₦airaland Forum

Apc lacks ambition.They have already handed GEJ 2015 on a platter of Gold.

We plan ,we plan,keep procrastinating.

Anything Jonathan makes front page.Scroll through the first page and i can see a lot of thread on Jonathan.

When we eventually break this country through the guidance of Opposition,we will know what it takes to rebuild a nation that would have been set 50 years backward.

Abuja - Africa’s youngest billionaire, Ashish Thakkar, said on Monday in Abuja that Nigeria remained a land of opportunities for investors despite negative stories about it.

Thakkar, President of Mara Group, stated this in an interview with State House Correspondents after holding a closed door meeting with President Goodluck Jonathan at the Presidential Villa.

The Uganda-born billionaire said that the reality and the potentials in Nigeria were quite different from the negative report of the country in the international media.

“There is a huge difference between perception and reality.

“I think the perception happened to be negative today but it is a very unfortunate case because when we come here, what we see and what we experience show that Nigeria is a very different place.

“Nigeria is going through transformation and I think Africa as a whole, we are going through transformation and I think one thing as African is that we are 54 countries and we generalise in our assessments.

“In Nigeria, we may see some few pockets of challenges, but, overall this is a country full of opportunities with people with a lot of energy.

“You can feel the energy when you land here. I have travelled to so many different countries every month, but when I land in Nigeria I feel the energy which is the amazing point,’’ he said.

Thakkar stressed that Nigeria remained his best investment destination in Africa.

“We have offices in 22 African countries but when the CNN recently asked me my favourite country in Africa, I said Nigeria.

“This is something that we are very serious about and we are very confident of,’’ he said.

He said his conglomerate had investments in a few of States in the country and already had about 200 employees.

“We have glass manufacturing plant in Rivers State

“We have done ground breaking on glass manufacturing plant, phase one is over 110 million dollars while the phase two is about 100 million dollars.

“We are also looking at investments in the agriculture sector, we have ICT investments. We are very confident of the Nigerian market and the future of Nigeria’’, he said.

The 32-yearold billionaire advised the youths to be focused, work hard, be honest and persevere to attain their dreams.(NAN)
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losing is also an obligation.olodo

MTN Nigeria has taken a big hit by recording 49 per cent of the overall subscribers that have switched service providers under the recently introduced Mobile Number Portability (MNP) scheme, according to figures released this week by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC).

With over 114 million active phone lines in Nigeria, mobile phone subscribers now have the freedom to switch from any non-performing operator and still retain their numbers with the introduction of number porting, NCC said when the scheme was launched last April.

On the same day of number porting launch, MTN, the largest network by subscriber numbers, launched its widely celebrated “Saka Don Port” campaign.

In the controversial TV commercial, MTN used an actor popularly known as Saka, who hitherto featured in TV commercials for rival Etisalat Nigeria, to promote its number porting campaign, urging subscribers to migrate to its network.

The Saka Don Port video by MTN got rave reviews and several wannabes, including a YouTube animation, which was to further trigger mixed reactions from industry market watchers.

Figures released by NCC showed that Etisalat may have emerged the big winner in the number porting duel between the two mobile phone companies as it recorded the biggest gain of 44 per cent in the first month of porting in the country, reported TechonologyTimes, an online ICT publication.

NCC Director of Public Affairs, Tony Ojobo, said number porting had deepened competition so far and given subscribers a choice to switch networks without losing their unique numbers, which he cited as one of the gains of the milestone 12th year of commercial roll out of GSM services in Nigeria in August 2001.

Ojobo said within the first month after the April launch of number porting, among an overall number of subscribers that switched service providers in the telecoms market, MTN topped the losers table when it recorded a 49 per cent switch to other networks in May.

Globacom followed MTN by recording losses of 23 per cent; Airtel Nigeria was number three with overall losses of 17 per cent while Etisalat Nigeria came last on the losers table with 11 per cent for May figures.

Every Topic on GEJ makes front page.I can see a lot of young people are jobless.

Hungry Aboki protesting for Ameachi when their elites have perpetually rendered them and their generations poverty stricken.

So this is what Ameachi is doing with River fund.Its a pity that Ameachi is been used by the opposition to bring down his brother.

We missed OBJ sometime walahi.GEJ to soft.I cant imagine all Dick and Harry calling GEJ names.Even Tinubu?

Abagworo,you can start the revolution from the Northern part of Nigeria where you come from where poverty has ravished you and your folks due to bad leadership unleached by your leaders who are hell bent in taking over power using Ameachi as a smoke screen.

The heat is getting at Ameachi and soon he will throw in the towel and beg GEJ.

You got this from the Nation? .

Opposition should get ready to make more noise from now till 2019.

The attack of Wednesday that spilled to yesterday, at the seat of the Caliphate, Sokoto, was actually targeted at the Sultan of Sokoto, reliable security sources confided in Daily Sun yesterday.

Our source from among the joint team of security platforms that repelled the attack indicated that His Eminence Alhaji, Mohammad Sa’ad Abubakar III, the Sultan, was actually the focus of the attackers, who came in large numbers.

In the past, there had been insinuations that the Boko Haram sect and other insurgents are not happy with the Sultan, who is the head of Muslim Ummah in Nigeria on his avowed peaceful disposition, which is at variance with theirs.

Boko Haram and other insurgent groups claim to be holders and defenders of the true Islam, while the rest, by their thinking, are unfit for the religion and should be treated as enemies of the faith.

Our source hinted that it was the Department of State Security Service (DSS) that divulged the intelligence to them of the planned attack, which they said, was of alarming magnitude. Reliable sources revealed that the foiled attack on Sultan was planned by a faction of Boko Haram, which, in an attempt to prove that it’s not part of the ceasefire agreement, wanted to target a known figure to attract attention.

On getting tip-off of the planned attack, the joint security forces, including the main organs of the military moved in to counter the move. “The operations started yesterday (Wednesday) and was sustained till late afternoon of today (Thursday). I can tell you that they came really prepared.

The number was large and they were fully armed and determined to carry out their threat. But the timely intelligence saved the day, as we encountered them headlong.

At last, we overpowered them and I can assure you that even after outwitting them and dislodging the assailants with some killed, we lost no officer,” a source stated. In the raid of the Islamist sect’s hideout, a gun duel had ensued leading to the killing of one of the prime suspects. Another suspect was arrested and taken into military custody.

The security operatives also rescued 11 family members of the suspects, including six children and five women, among them two pregnant women. Briefing journalists on the incident, Brigadier-General Mohammed Tasi’u, Commander, 1 Brigade, Nigerian Army, Sokoto, described the operation as a “huge success.”

He said a combined team of security operatives raided the hideout of the suspects located along Kalambaina/Gidan-Dere area of Sokoto followed a tip-off. According to him, “on a tip-off, we undertook a combined operation, where a terrorist camp was discovered. I am pleased to inform you that it was a huge success. In keeping with the rules of engagement, the family of the terrorist was safe and now in our custody.

“We have in our custody five women of which two of them are pregnant. Six children of various ages were also rescued and in good condition.” Tasi’u listed several arms and ammunition recovered from the hide-out to include six AK-47 rifles, four handsets, 56 SIM cards of various network providers.

Also, recovered were memory cards, cash, 66 rolls of cable wire, 17 Improved Explosive Devices (IEDs) and seven timed-bomb devices, among others. Speaking further, Tasi’u said an assessment of items recovered indicated that the suspects do not believe in peace.

He said the military would be guide by the rule of engagement in any of its operations, in hunting the terrorists, which he described as enemies of the country.

“These people were bent on destabilising the country, but we assure you that those who bear arms and in show of confrontation with Nigeria-state will surely face the consequent,” he said. The commander, who declined to entertain questions from journalists, however, said the house had been demolished.

APC Noise makers

Opposition,with the Bitterness against GEJ,I foresee many opposition supporters committing suicide in 2015.

We should be bothered on the impact of this visit. I am disappointed at the impatient of few Nigerians blinded by opposition propaganda.The change we envisage would not come in 2 years.

WE NEED TO SUPPORT THIS GOVERNMENT AND TURN BLIND EYES TO OPPOSITION PROPAGANDA who have clearly shown are agent of destruction who see nothing good in any steps GEJ takes.

We need to ask the opposition if the states they control has been turned into Dubai.CPC is ruling Nassarawa state.What significant change have we witness in Nassarawa state and other opposition control states?

Third Republic Senate president, Ameh Ebute, yesterday dissociated the Middle Belt from the plan by northerners to have the presidency returned to the zone in 2015.

Ebute’s reaction was sequel to media report credited to the Secretary General of the Northern Elders Forum (NEF), Prof. Ango Abdullahi, on the unanimous front by the North to produce a consensus candidate for the 2015 presidency.

Abdullahi had in the report, said: “We succeeded in bringing in the Middle Belt Forum, though they said they’ve been left out, we say no. We are going to work together.”

But speaking with Daily Sun in Abuja, the National Coordinator of the Congress for Equality and Change, said: “Members of the Congress for Equality and Change, some of whom are also members of the Middle Belt Forum, are not part of the Middle Belt Forum that has agreed to discuss with NEF, with a view to producing a single candidate for 2015 from the North.

“We cannot blow hot and cold. We, the members of the Middle Belt, who constitute members of the Congress for Equality and Change, along with our South-South brothers, have already taken a position that President Goodluck Jonathan is our candidate for 2015.

“We are not part of NEF who said the presidency must come from the North. We in the minority South-South and minority Middle Belt in the North, are unanimous that President Goodluck Jonathan, is our candidate for 2015, that if the North wants to produce any presidency, it should be after the second term of President Goodluck Jonathan. This is our stand,” Ebute insisted.

While saying that he was not afraid if power returned to the North in 2015, Ebute said, “power can return to the North if they win.”

According to Ebute, “if they have a unanimous candidate and they win the election, nobody will question the return of power to them.

But the North that they are talking about does not include the Middle Belt. That is the offending statement.”

Ebute further said: “Anytime they talk about the North, they mean the North-West. They do not include us. And we say we are tired of supporting people who will never include us in any election. So, this is the problem.”

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo yesterday fired back at another civil war hero, Brig.-Gen. Godwin Alabi-Isama.

Gen. Alabi-Isama in an interview in The Nation on Sunday to promote his memoir, described Obasanjo as a blundering General in his review of Obasanjo’s role during the civil war.

At yesterday’s Afe Babalola event, Obasanjo said: “Some people call me General of blunders. If I commit a blunder and successfully ended the civil war that is good. If I commit a blunder and I monitored transition from military to civil rule, if I commit a blunder and after 20 years and spending three years in prison, I was persuaded to come and contest the election, great blunder. Spending eight years as Nigeria’s President is another great blunder.”

But Gen. Alabi-Isama said in a telephone interview last night: “Obasanjo missed the point again. I am not a politician. The politicians in the country will judge his stewardship. I am just a military personnel. It is unnecessary to twist the story.

“The story in my book is on the spot account of my stewardship as a Chief of Staff of the Third Marine Commando and Sector Commander.

“I am saying that his blunders include running away from the enemy and he was shot in the bottom. He lost over a thousand men in one hour of battle.”

I pity any Christian supporting APC.Ask your people in the North and get a feel of what they are suffering.

These are people power drunk and blind with hatred for Christians and other tribes.

Once they get power,Tinubu and co will be history.

Lagos State Governor, Babatunde Fashola, turned 50 last week. Not unexpectedly, it went without fanfare, in keeping with the man’s character.

What better time than now – on the occasion of his 50th birthday, and midway into his second and final term as Governor of Lagos State – to reflect on his impact on Lagos, and on the place of the city in the Nigeria of the 21st century.

Lagos is Africa’s second most populated city – estimates range from 12 million to 18 million, depending on who you’re asking – and one of the fastest growing “megacities” in the world; expected to add another five million inhabitants by 2025.

It remains Nigeria’s commercial hub, two decades after the relocation of the seat of government to Abuja; according to the Central Bank of Nigeria, 50 per cent of the cash in circulation in the country is in Lagos.

I’ve seen two different figures for the size of the Lagos economy; The Economist magazine, in a 2011 article, quoted $45bn. Renaissance Capital, in its most recent Nigeria report, put the Lagos economy at $32bn – the equivalent of the entire Kenyan economy, and larger than Ethiopia’s. (It is important to note that most of the Lagos economy is informal; artisans, market women, taxi drivers, domestic servants, and hawkers, among others whose financial transactions take place outside of formal banking and taxation systems).

Lagos is also the only state in Nigeria whose Internally Generated Revenue about doubles its allocation from oil earnings, and is the model every other state is copying in the drive to improve tax revenues.

But Lagos is also a deeply dysfunctional city – the accumulation of years of government neglect, while the city grew like a cancer. Someone pressed “Pause” for infrastructure and did “Fast-forward” for population, creating a 1970s’ city expected to cope with the challenges of a 21st century world.

Sometimes, one needs to listen to foreign commentators to get a sense of the intensity of the city’s malaise. Lagos conditions us to no longer notice these things – a classic case of familiarity breeding a false, dangerous, and strange comfort.

Of the city, a visiting foreigner said (quote taken from “Diary of a Bad Year: Confessions of an Anonymous Hedge Fund Manager” – a 2010 book inspired by the global economic meltdown):

“Lagos looked to me like a city where aliens had come and built the city and then left, and then just sort of let it decay […] You’d go one block off a main thoroughfare and the road is dirt. You go to a nice neighbourhood, all the houses are behind walls and outside the walls, there’s somebody cooking on a garbage fire, right outside the walls of some big house. It’s like nothing I’ve seen anywhere else.”

That aptly summarises the Lagos that exists – a city of paradoxes best explained in the startling, random, insistent juxtapositions of wealth and poverty.

It is this sprawling, festering metropolis that Fashola is expected to manage, and transform. As he himself acknowledged in a 2010 interview: “The deficit of infrastructure of about three decades can’t be turned around in just two years or eight years.”

Fashola himself brings to governance an intensely cerebral air (he seems more suited to a university classroom than an assembly of political chieftains), an understatedness that we do not typically associate with public office in these parts, and a knack for creatively talking and thinking about the solutions to the city’s problems (he has himself said all he’s doing is implementing the manifesto of his party. And indeed, many of his achievements should be seen in the light of structures rising atop foundations laid by Bola Tinubu, his predecessor).

Sometime in 2008, a year after he was first elected Governor, I happened upon his official SUV at the Civic Centre in Victoria Island, and caught a glimpse of a pile of books and newspapers on the back seat. I was able to make out three titles:

“Planet of Slums” (by Mike Davis), “Giving” (by Bill Clinton) and “Economics For Dummies” (by Sean Masaki Flynn and Peter Antonioni).

I found the choices of the books instructive. Take “Planet of Slums” as an example – the message I got from seeing that book in the Governor’s car was this: An administrator concerned by the reputation of his city as a slum-factory (according to the Social and Economic Rights Action Centre, there are 120 different slum communities in Lagos today, a 3-fold increase from 30 years ago).

The Economist magazine’s 2011 profile of Fashola is titled “A rare good man”. It’s hard to disagree. But dogging that good man is an albatross, and quite a big one at that: The outlook of his government on Lagos’ poorest people – the “Bottom Millions”, to use the term made popular by Prof. Paul Collier.

It’s not that the governor has a pathological dislike for the poor – at least, I don’t think so. Listen to him talk about his realisation that there’s a place in the Lagos he envisions, for the not-so-well-off (in the 2010 interview quoted from above):

“I don’t see how we would have a Lagos without the man selling meat by the roadside. All we insist is that he cleans it up. I cannot imagine Lagos without those women peeling their oranges, that’s also part of the character of Lagos. You cannot imagine Lagos without the suya man at night, in Obalende, if you want to go there to eat barbecue meat.”

Alas, the road to the actualisation of that vision has been paved with broken dreams and lives and shattered hopes. Let me share a true story – an encounter I had a year ago, somewhere on Ahmadu Bello Way, Victoria Island, as I waited to be picked up by a friend. This is how I narrated it in a column I published shortly after:

“Last week, I stood under an umbrella in Victoria Island, watching Lagos rush beneath a rain that couldn’t make up its mind whether it wanted to stop or not. Next to me were two elderly women, petty traders from what I could see. They were discussing Fashola, in Yoruba.

‘Fashola is wicked,’ said one. ‘He terrifies me.’ They shared stories of the state government’s sustained assault on the city’s poorest; the demolitions and evictions everywhere from Oshodi to Amukoko. They compared it to the wiping out of Maroko (in the early ‘90s). ‘When this rain is done, ‘they’ will find fresh victims, claiming that the houses are sitting on drainage channels,’ one of them lamented.”

Since that encounter, the Lagos demolition train has moved on to Ijora Badia, and who knows where else? In its body language, the Lagos we all know advertises and represents itself as “No Place for Poor People”.

From street hawkers consistently terrorised by Kick Against Indiscipline operatives to taxi drivers priced out of business by the government’s decision to phase out the trademark yellow-and-black taxis in favour of brand new cabs, to dumpsite dwellers at the mercy of a government that has no plans for them, to the multitudes forced out of the city into the hinterland under a puzzling ‘deportation’ programme. Are we asking ourselves this troubling question: All those former okada riders now out of work – where are they; what are they doing; how are they surviving?

There is what seems to be a disproportionate government focus on the wealthier sections of the city, at the expense of the poor, which disregards the fact that twice as many Lagosians live on the Mainland as on the Islands. On the low-income mass housing front, it doesn’t seem that the government is doing enough, compared to the attention being focused on developing, say, Eko Atlantic City. The impressive bid by architect Kunle Adeyemi to regenerate Makoko through innovative housing solutions is now in limbo, threatened by a state government that has declared it “illegal”. Yet, this is perhaps the only state government in Nigeria that can boast having an “Innovation Advisory Council”.

There’s also the fact that Lagos is not the most transparent of state governments, fuelling suspicion that there’s much more that the state could be doing with the resources it has. And then I don’t think the state government is putting enough pressure on the local government(s) – who are grandmasters of revenue collection but utterly hopeless at governance – to justify their existence.

I acknowledge Fashola’s dilemma. On the one hand is the vision to speedily subvert the decay and dysfunction that have long plagued the city, and set it on the path to becoming a city that stays ahead of its needs; on the other hand is the need to ensure that the envisioned Lagos is not leaving anyone, no matter how poor, behind. Fashola needs to temper the “Eko O Ni Baje!” vision with a “No One Left Behind” philosophy.

It’s very tricky, no doubt: On the one hand, Oshodi needed to be sanitised; on the other hand is the fate of its displaced masses; they can’t simply be wished into oblivion.

It’s a fine balance, and the way Fashola handles it will go a long way towards determining his lasting legacy when he steps down as Governor about 700 days from now.

Leaders from the South-south and the Middle Belt, yesterday urged President Goodluck Jonathan to run for a second term in office.

The leaders, led by First Republic Commissioner for Information, Chief Edwin Clark, who made the call in Abuja, during a meeting with the president, dismissed arguments by some people that Jonathan should not seek re-election in 2015, saying the call was not valid.

Clark told State House correspondents, after the meeting with the president that lasted for about one hour, that the elders, under the aegis of Congress for Equality and Change (CEC), came to interact with the president and to urge him to seek a fresh mandate in 2015.

According to him, no amount of criticism of the president would be sufficient to rule him out of the 2015 contest as he was constitutionally eligible to contest again.

Clark said the position of the CEC was not taken in isolation of notable stakeholders in the three geo-political zones of North-east, North-central and South-south, adding that all of them agreed that Jonathan should seek a second term in conformity with the principles of justice and equality.

He added: “It is written in the constitution of Nigeria. Shagari did so; Obasanjo did so. Former President Shhehu Shagari's second term was taken over by a military man (Gen Muhammadu Buhari). Today, he (Buhari) wants to be president. He staged a coup in 1983. I was also a senator at that time. When it came to Obasanjo, he did eight years under the constitution. And some of my northern friends have said all they said was a second term for Shagari. If Shagari was entitled to two terms; why not Jonathan? Is it because he is a minority? We are here, the elders, believing that Mr President should contest ,as the constitution provides, in the 2015 election.”

He explained that his group found it necessary to begin an early campaign for the president because there was an early campaign of calumny against him.

“We could not have talked about 2015. It is because some people have started to say that he is not qualified to contest election in 2015 and those of us who believe in it and the constitution is there, educate them and that is what we are doing. Whatever the president said about waiting till 2014 before he would decide, that does not affect those who believe that he has a right,” he said.

Jonathan, in his response, assured the group that his administration would never allow itself to be derailed from pursuing its transformation agenda to its logical conclusion.

The president, according to his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Dr. Reuben Abati, pledged that his administration would continue to build on the achievements contained in its mid-term report to the nation.
He commended the elders for “working tirelessly to bring us to where we are today,” and for their continued support, promising that “as our leaders, we will continue to do our best to justify the confidence you have reposed in us.”

He also thanked the Middle Belt and South-south regions for their contributions to national unity, stressing that the unity of Nigeria “depends on the cooperation of all.”

ok.Also post a topic that Lagos groan over the Death of Tinubu Mother.Market has been shut down.

@ Musiwa,then this the first Market Leader that died in Lagos.I have reside in Lagos for over 15 years and market has never been shut down for any of those reason?A 97 years woman ?

The two governors who pulled out of the Northern States Governors Forum over alleged betrayal by their colleagues are making the biggest political mistake of their lives and they may not be able to win any election again in the North, Kano State Governor Rabiu Kwankwaso has said.
He was referring to his Bauchi and Benue state counterparts, Isa Yuguda and Gabriel Suswam, who had said they would no longer attend meetings of the forum because they were betrayed in the disputed election of the Nigerian Governors Forum chairman.
They had said the northern governors agreed unanimously to support Plateau State Governor Jonah Jang but some of their colleagues voted for Rivers State Governor Rotimi Amaechi, who won the May 24 election.
In an interview with journalists in Abuja yesterday, Kwankwaso said the two governors “are making the biggest political mistakes of their lives.”
“The implication of what they are saying is that they’re not with us (northern governors). What we are saying is (the Nigeria Governors Forum) has nothing to do with the politics of Northern Governors Forum, where we have many assets and liabilities. Whether military or civilian, governors always attend the meetings because you have to go and present the issues concerning your people there.
“Now, if you opt out of Northern Governors Forum, when governors of Western states are meeting, certainly you cannot be part of them. And I begin to wonder where else they will be. I want to tell you that if they continue with that I don’t see how either they or their candidates would win elections in the North. I think they better start fielding their candidates in elections outside the northern region.
“They don’t know they are making the biggest mistakes. What did the North do to them? Who told them that the North is not supporting Amaechi? If you’re taking a decision, don’t take it when you’re angry. Don’t say because you want to impress someone, so that you could be considered a good governor, you’re getting out of your home, you’re abandoning your people, you’re insulting them...That is a big mistake. I cannot make the mistake of taking Kano out of the North. Those who are making those statements are making mistake. The earlier they reverse themselves, the better for them,” he said.
Emphasising the relevance of the Northern Governors Forum, Kwankwaso said at the Nigerian Governors Forum, all that the governors do is peer review but at northern governors forum issues are tackled at a deeper level.
“People have so much sentiment attached to the Northern Governors Forum, and by the time you remove yourself, people may decide to keep quiet and pay you back at the appropriate time,” he said.
On the issue of betrayal raised by the two governors, Kwankwaso explained that even before the elections he had warned both Katsina State Governor Ibrahim Shema and Yuguda that he would not support them.
“I told Shema, ‘you are my neighbour, you’re my brother, you’re my friend, but you can’t come and tell me you’re contesting an election and you’re parading yourself as a candidate and behaving like somebody who was sent to us.’
“I made it clear that I would neither vote for him nor ask anybody to vote for him. And that I would make sure he lost the election. I told him this to his face. While I was telling him this, Sule Lamido was there, supporting me, Adamawa and Niger State governors were also there. This made some persons to say Shema did not have the support of the North.
“Isa Yuguda came to me, and I told him, I’m still a villager, and I behave in many ways as a villager. In my village, in Kwankwaso in Kano, if a councillorship candidate goes to the elders and says he wanted to contest for councillorship in the morning and they accepted, if someone else comes in the afternoon and asked for the same support, the villagers would tell him he’s late. We don’t want Shema because we wanted to choose our own chairman. Now, you’re coming through the same route. When he insisted, because it was my house, I didn’t want to be as hard on him as I was to Shema.”
Explaining how Jang became the consensus candidate of the North, Kwankwaso admitted that he nominated Jang for that position, though he supported Amaechi’s candidature, because the “G-16” camp were desperate to field a candidate against Amaechi.
“I gave them Jang and I asked the governor of Benue State to support me. I realised they were very desperate, and that even after the election they would not accept the victory of Amaechi. We gave them who we feel should lead the minority group. When we left the place, they had their meeting and accepted him. At the end of the day they brought him to the general meeting of the Governors Forum. At that meeting we told them we wanted Amaechi to continue to be chairman of the forum. We went into voting because there was no consensus,” he said.
On the issue of the zoning of the forum’s chairmanship to the North, Kwankwaso said, “Let me say this: we’re northerners and I think we need to be consulted on what we need in the North. Some people have decided that we should take chairman, Nigerian Governors’ Forum. But that is not our choice. We have our choice to our chest. We know what we need in the politics of this country. Even if (the chairman of Governors Forum) is what we want, we’re not expecting anybody to choose for us. We should choose for ourselves.”
Kwankwaso warned that the leaders of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) were making a mistake by suspending governors from the party because it is to the detriment of the ruling party.
“Those who are leading the party should be careful about what they do, especially when they are using dirty words like suspension, expulsion, dismissal, and impeachment. These are words that people should be cautious about,” he said.
“We want peace, stability, development in this country. People should be cautious...With all these things that are happening, people should not worry too much. In developed countries, the US, Britain, Germany, there are two parties. In Nigeria we have one party now and other small parties. Who knows, we’re in a transition in this country, a transition to two parties. Before we have two parties, some people need to make mistakes.”
Asked if he was in talks with the yet to be registered All Progressives Congress (APC), Kwankwaso said he had been in politics for over 20 years now and that had friends across parties, and therefore free to interact with them.
According to him the situation in the PDP had made it difficult for aggrieved members to voice out their grievances because there is no channel to do so. He referred to the fact that the National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting of the party has not held for nearly a year now.
“This party belongs to all of us. It doesn’t belong to chairman or to anybody. It belongs to all of us. We have invested so much in this party. But if you’re suspended or dismissed or expelled, it’s unfortunate,” he said.
“All of us who voted for Amaechi consider this suspension as the suspension of all of us in his camp. After Amaechi, they went to the Governor of Sokoto. We’re even surprised that it started from there. Some of us are disappointed that it started from there.”

Rubish.Went out this morning to get some Tomatoes and Vegetable and every where was locked up.This is bullshit.Eko-Ille and co,please explain

National Chairman of the Action Congress of Nigeria, Chief Bisi Akande, and Chief Tom Ikimi are currently locked in the battle for the chairmanship of the All Progressives Party, findings by The PUNCH on Monday have revealed.

The battle to head the yet-to-be-registered merger party between Akande and Ikimi followed the ceding of the interim national chairmanship to the ACN by the stakeholders.

Curiously too, same scenario on Monday obtained in the Congress for Progressive Change, a major arm of the merger and to which the post of the National Secretary of the APC has been zoned.

A source at the top hierarchy of the APC who spoke to our correspondent on Monday night said the self-interest factor had set into the affairs of the new party which is set to announce its Interim Executive Committee on Tuesday (today).

The nine-member IEC will manage the affairs of the party till its registration by the Independent National Electoral Commission.

The source said, “As you already know, the APC chairmanship has been ceded to the ACN, the CPC is to produce secretary while the ANPP will produce the treasurer when the party eventually gets registered.

“We are first of all human beings and there are of course interests. For the ACN, where the chairmanship was given, there are issues because two of their leading figures, Chief Tom Ikimi, who has been a visible member of the party’s merger committee, and Bisi Akande have shown interest.”

For the CPC, the source said, “It is not different. Its members too are having their own issues because the current National Secretary of the Party, Alhaji Buba Galadima, and an equally strong member of the party, Malam Nasir el-Rufai, as well as the party’s Publicity Secretary, Mr. Rotimi Fashakin are also interested.

“We’ve not heard much from the ANPP on who they are putting forward as treasurer.”

According to the informed insider, internal wrangling among the three merging political parties is largely responsible for the decision by the leadership of APC to settle for an interim executive committee to pursue the registration of the party.

The source said, “You will agree with me that we can do with less of this distraction for now.”

Our correspondent gathered after the party had been registered, an Interim Management Committee would replace the IEC.

National Publicity Secretary of the ACN, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, said he was not aware that Akande and Ikimi were contending for the chairmanship slot of the APC

But when contacted, National Publicity Secretary of the CPC, Rotimi Fashakin, dismissed the issue of internal wrangling within the party as a mere speculation.

Fashakin however confirmed that a meeting had been scheduled to hold today (Tuesday). Though the CPC spokesman said he did not know whether the APC IEC would be unveiled at the meeting, The PUNCH reliably learnt that except the stakeholders have a change of heart, the nine members of the IEC would be announced today.

He said, “What the leadership of our parties has decided is that three officials from each of the merging parties recognised by law will for now serve as members of the Interim Executive Committee.

“For the avoidance of doubt these officials are the national chairmen, national secretaries and national treasurers of the three parties involved in the merger.”

He further explained that members of the IEC would be involved in the correspondence with INEC “until our registration process is concluded.”

For the ACN, Akande who is the current National Chairman of the party and his counterparts in the ANPP and CPC, Chief Ogbonaya Onu and Tony Momoh, respectively are automatic members of the committee.

A leading member of the proposed APC, who was the candidate of the All Nigeria Peoples Party in the 2011 elections, Ibrahim Shekarau, had told journalists in Kano on Sunday that a decision to constitute the committee had been reached.

Shekarau refuted claims that Akande had been endorsed as the Interim National Chairman of the proposed APC.

He, however, explained that Akande was eligible to be nominated by the nine-man Interim Management to be set up by the party, if it so desired.

Shekarau, during a press conference in Kano, explained that that explanation became necessary so as to put the records straight as well as to dismiss speculations that Akande had been endorsed as the Interim Chairman of the APC.

APC is Boko Haram,Bokoharam is APC

Youth groups from several areas in Maiduguri, the Borno State capital, have launched a manhunt for suspected Boko Haram members, Daily Trust can report.
Witnesses told our correspondent yesterday that the youths who are on a voluntary mission to help security operatives, arrested some suspects at the weekend, tied them up and handed them over to the Joint Task Force.
More than 500 youths from Gwange I, Gwange II, Blabirin, Mafoni and Hausari wards of Maiduguri are said to have organised themselves and resolve to go after insurgents who are sneaking back to the city, and hand them over to the authorities.
The JTF spokesman Lt. Col. Sagir Musa could not be reached for comments. The absence of mobile telecommunication services and the ongoing offensive against the Boko Haram have left journalists in Maiduguri handicapped in reaching out to military authorities.
But when contacted, Defence spokesman Brigadier General Chris Olukolade said he could not confirm the story but that the military would welcome any such cooperation from the civil populace.
“I am not aware. But every effort that is complimentary or consistent with current security operations by way of cooperation from the civil populace to put an end to the activities of terrorists in the land will continue to be welcomed,” he said.
Many members of the Boko Haram are believed to have run back to the city following the military offensive which began shortly after President Jonathan declared state of emergency and moved in troops into northern Borno to fight the insurgents and recapture territories under their control.
“We, the youths in Maiduguri have resolved to fish out any member of Boko Haram sect who ran back into the city, to his or their house or community, after they had left for villages and bushes from where they were recently displaced by the federal troops,” a vigilante group leader in Gwange II ward said.
The leader who prefers anonymity added: “We thank God that we in Gwange II have so far caught more than 10 Boko Haram members in our area and handed them over to the soldiers. And we are glad that our counterparts in GwangeI have also mobilized themselves for this patriotic community service. Insha-Allah we will soon carry this movement to Gwange III, Gwange IV and even other communities which are yet to take similar action.”
A witness told our correspondent that some youths in Hausari ward, last weekend crossed over to a neighbouring ward, Blabirin, and fished out a Boko Haram suspect who had ran back to the area, and handed him over to soldiers.
“This action of Hausari youths had provoked some Boko Haram members who manoeuvred their way into the city for reprisal; they came from the outskirts of Maiduguri, disguised as villagers conveying a corpse to the cemetery in a pick-up van. But they were repelled by the JTF,” a resident said.
South African timeslive.co.za yesterday corroborated this when it quoted local residents as saying that 10 attackers came into Hausari in a pick-up truck, with a coffin in the exposed flatbed rear.
“Everybody thought they were going for burial until they alighted from their vehicle and started bringing out their guns...They opened fire into different direction,” it quoted a local resident, Mohammed Aji as saying.
It also quoted military spokesman, Lieutenant Colonel Sagir Musa as confirming that gunmen launched attacks on Friday evening in the neighbourhoods of Hausari, Fizzan and Gwange.
Meanwhile, as a result of the closure of all roads leading to the northern and southern parts of Borno, village dwellers are reported to be suffering from food shortages because they cannot access markets to buy food items.
“There is no food in our villages. All the foods we stored have finished and our people have been dying from hunger. If the situation continues, no one would be spared,” a food trader, Adamu Kuranabasa who maneuvered his way from Gwoza through bush paths of Cibok to Damboa into Maiduguri, lamented.
“Our people who are dwelling in villages came this week as usual to buy food items on market day of this week in Gwoza, unfortunately just a few of them were lucky to get some food items and I am sure it will not take them up to next week; that was why I decided to come to Maiduguri through these risky roads,” he added.
Commenting on this, military spokesman Olukolade said Special Forces only mounted road blocks on designated areas for stop-and-search exercises, often causing delays for travellers. But he urged people moving along such roads to be tolerant with the soldiers.
“There was no basis for soldiers to block the roads and put off movements. In fact I was in the area last week and I didn’t see any spot where roads are blocked and people could not move. But those who are patient enough with the troops have been passing through the check points,” he said.
He said : “You only have the necessary control of movement essentially to keep the populace out of harm. There is certainly no intention to make life unbearable as movement of essential goods and services have not been restrained, especially when they have been duly cleared, or authorized to the satisfaction of commanders on the ground. Safety of the people is very paramount now.”

THERE is tension in the yet-to-be registered main merger opposition party, All Progressive Congress, over distribution of offices.

The APC is a product of a merger between the Action Congress of Nigeria, Congress for Progressive Change, All Nigeria Peoples Party and a faction of the All Progressives Grand Alliance and it has an avowed mission to dislodge the PDP from power in 2015.

Already, sources within the APC on Sunday confided in our correspondents that there had been disagreements over the sharing of party offices among the stakeholders from the different parties.

Investigations showed that the CPC and the ANPP disagreed over the post of the National Secretary, which the former insisted must be given to it.

A source within the APC confided in one of our correspondents that, “the ANPP, specifically Malam Ibrahim Shekarau, wanted the position of the protem National Secretary but was schemed out.

“The CPC and the ACN conspired. The CPC insisted on the position of secretary or nothing. Those in the ANPP are not excited about this.

“There is also a proposal that the CPC in addition to producing the secretary will get the presidential slot while the ACN gets the chairmanship of the party in addition to producing the Vice-Presidential candidate.”

Shekarau was the ANPP presidential candidate in the 2011 elections and he has been one of the major forces behind the merger agreement.

The ACN, CPC and ANPP have already scheduled a meeting for this week to resolve alleged disagreements over sharing of offices.

National Publicity Secretary of the ANPP, Chief Emma Eneukwu, however said he was unaware of any such disagreement.

According to him, there is nothing to suggest that the ANPP has any disagreement with the arrangement made by the leadership of the APC.

He said, “I am not aware of this. I know of the arrangement that we have with regards to the constitution of the Interim Management Committee. If there is any disagreement, my party has not told me about it.

“But I know that there is an agreement that each of the three parties will produce one member each in the IMC.

“There are only three positions: Chairman, Secretary and Treasurer, so there is no way one party can take two positions out of three.”

He noted that the desperation of those who are scared of the rising profile of the APC could be responsible for the spreading of deliberate falsehood and misinformation.

Speaking in the same vein, National Publicity Secretary of the ACN, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, accused the PDP and some unnamed “jittery forces” of peddling the rumour about the disagreement within the ranks of the opposition on the sharing of offices.

He said there was no iota of truth in the rumour making the rounds that the ranks of the APC had been polarised because of this.

“That is the handiwork of the ruling party and those jittery because of the coming together of the opposition political parties under the banner of APC,” Mohammed said.

Asked about when the yet-to-be registered party would submit its application to the Independent National Electoral Commission for registration, he said that would be done “soon.”

The National Publicity Secretary of the CPC, Mr. Rotimi Fashakin, said the main business before the proposed party at the moment was the issue of registration.

According to him, it is when the party becomes duly registered that the issue of the distribution of offices will come to play.

“It is when the issue of registration is settled that we can discuss other issues. Even at that, we recognise the fact that no sacrifice is too much to remove this indignity that the (President Goodluck) Jonathan administration represents,” he said in a telephone interview with one of our correspondents on Sunday.

He also took time off to explain that the national leadership of the party was doing everything within its power to ensure that no loose end was left untied.

Fahakin said, “What we have done is that the national leadership of our party reasoned that, look, since we don’t have a template, even INEC doesn’t have a template to hand to us; you know the concept of merger is a novelty in this country.

“That is why everybody is looking at the Constitution and the Electoral Act, we are trying our best to ensure we get things right.

“For now, the National Chairman, Secretary and Treasurer of each of the merging political parties making a total of nine, have been saddled with the responsibility of writing to INEC.”

He explained that only political parties who had held their conventions and had agreed to the merger at this level were entitled to write INEC.

The ACN, ANPP and CPC are expected to write INEC, signifying their intension to merge this week.

In a related development, there are strong indications that APGA may not field candidates in the next set of elections in 2015.

This is due to the protracted crisis rocking the party. Informed sources within the factionalised party confided in The PUNCH that APGA’s internal crisis is not likely to end soon.

Chief Victor Umeh leads one faction of the party while Chief Maxi Okwu leads the other.

A leading member of the party and Governor of Imo State, Rochas Okorocha, has approached the leadership of the APC signalling his intension to drag APGA into the merger.

Where did he get money to chartered an Aircraft?

The Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF) election crisis deepened yesterday as South South leaders of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) yesterday disowned the Rivers State Governor, Rotimi Ameachi, who defeated the anointed candidate of his party, Jonah Jang, of Plateau State.

Besides, the group at a stakeholders meeting held at the Asokoro residence of its leader, Chief Edwin Clark, vowed to stop Amaechi’s 2015 political ambition.

The PDP’s National Working Committee (NWC) last week suspended Amaechi. The party leaders said they would support President Goodluck Jonathan in 2015 general elections even if he is not interested to run.

In his opening remarks, the convener, Chief Clark, said Amaechi’s undying craze to be the chairman of the governors’ ‘forum was premised on his ambition to use it as a platform to become the vice president in 2015.

“Whose interest is he intending to serve, the interest of the people of the South-South region or his personal interest? As a party, I believe we need to dispassionately look at these and other issues and make our position known to Nigerians. We must rise from this meeting with definite options to stop Governor Amaechi from pursuing that madness,” Clark reiterated.

Clark further stated that if Amaechi must nurture any ambition to serve the country at the national level, he should run for the presidency and not as a vice president. “If he must contest in deference to his constitutional right, let him contest for the office of president because the South-South of today is not interested in any other office but the president.”

Also in his address, the PDP’s National Vice Chairman, South-South zone, Chief Steve Oru, emphasised that leaders of the party in the zone must convince Jonathan to run in 2015. “South-South leaders support President Jonathan. We will convince him even if he does not want to run in 2015. He has done well and we will encourage him,” he said.

Speaking on the role of the Nigerian Governors’ Forum, Chief Oru said the forum was an advisory body and that the PDP always consulted the chairman of the forum. Therefore, the party decides who holds the position of the chairman. “We will do our best to also promote peace and reconciliation between the warring factions of the forum.

Just like the biblical story of the lost sheep, we will go out and find the lost sheep and when we find it, we will rejoice. Let us use our wisdom in our deliberations today (yesterday) in bringing peace and reconciliation and no stone should be left unturned,” he said.

Senate Constitution Review Committee has barred President Goodluck Jonathan, Vice President Mohammed Namadi Sambo and all serving governors from contesting election for the six-year single term being proposed in the constitution under amendment.
The restriction contained in clause 12 of the committee’s report, seeking to alter section 137 of the constitution reads: “A person holding the office of the president or vice president immediately before the coming into force of the alterations of section 135 and 136 of this constitution shall not be eligible to contest for a single term of six years.”
Like the president, incumbent state governors, including those serving their first term are prohibited from seeking election for a six-year single term under the new law, according to clause 8 which seeks to alter section 180 of the constitution.
The National Assembly had set a July 2013 deadline to conclude work on the amendments to the constitution, so that the provisions will take effect ahead of the 2015 elections.
If the target is achieved therefore, the president and all the state governors will be bound by the new constitution.
Also, the committee bars President Jonathan from signing the amended constitution into law as it happened in 2010 when minor amendments were made to it.
With the new proposals the National Assembly will also not require simple majority to override the president’s veto on bills. Once a bill stays with the president for 30 days without him assenting to it or returning it to the legislature, it will automatically be considered to have been signed.
Clause 11 amending Section 136 disqualifies the vice president from contesting for the office of the president if he was sworn in after the death or impeachment of the president.
“Where the vice president-elect or vice president succeeds the president-elect or the president in accordance with subsection 1 of this section, he shall not be eligible to contest for the office of the president in any subsequent election.”
When the new provisions are passed, all former presiding officers of the National Assembly including former senate presidents and their deputies, former speakers of the House of Representatives and their deputies shall be entitled to pension for life at a rate equivalent to the annual salary of the incumbent officers,” according to clause 7 amending section 84.
Section 121 also granted financial autonomy to the 36 states Houses of Assembly, state Auditors- General, states’ judiciary and states’ Attorneys-General. The section provides that they derive their funding from the consolidated revenue fund of the state directly.
The proposed amendment also separates the office of the Attorney General of the Federation from that of the Minister of Justice, the same way it separates the office of the state Attorney- General and Commissioner of Justice.
Ekweremadu committee also proposed an amendment to Section 162 of the constitution abolishing the controversial Joint State/Local Government Account and stipulate that the monthly revenue allocation to the third tier of government be paid to them directly.
It also denies allocations to local governments that have no elected councils.
In Section 299, the FCT is granted a mayoral status, thereby scrapping the position of the Minister of the Federal Capital.
“The National Assembly shall make law to provide for the establishment, structure, composition, finance and functions of the office of Mayor of the Federal Capital Territory,” the section states.
Section 300 scraps the FCT minister’s position and replaced it with that of a mayor.
The panel also recommended for the removal of the National Youth Service Scheme (NYSC), Land Use Act and the National Securities Agencies Act from the constitution.
The committee further called for devolution of more powers to the 36 states by removing arbitration, aviation, environment, health care, land and agriculture, prisons, public complaints, railways, road safety, stamp duties, wages and youth matters from the exclusive legislative list putting it under the concurrent legislative list to allow states to establish and maintain prisons, railways, airports among others.
The committee however rejected the rotation of the office of the president between the north and south, saying it will disunite the country.
Similarly, the panel rejected proposal for the creation of state police as well as that for Nigerians in Daispora to vote during elections. It also rejected the clamour for increase in the derivation component of oil and gas sales by oil producing states of the Niger Delta from the present 13 percent to 20 percent.
The request for the conferment of “special status” on Lagos did not also scale through even though the legislators said they appreciated the challenges of Lagos.
On request by indigenes of the FCT to be given a ministerial slot the same with the 36 states of the federation, the senators opined that as desirable as it may be, “the provisions granting mayoral status for the FCT will go a long way in ensuring equitability and is sufficient to ensure efficient administration of the federal capital.”
Ekweremadu who took time to brief his colleagues on how the committee arrived at the decision on each of the clauses, however noted that on the 99 requests for states creation received, only 17 “attempted meeting the requirements” as stipulated in Section 8 (1) of the 1999 Constitution but they too failed.
Senate President David Mark said the upper legislative chamber will commence clause by clause consideration on June 25 when they resume from their mid-term recess. He called in all senators to consult widely with their constituents during the recess.

Ango Abdullahi is taking the steps of Keita who was disgraced and living in solitude.

Parasite can not dictate how this country is run any more.

2011 Election wasnt an eye opener for parasitic blood sucking Demons,we will pass a very clear message in 2015.

You guys better take the back seat or go join your Brothers in Sudan.

We in the middle Belt will go with GEJ 2015.

SAY NO TO PARASITE