₦airaland Forum

Buhari that u know hates nonsense and this is from some1 whose name is synonymous with IPOB, imagine; naijascam.
U even claim to understand Buhari's body language. Ok ooo
Continue...

Naijanascam:
The Bubu I know hate nonsense but have no other option...... his body language says it all

Nobel laureate Prof Wole Soyinka has condemned what he called sustained contempt of the judiciary by security agencies and political office holders. He said it is an aberration in a democratic setting for people to disobey orders of the court. It is the surest way to anarchy, the literary icon said.

The playwright, who cited no specific instance, said only criminals  would flout court orders in a democratic society. He made a reference to Ekiti State Governor Ayodele Fayose, who the literary giant described as a “thug”.

Soyinka made the remarks in a  keynote address titled: A taskmaster named curiosity at the 10th Wole Soyinka Award for Investigative Reporting, where media practitioners from print, online and electronic platforms were rewarded for their investigative works. The event was held on Wednesday at MUSON Centre, Onikan, Lagos Island.

The literary giant also called for an end to unlawful detention, which he described as unacceptable in a democracy. He said no matter the offence an individual may have committed, security agencies must respect the order of the court once the accused has been granted bail.

Soyinka said: “If a court grants an individual bail, I don’t care what crime the individual is accused of. There are many avenues for security agencies to pursue their quest without flouting the orders of the court. It is wrong, and we dare not continue to keep silent when one of us – a citizen of this nation, whether militarised or civilianised – is granted bail by the court and some excuse is given for flouting the order of the court.



“Those who do that (flout court orders) are behaving exactly like Fayose, that thug in Ekiti, who went to court, beating the judges, tore their clothes and got away with it. I see no difference between Fayose and any police agency or person that flouts court orders or treating court in contempt.

“That is the only arbitration avenue that belongs to all of us. We have a duty to protect the court and we must put an end to this contempt of the orders of the court by any government.”

The playwright said there were alternative avenues, which security agencies could explore to make accused persons accountable for their sins without flouting court orders.

He also condemned what he described as daily assaults on civilian population by soldiers, observing that human rights abuse has continued to mar the nation’s democratic system.

According to him,  every reasonable person should be concerned about the ceaseless assaults on civilians by military personnel, calling for a halt to  human rights abuses by security agencies.

He called for an to abuse of defenseless civilians, accusing soldiers are behaving like Boko Haram in dealing with civilians. Noting that people had suffered enough during the dark days of military rule, Soyinka challenged President Muhammadu Buhari to check the excesses of soldiers.

He described the unending human rights abuses being perpetrated by the military as internal warfare on the people.

His words: “I am challenging President Buhari to put an end to this internal warfare, which for some reasons or the other, has been declared by the military against the populace. If you want us to go out, the populace must be moblised against the military through any means to make them understand they are fighting a war; a war has been declared against us – the humanity.

“I don’t consider the military as an enemy, but the military has some rotten eggs, some killers, some insensitive individuals. I think after these years of military rules, there should be a permanent terminus to military assaults on the populace. We want this ended and we want the results on time.”

The Nobel laureate said it was regrettable that no soldier had been punished for assaults on civilians, noting that recommendations of commissions of inquiry set up by government to probe series of military abuse of citizen’s rights were usually not made public.

Soyinka said any soldier, who committed infraction against civilians must be punished by court, dismissing military’s internal penance method.

Speaking on mass failure in School Leaving Certificate Examinations, the professor of Literature said pupils should not be blamed for the mass failure. Teachers, he said, should be blamed for the problem, saying the pupils only wrote what they were taught by their instructors. He made an appeal to the media to write on the quality of education being taught in schools.

He said: “When our students take common examination with other countries and they fail in English, you blame them. But, when the teachers don’t even know what is correct, and the editors don’t even know what is right, and the journalists don’t know what is correct, and even former Heads of State don’t know what is correct…you blame the children for their failure in a particular subject.

“We are not talking about English now; we are talking about use of language. If you are going to use a language, even if it is a sign language, you have to use it correctly so that you don’t communicate wrongly. There are consequences. International examiners are not going to say, ‘that is Nigerian English’. They are not Nigerians and all they understand is English.

“When you teach school children that ‘severally’ means ‘several times’, you are talking nonsense. Please, tell our teachers, don’t teach children nonsense. I have said it, you can’t call an individual severally; it is several times. Could you please assist me, so that my blood pressure can go down completely. I am begging you.”

The writer, who described investigative journalism as a dangerous brand of the media profession, said there was no other time the nation needed that brand of journalism than now. He commended the awardees for suppressing frustrations to exhume truth in diverse areas of human activities.

Source: http://thenationonlineng.net/soyinka-disobeying-court-orders-is-invitation-to-anarchy/

Against the backdrop of the growing interest by state governments to build new airports despite not being economically viable, the National Bureau of Statics (NBS) has revealed that about seven international airports in Nigeria have recorded no passengers at all in the first quarter of 2014 while Lagos and Abuja airports recorded highest.
The airports with zero patronage include International airports in Calabar, Ilorin, Kaduna, Sokoto, Maiduguri, Minna and Katsina.
However, a total of 3,416,977 passengers travelled using Nigerian airports in the first quarter of 2014. Out of this number, 2,352,224 or 68.84 per cent of them travelled locally, whereas 1,064,753 or 31.16 per cent travelled overseas.
Murtala Mohammed Airport, Lagos, was rated the busiest airport in the country with 1,683,375 passengers or 49.27 per cent followed by Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja, with 907,989 passengers, or 26.57 per cent.
According to the NBS report, this was very similar to the share of 68.81 per cent observed for domestic passenger traffic on average in 2013.
“The above ranking is observed for both domestic and foreign bound passengers too. For domestic flights, Murtala Muhammed Airport had 898,896 passengers or 38.21 per cent of the total and Abuja had 701,249 passengers or 29.81 per cent of the total. Port Harcourt had a significant number of 274,186 passengers or 11.66 per cent of all passenger traffic, while Owerri Airport in Imo State had 75,356 passengers or 3.20 per cent of the total.
International passenger traffic is even more dominated by Lagos, with 784,479 passengers or 73.68 per cent of all overseas bound passengers passing through this airport. Abuja still ranks second, although with a lesser number of 205,740 passengers or 19.42 per cent of the total. Only Kano and Port Harcourt international airports had portions of the total of over 1 per cent, with 37,261 passengers or 3.50 per cent of the total flying through Kano and Port Harcourt,” the report said.

Source:
http://sunnewsonline.com/new/?p=87651

Among the jet-setting group of the world’s top-flight business moguls, Nigeria does have its share of nationals who have spread the tentacles of their business acumen to ensure that their names will go down as CEOs of international companies and business concerns.

LEADERSHIP Friday brings you a list of a few of them.

Aliko Dangote

What better way to start this list than with Alhaji Aliko Dangote, the quintessential businessman who has seen it all in the world of business. The Kano-born businessman is sparing nothing to expand his empire, going by how he continues to venture into new areas of business. Over the years, Dangote has become a force to be reckoned with in the industrial, manufacturing and production sectors. Name any sector of business, Alhaji Aliko Dangote is there, swimming with the big fish in the waters of commerce.

His success is not limited to his business concerns in Nigeria alone, but extends far and wide to other African and to European countries. Expectedly, the success of Dangote’s companies has translated to great wealth for the unassuming business mogul, as it is on record that he is the first Nigerian to make it on to the Forbes list of billionaires and to also be adjudged the richest man in Africa long before any business magnate in Nigeria ever dreamt of making the list.

Jelani Aliyu

Jelani Aliyu is from Sokoto State and is General Motors lead exterior designer and the designer of the Chevy Volt. General Motors is the world’s largest automobile maker. The car has been described as an American Revolution and one of the hottest concepts in the design line.

Aliyu was born in 1966 in Kaduna, the fifth of seven children. He had tremendous encouragement and mentoring from his family and friends and his creative art developed. He drew a lot, designed his own cars and even built scale models of them, complete with exteriors and interiors. He got admission into the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria to study Architecture, but soon discovered the curriculum did not support his future vision and plans. He wanted an institution that would give him the best foundation required to study Automobile Design abroad, so he went to Birnin Kebbi Polytechnic. He was there from 1986 to 1988 and earned an associate degree in Architecture, with an award as Best All-round Student. In 1990, Aliyu moved to Detroit, Michigan to enrol at the College for Creative Studies in Detroit on a Sokoto Scholarship Board sponsorship.

With his brilliant work on the design of the Chevrolet Volt, which was unveiled in 2007, Jelani Aliyu is considered by many to be the superstar of the General Motors renaissance.

Kase Lukman Lawal

Born June 30 1954, Kase Lukman Lawal is a Nigerian-born businessman who lives and works in the United States. Lawal was born in Ibadan. He obtained his Bachelor of Science degree in Chemistry from Texas Southern University in 1976 and an MBA from Prairie View A&M University, Texas in 1978. He is the chairman and chief executive officer (CEO) of CAMAC International Corporation, chairman and CEO of CAMAC Energy Inc and chairman of Allied Energy Corporation in Houston, Texas. He is also the chairman/CEO, CAMAC Holdings and vice chairman, Port of Houston Authority Commission. He serves as a member of the board of directors and is a significant shareholder in Unity National Bank, the only federally insured and licensed African-American-owned bank in Texas. Lawal was a member of the National Republican Congressional Committee’s Business Advisory Council and in 1994, he was a finalist for the United States Business Entrepreneur of the Year award. Lawal is a member of Phi Beta Sigma fraternity.

Jason Njoku

When Forbes published a list of 10 young African millionaires to watch, Nigeria’s very own Jason Njoku of Iroko TV made the cut. According to Forbes, there’s no money like young money.

There are a handful of young Africans in their 20s and 30s who have built businesses and amassed enviable million-dollar fortunes. Call them million-dollar babies if you like. While some are corporate animals, others are empire builders, like maverick Nigerian Internet entrepreneur Jason Njoku, the 33-year-old founder and CEO of Iroko TV, the world’s largest digital distributor of African movies.

Ladi Delano

Ladi Delano, aged 32, is the founder and CEO of Bakrie Delano Africa. The jet-setting Nigerian serial entrepreneur made his first millions as a liquor entrepreneur while living in China. He also made Forbes list of 10 African young millionaires to look out for. In 2004, at age 22, he founded Solidarnosc Asia, a Chinese alcoholic beverage company that made Solid XS, a premium brand of vodka. Solid XS went on to achieve over 50% market share in China and was distributed across over 30 cities in China and pulled in $20million in annual revenue. Delano subsequently sold the company to a rival liquor company for over $15million and ploughed his funds into his next venture – the Delano Reid Group, a real estate investment holding company focused on mainland China.

Today, Delano is the co-founder and CEO of Bakrie Delano Africa (BDA), a $1billion joint venture with the $15billion (market cap) Bakrie Group of Indonesia.

Antonio Oladeinde Fernandez

When it comes to impressive and exuberant displays of the splendour of wealth, Fernandez dusts them all by miles. The name ‘Fernandez’ is Portuguese in origin and shows that he is of the popular Fernandez family of Lagos. Historical accounts show that the Fernandez family were originally descendants of freed slaves from Brazil, where Portuguese is the official language. Some of the first modern-styled buildings in Lagos were built by the family and these buildings are known for their spectacular Brazilian architecture.

Antonio Oladeinde Fernandez is the perfect combination of a diplomat and a businessman. Even though he is Nigerian, he was appointed the permanent representative of Central African Republic (CAR) at the United Nations in 1997. Fernandez is said to have interests in CAR’s oil industry. At a time, he was the deputy minister of foreign affairs of the Central African Republic.

Source:
http://leadership.ng/news/388037/nigerian-ceos-international-companies

These are his last days in office as Gov­ernor of Ekiti State. And for many in his shoes, such days would have been a time to dawdle in the brand new, state-of-the-art Government House on the hilltop, eating, drinking and indulging in vain revelry.
But not the outgoing Governor of Ekiti State, Dr. John Kayode Fayemi. Since September 22, the governor has embarked on a Thank You Tour of the state during which he has been commissioning some of the legacy projects that his administration has bequeathed to the state in the past four years.
Dr. Fayemi, who was sworn in as governor on October 16, 2010, would be completing his tenure on Wednesday, October 15. The new governor, Mr. Peter Ayodele Fayose, a former governor of the state, would be sworn-in on Thursday, October 16.
No fewer than 65 local government projects are billed for commissioning during the governor’s last days in office. The projects include roads, school buildings, neighbourhood markets, libraries, community viewing centres, town halls and dispensaries, many of which were commissioned between September 22 and October 4 by the governor in the course of his thank you tour to the communities. Ten of the 18 renovated general hospitals which have been completely rehabilitated were commissioned in Ifaki-Ekiti, Ijero-Ekiti, Okemesi-Ekiti, Otun- Ekiti, Ikole- Ekiti, Ijesa-Isu-Ekiti, Ikere-Ekiti, Ijan-Ekiti and Iyin-Ekiti.
Some of the legacy projects being commissioned by Fayemi include the new hilltop Government House, christened Ayoba Villa; the 12,000-capacity Ekiti Parapo Square (the State Pavilion), the Oba Adejugbe Hospital, the Ire Burnt Bricks factory in Ire- Ekiti, the Administrative Block of the School of Nursing, Ekiti State University Teaching Hospital, the ultra modern Pharmacology/ Biochemistry building of the Medical School, (EKSU), and the College of Technical and Commercial Agriculture, as well as the pilot irrigation project sponsored by the three serving senators in the state, among others.
The state was thrown into excitement on Wednesday, October 1, when the newly built State Pavilion, which is comparable to the Eagles Square in Abuja, was commissioned by former Head of State, General Muhammadu Buhari. Named Ekiti Parapo Square, the pavilion is a 12, 000-seater arena, and it is designed to hold all manners of events ranging from school parades on May 29, May 27 and October 1), conventions, conferences, religious crusades and political campaigns.
While speaking during the commissioning, Buhari praised Fayemi and urged Nigerians to reject the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the general elections next year.
On Monday, October 6, Former Vice President, Abubakar Atiku commissioned the Oba Adejugbe Hospital, a 300-bed medical centre in Ado-Ekiti. The hospital, named after the Ewi of Ado-Ekiti, was conceived and built as a replacement for the Ado-Ekiti General Hospital that was upgraded to a university teaching hospital.
Extolling Fayemi’s sterling accomplishments, Atiku said the governor’s feat was an indication that the federal government needs to cede some of its powers and responsibilities to the states in order for state governments to perform optimally.
“I think Fayemi’s performance is extraordinary. Early this year, I was here and when I came here, this very edifice was not available and driving round the city is also amazing because there are quite a number of infrastructural facilities that have come up. So I think it is an extraordinary performance,” Atiku said.
On Tuesday, October 7, Chairman of the Governors’ Forum and Governor of River State, Mr. Rotimi Amaechi was on hand to perform the commissioning of the ultra modern Pharmacology/Biochemistry Building of the Medical School in Ekiti State University (EKSU) and other projects in the school, including a two-kilometre road.
Amaechi also commended Fayemi and the management of EKSU for their prudent management of resources that, he noted, resulted in the infrastructural and intellectual development of the university.
Former Head of State, Gen Abubakar Abdusalami (Rtd), was also in Ado-Ekiti, the Ekiti State capital on Wednesday, October 8 to commission projects.
At the Ekiti State University Teaching Hospital (EKSUTH), General Abdusalami commissioned the Works Department building, the Outpatient Department complex and the Hospital Library. He also commissioned the administrative block of the School of Nursing as well as the Erinjiyan Water Treatment Plant at Erinjiyan Ekiti.
Explaining his performance in the health sector, Governor Fayemi said the huge investment of his government in the health sector was targeted at banishing poverty among the rank and file of the Ekiti populace. “I have always believed in the age long axiom that health is wealth,” he explained.
Fayemi added that he decided to initiate the social security for the elderly as a back up to the free health mission where over 500,000 people had benefited. He added that he had also sponsored a good number of the vulnerable groups and those with complicated health situations abroad for robust medical treatment, particularly kidney transplant and other organic ailments. He urged the incoming government to consolidate on this lofty feat in the interest of all.
The following day, Kano State Governor, Dr. Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, was in Ekiti where he commissioned the Ire Burnt Bricks factory in Ire-Ekiti. The factory, it was gathered, had been moribund for 23 years before it was resuscitated by Fayemi’s administration. It was gathered that the company now employs about 1, 000 workers. Kwankwaso, who also commissioned the Ero Irrigation Scheme at Ikosun Ekiti, was quite excited at the resuscitation of the Ire Burnt Bricks factory. He promised that he would also resuscitate the Kano Bricks Factory in his native state.
Said he: “When I was coming here, I told the governor that I have a similar factory in Kano. If he had mentioned that to me, certainly I would have done something about that factory. I want to tap from you and implement same in Kano. When I go back, I will see what I can do to bring back my bricks industry as it has been done here.”
Also on Thursday, October 9, Lagos Governor, Mr. Babatunde Fashola did the public presentation of the Gazetted Laws of Ekiti. The Lagos governor caused some stir as his helicopter landed at the helipad of the new Government House atop the Ayoba Hills. He commended Fayemi for doing a yeoman’s job in the state.
While stressing the need for the independence of the Nigerian judiciary, Fashola noted that the independence of the judiciary would enable the ordinary citizens access to justice in Nigeria.
The Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) averred that only leaders who care about the people would invest in laws just as the Fayemi-led administration has done. In his words, when there is no law, illegality and disorderliness will thrive.
At the commissioning of yet another social security scheme of the Fayemi administration, the YESSO programme, World Bank representative, Prof. Foluso Okunmadewa praised the governor for pursuing programmes that are aimed at transforming the lives of the people. Okunmadewa explained that the YESSO programme was a welfarist intervention programme of the World Bank aimed at reducing poverty by permitting the poor people to access increased opportunities for youth employment and social service delivery.
The World Bank representative disclosed that $50 million had been approved for Ekiti to undertake a water project, affirming that the state represents the World Bank model of development partnership.
Also speaking at the occasion, Dr Fayemi said the Civil Service Transformation Strategy Policy was conceived by his administration with a view to repositioning the State Public Service in line with international best practices.
Fayemi said: “We thank God that we can now look back at our efforts with pride, knowing that our good efforts in the development of the state have not been in vain. I am particularly glad that as this administration is transiting out, we are bequeathing among other legacies, a virile, professional and dynamic civil service that would serve as the main driver of sustainable development to the new administration.”
On Sunday, October 12, the new Governor’s Lodge, Ayoba Villa was billed to be commissioned by Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Aminu Tambuwal and world-acclaimed writer and Africa’s first Nobel Laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka.
On Tuesday, October 14, the Samsung Engineering Academy, designed as a training centre for technicians on ICT, is billed for commissioning by former Chairman of All Progressives Congress (APC), Chief Bisi Akande. The College of Technical and Commercial Agriculture, Isan-Ekiti would be commissioned on Tuesday by Lt. Gen Alani Akinrinade who is also billed to commission the Fountain Food Processing Company the following day.
It was gathered that some agric projects, including a rice processing plant, cassava processing plant, oil processing plant and poultry processing plant, were commissioned by the deputy governor, Professor Modupe Adelabu.
Chief Press Secretary to the governor, Mr. Olayinka Oyebode said the Civic Centre that was initiated by the Fayemi administration could not be completed. “But since it has been named after the late deputy governor, Mrs. Adunni Olayinka, her burst will be unveiled,” he said.
The Ifaki-Iworoko-Ado dual carriageway, which was initiated by the Segun Oni administration and completed by the Fayemi administration, will be the last project to be commissioned on Wednesday, October 15. It will be commissioned by the former governor of the state, Chief Segun Oni before Dr. Fayemi bids farewell to the Government House in Ekiti.

This being the excerpts of Gov. Fashola's Oct. 1, 2014 independence speech.

The Spirit of Lagos is the embodiment of all things good about Lagos and Nigeria, and the lifeline that connects our glorious past with the bright future we all desire.
Having the Spirit of Lagos means having the understanding that we all have a part to play in the wellbeing of our country, by doing the right thing in every and any little way we can.
For example: by disposing of waste properly and observing basic rules of sanitation and hygiene, by obeying traffic rules and using pedestrian bridges, by offering a helping hand to the elderly, the young and the less able, by being honest and acting with integrity, by being safety and security conscious, by protecting public property because it is your own property, by being courageous and law-abiding, and setting good examples and by being considerate and looking out for one another - one for all and all for one.
That is the spirit of Lagos.
These were some of the values that coursed through our veins in Lagos and by extension, Nigeria, in what we commonly refer to as "the good old days".
Nigeria of those "good old days" has not changed. It is us who have changed, and it is us who must again change.
Some of the changes that we need has already started happening. And this is why one of the things I would like to do today is to publicly acknowledge the heroic efforts of our health workers in the management of the Ebola epidemic.
Because of their service and heroism, we were able to declare Lagos State Ebola-free on the 18th of September, 2014.
I have heard some stories emanating from campaign podiums with claims of conquering Ebola.
The question we must ask is whether those who make these claims saw Ebola?
It is women like Stella Ameyo Adedevoh to whom such a claim rightly belongs.
It is young Nigerians like Dr. Morris Ibeawuchi, who first made contact with the index case patient and continued to treat him who saw and conquered Ebola.
He got infected, from doing his job, got sick, survived and is back to his job.
It is first responders from the Lagos State Ministry of Health like Dr. Jide Idris, Dr. Yewande Adesina, Dr. Wale Ahmed, Dr. Kayode Oguntimehin who saw Ebola.
They responded to the call from First Consultant Hospital. They spent 12 (Twelve) hours daily in the early days supervising the construction of Ebola containment facility when the epidemic broke.
The Lagos State Infectious Disease Hospital which later became the epicenter of Ebola management used to house tuberculosis patients and patients with infectious diseases.
Those patients vented their anger on these people when they had to be moved to create room for the Ebola centre. I know they spat at Dr. Adesina for doing her job.
Dr. Abdul-Salam Nasidi of the National Disease Control Centre in Abuja saw and conquered Ebola. He helped in no small way to co-ordinate the containment.
Dr. David Brett-Mayor of the World Health Organization saw and conquered Ebola. He single handedly started the Ebola isolation ward having cleared and cleaned the room. He admitted and cared for the patients before any Nigerian doctor joined him.
Professor S. A. Omilabu, the dedicated virologist at LUTH, saw Ebola and conquered it. He coordinated the fault free testing for Ebola and managed all the samples professionally.
Peter Adewuyi saw Ebola and conquered it. He led the contact tracing team of many dedicated officers for the first 2 (two) weeks.
Mrs. Funmi Lagbokun, Mrs. Modupe Aiyedun Davies, Mrs. Basirat Adeoye, Ms F. O. Bamgboye, Mrs. K. O. Oshisanya, Mrs. Kazeem Abioye, Mrs. Abiola Lasaki and Mrs. K. Adeshina all saw and conquered Ebola.
They were the dedicated team of nurses, nursing aid, care giver, health assistant and hygienist who commenced work voluntarily in the Ebola containment ward without any demand other than the sense of duty.
Yemi Gbadegesin and Abdulsalam saw and conquered Ebola.
They coordinated the de-contamination, removal and burial of the index case and other cases, and it is because of them that First Consultant can re-open for business.
Dear Lagosians, these were the people who saw and defeated Ebola. Let no person tell you otherwise.
These men and women, who showed courage, who risked their lives are our true champions and heroes.
They showed the spirit of service, the spirit of Lagos and the spirit of our "good old days".
Nobody should take this credit away from them.
They are not celebrating because they know that the work is not finished. They are already working with our people and planning to volunteer to go and give help in Sierra Leone and Liberia.
Their reward for hard work will be more work and they tell me that they are ready.
You and I also know that Dr. Adaora Igonoh, Dr. Akinniyi Fadipe, Mr. Dennis Echelonu and Mrs. Kelechi Enemuo also saw Ebola and conquered it.

Read full speech here:

http://www.tundefashola.com/archives/news/2014/10/01/20141001N01A.html

This is a man who, in 1962, was secretary of the party in a ward that is now Mushin and Ode Olowo put together. That was a ward then; it is now two local governments and one LCDA. This is a man that was a councilor in Mushin; this is a man that was a member of House of Assembly in Lagos State; he is a man that was a commissioner in Lagos State. Come on; give me a break (laughs).
Move to another party if he didn’t win the primaries
No, no, no, I wasn’t brought up that way. You must believe in something.
His exact agenda for Lagos
IT is very interesting, as you can see. It is a document I keep reading and writing. It is called, ‘Building A State That Lasts’. This will be the manifesto.
Now in there, there are four major pillars. The first one is Building a Knowledge-based Economy. I will give you an example why I say this.
I was working in Mannige, the Tide as the Vice President (IT) and one day, I was working in the office and my Executive Director called me to say, Kadiri - he called me Kadiri. He said, ‘You need to give me 12 names,’ and that we were reducing the workforce from 80. He said those were the people that would stay, including me and the others were goners.
I now said, ‘Let’s sit down and discuss.’ He said, ‘Look, the least paid in that group earns $80,000 in a year,’ which is true. He said my office space was the most expensive in the world; everybody had social security, and we paid health insurance. So, if we added all these together, he said it’s about $200,000 for the least paid. He said, ‘I can get the same value by going to India and pay $20,000. What we are is business before charity.’
When he finished, I truly could not argue with him. The story for me is this. I then said, ‘Look, it is possible for me to take this to Nigeria; why can’t I take it to Nigeria?’ He now said, ‘You should answer the question: can you take this to Nigeria?’
The moment he said that, I knew the answer. He looked at the security, the fact that there was no power and then the IT at that time was not where it was supposed to be. So, if you can build the IT, so that when you plug in the computer, you get the 2G in Lagos, that is knowledge-based economy.
Now, it is also important that we encourage technical education. When we were building the Lekki-Ikoyi Bridge, we needed welders. There is a machine that can bend 300mm steel to 90 degrees. They brought that machine here and one of the things I said was that look, we must get LASU students to come and see it because as an engineering student, I never saw a bridge being built.
We knew the theories, the materials and whatever, but if you see it, you will never forget. So, we brought LASU and UNILAG students. We actually delayed work on the bridge a bit because we wanted the students to also know it.
The most profound for me was that we knew we could not get enough welders that could do the job in our country and the company handling the project wanted to go to Togo. So, sometimes, when people ask us when would that road finish, I would laugh.
Is it about finishing the road or about building the capacity of our people? For how long are we going to depend on foreigners? Yes, seriously, we then said no. So, we delayed that bridge for about six months; we could have finished it earlier.
In our vocational schools, we started training welders. You know what is interesting? I didn’t know that oil companies employ a lot of welders; some of those welders today earn half a million naira a month in oil companies.
The problem is that a lot of people don’t do it well. In this country, we used to have City and Guilds Examinations. I remember a Technical College in Oyo and all the rest of them; they have disappeared.
No nation can survive without it; it will not happen. We must make our mark. As a people, we must stop looking at the shortcuts. That must change, that is the reality; it must change for the future of our children. Thus, for education, we must do technical.
Now, the well-being of the people is also a priority. Nigerians spend about $159 billion treating diarrhea; we are second only to India. We spend more money treating the side effects instead of using that money to build water works, among others. Those types of infrastructure must also continue.
The truth is that we have identified seven rail lines in Lagos; we are building one now. And the truth is that no foreign investors want to invest in rail in West Africa, forget it.
Why?
This is because when people invest in such a thing, they want their money back. It is somebody’s investments they want to bring; how do they get their money back?
Rail is a project that is not profitable. So, in majority of the jurisdictions, from New Jersey to Delaware to London, it is subsidised every time by the government. I think they recognise only four that seem to be profitable.
And you know the interesting thing? The metro line would have been one of them. So, a state of 21 million people cannot survive without that mass movement; we must build it. We must learn from people who have done it; we are not pioneering anything. Some people have done it; why can’t we learn it?

Source: http://ngrguardiannews.com/features/policy-a-politics/179599-i-m-confident-of-winning-apc-s-primary-poll

That is why I laugh when people talk about the PDP government; they are not doing anything. We are not a nation of morons. When it comes to interactions with people, we will explain. Why are we improvising our people? In a normal society, many of these people should never be in government with what we know.
The challenge for Lagos is resources. Many people have the notion that Lagos is a rich state but it is not. The budget of Lagos is about $2b, with a population of over 17 million, as at now - if you go about the increase of 2006, we will be clocking 22 million because as we speak, about 600,000 enters Lagos everyday; they are coming in; they are not going out; it is legitimate.
Therefore, the resource to manage all these people is the challenge because they said that by 2050, we will be 40 million people in Lagos. How do you build the infrastructure to sustain all these people is the challenge and the way to move our economy to knowledge based is technology.
The challenge will be how can you raise the profile of the state to make it friendly to investors. How do you raise the revenue of the state in such a way that you don’t paralyse economic activities again - that is not increasing the tax burden but making it easy for people to pay?
People say Lagos generates N20 billion (monthly) but they don’t say how much you use to generate it. If the cost of recovery is high, then the net does not make sense. Our challenge is how we would convince people on voluntary taxation without needing to pursue people.
The challenge is, given the enormity of the infrastructure deficit, population increase, how do you match our resources and I think one of the ways to confront it is sustainable technology.
Handling issue of religion in the choice of APC’s candidate
I don’t know where that is coming from. Every time I remember Chief Obafemi Awolowo or (Dr. Nanadi) Azikiwe, I don’t even remember their religion. What I remember Awolowo for is the building of OAU, formerly University of Ife, and setting up the first television station (in Africa).
I don’t know what religion Nelson Mandela practiced but there are many Christians and Muslims in South Africa who took money from the white government and betrayed their people.
I have said that one of the problems of the black man is that we deal with what we cannot measure. How do you measure somebody’s faith? I think Bishop (Hassan Matthew) Kukah said it well that why do we expect our governors to be nice because if you want a nice man, go to the mosque or church. He said what we want our governor to be is efficient.
The job of a leader is not to call people to come and worship; his job is to deliver irrespective of anybody’s religion, ethnicity or class. So, let us look at the job description, then we can fit in who can do the job.
In my view, it has absolutely nothing to do with religion and I think we are getting it wrong, as a people, especially when we start that in Lagos. For example, since Ogun State was created, all the governors in that state have been Christians. The first one that would be a Muslim is Amosun. We did not have a single agitation. Why should it have to start from Lagos?
It is absolutely ridiculous and I think, as a people, we must not allow this type of nonsense to happen. What is important is how to move Lagos forward.
We must be careful because this is a state where we have about 40 per cent of bank branches in this country. So, if Boko Haram starts in Lagos, this country is gone. Which nation has dabbled in religious issue and succeeded?
What we must always realise is that it (governance) has absolutely nothing to do with religion. It shouldn’t matter. It’s not important because their (leaders’) job is not to go and preach.
Need for open rather than ‘magic primaries’ to pick APC’s candidates for election
I don’t know what you mean by magic primaries. The truth of the matter is that everybody will have specific interest; so, the leaders like Asiwaju (Bola Ahmed Tinubu) will have a particular candidate. He is a leader, he is a human being, but he has only one vote. It is called lobbying.
The truth is that we all asked for democracy. I am sure in the Congress in the United States, there are lobbyists. If you want anything to pass through the Senate, you go and hire the lobbyists.
Such thing may be outrageous but is the reality. You will start to lobby the senators. Is that good or bad? Posterity will judge.
But what I am saying is that as a candidate, I don’t worry myself with that; what I am worrying myself with is let me present what I represent to the party and the people of Lagos, and you leave your faith in God. So, whatever happens, so be it.
His chances among the aspirants, relationship with the party leadership and reaction to Oba of Lagos statement that a son of an Ogun monarch would not become governor over him.
First of all, in answering your question, I take myself serious. If I don’t believe in something, I don’t do it. I take myself very, very serious and I have been lucky in life.
I finished my PhD in two and a half years, the first anybody had done. Whatever I want to do, I face it. If I don’t believe in my chances, I would not waste my time. In November, I am going to win that primary election.
Two, I wouldn’t discuss Kabiyesi’s issue. I wouldn’t do that. You know what is interesting? Kabiyesi tells me more about my grandfather than my mum does. My mum and Kabiyesi are like a family.
My mother is from Ija Egbe in Lagos Island; my maternal grandfather is Pa Collins; he (Kabiyesi) tells me more about him than my mum does. I learnt more about him from Kabiyesi. So, I will not respond to what Kabiyesi had said.
But you see, I brought this book (he displayed a book). This my dad and this is a book he wrote: ‘Reflection of A Public Man’. He wrote it in 2004 and apparently, he would not have expected that his son would run for governorship. I was not even a commissioner then.
Now this is what he wrote; he was talking about his father. He said my father, Chief Oyeyinbo Ajiborisa. So, my name is actually Ajiborisa; Hamzat is a middle name.
You know with religion, Faleke becomes Olaleke and those things. So, in their own case, they dropped Ajiborisa altogether; that we would not be Ajiborisa but today there is Ajiborisa in Epe. General Leo Ajiborisa, the first Military administrator of Osun State, is from the family. We are the same family; they are in Epe.
Therefore, it is the same tree and at the right time, we will talk in the public about it. It is the same root, you understand and they are there in Epe today.
It is very interesting how everybody forgets the dynamism of the Yoruba race; very interesting how we all forget. So, the reality is that my tree, my foot, my leg is in Lagos.
You know when tragedy happens, a lot of things happen. His (my father’s) own father died when he was nine years old; the grandfather died when my father was nine. So, what do you expect He related more with his mother’s side because his father died.
That is why he lived in Epe all his life. He went to primary school in Epe, with the current Olu of Epe. But like I said, he would, of course, relate to them because these were the people there.
So, we noticed that even when he became a king in Ewekoro that you are talking about, his title was Ajiborisa 1, you understand, the same tree. As I said, people move around, but it is the same root in Epe.
The issue becoming a possible obstacle to his aspiration
No, it is not, it will not. You know why it is not because it doesn’t matter. It is not that there is a law that restricts you, but it is okay for anybody to lie about his root. I will never lie because where then do you get your integrity from?
If you lie about your heritage, or root, then you will lie about anything, you understand. I cannot even lie because a lot of people know my dad and if my father had said he is from Epe, nobody can dispute it because your integrity is key.

Dr. Obafemi Hamzat, Lagos State Commissioner for Works, during the week spoke about his aspiration to be governor of the state on the podium of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the 2015 general elections. Seye Olumide reports.
Wanting to be governor of Lagos
ABOUT nine months ago, I asked myself this same question. All of us learn through various means. ‎I was reading the speech of President JF Kennedy in 1961. I had read it before, but I had to read it again because I read a lot of biographies. I could not believe that somebody could write something like that as far back as 1961.
The popular one (quote) is, ‘Ask not what your America can do for you but what you can do for America.’ That is a nation that has done so much for its citizens. But he went further to say that as a nation, whether you wish us ill or you wish us well, we will at any point in time go through all hardship and rigours to make sure that we defend freedom of human beings across the world.
I see that the challenge of the black man generally is lack of sustaining development. Of course, there are different reasons why we don’t sustain development, but one of them is that we deal a lot with things we cannot measure. And people say if you cannot measure something, you cannot manage with it.
As a nation, for example, we don’t know our population; that is the truth. That is why in 2006 - I was privileged to coordinate the Census collation for Lagos State, the NPC said we were 9.5 million, but we said we were 17.1 million; the disparity is too much.
We went to the tribunal set up the Federal Government and we challenged 19 local governments. We did not challenge Ibeju-Lekki; it was 20 local government based. The tribunal upheld 15 of those 19. So, let us assume that the other four is wrong, but out of 19, we had 14. They did not take Mushin, Surulere, Epe and another one.
Thus, we deal with things that we can’t really measure. For example, we deal with my faith. How do you measure my faith when even the Bible says we cannot judge? You said you are a Christian or Muslim, but I don’t know what you did this morning before leaving your house; only God knows! Since I cannot manage it, it’s not my business.
That is why the nations that have done well looked for the best to‎ do the job. Even Dubai, the person managing the Emirate is not a Muslim; he is a white man from Britain.
Looking at all these, you must now say how do we make sure that what we started as a people is not reversed because the truth of the matter is that whatever a human being does, you can actually destroy it. The world is littered with examples of such.
I keep saying (repeating) the story of Robert Mugabe. When I was in England after I finished my PhD and I still had some funds to travel, I said I was going to Zimbabwe. From Harare - the airport all the way to Lake Victoria - the road was excellent, but today, the same road is bad, and the same leader is still there. So, our history is littered with such.
To assume that because you started something well, we should take it for granted is ludicrous. We must take governance the way it is; it’s a serious business. That is why I laugh when we complain about our country. When the President wanted to run, he did not tell us he would do anything. He did not even debate his programmes; he only said he didn’t have shoes (when he was young) and all the rest, and we agreed.
So, what exactly is our expectation? The reality is that we can afford not to move forward or we can agree, as a people, that we must not reverse.
I went to the U.S, finished my PhD at the age of 26, and I have seen that Nigerians are probably one of the best people (academically and professionally); there is no single hospital from New York to California that you won’t see Nigerians.
We are people that can pull our weight anywhere. So, what is the problem?
The issue is that we deal with the wrong things at home! We talk about Igbo, Yoruba and South-South; does it matter? The currency we spend has no colouration. The road that you drive on does not know or ask where you come from. When a plane crashes, it doesn’t know if you are from the South or North. Why then do we focus on the wrong things?
That is one of the reasons I said we must look at the right approach to solving our problems. We must have somebody that possesses the experience, humility, integrity and what it takes to do the job.
I believe I represent those values. That is one of the reasons I’m presenting myself as a candidate for the office of governor.
Our party, the APC, is lucky because we have enormous number of people who are qualified to do the job. We don’t need to go and hire people from outside, borrow someone or be begging.
Within that number as well, there will also be ratings based on various factors that, as a people, we must determine in terms of experience, background, education and the rest.
But I believe that at the end of the day, I will carry the day.
Challenges that will confront the next governor of Lagos
THE biggest challenge is not just Lagos State but the continent of Africa. If you read Thomas ‎Friedman’s book, a brilliant Nobel Economist that teaches at Yale University, he asked when is it that we can ascertain that the African nation will actually sustainably climb out of poverty. He answers that it is a time that we are able to reduce the energy deficit in Africa. What does that mean?
Nigeria has a population of 167 million and they said we generate 6000MW but we can only use 4000MW. So, if you divide 4000MW by 167 million people, we will have about 10 watts, which you cannot even read with.
If as a person (Nigerian) all I could get is 10w and a typical South African will get about 200w, then the difference is clear. We will remain a poor nation because the data is there.

Please,i still need help

Please i need help.i am using a joomla 3.1 cms website. The problem began yesterday evening when i noticed the home page is nt accessible. I have about 6 menus,out of which 4 of them is opening with the home page(which is www.ateradtech.com) and the news menu both not opening.Please open www.ateradtech.com/contact-us.html to see one of the four other menus that is opening. Please i need your help for the homepage and news menus to be accessible. Thank you.

According to Article 17 of the Rome Statute that set up the ICC, and to which Nigeria is signatory, the ICC is a court of last resort, expected to exercise its jurisdiction only if states themselves are unwilling or unable genuinely to investigate and prosecute international crimes.

In view of the fact that the alleged Boko Haram sponsors are either members of the ruling party or friends of the President, it is clear that the PDP-led Federal Government is unwilling and unable to try them, hence our call.

Nigerians can rest assured that the APC will not allow this issue to be swept under the carpet.

Now that it is clear that the PDP is behind Boko Haram for the sole purpose of winning next year’s Presidential Election, Nigerians must prevail on the PDP and the Presidency to urgently end this insurgency and the daily killing and maiming of innocent Nigerians!

The President must remember that he is the Commander-in-Chief! The buck stops on his desk. He must now do all it takes to stop the growing mess in our nation’s North-East.

Nigerians expect no less!

Source:
http://www.vanguardngr.com/2014/09/boko-haram-sponsors-friends-president-jonathan-says-chief-john-odigie-oyegun/

A man known to all as the kingpin of Boko Haram, a man who helped to arm them so he could win elections and decimate his opponents, was moving around with the best security ever. He is a known ally of the President and he is not known to be under any immunity. Yet he was never arrested or even questioned. Still we waited.
In line with a Yoruba adage that says when a drum starts sounding too hard, it is about to burst, the PDP and the Presidency ratcheted up their attacks on our party, labelling us as Boko Haram sponsors. They hired a foreign firm, Levick, for US$1.2 million in taxpayers’ money, as well as a number of out-of-luck hack writers and pseudo analysts, one of them from Russia, to help push the narrative. Still we waited.
Then their drum exploded!
Dr. Stephen Davis, a man hired by the President Jonathan-led Federal Government to negotiate with Boko Haram for the release of the Chibok girls decided to speak out, believing the best way to tackle the insurgency is to expose the sponsors. And who are they? On international television last Thursday, and as you have just seen and heard, he named former Borno Governor Ali Modu Sheriff and a former Army Chief, Gen. Azubuike Ihejirika, as the sponsors of Boko Haram.
Prodded by Sahara Reporters in a subsequent interview on whether Gen. Buhari and Malam Nasir el-Rufai were sponsors, he said the Boko Haram commanders who gave him the names of their sponsors did not mention their names. The die is cast. The truth is finally out! Boko Haram sponsors have been exposed. They are within the ruling PDP. They are friends of President Jonathan. He cannot pretend not to know who they are and what they have done and are still doing. His myriad of intelligence agencies, including the DSS and the DMI, cannot pretend they do not have any information on these men.
It is true that Ali Modu Sheriff was, until recently, a member of our Party. But the Party always suspected that he was a mole, planted to hijack or at best weaken the new Party for the PDP. He is not new to that role. He helped to decimate his former party, the ANPP, to an extent that the number of states under its control fell from seven in 2003 to three by the time he left as Governor.
We know for sure that Ali Modu Sheriff was planted in the APC to help decimate our party. We confronted him openly during the merger negotiation but he denied vigorously. His surrogate for the post of the Chairman of the APC, Chief Tom Ikimi together with whom they planned to hijack the Party for the Presidency was firmly rejected. Realizing they have failed, they fled our party and returned to where they came from, and were duly embraced by their controllers.
President Jonathan cannot pretend not to know the alleged role that Ali Modu Sheriff has played in the establishment and growth of Boko Haram, yet he never allowed the man to even be questioned by any of the security agencies under his control. All through his time with our Party, every time they accused us of sponsoring Boko Haram, on the basis of his presence, we challenged them if they had evidence to arrest any of our members who is suspected to be a sponsor, they never did. They dared not, because Sheriff was their agent. Even if he had remained in the APC after we democratically encouraged him to go, they would still not have arrested him.
Recall, gentlemen, that immediately Sheriff went back to the PDP, the Maiduguri Airport that had been closed to even the pilgrims from the state on grounds of security, was re-opened specially for him. What more evidence does anyone need that Sheriff was and remains President Jonathan’s Man Friday?
Our Stand
The truth is finally out. We have been vindicated. We have no hand in the Boko Haram insurgency. The raison d’etre of our party is the well-being and security of Nigerians
The sponsors of Boko Haram are within the PDP and the Presidency. They are known friends of President Jonathan. He knows them and they know him.
The man who exposed these Boko Haram sponsors is a Jonathan-appointed Negotiator. He has no axe to grind, neither does he have any motive to shield the APC or portray the PDP/Presidency in bad light. In fact, if he had any sympathy at all, it is for the man who hired him, President Jonathan.
We have said it all along. Boko Haram was politicized purely for one reason, and one reason only: To be used as a trump card for President Jonathan to win another term. For that strategy to work, the APC, which they see as the only stumbling block to the PDP’s victory in 2015, must be maligned and labeled. Gullible, duplicitous and self-serving politicians like Femi Fani-Kayode swallowed the bait, hook, line and sinker, and started parroting the glaring lies. PDP spokesman Olisa Metuh, an obvious pawn on the chess board, followed suit, labelling a party that comprises Nigerians of all ethnic and religious hue a supporter of APC and Islamic party. Now he is stewing in his own juice.
In the process of this dangerous politics, the Nigerian military which was globally acclaimed for its impressive showings at various peacekeeping missions around the world, simply suffered collateral damage. Apparently, fifth columnists in the military has sold the force out, first by denying it of the necessary fighting tools and then weakening it to such an extent that even the little it had was being taken away daily by insurgents. When the patriotic Gov. Kashim Shettima of Borno tried to raise the issue of the poorly-equipped troops and their low morale, he was roundly pilloried. Now the world knows why!
Now that the cat has been let out of the bag and the real sponsors of Boko Haram have been exposed, we hope President Jonathan will summon the courage to do the right thing: Hand over the identified Boko Haram sponsors to the International Criminal Court (ICC) for investigation and prosecution.
There is no doubt that Boko Haram has committed crimes against humanity in its scorched-earth campaign against unharmed citizens, and the most appropriate body to investigate and try the sect’s sponsors is the ICC.

BOKO HARAM

Finally, the truth is out!

Being text of a Press Conference addressed by the National Chairman of the APC, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun.

Good afternoon Gentlemen of the press, and thank you for honouring my invitation to this press conference.

Before I address you today, kindly permit me to replay the full interview of Dr. Stephen Davis, the Australian negotiator who was appointed by President Goodluck Jonathan to help secure the release of the over 200 girls who were abducted by Boko Haram on April 15th.

The interview was aired on Arise Television on Thursday Aug. 28th.

INTERLUDE: PLAY VIDEO

Thank you for your patience, gentlemen.

The All Progressives Congress (APC) like many well-meaning Nigerians had resolved long ago that the issue of the Boko Haram insurgency should not be politicized. In view of this, the APC expressed its willingness and readiness to cooperate with the Federal Government in neutralizing the insurgency. Regrettably however, instead of accepting this offer of cooperation, the PDP-Federal Government has consistently pointed accusing fingers at our Party, the All Progressives Congress (APC), as the sponsor of Boko Haram. They have called us all sorts of derogatory names, but failed to provide any shred of evidence to support their claim.

APC briefing on Boko Haram Sponsors

It has been very clear to us that the vehemence and persistence of this accusation, the deliberate distortion of statements made by our leaders to paint us as Boko Haram sponsors and the way the PDP-led Federal Government has gone to hire foreign PR firms, at a huge cost to taxpayers, as well as foreign and local hack writers to push this narrative, they were struggling hard to cover up something. We waited patiently knowing that the truth will one day surface.

In a rare moment of truth, a top official of the Jonathan Administration, no less a personality than the former National Security Adviser (NSA), Gen. Andrew Owoye Azazi, situated the Boko Haram problem within the PDP. Shortly thereafter he was fired, and he later died in controversial circumstances. Still we waited.

They distorted and misrepresented the statements made by our leader, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari, to try to convince the world that he was indeed the main sponsor of Boko Haram. They continued to echo the same slander about Gen. Buhari that was started by Presidential Spokesman Reuben Abati in 2011, and for which he and his cohorts eventually begged to settle out of court and to apologize to the General. Still we waited.

When their attempt to link Gen. Buhari with Boko Haram failed, as his popularity among ordinary Nigerians continued to soar, he was suddenly attacked by suicide bombers. Those who planned the attack believed this as the final solution to what they perceived as the threat he represents to the realization of their ambition. By the grace of God, he survived. We do not claim to know those who attacked him, but we do know those who provided the atmosphere for that attack to take place. Still we waited.

When the government declared a state of emergency in three worst-hit states of Adamawa, Borno and Yobe in 2013, thousands of troops were deployed to the three states. But the unusual happened. The number of attacks simply skyrocketed. It is common knowledge that in any territory that has been placed under a state of emergency, the military takes charge of security, erecting checkpoints as part of efforts to keep a tab on security. Such was the situation in Borno in April 2014, when over 200 girls were abducted and driven away in many trucks.

Soldiers posted to a nearby checkpoint were said to have withdrawn shortly before the attack. Who ordered their withdrawal? Some of the trucks in which the girls were being carted away broke down, yet no one challenged them. Despite this bizarre occurrence, they refused to accept responsibility and continued to cast aspersion on our Party, the APC, as the sponsor of Boko Haram. Still we waited.

Boko Haram routinely enriched their arsenal with tanks, Armoured Personnel Carriers, guns, trucks and other military equipment which they seized from the Army. From the videos they release from time to time, one could see Boko Haram insurgents driving around unchallenged in convoys of up to 60 vehicles made-up of tanks and other military vehicles they seized from our military, in a territory that is under a state of emergency. What is happening? No one could fathom it. Still we waited.

…Alleges attempt to compromise Military

*Warns against negotiating with Boko Haram *Why we can’t bomb Sambisa Forest – DHQ

Former military President, General Ibrahim Babangida, has decried the deployment of soldiers for civil elections in Nigeria, expressing concern that the practice has the potential of compromising the military institution.

He warned that if not stopped, the military might be compromised the way the Nigeria Police Force has allegedly been.

Babangida addressed journalists at his Hilltop residence in Minna, Niger State, saying: “I don’t believe that the military should do civil duties; I don’t believe they should participate in elections. Equip the Nigeria Police Force – which is supposed to be closer to the people – for elections.”

Babangida, however, blamed Nigerians for the militarisation of politics.

Said he: “The militarisation of politics is the fault of the people. The reason is that somehow, there is this thing in the people; they seem to think that for things to work out well, you have to go to the extreme.

“You have compromised your Police Force, so the next one that has not been compromised but would soon be compromised is the Military. Train the Police and they would be able to handle elections. We did it with the Police. I used to be a returning officer in the 50s and 60s. There was no military presence in elections; we used the Nigeria Police and it can still be done,” he said.

The last two governorship elections in Ekiti and Osun states witnessed huge military presence, which elicited pockets of condemnation.

Babangida said the military could be used in areas where there is no access, arguing however that government should stop involving the military in politics. “I’m not sure the military likes to be involved in these civil duties,” he said.

For him, “there are places that you need logistics support by the military. For example, we have boats in the creeks; the assets can be used to enhance the credibility of elections; the assets can be used in ferrying ballot boxes; in carrying people who would be involved in the elections. That is practically okay but personally, I don’t believe they should be seen on the streets during elections.”

The former military leader therefore tasked Nigerians not to allow politics to be militarised by the government, insisting that “it can’t continue like this. You guys would shout out; the public would shout and the administration will listen.”

On insecurity, the former military leader commended the efforts of the government in combating insurgency in the country, adding that Nigeria will still be united in the next 1000 years.

He particularly frowned at any attempt to negotiate with the nihilistBoko Haramsect, stressing that there cannot be negotiation with faceless people.

”You go into negotiations with people you know, people you identify, people you see. So, in this case, who do you negotiate with? That is the problem. Surely, I don’t believe the Federal Government should call Shekau (Boko Haram’sleader) to sit on the table and talk; this is my personal opinion. So who do you talk to? Nobody! If there are identified persons who for one reason or the other, everybody knows; they come out openly to say this is what we are doing. That will be fair enough, but nobody knows whom to talk to.

“So, to be fair to the Federal Government, whom do they talk to? Tomorrow, if they come out to say this is the leadership, this is the structure, these are our grievances, this is what we want; they can sit down and talk; but so far, that hasn’t happened.”

Thus, Babangida urged the citizens to be patient and have faith in what the government is doing to rescue the Chibok school girls abducted by the insurgents more than three months ago.

“The way forward is what the government is doing now. I know there are a lot of complications; it is no longer an issue that you could ask the military to move in, capture Sambisa Forest and rescue the girls. I think what Nigerians want, is to see the girls released and brought back home alive, not dead. The people are looking forward to these girls being brought back alive and that is a very daring thing to do.

“A lot of planning, a lot of cooperation, a lot of study need to be done to achieve these objectives; 217 or whatever the number is, is a lot of population to lose just like that. I think the government is trying. I am quite satisfied that efforts are really being made to get them out. You see, the objective is to get them out of that place alive. The operative word is ‘alive. ‘ You can order a full scale military operation and you could get them all killed, which would defeat the objective,” Babangida reasoned.

Source:
http://mobile.dudamobile.com/site/mydailynewswatchng/default?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.mydailynewswatchng.com%2Fibb-faults-use-soldiers-elections%2F#2884

The next great battle of Soyinka’s life was the war against Abacha. This time, they watched him, trailed him, bugged his phones, put his house under surveillance and even broke into it uninvited. Soyinka saw the hand writing on the wall. He realised that this prehistoric animal was no Abubakar Tafawa Balewa. He finally took the NADECO route to safety and lived to fight another day, which he did. With his Comrades like John Kayode Fayemi, he established Radio Kudirat in Europe, which not only challenged the obscene falsehood and shameful propaganda of the NTA and FRCN, but also provided psychological relief for an embattled and traumatised population sick of the fawning and toadying sycophancy of the Government Media Organisations and the political class.
Nigeria is indeed lucky to be able to celebrate the life of this 80-year-old warrior. So what next for Professor Wole Soyinka, Statesman, Activist, Warrior, Philosopher, Poet, Dramatist, Nobel Laureate? Soyinka is Nigeria’s, nay, Africa’s greatest Human Asset, after Mandela. We must exploit and milk this Asset whilst he is still here with us. There is presently a yawning vacuum, a great lacuna of leadership in Nigeria. We have a President, but no leader. I am therefore suggesting that we adopt the Iranian Model and appoint Professor Wole Soyinka, the equivalent and status of the Ayatollah of Iran. We should of course not use the word ‘Ayatollah’. Let us proclaim him our national and spiritual leader who should give binding guidance and directives to whoever is in Government. That way, no matter who is the head of the Government, in the usual Nigerian way, with the Nigerian orientation, mentality and culture, we shall have a spiritual and political pilot whose great internal light, outstanding integrity, high principles, unyielding quest for justice, incomparable patriotism, unrivalled intellect, and basic natural goodness and decency, can see us through the present overwhelming darkness, anarchy and looming catastrophe. We have a Moses, let us acknowledge him and follow his leadership. There may yet be a promised land buried deep down in the Nigerian national spirit, but we need a leader to take us there.


Source:
http://www.ngrguardiannews.com/opinion/columnist/170287-sagay-soyinka-s-odyssey-and-nigeria-s-destiny

I HAVE known and have been observing Professor Wole Soyinka since 1962 (52 years), but from a distance. I do not have the privilege of having been one of his former students or a close personal friend. Nevertheless, I have been an avid admirer of the man throughout this period. When you passionately believe in a cause or some principles, which you verbalize frequently, and another person who is equally passionate about such principles, not only verbalizes it, but also takes physical and life threatening actions to realize it, you are bound to admire, even fear that person. Soyinka is that rare type of person.
Throughout his adult life, Soyinka has not only expressed his beliefs and principles, he has dangerously pursued them as a one-man army. That he is not only alive, but is 80, is clearly evidence of divine protection, because he never protected himself.
In 1963, I was a 200 level Law Student at the University of Ife, Ibadan Branch. (There was no Ife Branch then). Wole Soyinka was a Lecturer in the Department of English, and at the same time an active Playwright and Producer.
The Western Region was in turmoil. The split in the ruling Action Group party was at its height and Akintola was extremely unpopular in the Region particularly in the Campus. Students being what they were, expressed their acute contempt for Akintola and virtual hero worship for Awolowo, loudly and boisterously. This made the University administration very uncomfortable.
Consequently on ‘orders from above,’ the Deputy Vice-Chancellor or Pro-Vice-chancellor, Professor Sabiru Biobaku, summoned all the Academic Staff to the University Assembly Hall and read them the University credo, namely, all members of staff must be loyal to the Akintola Government, otherwise they must resign or be sacked. The next day, Wole Soyinka resigned. “He had put his money where his mouth was.”
Unfortunately for Akintola, Soyinka was given a job by the neighbouring University of Ibadan. He had hardly settled down there when he started a series of very blistering political lampoons of Akintola and his ‘running mate’ Remi Fani Kayode, entitled prophetically, “Before the Black out”. It was staged at Trenchard Hall, University of Ibadan, and naturally the University of Ife Campus was emptied of its student population nightly as there was an exodus from Ife Campus to the Ibadan Campus.
One evening two years later, and a few months before the fateful Western Regional Elections of 1965, when Akintola’s scheduled pre-election political broadcast was to be aired, we were all startled to hear a strange voice on Radio, which obviously came “to bury Akintola, not to praise him”. The Federal and Western Regional Governments, staunch allies in the plot to delete Awolowo from the political scene, now declared that Soyinka was the Radio Station culprit and that he had held up the station at gun point and procured the broadcast of his own anti-Akintola recording under duress of his weapon.
The rest as they say is history. He was hunted, gave himself up, was arrested and tried. Thank God for little mercies. If it was in the Abacha era, that would have been the end. But the innocent Akintola and his backer, Tafawa Balewa, allowed a Court trial for the man. To the absolute shock of the conspirators, a young and little known Judge called Kayode Eso, who was assigned the case in order to test his loyalty to the Government and party in power, held that Soyinka’s guilt was not proved beyond reasonable doubt. He discharged and acquitted him. For this, the young Judge was transferred to ‘Siberia’, which the Akure Judicial Division, then was and he had to drive from Ibadan to Akure every morning and drive back the same way every evening, only to repeat this death baiting feat the next morning.
Anyone who had such a narrow escape would have taken the hint and gone into seclusion, not Wole Soyinka. He tarried a little, and then plunged head long into the brewing Nigeria-Biafra War, criss-crossing between Nigeria and Biafra as if he was taking an afternoon leisure stroll to the speakers’ corner in Hyde Park in London. He tried to fashion out some form of agreement between the parties in conflict and when this did not seem to work, he commenced putting up a “third force” which would take over the country, and return it to sanity.
Death seemed to be afraid of Soyinka. Perhaps he had some access to the charm, ‘gbekude’, because he walked through many valleys of the shadow of death unscathed like Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. However, a clearly exasperated Gowon had had enough. He had Soyinka arrested by some goons in the special Branch of the Police Force. They could not understand this strange man and he was detained for about three years. Even then one good thing came out of that detention – the book, The Man Died. It was not merely a diary of Soyinka’s stay in prison, but a pungent and vivid description of the mentality of those in power and the type of sordid violent and pathetic culture they imposed on the society they inflicted themselves upon.

A Professor who does not understand the electoral dynamics of his own country and does not appreciate that no single region or nationality can produce the President without widespread support from other groups deserves not only pity but his academic title ought to be withdrawn. Chief Awolowo himself characteristically once predicted in one of his books that “One day the best of the progressives and the best of the conservatives will come together to rule Nigeria”. The sage must be terribly embarrassed in his grave as regards Aribisala’s infantile reasoning that the South-West must remain in political isolation.
It is very embarrassing to Nigeria’s intellectual class when one of their supposed leading lights, Aribisala, claims that following the consensus in 1999 that, because of the annulment of the June 12, 1993, presidential election, a Yoruba should be President, “Northerners decided they would determine who the Yoruba should be. Obasanjo was fished out of prison and anointed as PDP presidential candidate”. So should the presidential election of 1999 have been limited to the South-West alone? Should northerners have been compelled to vote for the preference of the South-West in an election being contested by two illustrious Yoruba sons? This reasoning is most jejune and sterile.
Aribisala makes several unsubstantiated assertions in his column, which every Nigerian academic should find embarrassing. He claims that under Fayemi, “Ekiti money was routinely shipped to Lagos”. There is not a scintilla of evidence to back this grievous falsehood. Fayemi is a far more honourable man than a pastor who recklessly peddles falsehood. He would never permit such an alleged rape of Ekiti. He argues that the finances of Lagos “are tied to Alpha Beta”. Our Professor does not substantiate this nor the crime involved. If he is so confident, why doesn’t he petition the EFCC on these issues? He alleges that Tinubu described all Yoruba Obas as useless and pretends not to have read Tinubu’s clarification of the misleading reports in the media on the issue. The truth of the matter is that Aribisala can never have or cultivate the kind of close relationship Tinubu has with most Yoruba Obas. Aribisala invests Tinubu with such magical powers that he allegedly “went up North to Kwakwanso to engineer the installation of a ‘useful’ Emir of Kano”. Professor Sir, where is your evidence? This kind of careless effusion is a disgrace to scholarship or has the word lost its meaning? An academic of Aribisala’s stature cannot even see the link between the massive infrastructure renewal being undertaken across the South-West under the APC and meaningful development. He thus eulogises and thereby insults the Ekiti “electorate’s cynical preference for pounded yam over tarred roads”. What a tragedy. He asserts that Tinubu “has even gone ahead to anoint AkinwumiAmbode as the next governor of the state without the benefit of any election”. Can this strange academic quote Tinubu on this? Has Tinubu uttered a word on the matter? Is he aware that the APC primaries are yet to be held and several aspirants are still jostling for the party’s ticket? As a citizen and party member, is Aribisala saying that Tinubu has no right to back an aspirant of his choice in the final analysis?
In Aribisala’s simplistic reasoning, Fayemi lost the Ekiti election because of Tinubu. It does not matter to him that neither Fayose nor Fayemi mentioned Tinubu even once in their intense campaigns. Our supposedly distinguished academic cannot undertake an objective assessment of the pertinent factors in the Ekiti elections including the heavy militarisation of the process and the detention and harassment of opposition leaders while PDP leaders including federal Ministers and legislators were allowed to run rampage all over Ekiti. When a Professor cannot appreciate that an election is a process and not just the casting and counting of ballots on Election Day, we are all in serious trouble. This is why Aribisala is incapable of understanding the basis of APC’s legal challenge of the election, which is that a flawed process cannot result in an untainted outcome. In any case, why should a social science professor see a party’s loss in an election as a ‘disgraceful trouncing’ the way a motor park tout would? If the electoral outcome was actually the will of the people, is that not the beauty of democracy? Again, does this mean that because of Tinubu’s success in politics, members of his family should forfeit their right to pursue their own political careers? If they have the advantage of riding on Tinubu’s goodwill, what is the crime in that? The late Chief Oluwole Awolowo, Awo’s son, was elected as a member of the Lagos State House of Assembly in the second republic. His daughter, Dr Tokunboh AwolowoDosumu was a leading governorship aspirant of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) in Lagos State in the aborted Third Republic. Has our professor heard of the Kennedy, Bush or Clinton political families in the US?
Our distinguished professor sees Afenifere chieftain, Reuben Fasoranti’s, endorsement of Governor OlusegunMimiko’s re-election as a rejection of Tinubu’s influence in Yoruba politics. So, if he were teaching students in class, he would be unable to pinpoint to them the intricacies of the contradictions between a vanishing political elite and an emergent new leadership in Yoruba politics? This is a great pity. Aribisala’s weekly diatribe against Tinubu can only succeed in lionising the latter just as those who similarly hated Awolowo insanely did throughout the sage’s political career. They set up the vindictive Coker Commission of Enquiry which alleged that Awo was using state power and resources to build a political empire around himself in the Southwest. This is the same allegation retrogressive elements like Aribisala are making against Tinubu. That iniquitous Coker Commission report has since been discredited just as Femi Aribisala’s worthless diatribes against Tinubu in his column will end up in the refuse heap of forgotten history.

Source: http://thenationonlineng.net/new/femi-aribisalas-unprofessorial-diatribes/

Femi Aribisala is suppossed to be a distinguished social science professor, presumably an international relations scholar. This should ordinarily imply clarity of thinking, rigour of logic, emotional detachment and a scrupulous adherence to truth in speech and writing. Unfortunately, week after week, in his Tuesday column in the Vanguard newspaper, Femi Aribisala demonstrates that his thoughts have been perverted, his reasoning jaundiced and his analytic prowess alarmingly enfeebled by an unhealthy, obsessive, maniacal, almost Luciferian hatred for the person of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the foremost opposition leader in Nigeria today. Of course, this is neither new nor strange. The late Professor SanyaOnabamiro, an otherwise distinguished academic and scientist similarly devalued his role and place in history by a morbid hatred of Chief ObafemiAwolowo.
Many of the baseless insinuations, and careless generalisations characteristic of Aribisala’s newspaper columns would never be permitted in any learned academic journal which would require the strictest verification of facts, attribution of sources and rational, internally consistent justification of claims. Given the abysmally pedestrian level of his reasoning as revealed in his column, it is disturbing to imagine the quality of education he must have imparted to those students unfortunate to pass through his tutelage.
Femi Aribisala’s column of Tuesday, July 1, titled ‘The beginning of the end of the Bola Tinubu dynasty’, made interesting reading. For one, he has unwittingly lionised Tinubu by concocting the existence of a Tinubu dynasty. He invests Tinubu with the title of ‘Asiwaju of Yorubaland’. The latter is the ‘Asiwaju of Lagos’ even though no one can doubt that he is the foremost ‘Asiwaju’ of opposition political forces in contemporary Nigeria. He begins the article by seeking to compare Tinubu with King Nebuchadnezzar of the Bible. Yet this is the same Aribisala who once insinuated that the Bible is a book of fables and lies by claiming that the Biblical account of David and Goliath is completely fictional. By the way, the retired professor doubles as some kind of pastor. Is this not evidence of a confused and disturbed mind? He finds fault with Tinubu’s assertion of his right to pursue any political ambition of his choice under the aegis of the United Nations Human Rights Charter. A supposedly eminent professor does not recognise the elementary fact that the freedom to pursue political ambitions by eligible persons is a key feature of liberal democracy? This is truly tragic. In his view, “The voice of the electorate in the South-West has answered Tinubu. His personally ambition is certainly not in the interest of the people”. Our beloved professor should kindly tell us which election Tinubu has contested with the South West giving such a verdict. Or should we swallow this kind of illogical garbage simply because he is a professor?
According to Professor/Pastor Aribisala, “Tinubu’s claim to fame lies in the strength of his ACN party in the South West”. Aribisala was probably on planet Mars when Tinubu was at the forefront of the struggle for the validation of the June 12, 1993, mandate of Chief MKO Abiola and the liberation of Nigerian politics from the stranglehold of military dictatorship. In any case, where was Aribisala at this crucial phase in the protracted battle for democratic restoration in Nigeria? This was long before the advent of civilian rule in 1999 and the evolution from the ACN from the AD. Mercifully, Aribisala is intellectually honest enough for once to admit that when the PDP under Obasanjo executed its electoral Tsunami in the South West in 2003, “The brilliant South West answer to this PDP treachery was Tinubu”. He continues, “Tinubu drew a line in the battle in the sand, held on to Lagos, and struck back from this stronghold to win back all the lost South West states in 2007”. Now, if Tinubu is as self- serving, unprincipled and power hungry as depicted by Aribisala, would he not have capitulated and joined the mainstream PDP at that critical moment in 2003 rather than remain the last man standing in opposition? How many Nigerian politicians can Aribisala name that would prefer to be in opposition on principle rather than join the all- powerful centre with its limitless power of patronage if he were to be in Tinubu’s situation in 2003?
Even more alarmingly for a supposed intellectual,Aribisala gets the reason for the progressive resurgence in the South West following the 2003 debacle absolutely wrong. In his words, “He won because the people of the South- West refused to mortgage their future to the political interests of Obasanjo and his allies in the North”. If the PDP had used its years in power in the South West to promote development and prosperity, the progressives could never have bounced back in the South-West the way they did. On the contrary, it was the Tinubu administration in Lagos that became a model of good and productive governance that caught the imagination of the South-West and made the progressives electorally viable once more.
Contrary to his insinuations, the Yoruba have no political animosity against the North. Aribisala claims that “Anybody who thinks Tinubu’s APC will succeed in the South-West does not understand South-West politics. The Yorubas are too proud and fiercely independent to agree to play second fiddle to anyone because of a man called Tinubu. S.L. Akintola tried the same gambit in the 1960s, and the South-West rejected him. The same rejection has befallen Bola Tinubu”. This kind of infantile analysis must be embarrassing to Nigeria’s professorial elite. By 1983, Awolowo himself had realised the need to build bridges across the country to win elections in a large, diverse country like Nigeria. His Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN) thus went into an alliance with a faction of the Northern elite which backed him and even nominated Alhaji Mohammed Kura to be his running mate. It was as a result of the massive rigging of that election by the NPN that the military intervened in 1983. Beyond this, MKO Abiola’s landslide victory in the historic June 12, 1993, presidential election was attained largely because he had built a network of friendships and relationships across the length and breadth of Nigeria especially in the North.

Like most politically savvy Nigerians,
the gubernatorial election of the 21st
of June in Ekiti is the least, shocking
even among political pundits and
dramatis personae alike.
Just like any other political and electioneering events in my country, I
had always taken keen interest but the
Ekiti election was beyond that. My
interest in the highly monetized
election was not because of the
shenanigans, schism, mudslinging and the political drama cum comedy abate
a relief anyway, that usually precedes
the always eventful electioneering
process in Nigeria but the fact that I
am a full blooded Ekiti man, this even
makes it more interesting. My treatise is not about the outcome
of the election as it has even been
gleefully accepted by governor Fayemi
himself, but about the preponderances
of the obviously invisible hand of
influence through state coercions. If the outcome of an election is not the
main yardstick for judging how free
and fair it was but, the process that
eventually culminated in the outcome.
If this is a valid axiom, then the Ekiti
election was far from being free and fair.
The elections have come and gone but
the tragedy of the electioneering
travesties are here with us.
The actions and inactions of the
dramatis personae from the Presidency to the incumbent governor, governor-
elect, the average Ekiti Man and
Nigerians alike, the following under
listed infractions are incontrovertible.
1. The full deployment of all
instrumentality of state coercion of over 30,000 military and Para-military
officers to a predominantly agrarian
and civil service state of less than
500,000 registered voters.
2. The adoption and arrest of key
political figures in all the 16 LGAs all across the state at the wee hours of
the Election Day.
3. The arrest of leading members of
the incumbent government and their
subsequent trial for the most ridiculous
yet frivolous reasons of terrorism four days before the election.
With all of these, the question is, is
Ekiti at war? This is nothing but a
storm in a tea cup abate deliberately
anyway for which we are all witnesses
to the outcome. This is for those who are using the Ekiti
election as a veritable barometer to
adjudge the credibility of our
electioneering process, to really have a
rethink. This is without prejudice to
the effort of INEC In all of these, what strike me most, is
the fast fading value system of an
average Ekiti man which this election
has exposed. The re-definition of the
Ekiti slogan from Fountain of
Knowledge to Fountain of WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get).
Pronounced as �We See Wig�.
We saw on a live national TV how the
electorates were induced with bags of
rice and cash for votes which is in
sharp contrast of the hitherto cherished and valued principle of the
Ekiti people. How have times changed
indeed. This is also in a state that is
utterly regarded for its exposure of
producing a professor per family. It is
the least shameful. But again, Ekiti is not an island. This is
part of the fast eroding value system
of the larger Nigerian state couple
with the fact that, the larger majority
of over 160 million of our people live
below one dollar a day. It is to say the least, the triumph of
politics of the belly also called Amala
politics in local parlance, over the
politics of selfless service.
It still behooves my reasoning, how a
renowned intelligesia noted to have served his people diligently, with
unsolicited accolades within and
outside the state would have lost an
election with such margin where he
could not even win his ward, it is that
bad. Not even a serial non performer like Alao Akala did. This tells us
something for which the governor has
also said will be left for scholars to find
out.
Forget the rabble rousers and their
fellow political demagogues who are catching on the outcome of the
election to tag the governor as elitist. I
have come to ask, is building of roads,
computer per child, social security
system of N5000 to the aged per
month, free Medicare for children and the aged, elitist?
I agree, like a friend told me, this is
indeed a new dimension in Ekiti
politics and by extension, Nigeria. And
like the outgoing governor whose
response to his loss has been widely commended all across the world as
largely Un-Nigerian has said, �Indeed
a new sociology of the Ekiti people
have evolved. However, the task of
understanding how the outcome of
this election has defined us as a people will be that of scholars�
Beyond Ekiti, my fear is that, we may
just be playing into the hands of those
who don�t wish this country well.
The recent events whereby the
political leadership appears to gradually gravitate the military into
partisan political roles are most
worrisome. When the military
becomes the preferred agency for
clamping down on the media; for the
grounding of perceived opposition members� aircraft and subsequent
closure of the airport to deny them of
its usage; and forcibly restricting the
freedoms of citizens; including elected
officials through arrest, detention and
false imprisonment, then there is need for men and women of goodwill to
rise and speak irrespective of their
political linens before it is too late to
salvage our very hard earned
democracy.
In the words of Professor Wole Soyinka, �a man dies when he keeps
silent in the face of tyranny�
We are beginning to see and hear
political rough necks and jobbers, who
are themselves fugitive at law, judging
by several corruption cases hovering around them, bragging and ditching
out cacophony of threats that the Ekiti
elections was the best and the echoes
of which will reverberate across the
country. You ask; why wouldn�t
they? They now have their compatriot back in Ekiti and a GEJ who is always
willing to grant them state pardon
provided it will enhance his 2015 re-
election bid. The latest is Mohammed
Abacha. These are ominous signs that
call for concerns of many freedom fighters that were logged in the
trenches to enthrone this democracy
to stop wallowing and luxuriating in
docility and� we are done�
syndrome. Enough is enough.
As for Amala politics, the good people of Oyo state had long rejected it, and
the magic wand used is still very much
around.

Pls I still need help concerning the topic

Thanks for your response.yes i know but pls how can i get a live environment for production? Txn

bedfordng: xamp is basically use for offline development.you will need a live environment to get best result because some stuffs you code may not function well unless its been tested live

Please i still the help and answer 4m the house

U can visit http://ateradtech.com or call 01-7934167, 08032095794

kado: What is the best place to learn Drupal, Word press and Joomla webdesigning in Lagos. Really needs this training ASAP.
Thanks for your anticipated response

Pls send ur phone contact(oludareman@yahoo.com) to my mail for me to xplain to u better. Thanks

bigtt76: Sorry been away. Please what operating system runs on your production environment? I'm a professional and cannot sit back and allow you to go against what is unethical. You can conveniently install a stack consisting of PHP, MYSQL and Apache in most OS without compromising safety. No amount of spoofing g would protect your XAMPP from being hacked when the need arises so to speak.

Thanks for your response. Let do it this way,pls send ur phone contact to my mail (oludareman@yahoo.com) then i giv u a cal. Thanks

soloqy: What exactly are you trying to do? What is the project about? Why not just move it to a typical LAMP environment hosting if its production ready?

<a href="http://thenationonlineng.net/new/jonathans-conference-averting-another-fruitless-jamboree/> The Nation </a>

Chief Arthur Nwankwo, Alhaji Sule Katagum, Alhaji Femi Okunnu, Chief Barnabas Gemade, Chief Paul Unongo, Mrs Stella Onu, Chief Anthony Enahoro, Chief Afe Babalola, Alhaji Sule Lamido, Bishop Mathew Kukah, Dr Bala Usman, Dr Olusola Saraki, Professor Adebayo Adedeji, Mrs TejumadeAlakija, Mrs Elizabeth Pam and AlhajiAdamuCiroma.
Other participants included Mrs Francisca Emmanuel, Ambassador DapoFafowora, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, Mrs Nkoyo Toyo, Ambassador Hassan Adamu, Rear Admiral MurtalaNyako (Rtd), MallamShehuSani, Alhaji Umaru Shinkafi, Dr Ibrahim Tahir, Bishop Peter Adebiyi, Chief Ajibola Ogunsola, Mr Nduka Obaigbena, Major General Ibrahim Haruna (Rtd), Major General Rotimi Adebayo (Rtd), Professor J.O. Irukwu, Professor Jerry Gana, Mr FolaAdeola, Professor Joy Ogwu, Dr Samuel Ogbemudia, Senator Ike Nwachukwu, Lieutenant General Joshua Dongoyaro (Rtd), Mazi Sam Ohuabunwa, Ambassador Greg Mbadiwe, Dr Wale Babalakin, DR CHUKWUEMEKA EZEIFE, Mrs Helen Esuene, MR ORONTO DOUGLAS, Chief Albert Horsefall, Professor AttahiruJega, Justice Charles Oputa, Mr GamalielOnosode, Professor Itse Sagay, Professor Omafume Onoge, Admiral Mike Akhigbe (Rtd), Chief Solomon Lar, Dr UmaruDikko, Profesor Ango Abdullahi, Prince Bola Ajibola and Chief Ebenezer Babatope among others.
This is, of course, only a sampling of the very distinguished participants at the 2005 conference; accomplished and experienced Nigerians from diverse spheres of life. After extensive, rigorous and sometimes rancorous deliberations, that August assembly came up with 118 recommendations for far-reaching constitutional and political changes in Nigeria. The only toxic item on the list for which the entire work of the conference was discarded at the time was the provision for Obasanjo’s obnoxious third term agenda.
Why then can’t the Jonathan administration simply remove that third term virus emphatically rejected by Nigerians and pass the other 117 recommendations for the consideration of the National Assembly as part of its on-going constitutional review and amendment exercise? Doesn’t every administration inherit the assets and liabilities of its predecessor? After all, the President has said that the decisions of his proposed conference will still be passed to the National Assembly. Why then the avoidable wasteful duplication of efforts and resources?
Indeed, President Jonathan appeared to have opted for this wiser and more cost-effective line of action when, in November 2011, he inaugurated the Justice Alfa Belgore Presidential Committee on the Review of Outstanding Issues from Recent Constitutional Conferences. Other members of the committee were Senator Udo Udoma (Vice Chairman), Chief Ebenezer Babatope, Mr Ledun Mittee, Dr Abubakar Siddique, Ms Comfort Obi, Mr Peter Esele, Professor Oladipo Afolabi, Professor Jerry Gana, Ambassador Babagana Kingibe, Ambassador Jibrin Chinadu, Mallam Abubakar Mustapha, Profesor Anya O. Anya, Dr Chukwuemeka Ezeife and Hajia Najatu Mohammed among others.
The Justice Alfa Belgore committee was given the mandate to review past political and constitutional review conferences especially the 2005 conference, judicial reform efforts, charter on human and people’s rights, environment and natural resources, local government joint accounts, revenue sharing formula, traditional institutions and cultural reforms as well as consider civil society, labour and national media reforms. It was also to consider and update parts of the draft documents and resolutions that culminated in the 1999 constitution in the light of contemporary challenges.
President Jonathan specifically emphasised at the inauguration of the committee that he did not opt for a constitutional conference to avoid critics who would accuse him of diverting attention from serious security issues like Boko Haram to embark on another jamboree. So what has really changed to necessitate this new adventure?
When he received the report of the Justice Belgore committee on July 11, 2012, President Jonathan acknowledged that it had done a thorough job, which would be the basis of further action by his administration towards actualising necessary constitutional changes through the National Assembly. He thereby constituted a Cabinet Committee with the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mr Mohammed Bello Adoke (SAN) as Chairman to study the Belgore committee report and come up with its own recommendations within three weeks. Has the three weeks deadline not elapsed or do we need another committee to review the work of the Adoke committee?
It was certainly as part of this process that, under this President’s watch and directive,a presidential retreat was held for Civil Society Organizations and professional groups at the Banquet Hall of the State House, Abuja, on September 6, 2012. This was the first in the series of activities marking the country’s 52nd independence anniversary. The purpose of the retreat with the theme “Towards a People’s Constitution”, was purportedly to enable government engage the civil society in the constitution amendment process. President Jonathan asserted then that the essence of the engagement was to galvanise the views of the people through the civil society groups. Again, this retreat was organized with scarce national resources. Must all these efforts go to waste as we seek to commence another jamboree or is it a case of jobs and money for the boys? If so, why not just give the patronage directly rather than wasting the time of the nation?
Let us note most significantly that the Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Mr EmekaIhedioha, who is also the Chairman, House Committee on Constitution Review stressed at that retreat in the presence of President Jonathan that the target of the legislature was to complete the constitution amendment process by June 2013 well before the 2015 general elections. Urging President Jonathan to speed up Executive Bills on the constitutional review process and send same to the National Assembly in good time as promised, Ihedioha said “We await your input and indeed the draft bills from the President as promised. However, in the interim, the process will continue to move on in the National Assembly as we cannot afford to wait for the promised bills indefinitely. We have set for ourselves, the target period of second quarter of 2013 as the terminal date for this process…The reason is that Partisan and electioneering politics should not get in the way of the amendment process. It should be concluded in time before elections begin”.
The President was given this timely advice in September last year. What excuse does he then have for seeking to commence a fresh national conference towards the end of 2013 – barely 15 months to fresh elections? And this suspicious move is coming after the National Assembly has expended substantial public resources going round the country collating views from individuals and groups in pursuit of its constitutional amendment exercise. If the decisions of the proposed national conference will still go back to the same National Assembly, are we not simply going round in meaningless circles or being served deception a la carte? I urge those who genuinely support the proposed constitutional conference for national change to carefully ponder these issues.
Surely, there is mischief in the air. This is a pointless and needless distraction. I call on President Jonathan to abandon this fruitless path. Let him forward the 118 recommendations of the 2005 National Political Reform Conference minus the toxic third term provision, accompanied by the report of the Justice Belgore committee and the input of the Mohammed Adoke committee, for the consideration of the National Assembly as part of its on-going constitution amendment exercise. If after all these the amended constitution still proves inadequate, we will at least have a scientific and systematic basis for charting the way forward while also ensuring that the immense resources committed to past exercises do not go to waste.
Meanwhile, for whatever it is worth, the Senator Okurounmuadvisory committee can be retained to continue consulting and planning for a genuine Soverign National Conference, which can only meaningfully and realistically take place after the next general elections irrespective of which party wins at the polls.

Source: http://thenationonlineng.net/new/jonathans-conference-averting-another-fruitless-jamboree/

Text of a statement on the proposed National Conference by former Lagos State Governor and National Leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu
I am gratified and feel fulfilled that a good number of Nigerians have demonstrated understanding and appreciation of my position on the national conference of still indeterminate character proposed by President Goodluck Jonathan in his October 1, independence anniversary broadcast to the nation. In an interview with journalists on arrival to the country from my recent medical vacation abroad, I described the proposal as a deception and Greek gift, which must be viewed with utmost caution and suspicion. I later gave a detailed elaboration of why I considered the proposed national conference ill-conceived, ill-timed, Ill-motivated as well as why the President Goodluck Jonathan administration is demonstrably and incurably incapacitated to successfully oversee and actualize the objectives of such a crucial and sensitive exercise.
Unfortunately, rather than respond to me on points of fact and logic, the administration’s officials went on a fruitless voyage of personal attacks and insults. Of course, that does not bother me. Millions of Nigerians are becoming increasingly too sophisticated to be taken for a ride. They can separate the wheat of reason from the chaff of illogic and brazen opportunism. It is, however, obvious that unfolding events are beginning to vindicate my stand.
Those who prematurely celebrated what they saw as an impending ‘Sovereign National Conference’ and adulated PresidentGoodluck Jonathan for refraining from imposing ‘no go areas’ on the National Conference Advisory Committee were soon in for a rude shock. Apparently they were swimming in an ocean of fantasy. The President has since declared that the outcome of the conference, dialogue, conversation or whatever eventually transpires will be sent for the National Assembly’s consideration and ratification. As I will demonstrate shortly, we are thus set to undertake an absolutely wasteful and barren exercise.
Those who argue that as a long standing advocate of a Sovereign National Conference, I should automatically and unreflectively jump on the bandwagon of the Jonathan administration’s new fancy of a national conference are being either mischievous or plainly ignorant. I remain unrepentantly fervent in my belief in and commitment to fundamental structural and constitutional changes in Nigeria as an indispensable imperative to liberate the country from perennial crises, instability, disunity, poverty and underdevelopment. But I am exceedingly suspicious of the motives of a party and an administration, which has ignored calls for a national conference for years only to see the light less than 15 months to the next general elections. There is surely more to this somersault than meets the eye.
As a former Governor of Lagos State, Nigeria’s commercial and industrial nerve centre, no one is more conscious and sensitive than I of the urgent need to re-direct the country to the path of unfettered federalism. Although our administration between 1999 and 2007 laid a firm foundation for the on-going transformation of Lagos under the dynamic leadership of Governor BabatundeRajiFashola, we could have done much more if the country was practicing a genuinely federal system.
For instance, I was the first in the country to articulate the case for the establishment of state police in order to enable governors effectively play their roles as Chief Security Officers of their states and enhance the capacity to safeguard lives and property nationwide. With the virtual breakdown of law and order nationwide – rampant kidnappings, armed robbery, assassinations, crude oil theft, extremist terrorism, communal conflicts, ritual killings etc. – many more voices across the country are now calling for state police. Can the Jonathan presidency sincerely support this demand given, for instance, the way the Nigeria Police is being cynically and brazenly manipulated from the centre for partisan political purposes in Rivers State and during isolated elections in Ondo and Delta states as witnessed recently for example?
In the same vein, I have insistently advocated the separation of the office of the Accountant General of the Federation from that of the Accountant General of the Federal Government. The conflation of both offices as currently obtains violates the tenets of true federalism and is responsible for much of the atrocious corruption associated with the management and disbursement of funds from the Federation Account. No one accountant should keep the books of two distinct corporate entities as expressly provided for in our federal constitution.
A separate Accountant General for the Federation will ensure a more transparent, accountable and just distribution of funds from the Federation Account in such a way that the Federal Government is no more able to short change the states as routinely happens now. But again, can a Jonathan administration that continues to condone a hopelessly corrupt an opaque Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), which makes its statutory payments to the Federation Account according to its arbitrary whims, accept or encourage such a far reaching change? It is doubtful. This is why we are witnessing today, persistent underreporting of revenue to the Federation Account to the detriment of the states and the obvious benefit of the Federal Government.
The current Revenue Allocation formula, which allows the Federal Government alone to control more revenue than the entire 36 state governments and 774 local government areas combined, is patently unjust and incapable of fostering rapid socio-economic development. Today, the centre is awash with so much fund that fuels massive corruption while millions of Nigerians that live in the states are impoverished due to the financial incapacitation of most state governments to live up to their responsibilities. A review of a revenue allocation ratio that gives the Federal Government alone 52.4% of the nation’s monthly revenue while the 36 state governments share 26% has most certainly become urgent and imperative.
To cite another example, Lagos State would today have been generating sufficient electricity to meet the needs of her people but for the monopolistic control of electricity supply by the Federal Government. In 2001, our administration initiated the first Independent Power Project (IPP) in the country. It was only after much difficulty that the Federal Government allowed the take off of the first phase of the project, which is today generating between 260MW and 300MW of electricity from Ikorodu. Even then, under our unjust federal structure, the power generated goes to the national grid rather than being dedicated to Lagos. Thereafter, the Federal Government frustrated the actualisation of the second phase of the project, which by 2003 would have been generating 540 MW of electricity from Morogbo in Badagry.
I thus have first- hand experience of the negative effects for development of an overbearing and suffocatingfederal government that prevents the states from maximising their potentials in the best interest of their people. I remain strongly in support of the devolution of greater powers, responsibilities and resources from the centre to the states as a necessary condition to achieve rapid development in Nigeria. This will necessarily involve the kind of fundamental constitutional changes being advocated all along by proponents of a Sovereign National Conference. However, apart from the questionable timing of President Jonathan’s latest initiative, other critical issues must be raised as regards the exercise.
For the last 14 years since 1999, Nigeria has had the PDP in control of the Federal Government. There has thus been continuity of the same party in power at the centre. How then can the Jonathan administration behave as if it is oblivious of the efforts of President Olusegun Obasanjo’s government in the area of constitutional and political reforms? How can the administration behave like the board of a corporation that commences each meeting without reference to the minutes of previous meetings? The simple truth is that the decision of the Jonathan administration to commence another national conference from scratch while completely abandoning what was done in this respect under Obasanjo is a most irresponsible and insensitive waste of the country’s scarce resources.
We will recall that former President Obasanjo’s PDP-controlled Federal Government inaugurated a National Political Reform Conference on 21st February, 2005, at the International Conference Centre, Abuja. A substantial amount of national resources was undoubtedly expended on this exercise even though the cost was never made public. Apart from representatives of the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory, other categories represented at the National Political Reform Conference include respectable elder statesmen, retired civil servants, retired diplomats, traditional rulers, labour, women, civil society, religious leaders, Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN), National Association of Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Manufacturing and Agriculture (NACCIMA), students, journalists, the physically challenged, ethnic nationality groups, political parties, youth organizations, retired military, police and SSS personnel and Nigerians in diaspora among others.
To enable us appreciate the quality of representation at the National Political Reform Conference, I will give a brief overview of some of the eminent and accomplished Nigerians who were the delegates. They include Dr Uma Eleazu, Senator Mahmud Waziri, Chief EmekaAnyaoku, ChHIEF EDWIN CLARK, SENATOR FEMI OKUROUMMU,

Pls i still need answers from the house

Thanks for your response. I was just thinking what if i password the apache,mysql and phpmyadmin just to restrict access to to the base file and likewise rename xampp to also deny access to it via a web browser, pls will these be alright and secured. Thanks for your anticipated response

bigtt76: It is not safe as it's got several default settings that may be exploited if you don't know how to configure it correctly.

If I may ask, what Operating System runs on your hosting server? Why not just get a server running Linux or on any of the various hosts and install the Apache/PHP/MySQL stack? On Windows, this can be achieved too. Why risk running XAMPP on Production? Its grossly unethical and unprofessional

I am about to run a software on a xampp server using an intranet live production environment. Please I want to know the likely risk involved in using xampp in a live production environment other than a developer's environment. The house response will be highly appreciated.
Thanks