₦airaland Forum

This is a season, not of anomy but of all time utmost clarity. We no longer imagine for one moment that there is any mystery about the entity called Nigeria. There is nothing left to be seen. In time past, one may need magnifying lenses, not anymore. We don’t even need oracular permutations to view the future. The sign post has long been there except that some elected to wake late in the day. However, this awakening is morning yet on glorious dawn. The wavelength now is to continue to instill fears and doubt on the minds of tottering people in that ailed design registered as Nigeria Inc.

Not too long ago, they dished out to you that Igbo’s like’s money; that all you need is to shake a few shekels of silver or bronze when an Ibo man lay dead and he would wake up. In other words, no ethnic group loves money more than the Igbo’s. This was stereotypically swallowed.

They served a second dish; Igbo’s are domineering and will run its neighbors rough-shod given the opportunity to rule. To foster this argument, states were created in the south East and as expected, everybody raised fingers to high heavens and sang “Shekelekebangoshea”.　When they brought their hands down, they looked at their finger nails and saw white marks, a proof that those white flying birds, soaring up in the sky had honored their wishes. Like babies, they were happy.

Before sundry men and women could digest the last menu, they brought “tuwo shinkafi,” Igbo’s control Nigeria commerce. People loved this tuwo of a shinkafi most because they looked at Balogun and trade fair complex in Lagos, saw Dilimi street and Ojukwu Jenta, both in Jos, looked at Kano and Kaduna and knew about Main market Onitsha. Most of the shops or corners are owned by Igbo’s. No other evidence was needed. Ownership of these shops is a direct link to Igbo’s control of commerce. The evidence furthered by price haggling with Igbo’s and their costumers wherever they found themselves.

Now, they would remind you to take a look at Ijaw and Ishekiri, Esan and Uhrobo, kidnapping in the east and other ethnic rivalries. This reminder is to assure us that conflict exists everywhere. In other words, we should stay the way we are; we should accept the status quo and remain a decadent society, without electricity, pipe borne water, good road network, security of life and property, etc,.

The best selling shot they have found today is in the person of Sanusi, CBN bank chief. The rule of law initially flown to be the main pivot of UMYA no longer holds water.
The fed is getting full. At a point, one being fed will contract and seize to be fed like a horse taken to a river. Must you continue to drink from the cistern of lies?

It is obvious today the part of the country that controls the machinery of state planning for at least thirty five of the past fifty years of Nigeria’s unmeritorious existence. We now know that who got the power, got the oil and therefore source of fund. It is obvious today which part of the country had kept its own people in abject poverty; in poverty of means as well as poverty of learning and scholarship.

Some writers had given kudos to Dora Akunyili for saying her mind in a forum where what mattered most is to “hold your side.” She knew that there was nothing to re-brand; she knew that she could no longer say that Nigeria is not a terrorist country when as a follow up to the anger of a Muttalab, some elements in Bauchi, in the north of Nigeria mounted an insurrection against the citizenry. As this was being broadcasted world-wide and quelled, a greater curse on women’s uterus erupted in Jos, Plateau state, a state that houses—Go On With One Nigeria {GOWON}, a state that if you move a bit down, you will find the likes of T.Y. Danjuma. Before the whole world, corpses were discovered thrown inside pits; heads down. History is already the witness of a mother that “came home to roost” in the person of Dora Akunyili. Her message was simply human, no ideologues attached, no isms embedded.

While making her pronouncements at FEC, she spoke of the most immediate. Given enough time to chronicle the problems, she would have articulated that the time is right to liberate even those Almajiris who are still in Primary Schools, Class 1 at age nineteen in the north; those Almajiris that only goes to school because a stick of cigarette would be given to them if they show up. They will be educated to see who their real enemies are. Those who would “open their eyes” are already on the ground.

Abubakar Suleiman is there and others of his kilt. They would educate them, making sure they understand what they are being taught and encourage them to tell others in the language they are familiar with. If they need a cigarette, they would buy a pack by themselves.

For some of us in Diasporas, we are waiting for those “whodunit” on us.

In US, there is an American Forfeiture Law, tied to RICO-The Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, which entitles a people to go to any federal court and show that an asset or assets are proceeds from ill gotten wealth or public money. The advantage of such law is that the onus of proof is on the accused. Under such law, the US government can seize property based solely upon probable cause to believe that the property was gotten unlawfully, and this applies to those owned by foreigners.

Not even their conduits living overseas, assisting them for these activities would have a place to hide.

We would wait for them at airports and follow them to press conferences.

As for those who feed on fears, we will remind them of the basics, the determinant factors holding a country down, such determinants being the menial provision of human and humane amenities that enables life worth living to teeming Nigerians, such determinants being the reasons why government exists in the first place.


Source: http://www.saharareporters.com/articles/external-contrib/5067-dora-akunyili-a-stick-of-cigarette.html

mikeansy:
This folks are trying to be relevant in an issue which they have simply chosen to be passive.

Is'nt it clear that what they are doing is just following the direction of the wind.

I knew that Yar'adua's days are over when OBJ spoke. He still has access to intelligence reports in this country and when he speaks you got to know that it means a lot.

@mikeansy. You are correct. Look at Madam rebranding's memo to FEC and the Governor's meeting, all this are signs that all is not well with Yar-adua. Dora is smart we all think she did it for Nigeria,  No way!!!!!!!. Cause she would have been afriad of being sack, She presented that memo so as to be in the good book of GoodLuck and this governors are doing same because of thier second term. Lets watch out!!! by next week other ministers  will shift camps  even Aondoakaa will be singing , Goodluck! , Goodluk!!!, Goodluck.

The Governors Forum in their meeting last night, among other major decisions, demanded for the inauguration of Vice President Goodluck Jonathan as the Acting President with immediate effect.
The governors who sat for about seven hours at the Kwara State Lodge in Abuja also demanded that the procedure for appointing Vice President Jonathan as Acting President could either be verbal or written.

While appreciating the position of the 1999 Constitution in relation to the office of the President and that of his deputy, the Forum urged Nigerians to give Acting President Jonathan all the support he needs to succeed until President Yar’Adua returns in good health.

The governors also said that they would convene a meeting with the leadership of the National Assembly to pass a resolution empowering Goodluck Jonathan as Acting President.
On the Jos crisis, the governors resolved to send relief materials to the victims of the last mayhem in the Plateau State capital, insisting that that the Jos problem is a political problem, not religious.
The Forum also urged all state governors to put in place a machinery to enforce rule of law, so as to avoid a repeat of the Jos crisis in their home states.

It will be recalled that the decision of last night’s meeting in Abuja was a follow up to the position of the Northern governors meeting in Kaduna yesterday.
Some of the states that were either represented by the governor or the deputy at the meeting are: Kwara, Kebi, Benue, Adamawa, Rivers, Ebonyi, Delta, Ekiti, Nasarawa, Cross River, Sokoto, Abia, Katsina, Niger, Borno, Edo, Kaduna, Bauchi, Enugu, Akwa Ibom, Bayelsa, Gombe, Oyo, Jigawa, Kogi, Kano, Lagos, Taraba, Osun and Ondo.


Source:The Sun news Online

A lot of factors are considered by husbands and wives as means in choosing their next of kin. Some women thinks their husbands are unsuitable , because they believe that on their demise these husbands may take another wife and neglect their children and make them suffer .

These women opt for their children especially their first child(male).Some believe choosing a next of kin depends on the disposition of members of their families to them while to others any member of the family can play that role as long as love exists in the family. What about women without children?

Fellow NL who is your next of kin and why?

By GIDEON OPARINDE
SunNewsOnline
Sunday, January 31, 2010

dream die!, die!!, die!!!, in Jesus Name I pray Ameeeeeeeeennnnnnnnnnnnnnnn!!!!!!!!!!!!

uhhhh!!!!! afta the prayer I slept and I also dreamt that your dream was fake

House, I want to ask, is there anybody here that can verify this Pastor Obadare story? , how true is this Aunty Bimbo romantic story with tinubu, and  the N6billion allegedly found in her bank account after she died, ?

I dong tire I am so confused!!!!!!!

PurestBoy:
@poster,

, and who told u that (un)called girls are better wifey?

@Rooneyboy

the question is not abt if an (un)called girl will make a better wife? its very simple, will you marry a called girl for any reason? Just like asking UBA or First Bank if they can hire a 419'er or an ex con-man.

Victor and Juliet have been in a romantic relationship for two years. Unknown to Victor, his beloved Juliet is a  call girl.
Although doctors have confirmed that Juliet is two months pregnant for him, the shock and betrayal of his discovery that the woman he has planned to spend the rest of his life with is a love-peddler made him become evasive.
He bolted and disappeared into thin air, afraid of what his family may say when they finally find out that the woman  he loves isn’t the decent girl he made them believe.

As he sits in the darkness of the dingy hotel room he has rented, he ponders over his relationship with Juliet-how could he have been blinded with love that he refused to listen to the repeated warnings from Charles, his best friend, that his girlfriend bore resemblance to a love-peddler he once shared a night of passion with while serving in Zamfara State.
How could he face his friends, colleagues and family members he had told of his wedding plans?  To worsen his dilemma, he is still in love with Juliet.

Should he go ahead, marry Juliet and live with the stigma or should he remain in hiding and forsake Juliet and the unborn baby?
What will you do if you were in his shoes? And if you are a member of his family, will you encourage him to marry the girl knowing she is a love-peddler?

Marry her of course— Victor Osuagwu, Actor

Whether she’s a call girl or love-peddler right now doesn’t count anymore. There are other things that should be given great attention now. And the first one is that he’s in love with the lady in question. Secondly, this same lady is pregnant for him which means she’s fruitful enough to bear children.

The third one is that this woman is equally willing to begin a new life, if not she won’t tell him about the pregnancy. So, there’s no big deal. I want him to come out from his hiding place and boldly take his beloved to the altar.
Right now, the woman we’re talking about needs plenty of attention so that she can feel loved, which will also help to rehabilitate her.

As for the stigma, that one will only last for a short while and people will forget all about it as long as she’s really willing to come out of  her old life.

Even the heavens will rejoice with the young man for restoring one soul. Most people who turn a new leaf  like this woman we’re talking about are more determined to make a difference than those who call themselves saints. I can assure you that the possibility that she’ll go back to her old life is very thin. My advice for this young man whether as a friend or brother is that he should be bold enough to take this woman as his wife if he’s really in love with her.


She can always have a new life — Rose Okafor, Model

The fact that she’s a call girl today doesn’t mean she can never be a better human being tomorrow if she’s given the opportunity. It will be amazing to know what value she could add to humanity if she’s given a new orientation in life. If my brother is in love with a call girl and is willing to marry her, then I’ll not stop him from marrying her because it’s his life, happiness and future.
Whether my parents, me or any other person is happy about it or not, is not important here. What matters most is that he’s happy. So he should come out from his hiding and go ahead to marry his beloved.


Certify her medically okay and marry her — Scott Robert, Actor

I’ll not hesitate to marry her, especially if I’m still in love with her and can’t get her off my head.
I want you to understand that not many women enjoy going into prostitution. Most of them are in it because of one need or another. Yes, many people may say that they should have found something else to do but they may have tried other things which failed.
I want to advise this man we’re talking about to go ahead and marry his beloved, despite the fact that she’s a call girl because if I were in his shoes, I’ll do same.

I’ll take her to the hospital for medical check ups and marry her. Don’t you think that the reason she’s keeping the pregnancy is because she loves me as well? Again, if she wasn’t determined to leave the streets, she’ll not be thinking of having a baby.

Marry her, simple— Ngozi Philips, Student

One thing people fail to realise is that many love-peddlers are willing to have a new life, only if they have the opportunity. Let me ask you one question, how many women with good jobs can go into prostitution? Do you think it’s easy to do prostitution? Call girls are women with big hearts and not too many people can do it.If he’s my brother, I won’t stop him from marrying this lady, simple.


It may be difficult for me — Guy P, Musician

Men! This one tough …o! If the girl still dey love-peddler, how I wan believe say na me give am the belle? But on a more serious note, it will be difficult for me to marry a call girl for so many reasons, one of them being that most call girls find it difficult to leave the business because they consider it lucrative. She could have found something else to do. Why did she have to choose trading her body for money?

On the contrary, if she has resigned this profession, only for me to discover she was in it, but she’s ready to spend the rest of her life with me, then I’ll marry her if I love her. Because every one of us has a past.

H'mmmmm!!!!!!!!!!! what do you think?


By Bridget Amaraegbu
Vanguard Newspaper of 22.01.2010

Ladies in the house, will you allow your husband know how much you have?
Before your comment, here is Helen's experience:

Left for Helen, she would have loved to be open and plain to her husband who happens to be the second man in her life. But following the treachery that turned her against her first husband and father of her only three children, she decided to keep sealed lips on anything private about her.

Helen was thrown out of her first matrimonial home after she opened an account in favor of her husband. Before long, her husband started flirting around with strange girls. To cut the story short, he impregnated one of them and brought her in. He then started maltreating Helen.

Since she has lost confidence in him she decided to go on with life and re-married. Having wealthy parents, things bounced back for her and she lives fine again determined never to trust any man. She now runs her business alone and manages her bank accounts without her husband knowing how much she is worth.
Can you tell your husband how much you’re worth?

Meanwhile this is what others are saying:


BIMPE DOHERTY
Yes, but this depends on the kind of husband I have. In other words, if he doesn’t use what I have against me. Some husbands, immediately after they discover you are richer than them, will stop performing their responsibilities in the home.
They would not want to drop money to take care of anything anymore thinking “after all she has got so much money than I, her husband. Let her shoulder part of my responsibilities, after all we are helpers of each other.

MRS. TOYIN AKINGBESOTE
Yes he knows how much I have. He knows my worth and the assets I have. Though we don’t share the same account, he knows my ATM account number . So far we love each other and there is no cause for alarm. Nothing would happen whether I declare my assets to him or not. The only thing I know quite well is that I cannot share the same account with him but there is nothing bad if he knows how much I’m worth.

MRS. JOSEPH
Yes, he knows everything about me and how much I’m worth.
Most men today are not considerate and sincere with their wives. They are not interested in true love. They are gold diggers.
Many men, after discovering the worth of their wives, look for means to eliminate them, or dupe them.
But for me, nothing stops me from telling my husband how much I have … both in cash and fixed assets. It also depends on my observations.
There are some couples who have been married for four or five years but have not really discovered each other so well. The husband cannot vouch for his wife on certain things and vise-versa. They still nurse fear inside of them.
Some men on the other hand, married their wives because of their parents’ wealth.
Not all women would declare how much they are worth to their husbands. It is just like making your will and even exposing it to the beneficiary before it is read. We all know that such a thing could lead to a murder attempt on the owner of the will . We have heard true stories of this, and so I believe nothing is impossible especially when it comes to money and other material things.

MRS. O. WILLIAMS
I will say yes, but it also depends on the kind of man he is. Without being sentimental, I’ll say not all men are the same. But if he is the type that opens up to me concerning his wealth, business and investments, I will surely do like-wise. If he is not, I’d rather keep sealed lips.

AYEESHAT
Well, let me say to an extent it is good to be open with one’s spouse.
I will rather say yes, because what ever belongs to me belongs to him and vise-versa.
If we cannot be open to each other, it means we are living a dangerous life.
If a woman is reluctant to declare her assets to her husband it means she really can’t confide in him and she feels unsafe with him or his relatives. It may also be that she is afraid something terrible might happen in the long run…so don’t blame her.

MRS. AFOLABI
No. I don’t think it is necessary I disclose my assets to him especially when I can’t understand some things happening in the home or I fear something might happen. As long as we all are human beings, anything could happen which may make the man maltreat you and knowing what you are worth, he may use it against you. What would you do to such a man? Nothing of course can be done, because he is believed to be the head of the family, and he is never seen as accountable in whatsoever he does.
So, I would rather advise that you know the kind of husband you have before going ahead to put your entire trust in him. You won’t regret this at the end of the day.

MRS. SOLESI
Authoritatively I can say yes.
I do not see reasons why women should hide things from their husbands.
No matter what, you have been pronounced husband and wife, although things may not remain smooth all through in marriage, but I think love should be able to make the difference here.
There is nothing I do without my husband’s knowledge. We understand each other quite well and you would discover that a secret is best kept by husbands and wives.

MRS. RUTH EZE
No. For security reasons I would like to keep that aspect to myself.
We might think it is easy to put our total trust in a man, but I am telling you that it is risky. Everything we do is risky, only God knows the future. If only God could reveal to us what is far ahead of us, many people I think would not have embarked on many things they have done. Likewise in this situation, we only know of what a man has done, what he is doing, but we are not aware of what he could do. We are totally strangers living with each other. Only God and the belief that love conquers all reassures us that all will be well.
I can only tell him part of what I have, not everything. An adage says only the foolish tells all he has inside of him. The wise will on a good day have reservations for another day.



Source: Sunnewsonline
By GIDEON OPARINDE tomgidops@yahoo.com
Sunday, January 10, 2010

The total body count has risen to four,
Jan 9, 2010 1:15:40 PM

The Togo bus shooting in Cabinda has left three more dead, according to various French sources. In addition to the so far unnamed local bus driver who perished on Friday, assistant coach Abalo Amelete, press officer Stanislas Ocloo, and reserve goalkeeper Kodjovi Obilale are said to have passed away.

Obilale, a 25-year-old who represented French amateur side GSI Pontivy, was one of two players reported to have suffered gunshot wounds during the Friday attack. He has apparently not survived his injuries, although this is not fully confirmed

Pontivy coach Alain Le Dour told L'Equipe, "We were called and told this information, but it is not yet formal.

"It's difficult to get precise information. Yesterday we didn't know where he'd been shot. Then we heard he'd been operated upon successfully and there was talk of his being transferred to South Africa. But officially we don't know anything else."

The other player shot was was 22-year-old centre-back Serge Akakpo of Romania's FC Vaslui. He underwent surgery on Friday and is thought to be recovering.

Official details have yet to be disclosed regarding the fates of the assistant coach and the press officer, but it is thought that they died before Obilale, making a total of four deaths.

The Sparrow Hawks are said to be preparing to return to Lome, the Togolese capital, having abandoned the African Cup of Nations tournament.

Reports indicate that prior to leaving the country, the Togolese delegation have been attempting to persuade Ghana and the Ivory Coast - two other teams based in the breakaway province of Cabinda - to quit the competition.

Nonetheless the African Cup of Nations itself is still set to go ahead, starting with tomorrow's opening match between Angola and Mali.

BREAKING NEWS!!!!!!!!!

Its live on CNN now, It has just been reported that Togo Team was attacked on its way to Angola. According to CNN report Manchester City striker Emmanuel Adebayo has not been injured, but others have been hurt.

Update!!!!!


Togo footballers shot in ambush
Gunmen have fired on a bus carrying Togo's football team to the Africa Cup of Nations in Angola, wounding players and reportedly killing the driver.

The attackers machine-gunned the vehicle in Angola's oil-rich territory of Cabinda, where rebels have been fighting for independence.

The government called the incident an "act of terrorism". There are reports of serious injuries.

Togo is due to play its first cup game in Cabinda on Monday.

Manchester City striker Emmanuel Adebayor was on the bus but is unhurt. In a statement, Manchester City said Adebayor had been "shaken by the terrible events" but was "unharmed".

'Act of terror'

At least two players were wounded during the shooting, reports said. Central defender Serge Akakpo was among those hurt and, according to the Associated Press, back-up goalkeeper Obilale Kossi was also injured.


The bus was travelling to Cabinda from the squad's training ground in the Republic of Congo when the shooting happened.

"This was an act of terrorism," Cabinda affairs minister Bento Bembe told Reuters news agency.

Competition officials said they had not known that the Togolose team had decided to drive directly to Cabinda.

They said they had expected the squad first to fly to the Angolan capital, Luanda, and from there to Cabinda.

Shot 'like dogs'

The head of the Togolese football federation told AFP news agency that the driver had died.

Togo striker Thomas Dossevi told France's RMC radio that several players were "in a bad state" after the attack.


CABINDA

Oil-rich province cut off from the rest of Angola by DR Congo
Flec rebels fought for region's independence
Rebels laid down arms in 2006 but some unrest continues
Angola had dismissed concerns about staging games there
"We were machine-gunned, like dogs," he said. "At the border with Angola - machine-gunned! I don't know why. I thought it was some rebels. We were under the seats of the bus for 20 minutes, trying to get away from the bullets."

The identities of those injured - who also included team staff - have not yet been confirmed.

Organisers said the Africa Cup of Nations would go ahead despite the shooting.

Togo's first game is due to be against Ghana.

But midfielder Alaixys Romao told RMC the team was likely to pull out of the 16-nation tournament.

"No-one wants to play," he said. "We're not capable of it.

"We're thinking first of all about the health of our injured because there was a lot of blood on the ground."

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/africa/8449319.stm

Published: 2010/01/08 20:26:57 GMT

© BBC MMX

One wonders whether stern-looking Alex Osifo and screen diva,
Genevieve Nnaji have any long standing scores to settle.
Running into the two movie stars before the xmas, where they were on location around Surulere area of Lagos, the repulsive attitudes they showed to each other indicated the obvious that they were not the best of friends.

Movie stars, by the virtues of their profession, are expected to fraternize among themselves, share jokes and exchange pleasantries where need be. But that was not to be in the case of Osifo and Genevieve.

Genevieve, playing the role of a bride in Mahommd Ali Balogun’s “Tango with Me” movie, which is still receiving finishing touches, was sitting quietly on a church chair, waiting for the next shout of “action” from the director of the movie, when Alex Osifo majestically walked past her, as if something is fishing between them.

In reiteration, Genevieve pretended not to be have noticed the entrance of Alex Osifo as she looked the other way, and never muted a word. It’s that bad.

Reformed Dickson Iroegbu

Have you set your eyes on Dickson Iroegbu recently? If you have not, then this breaking news is for you. Whether it’s for real or not, top Nollywood director, Iroegbu, has turned a new leaf, abandoning his Rastafarian lifestyle in pursuit of heavenly happiness.

He has shaved his 7- year old dreadlock to the surprise of his fans, declaring, “I’m a born- again Christian now.” Iroegbu did not only shave his dreadlock, his lifestyle too has equally received a boost.

Spotting Iroegbu at the just concluded ION International film festival, held in the Garden City, Port Harcourt early December, was something of the “unexpected’- a changed Dickson, clad in a casual wear, humbled by his new outlook.
Iroegbu would not confirm whether he performed certain rituals before shaving his deadlock. Rather, he muted, “I’m a man who believes in change. I preach change and I need to practise change. I have carried it for 7 years now, and it’s time for a change of look.”

Iroegbu, whose pan-African film, “Child Soldier” , shot early this year in 35 MM, added that as a film director, his new posture has a lot to do with his renewed effort to maintain the standard that he has set for himself. His “Child Soldier” film discourages the use of children in war situations by government forces, paramilitary organisations and rebel forces.

An AMAA awards winning director, Iroegbu joined the movie industry in 1997 as a production assistant, before he delved into script writing, turning out scripts that became blockbusters. He started growing dreadlock some seven years thereafter.

The turning point in his career came in 2001 when despite criticisms, he went ahead to direct a film titled, “Days of Glory.” It was the film that opened the floodgate of works, accolades and awards for the father of two children.

Dele Odule’s misyarn !

If he were to be a little boy of 10 years, perhaps, he’d have been disgraced off the stage because of his unguided utterances.

But the jeering that greeted his vengeful remark at a recent awards night of movie stars was enough reason for actor Dele Odule to bury his head in shame. A notable Yoruba actor, Odule represents a clear case of the lingering disparity between Nollywood stars and their Yoruba counterparts.

In the euphoria of the glamorous event, Odule was called up to present the Best English movie award of the year to the producer of the star-studded “Reloaded” movie, Emem Isong.

But rather than do the presentation, Odule digressed to the disappointment of the celebrities that thronged the event venue, making unguided utterances and faulting the decision of those that voted in favour of “Reloaded” as the best movie of the year.

As far as he was concerned, “Reloaded” is not the best English movie of the year. In fact, he was ready to cause a stir as he argued repeatedly that the movie could be the best only for this category of award.

“I can tell you that Reloaded can be accepted as the best English movie of the year for this category of award,” he fumed.

He didn’t stop at that. He went on to make other funny and disdainful comments, no wonder he dedicated his Indigenous Actor of the Year Award to his cherished Don Simon wine. Following the act he put up on stage, no member of the audience doubted the fact that Odule was not under the influence of alcohol before mounting the stage. Who knows?


Source:
Home Video People Jan 8, 2010 STAR SPOT
On Vanguard Nespaper

Former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, is to invest in Hotel and tourism sector of Ethiopia and has since secured a 2,000 square meter of land near Bishoftu (Debre Zeit) town of Oromia Region called Ada. The former Nigerian President has taken the land two months a go and he is now about to implement his investment on the land located 50 Kilometers east of the capital -Addis Ababa, www.newbusinessethiopia.com reported.

Obansanjo’s intention to invest in Bishoftu has come following the footsteps of Djibouti’s president, Ismael Omar Guelleh, who took 10,000 square meters of land last year to build holiday home in Bishoftu and also bought 3,000 square meters of land for agriculture in Bale, Oromia Region of the country.

After Bishoftu town’s administration approved anew master plan last year, many investors are now investing in the town, which is known for its eight unique lakes.

Ethiopia and Nigeria’s relation has been growing especially after 2006. The first Ethiopia-Nigeria Joint Ministerial Commission Meeting was held from April 26 - 29, 2006 in Addis Ababa, where areas of cooperation for the mutual benefits of the two countries were identified.

Following that from 8 to 10 October, 2006 President Olusegun Obasanjo paid a three day state visit to Ethiopia, which enabled him to visit a flower farm in Bishoftu area.

Prime Minister Meles on his part visited Nigeria from 28 - 29 October, 1996 where agreements were signed relating to economic, scientific and technical cooperations.

Both sides expressed their willingness "to develop and expand trade relations and to create favorable conditions for substantial and harmonious diversification of trade between the two countries on the basis of equality and mutual benefits."


Source: http://www.africanews.com/site/Obasanjo_to_invest_in_Ethiopia/list_messages/28908

Saharareporters has now obtained an exclusive airport CCTV screen-shot of Farouk Umar AbdulMuttallab as he prepared to commence his fateful plane journey out of Lagos. The scoop comes amidst information that his parents and close relatives are headed to the US this week to attend the trial of the alleged “underwear-bomber,” at a time that the United States is announcing that starting today, travelers from Nigeria will now face vigorous new security attention.

This means the AbdulMuttalab family will be among the first Nigerians to undergo airport screening that may include the most comprehensive procedures in the history of air travel.

Farouk’s screen shot comes from a security video at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport in Lagos, Nigeria, and it shows Farouk reading a newspaper as he waited on the security line, presumably trying to present the image of a casual traveler.

Nigeria's Minister of Information, Dora Akunyili, had claimed in a public statement that Farouk spent precisely 27 minutes in Lagos before boarding a KLM flight for Amsterdam, transiting on Northwest Airlines flight 253 headed to Detroit, Michigan. Airport sources have told Saharareporters, however, that Akunyili's statement shows that she is ignorant of airport procedures, as they would never have permitted anyone arriving on an airline from Accra, Ghana to board an international bound flight at such short notice.

Under current practice, most passengers traveling outside Nigeria are required to arrive at the airport several hours before departure. A KLM staff also said that the check-in counter usually closes about one hour before departure to enable passenger go through airport checks and screening before boarding.

Also, civil aviation authorities in Ghana have denied the claims that Farouk stayed in Ghana leaving the puzzle unsolved as to his whereabouts after he left Yemen via Ethiopia on December 7th 2009.
The AbdulMuttalab family is heading for the US in heavy numbers. A family source told us that Farouk's father, Dr. Umar AbduMuttallab, along with his mother and sisters are coming into the US before the weekend. The older AbdulMuttalab is credited with reporting his son’s emerging philosophy and his disappearance to the United States, information the US did not seem to have taken very seriously. Farouk is the second boy amongst his mother's seven children.

Under new US rules, all travelers from Nigeria, Yemen, Pakistan, Cuba, Iran, Sudan and Syria flying into the country will be patted down and their carry-on luggage will be heavily searched.


Written by Sahara Reporters, New York
Monday, 04 January 2010 12:26

Choco5:
This goat is looking for media attention as a hero or something.

This is a new year and a new dunce is revealed, a Mr Chike Orjiako. Wetin concern 5 month old baby trafficking with Abdul Farouk's parents??
Not only is he a nosy goat, he is a talkative.
Happy New Year Chike!

@ Choco5
Mr. waka-pass and know all, whts wrong with the post and chike's view and expereience? u did not have to comment, anyway, we all know who the nosy goat is,  hisssssssssss,,

When I got that text and subsequent call from Aero Contractors on 30 December 2009, that my pre-booked flight from Owerri to Lagos has been cancelled on some flimsy reason, I was naturally furious. However, since flights started dropping from the Nigerian air space like balloons, I have learnt to take every flight disappointment with measured resignation. This was my mood on 31 December 2009, when I got to Sam Mbakwe airport to collect my refund from Aero and buy any other airlines’ ticket for same day. The Chanchangi flight that I eventually settled for to take me to Lagos was scheduled to take off by 12.30pm but for some inexplicable reason had a two hour delay that saw us departing the Sam Mbakwe airport by 2.30pm.

I have hardly settled-in for the 50 minutes flight than a lady who perhaps could be in her late 30s or early 40s started talking harshly to some elderly woman well into her 60s or more sitting adjacent to her and carrying a baby that looked weak and sleepy. When the younger lady whom I later identified as Mrs. Okpi started shouting that the older woman may have stolen the Child she was carrying, our interest, {the passengers} in the airbus was sufficiently aroused. I waited patiently for the plane to take off and stabilize before I approached Mrs. Okpi and introduced myself and requested to know what informed her suspicion. She told me that her motherly instincts suspects that the older woman could neither be the biological mother of the baby nor a regular nanny for the baby she was carrying because she was stuffing the poor 5-month-old baby with biscuits.

A quick glance at the older woman and the innocent baby she was carrying convinced me I should take more than a passing interest on the matter at hand. I had naturally argued with myself whether I could have enough time to see through the mega drama unfolding before us. However, I was overwhelmed by sheer passion and my natural affinity with the un-arguable innocence of babies. This forced me to sit beside the older woman who by now was looking bemused and a bit confused. I quickly re-assured her through my approach of friendliness that I was beside her to assist in sorting out whatever it was that may be causing the impasse between her and the younger woman.

After confirming that she was from ‘Item’ Umuahia ‘in Abia state, I quickly continued my discussion with her in Igbo language which made her a little more comfortable, and she was able to narrate her story to me without further hesitation. The brief interview went thus:

Me: what is your name?
Woman: my name is Ijeoma Uko
Me: what is the name of this fine boy?
Woman: Ukachukwu  Chidozie Uko.
Me: how old is he, he appears too young?
Woman: he will be five months tomorrow 1 January 2010.
Me: really? Is he your grandson or?
Woman: No, he is my sister’s son.
Me: Ah ah! Where’s your sister and what is her name?
Woman: My sister is waiting for me in Lagos and her name is Onyebuchi Uko.
Me: why is she in Lagos and her child is with you in Owerri airport?
Woman: Looks at me and confides in a low voice that, “ my sister is old and can no longer have a child of her own so our cousin who is a matron at Amachara general Hospital arranges for this child together with my two nephews Emeka Uko and Alfred O. Uko to bring this child for my sister Onyebuchi Uko”. She continues, “You know it is not right for a woman who has advanced in age not to have a child she could call her own”.
Me: Ok, but this your sister Onyebuchi, is she married?
Woman: she and her husband have been divorced for years now and maybe it is because of childlessness.
Me: do you have children, and if yes, where are they?
Woman: I have a child and her name is comfort, she lives and schools in Aba and presently in JSS3.
Me: Who brought you to the airport and have you flown or been to Lagos before?
Woman: My nephew Alfred O. Uko arranged a special drop that brought us to Owerri airport and my other nephew, Emeka Uko accompanied us. I have neither flown nor been to Lagos before.
Me: where do Emeka and Alfred Uko reside and work?
Woman: Emeka Uko is a pastor in a church in Umuahia and Afred O.Uko works for Abia Transport Company and they both live in No 3 Ohafia Street, Umuahia.
Me: where has this child been since birth and who have been taking care of him?
Woman: The child has been at Ubakala the home of our matron cousin, Chinasa Ihuoma and I was brought from Aba to look after him and since the child is used to me, they { Chinasa, Emeka and Alfred} decided I should be the person to take him to Lagos.
Me: Is Chinasa married?
Woman: Yes, and lives with her husband at Ubakala near Umuahia town.
Me: thank you madam, I will try to see to it that no harm comes to you at this airport today.
Woman: thank you, please help me, I have told you nothing but the truth and I did not steal this child.

It was after this interview that a few other passengers joined and together we took contact with the crew; who gave us all the necessary co-operation to politely detain all passengers right inside the aircraft for more than 30 minutes after landing to enable us plan our next move and alert both the airport security who promptly responded. We gave back the child to the old ‘Nanny’ to stay alone with the child after we have placed a call and confirmed that the said Ms Onyebuchi Uko was actually waiting at the MM2 airport terminal for her prized baby.

A joint team of airport security and the Domestic Division of the Nigerian Police force that conducted the whole matter in a most professional manner promptly arrested them immediately.

On preliminary interrogation by Ayuba B. Pam {Superintendent of Police} in charge of the domestic airport, police asked Ms Onyebuchi Uko how she came about the baby. Onyebuchi who gave out a business card that reads:

“Joseph Mynah & co”
Solicitors
Commissioner for oaths,
Listed her names as, Rachel Uko, LLB {Hons}
    Principal Solicitor
She also listed a London address thus:
Unit 54, Grove Business Centre
560-568 HighRoad
London N17 9TA,

While at the back of the card, she listed the following: Crime, Immigration, Conveyancing, Employment, Commercial and Family, maybe as probable areas of specialization.

She further claims, “She does not know the mother of the child even though she had claimed earlier that the mother was a 15-year-old girl niece that preferred abortion before she intervened to come and adopt the baby at delivery”.

I believe that passing judgment at this stage will be rather premature since the Commissioner of police in Lagos is said to have shown interest in the case and ordered an all out investigation.

However, one can not but speculate on the rampant cases of baby swapping and outright theft in local hospitals where helpless mothers are usually informed their children are dead or still born and have had to be thrown away.

We know how difficult it is for the police to push this kind of case when there are no apparent complainants at hand to fund the very expensive investigations that must ensue to unravel the true story behind these conflicting claims. In the face of this challenge, let me appeal to the Inspector General of Police to use his good offices to place his most experienced Men in this case to unravel the masquerades’ behind this dastardly act. I am not under any illusion that certain claims are not adding up yet and on proper investigation, the truth will emerge to confront the perpetrators’. For all we care, there maybe one hapless mother out there nursing the grief of loosing her baby at birth while the same baby is alive and waiting to board a London based plane. Worst still, we do not have sufficient proof to state categorically that the baby in question is not a kidnap victim waiting to be used as bait for ransom.

While at this, let me please digress to observe briefly that Citizen Abdul Farouk Muttalab who has placed Nigerians name ingloriously at the International high crime arena is a citizen of the world and not just Nigeria. It has become fashionable for the rich and famous in Nigeria to outsource parenting of their wards to different schools around the globe. My first reaction and I believe that of many Nigerians on hearing the sad news was that we do not convey bombs that will eventually kill us alongside the targeted victims. In other words, we are no suicide bombers. That some crazy foreign National may have illegally acquired our International passport that could easily be obtained at beer joints.  I was rudely shocked hours later when the identity of citizen Farouk was unveiled. One thing that gave me solace was that citizen Farouk because of his highly privileged background, was educated and raised in all manner of places but Nigeria. So, the young lad never identified with our perennial problems of energy challenge, debilitating road networks, ASSU strikes, crippling corruption and total absence of a secured future for kids of his age group and beyond. It was while his parents were trying to shield him from these problems that they decided to outsource his early training first to a British International School in Lome and later Uk, Dubai and Yemen. It was while in Yemen that some ‘teachers’ thought him nonsense and he totally forgot that Nigeria in spite of the fact that we may share the same religious beliefs with the citizens of these countries, but our challenges as a country are far more threatening than the esoteric pursuits of Al Qaeda.

Can you now see why everybody should join hands to fix our schools, our hospitals, our electricity, our roads and even our brains? Poor Muttalab senior, he wanted the best for his son but the system frustrated him, just as I would like to send my heart felt sympathy to IBB who would have loved to send his dear wife to a Specialist Cancer Centre in Abuja but for the system. Now, this same ubiquitous system has kept away our dear President in a Saudi hospital instead of the National Hospital Abuja since the last decade. This system, Haba! Wetin self!.

Chike  Orjiako
Guest Contributor
Lagos Nigeria

The syringe bomber sent chilling texts to his dad hinting at his murderous intentions weeks before trying to blow up Flight 253.
Umar Abdulmutallab told him, "I've found a new religion, the real Islam" and "You should just forget about me, I'm never coming back".
In a third extraordinary message, the 23-year-old begged, "Forgive me for any wrongdoing, I am no longer your child".
His alarmed father Dr Alhaji Umaru Mutallab warned the CIA about the texts and declared his extremist son a security threat.
But bungling chiefs failed to share the intelligence - allowing Abdulmutallab to make his botched attempt to ignite explosives in his underpants while the Northwest Airlines flight was heading to land at Detroit.
The astonishing security blunder emerged as Scotland Yard yesterday searched a second house in London linked to Abdulmutallab.
A cousin of the bomber's dad, who asked to remain anonymous, hit out: "The CIA promised to look into it. They didn't take him seriously."
Abdulmutallab's texts just weeks before he tried to kill 278 people on Christmas Day suggested he had been radicalised by al-Qaeda in Yemen. His dad alerted the CIA on November 19.
But their lack of action was not the first time intelligence on the extremist had been brushed aside.
The Mirror revealed yesterday how America's National Security Agency was warned back in August al-Qaeda in Yemen was plotting a deadly attack using "The Nigerian". The same month Nigerian Umar Abdulmutallab arrived in the country as a student at the Sanaa Institute for Arabic Language.
Sources said he attended just a few hours of lectures and spent hours in a mosque. He vanished in October. It is thought Abdulmutallab then met leaders of al-Qaeda's Arabian Peninsula cell, which ran his training before the suicide mission.
If the CIA and NSA had exchanged data, the bomber's US visa could have been revoked which would have stopped him boarding the plane in Amsterdam.
One senior US intelligence official said: "The right information did not get to the right people - there's no question about that." It also emerged last night US investigators have evidence linking him to radical Anwar al-Awlaki, 38, who is connected to two 9/11 hijackers and the Fort Hood gunman.
Yesterday President Barack Obama was given two preliminary reports on the intelligence failures. He will "meet personally" with officials to review what went wrong. He has already branded the blunder "totally unacceptable".
Scotland Yard detectives made no arrests yesterday after searching a home near the flat Abdulmutallab rented while studying at University College London from 2005 to 2008. None of the officers were armed and at least one man was living there.
Ucl denied suggestions Abdulmutallab was radicalised on his engineering course. He is charged with trying to destroy a plane and is being held in prison in Michigan.



- Mirror Newspaper. UK

BUT for former head of state, General Abdulsalami Abubakar, bereaved General Ibrahim Babangida would not have witnessed the lowering of the remains of his deceased wife, Maryam, into the grave early on Wednesday.


Immediately after the fidau was said, scores of youths lifted the remains of Maryam, chorusing Allahu Akbar and headed for the grave, dug near the IBB mosque within the family house in Minna.


The youth and the corpse were followed by prominent Nigerians, including the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Alhaji Yayale Ahmed; Governor Mu’azu Aliyu of Niger State; former governor of the state, Alhaji Abdulkhadir Kure; FCTA Minister, Alhaji Adamu Aliero; Lt Gen Mohammed Wushishi, among others.


Mohammed and Aminu Babangida were also among those at the graveside for the burial. General Babangida was transfixed as the body was led for burial until General Abubakar brought him back to life and they both went to the graveside, where the remains had already been lowered.


The two daughters of the deceased, Aisha Shinkafi and Halimatu Babangida, were not present at the fidau and interment done according to Islamic injunction. The fidau, which lasted less than three minutes was led by the Chief Imam of Minna, Alhaji Isah Fari.


After the lowering of the body and covering up with sand, mixed concrete was also poured on it before some television cameramen were invited to record the prayer session which lasted longer than the fidau.


The funeral train returned to the IBB courtyard, not through the way they carried the corpse for burial, and after almost a dozen Imams led special prayers for the repose of the soul of the deceased, an event that lasted till about 1.55 a.m. on Wednesday.


The fidau, according to the Nigerian Tribune findings, was shifted from the El-amin International School to the IBB compound at the instance of the former military president, who was reported to have been shocked at the large number of people that received him at the Minna Airport at 5.55 p.m. on Tuesday and an equally large gathering waiting for him and the remains of Maryam at their residence.


Babangida was, therefore, said to have instructed that the burial time and venue for the fidau be changed, resulting in the event which commenced at 12.15 a.m.


When the body arrived at about 11.30 p.m., it was secretly taken to the El-amin International School for religious bathing and preparation. Only Aminu and the son-in-law of General Babangida were reported to be there, when two women performed the duty.


Instead of the body being taken through the short route to the Babangidas’ residence, it was conveyed through a longer route and brought into the IBB compound through another gate, all in a bid not to attract too much attention.


Despite the change in time, many sympathisers still attended the funeral which went on very smoothly. Nigerian Tribune investigations revealed that some Nigerians who did not know that the funeral had taken place still travelled to Minna on Wednesday only to receive the news that everything was over.


However, General Babangida has continued to receive visitors. Delta State and Osun State governors, Dr Emmanuel Uduaghan and Prince Olagunsoye Oyinlola, as well as members of the National Assembly were also present.


All roads leading to the IBB mansion were cordoned off on Wednesday, resulting in mourners walking long distances to the former military president’s house. However, top Nigerians, including former President Shehu Shagari, former military head of state, General Muhammadu Buhari, wife of the Vice-President, Mrs Patience Jonathan, state governors and ministers were allowed to drive their cars into the compound.


Meanwhile, Senate President, David Mark, has said that Mrs. Babangida “took giant strides that would be difficult to measure.” Mark said the late former first lady impacted so much on the lives of women and children that her contributions would be difficult to forget.


Paying tribute to the deceased after a condolence visit to General Babangida at his Minna Hilltop residence, the Senate president said that Nigerians should “accept that she was ripe to be called to the bossom of the Lord.”


Mark described the death of Mrs Babangida as “a big loss to this country; not just the family.” Former Lagos State governor, Senator Bola Tinubu, in his remarks, described the deceased as a “great symbol of patriotism and dedication to women’s liberation and development all over Africa.”


According to Tinubu, the late Mrs. Babangida did “not use her privileged class for herself,” rather, she did “a good job of bringing liberation to women, particularly the rural ones and market women.


“She was a great fighter of poverty,” Tinubu said, before advising Nigerian women to work hard and develop the legacies she left behind. Former head of state, General Muhammadu Buhari, who also was in Minna to condole with General Babangida, in his reaction, said: “We came here to pray for her and that is what we have done.”


Asked what lesson could be learnt from the life of the deceased, General Buhari declared “we are all in transition.” Professor Jerry Gana, former presidential aspirant of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), described the death of Mrs Babangida as a “tremendous loss to both Niger State and the nation,” adding that Mrs Babangida “lived a life full of compassion, a life of wanting a better life for other people.


“She was dedicated to excellence, dedicated to humanity, dedicated to justice and fairness and equity,” Professor Gana said. Former Deputy Senate President, Ibrahim Mantu, said the deceased put smiles on the faces of many people” and therefore urged other first ladies to set up non-governmental organisations that would outlive them.


By: Dipo Laleye, Minna - 31.12.2009
Nigerian Tribune

The ex-Lazio hitman admits he is desperate to join the Nerazzurri and ready to force his way into Mourinho’s starting XI.

Former Lazio striker Goran Pandev has confessed his heart is set on a move to Italian champions Inter after his contract with the Aquile was rescinded by a Lega Calcio committee last week.

“Do you really want me to say that I want Inter? Well, I want Inter!” he told La Gazzetta dello Sport.

“I strongly want them. Is that okay? There are plenty of valid reasons behind this. The main one is that they tried to sign me up until three days before the transfer window deadline last August.

“And I can’t forget the comments of [Jose] Mourinho last winter. He said that one like me should never be sold.”

But Pandev is unlikely to waltz into the Nerazzurri’s first XI as he will face competition from the likes of Samuel Eto’o, Diego Milito and Mario Balotelli.

“Those three represent the best that a team can have up front,” mused Pandev.

“It is already an atomic attack and I hope it will be even more dreadful with my contribution. I will give headaches to Mourinho. I can play in different roles up front and there will be room for everyone as there are so many games.

“I know that I am joining a strong side and my bet is to be decisive and score goals, even if it is just for half an hour.”

Vince Masiello, Goal.com

http://www.goal.com/en/news/10/italy/2009/12/31/1718349/former-lazio-forward-goran-pandev-craving-inter-switch

Fellow NL, don't you think this addition might hurt the blues Chances of winning this years CL?

keeeem:
Kobokunkie

I as much as I do not think it is right to rejoice over the death of a human being. I think the person that opened the thread did have a point. If these guys had raised our healthcare programme, there will av been no need junketting all over the world to get medical care. How many SA or Ghanaian leaders have gone abroad for treatment the way we do. The fact remains that if a man has left what he ought to do today undone, then if anything bad comes out of it then the person is liable for anything untoward that comes from it. Yar Adua is costing us a whole lot of tax-payers money being in Saudi Arabia or wherever he is and someone is telling me that our leaders are not responsible for avoidable deaths going on here. Nigeria has one of the highest rate of avoidable deaths in the whole earth plane

Everyone has a right to hold an opinion but I think we should also allow other people to air their views. If you do not want to read, please move on to another thread. Nairaland has got a whole lot of threads to read from. Let's call a spade a spade, these our leaders are causing us a whole lot of hardship

Kudos to the opener of the thread for whetting our appetite with such a nice piece.

God Bless Nigeria

Yes, ooo!!!!Thank you my brother,

edwin101:
absolutely trash. hissis and walks away!

you better do and do it fast,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vdd1_Ylq3Sc&feature=player_embedded





By:By Aliyu Adekunle with Agency report
Vanguard Online Newspaper of 30.12.2009

Security sources have confirmed that  Christmas Day airline bomb plot suspect, Abdulmutallab was recruited by al-Qaeda in London.


Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, 23, was also an ex-president of the Islamic Society at University College London.

The Christmas Day airline bomb plot suspect organised a conference under the banner “War on Terror Week” as he immersed himself in radical politics while a student in London, The Times has learnt.

One lecture, Jihad v Terrorism, was billed as “a lecture on the Islamic position with respect to jihad”.

Security sources are concerned that the picture emerging of his undergraduate years suggests that he was recruited by al-Qaeda in London. Security sources said that Islamist radicalisation was rife on university campuses, especially in London, and that college authorities had “a patchy record in facing up to the problem”. Previous anti-terrorist inquiries have uncovered evidence of extremists using political meetings and religious study circles to identify potential recruits.

It emerged last night that Mr Abdulmutallab featured on the periphery of one counterterrorism intelligence operation in Britain. US intelligence authorities are also looking at conversations between him and at least one al-Qaeda member.

The event he organised took place in January 2007 and included talks on Guantánamo Bay, the alleged torture of prisoners and the War on Terror.

He is the fourth president of a London student Islamic society to face terrorist charges in three years. One is facing a retrial on charges that he was involved in the 2006 liquid bomb plot to blow up airliners. Two others have been convicted of terrorist offences since 2007.

Mr Abdulmutallab left UCL last year. The Times has learnt that his attempt to renew his student visa in May this year was based on an application to study “life coaching” at a non-existent college. That visa refusal may have saved Britain from an attack. His terrorist training took a new turn in August when he moved to Yemen, ostensibly to study Arabic, and was schooled by al-Qaeda there.

Yesterday, the US put on display the underwear he wore on Northwest Airlines Flight 253 on Christmas Day. Explosives had been sewn into them. As the plane approached Detroit the material ignited, shooting 6ft flames up the cabin wall. Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, which has claimed the attack, said that the device failed because of a “faulty detonator”.

Abu Bakr al-Qirbi, the Yemeni Foreign Minister, appealed for help to train and equip counter-terrorist forces. He said: “Of course there are a number of al-Qaeda operatives in Yemen and some of their leaders. They may actually plan attacks like the one we have just had in Detroit. There are maybe hundreds of them — 200, 300.”

President Obama said that it was “totally unacceptable” that US agencies had not prevented the attack with the information available and demanded preliminary results from two security reviews by tomorrow. He is facing criticism for leaving two key federal security agencies without leaders 11 months into his administration.

Dutch authorities dismissed claims that Mr Abdulmutallab boarded the flight in Amsterdam without a passport. A spokesman for its counter-terrorism office said: “He had a passport and a valid visa for the United States and KLM had clearance on the passenger list to carry him to the US.”

From Aisha Wakaso in Minna, 12.30.2009
Thisday Newspaper 30.12.2009

Former First Lady, Mrs Maryam Babangida, was buried in the early hours of this morning beside the mosque at the family compound, Minna, Niger State.

Her husband and former military president, General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida (IBB), could not contain his emotions as prayers were being said for the deceased.

He wept as the Chief Imam of the Minna Central Mosque, Ibrahim Fari, prayed for the repose of the soul of Maryam.
He was consoled by former head of state, General Abdulsalami Abubakar, who patted him on the back.

Widespread reports that she would be buried today might have forced the family to bury her earlier in order to curtail the influx of sympathisers to the venue.

The corpse arrived Minna at 11.45 pm, accompanied by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Alhaji Ahmed Yayale, who led the Federal Government delegation.

Others who accompanied the body are Minister of Sports, Alhaji Sani Ndanusa, son-in-law of the deceased and Zamfara State Governor, Alhaji Aliyu Shinkafi, and Maryam's second son, Aminu.

Islamic prayers commenced at 12.45am, led by the Chief Imam of the Minna Central Mosque.
Her body was finally lowered into the grave at 12.55am, amidst chants of "La illa ill Allah!", meaning: "There is no God but Allah".
IBB was accompanied to the graveside by Yayale and former head of state, General Abdulsalami Abubakar.

A family member told THISDAY Maryam was buried late into the night because security operatives might not have been able to handle the crowd of sympatisers.

Even then, the crowd that stayed late into the night was sizeable as sympathisers gathered in anticipation of the burial following the setting-up of floodlights and the digging of a grave by the mosque.

Her body was brought in through the back gate because of the crowd that had gathered outside the front gate to the compound.
Babangida had arrived Minna International Airport yesterday in a private aircraft without the remains of his wife.

He was in tears as friends and associates came to receive him, on his arrival from the US via Germany in a DASSULT Aviation Aircraft with registration number CS-DPF. He disembarked from the aircraft at 5.45 pm.

Babangida, dressed in a navy blue caftan, was accompanied by his first son, Mohammed, who was dressed in a black suit.
Before the arrival of the former president, his second son Aminu and his son-in-law Governor Shankafi, had boarded another private aircraft and left the airport for Abuja to bring the corpse to Minna in an air ambulance.

Those who received Babangida at the airport included the Niger State Governor, Dr. Muazu Babangida Aliyu; Delta State Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan; Osun State Governor Olagunsoye Oyinlola; former head of state, General Abubakar; and Chairman of THISDAY Newspapers, Mr. Nduka Obaigbena.

Others were former Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) governor, Professor Chukwuma Soludo; Senator Bukar Abba Ibrahim; former military governor of Lagos, Brig-Gen Raji Rasaki; former governor of old Anambra State Jim Nwobodo; Alhaji Aliko Dangote; and Brig-Gen Anthony Ukpo.

Also there were Umar Shankafi, Capt. Nogie Megason, Tayo Amusan, Governor of Kaduna State, Namadi Sambo, Brig-Gen John Shagaya, Chief Tony Anenih, wife of Kwara State Governor, Mrs Toyin Saraki, and former governor of Sokoto State, Alhaji Attahiru Bafarawa.
Babangida’s wife died last Sunday at the age of 61 in the US after a long battle with ovarian cancer

Fellow Naira Landers, Compliments of the Season!!!! Please I want to ask, does anybody knows how many wives Babangida have? Cause I have never read nor hear about his other children nor wives.

Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the so-called "Nigerian Al-Qaeda Bomber,” set off enough alarms to wake up the international security structure around the world, but they all waved him through to Detroit, a new Saharareporters investigation has revealed. The first flag should have gone off when Umar bought his ticket in Accra, Ghana, on 16 September. Stepping off the street into the KLM offices, he offered no address and no telephone number. In effect, he was a ghost breezing in to buy a ticket to be routed Lagos-Amsterdam-Detroit-Accra. And no, not with a credit or debit card either, and certainly not by a cheque: the foreign national was paying the full price of the ticket—all $2,831 (USD)—in cold, hard, non-ghostly cash.

Sure, why not, said KLM: window or aisle?

The airline then did something even more curious: It did not inform the US authorities despite a standing regulation that all such cash transactions for flights into the country since 911 should be transmitted 30 days before departure. No KLM official reported seeing or doing business with a ghost.

Nigeria’s Minister for Information, Mrs. Dora Akunyili, has stated that Abdulmutallab “sneaked” into Nigeria on the 24th,, the same day he boarded the flight for Detroit via Amsterdam, but that tale is not backed by any concrete evidence. Our sources at the Murtala Muhammad Airport (MMA) in Lagos are categorical Umar did not arrive there on the 24th , neither had he transited from a “3rd country”.


The Lagos KLM office confirmed to us that Abdulmutallab did cancel the ticket he had bought in Ghana on the 16th, rerouting it to Lagos-Amsterdam-Detroit-Lagos. This debunks the initial report that Farouk had bought a one-way ticket to Detroit.

CCTV footage obtained from MMA by government investigators indicates Abdulmutallab personally checked in at 2035 hours (GMT) on Christmas eve, December 24th at the 2nd floor KLM check-in counter. He had no luggage, bearing only a shoulder bag.

Such travelers are not necessarily unusual, but Abdulmutallab was a cash-paying ghost whose own father had earlier confessed his fright and worry to the United States. Traveling with just the smallest of personal cabin bags should have pushed another alarm.

But KLM officials simply scanned Abdulmutalab’s passport and United States of America tourist visa, which was issued in the United Kingdom. They ran him through the Advance Passenger Information System (APIS) and the United States certified he was clean to travel to the country. KLM checked the ghost—who would turn out to have hidden thunder and brimstone in his loins—through to Detroit. For the Amsterdam-Detroit stretch, martyr-to-be Abdulmutallab chose seat 19A, ominously next to the wing and above the aircraft’s fuel tank.


Aviation security sources at the first screening area recall Abdulmutallab as being somewhat nervous and sweaty while he was there; he had joined a VIP lane--perhaps instinctively because that is probably how he had traveled all his life--and had to be told to join the regular line. At this point, said one source, “he left the long queue leading to the immigration/SSS point and visited the former Virgin Atlantic office, returning with a newspaper before presenting himself for screening."

In the departure area, Abdulmutallab’s passport was scanned first by the State Security Service (SSS), which also processed him through the SSS datalist, a document often used by the Nigerian government to stop members of the opposition or people with views contrary to that of the government from entry or exit from Nigeria.


Passing that “test,” Abdulmutallab was then passed on to Nigerian Immigration authorities, which scanned his Nigerian Machine Readable Passport number A3921640. They processed him through the Passenger Registration System, which indicated he posed no security threat and was not listed on any “bar” list.

At the Aviation Security desk, sources and CCTV images indicate that after dropping his shoulder bag on the X-ray screening machine, Abdulmutallab set off the walk-through machine alarm. He was then sent back to remove his sneakers, following which he walked through successfully the second time. Then, in line with standard procedure, he was given a pat down and let go. Curiously, however, the Nigerian aviation officials did not include the setting-off of the alarm in the initial official report.

Also of interest is that sources indicate that an officer of the Nigerian Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) briefly spoke to Abdulmutallab in a local language after he left the security screening post. This is common in Nigerian airports, arising from primordial sentiments, class status and in many cases, fragrant violation of security procedures as officials attempt to extort money from air travellers.


At the boarding gate, Abdulumutallab went through a secondary screening, conducted by KLM security, before being allowed into the aircraft en route Amsterdam. His name was included in the post departure manifest under serial number 2 and a secondary detail sent to Amsterdam and the American leg of what would become a historic terror trip.


An evil ghost was on the way, a ghost so dangerous his own father had deemed it fit to warn the United States. Within hours, Abdulumutallab would be in American airspace, the menace from hell ready to burst from his crotch and blow hundreds of innocent people into smoke and ashes.

When the news hit his own country, Nigeria was without a leader because the ‘president,’ who is well-tolerated by the US, has a different set of tubes between his legs in a Saudi hospital. Yar'Adua had been gone for 35 days without a return date in sight, and with nobody knowing his exact physical condition. Worse still, he had not transferred power to his deputy, who went ahead to authorize a high-level investigation that may well be illegal.

Written by Saharareporters, New York
Tuesday, 29 December 2009 22:43

Kobojunkie:
But all the above still does not change the fact that the topic of the thread remains misleading. He did not kill his wife, neither did he contribute to her death. She had access to the best healthcare in the world and even that did not save her. So, I don't understand why his not setting up medical centers in Nigeria means he killed his wife or had any hand in it.

You still did not get kobojunkie, look @ it this way, if 2% of the money he stole was put into developing the hospitals (or rather the health sector) in Nigeria, the cancer I believe would have been diagnosed earlier, and I believe it would not have resulted in her death, so by negleting the health sector in Nigeria for 9 years, he has a hand not only in his wife's death but also in millions of Nigerians that have been killed as a result of lack of quality heath care

Kobojunkie:
@Poster, isn't the Title of the thread misleading and dishonest then?

"Ovarian cancer is not such a medical condition that Nigerian hospitals should not have been able to treat after almost 50 years of our independence. The human resources to provide the best medical services exist in Nigeria, but the material resources are lacking. We lack the resources because Nigerian leaders have refused to provide them, thinking selfishly that if they stole enough, they would travel abroad to get anything they required. Instead of developing the nation that has been good to them, they steal catastrophic amounts of the public funds and afford themselves exclusive and exotic expenses such as the overseas medical treatment that did not save Mrs. Babangida's life. Fortunately (yes, fortunately), Ibrahim is perhaps the best example of bad leadership that got Nigeria in such a state where even mid-level civil servants seek medical treatment abroad"

Only God knows how painful Maryam Babangida's death has been to her husband of 40 years, Ibrahim. From all indications, it must have been very painful. They had never been separated for four decades, living together through the good, tough and bad times. When Babangida annulled a free and fair election in 1993 and was given the boot, he found comfort in his wife. She was never known to have failed to render him unconditional love and support. Even when Babangida character as a ruthless dictator was in play, Maryam never spoke badly about anything her husband did. Contrarily, she used her husband's position to her greatest benefit.

How bad it must have been for Ibrahim to have spent the last few months like an ordinary human being attending to a sick wife in the United States? One of Nigeria's richest and most crowding-drawing leaders must have been humbled, going back and forth in an American hospital to care for a sick wife. Babangida was not ordinary. He had lots of money. He could have bought the hospital where his wife died and all the medical staff, if he wished, and shipped them to Minna. What went wrong? This did not happen, did it?

Nigerian leaders know when they leave the shores of Africa, they lose the air of importance accorded at home. Quite often, they drive their own cars and are treated with courtesy but with none of the 'rankadede' accompaniments in Nigeria. When they eat their snacks, they have to throw the wrap in the bin like everyone else. When they go to the post office, they have to wait in line as everyone else. When they get to the airport, they must obey the rules. It must have been very humbling for Ibrahim Babangida to have gone through the 'disrespect' of the American life while at the same time tendering to a seriously ill wife.

Ibrahim would have wished he didn't have to bring Maryam to the United States for treatment at some point during the treatment. I am qualified to paint a picture of Babangida's last few months in the United States. Not only do I live here, but my mother-in-law was treated around the same time Maryam was hospitalized in California for an identical medical condition Mrs. Babangida died of at the Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Jersey. They are about the same age and my mother-in-law gave birth to my wife the same year Maryam got married. You could say they had a lot in common, except, perhaps, better life for richer women! My wife's mom is surviving. My wife and I had no problems whatsoever with meeting the conditions of the treatment, but I do know for a fact, it must have been difficult for a man of IBB's caliber to sit like a mere mortal in a US hospital.

I can imagine how the courteous nurses and doctors at the hospital talked to Babangida as if he was just another human being. "Can you please stand outside for a few minutes, Sir?" Can you move your legs there for a minute, Sir?” “Can you please come back at 7pm, Sir?" "What did you say you name was again, Sir – can you spell it?" "Is it true that you were an important government official in the Caribbean, Sir?" I can almost see how the medical center's security men made him wait before entry and the cleaners cast him a bad look for littering the floor. How Ibrahim Babangida must have been brought back to earth in the last few months of his wife's presence on earth.

First, the generosity of the American government in allowing Babangida - a man who had been refused entry for so long - to join his wife on compassionate grounds must be hailed. They could have said no to his visa application, even when America stood to benefit from the millions of dollars that would be spent on treatment and by IBB's crowd of sympathizers who visited and shopped in the process. Thank you, America.

The point here is that Mrs. Babangida's death reveals how money has its limits and what price we pay for not doing the right thing at the right time.

Ovarian cancer is not such a medical condition that Nigerian hospitals should not have been able to treat after almost 50 years of our independence. The human resources to provide the best medical services exist in Nigeria, but the material resources are lacking. We lack the resources because Nigerian leaders have refused to provide them, thinking selfishly that if they stole enough, they would travel abroad to get anything they required. Instead of developing the nation that has been good to them, they steal catastrophic amounts of the public funds and afford themselves exclusive and exotic expenses such as the overseas medical treatment that did not save Mrs. Babangida's life. Fortunately (yes, fortunately), Ibrahim is perhaps the best example of bad leadership that got Nigeria in such a state where even mid-level civil servants seek medical treatment abroad.

When my dad died four years ago in Nigeria, no explanation was given of what he died of. He had been treated at local clinics and a university teaching hospital. They never told us what medical condition he lost his life to. They simply didn't know. And we didn't bother to press them, knowing the hospitals lacked the diagnostic capacity to provide an intelligent answer. You only have to visit Nigerian hospitals to know how bad the situation is. A friend, who migrated to the United States two years ago, an unbelievable story of his eye surgery. He was left in pains for several days because there were no drugs, even though he was receiving treatment in a military hospital as a member of the Navy.

Babangida and his cohorts looted Nigeria. They turned hospitals to consulting clinics and universities to glorified high schools. They took their own children from the system and sent them to the best schools abroad. They took from many and gave to a few. Nigeria became what Tell Magazine described as 'Rich Men, Poor Nation." While less endowed nations were taking great strides, Nigeria became a nation whose progress can only be seen through Lekki, Victoria Island and Abuja, while focus is lost on the abject poverty in our villages, towns and cities.

While sending Maryam abroad has not saved her life, sending the children of the rich to school abroad has also resulted in an unintended consequence of international terrorism. Maryam and Farouk Mutallab have provided a weekend of deep reflection for Nigeria's rich.

Ibrahim and Maryam Babangida have no endowment at any Nigerian university. They did not contribute any money to any teaching hospital to cause any improvement or change. They did not build any hospital or local health center, neither did they put any money down to fight any major disease. Instead, they spent their money and time on frivolities.

The Babangida family did not use Maryam’s medical condition to attract attention to this disease that affects millions, as most sensible public figures do. Instead they lied to the end - telling Nigeria that all was well. No public statement was issued, even when the rumor mill was rife. The Maradona lied and hid in America as a common citizen.

The answer to our greatness is not in seeking solutions with stolen money outside of our shores, but in serving the people honestly and diligently.

Looking at it this way, Babangida could have contributed to the death of his wife: if Babangida had done something about the hospitals in Nigeria, the wife would probably have been tended to like a queen in Nigeria and her condition would have been correctly diagnosed and treated before it became terminal.

Againstbabangida.com wishes that Babangida will get over his loss through sober reflection, regret and a readiness for restitution. We will not join the gang of hypocrites and fail to tell him the truth. And this is the truth: We sympathize with Ibrahim Babangida on the death of his wife's, but our greatest sympathy goes to Nigerian women who suffer the same condition as Maryam but would never know what it is because they will not be correctly diagnosed by the medical system that Babangida bequeathed through corruption.

Chris Tunde Odediran, who practiced journalism at Guardian, Concord and Punch, is the founder of Againstbabangida.com and Citizens For Nigeria.





Source: SaharaReporter.com
Written by Chris Tunde Odediran
Monday, 28 December 2009 23:38

Once upon a time in this country, it was fashionable to consider certain things impossible, indeed un-Nigerian. Before the 1960s, many Nigerians considered military intervention in Nigerian politics impossible. Even when the first military coup in Africa occurred: not here, was the refrain on the lips of Nigerians. But then it happened. In the 70s, many Nigerians also never imagined a day when many Nigerians would eat crumbs from dustbins as a result of poverty. It also happened. There is a long list of "would never happen-s" which have since become elements of rude awakening in the Nigerian experience. I concluded long ago that Nigerians are capable of anything. Nothing in this country shocks me anymore.

Up until recently, I kept only one line of faith open: I could still argue that Nigerians are not likely to engage in suicide bombing no matter how fanatical they may be about any cause. Even when reports made it clear that a group of Al Qaeda fanatics had set up cells in parts of the North, I still held on to that last shred of faith in the Nigerian. Why? Nigerians I would argue love life so much that they would cling to it; their own lives that is, not the lives of others. They could kill and destroy, but that average Nigerian would like to preserve himself. We are the happiest people on earth, not so? And didn't one dictionary describe a major segment of our population, the Yoruba as "the fun-loving people of South West Nigeria". Well, even that my resilient line of thought now appears wishful. Boko Haram has shown us that many are willing to die for stupid causes. The latest incident involving the 23-year old Nigerian, Umar Farouk Abdul Mutallab has further proven the point that everything is possible in a country and among a people who lost their moral compass.

Abdul Mutallab is a most unlikely terrorist or suicide bomber. He is said to be a student of Engineering at the University College , London and the son of a well-known and well-heeled father. What could have driven him to such extremes, that he would attempt to bomb a Detroit-bound aircraft with 278 persons on board? And he is a Nigerian! He is young, privileged: the kind of silver spoon kid that everyone would imagine was being groomed to inherit a part of the earth. What could have happened to such a young man that he would think he is better off serving the Al Qaeda? He reportedly got the chemical substance that he wanted to detonate from Yemen , and as other passengers overpowered him, they said he kept screaming about the situation in Afghanistan . How is that his problem? Everyone on that flight must be heaving a sigh of relief that the Nigerian-born would-be bomber failed in his mission and that he ended up with burned legs, and the prospect of spending the rest of his life behind bars.

It is not a good story for Nigeria . The would-be bomber's association with Nigeria further casts a slur on the country's image. It took only a few Nigerians being arrested for drug trafficking before we all became drug couriers in the eyes of immigration officials in the West. A few Nigerians added a new dimension to con-art, and the world slapped all Nigerians with the label of 419, as if we invented the confidence trick. When next a Nigerian shows up at any airport anywhere in the world, he is likely to be scrutinised henceforth as if he were an agent of the Al Qaeda. Don't be surprised if in the next few days, the Western media jumps to the conclusion that Nigeria is a major recruitment ground for terrorists, requiring every Nigerian to be treated with suspicion. Our case will not be helped by the acts of terror in the Niger Delta nor would it be helped in any way by the news that barely a week before the Mutallab incident, a local would-be bomber had tried to deliver a bomb parcel at the offices of Super Screen Television in Lagos . Professor Dora Akunyili must be biting her fingers. At a time when she is trying to rebrand the country positively, one Abdul Mutallab has just made global nonsense of all the seminars, all the appeals, all the campaigns, all the slogans, and all her passion about rebranding Nigerian. What is that slogan again? Good people, great country? Mr Mutallab and his failed bomb would not qualify as a good advertisement.

The Nigerian Minister of Aviation, Babatunde Omotoba must also be having sleepless moments. The would-be bomber reportedly started his journey from Nigeria . It doesn't matter that he was not detected at the Amsterdam Airport and that nobody suspected him while he was airborne in the Western airspace: more questions are likely to be raised about all flights emanating from Nigeria . For, at the heart of the Abdul Mutallab incident is both home and international security. We need not quibble over the Nigerian side of it: security at Nigerian airports is lax. Oftentimes the screening machines do not work. Airport security would go through your luggage with their dirty hands. Many of them don't even bother to wear gloves. I saw one guy inspecting one passenger's (I guess dirty) underwear, and then he was to go through my own bag, I quickly moved to another security personnel. Instead of using metal detectors, on many occasions, the officials frisk you with bare hands, pressing your pockets, with some of the mischievous ones trying to touch what they should not. An allegedly privileged child like Umar Farouk Abdul Mutallab may not even need to go through security screening. Big men and their wives and children are often piloted through security; they could go straight to the tarmac to board the aircraft, depending on the scope of their influence. With the power of cash, anything can be taken onto an aircraft in Nigeria .

The story is also not good for Islam. The would-be bomber being a Muslim further strengthens a growing suspicion and stereotype, and an established profile of the terrorist in the mind of the West: the terrorist as Al-Qaeda, the terrorist as Muslim. With this incident also coming shortly after the Boko Haram mass murder in Northern Nigeria, it is difficult to blame those who are insisting that Nigerian faces a dangerous threat from Islamic fundamentalism. But our problem is not with Islam, but with bigotry, and demagoguery, and the colour of bigotry is not Islamic, there are Christian bigots just as there are extremists among adherents of traditional African religion. In 1993, some young Nigerians had hijacked an aircraft, they took it to Niger where they were arrested and subsequently tried and jailed. They were defending the June 12 Presidential election and they were not all Muslims. We must be cautious for there are commentators who are already rushing to judgement against Islamic Nigeria. Nor should this become an occasion for Hausa/Fulani bashing. When Nigerians reduce everything so conveniently to an expression of ethnic contempt, they gloss over the facts of a case. Umar Farouk Abdul Mutallab was certainly not acting on behalf of the Islamic North of Nigeria. He is most likely either sick or a product of failed parenting, or simply tragically impressionable.

By African standards, this must be a great tragedy for his parents and other members of his family. The Devil has used their family to discredit the whole of Nigeria and bring shame upon the land. Would they disown him and claim that he is not a member of their family, not even a Nigerian? Most parents would give anything to have their children go to school in England . Children are expected to do well and bring joy to their parents. That is the African way. But to have a child from a well-known family end up as a terrorist is quite revealing. If he had succeeded, I doubt if his parents would feel that he would be on his way to Heaven surrounded by seven virgins as the myth says! Now we know: it is not only the children of the poor who engage in criminal activities; the rich also cry; and in this regard, poverty does not always explain deviant social conduct.

The incident reminds America again of how much it is hated by bigots and fanatics around the world and how vulnerable it is. We live in the American century, but with the enemies of America recruiting agents from all over the world, and the most unlikely places, shows how dangerous the American century is. World peace is threatened. Hate is the dominant spirit of the age. The shape of war has changed: it is no longer on the battlefield; it could arrive in the shape of a pillow, a syringe and a pack of powder and liquid that is designed to kill 278 persons if it works. Umar Farouk Abdul Mutallab could have succeeded. He was inside the aircraft; the flight was on its way, effectively inside American territory. Either a fortunate stroke of serendipity or amateurishness foiled the plan. But there is something in all of this about the vigilance of the American intelligence system. They knew about Mutallab, the terrorist. He had been on their watch-list although they didn't consider him high-risk. Could they have followed him to and from Nigeria ? Even if he escaped the security system in Nigeria (trying to be charitable here), and the more efficient system at Amsterdam Schipol, was he possibly walking into a prepared net? The agility with which someone sitting close by jumped over other passengers and wrestled him to the ground was more than coincidental. Who was the expert Good Samaritan? "They took him out and it was really quick". A CIA officer on duty? Within an hour, the White House had been informed and a statement was issued with President Obama's authority; who is also personally monitoring the investigations. There are other angles to this story that are not yet in the public domain.

The Nigerian government has acted properly by issuing a statement. The Ministry of Information and Communications has said that the "Federal Government of Nigeria received with dismay the news of an attempted terrorist attack on a US airline. We state very clearly that as a nation, we abhor all forms of terrorism. The Vice President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria , Dr Goodluck Ebele Jonathan has directed Nigerian security agencies to commence full investigation of the incident. While steps are being taken to verify the identity of the alleged suspect and his motives, our security agencies will cooperate fully with the American authorities in the on-going investigations. Nigerian government will be providing updates as more information becomes available."

To keep quiet would mean that the Nigerian government does not really care if the Mutallab incident turns all of us into potential terrorists in the eyes of the world. But the statement does not go far enough. It should include a direct condemnation of the would-be bomber and a declaration that Nigerians are peace-loving people. The Nigerian Government must take a keen interest in the details of the investigations at the American end, and also conduct its own investigations as promised. President Barack Obama snubbed Nigeria during his maiden visit to Africa as American President. Mrs Hillary Clinton later visited only to abuse Nigerian leaders. The other day, she classified Nigeria along with Cuba as a country that is able and capable but unwilling to make progress. What other things do the Americans know about us that are not yet public knowledge?

Mutallab, a former Federal Minister and bank chief, and father of the terrorist with Yemeni connections, has been quoted as saying that Mutallab, the son, is a problem child and that months ago, he had reported him to the US authorities. He is also said to be in Abuja assisting the Nigerian security agencies. Mutallab, the father, deserves our sympathies. This is at a private level, the story of his own failure and a lesson to all parents


By Reuben Abati The Guardian Sun Dec 28,2009
Another Year , -By Reuben Abati

IF you find two of your kids inthe river drowning and  you  take a plunge to save them only to discover that their  mother, who cannot swim, also jumped into the river behind you, who will you save first? The kids or their mother? That was the choice before world renown Nigerian-born televangelist, Reverend Uma Ukpai, president of Uma Ukpai Evangelistic  Ministries.

In a recent interview, he reminisced on that episode, the mysteries surrounding his childhood and the turn of events in Anambra State, saying that there are no politicians in the South East.
Excerpts…

What’s life generally like?

There were several mysteries surrounding my childhood; some  of which I cannot explain till today. I was fasting for  seven days  when a man saw me and stopped me and said ‘you’re going to be a preacher, you are going to have  eight children but two will die in a motor accident, you will go as far as building schools and you will cross all  the continents of the world.’

In a child’s mind, the  world was just where I lived, that is from my village to the neighbouring village. It meant little to me. It’s only  now that I’m preaching all over the world that I’ve come to place value on that prophecy. Last year, I had 18  crusades outside Nigeria.

In 1986 I was among the few  persons invited to pray for President Ronald Reagan of  America and it reminded me of the story of Jesus Christ  riding an backside and matching through people’s clothes. In  terms of fulfillment, I fill greatly fulfilled. In terms of  touching lives of others, I feel also fulfilled.

We completed a 100_bed hospital about 10 years ago and we  have kicked off the first class in the university I am  building in Uyo and the other we are building in Abia State is ongoing. We’ve been able to give street lights to my  village. We have been able to influence  government to tar the road that goes to my village. To me, there’s  nothing better than doing what God has called you to do.

Can you recall any incident that almost wrecked your ministry?

I can’t remember any. Two months before I lost my two children in an accident, God has spoken to me. God had told me on that day, ‘I won’t answer your prayers. I want to  test you and know how you love Me.’ As early as 5.00 a.m.  that morning, armed robbers came to my office.

I used to have the best office east of the Niger in 1985. I had a printing press and my manager was a white American girl. When all my office equipments  were removed, God told me to forgive the robbers and on no account should I collect back the stolen items; ‘Leave those things to them as a gift.’ I told my wife the next day. On our way to a crusade in my village, my driver carrying my children and a cousin, drove  into a river.

I attempted to bring the children out, not  knowing that my wife also jumped into the river behind me and water carried her, threw her up six times. It was at the  seventh time that somebody called my attention to her. I  used one hand to swim and the other to hold her and brought her to shore. I rescued the children later.

They had died; because a child stays under  water only for two minutes. I put them in a car to pray for  them, but an oncoming car from the opposite direction drove into the car and smashed it. The bumper flew out, the bonnet  flew out. I stopped and I was pacing up and down, not  knowing what to do next.

Just then, somebody ran to me, grabbed me and said my 50-sitter bus carrying my band had caught fire. He was not sure how many people died in the  accident. I was composed because God had warned me. I  didn’t make those children. God gave them to me. All that I had, now have and will ever have is given by God. And His  will is supreme.

When I proceeded to the crusade venue to  preach, people were asking me what will you preach? We have  been driving on that same road for years and that driver had  been my driver. If God, over the years, protected us and decided to lower the hedge one day,  why should I protest? So, I marched on!

But I was shocked in 1982 while preparing for Greater Ibadan for Christ  Crusade. God said to me, for handling that case well, you  will be seen everywhere. He said; ‘I’ll detail 100  angels to be with you wherever you go in the world.

You can  eat three times a day.’ I used to fast for one month  and since that day till now, God has been performing miracles in my ministry.

How hurt were you when those series of disasters happened?

I think hurt is as a result of losing somebody you love so  much. When somebody dies, only those who love him will cry and the way you cry shows how much you love the person. God  has made it that all you have is not your own. And once you  believe that in your heart, you can handle any situation.

Our problem is greed to hold on to those things we have. Even pastors go about talking about their churches; no  pastor has a church. They all belong to God. The day you die, they will tell you it’s not your church. They will  put you into your grave and find a successor and from your  grave you cannot protest. What people call their own is not their own.

That is the problem we have in Nigeria. We  accumulate and accumulate not knowing that those things  belong to God. The day we know that those things do not  belong to us, things will begin to take shape. To own is to  owe. We can cry here but it doesn’t stop God from doing  what He would do.

How did you meet your wife?

We are from the same village. The father loved me, the brother was my friend but none of them contributed to our  decision to get married. It never crossed my mind. I was in America preaching in Ohio, when I said to a woman who was  paralysed, to stand up that God has healed her.

The girl who  brought her into that place said I must  marry her or she  would shoot me and herself. I had to go into one month fast. Then God showed me my wife, because we were from the same village. We met and agreed on getting married but I waited for two years for that because  she wrote a book titled, Mother, I have found a man.

She was 25 years and I didn’t  want to marry a baby because 25 is the end of the age of confusion. She said God spoke to her too.

What is the secret of your fulfilled marriage?

Everybody knows his place. She knows I am her husband. She loves me, reverences  me and helps me fulfill my calling. I  celebrate her because every pretty girl wants to be  celebrated. They don’t take nonsense. You must celebrate  her. You lose to win in marriage. Even when your wife has wounded or hurt you, please don’t chastise her. Make sure  you put money in her hand, even when she has her own money.  When she asks for money, give her more than she asked for.
When she dresses up for service, stop and celebrate her. Don’t just look at her as if she is a fool. Say to her  ‘you are precious.’ Accept her relations as your own. If  she has siblings, invest in them. Love her children. It is  always confusing. Men love women and women celebrate children.

To a woman, it is the beginning of  her unending  laughter. If you want your wife to love you, love  her children, take care of them, send them to good schools. My  wife told  me  on the crusade platform, you  are a big man of God, but in this house you are not a big  man of God, you are just my husband and a father. Don’t  walk here acting as if you are under anointing.

The demons stop at the crusade ground, we are here for celebration. Every time you walk through that door, don’t act as if you  are too powerful because  the crowd has gone. You are now home.

How did she feel  when you went ahead to preach  after the death of your children?
I don’t think she forgave me immediately and I don’t blame her. If you know how much children mean to women, you  will understand her problem. She asked me, ‘this Bible you carry, when you go to the crusade ground, tell the people Satan is more powerful than God.

I’m ashamed you carry  this Bible with me.’ So, I told her, this will be  your punishment: every  year, you will have a  child. Do you know we had a child the next year. That one came. After that, she attempted doing family  planning but I told her it’s a lie. Three months after, she got pregnant (laughs). When she got pregnant at a time  nobody expected a woman to get pregnant, my relations came  and called me names, saying I was a silly man.

How can you  get a woman pregnant at that age? What if she died? I told my sister, you are talking out of ignorance. God who put  that child there didn’t look at me as A SlowPoke. He knew I’ll be a good father.

That is why He brought one more  child. But she had already agreed, weeping the way she did! So, we flew her out to the US. I  called 10 of my friends all of them medical doctors and they came. They were watching a programme in one room when she gave birth in another room.

No nurse, no doctor! I was  holding a crusade in London when the doctors called me that ‘we have just wasted their time, God did not need us. We  shouldn’t have listened to you.

She has given birth. We  didn’t help in any way’. So whenever I look back, I always say her reaction during the accident was natural. Remember, God has revealed to me that the day would come and I said to God  if You are going to test my faith, don’t involve my wife.

Take anybody but not her because I have a travel -ministry and when I travel, she is the pillar of the house.  If she dies, many other things will be taken away. She was  almost at the point of the death when I got to her inside the river. God gave me such a  supernatural power to carry a woman of  her size with one  hand and drop her before going for the children.

It was not  a natural power. God was at work. You see, romance  is simply giving a woman quality time, making sure she has what she needs, making sure you have an element of surprise  for her. In that regards, I’m an expert. I call her several times in one day, exchange love letters. I make sure I  have an element of surprise. It could be groundnut wrapped in tissue paper.

Something that will surprise her. Women  don’t really want money, they want appreciation, they want  recognition. If a man has no money, he must have a bag of  humour. Every good man must be able to make his wife laugh, at least, five times a day. A woman who laughs five times a  day has no pressure; she will look younger and upright.

There are so much crises in the nation and there are many  people who believe that Nigeria…

Crisis is a mark of decay. It is also a mark of growth and good health. Even in marriages, when  there is crisis, it means somebody is asking questions and somebody must provide the answers.

Nigeria is going through the best time of her life. We are asking questions and once we can answer those questions, we shall learn from our  mistakes and move forward. Nigeria is a great nation, the  militants are simply passing a vote of no confidence on our  leaders.

The leaders need to reconsider what to do and take  a new bearing to provide answers to the questions being asked. It doesn’t mean we are going to the end of this  country, Nigeria. It’s a lie. Let me also add, life  without crisis is what we call failed nation.

Anybody who  has no problem has been rejected by God  because we grow by the  problem  we solve. A great man solves great problems, a small  man solves small problems. The crisis Nigeria is facing  today will lead to a brighter, greater future.

But I’ve heard you say before that Nigerians are not  moving forward?

There is a time to sit, there is a time to move. Nigeria  will one day stand up and move forward. Even as a young lover in love with a girl, he dreams beautiful dreams. But after the wedding, you will know that love is  blind but  marriage is an eye opener.

We are dreaming of great Nigeria,  but there are things we have to put in place. Anybody who  dreamt of a good marriage and got married and found that the wife will not obey his command and got disappointed, the man is sick. He is an unreformed husband because marriage is a union of two opposites—a man who says stand up and a woman who says why should we stand up?

It’s very wrong  when people think that their dream will not have any challenge. That person is living in a dream world. It’s  foolhardy to expect a state that will have no problem; where  thieves and assassins will never be part of Nigeria. America  was disorganised when they started. Even as I’m talking, America has more criminals than we  have.

Anybody who says there is a nation where there are no criminals  is not a good liar.  Nobody loves evil, everybody condemns evil.

What led to these  acts of evil?

If our security has not broken down and our  policemen were trained …the way we treat our policemen is not fair. If  the policemen are there to stand in the gap for us, we  should take good care of them. We should give them a sense  of value. If I were a  policeman…if I see trouble coming, I’ll dodge because if I die, what will be given to my  family? N10,000! That’s no money. The way we treat our  policemen breaks my heart.

This is the man who will protect you from armed robbers and he has no good weapon. He has no  good remuneration.I know governors who say they don’t  have enough money to take care of policemen. It is a lie  humbly told. We are a gigantic paradox.

We are so hopelessly rich yet we are stupidly poor because of mismanagement. We are the sixth oil producing country in the world. We ought to be among the shakers and the movers of the world but we are not because we have too many people who only think about themselves. This country can give employment to all our graduates.

This country can organise our transport  system very well. It can build and maintain our highways.  Even when we hadn’t the kind of money we have now, our  roads were beautifully maintained; but somebody had stopped  thinking. That is the problem we have.

There are many problems confronting the nation today and a  lot of people have said that the Church has failed.

The reason for it is the problem of responsibility. Nigerians are greatest inventors of excuses and yet they have no excuse for being full of excuses and a house of  excuse is a  house of failure. We have refused to be  responsible to our calling, to what we have been assigned to do.

We are not doing well because our leaders are not doing  well. It is the head that waxes the tail. The tail does not  wax head. The moment you have organised leadership, selfless  leadership, unbiased leadership, creative leadership,  leaders who can think; the country will move forward.

I was caught up in the Lagos demonic traffic yesterday for good  five hours. That traffic has been there for maybe 40 years.  It  simply means our leaders do not think.

If our leaders  could think, they would have found a way out of this demonic  traffic bottleneck in Lagos that affects the economy. You  can no longer boast of  being a man of integrity in terms of  time. A man who is not sure of carrying out his plans, cannot plan and plan well.

We need leaders who can think. When I say Nigerians don’t think, people get angry and mad at me. We only re_arrange  our prejudices .That is why we are not moving forward.

We  need a man who can see the future and prepare us for the  future. A man we call a visionary leader, one who sees what others cannot see, a man who looks at what others look at, but would see what they not see. That’s what made David a hero. Israel saw Goliath, the king of Israel saw Goliath,  the army of Israel saw Goliath, but they didn’t see his forehead.

It was seen only by David. And he also saw stones.  And it was what he saw which others didn’t see that  brought down Goliath. Nigeria has Goliaths, we are looking
for men who can see the unprotected forehead of this Goliath.

Every Goliath has an unprotected forehead. You can  pretend to be a leader but only the fruit you bear will  show whether you are a leader or not. Like I said, the tail cannot wax the head, only the head can wax the tail.

What is the Goliath you have identified in Nigeria?

They are so many.

The first one is irresponsibility. The  second is this tendency to give excuses. Third is refusal to be accountable. Fourth is having the conscience and the feeling of a leper. I have said it before that most of our  political leaders are just political lepers.

They don’t feel any pain. If you don’t feel any pain, they can’t  think of solving that pains. The fifth thing is not having a  model we can copy—a mentor who can say do it this way or that way.

The sixth is refusal to be selfless, because a  leader is like a candle who burns itself to give light to  others. As far as he’s trying to protect himself, he  can’t give light. We are looking for men who are selfless. Another thing is failure to have the baptism into the  sacredness of human being. Every human being is important.

Your messenger must be honoured and respected because that  messenger has the potential of producing the greatest  artiste that Nigeria has ever known. The  moment we begin to respect, appreciate and love each other  and see the good in each other, we are already building a  virile nation.

Then there is poverty mentality! Poverty mentality simply  says if only you can give me what I want, I can do anything for you. A man who is not sure of himself has no sense of  value and respect.

A man who  no matter what he has wants  more is not sure of himself. A man who says, I can sell my mother to you  if the  price is good  is a man with what we call poverty mentality. A poor man is not a man without money, it’s a man who has  no value.

Let me put it in a Christian perspective, a poor  man is a man who has no God. We have too many people with  poverty mentality trying to rule us. All a man with poverty  mentality wants to do is to line his pockets, he doesn’t care about others. He just says if I eat, others can as well go home.

Accountability! You asked me to do this; this is  what I have done. If we are accountable, what is happening in  our banking industry should not be happening. If

I can expand that, it is ability to give and take excuses. We have a way of blaming everything away, using tribalism as excuse.

In Nigeria, we  see everything from tribal point of view. A man kills, we say because he is a Muslim! A man steals; we say because he is a Christian. They want to eliminate us. We are not willing to face facts. Do you know that Nigeria is the only  country where people have knowledge but they don’t apply  it.

They look but  they don’t see. When they see, they don’t understand  and when they understand, they don’t  appreciate .When they appreciate, they don’t celebrate  and  when they celebrate , they don’t smile.

There is this problem of our constitution?

One of the past presidents, I won’t tell you who, had a  programme for the poor. I was called to pray against  violence in that meeting. The government that God will  honour is the government that honours the poor. Can you imagine America going to North Korea because of some two young  powerless journalists who had no money.

The whole nation came to a halt. If that happens here, nobody will hear about  it. So, I said to the president, I’ll not pray that kind of prayer. He was good enough to asked me to tell him what I think they should do.

Our problem in Nigeria is not that we  don’t tell our leaders what to do, but they have so many sycophants around them who hijack whatever you say and tell  them not to worry, they can handle the situation. As long as  we have these sycophants who sing the praises of our leaders, not to help the leaders but to enrich their  pockets, we shall continue to have  this same problem.

Everyone of us is only as strong as members of your inner circle. You cannot rise above them. Nothing is wrong with the 1999  constitution. What is wrong is the operators of the  constitution. Some of the operators have not even read the  constitution.

So, how do expect to operate it? They don’t  know it by heart. We, the followers are a dumb audience. We  only grumble in the toilet. We can’t grumble aloud  because no Nigerian wants to die unless assassins force  him  to die. In 1978, we were supposed to march against the soldier  boys.

One of the bishops asked us, did anybody write his will before coming to this meeting ,because one of the  bullets can kill you? Do you know none of us proceeded  beyond that.

I was in Bangladesh when civilians came to the  streets and say to the government to come down  and I  asked one of them, what if they shoot you? These are soldiers. He said, Uma, I’m not afraid of death. But  here,  we are so used to luxurious life that nobody wants  to die. The Bible says unless you’re ready to die, you  will not live. That is our problem.

Do you support men of God participating actively in  politics?
Don’t go into politics unless God has called you. Don’t  just wake up and say , I will be a politician, because it’s a game that some of us don’t know where the goal posts are and they keep shifting the goal post.

There are people who moved into politics without being called. When God calls you, He enables you, He equips you. When you wake up and jump into the football field of politics, you cannot cope.  Some of them are there because of the glamour and glitz of  politics.

What’s your opinion on  re_branding Nigeria ?

Nigerians have a great sense of humour. If you want to  re_brand Nigeria ,where do you start? We are so neck_deep in  doing the wrong thing, in corruption. It is almost difficult being a Nigerian.

At this point where we are, where do we  start this re_branding? If we are going to re_brand Nigeria,  I want to hear of one man who stole government money, return  that money to us! Then I’ll know we have started.

I want  to hear of somebody who gave false testimony that led somebody to jail, rise up and say I told lies, that person is innocent. To me, that is the beginning of re_branding. I  want to hear a woman say my husband is not the father of the  child I am carrying. You cannot conquer what you cannot  confront. Let the leaders begin and we will follow.

I  want to hear of one leader who will say, I gave out part of  my ministry’s money to a bank expecting to be paid, I am  sorry. I want to hear the police command say, we must  hold somebody because he is guilty but because he insulted us. That is the beginning of re-branding.

Number one, poverty is at work. There is no  powerful force greater than poverty. If a nation wants to  keep her people under good control, you must not rob them of  knowledge and rob them of self worth.

In Nigeria one per cent lives well while 99 per cent merely exist. There is a number of churches, we don’t have enough. In the Old Testament, ten people were allowed to have their own  synagogue. We need to have a church in every house. Once a  church is in every house and the father of the house is the  pastor, that family will change. When a man has nothing to  offer his family, he will pick a gun.

The worst thing is to  watch your children cry for food. Success is not a question  of how many millions I have but how many millionaires I have
helped. A leader is someone who can give hope to others.

The gubernatorial elections in Anambra State scheduled for  next year is around the corner…

(Laugh! Laugh!! Laugh!!!) We don’t have one politician  from the East. What we have are rabble rousers. They don’t  know the mechanics and dynamics of politics. Everybody in  the East has a crown already on his head but you cannot be a  king without a king maker. Who are the king makers in the  East?

They don’t exist. Every man to himself. We don’t  have politicians there because  a politician should know there has to be a king maker for him to produce a king. There is no community where you have  no king maker and you have a king.

You can’t find it in any  place in the world. So, if there’s plan to have another election in Anambra, God help us. Until the average  Easterner respects and honours his elders, there cannot be a  king without a king maker. We don’t have leaders in the  East. Ibo people  have no leaders.

That is why Ojukwu is known as  Eze Gburugburu. Anybody that can lead the Igbos must have  something which others do  not have and must have a measure of nuisance value and must be able to show the rest that he’s higher than they  are.

Source_ Vanguard Newspaper of 11/12/2009

Her name recalls her exploits in the Nigerian film industry, but today, Vista Woman is unveiling the other side of ace Nollywood star, Mrs. Gloria Anozie-Young. For years, Gloria Young has been a women’s rights activist, educating women all around her on how to identify and prevent gender-based violence.

With the just concluded commemoration of the United Nations ‘16 Days of Activism Against Gender-based Violence (November 25-December 10)’ still green in the memories of women across the globe, Gloria who is happily married to Nollywood star, Nobert Young, with three children, bares her mind on violence against women. Hear her:

I CANNOT fathom why violence against women is increasing. I hear so many
terrible stories, and wonder why these men can’t find some other objects as punching bags. Why would you beat your wife?

You’re beating yourself! God has joined you both and made you one, and you should know that when you hurt your wife, you’re hurting yourself. Not just your wife; you shouldn’t beat any woman at all. As female, God made us soft. We need to be protected, and not treated horribly.

I wonder why men now behave this way; our fathers never did that. Why are we training our children to be violent? Why must we tell a male child to behave like a man? Can’t he behave like the human he is meant to be? Why do you say to him ‘You’re a man; don’t cry’.

That’s where it starts from. When you tell him not to cry, then how does he let out his anger when he is angry? I ask again: How does a man let out his anger when he’s told ‘Men don’t cry’? His available option will then be to hit the person who got him angry! I would never forget the day one of my immediate younger brothers( a twin) was so angry at a particular person.

He couldn’t hit the person because he wasn’t trained that way. Do you know what did? He hit the glass, and his hand went through it. Thank God he wasn’t injured.

The whole glass pane fell down, but there was not a scratch on his body. That is to tell you how angry he was. What if he had used that strength on the one who made him angry? Only God knows what would have happened. If you train your child properly, he would not lift his hand on a woman.

If your male child watches you as a father, beat his mother, he will think that’s the right thing to do, and the next day, he will beat his sister, and later beat his wife. We must all stand up and say no to that. Women, please don’t keep quiet. If your man beats you, report him to the social welfare office where a case will be made for you. I don’t know how functional that office is in other states, but I know it is a very viable and strong office in Lagos State.

Don’t wait until you’ve been wounded. I’ve seen women who kept quiet, and were eventually killed in the act by their so-called husbands.

I have seen three children (a set of triplets) born to a man who killed the wife after the birth of the children. Because the man was drunk, he slapped, kicked, and beat up the woman until she gave up the ghost.

The children now live in an orphanage! You see how the family is destroyed. Again, we need to also talk to our women. As a woman, you know your only weapon is your mouth, then why stand near your man when you use it?

If you ask my husband, he will tell you “My wife’s mouth is very sharp, but I don’t do anything.” You know what, I don’t give him the chance to even do anything because when men react sometimes, they do it without thinking of the aftermath.

Later they will come to pet you and tell you ‘sorry’ when your whole arm and body is already hurting. When I stand to use my weapon (mouth) as a woman, I stand far away from my husband.

Then if he tries to move, I hide myself. You must run as a woman because if you’re slightly hit, you could experience a breakdown which will automatically affect the running of things in the home. What I’m saying here is that as a woman, if you can’t hold your mouth, stand far and run if you perceive danger. Don’t also forget to return to say ‘sorry ‘if you happen to be the guilty party.

On the issue of rape, I want to say that our values and norms encourage us not to expose our body indiscriminately. However, the way we dress is not the major cause of rape, but a contributory factor. We were taught that if you expose yourself in a disgraceful manner, you’re telling the men that you’re an easy-lay. They will believe you can accept anything dished out to you.

When we want to copy from the westerners, why don’t we copy the good things? In being fashion conscious, we need not compromise decency. However, I want to state clearly that there’s no excuse for raping any woman.

As a matter of fact, those who rape women are men who have a psychological problem; they want to foolishly prove that they’re strong. If not, why should a grown man think of raping an infant? An innocent child who knows nothing! You might say what’s the big deal about rape?

Isn’t it ordinary sex? No, it is sex against a woman’s will! That’s where the problem is. A woman’s physical anatomy demands that she be caressed, begged and touched in different ways; otherwise, she will stiffen up, and if she is forced, she gets hurt and feels the tear in her head.

To check rape, I would advise ladies not to always walk or live alone. We still have the extended family system; if you’re a spinster, you can get a cousin, nephew, niece, etc. to come live with you. Most importantly, I implore all women to put up a proactive effort towards ensuring the domestication of the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Violence Against Women-CEDAW bill because it will ensure a protection of our rights. I see no reason why it is taking our government time to make it a part of our national law since June 1985 when it joined other UN states in ratifying it.

After attending the Methodist Girls High School, Yaba, Lagos, I travelled to the United States of America (USA) where I had my A’ levels at Thomas Jefferson High School, Dallas, Texas, USA. I later went on to the El-Centro College, Dallas, where I studied Mass Communications.

However, on my return to Nigeria, I did a two-year course with the Nigerian Institute of Journalism and that prepared me for the stint of journalism work before veering into the film industry’


Source: Vanguard Newspaper of 11/12/2009

The adoption of the e-payment option for all public sector transactions was meant to address a number of problems associated with government businesses. The system was not only meant to check corruption and abuse of process, but also to make such transactions faster and less cumbersome.

But Mr. Hassan Saleh, out-going director of Customs, Immigration and Prisons Pension Office (CIPPO) says instead of easing the pains of retirees and the traditional problems associated with pension payment, e-payment has often aggravated them because of the antics of some bankers, who, according to him, have devised means of defeating the purpose for which the e-payment initiative was adopted for their own selfish gains.

“When you release money to the banks they keep it for some days before putting it in the individual accounts of the pensioners and that frustrates them. E-payment was suppose to be the fastest way of paying pensioners, but to my disappointment, most of the banks don’t credit the account of the pensioners when you release money to them,” he told Daily Sun in Abuja.
It is a recurrent problem that Saleh has had to contend with since assuming office as the CIPPO boss on January 17, 2008. In a particular case he had to summon the manager of a bank when the bank failed to credit pensioners with their money long after the money had been paid through the bank. The aggrieved affected pensioners would go to the bank for their payment, only to be told it had not been paid. Then they would return to CIPPO, only to be told again it had been lodged with the bank. “It can be very frustrating,” he points out.

Of course, pensioners have their own peculiar problems which make the e-payment process a little cumbersome if not complex for them. “We discovered that every pensioner had a problem. We have paid no fewer than 18, 000 people. I met about 180 cheques that were pasted at the back of pensioners’ files for several years unreleased,” he says.
The cheques were signed and taken the person who was supposed to issues them out to the expectant pensioners, but for whatever reason the man did not release them, long after they were ready. “Some people died waiting. We have been able to clear all these. Those who have been going to CIPO for years will today testify that you now have limited number of people waiting to be attended to. When I assumed duty the place was like a mini-market. Some people made the place their permanent abode,” Saleh recalls.

But those were not the only problems encountered by Saleh when he was deployed to CIPPO from the office of the Head of Civil Service of the Federation where he was serving as the Director of Establishment and Industrial Relations. In fact, prior to that time, customs, immigrations and prisons retirees were having repeated nightmares over the payment of their benefits, including monthly pensions. He recalls that petitions were being shipped into the office of the Head of Service on continuous basis as the frustrated pensioners complained about how they were being short-changed by the system.

In his capacity as the director of establishment and industrial relations, Saleh was privy to all the goings-on in CIPPO. In deed, it was in response to the crisis in the office that the then Head of Service, Ms. Ebele Okeke, had to send him to CIPPO on a rescue mission as it were. “It took me about two weeks to go through all the petitions which were more than 8, 000. They were all about non payment of pensions,” he says.
So from the outset Saleh knew it was not going to be a tea party. He says as much: “I told myself I was going to face problems, and I prepared for them. I set up several task forces on specific areas. About six or seven task forces were set up. It was a situation I found very daunting because some people were kept for seven years without payment. We had to do some assessment to know how to deal with the situation.”

After the initial assessment, Saleh ran to the federal government, cap in hand. The government responded and released a supplementary budget of N7.8 billion to the office in December 2008. CIPPO started paying the arrears on December 23, just in time to put some smile on the faces of the retirees ahead of Christmas. Still there are many who have yet to be paid because of the problems involved. As the out-going CIPP boss put it, some of the live in remote villages, while some are just very old and weak. “We are still waiting for them to turn up,” he says.

How did CIPPO use the N7.8 billion? Saleh explains that besides the payment of regular monthly pension which was N4.3 billion, the supplementary budget was used to pay pension arrears that had accumulated over the years. As at today, he says, not less than N6 billion has been spent on these, and the office is still paying.

In terms of outstanding gratuity, CIPPO, under Saleh’s administration had set up a committee which has been working to ascertain the amount involved. Again another category of pensioners that has given the office a serious headache is those who were forcefully retired from Customs few years back during what was called a downsizing exercise. Since then they have not been paid their disengagement benefits. Some of them even committed suicide out of frustration.
Explaining the peculiar situation of the Customs retirees, the CIPPO director blames the authorities of the Nigerian Customs Service (NCS) for the unnecessary punishment the former Customs personnel have been subjected to. “That time, every agency was supposed to compile names of those they downsized and referred to the Bureau for Public Service Reforms. A committee would work on it at the bureau and forward to the Presidency for approval. Unfortunately, the Nigerian Custom Service did not follow due process,” he says.

Because of the failure of Customs to follow laid-down procedure for disengaging the affected persons, Salah says the Bureau of Public Service Reforms had turned down their list. Up till now, CIPPO is still struggling to get government to release money to pay them: “There are many things that came up and distorted the list. There are about 2, 751 people. We learnt that some of those people have been reinstated into service. They have to be removed from the list, the custom has to come in and help us out. Some of them don’t have complete records. We cannot compute their severance package. While waiting, about 67 of them died. Five of these people committed suicide.”

Besides causing the problem in the first place, the Customs authorities appear not to be very keen on getting it rectified. Saleh thinks they cannot be absolved from culpability and indeed says he lays “the blame solely on the custom service because they have not been able to give us up to date records of those people and as such it has not been easy for us to compute. Right now, we have set up another committee to classify the list of the custom downsized officers. For those who have died we expect that the Customs will recommend the names of their next of kins to be paid.”

Decrying a situation where people relieved of their jobs in 2006 would still not get their gratuities three years later because of the omissions and commissions of those still in service, he says: It is a very pathetic situation. When you meet some of them you think they have never worked in their life and some people are not feeling any guilt about it.”
When CIPPO started paying last December, it invited retirees from the three agencies it covers, namely Customs, Immigration and Prisons. Files were opened for those who have complete records, who were then paid 23 months arrears. CIPPO is now paying them monthly pension but those who don’t have complete records and those who don’t have records at all are not in its list yet. As a result Saleh insists they are not being paid anything yet.

On payment of pensions and gratuities to ex-Biafran personnel, he confirmed that CIPPO had received a directive to pay those who worked with Customs, Immigrations and Prisons before they moved to Biafra. “We were able to get at least 71 of them from the Budget Office. The Budget Office was paying them when they were pardoned by the Presidency. The directive was that we should go round the country to fish them out. We have been able to get about 65 of them. We are now trying to inform the minister of interior. We also need to get money to pay them,” he explains.

However, there are still complaints from the Biafran retirees on non-payment of their pensions. Saleh, who once served as Secretary to the Government of Yobe State before transferring to the Federal Service is quite aware of this: “When people write petitions that they have not been paid, we normally go to the individual file to see the record and to know what happened. We do that through the various task forces which we appointed to look into such problem.”

Reminded that there might be those without file, he says there is little CIPPO can do in such cases because the only proof that a person has a history of service is the file containing his record of service. Without a file, he says, “we assume that you are not a pensioner until you prove to us that you are one. Paying anybody that claims he is a pensioner is not just good enough.”

Saleh would want to be remembered for laying the foundation for a smooth administration of pension for those who serve their country in the three key parastatals covered by CIPPO. He says: “When I came in, there was no particular date (for pensioners to receive their monthly pension), but I changed that situation. They now get their pension on the 25th day of every month. I have now changed it to the 15th of every month. It depends on the release of funds from the office of the Accountant General of the Federation. We worked very hard to ensure that it does not go beyond the 25th of every month.”

By: MODESTUS CHUKWULAKA, ( The Sun newspaper ) Abuja