Senate Committee Chairman on the Environment, Senator Bukola Saraki, last night denied producing or contemplating producing any television documentary aimed at portraying President Goodluck Jonathan in bad light.

Saraki, who spoke through his Special Assistant on Media, Bamikole Omishore, debunked an allegation by the Peoples Democratic Party that the former governor, who is now a chieftain of the All Progressives Congress, APC, had sponsored the production of a documentary involving the president and two other women.

Senator Saraki said that he was not aware of any love triangle between the President and the two women in question and therefore had not been, and would not be involved in anyway, manner or process of commissioning of such documentary.
The former governor said that it would be immoral for him to abandon issues of national importance that affect the lives of Nigerians and dabble into the private life affairs of Mr. President.

Saraki said: “On the contrary it has been PDP that has been attacking the private lives of our presidential candidate and personal affairs of our leaders in the APC . We have maintained a certain respectable decorum in both the use of language and material in every campaign.

“Why the PDP is pushing such a ridiculous story is because it has been the trademark of the PDP of recent to blackmail members of the opposition with spurious and cooked-up allegations.

“For the avoidance of doubt, we have concrete evidence at our disposal to the effect that the recent bad press Senator Saraki has been receiving lately surrounding an old issue of over a number of years involving a bank loan and company called Joy Petroleum, are directly orchestrated by the presidency particularly documents sent by email to the judiciary correspondents for their use.

“Senator Saraki is aware that the PDP has been going around Kwara State bribing and begging people to partake in a documentary against him to cause disaffection in the eyes of the public having adjudged him a threat in the forthcoming general elections. So it’s funny to now hear that the same party that’s organising such a documentary and from the beginning of this campaign has threaded on this dishonourable course using their own words should be accusing others of what they intend to do.

“Senator Saraki will like to warn all those still scheming to carry out this false documentary on him that he will fight back and legally defend himself and warn those in glass houses whose past particularly as regards their private lives is not honourable should steer clear and be warned.”

A disaffected insider within President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration as well as several banking executives have told SaharaReporters that Nigeria faces a deep economic crisis and massive social gloom after the 2015 general elections. Speaking from different perspectives, the sources said President Jonathan had virtually vacuumed the Nigerian treasury to serve his re-election campaign, leaving Nigerian banks in dire straits and many states on the verge of failing to pay salaries this month.

“The truth is that Mr. President has almost emptied the treasury, and some of us close to him are even beginning to get worried about what will happen after the election,” said the political insider.

The bankers echoed the sentiment. “The reason the naira has taken such a dramatic plunge over the last three or so months is that politicians moped up the hard currency for elections,” said one banker. “I have never seen anything on this scale, where politicians snatch up every hard currency in sight, whether dollar, Euro or pound sterling,” he added. Asked who was primarily responsible for the situation, the banker said he would not engage in partisanship. “All I know is that this country is now in a frightening economic position—and all these politicians running up and down to retain or take power have created the situation,” he asserted.

But another banker was not shy in pointing a finger at Mr. Jonathan. “The president has been indifferent to the economic crisis caused by the ongoing campaigns. And the reason he is indifferent is that he is the major culprit,” said the executive. He added that the distribution of largesse by Mr. Jonathan had now become “one of the few lucrative businesses in Nigeria.”
The bankers said massive layoffs were inevitable in the banking and other sectors of the Nigerian economy. They said numerous companies that depended on imported machinery or other components sourced from abroad were bleeding cash. “Many Nigerian companies are experiencing severe cash flow problems. Many of them are defaulting on long and short-term loan repayments. So the banks are suffering heavily as well,” one banker told SaharaReporters.

Two of the bankers disclosed that the banking industry would have laid off thousands of workers, but that officials of the Jonathan administration pressured them to wait until after the elections. “It will take a long time before banks recover from the current shocks in the system. There’s no bank strong enough not to retrench staff,” one said.

The stress in the banking sector, with the prospective job losses, will be compounded by massive retrenchment in the civil service at the Federal and state levels, one source predicted. Our source inside the Presidency revealed that Mr. Jonathan plans to follow former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s style by removing fuel subsidies as one of his first economic acts. “The truth is that it’s a must that fuel subsidy has to go because the money is not there to continue [paying for] them,” he said.

As part of an arrangement to receive slush funds from oil marketers, Mr. Jonathan and Ms. Alison-Madueke allowed numerous marketers to make fraudulent claims and get paid for importation they never made. That criminal collusion has put Nigeria in a situation where the oil marketers are being owed N450 billion. “Nigeria will have to deal with this and other debts from fraudulently inflated invoices once the elections are over,” one banker said.

The scam also helped create a recent fuel scarcity in the country. As the fuel situation threatened to become a politically costly crisis, Mr. Jonathan asked the oil marketers to offload fuel they had been “round-tripping” in order to collect unearned subsidy payments.

Bankers agreed that the government would find it extremely difficult to pay that debt after the election without rolling back or eliminating subsidies altogether. In recent months, oil marketers as well as operators of the privatized power sector received massive financial handouts from the Jonathan administration. In turn, they donated billions of naira to Mr. Jonathan’s re-election campaign.

President Jonathan has gone on a dollar-spraying spree since the general elections were postponed by six weeks. Our sources disclosed that the president had doled out more than $200 million, using generous cash gifts to entice various traditional rulers, politicians and activists, especially those in the southwest and parts of the north, to endorse him.

Several sources said much of the president’s campaign cash is from shady oil deals brokered by Petroleum Minister Diezani Alison-Madueke. The massive theft of Nigeria’s crude oil remains an open scandal, and one of the richest sources of funds for the campaigns. Last September, Al Jazeera reported that the theft of Nigeria’s crude oil was at its highest rate in years, adding that several hundred thousand barrels of crude are stolen each day.
The continuing crisis of crude oil thefts has persisted despite the Jonathan administration’s security contract to Global West Specialist Agency, a company owned by Government Ekpemukpolo (popularly called Tompolo). The contract to Mr. Tompolo’s company was for the supply of 20 patrol vessels to enable Nigeria’s military authorities to better secure the coastline and stem oil theft. Mr. Tompolo’s firm was also engaged as a consultant to prevent crude oil heists.

The rating firm of Standard & Poors yesterday said that the Nigerian economy faced a clear and present danger. Nigeria’s external reserves have been significantly depleted in the past year, said a banker, adding that many state governments were already looking for loans to pay workers’ salaries.

Balkan:
Jega has actually compromised.
he must go now! he is now working with the opposition

Ikengawo:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jMo1DALo9wY

Mogidi:
If there's anything that gives Buhari heart attack, it is debates and certificates.

This is enough to make him travel back to the UK.

clevvermind:
Jonathan will implement the confab report when re-elected. vote wisely.

The All Progressives Congress (APC) on Monday faulted a notion being created by President Goodluck Jonathan that the implementation of 2014 National Conference report is dependent only on his re-election.

The party, also, dismissed the impression, describing Jonathan’s statement as illogical and unreasonable, which it said, was directed to earn cheap popularity from South-west trampled upon by his administration.

In a statement by the APC National Vice-Chairman (Southwest), Chief Pius Akinyelure, the party said if the Jonathan administration was interested in restructuring, it would not have waited for three years in office before convoking the 2014 National Conference.

The party noted that with the lopsided nature of federation his administration inherited about six years, Jonathan should have swung into action immediately and put necessary mechanisms in place “to equitably and fairly restructure Nigeria for the benefit of all.”

The party added that Jonathan was using the report of the 2014 National Conference as a political weapon from a region his administration “has not been fair to despite its support for the president in 2011.”

The party, therefore, asked the president “to desist from making promise he cannot fulfil. President Jonathan should stop appealing ethnic sentiment in order to score cheap political marks. A president, under whose watch the Ekiti election was rigged, cannot restructure Nigeria.”

The party urged the people of South-West Nigeria in particular and Nigeria in general not to take the president serious again, noting that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) had no idea on how to move Nigeria forward.

The party said the APC presidential candidate, Maj.-Gen. Muhammadu Buhari and his running mate, Prof. Oluyemi Osinbajo had made a covenant with the people of Nigeria contained in the 2015 Buhari/Osinbajo Manifesto.

The party said once elected, the Buhari/Osinbajo government would initiate action “to amend the Nigerian Constitution with a view to devolving powers, duties, and responsibilities to states in order to entrench true federalism and the federal spirit.”

It added that the Buhari/Osinbajo government “will restructure governance for a leaner, more efficient, and adequately compensated public service sector, while promoting effective participation of the private sector for more robust job creation programmes to employ the teaming youth.”

It said the Buhari/Osinbajo government would bring to an end an arbitrary deduction of statutory allocations due to states governed by the opposition party and the backdoor allocation to the states that are not critical of an anemic national government under the PDP.

The Forum of Chairmen of Subsidy Re-investment Programme (SURE-P), on Monday, berated former Chief of Army Staff and National Chairman of SURE-P Committee, Martin Luther Agwai, over his call on the military not to dabble into partisan politics.

Agwai made the call while delivering a lecture, titled: ‘Imperatives of National Security: Framework for Development and Progress of Nigeria’, as part of activities to mark former President Obasanjo’s 78th birthday.
The occasion was also used for the formal inauguration of Obasanjo National Library in Abeokuta last weekend.

The former army chief, at the event, said the military had found itself in a “strange” terrain, adding that the military should target an effective way to tackle the security challenges facing the nation.

According to him, the nation’s leaders and the citizens should accept change and move with it to enable the country experience the desired growth and development because if the military is involved in politicsm the country might be doomed for it.

Addressing journalists in Benin City on Monday on behalf of chairmen of SURE-P in the 36 states and Abuja, Edo State SURE-P Chairman and Chairman of the forum, Lucky Imasuen, dissociated the forum from Agwai’s statement.

thunder74:

Op, please go and research further. They can't use the horse tails on the head of the nation that is superior to them but their staff of office. The Obas use irukere (horse tail) to touch their subjects head. The president is not a common man. They dare not use it on him but their Opa Ase (the symbols of office) which is higher than the irukere.

itetemi:


you dey mind the clowns,even the soun of osogbo

Mynd44:

Apart from the Ooni, which other prominent Yoruba King has been hanging out with the PDP?

You people don't know crap about the hierachy the Obas ooo.

The Ewi of Ado hates Fayose
The Deji of Akure does not want to see Mimiko
The Awujale is Tinubu's pal
The Oba of Lagos is well....lmao
The Alaafin even donated to the APC
The Onibadan

Name Obas in Yorubaland that are more influencial than these ones

MOG1D1:
The two things Buhari hates most in his life are debates or asking him to show his certificates.

babestella:


It's a debate, you can shout and rant responsibly while delivering your points. Fact, APC has no agenda for NIGERIANS. Oh wait a minute, Ayedee just asked Mr. Buhari to prove his WASC result, didn't he?

Kola4uniadgog:



The behaviour of buhari supporter online and offline is a direct extension of how their principals like lie muhammed, aregbesola, and other act everyday. They have desecrated the office of the presidency and have set a bad precedent whereby everyone that occupies that offices is subject to insults and derogatory statements.

I didn't watch d debate but will go online to watch it. If only pple on both sides would be cultured in their comments. Nothing like clueless, Jonathan, otuokeman. Apc is boko haram, shecow, supporter of APC and the likes
Let's just talk about the issues. Constructive criticism and not insults. Make nairaland organise debate for us too ooo cc mods

MzJackBaueress:
So Igbos should not travel to their hometowns to see their loved ones because you need their votes?

Can you imagine what Agbaje is saying?

pendy79:
So Agbaje only needs the vote of the Igbos to win election? I think he needs to change his state to Anambra state, I'm sure he will make a good governor of either Anambra or ebonyi state.

The Federal Government on Thursday raised the alarm that the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq may have started radicalising and recruiting susceptible Nigerian students abroad.
The Coordinator of the National Information Centre, Mr. Mike Omeri, raised the alarm at the weekly briefing on the war against terrorism in the country.

Citing intelligence reports, Omeri who is also the Director General of the National Orientation Agency, said ISIS recruiters were using the social media and other sources to achieve their target.
He said, “At this point, the centre wishes to alert the nation of intelligence reports, indicating the radicalisation of our youths through the social media and a variety of other sources.

“The reports show that these youths who are mostly children of the rich and affluent are being recruited into ISIS.

“We, therefore, call on parents and guardians, especially those whose wards are schooling abroad, to closely monitor the activities of these students who may be susceptible to the antics of the promoters of the ISIS ideology.”