₦airaland Forum

^^^
Anyone?

Eko Ile:
This is still a bogus comparison simply because Tinubu is not a government official, this association is not a government organization and Tinubu's daughter is not on government's payroll.



Can't you people find a better and relevant points...?

Tinubu's daughter is not on government's payroll?

You mean she did/does not get any allowances as the deputy chairman of the Lagos State Market Development Board?

Past Chairman / Deputy

Mrs. Bola Shodipjo - 22nd July, 2005
Alh. Abibatu Mogaji – (OFR, MFR)-
Deputy Chairman- (Alhaja Abosede Loremikan) 2010-2011
Alh. Abibatu Mogaji (OFR, MFR) 2011- To date
Mrs Folashade Tinubu-Ojo- 2011-to Date

http://www.lagosstate.gov.ng/pagemenus.php?p=252&k=189

Ola one: This only tells you they had it all planned.

The matriarch probably went into a coma that year. And, pronto, they installed her (the grand daughter) as Deputy Chairman.

From the Lagos State Government Website:

Listings
Name Designation
Alh. Abibatu Mogaji ((OFR) Chairman
Mrs Folashade Tinubu-Ojo Deputy Chairman
Mr. Oluwatoyin James-Kakawa Board Secretary
Mr. Oyekan Olaseni Manzur-ur-deen Account office
Mrs Olaniawo Olubunmi. A. Market Development & Environmental Sanitation Unit
Mrs Eklu Fausat Adenike Personnel Training Unit
Mrs Faleye Olufunke Idayat Internal Audit Unit

http://www.lagosstate.gov.ng/principalofficerlist.php?k=189

Past Chairman / Deputy

Mrs. Bola Shodipjo - 22nd July, 2005
Alh. Abibatu Mogaji – (OFR, MFR)-
Deputy Chairman- (Alhaja Abosede Loremikan) 2010-2011
Alh. Abibatu Mogaji (OFR, MFR) 2011- To date
Mrs Folashade Tinubu-Ojo- 2011-to Date

http://www.lagosstate.gov.ng/pagemenus.php?p=252&k=189

Responsibilities/Duties/Roles

1. Market Sanitation

(a) The Market shall ensure proper sanitation of all markets in Lagos State in collaboration with the KAI brigade and the Local Governments;
(b) Eradication of Street Trading;
(c) Enforcement of the 6:00 p.m. market closure time in all markets in Lagos State;
(d) Ensure that no person(s) reside or sleep within any market premises in the state.

2. Establishment and development of retail and wholesale markets in conjunction with Local Governments and the Ministry of Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs.

3. Controlling of loading and off-loading of goods in the markets.

4. Controlling of car parks within the markets.

5. Initiation and conclusion of arrangements with any person(s), group(s), contractor(s) or Agencies for the maintenance and construction of Market, in conjunction with both Local Government and the Ministry of Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs.

6. Obtain Authority through the Supervising Ministry, with the approval of Governor to obtain funds through:

(i) Bank loan;
(ii) Debentures;
(iii) Invest in short tenure security Bonds.


7. Insure property from all form of hazard.

8. Management of market premises

9. Management of the Market premises

10. Settlement of disputes within the Markets.

11. Determination of Levy to be charged on Insurance and maintenance of properties within the market.

12. Organisation of open market fairs, neighbourhood night market, Sunday markets and street markets for specific period of time.

13. Regulation of Market fees to control arbitrary increase of charges:

14. Construction of new market: cost of construction to be recovered from stallage before handing over to Local Government for maintenance.

15. Supervision of contractor to ensure:

(i) Compliance with Government Town Planning

regulation and approved building plan.

(ii) Creation of emergency exists

(iii ) Creation of public Conveniences, i.e. toilet, water,

waste disposal, Good drainage system, banking

facilities car park, Crèche/ Day care, Clinic.

16. Monitoring of allocation of shops to rightful owners

17. Organising Management team with stake holders and controlling their activities.

18. Organising seminar, symposia, Lectures for traders.

19. Revenue collection in markets under the control of the Local Governments shall be the responsibilities of the Local Government but 30% of Revenue collected shall be paid to the Board for Management and Administration of the Market.

20. Registration and Annual renewal fees of Commodity Associations shall be collected by the Board for Market upkeep and environmental sanitation

21. Markets shall be catergorised into:

A. Markets with modern buildings and structures i.e.

Tejuoso, Awolowo, Sura, Balogun, Ebute Ero and

Mile 12, Plazas, Anjorin markets etc;

B. Market with concrete structures, lockup shops and

open stalls (mainly bungalows);

C. Open markets built on Kee-Klamps;

22. The Board shall comply with all other assignments that may be given to it by the Supervising Ministry- Ministry of Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs.

http://www.lagosstate.gov.ng/pagemenus.php?p=250&k=189

Ola one: This only tells you they had it all planned.

The matriarch probably went into a coma that year. And, pronto, they installed her (the grand daughter) as Deputy Chairman.

GBAM!

Lagos belongs to the Tinubus

June 27, 2013 by Abimbola Adelakun (aa_adelakun@utexas.edu)


“This new development portends great danger for our democracy and indeed Lagos integrity. We are thus calling on the Lagos State Governor, Babatunde Fashola, not to sit on the fence at this auspicious time. Fashola must rise up and be counted now. He must exhibit control in governance especially when Tinubu’s interest conflicts with the public interest. He must see to it that the process leading to the emergence of a market leader and any other leadership in the state is transparent, liberal and credible.”

—Lagos State Chapter of the PDP

Life has some pleasantly ironic moments. Before the Lagos State Chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party woke up to the news that the former governor of the state, Bola Tinubu, was about to install his daughter as the Iyaloja of Lagos, who could have thought the party would ever understand –or even acknowledge- that anything portends “great danger” to Nigerian democracy? Or, that the party would even canvass a process that is “transparent, liberal and credible?” These are surely interesting times we live in.

Since the PDP put out its press release, part of which was quoted above, there has been some robust discourse on the social media about whether another Tinubu should step into the shoes of the late Abibatu Mogaji, “pioneer Iyaloja/President-General of Nigerian Market Men and Women” who held the prestigious position for many years even when she was old and frail; and at 96, was clearly incapable of functioning in that role with as much vitality as she would have exuded in her younger years.

The PDP, on getting to know about the announcement purportedly made at Mogaji’s burial, panicked and quickly issued the press release I excerpted above. It does not quite seem it has awoken to the reality that Lagos is Tinubu’s property; from there his influence extends to other states in South-West Nigeria. He is the go-to godfather of the region such that men like Lamidi Adedibu who once trod that path look like upstarts when contrasted with him.

My advice to the PDP is to cease its caterwauling and focus its energies on winning the 23 states President Goodluck Jonathan recently stipulated as their 2015 target. For now, not much will change as regards the ownership of Lagos political structure. The Tinubus own a lot and like the proverbial greedy man who insists on acquiring every parcel of land that touches his land, they keep expanding.

It is not for nothing that Tinubu was assigned an anti-democratic title of “Governor Emeritus.” There are similar examples of such labels created by fawning Nigerians to massage the egos of their leaders who are obviously plagued by the Mugabe Complex. This attitude, taken in its entirety, illustrates the intractable problems of leadership in Africa. The Mugabe Complex is a fear of ordinariness; a symptom exhibited by people in power who just do not want to be out of the picture. In their minds, they are the awaited messiahs so they impose themselves on people by every means possible. Such people jump from Governor to Senator; from First Lady, they become Permanent Secretaries or Mother-of-the-nation; or transform into tribal leaders and godfathers. They practically configure the state finances to lead to their pockets. They clog the state machinery so that those who succeed them in office would have to contact them for solutions.

Leaders from this part of the world who are plagued by the Mugabe Complex lack virtue. They do not walk away when they complete their tenure; rather, they create enough problems so that we can always look back wistfully at their tenure. They cannot even stand successors who outshine them in performance. They will do anything, as long as it gives them continued relevance and help them exhibit a sense of patriarchal proprietary over their constituencies.

During the 2011 elections, not a few people were astounded at how the former governor reportedly put forward members of his family in the Lagos State elections when it was quite certain they would win since their party controlled the state.

If it had been a PDP leader who was taking advantage in that manner, it would be an opportunity for the Publicity Secretary of the Action Congress of Nigeria, Lai Mohammed, to gallop on his high horse over and over again. He would have issued his famous press releases to “yab” the party and then self-righteously proclaim a fatwa on them. That is one of the reasons the PDP is an easier party to understand than the ACN; it has no progressive agenda that enables it to pretend. The classic opposition-to-the-rescue image the ACN has created for itself over the years has enabled it and its Big Daddies to evade a lot of scrutiny.

The ACN has tried to play down the Iyaloja story by pretending that it has bigger fishes to hunt than the leadership of mere markets. That kind of attitude –pretended or otherwise — is wrong. Whoever eventually emerges as the Iyaloja is important, actually. The post is a culturally created one but considering how traditional market systems are a vital component of our existence, it’s not a trivial one.

A scholar, Manthia Diawara, pointed out that the traditional market system poses the greatest obstacle to modernity in Africa and should be coopted into efforts made at building modern societies. The traditional market system forms a significant part of cultural life that we cannot divorce from our corporate-contemporary existence. They are important gateways to trade and globalisation. Markets, anthropologically considered, represent interwoven strands of primitiveness and modernity in our societies. How far our country will go can be determined from the dynamics of these markets. In Nigeria where manufacturing efforts are low, what constitutes our economy owes a lot to the markets. I hope the ACN treats the market system with more deference than the political advantages accruable from the office of the Iyaloja.

As things go, I am not hopeful the PDP can achieve much by seeking Fashola’s intervention. In 2011, people grumbled out quite loudly about a leadership that was inbreeding to the point of incest, but then what? The Tinubu family members still won with a landslide. The grumblings ceased and life continued. If the post of Iyaloja gets ceded to another Tinubu, people will murmur and live with it. If anything will change, it should –and will — come from Lagosians themselves. Lagosians are sophisticated people and when they have had enough, they will do the needful.

http://www.punchng.com/viewpoint/lagos-belongs-to-the-tinubus/

And actually you are right about the etiquette/protocol.

He would have been addressed as Senator Clinton had he been a senator before becoming president.

No qualms, mate.

Who changed the topic and why?

Gbawe: Political etiquette means Clinton will always be regarded as Senator Clinton ,beyond office, and not President Clinton.

Was he ever a senator?

kcjazz: The major problem we face is a lack of effective town planning and land reforms. We don't plan for population increase. Over the years the population in this axis has increased dramatically. Maybe a flyover will reduce the pain for a while but me thinks, we need to develop our waterways. By water Badore to VI Civic Centre is less than 30 minutes, repair and open up the alternative route from Ogombo axis before they fence everywhere with houses.

Do you mean the coastal road?

Gbawe: Why won't Tinubu not smile? This was at a ceremony to mark the reclamation of land for Eko Atlantic City. GEJ was praising the Eko Atlantic initiative same as Senator Clintonhad also waxed lyrical about the project. That is why Tinubu and Fashola are grinning cockily like proud parents

http://eftngr.com/opal/news/1-latest-news/2706-clinton-praises-atlantic-city-as-new-dubai.html

Ehem!

President Clinton, you mean?

I was waiting to see who would post first.

The 'ACN/APC e-warriors' or the 'laptop gang'?

I hope we don't end up with a 'civil war' here.

This has got to be the only picture in which I have seen President Jonathan and Asiwaju Tinubu smiling at a single point of interest, what do you think?

^^^

Can anyone confirm that the extension of the Great Wall means an expansion of the original size of Eko Atlantic or is the reporter just being overzealous?

On a lighter note, this has got to be the only picture in which I have seen President Jonathan and Asiwaju Tinubu smiling at a single point of interest, what do you think?

EKO ATLANTIC: A city set on water

Former President of the United States America, Bill Clinton, who also witnessed the unveiling of the project could not agree less that the devastating effects and disasters induced by ocean surge around the world in recent times call for such proactive step. He believes the project holds more prospects beyond serving as protective wall against ocean encroachment. To him, the Eko Atlantic City, when completed, will serve as a major tourist destination in Nigeria. “I am convinced that five years from now, many around the world will be coming to see this great wall,” Governor Fashola enthused.

Upon completion, the project, a joint venture by the Lagos State government and South Energyx Nigeria Limited, is projected to accommodate 250,000 residents with 150,000 others commuting to the city on daily basis. With the plan by the state government to expand the project from Bar Beach in Victoria Island to Alpha Beach in Lekki, it is expected that more residents will be accommodated. This, analysts believe, will further ease the housing problem which the nation is currently grappling with. Nigeria’s housing deficit is believed to be in the region of 16 million. Out of this figure Lagos state is estimated to harbour 30 percent of the deficit, which represents a total of five million.

http://sunnewsonline.com/new/specials/aspire/eko-atlantic-a-city-set-on-water/

austinkenneth: Please can someone upload pictures of the road here sothat we can even see how bad it is?

Eyeba2013 and any other interested parties over to you.

@austinkenneth, I hope you would focus your attention on the road and not the houses?

@Naptu, thanks for the heads up on the extension of the Great Wall. Dunno how I missed that one.

Lagos to Extend Eko Atlantic City Project

06 Mar 2013

Gboyega Akinsanmi

The Lagos State Government Tuesday unfolded plans to extend the Eko Atlantic City Project from the Bar Beach in Victoria Island to Alpha Beach in Lekki, as a way of permanently protecting lives and property along the state’s section of the Atlantic Ocean.

It also lamented the refusal of the Federal Government to fulfil its promise to address ocean erosion, which it said, affected strategic parts of the state before it took the initiative to build the Eko Atlantic City as a permanent solution to the ecological challenge.

The state Governor, Mr. Babatunde Fashola (SAN), explained the state’s response to ecological challenges during an inspection of some strategic projects in Lekki and Victoria Island yesterday, noting that the Federal Government had not given assistance to the state government in tackling the challenge.

Fashola, accompanied by the state’s Commissioner for the Environment, Mr. Tunji Bello and his Works and Infrastructure counterpart, Dr. Obafemi Hamzat, among others, inspected the International Arbitration Centre in Lekki, Maternal and Childcare Centre in Ajah, Lekki-Ikoyi Link Bridge, Ozumba Mbadiwe Road project, Fairmont Garden Mixed Development and Dolphin jetty project.

During the inspection, the governor expressed the resolve of the state government “to protect lives and property along the shore. It is a major ecological challenge for the state. We are going to build and protect for another 7.3 kilometres and that would get to Alpha Beach.

“Last August, we had a big storm when the Atlantic ran into the Kuramo and threatened all the property in that axis. You will recall that we had to abandoned few projects that we intended to do on that axis and re-ordered our budget so that we could respond to the emergency to safe lives in some of the estates located on the axis.

“We are constructing infrastructure that will limit the ability of the sea to continue to affect the shoreline there and what we have seen in about six months work is very encouraging. We have saved property that would have been submerged.

“If we have not acted, the story would have been different. Perhaps, it is one of the significant projects that our budget implementation achieved last year. There is still a distance to go. That project will last three years. So we have only awarded the first phase.”


The governor lamented that in spite of the threat of ocean surge to lives and property along the Atlantic Ocean, the state government “has not received any help from anyone. But we continued because this is the right way to spend tax payers’ money.”

He, however, explained that the state government “is currently executing about 1,966 projects across the state ” and only about 300 of the projects had been inspected so far.

http://www.thisdaylive.com/articles/lagos-to-extend-eko-atlantic-city-project/141363/

LAGOS TO EXTEND EKO ATLANTIC CITY PROJECT

Posted by My Lagos on March 10, 2013 // Leave Your Comment

Governor Fashola and guests at launching

The Lagos State Government Tuesday unfolded plans to extend the Eko Atlantic City Project from the Bar Beach in Victoria Island to Alpha Beach in Lekki, as a way of permanently protecting lives and property along the state’s section of the Atlantic Ocean.

It also lamented the refusal of the Federal Government to fulfil its promise to address ocean erosion, which it said, affected strategic parts of the state before it took the initiative to build the Eko Atlantic City as a permanent solution to the ecological challenge.

The state Governor, Mr. Babatunde Fashola (SAN), explained the state’s response to ecological challenges during an inspection of some strategic projects in Lekki and Victoria Island yesterday, noting that the Federal Government had not given assistance to the state government in tackling the challenge.

Fashola, accompanied by the state’s Commissioner for the Environment, Mr. Tunji Bello and his Works and Infrastructure counterpart, Dr. Obafemi Hamzat, among others, inspected the International Arbitration Centre in Lekki, Maternal and Childcare Centre in Ajah, Lekki-Ikoyi Link Bridge, Ozumba Mbadiwe Road project, Fairmont Garden Mixed Development and Dolphin jetty project.

During the inspection, the governor expressed the resolve of the state government “to protect lives and property along the shore. It is a major ecological challenge for the state. We are going to build and protect for another 7.3 kilometres and that would get to Alpha Beach.

http://lagostomegacity.com/?p=582

naptu2: LASG says that it will extend the Great Wall of Lagos to that area in order to protect Alpha Beach

I did not know that!

Are you sure?

That'll be great!

[size=14pt]. . . then the LASG shifted the burden of building the coastal defences to the FG:[/size]

Nigeria: Danger Looms In Lekki
•Part of damaged areas of the beach caused by the flood at Lekki/Alpha Beach on Monday July 18, 2011.
INSET: Commissioner for Water Front and Infrastructure Development, PrInce Adesegun Oniru (2nd right), Minister of Trade and Investment, Dr. Olusegun Aganga (3rd left), Permanent Secretary, (Office of Drainage) Ministry of Environment, Engr. Muyideen Akinsanya (left) and the Environmentalist, Mr. Desmond Majekodunmi (2nd right), during the inspection of the beach by the Federal Government Ecological Fund Delegation team. With him are: Lagos State Commissioner for the Environment, Mr. Tunji Bello (left) and the Permanent Secretary, (Office of Drainage) Ministry of Environment, Engr. Muyideen Akinsanya (right)


In the next three months, thousands of houses and residents abutting the Alpha Beach in Lekki area of Lagos State, Southwest Nigeria will be sacked by coastal erosion by the ocean, warns the Lagos State Government.

Already, in the last two weeks, the 20 metres of coastline has been lost to the ocean as the water from the sea is less than 70 metres away from residential area and several shanties abutting the ocean.

Commissioner for Waterfront Development and Infrastructure, Prince Segun Oniru disclosed this on Monday when a team from the Federal Government came to inspect the level of damage caused by the recent flood in Lagos and submit its finding to President Goodluck Jonathan.

The team was led by the Minister of Trade and Investment, Dr. Olusegun Aganga, while the Permanent Secretary, Ecological Funds in the Office of the Presidency, Mrs. Ibukun Odusote was also in the team. The team inspected the Mayegun Beach where several shipwrecks are causing coastal erosion in the area and the Alpha Beach faced with the same problem of coastal erosion.

According to Oniru, who spoke at the Alpha Beach, residents in the area were in grave danger as the water from the ocean is fast approaching residential area and called on the Federal Government to do something urgent to safeguard the lives of people and properties.

He said the only urgent solution to halt the coastal erosion was for the Federal Government to reclaim the lost area to the beach by creating an embankment like it was done to the Bar Beach to prevent it from eroding the Ahmadu Bello Way.

“I cannot say how much it will cost to solve the problem of the beach but the Federal Government still needs to come to inspect the area to find solution to it.

“You can’t fight nature but you can only appease it. We need to push back the water and protect the beach from eroding. If nothing is done, in the next three to six months, everything you see here (houses and people) won’t be here anymore. In the last two weeks, we have lost 20 metres of the coastline to the ocean. What we are witnessing at the beach is natural erosion and a consequence of the rise in water level which is a result of global warming,” he stated.

He said the Alpha Beach which had been severely eroded and had damaged the roads needed urgent attention to save the impending danger.

Also speaking, Aganga said the Federal Government would surely come to the aid of Lagos, saying that the state government had already compiled what it needed, which he said would be forwarded to the president for action.

“We have heard that 20 metres of coastline had already been lost to the ocean in the last two weeks and that if we don’t do something about it, the people you see behind you here won’t be here anymore. We are here to assess the situation,” he said.

http://pmnewsnigeria.com/2011/07/19/nigeria-danger-looms-in-lekki/

[size=14pt]Since the visit nothing concrete has been done, either by the FG or the LASG[/size]

https://www.nairaland.com/804007/whats-happening-lekki-axis-3/1#9809014

Ilaje44: If you knew that in the mid 1970s there was no road to these places, you would be grateful for the little development you have now.

I am shocked!

You really mean I should be grateful that development has come to citizens of a country in the 21st century?

Are the indigenes of Aja/Lekki not citizens of Nigeria?
Don't they fulfil their civic responsibilities?

Your comment highlights the damage done to our national psyche by the prolonged military interregnum exemplified by your own experience under the jackboots of the Obasanjo government!

I am shocked that after 14 years of uninterrupted civilian rule anyone would make such a comment.

No harm intended!

austinkenneth: That is not one of the worst roads in Lagos and na BIG BOYS area be that. The affluent people who live there should either arrange to fix or continue waiting. If I'm BRF I'll concentrate on the welfare of the poor and middle class.

Both New Road (which leads to the beach) and Alpha Beach-Lafiaji Road (which runs parallel to the ocean banks) need urgent attention.

New Road used to lead to one of the most active tourist spots in Lagos, Alpha Beach, until recently. The tourism potential of the area has now been killed by the neglect of both the Federal and State Government.

In addition to that, there are scores of poor and middle class people who live at Alpha Beach, some already displaced from their ancestral homes.

The president and state governor have both visited the site. They flew to the site by helicopter (I know for sure the president did) and made promises but nothing is yet to be done.

I personally take exception to the notion that only the rich and affluent live in Lekki. This is just an unfortunate generalisation which must stop!

There are communities in Lekki whose only link to 'civilisation' are roads that were constructed by DFRRI (during the Babangida years).

I JOIN!

Former Governor of Lagos State, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, has been asked to rescind his decision to impose his daughter, Shade Tinubu-Ojo, as the new leader of market women in the state.

Peoples Democratic Party, in a statement on Monday by its Lagos Publicity Secretary, Taofik Gani, urged him to allow democracy to prevail in the selection of a new leader.

“You should allow the simple tenets of democracy to prevail in the selection of a new leader for the market women, more so as there is no cogent evidence that the nominee is a full-time market woman,” the statement said.

The former governor had allegedly announced the choice during the eighth day Firdau prayer for his mother and former leader of Association of Market Women and Men of Nigeria, Alhaja Abibat Mogaji.

The statement said, “The former governor plans to confirm this choice to market leaders at a meeting he has summoned for Tuesday (today) at his residence.

“This new development portends great danger for our democracy and indeed Lagos’ integrity. We are thus calling on Governor Babatunde Fashola not to sit on the fence at this auspicious time.”

http://www.punchng.com/metro/dont-impose-your-daughter-on-market-women-pdp/

[size=14pt]I have a strong feeling these people and clothes are of Nupe origin and not Yoruba.

What do you think?[/size]

[size=18pt]LCC: Robbing Addo/Badore to pay Ajah?[/size]

As a resident of Ajah axis of Lagos since the mid-2000s, when setting out for daily activities in the morning used to be terribly nightmarish, it was with a sigh of relief that I received the news of the contracting of the expansion of the Ajah-Lekki Expressway to the Lekki Construction Company (LCC) sometime in late 2006. Work started on the project in 2007, and we all regarded the further traffic gridlocks that occasioned the construction works as a necessary though bitter pill needed to solve our problem.

It is very unfortunate that in 2013, six years on, this road has not been completed. The length of time this project is taking calls to question the competence of the handlers, as one wonders why a 50-kilometre road expansion (adding just a lane per side, not fresh construction) will take so long. Worse still, works have been practically abandoned for months now, leaving us residents of the deeper parts of the axis at the mercy of renewed traffic gridlocks, that usually start after the Conservation Toll plaza every evening.

But while the post-toll plaza traffic is at least bearable, given the fact that we experience it on our way back from work when we are not exactly in a hurry, the poor execution of this project has created fresh nightmare for us residents of Addo/Badore/Langbasa axis. This is the worst part of it. Due to the obviously ill-planned roundabout at Ajah, the space available for vehicles coming from our axis to connect Ajah roundabout is too narrow for the volume of vehicular traffic in that Badore/Langbasa, one of the fastest developing parts of Lagos. Even if one is not a professional construction engineer, common sense calls for overhead bridge in that area, or a smaller roundabout, or another route to connect the road to another part of Ajah.

Whatever the solution is, the current ugly situation appears a robbery to us residents of that axis. Before the construction of that Ajah roundabout, we didn’t use to experience that traffic. The bad planning in the construction of that roundabout has brought untold hardship on us.

Addo to Ajah that took not more than 10 minutes to drive in the past, now takes 60 to 90 minutes in the morning. Yet, some of us are contracted to arrive our Victoria Island workplaces before 8am. If one spends one and a half hours before reaching Ajah alone, one leaves the reader to imagine the number of hours it takes to get to work, when there are other traffic spots like the Agungi side, the Lekki roundabout and Admiralty Toll Gate before reaching VI.

Some of us whose health cannot withstand waking up 4am and hitting the road 4:30am everyday, and as such cannot leave home earlier than 6am, have no option than to abandon our cars at home and ‘fly’ commercial motorcycles to Ajah roundabout before joining commercial transport, with all the safety and security risks, for that is the only way we can reach our workplaces before 8am. That is the only way we have been beating the LCC roundabout-induced Ajah-Addo traffic, which stretches two kilometres or more and takes not less than one hour. This was not the case before that Olympic-size Ajah roundabout was constructed.

So far, at least for those of us that live in deeper parts of Ajah, the six years construction exercise by LCC has only shifted the points of traffic burden, it has not eliminated it. For a project that we thought will bring smiles to our faces when it started, this turn of event is very unfortunate.



BY : Suraj Oyewale
http://businessdaynigeria.com/lcc-robbing-addobadore-pay-ajah

angel TI: This YUZEDO boy has made himself the most popular guy on nairaland! C as he diverted attention from d topic to himself

Yuzedo, ur head dey there jor

@topic

Is that picture not of 1004 Estate and not Banana Ice(cream)land?

Belt and suspenders?

A definite no! no!

Otherwise, fine!

All The President's Men: The unimaginable lengths needed to keep George Bush alive...

The fact that George W Bush is the most guarded president in the history of the USA is unremarkable. But as any Londoner who witnessed his motorcade last month will tell you, the lengths to which the Presidential Advance Team go to keep him alive are almost unimaginable.
Last updated at 4:31 PM on 07th July 2008

By KRIS HOLLINGTON

On an overcast day in March, a group of men dressed in black suits and wearing Motorola Bluetooth sunglasses stood in a golf course bunker.

None of them had any golf clubs. Instead they held notepads.

When they climbed out of the bunker, they began inspecting the trees and bushes that lined the fairway.

In nearby Windsor Castle, 15 similarly attired men were moving with as much tact as they could muster through the 900-year-old landings and chambers. In central London, yet another detachment was tracing a route from Regent’s Park to Downing Street.

In each case, the men’s sunglasses had a rather special feature. They housed tiny cameras that beamed every image seen by the men back to an operations room in Washington DC.

The images were played out live on a large multi-screen display and watched intently by the Presidential Advance Team (PAT), headed by Spencer Geissinger.

The day had not started well and was getting worse by the minute.

With every second of footage being sent back from London and Berkshire by the highly trained team of secret agents, Geissinger could see another potential catastrophe – another possible hiding place for a would-be assassin.

The Presidential Advance Team is by far and away the most complex, expensive and thorough presidential or premier advance guard unit in the world, and made more complex still by George W Bush’s seven years of incendiary foreign policies.

An invitation to President Bush to take tea with the Queen at Windsor – the first time an American head of state had received such an invitation in 26 years – should have been a moment to savour.

Indeed, Bush’s team intended to make the most of this priceless piece of publicity. But the security issues the invitation threw up were Geissinger’s nightmare.

Already the Queen’s private office was making his job harder.

[b]The American Secret Service had been refused a number of outlandish demands.

Requests to reinforce the Royal palace walls, to allow a military helicopter to be constantly airborne over the palace and for agents to watch over the preparation of George Bush’s food had all been denied.

Her Majesty had made just one concession: agents would be allowed to inspect the rifles held by the Yeomen Of The Guard.

And there was another problem. Where was the President’s helicopter, Marine One, going to land?

Not too close to the castle, the PAT was informed; the noise would blow out the 200-year-old windows.

A team of agents had been sent off to march their way across the Windsor countryside a full three months before Bush’s visit. They inspected the Castle golf course, nearby tennis courts and a bowling green for possible landing areas and general security measures. It was decided that the helicopter would land in Home Park to the east of the Castle.

[/b]The landing site wasn’t the only security headache.

In London, agents had trawled the route of the most obvious demonstration of Bush’s security needs – his 21-car motorcade, the most heavily armoured of any US president. Geissinger signed off what orders he could.

The Secret Service had classed the golf, tennis and bowling areas as being too close to the Windsor landing points and demanded they be declared off-limits to the public during Bush’s brief visit. Agents were directed to identify bushes and trees that needed to be swept for snipers on the day.

There are good reasons for the agents’ paranoia. Bush is under constant threat of assassination.

In 2003, he received 500 death threats every month, more than any predecessor. Many can be instantly discounted, but between 25 and 40 each month are taken seriously enough to have made him the most protected president in history.

The logistics and costs of transporting Bush are mind-boggling.

For his recent trip to London, the work called on the expertise of 904 civilian staff from the Department of Defense, 600 from the Armed Services, 250 Secret Service officers, 205 White House staff, 103 US Information Agency staff, 44 Department of State staff, 30 more from the Departments of Agriculture, Commerce, Labour, Transportation and Treasury, 18 Senior Advance Office staff, 16 members of Congress (to tick legal boxes) and 12 sniffer dogs.

Bush’s European trip alone cost £13 million, while staff costs for his Secret Service amount to £580 million a year; the total allocation of money to ‘domestic protection of persons’ was £403 million in 2006.

And yet the PAT is invisible to the public. Agents never appear in media photos, as the part-classified Presidential Advance Manual sets out in its rules of engagement: ‘You do not eat up an inch of the frame’.

‘To get the job done,’ says John Liebech, a 30-year veteran from the US Defense Department and former Advance Team member, ‘you need to have a glimmer of crookedness, because emergencies crop up that call for acts beyond the normal call of duty.

If they could, the Secret Service would have the President arrive after dark at a military airport, stick him in a tank and make him stay the night in the vault at the Bank of England.

‘As far as they’re concerned, on every balcony there lurks an Oswald, on every street corner a Hinckley, in every crowd a Sarah Jane Moore or Lynette Fromme [both of whom tried to shoot President Gerald Ford]. No one wants to be known for losing the President on their watch.’

And the quickest and most obvious way of not losing a President on one’s watch is to secure that most public of appearances, the drive through town.

It is safe to say that, three weeks ago, when the President drove from his Ambassador’s residence in Regent’s Park to meet Gordon Brown at Downing Street, the PAT did not compromise.

Industry sources describe Cadillac One as ‘a completely unique vehicle with no shared technology’.

They are referring to the fact that although it is based on a Cadillac DeVille, the vehicle has just three components from the DeVille: the headlights, the brake lights and the badge.

Cadillac One is also known as the Rolling Fortress.

It contains the President (codenamed Trailblazer for his London trip) and the First Lady.

It is driven on a rota basis by five military chauffeurs, which is apt; everything about Cadillac One is military grade.

It has five inches of armour under every single part of its skin – with the added height and length, it brings the presidential limo in at four tons – and the car’s windows are not windows at all. They are actually transparent armour, which is why they don’t open.

The dark-blue leather interior is hermetically sealed against chemical attack.

Lit by a fluorescent halo lighting system – the windows are so thick they block out most natural light – the President and his First Lady or fellow passenger sit in individually reclining rear seats, separated by a folding desk. Arranged around them are stores of breathing equipment and antidotes for biological and chemical agents.

But the real tricks are up front.

The dashboard has controls for an infrared night-driving system that identifies movement outside the range of the headlights, electronic counter measure (ECM) devices – such as scramblers usually used by USAF jets to fool incoming missiles – and switches for four jacks in the body armour to which speakers can be attached, should the President feel like making a speech from inside the car.

Connected to the boot lid are five antennae, one of which has a link to the Comms vehicle elsewhere in the motorcade, as well as Cadillac Two, carrying some of the 18 Senior Advance Office staff.

The London leg of Bush’s visit was the weak spot, as far as the Secret Service was concerned.

The capital provided plenty of chances for an ambush.

Their pulses must have been racing as they left the Ambassador’s residence for the 15-minute drive into central London. Had every box been ticked?

Had they checked every building on the route? Should they have bombarded the road with X-rays looking for freshly dug tunnels? One thing was for sure – if anyone was foolish enough to try anything, they’d be met with everything the Secret Service had.

At the rear of the motorcade (car 20), looking like it had just marched off the set of Starship Troopers, was the American counter-assault team on board a Chase Car, aka ‘War-wagon’.

This is a souped-up Range Rover supplied by the UK Police’s Special Escort Group.

The counter-assault forces are the elite of the elite and deadly efficient – but haven’t yet been put to the test.

They wear black jumpsuits and helmets, and carry Diemaco C8 CQB (Close Quarters Battle) short-barrelled assault rifles strapped to their chests.

More weaponry is on board, along with concealed gun-points through which shots can be fired without opening doors or windows. Other members of the squad are located inside an SUV further up the motorcade (car , closer to the President.

All of the agents had been handed the US Secret Service’s ‘Trip File’ of certain people who might pose a serious and deadly threat to the President. They must memorise the faces of any suspect individuals featured in the file’s photo album.

[b]In 1998, the Secret Service completed a classified study into lone-wolf assassination called the Exceptional Case Study Project.

Officers interviewed 83 people who had tried to assassinate a president or public figure in the US, including Mark Chapman (John Lennon), John Hinckley Jnr (Ronald Reagan) and Arthur Bremer (Governor George Wallace).

The report concluded that attacks on public officials are not impulsive actions.

They typically occur after weeks or months of planning.

[/b]Understanding this ‘pathway to attack’ is the key to stopping assassins before they strike. Public appearances abroad are all the more dangerous because monitoring suspects is harder.

Permission was not given for one particular vehicle to ride in the motorcade, or even enter the UK: the Secret Service’s most lethal weapon, a very special SUV.

From the outside, the vehicle looks identical to all the others, but in the back is an agent crouching below a collapsible mini-gun.

One flick of a switch, and the top of the car opens up into a turret surrounded by bulletproof plating. The agent is able to release 4,000 rounds a minute of armour-penetrating bullets, enough to lay waste to any attack force. After five minutes of firing, the spent shells would literally fill the interior.

Watching the motorcade leaving the American Ambassador’s official residence on the Monday morning in June was the Met’s Deputy Assistant Commissioner, Chris Allison.

He oversaw Bush’s visit from the second floor operations room at New Scotland Yard using high-quality CCTV images.

A total of 2,000 armed and riot police were stationed throughout central London, and on the roofs of a traffic-free Whitehall, spotters were checking for trouble, as demanded by the Secret Service.

As Allison said, all he wanted was for it all to go smoothly: ‘He [Bush] comes into town, he does the stuff he wants to do, people who want to protest have their protest, then he goes.’

There have been several attempts on Bush’s life.

Many were stopped at an early stage and so never made it onto the news. But the most notable was the 2005 attempt in Tbilisi, Georgia, when 27-year-old Vladimir Arutyunian, an Armenian/Georgian, threw a live grenade at Bush.

The only thing that prevented the President from being wounded or killed was the safety pin getting caught in the attacker’s scarf.

The Georgian authorities played down the attempt.

At first they said it wasn’t a live grenade; but once the US Secret Service found out that it was, they flew to Georgia with the FBI’s mobile forensic lab and hunted down the would-be assassin, who had escaped the scene of the attack.

After a ferocious gun battle in which the head of Georgia’s counter-terrorism unit was killed, the Secret Service made sure that Arutyunian was put away for life in a Georgian prison.

Despite such threats, as the Presidential Advance Manual states, nothing makes a better ‘mediagenic [sic] moment’ than a ten-second film-clip of the US President meeting dignitaries such as the Queen.

[b]The authors of the manual have a calculation of their worth: they state that 21.7 per cent of such trips are political, while 78.3 per cent are official.

[/b]So these events have to go ahead, but not without fierce arguments from the Secret Service.

They managed to get their own way over most of what the President could and couldn’t do on the London leg of his trip. There are, however, limits to their demands – on a previous Bush visit, the White House requested the closure of certain Tube lines.

British officials dismissed the idea.

But the pace and breadth of the Advance Team’s work is breathtaking.

As the manual states, ‘Advancing is an art’. In eight years, a US president makes about 3,000 public appearances, 800 of which will be abroad. Each foreign appearance requires a site survey by more than 100 Advance Team members, more if it’s a RON (Remain Overnight Visit).

The checklist for the UK Advance Team contains almost 500 items and stipulations covering 25 pages.

These include the effectiveness of the motorcade in rush-hour traffic, how to address the Queen, approval of presidential hand-shakers, no animals, no children (if possible), certainly no parachutists or balloons; then there are sketches, photos, 3D graphics of Heathrow, the Ambassador’s residence and grounds in Regent’s Park, departure points, corridors and walkways.

Ultimately, only 2,500 people showed up to the rally organised by the Stop The War Coalition, CND and the British Muslim Initiative.

A handful of them were snapped up by police snatch squads sent in to apprehend real or potential troublemakers, including one 60-year-old woman accused of indecent exposure.

After brunch with Gordon Brown and a press conference, Bush’s motorcade entered Whitehall.

A lone protester broke through the cordon but was quickly apprehended. It was just enough to make the Secret Service twitchy, and they whisked the President away at a blistering pace.

Was it worth the effort, the colossal cost, the blocking of basic mobile phone communications in patches of central London for two days?

In the curious world of Washington-think, the very fact that President Bush is alive and unmolested is taken as the final proof that every cent was well spent.

And now that the precedent has been set, the next President, be it Barack Obama or John McCain, will be burdened with the same level of security.

And what will that say about the foreign policies of the 43rd President of the USA?


Kris Hollington is a freelance investigative journalist who has worked for Panorama and Radio 4’s File On Four. He is the author of How To Kill, an investigation into the world’s most influential assassinations.

The first vehicles you need in any presidential motorcade are actually motorcycles. The six outriders from the Met’s Royalty And Diplomatic Protection Department, riding BMW R1200RTs, clear the way through traffic using whistles instead of horns (to reduce the noise that precedes a motorcade), ensuring the motorcade doesn’t have to stop moving at any point on the 2.3-mile journey from the US Ambassador’s residence in Regent’s Park to Downing Street. Note: the outriders carry firearms, the only motorcycle officers to do so.

British Range Rover containing four officers from Counter Terrorism Command, SO15 (previously known as SO12 Special Branch).

BMW 5 Series containing armed British officers. The BMW and a Jaguar XJ V8 (see No 4) drive either side of the first presidential limo, known as Cadillac Two.

Cadillac Two, a bomb-proof car (see also Cadillac One, No 6) containing the President’s Emergency Satchel – the ‘Nuclear Football’ – which houses the necessary equipment for the President to authorise the use of nuclear weapons while away from the White House Situation Room. The case itself is a metallic, bullet-resistant, modified Zero Halliburton briefcase carried inside a black leather case. The entire package weighs 18kg. A small antenna for the SATCOM radio protrudes from the bag near the handle. Cadillac Two also carries senior staff such as National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley and White House Chief Of Staff Joshua Bolten.

Jaguar XJ V8, containing armed British police officers.
American lead support armoured GMC Chevrolet Suburban 911EP SUV. This six-litre, 366-horsepower V8-powered wagon (which does just 15mpg) contains four Secret Service close protection guards, along with military SWAT officers sitting by the open back for rapid access. The guards are heavily armed with automatic weapons and handguns.

Cadillac One containing the President and the First Lady. Where the President goes, Cadillacs One and Two go (as does the presidential helicopter, Marine One, fully loaded with anti-missile systems, which ferried the President to Windsor Castle to visit the Queen).

American lead support armoured GMC Chevrolet Suburban SUV containing up to six Secret Service officers.
American lead support armoured GMC Chevrolet Suburban SUV containing members of the Quick Reaction Force, a team able to ram and shoot against any attacker at both close and long range. They carry Diemaco C8 CQB (close quarters battle) short-barrelled assault rifles. These are small enough to be easily handled in tight spaces. More weaponry is also on board along with concealed gun-points through which shots can be fired without opening the window. Additional Quick Reaction Force members are at the rear – see No 20.

Metropolitan Police Range Rover – the car is from the Met’s Special Escort Group (SEG), containing five Specialist Firearms Officers, armed with Glock 17s.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/moslive/article-1031210/All-The-Presidents-Men-The-unimaginable-lengths-needed-George-Bush-alive-.html#ixzz2WTC3Fojk

Why did you decide to become a whistleblower?

A: "The NSA has built an infrastructure that allows it to intercept almost everything. With this capability, the vast majority of human communications are automatically ingested without targeting. If I wanted to see your emails or your wife's phone, all I have to do is use intercepts. I can get your emails, passwords, phone records, credit cards.

"I don't want to live in a society that does these sort of things … I do not want to live in a world where everything I do and say is recorded. That is not something I am willing to support or live under."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jun/09/nsa-whistleblower-edward-snowden-why

The Washington Post, at his request, also revealed Snowden's identity on Sunday and reported that his motivations stemmed from a desire to expose the growing ‘surveillance state’ in the US. Along with the Guardian, the Post published an explosive report about the existence of a program called PRISM on Thursday, which was based on documents provided by Snowden and showed that the spy agency has the ability to access the online data from the world's largest private internet systems.

“As I advanced and learned the dangerous truth behind the U.S. policies that seek to develop secret, irresistible powers and concentrate them in the hands of an unaccountable few, human weakness haunted me,” Snowden wrote in a note that accompanied the first documents he leaked to the Post. “As I worked in secret to resist them, selfish fear questioned if the stone thrown by a single man could justify the loss of everything he loves."

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2013/06/10