₦airaland Forum

Hanni is leaving the stage now after being shown her highlights

The second is hanni

The first to be evicted is Vina

^^^ Not yet. Still reviewing previous actions

[size=18pt]Karenplication of Africa [/size] - by dele momodu

full script

Fellow Nigerians, I don’t know what you have been watching lately on television but as for me and my house we have been hooked on BIG BROTHER AMPLIFIED. And I’m not ashamed to say it publicly. Permit me to say a big thank you to DSTV and MNET for entertaining Africa and for allowing us to know people from different parts of our continent.This is their sixth edition and after some wobbling and fumbling in the past I think they have succeeded in taking BIG BROTHER AFRICA to the zenith of entertainment. As a media person myself, I know how tough it must have been to come this far.

Even as recent as last year, I was never too keen to watch what I considered an unnecessary intrusion of privacy and a promotion of frivolity. Though I was not as hypocritical as some of our politicians who banned the unedited footage of BIG BROTHER AFRICA from our screens, I was of the opinion that the organisers needed to upgrade their art by creating a more educative environment for the housemates. I wanted to see a platform that would reform some of our recalcitrant youths and mould them into decent members of our troubled society. Despite a few embarrassing moments in the house I’m quite impressed about the spectacular show they have been able to put up this season. I have finally come to terms with the necessity of entertainment as a compelling escapism from everyday stress and the vicissitudes of life. And the fact that some of us display ivory tower arrogance in matters of morality does not make us better human beings than those we see and treat as upstarts and outcasts.

For all you care, it has suddenly taken one erratic girl simply known and addressed as Karen from the petrified city of Jos, Nigeria, to attract most people to BIG BROTHER AMPLIFIED this year. Ironically, the two Nigerian ladies in the competition are both from Jos, a City that is fast becoming the hub of entertainment in Nigeria. The second lady who’s also popular in the house is our own ajebota (butter-fed) girl known as Vina. She is a sharp opposite of Karen. Vina is your typical silver-spoon kid with all the appurtenances of sartorial taste and impeccable pedigree. On the other side is the tempestuous Karen whose image is that of your next door village or street girl with a great knack for verbosity that oftentimes goes over the tops. While Vina makes extra effort to display her effervescent Queen’s English as well as mild mannerisms, our dear Karen struts and frets upon the stage in her natural and chronically native English with an overdose of thick accent and without caring a hoot who’s complaining. Karen is a walking oxymoron. She’s friendly and combative. She’s kind-hearted and bitchy. She’s generous and ruthless. No one messes up with Karen and escapes the rage of this volcanic eruption. Not even the Drama King Luclay from Cape Town, South Africa can bully this self-proclaimed gangster. Karen hits her target with the velocity of a thunderbolt and moves on as if nothing has happened. She’s turned the BIG BROTHER AMPLIFIED HOUSE into your typical house of commotion full of sound and fury. There is only one boss here and that is Karen.

I caught the bug of BIG BROTHER AMPLIFIED midway into the cut-throat competition. I was initially attracted to watch by the brief appearance of Confidence, the voluptuous Ghanaian night-club owner and a good friend but lost interest as soon as she exited. The next excitement was going to come from another rambunctious housemate called Ms P but I lost attention when she started a misplaced romance with the Ghanaian fashionista, Alex, whose strategy was to have most of the women swooning all over him like a modern day Casanova. But the unexpected happened to me as the two houses were merged into one and individual talents began to blossom. At that stage, I began to develop more than casual affectation for this highly addictive show.

As my interest increased, I started bonding with each of the housemates. I studied their profiles, knew their countries of origin, checked out their professions, followed their passion and so on. I liked the simplicity and childlike innocence of the Ethiopian girl Hannin who’s a singer. I admired the sophistication of the Angolan Queen, Weza, the well-sculptured lady who’s a presenter with Channel O. I respected the cool mien of Lomwe, the Malawian radio deejay who reminded me of my former teacher and poet from his country David Rubadiri. I enjoyed the hypnotic pranks of the wonderful Kimberly of Zambia, probably the most daring housemate and a guaranteed nominee for the award of the most sensuous. The Kenyan actress Millicent played up her awesome figure even if many viewers thought she didn’t have a pretty face. The only Whiteman from Zimbabwe, Wendall, a commercial pilot, is an epitome of gentlemanliness even if he was not as active as was required. Sharon O, the Ugandan artist appeared more to most people as a beauty queen and she never stopped admiring her fine face. Zeus, a rapper from Botswana turned out to be one of the most intelligent housemates. His aura was so powerful that he succeeded in melting Karen’s heart and turned her into a lady she never wanted to be. Vinbai, the supermodel from Zimbabwe was considered too standoffish and vindictive but I thought she was smart and intelligent.

But my top four hottest housemates were Karen, Luclay, Lomway and Sharon O. My dear Vina who I rate to be the most intelligent girl in the house would have featured somewhere in-between but her chances were badly dimmed by Karen’s incredible amplification. Karen according to pundits is set to break all-time records in the BIG BROTHER AFRICA’s history. Karen is billed to beat the South African rampaging bull, Luclay, alias Otono, an unstoppable actor to second place. Karen and Luclay are ruling the airways. Even as I write this piece, I’m monitoring messages being scrolled on the screen and the level of support for our own Lady Karen is overwhelming. And it is becoming obvious that those waging a war against the likelihood of a Nigerian winning the $200,000 prize again this year are fighting a lost battle.

I was never a total fan of Karen before her chat-room session last Monday. I was totally for her country-mate, Vina, purely on moralistic grounds. I was opposed to Karen like many others without caring to find out what was responsible for her unusual lifestyle. I had studiously ignored the injunctions of Jesus Christ that we should not judge others from our own myopic standpoint. I also did not recognise the fact that the principal essence of the show was pure and unadulterated entertainment. Some of us saw it as a talent hunt, while others believed it was a quest for expertise in pretensions. While most housemates worried more about Africa’s perceptions of their individual characters, Karen and Luclay broke all rules. Luclay yelled regularly at people and oftentimes at invisible spirits. I was so worried at a stage that he might go stark berserk and bite one of the housemates. But Mr Otono was a damn good actor who knew when to bark but not how to bite. He bullied all but not our own Karen.

Karen stood up to any man or woman who crossed her path. She spoke with the voice of an African amazon. She never pretended to be who she was not. Her story resonated with those who shared her similar travails. Many saw Karen in them and them in Karen. It was easy to dismiss her as a street-girl, a ruthless bitch, a reckless drunk, a loquacious and shameless impressionist. But she was true to herself. She is a free spirit who’s willing to roam unfettered. She was born to fly and fly she must. She does not care what you and I think of her tantrums; she cares only about what she thinks of herself. The world for her has always been cold and mean to her. And there is nothing more to fear for someone who’s already down. She came here to catch some fun. What will be, will be, and that is all that matters.

Karen was able to penetrate many hearts when she had the honour of being the head of house a few weeks back. It afforded everyone the chance to see her transform from a gangster image to that of a boardroom executive. She dressed serious and was gorgeous. She spoke more eloquently without the usual vulgarity. She led by example and was very selfless. Her caring heart was put on open display for all doubting Thomases to see and applaud. She took a big risk that could easily have backfired when she was up for nomination. As head of house, she had the privilege of replacing herself with one of the housemates but she chose to maintain her nomination. Many of her fans got angry that she had taken a stupid gamble, but this singular act won her fans and fame across Africa. I knew of a Ghanaian woman in her 70s who cried endlessly for Karen’s rare display of love for even her detractors.

I had my own stint at weeping last Monday as Karen took the invisible Big Brother and her captive audience down the memory lane of her tortuous journey through life. I listened to every word she uttered and watched every one of her powerful delivery. Nothing escaped me. As I released torrents of tears, I phoned a friend who told me that I have good company in his house. His Ghanaian wife and mother-in-law were crying their eyes tearless and his wife had just succeeded in ruining her fresh makeup as she was on her way to work. The Karen story was a spellbinder. I was mesmerised by the story of her beleaguered childhood. It was a stuff of thriller. She did not know her father. Her 45-year-old mother who happens to be her role-model was a gangster according to her and she had to live with her grand-mum. She did not really know her father and till this day she’s very bitter about him. For the first time, she spoke about how she was in a marriage for five difficult years for the wrong reasons and decided to quit for the right reasons. She had to take to doing this and that while in Europe. She was a strip-dancer and some of her nude pictures litter the internet. What more do you want to say or write about a child the world had already written off as nobody? I was always angry at Karen anytime she dramatized her madness and behaved like someone totally possessed.

But there lies the beginning of Karen’s story as a metaphor. Hers is a taleof nothing is impossible. There is a lot we can achieve as human beings if doors and windows of opportunities are opened to us. The lesson in this saga is that by the time tomorrow comes one of Africa’s supposed gangsters, Karen, would have become one of the biggest superstars on the continent. She would be crowned not because she’s the best role model in the house, but because there is a greater testimony to be derived from this quintessential grass to grace experience. Her mother would have to pray and fast for her. It is not always easy to exorcise the demons of street-life. She must conquer her biggest enemy and that is alcohol. I’m perpetually troubled once Karen starts drinking. She is always going bananas. May God redeem this young girl and keep her safe till tomorrow when her life must definitely change for better or for worse.

http://www.thisdaylive.com/articles/the-karenplification-of-africa/95964/

This surely summarises the game

Segun claimed that “while Somolu was correct (in his assertion that only $5.1 billion had been spent) so was Yar’Adua who was talking about the general expenditure (a figure that turned out to be more than $10 billion)”. Now what is “general expenditure”? At my “trial” in the president’s office, after Yar’Adua had raised the poser “exactly how much was really spent?” and the Accountant General of the Federation, DanKwabo (current Governor of Gombe State) had given figures identical to mine, the president appeared rattled before other people present – Minister of Finance, Permanent Secretary (Power), and some others – supplied the rest of the so-called general expenditure. These, according to them, included the amount spent by the oil companies on their joint-venture IPP’s (put at “not less than $2 billion”); the budgetary allocation to Energy Commission of Nigeria (put at “some millions of dollars”); and NEPA’s internally generated revenue (put at “not less than $6 billion). I was amused and angry at the same time. Angry that Yar’Adua was only trying to find out exactly how much had been spent after he had been making his explosive public statement, and amused that he believed those who came to his aid by supplying what were unsubstantiated and unaudited, and irrelevant (in the circumstances) expenditure figures. I wonder why they had not also included all the money Nigerians spend to acquire and run standby generators as part of the “general expenditure on power”.

I negotiated the power purchase agreement for Agip’s Okpai NIPP, the only joint venture IPP then actualized and in operation and knew the cost of their installation was about $500 - $600 million, and NNPC’s share of this cost (which at that time had not been paid) would only be about half of this figure, very far from $2 billion. Including the Energy Commission of Nigeria’s expenses was nonsensical and deliberate falsehood to say the least. The Commission is a research institute and had nothing to do directly with the power sector. Also just as ridiculous was the mention of NEPA’s internally generated revenue in the period which is normally spent to pay staff salaries and other emolument (pension, medicare), offices rental all over the country for marketing units and fault reporting centres, operation-vehicles acquisition and running costs, gas purchases and general maintenance of the system, etc. These expenditures would still have had to be met whether there were new facilities built or not. They are fixed overheads. It is like someone complaining that his under-sized generator cannot carry his house-load despite that he spends so much on maintenance and diesel. Until he buys a bigger generator or additional one, all of his house-load will still remain unserved.

I really like his analogy and especially his summation @ bolded

I recall that the minister of finance then was Shamusideen Usman before his transfer to national planning. I have always questioned the man's mission and relevance in government  notwithstanding that he was a cbn deputy governor. In those early days of yaradua regime, he (usman) preoccupied himself with tackling his former boss in cbn (soludo) - remember naira redenomination and revenue allocation in dollar saga and shooting down the image of Obj.

Anyway, he had an unsuspecting accomplice in that dullard called president yaradua.

BTW, did the house of reps power probe discovered all these? Remember that Segun Adeniyi original article which prompted the rejoinder made allusion that the presidency believed that Bankole had axe to grind with Obj hence his predeliction for the orchestrated probe

^^^ my niece was in FUTA then

paraphase:
Computer Science
Unversity of Lagos

Please emphasis on the ISSUE OF LECTURES ASKING FOR SEX FROM FEMALE STUDENTS, ESPECIALLY THE ABOUT TO GRADUATE FEMALE STUDENTS. The madness need to stop in nigerian universities,if you go to meet another lecture to help you out,he will tell you to give in.Yu Can Imagine.Please Hammer on the Topic well. So Many female victims in UNILAG right now,They need help!!!.Nobody is listening to them,even the VC cannot help.They need help!!!

My niece once complained to me about this. I advised her to seek the assistance of a more mature and responsible lecturer to wade in on her behalf. She took my 'wrong' advice. The lecturer (actually the HOD) whom she sought his help turned out to be more demanding than even the original persecutor. I had to escalate the thing before their colleagues advised the duo to let the girl from the "troublesome family" to go.

^^^ Nominations are supossed to be secret even to the HOH. Bb would have needed to give reason to vina why those 3 should not be saved except he decides to tell lies which will be unbiggie

The retail price of dangote cement had fallen to N1,700 in Abuja since the past 3 weeks. It may fall further with this reduction

She already served as
first lady of Anambra state 1984 - 1985
first lady of Imo state 1985 - 1986
President, Naval officers wives association 1993 - 1994
That should be more than enough for national service abi she collected pay for that?  

^^^ It was a task given to the hms by biggie in week 2 or 3 to produce a calendar in which they appear 'dicreetly naked'. Some hms esp weza later expressed regrets for their actions in that task.

trae_z:
BBA addicts please riddle me this.

with Vina as head of house had it been felicia got vina's vote and vina got felicia's vote such that the nominations went like below what would have happened? Being that there is no one to swap and replace what would occur? would she simply just save one person and  then the rest of the 7 remain up for eviction? What does the rule book say

Zeus - 3
Hanni - 3
Wendall - 2
Milicent - 2
Vimbai - 2
Lomwe - 2
SharonO - 2
Felicia- 2 
Vina - 0

Interesting. IMO, biggie would have limited the announced nominated hms to the top two that have 3 nominations only (Zeus and hanni), then HOH saves 1 and replace from the pool of hms who got 2 each. One will then be voted out on sunday.

My contention is that even if GEJ governs well till 2015, it is not the duty of acn to project that the opposing camp will win an election. The opposition should concern itself with projecting its image as a better alternative otherwise it should just diffuse into the mainstream

The bolded part read in conjuction with the preceeding paragraphs get me wondering if acn is not going to be campaign arm of GEJ in 2015

Former Ogun State governor and a stalwart of the Action Congress of Nigeria, Chief Olusegun Osoba, has shed light on why the electorate in the south-west rejected presidential candidates of northern extraction, including the party’s own, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu.

He told THISDAY in an interview that their preference for President Goodluck Jonathan was to protest the activities of the Northern Political Leadership Forum, led by Mallam Adamu Ciroma.

The Ciroma group had opposed Jonathan’s bid for the presidency following the death of his principal, President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, insisting that the north should produce the next presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party in line with its policy to rotate the presidency between south and north.

In a bid to stop him, the group fielded former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, as the north’s consensus candidate, to jostle for the PDP ticket with Jonathan at the party’s presidential primary.

Jonathan, who completed the late Yar’Adua’s tenure by virtue of being his deputy, trounced Atiku at the primary to clinch the party’s ticket.

Osoba also cited several other factors as being responsible for the abysmal outing of northern candidates in the presidential election, and lent some insight into why the ACN supported Hon. Aminu Waziri Tambuwal’s bid for the speakership of the House of Representatives.

He said: “President Jonathan won the election on issues that have nothing to do with PDP. First, our people were not happy with the way a very respected, responsible and decent person like Mallam Adamu Ciroma handled the issue of zoning. He made that mistake.

“He was seen as a detribalised Nigerian, married to a Yoruba woman, but was suddenly found to be a northern irredentist. That was shocking to a lot of voters. As such, voters decided that for once, they were going to vote against the north because of the attitude of the Ciroma led-committee.

“Secondly, subtle religious politics came in. Some people perceived Buhari as being a hardliner on Islamic affairs.

“Also, the day President Jonathan went to kneel down in front of the General Overseer of The Redeemed Christian Church of God, Pastor Enoch Adeboye, made a lot of fanatical Christians to become more fanatical about the president.”

Osoba also revealed that the coastal areas of the south-west are homes to the Ilajes, who are predominantly Ijaws. “They are descendants of the Ijaws and we have reasonable numbers of them who normally are all ACN but they took a tribal position during the election.

“In Lagos also, the population of the Igbos is enormous. The south-eastern people too also took a tribal line. A combination of all these factors were responsible for the way they voted during that presidential election and that’s why you found that the following week (when it was governorship election), they turned around to vote for ACN.

“They are educated people and can identify the symbols, so they can decide that today we are voting this way and tomorrow, it could change.” 

According to him, for the President to ponder re-election in 2015, “he must work very hard on power supply and security. If he gets those two alone, then he’ll get the same scenario. However, if he fails in those areas, it will be too bad for him.”

On the speakership issue that saw ACN members voting for Tambuwal to become speaker of the House of Representatives, Osoba said it was wrong for anyone to conclude that the ACN supported Tambuwal because it wanted to assume national prominence.

“We did not go in because we wanted to assume national prominence— to hell with national prominence. First, we are not PDP and we are not part of its zoning system.

“In politics, you canvass, you persuade and you lobby. We went round campaigning, lobbied them to vote for ACN and they did.

“In this case, PDP has only three or four members in the House of Representatives in the whole of the south-west zone. Does it not tell you a story about their training under their Baba (former President Olusegun Obasanjo) that everything has to be captured and all politics is garrison politics?”

Osoba said if the PDP did not deem it fit to talk to ACN in the south-west where it has over 60 members to PDP’s four from the zone, then the ruling party got its strategy wrong.“Common sense demands that they should talk to us but they did not talk to us,” he said.

According to him, ACN acted the way it did because it never believed in PDP’s zoning concept, adding: “The main thing is that we don’t believe in this silly zoning.

“We have been turned into zombies in Nigeria. PDP will just decide, we zone this to the north-east and everyone must grab it. We throw this to south-west and again, we must grab it. So we wanted to prove that we are not part of PDP, we are ACN and we are not going to follow it blindly because we are not going to be zombies.”

The former governor also argued that another principle that influenced ACN’s stance was the party’s belief that the three arms of government are meant to be independent of each other.

“But under the PDP government in eight years of Obasanjo, we had about six presidents of the senate— everyone has to be under the whims and caprices of the president of the nation. So we decided the trend must stop,” he stated.

http://www.thisdaylive.com/articles/osoba-how-ciroma-contributed-to-buhari-s-defeat/93484/

Thanks Mr.Info and TCD

But then,with the cap of 1.5gb, that is equivalent of glo 'mini' which cost N5,000 if I am to subscribe to it on SGS. That is almost double the price for the same benefit. Wetin dey do dis operators sef?

I have been paying N7,500 monthly for glo 'always' for my SGS. I learnt the monthly charge for BB is just N2,800. That is a difference of N4,700 monthly or about N57,000 in a year yet the impression I got from this thread is that the same all round internet service is offered by the telecom operator for such a huge price differential.

I think it is time to make a switch to BB for economic reason. Can somebody pls clarify

What has Adeniyi got to do with this case. The efcc was aware of the alleged(?) loot and wanted to prosecute odili.

The court in its wisdom or lack of it granted perpetual injunction barring odili from being prosecuted. If adeniyi should publish the details at this stage, he may be liable to libel.

By the way, he did not say ribadu left the case file with him, he just read it at the meeting and declined the task, so he may not have the details.

The body was set up to fight nepotism and correct imbalances in representation of states in federal establishment but in a curious turn of events, its top management is accusing the body of promoting what it it should be fighting.

Employments into the federal services that include para-military organizations in the country are lopsided with some states fielding more candidates than others even when the federal character provides equal employment opportunities.
The Federal Character Commission is saddled with the responsibility of ensuring balanced employment opportunities for all states among others. But secretary of the commission, Professor F. A. Durosinmi-Etti lamented that even the commission has not been able to ensure the required balanced opportunity in its staff employment and among its contractors.

Prof Durosinmi-Etti who was responding to a petition written against him by some staff of the commission over alleged tenure elongation, over age and inability to successfully ensure balanced employment of Nigerians in the public sector, blamed the former chairman of the commission for abuse of federal character policy within the commission that made it difficult for the commission to ensure balanced employment in government.

“There is lopsidedness in Customs, there is in Immigration, in NDLEA, Civil Defence Corps, National Population Commission, in fact I will show you evidence of one of the latest. Now, put on record that I said that petition, those who wrote it are the accused themselves and I know who wrote it. Well, I have not seen it, I have not read it, but I know who wrote it and the man, say I claim he is being a rogue and that is the former chairman of this commission.

“The former one (former chairman of the commission) is the one that has caused all these wahala here. His name is Professor Abdulraheem Oba, former Vice Chancellor University of Ilorin. He has caused so much havoc in this commission that I cannot recover from it. In fact, up till now, he is owing the staff so much money, because he decided to post all our staff to various places without paying them according to civil service rules and we had the funds in our account at the time we decided we were posting them.

“I spoke with Madam Rose the head of Immigration (Comptroller General of Immigration), she said she was very ashamed of this commission because, we were supposed to be correcting imbalances here but this man will go and bring everybody from Ilorin, not even Kwara State, all of them from Ilorin. Our security, they are from Ilorin. Any contractor here, they are all from Ilorin. From our Internet to even those who painted this place, to even those who fumigated this place and everybody is Ilorin,” he said.

Staff of the commission who spoke on condition of anonymity said the commission has not been able to ensure balanced employment among states because most of the senior officers of the commission compromise by soliciting for employment for their candidates. They alleged that the inability of the commission to ensure balance in employment in government has led to lopsided recruitment in Immigration, Customs and the NDLEA recently. Effort to reach Prof Abdulraheem Oba for comment was not successful as his GSM line was not going.

http://www.sunday.dailytrust.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=6976:federal-character-commission-has-failed-to-balance-public-service--secretary&catid=41:latest-news&Itemid=26

Who did Jesus call when he was in danger (during crucifixion)? His own name?

Whose name does white people that brought christainity to the blacks shout when in danger. All these shouting of Jesus name is symptom of peculiar blackmen (read nigerians) religious overzealousness or show-off. A friend of mine has the habit of shouting Jesus anytime he sneezes and I am always like what happen to medical facts on sneezing that now require invocation of extra-terestrial powers. The simple count-down to zero in cutting celebration cakes is now replaced with spelling j.e.s.u.s.

During the. British royal wedding, there was no unnecesary mention of Jesus during the church service and none outside the church yet uk royal heads the second largest denomination of xtian faith. If it had been nigerian wedding that day, Jesus name would have nearly crashed due to overuse

AjanleKoko:
Well, they're one of the top two in Nigeria, the second being Air Nigeria.

That says a lot about local Nigerian airlines. Their customer service is beyond terrible, they cancel or delay flights with amazing regularity, and they are hardly consistent. One time they flew people from Owerri to Lagos with no AC in the plane.

Ironically, I flew them to London in 2009 and they were very okay. Also, an expat in my office flew them to New York, and they weren't bad, sometime last year. So maybe they put extra efforts in the long haul flights, especially as they're not only dealing with Nigerians.

In summary, I wonder why one even needs to ask. Air travel locally is traumatic in Nigeria, and the experience is often nasty, irrespective of which airline it is. The other nondescript airlines, like Dana and Chachangi, I don't even try to move near them.

Service-wise, Dana dont belong to the same class as chanchangi. In my opinion, Dana service is very good. I used to rate it second to aero b4 aero had the liquidity problem forcing them to introduce various cost-saving measures. now I prefer it to aero.

Not only FCT minister, some positions appeared to have been permanently ceded to the North
Minister of Agriculture
Executive Secretary PTDF
Chairman, Federal Character Commission
Chairman, National Revenue Mobilisation and allocation commission
Chairman National Population Commission

isleman:
Its a good call for the progress of the country. Many of us are just looking for a leader that will spend 4 years fighting and stepping on toes. In as much as we need Justis, equity and fairness, above all, we need progress.

We need to stop fooling ourselves, these people are politicians. They call themselves names to gain a strong negotiating ground and that is what we are seeing now.

No doubt CPC is still really bitter about the election, but so do some of us. But national interest should always come first.

I agree with you 100% at bolded. When GEJ in March 2011 said the SW is too enlightened to be left in the hands of rascals, the media influenced by the ACN aparatchik shouted themselves hoarse. Tinubu said GEJ insulted SW leaders' parents. What he did not admit was that GEJ was even refined in copying his (Tinubu) earlier statement in October 2010.

Former governor of Lagos State and a national leader of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, Tuesday  disclosed  that he predicted the fall of the former Oyo State governor, Adebayo Alao-Akala in  October last year.

Tinubu who was in Ibadan to felicitate with Alao-Akala’s  successor, Abiola Ajimobi,  however admonished the new Oyo State governor to study the handover notes prepared by his predecessor very well.

Tinubu alleged that the hand over note was full of lies and that was why Alao-Akala could not muster enough confidence to hand over personally.

He said:  “I told the guests at  the launch of a book on the Olubadan of Ibadanland, Oba Samuel Odulana that because of the history of Oyo being the historical foundation of the progressive politics noted for its firsts, the state is too important to be left for the dogs and destroyers.

“They shouted at me; abused me and asked me to go. But I told them I would come back to chase them out of office.

http://www.thisdaylive.com/articles/tinubu-i-predicted-alao-akala-s-fall/92417/

Meetings with 'opposition' (a misnomer in presidential system) by the sitting presidents have always been the case since 1979. as bitter as 1979 contest was, Awo, Zik, Waziri andAminu Kano not only met with Shagari within 100 days of his assumption of duty, meetings were regularly held until 1982. Obj met with 'opposition' in 1999 even though AD boycotted the first meeting because Falae was in court.

Contrary to the report quoted by the OP, the meeting was not bilateral between GEJ and Tinubu but multilateral involving all parties that won seats in the National assembly.
ACN was represented by its National Chairman (Akande), Ngige, Tinubu and Akume.

We may not so much value the office of the president in Nigeria, but in the US that we copy, the basic etiquette is that an invitation from the White House is not a request but almost a command that only may be a death in the family is considered a valid excuse for not honouring. GOP leaders still honour Obama invitation even though they dont agree on many policies.

Below is the account of the meeting by the Guardian

PRESIDENT Goodluck Jonathan yesterday held a consultative meeting with the leaders of major political parties in Nigeria, enlisting their support towards the implementation of his government’s transformation agenda.

He said during the opening remarks at the meeting held at the Banquet Hall of Presidential Villa Abuja, that despite their political differences, Nigerians expect that it is their national duty to ensure that they receive the dividends of democracy.

He told the political leaders that their interests are the same, “the interests of Nigeria. I am not going to play politics of discrimination. Lets cooperate for the interests of our people.”

The meeting was attended by leaders of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP), All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA), Labour Party (LP) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). The only major political party absent at the parley was the Congress for Progress Change (CPC) as their leaders’ seats were vacant throughout the duration of the meeting.

Those present at the meeting included Dr Bello Mohammed (Chairman of PDP), Abubakar Kao Baraje (Secretary of PDP) and Olusola Oke (PDP Legal Adviser), Chief Bisi Akande (Chairman of ACN), Chief Bola Tinubu (leader of ACN), Senator George Akume and Dr Chris Ngige (Senator-elect and former Governor of Anambra State).

Others are Dr Ogbonnaya Onu (Chairman of ANPP), Admiral Lanre Amosu (ANPP chieftain), Chief Victor Umeh (Chairman of APGA), Dr. Tim Menakaya (APGA chieftain) and Chief Dan Nwanyanwu (Chairman of LP).

Among those who accompanied President Jonathan to the meeting were Vice President Namadi Sambo, Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) Chief Anyim Pius Anyim.

President Jonathan told the meeting that the successful conduct of the April general elections has placed more responsibilities on Nigeria both on the continental and international level, especially the quest of Africa to occupy a permanent seat at United Nations Security Council (UNSC), noting that “if we have a stable polity, our leadership role will increase and our citizens status will increase. The party of Mr. President cannot do it alone.

He thanked the political leaders for the various roles they play in the democratic process, saying that “those of us who won elections wouldn’t have won without you leaders. You gave us the positions. You are the King makers.”

According to the President, “as we want to start a new government, I am going to consult various groups and professional bodies. And I think the first group I should consult is the political family. No matter who is the President, no matter who is the governor, what Nigerians are interested in is to have food on the table, there should be infrastructure, there should be security and should be good governance. And I know that not only the ruling party alone can make this possible. For me to succeed, to give Nigerians what they want, we must run a stable government. I need the cooperation of all the political parties, all the leaders.

“That is why I call you, to assure you that I will run a Nigerian government. I want to assure you that our interest is the Nigeria interest and I know that the interest of every politician irrespective of the political party is the interest of the country. I am not going to play politics of discrimination. I want to plead with you that I will not want to run a government of opposition party or main party, I want us to collectively run a Nigerian government. A government that will take the interest of the country at heart and work towards solving our problems, the problems that are dear to our people.

“As your members of parliament will be inaugurated next week Monday or Tuesday, I want you to impress it on them that they are coming to work for Nigeria, not necessarily for Goodluck Jonathan. Let us co-operate and work for the interest of this country. Along the line, there will be differences but the President is not God and I believe we can always be able to resolve our differences without acrimony, without rancour. And I believe that is the best way we can run the country. We are now talking about two countries representing Africa on the UN Security Council and people are looking forward to Nigeria because of the political crisis in Egypt.”

At the end of the meeting, Chief Tinubu told journalists that the participation of the opposition parties with President Jonathan does not mean that their powers were watered down, stating that “opposition is not all about axe, cutlasses and dane guns. We did not come here to eliminate opposition. And I am speaking for my own party and not for any other party. If the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria invites you, then what he really wants is a constructive opposition.

However, that does not stop you from opposing any bad government.” Tinubu added that “the campaign is over. We are all Nigerians. Patriotism dictates that you put the nation first before your personal interest. Therefore you don’t have to look at the political partisan angle but look at the intention of the President, exactly what he wants to achieve. He is the President until maybe the judiciary says otherwise. As a nationalist, you have to respond to the call of the President and he spoke very well today. The meeting was a very successful one but that does not eliminate opposition.”

The ACN leader stated that the meeting with President Jonathan “does not water the strength of the opposition parties in the country. It is a one day meeting. It is not a regular meeting. There is a constructive level of opinion that you can get and use to build the nation. There is security situation. There are judicial matters too.

There are so many issues in a complex country such as this that you can share and still not jeopardize the opposition. Opposition is not about axes, cutlasses and dane guns.”

Tinubu noted that as political leaders interested in the growth and development of the nation, an invitation by the President to attend a meeting is in the right direction. He however assured that the ACN would continue to raise its voice in opposition to government decisions or policies that run contrary to the wishes and aspiration of the Nigerian people.

Kilode?!:
^
Thank you for your thoughts. We know what the Council of State's duties are, it's in the constitution, but point remains that it should be scrapped, the duties are redundant and the inclusion of former rulers is daft and stvpid.

Governors need to stick to attracting businesses to their states and making sure people have jobs, let the elected federal Executives and their ministers deal with federal matters. While the legislature provide oversight duties as expected.

There is no need to complicate governance or waste money by creating layers upon layers of redundant responsibilities. We have 150 million mouths to feed.

There is no need for the council of state, you can take a few moments to read the various reasons already posted.

Also, try to separate your post into shorter paragraphs so other folks can read it easily.

Council of state does not deal with federal matters but national matters. Read my post again. It deals with matters that commit or affect the states e.g. minimum wage, elections into the state offices, population census with consequential effect on revenue allocation.

What complication or waste of money are we talking about? Of all the symbol of our federalism, the council of state is the least expensive - almost at no cost. The difference between unitary and federal system of government is the requirement  for consensus of the component units on matters of common interest. That is  formally achieved thru the council.

Let us forsee a situation where africa achieves the proposed common government but no provision is made for Heads of state of component units to ever meet. It will just be like the relationship we have currently between the state and local governments.

I read thru the thread b4 making my previous comment. The impression I got is that some people dont like the face of some members of the Council and if those faces can vamoose, the council can stay.

@OP, you left out the most important members of the council of state - The State Governors. Nigeria is a federation. a federation essentially derives its powers from the component states that forgo some of its sovereignty for common interest. Most federation like USA, UAE etc actually came into being by different states voluntarily joining the union not necessarily at the same time. i.e. bottom-up approach though Nigeria own is a bit different as it is more of forceful amalgamation of ethnic nationalities later subdivided into political administrative units (states). There is a difference between FEDERAL matters and NATIONAL matters. While the component units of a federation cede their sovereignty to the federal government to exercise powers on their behalf on things that are better commonly done like defence, foreign affairs, currency which are federal matters (called exclusive legislative list in nigeria), Most powers are ideally retained by the component units like education, census, elections, justice system including prison and police within the state jurisdiction, workers remuneration including minimum wage and revenue mobilisation and allocation. These are STATE matters but in some clime like Nigeria, most of these things are done commonly and centrally for many reasons but the powers to make decision on them still reside in the component units (federal and states) Thus they become NATIONAL matters not federal. They are called either exclusive (wrongly) or concurrent legislative (correctly) list in nigeria. The constitutional bodies that exercise such powers on NATIONAL matters in Nigeria are National Council of State, National Economic Council (which is council of state minus heads of state whether present or former. it is headed by the vice president), nigeria police council (president +state governors) and some other bodies listed in the constitution. Former presidents are to lend their 'wealth' of experience to the council of state while the legislative leadership being the representatives of the people in parliament essemble are natural candidates for membership.

Igwe.:
Hello, where exactly is FCC?

Regarding your call log, I think you're one of those who live on top of Abuja Rocks, hence your ability to receive a distant signals.

Surprising somebody based in abuja is asking where federal city centre is. It covers all cadastral zones A to D. AMAC covers zone E while the remaining area councils cover from zone F onward. You can view the full cadastral map of abuja on http://www.abujagis.com/map.html but if your question is 'where exactly in fcc?'. Sorry i am not obliged to answer that.

KokoBeware:
Thats not true,  GLO network was also shut down, Visafone and starcomms were also down,

Igwe.:
I don't think so, in my area none of them worked, hence I'd say your area is quite remote from Abuja city.   my only line that worked is multilinks

You may be wrong. I live in federal city centre (fcc). my log yesterday was as follow

10.34am sent sms to mtn no outside abuja
11.01am received sms from mtn no from outside abuja
3.12pm  recieved unsolicited advert sms
3.59pm received voice call from glo no outside abj
5.18pm made voice call to a glo no outside abj
8.10pm made voice call to glo no also in abuja
9.46pm received sms from mtn no outside abuja (a nairalander vehicle dealer)
9.47pm made voice call to the nairalander.

Now tell me at what time was glo cut off in my area. I know my mtn and zain were blocked but glo worked throughout. A friend who i communicated with on glo to mtn while he was on his way to abuja had to switch to his glo line when he arrived abuja for us to communicate glo to glo.

^^^ On the day of London bombings, wired (line) service worked. mobile was switched off/jammed.

Yesterday in Abuja, Glo network worked throughout the day with the efficiency it was not hitherto known for. It appears the blocking was restricted to only MTN and Zain. May be based on intelligence report

[size=18pt]Akala, family travel abroad[/size]

Perhaps to avoid the preying inquiry of the anti-graft agencies, the immediate past governor of Oyo State, Otunba Adebayo Alao-Akala, travelled out of the country last night.
Though his final destination was not known as at the time of going to the press, the former governor boarded a KLM flight at the Murtala Mohammed International Airport Lagos.
The aircraft left the country about midnight barely a few hours to the inauguration of his successor, Senator Abiola Ajimobi.

Sources confirmed that Akala passed through the fast track section of the airport on Saturday night at about few minutes past nine to board a KLM Royal Dutch Airlines flight.
Security officials who spoke under condition of anonymity confirmed the development. He was said to have left in company with some members of his family.

Although the KLM flight is headed for Amsterdam, Holland, none of the sources could confirm the final destination of the governor. He was said to have passed through a section of the airport, which is close to that of Emirates Airlines passengers.

http://www.punchontheweb.com/Articl.aspx?theartic=Art201105294174396