₦airaland Forum

This is because 90% of youth believe that it is by becoming political thugs that they could be successful,

I realised that my messages right from the beginning of my ministry were never believed until they came to pass. I want you to believe this before it happens because it would be disastrous.

Worried by the crisis in Rivers State, First Lady, Dame Patience Jonathan on Monday called on all actors in the crisis to sheath their swords in the interest of the innocent citizens in the state.
In a statement issued by her Special Assistant on Media, Ayo Osinlu, the First Lady noted that the poor including women and children always bear the consequences of such impasse.
She also warned the political heavyweights in the state not to allow the crisis to be hijacked by miscreants and hoodlums.
The statement reads: “This office wishes to call on all feuding parties in Rivers State to spare a thought for the social, political and economic costs of the crisis, and consider an urgent way to resolve all political differences.”
“It is our position that the greater consequences of the impasse is,as usual, reserved for the poor, the weak and the vulnerable, especially women and children, who are usually innocent bystanders in all these.”
“This derives naturally from the saying that when two elephants fight, it is the grass that suffers.”
She went on: “On a larger scale, we subscribe to the fact that conflicts and violence are the most lethal threats to peace, which itself is the irreducible minimum condition for development.”
“The situation must therefore not be allowed to degenerate to a level that can be hijacked by miscreants and hoodlums, thus exposing everyone to insecurity from which there may be no easy escape.”
“We therefore call on elders of the state to position themselves appropriately in the circumstances, and continue to seek the highest good of Rivers state and its people, by stone-walling the activities of the few who would rather fan little embers into a consuming inferno.”
“Recent experience whereby certain otherwise respected elders of the country, both from within and outside Rivers State, were canvassing views that seemed to intensify the heat in Rivers State,is certainly unfortunate.”
“We also recall recent pictures of some youths on the streets of Port Harcourt, obviously in an angry mood, a worrisome suggestion that the crisis is already threatening to spill to the streets, a dimension we cannot afford to allow to escalate for obvious reasons.”
“We must stress that the people of the state desire and look forward to an end to the hostilities, to pave way for higher economic activities and nobler political engagements that will guarantee an enhancement of their welfare.”
“It is therefore incumbent on all people of goodwill to seek to restore peace, brotherliness and love in Rivers State, for the state to press forward in the direction of growth and progress.” She stated

…calls for removal of barriers to children’s education
Nobel Laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka has called on the Federal and State Governments to eliminate all barriers to children’s education.
He made the call in Aboekuta on Sunday when he hosted secondary school students across the country as part of this year’sOpen Door Series Project, an international cultural exchange programme.
He also used the occasion to dispel the insinuation that he graduated with third-class division, explaining that he graduated from the University College, Ibadan with a Second Class Upper.
The programme was organised as part of activities to mark his 79th birthday.
Soyinka appealed to the students, particularly, those studying in the violence-prone areas of the north, not to be discouraged by the activities of Boko Haram sect.
He urged them to draw inspiration from the 16-year-old Pakistani girl, Malala Yousafzai, who was shot in the head on October 9, 2012 by Taliban fighters over her campaign for girl-child education in Pakistan.
Soyinka, who fielded questions from 79 student participants, charged them to cultivate zero tolerance for failure and strive to excel in all their endeavours.
“It might look very negative and hopeless, but we must not allow ourselves to be discouraged.
“The fact that people are still going to schools in those violence-prone areas shows that we should not be discouraged.
“You are not a complete human being if you are not educated, schooled or cultured.
“No matter what goes on around you, you must insist on your education.’’
The Nobel Laureate also used the occasion to dispel the insinuation that he graduated with third-class division.
Soyinka said that he graduated from the University College, Ibadan with a Second Class Upper.
He explained that although he had kept silent on the issue over the years, he decided to open up for the first time over the rumouras a mark of respect for the participants.
Earlier, Gov. Ibikunle Amosun of Ogun, described Soyinka as a world citizen and encouraged the participants in the essay competition to emulate his life and be more studious.
Amosun commended the organisers and re-stated the commitment of his administration to celebrate prominent Nigerians whose lives have remained sources of inspiration to younger generation.
The event, tagged: “Memoirs of our future”, was organised by a Lagos based multimedia company, Zmirage, in conjunction with the Ogun State Government. (NAN).

KGB2008: We missed OBJ sometime walahi.GEJ to soft.I cant imagine all Dick and Harry calling GEJ names.Even Tinubu?

Former Chief Security Officer to late Head of State, Gen. Sani Abacha, Major Hamza Al-Mustapha arrived in Kano to a hero’s welcome on Sunday afternoon.

Al-Mustapha who was recently discharged and acquitted by the Lagos Division of the Appeal Court over the murder of Kudirat Abiola, the wife of the acclaimed winner of the June 12, 1993 election, MKO Abiola.

Al-Mustapha, who cancelled his visit to his grandmother’s house and the Abacha’s as he arrived the commercial city, went to the Goverment House to have audience with the state governor, Rabiu Kwankwaso.

Reports say armed soldiers and members of the Oodua People’s Congress (OPC) took control of the security of the former CSO.

taiwo br: .......na wa for u o,se u dont know that the wife see him every weekend,we even heard that the wife has two kids while he was in prison,did he DHL it.

take dat: *Atiku, IBB to become APC BOT Chairman

*GEJ to drop Sambo for Yerima.

Media houses making up silly stories to sell their papers. Smh!

domcarez: GEJ in action, i bet u guys that Al-mustafa wil pay a visit to GEJ once he comes bk 4rm china, dat way the north wil be thorn apart coz sincerely Al mustafa luvd by lots of kano and northern pple wil drum support 4 GEJ cm 2015, believe it or not GEJ z a tactical politician, he could av blocked this man's freedom but he saw d advantages of gvn him freedom and he took it... The likes of OBJ,ATIKU,IBB,TY DANJUMA etc wil av sleepless nites coz of this freed man. Ride on GEJ.....2019

He added: “I am still a major in the Nigerian Army, and cannot be dragged into politics especially since I have been out for so long. I don’t think of politics, my major preoccupation now is how to reunite with my profession.”

President Goodluck Jonathan may dump Vice President Namadi Sambo for the former Zamfara State governor, Senator Sani Ahmed Yerima, as his running mate for the 2015 presidential election, it was learnt at the weekend.
The President, who met with some Muslim scholars and leaders on his anticipated second term bid, was said to have been impressed by the senator’s role in facilitating the meeting between him and the Muslim leaders, who promised to mobilise support for him.
Interestingly, this is coming at a time when the Professor Ango Abdulahi’s Northern Elders Forum, NEF, has made it known that the North would not support President Jonathan’s second term bid.
Sources said that Yerima, an All Progressives Congress (APC) chieftain, directed his associate and deputy governor of Zamfara State, Ibrahim Wakala, who served under him as the Commissioner for Religious Affairs for eight years, to mobilise Muslim scholars to the Presidential Villa, Abuja, for the meeting.
Although the scholars were earlier scheduled to hold another meeting in Ibadan, Oyo State, for the purpose of forging unity among Muslim leaders, they abandon the Ibadan parley for the AsoRock meeting, where the President solicited their support for his political aspiration.
The Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Saa’d Abubakar, it was learnt, was not aware of the Abuja meeting.
Vice President Sambo and the National Security Adviser (NSA), Col. Sambo Dasuki (rtd), were said not to be part of the meeting.
A source very close to the meeting revealed that “in 2011, the President received bloc support of Christians because they were organised. He is trying to see how he can get the same support from Muslims in 2015. This is where Alhaji Sani Yerima came in.
“He convinced the President about his popularity among Muslim leaders throughout Nigeria.
“The former governor directed Wakala to act as the link between the Muslim scholars and the President, and to mobilise them to the meeting in Aso Rock where the President, Yerima, the Chief of Staff and Protocol Officer were present.
“There, Jonathan sought for their cooperation, which they promisedto give”.
The source disclosed that, at the meeting, Jonathan promised to address the grievances of Muslims before the 2015 general election which includes appointing a Muslim minister from the South into the Federal Executive Council.
The source added. “The former governor also used the meeting to strike a deal with the President. Now, the President, apart from promising to make Yerima the Minister of Federal Capital Territory (FCT) during the next cabinet reshuffle, is considering making him his running mate in 2015, owing to his perceived influence among Nigerian Muslims. The President believes that he will be a better choice in this circumstance.
“In fact, at the end of the day, logistics support was reportedly provided for the leaders for taking time out to meet with Mr. President.
“Yerima”, Sunday Vanguard learnt, “then threw in another request, advising the President to sponsor them for the Umurah, the lesser hajj, so that they can pray for the actualisation of his ambition in the holy land”.
This request may not be strange as the Office of the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria has been known to extend such favours to ‘Men of God’”

The leader of the Nigerian Islamist militant group Boko Haram denied that it entered into a cease-fire agreement with the government and endorsed an attack last week on a school in northeast Yobe state.
Abubakar Shekau, in a video message sent to reporters today, denied claims by Nigerian Minister of Special Duties Kabiru Turaki this week that a cease-fire was reached on July 8 after talks with the group’s deputy leader, Mohammed Marwan.
“Let me assure you that we will not enter into any truce with these infidels,” Shekau said. “We will not enter into any truce with the Nigerian government.”

Boko Haram, whose name means “western education is a sin” in the Hausa language, has killed thousands of people in gun and bomb attacks since 2009 in the mainly Muslim north and Abuja in its campaign to establish an Islamic state in Africa’s largest oil producer. Nigeria’s more than 160 million people are roughly split between Christians, predominant in the south, and Muslims, mostly in the north.

The purported cease-fire came in effect two days after 20 students and a teacher were killed in an attack on a secondary school in the northeastern state of Yobe. Eli Lazarus, a spokesman for the joint military and police task force in Yobe, said the attack was probably carried out by Boko Haram.
“We believe in the massacre inflicted on the secondary school in Mamudo and Damaturu and other schools; we earlier warned that we are going to burn all schools,” Shekau said. “They are schools purposely built to fight Islam.”

Military Offensive
While Boko Haram doesn’t attack “children and young girls or old women,” he said, “teachers that teach Western education, we are supposed to kill them in the presence of their students.”
The military began an air and ground offensive against Boko Haram on May 16, two days after President Goodluck Jonathan imposed emergency rule in the northeastern states of Borno, Yobe and Adamawa to step up the fight against the Islamist militants. The insurgents were taking over parts of Borno state, according to Jonathan.

smartchoice: About time! Can't wait to have a military government that will restore sanity to the polity! Return fuel price to fifty naira per litre. Build refineries, improve general welfare, introduce a people oriented constitution, reduce the salaries and allowances of public office holders, make the LGAs functional, improve national security! Where are the valiant military officers? Are there no courageous men no longer in the MILITARY?

jmaine: Noise making . . .