₦airaland Forum

^^^^Gbam !!@!!!!
I don tire.Person do or say from the north,its the entire north.yet if someone do same from the south,its a name or group or community or tribe identified!!!

A Nigerian student has died during a drug raid in Malaysia and four others were arrested, police said Thursday, adding that West Africans seem to be replacing Iranians in the illicit trade.

Police seized several kilogrammes of heroin and methamphetamine worth a total of 600,000 ringgit ($200,000) in a raid on a flat in Kuala Lumpur Tuesday, said Othman Harun, deputy director of the Federal Narcotics Department.

They also arrested four Nigerians in their 20s, while a fifth man tried to run away and when caught collapsed with breathing difficulties and died.

Othman said police were still awaiting a report on the cause of death but believe the Nigerian could have swallowed heroin capsules to smuggle them abroad.

The grade-four heroin that was seized from the apartment is not commonly used in Malaysia but destined for such countries as Australia, Othman said.

Othman said police had arrested 19 Nigerians from January to April, mainly in Kuala Lumpur and at the international airport.

"This number is considered very high," he told AFP. "In the last few weeks, there is an increase in Western Africans, especially Nigerians, bringing in methamphetamine."

Three more Nigerians have been arrested in separate cases since Friday at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport when methamphetamine was found hidden in their bags.

Previously others had allegedly hidden drugs in cassavas and sweet potatoes, Othman said.

All suspects held in custody face hanging if convicted of drug trafficking, which carries a mandatory death penalty in Malaysia.

Othman said police believed the Nigerians were filling a vacuum left after the arrest of several Iranian alleged drug syndicate masterminds.

"When there is a vacuum, West Africans step in on this activity," he said.

He said that police had arrested 44 Iranians for drug trafficking in the first four months of the year, and several more in May. http://news.malaysia.msn.com/regional/article.aspx?cp-documentid=4921320

Now that your father is no more and has done his bid.What can you do for Nigeria?Especially the menace of boko haram!!!

Keep coming !!!!! 1+1 = 1

I was at the mosque that day.I only heard the Imam talk over the speaker.It was exactly as he narrated here.About attendance,It was terrible really!!!About the security am speechless.About people turning back,its also true.I almost did too.It wasn't funny at all.That is the peak of security at the mosque!!!

Tuesday, June 7, 2011
Abubakr Siddeeq

PDP AND THE NATIONAL MOSQUE

You can describe the events I relate here as inauguration drama at the National Mosque, Abuja. It was Friday 27th May, 2011, a day designated by the Presidential Inauguration Ceremonies Committee for a Special Inauguration Juma’at Prayers (whatever that means) at the National Mosque.

Battle-ready and stern-looking security forces (a combined team of military, police and SSS) blocked all access roads to the National Mosque; it looked like a mosque under siege. Cars conveying worshipers to observe their weekly religious devotions were turned back; they were told to park miles away from the mosque and trek. That was not all; Muslim faithful were subjected to thorough, humiliating searches with metal detectors. They were asked to remove their caps, empty their pockets and leave their bags outside the mosque. It was quite reminiscent of the Abacha years in the same mosque. Not since military rule have we witnessed the use of state organs of coercion in such a brazen manner; not even when the president (Yar’Adua) was to be inaugurated. Many left in anger and observed the prayers in other mosques vowing never to pray henceforth at the National Mosque. No one was spared as the instruction, according to these men in full military and police fatigue, was that ‘no car should be allowed into the mosque premises.’ Thus, unless your vehicle was preceded by a police escort jeep to indicate the importance of the occupant, you were turned back; whoever you might be. Only top government functionaries, ministers, etc. could have access to the mosque. Only two ambassadors – that of Malaysia and that of Indonesia (if I’m not mistaken) – made it to the mosque on that day from the diplomatic community in Abuja. Even the Chief Imam who was to lead the prayers did not find it easy passing through the invincible barricade created around the mosque. Remember this is the largest mosque in Abuja and that it serves the entire central business district of the FCT on a day when all civil servants were at work.

In Islam self-effacement is the norm especially in your way to the mosque where all worshipers – from heads of state to ordinary people – stand before their Lord in the same row and declare Allaahu Akbar, Allah is the Greatest! Quite a number of honoured people, former this and that, who the unthinking may deem very ordinary because of their humility; such worshippers quietly left and saw no point in identifying themselves to security personnel whose demeanour was of combatants in a militarized zone.

The result of the presence of these assault troops was conspicuous inside the mosque as it was half full; or shall I say half empty. It was the first time in its close-to-three decades of existence that the National Mosque, Abuja was half full during Friday prayers. The beginning of a new era indeed!

During my turn to discharge my weekly function of translating the Khutbah, sermon from Arabic to English, by which time the Vice President, Namadi Sambo, the then Secretary of the Federation, Yayale Ahmed, the IGP, Ringim and all (Muslim) ministers were already seated; I urged the privileged worshippers who made it to the mosque to kindly turn and see the scantiness of people in this hallowed place of worship. ‘You’ve made people park their cars miles away from the mosque;’ I said, ‘when they are used to parking them close to the mosque, thus providing further security of such vehicle due to the presence of other worshipers around. Now, with the cars far removed from the mosque premises their security is not guaranteed. Remember that among these worshipers are the aged, children and women who had to trek this long to come in here.’

I drew their attention to what was going on outside the mosque of excessive and humiliating search on people who were just approaching the mosque to observe the Friday prayers. I concluded my saying: ‘Whoever gave this order of harassing Muslims, subjecting them to demeaning search and scaring them away from the mosque should ask himself if this will make people to love their leaders or it will make them hate such leaders.’ I let the dignitaries know the implications of their actions and I reiterated that if we, the clergy, did not let them know these, Allah would ask us and that we would not be helping them that way.

After the Special Prayers for the inauguration of the new government of Jonathan and Sambo, the Chief Imam had to make the following remarks: ‘I wish to draw the attention of our brethren,’ said the Imam, ‘to the fact that the tight security around the mosque is a temporary operation. The officers have exceeded their bounds; nobody instructed them to drive away worshipers from the mosque. Let those who are present convey the message to those who could not come in today that next week there will not be any hindrance to access the mosque by anybody.’

Dr Mohammed Halliru Bello, PDP Acting National Chairman


Dr Mohammed Halliru Bello, PDP Acting National Chairman, was visibly upset, came to me when worshipers started dispersing and said: ‘Ustaz Siddeeq, why are you inciting the people against the government?’
This was a simple question that required an equally polite answer. At least in print it looks so, but the belligerence with which it was uttered, impossible to be reproduced in a prose, made me answer in like manner. ‘On the contrary sir,’ I said, ‘what I’ve said today is right in every letter. What I did was to call attention to what actually happened and to which everybody here is a witness.’
‘But what is wrong in having security around the mosque,’ retorted Dr Bello, ‘when you see security forces around the Holy Mosques of Makkah and Madinah? Imam’s remarks were better than yours; he was mild, not mischievous.’
Many people restrained me from further angry exchanges with the PDP Acting Chairman within the precincts of the mosque. I obeyed. But Dr Bello kept talking, went to the Chief Imam and made the same complaint, threatening to deal with me in the sense that the word is used in Nigeria when you desire to visit your vengeance upon someone, especially if you occupy a lofty position. As you shall see later, it seems he carried through his useless threat. Useless because only those who feed off people like him would hesitate to tell the truth where it concerned their principal. Those who collect gratification for selling Allah’s Words and their conscience are the only ones on whom threats like the one Bello made would make any impact.
The presence of security forces around the Two Holy Mosques, Dr Bello should’ve known, was for the safety of the multitude observing their devotions; they are not there to guard any froward potentate and product of flawed elections. There is no reason why people who claim to have been voted into power by the majority of Nigerians would be afraid of the electorate who gave them the mandate!
Outside the mosque I met the Executive Secretary of the National Mosque, Alhaji Abubakar Ibrahim Jega who said to me: ‘Ustaz, you’ve acted righty. You’ve exculpated us by this intervention otherwise people would’ve blamed us for allowing this build-up around the mosque. The Imam was also right in what he did; he acted like Abubakar, the first caliph; while you acted like Umar, the second………, ’
It is indeed ironic that, just a day after the incident at the National Mosque, during the Special Inauguration Inter-denominational Service, the National Christian Centre did not witness the heavy security presence visited upon the National Mosque in a similar ceremony. The Christian Centre was full to the brim; no vehicular hindrance; no worshiper was denied access. This is indeed the beginning of a new era!
Wallahi, by Allah, if what happened at the National Mosque that day were to be in a church the government would have formally apologised to the Christian community in Nigeria for the embarrassment meted on its faithful by security agencies around their places of worship. But with the Muslims, anything goes; and who cares?
The mosque has its aegis and sanctity which must be respected by all who come in to offer prayers. It is a place where truth is told to all regardless of status or rank. If leaders err they should be guided to their error so that they can amend such mistakes. The mosque should not be a place where those in authority come only to be placated, aggrandised and prayers are offered for their wellbeing and protection.
The corollary to the above threat by Dr Bello was stopping me from rendering the weekly khutbah from Arabic to English. The same Executive Secretary of the National Mosque who made the conscientious and fatherly statement as quoted above wrote an internal memo addressed to the Chief Imam to the effect that my services are no longer needed in translations of the khutbah because I went out of my way to discuss an issue that was not the object of the sermon. They are now looking for a replacement. There was an awkward interregnum in the mosque last Friday as I sat with other worshippers waiting for an English khutbah that never was. This disenfranchised all that do not speak Hausa and Igbo, let alone Arabic that day from getting the message of the khutbah.
Dr Bello and the PDP have more to do: instruct the LEADERSHIP Newspapers to close this column, stop my weekly radio and television programmes, or better still, arrest and lock me up for good. In that way this ‘little upstart’ will be silenced for most of the time the Power to the People has vowed to vote on our behalf! That is easy for PDP. Be whatever you want to be; a corrupt government official; be implicated in kickbacks and bribery scandals within Nigeria and beyond; do whatever you like, you will remain a saint and even occupy high position in the land provided you do not do what is displeasing to the largest party in Africa, otherwise, EFCC is there to do the dirty job!
To his credit, after the scene he made just a week earlier, Dr Bello Halliru Mohammed, PDP Acting National Chairman was the first to say salaam, Muslim greeting to me when he came into the mosque last Friday, 3rd June, 2011. He has proved to be better than me in line with a tradition of the Prophet, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him. But some people who saw this salaam-rapprochement said it meant: Now that you are ‘fired’, how are you enjoying my requital? I%

Tuesday, June 7, 2011
Abubakr Siddeeq

PDP AND THE NATIONAL MOSQUE

You can describe the events I relate here as inauguration drama at the National Mosque, Abuja. It was Friday 27th May, 2011, a day designated by the Presidential Inauguration Ceremonies Committee for a Special Inauguration Juma’at Prayers (whatever that means) at the National Mosque.

Battle-ready and stern-looking security forces (a combined team of military, police and SSS) blocked all access roads to the National Mosque; it looked like a mosque under siege. Cars conveying worshipers to observe their weekly religious devotions were turned back; they were told to park miles away from the mosque and trek. That was not all; Muslim faithful were subjected to thorough, humiliating searches with metal detectors. They were asked to remove their caps, empty their pockets and leave their bags outside the mosque. It was quite reminiscent of the Abacha years in the same mosque. Not since military rule have we witnessed the use of state organs of coercion in such a brazen manner; not even when the president (Yar’Adua) was to be inaugurated. Many left in anger and observed the prayers in other mosques vowing never to pray henceforth at the National Mosque. No one was spared as the instruction, according to these men in full military and police fatigue, was that ‘no car should be allowed into the mosque premises.’ Thus, unless your vehicle was preceded by a police escort jeep to indicate the importance of the occupant, you were turned back; whoever you might be. Only top government functionaries, ministers, etc. could have access to the mosque. Only two ambassadors – that of Malaysia and that of Indonesia (if I’m not mistaken) – made it to the mosque on that day from the diplomatic community in Abuja. Even the Chief Imam who was to lead the prayers did not find it easy passing through the invincible barricade created around the mosque. Remember this is the largest mosque in Abuja and that it serves the entire central business district of the FCT on a day when all civil servants were at work.

In Islam self-effacement is the norm especially in your way to the mosque where all worshipers – from heads of state to ordinary people – stand before their Lord in the same row and declare Allaahu Akbar, Allah is the Greatest! Quite a number of honoured people, former this and that, who the unthinking may deem very ordinary because of their humility; such worshippers quietly left and saw no point in identifying themselves to security personnel whose demeanour was of combatants in a militarized zone.

The result of the presence of these assault troops was conspicuous inside the mosque as it was half full; or shall I say half empty. It was the first time in its close-to-three decades of existence that the National Mosque, Abuja was half full during Friday prayers. The beginning of a new era indeed!

During my turn to discharge my weekly function of translating the Khutbah, sermon from Arabic to English, by which time the Vice President, Namadi Sambo, the then Secretary of the Federation, Yayale Ahmed, the IGP, Ringim and all (Muslim) ministers were already seated; I urged the privileged worshippers who made it to the mosque to kindly turn and see the scantiness of people in this hallowed place of worship. ‘You’ve made people park their cars miles away from the mosque;’ I said, ‘when they are used to parking them close to the mosque, thus providing further security of such vehicle due to the presence of other worshipers around. Now, with the cars far removed from the mosque premises their security is not guaranteed. Remember that among these worshipers are the aged, children and women who had to trek this long to come in here.’

I drew their attention to what was going on outside the mosque of excessive and humiliating search on people who were just approaching the mosque to observe the Friday prayers. I concluded my saying: ‘Whoever gave this order of harassing Muslims, subjecting them to demeaning search and scaring them away from the mosque should ask himself if this will make people to love their leaders or it will make them hate such leaders.’ I let the dignitaries know the implications of their actions and I reiterated that if we, the clergy, did not let them know these, Allah would ask us and that we would not be helping them that way.

After the Special Prayers for the inauguration of the new government of Jonathan and Sambo, the Chief Imam had to make the following remarks: ‘I wish to draw the attention of our brethren,’ said the Imam, ‘to the fact that the tight security around the mosque is a temporary operation. The officers have exceeded their bounds; nobody instructed them to drive away worshipers from the mosque. Let those who are present convey the message to those who could not come in today that next week there will not be any hindrance to access the mosque by anybody.’

Dr Mohammed Halliru Bello, PDP Acting National Chairman


Dr Mohammed Halliru Bello, PDP Acting National Chairman, was visibly upset, came to me when worshipers started dispersing and said: ‘Ustaz Siddeeq, why are you inciting the people against the government?’
This was a simple question that required an equally polite answer. At least in print it looks so, but the belligerence with which it was uttered, impossible to be reproduced in a prose, made me answer in like manner. ‘On the contrary sir,’ I said, ‘what I’ve said today is right in every letter. What I did was to call attention to what actually happened and to which everybody here is a witness.’
‘But what is wrong in having security around the mosque,’ retorted Dr Bello, ‘when you see security forces around the Holy Mosques of Makkah and Madinah? Imam’s remarks were better than yours; he was mild, not mischievous.’
Many people restrained me from further angry exchanges with the PDP Acting Chairman within the precincts of the mosque. I obeyed. But Dr Bello kept talking, went to the Chief Imam and made the same complaint, threatening to deal with me in the sense that the word is used in Nigeria when you desire to visit your vengeance upon someone, especially if you occupy a lofty position. As you shall see later, it seems he carried through his useless threat. Useless because only those who feed off people like him would hesitate to tell the truth where it concerned their principal. Those who collect gratification for selling Allah’s Words and their conscience are the only ones on whom threats like the one Bello made would make any impact.
The presence of security forces around the Two Holy Mosques, Dr Bello should’ve known, was for the safety of the multitude observing their devotions; they are not there to guard any froward potentate and product of flawed elections. There is no reason why people who claim to have been voted into power by the majority of Nigerians would be afraid of the electorate who gave them the mandate!
Outside the mosque I met the Executive Secretary of the National Mosque, Alhaji Abubakar Ibrahim Jega who said to me: ‘Ustaz, you’ve acted righty. You’ve exculpated us by this intervention otherwise people would’ve blamed us for allowing this build-up around the mosque. The Imam was also right in what he did; he acted like Abubakar, the first caliph; while you acted like Umar, the second………, ’
It is indeed ironic that, just a day after the incident at the National Mosque, during the Special Inauguration Inter-denominational Service, the National Christian Centre did not witness the heavy security presence visited upon the National Mosque in a similar ceremony. The Christian Centre was full to the brim; no vehicular hindrance; no worshiper was denied access. This is indeed the beginning of a new era!
Wallahi, by Allah, if what happened at the National Mosque that day were to be in a church the government would have formally apologised to the Christian community in Nigeria for the embarrassment meted on its faithful by security agencies around their places of worship. But with the Muslims, anything goes; and who cares?
The mosque has its aegis and sanctity which must be respected by all who come in to offer prayers. It is a place where truth is told to all regardless of status or rank. If leaders err they should be guided to their error so that they can amend such mistakes. The mosque should not be a place where those in authority come only to be placated, aggrandised and prayers are offered for their wellbeing and protection.
The corollary to the above threat by Dr Bello was stopping me from rendering the weekly khutbah from Arabic to English. The same Executive Secretary of the National Mosque who made the conscientious and fatherly statement as quoted above wrote an internal memo addressed to the Chief Imam to the effect that my services are no longer needed in translations of the khutbah because I went out of my way to discuss an issue that was not the object of the sermon. They are now looking for a replacement. There was an awkward interregnum in the mosque last Friday as I sat with other worshippers waiting for an English khutbah that never was. This disenfranchised all that do not speak Hausa and Igbo, let alone Arabic that day from getting the message of the khutbah.
Dr Bello and the PDP have more to do: instruct the LEADERSHIP Newspapers to close this column, stop my weekly radio and television programmes, or better still, arrest and lock me up for good. In that way this ‘little upstart’ will be silenced for most of the time the Power to the People has vowed to vote on our behalf! That is easy for PDP. Be whatever you want to be; a corrupt government official; be implicated in kickbacks and bribery scandals within Nigeria and beyond; do whatever you like, you will remain a saint and even occupy high position in the land provided you do not do what is displeasing to the largest party in Africa, otherwise, EFCC is there to do the dirty job!
To his credit, after the scene he made just a week earlier, Dr Bello Halliru Mohammed, PDP Acting National Chairman was the first to say salaam, Muslim greeting to me when he came into the mosque last Friday, 3rd June, 2011. He has proved to be better than me in line with a tradition of the Prophet, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him. But some people who saw this salaam-rapprochement said it meant: Now that you are ‘fired’, how are you enjoying my requital? I%

Ok o! we dey lool like lucozade!!!!

Crisis hits Senate, Reps over sharing of posts •PDP makes U-turn, accepts Tambuwal as Speaker

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Written by Taiwo Adisa and Lanre Adewole, Abuja Thursday, 09 June 2011

THE push for the appointment of principal officers of the Senate and House of Representatives has erupted in crisis in the National Assembly,

following a titanic battle that is raging among the contending zones.

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) had moved, on Tuesday, to intervene in the controversy fuelled by the election of Honourable Aminu Tambuwal as Speaker of the House of Representatives against the zoning arrangement of the party, which ceded the position to the South-West.

Sources told the Nigerian Tribune that senators from the PDP and the minority parties, including the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), the All Nigeria People’s Party (ANPP), Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), the Labour Party (LP), the Democratic Peoples Party (DPP) and the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) are at one another’s throats over the composition of the principal officers’ positions.

It was gathered that while the PDP lawmakers in the Senate were fighting over the position of Senate Leader, senators from the South-South and North-East were angling for the same position.

It was gathered that the PDP had suggested that the position of Senate Leader and the House Leader should be reserved for the two zones, the North-East and the South-West, which lost out in the zoning equation, as a result of Tambuwal’s emergence.

But sources said that the senators were resisting the push by the PDP, insisting that democracy should prevail in the chamber.

It was gathered that some senators were insisting on the choice of former Deputy Senate Leader, Senator Ndoma-Egba, whom they said had earned the respect of members.

There is also a raging battle over the position of Minority Leader of the Senate and other three minority positions. The senators from the ACN were said not to be comfortable with the order of former Lagos State governor, Senator Bola Tinubu, directing them to vote for Senator George Akume from Benue State as the Minority Leader.

It was gathered that senators from the DPP, APGA, LP, ANPP and CPC refused to attend a meeting of the minority parties called by Tinubu on Tuesday night. The meeting lasted till the early hours of Wednesday, sources said.

It was learnt that senators of the opposition parties rejected the notice of meeting by Tinubu but that one of the North-East senators, Bukkar Abba Ibrahim, attended the meeting.

The choice of who becomes Deputy Minority Leader is also said to be tearing senators from the ANPP apart. Three senators were said to be eyeing the post and one of them is Senator Abbah Ibrahim who is set to do battle with Senator Kabiru Gaya from Kano and former governor of Zamfara State, Sani Ahmed Rufai Yerima.

A senator from one of the minority parties said that the lawmakers had warned their members not to attend a meeting where Tinubu would issue orders to them.

He said that the Senate could not be seen as an extension of Tinubu’s party, adding that lawmakers were on the floor to represent their people and not a party or party leader.

Within the PDP, it was said that the only senator from the South-West, Hosea Agboola, would be allocated the position of Deputy Majority Whip.

But sources said that though Tinubu was trying to force ACN members to vote Akume as Minority Leader, some of the lawmakers insisted that the post should be domiciled in the South-West since the party won most of its seats in the area. They said that if the PDP would not give the position of Speaker to the South-West, because it lost election in the area, the ACN should take the position of Minority Leader when it won the seats in the South-West.

“It should not be a situation of double losses for the South-West,” a source said.

It was, however, learnt that other opposition parties were not comfortable with the move to pick Akume as minority leader, as such a development would easily possibly get the Senate consumed with what some of the lawmakers called “Benue politics,” which they claimed could cause persistent tension in the upper chamber.

Sources said that a coalition of other minority parties besides the ACN might stall the appointment of Akume as minority leader and drag the matter before the entire Senate.

The minority parties altogether have 20 members as against the ACN with 18 senators.



Meanwhile, despite the grandstanding of the ACN on the issue of Government of National Unity (GNU), it has been discovered that its leader and former Lagos State governor, Senator Bola Tinubu, has been unilaterally negotiating with the presidency and the reported refusal of his demand was said to have informed his direction to members of the House of Representatives elected on the ticket of the party to dump Mulikat Adeola-Akande representing the South-West.

With the victory recorded by President Goodluck Jonathan at the April 16 presidential poll in the South-West, there had been perceived romance between Tinubu and the president, with the ACN actively participating in meetings called by Jonathan.

Though there was no official statement from the presidency inviting the ACN into GNU, Tinubu and the top echelon of the party had been making conflicting statements about their participation if invited by Jonathan.

It was, however, gathered that Tinubu had been making his consultations with the presidency without the knowledge of other top party chieftains, with the former governor said to have demanded four key cabinet positions in the proposed Federal Executive Council (FEC) by Jonathan, which the presidency reportedly declined.

Tinubu was said to have unilaterally gone into an understanding with the presidency, resulting in his demand for the ministries of Justice, Interior, Works and Finance.

He was said to have pencilled in a Commissioner of Justice and Attorney-General in Lagos State as the next AGF and another former Commissioner for Finance as the finance minister.

It was gathered that Tinubu was particular about having the office of the AGF considered the most strategic in any administration, given the massive power and influence the holder of the office wields in the polity and the administration.

In demanding for the office of the AGF, Tinubu was said to be moving a step ahead in consolidating his grip on the lever of government in the polity and permanently stave off his many trials.

However, a source in government circle said “Tinubu was asking for the impossible.”

The presidency was said to have been completely averse to Tinubu’s request, given the resolve of President Jonathan to combat corruption headlong, with the breakdown in understanding reportedly leading Tinubu to direct his men in the House of Representatives to back Tambuwal against the wish of the president and the PDP.

The 71 members of the ACN in the House of Representatives were said to have delivered a block vote to Tambuwal who eventually emerged as speaker, though many of them were said to have expressed reservation on the position taken by the ACN leadership.

A prominent ACN chieftain in Oyo State reportedly rooted seriously for Tambuwal, because he was said to be averse to having a number four in his domain belonging to a rival political party.

Rumpus over election: Speaker, Deputy in secret meeting with Clark
By Yusuf Alli, Tayo Owolabi, Genevieve Ajewole Abuja and Osagie Otabor Benin




Speaker Aminu Tambuwal has launched a peace mission to reassure opponents of his election that he remains loyal to his party’s interests.

He plans to let the President know that his House leadership is not opposed to him.

On Tuesday night, Tambuwal met with elder statesman Chief Edwin Clark in Abuja.

The PDP has not accepted the election of Tambuwal and his deputy, Emeka Ihedioha. They contested the position against the party’s official candidate Akande-Adeola and Yakubu Dogara.

Their emergence has upset the party’s zoning policy. The Speaker’s post is zoned to the Southwest. The Deputy Speaker is expected to be produced by the Northwest.

The PDP National Working Committee (NWC), after reviewing the election of officers of the House of Reps on Tuesday, declined to congratulate the new leaders.

National Secretary Abubakar Baraje said zoning is still an integral part of the PDP Constitution, adding that the party would soon “come up with an appropriate policy in the due course”.

President Jonathan on his Facebook page yesterday said he believes in separation of power and lauded the Senate and the House for peacefully electing their leaders.

But vice presidential candidate of the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) Chief John Odigie-Oyegun described Tambuwal’s emergence as “a time-bomb wanting to explode at any time”.

During the visit to clerk, Tambuwal and Ihedioha said they are not anti-Jonathan administration, but only sought change that will sustain the principle of separation of powers.

Clark yesterday asked the leadership of the PDP to settle any rift arising from the election of the House leaders and move forward.

The new House leaders reached out to Clark, following propaganda that they were sponsored by Northern leaders opposed to the President to destabilise the administration.

It was learnt that the Speaker and his deputy have initiated steps to “heal the wounds in the party which was caused by their election”.

There were indications that they might still reach out to other leaders of the party such as the President, the acting National Chairman of PDP, Dr. Mohammed Haliru Bello; the Chairman of the Board of Trustees, ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo; the PDP Governors Forum, and a former Chairman of the Board of Trustees, Chief Tony Anenih

A source, who spoke in confidence, said: “During their audience with Clark, the Speaker and his deputy explained why there is need for separation of powers.

“They said they are not rebels or anti-party leaders. They claimed that they came to Clark to clarify that they did not go out to defy the PDP’s zoning formula as their election was the wish of all the parties in the House.

“They pledged to work with the President to achieve the targets of his administration. They repeatedly assured Clark that ‘we are not out to sabotage this government.’ Instead, they said it is in the best interest of democracy to uphold the principle of separation of powers.”

It was gathered that the new House leaders might meet the President on Saturday when he returns from the United States.

“I think Clark might broker peace between the House leaders and the President and other leaders of the party who are aggrieved over the defiance of the zoning formula of the party,” the source said.

Another source added that the House leaders chose the humble part instead of being combative.

He said: “While the party is blowing hot, the new House leaders have offered olive branch to PDP leaders. I think this is a good development.”

The octogenarian Clark confirmed the visit to his Asokoro, Abuja home.

He urged the PDP leadership to embrace peace and move forward from the challenge posed by the election of Tambuwal.

He said: “The rumours that some powerful forces who are opposed to the President were behind the election of the House leaders should be discarded.

“These House leaders are still loyal members of the party; they have done nothing otherwise. The two members who contested are all members of the PDP. If one party has won, the other should accept.

“There is always a way to settle the rift for us to move forward. No one should build a mountain out of a mole hill.

“When Mr. President returns, my appeal is that these are issues that should be looked into. The issue of zoning or no zoning is not an issue. Like I told the Speaker, the idea of zoning is dead or not dead is not the point.

“We want a united country. Mr. President was voted for by all the parties except the Congress for Progressive Change. We should look at it from that angle. It is not the PDP alone that had a say in the choice of the House leaders.”

On the alienation of the Southwest from the power sharing game, Clark said: “I will appeal to the Southwest that they should not regard the choice of the Speaker from the Northwest as a slight on them. The PDP can always find a way around the challenge at hand.

“Already, the Northeast will produce the new National Chairman of the party and I am sure it will get more offices in the new cabinet.”

Odigie-Oyegun told reporters in Benin yesterday: “There is going to start now a war of attrition; there is no question about that. A lot of difficulties are going to be put in the way of the President. He is not going to have an easy task”.

He said Jonathan needs courageous advisers, who can look him in the eyes and give hard advice, adding:

“People see it as a triumph for democracry, but I don’t see it so. I just see it as a time bomb which is waiting to explode in our feet,” he said.

The former governor of Edo State urged President Jonathan to establish a court that will adjudicate on corruption, if the country must develop. He said corruption could be tackled head on if the EFCC is allowed to operate freely, adding that the war against corruption depends on the level of control the President exerts over his ministers and others.

On his Facebook page, Jonathan said: “I believe in the doctrine of Separation of Powers and I salute the Senate and the House for electing their leaders in a transparent process.

“I congratulate the Senate President, Senator David Alechenu Bonaventure Mark and the Speaker of the House, Hon. Aminu Waziri Tambuwal.

“Again, it is only by ensuring transparency in all governmental processes that we will first put in and then get the best out of Nigeria.”

^^^ you can say that again.Let the truth be told!!!!Let the victims be compensated and let the culprits be punished! Not just attacking the Person of Buhari.If the FG under GEj believes its CPC members,catch them and if its a grand plan by the Northern elite,arrest them!That is why GEJ has the suffix C-of-C.If only he knew the meaning he wouldn't want to make such comments to stoop so low!

BUHARI WON’T GIVE UP — Odumakin
From AIDOGHIE PAULINUS, Abuja
Saturday, June 04, 2011
Buhari
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The call for the arrest of former Head of State and presidential candidate of Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), General Muhammadu Buhari, has been described as irresponsible.
According to Buhari’s spokesman, Mr. Yinka Odumakin, rather than arrest Buhari, President Goodluck Jonathan and the chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Professor Athahiru Jega, should be held responsible for the mayhem that trailed the outcome of the presidential election.

He said that the ideal Nigeria is not within reach, adding that the battle towards it has just begun and “it is a strong battle for the soul of Nigeria, between those who want progress and those who want us to remain where we are.” He said that Buhari is ready for the battle.
Odumakin further said that Buhari is ready to congratulate President Jonathan if the electoral materials are thoroughly verified and the Supreme Court declares the president winner of the April, 16, 2011 presidential election.

“We have thrown the challenge. If INEC produces all the ballot papers and we check them against the thumb-prints on the ballot papers and if the court establishes, through forensic analysis, that Jonathan won free and square, we will congratulate him. In fact, we will go to the villa to congratulate him, with General Buhari leading us. But we believe seriously that the court will have a great moral burden to carry based on the evidence on ground, to say that Jonathan won that election,” he said.
He spoke on these and other things.

Some Nigerians have continued to blame General Muhammadu Buhari for the crisis that erupted in the North, following the result of the presidential election. Some are even calling for his arrest. Why should Buhari not be arrested?
The question really should be: why should he be arrested? Do you arrest a man who has not committed any offence? He has committed no offence and he has been robbed of his victory. When there were spontaneous reactions to the massive rigging that took place on April, 16, it was on the day of that incident that General Buhari went on the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), Hausa service, to speak, to appeal for calm. Go to the website and you will notice it. He said that what has taken place was a political thing and that people should not allow themselves to be used for religious, sectional war and the rest. And that was what doused the tension.
In fact, President Goodluck Jonathan, who is now crying more than the bereaved, did not speak on this matter until six days after the incident. This is the president who spoke the day the Movement for the Emancipation for the Niger Delta (MEND) claimed that they carried out the October 1, 2010, bombing in Abuja. The same day MEND claimed responsibility, he was absolving MEND, that it was not MEND that did it. Lives were lost in that incident. A family lost four children. The first thing in his next thinking was to play politics with it, just as he is trying to do now. Because Dokpesi was working for Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida (IBB) then, they said it was Dokpesi, but the moment Babangida dropped out of the race, Dokpesi became one of his campaign managers.

So, what has happened in some parts of the North was a spontaneous reaction by people who felt that Jega’s output did not answer their input. And because Nigeria is a country that is founded on the foundation of iniquity, where people don’t believe in justice, where everybody wants peace without justice, where there is so much hypocrisy, where even the highest and the mightiest can be hired for a fee to say all manner of things; they have shifted the blame on the victim rather than looking at the appropriate quarter, because it is those who are responsible for the crisis, who willfully violated the rights of the people, who are still in charge of the treasury, who are in charge of appointments, who are in charge of oil blocks, who are in charge of everything, that is why today, their opinion is to blame the victim. But the truth is unbendable; the truth cannot be changed. No matter how many people refute a lie, it is still a lie.

So, among the trio of President Goodluck Jonathan, General Buhari and the INEC chairman, Professor Attahiru Jega, who would you say was responsible for the crisis?
Basically, those who are responsible for the crisis, the bulk of the blame lies between President Jonathan and Attahiru Jega, the INEC chairman, because these are the people who colluded to rob the people of their votes and which was what sparked off the protest. If Jega had conducted a free and fair election and if Jonathan had kept to his promise not to interfere with the electoral process, I don’t think we would have witnessed what happened and this is not the first time this thing is happening in the country. We have had history in this area; five times, of such responses to the violation of the will of the people. It is not the first time and it is just that this time around, it is happening in the North.

Now, they have staged a political protest and there have been extreme reactions and many of them based on sentiments without looking at the facts that in the last 12 years, the northern part of Nigeria has witnessed serious decimation; have been ravaged by poverty that today, the first, the second and the third regions mostly hit by poverty in Nigeria, are the three regions in the North.

When the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) came to power in 1999, as we have always said, the poverty index in Nigeria was 46 per cent. The kind of money this country has made in the last 12 years, we did not make it between 1914 and 1999; yet, poverty has worsened. At a time in this country, the textile industry used to employ about 380, 000 people, but today, it is about 12,000 people. There is extreme poverty in the North and what we saw was a reaction of the poor, who have seen their elite taking advantage of them over the years, who have seen tremendous improvements in the lives of their elites; in their lives of opulence, in their wealth and they have seen the gradual decimation of their own lives.

So, General Buhari just happens to be the symbol of their hope, that oh, this man that has been petroleum minister in this country, that has been chairman of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), that has been head of state, that has been chairman of the Petroleum Trust Fund (PTF), that has done a lot of works in PTF and yet, does not own a filling station, does not have an oil block, they believe that if this kind of person comes to power, their lots will improve. So, when they realised that they were cheated, they went on rampage instantaneously.

I give you some instances to show the kind of hope that a lot of people have in the candidacy of General Buhari. There was an incident of a woman in Kaduna who queued to vote, who went into labour, gave birth to her child and came back to vote and name that child Buhari. In Daura, after Jega announced his result, a woman just came out of her house and just shouted, ‘Buhari has lost, Buhari has lost, Buhari has lost?’ She fainted and died.

Died?
Yes, in Daura. She died. So, that tells you the kind of passion that the candidacy of General Buhari generated among these forsaken, abandon, neglected, poor people who felt that well, one man who identify with them, one man they can trust is about to come to power and right the wrongs in Nigeria. That is it. Those who believe that President Jonathan won the election premised their facts on the reality that the PDP has larger spread and that most Nigerians believe in the personality of the man, Goodluck Jonathan. In your heart of heart, between General Buhari and President Goodluck Jonathan, who do you believe won that election? Based on genuine and lawful votes cast, General Buhari won that election but based on doctored results and what Professor Itse Sagey called electoral barbarism, compunction of figures was what gave Jonathan undeserved victory. Come to think of it! How on earth will the people vote massively for a party which has been in power for 12 years, that spent 16 billion dollars under Obasanjo alone without generating a megawatt?

In Obasanjo’s first four years, the PDP spent 800 million dollars on the turn-around, maintenance of refineries, but till date, no refinery is working. They are importing fuel. A litre of diesel now sells for N170. Joblessness everywhere; crimes all over the place; violence everywhere and you think people voted in favour of that? You see, what the PDP and INEC have done is that they are telling Nigerians that elections don’t prove anything and once we get to that point, where elections don’t matter, where election doesn’t prove anything, it is a step to underdevelopment.

The question of Jonathan’s popularity. What do you mean by being popular? What has he done to be popular among Nigerians? The idea has been a kind of media scheme of standing logic on its head, deodorizing and odorous substance by packaging these lies and this has spread across the Nigerian society, which shows how far-collapsed our moral words are, that even religious leaders, academics and even our renowned, people that we look up to, now begin to talk from different points of their mouths.

I have heard a man I respect so much, saying that he does not care how much Jonathan spent to become president. I have heard a man of God who was praying a particular prayer before the elections, saying Nigerians, evil men will not rule you again and when evil triumphed on April, 16, he said he saw the hand of God in it. And the question I have been asking is; now that we have seen massive evidence of multiple thumb-printing, so if they do biometric test today, you will see the finger of God in those multiple thumb-printing? Is God now a rigger?
So, there is a conspiracy of the elite in Nigeria: the political class, the business class and the religious leaders and this brings about John Campbell’s book: ‘Nigeria Dancing on the Brink,’ and in the book, he said that the highly incorruptible General Buhari is about the most popular politician in Nigeria today but for those who are benefiting from the rot in Nigeria, he is a high risk. And that is why they are all uniting against him, to spin all these lies, to begin to congratulate Jonathan, to begin to say all kinds of things; I mean, everybody is now a judge in Nigeria. If you listened to Professor Itse Sagey, he said recently that there were no elections in the South-South and in the South-East. That we were misled by the international community, the media and opinion leaders who were hailing electoral fraud as free and fair elections. Now, our party has gone to the tribunal to say well, we believe that there were no elections in the South-South and in the South-East. And the PDP that said that the election was free and fair, are now saying that well, there were six million under-age voters who voted for CPC. They just want to challenge that. So, if they said the elections were credible, it only shows that the elections were not credible and that Jega has a lot of statistics to make. If indeed, under-aged voters voted, then what did Jega do with our N87 billion? What did he spend the money on? That means Jega should face trial. He should be tried for sabotage after collecting N87 billion. Was it the CPC that registered the under-aged voters?

When he finished the presentations, he said he was going to clean-up the register. He came back with bloated figures, 11 million extra voters. So, for us to get it right, we have to start afresh with voters’ registration and conduct fresh election.

General Buhari earlier said he was not going to court. Now that the CPC is in court, are you hopeful of victory?
We have thrown the challenge. If INEC produces all the ballot papers and we check them against the thumb-prints on the ballot papers and if the court establishes, through forensic analysis, that Jonathan won free and square, we will congratulate him. In fact, we will go to the Villa to congratulate him, with General Buhari leading us, but we believe seriously that the court will have a great moral burden to carry based on the evidence on ground, to say that Jonathan won that election.

Buhari said he will not challenge the outcome of the election. Why won’t he stick to that?
Well, those who are saying that he is putting the nation into further chaos are the agents of chaos. They are people who want to sustain iniquity. They have always said that let’s move on, let’s move on. We have always been moving backward. Was he the one that drafted the Electoral Act that says that if a party feels aggrieved, it can go to court? Why have these people not been insisting that we must do it right? There is no growing nation that stands on the foundation of fraud. It is unfortunate and it is because of their selfish agenda. Most of the people who are making these calls, if you trace them, it is because of their selfish agenda. It is because they are benefiting from these rots. It is because those who are in charge of the Villa now have opened the treasury and they are doing the kind of thing they like with it. That is why people are no longer speaking the truth, speaking from all the four points of their mouths. Why must CPC accepts fraud? They should wait for the case we presented to the court and allow the court to say that there is no case. Why should they say we must not go to the court? What is the court there for?

Is the ideal Nigeria we have all be longing and praying for within reach at all?
With all these happenings, it is very far, far, far. The journey to nationhood has not started. Righteousness exalts a nation. A nation that cannot stands for righteousness, cannot make progress. And there is no amount of oil that can make us progress for as long as we cannot embrace what is right, for as long as we don’t have a critical mass of people that can stand for righteousness, that can speak the truth; that can speak truth to power, that can rise above sentiments.

And how can we arrive there?
Oh yes, it is for those who stand for righteousness, who stand for the goodness of the society not to be discouraged by the attitude and the conspiracy of the elites who will not stand for what is right, to push and not relent or allow blackmail. And that is the position of General Buhari. General Buhari has contested. This is the third time he is contesting and this is the third time they are robbing him. He has pushed on and he is not allowing himself to be defeated. We need that kind of spirit of not giving up. But it is a strong battle for the soul of Nigeria, between those who want progress and those who want us to remain where we are.

A lot of people in Nigeria today can make all sorts of flowing speeches but cannot walk the talk because deep down within them, they would rather benefit, satisfy their personal greed from the rot status quo than seeking for change that will benefit the larger society. So, it is the selfishness of the elite that is preventing us in Nigeria today from getting to the promise land and we must continue to fight that, to push that. Those of us who believe in that must not give up, must not surrender, must not acquiesce or compromise with evil. Compromise is a deadly disease that is killing Nigeria.

How prepared is General Buhari for battle?
General Buhari, if you know him very well, has never given up on any battle. In the last two elections before now, 2003 and 2007, he was in court for several months. This time round, he has said that personally, he is not going to court but that the party can go to court and he is standing by the decision of his party. He is one man that history will write in golden ink for extending the frontiers of uncompromising fight for justice, equity, truth, principles and for values in Nigeria. That even when the so-called progressives, for shorter gains, for personal greed, for what they are going to get from these rots by making all kinds of deals, he stands for what is just. He did make a statement during the campaigns that it is his love for Nigeria and her people, that he is engaged in what he is doing. Otherwise, he too, could have chosen the life of a retired General that sits on his farm, say nice words to those in power, getting oil blocks, getting contracts, being chairman of companies, but he cannot withstand the agony, the pains, the suffering of our people in the midst of plenty and that was why he wept days before the elections.

He said one thing: that he has decided to dedicate the rest of his life to fight for the good of the Nigerian people and I think that is the driving force and when you have that inner conviction, nothing can defeat you.

Link:
http://www.sunnewsonline.com/webpages/news/national/2011/june/04/national-04-06-2011-010.html

All them hating was false!!!!!
the truth shall continue to prevail.the rumor mongers should hide there faces in shame!!!!

I did not insult Buhari, says Babangida Aliyu

By Olu Jacob

June 7, 2011 12:19AM
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The governor of Niger State, Babangida Aliyu, who was reported to have called Muhammadu Buhari a bad leader, thus drawing the ire of the retired general, has denied making the statement.

Mr Aliyu, who was speaking at yesterday’s inauguration of the state lawmakers, said he had enormous respect for Mr Buhari, and the alleged insult was a figment of somebody’s imagination. He said he had never insulted the presidential candidate of the Congress for Progress Change as reported by a section of the media.

“I have a lot of respect for General Buhari as a former Nigerian leader and elder statesman; people misinterpreted my statement on him after the general election. I never insulted General Buhari,” the governor told the gathering which included the CPC chairman in the state, Umar Shuaibu, and three CPC legislators.

He accused some Nigerians of “twisting remarks” of public functionaries to satisfy their whims and caprices, and warned about the danger of such actions to the unity of the country.

Mr Aliyu had come under severe criticism from supporters of the former general after he was quoted in Jos, Plateau State, during a retreat organised for elected officials in the North Central geo political zone of the country to have said how lucky Nigerians were that Mr Buhari lost the April elections. He was allegedly making allusions to the violence that attended the polls in the north and the attendant agony.

Servants of the people

Mr Aliyu had, during yesterday’s event, admonished the new legislators not to use their powers to threaten his administration; rather, they should think of making good laws for the development of the state.

He advised them to consider themselves as servants of the people, not their masters, and remarked that it had been the cornerstone of his government this last four years. Mr Aliyu urged members to take great interest in their constituency projects and ensure that they are well executed.

Traditional rulers and prominent politicians were among the teeming supporters and relations of the elected lawmakers who attended the inauguration.

link:
http://234next.com/csp/cms/sites/Next/Home/5711351-146/story.csp

Tata, Dangote, Essar Among Bidders for the Sale of Nigeria Power Companies
By Elisha Bala-Gbogbo - Jun 6, 2011 2:27 PM GMT+0100

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Dangote Industries Ltd., Tata Group and Essar Group of India are among companies shortlisted to buy Nigeria’s state-owned power companies, the Bureau of Public Enterprises said in a statement in the Lagos-based ThisDay newspaper today.

The agency shortlisted 525 bids for the sale of 11 state- owned electricity distributions companies and six generation companies, it said on June 1.

To contact the reporter on this story: Elisha Bala-Gbogbo in Abuja at ebalagbogbo@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Gordon Bell at gbell16@bloomberg.net

I hope you guys will not sit on this for ever while boys float boat go arm offshore come back and others carry jeeps enter desert go exchange guns!
Our boarder is heavily leaking!!!!!

13volts:
talk of merit, when do we expect to see a non south south emerges as minister of Niger delta

Or a non SS get posting to the NDDC leadership

dustydee:
It is a Nigerian territory. By the way who demarcated Nigeria into North and south?where does the north stop and the south start?is there a line that shows this demarcation?

^^^Ask those division pros!!!!

fear fear!!!! c'mon Aliyu did you put your fingers in the pot?

Bombers want to incite soldiers –Mark
Wednesday, 01 June 2011 00:00 Abdul-Rahman Abubakar
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[Senate President David Mark]

Senate President David Mark
The increasing incidents of bombings especially in military barracks are aimed at inciting soldiers into rampage, Senate President David Mark said yesterday.


Speaking when Senate considered a motion on the recent blasts in the country moved by Senator Ayogu Eze (PDP, Enugu North), Mark said the bombings are orchestrated by professionals aiming to achieve a selfish motive.



According to him, “by going to do it in the barracks or the Mammy market is a way of inciting the armed forces because if they are not disciplined enough, there next reaction will be to go on rampage and I think that the motive behind this bombing is a heinous one, we should make sure we do not allow people carry it further than they have done now.

“And I think the earlier we fish out those who are involved and those that have committed it so far, the better. More importantly we must make sure that from now onward, that there is no more bomb blast in this country.”

Mark blamed the escalating bomb blasts in the country on security lapses saying, “these bombings are being done by professionals. Going to leave the bomb somewhere, timing it is not something that you can give to an amateur to do. And I think the security agencies generally must share a lot of the blame in not getting this people ahead of time or after doing it, still not being able to identify them.

“I do not believe that when they are caught they should be tried secretly. I think everybody should know who and who are involved because if it is a secret trial, then at the end of the day, nobody can say what has happened. I believe that the security agencies need to buckle up a bit.”

He said the blasts would have adverse economic implications for the country as it is bound to repel investors. “But what is even more important is that we do not want to be classified as Pakistan and Afghanistan.”

In his motion, Eze drew the attention of the Senate to the alarming security situation in the country with bomb blasts occurring on daily basis claiming innocent lives and injuring several other victims.

He said: “It seems that our security agencies have no clue as to how to stop it. It has now become the norm and nothing is being done about it, meaning that our security agencies are not ready for their jobs.”

In his contribution, Senator John Shagaya said: “The first bomb blast in Nigeria happened in 1967 and within 36 hours, the culprits where apprehended. But today, the security operatives are so relaxed, thus making it easy for the perpetrators to continue with these gruesome acts without being apprehended. This is not good for the nation.”

he National Chairman of the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) Prince Tony Mommoh has explained why his party boycotted yesterday’s meeting between President Jonathan and party leaders.
He said apart from the fact that the invitation letter did not indicate an agenda for the proposed meeting, it would amount to betrayal on the part of the CPC leadership to attend a meeting convened by President Jonathan whose election was being challenged by the party.



“If I appear before the President (Jonathan), he would certainly offer me a handshake; and if I shake hands with him our teeming supporters, including victims of arbitrary arrests and sufferings would be watching my handshake with the author of their suffering”, Mommoh said.

He said there was no way the CPC could be part of a meeting whose agenda was not expressly defined.

“The CPC is neither a parastatal nor an appendage of the federal government and the President (Jonathan) is not INEC which has the prerogative of meeting with registered political parties,” Mommoh also said.

Authorities of the Guards Brigade yesterday arrested a fake army corporal who found his way into the high-security Presidential Villa in Abuja and visited many offices as the escort of a lady. The Guards Brigade Public Relations Officer Captain Njideka Clara Ogwu said Hussain Emmanuel was arrested by soldiers on guard duty at Gate 11 of the villa trying to gain access into the main building. She said Emmanuel was in full army camouflage uniform and had an AK-47 helmet with a fake ID card when he was arrested.



The spokesman said Emmanuel was acting as an escort to one Idiye Macphil who claimed to have served as member of the House of Representatives. She said, “Emmanuel presented a fake ID card to the soldiers on guard. The ID card contained the picture and name of Emmanuel while the back side of the card contains symbols which can only be seen in a General’s ID card. He confessed to be a fake soldier during interrogation and he was arrested.”

She said Emmanuel was confident in his approach and he wore the full regalia of junior officers including belts and helmet and could be mistaken for a real soldier. He claimed to have obtained the uniforms from an army captain in Port-Harcourt “and later said his friend who is now an army corporal in Port-Harcourt gave him the uniforms but we could not independently verify his claims.”

He also said he knew Machpil since 2007 but they lost contact with each other until recently, when she sighted him at a place in Port-Harcourt. Macphil asked if he knew Abuja very well and can escort her to see a permanent secretary in the federal civil service attached to the presidency and he agreed. The name of the permanent secretary was not disclosed but Macphil told the soldiers that she was once an “honorable member” of the House of Representatives, the PRO said.

Captain Ogwu said the fake corporal and the woman have been handed over to the police for prosecution.

When contacted, the Divisional Police Officer in Asokoro, CSP Ahmed Musa said the case has been transferred to the police and investigation has commenced. Those arrested in connection with the matter will be charged after investigation, he said.

I also think we once had a yoruba man as FCT minister before he was changed due to re-shuffle.

^^^^ Thank you for noticing.Look at the list closely its more of northern elites from different party and groups regardless.PDP CPC and others!Looking at the list its a small gathering.Because the north is more than this.secondly this seems like the same NPLF faction because they dominate the meeting.Lastly what ever there stance lets see where it goes?

Not with standing it is only fair to give the Gwaris Minister .Secondly i support they also get a small state assembly.To help reach out to the locals and committees.Because an Igbo senator,sokoto or lagos house member only concern themselves more with there constituency than places like Bwari, Abaji or kwali.
They should have some representation at there state level.

Knight1:
I DISAGREE

IF YOU LOOK AT THE MAP OF NIGERIA CAREFULLY, YOU 'D NOTICE THAT IF EVER THE NEED ARISES FOR A SPLIT, SOUTHERN KADUNA, NASSARAWA, PLATEAU AND TARABA AND KOGI ARE MORE LIKELY TO END UP IN THE SOUTH ( REASON BEING THE PROMINENT POPULATION OF CHRISTIANS IN ALL THOSE STATES EXCEPT KOGI)
IF THAT HAPPENS, ABUJA WHICH IS DIRECTLY BENEATH (GEOGRAPHICALLY) SOUTHERN KADUNA AND DIVERSELY POPULATED WILL MOST LIKELY VOTE TO GO SOUTH.

BUT THAT IS NOT EVEN THE ISSUE. MY PROBLEM IS THAT THE NORTHERN DOMINATION OF THE FCTA MUST STOP. EVER GONE THERE TO GET A C of O? you'd meet several top officers who can't even speak basic english. the place is like an emirate. that is what should be tackled.

your basic understand probably confuses you!ABuja has Nasarawa,Niger,Kogi and Kaduna.So based on your division by religion you would be seriously mistaken.because a far more significant number of Muslims are in all the states you mentioned.Keffi is the next thing after nyanya and its full of Muslims,akwanga is likely next with almost an even split.Zuba if you have being to Abuja and others have greater number of Muslims.As you approach Abaji you have more Muslims in such area council.Forget the mix within FCT(considering we are not asking the southerners to leave).Because even with the polls if you choose to use it,what were the difference?Are they significant enough to say its over populated by Christians.
Please wake up.This place you name and try to claim as christian areas are not true.In most cases the Muslim numbers exceed.except for Benue,plateau and likely Taraba.Adamawa is also another question.If you say ethnic minorities i would say okay.but if you divide by religion the state will be evenly or slight split.Even plateau would lose chucks based on religion.Kanam,wase,Bassa,gindiriJos north etc I can assure you that if religion is used barely half of the North central will go south.
Possibly a little understanding and agreement of relations between them and the far north could again restore confidence and unity.Because connections and cultural exchange has brought more closer than anything.
As a whole the so called middle belt if any by definition,Would not be able to curve out base on religion except ethnic minorities.So stop fooling yourselves and using religion as the demarcating factor.
lastly the states won by PDP may not necessary support a southern amalgamation.That would be different from bribing some high level politicians and same political Party dominated states to choose there own. Such that it will be okay for a PDP member to vote against CPC not minding religion and ethnicity. Atleast people like the FCT minister and Isa yuguda would vote PDP-GEJ than CPC Buhari.but when the split comes.there is no place like home.Elcetions are mere politics and party lobbying.
Stop the false assumptions.Before you cause more havoc!

yes oooo! because Nigerians once they embrace something bad they hardly let go!Its our collective attitude.
example armed robbery,419,e-scams,bunkering,kidnapping,militancy,corruption,human trafficking,ethno-religious crisis,lack of patrotism,bribery,corruption,inflation etc
anyone we start we just keep getting worst.Now bombing!!!!

My honest opinion,where did this media house get this information and if true two reasons are included.Some points raised if true shows lack of equitable representation.
I also do believe same questions have being raised by Christians,Muslims,minority,tribes and all that.so If they note such lack of fairness maybe they should see the president and inquire or better still insist on fairness than secret plots.If its secret any more!

My final conclusion maybe we should just sit and have a real SNC and afterwards continue Or consider a peaceful split!!!Since we are reaching climax on domination and everyone feels in-secured when dominated by the another.

Before people begin to have regional independence.I know GEJ rarely has serious control in large areas of the north compared to some figure there who are mostly rogue to his government.In the south west same because of the ACN influence!Mr president must ensure that he is firm control,because i still feel he is not.Not by brute force or intimidation or smear campaigns but real dialogue and systematic luring of opponents.

GEJ first meeting with opposition parties is good move.But he should be mindful its not the easy ones that are under your control, you should be happy to win but does rebellious types.So GEJ priority more than ever for you is national integration(unity),security,electricity,infrastructure,justice(corruption and all that ),education and employment.
I didn't vote for you but i pray for you everyday.You are my president and wishing well is wishing us all well (insha Allah).May Allah Grant you the wisdom to rule with sincerity,justice and responsibility to the needs of your peoples. Amin

This was wriiten since 2005 !!!! when shall we change!!!

culled from GUARDIAN, March 6, 2005

Now that the National Political Reform Conference has convened, one would wish to believe that the conferees are aware of the enormous burden of their responsibility. Their responsibility is to reinvent and reconstruct Nigeria. In other words to forge the unity and integration of Nigeria. Unity connotes a social and political process. Integration is organic; anthromorphic. Notionally at least, you have to morph the people together. Integration is deeper, and can be the basis of unity. Nigeria needs both. But we should aim at full integration. Unity will automatically follow.

All this is familiar enough, but it is the one thing that has eluded us all of the 45 years of our Independence. It will elude us for the next 45 years, as already the gear of this novel Conference on which much hope is placed is in a confrontational mode. The confrontation will intensify, as the "jaw-jaw" keeps on intensifying as the Conference progresses. It would not need a Professor of Political Science to conjecture that the outcome of this process is catastrophic, if it is allowed to continue.

And it will continue. There is no way of stopping it. One would hope for a reprieve in the parallel Conferences being proposed. But the outcome of these Conferences will be stillborn, just as the famous Bala Usman and Segun Osoba Minority Report of the late 1970s had been stillborn, even as it was indeed part of an officially sanctioned Conference proceedings. No single day passed we had not yearned for unity and integration of our dear country Nigeria. We had not attained it.

Not that we had not tried. But we had not succeeded. The unremitting effort, curiously began with the breaking up of Nigeria into pieces to weather domination. First, the three regions inherited from colonialism, the North, West and East in which the North preponderantly dominated the two (later four) other regions, was broken up into six, with another six in the south, making twelve in 1967; going to 19 in 1976, 21 in 1987, 30 in 1991 and 36 in 1996; plus the Federal Capital Territory of Abuja, which brings to 37, the total number of units enjoying same status in all respects, especially allocation of federal resources.

We had inaugurated a National Youth Service Corps Scheme in which our youths spend the first year of their life after graduating, giving free service in state outside state of their birth. We have moved the Capital base of our Federation from Lagos in the Southwest corner of the country to the centre of the country, to Abuja, so that all Nigerians will be near enough to it, and will have a sense of belonging. Free movement of people; freedom of self-expression and freedom of possession is guaranteed to every Nigerian wherever he chooses to stay. All the ingredients of unity and integration of our country are there on the ground. But we failed to unite and integrate.

There is no better attestation to this fact than the convening of this Conference, the National Political Reform Conference. Disunity and disintegration, instead of unity and integration is the phobia on everybody's mind. Therefore the problem of unity and integration of our country must now be tackled forcefully, scientifically and permanently. I do not believe this Conference is capable of, or prepared to do this. It is not because the conferees lack the skill, the competence or the knowledge to do this. If anything, by age and collective experience, one must grant them that. One's only fear is that it is very difficult to undo what you have yourself done - just as it is very difficult for most people to apologise! Most of the conferees belong to the class who were running the country and they cannot absolve themselves now that they had run the country aground.

But more seriously, my main fear is that the right perspectives and means are not given to the conferees. If you say their responsibility is to reinvent and reconstruct Nigeria, then it is obvious that you cannot use the same tools and moulds which destroyed Nigeria, to reinvent and reconstruct Nigeria! For instance, the road map given the conferees accepts Nigerian Federalism as sacrosanct, irrevocable, irreducible. Given our history and circumstances today, I will grant that. But we Nigerians must be patriotic and forward looking enough to believe that a federation can morph into a unitary system if the right orientation exists, right facilitations are provided, and the right framework is established and supported.

The framework now provided the Conference is unequivocably federalist. The geo-political framework offered are also the State and Local Government areas. This may also had to be. But within these frameworks the elements that constitute governance can either be dynamic or static. The geo-political elements are obviously static not quite so the process of governance. A combination of dynamic elements can be applied and manipulated to not only produce a stable federation, but also create a possibility of transition to unitarism. If you take the two yearned for objectives of the polity, unity and integration, integration has more positive and dynamic capability. In social situations both assume interactive activity. In the case of integration, a sort of morphing in computer language, takes place, actually known as anthromorphing. In anthropological language, integration suggests that various peoples of Nigeria, in pursuing their daily lives, are actually interpenetrating into each other (morphing) in the course of which a new Nigerian is being born.

Of course, in practical terms we know that this is not what is happening. What is happening is, no matter how Nigerians penetrate into each other's territory they try to maintain their separate identities. Sabo, the Hausa quarters in Ibadan and Hausari quarters in Maiduguri indicate to us that in both, and all such cases, the Hausa immigrants had succeeded in maintaining their Hausa identity. But the social anthropologists who studied such cases have shown to us that this is not due to the immutability of the people, the Hausa immigrants in this case, but due to the circumstances of their existence. At the initial stage they were and indeed seen by their host communities as aliens.

As agents in the long distance trade that linked their home base and their home of business, they need to maintain their goodwill with their home base, but also to devise means of protecting themselves where they are living. To preserve themselves and their identity clinging to each other is the most obvious way open to them, as then and up to now, government has no policy of protecting aliens in host communities. If we want seriously to promote unity and integration in Nigeria, these are the issues we must address sincerely, adequately and methodically. The mechanics of doing this must obtain adequate _expression in our Constitution, so that they are not left to the whims and caprices of men of power.

But the business of reinventing and reconstructing Nigeria goes far beyond solving in-migration problems. Accepting integration as a morphing process, we now have to reconstruct our Constitution to place integration as its central purpose and main business of governance. We must start with the in-migrants. If circumstances had enabled them to be integrated (i.e., morphed with their host communities) there would have been no question of indigene/settler problem, as it had happened on the Plateau with disastrous consequences, after the settlers having had lived and interacted with their host community for over 100 years. Indeed, as the Hausa migrants themselves would say, they only mingled; they did not mix (zaman wake da shinkafa) like rice and beans.

All over Nigeria, that is the pattern. There is no need to be so. It is so because government had not seen it fit to place on ground rules and regulations, including incentives, rewards and punishments that would make the integration of our people a reality, wherever they are staying, and with whomever they are staying. Even the National Youth Service Corps Scheme, which was specifically designed to foster the desired integration has woefully failed after more than 30 years of its existence. It is now pitching itself towards a more serious disaster as the more serious states are said to be potching on the qualified professionals from other states like doctors and quantity surveyors into their services, while these other states are sinking deeper into the morass of underdevelopment, just for the lack of same.

All these antithetical occurences will stop, or at least be minimised, if we put the pendulum at the right point between six or seven constitutional and developmental strategies, which we had hitherto ignored or wrongly applied, with the disastrous consequences of disunity and lack integration, which we are reaping now.

Our constitutional and developmental strategic choices lie between the following pair of concepts, among which we have to make the right choice, or get the right mix:
1. Centre - State relations (power sharing)
2. Region (State) - Nation (patriotism)
3. Ethnicity - "Nigerianity" (loyalty)
4. Settler - Indigene (Citizenship rights)
5. Efficiency - Representativeness (Federal Character)
6. Home Development - National Development (Residentiality)
7. Religion-Secularism (freedom of worship)
All these contentions, which are real and dangerous, can be solved by taking some hard decisions, which I also consider must decisions. First of all, we must recognise the impact of whatever criteria we pick for our constitutional and national development needs. So far, since our Independence we have overwhelmingly depended on the geo-political criterion for attaining unity and integration, or solving consequential problems arising therefrom. Look at the unending fissiparations that had gone on in the name of allaying fears of domination by this or that, or attaining even development by "bringing Government closer to the people". Today, even if we want to break up, we don't know with whom to break-up!
And the fission has not ended; and will never end, as long as each fission always creates new estates for new landlords! The geo-political orientation stays, and cannot be discarded, if only because only within the institutional framework of geographical space - States, Local Government Areas; etc, people live and development takes place. But it must be doused with socio-economic criteria, because development is for people; not for mountains, hills and dales. In any case, if you hold the geo-political criteria - States, Local Government Areas as supermost, you would always get those who will find it easier to manipulate them than human aggregations. The geo-political units must remain mere administrative units.
We may then retain the geo-political criterion for what it is worth, but must turn our dependence to the socio-economic criteria - people and their health and wealth. We must push our revenue sharing formula to support people even as the geo-political units remain as the theatres of operation. In this regard, one of the most important, urgent and intractable problem we must solve is that hideous settler - indigene confrontation. Also in this regard, the constant refrain by governmental leaders telling us that a Nigerian is free to live anywhere he likes, earn wealth, build properties, is only good as rhetoric. The Constitution itself had given it validity. But it is the one problem that had deepened our disunity.

It created the problem of dual-indigeneity, which people seem to enjoy and operate, much to the annoyance and inevitable resistance of the host communities. Our Constitution therefore must be amended to give single indigeneity of anywhere a Nigerian chooses to stay, giving him indigeneity rights only in the state where he is staying. Hence, only his State of residence where he is living and earning is his State of origin. This must be made justiciable, and my long-lost friend, Chairman of the National Population Commission Sunday D. Makama must be made to recast his Census Registration Form, to effectively reflect this innovation. For the avoidance of doubt, what is meant here is that the State of origin concept must be abrogated and frozen immediately, and everybody automatically becomes the indigene of the State he is now staying and earning his livelihood. No more to-ing and fro-ing between the two poles; no more ferrying of personal goods between the two poles; no more marriage between "home-boy" and "home-girl", as deliberate policy of rooting oneself in his so-called "State of Origin". Loyalty must be to where you are staying and prospering; not to where you belong by birth.

The National Youth Service Corps Scheme, which had failed to serve its purpose because of lacking such a focus must now be reoriented, and State Governments must retain at least 10% of those serving in their respective State every year; to remain in the State of their service, not just at the mercy of fate but mandatorily absorbed into the State Civil Service and given all the protection and inducement that could make them accept the indigeneity of the state of their service, in replacement of that of their so-called State of origin. Federal Civil Servants, other than the men of the armed and security services, can be given the option of permanently staying in the station of final service, or return to the State of their origin. Members of the armed and other security services can also be given this option.

All these are necessary because if we say "unity" and "integration", it is not geographic spaces that unite and integrate. It is people that unite and integrate. Ibadan will not come and integrate with Kano. Lagos will never come and integrate with Gwoza, though substantial Hausas and Gwozas are living in both towns and are making a good life of it. So, if you do not force or induce them, they will never integrate. Man being what he is, selfish and greedy, he will always exploit both situations to his maximum benefit. And we will remain disunited and un-integrated for the next forty-five (45) years. The freedoms enshrined in our Constitution are worthy, but for the moment are they not at the expense of our unity and integration? This is also another hard but must choice we have to make. We have to transfer our loyalty to our adopted State from the State of birth. To facilitate this State, Local Government Area and township must be enabled to develop its local resources and attract in-migrants as social integration index will also attract Federal Allocation. Cynics will say this is crazy and childish. But the sane and matured one we are using had not worked; and will never work!
What remains is now to provide the facilitations that will be used to make this proposal work. Since every Nigerian will now be an indigene of where he is staying and not where he was born, there will be no animosity over which part of Nigeria is getting development attention. All parts of Nigeria will, and must get equal attention. That is what we call even development; even development measured in human term. The question is how do we get this "even development".

Well, the Federal Government must take the most preponderant responsibility for it. All States must contribute to a national blue print. To effect this and to ensure implementation, the State Governors; not Ministers, will form the Executive Council of the Federation. For day-to-day policy implementation and supervision, what now passes as Federal Executive Council can be retained as Secretaries of their respective Ministries.

Funding is assured by the provision of Section 162 sub.2 of the Constitution but the Federation share can even be increased as the centre will now assume responsibility for even development, the formulation and implementation of which the President and the State Governors sit together on one-among equals basis. This is not abrogating Federalism because State Governors will still retain responsibility for the management of their States.

This may also be seen as a crazy and unworkable proposal. But it does not seem crazier than the present situation where never more than 50% of the Federal Budget ever gets implemented even as the President puts federal money and development where he wants. This proposal will also douse the "resource control" fire that keeps on raging, and the danger of federating geo-political units, which are always contending with each other for "fair share" of the "Federal Cake", which at the end of the day, never seems to be fair to any of the States.

As responsibility for even development is now squarely placed on the shoulders of the Federal Government (the centre), jointly formulated for implementation with the State Governments and Local Governments, all provisions of the existing Revenue Allocation Formula may stay. Additional socio-economic indices such as literacy rate, population, poverty rate, social integration rate, and United Nations Human Development indices rate, must be included to enhance the principle of even development at the socio-economic level, and to centre people, rather than regions, as focus of consideration. The Constitution should be amended as, and where should be so that the heat can be taken out of the present geo-political confrontations, which solved no problem, but kept on raging ever since the break up of the former regions in 1967 to allay the fear of "Northern Dominion"! Now, the 'monolithic North" is no more, but the demand for more States, Local Governments, etc keep on coming, which means our long-standing approaches never solved any problems, and we must try other ones, no matter how hard and crazy they are!
The conferees to this National Political Reform Conference should not shy away from this responsibility of theirs. This time, we must get it right.