₦airaland Forum

A neighbour who wouldn’t want his name in print told the reporter that the husband had received over a N100, 000 from a thrift cooperative and kept it in his wife’s possession.

The couple is celebrating 50 years of married life and that is one celebration many couples in today’s Nigeria cannot afford.

Igbo leaders in Lagos State under the aegis of the Igbo Progressive Leaders Council, on Sunday, sought the cooperation of Lagos State Governor, Mr. Akinwunmi Ambode.

In this vein, the group came up with a seven-point agenda for the governor.

The Publicity Secretary, IPLC, Dr. Harris Chuma, announced the agenda at the post-inauguration thanksgiving lecture and dinner held in honour of Ambode in Lagos on Sunday.

The group asked Ambode to protect the lives, properties and investments of Igbo in the state. It also asked for a place in the government of the All Progressives Congress.

Chuma said, “The newly inaugurated government will continue to partner with Ndigbo in moving the state forward such that the Ndigbo in the state will continue to have a place in the government and civil service.”

Meanwhile, the outgoing Speaker of the Kwara State House of Assembly, Mr. Razak Atunwa, and the Chairman, Beacon Light of Anti-Corruption Crusaders, Alhaji Olola Kasum, have called on Nigerians to support President Muhammadu Buhari in his commitment to reposition and transform Nigeria.

Atunwa said though the country faced many developmental challenges, Buhari’s was poised to find solutions to them.

“This journey might be difficult and long as a lot of damage has been done to Nigeria by the immediate past administration,” Atunwa said.

Kasum, who urged Buhari not to yield to overtures to make him compromise his anti-corruption fight, advised the President to be resolute in bringing corrupt officials to book.

He stated that corruption was the major developmental challenge of the country, adding that all stakeholders must collaborate with Buhari to rid the nation of corruption.

Kasum said, “Buhari said he cannot fight corruption alone. All of us should work together to make Nigeria great. Anti-corruption crusade is one of the prime programmes of this administration. We know that corruption is the actual cause of instability and lack development in the nation.”

cc lalasticlala

BY CHIDI OBINECHE

Immediate past petroleum minister, Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke during whose tenure several allegations of corrupt practices in the industry have been flying around is literally running from pillar to post, apparently in search of reprieve.

The highly influential minister in former president Goodluck Jonathan’s government is said to have stepped up efforts, playing out to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, (EFCC), buzzing the phones line of the agency’s Chairman, Ibrahim Lamorde.

Saturday Sun learnt that the calls have neither been taken nor acknowledged.

Exasperated, the Bayelsa born former senior executive of Shell Petroleum Development Company Limited reported Lamorde to the former National Security Adviser (NSA), General Aliyu Gusau (retd), complaining that the EFCC helmsman had been ignoring her calls.

It was further gathered that Gusau’s intervention earned little relief for her as Lamorde explained to the ex-NSA that Diezani had for over two and half years snubbed him.

The anti-corruption czar, according to Sunday Sun’s source told the General he would not understand her spirited efforts to reach out to him now that she was no longer in power, adding for good effect that she poured more cold water on him with a usual shrill banter. “my brother, my brother” anytime they meet at public events.

It was further learnt that the embattled lady is not giving up without a good fight as she is said be prevailing on Gusau to convene a meeting between the two of them for fence mending.

It is not yet clear whether the General has obliged her request.

Diezani has been buffeted in the last three years with unsavoury reports of sleight.

So much was the uproar that student calls were made by human rights activists and anti corruption crusaders for her sack or resignation.

Former Ceneral Bank governor, Mallam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi first blew that whistle over the missing $20billion oil money from the vault.

In the face of flat denials by the government and the refusal to budge to the demands of the activities for sack, a forensic audit of the accounts of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) was ordered and given to the PriceWater-CooperHouse, a reputable international firm of auditors.

The firm returned a report of a lower figure of $18billion, and urged that a minimum of $6billion be returned. The NNPC, which initially disagreed with the figure later grudgingly accepted to make gradual refunds, but is yet to keep faith with that. Coupled with that is the undying issue of petroleum subsidy which is said to be mirred in high profile corruption.

The vexed and unresolved issue of petroleum subsidy often pitched marketers against the government and has led to incessant strikes.

Attempts by both chambers of the National Assembly to wade into the issue and other oil related ones met with a brick wall as she consistently refused to honour their calls.

At the height of the investigations into the $20billion missing oil money, she ran to the court and obtained an interlocutory injunction, restraining members of the House of Representatives from summoning her.

While these events unfolded, the Presidency watched unperturbed, offering no helpful insight to the demanding public. Till date, the former petroleum minster rode the waves’-declining all calls for explanations. The attitude of the Presidency in the face of the scandal effectively put her on the “A’ list of the class of “untouchables” in Jonathan’s government.

On Friday May 24, she was reported to have run after President Muhammadu Buhari at the Nnamdi Azikiwe airport. Both were on their way on a British Airways flight to London, Buhari was first to arrive the airport and completed his boarding formalities. Diezani arrived shortly after, and on getting wind of the presence of Buhari, who was yet to be sworn-in as president then, she abandoned her aides and ran after him. It was further reported that attempts made by her to snuggle up to him and speak to him on the flight drew blank. The report is yet to be denied. Diezani is the first woman to become the president of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries, OPEC. As part of her controversial tenure, she flew around the world in private jets. The petroleum minister is generally acclaimed as a dark spot in Jonathan’s regime which president Buhari promised a comprehensive clean-up during the presidential campaign.

Where are we after 55 years, and where do we intend to go? As I listened to Buhari’s speech yesterday, I felt sorry for Nigeria. How did we get here? Everything in Nigeria has changed and, in many ways, changed for the worst. We still see poverty everywhere we turn. We are still worried whether the next ship will bring enough food. We are a country floating on crude oil yet we wake up every morning to fuel scarcity, wondering whether we have enough money in our pockets to buy fuel for our generators and cars for the next day

Prof. Shehu Riskuwa, Former VC Usman Danfodio University, Sokoto, on Saturday expressed confidence that the present administration would weed out Boko Haram insurgency.
Riskuwa told the News Agency of Nigeria ( NAN ) in Sokoto that President Muhammadu Buhari, being an army general, would come out with stringent security measures that would end the killings of innocent souls.
He said that Buhari had the political will to end the activities of the insurgents, hence the decision to relocate the military central command to Maiduguri showed that the administration was committed to tackling the insurgency.
He explained that ” it has been part of his campaign to bring to an end the activities of the insurgents.
” I am very confident that, with well-coordinated security strategies and political will to implement, Nigerians will soon put the menace of Boko Haram insurgency behind them, ” he said.
He explained that being a former military governor in the area , as well as a former military Head of State, all those responsible would be fished out for prosecution.
The don called for more support to the security agencies , especially now that the military’s command headquarters would relocate to Borno.
He said that the action would boost intelligence report gathering that would lead to the arrest and prosecution of the sect members.
He urged the residents to complement the efforts of the security agencies through intelligence information.
Riskuwa also called for the provision of state-of -the- art equipment for the security agencies to enable them diligently confront the members of the sect.
He said that the provision of modern working equipment and welfare would enable the security officers to effectively discharge their constitutional responsibilities.

NnamdiN:
that means you dont want it to stop...

Oyo State Governor, Senator Isiaq Abiola Ajimobi and his wife Florence kissing after the Swearing-in Ceremony of Senator Ajimobi for the second term in Office held at Liberty Stadium, Ibadan
By the Chief Judge of Oyo State, Justice Munta Oladapo Abimbola

Olabode claimed that Folake, was using charms
on his children to love, respect and obey her while she did the opposite for him.

NnamdiN:
you attack him for calling your malu president brainless then go ahead to call his own man clueless and you think it would ever stop?

iuweiwd:
Congatulations

Kajiang02:
All these half baked Journalist and fake stories.
How can a man in his 60s still be working in a ministry? Is on a work for life Job abi dem no dey retire at 60 for that particular ministry ni?

She accused her husband of infidelity, claiming
that he was dating two of her close friends and that anytime she confronts him he resorts to violence.

Leebeedo:
Last PAINT of blood?

Contain divisive forces and actions. We seem
to divide ourselves in the name of tribe, region,
religion, group, sub-group, constituencies, and we
never unite in times of crisis.

Dorrobucci:
Baba One Chance is our messiah though he's brainless. We go manage am

Dear yemisi
I want to appreciate you for what God is using you to do for humanity. I have been following your comments via this column and I want to believe that my own request will be sorted out.
I am 38 years old working in a viable firm with a good pay. As a graduate there is nothing that I need in terms of material things that I don 't have except a good suitor.
I graduated some eight years ago, waiting to be approached by a lover, but I have not been fortunate to meet a serious minded man. All the ones who have spoken with me since I made up my mind to settle down, I have realised are just fun seekers.
When I was an undergraduate, I had so many male casual friends and I never considered any of them as husband material.
I am becoming worried by the day because age is no longer on my side. All my younger sisters are happily married. My parents are not helping matters as they insist that I must not bring home any man who is not from Yorubaland.
Coupled with the above is that I have been to many ministers of God who have told me that a generational curse is operating in my life being the first child of my parents. They have asked me to come for deliverance, but I have not gone back for the programme.
Now my fear is, what if I am not so fortunate to get a Yoruba man and my refusal to submit to any kind of deliverance because I don't believe in such an exercise, what will be my lot?

This is why we said we are not going to chase kobos but we will chase billions and millions of naira stolen from government.

Kaduna State Governor Malam Nasir Ahmed El-Rufa’i says his government will forgive public officials who stole small amounts of money but arrest high profile thieves.
He dropped the hint at an inaugural lecture with the theme, “Building Rome in a Day with One Kobo, El-Rufai and the Challenges of 21st Century Kaduna”, held in Kaduna yesterday.
The lecture was delivered by Professor Pius Adesanmi, a professor of English and African Studies at the Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada.
“We will not condone acts of insincerity. We will insist on accountability. This is why we said we are not going to chase kobos but we will chase billions and millions of naira stolen from government.
“We will forgive the hundreds and a million stolen because those who stole such small funds are only hungry, we have to strike a balance. Those who stole thousands or a million are pickpockets and can be forgiven but we are only interested in armed robbers who stole billions and millions of naira.
“We intend to make Kaduna great again and I promise to do that. If we fail, it’s not because of lack of commitment or sincerity. We all know how things have gone bad in the state,” he said.
He added that his administration would not try to witch-hunt anybody, but would rather be interested in improving the lives of the people.
El’ Rufai added that the recent energy crisis was planned by the outgoing government.
“Just few days ago, Nigerian electricity dropped from 4,000 to just 50 megawatts. The system just stopped working because they are living office. These are man-made difficulties, it’s a way of punishing 160 million people because they voted them out of government,” he said.
Chairman of the inaugural lecture, retired General Martin Luther Agwai, said he was sacked from office as chairman of Sure-P funds by the outgoing government because he spoke about change of government in public.
“Nigerians voted massively for change, the same change I spoke about ýbefore the election and I lost my job, today I have no job”, he said