in Austria came as the French government announced plans to improve dialogue with France's Muslim community.

French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said the government would increase consultations with Muslim leaders. It would also double the number of university courses for imams - making them obligatory for Islamic chaplains in prisons and the armed forces - to ensure they are "faithful to the values of the Republic", he said.


http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-31629543

Night soil” is a euphemism for human faeces collected at night from cesspits. When some of our aged fathers and grandfathers were kids, pit latrine was the norm in the villages while township toilets were constructed with septic tanks that needed to be emptied weekly or forth nightly. At that time there were no adequate infrastructures like sewage treatment facility or individual septic disposal. Moreover protective gears like those worn by Ebola nurses were not available so the Night soil men must have suffered a few splashes of the filth on their garment. Not to mention the stench but they did their job with dedication. Someone had to do the job and remember “there is dignity in labour”.

There is a huge similarity and a major difference in the night soil job of that era and the one Femi Fani-Kayode has chosen to do for President Jonathan- a man he once described as “a President without balls”. The major difference is the fact that FFK’s brand of Night soil job is so undignified. How do you launder the image of a President that you have already announced to the world, through the internet, that he “is the problem” with your country. Femi actually said in his Premium Times column that “Jonathan is the problem we have in this country today and until he resigns, is impeached or is voted out of power nothing will change and Nigeria will continue to go from bad to worse.” He then said “That is what you get when you vote for a man who never wore shoes to school”.

Isn’t it so hilarious that this arrogant, loud- mouthed Femi (who says Governor Amaechi used to own only one shirt) is now the errand boy of a man who never wore shoes to school? It’s beyond comprehension that this Silver spoon kid who wrote that “Jonathan has deservedly earned such accolades as “dumb”, “clueless”, “incompetent”, “heartless”, “corrupt”, and “very greedy” could condescend so low as to mop after the same “incompetent shoeless dumbo”. Once Jonathan poopoohs in the office, in media briefings or on the campaign ground FFK is at his beck and call, happy to pack the s…t, package it and label it “designers” for the media to buy and sell to the world.

I wish I never read that article where Femi said that this President does not understand the meaning of the word “class” and “honesty.” Also, that “Jonathan prides himself on his own weaknesses and incompetence” and that “his love for false prophets and strange women knows no bounds and no ends.” So our President is addicted to prostitutes and juju prophets? But he already has two wives and we know that Daddy G.O of Redeemed, who says all politicians are liars, is always praying for him on teevee. So why is he then patronising false prophets and prostitutes? Or was FFK so ferocious in his attacks because the government of President Jonathan had accused him of embezzling public funds when he was a minister? He really fought dirty as if there were no tomorrow didn’t he? No he fought like a drowning man.

However, he succeeded in getting the President’s attention hence a special invitation was extended to him to visit Aso Rock where they eventually talked things over, “kissed” and made up. Please don’t ask me what happened to the embezzlement case. All I know is that FFK is in court with EFCC over an allegation that while in office FFK carried out SEVERAL financial transactions and dealings in cash in excess of 500,000 thousand Naira without going through financial institutions contrary to the laws of the land. The best FFK could have done after they “kissed” and made up was take a bow, thank the President and vow never to publish any more callous articles about his dumb incompetence.

But, wait for it, Jona needed to make a point that he may be dumb but the Fani Kayodes of this world are dumber! He may not be Silver spoon like Femi but he’s got what it takes to turn a Silver spoon kid into a Night soil man….(Pause)… “You see, Femi, you and I can be best of pals you know. I am ready to give you an open cheque once you can use your impeccable grammar to prop me up. I mean, you know I don’t have balls you have to lend me yours so that people could stop calling me weak. And, of course, you need the money to maintain your “class”, and high taste in women. I remember you once said in a newspaper interview that you are not faithful to your wife. At least, you and I have a lot in common. We need each other. Those prostitutes, sorry, strange women wanna have fund you know. So I am game, if you are.”… “Oh why not, Mr President, your wish is my dream.” Jona got his pound of flesh!

One of the issues I deal with on my radio shows is the consequences of sexual sins. You need to hear the confessions people make to me about their sexual liaisons. The average politicians is ready to kill and maim just to get into a position with a budget, loot the treasury and sleep with friend’s wives , nieces, inlaws and just any teenager desperate for recharge card. Sexual sin not only wounds your soul and deadens your conscience; it also enthrones the spirit of error. It is quite progressive. It leaves a big hole of insatiability in you that’s why there is a graduation from oral to anal with one woman today, one man tomorrow, then a prostitute next tomorrow. Then you continue to loot and loot and loot the public treasury in spite of the monumental youth unemployment, non-existent quality or free education and no proper medical care for the poor. Each illicit sexual encounter keeps chipping off your virtue, your morality and deadens your conscience. And would you like to know what happens to somebody who has no conscience? Just the same thing that happens in the lives of our politicians that they could wake up from month to month living in affluence while teachers and civil servants go home with no salaries, no food for their families, no peace and no self-worth. Go to the villages and see how people are shrinking out of hunger. They look like refugees in their own homes and those in power are still planning to use soldiers to rig the elections, cause war and more suffering for them.

That was an aside. Back to FFK. On that glorious day, FFK got into Aso Rock a Jona-basher and came out head-over heels in love with Goodluck. When money talks, bullshit walks. Those who say money can’t make you happy have never shopped at Harrods!... Believe me when I say… in my country the so-called rich are more desperate for cash than the poor. They are kleptomaniacs, so insatiable and their conscience is completely dead. I used to think it’s only the Ibos of Okija shrine fame that can do anything for money… Suddenly FFK is screaming his lungs out desperate to convince us that Buhari is Boko Haram and Boko Haram is Buhari. Has he forgotten that he once wrote in his column that “Jonathan regards Boko Haram as his “siblings” and “freedom fighters” so “cannot hurt them”? In fact he stated thus: “I really wonder whose freedom Boko Haram is fighting for, whose interest they seek to further and protect and what blood ties exist between them and our President”. In conclusion he said that Jonathan and co are “shameful and insensitive leaders who have absolutely no empathy with or sympathy for the many victims of Boko Haram.” To have an articulate Fani Kayode who put these arguments in black and white turn around now to say Jonathan must be voted into office for another four years of “shameful , insensitive, clueless, dumb, corrupt and incompetent”, leadership is devilish and criminal to say the least. I have only quoted Femi’s words. I dare not add my own because he has said it all. The Bible says in Ecclesiastes 8 verse 11 that “because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil”.

Nigeria is a country that destroys its own. The best brains have no fighting chance to put their talents to good use. See how Jonathan has reduced a brilliant Silver spoon Femi into a mercenary. He has turned Femi into a jaguda. There is no difference any more between him and a slum-bred Fayose who only knows how to make a living out of thuggery.

When Reuben Abati, Chief Press Secretary to the President, published a dossier on how Femi ran the Aviation ministry into a state of near collapse Femi fired a ruthless response. He listed how Jonathan cannot account for the 100 billion USD made from oil sale in two years, how he squandered 67 billion USD of our foreign reserves and how he cannot account for 350 billion Naira on security. Then he added: “This is how weak governments that have nothing to offer and something to hide always behave.” He accused Abati of going on “a delusional and self-serving joy ride … and distasteful form of intellectual and psychological masturbation..” Today this same Femi has taken over Abati’s “self-serving delusional psychological and intellectual masturbation” role as the President’s Night soil man.

Thank God I have a degree in English otherwise I wouldn’t have understood all these idiotic grammar that they use to lace over corruption and criminality. Abati must be shaking his head in utter disbelief and amazement. Never knew this could happen in my life time that a Femi Fani-Kayode could be part of this President’s attack dogs seeking to out-do everybody else.

Jessica Obioma is a multimedia journalist, author, publisher, TV anchor woman, Radio Show Host and President, Teenage Life Mission. Website: teenencounters.com

http://saharareporters.com/2015/02/24/femi-fani-kayode-silver-spoon-kid-and-night-soil-man-%E2%80%9Cdumbo%E2%80%9D-jessica-obioma

90% of fires in most establishments in Nigeria always start in the Accounts / Finance Depts if there are 'nasty' evidences to be destroyed.

We still have a long way to go!!!

Some of our ladies just like to copy too much, so after spending on baby showers they will still want to do extravagant naming ceremonies.

Ayo Fayose is not a governor, but a motor park tout, what has this got to do with him doing his day job as governor of Ekiti?

So sad for the wastage of these young boys lives.

If he's donating then that's fine, as least he's not fingering anyone.

very hilarious statement from the press people

Geraldo Rivera: 'Hip-Hop Has Done More Damage To Black And Brown People Than Racism In The Last 10 Years'

Geraldo Rivera doesn't exactly seem like a pre-eminent authority on rap culture, but he has some very interesting thoughts about hip-hop, which he shared with HuffPost Live on Tuesday.
During a conversation about his stint on "The Celebrity Apprentice," Rivera got to talking politics with host Josh Zepps, who asked where Rivera falls on the liberal-to-conservative spectrum. Rivera described himself as "militant moderate," and after pointing out several of his more liberal philosophies, he laid out his problem with rap culture.
"Hip-hop has done more damage to black and brown people than racism in the last 10 years," Rivera began. The Fox News contributor then challenged anyone to find "a youngster -- a Puerto Rican from the South Bronx or a black kid from Harlem who has succeeded in life other than being the one-tenth of one-tenth of one percent that make it in the music business -- that's been a success in life walking around with his pants around his ass and with visible tattoos..."
Rivera added that the most powerful men in hip-hop are responsible for pushing young minorities too far out of the dominant culture.
"And I love Russell Simmons," Rivera continued. "He's a dear friend of mine. I admire his business acumen. At some point, those guys have to cop to the fact that by encouraging this distinctive culture that is removed from the mainstream, they have encouraged people to be so different from the mainstream that they can't participate other than, you know, the racks in the garment center and those entry-level jobs, and I lament it. I really do. I think that it has been very destructive culturally."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/02/17/geraldo-rivera-hip-hop-racism_n_6701628.html

True or False?

Barclays Bank, after messing up the financials in Europe and US, now wants to focus on Africa including Nigeria.

I only hope due diligence is followed before a banking licence is approved by the authorities.

Aside, there will should be free barclays premiership games coming to a local facility near us.

Even among muslims in certain parts of the world, they kill each other continually.

I saw the article below written by a muslim, about how Shia muslims are be killed in Pakistan.

Does Anyone Care That Shia Are Being Relentlessly Murdered in Pakistan?

The recent murders of Shia community members in Pakistan has not drawn out the shock and horror that other recent atrocities such as Charlie Hebdo developed. Granted that the attack on satirists was within the bounds of Europe, though the sheer brutality and scale of killings in Pakistan has not even created half an hour of outpouring of sorrow and pain on social media. For the Shia that have been killed, there are no #JeSuisCharlie hashtags nor has there been any significant outcry by politicians in Europe.

So let us review the targeting of Shia that has taken place by the Pakistan Taleban and extremist groups in the country. Take for example the targeting in Balochistan of Shia Hazara Muslims with several thousand killed since 2008, including two bombings in Quetta in January and February 2013 that killed over 180 people. Or take the blast at the Shia mosque in Shikarpur earlier this year that killed over 40 Shia worshippers who were praying at the mosque. The Sindh province has been targeted by the extremist Jundallah group that has pledged allegiance to the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and to the Islamic State.

According to the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, over 700 Shia were killed in 2013 alone. More than 1,000 were injured in over 200 sectarian terrorist attacks in Pakistan. The scale of the targeting of this minority community is just breath-taking with attacks taking place in Quetta, Karachi, Parachinar, Islamabad and Rawalpindi. Which begs the question as to who is resourcing these attacks which are meant to create fear within Shia communities and to displace them away from their villages, towns and cities. In effect, a murderous displacement strategy is being played out in Pakistan with little or no hue and cry from Western nations.

The latest massacre against the Shia in Pakistan took place on 13 February. The Pakistani Taleban targeted a Shia mosque in Peshawar leading to the death of 20 people. The attackers used guns and grenades and a gunfight broke out outside the mosque. One of the attackers set off his explosive vest when cornered demonstrating that the killers were on a suicide mission.
The global silence on the targeting of the Shia in Pakistan is sickening. No hashtags have been circulated, no graphics calling for peace, nor have any faith leaders come together and carried out an interfaith walk which seems to be the 'thing to do' when a major atrocity occurs. Young people have not railed against the injustice and all that has happened is that more innocent worshippers have been murdered on the spot where they sat contemplating God.

Furthermore, not a single mosque or church has spoken out about the targeting of the Shia and only a handful of courageous civil society groups in Pakistan and Sufi groups have done so. The impression that this will give to the Shia communities in Pakistan and globally is that their lives do not matter, that they are just forgotten as numbers on the pages of newspapers. Yet, the Shia of Pakistan are one of the most vulnerable groups in the country and given their numbers and given the ideology of the Pakistan Taleban who regard them as heretics, and thereby 'fair game' for deadly attacks, you would think that the human rights of the Shia would be one conversation leaders of countries who pride themselves on human rights may want to raise. Sadly, no such thing apart from a long and deafening silence.

So next time you hear a political leader speak about human rights, why don't you ask him where his voice was when Shia were being murdered in Pakistan? The Shia of Pakistan are an asset to Pakistan which should be protected at all costs. As politicians have rightly mentioned, if Jews left Europe, Europe would not be Europe any more. Well, if the Shia of Pakistan left Pakistan, Pakistan would not be Pakistan any more.

Fiyaz Mughal on Twitter: www.twitter.com/FaithMattersUK

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/fiyaz-mughal/pakistan-shia-muslims_b_6697266.html?utm_hp_ref=uk

If questions are asked about these brutalities, our muslims friends will say that the US, Israel and the West are involved in trying to divide the muslims in Pakistan. When will the muslims fight for injustice against their fellow human beings within the same religion?

ArikAir is finished...my advice to passengers, even if ArikAir is offering the cheapest ticket, decline their offer.

As someone said earlier, mass defection from PDP to other parties to follow suit.

PDP will soon be in the minority.

Lovely pictures...i guess you had a nice travelling experience compared to the stress one get at MMIA.

An incredible video has emerged showing the moment an elderly woman bravely confronted two Islamic State militants, telling them their terror group is cursed and that they are not back by God.
The video, which is believed to have been shot in Syria, shows the woman walks up to the fighters' car, brand them both 'devils' and tell them: 'I swear nothing you have done was in the way of God'.
Clearly shocked at being confronted, the men initially plead with the woman, telling her to explain what she means and asking if 'everything is good between us?'.
The woman chooses to ignore the men's attempts to justify ISIS' brutality, however, and instead attacks their bloodthirsty savagery and accuses them of 'killing each other like donkeys'.

The video begins with the elderly woman walking up to the militants car and berate them for being members of the barbaric terrorist organisation.
Repeatedly urging them to 'turn back to God' she tells the fighters that ISIS is cursed and that neither they nor Bashar al-Assad's Syrian regime will emerge from the bloodshed victorious.
The men initially respond to her berating them by asking her what has prompted her attack. They then try to justify their actions by telling her of their recent prayer sessions

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2952226/The-granny-stood-ISIS-Elderly-woman-filmed-confronting-militants-branding-devils-quoting-verses-Koran-forbid-slaughter.html

Now we can have a preview of the Nigerian Police Force orientation.

Shame that a very high-level officer of the Force can utter such statements.

During a book launch in London, former President Olusegun Obasanjo told a packed hall that the controversy surrounding Muhammadu Buhari's possession of a school certificate was trivial distraction by President Goodluck Jonathan's team. Obasanjo stated that there was no one during his time in the army that didn't have a prerequisite qualification to enter the army. Speaking further, he said even if that wasn't case Buhari's training at the Nigerian Army staff college and the US War College were more than the required qualification to become president.
The former president's book, "My Watch" is banned in Nigeria by a court order obtained by President Jonathan's political associate and a wanted drug baron, Kashamu Buruji.

http://saharareporters.com/2015/02/13/video-obasanjo-weighs-buharis-certificate-controversy

This country is indeed a banana republic where anything goes.

All the actors in this episode should have been dismissed or suspended pending court action.

The head is truly rotten!!!

On page 11 of the Financial Times, an article about Buhari was published titled: 'Candidate of Change, Gen. Buhari's challenge in Nigeria's tense elections'.

I tried uploading the article here for all to read, but couldn't, so if anyone have access to today's FT, it's worth a reading.

http://www.ft.com/home/uk

Amazing that foreign media outfits keep on interviewing GMB, (BBC, Al-jazeera) now CNN, giving him a free platform to campaign, goes to show that they have no confidence in GEJ. How has the mighty fallen as in the case of GEJ.

Popular lawyer, Femi Falana, has attributed the shift in the dates of the general elections to the leaked tape alleging the rigging of the Ekiti State gubernatorial election last year.

Speaking at the Black History Month and Dr. Beko Ransom Kuti Memorial Program in Lagos, Wednesday, Mr. Falana said some of those implicated in the plot, who were threatening legal action, should think otherwise.

An audio recording revealing how some Peoples’ Democratic Party, PDP, chieftains connived with security agencies to rig the Ekiti State election was released by an army officer last week.

At the meeting, as evidenced by the recording, prominent officials of the PDP were heard discussing strategies for rigging the 2014 Ekiti governorship election, a poll in which the party eventually won by a landslide.

But some of the actors, including Musiliu Obanikoro, a former Defence Minister, and Ayo Fayose, who defeated the incumbent governor, denied being a party to the plot to rig the election and questioned the authenticity of the recording.

Mr. Obanikoro had also threatened a court action against news organizations who had published the conversations in the audio tape.
Despite their denials, the Minister of Police Affairs, Jelili Adesiyan, who also attended the meeting, confirmed Sunday that the tape was authentic. He however disagreed with the context of the discussion, saying the meeting was never about plans to rig the Ekiti State election.
Speaking Wednesday, Mr. Falana said that none of the participants in the recording had successfully challenged the army officer’s account of the incident.

“I understand that Mr. Obanikoro (whom he described as a ‘thug’) says he will go to court. I can assure you here, I dare him to go to court. He can’t. It’s not possible,” said Mr. Falana, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria.

“One of the reasons they postponed the election last week is that disturbing revelation by that Captain. That is what they wanted to do for the entire country. That revelation has sent them back to the drawing table. They now have to re-strategize.”

Mr. Falana criticised President Goodluck Jonathan for “embarrassing” the country with his repeated trips to the Holy Land, instead of channelling such funds to job creation.

Since he became the President in 2011, Mr. Jonathan has travelled for pilgrimage twice.

“I was reading the papers yesterday, the president said in violation of the peace accord, that governors in the north have not been sending Christians to Jerusalem. In other words, they have been sponsoring Muslims to Mecca,” said Mr. Falana.

“Please tell the president that there is no provision in our law for sponsoring anybody to Jerusalem or Mecca.
“Section 10 of the Constitution provides that the Nigerian State shall not proclaim any religion as an official religion. Therefore, appropriating billions of Naira every year, wasting money to send people to Jerusalem or Mecca is illegal.

“If you must know, less than seven per cent of Israelis are Christians, so they make jest of us. When you descend on them, that you are there to worship Jesus Christ, they’ll be like ‘are these people Ok?'”

Mr. Falana also insisted that the general election must hold and whoever emerges winner should be allowed to govern the country.
“And I’m challenging Edwin Clark and others, all those old men with expired ideas. Femi Okurounmu and others,” he said.
“We never saw them when we went to the streets of Lagos and Abuja to proclaim Goodluck as acting President. You were in the streets of Lagos, where were these characters? They were nowhere to be found.

“In fact, quote me. Baba Clark called me in one of our protests, ‘Femi, my son. Please keep it up. We from the Niger Delta cannot join this struggle now.’ I said why sir? He said ‘because he’s our son.’ I said what has your son got to do with the quest for justice?
“Professor Wole Soyinka, at the age of 71 (he was actually 76 then) led us in the protest. Please tell them this country belongs to all of us.”
On the issue of deployment of soldiers during election periods, Mr. Falana noted that nowhere in the Nigerian Constitution, Electoral Act, or the Armed Forces Act was a provision made for soldiers in election.

“So when they told Jega that they are going to be busy in the north east and they will not be able to secure the election. Please there is no provision for those Service Chiefs to police our election,” said Mr. Falana.

“Under Section 76, Section 116, Section 132, and 117, it is the exclusive responsibility of the INEC to fix dates for election. Only INEC. Not the president, not the NSA, not the security chiefs.

Knowing that, they then came in fraudulently by saying that they cannot guarantee your security.
“They have not been able to crush Boko Haram in six years, what magic are you going to perform in six weeks? Please we reject their fraudulent claim.”

Mr. Falana maintained that it is the duty of the police to maintain law and order in peace time.
“Soldiers have no business in town in peace time. Their duty is to defend the territorial integrity of our country, not to police election,” he said.
“That is the business of the Police. As a matter of fact, even Boys Scouts can police elections in Nigeria. You know why? On the day of election, there is restriction of movement. It is illegal for you to leave your ward for another ward. Only journalists, observers, and election workers can move round.

“So if everybody is restricted, why do you need soldiers to come and help you? To do what? But I will tell you why they need soldiers. You know why they need soldiers? To rig the election. To manipulate the process.”


http://www.premiumtimesng.com/news/top-news/176633-leaked-ekiti-tape-dare-obanikoro-go-court-falana.html

armyofone:
You are right. A friend and I once took road trip to a very small town called Eastern Shore in VA, oh my God! It was like the world left them behind. Old 17/18 century homes, few stores around and a really sleepy small town. The food was good you know those mom and pop restaurant by the sea.
It was creepy and was told to not allow your car to break down here .

Yes it can be scary especially in the middle of the night.
Few years ago, I did a road trip with my uncle from houston texas to naples in florida.
Along the way we did a detour into a very small town restaurant not far from Mobile, Alabama, guys I haven't been so scared in my life, as we are the only two colored guys among the local population.
We immediately order our food as takeaway instead of sitting down to eat - by the way the 'southern chicken wings' were the best i ever had.

Also rural America are full of big insects - crickets.

I really find it absurd that politicians of all parties descend to a very low level just to bribe the electorates with peanuts after raping us blind and silly with their massive embezzlement running into billion of naira.

God will punish them all.

Even if he gets copies of the questions to be asked tomorrow, he will still say something silly.

Nice pics...i believe you must be travelling outer state from houston to other parts of big ol' texas?

The article below was written before the election was rescheduled:

The meeting was star-studded by local Nigerian standard. These were few elite sons-not a single lady in the meeting-of Ogbia people in Bayelsa State holding in Yenagoa in Bayelsa State. It was presided over by the late Chief Emmanuel Igoniwari in his capacity as the Asiwaju of Ogbia Land. The local muckety- mucks were deliberating on who to choose among them to pair with then governorship candidate of the PDP, Diepreye Solomon Peter Alamieyesiegha for Nigeria's first post-military democracy after the death of Luciferous Sani Abacah in 1999. DSP wanted a running mate from Ogbia land, because of the block voting of the Ogbia people.
As Benson Sunday Agadaga, an Ogbia elite and classmate of Goodluck Jonathan, who was present at the meeting on that day told this writer, DSP sent words to the Ogbia local power brokers that they should give him an Ogbia man as his running mate, because, DSP as someone from Amassoma in Ogboin LGA would not be able to win the 1999 governorship election in Bayelsa without a running mate from Ogbia LGA. DSP wasn't looking for a performer, but anyone to balance the delicate ethnic politics of the Ijaw nation in the 3-year old state in 1999. "The position of deputy governorship was already zoned to us by DSP and we met to present a candidate," volunteered Agadaga who later became the first commissioner for information and culture in the state in 1999. It was someone at the meeting that mentioned the name of Goodluck Jonathan who was not present at the meeting in Yenagoa and as Agadaga disclosed in my co-authored book; "Jonathan; the Squandering of Goodluck," during an interview in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State: "When the name of Dr. Goodluck Jonathan was mentioned, there was pin drop silence in the meeting, because no one spoke." The silence became prophetic. When eventually Chief Igoniwari met Mr. Jonathan later, Jonathan declined to accept the offer. " I don't want anything to do with Nigerian politics," Jonathan, who was a working at OMPADEC told the Asiwaju of Ogbia people, because, according to Mr. Diekive Ikiogha, another good friend of Mr. Jonathan, while talking to the writer in Yenagoa, "Jonathan didn't want to have anything to do with politics. He is too decent for the rough and tumble of Nigerian politics and besides, he didn't have the money and also the fear of the unstable Nigerian political terrain."
Any objective analysis of the current disaster known as the outgoing Jonathan Administration in Nigeria must begin from the political beginning of Nigeria's accidental president. The late Chief MKO Abiola once said that, if you want to know whether a fish is good or bad, smell the head. But that is only half-truth; to know whether the head of a fish is good or not, go back to the water it was fished from. How did a man who garner an unprecedented support and overwhelming goodwill of Nigerians five years ago suddenly become so politically radioactive today that even his own party and people do not want anything to do with him? How could a popular president that all of us labored and rooted for barely five years ago suddenly become an anathema and a goner before our very eyes? Where did Mr. Goodluck Jonathan get it wrong and turn into bad luck? Someone once said that leadership gravitates to anyone who craves and earnestly desires and fights for it, but the reverse is the case in the Nigerian context. Leadership of any type is a burden, and especially, political leadership is a great responsibility which should not be given to anyone who doesn't fight and earnestly desires it. Nigeria has been haplessly presided over by prodded men; fortuitous leaders who had other things in mind but were woken up to take up political leadership. Because Nigeria's somnambulistic leaders hardly rise beyond their dreams and are bereft of ideas and ideals greater than selves, the nation's fortunes have been shambolic and retarded. It is against this tragic backdrop that Mr. Goodluck Jonathan's leadership style should be understood. Mr. Jonathan didn't become a disastrous and non-performing leader overnight, just as the rotten fish didn't show us ahead from its head. Mr. Jonathan didn't deceive Nigerians about his lackluster and dour personality; rather, Nigerians deceived themselves on Mr. Jonathan five years ago with the blinkers of ethnicity, tribalism and religious bigotry. If President Barack Obama were a Nigerian seeking to be Nigeria's president in 2008 as a black man, he would not win. This is why Nigeria can never become the United States and a Jonathan armed with large dose of goodluck can never become, even a mayor of a city in the United States. Look at some of the great indices Nigerians use in choosing their leaders and compare such indices with the Nigerian environment. Does it matter where a citizen of a nation come from in aspiring to the highest position in the land as long as he/she is a bonafide citizen? Why all of a sudden now in 2015 after five agonizing years under the train wreck known as Goodluck Jonathan did Nigerians realize that Gen. Muhammadu Buhari is far better than this PhD (?) holder as president?
Mr. Goodluck Jonathan didn't plan to be a public office holder in his adult life. As we scrutinized his record from his primary, secondary to university days in my co-authored biography of him, every responsibility he had ever assumed were thrust on him from the shoulders of otherness. He had never aspired to any responsibility on his own volition, rather had always been prodded. As Winston Churchill once said about public leadership, a society should not entrust political leadership to someone who has to be prodded, and only the one who is the prodder rather than being prodded values the sacred trust of public leadership. From Mate Dei High School in Imiringi, Ogbia Kingdom in present-day Bayelsa State where he was prodded to be a head boy; appealed to by his local compradors to be a deputy governor, to being drafted to become a vice president and accidentally planted to become president, Mr. Jonathan has always been prodded rather than being the prodder. This is why he has disgraced the exalted office of the Nigerian presidency and made a disaster of public leadership. It takes more than goodluck to run a functioning and well-organized administration; it requires adroit and astute leadership to govern a nation rather than waiting and relying on goodluck, because in these Age and Days, goodluck is in short supply. Because Nigerians are still not sure if they have a nation or a country, men like Goodluck Jonathan will always appear on the national scene. Because majority of Nigerians have that mental retardation toward public office, including the presidency as a big enchilada for all to butcher and divide at will, Jonathan's psyche is a mirror of the generality of Nigerians. The Asari-Dokubos, Edwin Clarke Tompolo and their bedfellows are threatening brimstone and Armageddon in 2015, if Goodluck Jonathan loses not because they are concerned about Jonathan's performance. It is because of the fear of losing access to public funds and oil wealth being presided over by Mr. Goodluck Jonathan. Their fear is that another Ijaw man may never become the president of Nigeria again in their lifetimes and so the rest of us must be held hostage by a non-performing president. Consequently, the two choices before Nigerians in this year's presidential election are the future of all of us or few of us; the interests of Nigerians or the narrow interests of Ijaw Nigerians. The power to make that choice is Saturday February 15, 2015 and the choice is markedly clear.


http://nigeriaworld.com/feature/publication/fayemiwo/020715-nd.html

This clearly shows the Armed Forces have been politicised by the Government, little wonder no advancement was made in relations to defeating Boko Haram.

I can bet my last dollar that similar meetings have taken place in relations to how to make the Armed Forces uneffective in the fight against insurgency in the country.

In other countries, the President will have resigned, suspended by the party and subsequently charged to the law courts along with his fellow minions. I think GEJ needs to resign immediately, but that won't happen.

I listened to the audio and I was ashamed to be a Nigerian.

Little wonder the world does not take us serious anymore.

channelz:
[size=14pt]I won't comment until after the elections[/size]

OBJ knows something we don't know.

To the CAN officials, when the shit hits the fan...there will be no where for them to hide after supporting this diabolical call for election prosponement.

If there are achievements in agriculture, why are GEJ supporters like Fayose and Buruji allowed to import bags of rice and other commodities into the country for electioneering purposes?

Let us stop deceiving ourselves.

I thought there was a news report that Atiku is decamping to PDP, because he failed to get the APC presidential election?

Bolssos:
Hello house i went to pick up my passport but it was a sad new because the refused me on what i don't really understand,

Firstly...Suitability-entry Clearance requirement------Met
Relationship requirement------Met
Other requirement like English and TB...Met

Refused reason......Your sponsor is not exempt from the financial requirement as defined as paragraph E-ECP 3.3.I am not able to take into account any potential employment you have available to you in the uk or any offers of financial support from third parties. In order to meet the financial requirement of the rules your sponsors need a groos income at least 18,600 Pounds per annum. from the evidence provided your sponsor's has 16,544.62 from her employer per annum. In order to qualify or to meet the financial requirement you and your spouse requires the shortfall between the income threshold and your salary(i.e 2077.38*2.5*1600)=21.193 in savings in order to meet the financial and your salary. I accept that you provided evidence to show that your sponsor have savings of 23.131.27, however you have not provided satisfactory evidence to show that the entire amount has been held in her account continuously for the past 6months prior to your application. i therefore refused your application under paragraph EC-P1.1(d) of Appendix FM of the Immigration Rules EECP.3.1)

Please house i need your advice because I just can't believe if the UKBA look at all the dates on the accounts we provided to them. we have had my savings from 13 April 2012 and the loyalty saving account was open on the 14 February, 2014 and the application was logged in November 2014, that's a 9 months gap that I have the money in my recent account and we submitted a 6months bank teller..Please help me because i need to appeal

Hi Bolssos,

Just a quick observation, hope your spouse haven't got a dependent at the moment?
The reason why I asked this is that, based on your financial resources, you and your spouse are over the financial threshold of £18,600.
This is taking into account your spouse's basic pay and savings which should be around £19k.
However, if there's one dependent, then the threshold amount to qualify for spousal visa will increase to £22k.
Please double check if this is the reason for the refusal and yes you can always appeal.
Goodluck.